Tag Archives: #COVID19

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Governors depend on officious little pricks to enforce their authoritarian decrees And the sheeple all say, "It is good."

On September 28, 1960, while Fidel Castro was giving a speech, bomb blasts rocked the steps of the Presidential Palace in Havana. Señor Castro then declared:

Comités de Defensa de la Revolución symbol. Con la guardia en alto translates to keeping your guard up.

We’re going to set up a system of collective vigilance; we’re going to set up a system of revolutionary collective vigilance. And then we shall see how the lackeys of imperialism manage to operate in our midst. Because one thing is sure, we have people in all parts of the city; there’s not an apartment building in the city, not a corner, not a block, not a neighborhood, that is not amply represented here [in the audience]. In answer to the imperialist campaigns of aggression, we’re going to set up a system of revolutionary collective vigilance so that everybody will know everybody else on his block, what they do, what relationship they had with the tyranny [the Batista government], what they believe in, what people they meet, what activities they participate in. Because if they [the counter-revolutionaries] think they can stand up to the people, they’re going to be tremendously disappointed. Because we’ll confront them with a committee of revolutionary vigilance on every block… When the masses are organized there isn’t a single imperialist, or a lackey of the imperialists, or anybody who has sold out to the imperialist, who can operate.

And thus were born the Comités de Defensa de la Revolución, Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. It was simple: every neighborhood would be organized, and every neighborhood would have people who would spy on, and tattle to the government, if someone was suspected of having counter-revolutionary thoughts.

Perhaps Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) didn’t have the Cuban spy committees in mind when he had the state Department of Health set up a ‘stay at home’ snitch line:

Reports to ‘stay at home’ hotline flood in; Walz says it is needed to relieve 911 workers

Republican lawmakers said the governor should close down the hotline.

Written By: Dana Ferguson | April 2, 2020 | 6:00 PM CDT

ST. PAUL — Minnesotans are nearly a week into a stay-at-home order aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus in Minnesota, and a hotline to report those congregating in large groups or failing to keep a sizable distance between themselves and others is generating hundreds of calls.

State emergency workers this week said they’d tracked more than 500 calls since the line got up and running last weekend. The stay-at-home executive order allows Minnesotans to go outdoors for exercise and activity if they observe social distancing requests, keeping at least 6 feet between themselves and those who aren’t members of their households.

And not all Minnesotans have been observing that rule, reports to state officials indicate.

The hotline came under fire this week, and Republican lawmakers over social media and in news releases called on Gov. Tim Walz to take down the hotline and email address used to report suspected violations of the order.

Republican lawmakers have objected to the hotline and said Minnesotans instead should aim to educate one another about the importance of not congregating in large groups and maintaining space between individuals in public spaces.

Of course, the Democratic Governor did not pull down the snitch line, and Channel 5 KTSP reported on August 14th that:

Since late March, the hotline has received thousands of reports of possible COVID violations, ranging from national companies ignoring the order to neighbors just telling on their neighbors.

Whole lot of Karens living in Minnesota, it seems. “(N)eighbors just telling on their neighbors,” huh?  I hope that the tattled-on neighbors find out who snitched on them, so that they can apply the appropriate punishment: shunning, ostracism and reputation-trashing. I would hope that when it’s discovered which Karens called the hotline, everybody in the neighborhood is informed of just who the snitches are.

I called that hotline just this morning, to make sure it was still up for this article; it is.

And now the Governor has announced new COVID-19 restrictions:

Gov. Tim Walz Announces New COVID-19 Restrictions, Earlier Restaurant And Bar Closing Times

By Esme Murphy | November 11, 2020 | 8:40 AM CST

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Gov. Tim Walz has announced new restrictions that target active spreaders of COVID-19 in an effort to bring the coronavirus under control, that will affect everything from bars and restaurants to family Thanksgiving plans.

“I feel like the guy in ‘Footloose,’ no dancing, no fun, no whatever. That is not my intention. My intention is to keep you safe so you can all dance a lot longer, and that our neighbors don’t put them at risk. But I recognize this is painful, it’s no fun,” Walz said Tuesday.

Walz said that the numbers are now growing exponentially in Minnesota, and that high deaths and hospitalizations are a predictable outcome if cases continue to grow in this manner.

“I wish I could say that this was unexpected, but it’s not,” Walz said. “I said back in March it would be a long, dark winter and that looks like what we’re headed into.”

Starting Friday, all bars and restaurants have to close dine-in service at 10 p.m and stay closed until 4 a.m. Indoor capacity is to be capped at 150 people, and may not exceed 50% capacity. Bar counter service is also going to be shut down, except at places that only offer counter service.

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, we’ve asked Minnesotans to make unprecedented sacrifices for the greater good. And they’ve done it. Because when times are tough, Minnesotans pull together,” Walz said. “Each step of the way, we’ve followed the best data available. These targeted, science-based actions will help get the spread of the virus under control so that we can care for those who fall ill, get our kids in the classroom, keep our businesses open, and get back to the activities we love.”

There is also a 10-person limit going into effect for all indoor and outdoor gatherings, and all social gatherings are limited to members of three households or less.

These restrictions include family gatherings for Thanksgiving.

For those who have noted my previous point that the restrictions in Kentucky are enforced not by the police but by local health departments, and have but small fines, let me point out that violating the restrictions in the Land of 10,000 Lakes are enforced by law enforcement personnel and is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail.

A misdemeanor is a criminal conviction, and could negatively affect someone’s housing, credit and employment opportunities. A student so convicted could lose his scholarship if he has one.

But that’s what these authoritarian governors consider you to be if you violate their executive decrees: a criminal. And that’s why Governor Walz set up his hotline: just like the over 670 Karens in Lexington, Governor Walz is going to depend on the officious little pricks to snitch on their neighbors.

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The Kentucky Supreme Court doesn’t care about our civil rights Governor Andy Beshear gets to keep acting like a dictator

We have previously noted that the Kentucky Supreme Court took over all of the state court actions concerning Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) executive orders concerning COVID-19. I was hoping that the Court would uphold lower court actions against them, but to be honest, I was not particularly optimistic. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Kentucky Supreme Court rules Beshear’s COVID-19 restrictions are legal

By Jack Brammer | November 12, 2020 | 10:11 AM EST

In a major victory for Gov. Andy Beshear, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that the Democratic governor’s emergency regulations to slow the spread of COVID-19 are legal.

The state’s highest court ruled in a 103-page decision that Beshear properly declared a state of emergency in March and validly invoked powers granted to him under the state constitution.

“The governor’s orders were, and continue to be, necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health and safety of all Kentucky citizens,” the court said in a decision written by Justice Lisabeth T. Hughes. “This type of highly contagious etiological hazard is precisely the type of emergency that requires a statewide response and properly serves as a basis for the governor’s actions …”

The decision means dozens of emergency orders from the governor, ranging from a requirement for most Kentuckians to wear a mask in public to class sizes in child care centers, will remain in effect.

There’s more at the original, but now our only hope remains the General Assembly, which will not be in session until January.

But, as was also pointed out:

Kentucky Republicans expanded their dominant 62-seat supermajority in the state House on Tuesday, flipping at least 10 seats occupied by Democrats and defending several targeted incumbents.

By Wednesday morning, Republicans had picked up at least 10 of these seats from Democrats and led in three more races in Democratic-held districts where most of the votes were counted.

This would give Republicans a 72 to 28 supermajority in the House chamber, with the possibility of expanding to 75 seats once the other races are called.

In the state Senate, in which the GOP previously had a veto-proof majority of 28-10, Republicans picked up two more seats, for a 30-8 majority.

Governor Beshear would not consult with the General Assembly on his COVID executive orders, because he knew that the legislators would not give him carte blanche. As we have previously noted, the Governor had no intention of doing so:

Beshear was asked at Friday’s (July 10, 2020 — Editor) news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

So, it comes down to this: we will have to wait for the General Assembly to take action. Fortunately, Republicans now hold veto-proof margins in both chambers.

What will happen next? I really don’t know, but with COVID-19 making a resurgence, too many of the sheeple will welcome authoritarian action; the Justices on the state Supreme Court certainly did.

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Karens gotta Karen!

As we have previously noted, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY), the Lexington city government and the University of Kentucky have been very, very worried about people getting together and partying. On July 20, 2020, Governor Beshear had Eric Friedlander, Secretary for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and Steven J Stack, Commissioner of Public Health, issue an Order restricting gatherings of people, including on their private property, to ten or fewer persons. Unlike the Governor’s mandatory face mask order, which Mr beshear keeps reissuing every thirty days, the order linked above has no expiration date, and I have been unable to find any source which states that it has been lifted.

The past weekend in the Bluegrass State has been sunny and warm, in the upper seventies to low eighties, as we are enjoying a brief Indian Indigenous American summer. That, I suppose, explains a lot of weekend parties, despite the fact that the sadly-not-very-good UK football team had an open date last Saturday.

Well, whenever people are having fun, there will always be some Karens around to try to stop it. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Parties pushing the pandemic? Lexington police got 90 party complaints in 2 weekends

By Jeremy Chisenhall | November 9, 2020 | 2:27 PM EST | Updated: November 9, 2020 | 4:22 PM EST Parties in Lexington haven’t slowed down despite record-high COVID-19 case counts in the city the past two weeks. The Lexington Police Department said it received complaints about 60 large parties during Halloween weekend and another 30 over the just-completed weekend of the Breeders’ Cup. The parties were primarily in areas near the University of Kentucky campus, police spokeswoman Brenna Angel said. In comparison, there were 30 party complaints during the weekend of the Kentucky Derby, according to Lexington police. On average, there have been about 20 to 30 party complaints each weekend since classes resumed, Angel said. The city began a partnership in early October with UK police, and the deal was intended to increase patrols and tamp down on college game day parties. The partnership has continued as the university police department’s schedule has permitted, Angel said. The departments will partner to patrol the city for UK’s home football game against Vanderbilt University Saturday, Angel said.

Miss Angel had previously said that while an executive order signed by Governor Beshear on July 20 mandated that non-commercial gatherings must be limited to 10 people or fewer, police and local health department officials have said they can only do so much.

“There is nothing we can enforce regarding gatherings on private property,” Angel said.

The gatherings limit order delegated the enforcement authority not to the police but to the state and local health departments. The Lexington Police Department could try to break up or cite parties which were excessively loud or encroaching onto other people’s property, and the University Police, even though some of the officers have ridden along with the city police, have no authority off of campus property.

Daniel Cartier, a UK student, said he’d seen fellow students “party constantly and receive zero punishment.” “It just boggles my mind how UK (doesn’t) at the absolute minimum require bi-weekly testing and contact tracing for all their students,” he said.

Congratulations to Mr Cartier! Not many men males — and here I am assuming, from his first name, that he is male¹ — would publicly identify themselves as Karens.

A video shared to Reddit showed a large party in a Lexington backyard during the weekend. Commenters thought it was likely the partiers were students. “You really think college kids are gunna not party just because some old bureaucrats at the school say so? Maybe the administration at the school should have not allowed kids back to Lexington and just remove the possibility of kids in large gatherings with no masks or social distancing,” one commenter said.

The video, which appears to have been taken via cell phone, is only four seconds long and too distant to positively identify any of the participants.

This is what I have said all along: it’s amazing to think that college administrators would not have expected college students back on college campuses to have college parties. Perhaps some of our collegiate administrators and local officials are just not quite as smart as they would like people to believe.

State Treasurer Allison Ball (R-KY) noted that the Governor’s orders frequently violated our constitutional rights:

Ball said her report offered insight for lawmakers if they take up legislation to redefine the scope of the governor’s power to issue executive orders in times of crisis. She suggested that the law be amended to reinforce safeguards on religious, free speech and assembly rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. “It’s not fair to the people of Kentucky that they have to resort to federal courts to make sure that their constitutional rights are protected,” Ball said. “This could be dealt with pretty clearly if it’s included in legislation.” Senate President Robert Stivers later told reporters that lawmakers will review the subject of executive powers, saying: “I think we will clearly define what can be done.” “Are there needs for (executive) powers? Without a doubt,” he said. “But what type of limitations can you put on them so people have the ability to have … access to their church and access to the freedoms that are guaranteed by both the Kentucky and the United States constitution.” Republican lawmakers have complained for months that the Democratic governor, who was elected last year, hasn’t reached out to them to discuss his coronavirus-related actions. Republicans hold overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate.

That quote was from prior to the election; the 2020 elections have expanded the Republicans’ majorities further than even they had hoped.

Kentucky Republicans expanded their dominant 62-seat supermajority in the state House on Tuesday, flipping at least 10 seats occupied by Democrats and defending several targeted incumbents. By Wednesday morning, Republicans had picked up at least 10 of these seats from Democrats and led in three more races in Democratic-held districts where most of the votes were counted. This would give Republicans a 72 to 28 supermajority in the House chamber, with the possibility of expanding to 75 seats once the other races are called.

Translation: the GOP has a veto-proof majority in the state House of Representatives. In the state Senate, in which the GOP previously had a veto-proof majority of 28-10, Republicans picked up two more seats, for a 30-8 majority.

Governor Beshear would not consult with the General Assembly on his COVID executive orders, because he knew that the legislators would not give him carte blanche. As we have previously noted, the Governor had no intention of doing so:

Beshear was asked at Friday’s (July 10, 2020 — Editor) news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

Now, if the General Assembly passes legislation to limit the Governor’s ’emergency powers’, and Mr Beshear vetoes it, as I would anticipate, Republicans have more than enough votes to override a veto.

But this still points out a problem: the Governor began issuing his executive orders to deal with COVID-19 last March. Various lawsuits resulted in injunctions against different parts of the orders, but, on July 17th, the state Supreme Court halted all state court efforts to block the orders. Then, three weeks later, the Court set September 17th to hear oral arguments on those cases, which meant that Mr Beshear’s executive orders would continue in force, without any recourse to the state courts to challenge them, for two more months before the state Supreme Court would even allow arguments against them.

As of this morning, two days shy of eight weeks after the oral arguments, the state Supreme Court has still not issued its ruling as to whether the Governor’s challenged orders are legal. 116 days have passed since the Kentucky Supreme Court halted all state court efforts by citizens to challenge the Governor’s orders, and we still have no ruling.

Rights delayed are rights denied. And with the news that a 90% effective COVID vaccine has been developed, it’s not difficult to see the state Supreme Court simply not ruling at all until next year, to see if the Governor suspends the challenged orders — the mandatory mask mandate is not part of the challenged orders — so the case can be dismissed as moot.

But even if the Court issues its ruling later today, and upholds the suspended injunctions against the Governor’s orders, Kentuckians’ rights will have been suspended for months. If we have to wait until the General Assembly takes action, we’re looking at almost a year in which our rights have been suspended and violated.

Cross-posted on RedState.

¹ – Perhaps an odd thing for a man named Dana to do, I suppose, but whatever!.

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What would the left see as going too far?

I often wonder: among those who support the various state governors’ and city mayors’ actions curtailing our constitutional rights to fight the spread of COVID-19, is there any step they could take that they would consider a step too far?

  • A Louisville judge has ordered a man who has been exposed to — the article did not specify ‘tested positive for — COVID-19 be fitted with ankle monitors, the type used to track some criminals and sex offenders on parole, but who has refused to self-quarantine. Two other Louisville residents who live in homes with someone who has tested positive are under similar ankle monitoring, including one who tested negative.
  • Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has had a hotline set up for informants neighbors to snitch on people non-compliant with his orders. Mr Beshear has also ordered that anyone entering the Commonwealth from neighboring states to self-quarantine for fourteen days, placed an armed deputy to enforce house arrest outside the home of a Nelson County man who tested positive but refused to self-quarantine, and ordered the state police to photograph license plates in church parking lots to see which parishioners are violating his orders suspending church services.
  • The state police in Pennsylvania are enforcing Governor Tom Wolf’s (D-PA) stay-at-home orders by citing a woman for ‘taking a drive’ for no ‘approved’ purpose.
  • The Philadelphia Police, whom the appropriately-named Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has ordered not to pursue petty crimes during the coronavirus emergency, pulled a man not wearing a mask off a SEPTA bus after he refused to debark.
  • Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) has stated that “the city could shut down certain places of worship if people continued to violate the state’s stay-at-home mandates and continue congregating for religious services there,” and that if religious leaders to not obey his orders, city officials “will take additional action up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently.”
  • Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) stated that the police will break up any big parties and that the party-givers will be heavily fined.
  • Governor Gina Raimondo (D-RI) ordered the police to stop anyone with New York plates for questioning, and sent police and the National Guard “going door-to-door” in coastal communities, asking people if they’ve been to New York and requesting their contact information.
  • The sheriff of Wake County, North Carolina, ordered his department to stop processing background checks for new applications to purchase firearms.
  • Tarrant County, Texas, Commissioners, the majority of whom are Republicans, set fines and a jail term for up to 180 days for anyone who violates their emergency orders.
  • Mayor Jim Kenney (D-Philadelphia) issued ‘stay-at-home’ orders and banned “outdoor gatherings of any kind will be allowed unless they are related to essential businesses like food or medicine.”

These things are all violations of our First Amendment-guaranteed right of peaceable assembly and free exercise of religion, our Fourth Amendment-guaranteed right to be secure in body and property from government intrusion absent due process and a warrant, and our Fifth- and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees against deprivation of liberty and property absent due process of law.

Given that the majority seem to be cheering these authoritarian actions, these suspensions of our constitutional rights, because they are supposedly necessary, by elected state and municipal officials, I have to ask: just what would be a step too far even for the supporters of such actions?

  • An example: If someone said on social media, in response to Governor Beshear’s order that those entering the state must self-quarantine, “This is why we have the Second Amendment,” — note that I expressed that in terms which do not constitute a direct threat against anybody — would the left believe Mr Beshear went too far if he sent the state police to search the man’s house for weapons?
  • A nurse posted on Twitter that she quit her job because the hospital didn’t have enough Personal protective Equipment (PPE) and she was being exposed to COVID-19 patients, would the supporters say the governor of her state went too far if he said she could not resign and ordered her back to work?
  • If a state had too many people under self-quarantine orders to be able to enforce such against them, could the state then round up those people and place them in ‘camps’ where they could be monitored by guards?
  • If someone who had been exposed to the virus refused to be tested and refused to self-quarantine, could the state force him to be tested, and incarcerated until the test results came back, and keep him incarcerated or under house arrest for two weeks if the results came back positive?

Other scenarios could be constructed.

If we assume that those who support the actions of the various officials are intelligent people, concerned about our constitutional rights but believing that the protection of society somehow outweighs them, they must have some idea of what would be a step too far. I, for one, am interested in how such people think.