“We did not vote on the “shelter-in-place” dictum. We did not vote on the shut down of all “non-essential” businesses. Hysteria leads to a dismissal of the factual. And the factual analysis of this current “Wuhan flu” is that many of the policies enacted here in Montana are irrational and insulting. Does anyone believe that the “vulnerable” (such as this mid-seventies old man) are incapable of taking appropriate precautions on their own without the Governor destroying the livelihoods of all our fellow Montanans? Does anyone really expect now that a Governor has assumed the power to decide who is essential or not, that future Governors will not expand on such policies? Increasing dependence on government and passively accepting that some “elite” somewhere knows best about our welfare is much more dangerous than the Wuhan virus.
The natural desire to be “safe” often suppresses the need to be free. But abandoning one’s own responsibility to provide for their own safety will result in government tyranny. And you will still die.” – Montana State Representative John Fuller (He is also Chairman of the Flathead Valley Republican Central Committee)
Here in VT which is essentially shut-down, we have had 23 deaths attributed to the virus so far with 2 of them listed as the virus being a secondary factor. All of the deaths were in those aged 60+; 3 between 60-69, 6 between 70-79, 7 between 80-89 and 3 90+. Sixty three percent were male. It doesn’t specify what pre-existing conditions were present but I’d put money on there being serious pre-existing conditions in all cases. Most were residents of nursing homes, assisted living etc. The virus is running rampant in several of these locales now with many staff testing positive.
So we’ve effectively shut down our entire state, destroyed its economy and local businesses for this. It’s not that I don’t care about older sick people. I just think that we need to look at the reality that people who are sick and infirm enough to live in a nursing home or similar facility are vulnerable to disease and have a limited projected lifespan. Do I think we should try to protect them? Sure. But is closing down the whole state the answer?
I think VT as a whole would be safer if we were to close our borders to those coming in from other northeast states with high infection levels such as NY, MA, NJ and CT. Keep foreign tourists out as well. Closing the ski areas was a good idea as that mostly attracts out-of-staters.
Issue guidance to older people and those with medical problems on safety guidelines. Issue them good protective N95 masks in the event they absolutely need to go out. Arrange for people to do grocery shopping and other errands for them. Let the rest of the state re-open while avoiding mass crowds for now in concert venues etc.
The problem is that there is major pressure on our governors to “do something” and the “something” they are generally choosing to do is to follow what other states/cities are doing even if it makes little sense. How is keeping someone from buying garden seeds at Walmart here going to help? How is closing down the lumber yards helpful? (Already seeing panicked posts from people who have bought chicks and can’t buy any lumber to build a coop to house them!) Why should VT do what NYC is doing? Just keep NYC people in NYC and we’ll be fine! Every state is different and has different needs and vulnerabilities. Even within a state this is true. Remote rural Essex Co here is rather different than Chittenden Co(home to Burlington). Why are we treating them the same?
So those measures worked, right?
Which measures? I don’t think I understand your question(or is it just a rhetorical “question”)?
I received a Daily Dispatch email from Dr. Marc Micozzi (highly recommended) which reveals why people with underlying health conditions are more vulnerable to Covid. It’s the pharma meds they are taking, ACE inhibitors for high blood pressure. The body reacts to the drugs by making more ACE receptors in the lungs. These receptors are how the virus enters the lungs.
Another interesting post is in the public portion of the forums at clairewolfe.com. The Covid virus kills by attacking hemoglobin in red blood cells, liberating harmful iron ions. The Covid patients need oxygen, not ventilators. The antimalarial drugs work because the malaria parasite also attacks hemoglobin. (Obviously greatly oversimplified explanation here.)
Also saw on lewrockwell.com that ivermectin has antiviral properties.
Very interesting information, Noah Body! Thank You!
That’s interesting. I’ve been hearing that some docs believe that ventilators are being terribly overused and that as you note, oxygen is what is needed.
It’s possible the medical establishment is creating the death toll, in 2 ways. First, by giving Covid patients the wrong treatment. Second, by making them vulnerable to the virus to begin with. Ever notice how the criteria for “normal” or healthy are being constantly revised to put more people in the unhealthy category? Blood pressure is a good example. It used to be considered normal for BP to rise with age. The standard for systolic pressure was 100 plus your age. Now the docs want people in their 80s to have the BP of a teenager, and if they don’t they put them on drugs. And we wonder why Covid is killing them.
Also, in Ohio yesterday 70 people were protesting DeWine’s daily briefing. Good for them.
I read through the Vermont Governor’s Executive order NO. 01 – 20 several days ago and did not find anything that looked like it pertained to “non-essential items”. I did find the phrase “non – essential mass gatherings”, but that was as close as I could come. Finally today I found the following:
Agency of Commerce and Community Development Directs “Big Box” Retailers to Cease In-Person Sales of Non-Essential Items
at the following link:
https://accd.vermont.gov/press-releases/agency-commerce-and-community-development-directs-%E2%80%9Cbig-box%E2%80%9D-retailers-cease-person
In the event that the above link does not work, as it has some special characters in it, then click on the link below and enter the search text BIG BOX RETAILERS
https://accd.vermont.gov/
I found the following listed on the above link:
***
Large “big box” retailers must cease in-person sales of non-essential items not listed in the Executive Order, including, but not limited to: arts and crafts, beauty, carpet and flooring, clothing, consumer electronics, entertainment (books, music, movies), furniture, home and garden, jewelry, paint, photo services, sports equipment, toys and the like.
***
I noticed the phrase “ home and garden” included in the list of prohibited items. If I’m reading things correctly it looks like it is just being applied to the larger stores. Hopefully it will not affect smaller business. If I held the “pen” in my hand I would STRIKE the two words “and garden” from this prohibition list, but then I’m over a thousand miles too far away to do that. Bummer.
Seriously- use that magic strike out pen! 😉 Why on earth they put “home and garden” in it is beyond me. There are indeed smaller places around where one can find garden seeds, tools, seed starting materials etc. We don’t have a lot of big-box stores in VT anyhow, so not a major big deal. And the farm/garden supply stores, even big ones such as Tractor Supply are operational.
“The natural desire to be “safe” often suppresses the need to be free. But abandoning one’s own responsibility to provide for their own safety will result in government tyranny. And you will still die.” – Montana State Representative John Fuller
This is true, however this does not account for “dumbasses” and “bad actors”. There will ALWAYS be that one person that’s “they can’t tell me what to do” or “Corona, Corschmona” types, the “I don’t GAF who gets it” people that will put vulnerable folks in grave danger. Look at all the videos of [deleted] people touching all the merchandise, outright spitting on fresh produce in stores.
TexasScout, every single thing you decide to do or not do while you are alive involves some degree of risk. This is true whether you are inside your own house or out and about. There is a risk that you could burn your house down while cooking your morning bacon. Should you therefore stop eating breakfast? Yes, it’s true that some activities involve more risks than others, but it’s impossible to remove all risk from one’s life, and the death rate for the human population is 100%.
Ultimately, one has to decide how much risk one is willing to undergo on their journey through life. Some folks are more risk averse than others. Who do you want to decide how much risk is acceptable in your life? Should it be the local, state, or federal government or one of their bureaucratic agencies? Or do you want to take charge of your own life and make those decisions for yourself? And if you choose to take responsibility for yourself, then you must realize that other people will be doing the same, and their level of risk tolerance may be different from yours.
Yes, there will always be “bad actors.” But you only have power to control yourself, not others. Pray and ask for guidance when making decisions, and pray for protection when encountering more risky situations. Then trust the Lord, and remember, you’re just a stranger here; heaven is your home.
TexasScout, “spitting on fresh produce in stores”? We don’t get a lot of that. And if someone did, why would we ask government to treat every person as a ‘dumbass’ and ‘bad actor’? A little much eh? And are not stores private property? Does private property not have private property rights?
Exactly correct Montana Guy. Isn’t destruction of private property a crime? Of course it is, and the stores should press criminal charges against the perpetrators of that destruction. Jail time or big fines, and restitution to the store owners or their insurance companies seems appropriate to me. If people had to pay a serious price for their willful stupidity, maybe some level of intelligence and thoughtfulness would reassert itself.
@ Texas Scout
There are sadly a number of people out there with serious mental health issues that are reacting to the stress of the virus and behaving in inappropriate ways including the folks that cough on grocery store food, cough in people’s faces etc. Plus of course some are just desperate for attention and the world of YouTube, twitter, Snapchat etc allows them to get just that when they post things that are truly antisocial actions. Sad. But I’m glad that the police and other authorities are taking these acts seriously and charging them with criminal actions. Yes they’re not well but still it’s not ok and could be endangering others. Only other alternative would be vigilante justice…….
“The natural desire to be “safe” often suppresses the need to be free. But abandoning one’s own responsibility to provide for their own safety will result in government tyranny. And you will still die.”
Excellent quote. I for one and sick and tired of the 95% of Americans who just don’t get it. I’m tired of them stealing away my Freedom because of their fears: they are afraid that my assault weapon is going to harm them, or a speeding car is going to kill them, or afraid a coronavirus is going to kill their great grandma in the geezer home. So they gladly pass law after law which punish the 99 in a vain attempt to catch the 1 and give up their own Freedom in the process. Who among us doesn’t have a heart attack when we’re innocently driving down the road and look in the rear view mirror and see a police car tailing us? That’s tyranny. And yet the majority of us go along with it and mindlessly recite, “It keeps us safe.” BS! There’s a much better way.
All the government intrusions into our lives during this coronavirus hysteria are merely them putting their toe in the water. So far they’re thinking it feels fine, not much resistance. Look for far worse int he not-so-distant future. As a nation, we totally deserve what’s coming for disgracing the principles of men like Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and Patrick Henry, who DIDN’T say, “Give me Liberty, or give me death! Unless it’s by coronavirus, then let’s renegotiate this whole thing…”
Do you also ignore stop signs in your effort to be free. After all I’m sure Patrick Henry wouldn’t have allowed the government to tell him how he can drive his car. Reasonable short term restrictions in the face of a pandemic make sense.
OneGuy, thank you so much for bringing that up. You are making the common mistake of equating Freedom with anarchy. It’s not the same. If Americans loved Freedom, all traffic laws would be Rules, not Laws. There’s a huge difference. Stop signs are a perfect example. The very first traffic ticket I ever got in my life was for not stopping at a stop sign which had formerly been a yield sign. Nobody was coming, nobody was harmed, I looked before I went. Nobody was ever in danger and at no time was I risking violating anybody’s rights. But it still cost me $150. That’s tyranny. Rules keep us just as safe as laws do. I followed the rules of the road, which are nothing more than common sense. I’ve gotten other tickets in my life for not coming to a 100% complete stop at a stop light or stop sign. One was at 6:00 AM on a Sunday morning in a residential area. $150. That’s just plain tyranny. If Americans didn’t have such contempt for Liberty, we’d convert every single traffic law to a Rule. The 99% are going to obey the rules just like they do now. When the 1% breaks the rules and they create a victim in the process, by actually crashing into someone when fail to stop at a stop sign, NOW the victim has a right to take that person to court to be made whole again. But the heavy hand of the state stealing $150 from me at the point of a gun (just try saying you won’t pay it!) because I just barely rolled through a stop sign at 6 AM on a Sunday morning? That’s just plain tyranny.
Making me buy car insurance is tyranny. If you are afraid I will crash into you and I am not insured, then you can go ahead and buy uninsured motorist coverage. Many states already require it anyway. I don’t insure my home, why should the state hold a gun to my head and force me to insure my vehicles, one of which is on public roads less than 500 miles per year? You exercise your freedom and buy car insurance, but please don’t let your fears deny me my Freedom and don’t use the point of a gun to force me to insure my vehicles when I’d rather spend my money in other ways.
Thank you, well said. The insurance wouldn’t be so bad if it was based on my driving record and my mileage rather than where I live and how bad other drivers in this area and this state actually are. Heck, one of my cars is less than 10 years old and has less than 27,000 miles on it. The other is 4 years old and has 13,000 miles on it. Currently I’m putting less than a thousand miles a year on either car. Yet I pay thousands of dollars a year for insurance. Where is the justice in that?
I agree Charles, there’s no justice in that. There’s very little justice in what the car insurance companies do to us. I added an old beater vehicle to my policy last year which a friend gave me when they moved out of state. My total policy cost nearly doubled. I pointed out to the rep on the phone that since I was only carrying liability, in actual fact, they were insuring me, not the vehicles. Since I can only drive one of them at a time, the more I drive vehicle A the less I’d be driving vehicle B so their risk didn’t change one iota and therefore, my rate should not have gone up a cent. I finally said, “You get away with this kind of stuff because most people just never stop to figure it out, don’t you?” And she said, “Basically.” At least she was honest.
I can beat that complaint. I took my drift boat on a tidal stretch of a Western river to fish for Salmon. When I put the boat in the tide was out so I literally had to drag the boat over gravel as there wasn’t enough water to float it. I stopped for a few minutes and was sitting in the boat very near shore and the road when a policeman pulled up and asked if I had a life jacket. Indeed I did not have it. I thought it was in the boat but it wasn’t. I pointed out that the water level didn’t even come to the top of the gravel and we both laughed over that but I still got the ticket and $100 fine.
Hey Saul, that’s pretty bad!
My grandpa did 7 days jail time once over a similar unjust $35 fine. He told the judge he wasn’t going to pay the fine so what was the alternative. When the judge said seven days in the county lockup, he said fine, can I go home first and get my neighbor to feed the cat? The judge said an officer would be by later that afternoon to take him to jail. My grandpa said he saved not only the $35 but also saved a week’s worth of food and firewood which the county had to pay for. He’s always been my #1 hero. 🙂 If more of us did that and cost the evil state money instead of encouraging them and donating to their coffers, and instead we flooded their jails with people who were not wearing their seatbelts and wearing life jackets, maybe they’d change some of their wicked ways.
St. F, I agree with your sentiments, even as I take exception to some of the ways you express them.
Demonstrating where I agree with you, I offer this quote:
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
Carry on, in grace
Hey Marine, my apologies for poor delivery. I’ve definitely not been blessed with the gift of salesmanship. I delete about 5 comments for every one I post so I actually do work at it. But hopeless is hopeless. I swore to myself I’d never mention the F-word (Freedom) on this blog but then I never thought we’d see lock downs in American either, so I’m a little more irate than usual this week. I’m gonna take my croquet set and go home now and not mention politics or Freedom again. It really is pointless to mention it. People either get it or they don’t and you can’t convince ’em otherwise. Kind of like the second amendment.
Shucks, brother. You and your croquet set are welcome on my lawn any day. I get hooked when you and others complain about “being forced to…”
The way I put it the other day is:
“I refuse to blame others for my choices by saying “they forced me to”. When I do so, I surrender my liberty.”
I saw you treating one of “them” like a person when you said this: “You get away with this kind of stuff because most people just never stop to figure it out, don’t you?” And she said, “Basically.” At least she was honest.
I reckon even the stupid cops are one of God’s children, making a mistake. I work real hard to treat them as such.
I fear I’m coming across as “holier than thou”, so I will quit now.
Carry on in grace
I urge everyone to investigate the news story about the Father/Husband who was arrested for playing in a park with his Wife+Daughter while specifically ALLOWED by posted rules. If anyone still thinks the thugs with badges are anything but .gov terrorists and thieves get a clue.
Just a bit of miss classification that I ran across about Dr. Scott Jensen and his exposing the sloppy “science” surrounding COVID-19 deaths. During the video Dr. Fauci stumbles over what to say and says “You will always have conspiracy theories …”. That is the worst bumble I’ve heard him say, but then what can you expect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkMSEHmeaNQ
A far better presentation was made by Dr. Ben Carson at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FUiPbzoGSQ
He mentioned that 98% of the people that get the virus do recover from it.