Patrick's Notebook

by Jim Quinn

“Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age break down. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impossible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle. Day to day vestiges of modern civilization – bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments – all recede into irrelevance. Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a saecular winter. Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.”
– The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe

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by Enrico Trigoso

Thousands gathered near Central Park in Manhattan on Saturday to express their discontent with the vaccine mandates and passport requirements implemented on the city by Mayor Bill de Blasio this month.

New York City started enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate Monday, with de Blasio warning that “there’ll be consequences” for those who do not follow the rules.

The mandate requires establishments to put up certain signage and verify customers’ COVID-19 vaccine proof, such as vaccination cards issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), New York City vaccination records, other official immunization records, the NYC COVID Safe App, or the Excelsior Pass. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Zachary Stieber

Demand has increased 20-fold in recent weeks, expert says

Some states are set to receive fewer doses of monoclonal antibody treatments after the Biden administration switched the distribution system this week.

Demand for monoclonal antibody, used to treat non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients, has shot up in recent weeks, leading to what some officials have described as a shortage.

The Biden administration tipped off states in early September that it was limiting distribution of the treatment before abruptly switching on Sept. 13 from letting sites directly order the doses to putting the federal government in charge of allocation to states, which can then choose where to send them. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Joanna Miller

Daisy wrote an article recently on the “othering” of the unvaccinated. She went into detail regarding how individuals are blaming the unvaccinated for absolutely everything going wrong these days. I share her concern. There is a long, detailed history of the “othering” of a population leading to all sorts of horrors. However, it is wrong at a more mundane level, as well. Public discourse surrounding the pandemic seems to focus solely on vaccination as a means of achieving herd immunity. Those who have recovered from the disease and have natural immunity, are being completely ignored.

But why?

Natural immunity

The most frustrating thing to me, the past year and a half, has been the constantly changing narrative and the dismissal of formerly well-understood scientific truths. Natural immunity is one of those concepts from freshman biology that many seem to completely disregard these days. » Read the rest of this entry «

Reported by The New York Times

Malika Ahmadi, age 2, was one of 7 children and 3 adults killed in Sunday’s US drone strike in Kabul

U.S. officials said a Reaper drone followed a car for hours and then fired based on evidence it was carrying explosives. But in-depth video analysis and interviews at the site cast doubt on that account.

The New York Times obtained exclusive security camera footage and witness accounts to show how the military launched a drone strike that killed 10 people in Kabul on Aug. 29 without knowing whom it was hitting.

It was the last known missile fired by the United States in its 20-year war in Afghanistan, and the military called it a “righteous strike” — a drone attack after hours of surveillance on Aug. 29 against a vehicle that American officials thought contained an ISIS bomb and posed an imminent threat to troops at Kabul’s airport. » Read the rest of this entry «

by The Editors of the Mises Institute

We oppose President Biden’s lawless and authoritarian new mandates announced yesterday. We also denounce his divisive rhetoric toward unvaccinated Americans, his reckless antipathy for federalism, and his threats to usurp state governors.

Contra Mr. Biden, this is entirely about freedom and personal choice.

His proposed executive orders represent nothing less than centralized tyranny, whereby the federal government operates under no legal constraints. This is government anarchy.

The announced policies—including mandated vaccines for private employers of a certain size, mandated vaccines for all healthcare workers, and mandated vaccines for federal employees—are wildly extraconstitutional and far beyond any executive power imagined in the Constitution. Of course, the same is true for OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), which (since its magical creation in 1971) laughably claims jurisdiction over working conditions across millions of private US businesses operating on private property. OSHA is the bludgeon Mr. Biden intends to use against business owners to dictate their arrangements with employees by requiring covid vaccines. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Connor Mortell

About six months ago, I wrote an article here explaining that state preemptions of local government are a bad thing—even when Ron DeSantis does it. I vehemently stand by these principles. However, it is now time for Ron DeSantis to take that principle of decentralized control and run…

About six months ago, I wrote an article here explaining that state preemptions of local government are a bad thing—even when Ron DeSantis does it. I vehemently stand by these principles. However, it is now time for Ron DeSantis to take that principle of decentralized control and run with it—against the Biden administration. Just as it is acceptable to see local governments passing laws in defiance of their state, it is now time for the states to pass laws in defiance of the federal government. This is because on September 9, 2021, President Joe Biden announced that all employers with one hundred–plus employees will be required to mandate vaccines or weekly negative covid tests. » Read the rest of this entry «