Every day now we’re waking up into an extreme real-life nightmare, while responses are still routinely lagging far behind what’s at stake. Urgency is reality. The horrific momentum of the coronavirus is personal, social and political. In those realms, a baseline formula is “passivity = death.” The imperative is to do vastly better.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Fear of the coronavirus is rapidly making
Thailand less attractive for tourists, potentially boring for
residents, and possibly dangerous for white people.
Places where people "rub up against each other" will be closed, Prime
Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced on March 17.
Earlier, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's media blamed "dirty"
Caucasian tourists for infecting Thailand with COVID-19.
More than 600 people -- mostly Thais -- have been infected. Many of
them recovered, and one person died because of the coronavirus.
Officials announced the closure of all schools nationwide and, in and
around Bangkok, entertainment venues such as bars, massage parlors,
and sports stadiums from March 18-31.
Concerts, some Buddhist gatherings, horse racing and other mass events
have also been cancelled.
Shopping malls, restaurants, markets, and offices remain open but need
to sanitize people's hands or take other health precautions.
Thailand's April 13-15 Songkran new year holiday has also been
postponed indefinitely.
U.S. politics has for three-quarters of a century been shaped by the question “Do you support the troops?” The understood meaning of the question has been “Do you want members of the military to live or do you wish them dead?” The effective meaning of the question has been “Do you want unlimited unaccountable spending on weaponry and endless wars or are you an evil traitor?”
Such a question cannot be answered or undone, but it can be replaced with a different question.
What if we were to ask this question: Do you support the health workers? The understood meaning could be: Do you think that doctors and nurses and emergency medical technicians and health workers by whatever names should live or do you wish them dead? Are you grateful for their service? Do you believe they should have the sort of armor or protective clothing and equipment their colleagues in China have? Do you think they should have the tests and treatments they need to accomplish their mission, and that people should follow their guidance?
Excerpts from an Interview with Dr Joseph Mercola – March 8, 2020 (3261 words)
At the risk of sounding trite, this article focuses on common sense ideas for self-care and using the time that self-quarantine creates. Practicing social distancing and self-quarantine is vital to how the virus spreads and to whom.
Asking people to practice these ways of living, even on the short term can be a real burden for many individuals, families, businesses, and communities. Social distancing may negatively impact many people, especially those who are vulnerable in society. There are structural and social inequities built in and around social distancing recommendations. Steps need to be taken to improve the community response to people who face food insecurity, domestic violence, and housing challenges, along with the many other social disadvantages.
The goal for now is to create sustainable practices and focus on resiliency. Almost anyone can do these things at various levels. If a majority of people just take one day at a time to self-quarantine and make the best of the time, it is possible to change the outcome that is predicted and maybe find some good in the current state of affairs.
What's Next...
A dictator is a single individual who possesses such extreme power over a government that some people refer to it as “absolute power.” There are degrees of dictatorship, or — if you prefer — individuals who are partially dictators or somewhat dictatorial. Oppressive governments that restrict liberties, deny participation, and abuse human rights overlap considerably, but not entirely, with dictatorships. Because there are more studies and rankings of oppressive governments than of dictatorships, and because the problem is the oppression, not who does it, I’m going to look for a moment at some lists of oppressive governments, before turning to the subject of the dictators who run many of them.
In 2017, Rich Whitney wrote an article for Truthout.org called “U.S. Provides Military Assistance to 73 Percent of World’s Dictatorships.”
One thing about a pandemic: It’s inclusive. We cannot survive it, move beyond it, by protecting merely some people. We have to protect everyone.
Of all the disruption, paradox and chaos that have been unleashed by the coronavirus, this is the most stunning: It has something to teach us that we could never learn on our own. My God, we are one planet — one people. This isn’t idealism; it’s the most pragmatic social organizing principle possible.
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Recalling George Orwell’s 1984 and Allan Moore’s V for Vendetta: De-mystifying – and Stopping - Creeping Totalitarianism
(And America’s Un-elected, Globalist, Oligarchic, Sociopathic, Robber Baron, Multimillionaire Elites that are Perennially in Power)
By Gary G. Kohls, MD - March 16, 2020 (2589 words)
“Every year America's oligarchs take three trillion dollars out of America's economy. This is how the rich have rigged the system - so that it benefits them at the expense of everyone else all of the time. To keep this fraud going, the public must be convinced of the need for military expenditure, and this is where all of the phony terror attacks come in. Here is Orwell's definition of totalitarianism: ' A society living by and for continuous warfare in which the ruling caste have ceased to have any real function but succeed in clinging to power through force and fraud.” – From JFK to 9/11: Everything is a Rich Man’s Trick
