This July 4th, much of the United States finds itself under various levels of dictatorial orders from renegade governors, county, and local officials. The US is under rule by decree, not by rule of law. Looking at the original list of grievances the Colonists had against King George, it looks like most of them are met – and then some – by our current system of government. Can we regain our independence? Watch today’s Liberty Report:

In the latest attempt to increase economic pressure on two foes, US prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit to seize the gasoline aboard four Iranian tankers that set sail for Venezuela last month. The civil-forfeiture complaint aims not only to stop the delivery of fuel to Venezuela but also to deprive Iran of the revenue and deter future shipments. Just last week, the US imposed sanctions on five Iranian captains blacklisted for delivering gasoline to Caracas. Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute, joins In Question to discuss:

Several recent studies suggest that we are closer to “herd immunity” for Covid-19 than previously thought. Former CDC head Scott Gottleib said Covid would be gone by January because most people will have been exposed. Yet officials across the country are implementing policies that PREVENT this needed immunity! They are trying to keep healthy people apart. What’s their game. Plus in today’s program: We will tell you why Texas is seeing an increase in cases – it will shock you. Finally…it’s time for a new “Villain of the Week!” Watch today’s Liberty Report:

While they are cooking the books on “new cases” by ramping up testing and even double-testing, half the population of the US is living in states that are actually returning to some form of shut down. The Houston hospital capacity lie has pushed Texas back into shutdown. And no one is noticing that deaths and death rates continue to decrease. Is this pandemic becoming just about politics? Don’t miss today’s Liberty Report:

We cannot go back to the pre-coronavirus world, they tell us. Everything has changed and we must accept a “new normal.” What does this “new normal” look like? It looks a lot like a dystopian horror film, where privacy is destroyed, property is subject to political whim, surveillance is to be accepted, medical treatments can be forced on people. Should we accept totalitarianism as our “new normal”? Plus in today’s program: the real story of Houston’s “round two hospital crisis.” Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

The school closures, stay home orders, shuttering of businesses, banning of elective surgeries, closure of physical entertainment events, blocked flights, and sudden imposition of a central plan – it all happened suddenly from mid-March in the course of only a few days, and to enormous shock on the part of people who had previously taken their freedom and rights for granted. 

Despite enormous pressure from Washington, eight states did not lock down or used a very light touch: South Dakota, North Dakota, South Carolina, Wyoming, Utah, Arkansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. 

After 100 days, we are in a position for some preliminary analysis of the performance of locked down states versus those that did not lock down. AIER has already published the evidence that lockdown states had higher rates of unemployment. 

The Sentinel, a nonprofit news source of the Kansas Policy Institute, confirms our research by reporting the following data: locked down states have overall a 13.2% unemployment rate, while open states have a 7.8% unemployment rate. 

But perhaps this better economic performance came at the expense of health? 

In terms of health, locked down states have nearly four times the death rate from COVID-19.

The results do not prove that staying open necessarily caused the good outcomes, but should certainly lead us to question the notion that “lockdowns are necessary or else we all are going to die.” 

To be sure, many mitigating factors may exist. Open states may have had fewer long-term health facilities housing people with low life expectacies; in every state, these account for roughly half of all deaths from COVID-19. In fact, “deaths among a narrow 1.7% group of the population are greater than deaths from the other 98.3%.” 

Population density between the states also varies and that could have been an explanatory variable. The open states also lacked governors who mandated that nursing homes accept active COVID-patients. Earlier this month, we published some more detailed research “Unemployment Far Worse in Lockdown States, Data Show” by economist Abigail Devereux who found similar results.

A routine trope in the media is that people who oppose lockdowns are pushing freedom and wealth over safety and health. But as we can see from this clean examination of the results, the open states experienced less economic pain and less pain from the disease itself. 

We are seeing desperate attempts by politicians, public health officials, and media commentators somehow to make sense of why the United States pursued the course it did with the closures, stay-home orders, travel bans, and near-universal quarantine, in violation of every principle that America has celebrated in its civic culture. 

With the evidence coming in that the lockdowns were neither economically nor medically effective, it is going to be increasingly difficult for lockdown partisans to marshal the evidence to convince the public that isolating people, destroying businesses, and destroying social institutions was worth it.

Reprinted with permission from the American Institute for Economic Research.

DC Court of Appeals has ruled that the case against Gen. Michael Flynn must be dropped, after a judge ignored a previous order by US Attorney General William Barr to drop all charges. As more documents and notes by FBI officers involved in the case are released, it becomes ever more evident that this was no counterintelligence investigation – it was a coup attempt. And it went all the way to the top. Also in today’s program mask-mania continues to spread faster than the coronavirus, with Americans lining up to turn in other Americans for not wearing masks. But what happened in states that did not shut down? We discuss a Wall Street Journal editorial of yesterday with the hard numbers. Watch today’s Liberty Report:

Just over a week ago Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan praised the takeover of part of her city by protesters claiming to establish the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) where no police would be needed – or welcome. It would be a “summer of love” Durkan gushed. Shortly thereafter a strong man emerged to proclaim himself in charge and automatic weapons were handed out. Shootings and violence followed. Now the mayor is eating crow, preparing to reclaim part of her city. Also in today’s Liberty Report – More from Bolton’s book on how he sabotaged Trump’s outreach to North Korea and the latest on the “second wave” of coronavirus. Watch today’s Liberty Report:

The doom and gloom “scientists” are back on television warning of a massive new spike in coronavirus cases…while admitting also to a massive “spike” in testing and a massive decrease in deaths across the country. Are they conditioning Americans to accept another lockdown and shutdown of the economy? How to explain the hysteria over rising “cases” while also admitting to falling deaths. Plus today: “contact tracing” looks to be a massive boondoggle in New York. Can Texas expect the same dismal failure of its third of a billion dollar “contact tracing” program? Watch today’s Liberty Report:

Pundits are having a field day making fun of President Trump’s recent comment that less coronavirus testing would probably result in less Covid in the country. They accuse him of doltish behavior and head-in-the-sand thinking. Do they have a point? What are the merits of Trump’s assertions? Also in today’s program, will the “solution” to bias in social media be worse than the problem itself? Watch today’s Liberty Report:

Big pharma is thrilled today after the FDA has rescinded permission for the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19. This after two “prestigious” medical journals have recently been forced to withdraw publication of articles critical of the use of hydroxychloroquine. The trials cited by the FDA did not include the critical component zinc according to critics, and was thus doomed to fail. That leaves enormously expensive new drugs in trial and the elusive vaccine as the “only way” to end the coronahysteria. Meanwhile states are pushing the idea of a “second wave” and are eyeing another shutdown. Watch today’s Liberty Report:

Sometimes a video can communicate important political ideas very well and quickly. That is the case with the two-minute video “No New Normal” at the Essential People YouTube page.

Starting off, it seems as if the video, like many others, is promoting that people make all sorts of sacrifices, changing their lives drastically and painfully, to counter coronavirus. Then, the video takes a quick turn, harshly criticizing the coronavirus crackdown and the “new normal” of dystopian restrictions on human actions that people in government and media often assert must persist. At the same time, the video denounces Bill Gates who has been a prominent backer of the crackdown and promoter of the “new normal.”

The video also provides a haunting visual demonstration of the dehumanizing nature of the masks and other face coverings that some governments and businesses are mandating people wear.

The video was posted in April, before a much increased recognition that coronavirus is way less threatening to most people than proclaimed through the imposing of coronavirus restrictions in America and before the United States, state, and local governments began their much-touted ramping down of their coronavirus crackdowns. Yet, unfortunately, the video still very much addresses the current state of intense restrictions in America and the continued ominous talk of subjecting people to a “new normal” forever.

Much of the ramp-down has been glacial in pace. It has also been accompanied by the introduction and expansion of attacks on liberty in the name of countering coronavirus, such as surveillance programs termed “contract tracing” and mandates that people wear masks. Meanwhile, some politicians are working hard to ensure a significant portion of restrictions enacted in the name of countering coronavirus stick around no matter what. Plus, there is the persistent threat of starting a new round of full-out crackdowns to deal with a “second wave” of coronavirus, another disease, or some other future “emergency.”

The lyrics in the song played in the video say, “wake me up when it’s all over.” Unfortunately, there are people, including in government and the media, who want to make sure the precoronavirus “old normal” never returns.

Watch the video here: