Judge rules Ohio lockdown arbitrary and unreasonable

Many in Ohio have observed that Gov. Mike DeWine’s lockdown and imposed regulations were and are arbitrary and unconstitutional.  We know that Health Director Amy Acton based her recommendations on wildly inaccurate models and projections.  An Ohio judge agrees.  Jacob Sullum at Reason reports (h/t Instapundit):

The headline:  Ohio Judge Deems the State's COVID-19 

Lockdown 'Arbitrary, Unreasonable, and Oppressive'

The ruling says the state's top health official exceeded her statutory authority by ordering "nonessential" businesses to close.

Ohio's COVID-19 lockdown is illegal, a state judge ruled today, because it exceeds the powers granted by the statute under which it was imposed. Responding to a May 8 lawsuit filed by the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law on behalf of 35 gyms, Lake County Court of Common Pleas Judge Eugene Lucci enjoined Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton from penalizing the plaintiffs or similar businesses for violating the lockdown, provided "they operate in compliance with all applicable safety regulations."

. . .

"Constitutions are written to prevent governments from arbitrarily interfering in citizens' lives and businesses," 1851 Center Executive Director Maurice Thompson said in response to the ruling. "On that front, the call to action is clear: The governor and health director may no longer impose their own closures and regulations and write their own criminal penalties to enforce those regulations and closures. We remain available to serve those who are caught in the state's tangled web of unlawful orders."

Most of the damage is already done, but it’s good to know there may be potential remedies for small businesses.  And Ohio's Governor won't be able to pull this again.  Mr. Sullum's full report is here.   

# # #

Mail-in ballots and voter fraud

Frank Bullitt’s Editorial today at Issues & Insights makes the case against mail-in ballots:

Democrats and their media scribes have spent more than three years glued to the narrative that President Donald Trump stole the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton by colluding with Russia to rig the outcome. But they don’t care about the legitimacy of elections. If they did, they wouldn’t be agitating for voting by mail this fall.

“House Democrats have sought to drastically overhaul the American electoral system in light of the pandemic, arguing dramatic change is needed to allow Americans to vote safely,” Politico reported last week.

It seems they have the public on their side. A recent POLITICO/Morning Consult poll found nearly 60% of voters “either strongly or somewhat support a federal law that would mandate that states ‘provide mail-in ballots to all voters for elections occurring during the coronavirus pandemic.’”

What they don’t have, though, is a good argument to defend their proposal for turning an entire election, or nearly all of one, into a contest of absentee ballots. 

Few elections, even in the U.S., are ever perfectly clean. But the potential for a dirty election sharply increases when ballots are scattered in the wind.

“Absentee ballots are the tools of choice of election fraudsters because they are voted outside the supervision of election officials, making it easier to steal, forge, or alter them, as well as to intimidate voters,” says Hans A. von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation.

The full editorial is here. And the integrity of Ohio’s elections is now at risk. See prior CTP blogs here and here.

# # #

Created Equal on PBS tonight (Monday 5/18)

Scott Johnson at Power Line recommends Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words on PBS tonight:

I wrote about Michael Pack’s documentary on Justice Thomas in “Clarence Thomas speaks.” The title of the film is Created Equal. We ran to one of our local suburban multiplexes to see it upon its release this past winter, in the good old days when such activities were permitted. If you missed it, however, you may want to catch it tonight on PBS, where it is scheduled to be broadcast at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern), but check your local listings. It turns up tonight at 10:00 on the schedule of our local PBS channel.

This is my take on the film. The left could not and cannot deal with Justice Thomas. They disparage him for his silence on the bench, but they don’t want him speaking out either. His comments on the Anita Hill episode — his comments then and now — are utterly devastating. Joe Biden makes a cameo appearance as a complete and utter buffoon. This section of the film should elicit feelings of rage and disgust from sentient beings, and yet the scenario is as current as today’s headlines. I am so grateful this movie exists and urge you to see it.

The Power Line blog is here.  WVIZ in Cleveland lists a 10pm-12 broadcast.

# # #

Vote by mail and election fraud

Rick Moran at PJ Media has an article “Nevada's Mail-In Ballot System Wide Open to Fraud and Abuse” that provides chapter and verse for the increased opportunities for voter fraud with mail-in ballots.  Nevada has a primary next month, and “thousands of legal ballots are being sent to inactive voters — voters who haven’t voted in the last few elections, which might include voters who have moved or are dead.”

Ohio voters just lost their opportunity to vote in person on Election Day in our recent primary election. The excuse was, of course, concerns over coronavirus. Cleveland Tea Party’s Ralph King posted more bad news on social media on the November election in Ohio:

The Never Trumper Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is already laying the groundwork & planting the seeds to vote by mail in Ohio for the November election.

I've always said, since he was first elected OH SoS, if there was going to be any undermining of Donald Trump in the 2020 election it would be through LaRose & Ohio!

Ralph links to this at the Beacon Journal.  If there is no voting in person on Election Day, poll-watching is no longer one of our options.  More soon on this.

# # #

Why shutdowns are useless

Over at Power Line, John Hinderaker links to an interview (not quite an hour long) with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford Medical School for Uncommon Knowledge.  Mr. Hinderaker's closing comments, based on the interview:

The conventionally posed choice between fighting the disease and salvaging our economy is entirely wrong. The choice is not disease vs. economy. The disease is here, and there is nothing governments can do to stop it. (They can, of course, close down access to nursing homes, a mixed blessing if you are elderly.) The real choice is between the disease with a flourishing economy, and the disease with a devastated economy. The disease is a constant.

Read the full column here, with interview link at the bottom.

# # #

Lockdowns vs the Constitution

Here’s a glimmer of sanity during our months of house arrest. Thomas Lifson at American Thinker reports:

Two state supreme courts have stepped up to constrain abuse of civil rights in the name of fighting an epidemic.  The concept of a "state of emergency" can be used to suspend constitutional limitations on the powers of government, as has been the case with the response to the Wuhan virus pandemic.  But under our system of justice, there has to be a reckoning, and finally we are beginning to see state supreme courts acknowledging what Barack Obama notoriously called "negative liberties," also known as limits on governmental powers, also known as protections against tyranny.

Using their respective state constitutions (which generally mirror the U.S. Constitution when it comes to fundamental rights), the supreme courts of Wisconsin and Texas have spoken up for liberty in the face of two months of "state of emergency" punishing restrictions on liberty.

. . .

In Texas, Justice James D. Blacklock, the majority [opinion held that] the default position must always be to protect rights, and any contravention of thise rights must be minimal and justified.  This is what our revolution was fought to protect.

. . .

These judicial actions — and there will be more later — will help solidify the growing public revulsion against loss of liberties in the name of fighting an epidemic that, while concerning, has not lived up the scary estimates driven by computer models that have not proved out as remotely realistic.  Politically, Democrats have wagered that the public will remain frightened enough to accept a new Great Depression in the name of avoiding a phantom catastrophe . . .

Read the article here; it includes extracts from the judicial rulings.  

# # #

'The Great Mistake'

image credit: EndTimesProphecyReport.com

Deborah Georgatos’s article at American Thinker about the “Great Mistake” provides an excellent summary of the lockdown; she is outraged:

America’s Great Shutdown started with The Great Mistake.  Vital lessons must emerge from both, and propel the reopening of America, rooted in the “only normal” for America, the promise of liberty.

Ms. Georgatos goes through many of the topics that have been posted on this blog to question the lockdown:  faulty models, inflated projections, inadequate and misreported statistics, medical “experts” with an agenda, and so on. The consequent policies have been catastrophic:

This Great Shutdown at the hands of governors and elected and non-elected officials has destroyed the economy, large and small businesses, and the economic security of individuals and families. It has launched an unprecedented avalanche of unemployment claims and unsustainable federal “bailout” spending. It has emboldened petty tyrants with dubious authority but mountain-sized swagger to issue ‘orders’ that control the lives and movements of American citizens.

. . .

. . .the most devastating consequence of the Great Shutdown caused by the Great Mistake is the loss of liberty.

Or more precisely, the loss of the presumption that as Americans we have the right to live in liberty. If we concede liberty can be taken away for an unspecified and unlimited period of time in order to “keep us safe” from any future virus or other threats, we will never have liberty again. There will always be another virus, another threat, another expert advocating shut down.

. . .

It is beyond ironic that the miserable economy, massive unemployment, and devastating loss of freedom is happening only two months after the best economy, record-setting employment, and the palpable, energized sense of American freedom and greatness that marked the first three years of the Trump presidency. That booming economy grew out of returning to our roots in freedom.

Let’s change course, correct the Great Mistake, and move past the Great Shutdown.  Let’s re-open a Great Economy based on trust in American liberty. Let’s restore liberty as the “Only Normal” for America.

Read the full article here.

It would be difficult to fault President Trump for calling on well-known medical experts to advise him at the ouset.  Few would expect a President to have medical expertise himself.  But where I would fault President Trump is sticking with policies when it became obvious they were based on bad advice.  Perhaps he has a strategy that I cannot see, but it is difficult to imagine that he would knowingly put the country through such agony.  

At this point, if you are concerned about the slow-walking of the Ohio lockdowns “ordered” by Comrade DeWine, then let your concerns be known:

Contact Gov. Mike DeWine: (614) 644-4357 or by email here

https://governor.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/governor/contact

# # #

Happy Mother's Day

art credit: thegraphicsfairy.com

from Cleveland Tea Party

# # #

Continue the lockdown or re-open?

photo credit: Times of India

Once again, Heather Mac Donald is a voice of reason during the destructive lockdown. Her article appeared in The Hill the other day, and here’s part of it:

Who has the burden of proof regarding the economic lockdowns: Those who argue for continuing them or those who want to lift them?  

. . .

. . .both sides of the lockdown debate are motivated by public health concerns. Pace [Gov. Andrew] Cuomo, his ornately complicated reopening plan does have a trade-off. Lives are being lost to the lockdown, a toll that will mount the longer the economy remains shuttered. Some doctors estimate that the closure of hospitals to non-coronavirus cases and the reluctance of patients to burden 911 have increased mortality as much as the virus. The global depression will devastate life expectancies in the less-developed world. Overdose deaths and suicides brought on by joblessness and loss of hope will rise, as more and more businesses fold permanently.  

The rhetoric of lockdown proponents is growing more apocalyptic. “A Virus Tightens Its Deadly Grip” announced the lead print headline in Wednesday’s New York Times — even as the data keep reinforcing the case against universal shutdown. Infection outbreaks are occurring in highly specific locales, not universally: nursing homes, meatpacking plants and prisons. Deaths are tragically concentrated in the former.   

. . .

The demographics of COVID-19 allow for a targeted response. Nursing homes and all congregate facilities must be kept immaculately clean and protected. Over the long term, Americans will need to rethink how they care for elderly parents and how much they are willing to pay for such care. But if the proponents of universal lockdowns had to prove the case for continuing to destroy the complex web of transactions by which human beings flourish, the economy would reopen and millions of livelihoods would be saved. 

Ms. Mac Donald’s full analysis is here.  Highly recommended.

# # #

Mike DeWine "plans" for Ohio

Paula Bolyard at PJ Media doesn’t think much of Governor Comrade Mike DeWine’s power-grab:

The Ohio House on Wednesday passed a bill stripping the state health director of some emergency powers and limiting stay-at-home orders to 14 days, requiring the approval of the legislature for an extension. Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who’s been basking in the praise of Democrats and the MSM for his heavy-handed approach to containing the coronavirus pandemic, has vowed to veto the bill.

. . . 

DeWine’s office told reporters on Wednesday that should the bill make it to his desk he will veto it. It does not appear at present that the House would have enough vote to override a veto. The Senate has yet to take up the measure.

“My administration is focused on the important things we need to do to help businesses responsibly reopen while protecting Ohioans’ health and safety,” DeWine said in a statement. “This week alone, this included increasing coronavirus testing and tracing, balancing Ohio’s budget, and working on plans to move Ohio’s economy forward. Ohioans need their legislators focused on these important issues. Creating more uncertainty regarding public health and employee safety is the last thing we need as we work to restore consumer confidence in Ohio’s economy.”

In other words, the governor has no intention of relinquishing the power he and the unelected health director have amassed. If that power is taken away, what will he and Acton have to talk about at their incessant, mind-numbing “Wine with DeWine” daily press briefings?

How does he plan to "restore consumer confidence in Ohio’s economy" by keeping everybody under house arrest?  Ms. Bolyard's column is here.

Meanwhile, Seth A. Richardson at cleveland.com reports:

Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that barbershops, hair salons, nail salons, tanning salons and day spas can reopen starting May 15, nearly two months after they were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses will have to abide by certain health guidelines, including social distancing and strict sanitization regimens.

May 15?  Why May 15?  What is wrong with yesterday?  

# # #

Coronavirus and elite hypocrisy: it’s about control

meme via Sundance

Amy Johnston at Lifezette reports:

This entire coronavirus crisis has been a study of “for me, but not for thee.” Throughout the crisis, global elites have been dictating to us what we “must” do – much of which is centered around forcing us to stay home. Simultaneously, many of these same elites have elected to go on about their usual business in complete contradiction to the very disquisitions they prescribe to the masses.

While Michelle Obama told us to stay home, Obama was duffing around the golf course. As Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot was threatening to arrest citizens for violating lockdown rules, she chose to have her hair done by a salon stylist. A Texas mayor, who locked her citizens down, subsequently went to a nail salon to get her nails done. In another Texas town, salon owner Shelley Luther refused to close down her salon – and on Tuesday was ordered by a judge to spend 7 days in jail in addition to paying a hefty fine.

These stories have been commonplace during the coronavirus chaos and just serve to show how we, the peasants, are mere pawns in this illegitimate power grab.

The global elites really do think they’re better than us. They’re riding high and mighty, collecting their paychecks and visiting their mistresses, as they lecture to us from their golden pedestals. Meanwhile, small business owners are watching what they’ve toiled and sacrificed for years to build crumble, as they and others deemed “non-essential” wonder how they’ll feed their families tonight.

. . .

Read the full article here. 

# # #

On re-opening the economy

A friend of mine on social media forwarded this to me:

Some attack those who want to reopen business as selfish & reckless. But then, those that rely on many people to supply them while they cower in fear at home: isn’t that being selfish?

You expect your garbage to be picked up.

You expect the grocery store to be open with stocked shelves so you can feed your family.

You expect truck drivers to supply the stores.

You expect farmers, meatpackers, fruit & vegetable pickers to keep food in that store.

You expect Amazon to ship all the things you’re ordering while you sit at home shopping.

You expect the delivery guy to leave it on your doorstep.

You expect your phone to work, your power to stay on & your mail to show up rain, sleet, or shine, & your gas station to be open.

You expect the doctors & nurses to be there if you need them, although many have been furloughed because their units & services have been shut down.

One premise of 'shelter in place' is based on the arrogant idea that others must risk their health so you can protect yours. There is nothing virtuous about ignoring the army required to allow you to shelter in place.

Maybe you should stop & think about the people who allow you to stay "safe" in your home.

With some common sense on my part, I could go back to life as it was. I want to go to restaurants & to get my hair cut. I could catch COVID-19. I could also catch the flu or a cold. I could get hit by a car. I could get struck by lightning. We take risks every day.

If you choose to stay home, that is your choice. And don’t start screaming at me about how I’ll spread it. Why are you worried? You won’t get it because you’re staying home. Are you going to shelter in place every time a new strand of flu happens?

Our economy is crumbling. If it collapses, so will every other economy worldwide. If that happens, you really will need to hide in your house.

I absolutely don’t want people to die ... from COVID or anything else. I want people to live. But sheltering in place is not living.

# # #

The Unnecessary Lockdown

art credit: clipart

"Salons And Barbershops Across America Are About To Show How Unnecessary This Lockdown Was" --  Scott Morefield at Townhall :

In the eyes of many, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther has become the latest face of justified resistance against governmental tyranny for her steadfast refusal to back down on keeping her business open despite the prospect of going to jail.

Luther’s Salon a la Mode opened for business last Friday, then promptly got slapped with a court order to close because of coronavirus restrictions. Instead of meekly complying, as most others doubtless would have, Luther stood outside her salon and literally ripped the thing to shreds. Indeed, it was a moment that would have made Patrick Henry proud. (I’m also pretty sure it would have made another person with the surname “Luther” proud too.) The salon owner told media she has “had enough” of stupid, nonsensical restrictions on her livelihood and that of her employees, and is more than willing to go to jail to make her point.

“Essential, non-essential,” Luther said. “That’s ridiculous what has been deemed essential and non-essential because right now the pet groomer next door has been essential this whole time. So pets can get their hair done but someone can’t walk in my salon and get their hair cut? So why is a pet getting essentials?”

Good on her. The continued enforced closure of hairdressers, barbershops, salons, and the like are one of the most ridiculous in a sea of ridiculous aspects of the current coronavirus lockdown insanity. Turns out, while the generally solid GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has finally signed off on allowing some types of businesses to open, salons and barbershops inexplicably aren’t yet among them. They are “nonessential,” don’t you know, and the people who work in them apparently don’t deserve the same chance to feed their families that others do.

Insisting that salons are still not “safe,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins ripped Luther and other like-minded business owners as supposedly “putting their own need to make money ahead of public health.”

But Luther disagrees: “It’s pretty ridiculous to think that our place would be unsafe. The second part of that is we’re all grown adults. We decide where we want to go and if someone does not want to come in the salon, I respect that decision.”

Truly, is there any logical reason to think salons and barbershops are any less safe than most any other public place, particularly if owners and employees utilize masks, gloves, and regularly sanitize between customers? 

. . .

The full article is here.  It’s frightening to think that going to work or getting your hair cut is now civil disobedience.

RELATED:  Tyler O'Neil at PJ Media:

Early estimates of the COVID-19 death rate, cited to justify the lockdowns, have proven far too pessimistic. In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated a 3.4 percent fatality rate and Dr. Anthony Fauci estimated that the fatality rate of the coronavirus was about 2 percent. As PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reported, at least five studies have placed the death rate below 1 percent, confirming President Donald Trump’s hunch.

Recent studies have found that far more people than expected have COVID-19 antibodies — meaning the virus has spread faster than previously thought, but also proving that it is far less deadly than previously thought.

# # #

Is this about Gov DeWine?

Babylon Bee headline:

Governor Unveils Innovative 37-Step Plan

To Reopen State Over The Next 10 Years

Satire – or is it?

# # #

What happened in Vegas shouldn’t stay in Vegas

photo credit: American Patriot Depot

Here’s a report that should inspire all of us; I am linking to it, since the mainstream media has done its collective best to ignore it. Wayne Allyn Root reports on Breitbart:

Have you ever thrown together a last-minute party, with no planning, no help, no promotion, no money spent…and thousands of people showed up?

I have. It happened last week in Las Vegas. And you need to hear about it.

I decided to announce an idea on my nationally-syndicated Las Vegas radio show last Friday. I announced a “Open the Nevada Economy” protest caravan. I called it, “the World’s Safest Protest.” Because the entire protest would happen in our cars, listening to all the speeches, interviews and play by play, on my national radio show, on your car radio.

I also predicted it would become “the biggest protest caravan in Vegas Strip history.” Everyone needs to hear what happened. Because the lessons of this story are incredibly powerful for patriots, conservatives, capitalists, anyone who hates the “FAKE NEWS MEDIA.”

. . .

We then proceeded to jam the Vegas Strip, bumper to bumper, for three hours — flying American flags, with signs demanding the re-opening of the Nevada economy.

Folks, this should have been the number one story on the evening news broadcasts. Las Vegas is the crossroads of America. What happens in Vegas is proof of what’s happening across America. The fact that thousands of cars and people showed up to demand the reopening of the economy should be major national news.

The pot is boiling. People are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

It’s time to re-open the economy. 

Yes, indeed.  Read the full report here. 

Wayne Allyn Root is the host of the nationally-syndicated radio show, “Wayne Allyn Root: Raw & Unfiltered” on USA Radio Network; he contributes to various online publications, such as Breitbart. 

# # #

Censorship at Fox News

Photo credit: Boingboing.net

Joey Morona at Cleveland.com reports on blatant censorship at Fox News. The headline: 

Fox News cuts ties with Diamond & Silk 

after duo spreads coronavirus misinformation, report says

These two delightful ladies have been axed for telling the truth. Here’s an example of their dastardly crimes:

Their apparent banishment comes as the duo continues to make dubious claims about the coronavirus. On their March 30 live stream, for example, they suggested the number of deaths from COVID-19 was being exaggerated to make Trump look bad.

“What I need to know is: Who has the bodies?” Diamond asked.

A week later, their Twitter account was locked for violating the platform’s rules about spreading coronavirus misinformation, Politico reported.

“The only way we can become immune to the environment; we must be out in the environment. Quarantining people inside of their houses for extended periods will make people sick!” the offending tweet said.

On Monday, Diamond and Silk called the pandemic and resulting economic shutdown a “Deep State experiment that we’ve all been suckered into.”

Read the rest of the report here.  Diamond and Silk are right on the money.

Fox News has been gradually falling in line with the mainstream media propaganda pedlars, and this latest muzzling of two champions of truth and common sense is shameful and scary.  Those who want to hear and read both sides of an issue will have to seek it out on radio or online.  

# # #

Gov. DeWine slow-walks re-opening Ohio

WLWT5 reports (h/t Instapundit):

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled the first phase of his plan to reopen the state’s economy, laying out hard dates when certain businesses may resume.

The state's stay-at-home order, which was slated to expire May 1, will remain in place as the state begins to reopen, the governor said. The extent of the stay-at-home order was not provided.

The state will begin to reopen on May 1 with health care procedures. Manufacturing, distribution, construction and general business environments will follow on May 4, and all retailers can resume business on May 12.

Reopening dates for other businesses – including restaurants, gyms, bars and hair salons – were not provided, as the governor said additional monitoring needs to be done.

The full report is here.  May 1?  May 4?  May 12?  These dates seem arbitrary.  Why not re-open everything today?  And what "additional monitoring" is he thinking of? You can register your support of or displeasure with DeWine’s announcements:

Contact Gov. Mike DeWine: (614) 644-4357 or by email here

https://governor.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/governor/contact

# # #

Stealing the Election in Plain Sight

Joe Herring at American Thinker has been following the Progressive Left’s continuing actions to further corrupt our election cycles:

Ballot-harvesting is a crime, forbidden due to the inherent opportunities for fraud, intimidation, and outright manufacture of votes.  The Democrats tried to legalize ballot-harvesting in the last stimulus go-round, but thankfully, they were caught and prevented from doing so.

. . .

This effort [in Nevada] is spearheaded by former Clinton attorney Marc Elias, a partner at Perkins Coie law firm, the same firm that facilitated and helped disseminate the fraudulent Steele dossier, which launched the Russian collusion narrative.  Unsurprisingly, Elias was the attorney who engaged Fusion GPS to procure the dossier using funds laundered through Perkins Coie. 

Elias is a prime example of all things wrong with the legal profession these days, a poster child for "whatever it takes" lawyerly maneuvering, regardless of ethics or legality.  His involvement also makes it clear that this is no one-off effort concerning Nevada alone. 

This well-known Democrat fixer has a long history of fighting voter ID laws in state after state, with his legal challenges bankrolled by none other than George Soros.  He is the point of the spear in the left's effort to wrest control of the electoral process from the people of the United States.  Having licked his wounds after the 2016 debacle, Elias has emerged again, fighting the same battles, singing the same tunes.

. . .

The pattern is clear.  Force a mail-in ballot scenario, suspend prohibitions against ballot-harvesting (citing reasons of health and safety, of course), and then find judges in each state to forbid the invalidating of ballots where the signatures do not match the registration.

Apart from simply declaring themselves the winner at the end of a rifle barrel, the Democrats couldn't possibly have devised a more direct path to hijacking an election.

This is the greatest danger we face in 2020 — not the virus, not North Korea, not even the economic effects of the virus, but rather the clear intention of one party to steal an election by any means necessary.

Don't be distracted: this is one issue you must not let lie fallow.   They are arranging for the invalidation of your vote, right in front of your eyes.  We must prevent these changes, or, like a miraculous resurrection of Lenin, we will see the whole country "turn" blue November 3.

Mr. Herring’s full report is here. And a reader posting as faithandhonor in the Comments section:

Elections are STATE matters. STATES set the rules for elections, thru the legislature, implemented by county [superintendents] of elections, results certified by the state Secretary of State. That gives you much more power through your elected state and county reps, and governor.

It is late indeed to try to put protective measures in place. We should all pollwatch, but its critical to know HOW they cheat in your county. Ours in S. FL is thru chain of custody of the paper ballots, and absentee & provisional ballots. The chain must be assured from polling place to elections warehouse. And many patriots must be pollworkers as well.

Try to find someone in your county who is now with Walkaway, and has worked on elections, and knows what to look for.

More to come on this subject via Judicial Watch.

# # #

The costs of the COVID-19 lockdown

Heather Mac Donald at American Greatness asks all the right questions:

More than a dozen governors extended their economic shutdown orders recently into May and beyond. Those officials should have publicly addressed the following questions first:

• How many coronavirus deaths do you expect to avert by the shut-down extension?
• What will your state’s economy look like after another month of enforced stasis?
• How many workers will have lost their jobs?
• How many businesses will have closed for good?
• How many of your state’s young residents, seeking employment for the first time, will be unable to find it?

Instead, the announcements of the prolonged shutdown were representative of government decision-making during the coronavirus crisis: opaque, lacking in criteria for measuring success and failure, and bereft of any attempt to measure the benefits of mitigating one particular health problem against the costs—including other health problems. . . . 

She concludes:

The focus on saving “just one life” from the coronavirus, as Cuomo put it in March, to the exclusion of all other considerations likely will prove a catastrophic failure of policymaking. The devastation to individuals’ ability to flourish or even survive may soon become irreversible. Every scientific model used to justify these economic death sentences has been discredited. But even if those models were proven reliable, government decision-making must turn toward opening up. Officials must be made to justify, through a transparent analysis of costs and benefits, all further mandates to prevent people from working. Otherwise, there may be nothing recognizable as our economy to return to, with a resulting cost in human life and well-being that will match anything the coronavirus could inflict.

Ms. Mac Donald’s full article (“The Deadly Costs of Extended Shutdown Orders”) is here.  All good reasons to Open Ohio Now.

Details of the Open Ohio Now rally in Columbus 

on Saturday, April 25, are here.

# # #

Open Ohio Now rally

 

From our friends at Ohio Liberty Coalition:

You are invited to the OPEN OHIO NOW rally happening this Saturday, April 25, at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.  There will be guest speakers from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. on the West side of the building.  

What:  Open Ohio Now Rally

Where:  Ohio Statehouse (West side)

Address:  1 Capitol Square, Columbus, Ohio  MAP

Parking:  Click here for information.

When: Saturday, April 25, 1:00 p.m. There will be a great lineup of speakers 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.

What to bring:  Your signs, your flags and your friends.  Dress for the weather.

Stay up-to-date at the Free Ohio Now Facebook page.

Car Option:  You can also circle the capitol in your car.  Here is a sign to print & put on your car windows.

Don't let the cure be worse than the disease.  Coach Dave Daubenmire puts it well:  

"Look folks, no government can guarantee a person's safety.   Risk is the Siamese twin of liberty.  You cannot save the one without killing the other.  The whole idea of liberty is that we are all free to make individual choices.  Hopefully our laws go a long way in mitigating calamity, but there is no such thing as a guarantee of freedom from non-preventive risk.

Drunken driving laws did not eliminate drunken driving, laws against texting and driving did not prevent texting and driving, drug laws did not prevent drug use, and wearing masks did not prevent the spread of a virus.  Laws simply PUNISH behavior, not prevent it.

The issue is not whether the draconian efforts to stop the spread of the virus is a good thing, but rather, does the government have the AUTHORITY to DEMAND the people comply.  We are seeing citizens being arrested for simply violating a health order, even if there is no evidence that that person even HAD, let alone SPREAD, the virus to someone else."

The Coach will be one of the rally speakers.

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