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!

Plot Twist: It Was Seasonality All Along

With the latest hand-wringing over the March surge of COVID in some European countries, there seems to be a lot of head-scratching and finger-pointing as to why.  And the usual suspects (lifting restrictions, people letting their guard down, new variants, etc.) don't really seem to hold water this time, if they ever really did.  Turns out, it is most likely due to seasonality, and its interaction with the level of herd immunity in the population, and has been all along.  See the following tweets below:

Apparently, a study from a year ago found that the virus has an ideal temperature range of 41-52 F, and an ideal low absolute humidity that translates to roughly 47-79% relative humidity in that temperature range.  So in Europe and the northern USA, regardless of what restrictions were in place, the virus logically surged in the fall and early winter when passing through the ideal range on the way down, then dropped like a stone from mid-January to mid-February, then is either plateauing or rising again in late February and March when passing through that range on the way up.  And after about three weeks or so, it will most likely plummet monotonically to a low baseline through the spring and summer.  The Sunbelt of course has a different seasonality, so the virus is still dropping there even with restrictions generally being lifted faster there.  Last year, their surge occurred in June and July, when they had a relatively COVID-naive population.  But given the combination of herd immunity and seasonality overall, the virus should continue to plummet to a low baseline there as well.  Regardless of restrictions.

Of course, there are other factors as well.  In the winter, people are indoors more, where the virus spreads much more easily (especially with closed windows and thus poor ventilation), and it is also "broken immune system season" (which stretches roughly from November through April) due to low Vitamin D levels from relative lack of sunlight.  But this latest nuance about the ideal temperature and humidity range for the virus explains even more still.

As for vaccines, it is notable that cases began plummeting even well before a significant chunk of the population was vaccinated, and by the time it began falling at a slower rate or even rising again, a good chunk had already received the shots.  So seasonality is an even stronger factor that vaccines, apparently.  And bringing together a large number of people at a time, including many vulnerable people, at mass vaccination sites is ironically a very efficient way to spike the curve in the short term before the immunity from the vaccines fully kicks in (which takes at least two weeks if not longer).  Gibraltar apparently learned that lesson the hard way.

(Furthermore, the ever-insightful Bill Sardi has a theory that there may be a darker reason why many places with the highest vaccination rates are seeing spikes now, but only time will tell if that theory pans out.  Or perhaps it briefly increases susceptibility before it fully kicks in.  Either way, we should know one way or the other by April or May at the latest.)

So far, as of March 20th, the USA has largely dodged the European surge in March, with only Michigan and New Jersey seeing significant (but modest) recent increases.  But many other northern states above the 37th parallel, where it is still chilly and in season for the virus, progress has temporarily stalled.  But make no mistake, this stalling and/or reversal of progress is temporary, fairly brief, basically inevitable, and NOT related to the lifting of restrictions too soon or quickly, lack of masks or mask mandates, new variants, Spring Break, or vaccine hesitancy.  None of these "usual suspects" jibe well with the statistics.

UPDATE:  When looking on Worldometer at the data for three countries/territories that were first out the gate for mass vaccination and had the largest vaccination rates in January--UK, Israel, and especially Gibraltar--we can clearly see a massive super spike in COVID cases (and then deaths shortly after) for a few weeks, followed by a sharp and massive drop to a low baseline upon finally achieving herd immunity (by both infection and vaccination in a two-for-one special, ironically).  And no March surge there either.  So it looks like these post-vaccination surges are fortunately brief (albeit tragically very deadly, especially in Gibraltar), and may partially explain the March spikes in later-vaccinating and slower-vaccinating countries, including some out-of-season tropical countries like Brazil, Peru, and even India as well.  Meanwhile, some of the least-vaccinated and slowest-vaccinated areas (such as Texas) and populations (such as Palestinians) have been interestingly seeing better trends than their highly-vaccinated counterparts.  Makes you wonder.

(Correction:  Palestinians were seeing better trends than Israeli Jews from December through February, but by March the reverse clearly became true.)

But seasonality seems to predominate overall right now in the non-tropics.  And we see that in countries like Italy and Germany, the March mini-waves are already slowing down and curling over before their new lockdowns would have had any effect--kinda like their first waves last spring did too.  Which we have also repeatedly seen elsewhere as well, of course.

(Exactly how much of such spontaneous curling over and decline of these epidemic waves is due to seasonality, herd immunity to one degree or another, attrition of the biggest superspreaders from the population early on, voluntary behavior changes in response to rising case numbers, reversion to the mean, or some combination of the above is not entirely clear, but any correlation with lockdowns and related restrictions is clearly spurious.)

Another possible explanation for the apparent seasonality of this and other respiratory viruses is the hypothesis that it has more to do with changes in temperature than absolute temperature per se, and that some strains are more temperature-sensitive than others.  This also explains a lot as well. 

Also, it seems that HCoV-NL63, one of the four endemic common cold coronaviruses, is currently surging in the Midwest.  Perhaps that little pest is being picked up as false positives for COVID-19 by the notoriously inaccurate PCR tests in some places?

And speaking of the Midwest, once again, we see that lifting vs. keeping restrictions (of any kind) seems to be at best quite irrelevant to the COVID-19 virus:

So, remind me again why our "leaders" decided a year ago in March 2020 to throw the hard-won wisdom of the ages out the window like so much garbage, in favor of emulating a brutal totalitarian dictatorship halfway around the world? And then when their voodoo clearly didn't work, they not only persisted in their defection in the face of hard counter-evidence, but actually doubled and tripled down on it?

So call it whatever you want, just don't call it science.

QED  

See also here, here, here, here, and here as well.

And finally, as of the end of April, we can see:

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.  

Time To End "Endless War", Yesterday!

As the True Spirit of America Party has long said time and again, "endless war" is NOT a sustainable strategy.  In fact, it is not even a strategy at all, but a concept.  And now we're in the 20th year (!) of the war in Afghanistan, the 18th year of the Iraq War in some capacity, and several years into smaller ones like Yemen, Syria, and so on.  And the first two are now presided over by their FOURTH President of the United States, and these wars have continued to be waged as usual even during a global pandemic.

Quagmire Accomplished, basically.  And what have we as a nation actually accomplished during this relentless decades-long quagmire? Certainly nothing good on balance.  Any strategic victories that did occur were exclusively at the very beginning, followed only by losses at the margin going forward.  And a massive stack of dead bodies, of course.  ISIL was ultimately routed for the most part, but lest we forget, they would not have even existed had we not invaded and destabilized Iraq in the first place.  Thus the "cure" was much worse by than the disease.

As for Afghanistan, al-Qaeda was also routed and largely reduced to a nuisance, but then mission creep quickly set in.  We almost had Bin Laden then "lost" him in Pakistan, then finally got him in 2011.  Then we decided to stay there for some reason.  Then ISIL went to Afghanistan to take advantage of the destabilization (even with American troops still there), and so on. And in the meantime, we managed to create terrorists faster than we could kill them.

The only winners here are the oligarchs who profit from this whole racket, quite literally making a killing, as noted by Major General Smedley Butler all the way back in his insightful 1935 book, War Is A Racket.

Thus, it is LONG past time to withdraw our troops from all of these wars quickly and responsibly.  As Win Without War advocates, we need to combine our withdrawal with a commensurate humanitarian and diplomatic surge as well.  We will likely need to implement some sort of Marshall Plan for the affected nations, financed by Monetary Sovereignty and of course the massive savings from cutting war spending.  But withdraw we must, sooner or later.  And yesterday is NOT soon enough!

The open-ended AUMFs both need to be repealed, and the authority for making war needs to be rightfully restored to Congress as per the US Constitution (hey, remember that thingy?).  The War Powers Resolution needs to be greatly tightened in terms of its limits on the President to use military force, 1) only in true emergencies, 2) with an absolute hard limit of 90 days in the absence of Congressional authorization, and 3) strict liability for any consequences if the action turns out to be illegitimate.  And all Congressional authorizations for military force must be either 1) a formal declaration of war, generally done against nation-states, or 2) a much more limited "Letter of Marque and Reprisal" against, and only against, members of specific terrorist and criminal organizations and syndicates named in the letter, which may also be acted upon by private entities as well.  Both are explicitly authorized by the Constitution.  No more vague and open-ended AUMFs, no more unilateral "policing the world", and no more prolonged military occupations either.

All wars must follow Just War Theory criteria:  1) Just cause, 2) Right intention, 3) Proportionality of means, 4) Reasonable prospects of success, and 5) Last resort, among other criteria (but these are the core criteria).  The war in question must also be in America's national interest (not merely business interests!) as well.  And the moment any one of these criteria is no longer met, the war must end, period.   Spoiler alert:  very few wars in our nation's history have actually met all of these criteria. 

For the record, the TSAP is 100% against bringing back the draft.  One of the very few things that hippies, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan could all agree on was that the draft is a bad idea, period.  We believe that the all-volunteer military is superior in every way, and conscription is a Machiavellian form of slavery, violating both the 13th Amendment as well as Kant's categorical imperative.  And while we should certainly eradicate poverty, thus eliminating the "poverty draft" (i.e. economic coercion), we should at the same time also pay our (smaller number of) troops what they are actually worth (which is a LOT more than what they are paid now!) so we should never run short of volunteers.  Besides, as cynical as it sounds, a country that actually needs a draft to defend itself deserves to lose.

That said, if we really wanna smash this war racket for good, we would nonetheless support a form of "consensual conscription" in which any future war must be approved by a limited plebiscite (with a non-secret ballot!) of men and women of military age (which we define as 18-64) who are at least reasonably fit to serve and not obviously 4-F.  Those who vote "yes" would be eligible to be drafted as necessary should we run short of volunteers, those who vote "no" would be exempt, and those who abstain from voting would be drafted next after all the "yes" voters are picked.  Those who voted "yes" or abstained but then conveniently become "conscientious objectors" after being chosen will (if approved) then be assigned to do civilian service or perhaps join a "Human Shield Brigade" to protect civilians.  In other words, if you don't wanna be drafted, simply exercise your right and duty to vote "NO" to any military action that you personally find to be questionable, foolish, reckless, and/or immoral.  And the incentive to go to war will thus evaporate when enough people with "skin in the game" vote "NO", and we also ban war profiteering as well.

Thus, the Selective Service System should be placed back into "deep standby" with the registration requirement suspended indefinitely (like it was in 1975-1980) until it actually becomes necessary to reactivate registration in the event of a legitimately declared war.  That is quick and easy to do with today's technology, and in the meantime we have the Reserves and the National Guard as a temporary "bridge" in case God forbid an actual draft is needed.  Thus, such registration is superfluous nowadays.

In a nutshell, when we finally take the profit out of war, then unsurprisingly the odds of actually going to war will surely approach zero going forward.

As Major General Smedley Butler famously said, 

"TO HELL WITH WAR!"

And let the planetary healing begin!

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.

Negative And Positive Liberty: Two Sides, Same Coin

If you are reading this right now, there is a very good chance that you have been feeling "politically homeless" recently.  You may find yourself torn between progressivism and libertarianism, and have thus sought out what we call "progressive libertarianism".  You may strongly oppose lockdowns and related restrictions as egregious violations of civil and human rights, but yet still just as strongly support things like Universal Basic Income, single-payer Medicare For All, fair and progressive taxation, labor rights, racial justice, gender and reproductive justice, environmental justice, and stuff like that.  And take it from us, you are NOT at all alone.

One thing all tyrants and their lackeys both today and throughout history have in common is that they convince the masses that negative and positive liberty ("freedom from" vs. "freedom to", respectively) are somehow at odds with one another or even mutually exclusive, when in reality they are (when properly understood!) two sides of the same coin.  And those who follow the "power-over" or "dominator" paradigm of social interaction (as opposed to the "partnership" paradigm per Riane Eisler) simply cannot see that you really can't have one without the other.  That is true whether one is a Marxist or Neo-Platonist (preferring only positive liberty at the expense of negative liberty), or a Republican or Libertarian (preferring only negative liberty at the expense of positive liberty).  And by cynically pitting one type of liberty against the other, We the People ultimately end up with neither as a result.

If literally everything has strings attached and/or requires one to beg permission from the state or others higher up in the social dominance hierarchy, can one really consider oneself to be free?

If there is no firm social floor below which one cannot fall, then there is a "race to the bottom" which inevitably results in economic coercion.  And economic coercion makes negative liberty into a cruel joke:  the "freedom" to starve under a bridge in a world of natural abundance but artificial scarcity.

The same is also true for individual rights vs. collective/community rights as well, by the way.

To quote the late Mikhail Bakunin, "We are convinced that liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; and that socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."  Simply insert "negative" before "liberty", and replace "socialism" with "positive liberty" and the quote in fact makes even more sense, regardless of how one feels about that rather nebulous snarl word, "socialism".  That basically sums it up.  QED.

We at the TSAP have one and only one agenda:  liberty and justice for all.  What's yours?

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.