Are we headed for a world wide meltdown?

Why_Yes_I_Do's Avatar
I'm inclined to wait and see whether the narrative shifts from the "i-word" to the "r-word" within the next 6-12 months.... Originally Posted by CaptainMidnight
Race cars typically have a slap-shifter instead of the typical floor shifter with a clutch. I would expect us to change gears in the blink of an eye on the current track.
The_Waco_Kid's Avatar
Yup!

https://brownstone.org/articles/swed...roven-correct/

. Originally Posted by CaptainMidnight

excellent find CM! let's post that for our link challenged fellow posters!


recall that the UK initially said they would follow the real science as well then Boris "The Spider" Johnson caved in to the pressure of UK counterparts to Fauci and look what that got them.


Sweden’s Strategy Once Again Proven Correct

By Ian Miller May 20, 2022 Policy, Public Health 6 minute read


Throughout the pandemic, Sweden has faced an enormous amount of criticism and international pressure due to their willingness to stick to established public health principles and pre-pandemic planning.

Instead of following the incessant, anti-science groupthink that became part of a virus-induced political religion, Sweden chose instead to not impose the strict lockdowns that Dr. Fauci recently claimed were not tried in the US.


Sweden never mandated masks be worn in indoor public spaces, correctly identifying the lack of evidence supporting their use.


They kept schools open in defiance of teacher’s unions and politically motivated “experts” in the United States who advocated for a policy with zero benefits and tremendous harms.


Essentially, Sweden followed the actual science and not The Science™, with the requisite trademark and capital letters. That would include the guides that were prepared prior to the panic, inaccurate modeling, political motivations and crisis obsession took over.


Even last year it became readily apparent that no one in the media or public health establishment was willing to discuss the inarguable reality that Sweden’s results were no worse than many countries across the globe — and significantly better than many, many others.


In general, comparisons have been mainly focused on COVID specific outcomes, but now the World Health Organization, fresh off demanding authoritarian powers over sovereign nations whenever they deem necessary, has released a new report on their estimates of excess mortality.


Excess mortality is simply the number of deaths above the expected rate in a given country in a specific time frame.


Excess mortality captures all of the outcomes in a country — it’s not limited to COVID related metrics or any other specific cause.


For that reason it can often be a better indicator of the true cost of the pandemic, whether that be COVID mortality or the consequences of lockdowns, hospital policy or mental health breakdowns.


The WHO report contains many illuminating statistics from the first two years of the pandemic which illustrate that Sweden’s approach was undoubtedly the correct one; once again contradicting the expert derived “consensus” that advocates for endless restrictions on normal life.


Sweden’s relative success is easily visible when comparing thirty European countries in estimated excess mortality rate per 100,000:



Sweden ranks 25th out of the 30 countries.


24 countries had a higher excess mortality rate per 100,000.


In summary, Sweden, the country that eschewed strict lockdowns, had some of the lowest mask usage anywhere on earth, kept schools open and society functioning as much as possible, and had one of the lowest rates of overall mortality of any country in their region.


While a single graph or chart may not necessarily disprove pro-mandate arguments, this one comes remarkably close.


If lockdowns, masks and other restrictions were as important as experts and politicians preach that they are, these results should not be possible.


Countries like Germany, Portugal and the Czech Republic were all praised for having “science based” responses with strict lockdowns, and extremely high rates of mask compliance.






Portugal’s vaccine success





Germany’s “Master class in science communication”





The Czech Republic’s “Lifesaving lesson to wear masks”
Sweden vastly outperformed each of them.


But let’s dive in a bit deeper.
One of the more common refrains from mask advocates is that US states such as New York, New Jersey and others have poor cumulative results because they weren’t aware early on that masks “work,” so their policies were adjusted and spread was successfully reversed by mask mandates and other restrictions after the first wave.


However, Sweden shows the exact opposite.


Restrictions in Sweden for the entirety of 2020 and 2021 were consistently among the least authoritarian and invasive when compared to other western countries.


Once again, if mask mandates, lockdowns and strict vaccine based policies were so important and effective, we’d expect the outcomes in 2021 to be worse in Sweden, as most of the world experienced increased spread with more transmissible variants.


Instead we see the exact opposite:



Black bars indicate the 2020 rate in each country, while the orange bars are the 2021 rates.


In many European countries, excess mortality became significantly worse in 2021 despite the arrival of vaccines, the ingrained evidence-free belief in masks and widespread discriminatory vaccine passport policies. Sweden had the exact opposite results, with significantly lower rates in 2021 despite their “lax” rules.


Comparing the 2021 numbers exclusively also highlights Sweden’s success:



Although the determination of pro-mandate fanatics to exclusively compare Sweden to other Scandinavian countries is nonsensical, the 2021 excess mortality rates show Sweden with lower numbers than both Finland and Denmark.


Revisiting the overall chart from 2020-2021, it’s important to highlight several other countries that had much stricter rules than Sweden:



France, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain and Italy all had lockdowns, varying levels of vaccine discrimination, mask mandates and strict entry requirements.


All fared worse than Sweden.

The lockdown and mask apologists simply offered no explanation for this.


Oh sure, there are excuses and misdirections, but no actual explanations.


Yes, Sweden had higher cumulative rates than the other Scandinavian countries, but viewing them in context shows how similar they actually were, outside of Norway, which was essentially a global exception.


Norway, however, had significant rates of spread in late 2021 that would not be counted until the 2022 data is in.



In general, the Scandinavian countries were more lax than most of continental Europe regardless.


More importantly, the broader context of Europe shows how successful Sweden’s policies actually were.


Here are several notable countries and how much higher than excess mortality rates were from 2020-2021:
  • Czech Republic 229%
  • United States 163%
  • Italy 147%
  • Spain 106%
  • United Kingdom 100%
  • Germany 96%
  • Portugal 71%
  • Greece 63%
  • Netherlands 57%
  • Belgium 35%
All of these countries had much harsher restrictions than Sweden with significantly worse results.


No matter how hard they try, every available piece of data and evidence continues to contradict the assertions made by incompetent experts desperate to protect their disgraced reputations and future grants.


Masks, lockdowns and strict discrimination at nearly every indoor business were all proven to be completely ineffective, both at reducing infections and overall mortality.


Sweden’s willingness to follow science and not The Science™ meant that they limited the negative impacts of COVID while avoiding higher numbers of deaths from other lockdown-derived consequences.


The vast majority of mainstream media outlets have no interest in covering these results because it contradicts the policies they’ve strongly advocated for and consistently promoted.


CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and many other mainstream publications did their best to ensure that corporations, politicians, teacher’s unions and other decision makers had the cover to enforce seemingly endless mandates.


Disturbingly, toddlers are still masked in New York City, which appears to be heading back towards mask mandates and vaccine passports (now with boosters!).


School districts across the United States have already decided to mandate masks due to a slight increase in cases.


These policies will now be an endless, reoccurring threat in anti-science areas like Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.


All based on the lie that masks and mandates work. A lie that Sweden helps expose.


Republished from the author’s Substack
Author


Ian Miller


Ian Miller is the author of “Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates.” His work has been featured on national television broadcasts, national and international news publications and referenced in multiple best selling books covering the pandemic. He writes a Substack newsletter, also titled “Unmasked.”
Chung Tran's Avatar
The facts are Biden said he would cure all the countries problems. If all the problems were caused by Trump, has he fixed anything?

Only about 2 in 10 adults say the U.S. is heading in the right direction or the economy is good, both down from about 3 in 10 a month earlier., with just 33% within the president’s party saying the country is headed in the right direction, down from 49% in April.
Overall, two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy. That rating is largely unchanged over the last few months, though elevated slightly since the first two months of the year. Originally Posted by tman1847
Why can't you guys debate without making up shit? Biden never said that, and you know it.

Of course more people disapprove of Biden's handling of the economy. I'm one of them. But month-to-month data points are pointless. He is very limited in what he can do right now. He helped fuck up the energy supply problems, for sure.

So you're saying he is not a rayycist or xenophobe after all for banning flights to the USA? Did not realize you were such a staunch defender of him. Thx. Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do
You are making up shit. Not only did I not say Trump is a Xenophobe, I said he was late and underwhelming in banning flights. 2 weeks late for China, and way late with Europe.

nonsense! Trump did act. you know that. stop acting like you don't. don't forget your god Fauci was saying the exact same things


you and WTF amuse me. you two think Trump shutdown the economy for over a year. did not happen and you two disingenuous goobers know it.

there was nothing any nation could have done to stop covid once the Chinese allowed international travel to continue for over a month while knowing there was an outbreak in progress.
Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid
No shit that Covid ran amok. But God Damn it, Trump was slow to ban Chinese flights, and European flights after that. He forced everyone to leave Europe all at once, and US airports became Covid petri dishes, with hundreds of people in tight spaces waiting to be processed.

Huh? I think Trump shut the economy for a Year? Why lie? He didn't shut it one fucking day. Nor should he have. You Guys really embrace lies to make your shallow points. What is your point? To stir a reaction?

Uh-oh! Looks like you left out any mention of the grotesquely excessive $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan" passed in March 2021, the primary cause of the inflation spike we've experienced over the last 12 months.
Originally Posted by CaptainMidnight
Excuse my French, but that is bullshit.

If the rescue plan caused our inflation, why is inflation raging all over the Globe? It didn't help. Nor did Trump's bonus unemployment and stimulus payments.

A real allocation of ''fault'' for inflation looks like this:

Powell/FED 60%
Russian War 10%
Biden Policy 10%
Covid Fallout/Supply chokes 20%
Why_Yes_I_Do's Avatar
...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do
So you're saying he is not a rayycist or xenophobe after all for banning flights to the USA? Did not realize you were such a staunch defender of him. Thx.

You are making up shit. Not only did I not say Trump is a Xenophobe, I said he was late and underwhelming in banning flights. 2 weeks late for China, and way late with Europe.

No shit that Covid ran amok. But God Damn it, Trump was slow to ban Chinese flights, and European flights after that. He forced everyone to leave Europe all at once, and US airports became Covid petri dishes, with hundreds of people in tight spaces waiting to be processed... Originally Posted by Chung Tran
So let us ask the obvious question that you are ducking first. When did you first know the covid as a massive threat to humanity, such that extraordinary measures would be required? Pro Tip: That would involve a date, fact certain, which should of course, precede the first know case arriving in the US on what date - exactly?

Then if you have the bandwidth, did you vociferously condemn crack-pots such as F Joe Biden for condemning Trump as a xenophobe and a racist for - as you claim - belatedly - taking steps to protect the US from infection from China? For now we can ignore when flights from Europe which were similarly banned and condemned by the same stoop-assed suspects. Don't be wanting you to loose focus for a second.

Floor is yours Big Boy. Step up. Do yourself proud.
Chung Tran's Avatar
I knew on January 18, 2020, that flights from China should be stopped.

On January 22, I discussed it with a Co-worker, and asked why Trump was not responding.

I scoffed at Biden's Xenophobe remark, and said Faucci was a Tool for backing Trump's cover up of the crisis.
... You also told us the Hunter laptop was fake, mate. Remember?

Fauci has flip-flopped 8 or 10 times on everything co-vid
and President Trump should have FIRED Fauci when He wanted to.
But was advised against it.

Looks like Fauci was WRONG about Florida - and DeSantis was RIGHT.

#### Salty
Actually, 6’3”, 265 was my last official measurements. Oh, I had a 36” waist. No fat there Captain. I played a year after college as well. Now, don’t be so angry Captain. Originally Posted by bambino
Iam going to take a guess by your height and weight You played Defensive End. Or maybe Outside Linebacker.
Chung Tran's Avatar
... You also told us the Hunter laptop was fake, mate. Remember?
Originally Posted by Salty Again
I did not. Facts matter, despite you and the Qanon Right dispensing with facts at every whim.

What I said is the part about ''the big guy'' referencing Joe seems manufactured.. Fake, if you like. It strains credulity to think they would openly discuss details, but carefully construct a ''big guy'' narrative. Political enemies have every reason to Doctor that part alone, because innuendo is not sufficient under tort law to sue.

I don't dispute any of the rest.. The Blow, the Hookers, the millions in cash paid for questionable purposes.

If the Republicans had not sat on the information for a God Damn year, I would be less suspicious.
lustylad's Avatar
Of course more people disapprove of Biden's handling of the economy. I'm one of them. But month-to-month data points are pointless. He is very limited in what he can do right now. He helped fuck up the energy supply problems, for sure. Originally Posted by Chung Tran
You sure are a twisted & conflicted little soul, aintcha chungy?

You sound like someone who knows Biden is an obviously incompetent klutz, but you're afraid to give the rest of us the satisfaction of watching you admit the obvious. So you flake back & forth between criticizing and defending the Idiot-In-Chief.

Excuse my French, but that is bullshit.

If the rescue plan caused our inflation, why is inflation raging all over the Globe? Originally Posted by Chung Tran
No, it's not bullshit at all.

It's actually the consensus of economists (on both the right and left) that the ill-christianed "American Rescue Plan" was a colossal dim-retard policy blunder that unnecessarily added up to 3 percentage points to our current inflation rate, causing the purchasing power of the dollar to erode much faster than the Euro is currently losing its value.

Even far-left rags like Vox are acknowledging this:

From 2021 onward, what’s known as “core inflation” has been significantly higher in the US than in other wealthy countries...

A recent article published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco makes this point. The authors — ̉scar Jordà, Celeste Liu, Fernanda Nechio, and Fabián Rivera-Reyes — compare core inflation in the US to the average of eight wealthy countries (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Finland). Before 2021, these and the US had similar inflation levels. Then the US’s shot up.

The authors don’t mince words about why they think that is, writing: “Estimates suggest that fiscal support measures designed to counteract the severity of the pandemic’s economic effect may have contributed to this divergence by raising inflation about 3 percentage points by the end of 2021.”

That is: The US did a lot more stimulus than these other countries, and now it’s seeing a lot more core inflation. And the stimulus that most stands out is Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan — because it was enacted after more than $3 trillion had already been spent to stimulate the economy under Trump, with one big chunk of that being approved just three months prior.

We put gasoline on the fire. That’s basically what the ARP did. It was almost written as if we didn’t just pass a trillion-dollar stimulus in December,” said Goldwein.


https://www.vox.com/23036340/biden-a...plan-inflation
Chung Tran's Avatar
I said the Rescue plan contributed... In a small way.

But 3 points? Not buying it. The Federal Reserve excess stimulus, and refusal to react is the major driver. Those Fools just stopped buying mortgage-backed securities, despite the hottest housing market in US history.

You give the FED a pass, because it absolves Joe, and you won't have that. And you probably have little understanding anyway.
Why_Yes_I_Do's Avatar
So let's review:
  • Dec 31, 2019 First reported case of the covid in China was 'officially' reported to WHO
  • Jan 15, 2020 First known case of the covid landed in the US (see also Jan 19, 2020)
  • Jan 15, 2020 Pelosi delivered article of impeachment to US Senate after holding them up for 3+ weeks
  • Jan 15, 2020 China signed the Phase 1 trade deal with the US
  • Jan 18, 2020 Chungy knew that flights should be stopped from China because of the 'crisis'
  • Jan 19, 2020 First known case of the WuFlu in the US was reported
  • Jan 21, 2020 First published paper claiming the PCR test valid for covid, despite not having any isolated virus to test against, was published (they winged it)
  • Jan 22, 2020 Chungy discussed shutting it all down with a co-worker
  • Jan 31, 2020 flights from China banned in US by Trump
  • Feb 1, 2020 Joe Biden tweeted Trump was racist and xenophobic for banning China flights to US
  • March 29 Trump shut it all down. (BTW: Birk and Fauci had been lobbying hard for quite sometime, based upon Neil Furguson's ridiculously bullshit modeling)
  • Nov 17, 2020 peer review paper said the Jan 21, 2020 PCR test paper was total and complete hogwash
Anything there to disagree with on the record?
Bustling day for me tomorrow. I may not be back until Monday, so no real hurry.
Did you happen to be in Washington State between Jan 15-19, 2020 Comrade?
ATM it rather looks like Chungy is actually the WuFlu mule commissioned by China ;-)

I knew on January 18, 2020, that flights from China should be stopped.

On January 22, I discussed it with a Co-worker, and asked why Trump was not responding.

I scoffed at Biden's Xenophobe remark, and said Faucci was a Tool for backing Trump's cover up of the crisis. Originally Posted by Chung Tran
I did not. Facts matter, despite you and the Qanon Right dispensing with facts at every whim.

What I said is the part about ''the big guy'' referencing Joe seems manufactured.. Fake, if you like. It strains credulity to think they would openly discuss details, but carefully construct a ''big guy'' narrative. Political enemies have every reason to Doctor that part alone, because innuendo is not sufficient under tort law to sue.

I don't dispute any of the rest.. The Blow, the Hookers, the millions in cash paid for questionable purposes.

If the Republicans had not sat on the information for a God Damn year, I would be less suspicious. Originally Posted by Chung Tran
... No, not exactly - YOU told us the laptop was FAKE
because Adam Schiff said-so... Just sayin...
But because we're mates - I won't re-bump that thread again.

The part about Hunter referencing Joe (The Big Guy) in
the business was ALSO mentioned by Hunter's business partner.

Kinda hard for Rudy or whomever you feel mighta "doctored"
the thing to do it and also get Hunter's mates to mention it.
Don'tcha think?

Then there's the FACT that Joe Biden OUTRIGHT LIED when
claiming the laptop was fake and Russian DisInformation.

Fifty-One (51) past and present "Intelligence Officials"
also said-so.

Ya think that maybe, just maybe the election result mighta
been different IF the America people knew the TRUTH about
the laptop? ... But the American Voters were LIED TO.

... Blimey! ... The great depths a intelligent person
such-as YOU will surely go to DEFEND this is STUNNING, mate.

### Salty
Chung Tran's Avatar
Looks about right. No disagreement from me.

Might have been helpful to ad the date Trump admitted to Bob Woodard that he knew by (specific date), that the virus was a big fucking deal, but chose to downplay it.

Same time those Republicans in Congress were getting private briefings and dumping stocks. Fucking Thieves.
Chung Tran's Avatar

The part about Hunter referencing Joe (The Big Guy) in
the business was ALSO mentioned by Hunter's business partner.

Kinda hard for Rudy or whomever you feel mighta "doctored"
the thing to do it and also get Hunter's mates to mention it.
Don'tcha think?

### Salty Originally Posted by Salty Again
No. The Republican Operatives sat on the laptop for a God Damn YEAR. Why?

a year is plenty of time to doctor bits and pieces. But even if nothing was doctored, the Big Guy isn't necessarily Joe. Wasn't the ''Big Guy'' only getting 10%? Fuck, that could be a tithe to God Almighty.
... So ---- you believe that the "Big Guy" is NOT Joe?
Is THAT it?

... Um... since reports (and videos ) have come out
about the laptop, I've yet to hear a single credible source
claim the laptop "was doctored" --- Not even Hunter.

### Salty