Posts Tagged ‘jon fournier’

The Coronavirus and the Liberty versus saving lives debate

Posted: March 19, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

The Coronavirus pandemic has ignited online one of the most important debates, where do you draw line between saving lives and protecting freedom and liberty. This is also an internal debate I’ve been struggling with since this whole crisis began and I’ve switched back and forth as things have developed, often too rapidly to keep up with

When the voluntary mass cancellations of sporting events, the closings of schools, and the travel bans from overseas first occurred I believed all of this was an unnecessary overreaction on a major scale.  I maintained that belief for several days.  It wasn’t until I learned the goal behind all of this was to “flatten the curve” that I changed my mind.  Reading this article from The Federalist Papers article Coronavirus Control Measures Aren’t Pointless – Just Slowing Down The Pandemic Could Save Millions of Lives is what changed my mind about all of this

The goal is to “flatten the curve.” Rather than letting the virus quickly rampage through the population and burn itself out fast, the idea is to spread all those infections out over a longer period of time.

Flattening the curve is another way of saying buying more time. Yes, it would potentially prolong the epidemic. But in doing so, public health agencies and the health care infrastructure gain invaluable time to respond to the crisis.

Most importantly, “flattening the curve” provides an opportunity to significantly reduce deaths from COVID-19.

On the steep rise of the epidemic curve, especially when testing capacity is lacking, there is a tremendous burden on health care providers – many of whom will fall ill themselves and be forced to self-isolate, becoming unable to provide care for those in need. At the same time, there is immense pressure placed on health care facilities where demand for patient care will outpace capacity – things like the number of hospital beds, ventilators and so on – for a significant amount of time.

Now that I’m familiar with the topic of flattening the curve I can see that this disruption of normal life is necessary when a society is facing a dangerous contagious disease.  This health crisis introduced me to another new concept which can halt the spread of a communicable disease:

Social distancing requires changes in how people work, live and interact with each other. It may require canceling or avoiding big events, limiting nonessential travel and rescheduling conferences. Traditional classroom instruction may have to move to online delivery – already happening in some colleges and universities, though less easy to do for K-12 schools.

Unfortunately this current threat is a completely new strain of virus, one where no one has a natural immunity.  It is the unknown nature of the threat that convinced me that the closings and cancelings are necessary.

The complete clinical picture with regard to COVID-19 is not fully known. Reported illnesses have ranged from very mild (including some with no reported symptoms) to severe, including illness resulting in death. While information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a reportexternal icon out of China suggests serious illness occurs in 16% of cases. Older people and people of all ages with severe chronic medical conditions — like heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, for example — seem to be at higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 illness.

The CDC Website on COVID-19 contains a wealth of great information on this current threat.  It is the communicable nature of this disease that convinced me that these steps are necessary.

A pandemic is a global outbreak of disease. Pandemics happen when a new virus emerges to infect people and can spread between people sustainably. Because there is little to no pre-existing immunity against the new virus, it spreads worldwide.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is infecting people and spreading easily from person-to-person. Cases have been detected in most countries worldwide and community spread is being detected in a growing number of countries. On March 11, the COVID-19 outbreak was characterized as a pandemic by the WHO

This Newsweek article Newt Gingrich: I Am in Italy Amid the Coronavirus Crisis. America Must Act Now—And Act Big was the final piece of information that changed my mind and convinced me that all of this is necessary.

These steps are not an overreaction. The coronavirus is out of control of in Northern Italy. As of 6 p.m. local/1 p.m. EST on March 10, there were 15,113 total cases in Italy, with 12,839 active cases, 1,016 deaths and 1,258 recoveries. And there were 162 total cases here in Rome.

The hardest-hit region around Milan has had to improvise as its health system has been deeply stressed by the sheer number of patients. In Milan and Brescia, field hospitals have been set up in the fairgrounds as the local hospitals have been drowned in patients.

Because the demand for respirators and intensive care has been beyond any previous planning, doctors have been forced into the kind of triage thinking developed for intense battlefield casualty situations. There are reports that emergency room doctors are allotting respirators to those with higher life expectancy due to the limited equipment in the hardest hit areas of the province. If you are older or have other illnesses, you may simply not be eligible for treatment.

As Libertarian I am 100 percent against the government at any level, but especially the federal government, ordering the mandatory canceling of events, domestic travel bans, and closing private businesses.  A much better solution would be for the government to urge, suggest, and educate that all of this necessary, and it takes place.  A voluntary curtailing of social activity is the only way to preserve our freedom and rights while protecting our health.  The mandatory steps taken by Governor Charlie Baler and the rest are wrong because they are mandated by the government.

Unfortunately a lot of people do not listen to good advise and refuse to stop engaging in behavior that puts others at risk of catching this disease, which could cause the virus to spread uncontrollably.  What do we do about that?  UGH.  That is the question that I’m struggling with the most. Liberty is the freedom to do as you wish as long as you do not harm others.  Spreading the virus to others definitely harms them and could harm society as a whole.  

Is Joe Biden a moderate? Checkout his campaign website

Posted: March 12, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,

It has been often reported by the liberal media, and even some on the political right, that Joe Biden is a moderate.  My immediate reaction to these statements is that they are a bunch of bunk. After studying his positions and statements on issues I knew he is nearly as far  to the left as Bernie Sanders.  To confirm this I checked out the Biden for President official website.  Here are his positions on some of the most important issues.  All quotes are from his campaign website and all emphasis is from the website.

Joe Biden still is completely all for ObamaCare, which was a socialist takeover of our healthcare industry.

As president, Biden will protect the Affordable Care Act from these continued attacks. He opposes every effort to get rid of this historic law – including efforts by Republicans, and efforts by Democrats. Instead of starting from scratch and getting rid of private insurance, he has a plan to build on the Affordable Care Act by giving Americans more choice, reducing health care costs, and making our health care system less complex to navigate.

Because Joe Biden supports the public option rather than the full Medicare for All, he is slightly more moderate on healthcare than Sanders.  He is only slightly less to left of Sanders because the public option has always been a stealthy installment plan way of eventually reaching an entirely government run healthcare system.

Giving Americans a new choice, a public health insurance option like Medicare. If your insurance company isn’t doing right by you, you should have another, better choice. Whether you’re covered through your employer, buying your insurance on your own, or going without coverage altogether, the Biden Plan will give you the choice to purchase a public health insurance option like Medicare. As in Medicare, the Biden public option will reduce costs for patients by negotiating lower prices from hospitals and other health care providers.

As you can see from this quote on gun control Joe Biden is very much a radical leftist.

It’s within our grasp to end our gun violence epidemic and respect the Second Amendment, which is limited. As president, Biden will pursue constitutional, common-sense gun safety policies.

As president Joe Biden would use executive orders to drastically infringe on our right to bear arms.

Joe Biden also knows how to make progress on reducing gun violence using executive action. After the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, President Obama tasked Vice President Biden with developing both legislative proposals and executive actions to make our communities safer.

Here is a very radical gun control proposal.

Hold gun manufacturers accountable. In 2005, then-Senator Biden voted against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, but gun manufacturers successfully lobbied Congress to secure its passage. This law protects these manufacturers from being held civilly liable for their products

Here are three more gun control quotes from his website.  Judge for yourself whether they are radical or moderate.

Get weapons of war off our streets. The bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that Biden, along with Senator Feinstein, secured in 1994 reduced the lethality of mass shootings.

Buy back the assault weapons and high-capacity magazines already in our communities. Biden will also institute a program to buy back weapons of war currently on our streets.

Reduce stockpiling of weapons. In order to reduce the stockpiling of firearms, Biden supports legislation restricting the number of firearms an individual may purchase per month to one.

That last quote is one of the most radical positions I’ve encountered.  The government at any level has no right to tell anyone how many guns they can own.

The immigration section of the Joe Biden Website is very lengthy and very far to the left.  Here is the most telling quote,

Creates a roadmap to citizenship for the nearly 11 million people who have been living in and strengthening our country for years. These are our mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. They are our neighbors, co-workers, and members of our congregations and Little League teams.

This one quote is an attempt to appear more centrist. Democrats have promised border security but have never delivered.

As president, Biden will finish the work of building a fair and humane immigration system–restoring the progress Trump has cruelly undone and taking it further. He will secure our border, while ensuring the dignity of migrants and upholding their legal right to seek asylum.

On the environment Joe Biden is very much a radical leftist.  As you can see he fully supports the Green New Deal which is a 90 trillion dollar laundry list of liberal dreams and desires.

Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. It powerfully captures two basic truths, which are at the core of his plan: (1) the United States urgently needs to embrace greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of this challenge, and (2) our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected.

Spread the word on social media that Joe Biden is very much a radical leftist

If we could stop looking to the federal government to solve our problems that would be great

Posted: March 5, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,

It is abundantly clear from the transcripts of the Constitutional Convention and the transcripts of the Ratification Debates, the framers of the Constitution would never have dreamed that the federal government would become the primary solver of all the problems facing the people of the United States.  In fact most would be horrified, saddened, and confused to learn how it is now.

The framers of the Constitution would be horrified to learn that most problems are now solved on the federal government level because they knew the end result of this would be an extremely large and powerful federal government.  They knew that such a large and powerful federal government would be an extreme threat to the rights and liberty of the American people.  They took great care to write a Constitution that would prevent the federal government from growing so large and powerful.

The framers of the Constitution would be saddened to hear that the American people chose to abandon the constitution that they so expertly crafted for us.  Only by abandoning the Constitution could we allow the federal government to become the solver of all of our problems.

The framers of the Constitution would be confused that the federal government is now the primary solver of most of our problems because of all the provisions they worked into the Constitution to make sure the federal government would not have power and authority to carry out this role.  The federal government created by the Constitution was only meant to carry specific roles namely, to defend the United States as a whole, to represent the United States as one nation diplomatically to other nations, and to prevent the individual states from squabbling with each other.  The Constitution created a federal government with a very limited number of powers, all of them clearly spelled out.  None of those powers grant the federal government the power and authority to solve problems such as healthcare, poverty, education, and so much more.

The framers of the Constitution knew that the individual States, local governments, and individuals were the proper places to solve the problems of this nation,  That is exactly the blueprint they used when they wrote the Constitution.

Here is my solution to the healthcare crisis that would fit into the Constitution, and has a remarkable probability of working: let each state come up with their own unique solution to the problem for the residents of that state.  The government of each state could communicate with each other to find out which solutions worked the best and perhaps copy it.

The federal government has tried to fix education and has only made the problem far greater.  The same holds true for poverty.

To increase the prosperity of individuals the federal government needs to get out of the way.  For far too many decades the federal government has smothered private businesses with too many regulations.  President Trump has begun to dial this back, however, there is so much more that needs to be done.  Greatly slashing tax rates would be a tremendous help also, the first Trump tax were only a small step in that direction.

The war on poverty has only resulted in more poverty and way too much dependence on government handouts.  Private charity would do far more good along with the greatly increased standard of living that would be generated for everyone with slashed regulations and taxes.

So many other problems we are looking to the federal government to solve would actually be solved at the state and local level if we let that happen.

Are teacher unions behind the indoctrination of school children?

Posted: February 27, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,

The indoctrination of American youth is one of the most major calamities facing this nation.  For a very long time I’ve suspected that teacher unions are most responsible for the indoctrination.  It is an informed suspicion based on a lot of research and because I was forced to join a teacher union when taught part time at a community college. 

My suspicions were confirmed when I read the Life News article  Most teachers quite disturbed about their unions’ push for sexualization and indoctrination of school children,  The article chronicles a speech made by a teacher at a Heritage Foundation event.  Here are the opening paragraphs of the article:

Speaking in the nation’s capital, a 28-year veteran California teacher explained that most teachers are disturbed by the decades-long push to indoctrinate and oversexualize school children by teachers’ unions dedicated to far-left cultural and political causes and not the well-being of kids. 

“When you hear that teachers are behind comprehensive sexuality education or that teachers agree with the sexualization of children, that’s a huge deception,” said Rebecca Friedrichs.   

On the contrary, “America’s real teachers are deeply distrubed by the sexualization of our children,” said Friedrichs.  

“America’s real teachers have been silenced and bullied by the very organization that is pushing the sexualization of children: That is, labor unions,” she declared.  

As you can see, Fredrichs is clear that the teachers unions, not the teachers, are behind the indoctrination,

The unions attack the very virtues that most teachers cherish. They have used the teaching profession to gain unfettered access to America’s children

She further emphasizes this with the following story.

At National Education Association (NEA) events, “Teachers were wined and dined, and if you agreed to start a gay-straight alliance on your campus, you could get big money,” said Friedrichs. “You could also get money to push LGBT activism in the classroom. But can you get money to actually do something to help your students? No. Can you get support — as a union leader — for your colleagues? No.” 

Most of the business items at NEA conventions “are about far left politics, the LGBT agenda, and divisive narratives,” said the veteran educator. “Every divisive word you hear or see in our culture was first mentioned or made up inside the unions.”

At NEA representative assemblies, I have teacher friends who have been fighting against the oversexualization of our children for over 30 years,” recounted Friedrichs.    

“Here’s how they’ve been treated: They have been spit upon. They have been screamed at. Their path back to their seats have been blocked. They have been barred from serving on sex-ed and health committees.

The over sexualization of children is the most dangerous and despicable form of indoctrination being pushed on school children across this nation.  Most parents are not aware of this.  They would be shocked and disturbed if they were better informed.   Here is a list of graphic examples from the article”

“So teachers are bullied on every level, and we are horrified at the instruction we are being told to teach to your children,” declared Friedrichs.

She offered a few examples:

We’re told to teach children of their ‘sexual rights,’ that they should have sexual pleasure at all ages; 

That out of wedlock sex with anyone you want is just fine from any age, and hey, you shouldn’t think you’re not bisexual or homosexual.  Don’t knock it until you try it.”

We are told that the number one goal we are to teach children is to prevent pregnancy.  

We are told to teach children how to use condoms by bringing in fully erect penics models for them to manipulate. Ten and 11 year olds.  

All of this has to be done in mixed company because we are told to tell the children as young as four, ‘your parents didn’t know your gender when you were born, so they assigned you a gender. There is really a huge spectrum of genders. You will figure out your gender someday. That is child abuse. It is also the abuse of parents. It’s also religious abuse.  

We are told we have to tell children how and where to obtain birth control, including the morning-after pill and abortion without parental knowledge or permission from age 12. 

“The details are so inappropriate that I cannot even mention them to you today,” continued Freidrichs. “But they’re being said to our children in America’s schools. That is evil.” 

Parents need to speak out loudly and stop this madness.

Older Entries
Newer Entries