No one dares talk back, let alone do anything to stop the communist takeover underway.  If Trump does anything they’ll call him a dictator, which of course, they do anyway.  The mayors and police authorities in the smoldering cities won’t do much.  They’re taking a knee, in some cases literally bowing down before crowds capable of destroying everything in sight if provoked.

Every big-name company and corporation is bowing down, or in many cases actually giving large sums of money, or should we say buying protection—mafia style—to the organizations that are funding the mob.  And it’s not just Black Lives Matter, although the admittedly Marxist outfit obviously welcomes the muscle of the anarchists, the rainbow crowd and every other dispossessed misfit. They’ve joined together to insist that all law enforcement is intrinsically racist, and so are you!  Any denial will get you beat to a pulp.  If you get in the way of the mob, you won’t even have a chance to make such a denial, which anyway would be proof of guilt to the goons.  Assuming these people wreaking havoc know something about anything, which is highly doubtful.

Watching everybody take a knee in fear, meet the mob half way, accept the destruction of our history, and “take responsibility” for things that happened in another era is the most pitiful display ever witnessed.  The media has determined that they will make us kneel!  Make us wear a mask, regardless!  Force an admission of racism or else.

Now there’s another preposterous accusation, and we’re supposed to believe it this time.  With somber tones and straight faces, the “news” people told us that Trump was “colluding with Russia.”  They told us that he was Putin’s puppet, doing Russia’s bidding from the Oval Office.  And Mike Flynn was betraying the United States, and conniving with the Kremlin in secret phone calls.  For three years the “news” media maintained it’s somber demeanor while they accused the most patriotic of Americans of sedition, perhaps treason.  They ridiculed everyone who didn’t buy their idiotic claims, calling us stupid and unwilling to accept reality.

When it blew up in their faces after three years of pumping out the story day and night, they hardly noticed that their big investigation yielded nothing beyond the deep-state coup that they insisted was a conspiracy theory.  Maybe that’s because the “news” media was up to its eyeballs in the farce, complicit in reporting every false story from their “insiders” and “whistle-blowers.”  The whole thing blew up in their gay faces.  The Mueller investigation they’d hyped for nearly Trump’s whole first term was a complete and utter embarrassment.  Mueller fell completely apart in public testimony, revealing that he didn’t even know, in some cases had never heard of,  things that appeared in the report he’d supposedly written.

But that didn’t slow them down one bit.  The corrupt media moved seamlessly toward impeachment with the ungainly Schiff and Nadler leading the charge.  The media, once again, was all in on President Trump’s guilt.  It was all in the Ukrainian phone call!  But, once again Schiff, Nadler and their minions lied every day and night to the media, and the media lied to all of us, insisting that high crimes and misdemeanors had been committed by the President, and the only remedy was removal from office.  But that left them with soot all over their faces like cartoon characters that accidentally blew themselves up.  Still, they never noticed, never apologized, never admitted what fools they’d made of themselves for all to see.  Instead, they purported to still believe their own fake news and figured they were probably right all along, despite their inability to prove any claims they’d been making for years.

The mainstream media has yet to own up to its role in trying to bring down a presidential administration on the basis of, shall we say, nonsense.  Now, they’ve got a brand new toy.  This time they’re claiming that Trump was briefed on a report that Russia was paying Taliban terrorists a bounty for every American soldier they could kill, and the President hid that fact, knowing full well that American soldiers were being killed for money.

It’s just as far-fetched, and divorced from reality as the previous “news” reports. It’s a quandary as to how President Trump has even survived.  He’s had corrupt federal agencies, together with the corrupt media working day and night to accuse him of the most outlandish, nonsensical intentions all the while scolding the population about how racist we all are.  Racism, they say, is a fact of America’s founding.  They’re trying to say the very existence of our flag, our national anthem, our founders, our history and our whole culture is irredeemably racist.

They’ve thrown red paint all over memorials of George Washington.  They’ve toppled statues of every respected or reviled figure in American history.  They’ve burned some of the most expensive retail locations, rampaging like the criminal idiots they are, fists in the air as they cavort in silhouette.

Can you point to ANYONE (save DJT) who dares stand up and defend America?  The so-called conservatives in government have fallen over like bowling pins.  They’re prepared to give in to all manner of demands.  The so-called conservatives are quietly working to root out Columbus Day and replace it with Juneteenth.  The important thing, and parties on all sides of every debate are absolutely sure of one thing:  We must wear masks!

Even one of the most popular “conservative” voices is on every day and night saying, “If we can go back to ball games, we’ll wear them.”  Maybe he will.  Some of us might just as soon not go anywhere the mask police will harass us.  The idea that some believe that we have the constitutionally guaranteed freedom not to make any of several public statements that masks represent just drives the media personalities to distraction.  They claim that their insistence is not even politically motivated.  But you’re just “so wrong” if you think you have the freedom NOT to make all the statements the mask represents.

Wearing the mask says you believe in the sham-demic, and one or two of us don’t.  It says that you want to patronize some business or another so badly that you’ll capitulate to the pressure.  You have to fly after all, don’t you?  You will wear the mask or be removed from the flight, as has happened already.  Wearing the mask also is a sign (to some of us) that you’ve taken a knee.  That you believe in all their nonsense and submit.  We’re being softened up to submit to things we don’t respect or believe in.  How about #TogetherAlone?  That makes no sense, but you’re expected to feel a rush of warmth at the idea of people watching each other eat on computer screens, and pretend like they’ve been to dinner.  If you think pressure to wear a mask is intense, wait till they decide everybody must shave their heads for the public health, or take a Mark in order to participate in economic activity.  That’ll fix us.

What won’t we accept?  Especially when they accuse us of “endangering the public.”  You must SUBMIT to society’s demands.  Even the mob wears masks, but it has nothing to do with the virus.  When we all wear masks, we signal agreement with the mob.  The fact that governors and mayors are doing the bidding of the goon-squad is no sign that the rest of us are ready to relinquish our Constitution, the Bill or Rights, the Declaration of Independence, or history or culture.  You obviously are FREE to make your own decisions, without speaking for anyone else.  Aren’t we all?  Some, apparently few, of us believe that appeasement is not the answer.  Thanks anyway, Governor Abbot.   But the Governor has bought in to the phony “spike” stories that the “news” media tells us are true, and set Texas back even further as to any hope of a swift recovery.  It looks like the media, or the mob has gotten to him.

On the first or second of July, CNN’s Erin Burnett shook her head in exasperation explaining that some people consider the maze of mandates an infringement of personal freedoms and liberties guaranteed in all our founding documents.  “That’s so WRONG!” she explained, out of breath, shaking her head in disbelief, amazed that anyone would dare even make such a claim.  Across the board, including many of the “contributors” on Fox News, they are incredulous that President Trump has not issued a national mask mandate, and spend countless hours expressing disbelief.  Never mind the details.  Never mind Dr. Fauci’s earlier statements about the ineffectiveness of masks and the statement, “There’s no need for Americans to go around wearing masks…”  No, the good doctor has changed his mind, and as you all know, we need to make a U-turn every time the self-impressed little leprechaun thinks he’s cuter than before.

Crime has gone exponential in every big city.  Even the fake news admits it obliquely while insisting that the protesters are peaceful, and we need to take note.  The police now know that any time they’re summoned, thinking someone’s been shot or killed, it could well be an ambush.  It’s happened repeatedly.  Murders, robberies and assaults are occurring at vastly increased rates in most cities.  Meanwhile mayors and city officials are rushing to pass rules and laws that might appease the mob.  The “de-fund the police” movement has gained traction.  New York’s de Blasio and kindred spirits across the United States are falling all over themselves to grant mob wishes by slashing police budgets.  De Blasio’s slash is reportedly one billion dollars.  The Minneapolis City Council has resolved to abolish the police and “RE-IMAGINE” law enforcement.  Everybody’s repeating the magic re-imagine phrase.  But the insurrectionists have a never-ending wish list that includes the redistribution of all private property.  In fact they hate, viscerally, the very concept of private property.

They are felling statues and memorials at a blinding pace.  Now they are after the founders and framers, without whom none of these cities would have existed in the first place.  Without the idea of America, governed by “We, the People” we probably wouldn’t even be here, and might never have been born.  There certainly wouldn’t be the kind of wealth they love to plunder, or cities to loot and burn.  But they’re on a roll, and can’t be bothered with logic just now.  They’re happy to let the homosexuals that dominate prime time do their explaining.  Have you seen these idiots cavorting in the faces of policemen?  Have you looked at those desecrating memorials and pulling down statues?  Are they being paid?  Because from the looks of them, they likely don’t know anything about anything.

There are some voices, even in the medical community who say the “spike” in virus cases is a farce.  Sick people are going to hospitals all right.  For two months they were afraid to go, and now they’re flooding in.  Hospitals are testing everyone, and claiming COVID cases exist in patients who’ve come in for other reasons.  Reporters are giddy, breathless, as the inevitable spike leads every news report.   To supporters of the riots; to the officials who’ve waited a lifetime for the opportunity to clamp down on the general population; to the flabbergasted mainstream reporters who just can’t believe that no national mask mandate has been declared; it’s the best news they could have hoped for.

Time is short.  The mob, backed by the media and business entities paying protection in a myriad of ways, needs to bring down Trump, Attorney General Barr or if necessary the whole system of governance in the United States before the lead players in the failed coup are indicted.  It was announced just last night that a whole bunch in the House of Representatives have signed a petition calling for the impeachment of Barr.  To justify it, they trotted out one of those who claimed to have “proof” of Russian collusion for the past three years.  He’s concerned about damage to the rule of law if Barr should continue in office.  In fact, it’s Obama’s inner circle and his agency brass that are implicated in the earlier attempt at insurrection.  Supposedly the cases are nearing completion, but we’ve heard that before.  Nonetheless, all the big name Deep State players have reportedly lawyered up just in case.  Meanwhile, many federal employees and heads of agencies support the ongoing insurrection against the United States in general, and against the current President in particular.  It’s a battle for the soul of the United States, and everybody seems willing to appease the mob.  They’ll never be appeased, and they’ll never stop making demands, no matter what we do.

Source: https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/the-mob-demands-death-to-america-and-the-mainstream-agrees/

The post The Mob Demands “Death to America” and the mainstream agrees first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Refining our research thus far, we have determined that the COVID-19 mortality, death, and case-fatalities rates are significantly lower than experts and policymakers currently believe. We have estimated the economic costs for various lockdown timelines and when the recovery can be phased in. The point where layoff-related deaths exceed COVID-19 lives saved is when we need to consider whether going on will be costlier than going back.

We estimate an average household burden of $33,442 and $27,848 per employed due to the $4.3trn cost to save COVID-19-related lives. The shorter the duration of the lockdown, the lower the cost and debt burden on the men and women who make our country great. This debt includes $3.8trn in deficit spending and $27trn in public debt, which, either separately or combined, will result in higher taxes, reduced social spending, lower job growth, GDP and living standards.

Numbers are central tendency estimates which likely will not match actual results. However, they are more than sufficient to make our trade-off argument that COVID lives saved should not be exceeded by lives ruined and lives lost.

The cost in human lives

On April 20, University of Washington (Institute of Health Metrics) Professor Ali Mokdad said, “The United States is already past the “peak” in terms of daily COVID-19-related deaths.” The IMHE modelers recently revised projected coronavirus-related deaths sharply downward, estimating 60,300 coronavirus-related deaths by early August. The White House had previously said that there might be between 100,000 and 240,000 coronavirus-related deaths even if most people followed strict social distancing guidelines.

Using our estimates, a 31% increase in unemployment (47m) with a lockdown extending through May will result in a doubling of drug overdoses (69,735) and an additional 15,137 suicides. Together, these account for 84,872 layoff-related deaths, in addition to the base-case estimates of 60,300 (with an estimated range of 34,063 to 140,381) coronavirus deaths predicted by the IMHE researchers.

The grim calculus of joblessness

According to data from the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Lancet, a medical journal, every one percent hike in unemployment will likely produce a 3.3 percent increase in drug-overdose deaths and a 0.99 percent increase in suicides.

For the year ending February 2019 (NCHS), 69,029 people died of drug overdoses, almost 7 out of 10 the result of opioids. Suicide, the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, accounted for 48,344 deaths (CDC), more than twice the number of homicides (19,510).

Lockdown-related deaths will likely exceed the base-case number of COVID-19 deaths by 141%—and this offsets 60% of the highest estimate of 140,381 predicted by IMHE researchers.

The number of layoff-related drug overdoses and suicide deaths will soar as lockdown durations grow, and in tandem with job losses, debt obligations, and economic costs.

Our base-case estimate is for 15 million unemployed by the end of 2020, assuming a phased-in recovery starting mid-May. Given the expected recovery, we now estimate 33,743 drug overdoses and 7,324 suicides, which sum to 41,067 layoff-related deaths. While not as grim, it increases the base-case estimate COVID-19 deaths by 68%.

We provide additional tables required to validate and support our trade-off conclusions in the following essay: The price of reducing needless deaths versus the price of COVID-19 lives saved: The grim calculus. The series of essays are from a longer COVID study.

Although statistics for alcohol layoff-related deaths are not as strong, there is a robust correlation. For people aged 50–65, being unemployed is associated with increased drinking, mood swings, and depression, which highlights the need for prevention policies and interventions and to improve access to treatment services during an economic recession, especially for vulnerable groups such as those facing layoffs in middle age.

Given the lockdown costs in lives and treasury, is it not common sense to say that the U.S. must go back to work, perhaps gradually, in phases. A mid-May unlock would reduce the economic cost by approximately $1.2trn, unemployment by 5.2 million, and reduce layoff-related deaths. If grocery stores and Home Depot can operate safely as essential businesses, so can many others. Like a critically ill patient, the economy cannot be on life support indefinitely. This is especially true when wealth destruction from a prolonged lockdown harms our ability to fund healthcare.

With luck and ingenuity, scientists will develop a vaccine for the world’s people. For America’s economy, getting back to work is the best medicine. The point where layoff-related deaths exceed COVID-19 lives saved is when we need to consider whether going on will be costlier than going back.

Note: Donald McGregor’s The Coronavirus: The Health of Our Nation, Our Economy, and Our Liberties, a Delicate Balance is an excellent commentary about the devastating psychosocial impact of a prolonged pandemic lockdown.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/content-guest/article/pandemic-2020-layoff-related-deaths-increase-covid-19-cordle-cfa

The post Pandemic 2020: Layoff-related deaths exceed COVID-19 deaths by 41% first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

We were warned that hospitals would be overrun.  They were sure to run out of ventilators, if not hospital beds.  Car companies were recruited to manufacture ventilators instead of cars.  Now nobody knows what to do with them all, and they’re being shipped to other countries all over the world.  Decisions that upended and impoverished millions were made based on predictions that were wildly inaccurate.  But don’t worry, they’ll all get “government money.”

The illness is real, not a hoax.  But “reporting” on the matter is a story unto itself.  This isn’t the media’s first rodeo.  Maybe they believe they’re getting better at perpetuating these frauds on the American public.  They spent three years trying to make us believe that General Michael Flynn was a Russian agent, and said those very words on the air.  They were sure or wanted all of us to be sure, that Trump was doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin, and said as much so many times you couldn’t count them.  (That’s all blowing up in their faces with new revelations this week.  Documents that prove the whole thing was a frame job have been released.  For some unknown reason the DOJ and FBI have been sitting on these all this time, and they prove what we’ve known for nearly three years.  But the mainstream still hasn’t a clue.)  After manipulating the public for years with nonsense that was obvious to anyone not relying on the mainstream papers and networks, we’re supposed to buy the panic they’re selling?

It looks like they’re inflating the numbers of illnesses and deaths.  We know all the early projections were four and five times the actual COVID numbers are as queer as several of the news anchors who report them.  There are numerous anecdotal examples, unreported in the mainstream press, to show that illnesses and deaths are being attributed to the virus on the basis of assumption.  The reason may have something to do with the allocation of “government money.”

But it’s a smirkfest on CNN.  A video is played of the President stating that he hopes to be able to hold rallies again, beginning sometime before the November election.  When the camera returns to the anchor desk you get a series of knowing looks (Don Lemon), a disgusted scowl, and an exasperated shaking of the head.  They just cannot believe what a dork we’ve got for president, or that any sane person wouldn’t agree.

Speaking of queer numbers, have you seen how badly Joe Biden is going to beat President Trump in the upcoming election?  Oh yeah, he’s going to beat Trump as soundly as Hillary Clinton did, maybe worse.  They love their numbers, don’t they?  Especially when their numbers are impossibly bad for President Trump.  Then they sneer at us for rejecting “facts.”  Given their recent and continuing record, it becomes clear, this is no accident.  They’ve pushed one false narrative after the other, beating each to death. But nothing works on the public like fear.

The great toilet paper crisis was utterly unnecessary.  But stand by.  They are pushing a meat shortage now, and one will probably be created leaving empty counters at the supermarket.  Apparently, that’s already the case in some places.  The news people are terribly skeptical about states allowing people to go about their lives while the “death count” is still rising.  But then, they haven’t been very good about predictions.

The reaction to the pandemic has been like an exercise in socialism.  We’re seeing dictatorial actions that make little logical sense, and then more drastic clampdowns when people do what they want anyway.  Like what happened at California beaches last weekend.  Aerial photos made it appear as though people were allowing a lot more than six feet between families. But there were thousands out there and governor Newsom was incensed that his “orders” had been disobeyed.  So this weekend he’s ordered the beaches closed.  Get back indoors, where it’s safe and healthy!  The other thing is the flood of money the government is distributing.  A couple or three trillion is out the door, and we’re beginning to wonder if there’s any end to it.  Are there no longer any consequences when the national debt explodes?

A headline today says the pandemic could last two years.  If the media has anything to say about it, it’s probably all we’ll hear for at least that long.

There’s still no visible sign of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.  Nobody’s sure if he’s sick or dead, or just partying with the concubines at a seaside resort.  At least no one is lowering their children down manhole passages, worrying that a missile strike could come at any moment.  Now we’re wondering what ridiculous “orders” we will be under, and whether the police will jail otherwise law-abiding citizens while letting actual criminals run free.  It’s the “new normal.”  (Forgive me.)

It looks as though we’ll be holding our meetings for the Feast of Tabernacles this year unless Dr. Fauci says otherwise.  Maybe even if he does.  We’ve got more to think about than the latest report, and it’s nice to think about something else for a change.  We’re holding a Sabbath service tomorrow at the regular time and hope things will be normal for everybody soon.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 1 May 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.