Gov. Gavin Newsom’s draconian lockdown orders are driving California into a recession. California is expected to face a $54.3 billion deficit over the next year, and who knows what San Luis Obispo County’s deficit will be. Unemployment is expected to rise to 18 percent with 1 in 5 Californians without jobs. May’s unemployment is expected to be 34,000 in our county.
The question to ask: Is having Newsom in the governor’s office more dangerous to California than COVID-19?
Before this crisis, Newsom’s oppressive tax-and-spend policies already made it extremely difficult to live and do business in California. Now, businesses are shuttering their doors, and 4.2 million Californians filed for unemployment.
The Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights states that citizens may not be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law” and courts recognize some restrictions only by the least restrictive means—not arbitrary and unreasonable edicts that effectively constitute house arrest without such due process.
The Newsom lockdown order challenges our God-given rights to freedom, secured by the Constitutions of the United States and the state of California, blatantly and clearly inviting not only legal challenges but civil disobedience. Gov. Newsom has failed Californians!
Andrea Seastrand
Grover Beach
This article appears in May 14-24, 2020.
I share Andrea’s view of economics and public health.
However, I think the justification for Mr. Newsom’s remarkable policies are far thinner than anyone will acknowledge.
First, the virus is already established in the population. No amount of “testing and tracing” will remove it (the concept itself is preposterous in light of how the virus works and how people behave).
Second, the virus will continue to infect people to some degree, more as we return to a normal living. It will do so, just as the Asian flu. As more people are infected and become immune (the majority with no or minor symptoms), “herd immunity” will develop. That does not stop the virus, but sharply decreases its rate of infection.
Note that on the Diamond Princess, 3,700 primarily “older people ” were exposed to the virus for weeks without either social distancing or isolation. The consequence was that 9 (0.24%) ultimately died. We do not know of their prior health issues, but one can presume on such a cruise ship there are many in less than robust health.
A partial solution to the locked down economy has been for the government to print new money and send it to those in need. That is something of a band aid, and necessary. But that new money did not generate more food, toasters or computers. It was simply printed, thereby degrading the value of money already in circulation.
The only economic solution is for people to get back to work, and every day we delay means greater poverty and suffering within our community. Hopefully over time better therapies and someday, perhaps a vaccine. Until then, like the flu, we will all be exposed.
It is impossible for “Clovis Dad” to know the exposure to COVID-19 Californians have experienced. It’s also unfortunate that Andrea Seastrand does not recognize, even after all these months, the medical crisis COVID-19 represents to our Health Care workers, First Responders, elderly, and already poverty-stricken communities. The impacts of COVID-19 on the economy are tough (brutal, in fact) on many. However, this is not a time for Andrea’s ideology and denial of Science to rule over our community’s (or state’s) response to the threat of this disease. Science will provide our best response. Andrea’s ideology will kill many more Californians and the economy.
Andrea, you’re insane. Newsom is absolutely not destroying the economy. The highly contagious Covid-19 is destroying the economy. People like you and 45* are failing us so why do you think you can do better than Gavin? Stop claiming your alt-facts are true because they’re not. Science over alt-facts! Stop being a covidiot.
Only one thing is sure: The King of Hair Gel Newsom will raise taxes.
He turned a 27 billion dollar surplus into a 54 Billion dollar deficit in barely one year.
Way to go California….
As stated, Newsom did not wreck the economy- the virus did. There was no one with immunity to it. Without social controls, the virus would have ripped through our communities unchecked, leading the economy to an even more screeching, disastrous halt when the majority of us got sick at once–shutting down businesses, government and social agencies, slowing or stopping the creation and delivery of essential goods and services like food, and swamping the health care system. That our county has fared so well to date is a direct result of these social controls. It is the role of government to take care of the collective–we each give up some of our money and personal discretion to government in return for common defense and government services. Protecting against a virus is common defense.
Without wishing to be insensitive, the virus killed (with the help of prior serious age and health problems), 0.24% of the people on the Diamond Princess, 3,700 of them together on a cruise ship for weeks with no social distancing or isolation. Since more than half the society (those under 50) rarely suffer any symptoms of the virus, let’s guess that 0.1% of the total society (virtually all old and in poor health) are the maximum number of potential victims of the virus (though many traditionally also die from the Asian flu) . 60% of the sailors on the Theodore Roosevelt were “infected,” though you can pretty much assume that the other 40% were “exposed.” Few had serious symptoms.
The virus is established in the population. It will not be removed; the last possibility of that was lost when it escaped from the P4 lab in Wuhan. Now it is with us, like the Asian flu. Locking down the economy until it is “safe,” is preposterous. The nature of economics is that no amount of government activity can replace the food, toasters, computers, cars, toilet paper or other necessities of life. It can print new money, devoid of value. That’s all. The economy, to make toasters, food, computers and toilet paper, has to be engaged. Mr. Newsom would have been much more useful as a leader if he had focused on how to keep the economy running while making sure we didn’t overwhelm our medical resources. We have now “flattened the curve.” The “lockdown” must end quickly.
There is no prefect solution to a PANDEMIC. If you have friends in major cities, the east coast, NYC – call them. Find out from someone you trust, how bad it is. My friend lost her 2 year old cousin yesterday to Covid! This virus is awful and doesn’t necessarily play by any rules. I hate that people will need to experience this in their own circle / own families before they believe that rash measures are necessary. I appreciate leaders that are doing the best they can in a terrible situation by actually showing some definitive leadership rather than just passing the ball. We are the only country in the world without a unified plan, so I support Newsom in using science to make the best decisions he can. I do wish that more of the federal bailouts had gone to people rather than corporations that STILL laid off people….Viruses kill, but so does poverty. Just wish the federal government thought people were worth more than $1200….
Thanks for the Far-Right propaganda, Andrea. I’m curious, though:
Do you have any original thoughts of your own… or do you typically just regurgitate Fox ‘Yellow Journalism’ for your self-validation?
Bunch of Shit for brains fascist scum on here. gavin shut the ecomony down for that bullshit covid that 80% of us are unaffected by. There’s Only been 172k death in the US to date!! Hello Assholes, we have 330 MILLION people here. That’s ONLY 0.052% of the Countries population you DUMB FUCKS!!!! There was Absolutely No reason for the state to shut down but Facts are hard for you leftist Anti American flith…..
My grandmother nearly died of this thing – perfectly healthy, very active. She has asthma, which is a very common preexisting condition. It was the first time in her life she ever needed to ride in an ambulance. The doctors said that if she had come in a hour or two later, she likely wouldn’t have made it. I recognize that out of our country’s total population of 328 million or so people, 500,000 represents a small fraction of our population. But it is STILL 500,000 – a HUGE number. More Americans have died from COVID than died in WW1 and WW2 combined. So, Andrea, you may be fine with seeing half a million people die. Protest those mask mandates. Cry out about lockdowns. Kick and scream and complain about public health measures that are saving lives. Be loud so that we people who actually CARE about other peoples’ lives will know who you are. Don’t let us forget. Don’t let us forget that through your words and those words of like-minded Americans, through your noncompliance with safety precautions, through your anti-mask protests, through your inconsideration and refusal to take this virus seriously from the outset back in Spring of 2020, that YOU assisted in the HARM and DEATH of half a million innocent Americans, including my grandmother who I love with all of my heart. It didn’t have to be like this. Almost every other country on the planet has handled this better, and seen far less avoidable death than us in the USA, because people like YOU don’t live in those places, people who believe every IDIOT Trump-fawning politician who says COVID isn’t that big of a deal. Thanks for being a part of the problem, Andrea.