C-o-v-i-d-i-stan

This anecdotal true story is painful evidence of how easily people can be brought under submission to government control in a short period of time by using irrational fear of death from a flu virus.

I called my only surviving uncle to wish him a happy birthday. He was elated that I remembered his special day when he entered this world. I told him, "How could I ever forget when you were born on Lenin's birthday?"

He told me that he was doing great and was proud that he and his wife were feeling safe and healthy after being vaccinated recently. “Vaccines are such a good thing for the world,” he said. You had so many deaths in the U.S., over a million people, we were so much luckier here.” 

It was pointless to engage him in a discussion about manipulated statistics, population size, causes of death, mortality rates, morbidity rate, spread causes and stats, antibodies, herd immunity, pros and cons of masks, arbitrary lockdowns, misinformation, contradictory medical edicts, technocracy censorship, mainstream media censorship and constant misinformation and deliberate deception, and other government measures of forcing and silencing people into silent submission. He felt safe, shut away from the world in his tiny concrete block apartment the size of the average American hotel room.

"We can now go shopping in public until stores close at 6 p.m.  We must wear masks though and carry vaccination cards handy in case we get asked for proof by the patrolling police."

I said with a seemingly calm voice, "the Ceausescus’ communist tyranny ended in 1989 and now you are under a global medical tyranny. You made a lot of progress.”

I am not sure he understood my dripping sarcasm because he answered, "They should not have executed Ceausescu, he was a good man. But they did the right thing executing his wife, she was an evil person."

I was shocked at his answer especially since I knew that he fought hard for his freedom to travel abroad which he was denied, and for promotions at work that he never got because he was not a communist party member. His father was not a supporter of communism and thus he was made by anti-communist stock.

I am not sure what brought about his nostalgia for the communist tyrant, but I would like to think that it was his age, the brain surgery from 10 years ago, and the year-long 9th-floor apartment confinement with his wife in his town's C-o-v-i-d-i-stan.

I could also attribute this change to non-stop mandatory mask wearing which is a government enforced requirement in most developed countries around the world even though some people have a hard time breathing and taking in sufficient oxygen.

A friend, Heather A., told me what her theory is about forced mask wearing for over a year now, from two weeks to flatten the curve to non-stop mask policing everywhere outside of one’s home.  “They are forcing us to become a genderless and faceless Society. They are taking away our Humanity. If you cannot see someone's face, expressions, age, or sex, then you are not going to care when we are removed, expired, or exterminated.” We might as well be identical and easily disposable characters in a dreadful cartoon story.

In the meantime, suicides among teenagers and adults are on the rise. According to M. Armstrong, “Fauci, who is a disgrace to the United States, refuses to yield and to be specific about when people will get their liberty back. He is ignoring the psychological impact of people losing everything and the rise in suicides and violence.” He believes that “all of this is because of Fauci’s recommendations, which never in the history of society has any doctor ever advocated shutting down the economy and society.” We are in Real Trouble | Armstrong Economics

Referring to the forced lockdowns, masks, and the vaccination agenda, Armstrong continues, “Something is seriously wrong, and the government, in league with the media, is not protecting the population at all. It is unacceptable that anyone who utters a single word against this agenda is labeled a ‘conspiracy theorist,’ which allows everyone to simply refuse to provide any independent proof that anything is trustworthy.” We are in Real Trouble | Armstrong Economics

Rational and reliable answers are not coming in and C-o-v-i-d-i-stan is tightening its grip on our existence.

Psychological Hoarding and Government Induced Hoarding

The Mayo Clinic describes a hoarder as a person who survives in cluttered living spaces, moves items from one pile to another without the ability to throw anything away, acquires seemingly useless items, empty boxes, wrappers, trash, newspapers, magazines, bits of paper, discarded old toys, ratty clothes, household supplies, and spoiled food. Such a hoarder would buy, search for, and store items of little to no value.

It is alleged that there are more males than females who exhibit such a disorder and 2-6% of the population exhibits hoarding disorders. Causes of hoarding may include heredity, brain damage, serotonin issues, and other medical conditions.

The primary fears of the disposophobic are losing things and disposing of useless personal possessions.

Merriam Webster dictionary defines hoarding as a psychological compulsion to continually accumulate a variety of items often considered worthless by others coupled with an inability to discard the items without great distress. Such distress affects the hoarder’s health, career, and relationships with family members and others.

A person with dementia is more likely to hoard because of the anxiety that he/she might lose something. At the same time, piles of belongings may give them comfort. Alzheimer’s patients often hide the things they hoard, forget where they put them, and then accuse family or imaginary people of having taken them – food, clothing, money, and other possessions they deem valuable.

In our society, food hoarding occurs in children for reasons of neglect, deprivation, chaotic or disrupted home environments, difficulties in schools, disordered eating, and other psychological problems. Most adults hoard and hide food due to an eating disorder.

Adults who survived food deprivation under communist regimes where food shortages and famine were common, tended to hoard food to divide it among loved ones to make sure they had something to eat even during hard times when pantry and store shelves were bare, and food could not be bought or found. The intent was to avoid starvation.

Throughout history, when governments have intervened in the smooth operation of free markets based on supply and demand, the results have been disastrous, not the least of which are hoarding and the emergence of black markets. I am not talking about the psychological problems of hoarding personal items when people have a hard time getting rid of anything they own, I am talking about reality-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 caused 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 was the Covid-19 interference in the market. The domino effect of unintended consequences is propped up by endless money printing and government welfare distributed as direct cash payments to Americans and illegal workers, and extended unemployment.

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 Covid-19 action by the government in 2020 had caused farmers in Florida to destroy tons of tomatoes, squash, and other vegetables which were previously bought by restaurants. Closed by government order, restaurants were no longer buying fresh produce. Farmers 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 and canned produce whenever available.

People have engaged in what is called panic-buying of certain products in anticipation of a disaster, shortage, or large price increase. Some examples 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 Vapor/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 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.

Psychological hoarders will continue hoarding unless the underlying medical problem is addressed.

 

 

Recite the Equity Pledge

Prince William County, Virginia, at the forefront of the woke revolution, has a Racial and Social Justice Commission.  Racial and Social Justice Commission (pwcgov.org)

The County’s Board of Supervisors approved the commission on Oct. 19, 2020. It was tasked with reporting on “the state of racial and social justice for people of color” in the county and making policy recommendations to the local government. The entity’s initial focus is on policing, public education, and the ‘provision of government services.’” ‘You Want Us To Recite This?’: County ‘Social Justice Commission’ Starts Tense With Unannounced ‘Equity Pledge’ | The Daily Caller

The commission adopted an Equity Communication Pledge. At their first meeting, one member refused to recite the pledge, objecting to the fact that the pledge had not been circulated prior to the meeting. Perhaps this organization should have recited the Pledge of Allegiance instead?

The pledge states that it “sets the norms to support and lead equity and social justice conversations.” Who decided what the norms are and what does the leadership of these “equity” norms intend to do with them when they have the “conversations” on the liberal construct of “social justice” with the taxpayers and residents of Prince William County?

The person pledging is supposed to agree to the norms by “monitoring my thoughts for internal dialogue.” This implies that a person’s thoughts may be divergent from the norms established by this vaunted group and thus unacceptable. Orwell wrote in his “1984” book about the Thought Police.

The pledge encourages statements from “my own experience” and “I think, I feel, I believe.” The idea of “facts” is not mentioned in the official document.

The pledge wants people to “reflect on my intention and impact on others before making a question or making a comment.” In other words, you must be careful not to offend any protected group based on race.

The pledge also warns against “rushing to quick solutions, especially in relation to racial understanding.” It is not explained the exact meaning of “racial understanding.” Who are these people that we must racially understand?  Apparently, we must have “ongoing dialogue” with them. And who decides what is “rushing to quick solutions?” How is this “rushing” being measured? What constitutes an “acceptable solution” and acceptable to whom?

The pledge urges citizens to “grow my equity lens.” I am not sure what an “equity lens” is; I am also not sure what their definition of “equity” is. But whatever it is, we must move “towards solutions with constructive collaborative actions.” Again, there is no definition of what “constructive collaborative actions” are, however, since the majority of the county’s residents have no idea of the existence of this Racial and Social Justice Commission’s pledge of “Equity Communication,” if is fair to say that it falls under the Orwellian Newspeak of 2021.

The pledgers must practice “self-care,” another Orwellian term, during which time citizens must “set time aside to process, reflect and recharge in positive ways.” Who decides what such “positive ways” are? I venture to say that it is this social engineering commission, entrusted with erasing any thoughts disagreeable with their agenda.

Last, but not least, the commission, urges citizens to “reflect” on the racial and ethnic division these commission members are creating with this ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars.

The commission wants us to be “willing participants, learners, and intentional listeners to lead equity and social justice conversations.” And, what if we do not want to be participants in this equity and social justice liberal experiment? Additionally, what is an “intentional listener” exactly? Can one be an unintentional listener?

“Equity” is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “the quality of being fair and impartial,” or “justice according to natural law or right, specifically, freedom from bias or favoritism.” In finance, equity is ownership of assets that may have debts or other liabilities attached to them.”

The woke claim that “racial equity,” another leftist construct, is somehow suddenly missing in our modern society of the 21^st century, is an insult to law and justice which, by definition, treats everyone impartially and equally under the law, regardless of their skin color, ethnic background, sex, disabilities, etc.

“Social justice” is a political and philosophical construct which holds that “all people should have equal access to wealth, health, wellbeing, justice, and opportunity.” All people do have equal access of opportunity, but they must apply themselves, nobody owes them anything, not other citizens, and certainly not the government.

All people, legal and illegal, have equal access to hospitals, doctors, medical care, drugs, and justice, but the wellbeing of everyone is dependent on what kind of lifestyle they lead, how well they take care of themselves, and how many healthy habits they follow.

The idea that everyone should have equal access to wealth is ridiculous on its face. People have built wealth, lost it, or accumulated it over time, have inherited it, and many have worked extremely hard to achieve it.

How is it socially just to confiscate something from people who worked hard, and give it to people who had neither the ability, the work ethic, the education, the experience, and the effort expended to build wealth?

And once everything is taken from the producers and equally distributed to the idle, how long will this “collective” wealth last and who is going to build and amass the next fortune once everyone spent their wealth and became “poor” again?

Could the Social Justice woke warriors be a little more specific about their idea of equity and how far are they willing to go with their woke oppression, thought police, and woke Marxist indoctrination? Equity in the woke Newspeak is racism.

Encounter with Progressives on April 3, 2021

Yesterday, in 45F weather, (we always get a cold spell the week before Easter), we were in Colonial Williamsburg for the purpose of taking pictures of blooming tulips, daffodils, cherry trees, lambs, and other simple and beautiful corners of nature waking up from its winter slumber. Hubby was kind enough to drive us a few hours coming and going through heavy traffic. People are tired of masks and lockdowns and seem to be going places in larger numbers.

Among the azaleas, cherry blossoms, shuttered stores, and larger crowds than we have seen before, two older, Caucasian women in the market square caught my eye.  They were manning a BLM booth, offering free lemonade above a large Black Lives Matter poster, and the simple words, “Can We Talk?” The implication was that they wanted to have a conversation about BLM and race, further causing division among Americans to promote the progressive Marxist agenda of “the white race and patriotism are bad, black and anti-Americanism are good.”

It raised my ire immediately; they were William & Mary college professors trying to indoctrinate visitors into their racist and Marxist hatred. I asked one of them what she wanted to talk about? ALL lives matter, in my opinion, not just black ones.

One of the ladies, no doubt a tenured professor, asked, “Are all cancers equal?” My immediate reply was, “cancer is a life-threatening disease and it’s a horrible analogy to make.” I continued with my own question, “How do you feel about the killing of black babies in the abortionist Planned Parenthood?” Silence and a smirk of superiority from the two college professors.

“I won’t listen to you because you are irrational liberals promoting Marxism, racism, and hatred.” One said, “I’m not calling YOU irrational.” “That’s because I am not a nutjob, I am a rational person, fighting communism, racism, division, and genocide promoted by academic ‘progressives’ like you.”

My husband, who was already crossing the street and did not stop at the booth, overheard only my calling them “irrational.” He said, which is true, “when you call people names, you’ve lost the argument.”

It seems to me that, at this point, I have lost more than the argument, I have lost my country to Marxists who used fascistic methods to gain control. We are way past debates as Marxists are not using rational dialogue to make their points. It is a “my way or the highway” takeover, with Marxists in full power of government.

Marxists like these professors are not rational, do not make cogent arguments, they use indoctrination to push their agenda and therefore cannot win something they never had, i.e., rational thoughts.

Within a few steps, still stewing from my encounter with the radical leftists, I saw a man with a Colonial Williamsburg cap on who was replenishing the hand-sanitizer station.

I asked him why so many businesses have closed or are moving away from the Colonial Williamsburg property. His answer was, “The Democrats have decided to lockdown small businesses and the American people, and to keep them masked and six feet apart like sheep. That is why. And greed. When things opened a bit and people started visiting again, small businesses were levied higher rent and an additional larger percent of their profits which were small or non-existent at that point.”

My wise best friend and daughter Mims replied to my commentary with the following:

“Well, you knew you weren’t going to get anywhere with them. What you should’ve done was tell them where you came from and what you have experienced and ask them if they had any idea what they were promoting? Meaning, asking them to define what it is they think it is so glorious about communism and socialism. I agree that calling them names no longer validates an argument. But I completely understand why you would call them that.

Furthermore, I probably would not have said all lives matter, but I would have asked them why only certain black lives matter. This would have been cited to ask what you mean and then you could have interjected the constant abortions performed in the black community. I would have stood there calm as a cucumber and asked them to define what it is that they were promoting. I would have made them squirm.”

While I agree with Mims assessment, the painful reality is that scams, fraudulent and deceptive ideas, and philosophies, are easy to promote and pass for three important reasons:

1.    Masses are easier to deceive than convincing them that they have been deceived.

2.    People seem hungrier for hope, any hope, even when it is a patently false hope.

3.    Most people are not looking for the truth; it is too hard to search for the truth because people are basically indolent. Humans want constant reassurance that what they believe is the Truth, even when the truth is disinformation, indoctrination, or a lie.

You Are Not Going to Resist

Your obedience is prolonging this nightmare.

You didn't resist the mask.
You didn't resist the social distancing.
You didn't resist the vaccine.
You didn't resist the booster shot.

Yeah, you're not going to resist the passport, the tattoo, or the microchip, either.

Enjoy the future you're creating for yourself.

- Author unknown