Seven Rules for Thee, Not for Me: Whitmer Covid-19 Edition

[XLFD]

Two recent missteps by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer seem to show that the executive orders she issued throughout last year and emergency orders she effectively issued through the health department after the Michigan Supreme Court limited her autocratic powers, should not apply to her.  This continued a trend Michiganders saw last year during the early months of the pandemic when people lost their livelihoods and were fined by the state for doing lesser violations of what many have asserted were among the most arbitrary rules in the nation, while their governor flouted them at least five times.  

Let's look back at Governor Whitmer and her high profile violations, while also taking a look at some people and businesses that did the same thing and got in trouble from the governor's administration for it. 

1) The latest transgression happened at the Landshark Bar & Grill in Lansing.  Governor Whitmer is among 13 diners all sitting together at the same table.  The latest orders from MDHHS issued on May 15th, allowed only six or less people at a table, showing that Whitmer was not willing to allow gatherings she and her progressive friends were happily taking part in.  

A long list of restaurants have been either fined, lost liquor licenses, or received other sanctions for violating some rather mundane aspects of health orders.  Buddy's Diner was fined $6300 two weeks ago for not having a response and preparedness plan!  These have been aggressively enforced by the Whitmer administration to further hobble small businesses across Michigan.

2) While strongly advising her fellow citizens not to travel to southern states for spring break, and strongly suggesting that you were a selfish Covid spreader if you did, Whitmer flew down to Florida (ran by a governor with a much different philosophy) for a couple of days in March 2021 to visit her father.  'It is saddening. It is a two-day trip. I wasn't partying in Miami.', she would say in her defense.  Two of her top aides, including Michigan's health director, vacationed in southern states despite the state recommendations not to.

In Pontiac on April 2nd (before her secret trip was uncovered), Whitmer shared her reaction to the number of new COVID cases and weighed in on spring break travel. She said that Michigan does not have a COVID policy problem, that it has a compliance problem. People are flying into hot spots and flying back to Michigan with COVID.  She told everyone that listened:  “No. 1 state with the most variants is Florida. The No. 2 state is Michigan right now. Anyone who lives here, there is a lot of travel back and forth and those are the numbers.”

3 & 4)  In July and August 2020, Whitmer violated her own draconian outdoor gathering rules twice in short order, first going to Camp Grayling where over 700 people gathered, and then at Hillsdale College for a commemoration for former Governor Milliken attended by about 500 people in an amphitheater.  Outdoor gathering limits were 250 at the time.

At the same time, the state was actively trying to shut down Michigan Adventure and other popular amusement parks across the state willing to operate in as safe a manner as possible, and even force drive-in theaters to the arbitrary 250 limitation.

5) In June 2020, after George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, Gretchen marched shoulder to shoulder with Lansing protesters, removing her mask to talk at times.   Her orders at the time required folks to social distance outside, and when that was impossible to mask up, gathering limits were also in order.  

Previously, the Whitmer Administration helped shut down FiveCap in Scottville, a non-profit business ran by a person of color that helped poor folks get through the pandemic.  Their crime:  not social distancing enough and seeming to have non-essential workers present.  

6) In May 2020, Whitmer's husband was caught traveling to their Elk Rapids property, she weakly defended the travel by saying he was there to rake leaves (he would later try to use his connection to gain special favors from a local marina) and that it was allowed because it was travel between their two residences.  "Long distance travel is discouraged unless it is for a purpose considered critical under the governor’s ‘Stay Home, Stay Safe’ Executive Order." was the guidance at the time; raking leaves was not considered a critical purpose.

Travel between two residences at the time was not specifically allowed.  Whitmer would later divide Michigan into regions, putting Elk Rapids into a region with relaxed regulations over the summer months.  Coincidence?  At the time, police agencies were encouraged by the administration to actively restrict travel that was not for a critical purpose, allowing police to initiate a traffic stop if reasonable suspicion existed that executive orders were being broken.  

7) On March 24, 2020, Whitmer shut down all businesses not considered essential.  Three days later, President Trump first used the phrase "that woman from Michigan" to refer to her and her strict, capricious rules.  On April 1st, she appeared on a network remotely with a t-shirt with that phrase on, indicating that some non-essential business had made her a custom t-shirt in that short time during which the order was still in force.  Whether she ordered the shirt to be made or not, it was evidence that she was at least complicit in breaking her own order.  

While home improvement stores were essential businesses, just two days later, Attorney General Dana Nessel, acting on Whitmer's orders, targeted Menard's for potentially endangering customers and employees by 'providing a bunch of unnecessary or non-essential goods'.  "You don't need to go out and buy paint to paint your rooms or mulch for your garden. These aren't things shoppers and consumers should be going to pick up." 

This policy would morph into bans on seeds, motorboats, and other items, policy that we should be able to look back and laugh at for their absurdity, and  remember for the 2022 election if one should actually consider voting for this hypocritical weasel and the rules that she imposes on others and doesn't follow herself.

[Dave]

I don't see her getting re-elected, going to be tough for some of the people that voted for her in the past that are/were small business owners to want to sign on to someones agenda that either nearly cost them their business or did force them to close their business. I've seen some people defending her on this most recent transgression either saying that 'why are we bothering with this, its not big deal' or that 'sometimes you forget something'... of course the people that suggest it was no big deal would be the first ones condemning her if she was a republican, the people suggesting it was just her being forgetful would maybe have a case if the beloved governor hadn't for a good part of the last year repeatedly told us to have no more than 6 people at a table, if there is anyone that has no excuse to forget its her!

[Barney Reinberg]

[Barney Reinberg]

Governor Whitmer doesn't follow the "science".  She follows the privilege.

[Willy]

Right on the money X about the incredible hypocrisy we in Michigan must put up with. She and the left are a scourge and poison to America achieving a better life for all. 

Good points Dave.

You are correct Barney!

[Willy]

The Covid19 has been a trial run for the Marxist for the take over of the US. They have found a fast, efficient and easy way to control a society willing to eagerly give up their freedoms and rights. This is a no brainer for the Socialist Marxist Democrats who are in league with Communist China and Russia's Putin. Hold on to your hats. The Country has started it's slide down the tubes with the first few months of Biden's reign showing exactly where we are headed. Whitmer is a small but significant clog in that gear but a major tyrant who has sufficiently convinced the citizens of Michigan that what she has done is for their own good.

[Willy]

Well said LL. Good points all around. If everyone was as well informed as you, this Country would not be in the trouble it is in.