For years I have been making the Port Townsend to Coupeville ferry crossing often on a weekly basis. I call it the last great adventure on the west coast available to all. Wind, fog and tides often conspire to make the trip unpredictable.
Yes, it can be an adventure, but it has always been easy, even with the Wuhan virus, until two weeks ago when, on the Coupeville side, I pulled up in my vehicle and found an unfamiliar state employee in the ticket booth. He refused to scan my pre-paid card because I didn’t have a piece of fabric covering my mouth and nose.
I’m not asking for sympathy and I don’t feel the need to explain myself to anyone anymore. I do feel the need to shine a light on how we are being conditioned to give up our freedoms through dictates from state and federal government that are not laws, have not been debated by our political representatives, aren’t supported by scientific research even though the wording in the orders says they are, and often are based, if you bother to look, on nothing more than proclamations made on high by whomever the appointed “expert advisor” of the moment may be.
So what changed on the Port Townsend to Coupeville Ferry route other than the familiar friendly faces in the ticket booth?
You might remember a few months back, with the installation of the new occupant in the Oval Office, a flurry of executive orders. One of these was titled, Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing. It is a ponderous document ideal for curing insomnia and was pretty much forgotten by most of us as soon as it was signed on January 20. Unnoticed by many, under the authority established with the ruling, Washington State Ferries and the corresponding terminals were identified as part of the federal transportation system.
I read the order and noted that it requires all persons in Federal buildings or on Federal lands to wear masks, maintain physical distance, and other public health measures. Think about that for a moment, all Federal buildings, all Federal lands.
Besides the vast areas that this dictate covers, I will remind you that at the start of this national panic it was wear a mask if you can’t physically distance. Now the executive branch orders us to wear a mask and physically distance. Oh, and one other thing. There is no sunset clause. No end date. So unless someone else is installed as president in the next four to eight years and bothers to rescind this order, we can be required to wear masks forever anywhere the Federal Government and it’s petty tyrants have any influence.
This is only one example of how mass media marketing of China virus fear has been wildly successful in eliminating our freedoms. Think of all we have given up, most of us willingly; family, friends, health, fitness, education, income, jobs, travel, FDA approval of vaccines, and so much more that we have yet to comprehend, for a virus that has been proven to have a 99% plus survival rate,.
You may have thought that living way out on the Olympic Peninsula would insulate us from what happens in the other Washington. I offer my experience as evidence to the contrary.
I was eventually able to board the ferry, but only after a heated back and forth. I played by the rules and stated that health reasons preclude me from wearing a mask. The booth attendant stated that didn’t matter and refused to scan my ticket a second time. I repeated my statement. The attendant threatened to call law enforcement. I shifted my car into park to await the authorities. He made the call and the person on the other end of the line suggested he might scan my ticket from six feet away. He would not extend his scanner outside the confines of his booth. Upon stretching my arm out of my window as far as possible, the scanner read the ticket. I thanked him. He sent me off with the threat that if I persisted in not wearing a mask while seated in my car at the ticket booth, I could be charged with blocking a federal highway.
The whole experience was so completely ridiculous that it should be something to laugh about. It should be, but I am not laughing.
I leave you with this quote from Peter Skurkas writing for The American Thinker.
So today it’s “you shall wear a face mask.” What will the dictate be tomorrow? Perhaps the real story here is that the elites are conditioning Americans for proper behavior under a Harris/Biden administration. That behavior can be summed up in one word. Obey.
Brett Nunn has spent the last two decades in Port Townsend's Uptown, raising a family, volunteering at local schools and wandering the outdoors. He writes about survival, community and culture. He is the author of the book, "Panic Rising: True-Life Survivor Tales from the Great Outdoors."
Excellent piece, Brett. Pressed for time right now, I will comment more later. I was so impressed at first read I had to shout out a hearty thank you. Gratitude to the PTFP for publishing this striking personal account of encounters with ‘new normal’ authoritarianism.
Well written and equally absurd. Regard for the community would be time better spent
Masks, Socialist Distancing, closed schools, restricted gatherings, limited seating in restaurants all have nothing to do with protecting ourselves and those we encounter from a virus, they have all to do with a despotic government that desires power and control over every aspect of our lives.
Ahh, there’s a name for that type of government…..communisum. I wonder when will they go one step farther and send people who object to shower facilities that don’t have showers, only ovens. We’re in a very dangerous time and people better wake up.
Kabuki Medicine is critical to the survival of The Swamp. If we aren’t stupid enough to buy into it, then how in the world will those defective parasites retain power and control over our liberties and assets?
Oh, you poor thing! I guess you never noticed that we live in a society that requires people to prostitute themselves in order to live and feed their families. What’s wearing a piece of clothe over your face compared to that?
*** So today it’s “you shall wear a face mask.” What will the dictate be tomorrow? ***
Beekeeper hats and HAZMAT suits, of course. And you’ll learn to like it, or else President China Joe Potatohead will spill pudding on you if he doesn’t forget.
Sorry, I was imprecise. I meant “Alleged President China Joe Potatohead”.
I have heard that we will know when we are entering into an era of totalitarianism when folks have lost their ability to think for themselves in a coherent way. It is impossible to think clearly and believe at the same time so if we are placed in a milieu of fear each day, belief in an authority becomes what might seem like our only option. To think coherently our minds must be free of all fear.
News is being systematically censored in favor of presenting a clear, singular, and official government voice. Without alternative scientific information, and being immersed in a free floating shroud of fear, these two facts can lead many to believe in an “expert” rather than making an informed person health decision for ourselves. Unless more become awake like Brett Nunn, we are heading into an era of totalitarianism.
A recent review of scientific evidence out of Stanford reiterates what every solid study about general masking has determined over decades—facemasks do not prevent the transmission of viruses. And as the public increasingly submits to this dehumanizing practice, both psychological and health damages escalate. The paper concludes:
“The existing scientific evidences challenge the safety and efficacy of wearing facemask as preventive intervention for COVID-19. The data suggest that both medical and non-medical facemasks are ineffective to block human-to-human transmission of viral and infectious disease such SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, supporting against the usage of facemasks. Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects. These include hypoxia, hypercapnia, shortness of breath, increased acidity and toxicity, activation of fear and stress response, rise in stress hormones, immunosuppression, fatigue, headaches, decline in cognitive performance, predisposition for viral and infectious illnesses, chronic stress, anxiety and depression. Long-term consequences of wearing facemask can cause health deterioration, developing and progression of chronic diseases and premature death. Governments, policy makers and health organizations should utilize prosper and scientific evidence-based approach with respect to wearing facemasks, when the latter is considered as preventive intervention for public health.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987720333028
Still, our county’s petty tyrant with the biggest bullhorn—Public Health Officer Thomas Locke—continues to exhort residents to double and even triple mask: saying we need to “intensify what we’re doing, especial in terms of masking.”
“Ridiculous” seems to be the new normal; the petty tyrants multiplying as the public is socially engineered into obeying edicts that harm rather than benefit.. Thank you, Brett, for adding your voice to this important conversation.
Maybe they ought to have paid attention in school, acquired some skills and not make families they can’t support?
If you’ve been vaccinated, you’re immune (Fauci the Failure wouldn’t lie about that as well, would he?), so act like it. Tell the petty tyrants to buzz off.
Governor DeSantis is absolutely right – it’s just sad that we’re stuck with a moron like Idiot Inslee.
Please provide evidence for your statement that these experimental injections provide immunity. As detailed in my recent article—with thousands of breakthrough cases already occurring, and the potential for those who get these shots be driving development of more virulent strains—these are acknowledged to be “leaky” vaccines, which do not prevent infection or transmission. https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2021/04/06/death-by-injectionwhy-half-of-america-including-healthcare-professionals-are-refusing-the-experimental-covid-19-shotspart-two/
Well, Ana, that sawed-off little petty-tyrant parasite Fauci the Failure has only failed at, been wrong about or lied to everybody about masks, AIDS, anthrax, herd immunity, the Thanksgiving Dinner holocaust, Spring Break die-offs and other rude violations by free people – so why not just believe him when he says vaccinated people are immune? Yeah, he’s been a screwup for decades, but Alleged President Potatohead seems to like his government-centric schemes, so maybe we must bow down too.
Of course, if he’s not wrong or lying about it for once, the vaccinated people neither have the Chicom Cooties nor can infect others with them, so naturally the little overpaid runt’s demand that they still have to wear masks and stay away from other people must be valid. Or something.
It’s confusing, I’ll admit. I say we just ignore dopes like him who aren’t any good at their chosen medical field, could only get a government job as a bureaucrat and then fail up.
Here’s something fun to read:
A Short History Of How Anthony Fauci Has Kept Failing Up Since 1984
https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/13/a-short-history-of-how-anthony-fauci-has-kept-failing-up-since-1984/
Ana says–“Ridiculous” seems to be the new normal; the petty tyrants multiplying as the public is socially engineered into obeying edicts that harm rather than benefit.. Thank you, Brett, for adding your voice to this important conversation.”
Another quote from this article- “So today it’s “you shall wear a face mask.” What will the dictate be tomorrow? Perhaps the real story here is that the elites are conditioning Americans for proper behavior under a Harris/Biden administration. That behavior can be summed up in one word. Obey.”
I will spare everyone the details, but on several fronts here with Port Townsend City Government, their elite offshoot organization the FWPDA, and the elite root causes of many problems, I have been trying to get voters to see the conditioning of themselves to ignore a government entity that harms more than helps. For years. Many years.
I understand that eventually a lone voice is just annoying. People don’t want to be reminded that the root cause of the root cause is voters, who should demand that those voted in should change laws and codes or follow them. Take responsibility, not just the perks. Treat neighbors as neighbors, do unto others. The rest follows naturally.
These names commenting here are silent on issues other than this one. The water has been tested here in Port Townsend for years, pre Covid, and in other smaller petri dishes or tide pools around the country. Regardless of who sits at the big desk in Washington DC.
insert wedge comment here.
For me, even the editor of this online paper has fallen into the special interest category as my comments to the previous “Music” story try to explain. We’re all only human, with blind spots.
Please pay more attention to the “petty tyrants’ you voted in right here in Port Townsend. Elections coming for 3 Council seats. Its one front you can make a big difference on in your own back yard. Or not.
Harvey, I don’t know you. And you don’t know me. You do yourself no favors by making assumptions about what issues I, and others in this thread, take on in this community. You have no bloody clue. You are also clueless about who I voted for, if I voted, or whether or not I’m eligible to vote in city elections.
If you find parking and city council seats more critical than the totalitarian takeover of our very existence, carry on challenging those things as you have done. I’ll thank you to keep to yourself your notion of what I should pay more attention to. I promise I’ll reciprocate.
Annette- As in the microcosm as in the macrocosm. Sorry if I missed the mark with what I wrote. I stand by “The water has been tested here in Port Townsend for years, pre Covid, and in other smaller petri dishes or tide pools around the country. Regardless of who sits at the big desk in Washington DC”.
I see almost no one challenging the status quo here. I look to find that, I don’t assume.
‘new normal’ authoritarianism takes many forms, microcosm and macrocosm. The sum of the microcosms is the resistance to the totalitarian slide.
Thanks for going on record with your thoughts and using your real name.
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” – Frederick Douglass
Ex-Clinton adviser Naomi Wolf warns US becoming ‘totalitarian state before our eyes’ under Biden
2-22-21
6:41 min
“America is becoming a “totalitarian state before our eyes” under President Biden’s leadership, feminist author and former Democratic adviser Naomi Wolf told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday.
Wolf, who served as an adviser on Bill Clinton’s reelection campaign in 1996, told host Tucker Carlson that in her view, the United States is swiftly “moving into a coup situation, a police state” as a result of Biden’s ongoing coronavirus-related economic shutdowns. Wolf added that she believes the orders are being improperly extended under the “guise of a real medical pandemic.”
“That is not a partisan thing,” Wolf told Carlson. “That transcends everything that you and I might disagree or agree on. That should bring together left and right to protect our Constitution.”
. . .
“The state has now crushed businesses, kept us from gathering in free assembly to worship as the First Amendment provides, is invading our bodies … which is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, restricting movement, fining us in New York state … the violations go on and on,” she said.
The outspoken liberal, who previously authored a book outlining the ten steps that “would-be tyrants always take when they want to close down a democracy,” believes the United States is heading toward what she refers to as “step 10.”
“Whether they are on the left or the right, they do these same ten things,” Wolf explained, “and now we’re at something I never thought I would see in my lifetime … it is step 10 and that is the suspension of the rule of law and that is when you start to be a police state, and we’re here. There is no way around it.”
https://www.foxnews.com/media/naomi-wolf-tucker-clinton-adviser-biden-lockdowns