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RUSH: By the way, you know what the Democrats states are doing? Do you know what this is all about? The states that are not opening up, the Democrat states continue — and, by the way, as I interrupt myself for the third time in 30 seconds, you know the greatest death rate in this country is in blue states? If you want to survive, move to a red state. I have documentation and backup for this coming.

Anyway, what these states — and, you know, Ralph Northam of Virginia, he’s the latest to announce they’re not opening up. It’s all about getting bailed out. These states — I’m not kidding you — these states are trying to have a total economic collapse so that there is only the federal government bailing them out as an option. And, along with the bailout would come eliminating the problems they have with their unfunded pension liabilities, that’s in addition to their attempt to harm the economy, to then, in turn, harm Trump’s reelection chances.

I mean, there’s so much going on with all of this that has nothing to do with the virus. It has nothing to do with saving lives. It has nothing to do with revitalizing the economy. And all of this strategizing, all of this deceit, the manipulation, all of this is occurring in the blue states run by, of course, Democrat governors.

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RUSH: The Democrat governors that want to keep their states locked down may be having a problem. “Germany has decided to reopen all of its shops and allow soccer matches. Italy, Spain, and France are easing the lockdowns in their countries after Europe’s hot spots now see a record-low number of coronavirus cases.”

Let’s see what else we have. Other news about the… Sweden. You know, Sweden… We’ve been up and down about Sweden and how their experimenting. They never did lock down. Sweden has done okay without a lockdown; so they’re at the plus column as well. Then there’s this — and this is from Millennial news service Axios.

“Americans’ Worries About Leaving Their Homes Are Fading.” Remember before we had lifted any of the lockdowns and they were just on the table for being discussed, a lot of people said, “You know what, Rush? It ain’t gonna work anyway. People are scared! They’re gonna be scared. They’re gonna be scared to leave home.

“They’re gonna be scared to get the bus, gonna be scared to go to restaurant, gonna be scared. You go ahead and reopen, Rush. I think people are gonna be scared and be staying home.” Well, apparently conventional wisdom is wrong again. “Americans say they are getting less worried about leaving their homes and taking part in large group activities, according to the latest installment of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index. …

“As states start to relax shelter-in-place orders and allow more businesses to open, there is increasing public appetite for the kind of activities that could help spur the economy toward recovery…” Oh, no. Not what Axios had in mind. So… “Pollsters caution the responses may be more a reflection of cabin fever than confidence.”

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RUSH: Every state, every circumstance is different. And people are free to try what they think works, like in Florida. You know, Ron DeSantis, he was also accused of hating people and wanting people to die because he opened up the beaches up in Jacksonville. And it turns out that it’s been a major success story.

He had a 5:30 little press event yesterday to document it and the fact the state of Florida has been an overall success story in how the situation’s been dealt with. As DeSantis points out, it’s a very diverse state. We can’t have a one-size-fits-all policy. The most stringent policies are for South Florida — Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach counties.

But as you go north and the west in the state, those kind of restrictions relax considerably, because there has been much less evidence, instance of cases and deaths throughout the rest of the state. And so pretty much everything the doomsayers predicted has turned out to be wrong. But as I pointed out about doomsayers, they actually never can be wrong. The doomsayers are never wrong because they always have built-in excuses.

And when they are wrong they say, “See? The reason this news is so good is because we warned everybody how bad it could be and we scared people into behaving the right way.” But for your purposes, folks, these people have been predicting doom and gloom about opening the economy, so far they are as wrong as anybody could be, and they know it, and they’re trying to double down on it with leaks like this story in the New York Times.

Now, back for a second to this Axios story. People are starting to lose their fear about leaving home. Now, this is another thing the experts told us would not happen. They told us that people would remain afraid, that the lockdown seven, eight weeks, the virus is still out there, that people are gonna be scared. “You may be able to open up, Mr. President. You may not be able to get your economy going again. People might be afraid. They might be worried. They might be scared to leave home.”

Turns out that the fear is abating. And here’s the thing about it psychologically. When the fear is gone, the consequences of the fear will be long lasting. The plague narrative gets harder to support every day. Now, if you want to believe the worst, I mean, you can find plenty of news that will tell you, “Oh, this is the worst, it’s hopeless, we’re all gonna die, it’s over, it’s just a matter of time.” But a lot of people are just, “You know what? All this horrible stuff that they’ve predicted, it isn’t happening, it hasn’t begun to happen.”

But what’s really fascinating about this Axios piece is the difference between the response of Democrats and Republicans. Now, let me just give you the details first, and then I’ll break it down Republican-Democrat.

“Americans say they are getting less worried about leaving their homes and taking part in large group activities, according to the latest installment of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.” It sounds like a lip balm, Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index. Anyway, then their paragraph, “why it matters,” ’cause they’re readers are too stupid to know why this matters. So Axios tells its readers, “As states start to relax shelter-in-place orders and allow more businesses to open, there is increasing public appetite for the kind of activities that could help spur the economy toward recovery.”

Oh, you mean we weren’t able to figure that out when you tell us Americans are getting less worried about leaving their homes, we’re not smart enough to figure out that could mean a rebirth of economic activity?

But pollsters are cautioning that the responses of people who say that they are getting less worried may be “more a reflection of cabin fever than confidence.” So if you’re desirous of getting out there, you want to go back to work, you want to reopen your business, you want to get out and start living again, it may not have anything to do with the fact that you’re confident you can do it. No. It has to do with you’re going crazy, you’re going nuts, you’re getting cabin fever out there and you’re not even thinking straight. That’s what they want you to believe.

“In week eight of the poll, which took place May 1-4, just 36% said they viewed attending a gathering of friends and family outside the house as a large risk.” Only 36%. But “Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to see leaving the house and getting together in gatherings as risky.”

Now, why would that be? What is the difference in Democrats or Republicans here? Why would Democrats think, “It’s much more risky. Oh, it’s gonna be terrible. Oh, my God. We can’t go out there. We could die. We could get sick.” Why do so many more Democrats have this pessimistic, negative, scared-to-death attitude about living? Are Democrats not able to think logically? Are they not able to use common sense? Are they consuming too much Democrats in the media? Are they just sick?

“Black and Hispanic respondents also were much more likely to perceive a high risk of engaging in these activities.” It’s amazing how partisan everything is in our country today. Even the opinion, or the thought, or the awareness of risk in leaving your house and venturing outside has a partisan divide to it.

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RUSH: Gavin Newsom looks like he may be caving and opening the state. Audio sound bite number 7, yesterday, Sacramento, California.

NEWSOM: We are entering into the next phase this week, end of the week. With modifications we will allow retail to start operating across the spectrum. We will allow regional variation, but only after self-certification of particular criteria that will allow even further implementation of our Phase Two. This is a very positive sign, and it’s happened only for one reason.

RUSH: Yeah?

NEWSOM: The data says it can happen.

RUSH: Oh. So he’s changing his tune out there because he says the data has changed. But, you know, the truth is that the data or the data, however you choose to pronounce it, the data in California has never supported a lockdown. California hasn’t been overrun with cases. They haven’t been overrun with deaths. In fact, it’s just the exact opposite. California, number of cases, number of deaths was so dramatically lower than New York that people started asking, “How the hell did this happen?” And remember Gavin Newsom said, “Well, we got a head start on social distancing.”

Yeah? What was your head start? It was two days. Two days explains this big difference? No way. He’s doing this because the people in California are pressuring him to do it. They don’t understand why there is a one-size-fits-all policy for a state as large and diverse as California and they want to get out and they want to get to it.

This is Good Morning America today. The CEO of Starbucks, a guy named Kevin Johnson. Robin Roberts is doing the interview. She said, “Okay. So the vast number of stores, Starbucks stores, are opening again. How do you respond to some people who may feel that with the rise in projections of coronavirus deaths that this is too soon to go that fast?”

This is all based on the bogus FEMA prediction that the New York Times ran with today, 3,000 deaths every day in just three weeks, 200,000 new cases every day in just three weeks. It’s the New York Times running the story and she’s asking, “How the heck can you open up, how can you open up now? So many people think it might be too soon to go this fast.” And he said…

JOHNSON: We’ve managed through this COVID-19 crisis in over 82 countries around the world and we’ve used three simple principles to guide every decision we’ve made. First, we prioritize the health and the well-being of our Starbucks partners and the customers we serve. We support our government as they work to contain the virus. And third, we want to show up in a positive and responsible way in the communities we serve. Now those three simple principles have guided us every step of the way. And as we open in the United States 85% of our stores this week, we are doing it with enhanced safety protocols in the stores and experiences that we know we can deliver to customers in a safe way.

RUSH: Can I answer the question for you in a way he didn’t? He’s a corporate guy, gotta speak in corporate speak. She says, “Don’t you think it’s too soon, don’t you think it may be too soon to go this?” No, we’re gonna adapt. That simple. We are going to adapt. Capitalism is still capitalism, and businesses have to adapt. Human beings have to adapt. It’s not hard. Sometimes it is.

The story of life on earth has been a story of adaptation. We human beings singularly have the ability to adapt. Other species not so much. But we do. We can adapt to surprises. We can adapt to hardships. Like we can decide that we need shoes because it’s just too painful to walk around in the desert with a bunch of rocks there. But an animal, the concept of shoes, what? Doesn’t even think about it. They deal with what they got when they were born. We can adapt.

I’m not trying to make fun of this either. Climate change, we adapt. The left presents all of these crisis as things that are gonna kill us, things that are gonna wipe us out as though we have no choice in the matter, as though we’re powerless, as though we’re nothing but a bunch of sieves just sitting here and we’re gonna be affected by whatever stuff happens to us, there’s nothing we can do about it. And, of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Because we adapt as necessary.

We adapt according to our desires, sometimes not even waiting for necessity. We adapt because we want things to be different than they are. We adapt because, you know, we don’t like a hundred degrees in the summer in an office building. Let’s invent air-conditioning. So Mr. Carrier goes around and invents it. We adapted. We didn’t sit around and lament summer and how unfair it is and how it’s so hot. We also adapt by going to the Hamptons or wherever else people think they’re going to cool off.

And that’s what the Starbucks guy is saying. We will adapt. We have to open. We can’t sit here and continue to just bleed money. We’ve gotta open. We’ll find a way to do it. Don’t worry about it.

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RUSH: “Gov. Ron DeSantis [of Florida]: Media Should Apologize for Causing ‘Frenzy’ Over Beach Reopenings — Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested members of the national news media should apologize to mayors in Duval County, Florida, for hyping criticism of decisions [they made] to reopen some beaches in mid-April,” and he’s got a point.

You know, they were all out there talking how this is deadly. “It’s disastrous, it’s gonna lead to the wanton spread of the disease,” and it hasn’t. None of this has occurred. I like it. I like this aggressive stand. They owe people an apology. He’s never gonna get it; don’t misunderstand.

Let’s see, where is…? I just went through this piece, and I thought, “I’m not gonna use it anymore,” and I put it at the bottom of the Stack. Now I am gonna use it ’cause it leads into the next one. Here. I referenced this earlier in the program. This is a story from the American Spectator by David Catron. “Coronavirus Deaths: The Most Predictive Factor.”

This is based on data.

This not somebody’s opinion, okay?

“Your chance of dying from COVID-19 is notably higher if you live in a blue state. … A far more predictive metric is ‘death rate per million.’ Why? Testing is far more consistent for fatal cases. By this measurement, you are probably more likely to die from coronavirus if you live in a blue state rather than” a red state.

“If you live in New Jersey, you are 13 times more likely to die from [coronavirus] than if you live in Florida.” This is data. New Jersey’s “death rate per million is 895.2 … compared to only 65.1 deaths per million for Florida.” Now, New Jersey… People don’t know this, but New Jersey is one of the most densely populated states the countries.

People are on top of each other there. They’re beside each other. They’re under each other. I mean, they’re sardined in that state. So that’s a factor. But this is amazing: 895 deaths per million in New Jersey, 65 in Florida. It says here, “This disparity can’t be written off to demography or testing.

“Florida has a huge elderly population, and it has conducted twice as many tests as New Jersey. Finally, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis resisted the draconian stay-at-home orders imposed by [the governor] in New Jersey and hasn’t been afraid to point out that he was right… In our 26 red states, the average coronavirus death rate per million is about 82.

“In the 24 blue states, plus the District of Columbia, it’s about 235. On average, then, you are about 2.9 times more likely to die of COVID-19 if you live a blue state than if you live in a red state. But averages mean little in the real world. If you live in New York, your chance of dying of coronavirus is 11 times higher than if you live in Georgia.

“The numbers change depending on the relative states, of course, but the most predictive factor is whether you” live in a blue or red state. Again, this is all the result of data. (interruption) “Oh, boy,” what? You think I’m gonna get in trouble for this? (interruption) Well, I’m just quoting from this piece in the American Spectator, and he’s using death rates per million because the testing is associated…

I had to get tested the other day. I had an oral surgery, emergency oral surgery. That’s why I was out Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week. And before they do any surgery, you have to get a test. (interruption) Well, of course it was negative! They wouldn’t have done the surgery if I’d come out positive.

But the point is, I was negative that day. Who knows what I was the next day? That’s the point about testing. Testing’s fine for a snapshot of the moment. But if testing is gonna be the key, you have to test people every day. You can’t do that. But they do use extensive testing with people who have died ’cause they want to find out. They’re trying to attribute as many deaths to COVID-19 as they can in these states.

And that’s how they’ve arrived at the numbers that were used in this American Spectator piece from which I quoted. Now, in Virginia, (accent) “Gov. Ralph Northam is pushing back the first phase of Virginia’s economic reopening.” Oh, yeah. “At his press conference on Monday, Gov. Northam extended his executive order banning gatherings over ten and closing some non-essential businesses through May 14th.

“This is the second time the governor has extended the order, originally scheduled to end April 23rd and then on May 8th. Northam said moving the deadline to next week will give his administration more time to determine if the data supports easing restrictions.” This is absurd. They’re keeping it shut down.

You know why they’re keeping it shut down.

You know why these Democrat, blue state governors are keeping it shut down. You know what I want to know is, is there some command-and-control place in the DNC, or are these guys doing this, these governors — they’re not all guys, of course, Whitmer. Are they doing this independently of their own free will, or are they under explicit orders from the Democrat National Committee to keep these states locked down?

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RUSH: Here’s John in Erie, Pennsylvania. You’re next, sir. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Thank you, Mr. Limbaugh. Isn’t it ironic that the socialists of the “libercrat” party are the ones oppressing the workers of America and keeping them from work?

RUSH: How do you mean?

CALLER: They’re the ones that are continuously keeping this shutdown going, and they’re the ones who purport to support the workers of America, and yet they’re oppressing them and keeping them from working.

RUSH: So why do you think they’re doing this? Why would socialists who want to oppress the workers not oppress them?

CALLER: That’s what I’m saying: They are oppressing the workers.

RUSH: By…?

CALLER: And I think it’s to get this country into such an economic turmoil, that we don’t recovered, and for power to try to keep the president from winning in November.

RUSH: Well, there’s no question about that. You know, the biggest problem you have — not you specifically. But, folks, it’s true. There are people that would love to wreck this economy. But you try to persuade somebody that can’t understand it why anybody would want to do that, and it’s really hard to do.

Like this guy just said, “They want to destroy the economy.” Okay, let’s go out and tell Mabel and Joe Six-Pack that a bunch of people want to destroy the economy. Mabel and Joe Six-Pack gonna say, “Why?” What are you gonna tell ’em? What are you gonna tell ’em to persuade them that there are people who literally want to wreck this economy?

It’s a tough thing to do. Even though there is an answer and even though there are people who want that to happen, it’s still a tough thing to explain, because most people using common sense can’t imagine anybody wanting to do that.

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