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Information Liberation Alex Jones’ Prison Planet Gary North Specific Answers Antiwar The Daily Bell Tenth Amendment Center Economics Policy Journal The American Thinker The New American Lew RockwellPosted by M. C. on May 10, 2020
Australia is less wild and carefree and more like mother England than you would like to think.
Originally posted on Truth To Power: See the video at twitter of a young mother being arrested by several police officers, one moving in front of the filmer’s camera … what’s to hide you would have to ask? For one the little child towards the end, kicking and screaming, traumatized at his/her mother being removed in such a fashion. (Mamas I […]
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Australia, Lockdown | Leave a Comment »
Posted by M. C. on May 9, 2020
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/05/no_author/michigan-rising-the-revolution-will-not-be-televised/
By Benjamin Ahdoot
If you are like me, each day progressively you find yourself wondering what alternate universe we just warped into. Imagine if you could go back in time to 2015, back to the future style, and tell yourself that in the year 2020 reality TV personality Donald Trump would be President, a global viral pandemic would have shut down the entire global economy, you could get ticketed for walking on a beach, and stores wouldn’t sell you food unless you were wearing a mask. What a time to be alive [insert sarcastic tone here.] Perhaps, also like myself, you might find yourself flabbergasted at how submissive and obedient the members of our society have become. After months of coerced isolation (quarantine) people around this country are at last beginning to stand up and to say enough is enough. I witnessed such a display of civil disobedience on a cold mid April day in the great state of Michigan.
It started when I reached out to my friend Glen Jacobs, the mayor of Knox County Tennessee, informing him of my intent to leave Los Angeles for Knoxville. At the time, the Los Angeles Mayor’s orders to close “non-essential” businesses had turned my city into a depressing ghost town with only the homeless roaming the streets. After spending about a week in Knoxville I got word that a protest against the “lockdown” was being planned in Lansing, Michigan. I knew that the mainstream media would never fairly cover this type of protest, so I decided to drive up to Lansing to see first hand what was going on there.
I was expecting to find only a small gathering, but instead I arrived at the scene of what was turning into an ocean of protesters. The governor’s heavy-handed shut down of society in the state had caused so many people to decide that they had had enough. People drove in from all across Michigan on that cold day to peacefully gather and let their voices be heard. They were causing gridlock in front of the Capitol building, and traffic was going nowhere. I decided to get out of my car and video record what I was seeing. My face hung with an expression of absolute disbelief at the sight of thousands upon thousands of people who had decided to exercise their inalienable right to peacefully assemble.
As the protesters began pouring in, I was amazed at the raw diversity. People from all walks of life joined together in peaceful protest; it was quite the spectacle. White collar, blue collar, dentists, lawyers, banquet hall owners, florists, children, grandparents, black, brown, white, Trump supporters, and Bernie supporters all unified with a common message. I estimated an astonishing 20,000 strong gathered around their cars, peacefully protesting with homemade signs.
I decided to walk around to talk with people in their cars, read their signs, and see what grievances were being expressed. I talked to people who were complaining that they were being fined for traveling from one home to another. Others were holding signs demanding freedom and the right to go back to their businesses. Still others were saying that they were responsible for their own lives and were demanding their independence, saying that the spirit of liberty was still very much alive in them.
One man I interviewed said he had been out of work and that he was tired of being coerced to avoid leaving his home. He explained that he felt compelled to come out and demand that the governor open the economy. He lamented at the fact that the government has created an unprecedented wave of unemployment and that he rejects the notion that handouts would suffice. What he wanted was the opportunity to be productive again and to pursue his own welfare freely.
I met a couple with 18 grandkids. They said that their home building and banquet hall business had come to a halt, and they were out of pocket for about $130,000. They wondered why their employees could not work on building the homes with adequate distance between each other. Why must their business come to a complete halt? Why was it that they could not simply operate their home building business safely by using social distancing? They said they were protesting so their grandkids would know that they didn’t just submit to the governor’s arbitrary rules. They wanted to set an example for their grandchildren.
The Militia had a sizable presence at the protest. I estimated 100 militia members were in attendance. Contrary to what mainstream media may portray, their presence provided a sense of security for the protesters. I talked to a man who was carrying a rifle while he was there. He said he was with the Michigan Liberty Militia, and he was there to make sure that the people who had come to protest were kept safe and that things did not turn violent. He was there to make sure the state would not abuse its powers. Contrary to the popular narrative, love was the common motivating factor amongst these individuals. Love for their fellow neighbors and community. It is amazing how the walls of misconception crumble when one simply takes it upon themselves to get out and seek the truth in person.
Betty “Boop” a 94-year-old woman to whom I spoke said she had been there for five hours protesting the shutdown of the state. She said she was tired of not being able to see her family. I was impressed that a lady in her nineties showed so much enthusiasm for liberty and made the effort to come to the protest. Her daughter who was driving her held a sign out of the car window that said “OPEN THE DAMN STATE”. Sitting in the passenger seat Betty remarked “I love this! I’m so excited! I got goosebumps coming out here!”[amazon template=*lrc ad (right)&asin=1538733307
I then met a young man who said he was tired of the government not allowing him and his family to have access to their own property. He said that his family and friends had invested in their businesses and were on the verge of losing what they had worked so hard for because they had not been allowed to operate. He also said he had a friend whose family member passed away over Easter weekend due to a lack of stimulation and depression. This was devastating for me to hear. The man was not allowed any visitors in his nursing home, and at his funeral only 10 people were allowed to attend. As a result, he was not given any recognition for his 27-year service in the Military.
]There was not only a spirit of defiance running through the protestors but also a desire to be understood and to make their grievances known to the outside world. It was frustrating to hear later that Governor Whittmer had called it a “political demonstration” in an article from CNN titled “Politics and public health collide in Michigan.” There were certainly Trump supporters there, but the vast majority of the signs that I saw were demanding freedom and the opening up of the economy. Liberty and common sense were the underlying themes of this protest, not politics. As Malcolm X once eloquently put it, “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
I took it upon myself to film and document as much as I could. Every time I turned I was confronted by another sad personal story of tragedy and frustration. Some of these signs I observed read: “Depression kills too, Freedom 4 Life!!”, “We ♥️ flowers & our small business OPEN NOW!”, “LIFE, LIBERTY AND PROPERTY”, “Epstein thought he was safe too”, “LET ME WORK”, “ALL jobs are essential Honk For Liberty”, “FREE MI PEOPLE”, “We The ‘Low Income’ People”, Rights are NOT optional”, “STOP EXCESSIVE RESTRICTIONS WE CAN WORK SAFE LET US!!”, “GIVE ME WORK NOT MONEY”, “FINANCIAL SURVIVAL IS ESSENTIAL”, “LET US MOW, LET US GROW”, “FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY, FREEDOM TO LIVE AND TRAVEL ANYWHERE IN OUR NATION”, “SHOULDN’T YOU BE FIXING THE DAMN ROADS?”, “TICKS AREN’T TICKED! (But we are) LAWN CARE FIGHTS LYME DISEASE, 30,000 CASES/YEAR”, “DON’T CANCEL COMMON SENSE”, “SAVE OUR GREENHOUSES + GARDEN CENTER”, “SAVE OUR LIVELIHOOD. OPEN MI. FOR BUSINESS”, “Hey, GOV: SEEDS are ESSENTIAL”,
Prior to arriving in Lansing, I was honestly feeling doubtful whether there would be any significant turnout for liberty. Instead, what I witnessed that day renewed my optimism. It showed me that no matter how much the government tries to sell a false sense of security, there are people out there who value liberty more. These people were well aware of the dangerous trade-off between liberty and a false sense of security. They were thinking ideologically and knew that liberty should never be seen as a trade off. They were choosing property rights over propaganda. They were choosing self-ownership and personal responsibility. They were choosing liberty over the false promises of government granted “safety.” It was at this moment that I became keenly aware of this self-evident truth. So long as liberty is alive in the minds of a passionate minority, freedom will not die in this country. Perhaps the revolution will not be televised, but I no longer have doubt in my heart. The great state of Michigan rose up that day to proclaim proudly that liberty will forever persevere.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Governor Whittmer, Lansing, Lockdown, Malcolm X, Michigan Rising, Non-Essential | Comments Off on Michigan Rising: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – LewRockwell
Posted by M. C. on May 9, 2020
This could last eighteen months, or two years, or more. And even then, there will need to be “COVID passports” and official freedom-to-work documents issued by governments. The future is one in which every move must be controlled and monitored to prevent the spread of this disease.
Travel papers and your DNA please.
In the early days of the COVID-19 panic—back in mid-March—articles began to appear pushing the idea of “flattening the curve” (the Washington Post ran an article called “Flatten the Curve” on March 14). This idea was premised on spreading out the total number of COVID-19 infections over time, so as to not overburden the healthcare infrastructure. A March 11 article for Statnews, summed it up:
“I think the whole notion of flattening the curve is to slow things down so that this doesn’t hit us like a brick wall,” said Michael Mina, associate medical director of clinical microbiology at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It’s really all borne out of the risk of our health care infrastructure pulling apart at the seams if the virus spreads too quickly and too many people start showing up at the emergency room at any given time.”
In those days, it was still considered madness to suggest outlawing jobs for millions of Americans or “shutting down” entire national economies in an effort to flatten the curve. Thus, the article lists far more moderate mitigation strategies:
By taking certain steps—canceling large public gatherings, for instance, and encouraging some people to restrict their contact with others—governments have a shot at stamping out new chains of transmission, while also trying to mitigate the damage of the spread that isn’t under control.
What we got, of course, was something much more far reaching, radical, and disastrous for both the economy and for long-term health problems.
For the next two weeks or so, governments mostly sold the idea of forced social distancing as a measure to flatten the curve and the phrase began appearing everywhere in social media, media publications and government announcements.
Many people found this message reasonable enough, especially when coupled with claims that hospitals and governments would seek to buy up large numbers of ventilators and expand capacity with temporary hospitals. This flatten-the-curve narrative persisted for two weeks or so, but at some point in late March and early April, the narrative switched to something new.
The new narrative was this: the death toll will simply be too gruesome and unbearable to allow people to continue on with some semblance of an ordinary life. So, we must keep society locked down indefinitely until a vaccine is found or until there can be enough testing and tracking of infections among the entire population. Until then, only minimal “essential” activities will be allowed. This could last eighteen months, or two years, or more. And even then, there will need to be “COVID passports” and official freedom-to-work documents issued by governments. The future is one in which every move must be controlled and monitored to prevent the spread of this disease.
Thus, on April 2, Anthony Fauci, one of the lead bureaucrats on the White House’s COVID-19 advisory commission insisted that mandatory social distancing could not be eased until further notice:
“If we get to the part of the curve where it goes down to essentially no new cases, no deaths for a period of time, I think it makes sense that you have to relax social distancing,” [Fauci] added. “The one thing we hope to have in place, and I believe we will have in place, is a much more robust system to be able to identify someone who is infected, isolate them, and then do contact tracing.” [emphasis added.]
Similarly, former presidential advisor and physician Ezekiel Emmanuel flatly stated that there is “no choice” but to stay locked down indefinitely:
Realistically, COVID-19 will be here for the next 18 months or more. We will not be able to return to normalcy until we find a vaccine or effective medications. I know that’s dreadful news to hear. How are people supposed to find work if this goes on in some form for a year and a half? Is all that economic pain worth trying to stop COVID-19? The truth is we have no choice. [emphasis added.]
This messaging was used at the state level as well. On April 9, the Hawaii Department of Education, echoing Fauci, announced that all “public schools are expected to stay shut until COVID-19 is no longer spreading in the community, defined as four weeks with no new cases.”
Needless to say, such a situation is unlikely to happen any time that’s soon enough to save Hawaii from an economic implosion.
Similarly, in Colorado, during an April 1 briefing, Governor Jared Polis stated that when it comes to COVID-19 his policy is “stamping this out,” and claimed that mandatory social distancing could not be eased until total cases were falling.
This switcheroo on the reason for the lockdowns was a great victory for the World Health Organization (WHO) and advocates for widespread state controls on the economy and daily life. Already by early March, some WHO officials had come out in favor of the Chinese approach of draconian lockdowns imposed by the Chinese police state and surveillance state. As noted by Statnews, Mike Ryan, the head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, embraced the Chinese “containment” strategy and denounced flatten-the-curve style “mitigation” strategies as “counterproductive.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, by early April we had leading national figures in the US insisting that China-style lockdowns were the only way to deal with the disease. “Flatten the curve” was still used as a slogan, but its meaning had changed.
By early May, it was clear that the “containment” strategy was failing, since, in the United States at least, few elected officials were prepared to stomach the idea of keeping their economies locked down until a vaccine appeared or until new cases disappeared completely. After all, as unemployment numbers skyrocketed and state and local government budgets cratered, “lockdown until vaccine” didn’t seem like such a viable strategy anymore.
Indeed, two weeks earlier, the Hawaii Department of Education had already abandoned its declaration about the need for no new cases, with the department director backpedaling furiously and stating:
“We would expect to be living with COVID-19 for a long time, and to have to wait for the last case to have occurred and another 28 days probably is not going to happen, so I believe that was really a placeholder.”
By late April, numerous states’ governors and municipal officials were discussing ways to scale back their lockdowns. Many governors and mayors nonetheless continued to claim that they would not allow any easing of the lockdowns until cases began to decline, or until testing became widespread. Neither of those things has happened, yet governments have already begun to significantly loosen lockdowns. In many states, total deaths have plateaued but show no sign of disappearing.
“Flatten the curve” remains a popular goal among policymakers, but now we’re back to the old definition: fear remains that hospitals and healthcare personnel will be overwhelmed. The preferred political solution lies in both continuing to encourage social distancing and in prohibiting larger gatherings. But the idea that everyone will sit at home until a vaccine is found has at the moment fallen out of favor except in the most dogmatically leftist areas.1 Hard-left activist Matthew Yglesias, for example, complained this week that flattening the curve “isn’t good enough.”
Indeed, the Chinese-style containment strategy has failed so completely that even the WHO has abandoned it. The WHO now endorses the Swedish model, which is based on increasing healthcare capacity while relying primarily on voluntary social distancing. The Financial Times reported on April 29:
The World Health Organization has defended Sweden’s approach to tackling Covid-19, saying it has implemented “strong measures” to tackle the virus….
The director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme said on Wednesday there was a perception that Sweden had not done enough to contain coronavirus, but “nothing could be further from the truth”. Sweden has put in place a “very strong public health policy”, Mike Ryan said, but unlike many other countries has chosen to rely on its “relationship with its citizenry” and trust them to self-regulate.
Its healthcare system has not been overwhelmed, he said, adding that its approach could be a “model” for other countries when lockdowns begin to relax.
In other words, the containment strategy favored by Fauci and Emanuel is dead (for now). Although it has not happened by design, the US is moving toward a Sweden model.
Nonetheless, one is still likely to encounter rabid “COVID warriors” on social media, who think that interminable lockdowns will (somehow) significantly reduce the overall total deaths from COVID-19. But it increasingly seems that such a scenario is wishful thinking.
In a new article posted at The Lancet on Tuesday, Swedish infectious disease clinician Johan Giesecke writes on how lockdowns don’t really reduce overall total deaths, and says that when it’s all over, nonlockdown jurisdictions are likely to have similar death rates to lockdown areas:
It has become clear that a hard lockdown does not protect old and frail people living in care homes—a population the lockdown was designed to protect.
Neither does it decrease mortality from COVID-19, which is evident when comparing the UK’s experience with that of other European countries.
PCR testing and some straightforward assumptions indicate that, as of April 29, 2020, more than half a million people in Stockholm county, Sweden, which is about 20–25% of the population, have been infected (Hansson D, Swedish Public Health Agency, personal communication). 98–99% of these people are probably unaware or uncertain of having had the infection; they either had symptoms that were severe, but not severe enough for them to go to a hospital and get tested, or no symptoms at all. Serology testing is now supporting these assumptions.
These facts have led me to the following conclusions. Everyone will be exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, and most people will become infected. COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire in all countries, but we do not see it—it almost always spreads from younger people with no or weak symptoms to other people who will also have mild symptoms. This is the real pandemic, but it goes on beneath the surface, and is probably at its peak now in many European countries. There is very little we can do to prevent this spread: a lockdown might delay severe cases for a while, but once restrictions are eased, cases will reappear. I expect that when we count the number of deaths from COVID-19 in each country in 1 year from now, the figures will be similar, regardless of measures taken.
Will Giesecke be proven correct? We’ll find out.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: COVID passports, Flatten the Curve, Lockdown, Vaccine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by M. C. on May 5, 2020
Real Virginians are bemoaning the close proximity to DC.
It looks like Virginia had the right idea in 1861. Virginia will be dead in 2021.
Virginians hoping for a quick restart of normal life may be in for a rude awakening after the top health official in Virginia said the state could be in lockdown for the next two years.
During a Friday afternoon briefing on the coronavirus response, Virginia Health Commissioner Norman Oliver said Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s “Phase One” coronavirus response plan, which involves business closures and social distancing, could last for as long as two years.
“I, personally, think Phase One will be a two-year affair,” Oliver said. “There are a lot of people working on this, and I hope they prove me wrong, but I don’t see it happening in less than two years.”
A Virginia Department of Health representative immediately attempted to walk back Oliver’s comments, suggesting that Oliver meant the coronavirus will be with Virginians for two years and not that state-mandated lockdowns would continue that long.
But a proposal of what the commonwealth will look like as health officials worry about a second wave of the virus in the fall is yet to be seen. Northam’s “Phase One” plan requires “continued social distancing, continued teleworking [and] face coverings recommended in public.”
As millions file for unemployment across the country, the demand for citizens to stay indoors has led to a number of mass protests from Michigan to the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond.
Northam said the state is considering measures to track and quarantine individuals who are infected with the disease.
“We will get back to work by greatly increasing our testing, then tracing the contacts of people who test positive and isolating these individuals, not everyone in Virginia,” Northam said. “That is the key to moving forward.”
The Virginia Department of Health reported a spike in coronavirus cases in Virginia, with more than 700 new cases diagnosed on Friday alone.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Lockdown, Ralph Northam, two-year affair, Virginia health | Leave a Comment »
Posted by M. C. on May 5, 2020
Those of us in the ex-communist countries were used to living in a world of something like “Universal Basic Income”. We wanted to get rid of communism because of principles like this. These principles destroyed the motivation to work, which proved to be ruinous.
It’s quite simple. The people should say “NO” to all of it. Otherwise, what lies ahead is a real-life approximation of the dystopian “Brave New World” of Aldous Huxley.
https://claudiograss.ch/2020/05/hard-talk-with-vaclav-klaus-the-people-should-say-no-to-all-of-it/
As we get deeper into this crisis and we get used to our “new normal”, it’s easy to focus on the daily corona-horror stories in the media or the latest shocking unemployment numbers, and lose track of the bigger picture and of what is really, fundamentally important. Even as the lockdown measures begin to get phased out, the scale of the economic damage is unimaginable and the idea of returning to “business as usual” is no longer tenable. The last couple of months have had a severe impact not just on the economy, but on our societies and geopolitical reality too. These changes are most likely irreversible and we as citizens and as investors will have to be prepared to deal with this massive shift and all that it entails for a long time.
Amid the panic, the distractions and the hyperbole that are prevalent these days, my own daily task has been an effort to separate the signals from the noise. In order to do so, I’ve also reached out to the few people whose views and insights I have long found invaluable and who have prioritized critical thought and kept their principles intact throughout this crisis. Straight talk and direct answers are very hard to come by these days from most Western leaders and institutional figures, this is why I turned to Former President of the Czech Republic, Prof. Ing. Václav Klaus, who has long been a voice of reason and whose unique perspective is even more important now. In the interview that follows, he shares his views on the current crisis and on what’s to come, in a succinct and resolute way and with a directness that is as rare and as it is essential in times like these.
Claudio Grass (CG): The magnitude and the global scale of the lockdown and shutdown measures we’ve seen during this corona-crisis are unprecedented. How do you evaluate the response compared to the threat itself? Do you believe it is justified?
Václav Klaus (VK): I don‘t pretend to be an expert in epidemiology, but my background in economics and statistics tells me that the threat is smaller than the consequences „organized“ by governments all over the world as a reaction to this pandemic. I would add unnecessary consequences. The authorities reacted in an exorbitant way, in a moment of fear. This is partly the result of the current „online democracy“.
CG: The “emergency measures” and the restrictions that have been imposed on civilians’ basic rights have served as a reminder of the true extent of the state’s powers. Do you find this worrying and do you see a risk that these new, extraordinary powers might not be as easy to roll back once the crisis is over?
VK: The restrictions on basic civil rights that were introduced so swiftly and so easily demonstrate the power of the modern state, with all its new, “smart“ technologies and drastically expanded enforcement capabilities. Economists often talk about the so-called “ratchet effect”, or the limited ability of existing processes and dynamics to be reversed and to return to normal once a specific event has radically altered them. It is true of prices, of productivity and it is also true of social and political systems. Therefore, I am afraid it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to return to the pre-corona days.
CG: On an economic level, what is your assessment of the impact of the shutdown measures?
VK: Most, if not all, of the circulating quantitative estimates and forecasts, are wrong. The “experts” should first say how long the quarantine restrictions will last and when the economic shutdown will be fully lifted. Their economic forecasts depend on the length of the quarantine period. They should announce explicitly when they plan to end it. Until this is established and known, the current forecasts are economically meaningless.
CG: The monetary and fiscal interventions that we’ve seen so far are as extreme and as shocking as the shutdown policies themselves. Do you think they’ll be enough to keep the economy afloat though, or is a deep and long recession simply inevitable?
VK: The monetary and fiscal measures – unacceptable for the true democrats – may have positive short-term effects, but they will destabilize the economy and public finances for a very long period of time. They could lead to very high inflation.
CG: Trillions upon trillions are being injected into the system, while wild ideas like the Universal Basic Income have become mainstream. Apart from the obvious monetary and economic risks of these policies, do you also foresee political and social implications?
VK: Those of us in the ex-communist countries were used to living in a world of something like “Universal Basic Income”. We wanted to get rid of communism because of principles like this. These principles destroyed the motivation to work, which proved to be ruinous.
CG: Within just a few weeks we have witnessed an abrupt and absolute turn towards centralization. The free market has been brought to its knees, individual voluntary exchanges, productivity and the very right to work and to create were all suspended and replaced with central planning. Do you think this approach has any chance of being sustainable?
VK: I would not call it “central planning” yet. I prefer Walter Eucken’s term (used for the description of the German economy in Hitler’s time), “centrally administrated economy”. It is not planning in its original meaning. It is the very heavy and visible hand of the government at work, instead of the “invisible hand” of the market.
CG: The corona-crisis has also had some very serious geopolitical ramifications, especially vis-à-vis China. What are the main changes that you expect to see going forward in this arena?
VK: We shouldn’t use this situation for the introduction of new dangerous foreign relations policies and to strengthen the demonization of countries such as China and Russia. To my great regret, however, we see this is already happening.
CG: What about the future of the EU? Do you think this crisis has further weakened it and what is your outlook for the bloc?
VK: The EU will – unfortunately, in my view – survive the corona-crisis. Its exponents will use it to further weaken nation-states. They are on the defensive now, but they will reemerge again in full strength very soon. I wish I’ll be proven wrong, but I do believe they’ll use this crisis to their advantage and I fear they’ll do so successfully.
CG: Citizens, investors and savers everywhere are justifiably scared, if not of the virus itself then certainly of financial ruin. In your view, what can we do to take back at least some control of our own future?
VK: It’s quite simple. The people should say “NO” to all of it. Otherwise, what lies ahead is a real-life approximation of the dystopian “Brave New World” of Aldous Huxley.
Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Schweiz
This article has been published in the Newsroom of pro aurum, the leading precious metals company in Europe with an independent subsidiary in Switzerland.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Lockdown, new normal, universal basic income, Václav Klaus | Leave a Comment »
Posted by M. C. on May 2, 2020
People and governments always invoke the safety and security of the majority when they are taking away rights for “our own good,” just like the Patriot Act did. It’s an old playbook, joined in this century by our First Amendment nannies on social media, who electronically block efforts to organize.
The public beach versus public transportation debate came as a new study showed that NYC’s “multitentacled subway system was a major disseminator—if not the principal transmission vehicle—of coronavirus infection,” seeding the virus throughout the city.
A Stanford doctor nails it: “Strictly protect the known vulnerable, self-isolate the mildly sick and open most workplaces with some prudent large-group precautions. This would allow the essential socializing to generate immunity among those with minimal risk of serious consequence, while saving lives, preventing overcrowding of hospitals, and limiting the enormous harms compounded by continued total isolation.”
If you thought COVID-19 wouldn’t get political, think again.
If America has a fast forward button on it, someone should push it ahead to November. We won’t be done with the virus until we’re done with the election. Between prudence and overreaction lies politics.
We bleat about wanting decisions to be based on science, then we do the same dumb red-blue thing, even counting the corona dead differently (nothing left certain but taxes now) to make the numbers seem better or worse depending on shifty politics. Something that should not be about Trump at all is All About Trump.
It’s killing us. There is no other country in the world so driven by a politics so devoid of science. Other countries have good leaders, some not so good. But look at us. Our nation is held hostage to protests and counter-protests, lockdowns and open bowling alleys. There is no other nation where so many are convinced their leader is actively trying to kill them, even imagining he wants them to drink bleach.
The MSM portrays protesters against government restrictions as Trump death cultists who’d rather end up in an ICU than skip a haircut. Such flippancy insults the righteous anger over lost livelihoods. It is an echo of the things that lost 2016 for the Democrats. The people don’t want haircuts. They want to feed their families. They want thought-out targeted restrictions instead of politically driven overreaction and fearmongering. It’s about deep emotional waters, sense of self, a whole lot more than just how the economy will help Trump win or lose. Many also are concerned that their rights, including to assemble, to worship, and to protest, are being controlled by leaders they don’t trust while a media they abandoned years ago mocks them. Beachgoers in a red state are #FloridaMorons; in a blue state it’s #SurfsUp.
But they see this time the Brooklyn elites are going a step further, beyond the deplorable label, to wishing them to catch the virus, figuring the infection will teach them a lesson before they vote wrong again. Wishing death on people you disagree with.
Elsewhere, medical professionals say the protesters have no right to put others’ lives at risk, and think it’s more than OK to physically stop the rallies. That’s called “the heckler’s veto” by the Supreme Court and is not allowed under the First Amendment, whether you’re a hero ER nurse or an abortion protester blocking the door to a clinic. Stopping someone from protesting by shouting them down, driving a car into their crowd, or otherwise trying to interfere with them exercising their rights (including the right to hold a dumb opinion or one you disagree with) is disdainful and unconstitutional.
The medical professionals and their Muppet chorus of journalists sound like some soldiers who felt their sacrifice was made cheap by people who protested the war. Thank you for your service. It does not, however, allow you to choose which people can exercise their rights. When you choose to serve you serve those you don’t define as worthy as well as those you do. It’s bigger than you, doc.
People and governments always invoke the safety and security of the majority when they are taking away rights for “our own good,” just like the Patriot Act did. It’s an old playbook, joined in this century by our First Amendment nannies on social media, who electronically block efforts to organize. If you’re screeching about how rights don’t matter when lives are at stake, you’ve got company. The KKK used that argument to block black people from marching, claiming it was a safety issue. Yet California will no longer issue permits for anti-lockdown protests at any state properties, including the Capitol.
Agree? Just remember what you’re saying now about these redneck inbred gun nuts the next time someone claims a march permit can’t be issued in the interest of public safety to a group you support. It’s the same thing, rights are rights. Because you know what else can spread rapidly if “left unchecked?” Tyranny. Justice Louis Brandeis held free speech is not an abstract virtue but a key element of a democratic society. He ruled even speech likely to result in “violence or in destruction of property is not enough to justify its suppression.” In braver times when Americans challenged the safety vs. liberty argument, the Supreme Court consistently ruled in favor of free speech, reminding us democracy comes with risk. But that was another world ago, before we measured human worth in RTs.
There is science which should be informing decisions. But while claiming a small rally in Denver will cost lives, or Florida will kill people by opening its beaches, the same voices remain silent as NYC keeps its subway running 24/7. The public beach versus public transportation debate came as a new study showed that NYC’s “multitentacled subway system was a major disseminator—if not the principal transmission vehicle—of coronavirus infection,” seeding the virus throughout the city. Without a superspreader like the subway it can be contained locally. It is tragic when the virus rips through a nursing home or meatpacking plant (it is a virus after all, it will go viral), but all of those together barely touch a week’s body count in New York. Shut down mass transport.
We can put most people back to work with limited risk; the protesters are right. The virus kills a very specific patient. About half the dead are over age 65. Less than one percent of deaths are under age 44. Almost 94 percent of the dead in any age group had serious underlying medical issues (about half had hypertension and/or were obese, a third had lung problems). The death toll in NY/NJ under total lockdown: over 27,000. Death toll in much more densely populated Tokyo with “smart” lockdown: 98.
About 22 percent of New Yorkers already have the virus antibody and thus expected immunity. One logical implication of this—that large numbers already have or had the virus, and that it is harmless to them—is simply ignored. Quarantine/social distancing should be for those most vulnerable so we can stop wrecking all of society with cruder measures. Hospitals should separate patients by age. No need to keep kids from school, especially if that means isolating them inside a multigenerational household. Let them wear soggy paper masks to class, even tin foil on their heads, if it makes things easier. Online classes are lame and America doesn’t need a new generation dumber than the current one.
The New York-New Jersey area, with roughly half the dead for the entire nation, practices full-on social distancing while Georgia was one of the last states to implement a weaker stay-at-home policy. Yet as Georgia re-opens, the NY/NJ death count is over 27,000. Georgia is 892. NYC alone continues adding around 500 bodies to the pile every day, even with its bowling alleys closed.
We judge risk versus gain for every other cause of death. We wear condoms. We watch our diets. Time to do the same for the virus. As for lockdowns, we may not even be judging them accurately. Some 22 states have had fewer than 100 deaths. Only 15 states had total deaths for the entire duration of the crisis higher than NYC’s current 500 a day. The original goal of lockdowns, to buy time for the health care system (and most resources were never needed due to over-estimates of the viral impact), has passed. If the new goal is Virus Zero it will never come. If the real goal is to harm Trump we’ll have to put up with this without serious discussion until November.
A Stanford doctor nails it: “Strictly protect the known vulnerable, self-isolate the mildly sick and open most workplaces with some prudent large-group precautions. This would allow the essential socializing to generate immunity among those with minimal risk of serious consequence, while saving lives, preventing overcrowding of hospitals, and limiting the enormous harms compounded by continued total isolation.”
We are fretting and frittering away our national muscle watching TV about a bigamous tiger keeper. There are too many who want this isolation to continue indefinitely, a pathetic nation whose primary industries for its young people are camming and GoFundMe. Politics focuses on viral deaths, but the Reaper keeps a more accurate tally: deaths from despair, from hunger (two million new people became food insecure in NYC since the virus), financial losses (26 million Americans have filed for unemployment), mental health issues, and abuse (domestic murders during the viral months in NYC outstripped the total from 2019). In some ultimate irony, parents are postponing standard childhood vaccinations for fear of bringing their kids to medical facilities.
It is the reaction to the pandemic that exhausts us, not the pandemic itself. So when someone claims it is Money vs. Life they miss the real answer: It’s both. It should not be taboo to discuss this.
Be seeing you
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Failed State, Lockdown, NYC, patriot act, self-isolate, subway system | Leave a Comment »
Posted by M. C. on May 2, 2020
…but then Boris Johnson came under intense pressure from the media and opposition after the arrival of Imperial College’s notorious “500,000 dead” paper presented to the government by Prof. Neil Ferguson. As a result, UK officials quickly changed course in a “180 degree U-turn,” said Gieseck, who was shocked how an unpublished paper relying on computer models and with no peer review – could have played such a crucial role in altering such an important policy decision. How did that happen? One only has to look at the obvious nexus of funding between the UK government, Imperial College and the Gates Foundation to get a possible answer to that question.
Written by
As Europe and North America continue suffering their steady economic and social decline as a direct result of imposing “lockdown” on their populations, other countries have taken a different approach to dealing with the coronavirus threat. You wouldn’t know it by listening to western politicians or mainstream media stenographers, there are also non-lockdown countries. They are led by Sweden, Iceland, Belarus, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Surprisingly to some, their results have been as good or better than the lockdown countries, but without having to endure the socio-economic chaos we are now witnessing across the world. For this reason alone, Sweden and others like them, have already won the policy debate, as well as the scientific one too.
Unlike much of the rest of the world who saw fit to unquestioningly follow China’s lead on everything from quarantining, to economic shutdowns, to contact tracing, and PCR mass testing, nonlockdown countries have instead opted for a somewhat lighter touch – preserving their economies and societies, and in doing so avoiding an endless daisy chain of new problems and obstacles deriving directly from the imposition of brutal lockdown policy.
On the European front, the Scandinavian country of Sweden is now garnering more attention than before, and has become an object of both criticism and fascination for those against or in favor of lockdown policy. While countries like the United States and Great Britain continue to top the global tables in terms of COVID-19 death tolls, Sweden has only suffered marginal casualties in comparison, while avoiding the intense strain on society and loss in public confidence which lockdown governments are now grappling with as they continue to push their populations to the limits of social stress and economic tolerance. You could say those governments are already careening over the edge by looking at the latest jobless figures coming out the US with 30 million new people filing for unemployment in the last few weeks.
Unlike many others, Sweden has not enforced any strict mass quarantine measures to contain COVID-19, nor has it closed any of its borders. Rather, Swedish health authorities have issued a series of guidelines for social distancing and other common sense measures covering areas like hygiene, travel, public gatherings, and protecting the elderly and immune compromised. They have kept all preschools, primary and secondary schools open, while closing college and universities who are now doing their work and lectures online. Likewise, many bars and restaurants have remained open, and shoppers do not have to perform the bizarre ritual of queuing around the block standing 2 meters apart in order to buy groceries.
According to the country’s top scientists, they are now well underway to achieving natural herd immunity. It seems this particular Nordic model has already won the debate.
Because Sweden decided to follow real epidemiological science and pursue a common sense strategy of herd immunity, it doesn’t need to “flatten of the curve” because its strategic approach has the added benefit of achieving a much more gradual and wider spread.
Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s government advisor for epidemiology explains, “We are all trying to keep the spread of this disease as low as possible, mainly to prevent our healthcare system from being overstretched, but we have not gone for the complete lockdown. We have managed to keep the number of cases low enough so the intensive care units have kept working and there has always been 20 per cent beds empty and enough protective equipment, even in Stockholm, where there has been a huge stress on healthcare. So in that way the strategy has worked.”
Similarly, it doesn’t have the deal with the newest “crisis” obstacle which lockdown states seem to be using as an excuse not to reopen society and the economy, which the fear of a “second peak” which governments are telling the public will wreak havoc on the nation by “infecting the vulnerable” and will “overwhelm the health services” if everything is suddenly reopened and social isolation and distancing is relaxed.
This catch-22 which countries like the US and UK are caught in is predicated on the belief that the coronavirus might suddenly unleash itself again on the populace. Certainly, there could be a second surge, but it should be noted that this is also a direct result of the decision to impose lockdown in the first place. According to top epidemiologist Dr Knut Wikkowski, the decision to lockdown only delayed the inevitable for countries like the US and UK, and quite possibly made the COVID-19 problem even worse than it would have previously been in the short to midterm, but in the long-term the results would be relatively the same proportionally in term of human casualties.
The penny should have really dropped after it was revealed two weeks ago by Oxford Professor Carl Heneghan, Director for Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, that the peak of the UK’s coronavirus “crisis” actually came a full week before Boris Johnson initiated lockdown on March 23rd.
In fact, if you plug in Sweden’s actual data into Neil Ferguson’s own infamous computer model which sent the UK government into mass-panic mode, here’s what you would get:
(bigger)
The numbers don’t lie, but statistics can be made to tell any story the narrator wants, especially when the storyteller is government. Just look at the last 50 years of announcements regarding unemployment and inflation levels. One thing we should have learned by now is that government will never let things like facts and real science get in the way of a slow motion train wreck in progress, hence you can see some UK officials still clinging to Ferguson’s initial prediction as some sort of “proof” that the lockdown was necessary to avoid “mass death.”
Outside of popular supposition and media talking points, there is no scientific study which shows that lockdown saved any significant number of lives. Instead, new data strongly suggests quite the opposite.
The Ribbing of Sweden
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: covid, Gates Foundation, Lockdown, Sweden | Leave a Comment »
Posted by M. C. on May 2, 2020
Pentagon plans to fight a war
with Russia and China simultaneously, first mooted in 2018, are still a
work in progress in spite of the fact that Washington has fewer cards
to play currently than it did two years ago.
In spite of the hysteria, it is important to note that no Americans have
been killed or injured as a result of recent Iranian, Russian, Chinese
and North Korean actions. When you station ships and planes close to or
even on the borders of countries that you have labeled as enemies it
would be reasonable to expect that there will be pushback.
When in trouble politically, governments have traditionally conjured up a foreign enemy to explain why things are going wrong. Whatever one chooses to believe about the coronavirus, the fact is that it has resulted in considerable political backlash against a number of governments whose behavior has been perceived as either too extreme or too dilatory. Donald Trump’s White House has taken shots from both directions and the response to the disease has also been pilloried due to repeated gaffes by the president himself. The latest mis-spoke, now being framed by Trump’s press secretary as sarcasm, involved a presidential suggestion that one might consider injecting or imbibing disinfectant to treat the disease, either of which could easily prove lethal.
So, the administration is desperate to change the narrative and has decided to hit on the old expedient, namely seeking out a foreign enemy to distract from what is going on in the nation’s hospitals. The tale of malevolent foreigners has been picked up by a number of mainstream media outlets and has proven especially titillating because there is not just one bad guy, but instead at least four: China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
The accepted narrative is that America’s enemies are now taking advantage of a moment of weakness due to the lockdown response to the coronavirus and have stepped up their attacks, both physical and metaphorical, on the Exceptional Nation Under God. The most recent claim that the United States is being targeted involves an incident in mid-April during which a swarm of Iranian gunboats allegedly harassed a group of American warships conducting a training exercise in the Persian Gulf by crossing the bows and sterns of the U.S. vessels at close range. The maneuvers were described by the Navy as “unsafe and unprofessional” but the tiny speedboats in no way threatened the much larger warships (note the photo in the link which illustrates the disparity in size between the two vessels).
Donald Trump characteristically responded to the incident with a tweet last Wednesday: “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.” Although no context was provided, the president commands the armed forces and the tweet essentially defined the rules of engagement, meaning that it would be up to the ships’ commanders to determine whether or not they are being harassed. If so, the would be able to open fire and destroy the Iranian boats. Of course, there might be a physical problem in “shooting down” a gunboat that is in the water rather than in the air.
In the Mediterranean the threat against the U.S. consisted of two Russian jet fighters flying close to a Navy P8-A submarine surveillance plane. The Russian fighters were scrambled from Hmeymim air base in Syria after the U.S. aircraft approached Syrian airspace and Russian military facilities. One of the fighters, a SU-35 carried out an “unsafe” maneuver when it flew upside down at high-speed 25 feet in front of the Navy plane.
Also in mid-April, North Korea meanwhile fired cruise missiles into the Sea of Japan amidst rumors that its head of state Kim Jong Un might be dead or dying after major surgery. President Trump was unconcerned about the missiles and also commented that he had received a “nice note” from the North Korean leader.
Wars and rumors of wars notwithstanding, China continues to be the principal target for Democrats and Republicans alike on Capitol Hill. GOP congressmen are reportedly urging sanctions against China while there are already a number of coronavirus lawsuits targeting Chinese assets in U.S. courts, at least one of which has a trillion dollar price tag. Theories about the deliberate weaponization of the Wuhan virus abound and they are also mixed in with stories of how Beijing unleashed the weapons and is now engaged in Russia style social media intervention to promote the notion that the United States has proven incapable of handling what has become a major medical emergency. However, those who are pushing the idea that the Chinese communist party has declared war by other means fail to explain why the government in Beijing is so keen on destroying its largest export market. If the U.S. economy goes down a large part of the Chinese economy will go with it, particularly if China’s second largest export market Europe is also suffering.
The craziness of what is going on in the context of the disruption caused by the coronavirus has apparently increased the normal paranoia level at the top levels of the U.S. government. Pentagon plans to fight a war with Russia and China simultaneously, first mooted in 2018, are still a work in progress in spite of the fact that Washington has fewer cards to play currently than it did two years ago. The economy is down and prospects for recovery are speculative at best, but the war machine rolls on. Many Americans tired of the perpetual warfare are hoping that the virus aftermath will include demands for a genuine national health system that will perforce gut the Pentagon budget, leading to an eventual withdrawal from empire.
In spite of the hysteria, it is important to note that no Americans have been killed or injured as a result of recent Iranian, Russian, Chinese and North Korean actions. When you station ships and planes close to or even on the borders of countries that you have labeled as enemies it would be reasonable to expect that there will be pushback. And as for taking advantage of the virus, it is the United States that has suggested that it would do so in the cases of Iran and Venezuela, exerting “maximum pressure” on both countries in their times of troubles to bring about regime change. If those countries that are accustomed to being regularly targeted by the United States are taking advantage of an opportunity to diminish America’s ability to intervene globally, no one should be surprised, but it is a fantasy to make the hysterical claim that the United States has now become the victim of some kind of vast international conspiracy.
© 2010 – 2020 | Strategic Culture Foundation | Republishing is welcomed with reference to Strategic Culture online journal www.strategic-culture.org.
Be seeing you
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: coronavirus, Hmeymim, Iranian, Kim Jong Un, Lockdown | Leave a Comment »
Posted by M. C. on May 2, 2020
David Stockman’s Contra Corner
If you don’t think our so-called mainstream rulers has gone off the deep end, just consider New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent menacing tweets to the orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, which has insisted on holding funerals, including one Monday for a revered 73-year old Rabbi attended by upwards of 2,000 mourners:
“Something absolutely unacceptable happened in Williamsburg tonite: a large funeral gathering in the middle of this pandemic,” the mayor said in one post. “When I heard, I went there myself to ensure the crowd was dispersed. And what I saw WILL NOT be tolerated so long as we are fighting the Coronavirus.”
My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.
Well, NYC is nearly a ghost town and now its idiotic ruling pols are suggesting that, apparently, only ghosts may attend funerals without governmental permission!
But actually, this photo from the offending funeral is another picture worth a thousand words.
That’s because by now, everyone, and we mean everyone, knows that the Covid-19 strikes the elderly, the frail and the already disease-afflicted; and that these vulnerable populations need to not only “social distance”, but actually stay home and keep out of harm’s way completely.
That appears to be exactly what happened at Rabbi Mertz’ funeral. If you can spot an octogenarian in this crowd, or even a grandfather, your eyesight is better than Clark Kent’s.
And besides being preponderantly way under 50-somethings, they congregated outdoors and virtually all were wearing masks. Yet claiming to speak for some latter day “Committee of Public Safety”, Mayor Robespierre actually threatened to bring in the gendarmes.
Hundreds of people gathered in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for a massive funeral Tuesday evening
As to whether the above pictured citizens should be jailed or fined, let’s start with a tale of two Lockdown Nations – New York City and the semi-socialist Republic of California.
Both have imposed severe stay-at-home and business shutdown orders almost from the day the Donald issued his unfortunate March 16 guidelines. Yet here are the results 45 days later with respect to their mortality rates, which is ostensibly the reason officialdom issued these draconian “cease and desist” orders in the first place.
To wit, the mortality rate as of April 28 was 143 per 100,000 in New York City and 4.6 per 100,000 in the state of California. Essentially the same public health policy lockdown, but night and day differences in the outcome.
Yes, New York is more dense than California on average, but that doesn’t even remotely explain the difference. That’s because by now there is overwhelming evidence that the severity of the quarantine regime has essentially zero impact on the mortality metrics.
And folks, even the Virus Patrol hardliners don’t claim their lockdown orders are designed to prevent 3-day hospital stays by people who get an unusually stubborn case of the winter flu. This is about death prevention and that’s why they run the Chyron of Death across the CNN screen day and night.
But there is zero correlation:
We call attention to Washington state, Maine and Massachusetts especially because even though they all have severe statewide lockdown regimes and their overall mortality rates very widely, from 3.8 per 100,000 in Maine to 45.7 per 100,000 in Massachusetts, they do share one thing in common. To wit, 40-60% of their Covid-fatalities have been in nursing homes.
In Maine, 53% of Covid deaths were in nursing homes, meaning that the actual Covid-mortality rate for the general population is just 1.8 per 100,000 and in Massachusetts 56% are nursing home fatalities, meaning the general rate is 21 per 100,000.
Ironically, Sweden has one of the least restrictive lockdown regimes in the world – schools, businesses, restaurants and retail remain open–yet its mortality rate of 22 per 100,000 is virtually the same as the lockdown state of Massachusetts.
Self-evidently, what matters is not how economically suicidal the lockdown regime is from one jurisdiction to the next, but the age, health status and general frailty/vulnerability of the populations at issue. In the case of Washington state where the first corona cases occurred, upwards of 40% of the 690 deaths to date have been in nursing homes, meaning that its general population mortality is just 6.0 per 100,000.
As we amplify below, these single-digit rates are rounding errors on the scheme of things, even as all deaths are both regrettable and inevitable. But by what rational calculation does Governor Inslee insist on keeping the state in Lockdown and its economy heading into the the drink?
Someone might dare inform him that the general mortality rate from all causes for his citizens is 900 per 100,000 annually, and that, therefore, he is imposing the economic mayhem evident in these charts below owing to a risk of Covid death for the general population of his state that so far has been 0.7% of the normal average.
Stated differently, had Patient Zero (aka the Donald) not been the victim of malpractice by his doctors led by Fauci and the Scarf Lady, he might have been advised to dial in on day #1 to the heart of the Covid-threat. Namely, the 15,600 nursing homes in America, which domicile some 1.5 million residents, of which one-quarter (425,00) are over the age of 80 years.
In the case of Massachusetts, where the majority of deaths have occurred in nursing homes, the average age of Covid-deaths has been 82 years.
Needless to say, you did not need to be entombed in the infectious disease tunnel at the NIH for 52 years like Dr. Fauci, a pretentious 79-year old windbag who should have himself been put in a retirement home years ago, to realize that nursing homes are dense-packed with the frail, disease-afflicted elderly.
So rather than wipe out $4 trillion of GDP via Lockdown Nation they might have started with say $25 billion of incremental money for Medicare/Medicaid and the state public health agencies to zero-in on protecting, isolating and treating the nursing home residents.
After all, we find it easy to believe that spending $20,000 per nursing home resident might have saved or extended a lot more lives than the WHO/CDC/DR. Fauci blunderbuss assault on the entire US economy.
Indeed, with each passing update, the CDC data itself becomes an ever more dispositive indictment of the madness the Donald’s doctors have imposed on the nation. It is now strikingly clear, in fact, that when it comes to Covid-19 there are three nations in America, and that the attempt to shoe-horn them into a one-size fits all regime of state control is tantamount to insane.
There is first the Kids Nation of some 61 million persons under 15 years, where even by the CDCs elastic definitions there have been just 5 WITH Covid deaths thru April 28. You needn’t even bother with the zero-ridden fraction of 1 per 100,000 (its actually 0.008) to make the point.
That is to say, last year there were about 44,000 deaths among the Kids Nation – so corona-virus accounts for just 0.011% of the total, and in no sane world would it be a reason for shutting down the schools.
Of course, the Virus Patrol insists that the school closures are an unfortunate necessity because otherwise the Kids Nation would take the virus home to the Parents/Workers Nation. That is the 215 million citizens between 15 and 64, who account for the overwhelming share of commerce, jobholders and GDP.
Yet according to the CDC, there have been just 8,267 deaths WITH Covid in this massive expanse of the population, which figure represents a mortality rate of, well, 3.6 per 100,000.
But here’s the thing. The normal total mortality rate for the 15-64 years old population is 335 per 100,000. So we are talking about shutting down the entire economy owing to a death rate to date which amounts to 1.1% of normal mortality in the Parents/Workers nation.
Finally, we have Grandparents/Great Grandparents Nation, comprised of 52 million citizens. But they account for 32,000 or nearly 80% of the WITH Covid deaths as of April 28 – with 15,000 of these being among those 85 years and older.
By way of computation, that’s 61 deaths per 100,000 for the group as a whole and 230 per 100,000 for the 85 years and older.
Stated differently, the risk of death posed by Covid-19 is 7,600X greater for Grandparents/Great Grandparents Nation overall than for Kids Nation, and 29,000 times greater for the several million Great-Grandparents afflicted with severe comorbidity and likely as not to be in the care of a nursing home.
Needless to say, it did not take a catastrophic experiment with Lockdown Nation to figure this out. It was already known from China and the history of other coronaviruses.
If there were any reason or justice left in America, Dr. Fauci and the Scarf Lady and the whole CDC/WHO lobby that brought about this disaster would actually be headed for their own quarantine – the kind that doesn’t happen at home and which can’t be lifted by the whims of the Cuomo brothers or Mayor Robespierre.
PEAK TRUMP, IMPENDING CRISES, ESSENTIAL INFO & ACTION
Be seeing you
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill de Blasio, Lockdown, Rabbi Mertz, Sweden, Williamsburg | Leave a Comment »
Posted by M. C. on April 30, 2020
Today Americans are becoming increasingly compelled to live under an authoritarian technocracy, as Whitney Webb describes in “Techno-Tyranny: How the US National Security State is Using Coronavirus to Fulfill an Orwellian Vision.
The U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, created by the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, cites three “legacy systems” holding back adoption of AI-driven technologies: cash and credit/debit card payments, individual car ownership, and receiving medical attention from a human doctor. In their place would come financial transactions done only with smart phones (and computers), ride-sharing driverless cars, and AI robotic medical care. Plus, authoritarian technocrats would have us stop shopping in stores (many of which are going bankrupt in the lockdown) and buy everything online, enabling them to more easily track our purchases.
My wife and I began the new year completing a two-week holiday cruise to Hawaii on the Star Princess, sister ship to the Diamond Princess, returning to Los Angeles on January 3. Our flight home was uneventful. All seemed well. In February, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high (29,551 on Feb 12). Nothing to worry about.
Then came a virus virologists name “SARS-CoV-2” (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-CoronaVirus-2) which causes “Covid-19” (Coronavirus disease, beginning in [November?] 2019). On January 20, a man in the Seattle area who had recently returned from visiting family in Wuhan, China had a fever and dry cough and was found to be infected with Covid-19.
Mortality
As of April 28, 2020, in the U.S., 1,011,6000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 (Covid) with 58,343 deaths.
The 1918-1920 influenza pandemic (Spanish flu) killed 675,000 Americans. One of them was my grandmother Mary Ashby Warden Williams. Several weeks before she fell ill and suddenly died, her stepmother, Mary Lyde Hicks Williams (my great grandmother), a professional portrait painter, painted this portrait of Mary Ashby with her 18-month old daughter Charlotte (my mother) standing next to her. Mary Ashby died in January 1920 at the tail end of the pandemic, age 23. Her daughter endures and will be 102 in July.
My wife’s grandmother Agnes Posten, an Irish immigrant, also died in that pandemic, age 26.
More than 30 million Americans had the Spanish Flu in a population of 105 million and with 675,000 deaths, a 2.3% fatality rate. “Fast forward” to today. The Director-General of the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian politician (and former leader of a terrorist group)—the first non-physician to head this body—declared that Covid-19 has a 3.4% mortality rate. With a rate this high Covid could kill many millions of people worldwide. This spawned a global panic. The Director-General, however, left out people who become infected with this virus, did not get tested and didn’t get sick. Up to 80% of people who test positive for Covid either have no symptoms or only mild ones imitating a cold. Counting them in the equation, the mortality rate for Covid in Wuhan, China would be closer to 1.4% than 3.4%.
The 1918-20 influenza pandemic killed between 15 and 100 million people worldwide, 0.8% to 5.6% in a population of 1.8 billion (see here). Now, with the population 7.8 billion, one of comparable lethality could kill between 60 to 430 million people.
The “Spanish” flu started in Kansas. It spread in 3 main waves. The first one, from March to June 1918, was relatively mild. Soldiers called it “the 3-day flu.” It was seldom fatal, with a mortality rate near 0.5% (5 deaths in a thousand cases), close to seasonal flu of 0.1%.
The second wave, from August to December, was more lethal. One observer noted, “While the first wave of flu in 1918 was relatively nonlethal, the second made up for it in spades.” Two million American soldiers were shipped to Europe to fight with the Allies (France, Britain, and Russia) in World War I against the Central Powers (Germany and its allies). More soldiers died from the flu than in battle. Laura Spinney, in Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World writes:
“[Flu] Patients would soon be having trouble breathing. Two mahogany spots appeared over their cheekbones, and within a few hours that color had flushed their faces from ear to ear… [If it turned blue] the outlook was bleak indeed. Blue darkened to black. The black first appeared at the extremities—the hands and feet, including the nails—stole up the limbs, and eventually infused the abdomen and torso. As long as you were conscious, therefore, you watched death enter at your fingertips and fill you up.”
The Spanish flu targeted healthy young adults. People between age 20 and 40 were the high-risk group. Their robust immune systems would launch a “cytokine storm”—a cellular (macrophage)-induced severe inflammatory reaction, both against the virus and oneself. Flooding one’s lungs, this “storm” could kill a person within 24 hours after the onset of symptoms.
(The nations fighting in World War I censored any mention of this pandemic, which laid waste to both sides. Spain remained neutral and did not censor its newspapers, thus the name “Spanish flu.”)
Debate continues over Covid’s case mortality rate. The number of Covid deaths is falsely high in jurisdictions where people who die with the virus (test positive for Covid) in actuality die from a pre-existing condition (heart disease, cancer) and get included with people who die from the virus. And there are Covid-positive people who remain asymptomatic that are not counted, which also makes the case mortality rate falsely high. To remedy that everyone in a given population must be tested. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: covid-19, Lockdown, pandemic, Spanish flu, Vaccine | Leave a Comment »
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