Check Out These Businesses Fighting the COVID Lockdown Tyranny • OP News

It will come as no surprise to longtime readers of this website that I am wholeheartedly against the lockdowns created by the China-connected “Dr.” Fauci. While they might be necessary if this disease was truly dangerous and deadly, like the Black Death or Spanish Flu of 1918 were, the simple truth is that the Chinese Flu is nowhere near that deadly or dangerous.

But, while I am against lockdowns, I don’t think that most of the anger directed at them focuses on the worst part, the effect of the lockdowns on small businesses. Those businesses, the backbone of the middle class and the American economy, have been absolutely gutted by government mandates.

Too few conservatives and libertarians focus on that, myself included. We focus on the individual liberty and petty tyranny aspects of them. We rant and rave about the hypocrisy of Democrats that create horribly restrictive lockdown policies and then break their own rules. And, of course, we write and talk about the tyrannical side of these Chinese Flu lockdowns and what that acceptance of tyranny might mean for the future.

All of those points are both valid and important. Americans need to recognize tyranny and realize that desiring freedom is not selfish. They need to know why red states are handling Covid better than blue states. We all should call out hypocrisy from our respective leaders. And no one likes the lockdowns- the effect of the lockdowns on the mental health and domestic life of Americans has been horrible; alcohol consumption, drug use, and domestic violence are through the roof thanks to the government’s policies.

The lockdowns have already caused as many as 200,000 small businesses to permanently close. Lockdowns, by shrinking the number of employers, lead to long-term unemployment or lower wages for many workers.

While governments have terrorized small businesses, they have typically deemed the big chain stores “essential businesses” so they can remain open. The lockdowns are thus another government policy that gives big businesses a competitive advantage over their smaller competitors.

The benefits big businesses get from the lockdowns — including fewer competitors, more customers, and a job market with more workers competing for fewer jobs — may explain why many big businesses are not fighting the lockdowns. Instead, most big retail chains are requiring their workers and customers to wear masks. Many big businesses may soon deny service to those who refuse to receive a Covid vaccine.

One would think that progressives who claim to oppose policies that benefit big corporations like WalMart, Target, and Amazon would oppose the lockdowns. Sadly, even many progressives are unquestioningly parroting the Covid propaganda and demonizing those who dissent.

By slowing down the development of herd immunity among the population, the lockdowns could put those truly at risk in greater danger. Lockdowns have also had negative effects such as increases in drug and alcohol abuse and increases in domestic violence. Meanwhile, many schoolchildren are deprived of the opportunity to interact with their teachers and their peers. Instead, these children are subjected to the fraud of “virtual learning.”

Resistance to Covid tyranny is growing as more people figure out that lockdowns and mandates are both unnecessary and harmful. This resistance was largely started by small business owners faced with a choice between obeying the government or making sure they, and their employees, can feed their families. Small business owners have been leaders in recent anti-lockdown protests across America.

Eventually the resistance will grow to the point where the politicians will be forced to either double down on authoritarianism or admit the lockdowns were a mistake. Either way, those of us who know the truth must resist the Covid tyranny until government officials no longer terrorize small businesses for the crime of serving willing consumers.

As we speak, patriots and Americans across the globe are waking up to what is really happening.

Crash-N-Burn Tattoo – Shepherd, Texas

When Jamie Williams decided to reopen her East Texas tattoo studio last May in defiance of the state’s coronavirus restrictions, she asked Philip Archibald for help. He showed up with his dog Zeus, his friends and his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

Mr. Archibald established an armed perimeter in the parking lot outside Crash-N-Burn Tattoo, secured by five men with military-style rifles, tactical shotguns, camouflage vests and walkie-talkies. One of them already had a large tattoo of his own. “We the People,” it said.

“I think it should be a business’s right if they want to close or open,” said Mr. Archibald, a 29-year-old online fitness trainer from the Dallas area who lately has made it his personal mission to help Texas business owners challenge government orders to keep their doors shut during the coronavirus pandemic. “What is coming to arrest a person who is opening their business according to their constitutional rights? That’s confrontation.”

Call it the armed reopening.

Read the full article at New York Times.

Atilis Gym – Wildwood, New Jersey

A police officer issues a summons to Atilis Gym co-owners Ian Smith, left, and Frank Trumbetti outside their gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey.

The co-owner of Atilis Gym says despite the New Jersey government seizing his company’s funds amid a coronavirus restrictions battle, they will “continue to fight by any means necessary.”

“Frank and I are prepared to fight this until the very end,” Ian Smith said on FOX Business’ “Varney and Co.” “The fight that we took up was not only for our gym but for our constitutional rights.”

“That money was earmarked as defense money,” Smith told host Stuart Varney. “So it is a clear violation of our constitutional rights. They’re interfering with our right to counsel and we’re actually actively in the appeal process for those fines.”

Gyms are allowed to remain open in New Jersey, provided they follow COVID-19 protocols. According to Smith, Atilis Gym patrons are not required to wear masks, which violates the protocols. The establishment is fined $15,000 every day it remains open and does not adhere to the protocols.

Read the full article at Fox Business.

Athletes Unleashed Gym – Orchard Park, New York

Robby Dinero, Athletes Unleashed gym owner tears up COVID lockdown fines issued by local health officials and law enforcement in defiance of the unconstitutional lockdown laws placed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York.

Athletes Unleashed gym owner Robby Dinero and his gym owning friends stood up to Andrew Cuomo’s authoritarian lockdown order back in December by defending their rights and chasing out the Sheriff and Health Department whom unlawfully and unconstitutionally tried to shutdown a meeting of local gym owners just trying to survive.

The Vault – Tenino, Washington

Stephanie Skoglund touches up paint on a giant chalk board where guests can leave messages for the bride and groom at The Vault, the wedding and event center she owns in Tenino, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Over the years, Stephanie Skoglund invested countless hours of sweat equity renovating what was once Tenino, Washington’s general store — replacing the floors, wiring chandeliers, adding a kitchen. Everything to upgrade the old sandstone building in this long-ago frontier town for use as a wedding hall.

With this year’s wedding season approaching, 40 celebrations were already on the calendar at The Vault and its sister facility. Then the coronavirus shut them down.

“We’re basically wiped out,” Skoglund said.

Skoglund turned off the electric circuits and water lines at both venues. She sold a dance floor for $1,000 and a large party tent for $2,600, to help cover her family’s bills. Her husband works for her business, so his income is gone, too.

Skoglund was approved for $3,200 of the nearly $25,000 she sought from the federal Payroll Protection Program before learning even that wouldn’t be coming. Then Washington state halted her unemployment payments as it scrambled to sort out hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent claims.

Reopening, if you can call it that, has proved just as tough.

Read the full article at AP News.

Fresno Small Businesses

Around 250 people arrived for a rally to protest business closures in Downtown Fresno last month. Photo by Donald A. Promnitz

A crowd of Fresno County residents and small business owners gathered in Downtown Fresno in November to protest the lockdown and curfew orders issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The rally was held in front of the Fresno County Department of Public Health on Saturday. Around 250 people were in attendance.

The event was put on by Open Central California Safely, a coalition of local business owners seeking to ease Covid-19 restrictions. Co-founder Lewis Everk was one of the their keynote speakers, who criticized not only the restrictions, but also the 10 p.m. curfew.

Read the full article at The Business Journal.

Oregon Counties

In the small-ish burg of Baker City, way out in Eastern Oregon, far away from the capital city, a proposal among business leaders has ignited a movement. Now, the mayor says other towns across Oregon are looking to her city as a model to fight back against an out-of-control governor.

In an interview with PJ Media, Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten says the proposal began as an attempt to make their town a Common Sense Sanctuary. Serving in her first term, business leaders approached her the day after her swearing-in took place in January. “It was quite a process,” she says. “After we were all sworn in back on January 12th, local businesses brought forth to [city] council an idea of a Common Sense Sanctuary City. The idea was pretty funny, actually. It was a good idea. They were asking for local businesses to be able to adhere, or not adhere to the mask mandates, the OSHA [Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division] restrictions, as they saw fit individually.”

McQuisten says the city council conducted a town hall meeting over the issue. “Business owners poured in to give testimony. Some questioned whether the city could protect them from state OSHA regulations and targeting by these agencies.”

Read the full article at PJ Media.

Alberta Small Businesses

A few hundred people turned out in support of a protest against the government’s move to shut down more businesses once more.

Calgary – A couple hundred Albertans gathered at courthouse park in April to stand-up for small business, taking aim at Jason Kenney’s UCP government re-introducing public health restrictions last week.

They have been a staple in the downtown core for several months, where thousands have gathered to protest the measures.

Rally organizer Ryan Audette says with Alberta moving back into Step 1 of its relaunch plan, it is crippling small business.

“Most of them they were on board with this in the beginning, a year ago, everyone was willing to do their part,” he said.

“They can’t take any more of this, they are fighting for survival.”

Audette, who has hosted the rallies at the park, has led marches to city hall as protesters gather with friends and family saying the restrictions impinge on their Charter rights.

Read the full article at CTV News.

Toronto Small Businesses

Storefronts along a bustling neighborhood in Toronto’s west end were papered over with mock “for lease” signs in November as a nearby suburban barbecue joint threw open its doors in defiance of pandemic restrictions — a sign of the dramatic measures small businesses are resorting to amid renewed provincial lockdown measures to combat growing COVID-19 cases.

Read the full article at Toronto Star.