Month: March 2020

Atlanta (AP) — Grammy-winning hip hop recording artist Lecrae joined forces with non-profit organization Thursday to assemble and distribute portable hand-washing stations throughout Atlanta in areas with a high density of homeless people.

Lecrae Moore and volunteers with Love Beyond Walls assembled 15 wash stations, filled them with water and hand sanitizer and loaded them onto a truck for distribution.

Lecrae, winner of the Best Gospel Album Grammy award in 2013 for his album “Gravity,” rolled up his sleeves and went to work early, his mind set on helping the less fortunate.

“I wanted to continue doing the same stuff that I have been doing just in any city I’ve lived in and that’s just being close to the disenfranchised and the marginalized communities,” Lecrae said.

Terence Lester, founder of Love Beyond Walls, told the AP that disenfranchised people on the streets are in need as the new coronavirus spreads.

“You know, whether people like it or not, man we’re out here doing our part to ensure that people have access to this basic necessity during this pandemic,” Lester said.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.

According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

Several medical and advocacy groups have insisted abortion services should be considered as essential health care during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic and not subject to delays or a reduction of availability that will affect other health services.

Noting that some health systems “are implementing plans to cancel elective and non-urgent procedures to expand hospitals’ capacity to provide critical care” to victims of the crisis, a joint statement by several health organizations has urged that abortion providers should be exempt from such cutbacks.

A “Joint Statement on Abortion Access During the COVID-19 Outbreak” was issued Wednesday by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology, together with the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists, the American Gynecological & Obstetrical Society, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Academic Specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society of Family Planning, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

“While most abortion care is delivered in outpatient settings, in some cases care may be delivered in hospital-based settings or surgical facilities. To the extent that hospital systems or ambulatory surgical facilities are categorizing procedures that can be delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion should not be categorized as such a procedure,” the statement declares.

“Abortion is an essential component of comprehensive health care,” the statement insists. “It is also a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible.”

The statement echoes a similar appeal by the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which “calls on leaders to ensure that outpatient abortion clinics can remain open and urges hospitals to continue to provide abortion care” even while other medical services are reduced or suspended.

According to the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA), a surgery “may be deemed urgent and necessary if the treating physician decides that a months-long delay would increase the likelihood of significantly worse morbidity or prognosis for the patient.”

In Wednesday’s joint statement, the group of signatories declare that they “do not support COVID-19 responses that cancel or delay abortion procedures,” while adding that community-based and hospital-based clinicians “should consider collaboration to ensure abortion access is not compromised during this time.”

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Thousands of restaurant and bar servers were abruptly unemployed Sunday night, March 15, 2020, and other business closed their doors immediately under orders from the Ohio Department of Health (ODH).  But there is one group of people who have job security and are still working instead of applying for unemployment.

“Our doors are open” is the message when calling abortion facilities (Planned Parenthood) in the Cleveland, Ohio area.  Those people all continue to work and get paid.  While hospitals have canceled non-essential surgeries, abortions apparently don’t fall under that category.  Planned Parenthood’s motto should be “Let no child stay alive.”

The National Abortion Federation (NAF) sent out the following:

As state and municipalities exact measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, more non-essential businesses will be instructed — or required — to close. At the same time, hospitals are preparing for a surge in COVID-19 cases and increased strain on their staff, resources, and systems, and will likely begin indefinite postponing non-essential or elective procedures.  During this public health crisis, pregnancy care, including abortion care, remains an essential health service.  The NAF calls on leaders to ensure that outpatient abortion clinics can remain open and urges hospitals to continue to provide abortion care.

While schools and churches have been shuttered and longed-for graduation ceremonies have been canceled, apparently it is okay to congregate at an abortion facility or use limited hospital resources.  Planned Parenthood phone messages comfort the caller by adding that the abortionists are working with the CDC and the ODH to ensure the safety of their patients and that the chance of catching the coronovirus remains low.  ”Leave a message to make an appointment.”

While Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, tried to pad a bill infusing more money into abortions, a bill that was designed to help fight the Chinese Virus, as President Trump calls it, her efforts failed.

Massachusetts hospitals are forbidden from performing non-essential procedures, but the abortions continue.  A state agency memorandum opines: “Terminating a pregnancy is not considered a nonessential, elective invasive procedure for the purpose of guidance.  However, the ultimate decision is based on clinical judgment by the caring physician.”

President Mark Harrington of Created Equal, a pro-life organization, said: “Clearly, the abortion industry will not ‘allow this crisis to go to waste.'”

Hundreds of thousands of people across the country are now unemployed and worried about paying the rent or buying food, but the government keeps the abortion industry workers employed doing the essential work of the killing of babies. 

Susan Daniels has been an Ohio-licensed private investigator for twenty-seven years.  She uncovered Barack Obama’s phony social security number in 2009.

Thousands of restaurant and bar servers were abruptly unemployed Sunday night, March 15, 2020, and other business closed their doors immediately under orders from the Ohio Department of Health (ODH).  But there is one group of people who have job security and are still working instead of applying for unemployment.

“Our doors are open” is the message when calling abortion facilities (Planned Parenthood) in the Cleveland, Ohio area.  Those people all continue to work and get paid.  While hospitals have canceled non-essential surgeries, abortions apparently don’t fall under that category.  Planned Parenthood’s motto should be “Let no child stay alive.”

The National Abortion Federation (NAF) sent out the following:

As state and municipalities exact measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, more non-essential businesses will be instructed — or required — to close. At the same time, hospitals are preparing for a surge in COVID-19 cases and increased strain on their staff, resources, and systems, and will likely begin indefinite postponing non-essential or elective procedures.  During this public health crisis, pregnancy care, including abortion care, remains an essential health service.  The NAF calls on leaders to ensure that outpatient abortion clinics can remain open and urges hospitals to continue to provide abortion care.

While schools and churches have been shuttered and longed-for graduation ceremonies have been canceled, apparently it is okay to congregate at an abortion facility or use limited hospital resources.  Planned Parenthood phone messages comfort the caller by adding that the abortionists are working with the CDC and the ODH to ensure the safety of their patients and that the chance of catching the coronovirus remains low.  ”Leave a message to make an appointment.”

While Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, tried to pad a bill infusing more money into abortions, a bill that was designed to help fight the Chinese Virus, as President Trump calls it, her efforts failed.

Massachusetts hospitals are forbidden from performing non-essential procedures, but the abortions continue.  A state agency memorandum opines: “Terminating a pregnancy is not considered a nonessential, elective invasive procedure for the purpose of guidance.  However, the ultimate decision is based on clinical judgment by the caring physician.”

President Mark Harrington of Created Equal, a pro-life organization, said: “Clearly, the abortion industry will not ‘allow this crisis to go to waste.'”

Hundreds of thousands of people across the country are now unemployed and worried about paying the rent or buying food, but the government keeps the abortion industry workers employed doing the essential work of the killing of babies. 

Susan Daniels has been an Ohio-licensed private investigator for twenty-seven years.  She uncovered Barack Obama’s phony social security number in 2009.

Political tectonic plates are shifting as progs like Ilhan Omar start praising Trump’s crisis management (and as his polls rise)

At first, the growing wave of praise for President Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus catastrophe seemed like pigs flying, an unexpected and rare event. But now that the governors of deep blue California and New York have been joined by Ilhan Omar in admiring his handling of the crisis, we can see that forces far larger than individuals going rogue from Trump Derangement Syndrome are at work. TDS  is being swamped by the reality of an existential crisis.

 

Politics aside, this is incredible and the right response in this critical time. 👏🏽 https://t.co/MUzGkAxNaO

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 19, 2020

 

The latest Harris polls show rising approval for the federal government’s handling of the crisis:

Conducted using a nationally representative sample of 2,050 Americans over two waves, March 14-15 and March 17-18, the poll provided some quick feedback on how the public’s perception can change overnight even as the government shifts its response to a crisis in which the news seemingly changes by the hour.

Overall, both waves showed around 60% of Americans “satisfied” with how the federal government has handled the coronavirus crisis so far.

Of the president’s performance, 56% of the second wave approve of the way Trump has handled the COVID-19 crisis, with 44% disapproving. This is up five percentage points from the first wave, conducted only two days before. Meanwhile, Trump’s overall approval jumped four percentage points between waves, from 49% to 53%.

Democrat politicians have access to far more granular polling data that must show them that Americans want a strong leader in a time of mortal peril facing them, and that President Trump is rising to the challenge of his office. The smarter ones among them may also understand that the nonstop carping, criticizing every move that Trump has made since taking office, has created cynicism and doubt about the sincerity of the continuous nit-picking. President Trump is not about to let them forget the wave of criticism denouncing his prescient ban on arrivals from China as racist, either, so they had better get on board and earn his favor, lest they be called out.

REPORTER: “You did say a few days ago that you did have a sense that this was a pandemic that was coming. So why was the United States not prepared with more testing — “

TRUMP: “We were very prepared. The only thing we weren’t prepared for was the media. The media has not treated it fairly. I will tell you how prepared I was, I called for a ban from people coming in from China long before anybody thought it was — in fact, it was your network, I believe they called me a racist because I did that. It was many of the people in the room, they called me racist and other words because I did that, because I went so early. So when you say we weren’t prepared, had I let these tens of thousands of people come in from China a day, we would have had something right now that would have been — you wouldn’t have even recognized it compared to where we are. How many people have passed away? How many people have died as of this moment? You could multiply that by a factor of many, many, many. So when you say that I wasn’t prepared, I was the first one to do the ban. Now other countries are following what I did. But the media doesn’t acknowledge that. They know it’s true. They know it’s true, but they don’t want to write about it. Yeah, go ahead.”

The plain fact is that Americans rally behind their presidents when the nation is under attack, whether by a nation state or a virus. In recent adult memory, President George W. Bush reaped such support. Those who appear to be hobbling the effectiveness is the response to such as a personal and lethal threat earn contempt from the majority, who want to pull together to overcome the threat that faces us as a people. Nothing unifies more powerfully than an external threat to the collectivity. When Ilhan Omar understands this,  we can be sure that the message is sinking in to all but the thoroughly dysfunctional deranged (who are still numerous on the left, to be sure).

 It helps a lot that President Trump’s management style is well-adapted to crisis management in the face of an unprecedented threat full of unknowable factors. He is the very opposite of the traditional bureaucratic approach of appointing a task force and waiting for a report on the best way to handle matters. His style is to identify the best people (in his eyes) and give them room to move quickly, and monitor the results closely, making changes as the situation warrants.

The top-down bureaucratic approach minimizes visible mistakes, at least when the situation is well understood, but at the cost of delay. And bureaucrats loathe being held responsible for mistakes, so they instinctively go for a strategy that minimizes personal liabilities.

Trump, whose history includes a lot of scrambling to make, and then save, complex real estate deals, is comfortable with a looser, ad hoc approach, always trying to minimize the downside, but unafraid to take calculated risks and rapidly act when events go south. And in his daily briefings with his team, he is unafraid to act and justify his actions on the basis of the best information available at the time, and then revise those decisions (such as his characterization of the seriousness of the threat) as data warrants.

To my eyes, he also seems to be getting his metaphorical sea legs as a presidential crisis leader, backing his team strongly (and receiving visible and effusive support back from them) while bringing along the public with them as they scramble to figure out together what is in the best interests of the nation.

Seven and a half months, the amount of time until the nation votes, is an eternity in politics, and a lot can happen. But right now, President Trump is solidifying his role as our leader, who is doing his best to save his allies and his foes alike from a threat that could kill any or all of us.

Photo credit: Grabien screen grab

Political tectonic plates are shifting as progs like Ilhan Omar start praising Trump’s crisis management (and as his polls rise)

At first, the growing wave of praise for President Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus catastrophe seemed like pigs flying, an unexpected and rare event. But now that the governors of deep blue California and New York have been joined by Ilhan Omar in admiring his handling of the crisis, we can see that forces far larger than individuals going rogue from Trump Derangement Syndrome are at work. TDS  is being swamped by the reality of an existential crisis.

 

Politics aside, this is incredible and the right response in this critical time. 👏🏽 https://t.co/MUzGkAxNaO

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 19, 2020

 

The latest Harris polls show rising approval for the federal government’s handling of the crisis:

Conducted using a nationally representative sample of 2,050 Americans over two waves, March 14-15 and March 17-18, the poll provided some quick feedback on how the public’s perception can change overnight even as the government shifts its response to a crisis in which the news seemingly changes by the hour.

Overall, both waves showed around 60% of Americans “satisfied” with how the federal government has handled the coronavirus crisis so far.

Of the president’s performance, 56% of the second wave approve of the way Trump has handled the COVID-19 crisis, with 44% disapproving. This is up five percentage points from the first wave, conducted only two days before. Meanwhile, Trump’s overall approval jumped four percentage points between waves, from 49% to 53%.

Democrat politicians have access to far more granular polling data that must show them that Americans want a strong leader in a time of mortal peril facing them, and that President Trump is rising to the challenge of his office. The smarter ones among them may also understand that the nonstop carping, criticizing every move that Trump has made since taking office, has created cynicism and doubt about the sincerity of the continuous nit-picking. President Trump is not about to let them forget the wave of criticism denouncing his prescient ban on arrivals from China as racist, either, so they had better get on board and earn his favor, lest they be called out.

REPORTER: “You did say a few days ago that you did have a sense that this was a pandemic that was coming. So why was the United States not prepared with more testing — “

TRUMP: “We were very prepared. The only thing we weren’t prepared for was the media. The media has not treated it fairly. I will tell you how prepared I was, I called for a ban from people coming in from China long before anybody thought it was — in fact, it was your network, I believe they called me a racist because I did that. It was many of the people in the room, they called me racist and other words because I did that, because I went so early. So when you say we weren’t prepared, had I let these tens of thousands of people come in from China a day, we would have had something right now that would have been — you wouldn’t have even recognized it compared to where we are. How many people have passed away? How many people have died as of this moment? You could multiply that by a factor of many, many, many. So when you say that I wasn’t prepared, I was the first one to do the ban. Now other countries are following what I did. But the media doesn’t acknowledge that. They know it’s true. They know it’s true, but they don’t want to write about it. Yeah, go ahead.”

The plain fact is that Americans rally behind their presidents when the nation is under attack, whether by a nation state or a virus. In recent adult memory, President George W. Bush reaped such support. Those who appear to be hobbling the effectiveness is the response to such as a personal and lethal threat earn contempt from the majority, who want to pull together to overcome the threat that faces us as a people. Nothing unifies more powerfully than an external threat to the collectivity. When Ilhan Omar understands this,  we can be sure that the message is sinking in to all but the thoroughly dysfunctional deranged (who are still numerous on the left, to be sure).

 It helps a lot that President Trump’s management style is well-adapted to crisis management in the face of an unprecedented threat full of unknowable factors. He is the very opposite of the traditional bureaucratic approach of appointing a task force and waiting for a report on the best way to handle matters. His style is to identify the best people (in his eyes) and give them room to move quickly, and monitor the results closely, making changes as the situation warrants.

The top-down bureaucratic approach minimizes visible mistakes, at least when the situation is well understood, but at the cost of delay. And bureaucrats loathe being held responsible for mistakes, so they instinctively go for a strategy that minimizes personal liabilities.

Trump, whose history includes a lot of scrambling to make, and then save, complex real estate deals, is comfortable with a looser, ad hoc approach, always trying to minimize the downside, but unafraid to take calculated risks and rapidly act when events go south. And in his daily briefings with his team, he is unafraid to act and justify his actions on the basis of the best information available at the time, and then revise those decisions (such as his characterization of the seriousness of the threat) as data warrants.

To my eyes, he also seems to be getting his metaphorical sea legs as a presidential crisis leader, backing his team strongly (and receiving visible and effusive support back from them) while bringing along the public with them as they scramble to figure out together what is in the best interests of the nation.

Seven and a half months, the amount of time until the nation votes, is an eternity in politics, and a lot can happen. But right now, President Trump is solidifying his role as our leader, who is doing his best to save his allies and his foes alike from a threat that could kill any or all of us.

Photo credit: Grabien screen grab