So thirty five states relaxing restrictions, although that varies a lot from state to state. And the problem I have so many of these states, well they're all they all vary a lot. You have urban areas and rural areas, and then some states are so diverse, like you You're you're really large states. To that to have a state order just seems crazy. I mean, it makes no sense whatsoever.
So some of the hot spots in the country, Michigan, hundreds of protesters descended on Michigan's state capital yesterday, and the Republican controlled legislature ramped up its efforts to bring the Democratic Governor Whittmer's emergency powers to an end. And they're talking about suing Governor Whittmer because they believe she's
acting outside of constitutional rights there in Michigan. And our gripe has been and continues to be that this is a serious suspension of constitutional rights that was based on the need to flatten the curve. Well, the curve is very very flat, and now the knee to suspend all of our constitutional rights in our businesses and ability to make a living seems to be just to prevent as many cases as possible well, I think we're all in favor of that, but should we be crushing the economy
and people's health not coincidentally on that basis. Another hot spot is California, where there's a protest planned for today. The group calling itself Reopen California and the lockdown. The California Highway Patrol in California last week announced no more permits, no more gathering, no more protests. Well, I don't know if you're studied much about the First Amendment, but being able to protest your government is one of the most sacred rights we have in this country period. And uh,
and them saying you can't do that is crazy. While there's a protest going on today and people are gonna, I guess, drive around the capital, although some people are planning to march, and they're gonna try to practice social distancing and whatnot. We thought we'd talked to somebody who's going to be involved in that. John Arabitt joins us. He's a small business owner. Uh coincidentally a retired California a Highway patrolman thirty years of the commander. So maybe
we'll ask him about that. John, Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Hey, good morning guys, thanks for having me on What what specifically, what message are you trying to send by protesting today at the state Capitol. Well, you know, I found myself in a very interesting position. After having served thirty years with the California Highway Patrol, I'm now a small business owner up here in Plaster
and Nevada Counties. Um and uh, I've been hit very hard by our response to this pandemic along with our twenty employees. Have you been closed down this whole time, as in not getting any revenue? We have been closed down since March twenty and have cut off all account billion and revenue sources. So yes, So what's your message to the governor or accounty officials or whomever? I mean, if you were to put it succinctly, what's what is it? Well? Well,
my first message is um. First of all, you know, if we believe that coronavirus is a real thing, and our hearts go out to you know, the families who have lost loved ones in the wake of this pandemic. You know, And I also you know, after having served in government and been in these circles for many years, I also think the government and his team are doing what they believe to be in the best interests of Californians. But I emphasized the word believed, because believing you're doing
the right thing doesn't always mean you are. Uh. There are three important points that are driving my decision to protest today. First of all, although well intended, I believe the governor is missing the big picture. You know, and it's been said before. You know, the means cannot be worse than the ends, or in medical terms, the cure
cannot be worse than the disease. Um. The threat of this virus is going to pass very soon, you know, especially with the warmer weather here, and may have already been substantially diminished um, but the impact of our continued lockdown will last for generations. Number two, I'm gonna be
out there calling Governor Knewsom out for his hypocrisy. You know, he said it himself, one size does not fit all, you know, he nor do I want President Trump dictating from Washington, d C. How California should handle our response to this pandemic. You know, it's a big country, and that authority rightfully lies with our governor, you know, to deal with our specific and unique situation. But but you know, but California is also a big state, you know, the
third largest in the nation. You know, I believe counties and municipalities should be given uh strongly suggested guidelines, but allowed to loosen or tighten those recommendations based on their
actual situation. We don't want to run out, We don't want to run out of time before you get tell your points and your third point is sure, um, the third point is, Look, the main reason I'm gonna be out there is I have the privilege of talking to a Holocaust survivor many years ago, and I don't bring this discussion up to to equate her situation with ours, or even insinuate that our governor's response to this is anything close to what happened in Germany at that point
in history. But nevertheless, I can't help but recall Ava's words av Braun, after emotionally describing the atrocities that she and her family suffered, she uh, you know, I asked her. I said, what's the lesson that we should take from your experience? And without missing a beat, she said, never be complacent when government appears to be eroding your personal freedoms. That's very good. Sidious. Yeah, it's a very assiduous process. And if you're not careful, you know, you could lose
your freedom. So obsidious is the obsidious is the perfect word for it, too. Yeah, And and it's an excellent point because emergency powers is such an old story. Oh my gosh, this is an emergency. We just need to take these special powers briefly and temporarily. That's always the story. And and listen to people who do that are good at their jobs. They're good at convincing you it's an emergency and you should be scared. And therefore we have
grasped these powers. And listen, maybe you think it's legit, maybe you think, okay, go ahead and take those powers, but you've got to dig in your heels hard and not get dragged an inch further, and keep a firm grip on your freedom, saying yank them right back the second it's possible. And I think John, you join us in saying that's what needs to be happening right now. Absolutely all right, Hey, John Arabt, we thank you for its diamond, and you're standing up for constitutional rights and
the rest of it. Go fight the good fight. Huh. Thank you. He got it. He's more charitable than I need to be about there. They're doing what they think is the right thing. That's not necessarily true. Governor Whitburn Michigan or Governor Newsom California might be doing what they think will make them more likely be a vice president or presidential candidate someday. That might be driving their decision more than any science whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, it's possible. I
I feel little more charitable. I think they're just misguided. I just think they're they're they're seduced by the power. They've become fixated on preventing cases to the exclusion of all other concerns, some of which are very important. I will tell you this. The loose blanket Umbrella Organization, I guess it is the term UH that's organizing a lot of the stuff around the country. Is absolutely painstakingly saying all people are required to maintain CDC guidelines for prevention,
follow best practices. We all know what those are. Masks and staying apart if you're if you're sick or high risk, please stay home. No violence of any sort, no confrontation. Our message is simple, be ladies and gentlemen out there. So it's good. It's good, solid stuff. The Michigan legislature voted to give the House speaker there in Michigan the
authority to file a lawsuit against the governor. This is some unprecedented territory that they're getting into there and be interesting to see how this works out in the courts or whatnot. But uh, yeah, not everybody agrees on what the right thing to do is. I just yeah, misguided. I how do you not how do you think about these business owners and think, oh my god, we can only make them stay shut if this is just the absolute worst case scenario. We're not in the worst case
scenario anymore. We're clearly not right exactly. How has the primary motivation for all this changed so completely? And nobody has specifically addressed that as they continue to suspend sacred rights And it's part of what he got to at the end, which is watching, you know, things a road. Little by little. The government shutting down your business went from unthinkable to completely thinkable too. It's happening. And now that it's happened, it's just in the or in the
realm of possibilities, right, Uh, it's the Overton window. It's actually what actually happened to us. We can describe what that is later if you want to. So we got a lot of texts about a segment we did earlier today for a couple of different reasons that will become evident. One great point is made here. And then if you ever, if you're of a certain bent, you'll you'll you'll recognize quickly the other point of conversation. But do you have
a guy's name in front of I? I misplaced the Yeah, John Umra a Abit that's right, former HP patrolman retired now he's now a small business person. He was taking part in the big protest at the state Capitol of California Insecto, Sacramento. Yeah, and he was giving three reasons that he wanted to get involved in. A couple of the reasons were what you would expect, though well well explained beautifully put yeah, absolutely, and then he got into his third reason. I have the privilege of talking to
a Holocaust survivor many years ago. I can't help but recall Ava's words, a le bron, never be complacent when government appears to be eroding your personal freedoms. That's very good, it's a very insidious process, and if you're not careful, you know, you could lose your freedom. Obsidious is the perfect word for it too, So um yeah, just on that part of it. I often think people are like kind of being practically crackpots, are a little low overreactive
about governments taken away your rights, blah blah blah. How quickly can happen, But it is, It is absolutely true. It happens little by little, and you think, well, it's you know, it's it's a little bit. We're a country where we got a strong democracy will be but the government has shut down businesses and now it's threatening to find people who arrest people who try to open them back up. That is unheard of in my lifetime. And now it's happening and a lot of people are accepting it,
and and it's insidious. Insidious is the perfect word for it. Now. The problem that the reason we got so many texts about that was and I'll bet you caught it well if if you're a World War two history fan, the fact that he had a Holocaust survivor friend with the same name as Hitler's girlfriend soon to be wife, Eva Braun, just just kind of caught the year and was a bit of a distraction. Obviously, leave out the last name. Did she have a nickname? Did you call her by
a missy? If she happens to have the same name, she's of the World War two generation, and she has the same name as Hitler's wife. I mean, Eva Rava is an incredibly common name in Germany, and brawn is an incredibly common last would be like name being named Amy Brown? Right? Absolutely? Um, Nonetheless, it was funny. Both Jack and I thought, wait a minute, this has been a great interview. Love this guy. Is he about to
drop a Howard Stern's penis? Yeah, I thought, I thought, he's he's he's he's waiting to see if we just roll with it like a stupid Anderson Cooper or something like that during an interview, And we got a whole bunch of text and he just say Braun was his neighbor a ninety three year old, so she's the right age obviously if she's a Holocaust survivor. Right, And me
like if I said, yeah, I got this buddy. I lift weights with this guy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he says you should keep your feet at shoulder like the part and Arnold says quite a second year a weightlifting friend his named Arnold Schwartzenegger. Different guy though, yes, yeah, yeah, okay, that was so people noticed that, did they? My guitar instructor, um Eric Clapton. He shows me I'm talking and Eric Clapton. No, no,
he's like a twenty seven year old guy. Just but you realize when you say Eric Clapton, he's your tard instructor, people are gonna think, what do you mean, hold on before you go on something up real quick. You can't talk about Holocaust survivors, World War two era A V. Braun. It's just yeah, well anyway, it's a wonderful story, though powerful message which I listened to and paid attention to. Serious. But I'll bet av Broun would say, do we have to get married a bunker? Um? I bet? I bet
his friend av Braun would say, yeah. I didn't think when they took a little bit of power, a little bit more power, took away a few more rights. I didn't think it would end up where it ended up either, because if you know the history, the most interesting history of Hitler and everything like that is what happens in the early thirties when it was he won a bunch
of elections. He this stuff got voted in, right, And and the one thing I would point out is a guy who studied this sort of thing my entire life, is that the rationale for taking emergency powers is always brilliantly constructed. They don't say they don't wear, you know, the the mask of of good governance, and you can hear them chuckling evily behind the scenes. No, they construct their arguments very very well, and sometimes they're sincere that, look,
we just need to keep you safe. This is temporary, this is very important. We're just trying to save lives here. That's always the rationale.