From the lockdown to the destruction of statues, these febrile weeks show the pillars of our freedom and civilization are rotten. As the Left now controls every lever of power, we face nothing less than regime change

What we now face is regime change. That is why these strange crowds have begun to gather round ancient and forgotten monuments, demanding their removal and destruction. They do not know what they want, or understand what they are destroying. But that no longer matters. They think their moment has come, and they may well be right. This is why the memorial to Winston Churchill, and the Cenotaph itself, were shamefully boarded up on Thursday night – an act of appeasement if ever there truly was one. That is why police chiefs kneel like conquered slaves to the new gods of woke, and the leaders of the Labour Party do likewise. I have seen it happen before, but only when things were moving in the opposite direction.

writer Peter Hitchens notes:

In fact, the country with the highest number of deaths per head is Belgium (843 per million)...
Japan, which also did not shut down, suffered just over seven (yes, seven) deaths per million...

14 April: Japan Times: The coronavirus and Japan’s Constitution
Article 41 provides the government with sufficient power to take aggressive action
by Lawrence Repeta
(Lawrence Repeta is a former law professor at Meiji University and a member of the Washington State Bar Association)
Seattle – Many foreign observers are puzzled by Japan’s odd response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which some call a “soft lockdown.” After dithering for weeks, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe finally exercised power granted under the recently revised New Influenza Special Measures Act to declare a state of emergency on April 7 over Tokyo and six other prefectures, authorizing prefectural governors to request social-distancing measures and other actions.
Without exception, foreign news reports emphasized that the law does not mandate penalties for violation. That’s right. Under this law, governors like Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike can strongly request that people stay home but they cannot order them to do so.

Why doesn’t Japan’s pandemic law provide mandatory power? At least one major foreign publication has declared that Japan’s Constitution would need to be amended to impose and enforce a lockdown.
But that’s not correct. There is certainly no need to revise Japan’s Constitution to create legal authority to enforce a lockdown. Article 41 of the present Constitution provides the Diet with sufficient power to authorize aggressive government action against the coronavirus and other threats to public health...

The prime minister did not request compulsory power and the Diet did not grant it. The reason is not legal, but political. Every Japanese politician knows of the widespread fear of excessive power rooted in Japan’s wartime history. This leads us back to the Constitution for it is the Constitution that both creates governmental power and places limits on its use...
The emergency power proposal was vociferously opposed by Japan’s bar associations, constitutional law professors, news organizations, and others. They rightly feared a serious threat to Japanese democracy...
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/04/14/commentary/japan-commentary/coronavirus-japans-constitution/

funny how FakeNewsMSM pretty much ignores Japan, while daily attacking Sweden, which is another country providing data for a partial lockdown control group. (as Hitchens writes, Sweden admits it failed to protect aged care facilities but, nonetheless, they have had no exponential explosion of covid deaths, and have fared better than Belgium, UK, Spain and Italy):

20 May: WSJ: Freedom and Sweden’s Constitution
The country’s laissez-faire response to the coronavirus pandemic has deep roots in both culture and law
By Lars Jonung and Steve H. Hanke
The cornerstone of the Swedish response is its constitution’s most important part, the Regeringsform. Chapter 2, Article 8 states: “Everyone shall be protected in their relations with the public institutions against deprivation of personal liberty. All Swedish citizens shall also in other respects be guaranteed freedom of movement within the Realm and freedom to depart the Realm...

It insulates Sweden’s public institutions from political meddling to a much greater degree than in any other democracy...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/freedom-and-swedens-constitution-11589993183

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