Get ready for another lockdown. The warning signs are everywhere.
Oh, another round of hypocrisy from our esteemed Governor here in California.
Warning signs
About a week ago, the state of California announced when school resumes this summer, all school children will be required to wear a mask during the entire school day. Vaccination status is irrelevant. Past infection is irrelevant. The exquisitely low infection rate among children is irrelevant. The infinitesimal fatality rate it is irrelevant.
Over the past weekend the state of California and federal Department of Veteran Affairs announced they will require all employees to prove they are vaccinated or get tested weekly and show a negative result.
There is a hint, a whiff in the air, of a strong pushback emerging against the destruction caused by politicians and public health officials during the pandemic.
Everyone knows about the recall effort underway attempting to remove California Governor Gavin Newsom from office.
Did you know there are lots of other recall efforts in the state?
Did you know over a dozen state legislatures are moving towards placing limits and restraints on the currently unlimited and unrestrained power of public health agencies to destroy at will?
Perhaps, just perhaps, we may see some accountability for the widespread destruction caused by a host of elected officials and unelected bureaucrats responsible for public health care issues.
We are finally getting back to normal next Tuesday. Mostly. Sort of. Certain mask requirements will stay in place on June 15, 2021. Importantly, the emergency is not over and all of the emergency orders issued in the last year stay in place for another few months.
It also means public health officials and the governor can reinstate any restrictions they want or impose new restrictions they want and can do so anytime they want.
The good news portion of changes on June 15 is the four level color-coded system is gone. No more of the purple, red, orange, and yellow grading based on arbitrary numerical targets (which as we have seen the state can unilaterally shift as desired). The stay-at-home orders will officially end.
Best part of the good news is the capacity limits and physical distancing requirements are gone.
Destruction from earthquake. Visual description of what lockdowns did to the economy overall, public health in general, and mental health in particular. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Even though all the statistics in all the locations I’m tracking are showing a decline from the peak counts in the range of 95% to 98%, we urgently need to pay attention to constantly emerging reports of the destruction caused by government edicts.
This two-day series is mentioning only a minor fraction of the articles in recent weeks describing the devastation.
Today’s post will discuss:
Severe damage has been caused, only in part yet still a big part, by the inability to comprehend there are tradeoffs in every decision that has ever been made. This applies even more so to the pandemic. As another wag pointed out: there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.
Yet another research analysis shows lockdowns had minimal impact on death rates yet caused extensive unemployment.
Destructive and death-causing policies continued even after evidence emerged that policies were causing harm. Liberty has been shredded. Financial damage is widespread.
Educational, psychological, and social damage to children has been severe. It will take a horribly long time for kids to recover.
Behold the emerging legacy of the public health sector and our so-called political leaders:
4/19/21 – Wall Street Journal – An American Epidemic of “Covid Mania”– Op-ed by an associate professor of medicine at UCLA uses the phrase “Covid mania” as a catch-all for the loss of any semblance of risk assessment, elevation of Covid fear above every other factor, damaging the reputation of scientists and public health officials, and stating as an absolute certainty what was a mere hypothesis.
Visual description of what lockdowns have done to the emotional and educational wellbeing of children. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Now that the economic and social shutdown rationalized by the pandemic is slowly fading away, we need to stay focused on the damages caused by intentional policies.
I have been citing a lot of coverage from the Wall Street Journal, but I am seeing the same issues covered by multiple other news outlets and a host of commentators. There is massively more coverage of the devastation caused by the shutdown than I could possibly take time to write about.
Here is merely a tiny sample of recent reports. Today’s post describes:
Destructive and death-causing policies continued even after evidence emerged that policies were causing harm. Liberty has been shredded. Financial damage is widespread.
Educational, psychological, and social damage to children has been severe. It will take a horribly long time for kids to recover.
Monday’s post will discuss:
Severe damage has been caused, only in part but a big part, by the inability to comprehend there are tradeoffs in every decision that has ever been made, especially in terms of addressing the pandemic. As another wag, whom I will not cite, pointed out: there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.
Yet another research analysis shows lockdowns had minimal impact on death rates yet caused extensive unemployment.
Article points out she was on the cover of Newsweek (yes, like you, I was also surprised to hear it is still around) featuring her efforts to save lives with strong rules.
Score in the hypocrisy race between the Michigan and California governors
In the race for biggest hypocrite, I’m embarrassed to say that my governor, Gavin Newsom, only has 1 flagrant hypocrisy on the scoreboard.
He has been far out distanced by the Michigan governor who is at 4.5 by my count. I’ll explain shortly how she only earns half credit for one incident.
So, the current score?
4.5 – Michigan governor
1.0 – California governor
Time is running out to even the score of 4.5-1
Governor of my state doesn’t have much time to even up the score. Several weeks ago he ordered by executive decree that the pandemic will end on June 15, 2021. On that exact date the state color-coding rules will disappear because he knows they won’t be needed anymore.
He only has two weeks to run up the count if he wants to be the hypocrisy champ.
Heavy bomber crewman, U.S. Army Air Force, World War 2. Photo from Legacy Flight Museum in Rexford, Idaho by James Ulvog.
Our freedom is under rapidly increasing assault by many politicians who think they are kings and queens appointed by divine right instead of having merely won a few more percentage points of the vote than their opponent in the last election. In the last year public health officials at the federal, state, and county levels who lack self-awareness of how often they beclown themselves have joined in the efforts to shred our liberty.
As a result of these attacks, it is ever more important that on this Memorial Day we remember those who shed all their blood so that we may be free.
A ‘thank you’ from me is so trivial, yet that is all I have.
I will demonstrate my appreciation for freedom purchased by others by exercising freedom.
Yesterday I exercised my freedom of religion. Tomorrow I will exercise my economic freedom, also called pursuit of happiness, by running my business the way I choose.
I have posted variations of the following ideas several times before. I will continue to make these points routinely.
Union Infantry private, U.S. Civil War, 1961-1865. Photo from Legacy Flight Museum in Rexford, Idaho by James Ulvog.
While touring the U.S.S. Midway Museum in San Diego early this month, I wore a “U.S. Air Force” ball cap with various stuff pinned to it, such as the rank I wore, a missile badge (“pocket rocket” for those who know), SAC logo, and a rectangular piece of metal that declares “Combat Crew.”
During the course of walking around, I got lots of glances and several comments of “thank you for your service.”
Also got some joshing comments from the retired Navy guys about them ‘allowing’ me on their ship. Since we were all on the same team back in the day, the kidding was pure fun.
I was on active duty for only four years and that was decades ago. I never got within 3,000 miles of hostile action. (Of course if the flag had gone up, I would have been radioactive dust at 20,000 feet altitude about 40 minutes later.)
As a result, I was uneasy for a long time when someone said “Thanks for your service.”
It took me a few years to get to get comfortable with those comments.
I now graciously and proudly accept those expressions of appreciation from my fellow Americans, but not because of what I did so long ago.
