Covid-19; Update, Apparently It Does Impact The Children
Published December 9, 2020
In the Granite School District in Utah, nearly 14,000 in-person and online students received one or more F grades or incompletes in the first quarter — more than twice the number from the first quarter in 2019. Another 1,200 students received all Fs or incompletes — a whopping five times greater than last year.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2020/11/08/thousands-utah-students/
Covid-19 vaccine: First person receives Pfizer jab in UK:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55227325
Oregon's McNary High School located in Salem-Keizer Public School district, 38% of grades in late October were failing, compared with 8% in normal times. Also, hundreds of students initially had not just Fs, but grade scores of 0.0%, indicating they simply were not participating in school at all.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/schools-confront-off-rails-numbers-failing-grades-74571072
In Charleston, South Carolina, administrators and teachers are raising the possibility of adjusting grading the way they did in spring, where instructors were told to give 50s instead of 0s to make it less punitive for disengaged students.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/nation-world/schools-confront-failing-grades/507-738f4fec-7dc6-4ada-a26c-582ef4724c8c
Prior to COVID-19, 37 million people in the U.S. struggle with hunger. Feeding America estimates that as a result of the pandemic, that number may rise to 54 million people, including 18 million children in 2020.
https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/FA_Supply_Demand_One-pager_FINAL.pdf
Hospitals face catastrophic financial challenges in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The AHA estimates a total four-month financial impact of $202.6 billion in losses for America’s hospitals and health systems, or an average of $50.7 billion per month.
https://www.aha.org/guidesreports/2020-05-05-hospitals-and-health-systems-face-unprecedented-financial-pressures-due#:~:text=Hospitals%20face%20catastrophic%20financial%20challenges,of%20%2450.7%20billion%20per%20month.
After ranking countries based on their levels of education and health, the study found that the US ranked 27th in the world on these metrics as of 2016, behind a host of top-ranking Nordic countries, including Finland, Iceland, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-ranks-27th-for-healthcare-and-education-2018-9
Retention may bestow advantages in the short-term, but longer term detrimental effects on social acceptance may lead to the documented longer term negative effects of retention.
Alexander, Entwisle, and Dauber (2003) found that early-retained children in Baltimore schools, relative to matched promoted children, were more likely to drop out of school in adolescence,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2864494/
About 13 million US workers have more than one job.
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/06/about-thirteen-million-united-states-workers-have-more-than-one-job.html
The War On Drugs (Or: How To Perpetuate A Failure)
Published December 11, 2020
Police still make over 1 million drug possession arrests each year and 450,000 people are incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses on any given day in the US.
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html
Every 25 seconds, someone in America is arrested for drug possession. The number of Americans arrested for possession has tripled since 1980, reaching 1.3 million arrests per year in 2015--these numbers are especially surprising given they are six times the number of arrests for drug sales.
https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/10/12/every-25-seconds/human-toll-criminalizing-drug-use-united-states
As Nixon was quoted as saying, "I want a goddamn strong statement on marijuana … I mean one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them."
https://www.csdp.org/research/nixonpot.txt
After legalizing everything, the ensuing years ...
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it
After decriminalization, the number of people in Portugal receiving drug addiction treatment ...
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/law-and-social-inquiry/article/abs/uses-and-abuses-of-drug-decriminalization-in-portugal/1F68DA5A8F0369F3FBA6B2B04E454BBE
The present study examined the impact of Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a widespread drug-prevention program, 10 years after administration. A total of 1,002 individuals who in 6th grade had either received DARE or a standard drug-education curriculum, were reevaluated at age 20. Few differences were found between the 2 groups in terms of actual drug use, drug attitudes, or self-esteem, and in no case did the DARE group have a more successful outcome than the comparison group. -
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-03346-017
In 2016 another study was done by the National Institute of Drug Abuse
https://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/df_high_school_and_youth_trends_june2016_final.pdf
After legalizing everything, the ensuing years saw dramatic drops in problematic drug use,
https://transformdrugs.org/drug-decriminalisation-in-portugal-setting-the-record-straight/
The Eternal Wellspring Of American Exceptionalism
Published December 17, 2020
Per Pew Research, a studiy in 2015 showed the US was ranked 38th in math and 24th in science.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/
According to a new study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington showed that overall, the US ranked 27th in these metrics as of 2016.
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-ranks-27th-for-healthcare-and-education-2018-9
In a 2018 study by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation sampled 1,000 Americans and found that only 36% could actually pass the test. Pew research has had similar results with their finding when they have done the same test periodically over the last 15 years.
https://woodrow.org/news/national-survey-finds-just-1-in-3-americans-would-pass-citizenship-test/
The history of the world is dictatorship, tyranny, subjugation, whatever you want to call it of populations ..."
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/09/12/an_explanation_of_american_exceptionalism_for_vladimir_putin_and_barack_obama/
In 2018 Glenn Beck surmised that our American Exceptionalism was centered around taking care of your fellow man. "America, this is who you are: You just set a record high in charitable giving this past year. America, you eclipse the world in total dollars given from your own hard-earned wallet. And the vast majority of that money — $287 billion — was given, not by corporations or foundations, but by single individuals. People like you and me."
https://www.glennbeck.com/glenn-beck/america-this-is-who-you-really-are
Though there are no specific statistics for people who don't wear masks simply because they don't want to, a Pew Research poll in September of 2020 does give us a clue.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/29/both-republicans-and-democrats-cite-masks-as-a-negative-effect-of-covid-19-but-for-very-different-reasons/
Of course, the CDC has said otherwise to this person's assertions about masks and safety.
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0714-americans-to-wear-masks.html
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel was heard wondering aloud ...
When the fund was reopened, for instance, 160 members of Congress, nearly all Republicans and including current Vice President Mike Pence, opposed it.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/12/politics/jon-stewart-911-bill-first-responders/index.html
The New Year's Resolution That Democrats Need To Make — And Complete — In 2021
Published December 21, 2020
AOC calls Amazon jobs a 'scam' because more than 4,000 of its employees are on food stamps.
In 2019, she called into question why Amazon paid zero in federal income taxes on more than $11 billion in profit.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/aoc-calls-amazon-jobs-a-scam-because-more-than-4000-of-its-employees-are-on-food-stamps/ar-BB1c3Zry?li=BBnb7Kz
Walmart and McDonald’s are among the top employers of beneficiaries of federal aid programs like Medicaid and food stamps, according to a study by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
https://www.gao.gov/assets/720/710203.pdf
Other notable companies with a large number of employees on federal aid include Amazon, Kroger, Dollar General, and other food service and retail giants. About 70% of the 21 million federal aid beneficiaries worked full time, the report found.
Walmart recently reported net income of $5.14 billion for its most recent quarter, while McDonald’s reported net income of $1.76 billion for the same period.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/walmart-and-mcdonalds-among-top-employers-of-medicaid-and-food-stamp-beneficiaries.html
In a 2013 study by Americans for Tax Fairness, it was found that Walmart's low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/?sh=5f8f13fb720b
Though the full-year net income fell 5.7% in 2013, they still generated a net income profit of $16 billion.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2014/02/20/wal-mart-lowers-outlook-as-profit-falls-and-same-store-sales-decline-could-a-family-dollar-acquisition-turn-things-around/?sh=3f210b1b1cdc
It shows there are 41.2 million working people, or nearly 30 percent of the workforce, receiving public assistance such as food stamps, housing subsidies and cash assistance to make ends meet.
https://www.ibtimes.com/welfare-america-most-low-wage-full-time-workers-use-food-stamps-housing-assistance-2300713
The War On Christmas
Published December 25, 2020
Dr Fauci: "I don't want to do that," he said. "I want people to be more careful. I want them to limit traveling to the extent possible."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/22/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html
Henry Ford is the one who really kicked off the "War on Christmas" in the modern sense. “Last Christmas most people had a hard time finding Christmas cards that indicated in any way that Christmas commemorated Someone's Birth."
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/war-on-christmas-short-history-101222
Looking into the past, it seemed that by the mid 1980s, much of the kerfufle over the "War On Christmas" had died down. Two landmark Supreme Court Cases earlier in that decade
mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/737/lynch-v-donnelly
“All over the country, Christmas is taking flak. In Denver this past weekend, no religious floats were permitted in the holiday parade there. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the ‘holiday tree,’ and no Christian Christmas symbols are allowed in the public schools. Federated Department Stores—that’s Macy’s—have done away with the Christmas greeting ‘Merry Christmas.’”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/war-on-christmas-short-history-101222
Chicago Tribune poll showed that 68% of respondents affirmed their belief in a War on Christmas.
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1868542,00.html
Washington D.C. To Host First-Ever Purge: Beginning January 6th, 2021
Published January 4, 2021
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was the first senator to announce plans to object to the electoral vote count. He received swift criticism from senior Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/01/03/senate-republican-schism-electoral-vote-certification/4112162001/
Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and nine other Republican US senators or senators-elect said on Saturday they will reject presidential electors from states where Donald Trump has contested his defeat by Joe Biden, “unless and until [an] emergency 10-day audit” of such results is completed.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney described it as “nonsense”, the idea that a congressional audit would restore trust in the election, saying the American people trusted federal judges more than Congress. Though I disagree with the assessment of citizens trusting federal judges, he is correct that an audit itself would restore complete faith in the process (given that almost half of the country doesn't believe the process anyway if the results don't pan out).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/02/ted-cruz-republican-senators-reject-election-result-biden-trump
McConnel: "the politics of fear have no place in our society,"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/wheres-my-money-mitch-mcconnell-home-vandalized-after-dollar2000-stimulus-check-vote-blocked/ar-BB1cq6VQ?li=BBnb7Kz
Rep. Gohmert Calls for Street Violence as Another Legal Loss Sends MAGA World Spiraling
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Kernodle, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, dismissed a hail-mary lawsuit filed by Gohmert and 11 Arizona Republicans that attempted to give Vice President Mike Pence the ability to overturn the results of the November presidential election won by Joe Biden.Gohmert then seemed to encourage violence as a means to this end. “But bottom line is, the court is saying, ‘We’re not going to touch this. You have no remedy’—basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you gotta go the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM.”
https://news.yahoo.com/rep-gohmert-calls-street-violence-183409939.html
These Are The Republicans Who Have Acknowledged Biden’s Victory
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/12/10/these-are-the-republicans-who-have-acknowledged-bidens-victory/?sh=70eb9357417b
All of History's "Winners" Have Failed Us
Published January 9, 2021
Anti-suffragists everywhere were concerned with societal disruptions. Corrine McConnaughy, who teaches political science at George Washington University said ...
https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/10/22/450221328/american-women-who-were-anti-suffragettes
Trump beat Clinton with white women in 2016 by a final tally of 47%-45%. Not a huge margin, but given all of the scandals the president had been in concerning women, it was surprising to see him win that demographic.
https://time.com/5422644/trump-white-women-2016/
I think the most accurate assesment of how this happened was from Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/20/14061660/women-march-washington-vote-trump
Names like Mobil Oil Corp, Amoco Corporation, Chevron Corporation, etc.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Standard-Oil
The US Congress eventually put a stop to Rockefeller’s monopoly.
https://inspirationfeed.com/john-d-rockefeller-quotes/
On January 25th 1936, during a political event at the Mayflower Hotel ...
https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-socialism-20190213-story.html
"I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
https://www.nps.gov/frde/learn/photosmultimedia/quotations.htm#:~:text=%22I%20pledge%20you%2C%20I%20pledge,Deal%20for%20the%20American%20People.%22&text=%22In%20these%20days%20of%20difficulty,love%20toward%20our%20fellow%20man.%22
"It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country."
http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odnirast.html
Eugenia Cooney Is Peddling Anorexic Fetishism
Published February 13, 2021
* In 2017, 8.5 million American adults suffered from both a mental health disorder and a substance use disorder, or co-occurring disorders.1
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/addiction-statistics
Medically, addiction is known to be a “chronic, relapsing disease” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
https://danapointrehabcampus.com/blog/2019/11/what-percentage-of-addicts-stay-clean/
Bankole Johnson. Professor of neuroscience at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and author of Addiction Medicine, S told Scientific American …
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and founder of the National Center on Addiction and Substance.
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/success-rates-and-statistics
The TRUTH About Pro-Anorexia Forums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZb0taGNLmU
Rush Limbaugh Was Right About ONE Thing; Also, Dems Need To Pull Their Heads Out Too ...
Published February 21, 2021
"Can somebody point to me the conservative on the ballot?" Limbaugh asked on his radio show, according to a transcript posted to his official website.
https://www.businessinsider.com/rush-limbaugh-donald-trump-not-conservative-2016-9
"What I would say to Senator McConnell: I know Trump can be a handful, but he is the most dominant figure in the Republican Party," the South Carolina Republican continued. "We don't have a snowball's chance in hell of taking back the majority without Donald Trump. If you don't get that, you're just not looking."
There is no question former President Trump bears moral responsibility," McConnell wrote Monday in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal of the riot. "His supporters stormed the Capitol because of the unhinged falsehoods he shouted into the world's largest megaphone. His behavior during and after the chaos was also unconscionable, from attacking Vice President Mike Pence during the riot to praising the criminals after it ended."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/16/politics/trump-mcconnell/index.html
"Former President Trump's actions that preceded the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty," added McConnell. "Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/13/politics/mitch-mcconnell-acquit-trump/index.html
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez insisted …
"We, the Democratic Party, gave up a lot of leverage," Ocasio-Cortez said of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed in March.
https://www.businessinsider.com/we-need-new-leadership-aoc-criticizes-pelosi-and-schumer-2020-12
"Why does AOC complain that you have not been grooming younger people for leadership?"
https://www.businessinsider.com/pelosi-rejects-aoc-concerns-about-democratic-party-leadership-video-2021-1
With the recent $1.9 Trillion proposal released by Biden,
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/politics/biden-economic-rescue-package-coronavirus-stimulus/index.html
Utah GOP Thinking For Themselves; Breaking From LDS Church And Party
Published February 24, 2021
“Part of our doctrine is the principle of moral agency — people make choices for themselves,” said Jack Gerard, an LDS general authority Seventy.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2018/09/12/recreational-use/
Utah has unfortunately ranked in the top 10 in the nation for overdose deaths over the past 10 years.
https://www.ksl.com/article/50049960/covid-19-complications-likely-increasing-the-severity-of-utahs-opioid-crisis#:~:text=As%20with%20COVID%2D19%2C%20the,falls%2C%20and%20motor%20vehicle%20crashes.
“It is a time for Utahns to celebrate,” Christine Stenquist, a medical cannabis patient and founder of the advocacy group TRUCE Utah, said. “I think it’s fantastic that we’ve crossed this hurdle.”
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2018/11/07/medical-marijuana-leaps/
The replacement legislation crafted by lawmakers and both sides in the Prop 2 debate overhauls pretty much everything.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2018/12/03/utah-house-passes-medical/
“Although Senator Romney and I usually vote together — and with a majority of Senate Republicans, we voted differently,” said the statement from Lee issued through his 2022 reelection campaign. “It shows neither one of us blindly defers to anyone.”
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/02/19/sen-mike-lee-is-defending/
“I’m not in a place yet where I’m comfortable with the bill as it stands right now,” Cox said Thursday at his monthly news conference with PBS Utah. “Those discussions are ongoing. We still have a lot of work to do.”
https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2021/2/19/utah-gov-meeting-transgender-kids-changes-your-heart
Why Are The Wealthy Profiting From Human Suffering?
Published February 27, 2021
When setting up the infrastructure, former Governor of Texas George W. Bush …
“Deregulation was something akin …”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/21/us/texas-electricity-ercot-blackouts.html
First off, the Enron Scandal.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Enron-scandal
The Wall Street Journal did an excellent job giving the numbers, context, and impact of Covid-19 on the market.
Wading into the market during swoons big and small has been profitable over the past 10 years.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-did-stock-markets-rebound-from-covid-in-record-time-here-are-five-reasons-11600182704
The latest available government data, via the Federal Reserve from 2016, shows a relatively small share of American families (14%) are directly invested in individual stocks but a majority (52%) have some market investment mostly from owning retirement accounts such as 401(k)s.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresaghilarducci/2020/08/31/most-americans-dont-have-a-real-stake-in-the-stock-market/
The stock market hit a new high, over 30,000 in November 2020. At that time, the national unemployment rate was 6.7.
https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/national-employment-monthly-update.aspx
In the month of November 2019 it ended at 28,054.41
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/29/dow-futures-black-friday-thanksgiving-holiday.html
