• Were we not lead to believe we were preventing above average death rates
• Where is the sting?

It is OK to be gobsmacked, confounded, dumbfounded and maybe more than a little ticked off by this revelation at Gateway Pundit forwarded to us by DK:

This Is Strange: Total US Deaths in March 2020 are Actually Down 15% from Average of Prior Four Years 

Grassfire reports:

According to data obtained from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics Mortality Surveillance System website, total U.S. deaths for the first three weeks of March are DOWN 10% from the average of the prior four years for the same three week period.

The average for weeks 9 through 11 for the four prior years was a total of 170,555 deaths. For weeks 9 through 11 this year, the total is 153,015, meaning 17,540 fewer people died in America during the first three weeks of March than could be reasonably expected. And the gap between historic deaths and weekly deaths is widening. For week 11, just 47,655 Americans died, 8,773 and 15% fewer than the average for week 11 in the prior four years. And while data on week 12 is not complete, it is trending similar to week 11 and will likely be down by 15% (around 8,700 deaths less than expected) even though 1,919 COVID-19 deaths were reported (in week beginning 3/22).

Now after deaths for the entire month of March are reported, the results show that deaths in the US this March are 15% less than the average of the past four years!

IN MARCH OF 2020 THERE WERE 34,000 (rounded) LESS DEATHS THAN THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF DEATHS IN THE US OVER THE FOUR YEARS PRIOR!

According to the CDC’s website, in March 2020 there were a total of 193,000 deaths in the US.  The average number of deaths in the US for March over the four years prior to 2020 (2016 – 2019) is 227,000.  The difference between this year and the average for the past four years is 34,000.  2020 deaths are 85% of the average of the prior four years.

The article Gateway Pundit references also relates anecdotal information from doctors as to “where are all the heart-attack cases/ admissions“?

VeritasPAC observes that sure, if most of the country is locked down, there will be less deaths from accidents at work (no one is working) less traffic deaths and indeed maybe less disease of various sort spread!  But the statistics reveal the hysteria if not lies about the extent of the “pandemic”.  There is a death rate in this country and every country and the concern should be focused on stopping increases but if we have to stop the economy in order to do so, well what is the use, as the economy is the lifeblood of all.

Iatrogenic deaths attributable to the public health experts and political leadership will go up  if the economy is permanently damaged or the wrong lessons learned. Those won’t be counted as Wuhan deaths but they should be counted as public health deaths.  They will arise due to the forgone doctors visits we see in play now, despondency from lack of work or loss of home or retirement, devaluation of money requiring people to work more or longer in order to make ends meet, lack of resources to bailout the next “pandemic” due to a reversed economy, less resources for research . . . more alcoholism and drugs . . .  a malaise the likes of which Jimmy Carter could not pretend to fathom.

In all of this there may be some appropriate best practices and preparations to be established  . . . but no more stopping the economy for every respiratory virus threat of this sort.

Now moving on to an article by Christopher A. Ferrara writing at The Remnant. Excerpted here via LifeSite News which reprinted it.  Bold our emphasis, the entire article is worthy.  Ferrara excoriates the public health “experts” we are relying on.

Numbers don’t line up: Case for panicking over coronavirus is falling apart

It is becoming increasingly clear that “mitigation” has done nothing but cause a pointless, catastrophic disruption of social and economic life.

To sum up where we stand today, April 6: Based on the pretext that we must “limit the spread” of the Wuhan virus, the American economic boom of the past three years has been reversed in a matter of days, millions have lost their jobs, tens of thousands of small businesses have been shuttered and will probably never reopen, and three-quarters of the American population has been subjected to some form of house arrest by state, county and city governments. 

All over the country people are being fined or arrested and jailed for violating suddenly imposed restrictions on their every movement and gathering, often with the aid of their neighbors, who turn them in to the police, following instructions on how to be a snitch. Attendance at religious services has been forbidden altogether or limited to ten people, even in vast cathedrals, while “permission” is granted to crowd supermarkets and convenience stores, buy booze, purchase cannabis and have pets groomed.

. . .

America’s almost instantaneous transformation into a police state is based on “models” that “predicted” upwards of 2 million deaths from the Wuhan virus without “mitigation” in the form of a preposterous attempt to quarantine 330 million people. And the people have obsequiously bowed to every ridiculous command.

. . .

White House press briefings that have fueled nationwide panic. Tony and Deb have since revised their “models” downward to predict 40,000 to 178,000 deaths. And that prediction has already been lowered again as the IMHE model Tony and Deb have been touting during the briefings now “predicts” 81,766 deaths by August 4. That prediction would require some 18,000 people to die every month between now and then, even though at 10,000 deaths since February 29 — a number consistent with a heavy flu season — we appear to have reached the peak and a decline is already evident. 

At some point, Tony and Deb will be “predicting” precisely what has already happened, as we saw with the “models” that first predicted Hillary Clinton was certain to win the Presidency. And when the final death toll fails even to approach what they first predicted in order to panic the whole country into a nationwide lockdown never before seen in human history, they will make the unprovable, non-falsifiable, junk science claim that “mitigation worked.”

As the actual numbers belie the pseudo-scientific prophecies of doom, however, the lockdown of America that began with Democrat governors and mayors now exhibits a curious and hardly coincidental fissure along party lines. As of today, nine states, all headed by Republican governors, refuse to join the lockdown regime and now provide embarrassing counterfactuals demonstrating that officially mandated lockdowns were never necessary and have probably made the situation worse by preventing the development of “herd immunity” to this virus, like all the others, from the normal interaction of large populations. 

The following are the nine states that have refused to impose lockdowns. All of them have minimal death tolls from the Wuhan virus, including the populous South Carolina, and five of them have not enacted even local lockdowns:*

Arkansas — 14 deaths. No statewide or local lockdowns.

Iowa — 14 deaths. No statewide or local lockdowns.

Nebraska — 8 deaths. No statewide or local lockdowns.

North Dakota — 3 deaths. No statewide or local lockdowns.

Oklahoma — 42 deaths.

South Carolina — 40 deaths.

South Dakota — 2 deaths. No statewide or local lockdowns.

Utah — 8 deaths.

Wyoming — 0 deaths.

[Data as of this writing on April 6 at 9 p.m.]   . . .

Tony (Presidential advisor Anthony Fauci) also finally — finally! — admitted (hour 2:47:55) that herd immunity will develop for this virus as for all the others, but then declared nonsensically (hour 2:48:16): “I hope we don’t have so many people infected that we actually have that herd immunity.” Come again, Tony? You don’t want herd immunity so that the virus is largely neutralized as it has been with the flus that no one bothers to contain because containment is impossible? What sort of epidemiologist is this? I will tell you: one engaged in a massive con job.

Exposing all his previous dire predictions as a sham, Tony added that “as you get data in you modify your model. And I’ve always said: ‘Data always trumps models. Always.’” And then, further preparing the way for his unprovable post hoc “mitigation saved us from a gazillion deaths” argument, he added: “I don’t think anyone has ever mitigated the way I’m seeing people mitigate right now.”

You’ve got that right, Tony! And note the implicit admission that this ongoing National Quarantine Theatre of the Absurd, of which he is one of the principal directors, has no precedent in epidemiological history. And with good reason. This kind of “mitigation” was never deemed necessary or conceivable during even the worst pandemics of previous years. And it should not have been attempted in this case either, which will turn out to be no worse or not much worse than the swine flu pandemic of 2009, which infected tens of millions and killed 18,000, most of them not elderly.

Finally, Tony admitted (hour 2:51:05) that “I don’t accept every day that we’re gonna have two hundred to two hundred thousand deaths. I think we can really bring that down no matter what a model says. Because when the data comes [sic] in you’ll start to say maybe you are, essentially, overshooting the model.” 

In other words, his and Scarf Lady’s original and revised predictions were misleading guesswork, junk science like that of “climate change,” which have contributed mightily to the worst mass panic and self-inflicted economic damage in American if not world history.

 As the real data emerge and the vast contours of Coronagate come into view, I have a sense that this absolutely incredible farce will reach its climax within the next week to ten days. Then the question will be whether the denouement will be a triumph for Trump or a debacle that will usher in the terminal Democrat dystopia. The horrendous human cost of this farce and the immense stakes in Trump succeeding aside, the next two weeks will make for a fascinating study in the sociology of induced mass panic in a mass democracy. 

Pray that the final outcome will somehow correspond to truth and justice.

*Ed.Note: Iowa’s response while not as draconian as many other states has some bewildering aspects or so predictably marginal in effect so as not to be exemplified.

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• Apparently cabin fever is not a concern under COVID-19!!
• “Sheltering in place” is a nice Orwellian formulation for “lock down”
• Nevertheless we must keep a sense of humor and that is exhibited by these ditties sent to us courtesy of SF, SM and a clever montage forwarded by VM

Half of us are going to come out of this quarantine as amazing cooks. The other half will come out with a drinking problem.

I used to spin that toilet paper like I was on Wheel of Fortune. Now I turn it like I’m cracking a safe.

I need to practice social-distancing from the refrigerator.

Still haven’t decided where to go for Easter —– The Living Room or The Bedroom

Every few days try your jeans on just to make sure they fit. Pajamas will have you believe all is well in the kingdom.

Homeschooling is going well. 2 students suspended for fighting and 1 teacher fired for drinking on the job.

I don’t think anyone expected that when we changed the clocks we’d go from Standard Time to the Twilight Zone

This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came into my house, told my dog….. we laughed a lot.

So, after this quarantine…..will the producers of My 600 Pound Life just find me or do I find them?

Quarantine Day 5: Went to this restaurant called THE KITCHEN. You have to gather all the ingredients and make your own meal. I have no clue how this place is still in business.

My body has absorbed so much soap and disinfectant lately that when I pee it cleans the toilet.

Day 5 of Homeschooling: One of these little monsters called in a bomb threat.

I’m so excited — it’s time to take out the garbage. What should I wear?

I hope the weather is good tomorrow for my trip to Puerto Backyarda. I’m getting tired of Los Livingroom.

Classified Ad: Single man with toilet paper seeks woman with hand sanitizer for good clean fun.

Day 6 of Homeschooling: My child just said “I hope I don’t have the same teacher next year”…. I’m offended.

Via VM:   M.A.S.H. motage from the “Hepatitis ”  episode

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• Whether or not this “trip” (pandemic response) was necessary or is forgivable based on best guesses and erring on the side of caution — we can’t go through this again — either in the fall if Wuhan does come back as is predicted — or with the next new respiratory virus
• We can be hopeful about the degree the economy will come back,
• We can be hopeful about the degree the economy will adapt to the shakeout
• We cannot be complacent about the extent of the emergency powers being exercised to protect us
• As President Trump has said, the cure can’t be worse than the disease
• Here in Iowa it is supposed to be “Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain.”  
• We will offer a critique of Governor Reynolds executive order regarding the ChiCom virus outbreak in a future post

Below is a foreboding article by Streiff writing at RedState.  We share his concerns and added a brief comment yesterday (appended to his article herein as well).

We Have Sacrificed Our Constitutional Freedoms to Fight a Virus, Will We Ever Get Them Back

Smarter people than me have noted over the years that totalitarianism always arrives wearing a smiley face. Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” I fear we are on the cusp of totalitarianism taking root in America and it has not come on the strength of $100,000 in Facebook ads bought by a Russian troll farm. It has been propelled here by a virus that most likely represents an interspecies jump of an everyday virus from some pre-soup bat at a live market in Wuhan, China, to a human.

The extent to which the government, at all levels, driven on by the frenzied bleating of our national media has used this virus to lay siege to our civil liberties has been nothing short of astounding. The degree to which Americans have gone along with this slow-motion revolution has been shocking.

Ridiculous shelter-in-place orders are zealously enforced:

The official government slogan of 30 Days to Slow the Spread has been in effect for 32 days, as of today, and shows no signs of an end in the near future.

Don’t be deceived. We will not be allowed to return to the status quo ante after this bug is just part of the ecosystem any more than Germany was allowed to return to the status quo ante after Marinus van der Lubbe kept his appointment with the fallbeil. We have been fundamentally changed as a nation.

This pandemic has shown that our government not respect civil liberties or recognize any concept of personal agency. The First Amendment, which guarantees our right to peaceably assemble, has been absolutely shutdown by politicians and bureaucrats declaring that it was illegal to do so. It is no more permissible to forbid people from going to the beach because of some inchoate and ill-defined risk to themselves than it is to prevent them from holding political rally…something which would also be forbidden. This is power that Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon never dreamed of exercising during the height of the Vietnam War protests and the “Days of Rage.”

If churches are locked, with the complicity of their clergy based upon government fiat and pastors are arrested for holding church services (sadly, no Catholic priests have yet stepped forward to do their duty to their flocks in the face of the obeisance of their hierarchy to Caesar), then freedom of religion has been defined down to a personal hobby from a human right in a way that Barack Obama could never have dreamed.

If a mayor can forbid a store to sell merchandise because of Wuhan virus, then he or she can forbid a store from selling merchandise for any other ‘public health crisis.’ And let’s be serious here, the limiting of merchandise that can be sold has zero to do with transmission of the Wuhan virus and everything to do with government staking out its right to control your life. Once you are in the store, your risk of spreading or contracting the virus neither increases nor decreases based upon the goods you buy any more than a 9 p.m. curfew keeps you safe.

And this is the start. The people pushing this are watching and observing and taking notes and are very happy with what they see.

The course of action charted by the federal and state governments here have inflicted hardship all out of proportion to the damage potential of the virus. And they have done it in a way that guarantees we go through this again in November. Widespread infection, when some 80% of everyone catching the virus recovers completely with few or no symptoms would build the herd immunity we need to render the Wuhan virus irrelevance. The social distancing nonsense simply preserves a large population with no immunity that will be as susceptible to the virus in the autumn as it is now and give rise to yet another round of social controls. (Amazingly, in short, we’ve devastated the economy and spent trillions of dollars and sacrificed our liberties and our birthright and we have nothing to show for it, not even the proverbial mess of pottage.)

Now that government knows that it can do this and that our elites and our media will stand idly by…along with the great mass of the citizenry as well…as precious liberties are sacrificed on the altar of ephemeral fear, fear will be our constant companion as government refuses to give up its newly won power.

Our comment as revised:

Most go along with these edicts because no one wants to think they were part of causing vulnerable people to die and because we were told by “experts” that this was the way to prevent it. We casually suspended some of our rights (suspend hopefully being the operative word).

A lot of people rolled over on the work closures because they thought it a vacation and Uncle Sugar will pay unemployment and everything will be back to normal in a couple of weeks. So many thought.

Hopefully the draconian extent if not absurdity of so much of it, including the emperor-has-no-cloths aspect to the experts is setting in.

The politicians that were not opportunists or downright malevolent feared being accused of not doing enough. That is how the left manipulated them. What we need to do know is to tie the hands of the elected and bureaucratic controllers.

Perhaps they can be “feared” into agreeing with a populist and principled move to do that. Give them only certain more limited parameters in emergencies and for a limited time (30 days?). Statutorily delineate what public health regulations can be initiated.
Civil liberties must be maintained.

Consider: If clusters of people are bad during a purported pandemic why are they good anytime as any such congregation could serve as ground zero for the next potential pandemic. GROUPS ARE DANGEROUS TO PUBLIC HEALTH!

That said there are some things that can reasonably be done – perhaps more rigorous cleaning by businesses in order to achieve some standard rating as to their cleanliness regime that people can be aware of. Perhaps mask alert levels (varied by city or county) and ready availability of masks during outbreaks.

What say you readers?

*bloodletting:   here and here

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• A vibrant economy breeds and protects and enhances life

In reading the articles set forth below from Townhall, a couple of hypotheticals occurred to us.

China has lost thousands of people to the Wuhan virus but the statistic is irrelevant to this hypothetical. Given that China will sacrifice its own people to politics (war fought by other means) for any number of reasons — deflection, plausible deniability, subterfuge, whatever so  we disregard that as a countervailing point to the following:

1) If the Wuhan virus could have been confined to the US and not affected the world economy on which China depends, could China have strategized a better bio-warfare result against its main antagonist to world economic supremacy — the US?  Ironically the economic result extends not so much from the virus itself but from the hysteria surrounding it?   Because of its effect on its most important single trading partner I doubt China intentionally issued the the virus.  That said its criminal cover-up is something to be reckoned with.   What should it be?

2) The leading killer  respiratory disease in this country is related to smoking.  This is not a apples to apples comparison but there are aspects that are perhaps in some respects tangerine to orange?   You might get a taste of the hypothetical thought process reading this excerpt from the publication Very Well Health, a peer reviewed publication:

Updated on November 15, 2019
Most statistics look at the overall risk of lung cancer, combining both people who smoke and those who have never smoked. Based on United States statistics, the lifetime risk that a person will develop lung cancer is 6.3% or a little greater than one out of every 15 people.1

Clearly, this number would be higher for those who have smoked and lower for those who haven’t. We have very few studies which have broken these numbers down between never smokers, former smokers, and current smokers, but an older 2006 European study did make these distinctions. In that study, the risk of developing lung cancer was:2

• 0.2% for men who never smoked; 0.4% for women
• 5.5% of male former smokers; 2.6% in women
• 15.9% of current male smokers; 9.5% for women
• 24.4% for male “heavy smokers” defined as smoking more than five cigarettes per day; 18.5% for women

Compare mortality figures from having acquired lung cancer (not good but less than the figures above) with the worst case scenarios we have been told about COVID19.  A virus is infectious to others,  a key difference, but second-hand smoke has a supposed mortality associated with it. Are there lessons for acceptable regulations in comparing the two? Smoking is something that is obvious but the response to lowering its mortality has been both directed at the smoker and people around them.  Related reading here.

Moving on to the articles that triggered the questions above (which we have no answers for) are these which also pose important questions, issues or dilemmas:

Predicting the future is a tough racket. If people were any good at it, we’d all be multiple lottery winners. Since we aren’t, that’s a pretty good indication that we have the ability to guess what will happen, but possess no clairvoyance. That brings us to today, when the country and the world are shut down over what is expected to happen with the coronavirus. Like everything else, the predictions aren’t panning out. Were this just $2 wasted on a lottery ticket it wouldn’t matter. But are we hurting millions of people and spending trillions of dollars on nothing more than a hunch based on computer models that are wildly inaccurate?

There’s no question the coronavirus is deadly and dangerous, but is it going to kill hundreds of thousands in the US and millions around the world? We have no idea. All we have are guesses. But if you’re going to destroy the economy and severely restrict people’s lives, you’d better have some damn good information backing up your actions. There are questions about the computer models being used to impose just that.

One prominent model in the shutdown is from the University of Washington, from their Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), funded by Bill and Melinda Gates. How closely does what they predicted track with reality so far? Turns out, not so well.

While the reporting data from some states are lagging, others have provided information that calls into question the validity of the whole model, and with it, all the actions taken by government.

On April 4th, for example, the IHME model predicted there would be between 120,963 and 203,436 Americans requiring hospitalization, with the average of that range being 164,745. In reality, there were 18,998.

Before your jaw goes through the floor, it must be noted that not all states have reported their numbers, so the actual total is incomplete. The largest states have reported, so the missing numbers from places like Kansas or even Michigan will add to that total, but still will not get it anywhere near the projections.

That’s just hospitalizations, when it comes to intensive care beds, the difference between the projections and reality show an equally large gap. The average projected ICU beds needed on April 4th was 31,057; the reality was 4,686. That’s across the country, not just New York. Even after factoring in the caveats about missing states, that’s a miss akin to swinging and striking out on a pickoff to second base.

So what other models are federal and state authorities using that justify the actions they’ve taken? The simple, horrifying answer is we just don’t know. The government isn’t sharing their models and data with the public, which is odd.

Mitigation efforts like social distancing and the like may be a factor, but these models supposedly took that into consideration.

Are the modelers making assumptions based on the horrific numbers out of places like Italy? That doesn’t make much sense when you consider the difference between our countries – quality of care, number of ICU beds, average age of citizens, etc.

As of this writing, there are 7,810 deaths in the United States attributed to the pandemic. More than 7,000 Americans die every single day, on average, of everything. Over the course of this pandemic, this has amounted to a noticeable but still mild uptick above that average over the course of it. Add to that the directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to count any death tangentially related to COVID-19, and you have to wonder if that number actually holds. That directive reads, “COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death.” (The emphasis in bolding is theirs.)

So what is going on? Where is the truth? Are we on the verge of a massive crush of cases and deaths, or are we destroying ourselves over the equivalent of tarot card reading gone wrong? I don’t know, but I do know we need answers and we need them now.

If we had a media capable of doing their jobs, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx would be pressed on all of this, hard, at the White House daily briefing. Since we don’t, we get Jim Acosta pulling months old quotes from President Trump attempting a “gotcha” moment that CNN’s audience and Jim’s ego craves. So-called journalists are attacking Fox News for allegedly spreading misinformation, even though they were sounding warning bells back in January, while the rest of the media were busy calling the president a racist for banning travel from China and wasted a week arguing with Republicans over how it was supposedly racist to point out a virus that originated in China originated in China.

Predicting the future is near-impossible. Shutting down a planet based on predictions is crazy, especially when the predictions aren’t coming true in real-time. If in the next week, these numbers from the models don’t start to jive with reality, President Trump needs to seriously consider not only reopening the country but also firing everyone involved in advising him based on those models. If they do start to line up, then may God have mercy on everyone.

Coronavirus is serious and deadly, especially to vulnerable people, but just how serious and deadly is one of many questions we need an answer to, and we need it now.

…………

Wayne Allen Root also at Townhall opines about what we sense is a growing sentiment :

“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 their windows and shout it, shout it so loud it reaches President Donald Trump, Congress and every swamp politician from Washington D.C., 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 going to start piling up?

Here in Las Vegas, a business owner closed his business, laid off his 45 employees (with tears in his eyes) and 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? People can’t even get through to file for unemployment benefits. The websites have been down for days on end. No one answers the phones.

Do you understand how many lives are being ruined, how many jobs are being killed, how many great businesses will never reopen? The people are getting desperate and despondent. They have no money for food, rent, gas or survival.
We can’t stay closed. We have to open up the U.S. 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 new kinds of death counts be put up on the screens to compete:

— JOBS KILLED by this complete business shutdown.
— BUSINESSES CLOSED.
— AMERICAN DREAMS DESTROYED.
— SUICIDES.

Another Great Depression will destroy this great nation. And we’re on the way, unless you open this economy 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; marijuana stores; liquor stores; and 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 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 Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, just recommended everyone wear masks and scarves. 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 the U.S. 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 UPS drivers. We can all wear masks. Our customers can wear masks. We can all practice social distancing. Employees can stand six feet apart. Stores can limit customers. New customers can be allowed to only go 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 local politicians across this country. It’s time to tell them that the American people want to take precautions, that 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: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

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• What am I missing here?  Or  . . . what is Biden missing.?
  
• Talk of character from the likes of Schiff?

“Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” former Vice President Joe Biden said President Donald Trump should have stopped air travel from China sooner than he did to fight the coronavirus pandemic by saying 45 nations had already blocked “China personnel from being able to come to the United States.”

BIDEN HINTS TRUMP SHOULD HAVE STOPPED AIR TRAVEL FROM CHINA SOONER…45 NATIONS HAD AREADY MOVED!   https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/04/05/biden-hints-trump-should-have-stopped-air-travel-from-china-sooner-45-nations-had-already-moved/

How did “45 nations” block China personnel from being able to come to the United States??? (nowhere have I seen any explanation of a possible source for this ridiculous charge by the pathetic “Sleepy” one.)     dlh

https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-45-nations-blocked-chinese-nationals-from-entering-u-s-before-trump-did  (This site includes the transcript of Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulis)

Biden’s statement is completely false. 45 other nations did not “block China’s personnel from being able to come to the United States before the president moved.”

Later in the interview, Biden reversed course and claimed that shutting down borders was not an effective way of preventing the spread of the disease.

https://peltthepundits.com/2020/04/biden-falsely-claims-45-nations-blocked-chinese-nationals-from-entering-u-s-before-trump-did

——-

Schiff recognizes “lack of Character”?

Claims Trump is ‘retaliating against his political enemies’ in “the dead of night”?!

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) reacted to the firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson by stating President Trump is “retaliating against people that are on his enemies list and doing it in the dead of night” as people are dying. Schiff stated, “We’re in the middle of a pandemic, and what is this president doing, as thousands of people are dying? He is retaliating against people that are on his enemies list and doing it in the dead of night. This is just another showing of the character or the lack of character of this president.

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/04/03/schiff-trump-retaliating-against-enemies-as-thousands-of-people-are-dying/

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McLeod’s warnings and doubts that she raises in her piece are troubling and most certainly deserving of some very intensive journalistic inquiry:      dlh

From the Canada Free Press:

– “For the sake of the survival of the entire Western World, hope and pray that the staged living corona virus nightmare currently going on doesn’t go over the president’s head: It appears that the medical scientists leading the White House Task Force may be working toward a total reset of the world economy.

– “Doctor Deborah Birx is not just the scarf-adorned lady scientist politely duking it out with reporters at your daily Task Force pressers, she sits on the board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Global Fund and has since 2014.

– “Birx was appointed by President Barack Obama as America’s Ambassador at Large and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator in April of 2014, and according to the WayBack Machine by May 20, 2014 was appointed to the board of The Global Fund.

(Note: For us, any one who has a position with impact on White House policy-thinking, and was ‘appointed to a post by’ President Obama, sends up a bright red flag!  Bold is our emphasis) continuing from Canada Free Press:

– “Both mainstream and social media have patently ignored an April 2nd Gateway Pundit story written by Cristina Laila revealing that The IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) model for the Coronavirus the White House is relying on is “complete garbage.”:

– ‘It Predicted 121,000 Americans Hospitalized by yesterday; Actual Number…31,142’.  (Gateway Pundit, April 2, 2020).

“The US economy has been virtually shut down, unemployment spiked and small businesses are on the verge of shuttering based on faulty projections.

“The IHME model is using New York and New Jersey data and applying it to the rest of the US.

“It predicted that over 121,000 Americans would be hospitalized yesterday (Wednesday) over the Coronavirus, Sean Davis of The Federalist said.

“The actual number? 31,142.

“For example, the IHME model predicted 1,716 people in Texas would be hospitalized yesterday from the Coronavirus, but the actual number of Texans hospitalized is 196.

“In Georgia, the IHME model predicted that as of yesterday, 2,777 people would have been hospitalized due to the Coronavirus.

– “This is down from the 1.7 million American deaths predicted by a key UK scientist which sent the entire country into panic mode.

“Millions and millions of Americans are going to lose their jobs, their homes and their savings.

“These so-called “experts” owe the American public an explanation and not just ever-changing models to terrify the masses.”

“Numbers about COVID-19 victims are starting to add up to suspicion.” (Canada Free Press, April 3, 2020)

And speaking about suspicious numbers:

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• Pardon us while we ridicule Cuomo, the Dems latest savior
• Untouched but not retouched photos

From a couple of days ago in the NY Post (Cuomo’s spokesperson in response to questions as to whether “does he or doesn’t he”  . . . says “of course not”  — meant to add “who ya gunna believe me, or your lying eyes?”

Now in our humble opinion this goombah (meant in its most affectionate way of course) is trying to show them off.  Who would wear a shirt that clings like that for any innocent reason  . . .?  What a goofball.

From the NY Post:

Bernie Bro disappointed, was all in for Bernie, and then Cuomo upsets his thought processes

Fellow New Yorker when asked if Cuomo has them “well duh”

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• Now this virus has gone too far!
• Why are food personnel not wearing a mask if the concern is so real?

So we were treated with another breathless coronavirus flash news bit from the QCTimes a few hours ago. This one about the community being “untreated” with the availability of over-the counter ice-cream treats at a local “landmark” enterprise. Permit us to riff off of it:

Whitey’s stores will be closing temporarily  
All Whitey’s Ice Cream stores will close temporarily starting at 10 p.m. Friday, the company said in a Facebook post.

As of Friday, April 3 at 10:00 p.m. all Whitey’s stores will be closing temporarily. As much as we would love to stay open and continue serving the Quad Cities, we are closing out of an abundance of caution to ensure that our employees are staying healthy and safe at home during this time. This does not affect Whitey’s availability at grocery stores at this time.

The decision to close was not an easy one and we know the road ahead is uncertain, but we want to thank you all for your constant support over the years.

We will continue to provide updates on our social channels and website, so stay tuned! But in the meantime, we hope everyone stays safe and healthy and that we will be back to doing what we love, serving you ice cream, very soon!

Reading it we see that the management is concerned about the employees of the company.  They mention “out of an abundance of caution”.  Still their reaction seems strained, however understandable given the hysteria surrounding the outbreak.

One will better understand our critique if you have visited any of the still open eateries of any sort of late. Many have adapted to current heath reg’s by allowing walk-in and carry-out accommodated by “social distancing” interval markings on the floor and “sneeze guards” installed to protect personnel.  None permit dining-in under current regulations. Many were already equipped with drive-up service.

Whiteys ice-cream parlors, if they ever did allow it,  have mostly eschewed “dining in” although they do provide picnic tables or benches outside. Most people have always carried the delectables into their cars practicing sequestering.

The counters at the Whitey’s facilities already provided built-in distancing for much of the interaction with personnel and product. So for those reasons their closure seems a particularly strained reaction.

Would not a rigorous wipe-down patrol of public contact surfaces have sufficed?  Maybe issuing a free cough mask to each entrant if they are that worried?  Or is it, as for so many of these decisions, follow the money trail? Is the promise of federal grants contingent on lay-offs and closures? We do not know, and “Whiteys” is one of the good guys – very charitable and all, but the questions arise — how much or many of these decisions are health driven, how valid are the concerns, and how much are they a matter of government enticement versus market driven? We would love for a Whitey’s spokesman to respond and explain further.

Viewing the pictures attached to the QCT article we have a suggestion.  Note the hairnets shown in the production of the Whitey’s ice-cream.  We have noted that many of the preparation personnel in the outlets wear “ice-cream” hats.  Regrettably those are not shown in the QCT pictures.  No one wants a hair in their tutti frutti.  But why would such a business (any restaurant) not adapt to the virus concerns by requiring a sneeze mask be worn by serving /preparation personnel in order to help stay open and accommodate concerns?  Personnel would not look any more goofy and a mask is probably more important in the serving line anyway.

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