90 Miles From Tyranny

Monday, April 13, 2020

These People Are Evil And Sick...

Hundreds of meat workers have tested positive for coronavirus, plants forced to close down across the country

With possible food shortages, Thomas Massie said it could get 'ugly.'

Several meat processing plants around the United States have temporarily shuttered their doors following hundreds of workers testing positive for coronavirus. This comes at a time when Americans are trying to stock up on food as they experience supply chains being disrupted.

Health officials are investigating a beef plant in northern Colorado after as many as 50 employees tested positive for COVID-19, and two died from the lethal respiratory disease. The meat processing plant that employs 6,000 people in Greely, Colorado, is about 50 miles north of Denver and is owned by the Brazil-based JBS S.A., one of the world's largest meat processors.

JBS has since partnered with the state and federal government, including Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

"At this time, our team is working with the governor and working with the senator to ensure that we (send) testing resources," Pence said during a White House briefing, after speaking to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) about the Greeley plant.

"While the measures we have taken within our facility to improve safety have made a positive impact, COVID-19 remains a threat across the United States and in Weld County, which is why we are investing more than $1 million in COVID-19 testing kits for our team members," Andre Nogueira, JBS USA CEO, said in a statement.

The meat-packing plant will be closed for the three-day holiday weekend, as was previously scheduled, as well as Tuesday to give employees time off to be tested for the coronavirus and for the premises to be thoroughly cleaned.

Tyson Foods, another one of the world's biggest meat processors, suspended operations at its pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa. That's where more than...

Americans Need To Start Pushing Back Against Draconian Lockdowns

Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and anyone else advocating for a federally mandated lockdown either doesn’t understand the Constitution’s structure or doesn’t respect it.

On April 11, The Washington Post ran an article about plans being made to reopen the economy. The article complains that state governors (rather than the White House) are leading the planning, which has resulted in a “mind-boggling level of disorganization,” according to a Centers for Disease Control director.

The incessant bleating of prominent health leaders over the lack of federal control in this crisis only underscores how little they understand or respect this country’s Constitution and the freedoms it seeks to protect. Although the White House certainly has emergency authority to mandate all number of efforts to respond to crisis, and obviously can pressure local leaders, the coronavirus has highlighted the structural nature of the Constitution and that one of the saving graces in the insanity we are living through is that lockdowns are local.

Our country’s structure is pretty straightforward on paper, even if things get a little complicated once all the parts start moving in real time. When the states formed the Union, they ceded power to a federal government cautiously, carefully granting to Congress enumerated powers and creating checks and balances to keep the federal government from evolving into tyranny. At least, that was the plan.

The states retained their historic “police power.” The police power is a state’s inherent authority to govern with a view toward its citizens’ health, safety, morals, and general welfare. Certainly, a state’s plenary powers are limited by the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions, but absent those restrictions, a state’s power is very broad.

Ordering lockdowns, then, is within the states’ authority, not that of the federal government. Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and anyone else advocating for a federally mandated lockdown either doesn’t understand the Constitution’s structure or doesn’t respect it.

On the federal level, emergency measures—no matter how necessary—always pose a danger to freedom. Historically, the exercise of authority triggered by an emergency brings to life a new federal power that never returns to the fully dormant posture from which it came. (I’d go further and say the power is created, but we maintain the ruse that it was always there and never exercised.) If you need an example of radical change in federal authority brought about by an emergency, look no further than President Franklin Roosevelt’s response to...

The New York Times edited its initial story about a recent sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden, removing qualifying language used to determine there was “no pattern of sexual misconduct” on the former vice president’s part.

On Sunday, the Times published an in-depth account of the new accusation leveled by Tara Reade, who briefly served in Biden’s Senate office in the early 1990s. Reade had first come forward in April 2019 to accuse the former vice president of unwanted touching.

In recent weeks, however, she has revealed there is allegedly more to the story. Reade now claims, in particular, that Biden pushed her against a wall and forcible penetrated her with his fingers, while she was employed by his office sometime in 1993. The former vice president’s campaign has denied the supposed incident ever took place.

The Times, which had held off on reporting on the matter until Sunday, delved into the accusation, but was unable to establish a firm conclusion apart from there being “differing recollections” about Reade’s tenure in Biden’s Senate office. Its article, as initially published, noted that Reade’s accusations was one of several, but claimed there was no “pattern of sexual misconduct” on the former vice president’s part:

Last year, Ms. Reade and seven other women came forward to accuse Mr. Biden of kissing, hugging or touching them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. Ms. Reade told The Times then that Mr. Biden had publicly stroked her neck, wrapped his fingers in her hair and touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable.

Soon after Ms. Reade made the new allegation, in a podcast interview released on March 25, The Times began reporting on her account and seeking corroboration through interviews, documents and other sources. The Times interviewed Ms. Reade on multiple days over hours, as well as those she told about Mr. Biden’s behavior and other friends. The Times has also interviewed lawyers who spoke to Ms. Reade about her allegation; nearly two dozen people who worked with Mr. Biden during the early 1990s, including many who worked with Ms. Reade; and the other seven women who...