The Bob Zadek Show

Warren C. Gibson writes in AIER on the dangers of national service.

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The Doctor 4 Liberty joins the show of ideas to disucss trade-offs during
the COVID-19 lockdowns.

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Like clockwork, we are now seeing a modest spike in COVID-19 cases in states like Arizona, which mostly avoided the first wave of infections that hit big cities like NYC. The lockdown pre-empted many people from getting sick early only, flattened the curve, and delayed the inevitable. Now the spike in cases, and accompanying blip in fatalities, is being hyped by the media to stoke fear and continue lockdowns indefinitely.

Dr. Jeffrey Singer is one of the handful of “voices of reason” I turn to during times like these. The founder of Valley Surgical Clinics in Arizona has joined my show many times to discuss the “seen versus the unseen” in areas like the opioid epidemic. The news tells us all about the overdoses, but never talks about those living with chronic pain who are denied necessary prescription painkillers from their doctors because of draconian regulations.

Likewise, with COVID, we are seeing “Bastiat’s Law” writ large across the entire economy.

Jeff was recently interviewed by Reason’s Nick Gillespie, in which he presented a case study in that which is seen vs. that which is unseen (COVID edition #1,427):

"At first, [Singer] says, the idea was "flattening the curve," or slowing the rate of infection so medical providers were not overwhelmed by the number of cases. Now, he says, the discussion is about making sure no one gets infected, an unrealistic goal for a viral infection in the absence of a vaccine."

Jeff and I pick up where they he and Nick left off – talking about the recent spike in Singer's home state of Arizona - and whether it's something to worry about relative to other causes of death, such as suicides caused by economic desperation, cancers gone undiagnosed or treated, or preventable diseases from children who are falling behind on their vaccination schedule. The last thing we need is a measles epidemic on top of COVID.

We also discuss Jeff’s recent article in the Washington Examiner and the unseen costs of one-size-fits-all government policy.

Don’t miss the live shows – Sundays, at 8am PACIFIC TIME - streaming live online and broadcasting on AM stations across the West Coast. Or subscribe to get the podcast/read the transcript next week – newsletter subscribers get my free PDF guide to the administrative state, The Shallow State.

AEI’s Brent Orrell – host of the Hardly Working podcast – on pandemics,
elites, and the future of cities.

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Looking around the country, it might seem like Edward Glaeser was wrong to declare the “Triumph of the City” in his 2011 bestseller of the same name.

COVID-19 revealed the fragility of urban areas like New York City, as millions of inhabitants who could afford to flee have done so – leaving behind struggling unemployed workers and cash-strapped governments.

Brent Orrell of the American Enterprise Institute notes that we are seeing the acceleration of many existing trends – like remote working – which threaten to eviscerate the downtown commercial real estate market, taking city budgets down with them. Brent’s recent Law & Liberty article, Pandemics, Elites, and the Future of the Cities, mirrors many of my thoughts on the future of cities. He will join me this Sunday to explore the themes of his article in more depth.

Back in April, I was one of the first to speculate on the fate of skyscraper office buildings in my webinar on "the Future of Lending: Post-COVID." My verdict is that office space – like the financial services sector that has occupied it in places like NYC – has failed its final exam. To borrow Warren Buffett’s analogy, it took the low tide of Coronavirus to reveal who was swimming naked.

Yet in spite of the inevitable shift towards working-from-home, there are other reasons to be optimistic about cities in general. Glaeser’s main point in The Triumph of Cities was that density enables the in-person meeting-of-minds that drives innovation and creativity. Urban sprawl is a direct result of people’s growing desire to be close to the action while still having enough space to move around. Density is even more environmentally-friendly, since it eliminates the need to drive.

But the same density that drives innovation can also lead to pandemics, rioting, and other forms of social unrest. While the upwardly-mobile have been able to escape to the exurbs or the suburbs, the same low-income people being infected with COVID have no options outside the crowded urban areas in which they reside. I will ask Brent, host of the Hardly Working podcast, how the hit to commercial real estate will affect service workers. We will also discuss the need for visionary leadership by urban elites, who can implement timely zoning reforms and lighten the regulatory load on struggling small businesses.

Don’t miss the conversation as we dissect the latest turmoil in cities across the country and how 2020 will be the year that makes or breaks cities.

Perhaps now is the perfect moment for the New Urbanists, school choice advocates, and civil societarians to bring a free-market revolution to America’s battered cities.

Follow Brent on Twitter – @Orrell_b.

Civil Liability is the Remedy for Police Brutality, says “Constitutional
Law Warrior” Clark Neily, Jr.

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How quickly we went from nation-wide lockdown to nation-wide mass demonstrations and riots!

Perhaps pent-up angst from the lockdowns made the powder-keg of rioting particularly violent, but the fuse of injustice was burning long before the COVID-19 epidemic.

Quite simply, Americans are tired of seeing police get away with murder— figuratively, but sometimes also literally.

Clark Neily has been beating the civil liberties drum for his entire career — first as a constitutional litigator with the Institute for Justice, and more recently as vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute.

Cato’s new Unlawful Shield website, dedicated to abolishing qualified immunity, is Clark’s latest effort to shine a light on a seemingly obvious reform. Qualified immunity is a 50-year old doctrine that has protected police officers from civil lawsuits — even when they violate citizen’s constitutional rights.

This leads to a “culture of near-zero accountability for law enforcement,” according to Neily, who says the Supreme Court must reconsider its long-standing interpretation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This statute prevents plaintiffs from recovering damages for violations of their constitutional rights unless a government official violated “clearly established” law, which usually requires specific precedent on point. Clark and I will discuss the mischief that has resulted from the Supreme Court’s exercise in judicial creative writing, which pulled those two words – clearly established– out of whole cloth.

As my shows on the response to COVID-19 attempted to highlight, there is always an opportunity that comes with crisis. Civil libertarians should not let this one go to waste.

Follow Clark on Twitter – @ConLawWarrior.

Alex Nowrasteh returns for a special COVID-19 edition of immigration myth
busters.

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Supervisor Jeff Hewitt is challenging the County Health Officer on the re-opening of Riverside County.

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Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Hewitt – perhaps the most influential libertarian elected official in the country – joins me this Sunday to talk common sense policy at the county level that he is pushing in Riverside.

We will discuss how Supervisor Hewitt has fought back against special interests and all-powerful unions in California to take office, and what he’s doing to get people back to work in his area while minimizing new infections and deaths from COVID-19.

The California Health & Safety Code lays out the functions and duties of local health officers, which include issuing orders to other governmental entities to take “any action any action the local health officer deems necessary to control the spread of the communicable disease.”

In most counties that has meant strict bans on group gatherings, as well closures of schools, churches, and “non-essential” businesses. Furthermore, the law grants broad discretion to health departments to “(a) Quarantine or isolate and disinfect persons, animals, houses or rooms, in accordance with general and specific instructions of the department.” In the past, this has been interpreted to apply to those with symptoms, but since COVID we’ve accelerated into the Brave New World where even healthy people showing no symptoms of illness are forced to shelter-in-place. When will it end?

Supervisor Hewitt and his fellow supervisors in Riverside recently voted to ask the county Public Health Officer, Dr. Cameron Kaiser, to rescind his orders mandating face coverings and closing certain schools. Dr. Kaiser complied with the request – showing that some power still resides in the people and their elected officials.

Finally, we will discuss how else we can effectively restore our liberties, and what Jeff’s experience can teach other libertarians seeking to get elected to local or regional office.

Don’t miss it.