guillaumeb
guillaumeb's JournalMask mandate lawsuits
In April, 2020, Darren Bailey filed suit against the mask mandate imposed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
In July, 2020, a downstate Judge upheld Bailey’s and issued an order voiding the mask mandate. That decision was appealed by Illinois AG Kwame Raoul.
In June, 2020, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau filed essentially the same lawsuits as were earlier filed by State lawmaker Darren Bailey and a restaurant in Geneva.
In October, 2020, after a closed session of the Village Board, Keith Pekau voluntarily dropped the lawsuit that the Village had filed. Was the closed session necessary so that taxpayers could not hear the discussion?
In December, 2020, Judge Raylene Grischow of the Sangamon County Circuit Court voided the earlier July 2 Court order.
Regarding the claim that Pritzker’s emergency powers ended on April 8, Grischow found that the state law in question — the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act — allows the governor to issue more than one 30-day disaster proclamation.
Judge Grischow wrote that her interpretation of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act is consistent with a 2nd District Appellate Court decision from November, in FoxFire Tavern LLC v. Pritzker, et al. In that case, a Kane County restaurant sued the governor for exceeding his authority under the law by imposing a ban on indoor dining and the appellate court ruled in favor of Pritzker.
“The Appellate Court expressly found that the IEMAA authorizes the Governor to issue successive disaster proclamations stemming from one ongoing disaster,” Grischow’s opinion states.
So why in June of 2020 did Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau file the same lawsuit. Why did the Mayor, then preparing for his re-election campaign, use taxpayer money to file another lawsuit? Was it done for publicity purposes?
During an Orland Park Chamber of Commerce Town Hall in February, 2021, Pekau said the village “didn’t have the money” to help small businesses recover from the pandemic.
But he filed essentially a “me too” lawsuit, using taxpayer money, and the Village held concerts, a food festival, and kept the pool open. And at the beginning of the pandemic, he even attacked a fellow village board member for advocating that the village should support small businesses.
Now, Keith Pekau has decided that his talents can better be applied on the national stage as he has filed to run for Congress in the GOP primary next year in the newly drawn Illinois 6th District. Will he speak of fiscal responsibility? Will he speak of his record of raising taxes in the village? Will he defend his fiscally disastrous decision to waste over $70,000 of taxpayer money on a frivolous, publicity seeking lawsuit?
The GOP is no longer a political Party.
It is now a faith.
Consider that all the things that GOP voters believe cannot be proven.
They still believe in supply side economics,
They still believe that they represent the majority,
They still believe that tax cuts for billionaires result in increased tax revenue,
They still believe that Bush actually won in 2000,
They still believe the corporate media, where over 90% of the outlets are owned by conservatives, is liberal,
They still believe that facts are part of a liberal conspiracy to indoctrinate their children,
They still believe that Trump won in 2020,
They still believe in the big Trump lie of massive electoral fraud,
and
They still believe that the Democrats were behind the January 6, 2021 sedition that tried to overthrow an election that was won by....................., wait for it, was won by the Democrats.
Clearly this Party is now a religion.
PS I say this as a Christian who does have faith, but I admit that my faith is unprovable.
"Natural immunity" is the latest fad among the Trump cultists.
In my area, one local medical professional is preaching the religion of natural immunity.
I wonder if he graduated from the Rand Paul school of fantasy medicine.
But for those who live in reality:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid-natural-immunity-what-you-need-to-know
A new study based on data from 187 hospitals in nine states found that mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are about five times more effective than a previous infection at preventing hospitalization. Among those hospitalized between January and September with COVID-like symptoms, anyone with a previous infection who remained unvaccinated was 5.49 times more likely to test positive than someone fully vaccinated.
https://hartfordhealthcare.org/about-us/news-press/news-detail?articleid=36892&publicId=395
and the appeal to “natural immunity” to the coronavirus and “natural herd immunity” as being inherently superior to vaccine-induced immunity or herd immunity from mass vaccination, which are denigrated as being somehow less than natural, artificial even—or even outright harmful. Never mind that achieving “natural herd immunity” requires that huge numbers of people be sickened and die of the disease, just as individual immunity from the disease requires the individual to be sickened and face the risk of severe disease and death.
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/natural-immunity-covid-19/
My Second Amendment "Constitutional originalist" version, with explanation.
Informed voters know that, in order to arrive at his interpretation of the real meaning of the Second Amendment, Antonin Scalia, the self-described Constitutional originalist who served on the SCOTUS, decided to literally dismiss half of the actual wording of the Amendment as, in his words, “merely prefatory”.
In that spirit, I have decided to turn my own Constitutional originalist lens on the Amendment, and explain what the founders really intended. Mine has the added attraction of being in line with their actual thinking, and their actions in forming the government and additional Agencies.
First, the unredacted Amendment reads:
“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
First, it is obvious that the first 2 clauses, “A well-regulated militia”, are the primary clauses. All of the rest of the Amendment explains those clauses. So, following the example of Antonin Scalia, I decided to dismiss the next two clauses as being merely referential to the primary clause, and not necessary in any interpretation of the Amendment.
Given that the founders refused to establish a standing army, instead stating that the new nation would rely on an organized militia for security and protection, the Amendment should read:
“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, will forthwith be established.
This version is in keeping with the intent of the founders, and eliminates any idea that everyone who feels the “need” for a weapon should have access to one.
The "modern" GOP is fueled by hate, and fear, and violence.
It has been since 1968.
It IS that simple.
And yes, the GOP is only concerned with the interests of the rich donors who actually run the Party, but they use hate, and fear, and violence to motivate their base.
I would love to read arguments that prove that my post is far too simplistic, and I will wait for those arguments.
Who is to blame?
Freedom versus freedumb.
Freedom recognizes that all rights are limited, and that with rights, come responsibilities.
Freedumb insists that it is unlimited.
Freedom recognizes that any person is merely one part of society.
Freedumb acts as if it is alone in the world.
Freedom recognizes limitations.
Freedumb never learns.
The GOP is all about freedumb as a characteristic of Libertarianism.
One of the people that I follow is a blogger named Shower Cap.
Here is a tiny bit of his latest:
https://showercapblog.com/sure-the-right-is-deifying-a-kid-for-killing-two-human-beingsbut-kamala-harris-bought-a-pot/
Feel free to look at his page.
PS, I am not Shower Cap, nor do I have any financial interest in his blog.
In the country of FOXlandia....
In the country of FOXlandia....Trump actually is a successful businessman.
In the country of FOXlandia....Trump is innocent of every accusation of sexual misconduct.
In the country of FOXlandia....Trump won the 2020 election, beating Biden by millions of votes.
I could continue, but it is fairly obvious that millions of apparently sane US citizens live in FOXlandia.
Can we reach them?
My thoughts on the Ahmad Arbery case:
The case of Ahmad Arbery, like that of Trayvon Martin, and so many others, involves white citizens stopping and killing black citizens because those black citizens are running.
Students of US history know that the first police forces in the southern US were slave patrols. Often, all white males were legally required to be part of the slave patrols, and they were generally required to be armed.
The foundation for this was that blacks were slaves, and their movements were strictly controlled by the white, slave holding class. Any black person outside could expect to be stopped and questioned. Especially a running person.
Consider the case of Ahmad Arbery. He was running for exercise in the area where he lived.
But he was a black male running.
As a white male, if I run in my area, or any area, it is assumed that I am exercising,
but if a black male is running, racists assume that he is running from something, or running away from someone. And that assumption is the foundation for why these white civilians felt empowered to go home, arm themselves, and literally hunt Arbery down, trapping him with their trucks, before killing him.
These white vigilantes could have called the police, and let them handle the situation, but they felt entitled and empowered to go out and arrest Arbery. The killers claimed to be making a citizen’s arrest, but Georgia law only allows for that if the citizen making the arrest saw a crime being committed, or has knowledge of the crime that was committed.
Neither situation applied, and all three were convicted. But that conviction does not change anything. It does not change the underlying assumption that if a black person is running, they are running away because, in the eyes of their white pursuers, they are guilty.
How do we, or can we, educate white people to reject the dead hand of the slaveholding past? How do we, or can we, educate armed white citizens to stop playing at being police? Self-defense is one thing, but these three convicted killers literally hunted Arbery down, then confronting him with weapons.
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