A Merger

Team Apocalypse and the Four Constituencies (i.e., the mainstream media, the Democrats, #NeverTrumpers in the GOP, and denizens of the deep state) share many of the same members and coincidently, many of the same goals. In their own way, both are the epitome of catastrophist thinking. And to a large extent, both have now merged.

The Four Constituencies saw the election of Donald Trump as a catastrophe for the country and worked tirelessly to degrade and/or destroy his presidency. None of the tangible accomplishments of the Trump administration, either domestically or internationally, were worthy of praise or even objective analysis. To them, Trump was a "fascist," a "racist,"  a "dictator," a "misogynist," a "white supremacist. In reality," he is a populist who threatens their power and denigrates their supposed leadership. That's why they hate him with venom.

As 2020 dawned and the efforts of the Four Constituencies to destroy Trump largely failed (not for lack of trying), COVID-19 appeared, and many of the same catastrophists transitioned to Team Apocalypse. Early on, I honestly think that members of Team Apocalypse were gripped by fear of the virus and exhibited signs of hysteria. 

But quickly, the members of both the Four Constituencies and Team Apocalypse recognized the the virus gave them an opportunity—recommend virus-related actions that were and are so draconian, so frightening and so damaging, that they would roil the country, causing massive dissatisfaction and indirectly lead to Trump's defeat in November. No matter that those actions have now proven to be largely ineffective in fighting the virus. No matter that they have wrecked our economy and harmed the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions. They were a last grasp at power—and they just might work.

Throughout 2020 the merged Teams (Apocalypse and the Constituencies) used Dr. Anthony Fauci as their oracle. Those of us who spent time reading at least some of the scientific literature and examining the data that was being collected on SARS-CoV-2 recognized early that Fauci was far from an oracle. Victor Davis Hansen comments:

Unfortunately few in authority have been more wrong, and yet more self-righteously wrong, than the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci. Given his long service as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and his stature during the AIDS crisis, he has rightly been held up by the media as the gold standard of coronavirus information. The media has constructed Fauci as a constant corrective of Trump’s supposed “lies” about the utility of travel bans, analogies with a bad flu year, and logical endorsement of hydroxychloroquine as a “what do you have to lose” possible therapy.

But the omnipresent Fauci himself unfortunately has now lost credibility. The reason is that he has offered authoritative advice about facts, which either were not known or could not have been known at the time of his declarations.

Since January, Fauci has variously advised the nation both that the coronavirus probably was unlikely to cause a major health crisis in the United States and later that it might yet kill 240,000 Americans. In January, he praised China for its transparent handling of the coronavirus epidemic, not much later he conceded that perhaps they’d done a poor job of that. He has cautioned that the virus both poses low risks and, later, high risks, for Americans. Wearing masks, Fauci warned, was both of little utility and yet, later, essential. Hydroxychloroquine, he huffed, had little utility; when studies showed that it did, he still has kept mostly silent.

At various times, he emphasized that social distancing and avoiding optional activities were mandatory, but earlier that blind dating and going on cruise ships were permissible. Fauci weighed in on the inadvisability of restarting businesses prematurely, but he has displayed less certainty about the millions of demonstrators and rioters in the streets for a month violating quarantines. The point is not that he is human like all of us, but that in each of these cases he asserted such contradictions with near-divine certainty—and further confused the public in extremis.

But confusion in extremis is yet another tactic promoted by the merged teams. Fear, uncertainty and doubt, promoted daily by a corrupt and dishonest media. Onerous policy decisions (e.g., shutting down beaches on July 4th weekend) by Democrat politicians in local and state governments across the country, and confusing and often incorrect recommendations by public health officials who reside in the deep state all contribute to the unease that seems to have gripped the nation. Coupled with the social unrest that is now roiling the land and we have the perfect storm. Is all of this just a coincidence? Maybe. But it's far more likely that the merger of the Teams has resulted in weapons grade politics. We'll see if it works.

UPDATE:

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Have you noticed that the trained hamsters in the media who are the spokespeople for Team Apocalypse have stopped talking about COVID-19 deaths and have pivoted to where the big numbers are—"cases." No matter that almost half of the cases reported are asymptomatic and that the average age of an infected person has dropped to about 35, and that at that age, the symptoms are predominantly mild, even when they are evident. All of this would be useful context, but team Apocalypse doesn't do context.

Investor's Business Daily provides a useful graph that the Team will never shw you:

The black curve represents deaths attributable to COVID-19, while the orange curve is cases. Note that as of now, the death rate is dropping to levels that are below those expected for a pandemic. And the "exponential increase in cases leads us to herd immunity. That should be VERY good news for all of us, but Team Apocalypse wants to keep it quiet. After all, good news is antithetical to their overall intent, isn't it?