YOU DON’T KNOW COVID
Prudence has often commented on the casual mendacity of politicians, and that quality of theirs is troubling enough. New depths are plumbed, however, when hundreds of appointed, elected and hired “officials” agree to lie together for some tawdry political purpose. Many lie without knowing what that purpose even is. Suffice to say that the greatest power on Earth is unified belief, including evil belief.
Like the man or not, honest observers, liberals included, have to agree that hatred of Donald Trump inspired some of the most virulent and congruent political lying our nation has ever experienced. Virtually all of the lies have been exposed for what they were. Dishonest observers retain belief in many of those lies and have convinced themselves that because of what they perceive as true there is no possibility of compromise or even courtesy towards those who believe that the lies were, in fact, falsities. This mish-mash of lies and truths and the distrust of so many for so many others, provided the perfect breeding ground for the most widespread political lying yet: the Covid-19 pandemic.
It appears that only in the United States, where Donald Trump is running for re-election, has the Covid-19 epidemic played a significant part in the unseating of a government. Many countries have been hit hard by the initial attacks of the new, somewhat engineered, coronavirus that China spread across the world, but only in the United States has this medical threat been politicized. At the same time, and again, only in the U. S., leftist thugs have chosen the same moment to riot in dozens of cities. That resulted from a completely different set of lies from those told about Covid-19, and this isn’t the place to recount them, but the confluence of the two, essentially unique events, is itself unique and conveniently coincident in a political sense.
But “Covid” provided – and provides – a rich harvest of public policies – all left-leaning and largely unconstitutional – that are serving to twist electoral politics and sway votes based – on – half-truths – and outright lies. Everything from business and religious lockdowns, intrusions into personal properties and lives, and the enforcement of personal actions like mask-wearing, are based on half-truths at best, complete untruths at mid-range, or utter falsehoods at worst.
Americans have been misled. We hear constantly how many of us have died… DIED, from this awful scourge, now totaling some 169,000… THOUSAND(!) poor souls struck down by a disease that the Trump administration practically spread on purpose because all those people who work for Trump hate the rest of us. Remove the silliness from that sentence and we’re left with a statistic that is meaningless. The CDC counts “deaths” as people who died WITH Covid, not FROM Covid. Why would bureaucrats count such a serious phenomenon in such a flaccid way? Even people who died in accidents but who happened to test positive for Covid, are counted as Covid deaths. What good is a “statistic” like this?
Well, this half-truth serves erstwhile dictators who need to induce fear to gain compliance. There were reasons for fear in late February and March of this year. First, the virus protein was altered in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, from a corona (shaped) virus that existed in weird, ugly bats! Few of us know much about bats in the first place, and most of us are a little fearful of them, thanks to various horror movies. A wonderment for the average person was: “Who the Hell cares what kind of viruses exist in Chinese bats?” Fair question. It was totally rational to be afraid of the entry of a bat virus into humans, especially from such ugly creatures as Chinese horseshoe bats. The researchers who first discovered the bat-source of the SARS-like novel coronavirus, were certainly frightened.
Another reason for fear, then, was China-caused rapid spread of the new virus around the world, especially in the middle East and Europe, areas where China had developed intensive trade relationships and to where Chinese personnel were traveling in large numbers. Scary numbers of cases. A third reason for fear… then, was that the U. S. was not sure what to do or how to do it to contain or prevent the disease, and all kinds of directives were being issued and soon abandoned in favor of other directives. People, officials, with no medical background were creating public policy on the fly upon the advice of medicos who were often wrong. But recommendations quickly became economic shutdown dictates. Americans’ private properties were being stripped from them without compensation in the hopes that stopping commerce would stop the virus.
It certainly stopped commerce.
Oddly, maybe, the most Democrat-controlled jurisdictions have imposed the tightest restrictions on business. Despite improving knowledge from Europe and Scandinavia, governors and mayors insisted on ever-tighter lockdowns. Amazingly, State and Municipal employees didn’t lose their incomes, nor were they forced onto unemployment or furloughed or, simply, fired. When a governor said “We’re all in this together,” he was really saying, “YOU’RE all in this together. I and everyone else who is paid by the state, we’re pretty much divorced from your problems, especially if you lose your business or your job. We will borrow some money – from YOU – to pretend to care about you today.”
So who is benefitting from tight, anti-business and anti-religious lockdowns? Certainly not the people who own or work at those businesses, nor the ministers, priests, choir directors or secretaries who work at places of worship, certainly not the believers whose unfettered right to worship has been soundly fettered without debate or legislation, and certainly not all the people who depended upon those shuttered businesses for their daily living, health, recreation, library services or exercise routines. So, who, exactly?
Is it all to keep healthy people from coming down with Covid? Maybe… that’s what we are told to justify forcing everyone to wear masks when outdoors at pain of monetary fines and even apprehension should we ‘fail to follow the law.’ Except that it’s not a law, it’s a gubernatorial impulse or, sometimes worse, a mayoral one. If asked, those worthies would declare adherence to “CDC” advice and the implied fulfillment of “science” because of that connection. Of course there is no science that informs us of the efficacy of masks or other face coverings, although you’d think there must be because elected officials clearly care so much about saving lives. Indeed, they care so much that they are willing to implore us to endure the discomfort of masks and, even better, to distrust anyone who isn’t wearing a mask. In fact, we should no longer trust anyone to not be about to spray us with Covid-laden spittle.
Did you know that hospitals are rewarded, in a sense, by up to $25,000 for treating a Covid-19 patient who dies in the hospital? That accident victim who died WITH Covid was worth $25 Grand if the right box was checked for C.O.D. Follow the money for the outrageous total of Covid deaths. China, our far-eastern friend who blessed the world with Covid-19, has 4.34 times as many people as the United States and about 5 times the population density. Yet, miracle of miracles, the U.S. has THIRTY-SIX AND A HALF TIMES as many Covid deaths. Ignorant governors… and malevolent ones, have been making rules to barely live by, based on BS statistics designed to hurt the President of the United States: an odd way to execute public policy.
Now the big battle is re-opening schools… because of the need to protect the children, don’t you see? School-age children, say, 5 to 17 years, are so slightly impacted by Covid that it is nearly impossible to state their Covid death rate in terms of percentage: the decimal point is too many places to the left. But despite the desire of most teachers to teach, their unions have hamstrung craven politicians into “hybrid” schooling (some education / some goofing off) for the Fall and beyond in some cases, or long delays in re-opening, as if they’d only just heard of Covid-19. Teachers are all college educated and it would be reasonable to expect them to know and follow the latest approximations of “science” in judging the safety of schools reopening with real teachers and real students. But, apparently not.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, not only did the teachers’ union force delays in reopening, they forced the county to prevent private schools from reopening, as well, all of which, essentially, were prepared to open safely. The county refused to even examine their reopening plans, citing the fact that public schools weren’t going to open, as if it mattered. Private schools are generally smaller, more lightly staffed and better able to enforce social distancing and other rules, and, it seems, more committed to real education.
The more one sees the tactics of various “public” employee unions – particularly teachers’ unions, one sees that worries about Covid are largely political and financial. Between home-schooling and private schools, the grand government school monopolies are threatened as never before, as is the hyper-sexualized, white evil oppression, bull-bleep they spend so much class time on as if educating. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
What will come of nightly riots and mayhem in major cities? Would the changes demanded by the anarchists and BLM Marxists make America stronger, fairer or more beautiful? Not a chance. If police departments closed down, incarcerations ended and white people gave up their homes to black screamers and haters, would the demands for the relinquishing of all white possessions end? No. Kow-towing to rioters or other thugs has never ended the thuggery… it simply increases the level of demands and changes the targets. In fact, changing public policy on the terms of rioters instead of on society’s carefully considered terms, is the stupidest path any responsible leader could follow. The stupidest.
How is it that so many people are holding office at this moment whose decisions to respond to public mayhem are all the stupidest of available choices? Have these mayors and governors always hated the United States or are they mere cowards? We know how several District Attorneys got elected with the help of socialist money – anti-American money, but are there no “lawmakers” who can craft legislation that will provide for their removal if they fail to prosecute criminals? Or even laws that require that EVERY case be brought to court even if unenthusiastically? Or shall public safety and the fulfillment of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments be at the whim of a single person without constraint of law?
What do we actually believe about our civil rights? It’s silly enough to wear masks outdoors, please don’t put on blinders, too.