The Continued Lockdown Insanity

Wuhan Flu 53 Comments

As 2021 draws closer, every country and state and province has two primary paths to deal with Covid-19:

Plan A

  1. Follow the lead of Sweden, Florida, Texas, etc., where reasonable precautions are taken but people are treated like mature adults who will make responsible decisions for themselves.
  2. Schools remain open, businesses remain open, people remain employed.
  3. Accept the reality that it’s often better not to make any rapid policy shifts when you have not thought through the full repercussions of such changes.

Plan Z

  1. Follow the insanity of California, where most everything is shut down, based on no data or science, except those with political connections to extract exemptions from corrupt politicians.
  2. Public schools are all shut down, most small businesses are shuttered, huge number of people become unemployed, business owners lose the fortunes they worked hard all of their lives to achieve.
  3. Change policies rapidly, thinking it is better to “do something” than “do nothing”.  When your decisions are proven to be completely wrong, double down and stick to them stronger, no matter how many people suffer as a consequence.  Because, after all, your career is clearly more important than the wrecked lives of millions of “little people”.

If you were a politician, which path would you choose?  Before you answer, know that California has recently entered a new lockdown period, akin to Tier 4 in the UK.  Why?  Because the available ICU beds have dropped below 15% capacity … this measured only at public hospitals, not all hospitals.  Anticipating the need for isolated hospital beds, what was done ahead of time to increase the capacity in the form of military hospital ships or portable trailers or well equipped tents?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  So instead, the livelihoods and businesses of all the citizens were shut down.  Does this make any sense?  Perhaps in a dystopian novel but not in the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.

Update (by Kate): Los Angeles Locked Down. Covid Came Anyway.

53 Replies to “The Continued Lockdown Insanity”

  2. Hubris, Posturing, or Both?
    They rely on the public being stupid and/or naïve and they are not totally wrong.

    1. A nation once populated by independent minded, self-reliant, frontiersmen has rotted from within, as the country is now populated by millions of weak minded, submissive, docile sheep, allowing themselves to be bullied and propagandized into paralysis, while texting, tweeting and facebooking their every mindless thought to their followers.

      That is the problem

      3. tell me please, why did so many emigrate or become refuges? what is the state of their minds? are they brave or frightened? Why not stay and fight, rebel that is? Is this the way they are and what we are seeing is the new way of life here in Canada whereby the frontiersman and their families are long gone. When push comes to shove who will fight for Canada? Who knows?

  3. The myth is control. It is not possible to control the spread of a microorganism or virus because you can’t see it to stop it and there are too many transmission paths. That fact, however, does not prevent governments from trying or from pretending to try. And why do they do it? They are given tacit permission to do it because people have bought into the idea that good government will save them and that good government is beneficent. These two ideas are lies because government is just a larger version of the individual with all of the faults of the Fall and those faults are magnified by handing responsibility and power to one person or a small cadre who control thousands of drones. And the first fault of government is that it is, like most humans, selfish and looks to its own interests first before the interests of others. And so, the government grabs wealth, and power and does it with our permission or, in the case of crisis, without it. And long term, it removes from us our rights and our future to save its own hide. That is why it is a beast that must be penned, caged and whipped into submission from the very beginning. The US founders understood this – Canada did not and our current crop still believe in the divine right of kings.

  4. In the U.S. PUBLIC hospitals are always close to capacity in their ERs and ICUs, whereas PRIVATE hospitals are so far from ‘capacity’ that TikTok dance videos by the dozen are being filmed there.

    In Canada there are ONLY public hospitals, no private hospitals. and I think most Canadians can’t fathom the vast difference it makes to have no waiting lists and literally ‘next day’ delivery of medical services of all kinds …MRIs, CAT scans, surgeries. A former U.S. client of mine made MRI machines selling for a large 6 digit amount each. They told me (several times) that they sold new MRIs in the U.S. and placed some of the used MRIs (that their new ones replaced) in Canadian hospitals because those sold for less than half the price of a new one.

    One fascinating data point they shared was that there are more MRI machines in metro Pittsburgh than in all of Canada, hence the Canadian waiting lists for a “free” human MRI in Canada. Canadian governments are not involved in veterinary medicine so your horse or dog can get a veterinary MRI the next day, no waiting!

    1. I’ve lived in Houston half my life now, but was born and raised in CGY. It’s important to understand how Houston has managed COVID-19 from a public health care perspective. As you point out, there are far more private hospital beds than public hospital beds, which are funded and operated by the county. In our case, county leaders (Democrats, by-and-large), the mayor (a Democrat) and the executives of the leading healthcare providers (e.g. Memorial Hermann, Methodist) reached an agreement whereby no patient with COVID would be turned away for lack of hospital bed capacity (ICU or otherwise); private beds would be made available, and costs would be covered as though the bed was in a county hospital. As a consequence, we’ve never come close to reaching capacity for beds or ICU facilities. And, I can go eat at a restaurant. As Robert said, we behave (for the most part) as adults.

      1. Hospitals are built to run at capacity. They are extremely expensive to build and operate and like hotels they need to be full.

        Canada’s government run hospitals haven’t a clue what actual costs are.
        Sure they have budgets but since they don’t have to raise any income don’t know where the money comes from. It’s a prescription for incompetence and waste.

  5. All of Canada (other than BC) is pretty much already at the extreme end. Here in Alberta it will only get worse. In Calgary, they will keep it up until at least fall and quite possibly 2022, though, I would not be surprised if many aspects of it become permanent.

    1. If Fort St. John is anything to go by, B. C. is past the extreme end. I’m wondering how long before the Nosy Parkers across the alley from my house squeal on me for not wearing a mask while I’m in my back yard. Gotta keep the neighbourhood “safe”, you know.

      1. BC is a thorough contradiction. Example, read the letters in the Times Communist online. The locals are FREAKED out and are convinced if they get Covid, they DIE. Yet, the numbers are the lowest in BC on the Island, and its not even close, we are safe here, relatively. My act of defiance is to wait until I enter the store before putting on the mask. Waiting at Costco, the dutiful sheep put their masks on in their car, before venturing out into the dangerous outdoors!
        Yet, said paper, in its editorial today, correctly notes that TWICE as many people have died of the OPIOD “pandemic” in the same time period, and, that the huge majority of deaths from Covid, in BC, are OVER THE AGE OF 85!
        I just about fell out of my chair, seeing a moment of honesty and detail from the Times Communist editor.
        By the way BADR, we can’t buy booze after 8pm tonight, because we might get Covid if we buy it after 8pm, so Bonnie Nazi banned liquor sales after 8 tonight.
        She is batshit crazy stupid, she has no idea what she is doing, but hey, ‘be calm’…………..

        1. I can’t even get leftover liquor boxes from the government dairy bar in FSJ. Apparently, the number of people visiting the grog shop have to be limited, so picking up empty cartons, which will likely get chucked into the recycling in anyway, will spread disease.

          The result is that I spent a lot of money buying boxes from a local U-Haul outlet. Mind you, they’re not all that expensive.

          And, like you, I don’t put on my face diaper until I’m about to enter whichever facility I’m about to enter.

          1. Face diaper! Nice!

            FSJ is so far removed from the rest of BC, as is DC, that I doubt there are cases there. Not that Bonnie Nazi would share that info, she has been very secretive with all the facts, preferring to keep the public as uninformed as possible, in a constant state of irrational fear.

            Yet the cases are far worse in Alberta than BC, that’s always been a curiosity why, though I suspect the reasons would brand me a racist, as a former frequent flier between the coast and YYC and YEG.

            Happy New Year BADR, always enjoy your repartee.

    2. I figure Ontario will be close behind you. I anticipate permanent masks until everyone is vaccinated and ongoing lockdowns until the numbers (aka positive tests, not actual Covid cases) drop to an acceptable level as determined by our less-than-competent leadership (medical and political). I don’t have much confidence in 2021 being any better that this past year.

  6. Typical Canadian: “The government has to DO something!”
    I laugh when people complain about how slow the vaccine is being distributed in Canada.
    Well, dummy, that’s because the government is Doing it.
    Disappointing that there is a lot of the same in the US.

  7. There is only one plan that will work. take care of the sick and let healthy people get on with their lives. herd immunity is the only way and no, a vaccine will not enhance or lead to herd immunity.

  8. The thing is ….

    You have Chinese communists that developed the virus, then spread it around the world.
    You have the low lives of the so called world health organization that supported and enabled Chinese communists to safely spread the virus.
    You have the media cartel to tell the proles that it’s bad out there, if you get out you are going to die, hence the surprising number, as in numbers, of closed dicktators, (sic) enjoy to shut down the population with the help of the media cartel that scares the masses to death. The masses, of necessity, since they have no other information, succumb to the political diktat and are prepared to be pissed on if that will please the dicktators sic.
    As it is today, there is no place outside of Sweden that is free of the communist stronghold on the world with the help of local kapos around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapo

    There is no politician of influence that has the will to change the sense doomsday.

  9. In NS we had three new “cases” yesterday, bringing the active total to 25. We have one non-ICU patient in the province; the first in weeks. The last death was in August. Yet, school is out until 11 Jan, kids can’t play hockey, restaurants are closed for dining in, the government is prorogued, and we are all trooping around in masks. There’s no curve to flatten.

    We have all gone mad.

    1. Halifax here, I agree completely. I am a dual, so I have a bolt hole as long as the Dems don’t wreck it too. If Turdeau told Nova Scotians they need to march off Pier 21 in order to protect themselves from Covid, I would hate to be near the end, I would be crushed in the herd of sheep running bleating into the harbour.

  10. The policy where I work is masks and social distancing.
    Not one or the other, both at the same time.
    Why?
    Because our competitor’s policies are masks or social distancing.
    They are going one better, they think.
    No science, no logic, just mindless posturing.

    The policy can’t be changed now, because what if something went sideways?
    If they were basing the policy on being safer, which is the only rational for doing it, then how can the revert to a ‘less safe’ policy?
    Do they admit that they were just posturing, and therefore they can eliminate the policy?

    Politicians have put themselves in the same situation.

    2. Yep. And this is why they keep doubling down. If they stop then people are going to ask questions and it will become clear that the lockdowns, etc. failed not only at containing the Chinese Flu but also destroyed the economy needlessly.
      There was maybe an argument for this stuff in March when no one knew how deadly this thing was but now no one can climb down.
      This is part of the reason I do think a lot of this stuff is going to continue.

  11. Ontario is recording over three thousand cases today. Its a good thing Angry Adolf brought in a couple more boxes of vaccine. We obviously need more fascism in our lives. Adolf will look after it.

  12. So the “science” seems to be proving that Lockdowns cause covid, since Toronto has been in lockdown since November 21st and has been experiencing ever increasing covid infections since then…

    /s

    2. Maybe someone should tell our Puffy Mayor here is Calgary! Terrible – kids cant skate to blow off steam while they are out of school! What is our future if he is re elected again? There is no future if he remains – just increase taxes with no benefit to the taxpayers.

  16. Burton… FINANCIAL System Remake

    Is at the Crux of this whole Viral shitshow.
    Interest rates have fluctuated wildly since the US left the gold standard. going as high as 22% in the Early 80’s to now where you can renew your 563,000 Mortgage at 1.75%.

    And just in that statement shows the issue. FIAT money has ZERO VALUE and is held in place by the utter lie that it does. Well, things are coming to a point that those who stand to lose Trillions want to change things up in a BIG WAY.

    Bitcoin – in body nanites (Gates patent 060606).
    Being controlled digitally to do the ELITES BIDDING. I buy it 100% simply because those who want to do this have been saying so for YEARS…and as per usual NOT ONE person Listens.

    And my liberal friends think I’m nuts for not wanting a “vaccine”

    Great Video thanx for posting that.

  17. North Korea accused of using COVID-19 to crack down on human rights
    https://nypost.com/2020/12/12/north-korea-accused-of-using-covid-to-crackdown-on-human-rights/
    ————————————————————————————————————————————-
    L- What a co-incidence ?

    Political leaders in the Free World would never do that …
    Is there a difference between being a leader in the Free World and being a leader of the Free World?

    Please discuss, compare and contrast to receive full marks.

    1. Compare and contrast? There is none. We have gone FULL N.Korea here in CA.

      Our Dear Leader, Gavin Newsom broadcasts his image … talking … EVERY SINGLE DAY. He broadcasts talking so much that he is permanently hoarse. And he says nothing but … “You citizen Bad” … “State good”. “Report neighbor for not OBEYing State” … “Shut down or else” … “wear DOUBLE mask … or else”

  18. It has all been said before. But, everyone just keeps thinking “last time, I did not make enough sense, if I just make more sense with this argument”. Making sense is irrelevant.

    “There is nothing so bad that politics cannot make it worse.” ~ Thomas Sowell

    “You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.” ~ Thomas Sowell

    “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” ~ H. L. Mencken

  19. Risk Management 101 – costs must have benefits, it’s about avoiding exposing yourself to risk, like starving your tax base.

    The statist response to covid is overwhelming evidence of the need to limit government; but we’ve swung the other way, easily feared and fooled on junk science II.

    Hiding from risk usually exposes you to worse risks. Business people know that, government’s don’t; they lack that discipline.
    There is no easy way out yet governments constantly search for that phantom ideal. Businesses have to swim or sink.
    Because they don’t have a constant source of income that workers and businesses provide. Thatcher’s premise pending.
    The most amazing part of this incompetent and autocratic overreach is how businesses have survived to this point.
    Related, just saw a post from Sooke Society about alcohol sales ending tonight at 8pm. Lots of chatter over that one.
    I’m sure they were all planning to social distance tonight during festivities. It’s cool ’cause they all wear masks. It’s a bad joke.
    Like gun control, law abiding citizens get to carry the can, the criticism and the culpability. Peace, order and big government?

  21. I’m struggling to understand why locked down cities / states have higher rates than non-locked down jurisdictions. Why is Fla better than CA? You would infer the opposite. What is the path to infection that everyone is missing? the WalMart in Encino?

    1. alecincgy:

      No need to struggle with this.
      You are no doubt aware of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
      Gubmint specializes in its purest form:

      POLAR OPPOSITE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

  22. Wiping out the small business community, or bringing them to heel, is a feature not a bug. They were the last major independent component of the economy.

    1. Thud Muffle:

      So true. Fascism, aka corporatism (gubmint/corporate partnership) cannot work with hundreds of thousands of small businesses that hate gubmint because of the enormous regulatory burden they carry.

      Much easier to partner with a few dozen MegaCorps.
      And lets not forget the revolving door between gubmint and the corporatocracy.

      1. You don’t want to have a GUM on every corner? What type of communist do you want to be?

  23. It makes perfect sense if you want to hand out foreclosure notices to every white family left in California and send big men with guns to drag them out of their houses—so the banks can re-sell their homes to Chinese “investors” for pennies on the dollar.

    The Okie from Muskogee is expected to leave California as he came, beating it back down Route 66 with nothing but whatever petty personal belongings of no interest to creditors he can stuff into the cheap used car he paid for with the very, very last money he had in the world. The banker and his Chinese mistress gets everything the Okie worked for.

    Where will the Okie go? Shut up, you fascist.

  25. If government is not mandated to do something by the Constitution then it should be considered to be forbidden to do it.
    Where does it say and why would it say ANYWHERE that the government of a rational and decent Constitutional Republic has the right to lockdown any part of it?
    Any attempt is null and void and tyrannical and the responsible parties of any such attempt should be executed after a summary trial.

  26. Globalist fascists like Newsome will never listen to reason science or data as he is a fascist put in power by foreign money and influence. Newsome hates California and he hates Americans. A bullet or two would cure this hatred… make no mistake at some point when people have had enough of these fascists payback is coming. Newsome believes he can punish and destroy without consequence, he is wrong.

  27. Plan A failed. Sweden’s a disaster. Too many people aren’t reasonable adults. The alternative to these two bad plans is mass contact tracing.

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