Phil Murphy – Black & Blonde Media

#Shutdown-Prone Politicians Have Yet to Miss a Paycheck

©Black & Blonde Media — Sat, 02 May 2020 16:22:44 +0000

The American people have collectively lost much during the weeks-long shutdown. Small businesses are teetering on permanent closures while the newly-unemployed have either received or are waiting for that one-time $1,200 stimulus check from the federal government. Governors and mayors are telling their constituents that it may take months for some of their states and cities to fully reopen, meaning millions of Americans may be months away from receiving a weekly paycheck.

It’s not hard to imagine how those in federal and state federal government can be so casual when it comes to their evolving time schedules as to when the nation will be fully open for business because it’s as simple as follow the money. They’re getting theirs thus there’s no sense of urgency, the “process” of politics can run it’s course because certain taxpayer-funded paychecks have been assured to come in uninterrupted.

United States Congressman and Senator weekly salary: $3,346 (assured through 9/21)
Average federal employee weekly salary: $1,730
Average state employee weekly salary varies: (highest) Washington, D.C $2,222,
….Maryland $2,086, Virginia $1,967
Former president lifelong pension benefit weekly: $4,051
Congressional lifelong pension benefit weekly: $2,676

Here’s how the elected have been financially weathering the shutdown while the American people have to live with their edicts….

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) weekly salary: $2,848
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) weekly salary: $3,878
Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) weekly salary: $1,730
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (D) forgoes his weekly $2,884 salary
Delaware Governor John Carney Jr. (D) weekly salary: $3,288
Hawaii Governor David Ige (D) weekly salary: $3,051
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) forgoes his $3,411 weekly salary
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) weekly salary: N/A
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D) weekly salary: $2,500
Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) Weekly salary: $1,346
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) weekly salary: $3,269
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) weekly salary: $3,557
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) weekly salary: $3,063
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) weekly salary: $2,454
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak (D) pledged to donate his $2,876 weekly salary
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) weekly salary: $3,365
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) weekly salary: $3,846
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (D) weekly salary: $2,775
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) weekly salary: $2,954
Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) weekly salary: $1,896
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (D) weekly salary: $3,747
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo (D) weekly salary: $2,802
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) weekly salary: $2,956
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) weekly salary: $3,365
Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) weekly salary: $3,520
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) weekly salary: $2,937

Everyday life gets even harder to endure at the mayoral level….

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) weekly salary: $4,975
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) weekly salary: $4,771
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) weekly salary: $4,157
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) weekly salary: $3,846
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (D) weekly salary: $3,365
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) weekly salary: $3,292
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) weekly salary: $2,833

Remember this when the political class drags this process out to collect more COVID-19 “data”, fat-and-comfortable government employees go on social media and tell those who fund their incoming paychecks to shut up and stay home, humble yourself and visit a food bank, decline to pay your rent and bills, never leave home (and if you must risk killing us all, not without a mask), and succumb to your movements being tracked and stored.

It must be nice.

NOTE — We’re not including self-centered celebrities because they don’t have the power over us they believe they have.

#LockDown: Gov’t Officials, Employees Are Paid; Americans Can Wait

©Black & Blonde Media — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 16:07:27 +0000

When 800,ooo federal employees were out of work for a whopping 35 days, we were inundated with sob stories from fat-and-previously happy employees lamenting where their next meal was coming from and how they’d pay their bills. With 22-plus million Americans out of work from a government-imposed Coronavirus #ShutDown and a state government-prolonged #LockDown, there is no equivalent sense of urgency from those who are currently living comfortable lives while their constituents have faced loss of income for going for weeks with inconsistent ends in sight.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, introduced on April 25 a road map for the state’s reopening. While the numbers of new cases and deaths remain high, total hospitalizations have remained flat for the past week. Hogan plans to begin a phased, data-driven reopening in early May.
— Epoch Times, 4/26/20

A contrast in the sense of urgency perspective is in order.

We’re not seeing too many media stories of the hardships locked-down Americans are enduring at the hands of governors who are arbitrarily keeping them from putting that all-important food on their tables.

It could rightfully be argued had federal and state elected and employees had their paychecks cut off, the calls for reopening the nation and getting back to work would be entirely different.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who enacted some of the most aggressive stay-at-home measures in the country, defended her decision and echoed Hogan’s call for a measured approach to reopening. Whitmer, a Democrat, extended Michigan’s stay-at-home order until May 15 while easing restrictions on some activities such as boating and golfing.

In New Jersey, the situation on the ground suggested that the state may be weeks away from a phased reopening, according to Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
— Epoch Times, 4/26/20

China needed our economy to be as damaged as theirs, COVID-19 predictions and dubious “data” models were efficiently used to foment public panic, and Democrats saw this as a crisis too good to waste.

Based on their previously documented priorities, certain new developments may worry the well-fed privileged….

In recent weeks, Tyson Foods has been forced to temporarily pause operations at a number of plants following outbreaks of COVID-19, or because of staffing shortages caused by the pandemic.

“In addition to meat shortages, this is a serious food waste issue,” John H. Tyson claimed. “Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation. Millions of animals – chickens, pigs and cattle – will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities. The food supply chain is breaking.”
— Fox Business, 4/27/20

As along as government employees, governors, mayors and high-paid journalists continue to receive their paychecks uninterrupted, there will be no sense of urgency and the American people will continue to be pawns of a political system that can’t allow the economy to rebound prior to the November presidential election.

That’s what this is really all about.

COVID-19 #LockDown Politicians Blow Off the Constitution’s Bill of Rights

Under their authority as elected officials, many have taken it upon themselves to order businesses to close based on what they deem “essential”. In some states, they’ve ordered people to stay away from each other in places of worship. Instead of warning people of the possible consequences and allowing them to make their own decisions, the elected have shutdown of almost every sector of the economy and decimated jobs, businesses in the name of public safety (while their generous taxpayer-funded paychecks remain uninterrupted).

The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. James Madison wrote the amendments, which list specific prohibitions on governmental power, in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties.
— Bill of Rights Institute

That was then.

How can anybody sane be anything less than scared and outraged and mortified that 22 million people have been thrown out of work over something that may end up killing fewer than 50,000 people? It is unprecedented. And yet there are people who want to maintain the circumstances we are in. And it boggles the mind.
— Rush Limbaugh, 4/16/20

Because of Coronavirus, politicians now use the rationale that they’ve locked down the economy to “save lives” and as of today the virus has claimed 26,708 lives in the United States.

In a nation as populated as ours, sadly people die every day. If governors were truly motivated by “public safety”, one would think the states should’ve been locked down many times before for a variety of reasons.

According to Medical News Today, here are the Top 10 “medical” causes of death in the United States in 2017….

1. HEART DISEASE — Deaths in 2017: 647,457, Percentage of total deaths: 23.5%
2. CANCER — Deaths in 2017: 599,108, Percentage of total deaths: 21.3%
3. UNINTENTIONAL INJURIES — Deaths in 2017: 169,936, Percentage of total deaths: 6%
4. CHRONIC LOWER RESPIRATORY DISEASE — Deaths in 2017: 160,201, Percentage of total deaths: 5.7%
5. STROKE, CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASES — Deaths in 2017: 146,383, Percentage of total deaths: 5.2%
6. ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE — Deaths in 2017: 121,404, Percentage of total deaths: 4.3%
7. DIABETES — Deaths in 2017: 83,564, Percentage of total deaths: 3%
8. INFLUENZA, PNEUMONIA — Deaths in 2017: 55,672, Percentage of total deaths: 2%
9. KIDNEY DISEASE — Deaths in 2017: 50,633, Percentage of total deaths: 1.8%
10. SUICIDE — Deaths in 2017: 47,173

Also, 19,500 were homicide victims in 2017.

People take risks everyday and going out and about during a “pandemic” is no different. Over 40,000 people leave homes and jobs every day and never arrive at their destination because they are killed in a car accident. At no time did governors, mayors and/or city councils even consider a lockdown when close to 56,000 die from the annual flu contagion.

Protesters around the country have started gathering, some in groups that defy social-distancing recommendations, to register their disapproval for the ongoing economic shutdown tied to the coronavirus.
— New York Intelligencer, 4/15/20

The case could be made this is not about public safety but power-tripping partisans taking advantage of what may have been a very bad flu and using it to decimate an outstanding economy prior to a presidential election to help their very weak candidate. Had President Obama been presiding over a historic economy prior to an election, great care would be taken not to in any way damage it, but as we’re talking about all-time record wealth and prosperity unleashed by President Donald J. Trump, if livelihoods of the American people are damaged and their rights diminished into what many politicians and media pundits are advocating as the “new normal”, oh well.