Omicron did not “slam labor markets.” Covid policy did. And it was entirely avoidable.
el gato malo – bad cattitude – february 2, 2022
CNBC would appear to wish to have us believe that the drop in jobs was caused by “the variant” as though this was some act of nature instead of an act of government.
it is not. this is a deeply misleading framing intended to obscure causality rather than reveal it.
it’s way past the point where even these people could possibly be this ignorant of baseline reality.
this is, instead, a clear bet that you are.
this drop in jobs was not “unexpected” at least not by anyone paying attention. this is the direct, proximate effect of imposing vaccine mandates as a precondition to work. the OSHA mandate fell, but the federal mandate for contractors did not. thousands of mandates for health care workers imposed by states and hospital systems did not. requirements for many truckers and teachers and hospitality workers did not. many employers went ahead and imposed these anyway. they waited until after the holidays, but here we are.
we also cut off the flow of travel and of patronage. we closed businesses (again). we limited capacity. we mandated vaccination as a pre-requisite for going out to eat or staying in hotels. and like clockwork, it choked off the flow of tourists and local patrons alike because people HATE this and hate playing officious games and pretending that the made up “covid physics” of “wear your mask to the table then take it off when you sit” make any sense at all. they hate having some hostess demand “their papers.” maybe not everyone does, but enough people do that it has savaged businesses.
we’re living though needless damage to no useful effect at all.
this is NOT the virus.
it’s the predictable and unavoidable output of deeply stupid public health policy.
the damage since this began has been acute and severe. “2 weeks to flatten the curve” was, as many of us were screaming right from the beginning, the commencement of the nastiest economic hit to jobs and small business per unit time in US history and probably in global history.
in the US, we dropped 20 million jobs in 2 months. that is so far outside any precedent it’s staggering.
the entire 2008 recession and financial crisis led to a job reduction of 8 million over 24 months…
and we have NOT recovered to previous levels. current job levels are about the same as jan 2018.
they are 4 million jobs below the level from early 2020.
they are 9 million below where we would be had job growth continued as before. (added in red)
might job growth have slowed anyway? yes, perhaps, but this gives us a set of fairly reasonable bookends to assess the scope of what this has cost in terms of private nonfarm employment.
we’re 4-9 million jobs short of where we would likely have been without this public health response and claims that the US jobs market looks strong are pretty iffy.
(keep in mind that the unemployment rate drops when people drop out of the labor force/stop looking for work. it does not mean they found jobs.)
“but it was the virus! most of this would have happened anyway!”
this is a predictable claim, but seems out of step with reality. fortunately, we have a control group.
compare this damage to a place like sweden who did not lock down and freak out.
sweden’s payrolls figure is much more seasonally variable than the US, but looking through this seeming cardiac rhythm the overall difference in outcome is unavoidably obvious.
the dip was extremely minor in comparison. it was extremely short in comparison. and, despite the effects of many neighbors locking down, tourism and travel dropping, and global supply chain issues, their jobs figures currently look indistinguishable from 2019 and pre pandemic 2020.
employment today is higher than dec 2019 or jan 2020.
the US is nowhere close.
it’s really very simple: places that locked down harder got no better outcomes on covid. but they got much, much worse outcomes on economic and societal damage.
this was all known and knowable.
the base prior for pandemics was to never, never do this.
it’s what the guidelines said.
i did a ton of work on this back in the twitter days. it was obvious right from the start that drops in google mobility data (measuring actual human behavior from cell phone tracking) had zero effect on bending any epidemiological curve. it was clearly doing nothing at all. this was already glaring. and so was the harm.
i pulled this data from BLS way back in 2020:
it was more than a little apparent that it was predominantly politics and policy, not covid putting people out of work.
the no lockdown states were back at baseline by the fall.
the relationship was not subtle:
at this stage of the game and with this much clear data at one’s disposal, it’s pretty absurd to still be trying to blame upon a virus that which’s fault lies with public health response.
to do so is neither economically or epidemiologically accurate.
these are choices, not happenstance.
and it’s long past time to be making different ones.
Major Study Says Lockdowns Did More Harm Than Good – Well D’uh!
By Richie Allen | February 3, 2022
Lockdowns did far more harm than good. A new study published by Johns Hopkins University, in the US, Lund University, in Sweden and Denmark’s Centre for Political Studies found that lockdowns prevented just 0.2 per cent of deaths compared to letting people get on with their lives.
According to The Telegraph :
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, in the US, Lund University, in Sweden and the Centre for Political Studies, in Denmark, said the costs to society far outweighed the benefits and called for lockdown to be “rejected out of hand” as a future pandemic policy.
The team even found that some lockdown measures may have increased deaths by stopping access to outdoor space, “pushing people to meet at less safe places” while isolating infected people indoors, where they could pass the virus on to family members and housemates.
“We do find some evidence that limiting gatherings was counterproductive and increased Covid-19 mortality,” the authors concluded. “Often, lockdowns have limited people’s access to safe outdoor places such as beaches, parks, and zoos, or included outdoor mask mandates or strict outdoor gathering restrictions, pushing people to meet at less safe indoor places.”
This isn’t earth-shattering. In March 2020, when the first lockdown was implemented, many doctors and healthcare workers warned that locking down would be ineffective against an airborne virus and that the measure would be devastating for public health.
They weren’t just ignored, they were banned by the mainstream media. I featured many of them on The Richie Allen Show.
Look, the government and its scientific advisers knew that lockdowns would be ineffective and dangerous. The policy wasn’t pursued in the interest of public health, rather it was implemented in the interest of public coercion.
The events of the last 22 months have nothing to do with a virus and all to do with mRNA drugs. They grossly exaggerated the threat of covid-19 and forced the world into lockdown after lockdown, to push their experimental jabs.
The major new study on the ineffectiveness and danger of lockdowns concludes thus:
“Lockdowns during the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic have had devastating effects. They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence and undermining liberal democracy.
These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.”
Occupy Ottawa Day 5: Canadian Government Feeling the Pressure as Trucker Convoy Gains Momentum
By Brian Shilhavy | Health Impact News | February 2, 2022
The Trucker Freedom Convoy in Canada entered its 5th day today, as there appeared to be pressure mounting on politicians to take action as Truckers remained steadfast in their demands.
The big news in Ottawa was that Erin O’Toole, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, resigned after 73 of 118 MPs voted to replace him.
Erin O’Toole has resigned as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada but will stay on to serve as the Durham, Ont. member of Parliament.
The majority of caucus voted to remove O’Toole in a secret ballot on Wednesday. In a decisive revolt, 118 votes were cast at the virtual morning meeting, 73 MPs voted in favour of replacing O’Toole, while 45 MPs voted to endorse his leadership.
Chair of the 119-member caucus, Scott Reid, said he did not vote.
Following this vote, O’Toole submitted his formal resignation to the party, effective immediately.
“Our party founded this great nation, I believe it can and should lead Canada out of these troubling times for our country,” he said in a video statement.
“I want to thank the people of Durham who I will continue to serve as Member of Parliament, I never lose sight of what an honour it is for me to serve my hometown in Parliament and there is not a bad seat in the House of Commons.”
He also thanked his wife, Rebecca and his children, Mollie and Jack. (Source.)
In Alberta, where the border between the US and Canada has been blocked for the past few days, MLAs announced that they were going to meet with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to end the mandates, in return for the Truckers opening up the border.
The Truckers reportedly did open the border in good faith, but at time of publication there was no news that Kenney had ended the mandates yet, and some MLAs were calling for his resignation as well.
Now that Erin O’Toole is officially out as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, some Alberta MLAs say the development should send a message to Premier Jason Kenney and the UCP caucus.
Drew Barnes, the independent MLA for Cypress Hills-Medicine Hat, and Todd Loewen, the representative for Central Peace-Notley, sent out a joint statement in response to the the departure of O’Toole as leader of the federal Conservatives.
In it, they said the result was the effect that elected officials can have “when they stand up for their constituents.”
They also accused O’Toole of lying, ignoring advice and breaking promises to members.
“He chose to put the advice of lobbyists and armchair strategists ahead of his own party’s membership, and in the ensuing election, he managed to lose seats,” Loewen wrote in a release.
Both MLAs say the same thing is happening in Alberta with Kenney and it should have the same result.
“Premier Kenney has completely tuned out the conservative grassroots, especially when it comes to vaccine passports, vaccine mandates, government spending, and run-away corporate welfare,” Barnes said.
Loewen says Kenney has also lost the moral authority to lead the UCP and when that happens, a leader must step down.
“UCP caucus members need to recognize that Kenney’s time is up,” said Barnes. (Source.)
As they have been doing throughout the standoff at the border in Coutts, Alberta, Rebel News reporters embedded with the Truckers updated the situation there throughout the day.
We will continue to follow this developing story.
Russia announces retaliation over RT DE ban in Germany
RT | February 2, 2022
Russia has repeatedly warned the German authorities that it considers any “politically motivated pressure” on the Moscow-based broadcasting company “unacceptable,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
“A decision by the German media regulator is a clear signal [showing] that Russia’s concerns have been demonstratively ignored,” it said, adding that such a step leaves Russia no choice but to take “reciprocal measures” against the German media certified in Russia, as well as internet platforms that deleted RT DE accounts “in an arbitrary and baseless way.”
The ministry did not specify what particular measures will be taken. Earlier, it repeatedly warned Berlin about an “inevitable” response in the case that Germany refuses to find a “constructive solution” to the issue around RT DE broadcasting “created by [Germany] itself.”
The statement comes as Germany’s Commission on Licensing and Supervision (ZAK) – the central organ of Germany’s Medienanstalten agency – sided with the regional media regulator MABB, which sought to shut down RT DE’s media operations citing an absence of a valid German license.
RT DE has been operating on a license secured in Serbia in 2021, which allowed it to broadcast in various European countries, including Germany, under the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT), of which both Berlin and Belgrade are signatories. The German authorities, however, dismissed the license as worthless.
The broadcaster has not seen the level of opposition it faced from the German authorities in any other country in the world, RT’s deputy editor-in-chief, Anna Belkina, said on Wednesday.
“It appears as if the German authorities, politicians and even media are really afraid of something, afraid of an alternative point of view that the German-speaking audience can get access to on RT DE channel.”
She added that the Moscow-based German-language channel would continue its broadcast despite the German authorities demanding it stop doing so not only via TV but also via online streaming and mobile apps.
“The channel does have a license obtained in a fully legitimate way,” she added. RT DE Productions GmbH, a Berlin-based production studio, which itself does not broadcast anything but only creates content for the Moscow-based channel, will challenge the regulator’s decision in court, according to the deputy editor-in-chief. “We believe we have good grounds to win this fight,” she said.
Facebook bans American trucker convoy group
By Tom Parker | Reclaim The Net | February 2, 2022
Facebook has booted the rapidly growing “Convoy to DC 2022” group from its platform after it gained 137,000 members.
The group had been gaining tens of thousands of members per day and was calling on all truckers in the US to form a convoy to protest COVID-19 mandates. Organizers were planning to begin the convoy in California and end in Washington DC.
According to congressional candidate Tyler Lee, who was helping organizers of Convoy to DC 2022 and was planning to join the convoy, Facebook claimed that the group was banned for “repeatedly violating our policies around QAnon.”
However, Lee described Facebook’s actions as a “stunt” and added that this “is exactly why Americans are fed up.”
The QAnon policies that Facebook cited when banning Convoy to DC 2022 were blasted when they were first introduced with lawyers, journalists, and authors warning that they were arbitrary and gave Facebook an unchecked license to censor.
“Facebook just shut down our page,” Brian Brase, one of the organizers of Convoy to DC 2022 tweeted. “Apparently we don’t fit their agenda. People United is scary I guess. Convoy is still on.”
Facebook’s decision to boot the Convoy to DC 2022 group follows another convoy that’s protesting vaccine mandates, the “Freedom Convoy” in Canada, going viral on social media after mainstream media outlets downplayed the convoy and suggested that Russia was behind it.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has banned a rapidly growing grassroots protest movement that’s being shunned or disparaged by the mainstream media. Anti-critical race theory groups, anti-lockdown groups, groups supporting exceptions to COVID vaccine mandates, and more have also been booted from the platform as they gain traction and attract lots of new members.
In addition to banning specific groups, Facebook has introduced new censorship rules that make it harder for group members to see each other’s content.
Unvaxxed Parents in Western Australia Banned From Visiting Sick Children in Hospital
News show grimly celebrates new form of inhumane tyranny
By Paul Joseph Watson | Summit News | February 1, 2022
Unvaccinated parents in Western Australia will not be able to visit their own sick children in hospital, with news anchors discussing the rule celebrating it as an excellent way of forcing the unvaxxed to ‘change their philosophy’.
From yesterday onwards, parents who haven’t received at least two doses of the vaccine will be barred from visiting their own kids, unless on compassionate ‘end of life’ grounds.
In other words, their child has to literally be on its deathbed for unvaxxed parents to be allowed into hospitals in Western Australia.
Almost as odious as the rule itself was how this new level of inhumane tyranny was vehemently welcomed by a host and her two guests on the Sunrise television news show.
One male reporter called the rule “the ultimate test” for unvaccinated parents, asking, “Could that be the trigger to make you change your mind and I guess that’s the force at play here.”
“Would it make you change your philosophy? Maybe it would and maybe that’s what the government are banking on,” he added.
Journalist Susie O’Brien cracked a smile before announcing, “I’m all for this, this is not about the rights of parents, this is about the rights of the sick kids…to stay as safe as possible.”
Yes, because I’m sure children who are sick and alone in hospital will surely love exercising the “right” not to be able to see their own parents.
“If you are unvaccinated without a good reason, without a valid exemption, then you are gonna find your movements curtailed,” O’Brien smugly stated, adding that the government was right to “shock” and “challenge” people into “changing their philosophy, changing their action and get vaccinated.”
“People have had time, I mean really,” the news anchor sardonically stated as she ended the segment.
“The cruelty is the point,” remarked Mike Cernovich.
Costa Rica Authorizes Vaccination – Against Parent’s Wishes
The Tico Times | January 30, 2022
The Costa Rica Ministry of Health in conjunction with the National Children’s Board (PANI) gave hospital officials the authorization to vaccinate all children in their care as long as there are no medical counter indications that would preclude it.
The issue arose after the parents of a child in a hospital in Heredia objected to their child being vaccinated after the child tested positive for Covid-19. Ultimately the child was vaccinated and discharged but only after a protest that became violent when a group organized online tried to remove the child from the hospital, resulting in the arrests of seven people.
In a statement from PANI they cited the the hosipital had the legal authority and the “fundamental right to health and life” of the child as paramount and part of the basis of the order.
While the first vaccination was administered it seems unlikely that the parents will follow up for any future Covid-19 vaccinations or that the Ministry of Health will intervene if the child is no longer under their care.
What is also unclear is if any other Costa Rica authorities will take any actions against the parents for failing to vaccinate their child in the future.
Costa Rica Anti-Vaccine group enters hospital by force
The Tico Times | January 27, 2022
In a chaotic, and at times violent confrontation, a group of anti-vaccine advocates forcibly entered a hospital in Heredia as part of their protest and to remove a child with Covid-19. Six protestors were arrested at the scene. Police later arrested another person after he posted threatening comments online against government officials enforcing Covid-19 health restrictions.
The confrontation arose from a situation where, reportedly, a six year old unvaccinated patient was admitted for one issue and then was discovered to have tested positive for Covid-19.
Hospital officials were reluctant to release the child back into the community while infectious, at the same time the patient’s parents, both anti-vaccine advocates, claimed their child was being held “hostage” as hospital officials waited for guidance from the Ministry of Health.
A small, but hardline group organized online, reportedly initially to go to the hospital to physically remove the child themselves. Included in the group was a member of the National Assembly by the name of Diaz.
Security personnel and hospital employees confronted the protestors and scuffles ensued until police arrived and the “rescue mission” became a sit in. Hospital officials denounced the participants for putting patients at a crucial medical facility at risk for what they described as a political stunt. Prosecutors promised to take a hard line against any violent protestors that may have broken the law.
“Medical boards get pushback as they try to punish doctors for Covid misinformation”/ Politico
Meryl Nass, MD | February 1, 2022
The medical boards are getting in trouble for swallowing the malarky from the Federation of State Medical Boards and other bloated medical nonprofits. These organizations somehow worked in concert during the second half of 2021 to terrorize doctors who failed to hew to the current medical narrative. Presumably they got paid to do so. Presumably those trying to cement control over Americans felt it necessary to act extrajudicially to use threats to enforce only ‘approved’ medical speech.
The clueless Medical Licensing Board members, a mix of medical professionals and citizens, rely on attorneys on their staff to get the legal details right. Instead, the attorneys never told the Board members that none of them them had any authority to legislate new crimes, that misinformation is not a crime under US law, that Freedom of Speech is a foundational principle of law that may not be abrogated, ever, especially not by any state or state agency.
A few Medical Boards, including my own, got too far out over their skis, and now it is starting to sink in what they have done. Their legislators are saying, “Whoa, Nellie! You guys were supposed to protect the citizens from drunkards, druggies and rapists. We never asked you to trash the 1st and 14th Amendments.”
From Politico,
… the responses from some medical boards and state officials have been stymied by political backlash. States like Tennessee and North Dakota, for example, have restricted state medical boards’ powers. And now legislators in 10 other states — including Florida and South Carolina — have introduced similar measures.
Some state boards also lack the legal tools to discipline doctors for sharing unreliable information via social media. They believe the precedents in their states for unprofessional or unethical behavior more narrowly apply to actions or speech made directly to patients under their care…
Meantime, my license remains suspended while the Maine Medical Licensing Board hopes against hope that if they keep fishing, they might someday be able to find a crime with which to charge me. It’s your taxpayer dollars they are spending to destroy my career and silence my voice. They think it is free money. What do you think?
Featured Video
Fear Is the Mind Killer
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
Alarmist climate science as a textbook example of groupthink
By Paul MacRae | May 1, 2012
A while ago, I received an email from a friend who asked:
How can many, many respected, competitive, independent science folks be so wrong about [global warming] (if your [skeptical] premise is correct). I don’t think it could be a conspiracy, or incompetence. … Has there ever been another case when so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?
The answer to the second part of my friend’s question—“Has there ever been another case where so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?”—is easy. Yes, there are many such cases, both within and outside climate science. In fact, the graveyard of science is littered with the bones of theories that were once thought “certain” (e.g., that the continents can’t “drift,” that Newton’s laws were immutable, and hundreds if not thousands of others).
Science progresses by the overturning of theories once thought “certain.” … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- New US shipment of 6,500 tons of military aid arrives in Israel
- Military aid to Ukraine vital for ‘US hegemony’ – Republican senator
- Zelensky’s favorite drone company at center of Ukrainian corruption alert
- The Broken Contract
- US CENTCOM’s Request for Dark Eagle Missiles Shows Shortage of Weapons and Limited Options
- Iran consolidates Strait of Hormuz control in post-war power shift, leaving US in dark
- A pause, not a ceasefire: Washington stalls, Tehran recalibrates
- US blockade crumbles as Iran turns to overland routes
- Hidden costs of US Iran war push total far beyond $25bn Pentagon claim
- Iran Will Respond With Long-Term Strikes to US Attack, Even If It Is Short-Term – IRGC
- If Americans Knew
- Former Tik Tok official describes massive pressure from Israel lobby
- Amid ceasefire violations and genocide, Israel commits piracy – Daily Update
- Five Laws and Standards That Require the US Cut Off Weapons to Israel
- Israel’s diabolical killing machine and how it targets journalists.
- The Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza — A cry at sea to the world’s dormant conscience
- Politico’s powerful parent company tells Politico they must support Israeli narrative
- How Tony Dokoupil Became the Face of ‘Zionist Fanatic’ Bari Weiss’s CBS
- Far Right Israeli Settler Movement Enters Syria in a Push for “Greater Israel”
- ‘People Have the Right to Be Buried’: In Gaza, Thousands of Palestinians Remain Trapped Under Rubble
- Born during Israel’s genocide: Gaza’s child survivors bear the scars of war
- No Tricks Zone
- Oversupply Of Volatile Solar Energy Leads To Record NEGATIVE Prices!
- New Study: Extreme Heat Records, Heatwaves, Extreme Cold Records Declining Across US Since 1899
- It’s The Cold, Stupid! Cold 20 Times More Lethal Than Heat, Multiple Studies Show
- European Institute For Climate And Energy: “Climate Debate is Seldom About Science”
- New Study: The Climate May Be 5 Times More Sensitive To Solar Forcing Than Commonly Assumed
- EV Industry Reached $70 Billion In Losses In 2024 Due To Delusional Green Ideologies
- Reality Check: Maldives Have Actually Grown In Size Or Remained Stable Over Recent Decades
- Abrupt Climate Change Also Occurred NATURALLY In The Past …25 Times During Last Ice Age
- Cave Discovery Reveals Today’s Desert Climates Were Recently Far Warmer, Wetter, Teeming With Life
- German Expert: Heat Dome Led To Record Temps In Western USA…Warmer In 1934, 1936
Aletho News 