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Our Governors Preen and Strut About How Virtuous They Are

By April 14, 2020Commentary

I don’t even know what these people possibly mean and I can’t even imagine what kind of bizarre reasoning process goes on in their heads.  By them I am referring specifically to the Governors of California and Oregon.  Almost all the Governors are clearly politicians enough that they can recognize the tidal wave of public pressure building to end the extreme lockdowns that have thrown tens of millions of people out of work, while doing nothing but delaying infections and deaths.  So they are all talking about reopening “when it is safe”.  They could have been leaders and resisted the herd mentality and media stampede to shut everything down with no consideration of the damage that would be caused.  There was enough evidence at the time the lockdown orders were issued to indicate that more targeted measures would be equally efficacious.

Now they say they will “trust the science” when re-opening”.  Here is what that really means:  “I am going to hide behind the narrow and excessively cautious opinions (and they are just opinions) of my public health experts and not take any other expert views, like economists, into consideration and I am going to hope that because I call them scientists you will accept me just doing what they tell me to do.  I am going to ignore the overwhelming harm the lockdowns are doing to the citizens of my state.”  Nice work guys and gals.

Gavin Newsome, California’s current knucklehead of state, laid down 6 conditions for easing the severe shutdown:

  1. The ability to monitor and protect our communities through testing, contact tracing, isolating, and supporting those who are positive or exposed.
  2. The ability to prevent infection in people who are at risk for more severe COVID-19.
  3. The ability of the hospital and health systems to handle surges.
  4. The ability to develop therapeutics to meet the demand.
  5. The ability for businesses, schools, and child care facilities to support physical distancing.
  6. The ability to determine when to reinstitute certain measures, such as the stay-at-home orders, if necessary.

In other words, you can leave the house in 2021.

Governor Kate Brown of Oregon apparently is either less science driven and/or cares less about her citizens because she only had three conditions, which were basically slowed growth in cases, more protective equipment for health care workers and first responders, and a greater ability to do test, trace and isolate.

I predict that both of these shining lights of leadership will be caving in no more than two weeks, with the pretense that the “science” now allows them to lighten up.  In addition to public pressure, the lightbulb has gone off, and it has to be pretty bright for people like this, that the crashed state economies mean a lot of less of that tax revenue they are so fond of.

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