Yesterday’s gene therapy mandate went pretty much as expected. However, it did represent grotesque overreach as well as underreach in two aspects. First, the mandate on private employers represented stunning overreach of dubious legality. Second, the leak that Postal workers would not come under the mandate represented a stunning revelation of the cynical attempt to do an end run on the US Constitution. The SCOTUS quite recently expressed their displeasure at such games with regard to the rent moratorium, so it’s remarkable that the Zhou regime should reveal such unconstitutionally cynical intent once again--and so quickly after getting slapped down.
I’ve selected a variety of brief reactions, which best summarize the issues going forward. To save space and offer continuity, the excerpts are run together without ellipses (for the most part).
First, Karl Denninger hits, inter alia, on the legal significance of that Postal worker ploy. We touched on it immediately last night, as have many of the commenters below. Denninger also asks the important question: What was this really about?
Never In My Life....
..... did I think I'd hear a President of the United States all but declare war on 1/4 of the citizens of the nation.
First, Biden reportedly exempted The Post Office. That alone was likely enough to get his attempt ruled against on an injunctive basis. You obviously aren't serious about public health when one of the agencies that the public has contact with every day is exempt, it is an essential agency and has something like 600,000 employees.
Why did he exempt them? Because they're a union shop and a large percentage have refused vaccination. Biden knows this and he knows that if they walk or strike he's instantly ****ed, and they both can and might. A later updated said oh no, they're included. We'll see.
So calm down folks. This is going to get fought, and Biden will lose.
It's a bluff, a stupid bluff at that, and ultimately it ends this Administration either by expulsion or political neutering.
That's my prediction.
Ted Cruz did a retweet that expands on the Postal worker issue: Courts really don’t like it when a party comes before them and openly brags about the clever “work around” they pulled--on the US Constitution. As the original tweeter says, Courts consider the intent and purposes of the policy, and intent to “work around” the US Constitution” isn’t the type of intent they want to see:
Bonchie at Red State included this, which I liked:
Bonchie thought the GOP response was weak--weak as water. OTOH:
'Fight Them to the Gates of Hell': GOP Governors and RNC Go off on Biden's Vaccine Mandates
I think KD is right: This will get fought, and RNC and GOPe maundering about small business won’t be the hill on which it gets fought.
Scott McKay does a good job summarizing a lot of the points that many are making. I like the way he starts off because he uses the phrase “managerial elite”, which is a clear sign that he understands that this whole things is a Prog brainstorm. He also makes much of another aspect we touched on: Alinskyite divide and conquer tactics. In the end, however, this attempt at demonization will, IMO, fail:
Joe Biden has no answers for COVID-19. What Joe Biden has is blame and Otherization for Americans not invested in the tired narratives of his handlers and the managerial elite he represents so badly.
Despite universal, dishonest media coverage propping up his administration this man has botched everything he has touched for the eight months he’s occupied the White House, …
There won’t be any hiding for Biden now, as he’s turned his entire presidency into an engine of Covidian dystopia. We’ll soon find out whether the American people will stand for it, and the answer might well determine the future of the country.
The chief theme of Biden’s COVID speech is that people yet to be vaccinated against the virus are the Other, and must be punished …
They might as well be Jews, Kulaks, Tutsis or Armenians for the level of invective the President of the United States attacked them with Thursday.
Very little of what Biden demanded will become public policy, particularly in the states run by the governors he attacked. Most of it will be challenged, successfully, in court; the rest will be quietly dropped after the fact when and if it’s clear America won’t stand for its enforcement.
But the economic effects of what Biden is demanding will be real. The disruption of the workforce this will cause will damage the supply chain, the housing market, education, transportation, almost every industry.
Ace of Spades noted that Biden’s handlers see that as a feature, rather than a bug…
When the economy continues to tank, and inflation continues to soar, Biden will just blame the unvaccinated.
I’d go further and say This is the entire reason for this unconstitutional power-grab. He knows he faces an increasingly likely wipe-out in 2022: He must do something, then, to change the trajectory.
If he can’t fix the economy, he’ll fix blame.
That’s almost certainly correct. It’s a move straight from the tyrant’s playbook. Always have an Other you can demonize. The unvaccinated, and the mask-resisters, are Biden’s. They will be blamed for all of the ills of his administration.
The whole January 6 Event “insurrection” narrative is coming apart, and the Dems needs another Other. Again, IMO, the Otherization of the unvaxxed will backfire bigly. Americans are already tired of excuses--trying to shift blame is a loser.
Rand Paul, in a brief tweet, hits on an important point that we mentioned not long ago. The fact that new, reliable, data--especially the recent Israeli study--is demonstrating the unscientific underpinnings of the Covid Regime means that courts will no longer be inclined to simply rely on “the experts”. The courts are now in a position to demand data and evidence. It will be forthcoming, and that spells doom:
Finally, on a related note, Glenn Reynolds explains that Masks are here to stay as long as libs need to shame their political enemies. He’s talking about masks rather than injections, but the principle of demonization and otherization is the same:
Masks, as Twitter wags have noted, are by now the equivalent of MAGA hats for Blue America. As washed-up child activist David Hogg put it last year, “I feel the need to continue wearing my mask outside, even though I’m fully vaccinated, because the inconvenience of having to wear a mask is more than worth it to have people not think I’m a conservative.”
Try to fathom that mentality. I can’t.
I’ve also noticed that there’s something else going on this morning that’s new for conservatives: Open calls for non-compliance. So far, the response holds promise.
Mandate Reaction Roundup
Victory Boyd vs. Zhou Baidan, no contest. Way to go NFL, you screwed up big time.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/09/tonights-cancellation.php
Meanwhile the Trump purge goes on apace. From killer writer Monica Showalter, a gem:
"So much for experts: Biden fires Trump-appointed advisory experts in favor of Soviet-style party hacks”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/09/spicer_conway_hanke_yoo_homan_cuchinelli_biden_fires_trumpappointed_advisory_experts_in_favor_of_sovietstyle_advisories_of_party_hacks.html