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A Special Covid-Craziness Supplement
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” -James Madison
A Collection Of Facts To Help With Clear-Thinking About Anxieties And Policy Choices An Entertaining Lesson In Proper Analysis Of Scare Stats A Rebuttal Of Discouraging Responses To The Emergence Of A Cure For Covid-19 Another Well-Taken Analysis And Debunk Of Scare Stat Fallacies Draft Legislation For Compelling Hysterical (Or "Crisis"-Exploiting) Political Units To Stand Down It's Time To Post A Reward For Information Leading To... The World Is Embracing The Hydroxychloroquine/Azithromycin Cure, But America Lags Behind Productive Economies Are Not Factories That Can Be Stopped And Then Simply Restarted As The Panic-Mongering Collapses, Watch For A New Scam The Very Dangerous Pathologies Of Continued "Sheltering In Place" Michigan Rallies To Oppose C19 Edicts While The Data Debunk The Government's Pretexts Actual C19 Fatality Rates By State Some Observations Regarding Any Government's Alleged "Emergency Powers" How Stupid Do They Think We Are? Data-Points For Sanity ...because nothing is more important than clear thinking right now. Tuesday, March 24, 2020: AMONG DATA CAPTURED today (here), are the following: The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that from October 1, 2019 through March 14, 2020, there have been in the USA:
The portion of these events occurring in 3 of the total 5 1/2 months involved in these estimates-- that is, the portion occurring from mid-December, 2019 through March 14, 2020-- has coincided with the period in which Covid-19 is said to have been spreading. A little further pertinent data: Flu symptoms appear within 1 - 4 days, and contagion is possible up to 5 - 7 days after becoming symptomatic. Although no one seems willing to go on record making authoritative statements on the subject, Covid-19 is believed to have a contagion persistence of from 1 - 37 days, with a (pre-symptomatic) incubation period of 1 - 14 days and a high percentage of infections producing no symptoms or very minor, typically-ignored symptoms. This means that Covid-19-infected and contagious persons are much more likely to have moved about in the community with less or no restraint and for much longer periods while contagious than are flu-infected persons. As of March 23, 2020, the CDC claims that 33,404 people in the USA have been found to have Covid-19, and 400 have died while being infected (although since such deaths almost universally-- if not absolutely-- occur in people with severe medically-threatening conditions outside of the Covid-19 infection, it is not possible to say that Covid-19 was itself responsible for any of these fatalities). FROM THESE FACTS, and taking flu epidemiology as a model, we can reasonably (and really, inescapably) conclude that at least half as many cases of Covid-19 infection as of influenza in the figures above have already occurred in the USA-- that is, 19,000,000 - 27,000,000. Further, "at least" actually low-balls the case, since Covid-19 is deemed to spread much more readily than influenza. Therefore, three further facts emerge:
HYSTERIA IS PROVEN, BY THE FACTS IN HAND, to be unfounded. Policies inhibiting Americans' normal conduct of their affairs are simply imposing massive violations of liberty and damage to the economic well-being of all those Americans individually and to America as a society and as a nation overall. Let's never forget history's endless lesson that it is liberty and prosperity that are the most powerful producers and protectors of good health. The hysterics should be denounced and removed from all positions of trust and honor, and all policies inhibiting anyone from the free, unhampered and unstigmatized conduct of his or her affairs, whether commercial or otherwise, should be repealed, rescinded, and held up to scorn and derision. *** BTW, previous newsletter posts on the subject of Coid-19 can be found here, here, here and here. Other Voices C.J. Hopkins is a writer I was pleased to encounter sometime within the last year or so-- always witty and generally very insightful, as well. His latest piece, though characteristically tongue-in-cheek in delivery, offers a great presentation on the possible fallacies involved in various Covid-19 scare-stats. It is well worth reading. Covid-19 Global Lockdown by C.J. Hopkins Let’s try a little thought experiment. Just for fun. To pass the time while we’re indefinitely locked down inside our homes, compulsively checking the Covid-19 “active cases” and “total death” count, washing our hands every twenty minutes, and attempting not to touch our faces. Before we do, though, I want to make it clear that I believe this Covid-19 thing is real, and is probably the deadliest threat to humanity in the history of deadly threats to humanity. According to the data I’ve been seeing, it’s only a matter of days, or hours, until nearly everyone on earth is infected and is either dying in agony and alone or suffering mild, common cold-like symptoms, or absolutely no symptoms whatsoever. I feel that I need to state this clearly, before we do our thought experiment, because I don’t want anyone mistakenly thinking that I’m one of those probably Russian-backed Nazis who are going around saying, “it’s just the flu,” or who are spreading dangerous conspiracy theories about bio-weapons and martial law, or who are otherwise doubting or questioning the wisdom of locking down the entire world (and likely triggering a new Great Depression) on account of the discovery of some glorified bug. Obviously, this is not just the flu. Thousands of people are dying from it. OK, sure, the flu kills many more than that, hundreds of thousands of people annually, but this Covid-19 virus is totally new, and not like any of the other millions of viruses that are going around all the time, and the experts are saying it will probably kill, or seriously sicken, or briefly inconvenience, millions or even billions of people if we don’t lock down entire countries and terrorize everyone into submission. Which, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for that … this is not the time to be questioning anything the corporate media and the authorities tell us. This is a time to pull together, turn our minds off, and follow orders. OK, sure, normally, it’s good to be skeptical, but we’re in a goddamn global state of emergency! Idris Elba is infected for Chrissakes! Sorry … I’m getting a little emotional. I’m a big-time Idris Elba fan. The point is, I’m not a Covid-denialist, or a conspiracy theorist, or one of those devious Chinese or Russian dissension-sowers. I know for a fact that this pandemic is real, and warrants whatever “emergency measures” our governments, global corporations, and intelligence agencies want to impose on us. No, I’m not an epidemiologist, but I have a close friend who knows a guy who dated a woman who dated a doctor who personally knows another doctor who works in a hospital in Italy somewhere, and she (i.e., my friend, not the doctor in Italy) posted something on Facebook yesterday that was way too long to read completely but was a gut-wrenching account of how Covid-19 is killing Kuwaiti babies in their incubators! Or maybe it was Italian babies. Like I said, it was too long to read. Also, did you see the story about the baby that was born infected?! Or the stories about the people in their 30s and 40s who were more or less in perfect health (except for, you know, cancer or whatever) who died from (or with) the Covid plague?! And what about all those charts and graphs?! And those pictures of people in hazmat suits?! And those Italians singing Turandot on their balconies?! Doesn’t that just make you want to break down and cry over the sheer humanity of it all?! No, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Covid-19 is the deadliest global pandemic humankind has ever faced, and that we have no choice but to cancel everything, confine everyone inside their home, wreck the entire global economy, force working class people even further into debt, pour trillions into the investment banks, cancel elections, censor the Internet, and otherwise implement a global police state. But what if it wasn’t? Just hypothetically. What if this wasn’t the deadliest global pandemic humankind has ever faced? (I’m just posing the question as a thought experiment, so please don’t report me to the WHO, or the CDC, or FEMA, or whoever.) What if this new coronavirus was just another coronavirus like all the other coronaviruses that people die from (or with) all the time? What if the fact that this one is “new” didn’t really mean all that much, or possibly anything at all, because coronaviruses are always mutating, and every year there are a lot of new variants? Relax, OK? I know this one is different, and totally unlike anything ever encountered by virologists in the history of virology. Remember, this is just a thought experiment. These are just hypothetical questions. Re: The Pushback Against The Announcement Of A Successful Covid-19 Treatment Strange how some folks just don't WANT there to be a cure... Tuesday, March 24, 2020: AS DISCUSSED AND DOCUMENTED here, last week a French clinical trial found that a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin produced a 100% cure rate in Covid-19-infected trial subjects (and the hydroxychloroquine by itself, something also extensively tested and confirmed by the Chinese, produced a 57% cure rate). However, since the reporting of those facts, some have striven hard to disparage these happy discoveries. Generally the attacks (which amount to a maintenance of the Covid-craziness, whether that is their sole real purpose or not) rest on recitals of what are said to be the dire and dreadful side effects of chloroquine. See here, here and here. These discouraging attacks are easily shown to be false (again, whether deliberately or not) with nothing more than a few facts and a little clear thinking. TO BEGIN WITH, the only time the treatment would be administered is in the relatively rare instance in which symptoms have reached a degree of severity suggesting a need for treatment (as distinct from the vast majority of Covid-19 infections, which readily succumb to the body's own natural healing). In such cases the "official" view assumes the patient to be a potential fatality if the disease is not cured. Side effects, even if actually dire, dreadful and likely are hardly a valid consideration under such circumstances. Further, chloroquine side effects are neither as dire nor as dreadful as those who seem bothered by the emergence of a treatment suggest. Chloroquine has been a safe, well-regarded, standard prescription for malaria (and a few other things, such as rheumatoid arthritis) for more than 70 years (for most of that time as the #1 antimalarial treatment worldwide). The drug is on the World Health Organization List of Essential Medicines. Regarding side effects directly, Encyclopedia Britannica describes those risks as follows: Some mild side effects may occur, including headache and abdominal cramps, which are common to antimalarials. Visual impairment may occur with long-term use of chloroquine. The only real danger involved with chloroquine as a treatment (which really means the upgraded version, hydroxychloroquine) is when too much is taken. Should this happen, it would be due to self-medication overdose by people made delirious with terror thanks to the incessant, utterly-unrealistic fear-mongering about Covid-19 by the same types disparaging this treatment and lying about its risks. I THINK I CAN SAFELY SAY that any of the very few folks who end up so threatened by Covid-19 as to need treatment by drugs, rather than just the chicken soup and extra nap-time that will suffice for most cases, are likely to feel pretty good about the trade-off between the cure and the actual side effect risks. Sadly, I think I can also safely say that those prancing about in scary masks and lying about the cure are striving to perpetuate hysteria. I have no idea why this would be so ;>) , but can think of no other reason for the blatant distortions for which they are responsible.
Other Voices, II THIS IS THE FIRST ITEM I'VE READ by Catte Black or anyone else at "Off Guardian", and it is excellent. Other things on the site (over which I have only skimmed) seem to indicate that these folks have produced a good deal more worthwhile material. This is not a surprise, since they take their name from having all been banned from the "comments" section of Britain's 'Guardian' newspaper when it went south after being barked-at by the junk-yard dog for publishing the Snowden revelations and became a statist presstitute, a collapse of integrity to which these folks probably objected... Anyway, whether I'm right about other posts there or not, this one is well worth reading. It offers some very good dicing of several of the fallacies deployed on behalf of Coronavirus Hysteria. Enjoy! Pani Pandemic-- Why Are People Who Should Know Better Buying The Covid-19 Hype? Exaggerated or invented, the true danger Covid-19 poses is shutting down our sense of reason by Catte Black, March 20, 2020 The only certainty about the ‘novel’ virus is that a great deal of nonsense is being talked about it by people who really ought to know better, and a great deal of opportunism is being displayed. From Netanyahu grabbing the chance to postpone his corruption trial to Hollywood starlets claiming they have ‘tested positive’ (surely not a sad and cynical attempt to up their profile), this bandwagon is seething and teeming with those trying to seize their moment of fame or get rich or stay out of jail or just join in the mayhem. It’s cool to be nCoV-positive now. Maybe that’s why such inordinate numbers of famous people are staking their claim to it. ISIS are apparently a bit worried about nCoV also and is allegedly sending out travel advisories to its jihadists. Yup, that’s a real thing, right there. Really happening. Definitely. Meanwhile, the propaganda is relentless, and there’s a variety for all tastes. If you like your fear porn vanilla you can read all the articles based on total speculation that tell you millions will die if we don’t demand martial law and vaccines. (Speaking of vaccines, the as-yet-untested Covid19 vaccine is going to mandatory in Denmark, and in the US the manufacturers will have legal immunity should it cause any ill-effects). If you are of a more sceptical turn of mind well, how about nCoV as bio-weapon? Plenty of juicy stuff on that topic also. And scientists and science journals are not immune. There’s no shortage of people with PhDs willing to talk nonsense with a sciencey spin in order to convince the more inquiring proles that the governments are correct to invoke emergency powers and get that untested vaccine cranking out asap. Look at this beauty. Written by a team of MDs and other ‘experts’ and appearing in The Lancet, it is about the most naked example I have seen to date of pseudoscience being used to inflate the perception of nCoV as something other than what it is. The purpose of the article is apparently to find some sort of barely rational reason for estimating the nCoV case fatality rate to be higher than it actually is by a factor of ten. Here’s the ‘reasoning’ it offers: Model Legislation To Compel A Stand Down From Irresponsible And Utterly Inappropriate Oppressions No time should be lost equipping every relevant legislature with a custom version of this bill. Wednesday, March 25, 2020: BRIAN WRIGHT HAS DRAFTED A FINE BILL for introduction into the Michigan legislature which would, if passed with high enough margins to survive a veto, end the pointless destruction being visited upon the state by an executive apparently in the grip of madness. At this point we are only in the second day of a Constitutionally unauthorized "shelter in place" executive order for the enforcement of which the National Guard has been called upon. I've yet to see camo on the streets, but I also see precious little traffic on those streets-- or in what used to be viable businesses, the owners and workers of which are now being ruined. My son, TJ (Thomas Jefferson), has already been issued a pass to present on his way his security-clearanced job at Detroit Metro Airport at checkpoints which can soon be expected to appear. Here is Brian's draft bill. If you are in another state or district in which draconian measures have been imposed which violate your rights to assemble, to travel, and to pursue happiness and look after your property and other economic interests, customize this draft for your own purposes and circumstances, or use it as a guide. Get it to any liberty and rule of law-respecting legislator and help that person and his/her colleagues understand the peril and the pointlessness of the illegal measures. I DON'T THINK I NEED SPEAK of the utter serious-as-a-heart-attack character of what's going on. The madness must be reversed RIGHT NOW, for every day that it continues does more irrevocable damage and makes the downward slide harder to reverse. You CAN Make a difference, if you act. "It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." -Samuel Adams One Good Way To Spend Some Of The Money Congress Is So Eager To Print Up After all, an ounce of deterrence is worth a pound of paper-money bandages... Thursday, March 26, 2020: NOW, HEAR ME OUT-- patiently, please, with all reflexes in check for the duration. I'm not saying-- or even suggesting-- anything at all about what did or didn't happen. And I'm certainly not pointing any fingers. Nor am I assuming or suggesting any greater likelihood of possible responsibility-- if any responsibility is to be found at all-- in one quarter or another. But it is a simple, indisputable fact that several countries do have bioweapon programs. It is also a simple fact that aspects of the appearance of Covid-19 and of the narrative management that followed that appearance are thought-provoking to the sort of mind in which thoughts can be provoked. IN LIGHT OF THOSE TWO POINTS, and in recognition of the
fact that the world has a powerful interest in preventing all
preventable pathogenic outbreaks, I propose that part of Uncle Sam's
impending 'CARES Act' money-shower be earmarked as a
broadly-announced reward for any information leading to the
beyond-a-reasonable-doubt identification of any other person or
persons responsible for the development, deployment or negligent
release of the Covid-19 virus (or conspiracy to develop and/or
deploy),
Accompanying the reward should be an assurance that the whistleblower or whistleblowers will be protected to the greatest extent of which the United States is capable from any type of retaliation from any entity for making the revelations, and the reciprocal assurance that anyone found guilty of committing any of the offenses described above within United States jurisdiction will hang. YES, I REALIZE THAT THE RETALIATION-DEFENSE PROVISION could well mean the United States committing to the protection of foreign nationals from their own governments-- or the protection of persons from United States officials, for that matter. But frankly, I think that anyone blowing the whistle on the Covid-19 virus having been a deliberately produced pathogen will be lionized by his or her own society. Similarly, any state against whose officials the finger is soundly pointed would be so universally-denounced as to be incapable of successful retaliation. Indeed, culpability for a pandemic of which so much has been made world-wide is likely to bring down any government to which it could be definitively assigned. SO, THAT'S MY NOTION. Let's ferret out the perps, if perps there are. Needless to say, there may be none. Covid-19 may well be just one of those unfortunate wholly-natural events-- a modern 'Spanish Flu', as it were. But as I noted at the outset, several countries spend a whole lot of time and money developing bioweapons. Indeed, such programs are so robust that not long ago (in 1995 and again in 1998), a great effort was devoted to acquiring tissues from victims of the 'Spanish Flu' virus from which the disease was then recreated by US military researchers at Fort Detrick in Maryland (and possibly by the British in a parallel operation with tissue samples from the same sources). Interestingly, Fort Detrick was shut down on an emergency basis in the summer of 2019-- shortly before the first C19 cases appeared-- without credible explanation. Further, it is obvious and indisputable that any country developing biological weapons will test them-- all weapons that have received any amount of developmental attention and expense are test-fired, no matter how horrific or risky they may be. Such weapons are plainly developed in order to be relied upon, and their reliability in real-application conditions must therefore be determined. See, for instance, the testing done with nuclear weapons on the people of the Marshall Islands (a seemingly comprehensive presentation on which can be seen in John Pilger's 'The Coming War With China'). Thus, China, Israel, Britain, Russia and the United States, at least, are all capable of having developed the Covid-19 coronavirus. All are capable of having released some, either negligently (by China, where the virus first began wreaking havoc); or, in the case of anyone except China (and probably its close ally, Russia), as a callous test-- or even as an outright deployment against China (followed closely, and very curiously, by Iran...). (Btw, if the appearance of the virus was a deliberate act by any of the capable states, it would likely have been done with some willingness to accept a bit of "collateral damage" risk. States are always prepared to sacrifice citizens in service to what their operators convince themselves is a higher purpose-- or just because doing so suits those operators' personal sociopathic interests. Such calls are especially easy to make when many side benefits are in the offing, such as the opportunities for crony and client bailouts; state power enhancements; distractions from other state behaviors and conditions; and so forth.) But these are necessarily no more than speculations. Let's get the reward into play and learn the truth. Let's find out who did it, if anyone did. Btw, while we're on the subject of money... Word to Congress: NOT ONE MORE DIME ON FOREIGN AID.* NOT ONE MORE DIME DEFENDING FOREIGN COUNTRIES; GARRISONING FOREIGN COUNTRIES; OR MAKING WAR ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES. AMERICA FIRST!! *"Foreign Aid": The euphemistic name for the means by which foreign regimes friendly or useful to the political or financial interests of those in power in the United States are propped up or paid off, and by which taxpayers' money is sometimes laundered into the hands of US politicians. Didier Raoult Publishes His Second Clinical Trial Of Hydroxychloroquine And Azithromycin On Covid-19 The big and good news continues: This crisis is over and all government edicts must instantly end. Tuesday, March 31, 2020 (with subsequent updates): WORLD-RENOWNED MICROBIOLOGIST Didier Raoult has published the results of his second clinical trial of the hydroxychloroquine/azrithomycin treatment for Covid-19 with which he and his team had achieved a 100% cure rate earlier this month. This second, larger trial of 80 infected patients again demonstrated that Dr. Raoult's formulation is a game-changer, and this "Covid-19 crisis" is over. From the trial report abstract: In 80 in-patients receiving a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin we noted a clinical improvement in all but one 86 year-old patient who died, and one 74 year-old patient still in intensive care unit. A rapid fall of nasopharyngeal viral load tested by qPCR was noted, with 83% negative at Day7, and 93% at Day8. Virus cultures from patient respiratory samples were negative in 97.5% patients at Day5. Hydroxychloroquine-Azithromycin and COVID-19: an observational study (get the full report here). As noted in commentary on the original trial of Dr. Raoult's formulation several weeks ago, although Raoult's addition of azithromycin is new, and has pushed the treatment of the coronavirus to the stature of an actual cure, treatment of Covid-19 victims with hydroxychloroquine alone has long been established in Chinese tests. See, for instance, this report by Manli Wang and team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published February 4, 2020 at nature.com. In fact, chloroquine has been recognized as a potent treatment for SARS-CoV since at least 2005, as reported in this paper from August 22, 2005, in Virology Journal. Bahrain and Belgium, among other countries, have been deploying this cure for weeks now, with huge success. The Chairman of Bahrain's Supreme Council of Health describes the treatment's impact as "profound". Another infectious disease specialist in New Jersey declares Raoult's treatment a "game changer" based on his own experience using it on his Covid-19 patients. DIDIER RAOULT'S follow-up demonstration re-affirming that Covid-19 can be successfully treated-- and with inexpensive, widely-available and long-familiar, safe medicines, millions of doses of which have already been donated to US governments for distribution to hospitals across the country-- is most welcome. The American people can now shrug off the mind-killing fear that had taken hold over the last month. The American people can, and must, also immediately and firmly hit the "reset" button. As soon as the champagne corks have all hit the floor Americans must take note of the fact that not one scintilla of justification remains for the economy- and liberty-eroding measures that have lately been fastened upon us by doubtless well-meaning, but panicky and overwhelmed federal, state and local government officials during the last few weeks. Every day in which the shut-downs and lock-downs and other draconian edicts remain in effect is another dangerous step toward the complete collapse of our individual and societal health. We are already at a ruinous point on that dark path. NO SOCIETY CAN SUFFER a cessation of production, disruption of supply chains and interruption of the ability to plan ahead for even a day without damage. What has now been two weeks and more of these hammerings has already done huge damage and we must begin our recovery instantly. No society can suffer the illegal usurpations of power by state actors under the pretenses of "necessity" to which Americans have been subjected these past several weeks without risking such violations of the rule of law doing permanent damage to its core principles of liberty and self-government. These usurpations-- every one of which is in violation of the US Constitution, of every state Constitution, and of the oaths of office of every single official involved-- must instantly be rejected and denounced. MUCH PUNDITRY has been aired these last few weeks arguing that the lock-downs and so forth are somehow legal. All of it is nonsense, and the debunking of it all is simple and straightforward. No official in this country has any authority other than as is conveyed to his or her office by the relevant Constitution (federal or state). Thus ANY act by such an official which is prohibited by such Constitution is invalid and a usurpation. The US Constitution, the supreme law of the land (and in force in regard to state actors as much as federal ones), prohibits any government restriction on peaceful assembly, period. All "lock-down" edicts are thus without validity. There are no exceptions for "emergencies", even emergencies of purported contagion. Whether to accord the risks of contagion-- either as a transmitter or as a receiver-- more weight than the risks of despotism (and whether to deem the exercise of the rights to travel and assemble as necessary to forestall or defeat despotism) are matters for each citizen's discretion. Those choices cannot lawfully be imposed, or interfered with, by government for any reason, even if everybody else believes the exercise of those discretions threatens their health. Those that fear an infection more than the loss of their liberties (or of any other good) can "shelter in place". They cannot use the power of the state to make others do the same. AMERICA NEEDS TO SHAKE IT OFF, now. Americans need to stand back up, and each get back to his or her own self-directed affairs, right now. Don't take "No" for an answer. "The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government." -US Supreme Court, Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866) (Unanimous decision)
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." -William Pitt
"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." -Edward R. Murrow *** NOTE: IT CAN ALSO BE SHOWN that despite sophisticated craft in the design of much post-1935 legislation, creative constructions by many courts since that time, and an increasingly well-rooted, state-nurtured confusion in the public mind about the nature and scope of governmental authority in America, that authority is far more limited than most imagine. Anyone interested in beginning an education in this area would do well to start here. The World Is Embracing The Hydroxychloroquine/Azithromycin Cure, But America Lags Behind Let's look at the reasons and the remedies. Monday, April 6, 2020: A GLOBAL SURVEY OF MORE THAN 6,200 DOCTORS reveals that hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin* are being very widely used outside the US and is deemed the most effective Covid-19 treatment overall. (See a survey results summary here.) Unfortunately, use of this treatment in the USA has been hampered by unconscionable (and irrational and illegal) restrictions on hydroxychloroquine (also referred to as simply "chloroquine", which was the original form of the drug). Those restrictions were originally imposed:
These restrictions have been largely relaxed or lifted over the last week (and some good doctors who properly put their ethical obligations and professional judgment over reflexive subordination to state diktats had been ignoring them anyway). Thus, the roll-out of this cure for the virus infection in America is finally ramping up. HOWEVER, SOME RESIDUAL EFFECTS of the initial reaction to Raoult's announcement of the cure (and Trump's advocacy) persist, with very dangerous consequences. US doctors are in many cases misusing the hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin treatment by withholding it until a Covid-19 victim is at death's door, whereupon the treatment is given as a sort of a "Hail Mary pass". This application will fail. In short, the last-minute application of hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin is an attempt to cure a patient who has already suffered fatal damage to tissues from the prolonged presence of the virus. After the treatment in such cases there may be no virus left in the patient, but he or she is going to die anyway. This outcome of ignorance is bad enough. But wait, there's more, and worse. The failure of the misapplication of the treatment will lead to a renewal or persistence of skepticism about the treatment overall. THE SERMO SURVEY DISCUSSED ABOVE reveals that the misapplication of the hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin treatment I describe is, in fact, the ongoing practice of most US doctors: Outside the U.S., hydroxychloroquine was equally used for diagnosed patients with mild to severe symptoms whereas in the U.S. it was most commonly used for high risk diagnosed patients. Sermo's COVID-19 Real-time Barometer Study It must therefore also be feared that this practice of misapplication which leads to discouraging results will taint the recently-begun "officially-sanctioned" clinical tests being conducted in various places around the country. The false conclusions which will be drawn will, in turn, hamper the immediate embrace of the hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin treatment nationwide which SHOULD be taking place (and the immediate abandonment of the insane, illegal and hugely harmful governmental impositions on Americans' liberties and the American economy to which that roll-out of the cure should lead). (Update, Friday, April 24, 2020: Click here for a discussion of this misapplication problem and its "poison-pill" effects by an American doctor with considerable experience successfully administering hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc to Covid-19 patients.) I URGE EVERYONE READING THESE WORDS to share them as widely as possible right away, so as to forestall any of these adverse outcomes. DON'T "leave it to the professionals", imagining that they will discover what is presented here on their own. Many of "the professionals" in government have given reason to suspect that they have purposes and agendas which are neither comfortable nor aligned with the information presented here. Those who are actually doctors working with patients in many cases simply won't find their way to this information-- and no real surprise. After all, such folks are right now a very weary and overburdened bunch. Further, even at the best of times they have the deeply-ingrained bad habit of taking direction from centralized governmental institutions which, as noted above, operate on the basis of political motivations and agendas. IN ANY EVENT, you and I have no business taking it for granted that someone else will seek out, discover and act on this information. This is OUR well-being at issue, and it is largely NOT being optimally-looked-after, as all of the above makes clear. WE must take charge, and be truth conduits. *** *NOTE: For some reason probably borne in simple bureaucratic incompetence azithromycin is listed as a separate subject of inquiry within the survey. This makes it appear to the uninstructed reader that the antibiotic is being used by itself to treat Covid-19 patients. In fact, the use of azithromycin is as a supplement to hydroxychloroquine, as pioneered by Didier Raoult (who keeps on rockin'...), and with a dramatic elevation of the cure rate over hydroxychloroquine alone. But not all treating doctors use the combination, leading to a misleadingly separate rating for the antibiotic in the survey results. This point should be made to your doctor and local media when passing on this information: BOTH DRUGS SHOULD BE USED TOGETHER FOR BEST RESULTS. There is also good biochemical reason and at least anecdotal evidence in support from a number of treating doctors for the addition of zinc supplements to the treatment regime. UPDATE, Sunday, October 18, 2020: At a meeting of a local activist organization this past Monday, Dr. Samuel T. Fawaz, who heads a team in internal medicine at Beaumont Hospital in the northwest suburbs of Detroit, addressed the group. He urged a common-sense, panic-free recognition that C19 is in no way the dire plague it has been made out to be, and passed along his own observations as a healthcare professional dealing with the real manifestations of the disease. I asked him about his experiences treating with hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin/zinc. Dr. Fawaz reported having successfully treated more than two hundred patients himself with the remedy. He also knowledgeably disparaged the designed-to-fail "clinical trials" of the treatment at neighboring organizations such as the Henry Ford health system. Dr. Fawaz then made one other very interesting point which I think very much worth passing along. Observing that Central Africa has been puzzling everyone all year for its remarkably low C19 fatalities (see for instance, Central African Republic, population 4.7 million, C19 deaths so far: 62; Chad, population ~14 million, with C19 deaths so far of only 92); or Nigeria, population 206 million, with C19 deaths of only 1,116-- all figures as of October 16, 2020), the doctor pointed out that in that part of the world, very high numbers of people routinely take hydroxychloroquine (or a close variant thereof) prophylactically and as a treatment against malaria. My follow-up research shows the same remarkably low number of C19 deaths in the one major malaria (and therefore routine hydroxychloroquine) hotspot outside of Central Africa: Papua New Guinea. There, amongst a population of 9 million-- 1,188,000 of whom rub shoulders in urban populations centers-- there have been only 578 confirmed cases of C19 and a total of 7 deaths (as of 10/16/20). How about that...
So, How Many Michiganders Have Died Thanks To Gretchen Whitmer's Worship Of Centralized Bureaucratic Authority? Perhaps as many as several hundred... Tuesday, April 7, 2020: ON MARCH 24, 2020, when Michigan's official Covid-19 death toll stood at 43, Governor Gretchen Whitmer's Director of the state's Bureau Of Professional Licensing issued a threat to medical professionals practicing in the state-- both doctors and pharmacists. The threat (see it here) warned of unspecified "administrative action" to be levied as punishment of anyone dispensing, prescribing or administering hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine as a treatment for the Covid-19 illness. The rationale offered for the thuggish effort to override the actually-professional opinions of highly-trained, experienced people in the field, who are actually faced with making the best decisions on immediately-necessary treatment for actual people who will otherwise very possibly die (as many have done), is that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine "are drugs that have not been proven scientifically or medically to treat COVID-19". But, of course, they HAVE AND HAD been proven both scientifically and medically to treat Covid-19. WHAT WHITMER REALLY MEANT is that US bureaucrats have not yet declared hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to be proven scientifically or medically to treat Covid-19. And for worshipers of Leviathan, like Whitmer, that is everything. The fact is, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine-- particularly in conjunction with azithromycin (and zinc supplements where the patient's onboard supply is low), and begun while symptoms are mild to severe, but before the edge of death-- have been thoroughly-proven successful as complete cures for Covid-19. These drugs have been clinically-tested in China and France and field-tested in more than 30 countries, where their consistent efficacy has led to them having become the most highly-recommended Covid-19 treatment world-wide... except in the US, thanks to people like Gretchen Whitmer, who have prostrated themselves before the false god of The State. For statists like Whitmer, the imprimatur of the US bureaucracy is the only thing that does or can make something real and legitimate. Any practice, product or protocol lacking that US bureaucratic stamp of approval is no more legitimate medically than is the work of Druids, shamans and witch-doctors, and its use amounts to malpractice. For statists like Whitmer, doctors faced with dangerously-ill patients should do nothing, rather than offend the dignity of the US bureaucracy as the sole source of wisdom in such areas. That is the "treatment" alternative-- because the US bureaucracy has got nothing. There IS no CDC- and/or FDA-approved successful treatment for Covid-19. For statists like Gretchen Whitmer, people-- not just doctors, but everyone, in every area-- should behave as robots, or as little children. They should make no judgments for themselves, and should stand inert in regard to anything and everything until given permission or guidance by state-designated "experts". Such is the perspective of the "progressive"-- a combination of a soaring arrogance regarding their own wisdom (as they imagine themselves suited to designate the authoritative "experts" whose decisions will rule everyone) with a paranoid anxiety at the prospect of making (and being held responsible for) their own decisions or accommodating decisions freely-made by undesignated others. BECAUSE STATE-WORSHIPING PROGRESSIVE GRETCHEN WHITMER is unfortunately able to do harm to others and made the arrogant and abusive threats that she did on behalf of her stunted notions of how the world should work, there have doubtless been some medical professionals in Michigan who have declined to treat patients with the hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin cure. Because the treatment IS a complete cure, it can therefore reasonably be said that every Michigander who was not already at death's door on March 24, and has since died from Covid-19 infection (at least until an FDA sign-off led Whitmer to reverse herself a week later, with the death toll then standing at 293) did so because Gretchen Whitmer dissuaded their caregivers from curing them.* Welcome to the Brave New Collectivist World... Or, better, how about not? How about instead let's kick the ugly thing out the door. Let's embrace CtC, and downsize DC (and Lansing, and every other nest of "officialdom"). Let's get ourselves back to the much healthier relationship between citizen and government in which no one feels compelled to look to the "expertise" of state officials, or pay heed to their pretenses of authoritah. *** *While the language in Whitmer's March 24 agency threat-letter was mealy-mouth-modified three days later (see this ), a conversation with a surgical tech at a major state-funded hospital on Thursday, April 9, 2020 revealed that the hydroxychloroquine/Z-pak cure was still going unused. The only "treatment" being offered to infected patients-- even those with severe respiratory distress-- was the installation of a ventilator (and, presumably, "comfort care" during the patient's remaining time). Where the treatment IS being used, it is apparently only being given to patients already too far gone to have much hope of being benefitted. As Didier Raoult has stressed (and this page has repeatedly pointed out), the treatment does little or no good if not administered before massive tissue damage has already occurred. Nonetheless, this worst-cases-only use of the treatment-- the predictably poor results from which are certain to slow the broader (and more proper and life-saving) roll-out of this cure-- continues up to at least the day of this update-- April 10-- as confirmed by inquiry of a doctor at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. In light of the continued disuse (or misuse) of the available cure it seems likely that the modification of the BPL letter hasn't served to undo the effects of the original threat. Hence, it is reasonable to suspect that all fatalities in Michigan beyond the original 43 that had already occurred when the threat was made are attributable, at least in part, to that March 24 threat. *** P.S. WHEN ALCOHOLISM (and other addictions), domestic violence (and other crimes), and suicide and all the other pathologies attendant on forced isolation, confinement, unemployment, bankruptcy, business failures and ruined dreams of other sorts all begin to rise in Michigan over the coming months, those, too, can be laid at the feet of Gretchen Whitmer. As a number of other Constitution-violating governors have lately done, Whitmer has had Michigan in a "lockdown" for several weeks, which will now (with today's connivance of the state legislature) extend until at least the end of April. And all this over a grossly-overblown disease threat which was never going to be even as significant as the average annual influenza outbreak! What's more, this disease threat is now much, much less significant still. Remember, for this one a cure has actually been found... I feel like I should express an appropriate blue-streak degree of outrage at all of this madness and evil. But, you know what? Words fail me. "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." -Thomas Jefferson Productive Economies Are Not Factories That Can Be Stopped And Then Simply Restarted Even beyond their illegality, "lockdowns" are madness born in abysmal economic ignorance, for which we will soon suffer greatly. Wednesday, April 8, 2020: POLITICIANS, WHOSE EXPERTISE LIES in their ability to look competent, confident and trustworthy-- even while being neither the first or the third-- have imposed shut-downs-by-decree of broad swaths of the American economy (and those in other countries have, to some unknown degree, possibly done the same in those foreign places). These diktats are without authority, and do great and worsening damage to the rule of law during every moment in which they are tolerated. But an even more immediately-acute harm is being done by these policies. The shut-down of the productive economy-- even just parts of it--will inevitably result in widespread privation, or worse, within a few short months. Economies are not machines that can be stopped and restarted. Rather, they are delicate-- even fragile-- organic balances and harmonies which take centuries to evolve into the kind of prosperity-generators upon which humanity relies for its food and other needs. Once even a portion of that organism stops contributing its part, other portions fail in cascades, like a Jenga tower from which the wrong beam has been removed. IT'S IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT this problem of economic disruption has nothing to do with money. It is not caused by deficits or by profligate fiat money generation-- not even the grossly harmful and ill-conceived sort by which we are all being victimized right now through the so-called CARES Act (and those which doubtless will follow). The dire effects of productive economy disruption create a world in which there is simply little or nothing to buy, no matter how much money one has-- even if the money is gold itself. And there is no mitigating these dire effects. Even if the politicians responsible for the disruptions were as wise as they think they are (or as wise as they want everyone else to think they are), they couldn't come remotely close to being able to plan or direct the reconstitution of a functional productive economy. That economy is as complex as a human being, and requires the clockworks-like integration of billions of independently-directed elements. The only thing that might save us now from a great and truly-disastrous tumble within a few months back down the hill up which we've been struggling for generations toward freedom from want is to end these shut-downs. NOW. Every single day that goes by more neurons and synapses within the productive economic organism whither and die, as in a brain deprived of oxygen. We've already incurred losses from the shut-down choke-hold for which we shall inevitably and inescapably suffer. But as in a human strangulation victim, if the pressure is relieved in time, the damage can be minimized. Again, we must end this shut-down madness NOW. I'M NOW GOING TO TURN THIS WARNING and call to action over to two other commentators, each of whom has done a great job of addressing the threat America now faces from the productive-economy-throttling to which we are being subjected. The first of these writers focuses on productivity generally, and the other drills down on the supremely-important single area of food production. Read them both through, and get properly afraid. Then get loud. What Are "Essential Services"? by David Hathaway, April 3, 2020 Arizona Governor Doug Ducey recently issued an Executive Order requiring residents to “stay home.” The Governor said that only businesses providing “essential services” could remain open. When hit with a barrage of questions, he told Arizonans to not worry because “grocery stores and pharmacies” would remain open and their employees would be allowed to leave their homes and go to work. As I considered what an “essential service” is in the free market, I was reminded of Leonard Read’s brilliant essay “I, Pencil.” As Mr. Read pointed out, even the production of a “simple” pencil is beyond the capabilities of one person or one firm to plan and implement. It requires an incredibly complex market coordination of land, labor, and capital. A pencil requires graphite and iron miners, trucks, rubber for the tires for the trucks, rubber plantations, workers at the rubber plantations, paint producers, lumberjacks, sawmills, employees for the operation of the sawmills and for all the associated factories, tool manufactures to make the tools used in the various associated industries, and maintenance personnel to keep all the facilities running. There is also a myriad of ancillary industries that produce and provide a huge number of items used in the various businesses that produce components in the higher orders of production to make the pencil; things like ink, paper, clothing for the workers, and oil pumping and refinery equipment to keep fuel flowing to all the associated vehicles and industries. The interconnected web of cooperating firms and individuals is almost infinite. If producing a pencil is complicated and requires the complex coordination and invisible hand of the free market that is well beyond the planning capabilities of any person or any firm, we can only imagine the exponential level of complexity needed to keep a Wal-Mart store open. If a Wal-Mart store is considered to be providing an “essential service” and is allowed to stay open in a “stay at home” state, how can it possibly do so without the invisible market cooperation of an unfathomable number of actors, each being influenced individually by price signals? Can a Wal-Mart store stay open without wholesalers and producers? Can the producers stay in business without other producers of sub-components? Can the sub-components be produced without raw material producers? Can meat make it to a Wal-Mart store if the rancher and farmer have to stay home and can’t drive around to various properties and check on water and feed sources for his animals? Can the farmer take care of his farm if his tractor is broken and needs maintenance from the mechanic? Has the mechanic been deemed essential? Does the farmer or the mechanic need a special waiver from the Governor? What about the roving livestock wranglers, fruit pickers, well and pump maintenance workers that are needed by the farmer or rancher on irregular schedules? What if the farmer or the truck driver has broken his glasses? Can he go to his eye doctor? If the eye doctor can stay open, can the glasses producer go to work to make the glasses for the truck driver or the farmer? If the farmer’s cell phone breaks and he can’t communicate with the meat buyer or feed producer, will the cell phone store be designated an “essential service” and remain open to sell him a new one? Can billboard companies operate so that the public can know which facilities are open and providing services in the midst of the closure order? Can graphics designers produce the signs for the billboard companies? Can newspaper employees drive to work and drive around town to take pictures so that the public stays informed? Are the banks an essential service to provide physical cash to those that want it and need it? By The Time We Notice We're Hungry, It May Be Too Late by Thomas Knapp, March 31, 2020 “[A]s the top U.S. watermelon-producing state prepares for harvest, Reuters reports, “many of the workers needed to collect the crop are stuck in Mexico …. Without the workers crops could rot in fields throughout the country,” starting in Florida and California where major harvests begin in April and May. As you can probably guess, the problem stems from the COVID-19 panic. The US State Department has halted routine visa applications and consulates are limiting both staff numbers and staff contact with applicants. That’s making it difficult for the quarter million migrant workers who normally pick America’s crops to get here and get to work. Most Americans aren’t hungry. Yet. But unless something changes, we’re going to start GETTING hungry in a couple of months. And by then, it will be too late. Planting cycles don’t turn on a dime for our convenience and ripe crops don’t wait. They get picked when it’s their time, or they go to waste. We get the food while the gettin’s good, or we don’t get it at all. There’s a non-trivial chance that Americans are rushing headlong into a horror we haven’t seen since the Civil War — mass starvation — or, at the very least, malnutrition on a scale we haven’t suffered since the Great Depression. We can’t avoid that outcome with stimulus checks in our mailboxes. All the money in the world won’t buy you a cantaloupe if there aren’t any cantaloupes to buy. FINALLY, A LITTLE MORE SUCH WISDOM but in a folksier tone. This may be the sort most readily grasped and retained: For want of a nail a shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. *** Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again. As The Panic-Mongering Collapses, Watch For A New Scam Those responsible are going to try to claim the panic-fan was justified-- and even that it worked. Monday, April 13, 2020:
OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS much has changed on the Covid-19 hysteria
front. A lot of well-documented revelations about falsely-inflated
Covid-19 fatalities has appeared and a lot of material has been
published making clear
Even chief panic-mongers like Anthony Fauci have admitted that the likely overall death-toll from the disease is going to be just a fraction of the standard seasonal flu fatality rate (and most of those deaths will be of people who otherwise would have died from the flu, and maybe even DID die from the flu). Americans across the country are increasingly shaking-off the hysteria and are increasingly impatient-- if not fed-up-- with the Constitution-violating "lockdowns" (and all the harm those are doing to them personally and to the economy overall), the midnight crony-capitalist bailouts and associated mass inflation, and the endless flogging of pandemic panic on every MSM organ. This hobgoblin is about to collapse-- and thank goodness! UNFORTUNATELY, THE BS-PEDDLING is not going to collapse-- not yet, and not at all unless you and I see that it does. Lying in store for us all is what will be a somewhat desperate effort to convince us all that the Covid-19 monster proving to be relatively insignificant was brought about by the outrageous usurpations of government (and the fanned-panic-induced changes in the behavior of the citizenry) to which the country was subjected. Had we not all "sheltered in place", it will be said, there'd be millions dead!!! See this early effort, for instance. The object of that exercise will be face-saving and agenda-defense. A whole lot of special interests got paid, one way or another, during the fiasco. Many more expect to be paid soon, if the fictions of Covid-19 being apocalyptic in nature and the people only spared due to the behavior of the media and "officialdom". No one on the suckling end of the teet wants to let a single drop go un-slurped. HERE ARE THE ACTUAL FACTS belying the "saved by the state and its emergency measures" eyewash: The only way "social distancing" and the associated impositions of martial law could have had any impact would be if-- over the course of a three-month period prior to those impositions in which fully a billion people flew on airplanes from everywhere to everywhere-- no one who had had contact with anyone who had had contact with anyone who had had contact with anyone from Wuhan or from any of the places to which anyone who had had contact with anyone who had had contact with anyone who had had contact with anyone from anyplace to which anyone who had had contact with anyone who had had contact with anyone who had had contact with anyone from Wuhan had gone. And that didn't happen. "Social distancing" did nothing. At least, as far as stemming any spread of infection is concerned. Long before the "six feet away" stuff had become a 24/7 shamanistic drumbeat on every mainstream media outlet, Covid-19, purportedly even-more virulent than the flu, must have spread at least as far as had that more mundane, somehow not panic-inducing disease during the same time. Here is what that means: By March 14 the US CDC estimated 38,000,000 to 54,000,000 cases of flu since October, 2019-- just in the USA. The vast majority of those cases began during the same period that Covid-19 had reportedly been active at that point. 23,000 to 59,000 deaths have resulted-- just in the USA. And that concerns a virus for which there is a purportedly 40% - 60% effective vaccine that had been taken by on the order of 60% of children in the country and 45% of adults, projecting from last year's numbers. Thus, by March 14-- BEFORE the "shelter in place" martial law impositions that sprang up like evil liberty, prosperity, and rule-of-law-destroying toadstools-- it can confidently be concluded that far more than 36 - 51 million Americans had already been infected with Covid-19. "Shelter in place" and the associated martial law impositions did nothing to mitigate the pandemic. All they did was test the waters as to how far into self-destructive madness Americans can be driven by a cabal of corrupt politicians and presstitutes at the behest of the 1% who took advantage of the cover to loot the American economy of at least $2 trillion. "BUT JUST ONE DARN MINUTE, MR. SMARTY-PANTS," you say. "If all those people were infected way back then, why were there only a handful of deaths reported until well into March, huh?!" Well, good question... In fact, you should be asking yourself that question, actually. After all, whatever you may believe about any of this, you know that SOME number of Americans were infected during December, January and February, long before the first "official" Covid-19 death on February 29 in that Washington nursing home (later replaced by a post-mortem diagnosis putting the first case on February 1). Why weren't people dying, even if the number of infections was much less than what I've said here? Well, that takes us-- properly now-- to your challenge to me about why the apparent ramp-up in Covid-19 deaths only beginning in early March. Here's the answer. In early March-- March 4, to be exact-- the CDC, perhaps in recognition of the fact that the failure of Americans to be dropping from the horrific Covid-19 left and right was messing with the narrative, sent this to all our American doctors (highlighting added):
"Covid-19 should be reported on the death certificate where the disease IS ASSUMED to have caused-- or even just assumed to have contributed to-- death." (See the whole notice here, also with my highlighting.) On March 24, the CDC doubled-down with this nonsense, issuing a follow-up guidance being even more straightforward with the fudge encouragement:
and
(See the whole March 24 update here, again, with my highlighting.) SO, THERE YOU GO. All the ramp-up death reports, from fewer than 18 on the day this "guidance" got sent out to the present 21,924 (as of April 13) were only designated as such under guidelines allowing for guesswork and figure massaging. Every one of those subsequent 21,906 Covid-19 ascriptions was made not only under this fudge-favoring "guidance" but within an atmosphere in which every harried medical professional making the calls was having it drummed into his or head 24/7 that Covid-19 was this uber-disease with a fatality rate of as high as 15%, and had been being buried under that story for months. Of course every death from that point forward with any respiratory distress characteristic (as in the case of all flu deaths, for instance) was going to be deemed a Covid-19 death-- directly or at least as a contributor! What this all means is that very few American deaths can thus far be squarely or fairly attributed to Covid-19. Some number may be due to the disease. But maybe not, too, and the fact that no deaths were reported due to the disease until doctors were instructed to fudge the call strongly suggests that the latter is more likely the case-- however odd that may sound to you, cupcake. DON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN, people. The dramatic usurpations and impositions imposed on America during the last month have NOT turned back any tsunami. THERE WAS NO TSUNAMI. Covid-19 is doubtless a real virus. It doubtless has real potential for harm, especially in compromised populations, just as is the flu. I would not have wanted my 91-year-old mother to have contracted it, and would have responded to that happening just as I did when she was diagnosed with the flu at age 90 (thankfully surviving that and carrying on for another year and a half). But whatever the reason may be, Covid-19 has not been a raging fire in America, and nothing done by any governmental unit in the way of "lockdowns" and other destructions of the economy, "bailouts", national guard mobilizations or any of the rest of it was necessary to keep us all from disaster. Likewise, none of it, nor any other change in Western civilization values, is needed to protect anyone going forward. Reject it, or you will live to regret it. Here's a Very Good Presentation Of The Current Data On Covid-19 (as of 4-22-20) And The Deadly Dangers Of "Sheltering In Place" By Two Doctors On The Front Line* Be sure to watch it all, totaling about 64 minutes-- and wait through the pause at about 62 minutes in. They're not done yet... [Click Here To Watch The Video] Tuesday, April 28 2020: BUILDING ON THE DISCUSSION IN THE VIDEO ABOVE concerning the adverse effects of isolation let's say it more plainly-- "sheltering in place" and the use of masks and gloves when not hunkered down in isolation from anyone except members of a family-unit weaken immune systems. Recommending them as extended-term practices (for weeks or more), much less imposing such practices is an expression of bone-headed ignorance-- or worse. After all, that "sheltering/shielding" is guaranteed to generate fatalities which otherwise would not happen. In fact, that sheltering/shielding practice will guarantee that when its imposition is eased and people step back out into the sunlight and human company, there will be a wave of deaths. In light of the foregoing, then, and though it will seem bizarre and extreme, a macabre question must be asked: Are these upcoming fatalities intended? Or, at least, is the daily-worsening toll we will face being allowed to mount deliberately, at this point? Hear me out. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERPERSONAL CONTACT-- and the harms from its absence-- to the health and effectiveness of an immune system is hardly new knowledge. Indeed, as Dr. Erickson and Dr. Massihi put it in the video, this is Immunology 101. Because the necessity of extended social intercourse and the harms of isolation to immune-system health are so well-established, those such as Anthony Fauci and others claiming positions of trust and honor in matters of medicine and health have to know that isolation for any length of time is a deadly-wrong policy. These folks must be presumed to have communicated this to policymakers responsible for implementing the "shelter in place" and "mask and gloves and distancing" protocols. Since the certain danger of prolonged "shelter/shield" policies must be known to those responsible for imposing them, why are they being continued week after week, as here in Michigan and many other places? Could it be that we are all being put in greater and greater danger just so politicians who took bad advice and made bad calls in late March can save face and avoid ownership-- and the political or legal consequences-- of their disastrous, liberty-trampling, Constitution-violating, economy-wrecking blunders? Will the perfectly-predictable wave of unnecessary deaths upon "unlocking" America-- which becomes more and more certain with prolonged "lockdowns" and the intermediate use of masks and gloves and social distancing-- be called upon as "proof" that isolation was a good thing, with the assertion that the sheltering/shielding policies were all that had been sparing the newly-dead victims until that time? As disturbing as it is, I think this possibility merits some consideration by those being victimized by these dangerous impositions. I can't think of any other plausible reason for the continued imposition of these known-to-be defective policies. IN ANY EVENT, EVEN IF NO NEFARIOUS PURPOSE lies behind them, the prolonged "lockdowns" and policies of masking and gloves and social distancing poses a definite and ever-growing threat to everyone abiding by them. Further, it is now thoroughly-established that even were ruination of immune systems not a predictable consequence, these "sheltering/shielding" policies have never offered any benefit at all. At the same time, it has always been obvious that these panic-based policies have wreaked huge and very quantifiable destruction to the rule of law, the world economy, and the individual economic well-being and health of everyone upon whom they have been imposed. Why is anyone abiding this irresponsible insanity? The vast majority of people are in no danger whatever from Covid-19. But every one of them is in danger from being "locked down" (and masked and gloved and "distanced"). I ask again: Why is anyone abiding this irresponsible insanity? "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." -Edward R. Murrow *Wednesday, April 29, 2020 NOTE I: The original version of the video above (from the ABC affiliate which attended the news conference) was taken down by YouTube for unknown reasons just as its view-count approached 6 million (after less than a week). Some enterprising soul uploaded an alternative almost immediately, and that was nice to see. I switched to that one-- but it got taken down, too. I found another one and switched again. Taken down again. The one you just watched (I'm hoping) is posted on Vimeo (clear your cache and refresh the page if it doesn't appear). We'll see how long it lasts. (Not long, as it turned out-- about three hours. But I found another one... and then it was down, too. Hence the link to a British-posted version which I hope will last longer.) But the point is, this film has been seen by a LOT of Americans, and they were VERY interested. Take from that what you will. NOTE II: In addition to the test results from which Drs. Erickson and Massihi calculate their "Guess what? The sky ISN'T falling..." case fatality rate (that is, both their own testing and New York's published test results), the USC/LA County tests arrive at the same general numbers, as discussed here. Further, today's Dallas County figures also indicate a tiny case fatality rate in line with all these others. There have been just under 1% of 3,600,000 residents tested, revealing a case (infection) total amongst that <1% of 3,240. This can be extrapolated to just over 324,000 cases in the county (>3,240 x 100=>324,000). The fatality total for the county is only 94, yielding a case fatality rate of .029%. (Btw, let's not forget that the "94", like all C19 death figures, is likely inflated-- as documented here-- meaning that the actual CFR is likely smaller still.) Michigan Rallies In Opposition To State Government's Constitutional Violations ...while the latest data collapse the state's pretext of C19 being the equivalent of the Black Death. Thursday, April 30, 2020: IT IS NOTABLE that at the time of this rally, the latest data from Michigan confirm that the C19 activity in the state is far from panic-worthy, much less sufficient to justify "emergency" Constitutional violations: See the CFR calculation based on state-supplied figures as of Sunday, May 3, 2020, in the next post, below. Those figures yield a CFR of .203%. A CFR of .203% is within the range of typical varieties of seasonal influenza, which ranges from ~.1% to ~.5%. (For purposes of comparison, the Spanish flu had a CFR of 2.5%.) Further, let's not forget that the Michigan's C19 death count, like all such figures in America at this time, is likely inflated for reasons documented here. This means that the actual CFR is likely smaller still. Further, Gretchen Whitmer threatened doctors in Michigan with sanctions if they treated C19 patients with hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin-- aas documented here-- doubtless explaining why Michigan's CFR, as low as it is, is nonetheless somewhat higher than most other places in the US, as will be seen in the next post, below. Actual C19 Case Fatality Rates by State Wednesday, May 6, 2020: THE FOLLOWING FIGURES are based on the latest data available on either May 2, 3 or 4, 2020, at the time indicated below each state table, as compiled by The Covid Tracking Project and posted at covidtracking.com/data, and in light of the extensive spread of C19 throughout America as indicated by the information and analysis here, which has been recently confirmed by in-the-field testing, as shown here and here. Population numbers are taken from simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population. The calculations are made by dividing the total number of tests done by the state population to derive the percent of the population tested (to the second decimal place). From that figure a multiplier is derived (to the second decimal place) and applied to the total number of positive tests. This produces a total infections figure for the state as a whole (rounded up or down to the nearest whole number). The total number of fatalities is then divided by that total number of infections to arrive at a Case Fatality Rate for the state, extended to three decimal places. As will be seen, the American economy has been destroyed either by sinister craft or rank incompetence purportedly to protect us all from what is actually a decidedly insignificant threat. When looking at your state's number, keep in mind that mild seasonal flu CFR = < .1%; and normal severe flu (i.e., Hong Kong, Asian) CFR = .1 - .5%. Also, don't miss the end notes. *** Alabama Population: 4,903,185 Total Infections = 382,142; CFR = .077
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** Alaska Population: 731,545 Total Infections = 12,462; CFR = .072
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** Arizona Population: 7,278,717 Total Infections = 762,307; CFR = .047
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** Arkansas Population: 3,017,825 Total Infection = 192,092; CFR = .042
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 3:40 pm EST *** California Population: 39,512,223 Total Infections = 2,906,717; CFR = .077
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 2:00 pm EST *** Colorado Population: 5,758,736 Total Infections = 1,188,238; CFR = .070
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 6:00 pm EST *** Connecticut Population: 3,565,287 Total Infections = 1,045,839; CFR = .238
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 4:00 pm EST *** Delaware Population: 973,764 Total Infections = 219,981; CFR = .082
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 6:00 pm EST *** District Of Columbia Population: 705,749 Total Infections = 153,394; CFR = .185
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 12:00 am EST *** Florida Population: 21,477,737 Total Infections = 1,844,850; CFR = .077
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 9:12 am EST *** Georgia Population: 10,617,423 Total Infections = 1,707,456; CFR = .071
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 3:25 pm EST *** Hawaii Population: 1,415,872 Total Infections = 25,941; CFR = .065
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 6:00 pm EST *** Idaho Population: 1,787,065 Total Infections = 124,155; CFR = .051
Last updated: Sat May 2 2020 7:00 pm EST *** Illinois Population: 12,671,821 Total Infections = 2,436,134; CFR = .109
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** Indiana Population: 6,732,219 Total Infections = 1,220,577; CFR = .103
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 11:59 pm EST *** Iowa Population: 3,155,070 Total Infections = 539,002; CFR = .034
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 12:00 pm EST *** Kansas Population: 2,913,314 Total Infections = 397,309; CFR = .034
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 10:00 am EST *** Kentucky Population: 4,467,673 Total Infections = 3,945,996; CFR = .006
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 5:00 pm EST *** Louisiana Population: 4,648,794 Total Infections = 762,596; CFR = .270
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 1:00 pm EST *** Maine Population: 1,344,212 Total Infections = 78,241; CFR = .072
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 11:59 am EST *** Maryland Population: 6,045,680 Total Infections = 1,200,244; CFR = .109
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 10:00 am EST *** Massachusetts Population: 6,949,503 Total Infections = 1,501,882; CFR = .272
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 pm EST *** Michigan Population: 9,986,857 Total Infections = 1,988,619; CFR = .203
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 11:00 am EST *** Minnesota Population: 5,639,632 Total Infections = 475,853; CFR = .089
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** Mississippi Population: 2,976,149 Total Infections = 294,994; CFR = .105
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 7:00 pm EST *** Missouri Population: 6,137,428 Total Infections = 587,481; CFR = .060
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 3:00 pm EST *** Montana Population: 1,068,778 Total Infections = 32,639; CFR = .049
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** Nebraska Population: 1,934,408 total Infections = 339,648; CFR = .022
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 8:45 pm EST *** Nevada Population: 3,080,156 Total Infections = 392,167; CFR = .066
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 11:00 am EST *** New Hampshire Population: 1,359,711 Total Infections = 136,206; CFR = .063
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 9:00 am EST *** New Jersey Population: 8,882,190 Total Infections = 4,111,021; CFR = .192
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 1:00 pm EST *** New Mexico Population: 2,096,829 Total Infections = 104,027; CFR = .145
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 5:58 pm EST *** New York Population: 19,453,561 Total Infections = 6,168,551; CFR = .314
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** North Carolina Population: 10,488,084 Total Infections = 852,345; CFR = .050
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 10:50 am EST *** North Dakota Population: 762,062 Total Infections = 26,852; CFR = .093
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 1:00 pm EST *** Ohio Population: 11,689,100 Total Infections = 1,550,905; CFR = .068
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 2:00 pm EST *** Oklahoma Population: 3,956,971 Total Infections = 251,173; CFR = .094
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 12:00 am EST *** Oregon Population: 4,217,737 Total Infections = 183,915; CFR = .059
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 11:00 am EST *** Pennsylvania Population: 12,801,989 Total Infections = 2,622,316; CFR = .093
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** Rhode Island Population: 1,059,361 Total Infections = 138,024; CFR = .247
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** South Carolina Population: 5,148,714 Total Infections = 534,321; CFR = .051
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 3:30 pm EST *** South Dakota Population: 884,659 Total Infections = 127,023; CFR = .016
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 6:00 pm EST *** Tennessee Population: 6,833,174 Total Infections = 439,158; CFR = .049
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 3:00 pm EST *** Texas Population: 28,995,881 Total Infections = 2,309,151; CFR = .038
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 1:15 pm EST *** Utah Population: 3,205,958 Total Infections = 137,019; CFR = .036
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 3:00 pm EST *** Vermont Population: 623,989 Total Infections = 32,562; CFR = .159
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 10:20 am EST *** Virginia Population: 8,535,519 Total Infections = 1,487,824; CFR = .045
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 5:00 pm EST *** Washington Population: 7,614,893 Total Infections = 546,204; CFR = .152
Last updated: Sun May 3 2020 2:59 am EST *** West Virginia Population: 1,792,147 Total Infections = 40,606; CFR = .123
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 10:00 am EST *** Wisconsin Population: 5,822,434 Total Infections = 541,764; CFR = .062
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 12:00 am EST *** Wyoming Population: 578,759 Total Infections = 32,552; CFR = .021
Last updated: Mon May 4 2020 1:56 am EST *** NOTE: THE POTENTIAL FOR SOME ADJUSTMENTS in both upward and downward directions must be acknowledged. There is a remote possibility that the prevalence of infections is somewhat lower than can be calculated by simple extrapolation from hard test results so far, because of rural or otherwise isolated pockets of a state's population which the virus hasn't reached. However, the simple fact that mail is delivered pretty-much universally; goods are shipped in to all places; and even the most outpost-grade Qwik-Stop gets its groceries from and through other, much less out-of-the-way places and facilities makes this possibility remote indeed, especially in light of the months that have passed since the virus began travelling the world in early December 2019 (if not sooner). ON THE OTHER HAND, the death counts ascribed to C19 are likely (that is, certainly) higher than they should be, due to CDC guidance directing medical personnel to ascribe C19 as cause of death when that is actually unknown. See documentation on that misguidance here. Because of the CDC misguidance, many deaths by flu or pneumonia have been listed as C19 deaths in the figures above. Even many deaths by heart attack, stroke and other causes in which the patient also happened to have C19 (even though possibly a very mild, unthreatening infection) are likely to have been listed as C19 deaths, as well. The 16 states which stand out from all the others by showing CFRs purportedly above .1% would appear to be particularly afflicted by this bad practice. In fact, the CDC itself has tacitly admitted all of this:
PLEASE NOTE AS WELL that every bit of what is revealed here was spelled out on this page six weeks ago by the application of simple logic to the facts then at hand. None of the outrages and destruction of the past six weeks has been justified even without considering the illegality of every single bit of it (which is discussed in detail at the 'Some Observations...' link below). ***** Some Observations Regarding Any Government's Alleged "Emergency Powers" The Ongoing Effort To Leverage Months of Conditioning Into Residual Despotism Persistent number-fudging keeps the panic alive and the populace largely compliant as the chains are fastened in place. Saturday, May 16, 2020: AS OF THIS MORNING, THE CDC IS REPORTING 85,990 total deaths from C19 in the USA:
...but note the asterisk below that big scary number (which is actually a typical figure for seasonal flu mortality) and alongside the "2,043 New Deaths" assertion. Clicking on the "About the Data" link below that asterisk takes us to this:
"As of April 14, 2020, CDC case counts and death counts include both confirmed and probable cases and deaths." How about that? And let's look at the definitions. "Probable" includes cases in which no testing has been done to actually confirm that C19 was even present, much less that it was the cause-- or even just among the causes-- of a fatality. But that fatality is added to the scary death count anyway. In fact, these merely "probable" C19 fatalities have actually been being added since March 4, per this CDC instruction, which was then emphasized a few weeks later with this follow-up (perhaps because we didn't see quite a satisfactory bounce in the panic-fanning "C19-is-the-PLAGUE!!" numbers, which may also explain the re-iteration in the April 5 "position statement" summarized in the screenshot above). (Highlighting in those two notices is mine.) So, the frightening figure of 85,990 deaths is NOT the number of actual known C19 fatalities. Instead it includes not only folks who had tested positive for having the disease-- which by itself doesn't mean that they died from it, only that it was present-- but also folks for whom there is no evidence that they were infected with C19 at all. NOW, WHILE THINKING ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS of the foregoing observations, let's not forget that these "probable" calls are being made in an atmosphere in which everyone-- doctors included-- are inundated with assertions that C19 is everywhere. We are all relentlessly propagandized to see it as such a dire and ubiquitous threat that the country has set itself on the road to worse-than-the-Great-Depression economic disruption, and everyone everywhere dons a face mask for all interactions with others, which themselves are kept sporadic and only at arm's-length. Needless to say, assuming C19 to be the cause of death whenever the least pretext allows is inevitable under the circumstances shown, even though the symptoms on which such a conclusion might be based would be the same for a death from the flu or any of several other causes. But wait, there's more.. Simultaneous with the inundation of C19 über alles, hospitals who declare an admitted patient to be a C19 patient (rather than an influenza patient, for example) get a multi-thousand-dollar bonus from the feds for doing so (see a USA Today "fact check" here-- but you have to get to the very bottom of a long page before they finally say, "True"), creating an obvious perverse incentive to err in the direction of C19 diagnoses which feeds into the predisposition to do so based on the panic-mongering mentioned above. ANOTHER PERVERSE INCENTIVE is the cloying, "You are all heroes!" swooning with which every local news anchor and state government PSA drips as part of the propaganda effort meant to keep the rest of us compliant as a "new normal" surveillance-and-control apparatus is erected around us on the pretext of saving us all from the 'rona-- whether we want saving or not. That has to feel pretty good to the portion of medical personnel who remain on the job (huge numbers of them have been laid-off over the last few months since what are actually near-empty hospitals don't need them). Sad to say, all that stroking is its own kind of subtle perverse incentive to assume every case being dealt with to be a plague case for which medical people doing their jobs become heroes to everyone else. (That's as opposed to suspecting that some or most of these cases might be just the flu, which kills at least as many folks each year as even the alleged 85K reported for C19 today, but for treatment of which one has always been treated just as a worker who is, you know, doing his or her job). SO, WHAT HAS BEEN THE EFFECT of the "probable case" inclusion into the alleged C19 death stats sought by the CDC on March 4 and 24, and admitted by the CDC in its asterisk-note about the early April additional "guidance" to doctors shown above? Well, look at the following table from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics covering the primary flu season for this year:
Notice that within the week that the CDC issued its, "Seriously, guys, we really meant that March 4 "includes the merely "probables" in your C19 fatality reports" reiteration on March 24 alleged C19 deaths went up more than five-fold-- from a highest weekly total yet of 517 to 2,897 the next week, and then 8,893, 14,287, etc., etc.. (And in fact, the week of March 4 they had actually done also jumped up about fivefold from the prior week, even though the numbers were small). Notice this, too, though perhaps it's just coincidental: Just after the newest CDC guidance to doctors and hospital administrators about reporting "probable" C19 cases went out, the average weekly flu mortality count dropped by roughly 50% from what had been its steady state for more than two months. Further, even that "steady-state" flu reporting before the precipitous early April drop was remarkably low at only 6,158 fatalities through all of February 1 through May 9. That's typically a fairly high activity period for flu deaths; and that is a category in which more than 60,000 deaths in the US is considered a "mild" season. Added Tuesday, June 23, 2020: Watch the video below. All the way through. It is an hour of truth power, by which you will come to understand the falseness of the alleged C-19 death toll by which the panic and all its attendant evil is being sustained. HERE'S THE TAKEAWAY: The scary 85K C19 fatality figure is nonsense on stilts. It is a contrived figure, meant to frighten you into continued and further acquiescence to the despotic impositions on your liberties by state governments, and the roll-out of further, more permanent oppressions, such as "contact-tracing" and other upgrades to the panopticon. Share this information. The only thing keeping the impositions going (and the corresponding destruction of liberty, law, and our personal and societal economies) is the continued fear consuming many of our neighbors that the C19 virus is a dire threat to us all-- a once-in-a-lifetime genuine plague justifying all the government overreach. Knock that fear-factor off its pins with the facts presented here, and a whole lot more "Oh, yeah... I'm an American, and we don't like "lockdowns"...") is going to start happening. The liberty you save will be your own. P.S. While you're properly steamed up over getting played on the numbers, reflect on the fact that all of this has only been possible because of the size, influence and respect wielded by the Leviathan state. Reflect on the fact that the only way to really put a reliable end to it-- or to prevent the next version of the same hobgoblin-flogging (if we succeed in thwarting this one)-- is to shrink that Leviathan back down to Constitutional size. Then read this little two-page document. The Michigan "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key The simple, indisputable legal basis for reclaiming freedom from all “lockdown” edicts in the Great Lakes state, and for holding the perps responsible. (The Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, Wyoming, Georgia, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota Keys have been added, below.) ALL STATE "LOCKDOWN" ORDERS and related C19-hysteria measures issued from governors' offices since mid-March of 2020 have been illegal under express terms of the Constitution of each affected state. What follows is a concise analysis of that express prohibition for Michigan (first posted here on April 20, 2020 in a broader form, and then as seen below on this page on Thursday, May 21, 2020, and upheld by Michigan's Supreme Court on October 2, 2020). Below that four-point analysis will be found links to a .pdf version of the material for printing and sharing; links to a few posts addressing the limits of state (and federal) executive authority more broadly; and .pdfs of similar analyses for a number of other states that have been added over the intervening months. Those in states for which I have not yet prepared an analysis are encouraged to use these examples as guides in their own efforts to address the illegalities of executive overreach with which they are afflicted. *** 1. The Michigan Constitution is the supreme law of the state: Schedule, section 16, of the Michigan Constitution of 1963 provides that upon adoption of that Constitution by a majority of electors, “it shall be the supreme law of the state on and after the first day of January of the year following its adoption” and declares that vote in favor of adoption as having been certified on June 20, 1963. 2. Disharmony with the Constitution invalidates any purported act, pronouncement, edict, decree, order or law of any state officer(s) or agent(s): The General rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of it's enactment and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it. An unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted. No repeal of an enactment is necessary, since an unconstitutional law is void. The general principles follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection, and justifies no acts performed under it. 16 Am Jur 2d, Sec 256 3. Michigan's Constitution vests law-making (legislative) power-- that is, the power to impose enforceable requirements or prohibitions-- exclusively in the legislature, in Article IV, section 1 and Article III, section 2, with only two very narrow and specific exceptions (all bracketed clarifications and emphases added): Article IV, § 1 Legislative power. Except to the extent limited or abrogated by article IV, section 6 [providing for an Independent citizens redistricting commission] or article V, section 2 [allowing the governor to rearrange or reassign functions within the legislatively-established executive branch, subject to approval by the legislature where having the character of law], the legislative power of the State of Michigan is vested in a senate and a house of representatives. Article III, § 2 Separation of powers of government. The powers of government are divided into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. No person exercising powers of one branch shall exercise powers properly belonging to another branch except as expressly provided in this constitution [in Article IV, sec. 1, shown above]. 4. In law, "substance" always rules over "form". The devising and issuing of commands to the general public, disobedience of which can be punished by the state apparatus in any way whatsoever, is the making of laws, even if the products are called "executive orders". Executive branch officials are prohibited from such legislating, except as expressly authorized in the Constitutions to which they have sworn fidelity. Any basis-- even an enactment of the legislature itself-- on which the governor (or any executive branch agency or official) claims the power to devise, issue and enforce commands directed at any or all of the general public -- whether such commands are labeled as "Executive Orders" or otherwise-- is manifestly unconstitutional and void, per the foregoing simple and straightforward legal facts. The governor and all other executive branch officials are prohibited from being given, having, or exercising any such power. No commands so devised and issued can be lawfully enforced by anyone. No commands so devised and issued can be lawfully upheld by any court to which the foregoing points of law are presented. *** P.S. To get this Key as a .pdf which can be printed and carried about when resuming the exercise of your rights, and which should be shared as widely as possible, click here. P.P.S. For a complete discussion of the fallacies inherent in executive-branch claims of "emergency powers", see this. P.P.P.S. For some discussion on the utility of the Michigan Key above and the others below, and the extended application of the same principles to every other state, see this. *** The Texas "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key Has Been Posted Let's call it the "Don't Mess with Texans" instrument... Get the Lone Star State Key as a .pdf here. *** The Virginia "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key Has Been Posted This great state's motto is, "Sic Semper Tyrannis", an express rejection of governmental overreach. This seems a good time for Virginians to reflect on that. Get the Virginia Key as a .pdf here. *** The Kentucky "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key Has Been Posted Freedom and the Rule of Law for the Bluegrass State Get the Kentucky Key as a .pdf here. *** The Wyoming "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key Has Been Posted Freedom and the Rule of Law for the Equality State Get the Wyoming Key as a .pdf here. *** The Georgia "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key Has Been Posted Freedom and the Rule of Law for the Wisdom, Justice and Moderation State Get the Georgia Key as a .pdf here. *** The Louisiana "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key Has Been Posted Freedom and the Rule of Law for the Pelican State Get the Louisiana Key as a .pdf here. *** The Wisconsin "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key Has Been Posted Freedom and the Rule of Law for the Badger State Get the Wisconsin Key as a .pdf here. *** The Minnesota "Lockdown" Liberty And Accountability Key Has Been Posted Freedom and the Rule of Law for the North Star State Get the Minnesota Key as a .pdf here ...thanks to the efforts of the excellent Tony Jackson. *** How Stupid Do They Think We Are? Pretty stupid indeed, it would seem, as the renewed C19 panic-mongering continues... Monday, June 29, 2020: FOLKS, LET'S TRY TO KEEP THE DRUMBEAT of self-serving bogus statistics from blinding us to actual facts, such as these: By the middle of this past March, tens of millions of Americans had been infected by COVID-19 (C19), and yet, the disease ran its course in each of them, start to finish, with almost entirely insignificant effects. Is it hard to remember that far back? Especially after all the narrative management since then designed to leave you imagining the disease to be a major killer, only kept at bay by masks and "social distancing" and "lockdowns? Read the following points and supporting documents: By March 14 the US CDC estimated 38,000,000 to 54,000,000 cases of flu since October, 2019-- just in the USA. C19 appeared and began spreading near the beginning of that same period (see here and here). The distribution (spread) of the new disease was unrestricted. During that three-to-three-and-a-half month period from late November/early December, 2019, to mid-March 2020, fully a billion people flew on airplanes from everywhere to everywhere. This included tens of millions flying in to all points in the USA from places like Wuhan, China, infected areas of Italy, other places to which people infected elsewhere had traveled; in short, from EVERYWHERE. Eventually there was a limited restriction on entry of travelers from Wuhan put in place, but it didn't go into effect until January 31, only imposed a 14-day quarantine, and didn't apply to US citizens or residents. The next one (limiting entry from travelers from Iran) wasn't until February 29. A few more concerning travel from certain places in Europe only went into effect March 14 (and another concerning Brazil took effect in late May). As said above, then, the spread of C19 was unrestricted. It will have precisely tracked that of the flu in infecting its tens of millions of victims (as is shown here and here). In addition to being spread world-wide during the period in question, C19 is purportedly much more virulent than the flu, with a much longer contagion window and much longer persistence on surfaces. Further, unlike the normal flu, for which there is a purportedly 40% - 60% effective vaccine that had been taken by on the order of 60% of children in the country and 45% of adults (projecting from last year's numbers), no prophylactic measures will have diminished anyone's susceptibility to C19. Therefore... Long before the "six feet away" stuff [or masks, or "sheltering in place"] had become a 24/7 shamanistic drumbeat on every mainstream media outlet and began to be dictated by state governors on March 19, C19 must have spread at least as far as had the more mundane, somehow not-panic-inducing flu during the same time. This means that after correcting for the slight difference in dates of incidence it can confidently be concluded that by mid-March at least 36 - 51 million Americans had already been infected with C19. Plainly, the "shelter in place", "social distancing" and "masking" edicts and other associated martial law impositions that sprang up like evil liberty, prosperity, and rule-of-law-destroying toadstools in late March did nothing to mitigate whatever threat "the pandemic" presented. THEY WERE ALL TOO LATE TO KEEP THAT THREAT FROM BEING FULLY REALIZED.
So, with 36 - 51 million C19 cases going by March 14 (again, before the "shelter in place" nonsense began)-- the bulk of them having run their dire course during the three prior months-- how many deaths from C19 purportedly occurred during that period in the USA? 97. Yes, just 97. Look at the following table excerpt from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics as of June 26, 2020 (the first column, with the figures in bold, is the only one that counts here):
36 - 51 million cases-- which is to say, 36 - 51 million Americans infected with the disease-- and only 97 deaths from the first at the beginning of February all the way to mid-March-- and pretty much all of those in nursing homes, involving very old victims afflicted with co-morbidities. Hardly a shut-down-civilization, switch-to-a-"new-normal"-worthy horror-fest. (NOTE/UPDATE Friday, 11-20-20: In October or early November, the CDC added 11 more purported C19-caused deaths to its weekly totals from February 1 to March 14 due to retroactive ascriptions of the virus as the cause of death, raising the total for the period from 97 to 108. Take the validity of the addition however you like; my point is unaffected.) Want to dispute my infection-rate analysis? Fine. Go for it. 'Cause here's the thing: 97 (or 108) dead out of 36 to 51 million infections is barely even a noticeable case fatality rate (CFR). It isn't justification for edicts concerning "shelter in place", "social distancing", "masking" or any other panicky citizen behavior or draconian governmental response even if my numbers are off by an order of magnitude and the infected range is only 3.6 - 5.1 million. Even at the lower end (3.6 million infected) of that ridiculously low range 97 (or 108) dead is a CFR of only .0027% (or .003%)! NOW, AM I MAKING THIS CLEAR ENOUGH? We had three+ months of raging, totally-unchecked C19 infection on a massive scale in America, which produced only 97 (or 108) deaths. Plainly, THIS IS NOT A VERY DANGEROUS DISEASE. Numbers of declared C-19 deaths went up starting in Mid-March-- despite no meaningful change in long-since-enormous infection rates. This happened for two intermingled reasons. First, the CDC issued instructions to the medical profession to count practically everything but blunt-force trauma deaths as "C19 deaths"-- first on March 4 and then again on March 24 to overcome stubborn professional resistance to the improper directive (highlighting on both those docs is mine). The second, related factor bumping up declared C19 deaths starting in Mid March has been the scandalous-- in fact, heinously-criminal-- adoption of deadly and deceptive practices in what came to be called "hot-spots", such as New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan, a handful of states which by themselves ended up producing more than 60% of all declared deaths from C19 as of June 27, 2020. One of these outrageous, declared-C19-death-producing practices involves mingling sick, briefly-hospitalized elderly patients carrying whatever sent them to the hospital in the first place (which was always assumed to be C19) plus whatever they picked up while there with highly-vulnerable, often co-morbidity-afflicted populations in nursing homes. This practice allowed most of the subsequent routine deaths among the affected nursing home populations to be presumptively classified as C19 deaths (per the CDC guidelines discussed above), and probably increased the death rate at the same time. Fully 42% of all allegedly C19 deaths in the USA have been from among nursing home populations. More heinous still has been what some might call the murder-- or at least negligent homicide-- of assumed C19-infected patients in "hot spot" hospitals by misguided or outright irresponsible "treatments" which are known (or should be known) by medical staff and administrators alike to be death sentences. These particularly include the heavy sedation of the victim, followed by the installation of a "ventilator" by which the victim's lungs are likely to become irreparably damaged over time, leading to death. However, this "treatment" also leads to a massive subsidy, with the hospital which declares a patient to have C19 getting an $8,000 Medicare premium over one diagnosed as having the normal coronavirus (the flu), and then an additional $26,000 if that patient is put on a ventilator. Talk about perverse incentives-- and that's just how things played out. As latitude for classifying patients as C19 victims came on line per the "relaxed" CDC guidelines discussed above, the number of patients admitted with symptoms which could indicate merely the common flu-- a disease which the CDC believes had infected 38 - 54 million Americans by mid-March, remember-- but who were automatically declared to have C19, even when tests said they did not, skyrocketed. As the available supply of ventilators rose dramatically in late March, the death rate from declaredly C19 patients on whom they were immediately inflicted rose dramatically, too.* At the same time, a vigorous campaign to disparage and suppress the use of a proven cure for C19-- hydroxychloroquine, generally supplemented with azithromycin and zinc-- went into action like lightning, largely preventing most purported victims of the disease from receiving the treatment. Unsurprisingly, from the point in mid-to-late-March in which all the cause-of-death jiggering, assault of vulnerable populations with sick housemates, and perversely-incentivized "treatment" practices began coming together, we watched a total death rate of only 97-- over three months combined-- zoom up to 97 declared C19 deaths every hour-and-a-quarter. It is on the basis of that palpably-fraudulent high-velocity death rate that illegal "shelter in place", "stand by and watch your business crumble", "social distancing", "masking" and "massive inflationary 'bailouts' and subsidies" were imposed upon the better part of America. It is on the media-fanned panicky dread of the same fictional death threat for "too-hasty re-openings" or a "second wave" that the same lunatic behaviors are being urged upon America once again. But in light of the actual facts, who cares if there is a "second wave"? Is the insignificant threat of this mild disease worth the continuing destruction of your business, your job, your dignity and your liberty, by way of your persistent surrender to these illegal edicts? "Shelter in place", "social distancing", "masking" and other "lockdown" measures have saved you from nothing. They have merely tested the waters as to how far into self-destructive madness Americans can be driven by a cabal of corrupt politicians and presstitutes at the behest of the 1% who took advantage of the cover to loot the American economy of at least $2 trillion. (UPDATE: IN EARLY NOVEMBER, 2020, Dr. Genevieve Briand, assistant program director of the Applied Economics master’s degree program at Johns Hopkins' Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, published research showing that contrary to all the panic-promoting claims about hundreds of thousands of additional deaths from C19 throughout 2020, there has actually been no rise in the normal annual USA death rate at all. See more on this here. Michael Yeadon, Ph.D., a former vice-president and chief scientific officer of the drug company Pfizer, has reached the same conclusion from research of mortality stats in the UK. See this for more. Dr. Yeadon has also published a powerful video statement broadly addressing the C19 nonsense which can be seen here.) IN FACT, IF ANYTHING, "shelter in place", "social distancing" and "masking" have cost all of us a great deal more than just the raw economic, cultural and legal devastation they have delivered. A GREAT deal more. Let's start down this path with some background. Did you know that these notions are the product of a child's science fair project? I'm serious. In 2006, 14-year-old Laura Glass decided to create a computer model of how contagion spread as her project for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2006. Her model reasonably showed that shutting down schools in which large numbers of kids were concentrated in close quarters 6-8 hours five days a week would slow the spread of any contagious agent which had appeared in the community-- something for which a computer model was hardly necessary... But it happened that George W. Bush was all geeked about epidemic preparedness at the time, having recently read a book on the subject, and Laura's dad was a connected guy. He presented little Laura's model to a couple of the folks W. had tasked with contingency planning and after a bit of this and that, "social distancing" and "shut downs" became official federal prescriptions. (You can get more on the story here.) THIS'D ALL BE A PRETTY CUTE TALE if the policy built on 14-year-old Laura's digital-age version of a papier-mâché volcano hadn't recently served as the rationale for $trillions in deficit spending and inflation... Let's not forget the loss of 20+ million jobs, too, and the ruination of tens of thousands of small businesses and the meaningful rule of law. (And all of that is just in the U.S. Little Laura's model was applied elsewhere, as well-- severing all manner of supply-chains and trade connections, the ultimate harm from which has yet to be seen.) But wait; there's much, much more... In addition to all the aforementioned very bad things, the "official prescription" for coping with a pandemic also damages the immune systems of everyone-- even those who do their best to NOT participate. First of all, social isolation severely damages the immune system on a deeply fundamental level, prompting system shutdowns and resource redirection which makes the victims highly vulnerable to-- viruses, in particular. Secondly, immune systems need external input-- germs-- from the environment, including other people, in order to stay healthy and strong. Isolation-- whether by "sheltering in place" or by masking and distancing practices by which biological-material exchange is hampered or prevented-- severely weakens those systems and renders people dangerously vulnerable to sickness from any and every coronavirus out there (and there are MANY), as well as every other pathogen. This second point about immune systems presents an irony, in a way. The sheep following little Laura's prescription are encouraged to pressure grown-ups by shaming them as "endangering others" due to not wearing the masks, etc.. The "endangering others" thing isn't true as regards wearing masks and staying at home-- if you have a mask and gloves on (or whatever additional PPE you imagine necessary) you're not going to catch anything from me whether I'm wearing them or not. But the "endangering others" IS true of those who isolate themselves by those behaviors, and who therefore fail to contribute to the health of other people's immune systems. Both points about immune systems present yet another unfunny irony: If we see an unusual or unusually-serious disease eruption after "re-opening", whether of C19 or otherwise, it will be because the panicky "shutdowns" have destroyed so many immune systems. FURTHER, THE "PRESCRIPTION" PRODUCES social pathologies such as suicides, domestic violence, addictions, and a hardening of government's police-state mentality. It is also a petri dish for the cultivation of fake news needed to keep people cooperating despite their powerful instinctive recognition of the "prescription" as hideously harmful-- much more than the threat against which it is intended to defend. The "prescription" also keeps those who are sick out of care while their illness grows stronger and more dangerous as they "self-quarantine" before seeking help. And those needing care for other medical issues-- cancer treatments, surgeries, and so forth-- are simply made to wait, and to suffer the consequences. In the end, the "prescription" emanating from little Laura Glass's science fair computer model is likely to kill more Americans** than even the number falsely declared to be C19 fatalities. IT'S A SIMPLE DEFECT OF ALL hubristic reliance on computer models for policy. The model can't account for what is not anticipated and coded into the program by someone with extremely in-depth knowledge of each factor involved, and how all such factors interact. Such a god-like knowledge is possessed by no human being or team of human beings, where anything other than mere physical properties are concerned. Plus, even taking a meaningful stab at comprehensive model programming involving variables and variables of the variables is enormously hard work. It's like playing five-dimensional chess in your head and being obliged to work through the whole game to its conclusion, and using only your most honest guesses of what the other guy would do to counter your moves. As I model the question, computer modelers simply don't attempt this achingly hard and frankly impossible task. Instead, they just spend their time on a persuasive presentation, hoping that their target audience is either too simple-minded to perceive the omissions or has its own interest in a, "just do this and everything will be great" approach. But everything will NOT be great under little Laura's science fair model, and already is very, very UN-great. Are you going to buy into it again, in response to the new dire reports of "rising numbers of cases" and "too rapid re-openings" and a "second wave"? All of those things are bullshit. Rising numbers of cases mean NOTHING. We had millions and millions of cases throughout December, January, February and March with a death count of 97. The vast majority of all the subsequently reported deaths are not actually C19 deaths. Instead, they are deaths from other causes (many preventable, others not) which have simply been called C19 deaths. In many cases this mislabeling has possibly been done for money. It seems certain that much of the mislabeling has been contrived in an effort to defend and validate initial professional incompetence and insane policy prescriptions. I'M GOING TO CLOSE WITH A "FOR INSTANCE" OBSERVATION concerning that initial professional incompetence which should serve well as my final point on why everything associated with the "official prescription" blossoming like a toadstool from little Laura's own computer model should be flushed down the toilet, followed by a vigorous shower (from my "Other Voices" column of May 25, 2020): Let me give you a very pointed example of why no politician or "expert" should be trusted with control over your decisions and your well-being or that of those dependent on you: Neil Ferguson is the Imperial College, London, epidemiologist on whose predictions and computer models were adopted and relied upon for justification by Tony Fauci and Donald Trump and everyone else in the command-and-control-you infrastructure. Ferguson predicted 2,200,000 dead in America and 500,000 dead in Britain from C19 if his mitigation policy prescriptions were not followed. However... At the time Ferguson made those predictions and they were bought into (or seized upon) by those who then presumed to take control of your movements, purchases, assembly, access to healthcare, etc., his record included predicting:
It was this guy, with this vaudevillian record whose warnings were seized upon as justification for destroying your business, and generating a panic by virtue of which an effort will be made to compel you to install a tracking app on your phone (and punish you for not having it with you and active at all times) and to inject you with a vaccine likely accompanied by a digital ID implant or registration by the sole virtue of which you will be allowed to go out in public, get on an airplane, train or bus, operate a business (including a school or a church), and so on. Further, it was this guy whose record of abject failures in predicting anything (and who was recently caught ignoring his own "social distancing" recommendations) you were never told about, by Donald Trump or Anthony Fauci or anyone else. Those people aren't your friends and they aren't your servants. They are your competitors, if not your predators. AMERICA MUST GROW UP, and that means ending reliance on the good-will and competence of public officials. They have neither. That external, delusional "White Knight" reliance must be replaced with self-reliance, and the downsizing of the state. We need to shrink the state from today's perception-controlling and society-dominating Leviathan-size back down to Constitutionally-intended size, a dimension which can be derived from looking at the size at which we maintained all our American governments, combined-- federal, state and local-- for about our first 140 years. That responsive and safe governmental size was so lean as to consume less than 10% of GDP on average-- and yet Americans during that time became the most prosperous society in the history of the world, while America remained a real Land of the Free. Can you imagine what a difference it would make today to shrink Washington down to less than a fifth of its current size and influence? And to shrink the state governments down by 50% or so? Well, don't just close your eyes and dreamily smile at the thought. Get up and make it happen. Spread the knowledge you already have about the true nature of the income tax. The simplest way to do this is to share this little document with everyone you can, in every way that you can. "It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error." -United States Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson *Although I haven't stats with which to prove this out, it is my bet that the majority of flu-like symptoms admittances automatically classified as C19 patients and put on ventilators took place in large urban-area hospitals where funding is tighter and a $34,000 premium per bed is more of an incentive. The population being served in such hospitals is more likely to be minority. If I'm right, this may help explain the apparent imbalance of supposedly C19 deaths among certain ethnic populations. See the very powerful film here for more on this subject. **There is an erroneous reference and link in this otherwise pretty good recital to an article claiming that HCQ has been found to increase the death rate from C19. This was the declared conclusion of an almost immediately retracted false-data study published in the Lancet (which is discussed in detail here). All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed." -I. F. Stone *** *** Selected C19-Hysteria-Related Newsletter Articles Since Late June Rearranging The Deck Chairs While The Titanic Sinks Are We Really Going Out With Just A Whimper? If YOU Don't Start Acting, We Will End Up With A Permanent Dystopian "New Normal" Resources For Navigating The Nonsense Plugging The PCR Test Into The C19 Panic-Mongering Picture Renewed C19 Panic-Propaganda Serves To Hamper And Discourage Resistance To The Election Fraud Is The Jig Up For The C19 Hoax? Could Be... Regarding Overtaxed Hospitals, And Upcoming Vaccine Pressure Resolved: No More Playing Along With The "Lockdowns" Today's Red-Alert Crisis Is Brought To You By... A Stinging Rebuke; And A Shameful Hypocrisy 'The New Normal'-- An Eye-Opening Documentary Film Thinking Of Getting "Vaccinated"? An Eminent Virologist Sounds An Urgent Alarm Against Current Vaccines Why Gretchen Whitmer Sent Sick People Into Nursing Homes Last Spring "Universal Mail-In Ballots" Are The Perfect Set-up For Election Fraud Are You Counting On The 2022 Elections To Set Things Right? Don't Be Naive. A Mature Perspective On "The Pandemic" The Assault On Liberty And The Rule Of Law Under The C19 Pretext Accelerates The COVID-19 - Election Fraud Connection Two Reports Tear A Gaping Wound Into The COVID-Coup Narrative A Few Comments-- Nuclear And Otherwise-- On Selected Current Events Why Do So Many Still Buy Into The Narrative? There Is No Public Health Utility To The Current COVID "Vaccines" Getting The Numbers Right, Part II Those Saying "NO!" To "Vaccine" Mandates Are NOT Quitting Their Jobs The CDC Has Begun Running Scared Some Sober Observations-- Dark And Light-- To Consider As We Go Forward A Recap Of The Recent Past And A Prescription For The Future I Believe We Are About Ready To Turn The Corner The CDC Finally Admits The Superiority Of Naturally-Acquired Immunity I Keep Saying This-- Why Don't I Hear Anyone Saying "Amen"? This page will doubtless have more added over the course of the next few weeks unless the insanity ends first. Please check back regularly. |
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and
any person with knowledge or reason to have knowledge of such things
who has failed to come forward with his or her testimony. I'll suggest $10 million, just to
pick a figure which should be sufficient to prompt some response
while still being only the merest drop in the very big 'CARES Act'
bucket. 
