Shot in the Dark

Taking Business Elsewhere

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Governor Walz has ordered restaurants closed for dine-in service. So on Saturday morning, I buzzed over the new Highway 36 bridge to eat breakfast at a cafe near Somerset.

Dine-in service. Normal table separation. Packed with customers. Cheerful wait staff running non-stop. Generous portions. Reasonable prices. No masks required.

If Minnesota doesn’t want my business, I’ll take it elsewhere. Because that’s The American Way, right? Maybe that will get the Governor’s attention.

Joe Doakes

I don’t know. His paycheck isn’t going anywhere.

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Mitch Berg

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34 responses to “Taking Business Elsewhere”

  1. Maximum Overlord Avatar
    Maximum Overlord

    I have family on both sides of the river.
    This year the family get togethers are all on the Wisconsin side.

  2. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    And for those living along the southern border, think Iowa.

  3. AllenS Avatar
    AllenS

    I live in Polk County WI, and our new Conservative Sheriff has said that he won’t enforce any mask mandates because he feels they are unconstitutional.

  4. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Mitch, you have a great point on paychecks.

    As I’ve posited before, if we really are “all in this together”, why haven’t the Democrats given up their paychecks and why did they not delay the raises that all of the state droogs got? Typical left wing hypocrisy.

    On another note, there are a number of restaurants around the state, that are planning to open, in defiance of Dictator Walz on a date to be announced the day before the opening to avoid attacks by Karens and to to stymie fake Muslim Hakim Ellison’s enforced compliance.

  5. Pig Bodine Avatar
    Pig Bodine

    Grantsberg was packed with MN license plates over the Thanksgiving holiday.

  6. golfdoc50 Avatar
    golfdoc50

    OMG JD! Bad enough you advocate eating in restaurants and de-masking. Now you encourage people to eat horrifically bad high cholesterol foods! Oh the humanity!

  7. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    I’ll be down in River Falls tomorrow, so I’ll be speaking some money there. I hate to support idiot Evers, but helping the business owners in small eating establishments is more important to me.

  8. Pig Bodine Avatar
    Pig Bodine

    hey lets not forget all the cheese opportunities that WI presents for your gustatory pleasure.

  9. Maximum Overlord Avatar
    Maximum Overlord

    Sure, Wisconsin has cheese — as long as you like cheddar or swiss.
    I want to know why I cannot find Cambozola in Polk County WI.

  10. Pig Bodine Avatar
    Pig Bodine

    MO
    keep looking
    my favorites of late are a blue Stilton style, a Black Truffle, a couple goat cheeses, and a geitost.
    A few years ago I asked the manager at my usual grocery about specialty cheeses and he started stocking some, in small quantities. Some are seasonal the dairies do small runs so they are on and off the shelves fairly quickly.
    This year has been difficult because a couple of the larger dairy operations had sporadic shutdowns due to the Wuhan.

  11. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    You can also get cranberries in Warrens. It’s a cruise, but for me, I stop there on the way to or from Chicago when I go to visit my daughter.

  12. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    So three people from Minnesota get stabbed outside the Smiling Moose (one of my favorite places over there) in Hudson last week by persons who were also from Minnesota – so now the Mayor and Common Council (City Council, presumably) are requiring Hudson bars and restaurants to close at 10 p.m. to deter the bad element coming across the border.

    I don’t think I saw a comment from the owner of the Smiling Moose saying he was happy to stop making money hand over fist after 10 p.m., serving the other 99% of his/her clientele.

  13. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    NW, it seems Gov Schultz is more than glad to export better elements of Better Minnesota™ to Wisconsin.

  14. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    JPA – “The citizens of our city are afraid, they fear for their safety when they even contemplate going into our downtown area,” Hudson Mayor Rich O’Connor said.

    You mean the same way Minnesotans fear for their safety when going to downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul?

  15. Paddyboy Avatar
    Paddyboy

    If you want to fix business, control the virus. You can’t hold a gun to people’s heads and say “GO OUT TO EAT!” While I understand you have a fantasy that if we only “didn’t have these controls” everything would be ducky, that’s just what it is, a fantasy. it is because the average person simply isn’t looking to risk their life to go out to eat. Now, younger people (and the painfully dumb) seem to be willing to take risks because they either think they are (mostly) immune from serious effects or think, due to BS like that coming from this blog earlier this year (and from our “President” even now) that for “99% of people, it’s just fine.”

    The bottom line is, stop belly-aching about non-existent unconstitutional violations – the government has the right to institute reasonable safety measures in the interest of public health, including restricting movement and business. That’s why this kind of protest failed (repeatedly) when challenged in both state and federal courts (unless the person instituting the limit didn’t have the authority) – be clear, that didn’t mean it wasn’t lawful/constitutional under the state constitution, just the governor of Michigan didn’t have that authority (in part because the GOP legislature stripped her of it).

    But the real point is this, your fatuous crusade to “defend’ the rights of business owners amounts to nothing (or close to it) next to the actual needed crusade to get control of the spread/limit transmission. However material the impacts to those who WANT to open their businesses may be, and NO one is deaf to that complaint, it pales to insignificance against the impacts from the spread, an impact made FAR larger by having those same business open. Equally important, it pales to insignificance next to the tyranny you and your cohort bring about by bullying businesses and others to ignore mask requirements, frequenting bars and restaurants and then bringing the illness home (as has happened so often). Long and short, once again you are quixotically focused NOT on the primary issue, but on some perceived persecution – and in this case your focus makes the larger problem MUCH worse.

    And then there’s this – by extending the time period during which the virus rampages across the country, you make it FAR likelier that businesses, including the many, many more who are struggling due to lack of economic activity, not because they can’t open their doors, but because the population is staying home, you are making it FAR more likely they will all fail, because a 30% drop in GDP for 18 months is simply FAR worse for the economy than is a 50% drop for 8 weeks (or 12).

    To that end, I offer you a contrast. – Australia, a country with 24 Million people (or about 1/12 the US population) recorded SIX new cases yesterday and has and ONE death since October 28th. What they did differently, is they instituted ALL of the things experts here said we should do, mask mandates, a hard closure until spread was traced – and now, now they are fully re-opened. They have an abundance of contact tracers and any case which crops up, they track down and get under control.

    It is a fantasy and revisionist history to pretend that quarantine and closure were not the norm in this country in the past. We have implemented such practices numerous times in locales where an epidemic appeared, from dealing with small pox in Boston in 1720 (yes, i am aware the US became it’s own place fifty years later, but do you SERIOUSLY think that didn’t inform our opinions?) to numerous quarantines across the west dealing with both. History teaches us that it is the UNDER reaction which lead to disaster (such as the gatherings in Philadelphia during the Spanish Flu pandemic). No, what we know is that it is not the “unfair” infringement on business owners which is the issue, it is the denialism of the seriousness of this pandemic which is. Had we instituted the same practices as Australia, or China, or Taiwan, or South Korea, very likely we would be on the backside of this problem, and your precious restaurant business would be open AND have customers. You have once again attempted to remedy a problem with the 180 degree wrong solution because you foolishly politicized something, at the direction of your Dicktator, that you should not.

    Incidentally, yesterday the US had 3100 deaths due to COVID, and 225 THOUSAND new cases, which is just very slightly more than twelve times 6 or twelve times zero.

    So much for “rounding the corner.” Man up, admit mistake, and realize that if you want to save these businesses, it’s not the closure orders which are the issue, it’s that business dried up and will stay dry until this is under control. Then admit simply waiting for “herd immunity” which may never be reached, is no solution at all as it means another 400,000 deaths – which again, is a LOT more than zero, or even twelve times zero.

  16. Paddyboy Avatar
    Paddyboy

    BTW, Joe, when someone who “dines out” – an activity the CDC has said is one of the leading risk factors and causes of spread – comes down with COVID, and they then spread it to a friend, a friend who then dies, I suspect they (or you) will feel somewhat differently. I know my friends who are Trump supporters who lost both their father and then within two weeks their mother, because they didn’t believe it was real and didn’t use masks – and so it spread around at the funeral for the father. I KNOW they feel differently. As do the children of (13 and 10) of one of my co-workers, she died about two weeks ago.

  17. TKS Avatar
    TKS

    Highest ICU utilization I see here is 100% in NM.

    HHS website.

    https://protect-public.hhs.gov/datasets/state-representative-estimates-for-hospital-utilization/data?geometry=89.569%2C-16.702%2C-96.408%2C72.161&orderBy=pct_icu_bed_utilization&orderByAsc=false

  18. Paddyboy Avatar
    Paddyboy

    Also, Joe, please accept my sympathy, your inconvenience is FAR more important than the suffering front-line health care workers are facing in the onslaught of cases, or the families of those who die or suffer long term effects. Please go to Tennessee and protest in front of the morgue trucks and temporary field hospitals about how very hard and unfair it is that you can’t go to a restaurant and get sit down service in Minnesota – and how unfair that is next to the nurse who has to hold the hand of a 70 year old woman who is utterly alone, as she passes away, without family by her side, and then goes to the next room down the hall and does the same thing a half hour later, and is having to do that day after day – I’m sure your inconvenience next to the traumatic stress she is facing is just MUCH MUCH more important. So YOU, going to a restaurant and making her issue worse, is just the much better outcome because at least that way, you can get a cheeseburger.

  19. TKS Avatar
    TKS

    Yes, we must ALL suffer to make this a fair and equitable pandemic.

  20. Paddyboy Avatar
    Paddyboy

    TKS, who the F cares, which state has the highest ICU utilization? The issue is BAD everywhere, are you seriously trying to make this a blue/red issue, STILL???????

    ND has the worst per capita infection rate (or most recently did), getting passed by SD from time to time. Missouri and Mississippi were in the top 5 as well, the only blue state in that list was Wisconsin. Irony, they name is dumbass conservatism.

  21. TKS Avatar
    TKS

    Where did I say anything about red/blue?

  22. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    threadjack

  23. Pig Bodine Avatar
    Pig Bodine

    the one truly positive attribute of Emery is that he’s relatively concise when expressing his idiocy whereas paddyboi/peev certainly isn’t.

  24. Emery Incognito Avatar
    Emery Incognito

    The Trump administration locked in 100 million doses and turned down no-cost option for more. A little later, the EU locked in 200 million doses.
    https://wjjww.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/podcasts/the-daily/pfizer-vaccine-us.html

    The good news is that Trump bought the United States a 400 year stockpile of Hydroxychloroquine.

  25. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    The trolls are busy today.

    The Emery Collective mentions ICU rates, but no evidence who’s filling the beds or whether eating in restaurants is related. Also, no concept of elasticity (ICU bed is not a physical object, it’s a billing code and the hospital can always set up more when needed).

    Pad-meister wants to ‘control’ a virus. Nothing any state has done has ‘controlled’ Covid. It’s spreading everywhere.

    The average person isn’t risking his life going out to eat. Covid targets the frail elderly. Most others won’t get it; if they do, they won’t have symptoms; if they do, the symptoms won’t be serious; if they are, they’ll recover quickly.

    The Constitution does not contain an “epidemic exception.” Governor Walz’ orders have no rational basis: they are arbitrary and unconstitutional.

    Eating in restaurants does not extend the time period during which the virus rampages across the country. House Arrest and Mask orders were specifically intended to do that, by slowing the spread to avoid the surge of deaths. Turns out, there was no surge and orders made no difference.

    Some people might be staying home because they’re terrified of the virus, but the fact Wisconsin bars are packed and Minnesota is actively persecuting a Black single mother restaurant owner for daring to stay open, shows the economic harm is not being caused by individual choices, it’s being caused by government.

    Comparisons to other countries lack nuance. Citation to historical quarantine of sick people is not comparable to current House Arrest of Everybody But Sick People (they’re exempt so they can seek medical treatment).

    The federal government has not rescinded its April instruction to count as Covid every death from respiratory illness, including emphysema and influenza, even without a confirmatory test, which means the death numbers are intentionally inflated. Even so, total US Covid deaths are fewer than 300,000 which is less than one-tenth of one percent of the national population. Rounded to the nearest whole number, Covid has killed ZERO percent of Americans. The existence of the nation is not at stake because of this bug.

    There is no “rounding the corner” with a flu bug. It comes back year after year. Covid acts the same way. Nothing anybody can do about it. Orders won’t stop Covid same as they don’t stop the flu.

    The CDC numbers are not Minnesota numbers. The numbers from Minnesota Department of Health show Likely Exposure in bars and restaurants is such a small fraction of cases they don’t even have their own category, they’re lumped with a bunch of other sources including working at meat packing plants.

    I don’t believe health care workers are suffering because of Covid patient load, more from idiotic quarantine rules causing staff shortages, but even if treating Covid patients did cause health care workers to suffer while doing their job, they can quit and learn to code. Their career choice is not my burden.

    The old lady may die of Covid, but she dies alone because of Walz’s orders. Not my fault and not related to my dining in the restaurant.

    Here’s a question for the trolls: assume the Governor’s orders work as intended to slow the spread of Covid. That still means Covid will spread, only not as quickly as without the order. Testing will continue to find cases as the virus slowly spreads. So what happens when everybody in the state has a confirmed case of Covid? Then what? Lockdown forever? Throw the doors open and lift all restrictions?

    If you’re waiting for everyone to get it, why not lift the restrictions now and be done with it? Why wait?

  26. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    more threadjack

  27. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    EI,

    Yet another threadjack removed.

    I thought my announcement last week was pretty clear.

  28. Emery Incognito Avatar
    Emery Incognito

    Cancel culture is not just for the far-left

  29. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Lawyer: “Objection, irrelevant.”

    Judge: “Sustained.”

    E: “Cancel Culture! Help, help, I’m being repressed! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!”

  30. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Huh, eating out at restaurants is a key driver for COVID deaths, which is, I guess, why most COVID deaths are among nursing home residents, who have not been able to leave to go to a restaurant since March.

    Really, Paddyboy, maybe your ire ought to be directed at governors who sent COVID infectees back into nursing homes, and who also refused to work to set up dedicated COVID wards while also refusing to allow those that did come (e.g. U.S.S. Comfort in NYC, as well as Samaritan’s Purse field hospital in Central Park) to take a leading role in treating the sick.

  31. Maximum Overlord Avatar
    Maximum Overlord

    bikebubba on December 10, 2020 at 5:09 pm said:
    Huh, eating out at restaurants is a key driver for COVID deaths, which is, I guess, why most COVID deaths are among nursing home residents, who have not been able to leave to go to a restaurant since March.

    So we have a contagious respiratory disease that can be deadly to people who are very old, or who suffer from a combination of morbid obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
    And the response is to shut down Christmas shopping and close dine-in restaurants.
    Sounds stupid when you put it truthfully like that.

  32. Maximum Overlord Avatar
    Maximum Overlord

    Mayor of Austin, Texas, apologizes for taking Mexico vacation while urging residents to stay home
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mayor-austin-texas-apologizes-taking-mexico-vacation-while-urging-residents-n1249885

    Once again the people urging that you lockdown demonstrate that they think that lockdowns are useless.

  33. Maximum Overlord Avatar
    Maximum Overlord

    I am actually beginning to believe that the cruelty of the lockdowns is their point. One of the tools used by totalitarian regimes is random acts of terror against its subjects. It is important for the people to know that the power of the state is unbound by the rule of law or even reason.

  34. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    The Em Collective kills its parents and then asks for mercy on the grounds that is an orphan.

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