Nonprofit update

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Okay, this will take a bit of explaining. Short version is there will be a hearing on whether the California restrictions on church worship services are constitutional or not.

Longer version is Harvest Rock Church sued the state of California over restrictions on worship services. The District Court for the Center District of California ruled against the church. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to issue an injunction upon the church’s appeal.

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image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

If our ruling overlords continue on their current path, I’ll have to order an extra terabyte of pixels to keep covering them.

I’m about to exhaust my quarterly budget of pixels covering the flaming hypocrites who don’t bother to follow the rules to which you and I must bend the knee.

(Bending the knee is a medieval practice of getting down on your knee in front of the monarch to show you are meekly submissive to his unquestionable, divine authority.)

If my ridicule is dripping off your screen and you can hear through your speakers what vaguely sounds like my laughter, you know the rest of this post will discuss the foolishness of those high and mighty leaders who have taken it upon themselves to decide how we must live our life.

Please join me in laughing at the following:

• Another French Laundry party.
• Mayor chastises citizens for leaving the house…while he is vacationing in Cabo. He also can’t quite recall whether he got a Covid test upon his return and he “generally quarantined” when he got back.
• Judge signs order to extend pandemic restrictions then immediately goes to his grandson’s birthday party because he misses the little guy. Earns a Class C misdemeanor conviction for ignoring his own court order.

I will dial back the ridicule for the rest of this post.  Of course, since the above mayor is my role model for today, the pointing-and-laughing will be “generally” dialed back only those times I “recall” making said plan.

Rich hypocrite, French Laundry edition:

12/1/20 – San Francisco Chronicle – S.F. Mayor London Breed had her own French Laundry party – the night after Gavin Newsom’s – The “rules for thee but not for me” stories keep surfacing.

This time it is San Francisco Mayor London Breed who also attended a private dinner party at the ultra-elite French Laundry, with eight people attending in total. Presumably that is four households.

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Text of First Amendment quoted in a textbook. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

A majority of the Justices actually read the Constitution and realized the First Amendment was still there, including something about free expression of religion.

After re-reading those odd comments, they realized it was an attack on the U.S. Constitution when the New York governor picked a spot on the map and said within that area indoor worship services must be limited to 10 people. Thus they issued an injunction against the state pending a full trial on the merits of the case.

The limit of 10 is a particular burden for the Orthodox Jewish congregations who filed the litigation. For a routine worship service, Orthodox Jews require 10 adult males be present. See Minyan explanation at Wikipedia.

This means that under the arbitrary rules issued by the state, an orthodox congregation could meet but no women, no children, and no men beyond the quorum of 10 could participate in the worship.

In essence, Orthodox Jewish congregations may not worship. Sure does seem like that would be an infringement on free expression.

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I am confident another dozen or two stories have surfaced in the last few days like the following items. These three are merely the ones that jumped out at me as I was scanning various news sources.

Check out the comment at the end of the last article showing that there is at least one politician in the entire country who is starting to realize this flaming hypocrisy could possibly, perhaps, maybe, eventually have an impact on the trust we serfs have in our masters, the ruling caste.

11/25/20 – WCVB 5 – Hours after asking residents to stay home, Denver Mayor flies out of state for Thanksgiving holiday – The day before Thanksgiving Denver Mayor Michael Hancock sent a tweet telling everyone the spread of the coronavirus can be reduced by avoiding travel over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Separately, the city sent a tweet urging people to celebrate with only immediate household. The embedded video also urged avoiding all travel – don’t go see any family or any friends. Don’t fly. Don’t drive.

So what did the mayor do the same day those messages went out?

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Details are leaking out every few days on the California governor’s dinner party he said was held outside when the rest of us have been told not to eat inside and not to have more than three households present for a meal and to make sure we wear our masks between bites of food.

There is a deeper issue than merely the flaming hypocrisy of leaders demanding we follow harsh rules while blatantly ignoring the rules themselves.

The real issue is the governor and his friends (including at least three lobbyists) made a self-assessment of the risks to themselves of going out to dinner with a group of at least five other couples. They concluded that was an acceptable risk to given their age and health.

Good for them. They have the ability to make decisions for themselves as to what is acceptable or what is too risky.

The serious, freedom-threatening issue is you and I should be able to do the same thing.

We should be able to decide for ourselves what is an acceptable risk and what is unacceptable.

Here is a listing of the coverage by your humble correspondent:

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Bar tab at party is reportedly $15,000. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Hard to believe, but details get worse every few days about the governor’s “outside” inside dinner with more than 12 people and no masks in sight.

Looks like we need to increase the estimated cost for the meal.

A reporter for California Globe reports on 11/23/20: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “Dinnergate” Apology Grows From Little White Lie to Whopper.

Last tidbit at the bottom of this post:  some of the people at the party are laughing at you and me.

New info on size of dinner party and bar tab

The article pulls together a variety of information from other reporters.

One reporter, who lives in the town where the French Laundry is located, did some digging. He is hearing stories that the bar tab was $15,000 for the party.

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Suggested amount of salt to consume when reading some research reports. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

(Dark humor alert:  Sarcasm is not a healthy form of humor. Sometimes though, a healthy dose of ridicule accompanied by pointing and laughing is necessary to emphasize the ridiculousness of something. So, check out the following research…)

Breathtaking reports on social media claim there is scientific proof that the Sturgis motorcycle rally was a massive super spreader event.

Solid evidence.

Incontrovertible proof I tell you.

Study is described at Wall Street Journal on 11/21/20: CDC Study Links Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to Covid-19 Spread in Minnesota. Hosts of other news sites are doing their own re-write of the story.

Guesses are somewhere around 460,000 people attended the huge motorcycle rally held every year in Sturgis, South Dakota. This year it ran from August 7-16.

The lack of mask usage, the closeness of the event, and massive number of people was dangerous I tell you.

Coverage at the time and headlines now say this was obviously a super spreader event that would obviously cause 7 or 8 gazillion infections and just over half a bazillion deaths.

CDC research shows there, uh, weren’t, uh, quite that many infections.

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Our political leaders have led us to believe they have incredible knowledge about the coronavirus, including how we get sick, how many are sick, transmission vectors, spread rates, etc. etc. As time passes there is an increasing amount of data that suggests the understanding of the virus is fuzzier than we have been told.

Merely a few of the recent articles pointing out the uncertainty surrounding the virus:

• Officials across Europe (and New York City) are not able to figure out how most people catch the bug.
• Estimated 1/5th of New York City residents were infected by early March, at the very beginning of the pandemic.
• Estimated 1/8^th of Orange County, California residents were infected by the end of the summer, far higher than the reported positive test rate.

11/15/20 – Wall Street Journal – As Covid-19 Surges, the Big Unknown Is Where People Are Getting Infected – Health authorities are having difficulty figuring out where people are catching the coronavirus.

Statistics on the percentage of cases that can be traced to a source:

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Details keep emerging about the governor’s $500 a person dinner with six households present which was held inside even though the governor said it was outside.

Previously it was disclosed that a longtime friend who is a heavy hitter lobbyist was also at the meal. One article said what a deal for the lobbyist – the entire world knows he has the ear of the governor of the state of California. Superb advertising, huh?

New info is tumbling out. Photos of the meeting emerged Monday showing the meal was served inside.

News yesterday was names of two of the other diners.

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French Laundry Restaurant by Navin75 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Previous post explained that while you and I are prohibited from having more than three households gather for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, and our gatherings must be in the backyard, and we must provide turkey, potatoes, and dressing in single serve containers, and we can only let guests use the bathroom if we sanitize the bathroom regularly, the governor of California attended a lavish private dinner party with at least 12 people present, meaning there were likely six or more households present. The governor, the lobbyist whose birthday was being celebrated, and the restaurant all say the meal was outdoors.

Well, turns out the “outdoor” dinner wasn’t quite so outdoor.

If your idea of outdoor dining consists of a room that’s enclosed on three sides with a ceiling and chandelier, along with sliding glass doors on the fourth side that can isolate your party from the rest of the dining room, then the meal was outdoors.

For us unwashed masses unable to rise above our lowly submissive serf status, that sounds like an indoor meal.

A more deadly issue than the hypocrisy

Before we explore the increasing depths of flaming hypocrisy in this story there is a severe side issue.

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It is corrosive to public trust when those in charge issue harsh rules for you and me but those making the rules can ignore them when they wish.

The corrosion will undercut our democracy, create more distrust of politicians than already exists, erode respect for public health officials, and eventually undermine compliance with all government rules not just the silly ones.

We do not want any of that to happen.

I sincerely hope governors, federal health officials, elected county officials, and everyone in the public health world will quickly realize the damage they are causing and change their ways fast.

Is it possible to shout my warning any louder?

Today’s illustration of flaming hypocrisy is from the governor of California.

As I was composing the previous post, this story broke, which is a postcard-perfect illustration of corrosive leadership.

11/13/20 – San Francisco Chronicle – Newsom attended French Laundry party with more households than California advises during pandemic – California guidelines prohibit private gatherings with more than three households.

Such gatherings may only be outside.

You may allow guests to use the bathroom if you sanitize it regularly.

In spite of these requirements, the governor of California and his wife attended a dinner on 11/6/20 with at least 12 people with more than three households present. Neither the people involved nor the restaurant will say how many people were present nor how many households were represented.

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Politicians and public health experts are undercutting public trust in their leadership. While a certain level of distrust of politicians is a good thing, ongoing hypocrisy and poor leadership destroys credibility of the entire political class and appointed public health officials. Destruction of trust is dangerous.

Many incidents have been in the news over the last several months. A few articles of late have illustrated the problem. For your consideration:

11/12/20 – Commentary magazine – Pandemic Hypocrites Produce Pandemic Cynics – Author suggests the level of cynicism is growing. Distrust of political leaders is accelerating.

Why is this corrosion of trust taking place? I will mention merely four of the many illustrations in the article.

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Strip clubs in San Diego may resume indoor operations but churches may not. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

A few updates on the craziness in California regarding free expression of religion:

• Superior Court Judge in San Diego issues preliminary injunction which allows strip clubs to reopen – they may resume exercise of their free-speech rights under the First Amendment.
• Another church stands up against prohibition on worshiping indoors.
• One church files suit to stop city harassment for holding worship outdoors.

Judge finds stripping is protected speech under First Amendment

11/6/20 – San Diego Union-Tribune – Judge overrules County, allows strip clubs to reopen

11/12/20 – Washington Free Beacon – California Set to Reopen Strip Clubs Before Churches

Two strip clubs in San Diego hit with cease and desist orders filed suit to lift the orders. A San Diego Superior Court judge issued a temporary injunction against the cease and desist order. Full hearing will occur at the end of November. In the meantime both strip clubs are allowed to operate.

Argument made by the strip clubs is that stripping constitutes speech which is protected by the First Amendment. The judge concurred. Just to be clear, a woman taking her clothes off in front of paying male customers constitutes freedom of speech which is constitutionally protected.

That is the exact argument, apart from stripping naked, that churches have been making across the state.

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