President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is going so well that even Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of his most vitriolic haters, can’t help but praise his leadership.
Rep. Omar tweeted on Wednesday evening that the administration’s efforts have been “incredible and the right response in this critical time.”
Politics aside, this is incredible and the right response in this critical time. ?? https://t.co/MUzGkAxNaO
Rep. Omar went on to quote fellow “squad” member Rep. Ayanna Pressley, saying The that “unprecedented times require unprecedented leadership and we are seeing that in our country right now. I have faith that we will survive this as a nation and build together.”
“Finally, we should never let politics get in the way of good policy. This is a great start and hope others will be part of a united front to push for good policies that will help us work through the economic anxiety the country is feeling right now,” the controversial Democrat added.
Finally, we should never let politics get in the way of good policy. This is a great start and hope others will be part of a united front to push for good policies that will help us work through the economic anxiety the country is feeling right now.
The unlikely praise came was a response to The Intercept’s Lee Fang, who tweeted: “Trump suspending mortgage foreclosures, demanding cash payments to Americans, now invoking the Defense Production Act to force private firms to produce needed supplies is incredible. Kind of a shell shock for anyone who reported on any economic policies in the Obama years.”
Earlier this week President Trump invoked the 70-year-old Defense Production Act to give the government more power to steer production by private companies to make masks, ventilators and other necessary supplies to combat the pandemic.
Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on Tuesday, also praised the administration’s efforts — telling reporters, “His team is on it. They’ve been responsive. … I want to say thank you.”
There are many businesses that are scrambling in the current climate to offer different hours or amended services to still reach their customers while abiding by social distancing principles. Still other businesses are going out of their way to bless the people on the “front lines” who cannot shelter-in-place and are risking their own health to help people with theirs.
Some restaurants have extended a tasty helping hand to health providers and first responders as a gesture of gratitude, and one Mexican restaurant in Arizona is joining that trend.
Someburros can be found in several cities throughout Arizona. Started in 1986 by the Vasquez couple, the restaurant has grown and is now under the management of their children.
“Every dish on the menu tells the unique story of the Vasquez Family and their first restaurant Poncho’s, which opened in South Phoenix in 1972, showcasing the family’s signature, time-tested recipes for authentic Sonoran-style Mexican Food,” the restaurant’s “About” page on Facebook reads.
“Heirloom recipes perfected at home, with Nana – Isabel Vasquez – lovingly preparing all of the family’s favorites in her small kitchen, as her nietos waited patiently nearby to taste and share.”
As the coronavirus — and the panic surrounding it — continued to spread, one employee who’d been with the company a long time had an idea: Why not bless some deserving people with platters of delicious food?
The idea was a good one, and the Gilbert location ran with it. They decided to take platters to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center on Saturday and to Gilbert Fire Station One on Monday.
“It’s the only thing I can do,” Gilbert counter manager Jessica Hunyada told the Arizona Republic. “When I brought the food, they were kind of in shock. They were so grateful.”
Soon the other nine locations followed suit, pledging to donate between two and four platters of food to health care professionals and first responders. Twenty platters have been delivered so far, feeding over 200 dedicated doctors, nurses and firefighters.
“They have been working around the clock and they might not have time to eat,” president and co-owner Tim Vasquez said. “We just wanted to bring them a good meal.”
Photos of the deliveries were posted to Facebook, where people who were already fans of the restaurant were given a new reason to love the chain.
“Our AMAZING staff took a break from the chaos today to surprise Emergency Room nurses and doctors all over the valley with Free Fiesta Platters!” Someburros shared on Saturday. “Much [love] from all of us at Someburros. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do!”
With all the recognition Someburros has received, the Vasquez family is using their platform to highlight their values and the employees that keep the business afloat.
“Last night, as I finally laid down to go to sleep, I got a little emotional thinking about the incredible outpouring of support from our community,” a post from Wednesday reads.
“Amy and I have received messages and calls from friends, family, my kids’ teachers, their school Principal, and countless others letting me know that they stopped in to Someburros to grab a take out order or pick up some frozen burros and taquitos for home. They are doing everything they can to support us during this difficult time and we could not be any more grateful. Our family truly appreciates it.”
“However … I want to introduce you to two men. Chava, on the left, has been working with Someburros for 32 years and Bartolo on the right has been working with us for 34 years. Both of these men support their families and they are just 2 of our 350+ Someburros Familia Members.
“THEY are who we are fighting like crazy for. Our mission is to remain open so that people like Chava and Bartolo and the many others can continue to work and support their families during this crisis. The community support is working!”
“Thank you so much for supporting us and know that you are not just supporting the Vasquez family, but you are supporting countless other hardworking men and women in our family business. Mil Gracias!”
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Panic over the spread of the novel coronavirus in America had some people buying mountains of toilet paper, quickly stripping store shelves of what many now consider “white gold.”
While liberals are likely overjoyed that many are now bartering for toilet paper under the regime of President Donald Trump, the realities of the “shortage” mean it’s much less apocalyptic than it seems.
First of all, the shortage is simply a deficit on store shelves. According to The New York Times, many stores only go a day or two without before being resupplied.
This inconvenient fact hasn’t stopped the left from running with the “shortage” meme, using it to attack Trump or other figures on the right.
Political activist and Hollywood icon Bradley Whitford hinted that people would use former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s book in lieu of toilet paper:
The Twitter account for the “Swindled” podcast, which explores the world of white-collar crime, even implicated the Koch brothers — a favorite bogeyman of the left, though David Koch died last year — in profiteering off the hoarding:
In case you were wondering who is profiting from the Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020 pic.twitter.com/LG8LuzOV3j
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Not every liberal is prophesying the end times because of a lack of toilet paper, with one California state assemblywoman admitting that although store shelves may be bare, the supply chain is not.
“There’s no shortage of food or toilet paper in the supply chain,” Lorena Gonzalez wrote. “Please don’t horde.”
Dear San Diego: There’s no shortage of food or toilet paper in the supply chain. Please don’t horde. Many of my constituents can’t buy in bulk, save some for them. The tap water will continue to run (even if you can’t pay the bill.) Don’t panic. Check in on the elderly, be kind.
Of course, all that toilet paper needed to refill shelves has to come from somewhere.
Enter the humble American logger.
Contrary to what many radical environmentalists say, trees are a vital resource crucial to industries ranging from construction to the fine arts.
Even something as simple as a roll of toilet paper starts as a sapling.
“A good reminder that we need all of our natural resource workers working to protect our urban neighbors with needed supplies,” logging industry group Timber Unity tweeted Wednesday. Alongside the tweet is a photo of a logging truck loaded down with freshly cut “toilet paper ingredients.”
Raw toilet paper ingredients headed to Oregon mills today courtesy of Mike Pihl Logging, #TimberUnity board president. A good reminder that we need all of our natural resource workers working to protect our urban neighbors with needed supplies. #orleg#CapKillsJobs#coronaviruspic.twitter.com/r66wQdJIZy
One critic tried to shame the loggers for cutting down seemingly pristine forests.
Timber Unity quickly set the record straight.
“These are private, cyclical forests designed to be harvested, not state parks,” the group wrote. “New trees sequester carbon at a fast clip. Harvesting trees from rotational timber is like harvesting any other crop.”
While many on the left worry and fret about where their next roll of toilet paper will come from, blue-collar Americans are working hard every day to ensure our country never runs out of anything it needs.
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The latest narrative being perpetuated by many in the establishment media is that it is somehow “racist” to refer to the new coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan flu” or other similar terms that accurately reflect the original epicenter — Wuhan, China — of the deadly global pandemic.
This media-pushed narrative involves chastising President Donald Trump, administration officials, Republican lawmakers and even average Americans who use such descriptive terms as not only being racist but also of placing Asian-Americans in danger of being victimized in hate crimes.
Of course, the narrative is simply absurd on its face and is nothing more than a parroting of propaganda from a communist Chinese regime that is desperately seeking to dodge its responsibility for, at the very least, not being forthright in warning the rest of the world about the outbreak of the new coronavirus until long after it had escaped China’s borders to spread around the world.
Trump has routinely knocked down the ludicrous assertion from liberal journalists that using terms like “Chinese virus” is racist and has continued to use them explicitly
And he’s just received a helping hand from a conservative journalist in displaying just how absurd the communist-promoted talking point truly is.
During the coronavirus task force’s daily briefing at the White House on Thursday, One America News correspondent Chanel Rion asked the president, “Do you consider the term ‘Chinese food’ racist? Because it’s food that originates in China or it has Chinese roots?”
Trump was quick to reply “no.”
That short exchange in and of itself exposed the ridiculousness of the narrative about what people can and can’t call the virus.
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But Rion wasn’t done, and the rest of her question set the president up perfectly to take on and knock down the collective liberal media that has been, in essence, doing the dirty work of the communist Chinese regime by pushing the decidedly unserious narrative about what colloquial names for the virus are acceptable.
“Major left-wing news media, even in this room, have teamed up with Chinese Communist Party narratives, and they’rre claiming you are racist for making these claims about Chinese virus,” Rion said. “Is it alarming that major media players, just to oppose you, are consistently siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicalism, Latin gangs and cartels? And they work right here at the White House with direct access to you and your team.”
Trump replied, “It amazes me when I read the things that I read. It amazes me when I read The Wall Street Journal, which is always so negative. It amazes me when I read The New York Times.”
He also mentioned The Washington Post and noted that those papers aren’t distributed or widely read in the White House any longer.
The president pointed out that, almost on a weekly basis, the media would concoct some new slogan or strategy to try to harm him politically, with last attempt being a rehash of the “chaos in the White House” narrative.
“It is fake news. It’s more than fake news; it’s corrupt news,” he said, noting how media outlets would often write stories without ever calling him or anyone else in the White House to seek comment.
“These are very dishonest media sources. They’re very dishonest,” Trump said. Rion chimed in again and said, “They’re more than dishonest, they’re siding with state propaganda over you.”
“Well, I think they do,” the president replied. “They are siding with China, they are doing things that they shouldn’t be doing. They’re siding with many others, China is the least of it.
“So why they’re doing this, you’ll have to ask them, but if we had an honest media in this country, our country would be an even greater place.”
This question from OAN’s Rion was brilliant for a couple of reasons: First, she made her initial question so absurd that the media couldn’t resist picking it up in an effort to try and dunk on her.
In so doing, they’ve helped highlight just how absurd their “racism” narrative really is.
Second, her question provided Trump with an opportunity to slam the “fake news” media — not that he needs much of an excuse to do so — and expose to the American people just how dishonest the media truly is.
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One of the things that sets the United States apart from the rest of the world is that we are supposed to have certain civil liberties guaranteed to us by the U.S. Constitution. Of course the U.S. Constitution has been absolutely trampled on by many of our leaders for decades, but most Americans still deeply cherish the basic rights which are enshrined in our founding document. Unfortunately, many of our politicians are convinced that all of those rights can be taken away during a “national emergency”, and these days the bar for declaring a “national emergency” has been set very low. Yes, this coronavirus pandemic is a major threat, and experts are warning that millions of Americans could die.
But in the process of fighting this virus, we don’t want to relinquish the freedoms that previous generations of Americans fought so hard to secure for us. As history has demonstrated, once certain freedoms are gone they can be exceedingly difficult to get back. We are now being warned that this pandemic could last 18 months or longer, and losing any of our freedoms for that long is absolutely unthinkable.
Unfortunately, some of our politicians are apparently thinking about the unthinkable.
I would like for you to consider something that California Governor Gavin Newsom just told the media very carefully…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a Sunday presser said that martial law was not necessary to combat coronavirus in his state.
“If you want to establish a framework of martial law, which is ultimate authority and enforcement, we have the capacity to do that, but we are not feeling at this moment that is a necessity,” Newsom said.
At this moment?
Does that mean that later on it may become “a necessity”?
And why would he even dare to use the term “martial law” anyway?
Less than 200 Americans have died during this pandemic so far. Yes, the numbers are rising rapidly, but no politician in their right mind should be allowing the term “martial law” to escape from their lips.
That is just going to freak everyone out and cause even more panic.
Without a doubt, citizens of California are already on edge due to the severe restrictions that have already been implemented. In southern California, Orange County officials have decided to ban virtually all “public and private gatherings”…
Orange County officials Tuesday took unprecedented action by banning all public and private gathers beyond those of a single household as jurisdictions across the world grapple with the spread of coronavirus.
County health officer Dr. Nicole Quick issued the order effective immediately prohibiting “all public and private gatherings of any number of people, including at places of work, occurring outside a single household or living space.”
In Northern California, about 8 million people have been ordered to shelter in place. The Southern California city of Palm Springs issued a similar mandate.
In all one in four Californians live in an area where there is a stay at home when possible order.
Hopefully these measures will slow the spread of the virus.
But what if they don’t?
And unless the other 49 states enact similar lockdowns at the same time, people are going to keep bringing the virus back into the state.
At this point COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire all over the nation. If you can believe it, even a couple members of Congress have now caught the virus…
Two members of Congress, Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ben McAdams, have tested positive for coronavirus in one day, causing other members who may have been exposed to go into self-quarantine and raising the question of whether there are more cases on Capitol Hill.
But most Americans still seem to believe that this pandemic isn’t actually that serious.
62 percent of Americans believe that the media has exaggerated the threat of coronavirus, according to a new Pew Research poll.
The results of the survey found that 63 percent of Americans believe the CDC and public health officials have got the risk of COID-19 about right, with just 21 percent believing they have exaggerated the risks.
To me, the mainstream media was actually very slow to recognize the seriousness of this story.
If they had started warning people much earlier, we would be in far better shape today.
I keep trying to get people to understand that you do not want this virus.
“Imagine your lungs turning solid. It’s like suffocating without holding your nose,” said Harris who owns an auto body shop and typically run 5 miles every day.
“Every time I lay down my breathing gets lower and lower. I thought my lungs would fail me. I was screaming for mercy and praying to God.”
Does that sound like it is “just like the flu” to you?
Sadly, the truth is that we are just in the very early chapters of this pandemic. According to Dr. Deborah Birx, it is likely that the number of confirmed cases inside the U.S. will “dramatically increase” over the next several days…
“We will see the number of people diagnosed dramatically increase over the next four to five days,” Dr. Deborah Birx, of the White House’s coronavirus task force, said at a news conference.
The number of cases in New York state grew by more than 1,200. More than 500 of those were in New York City.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there are likely “tens of thousands” of COVID-19 cases in the state by residents who never knew they had the illness.”
An increase in testing is “revealing more cases,” Cuomo said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer. “I think it is much more widespread than any of these numbers suggest.”
So yes, this virus is a very serious threat and this pandemic requires a very strong national response.
However, we have got to find a way to fight this virus and maintain our constitutional rights at the same time.
I understand that it isn’t always going to be easy to find the right balance, and the temptation for our leaders to overreact is going to be overwhelming at times.
But defeating this virus won’t be any sort of a “victory” if we lose what it means to be Americans while we are doing it.
So let us battle COVID-19 with great courage, but let us also carefully guard our constitutional rights whenever they are threatened.
Washington — There is a new book out that bids fair to win this year’s J. Gordon Coogler Award for The Worst Book of the Year, and remember, the year has just begun. The dreadful effort is "The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For: How a New Generation of Leaders Will Transform America." Its author is Charlotte Alter. The book takes its dreadful title from a dreadful speech given back in 2008 by presidential candidate Barack Obama, entitled, dreadfully enough, "The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For.
Hospitals in Massachusetts have been ordered to cancel any “nonessential, elective invasive procedures” and focus on fighting those infected with the Chinese coronavirus, but apparently abortions are “essential” and will continue in the state.
Hospitals will be cancelling procedures like colonoscopies and knee replacements, but if you want to abort a baby, they have you covered.
“Terminating a pregnancy is not considered a nonessential, elective invasive procedure for the purpose of this guidance. However, the ultimate decision is based on clinical judgment by the caring physician,” a memo from the Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality in Massachusetts stated, according to a report from MassLive.com.
The memo went on to suggest that providers “use their discretion on invasive procedures that must move forward to ‘preserve the patient’s life and health,’ though the order states that doesn’t apply to canceling or delaying life-sustaining care.”
In Texas, abortions may be slowed down however, as LifeSiteNews reports Joe Nelson, an abortionist in the Lone Star State, “is now self-quarantining for 14 days.”
Nelson has said of his quarantine that “he was mostly worried about how his unplanned absence might affect women’s ability to get abortions in the state.”
“Potentially, it could have a huge impact. There are not that many doctors who provide abortion care in Texas. A lot of the doctors that do come in from out of state. In a situation where doctors are less likely to want to travel, if there’s no one to cover me, patients will have to wait,” Nelson continued.
LSN noted that the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute has also expressed concern that abortions will be harder to get during the pandemic. The organization fretted in a statement that government funding is now focused on issues related to the coronavirus, “which would take funding away from reproductive health programs and decrease access for patients who rely on free or subsidized care. Likewise, the need for new precautionary equipment, training and protocols will further draw time and resources away from other work, including projects and programs related to sexual and reproductive health.”
The organization also speculated that speculated that “if pregnant women and infants are found to be at heightened risk” from the coronavirus, “that may prompt some people to avoid having children and could lead to increased demand for contraceptive and abortion services.”
Lockdowns are rippling across the world this week, with an accelerating number of cities, counties — and entire countries — issuing mandatory ‘shelter in place’ orders.
Whether you saw this coming or not (and way too many didn’t), here we all are. Stuck at home for….how long? We don’t know yet.
A few weeks? A month? Two months?
It all depends on the degree and intensity of the spread of the covid-19 virus in our own communities. Local mileage will vary.
So, how are you going to make it through this prolonged period of house arrest? Without getting sick, going broke, or being driven crazy?
As the folks who have been updating you daily since January on the unfolding coronavirus outbreak, here’s our definitive Home Lockdown Survival Guide.
We’ve written this to be a comprehensive collection of the resources you need to stay safe, sane and solvent through the covid-19 crisis. And it’s a great tool for getting everyone in your household on the same page — print it out and have them read it. In it, we cover these key essentials:
Stocking Your Home For Success
Staying Physically Healthy
Staying Emotionally Healthy
Staying Financially Solvent
Getting Onboard The Lockdown Train
Before we get to the tactical recommendations, mentally buying in to the rationale for staying at home will be key to your overall success.
Yes, lockdowns are extremely inconvenient (at best). They require real sacrifice. For many, like those losing their source of income during this shutdown, the sacrifice may be more than you were prepared to make.
There’s no way to sugar-coat the pain of this sacrifice. But understanding the larger context for it helps greatly with bearing its burden. These lockdowns are happening to protect you and your loved ones, as well as to save the lives of many people you’ll never meet.
We can argue later on whether our leaders could have taken smarter action earlier (they sure could have, IMO), but there’s no doubt that what’s needed most RIGHT NOW is social distancing on a massive scale.
Here’s the math explaining why. Don’t worry, I’ll keep this really, really simple to understand.
This is the equation that epidemiologists use to calculate the exponential spread of a virus like covid-19 (yes, it looks complicated, but hang with me):
E = the average number of people an infected person comes into contact with each day
p = the probability of each person-to-person exposure resulting in an infection
Nd = the number of infected people on a given day
Here’s all you need to know about this equation: The only factor we have direct control over at this point is "E". We can control how many person-to-person exposures happen. That’s the entire goal of a lockdown: to drive that variable as close to zero as possible.
So that’s each of our shared mission right now at this important moment in history — to do our part to minimize person-to-person contact. That’s how we will collectively thwart this honey badger of a virus.
And here’s why this is so important. Of course, none of us wants to get sick, nor do we want our family members to get sick either.
But covid-19’s greater danger to society is its ability to overwhelm our health care system. Which it is currently doing in China, Italy and Iran, and is projected to do in many other countries including the US.
At current calculations, there are only a small fraction of the needed beds, respirators, medications, doctors and nurses needed to care for the millions of seriously ill patients expected within the next sixty days.
Drowning under that volume, not only can our health system not adequately care for those sick with the coronavirus, it won’t be able to care for any and all other issues.
Having a baby? Break your leg? Need cancer treatment? There very well may not be a doctor or nurse available to see you. And the last place you’ll want to go is a hospital, which will have become covid-19 breeding grounds at that point.
If you’ve not yet heard of the Flatten The Curve! movement, that’s what these lockdowns are all about.
By slowing the spike in infections, lockdowns reduce the crushing wave of sick arriving at our hospitals and clinics and give our health care workers a fighting chance to keep things working.
Just as World War 2 called on the masses to support the war effort by forgoing staples, donating time and funds, and planting ‘victory gardens’, this is our generation’s great call to service.
Keeping that context in mind, that your sacrifice is for the greater good of both your immediate family as well as the global community, will help make home confinement feel less like a personal punishment from the universe.
Is Your Home Stocked For Success?
Now that you’ve got the right mindset in place, let’s look at the best supplies and resources to have on hand during your lockdown.
Of course, the best time to acquire these was weeks ago when we issued our Alert to stock up back on January 24th. But don’t despair if you’re just getting started now. There’s still opportunity to get your hands on many of the recommended items below, either via local sources, online delivery, or from generous folks in your neighborhood.
Get what you can and make the best of it.
Focus on the basics:
a deep food pantry should access to the grocery store get cut off
PPE and cleaning supplies to prevent covid-19 infection
medicine/first aid supplies should you need to self-treat (any health condition)
backup/emergency preparations should utilities become unavailable for a prolonged period
We’ve published numerous articles, podcasts and videos on PeakProsperity.com over the past two months covering these topics. Below are links to help you get up to speed fast if you don’t already have sufficient preps in place.
Food
At this stage, many grocery stores have had their shelves picked bare by panicked customers. But the lockdowns should diminish the surge and give stores a chance to re-stock somewhat, especially on bulk staples.
As you’re able, get groceries, daily if you can, buying extra on each trip to increase your home food stores. The goal should be to get at least two weeks of supply for everyone in your household, working your way up to a month’s supply or more.
For guidance on what to get, how much to get, and how to store it, here are two excellent free resources:
You may find that stores soon start limiting the amount that you buy of certain items. That’s OK. Just buy what you can, when you can, being sure not to take an unfair share (i.e., don’t be a hoarder!).
PPE/Sanitizers/Cleaning Supplies
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is what you wear to prevent from getting covid-19 virus particles from getting in your body. This is what you should wear any time you need to leave your house for anywhere you suspect infected people could be. These include masks, gloves, eye protection, and gowns/coveralls.
Sadly, supplies for most of these have long since sold out. Even medical staff are experiencing an acute shortage.
Similarly, many alcohol-based sanitizers are now hard to find.
But bleach and other cleaning supplies are still available. And you never know, you may be able to locate some of the more out-of-stock PPE from local sources or friends who have extra. So it’s definitely worth the effort to look and ask around.
As mentioned above, you want to avoid going to the hospital as it fills up with serious coronavirus cases. Your doctor may not even be available to see you.
So you want to prepare to self-treat for any non-life threatening condition. This includes setting up a ‘sick room’ should anyone in your family contract the virus (keep in mind that 80%+ of cases are relatively mild).
Here’s guidance on what to strive to have in place:
The odds of losing access to basic utilities while in lockdown is low. But it’s not inconceivable.
If the virus were to spread fast enough, there simply may not be enough workers who are well enough to keep critical services running. Also, a natural disaster could occur that disrupts power and water (for example, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck Salt Lake City just this morning).
If you’re well stocked on the items above and have the capacity to plan for this, here’s our guidance:
All right, if you’ve got all the above in place. Then home lockdown becomes a matter of "What do I do with all this time?"
We’re going to start with staying physically healthy, as that’s the primary goal here: to keep as many folks out of the hospital system as possible.
Hygiene
This is your first and best line of defense against virus particles. First: don’t get them on you. Second: don’t get them in you.
Social distancing. Wash your hands often (with soap or sanitizer). Don’t touch your face/mouth/nose/eyes. Shower daily. Wash your clothes often. Basic advice; but it’s important because it works.
Physical activity is the "miracle pill". If we could bottle its benefits, every doctor would prescribe it.
You now have time in your day for exercise. Make it part of your routine. It will keep you healthy, boost your immune system, improve your outlook (endorphins!), and you’ll enjoy it, especially if you do it as playful activity.
Go for a solo walk or run.
If you have a yard, play with your family (frisbee, whiffle ball, tag — whatever gets you moving).
For those with less space, YouTube is full of home exercise routine videos. And now, many gyms (such as Planet Fitness here) and yoga studios are posting a daily free home workout on their websites during the coronavirus lockdown.
Sleep
Sleep is critical to a well-functioning immune system, and yet so many of us have terrible sleep hygiene.
Put the screens away at least an hour before bed. That means *any* screen: TV, laptop, smartphone. Get a full 8 hours of sleep (You have the time! You’re not commuting or having to take the kids to school). Don’t eat close to bedtime.
Often overlooked, exposure to sunlight is very important to our immune system, our overall health, and our emotional state. It’s estimated that more than 40% of American adults are vitamin D deficient.
Over the past two months, we have seen numerous medical studies like this one indicating the vitamin D helps prevent the kind of acute respiratory tract infections covid-19 victims are dying of.
Sunlight is our best source of vitamin D. Be sure to get at least 15-30 minutes of midday sun exposure at least 3 times per week.
Supplements
Other key vitamins, especially C and A, are also being found to help your body’s defenses against covid-19 — and other types of diseases, too.
There’s a wide range of immune-system boosting supplements and herbs, many of them natural, that you can take to increase your odds of remaining uninfected, or recovering more quickly.
As I’ve written about previously, when it comes to persevering through adversity, success is much more dependent on mental fortitude than physical.
You need to have a clear picture of the payoff that will come from the sacrifice and suffering. In popular cultural parlance, this is referred to asUnderstanding Your WHY
That’s why the recommendations here began with emphasizing the huge importance that Flattening The Curve has to your family’s welfare, and that of your country (and the global community at large). Once you really ‘get it’, it makes the hardships of home lockdown a lot more tolerable.
First, Have ‘The Talk’
And while you may now ‘get it’, members of your family may not yet. Especially the young and, somewhat surprisingly, the old.
Kids and young adults, being who they are, tend to discount risk and ignore consequences. The popular perception that covid-19 is an ‘old folks disease’ only makes them worry even less. Most of them get cabin fever quickly and just want to go out and hang with their friends.
A surprising number of seniors are equally hard to influence to take the coronavirus seriously, especially if they’re grandparents. These folks tend to be set in their ways, have survived a lot of other ‘scares’ over the decades (so why should this one be any different?), and are damned if they’re going to be deprived of seeing their grandkids.
But when it comes to keeping your house virus-free, your defense is only as good as its weakest link. If your kids are socializing, they risk bringing covid-19 back into the house when they return. The same is true when grandma insists on going to her bridge group.
You will be fighting a losing battle, and likely getting angry and resentful in the process, if you hold yourself to a different safety standard than the others living in (or visiting) your home. Which is why you need to sit everyone who is or will be in your home over the lockdown and have "the talk".
The goal is to guide everyone to mutual understanding and agreement. Do we all agree it’s important to avoid infection? What level of safety standards will everyone embrace?
A particularly good example of how to have this talk with older parents is presented here. Besides educating them on the scary stats of just how damaging and deadly this virus is on the elderly, one successful strategy is helping them see your concerns for their safety as ‘acts of love’ (vs needless nagging).
With teens, it’s a challenge. But these three tactics are helpful:
Connect their risk to their at-risk relatives. "Yes, if you get infected you’ll likely be better in a matter of days. But do you realize that if grandma or grandpa catches it from you, they could die?"
Dispel the myth that all youth don’t have to worry. There’s growing evidence that a larger percent of youth than previously assumed get serious complications from covid-19. This can result in long-term decrease in lung capacity for those who ‘recover’. While not confirmed by the data yet, youth who vape may be at higher risk of permanent lung damage from coronavirus.
Set a red line with older teens/adult children. "Hey, if you’re intent on going out and socializing, that’s your call. But you can’t live here at home if you do. Home needs to be safe." For example, for those with college students, it may be preferable for all involved to send your child back to campus (if the dorms are open) and let them ride out the lockdown there. If they get sick, chances are high they won’t need hospitalization. They’ll be happy being around their friends, and you’ll be relieved not having to worry about them breaching your virus barriers on a daily basis.
Once you’ve had "the talk", everyone then understands why the house rules are the way they are.
Everyone may not necessarily agree with them, but this shared understanding greatly increases your odds they’ll be followed and respected.
Keep The 4 Horsemen At Bay
When living in prolonged close proximity with others, life gets hard fast if your relationships aren’t harmonious.
John Gottman, renowned therapist of Blink! fame, has been able to prove that relationship harmony is at greatest danger from allowing any one of the following toxic behaviors to fester: Criticism, Defensiveness, Stonewalling and Contempt.
To understand what each of these are and to see examples in practice so you can be aware of how to avoid letting these creep into your own behavior, click here to read Dealing With Disagreement in Relationships.
Look, you put people in prolonged confinement under stressful conditions and you’re going to have disagreements arise. It’s only natural.
So rather than letting that distract and divide you when it happens, prepare in advance and learn how to conduct the necessary repair work when conflict inevitably does occur.
Our Gottman-based premium report How To Manage Conflict & Build Relationships That Last walks you through the mechanics of how to build up sufficient relationship ‘capital’ to weather most disagreements, and how to successfully repair and rebuild it when really big disagreements arise.
This report is one of the most valuable resources we have to offer folks living together in lockdown. It’s worth every penny of the $30 to subscribe.
Embrace Purpose & Meaning
Take a moment to appreciate that we’re living through history right now.
For good or ill, this is a momentous time. One that may forever change our way of life.
Our routines have been broken. That frees us to focus on areas we previously felt our busy lives had no time for.
Sure, binge-watch that Netflix series you’ve been craving to. But beyond that, use this unasked-for gift of time to explore ways to give your life more meaning:
Practice mindfulness — being present in the moment, grateful for the blessings you do have, and more aware of the things in your life you’d like to change.
Visualize — once things get back to ‘normal’, what improvements would you like to see in your life? Research shows that clarifying our goals makes it much more likely we’ll actually achieve them. And with the extra time you have on lockdown, you may be able to use some of it to make strides towards the ‘new you’.
Journal — as mentioned, we’re living through history. Capture your experience and observations. Research shows that naming our emotions and acknowledging traumatic events has a positive impact on the psyche. Also, your great-grandchildren will be fascinated if they ever discover it.
Constructive Activity
"Idle hands are the Devil’s tools" goes the old saying. So keep your household busy.
Create a routine. Have dedicated times of the day when it’s expected that each resident will be occupied in "constructive" activity.
For adults that may be actual work, or bill paying, or home projects. For kids it can be homeschooling/online learning (for school or just personal development), household chores, or brain-developing play.
Free Time/Alone Time
Equally as important is allowing each family member to find a little solitude in their day.
Whether it’s to use the time to process their feelings, read a book, zombie out on Snapchat, or just get a break from the folks they’re stuck inside with for God-knows-how-long, unstructured time alone is a huge catalyst for comfort and happiness.
If Things Get Really Tough…
Households have their stresses under the best of times. Living in open-ended confinement during one of history’s greatest health crises is enough to break the tightest of family bonds.
If conflict arises that you simply can’t diffuse, and it endangers the mental or physical health of anyone in your household, reach out to the experts.
In today’s age, most therapists have the ability to see clients online (I should know, I’m married to one). And check with your employer, an increasing number of companies now offer free therapy hours as an employee health benefit.
And since many therapists are under lockdown, as well, they have both the time and the personal experience to relate to the tensions you’re under. Having an impartial, trained professional walk you and your family through ways to find common ground and de-fuse conflict can be a literal life-saver in trying times like now.
Staying Financially Solvent
Perhaps second only to dying or losing a family member to covid-19 is the fear of losing your income and savings due to it. Too many people already are.
Losing Your Income
As of this writing (3.18.20), 18% of US households have already reported someone being laid off or having their hours reduced because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that at least 3 million jobs will be lost by summer.
And this is just the start. US Treasury Secretary and member of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force, Stephen Mnuchin, predicts that the nation’s unemployment rate will jump from 3% to 20% as a result of the economic damage resulting from covid-19.
If you’re among those who has already lost their job or are concerned that you may soon be a casualty of layoffs by your employer, read our premium report The Layoff Survival Handbook. It provides detailed advice on the specific steps to take before and after losing your job.
When we issued this report last year we knew it was relevant then to millions of workers whose jobs were at risk from automation, outsourcing, poor management, corporate over-indebtedness, and a number of other risks — but we had little inkling how relevant it would be to the millions more now losing their jobs from today’s twin coronavirus/market-meltdown crises.
Losing Your Savings
One of the crueler aspects of this coronavirus outbreak is that, as happens with exponential events, it has gotten far worse faster than most people could imagine. And faster than they can mentally adjust to.
Just as folks were starting to wrap their brains around the idea that covid-19 was not "just the flu", suddenly all the schools are cancelled, non-essential businesses are forced to close, and everyone’s being placed on lockdown.
And if that wasn’t head-spinning enough, the markets have been in unprecedented free-fall. It’s now official: this is the fastest stock market drop of this magnitude in history.
So folks are being hit with the one-two gut punch of losing their way of life AND losing 30%+ of their hard-earned savings at the same time.
Is it over yet? Or is it going to fall much more? are questions we’re hearing daily from panicked investors, many of whom are contacting us from home, where they have nothing but time to watch their portfolios bleed out further with each daily drop (the markets closed limit-down again today)
While no one has a crystal ball, we at Peak Prosperity have been warning for years about the risk of such a market breakdown. From our perspective, while there will likely be some relief rallies in the coming days and weeks, we think the structure of the market (as well as the vigor of the global economy) is being permanently impaired.
Meaning: we won’t be returning to "the way it was before". And that lower prices are highly likely over the rest of the year (for reasons well-articulated in our recent interviews with renown investors John Hussman and Steen Jakobsen, which can be viewed here)
The good news is that there is still time to reposition your portfolio for greater safety, even and especially if you’re one of those whose savings has taken a beating this month.
We discuss the many reasons why taking corrective action now is so important in this short video with the lead partners of New Harbor Financial, the financial advisor endorsed by Peak Prosperity — who have managed to protect their clients’ accounts from virtually all of the market’s recent -33% drop (at last check, New Harbor’s general portfolio was actually *up* during this plunge)
Watch the video and then talk with a professional financial advisor who understands the reasons why the market is breaking down (i.e., not a lazy ‘buy and hold’ buffoon who was caught flat-footed), and formulate a plan to protect your portfolio from future loss. One day it will be time to redeploy your savings into attractively-priced quality assets, that day is not here. Focus now on keeping your powder safe and dry.
If you already work with such a professional, great! Hopefully they’ve saved you a bundle by avoiding the market’s fall. But if you’re having trouble finding a good one, consider scheduling a free consultation with the team at New Harbor.
They’ll review your portfolio and offer their thoughts on what your best next steps should be — completely free and with no commitment to work with them. This is a service we’ve worked out with them for Peak Prosperity’s readers.
You can schedule your free consultation by clicking here.
Information Without Action Is Useless
As we often emphasize here at PeakProsperity.com, "information without action is useless"
This guide is only valuable if you put its recommendations to work. So print it out and circle at least 3 actions you commit to taking in the next 24 hours.
Once you’ve put those into motion circle 3 news ones. And so on…
And be sure to share this with the folks going through lockdown with you. It will help getting you all on the same page, plus they may have other good ideas to add to the thinking here.
To that point, this Lockdown Survival Guide is intended to be a living document. As we have additional helpful recommendations, we’ll add them above. So if you have any good candidates, please share them in the Comments section below.
Good luck persevering through the coming weeks. These are unprecedented and historic times, and we’re going through them together, even if we’re doing so squirreled away in our own homes.
Follow Chris’ daily video updates on our YouTube channel to keep informed of the latest covid-19 developments. And lean on the tribe here should you ever need moral support in these trying times. Hang in there, this too shall pass. And stay safe!
The Atlantic Monthly has taken a beating for its China apologetics. In the wake of the coronavirus, or now, China virus crisis, circumstantial evidence suggests it’s trying to find as many creative reasons for justifying Chinese propaganda.
The Federalist did a ferocious takedown of The Atlantic’s press apologetics, and featured multiple examples from several of its most vaunted writers.
Instead of investigating or writing about China’s propaganda machine working in real time as we watch the virus rapidly spread across the globe, journalists at The Atlantic are more interested in writing their own pro-China, anti-American virus hot takes. Here are the receipts.
Disputing the name “Wuhan virus” is China’s first big hurdle in distancing themselves from the virus. They would much prefer “coronavirus” or the scientific name “COVID-19,” despite the fact that scientists and doctors have a long-held practice of naming a new disease after a population or the site of its first major outbreak. So of course one of the easiest positions for The Atlantic to publish was: Wuhan = bad, COVID-19 = good, and for good measure, blame the name discrepancy on “conservatives” deploying “racist tropes.”
It’s “an extraordinarily shoddy piece of writing,” sniffed Anne Applebaum on Twitter, despite the article’s classic essay structure – intro, thesis, three supporting points. There was one ignorant-looking typo in it, but that’s hardly enough to call it “extraordinarily shoddy.” Maybe plain shoddy, but doesn’t rise to even that with one typo. More likely, it sounds like the essay stung.
Though she’s still ranting on about how America is the problem and has gotten its comeuppance with the coronavirus (imagine her long face if the crisis ends earlier than projected), The Atlantic did do an about-face and ran a truly China-critical piece by one Shadi Hamid, who apparently also does columns.
Aside from a couple of obligatory shots at President Trump, it’s a terrific piece, one that outlines all the reasons the Chicoms are to blame for the coronavirus, along with a hearty defense of President Trump’s insistence on calling it the “China virus.” He acknowledges the reality of Chinese propaganda, describes what the key points are, and then lays out the argument tht China is solely to blame in a piece one can relish. He begins very bluntly with this and never backs down:
The evidence of China’s deliberate cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan is a matter of public record. In suppressing information about the virus, doing little to contain it, and allowing it to spread unchecked in the crucial early days and weeks, the regime imperiled not only its own country and its own citizens but also the more than 100 nations now facing their own potentially devastating outbreaks. More perniciously, the Chinese government censored and detained those brave doctors and whistleblowers who attempted to sound the alarm and warn their fellow citizens when they understood the gravity of what was to come.
Which represents a significant about-face for The Atlantic. Suddenly, they’ve changed their tune, coming right on the heels of the criticism of them as a de facto Chinese agent.
I am sure the neverTrumps and deep-state-aligned Trump haters over at the Atlantic will continue their chorus of disapproval of the U.S. president. But it’s surprising indeed to see a hard finger of blame going to China from a magazine that has bent over backwards to praise and justify China. All of a sudden this sort of piece gets in, right after the Federalist criticism?
Something tells me they’re scrambling at the Atlantic to shake the ‘Chinese water boy’ designation.
The Atlantic Monthly has taken a beating for its China apologetics. In the wake of the coronavirus, or now, China virus crisis, circumstantial evidence suggests it’s trying to find as many creative reasons for justifying Chinese propaganda.
The Federalist did a ferocious takedown of The Atlantic’s press apologetics, and featured multiple examples from several of its most vaunted writers.
Instead of investigating or writing about China’s propaganda machine working in real time as we watch the virus rapidly spread across the globe, journalists at The Atlantic are more interested in writing their own pro-China, anti-American virus hot takes. Here are the receipts.
Disputing the name “Wuhan virus” is China’s first big hurdle in distancing themselves from the virus. They would much prefer “coronavirus” or the scientific name “COVID-19,” despite the fact that scientists and doctors have a long-held practice of naming a new disease after a population or the site of its first major outbreak. So of course one of the easiest positions for The Atlantic to publish was: Wuhan = bad, COVID-19 = good, and for good measure, blame the name discrepancy on “conservatives” deploying “racist tropes.”
It’s “an extraordinarily shoddy piece of writing,” sniffed Anne Applebaum on Twitter, despite the article’s classic essay structure – intro, thesis, three supporting points. There was one ignorant-looking typo in it, but that’s hardly enough to call it “extraordinarily shoddy.” Maybe plain shoddy, but doesn’t rise to even that with one typo. More likely, it sounds like the essay stung.
Though she’s still ranting on about how America is the problem and has gotten its comeuppance with the coronavirus (imagine her long face if the crisis ends earlier than projected), The Atlantic did do an about-face and ran a truly China-critical piece by one Shadi Hamid, who apparently also does columns.
Aside from a couple of obligatory shots at President Trump, it’s a terrific piece, one that outlines all the reasons the Chicoms are to blame for the coronavirus, along with a hearty defense of President Trump’s insistence on calling it the “China virus.” He acknowledges the reality of Chinese propaganda, describes what the key points are, and then lays out the argument tht China is solely to blame in a piece one can relish. He begins very bluntly with this and never backs down:
The evidence of China’s deliberate cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan is a matter of public record. In suppressing information about the virus, doing little to contain it, and allowing it to spread unchecked in the crucial early days and weeks, the regime imperiled not only its own country and its own citizens but also the more than 100 nations now facing their own potentially devastating outbreaks. More perniciously, the Chinese government censored and detained those brave doctors and whistleblowers who attempted to sound the alarm and warn their fellow citizens when they understood the gravity of what was to come.
Which represents a significant about-face for The Atlantic. Suddenly, they’ve changed their tune, coming right on the heels of the criticism of them as a de facto Chinese agent.
I am sure the neverTrumps and deep-state-aligned Trump haters over at the Atlantic will continue their chorus of disapproval of the U.S. president. But it’s surprising indeed to see a hard finger of blame going to China from a magazine that has bent over backwards to praise and justify China. All of a sudden this sort of piece gets in, right after the Federalist criticism?
Something tells me they’re scrambling at the Atlantic to shake the ‘Chinese water boy’ designation.
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