"With Us or Against Us"
by Bill Bonner
POITOU, FRANCE – “Je n’embrasse plus,” said an old friend when she came to visit. An exchange of kisses is customary in this part of France. But Chantal is taking no chances. And so, the world changes. Fear… anger… shaming… coercion – sinister emotions slip like snakes under an old door.
Final Truth: We are exploring the Brave New World of a “mission economy.” We fear it is a dark place. A mission economy is one where private needs and desires are subordinated to “public purpose.” Unfortunately, the public purpose is decided, not by the public, but by the same elite schemers, incompetents, and jackasses who control the rest of government.
They give us the War on Drugs… the War on Poverty… the War on Terror – all missions accomplished! And now, it is time to draft us for a war against a virus? We’ve seen that almost all public health measures designed to stop the virus – lockdowns, masks, etc. – have failed. It doesn’t seem to matter what you did… the results are uncorrelated. Now, vaccines are supposed to do the trick. But nobody really knows whether universal vaccination is a good thing or a bad thing.
Statistically, a person under the age of 44 has very little chance of dying from the dreaded disease. He might just as likely die from a traffic accident. Should such low-risk people go about their business and build up a natural “herd” immunity… or should the whole herd, young and old, at risk or not, get a shot in the arm with a drug that didn’t even exist a year ago?
And a report this week from a hospital in Leiden, in the Netherlands, tells us that 85% of its new COVID-19 cases were already vaccinated. Alas, nobody has the Full and Final Truth. At least, we don’t.
Colds and Opinions: Typically, people are allowed their own opinions… and get to decide for themselves what they put into their bodies. They enter shopping malls and restaurants, carrying their colds and opinions with them. The germs spread… some people succumb. But most build up a resistance. And the human race survives. But when a society gets into mission mode, contrary opinion is no longer allowed.
“Vaccinated America Has Had Enough,” writes editor David Frum in The Atlantic magazine, picking up the “anger” theme we explored yesterday. To fully understand where this is coming from, you have to connect the dots. Frum was a speechwriter for George W. Bush. It was he who came up with the preposterous “Axis of Evil” epithet. Back then, his mission was to gin up support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. You were either “with us or against us” said George W., perhaps reading Frum’s words on a teleprompter. Let us back up the tape and take a closer look.
Anti-American:Following the 9/11 attack, Congress rushed to judgement. In a hasty vote on 9/14, the pols gave Bush a blank check to “use all necessary and appropriate force” to bring the “bad guys” to heel. Only a single member of Congress – Barbara Lee from California – had the good sense and cool head to vote no. She pointed out that the resolution gave a “blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the Sept. 11 events - anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation’s long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit… “A rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs too great a risk that more innocent men, women, children will be killed.”
But the nation’s blood was up. Now, it had a mission! Poor Ms. Lee got death threats and was accused of being “anti-American,” even by the normally sober Wall Street Journal. So great was the vitriol that she needed around-the-clock bodyguards to protect her. But she was right. The wars created by the Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney team… and jingoed up by David Frum… were disasters.
Breaking Point: Continuing with his “us vs. them” theme today, Frum divides the country in two. There are the virtuous good citizens in “Biden’s America.” And there are the nay-sayers… the unvaccinated… the unclean… the untouchables in “Trump’s America.” The good ones are running out of patience. Have they reached the “breaking point,” he asks? He thinks it’s time to get tough: "The Biden administration could require proof of vaccination to fly or to travel by interstate, train or bus. It could mandate that federal contractors demonstrate that their workforces are vaccinated. It could condition federal student loans on proof of vaccination…"
They would spread the message about what people ought to do, in the same way that sanctions against drunk driving, cheating on taxes, and unjust discrimination in the workplace do. Then comes the criminal accusation: "In the end, the unvaccinated person himself or herself has decided to inflict a preventable and unjustifiable harm upon family, friends, neighbors, community, country, and planet."
Yes… Now it’s coming clear… the anti-vaxxers are terrorists! Frum does not suggest it, but shouldn’t they be hunted down… like religious heretics or fanatical bomb throwers? More to come…"
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