One of California's boasts over the years is that it's possible to have a Progressively run state — including an open border and unlimited welfare for legal and illegal residents alike — and to be an economic powerhouse.   As many have pointed out over the years, though, this is a peculiar contention.   California's economy has been kept afloat by Silicon Valley and the economy built to support it and, to a lesser extent, by the entertainment industry in Southern California.   Outside those bubbles, California  has  the highest poverty rate in America, not to mention  the largest homeless population.

California's bizarre experiment with shutting down the entire state to prevent the Wuhan virus from infecting any more people is going to prove whether the Progressive boosters or grim economic realities will win.   And there's always the possibility, far-fetched though it may seem, that California's political leaders are deliberately tanking the economy both to prevent Trump's re-election and to break the welfare system,  à la the Cloward-Piven strategy, to force a socialist economy.

In California as a whole, after desperate Californians took to the beaches for temporary relief from their house arrest, Governor Newsom  threatened them with an even longer shutdown  if they did not instantly return to imprisonment in their own homes.   This ignores the fact that  the sun kills the virus  and that  outdoor transmission is rare.   Moreover, there's increasingly strong evidence that  shutdowns do not change the disease's progression.   What he's doing is tyrannical.   There's no other word for it.

Meanwhile, in the San Francisco Bay Area, seven counties have agreed to continue their shelter in place  through May!   To appreciate the insanity of this, you need to understand that the curve is flattened in California, which was supposed to be the end goal before returning to normal.

According to the  San Francisco Chronicle,  "[t]he number of coronavirus patients in Bay Area hospitals hit its lowest mark since the state started recording county-by-county hospitalization data."   Not only has the curve flattened, but it's completely inconsequential:

— San Francisco County announced one additional death and 16 new cases to increase its death toll to 23 and total case count to 1,424.

— San Mateo County reported 61 new cases, bringing its total to 1,080. The death toll remains 41.

— Alameda County reported 30 new cases, bringing its total to 1,498. The death toll remains 52.

— Contra Costa County reported three new cases, bringing its total to 820. The death toll remains 25.

— Santa Clara County reported 23 new cases and three new deaths, increasing the case count to 2,105 and the death toll to 103.

— Napa County reported four new cases, bringing its total to 64. The death toll remains two.

— Marin County reported one new case, bringing its total to 224. The death toll remains 12.

— Solano County reported 27 new cases, bringing its total to 226. The death toll remains four.

— Sonoma County reported two new cases, bringing its total to 220. The death toll remains two.

As of Monday, in Marin County, one of the counties remaining closed,  the local newspaper conceded  that "Marin's coronavirus curve is flat and only two patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were being treated for the illness in the county's hospitals on Sunday."

If you're wondering why there are so many videos floating around of hospital staff being silly, it's not just because they're punchy and fighting off the horror of death.   Outside New York, most hospitals are completely quiet.   Because local governments mandated that hospitals can offer only emergency services, there are no patients.   Kids aren't getting necessary vaccinations, people who might be having cancers diagnosed aren't getting that care, people in chronic pain are suffering — and bored staff members are dancing and making videos.

Some in California are  coming to terms with the fact  that the state's housing policies, which called for super-density to fight the imagined horrors predicted by anthropogenic climate change models, are responsible for California's virus troubles.   This does not deter anyone in California from relying on more models.   Currently, California's  citizens are being controlled by models  that predict death rates  tantamount to a modern version of the medieval Black Death.

The big question is, why is this happening?   Why has California abandoned its goal of flattening the curve and moved on, without citizen consent, to wiping out the virus completely (which will never happen)?   One reason could be that panicked Progressive politicians genuinely believe that the pockets of wealth in the California economy will be strong enough to keep the state afloat indefinitely.   It's hard to believe, though, that they are that stupid.

The other reason is that the state is courting financial collapse on purpose.   This could be because doing so would (they hope) destroy Trump's bid for re-election.   Democrats in this one-party "paradise" may also be following the Cloward-Piven strategy, which is to overload the economy so that it collapses, necessitating socialist policies.   Certainly,  Newsom has said    the virus offers an opportunity for Progressives to "reshape the way we do business and how we govern."