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A Sort Of Monomania

A weekend topic starting with the Los Angeles Times. “When Steve Qunell won a seat on the City Council last year in this town of 8,000, he figured he’d be dealing with potholes and affordable housing. Instead, he finds himself at the center of a raging debate over how to fight the coronavirus. The state’s governor, Steve Bullock, a Democrat who is in the final stretch of a tight U.S. Senate race and has been reluctant to impose restrictions that could hurt his campaign, called on the hardest-hit counties to consider shutting bars and enforcing a statewide mask mandate.”

“There was little appetite for that in conservative Flathead County, where the health board has been dominated by an outspoken doctor who argues that the pandemic is a hoax. That put the onus on the Whitefish City Council. ‘We are the last line of defense,’ Qunell, a 49-year-old high school social studies teacher, told his fellow council members during an online public meeting this week. ‘Are we going to lead? Or are we just going to follow the nonbelievers in the county?'”

“Places like Whitefish once could afford to view the pandemic as a distant big-city problem. Through mid-September, sparsely populated Montana had a death toll of 140. But that figure has doubled over the last five weeks as a new wave of infections sweeps the country. Whitefish was also one of the first cities in Montana to make people wear masks — though the governor soon issued a mandate statewide.”

“Leading the resistance was Dr. Annie Bukacek, a 62-year-old internist known for her far-right views and opposition to vaccination. Flathead County commissioners appointed her to the county health board last December after dismissing two other doctors with more public health experience — changes the commissioners said were meant to increase the diversity of views.”

“Bukacek became a hero of anti-lockdown activists across the country last spring after she delivered a speech to a local church congregation alleging that the federal government was exaggerating the coronavirus death toll. Still, from the beginning, there was strong local opposition to such restrictions. ‘People are being terrorized by fearmongers into relinquishing cherished freedoms,’ she told members of the Liberty Fellowship.”

“The congregation is led by Chuck Baldwin, who is described by the Montana Human Rights Network as ‘the unofficial reverend of the militia movement.’ He has defied state orders by continuing to hold in-person services. Erica Lengacher, a 46-year-old critical-care nurse who works nights in the ward, could cope with the stress of watching patients dying. That was part of the job.”

“Harder to deal with was the indifference that opponents of basic safety measures seemed to have for victims of the pandemic. ‘I realize that there’s a historic tension between public health and individual liberties,’ she said. ‘But a good portion of our community is flouting the state mask mandate, and I still can’t get my head around how this has become so politicized and divisive.'”

“This week the county health department advised residents to stay at home as much as possible and limit contacts outside their families to no more than six people a week, each for 15 minutes or less. The recommendations have been widely disregarded. Tamalee St. James Robinson, the interim county health officer, said in an interview that she has the authority to make such measures mandatory but that more rules would be useless because officials were refusing to enforce those already in place.”

“The county prosecutor, Travis Ahner, said he was focused on crime and didn’t see a point in cracking down on businesses for mask violations. For their part, the county commissioners released a statement this month supporting ‘the Constitutional rights of Montanans to make choices about personal protections for themselves.’ ‘Where does that leave me, just me out there?’ Robinson asked.”

“The city manager suggested writing a letter to the health board encouraging it to act. A councilman said another letter to businesses might persuade them to cooperate. Qunell didn’t see the point. ‘The county’s not going to do anything no matter what letters we write,’ he said.”

“He wanted the council to vote to close bars by 10 p.m. — before they usually get crowded and rowdy — and limit restaurants to 25% of capacity. But the only thing the council decided was to meet again Monday to consider imposing limits during Halloween weekend, when Whitefish traditionally puts on a popular downtown bar crawl.”

“In an interview, Qunell said Whitefish must find a balance between protecting citizens and the economy that has eluded national, state and county leaders. ‘There’s been a failure of leadership from the very highest levels,’ he said. ‘The responsibility keeps getting pushed downhill, and it’s ended up in our laps.'”

The Wall Street Journal. “The Covid rebels make an unlikely pair. Jay Bhattacharya was born in Kolkata, an Indian city that pulsates with people. Martin Kulldorff is from Umeå, Sweden, population 90,000. Dr. Bhattacharya, a physician and economist, and Mr. Kulldorf, a biostatistician—who study epidemiology at the medical schools at Stanford and Harvard, respectively—are, in the eyes of their critics, dangerous contrarians for opposing Covid-19 lockdowns.”

“Some of the criticism borders on hysteria: A colleague accused Mr. Kulldorff of practicing ‘Trumpian epidemiology’ after he gave an interview to the far-left Jacobin magazine in which he called for a ‘radically different’ approach to pandemic management.”

“Most pertinently, the two men are the authors—with Sunetra Gupta, a professor of epidemiology at Oxford—of the Great Barrington Declaration. Published on Oct. 4, the declaration is a cri de coeur against lockdowns and other economic restrictions that have hobbled swaths of the world. It asked instead for ‘focused protection’—a policy of allowing ‘those at minimal risk of death’ to resume their lives while societies concentrate on ‘better protecting those who are at highest risk.'”

“I interview the two men jointly by Zoom—Dr. Bhattacharya in California, Mr. Kulldorff in Massachusetts. The former speaks of a ‘systematic media campaign’ against the declaration. He says Google ‘shadow banned’ the text in the days after it was published. ‘If you typed in ‘Great Barrington Declaration,’ what would happen is that the actual website would appear on the second or third page, buried under a whole long list of negative stories.’ (The matter has since been resolved, he says.)”

“I discover a similar problem with ‘herd immunity,’ which the declaration sets out as the end point to be reached after societies have minimized ‘mortality and social harm.’ On the morning of our interview, I search Google for ‘herd immunity’ and find that the three links highlighted by the search engine as ‘Top Stories’ are uniformly negative.”

“‘The politicization of Covid,’ Mr. Kulldorff says, ‘is extremely unfortunate. People automatically assume what your political beliefs are based on your views on the pandemic. This is very strange, in my mind.’ Dr. Bhattacharya adds that ‘the traditional markers for political identity have absolutely no meaning’ in the context of Covid.”

“Illustrating the point, Mr. Kulldorff says he has defended Sweden’s Social Democratic government, which ‘kept schools open against enormous international criticism,’ criticized the British Conservative government for its lockdown, praised the Republican governor of South Dakota for her open-for-business policies, and criticized the pro-lockdown Republican governor of Massachusetts, where he lives. ‘I must be very split-minded,’ he chuckles, ‘because in one place I’m a socialist, in another I’m a conservative.'”

“Dr. Bhattacharya cites an example of Covid politics that he found ‘shocking.’ When Black Lives Matter protests broke out in the spring, ‘1,300 epidemiologists signed a letter saying that the gatherings were consistent with good public health practice.’ The ‘same epidemiologists’ were arguing that ‘we should essentially quarantine in place.’ In his view, this opened up the letter’s signers to ‘appropriate criticism, that they’d asked people to shut down their businesses, stay out of schools, stop worshiping, and yet they’re saying it’s OK to protest. It just reeked of political bias.'”

“What unites the two men is their revulsion against the ‘current Covid policy.’ This policy ‘violates every single value I hold dear,’ Dr. Bhattacharya says. ‘Every single one.’ Elaborating, he says he accords paramount importance—’derived, in my case, from Rawlsian and Christian commitments’—to the protection of the vulnerable and the poor world-wide from ‘avoidable death and suffering.’ The lockdowns have ‘manifestly failed to do this by inducing economic collapse that has placed the lives of 130 million poor people world-wide at risk of starvation.'”

“He also values ‘the norms of medical ethics that militate against doing harm to patients.’ The current lockdown policy, in his telling, asks children and young adults—’who face more medical and psychological risk from the lockdowns than they do from Covid infection’—to accept this harm ‘in the false hope that this sacrifice will protect the vulnerable people.'”

“Mr. Kulldorff describes lockdowns as ‘the worst assault on the working class in half a century—the worst assault since segregation and the Vietnam War.’ Present policies are protecting ‘very low-risk college students and very low-risk professionals—attorneys, bankers, journalists like you, scientists like me—because basically we can work from home.'”

“In contrast to privileged professionals, Mr. Kulldorff says, the blue-collar class is ‘out there working, including high-risk people in their 60s. So the working class is building up the population immunity that will eventually protect all of us.’ Dr. Bhattacharya adds that one of the reasons ‘minority populations have had higher mortality in the U.S. from the epidemic is because they don’t often have the option—even if they’re older or have co-morbid conditions—to stay at home.'”

“Lockdown policies are not only ‘regressive,’ with their disparate impact on the poor and minorities; they reflect, Dr. Bhattacharya says, a ‘sort of monomania.’ The world ‘panicked in March, and the focus came to just be on Covid control and nothing else.'”

“People saw pictures from Wuhan, China, and Bergamo, Italy, and concluded that they had to do ‘something very, very drastic in order to address this drastic thing that’s happening.’ There was ‘an action bias that led to the adoption of lockdowns as a form of contagion itself.'”

“Mr. Kulldorff says the Covid-19 restrictions violate two cardinal principles of public health. First, ‘you can’t just look at Covid, you have to look holistically at health and consider the collateral damage.’ Among the damage: a worsening incidence of cardiovascular disease and cancer and an alarming decline in immunization. ‘People aren’t going to the doctor,’ he says. Dr. Bhattacharya also points to the suspension of tuberculosis programs in India and of malaria-eradication programs elsewhere.”

“Mr. Kulldorff’s second principle: ‘You can’t just look short-term.’ Dr. Bhattacharya says we will ‘be counting the health harms from these lockdowns for a very long time.’ He says anti-Covid efforts are sowing the seeds of other epidemics: ‘Pertussis—whooping cough—will come back. Polio will come back because of the cessation of vaccination campaigns. All these diseases that we’ve made substantial progress in will start to come back.'”

“Both men say that the Great Barrington Declaration is a call for a return to traditional public-health practice. ‘We’re not arguing for anything really novel,’ Dr. Bhattacharya says. ‘It’s a call for thinking holistically about public health again, not just about one disease.’ The declaration also reflects ‘the norms of open scientific discourse, which have been violated by proponents of the Covid lockdowns in the name of protecting the public from ‘dangerous’ ideas.'”

“We circle back to the idea of herd immunity, which Mr. Kulldorff calls ‘the most misunderstood term of 2020.’ He jokes that use of the term can invite ‘accusations of mass murder,’ and Dr. Bhattacharya laments its frequent ‘mischaracterization.’ The words, he says, are a ‘technical term that comes out of standard models of epidemic spread.'”

“It is the ‘end state of any epidemic where some immunity actually happens after infection. It’s a biological fact. It’s not something nefarious or strange.’ Many media outlets, he complains, have said that ‘we’re advocating a herd-immunity strategy. That’s a propaganda term. After all, the lockdown-until-a-vaccine strategy will also end with herd immunity.'”

“‘As an epidemiologist,’ says Mr. Kulldorff, ‘it’s weird and stunning to have this discussion about herd immunity—flockimmunitet in Swedish.’ He likens it to gravity: ‘You wouldn’t have physicists talking about whether we believe in gravity or not. Or two airline pilots saying, ‘Should we use the gravity strategy to get the airplane down on the ground?’ Whatever way they fly that plane—or not fly it—gravity will ensure eventually that the plane is going to hit the ground.'”

“Dr. Bhattacharya does say that he would call the idea ‘population immunity’ if he could rephrase it. The word ‘herd,’ he says, ‘has connotations that it doesn’t deserve.’ But he stresses that herd immunity is a basic scientific principle, from which flows the one important question epidemiologists and policy makers need to consider: ‘How do we get to that end state with the least amount of devastation, the least amount of human misery, the least amount of death?'”

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This Post Has 154 Comments

  1. The lockdowns have ‘manifestly failed to do this by inducing economic collapse that has placed the lives of 130 million poor people world-wide at risk of starvation’

    You don’t hear this too often, do ya google?

      1. Nah 401 that was the 90’s with peak oil and we will be at the mercy of opec, and $6 gas and have to turn Israel over to the Palestinians or we would have 20+% unemployment for a decade

        1. We will be at war with Iran within a year if DJT loses.

          It’s the globalist way, it’s the progressive way.

      2. “Get ready for 20% unemployment…”

        We’re there or beyond that already. The latest job losses are hitting the professionals with family supporting incomes.

        “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.” —Timbuk3

        1. We’re there or beyond that already. The latest job losses are hitting the professionals with family supporting incomes.

          Yep. Here’s looking at you, coders.

  2. ‘We are the last line of defense,’ Qunell, a 49-year-old high school social studies teacher, told his fellow council members during an online public meeting this week. ‘Are we going to lead? Or are we just going to follow the nonbelievers in the county?’

    These people can’t see how nuts they are. A high school teacher thinks he’s the last line of defense? Non-believers?

    ‘I realize that there’s a historic tension between public health and individual liberties’

    There’s no CCP virus exception to the bill of rights.

    1. These people can’t see how nuts they are. A high school teacher thinks he’s the last line of defense? Non-believers?

      Our NEA indoctrination mills are full of collectivist control freaks enforcing globalist dogmas. Forward!

    2. ‘Are we going to lead? Or are we just going to follow the nonbelievers in the county?’

      11/4/2021

      BIDEN

      Opening scene:

      Oval Office:

      President Harris: Send those “nonbelievers” down to Region IV and put them in that camp with the Climate deniers, the racists who didn’t want open borders, the gun owners and the conspiracy theorists who believed in all of this last year.

      2. Crooked Hillary said a quarter of the population were “a basket of deplorables.” Comrade Pelosi said anyone who supported President Trump’s efforts to oppose wholesale Democrat voter fraud was an “enemy of the state.” Brother Number One Pol Pot showed the Left how to deal with such recalcitrants.

        https://money.yahoo.com/press-ignores-pelosi-enemies-state-155610678.html

        The mainstream press has so far ignored House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to label Congressional Republicans and members of the Trump Administration “enemies of the state,” despite providing wall-to-wall coverage of President Trump’s use of the term “the enemy of the American People” to describe the press in 2017.

        Pelosi, appearing Monday with Ayman Mohyeldin of MSNBC, said that Republicans were “enemies of the state” during a discussion over election security amid a Congressional debate over additional funding for the Postal Service. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the November election could be “rigged” and crippled by “fraud” ahead of an expected surge in mailed ballots.

  3. ‘Precious little is written in the major media in the United States about this epidemic of Chinese ownership of American land and real estate. Even less is written about the influence and leverage that the People’s Republic of China has within the corporate media.’

    ‘This often takes the form of the corporate directors of media firms having close financial ties to China that are little known to the American public. This creates a financial incentive to white wash the actions of the People’s Republic of China, both domestically and abroad.’

    ‘Recall the way that the media bristled at calling COVID-19 “the China Virus” or “Wuhan Coronavirus.” There is a reason for this beyond simple political correctness. Many in the upper echelons of the corporate media have a vested interest in protecting the reputation of the People’s Republic of China.’

    https://blog.libertasbella.com/chinese-influence-and-investing/

    1. The individual greed in this country, on a collective level, is what brought us here. Every single greedhead who had a hand in this selling their soul for a buck. And here we are.

      1. You cant end greed; its human nature to hoard for survival when possible.

        What you CAN do is remove the incentives that make hoarding hyper-profitable.

    2. Again I say, these power mongers have shown their turn colors. China has shown it’s true colors.

      Did anybody really think that outsourcing our jobs and manufacturing to places like Communist China was going to make the USA stronger.
      You now have Communist brainwashing trying to take over, fake news by Globalist in bed with China, monopolies and rigged markets.
      And China Joe Biden who represents the insanity of the hijacking of this Country by treasonous power grabs has fake news protecting him.
      You can do a lot of damage in 20yesrs to destroy what the Founders created.
      This is even worse than King George rule with some taxes that started the US Revolution. This is a evil power grab to undue the American Revolution and the Government set up in protection of the individual.
      This evil that has created the decision in America must be seen as a invading army of Looters and destroyers of America.

      These people have to be taken out so the USA can be restored to a Gov. that operates in the interest of the Citizens of the USA.

      1. “Did anybody really think that outsourcing our jobs and manufacturing to places like Communist China was going to make the USA stronger.”

        It worked while they were buying our Boeing 747s.

  5. ‘When Steve Qunell won a seat on the City Council last year in this town of 8,000, he figured he’d be dealing with potholes and affordable housing’

    This brings up another point: if these clowns can’t deliver affordable housing in the middle of nowhere Montana, why would we put the CCP virus in their hands? It’s the same with California. Since I started this blog, all they’ve done is whine about “we need more shacks!”, but any time prices head down, out come the wails to keep price up. But sure, lets allow an arrogant preening grand-stander to decide what we do every minute of the day, with no real authority to do so.

    I know, lets put the DMV in charge of destroying the economy!

    1. “National Mask Mandate”

      Have you hear ChinaJoe discuss it yet? It’s a beaut. Everyone wears a mask under threat of immediate incarceration.

      I’m not sure which is more deluded… those who think we’re going to march around according to their dictates or the helpless donkeys who are willing to go along with it.

    2. affordable housing in the middle of nowhere Montana

      For giggles, let’s look at the affordable housing in Whitefish, MT:

      1920s 2-bed crapshack, cheap AF renovation, $440K:
      https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/549-Kalispell-Ave-Whitefish-MT-59937/78149162_zpid/

      1918 1-bed crapshack, beautifully renovated in the 1950s, $360K:
      https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/630-Baker-Ave-Whitefish-MT-59937/78149011_zpid/

      7000 sq ft empty lot for $275K:
      https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/608-Park-Ave-Whitefish-MT-59937/212890984_zpid/

      And the capper, a 3/2 condo in “downtown” Whitefish, with one of a kind construction, from the high $900s:
      https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/309-Central-Ave-UNIT-303-Whitefish-MT-59937/303832996_zpid/

      These prices are higher than in my neighborhood, and I live in an area awash with rock-solid six-figure jobs. Whitefish has a bunch of ski resorts 6-7 miles away. Is that enough to sustain such prices?

      1. For giggles, let’s look at the affordable housing in Whitefish, MT:

        “For giggles,” you should look up wages in Whitefish, MT. A few years ago, Montana had the 2nd lowest wages in the entire country, second only to Mississippi.

    3. ChinaJoe discuss

      Someone on his team must understand the limits on presidential authority to do this. I heard him say masks would be mandatory in federal buildings and interstate transportation/commerce.

    4. From the same piece: “There was little appetite for that in conservative Flathead County, where the health board has been dominated by an outspoken doctor who argues that the pandemic is a hoax.”

      Difficult to top this guy, er doctor. 🙂

        1. I am not frightened by his incessant fearmongering, but many are. He talks about worst case scenarios and “2nd waves” constantly. The guy is an a$$ clown.

        2. What that Fauci says do you find so frightening? Looking at what he’s said in the not so recent past, that the US population had no reason to wear masks, when what he was really trying to do was divert attention from the massive shortage of masks needed by medical personnel, a shortage that he was in good part responsible for. At that lie/misdirection he lost a huge amount of believability among the electorate that he can never regain. He talks like a weasel and looks like a weasel.

  7. ‘People are being terrorized by fearmongers into relinquishing cherished freedoms,’ she told members of the Liberty Fellowship.”

    Anyone who can’t see that the globalists and their collectivist minions have exploited the scamdemic to vastly increase government overreach and get the sheeple to mindlessly accept even the most arbitrary and capricious “coronavirus preventive measures” is a moron.

  8. A view from Down Under …

    Where are the deaths? Ten reasons the first and second Covid waves look so different « JoNova
    http://joannenova.com.au/2020/10/where-are-the-deaths-ten-reasons-the-first-and-second-covid-waves-look-so-different/

    (snip)

    Ten reasons death rates were lower in Europe’s second wave:
    So much has changed. It will take whole PhDs to unpack the factors.

    1. Demographics: In the second wave young people are the most likely to be infected, not high risk older folk (so far).

    2. Vitamin D : reaches a peak each year in August and Sept.

    3. Masks: Many people were wearing masks — meaning a lower viral dose and they are more likely to get an asymptomatic infection.

    4. Doctors have better treatment plans.

    5. Hospitals are not overrun (yet).

    6. Temperatures were warmer: Viruses are unstable chemical codes. As a rule, higher doses of virus will almost always survive longer in cooler air and on cooler surfaces. As temperatures cool, we’d expect higher doses to be transmitted which means a more severe illness.

    7. Social distancing: Bigger distances and outdoor events mean lower viral doses. But as the seasons cool, we spend more time indoors, which means higher doses as they get closer together.

    8. UV light was stronger — A great outdoor sterilizer. UV also helps create Vitamin D. Obviously, it’s a summer time thing.

    9. More testing in the second wave. Germany is doing 3 times as many tests; France, seven times, and the UK is doing 15 times as many tests now as it was in early April. A lot of the first wave caseload was simply missed. There is roughly a three week lag from tests until mortality (and it can be up to 8 weeks). This wasn’t apparent in many countries in the first wave because they didn’t do enough testing to show the true extent of infections — they missed the entire first peak, only starting to record new daily cases numbers properly as the deaths also peaked.

    10. Mutations? Perhaps the virus has changed to be less deadly. This — our favourite option — the one we all want, may be true, but there is no genetic analysis that supports it yet so who knows?. If it is the case, we ought find a reliable genetic shift that correlates with lower viral loads and healthier patients. But natural selection favours a higher viral load and a more easily spread virus, and that’s what the few mutation studies seem to suggest.

    1. One of the commenters to this article had this to say …

      “I may be wrong but I think there is one obvious reason, the fact that many of the Covid deaths represent premature deaths. Basically many elderly and co morbid deaths were brought forward, the most vulnerable, whose number was already up succumbed. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. The number of potential victims is less because the virus first time round killed the weakest. Once the struggling wilder beasts get picked off by the coronavirus killers the survivors are much cleverer and stronger the second time round. There will be those who the ravages of time and who have seen progression of their comorbities make them newly vulnerable so deaths are unlikely to disappear altogether ( without major improvements in management and treatment) so some deaths will still occur second time round , but at a much lower rate. Basically old and vulnerable people can’t die twice. I suspect a look at total death numbers will needed to be evaluated to really assess how deadly the virus was because so many people who died of Covid in fact died with Covid.
      “I’m just curious, is this Premature death assumption which I think is a clear and obvious logical conclusion wrong?”

      1. What’s being ignored is that the death rate is much, MUCH lower. There are innumerable people who have had the virus and never even suffered symptoms. They didn’t see a doctor, they didn’t miss work, etc. And some people had some mild symptoms and didn’t go to the doctor, either. None of these people factor into the death rate.

        For the above to not be true would be to have a situation where all the healthy people miraculously avoided contracting the virus while the vulnerable were all in the wrong place at the wrong time and got it. Nope, that’s not how it works. Everybody was exposed, it’s just that the vulnerable had bad outcomes and ended up in the hospital or morgue.

        The media would have you believe that this is much more dangerous and deadly than it really is, but it doesn’t pass the sniff test.

          1. Why does that matter?

            Why? Because when something is about as deadly as the flu, you don’t shut down and destroy the economy based upon false pretenses.

      2. The argument may not hold water unless a large share of the population has already been exposed to COVID-19. Whether this is the case is hard to say. But note that the second wave of the 1918 flu pandemic was worse than the first…

        1. Also note that the second wave of the 1918 flu contained 3 new significant virulent mutations, all of which attacked the lungs. That’s why it was worse. Show me the significant virulent mutations in SARS-CoV 2…

          1. Show me the significant virulent mutations in SARS-CoV 2… The “experts” still don’t see to understand why the initial presentation of SARS-CoV 2 was so virulent or why SARS-CoV1 seemed to just evaporate a few years ago. They don’t understand those basics yet, and so their understanding of the significance of subsequent mutations hasn’t yet happened either.

          2. One thing we know for sure is that the virulence of COVID is not due to genetic mutations in the virus itself. This virus does not appear to be mutating significantly. The only significant mutation is more contagious, but not more virulent.

            Instead, the severity of COVID appears to be dictated by the immune system of the patient on the receiving end. Vitamin D levels, Vitamin C levels, whether the patient previously had a coronavirus cold, age, blood pressure regulation, blood sugar regulation (obesity), blood-brain barrier, etc. My belief is that inoculum is a bigger factor than we thought.

            SARS-CoV-1 didn’t evaporate. It was successfully contained through isolation and contact tracing because it was less contagious and only spread symptomatically.

        2. note that the second wave

          If “waves” are in different geographical locations, are they really a resurgence as the name implies?

        3. The argument may not hold water unless a large share of the population has already been exposed to COVID-19. Whether this is the case is hard to say. It is IMPOSSIBLE to say.

    2. Reason #1 is not panning out. The death rate is lower for all age groups, not just as a whole, i.e. if you look at the death rate only for 80-year-olds, that’s dropping too. Personally, I think it’s the lower viral load (masks) and the Vitamin D.

  9. The Left’s Closing Argument to America: Shut Up and Obey

    https://amgreatness.com/2020/10/24/the-lefts-closing-argument-to-america-shut-up-and-obey/

    Under [collectivist] rule, the things we find controversial today no longer would be controversial. All of “the science” would be settled—by them. There would be a short menu of policies and opinions, catered by activists and “experts,” that everyone would follow on pain of persecution. Everyone would accept that America is “racist” and support whatever redress that may require.

    Moreover, anyone arbitrarily declared a spreader of “misinformation” or “hate speech” would be punished, and that would be that. Those targeted would be compelled to grovel, and the liberal mob would cheer their humiliation. We’ve already seen plenty of this, with a spring of lockdowns, a summer of “antiracism,” and the readiness with which seemingly moderate people went along with all of it. Most liberals still trust the media, and they won’t hesitate to have Big Tech do their dirty work for them in the name of “property rights.”

    Yes, they will pack the Supreme Court, too, as they were always going to do the moment they lost control. None of this will be hard for them to justify, in fact they’ll do it all gladly. They’re on the right side of History, after all. They’re the good guys.

      1. ‘Last year, The Epoch Times was barred from advertising on Facebook — where it had spent more than $1.5 million over seven months — after the social network announced that the outlet’s pages had evaded its transparency requirements by disguising its ad purchases. This year, Facebook took down more than 500 pages and accounts linked to Truth Media, a network of anti-China pages that had been using fake accounts to amplify their messages. The Epoch Times denied any involvement, but Facebook’s investigators said Truth Media “showed some links to on-platform activity by Epoch Media Group and NTD.”

        “We’ve taken enforcement actions against Epoch Media and related groups several times,” said a Facebook spokeswoman, who added that the social network would punish the outlet if it violated more rules in the future.’

        This is more of the censorship we’ve seen ramp up recently. F U zuckerberg. I subscribe to the ET because it’s some of the best journalism that exists.

          1. I used it mainly for the crime reports in my old neighborhood. New neighborhood i dont see to many of those posts. I did notice they have a trick or treat map for the homes participating which is pretty cool. Not letting this plandemic ruin my kids favorite holiday!

        2. Let me guess – another site where people gossip?

          Take the concept of Facebook, where people who generally like each other hang out and get to know too much about each other until they can’t stand seeing each other’s posts any more. Now imagine doing the same thing with neighbors who start out not liking each other from the beginning and live just down the street from each other. It’s Karen Central. It’ll get people shot eventually.

  12. “It asked instead for ‘focused protection’—a policy of allowing ‘those at minimal risk of death’ to resume their lives while societies concentrate on ‘better protecting those who are at highest risk.’”

    Did Governor Newsom consult any experts on balancing economic production against coronavirus containment before his panicked rush to implement economy-killing lockdown measures?

    I think not.

    1. Gov. Newsom was inspired by St. Greta’s revealed wisdom from Gaia, conveyed via her globalist handlers. No further guidance was needed. You will comply, citizen!

    2. ‘The declaration also reflects ‘the norms of open scientific discourse, which have been violated by proponents of the Covid lockdowns in the name of protecting the public from ‘dangerous’ ideas.’

      It’s not science to claim your position is the only correct one. Even the commie WHO said lockdowns caused more harm than good. And this ‘dangerous ideas’ crap needs to go into the trash.

      2. It’s not science to claim your position is the only correct one.

        It’s scientifically okay to claim that your position is the only correct one, IF you can support your claim with concrete evidence. Then the other guy does supports his position with his evidence. Ideally, the two find something in the data which supports one of the positions as the correct one, OR, they find some trend in the data the suggests a third position. The two get together and design an experiment to test the third position. This is how science is supposed to happen.

        However, it rarely happens that way, for two reasons:
        1. It has to be real evidence, not “I’m right because I went to Harvard and therefore I must be smarter.”
        2. If the evidence points to one position being right, the other guy needs to acquiesce. This almost NEVER happens.
        3. The goal has to be to find whatever entity explains the evidence. If the goal is to make money, to get a promotion, or even to keep your job, the wrong position usually wins.

        I personally haven’t seen any real science in the past 15 years. For COVID, there is some real science going on, but only at the bench level. Managers sell their scientific souls.

        1. Not if you aren’t addressing 100 million or so starving to death. If you only look at the virus, you’ve missed quite a lot. And it’s clear that is what they did, because they never mention it.

          1. “ aren’t addressing 100 million or so starving to death” and likely counted as covid related deaths. Bring out yer death carts!!!

        2. It’s scientifically okay to claim that your position is the only correct one

          Only after you have abandoned the actual search for knowledge.

    4. Did Governor Newsom consult any experts Both state and national legislatures seem to have entirely evaded their responsibilities in crafting or repealing legislation to deal with the crisis. They were so terrified of coming down with the virus, as ancient as so many of them are.

  13. “Dr. Bhattacharya cites an example of Covid politics that he found ‘shocking.’ When Black Lives Matter protests broke out in the spring, ‘1,300 epidemiologists signed a letter saying that the gatherings were consistent with good public health practice.’ The ‘same epidemiologists’ were arguing that ‘we should essentially quarantine in place.’ In his view, this opened up the letter’s signers to ‘appropriate criticism, that they’d asked people to shut down their businesses, stay out of schools, stop worshiping, and yet they’re saying it’s OK to protest. It just reeked of political bias.’”

    Exactly! And what’s worse, some academic economists raced to publish a paper claiming no COVID-19 spreading due to BLM protests before conclusive data even existed on which to base an analysis, which the liberal MSM instantly picked up and parroted.

    Who pays academics to prostitute themselves like that?

    1. Bellevue declares civil emergency, weapons ban due to protests

      Oct 24, 2020

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-zS1u3023E

      3 comments:

      ‘Who are the two apposing groups? Was it taxi drivers vs. lift? Was it Radical feminists vs. Canada? I was being sarcastic, but I really don’t know. So as always after watching the news you have to look up the truth.’

      ‘Name the groups.’

      “A group…. they chanted black lives matter” ‘God the media is so corrupt lmfao. Just call them what they are. They are BLM. They were aggressive and threatening. the pro cop group was civil and followed police instruction….’

      1. It’s going down to 7 degrees tonight and 4 degrees Monday night. I wish we have weather like this the whole week of the election. Carjacking and looting isn’t easy when you have frostbite 🙁

          2. Huffington Post — Right-Wing Militia Groups ‘Pose A Serious Threat’ To Voters

            Your gotta admire their chutzpah. That they can say stuff like this while Burn, Loot, Murder terrorizes and harms decent people shows that they are “all in” with the Narrative. If it blows up in their collective faces on election day they’ll stamp their feet and scream that America is racist and run by white supremacists, and probably give their shock troopers carte blanche to destroy everything they can, while Dem mayors and governors look the other way.

        2. Saw something similar when I was in the Ferguson, MO area to help my parents shortly following the inception of BLM rioting, after no murder charges were filed against the police officer who shot Michael Brown. There was an early frost, and the streets where rioting had recently occurred were empty. It was too cold to riot.

          1. Bear: same thing happened to Occupy Wall street, a early snowfall on Halloween, so Bloomberg cleared it out before people got sick, a few days later in the 70’s –

          2. It was too cold to riot.

            Maybe that’s why northern European culture doesn’t seem to involve a lot of public protest and riot. They tend to be polite for as long as possible, then go out and quickly kill everyone and then get straight back home to be polite again.

        3. “It’s going down to 7 degrees tonight and 4 degrees Monday night.”

          I went grocery shopping this morning, 24-degrees ambient, bright beautiful blue skies and not an insect in sight!

      2. BLM thugs in San Bernadino “mostly peaceful protests” punched a Latino woman motorist in the face and keyed her car. Latino males, to their credit, are a lot more likely to react when their women are assaulted by “the usual suspects” than their white male counterparts.

        https://www.tatumreportexclusive.com/blm-activist-assaults-woman-and-damage-cars-in-anti-police-california-protest-video/

        SAN BERNARDINO: A BLM protester punches a Hispanic woman in the face and another BLM protester keys her car after BLM protesters shut down an intersection

        1. Debunked.

          Real Journalists assured that events like this couldn’t happen after they took the picture of Uncle Ben off the boxes of rice.

          #Forward

        2. Not sure why the hordes are rioting as it’s pretty clear that black thug pulled a pistol from his waistband while resisting arrest. Oh well, nobody beyond family will miss his contribution(s) to society. Oh, and that police officer deserves a bonus added to his next paycheck and a public congratulatory handshake from the mayor.

          1. I’m not sure his family will even miss him. Idiots like this aren’t even fun to be around. They have a chip on their shoulder in combination with a serious personality disorder and other issues.

    2. Who pays academics to prostitute themselves like that? My years spent in academies convinced me that a great many academics are fundamentally dishonest. Maybe that was the best thing I learned in the academies, come to think of it.

    3. “Who pays academics to prostitute themselves like that?”

      Politicians and businesses.

      Paying for a study which supports some course of action you have already decided to take, by people whose grants you are paying, is a huge underlying system nowadays.

      1. Yup. For many of them, grants is their only paycheck, i.e. “soft money.” It’s a high-level version of working on commission. They have to produce what their paymasters tell them. I found this out the hard way.

  14. Governments around the world are using the ongoing pandemic to crack down on online dissent according to a human rights watchdog.

    Washington-based Freedom House said dozens of countries have cited CV as a means “to justify expanded surveillance powers and the deployment of new technologies that were once seen as too intrusive.” They added that it marks the 10th consecutive annual decline in internet freedom, Barron’s reported.

    The expansion of technological systems is enabling governments’ social control, according to the report.

    “The pandemic is accelerating society’s reliance on digital technologies at a time when the internet is becoming less and less free,” said Michael Abramowitz, president of the nonprofit group.

    https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/human-rights-watchdog-says-governments-using-pandemic-to-crack-down-on-online-dissent

  15. I usually don’t post songs this early in the day but after reading the comments and being glad I had finished my coffee and not splattered my keyboard with it I figured what the heck.

    PROMISES ERIC CLAPTON

    https://youtu.be/x5SyDNiufo0

    Comments

    Steven Brown

    1 year ago

    wife left about 20 minutes ago and I really don’t care she ever comes home

    Thumbs up 64

    View 12 replies

    Adam Pedersen

    1 year ago

    Still waiting for mine to leave…

    Thumbs up 8

    1. Great song. Seems like it’s been years since I heard it. Thanks for posting on this cold gray winter’s day.

      1. “… This cold gray winter’s day.”

        Watch “The Mamas & the Papas – California Dreamin'” on YouTube
        https://youtu.be/qhZULM69DIw

        All the leaves are brown (All the leaves are brown)
        And the sky is grey (And the sky is grey)
        I’ve been for a walk (I’ve been for a walk)
        On a winter’s day (On a winter’s day)
        I’d be safe and warm (I’d be safe and warm)
        If I was in L.A. (If I was in L.A.)
        California dreamin’ (California dreamin’)
        On such a winter’s day
        Stopped into a church
        I passed along the way
        Well, I got down on my knees (Got down on my knees)
        And I pretend to pray (I pretend to pray)
        You know the preacher liked the cold (Preacher liked the cold)
        He knows I’m gonna stay (Knows I’m gonna stay)
        California dreamin’ (California dreamin’)
        On such a winter’s day
        All the leaves are brown (All the leaves are brown)
        And the sky is grey (And the sky is grey)
        I’ve been for a walk (I’ve been for a walk)
        On a winter’s day (On a winter’s day)
        If I didn’t tell her (If I didn’t tell her)
        I could leave today (I could leave today)
        California dreamin’ (California dreamin’)
        On such a winter’s day (California dreamin’)
        On such a winter’s day (California dreamin’)
        On such a winter’s day

    1. Enthusiasm for sure, but will it be enough? I doubt it.

      Hidin’ wins for 2 reasons:
      1. Economy (Trump voters have not benefited from money printing)
      2. Ballot harvesting (level not seen before)

      1. I can’t predict the result of under the table shenanigans. But tradition would point to a Trump win despite covid and the polls. Those guys that analyze elections based on weird subliminal stuff like candidate height and aggression and strength and optimism and stuff like that I think would predict a Trump win. And the crowds/enthusiasm would definitely predict Trump. Sure, a ton of people hate him and will hold their nose and vote for Kama…err Joe but I don’t think that’s enough. I still think the DNC intentionally chose Trump over Sanders.

        1. the DNC intentionally chose Trump over Sanders

          They surely doubled down by running Karma alongside Joe. Nobody in her own party liked her in the primaries.

          2. badKarma was preselected long ago. She’s designated by name in 2017 emails to receive proceeds from the Biden China Bribe scandal.

    1. “American Jews are overwhelmingly liberal…”

      But Trump’s support for Israel and the Jewish dominated investment banks on Wall street has been unswerving.

  18. If Biden wins they are going to rig the deck even more . By the time the brainwashed people who voted for this insanity called Biden/Harris realize how stupid they were it will be to late.

    1. By the time the brainwashed people who voted for this insanity […]realize how stupid they were

      They’ll be dead first.

  19. My wife used to and two of my kids still did enjoy Netflix but I recently canceled it. Same as Directv’s Sunday NFL but for different “woke” reasons.

    Today I received this from them.

    “give us another chance? We’ve got thousands of new TV shows and movies.”

    Enjoy Netflix again.

    Enjoy TV shows and movies hassle-free with Netflix. There are no commitments — easily cancel online anytime. Start, pause, watch, and continue on your schedule. Plus, Netflix is always commercial-free.

    REJOIN TODAY

    1. I had Netflix for 6 or 7 years straight. I canceled sometime in the last 6 months and don’t recall ever getting a “give us another chance” email. That’s ok, I don’t care to do business with them again. I haven’t missed it. I only enjoyed a few of their programs, but you have to wait over a year between releases which is just stupid. By the time the next season came around I couldn’t even remember where it left off and my interest had waned. Plus, their movie selection sucks a$$.

    2. I also got one:

      Come on back and watch what you want, when you want, on any device you want. And once you’re watching, we’ll never interrupt you with commercials.
      REJOIN TODAY

      Sorry, no.

    1. I dunno. Unemployed people won’t be doing much driving, which means oil prices (and the financial sector) will crater.

      1. You’re liking falling housing prices. I can tell.

        Alliance, OH Housing Prices Crater 34% YOY As National Housing Bust Rolls Through The Mid-West

        https://www.movoto.com/alliance-oh/market-trends/

        As one real estate economist explained, “With 25 million excess empty and defaulted houses out there, it’s no mystery why housing prices are falling everywhere.”

      2. The price increases would be driven by new taxes. They want European style (as in big and onerous) fuel taxes. Biden will probably want a 20% VAT, too.

        It’s for the children, you know.

      3. If the unemployed get UBI, they’ll go out and buy sexi-trux. They might not drive much, but those behemoths use enough gas to make up for the lack of miles. 🤪

        1. “There are few places worth driving to at the moment, so I don’t much care about the price of gas.”

          Makes me wonder too whether electric cars will eventually get a special registration/tax surcharge federally or state by state down the road as fossil fuels consumption for transport tapers. I say this because 90% of my car use is in a 20 mile radius, hence an electric car that gets maybe 400 miles per a charge would be fine for me. For long distance trips, flying is cheaper than driving in so many ways. Gone are the days I want to road trip to get somewhere.

          1. Speak for yourself. I absolutely despise flying. My goal is to never have to do it again in life. Funerals make that difficult.

  27. MarketWatch — Facebook prepared to limit posts in case of post-election strife:

    “Deployed together, the tools could alter what tens of millions of Americans see when they log onto the platform, diminishing their exposure to sensationalism, incitements to violence and misinformation, said the people familiar with the measures. But slowing down the spread of popular content could suppress some good-faith political discussion, a prospect that makes some Facebook employees uneasy, some of the people said.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-prepared-to-limit-posts-in-case-of-post-election-strife-11603660761

    Translation: any discussion of rioting, looting, carjacking, home invasions, etc will be blocked from this and all social media platforms from the week of the election going forward, indefinitely. Any law abiding property owner who defends themselves will get disappeared, and any attempt at creating a legal defense fund for them will be summarily blocked by all online payment platforms.

    This is the HBB where you hear it first.

        1. Absolutely. They are not interested in hearing any dissenting opinions on anything, and they don’t want their readers to see them either. It’s pretty pathetic.

  29. Matt Taibbi says …

    With the Hunter Biden Expose, Suppression is a Bigger Scandal Than The Actual Story

    https://taibbi.substack.com/p/with-the-hunter-biden-expose-suppression-136?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNTM5NjYwLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNDIyNTUzMiwiXyI6IisvekdrIiwiaWF0IjoxNjAzNTY1MDc5LCJleHAiOjE2MDM1Njg2NzksImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xMDQyIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.XUZy4uM4ql5H86bZ-HzWif1BCNu4wth06s73KZz_ju0

    (Here is a snip. Inquiring minds might want to read the entire article)

    “The flow of information in the United States has become so politicized – bottlenecked by an increasingly brazen union of corporate press and tech platforms – that it’s become impossible for American audiences to see news about certain topics absent thickets of propagandistic contextualizing. Try to look up anything about Burisma, Joe Biden, or Hunter Biden in English, however, and you’re likely to be shown a pile of “fact-checks” and explainers ahead of the raw information:”

    1. From the article:

      Poroshenko: I think that within the last three weeks, we demonstrate real great progress in the sphere of reforms. We voted in the parliament for 100% tariffs despite the fact that the IMF expected only 75%… We are launching reform for the prices for medicine, removing all the obstacles.

      Biden: I agree.

      Poroshenko was telling Joe Biden that in order to get an American aid package, he’d gone beyond even what the I.M.F. asked for and raised energy prices for ordinary Ukrainians not by 75%, but by 100%, as well as taking steps to curtail subsidized medicine prices.

      Want $6 gasoline?

      Vote Biden.

    2. Interesting. IIRC, Taibbi was a sort of hero to the left when he was reporting on the Iraq war. Now they will see him as a turncoat and likely cancel/dox him.

      And he is correct that trying to suppress the Hunter story is the larger scandal than Hunter himself. I haven’t really looked up the details of the story; for me it’s enough to know that Twitter blocked it. Game over.

      2. Taibbi was a sort of hero to the left when he was reporting on the Iraq war. Now they will see him as a turncoat and likely cancel/dox him.

        Yeah, the left has been trying to cancel him for a while now on Twitter for telling the truth about them. So far he’s been doing a great job of refuting them, but it appears to be a full time job. I don’t know how he has time to actually do any work any more.

        1. When you have verifiable facts and a deep understanding about how the Swamp, Inc works (remember: Taibbi broke huge ground on 2000s gov-enabled banker malfeasance) annihilating the arguments of unthinking, ignorant fools is a moment’s task.

          1. I remember. They’re swarming him hard, though. But yes, so far he swats them down like a cloud of flies with a flame thrower.

      3. In the same vane, If you want to see what happens to a hardcore, liberal, democratic voting Jew who swallowed a whole friggin bottle of red-pills in the last couple years, read Jim Kunstler. The guy has been on fire scorching the left loons running their party.

        1. Yeah, that’s been fun to watch, too. He seems to get some serious hate mail over it. I have no beef with people who could never stomach the Rs but can admit when the Ds have gone completely off the rails. It appears to me that Thanksgiving this year will be lower stress because the SJWs aren’t really interested in breaking bread with the rest of their families any more.

  31. Can anyone sign? I would like to know if the person signing thought Biden was running against George Bush too. Watching the look on Jill’s face and her subtle lean and out of view nudge is priceless.

    MUST WATCH: Joe Biden confuses President Trump with George Bush

    456,290 views•
    Oct 25, 2020

    https://youtu.be/9EMq42gdJQM

    1. Perhaps I can help him. George and Donald both cut taxes for the rich and corporations and jacked up spending, shifting the cost to poorer, later-born generations.

      George was elected in part on a promise that the U.S. would be a “humble nation” and tend to its own affairs, and then launched wars all over the globe.

      Donald threatened to launch wars all over the globe, and then didn’t.

      1. So does that mean the person signed…

        “Four more years of George uh, George uh he uh gonna find ourselves in a position where, if uh Trump gets elected uh, we’re gonna be uh, we’re gonna be in a different world”

        or not?

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