This is a concern, not so much based around disease control, but more of a testing of the power of the state once more. The Covid mandates, and lockdowns were a case study in state domination and control, and now the same thing has been seen in New York with the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, issuing a travel ban for an entire county. This forbids, by law people travelling at all, and is thus a return to lockdowns. The reason is that it is going to snow, and the paternalistic state wants to control peoples' travel.
As with the draconian lockdowns during Covid, and quarantine camps, the legal basis of the travel lockdowns is unclear, but that has not stopped the governor from doing it. Nowadays, after Covid, the elites just push ahead and leave it up to citizens to show that what they are doing is illegal.
https://brownstone.org/articles/conspiracy-theorists-were-right-about-climate-lockdowns/
"Well folks, I really hate to say this, but it's another win for the conspiracy theorists. They can take off their tinfoil hats and take a deep bow. Yet another one of their outrageous "predictions" is coming true. For anyone keeping score, sadly the score card is rather one-sided. I think the count is something like Conspiracy Theorists = 1,000,000 wins vs. Logic & Normalcy = 0 wins. Boy how I wish we could win some on the "Logic & Normalcy" scale!
So, I acknowledge that I do have a rather dry sense of humor. I throw sarcasm in there a bunch. A couple of my friends tell me they cannot always tell when I'm being serious or if I'm joking. This makes me think that quite a few of you will be wondering, "Is she serious or is she joking with the title to her article?" To that I answer, I will tell you what I know, and then you decide. (You know how I love to promote critical thinking)…
Yesterday, our unfortunate Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, issued a TRAVEL BAN for an entire county. You read that correctly. No, not a travel advisory, but a full on travel ban! Meaning, New Yorkers in Erie County are forbidden from going anywhere. What's another name for that? Well, if you live in a rural or very suburban area (which most of New York State is), where driving on a road is the way you get from point A to point B, then I would say a synonym would be "lockdown."
And what was Dictator Hochul's, I mean Governor Hochul's, reason for this lockdown of close to one million New Yorkers that live in Erie County? Wait for it. Ready? It was going to SNOW! For anyone who does not live in New York, or who has never been to Western New York in the winter, that area of our state gets a lot of snow. Often. And yet, the governor thinks (all of a sudden, out of nowhere) everyone living there is so ignorant, they must be confined to their homes until she says it's safe for them to rejoin the world again. Either that, or she's just testing you to see how far she can take her totalitarian desires. Or both.
For all the keyboard critics who love to jump in and twist my words, I'll cut you off at the pass and say that I am not admonishing a governor's desire to keep people safe in the wake of a storm. That's not at all what I am saying. If a natural disaster is approaching, people should be warned, emergency services ready to roll, and help made readily available. Encourage people to stock up, stay home, and hunker down? For sure! Forbid people from leaving their homes? NO.
There is a big difference between caring about New Yorkers' safety, and wanting to control people. Huge.
And in fact, Hochul was banning people from leaving their homes even if it was NOT snowing! Sound unbelievable? It sure does. But remember in my article last week, I cited an ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, who fittingly said, "The truth often evades being recognized due to its utter incredibility." Put another way, when something is so outrageous, it is often cast aside as untrue. Well, here's what comrade Kathy posted on her Twitter yesterday:
She went on to post several other times about the snow and her travel ban. I was actually encouraged to read that most of the comments she received were negative, logical rebuttals to her power grab. Here are a few…
Ok, so digging a bit into travel bans, you'll recognize that there have been travel bans based on big storms in the past here in New York. However, those are issued by the local government (i.e. County Executive), after a state of emergency is declared. They are not issued by the Governor, nor are they issued without an emergency declaration.
By the way, the travel ban is still in effect for most of Erie County today. Anybody surprised?
Does anyone see the correlation here between government overreach, their quest for "centralized" power, and their fear-mongering? It's the same thing the Governor and her DOH have been doing with their hideous "quarantine camp" regulation that I have been fighting in court for nearly two years now! The name of that case is Borrello v. Hochul, and you can read the details and case history here. Connecting the dots to the analysis at hand, you will note that the quarantine camp regulation tried to take the power from (elected) judges (in keeping with our law) who have the authority to temporarily quarantine sick, dangerous people, and shift that power to unelected, statewide, DOH employees and appointees who have zero accountability to We the People.
Under their quarantine camp reg, the Governor and her DOH would have centralized control over 19 million New Yorkers, to force you to lock down in your home, or they could force you (with the use of police) to go to a quarantine center/ facility/ camp (pick your noun), without any proof you are sick, indefinitely, with no procedure by which you can regain your freedom, and with no declared state of emergency! The fear factor used to try to justify the authoritarian power grab here is the threat of death…If we don't lock people up who are possibly exposed to a disease, then you might die. Swap out "possibly exposed to a disease" and put in its stead "unclean." What does that make you think of?
My next question: do you see any similarities here to Hochul's probably illegal climate lockdown? I say "probably illegal" because I couldn't find the supposed legal authority that she's relying upon to prohibit people from driving. If you know what she is relying upon, feel free to post it in the Substack comment section below.
Before you draw your own final conclusion about all this, I will add one last thing for you to consider. In December, a month before Hochul issued this Erie County travel ban, the (Democrat) County Executive, Mark Poloncarz, set up an online portal so residents could check and see if they would be deemed "essential workers" and thus exempt from any futuristic travel bans. Oh, and he coordinated with their "partners" in the federal government to come up with the list! Sound familiar, folks?!