This tweet caught my eye:

KY Court of Appeals recommends transferring to KY Supreme Court Gov. Andy Beshear’s appeal of Scott Circuit Judge Brian Privett’s order to temporarily block Beshear’s COVID-19 orders against some restaurants and bars. ^JB

— Bluegrass Politics (@BGPolitics) April 12, 2021

I can’t say that this is a surprise, but the meaning is clear: the officially non-partisan but effectively Democrat controlled state Supreme Court will uphold the Governor’s appeal. `

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

The Court then waited for eight more weeks to issue its decision, upholding the Governor’s orders.

The pattern was clear and obvious: the state Supreme Court was trying to give the Reichsstatthalter time to run out the clock, hoping that the COVID problem would be beaten by then, and they could simply declare the lawsuits moot. It hadn’t been beaten, so the Court decided in favor of the Governor.

Republicans in the Bluegrass State ran against Governor Beshear’s authoritarian decrees, and the voters rewarded them with 14 more seats in the state House of Representatives, a 75-25 advantage, and 2 more seats, out of 17 up for election, in the state Senate, giving the GOP a 30-8 margin. Though the Governor claims that opinion polls show that Kentuckians support his actions, in the only poll that actually counts, the one held on election day, they voted strongly against his dictatorship.

The General Assembly met beginning in January, and immediately started working on legislation to rein in the Governor’s powers. Dictators love their dictatorial powers, so the Reichsstatthalter vetoed those bills; the legislature promptly overrode his vetoes, and the Reichsstatthalter then went to court to try enjoin the new laws from taking effect.

Taking the cases to heavily partisan Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, the Governor got what he wanted, the Judge blocking several of the General Assembly’s laws but not actually ruling against them.

And now the authoritarians’ playbook becomes obvious. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Beshear sets goal of 2.5 million vaccinated to lift capacity restrictions on bars, restaurants

By Jack Brammer | April 12, 2021 10:22 AM, Updated 11:08 AM EDT

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday he plans to remove capacity restrictions on nearly all venues, events and businesses that cater to 1,000 or fewer patrons once 2.5 million Kentuckians get their first vaccines against COVID-19.

Once that goal is reached, Beshear said, “We will remove the physical distancing restrictions and the curfew we have on bars and restaurants.”

What does that mean? It means that the Governor has given the courts their timetable, a specified amount of time that he says he needs to run out the clock. All the courts have to do is do nothing, until the Governor’s goals are reached, and then they can decide if he had the authority to do what he did.

In what he called “a pretty big announcement,” Beshear said all Kentuckians should be motivated to get the vaccine.

“If you are a restaurant, a bar, a store, a public pool, a country club, a grocery, a funeral home, a wedding venue, a concert hall, a museum, if you put on festivals, if you are a distillery, this is what you have been waiting for —a clear number and a clear goal to hit,” said Beshear.

He encouraged the businesses to make sure all their staff get the shots.

How, I have to ask, do businesses “make sure all their staff get the shots”? The only obvious way is for businesses to require such as a condition of employment, and have the right to see their employees’ medical records!

Even with the easing of the restrictions, Beshear said, Kentuckians still will have to wear masks until there is more control of the virus. He also said he will address larger venues later.

So, even when the Reichsstatthalter’s ‘goals’ have been met, he still wants to exercise that visible sign of subservience.

As of today, Kentucky is about 900,000 short of reaching the goal of 2.5 million vaccinated. More than 1.55 million Kentuckians have received their “first shot of hope,” said the governor.

With the current supply of the vaccine, Beshear said Kentucky could reach the 2.5 million goal in 3½ weeks, but said it most likely will be between four and six weeks.

But wait: if 1.55 million Kentuckians have received their first shot, in a two-shot series, that still means that they aren’t fully vaccinated. According to The New York Times, while 36% of Kentuckians have received the first dose, only 24% are fully vaccinated. That would mean that roughly only one million eligible recipients have received both shots, and there’s no guarantee that, with our dishonest Governor, he won’t decide that we’ll need another month under restriction, until 2.5 million are fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 is serious, but far more serious is the assault on our constitutional rights and the sheeple allowing the government to control their lives. Freedom, once lost, is very difficult to regain, and far, far, far too many Kentuckians have silently allowed this authoritarian dictator to do whatever the Hell he pleases.