In a daily drumbeat of ‘grim milestones’, such as the number of people testing positive for a viral infection that about 90% of them didn’t know they have, we have now passed another:

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits topped 3 million for a seventh straight week, signaling little relief in sight for the economy since the coronavirus began closing restaurants, factories and offices from coast to coast in mid-March.

Initial jobless claims totaled 3.17 million in the week ended May 2 following 3.85 million in the prior week, according to a Labor Department report released Thursday. That brought the seven-week total to about 33.5 million.

What that means in human terms is that about 165 million Americans held jobs in February. One-fifth of those are now on the dole and dependent upon government handouts for their livelihood. Many of those are small business owners who will never be allowed to re-open if the Wuhan extremists get their way. Think about it, one in five able-bodied, work-willing adults in the country is now without a job. The cause is not war or a banking crisis, the cause is the Reign of Karens, the iron rod administered by people who don’t care if you starve or if you lose your home so long as they exercise power and are able to impose their preferences for your behavior upon you using fat SWAT team goons if need be.

So we got Meal Team 6 out here dispelling protesters. pic.twitter.com/tJ7VlKaxv1

— ryan (@ryanyoder22) May 7, 2020

This is a national disgrace but the cheerleaders for total unemployment are gleeful. Paul Krugman, for instance, seems to be on the verge of an orgasm:

Historical perspective: this is close to estimates of peak unemployment during the Great Depression, and worse than unemployment for most of the 1930s 2/ pic.twitter.com/TsQOK6YieN

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) May 7, 2020

The question is: Are they satisfied? And, if not, what will satisfy them?

Of course, they aren’t satisfied. To be satisfied, the objective of this exercise would have been to stem the spread of a deadly virus. If that were the objective then we were there weeks ago, if, indeed, we ever had a problem. The mortality and morbidity statistics show very clearly that this virus is not a national issue, it is a problem in perhaps six states and there is zero evidence that any of the extreme measures taken by those states had any effect. Because the virus was never the actual reason for the panic, nothing to do with the virus is going to make a difference.

What, then, will satisfy them? You wearing a face mask. You unable to sit at a restaurant table with your family. You unable to go to a movie or high school graduation. You unable to attend a weddding or baptism or funeral or even go to church. You unable to attend a sporting event. You unable to either work or own a business. That is the objective. They are using an infection that would have been ignored just ten years ago to expand the power of the state, reduce civil liberties, and impose social controls of your activities at the most personal levels.

34 million people on the dole is just the beginning if we let them win.