The Weaponization of Fear
The View from the Middle
In his 1932 inaugural speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt uttered one of the most famous lines of his Presidency as he began to rally the country to come out of the Great Depression. He told the country that, “the only think we have to fear is – fear itself”. While FDR was not a perfect man, I could argue that he was a master at persuading people to rally around a cause and to put trust in him. He did, after all, guide us out of a depression, manage the successful US campaign during World War II and win four Presidential elections. In this first inaugural he was telling the country not to be paralyzed by fear and not allow it to keep the country from making progress. He was motivating the people of America. He knew the negative power of fear and wanted everyone focused on the bright future that he was promising.
What he was revealing was that fear can be a powerful tool to manipulate people, and some people today have used it in its most malicious form. The fear mongering always starts out the same way. They tell you to blindly “believe” the experts / scientists. That sounds reasonable, right? They are “experts” after all. They are scientists. They must be smart and know exactly what they're talking about. Then the scientists make predictions that scare the hell out of everyone, but it ends up that the experts are wrong.
Back in March, a study by Imperial College scientists in Britain predicted that the Coronavirus would kill over two million people in the United States and over 500,000 people in England would die. Of course, that forecast ended up being off by a factor of 20, but the scare tactic worked and the American people were immediately frightened to death. Even as that projection slowly got dialed back to 250,000 dead in the US and then finally to 70,000 (which is less deaths than the seasonal flu delivered just two years ago), the paranoia was already set in place. And today the media is vested in the panic of all Americans, so they have to sell the death toll. The newest shock tactic is to compare the current death toll to the deaths from the Vietnam War. While that is clever, it is grossly misleading. The media should compare the current death toll to the seasonal flu last year or the year before (56,000 last year and 80,000 the year before), but that wouldn’t serve their purpose which was to terrify the American people.
Then we had the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci come out and tell us that the Coronavirus was ten times deadlier than the seasonal flu. Wow, that sounds awful and scary! Of course, Dr. Fauci never told the other side of that equation, which is that even with this inflated mortality projection it meant that 99% of the people who would be infected by this virus would survive. And today, virologists are discovering that millions of people who contracted this virus showed little to no symptoms and didn’t even know they had it. This new information has the “experts” suggesting that the mortality rate for the Coronavirus might be closer to 0.1%, or the same as the seasonal flu. Now, let’s consider something. If these “experts” and “scientists” had emphasized that the mortality rate was that low and that this meant that 99.9% of the people who were infected would indeed recover and not die, would we have had such a draconian response?
After all of this misinformation, we have fanatic and unscrupulous politicians trying to use this crisis to advance their ideological agenda’s. Just yesterday, Hillary Clinton once again admitted to the Democrat Party’s disgusting, cruel and even extortionistic strategy when she said, “this would be a terrible crisis to waste.” They will use this crisis to add totally unrelated programs to bills designed to address the hardship being experienced by the American people. For example, what does “a universal guaranteed income” have to do with fighting this virus? What do oppressive regulations for airline fuel mileage have to do with this virus? What does funding for Planned Parenthood have to do with the Coronavirus recovery plan? You’re right, nothing! Yet, Democrats will attach these unconnected spending packages and regulations to bills that are desperately needed by the American people. THAT is what they mean by not letting a terrible crisis go to waste. They plan to use that crisis for their own ends.
But haven’t I seen this play before? Oh yah – Climate Change (or global warming or whatever). The experts / scientists make horrifying predictions like “the polar ice caps will be gone by 2010” or “New York will be underwater by 2013” or we have 10 years to get totally out of fossil fuels or our world will become uninhabitable. Obviously, these predictions were wrong, but climate change extremists will never admit it. They just move the goal posts. Now they say that if we don’t change everything right now, the world will be uninhabitable in 100 years, when they will all conveniently be dead. My motto is, “If anyone tells you that they know what is going to happen in 100 years, they are lying.”
Yes, these expert scientists have managed to scare the hell out of many, including teen environmentalist, Greta Thunberg and her entire generation. That’s not difficult, since Greta is only 15 years old and I’m sure doesn’t understand in the least the intricacies that drive our climate. I would actually consider what they have done to Greta as child abuse. What they haven’t told Greta is that the experts have been wrong in virtually ALL of their predictions. The Polar Ice Caps as well as the polar bears are still here. New York is still above sea level and there aren’t millions of climate change refugees wandering around Europe and the United States starving due to droughts and crop failures.
The lesson for all of us is that we should be skeptical when politicians ask us to give up our rights, our property or our money for promises to save us from “whatever”. Look at what our government has done in the face of a virus as threatening as the seasonal flu. They have shut down our economy. They put millions of people out of work. They forced millions of businesses to close their doors, some of which will never reopen, and of course they spent / borrowed trillions of dollars that will just be added to the debt that our children and grandchildren will inherit from us. What a legacy.
Our country was built on God given freedoms and personal responsibility. We should never give those up for any reason. Viruses will come and go. Natural disasters will shake us to our core. Politicians will promise us free everything. They will promise no more sickness or death and no racial, gender, religious or income divides. But with each promise they will ask for a little bit more of your rights, your money and your freedom until you have nothing left and totally depend on them. Don’t believe them. Stick with the original contract that has made America the greatest country on earth! Freedom with personal responsibility. They can suggest how they think I should respond to the Coronavirus. I'll take it from there.
Friday, May 1, 2020
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
The Coronavirus vs The Constitution
The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution - Part I
The View from the Middle
As I try to honestly evaluate what we, as a country, have done in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, I must question much of our government’s actions and most of the public’s reaction. We have all been driven by faulty models that originally predicted one to two million deaths in the US as a result of the virus. Then the models predicted between 100,000 to 240,000 deaths, and now the latest projection is for about 60,000 Americans to die by August of this year. That’s a lot of deaths, but let’s try to put that into perspective.
In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed 700,000 people in the US and about 50 million around the world. That was when the US population was just over 100 million so that would be the equivalent of 2.2 million deaths in the US alone today, and Woodrow Wilson didn’t enact one stay-at-home order. In fact, he sent boatloads of our troops to Europe to fight in the WWI and probably spread that virus to Europe. In 1957 and 1968 the Asian Flu and then the Hong Kong Flu each killed 100,000 people in America when we had half the population we have today. I was a junior in high school in 1968 and I don’t remember any lockdowns or business closings or any of the draconian governmental responses that we have had today.
Let’s get a little closer to today. Just two years ago, the seasonal flu killed 80,000 Americans according to the CDC, and do you remember any massive governmental restrictions? Do you remember the death count clocks on all the news shows? Do you remember any nationwide business closures or the need for any trillion-dollar rescue spending bills?
Let’s also put some balance in our reporting. According the Dr. Fauci, from the President’s Coronavirus task force, the mortality rate for Covid-19 is 1.0%, which means that 99% of the people who are infected with this virus will survive. Also, using Dr. Fauci’s projected mortality rate and the latest death toll model we can calculate that about six million people in the United States will be infected with this virus. That sounds like a big number, but it means that only 2% of Americans will even be infected with this virus, and only .02% (that’s two hundredths of one percent) of Americans will die. In other words, 99.8% of Americans will NOT die from this virus. Those are pretty good odds. Is there anyone covering that aspect of this story?
The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution - Part II
The View from the Middle
Our founders were not expecting or promising a “risk-free” life in America. In fact, as Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence he told his fellow signers, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.” All the founders put their lives at risk, and so did the American people in general. Eight thousand Americans died during the Revolutionary War, and you say, that’s not so many, but that was one percent of the entire country’s population back then. That would be the equivalent of 3.3 million people dying today. But our founders and even our everyday citizens back then were willing to take that risk and fight the most powerful military power in the world at the time for the freedoms and liberty that the new American experiment promised. I’m sure they would not easily give up any of those freedoms today, even for Covid-19.
Today we live in a risk averse society that has been built on a relatively peaceful world (no world wars), the modern 24-hour news cycle and political manipulation. Rahm Emanuel, X-mayor of Chicago and President Obama’s Chief of Staff, let the cat out of the bag in 2008 when he said, “never let a good crisis go to waste.” He probably regrets saying that out loud, because he was finally admitting to this disgusting, manipulative strategy of extortion. In other words, he (and I believe all politicians) are willing to take advantage of our citizens when they are desperate or frightened or both to advance their ideological agendas. And if a real crisis isn’t handy, just create one.
And along comes the Coronavirus. I’m not denying that the Coronavirus is a bad thing. It is a challenge that we are all having to face. Will it put some of our citizens at risk? Absolutely, but does it require us all to give up many of our fundamental freedoms to mitigate the risk or put millions of small businesses out of business? That is at least a question that we should be asking ourselves. We should also be asking if our government even has the power to do many of the things they have done in the face of this pandemic? I might suggest that it does not.
We have trampled all over our God-given rights during this challenge. The first amendment to The Constitution guarantees the right to peaceably assemble in addition to the right to the free exercise of religion, and it doesn’t say, “unless there’s a virus out there somewhere.” Yet, our government has prohibited meetings of groups larger than 10 which prevents most churches from gathering. Does the government even have the right to do that? The 4th Amendment protects American citizens from unreasonable seizure of houses, papers and effects, which includes buildings and businesses. The 5th Amendment says that the government cannot deprive a citizen of life, liberty or property without due process, yet the government has forced millions of businesses to close their doors. This deprives the owners of their very livelihoods. Can our federal or state governments legally do that?
The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution - Part III
The View from the Middle
Bill Barr, our country’s Attorney General, is beginning to question the government’s authority to deny basic civil rights to our citizens. How long can our government demand that people stay in their homes? He compared the current stay at home orders to a country-wide house arrest. How long can our government forbid businesses from operating? And then you have the queen of governmental overreach, Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Her stay-at-home order allows no public gatherings of any size. Really!? Michiganders are prohibited from travel between their own homes, if they are lucky enough to own more than one, and if you are already shopping in a store, you can’t buy paint, seeds or any home improvement products. Prove to me that any of those restrictions will save a single life. I heard her next move will be to force the people of Michigan to stand on their heads for four hours a day. It has nothing to do with the virus. She just wants to see if she can get anyone to do it.
The arguers for unlimited government power would say that the “Welfare” clause in the Constitution allows all of this, but I believe that we are stretching the Welfare clause beyond reasonability. What is the Welfare Clause? It is a four-word phrase in the preamble of The Constitution that declares that our founders established our Constitution in order to “promote the general welfare” of the country. It does not say that we can violate The Bill of Rights in the process.
Can and should the government educate the American people about the potential risks of this virus? Absolutely! Can they recommend frequent hand-washing, wearing masks in public and even social distancing? Sure. And, if our government had taken this less intrusive approach to the mitigation of this virus and stopped there, would the results we are experiencing today be any different? The real answer to that question is, “we don’t know”. Take a look at Sweden, who took a “laissez-faire / herd immunity” approach to the virus. Their deaths per million are not that much different than ours and are way below Italy, Spain, France and Belgium who have all been much more restrictive in their management of this disease. Could we have executed that strategy even better than Sweden and gotten the same results we have today, but saved millions of businesses and trillions in spending? We’ll never know.
A new NBC/WSJ poll says that 60% of Americans are afraid that we will open up the economy too soon. That’s not surprising given the 24-7 onslaught by the media to scare the hell out of everyone, but let’s dig into that number. First, it says that 40% of Americans are sick of this panic-living and want to get back to work. Many people in that 40% have lost their jobs, have no savings and are worried about their ability to provide the necessities (shelter and food) for their families. That 40% represents a lot of people and that number is only going to get bigger. We should also be asking what percent of that 60% are still employed. Sure, the media wants to take it slow. They’re all still working, getting paid and this is all they’re covering. Sure, Nancy Pelosi and her double-wide freezer full of ice cream wants this lockdown to continue. She is not only unaffected but is out of touch and tone-deaf at the same time. When she was told that, “The children have no milk” her reply was, “let them eat ice cream.”
Let’s get this country back to work so Nancy doesn’t have to continue suffering from self-inflicted brain freezes. When your gym opens up, go there immediately and start working out again. When restaurants open up, go out and support those small business owners who have been dying for the last two months. Brenda and I already have our reservation on May 4th when Arkansas is supposed to open up those businesses. It is time to put the Coronavirus hysteria behind us and get back to living!! Remember, no matter whose numbers you use, more than 99.9% of you will not die from this virus.
The View from the Middle
As I try to honestly evaluate what we, as a country, have done in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, I must question much of our government’s actions and most of the public’s reaction. We have all been driven by faulty models that originally predicted one to two million deaths in the US as a result of the virus. Then the models predicted between 100,000 to 240,000 deaths, and now the latest projection is for about 60,000 Americans to die by August of this year. That’s a lot of deaths, but let’s try to put that into perspective.
In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed 700,000 people in the US and about 50 million around the world. That was when the US population was just over 100 million so that would be the equivalent of 2.2 million deaths in the US alone today, and Woodrow Wilson didn’t enact one stay-at-home order. In fact, he sent boatloads of our troops to Europe to fight in the WWI and probably spread that virus to Europe. In 1957 and 1968 the Asian Flu and then the Hong Kong Flu each killed 100,000 people in America when we had half the population we have today. I was a junior in high school in 1968 and I don’t remember any lockdowns or business closings or any of the draconian governmental responses that we have had today.
Let’s get a little closer to today. Just two years ago, the seasonal flu killed 80,000 Americans according to the CDC, and do you remember any massive governmental restrictions? Do you remember the death count clocks on all the news shows? Do you remember any nationwide business closures or the need for any trillion-dollar rescue spending bills?
Let’s also put some balance in our reporting. According the Dr. Fauci, from the President’s Coronavirus task force, the mortality rate for Covid-19 is 1.0%, which means that 99% of the people who are infected with this virus will survive. Also, using Dr. Fauci’s projected mortality rate and the latest death toll model we can calculate that about six million people in the United States will be infected with this virus. That sounds like a big number, but it means that only 2% of Americans will even be infected with this virus, and only .02% (that’s two hundredths of one percent) of Americans will die. In other words, 99.8% of Americans will NOT die from this virus. Those are pretty good odds. Is there anyone covering that aspect of this story?
The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution - Part II
The View from the Middle
Our founders were not expecting or promising a “risk-free” life in America. In fact, as Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence he told his fellow signers, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.” All the founders put their lives at risk, and so did the American people in general. Eight thousand Americans died during the Revolutionary War, and you say, that’s not so many, but that was one percent of the entire country’s population back then. That would be the equivalent of 3.3 million people dying today. But our founders and even our everyday citizens back then were willing to take that risk and fight the most powerful military power in the world at the time for the freedoms and liberty that the new American experiment promised. I’m sure they would not easily give up any of those freedoms today, even for Covid-19.
Today we live in a risk averse society that has been built on a relatively peaceful world (no world wars), the modern 24-hour news cycle and political manipulation. Rahm Emanuel, X-mayor of Chicago and President Obama’s Chief of Staff, let the cat out of the bag in 2008 when he said, “never let a good crisis go to waste.” He probably regrets saying that out loud, because he was finally admitting to this disgusting, manipulative strategy of extortion. In other words, he (and I believe all politicians) are willing to take advantage of our citizens when they are desperate or frightened or both to advance their ideological agendas. And if a real crisis isn’t handy, just create one.
And along comes the Coronavirus. I’m not denying that the Coronavirus is a bad thing. It is a challenge that we are all having to face. Will it put some of our citizens at risk? Absolutely, but does it require us all to give up many of our fundamental freedoms to mitigate the risk or put millions of small businesses out of business? That is at least a question that we should be asking ourselves. We should also be asking if our government even has the power to do many of the things they have done in the face of this pandemic? I might suggest that it does not.
We have trampled all over our God-given rights during this challenge. The first amendment to The Constitution guarantees the right to peaceably assemble in addition to the right to the free exercise of religion, and it doesn’t say, “unless there’s a virus out there somewhere.” Yet, our government has prohibited meetings of groups larger than 10 which prevents most churches from gathering. Does the government even have the right to do that? The 4th Amendment protects American citizens from unreasonable seizure of houses, papers and effects, which includes buildings and businesses. The 5th Amendment says that the government cannot deprive a citizen of life, liberty or property without due process, yet the government has forced millions of businesses to close their doors. This deprives the owners of their very livelihoods. Can our federal or state governments legally do that?
The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution - Part III
The View from the Middle
Bill Barr, our country’s Attorney General, is beginning to question the government’s authority to deny basic civil rights to our citizens. How long can our government demand that people stay in their homes? He compared the current stay at home orders to a country-wide house arrest. How long can our government forbid businesses from operating? And then you have the queen of governmental overreach, Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Her stay-at-home order allows no public gatherings of any size. Really!? Michiganders are prohibited from travel between their own homes, if they are lucky enough to own more than one, and if you are already shopping in a store, you can’t buy paint, seeds or any home improvement products. Prove to me that any of those restrictions will save a single life. I heard her next move will be to force the people of Michigan to stand on their heads for four hours a day. It has nothing to do with the virus. She just wants to see if she can get anyone to do it.
The arguers for unlimited government power would say that the “Welfare” clause in the Constitution allows all of this, but I believe that we are stretching the Welfare clause beyond reasonability. What is the Welfare Clause? It is a four-word phrase in the preamble of The Constitution that declares that our founders established our Constitution in order to “promote the general welfare” of the country. It does not say that we can violate The Bill of Rights in the process.
Can and should the government educate the American people about the potential risks of this virus? Absolutely! Can they recommend frequent hand-washing, wearing masks in public and even social distancing? Sure. And, if our government had taken this less intrusive approach to the mitigation of this virus and stopped there, would the results we are experiencing today be any different? The real answer to that question is, “we don’t know”. Take a look at Sweden, who took a “laissez-faire / herd immunity” approach to the virus. Their deaths per million are not that much different than ours and are way below Italy, Spain, France and Belgium who have all been much more restrictive in their management of this disease. Could we have executed that strategy even better than Sweden and gotten the same results we have today, but saved millions of businesses and trillions in spending? We’ll never know.
A new NBC/WSJ poll says that 60% of Americans are afraid that we will open up the economy too soon. That’s not surprising given the 24-7 onslaught by the media to scare the hell out of everyone, but let’s dig into that number. First, it says that 40% of Americans are sick of this panic-living and want to get back to work. Many people in that 40% have lost their jobs, have no savings and are worried about their ability to provide the necessities (shelter and food) for their families. That 40% represents a lot of people and that number is only going to get bigger. We should also be asking what percent of that 60% are still employed. Sure, the media wants to take it slow. They’re all still working, getting paid and this is all they’re covering. Sure, Nancy Pelosi and her double-wide freezer full of ice cream wants this lockdown to continue. She is not only unaffected but is out of touch and tone-deaf at the same time. When she was told that, “The children have no milk” her reply was, “let them eat ice cream.”
Let’s get this country back to work so Nancy doesn’t have to continue suffering from self-inflicted brain freezes. When your gym opens up, go there immediately and start working out again. When restaurants open up, go out and support those small business owners who have been dying for the last two months. Brenda and I already have our reservation on May 4th when Arkansas is supposed to open up those businesses. It is time to put the Coronavirus hysteria behind us and get back to living!! Remember, no matter whose numbers you use, more than 99.9% of you will not die from this virus.
Saturday, April 25, 2020
The Coronavirus vs The Constitution - Part III
The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution - Part III
The View from the Middle
Bill Barr, our country’s Attorney General, is beginning to question the government’s authority to deny basic civil rights to our citizens. How long can our government demand that people stay in their homes? He compared the current stay at home orders to a country-wide house arrest. How long can our government forbid businesses from operating? And then you have the queen of governmental overreach, Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Her stay-at-home order allows no public gatherings of any size. Really!? Michiganders are prohibited from travel between their own homes, if they are lucky enough to own more than one, and if you are already shopping in a store, you can’t buy paint, seeds or any home improvement products. Prove to me that any of those restrictions will save a single life. I heard her next move will be to force the people of Michigan to stand on their heads for four hours a day. It has nothing to do with the virus. She just wants to see if she can get anyone to do it.
The arguers for unlimited government power would say that the “Welfare” clause in the Constitution allows all of this, but I believe that we are stretching the Welfare clause beyond reasonability. What is the Welfare Clause? It is a four-word phrase in the preamble of The Constitution that declares that our founders established our Constitution in order to “promote the general welfare” of the country. It does not say that we can violate The Bill of Rights in the process.
Can and should the government educate the American people about the potential risks of this virus? Absolutely! Can they recommend frequent hand-washing, wearing masks in public and even social distancing? Sure. And, if our government had taken this less intrusive approach to the mitigation of this virus and stopped there, would the results we are experiencing today be any different? The real answer to that question is, “we don’t know”. Take a look at Sweden, who took a “laissez-faire / herd immunity” approach to the virus. Their deaths per million are not that much different than ours and are way below Italy, Spain, France and Belgium who have all been much more restrictive in their management of this disease. Could we have executed that strategy even better than Sweden and gotten the same results we have today, but saved millions of businesses and trillions in spending? We’ll never know.
A new NBC/WSJ poll says that 60% of Americans are afraid that we will open up the economy too soon. That’s not surprising given the 24-7 onslaught by the media to scare the hell out of everyone, but let’s dig into that number. First, it says that 40% of Americans are sick of this panic-living and want to get back to work. Many people in that 40% have lost their jobs, have no savings and are worried about their ability to provide the necessities (shelter and food) for their families. That 40% represents a lot of people and that number is only going to get bigger. We should also be asking what percent of that 60% are still employed. Sure, the media wants to take it slow. They’re all still working, getting paid and this is all they’re covering. Sure, Nancy Pelosi and her double-wide freezer full of ice cream wants this lockdown to continue. She is not only unaffected but is out of touch and tone-deaf at the same time. When she was told that, “The children have no milk” her reply was, “let them eat ice cream.”
Let’s get this country back to work so Nancy doesn’t have to continue suffering from self-inflicted brain freezes. When your gym opens up, go there immediately and start working out again. When restaurants open up, go out and support those small business owners who have been dying for the last two months. Brenda and I already have our reservation on May 4th when Arkansas is supposed to open up those businesses. It is time to put the Coronavirus hysteria behind us and get back to living!! Remember, no matter whose numbers you use, more than 99.9% of you will not die from this virus.
The View from the Middle
Bill Barr, our country’s Attorney General, is beginning to question the government’s authority to deny basic civil rights to our citizens. How long can our government demand that people stay in their homes? He compared the current stay at home orders to a country-wide house arrest. How long can our government forbid businesses from operating? And then you have the queen of governmental overreach, Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Her stay-at-home order allows no public gatherings of any size. Really!? Michiganders are prohibited from travel between their own homes, if they are lucky enough to own more than one, and if you are already shopping in a store, you can’t buy paint, seeds or any home improvement products. Prove to me that any of those restrictions will save a single life. I heard her next move will be to force the people of Michigan to stand on their heads for four hours a day. It has nothing to do with the virus. She just wants to see if she can get anyone to do it.
The arguers for unlimited government power would say that the “Welfare” clause in the Constitution allows all of this, but I believe that we are stretching the Welfare clause beyond reasonability. What is the Welfare Clause? It is a four-word phrase in the preamble of The Constitution that declares that our founders established our Constitution in order to “promote the general welfare” of the country. It does not say that we can violate The Bill of Rights in the process.
Can and should the government educate the American people about the potential risks of this virus? Absolutely! Can they recommend frequent hand-washing, wearing masks in public and even social distancing? Sure. And, if our government had taken this less intrusive approach to the mitigation of this virus and stopped there, would the results we are experiencing today be any different? The real answer to that question is, “we don’t know”. Take a look at Sweden, who took a “laissez-faire / herd immunity” approach to the virus. Their deaths per million are not that much different than ours and are way below Italy, Spain, France and Belgium who have all been much more restrictive in their management of this disease. Could we have executed that strategy even better than Sweden and gotten the same results we have today, but saved millions of businesses and trillions in spending? We’ll never know.
A new NBC/WSJ poll says that 60% of Americans are afraid that we will open up the economy too soon. That’s not surprising given the 24-7 onslaught by the media to scare the hell out of everyone, but let’s dig into that number. First, it says that 40% of Americans are sick of this panic-living and want to get back to work. Many people in that 40% have lost their jobs, have no savings and are worried about their ability to provide the necessities (shelter and food) for their families. That 40% represents a lot of people and that number is only going to get bigger. We should also be asking what percent of that 60% are still employed. Sure, the media wants to take it slow. They’re all still working, getting paid and this is all they’re covering. Sure, Nancy Pelosi and her double-wide freezer full of ice cream wants this lockdown to continue. She is not only unaffected but is out of touch and tone-deaf at the same time. When she was told that, “The children have no milk” her reply was, “let them eat ice cream.”
Let’s get this country back to work so Nancy doesn’t have to continue suffering from self-inflicted brain freezes. When your gym opens up, go there immediately and start working out again. When restaurants open up, go out and support those small business owners who have been dying for the last two months. Brenda and I already have our reservation on May 4th when Arkansas is supposed to open up those businesses. It is time to put the Coronavirus hysteria behind us and get back to living!! Remember, no matter whose numbers you use, more than 99.9% of you will not die from this virus.
Friday, April 24, 2020
Coronavirus vs The Constitution Part II
The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution - Part II
The View from the Middle
Part I gave perspective for this crisis / challenge. Part II will begin to cover the Constitutional questions.
Our founders were not expecting or promising a “risk-free” life in America. In fact, as Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence he told his fellow signers, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.” All the founders put their lives at risk, and so did the American people in general. Eight thousand Americans died during the Revolutionary War, and you say, that’s not so many, but that was one percent of the entire country’s population back then. That would be the equivalent of 3.3 million people dying today. But our founders and even our everyday citizens back then were willing to take that risk and fight the most powerful military power in the world at the time for the freedoms and liberty that the new American experiment promised. I’m sure they would not easily give up any of those freedoms today, even for Covid-19.
Today we live in a risk averse society that has been built on a relatively peaceful world (no world wars), the modern 24-hour news cycle and political manipulation. Rahm Emanuel, X-mayor of Chicago and President Obama’s Chief of Staff, let the cat out of the bag in 2008 when he said, “never let a good crisis go to waste.” He probably regrets saying that out loud, because he was finally admitting to this disgusting, manipulative strategy of extortion. In other words, he (and I believe all politicians) are willing to take advantage of our citizens when they are desperate or frightened or both to advance their ideological agendas. And if a real crisis isn’t handy, just create one.
And along comes the Coronavirus. I’m not denying that the Coronavirus is a bad thing. It is a challenge that we are all having to face. Will it put some of our citizens at risk? Absolutely, but does it require us all to give up many of our fundamental freedoms to mitigate the risk or put millions of small businesses out of business? That is at least a question that we should be asking ourselves. We should also be asking if our government even has the power to do many of the things they have done in the face of this pandemic? I might suggest that it does not.
We have trampled all over our God-given rights during this challenge. The first amendment to The Constitution guarantees the right to peaceably assemble in addition to the right to the free exercise of religion, and it doesn’t say, “unless there’s a virus out there somewhere.” Yet, our government has prohibited meetings of groups larger than 10 which prevents most churches from gathering. Does the government even have the right to do that? The 4th Amendment protects American citizens from unreasonable seizure of houses, papers and effects, which includes buildings and businesses. The 5th Amendment says that the government cannot deprive a citizen of life, liberty or property without due process, yet the government has forced millions of businesses to close their doors. This deprives the owners of their very livelihoods. Can our federal or state governments legally do that?
The View from the Middle
Part I gave perspective for this crisis / challenge. Part II will begin to cover the Constitutional questions.
Our founders were not expecting or promising a “risk-free” life in America. In fact, as Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence he told his fellow signers, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.” All the founders put their lives at risk, and so did the American people in general. Eight thousand Americans died during the Revolutionary War, and you say, that’s not so many, but that was one percent of the entire country’s population back then. That would be the equivalent of 3.3 million people dying today. But our founders and even our everyday citizens back then were willing to take that risk and fight the most powerful military power in the world at the time for the freedoms and liberty that the new American experiment promised. I’m sure they would not easily give up any of those freedoms today, even for Covid-19.
Today we live in a risk averse society that has been built on a relatively peaceful world (no world wars), the modern 24-hour news cycle and political manipulation. Rahm Emanuel, X-mayor of Chicago and President Obama’s Chief of Staff, let the cat out of the bag in 2008 when he said, “never let a good crisis go to waste.” He probably regrets saying that out loud, because he was finally admitting to this disgusting, manipulative strategy of extortion. In other words, he (and I believe all politicians) are willing to take advantage of our citizens when they are desperate or frightened or both to advance their ideological agendas. And if a real crisis isn’t handy, just create one.
And along comes the Coronavirus. I’m not denying that the Coronavirus is a bad thing. It is a challenge that we are all having to face. Will it put some of our citizens at risk? Absolutely, but does it require us all to give up many of our fundamental freedoms to mitigate the risk or put millions of small businesses out of business? That is at least a question that we should be asking ourselves. We should also be asking if our government even has the power to do many of the things they have done in the face of this pandemic? I might suggest that it does not.
We have trampled all over our God-given rights during this challenge. The first amendment to The Constitution guarantees the right to peaceably assemble in addition to the right to the free exercise of religion, and it doesn’t say, “unless there’s a virus out there somewhere.” Yet, our government has prohibited meetings of groups larger than 10 which prevents most churches from gathering. Does the government even have the right to do that? The 4th Amendment protects American citizens from unreasonable seizure of houses, papers and effects, which includes buildings and businesses. The 5th Amendment says that the government cannot deprive a citizen of life, liberty or property without due process, yet the government has forced millions of businesses to close their doors. This deprives the owners of their very livelihoods. Can our federal or state governments legally do that?
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
The Coronavirus vs The Constitution, Part I
The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution
The View from the Middle
As I try to honestly evaluate what we, as a country, have done in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, I must question much of our government’s actions and most of the public’s reaction. We have all been driven by faulty models that originally predicted one to two million deaths in the US as a result of the virus. Then the models predicted between 100,000 to 240,000 deaths, and now the latest projection is for about 60,000 Americans to die by August of this year. That’s a lot of deaths, but let’s try to put that into perspective.
In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed 700,000 people in the US and about 50 million around the world. That was when the US population was just over 100 million so that would be the equivalent of 2.2 million deaths in the US alone today, and Woodrow Wilson didn’t enact one stay-at-home order. In fact, he sent boatloads of our troops to Europe to fight in the WWI and probably spread that virus to Europe. In 1957 and 1968 the Asian Flu and then the Hong Kong Flu each killed 100,000 people in America when we had half the population we have today. I was a junior in high school in 1968 and I don’t remember any lockdowns or business closings or any of the draconian governmental responses that we have had today.
Let’s get a little closer to today. Just two years ago, the seasonal flu killed 80,000 Americans according to the CDC, and do you remember any massive governmental restrictions? Do you remember the death count clocks on all the news shows? Do you remember any nationwide business closures or the need for any trillion-dollar rescue spending bills?
Let’s also put some balance in our reporting. According the Dr. Fauci, from the President’s Coronavirus task force, the mortality rate for Covid-19 is 1.0%, which means that 99% of the people who are infected with this virus will survive. Also, using Dr. Fauci’s projected mortality rate and the latest death toll model we can calculate that about six million people in the United States will be infected with this virus. That sounds like a big number, but it means that only 2% of Americans will even be infected with this virus, and only .02% (that’s two hundredths of one percent) of Americans will die. In other words, 99.8% of Americans will NOT die from this virus. Those are pretty good odds. Is there anyone covering that aspect of this story?
The View from the Middle
As I try to honestly evaluate what we, as a country, have done in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, I must question much of our government’s actions and most of the public’s reaction. We have all been driven by faulty models that originally predicted one to two million deaths in the US as a result of the virus. Then the models predicted between 100,000 to 240,000 deaths, and now the latest projection is for about 60,000 Americans to die by August of this year. That’s a lot of deaths, but let’s try to put that into perspective.
In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed 700,000 people in the US and about 50 million around the world. That was when the US population was just over 100 million so that would be the equivalent of 2.2 million deaths in the US alone today, and Woodrow Wilson didn’t enact one stay-at-home order. In fact, he sent boatloads of our troops to Europe to fight in the WWI and probably spread that virus to Europe. In 1957 and 1968 the Asian Flu and then the Hong Kong Flu each killed 100,000 people in America when we had half the population we have today. I was a junior in high school in 1968 and I don’t remember any lockdowns or business closings or any of the draconian governmental responses that we have had today.
Let’s get a little closer to today. Just two years ago, the seasonal flu killed 80,000 Americans according to the CDC, and do you remember any massive governmental restrictions? Do you remember the death count clocks on all the news shows? Do you remember any nationwide business closures or the need for any trillion-dollar rescue spending bills?
Let’s also put some balance in our reporting. According the Dr. Fauci, from the President’s Coronavirus task force, the mortality rate for Covid-19 is 1.0%, which means that 99% of the people who are infected with this virus will survive. Also, using Dr. Fauci’s projected mortality rate and the latest death toll model we can calculate that about six million people in the United States will be infected with this virus. That sounds like a big number, but it means that only 2% of Americans will even be infected with this virus, and only .02% (that’s two hundredths of one percent) of Americans will die. In other words, 99.8% of Americans will NOT die from this virus. Those are pretty good odds. Is there anyone covering that aspect of this story?
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Covid-19 Timeline, Just the Facts and You Decide
Covid-19 Timeline, Just the Facts - You Decide
The View from the Middle
It really bothers me that the 4th Estate in America, which I will refer to as the “lame-stream” media, has abandoned their true job of performing investigations and providing information and accepted the much lesser role of “Trump bashing at all costs”. I truly believe that it doesn’t matter what President Trump does on any issue, the press will ignore any positive results and figure out how to criticize him for virtually everything. The media’s relentless effort to suggest that the President acted late in his response to the Coronavirus is the latest example of this obsession. Don’t let the lame-stream media blur your minds with false information or the strategic avoidance of facts. Check out the timeline below and make up your own mind. Would you have acted any sooner in declaring a national emergency?
It wasn’t until mid-December of 2019 (actually 12/12/19) that China even began to let the world know that something was amiss in Wuhan. Unexplained cases of pneumonia were showing up there. I’m only going to say this once because I could repeat it throughout this article, but China was lying then and they continue to lie and suppress the truth today. It wasn’t until January 7th that China identified the cause of these “mysterious” cases of pneumonia as the Coronavirus.
On January 14th, the pathetic World Health Organization (WHO) told the world that, “there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel Coronavirus.” On January 21st, we experienced the first case of Covid-19 in America, in Seattle Washington, but on January 23rd the WHO put out a statement that the Coronavirus, “Does not yet constitute a public health emergency of international concern.” On January 24th, Dr. Anthony Fauci (now America’s Doctor) said that “the Coronavirus isn’t something that the American public needs to worry about or be frightened of.” It wasn’t until January 28th that China’s President, Xi Jinping, even agreed to allow a team, including our CDC, to investigate the Coronavirus outbreak.
Let’s take a brief break here. On April 1st , Joe Scarborough, MSNBC co-host and revisionist historian, claimed that, “everyone saw this coming in early January.” If Morning Joe knew, he kept it his little secret, and the only story the NY Times published in mid-January was trumpeting the WHO’s claim that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. Joe is either outright lying or just delusional. Those are your only choices.
On January 29th, the Whitehouse created a task force to monitor and contain this virus. This was a day BEFORE the first human-to-human transmission of the Coronavirus in the US. Then, on January 31st the President announced the travel ban on people coming here from China for which he was roundly criticized for overreacting, xenophobia and fearmongering by Joe Biden. You be the judge, but I think this was a very important move by the President. Not only did it prevent many more infected people from coming into the United States, but it sent a strong warning to the people of this country that the Coronavirus was a big deal!! Two weeks later, on February 17th, America’s Doctor, Tony Fauci was still saying that, “the risk of the Coronavirus in the USA is miniscule.”
Here’s another side note. During this entire period, what were Nancy Pelosi, Adam (full of) Schiff, Chuck Schumer and Democrats in Congress doing? They were completely focused on impeaching President Trump from September of 2019 until February 5th, 2020. In fact, when President Trump warned the country of the Coronavirus during his SOTU speech on February 4th, Nancy Pelosi responded by tearing up his speech. I don’t remember any comments by her or Schumer concerning Covid-19 after that speech. In fact, as late as February 24th, Nancy Pelosi was encouraging her constituents to “come to Chinatown” and join her in celebrating the Chinese New Year. This would eventually pack hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of San Francisco. For perspective, this was the same timing as the ill-advised Mardi Gras celebration that probably created the hot spot that New Orleans eventually became.
On February 29th (think of this as March 1st), the US experienced its first death from Covid-19 as a 50-year old man in Washington state died with no history of foreign travel. This was the first evidence of community spread in America. On March 2nd, it was announced that US pharmaceutical companies were already working on a vaccine. Now, that seems incredibly responsive to me, especially since a week later, on March 9th, Tony Fauci was still giving his blessing to cruise line vacations “if you are healthy”, and New York Mayor Bill De Blasio was still downplaying Covid-19 on March 10th when he said, "even if you were to get it, (it) basically acts like a common cold or flu.” The next day, March 11th, President Trump banned travel from Europe, which had become the new epicenter for this disease and on March the 13th, President Trump declared this a national emergency.
Now, with all this input, you tell me if you would have acted any sooner than President Trump. Be honest, but also recognize that the lame-stream media was going to condemn you no matter what you did, since that is what they believe their job is.
It is sad that the lame-stream, mainstream media has decided to revise history, or just ignore it when it doesn't fit their narrative. I have, however, provided you with the accurate dates and quotes from politicians and media talking heads so that you can see the truth. And the truth is that President Trump was ahead of virtually everyone in politics, the media and even Dr. Fauci and the World Health Organization in recognizing and actually acting to minimize the Coronavirus in this country. No matter which side of the political aisle you stand on, it is important to know the truth about every situation and person. The above is the absolute truth. Embrace it, and the truth shall set you free, and you can make a rational judgement on how the President reacted to this disease.
The View from the Middle
It really bothers me that the 4th Estate in America, which I will refer to as the “lame-stream” media, has abandoned their true job of performing investigations and providing information and accepted the much lesser role of “Trump bashing at all costs”. I truly believe that it doesn’t matter what President Trump does on any issue, the press will ignore any positive results and figure out how to criticize him for virtually everything. The media’s relentless effort to suggest that the President acted late in his response to the Coronavirus is the latest example of this obsession. Don’t let the lame-stream media blur your minds with false information or the strategic avoidance of facts. Check out the timeline below and make up your own mind. Would you have acted any sooner in declaring a national emergency?
It wasn’t until mid-December of 2019 (actually 12/12/19) that China even began to let the world know that something was amiss in Wuhan. Unexplained cases of pneumonia were showing up there. I’m only going to say this once because I could repeat it throughout this article, but China was lying then and they continue to lie and suppress the truth today. It wasn’t until January 7th that China identified the cause of these “mysterious” cases of pneumonia as the Coronavirus.
On January 14th, the pathetic World Health Organization (WHO) told the world that, “there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel Coronavirus.” On January 21st, we experienced the first case of Covid-19 in America, in Seattle Washington, but on January 23rd the WHO put out a statement that the Coronavirus, “Does not yet constitute a public health emergency of international concern.” On January 24th, Dr. Anthony Fauci (now America’s Doctor) said that “the Coronavirus isn’t something that the American public needs to worry about or be frightened of.” It wasn’t until January 28th that China’s President, Xi Jinping, even agreed to allow a team, including our CDC, to investigate the Coronavirus outbreak.
Let’s take a brief break here. On April 1st , Joe Scarborough, MSNBC co-host and revisionist historian, claimed that, “everyone saw this coming in early January.” If Morning Joe knew, he kept it his little secret, and the only story the NY Times published in mid-January was trumpeting the WHO’s claim that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. Joe is either outright lying or just delusional. Those are your only choices.
On January 29th, the Whitehouse created a task force to monitor and contain this virus. This was a day BEFORE the first human-to-human transmission of the Coronavirus in the US. Then, on January 31st the President announced the travel ban on people coming here from China for which he was roundly criticized for overreacting, xenophobia and fearmongering by Joe Biden. You be the judge, but I think this was a very important move by the President. Not only did it prevent many more infected people from coming into the United States, but it sent a strong warning to the people of this country that the Coronavirus was a big deal!! Two weeks later, on February 17th, America’s Doctor, Tony Fauci was still saying that, “the risk of the Coronavirus in the USA is miniscule.”
Here’s another side note. During this entire period, what were Nancy Pelosi, Adam (full of) Schiff, Chuck Schumer and Democrats in Congress doing? They were completely focused on impeaching President Trump from September of 2019 until February 5th, 2020. In fact, when President Trump warned the country of the Coronavirus during his SOTU speech on February 4th, Nancy Pelosi responded by tearing up his speech. I don’t remember any comments by her or Schumer concerning Covid-19 after that speech. In fact, as late as February 24th, Nancy Pelosi was encouraging her constituents to “come to Chinatown” and join her in celebrating the Chinese New Year. This would eventually pack hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of San Francisco. For perspective, this was the same timing as the ill-advised Mardi Gras celebration that probably created the hot spot that New Orleans eventually became.
On February 29th (think of this as March 1st), the US experienced its first death from Covid-19 as a 50-year old man in Washington state died with no history of foreign travel. This was the first evidence of community spread in America. On March 2nd, it was announced that US pharmaceutical companies were already working on a vaccine. Now, that seems incredibly responsive to me, especially since a week later, on March 9th, Tony Fauci was still giving his blessing to cruise line vacations “if you are healthy”, and New York Mayor Bill De Blasio was still downplaying Covid-19 on March 10th when he said, "even if you were to get it, (it) basically acts like a common cold or flu.” The next day, March 11th, President Trump banned travel from Europe, which had become the new epicenter for this disease and on March the 13th, President Trump declared this a national emergency.
Now, with all this input, you tell me if you would have acted any sooner than President Trump. Be honest, but also recognize that the lame-stream media was going to condemn you no matter what you did, since that is what they believe their job is.
It is sad that the lame-stream, mainstream media has decided to revise history, or just ignore it when it doesn't fit their narrative. I have, however, provided you with the accurate dates and quotes from politicians and media talking heads so that you can see the truth. And the truth is that President Trump was ahead of virtually everyone in politics, the media and even Dr. Fauci and the World Health Organization in recognizing and actually acting to minimize the Coronavirus in this country. No matter which side of the political aisle you stand on, it is important to know the truth about every situation and person. The above is the absolute truth. Embrace it, and the truth shall set you free, and you can make a rational judgement on how the President reacted to this disease.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Simple Summary of $2.2 trillion CARES Act
I often complain about the dysfunction in Washington, but today I have to recognize some great work by my Representative in The House of Representatives, Steve Womack. He has created a roughly two page summary of the almost 900 page CARES Act. This is the $2.2 Trillion plan to supply relief to our citizens, small businesses and even big companies during our virtual national lockdown
I've included a link to Steve's website that takes you right to the plan. I decided to share it this way because his summary is chock full of links that provide even more information if you want it AND even phone numbers you can call to get you started.
These are tough times and through no fault of your own you may find that you need a hand. This is intended to be just that. I encourage everyone to give this a once-over, but especially if you are a small business owner, the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) could be a God-send. Just copy the link below into your browser and it will take you right to Steve's summary.
https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/view_newsletter.aspx?id=2133329&c=AR03SW
I also wanted to do two more things. First, I wanted to commend Congressman Steve Womack for his excellent work. This is a great summary that will simplify this very complex bill so that even I could comprehend it. Second, I wanted to share, below, just a few key passages from Steve's explanation of the PPP (Paycheck Protection Plan). Small businesses should have access to this money as early as tomorrow (April 3rd) and you can deal with your local banks and not the giant, complex federal government. Let the banks do that. Here are the key points.
PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM
Under the CARES Act, which was recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump, a “Paycheck Protection Program” (PPP) for small employers, self-employed individuals, and workers was created. The program, which will be administered through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), will provide 8 weeks of cash-flow assistance through 100 percent federally guaranteed loans to small employers who maintain their payroll during this emergency.
If the employer maintains payroll for 8 weeks, the portion of the loans used for covered payroll costs, interest on mortgage obligations, rent, and utilities will be forgiven - allowing workers to remain employed, providing assistance to small businesses, and helping our economy to recover quickly from this crisis. This proposal will be retroactive to February 15, 2020, to help bring workers who may have already been laid off back onto payrolls.
Who is eligible?
Businesses and 501(c)(3)s with less than 500 employees.
Where can you get this loan?
Any existing SBA lenders and any lenders that are brought into the program through the Treasury Department.
You should talk to your preferred financial lender to see if they qualify.
I've included a link to Steve's website that takes you right to the plan. I decided to share it this way because his summary is chock full of links that provide even more information if you want it AND even phone numbers you can call to get you started.
These are tough times and through no fault of your own you may find that you need a hand. This is intended to be just that. I encourage everyone to give this a once-over, but especially if you are a small business owner, the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) could be a God-send. Just copy the link below into your browser and it will take you right to Steve's summary.
https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/view_newsletter.aspx?id=2133329&c=AR03SW
I also wanted to do two more things. First, I wanted to commend Congressman Steve Womack for his excellent work. This is a great summary that will simplify this very complex bill so that even I could comprehend it. Second, I wanted to share, below, just a few key passages from Steve's explanation of the PPP (Paycheck Protection Plan). Small businesses should have access to this money as early as tomorrow (April 3rd) and you can deal with your local banks and not the giant, complex federal government. Let the banks do that. Here are the key points.
PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM
Under the CARES Act, which was recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump, a “Paycheck Protection Program” (PPP) for small employers, self-employed individuals, and workers was created. The program, which will be administered through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), will provide 8 weeks of cash-flow assistance through 100 percent federally guaranteed loans to small employers who maintain their payroll during this emergency.
If the employer maintains payroll for 8 weeks, the portion of the loans used for covered payroll costs, interest on mortgage obligations, rent, and utilities will be forgiven - allowing workers to remain employed, providing assistance to small businesses, and helping our economy to recover quickly from this crisis. This proposal will be retroactive to February 15, 2020, to help bring workers who may have already been laid off back onto payrolls.
Who is eligible?
Businesses and 501(c)(3)s with less than 500 employees.
Where can you get this loan?
Any existing SBA lenders and any lenders that are brought into the program through the Treasury Department.
You should talk to your preferred financial lender to see if they qualify.
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