lewrockwell--2020-05-21--The Slippery Slope to Despotism: Paved with Lockdowns, Raids, and Forced Vaccinations

You have no rights .
That ’ s the lesson the government wants us to learn from this COVID-19 business .
Well , the government is wrong .
For years now , the powers-that-be—those politicians and bureaucrats who think like tyrants and act like petty dictators regardless of what party they belong to—have attempted to brainwash us into believing that we have no right to think for ourselves , make decisions about our health , protect our homes and families and businesses , act in our best interests , demand accountability and transparency from government , or generally operate as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own lives .
Battlefield America : T ... John W. Whitehead Best Price : $ 10.95 Buy New $ 18.80 We have every right , and you know why ?
Because we were born free .
As the Declaration of Independence states , we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights—to life , liberty , property and the pursuit of happiness—that no government can take away from us .
Unfortunately , that hasn ’ t stopped the government from constantly trying to usurp our freedoms at every turn .
Indeed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it invariably oversteps its limits , abuses its authority , and flexes its totalitarian muscles .
Take this COVID-19 crisis , for example .
What started out as an apparent effort to prevent a novel coronavirus from sickening the nation ( and the world ) has become yet another means by which world governments ( including our own ) can expand their powers , abuse their authority , and further oppress their constituents .
Until now , the police state has been more circumspect in its power grabs , but this latest state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the shadows .
We are on a slippery slope to outright despotism .
This road we are traveling is paved with lockdowns , SWAT team raids , mass surveillance and forced vaccinations .
It is littered with the debris of our First and Fourth Amendment freedoms .
This is what we have to look forward to in the months and years to come unless we can find some way to regain control over our runaway government .
The government has made no secret of its plans .
Just follow the money trail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense of what ’ s in store : more militarized police , more SWAT team raids , more surveillance , more lockdowns , more strong-armed tactics aimed at suppressing dissent and forcing us to comply with the government ’ s dictates .
It ’ s chilling to think about , but it ’ s not surprising .
Remember that Pentagon training video created by the Army for U.S. Special Operations Command ?
The one that anticipates the future domestic political and social problems the government is grooming its armed forces to solve through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ & Ammo Guide to S ...
Editors of Guns & Ammo Best Price : $ 33.33 The chilling five-minute training video , obtained by The Intercept through a FOIA request and made available online , paints a dystopian picture of the future bedeviled by “ criminal networks , ” “ substandard infrastructure , ” “ religious and ethnic tensions , ” “ impoverishment , slums , ” “ open landfills , over-burdened sewers , ” a “ growing mass of unemployed , ” and an urban landscape in which the prosperous economic elite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the have nots .
But here ’ s the kicker : what they ’ re really talking about is martial law , packaged as a well-meaning and overriding concern for the nation ’ s security .
This COVID-19 crisis is pushing us that much closer to that dystopian vision becoming a present-day reality .
For starters , let ’ s talk about the COVID-19 stormtroopers , SWAT team raids and ongoing flare-ups of police brutality .
With millions of dollars in stimulus funds being directed towards policing agencies across the country , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus with riot gear , gas masks , ballistic helmets , drones , and hi-tech surveillance technology .
Indeed , although crime rates have fallen dramatically in the midst of this global COVID-19 lockdown , there ’ s been no relief from the brutality and violence of the American police state .
While the majority of the country has been social distancing under varying degrees of lockdowns , it ’ s been business as usual for the nation ’ s SWAT teams and police trained to shoot first and ask questions later .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ cars used a battering ram to break down Breonna Taylor ’ s door and carry out a no-knock raid on her home after midnight .
Fearing a home invasion , the 26-year-old emergency medical technician and her boyfriend—who had been in bed at the time of the invasion—called 911 and prepared to defend themselves .
Taylor ’ s boyfriend shot one of the intruders—later identified as police—in the leg .
Police fired at least 20 shots into the apartment and a neighboring home , killing Taylor .
The drug dealer who was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miles away and had already been arrested prior to the raid on Taylor ’ s home .
In Illinois , police opened fire in a subway station , shooting a 33-year-old man who allegedly resisted their attempts to tackle and arrest him for violating a city ordinance by passing between two cars of a moving train .
Ariel Roman , a short-order cook , claimed he was suffering from an anxiety attack when he was “ harassed , chased , tackled , pepper-sprayed , tasered and shot twice ” by police .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call to break up a crowd of neighborhood kids ( half of them teenagers , and the other half youngsters around 4 and 5 years old ) gathered in an apartment complex parking lot opened fire on a 29-year-old man seen exiting his car with a gun .
An eyewitness claimed “ the officer pointed a flashlight and his gun at the group immediately and began chasing and shooting a minute or two after getting out of the patrol car.
” Police reportedly shot the man after he threw down his gun and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Virginia , more than 80 local , state , and federal police agents risked spreading COVID-19 to “ a highly vulnerable population ” when they raided a low income , public housing community in an effort to crack down on six individuals suspected of selling , on average , $ 20 to $ 100 worth of drugs .
A Government of Wolves ... John W. Whitehead Best Price : $ 2.06 Buy New $ 10.42 In Texas , a SWAT team backed up with a military tank Armored Personnel Carrier raided Big Daddy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patrons were staging a peaceful First and Second Amendment protest of the governor ’ s shutdown orders .
Police have even been called out to shut down churches , schools and public parks and beaches that have been found “ in violation ” of various lockdown orders .
Now there ’ s talk of mobilizing the military to deliver forced vaccinations , mass surveillance in order to carry out contact tracing , and heavy fines and jail time for those who dare to venture out without a mask , congregate in worship without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re-open their businesses without the government ’ s say-so .
There are rumblings that the Transportation Security Administration ( TSA ) will start thermal screenings to monitor passengers ’ temperatures in coming weeks .
This is in addition to the virtual strip searches that have become routine aspects of airport security .
Restaurants in parts of the country are being tasked with keeping daily logs of phone numbers , emails , and arrival times for everybody who participates in dine-services , with no mention of how long such records will be kept on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shared , and under what circumstances .
With the help of Google and Nest cameras , hospitals are morphing into real-time surveillance centers with round-the-clock surveillance cameras monitoring traffic in patients ’ rooms .
Forget patient privacy , however .
Google has a track record of sharing surveillance footage with police .
And then rounding out the power-grabs , the Senate just voted to give police access to web browsing data without a warrant , which would dramatically expand the government ’ s Patriot Act surveillance powers .
The Senate also voted to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to look through the web browsing history of any American — including journalists , politicians , and political rivals — without a warrant , just by saying it is relevant to an investigation .
If enacted , privacy experts warn that the new provisions threaten to undermine the free press by potentially preventing the media from exposing abuses of power or acting as a watchdog against political leaders .
If we haven ’ t already crossed over , we ’ re skating dangerously close to that line that keeps us on the functioning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won ’ t take much to push us over that edge into a full-blown banana republic .
In many ways , this is just more of the same heavy-handed tactics we ’ ve been seeing in recent years but with one major difference : this COVID-19 state of emergency has invested government officials ( and those who view their lives as more valuable than ours ) with a sanctimonious , self-righteous , arrogant , Big Brother Knows Best approach to top-down governing , and the fall-out can be seen far and wide .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ mindset that views the needs , lives and rights of “ we the people ” as insignificant when compared to those in power .
That ’ s how someone who should know better such as Alan Dershowitz , a former Harvard law professor , can suggest that a free people—born in freedom , endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights , and living in a country birthed out of a revolutionary struggle for individual liberty—have no rights to economic freedom , to bodily integrity , or to refuse to comply with a government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Man : Camouflage f ... Dermody , Matthew Best Price : $ 23.48 Buy New $ 9.99 According to Dershowitz , who has become little more than a legal apologist for the power elite , “ You have no right not to be vaccinated , you have no right not to wear a mask , you have no right to open up your business… And if you refuse to be vaccinated , the state has the power to literally take you to a doctor ’ s office and plunge a needle into your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the courts may increasingly defer to the government ’ s brand of Nanny State authoritarianism , we still have rights .
The government may try to abridge those rights , it may refuse to recognize them , it may even attempt to declare martial law and nullify them , but it can not litigate , legislate or forcefully eradicate them out of existence .
Up to now , we ’ ve been largely passive participants in this experiment in self-governance .
Our inaction and inattention has left us at the mercy of power-hungry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government-funded militias .
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America : The War on the American People , these ongoing violations of our rights—this attitude by the government that we have no rights—this tyrannical movement that is overtaking our constitutional republic and gaining in momentum and power by the minute—this incessant auction block in which government officials appointed to represent our best interests keep selling us out to the highest bidder—all of these betrayals scream for a response .
To quote the great Rod Serling : “ If we don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t respond to it—we may well wind up sitting amidst our own rubble , looking for the truck that hit us—or the bomb that pulverized us .
Get the license number of whatever it was that destroyed the dream .
And I think we will find that the vehicle was registered in our own name.
” The Best of John W. Whitehead

“You have no right not to be vaccinated, you have no right not to wear a mask, you have no right to open up your business… And if you refuse to be vaccinated, the state has the power to literally take you to a doctor’s office and plunge a needle into your arm.”—Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor
You have no rights.
That’s the lesson the government wants us to learn from this COVID-19 business.
Well, the government is wrong.
For years now, the powers-that-be—those politicians and bureaucrats who think like tyrants and act like petty dictators regardless of what party they belong to—have attempted to brainwash us into believing that we have no right to think for ourselves, make decisions about our health, protect our homes and families and businesses, act in our best interests, demand accountability and transparency from government, or generally operate as if we are in control of our own lives. Battlefield America: T... John W. Whitehead Best Price: $10.95 Buy New $18.80 (as of 10:15 UTC - Details)
We have every right, and you know why? Because we were born free.
As the Declaration of Independence states, we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights—to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness—that no government can take away from us.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped the government from constantly trying to usurp our freedoms at every turn. Indeed, the nature of government is such that it invariably oversteps its limits, abuses its authority, and flexes its totalitarian muscles.
Take this COVID-19 crisis, for example.
What started out as an apparent effort to prevent a novel coronavirus from sickening the nation (and the world) has become yet another means by which world governments (including our own) can expand their powers, abuse their authority, and further oppress their constituents.
Until now, the police state has been more circumspect in its power grabs, but this latest state of emergency has brought the beast out of the shadows.
We are on a slippery slope to outright despotism.
This road we are traveling is paved with lockdowns, SWAT team raids, mass surveillance and forced vaccinations. It is littered with the debris of our First and Fourth Amendment freedoms.
This is what we have to look forward to in the months and years to come unless we can find some way to regain control over our runaway government.
The government has made no secret of its plans.
Just follow the money trail, and you’ll get a sense of what’s in store: more militarized police, more SWAT team raids, more surveillance, more lockdowns, more strong-armed tactics aimed at suppressing dissent and forcing us to comply with the government’s dictates.
It’s chilling to think about, but it’s not surprising.
We’ve been warned.
Remember that Pentagon training video created by the Army for U.S. Special Operations Command? The one that anticipates the future domestic political and social problems the government is grooming its armed forces to solve through the use of martial law? Guns & Ammo Guide to S... Editors of Guns & Ammo Best Price: $33.33 (as of 01:52 UTC - Details)
The chilling five-minute training video, obtained by The Intercept through a FOIA request and made available online, paints a dystopian picture of the future bedeviled by “criminal networks,” “substandard infrastructure,” “religious and ethnic tensions,” “impoverishment, slums,” “open landfills, over-burdened sewers,” a “growing mass of unemployed,” and an urban landscape in which the prosperous economic elite must be protected from the impoverishment of the have nots.
But here’s the kicker: what they’re really talking about is martial law, packaged as a well-meaning and overriding concern for the nation’s security.
This COVID-19 crisis is pushing us that much closer to that dystopian vision becoming a present-day reality.
For starters, let’s talk about the COVID-19 stormtroopers, SWAT team raids and ongoing flare-ups of police brutality.
With millions of dollars in stimulus funds being directed towards policing agencies across the country, the federal government plans to fight this COVID-19 virus with riot gear, gas masks, ballistic helmets, drones, and hi-tech surveillance technology.
Indeed, although crime rates have fallen dramatically in the midst of this global COVID-19 lockdown, there’s been no relief from the brutality and violence of the American police state.
While the majority of the country has been social distancing under varying degrees of lockdowns, it’s been business as usual for the nation’s SWAT teams and police trained to shoot first and ask questions later.
In Kentucky, plain-clothed cops in unmarked cars used a battering ram to break down Breonna Taylor’s door and carry out a no-knock raid on her home after midnight. Fearing a home invasion, the 26-year-old emergency medical technician and her boyfriend—who had been in bed at the time of the invasion—called 911 and prepared to defend themselves. Taylor’s boyfriend shot one of the intruders—later identified as police—in the leg. Police fired at least 20 shots into the apartment and a neighboring home, killing Taylor. The drug dealer who was the target of the late-night raid lived 10 miles away and had already been arrested prior to the raid on Taylor’s home.
In Illinois, police opened fire in a subway station, shooting a 33-year-old man who allegedly resisted their attempts to tackle and arrest him for violating a city ordinance by passing between two cars of a moving train. Ariel Roman, a short-order cook, claimed he was suffering from an anxiety attack when he was “harassed, chased, tackled, pepper-sprayed, tasered and shot twice” by police.
In Maryland, police dispatched on a nuisance call to break up a crowd of neighborhood kids( half of them teenagers, and the other half youngsters around 4 and 5 years old) gathered in an apartment complex parking lot opened fire on a 29-year-old man seen exiting his car with a gun. An eyewitness claimed “the officer pointed a flashlight and his gun at the group immediately and began chasing and shooting a minute or two after getting out of the patrol car.” Police reportedly shot the man after he threw down his gun and ran in the opposite direction.
In Virginia, more than 80 local, state, and federal police agents risked spreading COVID-19 to “a highly vulnerable population” when they raided a low income, public housing community in an effort to crack down on six individuals suspected of selling, on average, $20 to $100 worth of drugs. A Government of Wolves... John W. Whitehead Best Price: $2.06 Buy New $10.42 (as of 01:25 UTC - Details)
In Texas, a SWAT team backed up with a military tank Armored Personnel Carrier raided Big Daddy Zane’s Bar whose owner and patrons were staging a peaceful First and Second Amendment protest of the governor’s shutdown orders.
Police have even been called out to shut down churches, schools and public parks and beaches that have been found “in violation” of various lockdown orders.
Now there’s talk of mobilizing the military to deliver forced vaccinations, mass surveillance in order to carry out contact tracing, and heavy fines and jail time for those who dare to venture out without a mask, congregate in worship without the government’s blessing, or re-open their businesses without the government’s say-so.
There are rumblings that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will start thermal screenings to monitor passengers’ temperatures in coming weeks. This is in addition to the virtual strip searches that have become routine aspects of airport security.
Restaurants in parts of the country are being tasked with keeping daily logs of phone numbers, emails, and arrival times for everybody who participates in dine-services, with no mention of how long such records will be kept on file, with whom they will be shared, and under what circumstances.
With the help of Google and Nest cameras, hospitals are morphing into real-time surveillance centers with round-the-clock surveillance cameras monitoring traffic in patients’ rooms. Forget patient privacy, however. Google has a track record of sharing surveillance footage with police.
And then rounding out the power-grabs, the Senate just voted to give police access to web browsing data without a warrant, which would dramatically expand the government’s Patriot Act surveillance powers. The Senate also voted to give Attorney General William Barr the ability to look through the web browsing history of any American — including journalists, politicians, and political rivals — without a warrant, just by saying it is relevant to an investigation. If enacted, privacy experts warn that the new provisions threaten to undermine the free press by potentially preventing the media from exposing abuses of power or acting as a watchdog against political leaders.
If we haven’t already crossed over, we’re skating dangerously close to that line that keeps us on the functioning side of a constitutional republic. It won’t take much to push us over that edge into a full-blown banana republic.
In many ways, this is just more of the same heavy-handed tactics we’ve been seeing in recent years but with one major difference: this COVID-19 state of emergency has invested government officials (and those who view their lives as more valuable than ours) with a sanctimonious, self-righteous, arrogant, Big Brother Knows Best approach to top-down governing, and the fall-out can be seen far and wide.
It’s an ugly, self-serving mindset that views the needs, lives and rights of “we the people” as insignificant when compared to those in power.
That’s how someone who should know better such as Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard law professor, can suggest that a free people—born in freedom, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights, and living in a country birthed out of a revolutionary struggle for individual liberty—have no rights to economic freedom, to bodily integrity, or to refuse to comply with a government order with which they disagree. Gray Man: Camouflage f... Dermody, Matthew Best Price: $23.48 Buy New $9.99 (as of 01:52 UTC - Details)
According to Dershowitz, who has become little more than a legal apologist for the power elite, “You have no right not to be vaccinated, you have no right not to wear a mask, you have no right to open up your business… And if you refuse to be vaccinated, the state has the power to literally take you to a doctor’s office and plunge a needle into your arm.”
Dershowitz is wrong: while the courts may increasingly defer to the government’s brand of Nanny State authoritarianism, we still have rights.
The government may try to abridge those rights, it may refuse to recognize them, it may even attempt to declare martial law and nullify them, but it cannot litigate, legislate or forcefully eradicate them out of existence.
Up to now, we’ve been largely passive participants in this experiment in self-governance. Our inaction and inattention has left us at the mercy of power-hungry politicians, corrupt corporations and brutal, government-funded militias.
Wake up, America.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, these ongoing violations of our rights—this attitude by the government that we have no rights—this tyrannical movement that is overtaking our constitutional republic and gaining in momentum and power by the minute—this incessant auction block in which government officials appointed to represent our best interests keep selling us out to the highest bidder—all of these betrayals scream for a response.
To quote the great Rod Serling: “If we don’t listen to that scream—and if we don’t respond to it—we may well wind up sitting amidst our own rubble, looking for the truck that hit us—or the bomb that pulverized us. Get the license number of whatever it was that destroyed the dream. And I think we will find that the vehicle was registered in our own name.”
The Best of John W. Whitehead


lewrockwell--2020-05-21--Open Letter to a Fear Mask Pusher

Open Letter to a Fear Mask Pusher

A reader has been compelled to decline a position of leadership in his church due to a Fear Masks Mandatory policy imposed by the church leadership .
He wrote an Open Letter to the leadership and membership of the church explaining why he could not accept the position , given the Fear Mask Mandate .
His letter is worth publishing here as well since it touches on an issue that affects all of us , everywhere : “ It is with regret , but with a sense of conviction , that I must remove myself from consideration for the Secretary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At the end of March , my job was cut due to lack of business from — what I consider to be — the mass hysteria surrounding COVID-19 , perpetuated by the media and governments , including ours here in Ohio .
This irrationality has led to record-setting unemployment , more infringement on civil liberties than I have seen in my lifetime , more corresponding government overreach and the disturbing trend of “ informing ” on fellow citizens .
Lusso Gear Kids Travel ... Best Price : $ 22.07 Buy New $ 23.99 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ publicly stated that he would favor “ immunity cards ” or “ vaccination cards ” for Americans to “ prove ” they are not infected by or carrying the virus .
This sort of step would , in my opinion , open the door to unprecedented government restrictions on freedom of movement , financial activity and other rights .
Against this backdrop , I was disheartened to see that the annual meeting would be “ Masks Mandatory ” for those who wished to meet at the church and that the Wednesday gathering would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a policy that I feel prolongs the COVID-19 hysteria and paves the way for the ever-increasing governmental intrusions I mentioned above .
Toward that end , I will not be attending any services , events , or meetings that are Masks Mandatory and even attending virtually , especially to be elected to a position , would to me be giving endorsement to the policy and adding to the fear and hysteria it fosters .
I also will not be contributing financially to [ the church ] so long as such a policy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I do not wish to deter others from taking any protective measures they feel they should take ; however , I feel this is each member ’ s right and responsibility to decide for themselves .
Please be assured that this is not a decision I make lightly or thoughtlessly .
I have enjoyed my time at the church and would like to continue my activities with you all in the future , as well as financially contribute , but without the presumption of sickness and with the freedom to use the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members freely , as has been the case in the past .
Lusso Gear Car Seat Or ... Buy New $ 22.97 I chose an “ open letter ” format for this message because I feel it is an important enough issue for everyone to have the chance to know my views on .
I would ask that each of you consider the issue , both in terms of Masks Mandatory and the greater ramifications it portends , and decide on a course of action you wish to take .
My correspondent received @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Chris , I am sorry to hear that you ’ ll be leaving us , especially since I was so excited about the gifts and skills you could bring to leadership .
You have the right to your opinions and I would defend your right to speak up as vociferously as I act to protect the most vulnerable people I love .
I want to thank you personally and publicly for posting this as an open letter .
So often people just disappear because of something they are in disagreement with and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s good to have clarity .
For everyone ’ s sake .
Good luck on your journey.
” My correspondent ’ s final thoughts as follows : I ’ m not sure whether it was related , but the next day the church newsletter appeared in my email .
The front page had the minister ’ s message , which was about masks .
He wrote that he sometimes felt silly for wearing a mask against a disease that if he got , he ’ d very likely recover from , but he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about our individual opinions , but it was about protecting our fellow humans .
Therefore , that is why we all should be wearing masks , even if it made us uncomfortable .
I replied to my correspondent as follows : I applaud your decision and the caring , yet incisive way you conveyed your reasons for it .
I particularly liked that you made the point about perpetuating unwarranted fear – something which ought to be a concern to people seeking comfort at a church .
Are we to live in perpetual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this is about .
An unseen “ threat ” that could be anywhere , might strike anyone – like “ terrorism ” – only even more alarming because invisible and fundamentally something that can not be defeated .
People are going to get sick – from this virus and other viruses .
Some will die .
Eventually , we will all die .
But getting sick is part of life – and to destroy life over irrational fear of sickness is .
.
.
sick .
RhinoGear 11909ABMI Rh ... Buy New $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New $ 25.00 INFANZIA Kids Travel N ... Buy New $ 14.95 The Best of Eric Peters

A reader has been compelled to decline a position of leadership in his church due to a Fear Masks Mandatory policy imposed by the church leadership. He wrote an Open Letter to the leadership and membership of the church explaining why he could not accept the position, given the Fear Mask Mandate. His letter is worth publishing here as well since it touches on an issue that affects all of us, everywhere:
“It is with regret, but with a sense of conviction, that I must remove myself from consideration for the Secretary position at [the church].
At the end of March, my job was cut due to lack of business from — what I consider to be — the mass hysteria surrounding COVID-19, perpetuated by the media and governments, including ours here in Ohio. This irrationality has led to record-setting unemployment, more infringement on civil liberties than I have seen in my lifetime, more corresponding government overreach and the disturbing trend of “informing” on fellow citizens.
Lusso Gear Kids Travel... Best Price: $22.07 Buy New $23.99 (as of 01:54 UTC - Details) National health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has publicly stated that he would favor “immunity cards” or “vaccination cards” for Americans to “prove” they are not infected by or carrying the virus. This sort of step would, in my opinion, open the door to unprecedented government restrictions on freedom of movement, financial activity and other rights. Against this backdrop, I was disheartened to see that the annual meeting would be “Masks Mandatory” for those who wished to meet at the church and that the Wednesday gathering would have the same restrictions. Masks Mandatory is a policy that I feel prolongs the COVID-19 hysteria and paves the way for the ever-increasing governmental intrusions I mentioned above.
Toward that end, I will not be attending any services, events, or meetings that are Masks Mandatory and even attending virtually, especially to be elected to a position, would to me be giving endorsement to the policy and adding to the fear and hysteria it fosters. I also will not be contributing financially to [the church] so long as such a policy is enforced or promoted by church leadership. I do not wish to deter others from taking any protective measures they feel they should take; however, I feel this is each member’s right and responsibility to decide for themselves.
Please be assured that this is not a decision I make lightly or thoughtlessly. I have enjoyed my time at the church and would like to continue my activities with you all in the future, as well as financially contribute, but without the presumption of sickness and with the freedom to use the church facilities and to interact with other members freely, as has been the case in the past. Lusso Gear Car Seat Or... Buy New $22.97 (as of 01:54 UTC - Details)
I chose an “open letter” format for this message because I feel it is an important enough issue for everyone to have the chance to know my views on. I would ask that each of you consider the issue, both in terms of Masks Mandatory and the greater ramifications it portends, and decide on a course of action you wish to take.
. . .
My correspondent received the following email from his minister:
“Chris, I am sorry to hear that you’ll be leaving us, especially since I was so excited about the gifts and skills you could bring to leadership. You have the right to your opinions and I would defend your right to speak up as vociferously as I act to protect the most vulnerable people I love. I want to thank you personally and publicly for posting this as an open letter. So often people just disappear because of something they are in disagreement with and we never know why. It’s good to have clarity. For everyone’s sake. Good luck on your journey.”
(Italics added)
. . .
My correspondent’s final thoughts as follows:
I’m not sure whether it was related, but the next day the church newsletter appeared in my email. The front page had the minister’s message, which was about masks. He wrote that he sometimes felt silly for wearing a mask against a disease that if he got, he’d very likely recover from, but he realized that Masks Mandatory wasn’t about our individual opinions, but it was about protecting our fellow humans. Therefore, that is why we all should be wearing masks, even if it made us uncomfortable.
(Italics added) AmazonBasics Steel Jac... Buy New $32.49 (as of 01:54 UTC - Details)
I replied to my correspondent as follows:
Dear Chris –
I applaud your decision and the caring, yet incisive way you conveyed your reasons for it.
I particularly liked that you made the point about perpetuating unwarranted fear – something which ought to be a concern to people seeking comfort at a church.
Are we to live in perpetual fear?
Because that is ultimately what this is about. An unseen “threat” that could be anywhere, might strike anyone – like “terrorism” – only even more alarming because invisible and fundamentally something that cannot be defeated. People are going to get sick – from this virus and other viruses. Some will die. Eventually, we will all die. But getting sick is part of life – and to destroy life over irrational fear of sickness is . . . sick.
It means perpetually living in fear.
Read the Whole Article
RhinoGear 11909ABMI Rh... Buy New $39.42 (as of 01:54 UTC - Details) Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $25.00 (as of 06:10 UTC - Details) INFANZIA Kids Travel N... Buy New $14.95 (as of 01:54 UTC - Details)
The Best of Eric Peters


lewrockwell--2020-05-21--Do We Need the State?

Do We Need the State?

Rousseau was perhaps the first to popularize the fiction now taught in civics classes about how government was created .
It holds that men sat down together and rationally thought out the concept of government as a solution to problems that confronted them .
The government of the United States was , however , the first to be formed in any way remotely like Rousseau ’ s ideal .
Even then , it had far from universal support from the three million colonials whom it claimed to represent .
The U.S. government , after all , grew out of an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existing government .
There ’ s no question that the result was , by an order of magnitude , the best blueprint for a government that had yet been conceived .
Most of America ’ s Founding Fathers believed the main purpose of government was to protect its subjects from the initiation of violence from any source ; government itself prominently included .
That made the U.S. government almost unique in history .
And it was that concept – not natural resources , the ethnic composition of American immigrants , or luck – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ became .
Whatever Happened to J ... Maybury , Richard J .
Best Price : $ 12.64 Buy New $ 17.51 The origin of government itself , however , was nothing like Rousseau ’ s fable or the origin of the United States Constitution .
The most realistic scenario for the origin of government is a roving group of bandits deciding that life would be easier if they settled down in a particular locale , and simply taxing the residents for a fixed percentage ( rather like “ protection money ” ) instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all they could get away with .
It ’ s no accident that the ruling classes everywhere have martial backgrounds .
Royalty are really nothing more than successful marauders who have buried the origins of their wealth in romance .
Romanticizing government , making it seem like Camelot , populated by brave knights and benevolent kings , painting it as noble and ennobling , helps people to accept its jurisdiction .
But , like most things , government is shaped by its origins .
Author Rick Maybury may have said it best in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A castle was not so much a plush palace as the headquarters for a concentration camp .
These camps , called feudal kingdoms , were established by conquering barbarians who ’ d enslaved the local people .
When you see one , ask to see not just the stately halls and bedrooms , but the dungeons and torture chambers .
“ A castle was a hangout for silk-clad gangsters who were stealing from helpless workers .
The king was the ‘ lord ’ who had control of the blackjack ; he claimed a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force on the innocent .
Totally Incorrect Volu ... Doug Casey Best Price : $ 1.48 Buy New $ 8.85 “ Fantasies about handsome princes and beautiful princesses are dangerous ; they whitewash the truth .
They give children the impression political power is wonderful stuff.
” Is The State Necessary ?
The violent and corrupt nature of government is widely acknowledged by almost everyone .
That ’ s been true since time immemorial , as have political satire and grousing about politicians .
Yet almost everyone turns a blind eye ; most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but actively support the charade .
That ’ s because , although many may believe government to be an evil , they believe it is a necessary evil ( the larger question of whether anything that is evil is necessary , or whether anything that is necessary can be evil , is worth discussing , but this isn ’ t the forum ) .
What ( arguably ) makes government necessary is the need for protection from other , even more dangerous , governments .
I believe a case can be made that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( High Groun ... Hunt , John Best Price : $ 6.35 Buy New $ 18.00 One of the most perversely misleading myths about government is that it promotes order within its own bailiwick , keeps groups from constantly warring with each other , and somehow creates togetherness and harmony .
In fact , that ’ s the exact opposite of the truth .
There ’ s no cosmic imperative for different people to rise up against one another…unless they ’ re organized into political groups .
The Middle East , now the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for hatred , provides an excellent example .
Muslims , Christians , and Jews lived together peaceably in Palestine , Lebanon , and North Africa for centuries until the situation became politicized after World War I .
Until then , an individual ’ s background and beliefs were just personal attributes , not a casus belli .
Government was at its most benign , an ineffectual nuisance that concerned itself mostly with extorting taxes .
People were busy with that most harmless of activities : making money .
But politics do not deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them up into parties and nations .
And some group inevitably winds up using the power of the state ( however “ innocently ” or “ justly ” at first ) to impose its values and wishes on others with predictably destructive results .
What would otherwise be an interesting kaleidoscope of humanity then sorts itself out according to the lowest common denominator peculiar to the time and place .
Drug Lord ( High Ground ... Doug Casey , John Hunt Best Price : $ 16.00 Buy New $ 18.08 Sometimes that means @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Muslims and Hindus in India or the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland ; or ethnic lines , like the Kurds and Iraqis in the Middle East or Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka ; sometimes it ’ s mostly racial , as whites and East Indians found throughout Africa in the 1970s or Asians in California in the 1870s .
Sometimes it ’ s purely a matter of politics , as Argentines , Guatemalans , Salvadorans , and other Latins discovered more recently .
Sometimes it amounts to no more than personal beliefs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1950s and the Salem trials in the 1690s proved .
Throughout history government has served as a vehicle for the organization of hatred and oppression , benefitting no one except those who are ambitious and ruthless enough to gain control of it .
That ’ s not to say government hasn ’ t , then and now , performed useful functions .
But the useful things it does could and would be done far better by the market .
The Best of Doug Casey

Rousseau was perhaps the first to popularize the fiction now taught in civics classes about how government was created. It holds that men sat down together and rationally thought out the concept of government as a solution to problems that confronted them. The government of the United States was, however, the first to be formed in any way remotely like Rousseau’s ideal. Even then, it had far from universal support from the three million colonials whom it claimed to represent. The U.S. government, after all, grew out of an illegal conspiracy to overthrow and replace the existing government.
There’s no question that the result was, by an order of magnitude, the best blueprint for a government that had yet been conceived. Most of America’s Founding Fathers believed the main purpose of government was to protect its subjects from the initiation of violence from any source; government itself prominently included. That made the U.S. government almost unique in history. And it was that concept – not natural resources, the ethnic composition of American immigrants, or luck – that turned America into the paragon it became.
Whatever Happened to J... Maybury, Richard J. Best Price: $12.64 Buy New $17.51 (as of 01:56 UTC - Details) The origin of government itself, however, was nothing like Rousseau’s fable or the origin of the United States Constitution. The most realistic scenario for the origin of government is a roving group of bandits deciding that life would be easier if they settled down in a particular locale, and simply taxing the residents for a fixed percentage (rather like “protection money”) instead of periodically sweeping through and carrying off all they could get away with. It’s no accident that the ruling classes everywhere have martial backgrounds. Royalty are really nothing more than successful marauders who have buried the origins of their wealth in romance.
Romanticizing government, making it seem like Camelot, populated by brave knights and benevolent kings, painting it as noble and ennobling, helps people to accept its jurisdiction. But, like most things, government is shaped by its origins. Author Rick Maybury may have said it best in Whatever Happened to Justice?,
“A castle was not so much a plush palace as the headquarters for a concentration camp. These camps, called feudal kingdoms, were established by conquering barbarians who’d enslaved the local people. When you see one, ask to see not just the stately halls and bedrooms, but the dungeons and torture chambers.
“A castle was a hangout for silk-clad gangsters who were stealing from helpless workers. The king was the ‘lord’ who had control of the blackjack; he claimed a special ‘divine right’ to use force on the innocent. Totally Incorrect Volu... Doug Casey Best Price: $1.48 Buy New $8.85 (as of 02:30 UTC - Details)
“Fantasies about handsome princes and beautiful princesses are dangerous; they whitewash the truth. They give children the impression political power is wonderful stuff.”
Is The State Necessary?
The violent and corrupt nature of government is widely acknowledged by almost everyone. That’s been true since time immemorial, as have political satire and grousing about politicians. Yet almost everyone turns a blind eye; most not only put up with it, but actively support the charade. That’s because, although many may believe government to be an evil, they believe it is a necessary evil (the larger question of whether anything that is evil is necessary, or whether anything that is necessary can be evil, is worth discussing, but this isn’t the forum).
What (arguably) makes government necessary is the need for protection from other, even more dangerous, governments. I believe a case can be made that modern technology obviates this function. Speculator (High Groun... Hunt, John Best Price: $6.35 Buy New $18.00 (as of 10:10 UTC - Details)
One of the most perversely misleading myths about government is that it promotes order within its own bailiwick, keeps groups from constantly warring with each other, and somehow creates togetherness and harmony. In fact, that’s the exact opposite of the truth. There’s no cosmic imperative for different people to rise up against one another…unless they’re organized into political groups. The Middle East, now the world’s most fertile breeding ground for hatred, provides an excellent example.
Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together peaceably in Palestine, Lebanon, and North Africa for centuries until the situation became politicized after World War I. Until then, an individual’s background and beliefs were just personal attributes, not a casus belli. Government was at its most benign, an ineffectual nuisance that concerned itself mostly with extorting taxes. People were busy with that most harmless of activities: making money.
But politics do not deal with people as individuals. It scoops them up into parties and nations. And some group inevitably winds up using the power of the state (however “innocently” or “justly” at first) to impose its values and wishes on others with predictably destructive results. What would otherwise be an interesting kaleidoscope of humanity then sorts itself out according to the lowest common denominator peculiar to the time and place. Drug Lord (High Ground... Doug Casey, John Hunt Best Price: $16.00 Buy New $18.08 (as of 05:55 UTC - Details)
Sometimes that means along religious lines, as with the Muslims and Hindus in India or the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland; or ethnic lines, like the Kurds and Iraqis in the Middle East or Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka; sometimes it’s mostly racial, as whites and East Indians found throughout Africa in the 1970s or Asians in California in the 1870s. Sometimes it’s purely a matter of politics, as Argentines, Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and other Latins discovered more recently. Sometimes it amounts to no more than personal beliefs, as the McCarthy era in the 1950s and the Salem trials in the 1690s proved.
Throughout history government has served as a vehicle for the organization of hatred and oppression, benefitting no one except those who are ambitious and ruthless enough to gain control of it. That’s not to say government hasn’t, then and now, performed useful functions. But the useful things it does could and would be done far better by the market.
Reprinted with permission from International Man.
The Best of Doug Casey


‘Plandemic’ Documentary

The 26-minute documentary “ Plandemic , ” part 1 , by Mikki Willis , features Judy Mikovits , Ph.D. , a cellular and molecular biologist1 whose research showed that many vaccines are contaminated with gammaretroviruses , thanks to the fact that they use viruses grown in contaminated animal cell lines .
Mikovits suspects COVID-19 may in fact be a type of vaccine-derived or vaccine-induced retroviral infection , and she ’ s undoubtedly qualified to comment on this disease because of her groundbreaking research on retroviruses .
In other words , she believes SARS-CoV-2 merely serves to activate or wake up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ causes the symptoms of COVID-19 .
Work done by Mikovits between 2009 and 2011 suggested 25 million to 30 million Americans were carriers of XMRVs and other gammaretroviruses .
Seeing how that estimate is over a decade old , that number is now likely to be far higher .
In my view , her hypothesis is an interesting one that should warrant further investigation .
Plague : One Scientist & ... Mikovits , Judy Best Price : $ 29.55 Buy New $ 17.99 Censorship and Discrediting Campaign Is in Full Swing As expected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all mainstream media networks , including , of course , YouTube .
To get around the censorship , Willis is asking people to download , share and upload on other sites as they please .
That there ’ s an upswell of public awareness is evidenced by the fact that Facebook , YouTube and Twitter are all said to be “ struggling ” to quell the tidal spread of the film .
As reported by CNET:2 The rise of public awareness is also evidenced by the fact that Mikovits ’ latest book , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ released April 14 , 2020 , rose to become a No .
1 best-seller within the first week .
In it , she names names , and one of them is Dr. Anthony Fauci , the much-beloved leader of the White House ’ s pandemic response team .
It ’ s not surprising then that the discrediting campaign against her and Willis is equally robust .
It will likely be difficult to ignore such attempts .
A quick online search May 12 , 2020 , for “ Plandemic ” returns not a single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the first dozen pages .
So , before you ’ re persuaded by those who have skin to lose in this game , I urge you to look into her story for yourself .
Watch the film and read her book .
The reason Mikovits ’ career was destroyed was because she and her colleagues discovered that vaccines can spread gammaretroviruses that in turn can trigger diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome,4 certain kinds of autism , cancers , leukemias and lymphomas .
Gammaretroviruses5 are viruses that can cause cancer , leukemia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As explained in a 2011 paper on gamma retroviruses:6 The key take-home here is that retroviruses are “ integrated into the host cell genome , ” and infection can result in “ long-term expression.
” In other words , once they ’ re in your body , they can remain dormant , only to reactivate when conditions are favorable .
Inoculated : How Scienc ... Kent Heckenlively Best Price : $ 15.59 Buy New $ 15.14 In this regard , they ’ re quite different from your average virus that , when you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , replicates and causes symptoms , and is eventually eliminated from your body through your immune response .
In 2009 , Mikovits and her team discovered and isolated the first human gammaretrovirus family of retroviruses , known then as XMRVs .
XMRV stands for “ xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus.
” Xenotrophic refers to viruses that only replicate in cells other than those of the host species .
So , XMRVs are viruses that infect human cells yet are not human viruses.7 Many critics paint Mikovits as your average “ anti-vaxxer , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ points , which is that safe vaccines can be made , so why use dangerous ones ?
She proposes a novel vaccine for viruses like SARS-CoV-2 that involves alpha interferon , small amounts of the virus and peptide T , which would block the interaction of the virus and keep your T cells from getting infected .
Unlike conventional vaccines , which are mostly injected , this would be oral and would only stimulate antibody humoral responses .
Her version would also cause innate cellular immunity from the T cells .
As Mikovits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , featured in “ Could Retroviruses Play a Role in COVID-19 ?
” : Interferon Type 18,9 is a type of beneficial cytokine released by your body as one of its first lines of defense against viral infections .
In a nutshell , it interferes with viral replication .
It ’ s also been shown to suppress certain types of tumors .
As part of your immune system , it digests viral DNA and viral proteins in infected cells while simultaneously protecting noninfected neighboring cells .
Interferon alpha and beta also help regulate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a 2018 paper10 on the dual nature of Type 1 and Type 2 interferons , “ both antiviral and immunomodulatory functions are critical during virus infection to not only limit virus replication and initiate an appropriate antiviral immune response , but to also negatively regulate this response to minimize tissue damage.
” Plague of Corruption : ... Mikovits , Judy Buy New $ 16.51 Like Mikovits , Dominic Chan , a Doctor of Pharmacy who recently updated an article on interferon on Medicinenet.com.
, proposes using interferons against COVID-19 .
The earlier version @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Williams , Pharm.D .
and Ph.D. , before she died in 2017,11 says:12 She goes on to list a number of interferons that are commercially available , including Intron-A ( interferon alfa-2b ) , Betaseron ( interferon beta-1b ) and many more .
In April 2020 , Chan added : One of Mikovits ’ primary treatment recommendations for COVID-19 is interferon 1 alpha , sold under brand names such as Alferon and Roferon , to shut down the replication of RNA viruses , including retroviruses and coronaviruses .
She believes it might be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the duration of known exposure .
Although a 1 milliliter bottle of Alferon costs between $ 600 and $ 700,13,14 one only needs small amounts and a bottle can treat 1,000 people for a week .
It ’ s worth noting the warnings , however .
According to Chan , if you already have flu-like symptoms and take interferons , the symptoms are likely to get worse before they get better , as your immune system ramps up .
“ If someone is already on a ventilator and symptoms are about to overwhelm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could be catastrophic , ” he says .
In the film , Mikovits cites a paper15 published in the January 10 , 2020 , issue of the Vaccine journal , which found you ’ re 36 % more likely to get coronavirus infection if you got the influenza vaccine in 2017 or 2018 .
As noted in this study , titled “ Influenza Vaccination and Respiratory Virus Interference Among Department of Defense Personnel During the 2017-2018 Influenza Season ” : Interestingly enough , while seasonal influenza vaccination did not raise the risk of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact “ significantly associated with unspecified coronavirus ( meaning it did not specifically mention SARS-CoV-2 ) and human metapneumovirus ” ( hMPV ) .
Those who had received a seasonal flu shot were 36 % more likely to contract coronavirus infection and 51 % more likely to contract hMPV infection than unvaccinated individuals.16 Looking at the symptoms list for hMPV17 is also telling , as the main symptoms include fever , sore throat and cough .
The elderly and immunocompromised are at heightened risk for severe hMPV illness , the symptoms of which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of these symptoms also apply for COVID-19 .
Again , if you ’ ve been barraged with articles telling you “ Plandemic ” is a “ hoax ” and that Mikovits is a disgraced researcher whose work has been “ debunked , ” please , do your own research .
Some truths are hard to swallow , but they ’ re crucial if we care about our own , let alone public , health .
If you want to see my excellent interview with Judy that is three times as long as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ video below .
The Best of Joseph Mercola

The 26-minute documentary “Plandemic,” part 1, by Mikki Willis, features Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., a cellular and molecular biologist1 whose research showed that many vaccines are contaminated with gammaretroviruses, thanks to the fact that they use viruses grown in contaminated animal cell lines.
Mikovits suspects COVID-19 may in fact be a type of vaccine-derived or vaccine-induced retroviral infection, and she’s undoubtedly qualified to comment on this disease because of her groundbreaking research on retroviruses.
In other words, she believes SARS-CoV-2 merely serves to activate or wake up a dormant XMRV infection, which then causes the symptoms of COVID-19. Work done by Mikovits between 2009 and 2011 suggested 25 million to 30 million Americans were carriers of XMRVs and other gammaretroviruses.
Seeing how that estimate is over a decade old, that number is now likely to be far higher. In my view, her hypothesis is an interesting one that should warrant further investigation. Plague: One Scientist&... Mikovits, Judy Best Price: $29.55 Buy New $17.99 (as of 04:10 UTC - Details)
Censorship and Discrediting Campaign Is in Full Swing
As expected, this film is being censored from all mainstream media networks, including, of course, YouTube. To get around the censorship, Willis is asking people to download, share and upload on other sites as they please.
That there’s an upswell of public awareness is evidenced by the fact that Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are all said to be “struggling” to quell the tidal spread of the film. As reported by CNET:2
“Two simple searches on YouTube on Friday morning found nine copies of the video, with a combined 295,000 views. After CNET contacted YouTube with links to the copies, all but one were removed for violating community guidelines.”
The rise of public awareness is also evidenced by the fact that Mikovits’ latest book, “Plague of Corruption,”3 released April 14, 2020, rose to become a No. 1 best-seller within the first week. In it, she names names, and one of them is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the much-beloved leader of the White House’s pandemic response team. It’s not surprising then that the discrediting campaign against her and Willis is equally robust.
It will likely be difficult to ignore such attempts. A quick online search May 12, 2020, for “Plandemic” returns not a single link to a positive review or commentary in the first dozen pages. So, before you’re persuaded by those who have skin to lose in this game, I urge you to look into her story for yourself. Watch the film and read her book.
What Are Human Gammaretroviruses?
The reason Mikovits’ career was destroyed was because she and her colleagues discovered that vaccines can spread gammaretroviruses that in turn can trigger diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome,4 certain kinds of autism, cancers, leukemias and lymphomas.
Gammaretroviruses5 are viruses that can cause cancer, leukemia and immune deficiencies in various animals. As explained in a 2011 paper on gamma retroviruses:6
“Retroviruses are evolutionary optimized gene carriers that have naturally adapted to their hosts to efficiently deliver their nucleic acids into the target cell chromatin, thereby overcoming natural cellular barriers …
Retroviral vectors are fascinating and efficient delivery tools for the transfer of nucleic acids. As a hallmark, all retroviruses are capable of reverse transcribing their single stranded RNA genome into double stranded DNA, which will be stably integrated into the host cell genome.
As highly evolved parasites they act in concert with cellular host factors to deliver their nucleic acid into the nucleus, where they exploit the host cell’s machinery for their own replication and long-term expression occurs.”
The key take-home here is that retroviruses are “integrated into the host cell genome,” and infection can result in “long-term expression.” In other words, once they’re in your body, they can remain dormant, only to reactivate when conditions are favorable. Inoculated: How Scienc... Kent Heckenlively Best Price: $15.59 Buy New $15.14 (as of 01:58 UTC - Details)
In this regard, they’re quite different from your average virus that, when you’re exposed, invades your cells, replicates and causes symptoms, and is eventually eliminated from your body through your immune response.
In 2009, Mikovits and her team discovered and isolated the first human gammaretrovirus family of retroviruses, known then as XMRVs. XMRV stands for “xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus.” Xenotrophic refers to viruses that only replicate in cells other than those of the host species. So, XMRVs are viruses that infect human cells yet are not human viruses.7
Safer Vaccines Can Be Made
Many critics paint Mikovits as your average “anti-vaxxer,” failing to address one of her key points, which is that safe vaccines can be made, so why use dangerous ones?
She proposes a novel vaccine for viruses like SARS-CoV-2 that involves alpha interferon, small amounts of the virus and peptide T, which would block the interaction of the virus and keep your T cells from getting infected.
Unlike conventional vaccines, which are mostly injected, this would be oral and would only stimulate antibody humoral responses. Her version would also cause innate cellular immunity from the T cells. As Mikovits explained in my recent interview with her, featured in “Could Retroviruses Play a Role in COVID-19?”:
“I was part of the team that first used the immune therapy, a purified Type 1 interferon alpha, as a curative therapy for a leukemia. That research has proceeded for decades, [yet] the Food and Drug Administration said, ‘You can’t use that in preventing coronaviruses from jumping from animals [to humans].’
[Type 1 interferon] is a simple food. It’s a simple spray. We have it on the shelf now, made by Merck, [yet] Merck discontinued its use. Why would you do that if that was the frontline … prevention? Interferon alpha is your body’s own best antiviral against coronaviruses and retroviruses.”
Understanding Interferons
Interferon Type 18,9 is a type of beneficial cytokine released by your body as one of its first lines of defense against viral infections. In a nutshell, it interferes with viral replication. It’s also been shown to suppress certain types of tumors. As part of your immune system, it digests viral DNA and viral proteins in infected cells while simultaneously protecting noninfected neighboring cells.
Interferon alpha and beta also help regulate your immune response. As noted in a 2018 paper10 on the dual nature of Type 1 and Type 2 interferons, “both antiviral and immunomodulatory functions are critical during virus infection to not only limit virus replication and initiate an appropriate antiviral immune response, but to also negatively regulate this response to minimize tissue damage.” Plague of Corruption: ... Mikovits, Judy Buy New $16.51 (as of 02:59 UTC - Details)
Like Mikovits, Dominic Chan, a Doctor of Pharmacy who recently updated an article on interferon on Medicinenet.com., proposes using interferons against COVID-19. The earlier version of this article, written by Eni Williams, Pharm.D. and Ph.D., before she died in 2017,11 says:12
“Interferons modulate the response of the immune system to viruses, bacteria, cancer, and other foreign substances that invade the body. Interferons do not directly kill viral or cancerous cells; they boost the immune system response and reduce the growth of cancer cells by regulating the action of several genes that control the secretion of numerous cellular proteins that affect growth …”
She goes on to list a number of interferons that are commercially available, including Intron-A (interferon alfa-2b), Betaseron (interferon beta-1b) and many more. In April 2020, Chan added:
“Interferon beta-1a, currently in use to treat multiple sclerosis, and interferon alfa-2b are both under investigation as potential treatments for people with COVID-19 coronavirus disease …
Interferon Beta 1a, specifically, activates macrophages that engulf antigens and natural killer cells (NK cells), a type of immune T-Cell … The theory is, interferon may be able to make the immune system stronger by turning on dormant parts and directing them toward the defense against SARS-CoV-2’s assault.”
One of Mikovits’ primary treatment recommendations for COVID-19 is interferon 1 alpha, sold under brand names such as Alferon and Roferon, to shut down the replication of RNA viruses, including retroviruses and coronaviruses.
She believes it might be beneficial to take twice a day for the duration of known exposure. Although a 1 milliliter bottle of Alferon costs between $600 and $700,13,14 one only needs small amounts and a bottle can treat 1,000 people for a week.
It’s worth noting the warnings, however. According to Chan, if you already have flu-like symptoms and take interferons, the symptoms are likely to get worse before they get better, as your immune system ramps up. “If someone is already on a ventilator and symptoms are about to overwhelm them, giving them an interferon-based medicine could be catastrophic,” he says.
Flu Vaccination May Increase Risk of Coronavirus Infection
In the film, Mikovits cites a paper15 published in the January 10, 2020, issue of the Vaccine journal, which found you’re 36% more likely to get coronavirus infection if you got the influenza vaccine in 2017 or 2018. As noted in this study, titled “Influenza Vaccination and Respiratory Virus Interference Among Department of Defense Personnel During the 2017-2018 Influenza Season”:
“Receiving influenza vaccination may increase the risk of other respiratory viruses, a phenomenon known as virus interference. Test-negative study designs are often utilized to calculate influenza vaccine effectiveness.
The virus interference phenomenon goes against the basic assumption of the test-negative vaccine effectiveness study that vaccination does not change the risk of infection with other respiratory illness, thus potentially biasing vaccine effectiveness results in the positive direction.
This study aimed to investigate virus interference by comparing respiratory virus status among Department of Defense personnel based on their influenza vaccination status. Furthermore, individual respiratory viruses and their association with influenza vaccination were examined.”
Interestingly enough, while seasonal influenza vaccination did not raise the risk of all respiratory infections, it was in fact “significantly associated with unspecified coronavirus (meaning it did not specifically mention SARS-CoV-2) and human metapneumovirus” (hMPV).
Those who had received a seasonal flu shot were 36% more likely to contract coronavirus infection and 51% more likely to contract hMPV infection than unvaccinated individuals.16
Looking at the symptoms list for hMPV17 is also telling, as the main symptoms include fever, sore throat and cough. The elderly and immunocompromised are at heightened risk for severe hMPV illness, the symptoms of which include difficulty breathing and pneumonia. All of these symptoms also apply for COVID-19.
Again, if you’ve been barraged with articles telling you “Plandemic” is a “hoax” and that Mikovits is a disgraced researcher whose work has been “debunked,” please, do your own research. Some truths are hard to swallow, but they’re crucial if we care about our own, let alone public, health.
If you want to see my excellent interview with Judy that is three times as long as the above video, you can view the video below.

Sources and References
The Best of Dr. Joseph Mercola


lewrockwell--2020-05-22--Covid-19 Coronavirus: Scripted by the CDC in 2003

Deadzone ( 2003 , Screenplay Stephen King , Jeffrey Boam ) : When Johnny Smith ( Christopher Walken ) awakens from a coma caused by a car accident , he finds that years have passed , and he now has psychic abilities .
Heartbroken that his girlfriend ( Brooke Adams ) has moved on with her life , Johnny also must contend with his unsettling powers , which allow him to see a person ’ s future with a mere touch .
While at a school science fair , Johnny gets a disturbing vision of a group of children getting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the building and eventually the children begin to get sick .
Johnny realizes that without his help the children will die , including JJ .
With the assistance of Rev .
Purdy , Johnny must help Walt and the local health inspector , Jim Pratt , try to identify as well as find the source of the mysterious virus before it kills off the entire town .
The Dead Zone King , Stephen Best Price : $ 9.99 Buy New $ 12.99 This is a clip summarizing a 2003 episode of a TV @ @ @ @ @ @ @ name is plague .
During the episode , someone takes a flight in from China into the US and they come down with an unknown virus .
After identifying the virus as a SARS related Coronavirus , one doctor figures out that they can stop the Coronavirus dead in its tracks using a malaria drug called Chloroquine .
The writers have claimed that the information and research used to make this episode came directly from the CDC in 2003 .
Did the CDC know something in 2003 that they are not telling us @ @

Deadzone (2003, Screenplay Stephen King, Jeffrey Boam): When Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) awakens from a coma caused by a car accident, he finds that years have passed, and he now has psychic abilities. Heartbroken that his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) has moved on with her life, Johnny also must contend with his unsettling powers, which allow him to see a person’s future with a mere touch.
Storyline
While at a school science fair, Johnny gets a disturbing vision of a group of children getting extremely ill. Johnny persuades Walt to quarantine the building and eventually the children begin to get sick. Johnny realizes that without his help the children will die, including JJ. With the assistance of Rev. Purdy, Johnny must help Walt and the local health inspector, Jim Pratt, try to identify as well as find the source of the mysterious virus before it kills off the entire town. The Dead Zone King, Stephen Best Price: $9.99 Buy New $12.99 (as of 05:05 UTC - Details)
This is a clip summarizing a 2003 episode of a TV show called Dead Zone, the episode name is plague. During the episode, someone takes a flight in from China into the US and they come down with an unknown virus. After identifying the virus as a SARS related Coronavirus, one doctor figures out that they can stop the Coronavirus dead in its tracks using a malaria drug called Chloroquine. The writers have claimed that the information and research used to make this episode came directly from the CDC in 2003. Did the CDC know something in 2003 that they are not telling us now?
VideocIip From The TV Series DEADZONE


lewrockwell--2020-05-22--Help! I’m in an Abusive Relationship

Help! I’m in an Abusive Relationship

Thank you so much for the work you do at LRC .
I want you to know that the information you ’ ve provided on your website over the years , and especially over the last few months , has helped me to face an unpleasant reality in my life : I ’ m in an abusive relationship !
You might not think that your website provides relationship advice , but with the help of LRC writers , I was finally able to put the pieces together .
This past weekend I looked in the mirror and realized that I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was , even two months ago .
What happened to my life ?
When in the Course of ... Adams , Charles Best Price : $ 4.29 Buy New $ 19.07 I never saw it coming !
Or maybe I did .
In the beginning there were a few “ red flags , ” but I chose to overlook them , and then I guess when you ’ re with the same person for so long , you just grow accustomed to things .
You lose perspective .
But when I would visit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
My eyes have been opened , and I have you and the other LRC contributors to thank for that .
Please feel free to share this video .
Maybe it will help others to recognize the truth of their situation , and do what they can to free themselves from it !
Nullification : How to ... Thomas E. Woods Best Price : $ 2.00 Buy New $ 8.34 The Real Lincoln : A Ne ... Dilorenzo , Thomas J .
Best Price : $ 4.25 Buy New $ 7.48 The Best @ @ @

Dear Lew,
Thank you so much for the work you do at LRC. I want you to know that the information you’ve provided on your website over the years, and especially over the last few months, has helped me to face an unpleasant reality in my life: I’m in an abusive relationship! You might not think that your website provides relationship advice, but with the help of LRC writers, I was finally able to put the pieces together.
This past weekend I looked in the mirror and realized that I am no longer the person I once was, even two months ago. What happened to my life?
When in the Course of ... Adams, Charles Best Price: $4.29 Buy New $19.07 (as of 05:06 UTC - Details) I never saw it coming!
Or maybe I did.
In the beginning there were a few “red flags,” but I chose to overlook them, and then I guess when you’re with the same person for so long, you just grow accustomed to things. You lose perspective. But when I would visit LRC, things would shift into focus. My eyes have been opened, and I have you and the other LRC contributors to thank for that. Please feel free to share this video. Maybe it will help others to recognize the truth of their situation, and do what they can to free themselves from it!

Nullification: How to ... Thomas E. Woods Best Price: $2.00 Buy New $8.34 (as of 05:25 UTC - Details) The Real Lincoln: A Ne... Dilorenzo, Thomas J. Best Price: $4.25 Buy New $7.48 (as of 07:05 UTC - Details)
The Best of Ellen Finnigan


lewrockwell--2020-05-22--Doctors With Hacksaws: How the Donald’s Civil War-Style Surgeons Amputated the Economy

It started in sheer madness on March 13 when the Donald was persuaded to declare a national emergency by his camarilla of dopey doctors .
Their stay-at-home guidelines were absolute folly because by then it was obvious that the new Wuhan virus strain mainly attacked the aged , infirm and those already afflicted with serious cardiovascular , respiratory , renal and diabetes/obesity ailments , not the general population .
For more than 90 % of the population what was happening in mid-March was merely the cresting of a bad winter flu pandemic .
So the obvious thing to do was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – especially nursing and retirement home residents – who are vulnerable to serious illness or death from the Covid and allow business as usual to be carried on by the vast bulk of the population .
Peak Trump : The Undrai ... David A. Stockman Best Price : $ 12.72 Buy New $ 43.07 After all , that ’ s what successfully happened during the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968-1969 .
Back then the mortality rate was computed by the CDC at 68 per 100,000 or nearly 3X higher than the WITH @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deaths or a 25 per 100,000 mortality rate ) , but lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were not even on the radar screen .
By setting aside common sense , economic sanity and the constitution itself , however , the Donald ’ s emergency declaration and CDC guidelines triggered a veritable pandemic of public hysteria and governmental madness .
Within days governors and mayors around the country were literally imitating the infamous civil war “ surgeons ” who amputated any limb that was or might become infected – -in this case , the economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their citizenry .
There is no doubt that New York governor Andrew Cuomo was the lead bone-saw wielder among this rabid pack of economic surgeons .
The tip-off was there from day # 1 when he justified shutting down his state ’ s economy and confining almost 20 million people to house arrest two months ago by saying , “ If everything we do saves just one life , I ’ ll be happy.
” Whenever – short of the Bubonic Plague , a foreign military invasion or the arrival of little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gets in the death prevention business you might as well kiss liberty and capitalist prosperity good-bye .
That ’ s because upwards of 2.9 million American die every year , and for every major cause of death there is an endless supply of so-called experts , think tanks , lobbies , ambitious politicians and do-gooders with schemes to “ save lives ” .
Fly to Me : Extraordina ... Ellie Hansen Buy New $ 13.99 A mere listing of the annual causes of death tells you that inviting the government in to help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risks of human existence would result in a Gong Show of coercive , costly and contradictory interventions .
During 2018 , for instance , the major causes of death included , • 167,000 from auto and other accidents ; • 144,000 from all other causes .
So , yes , if you want a Nanny State , you could empower Health Patrols everywhere to police eating , smoking , drinking , exercising , driving , skydiving , swimming , sunning , boating , emoting , farming , food processing , and countless more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of which could arguably “ save lives ” .
Needless to say , we do not exaggerate – not when you consider the insane orders that were issued on hardly a moments notice to “ save lives ” allegedly threatened by the Covid .
They are a vivid reminder that unless there is an overpowering and existential threat to society ’ s very survival , there is no reason to turn officialdom and their bone-saw surgeons loose on the economy in the name of public health protection and “ saving lives ” .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stockman Best Price : $ 2.00 Buy New $ 9.95 For instance , James Bovard noted that in state after state , the quarantine orders were literally over-the-top in their level of specificity and intrusion : “ We have saved lives ” is also the self-exoneration trumpeted by Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer after she imposed the most punitive restrictions in the nation .
Whitmer prohibited “ all public and private gatherings of any size ” ( prohibiting people from visiting friends ) and also prohibited purchasing seeds for spring planting in stores after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activity .
( Purchasing state lottery tickets was still an “ essential ” activity , though . )
Many Michigan counties have less than a handful of COVID cases and have had few if any fatalities .
But their economies have been obliterated by Whitmer ’ s statewide decrees , which have driven unemployment up to 24 percent .
Unfortunately , the hysteria did not end with the Lockdown orders .
The resulting instantaneous and absolute collapse of business activity – -especially in the social congregation sectors like restaurants , bars , malls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
– led to deafening cries for a coast-to–coast soup line of bailouts .
The resulting fiscal eruption is truly one for the ages .
On the eve of the Donald ’ s ill-fated national emergency declaration on March 13 , the public debt stood at $ 23.4 trillion .
But exactly 64 days later after a flurry of bailout legislation that nobody read , it stands at $ 25.3 trillion .
That is , the US Treasury has borrowed an average of $ 29 billion per day including weekends and Easter .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1.9 trillion drain on the bond pits in barely 9 weeks would have caused immense wailing and gnashing of teeth among private borrowers , who would be crowded out by the Treasury ’ s sharp elbows ( i.e .
a willingness to pay whatever it takes in yield to get the cash ) and soaring interest rates .
GoSports 90mm Backyard ... Best Price : $ 31.30 Buy New $ 34.02 But not in this day and age .
As we have frequently said , every historical notion of monetary policy limits and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Keynesian money printers at the Fed .
And print they have .
At the last posting before the disaster of Lockdown Nation commenced on March 13 , the Fed ’ s balance sheet stood at $ 4.31 trillion , and has since soared to $ 6.93 trillion as of May 13 , representing a $ 2.6 trillion or 60 % expansion in less than nine weeks .
These madmen have monetized every single dime of the Treasury ’ s $ 1.9 trillion debt issuance , thereby flooding the bond pits with an offsetting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And then they tossed in another $ 700 billion for good measure , or to “ support ” the economy , whatever that means .
Here ’ s the thing .
The public and private sectors of the US economy are already buckling under $ 75 trillion of debt .
So they idea that enabling both politicians and businesses to borrow even more trillions at virtually zero interest rates is a strange way to “ support ” anything that is rational , economically sensible or even remotely sustainable .
But what this money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all economic actors to take leave of their senses – and we mean most especially the politicians throughout the land .
The latter apparently think we have a Rich Uncle Sam , who can be tapped to fund the coast-to-coast soup lines that were stood up by the $ 3 trillion Everything Bailouts last month .
Among the endless fiscal follies embedded in these bills was a $ 600 per week add-on to the unemployment checks of what are now more than 22 million recipients , but heading toward 35 million as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tsunami of initial claims applications in the last eight weeks .
The Triumph of Politic ... David Stockman Best Price : $ 2.56 Buy New $ 15.99 The problem is that when added to the average state benefit of $ 400 per week , you have suddenly put tens of millions of workers in a position were they are better off staying home than going back to work .
That ’ s because at an average combined Federal state benefit of $ 1,000 per week , you have 71 million workers in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the most recent year for which we have detailed payroll statistics ( 2018 ) .
That ’ s right .
Our panicked legislators seem to have no clue that the overwhelming share of new jobs reported since the Great Recession ended in 2009 were essentially part-time and low pay service industry jobs , where the average paycheck is well less than $ 500 per week , to say nothing of the $ 1,000 per week level embodied in the Everything Bailouts .
For instance , on the eve of the Covid Hysteria in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ payroll jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector , but these workers averaged only 24.7 hours per week on the clock at an average hourly rate of $ 14.90 per hour .
That computes to weekly paycheck of $ 368 before withholding taxes and other deductions .
Not surprisingly , therefore , a new analysis by three economists at the University of Chicago based on government data from 2019 estimates that 68 percent of unemployed workers who can receive benefits are eligible for payments that are greater than their lost earnings .
Indeed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replacement rate – the share of a worker ’ s original weekly salary that is being replaced by unemployment benefits – is 134 percent , or more than one-third above their original wage .
ZENY Portable Wood Cor ... Buy New $ 98.89 Is it any wonder , therefore , that employers trying to reopening their businesses everywhere across the nation are now confronting a strange new reluctance among their employees to come back to work ?
Recently , the WSJ investigated this topic and found , for example , that until April @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in its theme parks , but then furloughed all of them without pay thereafter .
What happened next tells you all you need to know about why the so-called “ reopening ” of the economy is going to resemble a giant Gong Show as between workers preferring their $ 1,000 per week on UI , on the one hand , and state and local bureaucrats explaining you can open your restaurant , for instance , as long as you remove 75 % of the tables and thereby insure your own immediate bankruptcy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , what Disney now has is a workforce which is immensely grateful for its kindness in pulling the plug on their paychecks !
One Disney World employee , who has worked at the park for several years , makes a little more than $ 14 an hour as part of the entertainment team .
At 40 hours a week , he takes home about $ 400 after taxes .
His unemployment claim has still not been processed in Florida since he was furloughed , but he expects his weekly income to more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will likely come in at $ 275 , plus the extra $ 600 added by the government ’ s plan through July 31 .
“ We are grateful Disney has chosen to furlough us , ” the entertainer said .
Needless to say , this ain ’ t just Disney .
As shown so dramatically in the table below , the average worker in all but a handful of states is now grateful , like his/her Disney counterpart , to have gotten a furlough notice .
too : At the same time , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 5 % from its insane February 19th all-time high ( NASDAQ 100 ) owing to the Fed ’ s madcap money printing .
So the top 10 % of households who actually make more than $ 50,000 per year are tickled pink , as well .
Here ’ s the thing , of course .
The civil war surgeons ended up killing or maiming far more than they saved .
And that ’ s exactly the outcome that can be expected from the Donald ’ s malpracting doctors , as well .
The @ @ @ @

It started in sheer madness on March 13 when the Donald was persuaded to declare a national emergency by his camarilla of dopey doctors.
Their stay-at-home guidelines were absolute folly because by then it was obvious that the new Wuhan virus strain mainly attacked the aged, infirm and those already afflicted with serious cardiovascular, respiratory, renal and diabetes/obesity ailments, not the general population. For more than 90% of the population what was happening in mid-March was merely the cresting of a bad winter flu pandemic.
So the obvious thing to do was to protect the small segment of people – especially nursing and retirement home residents – who are vulnerable to serious illness or death from the Covid and allow business as usual to be carried on by the vast bulk of the population.
Peak Trump: The Undrai... David A. Stockman Best Price: $12.72 Buy New $43.07 (as of 11:40 UTC - Details) After all, that’s what successfully happened during the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968-1969. Back then the mortality rate was computed by the CDC at 68 per 100,000 or nearly 3X higher than the WITH Covid death count to date (85,000 deaths or a 25 per 100,000 mortality rate), but lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were not even on the radar screen.
By setting aside common sense, economic sanity and the constitution itself, however, the Donald’s emergency declaration and CDC guidelines triggered a veritable pandemic of public hysteria and governmental madness. Within days governors and mayors around the country were literally imitating the infamous civil war “surgeons” who amputated any limb that was or might become infected – -in this case, the economic and social arms and legs of most of their citizenry.
There is no doubt that New York governor Andrew Cuomo was the lead bone-saw wielder among this rabid pack of economic surgeons. The tip-off was there from day # 1 when he justified shutting down his state’s economy and confining almost 20 million people to house arrest two months ago by saying,
“If everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.”
Oh, puleese!
Whenever – short of the Bubonic Plague, a foreign military invasion or the arrival of little green men from Mars – the government gets in the death prevention business you might as well kiss liberty and capitalist prosperity good-bye.
That’s because upwards of 2.9 million American die every year, and for every major cause of death there is an endless supply of so-called experts, think tanks, lobbies, ambitious politicians and do-gooders with schemes to “save lives”. Fly to Me: Extraordina... Ellie Hansen Buy New $13.99 (as of 05:08 UTC - Details)
A mere listing of the annual causes of death tells you that inviting the government in to help “save lives” from the ordinary risks of human existence would result in a Gong Show of coercive, costly and contradictory interventions. During 2018, for instance, the major causes of death included,
655,000 from heart diseases;
600,000 from cancer;
167,000 from auto and other accidents;
160,000 from respiratory illnesses;
148,000 from strokes;
122,000 for Alzheimer;
85,000 from diabetes;
60,000 from influenza and pneumonia;
51,000 from renal diseases;
48,000 from suicide; and
144,000 from all other causes.
So, yes, if you want a Nanny State, you could empower Health Patrols everywhere to police eating, smoking, drinking, exercising, driving, skydiving, swimming, sunning, boating, emoting, farming, food processing, and countless more “risky” activities – the suppression of which could arguably “save lives”.
Needless to say, we do not exaggerate – not when you consider the insane orders that were issued on hardly a moments notice to “save lives” allegedly threatened by the Covid. They are a vivid reminder that unless there is an overpowering and existential threat to society’s very survival, there is no reason to turn officialdom and their bone-saw surgeons loose on the economy in the name of public health protection and “saving lives”. The Great Deformation:... David A. Stockman Best Price: $2.00 Buy New $9.95 (as of 09:55 UTC - Details)
For instance, James Bovard noted that in state after state, the quarantine orders were literally over-the-top in their level of specificity and intrusion:
“We have saved lives” is also the self-exoneration trumpeted by Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer after she imposed the most punitive restrictions in the nation. Whitmer prohibited “all public and private gatherings of any size” (prohibiting people from visiting friends) and also prohibited purchasing seeds for spring planting in stores after she decreed that a “nonessential” activity. (Purchasing state lottery tickets was still an “essential” activity, though.)
Many Michigan counties have less than a handful of COVID cases and have had few if any fatalities. But their economies have been obliterated by Whitmer’s statewide decrees, which have driven unemployment up to 24 percent.
Unfortunately, the hysteria did not end with the Lockdown orders. The resulting instantaneous and absolute collapse of business activity – -especially in the social congregation sectors like restaurants, bars, malls, hotels, gyms, movies etc. – led to deafening cries for a coast-to–coast soup line of bailouts.
The resulting fiscal eruption is truly one for the ages. On the eve of the Donald’s ill-fated national emergency declaration on March 13, the public debt stood at $23.4 trillion. But exactly 64 days later after a flurry of bailout legislation that nobody read, it stands at $25.3 trillion. That is, the US Treasury has borrowed an average of $29 billion per day including weekends and Easter.
Ordinarily, of course, a $1.9 trillion drain on the bond pits in barely 9 weeks would have caused immense wailing and gnashing of teeth among private borrowers, who would be crowded out by the Treasury’s sharp elbows (i.e. a willingness to pay whatever it takes in yield to get the cash) and soaring interest rates. GoSports 90mm Backyard... Best Price: $31.30 Buy New $34.02 (as of 05:08 UTC - Details)
But not in this day and age. As we have frequently said, every historical notion of monetary policy limits and financial discipline has been euthanized by the Keynesian money printers at the Fed.
And print they have. At the last posting before the disaster of Lockdown Nation commenced on March 13, the Fed’s balance sheet stood at $4.31 trillion, and has since soared to $6.93 trillion as of May 13, representing a $2.6 trillion or 60% expansion in less than nine weeks.
Holy cow!
These madmen have monetized every single dime of the Treasury’s $1.9 trillion debt issuance, thereby flooding the bond pits with an offsetting supply of freshly minted digital cash. And then they tossed in another $700 billion for good measure, or to “support” the economy, whatever that means.
Here’s the thing. The public and private sectors of the US economy are already buckling under $75 trillion of debt. So they idea that enabling both politicians and businesses to borrow even more trillions at virtually zero interest rates is a strange way to “support” anything that is rational, economically sensible or even remotely sustainable.
But what this money printing madness is doing is causing nearly all economic actors to take leave of their senses – and we mean most especially the politicians throughout the land. The latter apparently think we have a Rich Uncle Sam, who can be tapped to fund the coast-to-coast soup lines that were stood up by the $3 trillion Everything Bailouts last month.
Among the endless fiscal follies embedded in these bills was a $600 per week add-on to the unemployment checks of what are now more than 22 million recipients, but heading toward 35 million as the state labor department scramble to catch-up with the tsunami of initial claims applications in the last eight weeks. The Triumph of Politic... David Stockman Best Price: $2.56 Buy New $15.99 (as of 05:55 UTC - Details)
The problem is that when added to the average state benefit of $400 per week, you have suddenly put tens of millions of workers in a position were they are better off staying home than going back to work.
That’s because at an average combined Federal state benefit of $1,000 per week, you have 71 million workers in America who earned less than that in the most recent year for which we have detailed payroll statistics (2018).
That’s right. Our panicked legislators seem to have no clue that the overwhelming share of new jobs reported since the Great Recession ended in 2009 were essentially part-time and low pay service industry jobs, where the average paycheck is well less than $500 per week, to say nothing of the $1,000 per week level embodied in the Everything Bailouts.
For instance, on the eve of the Covid Hysteria in February, there were nearly 17 million payroll jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, but these workers averaged only 24.7 hours per week on the clock at an average hourly rate of $14.90 per hour.
That computes to weekly paycheck of $368 before withholding taxes and other deductions.
Not surprisingly, therefore, a new analysis by three economists at the University of Chicago based on government data from 2019 estimates that 68 percent of unemployed workers who can receive benefits are eligible for payments that are greater than their lost earnings.
Indeed, it found that the estimated median replacement rate – the share of a worker’s original weekly salary that is being replaced by unemployment benefits – is 134 percent, or more than one-third above their original wage. ZENY Portable Wood Cor... Buy New $98.89 (as of 05:08 UTC - Details)
Is it any wonder, therefore, that employers trying to reopening their businesses everywhere across the nation are now confronting a strange new reluctance among their employees to come back to work?
Recently, the WSJ investigated this topic and found, for example, that until April 18 Disney kept paying its 100,000 employees in its theme parks, but then furloughed all of them without pay thereafter.
What happened next tells you all you need to know about why the so-called “reopening” of the economy is going to resemble a giant Gong Show as between workers preferring their $1,000 per week on UI, on the one hand, and state and local bureaucrats explaining you can open your restaurant, for instance, as long as you remove 75% of the tables and thereby insure your own immediate bankruptcy, on the other.
In any event, what Disney now has is a workforce which is immensely grateful for its kindness in pulling the plug on their paychecks!
One Disney World employee, who has worked at the park for several years, makes a little more than $14 an hour as part of the entertainment team. At 40 hours a week, he takes home about $400 after taxes.
His unemployment claim has still not been processed in Florida since he was furloughed, but he expects his weekly income to more than double when it is. Unemployment benefits will likely come in at $275, plus the extra $600 added by the government’s plan through July 31.
“We are grateful Disney has chosen to furlough us,” the entertainer said.
Needless to say, this ain’t just Disney. As shown so dramatically in the table below, the average worker in all but a handful of states is now grateful, like his/her Disney counterpart, to have gotten a furlough notice. too:
At the same time, the stock market is now less than 5% from its insane February 19th all-time high (NASDAQ 100) owing to the Fed’s madcap money printing. So the top 10% of households who actually make more than $50,000 per year are tickled pink, as well.
Here’s the thing, of course. The civil war surgeons ended up killing or maiming far more than they saved.
And that’s exactly the outcome that can be expected from the Donald’s malpracting doctors, as well.
PEAK TRUMP, IMPENDING CRISES, ESSENTIAL INFO & ACTION
Reprinted with permission from David Stockman’s Contra Corner.
The Best of David Stockman