While the United States has avoided new “lockdowns”, Australians aren’t so lucky. Mainstream media defends unconstitutional actions but yearns to end China’s lockdowns.
Summary
In the United States, the Biden administration, is facing a lawsuit from landlords for enacting an eviction moratorium, even though he literally said he does not have the legal authority to do so.
- Vaccine passports, a way to prove vaccination status, are unlikely to become mainstream in the United States, especially after some of the highest profile attempts have been plagued by bad technology and glitches that render it useless.
- As international travel increases in the near future, the United States will require visitors from other countries to be fully vaccinated.
- Australia is conducting city-level lockdowns while its largest city, Sydney, is in the middle of a nine-week lockdown and reported just five deaths yesterday.
- AP News is warning China that lockdowns may not be good “for the world’s second-biggest economy” and that “zero tolerance” at the expense of economic and social growth is not worth it.*
- A former Obama Homeland Security official wrote in The Atlantic that the Biden administration should implement a no-fly list for unvaccinated Americans, because that’s worked out well in the past (note the sarcasm).
- Vox’s Ian Millhiser defended Biden’s admittedly legally dubious move by conceding the moratorium extension was necessary because “identifying the specific individuals who should receive rent relief is a logistical nightmare” and as a result, the disbursement of $45 billion in rent relief passed by Congress has been slow.
- CNN inadvertently revealed a truth that has become increasingly apparent, that lockdowns don’t work, when reporting on Australia’s extension of lockdowns already in place even as there’s a “record rise in locally acquired infections.”**
- The Federalist profiled Canadian politician Max Bernier, who has been on a crusade against lockdowns not because of their lack of effectiveness, but because he sees them as a tool for “power-hungry bureaucrats and lying insiders” to implement “forced vaccinations and stricter censorship.”
- Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was sharply criticized as a “timorous little weasel” by RedState for publicly expressing regrets that he signed a ban on mask mandates earlier this year now that Arkansas is experiencing an uptick in Delta variant infections among unvaccinated residents.
- At FoxNews.com, Tucker Carlson’s monologue-turned-opinion piece blasted the CDC and its director Dr. Rochelle Walensky for effectively usurping Congress with its new (again, self-admittedly unconstitutional) eviction moratorium, saying the CDC “does not make laws in this country. It’s not allowed to.”
Author’s Take
*One of the most frustrating recurring themes in mainstream media is the double standard applied to certain nations. The mainstream media barely bats an eye when strict and total lockdowns are suggested for Western nations, yet media bend over backwards to help China. If lockdowns are bad for China, why aren’t they bad for the United States?
**We are falling into the trap of maximalist reaction to minor occurrences. Perhaps Australia’s vaccination rate is not as high as the United States. But Australia is extending a lockdown of literally millions of people after five deaths.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
