"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Sunday, November 01, 2020
How Many Americans Have To Die From COVID Before The Country Unites Behind Science And Expertise And Casts Out The Devil's Sowers Of Doubt?
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CNN fact checker Dale told the L.A. Times that Trump lies so much that he can't keep up with them and that he's decided to stop counting each individual lie and "just focus on the big stuff." Although Trump claims that doctors are being paid to exaggerate the numbers of COVID cases and COVID deaths, those stats are a lot easier to keep up with that the lies Trump spouts-- by one count, a lie every 75 seconds at his super-spreader rallies. Friday in Green Bay, for example, he told the morons in attendance that without him it would be illegal to say "Merry Christmas" and that if Biden is elected "There will be no heating in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer, and no electricity." As for the pandemic, the U.S. is worse off than any other developed country-- and most undeveloped country by every metric conceivable. Trump's inability to lead has lead to 86,293 new cases yesterday, bringing our national total to 9,401,590 cases and 236,072 deaths.
A key metric to judge how each country, regardless of size, is handling the pandemic is to look at the number of cases reported per million residents. Here's the U.S. compared to 2 dozen other developed countries. (keep in mind that anything over 20,000 cases per million is pretty much the definition of an out-of-control pandemic)
The prime minister of Belgium announced yesterday his country is shutting down again, calling it a "last chance" to keep the country’s health care system from collapse. France and Germany have already done so and the UK is about to do likewise. But, back in Trumpistan where there isn't even a national mask mandate, the 17 worst hit states-- those with the most cases per million residents-- are all states where majorities (or pluralities) voted for Trump in 2016 and where many people-- including those in government-- listen to Trump's gaslighting rather than to public health experts when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. States you want to avoid going to for now:
• North Dakota- 57,628 cases per million residents • South Dakota- 51,988
Wall Street Journal reporter Elizabeth Findell reported that "The percentage of tests for Covid-19 coming back positive in South Dakota has soared to 46%. That’s more than eight times the World Health Organization’s recommended 5% threshold for businesses to be open. As Covid cases surge across the U.S. and in Europe, South Dakota and North Dakota hold a distinct position: Each has more new virus cases per capita than any other states have seen since the pandemic began. South Dakota has the most and North Dakota the second-most."
Recently, Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, who very much needs to be tried for negligent homicide, penned an OpEd about her abject failure to protect her state, although she congratulated herself for doing a great job and worked once again to mislead Dakotans about the effectiveness of wearing masks, concluding that "if folks want to wear a mask, they should be free to do so. Similarly, those who don’t want to wear a mask shouldn’t be shamed into wearing one. And government should not mandate it. We need to respect each other’s decisions-- in South Dakota, we know a little common courtesy can go a long way."
No one is more guilty of spreading COVID across America-- other than President Super-Spreader and Vice President Super-Spreader-- than Noem. Her motorcycle rally and state fair have caused tens of thousands of cases across the Midwest and cost the U.S. taxpayer an estimated $60 billion in medical treatment. Friday's much-discussed Stanford report-- The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case Of Trump Rallies can and should be applied to Noem's events as well and no doubt will be if she is ever indicted and tried. The report focused on the spread of contagion and death for 10 weeks after 18 of Trump's super-spreader rallies across the country. They concluded that these 18 rallies have-- so far-- "resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19" and more than 700 deaths.
And in case you missed it the first time I ran it...
How To Make The Pandemic As Bad As Possible-- Just Ask Kristi Noem And Doug Burgum, Murderous Trumpist Governors Of The Dakotas
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In terms of how many people have cases per million residents, the world's worst hellholes are:
•Andorra (a quasi country between Spain and France)- 46,868 cases per million residents •Qatar (the vast majority of whose residents are virtual slaves)- 46,182 cases per million residents •Bahrain (a densely populated tiny collection of islands, most of whose residents are virtual slaves)- 45,514 cases per million residents •North Dakota- 44,178 cases per million residents •Aruba (a densely populated 69 square mile Dutch colony specializing in off-shore money laundering in the Caribbean)- 40,738 cases per million residents •South Dakota- 38,949 cases per million residents
The Dakotas are part of Trumpistan. Both have become one-party states in all but name. Each has a worthless Republican governor who has welcomed COVID with open arms and who should be tried for negligent homicide, all GOP congressional delegations and overwhelmingly Republican legislatures. Most people who live there are getting what they want. My heart breaks for normal folks who live in the Dakotas.
A case can be made that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has caused more people to get COVID than anyone else in the country other than Trump, having purposefully infected tens of thousands of people, not just in her own wretched state but in North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and Missouri, Wyoming. She is Queen of the Super-Spreader events, having hosted some of the most deadly in the world.
She and her Trumpist state legislature-- 59 Republicans, 11 Dems in the state House and 30 Republicans and 5 Dems in the state Senate-- have consistently promulgated a pro-COVID agenda that has made their state one of the most dangerous places on earth. Steve Haugaard, the House Speaker has been so sick with COVID that he has been in intensive care twice this month. Having helped make certain that as many Dakotans would die as possible, Haugaard whined, "It's been the most devastating stuff I've ever had in my life." Awwwww. One of his colleagues, state Rep. Bob Glanzer (R-Huron) died of the disease. Good news, in manner of speaking: Haugaard will live-- to continue making sure other Dakotans die.
I Hope Everyone Had A Good Time At The Motorcycle Rally-- A Quarter Million More COVID-Cases And $12.2 Billion In Medical Costs
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COVID-Kristi
Maybe more so than even governors Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Brian Kemp (R-GA), Doug Ducey (R-AZ) and Greg Abbott (R-TX), South Dakota Trumpist Governor Kristi Noem should face charges of manslaughter for the willful decision to shit-can public health requirements and infect her state-- and surrounding states-- with a deadly and preventable virus. If there ever is a prosecution-- keep dreamin'-- a document released yesterday by Dhaval Dave, Andrew Friedson, Drew McNichols and Joseph Sabia for the Institute of Labor Economics in Germany, will surely be part of the evidence against Noem. IZA DP No. 13670 is entitled The Contagion Externality of a Superspreading Event: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and COVID-19. They begin with a flat statement, much of which even a grade school student should know by now: "Large in-person gatherings without social distancing and with individuals who have traveled outside the local area are classified as the 'highest risk' for COVID-19 spread by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Between August 7 and August 16, 2020, nearly 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts converged on Sturgis, South Dakota for its annual motorcycle rally. Large crowds, coupled with minimal mask-wearing and social distancing by attendees, raised concerns that this event could serve as a COVID-19 'super-spreader.'... [F]ollowing the Sturgis event, counties that contributed the highest inflows of rally attendees experienced a 7.0 to 12.5 percent increase in COVID-19 cases relative to counties that did not contribute inflows. Descriptive evidence suggests these effects may be muted in states with stricter mitigation policies (i.e., restrictions on bar/restaurant openings, mask-wearing mandates). We conclude that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally generated public health costs of approximately $12.2 billion." Why blame Noem? As the authors noted, "South Dakota’s public health response to the novel coronavirus outbreak has largely been a hands-off approach, centered around private personal responsibility. South Dakota was one of 8 states to never issue a statewide shelter-in-place order or a safer-at-home order. A recent assessment found South Dakota to have the least restrictive COVID-19 policy environment when assessing mask wearing mandates (none), travel restrictions (none), large gathering restrictions (none), statewide school restarts (district-level decisions), reopening of bars and restaurants (full indoor-dining permitted), work-from-home requirements (none) and temperature screenings (not required)." They began with a quote by Steve Harwell, lead singer of Smash Mouth, a Sugar Ray rip off band which performed at the super-spreader event: "Now we’re all here together tonight. And we’re being human once again. Fuck that Covid shit." Hopefully someone will remember that if Smash Mouth is ever nominated for the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. In their intro, the authors wrote that "Restrictions on large gatherings were a near universal policy adopted by U.S. states following the initial U.S. coronavirus outbreak. As of August 29, 2020, when all states that had forced businesses closed had at least partially reopened, 29 states continued to ban gatherings of groups of over 50 individuals, a reflection, in part, of the resurgence of COVID-19 in the U.S. beginning in June 2020.Restrictions on large gatherings during a pandemic is a form of government regulation of quantity within a market to curb a negative externality. In that way, gathering restrictions are similar to public smoking bans, chemical emission standards, or vaccination mandates. In this case, the negative externality is due to infection risk, so the blanket nature of a gathering restriction is a key part of the containment strategy as a single mass gathering has the potential to generate a large number of cases, a phenomenon referred to as a 'superspreading event.' Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deems 'large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area' among the highest risk activities for the spread of COVID-19 (CDC 2020). The risk of contagion of COVID-19 is exacerbated at such events if (i) there are high frequency, prolonged interactions between individuals, and (ii) pre-event COVID-19 case growth in the county hosting the event is elevated." They noted that the Sturgis rally was a 10-day event with dozens of concerts-- like the Smash Mouth one-- live performances, races, poker tournaments, boxing matches, exhibitions, contests, tattoo artists, and bike shows that drew over 460,000 individuals to a city with a population of approximately 7,000 located in a county with a population of approximately 26,000. COVID-19 mitigation efforts at the Sturgis Rally were largely left to the "personal responsibility" of attendees, and post-opening day media reports suggest that social distancing and mask-wearing were quite rare in Sturgis. They refer to it as a "worst case scenario" for super-spreading. Their research found that foot traffic at restaurants and bars, hotels, entertainment venues, and retail establishments rose by as much as 90% during the event; that stay-at-home behavior declined among residents of Meade County; and that the Sturgis Rally caused spread of COVID-19 cases both locally and in the home counties of those who traveled to the Sturgis Rally and returned home. "[T]he Sturgis event increased COVID-19 cases in Meade County by 6.3 to 6.9 cases per 1,000 population as of September 2nd 2020, a month following the onset of events at the Sturgis Rally. For the state of South Dakota as a whole we find that the Sturgis event increase COVID-19 cases by 3.6 to 3.9 cases per 1,000 population as of September 2nd 2020. This represents an increase of over 35 percent relative to the 9.7 cases per 1,000 population in South Dakota on July 31, 2020."
They also found that "counties that contributed the highest inflows of Sturgis attendees saw COVID-19 cases rise by 10.7 percent following the Sturgis event relative to counties without any detected attendees. Descriptive evidence suggests some evidence of variation in local COVID-19 spread depending on the stringency of local contagion mitigation policies. We conclude that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally generated substantial public health costs, which we calculate to reach at least $12.2 billion." The counties outside of South Dakota that sent the most attendees to the rally were Adams County, Colorado, Jefferson County, Colorado, Weld County, Colorado, Maricopa County, Arizona, Clark County, Nevada, Anoka County, Minnesota, and Campbell County, Wisconsin and they found that the rally is associated with a 13.5 percent increase in COVID-19 cases" in those counties. They found "strong evidence that the Sturgis Rally appears to have been a superspreader event for COVID-19; we find significant case increases within the state of South Dakota as well as increases extending to counties from which relatively more residents attended the event."
The spread of the virus due to the event was large: we document large increases in cumulative cases relative to the synthetic counterfactual in the county of the event, and the cluster of CBGs in the county and adjoining the county over the entire post-event time period, with larger increases detected towards the end of the time period. Similarly, we find large increases statewide-- with increases in the South Dakota cumulative COVID-19 caseload relative to the synthetic counterfactual that were between 3.6 and 3.9 cases per 1,000 population. We are further able to document national spread due to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, although that spread also appears to have been successfully mitigated by states with strict infection mitigation policies. In counties with the largest relative inflow to the event, the per 1,000 case rate increased by 10.7 percent after 24 days following the onset of Sturgis Pre-Rally Events. Multiplying the percent case increases for the high, moderate-high and moderate inflow counties by each county’s respective pre-rally cumulative COVID-19 cases and aggregating, yields a total of 263,708 additional cases in these locations due to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Adding the number of new cases due to the Rally in South Dakota estimated by synthetic control (3.6 per 1,000 population, scaled by the South Dakota population of approximately 858,000) brings the total number of cases to 266,796 or 19 percent of 1.4 million new cases of COVID-19 in the United States between August 2nd 2020 and September 2nd 2020.
If we conservatively assume that all of these cases were non-fatal, then these cases represent a cost of over $12.2 billion, based on the statistical cost of a COVID-19 case of $46,000 estimated by Kniesner and Sullivan (2020). This is enough to have paid each of the estimated 462,182 rally attendees $26,553.64 not to attend. This is by no means an accurate accounting of the true externality cost of the event, as it counts those who attended and were infected as part of the externality when their costs are likely internalized. However this calculation is nonetheless useful as it provides a ballpark estimate as to how large of an externality a single superspreading event can impose, and a sense of how valuable restrictions on mass gatherings can be in this context. Even if half of the new cases were attendees, the implied externality is still quite large. Finally, our descriptive evidence suggests that stricter mitigation policies in other locations may contribute to limiting externality exposure due to the behavior of non-compliant events and those who travel to them.
Yesterday, COVID-Kristi and her ideologically-inspired toxic policies infected 191 more South Dakotans with the virus, bringing the state's reported total to 15,300, or 17,295 cases per million South Dakotans. But because Noem's insane response to the pandemic has been a super-spreader on a national basis, she has been responsible for, literally, hundreds of thousands of cases across America. She's dangerous-- a true arch-villain of the pandemic-- and should be removed from office as soon as constitutionally possible.
COVID-Kristi Wants To Party Like It's 1999... As Case Loads Spike All Over The Midwest
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On Thursday Kristi Noem infected 334 more South Dakotans with COVID-19 and then yesterday she gave her states 259 more cases, bringing the state total to 14,596 or 16,499 cases per million residents. By way of comparison, the worst hit European country, Spain which is already in Wave II, has significantly fewer cases per million that South Dakota-- 11,060. And after Spain, the numbers drop dramatically: Sweden (8,406 cases per million), U.K. (5,038 cases per million), France, also in the midst of Wave II (4,734 cases per million) and Italy (4,544 cases per million). Yesterday the U.S., thanks primarily to brainless Republican governors like Noem, the U.S. was back over 50,000 new daily cases. Tragically, Noem has acted as COVID's Typhoid Mary not just in the state that elected her but in state's that are more serious about not spreading the contagion: Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. Iowa too-- but that state's governor, Kim Reynolds, is as murderous as Noem. These state's all saw precipitous rises in COVID-cases because of the Sturgis motorcycle rally. They also border on South Dakota. In the wake of Sturgis, other states filling up with higher daily case loads stretch all across the Midwest. Daily new cases yesterday, all compliments of Kristi Noem:
• Illinois +5,594 (19,516 cases per million residents) • Missouri +1,570 (14,987 cases per million residents) • Wisconsin +1,498 (13,629 cases per million residents) • Ohio +1,327 (10,998 cases per million residents) • Kansas +1,184 (15,762 cases per million residents) • Michigan +1,053 (11,645 cases per million residents) • Tennessee +1,051 (23,516 cases per million residents) • Iowa +1,032 (21,652 cases per million residents) • Indiana +1,030 (14,540 cases per million residents) • Oklahoma +1,013 (15,679 cases per million residents) • Minnesota +843 (14,002 cases per million residents) • North Dakota +344 (17,024 cases per million residents) • South Dakota +259 (16,499 cases per million residents) • Nebraska +192 (18,435 cases per million residents)
And Noem's reaction to causing smooch suffering in the region? Another big super-spreader event that kicked off on Thursday-- the state fair, which runs through Labor Day. There is no mask requirement. Last year over 200,000 people showed up. USA Today reported that in the weeks following Noem's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and the the Sioux Empire Fair "South Dakota has emerged as a virus hotbed, according to data analysis. State and national health experts say the rise in cases is likely fueled by a combination of factors, including school reopenings, small gatherings and major events."
Those larger events have been made possible by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's steadfast resistance to restrictive measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. She has discouraged schools from requiring masks, instead promoting hand-washing as the best way to prevent infections, and railed against an "elite class of so-called experts" whose opinions impact individuals' liberties. But as cases surge in the state, public health officials are grappling with the impact of the Sturgis rally, which gained national attention as one of the largest events to be held since the onset of the pandemic. The event has so far been linked to one death. In South Dakota, 118 residents who attended the rally subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. Nationally, about 300 cases have been linked to the rally. While that's less than 1% of the more than 460,000 people who converged on Sturgis, Dr. Robert J. Kim-Farley said it's likely "the tip of the iceberg." Kim-Farley, a professor of epidemiology and community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, told USA Today on Thursday that COVID-19 is a particularly difficult virus to trace to its infection point. Symptoms might not show up for weeks, if at all, in an infected person. Meanwhile, that person could be spreading the virus. Cellphone location data analyzed by the nonprofit COVID Alliance has found evidence that rally participants came from each of the 48 continental United States and more than half of the nation's counties. The data also suggests participants were less likely to practice social distancing-- they stayed at home less and traveled more compared to their neighbors. This behavior continued before and after the August rally, COVID Alliance data shows. While the rally's impact ripples across the nation, a spike in cases in South Dakota is also gaining national attention. The Mount Rushmore State has recorded the nation's third-highest rate of coronavirus cases per capita over the last two weeks, according to The Associated Press, and the highest per-capita rate in the nation for the past seven days, according to New York Times data. A statement from Noem's office emailed to USA Today on Thursday says the Republican governor "remains focused on our hospitalization rate, and we are encouraged by the fact that only 6% of our ICU beds are currently occupied by COVID patients." While the rally's impact ripples across the nation, a spike in cases in South Dakota is also gaining national attention. While hospitalizations are a more accurate metric for studying COVID-19 spread than cases, there's a lag time from days to weeks, Kim-Farley said. It's "a little bit early to say that hospitalizations haven’t been affected," Kim-Farley said. State epidemiologist Josh Clayton acknowledged there is typically a two-week lag between increases in cases and hospitalizations. Currently, less than 100 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, well within the state's capacity.
South Dakota Invites A Super-Spreader Event Because... The Meat-Packing Plants Haven't Killed Enough People To Satisfy The GOP Death Cult?
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South Dakota had another bad pandemic weekend-- 98 new cases Friday, 106 new cases yesterday and 128 today, bringing their total to 9,605. That doesn't sound like much, does it? The problem is that South Dakota only has about 885,000 residents and that puts them in an unenviable position-- almost 11,000 cases per million South Dakotans. That's what happens when you elect a brain-dead, ideological fanatic as governor and then something turns into a crisis where someone smart in needed. South Dakota's governor, Kristi Noem, is neither smart, competent nor rational. She's among the worst of the worst when it comes to governors and she is personally responsible for serious outbreaks not just in South Dakota but also in Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa and Colorado. The Argus-Leader is one of South Dakota's biggest newspapers. They were quick to pick up this AP report about the big biker rally that started in Sturgis, South Dakota yesterday.
Thousands of bikers poured into the small South Dakota city of Sturgis on Friday as the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally rumbled to life despite fears it could lead to a massive coronavirus outbreak. The rally could become one of the largest public gatherings since the pandemic began, with organizers expecting 250,000 people from all over the country to make their way through Sturgis during the 10-day event. That would be roughly half the number of previous years, but local residents-- and a few bikers-- worry that the crowds could create a “super-spreader” event. Many who rode their bikes into Sturgis on Friday expressed defiance at the rules and restrictions that have marked life in many locales during the pandemic. People rode from across the country to a state that offered a reprieve from coronavirus restrictions, as South Dakota has no special limits on indoor crowds, no mask mandates and a governor who is eager to welcome visitors and the money they bring. “Screw COVID,” read the design on one T-shirt being hawked. “I went to Sturgis.” Bikers rumbled past hundreds of tents filled with motorcycle gear, T-shirts and food. Harley Davidson motorcycles were everywhere but masks were almost nowhere to be seen, with an Associated Press reporter counting fewer than 10 in a crowd of thousands over a period of several hours. For Stephen Sample, who rode his Harley from Arizona, the event was a break from the routine of the last several months, when he's been mostly homebound or wearing a mask when he went to work as a surveyor. “I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to be cooped up all my life either,” he said. Still, Sample, who is 66, feared what could happen if he caught COVID-19 at the rally. He said he was trying to avoid indoor bars and venues, where he felt the risk of infection was greater. But on the opening day of the rally, he said he ate breakfast at an indoor diner. As Sample weighed the risks of navigating the crowds, the same thrill-seeking that attracted him to riding motorcycles seemed to win out. “I think we’re all willing to take a chance,” he said. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has taken a largely hands-off approach to the pandemic, avoiding a mask mandate and preaching personal responsibility. She supported holding the Sturgis rally, pointing out that no virus outbreak was documented from the several thousand people who turned out to see President Donald Trump and fireworks at Mount Rushmore last month.
Daily virus cases have been trending upward in South Dakota, but the 7-day average is still only around 84, with fewer than two deaths per day. The rally attracted crowds of retirees and people in age ranges considered to be at higher risk from the coronavirus. But for many who see the rally as an annual pilgrimage, the camaraderie and atmosphere couldn’t be missed. “I fell in love with the rally. I love the sound of the bikes,” said Bill Sudkamp, who was making his 20th consecutive rally appearance. He and his wife, who declined to give their ages but said they were at elevated risk for COVID-19, were among the handful of people seen wearing masks in downtown Sturgis, a community of about 7,000 that's roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Rapid City. They were also planning to avoid bars. Sudkamp felt it was inevitable that infections would spread in the packed bars and concert venues. “It looked like South Dakota was plateauing mostly,” Sudkamp said. “It will be interesting to see what it looks like in two weeks.” Marsha Schmid, who owns the Side Hack Saloon in Sturgis, was trying to keep her bar and restaurant from becoming a virus hot spot by spacing out indoor tables and offering plenty of hand sanitizer. She also scaled back the number of bands hired for the rally, hoping the crowds would stay thin but still spend the cash that keeps her business viable for the rest of the year. She pointed out that many of her employees depend on the rally and the tips they can make. “You’ve got people coming from all over the world,” she said. “I just hope they are being responsible and if they don’t feel good, they stay away.” Several locals said they would be spend the rally hunkered down at home. Carol Fellner stocked up on groceries and planned to stay away from any gatherings. Her husband suffers from bouts of pneumonia and kidney problems, and COVID-19 would be a “death sentence” for him, she said. Fellner felt that the risk of an outbreak would be felt long after the bikers leave. The city plans to mass test residents to try to detect and halt outbreaks, but the area’s largest hospital system is already burdened with the influx of tourists and bikers who inevitably need hospital care during this time. Sample was aware his trip to the rally could end in the hospital, which seemed to weigh on him. “This is a major experiment,” he said. “It could be a major mistake.”
In 2016, Trump won South Dakota's 3 electoral votes. He'll win them again in November. People are too stupid to know any better. He took 227,721 votes (61.5%) to Hillary's 117,458 (31.7%). He won 61 of the state's 66 counties. and the imbecile governor was elected in 2018 with 172,912 votes (51%) to 161,454 (47.6%) for Democrat Billie Sutton. In November Dan Ahlers (D) is taking on Republican Trump-enabler Mike Rounds. There have been np polls this cycle in South Dakota, but every prognosticator rates the Senate race as "Solid GOP."
We're Lookin' For A Leader While Trump And Noem Bring More Death And Destruction To South Dakota
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South Dakota is a mostly rural, sparsely populated state that has drifted far to the right in recent decades, far from a once proud populist history. Today, both U.S. senators and the state's lone member of Congress are supine Trumpist Republicans. The governor, attorney general, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer and every other member of the state's executive branch are Republicans. 30 of the 35 members of the state Senate are Republicans, as are 59 of the state House's 70 members. In 2016, Trump won 61 of the state's 66 counties and beat Hillary 227,701 (61.5%) to 117,442 (31.7%). Two years later, though, Trumpist gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Kristi Noem, didn't do quite so well in the midst of the nationwide anti-red wave. She did win, but not by very much. She beat Democrat Billie Sutton 172,912 (51%) to 161,454 (47.6%), underperforming Trump drastically, while Sutton out-performed Hillary by even more. Where Hillary won just 5 of South Dakota's counties, Sutton won 22. Many South Dakotans have lived to regret that outcome. With Noem absolutely refusing to take any precautions against the pandemic-- almost laying out a welcome mat and red carpet for it-- the state went through a horrific first wave, just over 7,000 cases and nearly 100 deaths. South Dakota has 7,944 cases per million residents, extremely high-- and far worse than hard-hit states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, Ohio and Washington and worse than any European country. (By way of comparison, Spain has 6,366 cases per million and Italy has 3,989 per million.) Noem's pandemic criminal incompetence has not only caused severe illness in her own state, but is largely responsible for widespread and deadly pandemic spikes in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and Colorado. In some ways Kristi Noem is the worst of the GOP Typhoid Mary governors in the whole country.
On Friday, as South Dakota welcomed Trump for another of his ill-advised hate rallies, the state reported another 85 new coronavirus cases. Today 50 more new cases were reported-- including one that South Dakota won't get "credit" for: after she arrived for the Mt. Rushmore rally, Trump, Jr's mistress, former Gavin Newsom wife and Fox News broadcaster, Kimberly Guilfoyle, was reported to have tested positive for COVID-19. The NY Times' Maggie Habberman reported that Guilfoyle, a top fund-raising official for the Trumpanzee campaign, arrived in the state with Trump, Jr. but separately from Señor T. She is the third person in possible proximity to Trump known to have contracted the virus. She is likely to have caught the disease at the Tulsa rally, which is also where Herman Cain, now hospitalized, contracted it.
Even as outbreaks have emerged in the South and West and as states across the country report a record number of cases each day, White House officials-- and Mr. Trump in particular-- have minimized their focus on the virus in public appearances. In an interview on Wednesday, the president indicated that he believed the virus was “going to sort of just disappear.” The president’s aides recently modified protocols for people entering the White House grounds, abandoning routine temperature checks, for instance. They have counseled people experiencing symptoms typical of the coronavirus to stay away. But people who come in proximity to Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence are still tested for the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Trump's July 3rd Mt. Rushmore appearance, featuring a desperate speech written by neo-Nazi Stephen Miller, dripping with hatred and divisiveness and seeking to pit Americans against Americans, is likely to cause South Dakota a whole second spike in cases. While Trump was screaming about "left wing mobs" and stoking racism and white nationalism, 7,500 people-- mostly without masks-- were crammed shoulder-to-shoulder to listen to Miller's ugly, vicious words and watch the fireworks, while shouting and spreading the contagion. This morning's Washington Postnoted that VIPs were "seated separately onstage-- not six feet apart, but not amid the storm of exhalations, coughs, vociferous cheers and sneezes."
Trump has continued illegally using the copyright-protected music of artists who abhor him and everything he stands for. On Friday he used 3 Neil Young songs-- Keep On Rocking' in the Free World, "Like A Hurricane" and "Cowgirl in the Sand"-- even though Young has demanded he stop using his songs numerous times and last week shredded Trump with a rewrite and performance of "Lookin' for a Leader" as part of a very political episode of his Porch Episode series:
We had Barack Obama and we really need him now The man who stood behind him has to take his place somehow America has a leader building walls around our house Don’t know Black Lives Matter and we gotta vote him out. We got our election but corruption has a chance We got to have a big win to regain confidence America is beautiful But she has an ugly side We’re looking for a leader in this country far and wide Just like his big new fence This president’s goin' down America is moving forward You can feel it in every town Scared of his own shadow building walls around our house He’s hiding in his bunker Something else to lie about
I'd like to think that at the end of this nightmare, there will be a national consensus about which governors were as destructive as Trump in their responses to the pandemic and that they're all tossed into a live volcano like on that Spectrum TV commercial. I'm not even talking about the governors who were slow to react before they fully understood the gravity of them problem-- like Cuomo or Newsom, each of whom learned how badly they screwed up and moved to improve. I'm talking about the governors who refused to learn after it was clear how horrific the pandemic would be-- and moved to make sure the results would be even worse. South Dakota's brain-dead Trumpist governor Kristi Noem might not turn out to have caused the most deaths-- even though her willful incompetence is killing people in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and North Dakota, as well as in her own state-- but she seems to be the most persistent in doing all the wrong things all the time. Her latest is to make certain that Native Americans-- a big Democratic constituency-- get infected as heavily as her own supporters. This morning, CNN reported that Noem is trying to bully the Sioux with an ultimatum: "Remove checkpoints on state and US highways within 48 hours or risk legal action... [She] sent letters Friday to the leaders of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe demanding that checkpoints designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus on tribal land be removed.
According to Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe checkpoint policies posted on its social media, its reservation residents may travel within South Dakota to areas the state has not deemed a Covid-19 "hotspot" if it's for an essential activity such as medical appointments or to get supplies unavailable on the reservation. But they must complete a health questionnaire when they leave and when they return every time they go through a checkpoint.
South Dakota residents who don't live on the reservation are only allowed there if they're not coming from a hotspot and it is for an essential activity. But they must also complete a health questionnaire. Those from a South Dakota hotspot or from outside the state cannot come to the reservation unless it is for an essential activity-- but they must obtain a travel permit available on the tribe's website. Both tribes have also issued strict stay-at-home orders and curfews for their communities. Noem has not issued stay-at-home orders for the state. Last month, when the checkpoints began, the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a memorandum saying tribes must consult and come to an agreement with the state of South Dakota before closing or restricting travel on state or US Highways. There are 169 cases of Covid-19 among Native Americans in the state as of Friday, the health department said. The state has 3,145 confirmed cases and 31 deaths.
As of today South Dakota's numbers don't look like much. But compare them to similar states with similarly small populations; each of these state's started out with very little COVID-activity. Noem ws mist aggressive, by far, in challenging the pandemic top come try anything in her state. It took her up on it. These are the total numbers of confirmed cases:
• South Dakota (pop.- 884,659)- 3,393 • Idaho (pop.- 1,787,065)- 2,230 • North Dakota (pop,- 762,062)- 1,464 • Maine (pop.- 1,344,212)- 1,408 • West Virginia (pop.- 1,792,147)- 1,347
It looks a little worse for South Dakota than for the 4 other states, right. But there's a clearer way of looking at it-- cases per million population. That's how I've rearranged the states-- from least problematic to most problematic, with South Dakota at the very bottom:
• West Virginia- 752 cases per million • Maine- 1,047 cases per million • Idaho- 1,248 cases per million • North Dakota- 1,921 cases per million • South Dakota- 3,835 cases per million
How bad is 3,554 cases per million? Let's compare it to some of the worse-hit foreign countries (also as of today):
• Italy- 3,610 cases per million • U.K.- 3,171 cases per million • France- 2,812 cases per million • Sweden- 2,567 cases per million • Iran- 1,265 cases per million
So, these are the governors-- excluding Gina Raimondo (D-RI) who's in her own category of horribleness-- who have done drastically bad jobs-- not ordering adequate social distancing rules, waiting too long to take any action, reopening way faster than safe. All of their states are headed towards catastrophic second wave infections (and deaths) that could have been prevented:
• Pete Ricketts (R-NE)- 4,257 cases per million • Kay Reynolds (R-IA)- 3,699 cases per million • Kristi Noem (R-SD)- 3,835 cases per million • Eric Holcomb (R-IN)- 3,525 cases per million • Jared Polis (D-CO)- 3,364 cases per million • Tate Reeves (R-MS)- 3,151 cases per million • Brian Kemp (R-GA)- 3,069 cases per million • Ralph Northam (D-VA)- 2,718 cases per million • Billy Lee (R-TN)- 2,162 cases per million • Steve Sisolak (D-NV)- 1,957 cases per million • Kay Ivey (R-AL)- 1,935 cases per million • North Dakota (R-ND)- 1,921 cases per million • Gary Herbert (R-UT)- 1,904 cases per million • Ron DeSantis (R-FL)- 1,862 cases per million • Mike Parson (R-MO)- 1,598 cases per million • Doug Ducey (R-AZ)- 1,506 cases per million • Greg Abbott (R-TX)- 1,333 cases per million
Which Governors Have Learned The Least And Will Get The Most People Infected In Their States?
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"Die For Me" by Nancy Ohanian
The centers of America's pandemic were New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Louisiana, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. The states where people have been the most lax about social distancing or where governors have decided to open up before its safe are going to be the centers of the next phase of the pandemic. These are the states where the number of infected per million is growing dangerously in states where the pandemic is not being taken seriously:
• South Dakota- 2,994 per million • Colorado- 2,933 per million • Indiana- 2,907 per million • Nebraska- 2,796 per million • Iowa- 2,759 per million • Georgia- 2,751 per million • Mississippi- 2,490 per million • Tennessee- 1,904 per million • Nevada- 1,817 per million • Florida- 1,722 per million • Utah- 1,636 per million • Alabama- 1,565 per million • North Dakota- 1,533 per million • California- 1,369 per million • Missouri- 1,367 per million • South Carolina- 1,309 per million • Arizona- 1,204 per million • Texas- 1,110 per million
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, reporters Keiko Morris, Congress Koh Ping and Eric Sylvers noted that as lockdowns ease, some places see COVID cases rising. They reported that "More than 33,000 new cases were reported across the U.S. in the 24 hours to 8 p.m. Friday-- the highest daily figure since April 24... Confirmed U.S. infections now exceed 1.1 million, with more than 65,400 reported deaths." Yesterday states not usually associated with the frontline of the pandemic battle and states where social distancing rules are being abolished or were weak to start with, reported disproportionately large increases in cases overnight-- Georgia (806), Tennessee (770), Iowa (757), Indiana (665).
Governors in at least 30 states across America have begun allowing some businesses to operate or announced plans to do so this month. But unlike with the shutdown, there is little consensus on how to carry out a reopening. State and local officials and businesses large and small are reaching their own conclusions on how to balance medical and economic risks. Data so far suggest it will take a while after orders are lifted for the economy to pick up again. ...In Stillwater, Okla., city officials on Friday amended an emergency proclamation requiring people to wear masks or face coverings in stores and restaurants after broad pushback from the public. In the first few hours of the new mandate, workers reported being harassed and threatened with physical violence, including one instance when someone threatened gun violence, City Manager Norman McNickle said in a statement. The city is now asking people to wear masks in public but will no longer mandate it. Public-health experts have said state officials need to put in place certain measures, including expanded testing capacity and contact-tracing teams, to safely return to some version of normalcy. ...Across much of continental Europe, where the virus appears to have peaked, governments prepared to allow some resumption of social and economic activities. In Spain, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, adults were permitted on Saturday to exercise outdoors alone or with one person from the same household for the first time in weeks. The number of daily deaths has trended down in the country since peaking at the beginning of April at 950. France plans to gradually ease its lockdown from May 11, letting its 101 administrative districts open depending how widely the virus is spreading and the occupancy rate of hospital intensive-care units. Lockdown rules will be eased more quickly in departments marked green, while those marked red will open more slowly. As of Friday, 41 departments were green and 32 departments-- including Paris and the entire northeastern quarter of France-- were marked red. Russia, meanwhile, reported its highest daily rise in infections, with 9,623 new cases reported. Roughly 2% of Moscow’s 12 million residents have been infected with the coronavirus, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Saturday, adding that the real number is likely much higher. “It is obvious that the threat is still growing,” Mr. Sobyanin said.
It may be obvious to the mayor of Moscow but it certainly is not obvious to the governors of Georgia, Florida, South Dakota and Texas. Earlier today we looked at Marianne Williamson's work pushing Americans to move from a financial bottom line to a humanistic bottom line. Two other Wall Street Journal reporters, David Harrison and Justin Baer, noted that as the crazy right-wing governors open up their states, saner people are ignoring them and staying home anyway. "South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster," they wrote, "eased restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, allowing retailers to reopen April 20. But a look at traffic congestion and hours worked in South Carolina and other states in which lockdowns have eased indicates workers and consumers haven’t resumed their pre-pandemic routines. The early experience in South Carolina and other states is a sobering portent for the country as a whole, suggesting it will take more than lifting lockdowns for economic activity to rebound. It also illustrates the limits of policy makers’ influence when residents’ and businesses’ behavior depends on their own perceptions of risk. In many places, activity shut down long before governors issued their stay-at-home proclamations. The data so far suggest it will take a while after orders are lifted for the economy to pick up again." On Friday, a NY Times team-- Sabrina Tavernise, Jack Healy and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs-- posed the question many people are thinking about: Your Life or Your Livelihood: Americans Wrestle with Impossible Choice.
When Maine finally announced this week that hair salons could reopen, Sarah Kyllonen, a stylist in Lewiston, stayed up late wondering what to do, feeling overwhelmed. The virus still scared her. It seemed too soon to open up. Then again, her bills had not stopped and her unemployment benefits had not started, and she was starting to worry about next month’s rent. Around midnight on Thursday, she finally drifted off. But she woke an hour later, and did not sleep much after that. “It’s an extremely hard decision for all of us,” she said. “I want to go back to work. I want to have the money. I want to see people. But it’s hard because I’m worried about the virus coming back around.” She added: “I can’t get my mind off it. It’s very stressful.” As states begin to loosen restrictions on their economies, the act of reopening has come down not to governors or even to President Trump, but to millions of individual Americans who are being asked to go back to work. It is not an easy decision. In homes across the country this week, Americans whose governors said it was time to reopen wrestled with what to do, weighing what felt like an impossible choice. If they go back to work, will they get sick and infect their families? If they refuse, will they lose their jobs? What if they work on tips and there are no customers? What happens to their unemployment benefits? Until recently, only those designated as essential workers had to face such dilemmas. On Friday, as at least 10 additional states, including Texas, began to lift stay-at-home orders or reopen some businesses, more Americans ventured out of their doors to work, but often with a sense of dread-- that they were being forced to choose between their health and their livelihood. Large majorities still approve of shutdown orders as a way to protect public health, but the tremendous surge of jobless claims since mid-March has created a crosscurrent: an urgent need for income. The hyperpartisan wrangling between Mr. Trump and governors over whether to reopen has obscured the way many Americans are thinking about the issue. They are not always neatly dividing into two political tribes, with Republicans wanting to see restrictions lifted and Democrats wanting to remain shut down. Even within each person there can be conflicting instincts. ...Unemployment benefits through states are tied to employment, and workers cannot keep their benefits once their bosses call them back, even if they believe it is unsafe to go to work. There are some exceptions, granted by the federal relief package known as the CARES Act: They include those who are sick with the virus or who are caring for children whose schools or day care centers remain closed. Republican leaders in Iowa and Oklahoma have threatened to withhold unemployment benefits from people who refuse to return to their jobs. In both states, employers whose workers do not show up have been asked to report them to state authorities so they can stop providing them with the benefits. As Americans have started receiving unemployment benefits and stimulus checks, freeing some of them from having to worry as much about paying for food and rent, they have been able to shift their focus toward protecting their health. ...In Ohio, the authorities said manufacturers could begin operating on Monday. But Kim Rinehart, a worker at a transmission plant in Toledo, said she had heard nothing from her union or her company about when she might return to work. She is collecting unemployment and the additional $600 in benefits, and is feeling fine about staying home, particularly given the state’s limited testing capacity and the virus’s stealth. “If you had a murderer in the plant, and you didn’t know where but you knew he was there, would you go back into that plant?” she said. In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp allowed restaurants to start dine-in service on Monday. But a large group of restaurateurs and chefs have pledged to remain closed for the time being, because it was safer. One of the chefs, Craig Richards, the co-owner of Lyla Lila in Atlanta, said he did not want anyone to get sick as a result of his decisions. And he is not excited about opening a place that is depressing to visit, with workers in masks. “I don’t want to open a restaurant that looks like an operating room,” he said. “That’s not a restaurant. To me a restaurant is about connecting people.” To some degree, governors are leaving choices to individuals by design. “It is the people themselves that are primarily responsible for their safety,” Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota said this week, announcing a “back to normal” plan. Though she never issued a formal stay-at-home order, Ms. Noem said moving toward reopening would put the power back into the hands of the people, “where it belongs.” “They are free to exercise their rights to work, worship and to play,” she said, “or to stay at home and to conduct social distancing.”
When the history of this pandemic is written, Noem shouldn't be overcalled just because she's governor of a small state. She's one of the very worst governors in America and has caused incalculable damage, not just to people in South Dakota but to people in North Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska, all states that are doing much worse because of South Dakota's rapidly growing rate of infection. Of the next wave of catastrophe states, South Dakota is doing worst of all-- 2,994 confirmed cases per million people. That's worse than Germany, France, the U.K., Russia, Iran, Canada, Holland, Israel, Japan, Poland and all the Scandinavian counties. Noem has done a horrible job and seems intent on making it much worse. Brian Kemp (R-GA) and Ron DeSantos (R-FL) are better known but no one has done their state more harm than Kristi Noem has done South Dakota.
Republican Death Cult Wants You To Die Too-- Otherwise They Would All Just Drink Bleach Or Inject Lysol
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The Cure by Nancy Ohanian
What is Trump's consiglieri-like Attorney General, William Barr, doing to further mire the country in the pandemic? On Monday, one of the 3 or 4 worst AGs in American history ordered federal prosecutors to "be on the lookout" for Democratic governors who issue public health regulations that violate the constitutional rights of right-wing fanatics and extremists who are dedicated to steepening the curve or are too simple-minded to understand what a curve is. Barr sent a short memo to the 93 U.S. attorneys, warning that some state and local directives are infringing on protected religious, speech and "economic rights. If a state or local ordinance crosses the line from an appropriate exercise of authority to stop the spread of COVID-19 into an overbearing infringement of constitutional and statutory protections, the Department of Justice may have an obligation to address that overreach in federal court, he wrote, trying as best he could to sound like a sane person instead of a homicidal maniac and mad dog. He has assigned two DOJ prosecutors to "take action... Many policies that would be unthinkable in regular times have become commonplace in recent weeks, and we do not want to unduly interfere with the important efforts of state and local officials to protect the public. But the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis. We must therefore be vigilant to ensure its protections are preserved, at the same time that the public is protected," he said, still trying his best to sound like a rational persona rather than a psychotic and sociopath like his boss. Barr has been warning state and local governments against restrictions that single out religious gatherings even though as many as a third of all cases can be traced back to religious services in many locales. A couple of weeks ago Barr issued a statement saying that "Even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers."
"Too restrictive"-- that's the hard core Trump-Republican base
Most-- though not all-- Republican governors don't need to be reminded by Barr. They're way into his line of thinking. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, for example-- who many people consider a worse governor than even Ron DeSantis (R-FL) or Brian Kemp (R-GA). Noem wouldn't be more guilty for the 2,245 cases in her state had she personally run around injecting people. South Dakota has an astonishing 2,598 cases per million and it has been spreading from South Dakota into North Dakota, western Minnesota, northwest Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming. South Dakota is the Midwest's Typhoid Mary state and Kristi Noem is up for the grand Typhoid Mary Governor of 2020. But Texas fringe maniac Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has no intention of letting her walk away with the award without a fight. By the end of the week, Abbott will allow restaurants, movie theaters, churches, museums, libraries, retail stores and malls open. Texas has a very low case/million inhabitants rate-- 907. Watch what happens to that by mid-May, which will be when he expects to also open barber shops, bars, gyms and hair salons
Abbott made the announcement during a news conference at the Texas Capitol, which he began by saying he would let the stay-at-home order expire because it "has done its job to slow the growth of COVID-19." While the spread of the virus in Texas has slowed down throughout April, the number of cases is still increasing day to day, and it is unclear if the state has yet seen its peak. ...Abbott said his new order "supersedes all local orders" saying those businesses must remain closed. He also said his order overrules any local government that wants to impose a fine or penalty for not wearing a mask-- something the latest statewide rules encourage but do not mandate. Speaking shortly after Abbott in Houston, the city's mayor, Sylvester Turner, told reporters that Abbott's new order "pretty much will take these measures, the ability to [issue] stay-at-home orders and things of that nature, out of our hands locally." He said he hoped Abbott's plan works but offered a "cautionary note," pointing out that there is still no vaccine and statistics show the "virus is still here," even as local measures have slowed it down. Abbott's new order comes as questions continue to persist about Texas' low testing level and what is being done to increase capacity. State Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement that Texas is "near last in the nation on per capita testing and Gov. Abbott didn’t present a clear plan how that’s going to change, even though experts agree that widespread testing is essential to any reopening plan." "We don't know the magnitude of the problem," U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said during a Texas Democratic Party conference call after Abbott's news conference. "Without robust testing, then we continue to remain in the dark."
Raleigh, North Carolina's CBS affiliate reported yesterday evening that one of the leaders of the Re-Open North Carolina, Audrey Whitlock, posted on her Facebook page that she has tested positive for the coronavirus. She described herself as "an asymptomatic COVID19 positive patient."
Whitlock is one of the administrators of the ReOpen NC Facebook page-- which has helped organize two protests in downtown Raleigh calling for Gov. Roy Cooper to lift his stay-at-home order. In Whitlock’s post, she wrote about how the restrictions put in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic are violating her First Amendment rights as well as her 5th and 14th Amendment rights. She said she was “forced” to quarantine which violated her First Amendment rights. “The reality is that modern society has not been able to eradicate contagious viruses. A typical public health quarantine would occur in a medical facility. I have been told not to participate in public or private accommodations as requested by the government, and therefore denied my 1st amendment right of freedom of religion,” Whitlock wrote. She went on to say that “It has been insinuated by others that if I go out, I could be arrested for denying a quarantine order.” She says an arrest in that situation would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. ReOpen NC said it would hold rallies in Raleigh every Tuesday until the governor’s restrictions are lifted. On Thursday, Cooper extended the stay-at-home order until May 8.
As of Monday evening North Carolina had reported 9,415 confirmed cases, and just 927 cases per million, which is very low and widely attributed to Gov. Cooper's relatively fast shelter-in-place orders, the ones ReOpen NC is complaining about. Yesterday, though, Politico noted that it isn't only Democratic governors who are coming under fire from the GOP Death Cult but Republican governors who have been acting responsibly as well.
Across Texas, Arizona, Missouri and Ohio, dozens of conservative and libertarian state leaders and business owners told POLITICO they are planning more demonstrations and agitating to open more businesses, even after President Donald Trump sideswiped Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp last week for including spas, barber shops and gyms in the initial stages of his recovery plan. Tea Party Patriots and other groups are rallying behind Kemp in Georgia, with some activists concerned that national backlash to Kemp’s orders-- which includes resuming dine-in service at restaurants-- could discourage Republicans in other red states from forging ahead. In Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans for a phased restart weeks ago and followed up Monday with more details, Texas House Freedom Caucus members contend it’s ultimately the responsibility of individual Texans to keep themselves safe by wearing protective gear and following social distancing guidelines. Across other red states, conservative activists are pleading with governors not to extend or bolster stay-at-home orders set to expire in the coming weeks. Polls show widespread support for maintaining social distancing guidelines, but Republicans are more aggressive than Democrats about their hopes for the timing and scope of reopening. Local GOP officials in states where demonstrations are occurring said that their offices have been inundated with calls and letters from exasperated constituents who are urging swift action. And with Trump sending mixed messages, they’re turning more sharply to state leaders to press their case about the damages. Trump and political allies are torn over both the precise timing of reopening and the visuals of the demonstrations that swept the country. The president has broadly left it up to individual states to decide their procedures-- a stance that critics believe allows him to take any side of the coronavirus debate depending on how the circumstances turn. Before slapping down Kemp in successive news conferences last week, Trump positioned himself as a national leader for the “reopen” side. The president agitated early and has sent supportive tweets calling for the “liberation” of states. “They’ve got cabin fever. They want their lives back,” Trump said at one point, swatting away at a question about whether he was inciting violence. Trump met with retail executives and spoke with governors Monday about the virus response and “economic revival,” an approach that could put the president on firmer footing with his base. Some on the right are distancing themselves altogether from the public demonstrations: Americans for Prosperity-- the main political arm of the libertarian-leaning Koch network-- backed away from the protests in favor of engaging policymakers to focus on standards to safely reopen the economy. But Tea Party Patriots agreed to promote demonstrations to its members, provided they followed social distancing guidelines. Several events are also being showcased by the conservative group FreedomWorks, including rallies in Ohio and across Texas last weekend, and in Arizona and Nevada on Friday along with a big event outside the White House. “I think that for the first month, the reason we didn’t have protests like this is people were saying, ‘OK, this isn’t going to last forever, and we should be able to get through it,’” said Jenny Beth Martin, cofounder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. Martin credited business owners in her home state of Georgia with successfully pushing Kemp to act swiftly to get businesses up and running again, calling the governor’s order “measured” and a positive first step. She joined with scores of local leaders in imploring supporters to reach out to Kemp to show their appreciation. “Right now, if you don’t have the cell phone or email of your elected officials or their staff it is very difficult to get through with any sort of real, meaningful communication to them,” Martin said. “A lot of these people who have left their home to go make their voices heard are only doing that because they cannot get through to the government otherwise.” Hundreds of protesters have swarmed Ohio, where Republican Gov. Mike DeWine was an early proponent of strict state actions. They’re worried DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton-- who is drawing considerable ire-- will move too slowly on May 1 when the stay-at-home order runs out. “Government has a role, but it should not be overreaching-- and that’s certainly what’s going on right now,” said Tom Hach, organizer for an “Open Ohio Now” rally in Columbus. He and several others believe there needs to be more focus on people who had the virus but didn’t show symptoms, which Hach said could ultimately show the state and country overreached. “Every decision comes with a price,” said Hach, a retiree from the Cleveland suburbs who serves on several local boards. “We may on the one hand be saving some lives with the stay-at-home order, but we’re going to cost lives and livelihood and diminish people’s lives in general if the economy tanks. It’s all got to be balanced. And I don’t think that it is. And that is something Gov. DeWine has to look at.” More than 965,900 1,010,300 people have been infected with Covid-19 in the U.S., which has led to nearly 55,000 57,000 deaths as of Monday. CDC guidelines for states lifting various orders as part of a multi-phase process call for downward trends of positive tests over two weeks along with robust testing programs for at-risk hospital workers. Protest organizers hold up Georgia, along with South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee as early Republicans models for states that have moved quickly to begin reopening. Several credited Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis with moving away from a more aggressive stay-at-home order into a new phase with more businesses able to operate-- and they want every Republican to follow. Kemp, who held a prayer service as restaurants began reopening Monday, has stood by his decision despite not meeting the federal guidelines. Many Georgia business owners say they don’t plan to open right away and Kemp’s moves have already revived political feuds in the state. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) sided with Trump and accused his opponent in the November Senate special election, GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of taking both Kemp’s and Trump’s side in the fight.
