In its infinite Scientific™ wisdom, the city of Boston, Massachusetts just announced a new “vaccine passport” system set to take effect next month. This was one of the first major actions of the recently-elected mayor, Michelle Wu, who’d been hailed by many as a paradigm-shifter for her inspiring Progressive potential. Wu’s passport system is endearingly called “
The continued response to the pandemic could be best described as an all-encompassing paternalistic social experiment led by the elites and enforced by the powers that be, the costs of which have been invoiced predominantly to the poor and middle class, and the consequences of which the American bourgeoisie will likely remain forever content to willfully ignore.
I cannot for the life of me understand why the "protected" need to be protected from the "unprotected" by forcing the unprotected to get the protection that didn't protect the protected.
God help us if there is ever a true emergency because so many people have now been conditioned to tune out the constant drumbeat of unadulterated bullshit…
"“We will adjust the policy as needed when the definition of fully vaccinated changes.” Got that? The people who run these “public health” bureaucracies reserve the right to perpetually modify what it means to be “fully vaccinated,” and therefore add future injections at their pleasure."
Nothing captures the role of "Public Servants" and democracy like mandates declared as part of an emergency that has no end and management strategy that has changing parameters. These people are power drunk idiots and it's stunning how many comply with the insipid mandates. When they cite "science" it's as solid as Iraq WMD excuse for war but now the war is on our freedom.
Thank you -- the need for control is increasing since ruling oligarchs are desperate.
On January 6, 2022, the “People for the American Way” will commemorate the solemn 1-year anniversary of “the darkest day in US history -- more significant than the Civil War, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined” -- with a candlelight vigil starring Adam Schiff.
The same lying team that concocted the scam of the century – the Russia-gate hoax (Hillary, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Schiff, Schumer, etc.) has morphed the Jan. 6 riot (with a major FBI role in its incitement) into -- “armed insurrection”. Remember, their brazen lies for weeks (including casket ceremony in Capitol Rotunda) that officer’s Brian Sicknick’s head was crushed with fire extinguisher – while his parents publicly stated the very same day that he died at home from natural cause.
I’m wondering how much of this “emergency power” is actual vs. just declared. A lot of it seems, as has been the case with many of the mandates, a bit of a bluff that has increasingly been called by non-complying employees/students. The alleged authority of these self-declared despots seems to depend on the buy-in of their constituents…?
We are back to the aptly named 'virtual learning' in my district. Despite the fact that I'm in the rough and tumble POC district and student learning and mental health gets annihilated when we do 'remote' school. Omicron.
You have an excellent point Michael, but why all the snark? It is divisive -- look at the anger the comments show up to this point.
I admit I was put off by the demand I show my vaccine card when going out to dine in Seattle. Perhaps, mostly because I wasn't aware of the requirement. (In retrospect, I'm much more "put off" by the way the server "explained" the legalese of the 20% service charge added to my check in a way that made it sound like she wasn't going to get a dime. There's no tipping in Fiji. I like Fiji for that.)
However, let us recognize that China has had a mere 4700 Covid deaths vs the USA 800,000+. I'm not arguing that we should be more like China, just pointing out their success and wondering why that success isn't considered here.
I tested "Detected" for Covid 5 days after my Seattle outing, however, we believe the source was the very obviously ill 3-year-old kid across the aisle from me on the plane flying home. (To avoid suspense, I have finished my 10-day quarantine and apparently survived. Wasn't fun, but wasn't a big deal either. Yes, I'm 3x vaxxed. More later.) Should that family have taken personal responsibility and not traveled? In what way is this personal responsibility similar to owning a gun? Or buying your kid a gun that he uses to murder his classmates? If people can't be responsible, at what point must the state step in? How do we balance my right to remain healthy and alive against the family's right to go on vacation -- no matter the threat to everyone else?
Let me immediately acknowledge that he's pushing the Affordable Care Act (which I consider another Oligarchic scam that Obama pushed in exchange for a life in the Hamptons and a grandiose library monument in the middle of Chicago -- Yes I hate Obama although I voted for him twice. VBNMW!) but unless his data is completely flawed the graphs prove the vaccinated are 6x less likely to die from Covid. (One can get all huffy about the tinge of TDS in his presentation but that's just on you. It is very well known that Trump supporters are more often anti-vaxx and denying that just makes you look stupid.)
Then too, hospitals are full of people dying from Covid. There is a plethora of stories reporting on people having to put off normal care like hip operations. (A friend had to choose to go home immediately after the procedure rather than spend even one night under observation. Yeah, he's ok, but...)
I have friends who aren't vaxxed, I understand their arguments and support their choice. I want to remain friends with them, but I don't want to have dinner with them. (Of course, even this statement shouldn't be taken as an absolute and perhaps I should add, "if they are sick". The question though is, how do they know they are sick or not? How is this question related to my choice to ride in my friend's car after he's "had a few"? Personal Responsibility isn't a one-way street. What is my obligation to stop him from driving drunk?)
So, unfortunately the tone of your article, as I've said, just creates more conflict without suggesting anything at all about what to do about the "Problem" -- which is the Pandemic not the secondary reactions to the Pandemic that may or may not be effective. Yeah, the lock-downs perhaps aren't working and there is indeed some very serious negative outcomes -- got a better plan? The result of what you're arguing here is: "Get Sick and Die!"
(Now is the time for a gross "joke" about Trump supporters being anti-Vaxx. I have friends who voted for Trump. I didn't but then I didn't vote for Biden either. Framing the question as either Republican or Democrat has just shown itself to be so obviously stupid, I don't want to talk about it any longer.)
During my quarantine, the Department of Health called twice a day to ask about my symptoms. They offered me nothing. The lady who called was quite nice and we generally had a friendly exchange. BUT, it was nothing more than a call asking whether or not I was dead yet. Did she say anything about treating my infection??? Nope, not a word. Did my doctor whom I emailed??? Nope, other than to tell me 8 deviled eggs was probably too much even though I found them delicious and it vastly improved my SPO2, BP and temperature -- although I can't prove that.
So here's what I want to know.
Why are there supposedly six (6) on-going studies for the treatment of Covid. Ivermectin gets the top billing, but there are several other drugs supposedly being considered. Why was the Oxford PRINCIPLE study "suspended" (supposedly because of a lack of supply of Ivermectin -- Huh?). I immediately called, emailed, submitted an application on-line, to join the University of Minnesota study (I can use $400), but didn't hear a word.
Com'on Man! This is what you're good at!
Are Malone and McCullough charlatans -- just another version of "Doctor" Oz?
Let's be honest here, the FLCCC is making money. Lots of it. The evidence is their web site. This isn't something that one guy put together over night. Even Kim from Doonesbury couldn't have done it by herself.
The "turd in the soup" is this total lack of any treatment suggestions at all.
Tequila and Vitamin C (and a bunch of other stuff I won't go into except to say sucking tap water up your nose was very much discouraged although it seemed to help -- a lot) were part of my plan. I'm alive! It was 100% effective................ for a sample size of one (1).
Where is it? Stay home and rest? What you want me to stay home and die? Even if it is a placebo I WANT A PLAN!
This is all quite true, and certainly worth saying, but the more important question--"What would be the better policy outcome (outcome, not process)?--remains unaddressed. Although I fully accept the validity of the process critique, unless we can identify more effective policy outcomes, then process complaints, however sound, are largely beside the point. Yes, government bureaucracies tend to authoritarianism. Always useful to be reminded of that. But what would a non-authoritarian policy process lead us to, and would it be better? Let's keep in mind that we are dealing with a public health threat that has cost 800,000 lives in the U.S. alone.
Establishment liberals and the woke bootlickers are looking more and more like the tyrants they admire so much in China. They covered up the lab leak theory on behalf of china and use authoritarian tactics like censorship, mandates, cerfews and show trials
to suppress opponents. Democracy and free speech seems to have failed them so they want to shut it all down.
It has, and never had after the first few days, anything to do with public health vis a vis Covid. But it was everything to the left, who in the wake of Trump was, and still is running out of steam and peoples aquiescence. It is a combination of environmentalism run amok, a fear of the "deplorables", and a belief in self superiority.
There is no scientific process, no ability to discuss, and most of all, no humility.
I mentioned somewhere else that I used to write for a centrist website, with a mostly leftist commenting community. And I will pop my head back in, and it is a train wreck at this point. The hate and closemindedness is palpable. Fear of republicans, that they have lost any ability to have a rational converstion when in fact the opposite is true. What it really comes down to in my mind is the left, having over the last 50+ years* has become everything they hated; authoritarian, uncool, hidebound. It's Jung's Shadow writ large.
Little by little they keep reeling people in. It's like you're a fish on the end of a line, and making it worse is the knowledge that the guy holding the rod is a complete idiot. Honestly, there are a lot of smart people out there, and they understand what's happening. But let's not kid ourselves. We don't stand a freaking chance. And we all know it.
The continued response to the pandemic could be best described as an all-encompassing paternalistic social experiment led by the elites and enforced by the powers that be, the costs of which have been invoiced predominantly to the poor and middle class, and the consequences of which the American bourgeoisie will likely remain forever content to willfully ignore.
I cannot for the life of me understand why the "protected" need to be protected from the "unprotected" by forcing the unprotected to get the protection that didn't protect the protected.
The Shamdemic lives on…
God help us if there is ever a true emergency because so many people have now been conditioned to tune out the constant drumbeat of unadulterated bullshit…
"“We will adjust the policy as needed when the definition of fully vaccinated changes.” Got that? The people who run these “public health” bureaucracies reserve the right to perpetually modify what it means to be “fully vaccinated,” and therefore add future injections at their pleasure."
Nothing captures the role of "Public Servants" and democracy like mandates declared as part of an emergency that has no end and management strategy that has changing parameters. These people are power drunk idiots and it's stunning how many comply with the insipid mandates. When they cite "science" it's as solid as Iraq WMD excuse for war but now the war is on our freedom.
I'm very worried. Omicron has the potential to end the pandemic. And what will happen to the COVID industry then?
Will no one think of those who toil ceaselessly (and profit from) the COVID industry?
Thank you -- the need for control is increasing since ruling oligarchs are desperate.
On January 6, 2022, the “People for the American Way” will commemorate the solemn 1-year anniversary of “the darkest day in US history -- more significant than the Civil War, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined” -- with a candlelight vigil starring Adam Schiff.
The same lying team that concocted the scam of the century – the Russia-gate hoax (Hillary, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Schiff, Schumer, etc.) has morphed the Jan. 6 riot (with a major FBI role in its incitement) into -- “armed insurrection”. Remember, their brazen lies for weeks (including casket ceremony in Capitol Rotunda) that officer’s Brian Sicknick’s head was crushed with fire extinguisher – while his parents publicly stated the very same day that he died at home from natural cause.
I’m wondering how much of this “emergency power” is actual vs. just declared. A lot of it seems, as has been the case with many of the mandates, a bit of a bluff that has increasingly been called by non-complying employees/students. The alleged authority of these self-declared despots seems to depend on the buy-in of their constituents…?
We are back to the aptly named 'virtual learning' in my district. Despite the fact that I'm in the rough and tumble POC district and student learning and mental health gets annihilated when we do 'remote' school. Omicron.
https://education-ny.blogspot.com/2021/12/optimusprime-variant-strikes.html
The word for the day: "exegetical"
You have an excellent point Michael, but why all the snark? It is divisive -- look at the anger the comments show up to this point.
I admit I was put off by the demand I show my vaccine card when going out to dine in Seattle. Perhaps, mostly because I wasn't aware of the requirement. (In retrospect, I'm much more "put off" by the way the server "explained" the legalese of the 20% service charge added to my check in a way that made it sound like she wasn't going to get a dime. There's no tipping in Fiji. I like Fiji for that.)
However, let us recognize that China has had a mere 4700 Covid deaths vs the USA 800,000+. I'm not arguing that we should be more like China, just pointing out their success and wondering why that success isn't considered here.
I tested "Detected" for Covid 5 days after my Seattle outing, however, we believe the source was the very obviously ill 3-year-old kid across the aisle from me on the plane flying home. (To avoid suspense, I have finished my 10-day quarantine and apparently survived. Wasn't fun, but wasn't a big deal either. Yes, I'm 3x vaxxed. More later.) Should that family have taken personal responsibility and not traveled? In what way is this personal responsibility similar to owning a gun? Or buying your kid a gun that he uses to murder his classmates? If people can't be responsible, at what point must the state step in? How do we balance my right to remain healthy and alive against the family's right to go on vacation -- no matter the threat to everyone else?
Personally, articles like this lose validity and credibility when they are written in a way that suggests that the vaccines don't work at all. Is Charles Gaba incompetent when he publishes his graphs? https://acasignups.net/21/12/21/weekly-update-covid19-casedeath-rates-county-partisan-lean-vaccination-rate
Let me immediately acknowledge that he's pushing the Affordable Care Act (which I consider another Oligarchic scam that Obama pushed in exchange for a life in the Hamptons and a grandiose library monument in the middle of Chicago -- Yes I hate Obama although I voted for him twice. VBNMW!) but unless his data is completely flawed the graphs prove the vaccinated are 6x less likely to die from Covid. (One can get all huffy about the tinge of TDS in his presentation but that's just on you. It is very well known that Trump supporters are more often anti-vaxx and denying that just makes you look stupid.)
Then too, hospitals are full of people dying from Covid. There is a plethora of stories reporting on people having to put off normal care like hip operations. (A friend had to choose to go home immediately after the procedure rather than spend even one night under observation. Yeah, he's ok, but...)
I have friends who aren't vaxxed, I understand their arguments and support their choice. I want to remain friends with them, but I don't want to have dinner with them. (Of course, even this statement shouldn't be taken as an absolute and perhaps I should add, "if they are sick". The question though is, how do they know they are sick or not? How is this question related to my choice to ride in my friend's car after he's "had a few"? Personal Responsibility isn't a one-way street. What is my obligation to stop him from driving drunk?)
So, unfortunately the tone of your article, as I've said, just creates more conflict without suggesting anything at all about what to do about the "Problem" -- which is the Pandemic not the secondary reactions to the Pandemic that may or may not be effective. Yeah, the lock-downs perhaps aren't working and there is indeed some very serious negative outcomes -- got a better plan? The result of what you're arguing here is: "Get Sick and Die!"
(Now is the time for a gross "joke" about Trump supporters being anti-Vaxx. I have friends who voted for Trump. I didn't but then I didn't vote for Biden either. Framing the question as either Republican or Democrat has just shown itself to be so obviously stupid, I don't want to talk about it any longer.)
During my quarantine, the Department of Health called twice a day to ask about my symptoms. They offered me nothing. The lady who called was quite nice and we generally had a friendly exchange. BUT, it was nothing more than a call asking whether or not I was dead yet. Did she say anything about treating my infection??? Nope, not a word. Did my doctor whom I emailed??? Nope, other than to tell me 8 deviled eggs was probably too much even though I found them delicious and it vastly improved my SPO2, BP and temperature -- although I can't prove that.
So here's what I want to know.
Why are there supposedly six (6) on-going studies for the treatment of Covid. Ivermectin gets the top billing, but there are several other drugs supposedly being considered. Why was the Oxford PRINCIPLE study "suspended" (supposedly because of a lack of supply of Ivermectin -- Huh?). I immediately called, emailed, submitted an application on-line, to join the University of Minnesota study (I can use $400), but didn't hear a word.
Com'on Man! This is what you're good at!
Are Malone and McCullough charlatans -- just another version of "Doctor" Oz?
Let's be honest here, the FLCCC is making money. Lots of it. The evidence is their web site. This isn't something that one guy put together over night. Even Kim from Doonesbury couldn't have done it by herself.
The "turd in the soup" is this total lack of any treatment suggestions at all.
Tequila and Vitamin C (and a bunch of other stuff I won't go into except to say sucking tap water up your nose was very much discouraged although it seemed to help -- a lot) were part of my plan. I'm alive! It was 100% effective................ for a sample size of one (1).
Where is it? Stay home and rest? What you want me to stay home and die? Even if it is a placebo I WANT A PLAN!
Tell me Michael, why isn't there one?
You wrote "wazoo" -- this made the article 100x better. Good one, Michael.
This is all quite true, and certainly worth saying, but the more important question--"What would be the better policy outcome (outcome, not process)?--remains unaddressed. Although I fully accept the validity of the process critique, unless we can identify more effective policy outcomes, then process complaints, however sound, are largely beside the point. Yes, government bureaucracies tend to authoritarianism. Always useful to be reminded of that. But what would a non-authoritarian policy process lead us to, and would it be better? Let's keep in mind that we are dealing with a public health threat that has cost 800,000 lives in the U.S. alone.
Establishment liberals and the woke bootlickers are looking more and more like the tyrants they admire so much in China. They covered up the lab leak theory on behalf of china and use authoritarian tactics like censorship, mandates, cerfews and show trials
to suppress opponents. Democracy and free speech seems to have failed them so they want to shut it all down.
It has, and never had after the first few days, anything to do with public health vis a vis Covid. But it was everything to the left, who in the wake of Trump was, and still is running out of steam and peoples aquiescence. It is a combination of environmentalism run amok, a fear of the "deplorables", and a belief in self superiority.
There is no scientific process, no ability to discuss, and most of all, no humility.
I mentioned somewhere else that I used to write for a centrist website, with a mostly leftist commenting community. And I will pop my head back in, and it is a train wreck at this point. The hate and closemindedness is palpable. Fear of republicans, that they have lost any ability to have a rational converstion when in fact the opposite is true. What it really comes down to in my mind is the left, having over the last 50+ years* has become everything they hated; authoritarian, uncool, hidebound. It's Jung's Shadow writ large.
*1968, if you want to put a finger on it.
Little by little they keep reeling people in. It's like you're a fish on the end of a line, and making it worse is the knowledge that the guy holding the rod is a complete idiot. Honestly, there are a lot of smart people out there, and they understand what's happening. But let's not kid ourselves. We don't stand a freaking chance. And we all know it.
War in Afghanistan all over again but this time with Big Pharma benefiting as opposed to defense contractors.
pronounced “Oh, c’mon.” Classic! I'm stealing that. 😄
Thanks for speaking out.