On Friday night the owners of 6 Tulsa area restaurants and taverns threw a 'Patriotic Party' to celebrate the legal team who successfully stopped Governor Stitt's declaration of unspecified powers to shut down thousands of businesses across the state through a nightly 'curfew' of sorts. The 11pm order to cease transactions on food & beverage was halted by a district court injunction after Attorney Frank Urbanic and his half dozen plaintiffs persuaded the judge that no such statutory power exists which would allow such arbitrary actions of the governor, without a special session of the legislature approving the move on a 30-day authorization. 
  Shortly after the January 8th litigation failure of the legal team from the Attorney General, Governor, and the State Health Dept.; the Governor changed course and decided to lift the 11pm shutdown order.  The legal team headed up by Urbanic took on the case as essentially a community service because they saw this as an essential civil rights struggle against an abuse of power.  Some of the plaintiffs were seeing a financial ruin in which they still need financial help just to keep their employees paid.

Freshman Senator Warren Hamilton announced the filing of SB495, this week. It's aim is to end the selective killing of thousands of unborn children in Oklahoma, each year.  The bill follows in the spirit of former Senator Joseph Silk's struggle to get the Oklahoma senate to address the issue head on and live up to Republican politicians' claims to be 'pro life'.
  The biggest improvement in Hamilton's introduced draft is a fundamental correction in upholding self defense rights which President Ronald Reagan was careful to respect... that necessary action to deal with a grave threat of death to a mother must be treated as a right of self defense, inn the legal code. 
One Recommendation..
  A brief review by this writer has so far only found one matter to attend to in a committee amendment.  Medical journals have for centuries defined abortion more broadly than the Selective Abortions which the 1973 Roe Vs Wade ruling dealt with.  Media professionals used to be careful to refer to "Selective Abortion" as  a more accurate definition. But over time our political terms have gotten lazy and we've dropped the 'selective' adjective.  Any mother who faces a miscarriage and seeks medical consultation with her family doctor of obstetrician might be surprised to find her medical records list a term  "inevitable abortion".  And medically that's the accurate term. 

​  While many more businesses are open now than were open a few months ago, and few states still have stay-at-home orders, the U.S. still has a ways to go to get to a full reopening. That won’t occur until we achieve widespread vaccination and curb the coronavirus pandemic. In the meantime, some states have put a temporary pause on moving to the next stage of reopening, or have even reversed course and closed certain businesses again due to surges in COVID-19 transmission.

  In order to determine the states with the fewest coronavirus restrictions, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 14 key metrics. Our data set ranges from whether restaurants are open to whether the state has required face masks in public and workplace temperature screenings. Read on for the state ranking, additional insight from a panel of experts and a full description of our methodology.

Oklahoma & #2, South Dakota; are leading the way in restoring economic opportunity & civil liberties.

  The Oklahoma Health Dept. keeps some very helpful records on the pandemic casualties in the state. Here are some takeaways we can see from accumulative records:

1.  Women account for 13% more confirmed cases, but men are 30% more of the deaths.
2. White ethnicities(including Hispanics) seem to be proportionately slightly hit harder, and especially a larger part of the fatalities.
3. Those over 65 years are 15% of the cases, yet 80% of the fatalities, even though they are only 16% of the population.
4. Children (under19) are only 13 % of the confirmed cases, and just one fatality, even though they are 27%(over 1 million) of our population. 
5. Middle-aged (50-64) are 19% of the cases, 16% of the fatalities, but just 12% of the population.

Today, top Trump advisor, Jason Miller, told the press that former President Donald Trump is not entertaining ideas of a split from his GOP.  It appears Trump will instead work to solidify the MAGA message as central to the GOP brand.

  Tonight, former Oklahoma lawmaker, John Bennett will address the future direction of the OKGOP when he appears on 3D Politics Live.  Bennett was an early supporter of Trump in 2015, and stood by the Trump principles when he fought off several attempts to raise taxes in Oklahoma.  Bennett found himself fighting the OKGOP establishment and his own House GOP Caucus leadership in 2018. But Trump's message has bolstered the MAGA base both in the party organization and the halls of the state capitol.
  The base of Oklahoma's GOP members and county leaders are also venting the same ire with some DC lawmakers, namely Jim Inhofe & James Lankford. Last weekend, the OSAGE County GOP officially censured both Oklahoma US Senators for failing to support a congressional investigation into the irregularities of the November election in many states.   Sooner Tea Party carried that story overnight.
​  

  On Friday, the Oklahoma Health Dept. Reported the lowest number of confirmed new illnesses since June 7th, 2020.
  This is now a major trend downward, as cases are far below the rates of just 1 month ago.  Just over 200 confirmed test results came back positive on Friday's report.  That's about a twentieth of what kind of daily numbers we saw just after New Year's Day.
  The spread doubling rate has now dropped to about 61 days.   That's the longest span on record since the mid March pandemic was declared.  About 10% of Oklahomans have tested positive in the state database.  Vaccines have now been administered for about 6 weeks. Children in Oklahoma have proven to be the most resistant to the sickness or likely to spread it to others. 

  Former Trump Senior Advisor, Steve Bannon; launched a movement this morning at 9am on WarRoom. The strategist he interviewed is Rogan O'Handley, an attorney & former Hollywood negotiator. O'Handley gives a roadmap for Donald Trump to take over the most powerful congressional office in just 2 years.

   The plan requires Republican Party teamwork. It goes like this.

  On Tuesday night the Broken Arrow City Council had 2 mask proposals on the agenda, and a huge auditorium of citizens with strong opinions.  The council could make it a crime to fail to have a mask on in most public areas where police would be enforcing the ordinance. Citations would be pricey and very murky details about how any exceptions would be handled without a stack of personal medical history being divulged to police, prosecutors, and everyone who attends a public court proceeding.
  Local television said opponents overwhelmed the public comment speaking roster. By 10pm the citizens still were waiting for a motion & vote. When the request for a motion was finally asked, not one member of the council would own the idea, and it unceremoniously died for lack of a motion.
  Two weeks ago, The governor's legal team told a state district court in Oklahoma City that Google Analytics presented evidence to the state agencies & governor's office that mandating masks has no effect in slowing the spread of Covid-19. 

  The confusion and suspicions circling around several state election boards has harmed the peace and confidence of much of our nation.
  A simple reform is needed to secure Oklahoma from ever becoming another Georgia or Pennsylvania.  We simply call our legislature into a limited session  on the Monday after every presidential election.  If our courts or agencies have corrupted or compromised our election integrity, it's the supreme duty of the state legislature to protect the US Constitution. The majority opinion in the 2000 Bush v Gore SCOTUS decision asserts that the US Constitution recognizes that the legislatures of the several states are authorized to define the lawful process of choosing presidential electors for our state.  But our own Oklahoma Constitution compromises that authority by requiring a massive supermajority of the legislators to invoke a special session. Without that high hurdle, the governor can subvert the authority of the legislature, in the manner that Georgia's governor has demonstrated.

    Sitting lawmakers face a November 15th end of their elective terms, so they must be convened prior to that  date, but not so soon that the election board has not completed tabulations.  It seems sensible to convene at noon on the first Monday following a presidential general election which is somewhere between the 2nd - 8th of November.

  Holiday gatherings were 'super spreaders', if State Health Dept reports are accurate. 3 days following Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day; were the largest 3 days on record for confirmed Coronavirus infections in Oklahoma.
  But the past 2 weeks have been a significant reprieve for medical professionals and medical facilities.
  The overall death rate for Oklahomans with Covid-19 remains at well below 1%.  But the 65+ age group accounts for nearly 80% of the deaths, leaving them with a fatality rate somewhere over 4%.
  Children in Oklahoma are the most naturally resistant to the virus,  the one death in 44 ,500 cases equals a rounded 0% fatality rate
Young Oklahoma adults under 35 years have a complied .02% fatality rate (one in every 4000 young adults).  It's expected that other complications were largely a factor for those rate deaths of any Oklahoman under 35 years of age.
​  Oklahoma remains a top 10 state for successful recovery from Covid-19.

On top of taxes paid on income, Oklahomans are also paying hundreds of millions to governments in order to buy the most popular medicine in the state... Cannabis.

  When the Oklahoma Tax Commission published the December tax receipts from Cannabis Medicine sales, the total is expected to put 2020 totals at about $140 million. That's 2.5 times the collections from cannabis medicine sales in 2019.
​
  Medical Marijuana businesses pay annual state licenses and fees from nearly 10,000 farmers, processors and retail shops. the fees to the OMMA, OBNDD, and other agencies average somewhere around $3,500 depending on the categories. So to compare with liquor collections, it's fair to add another $35 million in Cannabis related state fees to our totals for comparison with liquor, which is rarely a physician-recommended medicine.

So the real comparison number for state & local taxes on Cannabis products should be about $175 million for 2020.

The most recent data available from the OTC on liquor  related taxes & licenses is for fiscal year 2018-19. That total is about $139 million . It includes

​  While our state budget is strapped for cash, The state-owned electric company sells Google electricity at rates way below the rates our Corporation Commission sets for PSO and OG&E. That's essentially a subsidy! 
​  Oklahomans are ignorantly creating 'Big Brother', right here in our own state.
Google operates a mega data server installation near Pryor Creek, OK. The nearby Grand River Dam Authority sells electricity at rates which economists rate as the lowest cost electricity in the world.  Google may be the largest single customer of GRDA. We identified at least 3 electric substations adjacent to or within the Google installation. It may be the single biggest operating expense that Google needs on a daily basis.
  If the GRDA ceased providing electricity to Google's Pryor facility, it could shut down a significant portion of the Global capacity of internet services for websites and social media.  

Within hours of a judge's block of Governor Kevin Stitt's demand that all food & drink services close by 11pm, nightly,  the governor's team is retreating from the demand.   Reports of the court proceeding reflect a disastrous dialogue in court testimony.  State agencies, including the Alcoholic Beverage regulators (ABLE), the State Health Dept, and the governor's own legal team and chief operating officer; could not produce any verifiable data to back up their selective restrictions.
  The orders banned diners from going to Whataburger at 11:15pm, but that same person could go to a topless strip club for a topless dancer to sit on a patron's sap while gyrating and caressing.
  The governor's team claimed that Google Analytics was the primary source of data they relied upon. But they failed to produce that hearsay, claiming they lack legal permission from Google to use the published info.
  The state authorities also said that Google Analytics concludes that mask mandates are ineffective in slowing this viral spread. Thus, they rejected Judge Susan Stallings' inquiry about an alternative and broadly applied order, which doesn't single out food & drink venues while ignoring other enterprises.

 Tonight, Attorney Frank Urbanic notified SoonerPolitics that his client restaurants & taverns won the early round of a lawsuit against the governor & state agencies. The judge blocked the governor's 'rules' for another 6 months, while the civil suit proceeds.
 It's a breaking development in taverns  & night clubs' battle for their fiscal survival. 

  Governor Kevin Stitt decided to mandate early closures of dining establishments, claiming that it's in the overnight hours that the covid virus spreads the worst.  The judge didn't buy it.  When evidence was asked, the governor's office relied only on Google data, and an unproven scenario that everyone who eats and drinks later in the night will be careless to follow protocols to prevent social spread.

Judge Susan Stallings asked why a statewide mask mandate wasn't uniformly implemented?  The defense team in this lawsuit said that Google claims a mask mandate is ineffective in slowing the viral spread.
​  The lawsuit will now proceed to the full case. Up 'til now the courts have simply addressed the judge's decision to order the governor's rules unenforceable until the case is completed in her court.  Court injunctions are a tool to prevent harms which would not be recoverable if the plaintiff had to wait until the case is resolved in full litigation.

  In the past 24 hours, the Silicon Valley allies of the Chinese Communist Party censors have begun an ideological 'cleansing' of what messages are allowed to be on the world's largest social media platforms. Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other operatives are removing many political leaders on the right from any access to use social media, even when the left agrees with the message. 
  President Trump is now banned from the social media platforms which he helped vault into dominance.  Anyone whose account is used to relay a message from President Trump, is likewise banned.
  The 'big brother' technology even spies on our own internet devices.
  Last night I began a draft of a sarcastic statement of fact, referring to Apple's threats to ban Parler unless Parler agrees to ban Trump in a way that Apple approves of. It said;
"The loving masters of our society have banned Parler.com because Parler won't suppress conservative values in our loving & tolerant society"