Arming Ohio teachers

 

meme seen on BookwormRoom

Jeremiah Poff at The Washington Examiner reports:

. . . Arming teachers has had mixed results in the past due to varying levels of participation. A 2020 report from the RAND Corporation found that 28 states already permit armed teachers under certain circumstances, while others, including Texas and Florida, have passed laws specifically encouraging the practice.

Now, in the aftermath of Uvalde, the policy has received renewed attention in state capitols as lawmakers look to enact new measures to harden security at schools.

Ohio

A bill allowing teachers in Ohio to carry firearms is headed to the desk of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who has indicated he will sign it.

"My office worked with the General Assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure training requirements were specific to a school environment and contained significant scenario-based training," DeWine said of the bill. "House Bill 99 accomplishes these goals, and I thank the General Assembly for passing this bill to protect Ohio children and teachers."

Once enacted, the bill will add Ohio to a list of several states that already allow teachers to be armed. . . .

Read the full report here.

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Ohio’s Vax-a-Million Lottery: FAIL

 

FEE (Foundation for Economic Education) published its report “States Spent At Least $90 Million on Vaccine Lotteries. Studies Show They Accomplished Nothing” at The Washington Gazette. And sadly, their lead-off example is Ohio:

Government bureaucrats aren’t exactly known for spending taxpayer money wisely. Sadly, the pandemic has proven no exception—with new studies showing that local governments wasted millions on vaccine lotteries that accomplished…nothing. 

For example, Ohio implemented a “Vax-a-Million” initiative where it drew weekly lotteries for a $1 million prize among those who got the vaccine. Similar programs have cropped up around the country, such as “VaxCash” in Maryland and “Vax and Scratch” in New York. In all, states spent at least $90 million, likely more, Business Insider reports, on these kinds of vaccine lottery efforts.

Given the significant sums involved, it’s worth questioning: Did these pro-vaccine government initiatives actually accomplish their goals? 

The answer provided by a new study published in JAMA Health Forum is a resounding “no.” Researchers examined the 19 states with vaccine lottery schemes and compared them to states that did not enact such programs. The authors conclude that the impact these lotteries had on increasing vaccination rates was “very small in magnitude and statistically indistinguishable from zero.”

. . .

Read the full report here and weep.  If you are so inclined, send Gov. DeWine a message here to let him know what you think of his initiative - maybe include the hyperlink to the FEE report.

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Gov. DeWine: low marks

 

Bonchie at Red State:

Ohio's Governor Perfectly Illustrates
What Republican Impotence Looks Like

Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine has been the perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with the Republican Party for a while now. His handling of COVID has been marked by an inconsistent, overly cowardly approach whereby he was behind the curve on everything from lockdowns to mask mandates.

Unlike Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who has fought oppressive mandates at every level, DeWine didn’t take an objective look at what was working and what wasn’t. Rather, he sought to protect himself, putting in place oppressive mandates and restrictions that appear to have amounted to nothing at all. In fact, Ohio and Florida ended up with nearly identical COVID death rates despite their wildly different policy decisions in regards to the pandemic.

DeWine has been so bad that he didn’t even lift his state’s mask mandate until June 2nd, months and months after it became clear masks weren’t anywhere close to a silver bullet. Worse, he actually encouraged schools to keep masking children up –something that lacks any scientific justification, at this point, with teachers largely being vaccinated.

But it’s not just COVID where DeWine has curled up into the fetal position, looking for CNN approval more than doing what’s right. On the transgender sports issue, he’s already promised to veto any legislation sent to him by Ohio’s GOP legislature that deals with the issue.

There’s more here.  And with Jim Renacci running for Gov., well, that’d just be more of the same.

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Gov. Mike DeWine on the election: wrong again

 

Amy Furr at Breitbart reports ("Gov. Mike DeWine: ‘We Need to Consider’ Joe Biden the ‘President-Elect’") on Gov. DeWine’s interview on CNN.  It’s mostly a mish-mash, but his statement concerning Biden as President-elect is unacceptable.  Here is what Cleveland Tea Party’s Ralph King posted on social media:

If Joe Biden had been elected without the cloud of fraud we would have been disappointed that Trump had lost, but we would have been able to accept that our nation had undergone the change that resulted in his win. We would have called him President Biden. We would have accepted America was just a different country than the one we thought it was.

But this is not the case. Trump won 70 million non-fraudulent votes which means those votes are unassailable and there is no doubt 70 million people really voted for this man who stands for an America that we truly are. Biden was elected with 74 million so called votes under a cloud of deceit, fraud, abuse, lies, deception. His 74 million vote total is illegitimate, questionable, and cannot be trusted. This is an attempt to force 70 million people into an outcome they didn't agree to. An agreement that with a legitimate election we concede peacefully and move on.

Biden and company on the left is attempting to force us into their dictatorship. We do not voluntarily participate in that form of government. That is not democracy. Democracy is voluntary.

Until every vote is counted and every illegitimate vote is overturned, Biden will be an illegitimate president. If after all the votes are counted and transparency is brought to bear and the votes turn in favor of Biden we will accept. Without that transparency we will not accept and we will resist.

Gov. DeWine is showing his true colors again.

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The Mask Empire

On Frontpage, Jack Kerwick reports on The Mask Empire:

Specifically, we spoke about the rise of Mask Empire.

I tried explaining that world renowned scientists—as opposed to career bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci—have demonstrated repeatedly that masks, particularly the kinds of cloth and surgical masks that have become a daily feature of the general public, are ineffective in preventing people from getting infected with COVID-19.  Masks can even be dangerous, both vis-à-vis COVID, as well as with respect to the exacerbation of other health issues.

In fact, even some of these bureaucrats have, at one time, conceded the truth of the science behind COVID and masks.

. . .

Anthony Fauci himself remarked in March, on the eve of the peak of The Virus:

“There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.  When you’re in the middle of an outbreak wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection people think that it is.”

. . .

Face masks can pose health risks.

. . .

The bottom line is this:

The science, as the left likes to say, is settled.  Masks, particularly of the kind that are in vogue among the public, are theater.  For the elites that mandate their use, they are a means to augment their power and exert control over the masses.    

Read all about it here.  And right on cue over at cleveland.com, we have today’s headline:

Gov. Mike DeWine says Ohioans will wear masks for years, after new study finds just 1.5% of state had coronavirus antibodies in July

Insane.  Read the report here, if you can stand to.   

Contact Gov. Mike DeWine: (614) 644-4357 or by email  https://governor.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/governor/contact

# # #

Action Alert for Ohio

image credit: Professional Adviser 

The good news headline:

Ohio pharmacy board backs off hydroxychloroquine ban
at Gov. Mike DeWine’s urging

The bad news headline:

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine proposes banning liquor sales
after 10 p.m. to stop coronavirus spread in bars

This is one smart virus that knows how to spread itself around more after 10pm.

In our neighborhood, at least half the restaurants have not re-opened since the lock-downs and the riots, and those that have opened are under onerous orders to enforce masks, distancing, etc.;  three citations and they get closed down for good.  And now comes this latest regulation to further cripple the restaurant and bar businesses.

The Ohio Liquor Control Commission is slated to hold a hearing on the rule 9 a.m. Friday. If approved, DeWine said he would sign an order that would go into effect Friday night.

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

Please share with your friends.

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Capricious Governors

According to cleveland.com, "Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Sunday during an interview on "Meet the Press" that he would not rule out a statewide mandate to wear masks in public."  Cuyahoga County already has a mandate.  Theaters, sports venues, and other large gathering places are still closed.  

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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.   

# # #

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.

# # #

No in-person primary voting for you

Unless you are homeless or disabled, there will be no in-person primary voting for you. (See our previous blogpost here.)  Cleveland.com reports that a judge has upheld the changes to the election timetable and method of voting – mostly by mail.  Not good news, but here it:

A federal judge on Friday declined to step in and change a plan Ohio lawmakers unanimously approved to alter the state’s primary election, which will now be held almost solely by mail through April 28 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Michael Watson ruled that a coalition of voting-rights groups that filed suit Monday over the Ohio legislature’s plan did not show that the rights of residents would be disenfranchised enough to override the law.

Even if the plan, named House Bill 197, isn’t perfect, that’s not enough to intervene, the judge wrote in his 27-page opinion.

“The Constitution does not require the best plan, just a lawful one,” wrote Watson, whose courtroom is in Columbus. “. . .

. . .

. . . He said the state is not in violation of the National Voting Rights Act.

Here’s one part I find particularly objectionable:

[Watson] said voters had many chances to vote either at boards of elections or by mail prior to the original primary date.

Voters who planned to vote on Election Day at their polling place are penalized for not voting early.

Read the rest of the report here.

# # #

Alert: You can vote only by mail now

art credit: cedarhills.org

Yesterday, I went to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website; I wanted to double-check the rescheduled date when voters could go to their respective polling places to mark their ballots.  The date I marked on my calendar was June 2.  That date was not on the website, so I planned to phone the BoE today.  No need.  Susan Daniels at American Thinker is a few steps ahead of me:

The residents of Ohio are getting screwed.  They have not been informed that voting day has been moved up from June 2 to April 28.  No notice from the county to anyone and nothing in the media.

The primary election in Ohio was set for March 10, 2020.  Then someone in Columbus, without explanation, changed the date to March 17, St. Patrick's Day.  [Note: some of the comments at the link at Lucianne raise questions about the accuracy of this sequence. -D]  The cynical among us believe that the hope was that fewer voters would turn out that day, with the Cleveland parade and all, which of course was canceled for the first time in 178 years.

Except that lifelong politician and governor Mike DeWine canceled elections at 3:30 A.M. on the 17th itself.  He had gone to court earlier that day to try to stop the primary.  DeWine said he would go along with the judge's decision.  The judge said "no," and all of a sudden, the judge's decision was unimportant.

It took DeWine's cronies until 3:30 A.M. to get four Ohio Supreme Court judges to agree by phone to call off voting.  (Was that even legal?)  DeWine set the new date as June 2.  Then on March 25, the General Assembly passed H.B. 197, resetting the date to April 28, 2020.

If you have not voted early, residents are no longer allowed to go to the Geauga Board of Elections (BOE), where I live, but instead have to follow a complicated procedure, which I learned about by accident.  The county has not informed the voters; the media have never mentioned it.

You can vote only by mail now.  But before you can vote, you first have to get an application (mailed or faxed to you) to apply for a ballot.  You then fill out that application, and it must be mailed to the BOE.  Then they will mail you a ballot.  After you fill out your ballot, it then must be mailed back to the BOE.  And all this has to be done in less than a month.  What could possibly go wrong?

And where are all the votes that were already cast being securely kept?

Ms. Daniels is right to ask if any of this is even legal.  In essence, Ohio voters have been deprived of their right to vote at their polling place on Election Day. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website confirms:  “No in-person voting at polling locations.” 

To request your ballot by mail, go to your Board of Election website; click here for the Ohio directory.  

UPDATE 1:55pm:  Cleveland.com headline

Ohio Secretary of State preparing to mail 

vote-by-mail instructions for state’s delayed primary

# # #

Is Gov. Mike DeWine a pessimist?

photo credit: businessinsider.com

President Trump has been suggesting that the various restrictions recommended to slow the spread of the coronavirus could be lifted as early as Easter (April 12).  He has referenced the economic health of the US, and the other day I quoted Mike Rowe:

. . .we’re treating a virus that MIGHT have devastating consequences, in a way that will GUARANTEE devastating consequences.

. . .

. . . I also know that Safety First is no way to live indefinitely. We are at base, a Safety Third nation. We can’t remain in the air raid shelter indefinitely – if we do, they’ll be no country left, when we finally emerge.

In response to Trump’s optimism and intention to balance the health of people with the financial health (and security) of the country, the markets started to rebound. 

Cleveland.com reported yesterday:

Gov. Mike DeWine also insisted he wasn’t that far apart from President Donald Trump on their approach to the coronavirus. Trump wants America to get back to business around Easter, about two weeks from now. 

But now The Hill reports that 

Democratic and Republican governors, as well as local officials, are pushing back against President Trump’s signals that he wants to restart the economy by Easter, warning that ending strict social distancing practices could put millions of lives at risk.

Governors have ordered residents to practice those distancing procedures, to varying degrees. Many have ordered residents to stay at home, ordered nonessential businesses closed and banned gatherings of all but a few people.

And several say they will keep those orders in place even if Trump rolls back the few national restrictions he has put in place.

Among those governors is Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine:

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said “people are dying and people don’t feel safe,” therefore the economy would not come back.

“We have to #FlattenTheCurve so that when the wave comes, it’s not as big as it would have been and we are prepared for it. We are going to get our economy back, but we have to get through it, protect as many lives as we can, and then move forward. I’m looking forward to that day, but it’s not here yet,” DeWine tweeted.

Meantime, we’ve been to the grocery store, been patronizing our local bistros by ordering take-out, comparing notes with family and friends, etc.  So far, everyone we’ve talked to is looking forward to getting back to normal.  They're concerned but not scared.  We’re optimistic.

# # #

Election Day: it's off: UPDATES

UPDATE:  It’s off!   (See here.)

As of 11:25pm, the election is OFF.  Here’s Ed Driscoll at Instapundit:

NOW WHAT? Judge Denies Ohio Gov’s Request to Delay Primary, But Poll Workers Say They Won’t Be Ready.

UPDATE: “Minutes ago Gov. Mike DeWine defied a judge’s earlier ruling that the primary must go on tomorrow. He announced on Twitter that his director of Public Health, Amy Acton, will order the polls closed tomorrow due to a ‘health emergency.'”

Is that it? Ohio Christian Alliance reported earlier this evening:

With the unprecedented measures that have been implemented by federal and state government agencies, tomorrow's election has been postponed. More information will be available on the Secretary of State's website and from the Governor's office.

As of 10 pm Monday night, I have not been able to confirm that report via the Board of Elections or the Secretary of State website.

Ohio Value Voters reported that the March 17 election is ON as scheduled.

Is it on or off?  ON (if pollworkers show up)?  This latest from Paula Bolyard at PJ Media who reports that the election is proceeding as scheduled on March 17:

CHAOS: Judge Denies Ohio Gov's Request to Delay Primary—

AFTER Poll Workers Told Not to Set Up Polling Locations

Update 9:45 p.m.: Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican, sent out a memo to members asking them to inform their constituents that the election will go on as planned Tuesday. "To my knowledge, the court is closed until 8:30 AM tomorrow and polls open prior to that," he wrote. "You should instruct your constituents that the Election is scheduled to occur March 17 as set by Ohio Law."

Here's more about what we know about Ohio's primary elections, scheduled for today, March 17 (reprinted from this blog, published yesterday):

Headline from cleveland.com:

Judge denies request to delay Ohio primary election until June over coronavirus

People who want the election postponed may appeal. It’s still being decided whether an appeal is possible.

According to my conversation with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, none of this confusion has been clarified; the BoE spokesperson recommended checking the website for the Ohio Secretary of State for any updates;  click here. 

Yesterday's blog with more details of all this confusion is here. 

# # #

Ohio Primary Election postponed? Updates

image credit: kpcw.org.

UPDATE 10pm: Ohio Christian Alliance is reporting:

With the unprecedented measures that have been implemented by federal and state government agencies, tomorrow's election has been postponed. More information will be available on the Secretary of State's website and from the Governor's office.

As of 10 pm Monday night, I have not been able to confirm that report via the Board of Elections or the Secretary of State website.

Earlier updates ---

UPDATE 7:53pm:  Headline fromcleveland.com:

Judge denies request to delay Ohio primary election until June over coronavirus

People who want the election postponed may appeal. It’s still being decided whether an appeal is possible.

So as of 7:53pm Monday, March 16, it is still unclear as to whether the polls will or will not be open on Tuesday. 

-----

UPDATE:  Crawl on Fox 8 News Cleveland at 4:12pm:

Voting in Ohio To Be Extended to June 2

UPDATE: The information on the Ohio Secretary of State Website suggests polls will NOT be open tomorrow:

Based On New Public Health Guidance, Larose Recommends Suspension Of In-Person Voting On March 17, Moving Election Day To June 2

And here's how this blog originally started:

Headline from cleveland.com:

Gov. Mike DeWine wants to postpone Ohio’s Tuesday primary election till June 2 due to coronavirus.

Ohio becomes the third state, after Louisiana and Georgia to cancel its primary.

The wording is odd (“wants to postpone” vs “to cancel”).  Then:

Less than 24 hours before it was to have taken place, Ohio officials are seeking to delay the state’s presidential primary election until June 2, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday.
. . .

Between now and June 2, mail-in voting would continue, if the judge approves the move.

The Hill is reporting:

Ohio governor calls for delaying Tuesday's primary until June

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said Monday he would back a lawsuit aiming to delay the state's presidential primary until June because of the growing threat of the coronavirus that has already infected thousands of people around the country.

(One assumes that this decision was put off until the last minute because Gov. DeWine was so busy closing down Ohio restaurants, bars, theaters, sports events, parades, etc.)

UPDATE 4:20: According to my conversation with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, none of the confusion has been clarified; the BoE spokesperson recommended checking the website for the Ohio Secretary of State for any updates;  click here.

# # #