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Preparing for a post-virus world

PeteR said:
Somewhere in the second group are the mask wearers who won't even make eye contact, as uf looking can cause them to catch it... crazy.

I go maskless and smile, talk to people, etc.

Yesterday, I had to go to the grocery store. They had huge signs for 'entrance' and 'exit.' As I left, a lady directed me toward the further and less convenient exit... hesitantly I complied. On mydrive home I kicked myself! Next time, I will flash her a big smile and walk out the entrance. I am increasingly resistant in every phase of this control cr@p.
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I am 100 percent with you about this control thing. Here our Governor issued that it's one person per family per cart in a Grocery store and I have yet to follow this order and will not comply. Also, has banned anyone under 18 from going into a store alone. My sister wife doesn't drive but she enjoys getting out the house for groceries etc. I am not going to comply with unconstitutional orders and directives.
 
PeteR said:
Somewhere in the second group are the mask wearers who won't even make eye contact, as uf looking can cause them to catch it... crazy.

I go maskless and smile, talk to people, etc.

Yesterday, I had to go to the grocery store. They had huge signs for 'entrance' and 'exit.' As I left, a lady directed me toward the further and less convenient exit... hesitantly I complied. On mydrive home I kicked myself! Next time, I will flash her a big smile and walk out the entrance. I am increasingly resistant in every phase of this control cr@p.
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And the dirty looks when you don't maintain 'proper' social distancing. Near impossible in any kind of busy store.
 
Since lockdowns are apparently so beneficial, when will we be lowering the National speed limit to 15 mph?
Just think how many of those 38,000 fatalities per year we could save.
 
 
FollowingHim said:
So I said this back in February, as part of a larger hypothesis:

Now, China is in the process of releasing a digital cryptocurrency, the DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment). This is a big deal, not just another cryptocurrency or a small tweak to a national currency. This currency is, or will be very soon:
  • The first cryptocurrency issued by the central bank of a major nation as legal tender.
  • The only cryptocurrency legal in China.
  • Not for price speculation. It's firmly linked to the RMB, the value is known and secure. Value won't fluctuate like Bitcoin etc.
  • Far, far easier to trade internationally than the US dollar. No need to use SWIFT or credit cards.
  • Trade person-to-person (phone to phone), not only person-to-store. Can't do that with Visa.
  • The only cryptocurrency that can be traded offline without an internet connection. Remote country locations, in a train in a tunnel, during internet outages - completely reliable, you can always use it. This makes it the first electronic currency that is a truly viable complete replacement for paper money.
  • Supported by major institutions - all Chinese banks, AliPay and WeChat. Already being trialed by McDonalds in China. And this isn't just Chinese support - if you buy anything from AliExpress, you're already using AliPay. That makes it instantly international.
I predict that within 1 year, two at the outmost, this will be the easiest way for any of us to send money to each other, and the most seamless way to buy anything online. Transaction fees will be lower than anything else, or non-existent. And it will just work. It will be regularly used by many people, including many of us - not as the most common method yet, but we'll all be becoming familiar with it.

Those of us who buy things regularly from China will likely find this far more convenient and cheaper than credit cards or international money transfers, possibly even the only option for some trades, so will probably end up using it out of necessity. I currently buy business supplies from China in US dollars, which is honestly ridiculous (converting NZD to USD to RMB, through my local bank (NZ company) -> Visa (US company) -> AliPay (Chinese company) -> recipient's bank, all of which must make a profit on the way, simply because USD is the default for international trading at present). The US components of that chain are a pointless complication and expense, simply using a Chinese currency for at least part of my business would be a no-brainer.

But if every international company dealing with China drops the use of US dollars though, and deals with Chinese currency directly, the US dollar will collapse as nobody will need it any more. And the US economy will go with it.

And:
  • Like every cryptocurrency, every single transaction is recorded permanently. These records are held by the Chinese central bank. The Chinese government can see every single transaction you have ever made with it, and the history of where your money came from before you and what it did afterwards.
This will ultimately be linked to some form of China's "social credit system", internationally, and used to penalise individual businesses or even persons who are critical of China, anywhere in the world.

There are Western alternatives that attempt to do this, Facebook's Libra being the most well known. They may come into use, but they won't be able to combine all the above features, so will simply be a sideline used for some purposes. The DCEP will be mainstream.

This will be a major plank in the changes in the world over the next few years. This is the dollar-killer, and the paper-money-killer. It's also how China can extend their authority across the world without firing a single shot or even technically taking over any other country.
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DCEP? How apropos, lol!
 
I find it interesting that nobody seems to be disputing the idea that herd immunity at 80% effectively stops the virus.
But, conversely, the idea that one unvaccinated child threatens the health of every child in the classroom is still absolutely believed.
 
It's gone from flattening the curve to a vaccine to having a cure. Which, as we know from the flu vaccines, a cure will never come; at least nothing better than hydroxychloroquine. They're just moving the goal posts because the want to keep expanding their control of society.
 
rockfox said:
It's gone from flattening the curve to a vaccine to having a cure. Which, as we know from the flu vaccines, a cure will never come; at least nothing better than hydroxychloroquine. They're just moving the goal posts because the want to keep expanding their control of society.
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This should be a strong data point relative to where we are in eschatology... How it plays out is matter for discussion, but that we are 'there' is hard to debate.
 
rockfox said:
It's gone from flattening the curve to a vaccine to having a cure. Which, as we know from the flu vaccines, a cure will never come; at least nothing better than hydroxychloroquine. They're just moving the goal posts because the want to keep expanding their control of society.
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I believe that the immediate fear is the upcoming election. Pretending that the shutdown needs to increase instead of abate in order to make a vote-by-mail the only possibility.
 
PeteR said:
This should be a strong data point relative to where we are in eschatology... How it plays out is matter for discussion, but that we are 'there' is hard to debate.
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And the fact that it happened so quickly too.

I know we've been creeping ever closer to this reality, but the fact that it went from 0-60 in a matter of seconds is revealing.

It's encouraging to see that not everyone's buying it and that there's been enough backlash to keep hope.

The rumblings I hear are that many hard-core churches never truly closed and those that did are looking towards a concerted effort to reopen on May 31st. The thinking is that there's no way for the authorities to come down on thousands of churches all opening at once. We'll see.
 
steve said:
I believe that the immediate fear is the upcoming election. Pretending that the shutdown needs to increase instead of abate in order to make a vote-by-mail the only possibility.
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So true, but the other side is using it too. It's now a rallying point for Trump as well. Though never a supporter of him, I think he's playing this one masterfully. I support him on this issue, and for me to be open about supporting him says something. I don't think I'm alone either. If these blatantly political lockdowns continue, and Joe Biden continues to be as incompetent as it seems, it would take huge amounts of voter fraud to keep Trump from a landslide. My fear is that he will play contrarian just long enough to be taken seriously, then cave to trillion dollar stimulus packages on the hopes of being seen as compassionate. I fear this is all kabuki theater and all the players are just gearing up for even more big- state giveaways.
 
Mojo said:
So true, but the other side is using it too. It's now a rallying point for Trump as well. Though never a supporter of him, I think he's playing this one masterfully. I support him on this issue, and for me to be open about supporting him says something. I don't think I'm alone either. If these blatantly political lockdowns continue, and Joe Biden continues to be as incompetent as it seems, it would take huge amounts of voter fraud to keep Trump from a landslide. My fear is that he will play contrarian just long enough to be taken seriously, then cave to trillion dollar stimulus packages on the hopes of being seen as compassionate. I fear this is all kabuki theater and all the players are just gearing up for even more big- state giveaways.
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Overdosing on popcorn before this all ends is a definite possibility.
 
Mojo said:
It's encouraging to see that not everyone's buying it and that there's been enough backlash to keep hope.
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The lines are however being drawn clearly from the masses who do buy it and the minority who do not. Despite the devastation caused by the lockdown, latest polls show our government's support has risen dramatically, were an election held today they'd be back in with an enormous majority far exceeding their current one. But at the same time, those who see through it are talking - people are rallying behind the only conservative party in the country also, which is talking strongly against the legislative overreach. Many people are talking seriously in private about the times. But this is a minority.

Society is being turned into an obedient mass with an extreme view in one direction, and a resisting remnant with a sensible but (by comparison) extreme view in the other direction. The tension is beginning and will only rise, and is being deliberately encouraged by the government and media by them sitting largely in support of only one of these extremes rather than taking a neutral position.

The crunch will come when a mandatory vaccine is introduced, and the vast majority of the population support it being mandatory. What happens then I cannot foresee, but it won't be pretty. Some of the minority will give in and be subjected to the violence of forced vaccination, others will resist peacefully and be squashed with greater violence (legal violence by the state plus vigilante action), others may resist with violence with predictably unpredictable results. Whatever happens, it will involve a fair amount of chaos.

And a year ago we were all happy and peaceful (relatively). The times can change far faster than we ever imagined.
 
FollowingHim said:
Despite the devastation caused by the lockdown, latest polls show our government's support has risen dramatically, were an election held today they'd be back in with an enormous majority far exceeding their current one. But at the same time, those who see through it are talking - people are rallying behind the only conservative party in the country also, which is talking strongly against the legislative overreach. Many people are talking seriously in private about the times. But this is a minority.
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What you describe has been called in this country, the silent majority. I'm going to have to look for the stats but my wife told me that she saw a poll that said its now a minority of folks around here who are following all the suggested safety protocols.

The vaccine is where the rubber meets the road. The best hope we have is making like the current flu vaccine (optional). I can envision the local authorities making it mandatory for public school enrollment, though.
 
Unfortunately the silent majority is strongly influenced by the position of those telling them what facts to believe, so may come to different conclusions in different places under the influence of different levels of government propaganda.

In the USA, your media likes lockdowns, and your president has ordered them but is far less convinced they are necessary, so there is mixed messaging from politicians and the media. Also, the media says the president is an idiot and the president says the media are idiots, so skepticism exists in some form everywhere. Everyone either doubts the media or doubts the president, or both.

Here, the government and the media are all ardent supporters of a far more extreme lockdown than you have experienced. The messaging is consistent, so the "silent majority" believes it fairly consistently.
 
Update:

I was mistaken.

On May 1st, An ABC News poll said that more than 3/4 of all Americans say they are ready to go back to work. It's upwards of 80%+ of Republican leaning respondents. That's more than two weeks ago.

That's a huge number. As states begin loosening restrictions, the populace will be itching to follow that up with regular affairs.

The local national forests and recreational lands in my area are opening up next week. I may pop in for the day to see folks getting out and recreating. I'll try to count masked vs. unmasked.
 
https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavi...ernor-to-seek-state-supreme-court-review.html

Another slap in the face of tyranny and constitutional overreach. Oregon judge found governor had overstepped her authority according to state constitution. Oregon limits to a one month emergency declaration. She extended it without legislative input. It's a temporary win for churches but the liberal reputation of Oregon may just find their legislature agreeing to extend it. This may be another bellwether for the populace.
 
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