Saturday 10 September 2022 11:49 PM Aaron Rodgers blasts California's COVID closures he says destroyed small ... trends now

Quarterback for the Green Bay Packers Aaron Rodger has said closures due to COVID throughout 2020 and 2021 destroyed thousands of small businesses in towns across California.

Speaking to Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast, out Sunday, Rodgers called out the state's tough COVID-19 rules saying: 'State's going to s*** but I'm hanging on.'

Stay-at-home orders forced the closure of bars and restaurants and thousands of other businesses from hair salons to spas. 

'I grew up in a small town, very little cases up in Chico, California but all the small businesses? F***ing gone,' Rodgers lamented.

Business capacity limits and other restrictions were in place from March 2020 until June 2021.

The decisions crippled businesses across California with 40,000 estimated to have collapsed - the highest figure in any state across the nation.

Rodgers also spoke of his disapproval of AB 2098, a new bill heading to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom that could see doctors disciplined for promoting COVID-19 misinformation. 

The law is controversial because the definitions of 'misinformation' and 'disinformation' are so broad. 

Rodgers also explained how he does not consider himself to be a conservative and used the the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as an example. 

'I think there's a lot of people that believe that you should have your own decision-making on your own medical decisions,' he said to Maher.

'My thing is I have an issue with the hypocrisy in society in general and I know you do as well, but abortion has been a hot topic, right. And especially after Roe v. Wade got overturned and sent back to the states, or whatever. I don't believe the government should have any control over what we do with our bodies.

'As much as I might lean more pro life, I don't want the government to tell me I can't smoke a cigar, I can't have a drink of alcohol, I can't choose my own medical decisions. And if I'm a woman, don't f***ing tell me what to do. Like whether or not I agree with what you decide to do, who cares? And the government should not have a decision that infringes upon my own personal freedoms.'

Last August, Rodgers said he was 'immunized' and repeatedly did not wear a mask in settings in which they would be appropriate. 

Rodgers also chose his words carefully when speaking about the vaccine at training camp back in August 2021. Instead of saying he was 'vaccinated,' Rodgers would say he was 'immunized,' which some presumed to mean that he had received the injection.

However, Rodgers may have meant that he had COVID-19 antibodies from a previous infection. 

Rodgers has maintained that he is not 'anti-vax' in general but that it wasn't the right decision for him, adding how he believed he was in the 'crosshairs of the woke mob right now.'  

As the podcast conversation moved onto a possible rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2024, Maher suggested 'the Democrats and the woke side are so much more obnoxious,' but that the Republicans are actually more dangerous.'

Rodgers wouldn't be drawn on where his vote would lie but suggested Biden may be too old to run at the age of 81. Donald Trump would be 78.

'I'm a rational thinker. I'm not on one side or the other,' Rodgers said.

Maher used the opportunity to call out Trump's 'sore loser' attitude to the outcome of the 2020 election and used a football analogy to connect with Rodgers  

'You take it like a man,' Maher said. 'You don't go we won that game. That's what Donald Trump does. We won that game. You didn't. You lost it. It happens. You lose sometimes. Be a f***ing man and just own up like every other president has ever done. Everybody else who ever lost an election was just man enough to say I f***ing lost, I'll try next time.'

California is in the grips of a deadly crisis!

No, not the weeks-long 100-degree-plus temperatures blanketing the state.

Heat waves come and go.

I'm talking about something far more insidious. The state is being strangled to death in the clench of a 'climate cult.'

All week every Californian with a cellphone has been receiving desperate text messages pleading with them to 'turn off your appliances' and turn down their air conditioning.

Governor Gavin Newsom has been sending plaintive pleas thanking us for complying and urging us to continue with the rationing measures.

You see -- California's electricity grid cannot cope with the additional demands put upon it by the hot weather.

Newsom assures us our compliance will ensure that 'we can get through this together.'