Actor James Woods gave his brutally honest assessment of President Donald Trump on Sunday and it turns out the commander in chief approves.
“Let’s face it. Donald Trump is a rough individual. He is vain, insensitive, and raw,” the Hollywood actor tweeted. “But he loves America more than any President in my liftetime. He is the last firewall between us and this cesspool called Washington. I’ll take him any day over any of these bums.”
President Trump re-tweeted his approval of Woods’ assessment: “I think that is a great compliment. Thank you James!”
Woods replied it was intended as a compliment. “Rough men stay the course. Treachery, however, is the most dangerous enemy a leader can face. Even Caesar succumbed to it. Be wary. Stay strong. God bless.” The actor also added the #ObamaGate hashtag.
And indeed it was intended as such, Mr. President. Rough men stay the course. Treachery, however, is the most dangerous enemy a leader can face. Even Caesar succumbed to it. Be wary. Stay strong. God bless. #ObamaGatehttps://t.co/nXnKc1en9i
Along with Jon Voight, James Woods is one of the few entertainment industry figures to openly support President Trump. The Oscar-nominated star has recently used Twitter to hit out against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for their handling of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
He has used the hashtag #KillerCuomo to draw attention to the New York governor’s ill-fated decision to require elder-care facilities to accept COVID-19 patients, which is believed to have resulted in hundreds of senior citizen deaths.
Woods has also repeatedly hammered ObamaGate, and Joe Biden’s ties to the growing scandal.
“A Democratic administration using a secret court to investigate the opposing political campaign does not matter to many in Congress or in the media anyway.” // And why? Because they are all hogs gorging themselves from the same trough. #Trump is alone. https://t.co/7J9p8dSmrN
Lindsey Graham, a salon owner in Salem, Oregon, detailed how state authorities dispatched child protective services (CPS) to her home as part of their response to her ongoing business operations in defiance of Gov. Kate Brown’s (D-OR) statewide “stay-at-home” order.
Graham, owner of Glamour Salon, described “harassment” and “bullying” directed against her by the government on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday in an interview with host Joel Pollak.
Graham recalled how an agent from Oregon’s Child Protective Services, a subsidiary of the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS), was sent to her home on the same day as the reopening of her hair salon.
“On May 7th, I got a phone call from my nanny,” said Graham. “As soon as I went to work, a DHS officer came to my home and tried to speak to her, and she said, ‘I don’t feel comfortable answering any questions for you. I think you need to call the homeowner.’ So DHS basically stopped by my house and said they had some claims against me and my family about our home being unfit.”
The same CPS agent returned to Graham’s home the following Monday, and he separated Graham and her husband from their six-year-old son in order to privately interview the child. Graham is also the mother of a three-year-old girl and an eight-week-old son.
Graham stated, “[The CPS agent] came back to my home, and my intention was, ‘Great, let this guy in and let him see what a great, loving, clean, and happy home we have, so he’ll just kind of get out of here.’ … He interviewed myself and my husband in separate rooms. He interviewed my six-year-old son in a separate room, and he searched our home. He made me lift up toilet seats and open our fridge. None of this is warranted. These are all bogus claims. Our home is completely safe and always has been, so this is definitely some kind of vendetta, sending a government agency after my family.”
LISTEN:
Graham shared the episode during a press conference held last Friday. While holding back tears, Graham shared, “Child protective services showed up my home. They questioned my husband and I. They questioned my child without me present. They searched our home, and I never expected such a violent, aggressive, vindictive thing could ever have been done to me or my family because I’m trying to learn a living [and] because I’m trying to work.”
“They wouldn’t let me in the room while they questioned my child,” Graham noted of CPS’s private questioning of her six-year-old son. “As far as I’m aware, the case is open, and they are still insisting that they want to talk to my three-year-old daughter privately, as well. So, I don’t know if they’re going to talk to my eight-week-old newborn. We’ll see, but they did check his diaper.”
“This is a false claim that wasted CPS’s valuable time when there are children who are really in need,” determined Graham.
“Everyone’s job is essential, not because of what we do or how we do it, but because it’s the way we make our living,” added Graham. “I’m continually terrified for the surrounding businesses in Marion County that are still deemed non-essential. How many more businesses are going to go bankrupt and have to close because of this order?”
WATCH:
Municipal authorities in Salem have threatened to terminate Graham’s lease, given that her business is located on property leased from the city.
Graham also said she was initially threatened with a $70,000 fine and eventually issued a $14,000 for operating a “hazardous facility” for her “employees.” She noted that her salon does not have employees but instead partners with independent contractors who voluntarily choose to work at her business.
“I don’t have employees in my salon, right now,” remarked Graham. “I have independent contractors that are choosing to work, and they are choosing to do their clients’ hair, so they can provide for their families and their children.”
Authorities further threatened to revoke Graham’s and her contractors’ professional licenses for operating in defiance of the governor’s “stay-at-home” decree.
“By revoking our licenses, they saying, ‘If you continue to do hair, we will take your entire livelihood from you for the rest of your life,’” explained Graham.
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Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill that sneaks in taxpayer funding to hand out up to $1,200 in cash directly to undocumented aliens who don’t have a valid social security number.
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson reported, “This bill goes out of its way to supply illegal immigrants who, in case you needed to be reminded, have no right to be here in the first place with billions in taxpayer dollars.”
Carlson continued, “According to House Democrats, illegal immigrants must have a right to have the $1,200 checks that American citizens received in the last bill. They would also receive the same direct payments as American citizens going forward. So in effect, it’s a huge payoff for the Democratic Party’s most cherished constituency, a group that’s not even allowed to be here.”
The bill includes language that will shield undocumented aliens from being deported due to working in so-called “essential” services.
Carlson explained, “The bill contains an amnesty provision. For the duration of the coronavirus crisis – that’s something they’d like to see extended a very long time – all illegal immigrants employed in so-called ‘essential services’ would be shielded from deportation and their employers would be shielded too. People who hire illegal aliens could not be prosecuted. This is a blanket amnesty for virtually every illegal alien who has already taken an American job.”
Republican Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana slammed Pelosi for crafting the bill without any input from any Republican representatives. Banks described Pelosi’s bill as a “grab bag” for liberal special interests.
“At the end of the day, this is a Democrat ‘grab bag’, special-interest giveaway to their base supporters. Not a single Republican had any input at all into this massive spending deal and that should tell you everything you need to know,” Banks lambasted.
Congressman Banks pointed out that Pelosi’s bill bails out Planned Parenthood’s abortion services and provides $3.5 billion to fund mail-in-ballot elections.
Pelosi’s bill will disproportionately benefit Democrat blue states by forcing fiscally responsible Republican-led states to foot the bill to bail them out.
“If you didn’t think it was bad enough that they slipped free cash for illegal immigrants into this bill, then keep reading,” said Rep. Banks. “I mean, on – you go on and on. This bill overturns some of the restrictions on the former bills to allow for bailouts to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. It bails out the U.S. Postal Service with 25 billion dollars. It gives 3.6 billion dollars to states to help states do all mail-in ballots, which are designed to help Democrats on Election Day rather than maintain fair elections nationally. You could imagine going into this election in November, that’s exactly what Democrats want to do. They want to tilt this election in their favor. So you keep reading through this bill and you find that it gets worse and worse and worse.”
Congressman Banks continued, “And in this case, in this bill that Pelosi put on the floor today that we’re going to vote on Friday, it bails out blue states like Illinois and forces taxpayers in fiscally responsible, responsible states like Indiana to pay for it. And that’s just shameful. It’s wrong. This bill is designed to help Democrats and to give bailouts to blue states. And I can’t imagine that any Republican is going to vote for it when it comes to a vote on Friday.”
Under the Pelosi bill, there will be no funds directed towards the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides forgivable loans to small businesses to stay afloat.
Senator John Barasso (R-Wyoming) weighed in, telling Fox News, “[Pelosi] says this is focused on Coronavirus. This is direct payments to illegal immigrants, but yet includes absolutely not a dime, not a dime for the Paycheck Protection Program, which has been so successful. 11,000 small businesses in Wyoming have taken part of that. Additionally, she wants to work to help release prisoners from ICE facilities, but provides no protection for the small businesses, the mom and pop businesses, that are afraid of being sued when they open again because of the sue and settle lawyers. I mean, that is the problem. This is all done with taxpayer dollars. What we need to do, and I believe we may need to do more, needs to be targeted and temporary and focused on the Coronavirus, the economic as well as the medical side of it.”
Although state lockdowns have served governors well as a heavy-handed show of force, the policies are a patent neglect of the many nuances inherent in human action.
They have led to a host of unintended consequences, including the emergence of a new health crisis – a dangerously sharp rise in mental illness. Though states are gradually wading out of lockdown, the damage has already been done and is here to stay.
Distress and Disorder
The science is clear that having meaningful human interactions is an inherent, biological need that all people share. But in the name of "public health," people are prohibited from freely and peaceably congregating. There’s no church, no "nonessential" shopping, no going into work (for many), no girls’ nights out, no going to the gym, no visiting friends, no family get-togethers. Nothing. No sacrifice can be too great in the age of COVID per the “experts.” And that’s taken a harsh psychological toll on the nation.
Extensive study has, for years, correlated social isolation with poor mental health. The need for connection is as real now as it’s ever been. Since the US had already long suffered from a loneliness crisis, the stark and sudden crop up of stay-at-home orders made this immediately much worse. As Drs. Betty Pfefferbaum and Carol North found,
A recent review of psychological sequelae in samples of quarantined people and of health care providers…revealed numerous emotional outcomes, including stress, depression, irritability, insomnia, fear, confusion, anger, frustration, boredom, and stigma associated with quarantine, some of which persisted after the quarantine was lifted.
Being whisked from normal life into the repressive conditions of lockdowns is understandably damaging. The anguish people are feeling is at astronomical levels. Schoolchilden recently surveyed in Wuhan and Huangshi during stay-at-home orders reported symptoms of depression and anxiety at a rate far higher than normal.
The same seems to be holding true for the general US population. The Crisis Text Line—a free service providing crisis counseling over SMS—has reported a 40 percent increase in recent volume, averaging over 100,000 text conversations each month. In a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll from the end of March, 47 percent of respondents under stay-at-home orders reported that COVID-related stress had negatively impacted their mental health, compared to 37 percent of respondents not facing such orders. Twenty-one percent of stay-at-homers described that impact as "major," compared to 13 percent those not locked down. Statistically speaking, that’s quite a significant gap, especially when scaled to a population of 330 million. Though there has been no reliable polling data since then, it’s easy to imagine how much worse the situation has become as the weeks have worn on.
Combine that with the financial aspect of the lockdowns, and there’s a recipe for absolute disaster. Under mandatory closure, an untold number of "nonessential" businesses—particularly small businesses—have gone insolvent or are on the brink thereof. That’s led to tens of millions of new jobless claims in just the past two months—amounting to the worst employment crisis in American history.
A vast literature connects economic downturns to a number of psychological issues, including anxiety, stress, and depression, which often spur on various high-risk behaviors. Although recessions are inherently stressful, mental health challenges usually emerge within the personal context of income and employment insecurity. With the economy in free fall, many millions of Americans have become worried about their ability to continue paying bills and putting food on the table going forward. The psychological impact that recessions have is capable of lasting for years, even after economic difficulties themselves have disappeared. With entire states having been locked down for weeks and months on end, public activity is only reemerging under the scourge of intense mental disturbance.
Self-Harm and Suicide
Although everyone is potentially at risk of developing symptoms of mental illness, those already struggling may be the most vulnerable. One user in a depression support group on Reddit recently posted, “I am going absolutely insane battling with my mind and being locked up in my house.” Another said, “Lockdown is making my depression the worst it’s ever been….I’d rather be dead than stuck in my house alone with my thoughts.” Rock-bottom feelings such as these are very often accompanied by a number of different maladaptive coping strategies, among them nonfatal self-harm.
For individuals already overloaded with anxiety and desperation, economic hardship is often the “final straw” leading to self-harm behaviors. An Irish study found the self-harm rate to have increased across the population following the Great Recession, with men between the ages of 25 and 44 impacted the most. Although this is far outside the usual age and sex demographic for self-harm, it may be explained by the heightened that stress working-aged men felt in their roles as primary breadwinners. A study in Britain after the crash also noted a spike in self-harm, associated particularly with areas seeing greater amounts of job loss. In an economy with people out of work more than ever before, that’s of considerable alarm.
Even without financial trouble, many may turn to hitting and cutting themselves just out of sheer loneliness. With face-to-face interaction hard to come by, there are few support systems for people to rely on. Despite serving a vital role in many capacities, Zoom calls clearly aren’t a cure for people’s woes, usually leaving users more exhausted than connected.
And although many health providers are providing patients with over-the-phone coverage, that sort of help may be much less effective for self-harmers. A 2013 Taiwanese study on the etiology of self-harm reasoned that “the structural conditions and quantity of support” may help alleviate the urge to self-harm more than “the quality of support received through specific networks.” Sheltered away from friends, many sufferers are left feeling that there is no escape, and telehealth services can do little to change that.
In all the lockdown mess, many have even reached the brink of suicide. The 2003 SARS outbreak led to an significant uptick in the suicide rate in Hong Kong—up to 18.6 suicides per 100,000 residents. The elderly population there was hit the worst, likely as a consequence of increased social isolation. Now, with community activities interrupted, many have become isolated from the gatherings that give their lives meaning—such as church, whose regular attendees face a suicide rate of one-fifth that of the rest of the population. “Living” means more than mere biological life—it involves a complex array of relationships, activities, and goals. But under lockdown, the world has been sapped of any semblance of true living.
Financial struggles are another common theme in suicide etiology. During the Great Recession, suicides spiked across the globe. Across just the US, the European Union, and Canada, research revealed more than ten thousand suicides connected to the downturn—again, particularly among men. Some fear that worse numbers could arise from the current economic crisis.
The Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute recently estimated that for every percentage point that the unemployment rate rises, the overall suicide rate rises 1.6 percent. Considering that last month the real unemployment rate rose to 22.8 percent (and possibly even higher), the US probably had nearly one thousand additional suicides in April stemming just from the economic shutdown. As job loss continues this month, more people are bound to take their lives—not to mention the untold effect that social isolation is having. Although national data isn’t yet available, many local suicide prevention centers have been reporting significant increases in hotline usage—around 20–30 percent on most days and as high as 100 percent on others.
Substance Abuse and Addiction
To manage lockdown stress, many have found themselves self-medicating and kicking back on old habits, which is exactly what prior research suggests. When the economy falls, the use of alcohol and other drugs tends to spike—especially among those who lose their jobs. Along with many financial stressors, spending more time at home intensifies the propensity for use, which stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines have only helped worsen.
People also seek out many addictive substances to find relief from social disconnection—which the brain can interpret as physical pain. That’s why it’s no surprise that the lockdowns have helped spell doom for those already suffering with addiction. Alone, it’s more difficult to resist relapse and misuse.
For the week ending April 25, year-over-year total off-trade alcohol sales were up 26.4 percent, down from a high of 55 percent in March when the lockdowns began. Online sales have exploded—recently growing in excess of 500 percent. But that’s not all because of people stocking up. The data has shown that more people have been buying more alcohol, of a higher proof and at a more frequent pace. That means that both consumption and sales have faced a significant uptick. Even as the rate of sales growth has slowly decreased in mid-April, year-over-year increases have remained quite high.
Alcoholics Anonymous and other nonemergency addiction resources have not been deemed “essential,” leaving those recovering to find help online or over the phone. Activity on internet support groups has shot through the roof, as have calls to addiction helplines. Many former addicts have fallen into relapse after years of sobriety, sending them back into the mire of struggles that they long thought they’d escaped.
Hard drug use is also on the rise—which is frightening, as the opioid crisis had already been wreaking havoc across the country. Call volume at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Hotline was five times higher at the end of March than it had been at the beginning of the month, and harm reduction centers are operating at limited capacity. That’s left addicts with little recourse besides continued use.
Research indicates that even in periods of decreased income, drug use remains constant. Throughout the present crisis, addicts have remained addicts and still need their fix, despite recent disruptions in the meth and heroin supply chains. To avoid withdrawal symptoms, many switch to different substances, dealers, and means of ingestion—making use more imprecise and risky. There’s also the fear that addicts who have stockpiled substances are using them at a quicker pace. As with suicides, national data has yet to emerge, but some municipal and county offices have already reported a substantial jump in overdoses since the lockdown began. Although lockdowns are temporary, their effects can be irreversible.
Other addictive behaviors also seem to be on the rise. Tobacco sales, for one, have absolutely boomed. Industry giant Altria reported that in Q1 (quarter 1), shipments of its smokeable tobacco products rose 6.2 percent and oral tobacco shipments rose 2.8 percent. Although it’s unclear how much of that is due to people stocking up, both convenience stores and online sellers have recently noticed a significant uptick in demand as well. And an increase in use would follow the same pattern as what happened during the Great Recession.
Stressed and stuck at home, people have also ramped up their porn consumption. Since the lockdowns began, PornHub traffic has consistently been above average—with a high of 23.2 percent at the end of March, when the company offered all users free premium access. When used frequently, porn can rope users into a powerfully addictive cycle, engendering psychosexual difficulties such as low libido, sexual dissatisfaction, and erectile dysfunction—even in young men.
Online, many have also begun to try their luck at gambling. Global Poker—a popular online poker room—saw a 43 percent spike in use following lockdown orders, with a remarkable 255 percent increase in first-time players. Much of that may be new traffic from gamblers who had frequented brick-and-mortar casinos—a mere shifting of activity from one channel to another. But it comes at a cost: online gambling is associated with a number of increased risks for becoming addicted. The fallout from that could take decades to move past.
Conclusion
The politicians and medical experts basking in the COVID spotlight have traded the façade of an effective public health response for the hidden realities of mental illness. As talking heads repeatedly prattled the “flatten the curve” mantra, the curves for stress, suicide, and addiction all steepened. A study by the Well Being Trust concluded that “deaths of despair”—which include all suicide and substance-related fatalities resulting from fear, unemployment, and isolation—may total seventy-five thousand by the end of the COVID crisis. Their death knells rang out the moment governors committed their states to shutting down.
And among those who live, the residual psychological and behavioral effects will remain long after the lockdowns are over—possibly for the rest of their lives. Indeed, by overstepping individual judgment, the government imposed a one-size-fits-none solution so debilitating and unprecedented that the country will never truly recover. In the long run—aside from the blips and bumps of infection and disease—the state remains the true risk to the health of the nation.
"For Lease": The Commercial Real Estate Apocalypse In Photos Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/17/2020 – 16:50
In early 2017, we first reported a bearish trade emerged which quickly gained popularity in the investment community, and was dubbed "The Next Big Short." At the time, only a few bearish funds were positioned for a "retail apocalypse" that could spur a wave of defaults.
Fast forward to today, coronavirus outbreak, and the ensuing lockdown, has essentially frozen the commercial real estate market. Buildings that were once used for restaurants, offices, hotels, spas, and or anything else that is classified non-essential have seen soaring vacancies.
This is single handily sending the commercial property market into chaos. As vacancies soar, tremendous downward pressure is being put on almost every asset class tied to commercial real estate.
The latest TREPP remittance data compiled by Morgan Stanley showed a quarter of all commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) could be on the verge of default. CMBS delinquencies surged to a new high in April as lockdowns continued:
With retail in disaster, a deluge of CMBS defaults is on the horizon. Shown below, the value of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBX Series 6 BBB- tranche) is collapsing…
For more color on the collapse, mcm-ct.com created a "subthread showing the economic devastation down here in the Lighthouse Point to Delray Beach area on a main commerce/travel route…" It appears MCM recently drove up and down a stretch of highway in South Florida, an area of great wealth, and said, "three months ago one could count "For Lease" signs on this whole route on a few hands," which now appears to have significantly multiplied during lockdowns.
Stretch of highway MCM traveled
"Here are pictures of many (probably most of the "For Lease" signs as of yesterday…remember there used to be very few just months ago…each one of these comes with tragedy before it imo and needs a VERY CREDIT WORTHY NEW TENANT willing to make a big/long-term commitment," mcm-ct.com tweeted.
"For Lease" signs along a stretch of South Florida highway
In a series of tweets, here is what MCM said about the current situation of the commercial real estate market in South Florida and the local economy:
Rebuilding credit worthiness from these aborted/terminated or insolvency related lease and business blow ups will take years. The only way this could have been prevented was if the government provided a national backstop directly BEFORE THESE SIGNS APPEARED
spoke to a lot of people recently – have yet to meet a person who got the full package of unemployment aid in FL
Many people have received the $1,200 federal government check but most have not gotten state unemployment. And many businesses are still waiting for business support
Many people do not know what to do or where to go or even how to get free food – yet these leases are suddenly going to be filled with credit worthy businesses willing to make 10 year risks based on a government that proved it will and can terminate their businesses at any time
I’m sorry, the one thing that people think when they start a business is THEY WILL DECIDE WHEN ITS OPEN barring Mother Nature or a War not self immolation and violation of constitutional rights by the US government
NOW WHEN YOU TAKE A LEASE OUT you need to factor business risk in but also add the risk of the government violating the constitution and your rights to the assessment as whether to put good money down to take on a business commitment & a lease
Regardless, the situation will take TWO YEARS BEFORE DAMAGED ENTREPRENEURS BEGIN TO BE ABLE TO REBUILD CREDIT SUFFICENT EVEN BE APPROVABLE TO TAKE A LEASE and that will be a minimum…and then there are the next waves of business that will decide to pack it in
The govt (esp marxists) screwed up a generation of business & its going to take 2 to 4 yrs to start to come back
they proved that SOCIALISM DOES NOT WORK because it does not & CAN NOT work EQUALLY for all because INTEGRITY/INDUSTRIOUSNESS/EFFORT IS NOT EFFECTIVE 4 GETTING ACCESS
And perhaps MCM is correct, as we’ve explained before, a recovery back to 2019 levels could take several years.
Not to mention, Scott Minerd, the chief investment officer of Guggenheim Investments, believes it could take upwards of "four years" for a recovery to take place adding that "to think that the economy is going to reaccelerate in the third quarter in a V-shaped recovery to the level where the gross domestic product (GDP) was prior to the pandemic is unrealistic."
The disaster unfolding on main street America will be devastating.
Before the pandemic, Shalinder Singh spent Sundays at his gurdwara, helping serve a community meal for 300 people or more at the Sikh place of worship in suburban Detroit.
Now, he’s all about pizza.
Singh and his family have paid for and delivered hundreds of pies to hospitals, police stations and fire departments since the gurdwara suspended in-person services.
They wanted to carry on a tenet of their faith: helping others through langar, the communal meal shared by all who come.
“It just popped up in my mind, this is the time to take care of the heroes in the front,” said Singh, the 40-year-old owner of a pet products company. “I spoke to a couple of doctors and they said pizza is the best because they’re working 12 to 16 hours and they don’t have time to sit and eat.”
The Singhs, including 12-year-old Arjun and 14-year-old Baani, have delivered more than 1,000 pizzas since early April, with no plans to slow down.
They drive as much as an hour to spread their pizza love once a week, as Singh continues to run his business, which is classified as essential.
“We’re trying to go to areas that aren’t getting much food,” Singh said.
In New York, 25-year-old Japneet Singh, a fellow Sikh, also thought of pizza for under-resourced hospitals and overworked, minimum wage employees in the crosshairs of the virus.
After college graduation and some time in corporate life, he most recently worked as a field supervisor for the U.S. Census Bureau and drove an Uber on the side while searching for his passion.
Then the virus struck, shutting down his work.
In the South Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, Singh’s heart went out to the desperate staff at Elmhurst Hospital Center and other hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19.
“I figured you know what, I’m sitting home,” he said. “Food always makes things better, so I asked one of my friends who works at Elmhurst Hospital, what can we do? He was like, pizza would be great. Ever since then, we haven’t looked back.”
Japneet Singh began delivering in late March; he too estimates he’s distributed 1,000 pies or more.
He makes two or three runs a week to hospitals throughout the city, and to the others in the struggle.
“There’s other people on the front line, like grocery workers. We’ve been to a Walmart, police precincts, FDNY stations. We recently started feeding the homeless,” he said.
Singh has enlisted a couple of friends willing to help deliver the food, but he’s most in need of donations; he’s paid for pizzas out of his own pocket, but it’s not enough.
“We started putting out little clips on social media and that’s how people have found us to donate,” he said. Social media has been so great. I make a post and ask, `Where should we go next?’”
He’s raised nearly $2,000. He’s been working with the owner of two Papa John’s pizzerias in Queens and Brooklyn who’s been discounting pies and donating some as well.
Store workers have been especially grateful.
“These are minimum-wage workers,” Singh said. “If we can put a smile on their faces with just a slice of pizza, why can’t we do just one small act of kindness, you know?”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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ROME — The Vatican is pulling out all the stops to woo Beijing into full diplomatic relations, according to veteran Vatican journalist John L. Allen, Jr.
In an article Sunday in Crux, a U.S.-based online Catholic news outlet, Allen wrote that the Vatican is “covetous of a relationship with China, and often apparently willing to stifle objections and give away a great deal” in order to make headway.
In short, “the Vatican is moving full-steam ahead in its courtship of Beijing, with the ultimate prize remaining full diplomatic relations, a secure legal standing for the church, and partnerships on the global stage,” Allen wrote.
His case in point was the notorious 2018 provisional accord between the Holy See and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the naming of Chinese bishops, a move that received an avalanche of criticism at the time, which has only been aggravated by ongoing CCP aggressions against Christians in the country after the deal was inked.
The Vatican’s 2018 overture to Beijing was sweetened by last month’s launch of a new Chinese edition of the Jesuit-edited journal Civiltà Cattolica, which enjoys a semi-official Vatican status, Allen noted.
Christian persecution watchdog groups as well as the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) have been harshly critical of the CCP’s egregious violations of religious liberty in the country, and yet in its many appeals against human rights abuses around the world, the Holy See has been strangely silent when it comes to China.
For his part, Pope Francis has insisted that China’s communist government protects religious freedom and that “churches are full.” Meanwhile, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Argentinian Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, has declared that the CCP has created the best model for living out Catholic social teaching today.
Mr. Allen’s evaluation of the Vatican’s courtship of China squares with what other Vatican-watchers have been noting as well.
Francis dreams of being the pope who will establish diplomatic relations with Beijing, and to achieve this goal he is willing to make “concessions,” declared Vatican analyst Alban Mikozy on French television last December.
“Pope Francis is a prudent man,” Mikozy said. “He pursues a dream: to be the sovereign pontiff who will restore relations between China and the Vatican.”
“In order to do this, he is ready to make a few concessions: say nothing about Hong Kong, do not get too excited when the Chinese leader talks about rewriting the Bible,” he added, in reference to announcements that the CCP intends to retranslate the Bible and other sacred texts to make them conform to socialist ideology.
Because of this overriding desire, Mikozy said, the pope is willing to turn a blind eye to the CCP’s violations of religious liberty and other human rights issues.
At the time, observers were quick to notice the pope’s omission of Hong Kong in his long list of troubled areas around the world in his traditional Christmas “Urbi et Orbi” message.
Among the many held up for their suffering, the pope mentioned “the Middle East,” the “beloved Syrian people,” “the Lebanese people,” “Iraq,” “Yemen,” “the whole American continent,” “the beloved Venezuelan people,” “beloved Ukraine,” “the people of Africa,” “the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” “Burkina Faso,” “Mali,” “Niger,” “Nigeria,” along with three separate shout-outs to migrants.
Yet Hong Kong, embroiled for months in an ever more violent conflict between pro-democracy protesters and the Communist China-backed government forces, received no papal acknowledgment whatsoever.
One month earlier, during an in-flight press conference returning from Asia, the pope reiterated his desire to visit China while dodging questions regarding the Hong Kong protests.
“I would like to go to Beijing,” Francis said. “I love China.”
According to Mikozy, the pope’s silence suggests that he will go to great lengths not to offend the CCP.
“A few months ago, the Chinese authorities sent the message that a meeting was possible,” Mikozy said. “The pope said he was ready for this possibility. For the moment, it is the hardliners of the Chinese regime who have held Xi Jinping back.”
In his article Sunday, Mr. Allen proposes that the Vatican’s current strategy toward Beijing reflects the pope’s stated goal of being a bridge-builder, especially in a case like China where the stakes are immensely high.
“Critics may regard all that as naïve, or weak, or even delusional, and no doubt they’ll be vocal about saying so,” Allen said.
As many as 100 Chicago area churches plan to hold in-person Sunday services in defiance of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) stay-at-home orders.
Pastor Florin Cimpean of the Philadelphia Romanian Church of God in Ravenswood said he expected around 50 to 60 people to attend services, which was about 10 percent of the congregation on a regular Sunday, according to ABC 7.
“The church is a spiritual hospital, okay. We help people with their spiritual needs, emotional needs. And this church is much safer than any other open space like Home Depot, Costco, any type of store,” he commented.
Cimpean, who grew up in Soviet-controlled Romania, added that the church served an immigrant community that survived communism in the past and felt it was threatening their freedoms once again.
“All of these restrictions, they sound more like communism,” he said at an event outside the Thompson Center on Thursday.
Former mayoral candidate Willie Wilson organized the gathering to give pastors a platform to voice their disagreement with Pritzker’s order, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Not even communists were able to completely shut down churches,” Cimpean stated. “We are essential. The spiritual, emotional and mental impact of this [coronavirus] will probably be greater long-term than the medical one.”
However, after Wilson and others urged churches to reopen and called them “essential businesses,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she found the effort dangerous.
“This is not playing Russian roulette. This is playing with a gun that’s fully loaded and cocked,” she claimed.
Wednesday on Twitter, Pritzker said there were no easy decisions during a pandemic and added that he had “sympathy for leaders struggling with those choices — but not for those so intent on disregarding science & logic that they put people’s lives at risk.”
“You weren’t elected to do what’s easy. You were elected to do what’s right,” he continued.
Despite their warnings, Cimpean said Thursday that if violating the stay-at-home order meant being arrested, he was willing to face the consequences.
“I don’t think the mayor will do that. But if they want to do that, let them come. It is what it is,” he concluded.
Perhaps a few of you have seen the ad going around paid for by something called The Lincoln Project. The 60 second spot criticizes Trump for his administration’s response to the coronavirus, seemingly blaming Trump for the virus and the knee jerk reactions of governors across the country who have ordered shutdowns of their state’s businesses, wreaking havoc on the nation’s economy.
The ad offers no constructive solution to the two primary concurrent problems. If Trump doesn’t shut down the economy, they blame him for virus deaths. If he shuts down the economy, they blame him for damage caused. Except Trump hasn’t shut down the economy, governors and other local leaders have.
The Lincoln Project is run by alleged Republicans, including loudmouth Rick Wilson and Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George. This PAC has raised nearly $2.6 Million from wealthy elitists, with a goal of apparently removing Trump from office. Though they claim to be conservative Republicans, they are hoping Trump loses reelection and are, in effect, assisting the democrats in taking over.
The top donors to the super PAC, called the Lincoln Project, are Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway, who has given $50,000; hedge fund founder Andrew Redleaf, who has contributed $25,000; and philanthropist Christy Walton, who has donated $20,000 and is the widow of one of Walmart WMT, +2.04% founder Sam Walton’s sons. That’s according to data from OpenSecrets.org, a website tracking money in politics that’s run by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Conway, Redleaf and Walton together have provided just 4% of the $2.6 million that the Lincoln Project has raised as of March 31. The super PAC has received 1,022 donations of $200 or more, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.
“Trump is attacking his conservative opposition because he knows we are softening his support in the GOP and already posses the votes to ensure his defeat in swing states in November,” Trump critic Evan McMullin told MarketWatch on Tuesday.
McMullin mounted an independent bid for the White House in 2016 and was aided in that unsuccessful effort by GOP strategist Rick Wilson, who is now one of the Lincoln Project’s advisers.
“Their objective is to defeat/end Trumpism, which probably goes beyond Trump,” Redleaf said. “Their tactic — in addition to running negative Trump ads and supporting the Democratic candidate — it’s to go after vulnerable Republicans who sort of enabled Trumpism.”
It appears as though the big corporations that are heavily invested in China, like WalMart, want a President who will be soft on the authoritarian pseudo-communist country, so they can profit billions.
INTRO & SULLIVAN’S SAVE
To begin, recall recently, after damning evidence surfaced of a corrupt FBI prosecution of an innocent 3-Star Star General, Fed Judge Emmet Sullivan was directed by the DOJ to vacate the conviction. The DOJ had already moved to drop the case. But instead, the Judge refused to reverse the plea deal and now acts like the entire matter is still a fair case. But why??
INTRO & SULLIVAN’S SAVE