Is this what Americans want to see?
Do we really think “it can’t happen here” in America? Could we quarantine the constitution? Are we doing it already?
www.rt.com
Robert Barnes, the controversial attorney who authored this piece is well known for promoting far right wing views and causes. Mr. Barnes also happens to be one of the attorneys representing the far right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, most recently having
lost a copyright case where Jones published a poster featuring the image of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character that was hijacked by far-right extremists and racist internet trolls.
The Barnes article linked in your post is featured in RT, formally known as Russia Today. Russia Today is a basically a Kremlin controlled propaganda organization
masquerading as a legitimate news organization.
This whole notion of framing emergency state government temporary "stay-at-home orders" as a some sort of patriotically inspired "freedom" issue is nothing more than an politically engineered wedge tactic. It is designed precisely to appeal to the aggrieved right wing fringe groups from which the politically engineered Tea Party first arose. In fact, many of these protest groups are funded by dark money provided by deep pocketed right wing political operatives. For example,
a political group heavily funded by the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is behind the rallies against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order. DeVos happens to be the brother of
Erik Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater (now known as
Academi).
Propaganda oriented "news media" organizations would like nothing more than to see poorly informed Americans who lack critical thinking skills eating this stuff up and disseminating it on the internet. When you can convince citizens to engage in potentially suicidal behaviors, prematurely break temporary self-quarantine guidelines, exacerbate the spread of a deadly disease and create social disorder, who wins?
In the current situation, we have the highly unusual circumstances where a right wing US government administration and the Kremlin apparently have aligned goals. (and curiously it's not the first time we've witnessed this)
The fact of the matter is that no US governor wants to shut down the economy any longer that absolutely necessary. In each and every case these "stay at home" orders are temporary with the goal of slowing down the spread of the pandemic to protect lives and to give medical, paramedical, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and government some breathing room to get control of the crisis and come up to speed on the many fronts that will need to be fought over the next 12-18 months.
With the exception of a handful of states (all of which happen to be "red" states) most Governors are demonstrating firm leadership using the latest data and computer modeling and fact based common sense to put appropriate measures into place regarding social distancing. Literally, NO ONE is interested in permanently shutting down the economy or shutting it down a minute longer than absolutely necessary.
Using my home state of Vermont as an example, our Governor, (R) Phil Scott initially declared a temporary state of emergency order called, "Stay Home, Stay Safe" which was initially intended to last until April 15th. Based on data and input from all across the state the order was extended to May 15th.
But now many measures have been put into place and our state is in much better shape to handle the crisis. Testing is now up to speed and there are regional drive through testing centers in place, hospitals are better prepared with both increased personnel and PPE and other equipment and temporary surge facilities have been established. Many doctors, including my personal physician are doing volunteer work in local emergency rooms. In the meantime, our infection numbers and death rates are showing dramatic improvements. We appear to be over the first peak and are better prepared for the next wave. Despite initial hurdles and backlogs our unemployment support and payment systems are now up to speed including Pandemic Unemployment Assistance plus a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Line for the self employed has been established. (lots of self-employed in my state) Local businesses, agriculture and industry are in many instances finding ways to adapt. People are devising all kinds of creative and clever ways to do business in a safe manner.
And so now, with the crisis under a much better state of control and with the "Stay Home, Stay Safe" order still in place until May 15th a new concurrent order was just announced, - "Work Smart & Stay Safe - Restart VT; Phase 1". This puts into play formalized guidelines and requirements for businesses currently operating and a list of businesses that will now be allowed to reopen. This will be expanded in Phase 2 according to the most up to date data and modeling and another segment of businesses.
This is good government doing what it is supposed to do and most everyone from both sides of the isle seem to be on board.
We need more good government, especially on a national level.
We don't need irrational gun toting far right wing protesters demanding that we abruptly open up society and the workplace in the face of a deadly infectious disease for political reasons.
That is destructive, suicidal, society damaging behavior and it is the very definition of insanity.
From that a very good argument could be made that we're all stupid since we're not doing anything about this- how's that for "common sense"?
Now you can see one reason why I hold no hope for the future of my beloved Nation 
Maybe should have used some real guinea pigs first!
nypost.com
It suggests that they have failed.
