When the question is economy versus public health – literally, “Your money or your life” – the answer should be pretty obvious.  That said, though, the profound economic consequences threaten more than quality of life, depending on the progress of the pandemic.  Consequences not only unintended but unanticipated are in play on many fronts.

When the lockdown loomed, we figured it was an abundance of caution to postpone all the classes we had scheduled through the end of May.  As April 30 approaches, some places are opening up…and some aren’t.

At this time, we are planning on having our first post-lockdown class the first week in June in Kankakee, Illinois. The governor there recently extended the re-opening of society in the land of Lincoln from the end of April to the end of May.  We are guardedly optimistic that this class will be a “go.”  The venue in Kankakee allows full social distancing on a capacious outdoor range and a huge classroom with big screen and voice amplification both indoors and out.

Info can be had at http://massadayoobgroup.com . We are hoping the rest of our 2020 schedule will remain intact.  This is particularly true of one of two Deadly Force Instructor classes we’ll be doing this year, in Phoenix hosted by noted expert John Correia, taught by Marty Hayes, JD and yours truly,

39 COMMENTS

  1. Returning to normalcy… The times we are in now may be the new normal. Social distancing will probably be here for a while people are expected to stay home and to wear masks and gloves while out in public just getting the basic necessities. When it could be over a year before a vaccine is available and the media reminds everyone every single day about covid 19 how can it return to normal. Not taking away from the fact that this is a very serious pandemic because it most certainly is, many have died and many others lives have forever changed but right now everyone is looking and listening to what our government officials say to do every single day. In my opinion even though I’m sure they wish it was under different circumstances we’re doing exactly what most liberals have always dreamed of. If only they can figure out a solid way to blame it on Trump. It’s going to get worse before it gets better this is the new normal.

    • America has fallen. We are, today, in the grip of tyranny. What is tyranny? Here is a simple definition:

      Tyranny – The control and manipulation of a human population by means of fear.

      Can anyone dispute that America is in the grip of tyranny under the above definition?

      Likewise, liberty is absence of tyranny. It is the absence of fear-manipulation. One of the best definitions of liberty, that I have ever seen, was given by the Old Testament Prophet Micah:

      Micah 4:4: “but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid….”

      Americans have become a generation of sheep. We are more concerned about what the Kardashians are wearing and about maximizing our cut of Government handouts then with our Rights and Liberties. We have been made into sheep by our comfortable lives and by the brainwashing and indoctrination techniques employed by the Anti-American Media, by Hollywood and by our Public Education System.

      Americans no longer want to be reminded of the words of our Founding Fathers. That is why we are busy pulling down their statues and renaming buildings that were formerly named after them. To erase their memory. No one likes to remember what they said. No one wants to recall the words of Patrick Henry anymore:

      “What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

      How many Americans would say “give me liberty or give me death” today? We are too busy begging to be kept safe. We hold out our hands, gratefully, so that the totalitarians can snap their chains upon our wrists.

      The election this fall will tell us much. If the totalitarians win, the chains will stay on for generations.

      So, I pray to God every day that you are wrong. I pray that tyranny is not our new normal. I pray to God to deliver us from EVIL.

      • Friend TN_MAN, one never knows what good thing may happen when one starts one’s day! Your essays so often are such a good thing. A Godly, life-giving, positive forward attitude, yes, is what is most needed now. You are so right about certain brainwashing and indoctrination techniques coming from purveyors of what one might call a negative, hind-sight-based, shaming-and-blaming attitude. We all need to maintain awareness of the power of advertising’s close relationship with brainwashing. One other thing we really need is a practical focus on the things that we can do individually and collectively to promote general recovery. We don’t need to waste time and effort in speculative bickering and hypothesizing about what might have been different.
        Wearing even a procedural (“surgical”) mask in public goes a long way towards preventing communication of a possible infection from anyone, especially from the many who may be unaware of carrying the COVID-19 virus. Disposable gloves and hand sanitizer can also be excellent assets. Isopropyl alcohol kills the virus in about 30 seconds.

  2. Although our president is not responsible for the emergence of the coronavirus, he certainly has a lot to answer for in regard to its spread and severity in the US because of his doing almost nothing for two months, beginning last January, despite repeatedly being warned by his intelligence agencies, the World Health Organization, White House economic advisor Peter Navarro, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar about the impending pandemic. An untold number of Americans unnecessarily have suffered and died because of our donkey president’s foolish complacency. Many more will suffer and die, and our economy likely will be in a shambles for a long time.

    • Stuff it, libtard. You sound like the liberal media, blaming Trump for everything possible. He’s responsible for the rise in the economy since the election. The Chinese made the virus, in the center for bio-warfare.

    • You sure you got your facts straight? He was calling for action and everyone was calling him a racist. For the record ‘China’ isn’t a race. But his critics were too busy to be bothered with the pending issue because they were busy trying to impeach him.

      • And what were the Democrats doing? Trying to address pandemic concerns?

        No.

        All I heard was Impeach, Impeach, Impeach, Impeach.

        Before that, it was Russian hookers, collusion, lying to Congress, and pogo sticking without a license (thanks Mel Brooks).

    • You’ve been spending too much time watching the TDS channels. When Trump closed off travel from China, Biden insinuated he was being xenophobic and racist – and at about that same time, when Trump first talked about the possibility of the need for stay at home orders the Governor of New York was saying it wasn’t realistic to expect people to do that. All conveniently ignored by the Main Stream Media (aka TDS media) and their lemming audiences.

  3. There was/is an interesting article in the English language edition of Der Spiegel (German news magazine, also online) on the effects of the shutdown. Basically, the German auto industry (and, I expect others) have been trying to explain supply chain realities and the likely economic fallout to the politicians. Who are, as usual, not/don’t want to catching the drift. The US politicos appear to be behaving about the same.

    The drift being that one cannot simply throw a switch and everything will jump start back to normal conditions in, say, 24 hours. Also, and more pointedly, one cannot simply solve the cash flow problems by turning on the printing presses at the Treasury.

    In the case of Germany, there are extremely painful memories of what happened during and following the economic disasters of the 1920s-1930s. While the US didn’t have the same degree of problems and resulting civil unrest, we also currently don’t have the same collective experience and world view of our parents/grand parents. Some of us do, entirely too many are, to be polite, clueless. And “entitled”.

    Having had decision making roles, I can sympathize with the plight of the elected officials. OTOH, there appears to be substantial evidence that some of the measures enacted are overly cautious. Some due consideration could/should be given to scaling back some of the restrictions. That said, it’s a shame that there’s no mechanism to snatch people who ignore social distancing instantly into solitary confinement.

  5. Spencer you are most assuredly wrong. The President, whether love him or hate him, has done a splendid job. Reread the timelines.

  6. Readers, my husband and I took MAG 40. The quality of the instructor and the patience of the instructors helped us improve each day. If you have been putting off taking the training, please rethink that. Mas, Gail, Steve Denney and the his team are truly amazing.

    MAG 40 Alumni.

  7. The president was criticized by many for cutting off flights from China. These same folks are now saying he didn’t do things quick enough. Most of this BS is strictly to make the president look incompetent. I wonder if all the “Monday morning Quarterbacks” understand that this”is” all “they” really are.
    I’ve looked at the time line for all the events, and asked what I would have done along the way, and I would ask others (including Spencer) to do the same, and report back as to “when” he would have done “what”, even knowing you are looking as it with the luxury of being well after the fact. (Monday Morning Quarterbacking)
    I actually saw one post saying he should have shut down the entire country when the first case was reported in the US (with no deaths yet reported). Think about that BS.
    Does it ever occur to these folks that you have to weigh economic, logistic,etc factors, and the consequences of any and all actions? Perhaps not enough thought was factored into the economic damage to this country, which may turn out to be of much greater magnitude than the virus. Wonder how some of these folks would have handled the pressure of having to make such decisions…

  10. Wow, Kankakee IL that’s almost homeland for this boy. I lived roughly 20 miles from there in Lake Village Indiana where I grew up. I would love to take that class and see old stomping grounds, but alas I refuse to step foot in IL because of their anti-gun laws.

  11. The biggest mistake that Donald Trump made was not getting his crystal ball repaired sooner so he could see into the future and prevent any problems before they happen. Much smarter liberals like Clinton and Obama have fully functioning crystal balls, prophets, and seers on their payrolls, so they always make the right decisions in response to any situations before they occur, which is why we need to vote for Biden so he can return us to the great financial successes and regain the respect of the world for America during the fantastic Obama years that he helped in large part to create.

  13. A necessary but painful exercise following a badly handled response to a crisis is an objective analysis of what went wrong, the mistakes made, who’s responsible, and the improvements required to avoid or minimize future disasters. Many people resist this mightily and often end up suffering similar calamities down the road. They never learn from their mistakes, an indication that they’re either stupid or mentally ill.

    The details I cited above regarding our Dear Leader’s gross mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic are easily verified through a plethora of mainstream media sources. But it appears that some commenters on this site will only listen to the Far Right Wing rantings of Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others–and howl at anyone who tells them the unpleasant truth. Too bad.

    • Spencer – “gross mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic are easily verified through a plethora of mainstream media sources.”

      Please give me a break! If you are relying upon the “mainstream media” (AKA the Anti-American Media) for all of your information, and to reinforce your worldview, then it is no wonder that you do nothing but parrot their propaganda in your posts here.

      Believe the media! Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha 🙂

      That is a good one! Believe the people who pushed the Russia Hoax 24/7/365 for three years? The people who lied to us 10,000 times a day for three years? And then awarded themselves Pulitzer Prizes for doing such a good job with their lying?

      Believe the people who seized upon an unproven and unsupported narrative, pushed by Christine Blasey Ford, and ran with it to smear a long-serving and respected Judge just for political reasons? Just because they did not want a Supreme Court Justice that was anything but a rabid leftists?

      Believe the people who conspired with the Democrats to turn a telephone call into an Impeachable Offense?

      You can trust these people if you want. If your worldview already strongly leans to the Left, then these people will reinforce it for you. You can get your daily dose of “confirmation bias” and support your Trump Derangement Syndrome by switching on CNN or reading the New York Times at any time.

      As for me, I would not trust these people if they “verified” that the Sun will rise in the East tomorrow and then will set in the West. I regard these people as serious internal enemies of America who can not tell the truth if their lives depended upon it. The biggest lie that they tell is when they call themselves journalists.

      • At risk of repeating myself:

        Mainstream media is a billion
        dollar business that is created and
        operated as a conduit to sell
        products, not to inform you. The
        advertisers and corporations call
        the shots. Everything else is
        window dressing. You may as well
        get your news from a Macy’s clerk.

    • Spencer, please stop chugging that liberal Kool Aid and binge watching CNN and MSNBC which is rotting your brain. We will all pray that you may recover from overdosing on fake news and become a good American instead of a rabid left wing fanatic 🙂

    • Mainstream media ARE the core of the problem. I’ve read the timelines as wel,and cmpared how WE have fared (on multiple fronts) to many other ations.

      The core of tyranny is someone else TELLING me how I must live. Today where I live, I a not allowed to do manytings that bring NO risk whatever to myself or anyone else, but “we MUST do/not do” this or that.

      I/ve read about governors disbanding legislatures, closing all public meetings, denying redress of grievance, closing down religious gatherings, disarming the citizens, restricing travel…. read about how Tomas Gage managed things in Massachussetts in the mid-18th century. Same thing, same root cause.

      ALL the “safety” nonsense IMPOSED upon us from ignorant government operatives from above do NOTHING to “keep us safe”. “Keeping us safe” is not any part of governments job description. My trip to Lowes Hardware yesterdayput me at hundreds of times the risk that gathering with my fellow congregation members would, but the poohbahs have denied us that liberty, in direct defiance of a clear Cosntitutional mandate to NOT do so. I see dozens of businesses shuttred, and that in a rural county that so far has twenty some known cases, and four deaths. That makes as much sense as alcohol prohibitioni “because SOMEONE SOMEWHERE just MIGHT get drunk and stub his toe. So far the real numbers are almost exactly what a normal seasonal flu’s annual tolls are, and we’ve never shut down over ebola, zika, H1N1, AIDS, Swine Flu, Avian Flu, West Nile Virus, or any of the other “gonna come in and kill us all” diseases.
      The silly masks I see everywhere, hand sanitiser chained to a counter, “six feet apart” (didjya know that someone speaking in a loud voice spews their breath and included aerosol particles about thirty feet in maybe four seconds? One fathom separationi does NOTHING against that. Further, that virus cannot lodge in skin cells and survive…. nope. It is incapable of penetrating those clees to reproduce. In the air, it lasts less than thirty seconds before being killed by sunlight. Our bodies NEED outdoor direct exposure to sunlight to make the vitamin D we need to keep our immune systems strong. Yet the gummit poohbahs ORDER us to stay INDOORS and AT HOME. Parks, beaches, lakes, boat ramps, the mountains, open lands, are all “prohibited”. WHY? Getting outsid,e MOVING< breathing sun-sanitised air, sunshine-produced vitamin D, are all amongst tje healthiest things anyone ca do.. but those are de=emed NO NO activities by the tyrants who would rule over us all in the tiniest particulars of our lives.

      Wake up, man. The government's response and demands to this nonesne are beyoind insane. Meanwhile governors in some states are mandating that known infected persons be forced admissions to nursing care facilities that so far have nad NO cases,which has ended up causing thousands of deaths by infecting the most at-risk demographic groupls in the nation. Meanwhile close family groupings cannot even join together to mourn their dead. That same governor threatens to arrest them. If you don't know his name yo are reading the wrong "news" sources.

    • What you leftists can’t seem to understand is that it doesn’t matter how bad Trump happens to be. It’s sufficient that he’s not Hillary Clinton.

      And in 2020, it’s sufficient that he’s not one of the far-leftist Democrats who are socialist, and moving toward communist.

      I would prefer a better Republican candidate who shows integrity, class, education and poise, but we didn’t get that. So I choose the least worst candidate.

      I am educated. I understand how evil and rotten socialism and communism happens to be. And I will not do anything to enable these two horrid perversions.

  14. There are some silver linings in this lock down BS! First with most of the schools closed the parents are finding out that they CAN home school and are finding out what the public schools have been pushing as “education”. With my wife and oldest daughter being teachers for the last 30 years they have witnessed the lowering of the expected performance of the students to mediocre. Second, many have had their eyes opened to the lunacy of living paycheck to paycheck and not having a fall back fund or extra supplies. For years ‘preppers’ have been laughed at but now are seen as maybe not so dumb (toilet paper, anyone). Third and last everyone has had a glimpse of what this country would look like if the LEFT ever really got control of the reins of power. Venezuela anyone.

    • Phil Richer,

      Good list. Let me add one. Closed businesses and furloughed workers are not paying taxes now. That doesn’t matter to the federal government because they can print and borrow money. But state governments can’t do that AND they are required to balance their budgets. Some Democrat-run states are broke, so I’m sure they are missing that tax revenue.

      I’ve fantasized about starving the government. I would love to make them poor so they cannot grow their power. TAX REVOLT!

      I do not want to harm the patriots who work for our governments, just the Deep State.

      The debtor states probably believe the federal government will bail them out, and they are probably right.

  15. I’m not a medical expert, but I can Google historical facts and figures. If I was using a PC, I would include links for you. Just Google this info yourself, that’s how I found it.

    Seems to me, COVID-19 kills people with weakened immune systems. If it touched every American, the weak would perish, and the strong would survive. Isn’t that what Darwin taught us? (I don’t believe in macro-Evolution, but the strong do survive until they grow old and lose their strength).

    Sweden is using this “herd immunity” approach, and they are fine. Also, look up how Taiwan confronted the virus.

    Since October 2019, about 60,000 Americans have died from the regular flu. In 1918, the population of the USA was 103 million, and we lost 675,000 people to the Spanish Flu. Some cities did close businesses and people wore face masks, but the whole country was not shut down.

    In 1918, the population of the world was 1.8 billion, and perhaps 50 million died from the Spanish Flu. Do you think the Communist Chinese bat virus will kill 50 million worldwide?

    If people in previous centuries came upon a virus that killed the weak and old, but left the children alone, they would name it the “Merciful Virus.” Those people were used to all types of people dropping dead from multiple diseases. For them, dying from a disease, at any age, was a normal part of life.

    Our economy should not have been shut down for this. It’s like another strain of the flu. It will be interesting to look back on this period and to see which did the most damage, the Wuhan Flu or shutting down the economy.

    I welcome anyone with medical training, or just a good Googler, to correct me if I’m wrong.

  16. A brief note about news media. The first time I ever had direct knowledge of something that became “newsworthy”, if they hadn’t published the location/time of said event, I wouldn’t have known they were describing the event I had knowledge of.

    It’s one of the reasons I explore information sources outside the US. It’s amazing the stuff that can happen outside the US that we never hear about. Also interesting to get another viewpoint on certain events.

    • You are correct. Information sources outside the U.S. can offer interesting information not covered by our domestic (so-called) “mainstream media”. For example, this news story:

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211257/Wuhan-lab-performing-experiments-bats-coronavirus-caves.html

      Isn’t it interesting that the Obama Administration give $3.7 million to the Chinese Laboratory that is suspected of being a possible source of the COVID-19 virus? That genetic testing of the COVID-19 virus traces it to a bat virus. From bats that live in a cave that is located hundreds of miles away from the actual site of the outbreak in Wuhan. However, between 2011 and 2015, the Chinese captured bats (from this distant cave) and proceeded to collect samples on at least 10 different occasions.

      Where did these samples go? Why, to the lab in Wuhan that was doing the virus research for the Obama Administration, of course. The one that is a possible source for this pandemic.

      Hmmm… Wonder how many U.S. “mainstream media” sources are reporting on this information? Doesn’t seem widely reported to me. Guess the U.S. “mainstream media” does not find it to be newsworthy.

      Nevertheless, I find it to be interesting.

    • You are onto something here, WR, and that’s accessing a variety of news sources, including the foreign news media, in order to obtain a deeper understanding of world events and what others think of America.

      • Frankly, based upon a lifetime of experience, I don’t particularly give a hoot about what others may think of America. While we may have faults, many of the others (some of whom are most self righteous) are far worse.

        OTOH, getting a deeper understanding of another point of view can be very educational. As can figuring out why they may have that point of view.

      • WR Moore,

        Capitalism is the worst economic system in the world, except for all the other economic systems. The USA is the worst nation in the world, except for all the other nations.

        As I see it, the USA is only guilty of oppressing three people groups; Native Americans, Afro-Americans and the unborn. (The people we need to oppress are criminals.) Throughout history, men oppress men, that’s what we do, it’s normal. A nation without slavery is odd. There are people who are good when measured by the standard of men’s laws, but no human beings are pure in God’s sight.

        In the 1600s, Europeans came here seeking wealth and various kinds of freedom. What would have happened if they had fought for freedom in Europe, or simply moved to Switzerland, which developed freedom independent of the Americas? Would today’s wealth, freedoms and technology exist if Europeans had remained in Europe? If Europeans didn’t conquer the Americas, would the Asians have left the Americas alone? Could Native Americans defend their continent from being conquered? I doubt it. China is acting aggressively in Africa today.

      • @ Spencer – Here is an alternative news source for you. Perhaps it will open your eyes as to the true nature of the corrupt Obama Administration and the true nature of their “mainstream media” attack dogs.

        https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/fbi-set-up-michael-flynn-to-preserve-trump-russia-probe/

        You won’t see this information and in-depth analysis on CNN or in the New York Times. The reason that you won’t see it is because both CNN and the New York Times were (themselves) actively assisting the Obama Justice Department and FBI in the commission of these crimes and in the perversion and misuse of the Justice System. They are guilty too.

        It is time, Spencer, to take off the “rose-colored” glasses, that you wear, and open your mind to the true nature and evil of the American Left. I guess either your mind will expand or else your head will explode when you read the above linked article. Or, maybe, you will just be like most leftists and simply ignore and deny anything that does not fit into your pre-existing Worldview.

        On the other hand, on the off-chance that your mind actually opens, I can strongly recommend Andrew McCarthy’s book “Ball of Collusion” for even more information upon this topic.

        In any event, please enjoy the linked article.

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