Democrat governors extend lockdowns, trigger outrage

FPI / May 1, 2020

Even as they meet the criteria for reopening, and amid growing evidence that the coronavirus is far less deadly than politicians and the major media claim, Democratic governors have refused to lift, and some have even extended, the lockdowns they have imposed on their citizens.

In response, prominent columnists and business leaders have spoken out.

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, as CBS News noted, said: “If somebody wants to stay in their house, that’s great. They can stay in their house and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do — this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their g—d— freedom.”

Musk added: “The extension of the shelter-in-place or frankly what I would call it, forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights … and breaking people’s freedom in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country — what the f—. Excuse me. Outrage. So it will cause great harm, not just to Tesla, but [to] many companies.”

In Richmond, Virginia citizens staged a drive-in protest while others gathered on foot outside Capitol Square to decry Gov. Ralph Northam's stay-at-home orders, which are slated to last through June 10.

“If we don't come together now to get this economy back open and running and healthy, we could very well not have an economy at all when we decide to do it,” said David Britt, organizer of the Reopen Virginia rally.

As of April 30, Virginia has reported 14,961 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 522 deaths.

“We have to move past the fear and start working with rationality and with reason and logic and facts and the facts show that it's time. We need to be working to reopen this economy sooner rather than later,” Britt said.

In North Carolina, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper extended the state's stay-at-home order to May 8.

As of April 30, North Carolina had reported 9,948 confrimed cases of COVID-19 and 354 deaths.

Four people, including co-founder of ReOpen NC Ashley Smith (who has since been released), were arrested Tuesday during a protest the group held in Raleigh, local station WCNC reported.

“Our protests will continue. Our civil disobedience will accelerate. Our faith in the police has diminished. We will open North Carolina,” Smith said.

According to arrest warrants, all four of the Raleigh protesters violated Cooper’s executive order by attending the gathering and not maintaining social distancing measures.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson noted during his April 27 broadcast: "You may remember what they first told us, back in February and March: We’ve got to take radical steps in order to quote, 'flatten the curve.' Six weeks later, the curve has been flattened, but not because of the lockdowns. The virus just isn’t nearly as deadly as we thought. Hospitals never collapsed. Outside of a tiny number of places, they never came close, at least not from an influx of patients. Instead the opposite happened: thanks to the lockdowns, hospitals have begun to collapse from a lack of patients. Politicians who couldn’t pass ninth-grade biology decided that practicing physicians shouldn’t be trusted to calculate the risk of transmitting the virus. So they banned so called 'non-essential' procedures, many of which are in fact essential. The result: In many hospitals, entire floors have been mothballed. Doctors and nurses are being furloughed. In the middle of a pandemic."

Carlson added: "This is insanity."

Washington Times columnist Cheryl K. Chumley noted on April 30: "In America, after all, government is subservient to the people. Government works for the citizenry. The relationship is this: The people elect politicians to represent their constitutional issues in government, for the country as a whole. But politicians are still bound by the Constitution. The rule of law still prevails — not the individual will."

Democrats "are always trying to sell the idea that America is a democracy because they know if they successfully convince citizens of that, then rule of law crumbles, the Constitution becomes wide open to interpretation, absolutes disappear and things like the Electoral College dry up and disappear — meaning, the left can then finagle the election system so that the well-populated and largely liberal-leaning areas of the country have the biggest voices at the ballot boxes. Democrats always win," Chumley noted.

The Founders "framed America as a republic for a reason: to make sure the elected body stayed true blue to the limited government aspects of the Constitution, and to give the people the right to rise up and toss out those pols who overreached," Chumley wrote.

This is the situation in America right now, amid COVID-19. "Politicians are regularly overstepping constitutional bounds, based on flimsy, faulty, factually off-the-mark predictions of coronavirus-tied gloom and doom. They’re putting in place, and keeping in place, mandates and dictates and orders that don’t even make sense — that allow, say, for shoppers to flock to Walmart and to liquor stores but that prevent citizens from getting fresh air, that is, virus-killing fresh air, at the beaches and parks," Chumley wrote.

Speaking of beaches, Gov. Gavin Newsom has closed all of them in Orange County, California.

Newsom made the move after thousands of Golden State citizens flocked to beaches last week without the governor's permission.

"And this should be the collective Californian response: Storm the beaches anyway," Chumley wrote.

"Storm ‘em like a Stormin’ Norman — like a Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf. Storm ‘em all, and storm ‘em strong."

In a March article titled, “Coronavirus and the Sun: a Lesson from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic,” Medium wrote: Go outside — doctor’s orders.

To quote: “Put simply, medics found that severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better than those treated indoors.,” Medium wrote. “A combination of fresh air and sunlight seems to have prevented deaths among patients; and infections among medical staff. There is scientific support for this. Research shows that outdoor air is a natural disinfectant. Fresh air can kill the flu virus and other harmful germs. Equally, sunlight is germicidal and there is now evidence it can kill the flu virus.”

Or, put another way — go outside. Doctor’s orders.

"Indeed," Chumley noted. "Yet Newsom wants everybody to stay inside, stay as far away from the fresh ocean air — some of the freshest air to be had — and stay cooped in the artificially warmed, artificially cooled, artificially circulated air of the home?"

Chumley added: "This is madness."

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