Society's ChildS


Clipboard

Elderly New Yorkers languish on wait lists for critical services amid COVID-19

Gabrielle Fonrouge
New York Post
Mon, 07 Sep 2020 00:14 UTC
elderly wearing mask
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The pandemic has dramatically increased the number of elderly New Yorkers waiting for help from city-funded agencies — and it will be months before the residents get the services they need, advocates say.

New data from LiveOn NY, a senior advocacy group, shows that the number of older Big Apple residents waiting to receive everything from personal-care help to a lift to the supermarket has soared 265 percent, to 2,936 people, since February.

That figure — fueled by coronavirus fears over venturing out and budget cuts — comes from a survey completed by the 15 non-profit organizations contracted by the city's Department for the Aging to connect the elderly with needed services through case management, LiveOn NY told The Post.

"It just seems to be growing exponentially," Allison Nickerson, LiveOn NY's executive director, said of the wait for services. "It's catastrophic to people's lives."

"You have a virus that specifically is affecting older New Yorkers ... and there's been zero investment in trying to figure that out. In fact, there are cuts," she said.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Cross

Just how deep is your coronavirus religion?

John Tamny
Real Clear Markets
Tue, 01 Sep 2020 07:38 UTC
closed restaurant
"I wanted to stay put in Colombia to build a better future for my daughter, but we have to go back." Those are the words of Nelson Torrelles to Wall Street Journal reporter John Otis. As Otis reported in the August 31 edition of the Journal, the "haggard and hungry" Torrelles along with his wife and 5-year old daughter are walking back to Venezuela on a Colombian highway.

They'd initially moved to Colombia to escape Venezuela's socialist hellhole, only for Torrelles to get a job as a waiter at a barbecue restaurant in Bogota. But when Colombia joined much of the rest of the alarmed world in shutting down its economy in March in response to the coronavirus, Torrelles lost his job and soon enough the family apartment that he couldn't make rent on. Hard as it may be to imagine for those of us lucky enough to live in the United States, the hungry Torrelles and his family are moving back to Venezuela.

Please stop and think about this for a minute. Please stop and imagine the pain Torrelles is in. It surely extends well beyond hunger. Imagine not being able to adequately provide for your family, including a daughter too young to understand that your failures are largely beyond your control. Words don't begin to describe what Torrelles must be going through, nor can someone lucky enough to be in the United States understand just how awful things must be for Torrelles and his family.

About the coronavirus shutdowns, this column will stress yet again what it always has: the greater the presumed lethality of any virus, the less of any kind of need for shutdowns or government intervention. Practicality is behind this simple assertion.
Read More...
Attention

San Francisco gym owners livid after discovering gyms in government buildings have been opened for months

Emma Colton
Washington Examiner
Sun, 06 Sep 2020 17:34 UTC
gym workout
Gyms within government buildings in San Francisco have been open for months, despite privately owned establishments being ordered to close due to the coronavirus.

"It's shocking, it's infuriating," Daniele Rabkin, of Crossfit Golden Gate, told a local NBC station. "Even though they're getting exposed, there are no repercussions, no ramifications? It's shocking."

The gyms that have been open for government employees include those for police officers, judges, lawyers, bailiffs, and paralegals, according to the report. One such gym, the Hall of Justice gym, has been open since July 1.

"It just demonstrates that there seems to be some kind of a double standard between what city employees are allowed to do and what the residents of San Francisco are allowed to do," Dave Karraker, owner of MX3 Fitness in the Castro, said.

"What the city has unwillingly done is created this great case study that says that working out indoors is actually safe," said Karraker. "So, at this point, we're just demanding that they allow us to have the same workout privileges for the citizens of San Francisco that the employees of San Francisco have."

Comment: Do as we say not what as we do.

Read More...
Life Preserver

The US is facing a teen suicide pandemic

Sandra M. Chafouleas, PhD
Psychology Today
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 21:50 UTC
Depressed teen
© Antonio Guillem/Dreamstime
New data confirm the urgency of confronting it now

Six months ago, we could not have imagined that our daily vocabulary would be filled with the p-word. And while perhaps we are getting tired of hearing the word pandemic, I can't help but ask why we haven't used it to bring urgency to confronting teen suicide. The race to find a cure to the COVID-19 pandemic certainly is front and center, but that same sense of urgency does not seem to be evident for the unsettling rise in teen suicide.

In the United States, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death — with more than 2,000 14- to 18-year-olds dying every year by suicide, and accounting for about one of every three injury-related deaths. That's the equivalent of losing a large high school's worth of teenagers to suicide, year after year. These numbers demand our attention.

New CDC data reveal that almost one in five teens across the nation have seriously considered attempting suicide. Picture a typical high school classroom of 25 students. About five of those students could be thinking about suicide.
Read More...
Sheriff

Feds step in to prosecute Portland rioters after local DA declines to enforce the law

Tony Cox
RT
Sun, 06 Sep 2020 20:57 UTC
Portland Police
© Reuters/Terray SylvesterPortland Police North Precinct building, Oregon, US, August 23, 2020.
The Trump administration is giving rioters in Portland at least a risk of accountability, filing US District Court charges when the local district attorney declines to prosecute and deputizing state police to make federal arrests.

Kevin Phomma became the latest Portland protester to be hit with federal charges, as the US Attorney's Office for the region announced on Friday that he was indicted for felony civil disorder. Phomma, 26, who allegedly assaulted police with bear spray, faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison if convicted.

The indictment marked the seventh such case this week and followed an announcement by US Attorney Billy Williams that 74 people were being charged with federal crimes in connection with crimes they committed during anarchist riots that have raged on for three months in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.
Read More...
Eye 2

Flashback Experts say pandemic causing exponential rise in online exploitation of children

Fernando Alfonso, III
CNN
Mon, 25 May 2020 19:00 UTC
Keyboard
© CNN
At first glance, Shelley Allwang's cubicle looks just like any other office space.

But alongside a pinboard full of tchotchkes and a photo of her dog, sits a story that reminds Allwang of the importance of her job, now more than ever.

"The Boy and The Starfish" is about a boy tossing beached starfish back into the ocean, saving just one at a time.

Allwang doesn't work with starfish. But as a program manager at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), her day-to-day job involves helping children who are abused online.

The story is a reminder to Allwang of perseverance in the face of difficult odds; there will always be more starfish to pick up, like there will always be more children who need help. The story has taken on added significance in recent weeks, as Allwang has watched the number of reports of children being abused online soar four-fold.

Comment: See also: Behind the Headlines: Predators Among Us - Interview With Dr. Anna Salter

Read More...
Pistol

Americans respond to riots, crime fears by buying more guns as Smith & Wesson reports 'unparalleled' demand


RT
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 22:11 UTC
women/guns
© pistolrange.comA jump in first-time gun ownership drives this year's surge in firearm sales.
Smith & Wesson is proving to be a chief beneficiary of the violence and unrest plaguing the country's big cities, as the largest US handgun maker posted record quarterly sales amid surging demand for firearms.

Gun sales in the company's first fiscal quarter, ended July 31, jumped 141 percent from a year earlier to a record $230 million, Smith & Wesson said late Thursday. The firm also set an all-time quarterly high for guns shipped out, more than doubling to 584,000 units, as production was ramped up and inventories were drained.

"The current increase in consumer demand for firearms is in many ways unparalleled," chief executive Mark Smith told investors on a conference call. The company also noted that its customer base is widening, citing a National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) estimate that 40-60 percent of the consumers purchasing firearms this year are first-time gun owners, led by increasing numbers of women and blacks.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Facebook takes down Patriot Prayer account days after the murder of one of their members

Libby Emmons
The Post Millennial
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 05:37 UTC
Zuckerberg/Gibson
© The OregonianMark Zuckerberg • Joey Gibson
Facebook has taken down pages for Patriot Prayer as well as the account of its leader, Joey Gibson. Gibson said that there were other members of the group whose accounts were also taken down, according to The Oregonian.

Chandler Pappas and his friend Aaron (Jay Bishop) Danielson, who was murdered by an avowed member of Antifa in Portland, Ore. on Aug. 29, both wore Patriot Prayer hats. Pappas wore his during an interview with Tucker Carlson yesterday.

Comment: Now a new video analysis of the incident reveals the murder of Aaron "Jay Bishop" Danielson by violent felon and Antifa member may have been an organized assassination:

See also:

Read More...
Dollars

Northeastern U kicks out students for 'crowded gathering' as coronavirus gives colleges a license to steal tuition fees

Graham Dockery
RT
Sat, 05 Sep 2020 21:42 UTC
Northeastern U
© WikipediaNortheastern University's Ell Hall
Boston's Northeastern University has dismissed 11 students, kicking them off campus and pocketing their $36,534 tuition checks. Coronavirus has blurred the distinction between higher education and highway robbery even further.

The students were enrolled in Northeastern University's Nu.in program, which usually places students abroad for their first semester. However, coronavirus restrictions saw the students confined to Boston this year, and put up in the city's Westin Hotel. Tuition remained at a pricey $36,534, even though the hotel's "socially distanced" student center was a far cry from the foreign campus experience in Ireland they were promised.

However, that experience was cut short and all 11 were dismissed on Friday with no refund, after they were caught gathering together in one of the hotel rooms in breach of the university's coronavirus rules. "Students who attend an unsafe gathering, social or party, either on or off-campus, can expect suspension," student affairs vice-chancellor Madeleine Eastbrook wrote in a letter to students.

Comment: Pay and obey: Universities are taking advantage by balancing less expenses with impossible rules that may culminate in mass tuition forfeiture. Harvard, with an endowment worth more than 100 countries GDP, has refused to return $8.6M federal bailout money:
Harvard has refused a call from President Donald Trump to return millions in coronavirus bailout money, insisting it needs it for financial aid. Trump has threatened to "look at" Harvard's fat $41 billion endowment.

It said it would not return $8.6 million in 'emergency' funding allotted as part of last month's $2.2 trillion CARES Act, despite pleas from several politicians, including Trump and some members of Congress who stipulated that at least half the money go to financial aid for students.

Harvard's refusal followed a press briefing in which Trump called on Harvard, with one of the largest endowments "in the country, maybe in the world," to pay back the government's largesse. "Harvard is going to pay the money back and they shouldn't be taking it."

Trump wasn't done with Harvard, however, responding to their refusal in a late-night tweet with a threat to "look at" their "whole 'endowment' system" if they did not return the funds.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Harvard alum, pointed out that the school's massive endowment equates to "$13mm per student, or $171mm per faculty member."

"Universities with billions & billions stashed away in endowments should get no taxpayer money until they have tapped those endowments," Missouri senator Josh Hawley tweeted on Monday, calling the bailout of the wealthy college "obscene."

Note: Harvard University has since issued a statement after this article was published revealing it has decided not to take the bailout money after all. Read about it here.

However, Harvard administrators want students to know the school is suffering, too. The university's chief financial officer told campus outlet the Harvard Crimson last week that the value of its endowment, estimated at $40.9 billion in June, has declined to 'only' the "mid-30-billion range" due to the stock market crash.
In comparison:
Yale University pulled down $6.9 million despite sitting on a $30.3 billion endowment, while Stanford University got $7.4 million in bailout bucks despite a $27.7 billion endowment. Columbia University was a big winner with $12.8 million, though its $11 billion endowment is chump change compared to its Ivy League brethren. $14 billion in total was distributed to colleges and universities as part of the bailout.
See also:

Michigan college puts students on campus arrest with mandatory Covid-19 tracking app, while staff get to leave

Read More...
X

Professor believes coronavirus pandemic is all over, despite rising 'R' rate this morning

JayTe
The Duran
Sat, 05 Sep 2020 00:00 UTC
UK news
© Getty Images
While the US and UK governments and their mainstream media adjuncts are still pushing the COVID 'pandemic' narrative, more public health experts are breaking ranks, and are sharing their factual findings with the public.

Despite the UK government's claim that the coronavirus 'R' rate is rising, Professor Carl Heneghan from Oxford's Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) is taking a more optimistic approach to the COVID crisis, and believes that the 'pandemic' is more or less over now and that society should really be trying to get back to normal, and that parents should be sending their kids back to school. He states:
"As we go back to schools, we can be reassured that the risks to children are incredibly low .... and they (children) are more at risk to infections like influenza. Across the board the disease is a a low level, and its impact is minimal."
Read More...