What gives? The only reason we dont have community wide testing after this time is either incompetence or perhaps something more nefarious.
We must demand community testing NOW! This country cannot open without it. Perhaps that is the idea....
MIKE DONOVAN:The America that we are living in right now is not a free America. There is a new day coming where a new generation of Americans will be called upon to stand for the principles of what America exists to be, not what our deepest and darkest fears would turn us into.
Welcome, welcome friends to another episode of Not Free America radio. As we watch the April 13th, 2020 --as we watch the world fall into a new wave of fascism in the name of health and health care and staying safe and staying healthy. What a world we live in, folks. Obviously, as you all know, we've –in this podcast, a few ground rules. One, we're not conspiracy theorists. We don't believe that the virus is a hoax. We do believe that we are in a worldwide health crisis
That being said, we are concerned about advocating civil liberties and about the incredible efforts at play across these United States to restrict the liberties of the American people. It is shocking. You have to pay attention to it. Crazy, crazy things. Like, for example, did you know that the federal government threatened broadcasters last month?And told them that if they aired information that the federal government disagreed with about the coronavirus,that they could have their licenses pulled
Now that is a violation of the first amendment. It is ridiculous. Now the government backed off of those threats, just like the government backed off the threat of quarantining the state of NewYork. Whether or not that would have been a good idea... I'm not an infectious disease doctor and I'm not a health professional. What I do know is that the reason that we didn't quarantine New York, and I think back to last night's episode of the --and would encourage you to go to our podcast and read the Red Dawn emails from the Department of Homeland security
But it's pretty clear that in considering a quarantine of New York, there was an estimation that up to 10% of the people would flee. Imagine a mass migration, 10% of New Yorkers on the highways. It's a nightmare. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. Not because they didn't want to,because they couldn't. Not yet
Why do you need too when everybody is so afraid that they lay in their homes and under their beds? As I said, this is a real virus. This is a real disease and this requires real serious people with serious solutions. We have a serious solution in our hands right now and that my friends is testing. I am tired of hearing the federal government talk about tracing programs and tracking programs about apps that they want to download on our smartphones to tell people when we may have been exposed to Coronavirus. You know what? Before any of that, give me a damn test and let me take it.
Because up to this point right now, today, April 13th where I am in Northern Virginia, Western Virginia, there isn't a place that I can go and get tested for COVID-19 right now. There's not a place. You see, I don't have symptoms, I don't have symptoms and I can't prove that I was around somebody. So I can't get tested. But we're all sitting at home and we have an economy on life support, a global economy in shambles, on the precipice of the next Great Depression and we're doubling down with calls for extended lockdown periods.
For example, Mr. Kashkari. Mr. Kashkari of course, is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis and Kashkari said on Face the Nation this weekend that he thought we would face 18 months of rolling shutdowns -- 18 months of this? When will we get access to testing? You see, I'm tired of the government telling me that they need to take my rights away when they can't even test me for the damn disease. You know, this is a ridiculous situation.
The president of the United States has taken great powers, wartime powers, defense production act powers to take over companies. Where are the tests? Why aren't we getting tests into the communities? The federal government sent out brand new versions of the 15-minute test last week. Each state got a hundred tests. That's crazy. It's ridiculous. We're never going to get ahead of it this way. 18 months of rolling lockdowns while the American people hide under their beds terrified of a legitimate fear… complicated by the fact that the government isn't providing access to testing.
So why aren't there private companies marketing their own tests? Why don't we see a flood of tests coming into the market? Because it's got to get approved by the government and the government have to authorize it and the government has the right to take it now. Okay. But what they're not doing is they're not force producing these tests and they are not force-shipping them.
They could do that. They could take over these companies. And I don't think this is good mind you, I'm not a big fan of the Defense Production act. I understand why it needs to exist. But the president has said, “I am going to take private companies and I am going to turn them into efforts to fight this current of our risk.” Great. Awesome. Let's do it. Let's do it. Or let's get out of the way and let private companies do what private companies do.
I don't care. And let the government subsidize it. Because no one should be paying for these tests. But you know what? We need tests. We need tests in the community. Everybody needs to be able to get a test because until you can test people, you can't send people back to school, can't send kids back to school. You can't open the economy or at least I guess you can't. Can you? I mean isn't this the new normal? I mean, are any of us going to want to go outside anymore with the threat that we might get sick? I mean is that what we're talking about here?
You see, I believe that COVID-19 is a serious, serious threat to humanity. I do believe that, but its largest threat is not found in its mortality. Its largest threat is found in the reaction to the virus… in the reaction to our fear and we lose control. And around the world we see the results. France and Bolivia have postponed their upcoming elections. It will be interesting to see if this 18-month projection comes true. What happens in November in the United States?
Peru handed its president broad new legislative authority that practically makes him a dictator. Israel sharply ramped up the reach of its surveillance state and now has Palestinians on surveillance more than Israeli Jewish people, which maybe there are outbreaks in the Gaza strip or something, I don't know. But again, you can begin to see around the world governments are using this new power for their own purposes. That's what governments do, folks. That's what tyrants do.
When I was a kid, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world that my state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, which I understand means common and -- But at that time when I was a little child, I thought the coolest thing in the world was that I was a student in a state where our classrooms had our state flag prominently displayed in the front of the classroom. And on that flag was a partially naked woman. And as a young man, and I'm sorry, but this is something that kids -- we talked about all the time, you know, how cool is that?
Our flag is the only flag in the United States of America that has nudity on it. Our flag has lady justice prevailing over a tyrant. Our flag is quintessentially America. Okay. And Virginia is quintessentially an American idea that we would choose to embolden on our flag… that which would fly before this Commonwealth for hundreds of years… that we would choose to include on that flag such a brazen and aggressive statement that above and beyond everything else, the liberty of a free people matters most.
Let us now remember that. Let us look to that flag for inspiration to understand that there is a new day coming where a new generation of Americans will be called upon to stand for the principles of what America exists to be, not what our deepest and darkest fears would turn us into. Thank you so much for joining me tonight, folks. We'll be here tomorrow talking more about the body count, where we are on the apex and new civil lawsuits aimed at protecting the civil liberties of Americans in this horrific, horrific time. Stay safe, stay healthy. Thank you.