The fat lady is singing — without her mask
Brian Hagedorn has staved off recall for another day. He wrote the deciding opinion in today’s 4-3 ruling that overturned Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate. A WI governor has only 60 days worth of special powers after declaring a public health emergency and his expire April 5.
So Hagedorn is good with conservatives, for the moment. (Some of our estranged friends blame the WI Supreme Court justice for electing Joe Biden.)
This is twice in one day we’re mentioning Greg Humphrey but he posts on social media that he went face-to-face — or, rather, mask-to-mask — with a person outside his household for only the second time in the year this pandemic has been raging. We suspect this is typical of Madison. If such behavior defines Covid virtue, then your Humble Squire has erred on the side of freedom. We do mask up as required by law but we have not been hermetically sealed. No shrink wrap can contain the Squire!
→ Now that we’ve had two of the Fauci ouchies (chocolate mint flavored!) we’re damned near invincible! Think we’ll go back for a third! (“If you’ve been fully vaccnated” — the CDC)
Can you take a joke?
Billie Johnson says on that February day when the high temp reached one below zero he left on his mask as he was leaving Home Depot. Driving down the road, he realized he was still wearing the mask. He quick pulled it off, looked around, and hoped no one saw him. “I was afraid somebody would think I was a liberal.”
Are we a bunch of stay-at-homes?
A year or so ago we predicted that the coronavirus pandemic would change some things forever; the trick was to guess which things. In our favorite comic strip, Arlo tells Janis that he will miss drinking wine at any time of the day he wants. Apparently, old Arlo is headed back to the office after getting his Fauci ouchies. Or is he?
“Office space subleases flood market,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Rental fees are down by a quarter.
Elsewhere, this headline: “Home-price surge hits 15-year high.” Up 11.2% nationally. In Dane County WI, homes are up 12.6% over last year, according to the South Central WI Realtors Assn. Up 13.9% to $332,450 on a median price basis. “The coronavirus pandemic has turbocharged this demand,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal reports: https://www.city-journal.org/covid-19-the-death-of-density
After vanquishing everything from newsprint to retail stores, the pulverizing, inescapable power of the Internet has its sights set on cities, or, more precisely, density — aided and abetted by its accomplice, Covid-19 — placing cities, especially high-cost cities, in grave danger of descending into a vicious circle of depopulation, followed by de-commercialization, de-monetization, declining services, and so on.
City Journal reports that New York’s high-rent office buildings are being repurposed for residential use. The affluent are moving out to Long Island. One chain of local newspapers out east closed down its newsrooms. Back in our days as an ink-stained wretch, we thought the worst place for a news reporter to be was in the news room because (outside the stage play/movie Front Page) there’s no news in the newsroom.
Another indicator: Cardboard boxes have never been in greater demand.
As for movie theaters, why sit amidst a hundred strangers, one of whom may be carrying the croup? Same with big box stores. Why jostle for the same gadget on Black Friday when Amazon will deliver to your door?
We do believe local government will resume in-person meetings at city hall and not with half the 20 Madison alders, as proposed by the April 6 referendum (which is only advisory). Local government still could take citizen comments from the convenience of our homes via Zoom.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: One advantage, aside from parking, et cetera: easier to cut off filibusterers at the allotted time. More difficult for the Brandi Graysons to shut down lawful meetings.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
I realize it’s fashionable to say that the pandemic has ushered in a “new normal” and that a whole raft of routine behaviors and habits will change forever as a result. I wonder. History tells us that when the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 ended, life went back to pre-pandemic mode almost immediately and nothing of significance changed in people’s everyday lives. I’m hoping that will be the case in 2021 (not that pre-pandemic life was anything to cheer about). Of course the Left is most invested in the “new normal” paradigm since the pandemic is what put them in power and made the rest of us passive prisoners “sheltering in place” while meekly awaiting the latest governmental edict.
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I went out to the HyVee today for a visit with the Pfizer Bunny. I suspect one of the side effects in the near future will be greater freedom on my part.
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Its about time! If it’s illegal for the Gov to continue mandates after 60 days, how is it Parisi can still require them in Dane Co?
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He can’t. Pre exemption. Remember when Soggy tried banning guns in Madistan? The State told him to pound sand.
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@jimdandy—- I think you are wrong. The Senate and Assembly Republicans argued this whole time that Evers order ran out in 60 days according to law, and that it was up to the Counties and local gubmint to enact their own emergency orders, because they knew better what was going on in their community/county.
https://www.lwm-info.org/DocumentCenter/View/2469/Local-Government-Emergency-Powers
The bottom of the 2nd page addresses this. The point of contention now would be whether or not “the emergency conditions exist or are likely to exist”. At the end of the day Parisi is “probably” within his rights, but i’m sure the courts will decide this as well.
IMHO, the Supreme court dinked around with this case for an extraordinarily long time thinking that masks were good and that the pandemic would be under control by now, almost like they agreed with what Evers was doing. They COULD have rendered a decision immediately like with the voting cases last fall but chose not too.
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POOF; 50 million in federal food programs is now gone.
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I hope local government continues Zoom after in-person resumes. I think it makes government that much more accessible. I’ve advocated it for our Town, assuming we can somehow string internet in. I told the Chair he had no idea how good he had it with Zoom…and mute. 🙂
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Brandi has jumped the shark! Thank the Lord Almighty!
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Speaking of Fauci ouchies:
Viruses are one of the most interesting aspects of cellular biology.
Good info here for those who consider genuine *informed consent* to still be important.
https://sciencewithdrdoug.com/2020/11/27/will-an-rna-vaccine-permanently-alter-my-dna/
Click to access Whelan-FDA-letter-re-EAU-Pfizer-.pdf
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I’m not going to pretend to be smart enough to argue this but here’s someone who is:
https://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/doug-corrigan-pushing-bad-science-and-anti-vax-tropes-about-mrna-vaccines/
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A biased rebuttal to what Corrigan said was *possible.* He made no claim of “proof” as your guy misrepresents at the beginning of his article. Red flag one.
Then your guy mocks him for his religious views, claims he is a fan of “genocidal herd immunity,” and dismisses the efficacy of boosting one’s immune system as “quackery.” Red flags 2,3,4.
I would have to consult some of my micro books or consult with the right person to fully understand which of these two science guys are making the most sense but if you carefully read Corrigan’s article you will notice how neutral he is in his presentation and honest about what is only remotely possible and otherwise.
Your guy finishes with this:
I have my concerns about the mRNA vaccines, but it has nothing to do with safety and certainly nothing to do with changes in the DNA. I think these vaccines are extraordinarily safe, short- and long-term. However, I don’t think we’ve had adequate time to establish long-term effectiveness, but I’m sure my concerns about that will be allayed as we get more data.
Long-term safety has not been established and short-term safety is questionable. Long-term efficacy is considered to be roughly six months (I think) according to the vaccine developers and experts.
Perhaps if death is listed as a side effect people would do more research to improve their level of informed consent.
Did you read the Whelan letter to the FDA?
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As I noted, I’m not prepared to argue the issue, but, as you stated, simply provide ‘informed consent’. My partner is a microbiologist as was, uh, agitated by Dr. Doug’s treatise and quickly supplied what I shared. We’ve already received the AZ without side affects, so we’re good. Hope you’ll have a similar opportunity and experience.
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Here is a link on the subject of altered DNA from the introduction synthetic mRNA for your micro partner to review. It is a highly technical non-peer reviewed pre-print study and the 42 comments from very learned individuals do an excellent job of analyzing/critiquing/explaining the study. Most are critical.
Contained within those comments are a few more links to other studies on the subject that are quite informative as are the comments. For me; it is not settled genetic science and perhaps that is *one* reason the mRNA C-vaccines are considered experimental.
Ask your micro partner why the current synthesized mRNA vaccines took precedence over traditional attenuated or deactivated virus vaccines to address the pandemic.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.12.422516v1
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Batman, what is your view on this exactly? You have a tendency to provide links rather than state your position.
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Kooter, you’ve made that claim before and it is just as false now as the first time.
Indeed, when it comes to the C-vaccines I provide links that raise concern about their (mostly) long-term safety because no one else here has, plus I enjoy the study of cellular biology and viruses in particular.
There are huge numbers of highly credentialed virologists, immunologists, microbiologists, public health officials, etc., who are very troubled by the warp speed presentation of the C-vaccines while making false claims about safety.
Too many unknowns being concealed along with false claims about safety for their to be legitimate informed consent.
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On Fox Wednesday, Trey Gowdy said he’d get 4 Covid vaccinations if that was what was required. I got two and now I can play the piano. Never could before.
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Might be a positive side effect Squire, but that depends on how well you play.
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OK, Batman, what’s your position, exactly? Sorry, I’m just not seeing a clearly stated view.
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