Life in the People's Republic of California

Cops roust old couple sitting on beach chairs. The beaches are sort of kinda open, but the citizens must sit directly on the sand or boulders because reasons.

It’s no coincidence that the most draconian, senseless shutdown rukes are being imposed by leftist governments. Statists crave the power to tell ordinary, unenlightened people what to do, and Kung Flu is providing a grand opportunity to do that.

Portland, Maine’s city council, for instance, not only banned restaurants from offering curbside service, it prohibited shop owners from fulfilling mail order purchases. Vermont has forbidden large stores to sell books, paint and clothing, Michigan won’t let them sell vegetable seeds and seedling during the planting season. None of these activities spreads the dreaded virus (that has to be spread anyway, if group imunity is to be developed) but does impose economic destruction “equally” — with exceptions granted only after proper pleading to the authorities, pleadings which recognize and acknowledge the power of those authorities.

Portland’s city council, for instance, rescinded its ban on retailers shipping orders from their stores after store owners begged them to, and one poor, pathetic businesswoman actually “thanked them for listening”, when a bullwhip would have been the proper response.