all 17 comments

[–]magnora7[S] 7 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

How can a mayor grant herself unconstitutional laws in an obvious power-grab, while using the virus crisis as a cover?

This upsets me deeply.

We already tried banning alcohol sales. It didn't work. What a busybody.

And on top of it, they're a Republican too. Who you'd think would be the last party to do such a thing. Just shows how broken both parties are in this country.

Hopefully there is a system of checks and balances that will shut this mayor down and make her lose her job.

The way this little mayor is acting reminds me of reddit mods act, creating their little fiefdoms so they can go on power-trips, while actually helping no one and damaging many.

[–]Jesus 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Won't pass,this almost seems too convenient.

[–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

No she already granted the powers to herself via executive order. It's already done.

Now it just has to be challenged in a higher court to be overturned, basically. Or enough public pressure has to be put on her to undo it.

[–]Jesus 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Wow, all this does and will do is create a black market.

[–]astronautrob 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

You think this could be a "dipping your toes in the water" type moment? See if something like this can be gotten away on a lower level before it's tried on a much bigger scale? IDK just some questions this article raised in my mind. Feel like this whole Coronavirus thing is all one big dipping toes in the water test. See what government can get away with in a time of panic or manufactured crisis. Take some liberties, see what happens, get no push back, take more liberties, rise & repeat. Not saying this crisis was was caused on purpose, also not saying it wasn't cause don purpose, only that it is being used to see what governments can get away with in terms of limiting the people's freedoms/liberties.

[–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, I see what you mean and I think that's valid. I think there might be a lot of over-reach over the next few months. And then once the virus thing ends in about 10-12 weeks, all those new executive orders are going to have to go back in the box somehow, and I think this pushback might awaken a new type of American cultural mindset that could lead to a government that might actually work for the people. But who knows.

[–]astronautrob 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Idk if you saw this today yet...https://www.wtae.com/article/pennsylvania-closing-liquor-stores-to-help-fight-spread-of-coronavirus/31674171

How is this happening? How can the government tell a certain group of businesses to shut down? This seems unprecedented but I'm not totally sure it is. Does anyone know if this has happened before? The crazy thing is everyone just seems to accepting this are normal and ok...? I don't see how people don't realize this is a gross overstep by government officials. How does the old saying go, "our liberties will be taken in the name of secruity", something like that. Does anyone else feel like this is the storyline from V for vendetta? Feel like I'm going crazy....

[–]gof-urself2 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Could be. I think we could also see a huge whiplash of public unrest that actually fixes some of these problems, since a lot of people just lost their jobs and their sports entertainment has been shut down... bread and circus are both gone for some, that's an equation for unrest and mainstream collapse, which in the west usually means a change in government to a new style of government that more suitably benefits the people. There's been a few cycles of this in history. Despite how domesticated people are, people can still only take so much. Even the most well-trained dog will lash out if you box him in aggressively enough.

There's a self-balancing mechanism at play here, and times like this provoke over-reach for the exact reason your comic points out. The over-reach leads to wide unrest. Wide unrest leads to revolutions and government changes. Sometimes for the worse, but sometimes for the better.

So there's reason to be optimistic as well as pessimistic, I think.

[–]gof-urself2 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah I get it, but did you read what I said

[–]gof-urself2 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I did, Iam still digesting it

[–]jamesK_3rd 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I think there's far more reason to be pessimistic.

Our society (and in general the world) has trended toward less libertarian, or even classical liberal ideas over the past century toward more authoritarian governance and group collectivism at the cost of individual autonomy and liberty. The last 20-30 years of which pretty much blew the doors off the first half.

But the sixties were a much more trying time in the USA than now. People complain about gun violence here, the reality is it's petty tame compared to the civil unrest and assassinations that were fairly common at the time. Even the national guard was involved using live rounds at Kent state.

The People now don't know history.. What's worse, the people wanting socialism and the socialist policies espoused by the Democrat party in general were not yearning for it because of food shortages, inequality, or injustice. They desire it while living in decadent quarters relative to the rest of the planet, while struggling with obesity, while having freedom to come and go and say what they please, while enjoying tinder and grindr on their iPhone.

Where i do agree with you is this, there is potential for serious unrest soon. But i don't think more freedom or more individual liberty is what's called for our what we'll get. The People in their slavish thinking now earnestly yearn for the govt to save them. Just as a reminder: - The govts of new York and new Jersey tell their minions they can't go out after 8pm, they'll turn into pumpkins or something. - You can't go out to eat, but you can have someone from DoorDash or grubhub go from place to place to place interacting with everyone bringing you food, same with groceries. - You can't travel, but the airports allowing the flow of certain groups can't be interrupted. - You can't leave or return to the country, but we're still processing asylum applications. - You can't go to the gym in NYC, but the Mayor in can, and doesn't think it's a big deal, you guys just need to find a different way to work out. - the feds are now actively asking companies to get your GPS data, to make sure your "social distancing" - Duncan Lemp was literally shot in his sleep essentially by state sanctioned armed militia members who never even knocked on his door, cops now can wear masks and train as soldiers. - as a reminder, if cops acting as army rangers didn't scare you, perhaps any of the agencies that have literally been armed recently, such as the IRS will.

There's nary a word about any of this. It's institutional brainwashing. As a reminder;

  • We have kids who don't know what it's like to walk into an airport without being molested by someone the govt tells them they must show deference to.

  • we now have govt PSA's on radio, tv and the internet that advise you to snitch on

  • most people under the age of 20 have no idea what its like to walk down the street, ride an elevator, drive down the road our walk on the common areas of a assortment complex or gym without being watched by surveillance cameras, where most of them don't see a problem with it.

  • even though school shootings are no where near levels of the past, kids are trained with active shooter drills, how to hide, how to line up, how to let the cops search them, how to walk around with their hands on top of their heads like all the others.

And, look no further than saidit, where a satire comic from the Babylon Bee is posted making fun of the idea that parents might actually have to raise their own children. The wailing and gnashing of teeth it caused about the unfairness of it and how terrible and untrue it is. So Ironic.

Sufficed to say, I'm pessimistic. Other than a convention of states, i think people are going to quickly give up their freedom. That's man's natural state, and if you look around the planet, we are one of the few where you can teach your dog heil Hitler or criticize your govt and not go to jail. But freedoms require responsibility, and none want that now.

Sorry so long

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I see your points, but history shows man can only take so much abuse before he lashes out. History is a very long pattern of man being increasingly oppressed, then a mass uprising occurs and that previous system of oppression is dismantled or modified.

"You can fool some of the people all the time, all the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time" - Abraham Lincoln

[–]jamesK_3rd 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

That's true, but other than our own, how often has a society embraced true freedom? Very Very few times. In fact the people originally fled here to the continental U.S., and we're still under the thumb.

More often than not, they overthrow one tyrannical socialist dictator and install another. Chavez, Maduro,

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It's all shades of gray, and it always oscillates throughout history. It's not a binary "have it" or "don't have it" thing, it's a whole spectrum that is constantly in motion.

[–]jamesK_3rd 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Very few civilizations throughout history have had true freedom. Do you disagree withthis?

Sure the French have a revolution, they just install a new socialist that essentially continues the policies that were previously in place.