As I suggested yesterday, the public relations imperative is coming to the fore as the elections approach. Following up on his excruciating dog and pony show featuring victims of COVID-19 last week, Governor Walz himself took the helm of a one-hour COVID-19 press briefing again yesterday with guests including Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, Assistant Commissioner Dan “the Dread” Huff, and the mayors of Duluth and Brooklyn Park. The briefing begins at about 1:30 of the audio posted at the bottom.
Governor Walz ordered a statewide lockdown on March 25. We have lived under one-man rule for seven months. Walz extended his reign for another 30 days earlier this week. He continues to rule by edict and micromanage the lives of Minnesota citizens. Pulitzer Prize-winning Star Tribune health care reporter Jeremy Olson covers the briefing here in his characteristically credulous or deadpan style.
Walz is building out ten new spots around the state to conduct saliva testing. This was the big news he had to tout at the briefing. The testing infrastructure will make a handsome addition to the refrigerated storage facility Walz bought in St. Paul for use as a morgue to handle the thousands of corpses he anticipated would overload private facilities.
At the briefing Walz was in the used car salesman mode to which we have become accustomed. We bought the clunker from him on March 25, but it didn’t make it off the lot. We’re not buying anything more from him. Kevin Roche and I took an early look at what Walz has wrought in the Center of the American Experiment’s Talking Minnesota article “False alarm.” I think we got it approximately right.
In response to a question posed by KSTP TV’s Tom Hauser at about 49:30, Walz acknowledged agreement with the WHO executive whose declaration I noted yesterday. Lockdowns cannot be used as a long-term strategy because of the collateral consequences on individuals. In his patented style Walz allowed, “It’s not sustainable to keep people locked down.”
Now he tells us, but when will he lay his crown aside? “We made some adjustments because it’s the only way to keep it going,” Walz added. He has “kept it going” now for seven months. Listen and hear the soothing voice of our betters wielding their power over our lives for our own good.
