George Rebane

For a progressive the content value of delivered messages depend only on the correct credentials of the messenger. 

Autocracy rising.  Granted that all the federal and state hunker-down mandates have taken a big bite out of our civil liberties (here and here), we witness and read daily of people being stopped, harrassed, arrested, and even handcuffed for engaging in non-infectious activities like walking in the woods, surfing alone, riding a bike, driving a car, … .  Given their head to control and dictate, government workers are becoming more autocratic, hubristic, and commanding in their relations with regular citizens.  Don’t get me wrong, they were no paragons of helpful knowledge and assistance in the best of times, but now we get regular reports of everyone from law enforcement people to clerks behind counters beginning to act like the caricature authorities of tyrannies like the USSR, East Germany, Red China, Iran, Cuba, … .  In such behaviors these bureaucrats have predictably wrapped themselves in the mantle of inflexible machines executing pre-programmed and unwavering dicta from on high.  I recently ran into that on an call to our Rood Center on an administrative manner.  The response between now and then was markedly different.  And it’s all being helped by the legions of naïfs who continue to repeat the mantra, ‘It can’t happen here, cause we’re Mericans.’

“Bernie’s an American original”, embellished Barack Obama during his announced support for his former VP Joe Biden.  Calling Sanders a “man who has devoted his life to giving voice to working people’s hopes”, Obama kind of goes off the rails because the record of all of Sanders’ proposed policies would have reduced the number of jobs available to working people, grown government, and made those same working people de facto wards of the state.  An ‘American original’ indeed; Obama’s intellect has never embraced history (among other pursuits), so he doesn’t realize that Comrade Bernie is nothing but a clone of old school Moscow.

Well, Union editor Brian Hamilton sure put me in my place.  I sent Brian a note with the link to my Second Wave piece (here), offering to write something appropriate for the Union’s readership.  Everyone is talking about the importance of understanding herd immunity apropos the country’s current decision about which the President and state governors are cogitating.  To reopen communities and commerce is a critical decision that depends both on the levels of herd immunity as measured in the various populations, and the significance of immunity testing vs infection testing.  In my research, to my knowledge I’m the first and only one to have openly analyzed the epidemiological factors impacting the decision, and summarized the results in a compelling yet easy to understand graphic.  None of that made a dent.  Brian responded with a cordial one-liner email as if I had offered to write a piece for Mother’s Day about my dear departed mom’s love of tulips.  In all modesty, I had expected something like, ‘Great idea for an interesting, unique, and timely piece.  Go for it George.’ – silly me.  Their publishing such a piece would make The Union the first newspaper to explain in words and picture the different levels of herd immunity, and how it quantitatively impacts the Big Decision in light of the Second Wave.  I had no idea that the Union received so many more interesting Other Voices submittals; I wonder what they do with all of them.  Duly chastened, I withdraw. [updated, see the 18apr20 update below]

[16apr20 update]  CNN is one of the nation’s powerful thought leaders for progressives.  These leftwingers dutifully repeat the commentaries of the talking heads on that outlet which trucks little disagreement with its 24/7 socio-political narrative.  A recent example of this is its refusal to carry the daily WH C19 briefings, which they correctly see as also serving the Trump re-election campaign in addition to giving out the administration's report on fighting the pandemic.  The good progressive will instead watch CNN (or its moral equivalent) and be told what to think about the daily WH report, instead of watching it himself and making up his own mind with who knows with what kinds of errors.  Better to be guided to the truth and light by your betters.

Here's the drill on Joe Biden according to my lights.  It’s clear that 1) the DNC has finally decided to run with Biden leading the Democratic ticket, and it’s also clear that 2) for their blessing, the DNC made Bumblebrain an offer he could not refuse.  The first was given away with the coordinated endorsements of the Dems’ heavyweights Obama, Sanders, and Warren on three conveniently consecutive days.  The second is a certainty since the Dem leadership knows better than even the rest of us what an idiot Bumblebrain really is.  The minimum deal that he had to agree to was to pick his VP running mate from the DNC’s shortlist which may well just have one name on it.  A more forward-looking and comprehensive deal would include Joe’s early resignation at the two-year mark for obvious (mental) health reasons, thereby letting his VP have two years of limelight before running in 2024 as the incumbent.  It’s really not all that complicated.

[17apr20 update]  Government-run healthcare systems are having trouble in this C19 pandemic.  The lamestream has been very quiet in reporting the strains and stresses of such nationalized enterprises.  It turns out that these systems were even less prepared to handle the pandemic than was our own free-wheeling private healthcare industry.  This reality was perturbed by PM Boris Johnson’s C19 recovery administered through the tender mercies of Britain’s NHS.  The PM praised lavishly the care he received during his hospital internment, and he credited it all to the finely tuned workings of the NHS.  Well, that’s not exactly the experience enjoyed by the average Briton who ques up for eventual service that is not always provided due to the current diktats of the local death committees.  Brother Boris got the Cadillac treatment from NHS because the teetering system could not allow the country’s political leader die in their hands.  And example of what I’m talking about is illustrated in the workings of our oft-touted healthcare system of neighbor Canada.  Here is a more sobering report on the longer-term workings of Canada’s nationalized healthcare system as now highlighted in the age of C19.

Now suddenly the world is finding out the use for borders and walls, along with “the most immediate political impact of the crisis has been the resurgence of the nation-state”.  And there we find that “old-fashioned borders have suddenly reappeared, too. From the U.S. to India to the United Arab Emirates and the EU, the default reaction to the virus has been to bar entry to outsiders. Global trade and supply chains have been disrupted as well.”  According to Albrecht Ritschl, a professor of economic history at the London School of Economics, “In terms of the economy, what has happened so far is 1914, but in a way even more radical. Almost every national border is closed now, I would not have thought I would see this in my lifetime.” (more here)

The Great Invisible World for Progressives – When their assertions of truth are demolished, their response is to see nothing, understand nothing; they just ignore and go on to cite their next ‘truth’ or resurrect a demolished one for another drubbing, thereby endlessly repeating the cycle.  Today, the list of such recent wrecks of their world view include all their false and futile attacks on Trump with outlandish allegations, all of which have been proven baseless.  They continue ignoring the Democrats massive fumbles with national security and the C19 national emergency.  And they are very busy ignoring the tsunami of embarrassments delivered daily every time Bumblebrain opens his mouth while the DNC and their media mouthpieces are walking back what they can.  And on these pages, we archive years of avoiding responses by our liberal commenters as they quickly take leave on their well-worn Cricket Trail.

[18apr20 update]  Union editor Brian Hamilton once again showed that he is a gentleman, and a tolerant one at that by responding graciously to the above pout with an offer to publish my commentary, adding an enthusiastic assessment after reading my submittal.  ‘The big decision and the second wave’ appears in today’s print and online editions.

Hydroxychloroquine (HCL) continues to be used by many physicians to treat and prevent C19.  So far the definitive studies on it are not in yet, and the ongoing anecdotal uses of it show mixed results – 'HCL and Other Autoimmune Drugs Don’t Fully Protect Against Coronavirus, Early Data Suggest’.  This carefully written piece says nothing to diminish my own assessment of HCL’s use against C19, nobody ever claimed that the anti-malarial drug would “fully protect” against anything.  In fact, I don’t know of any drug that is claimed to fully protect against any given malady, except perhaps by patent medicine hawkers of doubtful reputation.