Unforgiven
By Mitch Berg
Today’s the anniversary of Minnesota’s Great Leap Backward.
Me? I was on my way home from the office, listening the governor on MPR as he announced the most draconian set of emergency powers in Minnesota history. On the way, I stopped at a Total Wine. The store has eight checkout lines, of which two are normally operating; I’ve never waited in a line longer than three deep, even then.
All eight registers were humming, stacked 6-7 people deep, and the store was packed.
They needn’t have worried; big box liquor stores, and big box stores of all kinds, found themselves exempted from the Governor’s swerve into autocracy.
But small businesses were forced to close – unless they were lucky enough to be Walz contributors – and were utterly gutted.
And schools remained closed for a year and a half – and children still haven’t recovered.
And while state government beggared the whole notion of “science”, it was fairly clear early on that the most dire predictions were going to fall flat.
So no. I’m not ready to make nice yet.
March 17th, 2025 at 7:56 am
It is infuriating to read articles saying “We had no way of knowing, mistakes were made, can’t we just move on?”
Look back at SITD archives and see the endless columns explaining why the virus wasn’t as bad as claimed, why the hoax wasn’t the existence of the virus but the Democrat response, why locking down the healthy instead of the sick was exactly the wrong response, why the vaccine wasn’t a true vaccine and didn’t do what was prpmised, why the whole thing was unconstitutional……
We knew. We told you. We weren’t the only ones who told you. You had the correct information but refused to believe it. And then you punished us for telling the truth, all you media and human resources and academics and bureaucrats.
No, we cannot move on. Not until there is a reckoning, and measures in place to prevent a recurrence, and most of all an apology. We were right, we were all along and you were wrong.
March 17th, 2025 at 8:10 am
That link to an April 20 SitD post which had lots of Emery comments defending the hysterical (over)reaction to the Kung Flu and attacking the heretics like Mr Doakes. Good times.
March 17th, 2025 at 8:18 am
I found most infuriating the closing of churches/houses of worship. 200 people roaming freely at Total Wine, while a similar sized facility for worship was limited to 10 people? Having trembled before Caesar last time, word in the orthodox Christian community, should such orders be repeated, is “We must obey God rather than men!” Perhaps the Great Sifting will happen then.
March 17th, 2025 at 8:51 am
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRightCantMeme/comments/r7a8hk/my_brain_hurts/?rdt=35540
March 17th, 2025 at 9:10 am
^ Excellent, Mr Jones.
March 17th, 2025 at 3:34 pm
Probably good to remember what we did know at the time:
1. That those bats were not sold in the wet markets, and hence the “official” origins story was nonsense. Governments would know, as did most people watching the evidence, that the most likely scenario was a lab leak within the year. What we didn’t know yet was that the NIH had funded very similar research with WIV, and thus our government participated in creating the epidemic.
2. Those familiar with nanoparticles (ESD experts, hopefully immunologists) would have guessed that COVID was spread through aerosols, and hence a lot of our COVID theater was going to be clearly useless.
3. We already knew that the old and infirm were especially vulnerable, and that it would be tantamount to murder to send COVID patients into nursing homes to recuperate.
4. We knew that the shutdowns seemed to have been designed to penalize GOP constituencies (churches, etc..) far more than Democratic constituencies.
March 17th, 2025 at 5:40 pm
I remember being in a Michael’s craft store (unwillingly) during the big shut down….the place was packed, and the checkout lines were huge, stretching to the back of the place. And, lining these checkout lines were bins and bins of impulse items, all of which were repeatedly being picked up and put back. That right there should have been showcased to illustrate the incompetence of the shut down…..
March 18th, 2025 at 6:08 am
Starbuck.
Yup! Same thing with JoAnn Fabrics.
I was working at Home Depot part time and we had a lot of people on Friday evenings, all day on Saturdays until about 8:30 p.m. and most of the day on Sundays. It was pretty tough to stack boxes of tile and vinyl plank and/or laminate flooring, bags and buckets of mortar and grout while wearing a face mask. The assistant store manager told me that home office management shared a memo with all store managers that, although they didn’t agree with it, masks would be required to be worn by all employees, because the company took WuFlu money.
March 18th, 2025 at 6:41 am
the place was packed, and the checkout lines were huge, stretching to the back of the place
Were people standing 6′ from each other? On little duct tape Xs marked on the floor?
March 18th, 2025 at 7:44 am
jdm.
Yes on both places in my comment.
March 18th, 2025 at 8:24 am
While Minnesota was in lockdown I had occasion to drive to Texas on Interstate 35.
Other states had less stringent lockdown rules so I was expecting to see dead bodies stacjked on street corners waiting for the public health officials to haul them away. I expected the newspapers in convenience store racks to bear headlines screaming about tens of thousands of dead Oklahoma residents. I expected to see people in masks and Xs on the floor 6 feet apart. Imagine my shock learning that people outside of the Twin Cities were going about their lives as normal.
March 18th, 2025 at 10:11 am
Not going to dislocate a shoulder patting myself on the back, but my thoughts about Covid way back then were (and many others on this blog) proved to be correct. It wasn’t a wet market mutation, the elderly were disproportionately affected, people under 40 were barely impacted, the models commissioned by Walz were absurdly and wildly incorrect. People I thought were my friends were treacherous fascists, Joe Biden was a senile fool in 2020.
March 18th, 2025 at 2:28 pm
I seethe to this day. My gal wonders why I get so upset when I see people still wearing masks (thank GOD it is a tiny amount but I see at least a few each day yet). The reason is because it brings back these haunting memories of the walzruss boot on my neck and also the FACT they do NOTHING to prevent virus spread. Or at least nothing statistically significant and OH HOW I DETEST THEM! Might as well wear a tinfoil hat. THIS is why I get upset honey-bun!
March 18th, 2025 at 3:02 pm
I have no idea if I even have had covid. I have only had a handful of mild colds since 2019. I never wore a mask, oh GOD no…unless absolutely forced to and even then pulled it down (ie airplane). Wearing a mask thinking you’ll prevent covid is idiocy on display. And I do not trust doctors that say otherwise. They are ignorant of the matter too.
March 18th, 2025 at 3:03 pm
cosmic.
I’m still seeing idiots, mostly women, wearing one while driving alone, but going 80 mph. Stupidity of the first order.
March 18th, 2025 at 3:04 pm
And one more thing…Hugh Hewit and Dennis Prager are twins.
March 18th, 2025 at 3:50 pm
I tend to assume that those still wearing masks may actually be immunocompromised, but perhaps I am too gracious. Yes, sure, we know now that they don’t do much, but….
March 18th, 2025 at 4:58 pm
Oh yes, I see the solo drivers occasionally as well. I could not stand to wear one of those things for more than a couple of minutes. Now, if I am sanding something etc… then yeah, because they actually work for stuff like that. But to wear one for hours and hours on end…for NOTHING? Tells me all I need to know about a person that still dons one.
March 18th, 2025 at 7:38 pm
I never put a maskie on.
I have never set foot on a plane since the day they mandated maskies.
I never stood on the X.
I told my boss, if the company mandated the mystery juice, he could plan on firing me.
I wont eat the bug.
I won’t live in the pod.
I wont wear the maskie.
I refuse all orders with extreme prejudice.