New York City's mayor threatens unconstitutional action against churches and synagogues
April 02, 2020
ITEM #1: If there’s an award for the most foolish thing said during the coronavirus crisis, New York City Bill de Blasio has placed himself firmly in the running.
The Washington Examiner’s Kaylee McGhee reports that during an address to city residents, de Blasio criticized leaders of religious communities for disobeying the authorities’ calls to shut their doors during the current threat, and threatened to “shut down those services” if church members continued to go to their places of worship.
But the mayor didn’t stop here. He actually threatened that if religious leaders did not comply, law enforcement would “take additional action up to the point of fines, and potentially closing the building permanently.”
There are many, many things wrong with this last statement … foremost among them the fact that the mayor lacks the authority to take such action, since doing so would be egregiously and blatantly unconstitutional.
But it’s also deeply cynical. The hostility of many on the left toward people of faith is hardly a secret. And there’s little doubt it’s this hostility that’s behind de Blasio’s inappropriate and terrifying threat.
McGhee’s conclusion is spot-on: “In this time of crisis, we are trusting our elected leaders to guard our liberties. A leader who breaks that trust even a little bit must be held accountable.”
Amen.
ITEM #2: Speaking of progressives’ anti-religious bias…
Mike Lindell of My Pillow has completely retooled his company and is now preparing to crank out 50,000 masks per day for hospitals. In detailing his decision at a White House press briefing on Monday, he also called on Americans to pray.
And right on cue, many of the usual suspects flipped out. Again, it’s the Washington Examiner’s Kaylee McGhee who shares the sorry tale:
“One media outlet amusingly claimed it was a ‘clear violation of the separation of church and state’ — a hard sell for an event where presidents end speeches with ‘God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.’
“Professional Never Trump tweeter Tom Nichols immediately ran to Twitter to mock Lindell. CNN’s Ram Ramgopal, joined by a handful of other pundits, followed suit.”
The current crisis has indeed brought out the best in many Americans … and the worst in others.
ITEM #3: If de Blasio is a frontrunner in the race to say the dumbest coronavirus-related thing, Houston’s Democrat mayor, Sylvester Turner, appears determined to give him a run for his money.
He actually said the following during a press conference on the coronavirus this week:
“Let me just make my plea. Until the coronavirus is resolved, criminals take a break, OK! Stay home, OK? Stay home. And don't commit any crimes! And that way, they'll stay safe and out of jail, and police officers can stay safe and go home to their families, OK? So everybody chill! Crooks, criminals, you chill! Wait until the coronavirus is over! OK, and then we'll all be OK!"
Yes, we’re sure criminals are going to hear this plea and “chill” until the health crisis passes and then get back to their life of crime.
You can’t make this stuff up.
ITEM #4: Jim Acosta is at it again.
The CNN “reporter” was up to his usual antics at Monday’s Rose Garden press conference, where President Trump attempted to have a normal, respectful exchange with his long-time antagonist. But Acosta continued to direct his ire at the President, and cited portions of his past comments, saying: “‘It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.’ What do you say to Americans who believe that you’ve got this wrong?”
Then Trump let loose:
Reports the Washington Times:
“‘It’s people like you and CNN that say things like that, that it’s why people just don’t want to listen to CNN any more,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘You can ask a normal question. The statements I made are — I want to keep the country calm. I don’t want panic in the country. I could cause panic much better than even you. I would make you look like a minor league player. But, you know what? I don’t want to do that. I want to have our country to be calm and strong and fight and win. And it will go away.’”
This came just a few days after President Trump let The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman have it over another incident, in which Haberman excerpted a statement from the President in a way that fundamentally altered its meaning.
Haberman put out a tweet quoting Trump saying, of governors who have criticized the federal response to the coronavirus threat, “I want them to be appreciative.” The full quote from the President, however, provides crucial context.
As the Daily Caller reports, Trump's full quote read:
“I want them to be appreciative. We’ve done a great job. And I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about Mike Pence, the task force, I’m talking about FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers."
Even in the midst of a worldwide crisis, the mainstream media’s pettiness isn’t curtailed one bit.
ITEM #5: Speaking of media insanity…
The Boston Globe recently editorialized that President Trump, because of what the newspaper considers to be an ineffective response to coronavirus, has “blood on his hands.”
No, really.
The Globe’s editors wrote: “The months the administration wasted with prevarication about the threat and its subsequent missteps will amount to exponentially more COVID-19 cases than were necessary. In other words, the president has blood on his hands.”
Not to be outdone, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added her own bit of calumny, saying, "The president, his denial at the beginning was deadly.”
It is beyond sad that at this moment of crisis, when the country should be coming together to protect its citizens, there are so many people in positions of authority who are more concerned with scoring cheap political points. But is anyone surprised anymore?
ITEM #6: What a mess in Michigan.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been among President Trump’s fiercest critics in the midst of the coronavirus response. Now, her hyper-partisanship is coming back to bite her (as well as her state’s citizens).
RedState has the details:
"A drug that has proven effective against the Wuhan Coronavirus was banned in Michigan by its Democratic governor after it was promoted by President Donald Trump, but now that the drug is being circulated with proven efficacy against the virus, Michigan’s governor is practically begging for it.
"It wasn’t but a few days ago that Democratic Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, was banning the drug hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine from being sold in pharmacies and threatening 'professional consequences' if they prescribe or dispense it, even ordering pharmacists to 'ignore physician orders for this medication.' ...
"Why had Whitmer denied this potentially life-saving drug to the people of her state?
"The answer is most likely the usual one we come across now when it comes to Democratic politicians. She did it because Trump had touted the drug as having 'tremendous promise' and in order to look both defiant and 'responsible,' she nixed the drug from being sold in her state to treat the virus."
We can guess these Democrat governors fell for the fake news out of Arizona, which we covered last week. Many in the press promoted the lie that a man drank fish-tank cleaner as a coronavirus treatment because the President had claimed doing so was safe. The truth, of course, is the President neither said nor even suggested anyone do such a thing, stating merely that the anti-malaria drug chloroquine could possibly help battle the virus. But that didn’t stop the news media from peddling this malicious smear.
Anyway, we await the editorial board sermonizing about how Gov. Whitmer has blood on her hands.
ITEM #7: A week ago, MSDNC’s insufferable Rachel Maddow declared that talk of a U.S. hospital ship being in New York this week was “nonsense.”
The “Comfort” sailed into New York harbor on Monday.
Maddow is nothing if not consistent. Consistently wrong.
ITEM #8: Without doubt, Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment shenanigans kept Congress and the White House from focusing on other things — like the coming coronavirus. Yet Democrats are now accusing President Trump of not jumping on the pandemic sooner.
But had the president sounded a bigger alarm during impeachment, Democrats and their allies in the “fake news” media would have no doubt claimed he was trying to distract the public from impeachment.
The President was darned if he did and darned if he didn’t.
Speaking of Pelosi (hat tip to Tom Elliott on this), check out this video of her touring Chinatown amid a large crowd on Feb. 24. “We do want to say to people, come to Chinatown, here we are … come join us,” she said. But yes, it’s the President who deserves blame for not taking the virus seriously soon enough.
By the way, you ought to read this piece from John McCormack at National Review, who details how Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton was way ahead of everyone else in sounding the alarm over the pending virus threat.
But of course, the country was much too busy with the phony impeachment sham to listen to the Senator’s warnings.
And let’s not forget, President Trump announced restrictions on travel from China on Jan. 31 — long before any Democrats were paying attention to the virus situation at all. And more than THREE WEEKS before Pelosi’s aforementioned Chinatown stunt — which, of course, was nothing more than an attempt to virtue signal and attack the President over his travel restrictions.
NOTABLE QUOTES
“Look, she’s a sick puppy, in my opinion. She really is. She’s got a lot of problems.” – President Donald Trump on Nancy Pelosi
“It is striking to have an entrepreneur as Commander in Chief. Whether pushing for new therapies and cutting FDA red tape or getting the Navy hospital ship in three days instead of four weeks or cutting red tape to clean and reuse face masks, helps to have an entrepreneur in charge.” – Newt Gingrich
“CNN is running a headline that Trump ‘now’ claims Easter was aspirational. I have criticized Trump statements but he never said Easter was a firm deadline as opposed to his hope. The unrelentingly negative spin on stories makes it difficult for viewers to trust the media.” – Jonathan Turley
“It turns out government can be quite effective when it ignores the regulatory state established by... government.” – John Noonan