These are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP – Detroit Democrats are planning to vote on Saturday to censure one of the their own and bar her from making any future endorsements because of her expression of gratitude to President Trump.

Perhaps you saw State Rep. Karen Whitsett, a Detroit Democrat, thank President Trump for saving her life on April 14, 2020 during a televised session in which he met in the White House with eight men and women who recovered from Covid-19.

Thanks to the president’s touting of the hydroxychloroquine, she said she wouldn’t have thought to ask her doctor about it, and said that she felt relief from her symptoms within two hours.

The censure resolution alleges Whitsett “misrepresented the needs and priorities” of the Democrat leadership to the president and the public, and notes that in addition she repeated her gratitude at an Republican Women’s Federation of Michigan event.

This is how the resolution reads:

“State Representative Karen Whitsett has repeatedly and publicly praised the president’s delayed and misguided Covid-19 response efforts in contradiction with the scientifically based and action-oriented response from Michigan’s duly election (sic) Democrat leadership … endangering the health, safety and welfare of her constituents, the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan.”

“In short,” writes Matt Margolis of PJ Media, “Whitsett is being punished for destroying the false narrative that Democrats want the public to believe about Trump’s response to the virus.”

REVISITING MY SPECIAL of April 22, 2020, in which I referred to most hospital deaths being recorded as Covid-19 deaths even though patients had one or more other pre-existing conditions.

A recent study of 5,700 patients in the Northwell Health System in New York City revealed that 88 percent had more than one pre-existing condition.  The three highest conditions were hypertension (53.1 percent), obesity – BMI  30 (41.7 percent) and diabetes (31.7 percent).

While acknowledging that other countries are recording deaths to a heart issue or a kidney issue, Dr. Deborah Birx told the Western Journal that in the U.S. if someone dies with Copvid-19, it is being counted as a Covid-19 death.

GOVERNOR DUCEY: ARE YOU LISTENING?  One of your fellow Republican governors, Greg Abbott of Texas, is planning a big announcement soon dealing with reopening much of the Lone Star state’s businesses, including barber shops. Surely, you’re not going to force me to return to Texas for a much-needed haircut.

Abbott’s announcement may also include movie theaters, dine-in restaurants and churches. He has been working with businesses and public health experts to craft plans for different businesses to reduce the potential of spread the virus.

CUTTING REGULATIONS has been high on President Trump’s “to do” list since promising action in this area, and his achievements in cutting regulations have been impressive, though sorrowfully under-covered by the media and thus under-recognized by the public.  Mentioning his record in this area usually draws a yawn.

This occurred to me as I wrote yesterday’s Special, about the poverty rate going down and more people working (prior to the pandemic).

“One of the best-kept secrets in the economics of regulation is how regulation’s costs fall disproportionately on the poor,” notes Casey B. Mulligan in the City Journal.

Referring to regulations as “stealth taxation” on the poor, the president’s deregulatory actions over the past three years have increased the purchasing power of working-class income by up to 15 percent.  Presumably this will again be true when our economy reopens.

Earlier this month I mentioned the president rolling back the Obama-era fuel economy standards that added nearly $3,000 to the cost of a new car.

A NEW PEW POLL reveals that white Democrats are split 50/50 on how much it bothers them that their candidate is white, while it doesn’t bother 72 percent of blacks and 70 percent of Hispanics.

NAVY HOSPITAL SHIP ‘COMFORT’ is going back to Virginia, where it was docked for extensive maintenance before President Trump urged them to deploy to New York harbor at the request of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The ship was initially supposed to take on patients suffering from other than Covid-19 symptoms to ease the pressure on New York City hospitals, which were dealing with virus patients.

After seeing just 20 patients in the first day, Cuomo asked that the ship be allowed to take on Covid-19 patients.  To do so, the ship had to be reconfigured from 1,000 beds to 500 beds.  Even after that, just 170 patients were treated on the ship, forcing Cuomo to inform the president that it was no longer needed.

A costly overreaction to match the over-supply of thousands of ventilators requested by Cuomo.

The Navy Hospital Ship ‘Mercy’ is still docked in Los Angeles, but it, too, has been under-utilized.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.