RIGHT SPEAK: COVID-19 Tested Our Commitment to Freedom; 4 Years Later, We’re Still Failing; Newsom’s Approach to COVID is a Blueprint of What Not to Do Next Time, and other C-Virus related stories

COVID-19 tested our commitment to freedom; 4 years later, we’re still failing:

Danger of martial law persists

Four years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave world governments (including our own) a convenient excuse for expanding their powers, abusing their authority, and further oppressing their constituents, the danger of martial law persists.

Any government so willing to weaponize one national crisis after another in order to expand its powers and justify all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security will not hesitate to override the Constitution and lockdown the nation again.

You’d better get ready, because that so-called crisis could be anything: civil unrest, national emergencies, “unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters.”

COVID-19 was a test to see how quickly the populace would march in lockstep with the government’s dictates, no questions asked, and how little resistance the citizenry would offer up to the government’s power grabs when made in the name of national security.

“We the people” failed that test spectacularly.

Characterized by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch as “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country,” the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic delivered a knockout blow to our civil liberties, empowering the police state to flex its powers by way of a bevy of lockdowns, mandates, restrictions, contact tracing programs, heightened surveillance, censorship, overcriminalization, etc.

Every day brought a drastic new set of restrictions by government bodies (most have been delivered by way of executive orders) at the local, state and federal level that were eager to flex their muscles for the so-called “good” of the populace. --->READ MORE HERE

AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, Pool

John Moorlach: Newsom’s approach to COVID is a blueprint of what not to do next time

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the last time the state of California had to deal with an epidemic of this nature was 1918. The Spanish Flu struck young adults. The coronavirus was deadly for seniors.

Since there was no one in Sacramento leadership remaining who had lived through the health crisis of a century ago, the Capitol had a bunch of amateurs at the helm. And that was the flaw in how this chapter in California’s history was handled. It lacked competent and trustworthy leadership.

Gov. Gavin Newsom acted arrogantly and incompetently, treating Californians like immature children that needed to be ordered to lead their lives in a certain way.

The good news is that Newsom provided the blueprint of what not to do. We had governors in other states who treated their citizenry like trustworthy adults. The lesson to be learned is to elect a real leader and not a political opportunist who does not follow his own dictums by being caught inside The French Laundry during his lockdown.

The first awkward moment came in late February of 2020, when Newsom wanted to transfer several COVID-19 cruise ship patients from Travis Air Force Base to the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa. Out of 37,000 potential state locations, this was the only one considered. This is where we started to realize that Newsom was scrambling and overreacting. This behavior would become very costly on so many fronts, that I could fill pages just on locating temporary hospital locations. And dare I mention BYD? By February 26th I wrote a letter to Newsom and observed in an email blast: “No plan. No communication. No returned calls. Nothing.”

Then came the overreaction of Newsom imposing his draconian lockdown. Face masking and social distancing are courtesies that concerned people observe when asked to do so. But mandating these two requirements is not what one does in a democratic society. Nor is shutting down businesses and determining which are essential and which are not.

Then came the clashes between Sacramento and local leaders, who knew their areas of the massive Golden State. Each county is different. And local control is more efficient and expedient. But, Newsom’s giving up dictatorial control was not in the cards. By the end of March, Orange County Register columnist Steven Greenhut weighed in with “Coronavirus shows government is a problem, not the solution.” --->READ MORE HERE