Across much of America, people are masked by mandate and large events are shut down by decree. But, in South Dakota, things are different. You can be mask-free in the state that has avoided most of the coronavirus crackdown imposed in much of the rest of America. And, if you ride a motorcycle, you can ride and congregate freely with hundreds of thousands of bikers. The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally starts Friday.
People in New York City have been subjected to one of the most repressive coronavirus crackdowns in America. Included have been months-long forced closure of many businesses and extreme limitations placed on businesses that have been allowed to resume some operations during incremental scaling back of closure orders. Such government actions have decimated businesses in the city. A Sunday report by Lauren Thomas at CNBC illustrates the continuing economic destruction by describing vacancies and bankruptcies, along with a large drop in rents sought, in 16 major retail corridors of the Manhattan borough of the city.
The plummeting economy has come hand-in-hand with plummeting respect for liberty, with people in New York City having been prohibited from doing many of the things, in addition to operating or working at businesses, that people have long considered basic to living — doing daily activities outside home without wearing a mask, attending religious services, meeting friends at a bar for a beer, and taking children to a playground, for example.
Wearing a mask at a store or other place where doing so is required of customers or visitors, or where there seems to be pressure either from the venue operators or the surrounding mask-wearers to do so, can be uncomfortable, even sickening. This can especially be the case for older and less healthy individuals for whom walking around while shopping can be a physical activity approaching or as strenuous as a younger, healthier person running a mile. The younger, healthier person can run a mile alright, but consider him trying to do so with his face and nose covered. He will surely run slower or be more exhausted in his masked mile run.
“Rep. Louie Gohmert, who often went without a mask, tests positive for the coronavirus.” That is the headline for a Wednesday NBC article regarding United States House of Representatives member Louie Gohmert (R-TX) having tested positive for coronavirus. Similar headlines seeking to make a connection between Gohmert’s test result and Gohmert not wearing a mask were used throughout much of the media. For example, headlines read “Louie Gohmert, who refused to wear a mask, tests positive for coronavirus” at Politico and “Texas Republican Rep. Gohmert Tests Positive For Coronavirus After Rebuffing Masks” at National Public Radio.
Suppose Gohmert often did not wear a belt when he went about his daily activities. Then, media could alternatively publish articles about his coronavirus test results with headlines like “Rep. Louie Gohmert, who often went without a belt, tests positive for the coronavirus.” Mentioning Gohmert’s belt-wearing tendency would be just as relevant to the matter as is mentioning his mask-wearing tendency. As with wearing masks, there is no clear evidence that wearing belts on net helps prevent people from being infected with coronavirus.
This week, video of a Washington, DC press conference of doctors was racking up millions of views. In the Monday press conference, several doctors of the group America’s Frontline Doctors challenged much of the party line that has been pushed for months by many people in media and government about coronavirus and how it should be dealt with medically and politically.
For months, much of the airtime at National Public Radio (NPR) has been devoted to interviews and stories that ramp up the coronavirus scare and advance all manner of draconian government action in the name of countering coronavirus. The effort can reach ludicrous extremes as it did on Sunday at the NPR show All Things Considered when show host Michel Martin interviewed Jessica Flanigan focused on this question: “Is there a basic libertarian view about public health measures like face masks?”
“Concerns about curtailing contagion help to normalize detailed scrutiny of people’s lives and drive us toward a pervasive surveillance state,” writes J.D. Tuccille in an informative and disturbing Friday article at Reason. Tuccille details in the article developments in new surveillance efforts termed “contact tracing” that are marketed as part of an effort to counter coronavirus. He also addresses the continuing and expanding employment of surveillance technologies that were in use before the coronavirus scare.
In May, Ron Paul warned in an editorial about the United States government pushing for the imposing of mask and social distancing mandates on children in schools that reopen for the fall semester, all in the name of countering the often over-hyped threat from coronavirus.
On Sunday, Lew Rockwell shared at his website lewrockwell.com a six-minute video that gives a great introduction to coronavirus and some of the anti-liberty actions governments have taken in the name of countering coronavirus. Watch the video here, and consider sharing it with people to help them start questioning the coronavirus propaganda being delivered by many people in media and government.
Znamya Truda, a Russian professional soccer team, has announced that Ivan Zaborovsky, a goalkeeper for the team, went to intensive care after being struck by lightning during training.
People being seriously harmed or killed by lightning strikes is rare. In America, the United States government’s National Weather Service relays that, in the ten years of 2009 through 2018, there were an average of 27 deaths and 243 estimated injuries each year from lightning countrywide. While the risk of an individual being struck by lightning is real, it is also quite small. The National Weather Service lays out the likelihood as follows: a one in 1,222,000 chance of being struck by lightning in a given year and a one in 15,300 chance of being struck in one’s lifetime.