Don't Want A Worker Shortage? Stop Paying Starvation Wages!

The media hype over a supposedly widespread worker shortage gas been rife lately, and of course being blamed on a supposedly over-generous social safety net, particularly the expanded unemployment benefits put in place during the pandemic and still continuing to this day.  That supposedly makes it pay more to stay on the dole than to go back to work.  But the "absent referent" here, the biggest elephant in the room, is that wages are currently still too low.  If the federal minimum wage had kept up productivity gains since 1968, it would be about $22/hour today, similar to the current de facto minimum wage in most of the Nordic countries.  Given how the worker shortage is primarily concentrated in the lowest-paying jobs, the solution is very simple:  if employers want employees so desperately, then stop paying starvation wages, and pay the workers at LEAST what the market says they are really worth, and of course enough to, you know, LIVE on.  Problem solved.  Next.

In the meantime, as for the idea of unemployment benefits being too generous, if a true labor shortage were really a widespread problem, all they would need to do is take the extra $300/week bonus and instead repurpose that money as a wage subsidy to low-wage workers.  The latter bonus could be a sort of "reverse payroll tax" that automatically tops up one's paychecks directly.  Otherwise, leave the current benefits as is, albeit perhaps reinstating the work search requirements after some time, and require furloughed workers who are called back to their jobs to return to work after a reasonable amount of time.

It is worth noting that an actual Universal Basic Income (UBI) contains no such perverse incentives (unlike over-generous unemployment benefits), since one can still receive it regardless rather than have to give it up upon returning to work.  But it can still effectively increase the bargaining power of workers, increasing the de facto minimum wage.

The Biggest Public Health Fiasco In History

What is "the biggest public health fiasco in history"?  If you had guessed the COVID-19 pandemic itself, you would actually be quite wrong.  As horrible as it is, anyone who has read a history book or stayed awake in history class can tell you there have clearly been far, far worse pandemics than this one.  No, that dubious honor would actually in fact go the highly counterproductive countermeasures--lockdowns.

That is the headline conclusion arrived at by the preeminent expert authors of a Telegraph article (worth reading in full), Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Martin Kulldorf, both of Great Barrington Declaration fame.  In a nutshell, the lockdowns and related restrictions not only failed to stop the virus, but also utterly failed to protect the most vulnerable members of society, and caused a massive amount of collateral damage as well, to say nothing of the unprecedented assault on our hard-won civil rights and liberties.

Many, many studies bear this out quite nicely.  In fact, lockdown states and countries tend to have, on average, higher death rates than their free and open counterparts.  You read that right:  greater government stringency is actually correlated with higher death rates.  It is thus painfully obvious now that the "cure" was far worse than the disease.

Just like we at the TSAP have been saying for over a year now, basically.  And we are at nearly day 400 or so (!) of "15 days to flatten the curve" now.  Groundhog Day effectively became Groundhog Year.  So what has become of the specious claims used to justify all of these unprecedented restrictions?

First, the infamous Imperial College model (devised by Professor Neil Ferguson) that was initially used to justify lockdowns was, in a word, wrong.  Not just a little bit wrong, but often orders of magnitude wrong for so many countries, both in countries that eschewed lockdowns and those who implemented them, and everything in between.  Once it became clear by the end of April 2020 that the model had utterly failed its first real-world tests in places like Sweden, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the few US states that did not lock down or barely did, that really should have been the end of it.  But the lockdown zealots then simply moved the goalposts again, and clung to a few other very questionable assumptions that supposedly made these restrictions necessary regardless of the models.  So what about those?

We know now that truly asymptomatic spread, while possible, is a lot rarer than most people think, a mere 0.7% even in that very closest and riskiest setting of all, within households.  And outdoor spread?  A vanishingly low 0.1% of cases. And fomites (surfaces)?  An even lower still < 0.01%, and probably even less than that if people wash their hands and don't touch their faces or keep fiddling with their masks!  All for a disease with an infection fatality rate within the ballpark of a nasty flu season for most people, and that we know now how to treat effectively.  This is what the actual science says, folks.  And it utterly demolishes any need for lockdowns, closures, mask mandates, or any other New Abnormal restrictions at this juncture, period.

As for indoor aerosol (airborne) transmission, which looks like the real dominant way it is transmitted as opposed to large droplets, if we put even a smidgeon of the effort we have been putting into masks, distancing, and disinfecting surfaces (which are largely useless against small aerosols) instead into simply improving ventilation and airflow, air filters and UV light, and avoiding indoor overcrowding, that would have made a far greater difference had we done so before or during the worst of the pandemic.

The TSAP currently advocates going "cold turkey", ending all restrictions and opening up 100%.  And yesterday is not soon enough!  Look, it's not April 2020 anymore.  We have not one, not two, but THREE vaccines now, and even well before that we already had proven treatments and prophylactics (including, but not limited to, Ivermectin, Budesonide, HCQ, and various vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Zinc, Selenium, Magnesium, Quercetin, Resveratrol, Niacin, Thiamine, B-12, and the amino acid Lysine) that the ghouls in charge wilfully chose to ignore, deny, or greatly downplay.  Which, by the way, is literally murder by omission.  Not only do we know a LOT more now, but knowing that lockdowns would do more harm than good is something we should have known before the pandemic--and in fact we did.  But then we threw the hard-won wisdom of the ages out the window like so much garbage, and now we are all paying a heavy price for it.  

So what are we waiting for?  Set a hard and permanent "quit date" no more than a week or two in the future, commit to it, and lift ALL restrictions on or before that date, period.  That is, revert back to being no stricter than we were in 1957-1958, 1968-1969, 2009-2010 (all pandemic years, by the way), 2018, 2019, or January-February 2020.  That is, return to the true normal 100%.  And finally end the officially declared state of emergency as well.  And make sure this public health fiasco NEVER, EVER happens again!

UPDATE:  We should all know by now that lockdowns are worse than useless, at least for a disease of this type.  The data clearly speaks for itself.  But even if they were somewhat useful in fighting the virus, the collateral damage is so massive and so predictable that, according to Julius Ruechel's excellent article, they are morally equivalent to pulling the switch in the classic Trolley Problem.  Which is to say, lockdowns are inherently immoral unless one is a truly incorrigible cold-hearted utilitarian who could care less about human rights and human dignity.  We at the TSAP believe in "first, do no harm", and lockdowns of course inevitably do plenty of harm (especially to the most vulnerable and underprivileged members of society) no matter how much money we may print in an attempt to paper over such contrived and unnecessary harm.

And once again, we see Sweden has still won the lockdown debate hands down.  Ditto for the wide-open states (Florida, Texas, etc.) in the USA as well.

There is even a good Covid Charts Quiz as well.  See if you can spot the difference in the trends between lockdown vs. open, and masked vs. unmasked states.

JUNE UPDATE:  And according new studies, two other things we can add to the list of worse than useless measures are Plexiglass (or Perspex in the UK) screens and nighttime curfews.  Both seem to be not only useless, but even counterproductive, in that they may even increase transmission of the virus!  So along with lockdowns and general mask mandates, these NPIs should also be scrapped yesterday and permanently removed from serious consideration ever again.  To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Biden, tear down this plexiglass!"

What The Blood Clot? The Curious Story Of COVID-19, Vaccines, and Vitamin B-12

With first the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, and now the Johnson and Johnson (Janssen) vaccine as well, possibly linked to a rare type of blood clot, a new spotlight ought to be cast upon the mysterious problem of coagulopathy (excessive and dangerous clotting) arising from both the vaccines as well as from COVID itself.  The role of the vaccines remains unclear, while the role the virus itself has been controversial and poorly understood from the start.  And the ever-insightful Bill Sardi wrote an excellent article about his convincing theory on the matter.

We know that "cytokine storms", when the immune system belatedly gets out of control and the body basically nukes itself, can cause blood clots to form incidentally.  This can happen with severe cases of the flu as well.  Usually these clots form in the veins rather than the arteries, but strangely with COVID, they form in both the veins and arteries for whatever reason.  Whether the virus itself and/or its spike protein (the latter of which is also produced by the vaccines) is somehow causing these clots directly in the blood vessels, and/or some other factor is involved, remains a mystery.  And anticoagulants (blood thinners) do not always help matters either. 

Enter Vitamin B-12 deficiency as the possible X-factor causing this strange and mysterious blood clotting seen in COVID.  It is more common than you think, with one in six Americans being deficient, and likely many more having suboptimal levels of this essential nutrient.  And Vitamin B-12 deficiency has been linked to a condition known as pseudo-thrombotic microangiopathy that causes spontaneous blood clotting.  So what does the virus have to do with it?  Among other hypotheses, COVID may deplete B-12 and thus elevate homocysteine, while B-12 inhibits replication of the virus, and a shortage of B-12 also makes it harder for the body to produce antibodies.  So whichever is the proverbial chicken and which is the egg, correcting this deficiency with supplements (particularly in the form of methylcobalamin) would clearly be beneficial here.  Remember, due to some biological quirks not everyone can absorb it very well through their gut, hence the massive number of people who are deficient, so taking it sublingually (under the tongue) is the best way to take it.

Vitamin B-12 may also help alleviate long-hauler symptoms as well, particularly the persistent fatigue, which deficiency in this nutrient is known to cause.

Thus, in addition to Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, zinc, Quercetin, Thiamine (B1), Niacin (B3), resveratrol, selenium, magnesium, and the amino acid lysine, we can now (belatedly) add Vitamin B-12 to our arsenal against COVID-19.  And this really ought to be done regardless of whether or not one gets vaccinated, or which vaccine one ends up getting.

And for people NOT taking warfarin (a blood-thinning drug which is specifically antagonized by it, by design), don't forget about the highly-underrated Vitamin K either.  This vitamin may also be a crucial "missing link" in the connection between COVID and blood clots and bad outcomes as well, and it is also known to be a good complement to Vitamin D as well.

UPDATE:  Bill Sardi also wrote another good article recently about thiamine (Vitamin B1), and how its widespread deficiency also may be underlying the worst of the pandemic, both acute and long COVID.

Also, we should point out one glaring vaccine myth that has been busted, the "shedding" or "second-hand vax" myth that apparently started as a online rumor that has since gone, um, viral.  There is no live virus at all in the mRNA vaccines, the adenovirus vaccines cannot replicate, and the spike protein, even if it itself can make you sick in high enough quantities, does NOT replicate or spread from person to person, and does not seem to linger around very long either.  While there are a number of reasons still for concern regarding these vaccines, "shedding" is not one of them, and repeating this myth only gives ammunition to the other side, making divide-and-conquer that much easier.  Critical thinking is, well, critical.

But yes, it does appear that the spike protein itself (and the mRNA which codes for it, of course) is inherently THE problem with these vaccines, and can indeed make one quite sick.  Having that particular protein be the target will likely go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes ever made.  If you already have received any of these vaccines, be VERY careful and be sure to take plenty of NAC, Quercetin, Resveratrol, Fisetin, dandelion, and perhaps pine needle tea as well to counteract that toxic spike protein.  And don't get any booster shots either, unless your doctor says you absolutely must due to being at extremely high risk from the virus.  Even then, perhaps you should look for a new doctor!

It's NOT Just The Economy, Stupid!

Along with the false choice between "lives versus livelihoods", lockdown enthusiasts seem to have this idea that "just" the economy is a mere appendage of society that can be casually hacked off at will with no long-term consequences.  While clearly nothing is further from the truth.  As we have learned the very hard way, lockdowns are always a lose-lose proposition, at least in the long run.  And their proponents thus have a LOT of blood on their hands.

Given how it has been clearly shown time and again over the past year that lockdowns, closures, and related restrictions don't really save lives or materially stop the spread of the virus (at best they slow it down a bit, thus ironically prolonging the pandemic, and at worst they are gasoline on the dumpster fire), it would be bad enough if all they did was "merely" wreck the economy.  But the damage goes far deeper than that.  A recent article in fact details the massive damage that these restrictions do to the mental health of young people.  All that loneliness, isolation, depression, anxiety, and existential dread in our unprecedentedly contactless and touchless society is highly toxic, and in fact more young Americans under 25 died from suicide than died from COVID in 2020.  All-cause mortality among people under 25, especially ages 15-25, was indeed significantly higher in 2020 than in 2018 or 2019.  But that is likely the tip of a very large iceberg of damage that will be felt for a very long time to come.

Quarantine in general is inherently traumatizing to most people, and thus never good for mental health.  And it is a truism that the longer it is, the worse it is.  Alas, we can thus expect the incidence and prevalence of PTSD to rise dramatically as a result.

To say that this very sad state of affairs stunts the development of children and young people would have to be the understatement of the century!

An entire generation has now also suffered educationally as well due to school closures.  Virtual "learning" has generally been a joke (albeit not a very funny one), and the unprecedented level of learning loss (which disproportionately affects poorer students and students of color, by the way) will leave lasting scars on them.  And the dystopian masked, distanced, and hyper-germaphobic environment they must endure when they actually are being educated in-person in most schools truly cannot be good for their mental health or even physical health.  Seriously.

Not like all that loneliness and isolation is actually good for anyone of any age, particularly including the very same elderly and vulnerable members of society that the lockdowners claim to have done all of these dystopian things in the name of "protecting".  Which was a spectacular and and epic failure to say the least.

And for women?  Well, let's see.  Between disproportionately losing their jobs or working in risky essential jobs, having to stay home with their kids with no respite while schools and daycares are closed, and/or caring for sick and vulnerable adults ad well, women have been taking on a triple burden throughout this pandemic.  And with primarily male violence against women and children (domestic violence and child abuse) skyrocketing during lockdown as well, with victims being trapped with their abusers, we can conclude that lockdown has basically been patriarchy on crack.  And women's hard-won progress has thus been set back decades.

(And one can also thus conclude that Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who eschewed lockdowns, has in practice been more of a feminist than lockdown-loving Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, despite the former ironically being a conservative Republican and the latter being a liberal Democrat.)

And again, the best evidence shows that these toxic and authoritarian restrictions did nothing to save lives or otherwise benefit public health at all on balance.  We unfortunately cannot change the past, but we can decide what sort of future we can have and try to repair the damage as best we can.  Thus, as we have already advocated, it is best to go "cold turkey" from these restrictions, go back to normal 100%, and vow to NEVER repeat these mistakes again.  And yesterday is not soon enough!

To paraphrase a song from R.E.M. "Don't go back to Lockdown, and waste another year."

Behold, The Universal "Vaccine"

Did you hear about the latest vaccine breakthrough?  No, not the COVID-19 vaccines, but the new one against that other virus that no one seems to talk much about these days, what was that one called again? Oh yeah, THE FLU.  Wait, what?  Yes, really.

Current influenza vaccines are rather half-assed at best even when they are a good match (and sometimes they are not) for whatever strains happen to be circulating in a given season, and because they are so strain-specific, they need to be updated every year to keep up with the gazillion mutations that these very devious viruses keep on doing to evade our immune systems.  And when a truly novel and nasty strain comes along, which happens every now and then, these seasonal flu shots can become utterly useless in the face of these ever-changing variants.

This latest breakthrough is a relatively universal flu vaccine that solves that perennial problem by blocking a much, much wider variety of virus strains, both seasonal and potential pandemic ones, even including those really nasty bird flu strains as well.  This has long been the holy grail that has been sought after for decades, and now it seems like they finally found one that works, at least in animals, while human clinical trials are still pending.

But what if we told you that there is, and has always been, a sort of universal "vaccine" that works against not only influenza, but also coronaviruses and pretty much everything else under the sun as well?  Well, it turns out there actually is, and it's called....

T-CELLS!

Looks like the TSAP has been right all along about herd immunity having been far closer than the "experts" seem to think, even before the vaccine (that is, the old-fashioned way via natural infection).  Antibody serosurveys apparently only tell part of the story, since, as yet another study confirms, these T-cells seem to be both more important, more durable, and fortunately more prevalent than antibodies.  Simply as little as being exposed to the virus but not necessarily infected (that is, a failed attempt by the virus to infect you since you managed to knock it out quickly before it could establish itself), or perhaps a brief and asymptomatic infection, can be sufficient to develop at least some T-cell immunity even in the absence of detectable antibodies and/or when repeatedly testing negative for the virus itself.

In fact, previous exposure to other coronaviruses (including common cold coronaviruses) apparently can also create a T-cell cross-response to SARS-CoV-2 to some extent as well, a fact already known last year.

And not only do T-cells last longer than antibodies, but another study finds that they work far better against the new variants, even the South African and Brazilian ones.  These variants managed to evolve a specific mutation to at least partially dodge antibodies, but yet they do NOT seem to be able to stand a chance against our T-cells, whether they are derived from previous natural exposures to the older strains or from vaccination (which interestingly appear to be about equally effective in that regard).

So where can we get these T-cells?  From our very own thymus glands, in fact, and we need sufficient zinc to make it happen.  Zinc is also needed for the B-cells to make antibodies, and plus it is also a good antiviral in it's own right by stopping viruses from replicating, especially when paired with a zinc ionophore such as Quercetin.  Throw in some Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, niacin, thiamine, resveratrol, and the amino acid Lysine, and you got yourself a truly winning combination.  So whether or not you actually end up getting any of the COVID vaccines, be sure not to forget any of these crucial nutrients!

(And let's not forget selenium, magnesium, and Vitamin B-12 either, which are at least as crucial.)

In fact, it was recently noted that without sufficient Vitamin D to activate their receptors, our T-cells basically won't even function.  Meanwhile, Vitamin D also normalizes the immune response overall to keep it from getting dangerously out of control at the same time, which is particularly crucial in the case of COVID and those dreaded cytokine storms (and bradykinin storms) that it is notorious for provoking.

In the same vein, the ever-insightful Bill Sardi also points out that thymus gland extracts are quite promising treatments for when one is actually sick.  Thymosin alpha-1 can also potentially be used as an alternative adjuvant in actual vaccines as well to boost effectiveness organically, which is clearly far better than the neurotoxic aluminum (!) that is still currently used as an adjuvant in many common vaccines today.  Let that last sentence sink in.

Because truly the very best "vaccine" of all is the one that the body makes itself.  And unlike manmade ones, it is universal as well, with no nasty side effects.

JUNE UPDATE:  A new Cleveland Clinic study dovetails rather nicely with this article.

JULY UPDATE:  According to the latest study, T-cells still appear be quite variant-proof.

NOVEMBER UPDATE:  Yet another study dovetails nicely with the idea that just getting grazed (exposed but not successfully infected) by the virus will produce T-cell immunity to one degree or another.  And with the current mRNA and DNA/adenovirus "vaccines" epically failing right now, it looks like the best "booster" of all may very well be exposure to the virus itself, especially during the jabs' brief honeymoon period before efficacy collapses.

2022 UPDATE:  One of the last articles ever written by the late, great Bill Sardi discusses one way to promote such T-cell immunity, and that is resveratrol (from grapes).  Definitely a supplement worth taking.

The TSAP Opposes Vaccine Passports

We at the TSAP vehemently oppose the latest disturbing trend:  "vaccine passports".  Yes, those things are exactly what they sound like, a paper (or most likely digital) proof of vaccination to be used as a requirement for entry into various venues, travel, and God only knows what else.  Perhaps even leaving one's house at some point?  Make no mistake, these creepy vaccine passports are the next crucial step towards a "papers please" totalitarian state, and slopes are a LOT slipperier than they appear!

The TSAP has already vehemently opposed from the get-go ANY form of force or coercion for these still-experimental COVID vaccines, period.  Anything short of free and fully informed consent in that regard is an egregious violation of civil and human rights (not to mention the US Constitution, remember that dusty old thing?) and thus has absolutely NO place in a free and civilized society, period.  And we absolutely refuse to compromise in that regard.  This illiberal and utterly Orwellian and dystopian idea needs to be nipped in the bud, and yesterday is not soon enough!

The very specious concept that the vaccinated and unvaccinated must be segregated in some way is patently absurd on its face.  The unvaccinated are NOT a material threat to the vaccinated, and if there is any threat it would be the other way around.  Unless, of course, you are in fact tacitly conceding that these vaccines may not really be all they are cracked up to be, but hey, you said it (or implied it), not me. And if that were really the case, and the vaccines were essentially no better than Nyquil, then what would be the point of vaccination in the first place?  Conversely, if the vaccines really are so safe and effective against such an extraordinarily horrible plague like you claim, there would be no need to force or coerce anyone to get them at all.  Seriously, if you give the New Abnormal zealots enough rope...

Plus, rigidly segregating the unvaccinated from the vaccinated in the long run would most likely result in dangerous new and/or vaccine-resistant variants taking hold more easily, by unwittingly selecting for, concentrating, and incubating whatever nastier and more contagious variants there are at a given time, compared to simply letting the virus circulate freely and the nastier variants eventually burn themselves out and get swamped by the milder ones.

In fact, as we at the TSAP have pointed out repeatedly before, we don't even need a vaccine to go back to true normal, since even well before the vaccines we already had more than enough existing treatments and prophylactics sufficient to reduce the pandemic to a mere nuisance within a week or two.  That is, if we had actually chosen to use them instead of suppressing and censoring such things.

At least Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has the good sense to preemptively oppose the idea of vaccine passports.  In fact, he recently implemented an executive order prohibiting them in his state.  Not only does it ban government entities from issuing or requiring anything of the sort, but also prohibits any businesses in Florida from requiring them for customers and patrons as well.  Make no mistake, he clearly does NOT oppose COVID vaccines or any other common vaccines, and he has clearly been instrumental in freely distributing these shots in his state just like every other governor has.  But unlike some other big-shot governors, he is clearly taking a firm stand against even the slightest hint of vaccine coercion and the resulting vaccine apartheid.

Even if DeSantis were the only governor in the nation who will take such a stand (and he probably won't be for very long), his executive order creates a clear and positive conflict between federal and state law should the federal government make any attempt to create and impose their own national vaccine passport program.  Talk about a major fly in the ointment!

Meanwhile, the venerable ACLU is strangely out to lunch on this issue.  Just a year ago they opposed even such trivial intrusions as temperature checks, and yet they won't openly take a stand on THIS?  Hey ACLU, you know we love you overall, but know this:  "the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality," as JFK apocryphally attributed to Dante's Inferno.

Even the famous arch-vaccine skeptic and arch-lockdown skeptic J.B. Handley has been strangely quiet lately about this increasingly pressing issue, come to think of it.  And in fact ALL of his several blog articles from 2020 related to either vaccines, COVID, and/or lockdowns have been mysteriously deleted in these past few months for some reason.  And his Twitter has barely even mentioned these topics at all since January or so.  Of course, people will unfortunately interpret his deafening silence as consent.  Whether he is silent or was silenced, we really don't know, but either way, it is not good at all.

(Fortunately, there is always the Wayback Machine, which indefinitely saves archived versions of his many now-deleted articles for all of us to see.)

Oh, and one more thing:  it should go without saying, but these experimental vaccines are NOT FOR KIDS!  Not only is COVID less dangerous than the flu for children, and children are far less likely to spread it too, but these vaccines have barely been tested at all on people under 16 for the Pfizer vaccine (18 for Moderna and J&J).  That makes these vaccines all risk and negligible reward, so our opposition to vaccine coercion applies a fortiori to anyone under 18.  If consenting adults truly want to take these vaccines, that is fine, but DO NOT impose them on kids or teens, period.  And certainly DO NOT require them as a condition of school attendance just because some of the already-vaccinated teachers and staff are still somehow too scared (!) of unvaccinated kids.  No, you FIRE the freaking cowards and open up 100%, yesterday!  It's really a no-brainer at this point.

We have a choice between returning to true normal versus the dystopian New Abnormal on steroids for the foreseeable future.  Let's make the right choice.

(While we still have a choice, that is.)

UPDATE 1:  As of April 5th, it looks like DeSantis is no longer the only governor to openly oppose vaccine passports.  As of April 6th, the number is now SEVEN, and growing, red and blue, and now also includes:  Governors Greg Abbott of Texas, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Mike Parson of Missouri, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, and Laura Kelly of Kansas.  And, of course, Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota as well, who rightly called vaccine passports "un-American".  Even President Biden is apparently backing off from the idea now.  And New York's "Excelsior Pass" currently seems to be a glitchy mess for the most part.  The tide is finally turning, God willing.

UPDATE 2:  Looks like the TSAP has been right all along about herd immunity having been far closer than the "experts" seem to think, even before the vaccine (that is, the old-fashioned way via natural infection).  Antibody serosurveys apparently only tell part of the story, since, as yet another study confirms, T-cells seem to be both more important, more durable, and fortunately more prevalent than antibodies.  Simply as little as being exposed to the virus but not necessarily infected (that is, a failed attempt by the virus to infect you since you managed to knock it out quickly before it could establish itself), or perhaps a brief and asymptomatic infection, can be sufficient to develop at least some T-cell immunity even in the absence of detectable antibodies and/or when repeatedly testing negative for the virus itself.

In fact, previous exposure to other coronaviruses (including common cold coronaviruses) apparently can also create a T-cell cross-response to SARS-CoV-2 to some extent as well, a fact already known last year.

And not only do T-cells last longer than antibodies, but another study finds that they work far better against the new variants, even the South African and Brazilian ones.  These variants managed to evolve a specific mutation to at least partially dodge antibodies, but yet they do NOT seem to be able to stand a chance against our T-cells, whether they are derived from previous natural exposures to the older strains or from vaccination (which interestingly appear to be about equally effective in that regard).

So where can we get these T-cells?  From our very own thymus glands, in fact, and we need sufficient zinc to make it happen.  Zinc is also needed for the B-cells to make antibodies, and plus it is also a good antiviral in it's own right by stopping viruses from replicating, especially when paired with a zinc ionophore such as Quercetin.  Throw in some Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, niacin, thiamine, resveratrol, and the amino acid Lysine, and you got yourself a truly winning combination.  So whether or not you end up getting any of the vaccines, be sure not to forget any of these crucial nutrients!

(In the same vein, the ever-insightful Bill Sardi also points out that thymus gland extracts are quite promising treatments for when one is actually sick.)

Because truly the very best "vaccine" of all is the one that the body makes itself.  And unlike manmade ones, it is universal as well, with no nasty side effects.

UPDATE 3:  The authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, including Professor Martin Kulldorf, clearly oppose vaccine passports as well.

UPDATE 4:  As for the latest Faucian (Faucist?) idea that vaccinated people can somehow become asymptomatic superspreaders, and thus still needing to continue following restrictions indefinitely, that is also highly unlikely given how 1) asymptomatic transmission in general, even without vaccines, is far less likely than originally thought (a mere 0.7%) and thus not a major driver of outbreaks, and 2) while breakthrough infections can still occasionally occur after being fully vaccinated, there is evidence that vaccinated people have significantly lower viral loads than unvaccinated people, further reducing the potential for onward transmission to others.  Thus, there is no real obstacle to returning to 100% normal yesterday.  But still, regardless of whether you are vaccinated or not, be sure to take your vitamins, wash your hands, cover your coughs and sneezes, and respect each other's personal space, the latter of which used to be called "etiquette".  Also, fresh air and sunshine are your friends.  And if you actually get sick in the traditional sense of the word, stay the hell home!  In other words, use common sense.

UPDATE 5:  We are deeply disappointed in Thom Hartmann for his recent article he wrote in support of vaccine passports for places as mundane as restaurants.  There is absolutely nothing "woke" or progressive in taking such a stance, period.  

Also, take a look at Miss Conceptions on Twitter.  They point out some rather eerie "coincidences" that can be found all around the world in regards to vaccine launches and subsequent spikes in supposedly COVID cases and deaths as well as all-cause excess deaths within a few weeks later, typically lagged two weeks.  From India to Hungary to Czechia to Mongolia to Chile to Israel to Gibraltar to the UK to several US states, et al., it is really quite curious indeed.  And if nothing else, as a bonus, you will also learn the flags of pretty much every country in the world.  

We can see a classic "journey-destination problem", that is, whether through mass infection, mass vaccination, or the two-for-one special, the journey to herd immunity is much more dangerous than the destination.  Though as Gibraltar and Israel have shown, and the UK is currently showing, once the unfortunate mountain of corpses has been climbed, there is barely any COVID at all on other side once the dust has finally settled. If only there were some sort of safe and effective treatment and prophylaxis regimen available last year, then the journey could have been made much safer, without resorting to any rushed experimental vaccines.  Oh wait, there actually was such a thing in existence, but the ghouls in charge chose to wilfully ignore, deny, and greatly downplay it, which is literally murder by omission. 

UPDATE 6:  See the following excellent article by Helen Andrews.  The issue isn't going away!

Stop Asian Hate Now!

The True Spirit of America Party has a strong message to anyone who engages in, supports, fuels, or condones any acts of hate or discrimination against Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.  KNOCK IT OFF, YESTERDAY!  Period.  We at the TSAP have absolutely zero tolerance for any racism, discrimination, or hate crimes of any kind, and these recent anti-Asian incidents are absolutely unacceptable.

The fact that anyone in this day and age would actually vilify and blame Asians as a group for COVID-19 is absolutely despicable, and is no different than centuries ago when medieval Europeans would vilify and blame Jews for the Black Death and attack them as a result.  Yes, we know the national origin of this particular virus, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader Xi Jinping are NOT representative of an entire race, ethnicity, or nationality, no more than the GOP and Trump are somehow representative of all Americans or all white people for that matter.  And lest we forget, the notorious 1918 "Spanish" flu pandemic (which was many, many times worse than this one) actually originated in the USA (Fort Riley, Kansas to be precise), but of course you didn't see anyone blaming or vilifying Americans for that.  These sorts of toxic fallacies have very tragic and deadly consequences, as we have recently seen.

And to all of you cowardly bystanders out there during all of this, the time to step up to the plate is also yesterday as well.  If racists know you won't do anything about it, they will just keep on doing it.

We extend our greatest condolences and sympathy to the victims of this horrific and deplorable rash of hate crimes along with their friends and families as well.  

Is The Overton Window Finally Shifting?

A year ago in March 2020, the Overton window of what is considered socially and politically acceptable had abruptly shifted in a highly authoritarian and even totalitarian direction due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the response of our "leaders" to it.  What was once unthinkable had become unquestionable (and vice-versa) within a matter of days to weeks, almost overnight.  And once in place, the new restrictions (lockdowns, quarantines, business restrictions, school closures, gathering bans/limits, mask mandates, travel restrictions, etc.) have proven VERY difficult to undo in the climate of incessant and exaggerated fear that the authorities just kept on stoking, regardless of effectiveness or lack thereof and regardless of the very real collateral damage as well.  It felt like the ruling Pharisees had slammed the proverbial gates of heaven in everyone's faces and sent everyone a one-way ticket to hell, never to return again.  Or so it seemed, at least.

(Diagram courtesy of Wikipedia)

But it now appears to be finally shifting back in the direction of liberty and civil/human rights.  Little by little, and then eventually all at once at some point in the hopefully not too distant future.  As of March 6, 2021, several states (17 already, and growing) are now abandoning this whole ship of fools and doing what Florida already did back in September and South Dakota already did last May--going cold turkey (or nearly so) later this month if not already.  Once the first cracks and fissures in the facade appeared several months ago, it was only a matter of time before the proverbial dam would inevitably burst.

The last straw was most likely when they moved the goalposts for the gazillionth time recently when the establishment had the GALL to claim that we will still not going back to the true normal anytime soon even though we have all of the following now:  1) not one, not two, but THREE authorized vaccines now, 2) massively scaled-up virus testing since a year ago, 3) we KNOW how to effectively treat and prevent COVID now and have for a while, and 4) the virus has been in rapid retreat since January 2021, and even earlier in some places.  And President Biden went back on his word and extended his famous "100 days of masks" to all of 2021 and perhaps even beyond (who was whispering in his ear this time?).  So one can see how this would cause millions of people to say, "Enough already!", thus marking the "social end" of the pandemic now or in the very near future.  The establishment clearly overplayed their hand this time, and bit off far more than they could ever chew. 

The lockdown and mask zealots and technocrats, now clearly on the defensive, are probably having a collective heart attack right now, or at least soiling their trousers, but tough noodles for them!  They've already had their proverbial day in the sun for a whole year now (that was only supposed to be two or three weeks to "flatten the curve", remember?) and now it's long past time to start actually living again as humans qua humans.  To the wretched New Abnormal we say, "Good riddance!"  And God willing, may a century of liberty follow after we all say, "Never Again!" and really mean it.

UPDATE:  See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for good additional links on the topic.  And while it should clearly go without saying, we will say it louder for the people in the back:  THERE IS NO "PANDEMIC EXCEPTION" TO THE CONSTITUTION!  Ditto for the written and unwritten constitutions of many other countries which just so happen to be at least partly based on--guess what--the US Constitution as well.  The Founding Fathers, who lived through FAR worse disease epidemics than this one, and thus clearly would have carved out such an exception if they had seen fit to do so (but clearly did not), must really be spinning in their graves right now!

Oh, and by the way:  Lockdowns and shutdowns are among the most neoliberal public policy measures one could ever possibly devise, which have succeeded in making the rich richer, the poor poorer, and further hollowed out the already-shrinking middle class.  No wonder the oligarchs love them so much.  And since they tend to hurt people of color more so than white people, these classist policies are also quite racist as well. (Remember, impact > intent.)  In fact, they strengthen the entire kyriarchy as well, and for women they have basically been "patriarchy on crack" due to their disproportionate job losses, the double and triple burden faced by mothers when schools and daycares are closed, the isolation from the support of other women, and increased domestic violence as well.  Thus, lockdowns and shutdowns are a one-stop shop for neoliberalism, and all the more reason to end these highly toxic policies yesterday.

The TSAP proposes adding the following constitutional amendment (inspired by various folks on Twitter) to both federal and state constitutions, just to be crystal clear:

• All stay-at-home orders lasting more than 24 hours are prohibited.
• All nighttime curfews lasting more than three consecutive nights are prohibited.
• All forced school closures lasting more than one week are prohibited.
• Voluntary school closures may last longer, but any public school closure lasting more than two weeks shall be subject to a forced reopening or withdrawal of state and federal funding at the governor's discretion.
• All forced business closures shall constitute a "taking" as per the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the owners and employees must receive just compensation for the period of closure (including retroactively).  Places of worship shall also be compensated accordingly.
• Capacity restrictions below 100% lasting more than two weeks, or below 50% for any duration, shall be treated as partial closures, and prorated accordingly for the purposes of compensation.
• No state of emergency declared by any executive may ever last more than 60 days, or 90 days tops, without the express and democratic authorization of the respective legislature.  If not authorized, such a state of emergency shall become null and void after the deadline.  That is, we must repeal the highly dangerous and autocratic law MSEHPA section 405(b) yesterday.

In other words, this can never happen again.

The Best Roadmap Out Of Lockdown: Cold Turkey

As we have noted in our previous articles, particularly "Case Closed: Lockdowns Don't Work", "The Difference Between Naive And Stupid", "How To End The Pandemic In ONE WEEK Without Lockdowns, Masks, Or Vaccines", and "We Need To Do Both", the True Spirit of America Party (TSAP) has never really been a fan of lockdowns and related restrictions, and only for a few months (April-August 2020) grudgingly supported mask mandates (with nuance) as an alternative to lockdowns.  We have, alas, learned the hard way that not only do these restrictions not work very well if at all, but they are in fact worse than useless, doing more harm than good.  

There is nothing "woke" or progressive about these fundamentally illiberal and authoritarian policies, and anyone who still supports them now, a year later, cannot honestly identify as such.  There is nothing even remotely communitarian about these socially corrosive measures, and certainly not the least bit libertarian either.  Nor is there anything particularly conservative about tossing the hard-won wisdom of the ages out the window like so much garbage and instead knee-jerkedly going full medieval-and-Orwellian-dystopian-hybrid.  Thus, the only leaders who honestly support these policies for even one more day are technocrats, oligarchs, authoritarians, or all of the above.  And their followers and lackeys are either stupid, ignorant, insane, brainwashed, and/or corrupt.  Sorry, but the truth hurts.

As our British friends across the pond have noted on the site Lockdown Sceptics, a study of 170 countries found that the correlation between a country's Government Stringency Index and the COVID case and death rates is in fact the opposite of what it would be if these policies actually worked.  That is, the greater the stringency, the worse the case and death rates on average.  And given how it is non-linear in that the perverse correlation particularly with deaths is strongest with stringency scores above 60/100, then logically the best (or least-worst) "roadmap" out of lockdown is to simply go "cold turkey" and end all (or practically all) restrictions right away, full stop.

Yes, really.  And here is how to do it, folks:  Simply set a "quit date" no more than a week or two in the future, and commit to that date no matter what.  Remember, these policies are generally worse than useless, even for the sacred cow of travel restrictions (except perhaps during a very narrow window at the very beginning of the pandemic, and that train has long since left the station), and there is currently no imminent threat of overwhelmed hospitals anywhere now.  The worst is basically over in most places, in other words.  Thus, on that quit date, and not a single day later, any and all pandemic-related restrictions imposed after February 2020 shall lapse and become null and void immediately and in full, period.

Should exceptions be made?  Perhaps a "Rule of 500" or some even larger number could exist for very large gatherings lacking numbered seats for a little while longer.  Enhanced hygiene, ventilation, and perhaps temperature checks in some places would likely still be de rigeur as well for a while.  Enhanced precautions in hospitals and nursing homes would likely remain to some extent as well for a while too, as is the case in Florida currently.  But the overbearing, omnipresent, and almost entirely unprecedented restrictions that would have been utterly unthinkable a year ago in February 2020 would nonetheless be gone for good, never to be reimposed again.

Public schools, and in fact any schools receiving federal and/or state funding, will be required to reopen for full in-person instruction no later then the Monday following the quit date, or else have such funding immediately and indefinitely revoked until they do.  And they must remain fully open except for very brief closures (no more than two weeks at a time, if even that) if and only if they actually experience bona fide school-related outbreaks and/or they are located in a severe bona fide local "red zone".

And of course, individuals and businesses would still be free to voluntarily put as many restrictions as they wish on themselves going forward, just like they always were.  After all, each person's own definition of acceptable risk and their calculus of cost vs. benefit will be different.  But no longer would anyone be able to use the inherently coercive power of government to force others to do so against their will anymore.

That means that the powers that be will have to (gasp!) use education and persuasion instead of coercion and (gasp!) stop treating adults like children.

As for the supposedly scary new mutant strains of the virus, if anything that is a stronger argument against lockdowns and related restrictions, since these restrictions would actually be more likely to concentrate and incubate these strains (which will inevitably escape and spread further), when it would really be better to dilute, dilute, dilute them instead.  Note that Florida, who basically went cold turkey as of September 25, 2020, and even hosted the 2021 Super Bowl, has still seen cases, hospitalizations, and deaths plummet since January nonetheless.  And their cumulative death rate has been better than the national average and most lockdown states as well.

Furthermore, since we know that the virus is seasonal and most likely endemic now, that implies that if we don't want to get slammed yet again next winter, it would logically be best NOT to artificially suppress it during the spring and summer.  That is in fact when we should be building up our immune systems through the inevitable natural exposures, not mollycoddling and overprotecting them with extraordinary (and ultimately futile) measures, nor should we be wrecking them with the unholy lockdown trinity of anxiety, isolation, and vitamin deprivation.  The same goes for seasonal flu as well, which may come back with a vengeance next winter after being temporarily displaced by COVID.

And yes, we still need a robust COVID relief package yesterday, even more robust than the paltry one still being debated now.  Even the most arch-conservative or hardcore libertarian can understand that the Takings Clause of the US Constitution would logically require the government to compensate We the People for any losses (both direct and indirect) resulting from these government-imposed lockdowns and restrictions.  And while nearly all of the restrictions were imposed by state and local governments, the fact remains that the federal government (including even 45 himself at first) effectively green-lighted such restrictions, and furthermore they, unlike our now largely bankrupt state and local governments, have the power to simply print the money as needed.

So what are we waiting for?  To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Biden, tear down this plexiglass!"

MARCH UPDATE:  Looks like no sooner did we post this than several states (16 already, and growing) are now abandoning this whole ship of fools and doing what Florida already did back in September and South Dakota already did last May--going cold turkey (or nearly so) later this month if not already.  Once the first cracks and fissures in the facade appeared, it was only a matter of time.  The lockdown zealots and technocrats are probably having a collective heart attack right now, or at least soiling their trousers, but tough noodles for them!  They've already had their proverbial day in the sun for a whole year now (that was only supposed to be two or three weeks to "flatten the curve", remember?) and now it's long past time to start actually living again as humans qua humans.  To the wretched New Abnormal we say, "Good riddance!"  And may a century of liberty follow after we all say, "Never Again!" and really mean it.

And once again, yet another study finds that lockdowns are basically a lose-lose proposition. It is practically axiomatic now that lockdowns do more harm than good.  What next, a study that finds that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west?

We Need To Do Both

If you are confused about how to save America, you are NOT alone.  To fix this country we need to get out of this nasty rut we are stuck in ASAP.  And to do this, we need to not only reopen the country by ending the lockdowns and restrictions OR only firehose the economy with federal money, we need to do BOTH.  

Yesterday.  In fact, yesterday is not soon enough!

If we keep these restrictions for any longer while hoping to just paper over the massive holes in our economy and society with newly printed money, that will not work in the long run, as we will just keep on damaging the economy and society.  Likewise, if we attempt to reopen with a bang without injecting federal dollars into the economy, it will be a big disappointment since the damage is done and has not been repaired.  Either way, it is like pushing on a string--or like pushing an elephant up the stairs.

As we have already noted in a previous article, we can effectively end the pandemic in ONE WEEK tops without lockdowns, masks, or vaccines, full stop.  Simply send everyone an Indian-style $2 Ziverdo kit (Zinc, Ivermectin, and Doxycycline), and as Karl Denninger notes, the Doxycycline is optional and can be substituted with Vitamins C and D (and if we had our way, also add Niacin, Thiamine, and Quercetin as well).  And for the few severe or critical cases that still occur despite this, there is always the MATH+ Protocol (and even cheap steroid inhalers) to fall back on.  In fact, early use of steroid inhalers seems to reduce the number of severe cases by 90%!  Problem solved.

(In India, adding Vitamin D to the Ziverdo Triple Therapy mix is also known as Quadruple Therapy.)

Oh and by the way, did you know that we are basically at the holy grail of herd immunity in the USA (if not also globally on average) already?  Why else would virus cases be plummeting starting weeks before fully vaccinating a significant chunk of the population, in the middle of winter, even in states and countries with little to no restrictions?  Even with those supposedly scary new mutant strains allegedly running rampant for weeks, no less.  If it can't be due to seasonality, vaccines, or restrictions, then it MUST be due to naturally acquired herd immunity.   Too bad we had to climb a mountain of corpses to get there thanks to the incompetence and malfeasance of our "leaders" who suppressed the treatments and prophylaxis that actually work while throwing the wisdom of the ages out the window like so much garbage.  And that's to say nothing of all the collateral damage deaths caused by the lockdowns and panic.

(NOTE:  The sharp decrease in cases predates the reduction in the PCR test cycle threshold in many places, and was in fact followed by decreases in hospitalizations and deaths, so it can't be entirely due to sleight of hand unless one concedes that all of the data were nearly 100% false from the very start.  Either way, the case for restrictions crumbles.)

Thus, no reason not to end all restrictions and open up right away, full stop.  That is, no more restrictions than we had a year ago in February 2020, other than those that individuals and businesses voluntarily choose to put on themselves.  But again, the damage is already done at this point, even if we don't do any further damage going forward.  We must then do the Herculean task of healing the existing damage done.  Fortunately, the federal government has just the technology to do that--the printing press, or its more modern equivalent, a computer with a keyboard.  Money is simply an accounting entry these days, so make the entry and be done with it.  Yesterday. 

(And before anyone predictably cries "inflation!", the truth is that deflation is actually a much, much bigger risk nowadays in the age of secular stagnation.)

The recent paltry stimulus is just barely scratching the surface of what is needed.  We will need an ongoing Universal Basic Income for all (at least $2000/month per adult and $1000/month per child for the first three months, followed by at least half those amounts per month thereafter). We will need single-payer Medicare For All. We will need to expand Social Security.  We will need to increase funding for schools.  We will need free higher education as well.  We will need a Green New Deal to create millions of good jobs while saving the Earth at the same time.  And we will ultimately need some sort of debt jubilee as well.  Seriously, now is NOT the time to be pikers!

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  As the ever-insightful Bill Sardi notes, we can now add the amino acid lysine to the rapidly accumulating list of treatments and prophylaxis for COVID-19.   It may be the biggest game-changer of all.

Updated Report Card For The Pandemic

It is 2021 now, and we at the TSAP think it is time to issue updated grades for each country on how they handled the pandemic.  These will be updated further over time.  Grades are based on a mixture of per-capita COVID death rates, overall excess deaths, economic damage, and policy measures.  All grades are on a curve, normalized with the European average set at C.  Here is the current list:

Taiwan:  A+ (very best in the world)
Hong Kong:  A
Iceland:  A
Norway:  A
Finland: A

Nicaragua:  A

South Korea:  A
Japan:  A-
New Zealand:  A-

Uruguay:  B+

Denmark:  B+
Germany:  B+

Australia:  B+

Austria:  B
Canada:  B

Belarus:  B

Russian Federation: B
Singapore:  B-

Slovakia:  B-

Portugal:  C+

Austria:  C+
Switzerland:  C
Netherlands:  C
Sweden: C

France:  C
USA: C- (overall, varies by state)

Brazil:  C-

Argentina:  D (don't cry for us now!)

Czechia:  D-

Peru:  F (formerly worst in the world)

Slovenia: F
Italy:  F
Spain: F
UK:  F (two lockdowns is dumb, but three?)
Belgium:  F (worst significant country in the world, twice!)

China:  F (though they really deserve a Z, for infecting the whole world!)

Countries that avoided a full lockdown and still got good results automatically get higher grades than those who achieved the same results with a full lockdown.  And further demerit points are deducted for unusually stringent and/or long-lasting restrictions compared to the world average.

(Entries in green are countries that never forcibly shut down in any meaningful way, while those in orange did so only very briefly, very locally, and/or used a very light touch overall.)

For US states, a partial list of states' grades:

Vermont:  A
Wyoming:  A
Hawaii:  A

Washington State:  A

Utah:  A

Oregon:  A

Iowa:  A-
Arkansas:  B

North Carolina:  B

California:  C
Florida: C
Georgia:  C
South Carolina:  C
Texas: C
Maryland:  C
Virginia:  C
Wisconsin:  C

DC:  C-

Arizona:  C-

South Dakota:  D+

North Dakota:  D+

Illinois: D
Michigan:  D

Louisiana:  D

Pennsylvania:  D

Connecticut:  D

Rhode Island:  D-

Massachusetts:  D-

New York:  F (second worst in the world)
New Jersey:  F (worst in the world)

Interestingly, non-lockdown states generally outperform most non-lockdown states.  Note how Florida and California both ended up about average despite polar opposite approaches to their epidemics. 

  

That's why you don't call the winner at halftime. 

All of these grades are of course subject to change in the coming weeks and months.  But at this point, they probably won't change very much.

State Of The Planet Address 2021

It is now 2021, and this year the TSAP will not waste any time giving our annual State of the Planet Address as we do every January.  Yes, we know it is a bit of a downer to say the least.  So sit down, take off your rose-colored glasses, and read on:

Our planet is in grave danger, and has been for quite some time now.  We face several serious long term problems:  climate change, deforestation, desertification, loss of biodiversity, overharvesting, energy crises, and of course pollution of many kinds.  Polar ice caps are melting.  Rainforests have been shrinking by 50 acres per minute.  Numerous species are going extinct every year.  Soil is eroding rapidly.  Food shortages have occurred in several countries in recent years.  Weather has been getting crazier each year thanks to climate change.  We have had numerous and often record-breaking wildfires, floods followed by long periods of drought, and a "storm of the century" at least once a year for the past several years.   And it is only getting worse every year.  In fact, 2020 is tied with 2016 as having been the hottest year on record.  Look no further than the three record-breaking storms in the past 15 years:  Katrina (2005, highest storm surge), Sandy (2012, largest diameter), and now Harvey (2017, a 1000-year flood, and overall worst hurricane on record), followed by Irma and Maria which devastated Puerto Rico, for a taste of the not-too-distant future.  And that was before Hurricane Michael devastated a rather large chunk of Florida recently.

In fact, on the other side of the world, just a little over three years ago, the worst monsoon season in recent memory has recently displaced 41 million people due to record flooding.  At the same time, severe, bone-dry droughts have been plaguing the Horn of Africa for over a decade now.  Thus for many, the future is sadly already here to one degree or another.

Australia was on fire just a year ago, with record heatwaves and massive wildfires (with koalas now basically endangerd as a result), and California was recently on fire as well, again.

And, of course, there is the threat of far worse pandemics.  While COVID-19 in particular may or may not be related to ecological destruction or climate cataclysm, the fact remains that the risks of future epidemics and pandemics will only increase with overcrowding and loss of wildlife habitats making zoonotic diseases that much more likely going forward.

None of this is an accident of course.  These problems are man-made, and their solutions must also begin and end with humans.  We cannot afford to sit idly by any longer, lest we face hell and high water in the not-too-distant future.  Our unsustainable scorched-earth policy towards the planet has to end.  Yesterday.

While we do not invoke the precautionary principle for all issues, we unequivocally do for the issue of climate change and any other environmental issues of comparable magnitude.  In fact, for something as dire as climate change, as of 2015 we now support a strong "no regrets" approach.  With no apologies to hardcore libertarians or paleoconservatives, in fact. We are not fazed one bit by the naysayers' pseudoscience as it does not really "debunk" the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming. The only serious debate is about how fast it will happen, and when the tipping point (or points) will occur. It is not a matter of if, but when. And the less precarious position is to assume it is a real and urgent problem. We need to reduce CO2 emissions to the point where the CO2 concentration is at or below 350 ppm, ASAP.  And it is currently at an unsustainably high level of 400+ ppm, and growing rapidly every year.

Given the latest IPCC report, which is truly nothing short of horrifying, the general consensus among climate scientists is that we have only at most 12 years left (now more like 11) to act radically before truly catastrophic climate change is a foregone conclusion.   And 2030 will be here before we know it.  

Now THAT is a national emergency!  And a global one, in fact.  Thus, a full-steam-ahead, Green New Deal 2.0 is LONG overdue.  We have already squandered a whole decade since Copenhagen, and we cannot afford to squander even one more day, let alone another decade.

Solving the problem of climate change will also help to solve the other ecological crises we are facing, for they all ultimately have the same root causes, not least of which is our insatiable addiction to dirty energy.  However, there is a right way to solve it, and several wrong ways.  Technology is important, but it won't be decisive on its own (economics geeks may recall Jevons Paradox).  The real problem is the paradigm that our society has been following, and that system is based on wetiko, the parasite of the mind and cancer of the soul.  It often seems that the only difference between capitalism and cannibalism is the spelling.

The TSAP endorses the ideas embodied in Steve Stoft's new book Carbonomics, most notably a tax-and-dividend system that would tax carbon (i.e. fossil fuels) at the source, and give all Americans an equal share of the revenue generated from this tax.  (Note that our proposal to tax natural resources and pay out an Alaska-like citizen's dividend already includes this.)  Yes, prices for various things would undoubtedly rise due to this tax, all else being equal, but the dividend will allow Americans to pay for this increase. The average American would in fact break even, but those who (directly or indirectly) use less energy than average will effectively pay less tax, while the energy hogs will effectively be taxed more, as they should be. Thus it is certainly not a regressive tax, and may even be mildly progressive. This is both the simplest and most equitable way to reduce carbon emissions as well as other forms of pollution, not to mention waste of dwindling non-renewable resources. The real challenge is getting the feds to accept something that won't directly benefit them (in the short term).  Carbonomics also includes other good ideas, such as improving how fuel economy standards are done, and crafting a better verison of the Kyoto treaty.   

In addition to the ideas in Carbonomics, we also support several other measures to help us end our addiction to fossil fuels once and for all.  Our Great American Phase-Out plan would phase out all fossil fuels by 2030 at the latest, via alternative energy, efficiency, and conservation.  One good idea to further the development of alternative energy would be the use of feed-in tariffs for renewable power sources. 

Of course, it is not enough to stop emitting carbon dioxide, we also need to remove the current excess levels of it from the atmosphere as well, as that stuff can otherwise linger for centuries and continue wreaking havoc on the climate.  We support ending net deforestation completely, planting a LOT more trees, and putting carbon back in the ground through carbon sequestration. One method is known as biochar, a type of charcoal made from plants that remove carbon dioxide from the air, that is subsequently buried. This is also an ancient method of soil fertilization and conservation, originally called terra preta.  It also helps preserve biodiversity.  Another crucial method would be regenerative organic farming, which also turns the soil into an effective carbon sink as well.  And we will most likely also need to employ higher-tech methods of sucking carbon out of the air as well.

We've said this before, and we'll say it again.  Our ultimate goal is 100% renewable energy by 2030, but we need to hedge our bets.  We can phase out fossil fuels, or we can phase out nuclear power, but we can't do both at the same time--and fossil fuels need to be phased out first, and quickly.  Nuclear is doing a pretty good job of phasing itself out as it is.  So let's not get rid of it prematurely.  

But the biggest elephant in the room (make that the elephant in the Volkswagen) is overpopulation.  It does not make for pleasant dinner conversation, but it must be addressed or else all other causes become lost causes in the long run. We absolutely need to have fewer kids, or nature will reduce our population for us, and the latter will NOT be pleasant to say the least. The TSAP believes in voluntarily reducing the total fertility rate (TFR) to 1.5-1.9 children per woman to do so, but let us be clear that we do NOT support draconian and/or coercive measures of population control (like China has used).  We believe that more liberty is the answer, not less.  In fact, the two most effective means of reducing the birthrate are poverty reduction and female empowerment.

Fortunately, America's TFR has recently dropped to a record low of about 1.73 with no indication of rising back above replacement rate in the near term.  And with the massive social and economic fallout from the pandemic and especially the lockdowns, the TFR is forecast to drop to 1.6 for 2021 (and even that is most likely an overestimate).  But clearly we cannot keep growing and growing, that's for sure (in fact, we need to shrink). And our insatiable addiction to economic growth (despite being decoupled from well-being) is also every bit as harmful as overpopulation as well, if not more so.  Growth for the sake of growth, the ideology of the cancer cell,  is clearly one of the most asinine obsessions our nation (and world) has ever had.  We clearly need to transition to a steady-state economy, most likely following a period of what Naomi Klein calls "selective degrowth" as well.  And to do that, we need a radical paradigm shift to happen yesterday.  Put another way, we need to leave room for Nature, lest Nature not leave room for us.  We have been warned, decades ago in fact.  Unfortunately, such warnings have largely fallen of deaf ears until very recently.

Yesterday is the time to jettison the Twin Big Lies that "everybody must work for a living" and "everybody must procreate".  Because doing so is the sine qua non of any realist plan to avert ecological catastrophe.

Last but not least, the TSAP now believes that as long as men remain in charge, we are all merely rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  Let's face it, it ain't gonna be us fellas who will save the world, as the past 7000 years or so have shown.  We paved paradise and put up a parking lot, we created a desert and called it peace.  We devoured and suffocated our own empire, and our proverbial 15 minutes of fame is almost up.  Only when women finally take over and reclaim their rightful position as the new leaders of the free world--and they will--will there be any real permanent solution.

Bottom line: we need to take the environment much more seriously than we do now.  We ignore it at our own peril.  And while the current administration in DC clearly doesn't care, We the People must act nonetheless.  With no apologies to the deniosaurs or Big Oil, Big Gas, or Dirty Coal.

Oh, by the way, wanna hear a joke?  Peak Oil.  Not saying it won't happen, of course--it will eventually peak and decline at some point--but climate change kinda supersedes it.  While conventional oil most likely has already peaked, there is more than enough total oil (including unconventional) to deep-fry the Earth--and most of which needs to stay in the ground if we wish to avoid catastrophic climate change.  Fossil fuels are, after all, what Buckminster Fuller referred to as our planet's "energy savings account", which we need to wean ourselves off of and save just in case of a planetary emergency--and he first said this in 1941!

So quibble all you want, but the truth must be faced head-on.  Hindsight is 2020, and we have a planet to save.  So let's roll!

UPDATE:  We never thought we would ever have to say this, but the TSAP does NOT support a "climate lockdown" or any other type of lockdown for that matter.  It is at best a category error, and would do far more harm than good in the long run.  And of course it flies in the face of the basic principles of anything remotely resembling a free society.  So take that off the table now!