Don’t Be on That Side

Advice for the New Year

Here’s a key to understanding what’s happening in the world: the side that is about controlling others is the wrong side. Be on the other side, the one about freedom and responsibility.

A secondary clue is, the side that is obscuring the truth, stifling speech, or outright lying is the wrong side. Be on the other side, the one about truth and transparency.

A third clue is, the side that is inciting fear and helplessness is the wrong side. Be on the side of courage and resourcefulness.

A really big clue is when you see incitement of fear, combined with lying and censorship, in order to assert control over others, that's the wrong side. Be on the good side.

What can you do to be on the good side?

Speak truth. Strengthen family. Pay attention and think clearly. Treat others fairly. Have courage. Trust God.

 

Stories I’m Looking at as We Begin the New Year

Bill Gates Shows Which Side He’s On

In an interview on Al Jazeera (clip shown in this Viva Frei video), Bill Gates is commenting on preparing for the next pandemic. He says, 

Governments are there to protect us. And so, you know, they have us practice for earthquakes. They have a fire department with lots of full-time people to stop fires. They have armies that are there to deal with wars. But the pandemic is a disaster that they didn’t prepare for. The actual resources required, they have a global surveillance team to make better diagnostic technologies, to do quick detection. It’s actually not going to be that expensive once the world gets organized and makes it a priority.

Governments are instituted to protect our lives, liberty, and property from those who would take those things from us. Pandemic response is quite different from a fire department. A fire department is a local-run entity to deal with fires and similar emergencies, which are relatively rare in each person’s life, but a threat to property, and possibly also life, when they happen.

A pandemic is a worldwide health problem. But it is dealt with by each individual. Nations less developed—and therefore with less access to the globalist solution, faired better than developed nations.

Gates talks about this vague “they.” “They” have “us” practice for earthquakes. “They” have a fire department. “They have armies that are to deal with wars.

What does that mean exactly? Who is practicing for earthquakes? Who is the vague “they” that requests a vague “us” to do that?

As for armies, they are to protect sovereign borders of a nation. There should be no wars to deal with unless those borders are threatened. There are many ways to threaten a nation now, because of the global market and the online world. But wars aren’t something armies “deal with”; wars are fought, presumably because the nation and its people are being attacked.

And who is the vague “they” that supposedly didn’t prepare for the pandemic? That seems disingenuous at best. There was a lot of preparation for what "they" did. They war gamed this particular pandemic just a month or so before it happened. By this time they had banned, limited, disparaged the medications it was quickly known could have easily and cheaply prevented hospitalization and death in all but the most ill from other factors, mainly age. 

And their war gaming used quarantine of the entire population—of well people—as the prescribed strategy, controlling vast swaths of people who were not at risk from the illness. Meanwhile, they put at risk people in greater risk. It was coordinated.

Then there was the experimental vaccine—pressed on people, using coercive tactics on top of fearmongering. Gates just happens to be a person who believes the human race should be radically reduced in numbers. And he suggests vaccination as a way to accomplish that end. Hmm.

 

Prayer Is Acceptable on the Field

Good news today is that football player Damar Hamlin was released from the hospital. The 24-year-old had been in critical condition following a heart attack during a game between the   and the Cincinatti Bengals a week ago. The game ended, with players from both teams kneeling together to pray for him.

Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals players pray on the field
following the cardiac arrest of Bills player Damar Hamlin
image found here

Sports commentator Dan Orlovsky later prayed for Hamlin on the air, during a broadcast.

Dan Orlovsky prays on air for Demar Hamlin
screenshot from here

This past weekend players from the Titans and Jaguars got together on the field and prayed for Hamlin.

Players from the Titans and Jaguars pray on the field
image found on Wallbuilders Facebook re-post

Hamlin himself is openly Christian and involved in charities. I do not know what caused a cardiac arrest in a fit young athlete. But the young man’s ongoing recovery, which seems miraculous, and the unashamed willingness to pray for him, also miraculous, are worth prayers of thanks.

This is just months after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of high school football coach Joe Kennedy, who had been fired for praying on the field after games, where he could be seen by people who hate seeing signs of religion. 

May this be a new acceptance of prayer and religion in public once again!

 

We Have a Speaker

We knew in the end it would be Kevin McCarthy, as Speaker of the House, following the November election, which turned over the speakership to Republicans. No one else wanted the job badly enough to take him on.

But there were 20 members of the House Freedom Caucus who were willing to use the opportunity to push for reforms that were badly needed to break free of the Pelosi-controlled way of doing business. It took 15 votes over several days. The Freedom Caucus—and the American people—won a number of concessions, assuming Speaker McCarthy follows through. Here’s a pretty good list, told to Roger L. Simon by Rep. Andrew Ogles, for The Epoch Times (with a bit of added commentary from me):

1.      As has been reported, it will only take a single congressperson, acting in what is known as a Jeffersonian Motion, to move to remove the speaker if he or she goes back on their word or policy agenda. [This means they have to vote on it, once one person has made the motion. Pelosi had required 50% to support the motion for it to get a vote.]

2.      A “Church”-style committee will be convened to look into the weaponization of the FBI and other government organizations (presumably the CIA, the subject of the original Church Committee) against the American people.

3.      Term limits will be put up for a vote. [The only way this could be binding would be if they vote to amend the Constitution, it passes also in the Senate, and then the required number of states ratify it. But this does put the representatives’ votes on record on this issue. It's a platform issue going forward.]

4.      Bills presented to Congress will be single subject, not omnibus with all the attendant earmarks, and there will be a 72-hour minimum period to read them. [Two hurrahs for this. It can’t be representative government if it’s decided in back rooms and our representatives are pressed to vote for legislation they cannot even look at ahead of time.]

5.      The Texas Border Plan will be put before Congress. From The Hill: “The four-pronged plan aims to ‘Complete Physical Border Infrastructure,’ ‘Fix Border Enforcement Policies,’ ‘Enforce our Laws in the Interior’ and ‘Target Cartels & Criminal Organizations.’” [We’re simply asking the federal government to do what it is expressly required to do. What a concept!]

6.      COVID mandates will be ended, as will all funding for them, including so-called emergency funding. [And no such powers should ever be within the grasp of these power mongers ever again.]

7.      Budget bills would stop the endless increases in the debt ceiling and hold the Senate accountable for the same. [Has it been since Pelosi first got in in 2006 that we last had a budget? I should check whether there was one in 2017 or 2018. (There’s this story showing charts up until 2018.) Again, the budget is the one thing Congress is required by law to do, and they’ve failed to do it year after year.]

I have very little trust and faith in the federal government. But if there is to be any hope for regaining our constitutional republic, we must see it kick into gear immediately with this Republican-led House. I’m glad they did what they did. I hope it leads to meaningful immediate changes. Better freedom means better lives for all Americans.

 

 

 

Truth from Fiction

Truth hunting is hard work. Sometimes it doesn’t show up at all in the news. Sometimes you have to go to written words—some of them quite old—to find it. Because truth doesn’t change, so the words that bear it will last.

So, today are some things from my other, non-Spherical Model quote file. Today’s collection is mainly about words, or about reading or writing—both of which I do in this truth-hunting life’s work. (The video down a little is our puppy getting her first taste of literature.)

 

 

Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.—Neil Gaiman

  

“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.”―Sir Francis Bacon

 

There is no Frigate like a Book

By Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us Lands away

Nor any Coursers like a Page

Of prancing Poetry –

This Traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of Toll –

How frugal is the Chariot

That bears the Human Soul –

 

 

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.—William Wordsworth

 

 

I don’t run out of things to say. I write like I talk. And you never get talker’s block.—Seth Godin

 

 

At the dawn of time, Truth was wandering the world when she came upon a town and first saw people. Delighted, she entered the town to speak to them, but when they saw her, they ran away screaming in terror.

Dismayed and discouraged, she left the town. Soon she came across the most beautiful being she had ever seen, clothed in lovely robes of shimmering color. The being noticed how sad Truth was and asked the reason.

“When I saw the people, I was glad because I had so much to tell them” Truth said. “But when they saw me, they were afraid and ran away.”

“Well, of course, they ran away,” the being said, “for you are naked and people are greatly afraid of the naked truth. My name is Story, and I have many of these beautiful robes. Here, take one and let us go into the town together.”

When the people saw Truth clothed in the beautiful garment of Story, they greeted her warmly and asked her to stay.”

—A folk tale adapted by Tom Burger, 1999 

  

 

Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.—G. K. Chesterton

 

 

"Destiny is important, see, but people go wrong when they think it controls them. It's the other way around."—Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

 

 

If you love to read, or learn to love reading, you will have an amazing life. Period. Life will always have hardships, pressure, and incredibly annoying people, but books will make it all worthwhile. In books, you will find your North Star, and you will find you, which is why you are here.

​

Books are paper ships, to all the worlds, to ancient Egypt, outer space, eternity, into the childhood of your favorite musician, and — the most precious stunning journey of all — into your own heart, your own family, your own history and future and body.

​

Out of these flat almost two-dimensional boxes of paper will spring mountains, lions, concerts, galaxies, heroes. You will meet people who have been all but destroyed, who have risen up and will bring you with them. Books and stories are medicine, plaster casts for broken lives and hearts, slings for weakened spirits. And in reading, you will laugh harder than you ever imagined laughing, and this will be magic, heaven, and salvation. I promise.—Anne Lamott on the value of reading, Source: A Velocity of Being: Letters to A Young Reader

 

 

The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.—Albert Einstein

 

 

Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.—Terry Pratchett, Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Fantasy

 

 

The phrase “Someone ought to do something” was not, by itself, a helpful one. People who used it never added the rider “and that someone is me.”—Terry Pratchett, The Hogfather

 

 

"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance."—Thomas Sowell

 

 

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.—Terry Pratchett

 

 

Rather than reading the works of your mentors, learn who they looked up to and read their works.—Scott Newstok, PhD

 

 

You never truly understand something until you can explain it to your grandmother.—Albert Einstein

 

 

Reading is like breathing in; writing is like breathing out; and storytelling is what links both: it is the soul of literacy.—Pam Allyn

 

 

You can’t go back and change the beginning,

but you can start where you are and change the ending.—C. S. Lewis

 

 

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then, because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.—Ernest Hemingway

 

 

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.—Leonardo da Vinci

Lies Become the Narrative

Andrew Klavan, the other day, was talking about what happens when you face continual lies. He started with an example of a young woman he encountered many years ago who kept lying. After long hours of continual lies, he faced a sort of warped sense of reality:

Andrew Klavan, Episode 1028
screenshot from here

I found that I was living inside her lies. So, it’s not exactly that I was starting to believe her; it’s that I was starting to react as if what she said was true, because I was debating with her what disease she had when she had no disease.

And the reason for that is, I’m not insane. It takes an insane person to think that every single thing he’s being told is a lie. Right? To think that you’re living in the matrix, or a simulation, you know, is the kind of thing a crazy person believes. And yet, right now we are effectively living in a simulation—created by this massive telecommunications media empire that the left has assembled; the woke businesses that have taken on being part of the oligarchy the government wants to form; and the government officials were being backed up by the media.

So we’re kind of living in this matrix. And you have to be insane to think that that’s true—and yet it is true.

I spend a certain amount of energy trying to understand people who believe things I know to be lies. I don’t think I’m better at discerning outright lies in normal life situations than the next person. Maybe I’m less skilled. As a truth teller, I tend to go into a situation with the assumption someone is telling me the truth face-to-face. When that isn’t true, it kind of twists my gut, and I have to puzzle it out, maybe re-prove what I know to be true.

I’ve been fascinated for a couple of years by people who “read body language,” for lack of a better way of saying that. There’s this website, and this group on YouTube for example. They aren’t exactly lie detectors, but they can tell better than most of us what someone’s body is telling about what that person is thinking or feeling. These places teach their skills; next time I’m ready to put in about enough time to learn a new language, I may have to dive in, instead of just observe and marvel at what they do.

But Andrew Klavan’s explanation struck me. People aren’t exactly crazy for believing the crazy things they believe; they’re acting like a sane person acts when they have been repeatedly lied to by someone in authority.

One example he showed was a clip of a congresswoman in California, commenting about her nine-year-old daughter, whose thought about climate change was, “The earth is on fire, and we’re all going to die soon.” Why does the nine-year-old believe the earth is on fire when, other than the occasional brush fire or forest fire (which, granted, do significant damage in California every year or two), the earth is not on fire? Why does she assume the entire population of the earth, all of us, are going to die soon? For a nine-year-old, I’m assuming “soon” means maybe before she gets to enjoy adulthood. Let’s say twelve years—since that has been a repeated time frame of impending doom since the 1960s. This girl wasn’t even alive to hear Al Gore predict it various times—all over 12 years ago. But she may have heard AOC or Greta Thunberg—another young girl who only believes it because she has been told to believe it. Most likely she had her mother and teachers lie to her.

Is that nine-year-old girl crazy? No. Klavan says,

In order for her nine-year-old to say, “All the adults around me are lying and making stuff up,” that would be nuts. That would actually be a mentally disturbed child. But this is a sane child, so she believes all the lies she’s being told.

But here’s what happens, Klavan says, every time we have to address a lie:

Fighting back against these lies makes the lie the narrative…. If you have to defend the fact that police shootings aren’t a problem, police shootings become the narrative.

Klavan showed a Fox News clip of a professor, Eric Kaufman, who had done a university-funded survey in which they had asked people, “Which is the more likely cause of death for young black men in America? Is it car accident? Or is it to be shot by police?” The actual verifiable statistics show that death by car accident is 10-fold more likely. But he mentioned these groups of people who believe death by police bullet is more likely:

·         80% of African-American Biden voters.

·         70% of whites who believe Republicans are racist.

Klavan follow up with:

The lies become the narrative. And the narrative distorts the way you look at things. And then the way you look at things distorts your politics.

I took occasion to read the Democrat platform once, a few years ago. I expected—and of course found—multiple things where I simply didn’t agree, because, as we know, government interference tends to bring about unintended consequences that are likely to be the exact opposite of the stated objective. But what surprised me was how many policies were based on verifiable lies: about climate change being the biggest existential problem, about racism being a systemic problem with no evidence of improvement, about abortion being about a woman’s bodily autonomy and not about the additional living human being they cheer about snuffing out, about tribal victimization—such as skin color, sex, LGBTQ status—being the determining factor in who should control others.

In fact,

·       Women do not make $.70 for every $1.00 a man makes—once you take into account multiple variables, not least of which is women’s choices.

·       A minimum wage is not expected to be a living wage; it is entry level, to give experience—a contractual agreement made illegal by a minimum wage law, thus eliminating work for those who can’t yet bring in that high minimum of value to the employer.

·       Blacks do not need to live in fear of murder by police. Even the handful of annual cases where blacks suffer death by police show causes other than racism—even when the officer is at fault. Note that the Derek Chauvin case did not even bring evidence of racism to the courtroom—because the prosecution had no such evidence—even though that was the supposed basis for months of rioting in Minneapolis and around the country.

·       Blacks do not suffer systemic racism from everyone else in society; they suffer much less than during Democrat-caused Jim Crow laws; they suffer far, far less than under Democrat slave owners. Only racists care about race anymore; the rest of us care about character.

·       Black Lives Matter is an international Marxist organization, bent on the overthrow of self-governing people and any pillars of civilization those people have built—in particular the intact mother-father family, the destruction of which has caused more damage to black communities than any other.

·       America was not founded on slavery; it was founded on “all men are created equal,” and then began the task of living up to that ideal after millennia of slavery, including a few hundred years of whites enslaving blacks.

·       Climates change. No amount of draconian de-industrialization will change that in any measurable way. But a single volcanic eruption could wipe out a half century’s worth of lowered carbon emissions. (Note: If you read scriptures, dire world-ending events are much more likely to result from rebellion against God than from driving a gasoline fueled vehicle. But if you really have faith in lowered CO2, then, be my guest and show your faith by going back to horse-drawn transportation.)

·       Abortion isn’t healthcare, and it isn’t about a woman’s choices concerning her own body; it is killing living, human offspring.

·       Men and women are biologically different.

·       Married mother and father give children a better chance to grow up safe, protected, educated, and nurtured than any other institution or program could possibly do.

·       Criminals do not obey gun laws. And self-defense is a God-given right. Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens prevent crimes.

The list could go on. You get the idea. Let’s add a couple we’ve learned this past year:

·       Virus spread isn’t prevented by wearing a cloth mask, wearing a mask outside, wearing a mask while also social distancing, wearing a mask when you have immunity from having the virus or getting vaccinated. And viruses don’t magically stop spreading once you’re eating or “protesting.”

·       Treatments have been available for over a year now to reduce and relieve symptoms: hydroxychloroquine along with zinc and zithromycin; ivermectin; increased amounts of Vitamin D and probably Vitamin C and other immune system boosters—all of which you weren’t allowed to say on social media, and many doctors were prevented from sharing.

·       Science does not say schools should close, or businesses should be forced to shutter, or churches should be disallowed—even outside in parking lots. And we now have reliable evidence that some scientists are just as capable of lying as other humans. We also have evidence that scientists have no business forming public policy.

·       Our God-given rights should never be infringed. Any time they are, that is tyranny—even during an “emergency.” If all it took was an emergency to take away our God-given rights, governments would simply declare perpetual emergencies.     

Who is doing all this lying? People we were raised to believe we could believe: elected officials, their appointees, academia. “NBC lies to them. The New York Times, the Washington Post, Coca-Cola, Delta, Disney.”

And why are they lying? Klavan speculates that it’s to cover up for their failed policies. He’s likely right about that:

You know what it’s like, it’s like a cigarette maker telling us the crisis we have in this country is not enough cough drops. You know, “Oh, you’re coughing up blood? Dammit, you know, it’s the cough drop companies. We have got to do something about the cough drop companies. Have a cigarette, and I’ll get right on it.” That’s what this is like. An entire power structure, we’re surrounded by an entire power structure whose policy failures, and whose incredible debt, and whose moral failures have made it necessary for them to distract us from their increasing power and wealth by turning us against one another. We are living inside their lies.

One question that ought to come up is, how do I know they’re lying and I’m not just wrong? Evidence is one thing. And once evidence of lying comes up a time or two from a particular source, you start looking skeptically at everything that source says. Sometimes it’s worth digging up the actual facts—when you can find reliable sources. (Fact checkers can be liars too, and most are.) Sometimes the liars ought to just be disregarded.

Except that you have to fight them, because they’re trying to brainwash our children, and they’re trying to take away our ability to get and share actual facts, and they’re trying to do damage to our ability to make a living and buy and sell and associate—the things people do in a thriving civilization. So we have to fight the lies, and not just ignore them.

image found here

But, if combatting the lies puts us in the position of making their lies the narrative, the real question is, how do you combat the lies—and the narrative they engender?

Klavan suggests living in truth. Embody the truth. He doesn’t mean just shouting truth louder. He doesn’t even mean run for school board or attend school board meetings—although you should do that too. It comes down to treating others truthfully—being who you really are. Be kind. Be wise. Be generous. Be caring. So that the lies they tell about you don’t ring true to anyone who knows you personally.

I’ll add, if you feel the need to point to your black friends to show you’re not racist, you’re doing it wrong. Your denials won’t prove who you are; rather, it validates the accusation. But the way you actually treat people, all the time, just might prove who you are.

And also speak the truth. After all, the people you’re speaking truth to aren’t demented; they’re deceived. And for many of them, at some point they will question that matrix they’re in; then they’ll step out of the lies and into truth—where we welcome them.

Go Ahead and Party: or The Two Weeks That Stretched into a Year, Part III

Our current occupant of the White House made his first actual public address last Thursday, for about 20 minutes. Among the words he read to us, he told us that, if we’re good little children, and have our vaccinations in the next month or two, then, maybe, by the 4^th or July we can consider getting together with close family who also have their vaccinations, maybe outside, and to be safe wear masks:

Because here's the point, if we do all this [get vaccinated], if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th, there's a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.

That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.

He added,

We need everyone to get vaccinated. We need everyone to keep washing their hands, stay socially distanced, and keep wearing the mask as recommended by the CDC.

So, if we get everyone vaccinated, we still need to keep washing our hands, stay socially distanced, and keep wearing masks. But if we do all that, we can be in the presence of other vaccinated people maybe by July 4^th?

image from Sen. Ted Cruz's Facebook page

Does this make sense?

If it were small pox—a much more dangerous disease—and you got vaccinated, would you wait an extra half a year to be around other people that are also vaccinated? If you’re my age, you got vaccinated for small pox as a small child. You didn’t have to quarantine for any time at all. You got to be around everybody right afterward, and the whole rest of your life (in this case, because the disease was eradicated; other vaccinations, like tetanus, may need a booster). Because that’s how vaccinations work. You might want to make sure you’re not exposed to the disease within a couple of days of the shot. Beyond that, you’re considered to be immune.

For this much less risky disease (not risk-free, but only likely to cause death in 1/10,000 people who are young and healthy), why the extra time?

Actually, they haven’t even made a case for getting the vaccine at all when the illness is so unlikely to cause death and is so treatable. In fact, people are starting to note that, if you’re in those younger healthier demographics, your risk of death by vaccine is considerably higher than your risk of death by the coronavirus. And the virus is treatable, while reaction to the vaccine is not.

image found here

Then there’s this other truth that seems to be forgotten: in most parts of the country, businesses were opened to at least partial capacity sometime early summer 2020, and have expanded since. Our church gatherings started at 50 during late summer and expanded to about 100 in the fall, assuming all other precautions are taken.

Small gatherings of up to 10 people were allowed almost everywhere, maybe even California.

While we Americans didn’t have many big gatherings (except maybe for BLM protests) all year, we were seeing our families, with some precautions. We had July 4^th with family last year. And birthdays. And Thanksgiving. And Christmas.

Now that many are vaccinated, we should be feeling even more free to do those things.

Vaccinated people—and people who have recovered from the illness in the past half year—should not have to wear masks (assuming masks actually work at all); they can neither get nor spread the virus. The only reason for them to social distance is to avoid spreading some other illness, like the common cold or the annual flu. We ought to get used to seeing people without masks and assuming they are immune—rather than assuming they care so little about others that they don’t care if they spread the illness.

Biden also said,

Listen to Dr. Fauci, one of the most distinguished and trusted voices in the world. He's assured us the vaccines are safe.

Fauci also just came out and said we don’t need 6 feet of social distancing; 3 feet is sufficient. Did science change? Or is he just throwing out whatever he thinks at the moment, the way he has been doing all along? I don’t think Dr. Fauci has been a trusted voice for a very long time.

Biden offered up this sort-of-sentence (I challenge you to diagram it):

Just as we were emerging from a dark winter into a hopeful spring and summer is not the time to not stick with the rules.

So much for clarity.

There was actually something in the speech I agree with—the words, anyway. He said,

Look, we know what we need to do to beat this virus. Tell the truth. Follow the scientists and the science.

Depending on the scientists, and whether politics has infiltrated, yes, I agree. And he emphasized with this anecdote:

Last summer, I was in Philadelphia, and I met a small-business owner, a woman. I asked her, I said, “What do you need most?”

I will never forget what she said to me. She said — looking me right in the eye, she said, “I just want the truth, the truth. Just tell me the truth.”

If only they would!

Despite the lack of truth, there are some things we know.

The estimate of 2.5 million dead was based on a radically flawed model; besides wildly exaggerating, it also assumed we would do nothing to protect ourselves.

The only way to eradicate the virus early on was to isolate every case. This wasn’t going to be possible, because, as we were told, there was a long period between exposure and onset of symptoms, and a person could possibly spread the virus for several days before the onset. Unless everyone locked down for longer than that contamination period, then the virus would still exist.

The loss of life due to shutting down the entire world for 2-3 weeks would be tremendous. It would mean shutting down hospitals and any other type of care. It would mean shutting down food supplies—and every other kind of supply. None of this “essential workers only.” You’d have to shut down all workers for that length of time, including treatment of those already ill with the virus.

If you can’t shut down the entirety of society, the shutdown has no expectation of eradicating the virus. And that means worldwide. There was a brief period in which New Zealand, an island nation, was able to isolate long enough to eradicate all cases. Done. But as soon as there was any contact with the rest of the world, cases started happening again.

In short, shutting down the entire world to beat the virus was never an option.

Remember, the purpose of the 2-3-week shutdown, begun exactly one year ago, was never to eradicate the virus; it was to “flatten the curve,” which meant to prevent the healthcare system from becoming so overwhelmed it would have to leave some people untreated.

We flattened the curve. But that, in itself, came at a cost—beyond the obvious costs to people’s businesses, and plans for other healthcare that they needed. It made eradicating the illness by natural means further away. It delayed herd immunity.

Herd immunity is the goal of vaccination: get enough people in the population to have antibodies so that the virus doesn’t easily find a new host to spread to. We could have done that months ago if we had:

·         Been accurate about the risks to the different population groups (age and other risk factors), which were known quite early on.

·         Protect those most at risk by limiting their possible exposure.

·         Allowed appropriate low-cost treatments from the beginning (they were actually known by 2005, but were being used by March, until, while continuing to research other treatments, possibly while also working toward a vaccine.

·         Taken good care of ourselves (diet, exercise, vitamin D and zinc levels, etc.)

·         Carried on with our daily lives without lockdowns or masks.       

If we had done that, our deaths would have been exponentially lower, and deaths to other causes (delayed care, suicide, etc.) would also have been lower. Extending the time to "flatten the curve" way beyond the original need magnified all the costs.

What we went through this year was not a necessary tribulation; it was imposed hardship by government seizing power while claiming it was all for our good.

tweet image passed along by Buck Sexton here

What we haven’t had is truth. And what we do not get—and will continue not to get—from this president and his ilk is truth.

He claimed the lie that we were hit with “a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked, denials for days, weeks, then months.” Actually, while Democrats—him included—were deriding President Trump as xenophobic for closing travel from China, and were calling people to attend Chinese New Year celebrations in large downtown gatherings, President Trump set plans into action. He brought back manufacturing of PPE and critical supply chains, which shouldn’t have been sourced through our enemies in the first place (Obama/Biden administration), and gathered information and data, and spread information as we got it in daily briefings. Anything President Trump did went overnight from fearmongering to being in denial. Meanwhile the President put together Operation Warp Speed and set a goal to have a vaccine by the end of the year—years faster than any previous expectation. Pre-election Biden mockingly said it would take a miracle. The other night, he said,

The development, manufacture and distribution of vaccines in record time is a true miracle of science. It's one of the most extraordinary achievements any country has ever accomplished.

All of this was done prior to his administration, but he gives no credit where it is due. He announced on inauguration day that the previous administration had failed to even have a plan, and there was no promised vaccine—even though he had already had both doses himself.

By mid-December 130,000 people had received the vaccine, in “the biggest mass vaccination in US history.” 

President Trump’s team provided 20 million doses by the first week of January, plus 30 million more later in January, with a plan for an additional 50 million in February. That’s 100 million. Enough for 50 million to have both doses. I expect he had manufacturing underway and a rollout plan for March, rather than just halt everything. I think we can conservatively assume a million more for March. We credit 200 million to Trump, then. This is only two-thirds of the number of doses hoped for in early projections. But since the normal expectation at this point—and for several years hence—would be zero, let’s just admit it’s far better than nothing.

Biden claimed in his speech to have just ordered another 100 million, enough for 50 million more adults. He says it’s months ahead of schedule to have enough doses for every adult by the end of May. That’s about 241 million adults, or a total of 482 million doses. Doing the math, Trump provided 100 million, with plans for maybe that much more in March. Biden just added 100 million more, for April. That’s 300 million, leaving him just 182 million needed by May to reach the absolute maximum.

That, of course, is far more than is necessary—because not every adult is willing to get the vaccine. To get herd immunity totally from the vaccine (disregarding those who have immunity from getting the disease, and just lumping them in as if there aren’t any such people), you’d need 70% to get herd immunity. That’s about 170 million. So he really needs just an additional 40 million doses by the end of May. Considering that Trump’s original plan was for 300 million ASAP, it doesn’t look like the Biden administration is doing anything but saying, “Carry on.” Yet he says in his speech this is “months ahead of schedule.” Hmm.

Adult Population	70% to reach herd immunity	Doses needed	Doses provided or lined up by Trump administration: December-March	Doses by Biden administration: April	Additional needed: May
241 million	~170 million	340 million	200 million	100 million	40 million

 

There’s the additional lack of truth surrounding the relief package, creatively called the American Rescue Plan, that just passed. Each person gets $1400. But the $1.9 billion bill as a whole costs each person—I’ve seen estimates between $5,800 and $50,000. Any way you look at it, having someone take your money, give you back a pittance of it, and then insist you call them generous is just plain ludicrous. (Rep. Dan Crenshaw did a good parody of the situation, using the lower estimate.)

Biden claims this generous package will magically “cut child poverty in this country in half” and “create millions of jobs.” If you hadn’t stopped believing him long ago, you probably ought to get around to that now.

Who knows what he’ll say next time he’s allowed in front of a mic to read a teleprompter? But you can be pretty sure it won’t be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

In the meantime, unfortunately we must continue to distrust our government. To compensate, I suggest a party. With family and loved ones. And no masks. Invite the neighbors too. Do it for St. Patrick’s Day. And Easter. And Memorial Day. And Flag Day. And any birthdays that come up. Waiting until July 4^th is unnecessary and unthinkable.