An easy way to establish the fatuity – the evil – at the core of what’s going on would be to apply it universally.
Every “lockdown” applies to everyone – including every politician and every government worker. If anyone is forced by decree to stop earning their living then everyone is forced to stop earning their living. The big box stores are shuttered, too.
Aren’t we “all in this together”?
Of course, “we” aren’t. There is the essential class – which issues and enforces the “mandates” – which it is important to constantly repeat are not laws but literally the arbitrary decrees of politicians grown fat, like blood-gorged ticks, with limitless power somehow acquired in the name of gesund – even though we’re healthy, thanks – and there is the rest of us, deemed non-essential.
We are supposed to just make do; figure out a way to keep a roof over our heads and food in the ‘fridge – without a paycheck. Or a third of one. To pay 100 percent of our mortgages/rent and power bills and so on.
Shutter our businesses; send our employees home to do nothing — while their bills pile up.
The essentials lecture, finger-point – and enforce. But never miss a paycheck. Which we are forced to pay for.
Their bills do not go unpaid. There is no sacrifice by those demanding it – the usual practice of the coercive sector as distinct from the private sector. The latter can only ask for your business; the former can force you to close it – and then make you pay them for doing it.
How about we all pay?
Them and us – alike.
If they decree we may not work, then they must be “in it” with us, together. No paycheck for us? None for them as well. No forcing us to pay for their paychecks, either. The taxes that pay for them held in abeyance until the cases! the cases! recede.
If, in fact, that is truly what this is all about.
In fact – literally – it’s not.
As should by now be obvious to anyone still capable of rational thought. What conclusions can be drawn from the coercive class declaring itself essential – and us, not? From our being “locked down” – told by them we may not move without their permission, while they are free to move as they like?
Ordered to accept economic death while they continue to feed – off of us?
While we get to watch them ignore their own “mandates”?
The restaurant owner in California (more here) who used his truck prevent an essential government worker from working was trying to make the point – to both the essential government worker and the essential government enforcers who came to make sure the essential government worker could go about his essential work.
It is easy to be unctuous when there is no cost to you – and possibly much to gain.
The essentials who are getting paid – by us – have more than just our money to pay their bills. The have our money to buy our losses. When a non-essential’s home goes into foreclosure or his business is shuttered, someone else is going to acquire the property. It will inevitably be someone with the means to pay for it.
That will be someone who hasn’t been bled white. It will probably be someone essential, who has spent the past year bleeding the non-essentials white.
Who, having taken everything away from the previous owner will now use the previous owner’s money – transferred via taxes – to own everything that was taken away.
Probably at a fire-sale price, too.
The same process is under way at the corporate level. The Big Box retailers were not locked down – which is why their profits have gone up (skyrocketed up) during the worst year – for us – since 1929. It is not hard to understand why. Wal-Mart and the rest were open while everything not Big Box wasn’t, by “mandate.”
The non-essentials were forced to do business with the essentials. Forced to facilitate the transfer of wealth from local, privately owned stores to massive, shareholder-owned corporations, who sold the same stuff and were not attacked by swarms of gesundheitspolizei for allowing more than 10 people within their stores at a time.
A simpleton should be able to draw the obvious conclusions.
The essentials want to use the corporations as feed lots are used for cattle. We – the nonessentials – are to be herded onto these feedlots, where we will be obliged to be obliging, else no more “corn” for us. The essentials want to be able to partner with a handful of big corporations who will employ everyone who is still allowed to work and sell everything we’re still allowed to buy.
When there are no alternatives, there are no options.
When you can work for yourself or work for someone who owns the business you work for you are much less under the thrall of a pyramidal hierarchy that mandates things which cannot be appealed – or avoided.
When there is no work except corporate work, the corporations own you. And then the coercive sector controls you . . . via the corporations. Neat, sweet and not petite.
It is all very essential – and has nothing to do with “stopping the spread.” If it did, then everything would be closed, everyone “locked down.”
If, in fact, we are “all in this together.”
. . . .
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As a stick shift driver I was classified as “At Risk” so I got the jab. It put me on the floor for a few hours but I was able to stand with some help. The odd thing is that I was really horny and the shot made the genes much larger.
I went home to my 65 year old wife to chase her around. We were somewhat winded so we sat down to discuss the situation. Now we are planning on a new child once she gets the shot.
As an essential worker myself, I’m very bothered that you are stoking hatred of essential workers. Especially those of us that are essential but people that are maths-challenged may fail to understand that we are. If I stop working, oil rigs would stop working. But a maths-challenged person may totally fail to understand why this is so, and could well include me in that blanket hate you are stoking. You are, effectively, encouraging people to kill their own society by making them not accept that yeah, some of us are more essential than others. Funnily enough, those same people are more than willing to kill the oldest among us. Essentially, you are saying: the old should be killed and the essential workers should be hated so that the non-essential workers can preserve to themselves the illusion that they are just as important as essential workers.
That is not a society capable of operating at any level. Maybe you could have an operating society that’s willing to kill the oldest among them, but not one that is both willing to kill the oldest among them and hate essential workers.
Doly,
If this were a parody, it would be brilliant. It’s got everything, clueless, oozing self righteousness, moronic and false cliche’s and a level of arrogance exceeded only by the ignorance displayed. It’s got everything! Congratulations.
Thanks for making me laugh,
Jeremy
Hi Doly,
Happy New Year.
I took Eric’s point that by “essential” he was referring to the government, mainly, but also the hypocrisy of a big store staying open, but a small business who sells the same wares was required to close. He was not disparaging people who are doing real work….oil rig workers, linemen for electrical and phone, doctors/nurses, grocery store clerks, farmers, etc.
It boils down to that all workers are essential. Society is a circle, when you shutdown or kick out a part of that cycle it does not allow the rest of the cycle to function properly. When a restaurant is mandated to close it doesn’t just hurt the business owner and his employees, but the food service company, the meat processing plant, the fisherman, and the farmer. When those people aren’t working that affects the mortgage company, the landlord, the electric company, the gas station, the grocery store, etc. and those organizations workers.
A wheel doesn’t work if the cog is broken, this is what we are facing. It takes all of us, not just some of us for society to function properly.
Hi RG,
Well-said, though there is one category of “workers” that is not essential – by definition: Government workers. If they were in fact “essential” they wouldn’t need to force others to pay them. That they do is proof their “work” is not only not “essential” but comes at the cost of the essential work of others. How much richer would we all be if we weren’t forced to hand over a fourth to half or more of everything we have to these arrogant parasites?
But Eric, government employees must be essential. Why else did Stafford County give all county employees bonuses in December? The guardians of the public treasury and champions of us non-essential folks wouldn’t do that if those dedicated employees weren’t essential to our very existence, would they?
Hi Doly,
I was, indeed, attempting to stoke hate – toward people who consider their work “essential” and who have the power to decree the work of others not.
In other words, government workers and those who enforce the government’s decrees. Yes, I hate such people – and they deserve to be hated, for the harms they impose on others.
Everyone who works at an honest job that earns honest money – i.e., not money forcibly taken from others – is essential. To themselves and those who depend on them for food and shelter. If I don’t work, I don’t eat. My bills go unpaid. That makes working pretty damned essential to me.
The effrontery and selfishness of anyone who regards their work as “essential” but that of others not is halting.
As far as “killing the old” – I certainly never advocated any such thing.
“As far as “killing the old” – I certainly never advocated any such thing.”
That is the problem with the hysterical hypochondriacs, and generally the Left. They make shit up or entirely misunderstand you, and accuse you of being a monster because of it. Then they will steadfastly refuse to understand that they misunderstood, no matter how many times you explain their mistake.
I have had a dozen people tell me that “I wan to kill the old” after saying that “of course the old and infirm are more vulnerable, because they are old and infirm and thus have one foot in the grave already”. Somehow stating a simple fact means that I am responsible for and wish it to be the case, or something. Who knows as the standard rules of logic don’t apply in their world as far as I can tell.
Stupid, and especially stupid and panicked people, don’t hear your words. They are unreachable as they are irrational.
Hi Anon,
Yup, exactly.
And if we object to limiting our lives because others are limited, then we’re the baddies. This has been fermenting for years. It is a rabidized version of the “speed kills” business. If glaucomic granny can’t safely drive a modern car faster than 55 MPH, everyone else must also drive 55 MPH.
Saw this Ryan Long video on a “New CDC Regulation” and thought of Eric’s article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR98A70tbaA
NOTE: quite crude but funny.
Stop whining. If you voted you chose to play a game that you knew you could lose.
The voting booth should reconfigure the ballot lever to a dildo and require the Helots to use their mouths to make the selection of their next master, it also provides a keen preview of things to come for the voter.
Hey Eric,
This story provides another example of who’s really “in this together”.
https://reason.com/2020/12/30/when-there-wasnt-enough-hand-sanitizer-distilleries-stepped-up-now-theyre-facing-14060-fda-fees/
So, when distilleries “did their part” and began producing hand sanitizer, often provided for free or at a sub market price, their reward from GovCo is a reclassification of their business so that they are subject to a new tax. Even better, unless they file for a reclassification today, they may be subject to the same tax again next year, even though they no longer make hand sanitizer.
“Hey guys, we cratered your business, forced you to lose 700 million in revenue, imposed burdensome regulations on you, making it more expensive to produce the hand sanitizer that we so desperately “needed”. Thanks guys, we really appreciate it. Oh, by the way, you “owe” us $14,000 dollars. Make sure you pay it by February 11, or fines will be attached. Happy New year!
Fuck these people,
Jeremy
Amen, Jeremy…
“fuck these people” isn’t nearly harsh enough.
Morning Eric,
Happy New Year. Well, the Doly creature’s post is depressing, I guess. But it’s also hilarious. She managed to misunderstand the point of the article, insist that she’s much more important than others, repeat the stupidest of cliche’s, all while condemning us for our supposed selfishness and hate. I mean, come on! The piece is brilliant, the Babylon Bee could not do better. Please let the deluded creature keep posting.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jesus Christ. This is what happens when the dumb asses in Congress don’t read the bills that they pass. Why is it only coming out now? The CARES Act was passed at the end of March. The FDA sat on this knowing about the fee and just issued the tax this month. Basically, they are retroactiving a tax for a business that was not doing this on 01/01/2020 and only did this because the country was in a “plandemic.” I expect it to be overturned when the new Congress takes over in January.
Hi RG,
“This is what happens when the dumb asses in Congress don’t read the bills that they pass”.
Or maybe, they just don’t give a shit about us at all. I hope the new Congress overturns it, but I highly doubt it.
Also, the burdensome regulations I mentioned included “denaturing” the alcohol.
“Hey guys, thanks again for helping out. We know that many of you are small businesses, and a lot of you might fail due to our arbitrary and hysterical mandates. So, maybe you can make just enough money providing this “desperately needed” product to keep the wolves at bay. Still, it’s important that you spend the extra money required to add poison to it. You know, can’t let anyone get a cheap high off of this stuff. Better that those so inclined die rather than find a cheap way to handle the despair we have imposed on them”.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
They will overturn it. You wouldn’t believe the number of stupid laws that are passed that Congress doesn’t have an inkling that they did and then their response is “Oh, shit. We have to fix that.”
Just this past June the IRS provided us (tax people) guidance that the PPP loan was not taxable, but the expenses used against this could not be deducted! The point of the PPP was to provide employers the opportunity to keep their employees on payroll, then they are going to tell the employer whose business has been shot to hell “Sorry, but we are not going to allow you to deduct your business expenses.” Stupid, beyond belief.
Not to mention the logistics nightmare from an accounting standpoint. Okay, if the employer paid John $42k in 2020, but 7k was due to the PPP loan then Johns W2 should read 35k in gross wages, not 42k, since John’s employer could not deduct this as an expense the US Treasury would be in fact double dipping. Congress finally corrected it in the bill that Trump signed Sunday night, but nothing like waiting until the last week of December, a week before 2020 W2s begin being processed to push it through.
The problem is we give the government too much credit thinking they are deceptive and sly, they aren’t…. just dumb.
Everything is run through at the last minute and not enough time is allowed anyone to read what is in the damn 1000, 2500, or 5000 pages they think they need to push their pork through.
So some sickness quislings pimping hand sanitizer got shafted by the gov’t. I hope something similar happens to all of the businesses that “pivoted” to pimping masks.
Hi Hatterasman,
Wow, that’s pretty ridiculous. Those businesses pimping masks weren’t forced to shut down a major portion of their operations. Many small distillers were forced into making a decision between shutting down or finding a way to survive, keep paying at least some employees, rent, etc… But hey, fuck them right.
Cheers,
Jeremy
That’s right. Some small businesses around me have been forced to shut down a major portion of their business and so switched to pimping masks. I’m sure they weren’t the only ones. Cry me river about sickness kabuki collaborators just doing what they had to to survive. They just manufacture the slave chains, or the zyklon b, as it were, right?
Hi Hatterasman,
Yeah whatever,
I have more sympathy for businesses forced into an untenable situation than respect for the type of cruel purity you seem to espouse. And, comparing zyklon b to hand sanitizer is preposterous.
Cheers,
Jeremy
You talk a lot about morality. You gotta walk it.
So, wishing ill upon business owners, at the hands of the government, is a prerequisite for morality, OK
Cheers,
Jeremy
My schadenfreude isn’t the issue here. These business owners voluntarily played along with the gov’t and promoted the sickness kabuki for money. No one put a gun to their head. Morality is saying no, this stops with me, irrespective of the consequences. Not laying down with dogs then crying about waking up with fleas.
Hi Hatterasman,
I understand your point and agree with it, if the business owner is obviously behaving immorally. But, I think there is more nuance than you accept. On the face of it, a business that responds to a market demand, in order to make money, is not acting immorally, certainly not by libertarian standards. Though, there are circumstances where they could be, such as you mentioned.
It seems knowledge of the truth matters here. We, who see the kabuki for what it is, are the outliers. Most genuinely believe the hysteria. Now, that doesn’t justify assaulting people, as some do but it’s not as obvious if there is nothing immoral about the underlying act, like selling hand sanitizer.
Your comments have made me think about the issue more deeply and I have some genuine questions, not necessarily for you, just pondering.
It seems that, for it to be immoral that the small distiller in SF began selling hand sanitizer, the owners would have to know that the sickness kabuki is a fraud, that participating in it would cause harm, and do it anyway. But, what if they genuinely believe the hype? Is ignorance a moral sin?
Kind Regards,
Jeremy
Good questions but I’m not able to go down the rabbit holes any further. I am very cynical about the story of the distillers. It may simply be carefully crafted propaganda meant to appeal to libertarian minded folks while at the same time valorizing and normalizing those who would willingly or unwillingly fashion chains around our neck via a new abnormal Convd-19 economy (essentially hyper capitalism for the .00001% and communism or worse for the rest of us). BTW, Doly is probably another one of those GHCQ type trolls I mentioned on the other thread. I liked how you handled it.
When you check out the feel good resolution story from WT posted to you by the lady from Oakland, try to count how many faulty premises you need to accept in order for the psuedo-story to have the intended meaning.
Hi Hatterasman,
Thanks for prompting me to think more deeply about the issue. I admit, when I posted the article, I wasn’t really thinking about the business owners, it was really a visceral revulsion at those petty tyrants who will seize any opportunity to extract a little more.
As for Doly, her post is so clueless and self obsessed that I did a search for her past posts to confirm that it wasn’t a parody.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Morning, Jeremy – and Happy New Year!
I just Clovered that Doly creature, who ruined what had been a good morning, so far.
Those same business owners are quick to blame Corona dissenters for the gov’t diktats placed upon them.
Morning, Handler!
This is a difficult issue for me as I instinctively want to side with the small business owner – but I incline toward agreement with you that they are on the wrong side when they truckle to these these “mandates.” Yes, I know – they face fines,possible ruination. But money isn’t everything – and we all face ruination if this isn’t brought to a halt. I believe I have an obligation to fight this – by absolutely refusing to ever wear a Diaper and so give the appearance of agreeing with this evil business – just as I would not wear an armband, either – and damn the consequences. I’ve said good-by to half my friends. I doubt I will ever see my mother again. I’ve very publicly taken editorial positions on this that could possibly cost me, too. I don’t have a business but if I did, I would defy all of this – and also damn the consequences.
Not because I’m a great hero but because I am not am imbecile. Any business owner who thinks they will be allowed to scrape out their living if only they just obey, if only they do as they are “mandated” is an imbecile.
“But money isn’t everything – and we all face ruination if this isn’t brought to a halt.”
Exactly. Apparently, these cucky business owners are incapable of seeing the big picture.
It has been my experience that the small businesses, shops & bodegas in my area have absolutely been the most militant enforcers of the kabuki. I understand they’re getting it from both sides (gov’t & customers). Ironically the big boxes are more lax.
My now closed small business did upwards of 100k hand to hand transactions at so-called mass gatherings in a year. I simply wouldn’t brook participating in my own self-decimation by acting out the kabuki and treating my customers that way. Many, not all, former customers have understood and supported this choice. 2021 is shaping up tough but I’m moving in directions that’ll allow me to survive and thrive with dignity intact.
You make an excellent point. However I would take it one step further. Businesses are “shooting themselves in the foot” by pushing mask (face diaper) mandates. Although, in my experiences, I have been able to avoid mask-wearing in almost all businesses by declaring a “medical necessity”. My message to the (few) businesses that enforced a “mask mandate” against me: I WILL NOT DO BUSINESS WITH YOU, EVEN WHEN THE MASK MANDATE GOES AWAY.
I have already scratched Menards, Barnes and Noble, O’Reilly Auto Parts and a few others off my list. I also wrote letters to their corporate offices letting them know why I will not do business with them even when the mask kabuki is over. It’s their loss.
Funny you mention O’reilly auto parts. I was at one near my parents house on New Year’s Eve. I needed some solder as I was installing remote start for my mom. I went inside, the guy helped me find my solder and as I was paying, he told me that next time I will need a mask because “they” say it’s required. I asked him if “they” are in some way authorized to give me unsolicited medical advice. I also told him that if that’s the case, I have no problem finding another business who would happily take my money. Mind you I’m in Michigan right now for the holidays, a state where the governor’s decrees have been ruled unconstitutional.
I had another run in at a local Polish store. I walked in and towards the back a guy started screaming at me about how a mask is required per the law. I politely told him it’s not the law and never was. I walked around him and saw they didn’t have what I wanted. He said I had to get out of there or he’s calling the police. I told him to call the police. I gave him my “coronainfested” basket and walked out. What gets to me is that a Pole is someone who understands the directions these authoritarian dictates end up as, and he’s fully obeying anyway.
Hi Jeremy,
To prove that 2021 is already off to a better start than that “other” year.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/1/distillery-covid/
😁
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2020-12/slides-12-19/05-COVID-CLARK.pdf
Scroll down to : V-safe Active Surveillance for COVID-19 Vaccines
Health Impact Events** (** *unable to perform normal daily activities, unable to work, required care from doctor or health care professional)
The jab seems to cause more ‘Health Impact Events’ than the virus, that it does nothing to prevent or prevent spreading.
Also see
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2020/12/reports/10-facts-from-the-uk-government-pfizer-vaccine-guidance-that-promote-vaccine-hesitancy/
If you read it and still want the shot, go for it. If you don’t bother to read it, please, get the shot.
Posted for those who still are deciding if the shot is something they want.
Hi A,
Great information. I would think just reading steps 1 and 2 would be enough to change most people’s minds…..hopefully.
Corrupt politicians, dirty cops, stolen election, armed citizens revolt and win. The true story of Athens, Tennessee 1946
The Battle of Athens short documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz-Chm4d188
“An American Story – The Battle of Athens” TV movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c-Dsg4X4Dk
Hey heres an interesting one – here in the UK they are arresting people for filming empty hospitals !!!
summit.news/2020/12/30/uk-woman-arrested-for-filming-inside-empty-hospital/
In another report elsewhere – one of our dear leaders has come out and said even after the vaccine people wont be able to get back to normal and need to obey orders to stay away and wear masks…. Now if one wants a sheep they would wonder what the point of all this was….
Hi Nasir,
This isn’t surprising. I expect something similar here. The facts cannot be allowed to mar the narrative. People must be kept afraid – and submissive – at all costs.
The British woman DARED to contradict the “Narrative”, so she must be punished. And folks have forgotten WHY, some 244 years ago, we incorrigible Colonials likewise dared to reject His Majesty’s benevolent guidance and in effect give Him the finger, which we succeeded, BARELY, but enough to become a FREE and later powerful nation.
And now, for the sake of a few measly dollars, printed out of thin air to supplement our earnings, and fear of a disease which seems to mostly finish off those on death’s door anyway (the majority of the “infected” seem to not notice it at all, and those that actually show symptoms, the majority are down for a few days with what’s tantamount to a bad case of the flu, and they don’t require hospitalization at all!), we readily SURRENDER those freedoms. If we chafe later at the “fatwas” of our “benevolent Overlords”, it’s because we ASKED for it, or weren’t at least willing to, like Captain John Parker, in charge of the “Minutemen” at Lexington and Concord, told his charges, “Boys, don’t fire unless fired upon…BUT…if they mean to have a WAR, let it BEGIN here.”
Hi Peter,
Sincere question, are you being sarcastic?
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Peter,
No, I’m wondering what you mean by your claim that “lockdowns worked in other places in the world, why not the US?”
I’m wondering if you believe that “lockdowns worked”. If so, on what basis? It is true that some places with lockdowns fared better than some places without them. It is also true that some places with lockdowns fared worse than some places without them. This fact indicates that the hypothesis, lockdowns work, is flawed.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Not flawed, and not black and white.
Victoria is an example.
Although lockdowns in of themselves are not a panacea, Victoria was able to go to 2 and 1/2 months without community infection.
Just the last couple of days there has been a few new community infections.
But if we’d followed the same principle as other countries, particularly the U.S., we would have hundreds of cases now, perhaps thousands.
You’re referring to the Aussie state of Victoria, I presume.
Australia is, for all practical purposes, mostly WHITE. Its experiences is similar to other overwhelmingly WHITE places like Denmark, Sweden, and Hungary.
Sorry to be the bearer of politically-incorrect news…but Latinos and Negroes tend to more readily communicate diseases. Likely due to being more socially gregarious, as though there tends to be greater susceptibility to disease among their strains, there’s not conclusive evidence to separate biological factors from the social.
Clover,
Your argument is the same as arguing that we could “stop the spread” of STDs by forcing everyone to stay at home, separated and celibate. I’d rather run the risk.
And I’d rather live than live in fear of a virus that, to me and 99.8-something percent of the populace means no-to-mild symptoms and nothing more to worry about than a nasty seasonal flu.
Which – for the record – I haven’t even caught so far this year. I have never worn a Face Diaper and have ignored all socialist distancing Kabuki. Is it a meerakuhl? Or is it that I am not elderly and am healthy?
People who are already chronically sick and elderly have always been at higher risk – and they should take precautions, perhaps. Just as people who can’t swim should be careful around water.
But I’m not sick – and therefore, wearing an idiotic rag around my face prevents no one from getting sick. Me included, since an idiotic rag does not- cannot – prevent the inhalation or exhalation of viral particles.
Sorry to shake your faith.
Yesterday, was saddened to hear the news of the passing of one Dawn Wells, who’s best known for portraying Mary Ann (Summers) on “Gilligan’s Island”. So now, instead of retorting, “Whaddaya mean, Ginger OR Mary-Ann?”, I guess I’ll just have to indulge my penchant for redheads. Ms. Wells was housed in a Los Angeles senior-living facility, her means having become somewhat modest. Under such circumstances, incompetence on the staff might have contributed to the spread of the dreaded “Rona” which is blamed for finishing her off. But as you as painfully, quite so (to which I’m not insensitive at all!) aware, seniors have been, in effect, placed in “solitary confinement”, to a degree once reserved for the most hardened and dangerous of criminals (often to OTHER inmates and staff) and often regarded as “cruel and unusual” punishment. And yet, all these terrible measures, which inflict terrible loneliness on the elderly, don’t seem to avail at all! I can think also of two elderly fathers of friends of mine that likewise perished under similar circumstances as Dawn Wells. So if it STILL doesn’t seem to do any good, WHY do we allow it?
“It is true that some places with lockdowns fared better than some places without them.”
Examples?
Hi Peter,
Well Australia has fared reasonably well (for Covid), with lockdowns. Peru and the Philippines have fared very poorly, with extreme lockdowns. Sweden has fared better than the UK or the US with no official lockdowns. If lockdowns work, the totality of the data should support it, it does not. That some places fared well with lockdowns is not evidence that lockdowns work, it is a correlation.
If negative outliers exist that contradict the hypothesis, then the disparate outcomes seen in many places are likely due to other confounding variables.
Here are a number of studies that challenge the hypothesis that lockdowns work.
https://www.aier.org/article/lockdowns-do-not-control-the-coronavirus-the-evidence/
Cheers,
Jeremy
As I said, lockdowns in of themselves are not a panacea.
I think we agree on their, yes?
But it’s the first line, followed by mandatory mask-wearing, and social distancing, along with other minor measures.
You’re wrong about Sweden.
You may have been right at the beginning, but Swedes have suffered badly now, along with all the other countries who have had partial or pseudo lockdowns in place.
And I won’t be reading that link, it comes from an extreme bunch of right-wing “libertarian” crazies, with a raging confirmation bias
Hi Peter,
I am not wrong about Sweden, deaths per 100,000 is significantly lower in Sweden than either the UK or the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_death_rates_by_country
As for the link, it is a list of 26 studies, with links, not funded or aligned with AIER. But, if your “raging confirmation bias” prevents you from following it, so be it.
The claim that lockdowns work is an unproven hypothesis. The claim that lockdowns cause extreme harm is a fact. There is no evidence that shows, conclusively, that “mandatory mask wearing and social distancing” have saved any lives. There is ample evidence that lockdowns have caused extreme harm.
https://tomwoods.com/death-by-lockdown/
But, as Tom Woods is a “libertarian crazy”, feel free to ignore the links to the UN, the CDC, the NYT, UNICEF, CBS, the Lancet, the BBC and the Daily Mail. Doing so proves that you do not suffer from confirmation bias.
It is incumbent on those promoting lockdowns, known to cause extreme harm, to show that they provide a net benefit. Not only have they failed to do so, they have vilified, or ignored, those who challenge the dominant narrative.
Jeremy
Again, wrong, your reductionist arguments are becoming laughable.
Wikipedia?
How many times do I have to keep repeating… lock Downs ALONG with other measures are successful.
Tom Woods?
I don’t know him, but after looking at the web page, he knows nothing about science or this topic…
However, he does spout a lot of “libertarian” nonsense.
Again, biased.
What about less cars in the road, & Less traffic pollution?
That has a positive effect on everybody’s health.
People working from home, have improved their health and well-being, and productivity has increased.
Hi Peter,
Yes, I am biased and subject to confirmation bias, as are you, and everyone else. The best we can do is be aware of it and try to fairly evaluate the facts. In what way are my arguments reductionist? You make claims, “lock Downs ALONG with other measures are successful”, but fail to provide any evidence to support them. I provide links, which you ignore.
Please show the credible evidence, you know randomized case trials, that show that “masks work”. Until recently, both the CDC and the WHO stated, unequivocally, that general mask use does not prevent the spread of a respiratory virus, and may even contribute to it.
Here is the CDC analysis of RCT’s from 1946 – 2018, released in May of 2020.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
“In our systematic review, we identified 10 RCTs that reported estimates of the effectiveness of face masks in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the community from literature published during 1946–July 27, 2018. In pooled analysis, we found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.51–1.20”.
So, what science of equal evidentiary value has emerged to contradict this?
Here’s an article from the BMJ,
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1422
From the article, according to the WHO,
“there is currently no evidence that wearing a mask (whether medical or other types) by healthy persons in the wider community setting, including universal community masking, can prevent them from infection with respiratory viruses, including covid-19. Wearing masks in the community can also give people a false sense of security, it said, and lead to them neglecting other measures, such as hand hygiene and physical distancing”.
Again, what science of equal evidentiary value has emerged to contradict this?
Also, you’re wrong about the totality of the evidence. If masks and lockdowns work, a signal would emerge from the data. That they “work” in some places but not others IS a problem. That there is no consistent correlation between date of lockdown, severity of lockdown or mask mandates and positive outcomes IS a problem.
Finally, your casual, first world dismissal of the enormous harm being caused by the lockdowns is disturbing. “People working from home” is a luxury that only the wealthy (relative to the world) can afford. Less cars on the road has no net positive effect on the health of poor people in developing countries.
Please, do some research on the harm being caused to the poorest people in the world. Aren’t leftists supposed to be concerned about this? Please, do some research on the unprecedented transfer of wealth, caused by the lockdowns, from “regular” people to the richest people in the world. Again, aren’t leftists supposed to be concerned about this?
Funny that a “libertarian crazy” is concerned about this, but you are not.
Jeremy
Holy shit, Peter’s a fuckin dolt lol
Oh, in regards to deaths, it’s not one metric, but one of many metrics.
Again, another example of your reductionist arguments.
Swedes are suffering right now, no matter which way you prefer to look at it.
Peter,
“in regards to deaths, it’s not one metric, but one of many metrics”.
Yes, one that Covid hysterics refuse to consider. Collateral damage, false and irrelevant! Only theoretical lives saved matter, concern for the harm caused by the draconian lockdown policies is selfish. Hey, I can work at home, bitchin’, I like it.
If this is “reductionist”, so be it.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Peter,
Funny, I just checked and all of them are active, only one, a link to a Wall Street Journal article is behind a paywall.
Maybe you missed them by not clicking on them at the “Death by Lockdown” page at Tom Woods.
Jeremy
Peter,
Wow, you are astonishing, claims of certainty, accompanied by no evidence, coupled with refusal to consider evidence actually presented, combined with condemnation of others for confirmation bias.
Cheers,
Jeremy
”Yes, one that Covid hysterics refuse to consider. Collateral damage, false and irrelevant! Only theoretical lives saved matter, concern for the harm caused by the draconian lockdown policies is selfish. Hey, I can work at home, bitchin’, I like it.
If this is “reductionist”, so be it.”
Once again, you destroy yourself with your own silly words…
Finally, you admit that your reductionist argument is a loser and shows you up as just a sophist.
Peter,
You have yet to supply any evidence to support your “argument”. You have dismissed all of the evidence that I have provided because you deem it not “unbiased and objective”, including the evidence from the CDC and the WHO that I provided. Which, I suppose, is sometimes objective and unbiased, and sometimes not.
I don’t admit that my argument is reductionist, nor a loser. Again, you have failed to explain why it is so. Perhaps, you could make an attempt.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Clover,
On this “mask” business: If you were demanding that everyone wear an N95 or better respirator then perhaps your demand wouldn’t amount to a religious injunction. An old bandana, a neck scarf or the “masks” that 95 percent of the dolts are wearing do not prevent the transmission of viral particles. This is a fact, incontestable. It even says so- on the box. So walking around with one on is imbecilic, medically speaking.
Besides which, how does a person who is not sick transmit a sickness?
Again: I am not sick. Your fear that I “might be” gives you no right to demand I perform rituals to make you feel better.
Peter is either a pathetic troll with nothing better to do, or a PAID operative, who collect his $15/hour from a Soros-funded outfit (usually recruited via social media), to disrupt conservative and/or libertarian-themed web sites. If I did want this moron does on, say, a leftist-themed forum on Reddit, watch how I’d get complaints to the “moderators” and quickly bounced from there. You at least show the proverbial patience of Job. BTW, Eric, my “little goil” labors about an hour and a half down I-81 on her Mormon mission ATM. Thanks to a similar panic, which her mission president reacted to by, in effect, “locking down” the missionaries (they were prohibited from having Christmas dinner and so on with local Mormon families, just a few days prior, so I guess the Grinch got his way..), and though only in TN was there a “fatwa”, as her mission area covers parts of five states, ALL got like “punished”. What a bite in the backside!
At least out here on the “Left” Coast, the built-up engine is finally where it BELONGS…in the engine bay of the Fury! My #1 son and I should have this thing ready to “roll coal” in front of the State Capitol building in downtown Sacramento just prior to the recall election! And though my 61 y.o. “corpus indelctus” doth protest, “you’re getting too OLD for this shit!”, it’s a GOOD ‘tired’!
The Danish study used 98% effective masks and they showed no difference. They should be at least as effective as our standard. In a home setting they made no difference, like you say anything less effective is useless.
In a clinical setting with other ppe like rubber gloves and removal between patients the masks might work, emphasis on might. Most likely just baby blanket to make the users feel better.
Hi Ozzy,
Yup; and the subtext to this madness is what you said: To make people feel better. Particularly, the neurotics who are the DSM definition of hypochondriacs. We are supposed to pretend they aren’t ill. In the head. To make them feel better.
It’s of a piece with being gas-lit to refer to men in dresses as “she”… to make them feel better about their illness. So as to pretend they don’t need treatment.
The whole approach of the irrational mask hypochondriacs and similar nutjobs (like the cross-dressers that, in spite of their God-given anatomy STILL being intact, want to be referred to as “she”) reminds me of what the Savior said to the irritating Pharisees in John 9:41 … Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”
So either these libtards morons are simply crazy, and while we should avoid them and no bother to engage in a fruitless discussion, nevertheless we should still show compassion (as with anyone afflicted), or they’re LIARS. IMO, some are the former, and some, like my hypocrite and hopefully soon-to-be ex-Governor of the once Golden State, “Gabbin Nuisance”, are the LATTER.
“If lockdowns work, the totality of the data should support it, it does not.”
Let me say, there are many problems with that statement.
Mostly, we don’t really have any hard data to support anything right now. We will only know who was right and who was wrong once all the data is gathered in maybe a year or two, perhaps even further out.
For example, I’ve been interested in health and nutrition for years.
Naturopaths have been talking about the importance of the microbiome. After decades in fact, conventional science and doctors have come about, and now believe in the importance of the microbiome
But there is enough short-term data to support lockdowns and other measures such as compulsory mask-wearing.
You cannot allow your “libertarian” ideals to cloud your judgement, and deprive others of their liberties.
Lockdowns don’t work and their major impact is not to control the spread of disease but to inflict severe economic and emotional damage.
Masks don’t work and in many cases are actually unhealthy.
We’re not talking about the Black Plague or even the Spanish Flu here. This is a disease that for healthy people has a fatality rate of under 1/2 of 1%. (The “official truth” regarding the death toll is hyped and inflated, with many causes of death listed as “Covid-19”.)
Bottom line for myself and many others that frequent this site (which you would know if you’ve read much of anything here):
I don’t obey lockdowns.
I don’t wear masks aside from Halloween masks.
I don’t “social distance”.(Whoever invented that mealy-mouthed phrase should be tarred and feathered.)
I also will not take the “warp-speed” developed and poorly-tested vaccine being pushed out the door by big pharma.
I really don’t give a rat’s ass what the criminal gang called “government” wants and disobey it whenever and wherever possible.
In other words, authoritarian statist chuckleheads such as yourself are welcome to shove your “mandates” where the sun doesn’t shine.
Bravo, Jason, bravo!
Hi Jason,
Amazing how the average American can’t do basic math; the latest narrative being pushed by the PTB is that “1 in 1,000 have died from Coronavirus”. Even though that number is surely inflated it translates to a measly one tenth of one percent, meaning 99.9% did NOT die from the WuFlu……Duh! Their own numbers prove that they’re pushing a lie.
Peter,
Even if imprisoning the populace “worked” it is outrageous.
People will always get sick. It is a part of life. Most recover. A few do die.
The already chronically sick and the elderly will always be much more vulnerable to getting sick – and getting sicker. You can perhaps prevent these already chronically sick and elderly people from getting a new virus by “locking them” (and everyone else) down. If this is your idea of reasonable then by the same logic all motor vehicles must be banned – it would “save lives” – and anything else that presents a higher risk to some forcibly denied others.
This virus does not kill 99.8-something percent of the population. “Locking down” 100 percent of the population is viciously over-reactive.
Then explained how “locking down” the late Ms. Dawn Wells HELPED her. More than likely, that vivacious and delightful little gal suffered LONELINESS due to “lockdowns” in that “Senior-Assisted Living” facility she was in. Got the dreaded “Rona” anyway, and since we don’t know her actual medical condition prior , and there is such a thing as medical privacy, we don’t know if she passed on thanks to it or simply WITH it. IMO, the latter state is being cynically used to justify tyranny.
Oh, I did eventually look at that link, (AIER)
It has so many problems, I don’t have the space or time to articulate them.
I’ll just simply say, it’s a masterful display of lie by omission on a grand scale.
Which is typical of that website….AIER.
Peter Harris “I don’t have the space or time to articulate them.”
In other words, “I was full of shit and completely wrong, but can’t admit it, so I will claim I don’t have time to defend what I know is indefensible”
Not the first time we have seen this dipshit behavior. Shall will add it to the EPA lexicon as ‘Pulling a Harris’?
Peter,
You have not presented any evidence to support your claims, no credible refutations of the (until recently) accepted science as presented by the CDC and the WHO. But, I’m the one descending into nonsense. OK, sure. Get back to me when you have any evidence to rebut me. I promise, unlike you, I’ll consider it fairly.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Peter,
What the hell are you talking about? What is my argument? What discussion are you supposedly sticking to that I am not? Please, inform me. So far, you have made unsubstantiated claims and provided no credible evidence for them. You have also disparaged the evidence that I have provided, but not bothered to explain why.
I have claimed that there is no credible evidence that lockdowns have saved lives, that there is evidence that they have caused harm, and that the credible science does not support general mask use. You have failed to refute any of this, just insults about libertarian ideology and laughably unself aware comments about confirmation bias.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy, if that is your real name, this link destroys your argument…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/04/the-uk-can-learn-from-victoria-how-to-bring-its-covid-second-wave-under-control
Peter,
There is plenty of hard data. The same hard data that you and your authoritarian handlers are trying to spin in your favor. The same hard data that has been used to try and justify this and clearly is failing when even the authoritarians and their cucks have to say things like, “Mostly, we don’t really have any hard data to support anything right now. ” You even tried using Victoria Australia as your proof of authoritarianism working to stop a virus, but somehow leaving out the fact that out of the Aussie states that’s the one that’s fairing the worst. This is not by my numbers, but those released by your handlers. The rest of Australia has been pretty relaxed outside of travel restrictions into the country. (The one thing a government can do to have any actual impact.) Now that you’re empires has been caught without clothes though, it’s “there’s no hard data”. If there’s no hard data, then you just admitted you and your authoritarian handlers have nothing.
We “libertarians” (funny how you use that term as a pejorative) are typically “WELDED”, rather than “rusted”, to the peculiar notion that typically the individual, rather than the “all-knowing, over-arching” state (meaning the apparatchiks controlling it) knows what’s best for himself.
Peter,
Yes, Jeremy is my real name.
Neither of your links “destroy my argument”. They are both opinion pieces, devoid of any credible evidence. Vox, a clearly unbiased and objective source, claims that zero cases should be the goal. Yeah, that’s scientific.
Oh well, I guess it is only us libertarians who are rusted onto our ideology. Not you guys, who casually dismiss the harms caused by the lockdown, pretend that zero cases makes sense, ignore all of the contradictory evidence, and turn science on its’ head (masks work because we say so, despite decades of randomized case trials that show that they don’t).
Cheers,
Jeremy
Vox is a leftist “echo chamber” and unworthy of refutation.
ZERO cases, indeed. Funny how, during the AIDS “epidemic”, which affected NO ONE that I knew, any restrictions intended to curb its spread, such as then mayor of SF and our senior embarrassment in the US Senate, Dianne Feinstein, were lustily criticized at the time, such as closing the gay “bathhouses” and simply ADVISING homosexuals to use condoms and may cut down on their promiscuity. They screamed worse than a toddler having his/her sucker snatched out of the hand!
You can be mad.
You can be pissed.
You can gesticulate to your hearts content.
And nothing will change.
Make them afraid or remain under their thumb.
We all know it’s wrong to do what they’re doing.
Bitching and moaning won’t change a thing.
Only action will.
If they’re going to “follow orders”, etc. then don’t let them go home.
Or just keep complaining and do nothing about it.
If they were properly afraid of us, this wouldn’t happen.
Good pointGood point. It’s getting there.
I’m envisioning an internet meme, perhaps a pile of emaciated corpses at Auschwitz. The caption? See, we ARE all in this together!
Not only do government drones continue to draw paychecks from money mulcted from us “non-essential” folks, but Stafford County has just paid $1,000 bonuses to all full-time county employees and $500 to part-timers. What unbelievable gall.
There is a major problem with this, the people making the mandate believe they are saving lives, doing good. Central planner never catch the unintended consequences or in this case believe they ever made a mistake.
CS Lewis said it best:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Excellent. Should I also consult with my children that the earth is flat and dinosaurs didn’t exist?
Out of curiosity did we ever make it to the moon or are we still filming near Area 51?
I’m gonna assume you are replying to me and, as the Brits and Aussies say, “taking a piss.” BTW, definitely keep your kids away from that there fancy book larnin’. They ain’t got nuthin’ on Gammy.
I am not looking at starting a war with you. Let’s just call a truce and ignore each other. I have a feeling the rest of the forum would appreciate that. If that is not possible I am happy to leave the forum. I see no reason to take up valuable lineage for us to battle each other on every topic we hope to discuss. We are at different ends of the spectrum. Nobody is right, nobody is wrong, we just think differently and we are not going to see eye to eye.
Peace.
Many others have taken up a lot more “lineage” debating you on a lot of topics. All I do is try to suggest to you that there is more to learn out there and readily admit I am involved in the same learning process. I ain’t mad at’cha. Done.
“Let’s just call a truce and ignore each other.”
I have found if you don’t type anything, people don’t type anything back in response. You don’t need cooperation from the other side to break the chain, just self control.
“Nobody is right, nobody is wrong”
Oh my.
Ok, but I’ve heard it said both ways over the years. You get the idea, though.
Hello…
The FUN part is that the vast majority of the herd of modern moron slaves still have no clue whatsoever what OPERATION COVIDIUS really is.
It’s was really amazing to contemplate the herd behavior during this wonderful year of 2020.
Jeremy, whoever you are… thanks for confirming my comments about your character, lack of ability to understand a rational argument, and your blinkered ideology.
Read on, and learn…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/finally-at-zero-new-cases-victoria-is-on-top-of-the-world-after-unprecedented-lockdown-effort-148808
Clover,
Jeremy and the people here have simply pointed out facts and made entirely rational arguments; you’ve responded with “blinkered ideology” and other insults. And that is why you have been placed in the Moderation queue. Your comments – if civil, if rational – will be allowed through. But not otherwise.
All I can say, is you are a first class hypocrite and a clown, just like your president.
And by the way, hypocrite, my name is Peter Harris.
You and the other so-called libertarians here, never provide facts.
And when it comes to rational arguments, that’s just laughable.
I bet you claim that Donald Trump was a victim of a rigged election.
Now if that’s not an example of unhinged irrationality, I don’t know what is.
Clover… indeed.
Clover,
I reiterate: I am a libertarian. Trump is not “my president.” Libertarians don’t want to be led – by anyone. We want to be let alone – and extend the same courtesy to you. But you – being an authoritarian collectivist – are unwilling to let us alone.
I have already posted several examples of the facts you’ve ignored – most particularly that people who aren’t sick can’t get others sick – and that the wearing of an old rag, bandana or “mask” serves no medical purpose whatsoever.
Why not attempt a rational, factual reply to these points?
You’ve posted nothing, just your opinion, and we know that’s extremely faulty.
Hypocrite clover.
Clover,
I’ve posted several specific factual points – again – and no response from you, other than emoting.
Also: A “Clover” is an authoritarian collectivist; i.e., someone such as yourself.
Again, hypocrite, you’re just proving my point, and previous comments.
Emoting, or emotions are all you have.
Changing my name to some primary school toilet humour, is all you got left.
You better check your understanding of specific facts.
Clover,
You apparently have no answer to my queries regarding how a person who isn’t sick can get others sick; how the wearing of a rag – literally – a rag, stops the spread of anything. Why people who are healthy and thus stand a 99.8-something percent chance of not dying from this flu variant ought to be living in abject terror of it.
If you have factual rebuttals, I will post them – and address them. If not, bon voyage and may your Holy Rag give you comfort.
Eric, likely you’ve seen my other posts as to why I say the “face diaper” is at best a palliative measure, and the mania over its use is indicative of how easily the “Great Boobsie” (HL Mencken) can be emotionally swayed. And that’s all these “Clovers” who screech about the need for the holy face diaper and “lockdowns” are going on…their irrational FEARS. It’s no different than those that want to strip ME of my 2A rights because THEY fear that some negligent harm may result, even though the evidence is overwhelming that doesn’t happen with any statistically significant frequency. Indeed, negligent discharges of firearms seem to occur LESS among ordinary citizens than AGWs! And they’re supposedly “trained” and entrusted.
Clover,
You mention “implicit violence.” This is rich! You’re the ones threatening us with violence. “Locking down” (imprisoning) people. Destroying their ability to earn a living. Attacking them for daring to open their doors or go outside without your god-damned Holy Vestment on.
All we ask is to be let alone. We are happy to leave you alone. It is you and your ilk who will not leave us alone. You demand we submit to these tyrannical edicts and if we object, you will happily attack us or urge that we be attacked.
And you have the gall to accuse us of “implicit violence”?
What this Clover never seems to answer is: If HE locks himself down, VOLUNTARILY, and wears the anointed face diaper religiously, and said practices are following “THE Science”, then he’s not nothing to fear as those of us whom he scorns as ignorant rubes go about our lives and MANAGE the risk for ourselves, right? Methinks he has NO Gott-damend concern for my health, but in his own demented mind, it’s an opportunity for CONTROL.
Funny…whoever is LAWFULLY elected as POTUS is, for the duly prescribed term, “my” President. I had no trouble with saying that our 42nd through 45th POTUSes were MY President, because I had confidence that their terms were the lawful results of the Constitutional process, conducted in a lawful manner. And for many years I had to carry out their lawful orders, and keep my damned trap shut about it, through the chain of command. Only during the CURRENT President’s term did I hear such caterwauling of “Not MY President”, blatant disrespect, and downright immature and pathetic behavior. The fault is definitely NOT with him, it’s with those spoil-sports that act like pampered, spoiled children when things don’t roll their way. What these bozos, thinking they’ve already “won”, are counting on is that those who recognize a scam for what it is won’t act likewise. Likely we won’t…I “won’t”, but neither will I submit to unconstitutional measures to infringe MY freedoms, even if I must reluctantly resort to armed resistance to effect same.
At least you, unlike so many like you afflicted with “TDS”, give out your real name. Have to acknowledge good behavior regardless of who exhibits it.
As for saying that President Trump got “jobbed” out of an election…if I were the proverbial “lone voice out in the wilderness” saying it, you might have a point. Might. Just b/c few are willing to speak truth doesn’t diminish it. However, the overwhelming majority of GOP voters and significant batches of independents and DEMOCRATS (many who DID vote for Trump this time) are of the same opinion. When you have tens upon tens of millions of voters saying, like the cartoon character Elmer Fudd, “Dere’s sumtin’ skewwy goin’ on heah!”, likely there is.
Peter,
The linked article is, again, an opinion piece with assertions about causality that are unproven. Note, I didn’t say necessarily false. It is unfortunate that many people now believe that an opinion piece that conflates correlation with causation, is scientific evidence, it is not. I think maybe there’s a name for that particular logical fallacy, you may have heard of it. I have provided links to actual studies which you have ignored or dismissed because of the source, which is a variant of the ad hominem fallacy, perhaps you’ve heard of that. You have provided links to opinion pieces, full of unproven declarative statements that you believe amount to scientific evidence but are, in fact, museum quality examples of the correlation/causation fallacy.
Anyway, it’s been fun but you’ve shown that your are either unwilling to, or incapable of, having a rational, good faith discussion. Also, your weird speculation about my identity is creepy and unhinged.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Oh, I get it. we’re all fenced in, together.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/12/28/2020-the-year-we-lost-our-common-sense-courage-and-civil-liberties/
Watch the video of the poor woman trying to survive and save her business.
Everything is wrong.
Scorched earth. Salt the land to superfund status. Give the carpetbaggers NOTHING. Make your non-essential self a thorn in their side, a pebble in their shoe, an itch they just can’t scratch.
Every business forced to shut down and everyone kept from earning a living by their overlords should have their taxes rebated (income, property, etc.) until they end this insanity. Wouldn’t really “starve the beast” but, like a bunch of lawyers on the bottom of the ocean, would be a good start.
‘We will be obliged to be obliging, else no more “corn” for us.’ — EP
No more fossil fuels, either: now the war on hydrocarbons, the mania for an obligatory all-electric Kalifornia lifestyle, and the tiny home trend have reached a toxic confluence.
Carl Pope, former head of the Sierra Club, limns our technofeudal future:
“The use of rooftop solar panels to generate power and the replacement of propane heating with a heat pump run by those solar panels is likely to become the standard in many states for manufactured homes.”
“They will gravitate toward all-electric mobile homes because propane is a significant factor in the threat of fires to mobile home parks.”
Yeah, right, Carl. Nearly every night, we watch the fiery glow on the horizon of exploding RV parks … NOT!
But the heretical Dave Blount of moonbattery.com (‘a stake through the heart of the lunatic left’) cheekily pushes back:
“When utopia is achieved, we will be forced to live in tiny playhouses — for our own good, because living in a rabbit hutch will improve the weather.”
“Winter could mean praying for sunny weather so that the heat comes on. That way we will be cozy and snug when we are placed under house arrest the next time a virus comes around.”
Quick, charge the Tesla, honey … the sun is out!
The average Joe has no idea that to heat an average home with Electricity you would need 30-40 250w panels, plus tons of batteries and lots of E-gear, plus installation, plus maintenance.
I helped my kid once do a paper that his teacher had the class do “on how great solar energy is”.
I told him he should see what is involved is doing a system for a house. He was shocked at the result and the teacher said he was wrong. No he wasn’t.
Typical install cost assuming you have the room for 30-40 panels and all the batteries/gear is $40-50K.
Of course the believers will say it’s lots cheaper, but it isn’t.
Add charging a car or two and costs/space goes up a lot.
Of course if you’re in a Northern climate, best of luck to the believers or should I say cool-aid drinkers.
Lost of my peers say I’m wrong. All I can say is call some contractors and see what contract they want you to sign. They never talk solar again.
So naturally, the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Kalifornia) MANDATES solar PV panels on new houses, with capacity equal to annual electricity usage.
https://news.energysage.com/an-overview-of-the-california-solar-mandate/
With natural gas heating, annual electrical usage could be modest. But Kali is expected to OUTLAW new natural gas connections in its next building code update in 2026. All-electric homes, even with heat pumps, will need honking big panels as you’re describing.
Naturally, Kali’s despotic solar decree will punish inland-dwelling deplorables where it’s hot in summer and cold in winter. Elites prospering in the mild, ocean-moderated climate of the coast will barely notice any burden under their swaying palm trees.
Hi Chris,
I can voucher for your figures. I actually was looking at getting solar panels instead of relying off the electrical grid and they quoted me $50K for the roof. I about fell over. Looks like I will be relying on the local electrical coop a little while longer.
Silent Yachts are making some snazzy new boats that run solely on solar panels – starting price right around $8 million. I am going to wait to hit the PowerBall before I sign up for that one. 🙂
Whenever someone says “I should go solar” or they want to, I always ask them about insolation. They usually think I am talking about the pink stuff in the attic and say something like “we added eight inches in the attic when we bought the place.
I then try to explain that they need to know how many “full sun” hours they get per day in winter. Again, if they have any answer at all, it is usually something like “12 hours of daylight”. For the record, here,we average 1fsh in winter.
About this point I usually just say, “Good luck, that sounds like an interesting project”. Then I think about how little they likely know about working with batteries with very high amp DC. Shudder.
Operation “Serfdom” will continue until the middle class is fully destroyed and then we will have the wealthy elites and the peasants. With no in between economic class, communism will be implemented in America.
Slavery is more accurate.
I loathe this adjective “essential” and its kissing cousin “front line” as used in connection with “workers.” Every worker is essential to their family and their own well-being. And this awful inversion, the idea that government employees and their armed enforcement divisions are even remotely essential. I mean, if anyone is non-essential…
And these self-important monikers, like first responders and front-line workers, which connotate brave, intrepid heroics, rather than the job you signed up to do. And the yard signs offering paeans to them. No. The real heroes here are the victims, forced into self-ruination. Thank them, that they exercise enough self-restraint so as not to cut heads off the essential first responders on the front lines, yet.
They needed people working to pay taxes. Now that the Emerald City discovered “MMT” they figure taxes are just there to mop up the flood after the fact. But like most social science theories (technically hypothesis), failing to take into account the dissenters will be the downfall. In the case of what we’re seeing now, the massive “everything bubble” is destroying the futures of everyone who isn’t already in the game. The politicians are too stupid to understand the problem, let alone stop what they’re doing. The K street lobbyists are playing them like the pigeons they are, making sure they all get theirs. Hell, I’d join ’em myself if I knew anyone. Anyone want to come work for my NGO?
Perhaps you may recall that when the federal government fails to pass a budget, only “essential” federal employees continue to work. I’ve often wondered why there was such a thing as non-essential federal employees.
It doesn’t take an excessively deep dive into the evidence to be aware that the fiat currency debt based economy was on the skids BEFORE COVID magically appeared. It doesn’t require any dive at all to see the impending result of this psy op. The bank cartel and its minions in government and corporations engineered this to extract what wealth remains among the 99.9%, and transfer it to the 0.1%. Driving private businesses out of business, and buying up their debt distressed assets on the cheap with money created out of thin air, if not simply foreclosing on them. Thus continuing their economic position, if not improving it in the middle of economic collapse. If we continue on this trajectory, we will all be working for the corporations, if at all. Live in company housing, in the company town, get paid in company script, which we spend in the company store, until the company determines we aren’t cost effective and sends us to the company crematoria. They mean to enslave us, and quite likely dispose of any surplus slaves. We have nothing to lose fighting them.
Amen, JWK.
History repeats itself time and time again. Why we don’t learn from it I will never understand. The turn of the 20th century saw Americans in this exact same predicament, which gave rise to the unions. Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and company did the exact same thing at the turn of the century that is occurring today. They basically enslaved their workers, paid them next to nothing in wages, put them in corporate housing, and controlled their every movement. We see where this heading. Do we need to wait for the Pinkertons to show up before a fight ensues?
Americans need to stop feeding the hand that slaps us. Why are we giving our monies to Walmart, Amazon, and large grocers? There are alternatives. There are plenty of small and medium sized businesses that would love to take on new customers right now. Let Walmart stay empty and Amazon go broke. Stop feeding the beast that wants to destroy us. Yes, it takes work and research to see what else is out there, but it is worth it.
Small businesses are forcibly closed while wal-mart and the rest of the corporate entities are open.
Not all small businesses are closed. Many small businesses have switched from retail to online or from dining in to carry out. These are the businesses we need to continue to support. If you are buying your food from Walmart and getting your packages sent from Amazon, you are part of the problem. There is a much bigger world out there. Convenience is voluntary servitude.
The head of the beast is in Washington DC, stop feeding the beast with your tax money.
No Tax,
Forty seven of Americans pay no income tax, which leaves the other 53% of us holding the bag. So almost half of America is doing as you would like.
My taxes would lessen greatly if we stopped offering refundable tax credits to people who pay $0 in taxes through such programs as the child tax credit and EIC. Why should the rest have to pay to supplement others who contribute nothing in return?
I get the feeling that you are somehow in the tax preparing business. I may be wrong.
We need an old fashion tax revolt. America as we knew it (or thought we did) no longer exists. It is a corrupt failing empire, the bag is full of s*** and it’s time the 53%. starve the beast and stop paying for their own enslavement.
This is a good nonviolent way to stop the government tyranny that I assume you yourself want to end.
No doubt about it, I am. I am a firm believer in lower taxes. I won’t say no taxes, although many on here would disagree with me.
I would have no issue with finding a job in another field for a more just and simpler tax code, but I don’t foresee this happening anytime soon.
Your taxes would lessen greatly if we lived in a constitutional republic, government was limited, and we had honest money as set forth in the constitution, but we don’t. We live in a welfare, warfare state that is run by bankers and corporate oligarchs. They don’t even bother to hide the corruption now. It’s all right there for everyone to see, yet most close their eyes and pretend they live in a “free” country. Do you really want to willingly pay for this?
Hi No Tax,
I don’t believe anyone on this forum thinks we live in a free country, but I also cannot advocate for people to break the law. Many countries have some type of tax or fees, not necessarily an income tax, but they do find a way to get you coming and going whether they do it through sales tax, payroll taxes, capital gains, RE and PPT, excise taxes, etc.
NoTax: A month or two ago, I watched a video of GE Griffin, (author of The Creature from Jekyll Island-A Second look at the Federal Reserve for those that aren’t familiar). When asked about whether he complies with face diaper mandates, he said “I don’t support the income tax, but I pay it” implying he doesn’t support diapers but wears one as required. It hit me funny but got me wondering. These things are of a piece. Doesn’t bode well…
A-f***ing-men, RG!
But, those tax credits and programs are used to maintain the gov’ts zombie army. Should the rest of us refuse to pay, the zombies come after US! That’s the brilliance in their diabolical system, though it’s truly just the trite divide-and-conquer.
But you’re correct. I truly hate paying people to breed.
Hi RG,
Check out the Grace Commission Report authorized by Reagan back in 85. In short, the commission found that NOT ONE CENT of the income tax ever makes it to the “gummit”. It is absorbed as interest (profit)on the money the (privately owned) federal reserve loans Congress. You are simply paying the bills of the Rothchilds and the rest of the owners of the Federal Reserve Bank, INC.
Hi Bluesman,
The Grace Report is an interesting read. I have scanned it, but have not sat down and read all of it. Basically, the report talks about 1/3 of revenues going uncollected, a 1/3 going to waste and unattainable or unusable programs, and 1/3 going toward the country’s debt interest.
Today, the country pays about $523 billion in interest and collects about $3.5 trillion in revenues. When you take the amount of the interest (which is at ridiculously low rates for the time being), the amount that we give in foreign aid, and the amount of outstanding amount of liabilities that the government owes the recipients of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid I am amazed we have made it this far. I keep waiting for the bubble to burst. Based on my calculations it should have occurred about 15 years ago, which just goes to show how dumb the average American is that the government is able to keep printing and no one questions why there is no inflation. I guess we can thank the use of the CPI to keep the fakery going rather than an actual realistic figure like the price of commodities which is a better indicator for inflation rates.
I never understood why this country continues to elect lawyers as representatives, rather than accountants. I have never met a lawyer that didn’t overspend.
Morning – and Happy (hopefully) New Year, RG!
One of the things that’s changed over the course of my life is the normalization of individual debt. More than just having a mortgage. I mean being in hock to credit card companies, for car payments… for almost everything. College kids with no job, no income and no assets are offered credit cards during freshman orientation. It’s not unusual for people to live in a nice – and big – house – drive a late-model car… and not have enough cash to be able to pay for “one of those things” like a new washing machine when the old one dies; so they put it on the card…
This cultural shift scales and has made it normal for the government to act in the same manner. Few seem to care. Most seem to think it can just go on and on and on.
Maybe it can.
I sometimes feel dumb for avoiding debt like I do Face Diapers and living as below my means as I am able.
Hi Eric,
Happy New Year! May 2021 be better than the shitshow of 2020. 😉
I am not a big fan of debt. I believe it does have its place, especially when it comes to the purchasing of appreciable assets (e.g. like a home, rental investments, business capital, etc.)
Even then it is a form of slavery and should be repaid as quick as possible. I am not against using credit cards, if used wisely, many have cash rewards and points which make them a valuable debt tool if paid off before interest accrues.
The problem with the ability to finance anything is that it increases prices across the board, making items unaffordable for many. We see this when the federal government felt the need to into the student loan business. The colleges kept hiking tuition higher and higher and now it costs a minimum of $50k to graduate with any type of degree. Twenty year olds are graduating with a sum of debt that equals that of a new car, or worse, a house. How does a 22 year start their journey in life with something like this holding them back from saving, starting a family, or purchasing a home? They are already owned by the banking system.
Our government is no different. We owe many private institutions, countries, and bond holders for the self destructive borrowing that has impacted us over the last 100 years.
I read recently that England (a few years ago) finally paid off of their debt from World War 1. It took almost 100 years to do it! That is crazy. The US is even in a worse conundrum. The only way to save the country is to slash budgets and shut down unneeded institutions, but no one has the balls to make those tough decisions.
Amen, RG –
New cars would not only be more affordable, they’d be much less Big Brothery if not for the finance crack of 6-7 year loans. I agree more and more with Jefferson, who warned us about what today is styled “financialization.”
At the turn of the last century, the U.S. was an incredibly free place. Among many other things, no income tax, gold as money, no empire or forever wars, no Federal Reserve. Your gov’t school cartoon version of everyone being enslaved in the company town and set upon by “Pinkertons” is the same mythology used by gov’t schools to promote the narrative of the U.S.’s “savior” by the progressives and the collectivism they promote that plagues us to this day. The same progressives who were funded and supported by the so-called robber barons you mentioned, who set about to destroy the actual freedom of the “Gilded Age” that enriched them so as to cement their wealth and control over society for generations to come primarily through tax free foundations.
Some background:
https://mises.org/wire/defense-gilded-age
For a deeper dive see also: Murray Rothbard “The Progressive Era”, Gabriel Kolko “The Triumph of Conservatism”, Dan Smoot “The Invisible Governmental”
Hatterasman,
Just out of curiosity….you really dislike me, don’t you? It is obvious in any posts that you address to me. I feel like I can debate pretty much anyone else on here without it convoluting into ill will on either party’s part. I feel an undercurrent with you. If I have said anything in the past that offended you I am personally sorry. If you just don’t like me I can handle that to.
But, to the debate at hand and what you mention as my government school version of history. If society was so free than why were the unions even established? Why did we pass laws on overtime, fair wages, child endangerment? America was not a utopia at anytime. Employees did go on strike to better their working conditions. To say that the working conditions at the turn of the century were safe is extremely naive. I come from a family of sheet metal workers out of PA and NJ. Asbestos was a huge problem in these steel factories. My great grandfather died from it, my grandfather was awarded handsomely because he to worked in that environment. I realize not all workers were employed in dangerous jobs, but many were.
Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockefeller owned this country and it’s representatives. They were the true lobbyists of their day. What they didn’t like they paid to change. Rockefeller started the pharmaceutical companies and then stated the National Cancer Association when they proved that the vaccines were causing cancer based upon the petroleum that he was adding to them. He also purchased most of the country’s newspapers to control the narrative of the story.
I was lucky to have two of my grandmothers living when I was born and even more fortunate that both of them were alive through my early and late teens. The history I am told was through their first hand account of it, not a book on the shelf, not what a public school teacher taught me. They were trying times for many Americans, maybe your family did not experience that and I am glad for you. But, some of the stories that I was told literally made me sick to my stomach. I have no reason to believe they were anything but truthful with me.
Sorry should be great grandmothers. Skipped a generation there. 🤦♀️ Both of my grandmothers are actually still living. Good Scandinavian blood. 😉
Sorry if I’m direct about things. Hatterasman doesn’t like or dislike internet commenters. For all I know you’re a robot or a Fed. It’s not about muh feelz.
That being said, anecdotal accounts of history are fine but they are just that, anecdotes. Maybe they’re just bloviation, who really knows? It’s not intellectually rigorous. To generalize and say that they reflect the shared experience of a nation during a certain time long ago is kind of lame and argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. Why dig in so hard on everything? I just find it interesting how many of the things you say on the topic of liberty are underpinned by your very mainstream understanding of history and sound exactly like what I grew up with (16+ years of gov’t schooling/indoctrination) and believed for the first 30 or so years of my life. Mostly to the detriment of the freedom of myself and my fellow countrymen. Perhaps you are seeing how much of that supposed knowledge runs completely contrary to understanding the meaning of liberty in its truest sense (and yes, most people don’t care… but you might) and actually promotes beliefs that enslave.
I think you mentioned, like me, that you homeschool. You owe it to yourself and your kids to at least expose them to “revisionist” views of history, even if alongside Gammy’s yarns so that they can judge for themselves the different perspectives and identify when narratives exist, what they mean, who benefits, etc.
And oh yeah, the moon landing was fake too…
https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/wikileaks-releases-moon-landing-scenes-filmed-in-nevada-desert/
What is now happening to us is what the World Bank and various “aid” groups have been doing around the world for decades. Check out the book “Confessions of an economic hit-man.” You can get it a thrift books online fro $5.00
One should read what happened regarding the IMF and so-called “Dictatorship” Belarus. Except he exposed what the IMF tried to do: https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2057113796136/belarusian-president-lukashenko-says-imf-offered-a-billion-usd-bribe-to-impose-covid-19-lockdown