Month: October 2020

Attention GOP Voters in Blue States

America, Government, Headlines, Politics, Society & Culture

Many Republicans and conservative or traditional independents living in Blue States intuitively feel their vote doesn’t matter – that the state is going to vote Democrat so their vote won’t count anyway. Not so! It DOES MATTER! Here’s why…

As Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has urged, “If you think you live in an area that is hopelessly blue and your vote doesn’t matter, consider the Republican takeover of Congress in 2010, in which we picked up 63 seats.” In that same year, he explained, Massachusetts elected a GOP Senator (Scott Brown) for the first time since 1972! In Illinois, Joe Walsh beat Democrat congresswoman Melissa Bean by 300 or so votes!

In 1980 Reagan was down 8 points behind Carter a week before the election. On Election Day, Reagan’s electoral victory was 489-49!

As Speaker Gingrich points out, “No matter where you live, you cannot believe polls. Nearly all the major national polls were dead wrong in 2016, and nothing substantial has changed in the way that these same Washington Beltway pollsters are surveying Americans today. They continue to over-sample Democrats, under-sample Republicans, and focus on largely liberal urban and suburban areas while ignoring the middle of the country. There is no reason to believe the big Biden lead some of these polls are reporting.”

Even if it turns out that your state votes Blue, the stronger the Republican showing, the more pressure is put upon the elected to watch their backs and not wholesale rubber stamp every dumb leftist idea!

As for the distressing stories and words coming out of the mouths of Democratic/leftist, as well as RINO talking heads on Fox News that seem to bear the same weight as GOP/traditional voices… as Sean Hannity famously says, “Net not your heart be troubled”. Fox is a for-profit commercial company. Stirring up controversy, showing the conflict between Right and Left earns them ratings, which earns them profits. That anger that brews in your gut when you hear a Fox reporter or commentator say things that sound surprisingly leftist, just remember that when they do that it gives Leftists a reason to watch, thus generating revenue and profit for Fox as well!

If you really can’t stand hearing any leftist drivel (I know that the vast majority of my readers don’t watch the MSM except for amusement or entertainment value), I recommend One America News Network and Newsmax TV.

And for those of us who are news junkies, feeling our blood pressure jump up and down like a crazy stock market, I suggest turning off the tv and your computer altogether, putting on some soothing classical music, and picking up a good series of books, like William F. Buckley’s Blackford Oakes novels.

However you choose to spend the next few days until the marathon viewing session we’re all going to undertake on November 3rd and 4th…

MAKE SURE YOU VOTE, AND DO SO WITH YOUR BRAINS, NOT YOUR HEARTS! Set the theatrics aside and ask yourself, “Who, for President and at the state and local level, will help me, my family and my country more?” The answer should be obvious.

Spin vs. Lies

Headlines, Morality, Politics, Religion

As I have often stated, one can find evidence of what I’ll call “bad stuff”: bad rhetoric, bad behavior, on both sides of the political spectrum. However, the AMOUNT of bad stuff rendered by the Left dwarfs by several orders of magnitude the amount from the Right. Often it’s difficult to discern what is “spin” or trying to cast things in the best light, versus falsehood. What’s so extraordinary right now is that the Left doesn’t even try to ‘spin’ anymore. They out and out lie and expect cover from a sycophant main street media.

For instance, let’s take Trump’s spin on not disclosing his income tax returns. Anyone who prepares a long form tax return knows that even if it’s permissible to publish them in the middle of an audit, it’d be completely stupid to do so. Being under audit means there’s a dispute with the IRS and the last thing anyone should do is go public with their numbers…it would obviously prejudice the negotiations against the taxpayer!

Now, could there be other reasons why Trump wouldn’t want to disclose his returns? Yes, because returns require that one disclose assets, under penalty of perjury, and the VALUATION of an asset is always subjective. Trump says he is worth $10 billion. That could be true, if his assets are worth more than the difference between their value and his total debt (that’s the very definition of “worth”). Could the accountants and the IRS disagree on their value? Absolutely, and he may really be worth anywhere from nothing to some amount far greater than $10 billion. It doesn’t matter. He’s obviously rich, made a lot of money as a real estate developer, and paid a LOT in taxes over the years. The $750 canard is an attempt by the Left to suggest he paid little to no tax. Again, anyone with any knowledge of tax return preparation knows that amounts paid and amounts due vary tremendously across multiple years, and it’s entirely possible that Trump would have paid millions one year and not only pay nothing in a subsequent year, but even get a refund! Is he trying to spin this situation to cast things in the best light? Of course he is! But I’ll bet the accountants and tax attorneys working on his returns and negotiating with the IRS are doing everything they can to AVOID taxes, which is perfectly legal and appropriate for ANYONE to do in the U.S., rather than EVADE taxes, which is of course illegal!

Contrast the example of spin, described above, with Biden’s outright lies, which are deliberate falsehoods meant to deceive and deflect from the truth. These have been documented widely. Rather than reproduce them here, I’ll simply point you to the October 23, 2020 National Review article entitled “Biden Lies Again and Again” available here. Note, by the way, that the National Review is no tabloid.

The Left, as I’ve said before, will do ANYTHING, including outright lie, to achieve power. Biden, the consummate career politician, will do and continues to do the same.

That so many Americans will vote to grant power to the Democrats in this election is evidence of how effective their lying has been and how gullible so many have become. Just about half of the electorate now consists of voters who are either brainwashed, asleep, so anxious to be liked they have become lemmings, following the ‘woke’ celebrities with whom they’d like to identify, or, unfortunately, so lazy they’ll just vote the way they always have, or the way they were raised to vote. Never mind they’re shooting themselves in some vulnerable, private part, it’s more important that they be either anti-Trump or have the same signs as their neighbors than do what’s in their best self-interest, or in the interest of the country.

Optimistically, I don’t think the majority of Americans fall under the above description. Rather, they’re so busy working to take care of themselves and their families they don’t participate in polls, don’t talk about what they think, and don’t care what the ‘woke’ crowd says or does. It’s a small majority, regrettably, but a majority nonetheless. Because of the way the electoral map’s arithmetic works, it’s obvious that having more of the popular vote from New York, California and Illinois can and will still result in a victory for the Right on November 3rd. I’m quietly confident, however, this time the silent majority will speak up and the Right will win the popular vote as well as the electoral vote, resulting in a clear MANDATE (more on this in the future) to continue to reject Leftism.

FLASH: TRUMP POSTS RAW 60 MINUTES INTERVIEW – A MUST SEE!!!!!

Media, Politics

Dear Readers, with so much “stuff” saturating the air, thought I should bring to your attention the raw footage of the yet to be aired 60 Minutes interview of President Trump by Leslie Stahl of CBS. It tells you all you need to know about the corrupt media!

It’s available here together with commentary by Dan Calabrese via the Cain Gang website, which continues the patriotic work of Herman Cain (R.I.P.) !

Crucial/Supplemental Quotes for the Day

America, Government, Media, Politics, Quips & Quotes, Society & Culture, Values

Following are two quotes, one from Mark Levin on the subject of the corrupt media and one, from Tony Bobulinski, the former Biden family corruption enterprise partner that are a must read. They are reproduced, with attribution and credit, in full, below:

“For years the media tried to create a corruption scenario around President Trump and his family and utterly failed.  They lied, spun, deceived, you name it.  A daily drumbeat of propaganda. Now, where there’s a great deal of evidence of corruption developing around Joe, his son Hunter, &other family members, the media are actually defending Biden through various schemes, such as attacking Rudy Giuliani, concocting a “Russian disinformation” campaign& all the rest Never before has our country been confronted with such a corrupt and dishonest media enterprise.” Mark Levin, on Parler, 9:10 AM, October 22, 2020

“My name is Tony Bobulinski. The facts set forth below are true and accurate; they are not any form of domestic or foreign disinformation. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and offensive. I am the recipient of the email published seven days ago by the New York Post which showed a copy to Hunter Biden and Rob Walker. That email is genuine.

This afternoon I received a request from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance requesting all documents relating to my business affairs with the Biden family as well as various foreign entities and individuals. I have extensive relevant records and communications and I intend to produce those items to both Committees in the immediate future.

I am the grandson of a 37 year Army Intelligence officer, the son of a 20+ year career Naval Officer and the brother of a 28 year career Naval Flight Officer. I myself served our country for 4 years and left the Navy as LT Bobulinski. I held a high level security clearance and was an instructor and then CTO for Naval Nuclear Power Training Command. I take great pride in the time my family and I served this country. I am also not a political person. What few campaign contributions I have made in my life were to Democrats.

If the media and Big Tech companies had done their jobs over the past several weeks I would be irrelevant in this story. Given my long standing service and devotion to this great country, I could no longer allow my family’s name to be associated or tied to Russian disinformation or implied lies and false narratives dominating the media right now.

After leaving the military I became an institutional investor investing extensively around the world and on every continent. I have traveled to over 50 countries. I believe, hands down, we live in the greatest country in the world.

What I am outlining is fact. I know it is fact because I lived it. I am the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings which was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family. I was brought into the company to be the CEO by James Gilliar and Hunter Biden. The reference to “the Big Guy” in the much publicized May 13, 2017 email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden. The other “JB” referenced in that email is Jim Biden, Joe’s brother.

Hunter Biden called his dad “the Big Guy” or “my Chairman,” and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals that we were discussing. I’ve seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I’ve seen firsthand that that’s not true, because it wasn’t just Hunter’s business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line.

I realized the Chinese were not really focused on a healthy financial ROI. They were looking at this as a political or influence investment. Once I realized that Hunter wanted to use the company as his personal piggy bank by just taking money out of it as soon as it came from the Chinese, I took steps to prevent that from happening.

The Johnson Report connected some dots in a way that shocked me — it made me realize the Bidens had gone behind my back and gotten paid millions of dollars by the Chinese, even though they told me they hadn’t and wouldn’t do that to their partners.

I would ask the Biden family to address the American people and outline the facts so I can go back to being irrelevant — and so I am not put in a position to have to answer those questions for them.

I don’t have a political ax to grind; I just saw behind the Biden curtain and I grew concerned with what I saw. The Biden family aggressively leveraged the Biden family name to make millions of dollars from foreign entities even though some were from communist controlled China.

God bless America.”

Tony Bobulinski, NY Post, October 22, 2020, Full text of statement extracted from “Hunter biz partner confirms email, details Joe Biden’s push to make millions from China: Goodwin”

Trump vs. Biden

America, Economy, Government, Politics, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Values

Today I’m pleased to share the thoughts of one of our readers who, in response to a friend who is rabidly anti-Trump, outlined the contrast between the two (quoted verbatim and in full with Editor’s additional notes italicized):

“I prefer “You are what you do, not what you say” so this is an abbreviated list of what Trump and Biden have done in public life:

Trump in 48 months:

  • Seated 150+ conservative judges as well as 2 and probably 3 Supreme Court Justices who are devotedly pro-life (Editor’s note: and adherents of the Constitution as written, not as the Left would like it to “evolve”.)
  • Best economy pre-covid, especially for blacks, Hispanics and women (Editor’s note: historically greater gains for low income earners than the wealthy)
  • Passed “Right to try” legislation for terminal patients
  • Passed tax reform (Editor’s note: directly impacting middle income families and causing economic growth to soar compared to anemic recovery under Obama/Biden.)
  • Criminal justice reform and enterprise zones and financial assistance to black colleges
  • Defeated ISIS (Editor’s note: killed its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi)
  • (Editor’s note: killed the most dangerous terrorist in the world, Iran’s Qasem Soleimani)
  • Brokered a peace accord in the Middle East which continues to expand
  • Moved US embassy to Jerusalem
  • (Editor’s note: removed us from the absurd and dangerous Iran Nuclear Deal)
  • (Editor’s note: removed us from the extremely unfavorable Trans Pacific Partnership)
  • (Editor’s note: removed us from the ridiculous and punitive Paris Climate Accord)
  • Enhanced veterans benefits and strengthened the VA
  • Rebuilt our military (decimated by 8 years of Obama/Biden)
  • Created Space Force, the new arm of the military
  • Signed trade deals with Mex./Can, Korea, China, Japan
  • Protected our border from ILLEGAL immigration
  • Created operation warp speed to bring vaccines/therapeutics to treat covid to market as quickly as possible.
  • Donated Presidential salary to charity
  • (Editor’s note: achieved U.S. energy independence with attendant benefits for ALL Americans)

(Editor’s note: and accomplished all of the above while under direct and vicious serial attacks by the Left.)

Biden in 47 years

  • Wrong on every foreign policy decision as VP (per Gates the Sec of DOD during his tenure) (Editor’s note: including opposing going after Bin Laden)
  • Started the partisan rancor over supreme court nominees with his trashing of Robert Bork
  • Sponsored the most discriminatory crime bills in history
  • Chose the most liberal senator (even left of Bernie Sanders) as a running mate
  • Gives cover to Antifa and BLM, left wing anarchist organizations 
  • Sets his son up for influence peddling with Ukraine, China and Russia while responsible for relations with these countries and taking a cut of it
  • (Editor’s note: has flip-flopped for political expediency on the single most critical component of U.S. energy independence: fracking)

Not much positive to add here. 

The democratic party is not the party you knew 20 years ago and has only gotten worse. Remember Ronald Reagan’s famous line “I didn’t leave the democratic party, it left me”. It’s done the same to lots of former democrats.

So on the merits I’ll take a man of action (albeit one who should keep his mouth shut more often). This country can’t afford any further slide to socialism.”

(Editor’s note: Thank you Bob! I’ll add that if ever there were a case of words versus action on display, Trump vs. Biden is it! Biden has run his mouth off for years and years promising everything and accomplishing little to nothing. Trump has run his mouth off for four years, accomplishing much more than he promised, all of it beneficial for the entire nation!)

Some Random Thoughts for the Day – October 15, 2020

America, Economy, Education, Family, Government, Headlines, Health Care, Media, Morality, Politics, Reason, Science, Society & Culture, Technology, Values

There is so much to analyze, so much to comment on, so much to write about, I think today I’ll just list bullet points. Please click below to read them…

  • The chaos being sewn by both parties, but particularly and obviously that by the Left, is deliberate. It makes it difficult for many to sort fact from fiction, to sort honesty from dishonesty. Only clear-headed Americans with open minds and critical thinking skills will be able to discern truth from lies.
  • The Left, and I’ve said this before, will stop at NOTHING to defeat Donald Trump and the Republicans this election cycle. Couched in a wide range of statesman-like rhetoric (e.g. Dick Durbin) to outright obnoxious, poisonous and odious verbal diarrhea (e.g. Kamala Harris) the Left is throwing anything and everything at the wall in hopes something will stick.
  • If you look up “unhinged” in the dictionary, Nancy Pelosi’s picture should be next to the definition. Her performance with Wolf Blitzer on CNN simply says it all. You can’t make this stuff up.
  • As evidence of how on the one hand our country is innovative as hell, and on the other how crazy it’s becoming, I offer the fact that Hormel is now offering face masks with the scent of bacon. ‘Nuff said.
  • New bumper sticker: “My expert/scientist is bigger than your expert/scientist”.
  • Seen on a trail in the middle of nowhere in the High Peaks Wilderness of the Adirondacks a couple of weeks ago: a family, all wearing masks, including the family dog!
  • I predict the barons of Wall Street, in a final attempt to knock Trump down, will tank the market just before the election.
  • There is corruption on both sides of the political swamp, but the Clintons, Bidens, and their ilk truly are the varsity, All-American champions. Tell me how a so-called public servant his entire life, Joe Biden, is fabulously wealthy (and don’t say because Jill Biden is a physician… she didn’t make THAT much over the years). Don’t even try to justify the Biden family’s “business interests” that were implicitly, if not explicitly tied to his government positions as less than major conflicts of interest, whether ‘legal’ or not! As for the Clintons…the $100,000 commodities trading scandal was nothing compared to what they extracted and continue to extract from the Clinton Foundation into which influence buyers poured tens of millions of dollars! Again, legal or not, it stinks to high heaven!
  • Amy Comey Barrett is a superstar, and it’s not because of her technically perfect performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It’s because she acts, behaves and speaks like a NORMAL PERSON with solid traditional values – a role model if ever there was one.
  • Anybody with half a brain knows how corrupt and biased the so-called mainstream media is. The Twitter and Facebook censorship of the NY Post article on Hunter Biden that was published yesterday underscores just how corrupt and biased Silicon Valley is as well.
  • How any self-respecting citizen of our country could believe the Left’s lies, distortions, deflections, dissembling, denigrating, deceit, whining and histrionics is truly a sad commentary on our society.
  • The Republican outcry against the already evident problems with this election’s ballots may be enough to scare or at least influence ballot counters, poll watchers and voters to be vigilant. Contrary to what’s being trumpeted, I think there’s a good chance we WILL know the outcome of the election the night of November 3rd. The lawsuits and s#$%-show that will inevitably continue (they’ve already started) post November 3rd will not change a clear outcome.
  • Yogi Berra where are you when we need you. Your sayings, “It’s like “déjà vu all over again” and “It ain’t over till it’s over” have never been more apt.
  • Conservatives and Republicans don’t participate in polls and don’t put lawn signs up in Blue and Purple States.
  • “My Doctor is Bigger than Your Doctor” too!
  • School age kids are suffering. The Left doesn’t give a damn…they just want to use their new teaching platform to indoctrinate them through the medium they’re most used to. Teaching has now become a “social media” activity…
  • If you don’t want to be shot by a citizen defending himself or herself or by a law enforcement officer, it’s simple… don’t: a) hang out with the wrong people at the wrong times in the wrong places, b) strictly obey law enforcement’s commands, c) don’t threaten in an attempt to be macho, d) don’t be insolent, condescending…show respect for law enforcement, e) don’t do things that are, simply, ILLEGAL, e.g. riot, loot, destroy property, trespass, physically assault others, carry an unlicensed firearm or other deadly force object and misuse it, etc. etc.!
  • Life begins at conception, period. If you don’t want to have a baby, practice contraception, not infanticide.
  • Labels like socialism, marxism, white supremacy, ‘Karen’, oppressed, victim, racism, white privilege, etc. etc. are empty when not properly and adequately defined and explained. They’re just labels intended to incite positive or negative ‘feelings’ and simply should be ignored!
  • The lines will be long on election day. Try not to be too impatient and plan on going early and staying as long as you have to to make your vote count!

As We Approach the Election

America, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

“Theater.” “Illegitimate.” “The Barrett hearings are putting lives at risk.” All phrases and quips that describe the apoplexy of the Left as they see their power evaporating. Have you ever heard such nonsense and seen such histrionics in your lifetime? Boy, they are happy to dish it out, but they sure can’t take it.

Gesticulating Pelosi, who can’t talk without her hands moving and who, almost as sharp as Joe Biden, herself goes blank from time to time, and will do ANYTHING, really, just about anything, to obtain and retain power. We forget she’s a representative of California, of San Francisco, a beautiful city her neglect of which has turned it (literally) into a sewer. Why would anyone in their right mind want her to be a leader of this country?

The Left stays awake at night dreaming up one-liners, slogans and word combinations they think will carry the day. Confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is “court packing”. What a laugh! Hardball and elections have consequences politics it may be, but it isn’t remotely “court packing”, and they know it!

What’s scary is not that they put out such nonsense, it’s that they’re not stupid and say these things because they know that a huge part of the population BELIEVE what they say. For the Left, through the educational system and Hollywood, to have so brainwashed, so indoctrinated, so dumbed down so many of our citizens that they’d accept this drivel…THAT’S what is scary!

However, as assaulted as we are by the tsunami of BS the Left is disseminating, I still have faith that there are a majority of Americans who see through it all and will reject it November 3rd. Barring fraud, manipulation, outright result-rigging on the part of the Left, they will lose, decisively.

Readers know that I wish we had a statesman for a President, someone like Reagan who could inspire, make us proud. But honestly, Reagan couldn’t win today. The reason is simple. The gutter the Left has pulled us into can only be fought by a bull in a china shop street thug who, despite being inarticulate, despite being an embarrassment at times, nevertheless ‘takes no s…” and throws back more than he gets.

Forget style. Forget diction. Forget rhetoric. Look at the real results. What this administration has been able to achieve in four years notwithstanding the unprecedented and sometimes unbelievable opposition is nothing less than heroic. The Left had shoved us so far down the slippery slope towards failure and ruin it would have been extraordinary if we could have just raised GDP by 1% and grown just modestly. What was done in terms of actually advancing the well-being and prosperity of our country while reversing the descent into globalist, collectivist, victim-celebrating, earth-worshipping, pagan and soul-crushing Leftism has been nothing short of heroic.

Heroes aren’t always the most inspiring figures. Often they emerge from nowhere and do heroic things notwithstanding their inadequacies and shortcomings. That’s what we have now. Only a showman, self-aggrandizing narcissist, combination unfiltered blunderbuss and flamethrower like Trump could have beaten Hillary. Today, only he has the God-given energy and chutzpah to fight and win against the odds and treasonous onslaught he’s faced and is now facing.

I love to hate him. May God bless him and our country as the next few weeks set the course for our future.

Do You Want Biden, or Just Hate Trump?

Uncategorized

On my morning walk today I passed a very nice neighbor couple walking their dog. They have a Biden/Harris sign in their front yard. In exchanging pleasantries, I decided to ask them the above question.

Simply put, they didn’t have an answer! The husband hemmed and hawed. The wife said “their family had always been Democrats”. In short, they were the archetypical example of non-critical thinking, upper middle class SHEEP! I deliberately did NOT offer my opinion, and framed my questions so as not to reveal where I stood on the political spectrum. It was truly breathtaking how they could hold the views they do.

Similarly, it continues to astound me that ANYONE listening to the drivel coming out of the Left’s mouths could possibly want them to take over leadership of this country. I understand how the professional political types can and do spew garbage to advance their aims and seek to enhance their power. What I can’t understand is how dumbed down ordinary, working, seemingly family-oriented Americans have been either brainwashed so effectively or numbed into allowing Leftist dogma to be tolerated!

I take great comfort, however, in the half (or more) of the country who silently, conscientiously, know better, are open-eyed, think about more than themselves, and who despite reservations about style and theatrics, will pull the lever for RIGHT candidates in a few weeks. As I pointed out to another neighbor the other day, one who has no lawn signs but flies both the Stars and Stripes AND the Marine Corps flags on his house, “For all the Biden/Harris signs you see out there, just remember that the vast majority of lawns that do NOT have signs could be, and probably are, part of the Silent Majority.”

He agreed, and added, “I know of a couple of neighbors who have put out Biden/Harris signs just so they won’t be harassed, but who will vote for Trump.”

I pray for my family, my community and my country’s sake that Trump’s win is SO great no amount of flak from the Left will leave any doubt.

I know I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating: Every election is billed as being “the most consequential” ever. That label notwithstanding, THIS ONE, irrespective of where it falls on the “consequential scale”, is a real tipping point. Either the country really IS divided right down the middle or the true character of America will be revealed with an overwhelming annunciation of where it is and where it wants to go. If it goes, as I believe it will, solidly RIGHT, it will mean we’ve had enough of Leftist nonsense and while our nation will not yet be cancer-free, it will mean we’ll continue the long, tough slog back up the slippery slope the Left has put us on for years and years. If it goes LEFT, may God help our children and grandchildren to quietly preserve what will be an even greater suppression of Good, Traditional Values and help our country survive Armageddon.

COVID Data Nonsense – Redux

Health Care, Politics, Reason

Here’s yet another superb case (.sic) of someone saying it better than I ever could. I draw your attention to an article from the Mises (libertarian) Institute on how the media/medical/political complex has warped perception by playing fast and loose with the numbers. I reproduce the story in its entirety, with due credit and kudos!

Mises Institute

Published on Mises Institute (https://mises.org)

The Absurdity of Covid “Cases”

October 2, 2020 – 9:17 AMJeff Deist [1]Topics: Health [2]Media and Culture [3]

Today’s headlines announced Donald and Melania Trump “tested positive” for covid-19. Another claims nineteen thousand Amazon workers “got” covid-19 on the job. Both of these pseudostories are sure to ignite another absurd media frenzy. 

As always, the story keeps changing: Remember ventilators, flatten the curve, the next two weeks are crucial, etc.? Remember Nancy Pelosi in Chinatown back in February, urging everyone to visit? Remember Fauci dismissing masks as useless? Why should we believe anything the political/media complex tells us now?

So what do these headlines really mean? What exactly is a covid “case”? 

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, most US media outlets have been exceedingly credulous and complicit in their reporting. Journalists almost uniformly promote what we can call the “prolockdown” narrative, which is to wildly exaggerate the risks from covid-19 to serve a political agenda. They may be motivated to hurt Trump politically, to promote a more socialist “new normal,” or simply to drive more clicks and views. Bad news sells. But the bias is clear and undeniable. 

This explains why media outlets use the terms “case” and “infection” so loosely, to the point of actively misinforming the public. All of the endless talk about testing, testing, testing served to obscure two important facts. First, the tests themselves are almost laughably unreliable in producing both false positives and negatives. And what is the point? Are we going to test people again and again, every time they go out to the grocery or bump into a neighbor? Second, detecting virus particles or droplets in a human’s respiratory tract tells us very little. It certainly does not tell us they are sick, or transmitting sickness to anyone. 

Take a perfectly healthy person with no particular symptoms and swab the inside of their nose. If the culture shows the presence of staphylococcus aureus, do we insist they have a staph infection? When someone drives to work without incident or accident, do we create statistics about their exposure to traffic?

—A virus is not a disease. Only a very small percentage of those exposed to the virus itself—SARS-CoV-2—show any kind of acute respiratory symptoms, or what we can call “coronavirus disease.” 

The only meaningful statistics show the incidence of serious illness, hospitalizations, and deaths. The single most important statistic among these is the infection fatality rate (IFR). Data collected through July shows [4] that the IFR for those under age forty-five is actually lower than that of the common flu. The covid-19 IFR rises for those over fifty, but it is hardly a death sentence. And the data does not segregate those with preexisting health issues caused by obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. If we could see data only for reasonably healthy people under fifty, the numbers would be even more reassuring. 

Mild or asymptomatic covid cases are effectively meaningless. The world is full of bacteria and viruses, and sometimes they make us a bit sick for a few days. There are millions of them in the world all around us, on our skin, in our nose and respiratory tract, in our organs. We are meant to live with them, which is why we all have immune systems designed to help us coexist and adapt to ever-changing organisms. We develop antibodies naturally, or we attempt to stimulate them through vaccines, but ultimately our own immune systems have to deal with covid-19. The virus will always be out there waiting, on the other side of any lockdown or mask—so we might as well get on with it. 

From day one the focus should have been on boosting immunity through exercise, fresh air, sunlight, proper dietary supplementation, and the promotion of general well-being. Instead our politicians, bureaucrats, and media insisted on business lockdowns, school closures, distancing, isolation, masks, and the mirage of a fast, effective vaccine. As with almost everything in life, state intervention made the situation worse. We can only hope many governors are removed from office, either by impeachment or at the next election. Several, including Andrew Cuomo in New York and Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, should face criminal charges for their lawless edicts. There is no due process exception for “public health.”

Lockdowns were never justified [5], either in terms of the covid-19 risk or the staggering economic tradeoffs, which will be felt for decades. They certainly are not justified now, given seven months of additional data showing that the transmission and lethality of covid-19 are not particularly worse than previous SARS, swine flu, or Ebola pandemics. We still don’t know how many of the reported two hundred thousand US covid-19 deaths were actually caused by the SARS-CoV-2 respiratory disease, or simply reflect people who died of other causes after exposure to covid-19. We do know that the harms caused by the lockdowns far outweigh the harms posed by the covid-19 virus.

We have had nearly eight months of life and liberty stolen from us by politicians and their hysteria-promoting accomplices in media. How much more will we accept?

Source URL: https://mises.org/wire/absurdity-covid-cases

Links
[1] https://mises.org/profile/jeff-deist
[2] https://mises.org/topics/health
[3] https://mises.org/topics/media-and-culture
[4] https://www.nber.org/papers/w27597
[5] https://mises.org/wire/end-shutdown

The “Comprehensive Health Care Plan” Canard

Government, Health Care, Science

I’m sick (.sic) and tired of the Left carping that “the Administration has no health care plan” and accusing it of trying to take away the health care of 100 million people! Obamacare demonstrates that the last thing we need is a GOVERNMENT plan! It is the epitome of form over substance. Allowing (actually FORCING) people to procure a lousy coverage plan with high deductibles and unacceptable reimbursement rates for healthcare providers is NOT providing the “comprehensive health care plan” the Left keeps claiming Obamacare provides!

If the government were to withdraw completely from providing healthcare the private sector would quickly, competitively and efficiently take over and provide policies for everyone except the most indigent, who can continue to receive Medicaid!

The Left and its hypocritical (they all have great coverage through their employers!) media accomplices continue to obfuscate health care insurance with health care itself. Providing insurance is NOT providing health care, yet they continue to equate the two. Hogwash! Being able to claim you’ve provided health care insurance (Obamacare) to millions of people and actually providing them with health care are two vastly different things, especially when the insurance is crappy!

As for a comprehensive plan. It is precisely the need to NOT provide a comprehensive, one-size-fits-all plan that is the solution, not the opposite as the Left claims. Government is NOT the solution… it is the PROBLEM! The reason vets are getting better care now isn’t because the VA system (a pitiful archetype of government provided healthcare) has been fixed. It’s because Trump finally made it so vets can get care OUTSIDE of the VA system!

So as usual, the insidiousness of the Left’s BS is that they’ve hijacked the vocabulary and allowed the perception to continue that they’ve done something good with Obamacare. They’ve also convinced many ‘low-information’ voters that they’re providing healthcare to them when they’re not! And now they’re falsely accusing the Right of not caring, of not having a plan, of killing people, etc. etc.

Time for this charade to stop!

THIS ADMINISTRATION’S PLAN IS TO NOT HAVE A GOVERNMENT PLAN! The first step was eliminating the so-called individual mandate, which was a coercive ploy to create a larger risk pool and generate income from people who don’t generally need healthcare (the young and healthy) to pay for lousy insurance coverage for those who do. Remove government regulation and let the free market work and you get vaccines in a fraction of the time it normally takes. Keep the heavy thumb of the government on industry and you get lousy health care insurance AND lousy health care!

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