We are about to find out who our real friends are
Russian Sergei Krikalev on the space shuttle, February 1994.
When in 2002 I was writing my space history, Leaving Earth, I spent more than a month interviewing Russian astronauts in Moscow. Many of those individuals had also flown on the American space shuttle during the initial Mir-Shuttle joint missions followed by the start of the assembly of ISS, which had given them a unique opportunity to get an outsider’s perspective on American culture.
One man Sergei Krikalov, was especially unique. He not only was the first Russian to train at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, he was the first Russian to fly on the space shuttle, and the first to enter ISS’s first module after launch. Because of that experience, he also spoke excellent English, which meant he could describe his experiences to me directly, and not through an interpreter.
When it came to American culture, he noted how as a Russian, he was appalled at the empty nature of American friendships.
To Krikalev, as well as many other Russians who came to the United States as part of the joint space program, the most negative aspect of American life was what they considered its almost superficial and shallow friendships. While Russians considered friendship intensely important, and spent years developing trust before they were willing call someone their friend, Americans could say howdy to each other, drink a beer, and consider themselves lifelong buddies. [Leaving Earth, p. 351-352]
There are some fundamental reasons for this difference, and we in America are presently finding them out, much to our grief.
In Soviet-era Russia, as well as during the rule of the Czars, you couldn’t make friends easily because you didn’t know who you could trust. Anyone you met could very well be an agent of the government, whose thirst for unopposed rule was unending. Or they could be a lowly snitch willing to use that information against you for their personal gain. Say the wrong thing to the wrong person and your career, your family, and your life could be destroyed.
So Russians took care who they spoke to. They spent time carefully and gingerly testing the waters with each new acquaintance, making sure this person was of like mind and, more importantly, not one to snitch. Friendships made under these conditions were therefore few, but they were firm, long-lasting, and dependable to a fault.
Americans however had no such fears. Raised in a free society where they, the citizens, were the rulers, meant that snitches had no power over them. Moreover, no one they met desired to rule over them. Everyone was free and equal, and recognized they had no right to dictate how others lived their lives. To try to do so was fundamentally immoral.
Friendships were therefore easy and quick to form. Everyone knew that they could generally trust everyone they met, on these very basic levels.
Sadly this situation in American appears to be ending. We are no longer citizens in a free society. We now have masters, a leftist ruling class of totalitarians. They do not tolerate dissent. They do not permit opposition. If you have a job and must keep it in order to feed your family, you must be very careful who you express your political ideas to, because if you say something wrong to the wrong person, that livelihood could quickly vanish as a leftist Twitter mob descends upon you and your employers.
I’ve already seen this happening among my own friends. Where we once had happy get-togethers to talk about life, caving, even politics, without fear, it now appears that this is really no longer possible, even if the Wuhan flu did not exist. Too many of my friends are afraid, and now will no longer speak their minds freely, because they have no idea who will report them to the wrong people.
Maybe they are right. Maybe it makes sense to from now on pick our friends carefully, like the Russians did. Otherwise we will not survive. The petty but oh-so-powerful dictators who rule us — along with the sneaks that work for them — will not abide such wrong-speak and the people who speak it. They will immediately take action to squelch it.
Or maybe we are not yet in that dictatorship. Maybe we can still forestall it. To do so however it will take courage and a willingness to take terrible risks, because we are now so close to having such a totalitarian society. It will require ignoring the snitches and bullies who are now temporarily in charge. Ignore them when they scream at you for not wearing a mask. Ignore them when they conjure up a Twitter mob to get you fired or have your business shut down. Ignore them by doing exactly the opposite of what they demand.
A few guys willing to stand up for freedom.
Don’t apologize to them. Don’t bow to them. Don’t cower in fear of them. Tell them to their face that they are fascist bullies, and you will not obey them. Let them scream.
Do what you think is right, and to hell with them.
If more of us exhibit this courage, then maybe they will finally begin to back off and let us live free again. More important, we shall find out quickly who our real friends are. And making reliable allies in this time of trouble is a very good thing.
If we continue to cower in fear and not stand up for our rights, however, the future looks quite dim. We will all face a dark narrow future, where are friends are few, our options are limited, and our enemies many. And freedom will then surely die.
That’s not what I want. I pray that others agree.
Stand up for freedom, now. It really is the most precious possession you have.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Bob..title..
One instance of “Are” should be “Our”..
Thank you for this. I find your political discourse as intelligent as the space related discussions.
These are perilous times. It is the same in Canada and I see the left further emboldened by the opportunities offered. There is not the same rule of law in Canada that is present in the US constitution. Mind you, now the deep state is just ignoring those laws.
Backing people into a corner with no alternatives will force an inevitable violent reaction.
This has been growing for many years, both in Canada and the USA. When I took up residence near Rodeo NM, I was warned to keep conservative comments to myself, especially around Portal AZ. I have been learning who to trust. Just because Utah is pretty conservative, do not make the mistake that Mormons (LDS) are ALL conservatives. Made that mistake.
Now, we have people snitching to the NM government about businesses who may not be wearing masks. One friend’s restaurant can not have dine ins. Yet 5 miles away in leftist Portal, the cafe has dine in and the leftists do not bother that business.
Trump wanted the get the social media giants to be free by using legislation. Now they are fighting back. If a well funded person started a truly free social media, the dems would invoke that legislation in a heartbeat: and not enforce it on the leftist ones.
Never make the mistake that a true friend does not disagree with you. On the contrary, the passive aggressive will always stab in the back, being ever so sweet to your face: been there, done that too many times. Even of my conservative friends, I now have a fairly good idea who will flip (like Lindsay Graham) to save their own skin. We might be getting to know how the French (and German) undergrounds operated under NAZI governance. I do not even trust myself.
Gary: Oy. I really wish I was ten years younger. These things didn’t happen then.
Fixed. Thank you!
It was entertaining to watch Lyndsey Graham during the run up to the election, the scared look in his eyes, the beads of sweat during interviews, and his incessant mentioning of his hash tag to raise money.
Then he was all good because he won his race.
We are there already. Unfortunately, many on the left still assume that politics is open for discussion, and put there opinions out in the open as if they were acknowledged and accepted fact. I’ve had to start replying in some cases with a blunt, “No politics, please.”
This is not the country I grew up in.
Forbes demands companies discriminate in hiring:
“Let it be known to the business world: Hire any of Trump’s fellow fabulists above, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie,”
What next…’whites only’?
What we are dealing with here, is a self-righteous fundamentalism that is indicative of closed minds … to them, the world is not Left vs. Right – but Normal vs. the Evil Other. It is totalitarian in a manner more reminiscent of the true-believer fanaticism of places like Iran.
Which can make its adherents more sensitive to Alinsky Rule Four, particularly if they can be approached on the inconsistencies in their specific positions. That being said, these days one has to approach conversations with the mindset of an EOD tech.
Thank you. Reading essays like this help me feel less alone. My husband and I are so alarmed. I had lunch with two other women today and they feel the same way. We are strangers in the land of our birth. It is unrecognizable now. But I don’t think the progressives are as smart as they think they are. Or as convincing. Again, thank you for your thoughts and being willing to write them down. Great comfort in them.
Two women talk to each other in a private conversation were overheard and removed from the flight.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/08/airlines-and-flight-attendants-concerned-about-security-when-pro-trump-rioters-leave-dc/
“Their violent and seditious actions at the Capitol (Wednesday) create further concern about their departure from the DC area,” AFA president Sara Nelson said in a statement. “Acts against our democracy, our government, and the freedom we claim as Americans must disqualify these individuals from the freedom of flight.”
If they get their way, registered conservatives will be placed automatically on the do not fly list.
I’m sure you heard of parlor and other conservative sites that no longer exist. Parlor I’m sure is worth $1 billion and doubling its size almost overnight. But also overnight it’s servers were taken Down (not bought out) removing it in the harshest way, against all the rules of law, commerce, proper business, by an illegal action that conspired of three tech companies to squash a competitor. A Digital night of broken glass.
Now other voices will be acquiescence or silenced.
You have the freedom of speech, but you do not have the right to be heard. Wrong think will be punished. Free speech is only for those who say the proper phrases from the approved literature and catechism. Approved speech only, all others will not be tolerated.
https://michaelsavage.com/radio-giant-cumulus-threatens-conservative-hosts/
The dark age has begun, be careful what you talk about. Always assume your phone and digital devices are listening to you.
Clouthub.com, the Robert Zimmerman of social media servers.
https://youtu.be/QFuFVUAlV-Q
No obscenities, not violent speech, no hate speech and a civil discourse.
The Zman is ahead of the curve.
There’s a sharp difference in relationships in a homogenous society (in which I grew up) and a diverse society. When one can safely assume that everyone would do a similar thing as one self would’ve done given similar circumstances, one doesn’t have to say so much in order to become friends. It’s actually the other way around, that being able to be silent together is a bonding experience. Coordination is automatic. The more diverse a society is, the more important does it become to get to learn the particularities of this very guy. It could be a weirdo.
And about the Venezuelisation of the US, I quote:
“- They are not coming for ME, they are coming for YOU! I’m just standing in their way.”
/ Guess who
Sen. Joe Manchin may not fully be a friend, but appears to be willing to be an acquaintance. He confirmed that he will not support two of the more threatening moves in the Senate. He is against eliminating the filibuster and won’t support packing the court. So, those two moves will need to wait for DC to be admitted as the 51st state.
By the time I came to “So Russians took care who they spoke to,” I had decided that this is the best yet from Zimmerman. I read the piece through two times in a row, jumped to Amazon (sorry, Mr. Z!) and purchased a used copy of “Leaving Earth” on paper in a book, and came right back to read the comments.
By the strangest coincidence today I spent wrangling how to arrange, discreetly but with honesty, a mask-free and distancing-free jam for acoustic musicians (in acoustic, forget playing well when you have to keep your distance, let alone cover your nose and mouth), and am facing the very things Robert writes of. Uncanny timing … Courage Acoustic Jams, musicians with courage welcome. Courage is easy when facing a bogeyman who “ravages” one 28th of one percent of the population over a year. Courage of my convictions hell! Courage of my common sense and arithmetic.
Jay: “Backing people into a corner with no alternatives will force an inevitable violent reaction.”
It has all the marks of being by design, orchestrated over a couple of decades, blueprints we have seen for even more decades, and I am certain that complicity is equally shared for at least 20 years by both Republican and Democrat parties. Demonizing via party label is a sure way to be manipulated.
Cut ’em both loose and the baggage “liberal” and “conservative” word games with them. Leave them behind and forge into the future knowing that self-ownership and limited government are requirements for liberty, that government must be limited and controlled for the same reason we harshly limit the force of fire: for our own safety.
Article: If more of us exhibit this courage, then maybe they will finally begin to back off and let us live free again.
Yes! And as well, if more of us exhibit this courage, we will reassure others with less conviction, to have courage and confidence, humor even. The most frightening is that the media told the numbers all along, and all along it has been front and center that it has threatened a nano percentage of mostly weak and elderly. It is (by design??) actually perpetually poised to declare everything safe, 99.9plus percent of us okay now. Could save a lot of face and a lot of blood.
In any case, the projection that somehow this thing will kill a huge percentage of who it infects, is proven a lie yet projections continue as if they were represented in the numbers.
I know there are millions of people, all ages, all races, both sexes, all classes, who are smart enough to have done the arithmetic and who are furious enough to simply drop out, stay home, have things delivered from the grocery store and anywhere else. I know the few places I can go bare face, and they are the only places I go. I don’t even have a mask. My poor husband wears a bandana the few times he feels compelled to venture out (often doing nice things for me), and he at least makes his contempt loud and clear to everyone; around here they will escort you out, I guess, if you don’t wear a mask. It’s why I have them deliver, and the kid who delivered said they get paid well. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.
There are a lot of us who are invisible, more than who are visible.
Phill O: Re Mormons, remember always:
Big church, big government.
Janyuary: Gee, you could have bought one of the last hardbacks from me, autographed, or gotten an ebook from me. Buying it used from amazon earns me nothing,
Only kidding. Enjoy. You will like.
“Unfortunately, many on the left still assume that politics is open for discussion, and put there opinions out in the open as if they were acknowledged and accepted fact. “
So true!!! But in a way it’s fortunate, because that presuming arrogance informs, and is a weakness to be exploited. Also frustrating is when one states an accepted fact to them, they treat it as if it were just an opinion. That also closes discussion. Like arithmetic, now apparently a tool of black magic to fool idiots like me into thinking this C19 is a bogeyman!
Robert, I looked at your site and saw no reference to them being available or I’d have gotten one at Christmas!!! I am a dunderhead when it comes to much in the way of dealing with websites and tech. I have a kindle … somewhere ……
Besides, I am a Scot. It’s my heritage to be chea … er, thrifty.
Diane … another good way to put it out: “No politics in the mess.” It’s a rule and a darned good one in more places than the dining hall, though.
Ritchie: “not Left vs. Right – but Normal vs. the Evil Other”
Pop media and multi-media entertainment (I don’t blame Forbes one bit, Eddie, Trump as a businessman has always been a chump, I did my due diligence) have made it so Americans assume a whole pop cultural identity in their politics. It is who they are, on both sides of the aisle: political affiliation determines if one is among friends or among enemies, who may be people you adore and love on every other level. It is a bad thing.
It is also another reason to make it so the only ones who end up voting are those willing to invest personal effort (register themselves at a physical location every four years, mail-in ballots ONLY for extenuated circumstances otherwise you have a day to vote, find the time, things like that). Politics, keeping dangerous fire to a minimum, is something that empty headed culture trend setters such as embrace politics as their cultural identity, need to be steered clear of. Make it a pain for them to vote, and they’ll head to other pastures and people who care more will be the ones who vote. It’s an idea, anyway!!!
Hey, Ritchie: That being said, these days one has to approach conversations with the mindset of an EOD tech.
Can you explain what that would entail? I’m just a lay person, what does the mindset require? Thanks!
Janyuary: Well, for everyone, even if I don’t have a book highlighted in one of the boxes scattered everywhere, there is a link in the menu at the top labeled “Books” which will provide links to each and instructions how to buy. Also, the right column on desktops (on the bottom on phones) lists those links as well.
As for your heritage, Janyuary, I am Jewish. I understand completely.
As for your heritage, Janyuary, I am Jewish. I understand completely.
LOL….go out to lunch….and go Dutch!
Not to be preachy here, but the words of Revelation 13:16-17 are now a bit more chilling:
“And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark…”
The right hand, in Jewish terms, was indicative of work. The forehead was the seat of thinking.
Here, in America, we are seeing others demand that we not think or work in unapproved ways; otherwise, we will be prevented from platforms to air our thoughts (forehead) or even from conducting business (right hand).
This is about as close to anything — including the Nazi tattooing of Jews in concentration camps — that resembles what we read in Revelations 13:16. Are we there yet? I don’t know. But when we are there, it will be too late.
Ignore them when they scream at you for not wearing a mask.
We are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic that is killing over 3,300 Americans per day. Sometime next week the American death toll from Covid-19 will exceed that of all American deaths (combat and noncombat) in World War II. And you’re still raging against a trivial way to reduce the spread of this deadly disease. This is just bizarre.
Courage is easy when facing a bogeyman who “ravages” one 28th of one percent of the population over a year.
This is approaching misinformation. Covid-19 has already killed three times that number of Americans, and for every one killed, several more were hospitalized in severe condition. And for every one hospitalized, several more had serious infections but stayed home. The number of Americans infected is now approaching 7% of the population.
In any case, the projection that somehow this thing will kill a huge percentage of who it infects, is proven a lie yet projections continue as if they were represented in the numbers.
In the United States it’s killing 2.7% of the people it’s infecting. That’s not a projection, just simple arithmetic.
Perhaps the reason the death toll is skyrocketing is that many Americans aren’t taking it seriously.
They’re coming for you next:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/democrats-drafting-legislation-criminalize-trump-rallies-classify-domestic-terrorism/
mkent More people die from opiate overdose in Alberta than Covid. There is a disjoint in government reaction. Lockdowns vs enabling!
How I handle the numbers, the simple arithmetic, though I rounded to significant digits:
US population, P = 328,000,000 (US Census Bureau)
one-28th of 1% of that is (0.01/28) P = 117,000
7% of P is 22,960,000, and 2.7% of that is 620,000
Actual US deaths reported to Covid 19 is 376,000 (New York Times – not my fave reference)
I did these numbers several times so I wouldn’t say something wrong, like MSM being sloppy, leaving half a story out there for you to be shocked. The ratios used come from mkent.
In California the death rate is about 1.1% of positive test die, but how many people contract Covid and don’t get tested?
David Telford and M Kent, in my county there are 282,868 people. 100 have died in the past year
Ballparking with no calculator, just a pencil, eraser, and paper … the number dead (as of today it is 111, careful avoidance of mentioning the age or condition of the one who died) was 100. And they were screaming about how the mortuaries were keeping extra hours for the dead!!! Meanwhile evidence of actual sick people in my real world, and in the worlds of folks I talk to, personal knowledge … is OF COURSE lacking because the numbers indicate that it would be.
Sure looks like a ballpparked 1 28th of of one percent to me. And nationally — IF you believe numbers to which a financial incentive is attached, EVEN AT THAT your numbers PROVE that this “pandemic” is an illusion.
What percentage of Americans are alive after a year of lockdown, Mkent? How about you calculate that? Or do you have the courage?
Any who think the lockdowns and fear of this virus justify economic and society homicide:
The person who chooses to live on a trendy diet that will weaken the immune system (I have known many vegans and every one plus their poor vegan children, had allergies and health problems out the ying yang, conversations always concentrated on health. They are the worst offenders among many who refuse to consider their illnesses are NOT because others have been careless, but because of their personal freely-made choices — the person who chooses a sedentary lifestyle, the person who burns the candle at both ends for too long … they are much more likely to be made very ill or killed by ANY virus.
The idea that healthy people must make such enormous sacrifices to “protect” people who want OTHERS to be responsible for their choices and their fear will lead to bloodshed and it will be blood on the hands of the people who believe in a bogeyman “killer” that “ravishes” by leaving the vast, vast majority healthy.
But like I say, I have a hunch that the time will come that everyone who is afraid of this bogeyman today, will claim “I never said that!” After how many people have committed suicide, how many businesses and dreams have died? To “save” those who refuse to be responsible for their choices or their fear but who demand that others sacrifice greatly to accommodate that fear and their vanity.
M Kent: “In the United States it’s killing 2.7% of the people it’s infecting. That’s not a projection, just simple arithmetic.”
It is arithmetic deliberately absent of context and therefore misleading. Aside from the obvious sleight of hand to propagandize by failing to provide context of how much the 2.7 percent dead of those infected represents in the whole, does that 2.7 percent represent an almost infinitesimal percentage of the whole???? … WHO is it infecting, MKent? Is it infecting/killing men in their prime, such as the type who die in wars? Is it infecting/killing women of child-bearing age? Is it infecting and killing children and teens? Or have more kids and teens died by their own hand since this lockdown robbed them of their futures? How about you do the math on that one, MKent?
Without that information, which is carefully omitted, and with the obvious truth in front of my eyes as of personal knowledge AS WELL as using reported numbers (projections are guesses, many purposely turn guesses into “fact”) and doing one’s own arithmetic … it is as hugely evident as Dolly Parton’s bustline that this “pandemic” is … well, a bust!!!
“Perhaps the reason the death toll is skyrocketing is that many Americans aren’t taking it seriously.
Perhaps the reason they treat it as a dangerously bad joke is because the definition of “skyrocketing” is apparently as arbitrary as whether a bird on the wing will veer right or left depending on the wind.
Robert Z: “As for your heritage, Janyuary, I am Jewish. I understand completely.”
Och aye! As a Scot, I have always been intrigued by the wee tams the Jewish gents wear — quite admirable, their economy in headgear! Indeed we share heritage! (AMEN to that, eh?? We are all siblings in the eyes of the Lord, whose blood is not red, white, black, yellow or brown, but “the color of water,” as a wise Jewish mother once told her mixed-race children).
Well, 2020 is now gone. I sure would like to see “deaths from disease” for the last five years. If there is a sudden 330,000 leap, I’ll take it more seriously.
janyuary-
–I suggest the chronological encyclopedia of discoveries in space.
eddie-
50% Dutch + 50% Ukrainian
Eddie — Dutch treat! {^)
” I sure would like to see “deaths from disease” for the last five years. If there is a sudden 330,000 leap, I’ll take it more seriously.”
Some say there’s been sudden 330,000 drop in other flu deaths … !
In a nation of 328 million, one percent is:
Three million, two hundred eighty thousand.
When 3,280,000 Americans die of a virus in a year, one percent of the population, fifteen times as many — in the neighborhood of 47 million – would be hospitalized or laid out flat for weeks at a time. Yet the three people I know who got C19 sick (many tested positive) reported medium flu, period.
This is an in-our-face breathtakingly blatant false alarm. How many more young people took their own lives during the lockdown, compared to years past and compared to numbers of teens who died of Covid?
It’s exhibited how low an emasculated culture will go to avoid conflict. Men and women of God rationalize that we must avoid hurting feelings, blind that such strategy can only lead to hurt bodies, something we still can avoid by declaring “99.97 good enough, we’ve stopped the spread, back to normal.” And pretending that masks and distancing were not wastes, to save the face of the sillies who allowed themselves to be cowed into believing in a bogeyman and causing huge destruction.
I have seen true colors of many, been rudely and pleasantly surprised. Some say “act of God,” but I see an act of stupid and selfish men and women. God’s right where He’s always been, with arithmetic that always tells true, regardless of age, sex, time, location, politics, race, language, or motive.
Roseanne Bar lost her TV show, because there is no freedom of speech, anymore. Dozens of people lost their jobs due to one comment that was perceived as racist. She was smacked down, shut down, and shut up, teaching her and tens of millions of others a lesson about Obama’s America, land of the formerly free.
mkent wrote: “In the United States it’s killing 2.7% of the people it’s infecting. That’s not a projection, just simple arithmetic.”
It isn’t simple arithmetic, it is corrupted data.
There are fewer reports of deaths (meaning: virtually no deaths) by regular flus and pneumonia, these days, than in years past. Did they disappear or are they being assumed to have been Wuhan flu? “Assumed,” “suspected,” and “with” (as opposed to of) Wuhan are all being attributed to Wuhan, which means that we have no idea how many people in the United States it is killing, because we include those that it didn’t kill in the number of those attributed to Wuhan. All we know for sure is that fewer people die from Wuhan than the reports indicate. The data is corrupted, and good decision making is impossible. Data should help decide policy; policy should not decide the data.
“Perhaps the reason the death toll is skyrocketing is that many Americans aren’t taking it seriously.”
Or it could just be that winter has arrived. You know: flu season. Duh. Seriously: duh. Now that flu season is here, we take it far more seriously than last summer, when it was not flu season.
On the other hand, just how seriously should Wuhan flu be taken? We know that it is not as bad as portrayed, yet we don’t know how much less. There are many other factors in American life that should be considered in the decision making, but we have let one set of “experts” (yet strangely they have been wrong and have lied) determine our entire reaction, putting the saving of just one life as the main consideration for the reaction to Wuhan. The catastrophe that is happening around us is not their concern, only the contagious disease part. Welcome to the new America, where decisions are not made through good data or good decision making.
On the third hand, the gripping hand, our decision makers decided to send Wuhan-ailing patients into concentrations of the most vulnerable, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands and an increase in the spread of this disease. Another example of poor decision making.
On the fourth hand, even New York’s contact tracing has shown that Wuhan spreads more among those in lockdown, 74%, than those not in lockdown — you know, the “essential” people. New York’s restaurants are only traced to 1.4% of the spread. Seriously, we are doing everything wrong in our panic over this disease. No wonder it is so badly out of control. Why is this data not being used to change the bad policy that controls our lives? We must obey bad policy or suffer consequences.
Obviously, the lockdown, shutdown, smackdown, Great Oppression is not preventing the spread, otherwise we would not see this increase in deaths. Indeed, the Great Oppression is doing far more harm than any good that is intended. If only the Great Oppression would finally save that one life for which we are sacrificing our own lifestyles, livelihood, liberty, and health, so that this Oppression could finally end and we get our lives back. Many are already asking themselves why go on living when life is no longer worth living, just despair and depression — and all too many decide to not go on living. Even the World Health Organization is begging countries to end their Oppressions, because the resulting poverty is bringing malnutrition and potential death to tens of millions around the world.
Or maybe starvation is someone else’s problem, and mkent would rather we destroy ourselves over the smaller problem of a flu.
How long will it be that disagreeing with the government’s Wuhan flu reaction will also result in a Rosanne Bar or Great Friday Purge type of smackdown? So, in today’s America, who are our real friends? Clearly not those in charge of our health, and not those who blindly put their faith in them.
The important question is: what do we need to do now to reverse Obama’s America and return to the land of the free?
Edward-
Good Stuff.
“Big Government Marries Big Tech”
Dave Smith
Part of the Problem #684
1-12-21
https://youtu.be/iIXOLGJjQuA
59:28
Wayne: At the moment the Chronological Encyclopedia is out of print, though used copies are of course available.
I hope by year’s end to get an ebook revision out.
This will make you laugh, Chuck Schumer trying to have a press conference on the streets of New York and getting chewed out buy a bystander.
I predict this woman will have her own talk show soon! Ya got to love those fiery New Yorkers.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SexCounseling/status/1347312751220322305
I hope it works.
Some say there’s been sudden 330,000 drop in other flu deaths … !
Arrrghhh!! The innumeracy! There can’t be a 330,000 drop in other flu deaths in America in a year because, counting flu deaths the same way we count Covid-19 deaths, the worst American flu season on record only resulted in 15,560 deaths. Put another way: The 389,599 American Covid-19 deaths so far is 25 times as many deaths as the worst seasonal flu on record. Covid-19 is far, far worse than the flu.
I know that everyone here isn’t a rocket scientist, but we’re not talking about differential equations here. Any first grader should be able to tell you that 389,599 is a much bigger number than 15,560.
When 3,280,000 Americans die of a virus in a year…
3,280,000 American deaths in one year would be nearly five times the number of American deaths in three years during the worst pandemic in American history (675,000 during the Spanish flu). It would also be 1,000 times the number of dead on 9-11. If the death toll were that high the whole country would be shut down, not just bars and restaurants in a few states.
Yet the three people I know who got C19 sick (many tested positive) reported medium flu, period.
Are you seriously suggesting we make national policy based on the three people you know? This is a global pandemic. Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are being measured in every country in the world. Figures are being compiled by state and country. We don’t have to go by your personal experiences. We have actual data to go on.
…something we still can avoid by declaring “99.97 good enough…
99.97 what is good enough?
Perhaps the reason they treat it as a dangerously bad joke is because the definition of “skyrocketing” is apparently as arbitrary as whether a bird on the wing will veer right or left depending on the wind.
The death toll has gone from 800 / day from the time the host of this blog assured us it was “dying out” and “plummeting” to over 4,000 / day in many recent days. That’s over 20,000 / week. In other words, we’re losing more Americans to Covid-19 each week now than we lost during the entire year of the worse seasonal flu on record.
There are fewer reports of deaths (meaning: virtually no deaths) by regular flus and pneumonia, these days, than in years past. Did they disappear or are they being assumed to have been Wuhan flu?
As I pointed out to janyuary, Covid-19 deaths are now 25 times the worst seasonal flu season on record. We’re losing more Americans every week now than that entire year. Seasonal flu deaths are a blip in the record compared to Covid-19.
Worth re-reading in this context, Solzhenitsyn’s “The Exhausted West” address to Harvard 8 June 1978. Here are some of the best links.
https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/events/solzhenitsyn-harvard-reassessment-four-decades-later
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuVG8SnxxCM
https://harvardmagazine.com/2011/04/greatest-hits-solzhenitsyn
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/alexandersolzhenitsynharvard.htm
Mkent, a couple of things if I may…
When you said COVID-19 death total is 25 times the “worst seasonal flu on record,” that’s not accurate. COVID-19 is killing at a rate many times the average seasonal influenza, but I think 25 is too high a multiple. I’m going off memory without the aid of caffeine this early, but I think I remember the average seasonal influenza death toll has ranged from 25 to 60-70 thousand per season in recent years. CDC defines a season as running from October to April for yearly influenza infection.
At the CDC site, you will find sections that shows their estimates for seasonal influenza fatalities by season for recent years. They also detail range estimates by season for numbers infected, visits to the doctor, hospitalization numbers, etc. They also give info on how the estimates are generated and limitations in data access that necessitate the use of ranges and certainty levels.
While there, one can also find totals for previous major outbreaks such as H1N1 in 2008-2009, the Hong Kong influenza outbreak in 1968-69, as well as others.
It’s good data to have when illustrating how wrong the claims of “no worse than the flu” or other attempts to incorrectly downplay the seriousness of this virus. Medical issues are not my area of expertise but I do have a family member who is one and on the front lines every long day. They’ve taught me a lot on what’s fact, what’s evolving conjecture, and what’s just plain false.
The stories they’ve shared are just horrible and heartbreaking. The one thing they maintain with absolute certainty is that COVID-19 is NOT just a typical flu. That and proper use of masks makes a difference and along with hand-washing and avoiding crowds indoors.
I just saw that more than 4,200 people died just in the last day. Typical seasonal influenza doesn’t kill at that daily rate.
Mkent, please keep up the good fight. I’m grateful to read your thoughts.
And to all, good health to you and yours.
Mr. Zimmerman, as always, you write fantastic commentary that makes a person think. I don’t agree that America is no longer a free society and I still have much faith we’ll come out the other side of this difficult period.
I also strongly disagree with the position you frequently espouse that the threat comes predominantly from the actions of just those on the left. Indeed, right now, I’d say there is a heaping serving of danger to our freedoms coming from those on the right whose actions demonstrate a profound lack of desire to protect the Constitution and truth. Who embrace falsehoods. The thugs and terrorists inside the Capital last Wednesday weren’t left wing socialists.
As far as how you portrayed America in the past, there are millions of Americans that never had the life or freedom you like to paint as being enjoyed by ALL Americans. And the inequality for millions continues in too many ways. Until people like yourself can better accept that basic truth it’s going to be a tough patch we all have to work together to get past.
David: Right now my own ability to publish and write is being threatened by leftists like yourself, in the name of “protecting the Constitution.” So much for free speech and the first amendment from the left and people like you.
In fact, Dmeocrats like you horrify me. You had no problem with months of violent riots and looting and murders by Black Lives Matter and Antifa thugs, but one Trump rally gets a little violent (quite wrongly) and you are all ready to stamp your boot down on every conservative in the nation.
Your willful blindness and ignorance, nicely cloaked in feel-good pleasantries, brings to mind the vision of a Nazi guard at Auschwitz sincerely saying “Have a nice day!” with a smile as he guides Jews into the gas chamber.
David: “COVID-19 is killing at a rate many times the average seasonal influenza, but I think 25 is too high a multiple. “
You sure could have fooled this long-time metropolis dweller who lived and worked in the heart of 12 million people during seasonal influenza for 25 years and who experienced first hand the Hong Kong flu.
Where ARE the people this horrible killer flu is supposed to be harming? They were always very plentiful in other seasonal influenzas, but so far the tiny handful of people I know who have had C19, say it was like a mild flu. As opposed to the dozens of people who experienced other influenzas and were bedridden for two weeks or me.
I will believe my lyin’ eyes and know for a fact that politicians and doctors exaggerate and manipulate by fear.
Bedridden for two weeks or more … !
Where are they, David and MKent? Where are all victims who are being made ill but surviving this supposedly killer flu? WHY aren’t they apparent when in past years they were everywhere to my personal knowledge?
WHY, David and MKent? I can already predict the evasive answers slinging all kinds of statistics.
Robert … the ref to guiding Jews into the gas chamber. My own mother right now objects to any real resistance mainly because the folks asking us to submit to this tyranny “for our own good” couldn’t possibly be that bereft of conscience, and it just isn’t NICE to object and tell people “go to hell, NO!”
She’d have walked right in those showers expecting shampoo and towels to be waiting. It has been a real shock.
When this is all said and done, young people today are going to look back and hold their parents in contempt with good reason, those parents who told them “It’s not nice</i< to resist, it's just so rude!"
Janyuary: I always think of the rebels in the Warsaw Ghetto. They resisted, but they waited too long to do so, so it was in vain. The sooner the better, I say. More chance of victory.
Sadly, there has been no resistance for decades, and we are quickly reaching the Warsaw Ghetto stage.
Edward: The important question is: what do we need to do now to reverse Obama’s America and return to the land of the free?”
We need to:
1. Stop blaming Obama and Democrats for something Republicans and conservatives bear equal responsibility for causing by allowing their primary system to be so thwarted that only the most left-leaning big government Republicans could “win.”
2 Start thinking in terms of moving forward to the future — progress — and stop thinking in terms of returning to the past.
3. Understand that thinking in terms of “stopping the spread” of a wildly exaggerated “threat” is going along with the whole disgusting theater of “justified” tyranny. Stop what spread? The spread of something that “ravishes” by leaving 99.9plus percent of its “victims” alive and well.
As long as those three things are ignored or rationalized away, expect to keep losing liberty to C19.
Edward: correction, “The spread of something that “ravishes” by leaving 99.9plus percent of people in the nation it “devastates,” alive and well.
Stop what spread?
Oh man, Robert …. regarding resistance, “The sooner the better, I say. More chance of victory.”
It’s a real comfort to read that coming from you because “great minds think alike.” I never thought I had a particularly great mind, but when I see my thoughts echoed in the writing of great minds, then I am humbled and reassured.
In my circles, I have only one other patriot friend who is warning that the window for effective, peaceful resistance is rapidly shrinking. We tell this to people determined to be nice and polite and never rude, in vain. They would rather be enslaved then thought to be mean spirited.
The longer we wait to avoid hurting feelings, the bloodier it will be.
wayne and Robert: Chronological Encyclopedia out of print, but there were a couple of “new” hardbound for sale for something like $250 ea. So I bought a used edition for about six bucks!! Now I have two of Robert’s books coming in the mail, and wayne, THANKS for the recommendation of the Chron Enc..
“There was no hope.”
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 19th April 1943
https://youtu.be/VOpKGTz4GJA
29:40
januyary, actually, we need to take a step back into the past – but not in the let’s-recreate-the-19xx’s sense.
I see the most significant factor to consider in building an effective opposition movement to Leftist fundamentalism, is what will actually unite us … without shooting ourselves in the foot. We can’t over-complicate this, or expect the movement to carry every piece of baggage we hold dear or else be worthless.
We need to bring this back to the most basic principles – similar to how the Bible contains two verses upon which, according to the Author, hang all of the Law and the Prophets. Every position advocated by the movement must be justified by its conformity to these few, simple principles – and no position can work against them, no matter how much we might consider the position to be good.
We need to be hideously consistent. And bring this back, is the proper description … for what I quote below is the known, fundamental operating principle of a legitimate government:
Not just any powers that sound good to us, but just powers … powers that do not work against the reason government is instituted: to secure these rights.
When strictly respected, this sets limits upon our government operatives in their ability to reach into our lives – to “first, do no harm” as Hippocrates put it.
It neutralizes identity politics. It is respectful of all spiritual worldviews that are compatible with it, instead of giving one faith (that happens to see its gods in their mirrors) exclusive access to our institutions for its spread.
And strict allegiance to it maximizes the amount of distributed intellect applied to our problem-solving processes – engaging millions of people with common sense and proximity-informed insight that a “little intellectual elite in a far-off capital” CAN’T possess – by incentivizing the responsible exercise of individual initiative instead of expecting government to solve one’s problems FOR them and therefore submitting to its operatives.
This is the foundation upon which, in my humble opinion, we rebuild this nation. Nothing more, nothing less.
Ritchie The Riveter: Yup.
Ritchie and Robert, I hope you have not been thinking I thought of not keeping and depending upon the Constitution or America’s guiding principles!
And if you ask me, one of those two most important commandments on which all the prophecies hang, of loving/treating your neighbor as you would love/be treated yourself, is being broken wide open BY CHRISTIANS and this is the consequence, as regards this C19 concept of shifting responsibility for health from the individual to the state.
We may need to restore the principles of the Constitution and we certainly require a religious revival, but there is only one direction that matters today: forward.
This truth is also self-evident: When one yearns to return to yesteryear, one is always looking behind, missing what’s in front, and running into trouble.
Those with their eyes turned to the future, have a better chance of embracing it on their terms.
Please remember and respect that restoring is totally different than returning, but restoration means nothing without a future to apply it to. There is enormous danger in seeking to apply it to a return of the past. We bring the Constitution forward with us, and leave the political nomenclature divisive baggage, psychological tricks of language, behind and start with fresh lexicon. The principles are hideously consistent but language is hideously dynamic. Read popular novels in standard English published 120 years ago for proof.
Language has been and is being used powerfully to manipulate people into doing the opposite of what they intend. I am waking up to it.
Language is dynamic but the concepts it describes are fixed, including those in Constitution.
janyuary–
Politics and the English Language
George Orwell 1946
https://youtu.be/fBu0yPaGpsU
35:44
David Telford and M Kent,
Welcome to the wasp’s nest of deluded R’s who can’t take an L, who cloak their childishness and authoritarianism in patriotism and abandon civility and reason at the slightest challenge to their delusions.
Robert – I hope your brother in arms who stormed the captial wearing a “camp auschwitz” shirt is brought to justice.
Jeff Fauva: Yup, we are pretty bad, aren’t we? Whaddya think, maybe we should be banned or shut down for our evil ways? What about a government commission to approve my posts or any comments here before publication? Think that would help?
Just asking.
Jeff … civility in response to intellectual dishonesty is counterproductive in the defense of liberty.
And Progressivism is based in an intellectually-dishonest belief – that “a little intellectual elite in a far-off capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves”. That would require our “leaders” to be functionally OMNISCIENT, because to micromanage our lives while still respecting our rights requires them to fully understand EACH and EVERY INDIVIDUAL – not just the “average citizen”.
It is Progressives who are obsessed with skin color and economic class, in the assignation of “privileged” vs. “victim” status, who have done more to keep people of color down than the KKK could ever dream of … by lying to them continually about their responsibilities AND capabilities.
It is Progressives who tout SCIENCE!, but lack the scientific rigor to actually understand problems such that their “solutions” aren’t counterproductive in a manner reminiscent of a bull in a china shop … that is, if they actually believe there is a problem AT ALL, which their lack of support for nuclear power and teleconferencing (pre-COVID) as a response to “climate change” raises the question.
It is Progressives who created the modern version of “cancel culture”, expressed with a fundamentalist zeal that makes fire-and-brimstone Baptists look like loose-topped libertines out for beads at Mardi Gras.
All because you believe you Know Better – and never question that. NEVER.
Progressives are EVERYTHING they decry.
Robert –
I would like you to continue to publish freely. Some folks who can’t move-on from the election loss should understand that incitement to violence is not protected speech. Rather than curse word policing, you should consider penalizing folks who suggest violent means to achieve their political cause.
Jeff Fauva wrote, “I would like you to continue to publish freely.”
Forgive me but I simply don’t believe you. Your side is clearly demonstrating repeatedly that it does not want a free exchange of ideas. Blacklists and censorship appears the progressive mode of debate.
You yourself have made it eminently obvious that any investigation into the election fraud allegations is “delusional” in your mind.
Say what you want but your credibility is nil.
mkent wrote: “There can’t be a 330,000 drop in other flu deaths in America in a year because, counting flu deaths the same way we count Covid-19 deaths, the worst American flu season on record only resulted in 15,560 deaths.”
So mkent thinks that we could possibly include deaths associated with flus or pneumonia the same way that we currently include for Wuhan deaths. What foolish, silly, unthought-out remarks he is prone to make. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that doing math on corrupted and bad data only results in corrupted and bad conclusions, and mkent excels at bad conclusions.
“Are you seriously suggesting we make national policy based on the three people you know?”
It is better than the corrupted data our national policy is based upon now.
“In other words, we’re losing more Americans to Covid-19…”
Actually, we don’t know how many we are losing to Wuhan, because the data is corrupted with “with,” “suspected,” and “assumed” losses and enhanced by a system with financial incentive to include as many deaths associated with Wuhan as possible. This is an excellent way to corrupt data, and it gives us a poor look at reality, because those who died of regular flu and pneumonia as well as other causes are included in the now-inflated Wuhan numbers. mkent makes bad decisions based upon this bad data.
“As I pointed out to janyuary”
Of course, I have been pointing out real facts to the non-rocket-scientist mkent for months, but he just can’t quite grasp the concept, or the reality, and continues to live in his fantasy world of Lysenkoism. Our current policies protect the least vulnerable rather than the most vulnerable, and result in poverty and malnutrition. To mkent, this is good policy? The World Health Organization lives closer to reality and is now begging governments to end their horrendous overreactions to Wuhan in order to save hundreds of millions from poverty-induced starvation.
janyuary,
I had such hope that you had an answer, but your first two suggestions sound like they do what the Democrats want: blame Republicans and move forward to the future of progressivism. Liberty was in the past, and we need to turn this ship-of-state around — away from tyranny. I’m still looking for answers to “what to do now” rather than what to not do.
Meanwhile:
They tell us that we should live every day to its fullest, but for ten months I have been unable to live life at all.
We used to have hope that this too shall pass, but only time and our lives are passing.
Welcome to Obama’s America, land of the formerly free.
Robert –
It’s true that I don’t want you to publish bad information about covid and election fraud. It’s very sad that you choose to host debunked and dangerous ideas while folks sympathetic to your views storm the capitol, and the US suffers 4k deaths from covid every day.
I tried to engage you specifically on the data scientist voter fraud video and you vanished. I took the time to look-up the GA data, plug it into a spreadsheet and figure-out voting percentages in one GA county – Dekalb I think. No one would engage me about the findings in good faith. While this one point does not debunk all of the fraud claims, I see no reason to press further if you cannot concede even the most glaring errors in the myriad fraud claims.
David and MKent – Edward just attacks the messenger and repeats false claims. If your argument is right, then your data is flawed. He’s hopeless.
Politeness and civility just prove you are a lib psyop to the paranoid cranks on this board. It’s a sad and demoralizing place to debate.
And so it begins. Of course, you ‘stop the steal’ rubes will still take your delusions to the grave.
“These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact. Industry experts and public officials alike have confirmed that Dominion conducted itself appropriately and that there is simply no evidence to support these claims.
It was wrong for us to publish these false statements. We apologize to Dominion for all of the harm this caused them and their employees. We also apologize to our readers for abandoning 9 journalistic principles and misrepresenting Dominion’s track record and its limited role in tabulating votes for the November 2020 election. We regret this grave error. ”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/statement.html
Mr. Zimmerman-
Disappointing doesn’t quite sum up my thoughts about your lies and despicable comparison directed at and about me. Your anger seems to be overwhelming your decency of late. Or are you now going to claim that the multiple times in comments to others you’ve specifically mentioned me as an example of respectful back and forth even on matters where you and I disagree not true?
I remember you suspended someone here not too long ago for stating and refusing to retract lies about you.
You said I’m a Democrat. I’ve said here before I’m not, never have been. The fact you continue to call me one is a falsehood. Again, I’m a Life long Conservative.
Somehow, you claim I’m attempting to limit your ability to publish or support the efforts of others in doing so. That’s a LIE. If I didn’t respect what you do here, I wouldn’t bother commenting occasionally and surely wouldn’t compliment you. I don’t know what others are trying to do to you, I wouldn’t participate in such a thing.
You said I’ve had no problem with months of riots, looting, and murder by Antifa and some members of BLM. THAT IS A BALD FACE LIE. You’ll not find one word I’ve written here supporting or defending criminal behavior by those that occurred this past summer or anytime for that matter. Even with the actions that occurred at the Capital, I made a point of separating the criminals inside the building and those who assaulted policemen with those outside who peacefully protested as their rights allow.
Comparing my politeness to a nazi guard at a concentration camp is outrageously untrue and defamatory. I ask you to please not do that again.
If you wish for me to not visit your site all you have to do is say so along with the rule(s) you allege I’m violating with my occasional commentary.
I do hope things go well for you this new year.
Jeff Fauva-
Thank you for the supportive words. FYI, I’m not a D. Even worse, I’m a conservative who saw Trump for what he is from the jump. I’m someone for whom science and the pursuit of knowledge is a guiding star. Puts me at odds with my party on certain challenges the nation and world face. Climate and environmental issues being number one…
That and I’ve never believed one party always has all the answers to all the problems all the time. And in Trump’s GOP, that makes me unwelcome in some gatherings from time to time I guess.
Good health to you and yours,
Mr. Zimmerman- Well, a week goes by and I stop by to see if you would have the decency to address what I see as your comments, untruths, directed at me and one in particular despicable comparison of my polite behavior that is defamatory. I had hoped you would have thought about it and realized you lost your temper and would apologize. As I recall, I did, for a unkindness calling you a small man, leaving for a long while, and then with my first post back after a many month absence apologizing and leaving it to you if you wanted me to return. And I meant it (apologizing to you).
You always say you welcome all opinions provided they follow your rules. After multiple times of you holding me out as an example of politeness regardless the disagreement we have and then turn on a dime and compare my politeness to that of a nazi concentration camp guard saying hello to people being led to their death is beyond the pale.
As I said in my last post to you, if you don’t want me to write here anymore, then say so along with the rule(s) you allege I violated.
I will stop by one last time sometime down the road to see if you have anything to say. I hope so. As I told you on at least one occasion, this was the first public facing forum I posted to on my own time in many years because I thought the level of comments reflected a great level of thoughtful posts by many folks reflecting the quality of this site you created. That, and I thought our common desire to respect privacy is important.
I have and always will wish you and yours all that is best in life.
David: What you and those on the left have to deal with is that people like me are beginning to see you in the way I wrote, because you and those on the left seem incapable of condemning violence, censorship, blacklisting, and oppression from your allies. All you do is come here to criticize and condemn the right, Republicans, and conservatives.
When I see you begin applying the same standard to the storm-troopers and brown-shirted thugs of Antifa, BLM, and others, all of whom have been wielded as violent tools of the Democratic Party and the left for the past ten months in order to gain power illegitimately, then I might consider rethinking my impression of you.
Right now, my opinion holds. You have done nothing to change my mind, other than beg me to do so.
You might want to reread my essay, Genocide is coming to America. You remind me of those “good” Germans who consistently refused to listen to Jews as they were being oppressed.
David-
—a small tidbit of wisdom; try to avoid telling people how they feel.
“Stand Up Straight, With Your Shoulders Back”
Peterson / Akira 2018
https://youtu.be/dX0mcPfuCUQ
4:32
Wayne – on your tidbit, you’re right. It’s good advise. Take care sir.
Ah, freedom and a loose cadre of fair weather friends who you could take or leave, or oppression and fear and being hard pressed to find really good friends you can trust with your life.
What a choice.
Stoicism and a strong mind has its place.