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Three Charts The Delta Variant Scaremongers Don’t Want You To See – Issues & Insights

Posted by M. C. on August 12, 2021

Here’s one possibility. The public health community and leftist politicians don’t want to give up their newfound powers.

If COVID goes away, Anthony Fauci suddenly becomes just another annoying bureaucrat that nobody pays attention to.

And leftists, who have been able to boss people around and spend taxpayer money at levels no one would have ever tolerated before COVID, are loathe for things to get back to normal.

There’s also the fact that the current outbreak provides another chance for Democrats to score political points against Republicans. Just as we saw in the initial outbreak, Republican governors are coming under vicious and constant attack for not being sufficiently authoritarian, despite the growing body of scientific evidence that lockdowns and mask mandates are largely ineffective.

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/08/11/three-charts-the-delta-variant-scaremongers-dont-want-you-to-see/

I & I Editorial Board

While the sharp rise in Delta-variant COVID cases has sparked a renewed push for mask mandates, lockdowns, and vaccine “passports,” there’s been little attention paid to just how dangerous this variant is. Perhaps that’s because the evidence suggests it is far less of a public health concern than previous outbreaks.

Just how much less of a threat isn’t precisely known. But there are ways to gauge the risk. One is to look at the number of COVID cases and the number of deaths happening right now, compared with what happened a year ago.×

What do you find? First of all, there are fewer cases than last year. From June to August this year, there have been more than 2 million recorded COVID cases in the U.S.

Over the same days last year, the total number of COVID cases was above 3.1 million.

How about deaths? From June 1 through Aug. 9, the total number of COVID fatalities was 20,149. Last year, the death count was 62,287.

In other words, cases are 41% lower than during this time last year, and deaths are 66% lower.

Source: CDC Data

Looked at another way, the “case fatality rate” was 1% from June 1 through Aug. 9 this year. It was 2% over the same days last year.

Looking at a longer time frame, the case fatality rate all this year is 1.5%. And the case fatality rate for all of last year was 1.8%.

In other words, the fatality rate from COVID appears to be steadily declining.

Source: CDC Data

The lower lethality of the Delta variant makes sense. 

Like any other infectious disease, COVID picked off the low-hanging fruit first – the very sick and elderly. So the case fatality rate plunged after its initial spike in early 2020 – when it was around 6%.

Doctors and hospitals also learned about better ways to treat the disease, no doubt saving lives. 

And, the vaccines that unexpectedly appeared by last November have since created a vastly larger pool of people with immunity to the new virus. The vaccinated who are catching the Delta variant are experiencing far milder symptoms than they would have otherwise.

So far, in fact, there have been 36.8 million recorded cases of COVID, there are 167 million people fully vaccinated, and another 29 million partially vaccinated. That means roughly 60% of the nation has either had COVID or has been vaccinated. Even assuming there’s a lot of overlap between the two groups, that’s still a massive number of people with at least some immunity to the disease.

Here’s another way to look at it. Deaths from all causes so far this year are now lower in every age group than last year, especially among the elderly.

Source: CDC

But while the disease has become less fearsome, the public perception hasn’t changed, and so the fixation on case counts only feeds the public’s anxiety.

Yes, there are certain areas where hospital resources are being strained at the moment. But overall, hospital capacity is far from reaching its limit. Data from John Hopkins University of Medicine’s tracking center shows that 25% of intensive care unit beds in the country aren’t occupied. Even in hotspots such as Texas, 10% of ICU beds are available, as are 20% of inpatient beds. Ten percent of Florida’s ICU beds and 16% of inpatient beds are currently unoccupied.

So why isn’t this seemingly good news about COVID making headlines?

Here’s one possibility. The public health community and leftist politicians don’t want to give up their newfound powers.

If COVID goes away, Anthony Fauci suddenly becomes just another annoying bureaucrat that nobody pays attention to.

And leftists, who have been able to boss people around and spend taxpayer money at levels no one would have ever tolerated before COVID, are loathe for things to get back to normal.

There’s also the fact that the current outbreak provides another chance for Democrats to score political points against Republicans. Just as we saw in the initial outbreak, Republican governors are coming under vicious and constant attack for not being sufficiently authoritarian, despite the growing body of scientific evidence that lockdowns and mask mandates are largely ineffective.

Power doesn’t only corrupt. It is also highly addictive. And the fear of suffering painful withdrawal symptoms supersedes any other consideration.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

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Danger, Cover Blowing | Kunstler

Posted by M. C. on August 10, 2021

That story has seemed pretty preposterous to me. More likely, the hyper-ambitious and heedless Dr. Fauci just got in too deep with China’s PLA-connected bioweapons lab in his mad scientist quest to be remembered as the man who defeated all coronaviruses with a single silver bullet — enabling a “release” of this virus, with (from China’s point of view) the advantageous weakening of Western economies, and the socio-political destruction of their once-cohesive cultures. If so, well done!

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/danger-cover-blowing/

Kunstler

Of all the inane ideas shoved down the nation’s craw lo these years of the Covid-19 virus, “stop the spread” was surely the worst. For one thing, it was impossible, as in not going to happen no way, because the gift from Dr. Anthony Fauci & Associates spread anyway, despite all attempts to hide from it via lockdowns, or social distancing, or the wearing of face masks. All that accomplished was to destroy 40 percent of the small businesses in America.

Viruses will spread, especially viruses that are new to a population’s immune systems, because that’s what they do, and eventually they burn out. It’s as simple as that. But our current unsound psychological state of collective techno-narcissism made it easy for the public health authorities to put over the next stupid idea: that a miraculous vaccine could be engineered at “warp speed” to defeat the spread of Covid-19, a virus with a strikingly low death rate. Sunday, August 8, 171 people died of it in the USA, for a seven-day average of 516 deaths (stats from The New York Times), out of 330-plus-million citizens, and Gawd knows how many others here illegally. This has been termed “a surge.”

Speaking of people here illegally, the same government officials who bemoan the new “surge” in virus cases are the very ones deliberately allowing an unchecked surge of border-jumpers from all corners of the world to enter the USA from Mexico, many of them infected with new strains of Covid-19. And, if that wasn’t fiendish enough, the regime is putting them on airplanes and buses to towns all over America like fifty-thousand Typhoid Marys. That is, the federal government is doing all it can to worsen the spread of new strains of Covid-19.

This is the same outfit, under “Joe Biden,” that is making noises about a national vaccine mandate, for vaccines that are not actually vaccines, strictly speaking. We just call them that to reinforce our techno-narcissistic faith in miracle cures. After eight months of experimenting with these biochemical cocktails, there is very good reason to believe that they are unsafe, especially the latent effects of their main active ingredient, the spike protein, which can insidiously induce damage to blood vessels. No, thank you.

This was on top of the proposition that attempting mass “vaccinations” at the height of an epidemic accelerates the evolution of variant viruses via antibody dependent enhancement in those vaccinated, causing the virus to become more infectious and replicate at higher levels — which has happened in every other coronavirus vaccine development program ever attempted — while the efficacy of the vaccines wanes over a few months’ time.

Could you paint a picture of a greater public health policy fiasco? Really, the emerging questions about all this must be: 1) Have they done it on purpose? And 2) Is all the messaging confusion the result of Dr. Anthony Fauci desperately trying to cover his ass for his role in developing Covid-19, as well as the so-called vaccines marshaled to heroically defeat it? Perhaps both.

You could construct a case that it was done on-purpose and, in this age of manufactured narratives, some have proposed the story that the disease was a mere excuse to introduce a slow-working lethal pseudo-vaccine to reduce the global population efficiently and drastically — so that nefarious “elites” could enjoy life (and its immortal transhuman successor state) on a planet uncluttered by billions of human riffraff.

That story has seemed pretty preposterous to me. More likely, the hyper-ambitious and heedless Dr. Fauci just got in too deep with China’s PLA-connected bioweapons lab in his mad scientist quest to be remembered as the man who defeated all coronaviruses with a single silver bullet — enabling a “release” of this virus, with (from China’s point of view) the advantageous weakening of Western economies, and the socio-political destruction of their once-cohesive cultures. If so, well done!

At this point, at least half the country now distrusts and disbelieves the incoherent messages emanating from “Joe Biden’s” government about this Covid-19 problem and any attempt to force vaccinations on the “hesitant” public will pull the pin out of the national grenade that has been waiting to go off. The “insurrection” next time will be the real thing, not Nancy Pelosi’s faked-up soap opera.

It’s also possible that the hyped “delta surge,” and all the threats prompted by it, are just a manufactured distraction from the slow-moving train-wreck of “the most secure election in US history” narrative as actual proof emerges of, yes, widespread fraud in 2020. Who would be surprised, by the way, if our friendly, local Intel Community wasn’t somehow behind all of that, both the election fraud and the distractions — and especially the management of the news about it that people get from TV-land and the remaining major newspapers?

All the pieces in the story are flying apart: the virus, the election, the border debacle, the Woke race hustle, the fiscal lunacy, the contrived sexual derangement, the captive news media…. All recent US history is starting to look like one big comprehensive fraud by forces seeking to wreck the country. The tension arising from that startling state-of-affairs is finally primed to begin resolving itself. The release could be dangerous.

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Young Americans Resist Biden’s Covid Vaccination Campaign | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on July 3, 2021

Apparently unbeknownst to Zients and the entire US covid response team, it wasn’t a virus that stripped our freedoms, but the overreaching hands of power-hungry politicians who were incapable of reading basic data. 

Unfortunately, Americans’ reluctance to openly resist the lockdowns did a great deal to help the federal and state governments in their tyrannical efforts. Perhaps, the fact the vaccination campaign isn’t as successful as Biden’s team wished is a sign that next time Americans won’t be so easily pushed around.

https://mises.org/wire/young-americans-resist-bidens-covid-vaccination-campaign

Alice Salles

President Joe Biden has failed his vaccination goal. According to the White House, it is unlikely that at least 70 percent of Americans will receive a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine by July 4. Despite this, officials say that Americans will still be protected enough to celebrate Independence Day with family and friends.

You heard that right. No ludicrous lockdowns or threat of lockdowns loom in the horizon. 

This should once and for all confirm that the pandemic never warranted any of the draconian responses that ruined 2020 for most of us. Even media outlets that have long played down lockdown skepticism such as Axios are pointing out that the latest White House message is “vastly different” than this time last year, “when public health officials and some governors were limiting large gatherings and pleading with the public to only host small, outdoor events for the holiday.”

So, what happened?

People Aren’t Falling in Line

In January 2021, a survey found that there were three groups that were less likely to take the coronavirus vaccine: black people, women, and conservatives. In spite of the difficulties the Biden administration would eventually face, the White House boosted its vaccination goal to 1.5 million Americans per day, stating that it expected to see at least 70 percent of the entire population fully vaccinated by Independence Day. 

Biden’s pleas fell on deaf ears as many states vaccinated below 60 percent of their population. Healthcare workers, members of the military, and even nursing home staff are refusing the shot. And across the country, employees are suing employers over vaccine requirements. It is clear people aren’t exactly going along with whatever Dr. Anthony Fauci says.

It is this reality that seems to have changed the White House’s tone.

Thanks to states like Florida, which have completely blown the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s covid narrative on social distancing and masks, and are now fighting vaccine passports, federal officials appear to understand that they can no longer intimidate and threaten their way to universal compliance.

During Tuesday’s press conference discussing the Biden administration’s expectations, Jeffrey Zients, the head of the White House covid response team, said that young Americans are fed up. They no longer believe the hype. 

“The reality is, many younger Americans have felt like Covid-19 is not something that impacts them and have been less eager to get the shot,” he said.

We Have Biden to Thank for Our Freedom

On Tuesday, Zients made yet another revealing comment. 

Instead of carrying on with the customary fear campaign, he hinted at how thankful all Americans should be for being allowed to celebrate the Fourth of July. After all, if it weren’t for the benevolence of those calling the shots in DC, he stated, we wouldn’t be “entering a summer of joy.”

Throughout the last five months, the President has set goals to rally the American people behind defeating this virus, with the most important and most ambitious being to celebrate our independence from the virus on July 4th—for America to look like America again. And thanks [to] the President’s whole-of-government effort and the American people stepping up to do their part, we are there. 

The virus is in retreat in communities across the country. We are entering a summer of joy, a summer of freedom. This is cause for celebration, and that’s exactly what Americans will be able to do on July 4th: celebrate independence from the virus.

Apparently unbeknownst to Zients and the entire US covid response team, it wasn’t a virus that stripped our freedoms, but the overreaching hands of power-hungry politicians who were incapable of reading basic data. 

Unfortunately, Americans’ reluctance to openly resist the lockdowns did a great deal to help the federal and state governments in their tyrannical efforts. Perhaps, the fact the vaccination campaign isn’t as successful as Biden’s team wished is a sign that next time Americans won’t be so easily pushed around.

Author:

Alice Salles

Alice Salles was born and raised in Brazil but has lived in America for over ten years. She now lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana with her husband Nick Hankoff and their three children.  

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Guess Who Was Called a Crank, and Who’s Now a Covid Hero – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on June 24, 2021

Here was the man who, on the House floor in 2001, predicted exactly what would happen with the housing boom and bust. He said the Federal Reserve was replacing the dot-com boom with a real estate boom, which would surely unravel.

He knew Fannie and Freddie’s days were numbered.

Not one other person running for president in 2008 or 2012 had had the first clue about any of this.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/06/thomas-woods/guess-who-was-called-a-crank-and-whos-now-a-covid-hero/

By Tom Woods

From the Tom Woods Letter:

There have been a lot of bad guys over the past year and a half.

But there have been good guys, too.

And there’s something interesting that the two best guys have in common (and it has to do with my subject line for today).

By my estimation, the best U.S. senator — by far — throughout this fiasco has been Rand Paul, and the best member of the House has been Rep. Thomas Massie.

Both have been excellent on lockdowns, masks, vaccines and vaccine passports. Both have pushed back against Fauci. Were it not for Rand, we probably wouldn’t know a thing about gain-of-function research and Wuhan.

Ain’t no way a product of the GOP establishment was going to come out swinging like Rand.

Mitt Romney standing up to Fauci? Don’t make me laugh.

John McCain standing up to Fauci? This is the guy who assured us he was learning about economics because he bought Alan Greenspan’s book — an indication of utter hopelessness if ever there were one.

Most Republican governors were horrendous through this ordeal.

But Rand Paul and Thomas Massie? A+ throughout.

Yes, both men represent Kentucky, but that’s incidental.

The key: both are products of the Ron Paul revolution.

Now let’s recall: when Ron Paul himself was running for president, both the media and the Republican establishment — and, to their eternal shame, some “conservatives” — ridiculed him. He’s a “crank”! We demand someone who will flatter us and speak in platitudes we recognize!

It was embarrassing.

Here was the man who, on the House floor in 2001, predicted exactly what would happen with the housing boom and bust. He said the Federal Reserve was replacing the dot-com boom with a real estate boom, which would surely unravel.

He knew Fannie and Freddie’s days were numbered.

Not one other person running for president in 2008 or 2012 had had the first clue about any of this.

And of course he was right: when the market tried to send people red lights in 2000 and 2001, the Fed turned them all green. So people persisted in the same bad investments, making the eventual crash all the worse, and perpetuating the myths that “housing prices never fall” and “a house is the best investment you can make.” (The 2001 recession is the only one on record in which housing starts actually increased.)

Dr. Paul was withering on the U.S. warfare state, and this of course turned “conservatives” against him. The idea was: we favor limited government, but exporting feminism to Afghanistan and running a world empire? Sign us up!

Not exactly the conservatism of yesteryear, that.

Now, after COVID, perhaps some conservatives are willing to entertain the idea that the whole regime is dangerous and rotten and run by liars, and that that just might also include the people who run the foreign policy.

Incidentally, has anybody been checking in on where Rick Santorum stands on lockdowns? Or the utterly forgettable Tim Pawlenty, whom Sean Hannity promoted? Or any of the other empty suits?

Ron created something lasting. Unlike the suits, he took on rather than aped the establishment. He raised issues like the Federal Reserve that no focus group told him to mention, simply because he considered it urgent for the American public to know about them.

He told a Florida audience that free trade with Cuba was the morally correct position, even though he knew that meant a lot of people would never consider voting for him.

Who else does that?

Who else just honestly tells us his views, and is consistent in those views over a 40-year period?

Even if you disagreed with him on this or that, those disagreements are trivial when compared to the big picture: here’s someone who’s honest, who will stand up against anyone, and who actually is what all the other Republicans only pretend to be?

Yes, it’s that kind of man who inspires a Thomas Massie — and, of course, a Rand Paul.

And Ron himself, on his daily Liberty Report, has been outstanding on COVID from day one.

For old times’ sake, here’s the TV ad I wrote for Ron in 2012, summarizing his merits in a mere 60 seconds, and which ran on CNN:

And of course, here’s the K-12 homeschool curriculum I created 400 videos for at Dr. Paul’s request:

http://www.RonPaulHomeschool.com

 The man is a hero, and his anti-establishment stance — the very thing that got him called a “crank” — has now been vindicated a thousand times over.

Tom Woods [send him mail; visit his website] is the New York Times bestselling author of 12 books and host of the Tom Woods Show, which libertarians listen to every weekday. Get a free copy of Your Facebook Friends Are Wrong About the Lockdown: A Non-Hysteric’s Guide to COVID-19.

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An Upside of the Lockdowns – EPautos – Libertarian Car Talk

Posted by M. C. on June 22, 2021

https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2021/06/20/the-upside-of-the-lockdowns/

By eric

I sometimes miss going to the Sweet Donkey Coffee Shop, the little cafe in Roanoke, VA where I used to spend a few hours working on my laptop practically every day – until a day around this time last year, when I was told I was no longer welcome there because I was unwilling to stop showing my face – i.e., to  perform the sickening ritual affirming the hideous lie that has turned the country half crazy – and the other half angry for objecting to being pressured to pretend they share in the crazy, by looking just like the crazies.

But I am no longer missing the money I used to spend at the Donk, every day.

The sum isn’t small, though it was incrementally so.

Each day I went there, I generally got at least one cup of coffee – which cost an astounding-in-retrospect $3 per. Plus tax, as Elvis once said. Refills were another buck and I almost always got at least one of those, too. Plus usually a cookie, on account of it being very hard for me to resist those, especially when I am trying to write – the cookie’s cost justified to myself as necessary cost of doing business and the cookie itself my Pavlovian reward for getting it done.

The cookies cost about $3 each, too – which seems (which is) expensive, no matter how “artisanal” but as anyone who has a sweet tooth knows, it is very hard to think about the price of a cookie when you just want that cookie  . . . and there it is. Plus, they were really good cookies – and so was the coffee. I genuinely enjoyed both as well as being there. And then – just like that – I no longer was.

And neither was my money.

I suddenly had noticeably more of it.

See the rest here

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People Who Ruined World’s Economies Gather To Discuss How To Fix World’s Economies

Posted by M. C. on June 12, 2021

https://babylonbee.com/news/people-who-ruined-worlds-economies-gather-to-discuss-how-to-fix-worlds-economies

CORNWALL—According to sources, the people who ruined the world’s economies by promoting lockdowns, economic shutdowns, and printing cash have gathered in the United Kingdom this week to discuss how to fix the world’s economies.

The very people who implemented anti-science policies that simultaneously did nothing to stop COVID and ruined millions of livelihoods gathered to enjoy their triumph over the virus and talk about how to fix everything.

“We assure you — we will have a great plan to fix everything!” said the people whose plans ruined everything. “Trust us — when have we ever been wrong about anything?”

From Boris Johnson and Joe Biden to Justin Trudeau and that weird French guy, members of the summit had pushed harmful economic policies rather than just letting the people reach herd immunity and go on with their lives. But they’re now claiming they are the people you need to listen to for reopening the very economies that they destroyed.

At publishing time, the entire world was praying for a giant tidal wave to hit the beach where the attendees were gathered.

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Leading UK Immunologist: “We Can’t Hide Down A Hole Every Time There’s A New Variant” | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on June 3, 2021

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/leading-uk-immunologist-we-cant-hide-down-hole-every-time-theres-new-variant

Tyler Durden's Photoby Tyler Durden

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

The BBC reports the comments by Sir John Bell, a Chair of Medicine at the University of Oxford, member of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR), and a leading member of the government’s vaccine taskforce.

In an interview with BBC Radio Four, Bell urged that “If we scamper down a rabbit hole every time we see a new variant, we’re going to spend a long time huddled away.”

Top No10 scientist urges Boris Johnson to push ahead with June 21 ‘Freedom Day’ https://t.co/Ix45vE3pdo — Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) June 2, 2021

Bell further asserted that the virus “is here to stay probably forever”, adding that there is a “need to get a bit of balance in the discussion.”

Bell said the government needs to focus on reducing “hospitalisations, serious disease and deaths” rather than the fruitless task of reducing cases through lockdowns and other restrictions.

The immunologist urged that the focus needs to be on the suppression of the virus “around the world because otherwise we’re just going to sit here and get slammed by repeated variants that come in the door.”

Bell noted that the UK’s “numbers don’t look too intimidating” and that he is “encouraged” by the fact that no new deaths were recorded Tuesday for the first time in over a year.

His comments come amid a rash of government advisors suggesting that the slated June 21 reopening of society should be delayed.

15 months after ‘just stay home a few weeks to protect the NHS’ and they’re saying ‘just a few weeks’ yet again.

F off, it’s over. pic.twitter.com/qspJWlKzyN — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 1, 2021

England just recorded ZERO deaths from covid today

The Media……. pic.twitter.com/Qa3p7Gbgof — Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) May 31, 2021

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The Dystopian Future in Which Almost No One Owns a Car | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on May 14, 2021

It is not difficult to see how this could go very wrong. Can you imagine how much worse government lockdowns would have been at their height last year if the state merely needed to apply pressure to Uber-like ride services to cease general operation to stop people from moving?

Customers have complained about having features of their Tesla being removed without their notice or authorization, prompting one reporter to remark that “if someone buys a used car with cruise control, there isn’t an expectation that the manufacturer will then arrive and ask to remove it,” yet something similar has already happened. Similarly, Tesla collects vast amounts of data from its cars…

Tesla or any self-driving car that would naturally require some level of internet connection can be remotely shut down. As cool as Tesla may seem, the odds are very slim that it would defy a state order to render its fleet inoperable in the name of “public safety” or any other excuse the government may come up with.

https://mises.org/wire/dystopian-future-which-almost-no-one-owns-car

Zachary Yost

By this point readers are more than familiar with the previously unthinkable infringements on our traditional rights and liberties due to “health and safety” lockdowns that the state has inflicted upon us over the last year. While thankfully more and more restrictions are being lifted, it is important not to forget the period of veritable universal house arrest that was enacted in many states, in which even the freedom to go for a drive was denied to us. It unfortunately seems inevitable that we will face such scenarios again when a convenient excuse comes along, though I fear that the next time will be even worse thanks to the advent of self-driving cars.

Self-driving cars seem like a truly amazing advancement in human technology. As someone who is not particularly fond of driving, I once followed their development with great interest and hopeful anticipation. However, the advent of lockdowns as an acceptable government policy has shown just a taste of the kind of dangers that would come with their widespread adoption. While they would liberate us from many of the dangers of the road and free up time in which to work or enjoy ourselves on a ride, the price of this liberation is actually an unprecedented level of government control.

Some advocates of self-driving cars argue that their adoption would mean that very few people would actually own a vehicle anymore, and that instead everyone would basically Uber everywhere. Oftentimes such predictions are espoused by people who lament how evil American prosperity is and cringe at the thought of our car culture’s carbon footprint.

It is not difficult to see how this could go very wrong. Can you imagine how much worse government lockdowns would have been at their height last year if the state merely needed to apply pressure to Uber-like ride services to cease general operation to stop people from moving? Ride services would almost certainly be forced to require government-issued documents in order to book a ride in such a scenario, leaving the vast majority of the population completely stranded and unable to go anywhere.

Fortunately, there are many reasons to believe that without massive government intervention America is not likely to willingly let go of its deeply ingrained car culture in favor of ubiquitous Ubering.

However, even if people do own their self-driving cars, the danger remains.

Tesla is a case in point. Unlike a “traditional” car that drives off the lot and disappears into the traffic, Tesla cars are perpetually connected to the internet and Tesla itself. As the pioneer in self-driving cars, it seems likely that other manufacturers will also build around Tesla’s concept, which is itself similar to numerous other “smart appliance” trends in everything from house lighting to fridges, ovens, and washing machines. While this connectivity has great uses, such as allowing repairs to be completed remotely, the danger is obvious.

Customers have complained about having features of their Tesla being removed without their notice or authorization, prompting one reporter to remark that “if someone buys a used car with cruise control, there isn’t an expectation that the manufacturer will then arrive and ask to remove it,” yet something similar has already happened. Similarly, Tesla collects vast amounts of data from its cars, which is no doubt useful and needed for continuing to improve the system and work out kinks, but it is dangerously naïve to believe that such data would remain outside the reach of the government if it wanted it.

Finally, the same danger with universal Ubering still remains. Tesla or any self-driving car that would naturally require some level of internet connection can be remotely shut down. As cool as Tesla may seem, the odds are very slim that it would defy a state order to render its fleet inoperable in the name of “public safety” or any other excuse the government may come up with.

Think back to the hysteria of last spring. You are kidding yourself if you believe that people like Governor Whitmer of Michigan wouldn’t have ordered all cars rendered inoperable until “essential workers” were granted permission to drive if such a thing had been within her power.

The picture becomes even more bleak if one thinks of the nefarious uses such control could be used for beyond “public health” lockdowns. What if our current cancel culture craziness were to continue into a death spiral that resulted in something akin to the Chinese social credit system? Such a thing seems unthinkable—“this is America,” after all. But if in 2019 we had been visited by a time traveler who told us that in a year Americans would be forbidden from leaving their homes or going to church and that businesses would be forced to close en masse, we likely would have thought such a person was crazy. Yet here we are.

It is easy to see all the benefits that would come with self-driving cars, but at the end of the day the potential for dramatically increased government control and abuse is horrifying to contemplate. Author:

Zachary Yost

Zachary Yost is a freelance writer and Mises U alum. You can subscribe to his newsletter here.

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The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : Covid Authoritarians Abuse Children

Posted by M. C. on May 11, 2021

Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, the two major teachers’ unions — the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — have stood in the way of reopening schools. Teachers’ union leaders have claimed it is too dangerous for teachers to resume in-person instruction, even though adults are at little or no risk of getting Covid from children. Sadly, teachers’ unions are disregarding the interest of children. Recently released emails show the CDC disregarded the science in favor of the AFT’s restrictive guidance when developing recommendations concerning reopening schools.

I encourage parents looking at alternatives to government schools to go to RonPaulCurriculum.com for more information about my homeschooling program.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2021/may/10/covid-authoritarians-abuse-children/

Written by Ron Paul

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Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has “recommended” that children wear masks while playing. Her offered reason is to ensure Covid is not spread by “heavy breathing” of children near each other while around a soccer ball.

Dr. Walensky’s recommendation is one more example of Covid authoritarians’ refusal to “listen to the science.” The science says no to lockdowns and masks. The masks are not blocking the very small viruses in “heavy breathing.” Dr. Walensky also ignores the science showing that wearing a mask while exercising or playing sports has negative health effects.

Dr. Walensky’s most outrageous disregard of science is ignoring the fact that children are statistically unlikely to be at risk of either spreading Covid or becoming very sick from it.

Dr. Walensky’s recommendation is one of many examples of how children are harmed by the overreaction to coronavirus. Many children have had their physical and mental health damaged because they cannot go to school, play with their friends, or even have a birthday party because of the lockdowns.

Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, the two major teachers’ unions — the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — have stood in the way of reopening schools. Teachers’ union leaders have claimed it is too dangerous for teachers to resume in-person instruction, even though adults are at little or no risk of getting Covid from children. Sadly, teachers’ unions are disregarding the interest of children. Recently released emails show the CDC disregarded the science in favor of the AFT’s restrictive guidance when developing recommendations concerning reopening schools.

The negative effects of lockdowns and school closings for children have led many parents to consider alternatives to government schools. Some private schools have not just remained open, they have followed the science and not forced their students to wear masks. Many parents are also considering homeschooling. Homeschooling parents obviously can ensure their children are not forced to obey mask, social distancing, and other unscientific mandates.

Parents interested in providing their children with a quality education that emphasizes the ideas of liberty should consider my homeschooling curriculum. The Ron Paul Curriculum provides students with a well-rounded education that includes rigorous programs in history, mathematics, and the physical and natural sciences. The curriculum also provides instruction in personal finance. Students can develop superior communication skills via intensive writing and public speaking courses. Another feature of my curriculum is that it provides students the opportunity to create and run their own internet-based businesses.

The government and history sections of the curriculum emphasize Austrian economics, libertarian political theory, and the history of liberty. However, unlike government schools, my curriculum never puts ideological indoctrination ahead of education.

Interactive forums allow students to learn from each other outside of a formal setting. The curriculum’s emphasis on self-directed learning and student interaction makes it ideal for parents who need to work from home but still want to homeschool their children.

I encourage parents looking at alternatives to government schools to go to RonPaulCurriculum.com for more information about my homeschooling program.

Copyright © 2021 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
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Fauci defends the Crown, descends the evolutionary ladder « Jon Rappoport’s Blog

Posted by M. C. on May 7, 2021

Recently, Anthony, you expressed annoyance at people questioning you about liberty. You said liberty was not the issue. The issue was public safety and health.

Well, it is. Safety. Freedom from lockdowns is CONDITIONAL. WE, the professionals, decide…

https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2021/05/06/fauci-defends-the-crown-descends-the-evolutionary-ladder/

by Jon Rappoport

Anthony Fauci woke up in the middle of the night.

In the dark room, he saw a man sitting in a chair and reached for his masks on the night table.

“It’s all right, Anthony,” the man said. “I know you don’t wear them apart from public occasions.”

“Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?”

“It doesn’t matter, Little Anthony. Would you like a banana?”

“What?”

“You’re descending the evolutionary ladder. You’re turning into an ape. You’re losing it.”

“Losing what?”

“The knowledge of freedom, of course, Little Anthony. What it is. How it came to be.”

Fauci stood up, found his bathrobe, put it on, and sat on the edge of his bed looking at the man in the chair.

Recently, Anthony, you expressed annoyance at people questioning you about liberty. You said liberty was not the issue. The issue was public safety and health.

Well, it is. Safety. Freedom from lockdowns is CONDITIONAL. WE, the professionals, decide…

Are you sure you don’t want a banana, Anthony? Maybe a nice peach. They’re coming into season. I think I have a bag of peanuts in my car.

Stop that with the fruit. No one can be free until the virus is under control.

Anthony, remember John Adams? “There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”

That was in the 18th century. We didn’t have a PCR test then.

How about a bag of grapes or a melon? Adams also wrote, “…mighty struggles and numberless sacrifices made by our ancestors in defense of freedom.” Anthony, you toss aside freedom with a casual shrug—you have no knowledge of the ten thousand years of war fought to achieve even the BEGINNING of liberty—spilled blood, courage…

I’m a scientist.

And that excuses you? Little Anthony, little ape, there is a line that can’t be crossed. You can’t take away people’s Constitutional freedom FOR ANY REASON. You can’t take it away because of floods, earthquakes, volcanos, war, disease, terror attacks.

We did. We did take it away. We imprisoned millions in their homes.

Yes. And you have great confidence as you swing from branch to branch in the trees. But freedom and liberty are on the move again.

I know which side I’m betting on.

You’ve always been on the side of power for its own sake, Little Anthony. Hubris. It delivers blowback.

I don’t think so. America is a nation of cowards and fools. They’re more than willing to surrender what’s left of their so-called liberty.

The ghosts are gathering, Anthony. They’re coming back. The souls who fought for what you want to take away. “Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.” —Consent of the governed. The people give it, and they can remove it.

Nonsense. We’re locked into a system.

You would believe that, because you’re so shortsighted. You believe you can call Liberty counterfeit money and take it out of circulation. The Jesuits at Regis High School and Holy Cross College taught you well. Strategy, advantage, deception. You traded your soul for underground skills. And now you’re gradually slipping back into the monarchy of apes.

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Of course you do. Your old teachers would be disappointed in you, Anthony. You’ve been contradicting yourself in public—about masks, the test, the vaccine. The Jesuits taught you Aristotle. You’ve been violating his logic.

I’m the preferred authority. That’s the overriding factor.

Among the other apes. But among humans, rebellion arrives.

This is always the gamble, isn’t it? I’m shoving in all my chips on slavery.

As I said, Anthony, we spirits are coming back. We don’t like what we’re seeing. We can still disturb the sleepers.

I doubt it.

I woke you from your dream of ape glory.

By the way, have you been tested?

I’m immune. To you.

Even if you have no symptoms and are completely healthy, you could be a COVID-19 case.

Remember, Little Anthony, when you said asymptomatic people never ever drive an epidemic through transmission of a virus?

Well, it turns out I misspoke then.

You mean you let the cat out of the bag. Remember when you said masks are useless? And then you said everyone should wear one, then two, then three, and now one again? Remember when you said the PCR test, when performed at high sensitivity, turns out meaningless results—but neglected to mention that all laboratories do in fact perform the test at high sensitivity? Remember when you said the vaccine was the light at the end of the tunnel? And now you’re saying people have to wear masks after they’re vaccinated, and they have avoid large gatherings?

The people don’t understand these issues. They just accept what I tell them to accept.

You’re doing evil things, Anthony. And like all major criminals, you redefine freedom in the process. You make it into a protection racket.

Well that’s what it is. What else do people want?

You’re living proof that devolution of the species is possible. The land crawlers go back into the sea. The many-celled organism retreats into a single cell. The human opts for apehood.

I want to go back to sleep now. I have to give a speech in the morning.

I could take you on a tour of your past crimes, Anthony. It would be a long trip. But I’ll just let those crimes nag at you. Not because you feel guilt. You know your devious actions were necessary to maintain the structure you’re standing on. And the structure, although it looks firm, is unbalanced. The architecture is all wrong. That’s what keeps you up at night.

Nothing is perfect. Every position carries risks. Only the daring succeed.

You’re an ape with homilies.

The virus has many strains and mutations.

There is no virus, Anthony. You know it. I know it. There is a STORY about a virus. Your ape masters have appointed you salesman of the story. You’re a cheap hustler selling a used car.

I’m the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Presidential coronavirus advisor.

Funny thing, Anthony. I called over there, to NIAID and the White House, and they said they’d never heard of you. I asked several people.

Don’t be ridiculous.

I’m serious. One person said, after a search, that a research lab connected to NIAID has a monkey in a cage in a lab. They call him “Fauci,” but no one seems to know why.

WHAT??

—For the second time that night, Fauci woke up in bed. He suppressed a howl and grabbed his phone and pressed a name.

A sleepy voice answered. “Who the f—k is this?”

“Hillary, it’s me, Tony. Tell me I’m the head of NIAID. I’m Biden’s coronavirus advisor. Please.”

“Jesus, Tony, having that dream again? Yes, you’re all that. You’re a big shot. We all love you blah-blah. You’re good-looking, sexy, a goddamn matinee idol. Now f—k off and go back to sleep before I have Bill put you in the psych ward at Walter Reed.”

“Bill wouldn’t do that to me.”

“Not my husband, you idiot. Bill Gates.”

“Shit, don’t tell BILL. Please.”

“You’re our boy. Now go back to sleep.”

CLICK.

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