Blue Areas Aren’t Going to Surrender Their Covid Powers

BUCK: Philadelphia’s mask mandate lasts a whole four days, and they drop it pretty openly.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: They’re just saying it’s because of noncompliance, which I gotta say, City of Brotherly Love, good stuff, well done. People just saying, “This is so dumb, we are not going to do this.” I think that Philly, therefore, is not quite as far down the Fauci brainwashing scale as New York is. Certainly not as far down — well, we’ll see — as Los Angeles is, ’cause in the same 24 hours or so where Philly drops a mask mandate after four days because everyone’s basically saying…

I know what the Bronx salute is. I don’t know if Philly has the equivalent of that is — one finger extended in the general direction of the CDC?

CLAY: I think probably similar.

BUCK: Probably similar. I think Philly and the Bronx probably have similar gestures. And they’ve said that basically, you know, “Leave us alone” in Los Angeles — that’s one way of putting it. In Los Angeles, however, Clay, they have gone back to transportation mask mandate for all their whatever. I don’t even know what mass transit people take in L.A. but the point is —

CLAY: By the way, that’s a great point. I’ve spent a ton of time in L.A. I’ve hardly ever seen anybody take the mass transit there.

BUCK: There is a train that drops in Santa Monica. I’ve seen it. Yeah, but —

CLAY: You guys, by the way, still have to in New York City also do this, right? We talked about this a little bit the complicating factors of what would happen, for instance, if you’re in L.A. right now you have to wear a mask in LAX, and then you can take off your mask, in theory, although I don’t know how they’re enforcing it, when you get on the airplane and actually taxi to take off.

BUCK: Yeah, I think that’s true. Producer Ali does… Were there a lot of masks on the subway, would you say? (interruption) Was it…? (interruption) Yeah. Oh, wow. She says everyone on the subway pretty much masks up. What level we talking about? Oh. And people are getting aggressive about it. Their anxiety disorder is coming out on the New York City subway system, but I think here’s the problem. They realize cops don’t want to enforce this stuff. The reason airlines got away with being such tyrannical lunatics on this is that there’s a very defined power they have, right?

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: Someone kicks you off a subway car, guess what, you’re gonna just get on the next one or you’re gonna hop in a cab or whatever, right, like no big deal.

CLAY: Right, right, right. They don’t have a full list of who’s going on the subway on a day-to-day basis whereas for airlines they really can ban you for life pretty easily.

BUCK: Yeah, you’re risking whatever it is, $3 now, for a subway… I was gonna say, “subway token.” My God. That’s been a long time since we’ve had those but on your MetroCard whereas on, you know, thousand-dollar airfare to go from New York to Paris and you’re booted because you don’t want to mask above your nose, that’s pretty powerful. That’s why they get away with it.

CLAY: It’s also to me — think about this — super weird. Let’s say you’re in LaGuardia or you’re in JFK or you’re in LAX. These are three of the biggest and busiest airports in the country. Who’s enforcing the city directive on masks? The TSA isn’t requiring it, right? The TSA are federal employees. So does that mean they just have random people who are walking around inside of the airport enforcing it?

BUCK: They have conductors, sort of like an Amtrak train, right? There are conductors so the MTA would have —

CLAY: Who are those people?

BUCK: Oh, there’s the Port Authority which is also a city authority that has its own police force.

CLAY: Ah, so those are the people that would be theatrically enforcing it? Okay. I was trying to think like who would be walking around…? ‘Cause that’s a big deal if you’re in New York or L.A. given how big those airports that there’s just some random authority ’cause it’s not the TSA anymore and it’s certainly not the airline agent. So they just have a random third party now. I guess it could be cops. I guess it could be security at the airport.

BUCK: I also think we’re seeing what the Biden administration’s play is here because, remember, they had the judge — the amazing, the wonderful, the talented —

CLAY: Judge Mizelle.

BUCK: — brilliant Judge Mizelle down in Florida, federal judge, who struck an enormous blow for freedom, and the Biden administration was thinking, “Well,” to your point, Clay, “do we want the politics of this where we push for the mandate to come back? Do we really want to be on that side of it right now?”

And it seems that what they’re going to do is the challenge… Remember she only got rid of masks until May 3rd when it was set so expire anyway so the Biden administration wants to have it expire on their terms, it seems to me. If they challenge, they want to get the authority back, but they won’t necessarily use the authority starting May 3rd. Here is senior White House adviser Dr. Ashish Jha saying just that.

CLAY: Well, this is why, Buck, I think it’s been such a bad decision to appeal. Because right now it’s just one federal district court judge who doesn’t have necessarily a great deal of authority. The 11th Circuit has a lot of conservative judges on it. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they uphold the decision that she made, and then it would go to the Supreme Court.

In other words, the CDC — if it’s just a district court judge — can still argue they have the authority. If the Supreme Court tells them they don’t, then they’re really screwed. If the 11th Circuit tells them they don’t, then they’re really screwed. They’re in a tough spot here, a bad spot.

BUCK: I think it’s interesting they just want the power to mask you all up across the country. Everybody listening, every time you get in a plane, they want to be able to snap their fingers and snap those masks back on your faces on planes, trains, et cetera. They want the power, friends. They’re actually saying it out loud.

CLAY: Even scarier, Buck: Are they doing this because they want the power to change elections in 2022 again? That’s my concern.