Four Years Ago This Week, Freedom Was Torched

By Brownstone Institute

By Jeffrey A. Tucker

 

“Beware the Ides of March,” Shakespeare quotes the soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar about what turned out to be an impending assassination on March 15, 44 B.C.

The death of American liberty happened around the same time four years ago, when orders went out from all levels of government to close all indoor and outdoor venues where people gather.

It was not quite a law and it was never voted on by anyone. Seemingly out of nowhere, people whom the public had largely ignored, the public health bureaucrats, all united to tell the executives in charge — mayors, governors and the president — that the only way to deal with a respiratory virus was to scrap freedom and the Bill of Rights.

And they did, not only in the U.S. but all over the world.

The forced closures in the U.S. began on March 6, 2020, when the mayor of Austin, Texas, announced the shutdown of the technology and arts festival South by Southwest.

Hundreds of thousands of contracts, of attendees and vendors, were instantly scrapped. The mayor said he was acting on the advice of his health experts and they in turn pointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which in turn pointed to the World Health Organization (WHO), which in turn pointed to member states and so on.

There was no record of COVID-19 in Austin, Texas, that day but they were sure they were doing their part to stop the spread. It was the first deployment of the “Zero Covid” strategy that became, for a time, official U.S. policy, just as in China.

It was never clear precisely who to blame or who would take responsibility, legal or otherwise.

This Friday evening press conference in Austin was just the beginning. By the next Thursday evening, March 12, 2020, the lockdown mania reached a full crescendo.

President Donald Trump went on nationwide television to announce that everything was under control but that he was stopping all travel in and out of U.S. borders, from Europe, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. American citizens would need to return by Monday or be stuck.

Americans abroad panicked while spending on tickets home and crowded into international airports with waits of up to eight hours standing shoulder to shoulder. It was the first clear sign: that there would be no consistency in the deployment of these edicts.

There is no historical record of any American president ever issuing global travel restrictions like this without a declaration of war. Until then, and since the age of travel began, every American had taken it for granted that he could buy a ticket and board a plane.

That was no longer possible. Very quickly it became even more difficult to travel from state to state, as most states eventually implemented a two-week quarantine rule.

The next day, Friday, March 13, 2020, Broadway closed and New York City began to empty out as any residents who could go to summer homes or out of state.

On that day, the Trump administration declared a national emergency by invoking the Stafford Act, which triggered new powers and resources to the Federal Emergency Management Administration, or FEMA.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a classified document, only to be released to the public months later. The document initiated the lockdowns. It still does not exist on any government website.

“The White House Coronavirus Response Task Force, led by the Vice President, will coordinate a whole-of-government approach, including governors, state and local officials, and members of Congress, to develop the best options for the safety, well-being, and health of the American people.

“The HHS is the LFA [Lead Federal Agency] for coordinating the federal response to COVID-19.”

Closures were guaranteed:

“Recommend significantly limiting public gatherings and cancellation of almost all sporting events, performances, and public and private meetings that cannot be convened by phone. Consider school closures.

“Issue widespread ‘stay at home’ directives for public and private organizations, with nearly 100% telework for some, although critical public services and infrastructure may need to retain skeleton crews.

“Law enforcement could shift to focus more on crime prevention, as routine monitoring of storefronts could be important.”

In this vision of turnkey totalitarian control of society, the vaccine was pre-approved: “Partner with pharmaceutical industry to produce anti-virals and vaccine.”

The U.S. National Security Council was put in charge of policymaking. The CDC was just a marketing operation. That’s why it felt like martial law. Without using those words, that’s what was being declared. It even urged information management, with censorship strongly implied.

The timing here is fascinating. This document came out on a Friday. But according to every autobiographical account — from Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Scott Gottlieb to Deborah Birx and Jared Kushner — the gathered team did not meet with Trump himself until the weekend of March 14-15, 2020, Saturday and Sunday.

According to their account, this was his first real encounter with the urge to lock down the whole country. He reluctantly agreed to 15 days to flatten the curve.

He announced this on Monday, March 16, 2020, with the famous line: “All public and private venues where people gather should be closed.”

This makes no sense. The decision had already been made and all enabling documents were already in circulation.

There are only two possibilities.

One: the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued this March 13, 2020, HHS document without Trump’s knowledge or authority. That seems unlikely.

Two: Kushner, Birx, Pence and Gottlieb are lying. They decided on a story and they are sticking to it.

Trump himself has never explained the timeline or precisely when he decided to greenlight the lockdowns. To this day, he avoids the issue beyond his constant claim that he doesn’t get enough credit for his handling of the pandemic.

With President Richard Nixon, the famous question was always what did he know and when did he know it? When it comes to Trump and insofar as concerns COVID-19 lockdowns — unlike the fake allegations of collusion with Russia — we have no investigations…

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (childrenshealthdefense.org)

 

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