For once, I am stymied to think of a great first sentence to catch the attention of readers. I would love to have some grandiose way of drawing you, my friend, into this article so strongly that you can’t help but read it through. Maybe I need a nap. I don’t know. Point is, the government is NOT your friend and people need to quit trying to force the relationship. Some people just aren’t compatible.

                In the past year and change, we have seen so many different plans put into effect because of that darned virus. None of it made sense. It still doesn’t, really. In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards recently revised the capacity restrictions in different recreational areas. In a move that should have been made months and months ago, there are finally no longer capacity restrictions mandated by the state for bars, restaurants, gyms, salons, and the like. Bigger businesses and venues are still carrying restrictions of 50% (capped at 500 people indoors). Maybe a good idea? But then indoor and outdoor sporting events are still restricted to 50% capacity.

                Are you confused? I sure was. To also quote government entities, CDC and EPA say that improved ventilation is very useful in reducing the spread of COVID. Ventilation is defined on the EPA website as “the amount of outdoor air coming indoors.” Despite the overwhelming feeling that this article was directed at children, I must agree that outdoor air is good. So would, I’m sure, just about every scientist on the planet. The CDC has a great, equally condescending article about what activities are “safer” (outdoor activities) or “less safe” (indoor activities).

                Let’s take a step back and remember what the world was like right at the beginning of COVID: extremely contradictory. Everyone must stay home!—except for essential workers, and good luck to any roommates they might have that are non-essential. Ventilation is key!—but most of our outdoor state and national parks are closed. As things progressed through the year, and restrictions altered, they just became more and more confusing. For example, high school athletics were allowed to play full contact without any extra special equipment, but couldn’t shake hands at the end of the game. And so on.

                When restaurants and bars were kind-of allowed to be open, it was generally with outdoor seating only (even though you probably had to go inside to order as there was supposed to be no table service from the wait staff). Because of the ventilation, remember? And now in Louisiana (and probably other states with similar restrictions) you cannot allow full capacity at an outdoor collegiate baseball game but you can go straight to a smaller, indoor bar that’s maxed out.

                The saddest part about this COVID deal is that it was so new, so many people acted as if it was the first virus. It wasn’t, and we all pretty much knew how to act when we were sick. I missed Mardi Gras because I came down with something. I knew other people who missed work or left work early because they were sick and didn’t want to spread it. Are there people who weren’t so safe? Absolutely, and they are probably the same ones who would have acted the same way with the flu or a cold.

                No one should have friends that look down on them, turn other friends in the group against each other, or try to parent everyone in the group. Yet we have been treated condescendingly by our government and, by extension, our neighbors. You know the them, holier-than-thou “super maskers” that insist you are physically committing murder when you walk around without a mask. Our government stepped in to act like a parent trying to control 300,000,000 seven-year-olds, and turned some against the others. The government should never act like our friend OR any kind of parent—not a super strict one or the “cool” (bad) parent. It should act as the government. Protect the country from foreign threats, enforce laws in a just manner, and leave law-abiding citizens ALONE.

                Lastly, can we kill the whole “I just got vaccinated” card picture trend? It’s almost getting worse than gender reveal parties (which, surprisingly, carries a death toll as a whole). There is nothing wrong with keeping personal things private.

Sources:

https://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/3058

https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus/ventilation-and-coronavirus-covid-19

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/participate-in-activities.html

                A new COVID “relief” bill has passed through the Senate and the House and is sitting on President Biden’s desk. This bill exceeds the omnibus bill from December with a $1.9 trillion price tag. In other words, between these two bills, and in less than three months, the government is earmarking roughly $3.3 trillion to be spent. This new relief bill is a bit more focused on actual COVID relief than the omnibus bill, but still has some questionable appropriations.

                One target of relief is colleges, universities, and students, which are being allocated a total of $39.6 billion. At least half of this amount is going to emergency financial aid for students to pay for their own housing and food in the form of grants. The remainder is for the institutions to cover lost revenue due to the precautionary measures.

                People who want free college aren’t going to like this. First of all, these institutions SHOULD have plenty of reserves for times like this. It should be expected that places of higher learning practice safe, conservative fiscal habits. The amount of tuition collected in pandemic-free years, as well as state and federal aid and donations from alumni, should be enough to make a nice rainy day fund. If we assume that this money is being given without the obligation of repayment, then we can expect the money to come back to the government in some way (higher taxes). If we assume that this money is acting as a loan from the government to help out the schools, then guess what? No free college. And probably higher tuition.

                There is also $2 billion set aside to help fund federal agencies to arm themselves with modern IT and cybersecurity “to effectively and securely deliver” COVID aid and information. Computers can’t catch COVID—it’s a different kind of virus. While they say the money is to help the government keep up with vaccines and remote working, to this writer it appears as a thinly-veiled ruse to tack on more defense spending without actually calling it “defense spending.”

                Another head scratcher is the unspecified amount of relief heading to the aviation manufacturing industry. This industry is said to account for almost 2% of the GDP of our country. Maybe it does. Yet the oil and gas industry is left out of direct relief, and accounted for 8% of the GDP in 2017. While that percentage has surely gone down with the rest of the GDP, it’s probably safe to assume it is still higher than aviation manufacturing. Gasoline and “other energy goods” account for more than 1% alone.

                When a company sees a downturn in their business, they must adapt to survive. Mom and pop companies do this all the time. It’s nothing new. The government shouldn’t be sending money to these companies to help them retain employees if laying off employees is what will keep the company in business. It’s not a nice thing to say or do, but as someone who was laid off from the oilfield, this writer believes it’s right. Workers who find themselves without jobs are not helpless children, they are adults who can also adapt to survive.

                If the federal legislators really wanted to help the American people out, they would quit spending money. This country needs to get back to normal, and burning through a trillion dollars and some change every few months is not the way to go. Our state governments need to work towards opening back up and helping their own citizens and businesses. Colleges running out of money? Open them up without restriction and let apprehensive students and teachers stay home.  Aviation manufacturing jobs at risk? Open up the states and encourage tourism and travel. Anything would be better than the government’s current trend.

Sources:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/10/covid-19-relief-10-things-you-might-not-know-bidens-bill/6936905002/

https://www.api.org/news-policy-and-issues/taxes/oil-and-natural-gas-contribution-to-us-economy-fact-sheet

https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product

Between 1922 and 1924, Benito Mussolini worked with his own administration to forcibly silence opposing political parties, free press, and trade unions, and has plenty of spies and secret police running around in Italy. In 1928, the Central Committee determined that the State had the right to effectively censor literature in the Soviet Union. Later in 1928, Joseph Stalin introduced a five year plan in which workers who were absent during a work day, or produced less than certain quotas, should be publicly named by the factories they work, and face prison or execution. In 1933, Adolf Hitler worked with Nazi officials to begin programs of propaganda and censorship in Germany. These programs included book burnings, movie disruptions, and control over other forms of media. The Nazis also had their own way of forcibly silencing people.

                In all of these examples, implementing widespread censorship is (relatively speaking) an early move in the course of the different powers. In all of these examples, a strong dictatorial presence reigned over the respective country, relying on the hatred and/fear of some other demographic. None of the examples are exactly the same. They had different ideologies, different enemies, and yet still notoriously infamous leaders.

                Flash forward 90 years, and here we are seeing another huge move in the wrong direction. This is not being perpetrated by the American government (yet), but by businesses whose products has grown and evolved in such a way that they could be public goods. And half of the country thinks it’s totally fine.

When Twitter listed the reasons that it banned President Trump permanently off its platform, I thought they might have caught a wild tweet early and took action. Not the case at all. The tweets referenced some which could be seen as benign. Others, of course, have taken them as something more sinister. But Twitter’s a private business, with Terms of Use, they should have the right to ban anyone they want, right?

                The double standard in which they are exercising this right indicates a very large and clear bias. But why should that be a problem? Because the other major platforms are behaving similarly. The app Parler has been removed from the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and from the Amazon cloud back up service. All in an effort to stop what they determine to be dangerous forms of speech. It is worth wondering if a far-left leaning social media service was formed and its members acted the same way, right? Reddit is probably a good place to look to get an idea.

                Here’s the thing: people can still communicate with out social media. Very easily, in fact. Cellphones, hand written letters, personal blogs, and in person communication are all viable forms of effective communication. Now the catch: with right-leaning people being ostracized from these sorts of platforms, they find themselves in echo chambers of their own belief systems. Ideas in these environments can grow to become dangerous without having opposing points of view to challenge them or attempt civil discourse.

                As an aside, regarding the PEACEFUL part of the Capitol protests, I would like to say that the outspoken opponents of Donald Trump are largely to blame, in my opinion. Four years of being called vile things for being conservative/Republicans/Trump supporters by anyone from former classmates to famous celebrities does not sit well with anyone. I’ve always said one person cannot divide our country, it takes the consent of the divided to do so. Donald Trump didn’t divide the country, all those who speak so arrogantly against Republicans as if their side is right is to blame. And vice versa.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benito-Mussolini/Rise-to-power

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-propaganda-and-censorship

https://www.thoughtco.com/hitlers-rise-to-power-timeline-1221353

https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-suspends-parler-from-app-store-11610241352

                On Monday, during the Great Conjunction, Capitol Hill was active in introducing and passing a new stimulus package for COVID relief. This relief was snuck into a simple omnibus deal for 2021, which was easy to do as the entire bill is an easy read at 5,593 pages. Total planned expenditures coming from this bill is $1.4 trillion, with a cool $900 billion being tied directly to COVID relief.

                Naturally, the easiest and best stimulus package has been once again ignored. Certainly, millions of Americans have been wanting to open everything up, go back to work, and assume an air of normality since COVID became popular. I know I have. Such a simple solution would remove the “need” for the relief package. One person can theoretically pull in almost $4,000 just between a stimulus check and the extra padding on unemployment. That timeline would take 11 weeks, or almost three months. On the other hand, a person earning $24,000 a year can go to work and make the same amount of money in 2 months, and still experience the joy of income tax as if they were on unemployment.

                Let’s go back to the size of the bill. 5,593 pages is absolutely ridiculous. How can we expect anyone to vote on this bill in good conscience when they surely have not had the time to read and understand what’s inside? It’s an insane thought. What’s even worse is the idea that there is a legislative lawyer somewhere who is possibly picking apart the bill to find the one line which opens up a giant loophole that, say, gives Congress a raise and a pat on the back for a job well done. Or sells California to Canada. While the second example is obviously a little hyperbolic, the first one seems to have a strong chance of possibility to me. What better place to quietly slip a raise in for yourself than in the middle of a huge bill that no one has time to read?

                The craziest part of all this is that while we have been living a life hindered by the most absurd and nonsensical COVID restrictions, these legislatures have allowed themselves to continue working in some way as if they are not subject to the same restrictions. Why should they be allowed to work, spend money that we lose through taxes to pay themselves and continue lowering the country into debt, and turn around and tell us how to live? They act as if the whole nation needs to be babysat. As if the possibility of viruses with deadly potential has never existed before. As if there has never been a precedent for what to do if you have the flu, or pneumonia, or bronchitis, and how to determine who may be at a higher risk if they caught one of those sicknesses. Generally speaking, if you know to avoid visiting friends and family when you are sick, you can safely survive in this COVID era.

                Yet the people who encouraged massive shut downs and endlessly contradicting rules has just approved a $1.4 TRILLION spending package, while the nation is currently operating in a $27 TRILLION national debt (and federal spending at $6 trillion, and federal budget deficit at $3 trillion, all as of the time of writing). Oddly enough, they were joined by many folks who denounced the shut downs and rules and frivolous spending.

                The weaponization of COVID as a scare tactic has led to some ridiculous actions. See above spending package. See the outdoor vs. indoor restaurant seating. See reactions to protests in the country and reactions to bars being open. I saw a high school football game, which was full contact and without any extra masks or anything like that, and at the end of the game the teams could not shake hands and say “Good game” (and this is still going, see page 6, Section 1 in the below PDF link). They had to stand on the sidelines and wave at each other. Much like many of our elected officials have been standing on the sideline, waving at us as we continue to slip into decline.

Source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/12/21/stimulus-congress/

https://appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-democrats-file-omnibus-spending-bill

https://www.usdebtclock.org/