Tuesday, April 21, 2020
The Left Celebrates
As I write this, Senate liberals are continuing to drag their feet on replenishing the loan program for small businesses. Ice Cream Nancy has yet to officially schedule a vote in the House of Representatives. And with every scoop of ice cream in her bowl, more Americans lose their jobs and watch their retirement dreams fade away. And it's not just her.
To Pelosi's left, radical socialists celebrated yesterday's collapse in the oil markets. They celebrated because they think the collapse of America's independent energy industries and the loss of who knows how many jobs will help them achieve their radical green agenda.
When oil contracts went negative yesterday for the first time in history, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: "You absolutely love to see it. This . . . means it's the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet."
Realizing how ghoulish she sounded celebrating the loss of so many American jobs and the devastation of so many families, this so-called "representative" quickly deleted her outrageous tweet.
Keep in mind that this same left-wing gang has repeatedly appeased China and sold out our manufacturing base while China sent us cheap goods. Now these same people attack the president for not being able to wave a magic wand to get the supplies we urgently need to fight the coronavirus.
I think the blame lies with the political establishment that supported and promoted the offshoring of our industries, including vital medical and pharmaceutical jobs, to communist China.
A Bold Move
President Trump announced yesterday that he will soon sign an executive order temporarily suspending all immigration to the United States because of the coronavirus.
Needless to say, the president was immediately attacked by progressive politicians and radical open borders activists. For example, Sen. Kamala Harris accused the president of "shamelessly politicizing the pandemic" and "doubling down on his anti-immigrant agenda."
In spite of the left's unhinged reaction, this is a totally sensible thing to do for a variety of reasons. Here's one: Public health concerns aside, when 22 million Americans have suddenly lost their jobs, why on earth would we bring in more people to compete against our own citizens for what few jobs are available? Not surprisingly, 79% of the public supports the president's decision.
Sadly, the left has repeatedly demonstrated, whether it's promoting open borders, giving free healthcare to illegal aliens or shielding them from law enforcement, that illegal immigrants often come before the citizens of this country.
More Testing
Yesterday we told you about antibody testing in Santa Clara County, California. Well, it turns out that other areas of the state have launched similar random tests of the population and they are getting similar results.
According to a test conducted by the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 4.1% of the adult population of Los Angeles County has coronavirus antibodies.
This means that the number of people in Los Angeles County who have had the disease is between 28 and 55 times more than the official figure of 7,994 confirmed cases.
That also means that the death rate in Los Angeles County is not nearly the 7% figure you get from the reports of 615 confirmed Covid-19 deaths out of 7,994 infections.
Let's assume that the real infection rate is 40 times the known number. That means roughly 320,000 people have been infected. That would give you a mortality rate of 0.002% based on 615 confirmed deaths.
Curiously, Dr. Birx was asked at yesterday's press briefing how they were figuring these multiple antibody studies into their planning. Her answer never really addressed the most fundamental issue, which is that this is a much less deadly virus than initially believed.
And here's more encouraging news: The number of Covid-19 deaths fell dramatically yesterday to its lowest level in two weeks.
Shout Out To Shake Shack
Shake Shack is a fast food chain that began in New York City in 2004. Today it has approximately 250 outlets with more than 6,000 employees and revenues in 2018 that exceeded $450 million. Somehow the company was able to get a $10 million bridge loan through the emergency payroll protection program recently passed by Congress.
But Randy Garutti, the CEO of Shake Shack, recently spoke to a friend in Seattle who owns three independent restaurants and discovered that his friend was unable to get a loan before the money ran out.
Garutti and the board of Shake Shack decided to return the $10 million so that other small businesses that truly need the money could get it, and, hopefully, survive this shutdown. Garutti went on CNBC yesterday to explain the decision. You can watch his remarks here.
Israel Has A Government
After three elections and more than a year of political deadlock, Israel finally has a government. This may be one of the rare cases where the coronavirus actually produced something good as both sides were under enormous pressure to avoid another election.
Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz signed an agreement forming a unity government, splitting power between them and sharing cabinet posts between the members of their respective coalitions. Netanyahu will serve as prime minister for the next 18 months, and then Gantz will serve as prime minister.
While they differ on a number of important issues, they do not differ on Iran. Gantz and Netanyahu agree that the Iranian regime must be restrained. Gantz publicly praised the decision to take out Iranian terror leader Qasem Soleimani, a position that puts Gantz at odds with many so-called "progressives" in this country.