2020-06-30

Daily Derp: Resist The Fear

It's been two weeks now since I've last posted. The reason has been mostly because the pace of events unfolding demand a lot of deep and critical thinking and I haven't been able to find the time to sit and write a coherent post about what I'm observing.

There's a lot to digest indeed and I've been left, like many I'm sure, somewhat shell shocked and astonished at the suspension of reason and logic not to mention of a breakdown of the civil order thanks to some astonishingly perplexing stupidity of so-called leaders on the continent.

I have catalogued a bunch of stories and links. I have to be carful because these short-term stories can  disrupt and cloud how you see the bigger picture.

But let's do this derp style. I will be addressing the other issues - ie the other pandemic of SJW unhinged - in another post.

First, here's a fantastic run down of where we're at with Corona.

And here.

2020: Rise of the pant shitting hypocrite.

Or.

The great tragedy of 2020 is it's the year 'tyranny of the minority and mob' ruled. The year science and reason went 'Boink'.





In the case of the coronavirus, from the onset models projected millions of deaths. Going on six months later, there are c. 509 000 deaths worldwide.

But the fearful and ominous projections initially pumped up has done the damage. No amount of good news will walk people away from this unfortunate irresponsible declaration. Sadly,  it proves how easy it is to keep people in perpetual fear and the only way they stop is if the government declares the virus vanquished or a vaccine is found.

For a virus that doesn't threaten the vast majority of the population and a 99.7% survival rate.

'Follow the science' they say.

The way I see it overall? The lockdowns acted as a delay mechanism. It was to stop the spread but that was a foolish track to take. And this talk of a 'second wave' is really just the first wave delayed.

We should have just taken the hit up front but instead decided to ruin our economies and lives.

From the onset all they've done is do the opposite. They used and continue to use faulty projections models as 'science'. The Canadian government just yesterday once again came out with projections - recall that Tam had warned as many as 22 000 to 40 000 would happen here....by the end of April. We have around 8500 as of today.

As if projections haven't been discredited enough (in any other field of life these people would be fired), out they come with more projections this time expecting as many as 108 000 total cases by July 12.  I'm glad they seem to have tinkered with their Projection Tinker Box Transmorgrifer but what exactly is the point but to install caution and fear?

We've been averaging roughly 300 or so cases for the past couple of weeks across the country with the vast chunk of that being in Ontario and Quebec. Let's assume a surge does happen, are they expecting it to shoot up to four times those numbers as we saw a couple of months back? And even then, with all that we know(low IFR for example) and the preparation in place, so what?

Seriously. So. What? Isolate the vulnerable and do the social distance dance. This will be accompanied by the fact people, already sufficiently alerted to its existence, will voluntarily slow down activities. There's no justification for making anything mandatory nor locking down.

None.

But that won't happen. Too logical. Too sciency.

Stay scared and thirsty my friends.

But there they are. Pounding the table of superstition and fear warning of 'resurgences' and still more cases.

Last, the trade-offs. That we deliberately ignored doing a cost-benefit analysis out of pure superstition or commitment to 'save every life' was a spectacular dereliction of duty and responsibility in my view.

For every person we 'saved' it's possible the lockdowns probably cost 2 or 3 deaths. Not to mention permanent damage to one's life. The other aspect that obviously gets NO MENTION is the fact if young people end up committing suicide due to a lockdown, that's a greater loss to the society at large than a person who is 85. We may lose the wisdom of such a person but that's life lived nonetheless. A 26 year-old who takes their life means we potentially lose 50 years of a productive life.

This makes people queasy - especially these days where the politics of emotion wins the day - but we must consider these fall outs. It's ludicrous not to.

The Coronavirus over reaction will go down as one of the great examples of a moral and health panic in history. One in which citizens were failed by poor leaders and over-protective public health officials who were given way too much power to guide economic policy of all things.

People who supported the lockdowns will have to one day face the lives it ruined. I'm of the opinion now they should be led off in handcuffs for the destruction they've caused based on muddled thinking.

Yukon Ho!

*****

Toronto makes masks mandatory.

Here's the thing. Cases have dropped significantly in Canada. But because we're unable to keep a reasoned disposition, we see what goes on elsewhere and immediately think it will happen here.

It's foolish and absurd to make mandatory declarations on such a basis. It conditions people to get to used to a habit they shouldn't accept and to look to the government to take care of them. Worse, to hide from this fact we invent all sorts of vapid terms like 'mask it or casket' (despite the low IFR for the virus among the vast majority or people), 'wear masks, save the economy!' (which is absolutely a childish idiotic slogan.

The economy and the psyche is already damaged and these sorts of draconian measures will only hurt them further. For example, I will not enter places that compels me to wear a mask. I'd rather sit and wait this madness out. Then comes all the tiresome righteous bull shit of 'wear one, be courteous' and whatever other insipid attempt to force a collective ill on people. Bet some of those people who say that have road rage. Or are just plain rude people most of the time.

How about this? If you're too scared of the virus, how about YOU stay home? We've become a society of complete and utter sissies and pussies.

Athletes today are so wealthy and pampered, they choose to not play. Meanwhile, once upon a time Ted Williams, Joe Di Maggio and Jimmy Stewart went off to war, killed some Nazis and came back to kick ass.

Pansies today's man.

This is not a virus that will kill you. Get over your fears already. It makes no sense to live your life in fear of potential 'future waves' for this. It's preposterous.

What really outages me though, is the utter horse shit public health officials pimp out. In the USA, they allowed for protests which ended up in violent riots to take place because, get this, 'social justice is more important than social distance.'

It's the same crap up here. As I've said from the onset. Do not let medical bureaucrats dictate policy or else we'll never get out of this vortex of fear. They should absolutely NOT have a say in economic policy.

A health official shouldn't be saying, 'wear a mask, save the economy' (PSA from the same person who brought us 'Stay home, save lives) because they're not fucking economists and have NOT weighed the trade offs or the unintended consequences of their demands.

Their sole job is to be doctors. How we give them the keys to the car is beyond comprehension. It's like giving a marketing exec the power to over ride the CFO.

The cold, hard truth about masks is what it has always been. Their effectiveness is INCONCLUSIVE beyond N95 and KF94. If you're wearing a cloth mask or one of those pale blue medical masks, you're engaging in theatre; Coronaporn. You're not protecting yourself from the virus.

As to the idea that it stops droplets from asymptomatic people from spreading, that's still a precarious assertion. You need to basically make out with someone to get it. It has a high spread rate but it's not easily contacted like we first thought as far as I know.

I do think the clams being made at this point are with little merit other than 'just do it, just in case' and that 'it can reduce spread'. This is NOT a reason, especially if your claim to 'follow the science' to suspend civil liberties and make it mandatory.

All it does is trade your sense of independence to submit to the flock and engaging in a petty psychological games.

The virus is out there. Don't be an idiot. Social distance. Stay home if you don't have to go out. It would be nice to travel but it's just not the time. Look at it as a chance to save money and pay some debt down. I'm no fan of how we're facing it - especially the way we're teaching our kids to cower but we have to be realistic. Note, I don't mean accepting the craziness of 'new normals' but it's not worth completely ignoring some advice and protocols. I give the finger where I feel it's necessary

Life is all about risks. But I fear we've opened the Pandora's Box of fear that has unleashed itself and has gotten away from our ability to reason. No, saying 'just do it for each other' is NOT reason.

It's following orders.

I don't know what else to say. The more the numbers drop, the more we succumb to fear. It's bizarre and disheartening.

*****

A problem with this is it's being instituted when cases have been tending downwards in Canada. As fo the notion it will prevent 'spikes' is very difficult to ascertain. So officials can easily claim they work without actual empirical evidence.

*****

Quebec's cases - like Canada - have dropped to negligible numbers.

Ontario, where the buffoons decided on a mask compulsion program, there were...157 cases....in a population of 14 million.

Quebec has c. 70 per day.

Given this good news, the government decided they were going to stop daily updates and push it to weekly ones. Reasonable to me. They probably thought, rightly, let's get people back on track here.

But not to the sheep.

There was a vociferous pushback. People want their coronaporn. It's like watching the news after a murder spree. You have murder porn and you have corona porn.

People want their security blanket. They want the government to guide them. They convince themselves it's to stay informed - and no doubt that is the case for some people - but let's be frank. It's a bizarre feitsh to keep themselves in perpetual fear.

So the government relented.

Now people can be caressed into wearing a mask and develop OCD killing their hands and immune system with Purell.

I don't wear a mask and I pretend to squirt my hands when I go into stores. My job has me going in and out of stores, if I keep washing my hands, my skin will disappear.

Follow the science they say. Well, the science says it doesn't spread as easily from surfaces as first thought.

So adjust already.

But that would demand an enlightened approach to all this.

I've not been impressed with North America one iota through all this.



Digression. Anyone else troubled by Roger Waters' unhinged anti-semitism? Christ, what an asshole in general. A foul human being.

*****

Data points matter. It's worth noting, and I'm just going from memory here, but if you're under 55, you're more likely to die from several things including medical ailments and car accidents than you are of the Coronavirus.

And if you contact it, it may suck, but the probabilities of it you survive are, like, very high.

But you never hear positive aspects about the virus. It's been doom and gloom since March. We have to lift people from this darkness. But don't look to public health officials for this (a doctor friend, who I mention later on, has taken his hyper precautionary principle stances to discomforting heights. He feels people shouldn't be allow to attend sporting events or concerts if they don't have vaccination papers. That means he favors some kind of certificate dot or card or app or some other dystopian idiocy to soothe his fears. It's nuts) or politicians. They've failed spectacularly - save for some here and there.

And forget the media. Fear sells papers and since they're already an illiterate bunch of illiberal fools, they're al to happy to play the role as enemies of the people.

*****

My prediction and theory.

Sweden and USA will prove to actually be ahead of the curve if inoculation is attainable and realistic. They're taking their hits now and will be better off over the long-term. The CDC estimates the number of Americans who have contracted the disease can be as hIgh as 10x the known cases. Or closer to 25 million. Inoculation here we come! This means, they unwittingly could be on their way to herd immunity if it's attainable.

In the case of Sweden, without having shut down their economy and fucking with the psyche of people.

Not even Lovecraft could tap into our inner-most fears like Corona. Boy have the media and politicians done a job on people.

The other theory I have is, once time passes and sound minds examine the pandemic (a viral pneumonia essentially), the IFR will fall still closer in line with the flu and deaths will be adjusted downwards.

Just a guess based on what I'm reading outside the narrative.

Re-stated:

Somehow ‘fighting to keep cases low’ has become a way or referendum on how to judge countries on their ‘compassion’ or the quality of the health systems. Which, of course, is wrongheaded and bound to lead to all sorts of misguided thinking resulting in dubious policies. It leaves people vulnerable to really dumb thoughts.
In the context of the USA and how it fits with how it’s perceived, this is a perfect scenario for anti-Americans. 
They still don’t have the worst case per million and deaths per million figures. Even in comparison to Canada, certain stats don’t tell the whole picture. Some show Canada is doing better, others the USA. But it’s not even about that and who cares? 
Cases on their own means shit. If anything, it’s probably a GOOD thing. Sweden and USA are getting it out of the way.
As for China, indeed. You have to be one tool (Hello Popovich and Lebron!) to believe those numbers. Just a couple of weeks back somber headlines about a worse version of the virus came out as a second wave as China took measures including stopping air travel to Beijing. Yet, the number of cases never moved?
/strokes chin.
My bet is this: The virus, when all is said and done in the not so distant future and sober accounting takes place, will be right in line with the flu. It’s already at a .2/.3 IFR if I’m correct. I expect that will drop as the avg. age drops per case. Yes, deaths seems to be a lagging metric to cases (ie Florida, Arizona) but we’ll see. I also expect death numbers to be adjusted downwards.
Just a hunch. Again. I could be wrong of course.
Comment/conversation I read:
"My theory is that there’s a core of legitimate medical science at the center of a perfect storm of authoritarianism, statism, and Progressive totalitarianism behind all this. It’s the culmination of a civil society that has been taught to rely solely on the government, and specifically the executive branch and associated bureaucracies, for all its needs and an embrace of the tactics employed by the social justice movement, e.g. “canceling”, to attack dissent and ensure conformity. And all of this is supported by the “Cathedral” in ways so blatant that I suspect, at the end of it all, a lot of people who would’ve happily muddled along will be if not red-pilled at least closer to waking up to the myriad ways in which academia, the media, and the state manipulate them."
"....the main thing separating these leftists from being true libertarians was that they didn’t understand the difference between “Obligations” and “Preferences”. And the main reason for this is that they think there is ALWAYS an optimal choice, and therefore preference doesn’t exist. 
An obligation is something that you are morally or ethically compelled to do. A preference is something that you choose to do, even though there is no obligation. To a libertarian, you have an obligation not to interfere with someone else’s freedoms. But choosing to give money to a charity is a preference. 
This became important as we talked about masks. To leftists, wearing a mask was clearly an ethical obligation because it was the most optimal thing to do in most cases in order to reduce the spread of COVID (set aside the debate about science for a minute here). And so the leftist basically says, “You should be wearing a mask, so I don’t blame the government mandating this if people really won’t do what is best for them”. In their mind, decided that one is always obligated to do the most optimal thing, not whatever flows from their principals. And because he is not able to distinguish “Obligation” from “Preference”, and “should” from “must”, he will always be a statist. 
To a libertarian, wearing a mask is a preference. There is nothing in the NAP that says a libertarian should inconvenience themselves in order to reduce the risk of a natural pathogen jumping around in the wild. (Note this calculus might change if you have good reason to believe you are infected.) Not wearing a mask is a neutral action. Wearing the mask is a choice that one might prefer to do, but is not obligated to do. 
Overall, I think this same confusion becomes the heart of why we were shut down. People traded good ideas (it’s a good idea to limit your travel) for regulations (you must not travel). Like vaccinations, people have confused something that one really ought to prefer for something that must be done. And this has created the situation we now live in.

Socialism is the believe humans can be 'optimized' through state control and planning. Someone summarized this comment as "you're not free, unless you're free to be wrong'.
"The question is, can you really prevent the spread of a disease that is already widely spread?
I believe the answer is no. At this point, it is going to finish spreading throughout the vast majority of the population. It might even become a recurring event like the flu or the common cold, though I don’t know what the death rate will look like.
Lots of people are holding out hope for a vaccine before returning to “normal”. But we don’t generally predicate our lives today on the future existence of a potential solution to a problem. I am also not confident that the vaccine is going to be any better than the one for influenza, which is to say it will only really be circumstantially effective. I don’t think we are ever going to eradicate this like smallpox or polio.
Too little was done too late to contain this virus, and now too much is being done way too late and mostly in vain. Perhaps I am wrong but as we don’t today have a vaccine widely available and we definitely don’t have reliable data on the effectiveness of the not-yet-existent vaccine, putting liberties on hold seems like wishful thinking turned into foolish policy."

Which has been my position from day one.
Think of it. In the beginning we were told little or nothing of this virus was known, yet they went ahead a pushed policies despite the incertitude. Worse, it was based on faulty premises and models and we haven't really evolved with the moving data. We've remained scared and operate from this point forward. We're not following science, we're letting the virus dictate to us.
We've gone from flattening of curves, not overwhelming the system to whatever the fuck it is now. Oh, stopping the spread of a virus that is ALREADY IN CIRCULATION.
 A complete exercise in human folly and hubris. It's bound to only compound the terrible unintended consequences we've already unleashed.
*****

Canadians who brag and look upon the USA with pity should proceed with caution. When you look at the numbers closely, Canada is actually in line and some cases worse than the USA.

A doctor I know, is a master cherry-picker of data mixed in with TDS. Hence, I get 'what a shitshow down south. Bunch of mental defectives'. Yup. You read right.

So I wondered, are we that superior to justify such idiotic and obtuse comments?

The answer is no. Like usual, Canadians exhibit a misplaced smug superiority complex. They just see 'cases are rising in America' and automatically assume we're doing better....because.

For example, yes the USA has far more cases than we do (4 times the rate) but death to cases is higher in Canada at 8.2% to 4.8% in the USA. They have a higher death per million rate at 393 to 228 here but it's not an amount to justify such squawking. Again, they have one major difference we don't have: NYC.

The thing is the U.S. is a highly eclectic, mobile, aggressive, antsy, energetic, dynamic society filled with audacity and risk taking. Florida is a state with so much packed into it, of course it's going to see cases. Canada is far more subdued and easier to contain as a calmer society.

The key metic here is the average age contracting it dropped from 65 to 37 years old. This means death rates may hold and ICU units won't be overwhelmed given most people will deal with mild to some strong symptoms but not life threatening.

Not to underplay the seriousness of the virus or situation but a lot of perspective is needed to keep our fears in check.

Just intangible things to consider.

*****

Be careful with the headlines. CNN, the myth making tabloid, provides a perfect example. It read along the lines of: USA is 4% of the world's population but make up 25% of Corona cases.

To a person who knows how to read statistics, this is a completely meaningless stat. It combines two facts to attempt to form an ominous cloud.

It's irrelevant USA is 4% of the world's population. This is not a proper point of reference. The USA is a completely different society from most nation's on earth. Why they're at 25% can be attributed to several factors including vastly more testing. Nor does it mean it's necessarily a bad thing. It's just a title meant to keep people in fear. Who knows? To make sure they remain sheep.

In any event, you're crazy if you think they have more cases than China. China is straight up lying about their figures.

I get the impression so much effort and energy has gone into keeping people scared, they have to keep the theatre going because someone has to be making money off this.

In the States, there's an incentive to do so because the election is around the corner.

The GOP is also flirting with making mask wearing mandatory. I don't know if it's because it's for political reasons but it's a miscalculation I reckon. Republicans are made up of conservatives, Independents and libertarians. They take their liberty seriously. So not sure if this is a wise move.

For now, cases are rising but that in of itself is not necessarily bad. The death rate continues to drop for now.

*****

Comment from Reason:

"...It’s worse than that. As I’ve mentioned, I’m a mortician in the DC Metro Area. The shenanigans with death certificates is breathtaking. I’ve had a woman with a broken neck on my table, COD on the certificate was COVID-19. Many, many other cases of “died with, not died of”, but listed as primary COD per the CDC guidelines.

There’s a new study from Penn State making the case that the case count’s low by a factor of 80. Balance that with the gross over-counting of deaths, and this was a total non-event."

*****

The tragedy of all this was the 'stop the virus at all costs' based on wrong models'. The results were predictable. But what's even more troubling is officials are sticking to these hopelessly inaccurate models to CONTINUE lockdowns.For example, Texas re-locked down just as businesses were turning the corner. How about lives to politicians think people have?

Of course, once again, large corporations get to stay open and the little guy pays the price. There has to be some kind of karma awaiting officials and people who do this to others. Ironic, how they always claim wearing masks is 'courteous'. But don't think twice to destroy lives.

Do people not grasp the severity of this stupidity?

There is no question in my mind when all this irrational madness passes, we will look about our reaction with shame if not disgust.

The questions will be along the lines of: How can an ostensibly advanced society with all this knowledge get it so wrong?













2020-06-14

Random Thought

I think it will get worse before it gets better. The idea, for example, ‘math is racist’ or anything we’ve achieved is tied to a ‘colonial’ prism will have to go through some real world results before people wake up. 
In other words, the ‘diversity’ class in engineering and medicine will take us down a notch with terrible infrastructure and bad medical advice before we resume our path.
 I see this as a passing trend but for how long at what cost, I don’t know and is hard to determine. 
There’s no way in hell if the STEMS are now infiltrated with this madness there won’t be real world ramifications.

The Cowards Among Us; Understand What's At Stake

If you fired someone knowing they didn't deserve it because of the zeitgeist,
You're a coward.
If you snitch on a neighbour or a even a friend,
You're a coward.
If you run to HR for stupid things,
You're a coward.
If you Tweet and Instagram shame a person for expressing an opinion you don't accept,
You're a coward.
If you call someone without fact or reason or justification a racist,
You're a coward.
If you make an unjust claim and react with indignant fury to a factual rebuttal,
You're a coward.
If you ask people to deny or denounce their own culture or history,
You're a coward.
If you purposely seek to ruin a person's life because of politics,
You're a coward.
If you're a Dean of a university and pursue policy that destroys a student's future,
You're a coward.
If you push racial diversity for its own sake and not diversity of ideas,
You're a coward.
If you're part of #cancelculture,
You're a coward.
If you pick and choose which crimes to be outraged by based on politics,
You're a coward.
If you just sprout talking points,
You're a coward.
If you willingly and blindly fall prey to government demands that divides people,
You''re a coward.
If you riot and loot,
You're a coward.
If you sit in silence and watch a colleague be attacked,
You're a coward.
If you encourage mob rule on any level,
You're a coward.
If you promulgate anti-intellectual positions like 'math is colonial',
You're a coward.
If you don't debate but shout down and engage in ad hominen attacks,
You're a coward.
If you're company cynically partakes in virtue signalling,
You're a coward.
If you virtue signal,
You're a coward.
If you bully a young person working for politics,
You're a coward.
If you applaud the destruction of historical figures,
You're a coward.
If you apply modern standards of judgment (especially misguided ones) on the past,
You're a coward.
If demand people repent for past acts they didn't commit,
You're a coward.
If you commit voter fraud for party,
You're a coward.
If you're a race hustler,
You're a coward.
If you undermine a duly elected leader by conducing a shadow government,
You're a coward.
If you use the power of the state against a citizen,
You're a coward.
If you're a public servant and don't do right by citizens,
You'e a coward.
If you're an elected official and divide the people,
You're a coward.
If you want to take another person's rights away,
You're a coward.
If you're a public official and enact law that undermine personal liberty,
You're a coward.
If you use social media to control people's thoughts,
You're a coward.
If you bully companies and people into taking sides - YOUR side,
You're a coward.
If you give into pressure from groups that alienates,
You're a coward.
If you demand apologies from people for innocuous reasons,
You're a coward,
If you refuse to call out violence for what it is,
You're a coward.
If you beat up an old lady,
You're a coward.
If you excuse wholesale destruction of communities,
You're a coward.
If you allow for cures that continue to be worse than the disease,
You're a coward.
If you mock literate minds,
You're a coward.
If you deride a man's honest job,
You're a coward.
If you use the legal system to punish enemies,
You're a coward.
If you feign objectivity to push an ideology,
You're a coward.
If you're a journalist and knowingly tell lies or fabricate narratives,
You're a coward.
If you engage in vapid propaganda,
You're a coward.
If you you shakedown law abiding citizens,
You're a coward.
If you're a professor and use your position of power to advance your agenda,
You're a coward.
If you refuse to accept data and evidence that challenges your bias,
You're a coward.
If you you engage in group think,
You're a coward.
If you destroy for wrong think,
You're a coward,
If you bully a child on the Internet,
You're a coward.
If you blindly believe corporate media narratives,
You're a coward.
If you get a decent person fired,
You're a coward.
If identity politics is your mantra,
You're a coward.
If you ignore due process and the rule of law for partisanship and politics,
You're a coward.
If you're a politician and refuse to answer questions and only look to lecture,
You're a coward.
If you protect your fears onto children,
You're a coward.
If you fear-monger,
You're a coward.
If you attack your leader from the comforts of your social media,
You're a coward.
If you stood against the right for people to earn a living because you were afraid of a virus,
You're a coward.
If you then forgot about the virus when it became politically expedient to do so with protests,
You're a coward.
If you work for a public broadcaster and engage in censorship,
You're a coward.
If you're a SJW and celebrate SJW activism,
You're a coward.
If you embrace illiberalism,
You're a coward.
If you say 'woke' things to be accepted,
You're a coward.
If you believe yourself to be liberal but tolerate censorship of any kind,
You're a coward.
If you revise art and history to fit modern norms,
You're a coward.
If you tolerate a politician breaking their own demands and attack people who don't,
You're a coward.
If you accepted the loss of millions of jobs and trillions of dollars spent for a virus,
You're a coward.
If you shrugged your shoulders at the unintended consequences and still pushed for lockdowns,
You're a coward.
If you then permitted people on your side to gather and protest despite said virus,
You're a coward.
If you engaged in the unconscionable act of depriving someone of their right to operate a business,
You're a coward.
If you can't bring yourself to understand why a life without liberty is one that welcomes misery,
You're a coward.
If you let ideology govern your honour and integrity,
You're a coward.
If principals over principles pollute your mind,
You're a coward,
If you think because you do good acts this permits you to pummel people's opinions,
You're a coward.
If you're a celebrity bailing out criminals,
You're a coward.
If you allow yourself or institution to lose part of its identity,
You're a coward.
If you claim to want to start a conversation then it expect it to be one-way,
You're a coward.
If you have white guilt,
You're a coward.
If you support affirmative action,
You're a coward.
If you use cynically used AA/PC forms to advance your career,
You're a coward.
If you foster hate for our civilization borne straight from illiberal ignorance or otthewise....
You're a coward.

Never cede a fucken inch to these cowards.

Ever.

And we know damn well who the cowards are.

*******

Is the shelving of Gone with the Wind the beginning of a long censorship run?

That it even happened is extremely unnerving.

Do people realize in this atmosphere any movie made before 2019 is 'marked for death' now?

Any of your favourite movies. Landmarks in the Llibrary of Congress' are not safe anymore.

*****

I don't think people quite grasp the stakes at play here.

Doing the Cold War, the values of the West led by the United States was indivisible. We stood united against the scourge of Soviet communism fresh off the heels of killing tens of millions of people and crushing satellite nations in its expansionary path.

But in the end the thirst for basic human rights and liberty prevailed. Humans want freedom and that's that.

Now we have a new challenge and this is by way of China. The new communist scourge.

China is on the march.

Only this time there are two key, though not insurmountable, obstacles in our way. One is they have a massive edge on the Soviet Union in terms of wealth making them much more of a serious threat. Two, the West isn't united.

After the war, Europe had little choice because they were too exhausted and broke to stand against Stalinist Russia. Thanks to the Marshall Plan, they were able to rebuild their economies and by that point, capitalism and liberty was a clear winner for them.


But something changed along the way. As they grew wealthier and I argue complacent thanks to American military and economic protection, the European Union thought itself ready to go off on its own and with it meant forming their own path on the global stage. Always under the, wink, protection of American might.

And the United States pretty much allowed them to pursue it just like they left Canada alone. As long as neither didn't publicly side with the Soviets, it was good enough for America.

Then in the early 1990s the Soviet empire collapsed with the fall of the Berlin wall acting as its symbolic end.

Suddenly there was no enemy.

Or was there?

China slowly began its rise soon after. Offering its gigantic market to the West not seen since the Open Door Policy this time on their terms.

China began to join organizations and play the part of a nation willing to play by the rules but they never did flouting agreements and stealing intellectual property with reckless abandon as well as earning a reputation for an abhorrent human and animals rights record.

As they grew, they began to invest in Western counties and companies as well as stockpiling on gold.

The market was simply too big to ignore and Corporate America simply moved operations there hallowing out America. A massive sell out of North American workers began and we slowly became beholden to their demands.

Since the election of Trump and the impact of the Coronavirus originating in Wuhan, people are slowly waking up to the fact China is in fact an enemy.

The new enemy fighting for our souls.

Cold War redux. A battle for ideas. The winner gets to mould the world.

Not only America finding itself with a luke warm EU and Canada (though we may have to fall in line when push comes to shove depending on the depth of Chinese influence on our financial and real estate markets), but it doesn't even have complete support from within.

Democrats can't be trusted while the celebrity class and athletes in particular, are more interested in preserving their brands.

The behaviour of athletes could help but teams like US women's soccer team and leagues like the NBA aren't advancing and championing on the global stage the very ideals and values that made them success stories. The former isn't using its power to fight for women's rights around the world enjoyed by American women, while the latter lies in bed with China having already spectacularly failed when faced with a controversy as we saw so starkly in the Daryl Morey case.

The two biggest voices in those sports are Lebron James and Megan Rapinoe and both fail to appreciate the wider geo-political context to which they operate. Whether they like it or not or willingly or not, they're pawns of Chinese power. They can choose to take a principled stand or be useful idiots.

They have made their choice.

Lebron is a hypocrite here. He shoots off his mouth on twitter blasting the President because, well, he can. He lives in a nation that allows for that. Ironically, the country he refused to take to task not only accords rights to its citizens but is overtly racist.

Lebron was thinking all about his brand. When push comes to shove, Lebron thinks of Lebron. It's much easier to criticize his country and than a country that richly deserves criticism.

They talk about justice but they don't really care.

Lebron should be extolling the virtues of his country abroad. It made him fabulously rich and famous. He should actually put something on the line.

But he won't because Lebron Inc. prevails over actual principles.

Which is why the NBA brass should shut its mouth politically. They live themselves open to such obvious hypocrisy and cowardice in my view. Everyone, in general, wants to believe or think they will be on the 'right side of history'. A tad presumptuous in my view, but this is how they view it. I don't think the NBA's silence on Hong Kong will age well. Posterity will judge James and the league poorly on this front. Hong Kong is fighting for its existence and the NBA turned its back on it.

Here's my bet. If you want to be on the 'right side of history' don't bet against human rights and liberty. And which country (and its allies) advance these values and principles? The USA.

The contradiction in their position is that it has never been safer to be an American citizen as the opportunities to achieve prosperity equally as great for minorities. The United States, probably has less racism because of its laws, transparency and ability to assimilate than any nation on the planet.

It's not a complex issue as Kerr made it seem like. It's not complex at all if you have principles and share common value of democracy with another place. Kerr was just trying to skate around the awkward position he found himself in and it was 'complex' only in the prism of NBA-China relations.

There's no risk to them bashing America. This is what makes their indignation against Trump sophomoric if not comical. Trump can't arrest them. But if they spoke this way about China in China, the results would be drastically and dismally different. They got a taste of it when one of their own dared to merely speak his opinion on American soil and China flexed its muscles and the NBA brass bowed before them while throwing one of their own under the bus.

If I'm Daryl Morey? I have a sick feeling deep in my soul.

James is so obtuse he called a man with two degree one from MIT 'uneducated'. Worse, he and Nike are essentially, ironically, slave plantation owners themselves with the sweat shop labour they use in Asia to manufacture their little shoes at high mark ups.

I don't think they shed too much of a tear when they lay off workers in those places, right?

And James has the blinding arrogant audacity to attack Drew Brees?

That James does good works is not enough to shield him from this hypocrisy and cowardice. He can and should do more. If he really truly cared, he'd pick up the phone and ask Trump what he could do to help blacks as Trump seems genuinely committed to.

If they didn't engage in Trump bashing, then it would be easier (though still wrong) to accept their bowing to China. Business is business.

Alas, this is not what's happening. They made this game. Needless to say, I won't be watching a lick of NBA or any sport that cowers like this.

The NBA, of course, is far from alone with their silence not just on Hong Kong but the systematic and actual genocide of Uyghur Muslims (subjected to re-education camps) in China. Disney severed its ties with Tucker Carlson because reasons but maintains a relationship with, you guessed it, China.

So brave. Such heroes we have ruling our corporations and institutions.

Here's your BLM empty black square.

It's not looking good right now. Trump seems battered but not defeated.

But I believe the long-term trends and the intangible assets remain firmly on America's side.

We need to set our differences aside here and close ranks and ensure our way of life and system of government and economics prevails.

Are you in or out?
















2020-06-13

We're In Serious Trouble

This is getting all too troubling.

Censoring Faulty Towers, madness in the streets of America crawling with violent commies and miseducated clowns, cancel culture, universities filled with Marxists, cowering to a non-lethal virus, second waves gibberish, vaccine porn....we truly are losing our fricken minds. You're a fool and a buffoon if you partake in this kabuki theatre. Sure, that's all I need to be chastised and scolded by Karen in a store because she's has the mind of a sheep. They're ruining our psyche. Stay home and ride it out if you can't face risk. Unbelievable. I don't recognize the West anymore.

The pace of 'cancelling' people is increasing and it's going to get worse until people wake up already.

If you think for one second you're safe, you're dead wrong. You make ONE slip up in this totalitarian environment and you're done. It doesn't how much good you've done. It doesn't matter how many organization buttons you have on LinkedIn. It doesn't matter if you were a good soldier and gave to BLM and bought into all the virtue signalling narratives. It doesn't matter. You say one thing one person -any person even a friend - and they will turn on you.

2020 is the year where we lost our liberties and sense of humanity. Everything went off the rails.

The poor quality of leadership only exacerbated the problem,.

Think of it, look around you with how a non-lethal virus led to drastic lockdowns that created aftershocks damaging our collective psyche. Now people wear gloves, wear masks and wash their hands obsessively.

No sense.

None.

The lunatics run the asylum.

I'm no fan of the CBC. It should absolutely be defunded and sickens me to no end this denizen of far-left creeps and faux-journalists is getting my money. It disgusts me my taxes go to pay the salary of these degenerate execs like this twat Catherine Tait who consider me an enemy despite their horse shit babbles about 'diversity' and 'equality'.

How anyone in their right minds remotely thinks the CBC, BBC and NPR are feeding anything other the progressive propaganda and narratives is beyond me to comprehend.

But they gotta take their orders from their pinko boss Justin so here we are.

1984 and Brave New World has arrived.

And the case of Wendy Mesley encapsulates perfectly how it sneaks up on you.

It's years this blog has been cataloging and warning we were inching our way towards it.

Then 2020 came and BANG!

People need to grasp Donald Trump serves, if you can believe, as something bigger. He's politically incorrect and telling us to do the same. He's taking the hits but we need to do our part and stand up to the projecting bullies who are silencing our fellow citizens.

When the left screams Trump is a fascist THAT'S PROJECTION. They're the ones being fascistic. They couch their authoritarianism behind good causes but the ultimate goal is submission.

This is not hyperbole. It's all over the place now. Read BLM's 'who we are'. It doesn't take a genius to see it's a Marxist shit hole.

But there they are. Swallowing that cum whole.

They say Mesley was 'careless' with a word. That word of course being 'nigger'. Details are scant but it doesn't take a genius to see she was thrown under the bus and the CBC are going to do what lefties do best: Hide transparency. After all,  the Liberals are masters of this tactic.

Imagine being in an environment where this kind of speech control is in place. Thought control, by the way, is just behind it.

Someone is gonna have to stand up here and some point and basically tell everyone to fuck off.

You can bet your  bottom dollar this PC crap doesn't extend to anyone else except for those groups given the 'victim status' stamp.

In one way, I'm rather enjoying what happened here because Mesley, as part of the CBC, played her damn own part in this cultural mess as did her husband Peter Mansbridge. They couldn't see what was at stake when people warned them. Instead, they chose the lazy and unproductive Hilary Clinton route of seeing people as 'deplorables'.

Her interview perfectly encapsulated everything that was wrong with her and the CBC. They weren't interested in truth. It was a lazy attempt at trying to paint Peterson as a bad guy right down to her 'okay is a dog whistle for supremacist' bull shit.

She missed a chance to explore the mind of an important Canadian with an important message warning against....totalitarianism.

The very same totalitarianism that just turned on her.

Here, I have to drop my glee for her deserved pain and see the bigger picture. She absolutely doesn't deserve this.

We're not fucking robots.

We're born with free will.

Personal agency.

This is the part the left wants destroyed. What do you think all this erasing of history and 'decolonize your bookshelf' and all the the faux-intellectual stupidity these idiotic pretenders pimp is about?

Are this daft and clueless to not see the game at play here?

Mesley has nothing to apologize for. None of us do. We're living in a time where we must apologize for our OPINIONS?

THIS IS WHAT COMMUNISM IS.

Just because you live in Canada and the USA with ostensibly 'free and democratic' institutions doesn't mean you're free anymore. Major outlets like media and entertainment are firmly entrenched in left-wing poison.

People will have to decide if they're going to support sports leagues like the NBA and companies like Disney who partner with abhorrent countries like China or watch shows that clearly push this sort of 'diversity' propaganda or support companies that 'cancel' employees.

That list is going to get long.

But guess what folks. The culture war has arrived.

And we may be too late to fight back.

Wake up already you bloody sheep.

******

It sounds like Mesley was quoting another person.

Which reminds me of an incident from my university days that never went away.

A professor of European history had quoted the great conservative philosopher Edmund Burke. I don't quite recall the exact quote but had something to do with Africa and could easily be taken wrong.

And sure enough a student did.

He went off the professor for saying the quote and pretty much refusing to distinguish the two.

He was an obtuse feller and judging by the class reaction, he wasn't winning anyone over.

It was black sensitivity this and black feelings that. It was completely off target and tone death. Despite the professor's pleas, he wouldn't let it go reaching a point of anger. It left the class unnerved.

I just thought he was a fucken idiot and had no business being a history class let alone a history one.

Anti-intellectual, emotional and arrogant. The perfect trifecta that makes up a Marxist twit.

Eventually, the moment of faux-intellectual insanity ended and we all laughed behind his back. A little backstory to this is it turns out he dated someone we knew. He was not a nice guy at all. A control freak and psychological abuser.

A natural progressive.

Who would have thought nearly 30 years later a clown like that would have the last laugh.

*****

I don't know where all this will go or end up. I'm optimistic saner mind will prevail but at what cost? Or, a pessimist may conclude this a trend that will continue.

One way to stem this flow is to never vote Liberal or Democrat ever again until we sort this ship.





























2020-06-11

Mandatory Masks Are A Bad Idea

Some Quebec doctors are calling for mandatory masks.

I reject this idea on two grounds: The data simply doesn't justify making it mandatory and I don't want to live my life cowering to a non-lethal virus.

Arruda and Legault must resist this temptation.

The doctors are once again banging on a 'precautionary principle' drum warning a second wave is coming. But this is not a certainty. Why condition people into a habit based once again on data that doesn't support the claim?

Why do we ham fist a required behaviour on baseless claims?

"...Nima Machouf said covering your face is an inexpensive measure that has been proven to effectively reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. 

Pending the development of a vaccine, masks are now recognized as an essential tool to restore some normalcy in our lives and reconnect with the people and activities we love,” Machouf said. “Researchers in epidemic modeling say that for the measure to be effective, 80 per cent of the population must wear a mask.” 

If I were Machouf, I wouldn't be using the words 'effective' and 'essential' when it comes to masks. The literature on that is far from conclusive so I'm going to call out the bull shit here. The literature simply doesn't conclude either way regarding effectiveness. In Norway, for example, distancing is recommended before wearing a mask. 

The idea we will stop pandemics are both dangerous and insipid. Worse, doing it by scaring people with the 'pending vaccine' angle is beyond the pale in my view. 

Furthermore, is Machouf suggesting that without a mandatory mask we can't be with loved ones? If he is, well, let's just say I won't comply and let him use a health issue to dictate how I live my life. Nor should anyone. 

Quick word on Khadir who made an appearance in the article. He's a Quebec Solidaire socialist so it's only fitting he supports anything that's mandatory. Mandatory and coercion are natural fits for the left. But let's be frank here. He's probably the sort of public health official who would on one end chastise business owners who protest lockdowns but be in full support partaking in BLM protests. So let's keep in mind who may be part of this push.

Sometimes you just have to say, 'Thanks doc, but no thanks.'

People are likely to engage in risky behavior when, for example, they should be self isolating. 

It demands and forces a new cultural norm is, as far as the inconclusive data shows, useless. For example, the only mask shown to be effective is the N-95 and KF-94. Anything beyond this is hit or miss. So why do it? Not to mention a box of those surgical masks are extremely expensive so how will people be able to pay for it on an on-going basis? How can it possibly be enforced? Is this a hill they want to die on? Why do we always take the worst ideas from other places? No where has it been mandated outside a couple of spots in the world. 

I reject the idea of spending the rest of my life never seeing the face of people I interact with.

What kind of a sad existence do we want? I watch footage from Asia with people talking to each other in masks as if nothing. Maybe it's part of their culture and how they roll, but it strikes me as a joyous life always cowering in fear.

We shouldn't even bother opening this Pandora's Box. We've already done enough damage as it is.

The best play here for the government is to encourage protocols and leave it at that. Let us do the rest. We are, after all, a free society.

Civil liberties shouldn't be suspended for the collective so easily.

Once you pick at it, it becomes easier and easier to do it until you're stripped of all liberties and personal agency.


2020-06-08

Daily Derp: Remember Corona Virus? Pepperidge Farms Remembers

The unintended consequences.

I've lost track of these articles. 

"The brief notes that if the country fails to invest in solutions that can help heal the nation’s isolation, pain, and suffering, the collective impact of COVID-19 will be even more devastating. Three factors, already at work, are exacerbating deaths of despair: unprecedented economic failure paired with massive unemployment, mandated social isolation for months and possible residual isolation for years, and uncertainty caused by the sudden emergence of a novel, previously unknown microbe.


*****

"....These facts have led me to the following conclusions. Everyone will be exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and most people will become infected. COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire in all countries, but we do not see it—it almost always spreads from younger people with no or weak symptoms to other people who will also have mild symptoms. This is the real pandemic, but it goes on beneath the surface, and is probably at its peak now in many European countries. There is very little we can do to prevent this spread: a lockdown might delay severe cases for a while, but once restrictions are eased, cases will reappear. I expect that when we count the number of deaths from COVID-19 in each country in 1 year from now, the figures will be similar, regardless of measures taken."

*****

I know Sweden is second guessing itself but it shouldn't. 

*****

Canadian government ads in the future: Force people into debt, then warn them about being forced into debt. Bow to The Great Pandemic Deal.

*****

The Canadian government play tough with the US/Canada border but not so much when it came to shutting down travel from China.

******

"...Miguel Boggiano, one of Argentina’s most prominent liberals in the media, announced on his social media that his quarantine ends on May 11. Following his comment, the economist had a hard time with the ruling party’s journalist Pablo Duggan, who called him an “anarchist” on his Radio 10 program. In Boggiano’s opinion, the government has seriously violated individual freedoms within the scope of the quarantine, which is still in force."

*****

Oregon bullies and badgers hair salon owners and even sends one of the worst agencies in the Federal  arsenal in CPS after her. 

But riots...A-OTAY!

In this case, it's woman on woman cat fighting.

Still think woman are more 'compassionate', Mr. Pinker?

*****

Democrats have abandoned civil liberties. You think? 

Not just that. Law & Order too.

Here's something to chew on: Notice a pattern that seems to be more than coincidental.

Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago are all cities firmly embedded into the Democrat plantation machine. Seattle and Portland are on their way.

Look at them. Either they're hell holes or teetering on it.

New York is another one about to face some reality. If Denver doesn't watch itself, progressives will cancel their city. And Texas may be well-served to keep them at bay in Austin. Houston is already going purple. And watch out Idaho. Californians will bring their shitty Democrat lunacy to your quiet state.

And the latest to fall is Minneapolis.

Democrat voters in these places rather than balance things out with the GOP have taken to voting for socialist Democrats at various levels. In other words, they shifted to the left.

It's no surprise they now wallow in the misery they find themselves including loss of civil liberties.

It's not a coincident, again, that the states that went most authoritarians were Democrat.

*****

Restriction fetish.

I think this is a medical term now.

Updated: Obama Conducting Shadow Government As Revelations Of His Behavior During Flynn And Russian Collusion Paint A Picture Of A Rogue Administration; Pulitzer Awards NYT And WaPo Prize For Playing Part In Fake News






Remember the 'Trump never listens to the Generals?'

Yeh. Porjetion. Obama wasn't so good at it either. 



Yet, Obama keeps conducing his shadow government.

He orchestrated a plan to derail the smooth transition of a President and now serves to undermine him.

Makes you wonder why?

*******

The above are just scratching the surface. I recommend watching 'Part of the Problem' and then look at the articles the NYT and Wapo published that garnered them a Pulitzer.

'For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration. (The New York Times entry, submitted in this category, was moved into contention by the Board and then jointly awarded the Prize.)"

WOW. The is worse than Obama the Drone Murderer wining a Nobel Peace Prize before he even took office.

This is rather tragic and no longer amusing. These people are corroded with the same kind of delusional disconnection from reality as those useful idiot journalists who make the farcical claim the protests were largely peaceful as buildings burn behind them.

If some police forces are mired in perpetual corruption, the Pulitzer Prize is on the same footing.

There's no way in hell with all that we know about the fabrication and lies about the Russia narrative to conclude those rags actually did the people a service. You can but conclude it's a sleazy racket where insiders just bum tap each other for a 'job well done'. In this case, protecting their Democrat plantation masters.

The farce of it all is palpable.

There is no journalism; there's narrative creativity and for the narrative gulpers.

We live in two parallel universes now. Where truth lives in one world and truth goes to get murdered.



Daily Derp: Derp Lives Matter: Amidst Protests Governments Lose Covid-19 Lockdown Plot And More!

This post is very simple.

Thousands of people protested across North America. Though I'm not entirely sure why Europe is jumping on this bandwagon. That's a continent with racism that would make America blush. You just don't see in North America the sort of overt racism I've witnessed in Europe. They have their own damn problems.

As for Canada, I get it more because we're basically one civilization and we do have some police issues. But our police forces aren't as militarized and don't have the kind of budgets they have in the USA. I understand it's to show 'solidarity' but again not sure what the point is. And the fact Pinko Justin was taking a knee should make one ponder about the spectacle of it all.

The notion of 'systemic racism' is dubious. That's a term the left loves to use to prove racism is real. By the way, if you're white you're part of that 'systemic' calculus whether you like it or not. I, obviously, completely reject it because it's not a thing and raw data and statistics back this up.

Let's keep the criminal riots out of this for now. I will say the normalizing of it under the guise of justice is just about as irresponsible and morally repugnant as it gets. Two wrongs don't make a right and I don't believe this was needed to get the wheels of justice working in this case.

It's true police do get away with a lot thanks, in part, to things like qualified immunity as well as abuse power because of asset forfeiture. I will discuss statistics about how blacks fare in the system (which in many ways is indeed broken) more in another post.

I find it hilarious (in a frightening way) to watch prosecutors like Kamala Harris who while in power made sure the police kept their boot on the necks of the poor, act like she's some kind of civil rights leader. She's an immoral, opportunistic cretin.

If government allowed this then there is NO rationale to keep people from having funerals for loved ones. You can't televise a funeral for George Floyd where nobody social distanced and keep people from doing the same. It's not only preposterous, it's malicious at this point.

There is NO scientific rationale to continue on this ludicrous track. It's a direct attack on people's rights to assemble because the government is deciding for us.

Tell you what. North Americans will have to decide if they want this 'benign communism' or an actual democracy rooted in liberty. That is, do they want to be GOVERNED or RULED?

Note to Canadian politicians: You lost the plot. You have no choice but to open up now. Clinging on to 'super spreader' notion threatens to make you all, already in a precarious state where credibility is concerned, laughing stocks.

Ah but never under estimate the power of leftists to spin things into places any person of sound mind could possibly go.


Law enforcement violence is a public health issue. So is #COVID19. Not shocking that they both feed heavily from the systemic racism that costs black lives. Ask instead how can people afford not to protest?

It is in the interest of public health because racism.

Got that?

But people who wanted to go back to work in order to feed their families was not a public health crisis. Neither was the rise in suicides, domestic wife and child abuse and other social ramifications.

Kids in particular have experienced hire levels of anxiety thanks to health hucksters like you.

And these are MEASURABLE trade offs.

Racism less so.

Rachel, take your 'MD' credentials and shove it up your ass.

Actually, people like you who engage in this kind of selective identity politics are a threat to public health.

Boy this pandemic really flushed out into the open what kind of public health officials we have.

*****


Outside the true believers, this is who you run of the mill thoughtless useful idiots are kneeling for. 

An organization that basically calls for segregation and communism under some tattered and shattered vision of utopian-unicorned social justice. This is all just gibberish.  They're more Malcolm X than Martin Luther King.

I understand you want to do right. We all do.


This is bound to fail. 

Burning down cities only leaves a legacy of destruction. What did it get anyone after Baltimore,  Detroit, Newark, Philadelphia and Los Angeles? Some of these cities never really recovered. And you can add Minneapolis to this list.

In the words of the great Thomas Sowell:

"People sometimes ask if I have tried to convince black “leaders” to take a different view on racial issues. Of course not. I wouldn't spend my time trying to persuade the mafia to give up crime. Why should I spend time trying to convince race hustlers to give up victimhood?"

Malcolm Jenkins cries.

I always find it hilarious to listen to uneducated millionaire athletes call others 'ignorant' through emotional screeds and bullying like Lebron and Jenkins did to Drew Brees.


What was done to Brees was pretty shocking in its stupidity and mob mentality.

Jenkins also misrepresented what he said. It's a shame few - if any - fellow players defended Brees' right to his opinion and free speech. Aaron Rodgers could have stepped up and be a real man but instead chose to play faux-rigthteous cop and piled onto Brees.

These guys are who we thought they were: Just dumb jocks with way too much money who act like they have a brain but little sense of principles and honor. 

All they had to do was say, 'Hey, we disagree with Drew. But he's entitled to his opinion'. That's it. That's respect. 

Instead, hey whined like little bitches engaging in mob rule. But they made him repent and grovel. All that was left to do was to brand him with a letter and make him do a lap of shame.

I'm done with all sports and sports programming. Bunch of lemmings. 

*****

Earlier this week, Theresa Tam warned there 'could be an explosion in cases if we mishandle reopening'.

Emphasis mine.

Strange word to use, no?

And it's by design. Namely to keep people scared.

She could have conveyed this message without resorting to such words which easily conjure up images of explosions and dynamite. That's what the government was aiming for.

*****


*****

What a stupid, illogical, illiberal, anti-science,  mess all this is.

It's enough to turn healthy skeptics into cynics.

Consider:

1) Lockdowns based on faulty data. 
2) Cowering in our homes while engaging in hero worshipping, empty slogans and pathetic nationalism.
3) Refusal to shut borders because it would be racist.
4) Idiot politicians sending infected patients into nursing homes and then doubling down on their idiocy making citizens pay for their idiocy.
5) Arbitrary reopening protocols and refusal to change them with evolving data and information. 
6) Mocking of protestors who wanted to end the unconstitutional lockdown and the punitive measures that ridiculously came with it.
7) The price paid by children as we projected our fears onto them.
8) Demands to stay home, social distance and wear masks.....six months too late.
9) But then allow thousands to protest and riot.
10) Terrible understanding of statistics. 
11) Normalizing of rioting and excusing it.
12) Fear of insulting China. 
13) China not informing the world on time while apologists defended them.
14) Rise of the authoritarian leader and the tyranny of public health for the greater good.