Watching and Waiting

Eric Garcetti has announced that Los Angeles Country will be on-lockdown for another three months, despite the fact that the real data that has come in showing COVID-19 definitively less fatal than some annual flus, that the economic damage from the lockdown so-far has been devastating to so many people, and that it is almost entirely old and weakened people who need to be sequestered for risk of COVID fatality. In light of this, it’s not justifiable for numerous state politicians to continue such a hard-press of this policy, yet many are digging their heels in on it without giving much in the way of justification. But we did see CNN have 16-year Greta Thunberg on to give her backing view on it – she went from being a climate change expert to a savant on viral epidemiology overnight – amazing ! Are these pols purposefully doing harm to the people of their own states for some political purpose? That is a far-too serious thing for me to insinuate, and everyone has to consider what the evidence indicates in that regard for themselves. But it can also be a serious mistake to see irreparable harm happening and just watch it thoughtlessly.

Whenever people get pushed into dire situations, they push back because they no longer have so much left to lose by just ‘sitting-tight’. I fear that is coming and I hope it is not because anyone has wished or planned for it to happen. The extended shutdown in LA will cause huge damage to its local economy and great suffering. There is no precedent for a worldwide economic lockdown like this, and it is over the top. It constitutes the destruction of much of the ‘web of life’ for humans. Prices in many sectors have obviously dropped, but food prices are up. The governors who are determined to maintain this are doing so as they see their state economies and tax revenues plummet. They will address that issue simply by raising taxes on their citizens, many of whose ability to earn a livelihood they have already removed from them. Some will also demand bailouts from Trump which he will refuse, which they will then use against him in November. What are the people going to do, just watch while everything they have worked to build for themselves in their lives crumbles away before their eyes ? That would also be without historical precedent.

Garcetti has said that LA County will not fully open-up until COVID-19 has been completely and definitively eliminated. This is flatly impossible since anti-viral vaccines like those for the annual flu only range from 20-60% effective by the CDC’s own report. Garcetti is either an idiot or wants to have indefinite control over LA’s business freedom (or both). This rather low efficacy of vaccines also makes Bill Gates’ assertion that, for the public good, everyone in the world will have to receive his vaccine which he has neither developed nor tested yet, specious at-best. In the past, the way a virus’s spread was stopped was by ‘herd immunity’. This is when at least 60% of the population (hopefully the young and healthy ones who are not imperiled by it) has contracted the virus and developed antibodies to it so they can no longer transmit it anymore. Everyone must judge for themself if the assertions of these people accord with reason or not.

Apple and Google just took over COVID smartphone tracking. The governor of Washington wants to setup a tracking system to identify those who have been in the proximity of a COVID-positive person, and quarantine them. They wont be allowed to go out for food, medicine, etc. – they will need to get someone to do that for them. The apparatus being deployed to keep people locked-down in many places is clearly unconstitutional.

Just months ago we had the best economy in over 6 decades, a historically high stock market, and a dramatic reversal of unemployment and poverty numbers over just 3 years, but it’s all been undone because of a grossly heavy-handed government pandemic response. Some were justifiably critical of that net economic prosperity on the basis that it was uneven – the billionaires were profiting while blue and even white collar workers were largely holding ground. The unfortunate result so-far of this economic shutdown is that the small businesses are the ones that are getting wiped out while the biggest ones will weather it. So besides the overall economic damage, the inequality is likely to increase. Amazon’s Q1 revenues are $75.5 billion – it has benefitted sharply from people having to do stay-at-home order-buying.

Life is going to be different from here forward – People will avoid travel, shopping outings, and will be willing to pay double for a plane flight as long as they don’t have to sit next to someone. But in these next few months and weeks, I think the most pivotal thing to watch for is whether people are going to become more defiant of their governance and how. If so, I hope they do it only via peaceful resistance. I have heard that many have armed themselves and feel they are “ready” to make a stand and fight – which is a joke when you are talking about going against the government and its forces. That would be not only ineffective and deadly, but would also provide a neat excuse for a full lockdown under proper martial law here and there. I know there are many people who say that advocating opening the economy back up is just advocating to “kill people”. All I say is ‘just wait’: The economic devastation will become increasingly evident – and it will no longer be as dismissible relative to COVID risk as it has been up to now. Once it has become apparent that a policy has inflicted great harm on the public yet the policymakers still remain unflinchingly insistent that it must be continued for the public good, it becomes particularly important for everyone to make their own assessment as-to its appropriateness.