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Sheriff Rebels Against Governor: ‘We Will Not Be Setting Up a Police State’

The coronavirus cannot kill the spirit of American defiance in the face of government orders Americans believe to be unjust, as shown by Scott Nichols, the sheriff of Franklin County, Maine.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Friday issued an executive order that requires all out-of-state travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days to lessen the chance of transmitting coronavirus, according to the Portland Press-Herald. The order also tells would-be visitors not to come to Maine if they have symptoms of the virus. Violators could face up to six months in jail and $1,000 fine.

“While I cannot simply close the state’s border or pull up the Maine-New Hampshire bridge, as a few people have suggested, I will insist that persons entering our state or returning to Maine from somewhere else that they self-quarantine for 14 days,” Mills said, according to the Press-Herald.

“For those people who come to Maine, however, my message is clear: You cannot escape the virus by coming here.”

Like other governors who closed businesses, Mills shut down hotels, motels and other lodging operations in the state, including RV parks and campgrounds.

TRENDING: Pelosi Wants To Talk Blame for COVID Spread? Here’s Video of Her Telling People To Crowd into Streets

Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said police will investigate reports of “blatant” violations.

To Nichols, a Republican, the travel ban smacked of the kind of government Americans fight against and not obey, and he posted his manifesto on the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page.

“We will not be setting up a Police State. PERIOD,” he wrote.

“The Sheriff’s Office will not purposefully go out and stop vehicles because they are on the road or stop and ask why people are out and about. To do so puts our officers at risk. This is not Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia where you are asked for your papers!” he wrote.

Nichols said the sheriff’s office will ensure that common-sense social distancing rules will be enforced.

“What we will take action on, if needed – are those rare situations where there are a lot of people overtly hanging out in public – obviously in defiance of the Governor’s order. Even in that case – we will first educate and try to disperse the group. We will avoid arrests unless absolutely necessary,” he said.

Nichols then issued a plea for everyone to work together.

“Please use common sense during this executive order. We are more interested in the safety and well-being of the public as well as our officers at this time,” he wrote. “With that being said, we are sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of the State – for any unlawful act/situation, arrestees will be taken into custody and transported for fingerprinting and bail.”

RELATED: California Governor Refuses To Bash Trump Despite Goading from ‘The View’

The sheriff said that obey restrictions is the best way to be rid of them.

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“The best way to approach the coming days is to treat everyone as though they have the virus. Follow strict CDC guidelines and recommendations, use masks if needed, wash your hands frequently, disinfect, wear gloves and use common sense in all situations. The longer we do NOT follow these guidelines, the longer we wait in isolation,” he said.

In a time of tension, he noted, a little kindness goes a long way.

“Please look out for one another, especially the elderly and shut ins. Please be a good neighbor/citizen always showing compassion. Please be kind especially on social media, negativity online only adds to the stress people are currently experiencing,” he wrote.

Nichols signed his post “Of the People, For the People.”

It got plenty of attention.

In an article on PJ Media, writer Megan Fox commended Nichols.

“The sheriffs of America have great power and authority where unconstitutional executive overreach is concerned. All the sheriffs of our nation should start conferencing with Sheriff Nichols immediately to learn more about the limits of their offices,” she wrote.

“Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long for one to come forward with this common-sense response to unlawful acts by state officials. Perhaps a good exercise for people stuck on lockdown would be to call their local sheriff’s office and find out where the local sheriff stands on this very important issue of the people’s rights,” she wrote.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

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One Shot Dead, 9 Wounded During 10 Hours in Gun-Controlled Chicago

One person was killed Friday night and at least nine others wounded as bullets once again tore through streets in gun-controlled Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune reports 22-year-old Darnell J. McGee died after three attackers “jumped out of a silver Audi and opened fire” just after 7 p.m.

McGee was shot several times and “pronounced dead at the scene.”

At least nine other individuals were shot and wounded before 5 a.m. Saturday, making a violent 10 hour window of time.

On March 18, 2020, Breitbart News reported violence in gun-controlled Baltimore was so bad that Mayor Jack Young (D) resorted to begging city residents to quit shooting each other, so as to save hospital beds for coronavirus victims.

Baltimore and Chicago have both been Democrat-controlled for decades.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

 

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Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselor ARRESTED In North Carolina For Breaking Shelter-In-Place Order

Pro-life powerhouse David Benham was reportedly arrested Saturday morning while engaging in peaceful “sidewalk counseling” outside of a North Carolina abortion clinic, after officers confronted Benham’s group for breaking “social distancing” orders.

Cities For Life, Benham’s non-profit that connects women who choose life with extensive medical and support services, says they were obeying social distancing orders and, as a charity providing assistance for those in need, Cities for Life is considered an essential service. Indeed, both the state and city stay-at-home orders list Federally recognized public charities that offer social services are essential services.

After receiving a call from one of his sidewalk counselors, Benham told the Daily Wire, he drove to the abortion clinic, where he saw his group surrounded by about fifteen individual police officers.

The law enforcement officers told Benham that, “there’s more than ten people here,” and advised him that if the group did not disperse, they would be arrested.

“We do care about the health crisis,” Benham told the Daily Wire. “We did practice social distancing.” He added that his group chalked the sidewalk so that they could remain ten feet apart from one another, and had plenty of hand sanitizer available.

When the police refused to back off, Benham realized he was going to be arrested, he says, but felt that it was a “moment.”

“You don’t even understand what you just woke up,” Benham says he told the officer, noting that Americans all of the country are concerned about government using the coronavirus crisis to overreach.

The group’s history with the state and city also gave Benham reason to believe Cities for Life was being unfairly targeted: “This is selective enforcement of the law. You are coming after us because we’re standing in front of an abortion clinic.”

Benham catalogued the incident on his Twitter account, and included a video showing him facing off with North Carolina police officers who accused Benham of engaging in “non-essential” activity outside of the abortion clinic, even though the clinic is open and providing abortions.

“This morning, was unlawfully arrested while supporting sidewalk counselors outside an abortion clinic. Many have labeled David a fake Christian and claimed that he endangered lives by being out. These accusations couldn’t further from the truth,” Benham’s account reported Sunday morning.

“David maintained social distancing while exercising all necessary precautions in light of COVID-19,” the Benham Brothers account continued. “This video has the full story. Thank you for your continued support as we fight for life!”

The video shows David interacting with a police officer and explaining that, if abortions are allowed to continue inside the clinic, than the work of pro-lifers, ministering to at-risk women, is also essential. He also explains that the sidewalk counselors are maintaining the recommended six foot “social distance” and washing their hands frequently.

“(2) The sidewalk counselors stayed over 6’ apart and there were less than five of them. Yet this officer selectively enforced the law, even though Cities4Life had less than 10 people,” the Benham Brothers reported.

The group, he says, helps more than 5,000 women a month choose life.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) rushed to David’s defense, posting the video and noting that, as an attorney, he believes David’s arrest is unconstitutional, given that he was engaging in Constitutionally protected speech and abiding by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

“WATCH: My friend David Benham was unconstitutionally arrested today in NC for peacefully providing pregnancy counseling outside an abortion clinic. If NC deems abortion “essential,” then pregnancy care services are as well. This is WRONG; Governor Cooper should be ashamed,” Cruz wrote, referencing North Carolina’s governor, who issued the shelter in place order back on March 27, 2020, but insists that abortion services are “essential” and cannot be disrupted.

“2/x This is an unconstitutional arrest,” Cruz continued. “@BenhamBrothers exercising core First Amendment rights. PEACEFULLY. In a way fully consistent w/ public safety. Because elected Dems are pro-abortion, they are abusing their power—in a one-sided way—to silence pregnancy counselors.”

In a separate thread, Cruz laid out the case against Benham’s arrest.

“Take 2 minutes to WATCH the full video. Have you ever seen an arrest like this? Peaceful. Respectful. Thanking the police officers. Elected Dems are abusing their power for political agenda & face civil liability under 42 USC 1983,” Cruz wrote, referecing the Federal statute under which individuals whose Constitutional rights have been violated may bring a case against public servants.

“42 USC 1983: Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State…,” Cruz wrote, citing the provision. “…subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress…”

David wrote his own account on social media Sunday, as well.

“My boys and I went to support the awesome sidewalk counselors who work with our non- profit, Cities for Life,” David wrote on Twitter. “We offer life-affirming services for at-risk mothers. It’s been an absolute privilege serving over 5,000 vulnerable mothers who felt abortion was their only choice!”

We support taking every precaution during COVID-19,” he added. “This is why we maintained our social distance and stayed under 10 in number. We were not belligerent… We simply stood our ground. MLK once said, ‘A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right.’”

Speaking to the Daily Wire, Benham said he will continue to pursue the case and publicize the incident so that states and cities recognize their power, even in a crisis, cannot be unchecked.

“I am not going to let the government have unlimited power and use this crisis to their advantage,” he said.

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WAYNE ALLYN ROOT: “I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not Going to Take This Anymore.”


Wayne Root

By Wayne Allyn Root

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

Remember that line from the famous American movie “Network”? It’s time for a rebellion. Every out of work American and every out of business American business owner needs to open our windows and shout it. Shout it so loud, it reaches President Trump, Congress and every DC Swamp politician from Washington DC to New York to Boston to Beverly Hills, California.

It’s time for this madness to stop. Mr. President, do you understand how many suicides of prominent business owners are piling up?

Here in Las Vegas a business owner closed his business, laid off his 45 employees (with tears in his eyes), then went home and committed suicide. Did you see that in the news?

It’s happening across America.

Do you understand the pain of the employees? No one can even get through to file for unemployment benefits. The web sites are down for days on end. No one ever answers the phones.

Do you understand how many lives are being ruined, how many jobs being killed, how many great businesses will never reopen? The people are getting desperate and despondent. They have no money for food, or rent, or gas, or survival.

We can’t stay closed. We have to open up the US economy. There is no more time for debate. There is no more room for caution. I have ideas and compromise below.

First, these Coronavirus “death counts” have to stop. You’re scaring people half to death. I suggest a new kind of “DEATH COUNT” be put up on the screens, to compete with the Coronavirus death count.

*JOBS KILLED by this complete business shutdown.

*BUSINESSES CLOSED.

*AMERICAN DREAMS DESTROYED.

*SUICIDES CAUSED.

A Great Depression will destroy this great nation. And we’re on the way, right now. Unless you get this economy open again.

And why not open America for business again- with tight restrictions. What is happening now makes absolutely no sense. We are “allowed” to shop at big box stores like CostCo, WalMart and Home Depot; health food stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts; grocery stores; pet stores; auto part stores; pawn shops, pot stores, liquor stores, gun stores, and get this- golf courses are open.

If all of that is allowed, why can’t we open all stores and businesses, but with the same sanitary and health precautions and restrictions?

I love and appreciate the UPS drivers and Costco cashiers on the front lines. But if they can work, why can’t the rest of us? Do Costco checkout guys and gals and supermarket cashiers have a big “S” on their chest? If they can face it and survive, why can’t the rest of us?

The liberal Democrat Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti just recommended everyone wear masks and scarfs. Isn’t this the compromise to get us all back to work?

Here’s the mantra for the day: “Wear a Mask, Get Back to Work!”

We need to open of the US economy, before it’s too late. Before we’re all doomed- not from Coronavirus, but from the fallout of a Great Depression. Here is the compromise. Here are the new rules.

Anyone who wants to stay home, can. If you want to collect welfare, food stamps and unemployment, you can. Anyone at high risk- seniors, the sick, the obese, those with illness- should shelter at home.

But the rest of us (the working people of America) are willing to take the risk, to keep our businesses alive, to save jobs, to save the economy, to prevent a Great Depression, to prevent mass suicides, alcoholism, drug addiction, poverty and misery.

We can all work- just like the Costco employees and supermarket cashiers and the UPS drivers. We can all wear masks. Our customers can wear masks. We can all practice social distancing. Employees can stand 6 feet apart. Stores can limit customers. New customers can only come in when others leave. We can sanitize our workplaces and stores like never before.

It’s time to start organizing a mega call-campaign to President Trump, Congress and to local politicians across this country. It’s time to tell them that the American people want to take precautions, we’ll accept restrictions, but we need to get back to work. Or we’re holding you accountable for ruining our jobs, careers, businesses, dreams, lives.

The pandemic is horrible. But we can’t keep the economy closed. Your caution and fear are killing our lives, more than any pandemic. The politicians are destroying America.

Shout it out loud: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Wayne Allyn Root is the host of “The Wayne Allyn Root Show” on Newsmax TV, nightly at 11 PM ET/8 PM Pacific, found on every cable system in USA, plus DirecTV and Dish,

at https://ift.tt/2zOf79k He is also a nationally syndicated radio host of “Wayne Allyn Root: Raw & Unfiltered” found at https://ift.tt/2g4uzmV

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Coronavirus Model Used to Crash US Economy MASSIVELY OVERSTATED Hospitalizations in 40 States

The Gateway Pundit has reported many times that the Coronavirus models being used to predict hospitalizations are complete garbage.

The IHME and Murray models being used to crash the economy have massively overstated the impact of the Coronavirus in 40 different states.

These models are using New York and New Jersey data and applying it to the rest of the US.

Murray predicted last week that Washington state should have needed nearly 2000 beds for these sick patients.

They only have 254 in the hospital.

NY – Murray: 50K beds
Actuals 18K

CA: 4100 vs. 1100

Florida, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado- again MISS, MISS, MISS, MISS!

Connecticut, Delaware, Florida and Georgia – This model is overstating hospitalization by 2.5 times!

Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana — the number of ventilators needed is way off!

Murray has updated the model 4 times!

Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota – Maine was overstated by 7 times!

Murray model overstated Mississippi hospitalizations by over 2 times along with Montana, North Carolina and North Dakota

New Hampshire was overstated by 7 times!

Texas hospitalizations overstated by 9 times!

Wisconsin overstated by 2 times!

It gets worse…

The amount of Americans who are reported to have died from the Coronavirus is based on a CDC coding system that will “result in COVID-19 being the underlying cause more often than not.”

A new ICD code was established to keep track of Coronavirus deaths where a confirmed lab test isn’t even required!

Americans want answers!

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Police State: Woman Pulled Over, Fined $200 for ‘Going on a Drive’

Anita Shaffer needed to get out of the house. The 19-year-old Red Lion, Pennsylvania, woman decided that just driving around in her car on a Sunday evening wouldn’t hurt anyone.

She wasn’t going to see anyone. She wasn’t going to the mall or to the grocery store. Indeed, there was really no place to go at that hour. Just a young woman in a car, driving around for a spell. She wasn’t breathing on anyone. No one was breathing on her. And then she was pulled over by the state police.

According to The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Shaffer has now become the poster child for just how far the stay-at-home order signed by Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf — and, by proxy, stay-at-home orders around the nation — can go.

According to The Patriot-News, the March 29 incident took place when troopers followed Shaffer from another town into Red Lion — 33 miles southeast of Harrisburg — and pulled her over there. Troopers said she had a taillight out and the tint on her windows was too dark.

She was asked if she was on drugs and then told to get out of the car, at which point she says a flashlight was shined in her face. (Keep in mind, this was all being done in the name of preventing coronavirus transmission.)

TRENDING: Pelosi Wants To Talk Blame for COVID Spread? Here’s Video of Her Telling People To Crowd into Streets

“He asked me if I was aware of the stay-at-home act,” she told the Patriot-News.

“I am aware of it but I didn’t know it pertained to just driving,” she responded.

She says she was told by the trooper that she wouldn’t be fined for the taillight,”but you should be at home during this act that’s in place right now and just get the taillight fixed.”

No need. When she got home, she said, she and her father discovered the taillight was working just fine. I don’t know the particulars of the case, but if it’s true that the taillight was working, I’m guessing the opacity on that window tint was also within state guidelines. Just a theory.

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“Troopers have been encouraged to use contacts with the public as opportunities to reinforce the necessity to abide by stay-at-home orders,” state police spokesman Ryan Tarkowski told the Patriot-News, while making sure to add that troopers were looking for voluntary compliance to the stay-at-home order.

The citation, according to the Patriot-News, states that Shaffer “failed to abide by the order of the governor and secretary of health issued to control the spread of a communicable disease, requiring the closure of all non-life-sustaining businesses as of 20:00 hours on March 19, 2020. To wit, defendant states that she was ‘going for a drive’ after this violation was in effect.”

Tell me about how voluntary this is again. Oh, and by the way, this is the first citation that was issued by the Pennsylvania State Police during the stay-at-home order. This is apparently the kind of behavior toopers feel urgently needs to be quashed.

“Troopers maintain discretion to warn or issue citations and the decision is specific to the facts and circumstances of a particular encounter,” Tarkowski told the Patriot-News.

Troopers have produced no proof whatsoever that Shaffer had intended to get out of her car — in fact, the only human contact she had during the drive was when she was pulled over — yet she still got a fine of at least $200. If this is what’s being defended as discretion during the stay-at-home order, I’m curious what indiscretion looks like to Tarkowski.

RELATED: Chinese Building Co. Ordered Int’l Offices To Hoard Med Supplies Then Ship Back to China: Whistleblower

And, as WPMT-TV notes, the governor’s own website says the Pennsylvania State Police is supposed to be informing the public as opposed to enforcement. If this is the case where they wanted to issue a ticket, heaven help us.

Legislators are now asking the governor for some clarification on the matter.

“You erode public trust,” state Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, who represents the county where Shaffer lives, told WPMT  when asked about the citation. “These are really uncertain times for so many people.”

“This is kind of unsettling,” she added. “I’ve had people say, you know, I just want to go out on my motorcycle and go and take a ride, and ask, ‘am I allowed to do that?’”

Tarkowski was asked roughly that question by WPMT and the answer was yes, or maybe no.

“Sunday Drives are not essential travel. Does that mean that everyone who goes for a drive will get cited/warned? Obviously not,” Tarkowski told the Patriot-News.

“There are no roadblocks, checkpoints, etc. Decisions to warn/cite are made based on the totality of the unique circumstances of each encounter. But to reiterate, Stay at Home means stay at home.”

However, as proof that there are moments of wildest irony in these dark times, Tarkowski also said coronavirus was a threat “that we can’t enforce our way out of. It will take everyone in the community working together.”

If authorities are going to resort to enforcement, though, it’ll apparently start with cases like Anita Shaffer’s. Keep in mind, her citation was the first issued by the state police.

“I think this is a little bit over the top,” Neil Shaffer, Anita’s father, told the Patriot-News. “There’s a fine line here but at the same time, we still have some freedom, some rights and liberties and we’re allowed to operate our cars. We’re allowed to go for a walk. We’re allowed to go to the park and we’re even able to go to work” if you’re in government or an essential business, he added.

This is the invariable problem with government receiving a blank check for our trust during the coronavirus pandemic. At the point where $200 tickets are issued to 19-year-olds who just want to go for drives, that trust isn’t being earned. Nothing will make us question stay-at-home orders more than heavy-handed enforcement such as this.

Anita Shaffer, by the way, has pleaded not guilty and plans to take it before a judge. We can only hope she — and common sense — prevails.

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How Gullible Politicians Promoted Global Economic Destruction And Threw Us Into The Abyss Of Serfdom

How Gullible Politicians Promoted Global Economic Destruction And Threw Us Into The Abyss Of Serfdom

Authored by Antony Mueller via Medium.com,

Anyone with some basic knowledge in mathematical modeling who had taken a look at the structure of the “Imperial College”-model would have noted the faults of this approach and its exaggerations. The model’s prognosis that the United Kingdom would have to count with more than half a million deaths and a complete overload of its health system reversed the British government’s earlier decision to use prudential surveillance and specifically targeted intervention and to shift to the full-control strategy, which required massive intervention into the public and private life of the nation. The leaders of other countries that were somewhat still in doubt jumped on the bandwagon and the march into a tyrannical State was programmed.

It was too late when the authors of the model finally revised their original estimate from 500 thousand to 20 thousand and later on lowered this number even more. The governments had already set into motion their emergency plans.

After declaring the coronavirus a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), agendas that had been prepared years ago were set into motion and the state agencies followed the procedures that were prescribed by the International Health Regulations (IHR) as the international legal instrument that is binding on 196 countries across the globe, including all the Member States of WHO.

Even now, months after the outbreak of the virus, the true size of the threat remains unclear. The quantitative basis is still too small to make a reliable projection.

If the modelers and the responsible government bodies had looked at the basic numbers instead of elaborating an apparently sophisticated model, they would have noticed that there has been no noticeable rise of the death rate. A look at the overall death statistics shows flat lines with fluctuations within its natural range. Even in Italy, there has not yet been a higher number of deaths than usual in the past couple of months. In absolute numbers, the death count is actually slightly down because of the seasonal factor that wintertime is over.

Figure 1: Pooled number of deaths in reporting countries for age groups

Source: European mortality bulletin week 12, 2020

The point to note is that there has been an increased mortality rate in specific areas of Italy yet in relative terms the heightened frequency of deaths is not strong enough to show up in the national statistics. The epicenter of the virus outbreak in Italy is concentrated in its Northern part and there in specific cities. The overall reported death toll of COVID-19 does not appear in a significant measure beyond earlier peaks. (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Weekly z-score total by country

Source: European mortality bulletin week 12, 2020

What makes the coronavirus crisis special is not the number of deaths but the reaction to the outbreak. Out of fear that the epidemic would get out of control and that the health care systems would be over-fraught with cases, governments in Europe, the United States and in many other countries implanted measures to ward off the spread of the coronavirus.

The amazing thing with the reaction is how in unison this was done and how drastic the measures are. When the WHO triggered the alarm bell, governments that had treaties in place to act according to pre-established plans in the case of declared “pandemic” virtually locked-up large parts of the population of whole countries and brought their economies to a standstill. As a consequence, many people suffer from paranoia because of the existential fears that come when economically active people see the source of their incomes vanish and the elderly have to watch how the savings in their pension accounts melts down or when getting sick are put away to eventually die alone in a hospital because visits even of their close relatives are prohibited.

If there had been no media hype about the coronavirus and if the governments had not resorted to drastic measures in foolish obeyance and submission to the commands by the World Health Organization, hardly anyone beyond some specialists probably would have noticed the coronavirus. Mutations of viruses happen all of the time and most of them do not do more harm than the influenza virus. The family of coronavirus is very large and its existence has been known since the 1960s.

Bound by their international legal obligations and confronted with a media hype, governments began to implement ever harsher measures to contain the virus and “flatten the curve” of its dissemination. The media helped to create a reality of its own as Niklas Luhmann had shown in his sociological studies with the difference between the “imagined reality” of the media (Medienwirklichkeit) and the reality of life (Lebenswirklichkeit).

Governments succumbed to the World Health Organization, were brought under the spell of the public hysteria and fell hostage to the medical-industrial complex, whose political arm is the WHO and which rapidly has assumed a role to act as a kind of world government.

In order to justify their draconian measures, governments claim that their policy is about “saving lives”. Yet there is no way “to save lives” for good. The best we can do is to gain a little more time to live and to avoid an early death. Therefore, the question is not whether to save lives or not, but by which measures we will gain more years or may lose time to live. When we close down the economy, those who thereby avoid contagion will gain a few more years. On the other hand, because of the shutdown, millions of people will lose many years of their lifetime. Make your choice.

Not the coronavirus will ruin us you but the coming recession and if the recession does not ruin us, the hyperinflation combined with a depression will do. It is as if the Tower had given the command to the pilot to turn off the engines of the airplane in mid-air because of the presumption that there might be some unknown danger at the destination airport.

We do not know whether the number of infected will decrease because of the measures that are in place now, but we can be certain that the number of suicides, divorces, alcoholics, indebted, impoverished and bankrupt persons will increase.

In a historical perspective, we are currently not experiencing anything new or unusual, and the general human hysteria is nothing other than what has been experienced many times in history. But this should not make us complacent. The hype of public opinion creates a mass psychosis that brings down the fools and wise equally.

Politics always wins. When this panic is over as the rate of contagions slows down and the death toll does no longer rise, governments will claim that this is so because of their measures even when, in fact, these were unnecessary from the beginning and the infection rate would have fallen anyway.

What’s going on? Not a deadly disease is the threat but the global hysteria. If the panic should continue, millions will die, not from COVID-19 but from the economic breakdown.

The panic has no basis in the facts. There are emergencies, but they are locally concentrated such as in specific cities in a specific region of Italy. More than a quarter of the world has opted to lock in their populations and shutdown their economies, among them many European countries, the United States, Canada, and Australia. While this may slow down the spread of the contagion, it will bring down our capacity to deal with our other needs, including the provision of medicine.

No-one knows for sure how deadly the coronavirus really is. The perceived path of contagion is a projection. This will also be the case with a future appearance of new viruses and their modification. Sooner or later, when COVID-19 is over, COVID-20 will show up and thereafter COVID-21 will come.

Our wants are always manifold and therefore require a trade-off. The idea of “saving lives” as an absolute good is absurd and can only gain such prominence in a society that has lost its touch with the elementary truths of human existence.


Tyler Durden

Sun, 04/05/2020 – 08:00

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New York Woman Arrested for Not Socially Distancing — Then Thrown into Jail Holding Cell with Two Dozen Women

A woman was jailed in Brooklyn over the weekend for violating the social distancing rules.

The woman and her boyfriend were arrested and she spent the next 36 hours in jail with two dozen women.

Diana West weighed in.

A fellow New Yorker snitched on them.

Via The Intercept.

NEW YORK CITY police officers arrested three people in Brooklyn over the weekend after they allegedly “failed to maintain social distancing,” court documents reviewed by The Intercept show. The three individuals appear to be among the first in the city to be arrested over the Covid-19 mitigation measures — despite city officials promising that those disregarding the lockdown would face fines at most. Violating social distancing is not a crime per se, but each of the individuals arrested was charged with obstructing governmental administration, unlawful assembly, and disorderly conduct.

In a criminal complaint, police claim an informant observed a group of about 25 people “hanging out” in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood last Friday night and that the defendants “refused to leave the location and disperse” despite the informant repeatedly asking them to do so. But one of those arrested, a 37-year-old woman, disputed the facts described in the complaint, telling The Intercept that she had been in a parking lot with her boyfriend, who was also arrested, when she saw a group of people nearby dispersing into the street apparently after police ordered them to do so.

The woman, who asked not to be named because the charges against her remain pending, told The Intercept that a large group of officers, wearing no masks, approached her and her boyfriend and told them it was “time to leave,” then proceeded to grab her boyfriend before they could do so. The interaction quickly escalated and officers pepper-sprayed two people as a crowd gathered to watch what was happening. “They actually brought the crowd inside that parking lot once they started bothering me,” she said.

The woman was taken to the local precinct and then to central booking, where she shared a cell with two dozen other women for the next 36 hours. Only women who already had masks when they were arrested were allowed to keep them. There was no soap and the cell was dirty, but at one point an officer went around distributing drops of hand sanitizer to the women held there.

The post New York Woman Arrested for Not Socially Distancing — Then Thrown into Jail Holding Cell with Two Dozen Women appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

via The Gateway Pundit

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USA Today: ‘True’ – ‘No Indication’ Obama Admin Replenished Mask Supply

USA Today conducted a fact check Friday in which the media outlet declared as “true” the claim that the Obama administration failed to replenish the supply of N95 masks in the Strategic National Stockpile after it had run out in the wake of past health crises.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said during the White House coronavirus daily briefing that the nation’s Strategic National Stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as N95 masks, had been nearly depleted when he assumed office.

In the previous week, the Daily Wire had published an article that claimed the Obama administration had failed to restock the supply of masks after the H1N1 health emergency:

The Obama administration significantly depleted the federal stockpile of N95 respirator masks to deal with the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009 and never rebuilt the stockpile despite calls to do so, according to reports.

According to USA Today:

We rate this claim TRUE because it is supported by our research. There is no indication that the Obama administration took significant steps to replenish the supply of N95 masks in the Strategic National Stockpile after it was depleted from repeated crises. Calls for action came from experts at the time concerned for the country’s ability to respond to future serious pandemics. Such recommendations were, for whatever reason, not heeded.

On Sunday, however, the Associated Press (AP) continued to blame the Trump administration for having “squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal [sic] of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.”

“Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging,” AP stated, and received comment from former Obama Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who told the wire service, “We basically wasted two months.”

As USA Today noted, however, on Friday, progressive media outlet ProPublica reported funds that were available to the Obama administration were not used to restock the national supply of masks.

Though ProPublica blames some of the issues surrounding the depletion of the Strategic National Stockpile on “Tea Party budget battles” at the time, the article stated:

With limited resources, officials in charge of the stockpile tend to focus on buying lifesaving drugs from small biotechnology firms that would, in the absence of a government buyer, have no other market for their products, experts said. Masks and other protective equipment are in normal times widely available and thus may not have been prioritized for purchase, they said.

As USA Today observed, a 2017 study in the journal Health Security found nearly:

… 75 percent of N95 respirators and 25 percent of face masks contained in the CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile (∼100 million products) were deployed for use in health care settings over the course of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) also stated the country’s stockpile of PPE was taxed during hurricanes Alex, Irene, Isaac, and Sandy, and then later during the 2014 outbreak of Ebola and the 2016 zika virus crisis.

These situations “continued to significantly tax the stockpile with no serious effort from the Obama administration to replenish the fund,” reported USA Today.

via Breitbart News

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