By Johnnie Does
Last Friday will go down as one of the more bizarre days in the history of news cycles out here in California. After Modoc County (northeast corner of the state) decided they were going to re-open for business regardless of what Comrade Newsom said, our fearless leader announced at his noon presser we were “weeks away” from re-opening the state’s economy. I can accept that answer, I disagree with the comrade politically, but he has to do what’s best to keep the cable watchers at bay. Our home county (Sacramento) public health officer Dr. Beilensen added another month to the stay at home order. Again, I don’t find much fault with this especially since the Governor had made his announcement. Then at 7pm, Newsom had another presser, where he subsequently announced the states was hours away from re-opening! Wait…WTH?!?!?!?!? Upon hearing that, the counties of Yuba and Sutter announced they would re-open entirely on Monday 5/4. Between Yuba, Sutter, and Modoc there are about 500,000 folks, and I believe there have been zero deaths of Covid-19.
Then came Monday, and comrade Newsom announced many parts of the state’s economy would phase open on Friday 5/8. He made reference to florists, sporting goods stores (no word on if gun sales were included) some retail for curbside pickup only, and bookstores. Note malls are not included, neither are barbershops or restaurants for dine-in. I found this peculiar because what exactly changed? The death rate continues to increase, and the number of positive cases has jumped as well because of increased testing. So again, what exactly caused this change of heart?
I have a theory; try your hardest to see this through an open mind. He ordered the beaches in Orange County shutdown, and the mayors told him get bent. He spoke in terms of schools re-opening in July and possibly a new calendar for the school year….insiders told me the California Teacher Association, CTA (our real policy pusher in CA) was ready to tell Gavin to drop dead. The teacher’s unions flat-out rejected the governor’s proposal and broke the news to him via a media press release rejecting his proposal. These events coupled with the announcements of Yuba, Sutter, and Modoc, to go along with at least 4 million unemployed caused a panic in the Governor’s cabinet. If Gavin pissed-off the unions then he risked being a one term governor and watching his hopes of being a viable presidential candidate go to zero. I believe Newsom made a phone call to our Attorney General and was told his law was not enforceable and would likely be overturned on a court challenge.
As a result, we have a strange 6 phase opening. He stills gets to keep his hand on the scale by not allowing religious services (including weddings and funerals), sports events with live audiences, or movies, yet he has a detailed timeline for other businesses. This is all well and good but at the end of the day it will be a county by county decision. I still think you will see more sparsely populated areas open in the immediate future, followed by some other low population ones, but at the end of the day it will come down to whether your electeds like the guy in the White House or not. I foresee the Bay Area, coastal areas, and Sacramento County opening toward the end of the timeframe, and church services not being held until the end of the year, look for church bankruptcies at the local level to ensue.
Further troubling is the revelation that California was going to hire a team of sophisticated “contact tracers” who will be tasked with tracking down anyone who came in contact with someone who tested positive for Covid. Without getting into details of this squad, it sounds like if you were someone who was in contact with someone who had Covid you will be ordered to quarantine for 2 weeks, regardless of whether you test positive yourself! Word is in Washington State, the contact tracers have the power to forcibly lock you away in a detention center if you won’t quarantine voluntarily and since Newsom is coordinating with them, will we expect to be treated likewise? Anyway, I guess this is what Newsom was alluding too when he mentioned every business having paid sick leave.
My question is, will big brother, oops I mean big tech (Google, Facebook, Apple), turn over mobile phone data and you GPS coordinates to this team of trackers that will then notify you if you could have been exposed? I’m sorry I’m not the smartest guy on this tech stuff, but I know one thing, this is very convoluted and confusing.
Finally, Governor Newsom validated us being really right today at his press conference in South Sacramento when he said “We’re not going back to normal. It’s back to a new normal with adaptations and modifications until we get to immunity, until we get to a vaccine.” Folks I do not know how much plainer and clear he can be, we ain’t re-opening until we have a vaccine and that could be an exceedingly long time. Lastly, who will be approving the vaccine for use in California? So far if Trump touts an idea, the liberal media/elected officials seem to dismiss it pronto.
God please save us from us!
Johnnie Does