Trying to Support Lawful Commerce During the Coronavirus Panic
March 20, 2020 2:13pm
I just finished lunch with some friends. In the two hours we were at the restaurant, it was us plus three other tables. That's it. The waitress said it has been that slow all week. My lunch today was not just to satiate my hunger. I could have eaten the food I have in my house. I went out to eat with the goal of seeing friends and putting some money in the hands of the restaurant staff that desperately needs it since so few people are dining out.
The overreaction to the media-induced Coronavirus Panic is destroying the economy. And for what? For nothing.
I have no fear that I caught the coronavirus today. I am safe because I was wearing a mask!
Understand that I am not mocking the COVID-19 deaths. I am mocking the panic. The coronavirus is real. People ARE getting sick, and people ARE dying. But the U.S. has overreacted to it by massively shutting down commerce. And I see the economic damage as far worse than the biological damage. That's not to say that lives don't matter; clearly they do. But society decides between money and life all the time. And I don't see America's self-inflicted damage as being worth it.
On tomorrow's episode of The Mike Bates Show, I'll go into great detail about how the risk is overblown and why shutting down commerce is the wrong response to it. Listen live from 7a - 8a (CT) at http://www.talk103fm.com/listen-live
The podcast recording will be up shortly after 8:30a (CT) at https://www.themikebatesshow.com/podcasts/200321
ADDITION: March 21, 2020 11:11pm
Soooooo.....
As the above photo shows, yesterday, I had lunch with five friends at a restaurant in Pensacola that was LAWFULLY open and LAWFULLY serving food in the dinning room. One of those friends was Mike Hill, who serves in the Florida House of Representatives. Mike Hill and I get together frequently, but his presence here is germane because...
I posted a photo to Facebook of the six of us eating. And then the internet went completely nuts. My post was set to public, but I didn't understand why so many people I didn't know were commenting on it. Well, as it turns out, a so-called "journalist" from a statewide "news" publisher tweeted out a screenshot of my Facebook photo as an attack on Representative Hill. It was retweeted 3100 times. Apparently, peacefully eating at a restaurant while the rest of the country is panicking is frowned upon.
Anyway, having been alerted to the Crime of the Century, in which I was a participant, the Twitterverse converged on my Facebook page to throw their tomatoes and insults, with a few death wishes sprinkled in. The Twitter comments can be read at https://twitter.com/PeterSchorschFL/status/1241090972878020613
I don't tweet, but I did send the following to the so-called "journalist":
Peter Schorsch, your tweet at https://twitter.com/PeterSchorschFL/status/1241090972878020613 falsely states, "There's Florida State Representative @MikeHillFL (R-Confederacy) having lunch today with friends who say the #Coronavirus outbreak is 'media-induced' and 'nothing.'"
Your description of Representative Mike Hill as "R-Confederacy" demonstrates your irresponsible political bias. And your false assertion that Hill's friends "say the #Coronavirus outbreak is 'media-induced'" is blatantly and provably untrue. If you'll read and comprehend what I actually wrote (and it's still there, so you should), you'll see that I didn't say the coronavirus outbreak is media-induced. I said the Coronavirus PANIC is media-induced, which it is.
If you cared about facts, you would post a correction. But I won't hold my breath waiting for one.
#DishonestJournalism
(END)
Well, I didn't hold my breath, and he didn't correct his fake news.
At the time we were dining, it was legal to eat-in. But Governor DeSantis must have read the comments in that Twitter thread and realized that eating inside a restaurant means certain death for the diners and anyone they'll ever encounter. He issued an order limiting all Florida restaurants to take-out and delivery only.
I didn't address the Facebook or Twitter threads on my radio program this morning. Instead, I explained how I formed my opinion that destroying our economy by shutting down lawful commerce due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus is completely inappropriate and will do more damage than the virus will. After the show aired, it was uploaded to my podcast page. If you'd like to hear it, it's at www.themikebatesshow.com/podcasts/200321
If you do listen, please listen to the entire hour so what will be perceived as my cold-blooded callousness, unbridled greed, and heartless apathy will be heard in proper context. It won't make sense if you don't hear all of it.