What’s the difference between today and a month ago?
Absolutely nothing. Except a lot of people have lost their jobs.
How about today and nine months ago?
Again, absolutely nothing, except today the Governor has backed off his lock down order. Nothing has changed again, from a public health perspective, but a lot of people have lost their jobs and income. They are struggling to pay for basic necessities like food, rent, heat, and gasoline.
The order, allegedly justified by the public health crisis created by the corona virus that started in China in 2019 (by the way, COVID 19 is a variation on the various strains of flu that we have experienced about every five to ten years throughout my life time), was supposedly based on “solid scientific evidence” that the lock down order would slow the spread of the disease. Either there was no such evidence, or the “solid scientific evidence” supposedly based on research from the supposedly finest public health experts was seriously flawed or totally false. Like the masks and the “social distancing” mandates, the lock down has not “slowed” the spread of the disease.
It has, however, damaged a significant number of middle class, lower middle class, people of color, young people, small business owners, and a host of others who depend on a vibrant economy to make ends meet. The rich as well as the powerful have not been impacted, but a very large complement of hospitality employees, travel based employees, retail business employees, and the business owners who depend on a vibrant economy to survive have been left on the verge of economic disaster. The economic harm caused by the order is incalculable. Business that were shut down have now been shuttered. Life savings have been wiped out. People fearing eviction or foreclosure are left with little or no hope of recovery. The government employees, the so-called public health experts, who caused this harm, and their fellow government workers, have not missed a paycheck. Government unions have insisted that government services everywhere be closed down, but that the paychecks to those who are sitting at home and enjoying Netflix continue unabated. The politicians who enabled these horrible policies still have their jobs. The rich still have their houses and all the amenities that come with money. The middle class and the poor suffer from the horrible policies implemented by those who claim to have their best interest at heart.
Our Arrogant, Lazy Authoritarian in Chief (ALAIC) Governor Newsom, who ordered the shutdown, and his friends, didn’t suffer from the lock down. They are still able to congregate at expensive restaurants while the peasants were prevented from gathering at churches. President Biden issues an order mandating masks on federal property one minute, and then within the day, parades around these same properties without a mask, with the excuse he was “just celebrating.”
Now we know that the order was completely unnecessary. If it was necessary, our ALAIC would not have terminated the order simply because a recall against him was gaining traction. The “public health” would be more important than his job. But, it turns out his power is more important than people’s health.
Meanwhile, the propaganda arm of the left wing of the Democrat party, what is generally called the mainstream or legacy media, continues its breathless chant about how brilliant ALAIC Newsom is, how evil his opponents are, how great everything is in California and how, at the current rates of growth, we will all soon die of COVID if the Governor’s mandates are not observed or if the recall occurs.
What is occurring in our Republic right now is how third world countries stay in poverty and squalor. Rich, connected sycophants justify the accretion of power by corrupt, dishonest leaders, and while these leeches obtain wealth and power, those who oppose the power structure or who do not have political connections are left to fend for themselves from the crumbs falling from the table of the failing political system.
To the extent anyone in power, Republican or Democrat, or in business or the media, fails to stand against the corrupt, authoritarian regime in this state, they will stand in the same stead as ALAIC Newsom. We are on the brink of losing the little bit of freedom we have left because too many suckle at the teet of an all powerful government, and because they either benefit from the system or are afraid of it, they choose either to justify the authoritarian commands or are afraid to speak out against it.
We do deserve the government we get, and perhaps this is what California needs to right the ship of state, that is, a government so corrupt and dysfunctional that people of good will will finally stand up to it or speak out against it. Anyone who justifies the usurpation of power at the expense of the freedom of Californians is complicit in the evil and destruction we are experiencing right now. We should each take measure of each of those, and remember them should we ever take our freedom back, to make sure they never get control of the levers of power again.