HeartDoc Andrew wrote:
> Michael Ejercito wrote:
>
>> https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1dhe1i0/uk_telegraph_the_toxic_legacy_of_lockdown_is/
>>
>> The toxic legacy of lockdown is destroying our political system
>> Until politicians come clean about the devastating costs it inflicted,
>> we will be stuck in this cycle of failure
>> JANET DALEY
>> 15 June 2024 • 2:16pm
>> Janet Daley
>>
>> A sign which says "stay at home to save lives" on the A470
>> CREDIT: Matthew Horwood
>> I have never known a general election like this one. I cannot remember a
>> national campaign in my lifetime in which the only question for voters
>> was who they hated less.
>> There have certainly been moments in the past when a sitting government
>> was so loathed that its defeat was clearly inevitable, but on those
>> occasions there was at least some hope and optimism attaching to the
>> rivals who would displace them.
>> Now, from both the evidence of opinion polling, which shows almost no
>> enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister in what is regarded as
>> a presidential contest, and the anecdotal, word-of-mouth currency that
>> is often more accurate, the conclusion is unavoidable.
>> Apart from vested interests in the public sector and the trade unions
>> (some of which appear to be making their support conditional on promises
>> of greater power), the electorate does not appear to much like the
>> Labour Party or its leader – but will still vote for them.
>> They are unaffected by the fact that the party’s policy statements are
>> evasive and its aims platitudinous, because they are not interested in
>> them at all. Labour’s sole function is to act as a blunt instrument with
>> which to beat the Tories. This applies equally to Reform, which might as
>> well change its name to Revenge.
>> This fulminating rage must be acknowledged and will have to play itself
>> out through the electoral process, but before we enter that dark place
>> in which we are governed by people nobody wanted, it is important to
>> examine this phenomenon, because it is the most serious threat to
>> healthy democracy in the postwar era. What is happening in Britain is
>> not unique.
>> Virtually all of the Western governments who presided over the pandemic
>> years are being thrown out, sometimes with deeply disturbing
>> consequences that could never have been anticipated a mere decade ago.
>> Politics in the most advanced countries of what was known as the Free
>> World has become deranged. Populations once believed to have renounced
>> febrile demagoguery and nativist hatred, having absorbed the terrible
>> lessons of the 20th century, are once again infected by them.
>> What is going on here? In this country, the conditions of ordinary life
>> for most people – even those groups who consider themselves unfairly
>> disadvantaged – are surely not as bad as they were in, say, the 1970s,
>> when the lights were going out on a regular rota, public transport was
>> frequently shut down completely by national strikes, and my generation
>> had to cope with devastating interest-rate rises and soaring inflation.
>> Of course there is genuine hardship and frustration – particularly over
>> the possibility of home ownership, which is the key to independent
>> adulthood – but this overwhelming fury is surely disproportionate to the
>> conditions of everyday life.
>> The crucial complaint is that “nothing works”, which applies almost
>> entirely to the public sector, and that no one in government seems to be
>> able to fix this. The assumption is that the governing party is either
>> utterly incompetent or indifferent to the needs of ordinary people.
>> This exasperation is exacerbated by the fact that neither the
>> Conservatives, who have been in power, nor Labour, which has been in
>> official opposition, can utter the truth. Government policies devised to
>> deal with the pandemic and the energy crisis created by the war in
>> Ukraine have tanked the economy.
>> Locking people up in their homes and paying them not to work destroyed
>> the possibility of creating new wealth and saw governments print
>> mountains of money that debased the currency. Energy bills were
>> subsidised by even more money from the Treasury.
>> But the governing party was not alone in its responsibility for creating
>> this disaster. Labour was not only complicit in these plans, it was
>> positively exuberant about them. Indeed, Sir Keir wanted earlier
>> lockdown, more lockdown and longer lockdown.
>> There was no respectable, mainstream political voice arguing that the
>> economic and social damage done by this decision to shut down the
>> country – and thus disable all the mechanisms of productive,
>> wealth-creating activity – might be catastrophic.
>> And there is still no one from the governing class prepared to say that
>> repairing this damage is going to require the kind of sacrifices to
>> which modern electorates are not accustomed.
>> More money cannot be poured into public services without raising taxes.
>> And raising taxes is a sure-fire way of killing any prospect of creating
>> new wealth, which makes a nonsense of Labour’s commitment to increase
>> growth.
>> Somebody is going to have to come clean about this if the democratic
>> process is to regain credibility. The Government, egged on by the
>> Opposition, was running on empty, spending funds that didn’t exist, for
>> the best part of two years, and the day of reckoning has finally arrived.
>> Now, as it happens this truth that dare not speak its name coincides
>> with a new era in public speech. Social media has opened channels for
>> the dissemination of what can be completely irresponsible, often false
>> and pathologically vicious content.
>> Troll armies, sometimes robotically generated, roam unchecked across a
>> landscape whose boundaries are largely unmonitored. Unverifiable and
>> untraceable sources fling out wholesale bile or blatant deception on a
>> scale that is truly overwhelming.
>> The Centre for Policy Studies issued a report last week suggesting that
>> this could be the first “deepfake election”, in which simulated video
>> clips of politicians making damaging statements are being circulated online.
>> Whipping up hatred and distrust is the whole point of this nasty new
>> game and there is only one way to stop its progress: some politician or
>> other is going to have to tell the truth.
>> We need a Churchillian voice to deliver the blood, sweat and tears
>> message, which would at least show respect for the intelligence of the
>> populace: there are no easy solutions to our current problems.
>> We are going to ask you to make sacrifices and accept some
>> disappointments. Remember that we have always survived as a nation by
>> facing difficult times with courage and resourcefulness.
>> But maybe it is too late for that.
>
> In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
> GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
> secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
> us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
> pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
> 100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
> appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
>
> Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
> COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
> rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
> moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
> contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
> "convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
> self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
> Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
> scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
> Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
> combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
> that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
> longer effective.
>
> Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
> https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ
> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
>
> So how are you ?
>
I am wonderfully hungry!

Michael