RLL 51: Stop the Covid Madness

Hi everybody, it's Steve Matthews. Welcome to Radio Looks Lucid episode 51. The title of today's episode is Stop the COVID Madness. Well, it's been a couple weeks since I've had a program and I'm sorry for having that little bit of a hiatus there.

I had a couple things going on had Had some. I had a family gathering a couple weeks ago for my birthday So that was exciting and just didn't have the time to get one out and then last week we did the the big shift to to daylight savings time and You know, it was I normally do these on a Saturday on a Saturday evening.

And it's just I didn't think there's any way I was gonna get that done And be able to get up at all at a decent hour on Sunday morning. So I I decided well, we'll just Just take another week off and then come back here this week.

So Had some time here today and made it happen so it's it's great to be back and I hope to get on another run here and at least get out one one podcast every week and Thanks for joining me for everybody who's Watching this this live as well.

I'm live on Twitter as well as on on D live and What else I'm live on something else. Anyway, it'll come to me. Let's see. How do I have this thing set up? So Oh YouTube. Can't forget YouTube see I'm live on YouTube's everybody's watching on YouTube.

Well, it's great to have you on the program here today.

Anyway, so.

Another week here went by well, I guess another couple weeks since I've done a program. It's it's been nice. It's be getting more and more spring-like every day I did have a chance to go out and get a little bike riding it again today.

That was was always really nice. And you know, the thing is I've never been much of a winter person. Yeah, I've lived in a climate where we get winter. But you know, I'm always kind of glad to see it go and having a March birthday as I do.

It's always nice to. I kind of think of the coming of spring. It's a little bit like like a birthday present so so that that That's a nice thing about March. You can start seeing seeing spring here. And you know a lot of people they are they you get a lot of complaints about daylight savings time.

I I actually I'm kind of a weird person. I kind of like daylight savings time I mean, I like the fact that it stays light late at night. You know, I get a chance on on Fridays now I can go back and take a walk Park here close to me.

I can take a walk at on on Fridays after if to work and you know after having some dinner and that that's it's nice. To have that extra extra hour to be able to do something in the evening. So anyway, it does though I have to say daylight savings time It takes a little bit of getting used to you know, I find that that that whole fallback thing in the fall.

That's pretty easy for me to get used to but when I get into to daylight savings time You know, it always takes me about a week or so. I think for my body to just get Adjusted to to when things are happening because things just don't seem right.

It seems like I always have a hard time getting to sleep. The first couple nights of daylight savings time because my body just doesn't want to shut down. Anyway, kind of funny like that. I Guess another thing about About March that I always kind of appreciate of course, is it it start getting it starts getting close to baseball season now.

I I've been a huge Reds fan my whole life and and I guess that started back in the 70s when I was growing up watching the the big red machine as the Reds were known back then and And I still am although I have to say I've really kind of cooled on professional sports and and sports in general especially over the past year with all of the the politics and that that have been injected into Into sports and it really doesn't make me want to Follow them that closely.

I don't know. Maybe maybe that'll calm down here a little bit this year and in the years ahead I don't know. But you know right now it's it's still hard for me to get To get as excited as I normally would be and of course You can't go really down to the stadium either.

Because they've got all the covert restrictions and we're gonna start talking about that here in just a minute. Kind of that by way of introducing the main topic of the program I mentioned the the covert restrictions to being able to say go see a Baseball game or a basketball game or something like that in person.

It's very frustrating. You know it worked this week. We celebrated and I don't know if that's the right word to say we celebrate it. I it's I guess that was the way it was presented to us. I don't know maybe commemorated might be a better term.

I I don't know. But anyway, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of Of doing of working from home because it was a week ago. It was a year ago this past week that they closed dinner off and they said everybody go from home and go home you're gonna be working from home and.

And we'll let you know when you're you're gonna be coming back. And I have to admit I never thought that you know when they they boot us out of the office that day that that here I'd be sitting a year later and Still working from home.

I didn't expect that. You know, I thought maybe a couple weeks, you know. There was a there was all that talk, you know 15 days to flatten the curve or some such thing that was going around last year and I well Okay, maybe be a couple three weeks or so and and we'll be back in the office.

Well, as I said here we are a year later and we're still working from home. Now I have to admit it hasn't been Exactly a huge burden for me. My job translates very well into a work from home situation.

There's nothing literally nothing that that I could do at the office that I can't do at home. With maybe I guess with one exception. I can't go over to somebody's desk, you know. And sometimes that that can be nice, you know, if you have a question.

Maybe you get some unusual kind of circumstance and and you want to go talk to a colleague and say hey. Yeah, you know you ever seen this before have you ever dealt with this? Could you give me a little bit of help?

It's not just nice to be able to sit down and talk to somebody in person. You know. Maybe show them a screen print out or or look at a screen together that type of thing and that's that's one thing. That's a little bit harder when you're you're working from home.

Although you we do have programs now. We can share screens and that so it's you know, even that isn't quite as much of a burden. But you know, sometimes it is nice to be able to talk to people in person as opposed to just having to do everything over over a screen or over a phone or You know a team chat or something like that.

But yeah, we did celebrate our one year of of working from home. So it's hard to believe this whole kovat thing has been been going on for a year, you know in my case.

You know.

I've been blessed enough that as I said my job Translates very well into work from home and and I have to say from my standpoint overall. I I really didn't miss a beat.

You know.

I mean left the office one day came in the office and it came started to work from home stuff the next day and. And it was all it was a pretty smooth transition you know, I've done some things over the past year to kind of improve my setup and Because I didn't think I was gonna be here all that long.

So I had things kind of temporary and and after I realized okay, we're gonna be here for a while. Well, then I started to do some fix-up and an improvement. I got a got a different screen got a bigger screen.

So I've got a nice big screen here that I can work off of when I'm when I'm at work and I've got Lots of different programs and things open and I've improved my setup and I say it's a little bit more permanent a little bit nicer.

It looks a little nicer things are in a little better position for me to be able to use them. So, I mean that that has developed and evolved over the past year. Well, I wanted to get in and I wanted to talk a little bit about kovat because you know, not everybody has has had Had his experience.

But it's been as good as what mine has been with with work from home. I mean some people have Had their hours cut some people have lost their jobs entirely. Many people who are you know, small business owners, there's tens of thousands of small businesses.

It is apparently permanently closed down. Job losses have been terrible. I mean, I know this last week they had another horrible initial Jobless claims that always comes out on a Thursday and it was it was once again.

It was well over 700 ,000 people lost their jobs the prior week and it was it was reported this past Thursday and you know, that's that's a terrible thing and people have have gone through this and You know, it was interesting.

I posted sort of the inspiration for today's Podcast as I had posted something on Facebook. It was an article by by Ron Paul the Congress former congressman Ron Paul What am I great here is he's he's maybe the only politician I could think of that I would say is is a hero to me or at least as somebody recently.

Anyway, I I have loved and admired Ron Paul's work for for many many years and that's You know, he's been one of the few beacons of hope in in this whole kovat thing. And it's it's been a great pleasure to be able to to read him and to to listen to him.

His his liberty-minded approach to how you you deal with kovat and and I and I agree grief fully with him but I Posted this this article on my Facebook page the other day and I had a friend respond. This is a Tim Kaufman now some of you if you're watching this or I should say listening to this through thorn crown ministries.

You're probably familiar with Tim Kaufman's work because he does podcasting and that on On the on thorn crown ministries. He posts his podcast out there. He also has his has a Blog himself and it's called out of his mouth and The that's a blog that he does.

It's on. It's a he deals with mostly with eschatology. Or at least a good deal of what he writes on is eschatology and he'll put some pieces out there every now and then he's He's a Tim is a brilliant scholar and and he's someone that it's very interesting.

You know, he was raised Roman Catholic and when he In his early 20s when he moved when he he started working as an engineer. He is an engineer. He's a rocket scientist. Actually, he does does engineering.

I believe I believe he is a contract employee. I think the firm he works for that is a is a contractor for NASA. So yeah, so he's our our scripturalist rocket scientist. So see I guess sometimes it takes a rocket scientist to to be able to figure out revelation, but Tim is is a as I said, he's a very brilliant scholar and he's a good brother in Christ and When I posted this this piece by Ron Paul out there.

He wrote me a fairly lengthy comment on this talking about a recent experience that he had At a at a Starbucks of all places and I wanted to go ahead and just read through this. I I asked him if I'd if he'd give me permission to use that he said yeah.

You can go ahead and use my name too. So so I'm not so so Tim. Thanks so much for for allowing me to do that. I'm just gonna go ahead and read Tim's comments. And once I do that, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna turn to the article by Ron Paul.

Where and he talks about the the coven and we'll break down some of Ron Ron Paul's comments as well. But here's here's Tim Kaufman to get us started. So quote. This is where the government response to kovat has gotten us.

Last night my friends visited Starbuck in South Beach at the door. They were handed a mask to comply with government with the government mandate. This morning I went to Starbucks anticipating the same warm welcome.

When I entered no mask was offered. But I thought I would just wait in line until the matter presented itself and I would accept a mask if offered. There are 40 people inside the store either in line or waiting to order or waiting for mobile pickup.

There's there were six more staff behind the counter after completing my order at the register. The manager approached me and asked me to wear a mask. I responded. I had been told to Starbucks was handling them out handing them out for free.

She would hear none of it. She began to berate me in front of the other customers for standing in line for 30 minutes without a mask. And again, I told her that I understood Starbucks was handing out masks to its customers as my friends had experienced the night before.

She became agitated and they asked me to leave on the way out the door. I noticed that the maximum occupancy for this Starbucks during kovat is just is 10 just 10. But there are 40 people inside the Starbucks at the time.

I was asked to leave because I was not wearing a mask. When I went outside to wait for my order. My wife handed me her mask so that I would be in compliance of my order was ready. My son was still inside at the time.

The manager then pointed to me to me through the window and said to the rest of the customers see that man. He's mocking us. He refuses to wear a mask inside the building and now he's wearing one outside the building.

My son and daughter inside the store at the time and my son stead. That's my dad leading next to my son and put in line politely informed him that his father was teaching his daughter bad ideals. The manager then informed my son that he needed to go outside and beat his dad for violating the rules.

Yes, that's true. The Starbucks with maximum capacity of 10 with 40 customers plus staff. The manager incited violence against me and the other customers who are Actually in violation of the maximum occupancy.

We're trying to tell my son that I taught my daughter bad ideals and values. And all I had done was go to Starbucks because I heard that they were nice and would give me a free mask. Well, I guess Starbucks isn't as nice as what.

What what Tim thought and is in fact? Tim he made a second comment to me on that on that particular Post and he said well, he said I guess you can take the take the Starbucks out of Seattle. But you can't take the Seattle out of Starbucks.

And I think that's that's probably a pretty good way of putting that.

And.

Yeah, it's it's it's really kind of a kind of a sad situation. I mean we've become a great deal more and more like I don't know kind of more like East Germany all the time. It seems like and you read about some really terrible things like this happening to to people who have You know somewhat been, you know, maybe caught up a little bit innocently in in not having a mask you know you you get people shrieking at them or or what.

Maybe you've seen some videos of that kind of thing on. No, you see stuff like that out there on Twitter or or what have you but that was that was Tim's experience at Starbucks.

And.

So what I thought I'd do Is I wanted to go ahead and share with you the article that sort of I guess inspired him to talk about this. This was a piece. It was written by Ron Paul. It appeared that was on the Ron Paul Institute on Monday, March 15th and this was right after.

This was a few days after Joe Biden had given a National address on COVID. You remember that he did. I think it's about a week and a half back or so. It was a big deal because it was his first.

Overall.

Overall Oh.

I guess national address. So anyway, let's let's take a look here. So here's the effect. I'm gonna go ahead and See if I can do this here. Yeah, there we go. There we go. Bring that in. So here's the article is Biden holding America hostage until Independence Day.

If we click that does that make it any bigger? No, I guess that doesn't really change anything, okay. All right. So is Biden holding American hostage until Independence Day and let's just read through it.

I thought I'd read through some of this and maybe just kind of break it down a bit here for you. So to start with here. Quote last week President Biden addressed the nation on the first anniversary of the coronavirus being declared a pandemic.

It was a disturbing speech. Warning us that the hopeful spring will only emerge from a dark Winter if all Americans stick with the rules whose rules his rules. The message from the president was clear.

He will only allow us to have some of our freedoms back if we do exactly as he tells us it was the language of Extortion of a bank robber who demands you do what he says or face the consequences. It was not the language of someone we were told as the leader of the free world.

In the speech Biden laid out a list of what was taken from us over the past year weddings birthdays Graduations family reunions the Sunday night rituals. It was as if somehow the virus instead of authoritarian government officials prevented us from enjoying these normal human activities.

And I want to especially focus on that last sentence there where Ron Paul writes. It was if somehow the virus instead of authoritarian government officials prevented us from enjoying these normal human activities now and I'm glad he said what he said in the way that he said it and in the reason why is.

Because so oftentimes in fact, I would say this is one of the leading bits of propaganda regarding this whole Kovat lockdown thing that we've been dealing with now for a year is there talk about oh, you know because of the the virus pandemic.

There's all these people have been laid off of work or due to the fire, you know due to the virus. You know such and such as you know, such and such a thing has happened, you know. Say people losing their jobs or business is being closed or you know, you know.

The decline in economic activity is being blamed on the virus. Well. The virus had nothing to do with layoffs. You know Kovat is a virus it had. Kovat has never laid off a single employee. Kovat has never thrown a single person in jail Clovis.

Kovat has never Caused a business to go out of business. What's caused all of these things what's causal is disruption. What's caused the the 700 some thousand job losses that were recorded this past week or all of the other difficulties and and Mask mandates and social distancing all of the stuff is not caused by Kovat.

It's caused by authoritarian overzealous government officials. It's arrogant politicians and maybe politicians with ulterior motives even who've ignored the Bible they've ignored the Constitution. They've ignored science.

In imposing lockdowns mask mandates social distancing contract tracing, etc. You know, I was just watching something today where they were having massive Demonstrations in Europe and and they had a great big one in in London and they I saw some some video of that and it Actually was a peaceful protest.

There were just you know, ordinary Britons were going through the walking through the streets of London. I think it was in the Hyde Park neighborhood of London and they they were. They were just they were chanting talking about in the lockdowns.

And they had every right to do what they were doing and there were some people's interesting to watch this on Twitter. There are some people that were were just horrified by all of this, but these people want their freedom back.

They want their lives back. We all want our lives back. You know and in one of the things that in some ways I think some of the Europeans whether in in Great Britain or or In the Netherlands or in Germany some of these places.

They've done a better job protesting in a lot of ways than have the Americans and I think maybe some of that. It goes to I think the lockdowns have probably been more severe in In some of these countries.

I know from what I've read about in in Great Britain That it's Essentially people are Are under house arrest and have been for months. In fact, probably for most of the past year I mean at least where I live and I live in Ohio and our our kovat lockdowns haven't been great.

You know, our governor has certainly not been great on this this subject of kovat. But but he hasn't been as bad as some have. I mean, for instance, he's been definitely better than say Gretchen Whitmer up in up in Michigan I mean for the most part life has been fairly normal here as I said they the businesses they they sent us all home because of You know a year ago and and we could go back to the office now.

But we'd have to go back and you'd have to have you know Wear a mask every time you get up out of your seat. You have to have your temperature taken every day and they made a decision that probably Since things were working pretty well for us that we could just go ahead and work from home.

And I think that was the the wisest decision to make. I'm glad it's a decision that they did make. Most of the restaurants, you know, the restaurants are still open like when you go into a restaurant.

You have to wear a mask while you're walking to your table bunches down sit down at your table. You don't have to wear a mask. It's all very silly and and it should all be just removed as I said. It's also not as bad as California.

I remember they put that thing where they there was that Requirement. It was even a oh It was like a flyer that the the state government gave out and it showed people saying well when you're sitting at your table.

You have to put your mask on in between bites, you know. It showed somebody pulling a mask down putting a fork full in and and then putting the mask back up. I mean, it's just just absurd things like this and You know Gavin Newsom, I guess they've collected enough signatures to remove him and I hope they do.

I hope the people of California kick him out of office. I've never seen anybody who I thought deserved to be kicked out more Than he did except maybe maybe Andrew Cuomo. I don't know. Maybe you could.

Or Gretchen Whitmer. I don't know. Maybe there's a few others that have been pretty awful out there as well but yeah, these people definitely deserve to be removed from power and It's it is it's the government that has done all of these things it's not the virus.

You know kovat does not make you wear a mask. Kovat does not force you to you and does not shut down the churches. The kovat does none of those things this is all done by politicians. And I think it's absolutely important to remember this because when you read articles in the mainstream media and you see this all the time, in fact, you may want to challenge yourself and just see if.

See if you can can spot the headlines that promote this idea the whole idea that it's Kovat somehow it's done all this stuff. Kovat has done. None of these things. It's the government. Keep that in mind.

But let's continue here with with Ron Paul's column. So as though we continue to see kovat disappear across the country with the end of the winter season Biden was not about to let go of his perceived power to control our lives.

He said if we do all this if we do all part if we do this together by July 4th is a good chance you your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your Neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.

That doesn't mean large events with lots of people together. That doesn't mean small groups will be able to get together. Imagine our fathers our fathers hearing this speech the US president might just might Allow small family gatherings at home in four months if we follow all of his rules.

King George looked benevolent by comparison. His representative Thomas Massey tweeted shortly after the speech if you're waiting for permission from the chief executive to celebrate Independence Day with your family.

You clearly don't have a grasp on the concept of independence. I Like that and by the way Thomas Massey just a second here. Thomas Massey is a representative from Kentucky from Northern Kentucky and Pretty close to where I live, even though I'm in Ohio I like to kind of claim him because I think he's without a question one of the finest members of Congress.

And in fact, you might even say he's he's maybe the the present-day Ron Paul. He's sort of taken up Ron Paul's mantle in the in the House of Representatives as a defender of freedom and and if Thomas Massey's absolutely correct.

You know and I want to just say to Biden, you know. What part of Independence Day does this man not understand? You know, there's nothing in the Constitution that says the Constitution is suspended because of a virus.

There's nothing in the Constitution that says oh, well You know the the president can can get out of the goodness of his heart tell you. Oh, yeah, you can go home and and you well, you know, don't get carried away.

You don't have to do anything wild on July 4th but but you know if you follow all the rules and you mask up and you get vaxxed and you do all the stuff that. That we tell you to do. Well, you you just might get a little smidgen of your freedom back.

Well nonsense. That is absolute nonsense. We have the right to get together on Independence Day or any other day. We want to and have a barbecue and the president of the United States has zero constitutional authority to say we can't do that.

That's what Independence Day is all about. You know, it's having one of the things is having a government of limited powers there is no Prescription in the Constitution anywhere that gives the president or anybody in the federal government the the ability to shut down your ability to To simply peaceably assemble.

In fact, the the Constitution prohibits state governments from doing this.

You know.

So, I mean, I think you can make a very good case that all of these lockdown mandates including the ones by our governor DeWine here In Ohio are unconstitutional you know one of the things with the. If you look at this from a biblical perspective You know the Founding Fathers believe that our rights come from God and It's not you know.

Our rights don't come from the government our rights come from God and it's the government's job to protect Those liberties. To protect those rights, you know, that was the teaching of the Protestant Reformation.

In the civil magistrates job was to punish those who practice evil, you know, the Apostle Paul talks about this in In Romans 13, he says that civil magistrate is God's minister and it's his job. You know, he bears the sword to punish those who practice evil you know that is if somebody wants to rob you or to kill you or you know to engage in some kind of.

Other.

Untoward illegal activity that it's the job of the civil magistrate to put a stop to that. But it's not the job of the civil magistrate to tell you whether or not you can get together and have a barbecue in your in your backyard now, you know, there are some people who are very very concerned about kovat and.

You know if somebody is super concerned about it and really concerned, you know. It's very much afraid of being contaminated with somebody. Well, they can always Just not go to backyard barbecues. Nobody says you have to have a backyard barbecue.

But if you want to do that if you assess that situation and say, you know, I think it makes perfect sense. Let's go ahead and do this. There's nothing in there's nothing that the government had. There's no Basis for the government to rightfully put a stop to that.

But yet Biden acts as though somehow you know. He is the arbiter of whether or not you can have a backyard barbecue and he'll grant you a little bit of your freedom back. If you do what he tells you to do if you follow his extortion.

The Constitution is not voided by a virus, you know Joe Biden and others like him. They they're just like you think about what Jesus said you remember where there's that that account in the New Testament where it talks about the the disciples are arguing with one another, you know, Who's the greatest?

And Jesus rebukes them and he's you know, he talks about the rulers of the Gentiles. You know and Biden and others like him are just like the rulers of the Gentiles. What did Jesus say about the rulers of the Gentiles on the one hand?

They lord it over people. You know, so so they love to to ride hurt on them. They love to to oppress people, you know. They they lord their authority over people. But then there's something else that he said about these very same people who lord it over Lord it over their populations.

They like to call themselves. They like to be called benefactors. So they like to rule with a rod of iron, but they want to they they want people to call them they they want to be thought of as as. These these people who are doing all these good works for everybody.

Look at all the great stuff that I've done. Yeah, I made the trains run on time. And I mean I've you know bundled people off to to prison camps and you know lock people in their homes on us. But hey, the trains are running on time.

Therefore. I'm this great benefactor of the nation and and I deserve your praise. That seems to be the kind of mindset and that seems to be the the kind of mindset that Joe Biden has you know, he he wants to sit here and lock people down and and slap masks on people and and Vaccinate people and all of this other stuff and then he wants to be praised.

Because because he gives people like a little tiny bit of their freedom as though somehow this is a great thing. You know, it's ridiculous. It's preposterous. Ron Paul continues here. He says as usual the goalposts keep being moved because politicians cannot bear the possibility.

They might have to give up some of the power over us. They've grabbed for themselves. Fauci made the usual mainstream media rounds over the weekend. It was asked by the fawning host when Americans might have permission to hold weddings again.

So now Americans need Fauci's permission to get married. What is happening to this country? The propaganda is so relentless that it seems most Americans don't see how not normal this is in Saner times.

Fauci would be laughed off the stage now. He's treated as some sort of divine source of truth. Yeah, I mean he's treated, you know, it's almost like, you know, the Prophet Elijah or something like this, you know people sit around and they Oh, oh master Fauci, please.

Tell us, you know, what must we do? You know, it's it's nonsense. I mean what authority does does does Anthony Fauci have to tell anybody whether or not they can can get married or Or have a barbecue or have a family get-together or have a graduation party or any such thing.

He has zero authority for this. Was he ever elected to anything. Did you ever vote for Anthony Fauci. Does Anthony Fauci represent you in Congress? I don't think he does. Yeah, what you're seeing with Anthony Fauci the the term for this from.

The political term for this is technocracy according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary technocracy is government by technicians specifically management of society by technical experts or Maybe even call it so-called technical experts.

I mean, you know, Anthony Fauci has been all over the place. You know, you've probably seen some film some video. There was a Thing where Anthony Fauci he went on? Oh my gosh I think it was I think it was 60 minutes about a year ago and he was on there.

He was telling people don't wear a mask, you know masks do not do you any good? I'm paraphrasing but that's what he said and the Surgeon General I can't think of the the fellows name right now, but the Surgeon General of the United States at the time.

He was saying exactly the same thing, you know, don't wear a mask, you know, it doesn't do you any good and He says it might make people feel better, but it doesn't do you any good. And of course that was very sensible advice.

But then somehow along the line all of that changed, you know. And then we went from don't wear a mask to you gotta wear a mask and if you don't wear a mask, you know Terrible things are gonna happen to you and that's the way here is it still is here in Ohio I mean if you go into any Ohio business You're required to wear a mask or at least in the certain places in Ohio I don't know.

They've got some color-coded thingamabob or you know supposedly you know the the covert frequency rate is such-and-such and and if the code frequency rate is such-and-such then then all the businesses in these counties have to have to Require people to wear a mask and I happen to live in an area that that's like that.

It's in the Cincinnati area and You know and again, this has been going on. They made those mandatory, I don't know sometime last summer I want to say maybe June or July and I mean again here we are. We're going on the better part of a year with this and there's no, you know I have no idea when this is gonna end no idea.

You know, there doesn't seem to be any indication from the governor that it's gonna be anytime soon. And Ron Paul closes his comments here he says Biden promised that he was using every power as president of the United States to put us on war footing.