A white woman who got into an incredibly stupid altercation with a black man in the wilds of Central Park over her inexplicable refusal to put her dog on a leash as he politely asked and the park rules required, and then threatened to call the cops on him, pretty well did herself in. After getting herself on film in the throes of her episode, and seeing it go viral, Amy Cooper lost her $170,000-a-year job at Franklin Templeton, any prospect of employment afterward, her reputation, and even her dog. And sure enough, her lowly dog-walker was the one who turned her in.
It was rough justice for sure, given what she did, but she knew the rules of living in New York. Tom Wolfe’s Sherman McCoy pretty well mansplained it. For being a “Karen,” or entitled white woman, as the annoying term now means, she’s now a Sherman. As for the black man, Christian Cooper (no relation), he was unjustly treated, too, given that the woman was trying to call the cops on him and counting on the cops to believe her over him, and she was lying about being “threatened.” The only creature who got a real scare from that encounter was the poor yelping dog.
[….]
Leftists pounced on the matter and splatted all over the internet that this foolish woman was a Trump-supporter. Here’s one of them, per the Independent of London.
Actually, she was a liberal. Just like everyone else in that picture. She’d voted for Barack Obama twice. She was a big fan of Hillary Clinton. She donated money to the John Kerry and Pete Buttigieg campaigns. She went to the now-left-wing University of Chicago. She was as proper as they come in the eyes of the left establishment swamp. And still she attempted to pull that call-the-cops stunt on the black man after he asked her to put the dog on a leash (he was an avid bird-watcher, and dogs disturb ground bird nests) and then offered dog biscuits to her dog to get her to put the leash on.
[….]
that’s not the story. The story is that leftists are so filled with their own sense of self-virtue that they can’t possibly conceive of racism sitting in their own ranks. Any time anything bad happens, Trump’s supporters did it. Nobody’s apologizing for that nonsense. The people who got smeared in this instance, for sure, were the Trumpsters. Call it left-skin privilege. Where’s the lefty apology on that?
I will be working on some uploads as we enter into the weekend. These are some early uploads to my YouTube Channel… ALONG WITH a couple vie Larry Elder’s own Channel. Let me just say JUSTICE is already at work here. The four officers were fired, there will be some charges made, I assume the city will charge the officers with some manslaughter charge — as murder will be harder to convict; the FBI is involved, etc. The people rioting could care less about real justice.
Larry touches on George Floyd a bit this first hour — he does more so the next hour. The woman in the park calling police on a “black man is discussed a bit as well (hint: she is a Democrat). Some historical real racism is shown vs. what others are saying is racism today. ALSO, see this article:
Democrats rarely get any of the blame when race riots occur, even though they occur by and large in Democrat-run cities.
But Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has now been put on the hot seat for her actions that some have said led to the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes in Minneapolis this week.
The senator used to be in charge of prosecution for the city on Minneapolis when she served as Hennepin County attorney prior to becoming a senator.
When she was in that position she declined to prosecute many police officers who were accused of using excessive force, including the officer who has been blamed for Floyd’s death, The Guardian reported….
A friend noted this on his Facebook: “The most Liberal State in the Country saddled with the baggage that comes with ONE officer failing his job?” Yep… most of these cities are top down Left Democrats. Especially Minnesota.
Larry Elder has some good uploads himself, I would be remiss not to show them:
Systemic Racism in Modern America? Larry Elder makes the case for the exact opposite.
Larry Interviews Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute.
Larry Elder corrects the record on a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr., often taken from its larger context.
The recent Russia collusion narrative is not the only major example of left-leaning bias in the mainstream news media. Larry looks back at previous presidents and provides five other classic examples of how political bias has manifested itself in the news.
In Part 2, Larry provides five more examples of left-leaning bias in the mainstream news media. This time, Larry tackles several classic myths perpetuated by the media, including the idea that rich people don’t pay their fair share in taxes, that conservatives are more wealthy and less generous, and that liberals are more tolerant.
Nearly every American knows the phrase “separation of church and state.” Do you know where it’s from? Here’s a hint: it’s not in the Constitution. John Eastman, professor of law at Chapman University, explains how and why this famous phrase has played such an outsized role in American life and law.
An excerpt from a larger paper (the below was originally posted Jul 26, 2015):
…The First Amendment never intended to separate Christian principles from government. Yet today we so often hear the First Amendment coupled with the phrase “separation of church and state. The First Amendment simply states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Obviously, the words “separation,” “church,” or “state” are not found in the First Amendment; furthermore, that phrase appears in no founding document! While most recognize the phrase “separation of church and state,” few know its source; but it is important to understand the origins of that phrase. What is the history of the First Amendment?
The process of drafting the First Amendment made the intent of the Founders abundantly clear; for before they approved the final wording, the First Amendment went through nearly a dozen different iterations and extensive discussions.
Those discussions – recorded in the Congressional Records from June 7 through September 25, 1789 – make clear their intent for the First Amendment. For example, the original version (followed by later versions) introduced in the Senate on September 3, 1789, stated:
“Congress shall not make any law establishing any religious denomination.”
“Congress shall make no law establishing any particular denomination.”
“Congress shall make no law establishing any particular denomination in preference to another.”
“Congress shall make no law establishing religion [denomination] or prohibiting the free exercise there of.”
By it, the Founders were saying: “We do not want in America what we had in Great Britain: we don’t want one denomination running the nation. We will not have Catholics, or Anglicans, or any other single denomination. We do want God’s principles, but we don’t want one denomination running the nation.”
Of interest is the proposal that George Mason – a member of the Constitutional Convention and “The Father of the Bill of Rights” – put forth for the First Amendment:
“All men have equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular sect or society of Christians [denomination] ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others.”
Their intent was well understood, as evidence by court rulings after the First Amendment. For example, a 1799 court declared:
“By our form of government, the Christian principles – we do want God’s principles – but we don’t want one denomination to run the nation.”
Again, note the emphasis: “We do want Christian principles – we do want God’s principles – but we don’t want one denomination to run the nation.”
[….]
On the day the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they underwent an immediate transformation. The day before, each of them had been a British citizen, living in a British colony, with thirteen crown-appointed British state governments. However, when they signed that document and separated from Greta Britain, they lost all of their State governments.
Consequently, they returned home from Philadelphia to their own States and began to create new State constitutions. Samuel Adams and John Adams helped write the Massachusetts constitution; Benjamin Rush and James Wilson helped write Pennsylvania’s constitution; George Read and Thomas McKean helped write Delaware’s constitution; the same is true in other States as well. The Supreme Court in Church of Holy Trinity v. United States (1892) pointed to these State constitutions as precedents to demonstrate the Founders’ intent.
Notice, for example, what Thomas McKean and George Read placed in the Delaware constitution:
“Every person, who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust… shall… make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: ‘I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed forever more, and I acknowledge the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.’”
Take note of some other State constitutions. The Pennsylvania constitution authored by Benjamin Rush and James Wilson declared:
“And each member [of the legislature], before he takes his seat, shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz: ‘I do believe in one God, the Creator and Governor of the Universe, the rewarded of the good and the punisher of the wicked, and I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration.’”
The Massachusetts constitution, authored by Samuel Adams – the Father of the American Revolution – and John Adams, stated:
“All persons elected must make and subscribe the following declaration, viz. ‘I do declare that I believe the Christian religion and have firm persuasions of its truth.’”
North Carolina’s constitution required that:
“No person, who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the [Christian] religion, or the Divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office, or place of trust or profit in the civil department, within this State.”
You had to apply God’s principles to public service, otherwise you were not allowed to be a part of the civil government. In 1892, the Supreme Court (Church of Holy Trinity v. United States) pointed out that of the forty-four States that were then in the Union, each had some type of God-centered declaration in its constitution. Not just any God, or a general God, say a “higher power,” but thee Christian God as understood in the Judeo-Christian principles and Scriptures. This same Supreme Court was driven to explain the following:
“This is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation…. These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people…. These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.”
“…we have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams, first (1789–1797) Vice President of the United States, and the second (1797–1801) President of the United States. Letter to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, 11 October 1798, in Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull (New York, 1848), pp 265-6. (PDF found here)
The Left Rejects Separation of Church and State
(July 7, 2016)
GAY PATRIOTnotes that at one time the left wanted a strict separation of church and state. Now they wish to regulate it! In the NATIONAL REVIEW article GP links to, we read:
I’m old enough to remember when Christians who expressed concern that LGBT activists would attempt to regulate church services were dismissed as paranoid nutjobs. Well, welcome to our new paranoid future. My friends and colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom announced today that they were filing suit against the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to block enforcement of gender identity guidelines that purport to regulate “a church service open to the public.” News flash — virtually every church service is open to the public.
[….]
Incredibly, the document contains an FAQ specifically directed at churches. Here it is:
DOES THIS LAW APPLY TO CHURCHES?
Sometimes. Iowa law provides that these protections do not apply to religious institutions with respect to any religion-based qualifications when such qualifications are related to a bona fide religious purpose. Where qualifications are not related to a bona fide religious purpose, churches are still subject to the law’s provisions. (e.g. a child care facility operated at a church or a church service open to the public).
It’s unclear to me how a branch of the Iowa state government has determined that a “church service open to the public” does not have a “bona fide religious purpose,” but there it is. Under current guidance, churches in Iowa must become “members only” to exercise their religious liberty. It’s tough to imagine this guidance surviving even liberal judicial review, but even if struck down it shows where some on the Left want to take the law. Not even the sanctuary is safe.
In this episode, Larry addresses Joe Biden’s tendencies to threaten to fight his opponents, lie about his school achievements, and stumble through probable cognitive decline. He also points out some interesting similarities between Biden and the cartoon character Mr. Magoo.
After the Ahmaud Arbery shooting, LeBron James said Black people are “literally hunted” every day they go outside. Larry decides to look at the statistics to find out how dangerous it really is for Black people when it comes to violence in the community.
Critical theory is the opposite of critical thinking. This is a great definition:
This video was added in 2020… a good discussion on the issue:
Best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, renown critic and PJ Media contributor Michael Walsh discusses his new book “The Devil’s Pleasure Palace” with Stephen Kruiser. From the Frankfurt School’s critical theory to Hillary Clinton, Michael Walsh delves into how America got off course and was derailed by this post-World War II school of though that originated in Europe. Patriotism, marriage and the military are just a few of the aspects of American life that were altered for the worse by this school of thought. Join us for this special PJTV interview with Michael Walsh and Stephen Kruiser.
Just wanted to post this excerpt from INTELLECTUAL TAKEOUT’S dealing with Political Correctness:
The Historical Origin of ‘Political Correctness’
A professor at Boston University recently touched on origins of the term ‘politically correct.’ And it’s revealing…
…“The formula is straightforward: the world is not as it should be because society’s basic, ‘structural’ feature is ordered badly….For Marx and his followers that feature is conflict over the means of production in present-day society…. For Freudians it’s sexual maladjustment, for followers of Rousseau it’s social constraint, for positivists it is the insufficient application of scientific method, for others it is oppression of one race by another. Once control of society passes exclusively into the hands of the proper set of progressives, each sect’s contradictions must disappear as the basic structural problem is straightened out.”
The methods of the Communists and progressives differ, but the goal is one and the same: achieve “cultural hegemony,” a political phrase popularized by Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), an Italian Marxist and politician who became prominent in progressive circles decades after his death.
Progressives learned that achieving hegemony by criminal punishment is difficult. Intellectuals seeking to remake America—“born tainted by Western Civilization’s original sins: racism, sexism, greed, genocide”, etc.—found a more effective way.
There’s no longer “Good” or “Evil”, Now it’s all just “right” or “wrong”… And, of course, that’s always changing As “correction” comes along.
Politics is now what’s reigning… Power Principles of man. There’s no Bottom Line to speak of, No such thing as “God Commands”
It’s high time you learn this Lesson: Man and Morals all “evolve”… In this world of shifty-changers, There’s no TRUE truth to resolve.
We’ve moved past that faulty “logic”… What rules now is how we feel. “Sin” we feel is now outdated. Sin we feel just isn’t REAL.
HA!… “The Fall” has finally fallen… Yes, indeed, we’re free at last! Heaven’s wholly democratic… GLORY!… Happy Votes we cast!
Son, Big Brother makes “The Call” now, He decides what “truths” to pick. He defines for us what’s kosher. (AND He’s got the biggest stick.)
Political correctness, perpetuated by a small class of people ensconced at universities, bureaucracies, and major media, is the ideal tool for achieving cultural hegemony. It is “forceful seduction” in lieu of rape. It achieves “tacit collaboration by millions who bite their lip.”
As a political philosophy, political correctness might seem lifeless and aimless. But Codevilla noted the goal of Lenin and Stalin was not a state built on Marxist principles; it was always party control. The two philosophies are similarly empty.
“Like its European kin, all that American progressivism offers is obedience to the ruling class, enforced by political correctness….Nor is there any endpoint to what is politically correct, any more than there ever was to Communism. Here and now, as everywhere and always, it comes down to glorifying the party and humbling the rest.”
It’s not exactly light reading, but Codevilla’s article is a must-read for anyone serious about understanding the nature and origins of political correctness. I found it interesting that Codevilla made a point similar to one that Dr. Jordan Peterson made in an interview over the weekend. It’s the idea that political correctness is a movement 1) fundamentally political in nature; and 2) built on resentment.
Peterson saidthis is no accident. It comes right out of the Saul Alinsky playbook.
“The social justice people are always on the side of compassion and ‘victim’s rights,’ so objecting to anything they do makes you instantly a perpetrator. There’s no place you can stand without being vilified, and that’s why it keeps creeping forward….There’s no compassion at all. There is resentment, fundamentally.”
It’s a simple point, but a very important one. Stop and think about it for a moment. How much of our politics today is driven by resentment?
TO WIT…
The origins of “political correctness” or “cultural Marxism” can be found in the early parts of the 20th century from the Frankfurt School, which was the headquarters for the Communists scheming in Germany. Max Horkheimer, T.W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Lowenthal, and Erich Fromm were all there.
This video is an explanation of cultural Marxism, which is a term often thrown around in contemporary political and social debates. Here, those ideas are explored in a brief format. (See Dr. Cooper‘s follow up video to this one: “Is Cultural Marxism Just a Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory?“)
Douglas Murray shows how the people who are always in favour of the latest woke doctrine are the same people who wanted to bring down Western Capitalism in days gone by. Unregenerate Marxists. You’ll find plenty of them in the academy according to Douglas.
Pat Condell
Remember, Pat is an atheist… but a classical liberal – atheist. Progressivism is Marxism attempting to wear a liberal mask, and failing.
This first part of a multi-part post is merely to discuss what the Flattening the curve was for ~ AND THAT WAS ~ not over-burden our healthcare system.
…The goal is no longer to prevent the virus from spreading freely from person to person, as it was in the outbreak’s early days. Instead, the objective is to spread out the inevitable infections so that the healthcare system isn’t overwhelmed with patients.
Public health officials have a name for this: Flattening the curve.
The curve they’re talking about plots the number of infections over time. In the beginning of an outbreak, there are just a few. As the virus spreads, the number of cases can spike. At some point, when there aren’t as many people left for the pathogen to attack, the number of new cases will fall. Eventually, it will dwindle to zero.
If you picture the curve, it looks like a tall mountain peak. But with containment measures, it can be squashed into a wide hill.
The outbreak will take longer to run its course. But if the strategy works, the number of people who are sick at any given time will be greatly reduced. Ideally, it will fall below the threshold that would swamp hospitals, urgent care clinics and medical offices, said Dr. Gabor Kelen, chair of the emergency medicine department at Johns Hopkins University…
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Why We Should Still Try To Contain The Coronavirus
The coronavirus outbreak that has sickened at least 125,000 people on six continents and caused nearly 4,600 deaths is now an official global pandemic. But that doesn’t mean we should give up on trying to contain it, health experts say. The goal is no longer to prevent the virus from spreading freely from person to person, as it was in the outbreak’s early days. Instead, the objective is to spread out the inevitable infections so that the healthcare system isn’t overwhelmed with patients. Public health officials have a name for this: Flattening the curve. (Healy and Khan, 3/11)
ABC NEWS: Why Flattening The Curve For Coronavirus Matters (March 11, 2020)
NBC NEWS: What Is ‘Flatten The Curve‘? The Chart That Shows How Critical It Is For Everyone To Fight Coronavirus Spread. (March 11, 2020)
Confirming the above, you will see that the trend line was to spread out the disease, not to defeat it. And this endeavor would take two weeks at the least, six at the most:
Anywhere from 20 percent to 60 percent of the adults around the world may be infected with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19. That’s the estimate from leading epidemiological experts on communicable disease dynamics.
[….]
So yes, even if every person on Earth eventually comes down with COVID-19, there are real benefits to making sure it doesn’t all happen in the NEXT FEW WEEKS.
Dena Grayson, MD, PhD, a Florida-based expert in Ebola and other pandemic threats, told Medscape Medical News that EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, Washington, is a good example of what it means when a virus overwhelms healthcare operations.
[….]
Grayson points out that the COVID-19 cases come on top of a severe flu season and the usual cases hospitals see, so the bar on the graphic is even lower than it usually would be.
“We have a relatively limited capacity with ICU beds to begin with,” she said.
So far, closures, postponements, and cancellations are woefully inadequate, Grayson said.
“We can’t stop this virus. We can hope to contain it and slow down the rate of infection,” she said.
“We need to right now shut down all the schools, preschools, and universities,” Grayson said. “We need to look at shutting down public transportation. We need people to stay home — AND NOT FOR A DAY BUT FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS.”
The graphic was developed by visual-data journalist Rosamund Pearce, based on a graphic that had appeared in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) article titled “Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent Pandemic Influenza,” the Times reports.
To slow down the spread of the pandemic virus in areas that are beginning to experience local outbreaks and thereby allow time for the local health care system to prepare additional resources for responding to increased demand for health care services (CLOSURES UP TO 6 WEEKS)
On the other hand, if that same large number of patients arrived at the hospital at a slower rate, for example, OVER THE COURSE OF SEVERAL WEEKS, the line of the graph would look like a longer, flatter curve.
And, here is a conversation via my Facebook that elucidates how people have this idea of saving lives mixed up with not pressuring or overwhelming our healthcare system
EXCERPT FROM FACEBOOK CONVO
(ME)
Steve W — you do know Steve that the same amount of death from and infection due to Covid-19 exists under the trend line of doing nothing and the most strict quarentine rules…. right? In other words, we are not saving lives. And, in fact, we have made it worse for our economy next fall/winter because it is coming back as it makes its rounds around the world.
(STEVE W)
Sean Giordano I have heard that said but not seen it from a credible source. So I think that is false.
(ME)
Steve W what is false?
(STEVE W)
Sean Giordano “the same amount of death from and infection due to Covid-19 exists under the trend line of doing nothing”
(ME)
Steve Wallace now you are saying don’t listen to Dr. Fauci?
Many bemoan Trump for not listening to him (even though he has), and some I meet do not support Fauci in the idea that this was to elongate the process as to not put any undue stress on our health care system. Even though he clearly announced multiple times this was the reason to do so
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUMmentions the following, and all the graphs of the United States shown by Doctors Fauci and Birx have all used this idea as well (graph below from CDC and WEF)
CHRIS WALLACE: All right. You talk about slowing the virus down. You talk a lot, and I’ve very used to this now, you can either have a bump like this of cases or you could make it maybe the same total cases, but it’s a much more gradual and slower and longer curve. I want to put up some numbers. We have in this country about 950,000 hospital beds, and about 45,000 beds in Intensive Care Unit. How worried are you that this virus is going to overwhelm hospitals, not just beds, but ventilators? We only have 160,000 ventilators. And could we be in a situation where you have to ration who gets the bed, who gets the ventilator?
DR. FAUCI: OK. So let me put it in a way that it doesn’t get taken out of context. When people talk about modeling where outbreaks are going, the modeling is only as good as the assumptions you put into the model. And what they do, they have a worst-case scenario, a best-case scenario, and likely where it’s going to be. If we have a worst-case scenario, we’ve got to admit it, we could be overwhelmed. Are we going to have a worst-case scenario? I don’t think so. I hope not.
What are we doing to not have that worst-case scenario? That’s when you get into the things that we’re doing. We’re preventing infections from going in with some rather stringent travel restrictions. And we’re doing containment and mitigation from within. So, at a worst-case scenario, anywhere in the world, no matter what country you are, you won’t be prepared. So our job is to not let that worst-case scenario happen.
(…. STILL ME….)
STEVE W for you not to understand the goal of all this, and then get on here sharing insights is itself insightful. I am not blaming you STEVE… I just see this fundamental misunderstanding of the underlying factors and goals of this whole endeavor of bending the curve as applicable to MANY A PERSON in these discussions here and elsewhere on social media. I am giving you, in fact, the most respectful benefit of a doubt, but am merely in conversation with you at this moment. This conversation is just multiplied (others are having) across social media many fold. Blessings to you and yours friend. Yet, this foundational view is not known well by others… that is, the reason behind flattening the curve as well as the data underneath the trend line.
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Here I wish to switch gears a bit and start to discuss another “info graphic” post from MY SITES FACEBOOK I shared with my readers. And since the entire idea behind “flattening the curve” was to keep the health and hospital system working well by not getting inundated all at once, this should have lasted two or three weeks. Not as long as it has — our economy is important too! Damnit!
CAPACITY OF THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
The following was compiled after a conversation I had on Facebook. It touches on some of the issues above. Enjoy
I note the bell curve because many are under the false impression we are doing this to “save lives.” This was never the case.
The quarantine was to lessen the apex of the bell curve as to not put pressure on the hospital/health system. The same amount of people in the elongated “quarantine bell curve” (the trend-line) would die and get sick. In other words, the same statistics exist below the line (POWERLINE). Here is a site cataloging the hospitalizations for the rona that POWERLINE used – US CORONAVIRUS HOSPITALIZATIONS …they used both the CDC site and this one, but the CDC site has lower hospitalizations, so they opted for the most updated numbers. WHICH AS OF APRIL 21ST STAND AT 84,292 HOSPITALIZATIONS FROM JANUARY TILL NOW. This is important, because, the flu season of 2017-2018 we saw 810,000 hospitalization, and our health system didn’t collapse. Nor did the Swine Flu of 2009-to-2010, which saw 60-million American infected and 300,000 hospitalizations.
This then may explain why all the field hospital’s the ARMY CORE OF ENGINEERS built are being dismantled without a single bed being used.
The panic and fear among the people who cannot be bothered to read the actual statistics about this pandemic is what should concern most preppers. In fact, this virus has been so overhyped that the Army’s field hospital in Seattle, an “epicenter” of the pandemic has closed after three days without seeing one single COVID-19 patient. According to a report by Military.com, the hastily built field hospital set up by the Army in Seattle’s pro football stadium is shutting down without ever seeing a patient. [….] The decision to close the Seattle field hospital comes amid early signs that the number of new cases could be hitting a plateau in New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in the U.S., and other states. At a news conference Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “Overall, New York is flattening the curve.” — ZERO HEDGE (see: MILITARY TIMES | DAILY CALLER)
Unlike the Mercy, the Comfort is treating COVID-19 patients on board as well as patients who do not have the virus. The ship has treated more than 120 people since it arrived March 30, and about 50 of those have been discharged, said Lt. Mary Catherine Walsh. The ship removed half of its 1,000 beds so it could isolate and treat coronavirus patients. [The Mercy has seen 48 patients, all non-Covid related] (THE STAR)
And literally handfulls of patients on the Comfort (New York City) and the Comfort (Los Angeles) — *see comment below. There was never a shortage of respirators (NATIONAL REVIEW), and we may surpass the 2018-to-2019 flu death rate, but come nowhere close to the 2017-to-2018 flu death rate:
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
And it seems that we are reaching a plateau with The Rona, so there is good news in this regard (POWERLINE).
* Here is a comment from the Military Times article from a few days ago:
So, why did we spend all that Taxpayer’s money to move the Comfort to NYC and all the added Military medical personnel to staff the Javitt’s Center? Because Cuomo was crying WOLF.
“So far, the thousands of beds provided by a converted convention center and a hospital ship have not been needed, but the extra personnel are coming in handy for the city’s civilian hospitals.
About 200 doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and others are working in New York’s medical centers, where bed space has not been overwhelmed, but where hospital-acquired coronavirus cases have sidelined civilian staff.”
…TO WIT…
HOSPITALS GOING BANKRUPT
VOX actually has a decent story on this:
Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston is laying off 900 people from its 17,000-person staff and asking full-time salaried employees to take a 15 percent pay cut, according to the Post & Courier; the hospital says it’s not laying off front-line workers at this time.
Essentia Health, a major medical system of clinics and hospitals in Duluth, Minnesota, is laying off 500 workers, per KBJR.
The Cookeville Regional Medical Center in Tennessee will be furloughing 400 of its 2,400-person staff, and a few hundred others will see a cut in their hours, Fox 17 Nashville reports.
Boston Medical Center is furloughing 10 percent of its staff, about 700 people, according to the Boston Globe.
Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, which runs five hospitals in the Philadelphia area and employs 125,000 people there, will furlough an unspecific percentage of its staff, per the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Two hospital systems in West Virginia are furloughing upward of 1,000 employees combined, Metro News reports.
The largest hospital system in eastern Kentucky is laying off 500 workers, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
I’m sure there are many more stories like these. But you get the idea.
Hospitals have typically said in these announcements that they are starting with nonmedical staff for furloughs and reduced hours, which is no solace to those workers but softens the impact on our medical capacity.
But it’s not clear how long medical systems can avoid cutting doctors and nurses as well, and some of them clearly cannot. I heard from a nurse in Texas, who asked that neither she nor her hospital be named for fear of professional repercussions, who has been furloughed because of the ongoing economic crisis.
She said how constrained she felt by the news. If she wanted to help with the coronavirus response by taking a job with a travel nursing service offering temporary postings in Covid-19 hot spots, for example, she would lose her old job and her health insurance.
”It really is frustrating to hear that you’re a hero but also we don’t value you enough to prepare or pay you,” she said. “I would be happy to temporarily relocate, work in a hot spot, and make the same wages as I normally would. I can’t afford to work for free, exactly, but it’s frustrating if I can’t work at all.”
Hospitals have taken huge revenue losses as they postpone elective surgeries and other routine care so they can make more staff and space available for the Covid-19 response. Some hospitals expect to lose half their income, and the top industry trade groups have warned that hundreds of hospitals could close after this crisis.
Congress pumped $100 billion into US hospitals as part of its first stimulus package, and Democratic leaders are already calling for another $100 billion in the next stimulus bill they hope Congress will pass.
But that may still not be enough, in the end. When one in four rural hospitals were already vulnerable to closure before the coronavirus struck, the current pandemic is almost certainly going to leave some hospitals with no choice but to close, no matter how much money the federal government provides….
And to compliment the Left leaning VOX article is the “Right” leaning FEDERALIST article:
….During a press conference Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that health experts initially projected 465,000 Floridians would be hospitalized because of coronavirus by April 24. But as of April 22, the number is slightly more than 2,000.
Even in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last month he would need 30,000 ventilators, hospitals never came close to needing that many. The projected peak need was about 5,000, and actual usage may have been even lower.
Other overflow measures have also proven unnecessary. On Tuesday, President Trump said the USNS Comfort, the Navy hospital ship that had been deployed to New York to provide emergency care for coronavirus patients, will be leaving the city. The ship had been prepared to treat 500 patients. As of Friday, only 71 beds were occupied. An Army field hospital set up in Seattle’s pro football stadium shut down earlier this month without ever having seen a single patient.
It’s the same story in much of the country. In Texas, where this week Gov. Greg Abbott began gradually loosening lockdown measures, including a prohibition on most medical procedures, hospitals aren’t overwhelmed. In Dallas and Houston, where coronavirus cases are concentrated in the state, makeshift overflow centers that had been under construction might not be used at all.
In Illinois, where hospitals across the state scrambled to stock up on ventilators last month, fewer than half of them have been put to use—and as of Sunday, only 757 of 1,345 ventilators were being used by COVID-19 patients. In Virginia, only about 22 percent of the ventilator supply is being used.
Meanwhile, hospitals and health care systems nationwide have had to furlough or lay off thousands of employees. Why? Because the vast majority of most hospitals’ revenue comes from elective or “non-essential” procedures. We’re not talking about LASIK eye surgery but things like coronary angioplasty and stents, procedures that are necessary but maybe not emergencies—yet. If hospitals can’t perform these procedures because governors have banned them, then they can’t pay their bills, or their employees.
To take just one example, a friend who works in a cardiac intensive care unit (ICU) in rural Virginia called recently and told me about how they had reorganized their entire system around caring for coronavirus patients. They had cancelled most “non-essential” procedures, imposed furloughs and pay cuts, and created a special ICU ward for patients with COVID-19. So far, they have had only one patient. One. The nurses assigned to the COVID-19 ward have very little to do. In the entire area covered by this hospital system, only about 30 people have tested positive for COVID-19.
If Hospitals Can Handle The Load, End The Lockdowns
I’m sure the governors and health officials who ordered these lockdowns meant well. They based their decisions on deeply flawed and woefully inaccurate models, and they should have been less panicky and more skeptical, but they were facing a completely new disease about which, thanks to China, they had almost no reliable information.
However, in hindsight it seems clear that treating the entire country as if it were New York City was a huge mistake that has cost millions of American jobs and destroyed untold amounts of wealth. Now that we know our hospitals aren’t going to be overrun by COVID-19 cases, governors and mayors should immediately reverse course and begin opening their states and communities for business…..
I was cruisin, the WWW (in this case, a group on Facebook)… and I came across this “blurb (picture to the right). Now, I do not post this to “brag,” but I post this as a confirmed bibliophile and someone who plans on an eternity of learning truth.
I have interests, and most of them pertain to reading and learning as a hobby. My home library is well over 5,000 books (politics, religions, philosophy, economics, environment, history, origins, apologetics, etc… all non-fiction stuff my wife h-a-t-e-s), and about 600 DVDs dealing with much of the same (a lot of formal debates are in this collection). (A partial tour is in the video below [low-rez 2005].)
This is a recovery from my Vimeo account and was made with a low-rez camera in 2005 as a package to help my admission into a seminary. One day I will run through my library with the high resolution of today. One day.
I also want to note that while I am posting pics just on two sections of my library, this is repeated in all my categories — like: history, philosophy, world religions, cults, occult, apologetics, politics, civics, current affairs, economics, etc., etc. This first example is of Islam, a sliver of my world religious section (you can click to enlarge if so inclined):
And this is my section related to the reason to this post… note that many works in the collection are textbooks and/or works countering creation and Intelligent design or books by evolutionists on various subject within said paradigm. And yes, that is a pallet of books to the right of my packed-up portion of my library:
— these are two rows of books deep on most shelves —
BOOKS
Here are some of the shelves and books of this section of my library from the picture above (take note as well that I own many of the often quoted and used National Geographic, Nature Journal, Scientific American, and other magazines/journals):
Also, here is some of the atheist/theist debates, creationist/evolutionist debates, etc in DVD:
PJ-MEDIA has some “bones” to pick with Washington State.
On Thursday, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) confirmed a report by the Freedom Foundation that they have included those who tested positive for COVID-19 but died of other causes, including gunshot injuries, in their coronavirus death totals. This calls into serious question the state’s calculations of residents who have actually died of the CCP pandemic.
Last week, after it was reported that, like Washington, Colorado was counting deaths of all COVID-19 positive persons regardless of cause (which had resulted in the inclusion of deaths from alcohol poisoning), the Colorado Department of Health and Environment began to differentiate between deaths “among people with COVID-19” and “deaths due to COVID-19.”
PJ-MEDIA continues with some key aspects of Washington’s Dept of Health being cornered by facts:
The Freedom Foundation’s original report, based on DOH documents and statements provided to the Foundation, concluded that, of the 828 COVID-19 deaths reported as of May 8:
681 (82 percent) “list some variation of ‘COVID-19’ in one of the causes of death” on the death certificate;
41 (5 percent) of the death certificates do not list COVID-19 as a cause of death, but indicate it was a “significant condition contributing to death.”
106 (13 percent) deaths involved persons who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 but did not have the virus listed anywhere on their death certificate as either causing or contributing to death.
When asked about the Foundation’s report at a press conference Monday, Gov. Jay Inslee dismissed it as “dangerous,” “disgusting” and “malarkey.” He further accused the Freedom Foundation of “fanning these conspiracy claims from the planet Pluto” and not caring about the lives lost to COVID-19.
[….]
1. DOH includes deaths of all persons who tested positive for COVID-19 in its totals, even if the victims died from other causes, such as gunshot wounds.
“Our (DOH COVID-19) dashboard numbers do include any deaths to a person that has tested positive to COVID-19.”
“We don’t always know the cause of death for a death when it is first reported on our dashboard. That is true. Over the course of the outbreak, we have been monitoring and recording the causes of death as we know it. We currently do have some deaths that are being reported that are clearly from other causes. We have about five deaths — less than five deaths — that we know of that are related to obvious other causes. In this case, they are from gunshot wounds.”
2. DOH may update the way it reports COVID-19 deaths going forward.
“Over the course of the outbreak, we have been very aware of a small number of deaths being reported on our dashboard that end up not being due to COVID… We will be removing them over time from our death count.”
“Our current dashboards reflect anybody that has died from COVID irrespective of cause of death. Those numbers will be adjusted.”
“We are really trying to figure out how best to report out the information on the COVID deaths in a way that is more understandable and still is accurate and is in real time as possible.”
3. DOH really doesn’t know how many deaths are due to COVID-19.
“Our process for identifying COVID-19 deaths basically speeds up our regular process but cuts out much of the data-quality processes.”
“Ultimately… we suspect that we are actually more likely to be under-counting deaths than over-counting them… It may take up to a year or more to get final counts on COVID-19 deaths.”
“We also have a number of certificates where it’s really unclear at all what the person died from… For these deaths, we really don’t — aren’t able to make a determination on whether they died from COVID or not.”
4. DOH will likely begin counting “probable” cases of COVID-19 in its infection and death counts.
When asked by Jerry Cornfield of the Everett Herald whether DOH had any plans to begin counting “probable” cases of COVID-19, Cathy Wasserman, a state epidemiologist for non-infectious conditions, said the state was working on implementing new guidance from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.
As the Freedom Foundation explained in its report Monday, this guidance does provide for the inclusion of “probable” cases of COVID-19 that have not been confirmed by a lab test……….
See more at GATEWAY PUNDIT — there is some addition lines of evidence there.
To date, residents in 250 long-term care facilities in Washington State have tested positive for COVID-19. More than 500 deaths, some 60% of all pandemic deaths in the state, have occurred in such institutions, according to the Seattle Times. Parallel figures are 41% in Ohio and 66% in Arizona.
No one lives forever. Jesus recognized the ugliness of death. But the terrible thing about this disease is how it tears families apart, isolating the elderly just when they need comfort. Instead of a warm hand and eyes of loved ones as they face that “final frontier,” with final words of encouragement in their ears (or on their lips), millions struggle for breath surrounded by rows of beds with others coughing, while medical personnel — harassed, tired, and sometimes fearful strangers — rush in dressed like aliens in space suits.
I mentioned to a friend that I guarantee this kid has been influenced by the Nation of Islam or the 5%’ers when I saw this on the 21st — from my Facebook:
This is one of the most maddening things I have seen in a while! CAUTION, violence:
This is a nursing home. Please someone explain why this is happening and unreported. pic.twitter.com/Dzs8QYykIv
…Jaydon Hayden is reportedly from Westland, Michigan and beat elderly white nursing home patients for sport.
There are three videos right now on Bitchute showing the man beating white people.
The man is filming himself beating the seniors in their beds until they are bleeding….
Well, I am vindicated in my assumprion. But, before getting to it, there is an update to this story that answers “what was this guy doing at a nursing homw to begin with”? GATEWAY PUNDIT fills us in:
Jaydon Hayden, reportedly from Westland, Michigan filmed himself beating elderly white nursing home patients for sport.
The man filmed himself beating the the elderly man, later identified as a 75-year-old veteran, in his bed until he was bleeding.
[….]
On Friday FOX 2 Detroit in Michigan spoke with the father of the Jaydon Hayden after his arrest.
The father said his son is not vicious, but that he just has mental health issues.
And the father then said this,
“He said his son called 911 and was taken to a mental health facility in Ann Arbor. Last Wednesday, he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and said he was supposed to be taken to another facility to be quarantined.
The father added, “It should’ve never happened because he should’ve never been put in that environment.”
Did you catch that?
Authorities — following the orders of Governor Gretchen Whitmer — moved the young man to a nursing home to recover from COVID-19.
They moved 20-year-old Jaydon Hayden to the nursing home just last week.
According to his father, Jaydon Hayden was moved to the nursing home because he had COVID-19.
This tells us that Governor Whitmer is STILL sending COVID-19 patients to NURSING HOMES.
And Democrat Governor Whitmer is STILL sending coronavirus patients to nursing homes!
WOW! After all we know about the elderly and The Wu Flu, a Democrat Governor is still sending Covid positive patients to nursing homes. Unbelievable!
Well, this whole horrible issue is now a confirmation in some way of my noting this as a racist cult issue. But this also proves the father’s point as well, he has some mental issues… needless to say the mental and Coronavirus issues would negate placing him in a nursing home.
