Must Reads For The Week 4/18/20
POWER IS ALWAYS DANGEROUS. IT ATTRACTS THE WORST AND CORRUPTS THE BEST – Edward Abbey.
Here are some articles showing tyranny at the state and local levels. Fortunately our country was founded on the sovereignty of the individual over the State. People are beginning to push back. Even after decades of our education system not teaching our founding principles, there is still enough left of our culture of freedom to spark this push back.
TYRANNY
The Coronavirus Is Exposing Little Tyrants All Over The Country, by John Davidson, at thefederalist.com. Excerpt from the article: “There’s nothing like a crisis to bring clarity. The response of some mayors and governors to the coronavirus pandemic in recent days has made it clear they think they have unlimited and arbitrary power over their fellow citizens, that they can order them to do or not do just about anything under the guise of protecting public health.”
“Thankfully, the Department of Justice has taken notice of this fledgling authoritarian streak among the country’s mayors and governors.”
“That these officials need to be reminded of that, and in some cases restrained by federal judges, bodes very ill for America. Now more than ever, we need leaders who don’t just care about protecting us from the pandemic, but also care about preserving liberty in a time of crisis.”
Greenhouses Unable To Sell In Michigan Under Extended Order, Banking On May Business, at wwmt.com. Probably the biggest tyrant is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Her stay at home order lists non-essential goods. Plants were on the list. Greenhouses and stores with garden centers closed because of her arbitrary order. Who decides what is essential or not? Each individual decides what he values as essential. Governor Whitmer making these orders shows her arrogance. It also shows her disdain for the individuals in her state.
Government To Decide What Items Are Essential Purchases And What Things You’re Not Allowed To Buy, at zerohedge.com. It is not just Michigan. Vermont is also flexing its tyrannical power. This shouldn’t surprise anyone since Bernie Sanders is a Senator from Vermont.
Former Police Officer Arrested In Park For Throwing Ball With Daughtere Dur To Coronavirus Social Distancing Rules, at abcnews.go.com. I bet Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor would have handled this differently.
California City Fills Skatepark With 37 Tons Of Sand After People Ignore ‘No Trespassing’ Signs, by Shanna McCarriston, at cbssports.com. Tyrants shut down skatepark. Skate borders disobey shut down. Tyrants don’t like their edicts disobeyed. They think outside the box and fill skate park with sand. Certainly this escalation of power will deter the liberty loving borders?
Plastic Is Back: San Francisco Bans Reusable Grocery Bags, 13 Years After Being First City To Prohibit Plastic Ones, by Joseph Wilkinson, at nydailynews.com. The Reusable Bags can become Corona contaminated. So San Francisco is banning them and bringing back the previously banned single use plastic bags. Environmental activists are not happy. They are not willing to make the trade off between a human life and “possible”damage to the planet. They value the planet more than human life.
World’s Largest Pork Producer Shutters Key US Factory After COVID-19 Outbreak, Warns Of Shortages, at zerohedge.com. We can’t consume what is not first produced. Handing out Government checks and printing money via the Fed doesn’t produce goods or services. This money is essentially consumption with no production backing it up. The fact that we are shutting down production because of the virus makes this situation worse. We are consuming more than we are producing. That can’t be a good thing.
Coronavirus XIV: The Good News Is Still There But Not Reported By Mainstream Media, at drbrownstein.com. The main stream media has an agenda. Anything that doesn’t fit the agenda gets ignored. Sins of omission?
Why Central Planning By Medical Experts Will Lead To Disaster, by Gary Galles, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article:
“…..some of the medical experts with media megaphones have put forward potentially catastrophic scenarios and drastic plans to deal with them, reinforced by assertions that the rest of us should “listen to the experts,” because only they know enough to determine policy. Unfortunately, those experts don’t know enough to determine appropriate policies.”
“More important, however, may be that in making recommendations to address COVID-19, those with detailed knowledge of the disease (the experts we have been told to obey) do not have sufficient knowledge of the consequences of their “solutions” for the economy and society to know what the costs will be. That means that they don’t know enough to accurately compare the benefits to the costs. In particular, because of their relative unawareness of the many margins at which effects will be felt, the medical experts we are being told to follow will likely underestimate those costs. When combined with their natural desire to solve the medical problem, however severe it might get, this can lead to overly draconian proposals.”
“……. there is substantial literature documenting the adverse health effects of worsening economic conditions. For just one example, an analysis of the 2008 economic meltdown in The Lancet estimated that it “was associated with over 260,000 excess cancer deaths in the OECD alone, between 2008–2010.” That is a massive “detail” to ignore in forming policy.”
“In other words, the tradeoff is not just a matter of lives lost versus money, as it is often portrayed as being (e.g., New York governor Cuomo’s assertion that “we’re not going to put a dollar figure on human life”). It is a tradeoff between lives lost due to COVID and lives that will be lost due to the policies adopted to reduce COVID deaths.”
“Panic has seldom improved the rationality of decision-making (beyond the “fight or flight” reaction to facing a “man-eater,” when to stop and think means certain death). However, much of media coverage has fed panic. But the illogical and intemperate media attacks against those questioning the rationality of draconian “solutions” drown out, rather than enable, objective discussion of real tradeoffs. And if “Democracy dies in darkness,” as the Washington Post proclaims, we should remember that it does not require total darkness. The same conclusion follows when people are kept in the dark about major aspects of the reality they face.”
‘Let Them Eat Ice Cream’: Multi-Millionaire Pelosi Shows Off Freezer Full Of Gourmet Ice Cream As Thousands Line Up At Food Banks, by Joseph Curl, at dailywire.com. She is unaware of how this looks to regular people. And thank god for that unawareness. Most of us don’t have one Sub-Zero refrigerators let alone two. And we certainly don’t stock our refrigerators with ice cream at $13 dollars a pint (that’s $52 dollars a half gallon). She thinks of herself as our anointed better and we are the rabble. .
STANDING AGAINST TYRANNY
Lockdown-Backlash Begins: Angry Crowd Surrounds Capitol, Demands Michigan Governor Reopen Economy, at zerohedge.com. We have had enough just about enough of these arbitrary edicts by petty tyrants.
‘Social Shredding’: Defiant Residents Grab Shovels, Dirt Bikes After Cali Authorities Dump Tons Of Sand In Skateparks For ‘Social Distancing’, by Amanda Prestigiacomo, at dailywire.com. The people are calling the tyrants bluff. Will the next tyrannical step by government be to arrest or shoot those who disobey. Good luck with that.
We are like the rattle snake on the Don’t Tread On Me flag. The snakes rattle is a warning to not come any closer or I will strike.
Barter Is Back – Locked-Down Americans Are Swapping Malbec For Masks, at zerohedge.com. Maybe Government can shut down businesses. But it can not shut down commerce. Barter and black markets will arise because of government control. Our country was founded by smugglers and black marketeers.
What Would Rothbard Say About The COVID-19 Panic? by Philipp Bagus, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article:
“Governments all over the world are advancing on the road to serfdom, controlling their populations and increasing their power relative to the private sector via increased public spending and new regulations. According to the “ratchet effect,” defined by Robert Higgs, government power usually increases in crisis times. However, when the crisis recedes, government power is not reduced to its initial position. Thus, the long-term victim of the government intrusion may be liberty. More socialist regimes may be instituted. And in these regimes life expectancy is shorter. The greater the power of government, the lower will be the quantity and quality of life ceteris paribus. For instance, the capitalist West Germans had a life expectancy that was about three years longer than that of their East German counterparts.”
NON CORONAVIRUS STUFF
IG Horowitz: ‘We Do Not Have Confidence That The FBI Has Executed Its Woods Procedures’, at saracarter.com. The FBI not only abused power it broke the law. But this is what happens when you give government power during a crisis. After 9/11 we passed the Patriot act. We traded freedom for security. But we got tyranny instead. Don’t let the Corona panic allow government to usurp anymore of our remaining freedoms.
DOJ, FBI Knew Trump Surveillance Was Based On Russian Disinformation, by Margot Cleveland, at thefederalist.com. Most of us have known this for at least three years.
Greater Idaho Movement Is The Latest Indicator Of A Shift Toward Decentralization, by Jose Nino, at mises.org. This is another example push back against big government. People don’t like to be told what to do.
Pope Says Coronavirus Could Be A Reaction To Climate Change, by Vincent Barone, at nypost.com. Excerpt from the article:
“The pope said he wanted a response from world leaders that focuses more on humans and the environment than the economy.”
“I believe we have to slow down our rate of production and consumption and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world,” he said. “We need to reconnect with our real surroundings. This is the opportunity for conversion.”
I’ve read this whole interview. He never mentions Christ one time. The above quote makes me think he wants us to worship the earth. Isn’t the Pope supposed to bring people to Christ?
10 Interviews Later, Media Still Has Not Asked Biden About Sexual Assault Allegations, by Daniel Payne, at disrn.com. This doesn’t surprise anyone does it?
SATIRICAL HEADLINES
Skydiving Accident Ruled Death By Coronavirus, at babylonbee.com.
Dems Rush To Defend Kavanaugh After He Puts On Joe Biden Mask, at babylonbee.com.
More Government Officials Calling For Common-Sense Religion Control, at babylonbee.com.
China Impressed By Michigan Governor’s Totalitarian Policies, at babylonbee.com.
Medical Experts Confirm Democrats Have Developed Herd Immunity To Sexual Assault Allegations, at babylonbee.com.
Democrats Erupt In Protests After Planned Parenthood Begins Offering Puppy Abortions, at babylonbee.com.
CARTOONS
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