Uncategorized – Page 4 – Distressed Liberal

What do Canada, the US and China have in common?

As the new year began, many Canadians felt dissatisfaction with the government’s response to Covid (after 2 years) and wanted all government-imposed Covid restrictions and vaccine mandates to end. This was a reasonable position given the fact that in many countries, Covid is effectively “over” and restrictions are being lifted by the day.

Thus, the Canadian Trucker Convoy began to take shape, eventually becoming known as the Freedom Convoy. Thousands of Canadians assembled to peacefully protest and occupy Parliament Hill in Ottawa. This protest also became a catharsis of sorts. The tone was distinctly celebratory as people came back together to socialize normally after two years. Tables offering coffee and hot food popped up as people played music and danced in the freezing cold. Bouncy castles were erected for children.

In spite of all this, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not want to talk to the protesters in person, listen to their problems or figure out the way forward together. Turns out he’s more of a “my way or the highway” kind of guy.

Here is a bullet list of just some of the actions taken by Justin Trudeau (or by others as a result of his actions) against his own people:

Trudeau enacted the Emergency Measures Act, employed when lives are at risk or the sovereignty of Canada is threatened, so that he could justify having large numbers of police confront protesters and have them arrested.
Although the government-funded Canadian media refused to acknowledge it, there was widespread police violence against protesters. Police on horseback were caught on tape trampling two people including an elderly Mohawk woman with a walker.
Trudeau tried to get other Canadians on board with hating the protestors (and thus not caring what happens to them) by smearing them as white supremacists and racists when that was clearly not the case.
The Emergency Measures Act also empowered Trudeau to hurt protestors financially by freezing the bank accounts of those who contributed to the Convoy, even if they didn’t physically attend the protest. After Trudeau declared the Emergency Measures Act, contributing to the Convoy became retroactively illegal. For example, a single mother in British Columbia who donated $50 to the Convoy before the Act was declared, subsequently had her bank account frozen. This created such financial hardship for her, that her local MP stepped up to bring attention to her situation.
Without explaining how they determined which truck operators would be targeted, twelve of them had their operating authority suspended and their license plates revoked, effectively destroying their livelihoods.
Convoy organizers were arrested and lead organizer Tamara Lich was in jail for 18 days because the judge wouldn’t grant her bail. After finally doing so, the judge said that a condition of Lich’s release is that she must not use social media or talk to other organizers. Someone Lich knows is supposed to “supervise her” and report her if she uses social media or converses with someone she’s not supposed to.

Slandering those who don’t fall unquestioningly in line with what the government thinks is best has become rather par for the course these days. Combine this trend with financial punishment and control, and you have full blown totalitarianism on the horizon.

But why stop with freezing bank accounts? Why not have all money become virtual and thus 100% controllable by the government? China would like to do just that by creating a digital yuan, or DCEP (Digital Currency/Electronic Payments), and banning cash.

China’s social credit system is not actually a single, nationally coordinated system. Local and central governments all have the power to infringe upon a person’s liberty arbitrarily and without due process. The ability to use public transportation, have a certain job or borrow money are just a few examples of freedoms that can be removed if a person criticizes local or national officials or challenges their edicts.

The advent of a national digital currency dispensed by the Chinese government would allow it total financial control of the population. Government could instantly remove a person’s funds, or ability to make financial transactions, at will. The existing climate of political oppression would merge with financial authoritarianism. This article from the Competitive Enterprise Institute explains China’s plan for a national digital currency, and is worth reading to fully understand its implications. The article warns that the Chinese model of digital currency is a threat to global freedom, and should not be adopted by anyone.

But hang on: Biden just announced a study into developing a “digital dollar” in the United States! Hey, Canada is looking into making their currency digital too! Wow. The US, Canada and China are all having the same idea at the same time!

But when the US and Canada talk about digitalizing currency it’s different. So don’t worry. Justin Trudeau invoked a wartime measure in order to financially punish those who disagreed with him while Joe Biden said nothing about it, so we’re good. I’m sure that digitalizing currency would have no negative unforeseen consequences, or threaten our privacy or freedom. And that the global Covid response has been totally legit. There’s no hidden agenda here. Carry on!

(For incisive and intelligent analysis of what’s been happening in Canada for the past two years, I highly recommend following this blog)

Cloth Mask: Symbol of Societal Harm

For two years, the experts’ dictums around masks have been contradictory, confusing and incorrect. Especially cloth masks.

First, we must begin with the fact that at the beginning of the pandemic, US surgeon general Jerome Adams specifically said not to wear masks. Any kind of mask. Even an N95 mask, which he said needs to be fitted properly and should only be used in a medical setting. Anthony Fauci also said mask-wearing by the general public was not necessary on 60 Minutes.

Then, the messaging changed and we were told to do the opposite. Cloth masks were celebrated and encouraged. Masks were deemed an essential tool to combat Covid. Masks became emblematic of the pandemic, always there to remind us (along with the news) that it was happening. This tool–a mask–was so important in the fight against Covid, that people were arrested for not using it.

The CDC gave some guidance on fabric type and fit on its website, meanwhile studies supporting cloth masks were flimsy at best. Perhaps knowing this, the CDC eventually recommended wearing two masks to improve the efficacy and fit of cloth masks about a YEAR AND A HALF into the pandemic.

Think about that. It took the best minds in science well over a year to figure out that cloth masks are so ineffective you should wear TWO of them.

But why didn’t they KNOW that already? There were several studies, dated PRIOR to the pandemic, asserting that cloth masks aren’t effective and shouldn’t be used. Heck, a 2015 study in the NIH’s National Library of Medicine stated 97% of respiratory viral particles penetrated the cloth masks and weren’t recommended for health care workers!

But the massive mixed messaging around cloth masks REALLY took off when epidemiologist and advisor to the Biden Administration, Michael Osterholm, went on CCN in August 2021 and dropped this bombshell:

In the video Osterholm says: “Many of the cloth face coverings people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out; either your breathing out or your breathing in. And in fact, if you’re in the Upper Midwest right now, those who are wearing their face cloth covering can tell you, they can smell all the smoke that we’re still getting. We need to talk about better masking.”

Excuse me? Sixteen months into the pandemic and this leader in Science who advises the president on all things Covid is JUST NOW discovering (even with the benefit of relevant studies available to him in government-owned libraries) that cloth masks are “not very effective”?

So, people wore cloth masks for over a year in good faith, believing they were effective protection against a deadly virus, and this guy comes along and blows that out of the water. But, no biggie! Nobody’s ticked off with the government and media approved experts about this fairly large error regarding a critical life-saving tool.

Even after her colleague on CNN said so, it took Dr. Leana Wen another few months to clearly state that cloth masks do nothing. Her actual words during a CNN interview in late December 2021 were, “Cloth masks are little more than facial decoration. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron. So wear a quality mask, at least a 3-ply surgical mask.”

Faced with this media hitjob on cloth masks, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky finally conceded on January 14, 2022 that that cloth masks aren’t that effective but “the best mask you can wear is the one you will wear.” Almost two years into this pandemic and now the recommendation is that it doesn’t matter what you wear, as long as you have something on your face.

You don’t saw a log with a butter knife. The type and quality of a tool needed for a job MATTERS. Especially when it comes to a tool so important in “the fight against Covid” that you can get arrested, or be publicly accused of killing people, for not using it. But the truth is, there STILL is not a consensus about mask usage–type, fit, fabric or even if they are necessary in the first place–and there never has been.

For every parent who insists all children be masked in school to protect others because there is no real risk to the child, there is another who cites an article stating that masking is detrimental to children. Meanwhile, many of the masks worn by children are…..cloth. Cloth masks that, according to one media-anointed expert, are mere “facial decoration.” Do we need to wonder why some people are losing patience with masks and would like them to be optional? And also why others are digging in their heels and want those masks to stay on?

At first, our trusted government and media experts said that they didn’t want people to wear masks. Then they said they DID want people to wear them, absent of any major study to justify the switch. Pro-mask studies and news articles flooded the internet AFTER they made the recommendation. This distinction is important. Why? Because the government suddenly told us to do something that they specifically told us NOT to do, BEFORE there was any “science” to justify their total 360.

The president says he wants to send N95 masks to Americans. But the CDC still presents cloth masks as a viable option and the prior US Surgeon General said N95s aren’t appropriate for the public either.

Are you seeing an insane-making pattern of contradictions here, or is it just me?

Contradictions like this are a wonderful way to sow fear, confusion and anger amongst the public. How about we all come off this battlefield and take a look at who is really causing societal harm in this country?

The CDC’s Word Games: Changing the definition of Vaccine

Entire vaccinated sports teams have been benched because they all tested positive for Sars-CoV2. For the past three months, the majority of those who died of Covid-19 in Vermont were fully vaccinated. 96% of Omicron cases in Germany are among fully vaccinated people. But the vaccine faithful don’t seem to feel ripped off in the slightest.

In 2020, the public was fed a diet of non-stop scary Covid news while it remained largely unaware that it is a treatable illness. Many people became “immune” to the fact that Covid-19 has a better than 99% survival rate if you are under 70.

Properly terrified, many people eagerly awaited a vaccine for this virus so they could get back to “normal.” Presumably, normal would include not being afraid of Covid anymore, or the nation taking its first steps backwards toward a segregated society.

For a very long time, the public’s understanding of vaccination was “the injection of a killed or weakened infectious organism in order to prevent the disease.” This was how the polio vaccine was made and it obviously worked great. Nobody gets polio anymore.

The definition was altered in 2015 to mean “the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease.” (Immunity means the body resists infection.)

With this in mind, the public rightfully expected, and the government and federal agencies PROMISED, that the vaccine would prevent a person from getting infected with Sars-CoV2.

But the promise fell through. And in September 2021, the CDC’s changed its definition of a vaccine to “a preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s response against diseases.”

So, if you get vaccinated, you are not immune to the virus. You can still get infected. Instead, you have injected a preparation that stimulates your body’s response to a disease. According to this study, increasing one’s intake of Vitamin D cuts the risk of Sars-CoV2 infection. This study says Zinc stops the replication of many viruses in the body and it looks like it does the same for Sars-CoV2. Ivermectin does a great job of stimulating the body’s response against Covid. There is actually a laundry list of “preparations” that meets this new definition of “vaccine.”

Now we can add boosters to that list because for the CDC, there’s nothing like more of what doesn’t work to fix a problem. Hooked on the promise of a better tomorrow, the vaccine faithful of NYC lined up for their boosters with no sense of outrage that the “normal” they were promised never materialized. It may never materialize. These New Yorkers are still afraid of Covid, embrace segregation and they can’t hold a job or have a normal life without being vaccinated.

That doesn’t meet my definition of “normal.”

Misinformation: Virus Transmission and Hospital Covid Deaths

When the vaccines came out, I was baffled when the “news” (and then everyone else) implied or outright stated that the shots provided immunization against the virus that causes the disease Covid-19. If you visit Pfizer’s website it said then, as it does now, that “the vaccine has been shown to prevent Covid-19” and that it may not “protect” everyone. That’s it. It did not say anywhere on the Fact Sheet available to recipients that the vaccine prevented a person from becoming infected with the Sars-CoV2 virus. But apparently, some were spreading “misinformation”….

Now the whole world can’t help but know that the vaccines do not immunize people against or stop transmission of the virus, and the powers that be have admitted it.

Similarly, some people think it is a lie (aka, misinformation) that hospitals were financially rewarded for cases and deaths labeled as “Covid.”

But it isn’t a lie.

In this very fact-checked article in USA Today from April 27, 2020, Senator Scott Jensen (who is also a physician), stated that hospitals receive higher Medicare allocations under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act for Covid cases and deaths. Says Jensen: “If it’s a straightforward, garden-variety pneumonia that a person is admitted to the hospital for–if they’re Medicare–typically the diagnosis-related group lump-sum payment would be $5,000. But if it’s Covid-19 pneumonia, then it’s $13,000, and if that Covid-19 pneumonia patient ends up on a ventilator, it goes up to $39,000.”

Knowing how the promise of big money can lead to immoral or greedy behavior sometimes, Jensen reasonably speculated that hospital administrators might pressure doctors to cite all diagnoses, including “probable” Covid-19, on discharge papers and death certificates to get the higher Medicare allotment. Jensen was careful, however to not explicitly make this claim, only that it would be naive to “not believe that increasing the number of Covid-19 deaths may create an avenue for states to receive a larger portion of federal dollars.” The USA Today article also stated there have been no public reports of hospitals exaggerating or mislabeling deaths or cases.

Well, I guess if it hasn’t been publicly reported, then it can’t be happening! It’s not like regular people are ever hit with massive bills from hospitals….why on earth would a hospital try to hit Medicare with a massive bill? A hospital isn’t a money-making business!

This article was fact-checked by several “fact-checkers” (named in the article, including Snopes and FactCheck) and USA Today ultimately declared, “We rate the claim that hospitals get paid more if patients are listed as Covid-19 and on ventilators as TRUE.”

Overwhelmed Hospitals! Are nothing new.

Suddenly, and predictably, the media is “overwhelming” me with fear-mongering “news” about the Omicron variant and how the President wants the unvaccinated to get ready for a winter full of illness and death (guess he still doesn’t know that a there are treatments for Covid and three shots doesn’t stop the spread).

Justin Hart of Rational Ground complied a list of news clips and headlines from around the country in 2017-2018, which was a very bad flu season.

Check out this headline from the LA Times dated January 16, 2018:

“California hospitals face a “war zone” of flu patients–and are setting up tents to treat them“

And it goes on to describe:

Hospitals across the state are sending away ambulances, flying in nurses from out of state…..Others are canceling surgeries and erecting tents in their parking lots so they can triage the hordes of flu patients….There’s a little bit of a feeling of being in the trenches…..Connie Cunningham and her staff at Loma Linda University Medical Center were triaging so many flu patients that they assembled what looks like a giant brown camping tent in their emergency room parking lot…”It’s like trying to surf a tsunami,” said Dr. Brian Johnston…

“Palomar Medical Center Escondido in northern San Diego County also pulled out a flu tent this month, but was still so busy that some patients were treated in the hallways….now they’re running low on beds….staff began clearing out an area that was being used as storage…”

It was the same story on the East coast. where this Time article describes tents being set up in hospital parking lots in New Jersey, Pennsylvania as well as in Alabama (“Hospitals Overwhelmed by Flu Patients Are Treating Them in Tents“).

Well, that sounds dire. So the country has been here before. Except this time, hospitals are starting the winter understaffed due to so many nurses getting fired because of vaccine mandates. Yes, firing frontline workers who likely HAD COVID, and who served us heroically during the pandemic makes so much sense. Isn’t a slap in the face at all, and I’m sure their absence will be very helpful during this much anticipated “covid surge.”

Sounds like we are in for the much promised “normal” winter the media promised the vaccines would bring!

Here’s my suggestion for a happy winter. Take vitamin D and TURN OFF YOUR T.V.