WALKING in a wealthy suburban neighborhood last week, I noticed a few houses looked unusually empty — no lights, no cars. Maybe the owners had gone to vacation homes for the pandemic shutdown? They may have even been able to work remotely from second homes and continued to earn a living.

Meanwhile, thousands of families ten or fifteen miles away face compulsory confinement to their shabby homes. Not only do they not have second homes to escape small apartments or row houses, but even the playgrounds and basketball courts are closed. The extended vacation would be enjoyable even so if not for the constant worries about money and the future.

How many lower class Americans can weather a six-week, unpaid confinement to their homes without drinking too much, fighting too much, viewing porn, and becoming even more addicted to TV?

The COVID lockdown especially punishes the lower class, the people least able to put their grievances into words and effective action.

That’s what infuriating about COVID cops. They are not really compassionate people.

Pueri Hebraeorum, portantes

The Hebrew children
bearing olive branches,
went forth to meet the Lord,
crying out, and saying,
Hosanna in the highest.

Scenes from the Life of Christ, Entry into Jerusalem, Giotto di Bondone; 1304-06

EARLY in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive to-day in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and Pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.

The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.’ [Zach. ix. 9]. Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Beth phage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.

— The Liturgical Year, “Palm Sunday,” Dom Prosper Guéranger, Loreto Publications, 2013, p. 192.

Entry into Jerusalem (detail) Giotto di Bondone; 1304-06

Nation In Coronavirus Turmoil:

IS THERE NO WAY OUT?

DOING NOTHING MORE THAN CALM FEARS
MAY HAVE BEEN BETTER

 By Bill Sardi

Fearmongers show the body bags and caskets, display the obituaries; feature news reports of a newborn baby with coronavirus.  News media and government propagandists display a world with virtually no defense against a deadly viral pathogen.  No masks (nearly useless anyway) and a shortage of ventilators (70-90% die if they get to this point). 

Now mayors (not health authorities) mandate masks and really whip up more fear.  Every politician wants to hang his political hat on his handling of the coronavirus outbreak.  Wear a mask or otherwise you won’t be allowed to stand in line to get food at the grocery store, or at least others in line will chase you away, being fearful of transmission of infectious disease themselves. 

With the population feeling defenseless because there is no vaccine, a last gasp measure is to quarantine and socially space (isolate) people, which is obviously not working in Italy (see chart below), didn’t work on an ocean liner, and didn’t work on an aircraft carrier. 

The masses follow instructions/orders by their overseers, with no awareness that lack of sunshine vitamin D is what triggers these seasonal infectious disease outbreaks in the first place.    

News media to blame Read More »

ACTING upon the scientifically questionable assertion that healthy, asymptomatic individuals pose a significant risk of conveying lethal infection, ***some Americans are reporting small businesses, such as bars and golf courses, that have violated shutdown orders. According to the AP:

Naugatuck, Connecticut, resident Gwen Becker said she was “mortified” when she drove by a golf course and saw a crowd gathered around a food truck and eating at tables together. So she took a video that her friend posted on Facebook — prompting the mayor to shut down the course.

“I was angry and upset, and I threw some f-bombs,” said Becker, 54. “You’re not going to consider that what you’re doing could kill somebody?”

Ms. Becker must lead a pretty empty existence to be attracted to this Communist-style citizen policing. Besides group gatherings, especially outside, promote health. Social contact helps healthy people become immune to certain strains of germs, while benefiting from sunlight and the immunity-boosting side-effects of happiness.

This fanatical citizen police force — and the government apparatus that backs it up  — have no business telling people what they can and cannot do. Let people voluntarily restrict their movements in response to public health warnings.

Americans are so darn proud of their love of “freedom,” but it seems that’s basically just a love of fireworks on Fourth of July.

*** The science is unsettled. See articles here and here.

IN JAPAN, they wear face masks all the time. Every human being is a biological weapon. The mask attests to a physical version of original sin.

I don’t envy the Japanese. I wonder how many of them keel over every year from the cumulative ill effects of living in a world without smiles. And noses. And cheeks. And chins.

Better to be unhealthy than live without faces. Beautiful faces, ugly faces, grumpy faces, lumpy faces. The face is the mirror of the soul. Sometimes it is the mask of the soul. There are things more important than survival. Read More »

DR. Joel Kettner, professor of Community Health Sciences and Surgery at Manitoba University, former Chief Public Health Officer for Manitoba province and Medical Director of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases, stated in an interview on March 17, 2020:.

“We actually do not have that much good evidence for the social distancing methods. It was just a couple of review(s) in the CDC emerging infectious disease journal, which showed that although some of them might work, we really don’t know to what degree and the evidence is pretty weak.

[….]

I worry about the consequences of social distancing. I worry about people who are losing their jobs. I worry about interruptions with the healthcare system itself. There are many doctors in Manitoba in quarantine right now, because they have returned from other countries. I worry about the message to the public, about the fear of coming into contact with people, being in the same space as people, shaking their hands, having meetings with people. I worry about many, many consequences related to that.

If you look at the data for what we are actually dealing with, I want to give this example. In Hubei, in the province of Hubei, where there has been the most cases and deaths by far, the actual number of cases reported is 1 per 1000 people and the actual rate of deaths reported is 1 per 20,000. So maybe that would help to put things into perspective, as to the actual rate and risks of this condition, because it is a lot lower in any other part of the world, including Italy, and certainly in Canada and the United States…

If depression is known to cause illness and isolation is known to cause depression then “social distancing” has negative health effects that may very well offset its benefits.

“OUR main problem is that no one will ever get in trouble for measures that are too draconian. They will only get in trouble if they do too little. So, our politicians and those working with public health do much more than they should do.

“No such draconian measures were applied during the 2009 influenza pandemic, and they obviously cannot be applied every winter, which is all year round, as it is always winter somewhere. We cannot close down the whole world permanently.

“Should it turn out that the epidemic wanes before long, there will be a queue of people wanting to take credit for this. And we can be damned sure draconian measures will be applied again next time. But remember the joke about tigers. ‘Why do you blow the horn?’ ‘To keep the tigers away.’ ‘But there are no tigers here.”There you see!’”

– Dr Peter Goetzsche, Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis at the University of Copenhagen;“Corona: an epidemic of mass panic,” blog post on Deadly Medicines, 21st March 2020. [Source]

THE highly-respected journal of infectious diseases published this week its study of COVID-19 in China and 37 other countries. The study is emphatic about the seriousness of the virus. And yet the fatality rate it found is low: 1.4 percent for those infected under 60 (outside China) and 4.5 percent for those over 60:

We collected individual-case data for patients who died from COVID-19 in Hubei, mainland China (reported by national and provincial health commissions to Feb 8, 2020), and for cases outside of mainland China (from government or ministry of health websites and media reports for 37 countries, as well as Hong Kong and Macau, until Feb 25, 2020). Read More »

FROM The Mises Institute:

The shutdown of the American economy by government decree should end. The lasting and far-reaching harms caused by this authoritarian precedent far outweigh those caused by the COVID-19 virus. The American people—individuals, families, businesses—must decide for themselves how and when to reopen society and return to their daily lives.

Neither the Trump administration nor Congress has the legal authority to shut down American life absent at least baseline due process. As Judge Andrew Napolitano recently wrote, business closures, restrictions on assembly and movement, and quarantines are not constitutionally permissible under some magic “emergency” doctrine. At a minimum, the federal government must show potential imminent harm by specific infected individuals at some form of hearing or trial.

These due process requirements are not suspended.

State and local officials may claim, or even possess, lawful police powers to shut down their communities. We offer no analysis of such powers or claims under the myriad of state constitutions and authorizing legislation. But they should resist exercising these powers. The governor of Virginia, in particular, deserves admonition for unilaterally imposing a lengthy period of virtual house arrest. [cont.]

Ron Paul discusses the article in the video below.

MANY videos have been posted here over the past week that were made by citizen journalists looking into the coronavirus situation at their local hospitals. Here are three more. I’m sorry some of the language in one is vulgar. I am posting it anyway. Financial devastation, depression, intense isolation, restriction of basic civil liberties — these issues are far worse and the need for accurate reporting is critical. I also should remind readers that many of the excellent videos I have posted in recent entries are likely to be erased from Youtube soon, just as thousands of videos reporting on mass shootings were censored. I suggest you view them while they are still available. I am very grateful for the people who care enough about their country to do this legwork.

Read More »

“WHEN patients concurrently have other illnesses, an infectious agent must not be held solely responsible for a lethal outcome,” says Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi, M.D., who lives in Germany and made this interview on March 19, 2020.

Air pollution in China and Northern Italy were probably factors in higher death rates from COVID-19. In terms of air pollution, “Northern Italy is the China of Europe. The lungs of inhabitants there have been chronically injured over decades.”

Most importantly, he says, those who test positive for COVID-19 at time of death have not necessarily died of the virus.

Bhakdi exudes intelligence, sincerity and profound alarm. The isolation and lockdown measures currently being taken are “grotesque, absurd and very dangerous.”

“All these measures are leading to self-destruction and collective suicide because of nothing but a spook.”

 GOOD summary of our situation. (I have a few quibbles with what he says. Skip the commercial at the end.)

FROM the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 88, November 2019, Pages 127-134:

•In the winter seasons from 2013/14 to 2016/17, an estimated average of 5,290,000 ILI [influenza-like illness] cases occurred in Italy, corresponding to an incidence of 9%.

•More than 68,000 deaths attributable to flu epidemics were estimated in the study period.

•Italy showed a higher influenza attributable excess mortality compared to other European countries. especially in the elderly.

Source: ScienceDirect Read More »

FROM “COVID-19: The Real Truth,” by Shannon Rowan and John Hamer [abridged]:

The COVID-19 outbreak is at its core a Transhumanist agenda serving to influence humanity into viewing itself as a pathogen, a plague upon the earth, in much need of correction and control.

Transhumanists believe that it is inevitable that humans merge with machine and that this transformation is somehow necessary for our own good and survival as well as that of our planet and also part of a ‘natural’ process they call ‘evolution.’ The pandemic scare helps to further this agenda. Read More »