Good news for Ohio

From cleveland.com:

Ohio lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Mike DeWine a bill that would strip his administration of the authority to issue statewide coronavirus orders, even though the governor said the measure would be “a disaster” and vowed to veto it.

Senate Bill 311, which passed 58-30 along party lines, would ban the Ohio Department of Health from issuing mandatory quarantine orders enforced against people who are not diagnosed as sick or directly exposed to disease. It passed the state Senate in September.

The bill would not void existing statewide orders, including the three-week 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew announced by the governor earlier this week, a renewed statewide mask mandate, and a “stay-at-home” order like the one DeWine ordered the state health director to issue last spring. But it would prohibit such orders from being issued in the future, and it would allow lawmakers to vote to rescind any existing state health order.

And here is the reaction from Cleveland Tea Party’s Ralph King:

It is about time the Ohio House did more than grandstand!

It is nice to see our elected officials work to get something done instead of chest thump and grandstand for the shiny ball crowd in Ohio. Enough of the impeachment circus sideshow of Rep John "Bozo" Becker and his trained chimp Rep Nino Vitale!

Big thanks to Senate President Larry Obhof and SB 311 main sponsors State Senator Kristina Roegner & State Senator Rob McColley for getting this passed.

Senate Bill 311 will serve as a check & balance and will reign in the unchecked "ultimate" authority that the OH GOP previously gave the Ohio Dept of Health Director in 2003/2004! SB311 does not limit anything - it only allows for accountability!

And since SB 311 passed with a veto proof majority in the Senate - when you veto it - I fully support an Override starting with the Ohio Senate.

Very good news indeed.

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Face masks, lockdowns, and curfews: useless!

 

This ironic report via Don Surber’s blog :

 The Associated Press reported, "The World Health Organization has recorded 65 cases of the corona virus among staff based at its headquarters, including five people who worked on the premises and were in contact with one another, an internal email obtained by The Associated Press shows.

"The U.N. health agency said it is investigating how and where the five people became infected — and that it has not determined whether transmission happened at its offices. WHO’s confirmation Monday of the figures in the email was the first time it has publicly provided such a count."

If masks, social distancing, and lockdowns don't work for WHO, just who do these things work for?

And Governor Mike DeWine’s announcement today of his arbitrary statewide 10pm curfew won’t do any good, either.  It will cause more damage, however, to the already crippled bar & restaurant industries.

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Downtown Business Owner Tony George Sends Open Letter To Cleveland

I heard from several sources that Cleveland's "leadership" issued a stand-down order for law enforcement during the weekend riot.  Whether or not that is true, earlier today, Lou Dobbs reported on Fox Business that many cities under liberal leadership issued stand-down orders during the riots. Below is a letter by Cleveland businessman Tony George on the subject. 

Via WTAM News Radio:

My family has lived in the Cleveland area for generations. We are business people who provide more than 1600 jobs. We are invested in Cleveland financially, emotionally and spiritually. That is why it is heartbreaking to see the great damage done to our community by those who hijacked a protest held in the name of justice and peace.

Dozens of downtown businesses, including ours, sustained substantial damage during this past weekend’s riots. Those aren’t just businesses, they are the dreams of people who believe in Cleveland, who put life savings into enterprises to provide food, drink, music, baked goods, groceries, clothing, and other products and services for the benefit of our community.

We are Clevelanders. We support peaceful protest. We stand for the equality of all people. We abhor race-based violence, no matter who commits it. What makes Cleveland special is that people of every race, color and creed want to live and work together. I look around and I see the looting and the destruction to our downtown - - that is not who we are.

It is not enough to say that violence is happening everywhere, in response to the killing of George Floyd. Someone has to take responsibility for what happened, or didn’t happen in Cleveland. The city had 24-hour notice before the march. There was no preparation by city leaders to establish a strict parade route, to block off commercial districts, to protect against the infiltration of a peaceful march by those who came prepared to commit violence. There was no call-up of off-duty police to provide additional protection, in case things went out of control.

When the destruction and looting began it would appear that police were told to stand down. We must have an explanation! Who is in charge of Cleveland? Where were the elected leaders in this moment of crisis?

I have raised this question about our absent leadership repeatedly. This failure of leadership is why I supported council reduction. I reluctantly withdrew the issue from the ballot, in the hope that a renewed effort toward unity would be a wake-up call. Nothing doing.

Cleveland City Hall leaders, especially the Mayor, continue to be asleep at the switch, with devastating results for our city.

First Cleveland’s businesses had to shut down during the height of the Covid-19 virus. Then, when we try to open back up, the riots start and shut us down again. Add to that, the reduction in business, due to the curfew.

This is a nightmare, which can end only when we have leaders who can rise up to meet the moment.

A four-day curfew is not leadership. It’s a confession of an inability to control lawlessness, or a capitulation to thugs. We don’t pay taxes for the police to be ordered to stand down in the face of looting. We don’t pay taxes to ensure the security of our streets, only to see the streets taken over by gangsters.

Tony George

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