Month: October 2020

by William Skink

The final scorched-earth moves by the corrupt and inept resistance to remove Trump from office, when all is said and done (and regardless of outcome) will see the credibility of legacy media destroyed for a generation to come, maybe longer.

Glenn Greenwald was the big story in the media world yesterday because he resigned from the Intercept, an online publication he co-founded. The rabid suppression and overt censorship of Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal, the validity of which HAS NOT BEEN DENIED by Biden’s campaign, was the final straw, said Greenwald.

Greenwald’s resignation can be read at substack, an increasingly popular subscription model for writers and creatives. It was even mentioned in a comment on my post announcing this Skink ink ownership opportunity.

I appreciate the comment and already know a book of poems is probably one of the least likely forms of creative output likely to garner much financial support from RD readers, so it’s a good thing poetry isn’t the only thing I got cooking.

In thinking about Greenwald’s move to substack, I’ll drop a big hint and say I’m enjoying LISTENING to Greenwald on Joe Rogan much more than reading his well-structured language-punches on substack.

Rogan is dealing with his own cancel-culture outrage storm after Alex Jones returned to his podcast a few days ago.

I recommend listening to all of it–Jones, Greenwald, even Kanye, and perhaps the most interesting podcast conversation of them all: Brian Muraresku talking about the religion with no name.

That link goes to Youtube, a despicable platform that should be avoided, if possible. That said, I strongly encourage anyone reading this to check out Muraresku’s work. It’s a fascinating, scholarly look at the use of mind-altering substances going back possibly as far as recorded history.

That conversation (joined by Graham Hancock) is a delightful contrast to the toxic garbage spewing geysers of bullshit in these final days of America’s democratic death watch.

Unfiltered conversations that go for an hour or two seems to be a popular way to go. I wonder if pairing that with a weekly review of RD headlines might be something RD readers would listen to?

Thoughts?

by William Skink

The spike in Coronavirus cases is so bad in places like Missoula that the Health Department is taking drastic steps to address the spread of the virus. Businesses like restaurants can only operate at half capacity, while bars are being forced to stop selling alcohol at 10pm. If you are wondering how stopping alcohol sales at 10pm is going to help anything, blogger Greg Strandberg, who will lose work hours from this move, shared this insight about the Health Department restrictions:

As I told you they would yesterday, Missoula County went ahead today and limited what amount of business our bars and restaurants can do. 

From now on, just 50% of capacity.

Oh, and no serving booze after 10 PM. 

Used to be we could serve it until 2 AM, then 12:30 AM, and now just 10 PM.

It’s because the virus is smart. It’s learning to come out earlier at night, not just after midnight. It’s clearly more intelligent than we originally thought.

Thank God we have an equally impressive intellectual team working in the Health Department!

Strandberg is being purposely absurd here to reflect the absurdity of the measures being imposed. Part of this absurdity can be seen when you contrast what restaurants and bars are now dealing with other economic engines in Missoula, like the airport.

If the pandemic is so bad that local businesses are being forced to commit economic suicide, then shouldn’t we be a little more concerned about the amount of people flying in to our little valley?

One might assume the answer to that question would be YES, but in this Missoula Current article, titled Flights, Passengers Returning to Missoula Airport as Confidence Grows, there is ZERO concern about people packing themselves into airplane fuselages and flying to Missoula. Instead of concern, there is stuff like this:

Passenger counts at Missoula International Airport continue to rebound from the deepest days of the pandemic, though they remain far below what they were at the same point last year.

Still, the climbing numbers have airport officials feeling more optimistic than they were over the summer, when they were bracing for possible cuts to service.

“It’s still trending up ever so slightly,” said deputy airport director Brian Ellestad. “We’re definitely above the national average right now, so that’s a good thing.”

I added the emphasis because I think it’s worth asking, is this REALLY a “good thing”?

If you’re in the business of flying people around the country then, yes, I can see how more people flying on airplanes to Missoula would be seen as a good thing.

But, from a PANDEMIC perspective, how can we justify negatively impacting some types of businesses (restaurants, bars) to slow the spread of the virus, while cheering on the rebound of businesses like airports and airline carriers, which appear, at least to a layman like myself, to be a FAR GREATER risk of promoting viral spread?

The Missoula Current must be pretty excited about the progress going on at the airport, because in addition to promoting the idea of GROWING CONFIDENCE for passengers, MC is also reporting that the terminal project remains on budget and NEW FLIGHTS have been added to San Diego and San Jose.

Isn’t that great news, Missoula? The folks at the airport are certainly excited about this pleasant surprise, as reported by Gomer Kidston and his merry band of gentrification cheerleaders:

It came as a surprise back in July when Alaska Airlines announced its plans to begin new daily service from Missoula to three destinations in California, never mind the pandemic.

Combined with the carrier’s three other nonstop routes from Missoula, the new flights, which begin in March, present new opportunities for travelers to reach global destinations in a single stop.

Now, Missoula International Airport and two tourism agencies in Montana will begin marketing the new service, even if it came as a surprise and wasn’t budgeted for this fiscal year.

“Back when we did the budget for this fiscal year, it was doom and gloom,” said deputy airport director Brian Ellestad. “We sliced and actually took out marketing dollars because we didn’t expect to get new service in the middle of a pandemic.”

Isn’t it nice that the Missoula International Airport has moved beyond its doom and gloom budget projections to realize there is still money to be made flying people directly from California to Missoula?

And isn’t it nice they have media like the Missoula Current to promote their business expansion while local businesses get decimated by the selective authoritarians at the Health Department?

If I was a local business owner being told to cut my business model in half while we cheerily fly potential meat sack vectors into our valley at increasing rates, I would be very, VERY angry.

What would happen if a local business just ignores the Health Department? Would that business be forced to shut its doors? How would that be accomplished, logistically speaking? Would the Sheriff’s Department get involved?

I think it’s worth pondering the possible answers to those questions because people are not going to just roll over and allow their livelihood to be destroyed, especially when other businesses that seem to carry more risk are being allowed to expand.

by William Skink

I’m excited to announce an opportunity to buy a little ink from the Skink.

Why buy ink from the Skink? Because it feels so good to SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS!

But wait, seventeen units of US fiat currency known as “dollars” sounds like a lot of money to spend on 44 poems. Is there other incentives for the purchasing of this book of poetry, like TAX INCREMENT FINANCING?

While purchasing this book through the Zootown Arts Community Center’s Online Artist Shop doesn’t qualify you for TIF funding, it DOES direct a portion of your money to the ZACC’s fantastic programs.

So you aren’t just kicking me a few bucks for writing some kick-ass poems, you are ALSO helping feed the art-spark for others.

Maybe thinking philanthropically isn’t your thing. For you hardcore capitalists, this limited run of 100 copies represents an investment opportunity. If demand for these poems develops, the fixed supply means scarcity could inflate the value down the road.

So order your copy NOW!

by William Skink

Whatever restrictions are announced today by the Health Department, it’s almost a guarantee that it won’t hurt big corporations. Local restaurants will suffer, but McDonalds will be just fine.

This is being done for our own good, right? Just like our well-intentioned military went to Vietnam to save villages from communism by destroying them, local businesses will be saved from the Coronavirus.

Since this pandemic is the only thing that matters anymore, I composed a poem to convey this reality.

you can die from suicide
just protect me from the Covid
you can die from homicide
just protect me from the Covid

you can starve and you can cry
get beaten up with two black eyes
but to say I care would be a lie
just protect me from the Covid

where's your mask you alt-right ass?
I'll fever rage for Covid
you better vote for Joe and hope
cause he'll vanquish evil Covid

you can stock up to survive
form militias, mobilize
but number-crunchers with vaccine eyes
will save us from the Covid

so we wait with patient faith
for salvation from the Covid
the state knows best how to invest
for this war against the Covid

you can protest, flags on trucks
mattress-hording dirty bucks, but
you know we DON'T GIVE A FUCK...
until you catch the Covid

by William Skink

My kids won’t be going to school today. They won’t be going to school AT ALL this week, OR next week because some staff at Target Range have tested positive for the dreaded Covid.

In the presidential debate last week, Trump argued against lockdowns. My wife was very unhappy to find herself AGREEING with some of the things Trump was saying because she understands the alchemical effect of Trump’s mouth and how anything that emits from it is immediately poisoned, regardless of accuracy.

Since we’re entering into Joe Biden’s DARK WINTER, with the SECOND WAVE rolling over us in a tsunami of bullshit PCR testing, it might be helpful to take a look at how one man went from preparing for the zombie apocalypse to a lockdown-skeptic.

First, Mark Jeftovic recalls the context at the beginning of the year that justified the lockdowns:

I began monitoring the reports of a new virus emerging out of China in January. On January 23rd I emailed a friend advising him to go out the next day and pick up some N95 masks. By the first week of February I was stocking up on food, medical supplies, cash, and weapons while advising friends and family to do the same. I was bracing for a full breakdown of the global supply chain and a collapse of the global economy.

Based on early reported numbers of an R0 around 3.1 with an IFR of 5%, it looked like we’d see doubling times of 15 days. By March all three levels of government, city, province and national were reporting case rates and fatalities daily. I put together a spreadsheet and using those numbers as a model I forecasted Toronto to have 1.7M cases by the end of June. If the IFR really was 5%, or even 3%, it would mean between 51,000 and 136,000 fatalities.

This was terrifying, so as the world started locking down, it seemed to make sense.

Like many people in the grips of pandemic panic, Mark stocked up on things like food and weapons. But as the data kept coming in, the real contours of the pandemic started coming into focus.

But then, a curious thing happened. The rate of change in infections and fatalities started coming down, drastically.

By June it was clear to anybody following the data that this was, at least for now, largely in the rearview mirror. I had been in touch with an old friend who now ran IT for several hospitals. In January he was trying to get administrators to take COVID seriously. By May, they had built 4 additional ICU wards across their hospitals and they were sitting empty. Worse, resources were being denied to other medical uses. He was beginning to wonder if maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad as we both originally thought.

Then, over the summer despite the clear slowdown in the severity of the pandemic, the policy response to it intensified. And then it all became political. Questioning the efficacy of continuing the lockdowns became associated with being alt-right. Pro-Trump. Or worse. A Narrative War ensued. If you questioned official policy, you got deplatformed.

The loudest, most obnoxious lockdown Nazis think they are following “the science” and “the data”, but they are not. They are instead casualties of a narrative war that the anti-lockdown proponents are losing. For more helpful insights, Mark the skeptic shares the highlights from biological engineer Ivor Cummins, who shared his findings on this podcast:

We should not have locked down over the summer. With cases and fatalities down it was the ideal time to let the virus spread amongst the low risk population to get further toward herd immunity.

Forcing mask wearing at the nadir of the pandemic (the summer) was a flawed policy that leaves no exit strategy. We’re basically in masks forever now.

40 years of published science indicates that masks (especially surgical and cloth masks, as opposed to N95) don’t make much of a difference when it comes to these types of pathogens, but four or five hastily rushed papers from over the summer of this year say otherwise.

The argument against pursuing a herd immunity strategy because of the so-called “long timers”, people who get COVID, and experience ongoing, long term and possibly life long effects is not a compelling argument. Statistically these cases are low, but more importantly they are not unique to COVID-19. We always have these edge cases with long term effects in seasonal flus and other diseases.

The fatality curve is playing out along established patterns regardless of whether their were lockdowns or not.

The first lockdown was understandable. A second one is completely unjustified.

Unfortunately, none of this matters. Too many people in this country are in a state of neurological lockdown and there’s no freeing their minds, not even with “the science” and “the data”.

Even worse, these lockdown Nazis truly believe they are doing this for the good of everyone, and no amount of social misery, like suicide, addiction and domestic abuse, will cut through the malaise of their fear-fog.

So go ahead and shut down all the schools and all the bars and all the places us herd mammals like to socialize. Force restaurants to cut their business in half while they are still expected to pay FULL RENT. Force us to wear face diapers until that Bill Gates vaccine is ready while studiously avoiding information that could help bolster healthy immune systems, like taking vitamin D and getting plenty of sleep and exercise.

And if anyone objects to any of this, just label them alt-right Trump supporters, then go back to cowering in fear while you wait for that hair-sniffing grandpa with cottage cheese for brains to save you.