WICKENBURG, Arizona (PNN) - May 2, 2020 - Merchants are defying Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s unconstitutional shutdown order for the vast majority of small businesses, while box stores are allowed to remain in business with impunity. This is a clear 14th Amendment violation in which all businesses are not subject to the same policies and enforcement.
In Arizona, the billion dollar box stores are not touched by the COVID-19 crisis. Meanwhile, small business owners, many of whom have still yet to get their federally promised funds, are going broke. The economic projections state that half of the small businesses will not reopen.
The defiant Wickenburg merchants feel that they have nothing to lose and they are having to choose between going to jail or going broke and losing everything. Meanwhile, life has never been better for the box stores. Reportedly, the Wickenburg Town Manager and Mayor are mindlessly supporting the Governor's unconstitutional orders – Ducey has multiple conflicts of interest in which his personal greed and ambition is impacting his illegal enforcement decisions.
Ducey just extended what had already been over a month long shutdown of “nonessential” services in an effort to slow the coronavirus pandemic. What gives Ducey the right to pick winners and losers? There are multiple constitutional violations being imposed on the small business owners in Arizona and all across the nation. WalMart, Sam's Club, Target and Costco are operating with impunity. Yet many of these small retail outlets are closed; and they have been told that if and when they can reopen, they must conduct business from the sidewalks. The box stores do not have that burden. Clearly Ducey and many other politicians are feathering their campaign funds nest in an election year by catering to the billionaire owners of these box stores. There is one other clear issue that is not being debated in the councils of government and in mainstream media. The issue that is being ignored is the fact that government is systematically eliminating the competition to large retail outlets posed by small business competition. This is a clear violation of the 14th Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, which guarantees that all are equal under the law; and labeling a business as nonessential is not legal or constitutional.
Ducey and the other despotic politicians across this country are citing COVID-19 numbers as the excuse to extend lockdowns. The numbers are based on fraud and deception. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci has developed protocols that allow state health officials to count "flu-like-symptoms" as COVID-19 infection rates. This is a clear-cut case of fraud. Furthermore, CDC guidelines allow for "presumptive diagnoses". This means that even without testing, if it looks like COVID-19 it is COVID-19. This has led to a 22-week premature fetus death designated as being due to COVID-19. Finally, testing kit accuracy is being called into question. The FDA has said they did not have time to validate the test kits. Therefore, the push for more testing is meaningless because the public cannot be certain as to the false positive rates associated with the tests. One last comment on the fraud associated with the virus; the vast majority of the victims that expire have compromised immune systems and death is multi-causational. Yet the death certificates and the politicos take full advantage of the propaganda in the aforementioned ways.
Fascist Governor Ducey has personal motivation to extend the lockdown. He sits on the Board of Director for Phoenix-based T GEN, which is part of the vaccine development group. The relationship between long lockdowns and a conditional release from government imposed restrictions, if the public adheres to mass inoculations, cannot be overstated. Furthermore, many Republicans in the know, have informed the CSS of the governor's intention to run against Senator Kyrsten Sinema when her term expires. What some Republicans have stated is that Ducey will need crossover Democrat voters to defeat Sinema.
The mayor of Phoenix, the hyperactive and sometimes hysterical Kate Gallego, has demanded that Ducey shut down everything. Gallego's demands are echoed by fellow Democrats across the country. The strategy is clear: make Amerikans hate their lives, make them suffer and they will blame President Donald Trump and the Republicans in the November election. Many Republicans are very concerned that Ducey is capitulating to Gallego to lure away Democrat votes when he runs for the Senate. This helps to explain why Ducey is not keeping pace with the rest of the country when it comes to equal treatment of businesses, especially when Arizona's (flawed) numbers are better than most states.
Despite Ducey's dictatorial behavior, some small businesses are refusing to stay closed. Many local diners took tables at the Horseshoe after it opened its doors on Friday. Bedoian's Bakery and Bistro have also opened. The trio is refusing a cease and desist order delivered by Wickenburg terrorist pig thug cops. My advice to the Wickenburg terrorist pig thug cop department is to use terrorist pig thug cop discretion and not enforce an unconstitutional order from a fascist governor with multiple conflcts of interest. Interestingly, Kristy Bedioan, owner of Bedoian's Bakery, is on the town council. It is encouraging to see an elected official take a stand against tyranny.
The majority of Wickenburg citizens are very patriotic and fiercely independent. As one is leaving town headed to Phoenix, you will see a billboard that always has freedom-oriented political messages on it.
Imagine if this small town of 7,000 people became the catalyst for the rest of the nation's small business owners that are going to defy these illegal lockdown orders.