The True Threat To Our Democracy - The Tyranny Of The Democrats, Part III (Newsom Goes After...Everyone?)

As Governor of the most populous state in the nation, what Gavin Newsom does is often copied by other states.  Given that the Democrats have super majorities in the State Assembly and State Senate, there is nothing to restrain their push for asserting government control over ever increasing aspects of our lives.

I was not aware of the fact that parents looking for toys for their children did not know how to shop properly.  I was not aware of the fact that private businesses needed to be told how to properly display their merchandise.  But now I know.  "A retail department store that offers childcare items or toys for sale shall maintain a gender-neutral section or area, to be labeled at the discretion of the retailer, in which a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys."  This law will apply to businesses physically within California, with 500 or more employees in the state.

Exactly what is the purpose of this law?  Is it to make it easier for parents to find toys for their children?  Really?  Without this law, parents would not be able to walk through the aisles and find a suitable toy for their child?  I don't buy it.  There are fines that go along with this law for those companies violating it.  

No, as I wrote years ago (see the post "My Ex-Wife," 7/20/14, and "My Ex-Son and Ex-Daughters," 10/19/14), the Democratic "progressives" are simply pushing us down the path of obliterating all distinctions between men and women, boys and girls.  Follow the science?  Not when they come up with 57 "genders."   

Here is another.  Public schools and colleges in California must now provide free menstrual products in their restrooms.  Why?  Here is the author of that bill:  "Just as toilet paper and paper towels are provided in virtually every public bathroom, so should menstrual products."  I could be wrong, but I believe toilet paper and paper towels are used by boys and girls, by men and women.  Are menstrual products used by men?  I'm sure I will be sorry that I asked that question. 

The True Threat To Our Democracy - The Tyranny Of The Democrats, Part II (Biden Goes After The Unvaccinated)

Honestly, I do not need to hear from anyone claiming that I am anti-vaccinations.  In a prior post, I made it clear that I had gotten 2 Pfizer injections and planned on getting a booster.  I have since had the booster.  In that earlier post I also said that I believe in the efficacy of vaccines, as they do have an excellent history of helping to eradicate disease in our country.  And, I do not understand some of the objections to the vaccines.

Having said that, there is a legitimate issue regarding the proper role of the federal government.  President Biden has asked his Labor Department to come up with an emergency rule that will compel private businesses with over 100 employees to require those employees to either be fully vaccinated or test negative every week.  It is estimated that as many as 80 million Americans could be affected by this new rule.  It is quite telling that Biden decided to have his Administration simply issue a rule, without seeking Congressional authorization.  It is also quite telling that the Democrats in Congress are not objecting to this usurpation of their power.  Just do not expect the mainstream media to assert that Biden is acting like a king or dictator.  

The federal government can mandate military personnel to be vaccinated.  My brother, a Viet Nam vet, recounted how he had to get multiple vaccines, for the plague, polio and malaria, among others.  States, having the general police power, have for a very long time required that children attending public schools get certain vaccinations.  However, it is unlikely that the federal government has the authority to demand that a large segment of the civilian population get vaccinated.  Joe Biden admitted as much - until he decided he was going to do it anyway.  

Here was Biden last month:  "Many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated, even though the vaccine is safe, effective and free."  And Biden made this incredibly ignorant comment:  "Our patience is wearing thin."  Maybe somebody ought to get him a copy of "How To Win Friends And Influence People," by Dale Carnegie.  In what universe does that kind of threatening remark by the President help to persuade people.  If I was advising him, I would have suggested giving facts and figures proving the efficacy and safety of the vaccines.  

I realize that facts alone will not necessarily persuade people to any point of view.  But the art of persuasion was definitely lacking in our President.  State and local governments, as well as private businesses, have followed Biden's lead.  It has been reported that dozens of State Troopers in Massachusetts have resigned because of vaccine mandates.  Such resignations are happening throughout the country.  I do believe that states likely have the power to insist on state employees getting vaccinated.  But in a time of rising crime, do we want fewer police?  Do we want fewer firefighters?  Do we want anyone losing their livelihood over this?  Everywhere I go I see "Help Wanted" and "Now Hiring" signs.  Do we need even more jobs going unfilled? 

It is somewhat ironic that during the campaign last year, then vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris said:  "...if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it (the vaccine), I'm not taking it."  To which Vice President Pence replied:  "We're going to have a vaccine in record time...And we're right now producing tens of millions of doses.  So the fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if the vaccine emerges during the Trump Administration, I think is unconscionable.  And Senator, I just ask you - stop playing politics with people's lives." 

If the vaccines protect the vaccinated, and if the unvaccinated are the ones getting sick and dying, then perhaps government mandates causing greater unemployment are not the answer.  Maybe all government officials who make the rules should take a look at Dale Carnegie's book.

The True Threat To Our Democracy - The Tyranny Of The Democrats, Part I (Biden Goes After Parents)

Recently, the National School Boards Association decided to ask the Biden Administration for some help.  Parents were showing up at school board meetings and objecting to the nonsense being taught to their children.  Alleging various threats, and citing only one example that could be construed as a criminal offense, the Board wanted Biden to treat these parents as "domestic terrorists," and sought prosecutions under the Patriot Act and federal hate crime laws.  You see, parents were disruptive, were shouting and acting like a mob.  The Board claimed, as all the talking heads on the left do, that no schools teach critical race theory (CRT); therefore the parents should have no complaints.

There have been numerous reports of children being taught CRT, even if under a different name.  Nevertheless, not wanting to alienate any part of their base, the Biden Administration dutifully complied with the School Boards' request.  On October 4, Attorney General Merrick Garland sent a memo to the Director of the FBI, the Director of the US Attorneys and the Assistant AG in charge of the Criminal Division in the Justice Department.  Here is part of the memo:  "In recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation's public schools.  While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views."

He then directed the FBI and the various United States Attorneys across the country to meet with federal, state, local, tribal and territorial leaders within 30 days.  Imagine that.  A federally run, nationwide task force to address what?  Unruly parents who are upset with the racist pedagogy being pushed on their children.  Where is the task force going after Antifa?  Or Black Lives Matter?  What is the AG doing about United States Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who was harassed and followed into a bathroom, no less, by left-wing immigration "activists."  How about a task force to go after the Palestinians and their supporters who have harassed and intimidated Jews?

The First Amendment to the Constitution provides, of course, for a right to free speech.  But it also provides for "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."  Does "peaceably" also mean that people must speak softly?  I don't think so.  Yes, I saw scenes of parents holding up signs against CRT.  I saw parents taking pictures and/or recording audio with their phones.  And I saw parents shouting.  How does any of that warrant a federal task force headed up by the FBI?  Are there no more local police and District Attorneys able to handle actual criminal violations?  The federal government has no business being involved in these local matters.

Does the FBI have nothing else to do?  See two paragraphs up.  Maybe they can also be used to determine who is entering our country illegally, with an estimated 2 million people likely to have entered during Biden's first year in office.  Are any criminals, members of gangs or criminal cartels, or terrorists crossing our borders?  No, the biggest threat seems to be parents fed up with left-wing propaganda being taught in the schools.  Terry McAuliffe, the once and hoping to be future governor of Virginia, said this:  "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."  Maybe not, if it was just about "reading, writing and arithmetic."  But when it comes to propagandizing their children into left-wing ideology, you better believe parents will be speaking up.  

Former US Representative James Sensenbrenner was a principal author of the Patriot Act (per his Op-Ed in the 10/13/21 Wall Street Journal).  As such, he wrote that "the legislation defined terrorism as unlawful acts of violence or acts dangerous to human life intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to affect the conduct of government by 'mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping."  It was not intended to put a chill on free speech and civil liberties.  

But teachers and the bureaucrats in the school boards across the country are major donors to the Democrat Party.  So Biden did not push back.  Perhaps Gerard Baker, in his 10/12/21 Op-Ed in the WSJ, said it best:  "This flagrant attempt to intimidate parents into handing their children over to the mercies of the state is as sinister as anything the modern progressives who now control the Democratic Party have done."  When parents are told to sit down and shut up it sounds an awful lot like communist or totalitarian societies.  And with federal crimes often carrying sentences of 10 to 20 years, the threat to civil liberties - speech and assembly - is substantial.