The First Quarter 2020 Economic Recession Due to Lockdown Orders

Economic Recession Data published on April 29, 2020:

Q1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP)                           -4.80%

Personal consumption expenditures                          -5.26%

Services                                                                     -4.99%

Household consumption expenditures for services   -5.61%

Health care                                                                -2.25%

Mr. President, Can We Return to 'Made in America' Again?

On March 9, 2020, I flew back to D.C. The flight was more than half empty which was quite unusual – all flights to D.C. have been running at full capacity prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now remaining flights are almost empty with demand down in some cases by 96 percent.

A month later I wrote an article asking President Trump to open up the economy as it became more evident that the supply and delivery chains have been severely disrupted by the draconian quarantine-driven lockdowns of individual Democrat states, lockdowns which are yet to be lifted partially or fully. This resulted in closing small American businesses, the bread and butter of our economy. https://canadafreepress.com/article/open-up-the-u.s.-economy-as-soon-as-possible

Usually a quarantine is established to separate sick people from the healthy and, as the word says, it is meant for 40 days. But the state governors have decided to lock down healthy people, beyond the 40 days, with plans of more in-home confinement, robbing them of their freedom of assembly, religion, speech, and freedom of movement.

With 30 millions out of work and fudged death numbers from Covid-19, the hysteria has built up to the point where people are afraid to even get out of their homes without a mask, much less go to work.

Unemployment checks, ginned up fear and panic, bailouts, and forced government closures of businesses based on random decisions of “essential vs. non-essential” have further exacerbated the problem of returning to work. Social interaction has become evil in less than two months of constant government PSAs on TV, radio, print media, and grocery stores.

Salesmen in America used to travel around the country to small towns USA in the 70s-80s and found every little town with a town square with stores and factories around the town where people would be employed. Those factories sit empty now, victims of the production exodus to the Communist China or the buildings have been razed to make room for some other development. In light of the Covid-19 manufactured crisis which is destroying the world’s economy, the obvious question must be asked, why can we not build things in America again?

There are many products in short supply right now but freezers, upright and chest type, are something that we never thought would be hard to find. One store offered to order a freezer but it would not arrive earlier than June and, if things do not improve, it may be August or later.

A local owner of a furniture appliance store said that “there are no freezers, there is a national shortage.” An order could be placed but the supplier suggested the earliest tentative arrival as the end of May or June.

Then the  owner launched into a discussion about what is going on in this country and how wrong this shutdown is. He said, that if the mayor had told him that he had to close his shop (a business he has built over decades), he would have gone to jail rather than close his store. He was of the opinion that shutting down the country and businesses is completely ludicrous.  He also added that most who come into their store ask if the appliances are made in America.

In a 2015 Consumer Report recommendations for best freezers, about half of them were made at the time in the U.S. https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/05/best-american-made-appliances/index.htm?EXTKEY=NW0N01506

In a 2019 interview, Marc Blumenthal said that “an Amana chest freezer and a Maytag upright freezer are made in Ottawa, Ohio.” https://www.cleveland.com/business/2015/06/ohio-built_appliances_are_among_the_best_made_in_america_consumer_reports_says.html

Should we as consumers put pressure on suppliers and store owners to have more made in America products and parts? Is it right to export most of our manufacturing to an inimical country, one ruled by the Communist Party at that, when it is not in our best interest?

If you can’t find a freezer right now and you wish to purchase one, perhaps you should join a grassroots campaign to bring back more manufacturing to America under American ownership.

There are many former manufacturing hubs around the country where factories are sitting empty. Can't Americans who have the know-how re-purpose old factories? President Trump has certainly advocated so for a long time. America needs to manufacture its own products, especially key industries for our nation’s security such as defense, steel, medical equipment, computers, pharmaceuticals, meat packing, vitamins, appliances, and other essentials for our food supply.

These are unintended consequence of a Chinese produced Covid-19 crisis. We have allowed China to control manufacturing in the U.S. of formerly Made in America products. For a list of products still made in America check here and the reference list at the bottom of this article. www.americanmanufacturing.org

In order to return manufacturing to the U.S., we must train a better skilled workforce. Not everybody needs to go to college to get an unmarketable degree in social and racial justice for which there are so few jobs. It is noteworthy that you prefer justice to rule the world but can you feed and shelter your family with a worthless college degree? Many technical and manufacturing jobs pay so much better and you don’t have to spend your parents’ life savings on expensive college tuition. And there is always huge satisfaction at the end of the day for a skilled job well done.

Made in the USA reference list:

https://www.actforamerica.org/made-in-usa

https://www.americanmanufacturing.org/made-in-america

https://www.madeinamerica.co/pages/thelist

https://madeinusaforever.com/

https://stillmadeinusa.com/kitchen.html

https://americansworking.com/guns-made-in-the-usa/amp/

https://anytownusa.com/

https://www.everythingkitchens.com/made-in-the-usa.html

http://www.strictlyusa.com/

https://www.themadeinamericamovement.com/made-in-usa-companies/

https://www.usalovelist.com/

https://arisindustrial.com/made-in-usa/

Shelter in Place, The True Non-Essential By Mimi E. Johnson

Narren Schiff, woodcut

In our society, irrational behavior and thought seems to plague us more than any virus ever could. Each day, I read more and more histrionic articles surrounding COVID-19 written by, what I consider, non-essential journalists with no understanding, at even a basic level, of immunology and virology.  Yet, each day, people continually share these musings as concrete science.  I do not post much on social media, there is enough absurd matter being doled up for several lifetimes, but I do, however, scroll through these incredulous posts, read them, and then use rationality and medical journals/textbooks to get accurate information. 

I am what you call a young Gen-xer or Xilennial, if you will, and was always taught that knowledge was acquired by being curious, reading books, being open-minded, and gaining a true understanding of the subject matter.  I dare say that even a fraction of the global population, probably statistically the same as the mortality rate of COVID-19 (hint: it’s well under 1%), understands what a virus actually does in the human body, how many bacteria and viruses’ dwell on our body’s, shedding microscopically all day every day, and how the immune system plays into it all. Although college educated,  I do not have a medical degree, don’t claim to be an expert, and my knowledge of medicine only scratches the surface, but what is evident, is that of all things that have been deemed “non-essential,” quarantining the healthy is the biggest medical mistake of all.

I work for a business that is deemed “essential” by the federal government and have been in the midst of this chaos since day 1. In the very beginning of this nightmare, I had a bit of trepidation about continuing to work with the public, fueled by a voracious media telling me that I was going to die if I come in contact with another human, but nonetheless, decided to keep my wits and take a rational approach.  At first, my company wouldn’t allow us to wear masks.  I was a tad put off by this policy, but I have always practiced good hygiene, wash my hands frequently, and don’t touch my face incessantly like a toddler, so I wasn’t excessively panicked.  Many of my employees refused to work unless they were allowed to don full hazmat gear, so of course, as weeks have progressed, over 60% of my staff has self-quarantined. 

Since patrons are still allowed to come into our business and purchase products, it has become very tense and awkward reminding people to keep their distance and not shoving their cell phones in our faces wanting to know where this product is located.  See, we sell essential products for those working from home, so many have to ask a multitude of questions; sometimes we can help them, but often times, the answers involve contact, and that is not allowed. 

If there ever was a time in human history to invoke the term “privilege,” it is now.  People are actually more harmful than the virus.  The entitlement and disregard for other’s personal space and safety is absolutely baffling.  The fear mongering and misinformation have caused people to treat one another like human garbage.  Not only is our business following sanitation standards per CDC, but we are now guarded with mandatory masks and gloves.  Patrons will throw money at us, refuse to let us touch their products, but then expect us to take their dirty money.  I pointed that out to a patron one day, and her response was “well, you’re wearing gloves, so you won’t catch anything.” Her ignorance actually made my stomach turn.  Her feeble mind actually thought that gloves, would save the world from illness. 

Humans need interaction.  We are designed to be social creatures who gather our immunity from the world around us.  Sure, when we are born, we have to be isolated and introduced into society slowly to garner immunity, but playing in dirt, touching things, touching others, all builds our body’s immunities.  Self-isolation, does quite the opposite, it weakens us not only physically, but mentally as well.  If you think of any other global pandemic such as Ebola, SARS, MERS, etc., you never hear of the healthy, non-symptomatic people being quarantined, only the sick, so why are we isolating the entire globe?  It makes absolutely no medical and scientific sense. 

The other ridiculous, irrational misnomer posted by all self-righteous COVID-ites is “staying at home saves lives, help us flatten the curve.” Flattening a curve seems like it would do some good, but when it comes to something as volatile as a virus, its M.O. is to survive, not infect less.  This actually prolongs the virus, thus allowing it to mutate. Sure, sometimes the mutations are less caustic than the original, but again, to some, this virus is ineffective, thus perpetuating the cycle.  If the “shelter in place” edict isn’t all businesses, it’s ineffective. Couple this bad advice with immuno-suppressed and depressed quarantined humans, and the minute we re-open civilization we have a true pandemic of many physically ill people.  I always challenge my friends or even random strangers that quote the same bile infested words to me and ask if they’ve stayed at home or gone to get take out or entered an essential business?  If so, then they’re definitely hypocrites and not flattening the curve, but they’re also not getting infected with the virus.  You go out in public at least 2-3 times a week, go to multiple places, parks, and touch all sorts of inanimate objects that could also harbor the virus, yet I don’t hear of the virus spiking, or of anyone I know having become infected.  Why you ask? Because your body is developing immunity each and every time you leave your home.  It is that simple. I am sure others will argue, oh, it is BECAUSE of the quarantine that the virus is lessening, but in truth it is human interaction.

Statistically speaking, according to Dr. Fauci, 3-4 members of my staff or myself should have become infected with the virus over the last 8 weeks, yet we have not.  For 5 weeks, we were not wearing masks while meeting all sorts of people and making deliveries to their vehicles. This shows that the virus isn’t as nefarious as reported.  It is also important to point out that people don’t die of COVID-19, just like people don’t die of AIDS, they die of complications that were exacerbated by having the illness.  If hospitals were reporting accurate statistics, I guarantee you there wouldn’t be a global panic. My favorite articles are the ones citing “30-year-old healthy male marathon runner dies of COVID-19,” but upon reading the article, one discovers some underlying cause of death such as cancer, diabetes, and other co-morbidities. These people could easily succumb to another popular virus, the rhinovirus, also known as the common cold.

Lysol is the pied piper in all of this, luring unsuspecting human rats to stores to buy up all the available stock of their products, creating what they think is a “virus safe zone” in their homes. Unbeknownst to them, their overly sterile environment is creating the perfect storm for yet another virus. Ignorance is the true pandemic, plaguing every facet of our lives from economics to medicine.

The planet is engineered to survive, and will, at any cost.  We humans are but a mere guest on borrowed time and a blip in Earth’s history. Continually destroying ecosystems and coming in contact with areas that humans were never intended to explore, cause a larger opening on pandora’s box.  Not only do we lack personal hygiene, we also lack it globally as well.   

In our society, irrational behavior and thought seems to plague us more than any virus ever could. Each day, I read more and more histrionic articles surrounding COVID-19 written by, what I consider, non-essential journalists with no understanding, at even a basic level, of immunology and virology.  Yet, each day, people continually share these musings as concrete science.  I do not post much on social media, there is enough absurd matter being doled up for several lifetimes, but I do, however, scroll through these incredulous posts, read them, and then use rationality and medical journals/textbooks to get accurate information. 

I am what you call a young Gen-xer or Xilennial, if you will, and was always taught that knowledge was acquired by being curious, reading books, being open-minded, and gaining a true understanding of the subject matter.  I dare say that even a fraction of the global population, probably statistically the same as the mortality rate of COVID-19 (hint: it’s well under 1%), understands what a virus actually does in the human body, how many bacteria and viruses’ dwell on our body’s, shedding microscopically all day every day, and how the immune system plays into it all. Although college educated,  I do not have a medical degree, don’t claim to be an expert, and my knowledge of medicine only scratches the surface, but what is evident, is that of all things that have been deemed “non-essential,” quarantining the healthy is the biggest medical mistake of all.

I work for a business that is deemed “essential” by the federal government and have been in the midst of this chaos since day 1. In the very beginning of this nightmare, I had a bit of trepidation about continuing to work with the public, fueled by a voracious media telling me that I was going to die if I come in contact with another human, but nonetheless, decided to keep my wits and take a rational approach.  At first, my company wouldn’t allow us to wear masks.  I was a tad put off by this policy, but I have always practiced good hygiene, wash my hands frequently, and don’t touch my face incessantly like a toddler, so I wasn’t excessively panicked.  Many of my employees refused to work unless they were allowed to don full hazmat gear, so of course, as weeks have progressed, over 60% of my staff has self-quarantined. 

Since patrons are still allowed to come into our business and purchase products, it has become very tense and awkward reminding people to keep their distance and not shoving their cell phones in our faces wanting to know where this product is located.  See, we sell essential products for those working from home, so many have to ask a multitude of questions; sometimes we can help them, but often times, the answers involve contact, and that is not allowed. 

If there ever was a time in human history to invoke the term “privilege,” it is now.  People are actually more harmful than the virus.  The entitlement and disregard for other’s personal space and safety is absolutely baffling.  The fear mongering and misinformation has caused people to treat one another like human garbage.  Not only is our business following sanitation standards per CDC, but we are now guarded with mandatory masks and gloves.  Patrons will throw money at us, refuse to let us touch their products, but then expect us to take their dirty money.  I pointed that out to a patron one day, and her response was “well, you’re wearing gloves, so you won’t catch anything.” Her ignorance actually made my stomach turn.  Her feeble mind actually thought that gloves, would save the world from illness. 

Humans need interaction.  We are designed to be social creatures who gather our immunity from the world around us.  Sure, when we are born, we have to be isolated and introduced into society slowly to garner immunity, but playing in dirt, touching things, touching others, all builds our body’s immunities.  Self-isolation, does quite the opposite, it weakens us not only physically, but mentally as well.  If you think of any other global pandemic such as Ebola, SARS, MERS, etc., you never hear of the healthy, non-symptomatic people being quarantined, only the sick, so why are we isolating the entire globe?  It makes absolutely no medical and scientific sense. 

The other ridiculous, irrational misnomer posted by all self-righteous COVID-ites is “staying at home saves lives, help us flatten the curve.” Flattening a curve seems like it would do some good, but when it comes to something as volatile as a virus, its M.O. is to survive, not infect less.  This actually prolongs the virus, thus allowing it to mutate. Sure, sometimes the mutations are less caustic than the original, but again, to some, this virus is ineffective, thus perpetuating the cycle.  If the “shelter in place” edict isn’t all businesses, it’s ineffective. Couple this bad advice with immuno-suppressed and depressed quarantined humans, and the minute we re-open civilization we have a true pandemic of many physically ill people.  I always challenge my friends or even random strangers that quote the same bile infested words to me and ask if they’ve stayed at home or gone to get take out or entered an essential business?  If so, then they’re definitely hypocrites and not flattening the curve, but they’re also not getting infected with the virus.  You go out in public at least 2-3 times a week, go to multiple places, parks, and touch all sorts of inanimate objects that could also harbor the virus, yet I don’t hear of the virus spiking, or of anyone I know having become infected.  Why you ask? Because your body is developing immunity each and every time you leave your home.  It is that simple. I am sure others will argue, oh, it is BECAUSE of the quarantine that the virus is lessening, but in truth it is human interaction.

Statistically speaking, according to Dr. Fauci, 3-4 members of my staff or myself should have become infected with the virus over the last 8 weeks, yet we have not.  For 5 weeks, we were not wearing masks while meeting all sorts of people and making deliveries to their vehicles. This shows that the virus isn’t as nefarious as reported.  It is also important to point out that people don’t die of COVID-19, just like people don’t die of AIDS, they die of complications that were exacerbated by having the illness.  If hospitals were reporting accurate statistics, I guarantee you there wouldn’t be a global panic. My favorite articles are the ones citing “30-year-old healthy male marathon runner dies of COVID-19,” but upon reading the article, one discovers some underlying cause of death such as cancer, diabetes, and other co-morbidities. These individuals could’ve easily succumbed to another popular coronavirus, the common cold.

Lysol is the pied piper in all of this, luring unsuspecting human rats to stores to buy up all the available stock of their products, creating what they think is a “virus safe zone” in their homes. Unbeknownst to them, their overly sterile environment is creating the perfect storm for yet another virus. Ignorance is the true pandemic, plaguing every facet of our lives from economics to medicine.

The planet is engineered to survive, and will, at any cost.  We humans are but a mere guest on borrowed time and a blip in Earth’s history. Continually destroying ecosystems and coming in contact with areas that humans were never intended to explore, cause a larger opening on pandora’s box.  Not only do we lack personal hygiene, we also lack it globally as well.   

The Armenian Genocide

“Around the world, Christians are facing violence, persecution, brutality in a way we have not seen in generations.”  – Rey Flores, “The Wanderer”

The hypocritical “war on women” movement is deafly silent, no real effort to save the Western captives, and good men are doing nothing when faced daily with photographs of Christian hostages on their knees, clad in orange jumpsuits, about to be beheaded, when women and girls are kidnapped, raped, genitally mutilated by ISIS, and driven into a life of slavery as forced converts to Islam.

One year later, the Clarion Project says, “ #BringBackOurGirls” are still sex slaves to Boko Haram, sold into slavery for 2,000 rials each, about $12. www.clarionproject.org/bring-back-our-girls-one-year-later-still-slaves-boko-haram

The Christian genocide continues unabated. ISIS is demanding $100,000 per hostage, for the 250-300 Assyrians who were captured in the Hasaka province. http://www.cbn.com/world/2015/ISIS-Demands-30-Million-to-Release-Christians?

The Pope spoke about the Armenian genocide during Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Church leaders and the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan were in attendance. He spoke about humanity witnessing “three massive and unprecedented tragedies” in the 20^th century.  “The first, which is widely considered, ‘the first genocide of the 20^th century,’ struck your own Armenian people,” he said. The Nazi Holocaust and Stalin’s mass killings were followed by other genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Bosnia.

As Christians, it is our duty and responsibility to keep alive the memories of those killed, the Pope said. “Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it,” Pope Francis continued.

BBC News reported on April 12, 2015 that Turkey was angry with Pope Francis’ description of the mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule in WWI as “genocide.”  Turkey plays down the genocide as smaller numbers of deaths resulting from the WWI clashes in which ethnic Turks have also suffered.  Most Western scholars regard the 1.5 million Armenians civilians, who were deliberately deported between 1915-1916 to desert regions where they succumbed to starvation and thirst, as genocide. “Thousands also died in massacres.” Countries like Belgium, Canada, Argentina, France, Italy, Russia, and Uruguay recognize the mass killings of Armenians as genocide. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32272604

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences in 2014 for the first time to the grandchildren of all the Armenians who were massacred in 1915. This year marks a century since the atrocities were committed, and,  until all countries recognize that the genocide had occurred, it is an incomplete mourning exacerbated by the denial stories to this day. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/23/turkey-erdogan-condolences-armenian-massacre

Why were Armenians massacred by the Turks? To understand the reason, you must understand who the Armenians were, how, and why they lived under the Ottoman Empire, and their status as non-Muslims, “non-believers,” and second-class citizens.

Armenians are ancient people who lived in Anatolia some 2500 years ago. They had their own distinctive alphabet and culture. There are 6 to 7 million Armenians today, half living in the Republic of Armenia, while the rest are scattered in the U.S., Russia, France, Lebanon, and Syria.

In the year 301 A.D., the King of Armenia was the first ruler to adopt Christianity as the official state religion, even before the Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. Captured by the Ottoman Empire in the 15^th century, Armenia was absorbed into the Islamic Ottoman Empire, along with a large swath of European lands. As subject of the Sultan, Armenians had less freedom, had to pay higher taxes, were discriminated against, and were not allowed to serve in the military.

Unhappy with the second-class citizen status, by the end of the 1800s, Armenians demanded equality. In the 1890s the Bloody Sultan who was presiding over a weak government, used massacres as a way to maintain law and order.  In 1894-1896 200,000 Armenians were killed during the Hamidian massacres under the rule of Abdul Hamid II, a foreshadowing of what was to come in 1915. http://www.armenian-genocide.org/hamidian.html

When the Young Turks forced the Sultan out in 1908, Armenians were allowed to serve in the military. In 1912-1913 the Christian regions of Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire.

According to Vahaken Dadrian, Director of the Genocidal Research at Zoryan Institute, as quoted on a film aired on PBS, http://asbarez.com/133128/acclaimed-armenian-genocide-documentary-to-air-on-pbs/

“For the first time in recent history, the glorious Ottoman army suffered a major military defeat at the hands of their former subject-nations, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Serbs,” losing in two weeks 75 percent of their former European territories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vahakn_Dadrian

The despair borne by such a loss in the Balkans gave rise to a deep hatred against Christians, inflamed by Ottoman refugees’ stories, refugees thrown out of Christian lands, turning angry Turks against their indigenous Christian population, the Armenians – “Revenge, revenge, revenge, there is no other word.”

Ambassador Henry Morgenthau published in 1918 his personal account of the Armenian genocide. Chapter 24, The Murder of a Nation, describes in grizzly detail how Armenian men, who were formerly soldiers and cavalrymen in the Turkish army, were stripped of their arms and transformed into road workers and “pack animals.” Carrying heavy loads onto their backs, these men were whipped and bayonetted by the Turks into the Caucasus Mountains, sometimes waist-deep through snow. 

“They had to spend practically all their time in the open, sleeping on the bare ground. … They were given only scraps of food; if they fell sick they were left where they had dropped,” while the Turks robbed them of their possessions and their clothes. “Squads of 50-100 men were taken in groups of four, marched to a secluded spot a short distance from the village,” they were stripped naked and shot, having been forced to dig their own graves.

Morgenthau describes the fate of an entire Armenian regiment sent to Diarbekir. Agents notified Kurdish tribesmen to attack and kill these weak and starved soldiers “that they might gain that merit in Allah’s eyes that comes from killing a Christian.”

Ambassador Morgenthau explained how “throughout the Turkish Empire a systematic attempt was made to kill all able-bodied men, not only for the purpose of removing all males who might propagate a new generation of Armenians, but for the purpose of rendering the weaker part of the population an easy prey.”

When thousands failed to turn in weapons, the Turks ransacked churches, desecrated altars, marched the naked men and women through the streets, letting them be whipped by angry Turkish mobs. Those imprisoned who did not manage to flee into the woods and caves were subjected to the “bastinado” torture, the beating of the soles of the feet until they burst and had to be amputated.

Crucifixion, pulling of fingernails, of hairs, of eyebrows, tearing of flesh with red-hot pincers, and then pouring hot oil into the wounds were some of the barbaric methods of torture drawn from the records of the Spanish Inquisition.

Torture was just the beginning of the Armenian atrocities. What was to come was the actual destruction of “an entire Armenian race” by deporting it to the south and southeastern part of the Ottoman Empire, the Syrian desert and the Mesopotamian valley. Morgenthau said, “The Central Government now announced its intention of gathering the two million or more Armenians living in the several sections of the empire and transporting them to this desolate and inhospitable region.” They knew they would die on the way of thirst, starvation, or murdered by “Mohammedan desert tribes.”

The deportations took place through the spring and summer of 1915. The entire Armenian population of villages were ordered to appear in the main square, sometimes with little time to prepare, their homes and possessions confiscated for “safekeeping” and then divided among Turks. Once the deported Armenians had traveled several hours, they were attacked and killed in secluded valleys by Turkish peasants with clubs, hammers, axes, scythes, spades, and saws.

The “caravans of despair” originated in thousands of cities and villages in the Ottoman Empire.  Ambassador Morgenthau described how village after village and town after town were emptied of its Armenian population and, in six months, “about  1.2 million people started on this journey to the Syrian desert.” He believed it absurd that the Turkish government claimed to deport Armenians to “new homes,” the real intent was extermination. He concludes, “The details in questions were furnished to me directly by the American Consul in Aleppo, and are now on file in the State Department at Washington.” (Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story:  A Personal Account of the Armenian Genocide, Henry Morgenthau, Cosimo Classics, New York, 2010)

Henry Morgenthau Sr. (1856-1946) “details how Turkey fell under the influence of Germany and how this led to the Armenian Genocide. In a trial run of the extermination of the Jews, the Germans orchestrated the murder and exile of the Armenians from Turkey, with ‘Turkey for the Turks’ as a rallying cry. The similarities to the Holocaust are chilling.”

Also chilling is the recent discovery made by Stefan Petke of the Technical University of Berlin who uncovered rare WWII footage that documents the existence of Muslim units (The Free Arab Legion) in the Nazi army who were used as ‘working soldiers’ because they “were a complete failure in the battlefields of Tunisia in 1943.” http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4645922,00.html

The Marxist/Nazi/Ottoman/Islamist ISIS pogrom against Christianity continues to this day.

Tales from the "Corona" Woods

Hiking in the Woods
April 21, 2020

Hubby and I hiked in the woods 2 miles yesterday evening. It was cold, the Hawk was blowing 21 MPH and the occasional gusts were quite strong. The trees were creaking loudly and swaying quite far at the top. White Oaks (Quercus Alba) are tall, tending to grow 100 ft. There were many broken limbs along the way. The wind was howling when the gusts crested. But when it died down, there was so much beauty and calm in the verdant undergrowth.

We filled our eyes and ears with the happy chirping of birds, and our lungs with fresh air. Squatso, the girth-challenged squirrel, was darting from branch to branch, as if following us along the trail. We found few humans around, thank God, and an inner peace that only another hiker can understand.


April 22, 2020 – Earth Day
Tales from the Corona Woods

Today’s 3.5 mile hike was more eventful than yesterday.

Wide portion of the trail

Photo: Ileana Johnson

We met a woman who was being dragged in the opposite direction by a large and very friendly Labrador who wanted to say hello to us. One very hostile sleaze stack caught up with us – she was walking really fast and her face was covered by a mask. She almost fell into the thorny bushes trying to avoid any human contact with us. Maybe we should have walked closer to her to force her off the trail? Nah, we are nice people. We know what those bushes are!

By the time we got to our trail, hubby told me that some woman in Montclair posted on the neighborhood watch a black bear sighting. Montclair is not that far away but the bear would have to cross a major highway to get to our woods. The bear probably denned in the Prince William National Forest which had been closed by order of Virginia’s governor trying to protect us from the Corona virus pandemic. Since there were no more campers in the 16,000 acre forest, the bear must have gotten hungry for human scraps so he went looking for better foraging.

Old Oaks

Photo: Ileana Johnson

We joked about it but we jumped when we heard the cry of a fox really close by. We stopped on thetrail and, in the silence, we heard the cry again. We turned around, and, about ten feet from us on thetrail, jumped a beautiful racoon from the foliage. It gave us a curious look and disappeared in the dense brush on the other side. Hubby handed me the camera but it was too late, so I handed it back. Wrong move! In the next 20 seconds, a beautiful red fox jumped onto the trail after the racoon but saw us and changed her mind, and jumped back into the green thorny bushes. We started laughing really hard because we thought a bear was going to jump out. Fun hike!

Thorny bushes

Photos: Ileana Johnson

Collecting Parking Fees in Virginia's State Park

This is how parking fees were collected in Leesylvania State Park on April 15, 2020 by order of Governor Northam of Virginia, the most draconian Covid-compliant state. As a socialist dictator, Northam will not open businesses in Virginia until June 10, 2020, the last state in the union to do so.

Grocery Lines and Social Distancing

"Social distancing"

Photo: Ileana Johnson

I was shopping in our neighborhood grocery store chain and found out accidentally that employees have their own stash of merchandise in the back from which they can purchase what they need without having to fight the crowds for the items in high demand.

Some stores, to their humanitarian credit, have made it easier for senior citizens to shop by opening up early for an hour for their shopping convenience without other customers knocking them over in the race to get an item. It was so bad that rude and rapacious customers even took items from the carts of much slower elders.

This reminds me of the lines we had to stand in daily in order to buy our necessities. The deliveries for the day ran out rather quickly, sometimes before we made it to the front of the line, but communist loyalists, friends, families, and those willing to bribe the salespeople were always able to buy what they needed, sometimes they did not even have to stand in line, they could show up earlier in the day, before the store opened and the lines formed.

As the supply of goods is disrupted by the government-imposed lockdown for our own collective good, and to save our lives, grocery stores have been trying to provide a modicum of normalcy and controlled order in the constant fear and panic driven by the media and by public service announcements.

While in a Food Lion store, Lynda van Liew Fairman complained to the manager about the constant repetition of the PSA intercom announcement made by “a creepily calm woman” to keep six feet of space between shoppers. “I told her they need to stop running it as it is belittling and keeps the fear building. We’re not 3rd graders having to constantly be reminded to walk in a single-file line on the right side of the hallway on the way to the cafeteria. This is absurd and offensive. It’s like we’re in a bad sci-fi movie or a Twilight Zone episode! We are not mindless automatons.”

The manager replied that she had no control over what was played on the Muzak, it came from [the ghost entity called] “corporate.” Obviously we are controlled by the unseen “corporate” and the bureaucrats in government. Perhaps it is insurance companies requiring the intercom message for those stores that are deemed “essential” and must remain open.

In my neck of the woods in the commonwealth of Virginia, made more draconian and socialist over the Easter weekend by more executive orders of the Democrat governor with a medical degree, grocery stores and Walmart are half-full. They have cleverly spaced out what other merchandise they do have that is in low demand right now, but shelves are still bare and hoarded items are not there very long. They get swiped and disappear before they are even taken out of boxes.

The supply disruption in the economy is barreling down the tracks at high speed. What else can possibly go wrong when dairy farmers are dumping milk in the fields as their contracted customers, restaurants and schools, are closed, six meat packing companies are shuttered due to employees sick with the pandemic coronavirus, a quarter of the labor force is unemployed and rising, and the national product is not made in necessary quantities to match demand, while grocery stores, anticipating shortages and slow deliveries, are limiting the number of items that can be bought, or are price-gouging customers.

The need for food drove us to a larger urban area but then, as we were 20 miles away from home, the realization hit us that we had no place to go to the bathroom. Everything was closed or open for curbside delivery only. Luckily we could drive back home rather fast as the major interstates were unusually traffic free.  

At least in local parks, even though the public restrooms were closed, port-o-potties were brought in. We were told that bathrooms were too hard to clean properly and people could not keep six feet of “social distancing.” I always wondered how they came up with six feet of “social distancing.” Why six feet and not five or seven? A sneeze travels at speeds of roughly 250 mph.

The experience brought back the memory of visiting Italy where we had to buy something in a store or restaurant in order to go to the bathroom. There were some pay restrooms but there were few and far between if we walked in urban areas. The auto grills were great on the Italian autostrada.

As evidenced by comments on social media, many naïve Americans have tremendous confidence that the President can handle the economic problem. He is a smart and knowledgeable man but there are limits to his power, he certainly cannot control the economy, it is driven by supply and demand and invisible pricing forces, Adam Smith’s “invisible hand.”

And the other half of America criticize him for being “a dictator and a fascist” for either not having responded soon enough to the virus crisis or for having exceeded his powers. No matter what he does, the discontented half of America, who happens to be progressive and anti-American, blames him quite irrationally for everything, including the existence of the Covid-19.

The lack of proper information and unnecessary government control gone-berserk have made Americans leery of government control and have adopted and started to believe in various conspiracy theory scenarios which gave rise to even more irrational and rational hoarding and uncertainty.

Easter Sunday in the Soviet Union and in the United States

by Janet Lynn  Fifty Easters ago, I was in the USSR, a godless state. Sightseeing tours included Christian churches turned into museums. The tour guide adamantly proclaimed in the "museum" that Christianity is a "myth."  On that Easter weekend, 1970, a VIP tour of Lenin's tomb was arranged for the foreign athletes visiting to give figure skating exhibitions. At age 16, already a Christian by choice, I stood in Lenin's stone tomb in Red Square staring at the Bolshevik revolutionary's preserved body. He had been dead for decades. Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead and conquered sin and death on Easter, which was illegal to celebrate in the atheist USSR. That State was god. As history records, the socialist enactment is a cult of death. Eyewitnesses are historically recorded observing the tomb of Jesus  empty on Easter Sunday. Jesus is alive! He is Risen! Lenin is still in his tomb, deader than a door nail. The tour bus passed through the squares where the Bolshevik Revolution was fought. On either Good Friday or Easter Sunday the tour guide in the godless USSR explained that "the blood that was shed during the Bolshevik Revolution was shed to save mankind." My blood shivered and my mind quaked at her proclamation. I knew that only the Blood of Jesus Christ, the Perfect Son of God, was sacrificed and shed to save mankind. A propagandist for the USSR and its atheist system of socialism-communism captured my attention on the almost empty plane ride back to New York from Moscow. He smoothly explained that socialism-communism was the perfect system for mankind.  His propaganda swirled in my head as shiny illusions. I wanted to believe everything the nice man said. What a perfect way to live. The State provides and controls everything, and everyone will have everything they need, and everyone will be equal. He was certain that socialism-communism would one day rule the entire world, and the United States.  By the time the plane reached New York after this most profound Easter weekend, I knew the man on the plane was wrong! I had been to his nation. I had observed the poverty, the bread lines, the lack of products in common stores, the intense control of its people, the bottomless void when God is declared illegal----the severe oppression was felt physically. The faces of all the people were hardened with deep sadness---the real face of socialism-communism. I wanted to kiss the ground of the United States when I saw the American flag outside the plane window before landing in New York. I was free. The man who propagandized me was not. He did not understand liberty or its power under the principles and reverence of the Judeo-Christian God.  I was an individual created by God. The atheist Soviet Socialists were forced to live in the State collective--the herd.  I knew that churches in the United States would always remain open. Judeo-Christian God, worshiping God, and celebrating Easter would never be declared illegal. The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.  Half a century later, in America, my beloved land of liberty, this Easter weekend 2020 almost all churches have been ordered closed. Pastors have been threatened with arrest or permanent closure of their churches if they do not obey the State and its influential doctors. These doctors may mean well and are working from appropriate concern, but they have succeeded in acting like man-gods who can conquer all death and are terrorizing citizens. They have powerfully influenced policy to shut down an entire nation, its businesses (except the State chosen ones), schools, its churches and synagogues. The imposition of social distancing should be called inhumane social isolation.  Americans have a choice to make on Easter Sunday and in the days, weeks and months to come.  Will Americans continue to give up their liberties? Will we become a Democrat Socialist collective herd, or will we remain individuals who promote and preserve life but do not fear death under a system of liberty?  Lenin's body remains enshrined and on display in his stone cold tomb in Red Square, Moscow. Lenin is still deader than a door nail. The Marxist ideology that he spawned into being is alive with a foot in the door of America.  Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He is alive! Will the Christian ideas that spawned liberty and the value of the individual die this Easter, 2020, and end up in a museum as only a myth? Judeo-Christian principles are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, declared a MIRACLE by various American Founders.  One Founder of the United States declared, "Miracles do not cluster."   It is for freedom that Christ set us free! Janet Lynn is a Five-time U.S. Figure Skating Champion (1969-1973), Olympic Bronze medalist 1972 and World Silver medalist 1973. She is in the U.S. and World Figure Skating Halls of Fame and is proud to be a Homemaker. This article appeared originally in the Eagle Forum Alabama.

Hoarding

Modern toilet paper with 

splinters

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

Throughout history, when governments have intervened in the smooth operation of the free market based on supply and demand, the results have been disastrous, not the least of which is hoarding and the emergence of black markets. I am not talking about the psychological problem of hoarding personal items when people have a hard time getting rid of anything they own, even old and dirty scraps of paper. I am talking about fear-based hoarding, the result of fear of shortage or imminent societal collapse.

Natural disasters such as announced hurricanes or tornadoes often compel people to buy excessive food, bottled water, gasoline, a generator, milk, but especially toilet paper. Civil unrest or fear of disease such as this corona pandemic can also force people to hoard food and other necessities, including toilet paper. In a category of its own are the preppers who are ready for any end of the world, political holocaust unrest scenario. They purchase food with the shelf life of 25 years or more and build shelters/bunkers underground, in caves, or decommissioned bunkers.

Hoarding goods in excess of immediate need is caused by artificial scarcity. Artificial scarcity can be cause by unnecessary government intervention that scares people into hoarding behavior, i.e., panic driven by government forcing the closure of businesses and locking down the working population which can no longer produce necessary goods for society to function properly. Best example of this is the recent Covid-19 interference in the market. This action is yet to reveal the entire disaster which has wrought on the economy as the domino effect of unintended consequences is making chips fall.

An example from the past of government interference in the market is price controls at Valley Forge when farmers, who needed to feed their families, did not abide by the government’s price controls and sold their produce to the British for gold while Washington’s continental army was running at near starvation mode.

Economists believe this is what happened after 1971 when President Nixon decided to experiment with price controls. The economy suffered a plague of shortages, “we ran out of nearly everything” and, after price controls ended in 1974, most of the shortages disappeared.

Monopolies and cartels such as OPEC can also cause artificial scarcity of one product/service they offer. Holding a patent for a new drug can cause shortages and high prices as a result.

The New Deal issued the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) which was “designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land.” This act caused artificial shortages.

Deliberate destruction of goods such as in a war situation can cause panic hoarding driven by the fear of starvation. Such items in short supply become mediums of exchange, more valuable than currency, i.e., cigarettes, bullets, chocolate, soap, women’s pantyhose, medicine, and vitamins.

Destruction of goods because there is no longer a distributor or buyer for that good can also cause hoarding. The recent Covid-19 action by the government has caused farmers in Florida to destroy tons of tomatoes, squash, and other vegetables which were previously bought by now closed restaurants. Farmers have also dumped thousands of gallons of milk as schools, universities, and restaurants were closed indefinitely. At the same time, a shortage of milk in grocery stores forced grocers to impose a purchase limit of one bottle or one gallon. People thus hoarded milk.

People engaged in what is called panic-buying of certain products in anticipation of a disaster, shortage, or large price increase. Some example of panic-buying through history include the first and second world wars when everything was in short supply; the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic when people stored quinine and remedies for flu such as Vicks Vapo//Rub; Cuban missile crisis in 1962 when people bought excess quantities of canned food; any hurricane or tornado causes people to buy excess milk, bottled water, bread, and toilet paper; Coronavirus pandemic caused people to panic-buy food, facemasks, rubbing alcohol, hand-sanitizer, anti-bacterial wipes, anti-viral wipes, and toilet paper. Panic-buying causes price gouging by both individuals and grocery stores.

The most glaring example of constant hoarding occurred during the entire existence of the socialist republics of the Iron Curtain which were run by the highly inefficient centralized government of the Communist Party. Citizens of such countries like Soviet Union, China, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba were forced to constantly hoard items in short supply. Most products were in short supply because of the absolute mismanagement by Communist Party apparatchiks.

In these socialist/communist countries hoarding was punishable by law, and those caught served jail time. Both a black market and a barter market emerged from the severe shortage of everything. People were accustomed to carry around large sums of money and jute shopping bags in order to join a line in progress because they knew, whatever was on sale, they needed it.

But why hoard toilet paper? It is a basic instinct to be and stay clean. There is also the knowledge that, unlike food where there are substitutes, toilet paper has no substitute unless you consider paper towels, newspapers, and leaves.

People stockpile toilet paper because it is not perishable and are afraid that the domestic production and distribution will be disrupted. If needed, toilet paper can also be used as cosmetic wipes and tissue. Toilet paper under the centralized Communist Party economy had huge splinters in it and was always in short supply. Finally, people engage in mob mentality, ‘everyone is hoarding TP, I should too.’

There are 150 companies that manufacture toilet paper and the average person uses under 100 rolls a year, some much less. The U.S. demand for toilet paper stands at about 3 billion rolls a year. We import about 10 percent of our needs of TP.

If hoarding from grocery stores is not an option, people turn to canning and drying fruits and vegetables. If you freeze a lot of food, remember that, if the power goes out, the cache will spoil. Twice we lost the contents of our freezer and refrigerator due to spoilage after hurricanes when electricity was out for days and even weeks.

No matter what you hoard for survival, you will eventually run out if production and distribution are disrupted for extended periods of time.

Mr. President, Please Open the U.S. Economy!

Mr. President,

Please open up the U.S. economy as soon as possible!

It is very sad that so many people around the world fell ill, suffered, and thousands have lost their lives to this horrible virus. But the rest of the globe must go on living in a terrible economic situation which is about to get much worse than most people realize. Is it a moral crime to care about the sick but to advocate for the living too?

What about the people who are sick with other ailments and cannot see their doctors because the offices are closed? Are they not entitled to be seen by a doctor? Some may die by neglect.

Can you not see that you are playing in the hands of China, Russia, and the global communists who want nothing more but to destroy the U.S. economy in order to make a smoother transition to take over its people for the one global super-state ruled by communists? They want us dependent on China and the communists for all of our needs - economically, medically, financially, educationally, and every other way possible. And you are one courageous American who has derailed their agenda for now.

China already owns so much of this country! Bring back our industries from China, communists are NOT our friends and allies. China owns so much land and businesses in this country already – Hollywood, the media, banks, manufacturing, etc.

Look what they have done to businesses in northern Italy. Here is the real reason Italy had so much Coronavirus – they have hundreds of thousands of legal immigrant Chinese working in the artisanal high end trade of leather and silk and hundreds of thousands of illegal Chinese immigrants as well.

I don’t know where this virus came from but I do understand economics. China is trying to bankrupt our economy in order to come in and buy more businesses in trouble at bottom prices.

Mr. President, you won’t have money to build up our military to defend us against a Chinese military invasion, and they are building up their military like crazy. You will be too busy finding food and medicine for destitute Americans who are already out of jobs. Twenty-five percent of the labor force is out of work.

How are you going to build tanks with steel from China? What if they change their minds and refuse to ship it after they’ve taken our money?

I am not so sure the economy is going to bounce right back up as some ecstatic economists have stated – “as soon as the lockdown is over, people will go back to work and everything will be fine.”  Small businesses, single family owned, do not have the ability to bounce back like a corporation which can raise money by issuing more stock or get huge government bailouts. Small business owners rely on revenue, their savings, and loans; they can’t raise capital any other way. After weeks of lockdown, how many small business owners, the back bone of America, will be able to survive and rehire their former employees?

Mr. President, can you not see that the Democrats are 100 percent socialists/communists now and don’t give a flip about our country? They investigate you non-stop in order to deflect what they are doing to this country, the fundamental transformation to socialism, on its way to communism.

And half of America is so brain-washed by the public school education that they think communism is great. You have to fight them at the ballot box as well because they cheat and lie.

Build that wall already! If the countless new illegals that crossed our borders so far would not have come here to sanctuary cities, we might not have had this Coronavirus invasion. And their illegal votes might not have flipped Virginia socialist last November.

We need our second amendment, we need our guns to fight a potential communist invasion and to protect ourselves from government intrusion. We might even need our guns to protect our food supply from looters.

Stop giving money to churches and church-sponsored NGOs to bring illegals into this country. Churches have been infiltrated by communists as well and they are no longer preaching the gospel to their parishioners. They are preaching globalism, a mega state ruled by communists.

Americans are too ignorant and naive to realize that the communist ideology has been the most destructive force in history, killing at least 100 million innocents.

Stop giving money to the U.N. and all the tin pot dictatorships around the world. The WHO is a bureaucratic organization run by third world despots. They hate America and would love to see its downfall.

Stop depending so much on computer modeling. The results are as faulty as the incorrect data which had been input by “experts” with nefarious agendas but pretending to care for the people. Just like the global warming modeling scam, the data spewed out garbage because faulty input readings and variables were used.

Mr. President, can you not see who is pulling  the Coronavirus policy strings in your White House? A real practicing physician would not be discounting a potential life-saving drug like hydroxychloroquine for his patients, but your Coronavirus tsars do because they are political hacks supporting their boss Bill Gates, who has invested a lot of money in a vaccine with which he wants population control of the globe. Can you not see they are financially-vested in a vaccine, not a cure? But people around the globe need a cure right now, not 18 months in the future after the vaccine had been developed and tested on humans.

Valid Questions and What Happens Next

Woodcut: Ship of Fools

There are numerous questions that I have pondered in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. How long can the economic patient survive without economic oxygen?  How is this temporary medical crisis going to be used to curtail your freedoms permanently? And is the crisis temporary? Does the saying, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” frighten you? How will life change in the AC (after Coronavirus) when compared to life BC (before Coronavirus)?

Employment

The 6,648,000 seasonally adjusted for unemployment claims have doubled in the last two weeks. Millions of workers were furloughed and laid off as “demand for goods and services, as well as the ability to provide them” has decreased dramatically due to orders to stay home and to more severe lockdowns. Some states, however, have elected “business as usual” for their population.

Economists are predicting as many as 20 million unemployed by the end of April. Put that into perspective with the 8.7 million unemployed during the Great Recession. How high could the unemployment rate spike, 20 percent or perhaps 30 percent in the coming months?

According to Breitbart, “roughly 90% of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home orders, which have been imposed by most U.S. states.” Disposable income is not coming in but rent, bills, loans, hospital bills, must be paid. https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2020/04/02/jobless-claims-jump-by-6-6-million/?fbclid=IwAR0gzqw0FFKOynSOhCONc52PhIaFGvQTeoku_NZ812e5WRVHiLtiL9S7nEY

Many Americans will get $1,200 from the U.S. government’s $2 trillion Economic Stimulus bill to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus economic shutdown. This huge sum full of unnecessary and shameless political Democrat and some Republican pork will add to the already unpayable national debt as the government will have to print money to cover the sum, increasing inflation.

“Kyle Pomerleau, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, estimates that 165 million people, or 93% of all tax filers, will get some benefit, with about 140 million of them getting the full amount. Seniors whose only income is from Social Security and veterans who rely solely on disability payments will receive the payments.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-26/when-and-how-will-i-get-that-1-200-stimulus-payment-quicktake

Will that cash infusion arrive soon enough, how long will that last, and will the likely cash infusion into pre-existing goods (car payments, mortgage payments) which had already been counted into the previous GDP, really stimulate the economy?

Potential business collapse

Despite the stimulus bill, not all businesses will be able to keep their doors open and will close forever or will be bought out under a different umbrella for potential basement prices.

Businesses large and small must still pay rent and loans as well under collapsing revenue. There is Internet shopping, but some smaller businesses are not set up that way and shopping has dried up, limited to essentials. Restaurants, hotels, cruises, vacation venues, entertainment, theaters, parks revenues have dwindled. Malls have closed. And retailers were already in trouble before the Corona virus pandemic hit, they were slashing personnel and closing stores. Furthermore, the CBO expects the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to contract by 7 percent.

Obligatory Vaccinations

Afshin Yaghtin is writing in Principia Scientific.org that “Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced on March 18, 2020 during a “Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session that he is working on a new, invisible ‘quantum dot tattoo’ implant that will track who has been tested for COVID-19 and who has been vaccinated against it.” The vaccine is being researched and tested and will be available soon. Yaghtin wonders, “Will this mean forced vaccinations or perpetually ‘sheltering in place’ for those who refuse the coronavirus vaccine?” https://principia-scientific.org/bill-gates-digital-tattoo-implant-to-track-covid-19-vaccine-compliance/?fbclid=IwAR1GG9CqQhJ3sewd9zoHufLh52x-gzy-pulD3QkWP0jkVEbDgMDWEfyJOtI

Working on the ID2020 Certification Mark, Gates Foundation, in alliance with Accenture, IDEO, Gavi, and the Rockefeller Foundation hopes to use “immunization to serve as a platform for digital identity” and to bring ID2020 to the masses.

How did Bill Gates become a medical expert as the main stream media is asking him questions which should be addressed to medical doctors and policy makers, not to a computer billionaire who dabbles in the population control agenda, vaccines, malaria prevention, and child vaccinations in Africa.

Schools and Universities

Schools and universities have closed for the remainder of the year. Many opted for online instruction and parents have stepped in with home schooling. Testing has been cancelled until further notice. Academic competitions as well as competitive sports have been canceled. Would schooling change in the future, with less and less physically going to class?

Telecommuting

Government employees and those working for large corporations can work from home. After kinks have been worked out, this may become the model for work in the future. In large metropolitan areas commuting by bus, metro, train, or “slugging”/rideshare in a stranger’s car have come to a halt.

Malls and stores

The locked and empty malls and stores may remain so permanently as people are moving more and more to online shopping as a business model. Ordering online and picking up items at the store will probably be eliminated when the overwhelming rush of home deliveries would have been resolved by the introduction of more trucks, routes, and drivers.

Socialized medicine

After decades of advocating for the socialized medicine model, Medicare for all and healthcare for none, Democrats will be happy to realize that one viral pandemic has succeeded in bringing in medicine based on a patient’s usefulness to society, age, and level of sickness. The much sought-after rationing that liberals have been pushing for years would have been achieved. Never have dentists been told by state governors that they must close their practices by a certain date.

Big Winners and Losers in Business

Intermediate businesses and mom and pop stores without Internet footprint were closed while the big companies like Walmart, which sold the same products plus food, could open via governor executive orders. Amazon emerged as the biggest winner.

Hygiene Habits

People finally learned how to properly wash their hands often and keep a 6-foot distance from the nearest human. People also finally realized what a great sanitizer Purell is and how scarce toilet paper and other necessities become under socialism. They also learned how to stand in line every day in order to find food or paper products. Some Americans learned to sneeze and cough onto their sleeves. The old German handshake will disappear, replaced by fist and elbow bumps. Hugging, a favorite of Americans, will become obsolete or verboten.

Environmental liberals have finally learned that reusable grocery bags are contaminated and harbor many harmful bacteria and viruses which are spread around through bags that are not sanitized/washed at high temperatures after each use.

Family Time

Americans rediscovered their wives, children, and loved ones, and learned that spending more time with them instead of watching sports on television was quite fun and became happier, enjoying life to the fullest. Not eating in restaurants so often but having meals at home and cooking favorites for each family member became a new and enjoyable experience, brushing up on cooking skills long forgotten due to the hustle and bustle of commuting and too many competitive activities.

Freedoms Lost

Freedom of assembly was curtailed overnight by governors’ decrees. People were fined for having parties at home with more than 10 people, a highly arbitrary number based on bogus determination. Was there an exact footage that 10 people could interact on? Forced “social distancing” altered people’s behavior towards one another.

Freedom of religion was also restricted. Interestingly, we did not hear anything about closed mosques, just churches, temples, and synagogues. Large churches may never recover.

People were forbidden by governor’s orders in Virginia to practice at indoor gun ranges.

National parks, forests, and local and state parks were also closed. Night fishing and boat were also forbidden. Picnics in parks were limited to 10 people and in other areas they were entirely verboten.

Traveling by airplane and cruise ships was also curtailed. The cruise ship industry may never recover fully, especially huge vessels that could accommodate several thousand passengers. There will be less airlines as the industry struggles to recover passengers lost.

Airports will be plagued by more invasive health screenings under the guise of protecting the population from unseen threats.

More After-effects

Americans will learn that the death panels appended in 2010 Obamacare do exist under the guise of rationing and these will increase over time.

Hotels and global vacation venues will struggle to recover for years especially in countries like Italy and Spain.

Organized sports, already under attack for bodily injuries and by transgenderism, may never recover. Olympics will be derailed.

Lost jobs and income, involuntary isolation, forced distancing will cause loss of homes, marriages, and even families.

Depression and a sense of hopelessness and confusion will cause suicides to rise. Rodney Atkinson predicts that “the suicides from the economic and social effects of lockdown will far exceed the number of deaths actually caused by the Coronavirus.” He wrote that worldwide deaths were 21,297 by Coronavirus, 113,034 from seasonal flu, 228,095 from malaria, and 249,904 from suicide (in the period of March 1-25, 2020) http://freenations.net/a-pandemic-is-a-panic-of-academics-lockdown-suicidesvirus-flights/

Atkinson said, “there are increasing reports of family killings and suicide in Britain as families face the desperation of lockdown and financial worry. A tragic case from Germany was the suicide of the Finance Director of the State of Hessen, Thomas Schaefer, because he had become depressed about how to cope with the economic collapse due to the lockdown.”

Americans will have to realize that food and resources are limited and may have to get used to less supply, long lines, and rationing.

Whether this pandemic was accidental or not, the end result will be the crashed consumption and production which will affect the global economy profoundly due to severe unemployment, recession, significant wealth loss, diminished or wiped-out savings, depleted pension funds and, over time, if recovery is slow worldwide, it may cause localized skirmishes and more tribal wars.