Team Reality Vindicated Yet Again

Looks like us at Team Reality have been vindicated yet again:  two years into the pandemic, we still see no correlation between stringency and excess all-cause deaths.  And this was from a famous mainstream British medical journal, The Lancet, of all places.  One can see that not only did Sweden do better than the European average, but they actually did about the same or better than all of their immediate neighbors except Norway (and Norway wasn't even all that much stricter for the majority of the pandemic).  We can see that not only Sweden, but also Belarus, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Brazil, Uruguay, the Faroe Islands, Florida, Utah, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota were generally within error bounds of their much stricter neighbors (and/or the USA or world average), and in some cases actually did better.  Even Arizona was apparently within error bounds of their much stricter neighbor New Mexico.  And furthermore, a simple population age adjustment puts Florida and California at roughly equivalent to each other and the USA national average despite radically different policies, even if it makes Nevada look terrible by the same token.

The very worst country by far was Peru, who had one of the earliest, strictest, and longest lockdowns in the region, if not the world.  And the very worst US state was Mississippi, whose stringency was not very different from the national average overall.

But overall, the net result is that most countries and states simply ended up within error bounds of each other regardless of what they did policy-wise.

Cumulative excess all-cause deaths is the best way to compare states and countries since it shows us the "final bill" with no bias from the wide differences in counting Covid cases and deaths.  It thus captures all the collateral deaths from lockdowns and such, as well as direct and indirect virus deaths.  And it also captures any deaths from the very biggest elephant in the room of all--the experimental "vaccines".

Like the song goes, some will win, some will lose, and some are born to sing the blues.  And the latter category seems to be dominated by the perpetual quasi-lockdown countries and states repeatedly punctuated by on-again, off-again full lockdowns and other mandates and restrictions.  They have remained mired in an "epidemic yo-yo" with the worst of both worlds overall.  Basically, you either do China (excluding Hong Kong), or you do Sweden (or less).  Anything in between basically does far more harm than good on balance.  And China's brutal and totalitarian strategy, one with still no end in sight to this day, is of course utterly incompatible with anywhere even remotely close to being a free country.

Thus, lockdowns, mask mandates, and NPIs really need to be taken off the table forever. Period.

UPDATE:  Of course, all purely utilitarian arguments are ultimately built on quicksand, so that cannot be our only argument against lockdowns and such.  We must note that the real argument is, individual rights are inalienable, and thus NOT up for grabs, regardless.  It is an egregious affront to human dignity to violate such rights.  That, and the Hippocratic Oath of "first, do no harm" (since all of these restrictions and mandates are by definition, harmful to one degree or another) are the only arguments we need.

And for those who are still scared and miss the phony "security blanket" of universal masking, remember that you are still perfectly free to wear one yourself even well after mask mandates are lifted.  Better yet, build up your own "invisible mask" via the following:  Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Zinc, Quercetin, Thiamine, Magnesium, NAC, Niacin, Selenium, the amino acid Lysine, Resveratrol, Fisetin, Oregano Oil, Omega-3, and mouthwash and nasal spray such as Xlear, dilute Povidone-Iodine, or Betadine Cold Defence with Carageenan.  And all without the dreaded Foegen Effect or any of the numerous other adverse effects of face masks.

See also here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

And use common sense.  Wash your hands, cover your coughs and sneezes, don't touch your face, and stay home when actually sick.  Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate.  Vulnerable people should avoid crowds as much as possible when case numbers are elevated.  In other words, adopt the "flu strategy" and move on.

A Hot War With Russia Would Be a VERY, VERY Bad Idea

The True Spirit of America Party hereby unequivocally condemns Vladimir Putin's abominable behavior, including (but not limited to) his most recent brutal rape of the Ukraine.  We agree that there is nothing redeeming about what he is currently doing there, period.  No argument from us there.

That said, it is nonetheless entirely possible to both condemn his misbehavior and still understand that a hot war between the USA and Russia is a VERY, VERY bad idea on balance for all concerned.  Or between any NATO country and Russia, for that matter.  Russia is a still very much a nuclear-armed quasi-superpower to this day, and they are also one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.  A hot war with them can easily turn VERY ugly and nuclear VERY fast, and would not be worth the cost. The same goes for any hot war with China either.  Thus, the TSAP unequivocally opposes any attempt by anyone to foment such a war, for any reason.  Period.

Unfortunately, too many people don't seem to do nuance anymore these days.  And they probably don't even know what the word "nuance" means.

And while it is very politically incorrect to say it out loud, NATO has not exactly been entirely innocent either in recent years.  There is far, far more to this complex and nuanced larger NATO vs Russia issue than meets the eye, and the roots go very, very deep indeed.  And the MSM rarely if ever tells the whole story.  We believe that the many years of warmongering and provocations on both sides is really, really stupid and dangerous, and we urge both sides to resolve this crisis diplomatically as quickly as humanly possible.  And while there are really no GOOD options currently, imposing swift and tough economic sanctions on the Russian oligarchs themselves (including Putin himself, the second richest person in the world) would probably be the least worst thing for the USA, NATO, and the UN to do.

As protest folk singer Phil Ochs once famously sang in "What Are You Fighting For?" in the 1960s:

But the hardest thing I'll ask you, if you would only try

Is take your children by their hands and look into their eyes

And there you'll see the answer, you should have seen before

If you'll win the wars at home, there'll be no fighting anymore.

Such excellent and timeless advice, both then and now.  And as Sting famously and poignantly sang in 1985, "I hope the Russians love their children too".

How To Make Sure This NEVER Happens Again

With the official narrative having completely collapsed and the tyrants now meeting meaningful resistance from We the People, and the Covidians now cynically rushing for the exits via the Great Pivot, one thing should be clear. Going cold turkey yesterday back to 2019 Normal must be the FLOOR, not the ceiling, of what We the People demand going forward.  After all, 2019 Normal was clearly not enough to prevent these past two years of madness from happening in the first place, and we need to make sure this can NEVER, EVER happen again.  

Like, ever.  Seriously. 

Not only do we demand an immediate and permanent end to all pandemic-related mandates and restrictions, leaving no traces behind, period, but we also demand the following going forward as well:

• Individual human rights and civil liberties must be UNCONDITIONAL and inalienable, period.  Regardless of the supposed "facts" on the ground or the "greater good" or any other utilitarian concerns.  Otherwise, they are not really rights at all, but rather privileges and indulgences.
• Especially bodily autonomy and bodily integrity must be as absolute as humanly possible, period.
• Emergency powers of any kind for any reason at any level of government must be severely limited in time, space, and extent going forward, and completely and permanently revoked for any "leaders" who have abused them in the past.  Any emergency powers related to Covid need to be revoked permanently at all levels of government everywhere.
• New constitutional amendments and legislation must be put forth to explicitly spell out and guarantee these changes.
• In other words, the perceived legitimacy of the basis for these mandates and restrictions must be eradicated completely.
• DO NOT EVER again attempt to meet tyranny or insanity in the middle!  You will lose, guaranteed, every single time, period.
• All of the major players in this catastrophe, both government and corporate, need to be forced to resign immediately at a bare minimum, and then must be brought up on charges of Crimes Against Humanity and tried and punished accordingly.  Nuremberg 2.0, in other words.
• And finally, demand full reparations for all vaccine injuries, and for all damages (economic and otherwise) done by government-imposed lockdowns, shutdowns, restrictions, and mandates of any kind.  The Takings Clause in the Constitution already demands as much.

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  See this excellent article by Jeffrey A. Tucker.  The roots of these emergency powers go far deeper than many people realize.  And we must end and fully gut these powers, root and branch, yesterday.  Otherwise, they will grow back.

Also see this excellent article from The Daily Sceptic in the UK.  The points in that article apply here in the USA as well.  All emergency powers must be fully revoked yesterday.   Never Again is NOW.

Its The Final Countdown!

Like the famous 1980s song by the Swedish band Europe goes, "It's the final countdown!"  The fat lady has finally sung, and it's all over but the shouting.

The two year long COVID-19 pandemic is now effectively over for the most part, the virus has become endemic, and the vast majority of people want to go back to 2019 normal.  More and more countries are ending all or practically all restrictions now, starting with Denmark, and now Sweden too (lifting what little restrictions they had before).  Much of Europe is at least starting to loosen restrictions as well.  The Freedom Convoy of truckers in Canada is clearly making an impact there as well, and provincial governments are taking note.  And a good chunk of US states are effectively back to normal.

But still not everywhere yet.  Several states and countries have yet to see the light, and are apparently maintaining or even doubling down on their restrictions.  Though as they become an increasingly lonely club, the pressure will be on them to follow the other states and countries, of course.

A new and excellent meta-analysis of numerous studies on the effects of lockdown and related restrictions on Covid mortality rates was recently released, and the results are not at all flattering to the purveyors of the narrative.  The finding was that these restrictions basically had little to no practical benefit at all (and some of the studies examined even found increases in deaths with greater stringency), and given their well-known and obvious harms in terms of collateral damage, that makes these restrictions worse than useless.  The authors thus concluded that these restrictions "are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument".

And the now-retreating Omicron variant has also completely laid waste to what little had remained of the "vaccine" narrative as well.  The same can also be said of mask mandates, as a cursory glance at the epicurves of places that had such mandates and those that did not would show, just like before Omicron too.

If all of this doesn't constitute the ultimate off-ramp to go cold turkey yesterday from all restrictions permanently and never look back, I really don't know what does.  So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:   No sooner did the lockdown-debunking meta-analysis come out, than yet another meta-analysis came out that found (surprise!) that face masks were also effectively useless as well.  Again, the lack of evidence of benefit against the virus, combined with the known harms of forcing these things on people, makes these mandates worse than useless on balance.  No wonder so many erstwhile pro-mask politicians are rushing for the exits now!

And both Pfizer and Moderna investors are now rushing for the exits as well.  Turns out, even the manufacturer immunity (from liability) for these "vaccines" is also rather leaky as well.  These companies apparently forgot that FRAUD (if proven) still leaves them wide open to product liability regardless of anything--and the clinical trials that they used to gain authorization for their products are looking more and more fraudulent with each passing day.  No wonder Moderna's CEO abruptly deleted his Twitter account and dumped his stock.  Get your popcorn, this will get very, very interesting.

Cold Turkey Is Still Our Only Way Out

We at the TSAP have said it before, and we will say it again, shouting it from the rooftops.  The ONLY way out of this madness is to go cold turkey from all of these restrictions and mandates.  Period.  And yesterday is not soon enough!

That means, effective immediately:

• No more lockdowns, hard or soft
• No more curfews 
• No more business closures or capacity restrictions (unless voluntarily)
• No more closures of anything 
• No more mask mandates, anywhere
• No bans or restrictions on gatherings or events, public or private
• No restrictions on places of worship
• No more travel restrictions, whether international or domestic 
• All schools fully open, in-person, no antisocial distancing, masks optional
• All colleges fully open, in-person, no antisocial distancing, masks optional
• No more mass testing of anyone without symptoms.  Otherwise, use rapid testing first to verify.  For the PCR test (for confirmation), reduce the cycle threshold to 25-30, or simply jettison the PCR test entirely.
• No more quarantines of anyone without symptoms 
• No vaccine mandates, coercion, discrimination, or Covid "passports" of any kind, anywhere, period

And never again, no matter how bad it gets.  Really.  The TSAP will accept nothing less than 2019 true normal going forward, with NO more compromises.

And as long as there is no major outbreak locally, hospitals and nursing homes should also return to normal as well 100%.  It is LONG past time to stop cruelly denying visitors to patients, and stop artificially and arbitrarily delaying and cancelling so-called "elective" procedures and treatments.  And with the proper early treatment and prophylaxis, hospitals will NOT be overwhelmed anymore than during a typical flu season.  As for the staff, aggressive rapid testing should be done regularly regardless of vaccination status (as vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus), and preference should be given to staff who are naturally immune because they have already had the virus and recovered (and are thus the very least likely to catch and spread the virus).  

That's it.  Yes, really.

Heresy, I know.  But it has been nearly two years now, and for better or worse, the virus is here to stay.  It cannot be eradicated at this point, as that train has left the station long ago.  We really only have two choices now and forever:  1) learn to live with the virus, and be honest about it, or 2) learn to live with the virus, and pretend otherwise. 

It has been observed that it is historically extremely rare for any respiratory viral pandemic to last longer than 18 months.  And they seldom have more than two major waves, three tops.  Yet here we are.  So all of our trying in vain to outsmart the virus, and/or hide from it, only served to drag it out that much longer, more painfully, and with out-of-season waves as well.  And plenty of widespread collateral damage on top of all that as well.  

Fortunately, the relatively mild Omicron variant itself looks like it will effectively function as a live and spreadable natural "vaccine" that will finally achieve REAL herd immunity to all past, present, and (near) future variants, and accelerate the transition to endemicity.  No thanks to the experimental mRNA and DNA/AAV gene therapies misnamed "vaccines", which are far too leaky and narrow to be fit for purpose, have a shoddy safety record at best, and most ironically of all seem to act like a magnet for Omicron.

This only ends when We the People finally stop complying with these mandates, cold turkey.  Or at least when a critical mass of people do so.  

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  Oh, and about those masks again, while they may not be quite as much in the spotlight right now as the "vaccines" are, the zealots are nonetheless quite busy doing damage control and are upping their game in a desperate attempt to salvage as many fragments of the rapidly collapsing narrative as possible, notably including masks.  To that, we defer to the wisdom of Steve Kirsch and Allan Stevo.  See also the factsheet by Just Facts, and this one by Josh Stevenson, and the recent podcast and article by Ian Miller of Unmasked as well.  If, after thoroughly reading and listening to all of what they all have to say, you are still a "true believer" in masks, for anyone but especially for children, you really need to have your head examined!  Most likely, your brain has been seriously starved of oxygen for far too long.

Or maybe the dreaded Foegen Effect finally got the better of you, and you just don't realize it yet.

The TSAP Is NOW On GETTR

After seeing what Twitter has done to Dr. Robert W. Malone, Steve Kirsch, El Gato Malo, Dr. Dmitry Kats, Alex Berenson, and so many others, censoring and kicking them off Twitter and thus driving them to go on GETTR, we decided to go to GETTR as well.  Unlike Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other Big Tech social media platforms, they don't censor their posts at all, as they actually believe in freedom of speech.  Their interface is very similar to Twitter, and is in fact better since they have a much more generous character limit per post.

Follow us here on GETTR.

The TSAP will remain on Twitter for the time being as well, until either 1) we get kicked off, and/or 2) we simply get too sick of their shenanigans to take it anymore.  Be sure to follow us on both platforms to get the very best out of what we have to offer.

JULY UPDATE:  As of July 10, 2022, we have deleted our GETTR account in part due to current events, in part due to an infamous hacking and data breach event on GETTR, and in part because GETTR, to use a technical term, simply SUCKS.  Thus we have chose to say farewell to GETTR, and likely will be doing so to Twitter in the near future as well.

AUGUST UPDATE:  As of August 22, 2022, we are no longer on Twitter either.  #FarewellToTwitter

How The Democrats Can Hope To Avoid A "Red Wave" in 2022 and 2024

It's now 2022, and the Democrats have literally never been in worse shape as they are right now.  Well, not since 1980 at least.  The midterm elections are just ten months away, and they have succeeded in alienating a good chunk of the electorate in the past two years.  From lockdowns to school and business closures to masks to vaccine mandates and passports to inflation to crime to cancel culture to ironically not being nearly progressive enough where it really matters, they have been associated with and have accumulated a LOT of baggage lately.

Dems, this is your LAST chance to check your baggage at the door.  Like, yesterday:

1. End all virus-related restrictions and mandates immediately, stop mass asymptomatic testing, stop PCR testing completely or cut the cycle threshold to 25-30, and declare victory over the virus.  If the relatively mild Omicron isn't your off ramp, I really don't know what is!
2. End all censorship and immediately authorize and promote any and all early treatments and prophylactics with good evidence of safety and effectiveness, including, but not limited to, that famous one that starts with an "I".  Make it very easy to get OTC, including by mail order.  Send Indian-style "Ziverdo" kits to everyone.  And let's not forget "Vitamin Q" either!
3. Approve Novavax (and/or other more traditional vaccines like Covaxin and Corbevax) for all adults who want it, and simultaneously put an indefinite moratorium on all mRNA and DNA/AAV "vaccines", effective immediately.  And remove the liability shield as well.  And DO NOT FORCE vaccines on anyone this time!
4. Open schools 100%, in-person, full-time, 2019 normal style.  Effective immediately, any schools that remain remote or hybrid should be considered closed for the purposes of funding.
5. Expel Joe Manchin from the party yesterday and pass a genuine progressive agenda without watering it down.  Things like Medicare For All, free college, UBI, paid family leave, the Green New Deal, infrastructure, and stuff like that.

And finally, apologize for what you have done and failed to do.  Stop gaslighting We the People and own up to it NOW.   Even if all of these things are done right now, the damage is pretty much already done at this point, and a "Red Wave" could still be in the cards.  But if these things are not done, it is all but guaranteed to happen.  It will truly be a bloodbath at the polls in 2022, and in 2024 you may even see a President DeSantis.  You have been warned.

It's 2022, And The Official Narrative Is Now Completely Laid Waste

Beginning in November 2021, and accelerating at warp speed in the latter half of December, the official narrative is collapsing faster than formerly healthy young athletes on the field after being injected with the experimental jabs.  From increasingly obvious "vaccine" and NPI failures (and harms) to the milder but more contagious Omicron to new (and rediscovered) treatments to the "experts" contradicting each other out of utter desperation, the narrative has now been completely laid waste.  Few people really believe in it anymore, and the few true believers have lost nearly all clout now.  More and more people are waking up, questioning, and resisting.  And for everyone else, conformity has become little more than ritualism, that is, merely going through the motions.  This is becoming the case all over the world, but particularly true in the USA.

Like rats deserting a sinking ship, the purveyors of the narrative are scrambling and falling over themselves to abandon it, even as they desperately cling to as much as they can hope to attempt to salvage in order to publicly save face for as long as they can.  It's really quite pathetic at this point. 

Keep holding the line, and DO NOT COMPLY.  We simply cannot meet tyranny or insanity in the middle, as we have learned the hard way.  We must demand 2019 normal or bust, period.  The Overton window has been cracked open, and victory for liberty is now finally within reach.  So let's not squander it!

The oligarchs have bitten off far more than they could ever possibly chew.  And now they are choking on it as we speak.  And thanks in part to Omicron, we are now finally (and ironically) reaching the heretofore elusive "herd immunity" that was 1) promised by leaky experimental "vaccines" that failed to deliver, and 2) delayed via lockdowns and NPIs (to the extent they had any effect at all on viral spread) from occurring the natural way.  In other words, Covid is evolving into the new common cold, and the inevitable (and long overdue) transition from pandemic to endemic is now finally under way.

And most importantly, we are now learning the crucial difference between power and force.  And good ideas do NOT require force.  "Power within" and "power with and through" always wins against "power over" (aka force) in the long run, God willing.

Over 400 Studies On Our Side

BREAKING NEWS:  According to Dr. Paul Alexander, here are now over 400 studies that expose the utter failure of all of the COVID-related mandates and compulsory restrictions in the real world, and ZERO studies of even halfway-decent quality that show the opposite with any real confidence.  Once you exclude all of the fatally-flawed and poorest quality studies, and look at enough real-world data points, one can firmly conclude that all of these measures have done far more harm than good on balance.  And they should NEVER, EVER, EVER be repeated.  Like, ever.

Dr. Alexander's article discusses compulsory non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as lockdowns, shelter-in-place, school closures, masks and mask mandates, etc. and essentially debunks them all.  Scratch that, he debones, fillets, slices, dices, and juliennes each and every one of these sacred cows, and pretty much lays waste to their remains.  However, his article does not touch on the most recent addition to the mix:  the now ubiquitous "vaccines" and the disgustingly tyrannical mandates and passports of same.  That is where the ever-insightful Steve Kirsch comes in, noting that these jabs literally kill more people than they save, and a fortiori for children to the tune of 117 to 1.  And that data was largely before the boosters became widely used, so that is most likely a lower bound for the adverse effects going forward if we continue on the path we are on.  They are also known to be very "leaky" (i.e. they don't stop transmission), and are thus NOT fit for the purpose of mass vaccination even if they were somehow perfectly safe (which they're not).

Thus, to put it in medical terminology, "the therapeutic window is closed" for all of these mandates and restrictions, period.  We must scrap the whole lot of them, cold turkey, never to repeat them again.  And the same is clearly true for these "vaccines" themselves, with maybe the exception of some extremely vulnerable and high risk individuals who still have yet to receive them for whatever reason.  Plenty of early treatments and prophylactics exist that completely obviate any need for these jabs, we just need to stop denying and censoring them, and start using them.  And yesterday is NOT soon enough!

FINAL THOUGHT:  If anyone still thinks that vaccine mandates or passports are somehow necessary OR sufficient to prevent another lockdown, well, we've got a nice bridge over the Danube River we'd like to sell you.  As they are now learning the hard way in Europe, you cannot bargain with the devil and hope to come out in one piece!  Cold turkey is the only way out of this mess for good, period.  When you try to meet insanity and tyranny in the middle, you will always lose, each and every single time.

UPDATE:  Looks like Sweden, who famously eschewed lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates, has ultimately been vindicated after all.  Their cumulative all-cause excess mortality per capita (by far the best indicator of all) was well below the European average, and believe it or not, not very different from their neighbors when you include all of their neighbors.  And Brazil, who had a reputation for being lax, and even Belarus, Nicaragua, and Tanzania, who largely ignored the pandemic, also fared quite similarly to their much stricter neighbors as well in terms of excess deaths.  And here in the USA, we see that Florida's excess death rate was roughly equivalent to California's despite the latter being much, much stricter overall than the former, AND despite the former also having a much older and fatter population as well.  Game. Set. Match.

Another study finds that babies born during the pandemic have stunted development compared to babies born before the pandemic.  Interestingly, no significant difference was seen between babies born to mothers who contracted the virus during pregnancy and those who did not.  Rather, it was the mothers' stress from all of the panic and lockdowns that had a toxic effect on the babies across regardless of the virus itself.  Let that sink in for a moment.  Now add in all the ubiquitous antisocial distancing and masks they experienced during early childhood as well, and it gets even worse still.

As for the Nu Xi Omicron variant, it is looking more and more like an intellectual checkmate for the purveyors of the official narrative.  Both "Team Vaccine" and "Team Zero Covid" are about to eat some serious crow, while the inevitable transition from pandemic to endemic has been greatly accelerated.

And now, the CDC has finally decided to pull the plug on the fraudulent PCR test, effectively December 31, 2021.  Because they know that the gig is up, the narrative has been completely laid waste, and effectively ending PCR testing is literally the only way they can declare "victory" over Covid at this point.

Don't forget to check out this deep dive by the ever-insightful Julius Ruechel too.

WTF Happened To The Left ?

That is the trillion-dollar question we should all have been asking all along.  From the moderate liberal left to the progressive left to the socialist far left, we saw far too many were either silent or went along with the neoliberal pseudo-left in pushing these illiberal, authoritarian, totalitarian, dystopian, and technocratic restrictions--lockdowns, shutdowns, school closures, mass quarantines, mask mandates, travel restrictions, gathering restrictions, and now even vaccine mandates and "passports".  That was one of the most shocking observations in history. 

There is literally nothing progressive or "woke" about these draconian measures that arbitrarily revoke individual human rights and civil liberties, destroy economies, destroy family and community cohesion, disproportionately harm the poor and people of color, disproportionately harm women and children, and quite frankly don't even work to stop the virus in the long run.  Up until March 2020, it was largely a consensus even in the medical community that doing these worse-than-useless things would do far more harm than good on balance, thus blatantly violating the Hippocratic oath of "first do no harm", and the left generally felt the same way.  So what changed?

From the ACLU to Vox to Noam Chomsky to the UN to the WSWS to Jacobin to Ms. Magazine to the AMA to the AAP to the AARP to nearly every left-wing or left-leaning political party in the world (outside of Sweden, Belarus, and Nicaragua), some of the last people one would expect to carry water for such a horrible agenda of the oligarchy and Big Pharma ended up doing exactly that.  Was it simply fear?  Was it generous payola from the oligarchy and Big Pharma?  Was it manipulation and coercion from them?  Was it blindly taking orders from Beijing, like the WHO is known to do?  Was it activation of some latent (or not-so-latent) authoritarian tendencies estimated to be present in 20% of the general population?  Was it what started as a merely silly "Orange Man Bad" political take that simply metastasized throughout the entire body politic?  Or perhaps a deep-seated desire to destroy capitalism (and/or industrial civilization) once and for all at any cost, regardless of the collateral damage?  

Most likely, it was all of the above.  Either way, the vast majority of the Left has SOLD OUT.  

The Democratic Party is beyond repair now.  News Flash:  The ubiquitous hashtag #DemExit is trending, and going viral.  Somebody needs to answer the Clue Phone, and fast!  Otherwise, 2022 and 2024 will thus be a bloodbath at the polls for the Dems.

Meanwhile, the ever-insightful British organization Left Lockdown Sceptics has consistently been a prinicipled beacon of sanity and reason on the genuine Left, no matter how far off the rails and utterly unhinged the rest of the self-proclaimed "Left" (whether (neo)liberal, progressive, or radical) have become lately.  They have truly stood the test of time, and their integrity will not be forgotten.

The time for the increasingly compromised and increasingly phony "Left" to genuinely repent cold turkey and make amends is yesterday.  Scratch that, the best time was 21 months ago.  The second best time is RIGHT NOW!  What are they waiting for?

UPDATE:  We would be remiss if we did not also note how egregiously ableist (in addition to being racist, sexist, ageist, adultist, eltist, and classist) these draconian measures have been, and still are in the places that continue to impose them.  People with disabilities and chronic illnesses have clearly gotten the brief end of the stick in countless ways, from worsening isolation to denial of services to interference with communication to denial of freedom of movement and more.  And it created a truly massive and persistent mental health crisis on top of it all.  All while the zealots who promote these measures have cynically and disgustingly used such vulnerable members of society as a fig leaf for these measures, with all of their empty rhetoric about "protecting the vulnerable", a promise that has been utterly broken time and again.  Thus, the overall intersectionally oppressive system known as the kyriarchy has clearly only gained strength all the more since from the very same "woke" pseudo-left who hypocritically claims to be dismantling it.

Also, it seems that organized labor (which has historically been quite left-leaning) has sold out as well, or at least some unions in the USA and UK, alas.  Particularly the teachers' unions, from the start.

What "Learning To Live With It" Really Means

As it becomes increasingly obvious that COVID-19 is becoming endemic if it isn't already, and that, try as we may, we clearly cannot eradicate this virus, there has been some confusion on what it really means when we say we need to "learn to live with the virus".  When we at the TSAP say that, this is what we mean:

What it does NOT include, in theory or practice:

• Lockdowns of any degree or kind
• Business restrictions of any kind
• Mask mandates of any kind anywhere
• Curfews of any kind
• Antisocial distancing 
• Gathering restrictions of any kind
• Travel restrictions of any kind
• School or university closures
• Healthcare restrictions or denials
• Red zones and green zones
• Mass testing of asymptomatic people
• Quarantine of asymptomatic people
• Contact tracing, or test-and-trace apps
• Vaccine mandates or coercion of any kind, anywhere 
• COVID or health "passports" of any kind
• Anything even remotely dystopian

What it includes:

• Common sense
• Early treatment and prophylaxis
• General health and wellness 
• Honesty and integrity 
• Empathy and compassion 
• Human rights
• Liberty 
• Personal responsibility 
• Live and let live

In other words, we simply go cold turkey from all pandemic-related restrictions, adopt the "flu model", live our lives to the fullest, and move on.  Capisce?

And the best moral learned in the past two years?  NEVER, EVER, EVER try to meet insanity or tyranny in the middle!  You will ALWAYS lose when attempting to compromise with the purveyors of the official narrative.  Give them an inch, and they will take a mile every single time.  Lesson learned, the hard way.

UPDATE:  Yet another study finds that lockdowns did far more harm than good, and we should NEVER, EVER, EVER attempt to repeated it.  Like, ever.  In other news, water is wet and the sun rises in the east.

Pfizermectin To The Rescue!

The latest impressive announcement of Pfizer's new anti-Covid pill, Paxlovid, is generating headlines everywhere.  The end of the pandemic is near!  Nearly 90% in preventing hospitalization and death! Hallelujah, let's pop the champagne!

Of course, if it really pans out, they literally just made their own failing "vaccine" (and those of their competitors) completely obsolete.  Very convenient damage control on their part.  And given how their new drug is a protease inhibitor, that it means it shares one of several mechanisms of action that Ivermectin utilizes against the virus, hence the nickname #Pfizermectin trending now.  And Ivermectin, best when taken along with zinc and/or doxycycline as famously done in India, also apparently does other things against the virus as well.  But Ivermectin is much cheaper as it is off-patent and generic now, so Big Pharma obviously can't profit from that.  Hence all the censorship.

And it's not just Ivermectin that acts as an already existing protease inhibitor to inhibit viral replication.  Various nutrients like resveratrol (from grapes), fisetin (from strawberries), and turmeric also act as natural protease inhibitors, while quercetin also inhibits cell entry of the virus and acts as a zinc ionophore to carry zinc into cells (zinc inhibits viral replication via a different mechanism).  Throw in some Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, Melatonin, Thiamine, and B12, along with Selenium and Vitamin E, and the virus will not stand a chance.  Thus, these increasingly failing and questionable "vaccines" were basically always obsolete, and no need to wait for Pfizer's (or Merck's) new magic pill.  Back to 2019 normal yesterday!

Even plain old aspirin seems to be beneficial in reducing Covid death rates, as long as you don't overdo it and take plenty of Vitamin C as well (as too much aspirin can deplete Vitamin C).  Any "survival kit" that does not contain aspirin and the aforementioned vitamins is not really a survival kit.

For further prophylaxis and very early treatment, throw in some xylitol/GSE (Xlear) or carageenan (Betadine Cold Defence) nasal sprays, and mouthwashes containing either alcohol or cetylpyridinium chloride, and you really got it made!  

(There is also a povidone-iodine based spray called ImmuneMist, in both oral and nasal formulas as well.)

The wisdom of the ages is crystal clear:  DO NOT mass vaccinate with leaky and questionable "vaccines" during a pandemic of any kind, as it ends up being gasoline on the fire.  Early treatment and prophylaxis make far more sense, and should have been done instead.  So what are we waiting for?

DECEMBER UPDATE:   On December 22, 2021, Pfizer's game-changing anti-Covid pill was finally authorized by the FDA.  A pill that you can take at home early on, so you can stay out of the hospital.  Hallelujah!  Of course, we know that the aforementioned natural (resveratrol, quercetin, fisetin, turmeric, etc.) and generic (Ivermectin plus zinc and doxycycline) protease inhibitors also work as well.  We know that plain old zinc itself, as well as amino acid lysine, inhibit viral replication as well, while arginine (counterintuitively) appears to improve outcomes if taken when already sick.  This is especially true when also taken with the aforementioned vitamins, herbs, nasal sprays, and mouthwashes.  And even SSRIs like Fluvoxamine have shown promise against the virus, albeit by a different mechanism.  And yet the powers that be have ignored, censored, and suppressed these things, as these would quickly render the "vaccines" and patented pills obsolete.

(Ivermectin, however, has 20 different mechanisms of action, while Pfizermectin only shares one of these 20 mechanisms, even if it is more potent for that one.)

Had the Fareed-Tyson protocol or the Zelenko protocol been followed for early treatment and prophylaxis, there would be almost no hospitalizations or deaths from Covid at all.

Looks like Bill Sardi's prediction, "by the end of the year", was right on the money!

JANUARY 2022 UPDATE:  A large Brazilian study of over 200,000 people confirms that Ivermectin actually does work as prophylaxis against the virus.  People who took 0.2 mg/kg/day on two consecutive days every 15 days saw much lower case, hospitalization, and death rates compared to those who did not, even after adjusting for numerous potential confounders.  The data were notably from 2020, before the vaccines and when a good chunk of the population was still naive to the virus.  And of course, the results were not released until January 15, 2022, over a year after the last data points were gathered.  Had the results been published widely a year earlier, it literally could have changed the course of the pandemic, if not history.

Time For A Moratorium On Experimental Gene Therapies

With the latest data coming in implying that the Covid "vaccines", or rather experimental gene therapies (whether mRNA or DNA/adenovirus), are 1) not fit for purpose for general use, if at all, 2) wane rapidly in what meager effectiveness they do possess, 3) have FAR worse safety and adverse effect profiles than previous, conventional vaccines as per VAERS (USA) and Yellow Card (UK) reports, 4) have unknown long-term effects, especially for children and young people, and 5) have some, shall we say, quality control issues that have recently been uncovered with the vial contents in terms of foreign material, we at the TSAP hereby resolve to call for an immediate moratorium on all Covid vaccines (or anything claiming to be such) for a minimum of two weeks pending a thorough and independent investigation of the contents of these vials.  To wit:

Manufacturers should clearly welcome such an investigation if they really are on the up and up.  Even if just to "debunk" the "conspiracy theorists" and lift any cloud hanging over their products.  If they balk, it kind of implies otherwise, doesn't it?  If they have nothing to hide, why hide it?

And of course, by definition, ALL mandates, passports, and discrimination relating to these jabs must also be lifted immediately, and permanently, period.  There is obviously ZERO justification now for these measures, and there never really was any.

After the minimum two week moratorium, if they ever decide to resume any of these jabs at all, they should only be resumed for adults at the very highest risk for complications from the virus (over age 70, morbidly obese (i.e. BMI of 35 or higher), and/or severely immuncompromised), or who work in very high-risk jobs, and even then only voluntarily with full and informed consent, ideally in consultation with one's doctor.  But since nearly everyone who is highly vulnerable or working high-risk jobs who truly wanted to receive them already has, any new takers will be very, very few in number.  

Even for those who are high-risk, it is best NOT to resume these jabs for anyone who has already had the virus (whether through previous diagnosis, or current positive antibody or T-cell test results), or anyone who is under 18, pregnant, or planning to become pregnant in the near future.

And a fortiori for children under 12, the next "market" for the industry.  There is NO good reason whatsoever for them to get these jabs, period.  That has to be an absolute bright RED LINE, and if there was ever a hill to die on, this is the one, people!

Additionally, they should also launch an investigation into the vials of other vaccines while we are at it, including, but not limited to, flu shots.  Again, if they have nothing to hide, why hide it?

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  On October 26, 2021, the FDA panel recommended Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer "vaccine" for children ages 5-11.  All of the members of the panel voted yes, except for one coward who abstained.  Not even one person there had the courage to vote no, even though, as one of them said the quiet part out loud, "We're never gonna learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it.  That's the way it goes."  Let that sink in.

And we just found yet another damning and incriminating video that will easily be the "smoking gun" to get these jabs off the market completely within a matter of HOURS if the FDA were to actually heed them, followed by legal action against the companies that make then.  Starting with Pfizer, and quickly followed by the others as well.  Anyone with access to a microscope, blood samples, saline, and vials of the "vaccines" can easily replicate them.  On the basis of quality control alone, the obvious questionable foreign material (quite appropriately called "garbage") found in the Pfizer vials in the video is enough to not only take these things off the market, but also break through the EUA liability shield, as this very basic quality control failure becomes a strict liability issue that even Big Pharma is NOT immune from.  Add in the apparent detrimental effects on red blood cells observed under the microscope, not to mention the obvious epic failures of the "vaccines" to live up to the companies' claims in the real world and it is game, set, and match.  Share far and wide!

There also seems to be quite a lot of heterogeneity and variation of adverse effects by lot number of these jabs too.

Oh, and don't forget this video too.  The plot thickens, even thicker than the blood of someone who got the clot shot!

Please be sure to see here for damage control advice.  Stay healthy, everyone!

DECEMBER UPDATE:  Google "died suddenly" and click News.  Then look at the surprisingly young ages of those who died.  Then look at the Google Trends curve for "died suddenly", it practically looks like a hockey stick.  Then look at how the supposed lifesaving effect of the jabs is largely an artifact of deliberately ignoring the first two weeks of data after the first dose (and probably the second and third dose as well), and looking only at virus deaths.  Negative efficacy (by the jabs suppressing the immune system, ironically) in the first two weeks basically pulls forward and front-loads many infections and thus deaths that would have otherwise occurred a bit later, in addition to the jab injury excess deaths on top of it.

JANUARY 2022 UPDATE:  The insurance industry has recently reported a 40% increase in overall death rates among 18-64 year olds in Indiana in 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels.  That is huge!  Normally, overall death rates don't change anywhere near that much from year to year.  And it was worst in the third and possibly fourth quarters of 2021.  The official press release seems to insinuate that it was the virus that caused all (or nearly all) of the increase, but they are clearly ignoring the massive elephant in the room--the jabs.  And given the timing and the age group, the jabs are the largest and most likely culprit of all.  Notice they didn't compare 2021 (virus and vaccine) specifically with 2020 (virus but no vaccine), as that would have been too obvious, of course.  

If that is not a screaming loud safety signal, the largest in all of recorded history in fact, we really don't know what is!  (Over 1000 studies concur.)

And for those who are still not convinced, the Department of Defense data on death rates in the US military (one of the most vaccinated institutions in the nation, and known for keeping excellent records in general) are also quite disturbing as well.

MARCH UPDATE:  Some may claim that all or nearly all of these excess premature deaths are actually Covid, or perhaps longer-term sequelae of Covid, deaths disguised as non-Covid deaths.  But New Zealand had barely any Covid or flu in 2021, not getting their first real wave in earnest until February 2022.  And yet, they still had excess deaths in the latter half of 2021, coinciding almost perfectly with their extensive "vaccine" rollout.  So either 1) the New Zealand government has been lying through their teeth all along about their Covid numbers, or more likely, 2) the "vaccines" are in fact at least as deadly as the skeptics feared (and, at least for those under age 70 and reasonably healthy, significantly deadlier than the virus itself).  Neither of which is flattering to either Team Vaccine OR Team Zero Covid.

And embalmers in the USA have seen some pretty scary stuff recently as well.  Put it all together and apply Occam's Razor.  The conclusion is obvious.

P.S.  If at this point you still feel that you absolutely must get vaccinated (or boosted) against Covid for whatever reason, at the very least, wait for Novavax!  While the TSAP does NOT actually endorse that one or any other jab, we should note that Novavax seems so far to be safer than the current mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna) and DNA/AAV (J&J and AZ) jabs, and at least somewhat more effective against newer variants like Omicron.  And while it still has the spike protein, at least it delivers only a finite amount of it, like a more traditional vaccine would, rather than genes that transfect the body's cells to produce ludicrous amounts of it.  It's very, very telling how the powers that be have not exactly been eager to approve it, while all too eager to not only approve the experimental gene therapies, but force them on the masses and keep doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on them.  (As of February 2022, the WHO has approved Novavax, along with the EU, Canada, and several other counties, but not the USA yet.)

Cold Turkey Is The Only Way Out

We at the TSAP have said it before, and we will say it again, shouting it from the rooftops.  The ONLY way out of this madness is to go cold turkey from all of these restrictions and mandates.  Period.  And yesterday is not soon enough!

That means, effective immediately:

• No more lockdowns, hard or soft
• No more curfews 
• No more business closures or capacity restrictions (unless voluntarily)
• No more closures of anything 
• No more mask mandates, anywhere
• No bans or restrictions on gatherings or events, public or private
• No restrictions on places of worship
• No more travel restrictions, whether international or domestic 
• All schools fully open, in-person, no antisocial distancing, masks optional
• All colleges fully open, in-person, no antisocial distancing, masks optional
• No more mass testing of anyone without symptoms.  Otherwise, use rapid testing first.  For the PCR test, reduce the cycle threshold to 25
• No more quarantines of anyone without symptoms 
• No vaccine mandates, coercion, discrimination, or Covid "passports" of any kind, anywhere, period

And never again, no matter how bad it gets.  Really.  The TSAP will accept nothing less than 2019 true normal going forward, with NO more compromises.

And as long as there is no major outbreak locally, hospitals and nursing homes should also return to normal as well 100%.  It is LONG past time to stop denying visitors, and stop artificially and arbitrarily delaying and cancelling so-called "elective" procedures and treatments.  And with the proper early treatment and prophylaxis, hospitals will NOT be overwhelmed anymore than during a typical flu season.  As for the staff, aggressive rapid testing should be done regularly regardless of vaccination status (as vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus), and preference should be given to staff who are naturally immune because they have already had the virus and recovered (and are thus the very least likely to catch and spread the virus).  That's it.

Heresy, I know.  But it has been nearly two years now, and for better or worse, the virus is here to stay.  It cannot be eradicated at this point, as that train has left the station long ago.  We really only have two choices now and forever:  1) learn to live with the virus, and be honest about it, or 2) learn to live with the virus, and pretend otherwise. 

It has been observed that it is historically extremely rare for any respiratory viral pandemic to last longer than 18 months.  And they seldom have more than two major waves, three tops.  Yet here we are.  So all of our trying in vain to outsmart the virus, and/or hide from it, only served to drag it out that much longer, more painfully, and with out-of-season waves as well.  And plenty of collateral damage on top of all that as well.

This only ends when We the People finally stop complying with these mandates, cold turkey.  Or at least when a critical mass of people do so.  

So what are we waiting for?

The TSAP Is Now On Twitter

The TSAP is now on Twitter as well.  Be sure to follow us here @AjaxTheGreat9 for the most up-to-date information.  Don't miss a thing!

AUGUST UPDATE:  As of August 22, 2022, we are no longer on Twitter either.  #FarewellToTwitter

These Videos Will End This Madness For Good. So What Are We Waiting For?

In these increasingly crazy times, we at the TSAP have received and/or stumbled upon some videos with information so explosive and incriminating, they need to go VIRAL yesterday so this madness can finally end for good, God willing.  Please watch and share these far and wide, before they get taken down:

First and foremost, the big one by Dr. David Martin.  This one alone should be enough to end it now.

There are other videos too that complement it quite nicely from another angle.  See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.  Also see some good articles, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

And let's not forget this article as well.

What better time than now?

UPDATE:  See also here as well.  And here too.

Please be sure to see here for damage control advice.  Stay healthy, everyone!

The Only Way To Whip Inflation Now

Inflation is still heating up.  And while Jim Cramer is blaming it on the virus, history has shown that pandemics usually lead to LESS inflation, not more.  So it has to be something else, but what could it be?

Let's see:  Global energy price hikes, global supply chain problems, labor shortages, and things like that have been years in the making, but our lopsided pandemic response has only exacerbated these imbalances.  Lockdowns, business restrictions, travel restrictions, mask mandates, and now vaccine mandates have really poured gasoline on the fire.  And while 18 months of over-generous unemployment benefits likely exacerbated labor shortages to some extent, yanking these benefits recently has really not reduced inflationary pressures at all, not even in the states that did it sooner.

The labor shortage is really a wage shortage, and is easy to solve by simply paying employees more.

The FERAL Reserve has been backstopping the entire economy all this time with rock-bottom interest rates and firehosing the economy with unprecedented amounts of newly-keystroked money.  Which has certainly prevented a full-blown depression from occurring, but when done too much for too long in a lopsided fashion (too much for Wall Street and too little for Main Street), it can certainly create distortions in the economy.

So what is the best thing that can be done?

1. Go "cold turkey" and end all remaining  mandates and restrictions, yesterday.  Reinstate immediately anyone who was fired or quit due to the vaccine mandates, and compensate them for their losses.  It may or may not be too late to rectify this man-made staffing crisis, particularly in healthcare.
2. The Fed should gradually taper off all QE and pandemic-related stabilization programs over the next couple of months, immediately raise interest rates to 0.5% or 1.0% now, and keep raising from there if inflation persists.  Then gradually switch to Quantitative Tightening as well as needed if it still persists.
3. Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour for all business with more than 500 employees within six months, then gradually for all employees with more than 10 employees within two years.  And no more subminimum wage for tipped employees either. 
4. Implement Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all of $1000/month for adults and $500/month for children under 18.
5. Redirect federal funds towards incentivizing improving supply chains, especially for energy and other critical sectors experiencing shortages.  That includes the government hiring temporary truckers, dockworkers, etc. for more than what the market demands.

And notice that we are NOT calling for austerity, in fact quite the opposite.  Fiscal austerity (tax hikes and spending cuts) would be recessionary and would basically cause stagflation at this point, while in contrast, raising interest rates would increase the value the dollar without shrinking the number of dollars in circulation.  The only taxes that should be hiked now are taxes on the top 1% (especially the top 0.1%) and mega-corporations, Pigouvian taxes, and perhaps vice taxes, and the only spending that should be cut (if any) is that which is harmful and counterproductive, and then redirected to more beneficial and productive spending.  There is no good reason to give up on the priorities of the genuine progressive agenda (Medicare For All, expanding Social Security, free college, free or affordable childcare, paid family leave, affordable housing, Green New Deal, etc.) at all.  As for the "debt ceiling", it is a fiction that serves no useful purpose, and it should be abolished completely, yesterday.

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  As for how high to raise interest rates (i.e. the Fed Funds Rate), there is a science to it.  To quickly quash inflation without exacerbating it in the long run, the Fed Funds Rate should be raised and, if raising rates by one percentage point doesn't do the trick right away, keep raising it quickly until the interest rate exceeds the inflation rate by at least one percentage point, hold it there until inflation drops, and then quickly but gradually lower it (while still keeping it higher than the inflation rate) until the inflation rate drops below 3%.  Then drop the Fed Funds Rate to below the inflation rate and park it there as long as inflation remains low.  And as Rodger Malcolm Mitchell notes, the best way to cure and prevent stagflation is to quickly raise interest rates to cure the inflation, while simultaneously spending more federal money (and/or cutting taxes) and running higher federal "deficits" to cure the stagnation/recession as well.  Problem solved, all within four quarters. Otherwise, it remains an endless cycle that will feed on itself indefinitely as alleviating inflation would exacerbate stagnation and vice-versa.

China's rolling local and regional lockdowns in pursuit of the Zero COVID pipe dream are a big part of the problem as far as shipping.  Not much we can do about that, aside from taking our business elsewhere.

And if labor shortages are still a problem even after repealing all of those mandates, the federal government should implement wage subsidies (reverse payroll taxes) to top up workers' paychecks, and/or paying one-off sign-on bonuses of a few thousand dollars per new employee.  Problem solved.

UPDATE:  Another take on this can be found here.   Basically, it's not a supply chain problem or even an inflation problem, but rather a central planning problem.  Which is basically what is going on now, and has been going on to one degree or another since March 2020.  And it needs to end yesterday.

The Two Faces Of The Branch Covidians

The Branch Covidian cult is really two cults in one:  Team Zero COVID, and their sometimes-rival, sometimes-ally, Team Vaccine.  They can easily be confused for one another by the uninitiated.  Both vehemently deny natural immunity, deny and dislike the use of early treatment and prophylaxis, grossly exaggerate the risks of the virus particularly to children and young people, and believe that only their own technocratic solutions possibly can save us.  Both reek of authoritarianism no matter how much they deny it.  Both luuurrrve to move the goalposts, cherry-pick data, shift the burden of proof, and indulge in other ridiculous logical fallacies routinely and often disingenuously.  Both have plenty of true believers along with the consummate liars and phonies in charge.  And like doctors and thieves, they both wear masks as part of their uniform (at least when the cameras are rolling).  So far, they seem like they would be natural allies.

But the similarity of the two cults ends with the differences in their eschatology, soteriology, and sometimes even cosmology at times.  Here they go from allies to rivals.  In a nutshell, Team Zero COVID believes that complete global eradication of the virus is not only still possible, but it is the only morally acceptable outcome no matter the cost (as long as someone else pays it), while Team Vaccine believes that while eradication is unlikely, the only way we can learn to live with the virus and go back to something approaching normal is if everyone in the world gets vaccinated as the ultimate endgame. 

And while neither team opposes lockdowns, mask mandates, or vaccine mandates, Team Zero COVID supports the first two the most while Team Vaccine supports the latter the most, even though many prefer a "layered" approach.  Both support achieving their own goals by any means necessary, while individual civil and human rights, economic well-being, overall community well-being, child development, or any other consideration are essentially worth zilch to them.  Even public health itself is to be ruthlessly sacrificed on the altar of the Branch Covidians, insofar is it not directly related to the virus that they slavishly fear so much to the point of idolatry.

It is now becoming very clear that vaccines alone will not eradicate the virus even if 100% of the world gets vaccinated over and over again, as these vaccines are far too "leaky" to do the job.  And there are animal reservoirs as well.  So what about the Zero COVID strategy?  Well, the therapeutic window has closed on that one long ago, as the horse has bolted and the genie is out of the bottle.  The virus SARS-CoV-2 is quickly becoming endemic (if it isn't already) and will be with us forever, no matter how many lockdowns, closures, masks, or vaccines we throw at it.  It will still be here in 2030, 2040, 2050, and beyond.  So we literally have two choices, basically: 1) learn to live with the virus, and be honest about it, or 2) learn to live with the virus, and pretend otherwise. Yes, those are literally the only choices now, regardless of any wishful thinking to the contrary.  And to still pretend otherwise now, after 18 months of clear evidence, is to bear false witness and to worship false idols.

And the best way to defeat both of the two cults is to do what they are doing to the rest of us:  divide-and-conquer.  Play the two faces of them against each other, and refuse to comply with their increasingly insane, draconian, and totalitarian edicts.

Zero COVID is a pipe dream, vaccines are nowhere near as good as advertised, and lockdowns and NPIs are basically useless.  The only thing that actually works, aside from natural herd immunity, is early treatment and prophylaxis.  It's long past time to be honest about that, live our lives, and move on.

Team Reality for the win!

UPDATE:  Now that more and more of the chattering classes and MSM are finally, if grudgingly, coming around to accepting the inevitable endemicity of the virus and learning to live with it, and the mRNA vaccines are clearly crashing through the basement in terms of efficacy, Team Vaccine is basically washed up and is now quickly being absorbed by their very last refuge, Team Zero COVID.  The latter of which seems to be more hysterical than ever lately--and that REALLY says something!--since they know they are on the wrong (and losing) side of history.  They have been trotting out the same old fuzzy math combined with exaggerations, half-truths, and omissions about the supposed unacceptable dystopia that endemic COVID would entail, while in reality the real dystopia would be if TZC actually gets their way.  Look no further than Australia and New Zealand, not to mention China, to see what sort of totalitarian police state would inevitably--and permanently--result sooner or later, and it would still be an exercise in futility in the long run.  Because short of putting all 8 billion people of the world each in solitary confinement indefinitely, which would obviously be unacceptable on humanitarian grounds, it is mathematically impossible for TZC to actually achieve their pipe dream of complete virus eradication.

And now even New Zealand, the crown jewel of the Zero COVID movement, has finally thrown in the towel and abandoned the impossible and Sisyphean goal of eliminating the virus completely.  Delta managed to chin-check them just hard enough to sober them up somewhat.  Unfortunately, lest you think they finally joined Team Reality for good, despite recent easing the Prime Minister noted that they will still have some flavor of lockdown restrictions until they can get a whopping 90% of the eligible population vaccinated, meaning they are squarely part of Team Vaccine for the time being.  They are at 48% of the eligible population already fully vaccinated as of October 5, so that is still a pretty tall order for New Zealand.  In contrast, Team Reality (that is, people like us at the TSAP) would much rather just go cold turkey and simply end all restrictions yesterday and go back to true normal regardless of anything, period, and NOT cajole anyone to get vaccinated.  What better time than now?

To Both Parties: Stop Playing "Chicken" With The Economy!

The elephant and jackass corporate duopoly in Congress are at it again.  They are, for the gazillionth time, playing a dangerous game of "chicken" with the "debt ceiling" and therefore with the economy.  Even merely hinting that the US government might default on its obligations is enough to cause real and broad economic damage.  And to add insult to injury, they also risk a government shutdown at the same time.  And to them we say, KNOCK IT OFF!  Yesterday!

We are officially being "governed" by overgrown children now, it seems.  In both parties, no less.

Not only is it a stupid and dangerous game to play, but it is 100% unnecessary.  The USA is the only country on Earth that has a separate vote for the debt ceiling and the budget, and one of only two countries that even has a formal "debt ceiling" at all.  And being Monetarily Sovereign, the USA would only default on the debt if it wanted to, since they could literally just print (or keystroke) the money.  Really.  (Just like that "gaffe" that Trump made back in 2016.)  And even the "debt" itself isn't really debt like occurs in the private sector or households--it is literally nothing more than deposits in Treasury security accounts, which are functionally equivalent to glorified savings accounts for investors.  That's it.  Otherwise, they simply keystroke money into existence every time they pay a bill, all while pretending otherwise of course.

And only due to arcane and archaic rules left over from the now-defunct gold standard (that functionally ended on August 15, 1971), which no longer make sense, is there any reason for this sort of utterly pointless dog and pony show, which means there really are only political reasons for it.  Which thus means there are no good reasons for it.  All they have to do is add the following text to any budget appropriations bill, per Dr. Joseph M. Firestone:

Paging Dr. Firestone indeed!  That would render "teh debt" a non-problem overnight.  And if Congress won't do that, the White House can always simply direct the US Treasury to #MintTheCoin.  Due to a little-known loophole in the law, the US Mint is allowed to mint platinum coins in literally ANY denomination as legal tender.  That means they can mint a trillion-dollar coin, or even a $100 trillion coin for that matter, and use such seigniorage as revenue to pay any bills.  The current White House, however, does not seem to be even the least bit interested in doing so, alas.

The US Constitution makes it crystal clear that the government must never call the public debt into question.  So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  The predictable howling about how the platinum coin loophole doesn't really exist (and that using the face value of such a coin as revenue is somehow technically illegal) is back again, and it is neither true nor necessarily in good faith.  This particular criticism appears to hinge entirely on the technical legal definition of "bullion coin" and the relative lack of precedent, but that doesn't mean it is necessary illegal.  Simply call it a "proof coin", and the face value is valid regardless of the value of the metal used to make it.  And the Federal Reserve would have no choice but to accept it as legal tender when deposited at the New York Fed, and thus fill the Treasury's own spending account there with the equivalent amount of paper/electronic dollars of revenue for spending.  Problem solved.  Next.

By the way, if the loophole doesn't really exist, then why did Republican Senator Mike Lee introduce a bill explicitly to close that very same loophole?

Even failing that, other things the President can do is invoke the 14th Amendment to nullify the debt ceiling, issue a new and special kind of bond to make an end-run around the debt ceiling, or even simply issue more debt in the short-term interim as the "least illegal" option under the Constitution, as the Constitution clearly prohibits defaulting on the debt.

In other words, President Biden can end this madness all by himself if he wanted.  So what is he waiting for?

The TSAP Denounces Vaccine Mandates

With President Biden's latest disturbing executive orders issued today, we at the TSAP hereby reaffirm our opposition to any vaccine mandates or "passports" or coercion of any kind, period.  As we have noted before, these vaccines are not only experimental (regardless of the recent federal quickie rubber-stamping of the Pfizer vaccine), but they are also revealed to be about as "leaky" as the flu shots, meaning that one can still catch and spread the virus even if fully vaccinated (while natural immunity seems to be far superior).  Either one or both of these two facts (and we have both) is sufficient to demolish the case for any such mandates and passports, since the rug is completely pulled out from under the argument that the vaccines are to "protect others".  Thus, these vaccines are best thought of as a means of self-protection, especially for vulnerable people, and therefore should be strictly voluntary.  You know, kinda like how flu shots have historically been.

And that's before we delve into all of the emerging safety concerns of these vaccines, especially for children, teens, and young adults.  When they ultimately try to force these things on your kids (and they will if we let them), that has to be a real hard red line for We the People, and fast!  If not, the inevitable agony of regret will be the least of our problems. 

If there was ever a hill to die on, this is it!

But on a more fundamental level, it ultimately comes down to the basic human rights of bodily autonomy and integrity.  Seriously, whatever happened to "my body, my choice"?  (Notice how that very concept is under attack in more ways than one these days.)

Imagine it is 2030 now, and you are looking back at what you did or failed to do in 2020 and 2021.  Would you be proud or ashamed of yourself?  When in doubt, ask yourself that question every single day.

UPDATE:  Looks like the ACLU finally broke their silence a few days ago on this very pressing issue--and not in a good way.  They basically reversed their pre-2020 stance against vaccine mandates and coercion, and are now acquiescing to these demands.  Thus, they can now be officially said to have SOLD OUT to the medical-fascist establishment once and for all.  

Also, it seems that the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine (and remember, this is the "gold standard" of COVID vaccines, no less) plummets much more rapidly than anyone predicted.  One study in Qatar found that it drops from a peak of 72% (not 95% like originally claimed) down to essentially ZERO infection protection within a mere five months after the second dose, waning slowly at first, and then collapsing all at once.  For severe, critical, or fatal COVID, the effectiveness (fortunately) drops much more gradually from a peak of an actual 95% down to about 72% or so at six months, with very wide variation.

Israeli data for Pfizer are not much better, and their current experience with giving a third booster dose to the masses willy-nilly seems to actually be backfiring and spiking the curve even further (much like what happens during the break-in phase after the first dose), so booster shots are hardly a real solution to the problem of rapidly waning vaccines, except maybe for those folks who are extremely vulnerable or immunocompromised.  For the masses, it would seem that, ironically, the very best booster of all would actually be--wait for it--natural infection with the virus itself, as according to the Israeli data, that provides a whopping 27 times better infection protection than vaccination alone.  In other words, it seems that that the only way to true and robust "herd immunity" was the ultimately inevitable natural infection of healthy people all along.  Just like practically every other pandemic in history.

Meanwhile, these vaccines seem to be "the leading cause of coincidences" these days...