Political Hacks, Medical Quacks, and Impractical Masks

[XLFD]

"ANYBODY can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy.”   -Aristotle from The Art of Rhetoric

These words of wisdom were once again uttered by Ludington City Councilor David Bourgette (above left) last night after he described the needless strife that has been created due to the six mask mandates Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has issued over the last four months.  These have fostered some compliant mask-wearers giving grief to those who do not wear masks in public (for whatever reason).  

The new resolution came out of the City's Finance and Personnel Committee who had a 'meeting' (not available to the general public) to discuss it for the first time yesterday afternoon.  It was already premade in the packet three days prior on p. 31-2.  One might think this should have been better included in a Public Safety Committee agenda, but as we will see, this topic has nothing to do with public safety.  

This appears to be an otherwise harmless resolution in support of people wearing face masks in public settings, 'encouraging' citizens and businesses to follow the protocols envisioned in the executive orders and in so doing could just be easily dismissed as 'busy work' for city leaders looking for something to do even if it is primarily symbolic and not substantive.  

But the last clause changes the dynamic of the rest of the resolution by giving the police department a power fully-sanctioned by the resolution's passage by council.  The convoluted fourth clause effectively allows the LPD to enforce (i.e. write $500 tickets) to those businesses and individuals who they believe are not in compliance with the executive order.  

Unlike the executive order this resolution is based on, it does not have ten exemptions clearly stated that would allow somebody to not wear a face mask in a public setting.  Nor does the resolution have any words like the resolution has saying:  "Nothing... shall be taken to abridge protections guaranteed by the state or federal constitution under these emergency circumstances"

By their eventual passing of this ordinance, with only Councilor Bourgette voting against it, they have only muddied the waters further in the mask controversy and have set themselves up for potential legal liability by saying that it is City policy to enforce the executive order on those who cannot comply and do so because it is perilous to their health or otherwise infringing on their constitutional protections.  

Councilor Bourgette correctly voted against the City resolution figuring it would only create more conflicts between maskers and facers, but failed to note that the conflicts created by the resolution could/would/should work against the City and its police department in the long run when people are given Draconian fines simply for having a medical condition, not enforcing the order properly (in the view of the LPD officer), or objecting to having their mug covered.

The City will obey this mandate from the state's executive autocrat even when there is no legitimate science to back up the policy of healthy people wearing masks in community settings.  Face it (unintended mask pun), before April there was no credible medical authority, not the CDC, the WHO, or even Dr. Tony Fauci who were rallying for healthy people wearing masks in community settings. 

They were all actively and openly against healthy people wearing masks in community settings even during the fatality-lined first month of COVID-19, until their minds slowly changed.  While the science that had been solidly against healthy people wearing masks in community settings for decades (even against more communicative respiratory diseases) also changed, albeit dramatically and without real proof, to fit with the new narrative eagerly consumed by the media and politicians looking on creating more political footballs to throw around in a presidential election year. 

These same folks have also sought to go against prior studies from 2005 that show chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) are extremely effective against past coronaviruses and this novel COVID-19 one as well.  Dr. Didier Raoult, perhaps the most respected doctor in France, had such spectacular success this year using HCQ to treat victims of COVID-19 that he said way back on February 25 that “it’s game over” for Coronavirus.

He and a team of researchers reported that the use of HCQ administered with both azithromycin and zinc cured 79 of 80 patients with only “rare and minor” adverse events. “In conclusion,” these researchers write, “we confirm the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine associated with azithromycin in the treatment of COVID-19 and its potential effectiveness in the early impairment of contagiousness.”

Yet politicians, Dr. Fraudsi, and the media were and still are portraying HCQ as dangerous and withholding potential life-saving treatments from patients due largely in part to the president's glowing endorsement of the HCQ cocktail and Big Pharma's reluctance to let people live for a mere $20 treatment of the wonder drugs.  How many people needlessly died this spring due to politics getting in the way? 

So wear a practically-useless face covering if you're scared of this rather weak virus-- and if you do get infected, don't seek HCQ treatments if you're scared of proving the theories of many other leading physicians one more time.  But don't restrict me and other healthy people from going barefaced in public and seeking out HCQ treatments if we get infected.  And don't encourage your local politicians to further limit everyone's options as to how they can best stay healthy when the science they will likely use is so corrupted by politics.

Thanks for having the correct amount of anger and courage at last night's meeting, Councilor Bourgette.  Aristotle would be proud of you.

[shinblind]

Am curious.

With the poorly conceived mandate on masks adopted by the city if in the upcoming August elections, you go to vote maskless, and a Karenistas reports you to the LPD, what law takes precedent? The City of Lud? The Gov's ? Common Sense?

Will you be fined and arrested for voting if you refuse to wear a mask?
Also curious how the rules of contamination are suspended in polling places?

Could this be another political ploy?

Strange times we live in.

[XLFD]

Shinblind,

I came to a similar "A-ha" moment when I woke up this morning.  Consider, the resolution appears without any prior discussion by council, even in committee, in the council packet on Friday July 24th in order to come before the Finance Committee and council on the 27th, the last meeting of the council before the August primary election.  A reading of the resolution shows there is no exceptions locally, not even for elections. 

There is no City-specific item on the ballot for August, so I don't see this as an attempt to suppress or disenfranchise votes for a local issue or candidate, unless one is talking of the District 2 (roughly Wards 4, 5 and 6) county commissioner race, where the incumbent Gary Castonia may benefit.  My belief is that this may have been a concern of one or more election worker maskholes worried about interacting with unclean facers, who went to the new chief and/or city manager and wanted extra protection against smiles.  It's our civic duty to go there and point our bare noses at them.   

If I go to my polling place (a church) on election day without a mask (which I will be doing), what set of rules will be applying to me?  That's the same question you asked, so it has affirmed my early morning revelation.  I will be attempting to find out the genesis behind this resolution.

[XLFD]

Our secretary of state defied election laws to steal $4.5 million from coronavirus relief funds to send everyone absentee ballot applications, many thousands that should have been off the voter rolls and many millions that never requested one in the first place.  She never had that power, she is still in denial that what she did was illegal and likely to disenfranchise the voters of Michigan by planting a very fertile ground for fraud to take place.  Of course she is, because once you break one law and get away with it, why not break more-- it's the new playbook for her party and one more reason to fight strongly against it rather than rolling over in compliance.  

[Willy]

X, does the ordinance state how this will be enforced and prosecuted including penalties?

[XLFD]

No, but the executive order does to an extent.  It says you have committed a misdemeanor and the 1976 emergency powers act says a fine of up to $100 can be imposed and a jail term of up to 90 days (which the EO does not permit-- yet).  The earlier act which often conflicts with the 1976 act, and what keeps her making these orders, does not offer penalties other than the misdemeanor charge, which she claims will be $500-- because she said so.  Total lawlessness; somebody needs to change the locks at the capitol in Lansing.

[XLFD]

I'd like to offer up the transcript of a 'viral' (no pun intended) video that came out the same day by America's Frontline Doctors on the steps of the Supreme Court.  Twitter and You-tube definitely do not like the message, claiming it is false and removes it from those location whenever they find it.  I for one appreciate that these doctors have honored their Hippocratic Oath in presenting their views on a variety of topics, especially their positive experiences in using HCQ cocktails on their Covid-19 patients with success, with the hope that the treatment can be made more available to the public.  

These are the doctors I trust, not the ones who make a lot of claims that turn out to be false, never own their mistakes, and endorse a course of action that assuredly leads the country down the path of economic and societal ruin.  And can't even throw a fricking baseball even after they become a mega-celebrity for the damage they caused.

[Willy]

Good find X. Here's another medical center that I"m impressed with that has had good results with HCQ. If I come down with Covid I'm heading straight for Henry Ford Hospital