Sunday, July 5, 2020

The Last Fourth

We remember important first events - the first time you met the person who will become your significant other, the first words and first steps of your growing child. We also remember important last events - the last time you visited your alma mater, the last time you spoke with a dying parent.

Some events, though, are taken for granted - we didn't correctly identify the importance of an event until after it happened - so we remember neither the first nor the last time they occurred.

For example, my ex significant other and I always used to drive at least an hour to some random small town just to have pizza for dinner. The particular town or restaurant didn't matter - all small towns have good local Italian restaurants. What mattered is that we did this together, and that we enjoyed it. It was such a simple thing, and neither of us at the time realized how important those weekly outings were. For that reason, I cannot tell you the name of the town or restaurant we first ate at. I thought these road trips would go on forever, and now that he and I are separated, I can't remember the last place we went to. All I know is that there was a first town and restaurant and a last town and restaurant, and that there will be no more such road trips.

The same goes with holidays, Independence Day in particular. I have a childhood memory of my first fireworks show: the symmetry of the explosions, the three-dimensionality of the trails of sparks, how the bursts looked like flowers, only loud! At the time I didn't know why there were fireworks on that day, the Fourth of July, but I knew that that day must be important.

Years and years later, I also recall the last fireworks show I attended, which was in 2010. In the time between the first fireworks show and that last one, I became extremely averse to their sounds as well as to crowds. This may sound stupid, but there it is.

In an attempt to cure myself of this, I attended the 2010 Fourth of July celebration at a beach town in Maryland. I arrived very early, found a place on the beach as close as possible to the fireworks launcher, laid back on my towel, stretched my arms out, and watched. By the end, I was tired from the conscious effort needed not to move, and my hands were sore from grabbing the sand and towel for dear life! As I returned to my car, several strangers on the boardwalk asked if I was OK. I wasn't, but it didn't matter, for I made it through the whole thing.

This brings us to the Fourth of July 2020. Most large fireworks displays were cancelled because of the China Flu. Even if they weren't canceled, the meaning of Independence Day has changed for some Americans. Instead of being a time to celebrate our freedom, for them it has become an occasion to disparage our country.

There are three groups of people doing this.

First, there are the gay rights activists. They claim that homophobia exists, but to justify this they must add letters to what used to be only LGB. By doing so, they drop the idea that what makes a gay person gay is who he or she is attracted to, and replace it with an "assigned gender preference." They elevate fetishes to the status of sexual orientation. They also make a lack of self-awareness into an orientation, calling such people "transgender," "non-binary," "questioning," "pansexual," or "gender fluid". Further, some of them are attempting to normalize pedophilia, saying that the adult participants in this are "minor-attracted people" and trying to add a second "P" to the ever-growing initialism of non-cis-heterosexual "orientations".

Instead of "LGBTTQQIAAP," activists should save time and letters just by using "ABS" - anybody but straight.

With each letter added to "LGB" and each color added to the rainbow flag, someone claims a victory. But victories are meaningless when the opposition is negligible and the cost of losing is nonexistent.

If they want a true victory, these so-called activists should attempt to end the lawful execution of gays in Muslim countries. But they won't even try, since they are convinced that all cultures must be respected.

Then there is the Black Lives Matter movement, which is composed either of guilty white liberals or people looking for any opportunity to loot and burn. Black lives matter to them as long as it is a black man who was killed by a white cop, or if the black in question votes for the Democrats.

Of course there was slavery, but we fought a war to end it. The people who claim racism still exists are the same ones rewriting the history of the Civil War and destroying monuments describing that war. BLM continues to fight a war that ended in 1865 while completely ignoring the fact that slavery is still common in Africa and that there is an active slave trade in the Arab world.

Finally, there are the socialists calling themselves Antifa. They despise capitalism while living off their parents' trust funds and organizing their permanent revolution by using capitalist-made computers, all while enjoying overpriced coffee at Starbucks.

These modern-day Trotskyites operate in a logical and historical vacuum, ignoring the mass genocides that occurred in the countries governed by the very leaders that Antifa idolizes, all while favorably comparing themselves to American D-Day troops.

The commonality to these groups is that their members don't know how good they have it, and they have to invent nonexistent enemies to aggrandize their otherwise unremarkable lives. They are fueled by a vacuous education system, encouraged by their over-indulgent parents, enabled by left-wing politicians and judges, and operate unopposed by spineless cuckservastives.

The people doing this denigration are either ignorant of our history or were taught a straw-man version of history. We're the country that built the Transcontinental Railroad in only six years. We conquered the Axis Powers in under six years. We landed men on the Moon nine years after Kennedy set the direction. We've cured diseases, invented technologies, raised the standard of living for everybody. We're the ones who coined the term "self-made man," and many of us live that American dream.

These same people who deprecate this country have the whole world in their pockets, literally, either in iPhone or Android format. Yet the best they can do is defecate in their own kitchens.

Given all this, one must wonder if the July Fourth that ended a few hours ago is indeed the last Independence Day we'll see that hasn't been eviscerated of content and celebrated only out of habit.

While all the local fireworks shows were cancelled, some individuals at nearby apartment complexes decided to have their own shows. This is America at its best - private individuals taking up the slack left by our spineless representatives. I went to one of these apartment complex shows; while the crowds weren't very big, the noises were still nerve wracking. For if this is to be the last real Fourth of July, I want to experience it, and I want it to hurt.

Friday, July 3, 2020

No Burka, No Hijab, No Service

The recent pandemic and rioting has lead me to frequently ask the following question: "Is there no shit you will not eat?" It is sort of a line out of an e e cummings' poem, and I'm not the only one asking this.
 

Rise of the Karens

State and local governments’ responses to the China Flu have led to the rise of the “Karens.” These are people who have gorged mightily the propaganda coming from media, politicians, and supposedly credible medical organizations, and who aren’t afraid to impose their will on those of us who realize that the China Flu is nothing but a sham pandemic – a shamdemic.

These Karens are to be derided not only for their uncritical acceptance of the details and timing of the shamdemic but also their unwillingness to let others act according to their own best judgement.

Karens are nothing new. In previous times they were called by the more accurate term: collaborators. But we are living in an age where honesty is seen as aggression, and truth must be sugared over or else be rejected as hate speech.
 

Narrative Collapse

What fuels the Karens' control freak binge is not only the relentless social programming coming from the media and left-wing politicians, but also the gaping holes in the stories. Inconsistencies and absurdities became clear very early in the shamdemic - and these weren't just the usual "fog of war" uncertainties but ongoing narrative revisions and obvious political jockeying made by people wishing to frighten a nation and who assume Americans have no memory beyond the immediate now. Not only history being rewritten, but current events are being reworked in a feverish quest to find something that sticks.

Examples of the inconsistencies include:

The public policies based on these inconsistencies and ordained by our representatives have done nothing but reveal their incompetency and expose their contempt and malevolence towards those that elected them.

Prisoners were released under the excuse that keeping them confined would increase their risk of becoming infected. Masks apparently don't work inside prisons. As can be expected, many of these released prisoners immediately repeated the kinds offenses for which they were originally being held.

Companies that were deemed "inessential" were ordered closed, unless, say, a governor had a personal stake in the business, for example a "life-sustaining" cabinet supply company.

Most damning of all was the decision by several states to move patients with China Flu into nursing homes, senior care centers, and similar facilities. One nurse at a nursing home in Illinois said, "our patients are dropping like flies." New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo understood the danger, stating that illness would go through elderly patients like "fire through dry glass." He ordered nursing homes to accept China Flu patients anyway. Nationally, the number of nursing home deaths has been reported to be 16,000.

Of course, putting China Flu patients into nursing homes is acceptable for us commoners but not for the ruling class - Pennsylvania's secretary of health Rachel Levine (formerly Richard) moved his mother from a nursing home into a hotel as the death toll rose. Richard was the one that allowed nursing homes to accept China Flu patients in the first place. Stunning and brave, Richard, stunning and brave.

These acts are criminal, and hopefully the governors and secretaries of health who implemented all this will receive the swift and severe retribution that they are due.
 

The Magical Virus

Meanwhile the magical powers of the virus causing Szechuan Sickness continue to expand!

The virus is attracted to small businesses, churches, weddings, and funerals... unless the deceased was a black man killed by a white police officer. Then multiple nationally televised funerals with dancing pallbearers and horse-drawn carriages are safe, because the church doors are marked with the blood of a fentanyl user who also tested positive for the Mandarin Malady.

The virus knows not to infect people who "social distance" (what an oxymoron!) by standing 6 feet apart (not 5'11"), except at certain types of protests. The Asian Affliction is attracted to shutdown protests and Trump rallies, and it is able to be detected without waiting for the usual 14-day incubation period to elapse. BLM and Antifa riots, however, have the Cantonese Contagion's approval, as well as the approval of least 1000 health professionals.

In fact, BLM protests actually may have slowed the overall spread of the virus. All hail the woke virus!
 

The Timing

Then there is the timing. The governors and mayors who are most adamant about keeping their states in lockdown or who devise the most circuitous staged reopening plans are Democrats. Amazing, isn’t it, that the China Flu began getting press almost immediately after the impeachment proceedings against President Trump fizzled. Then the George Floyd riots began just as the press realized that people were experiencing Covid-19 “burn out.” Now that the riots have mostly stopped, Covid-19 coverage has increased, with a focus on squaring away the importance of “social distancing” with the proximity of the rioters to each other.
 

But Back to the Karens

All of this – the narrative inconsistencies, the stupid policy decisions, the timings, as well as the fact that not many people directly know anyone who has had the China Flu – should give people reason to be just a little skeptical, and everybody should be outraged at the nursing home deaths. The Karens aren’t, for Karens don’t have time for suspicions, common sense, logic, the evidence of the senses, or for outrage beyond their own indignation – they’ve got religion, and they are oftentimes the same people who believe in global warming cooling climate change, a theory that has not produced one accurate prediction over all the decades it has been in existence.

For everybody else, all of this is a bill of particulars.

Some people would excuse the Karens by claiming that they are just exercising their freedom of speech. Notice that these apologists only allow Karens to use their First Amendment rights, and when the Karens do so, it frequently is in the form of either muttered insults or explicit threats directed at the no-mask wearing people and their families.

Unmentioned by the apologists is the harm that Karens do: some states maintain "snitch" websites that allows Karens to report individuals and businesses to state authorities for violating the dictates, or for companies to report employees for unemployment fraud. The state authorities can then take action, especially against small businesses.

On several occasions the snitch lists have been published. The Karens were incensed - how dare the businesses and individuals they reported have the right to face their accusers!

After she was exposed for using Missouri's snitch website, one sniveled "I'm not only worried about COVID, I'm worried about someone showing up at my door, showing up at my workplace or me getting fired for doing what is right." Welcome to the club, Karen. One would hope that the level of fear implied by that individual would lead to just a little character improvement. It won't, for when Karens get called on their bullshit, they turn all Manga eyed like that one did, and if you turn your back on them for one minute, they will revert to their old informant ways.

Never asked about these informants is whether they have ulterior motives: it is easy to foresee situations where one business owner may snitch on another, thereby using the power of the state to gain a competitive advantage that the informant's ability and determination never will provide.
 

Corporate Karens and the Problem with Masks

Karens aren't limited to being individuals - there are corporate Karens, too. These are businesses that not only meekly cooperate with the dictates coming from local and state governments, but are enforcing them on their customers and employees as well. And the companies insist of calling these dictates "laws" instead of what they are: orders.

This happens in particular with the mask orders.

The most common defense of businesses that require their customers and employees to wear masks is this: "No shirt, no shoes, no service wasn't affecting your rights. Neither does no mask, no service." When you call these apologists on their bullshit, the response is always "well that's very progressive of you, it is their private property after all." They no doubt say this while sipping the Libertarian equivalent of a Starbucks Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino.

This is not only the most common defense, it is also the most disappointing, for they might as well be saying "no burka, no hijab, no service." Companies wield powerful economic and social forces and are in some ways and some situations as powerful as armies. To insist that we wear rose-colored blindfolds to this fact is criminal, and it is a gateway to innumerable abuses.

One has to wonder how far these apologists would go with this excuse: should government or semi-government offices have the same right to refuse you service? What if all private businesses of a certain type all decide to deny service? Are your rights still not being infringed?

And there's this: some cities and states, like New Orleans, are requiring companies to have their customers and employees participate in contact tracing. Logically, the apologists must still excuse this by saying "they're private companies, they aren't infringing your rights."

Again I ask: is there no shit you will not eat?

Perhaps these apologists may have good (though not well reasoned) intentions, or they may be "going along to get along," or they may just be cowards. Regardless, the result is inaction on their part and criticism of those who refuse to be inactive.

Let's analyze the "private companies get a pass" remark: the ownership of a particular business is not in question. What is in question is the propriety and overall wisdom of their enforcement of Peking Plague ordinance.

It is not a company's job to enforce dictates on their customers or employees - a business doesn't come with a badge. Law enforcement is and must solely be the responsibility of the police, and the China Flu dictates are orders, not laws.

"But, but, but... does that mean Christians should be forced into baking wedding cakes for gays?" Nope, for they (the Christian bakers) aren't acting as collaborators or dictate enforcers.
 

What to Do?

What responses are warranted by those denied entrance or service for not wearing a mask, not maintaining "social distance," etc.? Are we to simply fold like one of Ron Paul's cheap suits?

One proper reaction is to use "the power of the purse," but it must be done in an effective manner, not merely as lip service.

Do not simply go to another store. Make sure that the store denying you entrance or service knows that you are not going to be purchasing from them because they are in bed with fools. If you make it to the cash register and are denied service, make them understand that it is they who will be the ones returning the stock to the shelves, and why they will be doing so.

This is the real power of the purse: you have to make sure the business not only knows they are losing money, but why they are losing money. Otherwise all they see is a small downtick in revenue when they do their books, and they can easily explain it away as random.

Another approach is to protest outside the homes of health officials, or to dox them. According to one report, these actions have caused some officials to resign their posts out of fear for their safety. Good.

Coordinated actions are possible too: go mask-less shopping with friends, participate in boycotts and class-action lawsuits, etc. Coordinated actions can fail, but individual actions will always result in at least a small victory.

Whatever the approach, make it expensive for them not to accept your money. Make those businesses understand in concrete terms that your patronage is not a given, and that their actions will come at a cost.
 

Conclusion

The immediate goal of the scamdemic is to cause division.

In day-to-day terms, ask yourself how many calm and rational in-person debates have you had with people who hold the opposite views on the China Flu? Before the shutdowns and the masks, it was an almost daily thing with me. The last one I had was with a dental technician whose office was shut down and who now works at a convenience store. With the coming of the masks, every interaction - if interaction was even possible - has become either an enforcement act or a shouting match instead of a healthy debate.

How much of the unemployment, the business closures, the economic suffering, and most importantly the level of political animosity and vitriol would we have now if companies didn't blindly follow these orders? Animosity and vitriol are the thing we should be most concerned about because we are now much closer to mass civil disorder or even civil war than we ever were over the last 12 years. Masks are just one more wedge issue used to divide and conquer us.

A second goal is to swing the 2020 election. The one accomplishment that even leftists cannot deny is the incredible economic prosperity that resulted when Trump began to roll-back policies of the previous several administrations. The shutdowns have thrown millions of people out of work (the "inessentials") and have forced the shuttering of thousands of small businesses - some forever, thus ending this prosperity.

The ultimate goal of the masks, the shutdowns, and all the rest is to normalize fear and instill control. The concrete symbol of the control is the mask, and it signifies submission. The enforcers of the control are collaborating companies, their employees, and the Karens.

That is to be the new normal, something that must be resisted at all costs.