Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

I wasn’t even sure that I was going to write anything on the subject, since I have grown tired of hearing the grim news about the growing infection and death rates from the Coronavirus. For two months my hometown has been under a stay at home order, which means people are forbidden from going out except for essential items and services such as groceries, liquor, guns and furniture. The place where I am currently employed is one that is considered essential, so other than grocery shopping and picking up take-out from our favorite restaurants, it is one of the few times that I get to leave the house.

I didn’t think that I would have much to say on the subject, but lately I have found myself thinking quite a bit about the current situation. One of the first questions that come to mind is whether these measures are necessary? Then there is the question of whether they are even effective? There is a boatload of conflicting information of what measures are actually effective and which aren’t. I know that I am not supposed to question any decree that is passed in the name of safety or question any so-called expert. There are people who get irate whenever you question the invasive security measures at the airport. Though I have always found that the best way to silence them is to ask one simple question, “how many terrorists have been stopped by these measures?” In this particular case what I question isn’t so much the precautions that the government wants us to take, but the duration. How could they possibly know how long it was going to take to wait out the virus? Originally, they were hoping that they would get everything running again by Easter, but the Trump administration decided to expand the timeline to the end of April. I was also skeptical of the projections which shows that the death tolls from this virus could range from one hundred thousand to 2.2 million. Even the White House’s Coronavirus task force coordinator at one point said that we could end up with one hundred thousand deaths, even if everybody decides to take the right precautions. Personally, I think this is largely based on bad models that sound suspiciously like the computer models that are used to predict Climate Change, which are notoriously inaccurate. Then again, I am far from an expert in public health, though I am still skeptical. I know that I am never supposed to question the experts and what they project, even if they are proven wrong. I’m pretty sure that there are plenty of people who would love to shout me down for even daring to show an ounce of skepticism of what the “experts” say.

The one thing that I can say about all this is that Donald Trump, despite the crappy situation he and the rest of the nation are in, he has actually done a pretty good job. He is one of the few presidents that actually shamed the FDA in putting their bureaucratic nonsense aside to allow people to take experimental drugs to fight the Corona virus. Keep in my mind that this is coming from somebody who has little to no faith in government on any level. Granted I think at times he has showed a little too much faith in what the models and some of the so-called experts on his virus task force say. Seriously, Dr. Fauci, a trusted scientist on that taskforce said that once this pandemic subsides, humans should change their interactions by never shaking hands again. Despite some of the questionable advice given by members of his taskforce, I think the president is doing the best he can to get us through a horrible situation, which is more than I can say for those on the left and their cronies in the mainstream media. Just when I think that I couldn’t find them anymore repulsive than I already do, these people go that extra mile to make sure that I can’t even turn on the TV or surf the internet without feeling sick to my stomach.

I love how the lefties have decided to use this pandemic to attack the president and accuse him of everything from gross incompetence to being an accessory to the murder of thousands of people. I find it amusing that these same people who complain about Trump’s so-called inaction can never point to a single action that themselves would have taken that would made the situation less grim. This is especially amusing when the criticism comes from people such as Bill de Blasio the ineptest mayor that New York has ever seen, encouraged people to go out to parades, movie theaters and other places where people hang out in large crowds. Right around that same time, New Orleans’ mayor LaToya Cantrell decided to let the Mardi Gras celebrations continue, which she somehow blames on Trump. It was also right around the time our favorite congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi, said that Trump was “fiddling” while people are dying, encouraged the people in her district to visit Chinatown restaurants. Yet, while these same geniuses encouraged people to congregate in large crowds, Trump was placing travel restrictions on China.

Not that any of it surprises me, since blaming their own ineptness on Republican presidents seems to be popular strategy for Democratic politicians going all the way back to Hurricane Katrina. Don’t get me wrong, I have always thought that George W. Bush deserved some share of the blame when it comes to the government response to Katrina. Afterall, George W. Bush did have most of the National Guard units deployed to Iraq and FEMA was pretty much worthless as usual. That being said, I still place most of the blame on the governor and mayor who did nothing to prepare for the Category Five Hurricane that was about to pound New Orleans. Especially the mayor, who decided not to use the spare buses and Amtrak rails to get the people who didn’t have adequate transportation out of the low-lying areas. Yet, the Democrats to this day place every ounce of blame at the feet of George W. Bush.

It’s also interesting that the Democrats and their media cronies who are going out of their way to blame Trump for the lives lost in this pandemic are the same people who are trying to cut the Chinese government slack that it doesn’t deserve. The media has pretty much taken China’s word for it that they have a lower infection than we do, despite the fact that its officials have lied to us every step of the way. We are not even allowed to call it the Chinese or Wuhan virus because its racist. By that logic, I guess it was racist to call the worldwide pandemic that occurred in 1918 the Spanish Flu. For that matter I guess we should rename the Ebola virus, since it was named after a river in Africa.

I have also seen other shortcomings from leaders in Philadelphia, cities in Michigan, California, New York and even in my hometown of Houston, who have decided to release criminals onto the streets. Though luckily for the people of Houston the order that was issued by Judge Lina Hidalgo has since been overruled. What I find even more amusing is that some of these same leaders have tried to shut down gun stores, despite Donald Trump declaring them essential. As I have said before, these left-wing officials seem more like villains from Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, than the law and order types that they claim to be. Then we have, Gretchen Whitmer the governor of Michigan, who has threatened the livelihood of doctors and pharmacists who overprescribe Hydroxychloroquine a drug that many believe to be effective in treating the Coronavirus. Why? Because she has decided to appoint herself as the spokesperson of public health. Even more illogical is her stay-at-home order that includes a ban on the purchase of childcare seats and items used for gardening. I just love how even during a health crisis these politicians can’t give up their urge to control the health and actions of its people.

Before I conclude this article, I want to say to all the leftist and their buddies in the media, the whole ploy of blaming Trump for the pandemic isn’t going to fly with the American people. The fact that your very own polls show that people have much more trust in the president than anybody in the media is a testament to the credibility that you guys have lost with the general public. To Nancy Pelosi, it’s bad enough that you had to grandstand on the relief package that was going to be sent to millions of Americans who are out of work, but now you are talking about making another attempt at Trump’s impeachment. Not only was it a complete failure the first time around, but the fact that you are willing to pull this nonsense during a pandemic just shows that you only care about playing politics and could care less about the American people. Just as I predicted last time, this even bigger joke of an impeachment will not only fail, but it should make a Trump victory inevitable come this November. More than likely you and your friends in the media will pretty much do what you do best. Double-down on failure.

Update: I had actually started writing this article two months back and since then my home state of Texas has been gradually reopening certain businesses. Some would say that I got it wrong when I scoffed at the projections made by the computer models that we would have a hundred thousand deaths from the Corona virus. The death rate may be at ninety-thousand right now, but you have to remember that some of the models projected that we would have a hundred thousand in the very week that we were supposed to see this virus peek. This was over a month ago and if those models were right in their projections than the death rate should be in the millions by now. Though I will say that I am skeptical of the current numbers since the organizations recording them like to include deaths that weren’t directly related to the virus. I will discuss this more in another article.