Live Free or Die: Just a day after telling state governors to “call your own shots,” President Trump tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” and finally, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”

  Those three states have Democratic governors.

  Campaigning for re-election in the midst of a pandemic, Trump is posting inflammatory messages to a growing body of restive Trumpers straining under the social and health restrictions laid down by their governors.

  This past week several hundred protesters, many of them “open carry” gun-toters, gathered at the Michigan capitol to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order for social distancing and economic shutdown during the pandemic. Some waved the American flag, some wore MAGA hats, and a few Confederate flags waved in the crowd.

  Some chanted “Lock her up!” and “We will not comply!”

  Trump supporters in Texas are planning a “You Can’t Close America” rally even as the state’s Republican governor plans a phased re-opening. 

  The public health issue has become a political one as some members of the right wing object to taking orders. The message is basically, “You can advise us what to  do, but you can’t order us to do it.” Most of the protesters were not taking orders or advice. Few in the crowd wore masks.

  Trump is feeding a protest movement growing in states that already have a sharp partisan divide; Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina. Garrett Soldano, who has a Facebook group called Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine, said, “Keeping healthy people at home is tyranny.” 

  We’re not sure what those guys with the guns will do with them. Maybe shoot a virus if they see one.

Thank You for Your Service: Trump also spent time on his tweet machine yesterday blaming Barack Obama and the World Health Organization for the coronavirus epidemic in the US.

  He attacked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying, “Governor Cuomo should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’ Trump sniped at Cuomo for demanding far more emergency hospital beds and respirators than he has ended up needing. “We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far, & these great men & women who did the job never hear you say thanks,” Trump said tweeted while Cuomo was on television giving his briefing.

  Cuomo countered that, “First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?”

  But Cuomo also said, “The projections were high. They were the President’s projections. For him to say to anyone, ‘Well you relied on projections and the projections were wrong,” they’re your projections, Mr. President. Were we foolish for relying on your projections, Mr. President?”

By the Numbers: The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus originated, has raised its official death toll by 50%, adding 1,290 fatalities. Wuhan officials attributed the new figure to updated reporting and deaths outside hospitals. 

  The Chinese have been accused of covering up their true numbers — they did try to keep a lid on it at first — but they claim they’re telling the truth now. 

  Nearly 4,000 more Americans died of the virus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 37,079. New York City had a terrible day, losing 1,725 people, bringing the total to 13,202.

  New Jersey is second for deaths in the US with 3,840 so far.

Testy Times: Floridians flocked to the beach in Jacksonville last night as the city opened the shore only a day after Florida posted its worst coronavirus numbers.

  Researchers at Harvard University say the US cannot safely reopen unless it triples the number of tests done over the next month. An average of 146,000 people a day have been tested for the coronavirus, so far this month, but he Covid Tracking Project says that number should be 500,000 to 700,000 by mid-May to reopen the country.

Read it and Weep: The New York Times reports that President Trump’s new Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has already been reduced to tears at least twice on the job. You would be, too.

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