The anti-quarantine protests seem spontaneous. But behind the scenes, a powerful network is helping

The Washington Post via SFGate ^ | April 22, 2020 | by Isaac Stanley-Becker and Tony Romm

[Zionist Conspirator]

So much for the anti-government, potheaded, freedom-loving hippie-dippie anarchists of the 60s!

[sheana]

Hubby and I are both retired with incomes. Both receive SS so our income is stable. And yes, I’m angry too. More angry at the idiots who fell for the BS hook, line, and sinker. I do own a small biz with my daughter that has been shut down since March 13th. We are dependent on venues being open so we had no choice. We are luckier than most that we can just wait this out but yeah, I’m getting antsy and more pissed by the day.

[wastoute]

LOL. Every pair of scrubs I ever stole from a hospital had the name printed all over them. I had an entire drawer full and a bunch on hangers for a long time until my wife threw them out. You could reconstruct my CV from my closet. In the old days they had NICE scrubs, high thread count real linen. I didn’t steal nearly enough of those.

Before any of you calls me a thief, my Chief Resident told me to do it. You could wear yours in from home where they had been laundered with fabric softener and stuff instead of that harsh starch the hospital laundries used.

[NorthWoody]

I could have written this same post word for word other than the part about being near retirement; I still have 12-14 years to go for that. The only debt I have is my Jeep I bought new last summer.

I feel what you’re saying and agree 100%.

[Socon-Econ]

They think conservatives have a powerful network. Reality: the Democrats have 4 news networks, NPR, most of the local newspapers, Hollywood, leftist teachers, and a slew of billionaires solidly on their side, with Democrat tech lords censoring conservative speech.

[backwoods-engineer]

When Leftists protest, the news media ALWAYS says it’s grassroots, and it’s the fault of white people, etc. When right-thinking people protest, it is NEVER grassroots, according to the media, and it’s always the fault of Trump, white people etc., or right-thinking organizations.

[Arones]

Nothing new here. Libs ALWAYS claim that what we do isn't grassroots.

Meanwhile, they print signs and bus protesters from place to place.

[semimojo]

If I had big debt, owned a business, had young kids, I would be on the edge. Keep pushing, more than a few will snap.

I think that's right and there's huge anxiety out there.

I suspect that this article is accurate but the reality is lots of people with agendas are trying to capitalize on the angst.

It's our nature to try to find a villain when something goes wrong so everyone is trying to make their favorite bogeyman the culprit.

Small government types want to blame the governors. Nationalists point at globalism. The anti-China forces point to the CCP. The socialists blame big business and the banks.

It's the same sale-interested groups trying to take advantage of a crisis, but the anxiety around this one is intense enough that bad things could happen.

[Moorings]

"These are extreme right-wing efforts to delegitimize government," he said. "It's an anti-government crusade."

Along that line, the "Resist" efforts of extreme democrats against the Trump administration would be considered an anti-government crusade.

The efforts to delay small-business funding aid legislation, the effort to delay the re-opening of the economy, the effort to increase the stats of Covid cases, the effort to wreck the economy and increase widespread economic failures, should be considered an anti-government crusade by extreme democrats/liberals/progessives.

[MarvinStinson]

OOOOH, The Horror!

a wide-ranging and well-financed conservative campaign

network of right-leaning individuals and groups

longtime conservative activists

Republican megadonors

members of the Trump administration

longtime associate of the conservative activist Koch family

the president's allies outside the White House

the right

Republican governors

the tea party movement

For the Convention of States, public health is an unusual focus. It was founded to push for a convention that would add a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. That same anti-government impulse is now animating the group's campaign against coronavirus precautions. ominous

Experts say

the right-leaning Heritage Foundation

deeply interwoven networks of conservative and libertarian

conduit for right-wing causes that does not disclose its contributors

groups and individual activists associated with the Koch brothers

The involvement of the Koch institutional apparatus

carries echoes of efforts to deny climate change

extreme right-wing efforts to delegitimize government

[kiryandil]

The Beijington Post - Democracy Dies In Wuhan

[Buckeye McFrog]

I had one pair of those old-school scrubs back in the day.
Given to me by a nurse my brother was dating who likewise pilfered them. Those were seriously comfortable.

[Wuli]

Oh, I see it’s those “horrible” Koch brothers at it again, that is the problem, not the local draconian rules. /sarc

[timestax]

[wastoute]

I essentially didn’t have a “wardrobe” for about a decade. It made getting up and out the door pretty easy. If you had to go outdoors suddenly it was an issue. My friend suggested one February in Chicago we “grad a cab” (a luxury I could never afford) to go to a meeting we were about to be late for. I still remember standing on the curb in Chicago in February trying to flag a cab down in scrubs and a white coat. We were lucky we didn’t get frost bite.

[zeugma]

It's an anti-government crusade.

Yup. And there is not a damned thing wrong with that. Especially now.

[catnipman]

“The anti-quarantine protests seem spontaneous. But behind the scenes, a powerful network is helping”

yep, definitely the great Right Wing Conspiracy has swung back into action, duping tens of thousands of mindless drones who support President Trump ...

[tbw2]

A polite liberal way of saying, “It is all astro-turf, paid protestors, so disregard it or outright oppress it.”

[tbw2]

Even the appearance of an agenda can undermine credibility.

Liberals celebrating “look how the Earth is healing” already want to implement these same controls. Furthermore, they’ve always said, “Our computer models say we have a bigger crisis, the world is ending.”

Now you get liberals already arguing we need to use the Wuhan virus crisis to justify continued oppression, censorship and GREATER control of the economy and consumption ... for your own good.

And never mind the massively incorrect disease models, trust our political demands despite the known biases in the climate models.

This is why the over-reaction to the Chinese coronavirus looks like a plot to take over everything ... though it may simply be liberal bullies taking advantage of a crisis.

[piasa]

The Convention of States project launched in 2015 with a high-dollar donation from the family foundation of Robert Mercer, a billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican patron. It boasts past support from two members of the Trump administration - Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development.

Meanwhile the Clintons get $500 million from Russia and these two hack reporters make no comment.