Governor Northam expanded the scope of his previous COVID-19 orders, extending the stay-at-home rule to June 10, a full 77 days from his initial closing of non-essential businesses.
While emergency response protocols may have required some stay in place orders, is this extension really warranted?
Virginia families and businesses will be the ones to deal with the fallout. COVID-19 is serious, but logical, and we should be focusing on mitigation to limit and flatten the curve.
“Going back to work” doesn’t mean an end to precautions, all social distancing, or strong measures to bolster medical preparedness and protect our vulnerable populations
The argument is that we are decimating our economy and plunging the country into a depression on purpose — something no country has ever done — this will destroy many millions of lives and cause so much suffering that it won’t be worth the cost.
America can chew gum and walk at the same time. That means we can talk about saving lives and livelihoods without sacrificing one for the other.
Why are we adding 70 days? As of this writing, Virginia seems to be coping. With over 100,000 tested, the rate of infection is only around 0.01.
There seems to be no realization for the hardship we are going to have to deal with. What is the economic mitigation plan?
Not only are we shutting down beaches, but gutting the 12th largest economy ($492,000,000,000) in the country.
Virginia businesses are not set up to handle a shutdown of this length. The service industry is being hammered; many businesses with never open, most of these are mom and pops. Those jobs are gone forever.
Canceling the school year also placed an undue burden on working families with school-age children. Assuming they still have jobs, how are two family earners, and single parents suppose to survive this?
How will the state budget look after-sales and other taxes have evaporated?
The courts are also affected, only taking on emergency cases.
Law enforcement is in the cross-hairs. People are going to be released from custody because their right to a speedy trial is being violated.
Finally, our governor was oblivious to the magnitude of what he was ordering. No questions about what this will do to the economy or working families. No questions about how his administration is planning to deal with that fallout.
We have lost sight of a hard fact that even the most extreme measures (shutting down Virginia till June 10) taken cannot completely eradicate the coronavirus or create a situation with zero risks. We have to balance the risks to our health with the risks of an economic meltdown.
You are on your own folks.
Paul Tiffany says
What is an acceptable body count?, If we relax precautions too soon we risk an even longer out break of the virus. Even on the shore people have been cited for gatherings of greater than ten people, some people just don’t get it. June 10 may be an overly optimistic date!
Paul Tiffany says
What if that death is your spouse, child, relative, friend, or neighbor, what is the economics of their passing when it comes into your own back yard.
Note: My mom died of breast cancer. My dad died picking apples in his orchard. My best friend died on a motorcycle. I was 40 minutes away from dying in a head-on collision on CBBT (when the office is open, I drive it to work every day. Life is about acceptable risk. Destroying the lives of millions of people is no way to run a government, just because of fear.
Will says
People are born and then they die…. it’s the natural cycle God has put in place…. not one person dies if it’s not time for them to do so…. living life in fear is not living it’s merely existing…. so what happens when our state and country are so far gone in the economy that we can’t come back? We then cease to exist as a nation and we become a part of another… this is all biblical… the US is no where in end time prophecy. Think about it and study it out…
tokenny says
Well Will, why don’t you be a chanp and volunteer at one of the New York hospitals and while you’re at it be a really nice guy and tell them you don’t need any PPE . You know, because … “not one person dies if it’s not time for them to do so….”
Paul Plante says
What an interesting philosophical proposition you have presented us, with, tokenny – the thought that people can and do die at some time other than their appointed hour.
What epistemological system do you derive that apparent paradox from?
What method of proof do you have for your premise that when someone dies, it is at other than their appointed hour?
Are you claiming that death is some entirely random event then, over which we have no control?
And why now, tokenny?
Why COVID?
We have never heard you get concerned before about all the people dying of something else, so why all of a sudden are you so concerned about these people who are going to die of COVID?
What makes them more special than someone who is going to die of cancer now that they have been denied the diagnostic tests that could have led to early intervention?
Why your callous disregard for them?
Paul Plante says
I was left for dead with a head wound in VEET NAM.
A host of relatives died of stokes before I got there, and since I got back, a host of other people in my life have died, including a brother and my mother and father, and several good friends who are irreplaceable, some just a short time ago, and their lives are just as dear as are the lives of these people who are going to have COVID on their death certificate, right or wrong, instead of some other cause of death that was killing them when the COVID came along with the killing shot, so don’t give us older folks who have already lost a slew of people to a host of causes this absolute horse**** of “what if it was your mother,” when it already has been due to cancer, still the UNSOLVED leading cause of death while TRILLIONS are going to COVID which only causes mild discomfort to the majority of people infected.
In the meantime, Mr. REAL SMUG ABOUT IT, we are watching the fabric of our communities being destroyed, and then people like you come along and tell them to man up about their destroyed businesses and lives, because that destruction of their lives is necessary to keep someone dying of something already from dying from COVID, instead.
Sorry about that, dude, but it is the future that counts, the world our grand children are going to inherit for good or bad, and in the balance, and this is what triage is all about, those dying of COVID really do not count, just as I did not count when I was left for dead in VEET NAM with a good amount of my life’s blood leaked out on the ground forming a big puddle where I had been.
Paul Plante says
This is like that “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” scene from the Wizard of Oz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE
While we are being distracted by the hand shadows cast on the wall by a hand held in front of a powerful spotlight (OMG, SHRIEK, SHRIEK RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, IT’S COVID, GET IN YO(UR$ BASEMENTS, HIDE, DON’T COME OU TIL THE ALL-CLEAR IS SOUNDEDN IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS) what really is going on behind the scenes, other than that we are now a totally defeated people living in a third-world socialist ***hole police state?
For an answer as to what might be going on in Democrat-controlled Virginia, let’s go to the third-world socialist police state of New York under COMMISSAR Andy Cuomo, which socialist police state is now much like Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or North Korea under what’s-his-name over there with the interesting haircut, to wit:
POLITICO
“Here’s every law and regulation Cuomo had suspended during coronavirus crisis”
By BILL MAHONEY
03/19/2020 06:57 PM EDT
ALBANY — When Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in response to the coronavirus crisis on March 7, he gained extraordinary powers over the everyday lives of the state’s 19.5 million residents.
Thanks in part to a statutory change which the Legislature approved at the beginning of March, Cuomo’s declaration means he can change or suspend laws unilaterally, so long as doing so assists the state in its disaster response.
Some of Cuomo’s subsequent actions, such as the forced closings of restaurants and schools, have since made international headlines.
But the bulk of his executive orders, which have been issued at dizzying speed and some of which amend dozens of laws, have received far less notice.
POLITICO has sorted through all of the laws and regulations that Cuomo has suspended and translated them into plain English.
Here’s a look at what he had done as of early Thursday evening.
ELECTIONS
— Petitioning requirements for candidates seeking office this year have been slashed to 30 percent of what they normally would be.
So rather than the 1,250 signatures usually required of congressional candidates, for example, the new minimum will be 375.
Candidates will have had to complete their petitioning by Tuesday, March 17 rather than the original date of April 2.
— For the rest of March, voters will be allowed to cast absentee ballots by mail for any reason.
The state constitution restricts absentee voting to instances when an individual is ill or out of the county in which they live, but “the potential for contraction of the COVID-19 virus” has been labeled a type of illness.
— Individuals who do not work for boards of elections are now allowed to help residents of nursing homes fill out absentee ballots.
end quotes
Now, there is where all the illegals in New York who support the Democrat party will be now able to vote, because with the way Saddam Cuomo has closed down the state into the equivalent of a Baathist police state with one-party rule, nobody is going to be checking those absentee ballots for veracity, starting with the fact that with government closed down and non-existent, there will be no way to verify them.
And that crap about petitioning requirements for candidates seeking office this year being slashed to 30 percent of what they normally would be RIGS our election system in the favor of the Baathists, er, excuse me, the Democrats (but really, is there any difference between the two other than how the names are spelled?).
Might Democrat Ralph Northam be pulling the same crap down here?
Does anyone even have a clue?
Paul Plante says
With respect to this above post, and the timeline of relevant events that have been happening since January 1st, and the beginning of this presidential election year which now looks to pit New York’s Democratic Socialist governor Andy Cuomo against Donald Trump, on January 17, 2019, COMMISSAR Andy issued a press release entitled “Governor Cuomo Announces Green New Deal Included in 2019 Executive Budget,” announcing his socialist agenda wherein was stated as follows:
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the Green New Deal, a nation-leading clean energy and jobs agenda that will aggressively put New York State on a path to economy-wide carbon neutrality, is included in the 2019 Executive Budget.
The landmark plan provides for a just transition to clean energy that spurs growth of the green economy and prioritizes the needs of low- to moderate-income New Yorkers.
Deliver Climate Justice for Underserved Communities:
end quotes
That, of course, is the political platform of Democratic Socialist Congresswoman from New York City Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, home to many illegal immigrants who can now get New York driver’s license thanks to another edict issued by COMMISSAR Andy.
Ocasio-Cortez wants to transform America into another Venezuela, and her dream is coming true right before our eyes as I write these words.
The draft principles of “climate justice” were developed and discussed by the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice based on the common understanding of key principles, concepts and opportunities identified at a meeting of a small group of people from all parts of the world who have been working on climate justice issues, which meeting was supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation in Pocantico in July 2011. https://www.mrfcj.org/principles-of-climate-justice/
And that takes us to June 25, 2016, and a political document entitled “Resistance Rising: Socialist Strategy in the Age of Political Revolution – A summary of Democratic Socialists of America’s Strategy Document – June 2016, wherein was stated thusly, which is relevant to what Andy Cuomo has done today in New York by executive decree, to wit:
2016 was a game changing year for leftists and progressives.
We are finally reemerging as a vital and powerful force after an extended period of stagnation and demoralization, and we face a political landscape more favorable than perhaps at any time since the 1960s.
http://thelivyjrfiles.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=73
end quotes
And this COVID HYSTERIA which has resulted in our now living in a dictatorial police state has made that political landscape even more favorable, to the point of Nancy Pelosi holding a press conference recently wherein she announced she was working on a fourth financial “stimulation” package that will be intended to fund the Green New Deal of AOC, at our expense, of course.
Going back to January 17, 2019, COMMISSAR Andy announced that he was going to pump over $1.5 Billion into his Green New Deal, except, on January 5, 2020, the Albany, New York Times Union printed an article entitled “As Legislature returns to Albany, $6 billion deficit awaits” by Cayla Harris, wherein we learned as follows:
Budget deficit
New York is facing a $6.1 billion problem.
It’s the largest state budget gap since the Great Recession, mostly attributed to $4 billion in Medicaid overspending.
It’s an issue that has already created friction among leading lawmakers: Unsurprisingly, Republicans have jumped to attack progressive agendas that require mass funding, but the state’s most liberal lawmakers have continued to push for more public programs that would multiply the state’s spending.
end quotes
So our Andy, whose administration is linked to corruption, had what might be called a bit of a money problem.
As to corruption in the Cuomo administration, google “Buffalo Billion Scandal.”
One of the articles that comes up is from the New York Post entitled “Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion was beyond corrupt” by E.J. McMahon on July 13, 2018, where we had as follows concerning the man who now effectively is leading the nation’s fight against COVID which may well put him min the White House come November:
The usual suspects had predictable reactions this week after a federal trial jury convicted three upstate real-estate developers and the State University’s onetime nanotech czar, Alain Kaloyeros, on charges of bid-rigging tied to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s upstate economic-development projects.
Cuomo’s harshest critics jumped on the verdict in the Buffalo Billion case as further evidence that, in the gleefully overwrought phrase of a state GOP release, he is “the most crooked, corrupt governor New Yorkers have seen in more than a century.”
But the focus on Albany corruption misses an important point.
The overarching scandal here wasn’t bid-rigging or the pay-to-play pattern in the developers’ contributions to the governor’s reelection campaign.
At the root was a simply awful public policy — corporate welfare on steroids — that neither Cuomo nor most of his critics have definitively renounced, even now.
end quotes
There is our Andy wearing his finest plumage for all the world to see.
His corruption has driven this state right into the ground and has turned us into a third-world country right here in America.
But then, lo and behold, along comes the COVID HYSTERIA which Andy Cuomo and his brother Chris of CNN, who came pretty close to actually dying of COVID, but was miraculously cured the next day so he could continue as an “essential worker” on CNN singing brother Andy’s praises, and Andy’s pet media HIGH-SPEED BULL**** DISPENSERS whipped up into a frenzy, and out of that frenzy came a blank check for Andy that will now be funded by the American taxpayers, to wit:
“Cuomo: NY needs flexible budget amid coronavirus uncertainty”
By Cayla Harris
Updated 6:47 pm EDT, Thursday, March 26, 2020
“New York state is basically bankrupt,” Cuomo said in a radio interview Thursday, asserting that there will be education cuts statewide.
The governor’s proposal would give the state budget division the authority to re-evaluate spending each quarter, potentially slashing funds earmarked for local governments, schools and other entities as actual revenue numbers are reported.
The governor’s office and the state Legislature have been working toward an expedited budget plan this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tossing complicated policy issues to the wayside as the state pursues an immediate fiscal response to the crisis.
Much of the budget planning was and is dependent upon the federal government’s aid to states handling the crisis, most notably in the form of a $2 trillion agreement between the U.S. Senate and the White House.
Cuomo has railed the plan as “terrible,” saying that the state government would receive just $5 billion designated only to cover COVID-19 expenses.
He asserted on Thursday that federal officials were “irresponsible in addressing the state and the city need.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, meanwhile, defended the plan, saying New Yorkers would receive more than $115 billion in aid, including $7.5 billion for state and local coronavirus relief and billions for health care centers, public transit, small businesses and other institutions.
“In the absence of any significant relief to New York state – the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis – from the federal government’s $2 trillion bailout plan, the state will have to reevaluate the entire spending plan for next fiscal year,” state budget division spokesman Freeman Klopott said.
end quotes
And the game goes on!
It’s not a case of Venezuela here we come, anymore.
It’s now Venezuela, here we are.
Lisa Avila Nieves says
I support our governor decision 100%. We have to be smarter than this virus. We need to stay home and help to flatten the curve of infections. What is our priority here, human lives or our state’s economy? Human lives come first, we will work on the economy as soon as possible. Stay home, stay safe. Blessings.
Note: Whenever someone says, “If it saves just one life”, walk away, these are not serious people.
Don Green says
The editor’s comment, “If it saves just one life’, walk away. These are not serious people.” is exactly on point. I’m 75 years old and, though healthy, realize every day that life can be taken away, ostensibly without reason or meaning. Living in fear IS NOT living–it’s simply existing.
Like Mr. Plante, I’m a Vietnam veteran, though I do not share his experience of extensive, harrowing combat action or of having been seriously wounded. I do remember seeing worthy people, full of promise, killed without having lived beyond their early 20s. I had to write the innocuous letters of attempted consolation to their relatives on behalf of the Division’s commanding general. I felt dirty every time I had to do it, because I believed each had died in vain.
More to the point, we are governed by a person, Mr. Northam, who is not competent to hold the office. So much for having an Eastern Shore boy, “one of our own”, achieve the Governorship But the ultimate fault lies in those who elected him; we have become a Commonwealth of children, willingly obeying even the most nonsensical orders from our public officials and waiting for whatever public dole, the equivalent of bread and circuses, that is promised us.
The Founders would not recognize this country as the nation they created. Mr. Jefferson would be the most appalled at this denouement. We are not worthy of what we inherited from our ancestors.
Paul Plante says
What an incredible letter, Don Green, straight from the heart and right on target!
Letters home from VEET NAM, indeed!
Welcome home, and thanks for your service, and many blessings on you for long life and good health, as well!
It was because of that experience that I became a public health engineer, to protect lives, not to take them.
Fluvanna Resident says
I would fully expect that our illustrious governor will not be paid during this time. But NOPE. I’m sure he will continue to be compensated while he destroys the lives of hard working people and families in this state. What in God’s name is he thinking !!!!! Or IS he thinking !!!
A friend says
Northam is a joke! A raciest (black face) protected by the political left and the mainstream media. Any and every right-wing conservative would have been “destroyed” by them long before now. The current and historical two-tiered system of ‘justice” infuriates me!
Stuart Bell says
He did not even carry his home county in the general election. I wonder if he has thought long and hard just how he will be received, in his retirement, on the shore. I can remember a time when the shore still had it’s voice, when political correctness was just a liberal wet dream. I can assure you, in those days, he would have been taunted and teased every time he showed his face…….just like a red-headed stepchild, or a black-faced racist.
Stuart Bell says
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/10/virginia-governor-announces-signing-of-extreme-abortion-bill-on-good-friday/
What a sick individual…