A Novel Suggestion

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A month ago, most Americans weren’t ready to accept the Green New Deal – and a plethora of green taxes –  because they were told the “climate” was supposedly in “crisis.”

A month later, many Americans seem willing to accept anything – even including house arrest in perpetuity – because of green phlegm.

A nasty bug – vs. a very nasty police state. Which do you prefer to risk? The possibility – or the certainty?

In Stalin’s Soviet Union, disagreeing with Stalin was pathologized – as well as criminalized. You were sick if you questioned the regime. An enemy of the people. Today, people who question the assumption of Stalinist powers by the government in the name of sickness are being pathologized – soon to be criminalized. Hut! Hut! Hutted! … for leaving the house.

A few thousand people have apparently died of Corona or with it – a distinction that should be made but isn’t. An 85-year-old who gets sick and dies because he developed pneumonia – because Corona or because the common cold – really died of old age. How many people who are just dying – this happens, every day – are being lumped in with the Corona Dying?

The fact is we don’t know – and have good reason to suspect what we are being told.

There is also a difference between between “cases” reported and the number of people who have – or had – this bug.

The bug seems to be very infectious. So is the common cold. But it also seems to be not-very-lethal, which is really important. Or you’d think it would be.

Most – almost all – who have gotten Corona have recovered from it. On the order of 95-plus percent and quite possibly closer to 98 percent. 

This includes, I believe, myself – as well as a large number of people who were never identified as having had it. Who got over it. Without being put on a ventilator or even going to see a doctor. We may have had Corona before the hype about Corona suspended rational discussion.

At any rate, we know the majority of “cases” are not representative of the whole because the whole has not been tested. The cases reported are therefore a stilted sample and by dint of this, the projected death rate is questionable.

We also know that the number of deaths, while significant, aren’t Black Death numbers.

If they were, the police state would not be necessary – because it would be obvious that it was the Black Death. If bodies were stacking up like cordwood, people would bolt their own doors, no “shelter in place” edicts required.

But the bodies are not stacking up. Even in New York City, a city of 18.8 million – where about 1,200 have died, supposedly from (or with) Corona. How many people die in a city of 18.8 million every day – from all kinds of things?

How about one every 9 minutes? That’s how many per day

Yes, really – from the horse’s mouth itself. This is pre-Corona. 

We are being asked – being told, at gunpoint  – to accept the near-elimination of every freedom that makes life a life as opposed to merely being alive – by the same people who – just a month ago – had been asking the same for the sake of the “climate crisis.”

This is grounds for extreme suspicion – and caution. Not about the bug.

About them. Their motives. Their selective fact-picking (and fact-ignoring). Their leveraging of fear to achieve what didn’t sell before.

It is nothing less than halting how many people – of all political persuasions – are unquestioningAre placidly acceding to essentially dictatorial control. Both the fact  of it and the precedent of it.

Watching Netflix and chilling as the economy implodes. Come next winter they may indeed be chilling – because they’re outside, living in a tent. Or because there’s no heat inside, if they’re still living in the house they can’t make the mortgage or rent on anymore.

This alone will cause something Corona hasn’t – mass and massive hardship – possibly mass death by starvation and general impoverishment. One hundred years ago, children routinely died for want of basic sanitation and nutrition. We are about to return to 100 years ago. How does the hot water flow and the ‘fridge stay full when mom and dad are broke and the power has been turned off, which it will be, inevitably. Just as the rest of the Free Things will eventually stop flowing when no one is producing them anymore – even if the Fed is printing

We are risking the destruction of civilization – this is not hyperbole – because a few thousand people have died of or with Corona. About 25 percent of whom are elderly and vulnerable to the common cold inducing pneumonia – and another large percentage with underlying health problems.

And because more may.

This is reasonable to you?

It isn’t to me. Just as pre-Corona I was arguing the unreasonableness of the extreme (because unjustified by the facts) “solutions” urged to prevent the “climate crisis.”

What has changed to suspend critical thinking and cost-benefit analysis to this insane degree?

Even if The Worst Case Scenarios – dialed back already – do come true, the imposition of a police state that ranks with Stalin’s Soviet Union – where people were at least still free to go outside – is not worth it.

Because living in a gulag is not living. It is existing. And that ought to make Americans sick. 

I don’t wear a helmet while I ride a motorcycle because the the “increased safety” isn’t worth it to me – and so I don’t wear one. Or wouldn’t if I were allowed not to. 

Increasingly, no one is allowed to do anything. Because we are not permitted to make risk-reward assessments for ourselves anymore, these risks being invariably low, the rewards invariably high.

Hence the need to not allow us to take the risks. We might get ideas.

Might actually live our own lives again.

Where does “the government” – these people who control the apparat of government and have armed enforcers at their beck and call – get the moral right to make risk-reward assessments for anyone, ever? 

Whether buckling up for saaaaaaaaaafety – or a police state because saaaaaaaaaaaaaafety?

Here’s a novel idea: Let those among us who are willing to risk Corona enjoy the rewards of living as free men and women; if we get sick, we’ll deal with it – and as part of the deal, we agree to not impose any “costs” on those “concerned” about the risks of the bug.

In exchange for the “concerned” not imposing their cost on us, before they even exist.

. . .

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128 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Eric,

    Thanks for another great article. I enjoy reading your take on things and find I share similar views. Even with similar views there are things you’ve discussed that give me yet another vantage to stand on when navigating a society where fewer people are capable of critical thought.

    With that said, I want to be able to rely on sources I quote or recommend to others for a dose of reality, away from the mainstream. The New York City population number I’ve seen is actually around 8 million, not the statewide number of 18. 19.5 according to 2018 Census. I only mention this as it’s obviously an oversight or incorrect data at another source, or maybe my link! Either way, it’s not meant to quibble, only to bring to your attention in hopes of avoiding accusations of “sensationalism” or “rigging” numbers. Mind you, those with a closed mind will find fault in anything counter to their view. Though, others on the fence might gain confidence in solid info and slowly turn away from the siren call of CNN, MSNBC, CBC and the rest of their ilk. That’s my hope anyway.

    Thanks again for all the content you produce and my apologies that my first comment was a critique.

    https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newyorkcitynewyork,NY/PST045219

  2. You know the answer. Most people weigh the pros and cons and regardless of their personal opinion, they feel constrained to go along with the crowd. What alternative do most folks have? Even if they’re willing to risk the consequences to themselves, they have those who depend on them to think about.

    Mass impoverishment is on our doorstep. We’ve known that. So have the bad guys. Whether accidental or planned in advance, this bug is the pin that’s needed to prick the bubble. The world of 1984, which many young folks don’t find disturbing, is life in modern times.

    Creating self-sustaining community, to the extent possible, among like-minded friends and family is the best option, but even there, it’s not gonna change the way the world turns. Thelma and Louise went out in a blaze of glory, God bless them, but they’re the exceptions.

    • I disagree. Because it’s untrue of/in the cuckoo’s nest. Because it is contra asylum “reality.”

      The motive-mostest does not arise out of weighing pros & cons & sacrificing personal opinion on the altar of the constraining crowd/crown.

      What most people want, more than anything, is to be crowd-crowned. To see how others are seeing, & to see that way, too.

      Consensus.

      Conned census (which I keep getting mailers with “IT’S THE LAW” & threatening to send “interviewers” to extract the required information…)

      So, in context of my little anecdote about the latest “doctor”…

      The money tolls do have to be paid to the Black Knights to get the scrips access they stand in front of; there’s little choice but to be skinned that way, at this juncture.

      But what doesn’t have to be paid, cannot be forced to be paid, is the psychic remuneration most of the M(engele)F(rankenstein)s are just as hungry for. The psyche/emotional deference & respect they demand to be fed so they can feed it back into the slow-leak manufactured (out of raw material you, the “patient”) self-image they are compelled to keep pumped-up maintained.

      Unless it does have to be paid.

      Unless the “patient” is just as eager to see it the way the doc sees it.

      Which most “patients” are, in exclamatory fact, eager to do.

      Going down is not the problem that threatens most. Not going down together is.

      (Going Down Together is title to a good book on Bonnie & Clyde. Unlike Thelma & Louise, none of that was glorious.)

  3. Its a bluff. Like an internal border check asking you to pop your trunk. Say no. They can’t make you sans reasonable suspicion.

    Likewise, unless they know you have the virus, they can’t order you anywhere…or they can say what they want. intimidate, bluster, but you may go about your biz

    Look at Californias decree. Governor ordered every person to “heed” some health official. Heed means consider thoughtfully.

    Every person is presumed innocent/healthy and gets due process. But you’ve gotta grow a pair, plant your feet, and say i know the law…go away.

    Then be prepared to go settle things in court.
    LEARN THE LAW
    Learn civics!
    We have the best law on Earth

      • What “we” (never) had was fait accompli’d to become what “we” (still don’t) have.

        Common law precedents, piece by piece, the straitjacket exoskeleton.

        The “living law” same as the “living (law of the land) constitution” is parasitical infestation. It expands until there is nothing left to consume.

        Then the parasitism collapses.
        But does not go extinct.
        The parasites begin “building” anew.

      • I would argue that our anglo-saxon/English ancestors in the period after the fall of the Roman Empire and prior to the rise of powerful English kings had the best law on earth. See Hogue, A. R., Origins Of The Common Law (1985), Hasnas, J. Hayek, The Common Law and Fluid Drive (2005), The Obviousness of Anarchy (2008), The Myth of the Rule of Law (1995), Thompson, E. P., Customs in Common (1991), Benson, B. L., The Enterprise of Law. Justice Without the State (1990), among others. Prior to the strong Kings, customary law had established tort and customary law traditions with the features of 1) a predominant concern for individual rights and private property 2) laws enforced by victims backed by reciprocal agreements 3) standard adjudicative procedures established to avoid violence 4) offenses treated as torts punishable by economic restitution 5) strong incentives for the guilty to yield to prescribed punishment due to the threat of social ostracism and 6) legal change via an evolutionary process of developing customs and norms. As the kings became wealthier and more powerful, they established tax subsidised royal courts, which were able to eventually win all the legal services business of the land by undercutting the competition. The Crown waas then able to both extend its power over feudal lords and raise significant revenue through a combination of superior coercive power to command, and genuinely superior service to entice parties to bring their disputes to royal courts. The kings, and clear up to the here and now, then added more and more of the morally deficient statutory laws and we’re still doing it. See, for a couple of well known examples, fugitive slave laws and the Nuremberg laws against jews.

        • More great stuff,Mr. Gold – thank you for adding this to the discussion; as an amateur historian I’m familiar with and interested in the era, especially pre-Norman (Saxon) England, a period of history that is curiously neglected by most government school curricula.

        • The mystery of history’s the compulsive need to end history, usually if not always ‘neath the rubric of “making history” (if not framed thus & so by the megalomaniacal smash & grabbers themselves, then by the apologist historians that make bread & buttah’ outta’ mythology…meth•ology’s the methodology: crank it up, hair o’ the dog, never come down ‘til yer liver frowns…then, if you’re David Crosby-esque, replace the liver & the addiction\s…lather-rinse-repeat…in the filthiest shared water grok-less brothers can make – not as if those can make any other kind…remind me, what’d old man Ford say history was?…& I’ll remind you: the guy in the other bunk is a homo sapientless rapist…be vigilant all the time, & maybe especially when it’s time to ablute…)…

          …&/or the glorious window breaking that is the pursuit of “something larger” than the individual selves sacrificed to the melt-down-is-up pot, & the altars of law of large numbers religions.

          Conservatism’s peyronie’s hyper-sociopathic bent is to roll it up & shut it down. A Stop sign is that compulsion’s most appropriate symbol. Corpses in rolled up area rugs is that compulsion’s unendingly rolling product cycle.

          Troughs betwixt peaks in the bone saw ain’t rule proving exceptions, or better auld lang synes than the stop signs…those crenellations are just part of the serration that leads ineluctably from one limb-lop to the next decapitation to the next evisceration ∞…

          …or, nits do indeed make lice…

          …& nitwits loves ‘em some licentious leaders…esp treble-hooked…executive-judicial-legislative…father-son-ghost…yin-yang-yong…3-card montezuma’s hall vengeance (my kingdom for 2 squares o’ TP )…lather-rinse-repeat.

          https://www.clausewitzstudies.org/images/YinYangYongOpt.jpg

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocudepyO90Y&t=153s

          Peeps is mainly costco quantity packs.

          Cuz the theory that pushes down the skeery is quantity solves for poor packaging (with contents disregarded entirely cuz pressurized osmotic “education” fills in all tabula rasa’s).

          One or a few’s just a hot mess. But fused bunches & bunches begets a beautiful critical mass o’ bomb squadlings.

          “What’s your sign? Besides the obvious Stop!, I mean. I’m a cancer…let’s blow each other…up…\wards & onwards…the many, the proud, the smithereens!

    • Technically you’re right, Mike. But America’s Swinest to have the means to inconvenience you and your family hugely if you “resist” their demands in any way. Fortunately most cops are normal and decent people though a few are loutish and ignorant buffoons, which of course is true of the population at large

  4. “America is in that awkward stage ; it’s too late to work within the system , but to early to shoot the bastards. ”
    –Claire Wolfe (1996)
    Um, is it time yet ?

  5. COVID-19 is not a pandemic. In the case of a real pandemic there are issues with your novel suggestion. As an Anarcho-Capitalist / Voluntaryist / Libertarian / Private Property Societyist the NAP or ZAP is a guide.

    A person with a condition that is likely to harm another not only has responsibilities to contain their condition but has diminished freedom in regard to exposing others to their condition.

    Edward Scissorhands needs to reveal his scissorhands before shaking hands with another. Edward also does not have as much freedom to touch another with his scissorhands as those with “normal” hands. Edward has lost some of his freedoms due to his condition. As does a person with a communicable ailment.

    A person with a communicable ailment may not have symptoms. The dangers of the ailment is a factor and will likely vary from person to person. These are just some of the complications we face in this time of hyper-everything.

    • Hi Alex,

      “Likely to harm” is a hugely subjective slippery slope. “Likely”? According to whom? Based on what?

      According to some, people who “speed” are “likely to harm” others – there are almost 40,000 deaths annually and many are “speed related,” according to Clovers – ergo, it is legitimate to use violence to punish “speeders.”

      Your argument amounts to the same thing.

      Harm caused is an objective – and thus, equitable – standard. My driving 80 on a highway with a 65 MPH speed limit harms no one, as such. If you punish me for it, without my having caused any harm, you are doing me an injustice. A hypothetical risk of harm does not rise to the standard of causing harm. At least, not by Libertarian standards.

      Edward Scissorhands has scissorhands. Most of us do not have a lethal virus. Yet all of us are being punished as though we do.

      Put another way, millions of us are being harmed – not “likely,” are being harmed – on the basis of an asserted “likely,” which is unreasonable in itself as well as unsupported by the facts.

      Anyone with a mild cold could transmit same to an elderly person, who may develop pneumonia and might die from it. Most of those dying “from” this virus are in fact dying from old age and immune system weakness.

      Does this justify turning the entire country into a prison? Do you consider that a Libertarian response?

      • Alex, you are not a libertarian.
        Murray Rothbard answered many questions like yours in great detail. Read it if you want to become libertarian.

        • Jack,
          I have read Rothbard and have great respect for him. I am absolutely sure Rothbard would consider me a good libertarian. But he was a man not a god. Even his disciples Hoppe and Block have disagreements with him.
          Please give me specific Rothbard or anyone else’s writings that I can read to help with these issues.

      • Eric,
        I do not disagree. This is a very slippery slope. The shades of gray are many.
        Consider this: If you have a condition that would make you unable to operate a vehicle would you not expect to be limited in operating a vehicle? And if you harmed someone in operating a vehicle beyond those limits would you expect to be punished the same way or in a more harsh manner than one who has no conditions that limit their abilities?
        Who decides? For now bureaucrats. In the PPS I would like to see it would be property owners.

        • Hi Alex,

          My criteria as regards the operation of a motor vehicle is simply – is the person in control of his vehicle or not? “Conditions” are another of those slippery-slope things. I don’t really care if a man with no arms drives – provided he’s good enough with his legs to maintain control. It’s only an issue when he loses control – and causes harm.

          • Eric,

            Please understand that I am a friendly fo and respect you opinion.

            I do not care how many arms a person has. Two, zero, ten, they deserve the same freedoms as everyone else.

            Most of us reading EPA are anti-government so lets say we live in a PPS. I para-phrase Lew Rockwell that we would be better of without the government but we are still in favor of governance.

            You have no arms and want to drive on my property. I make all drivers pass a test to drive on my property. You armlessly cannot pass my test. You have been driving for years with no arms and have not caused any injuries or property damage so disregard my rules and drive on my property. Whether or not you cause damage do I have the right to punish you, if only by banning you from my property?

            Lets take another extreme. A real pandemic that infects everyone that comes within the magic six feet of those that are infected and where everyone that is infected dies a grim death. To further ad traction to this slippery-slope lets go to another extreme and say as soon as a person becomes infectious they experience a pain that is know to be and can only be attributed to the pandemic. Does a person who has developed this pain loose any of their freedoms? Can this carrier go into public, try to stay six feet away from everyone and claim that they did not force anyone to come within six feet of them therefore they are not liable if someone becomes infected by them?

            • Hi Alex,

              I hope we are on the same page – and don’t disagree at all with your point that a property owner has every right to set “terms and conditions.” But the roads are not private property. We are forced to pay for them – and they are the de facto “right of way” – which we have a right to use. The government – i.e., “those people” – has no right to suspend our right to travel, nor to deny use of the roads which we’ve been forced to pay for and which we are effectively forced to use, as they have supplanted and become what was once the common right of way.

              Why do you keep offering up these “extreme” (your word) scenarios when we are discussing the actual/real one? It’s as though you are trying to justify this “lock down.”

              Just like the government is doing.

              Your “what if” scenario in re the pandemic is akin to the person who tries to justify punishing “speeders” by bringing up the scenario of the guy driving 100 MPH through a school zone.

              It’s possible, certainly. But it’s unlikely – because among other things most people are not deliberately reckless nor suicidal. The same applies to viruses. If this WuFlu really were as dangerous as being touted – supported by evidence, such as huge numbers of otherwise healthy people becoming very sick and not recovering – most people would stay home of their own accord.

              Good ideas rarely need guns. Ask yourself why this one does.

              • We are on the same page for this C-19 situation. Recall that I opened my first comment with, “COVID-19 is not a pandemic.” As an example of my personal views and actions in regard to C-19 I donated to this https://tinyurl.com/US-Supreme-Court-Case-Filed and have been in correspondence with the law firm that has filed the case, and I do not live in Pennsylvania.

                I used extremes because doing so can be a good test for a philosophy or theory. IMO the novel idea breaks down at the extremes.

                We are a long way from a PPS. The powers that should not be (which include corporate media, crony corporations and academia) are led by sociopathic lairs. This makes for another extreme in the difficulty of determining the best actions in a real pandemic. The analogy of being drafted during war time comes to mind. As you said, “Good ideas rarely need guns.” If the threat is real most people would not need to be forced to fight in a war or to take unusual precautions regarding a cold virus.

                In our current situation we need to be diligent in trying to find accurate information, in finding expert opinions and thinking for ourselves. If it is determined that lose of freedoms is not warranted, peaceful resistance is warranted. IMO peaceful resistance is warranted in our current situation.

              • Life boat extremes are favored not to pressure test other philosophies, but to “prove” how pressure-proof utilitarianism (of whatever stripe/flavor) is.

                Despite “the greatest good for the greatest number” being the most abjectly nihilistic book-cooking “accountancy” there is…

                …it is also quicker into, & more quickening of, most hearts.

                QuickBooks market share can’t even be seen on that heart of darkness chart, without a microscope.

                “The horror! The horror!”

              • /For want of a nail the kingdom was lost./

                People who would imprison you for a possibility have no bounds. Any story can be spun to make up something plausible. They don’t even pretend “likely”; just “here’s a scenario that isn’t completely stupid.” If we accept plausible fantasies as justification for tyranny, the kingdom will truly be lost.

                People could die from automobile mistakes.
                People could die from automobile incompetence.
                People could die from automobile just plain bad luck.
                People could die from my fondness for chocolate pudding.

                It turns out that the world is not a utopian fantasy. Shit does happen. We used to believe that being free humans at liberty who dealt with shit was the best and most moral way to be. Now we have “shit must stop happening. All of it.”

                To do that, they have to have full perfect control over everything. But you know what… they can’t have perfect control. Look at the toilet paper. The first thing these people did when they started scientifically managing things is eliminate toilet paper from the market because they are too imperfect to create, let alone manage, the utopia.

                They can’t manage one trivial little disease and they think they can manage everything. As I said elsewhere, I’m waiting for them to realize nobody knows how to provide an essential service and accidentally rewrite “I, Pencil” (or Julie’s “Nobody Knows How To Make A Pizza”).

                Shit happens. Try to remember to bring some nails, but embrace the shit.

            • Oh my a “what about the roads” question.

              Here’s how I answer all such questions. Once government is reduced to the point where all it does is take care of the roads we can discuss if it should be reduced further. At that point it’s not really a government any more it’s just a public trust that takes care of the roads. The public way. I could live with that.

              As to the other, that sounds like a Star Trek plot so I would simply put McCoy or the EMH to work on it. It will be solved by the end of the episode.

      • Here’s the answer, according to the person who feels threatened, and a jury of your peers.

        I don’t have to wait for the punch to strike my nose, if you wind up, i can defend myself.
        imminent threat is the legal standard.
        And a very libertarian one.

        • Hi Michael,

          A guy who winds up to punch you is real and the guy clearly intends to harm you. The “threat” of this virus isn’t real and to claim that someone just attempting to go about his life who has done nothing to harm you intends to is absurd as well as poltroonish, tyrnanical gaslighting.

          That’s the difference.

          People who support punishing “speeders” try to use the same reasoning, by the way.

          But this virus business is a hallucinatory extrapolation.

          • When the guy winds up, it is an assault, because the threat is imminent and realistic. If he threatens by text a state over it isn’t assault. The law of torts evolved that way because ordinary people concluded that responding in the first case doesn’t increase societal violence, while responding in the second does. If the guy then batters you, then in that case too he has committed a tort.

            • Hi Mr. Gold,

              Good stuff! As opposed to the bad stuff being purveyed by people who equate a vague, subjective “threat” – someone might get sick, it’s possible someone could die – with committing assault/battery and worse, even.

    • Eddie’s hands reveal themselves.

      So do the dripping red hands, mechanical & otherwise, of states…which have been, are, & remain pandemic.

      Persons taking – which is the accurate word – their sustenance via dripping state hands are not merely likely to harm others. Harms – including diminishing others’ freedoms — are in fact such persons’ modus operandi.

      And this holds true from the base of the pyramid scheme, to the hypodermic pinnacle.

      But irresponsible non-containment is the hallmark of these sorts of people.

      That’s not a complication.

      It’s more like a hyperthyroidal feature.

      As is the eating away of muscle, bone & organ tissue – their own, & anybody else’s they can get teeth into — via a sort of thyroid storm.

      These are defective, highly contagious to each other, people. And the condition is incurable.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03JHnQCGkbk

    • Typical of this generation “giggle giggle I’ll use a fictitious movie totally unrealistic like scissors for hands to make a real world point…

      Spend some time on earth maybe?

      Hoaxavirus

  6. “Just as the rest of the Free Things will eventually stop flowing when no one is producing them anymore – even if the Fed is printing.”

    It’s depressing how many people think that if the government just prints up a check for everyone every month, everything will be fine. Either a few minutes’ sober reflection or a glance at history should dispel any such fantasy, unless of course the money itself is edible.

    • Yes. Goes to info not being what’s low. Everyone’s had more than enough info & could have stopped taking in “new” info about the human species in their teens – because there is no new info.

      Crichton’s amped up WestWorld has got the ones rooted for being 3-D printed. Earl Gray, hot, sez Picard. What’s that glop the “freedom fighters” eat in The Matrix? Talk about your childhood wishes: you can even eat the dishes – after you’ve eaten off the dishes (that nude model serving platter thing…that spirit-cooking thing). So why not deniros? The company store provides all the cargo a creel’d cultist could ever want.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYihDAhVPko

      Every so not often enough that edible gold leaf is “too much” of a good thing’d (but those are also some of the times where nothing succeeds like excess). Poetry in pouring-motion:

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769869/

  7. nobody was hanged for doing 911.
    nobody will hang for this cv crap.
    no wall street pukes will jump off high buildings.
    no money will stop flowing to Israeli’s.
    nowhere neer enough cops to control the armed US citizens if they want to move about in mobs.

  8. We are being GYPPED.
    Government
    Yammerheads*
    Panic
    Plan
    Economic
    Destruction

    *Heinlein fans will recognize the term.

  9. Someone I knew in high school told me her grandfather, who was Blackfeet, & who refused to conform, be a good domesticated house injun, was jailed numerous times, “hospitalized” numerous times (remember Chief Bromden, in Cuckoo’s Nest?) & the last time the Ratched’s electro-shocked his brain to mush, vegetable-ized him.

    The medical feathers on the bird of prey state ain’t a new thing.

    ((And the same old refraining ironies: her Blackfeet father joined the Vietnam navy. While passing thru Japan, met & married her mom. And she, the high school friend, was born Dec. 7.))

    As for this, “by the same people who – just a month ago – had been asking the same for the sake of the “climate crisis”… should be point number one. The fool me once bit.

    But the self-confidence it takes to “level one’s own playing field” mostly isn’t out there. And never has been.

    The coaches tell the QB’s & the QB’s tell the lesser squadlings what to do. Chain of command. Obedience to authority.

    Even such dripping pus as “gotta’ respect the office, the credentials, the power vested in thee” – even if the wo\man installed behind those symbols is the worst rotter (which only rotters seek those perches).

    But…there’s incentive & benefit to Nuremberging: if\when it goes tits up, the buck gets passed up the line…until it gets to the one with “the authority” to throw it out with yesterdays “newspapers.”

    Started a Viggo Mortensen flick last night. “Good.” He plays a late 1930’s German academic. He thinks Hitler is, the Nazis are, a joke who/that will flash in the pan. His best friend, that he “served” with in ww1 is a german jew, & psychoanalyst. Earlier, the “good” academic had written a novel about a man who kills his terminally ill wife. Love – a mercy killing. And the novel, that aspect of “humanity,” catches the Nazi machine attention; Hitler loved it & tasked his underlings with loving it, too – & bringing Viggo in to legitimize the impending ascent of eugenics. Academic has been resistant, continues to resist, but ever more weakly. He writes the paper. He gets promoted. He joins the nazi party. He slips the slope.

    Path of least resistance is the path of most acceptance. Always has been. And that applies to people proximal that you think (hope?) it doesn’t apply to.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNXktNPd7N4

  10. Eric, I have been reading your commentary on this inhuman response to what is a nonissue for the vast majority of us. I couldn’t agree more with you. The damage the cure inflects far exceeds the disease by a factor far beyond what most people realize. So few people are familiar with Bastiat’s unseen. They see only what has been placed in front of their eyes — the scarlet-letter, large-font headlines of endless (and grossly exaggerated) death counts. They don’t see the misery behind the scene: the loneliness, the wreaked retirement plans, the despair, the ennui, the sense of nihilism, the ceaseless money worries. I can only guess what the suicide and mental illness numbers will look like over the next couple of months. Talk about the ultimate Pyrrhic victory. And yet when it finally comes to an end, you can be sure plenty of Americans will thank those who subjected them to this unnecessary abuse for saving their lives.

    • Hi Joe,

      Indeed. I was discussing this with my girlfriend yesterday; she mentioned the time cost to the elderly – the ones “at risk” – many of whom may be denied their last summer; the grandkids’ graduation, etc. Then the near-retirement people who now can’t. And, as you say, all the people whose life work is being flushed for . . . what, exactly?

      Existence is not the same thing as living.

      • For what? For the greater “glory” of the Oligarchs of course. They tried this with the first great depression, but didn’t have all their ducks in a row. This is the second attempt at their long term goal. Anyone interested in the history of how we got here, should find this video of interest.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqhxzN0PMeg

      • Eric, you have a girlfriend ??????? Shocked! LOL

        Anyway, I’m one of those chronologically endowed “higher risk” folks. I’m self isolating (not so much different than normal-ha!) by CHOICE and not by mandate, and started doing so before it became the rule. But why should anyone suffer economic hardship because of me? I’m not ready to go yet, but I’m a lot more concerned about my country and the world my grandchildren will live in than my own life.

      • Eric,

        I’m one of those people caught in-between. I’m 64, now unemployed, have enough savings to carry me maybe 3-4 months (assuming no hyperinflation or negative interest rate or some other means are used to steal them), and I’m not sure the pension system I’ve paid into for most of my career will ever be able to pay out since the stock market crash has probably left it severely underfunded. Even if the economy starts to recover today, I’m probably permanently unemployable, given that nobody in their right minds would really want to hire me — slower, fatter, and far more nearsighted than I used to be — over some young buck who is decades further from needing to draw more heavily on insurance benefits than he would be paying in. (Years ago I saw the resentment ad anger among younger employees when an older employee had a catastrophic health crisis and our premiums started to go up.) I would have an easier time living through this bug than through the nightmare that is coming, and I’m probably well off compared to many in their 70s and 80s.

        The number of deaths we’ll see from crashing the economy will vastly outstrip even the 2.2 million they tell us we would have gotten from doing absolutely nothing. That’s about as penny-wise-and-pound-foolish a move as I can imagine. I suspect many older people with children and grandchildren would have rather taken the manageable risk of COVID-19 then leave such a legacy to them, if the choice had been put in those terms.

        From a liberty perspective, I marvel at the thought that once we were a people that would risk their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honors” to establish those liberties but are now a people who won’t risk a bug to keep them. The safety you purchase at the cost of liberty is an illusion. Ask any slave how safe he feels with a master standing behind him claiming the right to harm or kill him at will. Ask any prisoner how safe it is behind bars.

  11. Connecting the dots? Remember “WTC Building 7” and the recently completed study by the Ubiverssity of Anchorage>

    Right now, there are studies in Bangladesh on implants. 3 in 1, ID + vaccination and digital money, on a RFID chip. Voila. Total control.

    The extent of economic destruction by – for example – Germany? Staggering! I doubt, that car makers will survive. (The government used to withdraw the road tax in My. Surprise! It has happened in March, without a warning. They just can – – – And you can bet, they will be greedy hogs.
    ^^^
    IPreently, I live in Vietnam. AFAIK, there hasn’t been a single death and some 150 infections. But every 30 minutes, driving in the city, I see dozens of ghost riders, driving on the wrong side of the road. Double poarking. Dozens of drivers with mobile phones in their hands & running red lights. Bikers do both, too.

    My motorcycle has fake documents or the wrong manufacturer’s name on a genuine document. WH 125 T scooter, my pink slip (a laminated blue card) says Honda. Hell, it’s a Dealim!! And no, I have been unable to buy insurance. Henceforth, less than 1 % will have insurance. Foreigners aren’t allowed to own motorcycles either. So with ll this, the government ignores crazy traffic, while saving lives with bizarre social control measures?!? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4phFYiMGCIY positive, it works well. Now add ghost riders, going against the flow of traffic. Now it gets tricky. Moreover, there are autistic people who don’t look and force everybody to drive defensiveely. They will mow you down! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqFPuT0IQ5w

  12. My book starts like this (no I didnt read the article yes I am a manic aggresive type 19 covids sars superflu agitator dicktaster dictator) all go no sheaux no Kneaux Nadda yadda yadda

    Habia una vez… (there was a time…) it ends asi (like this means asi)

    it ends asi es (it ends like that way it is all spanish stories end Colorin Colorado)

    https://www.colorincolorado.org/

    happily ever after color of collorado in Galts Gulch secret city Colorado honest money Midas Mulligan mayor McCheese for Lyfe

  13. Eric: The link showing 18.8 million people in NYC is *WRONG* — that is the population of New York State. Roughly half that number are in NYC.

    Having grown up in western NYS, I am amazed at the vast majority of Americans who don’t realize that there is an entire state attached to NYC. We share nothing culturally or by any other measure with NYC. It is and always has been a cesspool of humanity.

    Unfortunately, because NYC has about half the state’s population, and is dominated by liberals, we are governed by liberals — who are pushed over the electoral top by the upstate cities. Out here in the boonies we hate Cuomo, we hate Albany, and we hate NYC which is a parasite hanging on the rest of the state.

  14. [img]https://antiempire.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/92115145_10222903470961392_1719294151826079744_n.jpg[/img]

  15. CoronaGate…the biggest farce in the history of mankind. We are about to become Bill-Gated as that monster wants to inject everyone in the world with vaccine poisons and have us chipped like animals so that we can be further controlled. If you would be even the slightest concerned about you and your family’s future welfare and freedom, we all must resit this Marxist terrorism. Turn off the fake news. Go out and get some vitamin D. Go back to being human otherwise you are about to be caged like an animal. Your choice.

  16. I caught the Wuhan virus coming back to Texas from Thanksgiving in Phoenix. I became sick on Dec 10th and had all symptoms of the virus–loss of smell and taste then a period of time when everything tasted way over salted. Then 4 weeks of coughing up green crap before full recovery around the end of January. Went to emergency room after Christmas and got albuterol inhaler, erythromycin, and steroids. Don’t try to tell me it was not here in December!!!

    • Apologies to Billy Joel, sang to the tune of “We didn’t start the fire….”,

      The Ukraine, Ho Chi Minh,
      Joseph Biden’s back again
      Joe Clapper, Micheal Flynn,
      What a mess we’re all in,

      RussiaGate, Weinstein,
      Washington’s a crime scene,
      Politicians dumping stocks,
      Governments a crock

      North Korea, Comrade,
      Can’t you see the Orange Man’s Bad?
      Ayatollah’s in Iran, American’s in Afghanistan
      Corona Virus, Clinton Lied, Epstein wasn’t suicide

      Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, viral threats
      Hypodermics on the streets, China’s cooking their own peeps

      Deep State funded terror wars,
      I can’t take it anymore

      We didn’t start the virus,
      it was always growing,
      without us knowing,

      We didn’t start the virus,
      Crematoriums burning,
      and it’s quite concerning

      Wall Streets guilty, Stocks a mess
      Ginsberg sleeps through Trumps address

      Flights from Europe banned from map
      Sarah Palin tries to rap

      They shut down the NBA
      WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO SAY?

      We didn’t start the virus,
      it was always growing,
      without us knowing,

      We didn’t start the virus,
      Crematoriums burning,
      and it’s quite concerning

      Tom and Rita get Kung Flu-19,
      Cruz is home on quarantine
      People stressed by CONgress mess
      Still no COVID-19 test
      Travel banning, Chelsea Manning
      Teachers panicked with class-planning

      Vince McMahon, Donald Trump,
      the FED does a Pump n’ Dump,
      Chaos in the big banks,
      Our economy’s is in the tank,
      The whole world’s been quarantined, and
      Toilet Paper’s can’t be seen!

      NBA? Gone away!!
      Big events another day
      Bernie, Biden, rigging rumors
      Are you mad yet? OK Boomer

      We didn’t start the virus,
      it was always growing,
      without us knowing,

      We didn’t start the virus,
      Crematoriums burning,
      and it’s quite concerning

      No we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it.

      End the FED, DOW is red, Bond markets going dead
      Bat soup, street poop, HIV insertions
      Robert Mueller witch hunt, Hillary’s greasy junk
      Cow piss, John McCain, forget about that shit stain
      James Comey, Deep State, Greta doesn’t menstrate
      Toilet paper, gone away, what else do I have to say

      We didn’t start the virus

      Crematoriums burning it’s quite concerning

      We didn’t start the virus

      No we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it.

    • Hi Matt,

      Thank you for mentioning this; more and more people are. I, along with several friends, had the same experience months before the WuFlu was officially recognized. And like you, we all recovered on our own. None of us were bed-bound, even. Just a very nasty, persistent respiratory infection with the other symptoms you describe. I can’t say for sure it was WuFlu – because I wasn’t “tested.” But if it was – and if you and I and millions of others did have it and recovered without dying – it is sure proof the current fiasco is a hyped “crisis,” just like the “climate crisis.”

      • Eric, this entire production is being stage managed. First the wild panic, and alarm from the corporate media, then the flailing of the politicians, spooked the low information types. That resulted in the panic spreading, which resulted in a feed back loop (basic psych op SOP). Once it got going, it took on a life of its own. As the panic spun up, the corporate media and the politicians kept virtue signaling, and the Concerned Citizens started their usual pack attacks, against anyone who strayed from the Narrative of the Day (sound familiar?). As I mentioned to someone else, the destruction of the economy is a feature, not a bug. Its quite intentional. When things like this happen, one must ask, who benefits? Who benefits from millions (soon tens of millions) of people out of work and growing increasingly desperate? Who benefits from the massive destruction of small/medium businesses, who provide most of the employment? Who benefits when the price of productive assets are driven down, so that they can be scooped up later, for pennies on the dollar? 2.2 trillion is just the start.
        The Too Big To Fail will always be taken care of. Why? Because they own the politicians, and the politicians control the enforcer class. The late great George Carlin said it best.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKUaqFzZLxU

        • Indeed, BJ –

          Remember how it was after Nahhnnnnlevven? Anyone who questioned an iota of The War on Trrr was considered, effectively, “with them” and an “enemy of freedom.” Anything – no matter how outrageous – was accepted because there might be a mushroom cloud risin’ over your town otherwise.

          And here we go, again.

          • I have one thing to say on that subject. Building 7. Unless someone repealed the laws of physics, when I wasn’t looking, the videos I’ve studied of that, totally rule out the official story. But that obviously doesn’t matter to most people. Move along Citizen, nothing to see here…

        • It’s not ever “low information.”

          It’s s\low self-confidence. It’s s\low competence. It’s s\low thinking. It’s s\low synthesis.

          That is the loop that feeds back.

          What’s dominating the current “news” cycle does not create that. The du jour merely points to the already full bowl & superfluously says bon appétit.

          There isn’t TBTF without masses of too little (confidence, competence, synthesis) to succeed elevating them. It is all those people, taken together, that band themselves into the deity Weus!, that are the actual “tbtf.”

          Until they do fail.
          Which they do.
          Serially.

          It’s musical sociopaths & the people that love ‘em up into “authority.”

          Same as it ever was.

        • the virus has been around for a million year . all these people here saying they were sick in December just had the common flu. 30% of all flu cases are corona virus

  17. The Political Terrorists will have their 1000 year Reich.
    This virus terror proves it.
    Prepare yourself accordingly.

  18. New requirements are a-comin’ – gonna require all of us to wear some kind of mask or face covering when out in public. Wear your mask or no groceries for you. Or an excuse for your neighbor to narc on you for walking outside while unmasked, you know, so they can disappear you for being a covidiot.

    Every day a new level of absurdity. It won’t stop. I can’t take it any more. Someone please let me off this crazy thing!!!

      • Eric, I have a full-face gas mask that I picked up from a surplus shop years ago for a Halloween costume. I may just start walking around with that thing.

    • Hi BAC,

      More realistic – and troubling – is the likelihood that we will be required to get “vaccinated” and that cash will be outlawed, the method by which they will force everyone to accept vaccination. If money is electronic, they can turn off your ability to buy – and sell – as easily as turning off a light switch. No Hut! Hut! Hut! necessary when they can starve you out. And not even have to do it physically.

      • They can already “turn off your light switch”. I imagine you have a “smart” meter at your main power point. Several years ago Duke Energy replaced all the old meters that had to be read visually with digital units that they read from afar. The also track your usage and hector you to use less. (when did it become fashionable for someone selling something to encourage people not to buy what they were selling? I guess it shows just how they are really not a private entity but, just a part of GovCo).

        As far as the masks. We’re now being told it can be transmitted via breath, no need for a droplet. When this whole six foot think (sure can use Fauci as a measuring stick) came about I made the comment that if you’ve ever seen anyone vaping you know your breath goes waaaaay beyond six feet, thus a pointless effort. I was scolded by a co-worker that it had to be in droplet form so I was an idiot to question the six foot command. Now the story changes. Just like the Iraq invasion and all the 9/11 stuff as soon as someone call BS on ’em they pivot to another pile of dung.

        When this is over there will not be a “United States”, the experiment will have blown up and the lab destroyed.

      • Eric, our self-styled masters have been chomping at the bit to eliminate cash for ages. This may well give them the excuse. Already most if not all toll roads and bridges are not accepting cash. (A violation of the federal mafia’s legal tender laws?) Say goodbye to the last bit of privacy. Every transaction will be open for examination and analysis. No underground economy, no escape from the plantation. They’ll be able to extract the “fairshare” pound of flesh from anyone at anytime.

        It would not surprise me either to find the gunvermin forcing us into submitting to some hastily-conceived and marginally-tested vaccine that will make people sicker. (Remember the early polio vaccine that wound up giving people polio?)

        This may well be the final nail in the coffin for the ol’ USA. Of course to those of us who remember life in the 1950s and early 1960s the country has been unrecognizable for a long time now. In fact the conditions we are currently subject to are very similar to magazine articles we would read back in the day documenting life in the old Soviet Union. People here in the U.S. would shake their heads and tell each other “It can’t happen here!”

  19. The entire concept of the “lock down” is absurd. By destroying businesses, products aren’t available. Some of which are required to sustain life. By destroying businesses, people are left with no income to buy products necessary to sustain life. Last I checked, the death rate of not eating is 100%..

    This whole thing stinks to high heaven. It fits altogether too perfectly with the hopes and dreams of some of the most sinister members of the Sociopaths In Charge. Reduced population, absolute control, reducing CO2, reduction of consumption, etc. The death rate predicted by the “expert” Doc Fauci is 140-250k. Guess how many die every year from medical misadventure. 250k. More than die from firearm use and illegal drug abuse combined. So, should we avoid the virus, or doctors? The only credence I can give the virus is that it would be extremely difficult, but of course not impossible, to pull this off across national borders. If you were one of the US Sociopaths In Charge, and you wanted to disperse such a virus, where would you release it? What nation has the most international exports? Which has the most people traveling internationally? Which would you prefer be blamed for it?

  20. If you have 12 chickens, how many chicken legs are there?”
    The answer is 24. They are my chickens and I know how many legs they have.

    • Hi Larry!

      Exactly. Critical thinking is exact thinking. It is ability to discern the essential point (the concept) and apply it to particulars. This is the faculty that’s been under assault in this country for generations – and it’s what made Corona Fever the success it’s been.

  21. If this was the early 2000’s, everyone would no doubt pour into the streets protesting against this insanity. But add in the con-venience of “smart” gadgets, (anti)social media, and online-everything from home…

  22. Green New Deal goes feral:

    “San Francisco is banning reusable shopping bags to prevent outside germs from entering grocery stores as the coronavirus pandemic affects cities around the country.” — The Hill

    SF would be the city which banned plastic bags in 2007, leading its good green citizens to invest in those now-illegal, virus-ridden reusable bags of death.

    Comply, comrades — but how? Presumably by mastering the African method of balancing a pizza-pan-sized plate on one’s head to tote one’s groceries, while dancing through the dog-doo and needles on the sidewalks.

    Lord knows, it ain’t easy to keep up with the ever-shifting bleeding edge of virtue-signaling progressivism.

    • “Comply, comrades — but how?”

      Easy: ban “brick-and-mortar” stores and force everyone to shop online. That way, it’ll be easier for Big Brother to keep tabs on your purchases.

      • Here in CT, they have mandated to enclose the checkout clerk in plexiglass, and you can only walk down grocery aisles in a one way direction. The increased absurdity makes me wonder if this might be the goal – the stores, of course, get to charge you convenience and delivery fees, and they get to save money by getting rid of almost all their staff. How nice that some high school dropout flunky will get to put rotten bananas and smushed berries in your produce delivery, since you can’t pick out your own food.

  23. Remembr the GovCo “shutdowns”? That was a joke. But govco shuts down the people for real. govco being a few thousand insane cretins and their minions. ~375 million lives being ruined by a few thousand. How is this possible? Because the people don’t communicate & organize themselves, they can’t even think of such a concept. Cattle.

  24. Fuhrer Anthony Fauci said the lock downs will continue until there are zero new cases. I assume that will be forever.

    All the large box stores are closing all exits. only one in / out apparently to limit the number of people. I reminded one of the guards that it was against the law and fire code. He replied he was just following orders.

    • Not to mention that “no new cases” means that there are “no new people” that are immune. I thought the whole purpose of this “medical martial law” was to “flatten the curve”, not eliminate it. Of course by requiring no new cases, likewise required will be forced vaccination. And we all know how well that works, especially since they are now in a big hurry to provide one, which of course will have very limited, if any, testing before we have a gun put to our head and are forced to have unknown substances injected into our bodies.

  25. March auto sales numbers are out. And they are ghastly.

    The industry’s annualized selling rate has slowed to just 11.4 million, marking its lowest point since April 2010.

    For perspective, the high of the past decade, in late 2017, was over 18 million. The low in early 2009 was just above 9 million.

    That is, we’ve rewound nine years in a single month, as suddenly as Thelma and Louise plunging over the cliff in their blue T-bird. No reason why April’s numbers, to be announced in early May, shouldn’t fall to or below the nadir of 2009.

    If only this were a Roadrunner cartoon, where Wile E Coyote pops right back up after getting flattened.

    Oh, well — most of us didn’t want no nine-speed automatic, lane-assist equipped, always-on internet-connected Big Brother-mobile anyhow.

    Will we end up with just one behemoth auto manufacturer each in North America, Europe and Japan? And will it be government-owned and controlled? Asking for a friend …

  26. Exactly Eric, people die every day, just look on the obituary pages of any big city newspaper; also note hardly any of those notices list a cause of death. Now suddenly everyone that dies has Coronavirus, no distinction of whether they died WITH it or FROM it….ugh! This is contrived to cover up the gigantic bailout of the Wall St. banksters that’s been going on since September while they toss a few crumbs to us mundanes to keep us from looking behind the curtain. I go out every day even though the weather is sucky, great driving around with hardly any traffic.

  27. There’s an evergrowing incorrect presumption being made by people who don’t understand or know any better that govt is allowed to do something so long as it’s actions are for the good of the “people”. As long as it acts on behalf of everyone and with good intentions, anything and everything is permissible and on the table. Clearly this is an insane notion… and suicidal. And, obtw, it’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

    In addition to the ignorant, stupid & lazy who believe this garbage, there are those who do know better, and these are the people who are evil, greedy and, even worse, predatory. They are the parasites. They are the ones who are ingrained with the something-for-nothing mentality. They partner with govt to advance their cause to obtain wealth with little or no effort, which comes at the expense of everyone else. These folks are better known as “Swamp Creatures”.

    And who do you suppose is the main promoter & backer of building up the swamp? Why it’s the old bottom feeder & super swamp king himself, old Swampman Trump. You know, that same guy whose main claim during the election was to drain said swamp? Hmm, I wonder whatever happened to that guy?

  28. I’ve been cautious about this. I was very concerned by the actions of the Chinese to combat this bug. Having said that, it’s becoming more and more clear that the bug isn’t that big a deal. Fatality levels year over year are nearly unchanged. Yes, infections are going asymptotic, but that’s just what viruses do. I canceled a trip with my 80 year old dad back in Feb fearing govt actions, I was right but early.

    Having said that, in a few weeks even the left half of the bell curve are going to notice these things. They’re going to get hungry, they’re going to get restless, and they’re going to get angry. It is our job to spread and speak the truth. This was a massive psy op to cover up the biggest theft yet. Even bigger than the “TARP” bail out of 2008-9 which ushered in Barry Obastard. Government is dangerous, and the damage they’ve done this time shows just how much too big for their britches they’ve become. We’ll have to compete with their “Mighty Wurlitzer” of propaganda, but that is reaching its limits and reacting more and more desperately to their loss of control.

    Take heart, they will fail if good men keep faith and use their faculties. Later, or sooner.

    • Amen, Ernie!

      It is entirely reasonable to avoid contact with the elderly – and for the elderly to avoid contact wth others – until this passes. Also those with weak immune systems, respiratory problems, etc. The rest is entirely unreasonable. And – as you note – very dangerous to all of us.

      I am headed out to defy the bullshit shortly…

      • I would suggest that the elderly should limit public contact regardless whether this highly suspicious “pandemic” has passed or not. There are always pathogens around that would be dangerous to them. However, I do not recommend, nor do I accept, compulsory limit of contact. Its no ones business but mine what risks I choose to take, and which I choose to avoid.

        • Amen, JWK –

          Pre-Corona, I (and I suspect a lot of others) would avoid people obviously sick and when sick ourselves, avoid spreading it to others by staying home.

          The country has been so neuroticized now by Corona Fever that anyone who coughs in public six months from now will likely be shot to death on the spot.

  29. As usual, with any government intervention, there are going be many, many unintended consequences. Reading Armstrong a commentor noted that many companies in the digital arena have noticed their production has been essentially the same with their workforce working from home. Some are not going to renew their leases. This will be huge for commercial property. Add in the Malls and small businesses gone and you have a recipe for disaster.
    I imagine there are going to be far more unforeseen consequences. The cure was far too aggressive putting the patient on long term life (corpgov) support. If they fail to reverse this soon the patient will die. Another great depression and mass starvation for future history books except this time it was self inflicted by the fear mongering of corpgov and media.
    ” Only two things are infinite. The universe and human stupidity and I am not sure about the former.” Einstein.

  30. Why end the shutdown? Everyone will get their $1200 in government cheese very soon. That should be more than enough to tide us over. Why, with that kind of cash, who needs to run their business anyway?

    • It is interesting, this is going to be devastating to the private sector, business owners and sole proprietors, like me. But for the 70% on the dole, it wont be a big deal at all. Socalled Security? Checks going out. Welfare? Checks going out. Chile Suppo’t? Checks going out. Government “workers”? Checks going out. Laid off employees? Checks going out. Teachers? Checks going out.

      The ones who are being crushed are those of us still trying to make the REAL American dream happen- those souls without a boss or HR department forcing us to comply with the insane dictates of Satan’s Little Helpers. Those who value liberty. And shoot, we’re only about 15% of the economy. But the real problem is we’re the only ones generating any growth or real value. All those getting checks contribute NOTHING. (With apologies to the laid off- been there. But even then, not really getting anywhere or contributing to the economic life of the nation.)

      • BAck in the 1800s, few Americans worked for a boss. Most were farmers, small businessmen and professionals who had their own practice. This was during the time when doctors didn’t work for HMOs because such things didn’t exist and lawyers mostly worked in small offices with one or two partners. No wonder Americans used to be independent people. What happened? People who go to public schools and then go to work for an employer learn to not make waves…

  31. Eric,

    You wrote “What has changed to suspend critical thinking”. I reminded me of an incident about 25 years ago when my kids were in GovCo Skuulz. There was a new proposed curriculum to be implemented. “Critical Thinking” was one of the fashionable buzzwords during this roll-out. I, along with other parents, attended a a meeting and there was an old bat with a Ph.D from the skuul system leading the presentation of the program. She said, “Let me give you an example of critical thinking. If you have 12 chickens, how many chicken legs are there?” A man seated behind me in bib overalls and wearing boots covered in an aromatic brown substance blurted out “24!”. The old bat whipped around, pointer her finger at him and yelled, “NO! You don’t know how many one legged or three legged chickens there are! THAT’S critical thinking.” The man slumped back in his chair in stark embarrassment. I wanted to kill her where she stood. At that moment it became clear that the whole purpose of GovCo Skuulz was to destroy the minds and will of children.

    Around the same time I was on the local Planning and Zoning board. (talk about little Stalins) I attended a meeting of P&Z board members that was led by people from The Institute of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill. They are the experts in North Carolina on all things GovCo. At the start of the meeting a man got up and said, “The basis for all planning and zoning in North Caroling is, ‘That which is not permitted is prohibited.'”

    Eric, you are spot on when saying they are Sociopaths In Charge.

    END THE SHUTDOWN NOW!!!

    • I am fighting my local government on taxes now, and the lawyer for them took the opposite tack: “That which is not prohibited is permitted.” Obviously, regarding the government itself. Sad.

    • The only people who can end the shutdown is us. It’s going to have to start at the ground level. We can’t control what major corporations do, but we have the right to earn a living or be where we need to be. We have to fight. I’m going to be hitting the highways soon. Just burning gas and exercising freedom, what’s left of it. I’m not sick, so they can pound sand.

      • I still have a vacation on the books fairly soon. As long as I think I’m done fighting whatever I have, I plan to take it as the small stand.

  32. Mises.org had an influx of low comment profiles flood its statement by the editors to lift the shutdown. I mean, brand new accounts with less than 10 total comments. These are usually created on the fly disqus commenters from the paid shill area and come with generic names and avatars. Their comments are short and don’t really refute or cite anything from the article. You may even get some yourself soon eric.

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