As IF Times

source: https://nationalpost.com/news/world/coronavirus-covid19-covid-19-pandemic-canada

In only a few weeks the world has gone from relative ignorance about covid-19 to full blown panic over an infection that appears to be spreading exponentially.  While the nexus of the virus seemed to originate in China, incidents of infection are being found worldwide, even in unlikely places such as Italy and Iran. The fear and panic has affected virtually every segment of society especially as it relates to travel.  There are stories of vacationers who embarked  upon 14 day cruises only to have that trip extended another 14 days in the form of a quarantine.

If nothing else, it’s a change from the boring narratives of the global warming crowd with their 16 year-olds moaning about lost childhood and missing penguins. I suspect that crowd may be annoyed at having their fake crisis spotlight taken away from them by a real crisis. All of a sudden, people are more concerned about the guy coughing next to them than a few absent polar bears. A genuine existential threat pushing away the fake one like it was leftover turkey the week after Thanksgiving.

I’m not in the medical business so I’ll defer to those experts who are charged with handling this outbreak.  The CDC has a website which reports the on-going status of the outbreak and people can do their own research.  As an obvious reminder to those who haven’t figured it out, CNN is not a source of information on this….or anything.  In addition, this video, created showing statistics by the World Health Organization may give a larger perspective on this and other epidemics in history.

None of this is meant to downplay the potential damage that this outbreak can cause; we need only look at the panic that has occurred in world stock markets to see that people are in full hysteria mode.  Few things focus the mind more clearly than the possibility of imminent death.  But is imminent death a high probability given the safeguards being put in place and with the advances of medical techniques not available in previous outbreaks?  Calmer voices think not.  Some of the keenest minds in the medical industry are working on a resolution to this problem right now and of course, we do expect a resolution. I’m not so convinced that hoarding freeze dried foods and deadbolting all doors is a rational course of action given what’s known….no matter what CNN says.

As I mentioned earlier, panic seems to grip people when they fear that imminent harm will come to them.  It’s the imminent part that creates the hysteria. Smoking is bad for you and it will likely kill you before your time.  But no one panics about it because that demise is way off in the future.  This is the same for all drugs including alcohol in great amounts.  These threats to personal well being can be avoided and yet, without imminent harm, these threats are blithely ignored.

As an illustration of how irrational people are,  we want to point out that there is something out there that is guaranteed to cause discomfort, suffering, starvation and has already been responsible for hundreds of millions of preventable deaths…and yet people embrace it anyway.  I am talking about socialist and communist philosophy  Despite all that we know about the history of such regimes, there are still those today who are proponents for their implementation.  These regimes don’t necessarily happen through the use of force.  Typically, they are allowed to rise because the populace are somehow convinced that policies of such regimes would benefit them in the long run.  The most common hooks are the promises of equality and fairness. They fail to see that a long miserable existence leading to a miserable death is likely in their future once collectivism takes hold.  Sweden, long regarded as model of ‘good socialism’ is devolving into a nation of prohibited speech and civil violence at a level not supposedly seen in a civilized nation.

Communist and socialist regimes are cancers on mankind and their ill effects eclipse any natural viral outbreak, including corona virus. While the idea is attractive to the minds of the mentally feeble, it doesn’t confer any benefit to those afflicted with its belief system.  At least with cigarettes and booze, you get a short term buzz.  As this article illustrates, the incidences of communist regimes throughout history have left in their wake hundreds of millions of people extinguished, if not directly by violence, then passively via starvation and oppression.  Few pandemics in history have wrought as much damage to the world’s population as that brought on by socialist/communist regimes.

It’s somewhat amusing to observe pundits of all kinds, hair alight, frantically warning about a virus breakout that is actively and urgently being addressed whereas they ignore the much more deadly political cancer generating popularity with the feeble minded.  It’s like worrying about a wasp flying into your house while at the same time leaving your basement door open to a yard filled with snakes. After this corona virus crisis is over, we hope scientists will find a cure for a much deadlier affliction:  mass psychosis.

link https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/politics/bloomberg-nevada-debate.html

In the aftermath of the recent Democratic candidate debates to determine who is going to be beaten by Donald Trump in the next election, the big takeaway is just how incompetent a man who is worth a reported 60 billion dollars can be.  Michael Bloomberg appeared to be the pinata at a kids’ party since he was the only one not carrying a stick.  In what appeared to be a very bad farce, a stage full of incompetent, disingenuous do-nothings set upon Mayor Mike as if he was the new guy in a prison block.  It was bewildering to see that one of the most successful men in America (as measured by wealth) could appear to be so feckless in facing antagonists that are so incompetent and un-likeable that even their own party cringes at the thought of any of them.

Anyone? pic.twitter.com/xqhq5qFYVk

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 20, 2020

The only utterance Mayor Mike made that made any sense at all was the fact that he was the only one on stage who had ever started and built a business, and a very successful one at that.   None of the other pretenders on stage had done anything in their lives to build a company, meet a payroll or know the stress of maintaining an enterprise.  They have all been employees,  never having needed to take on real risks in their lives.  Despite this, they feel qualified to assume the controls of the mightiest nation on earth because…racism, global warming etc.    His tormentors were either professional political figures, lawyers, or the most odious combination of all, both.  This background makes them well seasoned in the art of making pandering promises and faux pious utterances.  Bloomberg didn’t stand a chance.

He’s a guy from the business world, where things are done autocratically and not by consensus.  Marching orders are set not by focus groups but rather at his personal direction.  He is not used to having to explain his actions to anybody. None of these qualities disqualifies him to run for the top job of managing the nation.  In fact, they can be admirable qualities in a leader.  Unfortunately, these qualities are not accompanied by any sense of humility or understanding what people are like that he doesn’t employ.

Donald Trump comes from a similar background, having built a formidable business empire by his own efforts.  The difference is that Trump had built his organization by working with teams of people in all industries with lots of hands on involvement.  There were always lots of moving parts and he had to grasp many and varied aspects of different businesses.  He actually had to deal personally with construction trades, unions, lawyers, as well as political  and personnel issues.  Bloomberg built an information empire dealing with tech geeks. One dealt in the real world and the other in an abstract digital world.

The difference between the experience of the two men is made very clear once Bloomberg chooses to speak about things outside of his field. The disdain he holds for those people not engaged in his industry is incredibly arrogant and condescending.   This comes from a man who has been allowed to live isolated from the realities of the lives of the average person. To operate where your moves and policies have to please a public is likely very alien to him.  He won’t even let his own news organization cover him.  His apologizing for policies he once favored made him look the same as all of the other candidates who readily apologize for anything that was likely to offend anyone.  It’s reminiscent of John Kerry who was for the war before being against it.   While he did preside over a few peaceful terms in New York, his most notable accomplishment was the abolition of large sized drinks.  This nanny mentality has also shown up in his zealous anti gun stance,  a definite non starter with people outside of the bubble of liberal cities.

Certainly, he’s not the first (nor he will be the last) political aspirant to offer stupid policies, but to be seen as unable to fend off the attacks of  people of much lesser intelligence is the real shocker for interested observers.  While we can accept his quality as a business manager, his lack of ability to convey a palpable message and empathy for people knocks him out of serious consideration.  I think there’s still a chance that he can get the nomination because he can write checks with more zeros than a box of cheerios.  He’s always been used to getting his way by paying up.  But it will be all for naught because he’ll spend all this money to attain the nomination….only to lose to Trump in November.