"In mid-March, we were told we have to endure a lockdown to ensure that hospitals didn’t get overrun. We did. The hospitals were not overwhelmed. We turned the Javits Center into a hospital. We didn’t need it. We brought in a giant Navy ship to treat New Yorkers. We didn’t need it.
We were told we were moments away from running out of ventilators. We weren’t, and now the United States has built so many, we are giving them away to other countries.
Meanwhile, the Big Apple is dying. Its streets are empty. The bars and jazz clubs, restaurants and coffeehouses sit barren. Beloved haunts, storied rooms, perfect-slice joints are shuttered, many for good. The sweat equity of countless small-business owners is evaporating. Instead of getting people back to work providing for their families, our mayor talks about a fantasyland New Deal for the post-coronavirus era.
Open the city. All of it. Right now. Broadway shows, beaches, Yankees games, the schools, the top of the freakin’ Empire State building. Everything. New Yorkers have already learned to socially distance. Businesses can adjust. The elderly and infirm can continue to be isolated." David Marcus
-------------
As you may have noticed, I am not a fan of New York City, but this man understands the truth.
You heard it first here. We understood early at SST that the hysterical, panicked, media driven BS that led to surrender of the course of national life to a bunch of medical academics driven by their professional deformations was simply suicidal.
The Left hates the US, hates the country as "irredeemably deplorable," hates it as stained by the great Faulknerian sins of slavery and colonial creation. In their collective mind the US can only be redeemed by self destruction and a new beginning in socialist rectitude as part of a global state. You get it, America in the Year Zero.
How natural it was for the leftist politicians and leftist media to embrace a medical analysis of the situation that pushed the country into an economic suicide attempt. How natural ... And how convenient for the limousine leftists like Pelosi and the Young Pioneer types like AOC to want to keep the economy down long enough to win in November. How natural...
A lot of people die every day of a variety of causes. This virus is a reaper that culls the population, eliminating the weak and the old. The great majority of healthy, productive people survive infection with little or no apparent effect. You may die of the long term damage done to your organs? Yes, well, so what. You are going to die of something no matter what you do. No matter what they think in California we are all mortal.
Re-open the country, all of it! Now! pl
https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/end-new-york-citys-lockdown-now/
@ Eric Newhill,
Masks can be used again if washed in hot water and soap. Even without washing, the virus will not last more than 24 hours on cloth. My wife has discovered a talent for making masks and has spent many lockdown hours contentedly snipping and sewing away. She makes them with an internal pocket for a coffee filter to be stuffed in, making it comparable to an n-95 in efficiency. I have a selection of colors to choose from. I'm going to see if I can't get her to make me one with a Chicago Cubs logo on one side and an Eagle Globe and Anchor on the other. Cheers.
Posted by: Kilo 4/11 | 26 May 2020 at 05:36 AM
Optimax,
I never stated masks did not work. Thanks the public shaming. Feel free to provide some data on what kind of mask, how it should be fitted and how it should be worn to provide a level of safety beyond the public ridicule of not conforming to a political requirement of wearing one.
TonyL,
"No, I am not staying home"
Thanks for the struggle session.
Posted by: Fred | 26 May 2020 at 09:49 AM
K/4/11,
I'm a lot younger than you and I'm very healthy for my age. When you were receiving your first set of bird, ball and hook, I was working on mastering how to walk. If I were older - and especially if I had underlying conditions - I'd give more serious consideration to voluntarily wearing a mask.
I object to all of the demands for conformity, all of the browbeating, all of the lack of "science" from people claiming to be directed by "science". I think there needs to be a balance between reasonable precautions for those at risk and dancing to a tune just because the band says you must.
I have to ask, again, why, if masks work, is it necessary for me to wear one as long as you are?
I agree that masks can be washed to remove the virus, but you have to touch the mask to take it off your face and wash it and it is in your home having returned from the outside. As are all of the items you purchased when you were out shopping.
Ultimately, it's your choice and handling the mask properly is your responsibility. Most people are doing a poor job in that area. As I said somewhere up thread, I see people pulling their masks down to sneeze, I see people fiddling with their masks. Thus putting their hands to their faces more than they would if not wearing a masks. Those hands have touched all manner of public surfaces. I see masks that in no way could filter out a virus (viruses are really small, you know).
There is still the fact that many covid cases and deaths have occurred to people that were sheltering at home the entire time. That needs to be explained.
Posted by: Eric Newhill | 26 May 2020 at 10:01 AM
Eric Newhill
I will let you have the last word.
Posted by: BABAK MAKKINEJAD | 26 May 2020 at 10:22 AM
Fred, I didn't mean to shame you. Sorry if it came off that way. I agree that that in the US we have a right to wear or not wear a mask. I don't shame people for not wearing a mask at the store and I do not wear one when walking on the street. My neighbors and I frequently talk outside while staying a safe distance apart and don't wear masks, even when we gather in a "circle of love" on the lawn, in our own chairs.
It's funny how the "experts" demand we follow the guidelines despite the guidelines changing all the time: don't wear masks, wear masks; the virus easily spreads by contact with contaminated surfaces, it doesn't spread easily by touching objects; we need to shutdown everything to flatten the curve, can't open up until we have a vaccine, blah, blah.I didn't believe Birx or Fauci when they stated masks don't work because I know the virus barely touched the Chinese community in SF and wasn't rampant in most of the Asian nations.
The real Chinese communist conspiracy is they hoarded the PPE they made and bought back the PPE from the US, Australia, France, wherever they could get it. As Sailor said this exposes the stupidity and danger of globalist ideology. The msm is mute on this fact.
Posted by: optimax | 26 May 2020 at 02:01 PM
ALL
If you think that I assign the faucibirx crown to the ranks of the Globalists you are wrong. They are "professionally deformed" and did their damage in blissful ignorance of the real world.
Posted by: turcopolier | 26 May 2020 at 03:35 PM
Optimax,
"It's funny how the "experts" demand we follow the guidelines despite the guidelines changing all the time:"
Fauci, Birx and company are only expert at academic exercies and bureaucratic maneuvering. The entire field of expertise has been shown lacking in many fields. We should be grateful to Donald J. Trump for ripping away the thin vereer of convention that has for years shielded innumeral protected classes; starting with the "conservatives" he defeated to become nominee, their 'democratic' colleagues he defeated to become President, and most of all the "fake news" media.
Thanks to this Chinese virus the academic establishment is being show for the incompetent, greedy and corrupt people they allowed themselves to become. We should cut their collegiate funding, tax exemptions, and institute student vouchers at the K-12 grades - just to level the "playing field". These people can then compete in the marketplace with their superior abilities. I'm sure they'll do fine without their tenure, grants or other federal funding.
Posted by: Fred | 26 May 2020 at 05:27 PM
Fred,
I agree with all you wrote. My neighbor is a union pipe fitter who didn't vote for Trump but now has a Trump/Pence sticker on his truck. His sky rocketing 401k convinced him knowing the Dems will never match the last few years performance and the blame for its recent downturn is due to the virus and not Trumps fault.
The academic brainwashing has been going on for so long and infected so many of the young I don't know how it will end. It picked up intensity in the late 60s and early 70s when college presidents gave in to the student demonstrators demands opening the door to critical theory and all its destructive power plays.
Machiavelli in THE DISCOURSES points out the danger of a state strengthening its enemies. Sending our manufacturing to China for 4 decades has allowed China to build its economy and military to the point that endangers us. Hopefully, people will wake up to the danger of depending on China goods we depend on for national security, like PPE, and that even cheap teevees aren't worth feeding the beast to make it stronger. Of course the msm doesn't point this out, instead blame Trump.
Posted by: optimax | 26 May 2020 at 07:32 PM
Now for some levity (with Colonel Lang's permission).
In my dream...
Today in the press conference, president Trump surprised the nation by wearing a mask. He announced... All you fakenews media out there, listen! I've decided that wearing a mask during this pandemic is a patriotic duty. See the American flag I put on it? is this a beautiful mask? yes, it is most beautiful mask ever!!! I know some of you will say I'm a communist because I'm wearing mask. WRONG!!! this a tremendously well built mask, stupendously beautiful mask. BEST ever!!! No communist can make beautiful masks like we can. Now, I have ordered all governors to wear a mask like mine. But you know what? Some of the wimpy liberal governors objected to my order and say "Who are you to order us to wear mask? we don't have a king in this country". So I'm calling on all my supporters in those wimpy liberal states (you fakenews media should know I have tremenduos support there, more than 90%...), wear a mask like I do. And make sure you have a beautiful mask with the flag.
And I woke up.
Posted by: TonyL | 26 May 2020 at 09:22 PM
Colonel,
Since your email address bounced, my reply did not go through. Here is the content.
"Sir, I am just a great admirer of what you have been doing on SST. I've been reading your blog since the day of "Drinking the Kool-Laid". I have learned so much from your knowledge, so sometime I cannot resist posting on some issues. But I know full well that I am just a student who wants to understand the affairs of the States. And I got that education from your knowledge and experience.
If I had offended you and others, I could go back being a reader (if you think I did not contribute anything to the conversation)."
It's your call whether to post this message, or consider it a private conversation and not posting it.
Posted by: TonyL | 27 May 2020 at 01:50 AM
The link provides the science that demonstrates that masks don't work as well as some scientific speculations why they don't. It also contains Synopses of several studies on mask effectiveness in preventing viral infections. Author claims there are no studies anywhere showing that masks have any significant effect in preventing viral infections.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340570735_Masks_Don't_Work_A_review_of_science_relevant_to_COVID-19_social_policy
Surgeons began wearing masks well over a hundred years ago for the purpose of preventing bacterial infection (much larger than a virus). However, even the effectiveness against bacterial infection of a patient with an open surgical wound is questioned in this article by the British national health program.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4480558/
Repeating what the news or FauciBirx say at a press conference is not science or knowledge.
The masks are a form of social control - or at least a symbol of it. Nothing more.
Posted by: Eric Newhill | 27 May 2020 at 05:40 PM
My dream take 2 (with Colonel Lang's permission).
Falling asleep again...
Today in a virtual press conference, Democratic candidate Joe Biden was asked "Vice President, Vice President!!! what do you think about President Trump wearing a mask yesterday in the White House press conference? is he stealing your talking points?". Biden, ... has been dozing off for a few seconds, said "what what? ah of course, Trump is wearing a mask? what a joke! we Democrats have been wearing masks forever! Trump doesn't know what he's talking about. Back in the days I was a lifeguard, we wore masks already. You know Corn Pop? he was a bad dude. And I kicked him out of the pool for not wearing mask. Corn Pop asked me "why, are you communist, man? you know who I am?". I calmly explained to him "Nah, man, we have rules here, and we are very proud of the fact that we are practicing sex.. um social intercourse the right way. See all the young folks here in this pool wearing masks? especially the girls, I have to explain to them when they first showed up here". And his voice trails off, eyes glazed over... Reporters yells, "Sir Sir!!! how did you convince the girls that they must wear masks?". Biden smiles (showing off his perfectly whiten fake teeth) "you know, I just put my arms around them, squeeze a little, whisper in their ears: you must learn to practice sex...um social intercourse the right way, wearing mask is your patriotic duty."
And I woke up.
Brushing teeth, making a pot of coffee. Checking on my stack of clean masks. Picking out one with a perfectly aligned hole for a straw (it's better be.. long commute to the office).
Posted by: TonyL | 27 May 2020 at 07:18 PM
eric newhill,
FauciBirx are are lying now but told the truth when they said masks didn't work? There are studies that show they work also.So what. If you don't want to wear a mask, don't. But why worry about people who do. I think you're obsessed.
TonyL,
That was funny.
Posted by: optimax | 27 May 2020 at 09:37 PM