CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: April 14th

April 14, 2020

WRITER

Glenn gives the latest coronavirus numbers, updating YOU on everything needed to know as Americans and officials monitor China's new COVID-19 virus:

Daily Stats as of 5:30 AM CT (from John's Hopkins)

Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 1,934,754 (up from 1,862,254 yesterday)
Total Confirmed Deaths Worldwide: 120,438 (up from 114,980 yesterday)
Total Confirmed Recovered Worldwide: 456,776 (up from 431,666 yesterday)
US has 587,173 Confirmed cases and 23,644 deaths, up from 560,433 cases and 22,115 deaths yesterday
US now leads the World in both total Cases and Deaths from COVID-19, but is 15th in Deaths per 1 Million people, and 19th in Cases per 1 Million
1st Death in Wyoming - Officially All 50 States Now Have at Least 1 Death Attributed to COVID-19

Is COVID-19 Body-Shaming Americans? https://www.zdnet.com/article/nyu-scientists-largest-u-s-study-of-covid-19-finds-obesity-the-single-biggest-factor-in-new-york-critical-cases/

Novel-Coronavirus is upsetting the politically-correct "Woke" crowd by targeting overweight people for more dangerous infections and higher fatality rates compared to leaner, healthier Americans.
Researchers studied thousands of New York cases and found that being overweight or obese was the greatest risk factor for COVID-19 critical infections requiring hospitalization, slightly higher than age and significantly higher than smoking, diabetes or cancer.
Turns out that being fat and "out of shape" isn't just a cosmetic or lifestyle choice after all, but appears to actually be unhealthy and puts people at higher risk of death from infections...or so says science.
So far, no comment from Dove Soap or the hundreds of other "woke" brands that have promoted the "It's OK to be overweight" PC-narrative for the past 10 or so years.

Mutations in SARS-Cov-2 May Derail Vaccine Development https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3079678/coronavirus-mutation-threatens-race-develop-vaccine

Every known virus has mutations, most of which do not impact how the virus functions.
Novel viruses like SARS-CoV-2 undergo 1 mutation for about every 2,700 victims...each unique host increases the risk that the virus will mutate (part of the reason it's important to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to new victims).
So far, there are over 2,000 known strains/mutations of the virus that causes COVID-19. At least 2 strains have been shown to have different levels of virulence in humans.
Every new mutation of the virus is just as likely to be harmless as it is to make it more dangerous - mutations are completely random. Viruses don't "try" to mutate to become more dangerous, they merely adapt to each unique biochemical environment.
A new strain discovered in India showed changes in the mechanism used to bind the virus to human cells which could render current vaccine research futile.
Researchers had been targeting vaccines at the same cell-binding process that allows SARS-1 to infect healthy cells, but the new mutation could upend their assumptions.
The new strain found in India appears to bind to cells differently, which could make current vaccine approaches moot.
Researchers did point out that the strain found in India has not yet been found in any other location, so it is not yet widely spread. The mutation also could be an affectation of how the virus was grown for research purposes.
Researchers in India have sent the new strain to the CDC and EU-CDC for further testing.

1 Tyrant in DC vs 1,000 Tyrants All Over the Country - Mayors & Governors Test Freedom vs Emergency Powers https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/13/the-coronavirus-is-exposing-little-tyrants-all-over-the-country/

Not following Trump's lead of honoring basic civil rights, COVID-19 has exposed thousands of mini-Tyrants all over America.
Some mayors and governors are using the pandemic to exercise arbitrary and unlimited power over their fellow citizens.
Governors appear to believe they can order citizens to do (or not do) just about anything under the guise of protecting public health and safety.
Local and state governments have issued decrees about what people can and cannot buy in stores, they have arrested parents playing with their children in public parks, yanked people off public buses at random, removed basketball rims from private property, ticket churchgoers, and in one case try—and fail—to chase down a lone runner on an empty beach.
Several states, cities or counties have banned the sale of firearms and ammunition - violating the 2nd Amendment, or the sale of alcohol, violating the 21st amendment.
In one example, following a confusing, similar order in Vermont, the Governor of Michigan has ordered businesses to stop sales of "non-essential" items, including gardening supplies and seeds. https://www.michiganradio.org/post/garden-centers-large-stores-must-close-under-governors-order, https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/04/10/whitmer-stay-home-michigan-lottery/5129316002/
Meanwhile, Lottery tickets can still be purchased at grocery and convenience stores all over the state. Michigan receives about 8% of its annual revenue from the sale of lottery tickets.

With 60s-Style Sit-Ins Banned, Americans Resort to Group "Drive-Bys" to Protest Government Edicts https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-stay-at-home-orders-protests-economy

At least 15,000 cars and trucks are expected to descend on Michigan's state capital on Wednesday to protest what they're calling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's tyrannical new guidelines to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state.
The so-called "drive-by" demonstration – in order to maintain social distancing - aims to bring traffic to gridlock in Lansing and protest the "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order by Whitmer.
Her orders mandate what businesses could stay home, what some businesses could sell and order people in her state against any gatherings – no matter the size or family ties.
"Quarantine is when you restrict movement of sick people. Tyranny is when you restrict the movement of healthy people," Meshawn Maddock, an organizer of the protest with the Michigan Conservative Coalition, told Fox News. "Every person has learned a harsh lesson about social distancing. We don't need a nanny state to tell people how to be careful."
Similar 'drive-by' or 'park-in' protests are planned in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Michigan.
With gas prices nationwide near all-time lows due to lack of demand, this is one form of protest most Americans can afford.

Bucking the Trend, Governor Abbot, TX, Moves to Re-Open Economic Activity https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-gov-abbott-says-he-plans-to-announce-safe-and-healthy-strategies-to-reopen-state-economy

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday foreshadowed a potential executive order later this week to begin the process of reopening the state's economy.
This as President Trump publicly advocates for the U.S. to get back to business as quickly as possible amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The comments from Abbott come after he said on Friday last week that he planned to sign an executive order "about reopening Texas businesses ... in a way that will be safe for that economic revitalization."
"At the same time we cannot ignore the impact economically that the coronavirus has caused," Abbott said in his Monday remarks. "Later this week I will outline both safe and healthy strategies where we can begin the process of going about reopening businesses in Texas and revitalizing the economy."
Insiders indicated to Fox News that the executive orders would likely include allowing workers who are younger and have no underlying health conditions to return to work.

COVID-19 Survivors May Not Have Long-Term Immunity https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/13/who-officials-say-its-unclear-whether-recovered-coronavirus-patients-are-immune-to-second-infection.html

Researchers from the WHO and CDC echoed earlier studies from China, Hong Kong, and the US that it's yet unknown if survivors of COVID-19 develop long-term antibodies that render them immune.
While many patients who survive episodes of COVID-19 do test positive for Coronavirus anti-bodies, not all patients do.
Additionally, many survivors show such low anti-body count that researchers doubt they'd have sufficient antibodies to fight off repeat infections.
Finally, researchers warn that many other known Coronaviruses, including the Common Cold and SARS-1, only infer temporary immunity after recovery, lasting months but then fading in efficacy, and SARS-CoV-2 is too new for scientists to know to any certainty if survivors are permanently immune to reinfection, temporarily immune, or have any lasting immunity at all.

Pandemic Will Peter-Out by Summer, Says New Model https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/health/us-coronavirus-updates-monday/index.html

An influential coronavirus model cited by the White House predicts the pandemic will "peter out" in May, but experts are wary about its assumption that there will be no resurgence of the virus in the summer months.
The model, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, was created by Dr. Christopher Murray, who told CNN Monday the country can essentially stop coronavirus transmission this summer.
"The one thing we absolutely know for sure is that social distancing measures work," Murray said. "It leads to a situation where every case is infecting less than one other case, and that means if you keep the course, you'll get transmission essentially down to zero."
Murray cited Italy and China as places where this was happening already. "There is no reason to expect that won't happen in the US," he said.
Critics of the model pointed out that in China, Hong-Kong, Korea and Japan, when social-distancing measures have been relaxed, new outbreaks have also emerged.
Murray's model has been cited by the While House COVID-19 Task Force and President Trump as recently as yesterday.

GLENN

Faith, family, and freedom—The forgotten core of conservatism

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Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

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From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why the White House restoration sent the left Into panic mode

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

Presidents have altered the White House for decades, yet only Donald Trump is treated as a vandal for privately funding the East Wing’s restoration.

Every time a president so much as changes the color of the White House drapes, the press clutches its pearls. Unless the name on the stationery is Barack Obama’s, even routine restoration becomes a national outrage.

President Donald Trump’s decision to privately fund upgrades to the White House — including a new state ballroom — has been met with the usual chorus of gasps and sneers. You’d think he bulldozed Monticello.

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s ‘visionary.’

The irony is that presidents have altered and expanded the White House for more than a century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East and West Wings in the middle of the Great Depression. Newspapers accused him of building a palace while Americans stood in breadlines. History now calls it “vision.”

First lady Nancy Reagan faced the same hysteria. Headlines accused her of spending taxpayer money on new china “while Americans starved.” In truth, she raised private funds after learning that the White House didn’t have enough matching plates for state dinners. She took the ridicule and refused to pass blame.

“I’m a big girl,” she told her staff. “This comes with the job.” That was dignity — something the press no longer recognizes.

A restoration, not a renovation

Trump’s project is different in every way that should matter. It costs taxpayers nothing. Not a cent. The president and a few friends privately fund the work. There’s no private pool or tennis court, no personal perks. The additions won’t even be completed until after he leaves office.

What’s being built is not indulgence — it’s stewardship. A restoration of aging rooms, worn fixtures, and century-old bathrooms that no longer function properly in the people’s house. Trump has paid for cast brass doorknobs engraved with the presidential seal, restored the carpets and moldings, and ensured that the architecture remains faithful to history.

The media’s response was mockery and accusations of vanity. They call it “grotesque excess,” while celebrating billion-dollar “climate art” projects and funneling hundreds of millions into activist causes like the No Kings movement. They lecture America on restraint while living off the largesse of billionaires.

The selective guardians of history

Where was this sudden reverence for history when rioters torched St. John’s Church — the same church where every president since James Madison has worshipped? The press called it an “expression of grief.”

Where was that reverence when mobs toppled statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Grant? Or when first lady Melania Trump replaced the Rose Garden’s lawn with a patio but otherwise followed Jackie Kennedy’s original 1962 plans in the garden’s restoration? They called that “desecration.”

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s “visionary.”

The real desecration

The people shrieking about “historic preservation” care nothing for history. They hate the idea that something lasting and beautiful might be built by hands they despise. They mock craftsmanship because it exposes their own cultural decay.

The White House ballroom is not a scandal — it’s a mirror. And what it reflects is the media’s own pettiness. The ruling class that ridicules restoration is the same class that cheered as America’s monuments fell. Its members sneer at permanence because permanence condemns them.

Julia Beverly / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump’s improvements are an act of faith — in the nation’s symbols, its endurance, and its worth. The outrage over a privately funded renovation says less about him than it does about the journalists who mistake destruction for progress.

The real desecration isn’t happening in the East Wing. It’s happening in the newsrooms that long ago tore up their own foundation — truth — and never bothered to rebuild it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Trump’s secret war in the Caribbean EXPOSED — It’s not about drugs

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.