Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 13 March 2020
Greetings from Tyler,
If you thought you were going somewhere to do something, forget it. In the continuing strategy of never letting a crisis go to waste, it seems that there’s no point in waiting to see the extent of the crisis. An economic crisis has been created, regardless.
Conferences are being canceled. Concerts, festivals, sporting events, vacations, you name it. What might happen to Las Vegas? Will everything be canceled? Will they close the casinos? Will the entire economy of the United States be sacrificed on the altar of panic? The stock market shed nearly a third of its value over the past two weeks, and that’s real, whether the health risks are or not.
The Trump haters should have figured this out long before now. All they had to do in the first place was create a public health panic, true or otherwise. Trump haters have longed for an economic recession, regardless of the pain and suffering it might cause. Blaming Trump, perhaps not for having created the virus, but at least for not caring enough or not having taken the proper precautions, is reason enough to keep stoking fear.
What about the wild gyrations in the stock market? Do you think money managers and stockbrokers make money while the market is rocking along normally? In fact, they make their biggest paychecks when big transactions take place. Having people in a state of panic, selling to get out before they get wiped out, or buying at a perceived low, has to be lining their pockets. Big swings, of the sort we’ve seen over recent weeks, is boon to money managers and brokers. Panic isn’t bad for everyone.
If it means that Trump takes the blame or bears responsibility for not having reacted properly, so much the better. Just ask the homosexuals at the anchor desks. The President has obviously mishandled every aspect of this crisis. What a bum!
Having turned briefly to CNN just to see what they were doing, without staying long enough to turn the air blue, proud anchor Don Lemon had John Kasich on to lambaste Trump’s televised address on the coronavirus. Kasich was on the network due to the fact that he’s been reliably anti-Trump, what’s known as a never-Trumper. When Kasich allowed as how he thought Trump handled the televised statement “just fine,” sounding the right amount of seriousness, anchor Lemon boiled over. He threw a hissy fit at Kasich about Trump, talking over him turning the interview into a shouting match, ultimately getting himself so worked up he all but cried. How dare Kasich appear and not express outrage at Trump?
And what’s with these tests? The most effective of recent criticism has been that the government was unprepared, with not enough tests. But as we’ve seen, some of those who’ve tested positive don’t have any symptoms! At least two under mandatory quarantine have appeared on national television, feeling great physically, but having tested positive. They appeared healthy and happy except that they can’t leave to go anywhere until they’ve tested negative two or three times consecutively. It is interesting that people testing positive are showing no symptoms. Hmmm.
You’ve heard of the “containment zone,” some New York suburb where no one can leave their home for two or three weeks. What will you bet somebody in the “zone” tests positive and the quarantine gets extended again and again? Schools have extended Spring Break an extra week and cancellations of every imaginable gathering are roiling across the nation like a tidal wave. Every professional sporting activity has been canceled. The NBA, MLB, the NHL, College Basketball tournaments, and that’s just the beginning.
One of the most infuriating things to come out is the suggestion that some business concerns are refusing to accept cash. It might transmit the coronavirus, mind you, so kindly use your debit card or the Internet to make transactions. One of the dreams of the left is to ban cash. If all transactions have to be electronic, then there’s nothing one can do without oversight by government authorities. And isn’t that the socialists’ dream? Government monitoring and control over buying and selling?
Maybe the coronavirus is all it’s cracked up to be but forgive my cynicism. We’ve watched the mainstream media lie their faces off for three and a half years. Are we to suddenly believe them, now that they’re trying to frighten everyone to self-quarantine? Maybe this is the magic bullet that will finally take Trump down, and they’re positively giddy delivering the latest dire report. Two weeks ago I made the mistake of saying I didn’t want to hear one more word about the coronavirus. But it seems as though we’ll hear of nothing else for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, it joins Russia, Russia, Russia, the Ukrainian phone call and the fake impeachment as another attempt to depose the President.
If you want to stay home and wash your hands every five minutes, knock yourself out. Who doesn’t want to play hooky from work or school, and have an excuse nobody dares question? It’s perfect! We can all remain glued to the latest positive test result, just in case. Maybe Trump didn’t create the virus, but it’s the establishment’s only bet to turn the country against the President. They all seem to be in on it, the corporations, the sporting franchises, the media. Some people are engaged in panic buying, whether food, toilet paper or gasoline. Isn’t this fun?
It turns out that abortion will be funded, government power expanded and authority transferred from the executive branch to the legislative branch as part of coronavirus legislation. If Trump doesn’t sign on, they’ll explain it as proof he doesn’t care about poor sick people. We’ll see in the long run but there is the distinct possibility we’re being played.
We’re not going to cancel church this week, but you can always keep the Sabbath at home if you wish.
Mark
Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php