On March 29, as Pennsylvania, New York and other states began ordering nursing homes to admit medically stable residents infected with the coronavirus, national trade groups warned it could unnecessarily cost more lives.
On Sunday morning, in yet another example of the current trend of politicians exerting outsized influence, the 29-year-old CEO of Harris County, Texas, County Judge Lina Hidalgo, told people in her constituency to inform on businesses that were open or restaurants at full capacity and report them to the state.
This juxtaposition of perversion is probably the most powerful display of the America we knew and loved being turned upside down beyond the worst nightmares of our early founders. “We will shut you down, we will cite you, and if we need to, we will arrest you,” announced Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a public address on Saturday. “Don’t make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and you refuse to do what is necessary to save lives in the city in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail. Period.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say approximately ten detainees at a facility in Massachusetts barricaded themselves inside and caused more than $25,000 worth of damages after being told they were being transferred to a medical wing for coronavirus testing.
The Justice Department is siding with a Virginia church suing Gov. Ralph Northam after police threatened a pastor with jail time or a $2,500 fine for violating the state's coronavirus lockdown restrictions by holding a 16-person church service on Palm Sunday.
All my life, I have dismissed paranoids on the right ("America is headed to communism") and the left ("It can happen here" -- referring to fascism). It's not that I've ever believed liberty was guaranteed. Being familiar with history and a pessimist regarding the human condition, I never believed that.
Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said Friday that Americans are increasingly falling for “the illusion of safety” and are forgetting “the idea of liberty.”
Democrats are determined to use one of these gargantuan and utterly unconstitutional bailout bills to mandate nationwide vote by mail. And they want the ballots to be mailed out automatically to everyone whose name is listed in the voter registry, whether they request one or not and whether they are dead or alive. This, of course, will be big boon to the Chicago machine, which routinely has dead people voting in city elections.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is encouraging residents to go outdoors during the shelter-in-place order as long as they follow social distancing guidelines. "We want you to see sunsets," he said. "We want you to enjoy activities outdoors. What they don't want is people congregating outside in large groups."
This pandemic may seem as though it's changed everything, but it has not changed the rules of our constitutional republic. Let's keep it that way.
