More silly questions asked, and answered by moi.
Apparently not.
Americans have endured months of business closures, quarantines, mask-wearing, hand-wiping, travel restrictions, limited-attendance funerals and weddings, virtual graduations, closed schools, inaccessible medical screenings and surgeries, park closures, take-out-only food, drive-thru-only banks, coinless cash registers, and sports and concert cancellations — a seemingly endless list of life disturbances that extend far beyond mere inconvenience and cause deep economic, medical, psychological, and societal hardship.
Some churches were recently banned from singing hymns, and a California pastor has been threatened with jail time for opening the doors for worship. Water and power can be turned off to Los Angeles homes if they host a group that violates official limits. Gym owners were locked up for daring to reopen, even with responsible precautions. Ankle bracelets were placed on those who declined to sign legal documents requiring burdensome and intrusive health reporting to authorities. Is this the America we know and love?
You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking.
Until recently — March 2020, to be exact — we could rely on the Constitution and Bill of Rights to constrain government’s control of our lives,
Are you serious? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?
but with the arrival of one virus, our legal rights seem to have been deemed irrelevant, completely subordinated to the arbitrary whims of politicians. Apparently, they can do anything now, as long as they proclaim it in the name of “safety.”
Without fanfare, without any change to the Constitution, we seem to have unwittingly entered a new era of increasing government power.
“New”? Okay, stop it, you’re killing me here.
Since power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, this should trouble all of us. What might it portend for our future?
More of the same thing we’ve seen for the last, oh, sixty-seventy years, only worse. And faster.
Once a vaccine is recognized, will the government force us to take it?
Yes.
What if we refuse? Could we lose our health insurance?
Losing your health insurance will be the LEAST of your problems, serf.
What about religious objections?
Depends. For Muslims, no problem; you’re fine, carry on. For Christians…wait, you’re a Christian and haven’t been arrested and imprisoned already?
Could we be forced to choose between our jobs and the drug? It’s hard to imagine — until you consider that schools already require immunizations. Doctors are already communicating that the “social contract” matters more than the Constitution.
Why not? Almost everything else does too.
What if we test positive but, like the couple in Kentucky, refuse to bow to health officials and sign a document on the spot mandating we report to them? Do they have that authority?
Of course they don’t. Hasn’t stopped a one of them from wielding it anyway though, has it?
Can they put us under house arrest and shackle us with ankle bracelets until the time of their choosing? They will surely tell us it is for everyone’s safety. This opens the door to an array of other so-called unsafe behaviors to follow.
NOW you’re getting it, bright boy.
In days past, we would roll our eyes at such cynical paranoia, but are we still rolling them? Will the government that now advises us to carry cash and willingly give up our belongings to robbers look away as our other civil rights are trampled? Should we expect any protection from politicians that allow mobs to flout COVID-19 rules but will gleefully jail a pastor? It appears this is less about safety and more about control.
By George, I think he’s got it!
Surely the original shutdowns and other measures were of noble intent, but the law of unintended consequences can quickly show its dark side. Until now, we’ve endured all of this to protect not only ourselves but also others because Americans are a helpful bunch. When the storm comes, if you ask us, we’ll always pitch in to toss sandbags or pick up debris. We’ll bring meals. We’ll donate money. We’ll wear a mask, too; a flavor of patriotism infused the pandemic response for a while as Americans willingly sacrificed to serve the health and welfare of their communities.
But it’s time to ask, how far will this go?
As far as we allow it to, same as it ever was. Know what else is also the same as it ever was, though? The somewhat less than staggering COVID body count, that’s what.
The CDC silently updated their numbers this week to show that only 6% of all coronavirus deaths were related to the coronavirus alone. The rest of the deaths pinned to the China coronavirus are attributed to individuals who had other serious issues going on. Also, most of the deaths are related to very old Americans.
Straight from the horse’s…uhh, mouth:
Comorbidities
Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.
SO, just over 9k deaths that were actually, truly COVID deaths, then. The rest—that other niggling, paltry little ninety-four fucking percent—were basically old, sick folks who already had one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel, a significant percentage of whom were probably not going to make it till Thanksgiving, whither corony-V or no.
But does it get better still, you ask? Hey, these are goobermint “experts” we’re talking about here. Of COURSE it does.
Testing, testing, testing — that’s how Pelosi and the Democrats say we’ll defeat the coronavirus. Meanwhile, President Trump and his administration are conducting “operation warp speed” at breakneck pace to develop therapeutics, diagnostics, and a vaccine for the Wuhan flu. Unlike testing, treatments will actually do something for you when you come down sick with the disease. But now we’re learning the overwhelming majority of those who have tested positive for the coronavirus should really have been found negative after all.
According to The New York Times, potentially 90 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have such insignificant amounts of the virus present in their bodies that such individuals do not need to isolate nor are they candidates for contact tracing. Leading public health experts are now concerned that overtesting is responsible for misdiagnosing a huge number of people with harmless amounts of the virus in their systems.
Hm; might help to explain why the CDC’s “experts” are backpedaling with no little alacrity on their previous recommendation that every man, woman, child, and embryo be tested hourly, maybe.
Bottom line? If there was some kind of ongoing competition with an award for the biggest, most extravagant swindle in all of human history, with all this COVIDiocy we could call it a wrap and declare an all-time champeen with utmost confidence. Now let’s just see how many of those FOLLOW THE SCIENCE!!!™ panic ninnies and dimestore dictators are willing to chow down on a heaping helping of crow and follow THAT science.
“Surely the original shutdowns and other measures were of noble intent…”
Well no, no they weren’t. Never in history have we responded in the way we did this time. The virus was just the excuse needed to break the economy and derail Trump. That it probably didn’t work, like the Russia investigation didn’t, and the Ukraine bullshit didn’t, and impeachment didn’t, doesn’t change why they did it.
The government lied about everything. They continue to lie.
This. A million times this. The left, the never Trumpers, the Deep State (I repeat myself again and again) — no, their motives are not good and noble. They do not “mean well.” They are not just “mistaken” when they consistently get things wrong, always in the same anti-American direction. They do not deserve the benefit of the doubt, about anything.
Thank you for laying waste to that rag, The Federalist. Except for Mollie Hemmingway it’s the most famous Cuck site there is.
I quit reading it about 5-6 years ago. All they ever do is take the blatantly obvious and gussie it up with mediocre writers.
Now, if you target that idiot Bennie Shapiro’s site, The Daily Wire my hat’s REALLY gonna be off to ya.
An old fashioned Fisking with the thrust of a rapier and a stiletto to vital organs there, Mike.
Kudos.
They’re gonna bleed out slowly like the gut shot in Reservoir Dogs.
Amazingly the last movie I saw in a Theater was Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood.
In real life DiCaprio is a real asshole, but I can’t deny he can act.
Another Quentin beauty of a movie.
Plus, I love the little jabs at the Hippies as Paul Revere and the Raiders songs play to affectionate response.