A pandemic of double talk and double standards

The nation is facing a pandemic of double talk and double standards.

We were told we had to shut down the nation in order to prevent hospitals from being overrun, a very real possibility in New York City.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo told us the entire nation had to shut down because what happens in New York City on Monday happens in Keokuk on Wednesday. (New Yorkers never believed this or they would have moved to Keokuk a long time ago and skipped New York's high rent and taxes, but that's another story.)

Then the hospitals weren't overrun, and Keokuk, Iowa, and North Platte, Nebraska, didn't turn into Little Apples.

So, we were told we had to stay shut down because … the pandemic! And don't ask questions.

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Thus began the other pandemic, of double talk and double standards.

Cuomo told us we must stay home and suffer privations to protect our parents, our grandparents, the elderly, known to be the most vulnerable. He called his diktat Matilda's Law after his mother.

But while he was ordering the young and healthy to stay home, avoid the infected and protect our elders, Cuomo was sending the infected to stay with elders in nursing homes. And killing them.

One culprit for New York's high death rates was found: Cuomo's government.

And it turned out the ventilators Cuomo hyperventilated about (Send me 40,000 or tell me who should die!) were not only not needed but could have been doing more harm than good.

This is not to blame the overwhelmed health care workers armed with no treatment protocol against an unknown enemy. It is to say there's very little in the current situation that can be asserted with certainty, and anyone who claims certainty is likely offering doubletalk.

For example, Gov. Cuomo tells us helpfully, "One fact we do know about COVID: There is still much we don't know."

Not sure if that came from Andrew's highly paid McKinsey & Company consultants or his Magic 8 Ball.

The excitable governor provided another gem of doubletalk and circular reasoning when he discussed bringing the state out of its politically induced coma.

Before we can "reopen" the state, we must repair the damage that's been done, he said. Never mind that the damage he wants to repair is the result of being closed. That much we do know.

But let's not pick on Andy (too much). He is not alone.

Too many in the political class are insisting on a government-appointed blue-ribbon commission issuing a detailed scientifically modeled report with charts and graphs and 27 8-by-10 colored glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one telling us how we can emerge from our caves.

Talk about double talk, this would be two firsts: It would be the first time Americans trusted politicians to run our lives. And it would be the first time a government commission actually came up with a plan that worked.

Consider how Democrats and their supporters in the corporate media approach the question of letting small businesses open their doors: We must have a blue-ribbon commission consider all the possible alternative courses of action before we can proceed or even possibly decide how to proceed.

Then consider how these same Democrats have a very different approach when the question is the most crucial element of democracy: how to run an election.

Forget about a commission, discussion, study or alternatives. They already know how to do it: Send ballots to every mailbox in the country! And don't ask questions. If you don't agree, you're a racist!

That's double talk and a double standard.