Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

Corona Bio Freakout was so effective power grab and freedom
effort destabilizer it's now being given a second go... endless.

https://news.yahoo.com/china-reports-h5n8-avian-flu-135815387.html
https://nypost.com/2021/03/12/russia-warns-of-human-to-human-transmission-of-bird-flu-strain/

Upside... they figure you'll just eat those cull birds,
a fair trade for shutting and locking down your regular
chicken economies and other arbitrary "non-essential"
business work to provide for yourself...
"We're totally sold out of chicken and we've had people call us to
service them and we cannot take on anymore business, and that's not a
good place. -- Sanderson Poultry"



https://campusreform.org/article?id=17320
Johns Hopkins Doctor: Closed-Schools Are An "American Disgrace"



https://mises.org/wire/how-covid-put-end-your-right-due-process
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/04/non-essential-jobs-daren-wiseley.html
https://mises.org/power-market/another-right-abolished-governments-covid-lockdown-right-speedy-trial

How COVID Put An End To Your Right To Due Process

Authored by Daren Wiseley via The Mises Institute,

Over a year ago, the covid panic shook the world. We were told it
would only be “15 days to flatten the curve” as businesses were locked
down, “nonessential” employees were forced out of work (I’ve written
about the myth of the nonessential employee here), masks were
mandated, and individuals were not allowed to gather in groups or
attend religious services.

In typical fashion, a government-mandated “temporary” usurpation of
liberty turned into an indefinite infringement, as shown by the fact
that we’re still under covid orders four hundred days later.
Regardless of the length of time, the question remains that few have
asked: What authority does the government have to lock us down and
force us out of work?

This brings us to the issue of due process, which at minimum requires
the right to appear in front of a judge and represent oneself to a
jury of his peers before being stripped of essential liberty. Did the
thousands of businesses closed and millions put out of work get this
opportunity? Of course not. They were unilaterally stripped of their
ability to put food on the table and pay their bills without any
opportunity to object.
Sick until Proven Healthy

The concept of “quarantine” has been well established in American
jurisprudence for well over one hundred years. When an individual is
sick, and at risk of infecting others, the individual could be put in
quarantine or isolation by a court until they are no longer
infectious. Quarantine still requires basic due process. The
individual subject to potential quarantine is still entitled to a
court proceeding and evidence must be established of the individual’s
risk to public health.

The past year has placed the entirety of the United States in de facto
quarantine under the perceived threat of spreading covid. While
quarantine is for the sick, most of those subject to the long list of
restrictions have been healthy. Not a single person affected has had
the opportunity to get in court and object. These blanket measures
have denied every single citizen the constitutional right to due
process they supposedly possess. Deemed sick until proven healthy,
unfortunately, no one has had the opportunity to even prove their
health. Governments have argued that “stay-at-home” orders are not
quarantine as a way to end-run the issue. If that is the case, where
do they get their authority? Neither the US Constitution nor that of
any of the states provides an exception to due process in the case of
a pandemic. Many states have relied on ambiguous statutes meant for
use in a foreign invasion to justify these actions, but anyone who
looks at the scenario objectively can see that there are no “pandemic
exceptions” to due process of law. These powers were made up out of
thin air, with absolutely no authority to grant itself this power.
Eviction Moratorium

If the lockdowns weren’t enough, all but seven states issued
moratoriums on evictions or foreclosures, allowing tenants to squat on
landlord property rent-free until further notice. It gets worse:
landlords are still stuck with fulfilling the basic legal duties of
landlord-tenant law, such as the warranty of habitability, even though
they are receiving nothing in return. A landlord is not receiving rent
for someone staying on his property, and is not allowed to evict a
squatter from the land, stuck without the ability to use his property.

The landlord’s property is essentially taken as a result of his
deprivation, clearly a government “taking.”

In a saner world, this would be regarded as a violation of the
property rights ostensibly protected by the Fifth Amendment of the
Bill of Rights. The basic idea there is that a property owner must be
provided “just compensation” when private property is taken by a
government agency. This can be violated in at least two ways. First,
the landlord has his property taken and given to someone else without
ANY compensation as a result of the moratoriums, flying in the face of
the idea of “just compensation.” Second, the landlord is denied the
right to a hearing to contest the taking, even though this is
typically permitted in an eminent domain case. Certainly, the lack of
ability to object to the property taken without a hearing is a
violation of due process of law. Where does the authority rest to take
property with no compensation and deny a hearing on the matter? As
previously stated, there is no “pandemic exception”—another example of
government granting itself authority out of thin air.

Compounding these issues are violations of the right to a speedy trial
(as mentioned in the Sixth Amendment of the Bill of Rights.) Courts
around the country closed during the covid lockdowns, and since
opening up have been left with an incredibly lengthy backlog. Many are
still only doing proceedings via video after reopening. Defendants
wait months and months in jail, as Ryan McMaken has written about
here. The threat to basic due process rights should be obvious.

With states starting to end their eviction moratoriums, many landlords
are still not receiving rent for those on their property. While they
should be allowed to evict a delinquent tenant, the court backlog
makes this impractical. With court proceedings delayed months due to
the shutdowns, landlords are stuck with their property occupied by
squatters indefinitely. The legal system prohibits a landlord from
exercising the right of eviction on his own, requiring the landlord to
do so via the courts. The delay on the landlord’s ability to use his
own property until an indefinite court date, on which the court may
still rule against him or grant the tenant a stay for more time, is
another way landlords are deprived of due process under the covid
orders.
Conclusion

The essential liberties Americans are told are protected by the Bill
of Rights, such as freedom of assembly and religion, the ability to
redress government, the right to a speedy trial, and due process of
law, whatever they were prior to, have been routinely ignored in
response to covid.

The past year has made it ever more clear that due process and
property rights—no matter how explicitly protected in both the federal
and in state constitutions—are mere inconveniences to governments
imposing their will on residents within their jurisdictions. These
arms of the state will always use lawyers and judges to twist the law
to achieve the ends they desire, granting the state whatever power is
necessary to accomplish a desired goal. This abomination to natural
rights shreds apart the fantasy that Americans live under a “limited
government” system. Government power is instead limited only by the
ambitions of those that occupy it. I’m sure Lysander Spooner would be
saying, “I told you so.”