Tag: lockdowns

Manitoba bans in-store sales of non-essential items, visitors to homes with some exceptions

Manitoba is clamping down harder on private gatherings and businesses selling non-essential items in an effort to slow the alarming rise in new coronavirus infections in the province.

New COVID-19 public health orders will forbid people from having anyone inside their home who doesn’t live there, with few exceptions, and prohibit businesses from selling non-essential items in stores.

Previous orders that came into effect last week allowed gatherings at private residences of up to five people beyond those who normally live there, although Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin and others pleaded with Manitobans to stay home and only go out for essential items.

“Despite that, we saw people gathering at rallies, we saw crowded parking lots at big box stores, we saw people continue to go out for non-essential items,” Roussin said at a news conference Thursday.

“So we’re left with no choice but to announced further measures to protect Manitobans, to limit the spread of this virus.”

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Virginia AG Blocks Gun Show: ‘Selling Guns Is Just Not Worth It’

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) boasted Thursday about restricting a Fairfax County gun show, citing Coronavirus concerns and tweeting that “selling guns is just not worth it.”

WTOP reported that organizers of the Nation’s Gun Show sought an injunction against Virginia Coronavirus restrictions that would cap show attendance at 250 at one time. The show organizers expected to draw up to 25,000 attendees throughout the weekend of November 20-22.

But Herring argued for the restrictions, claiming the show organizers are “brazenly misinformed” regarding the danger posed by the virus.

Herring used a brief to contend, “The ongoing pandemic has infected more than 200,000 Virginians since March and has killed nearly 4,000 — more than four times the number of automobile fatalities that occurred in all of 2019.”

Virginia Business reports that Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Brett A. Kassabian sided with Herring, rejecting the call for an injunction to block the restrictions.

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COVID In Minnesota: Gov. Walz Unveils Restrictions On Social Gatherings, Restaurants, Gyms, Youth Sports

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has announced new COVID-19 restrictions that will impact social gatherings, restaurants, gyms and sports for four weeks.

The restrictions are in effect between Friday at 11:59 p.m. and Friday, Dec. 18. In-person social gatherings with people outside of your household are prohibited. Bars and restaurants will have to go take-out only. Gyms and entertainment spaces will need to close, and wedding receptions, private parties and celebrations will also be restricted. Adult and youth sports will be put on pause, but college and pro sports are exempt.

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Gavin Newsom’s French Laundry Outing Crystallizes the Arrogance of COVID-19 Dictators

As J.D. Tuccille notes, this sort of double standard is par for the course during the COVID-19 epidemic, when politicians such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.), Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D), and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.) have felt free to flout the disease control safeguards that mere mortals are told to observe. “We’re expected to suffer discomfort, economic pain, and emotional distress or else pay fines and even serve jail time,” Tuccille writes. “Government officials, meanwhile, take offense when called out for violating the standards they created.”

While Newsom did not take offense, he did offer excuses, and he did not acknowledge that he was breaking the law he had laid down—not merely its “spirit,” but its specific requirements. “We certainly hope Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, enjoyed their dinner at the Michelin-starred restaurant,” The Sacramento Bee editorialized. “Because it will end up costing a lot more than $700 in terms of damage to Newsom’s credibility in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nothing will launder the stain of stupidity from his reputation after this ill-conceived outing.”

The paper also noted that Newsom’s children are attending private school while most public schools remain shuttered. “Newsom and the First Partner eschewed state public health guidelines to dine with friends at a time when the governor has asked families to scale back Thanksgiving plans,” the Bee observed. “If the governor can eat out with friends—and if his children can attend their expensive school—why must everyone else sacrifice?”

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Let celebrity culture burn: Hypocritical movie stars and politicians break their own Covid-19 advice while shaming the rest of us

One can argue to death the science behind the risk factors of Penn’s decision. He and Dorsey could both be negative for Covid-19, they are outdoors, etc. But there are no ifs, ands, or buts to his mask tweet or his ranting interviews on CNN. He makes no exceptions, so why should we? States like California have travel advisories in place, warning people to skip out on jetting around for the holidays, and mask mandates can be found all over the US. When was the last time you walked shirtless on a beach without a mask in Hawaii? 

The Covid-19 pandemic has put a cruel, yet honest light on celebrity culture in the US. From interviews about the pandemic with Stephen King to Penn, this light has revealed an ugly obsession with the idea of celebrity, as well as the need for many to connect celebrity status with intelligence and perspective, especially on the left. 

And this celebrity cult goes far beyond the star of ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ as this obsession with public figures has also infected politics, and it’s only been worsened during Covid.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo can’t tell New Yorkers enough about how their behavior has helped spread Covid-19 in his state. While he’s been running this shame campaign, however, Cuomo has traveled out of state and been seen without a mask.

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