Was the pandemic of 2020 the end of democratic life in Western society? Think about what went down in the last year, all in the name of ‘science’ and being ‘safe’. Not since World War II have we seen such draconian suspensions of civil liberties.
Note: Remember when they told us at 70% vaccinated we would be at heard immunity…Israel, where over 80% of adults are fully vaccinated with Pfizer, has 130% more cases and 56% more deaths than at this time last year, according to the WHO.
Never before 2020 was it conceivable for any government in the West to “lawfully” imprison citizens into their homes because they were *potentially* contagious. And yes, in Australia, it was a mass house arrest, regardless of whether you think it was justified or not.
The political, social, cultural, and bioethical wound that lockdowns have caused will be hard to fix that. It is the new modus operandi– By leveraging the citizenry’s fear—and the ability to stoke such fear through propaganda—governmental and bureaucratic power will continually increase. The government will become ever more involved in the private lives of citizens by controlling their movements and peeling away whatever is left of their autonomy over their own bodies. This is already made evident by the “Covid status checks” to access services or the divergent requirements and restrictions imposed on individuals according to their vaccination status.
Where is the intellectual class? Instead of questioning all of this, most just fell in line with the bureaucracy and government. They have refused to analyze whether the dramatic suspensions of our civil liberties have been justified or proportionate, and they have failed to highlight the dangers of letting the bureaucracy encroach to such a degree on the private lives and choices of citizens. Cultural and educational institutions (universities, the media, pressure groups, religious institutions, etc.) have abdicated their role as the moral compass of public opinion.
Not only have they abdicated such a role, but in several cases, they have also sided with the bureaucracy in promoting such invasions into private life and attacks on civil liberties. This they continue to do, without realizing the danger it poses to themselves. In addition, they are seemingly unaware that the very policies they defend go against the values they claim to defend: inclusivity, liberty, diversity, and equality and equity. Alternative institutions able to shape public opinion are gaining ever more traction and will eventually clash with the traditional/classical intellectual endeavors.
The next few years may be tough in many aspects. The choices which were made over the course of 2020 have changed our lives forever.
Paul Plante says
The word “science” here in Mhureeka, formerly known in far better times as the United States of America, has become an empty, stupid word that means whatever some greedy, grasping hack politician or their toadies and lickspittles want it to mean, which is pretty much everything under the sun, so long as it serves THEIR purposes.
And there is no such thing as “the science.”
What a stupid expression that is.
SCIENCE: the intellectual and practical ACTIVITY encompassing the SYSTEMATIC STUDY of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.
What is the best definition of science?
Science is the STUDY of the nature and behaviour of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about them.
A science is a particular branch of science such as physics, chemistry, or biology.
Physics is the best example of a science which has developed strong, abstract theories.
What is the true meaning of science?
The AIM of science is to build true and accurate KNOWLEDGE about how the world works.
Paul Plante says
Which takes us to Remarks by President Biden on the Economy on September 16, 2021, East Room, 2:00 P.M. EDT, as follows:
THE PRESIDENT: These policies are what the science tells us we need to do.
They’re going to save lives.
And they’ll protect our economic recovery as well, and allow the economy to continue to grow.
We’re also going after the bad actors and pandemic profiteers in our economy.
There’s a lot of evidence that gas prices should be going down, but they haven’t.
We’ll be taking a close look at that.
Taxpayers in this country also have paid for extraordinary effort to keep our country going over the past year or so.
Unlike the last administration, which resisted oversight and allowed taxpayers to be victimized by fraud, we’re working hard to protect vulnerable Americans from having their identities stolen — as a consequence of their unemployment check stolen as well.
But here’s the truth: Yes, the pandemic has caused a lot of economic problems in the country, but the fact is our economy faced challenges long before this pandemic struck.
Working people were struggling to make it long before the pandemic arrived.
Big corporations and the very wealthy were doing very well before the pandemic.
That’s why I’ve said — starting back in my campaign for president — that it’s not enough just to build back; we have to build back better than before.
And that’s how it all begins.
end quotes
And see what you can make the science say if you are the president of the United State of America?
You, like another self-proclaimed “world leader” back when who was a rug-chewing, froth-at-the-out madman, can use “science” to justify every single thing you do, like removing segments of society from life on the earth because the science says it is not only alright, but the right thing to do, which is obscene.
Reminds me too much of Dr. Mengele, who also used science as a basis for political policy.
And IF science is not what Joe Biden says it is, but instead is truly the intellectual and practical ACTIVITY encompassing the SYSTEMATIC STUDY of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment, then as we clearly see from a CNBC article entitled “FDA panel recommends Pfizer’s Covid booster doses for people 65 and older after rejecting third shots for general population” by Berkeley Lovelace Jr., Robert Towey and Rich Mendez on September 17, 2021, Joe Biden does not have any “science” to rely on to back up or support any of his policies, to wit:
Dr. Hayley Gans, a voting member, said she was “struck” that the FDA was asking the committee to look at the totality of the evidence presented Friday because some data, including on safety, was still insufficient.
end quotes
But hey, people, this is not true “science,” at all.
To the contrary this is POLITICS, using the empty word “science” to justify a pre-determined political course of action, in this case, a decision by Joe Biden to mandate vaccines based on insufficient data.
Don’t look too hard and it is amazing what it is that you won’t see!
As to science that makes it look like both WHO and the political CDC in this country were asleep at the switch and far behind the eight-ball with respect to Joe Biden’s policies today that he says are what the voo-doo science he practices tells him to do, I will leave you with the following:
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY COLLECTION
ACS Nano. 2020 Nov 25 : acsnano.0c08484.
Published online 2020 Nov 25. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c08484
PMCID: PMC7724984
PMID: 33236896
Airborne Transmission of COVID-19: Aerosol Dispersion, Lung Deposition, and Virus-Receptor Interactions
Yi Y. Zuo, corresponding author, William E. Uspal, corresponding author and Tao Wei corresponding author
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), due to infection by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is now causing a global pandemic.
Aerosol transmission of COVID-19, although plausible, has not been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a general transmission route.
Introduction
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), due to infection of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is currently causing a global pandemic, with more than 53 million confirmed cases and 1 million deaths, as of November 15, 2020, in more than 200 countries, areas, and territories in the world.
Given the current world population of 7.8 billion, approximately 1 out of every 150 humans on earth has or had been infected with COVID-19.
To date, the confirmed modes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission include respiratory droplets, direct (person-to-person) and indirect (fomite) contacts, as well as scarce reports of fecal–oral transmission.
However, the latest research suggests that fomite transmission is unlikely to be a major route of transmission as attempts to culture SARS-CoV-2 from surfaces were largely unsuccessful.
On the other hand, airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, although plausible, has not been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a general transmission route.
However, on October 5, 2020, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their guideline and acknowledged that airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 could occur under special circumstances that include enclosed spaces, inadequate ventilation, and prolonged exposure to events involving heavy breathing, such as singing and exercising.
Given the rapid spread of the coronavirus, especially nosocomial outbreaks and other superspreading events, there is an urgent need to carefully access the possibility of airborne transmission, especially the colloidal and aerodynamic mechanisms of aerosol dispersion and deposition, and the molecular interactions between SARS-CoV-2 and receptors.
An open letter by 239 researchers from 32 countries, published on July 6, 2020, challenged the WHO’s view on aerosol transmission.
Depending on the environmental conditions, virus particles (i.e., virions) may bind to aerosols and thus travel over a significantly longer distance (>2 m) and remain floating in air for a much longer time period (up to hours) than respiratory droplets.
It is now known that air pollution is an associated risk factor of COVID-19.
An increase of 1 μg/m3 in PM2.5 is associated with an 8% increase in the COVID-19 death rate.
In addition, it was found that outside the optimal relative humidity (RH) range of 40–60%, the viability of influenza virus in droplets increased both at higher (>60%) and lower (<40%) RH.
It appears that virus transmission in this outbreak cannot be explained by droplet transmission alone and consequently might involve aerosol transmission.
In fact, although available evidence remains scarce, SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in hospital air.
A recent study suggested that in every hour COVID-19 patients can exhale millions of SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies into air.
Given a study demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2 remained viable in aerosols for at least 3 h with only limited reduction in infectious titer, there is an urgent need to understand the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 transmission via aerosols.
A similar humidity dependence has been found for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
E-cigarette aerosols have also been identified as suspicious anthropogenic aerosols potentially capable of spreading SARS-CoV-2.
Infectious aerosols can also be generated by medical procedures, such as intubation, and even by flushing a toilet containing infectious material.
Indeed, CDC guidelines, including the familiar six-foot rule, are still based on the 1930s-era concept of an isolated respiratory droplet settling under gravity, despite the wealth of contemporary literature reviewed above.
Paul Plante says
And while we are on the subject of all the wonderful and awesome powers the “science” gives to Joe Biden as president of the United States of America, let’s go back to to Remarks by President Biden on the Economy on September 16, 2021, East Room, 2:00 P.M. EDT, where we have more, as follows:
THE PRESIDENT: These policies are what the science tells us we need to do.
But here’s the truth: Yes, the pandemic has caused a lot of economic problems in the country, but the fact is our economy faced challenges long before this pandemic struck.
Working people were struggling to make it long before the pandemic arrived.
Big corporations and the very wealthy were doing very well before the pandemic.
That’s why I’ve said — starting back in my campaign for president — that it’s not enough just to build back; we have to build back better than before.
And that’s how it all begins.
Big corporations and the super wealthy have to start paying their fair share of taxes.
It’s long overdue.
I’m not out to punish anyone.
I’m a capitalist.
If you can make a million or a billion dollars, that’s great.
God bless you.
All I’m asking is you pay your fair share.
Pay your fair share just like middle-class folks do.
But that isn’t happening now.
Today, in this country, right now, the top 1 percent, for example, evade an estimated $160 billion in taxes that they owe each year.
Not new taxes, taxes that they owe.
And the way it works is this: If you’re a typical American — like I suspect most of the press people sitting in front of me here — you pay your taxes.
Why?
Because you get a W-2 form.
It comes in the mail every year.
The IRS gets that information as well.
Your taxes get deducted from your paycheck, and you pay what is owed beyond that.
That’s why about 99 percent of working people pay the taxes they owe.
But that’s not how it works for people with tens of millions of dollars.
They play by a different set of rules.
And they’re often not employees themselves, so the IRS can’t see what they make and can’t tell if they’re cheating.
That’s how many of the top 1 percent get away with paying virtually nothing.
It’s estimated by serious economists that that number is about $160 billion collectively owed each year that doesn’t get paid.
It’s not an even playing field.
My plan would help solve that.
For example, it would give the IRS the resources it needs to keep up with the lawyers and accountants in the super — of the super-wealthy.
It would ask just for two pieces of information from the banks of these folks: that amounts — the amounts that come into their bank accounts and what amounts go out of their bank accounts, so that the wealthy can no longer hide what they’re making and they can finally begin to pay their fair share of what they owe.
end quotes
Ah, yes, a fishing expedition through the back records of anybody in the United States of America whose wealth Joe Biden wants to nationalize, because it’s the right thing to do, and we all know that because it is what the science says, and when the science says something to Joe Biden, it is never wrong, so he is always right!
Isn’t science just wonderful?
Joe thinks so, anyway.
Paul Plante says
HELLO?
HELLO?
(cue sounds of knocking on the walls)
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
HELLO?
CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?
(sounds of more knocking on the wall)
IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?
IS THERE ANYONE IN HERE?
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLACE. ANYWAY?
WHY ON EARTH IS A CATERPILLAR SITTING ON A BRANCH SMOKING A HOOKAH?
AND WHY IS THE RED QUEEN WHO TALKS BACKWARD THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES?
So, with all of that musing done and over, was the pandemic of 2020 the end of democratic life in Western society?
On September 16, 2021, goofy old Joe Biden just announced to the world that he now has the POWER as the president of America in the mold of his namesake Joe Stalin to have his IRS be able to force banks to give them two pieces of information about whomever Joe feels like going after:
* the amounts that come into their bank accounts; and
* what amounts go out of their bank accounts.
So what the hell is that?
Besides tyranny?
And yes, people, do indeed think about what went down in the last year, all in the name of ‘science’ and being ‘safe,’ as if Joe Biden, a fool on his best days, and BIG PHARM, the same BIG PHARM that gave us the addictive opioid oxycontin have out best interests at heart as opposed to their own.
And yes, not since World War II have we seen such draconian suspensions of civil liberties, but really, because we are all now so stupid in this country we need someone from the government, someone really super qualified, to tell us when to breathe in and when to breathe back out again, it’s the right thing to do because it’s the right thing to do!
By leveraging the citizenry’s fear—and the ability to stoke such fear through propaganda—governmental and bureaucratic power will continually increase.
The government will become ever more involved in the private lives of citizens by controlling their movements and peeling away whatever is left of their autonomy over their own bodies.
Paul Plante says
Philadelphiensis II
Philadelphiensis
November 28, 1787
My Fellow-Citizens, The present time will probably form a new epoch in the annals of America.
This important, this awful crisis bids fair to be the theme of our posterity for many generations.
We are now publicly summoned to determine whether we and our children are to be freemen or slaves; whether the liberty, which we have so recently purchased with the blood of thousands of our fellow countrymen, is to terminate in a blessing or a curse.
Paul Plante says
And while we are on the subject of the Biden administration leveraging the citizenry’s fear by stoking such fear through a never-ending, relentless, 24/7 campaign of propaganda to increase governmental and bureaucratic power, with the Biden administration becoming ever more involved in the private lives of citizens, controlling their movements and peeling away whatever is left of their autonomy over their own bodies, let’s go back to to Remarks by President Biden on the Economy on September 16, 2021, East Room, 2:00 P.M. EDT, where we have another view of all the wonderful and awesome powers the “science” gives to Joe Biden as president of the United States of America, to wit:
THE PRESIDENT: These policies are what the science tells us we need to do.
Let me end with this.
This pandemic has been God-awful for so many reasons: the lost lives — as I said, over 660,000; the jobs, the businesses lost; the lost time in school for our kids.
But it does present us with an opportunity: We can build an economy that gives working people a fair shot this time.
We can restore some sanity and fairness to our tax code.
end quotes
And Joe is doing that by having his IRS monitor what comes into people’s bank accounts and what goes back out again, so at the end of the year, what is still in the bank belongs to Joe Biden to finance his Marxist Social Agenda, which has an initial price tag to convert the capitalist U.S. economy that simply doesn’t work well for most Americans according to Joe, who would know, because he is the president, which means he gets to know these things, even if we can’t or don’t, because we’re not the president, and that is what Joe Biden calls restoring some sanity and fairness to our tax code.
Getting back to Joe’s speech, he rambles on as follows:
We can make the investments that we know are long overdue in this nation.
That’s exactly what my bipartisan infrastructure plan does — I should say, our bipartisan infrastructure plan does: investments in roads, bridges, highways; clean water in every home and every school; universal broadband; quality and affordable places for families to live.
And we can invest in our people — giving our families a little help with their toughest expenses, like daycare, childcare, eldercare, prescription drugs, healthcare, preparing our young people to compete against any country in the world with preschool and community college.
We can confront this crisis of extreme weather and climate change, and not only protect our communities but create new opportunities, new industries, and new jobs.
In short, this is an opportunity to be the nation we know we can be — a nation where all of us — all of us, not just those at the top — are getting a share of the benefits of a growing economy in the years ahead.
Let’s not squander this moment trying to preserve an economy that hasn’t worked too well for Americans for a long time.
Let’s not look backward, just trying to rebuild what we had.
Let’s look forward, together, as one America — not to build back, but to build back better.
end quotes
Yes, people, to make America great again (MAGA), it is necessary to not just build back, but to build back better (BBB), and to do that, capitalism has to be reformed by the Democrats into Marxism, as we see in a Reuters article entitled “U.S. Speaker Pelosi: Capitalism has not served our economy as well as it could” by Reuters on September 17, 2021, where we have Nancy spewing as follows:
LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Capitalism has not served the U.S. economy as well as it could have, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday, saying that the system needed to be improved.
end quotes
And here, for a moment, to see who capitalism has benefitted quite handsomely, let’s go the Los Angeles Times, where we have as follows:
Nancy Pelosi – $16.0 million minimum net worth
House Minority Leader Pelosi’s (D-San Francisco) minimum net worth dropped $16 million over the last year due to a new $5 million mortgage and an $11 million decrease in assets.
Pelosi’s spouse, Paul Pelosi, owned about $27 million in assets, mostly in real estate — $18 million spread among nine properties.
Pelosi listed a new mortgage of $5 million on an existing vineyard in St. Helena.
In previous years, Pelosi had listed a $1 million mortgage for the same property.
end quotes
For someone who has spent her adult life in “public service,” Nancy Pelosi has really done quite alright for herself, but hey, why not?
Public service should enable a career politician like Nancy Pelosi to get filthy rich off the backs of those beneath her in the social strata, and what on earth could possibly be wrong with that, which takes us back to Reuters, as follows:
“In America, capitalism is our system, it is our economic system, but it has not served our economy as well as it should,” she told a Chatham House event.
“So what we want to do is not depart from that, but to improve it.”
“You cannot have a system where the success of some springs from the exploitation of the workers and springs from the exploitation of the environment and the rest, and we have to correct that.”
end quotes
Yes, people, let’s face it – it’s time to have the Democrats in the federal government improve capitalism by turning it into the Marxism as is outlined in the Democrat playbook called “The Communist Manifesto!”
Paul Plante says
Reuters
“‘We can cover’ Biden’s social agenda -Pelosi”
Posted September 23, 2021
The two top Democrats in the U.S. Congress announced a revenue deal on Thursday that they said would pay for President Joe Biden’s social spending agenda, marking a major step forward in their effort to enact sweeping legislation.
https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/we-can-cover-bidens-social-agenda-pelosi-id735840953?chan=6g5ka85
Paul Plante says
Philadelphiensis II
Philadelphiensis
November 28, 1787
Under a free and patriotic government, the bulk of the people will necessarily be virtuous: but under a tyrannical and unjust one, the greater part of the people will as necessarily be wicked: the complexion of the governing is ever the colour of the governed.
Paul Plante says
Philadelphiensis II
Philadelphiensis
November 28, 1787
The eyes of the world are upon us; the patriots and friends of America, in Europe, are now anxiously concerned, lest the whirlwind of tyranny should raze from its tender root the hallowed plant of Columbian liberty.
Before we confirm this new constitution, let us ask ourselves this question – For what did we withdraw our allegiance from Great Britain; was it because the yoke of George the third was not sufficiently galling, that we cast it off at the expence of so much blood and treasure, in order to accommodate ourselves with one of our own construction more intolerable?
Or, was it because the tyrant was three thousand miles off, that we revolted, in order to appoint one at home, who should correct us with scorpions instead of whips?
If this were your design, I congratulate you on your success; hesitate not a moment then in the adoption of the new constitution: It is a perfect model, and answers your intentions completely.