Browbeaten virus pest Karl Lauterbach has declared the pandemic over, just before the last German virus ordinances are set to expire. That whole storm of lies, restrictions, exaggerations and panic, which descended upon us like a hurricane three years ago, has now been withdrawn, with vastly less fanfare.
It’s awkward; nobody wants to talk about it.
The German pandemic is not ending because the virus is suddenly safer or because the vaccines have saved us or because we finally masked our way into a world free of respiratory pathogens. No, it is ending according to a timeline established last autumn, which idiotically synced virus restrictions to winter tyre rules. In this way, our rulers finally abandoned all pretence that their measures were anything more than public health theatre, performed to soothe the feelings of terrified ageing urbanites. Even that schedule proved hard to maintain, and the most visible and obnoxious restrictions had to be withdrawn months ago, as all political energy finally drained from the farce. What remains are vestigial mask mandates for care homes and clinics. After tomorrow, these institutions will be permitted to set their own rules.
In a muted, retrospective attempt to declare victory, Bayerischer Rundfunk cannot refrain from the tiresome lectures which are the wont of publicly funded state media outlets everywhere:
Yes, Germany is saying goodbye to its last measures later than some other European countries. But all those who had speculated just a few months ago that politicians would never again allow ‘complete freedom’ in Germany, as it was known before Corona, have now learned better. Holy Saturday of 2023 will usher in a return to complete normality. “The massive encroachments on fundamental rights were the exception in the pandemic,” Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) told the Welt am Sonntag: “Freedom is now the rule again.”
Buschmann (pictured), who bears direct responsibility for our absurdly extended pandemic regime, could not be more wrong. Freedom is not the rule again. The years since 2020 have proven that all it takes to confine the entire civilian population of a Western country to indefinite house arrest is a viral pathogen no worse than pandemic influenza. With the right media campaign, the state can close schools and most of the economy, force millions to accept dangerous and ineffective medications, all with the support of a substantial majority of the voting public. Constitutional protections, democratic freedoms, bills of rights – these don’t matter, they are worthless. All you need is a sufficiently ‘scary’ virus and they can be immediately set aside. That is not how freedom works. None of us will ever forget this.
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So far I like the cut of Milei’s jib. A breath of fresh air and common sense.
Billing the head of JSO would certainly be appreciated. A pay up or porridge deal should do the trick.
I strongly disagree.
“Security” is an imposition by the state. Its the state that wants to deploy police officers to provide “security” so it should foot the bill itself.
Although, of course, the state has no income. It’s income cones from shaking down the public.
It didn’t take Milei long to act like a hypocrite.
You are total granite Stewart always totally consistent.
JSO can protest and I would not charge them for security, but I would certainly charge them or jail them for damaging art works, buildings etc.—- Damaging things is not legitimate protest. ———I would expect no leniency if I had a JUST START OIL T short on and threw paint at my bank window, and I don’t think I would get any.
Its that thing that the left don’t do terribly well. Consequences for their actions…
I strongly disagree.
“Security” is an imposition by the state. Its the state that wants to deploy police officers to provide “security” so it should foot the bill itself.
That’s not really true. In 2017, there was a G20 meeting in Hamburg. These are traditionally also gathering points of the (so-called) anticapitalist/ anarchist hard left who’ll stage ‘protests’ against them. The city was essentially stripped of police in order to ensure the safety of all the meeting politicians. Because of this, the protestors went rioting in several city districts, smashing up and looting shops, torching cars etc.
Milei’s argument still doesn’t hold water, though: The largest parts of these costs will have been paying all the security-related government employees who would have needed to be paid come rain or shine, ie, regardless of the demonstration. And the actual numbers deployed were chosen by the government for some reason only known to it. People have freedom of assembly, however, should they actually assemble, fines in the order of thenthousands of dollars will be issued to people not guilty of any criminal conduct effectively means There’s no freedom of assembly.
I tend to agree
My starting point would be that the right to peaceful public mass protest is sacrosanct and charging people for it isn’t appropriate. If people are engaging in deliberate obstruction then they should be moved on or arrested. The greyer area is when the obstruction is a natural result of a lot of people being in the same place at the same time. I think it’s reasonable to encourage protestors to choose where they go in order to minimise inconvenience to others without losing the impact of the protest but I don’t feel that coercion is warranted
I like the idea of charging JSO for any damage done, then passing that on to donors. Never happen though
What a Christmas gift, that headline really did make me laugh out loud
Good for Milei, if I’m not mistaken a similar principle applies to football matches and pop concerts, so why not.
If you truly believe in what you’re protesting, you’ll be happy to foot the bill, in the knowledge that you will be safe while protesting and as a taxpayer you will not get further burdened.
Merry Christmas everyone, have a good one.
Yep, we are on the same page Jane.
Have a lovely Christmas
There’s a very real danger that this could end up being the thin end of the wedge. Once a government charges protesters blocking roads during a protest it’s a very small step to charging other protests for the policing costs involved and before we know it protest is the preserve of the well off.
The best solution would be to massively increase the fines given to people who have been found guilty of breaking the law during a protest to help cover the cost of dealing with their law breaking rather than simply charging groups who organise a protest.
“massively increase the fines given to people who have been found guilty of breaking the law”
I largely agree with your comments but the problem is that the legal system is now largely corrupted. JSO routinely break the law with their pathetic vandalism and deliberate road closures. Bill the tw#t funding this crap and things might change. If he doesn’t pay send him down.
Looking forward to the day when Extinction Rebellion are charged for the disruptions they cause. 10,000 motorists on the M25 x £10.42 an hour…. A few days of that will soon drain ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ the George Soros funded twats of funds.
Damn right.
“a heavy deployment of police, paramilitary officers and anti-riot forces, cost 60 million pesos, or about £57,500, at the official exchange rate.”
We should employ Argentinian police. At those prices we could fly them over here to deal with protests and riots and fly them back and it’d still cost less than using ours.
Yes that’s 1,043 pesos to the pound if my calculator is correct.
They will also strip protestors of Welfare. That’s going to hurt.
No. Just those protesters who block streets – if I understood that correctly.
Mind you that also means they expect to be able to identify these people.
—
Have a peaceful Christmas everyone.
In order to do this they must be closely surveilling the event and have the technology to trace the protesters they have identified. Its easy to applaud the concept of charging the protesters but the mechanics involved in that process are part of the apparatus of the surveillance state which, I think, most here would be against.
Correct. Trudeau tried it against the Canadian trucker protest during Covid. Not just cutting off welfare payments but freezing their bank accounts. I don’t think many on here would have supported that action.