COVID-19, UNCONSTITUTIONAL "GOVRMINT" RESTRICTIONS, AND FACTS (published 4-19-2020)

Introduction

Your patience, awaiting this article, is now rewarded! Here it is! (I delayed my, now upcoming, House Mountain hike #169, to publish this article.)

January started as “China virus, also known as corona virus.” February became “Coronavirus!” March became “CORONAVIRUS, also known as COVID-19 virus!!” Now, April is “COVID-19 VIRUS PANDEMIC INSANITY!!!”

COVID-19

“Formerly, this disease was referred to as ‘2019 novel coronavirus’ or ‘2019-nCoV.’” “COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in people and may [sic] different species . . . . This occurred with MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, and now with the virus that causes COVID-19.” (Quotes are via https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html. NOTE: “may” should be “many.”)

We know the symptoms all too well, by almost daily media repetition. By the way, don’t forget to wash your hands, not touch your face, cough or sneeze into your handkerchief, wear a mask (even if driving alone, as I have seen several times), and disinfect household surfaces, while you are “quarantined” at home!

Unconstitutional “Govrmint” Restrictions

I found Executive Orders, Governor Bill Lee, numbers 14 to 28 (15 total orders) with the subject line “COVID-19” in them (via https://sos.tn.gov/products/division-publications/executive-orders-governor-bill-lee). (This is the count at the date of this entry.) No, I did not take the time to read them all. I did read most of Executive Orders 22 and 23 that closed the parking lots only at House Mountain!

Executive Order 22 refers to Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 58-2-107(e), which I found via https://www.lawserver.com/law/state/tennessee/tn-code/tennessee_code_58-2-107.

Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 58-2-107(e) is a small part of a huge Code that contains a great amount of “govrmint” gibberish. If your eyes don’t burn out by trying to read it all, in effect, this Code grants the Governor, under various conditions, powers equal to the powers that any tsar in Russia once had!

I have The Constitution of the State of Tennessee, Revised November 4, 2014. It is 26 pages. I read every page. I searched every page for the phrase “executive order.” The phrase does not exist in the Tennessee Constitution! I searched the word “order.” The word is present, but the word “order” is not associated with any type of special executive branch power.

Since the Tennessee Constitution does not grant executive order power, and since executive order power is taken by the Governor, then, logically, the conclusion is that the Governor does not have Constitutional power to issue any executive order in the State of Tennessee.

Of course, I know that the lawyers and legal scholars out there will take humor in my logical reasoning. My reasoning will be defined as simple and uneducated. These lawyers and legal scholars had better not build a straw man argument, by attacking the man (me) and not the man’s (my) position. If they try that rebuttal, I am able to defend my position quite well.

My stand for freedom, as a free citizen of the State of Tennessee and of the United States of America, has been demonstrated in my following last three most recent actions.

First, 4/10/2020, Good Friday, I hiked House Mountain #168. Second, 4/11/2020, two other men and I gathered and did not stay six feet apart at times, while we did some target shooting, at the homeplace. (See the two articles on 4/12/2020, Passover Sunday, for the details.)

My third, and most recent, action was on 4/16/2020, Thursday. I “clocked out” from working at home at 3:30 PM. I drove to the back door entry of my barber’s shop. By means of the clandestine arrangement that we had established the week before, by phone, as a free man in a free country, I got a haircut from my fine barber! My barber was concerned enough by the unconstitutional closure of various “not essential” businesses, such as his, to ask me, as well as several other clients, to park around back, so that the law would not drive by, catch him cutting hair, and arrest both his client and him. Of course, my barber cuts hair by clandestine appointment now. He takes one client at a time. No one is waiting in a chair, to be next in the barber chair. He schedules clients an hour apart, so that he can disinfect his barbershop. He wears surgical gloves and a mask. He still cuts hair! His business is off, naturally, since he cannot, by the unconstitutional executive order, expect his daily walk in clients.

My barber is a microcosm of the total economic disaster that has befallen our nation, due to the unconstitutional (Federal and State) restrictions on a free people in a free nation. I remember, as a teenager, the 1970’s oil embargo and the gas rationing. I remember the 9/11/2011 attacks on this nation. I remember various economic recessions and how our nation overcame them. (Ronald Reagan’s recovery from the Jimmy Carter recession stands out.)

I fear no man or no event. This COVID-19 insanity is a frightful time in this country for many. Many fear the virus. Others fear how the federal government and the various state governments are restricting, unconstitutionally, the freedoms of a free people. What? Church assemblies, face-to-face, are subject to fines and/or arrest? What? I can’t get a haircut, unless arranged clandestinely? What? I can’t park in the parking lot, to go hiking?

I stand my ground, as a free American and as a free Tennessean! I will not back down. Join me?

Facts

I hear the reaction of some. You say that we must stay at home, not work, and do no more than the essential to live, to keep the body count from COVID-19 down. We must kill the economy to save lives.

Okay, to those who react accordingly, here are the facts, for the State of Tennessee.

Leading Causes of Death, 2014 – 2017
(via https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/documents/vital-statistics/death/2017/LCD-TN%2bAllCounties2014-17.pdf):
(Note: the State of Tennessee, apparently, can calculate to 2017 only, which is two years behind the times. 2014 – 2017 is four full years.)

Total deaths: 268,881 divided by 4 years divided by 12 months is 5,601.68 per month. (How does .68 of a person die? I won’t round up or down.)

Top five leading causes of death (calculates):
-- Heart disease: 1,298.27 monthly
-- Malignant Neoplasms (i.e., cancer): 1,189.23 monthly
-- Chronic Lower Respiratory: 357.85 monthly
-- Accidents/adverse effects: 339.20 monthly
-- Cerebrovascular disease: 287.33 monthly

Note: 8th leading cause (calculates):
-- Pneumonia & influenza: 135.48 monthly

Traffic Deaths, 1/1/2020 to 4/16/2020 (via
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/safety/documents/daily_04162020.pdf):
-- 01/2020: 74
-- 02/2020: 88
-- 03/2020: 75
-- 04/2020 (as of 4/16/2020): 32
Total so far 1/1/2020 to 4/16/2020: 269
Note: 1/1/2020 to 3/31/2020 is three full months. This calculates to 79 a month.

Tennessee COVID-19 Total Deaths, as of 4/19/2020 2:55 PM (via https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=symantec&hsimp=yhs-ext_onb&o=hp&prt=SSS&ver=3.11.3.7&tpr=111&chn=store&guid=e59a1b19-f318-4952-a6e6-ee655f693441&doi=2019-10-25&doa=2019-06-22&p=Tennessee+COVID-19+death+total&geo=&ctype=&installsource=&v):
-- 145 have died. The link also shows the number of cases and the number of recovered cases, as if that matters.

On 4/18/2020, at 5:35 PM, I did the same search. I found 142 deaths. We had three more deaths, so far, today.

I can only assume that the Tennessee COVID-19 deaths are from 1/1/2020 to 4/19/2020, at 2:55 PM. (I apologize to the families of those who have passed. I hope that the deceased had taken up the Good Lord’s free gift offer and were ready to go. Crunching numbers, as I am now, does not mean that I am unsympathetic to the COVID-19 deaths.)

Summary of deaths, by reason in Tennessee:
-- Pneumonia & influenza: 135.48 monthly (2014 – 2017 calculated, as the 8th leading cause of death).
-- Total 1/1/2020 to 4/16/2020 traffic deaths: 269.
-- Total COVID-19 deaths (assume 1/1/2020 to 4/19/2020 2:55 PM): 145.

Conclusion

The conclusion is logical. We all must stop driving. The Tennessee “govrmint” must force, by unconstitutional means, a free people to stop driving! The rational is that more people have died by vehicle accidents than by COVID-19 in 2020. If we use the same illogic as the “govrmint,” then we must reach the same conclusion regarding driving as we do about working, dining out, gathering closely with friends and family, getting a haircut, and so forth.

Do you agree? If so, I know why. If not, use your logic to explain why not! I dare you! By the way, the hypothetical rebuttal that the unconstitutional executive orders, to stay at home and so forth, have kept the COVID-19 death total down is mere speculation, as there is no data to support the hypothetical rebuttal. Note: since heart disease takes 1,298.27 monthly (2014 – 2017 calculated), then, logically, the “govrmint” could mandate, by executive order, that folks start eating right and getting plenty of exercise! This is the logical conclusion.

Stay free and live free, Tennesseans and Americans!