A while back, I made two predictions regarding the coronavirus crackdown in America. First, in an April 11 Ron Paul Institute (RPI) article, I predicted that across the country there would be a proliferation of protests with a growing number of supporters. Second, in RPI articles published on March 25 and April 4, I predicted that continuing the coronavirus crackdown would increasingly involve physical violence by police enforcing draconian mandates and by people confronted by police for just trying to get on with their lives — something in many ways forbidden under the crackdown.
Continue readingIf many more politicians viewed the coronavirus crackdown the way Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has viewed it, America may have avoided plummeting into economic devastation with tens of millions of people losing their jobs and with many small businesses closed down never to reopen due to the financial hit taken by their owners.
Many Americans may also have retained their ability to exercise freely individual rights, such as by traveling where they choose, visiting with friends and family, and taking other actions local, state, and national governments have forbade in the name of countering coronavirus.
“For the children” is often a rallying cry for increasing government power at the expense of liberty. Maybe now it should be a rallying cry for ending the coronavirus crackdown.
Continue readingRon Paul, in a Monday interview with host Dan Dicks at Press for Truth, warns that people “should be leery about” coronavirus vaccines that may come out. Further, says Paul, a doctor and former United States House of Representatives member, “right now I wouldn’t think there is any indication for anybody to take them,” noting that “scare tactics” are being used to pressure people into thinking they should take such potential vaccines to protect against coronavirus.
Paul supports this conclusion by stressing in the interview the potential danger of a vaccine as well as the overstated threat from coronavirus.
Some people will be heralding Texas Governor Greg Abbott for his announcement today that he will be taking yet-to-be-explained steps to allow the reopening sometime of some businesses closed in the state’s coronavirus crackdown. Easing up on the restrictions is a positive for liberty. But, if you are looking for someone to admire for taking on the coronavirus crackdown in Texas, I suggest Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price fits the bill much better.
Continue readingAfter weeks of the coronavirus crackdown’s extreme interference with the ability of Americans to exercise their individual rights and support themselves financially, more people are starting to protest on the sidewalks and outside government buildings. Expect protests to pop up in more places across the country and the number of participants to increase as the crackdown continues.
Continue readingPoliticians and the people charged with enforcing politicians’ directives really can be like the pigs in George Orwell’s book Animal Farm.
The pigs’ express commandment for governing became, over time, “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal to others.” The “more equal” animals were the pigs in charge for whom the rules they imposed on other animals did not necessarily apply.
For examples of this commandment in practice, we can consider haircuts during the government-mandated closing of “nonessential” businesses, including salons and barber shops, in the name of fighting coronavirus. No professional haircut is allowed for the regular person in many parts of America. But, for politicians and cops, the rules may not apply.
Reading Ludwig von Mises Institute President Jeff Deist’s Monday article “All Crises are Local,” I was struck by a mention that “some sheriffs too have stood bravely against impositions of soft martial law” in the name of countering coronavirus.
The link in that passage from Deist’s article is to a Megan Fox article at PJ Media concerning Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols announcing his decision to exercise restraint regarding enforcement of Maine Governor Janet T. Mills’ order, purportedly to fight coronavirus, imposing limitations on the exercise of individual rights.
Governors across America have been flying their tyrant flag high in the name of fighting coronavirus, imposing a multitude of orders, including orders mandating that so-called nonessential businesses close and that people who have recently arrived in state be subjected to quarantine.
According to a Friday USA Today article by Marco della Cava, most state governments in their coronavirus crackdowns have imposed stay-at-home orders on people statewide, while in a few more states such orders are in effect in parts of the states. Such orders require people to stay home unless they are out for a limited number of permitted activities, such as to purchase food.
Over the last few weeks, politicians at the local, state, and national levels of government have been increasingly asserting extraordinary power in the name of fighting coronavirus. As the power exercise continues to ramp up, and as the time people suffer lost liberty and lost income runs on, expect the crackdown to increasingly involve physical violence.
The longer the crackdown continues at its present or an increased intensity, the more the situation will look like a war between the enforcers of the mandates and the people who refuse to give up for so long so much of what gives life meaning.