So, What Made Him Do It?
Governor DeSantis, that is. What Made Him Issue His "Stay-at-Home" Order?
On April 1, 2020, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida issued his “stay-at-home” order. This order would go into effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 3, 2020. A couple of weeks earlier, Governor DeSantis had worried — correctly — that doing this would make him a “dictator”, but on April 1, he went ahead and did it anyway. What made him do this?
As we now know from Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, “Dr. Lockdown”, wished for a China-style lockdown, as well as limits on the numbers of Americans allowed to gather. Throughout her entire book documenting her role, she issues assertions about her data-driven approach. Yet she lacks the courtesy of providing the reader with a single footnote or reference for the scientific basis of any of her recommendations. Did she provide them to the governors? She might have, but in her own words, we also know that she
“…devised a work-around for the governor’s (sic) reports I was then writing. Instead of including those recommendations in the common bulleted list, I’d include them in the pandemic summary and state-specific recommendations in the governor’s (sic) reports, where they wouldn’t be so obvious. These weekly reports couldn’t go out on Monday without administration approval. Week by week Marc’s office began providing line-by-line edits. After the heavily edited documents were returned to me, I’d reinsert what they had objected to, but place it in those different locations. I’d also reorder and restructure the bullet points so the most salient—the points the administration objected to most—no longer fell at the start of the bullet points. I shared these strategies with the three members of the data team also writing these reports. Our Saturday and Sunday report-writing routine soon became: write, submit, revise, hide, resubmit.”
“Fortunately, this strategic sleight-of-hand worked. That they never seemed to catch this subterfuge left me to conclude that, either they read the finished reports too quickly or they neglected to do the word search that would have revealed the language to which they objected.”1
Knowing this, does anyone have reason to trust any of the data that Dr. Lockdown may have provided the governors? It begs the question: Did Dr. Lockdown defraud Governor DeSantis into issuing his “stay-at-home” order. I say…somebody oughta look into that.
Be that as it may, aside from the order’s violation of basic human rights, the order also violated at least two amendments of the U.S. Constitution — the First and the Fourteenth. But wait, you say. The order allows attendance at religious services as an “essential” activity. It does, but not if you’re a “senior” — whatever that means.
“Senior Citizens Shall Stay at Home”
The order as it regards “seniors” uses explicit, directive language vs. the incorrect/misleading language used by Renzo Downey in his article2 alleging that the order says that seniors “…should stay home…” No, Mr. Downey, the order states, “Senior citizens and individuals with a significant underlying medical condition (such as chronic lung disease, moderate-to-severe asthma, serious heart conditions, immunocompromised status, cancer, diabetes, severe obesity, renal failure and liver disease) shall stay at home and take all measures to limit the risk of exposure to COVID-19.”3
See that operative word there — “shall”. That is directive, legal language that brings with it the authority to enforce. Regardless of your health status, senior, you shall stay at home. Not “You should stay home” or “We recommend you stay home” — in your house for 30 days by yourself if those are your circumstances — you shall stay at home. No First Amendment-guaranteed freedom to assemble for you, “senior”.
And what is a “senior” exactly? Nowhere in the order does Governor DeSantis clarify this for us. Is it when you’re 62 and can retire on Social Security? Or 65? What if you are “senior”, but look less than “senior”? What if you just “look” senior? Do you show your papers — I mean, your photo I.D. — at the church door — if your church has the courage to stay open — to prove you’re not “senior”? Do you attend services alone because your “senior” spouse, for example, “shall stay at home”?
Did Governor DeSantis or anyone who advised him on this “order” ask how to square this feature of it — Section 1, § A — against the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause? This doesn’t even get into discriminating on the basis of one’s weight…Ye “shall stay at home, all ye fat ones.” Really??
Yeah, no unlawful discrimination going on there…
I’ve heard more times than I can count that the reason Governor DeSantis closed the state was because he got “fooled”. OK…so who fooled him? He stated in mid-March that he had no lawful authority to order the “stay-at-home” order. He knew it. How else do we interpret his own words? That doing such a thing would make him a “dictator”. It would. It did. He violated his oath.
Did President Trump’s announcement on Mar 29, 2020 declaring a 30-day emergency prompt Governor DeSantis to go against his own better judgment? Did Dr. Lockdown get to him with her “data-driven” approach to lockdown? Did Dr. Lockdown defraud the President and Governor DeSantis with her “work-arounds”? I’m a fan of Governor DeSantis, but with this order, he blew it. Do you agree? What made him do it? Any ideas?
https://brownstone.org/articles/dr-birx-praises-herself-while-revealing-ignorance-treachery-and-deceit/
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/326263-ron-desantis-issues-safer-at-home-order-for-florida/
https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/orders/2020/EO_20-91.pdf
He is a person. Just like us? Maybe? Yes, I am a fan as well. Now that we have all found our footing, we can speak out. This whole dystopian nightmare has opened my eyes. Nobody is the savior of humanity. Nobody got it right at the beginning, unless we are talking about the skeptics (present company included!). But, we have a far smaller constituency depending upon our leadership that the gov does. Plus...all those seniors! Ye “shall stay at home, all ye fat ones.” OMG...so funny. But not funny. One of the first things I noticed when I saw all these photos of people who were dying of the bio-weapon was they were almost all FAT. Families gathered for a celebration meal that became their last supper. I would say, the hospitals stepped up and put an end to this obviously discriminatory practice of the virus and put everyone on equal footing upon entering the modern day Bergen-Belsen camps to get "help". All ALONE. Driving by hospital parking lots in 2020 and seeing the EMPTY parking lots was the weirdest thing ever. We hear about the hospital ship sent to NYC and sitting unused and being sent home again. And people dragging body bags out the back doors of hospitals. Maybe this is why FEMA ordered all those caskets YEARS ago? Oh, right. No touchy. Burn 'em. The more I read, the more I don't know.