Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 167

[ecosophia]

We are now in the fourth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary more than three years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. Still, here we are. Crude death rates and other measures of collapsing public health are anomalously high in many countries, but nobody in authority wants to talk about the inadequately tested experimental Covid injections that are the most likely cause; public health authorities government shills for the pharmaceutical industry are still trying to push through laws that will allow them to force vaccinations on anyone they want; public trust in science is collapsing; and the story continues to unfold.

So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before: 

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its wholly owned politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 
 
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue. 

4. If you plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.

5. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.

With that said, the floor is open for discussion.

Comments

Re: Mask Mandates Have Returned

[(Anonymous)]

As you say, "If it was solely about health and safety, then they would be apologetic about inconveniencing their customers, not boastful."

If anyone has the energy to push back on these tyrants, and I hope so, I very much hope so, might I suggest the Peggy Hall religious exemption route. It costs 29 bucks (so it's not for everyone, and I don't take commissions, jaja)-- but the idea is, she sells you a download of a document relevant to your state law regarding masking, then you take that to a notary. (Usually you can get a notary at a UPS mailboxes shop, for example, no big deal.) Keep you notarized document in a plastic sleeve, and present it-- precisely in circumstances such as this one (the bullying maskers in that used bookshop).

From what I have observed, mask bullies will bully with all their usual arguments (we've all heard them), until they get threatened with something with some serious legalese and that suggests that it just might ...uh oh...) have an attorney behind it. Then they'll back down fast. I kind of don't think the owner of a used bookshop is going to want to take on an actual lawsuit..

Again, I have no financial interest in this--I don't know Peggy Hall personally-- make of it what you will:
https://www.thehealthyamerican.org/classes/exemption-doc-publicaccommodations

FYI I myself will be downloading and notarizing a form for my state. And I will carry it with me. What i recall from 2020-2023 is that the mask tyrants oftentimes pop up in unexpected places, and they can be so dreadfully insistent. Back then, my attitude was, it's stupid, it's annoying, but go-along-to-get-along, this will be over soon. But I don't see it that way now. I see it now as very important to push back, and push back hard, and with precision. Not yelling, but having the precise legal vocabulary. They will impose on the sheeple whatever they can get away with, and who knows what medical treatments / procedures / total headaches / perversions they'll come up with next.

Re: Mask Mandates Have Returned

[(Anonymous)]

Personally, I would prefer to not give any business to the insane cult members. I might think twice if I were really hard up and there were no other options, but I would rather just do my shopping elsewhere.

Re: Mask Mandates Have Returned

[(Anonymous)]

This post got me thinking. Which, in my personal scheme of things, are the places most important to pushback on when it comes to mask bullying? I think all such businesses are, because they are open to the public, and because they are open to the public in the US that's means that, no, they do not have the legal right to make me put on the mask if I say I have a medical reason not to. I wouldn't want to allow precedent for that in my city.

That said, I wouldn't buy anything, not even a postcard, from that bookstore ever again, as a matter of principle.

And I think I'd be much more into protesting a mask mandate in some place supported by my tax dollars, such as a museum that gets tax payer funding, for example, or any place that sells food.

Re: Mask Mandates Have Returned

[kallianeira]

That's a tough call for someone in a little town with only one or two grocery stores and no home delivery option. How much choice do you have? Still, I'm going to get out my mask exemption document from 2022 (which I have never had to use in a shop because by then it was pretty much over) in preparation.

But I did hear from people who had them at the time that they were not always honoured. And when I went back to training at work in September!!!!! 2022 that place was still requiring them and wouldn't broach an exeption even with a legally valid document. You were stuck. Dead right and all that.

- iridescent scintillating elver

Re: Mask Mandates Have Returned

[(Anonymous)]

Not the worst idea, although during the height of the scamdemic, I just told people I had a "medical exemption" and that was usually enough (unless I was dealing with the most enthusiastic mask enforcers).

I'm not sure how good the legalese stuff would be right now, since most of the emergency orders and such used to back up mask mandates during the scamdemic proper have since expired. For example, the "State of Iowa Proclamation of Disaster Emergency" order ended at 11:59 p.m. on February 6th, 2021. Although I suppose I could still print out Section 4, subsection G wherein it states: Any person, for whom communication is made difficult while wearing a face covering, is exempt from the face covering mandate.

--Sam