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The COVID coup

Posted: May 18, 2021 by chrisharper in politics
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By Christopher Harper

Two crucial statistics jump out at me about the pandemic.

The nation is recording about 50,000 COVID cases a day, roughly the same as before the election. 

The daily average of deaths stood last week at 610, which compares with 817 in the week before the November election.

Despite all the mask-wearing, lockdowns, and vaccinations, the numbers are roughly the same after Joe Biden took over.

Sure, the numbers are better than January and February. Still, the country is roughly at the same place after the Democrats repeatedly attacked Donald Trump for his incompetence in handling the pandemic.

That then leads me to the rather obvious question: Wasn’t the pandemic more about politics than science?

The COVID coup was successful in getting rid of Donald Trump. Now it’s time to return to the mask-less, feckless, and reckless job of ruining the country. 

I’m more than happy to rid myself of the rather useless mask and return to the restaurants and shops without a face covering.

But isn’t it somewhat disingenuous of the Democrats to declare victory? 

The Democrats, combined with their friends in the media, used the pandemic to get Trump out of office. Although the talking points convinced many to vote for Biden, the reality is that Trump did a pretty good job of dealing with a crisis no one had faced for a century.

The Democrats and the media scared people almost to death or at least to vote against Trump. Without the pandemic, Trump would have been easily elected based on the country’s economy alone.

I won’t get into the idiocy of wearing masks because of the “science.” We’ve gone from the scientists telling us that masks were ineffective to the need to maybe wear two masks to the CDC announcement that masks weren’t needed anymore for many people. 

The most damaging part of the coup was to lock down almost everyone across the nation. Not only did the lockdowns, which were mainly the decisions of state officials, tank the economy, but the actions also exacerbated the disease for many people. 

For example, the CDC has determined a reason for a higher percentage of Blacks and Hispanics dying during the pandemic. “[P]ersons from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups might be more likely to live in multigenerational and multifamily households.” Therefore, more Blacks and Hispanics died BECAUSE of the lockdowns. See https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6942e1.htm

That findings are even worse for those 65 and older. From May 1 to August 31, 2020, 78.2 percent of those who died were 65 and older. That’s three out of every fourth death was a senior when they represent only 16.5 percent of the population. 

Simply put, the lockdowns made life deadlier for many seniors who died during the pandemic.

Although it’s unlikely, I hope some people realize that they got played by the “scientists,” the media, and the Democrats. The numbers don’t back up the “science.”

The coddling of college students

Posted: May 11, 2021 by chrisharper in education, Uncomfortable Truths
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By Christopher Harper

Instead of readying college students for the rough-and-tumble world of work, it appears that a growing number of professors want to enhance the coddling of this generation.

In an article in the faculty union newsletter at Temple University, where I teach, Amy Lynch of the College of Public Health argued for an emphasis on “trauma-informed teaching.”

Following is some of the pablum she preaches:

–Do not have any penalization for students who feel unsafe attending a class in person.

–When possible, have students sitting in a large circle or square, with no one’s back facing another individual.

–Offer choices to students concerning assignments. “You can complete this assignment as a written paper of 2,500 words, or you can submit a flipgrid with at least 4,000 words.”

Note: I had never heard of a flipgrid until now. Here is a definition: Flipgrid is a website that allows teachers to create “grids” to facilitate video discussions. Each grid is like a message board where teachers can pose questions, called “topics,” and their students can post video responses that appear in a tiled grid display.

–Show unconditional positive support for students, directly to students, and in conversations with colleagues about students. 

–Actively acknowledge and discuss when current events trigger emotions related to systematic oppression….

–Educators can promote student resilience.. [by] celebration of “missed successes,” [and] with warm compassion-based “social autopsy,” growing together with the discovery of what went wrong…. 

Note: I had never heard of a social autopsy. Here is a description: A social autopsy is a problem-solving strategy designed to support social skills. Students with difficulties understanding social interactions can use a social autopsy to analyze the social errors they made. Examples of where social autopsies may be used include:

–Ignoring others’ greetings
–Asking a question in a class without raising a hand
–Continuing to talk on the same topic
–Sneezing without covering one’s mouth

For more information, see https://buildingmomentuminschools.blog/2016/02/05/social-autopsy-and-other-social-teaching-tools/

If my colleagues and I follow this plan, Professor Lynch argues, “the seeds of trauma-informed education are planted with the hopes of a full forest of trauma-informed education stakeholders soon to emerge.”

If a student has difficulties, I always want to help. But I am not a psychologist; I am a teacher. I make suggestions to students on how they can seek help outside of the classroom for difficulties they might have.

For the 26 years I have been teaching, I always encouraged students to get outside of their comfort zones. That was the best way to prepare oneself for the tough job a journalist had to do. Now it appears I’m supposed to make students feel more comfortable.

Simply put, It’s unlikely that graduates will enter a “trauma-informed” workplace once they leave the comfort of college. 

Remember Operation Warp Speed!

Posted: May 4, 2021 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
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By Christopher Harper

As Joe Biden tries to take a victory lap over the vaccination program, he and the media have suppressed any praise for Operation Warp Speed, the Trump program that made the shots available far sooner than anyone expected. 

On May 15, 2020, President Trump announced the program to encourage private and public partnerships to enable faster approval and production of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. The name came from the speed of travel from Star Trek. 

Here’s how constant Trump critic David Sanger of The New York Times greeted the program:

“President Trump is pressing his health officials to pursue a crash development program for a coronavirus vaccine that could be widely distributed by the beginning of next year, despite widespread skepticism that such an effort could succeed and considerable concern about the implications for safety.

“In more normal times, a vaccine can take upward of a decade to get through all the regulatory approvals. Some officials note the dangers of rushing: During the Ford administration, a rushed vaccine for swine flu caused several dozen deaths and damaging side effects.”

A photo cutline that accompanied the article said: “Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned the president and his team that a vaccine would take at least a year to develop and produce.”

I checked the article for a correction or a retraction and found none. 

That doesn’t surprise me. Neither does the absence of praise for what President Trump and his administration helped accomplish: a vaccine for the virus.

Only recently, a bevy of media hacks misrepresent Trump’s role in finding a solution.

CNN political analyst Gloria Borger falsely said Operational Warp Speed occurred under President Biden, and no one on CNN’s panel corrected her in real time. The correction to the falsehood came much later.

“Everybody understands that Operation Warp Speed happened under Joe Biden, but getting vaccines into arms was a Biden operation,” Borger said.

The Trump administration gave somewhat more than $12 billion for the development and testing of the vaccines. So far, two of the companies that got money, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, have effective shots. A third vaccine from Pfizer got substantial funds from the German government, and the Trump administration ordered 100 million doses for $2 billion. 

Without Operation Warp Speed, the vaccines would not have been available to stop the spread of the virus.

As Paul Harvey used to say: “And now you know…the rest of the story.” 

Thank you, President Trump!

A sad but inspirational story about Catholic nuns

Posted: April 27, 2021 by chrisharper in catholic
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By Christopher Harper

It’s wonderful to have a local newspaper that offers news that comforts the soul rather than slants the news.

Since moving to central Pennsylvania, I have become a fan of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, which operates a few miles from our home.

The Sun-Gazette has a staunchly conservative editorial policy, which I relish as a change from the claptrap of most news organizations that surrounded me in the Northeast Corridor. Moreover, the local reporting offers some great insights into the surrounding community. The newspaper is one of the oldest in the country. Once owned by a local family, the Sun-Gazette is part of Odgen Newspapers, a small media company based in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Recently, the newspaper focused on a virtually untold story about the deaths of many Catholic nuns throughout the region. See https://www.sungazette.com/news/religion/2021/04/how-many-of-us-will-be-left-catholic-nuns-face-loss-pain/

“These were women who held the hands of the dying and who raised the unwanted, who pushed chalk to slate to teach science and grammar and, through their own example, faith. And when the worst year was over, the toll on the Felician Sisters was almost too much to bear: 21 of their own, in four U.S. convents, who collectively served 1,413 years, all felled by the virus,” the story reported.

“On Good Friday [2020], Sister Mary Luiza Wawrzyniak became the sisters’ first casualty in Livonia, a blow that landed with stunning intensity for the women who’d known her for decades.

‘My heart just leaped,’ said Sister Nancy Marie Jamroz, 79, who had known Wawrzyniak since entering the convent and was one of her closest friends.’She was my little buddy.’

“Wawrzyniak’s teaching days were ended by multiple sclerosis, but she continued contributing any way she could, shuffling behind a wheelchair to work in the laundry room and remembering every birthday with a card.

“On Easter Sunday, it was Sister Celine Marie Lesinski, a teacher, organist, and librarian, and Sister Mary Estelle Printz, who put aside an early life working at Chrysler to take her vows. Then, Sister Thomas Marie Wadowski, who relished a game of canasta and telling of her second-grade class that won a contest to create a Campbell’s Soup commercial, and Sister Mary Patricia Pyszynski, who taught in 13 schools across Michigan in six decades as an educator….

“After the first week of the crisis claimed five sisters, the second week took five more.

“Sister Mary Clarence Borkoski, whose long ministry included work in a food pantry. Sister Rose Mary Wolak, whose two stints working in the Vatican brought brushes with St. John Paul II. Sister Mary Janice Zolkowski, who wrote a definitive 586-page history of the Felicians. Sister Mary Alice Ann Gradowski, who as a principal could be seen cheering, with fierce loyalty, in the bleachers at basketball games. And Sister Victoria Marie Indyk, who led mission trips to Haiti where she insisted students fill their luggage with clothes and medicine and toys going to the hemisphere’s neediest.

“The second wave haunted and taunted with erratic efficiency, and by the middle of November had robbed the Felicians of sisters in Buffalo, New York; Enfield, Connecticut; and here in Greensburg.

“Sister Mary Christinette Lojewski, the educator with a disarming smile. Sister Mary Seraphine Liskiewicz, whose faith persevered even as her health waned. Sister Mary Michele Mazur, the keen-eyed artist who gave succor to orphans. Sister Christine Marie Nizialek, who’d bounced back from losing an eye and receiving a new kidney but could not come back from this.”

The nuns mourned, consoled one another, and prayed. This disease had taken an enormous toll. But their faith persisted.

Thanks to the Sun-Gazette for a sad but inspirational story—a story that virtually no other media outlet has deigned to cover!

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