Day 124: COVID-19 Let Freedom Ring

 

I attended a protest at the state capitol building in Sacramento today. It was a nice crowd. And by that I mean it was nice sized and made up of nice people. As Mrs Rodin remarked when I showed her the photos I had taken at the protest: “These people respect government.” To which I responded: “Why wouldn’t they? These people believe they are the government.”

President Trump put in an appearance:

There was a podium and several speakers along with music. The event started with the playing of the National Anthem and a prayer by a pastor. There were speeches by congressional candidates, one by the voice of the State of Jefferson, and a civil rights attorney.

I made four hand-made signs to carry in the crowd. I cut handholds in poster boards  with which to hold them and rotated them at intervals:

Bill Gates was pilloried with a picture of him holding a syringe and saying “Your body, my choice.”

There were some South Vietnam flags in appearance. They, like refugees from other communist countries, must truly wonder at how so many of their fellow citizens are throwing their civil rights away. Which would be fine if it were their rights, alone, that are being thrown away.

Here are more images from the crowd:

It was a nice, orderly protest. Pray we never have to storm the capitol the way the Romanians ended the Ceaușescu regime. You would think how Mussolini, Ceaușescu, and other tyrants died would give our politicians pause. But it seems to be a failing of the progressive leaders’ mind that they can ever conceive of loss of control and what that would bring. Their gated communities, Pretorian guards, soirees, and the flattery of their retinues make them secure in their own minds regardless of reality.

The people showed up today, politely and respectfully. Don’t make us come back in a foul or desperate mood.

[Note: Links to all my COVID-19 posts can be found here.]

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  1. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Great! Loved the “back alley haircuts”

    • #1
  2. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    So, you’ll have to give a report on the news coverage about it. 

    How many people do you think we’re there?

    • #2
  3. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    That was awesome!!  Thank you for going and reporting!!  Boots on the ground – can you imagine the 4th of July? 

    • #3
  4. Hugh Member
    Hugh
    @Hugh

    It feels like The Tea Party.

    • #4
  5. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Well done, @rodin. I love your signs–especially “No Back Alley Haircuts”! I’m so encouraged to see people out there, making a stand doing it peacefully. Thanks for sharing your experience.

    • #5
  6. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Love the Washington Cruisers flag.   I only wish we could get this going in Illinois.  Mired in court cases, lacking in liberty.

    • #6
  7. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Jules PA (View Comment):

    So, you’ll have to give a report on the news coverage about it.

    How many people do you think we’re there?

    Haven’t seen the news reports yet. I am not great at estimating. A FB post by the organizers said “thousands” and I would agree that there were certainly more than a thousand. Apparently some bussed up from SoCal so they would have had a handle on how big the group would be.

    • #7
  8. Blondie Thatcher
    Blondie
    @Blondie

    Nicely done, Rodin. NC is in phase 2 where restaurants can be open to 50% but not gyms or bars or outdoor gatherings. Well, don’t tell that to the folks in Alamance county at Ace Speedway. They had the first race of the season. Estimated attendance is 5,000. Don’t think they’ve had that many there in a while. 

    • #8
  9. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Fortunately, Newsom is weak. He looks more like a gigolo to me than a Nazi.  Half-Whitmer in Michigan is more the Nazi type.

    Glad I moved to AZ 3 years ago.

    • #9
  10. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    No masks in evidence either. 

    • #10
  11. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    No masks in evidence either.

    There were some wearing masks, but you are correct that nearly everyone was not. I happened to wear a mask, but only because it would be irresponsible for me to bring the virus back to Mrs Rodin’s 90 year old mother and/or came down with anything leaving Mrs Rodin and her mother to fend for themselves for a period of time. I don’t think there was much risk of that, but it was not a big deal to wear it while I was in the crowd. I’ve gotten used to wearing it in the grocery stores and drug stores so its not that big a deal. It’s health theater for the most part. (Like security theater at the airports. My G-d we have become sheeple.)

    • #11
  12. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    I am so glad you went there. 

    These demonstrations are the only things that will make this madness stop. 

    The politicians are really nuts to ignore their constituents. The frustration level is sky high right now. 

    • #12
  13. Al French of Damascus Moderator
    Al French of Damascus
    @AlFrench

    Rodin (View Comment):

    Jules PA (View Comment):

    So, you’ll have to give a report on the news coverage about it.

    How many people do you think we’re there?

    Haven’t seen the news reports yet. I am not great at estimating. A FB post by the organizers said “thousands” and I would agree that there were certainly more than a thousand. Apparently some bussed up from SoCal so they would have had a handle on how big the group would be.

    AP said “hundreds”.

    My wife is Vietnamese and follows the news on conservative Vietnamese websites. I think a bunch of the Vietnamese people there came up from Orange County. Her source said 10,000 people were there, but I don’t know how accurate that is.

    • #13
  14. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

     

    • #14
  15. Hammer, The Inactive
    Hammer, The
    @RyanM

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I am so glad you went there.

    These demonstrations are the only things that will make this madness stop.

    The politicians are really nuts to ignore their constituents. The frustration level is sky high right now.

    I don’t know… I just spent way too long reading the comments in a recent WSJ article. A lot of people there believing that ending the lockdowns is insanity and that it will be another slow boil to a massive second wave this fall. And, of course, everyone is looking at the same numbers. Both sides say “look at Florida!” (“Doing great,” or “huge spike and fudged numbers”) problem, of course, is that we don’t really know enough, so there are a lot of plausible but flatly contradictory theories out there.

    I did see this, though, which was interesting:

    https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/washington

    (Looks like I copied the link while looking at WA, but it’s all states. Similar trends everywhere, lockdown or not. I may not be smart enough to glean anything useful, though.)

    • #15
  16. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Hammer, The (View Comment):

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I am so glad you went there.

    These demonstrations are the only things that will make this madness stop.

    The politicians are really nuts to ignore their constituents. The frustration level is sky high right now.

    I don’t know… I just spent way too long reading the comments in a recent WSJ article. A lot of people there believing that ending the lockdowns is insanity and that it will be another slow boil to a massive second wave this fall. And, of course, everyone is looking at the same numbers. Both sides say “look at Florida!” (“Doing great,” or “huge spike and fudged numbers”) problem, of course, is that we don’t really know enough, so there are a lot of plausible but flatly contradictory theories out there.

    I did see this, though, which was interesting:

    https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/washington

    (Looks like I copied the link while looking at WA, but it’s all states. Similar trends everywhere, lockdown or not. I may not be smart enough to glean anything useful, though.)

    That’s interesting. The Mass General test which looked at a truly random sample of people in three towns that were hit hard by the virus just outside Boston was surprised to learn that only 10 percent of the population tested positive for antibodies. They concluded that the other 90 percent had still not been exposed. 

    I’m not sure that’s as bad as it sounds in terms of herd immunity. If people have innate immunity, they do not necessarily have antibodies. (I can’t find the article I read that in.) So those people would not have tested positive in either test. I have long believed that some people do have innate immunity, which has been my theory as to why 80 percent of the passengers on the Diamond Princess did not test positive for the disease. I just can’t believe that that many people escaped exposure. The passengers who eventually tested positive had been freely walking around the ship for perhaps as long as a week before they came down with debilitating symptoms. In close quarters, it’s inconceivable to me that more passengers would not have been exposed than tested positive. 

    There will probably be a second wave in November, although there might be a mutation in the virus and it might go away. That’s what researchers think happened with the first SARS virus in 2003. It’s also theorized that’s what caused the Spanish flu to dissipate. It wasn’t until forty years later that a vaccine was produced. The other thing that could happen, and I think it will, is that a really hot summer followed by a really cold fall and winter where we have good deep freezes could slow it down or kill it off too. That’s a very strong possibility given the weather patterns we’re looking at for 2020 and 2021. 

     

    • #16
  17. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    But no matter what happens with the virus sickening people at this point and going forward, this lockdown of civil society cannot keep going. It’s not an answer to the problem. It’s an extremely dangerous path to pursue any further.

    I’m surprised at the WSJ commenters remaining committed to the quarantine idea to control the spread of the disease. I canceled my subscription at the end of March. At that point, their coverage was scaring me. I really couldn’t sleep because of it. But I would have thought by now the reporters and editors would have nudged the readers to seeing the negative side effects as overwhelming any good that the quarantine measures have accomplished.

    I think the WSJ did an amazing job in their coverage of this story. I’m not criticizing them. I just couldn’t process the story emotionally anymore. My daughter Carrie is living in Manhattan, and I knew New York would be the hardest hit in our country. And I knew Boston would be next. I was right on both counts.

    • #17
  18. Mim526 Inactive
    Mim526
    @Mim526

    Rodin (View Comment):
    I happened to wear a mask…. it was not a big deal to wear it while I was in the crowd. I’ve gotten used to wearing it in the grocery stores and drug stores so its not that big a deal.

    This makes me sad, and I can’t fully explain why.  No personal judgment of @rodin.

    Thanks for the photos and post.  Good to have a recap from one of the US areas of COVID-19 focus.

    • #18
  19. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    You know…another good thing might come out of this. Might, I say, for we (human beings, and some more than others)  are awfully slow at learning lessons…

    It is not easy to control, by force, a whole population. Perhaps especially a whole population of Americans.  There’s been some serious  overreach— contradictory instructions, .obvious hypocrisy and mendacity (haircuts!), the misuse of police officers who have been asked to enforce obviously stupid and/or harmful rules, and a notably silly “debate” between self-interested politicians about who does and does not have “blood on his hands.” 

    If the Wuhan Woo-Hoo was, indeed, a dress rehearsal for the imposition of Socialism, it was pretty amateurish. 

     

     

     

     

    • #19
  20. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Al French of Damascus (View Comment):

    AP said “hundreds”.

    My wife is Vietnamese and follows the news on conservative Vietnamese websites. I think a bunch of the Vietnamese people there came up from Orange County. Her source said 10,000 people were there, but I don’t know how accurate that is.

    AP was clearly low-balling it. Not sure 10,000 people were there. In the image below I have highlighted the areas where people were in three protests I observed — May 1 (red), May 7 (yellow) and May 23 (green). Yesterday’s was the largest with the May Day event being next in size. The May Day event was actually two events with a vehicle protest and people on foot. So if you count the vehicles the May Day event was probably the most significant of the three. It was the one where the crowd surged to the front of the capitol building and were pushed back by a line of California Highway Patrol officers in riot gear. After that event, CHP has secured the grounds with fencing and all other protests have been barred from actually being on the capitol grounds.

     

    • #20
  21. Ray Kujawa Coolidge
    Ray Kujawa
    @RayKujawa

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    That was awesome!! Thank you for going and reporting!! Boots on the ground – can you imagine the 4th of July?

    Unfortunately, in Seattle, there will be no fireworks, and Seafair events all though the month of July and first week of August have been cancelled. But I’m willing to bet the informal events in the surrounding ‘burbs will be bigger than ever.

    We are getting seriously concerned that our major chamber music festival that goes on for four weeks in July will be cancelled, because our governor is not fully opening King county until July 13. He’s doing three week staging, and King county will be the last to open. If he had followed the president’s task force recommendations, he would be using two week phases.

    • #21
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