As IF Times

source: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/un-wants-10-global-tax-pay-new-global-shared-responsibility-program-address-coronavirus-pandemic/

And here we go. You knew it was coming. One of the most useless organizations in the world has come to the table with a means of ameliorating the global panic.  It’s not even a novel salve, it’s their standard fix that has been used over and over again since they figured out how easy it was to administer.  The fix is….MORE TAXES! Yes folks, nothing is broken so badly that assessing more taxes won’t fix it. Every adverse condition facing humanity, whether natural or man-made can be resolved effectively if only more tax money was thrown at the UN.

Using this vast and unlimited  funding source, armies of clerks, bureaucrats and supporting casts of incompetents set about righting the global wrongs that materialize like mushrooms after a rain.  There is no disaster too daunting for the anointed poo bahs at the UN. It all sounds noble and worthwhile until you consider that the main reason that the UN came into existence was to stop armed conflict.

After 70 years, that seems to still be a work in progress.   So in order to increase their influence, they’ve taken on other lofty humanitarian causes; hunger, children, pestilence and disease.  Recently, to expand their portfolio, they’ve decided to take on the weather as well.  It’s as if a contractor was working on the roof of your home but then decided to start working on your lawn, on the car, as well as your children’s homework.

This model is not lost on those in the government racket all the way down to the state, city and village level.  From a mandate that narrowly defines their role, they somehow position themselves as the ultimate arbiter for the public good. Like the UN, many of these people who wind up in office as glorified dog catchers are hopelessly underqualified for the roles for which they presume to fill.  Despite this incompetence, they are empowered by their status of ‘official’ influence to enact policies that are not well thought out and in many cases detrimental to their constituents.  This is proof of the old saw that there is nothing so bad that governments can’t make worse.

We can observe this in real time today with the hysterical response to the Covid 19 outbreak, aided, in fairness, by a hyper ventilating media.  Medical experts are paraded in front of the public every day to express their sincere, though alarmist views on the spread.  Naturally, their opinions are viewed through the lens of their profession. If you asked lawyers how to reduce crime, they would respond by proposing more laws;  the police would call for more cops; judges would call for more jails and alarm companies would insist on more installations.  What these people often cannot see are the wider consequences of their views.

The present shutdown of the planet (because that’s what it is) is the equivalent manifestation of the old joke about the operation being successful but the patient dying. While it’s socially desirable to protect those that are in danger, this number is small compared to the long term and possibly irreparable damage done the population at large.   This is not Sophie’s choice.  There are many logical means by which to curtail the spread of not just this virus, but any disease that doesn’t necessitate the suspension of everything in the civilized world.

Virtually all political leaders everywhere have succumbed to the pressure of enforcing radical shutdowns of their communities.  But even as draconian measures are implemented against free citizens, much more severe damage is being done economically worldwide.  While people are given fines for walking in the park or standing less than six feet apart, jobs are lost, businesses close, social unrest festers and a list of other frightening consequences are brewing which will have far greater devastating impact on society than will the deaths of people from the flu.

We can already see the first attempts to ‘fix’  the consequences of these actions.  Governments are promising money to support those displaced by the shutdown of all life.  While this may engender some political support, this is like handing out umbrellas in a hurricane.  Without the revenue that comes from a vibrant, working economy, the money comes from nowhere.  While it may appear to be a grand gesture, it’s actually a tax. Without the revenue from a productive private sector economy, there will be no hospitals, no medical equipment and no means by which to save the social safety net that people have assumed would always exist. For a recent case history on this dynamic, Venezuela is exhibit “A”.

Unless they print money out of thin air, the guaranteed wages  and pensions of civil employees will shrink and yes, perhaps even the politicians who make such poorly thought out policies.  The insulated public sector cannot be sustained by a non functioning private sector. Right now, the private sector are having their livelihoods, savings and pensions destroyed because of ill thought out policies.  The irony is that the people who are charged with fixing the problem are the very ones responsible for creating it in the first place.

This last month of hysteria has exposed the alarmingly shallow understanding of the big picture that exists at all levels of public institutions. The ability to jerk knees is hardly a standard by which people should be allowed to make decisions that so drastically affect people’s lives.  We can only hope that this episode will result in more thoughtful people entering the public policy arena.

source: https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/489662-new-orleans-looks-to-be-the-next-major-city

In times of great crisis, we  will see both the best and the worst of human behavior.

Medical health workers have been overwhelmed by the publicity panic caused by Covid 19. Being thrust into a position to have to deal with an unknown and dangerous  virus has to be scary and thankless work and no one envies these working heroes.

Unfortunately, we’re also seeing the dark side of society.  The hoarding of goods, the price gouging, the finger pointing and the sheer hysteria that has enveloped people as virulently as the actual infection.

Even more unfortunate are the stupid people doing what they do best, which is to be stupid.  We have people licking toilet seats and posting them on Instagram.  We have people coughing onto food at grocery stores.  We have the Governor of Nevada  banning the use of the drug, chloroquine, shown to have been effectively used in stopping the infection, while the intellectual giant Bill de Blasio releases 200 inmates because Covid 19 posed a danger to them while incarcerated.

No one group is more responsible for fanning the flames of hysteria than is the established media. So many half truths and outright exaggerations were foisted upon a public naïve as to the actual statistics associated with the infection that it was difficult not to panic.  And how would the public know any better? Few are medical experts.  Fewer still are willing to do the investigation into the actual facts surrounding the bug.  So we depend on media sources to objectively report the status to us.  Even now, many are still selling the idea that this pandemic will infect millions and will last for 18 months or more.

When questions are posed to the President on the status of the virus, one question was dramatically  framed as “…what do you say to the millions of people in the public who are terrified?…” Hyperbole must be the prerequisite technique for reporters.  Infection and mortality rates are pasted prominently on TV screens like a morbid running stock ticker.  The not so subtle message is, “you’re all going to die!”  The linked headline above is projecting  a human catastrophe if people go to New Orleans.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you go to New Orleans for a mass celebration, the chances are good that you’ll come out with some kind of infection even if there wasn’t any Covid 19.

By now, there’s possibly only one remote tribe in Samoa that hasn’t  gotten the universal  message to wash hands fanatically, to not sneeze or cough on people, maybe wear masks, stay home if you’re sick and to avoid huge crowds of sweaty people.  Those are all sensible things…though I’m not sure why people needed to be reminded to wash their hands.

The mortality rates will unfortunately continue to climb for a period, but awareness and logical isolation will eventually end the spread.  Even now, there are indications of declining infection rates in countries such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea.  The unfortunate part is that the elderly are particularly vulnerable, but there is more and more evidence that although people may be infected, the numbers of recovery are also very high  

So Covid 19 is statistically not a death sentence.  The truth is what’s really in quarantine. The response of the world to destroy their economies seems an outsized response given the statistics that we know. As noted, nations such as Singapore and Japan have effectively reduced their exposure using effective means without having to resort to destroying their economies.  Conspicuously, those nations applied pragmatic fixes rather than political ones. But there is certainly hope that the catastrophic forecasts will be re-thought.  One of the first experts to model the corona 19 virus epidemic, Dr Neil Ferguson has in fact significantly stepped back from his initial modeling of the infection rate.

The relative ignorance of the public as to what the facts are have allowed the ever present political opportunists to capitalize on these fears. Even as there are genuine attempts made to save the economy from catastrophic implosion, political skulduggery continues as usual.  Never let a crisis go to waste were the words of an infamous politician and sure enough, in this instance, the public loses again.

Update: March 27.  Busted!