Triad Conservative

Constitution Course, Lecture 4

The Awfulness of our Local Government

The ongoing lunacy leading to a partial shutdown of the economy, and massive disruptions in the lives of millions of Americans, continues. And a great example is the Piedmont Triad which has a very low prevalence of severe COVID-19 related illnesses.

This low prevalence in our area seemed to be likely based upon our warm climate and early spring; our low population density; our minimal reliance upon mass transit; the relatively low rates of international travel this time of year in our region; and the fact that the virus tends to spare demographics that are not at high risk of complications. Once again, the virus tends to kill considerably less than one percent of those who are infected.

And yet, our local and regional leaders felt it was necessary to strip citizens of their constitutional rights.

One ongoing drama pits the relatively small number of pro-life citizens exercising their constitutional rights of speech and assembly near a Greensboro abortion butchery. Local police have arrested as many as eleven of these citizens.

Remain mindful that these activities take place outdoors, and the virus is approximately nine times less likely to be transmitted out of doors compared with indoor environments. Yet, the city of Greensboro saw fit to arrest them. A lawsuit has justifiably been filed against Mayor Nancy Vaughan in response. The city cites the fact that the order to stay at home was violated, but ignores the fact that constitutional rights take precedence over any order issued according to statute.

But here is an interesting factoid. Nancy Vaughan issued her order in conjunction with the Republican-controlled Guilford Board of County Commissioners and the Republican mayor of High Point. All of these Republicans therefore issued the same kind of order simultaneously in coordination with the city of Greensboro that resulted in these arrests  at the abortion clinic.

Can anyone spell D-U-O-P-O-L-Y? This is yet another piece of evidence that we do not really have two major political parties. In fact, we have one. And this is partially because of the stupidity, political cowardice, weak-mindedness and panic-stricken actions exhibited by Republican elected officials.

There is some good news. Dear Nancy was forced to retreat when various gun rights organizations threatened to sue her.

But there is another story that illustrates the lunacy. The city of Greensboro took special measures to house the homeless at the Greensboro Sportsplex during the pandemic.

But the homeless are more at risk in an indoor environment thrown together with lots of other people than they are outside. The city is increasing their risk of infection by taking special measures to shelter them.

Let's remember also that the democratic socialist city of Greensboro, our Republican county commissioners and the Republican High Point mayor are prohibiting churches from meeting, therefore violating yet another constitutional right. They are also violating the right of many citizens to the fruits of their labor, as guaranteed in the North Carolina constitution, because they are effectively prohibiting them from working.

How are Governor Cooper and these local elected officials going to unpack these decisions? Will they wait until the number of infections decreases? Until they are eliminated completely? And if they are going to wait until they are eliminated completely, are they going to require an additional observation period before loosening their restrictions? They have laid a series of land mines that will be very difficult to neutralize. They are hurting a lot of people in myriad ways.

This entire episode has made me think back at the long period of time the socialists controlled the Guilford Board of County Commissioners. I cannot think of a single thing they did that was nearly as bad as what the Republican commissioners did with their order. They deserve to lose control of the county board with the elections later this year.

Constitution Course, Lecture #3

Bad, Illegal Government and The Emerging Tyranny

Constitution Course, Lesson 2

Police State Tactics on COVID-19 Represent Opportunity for Constitution Party

The illegal suspension of civil liberties and constitutional rights by state and local public officials in response to COVID-19 is now fairly widespread. We have great examples in our region with the actions of Governor Cooper, Mayor Nancy Vaughan and the Republican-controlled Board of County Commissioners in Guilford County.

People are being restricted to their homes except under limited circumstances. Many businesses are effectively being shut down. Churches for the most part are not being permitted to meet. 

In Greensboro, a few pro-life protesters were arrested Saturday by police in brazen violation of their constitutional right of assembly.

Meanwhile, the state's Republican elected officials, when they are not gleefully enacting these orders, are otherwise rolling over and playing dead. They are not doing anything to try to stop these open, willful constitutional violations. Even John Hood is getting a bit concerned.

This situation creates an opportunity for the Constitution Party USA. The party has candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate in North Carolina. There also is a congressional candidate running elsewhere in the state. And of course, there will be a presidential candidate and others running nationwide. The failure of Republican elected officials to stand up for liberty and our constitutional rights in the midst of massive police state measures ought to lead people to look for better alternatives.

A few days ago, I wrote here that our elected officials need to take a remedial Constitution course. The excellent course I recommend, offered by the Institute on the Constitution, is free online. It is offered in a series of relatively brief lessons.

I am posting the first lesson below. And I intend to post subsequent lessons periodically at this blog over the next couple of weeks. This is necessary because of widespread constitutional ignorance-- not only in the general population, but also among our elected officials:

Fauci Suspects Fatality Rate for COVID-19 "May Be Considerably Less than 1%"; Justifiable Skepticism

There was a fascinating article on the website of the New England Journal of Medicine a couple of days ago. Dr. Anthony Fauci wrote it with a couple of other medical experts.

The relevant passage?

... Guan et al.⁵ report mortality of 1.4% among 1099 patients with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19; these patients had a wide spectrum of disease severity. If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.²

This infection packs a wallop for those who are most severely affected by it-- i.e., those who are particularly susceptible to the virus leading to respiratory failure. Fortunately, we are able to identify those at most significant risk. But tragic stories from New York confirm how severe this illness can become.

Does this mean the whole population must be locked down, with large numbers of businesses shuttered? Does it justify illegally suspending constitutional rights-- as we have recently seen with Governor Cooper, Commissioner Phillips and Mayor Vaughan? 

The question is what measures are warranted to prevent the spread of this coronavirus. Given the above numbers, and the manner in which the virus most severely affects readily identifiable populations, it seems fairly straightforward to tailor and target the response to those most vulnerable.

Did it occur to anyone, for instance, that the governmental response in rural and small town and suburban North Carolina could be perhaps less restrictive than responses used in New York City? Remember how this part of the country is much less densely populated; the relative absence of mass transit; and the warmer climate we enjoy that is less hospitable to respiratory viruses.

There is another great web page that compiles the reactions of various health and medical experts from around the world. Read the various quotes. There is a great deal of skepticism that courses through these responses. They are skeptical about the panic and hysteria; and also about the authoritarian governmental responses such as those we have seen here in Guilford County and in the state of North Carolina.

Leaders need to think before they act. That unfortunately has not happened here in North Carolina. And whose who are supposed to be providing the usual checks and balances have been hiding with their tails tucked between their legs.

Roy Cooper and Dan Forest and Phil Berger and Tim Moore and Nancy Vaughan and Jeff Phillips Need to Read This

We have an epidemic in the state of North Carolina. It is an epidemic of elected officials unilaterally revoking the constitutional rights and civil liberties of their "subjects". The epidemic has spread from one public official to the next, and then to the next.

I have a message for Roy Cooper and Dan Forest and Phil Berger and Tim Moore and Jeff Phillips and Nancy Vaughan. They all need some continuing education. They all ought to be required to do some reading and coursework.

One place they should start is an article written by the constitutional attorney Robert Barnes. It describes how elected officials are using the COVID-19 situation to take away our fundamental rights-- i.e., our constitutional rights and civil liberties. Barnes describes how numerous rights are being taken away.

Mr. Berger and Mr. Moore need to be particularly attentive to an article prepared by Daniel Horowitz who argues that state legislatures must restrain the prerogatives that governors and local officials feel they possess to take away our rights. He states leaders like Berger and Moore ought to do the following:

• Require that any violation of the Constitution under the guise of stemming an epidemic expire after seven days. In order to renew it, the governor would need to submit clear findings to the legislature and publicize them online articulating why this is the least restrictive means necessary to achieve the goal.
• Address the parameters of why some functions are deemed essential and weigh them against the public safety concerns.
• No top-level state official may get paid until the severe lockdown orders are rescinded.
• Stop the unaccountable release of criminals.
• Within the home rule parameters of state laws, rein in the edicts of some cities that are taking these measures too far.
• There must be a rigorous debate about the underlying data driving specific strategies and whether they are really prudent.

All of these elected officials need to understand that, while they might feel empowered to act under certain laws or ordinances or statutes, the highest laws that supersede all the others are the North Carolina State Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. They cannot claim any statute or ordinance gives them authority if it results in violating either constitution.

This requires, of course, that they READ and understand each constitution. They can find them here and here. In the case of the North Carolina State Constitution, reading Article I is particularly important.

But continuing education is also critical. Accordingly, I think Cooper and Forest and Berger and Moore and Phillips and Vaughan need to take a Constitution course. I recommend the course offered by the Institute on the Constitution.

Let's sum up. These elected officials need to understand how our Constitutions are being systemically suspended and violated. They need to understand that their first obligation is to uphold each Constitution. They need to understand what each Constitution says. And they need very quickly to assure their own continuing education so they are up to speed.

GOP County Commissioners' Board Locks Down Guilford County

Boy, I sure am glad we have a Republican majority on the Guilford Board of County Commissioners.

Yesterday, the Board, in conjunction with the cities of Greensboro and High Point, initiated a deeper economic shutdown in Guilford County. In addition, they ordered that citizens be confined to their homes. They used the force of government and the threat of criminal citations to achieve these ends.

The board chairman, Jeff Phillips said the following: 

"We are asking our residents to work with us as we work to hold back the spread of this disease."

Of course, there is no "ask" involved. The county issued an order with the force of law, involving governmental coercion.

This announcement was made even though Trump had already been verbalizing the need to begin reversing the shutdowns. He had expressed a desire to get churches open by Easter; but Phillips' edict extends past Easter, until April 16.

The order was delivered immediately before jobs numbers were released that suggested over three million new unemployment claims. Those numbers are expected to worsen.

They are now calling it "stay-at-home" since it sounds nicer than "shelter in place". But there continues to be no effort or attempt to limit the forced quarantine measures to the vulnerable populations-- the elderly and those with medical circumstances that place them at increased risk. There has been no attempt to tailor and limit these shutdowns in a rational manner. And that has been true for both democratic socialist and Republican political leaders.

Within the medical community, there is an increasing recognition that the best route is to protect the most vulnerable, and to allow the rest of the population to develop "herd immunity". Even an epidemiologist at Oxford is questioning the doomsday scenarios and projections being circulated.

There is another aspect to this story that is most interesting. Apparently, Phillips and other elected officials have been pressured by the CEO of Cone Health. But perhaps we ought to refresh our memories as to the previous political and cultural activism of that large organization. It advocated for Obamacare. It recently sponsored the "pride" festival in downtown Greensboro, implying support of the LGBT agenda that results in persecution of Christians. It opposed State Treasurer Dale Folwell's plan to save taxpayers money by bringing hospital reimbursements for those covered by the State Health Plan back to reality. This all lends some insight regarding political orientation.

In my thirty years of medical practice, it has been my impression that health system CEO's act in their own best interests. Abner Doon has previously reported that this particular CEO's renumeration has been in excess of $1.5 million per year.

The response of the left to the coronavirus epidemic magically coincides with a planned decimation of the economy to further its desire to unseat the current president. But the stupid Republicans-- lapdogs that they are-- graciously acquiesce. Constitutional rights and civil liberties are blithely tossed aside.

In North Carolina, we are fortunate. Our climate is warmer than that in most areas worst hit by the virus. North Carolina is also much less dense than those areas affected severely by the virus, and relies much less on mass transit. These are hopeful signs that our problems may not be as severe as those seen in Europe, New York, the left coast and China.

My home town-- tiny Staten Island-- has had 1,166 cases of the coronavirus, and 21 fatalities. That is much more than the 608 cases and two deaths in the entire state of North Carolina thus far. Many Staten Islanders spend at least three hours per day in crowded, confined mass transit catching various infectious diseases. (My own mother still lives there. She is "sheltering in place", and is at elevated risk.)

Thus far this year, we have had roughly 20,000 flu-related fatalities. This is not unusual; and the annual, seasonal flu epidemic does not typically trigger mass panic, closures and economic shutdowns.

And we have not yet even begun to discuss the content of the bills recently passed by Congress, or the actions of the Fed. Hint: the bill just passed by the Republican-led Senate had over 800 pages.

The Response of Our Elected Leaders to COVID-19 Warrants Grave Concern