The meltdown in California is happening. Small businesses are becoming “peaceful protest” sites and refusing to close their doors despite Governor Gavin Newsom’s lockdown orders. The Recall Gavin 2020 effort is increasing in momentum as more and more people are fed up with the Governor’s hypocrisy and malfeasance.

In the Imperial Valley, the Los Angeles Times reports that doctors are wringing their hands over the increase in COVID cases. However, elected leaders are simply attacking small business, rather than targeting the source of the spread, and those business owners are no longer taking it lying down.

“In Stockton, in the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, some small-business owners are demanding a reprieve from closures, arguing that this third round is arbitrary and unfair. They say there is little sense in having large chains such as Target and Walmart, where workers come into contact with hundreds of customers a day, remain open while shutting down outdoor dining for neighborhood eateries and services such as salons. Closing again, they contend, may mean that they go under permanently — a financial catastrophe for them and their employees.

“The hospitals are not overflowing because of restaurants,” said Johnny Hernandez, co-owner of the Black Rabbit gastropub in Stockton, who joined a protest with other small-business owners Thursday on the steps of Stockton City Hall. Hernandez said he has let go seven of his 10 employees and doesn’t have the funds to make it past this month. For him, the threat of financial ruin is more real than the specter of illness.

“I don’t see Republican; I don’t see Democrat,” said the former union organizer. “I see people hurting.”

The lawsuits from Mark Geragos and the California Restaurant Association, as well as others piling up on the governor’s desk attest to this: Restaurant dining—particularly outdoor dining—have little impact on the spread of COVID-19. Yet Newsom, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and other governors insist on destroying the very engines that fuel their state’s economies.

On Sunday, one man in a Tustin, California Costco spoke for all of us: the small business owner, the unemployed professional who is being screwed by the EDD, Joe and Jill Citizen who just want to not be forced to wear a mask to shop for groceries, even Karens, who still believe all this madness is “for our safety” and to “slow the spread”. This man came equipped with a megaphone—he knew what he was doing—hopped on top of a jeans table, and delivered this message:

“Don’t Let. Them. Do. It! You know why we’re on lockdown? Because all this information is coming out about COVID and they know it’s a farce.

“You Must. Not. Do. This! If you continue, this is the life that you will have.”

The Costco employees, looking nervous, tried to calm some of the more shocked shoppers. Move along… nothing to see here.

Other shoppers continued combing through the jacket and jeans tables as if there was nothing unusual happening. Just Costco on a Sunday.

Someone—maybe an employee—reminded the man that he was being disruptive, standing on a jeans table in the middle of a Costco. California Costco Man yelled out,

“Don’t you tell me—I have the right!

“You know, Governor Newsom doesn’t have the right to shut us down and make you wear a mask!”

Apparently he got some agreement via fist pumps and cheers, which egged him on.

“That’s right! Alright people, you know that’s right!

“We’ve got to stand up for ourselves, because this Governor will keep us locked down until WE do something about it.

“And I want to know, Are YOU going to let this happen?”

People have had enough of Gavin. #opencalifornia pic.twitter.com/AX2wgGenPK

— Art TakingBack 🇺🇸 (@ArtValley818_) December 14, 2020

Therein lies the question: Are “YOU” going to let this happen?

While California has been a focal point of this lockdown overreach because our glory-hog Governor never met a video camera he didn’t like, this question can well be asked in states where the Governors have also drank the dictator Kool-Aid: Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, New Jersey’s Phil Mills, New York’s Andrew Cuomo, Maryland’s Larry Hogan, Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker. In those states, you have the same collection of citizens mentioned above: Joe and Jill Citizens, small business owners, Karens, the unemployed… are any of these people happy about this state of affairs? I don’t think so.

The last Walmart shopper with some common sense. Pass the recall petition 👏👏👏

— President Elect Foxey Fool (@Cynnamine) December 15, 2020

One of our founding fathers John Adams said,

“As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.”

California Costco Man reflects that we are not happy and we will no longer pretend. Isolated in our homes by government decree, having our businesses and livelihoods strangled by government decree, forced to mill around big box stores with masks by government decree; these are not recipes for life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. Some of us may have given our consent to this, but most of us did not. It is up to us to dust ourselves off and say No. More. California Costco Man is saying, This is not liberty—stop consenting to the robbery of your freedoms!

California Costco Man reflects what Walter Lippmann warned:

“In making the great experiment of governing people by consent rather than by coercion, it is not sufficient that the party in power should have a majority. It is just as necessary that the party in power should never outrage the minority.”

We are ALL outraged. Why do you think we have Karens? They are channeling their rage in trying to control other people because they themselves are in a situation they cannot control. We know the Governor walking around with ersatz mask, dining out at the French Laundry, and taking money meant for small businesses to line the coffers of his own private winery and restaurant holdings isn’t right, and we are rightfully pissed. California Costco Man channeled his rage in the right direction—he’s awakened, and he wants to wake others up.

“The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself… Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.” — H. L. Mencken

California Costco Man has definitely been red-pilled, and now he is dangerous, because he’s thinking for himself and encouraging others to do the same. He is recognizing the insanity and dishonesty of executive orders and diktats by fiat, as well as recognizing that just because they keep repeating it, doesn’t make it true. Newsom plans to spend $80 million on a PR campaign to “message” and “educate” on COVID, when we are already inundated with messaging that neither educates nor tells us anything we don’t already know.

If these elected officials were interested in truth and knowledge, they would have never shut down schools and would not insist on maintaining these lockdowns. In terms of carrying or spreading COVID, children are not the source; and lockdowns do wonders, not in decreasing the spread of COVID, but in decreasing your immunity, making you more susceptible to disease vectors, not less.

We now have a vaccine, so it would serve these lockdown-crazy Governors to start making plans about how quickly we can get the vaccine to the people who need it in order to reopen our states. California Costco Man is telling us we need to demand re-opening, and no longer consent to more lies, more lockdowns, and more destruction of our freedoms.

OMG he called COVID-19 for what it is, a farce👏 Nobody seems concerned about COVID-19 but sure look concerned about free speech.

— President Elect Foxey Fool (@Cynnamine) December 15, 2020