THERE WILL BE TROOPS IN THE STREETS....

THEY  KIDDED  YOU  NOT.

'They' being the Liberal Party of Canada and the Troop Placers being the Conservative Party of Canada - in an Election Campaign in the early 2000s.

So flash ahead till now ...There Will Be Troops In Quebec's Nursing Homes...and to a lesser extent...in the Province of Ontario as well.  This is especially rich when you consider that Quebec's Government is Separatist and you do not get anything to represent Canada's Sovereignty more than our Army.

How Ironic and yet How Revolting.  We neither need troops in our streets nor in our nursing homes.  That dear reader is not the job of our nation's military.   Maybe things like flood control and to a lesser extent - out of control forest fires but even for events like these it would be better for us to establish a Civil Defence Force as have our American neighbours done to the south. 

So what exactly will our gallant soldiers be doing?

Well - feeding; washing; and of course.....changing diapers.

I can hear it now !!

Code Brown..."all bomb experts to floor 2 / room 5  / bed 3.  An massive explosion has taken place  and in need of immediate clean-up... Be sure to wear your body armour and most importantly... your masks.

As I Smell It...

'K. D. Bell'

The 24 hour news cycle becomes very boring when it is all about either Trump or the Virus

For Long Time Readers I must apologize for being MIA in regard to my Blog Writing or better stated - Non-Blog Writing.

My excuse is contained in today's title - whatever I read and whatever I hear on the news is all about the Trumper and/or the Corny Virus.  I know you must be as tired of that as am I.

For me to be stimulated to write -I usually need to come across something in the mass media that gets my blood flowing ...so to speak.  And the constant repetative analysis of these two all encompassing topics has just the opposite affect on me - it turns me off and out.

I enjoy blogging though and from the feedback I get, I believe you find it insightful from time to time.  As I have said before, I try to get behind the B.S. spewed by the Talking Heads and let you know what I believe is really going on...and it that regard I am usually right !! said me ...your humble servant.

Let's consider for a moment my somewhat recent blogs on the Virus.  The main thrust of my blogs was that the treatment Government and Health Personages implemented was worse than the disease itself.

But the Media was in their rapt embrace.  That lasted a long time but more recently they have come to my original conclusion - why ...the social well-being of society, our economies and our collective mental health are taking a heavy hit as bad as or even worse than the virus itself.  Dah.

I also said, rather than just health care experts advising our politicians, there also needed to be a panel composed with economists and social scientists.  Not one media type suggested this approach.  But ... of course, that was then and this is now - and I have lost track of the number of talking heads coming round to my same conclusion.  After all, do you really think a Health Care Expert is going to suggest anything but a shut-down of society.  Not a chance.

And remember dear reader your heard it first from me.  I am in my 72nd year so maybe wisdom does grow with age ...or at least by now people my age have acquired a little experience.

Okay ...here is my next prediction.  As you know, everyone appears to be predicting that everything will change in the new post virus era.   It won't of course and once that becomes crystal clear down the road - the Talking Heads will do an about face and tell you that they knew nothing of significance would change all along.

Handshakes will disappear for ever - Not;  Restaurants will be empty for a long time to come - No They Won't;  Air Traffic will take years to come back - if at all - Again after a couple of months of having slayed the Dragon - we'll be airborne in great numbers and hell bent for leather;  Stadiums and Concert Halls will be filled to capacity....etc.

At home offices will not all go back to corporate base but the vast majority will. We are after all social beings and the home front simply does not cut it for most of us. Plus managers need to face to face with their employees and there is only so much of that you can do over video.

I could go on and on ...but you get the idea.

In early February I predicted that life would return to normal in June - in fact it appears to be happening somewhat earlier though the Pol'ys and the Health'ys are doing there best to drag their heals.  By September things will be in full swing. 

I say this because unlike other tragedies that plague our economy - this shutdown was officially sanctioned - Governments turned off the Economic Switch and things naturally came to a stop.  By the same token, when Governments turn the switches back on - life will quickly return to normal.

There is one area that unfortunately may sustain serious damage and like the above, this is man-made too.  I will deal with it in my very next blog ...

As I See It ...

K.D. Bell

HOW THE CORONA VIRUS HAS CHANGED THINGS FOREVER...

REGARDING THE ABOVE TITLE, I READ TWO VERY INTERESTING ARTICLES THIS PAST WEEKEND - THE FIRST:

By Gary Abernathy*

*Gary Abernathy, a contributing columnist for The Post, is a freelance writer based in Hillsboro, Ohio. After spending 13 years as an editor at three Ohio newspapers from 1983 to 1996, Abernathy worked in Republican Party politics in Ohio and West Virginia, 

Mr Abernathy wrote a column this weekend entitled We are all socialists now.  And boy is he right.

The money being thrown at this Virus is simply mind-blowing and will in my humble opinion turn the majority of Americans into Progressives.  The West, including my country Canada, has already swallowed the cool-aide and the only place where the fight between right and left has prevailed is in America.  Indeed until the current crisis, the split was right down the middle - 50/50.  But like Mr. Abernathy - I too believe those days to be well and truly over.  

Welcome to our Progressive World US of A.  

Good thing? Bad Thing?  even I no longer know - as a fiscal conservative I would never had thought the Government Debt / Deficits could grow to such levels as we have seen since the mortgage backed security scandal of 2007 and 2008.  And that does not even include the massive quantitative easing - the art of financial institutions printing money without backing.  Kinda like former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke suggesting helicopter drops of cash to fight deflation.  I laughed at the time but since then... seeing this more or less happen - I am laughing no more.


So in my humble opinion Abernathy is correct and so to is one of my favourite author's ...
Lord Conrad Black of Cross Harbour.

Lord Black writes of the Hysteria caused by the Pandemic and in particular focuses on the closing of the Canada / US border to Non-Essential Travel.  Black reviews in some length the long and storied history of our open border - the longest undefended border in the world.  Now a casualty of this bug that confronts us all.  

There is one other author I would like to reference though will leave this wayward wag nameless. He too sees change and likes it.  The change he endorses is the end of the handshake and notes with glee  that 'history has never witnessed a more disgusting and dangerous interaction between humans besides murder'.  To him I say...Get A Life.. He goes on to say he expects the elimination of the handshake will survive the current pandemic.  I hope he is wrong. 

He does not mention the long tradition of European Cheek Kissing but you can just imagine his  horror at just the thought. 

So what does he suspect will replace these longstanding traditions?  An elbow bump?  God save us.

Both of the above referenced traditions are intimate yet respectable manifestations of a warmth between two human beings.   If we lose that bond we will have lost something very special.  So if you have a elbow bump planned for me...save it for your dog. 

None of what I have written pertains to China but ready or not, I am going to deal with this subject here as well.

There is something ugly in Canada's relation with China and more to the point - something ugly in our National Liberal Party's - aka Laurentian Elite relationship with that country.   Some day I hope that a Inquiry is called to investigate this and it will not be pretty.

For decades now former senior liberal politicians and senior bureaucrats have gone off to the China Trough.  

Justin Trudeau, even before he became Prime Minster, waxed eloquent about how much he respected this ruthless dictatorship which more or less mirrored his late father's view - former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott. 

More recently and during the beginning of the Pandemic - the Liberal Government went out of its way to praise China for the effective way in which they went about fighting this outbreak.  All the while they had to know that China was dramatically downplaying the disease's seriousness while 10s of thousands of its citizens were dying or were traveling across the world spreading the joy.  

Canada was welcoming China's sick with open arms.  We are still paying the price for this Liberal Government Folly.

And then we sent China tons of medical supplies which China did not use but sent back to us.  To add to this nonsense we then ordered tons of medical supplies from China at a cost but the items turned out to be defective.

When non-liberals complained they were showered as being racist pigs.  Who is the racist and who is the pig? 

And all this being done while China is holding two of our citizens for 480 days and counting.  The two are Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.  If you do not know the sad story of their kidnapping... I encourage you to look it up. 

What is clear in all of this is that in all of our  dealings with this ruthless dictatorship - no attempt has been made to see our two brethren freed.  At least some good might have come from our niceness to the Giant but my extensive reading on this has found no indication that any attempt was made to see the two Michaels freed.  And until these two fellows are released Canada should give them spit and refrain from saying anything nice about them.  We should also be working to ensure that China is jettisoned from every world organization known to mankind.  It needs to be shunned. 

So we are seeing changes wrought by the Virus - some of which maybe permanent.  But the one constant throughout is that Canada remains suppliant at the Dictators Feet. 


As I See It...


K.D. Bell




.  

THE CURE IS WORSE THAN THE DISEASE ....MUCH WORSE.

In a recent blog I wrote that the best response to the Corona Virus is to do Nothing.

Well in retrospect perhaps I was a little bit over the top.  But not as much as you might think.

In the blog, I employed an analogy of a patient going to hospital for an ear ache and coming out with casts on both hands and both feet.  Well I should have said ...came out in a full body cast.

I say that since there are 3 serious affects that can be attributed to the Corona:   Health; Economic; and Social.

To date the focus has been mostly on the threat to health but the Virus has other equally deleterious affects:

• The World Economy has been shut down.  Millions are out of work and the dirty 30s are beginning to look like a cake walk in comparison to what is happening today.
• 
  
• Social Isolation recommended by health experts and politicians alike is working but at the cost of isolating the frail, the elderly, and the vulnerable.  in fact it is not mentally or physically healthy for any of us.

So how come?

The answer my dear friends is relatively easy to determine - our Politicians are making decisions that affect us all on the basis of what the nearest Health Expert recommends.

For instance, how many times have you seen Politician X make a declaration of some sort and a reporter naturally asks - 'Why So'?   The answer is inevitably that this is what the 'health care experts are advising us to do'.  End of Story. 

In effect our politicians are hiding behind these Experts - following rather than leading as they should.  In one sense who can blame them - they are on the side of the angels.  This despite the fact that the damage these self-same declarations can do is often worse than the virus itself.

So here is what I would suggest:

We all know the reaction of health care will be 'shut her down'.  So that position needs to be counter-balanced with the other two major players in the game represented by economists / business and social scientists / sociologists.  A panel representing the nation's experts in these 3 fields could then look for a compromise approach which the Politicians in their infinite wisdom can then consider and then act on the ones they find best suited to today's complex situation.

You read it here first - don't be shy to pass it along.

In closing, I will make a prediction - fear is what currently drives today's policy decisions but the day is quickly coming - even without the above panel - when fear of illness will be replaced by greed and economic self-preservation.  Society will be out for the welfare of Number 1 - themselves and to hell with a virus that may or not make them sick and will unlikely kill them.

For the sick and vulnerable continue to stay in doors throughout all of this and self-isolate. 

As I See It...

K.D. Bell

We Have A Virus Alright ...But It's Not The 'Cornie' One That Is Causing Us All The Trouble...

Rather, It Is The Panic The Cornie Causes !!

Whole Cities, States and Continents have been cut-off from civilization. 

National and International Sport Leagues and Events have packed up and gone home or stayed home.

Police are enforcing the distance you can legally stand near another human... 1 yard apart.  Who knew such draconian measures even existed.  It would make even the most notorious Dictators of history blush in envy.

There are differing lists of Freedoms but as a Libertarian - the basic ones  that I subscribe to are:  Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Assembly.

And three of these have come under attack as a result of the Corona Virus - Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Assembly.  The first example indeed consists of the two of them - Churches in some jurisdiction have been told not to hold services because of fears that this could lead to the spread of the virus.  The Freedom of Assembly has been generally sacrificed with the dictate that crowds larger than 250 - 500 will not be permitted - hence sports events, political meetings and meetings of any kind will not be tolerated.  Even our Parliament closed today allowing our politicians to slink out of town. 

And the olde saw - never let an ill wind go to waste is alive and well in today's whirlwind.  Progressive Lefties ...aka Greenies are simply beside themselves.   Their goal to save the planet has been to see industry shuttered and by Joe - this is being accomplished before their very eyes.  I have to wonder though they will manage when their day to comforts are suddenly not available.

China - the biggest supplier of things to the world - like the shirt on your back and parts for industry has seen a reduction in their external shipments reduced by 85%.  Their smiles will soon fade as it sinks in that they - like the rest of us are also consumers. 

And speaking of consuming - the hottest item in the market place today of course is toilet paper.  My wife and I went to two major grocery stores yesterday and neither one had but a roll of tissue left.  Just long empty shelves for as far as the eye could see.  We do have an ample supply of old newspapers here and would gladly provide some to the greenies when their need arises.

Today the news was full of reports that the local Costco's parking lot was jammed full and that cars were backed up for long distances on the roads leading to that store.  All had come for the Toilet Paper and reporters found these toilet paper hunters to be universally ugly in nature.  I thought to myself thank heavens we have much stricter gun controls than our American neighbours to the south.

Yesterday, we overheard one woman standing in the check out lines ....did I mention that I had never experienced lines so long?  - She wondered out loud if the only thing left for her to do was to go to her basement with a can of tuna and a supply of toilet tissue and cover her head with a blanket until the panic ceased.  Her comments were followed by a nervous laugh from those around her.

I would like to continue on with this blog further but find that I must sign-off - need to check to see if any stores around me have restocked their tissue.

As I See It...

K.D. Bell

A DEARTH OF CANDIDATES - TRUMP, BIDEN, BERNIE AND MORE...

I am currently following three Leadership races here in North America - - four actually, though one is a none race - 2 in the US of A and 2 here in Canada.  Lets begin with the former.

We are now down to 2 candidates for the Democrats - the above-noted Biden and Bernie - both are past their 'best before dates' and even when they were in their prime - they were nothing to speak of.  Sorry guys.

Smart money is now on the former V.P.  but it really matters not, since neither one will take out The Donald.

And Donald Trump is the second race I will also deal with quickly here.  There isn't one - a race that is and there should be.  Trump has been a disaster in his term of office and someone(s) in the Republican Party should have come forward to challenge him.  I can think of several but won't name them - if they did not have the patriotism to come forward - I cannot be bothered with naming them either.  And, I well remember the 1968 Election Campaign when Bobby Kennedy challenged then President Lyndon Johnson.  It cost Kennedy his life but it also forced Johnson's resignation. 

So Donald Trump runs unopposed when he should not be there at all - and this coming November he will find himself running against a candidate - likely Biden - who is even worse than himself.

Where is Winston Churchill when you need him.  Even in advanced age - he would beat the socks off these guys.  And to think, the Presidency of the United States is the highest gig going. Pity.

So now we come to my own country Canada.  Nationally we have a Leadership Race for the Conservative Party - and also have but two eligible candidates - both second-line stringers.  For some reason, the Conservative Party apparatjik went out of its way to discourage participation and in that they have been most successful. 

Given this, we too in Canada may well end up with our current Prime Minister come next election which would be similar to the United States since, like Trump, our current guy is probably the worst Prime Minister we have had in modern time. Indeed, the only thing our guy can still look up to is his own Ego.

Now to our largest Province - Ontario where 40%  of Canadians reside.  The Liberals in fact just wrapped up their Leadership Convention on Saturday and some guy whose name begins with Del ? was elected on the first ballot.  Don't feel bad if you do not recognize the name- none of us here do either. 

His claim for fame is that he is a professional politician having entered the fray at the tender age of 15.  What he does not realize of course is that this attribute is not an asset for him but rather a detriment.

And, the only thing Del ? has in his favour is that if and when the mantle of power is placed on his shoulders he does not need to worry about growing gray.

With the world feeling like it is falling in upon itself we need great Leadership more than ever and yet seem to go out of our way to see that we do not get it.  Pity too.

As I See It, 

K.D. Bell

CORONAVIRUS.....WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO ?

UPDATE:  Just to keep the coronavirus in some perspective, 10% of the US population (25 million) gets the flu each year and 36,000 die from it on average    


NOTHING          NADA          ZIP          ZILCH          RIEN     

It has been less than two months since this new virus has become a house-hold word and yet during this relatively short time 'The Experts' & 'The Politicians' have gone all the way from saying "nothing to see here...move along"  to Henny Penny's famous running about proclaiming "the sky is falling".

And all the while entire cities have hunkered down indoors leaving streets abandoned while the world's commercial network has virtually come to a stand-still.

So what began and still is a health matter has morphed into a social and economic catastrophe.

So how did we get where we currently are?

In the beginning the danger of this virus was sorely downplayed while today is it grossly overblown.

The Experts are calling for hospitals to "stock-up with medications" while the Politicians are telling us to "stock up basic supplies" such as food and water.

Exactly what 'medications' hospital would stock-up on is a mystery to me since no medications exist yet for this new virus.

It is all over-kill and only serves to spread panic throughout the world which they have been very successful in doing.

Which leads me back to today's solution - We Should Do Nothing.

The virus is less serious than the flu which we have contended with since the early 1700s and every year sees outbreaks of this old virus all over the world.  And yet we do not shut down whole cities and discontinue international commerce in its wake.  Granted, vaccinations exist for the flu but the same will apply soon in the case of the coronavirus virus.

Fatalities are less than they are with the flu - something around 2% and then mostly affects the elderly - which though bad enough - if the numbers were reversed...if the survival rate was 2% and the death rate 98%  then I could understand the need for panic.  But it is not.

So here we have a medical issue but you and I are needlessly turning it into social isolation and economic decline.  We are shooting ourselves in the proverbial foot.   It is like going into a hospital with and earache and asking for castes to be placed on your hands and legs.  How to make it a bad situation much, much worse.  Have we become so soft in the 21st Century that we are willing to stop living just because we might come down with flu like symptoms?

During World War Two - Londoners went underground as their City was bombarded - buildings obliterated, citizens killed and wounded.  And yet come the morning sun, they dusted themselves, stayed calm and carried on.

We, indeed the World, have been given the rare chance to emulate their courage...are we up-to-it?

As I See It...

K.D. Bell