The phrase "drunk with power" seems relevant to modern times in America.  New information about the Wuhan Virus indicates that it's here to stay and that a total shutdown is both ineffective and counterproductive.  Nevertheless, Democrat politicians are clamping down ever harder on their beleaguered constituents.  No wonder a rant against government overreach from David Portnoy of Barstool Sports is going viral.

It seems as if, every single day, even as they murmur vaguely about "opening up," Democrat governments are tightening restrictions on the people unlucky enough to be in their jurisdictions.  The big news on Thursday was Washington State governor Jay Inslee's demand that restaurants make customers log information about themselves if they wish to dine.  Of course, this applies only if restaurants don't instantly go broke under the new rules:

As part of the requirements, the log must be maintained for 30 days and must include each customer's telephone number and email address, and what time they came in to eat, according to officials.

[snip]

In order to remain open, restaurants must also meet a dozen other requirements including operating at 50% capacity or below, and seating no more than five guests at each table, according to Inslee's office.

Restaurants famously have one of the lowest profit margins of any business.  The only way a restaurant can remain in business when filling only 50% of its space is to double the cost of its food.  We already know from the minimum wage experiment in Seattle that even a minor forced increase in the wages the government forces restaurants to pay staff will either drive a restaurant to fire staff or go out of business.

To have to carry the costs of rent, insurance, supplies, food, and employees, all while operating at 50% capacity — well, few, if any, restaurants in Washington will survive.  Inslee is singlehandedly destroying the livelihoods of thousands of people.

Inslee also seems bizarrely confident that restaurants have enforcing powers when it comes to getting people's data from them.  It's one thing to be carded for drinks (and even that's given birth to a whole industry of false ID); it's another thing entirely to have to flash your ID to get a cup of coffee or a salad.

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti is no slacker when it comes to cracking the whip.  He announced that all residents, but for small children and the disabled, must wear a face mask before he allows them "more freedoms."  That statement ignores the fact that, if the government is "giving" you freedoms, you're not free.

For those governments that mandate masked citizens, we suggest looking abroad for ideas.  How about this?

Garcetti also promised (or threatened) Los Angeles residents when he stated that the city would "never be completely open until we have a cure."  He ignores, or does not know, that there is no cure in the offing.  The Wuhan Virus will join the flu, cancer, and heart attacks as just another one of those tools the Grim Reaper has to cull populations.

Conservatives, always sensitive to government infringements on constitutional rights, have been grumbling from the beginning about how a promised two-week lockdown to "flatten the curve" somehow morphed into open-ended imprisonment pending a vaccine, a cure, or the virus's eradication.  Other people who are less politically aware have been more willing to accept restrictions to stay (theoretically) safe.

That willingness, though, is passing.  We've seen people break free of the lockdown across America.  And now we have another indicator, as shown by the viral popularity of a rant from David Portnoy, the "Barstool Sports" guy.

Portnoy doesn't speak to a political audience because he's a sports guy.  Nevertheless, this short, F-bomb-laced video has spread like wildfire.

In it, Portnoy states in simple terms what we've been saying for a while: the government cannot guarantee Americans' perfect safety, and it cannot and should not use a false promise of perfect safety to deprive us of life, liberty, and property.  (Okay, he didn't say "life."  I added that because economic depressions kill.)

No wonder Elon Musk — a businessman facing disaster and staring down California — applauded:

Well said! Please run for office. The politicians & unelected bureaucrats who stole our liberty should be tarred, feathered & thrown out of town!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2020

Oh, and one more thing: Even as we're all going broke, the federal government plans to pay $25/hour to an army of Karens to be "contract tracers."  Theoretically, once the Karens track you down because you signed in at Washington State's single surviving restaurant and interacted with an asymptomatic Wuhan Virus carrier, you can be locked up — for your own good, of course.

I want my constitutional America back, and I want it back now!