Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Lots of well-meaning folks responding to the COVID-19 situation are fond of saying “we’re all in this together” but, sadly, that’s anything but true.

It’s easy to say the COVID-19 virus or, as I refer to it, the WuFlu, has wrecked havoc on our economy and, quite literally, our lives and that “we’re all in this together.” But, that’s not true, if we’re honest with each other. First, it’s not so much the virus but the response of our ruling elites that’s wrecked most of the havoc. We didn’t react this way during the Hong Kong Flu that killed more than 100,000 of us during the year of Woodstock. Secondly, the disparity with which different segments of our society are treated tells some folks, primarily the same ruling elites who are wrecking the havoc, are not even in it at all, let alone together with us.

The COVID crisis is now largely a con. It didn’t start out that way, but it is now 100% political. We have moved, almost seamlessly, from “flatten the curve” to avoid overwhelming our hospitals all at once, to flatten all life so we can start all over again with supposed experts  looking out for our safety. It is profoundly tyrannical and, frankly, puke-worthy. Why are we doing anything beyond protecting nursing homes now that we know the curve was never much of the threat and the models were all hopelessly and recklessly wrong? Well, because it’s to the benefit of a whole lot of special interests. Consider the following:

• Walmart has expanded Its lead In grocery during the COVID lockdown, and “the Walmart grocery shopping app is now the number one download among all shopping apps” thanks to COVID paranoia. Moreover, “the race to be #1 in online grocery has accelerated rapidly and the non-Walmarts in the market are falling farther behind in that race.”  And, Forbes told us earlier this month that “Walmart’s stock grew 2% from $119 at the beginning of this year to $122 on April 30th, compared to an 11% decline for the broader S&P 500.” It’s hardly a surprise as Walmart has generally been allowed to stay open due to being a grocery store in part. It can sell shirts while the clothing shop on Main Street can’t. That doesn’t mean Walmart is behind the lockdowns. But, it surely enables the lockdown of others, simply by being open itself to supply needs, as Main Street merchants suffer the consequences. Do you think Walmart is paying their lobbyists to push the opening up of those stores? No, Walmart, may be a wonderful company in several respects, but it’s not in together with Main Street folks during this COVID thing. That much we know.
• There are, too, of course, the politicians who get to spend other people’s money and exercise power during the lockdowns. Do you think Andrew Cuomo has suffered together with the rest of us? No, his polls rose and now he’s considered the alternative to the hapless Joe Biden, for crying out loud, after being late to the game and making some of the worst management decisions possible. And, Democrats in Congress just voted to spend $3 trillion of our money on everything imaginable, including $800 million for Endowment for the Humanities and Arts, using COVID as an excuse. Meanwhile, their salaries and fringes (e.g., Nancy’s jets back and forth to her ice cream freezer in San Francisco) continue. They’re not in together with the rest of us.
• Then, there are the COVID “experts” who gain prestige and future funding for their research as a result of their involvement in the crisis. A 2005 AP article exposed the fact at least one of today’s experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who seems to authoritatively change his mind on the details with every public appearance, has received drug royalties as part of his pay. Indeed, “more than 900 current and former scientists at the National Institutes of Health legally collected $8.9 million in such royalties last year [2004] for drugs and inventions they discovered while working for the government. He’s also enjoying a petition to have him designated as People Magazine‘s “sexiest man alive.” Talk about incentives to keep the lockdown open! We’re all hardly in that together.
• There are, as well, the ideologues. You know; the radicals and utopians who are always seeking a crisis to exploit, folks such as Hillary Clinton who says the coronavirus pandemic “would be a terrible crisis to waste” by not creating “universal health care.” AOC wants to turn it into an excuse for any kind of socialism that might get by the common sense censors, including a Green New Deal and free everything except freedom itself. These folks are all in it together, against the rest of us.
• And, there are State and Federal workers. How many of the folks deciding who is essential and who is not are going without pay? Well, President Trump and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf both donate their salaries, but what about Dr. Levine, the Keystone State’s Secretary of Health? Or, Howard Zucker in New York? They both ordered nursing homes to take COVID patients even as the former and sister made sure their mother was safely evacuated. No, Secretary Levine’s mother wasn’t in together with the rest of our elderly.
• There are, also, those of wealth and the professional class who either don’t need to work (e.g., Bill Gates and the other rulers of the digital universe) or, like myself, can work from anywhere. My livelihood hasn’t been impacted to the slightest degree. I’m extremely sympathetic to those who are affected (e.g. restaurant owners, waiters and waitresses, my barber) but I can’t possibly claim to be in it together with them; they’re suffering and I’m not, because of ridiculous edicts that have zero to do with the main problem; the fact roughly 7 out of 10 deaths in Pennsylvania are taking place in nursing and personal homes with COVID patients being shoved into those facilities by Governors Cuomo and Wolf and their authoritarian health chiefs.
• Finally, there are the “essential businesses,” an Orwellian term if there ever was one. The franchised farm supply store down the street is selling boots, coats, handkerchiefs, hats, scarves and shirts, not to mention giant rooster lawn ornaments, toys and wind chimes, but the clothing, jewelry and furniture stores up the street are closed. Doesn’t seem they’re all in it together, either.

There is no “all together,” at all, in fact. This is no 9-11 when the entire country was affected. It’s not a long dry spell or a blizzard. It’s a man-made picking of winners and losers based on models and theories that are cheap crap and only serve to enable authoritarian addiction. COID itself may theoretically strike anyone, although even that is less than fully true, but it isn’t the virus that is our problem. We’re going to lose 100,000 or so lives if we assume the numbers are valid (they appear to be way above the actual) and each death is tragedy but they are not unusual. We’ve had several flu outbreaks that did the same and we did nothing but shut down nursing homes, What’s different now? It is the times and precisely the fact we are not all in this together.