There is a sober, or I would say, a grim mathematics, to the coronavirus pandemic. Take lockdowns for example. I was in town today and it was as sparse as on Good Friday, or shall we call our days, “Bad Fridays”? Businesses shut, few people working. This is less than a week …  what will things be like with a full six months or year of this? Lock downs of Western countries are hard enough, but what about locking down the vast population of India:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/health/heres-what-21-day-lockdown-indias-13bn-people-looks

“Or rather we should ask whether this is even possible, given that as of the first night following Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing in a televised address the immediate lockdown which orders some one-fifth of the world's population to 'stay indoors' it looks like the authorities will have serious enforcement issues on their hands in the coming Even his word choice left little ambiguity: “To save India and every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out,” Modi said Tuesday.days. Technically the order begins Wednesday, but it still set off a panic as anxious throngs descended on shopping markets, causing police to in some cases intervene and attempt to disperse the swelling crowds. Modi said in his speech the 'alternative' to not shutting the country down would ultimately set back the economy back 21 years, while also acknowledging India will take a big hit anyway, while pledging to inject $2 billion into country's vulnerable health care system.”

     President Trump thinks that the drug chloroquine may be a game changer in the coronavirus pandemic. But the false news media said that Trump was responsible for a man who died from self-medication of the alleged drug, when in fact the man died because he ingested fish tank cleaner, a fair bit of difference, not that the mainstream liars care that much, as long as the mud sticks for a moment:
  https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/fake-news-hacks-claim-man-died-after-ingesting-chloroquine-because-of-trump-leaves-out-the-fact-he-actually-drank-fish-tank-cleaner/

“Late last week President Donald Trump announced a new medical treatment that includes malaria drug chloroquine and Z-pac cocktail to battle the coronavirus. There are three international studies that show the combination is very effective in treating the coronavirus and also acts as a prophylactic. We reported on the success of Chloroquine earlier today and this week. The propagandists in the media however are desperate to make President Trump look like a murdering liar so they spread one of the biggest hoaxes yet in the Coronavirus news cycle. On Monday it was reported that a 68-year-old man died after ingesting chloroquine. Only he didn’t ingest chloroquine — he drank fish tank cleaner and poisoned himself to death. But the media ran with the lie anyway, because orange man bad.”

     In season 1 of the zombie show, The Walking Dead, TS-19, I think the episode was called, Rick and his band of merry survivors were at the CDC and were told that they were all infected, well, at least the leader Rick was told. It was enough to make him hit the booze, as I would. However, an Oxford study that around half of the UK population is infected has been interpreted as indicating that the corona bug is not so bad after all:
  https://www.ft.com/content/5ff6469a-6dd8-11ea-89df-41bea055720b
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMu825aFauo
  https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/oxford-study-coronavirus-may-have-infected-half-of-u-k.html

“Because testing regimens across the world have varied tremendously, the actual mortality and hospitalization rates of COVID-19 have been hard to pin down. But modeling by researchers at the University of Oxford could provide some welcome good news, even if the initial takeaway doesn’t seem so promising. According to hypothetical modeling from Oxford’s Evolutionary Ecology of Infectious Disease lab, half of the population of the United Kingdom may have already been infected with the coronavirus. If this modeling is confirmed in follow-up studies, that a minuscule number of those infected require hospital treatment, with a majority showing very minor symptoms, or none at all. In the mathematical experiment, the researchers looked at the population who are at risk of a severe infection. While a risk rate of 0.1 percent suggested a high number of infected people — suggesting lower hospitalization and mortality rates — a higher risk rate of 1 percent implied the possibility of a more threatening virus at the population level. In the following chart, ρ represents the risk rate, with the dramatic yellow line representing the possibility of a majority of the U.K. population infected.”

     If this is not communism, central control gone mad, then I am an monkey’s uncle. What? I did not mean to offend monkeys!
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-03-25-gun-stores-closed-la-county-coronavirus-pandemic.html

“Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced that gun stores would be declared as “nonessential” businesses and ordered all gun stores in the L.A. county to close down on Tuesday. “There are hundreds of businesses which, through no fault of their own, do not fall under the Governor’s definition of critical infrastructure,” Villanueva said in a press conference. “As a result, I have instructed my deputies to enforce closures of businesses which have disregarded the Governor’s order (gun stores, strip clubs, and other non-designated businesses).” Gun sales in the U.S. have skyrocketed amid the coronavirus crisis. Over the past few weeks, gun stores across the country have seen very long lines and a quick depletion of inventory as many residents turn to their Second Amendment rights for self-protection. However, Villanueva believes that keeping these gun stores open for business amid the pandemic is unnecessary. “We will be closing them, they are not an essential function,” Villanueva said. “I’m a supporter of the 2nd amendment, I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners and you have a lot more people at home and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.” The sheriff also plans to beef up patrols by adding 1,300 deputies to his ranks – doubling the current number of officers deployed on the streets – and claims that gun shops who ignore the order and remain open will be summoned to court. Further, Villanueva  announced the release of 1,700 non-violent inmates from county jails to mitigate the risk of the spread of infection throughout the jail system. He claimed that they will be keeping the violent suspects imprisoned no matter what and that those who believe that they won’t be going hard on felons on the streets are sorely mistaken.”

     The ban now imposed by Scott Morrison upon non-citizens entering Australia, effectively gives us a taste of what an end to immigration would be like. An improvement in living conditions for ordinary Australia, less pollution from excessive cars, the faint possibility of developing a sense of community and identity. The list goes on. So, given that we have had a taste of clean nationalist living, as God meant it to be, how about keeping the ban on forever? Make Australia a nation again instead of an immigration collection pond. Just dreaming.
  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/coronavirus-australia-live-updates-donald-trump-closes-uscanada-border/news-story/b60e78b69cb446d3e1a14df02ee8c9de#U70951458114IeE

“All foreign nationals will now be banned from entering Australia due to the coronavirus pandemic. Scott Morrison during Thurday’s press conference. Scott Morrison has hardened the closure of the nation’s borders, after earlier this week forcing all new entrants into Australia to self-isolate for 14 days. All Australian citizens, residents and direct family members will still be able to enter the country, but will have to self-isolate. “We have already seen a significant reduction in the travel to Australia by non- citizens,” the Prime Minister said in Canberra. “We believe it is essential to take a further step to ensure we are now no longer allowing anyone, unless they are a citizen or resident or direct family member.”

     What comes after the coronavirus pandemic panic? In the video below, Viking Nordic backwoodsman, Bjorn Bull-Hansen gives his down to earth take, that even if the coronavirus is not a conspiracy, the elites have taken advantage of this, which they are programmed to do, and will be moving to smash freedom as we know it, because that is what they do for their day, and night jobs. It is already happening, and once those few remaining freedoms are gone, it will be the battle of the century to get them back. Thus, California, that cursed socialist state, is already rolling out martial law, control by the forces of anarchotyranny:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWDNArKWfns
  https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241271171.html
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzo9IAgyOr0&feature=emb_title
  https://triblive.com/opinion/pat-buchanan-will-coronavirus-kill-new-world-order/
  https://www.globalresearch.ca/coronavirus-new-world-order-something-rotten-state-denmark/5706464
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/18/coronavirus-california-prepared-for-martial-law-possibility/

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Tuesday that the state is prepared for the possibility of declaring martial law in an effort to combat the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. “[W]e have the ability to do martial law … if we feel the necessity,” Newsom said during a press conference on California’s ongoing response to the deadly illness. In what would be an extraordinary measure, martial law is the suspension of ordinary law and the imposition of direct military control of a population. The governor has already placed the California National Guard on alert for humanitarian duties, including food distribution and public safety activities. California, which approved $1.1 billion in emergency funding on Monday, may exceed the state’s roughly $21 billion in reserves, warned Newsom. “The magnitude of this moment may exceed those reserves,” he said. Newsom also gave an assessment on the status of California schools, stating that “few if any” will reopen before summer. U.S. and California health officials have repeatedly warned that the virus could have a devastating impact and that the timetable for controlling it is not known. President Donald Trump on Monday said the crisis could last until August. California’s 415 hospitals have been planning for a surge of patients. They have about 88,000 beds and Newsom said health officials are running models to determine needs based on various infection rates and resulting hospitalizations. Under worst-case scenarios, California could be short 20,000 beds, he said.”

Sent to Advertiser and Country papers

Dear Editor
The impact of the Covid 19 virus has reached every corner of society’s activities.  It has revealed some practices which could be changed to provide a benefit even beyond the current dilemma. A good deal of office computer work can be done at home.  The employee can receive work to be done and return it by email to the office.  This would reduce the need for travel to work by car or public transport providing immediate relief from traffic and parking problems. Another gain would be less emissions.  One day per week at the office would allow for personal interchange if necessary. The virus and subsequent economic implications have also emphasised the need to be independent and this applies from the individual right through to the State and nation.  We have become too dependent on foreign countries in all areas.  Problems have arisen when we depend on them to supply our needs and when they can no longer access our products.  The remedy will involve reconsideration of Australia’s commitment to schemes like the Lima Agreement (Agenda 21 etc) where we agree to allow our industries to go off-shore to assist developing nations.  Trade Agreements can have a similar effect. The negative side of globalisation has been clearly exposed.  Will we take heed?

Yours faithfully
Ken Grundy
Naracoorte  SA  5271

Jul 18, 1999

     Starting in September last year, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia was strongly criticized by the Western media and some Western governments over the introduction of capital controls and the sacking of his deputy prime minister and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was later tried for alleged criminal acts. It was thought that Mahathir was doomed to be overthrown by student and youth demonstrations. Now, however, the outcry has subsided, the political situation has been stabilized and capital controls have been deemed a success even by the anti-Mahathir Western media and IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus.

21 March 2020

     24 million Australians are told to wash their hands thoroughly several times a day. Imagine the water demand – say 25 litres per person per day just for hand washing, taking total household usage to maybe 60 litres per person per day. For 24 million of us that could amount to 1,400 Ml per day - enough to empty the giant Lake Eucumbene in a few days. Greens celebrate Sunday 22nd March as World Water Day. Let’s make it “Build More Dams Day” and announce new dams and weirs NOW, with guaranteed money and start dates.

     I hate “my generation,” the 1960s boomer crowd who still listen to Beatles music, and think that Bob Dylan, deserved a Nobel Prize, a spoilt rotten bunch that have wasted the social capital of the West and led us into the present crisis of survival. No wonder the younger generation hates us so.
  https://theprint.in/opinion/pov/covid-19-a-boomer-remover-why-millennials-are-angry-and-done-with-older-generation/381223/

“As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the words ‘Boomer Remover’ featured prominently in Twitter trends the past couple of days. It is, of course, a mean yet on-point joke about how the majority of the COVID-19 pandemic’s death toll are the elderly. What is the reason for this pushback and anger against Boomers across the world, and in particular, against uncles in India? ‘OK Boomer’ and ‘Uncle, please sit’ are now popular catchphrases to signal that young people have had enough of the policies and politics that have got us to this point. Boomers have handed younger generations a broken economy, an ailing planet, and nuclear weapons – but won’t stop with the lectures. And as many pointed out, the Boomers’ response to the admittedly off-colour joke has been far more proactive than their response to all the actual problems for which younger generations blame them: their political choices that have now led to lack of jobs for the current generations around the world and their inability to buy a house, a growing climate crisis, rising depression and anxiety among young people, poor healthcare facilities, rampant gun violence in schools and even their ostrich-like response to coronavirus. Many Boomer-run offices can easily allow employees to work from home in the gig economy until this pandemic is over, but they simply won’t. Young people are now telling them that their time, more specifically, the time of their ideas, is over, and they should stop trying to run the world.”

     If Trump has the noodle he will be able to make mince meat out of Joe Biden, given things which he said in the past about racial issues, which at the time was sensible, and still is, but nowadays, in this weird world of the Great White Replacement, remains politically incorrect:
  https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-said-desegregation-would-create-a-racial-jungle-2019-7?r=AU&IR=T
  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/us/politics/biden-busing.html

“Former Vice President Joe Biden is facing increased scrutiny over his record on busing and racial issues, and this week old comments resurfaced in which he said, in 1977, that non-"orderly" racial integration policies would cause his children to "grow up in a racial jungle." The quote was originally discovered by University of Southern California Law School professor and scholar Daria Roithmayr and first reported by The New York Times, which published a lengthy story on Biden's record on busing and school de-segregation on Monday morning. In the quote, which appears to come from a congressional hearing related to anti-busing legislation, Biden emphasized wanting to "insure we do have orderly integration of society," adding he was "not just talking about education but all of society." He then said: "Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point. We have got to make some move on this."

     There is still no settled opinion from our side of politics about the true nature of the coronavirus pandemic, with views ranging from catastrophe, Mike Adams, right through to the bug is a type of false flag conspiracy, and may not even exist. I don’t know about the last one, but some influential tin foil hatters have proposed it, but, then again, after every disaster there are some of us to say: no, it did not happen as you thought it did. We need open minds, gathering information, just like on the issue of China’s responsibility:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/health/what-our-country-going-look-if-millions-americans-start-dying-covid-19
  https://summit.news/2020/03/19/study-global-pandemic-could-have-been-avoided-if-china-had-acted-sooner/
  https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2020/03/covid-19-china.page

“A scientific study has found that had China acted sooner to combat the spread of their coronavirus, then the spread could have been almost entirely avoided, and it would not have become a global pandemic. Research out of the University of Southampton in the UK, based on world population mapping funded primarily by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discovered “that if interventions in [China] could have been conducted one week, two weeks, or three weeks earlier, cases could have been reduced by 66 percent, 86 percent and 95 percent respectively – significantly limiting the geographical spread of the disease.” Study author Dr Shengjie Lai, of the University of Southampton, comments: “Our study demonstrates how important it is for countries which are facing an imminent outbreak to proactively plan a coordinated response which swiftly tackles the spread of the disease on a number of fronts.” Director of the University of Southampton’s WorldPop group, Professor Andy Tatem, adds: “We have a narrow window of opportunity globally to respond to this disease and given effective drugs and vaccines are not expected for months, we need to be smart about how we target it using non-drug-related interventions.” “Our findings significantly contribute to an improved understanding of how best to implement measures and tailor them to conditions in different regions of the world.” Tatem continued. It has become clear that the first cases of the Chinese virus were reported in mid-late November and early December, with scientists even estimating that the first jump of the virus from animals to humans probably occurred in October in the city of Wuhan. Instead of acting immediately, the Chinese government waited until January 23rd before issuing quarantine orders to the 11 million people living in Wuhan. The communist state was also actively working to suppress and punish doctors and scientists who tried to get warnings out, and  lied to the world by claiming there was “no evidence” of human-to-human transmission.”

     We are all tired of reading and writing about the coronavirus issue, but this is dominating all the news cycles, and it is our duty as journalists to deal with all of the big issues of the day. We are trying to cover all the bases as Brian puts it, and here is one possible longer-term consequence, the “hybrid war”:
  https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-locked-hybrid-war-us/5706687

“Among the myriad, earth-shattering geopolitical effects of coronavirus, one is already graphically evident. China has re-positioned itself. For the first time since the start of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in 1978, Beijing openly regards the US as a threat, as stated a month ago by Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference during the peak of the fight against coronavirus. Beijing is carefully, incrementally shaping the narrative that, from the beginning of the coronovirus attack, the leadership knew it was under a hybrid war attack. Xi’s terminology is a major clue. He said, on the record, that this was war. And, as a counter-attack, a “people’s war” had to be launched. Moreover, he described the virus as a demon or devil. Xi is a Confucianist. Unlike some other ancient Chinese thinkers, Confucius was loath to discuss supernatural forces and judgment in the afterlife. However, in a Chinese cultural context, devil means “white devils” or “foreign devils”: guailo in Mandarin, gweilo in Cantonese. This was Xi delivering a powerful statement in code. When Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, voiced in an incandescent tweet the possibility that “it might be US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan” – the first blast to this effect to come from a top official – Beijing was sending up a trial balloon signalling that the gloves were finally off. Zhao Lijian made a direct connection with the Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019, which included a delegation of 300 US military. He directly quoted US CDC director Robert Redfield who, when asked last week whether some deaths by coronavirus had been discovered posthumously in the US, replied that  “some cases have actually been diagnosed this way in the US today.”

     The Deputy leader of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Beatrix von Storch has strongly criticised the Turkish government for opening its borders to Europe, and he has said that the country be removed from the NATO military alliance. It is about time someone said something about this, but really action needs to be taken if anything is going to survive in Europe:
  https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/03/germany-afd-leader-demands-turkey-be-thrown-out-of-nato-for-migrant-aggression?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_2020_03_19_jihad_watch_daily_digest&utm_term=2020-03-19
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/15/exclusive-von-storch-turkey-removed-nato-migrant-aggression/

“Ms von Storch commented on the situation along the Greek border, where thousands of migrants have gathered, in an interview with Breitbart London this week, stating that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government had committed an “act of aggression” by opening the border. “First of all, what is our approach to this situation? We stand with Greece. This is, I think, the bottom line. We have to strengthen the Greek border and border police and we should do everything we can to help them keep the border clear,” von Storch said. On the actions of President Erdogan, Ms von Storch said: “It’s an act of aggression, what he is proposing. It’s the fight of an Islamic country against a small Christian country and he did it with purpose. He uses it as a weapon.” The AfD deputy leader went on to note the multiple times that Erdogan has threatened the European Union, including as recently as last December when he stated that migrants displaced by military activity in the Syrian province of Idlib could go on to Europe.”

     Comparisons have been made with the present coronavirus pandemic, and the 1918 pandemic. But really the present situation does not compare to what happened then, where corpses were put out in the street, in some parts of the world much like rubbish is put out today. And, both were from China, even though the 1918 flu is called the “Spanish flu”:
  https://thehill.com/changing-america/opinion/488429-the-1918-spanish-flu-ravaged-the-world-what-can-it-teach-us-about
  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140123-spanish-flu-1918-china-origins-pandemic-science-health/

“For decades, scientists have debated where in the world the pandemic started, variously pinpointing its origins in France, China, the American Midwest, and beyond. Without a clear location, scientists have lacked a complete picture of the conditions that bred the disease and factors that might lead to similar outbreaks in the future. The deadly "Spanish flu" claimed more lives than World War I, which ended the same year the pandemic struck. Now, new research is placing the flu's emergence in a forgotten episode of World War I: the shipment of Chinese laborers across Canada in sealed train cars. Historian Mark Humphries of Canada's Memorial University of Newfoundland says that newly unearthed records confirm that one of the side stories of the war—the mobilization of 96,000 Chinese laborers to work behind the British and French lines on World War I's Western Front—may have been the source of the pandemic. Writing in the January issue of the journal War in History, Humphries acknowledges that his hypothesis awaits confirmation by viral samples from flu victims. Such evidence would tie the disease's origin to one location. But some other historians already find his argument convincing. "This is about as close to a smoking gun as a historian is going to get," says historian James Higgins, who lectures at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and who has researched the 1918 spread of the pandemic in the United States. "These records answer a lot of questions about the pandemic."

     This is disturbing. This morning I read that one big supermarket was not taking cash for payments, for fear of the corona bug being on the money, but when I hobbled to the store, that policy was dropped, why, I do not know, perhaps an act of God? Yes, this was never a problem before with poo getting on the money  and they did not care then, but I suppose this is different, eh?
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-20/will-coronavirus-kill-off-cash-in-australia/12065860

“The coronavirus pandemic has spread to many aspects of life. But one of its early and unexpected impacts seems to be on cash — or, more specifically, cash transactions. Though it does not reference cash specifically, Department of Health advice says the COVID-19 virus can spread through "touching objects that have cough or sneeze droplets from an infected person" on them. So when managers of The Knox cafe, in suburban Canberra, met to discuss how to protect staff and improve hygiene, refusing coins and banknotes was one of their first decisions. "We've stopped using keep cups and we've stopped cash transactions," front-of-house manager Madeleine Clarke said. "Our boss wants us to minimise hand-to-hand interactions and, obviously, cash carries a lot of germs." Peter Barclay, who runs city pub King O'Malleys, has started to ask drinkers to do the same. "Already, very few people use cash in the economy … it's probably 10 to 15 per cent of our patrons," he said. "When they come to the bar, we just say, 'Look, do you have a credit card?'" These cases are not isolated. Merchants across the country are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by avoiding touching money. Others, such as McDonald's restaurants, still accept coins and banknotes, but instruct staff to wear gloves while doing so. A spokesperson for McDonald's said the chain had also advised employees how to give and take coins from customers in a way that minimised contact.”

     I once loved the James Bond character, but with Daniel Craig, that took a dive, as we saw the new politically correct Bond, so distant from Sean Connery, that it might as well be another world, which it is. But, what is the guy like in real life? Worse.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8135603/Bond-star-Daniel-Craig-insists-wont-leave-125-million-fortune-children.html

“Daniel Craig has insisted he won't be giving a penny of his £125million fortune to his children because he believes 'inheritance is distasteful.' The James Bond actor, 52, revealed his 'philosophy is to get rid of it or give it away before you go' and says he has no plans on passing down his wealth to his daughters, including the two-year-old he shares with wife Rachel Weisz, 50. In a new interview, the 007 star, said: 'I don't want to leave great sums to the next generation' – after earning a reported £18million for his final James Bond film, No Time to Die. Speaking to Saga magazine, he continued: 'I think inheritance is quite distasteful. My philosophy is to get rid of it or give it away before you go.' Daniel is a father to daughter Ella, 28, who he shares with ex-wife Fiona Loudon, 51, and a child whose name hasn't been confirmed with current partner Rachel.”

     This is a line of inquiry that we should keep or eyes on, the rewriting of history by China and its servants:
  https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6143711080001

“China’s “dishonesty and negligence” unleashed COVID-19 on the rest of the world, Outsiders Host Rita Panahi says. Ms Panahi questioned the decision of China to “destroy evidence” when it became clear there was an outbreak on their hands. “China's initial cover-up included destroying lab samples that established in December the cause of unexplained viral infections in the Hubei province,” she said. “How many lives would have been saved if China had listened to experts instead of silencing them?” Ms Panahi said it was imperative we do not allow China to rewrite history as it emerges from the other side of the crisis. “The Chinese communist regime has through its ineptitude, dishonesty and negligence unleashed a virus that will leave tens of thousands dead and likely cause a global recession,” he said. “We must not allow this totalitarian regime to re-write history.”

     There is a new book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Dutch critic of Islam, The Challenge of Dawa. The book argues that Islam has a political ideology, and outlines what the West needs to do to survive. I will not be buying her book, as we journalists are all too poor to buy anything, but, not to cry too much in our empty beer mugs and soup bowls, I found a summary of the book by the author herself, so you don’t have to read the book either unless you really want to. Just prepare, as these are wild times, and some food trumps reading material:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx2hEc7Dlcg
  https://www.hoover.org/research/challenge-dawa-political-islam-ideology-and-movement-and-how-counter-it

“Speaking in Youngstown, Ohio, on August 15, 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gave a speech on what he unequivocally referred to as “radical Islam.” He declared: Nor can we let the hateful ideology of radical Islam—its oppression of women, gays, children, and nonbelievers—be allowed to reside or spread within our own countries . . . [W]-e must use ideological warfare as well. Just as we won the Cold War, in part, by exposing the evils of communism and the virtues of free markets, so too must we take on the ideology of radical Islam. Our administration will be a friend to all moderate Muslim reformers in the Middle East, and will amplify their voices. Since Mr. Trump’s election victory and inauguration as president, much attention has been focused on hurried and probably temporary restrictions on refugees, visitors, and immigrants from a number of majority-Muslim countries. Almost no attention has been paid to the broader goals outlined in the Youngstown speech. I argue that the speech heralded a paradigm shift away from President Obama’s doctrine of focusing solely on the violence committed by “extremists” to a more comprehensive approach that seeks to undermine, degrade, and ultimately defeat political Islam (or Islamism) as an ideology and a movement seeking to infiltrate and undermine our free society. A narrow focus on Islamist violence had the effect of restricting our options only to tools such as military intervention, electronic surveillance, and the criminal justice system. This approach has proved both costly and ineffective. Moving beyond the controversy over his executive order on immigration, President Trump now has the chance to broaden our strategy. Instead of “combating violent extremism,” his administration needs to redefine the threat posed by political Islam by recognizing it as an ideology that is fundamentally incompatible with our freedoms and a movement that is working insidiously but effectively to achieve its stated utopia.

25 March 2020

The Virus Slowdown was Successful