I Need the WHY!

?u=http3.bp.blogspot.com-CIl2VSm-mmgTZ0wMvH5UGIAAAAAAAAB20QA9_IiyVhYss1600showme_board3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1By now, the entire world knows the who, as in the central characters in the farrago and cheap Kabuki Theater that has been our lives since 2020.  The list of nefarious and detestable characters leads only to politicization, chaos, and right now, the names of these characters need no further introduction.  I will not name these repugnant rapscallions any longer.

We are fully clear on the where, as in, we know the whereabouts of how this global Kabuki-Style charade originated.  Frankly, unless the consequences include the “Ryan Doctrine” and an entirely new government in China, additional discussion is moot at this point.  If you are unfamiliar with the “Ryan Doctrine;” it is a reference to John Patrick Ryan, the fictional character from Tom Clancy’s books, who claimed that if it is okay to send some 19-year-old kid to war, the political leaders are fair game, as much as that poor-kid ordered into battle.  Long have I supported this belief, having served in the US Army and the US Navy, listening to the political hosts banging the drums of war against Russia.  I am fully on board with the political leaders being in the same boat as the kids whose lives they are throwing away.

The what at this point is pretty simple; COVID-19 is a virus that was experimented into being through “gain of function” research.  As Senator Dr. Rand Paul has discussed ad nauseum ad infinitum with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the gain of function research scientists take a virus found in nature and make that virus more deadly and transmissible in a laboratory for human endangerment.  While the NIH continues to play “find the pea” games with the definition of gain of function, the simple version is stated and sufficient to my purposes.Knowledge Check!

The how is also pretty clear by now; the inability to close human interactions at the beginning of this virus debacle has led to the deaths of many people.  Human interactions are the number one problem in stopping the spread of any airborne, highly transmissible virus.  From the flu to pneumonia, and from SARS to MERS (two highly contagious and lethal upper respiratory viruses), and all the diseases in between, humans interacting is both the cure and the problem.  The problem, these viral diseases are spread through the air, and we share a lot of air between people.  The cure because sharing the virus, in its many variations, is how immunity in populations is increased.

Let me pause here for a moment.  Let’s talk about risk.  The risks you choose to onboard are how you build a life.  My risk tolerance is different from your risk tolerance, and while we might share some levels in our risk tolerances, we will be different, and in being different, we choose what to be exposed to, how, when, where, and why.  Humans have been making and exercising this freedom since the days of Adam and Eve and will continue to make this choice, without, and sometimes with, government boots on necks.

Where you set, your risk tolerances are choices, where you as an individual are exercising your moral agency.  These choices come with natural consequences.  For the government to interject and impose themselves into your risk tolerance decisions is immoral, unethical, and according to the US Constitution, illegal and illicit actions, and not only under the first amendment.  Please see my other articles on the topic for a more in-depth review of the US Constitution.

QuestionAs we have experienced these last two years, the when is pretty apparent, and restating more on when is wildly redundant.  However, since the Internet is forever, let me only stipulate the government has been running amok since 2000.  The gain in government over liberties, rights, and freedoms in the populations with representative government has only sharply increased since 2020.  It remains imperative that government from the city to the Presidential office needs serious reprimanding, shrinking, and curtailing!

Repeating only for emphasis, I need the WHY!  Why were all the pre-pandemic plans, government exercises, and 200-years of research in basic virology and virus management thrown away during this COVID-Kabuki?  Why have so many bureaucrats become rich, famous, and hailed as “the science” when basic science has been ignored, shunted to the side, and criticized?  Science is constantly debated, doubted, discussed, and repeatedly tested in a research laboratory and the real world.  Physics leaders debate gravity; medical researchers are always learning something new, reporting something new, and then testing the new to prove it has worth and value for study and learning.  Every field of science is learning through testing, re-testing, discovery, debate, and discussion of doubts.

Yet, for the last two years, all doubting of published, and heavily politicalized science, has been squashed by the thumb of government, and I need to know WHY!  Drugs helpful in treating the flu were refused for COVID, even though previous studies, done by the big names in the NIH, were politicalized, pushed out, and refused to people suffering; why?  Masks were mandated, even though every manufacturer is forced, by legislation, to admit these masks do no good in stopping viral particulate from entering the mask.  The body of research is growing discussing the efficacy of wearing masks during surgery and reflects that those wearing masks harm the patients’ undergoing procedures from doctors and nurses wearing the mask, increasing the potential for sepsis post-procedure.The Duty of Americans

Why are patients harmed; the mask was ONLY ever intended to help curb droplets of bacteria born from the mouth and nose of the medical personnel from dropping into the wounds and surgical area of the patient until new technology could be derived.  Follow the history of masks from cotton to paper and reusable to disposable, and you the truth is obvious.  Research is being conducted on the germ storm created on the front or outside of the mask that the doctor is then blowing onto the patient’s wounds.  Basic science can logically explain and expound upon this topic.  Unfortunately, as what occurred in 1846 to Doctor Ignaz Semmelweis, those with political power and a modicum of medical training are treating those discussing, debating, and doubting established “science” wickedly and immorally, while pointedly refusing and trying to dispel everyone who disagrees.

By the way, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was the doctor who championed hand washing and cleaning instruments between patients with a chlorine solution.  Consider medical treatment today; how many of you want your doctor or nurse not to wash their hands between patients?  Wear gloves?  And have ready access to sterilized medical instruments?  Another hot topic in hospital safety is pharmaceutical-resistant bacteria, viruses, and easily transmissible diseases in hospitals.  Want a topic to scare the hell out of you; read any paper on the problems with controlling sepsis, an easily spread illness for any patient having a medical procedure, where droplets of bacteria drop into the wound, sometimes from the masks of those performing the procedure.

Frankly, I prefer to see medical personnel in face shields rather than masks.  It is easier to hear the medical professional, the face shield is easily cleaned with alcohol one-time use swabs/pads, and I can listen to the doctor/nurse.  Plus, the same droplet control is achieved without the danger of passing droplets of bacteria into an open wound by surgical and medical personnel.  Upon looking at the research on masks endangering patients, how many medical professionals will switch to face shields and away from masks voluntarily?  Well, Dr. Semmelweis’ history shows us the answer is less than zero!  Why does history repeat itself so often; many people refuse to learn history to avoid repeating history.  But the real reason is that people with power refuse to listen to those with ideas and no power.  Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis died of the same disease he fought in maternity wards, sepsis (previously known as childbed fever).

VaccineWant to really be freaked out, scared into mental distress; read what the CDC reports on hand hygiene in hospitals and doctor’s clinics.  Very few medical professionals adhere to hand hygiene protocols to the detriment of the patient!  Yet, since 1846, almost 200-years, hand hygiene has been known as the best course of action to prevent spreading diseases, except the number one reason doctors and nurses don’t wash their hands is their personal beliefs.  I want to know why medical professionals, who are supposed to be embedded in learning and discovery, refuse simple science when it stares them in the face, resist common sense and logic, and inflate their egos when questions are asked.  Ever ask a doctor or nurse when the last time they washed their hands?  I was threatened with being kicked out of an ER for asking this question, wounds untreated, pain issue not resolved, all for asking the ER doctor if he had washed his hands recently.

Why did the WHO, the CDC, and so many other repositories of international science refuse 16-years of dedicated science about mask-wearing in the community and agree with the governments to force mask mandates onto the populations?  What changed in science; nothing!  What powered mask mandates; politics!  Where did masking healthy people as young as two-years-old originate; the warped and twisted minds of someone making a ton of money on mask manufacturing!  How did the masking of healthy people work out; it killed them through suicide, fear of hospitals, and through a fake sense of protection!  Want to know a truth; all of this was known, recognized, and understood through multiple studies, government training exercises, and real-world research as early as 2000.

Exclamation MarkI have to know why!  As a life-long learner, as a student of human interactions, an observer of groups of people and individuals, the why is the driving force in the five questions of study (who, what, when, where, how, and WHY).  I have been told to “Follow the money,” guess what, the money and the origin are similar.  I have been told, “It is political;” well, if that was true, where did the opposing party go?  I have been instructed, pointedly, by Federal Police Officers as they were arresting me because I physically cannot wear a mask.  My questions are ill-timed, inappropriate, and a public nuisance.  The political pandemic is all but concluded; my questions are not ill-timed anymore.  I want answers!  If this was a political exercise with a global bio-weapon, as postulated in March/April 2020.  In that case, I want the opposition party to start asking bureaucrats questions and drill down to answers!  It’s called scrutiny; exercise your elected responsibility!

As instructed in the book authored by Simon Sinek, “Start with Why!”  Why did governments steal power, authority, and liberty to demand mask adherence?  Why did the government push vaccination of a new and unstudied vaccine technology?  Why were effective drugs canceled to fit a political narrative while people were dying?  Why was a virus politicalized in the first place?  Look at the timing, and ask why the virus was released when it was released?  It is abundantly clear that the Wuhan Laboratory is deeply involved, which means the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is deeply engaged, and people died.  Why can’t the world’s people hold the CCP liable for the virus release and resulting harm?  Why can’t Fauci be held responsible for investing taxpayer dollars, against the order of the sitting US President, in the gain of function research?

When asking who got richer, ask why they appeared to force non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI’s) when these people stood to gain financially from those mandates of government?  Why did congressional representatives in the United States gain in measures above and beyond average market gains, all while people they were expected to represent in government died?Gravy Train 3

Before another question is asked, the media needs to answer why are they the voice box and cheer-leading squad of politicians?  In all representative governments, the media is supposed to be the third party, a neutral source, and a voice of the masses.  Why did the media forsake their job?  Why is the media always the lapdog of the liberal and progressive (regressive) parties?  Why did the press sell its heritage for a bowl of pottage?

Since the media refuses their job, and big technology is tied hand and foot to the press and politicians, like a warped three-legged race, why are the taxpayer dollars being used to enrich big-tech companies?  Why is a publicly-traded entity, big tech companies (LinkedIn, Facebook/Meta, Twitter, etc.), allowed into government offices?  Isn’t this the very epitome of insider trading?  Why is big tech even allowed to influence the government?  I need the why!

Why did the government take lists of the unvaccinated?  The political left has no morals, no compunction, and biggering the government is their god.  The political left is known for using any means necessary to get what they want.  Worse, the political left, and right, have proven untrustworthy, immoral, and unethical.  What happens next should be the second question answered after why!Detective

Finally, why did the religious leaders walk in lockstep with the government?  Sweden’s results are from following sound science, and they are better off than everyone else in the world.  Religious leaders have always claimed the moral high ground, even while “rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.”  Thus, we must know why the religious leaders did not protect their flocks and show authentic, inspired leadership?  Do you feel cheated by your religious and political leaders?  I have some concerns!

Please, don’t take my word for it.  Look it up.  My references are boldly stated to help you, not prove a point; research can only support a conclusion and proves NOTHING!  I have questions, and my research promotes more questions.  I would see you, dear reader, fully informed and able to ask your own questions.  In an ironic twist of inanity, the CDC reports the following, “glove use is NOT a substitute for cleaning your hands [emphasis inferred and mine].”  The research linked is a peer-reviewed document the CDC provides for doctors to promote more hand hygiene in medical situations.

?u=http3.bp.blogspot.com-CIl2VSm-mmgTZ0wMvH5UGIAAAAAAAAB20QA9_IiyVhYss1600showme_board3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1The science is in; this is a true statement, but changing the hearts and minds of people takes an inordinate amount of time that government interference only worsens!  If you reach different conclusions after conducting your own research, please use the comments to discuss, and include your research.  I am the first person to declare that I know nothing!

References

Miller, Ian.  Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates.  Post Hill Press.  Kindle Edition.

Pittet, D., Simon, A., Hugonnet, S., Pessoa-Silva, C. L., Sauvan, V., & Perneger, T. V. (2004). Hand hygiene among physicians: performance, beliefs, and perceptions.  Annals of internal medicine, 141(1), 1-8.

Vincent M, Edwards P. Disposable surgical face masks for preventing surgical wound infection in clean surgery.  Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2016, Issue 4.  Art.  No.: CD002929.  DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD00292

© Copyright 2022 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images.  Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.

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The Kool-Aid Crowd and COVID

Bobblehead DollSince 2000, the US Federal Government has spent billions, if not hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to improve labels and then “educate” people into reading labels.  The laws passed have forced private businesses to spend hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars in changing labeling on packaging and products to comply.  Go to any mask package and you will find similar:Mask Packaging

Recently I sought service at a Xfinity retail store and was denied service because I cannot wear a mask.  During this outing, I received severely dirty and threatening looks and attitudes from shoppers in a Walmart, all because I cannot wear a mask.  People are becoming violent, just as the government has demanded, to anyone not toeing the government COVID line, and this behavior reminded me of the Jim Jones religious cult.

President Biden is expected to force more people to listen to him threaten and try to scare Americans into getting vaccinated.  The mayors of Boston, Chicago, and New York continue to double down on activities that have not worked since February 2020.  The governors of California, New Mexico, Michigan, and others, continue to use powers not available to them in the name of “public health emergency.”  More mask mandates, more vaccination orders, and more “green passes” to exist.  Here’s the rub, how many of these solutions have worked; honestly, look at the data from February 2020 to December 2021, and tell me how many people were saved wearing masks.

People saved from these government freedom theft mandates, I guarantee, the number is NOT statistically significant!  How do I know; Australia, essentially a large island, has the strictest policies, and Omicron was still able to get onto the island.  How do I know; COVID infected children (school age K-12) have the same risks as uninfected children.  Who is the resource for this information, The New York Times!

Real numbers, Israel has one of the highest vaccinations and boosted populations on the globe; guess what, they also have the highest spike in Omicron infections!  Europe, socialized medicine, high vaccination and boosted populations, where the Omicron and Delta variants spiked infection rates.  Think of this for a moment, populations forced by government to vaccinate, and they are still passing around COVID infections, which is precisely viral science in action!

Peer reviewed researchers in the virus infection community have shown this life cycle of viral infections repeatedly since scientists began writing down what they do.  Vaccinated people pass around strains of viral mutation, which then infect other vaccinated people, until the virus mutates itself to death.  Please, do not believe me, look up this science for yourself, and you will come to a similar conclusion.  At the end of the day the viral infection community of scientists are plotting the death of COVID as a viral infection, but government elected leaders, and the bureaucrats powering the echo chamber of political thinking, will not give up the power theft committed since Feb 2020.

Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid cult suicide has been mocked, used as case studies in group think, and represents a dark time in human psychology and the abuse of religious thinking and adherence.  Guess what, the insanity of COVID-19 is as silly, irresponsible, and dangerous as Jim Jones and his cyanide-laced grape-flavored Kool-Aid.  Senator Manchin nailed it, government is beating the “living crap” out of every citizen, the beatings are intensified by the state government, and the county and city governments.  Yet, little Joey is going to continue to threaten, cajole, beat, and denigrate people using COVID as the excuse.

Did you get the vaccination just to appease government and end the beatings?  Are you able to unmask and live your life without COVID mandates, just because you got vaccinated?  I have friends here in NM who have masked, vaccinated, and done everything the government has demanded of them to avoid the government beatings.  They caught COVID, the whole family was quarantined, and extended family still caught COVID from my friends, once the quarantine was lifted, they gathered, and the extended, vaccinated, masked family caught COVID.  The repetition of this story is exhausting and provides clear proof the government beatings, mandates, and exercised powers are NOT helping but hurting, and make the Jim Jones Kool-Aid episode even more appropriate.

The science from South Africa, where Omicron variant was identified, reports the COVID virus stays in the nose and mouth region.  Guess what, so does the common cold virus, and there has NEVER been an attempt to vaccinate against the ever changing common cold.  We, the citizens of representative government, are the owners of government and it is time we take the reigns and stop the Kool-Aid massacre.  Government should never hold the power over an individual citizen’s health, welfare, or ability to pursue happiness.  Yet, this is exactly what the government bureaucrats want you to give to the government to stop COVID.  Since February 2020, has this worked?  Answer this question as well; how much faster would herd immunity have been achieved had government done what it has done for every other Chinese virus, which is nothing?

Look at recent history, Asian Flu, Hong Kong Flu, Bird Flu A (H5N1), Swine Flu, SARS, etc. the government did nothing.  NO shutdowns, no mandates, no economic stimulus, no job losses for those not vaccinating, no Big Pharma money pump for vaccinations of dubious nature, and the world did not end.  Did some people die; yes.  Did some people get sick; yes.  But herd immunity was faster and more effective than any action the government could think would have worked.  Dear reader, to you I ask, “Are you better off for the government intervention on COVID-19?”  I know my answer, but to you I leave the question and the answer.

Now, flash forward 10-years in your mind.  The real death toll of government intervention is still being hidden, but the deaths from a dubious vaccine are scaring populations silly.  When do we ask ourselves if the forced government vaccinations are the cause for infertility, for economic destruction, and for the massacre of human dreams and lives?  Who do we blame after the money is spent and the vaccines have irretrievably destroyed wide swaths of populations?  When vaccinated children whose risk from COVID remains minimal are sick, twisted with pain, or are dying in droves with reduced life expectancies, but the government continues to defend “doing something in the face of COVID.”

If the Jim Jones religious cult comparison is not appropriate now, when will it be appropriate and concerning to every single citizen across the globe?  Do you know the phrase “Judas Goat?”  The Judas Goat is the goat that befriends sheep, and then leads them to their doom in a slaughterhouse.  Belief in the omni-powerful government is a myth and a Judas Goat, yet to not blindly follow the government mandates is to be refused employment (nurses, firefighters, doctors, police officers, etc.) to be denied service (anyone unable to wear a mask), to be refused legal protection, and be castigated as heretic.  Jim Jones’ believers did similarly to everyone not believing, and they are all dead!  Those who are skeptical of the Judas Goat, are also dead, but their fellow sheep herd went first.

I admit, from day one (October-November 2019) when I first began reading of a new viral infection killing people in China, I have been skeptical, concerned, and boring the daylights out of my wife with the reports, the history, the potential ramifications of this new viral infection.  But in my most fevered nightmares I never thought the government could assume and amass so much power without citizens becoming rebellious.  Flash forward two-years, three arrests for not being able to physically wear a mask, fines, and economical losses incalculable, and my horror is just starting, when I see the vaccinated kids, the shutdown schools, the lost opportunities and potential, and the “hits just keep coming” from government and the bureaucrats.

?u=http3.bp.blogspot.com-CIl2VSm-mmgTZ0wMvH5UGIAAAAAAAAB20QA9_IiyVhYss1600showme_board3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1China is using biological warfare against the world; but the Chinese government is to blame, not the people of China.  I repeat, only for emphasis, do the research yourself.  Make your own decisions.  Unlike the government, Big Tech, and the bureaucrats hungry for power, I trust you to use your freedom and powers of critical thinking.  We might not reach the exact same conclusions, but we can still respect each other, and being better informed from reputable sources improves us both.  Political party be hanged, we are humans first and we need each other.  Please, do not go quietly into that dark night like the sheep entering a slaughterhouse, following the Judas Goat who has skipped aside to miss the consequences.

© Copyright 2021 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images.  Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.

Dollars and Sense – Inflationary Spending and Fiscal Insanity

Bobblehead DollThese articles have discussed money, monetary policy, fiscal sanity, and government spending several times this year.  Some have called me alarmist for raising fiscal sanity during a “Global Health Crisis.”  While COVID-19 (Sars-COV-2) is undoubtedly a viral disease with a 98%+ survival rate, I cannot in good conscience call this a “Global Health Crisis.”  The pandemic declaration was a political move, the mask mandating, business closures, and every other hysterical move have been carefully formulated to present a problem where none exists.  Has Sars-COV-2 mutated; absolutely, but the emotional hysteria has mutated far faster.

Dollars and SenseApathy

When you pass paper to a store clerk, are you spending money; no, you are spending confidence.  Your confidence in the dollar’s strength, as represented by a check, cash, money order, credit card, etc., is what is being spent.  Why was the Great Depression so lasting and detrimental; a lack of confidence in the US Dollar.  People who saved their money formed sane fiscal policies personally and acted logically lost their confidence in the US Dollar, and the dollar went into a great depression.

Since President Clinton, the US Government has been on a drunken spending spree and does not appear to be stopping unless the citizens demand they cease and desist!  What does this mean for you and me; everything costs more for two reasons inflation and interest.  When the government prints money, too much money increases prices, and too few goods chase too much money, resulting in people suffering.  When the government borrows money, the interest must be serviced; the interest will increase prices and usually absorb some of the extra capital on the market to bring down inflation.Lemmings 2

Except, Quantitative Easing (QE) is hindering the absorption of money on the market.  Hence America is witnessing something truly remarkable for the first time in financial history, the debt (principal), the interest, and the extra capital, all of these storms are combining into a major conflagration economically speaking.  Usually, at this point, a country begins to look for a place to go to war, which explains China and its expansionist policies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean.  Too much debt, too much interest, a military needing worked, and assets need to be stolen from other countries.  Typical historical thinking, war truly is grand larceny on a massive scale!

Where are America and China headed; let’s ask Czarist Russia, USSR, Nazi Germany, East Germany, China, North Korea, Italy, Venezuela, Greece, France, and who knows how many other economically unstable countries historically and presently.  Going to war will not solve this economic crisis, though some may try that solution.  The only solution worth advancing at this critical juncture economically is reducing the size of government, placing a firm halt on all government spending, and refusing the politicians to get into debt for at least two decades!  Yes, this means changing Social Security, Welfare, Medicaid and Medicare, and every other government benefit program to fit a reduced budget and smaller government model.  Failure to tighten belts for the next two decades will bankrupt America, and most of the world, making the Great Depression look like a summer picnic.Lemmings 4

Gold and Oil, real estate, Gross Domestic Products (the goods manufactured in America for sale), trade, all of these wealth tools and more cannot support the debt incurred, the money printed, nor the size of the government from the city and county to the White House.  As this trend continues, Wall Street will continue to be tumultuous, at best, and the confidence in the US Dollar will continue to slide.  But, as the dollar slides, which global currency will begin to take up the slack?

The Euro has discredited itself and is not worth the paper it is printed on.  China thinks they will step into the void and take up the slack with the Yuan, except their financial situation is almost as bad as Venezuela’s and Cuba’s, but their size and government type keep this hidden from the public.  Even though the Yuan is in junk status, the Communist government hides these facts; the truth is leaking out in higher trade tariffs and other global trade and finance costs.  Russia’s economic situation still has not stabilized with the fall of the USSR and will probably need another two to three decades until it can compete on the global economy again.Gravy Train 2

I heard a postulation that the Arabian Oil Rich nations of the Middle East would produce an OPEC-backed currency if the US Dollar fails.  I highly doubt this as a solution, but the potential is there.  Another person claimed the lack of confidence in the US Dollar would lead to the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) issuing currency for the world; boy, would that be a significant problem!  Yet, the American Dollar is being purposefully destroyed by the current crop of politicians, and nobody is standing up and declaring ENOUGH!

Inflation

The US Government, and many others globally, have increased their drunken spending since Jan/Feb 2020 to incredibly extensive levels and used a “Global Health Crisis” as the excuse.  Except when Ebola was sweeping the world, we did not have this level of insane spending and government intrusion.  Ebola is far deadlier, easier to spread, and yet the Ebola disaster is barely remembered.  Bird Flu, Swine Flu, SARS, MERS, all these viruses have had their time in the media hysterical spotlight, every single one of them is deadlier than Sars-COV-2, easier to spread, and they were never a cause for a global pandemic.Gravy Train

Inflation is caused by poor economic policy, where the government grants itself the ability to print money.  Inflation is not just money and monetary policy; inflation is also confidence, faith, and trust.  Inflation is how the government acts, thinks, and behaves.  Inflation is as real as COVID-19 and just as deadly as Ebola while being more problematic for everyone.  From Dec 2020 to the end of July 2021, inflation has increased the price of goods and services by 3.8%, seasonally adjusted, or 5.4% non-seasonally adjusted, which means that prices go up as a seasonal adjustment in the summer.

Fiscal Insanity

Consider with me an analogy; you live in a community of houses and pay a Homeowners Association (HOA) Fee.  Your neighbor has decided they can write checks on your checking account, and the HOA has granted them legal protection to write checks on your bank accounts.  Because your neighbor has legal protection, you sell off assets to provide the funds for your neighbor.  You sell to other neighbors letters of credit that you promise to pay interest on, provided your other neighbors hold those letters of credit for specific amounts of time.  Except, your neighbors stop buying those letters of credit over time because they do not like how your neighbor keeps writing checks and spending your money.  How do you keep this house of cards from blowing over and losing everything?

Tax BurdenAmerica is in this position right now!  Trend lines show a steady downward trend in the value of the US Dollar.  Inflation will keep increasing prices as too much money is chasing too few products on the market.  Debt needs to be serviced and interest paid.  But, when the interest payment is the only thing being paid, and the principal will also need to be serviced, where and how does the principal get serviced when the interest is absorbing all the monthly payments?  Simple economics, money once created and put into the money market, cannot just be absorbed or disappeared.  Just like food doesn’t disappear once consumed, the offal must come out and be handled responsibly.  Well, the dollar is in an offal position and needs responsibly handled!

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: The TRUE Cost of the COVID Emotionally Charged Episode

Angry Birds Evolution' Review: Glimpse the Dark Heart of Branding | WIREDResearch supports the following conclusion and is easily found in open sources.  Feel free to look up any of the peer-reviewed researchers discussing loneliness (GOOGLE Scholar), and you will find similar conclusions with repercussions to the ongoing COVID-Insanity.  My particular source for the following conclusions is based upon the writings of Dr. Kelli Harding, “The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness.”  Specifically, Chapter Three of Dr. Harding’s book provides key information to Government Mandates and Media Hysteria’s actual cost over a viral infection with a 98% survival rate.

Angry Grizzly BearWhile I am only focusing on COVID, please remember some of the other viral infections still causing havoc and disease in the world and their mortality rates, including H5N1 Bird Flu with 52.8%, Ebola with 40.4%, MERS 34.4%, or SARS 9.6%.  Yet, none of these diseases have caused world-spanning lockdowns, mask mandates, travel restrictions, and come with such an incredible price tag for societies.

What I am about to declare does not, in any way, diminish the tragedy of those in the 2% who have died or those who have suffered from COVID-19.  COVID is a viral infection, like the Flu and Chicken Pox.  The hysterical drama over COVID-19 is beyond acceptable and has cost the world something highly precious, our soul!  The Philippines and Roseto, Pennsylvania (pre-1960) had something in common; they lived incredibly long lives.  Why; because they socialized!

Would you like to know why suicide rates, alcohol consumption, and tobacco consumption are significantly higher during this COVID-Madness; loneliness!  As a point of reference, loneliness is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day or consuming large amounts of alcohol daily.  Let that sink in for a moment, global society has become lonely and hostile over COVID-Mandates, and the reason is that we are lonelier than ever before.

Generally, the democratically-elected government refuses to stop the madness due to the power they have gained.  Corporate media will not let COVID go because of the power they have gained through fear and the control of other audiences’ emotions.  Big-Pharma will not let COVID go; even though they are losing tons of money on the flu vaccine, they are making super-tankers full of money pushing a new and highly suspect vaccine and treating populations like lab rats.

Broken RobotThe population becomes more hostile, more lonely, and more frustrated.  What is the actual cost of COVID, lost loved ones; absolutely.  But never forget the missed birthdays, anniversaries, social circles, births, deaths, graduations, reunions, family gatherings, and so much more.  The true cost of COVID has been the rise in technology that does not make up for the loss of human-to-human social interaction.  Nor does technology improve the condition of feeling lonely in anyone!

A close acquaintance had perfect health through the COVID madness, got the first Astra-Zeneca shot, and was hospitalized with double-lung pneumonia within 48 hours.  Europe reports that pregnant women who get the COVID vaccines see an increase in still-birth and lost pregnancies greater than 300%.  Still, the reports come in about sterility, rashes, worsened illnesses, and a host of other problems after getting the various vaccines, that Big-Pharma continues to downplay.  Anyone else ready for the truth about the Big-Pharma-Government-Industrial-Corporate Media Mafia being experienced?

Angry Wet ChickenThe more I research loneliness and witness the daily destruction of government gone wild; I cannot help but think many need to be held accountable for the length and waste created by the “Covid-19 Experience!”  The sad part, the loneliness is not being addressed, and society will never be the same after the COVID-Experience finally concludes.  COVID-related suicides do not bring the loved one back.  Lost jobs from COVID-Hysteria do not magically reappear.  Church societies have taken a hit, and the people-to-people contacts will never be the same.  Parades, rodeos, community events, scouting events, sporting events all offer opportunities for fighting loneliness that the COVID-Hysterics have destroyed.  Backyard community barbeques will take forever to recover, and that is detestable!

Get your lab rat vaccine if you choose.  I am not anti-vax, but I have significant concerns that Big-Pharma refuses to address.  The government has ensured that Big-Pharma will never have to be held accountable for not managing, informing, or properly designing.  Heaven help you if you get a life-changing disability because of the COVID-Vaccines; you have no recourse!  COVID does not scare me; runaway government scares me.  Runaway government egged on by corporate media talking heads leaves me madder than a wet chicken with a raging case of hemorrhoids.  The Government-Big-Pharma-Corporate Media-Industrial Complex Mafia has me even more agitated, to the point where I am refusing my consent to be governed as long as COVID remains the hysterical excuse for passing laws and discriminating!Dont Tread On Me

Choose as you will; but as for me and my house, we will choose a “Liberty FIRST Culture!”

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: Apathy, Empathy, and Sympathy – Chapter 2

Never Give Up!It never seems to change; the powers that think they run the world want everyone drinking the Kool-Aid of emotional entanglement.  August 2020, I wrote the first chapter on apathy, empathy, and sympathy; unfortunately, the events of this past week have shown that a return to this topic is both necessary and urgently needed.  What worries me is that too many still feel they must share emotions to prove their care towards something or someone else, an idea that is 100% false!

What is Apathy?

ApathyApathy is all about a lack of enthused concern.  Being apathetic is a choice to show no concern, emotional connection to an issue, or interest.  The choice to be apathetic is personal and does not indicate that a person is heartless; simply that the person being apathetic is making different choices where emotion is concerned on a topic.  Choosing a different emotional response to a situation is a good thing and reflects intelligence in understanding emotional pitfalls and emotional problems leading to problems and chaos.

What is Empathy?

Empathy v ApathyEmpathy, of all the emotional pitfalls, empathy is the most devious of this list’s emotional responses.  Empathy is all about acting like you understand another person’s emotions, and you have a personal desire to share those emotions.  Empathy is fake; empathy is a choice one exercises in the attempt to control a person or situation through emotion.  Being empathetic is a skill set learned as a manner of defense or, for the more nefarious, to control others.  Empathy is nothing more than faking concern.  By encouraging empathy, a person with authority is looking to steal control over enough people to contain a group through that group’s emotional connections.  By choosing to be empathetic, control over the cognizant emotional choices is given away to someone else for momentary social gains.  Shift the social environment even slightly, and empathy becomes foolish.  Still, people will continue to look for something to emote about, even after being caught feeling ridiculous about being empathetic for social gain.

What is Sympathy?

Sympathy v Empathy v ApathySympathy is a process of coming to a common feeling in a social setting or group.  The emotional pathway journeyed by people or groups to feel the same emotions for someone else’s emotional state.  Sympathy is the most dangerous of the emotional tools on this list, not for the one experiencing the sorrow or misfortune, but for those who jump in with the person feeling the sadness or experiencing adversity.  Understand, the sympathetic person attracts other sympathetic people, like moths to a flame or lemmings to a cliff.  I have met people who were so sympathetic with another person in my travels that they thought they had contracted cancer, become pregnant, or had an addiction to dangerous drugs.

Examples of runaway emotional hysteria.

Detective 4The 800#-Gorilla in the news is COVID-19; the corporate media is using sympathy and empathy to garner support for the government to continue the lockdowns, the mask mandates, the economic decline, and to refuse and refute those governors in the U.S. who want to return to business as usual pre-COVID.  Sympathy for the dead, empathy for the families left behind, sympathy for those in hospitals, empathy for those first responders struggling with COVID cases, and so much more.  The logic is never equal to the emotional marionette strings, and heaven forbid someone approaches the media with facts.  Want more proof that the media is only interested in the emotional gamesmanship of sympathy and empathy; look to historical records of Ebola in the US, Swine-flu, Avian-Flu, SARS, MERS, annual flu outbreaks, and other viral outbreaks.  You will find headlines blaring a need to sympathize, empathize, and emote in a specified manner, or you are considered heartless, uncaring, and a host of -isms that make no sense, except to those demanding an emotional response.

Consider the “influencer culture” that has gripped the world for more than two decades as social media has swept the world.  In case you missed the definition of “influencer culture,” it is all about people with above-average influence on an audience.  The best influencers have built their reputation online for being an expert in some particular niche or are cashing in on their popularity through sports, politics, or Hollywood. They are similar to key opinion leaders but usually have gained their reputation more informally through their online activity.  Consider the emotional diatribes regarding Lady Gaga’s dogs being stolen.  Heck, I don’t even know who or what a “Lady Gaga” is, but I know a dog theft is not that big a news item.  Yet, how many days has your newsfeed been filled with this story?  Worse, BBC and Time have run follow-on stories about dog thefts and tried to raise “public awareness” of a problem, demanding empathy and sympathy from the audience due to influencer culture.

Baby Blues - Good AnswerI saw a headline in my newsfeed that had me laughing, “What the U.S. owes Iran?” authored by Ryan Cooper.  My answer was first a low-yield nuclear bomb, at about 150’-agl, and a smile!  My second answer is not fit to print.  My third and fourth answers were similar, but to have the author advocating for the fraudulent President Biden to “budge first” was an absolute farce!  Still, even on this topic, the author begs the audience to have sympathy and empathy for Iran’s citizens and political structure before America and the rest of the world, who have been victims of Iran’s tyranny and terrorism over the last several decades.  Is the pattern clear; when emotions of empathy and sympathy override common-sense and logic, control of the audience is no longer individually held but collectively controlled.

ParadoxMy newsfeed has been clogged by some spoiled brats who fled a palace in the United Kingdom for fame and fortune in America and some stupid interview with Oprah.  Beyond that, I have no clue what their pampered beef is and could care less.  Yet, this entire week has been filled with demands from the crown for sympathy and empathy, cries for sympathy, and empathy for the runaway pampered couple in California.  As well as cries for Oprah who is not a big enough girl to stand criticizing memes and people who use her as a meme are “digital blackfacing.”  Digital blackfacing, what a plastic term of useless indignation which is masquerading as a call for sympathy and empathy.

How do people move forward?

The following are suggestions; I employ them for my own sanity.  I make my own choices and live with the consequences, and I urge you to consider the same:

      1. Restrict the media flow into your life. I do not watch TV, listen to the radio, or allow any specific corporate media channel to infest my digital devices or computer.  I have five specific news provider applications, but it has taken a lot of time and effort to stop being a news junkie!Not Passion's Slave - Emotions and Choice
      2. Robert Solomon wrote, “Not Passion’s Slave: Emotions and Choice.” Make some time to read this book.  I am not saying everyone has to follow everything Solomon claims; I am saying that being more informed about the role of emotions and conscious choices is empowering, sanctioning, and liberating.Emtional Investment Cycle
      3. Are you aware of your emotional investments? I have two people I respect, but they hold opposing views and emotional investments.  Both have grown children, but one allows their children space to act as independent agents.  The other tries to be a helicopter parent for the kids who now have kids.  Worse, the helicopter parent cannot catch the hint that the kids do not want anything to do with their parent.  The helicopter parent is so emotionally involved that they have physical health problems from the emotional wasteland’s stress and anxiety between the kids and the parent.  Thus, I ask, do you know where your emotional investments are?  What is your return on investment for emotionally investing?

Image - Eagle & FlagI promise as you review and reduce your emotional investments, you will experience a feeling of liberation like you have never known before.  Stress levels drop, time becomes available for other activities, and a more conscious choice of emotional investing makes you a better person to be around.  Stop giving away your emotional liberty to those who would control and destroy you, be they children, friends, employment, media, politics, etc.; you can be free of emotional chains.

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

COVID-19 – The Paradigm We are Choosing is Incorrect

Since February 2020, I have asked one question more than any other, “Why are we responding to COVID-19 with hysteria, emotional hyperbole, and ridiculous virtue signaling?”  It is estimated that there are 320,000 different viruses that inhabited planet earth.  Consider the following sourced from the Virology Blog:

To estimate unknown viral diversity in mammals, 1,897 samples (urine, throat swabs, feces, roost urine) were collected from the Indian flying fox, Pteropus giganteus, and analyzed for viral sequences by consensus polymerase chain reaction.  This bat species was selected for the study because it is known to harbor zoonotic pathogens such as Nipah virus. PCR assays were designed to detect viruses from nine viral families. A total of 985 viral sequences from members of 7 viral families were obtained.  These included 11 paramyxoviruses (including Nipah virus and 10 new viruses), 14 adenoviruses (13 novel), 8 novel astroviruses, 4 distinct coronaviruses, 3 novel polyomaviruses, 2 bocaviruses, and many new herpesviruses.”

Now, consider the following:

Varicella-zoster is a herpes virus that causes chickenpox, a common childhood illness. It is highly contagious.  After a person has had chickenpox, the varicella-zoster virus can remain inactive in the body for many years.”

Since chickenpox is a viral disease, let us compare methodologies of treatment for chickenpox to COVID-19.  For chickenpox, we isolate those infected, we keep them comfortable, and we treat the symptoms until the virus runs out of steam.  We use logic, known remedies, and we vaccinate.  We do not force entire populations to self-isolate, wear masks, halt economies, cease business, or tolerate rioting and pillaging by domestic terrorists.

Why is COVID-19 being treated differently than every other virus known to man?  Why are we treating COVID-19 like Bubonic Plague instead of like the chickenpox?  While I understand that Bubonic Plague is a bacterial infection, I mention Bubonic Plague due to that bacterial infection being highly contagious and significantly deadly, to aid in clearing vision.  The world has lived with bacterial infections and viruses since man began walking the earth.  Yet, suddenly, COVID-19 is cooked up in a Chinese lab and the world is expected to cease.

There must be another reason than medical science and health of populations for the response to COVID-19.  I worked in an ER before COVID-19 came on the scene.  If you had a cough, a cold, a fever, or suspected you might be sick, you were encouraged to wear a mask.  No fines for not wearing a mask, no arrests for not wearing a mask, if you were in an ER, and caught an infection from another patient; well, that is a risk of going to a hospital.  Why is COVID-19 being responded to with fear, chaos, and a lack of scientific approaches?

The following image is a Johari Window.  A Johari Window, “is a technique that helps people better understand relationships. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995) in 1955.”  The following Johari Window is intended to be an aid in understanding COVID-19 and the response from the government.

Johari Window for Control

Hence, if the response to COVID-19, was purely scientific, the Johari Window would look like the following:

JJohari Window - Control

The same would be true for any of the purely single-dimensional Johari Windows.  One source would dominate them all.  In a normal situation, a person should be able to expect some of each category of response would be melded together to achieve the greatest good, for the greatest number of people when looking at the four main responses to illness as represented in the Johari Window.  However, as a hysterical surgeon at the VA reminded me, “COVID-19 is NOT normal times” [emphasis his.]

Why is COVID-19 different?  Why is COVID-19 allowed to create such abnormal responses?  Was there an edict passed by a world body that said everyone had to lose their minds over this particular Chinese disease?  The WHO continues to relate that COVID-19 is a SARS-like respiratory disease.  Well, the world has dealt with MERS (Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) now for over a decade (2002), and none of the previous president’s or governors lost their minds and allowed America to come to an indefinite screeching halt over a virus.  In fact, both SARS and MERS are viral infections, SARS originates in China, both are prevalent in the United States, and both are in the same family as COVID-19.  Hence, why are we losing our freedoms, our lifestyles, our economies, and lives over another viral infection?  The entire US was not ordered to wear masks when SARS and MERS first arrived; as a point of fact, over a million people had to die from SARS before President Obama even took notice of the viral infection.

I have heard it postulated that the only reason COVID-19 is being responded in such brutally malignant methods was due to politics and how 2020 is a presidential election year.  Consider Avian Flu, beginning in China in the 1990s, Avian Flu began spreading and was rampant from 2004 to 2014, no political points were made on Avian Flu during those presidential elections (1990 through 2014).  As a point of reference, Avian Flu is still producing new strands and variants (2020), was also labeled a pandemic, just in time for the 2008 election cycle, and no significant political hay was made over the Avian Flu Pandemic, even though the Democratic Party made pandemic response a talking point for their platform.

Swine Flu (2009), the first global pandemic in 40-years, made huge waves in politics, originated in China, is still a major problem with Chinese pork leading to the demise of millions of pigs annually.  Swine flu was a politically polarizing disease when it came to vaccinating and expanding the government’s health budget to prevent more outbreaks. Swine Flu affected Americans directly and led to preventive legislation, but again during election cycles, no political hay was made over the government’s response, and the government’s response was ludicrously useless for a long time.  Worse yet, the governors of NY and CA sold crucial medical equipment and further frustrated their state’s abilities to respond to COVID-19.

Ebola, a highly infectious, very deadly viral disease, makes the human-to-human jump very easily.  Multiple large-scale infections have been almost continuous in Africa since 1995.  Infection is spread through all infected human bodily fluids, and in 2014 both American political parties made a test run to politicize Ebola to increase government control.  However, by 2018, neither party was trying to make political hay on the disease.

The list of viral diseases and the lack of wide-spread draconian measure goes on and on.  The forced mandates made during COVID-19 remind one of the opposites of the instructions provided by Kipling.  Government officials losing their heads, blaming it on the president and everyone else, and still clinging bitterly to power.

If—

By Rudyard Kipling
(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Source: A Choice of Kipling’s Verse (1943)

I submit that the government forced mandates are illegal, immoral, unethical, and criminal.  To force edicts, when legislatures are in session is abominable behavior where those governors should be held accountable.  Law in America begins in the legislature, passes to the executive, and if signed, onto the population.  If vetoed, the legislation could be overridden by the legislature according to strict policy and law.  However, the executive cannot, and should not, be allowed to run roughshod over the legislative; nor should the executive be allowed to run roughshod over by the legislative.  All three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) must work together; why is COVID-19 being allowed to change this 200+-year-old dynamic in America?

Daily I see mayors enacting personal bias and edicts over the citizens in their cities and towns.  I see a disparity between those who consider themselves above the law not following their own edicts, demands, and dictates.  America has always been a country where the “Rule of Law,” was found in full force upon every person.  Why are those who write edicts and dictates, and making demands, not being held accountable for their refusal to follow their edicts, dictates, and demands?  Why is the response to COVD-19 any different than the myriad of other viral and bacterial diseases that plague mammals?  Why is the media being allowed to fan the flames of rioters’ discontent and government hysteria?

The response to COVID-19 by governors and mayors has been and continues to be not only incorrect but dangerously incorrect.  Consider the waste of money caused by hysteria in New York City, where upwards of $21 Million dollars was spent on outdoor hospitals and the USNS Comfort.  As a point of reference, where the USNS Comfort was concerned, the bureaucracy that kept patients from being seen was almost as bad as the bureaucracy at the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Thus, not all the blame for the USNS Comfort being wasted can be foisted upon the city of New York.  Consider the financial ties the governor of California has to a mask manufacturer in China, who signed the deal, then could not qualify for federal certification producing the masks.  While the company has finally certified, the debacle remains highly suspect.  These are but two different states issues where COVID-19 is concerned that require answers from those in charge.

From forced mask mandates that were never considered by the state legislatures, to draconian social distancing, and other mandates about how a business can operate, to the state government and city hall acting maliciously against individuals and businesses, the response to COVID-19 has been unprecedented, unreliable, and unforgivingly hostile.  Having discussed COVID-19 with many people a frequent question is “When will this nightmare end?”  Yet, would the better question be, “Why was this government-produced drama allowed to propagate in the first place?”

When the governors of NM and MN can interrupt free-travel and commerce between the states, which is against federal law, many people should have been up in arms.  Instead, like lemmings running for a cliff, the governors have been praised and followed blindly.  When Seattle, Portland, New York, Detroit, and so many towns and cities in between have been mercilessly attacked by rioters, pillagers, and domestic terrorists, I expected a swift, decisive, and vigorous response, and instead was greeted with weak knees, yellow spines, and craven virtue signaling.  Of all the COVID-19 responses, the threat to public safety by mobs and terrorists is of greater concern than the illegality of the actions of the governors and mayors, but not by much.

From February 2020 to the date of this writing, the response to COVID-19 has been a farce, a rejection of sound scientific thinking, and a lawless and egregious drama, worthy of the lowest Kabuki Theaters.  It is time to end the farce, stop the drama, and open America to business.  Recovering from the failed follies of COVID-19 government edicts will require at least a decade of hard work.  Thus, I am calling upon every American Citizen to stand and demand the COVID-19 drama, government overreach, and government made disaster to cease immediately.  We the voters must hold the elected officials accountable for their thievery, their hysteria, and their inappropriate actions at the earliest opportunity.  The bureaucrats who have made political hay while America suffered, also need to be held accountable to the society they were hired to serve.

Make no mistake, the response to COVID-19 has been nothing but a bad case of emotional hyperbole and government power grabs, and this must cease forthwith!

 

© Copyright 2020 – M. Dave Salisbury

The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the pictures.

All rights reserved.  For copies, reprints, or sharing, please contact through LinkedIn:

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