Okay, so the President is on TV explaining why he has decided to approve the Defense Production Act. As such, we are seeing a lot of confused reactions, and people are wondering what this really means.
You're hearing terms like "Martial Law" and other scary words that make people automatically go one-track-minded. They take their preconceived notions of what that means and apply them to reality. Stop doing that. Don't. This Act, and all others that remain in force. Most were created long ago and didn't plan for a scenario this big, in a vastly different world than we had during the Korean war.
And when he smirks at the word "free trade" instantaneous gasps of pain come from libertarians all over the world. And rightly so, but personally I think that was more of a dismissal of something he found trivial in a moment of absolute crisis rather than a disdain for free trade. Most people know I'm pretty apathetic about Trump in general, and I don't hate him or love him. I think his response before this week was silly and unfortunate for the numbers, and I think people are idiots for waiting until now to start worrying and paying attention. There's a big difference between "panicking" and being gravely concerned.
Anyhow, this invocation of this order doesn't mean Martial law. Could it be a stepping stone towards it? Sure, could it be the beginning of full-on martial law? Sure. However it's not yet and to assume it will be that is silly at this point. We don't have time right now to squabble over what may or may not happen in the future. The development of events in the last 18 days has been insanely fast. Much faster than I'd originally anticipated. So what is going to happen today may completely change by tomorrow.
Right now let's focus on the facts.
The act itself: This means that many companies in the US will halt normal production and focus all production efforts on combatting covid. Things like ventilators, hospital beds, respirators, plastic casings for injections, machinery, etc. It also means things like training materials, and books related to these items, and to teach others how to use them and put them together, and everything elsse.
And then added the links below this email. So here
is the official text of the legislation from Congress.gov. It is a 2009
revision, from the original created in 1950 for the Korean war. This act is
only to be invoked during SERIOUS national emergencies such as war or disaster,
and right now, we’re in both.
The problem is that this act is very very closely
related to Martial law which is defined as “the imposition of direct military control of normal civilian functions by a
government, especially in response to a temporary emergency such as invasion or
a major disaster, or in occupied territory.”
Based on that definition, the DPA invoked
today is a very close relative of Martial law. As such, it will take away MANY
freedoms from citizens. That said, In a time like this, we have to do what we
can, to stop this virus from doing maximum damage. It is a terrible position to be in right now as a Libertarian. Many of us are conflicted on this. Do we give up freedoms in the name of public health? For myself, this answer is yes. I will give up everything for a bit to save the lives of millions of people. But I can't tell anyone how to feel, so there are going to be a LOT of pissed off people over this, and I completely understand why and their feelings behind it. If anyone is wondering how Ron Paul feels about all this, you can read his article here.
The reports that led to this
decision and that of many world governments to enact similar legislation can
be read here.
It is from The Imperial College in London and is highly regarded as a
trustworthy and intellectual source. A synopses of that report that gives a
brief overview of the implications of the report and what it means can be found
here. These reports align with my original estimates as well that I've talked about in previous articles. Now that the experts are saying their numbers, I feel more comfortable saying mine, because before now they sounded insane. I estimated 96 million infected, 400,000 to 900,000 deaths. I didn't have the technology for simulations to run all 3 scenarios like they did, but I did do a worst-case, best-case, middle case, and none of them looked pretty.
So be cautious, pay attention, and don't get wrapped up in the politics of it all, but please, be prepared to be a LOT less free than you are right now.
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