George Rebane
“We are all in this together.” Who make up the “we”? What defines the “this”? Porter Stansberry makes a very compelling cast that this assertion by the governments and their loyal lackies is the Big Lie of today (here) – we are not all in this together, and the ‘this’ is different for all of us who live in various regions of the country. Its main purpose is to convince good-hearted people to overlook the realities of the C19 epidemic and follow the ever more invasive and pervasive dicta of the authorities who laying in command and control procedures that will survive the end of the epidemic by decades. What’s happening now that we’re hunkering down is training us to accept a whole slew of new constraints on the liberties that our Constitution guarantees. Again, harbinger Numero Uno is when they come for our guns.
The Great Divide confirmed more than ever. Cohesive nation-states have always come together and shown their fundamental unity when confronting an external threat or national emergency. America has been a posterchild of such unity since the War Between the States (erroneously still called the Civil War). No more. As we have been observing now for over a decade, the divisions between us today are unfathomable and too large to overcome. Nowhere is this demonstrated with greater unambiguity than in our response to the C19 pandemic. Here in this election year, one party is doing its best to heal the nation and return to normalcy, while the evil party is doing everything possible to extend the human misery, bring longterm destruction to our economy, and blame America under the current administration for any and all ills across the world. Their goal is to bring the US to its knees as the disease abates, in order to present the global collective a fundamentally transformed nation that is weak, compliant, and chastened.
Under ‘Autocracy Rising’ we are getting reports of new egregious behaviors by our LE cadres as they start imitating Stasi tactics across the land during this pandemic. One Florida student who caught C19-type symptoms on a high school band trip and recovered, posted her experience on Instagram. The school became enraged and sicked the local cops on her. These showed up at her residence and threatened to “start taking people to jail” for “disorderly conduct” unless she immediately removed her post, which she did. Later it was pointed out that our Constitution makes no “pandemic exception” for denying 1A rights. Sign of the times – bend over and spread ‘em. (more here)
More on Autocracy Rising - NYC mayor and its Stasi’s Oberführer Bill de Blasio is now exhorting New Yorkers to report social distancing infractions by neighbors to the authorities (here). He wants the citizen snitch to take a picture of the scofflaws, and send it immediately to the police so that “we can get help there to fix the problem.” Gotta love them Dems – give ‘em an inch, and they’ll take … .
Might fit here. What’s it going to look like when the fat lady sings?
Viral Politics
https://quillette.com/2020/04/18/viral-politics/
As a side note, Stalin once joked that America is the only country that could afford communism.
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 20 April 2020 at 01:00 PM
re: all 4 topics under Ruminations.
The culture of corona
On smoke, mirrors & glimpses of truth.
“Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the crisis we face is the possibility that Lewis was being too generous when describing human nature. The political philosopher James Burnham, we recall, noted that most civilizations perish not from invasion or other external causes but from “suicide,” from spiritual torpor and existential enervation. We suspect that more deadly than what the coronavirus might do to us is what we might be doing to ourselves.”
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2020/5/the-culture-of-corona
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 20 April 2020 at 09:14 PM
re: “We are all in this together.”
Excellent piece by Porter Stansberry. The big lie: “What’s putting all of us in jeopardy is the idea that Washington D.C. knows best and we could follow directions – because “we’re all in this together.”
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 21 April 2020 at 07:01 AM
re: The Great Divide
As I hear more and more contemporary commentators say, “No mas! We are through dealing with the lying evil Left. The game of trying to reach out to them and play nice and act in good faith is over. These are bad people”, it always gives me pause. But, I am slowly reaching that point. There is not good faith on the Left.
WHY DOES AN EPIDEMIC BRING OUT THE WORST IN LIBERALS?
Conclusion:
“It’s just another day in Liberal Land. The hate flows freely, and it would be a Sisyphean task to keep track of it, let alone try to rebut it. The lesson, though, is clear. In the past, conservatives were much too willing to give liberals a pass with regard to motivation. Conservatives have generally thought that liberals are well-meaning, just ill-informed. There certainly are liberals in that category. But there are a great many liberals for whom that characterization is too kind. Many liberals are simply hateful people, and their ideology reflects that hate.”
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/04/why-does-an-epidemic-bring-out-the-worst-in-liberals.php
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 21 April 2020 at 07:23 AM