FROM RESISTANCE TO REVOLUTION: Massachusetts gym owner ignores state ban amid coronavirus pandemic, tells gyms to join him.

THE DIVISION BELL: Roger Waters Slams David Gilmour for ‘Banning’ Him from Pink Floyd Website, Says ‘Change the Name to Spinal Tap.’

RUNNING OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: California’s Budget Bust-Up. Facing the largest budget deficit in the history of any state, $54 billion, California’s politicians are blaming their woes on the coronavirus. But give credit where it’s due: the state’s progressive policies.

JAMES BOVARD: Hacksawing the Economy: How Lockdowns Are in the Tradition of Civil War Surgeons. 

Surgeons justified fetching out their hacksaws, because otherwise many soldiers would die from their gangrened wounds. It didn’t matter how many soldiers died from unnecessary or botched amputations as long as surgeons didn’t get blamed for deaths from gangrene.

Politicians in many states are justifying their COVID-19 shutdowns with rationales that resemble those surgeons’. It doesn’t matter how many individuals lose their jobs, businesses, or robust health due to the shutdowns. As long as politicians claim that things would be worse if they had not amputated much of the economy, they can pirouette as saviors.

Actually, there is a closer analogy between the Civil War surgeons and contemporary politicians. Politicians have razed much of the economy purportedly to prevent anyone from getting infected at some unknown point in the future. This is like a Civil War surgeon sending his assistants to roam the countryside to seize hapless young men and saw off their arms in order to prevent them from being casualties in future battles.

Here’s how New York governor Andrew Cuomo justified shutting down his state’s economy and confining almost 20 million people to their homes two months ago: “If everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” At the time of Cuomo’s decree, five or fewer people had tested positive for coronavirus in most counties in New York State. Cuomo’s formula exemplifies how politicians reap media applause for dramatic actions that have little or nothing to do with public safety.

The 1860s media no doubt published glowing profiles of the surgeons, too.

CHINA BOUGHT ‘EM, LET CHINA PAY FOR ‘EM: Trump threatens to permanently cut WHO funding.

AT AMAZON, save in Arts Crafts and Sewing.

Plus, spring savings in Car Care.

QUID PRO JOE? Breaking news  in Eastern Europe that Ukrainian parliament member Andrii Derkach released audio recordings purportedly revealing secret conversations between former Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and Joe Biden. The audio purported has Biden saying, among other things, that:

“And now that the new Prosecutor General is in place, we’re ready to move forward to signing that one billion dollar loan guarantee.”

So far, nothing from the western press, and some Russian outfits are already using the “doctored tape” argument. Let’s see if the tape is legit.

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: Pier 1 going out of business, closing all 540 stores.

TRUMP PICKS A SWEDISH MODEL: As with reindeer, immunity is in the herd.

It couldn’t be any other way. The national shutdown was wide enough to cripple to world’s largest economy. It was tight enough to save big-city hospitals from overload and avert a death rate that elected representatives, in a unacknowledged moment of bipartisan consensus, knew would mean a massacre of the incumbents at every election from now until ABBA reformed. But America’s national shutdown wasn’t especially tight by international standards, and not because Trump wanted to get the country back to work as quickly as possible.

Read the whole thing.

SAD!

‘WAIT, THIS IS REAL?’ Matt Lauer’s written a piece impugning Ronan Farrow’s credibility and it’s going about as well as could be expected for him. “Oh good — Covid-19, murder hornets and now a Matt Lauer column. Thanks, 2020.”

FAIR:

JUST CALL HER GRANDMA-KILLER GRETCHEN: Gretchen Whitmer’s most devastating coronavirus mistake. “The purpose of the policy was to free up room in hospitals and prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed. But Whitmer’s order effectively turned the state’s nursing homes into breeding grounds, exposing hundreds of vulnerable residents to the virus. It’s no coincidence that 30% of Michigan’s COVID-19 deaths occurred in populous nursing homes.”

SPACE: Relativity Space hires SpaceX executive to lead launch vehicle factory development.

ME, LAST WEEK: “Perhaps we need some sort of across-the-board regulatory suspension, like in postwar Germany under (and even before) the Marshall Plan.”

Trump, this week: Trump announces executive order ‘suspending’ regulations impeding the economy: President hands his Cabinet secretaries broad say to nix more regulations.

TROLL LEVEL: POTUS DJT. President Trump should pardon Barack Obama.

TRICKLE UP DEMOCRACY: Texas Admitted It Can’t Enforce Its COVID-19 Lockdown. More States Should Do The Same.

DAVID STEINBERG: Minnesota imam confirms Rep. Ilhan Omar improperly raised cash from his charity meals program.

NO ZINC, SO THE STUDY IS LARGELY WORTHLESS: Global trial to assess chloroquine against COVID-19 in health workers.

DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: The Coronavirus Timeline Liberals Don’t Want You To See.

GONNA BUY A TANK AND AN AEROPLANE, WHEN SHE CATCHES UP WITH ME WON’T BE NO TIME TO EXPLAIN: American Gods Author Neil Gaiman Apologizes for Flying 11,000 Miles to Escape His Wife.

RENEWED CALLS TO REPEAL “STAND YOUR GROUND” LAWS: Maybe those calling for repeal should read my Commissioner Statement on “Stand Your Ground” laws. There’s a lot of confusion about these laws.

FLYNN ATTORNEY FILES EMERGENCY APPEAL TO SHUT DOWN JUDGE SULLIVAN’S ORDERS, BOOT HIM FROM CASE.

THAT GUY IS SUCH A WEASEL. Declassified Susan Rice email shows Comey suggested ‘sensitive’ info on Russia not be shared with Flynn.