Sept. 8, 2020

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

A Tale of Two States: Who Handled Covid Better, New York or Florida?
With the initial COVID-19 surge in cases and mortality in the rearview mirror (thankfully) for both New York and Florida, we finally have a clearer picture of the outcomes in states that took very different policy approaches — especially when it came to nursing homes. Overall, 32,585 have died in New York as of this writing, and 11,870 have died in Florida. In both states, deaths were highly concentrated among the elderly at about 80 percent of all deaths. But within that population, on a per capita basis, New York had almost four times the number of deaths compared to Florida. The mortality rate so far is 815 deaths per 100,000 seniors in New York versus 229 deaths per 100,000 seniors in Florida, despite Florida having 1 million more seniors. The difference is New York forced nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients, and Florida didn’t. Who did a better job?

Cartoon: Ancient Profession
Green New Deal doomsaying will not age well.

Meddling liberal billionaires defeated in push to buy Arkansas
John and Laura Arnold, the liberal, out-of-state billionaires meddling in Arkansas politics, have been defeated. They supported a ballot measure campaign run by an organization called Open Primaries Arkansas to radically change the way that most state and federal candidates are elected there. The Arnolds’ scheme failed because Open Primaries Arkansas did not follow the law. The Arkansas Supreme Court appointed a special master to investigate; he issued a report last month. Last week, after reviewing the special master’s report, the court ruled 6-1 that Open Primaries Arkansas had not complied with the law regarding background checks for its canvassers. Under the Arnolds’ scheme, all state executive and legislative candidates and all Congressional candidates, regardless of party, would run together in a jungle primary, and the top four vote-getters would advance to the general election. In other words, there would no longer be Republican or Democrat primaries, and there would be no guarantee that a single Republican or Democrat would make it to the general election. So some voters might have to choose between four Republicans while other voters might have to choose between four Democrats.

Video: Teofilo Stevenson missed out on millions as Communist Cuba blocked boxer from fighting pro, Owen Beck responds
Teofilo Stevenson could have fought Muhammad Ali or other great pros for millions. But Fidel Castro and Cuba's communist system disallowed it. Stevenson was forced to fight in the amateurs his whole career. Hear from former heavyweight star Owen Beck on how good Stevenson was.

A Tale of Two States: Who Handled Covid Better, New York or Florida?

By Catherine Mortensen

With the initial Covid-19 surge in cases and mortality in the rearview mirror (thankfully) for both New York and Florida, we finally have a clearer picture of the outcomes in states that took very different policy approaches — especially when it came to nursing homes.

Overall, 32,585 have died in New York as of this writing, and 11,870 have died in Florida. In both states, deaths were highly concentrated among the elderly at about 80 percent of all deaths. But within that population, on a per capita basis, New York had almost four times the number of deaths compared to Florida. The mortality rate so far is 815 deaths per 100,000 seniors in New York versus 229 deaths per 100,000 seniors in Florida.

This is a figure that members of the mainstream media have not reported, most likely because it flies in the face of the false narrative they’ve been pushing for the past few months.

The Tallahassee Democrat’s Zac Anderson reports some have accused Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “of standing by and doing little to halt the march of the virus in his state.” Meanwhile the press widely praised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. As one New York news outlet wrote, “Governor Andrew Cuomo's handling of the pandemic has shot him to a form of national stardom and popularity in New York.”

“This is journalistic malpractice,” said Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government. “Members of the drive-by-media did a hit job on Governor DeSantis, meanwhile, they elevated Governor Cuomo to near sainthood. They need to circle back to this story and give us the truth.”

And as bad as New York’s numbers are, a new analysis by the Associated Press indicates they could be even worse. The official number of Covid deaths in New York nursing homes is 6,500. But the AP crunched the data and believes that deaths could be as high as 11,000. It’s a number President Trump tweeted. “Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York has the worst record on death and China Virus. 11,000 people alone died in Nursing Homes because of his incompetence!"

According to the AP: “Another group of numbers also suggests an undercount. State health department surveys show 21,000 nursing home beds are lying empty this year, 13,000 more than expected — an increase of almost double the official state nursing home death tally. While some of that increase can be attributed to fewer new admissions and people pulling their loved ones out, it suggests that many others who aren’t there anymore died… For all 43 states that break out nursing home data, resident deaths make up 44 percent of total COVID deaths in their states, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Assuming the same proportion held in New York, that would translate to more than 11,000 nursing home deaths.”

Making matters worse, Cuomo has blocked efforts to investigate how many nursing home residents were transferred to hospitals and later died. Cuomo’s command-and-control approach to the virus was reckless and it killed far more people than did DeSantis’s measured, limited government approach in Florida.

Cuomo forced nursing homes in his state to accept COVID-19 patients, issuing an executive order on March 25, knowing those facilities could not treat them. His actions infected the most vulnerable populations in the state with the deadly virus and was in direct violation of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance. The guidance directed nursing homes to only admit COVID patients if “the facility can follow CDC guidance for Transmission-Based Precautions” and to keep only those COVID-infected patients for which they could safely care for.

In contrast, Florida did the opposite, not transferring infected patients to nursing homes, and even with the additional protections, still 4,800 seniors died from assisted living facilities there — underscoring just how important those precautions are.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma on May 21 noted, “In the guidance, CMS urged nursing homes to dedicate a specific wing to patients moving to, or arriving from, a hospital, where they could remain for 14 days with no symptoms.”

The bottom line is despite having 1.1 million more seniors in Florida, New York had nearly four times the number of senior deaths per capita from the virus.

“As America continues to struggle with how to open up our schools, and businesses, we would be well-served to learn from this tale of these two states,” concluded Manning. “One state responded to the pandemic by protecting vulnerable populations and allowing everyone else to make their own risk assessments. The other state imposed draconian lockdowns on everyone and ignored federal safety guidelines. The outcomes could not be any more clear. Florida’s approached saved lives, while New York’s approach was a death sentence for thousands.”

Catherine Mortensen is the Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.

To view online: http://dailytorch.com/2020/09/a-tale-of-two-states-who-handled-covid-better-new-york-or-florida/

Cartoon: Ancient Profession

Click here for a higher level resolution version.

Meddling liberal billionaires defeated in push to buy Arkansas

By Richard McCarty

John and Laura Arnold, the liberal, out-of-state billionaires meddling in Arkansas politics, have been defeated. They supported a ballot measure campaign run by an organization called Open Primaries Arkansas to radically change the way that most state and federal candidates are elected there.

Under the Arnolds’ scheme, all state executive and legislative candidates and all Congressional candidates, regardless of party, would run together in a jungle primary, and the top four vote-getters would advance to the general election. In other words, there would no longer be Republican or Democrat primaries, and there would be no guarantee that a single Republican or Democrat would make it to the general election. So some voters might have to choose between four Republicans while other voters might have to choose between four Democrats.

The Arnolds’ scheme would greatly inconvenience voters. In gubernatorial years, there are seven statewide offices on the ballot. If there were four candidates for each of those offices, along with four candidates for each of the legislative races, general election voters would have dozens of candidates to research. As you can imagine, conducting proper research on the backgrounds and policies of each of these candidates would be a time-consuming task – one which many voters might not have the time, interest, or ability to undertake. Furthermore, under the Arnolds’ scheme, the general election would be decided using ranked-choice voting; in ranked-choice voting systems, voters rank their choices from most to least favorable. Of course, ranking multiple candidates in multiple races – rather than voting for just one candidate in each – would also take more time, which could lead to longer lines at the polls on Election Day.

The Arnolds’ scheme failed because Open Primaries Arkansas did not follow the law. Under Arkansas law, paid canvassers who collect signatures for ballot measures must pass background checks within 30 days prior to the start of their signature collection; and the campaign must certify to the Arkansas Secretary of State that each of their canvassers has passed the background check. If these conditions are not met, then the signatures that the canvassers collect are not valid. Instead of complying with the law, Open Primaries Arkansas merely informed the Secretary of State that background checks had been “acquired” for each of the canvassers. The Secretary of State noted this problem and determined that the campaign had failed to collect enough valid signatures due to this issue, which meant that the proposed ballot measure would not appear on the November ballot.

Rather than admit that they had failed to follow the law and admit defeat, Open Primaries Arkansas filed a lawsuit. The Arkansas Supreme Court appointed a special master to investigate; he issued a report last month. Last week, after reviewing the special master’s report, the court ruled 6-1 that Open Primaries Arkansas had not complied with the law regarding background checks for its canvassers. Consequently, the signatures are invalid, and the measure will not appear on the ballot this fall.

The Arnolds’ loss is a win for Arkansas, and now state residents will not be used as guinea pigs in some random billionaires’ experiment. Voters will not have a new and untested electoral system thrust upon them without adequate voter education or proper consideration. Nor will voters be confused with a bewildering array of candidates to research and then rank on Election Day. For good reason, no state uses the confusing and complicated system pushed by the Arnolds and Open Primaries Arkansas, and it should remain that way.

Richard McCarty is the Director of Research at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

To view online: http://dailytorch.com/2020/09/meddling-liberal-billionaires-defeated-in-push-to-buy-arkansas/

Video: Teofilo Stevenson missed out on millions as Communist Cuba blocked boxer from fighting pro, Owen Beck responds

To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7JMddv6EEg