With Americans under attack where are Trump and the Republicans?
For me, the most distressing part of the panic over COVID-19 has not been the rules, the mandates, the nullification of the Bill of Rights, and the shut down of normal life, all of which have been terrible, wrong-headed, and a disaster for our country.
What has distressed me the most is the gutless response by the nation’s so-called conservative Republican politicians. All of the panic and harsh rules and economic damage has been designed by the Democrats to hurt the reelection chances of Trump. Little of it has anything to do with stopping the virus, and in fact most are nothing more than symbolic gestures that can accomplish nothing.
Despite this, Republican elected leaders have acquiesced to the Democrats demands, almost across the board.
Consider my own state of Arizona. My governor, Doug Ducey, is Republican. Republicans also have majorities in both houses of my state legislature. Yet, they have either let the Democrats run the show, or have acted in ways that are indistinguishable from the worst dictators in New York and New Jersey. First Governor Ducey imposed and then extended a lockdown that has bankrupted many businesses in the state. Then, as he began to loosen that lockdown he ceded his power to the generally Democratically-controlled local governments, letting them impose their own odious rules in place of his. The result is that in most big cities in the state, the lock down did not really end, but got tightened with new rules mandating masks.
Yesterday he reinstated part of his lock down for another thirty days. And like Democratic governors in Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, and New Jersey, the new rules he imposed [pdf] were arbitrary and capricious, and will thus have little if any effect. Bars, gyms, indoor movie theaters, and water parks have to close until July 27th. Government and community pools however can stay open. So can restaurants, shopping centers, clothing stores, and many other venues that previously were considered “non-essential.” He also banned any gathering of more than fifty people, but exempted political demonstrations and religious services.
And why did he do this? It appears there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases in the past few weeks! That means (oh no!) the number of people either hospitalized or dying might skyrocket, and overwhelm the hospitals!
The graph to the right (source here) illustrates the stupidity of these assumptions. The number of new cases has clearly skyrocketed, but the number of new deaths and hospitalizations has not. In fact, in order to make the changes in deaths and hospitalizations visible at all I had to significantly expand the vertical axis. Otherwise both would appear as straight lines at the bottom.
This graph illustrates how little threat the disease has been to the general population. While it does appear that Ducey’s decision to mostly end the lock down in mid-May might have contributed to the increase in cases (though aggressive testing could have also contributed), the number of deaths and hospitalizations hardly rose at all. In May the daily death rate was about 21 per day. In June it was 24. In May the daily hospitalization rate was about 48. In June it was 45.
In other words, the disease was finally doing what it was always going to do, spread through the healthy younger population, which could throw it off with little problem while gaining immunity, and thus quicken the moment when the virus would die off and no longer threaten the older population. Had we not locked society down, this would have likely already happened, without overwhelming or bankrupting anything, and the disease would have already run its course.
I must also note that this graph also illustrates the complete failure of the new mandates in Arizona to wear masks. They did nothing to slow the spread of the virus. In fact, I suspect they helped it spread, because of the unsanitary manner in which most people use their masks.
These numbers thus provide no justification for Ducey’s decision to arbitrarily reinstate some of his lock down rules. None. Some might argue that it will take a couple of weeks for the death and hospital rates to catch up with the cases, but the cases have been very high for weeks already, and the death and hospitalizations have not increased significantly.
Moreover, these low numbers illustrate once again how unwarranted and overblown Ducey’s entire response to COVID-19 has been. In the first half of 2020 1,588 people in Arizona are assumed to have died from the Wuhan virus. That comes out to an average of 8 deaths per day.
Sounds horrible, eh? Well, take a look at this CDC data for the leading causes of death in Arizona from 2017:
- Heart disease: 34 deaths per day.
- Cancer: 33 deaths per day.
- Accidents: 11 deaths per day.
- Respiratory illnesses: 10 deaths per day.
- Alzheimer’s: 10 deaths per day.
- Stroke: 7 deaths per day.
- Drug overdoses: 4 deaths per day.
I highlight the death rate for respiratory illnesses, as it was higher in 2017 than COVID-19 is in 2020. Yet, I don’t remember the world shutting down in panic over this death rate. (Though the 2017 number appears to include both viral sickness as well as chronic illness, in 2020 almost all respiratory deaths have been assigned to COVID-19 in order to inflate its numbers. I therefore think it valid to compare the two numbers.)
Unfortunately, Doug Ducey has been more or less typical of most Republicans in power. They have all followed like sheep the lead of the Democrats, imposing and reimposing their own set of mandates and edicts, many of which routinely violate the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, all based on faulty reasoning and a poor understanding of the data.
Worse, even in cases where Republicans were not involved in imposing such rules, their response to the bad actions of Democrats, has been weak and spineless. Consider this story: Wisconsin small-business owner denied coronavirus relief funds after attending lockdown protest.
Dimple and Denis Navratil have owned Dimple’s Fine Imports LLC in Racine, Wisconsin, for more than 20 years. They applied twice for some of the $900,000 the city allocated to small businesses to help offset the financial burden of the health crisis, according to an investigation conducted by the Journal Times and published Sunday.
Upon receiving his second denial, Denis Navratil was told by the city’s mayor that his attendance at a rally in Madison on April 24 protesting Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s “Safer at Home” measures was used as a basis for his rejection. “Participating in mass gatherings outside of our community, such as the rally that was held at the State Capitol — such large gatherings have been linked to cases of COVID-19 around the state — and then returning to our City, only served to put our residents at unnecessary risk and, thus, factored into the funding consideration,” Mayor Cory Mason told the paper. [emphasis mine]
Of course, I am sure if these business-owners had participated in protests supporting “Black Lives Matter”, an organization where a percentage of the funds raised are funneled directly to Democratic Party PACs, their aid request would have been approved instantly.
We must remember that Wisconsin is supposed to be swing state. From 2010 to 2018 it was run by a conservative Republican governor, and Trump won the state in the 2016 election. The Republicans remain a major component of this state’s government.
And where are they? What are they doing about this? Anything? It sure does not appear that defending the rights of Americans is very high on their list of priorities.
Then there is our quesling Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). He might have pushed through a record number of conservative judges, but that is all he has done. In practically everything else he kowtows to Democratic demands. Previously he had no problem with renaming military bases to cancel part of American history. Now he has come out in full support of the wearing of masks. Nor is he alone among the senators. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) agree with him.
None of these Republican geniuses however demanded any kind of standards for those masks. You could wear a nylon socking for all their care. All they want is agree with the Democrat’s desire to make everyone look like an Antifa terrorist, so those terrorists can more easily go about their business of violently terrorizing anyone who disagrees with them.
And then, what about Donald Trump? For the past few years there has been a meme going around with a picture of Trump and the words, “In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way.” That meme was true for the first three years of Trump’s administration. The Democrats and the leftists attacked Trump with everything they could think of. They made up false charges, they slandered him and members of his administration, actually framing some on false charges. They even tried an absurd impeachment charge, which bombed spectacularly.
None of that worked, because Trump would not bow to them. When they attacked him, he attacked back as hard. He clearly acted like he was willing to fight and defend the citizens of the country should the worst happen. That willingness to fight firmed up the support for him, not simply from his base but from swing voters who have clearly not been happy with the status quo. Trump was giving them a clear option.
Now, not so much. When the Democratic attacks shifted this spring from Trump to the American people and the country itself, suddenly Trump didn’t have that much fight. In fact, he has basically been a bystander as governors nationwide have nullified the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all aspects of American freedom. He has done little as riots and looting swept across the nation. And when domestic terrorists started tearing down statues, defacing churches, synagogues, and all symbols of this great and glorious land, his response has been generally weak.
For those swing voters, Trump now looks like someone who really only cares about himself. Attack him, and he’ll fight like the dickens. Attack ordinary Americans, however, and he’ll bow to the evil Marxists and terrorists that now roam the land, free to do whatever pillaging they wish.
So who do I vote for? It appears to me that no one in power really has my back. Republican Ducey is not much different than Andrew Cuomo, wielding power arbitrarily like a thug to crush the spirit of freedom. And Trump appears weak, unwilling to use the legal powers he has to stop the madness that it harming ordinary, innocent, law-abiding Americans who simply want the freedom to live their lives in the pursuit of happiness.
Trump was going to be the outsider who would finally force some change to the failed status quo in Washington. It now appears he can’t really do it. If he doesn’t change this impression soon, he is not going to win in November. The swing voters and previously uninvolved who had never voted before but were going to vote for Trump this time will not come out for him. They will have no reason to.
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Ignorance = fear = uncertainty = political caution.
There is great danger perceived in being seen as talking up getting everything back to “normal”, and then the virus reemerges and more people begin to be hospitalized and die. And it is you then that can be pointed at as a politician who misread the situation and cost people their lives.
I will cite governor of Florida. Just two or three weeks ago he was crowing that “all of the experts were wrong”, and now the numbers are on the rise in his state ad he is forced to close down what was open. And that is what the other governors and mayors are watching.
This is going to remine a minefield to navigate through for a while more. (At least until after the election :)
Cotour: The “numbers” in Florida are not on the rise. The number of cases are. The number of deaths are not. See this page:
Ron Santis is bowing to political pressure like all the other Republicans. They are acting weak, when they should be doing what you often suggest, use some strategy to really fight. They need to fight to win votes. Not fighting will have them lose the election.
Ignorance = fear = uncertainty = political caution.
This is too much of an unknown quantity and unknowable calculation, the virus is doing crazy things popping up here and there without paying too much attention to what some think that it should be doing. And I can see the everyday peoples reaction to the increased media activity in reporting the reemerging clusters. The publics attitude began to dial down two or so weeks ago and more people seemed relaxed and thought that the virus was dissipating and working its way through. And just in the last couple of days I see many more people once again on guard, a bit up tight and wearing masks with more discipline. I have myself become a bit more aware because of it.
No, this is too much of an unknown for an empowered politician in an approaching election year especially.
You fight with your human political opponents, with the narrative and memes that your political enemies are attempting to tag you with, but there is no “fighting” with the virus. This can easily bit one in the arse if you tend to become a bit too confident. Desanits being a good example. He will survive but he is now tap dancing.
Trump and the Republicans can tag their political opponents with the Democrats “Progressive” / Leftist / CHAZ / “Defund the police etc. agenda, and that is what everyone in the country is in the process of watching and soaking in. And the Democrats are looking to tag the Republicans in the form of the president with “mismanaging” the virus event.
The virus on the other hand has become a political chimera and does not calculate confidently into the political strategies of either party, a total loose cannon and unknown quantity. And therefore there will be extreme caution exercised by all.
(Except for Trump of course, he just hunkers down and plows ahead when possible. He has moved past it all for the most part, But even he is being more cautious than usual because of the nature of the enemy)
While it does appear that Ducey’s decision to mostly end the lock down in mid-May might have contributed to the increase in cases (though aggressive testing could have also contributed),
A slight change in position.
Progress!
I think the increased testing, combined with the reduced number of actual cases since the peak, has allowed the testing regime to switch to a significant degree from just confirming suspected cases to actually tracking the progress and locating cases that would previously not have been detected.
This change would increase the lag time between diagnosis and death. Early in the case of the US that lag was about 10 days, but in countries in which the positive test rate was far lower the lag was 2 weeks. Despite the much higher case rates now, the number actual new infections in the US now are probably similar to that of the first peak, but treatment since then has improved and so has the isolation of the most vulnerable.
Well, take a look at this CDC data for the leading causes of death in Arizona from 2017:
Yep, but if you’re (sort of) conceding that lockdowns reduce the rate of spread, you’re also conceding that no lockdowns would have meant more spread, and rationally higher infection rates means higher death rates. So the “no different to the flu” line and other similar arguments becomes silly since past flu seasons weren’t subject to the same measures to reduce transmission rates.
We no longer elect people ready to fight for their constituency. We elect people who are looking for a career as a politician and refuse to rock the boat. They appease the masses with money thrown at pork projects and business interests, little else.
Here in Albuquerque two council members are trying to force two absolutely absurd financial burdens on business, already struggling due to the China virus:
1. Mandatory “hazard pay” for just about everyone working in the private sector
2. 80 hours of forced sick leave paid time off
Both of these insane proposals are to be paid for by the business owners ! Are they insane?
Both party’s are weak, and no politician seems to care about anything other than winning re-election.
“1. Mandatory “hazard pay” for just about everyone working in the private sector
2. 80 hours of forced sick leave paid time off. Both of these insane proposals are to be paid for by the business owners ! Are they insane?”
No, they are not insane, they are called “Progressives” and Democrats and they are in the process of redistributing the wealth in the country by utilizing such rules and laws. They know that the private sector business owners all have vaults in their basements filled with all of that money that they have taken from those who are not similarly “Privileged”. And they are out of money and their tax base / cash flow has been destroyed.
This is a picture of mine, its in my basement, I can barely close the door:
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fbncore%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F08%2Fvault-237-vault-straight.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbuffalonews.com%2F2019%2F08%2F13%2Fvault-237-restaurant-coming-to-ex-marine-midland-building-downtown%2F&tbnid=FeC5HJRRTPV1WM&vet=12ahUKEwjR0rm9warqAhVRFt8KHYKcCV4QMygCegUIARDUAQ..i&docid=Mm_yjutltqScIM&w=1800&h=1200&q=vault&ved=2ahUKEwjR0rm9warqAhVRFt8KHYKcCV4QMygCegUIARDUAQ
“He has done little as riots and looting swept across the nation. And when domestic terrorists started tearing down statues, defacing churches, synagogues, and all symbols of this great and glorious land, his response has been generally weak.”
Disregarding Trumps actions with regards to the Wuhan Flu, his actions with regards to Antifa and the Marxist BLM movement , or lack of actions, are much more defensible. The crisis is almost completely contained either within very blue states or in very blue urban regions within red states. Even as President, Trump’s powers are very limited, particularly when the elected leadership in these regions do not want the type of help Trump can offer from the federal level. It does suck that there are innocent people suffering from poor leadership in these areas, but the electorate is getting exactly what they voted for.
Consider this. If there was a mayor or governor asking for help from the Federal government with regards to national guard troops and law enforcement assistance to contain the lawlessness, is there any doubt Trump wouldn’t instantly provide such assistance? The problem is the elected leadership in these areas simply DOESN’T WANT HELP and would prefer the problem to fester and grow. In such a situation, Trump’s hands are tied. Yes, the optics are bad for Trump, but the alternatives are worse.
If Trump were to ignore state and local leadership and go in with “guns blazing”, so to speak, he would be playing right into the leftist hands. The media and Democrats are hoping that Trump falls for such a trap and triggers a Kent State or Waco type incident that they can hang around his neck until election day. Imagine the crocodile tears from the governors and mayors as cry “Why, why didn’t Trump listen to us? Now he has the blood of peaceful protestors on his hands. We warned him, but he wouldn’t listen. Here is the proof that Trump is the fascist we’ve been warning about for four years.”
Instead, the Governors and Mayors, by letting the lawlessness continue, are deeply scaring the great majority of normal voters who are asking themselves if the Democrats have truly gone insane.
I feel Trump is correctly playing the long game here, even though he’s taking a hit with his own supporters who would want to see much more proactive action against the rioters. However, because the Democrats are running cover for BLM and Antifa, this isn’t a law enforcement issue. Instead, it’s a political issue that ultimately must be won at the ballot box.
F16 Guy noted: “Both party’s are weak, and no politician seems to care about anything other than winning re-election.”
Our representatives are not representing us and our interests but represent themselves and their own interests. We the People are once again suffering from taxation without representation. We elect people, but we do not get the representation promised by the Constitution.
Robert wrote, parenthetically: “(Though the 2017 number appears to include both viral sickness as well as chronic illness, in 2020 almost all respiratory deaths have been assigned to COVID-19 in order to inflate its numbers. I therefore think it valid to compare the two numbers.)”
This point does not deserve to be parenthetical. It may even deserve its own essay. This point touches on another problem that we have here in America. The press.
We have freedom of the press in this country, but in this case the large ones, those most read, watched, or heard, generally are not news organizations but propaganda activists of the Democratic Party. In fact, it is possible that the main stream press makes the calls and that the Democratic Party follows their lead. After all, who was it that declared that George Floyd’s life mattered enough to start riots, looting, arson, and murder, and who decides that the people of Chicago, each weekend, do not matter enough?
Why are the Republicans so fearful of opposing the Democrats? Because they fear that the press, as supporters of the Democrats, will attack them. They cower from such possibility. Once again, as Robert noted, the Republicans are more concerned about not looking bad so that they can get reelected, than they are concerned about We the People and the suffering that has been imposed upon so very many of us, 40 million workers, the last I heard, and hundreds of millions of other victims of this political shutdown, lockdown, smackdown Great Oppression.
The supposed science being used to rationalize the unconstitutional orders dictated to us — and enforced by police forces that have abandoned their oaths to enforce the Constitution, choosing the side of the tyrannical politicians over We the People — is bogus. It is reminiscent of Lysenkoism. We Americans are now under direct attack, but we are not permitted to defend ourselves and those we depend upon for defense are neglecting their jobs.
This virtual Lysenkoism is not new with this crisis, but has been used for global warming (or climate change, climate disruption, nom du jour). Those who disagree with the government’s chosen position are ostracized, including demands that such people, especially scientists, be executed, similar to the Soviets’s Lysenkoism. The press worked hard to generate fear in order to get us to cower in our houses. For global warming this was figurative, but for Wuhan flu it is literal.
mpthompson: I really do hope you are right. I also recognize the political logic of this strategy by Trump. I fear however that the new voters Trump was attracting beforehand will disappear, as they do not see things with this kind of nuance. What they see is Trump failing to act in their interests, in contrast to how he acts when his interests are threatened.
If he loses those voters, he might not have enough to win. That is my fear.
Rope-a-dope. In other words, keep giving them rope to… [violent extremist eliminationist language censored]
Excellent article.
This is not a Republican / Democrat thing. It’s us versus the swamp.
What you see as weakness I see as strategy.
As someone who lives in Florida here are my thoughts:
(1) DeSantis is weak; he caved to the media in late March. Not sure he will this time but I’d say it’s 50/50.
(2) Observing the new testing centers/urgent care centers being packed with folks in minivans lining up to get, I presume, authorization for testing, is absolutely amazing. Testing has become, IMO, the new toilet paper run. Everyone is getting tested, no one knows why.
I’m on board with holding the GOP “representatives” at local, State and Federal levels responsible. Not quite so much with blaming President Trump for not taking action. There is only so much the President can do under our Constitution. He’s offered to help the States and Cities with their mobs, and he’s building his Wall and slowing immigration while we deal with the self-inflicted CoVid-19 Depression. But he doesn’t control the budget, can’t do much about mob violence without State Governors and city Mayors calling for Federal help, can do hardly anything about activist Judges gutting his executive orders and even legislative statutes. The ONLY force that has leverage with local, State and Federal governments is the U.S. electorate. If we don’t act, decisively, to reject this destruction of our economy, society and violence against the citizenry, it is on US, not the President.
We are sailing through a great storm and are in rough waters, and there is a loose cannon rolling around on deck, and it is loaded with Covid, and its lit.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/coronavirus-mexico-border-refugee-camp-immigration
“IF” it goes off will it blow a hole the captains suite? Will it take out the captains first mates suite who just happens to be his biggest enemy? Will it go off and send its load of bad will and chaos off the port side with little damage? Or has the powder become wet and it will not go off, its a dud?
UNKNOWN and UNKNOWABLE at this point in time.
*And lets also consider this: Trump, a political novice, a committed what turns out to be a Conservative Constitutionalist, destroys Hillary Clinton (D) in the 2016 election, and Hillary is the anointed one and next in line in the Globalist drive to de fang America and its inconvenient and hampering to their “It Takes A Village” world wide Globalist agenda.
*Those within the government law enforcement agencies, the FBI, CIA and others formulate and execute a scheme to discredit the new president and entrap those that surround him and if they can have him removed from office. (Sedition and treason on any other planet).
*The FBI sets up general Flynn. Result? Flynn case dismissed because of the FBI’s misconduct and refusal to supply the evidence that proved the general was set up and charged ultimately for political reasons. And this is right now being criminally investigated and I am fairly confident that there will be charges related to these many abuses of power within these government law enforcement agencies. So this is not rumor or spin.
*There are “Investigations” in the form of the Robert Mueller special prosecutor investigation that take two years, $40 or so million dollars, 40 FBI special agents and scores of witnesses, included investigations in13 country’s, and the conclusion? No Russian collusion. And the FBI knew from the start that it was all a fraud.
*Then there is undertaken an impeachment to remove the president by the Democrat controlled Congress, again, nothing, failure. Really just another desperate disgrace for the Democrats.
*And all throughout this time there is chaos and confusion and the president moves forward and the media reveals just how biased and anti American and Leftist / Socialist they have become. The term “Fake News” that the president coined becomes clear to many in America as being 100 percent true and a threat to America.
*As things become more and more chaotic in America and the world there emerges a peculiar virus from the presidents #1 international enemy, China, curious and timely. (China can not survive and realize their world domination goals if Trump remains the president of the United States) It is reasonable to assume that the virus emerged from within a biological research laboratory within China, and the Chinese Communist government limits travel within their country. But interestingly the very practical Chinese Communists continue to allow international travel as the virus spreads throughout the entire world and sickens many, and kills the ill and infirm.
*And all through this time the “Progressive” Socialist and Leftist lead Democrats in America have gained in strength and have coopted the leadership of the Democrat party which are now eternally aligned with radical Marxist lead organizations such as Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA. Both organizations are working to raze the Constitution and replace it, with what no one knows. This would serve the Globalist agenda well.
*The Democrat “Progressives” that are now in control of the major cities in America are in the process of through legislation defunding or ending the police forces in their cities. As a prime example the now plainly Communist “Progressive” mayor of New York City and the now radical City Council have just voted to defund the NYC police department by $1 Billion dollars. How does that make you feel ladies of New York City?
*This comes after a violent abuse of power where a black man was brutalized and killed in Minnesota by a police officer. And he, George Floyd, the abused has apparently been long forgotten. This is one of those “Never let a crisis go to waste”, ala Rahm Emanuel, the failed Democrat Mayor of Chicago who was forced from office and is a close ally of B. Hussein Obama.
*What does this all have to do with? This is all in full and chaotic motion today because of one man and for one reason. Trump is a real threat one way or another to this Globalist / “New World order” / “One World Government” plainly Democrat leadership model that threatens the American Constitution which is the only thing that in fact stands in its way.
So is this all happening by coincidence? What do you think?
At this level of political play does anyone really think that most of this is by coincidence?
Now imagine Trump losing to someone like Joe Biden and where our country would beheading if that were to be allowed to play out. You just noodle with that for a while America and see where you find yourself.
I don’t live in the USA. I live in Brazil.
Here, governors and mayors carry out the SAME forced lock-down scheme that DEMS are imposing in the USA to “combat” COVID-19: Governors, mayors and the Supreme Court openly defying the constitution without any reaction from President, apart from some President´s statements in the press about “closing businesses and job losses”.
We have several recorded cases of deaths of people who died from other diseases and were counted as Covid-19, here. At the same time we have several cases, with photos and videos, of EMPTY hospitals, with no beds occupied.
We don’t know what is actually happening. We don’t even know if the pandemic is real or not.
We only know that a huge coup is underway.
I can not write about this much more becoz our congress voted an identification law on the internet that puts an end to freedom of speech here. All at the expense of the pandemic. In fact, several draconian and anti-constitutional measures are being adopted in view of the pandemic. And nobody can complain: The supreme court supports all tyranny.
The entire Latin American is going fast into communism abyss.
Here, we are already absolutely sure that this is no longer a pandemic, but only a world political coup.
P.S.: I don’t know if Trump will endure this coup, especially if the American Supreme Court turns against him.
mpthompson wrote: “but the electorate is getting exactly what they voted for.”
Didn’t everyone vote for Trump so that he would stop this kind of madness?
“I feel Trump is correctly playing the long game here,”
You will have to explain the long game, because I do not see one. Also, why is this a “feeling” on your part and not a belief? Making decisions based upon feelings is what progressives do, which explains why we are in the mess that we are in, right now.
“this isn’t a law enforcement issue. Instead, it’s a political issue that ultimately must be won at the ballot box.”
Well, we lost this issue in 2008, and we can see that Trump is not the solution.
James Street wrote: “This is not a Republican / Democrat thing. It’s us versus the swamp.”
Republicans were elected to clean up the swamp, because We the People do not have the authority to do it. They are falling down on the job.
“What you see as weakness I see as strategy.”
What strategy do you see? The only strategy that I see is one that results in even more tyranny than we are stuck with now, which suggests weakness. Even VISA is refusing to serve anyone that they disagree with. It looks to me that the Obama strategy reigns supreme and has spread into the private, commercial zone.
Lawrence Duffield wrote: “If we don’t act, decisively, to reject this destruction of our economy, society and violence against the citizenry, it is on US, not the President.”
This is why we gave the Republicans the House, Senate, and Presidency in 2016. What did they do with them? Nothing.
The most that We the People can do is what we are doing, running around outside without masks on. We can’t go into the shutdown businesses unless we are rioting, and that is not our goal. Before they can add to — and rebuild — the economy, shopkeepers who open up against the government’s wishes only get shut down by the police-supported government, which resulted in failure on that front.
The Republicans didn’t even run candidates in many races in Virginia the last cycle, willingly giving total control of the state to Liberal Leftists.
And we are now seeing the destruction of our once great state.
I wish I had the money that changed hands to make that happen.
CHOOSE TO ASSOCIATE WITH MARXISM? / JORDON PETERSEN
Jordon Petersen lays out exactly what the result is of dabbling with Marxism and says it in a much more concise and boiled down manner than I ever could, and all in less than 3 minutes.
https://youtu.be/8p2QfjaSIUo 2:50
Black Lives Matter? ANTIFA? A segment of the Democrat party leadership?
These organizations and associations are just making their Marxist and anti American radical hay while they can and those who choose to align and associate with them are guilty of at least naïve ignorance. And if they are not naïve or ignorant of what they really represent? Then you tell me what they are and represent in America.
This is our system and this is our process.
Jordan Peterson
George Orwell’s Wigan Pier, Marxism and the Working Class
-excerpt-
https://youtu.be/JfT_in6Vy3A
17:23
Regarding your statement: “I highlight the death rate for respiratory illnesses, as it was higher in 2017 than COVID-19 is in 2020. Yet, I don’t remember the world shutting down in panic over this death rate.”
The reason no panic is because those respiratory deaths were not caused by a pandemic which is beyond a person’s control. In other words, the infected people who died in 2017 of respiratory failure was due to some other non-mass contagious factor, so, that’s a big difference and the reason why no mass global panic and shutdown in 2017.
But I like your information very much, don’t get me wrong, thanks for doing! The fact is, the destruction of freedom and the economy is FAR WORSE than letting this pandemic be done and over with as quickly as possible by removing all lockdowns, going back to normal before the pandemic, and let nature takes it course through the herd immunity process. Or is it more important to destroy the freedom of billions, to save a million? That is insanity.
LASTLY, I GUESS YOU DO NOT ALLOW PEOPLE TO CONTACT YOU DIRECTLY VIA EMAIL OR OTHER? I CAN’T FIND ANY “CONTACT” ICON, SO I GUESS NOT?? TOO BAD, I HAVE FACT BASED INFO. YOU WANT TO SEE.
Richard: No need to shout. Go to the “about” link and look at the bottom of the text.
Richard: From what I understand, the respiratory numbers include deaths from flu and pneumonia, both of which are infectious diseases, not chronic.
Note that when adjusted for population the 1969 Hong Kong still killed more people than COVID-19. And in 1969 we did nothing to change our behavior.
Trump is a showman first and foremost and always was. He is the right’s version of Bill Clinton. You can nominate a “slick willie” and can even win with him. A “slick willie” will do what you want for a while because you’re his base of support. But don’t expect him to stand up for you, or for anything. When the going gets tough, he will slither away and hide like the snake that he is.
The cancel culture survives because it is safer to go along with it then against it. Propose to include “political beliefs, statements or affiliations” as protected category alongside religion in anti-discrimination laws. Make it as legally hard to discriminate against political beliefs you don’t like as it is to discriminate against religious beliefs you don’t like. The left’s most feared weapon is its ability to use supposedly apolitical institutions to terrorize its opponents. It won’t be a panacea, but it will be hard for the left to fight and they will look bad in doing so.