Forty Years of Emergency Powers Unmasked

Hey, Coronavirus Emergency, am I right? ♪♫ My Corona!♫♪ Yep, everyone's just stunned to death about the unprecedented assault upon their rights... yehhh... about that. It's tough to find a recent report that does more than throw Trumpasms, but this article from 2014 noted that we were at that time operating under 30 separate national emergencies, each of which have given the POTUS extraordinary powers over us (some more info here), and one of them had been renewed by each president from Jimmy Carter thru Barack Obama (I'm not sure if Trump has, but I wouldn't be surprised).

Yes, our ability to exercise our individual rights is in peril, but the biggest threat by far, IMHO, comes from our not knowing what they even are, let alone what they entail, and - except for the conveniences and political squirrel of the moment - our lack of interest in ensuring that our laws should limit government's role and powers to upholding & defending our individual rights, lives and property.

'Social Distancing' is soOo drastic... right? Let me ask you, which do you think expresses a greater disregard for your individual rights and liberty, the state's power to make a person wear a mask, or its power to forcefully come between a parent and their child? Do you know who already knows what your answer to that is? Uncle Sam, and he knows what your answer to that is, because way back in 1909 a key designer of America's school systems, said that "Each year the child is coming to belong more to the State and less and less to the parent.", and that power has increased every year for 111 years, and today there's not a state in the union that doesn't consider a parent to have less of a claim to their child, than the state does. And that power needs no emergency to excuse its being used.

And a mask is what you're freaking out over?

Yeah, your ability to exercise your individual rights is in peril. Surprise.

If you want Uncle Sam to be concerned about how you feel, first you've got to show some sign that you understand why he should be.

/rant