Author: James Bovard
The views of the Authors are not necessarily the views of Enigmose
Politically-dictated lockdowns and prohibitions have recently destroyed tens of millions of American jobs. Politicians have effectively claimed a right to inflict unlimited economic damage in pursuit of zero COVID-19 contagion. The perverse incentives driving the policy have multiplied the harm far beyond the original peril.
Almost 40% of households earning less than $40,000 per year have someone who lost their job in recent months, according to the Federal Reserve. The Disaster Distress Helpline, a federal crisis hotline, received almost 900% more phone calls in March compared to a year ago. A recent JAMA Psychiatry analysis warned that stay-at-home orders and rising unemployment are a “perfect storm” for higher suicide rates. A California health organization recently estimated that up to 75,000 Americans could die from “despair” as a result of the pandemic, unemployment, and government restrictions.
In the name of saving lives, politicians have entitled themselves to destroy an unlimited number of livelihoods. Politicians in many states responded to COVID-19 by dropping the equivalent of a Reverse Neutron Bomb – something which destroys the economy while supposedly leaving human beings unharmed. But the only way to assume people were uninjured is to believe their existence is totally detached from their jobs, bank accounts, and mortgage and rent payments.
Politicians have vaccinated themselves against any blame for the economic carnage by touting experts who said it was all necessary. Over the past 90 days, government bureaucrats have become a new priesthood that can sanctify unlimited sacrifices in the name of the public health.
COVID policymakers have written themselves the same letter that Cardinal Richelieu, the 17th century French statesman, purportedly gave to his agents: “The Bearer of This Letter Has Acted Under My Orders and for the Good of the State.” This carte blanche was sufficient to place murders and other crimes above the law and beyond reproach in France. In contemporary America, the same exoneration is achieved by invoking “science” and “data.” Oregon Governor Kate Brown banned residents from leaving their homes except for essential work, buying food, and other narrow exemptions, and also banned all recreational travel. Six Oregon counties have only one confirmed COVID case, and most of the state has minimal infections. But schools, businesses, and other activities were slammed shut by government command. Full Article @ AIER
Beware a Second-Wave Attack on Liberty
The elite who collectively run the social order coordinated around a plan of mass lockdown, come hell or high water
The recent weeks have revealed a failure to engage in constructive dialogue, especially in regard to the meaning of data. Governors locked down entire states. Media has largely been accepting of the premises supporting the lockdown. Institutional actors who consider themselves guardians of the existing order have largely supported this policy and denounced those who would like to have a discussion about the facts. Read More
Lockdown Protests Confound Anti-Trump Elites
So they revert to the perennial claim that it’s all about racism.
The Washington Monthly recently singled out yours truly [David Catron] as a typically deluded Republican, “desperately hoping” that Donald Trump’s presidency can be saved by anti-quarantine protests, which we envision as “a renewal of the Tea Party spirit.” This fatuous nonsense is presumably based on a hasty perusal of a column warning the Democrats not to belittle the lockdown protestors lest they provoke an electoral backlash similar to that which they endured a decade ago. The author of the article, Nancy LeTourneau, predictably deploys every demeaning cliché ever circulated about the Tea Party movement and the current protests that she can conjure, including the tired canard that racism has been the animating force behind both. Read More
If you like the pandemic lockdown, you're going to love the 'Green New Deal'
Intangible vision for society and absolute control for the ruling class
When socialist darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez first floated her “Green New Deal,” it was an intangible vision for society rather than a concrete policy proposal. Even after the New York Democrat and her acolytes added details (including a ban on airplanes and flatulent cows) in a voluminous range of policies costing an astounding $93 trillion, the idea of running the economy without fossil fuels seemed unthinkable.
Now, however, thanks to the pandemic lockdown of society, the public is in a position to judge what the “Green New Deal” revolution would look like. It's like redoing this global pandemic and economic slump every year. Read More
A Time to Hate, Its not Too Late
Not one single slime in the swamp has been brought to justice. There is a time to love and a time to hate. This is a time to hate.
I accepted the rules of the game. Obama was president. He won fair and square because the Republicans serially put up two milquetoast opponents who were incapable of offering a vision or articulating a message that inspired. Trump has been the chief executive for more than three years, and he has proven to be a great president but incapable of cleaning the swamp. Not one single slime in the swamp has been brought to justice. There is a time to love and a time to hate. This is a time to hate. Read More
