Crisis

Caitlin JOHNSTONE
I have a bedtime story for you.

What is most striking about the exceptional measures that have been set in motion in our country (and in many others too) is the inability to see them outside of the immediate context they apparently function in. Hardly anyone seems to have attempted—as any serious political analysis would require—to interpret these measures as symptoms and signs of a broader experiment, in which a new paradigm of governance over people and things is at play.

What is more important, taking stern measures to fight the Coronavirus or maintaining our civil liberties and freedoms? Leaked German government documents may have the definitive answer.

Germany’s federal government and mainstream media are engaged in damage control after a report that challenges the established Corona narrative leaked from the interior ministry.
Some of the report key passages are:

Inspector Gregory: Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
Sherlock Holmes: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Gregory: The dog did nothing in the night-time.
Sherlock Holmes: That was the curious incident.
“The Adventure of Silver Blaze” – By Arthur Conan Doyle

Ron PAUL
One of the few good things to come out of the government-mandated shutdown is that many parents have started homeschooling their children. Many of these parents are likely to continue homeschooling after the government schools reopen.

The Leopard, the celebrated Italian novel, treats of ‘end of époque’ and its lacerating convulsions. Its principal protagonist, the Sicilian nobleman, the Prince of Salina, is struck by the haunting presentiment of an imminent end to the thousand-year era of ‘the leopard’ (his family’s insignia); to the end of long-observed Sicilian social structures and rituals – and to his own demise, and that of his family. He has heirs, but Salina understands full well that he will be the very last ‘leopard’.

East Asia fares significantly better in terms of the impact of COVID-19 than the West. Although the virus is believed to have originated in East Asia, as of May 22, 2020 no East Asian nation was among the first ten countries in number of total cases of COVID-19. No matter what type of rule – democratic or autocratic – the numbers of total cases and deaths per 1 million of population in East Asian countries are significantly lower than in the West despite huge population density.

They want to meet me not because I’m Mike from Kansas, because I represent the greatest nation in the history of civilization.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 28 February 2020
I want everyone to be reminded that America remains the world’s leading light of humanitarian goodness as well amidst this global pandemic.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 7 April 2020

There are two polar-opposite approaches for dealing with the challenge of coronavirus-19: libertarian proposals prioritize the economy above the public’s health, whereas socialist proposals prioritize the public’s health above the economy. Libertarian countries rely on developing “herd immunity” to the disease, in preference to imposing social distancing and “lockdowns,” which aim instead to reduce the spread of the infection.