[Townhall] In their effort to attack the Trump administration as it battles the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in the US, the anti-Trump opposition press has peddled Chinese propaganda and now it looks like they’ve rallied around someone who is now under a homicide investigation. Remember that Arizona couple who ingested chloroquine phosphate because they thought it could ward off the virus? Wanda Lenius and her husband, Gary, ingested the fish tank cleaner with soda and the effects were dire. The husband died, while it left Wanda in critical condition. Now, she’s being investigated for homicide. Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon has the scoop. One thing that struck friends of the late Gary Lenius as odd was this notion that this retired engineer would just take poison willingly.
Detective Teresa Van Galder, the homicide detective handling the case for the Mesa City Police Department, confirmed that the investigation is ongoing but declined to provide additional details.
"As this is an active investigation, I cannot go into any details at this time regarding the case," Van Galder said. The Free Beacon provided a recording of its interview last month with Wanda Lenius.
[…]
Though that report and others suggested the couple mindlessly followed the president's medical advice to disastrous results, friends of Gary Lenius told the Free Beacon they were skeptical he would knowingly ingest fish tank treatment.
Rather, they described Lenius as a levelheaded retired engineer and recounted a troubled marital relationship that included a previous domestic assault charge against his wife, of which she was ultimately found not guilty. The Free Beacon also reported that Wanda Lenius was a Democratic donor whose most recent contribution went to a "pro-science" super PAC.
"What bothers me about this is that Gary was a very intelligent man, a retired [mechanical] engineer who designed systems for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa, and I really can't see the scenario where Gary would say, ‘Yes, please, I would love to drink some of that Koi fish tank cleaner,'" one of his close friends told the Free Beacon. "It just doesn't make any sense."
At the time, Wanda blamed the president, even though the real drug the White House has cited in daily pressers is called hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that reportedly has seen good results in combating the symptoms of the virus as we search for a vaccine. Michigan State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who contracted the virus, was given hydroxychloroquine and in her case, the COVID symptoms disappeared within two hours. In a nationwide survey, 65 percent of doctors would prescribe this drug to their family members if they contracted the disease, with 67 percent saying they would take the drug personally. Out of 6,000 doctors from 30 different countries, they rank hydroxychloroquine as their number one treatment option.
#2
HQC hotlink now works (for some reason it was unhappy with the standard quotes around the URL — that happens sometimes for reasons far beyond my ability to understand), but it also goes to the Remdesvir page. What is the correct link, lord garth?
[PJ] As far as we know, not one single American has injected disinfectant into his or her veins after the media reported the president said that injecting disinfectant would cure coronavirus.
Trump never said that, of course, but that’s how the media is reporting it. Regardless, headlines all across the country report increased calls to poison centers after people supposedly followed Trump’s advice.
[From the "basement tapes" (2017)]
Washington, DC, June 28, 2017 — The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) today launched specialized bonds aimed at providing financial support to the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF), a facility created by the World Bank to channel surge funding to developing countries facing the risk of a pandemic.
This marks the first time that World Bank bonds are being used to finance efforts against infectious diseases, and the first time that pandemic risk in low-income countries is being transferred to the financial markets.
The PEF will provide more than $500 million to cover developing countries against the risk of pandemic outbreaks over the next five years, through a combination of bonds and derivatives priced today, a cash window, and future commitments from donor countries for additional coverage.
The transaction, that enables PEF to potentially save millions of lives, was oversubscribed by 200% reflecting an overwhelmingly positive reception from investors and a high level of confidence in the new World Bank sponsored instrument. With such strong demand, the World Bank was able to price the transaction well below the original guidance from the market. The total amount of risk transferred to the market through the bonds and derivatives is $425 million.
"With this new facility, we have taken a momentous step that has the potential to save millions of lives and entire economies from one of the greatest systemic threats we face," World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. "We are moving away from the cycle of panic and neglect that has characterized so much of our approach to pandemics.
[MSN] Police over the weekend broke up rowdy house parties in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... and said they were aware of video of one party that went viral, CBS Chicago reports. The violations of the stay-at-home order to fight the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... outbreak came as Illinois reported 2,126 new COVID-19 cases and 59 additional deaths Sunday.
Chicago is at the center of one of the worst outbreaks in the U.S.
One video posted online shows a packed house at an undisclosed location, apparently in Chicago. The party appeared so crowded that the person recording the footage chose not to wade into the crowd on the first floor.
Police had tweeted earlier Sunday that they were aware of the video, but could not confirm where the party was.
"We are aware of a video circulating on social media depicting a large house party inside of an alleged Chicago residence. While we cannot authenticate the nature or location of the gathering, we want to remind everyone of the social distancing requirements in place," police wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah, so THAT'S why the mayor of Chicago went and got her hair-do. It was for these parties.
#3
Try as they might to mangle his message, USA Tiday can't hide the fact that Tegnell is right: "We have to learn to live with this disease."
Longer quote that clarifies his remarks about the relative importance of herd immunity:
"We believe herd immunity will of course help us in the long run, and we are discussing that, but it's not like we are actively trying to achieve it as has been made out (by the press and some scientists). If we [had] wanted to achieve herd immunity we would have done nothing and let coronavirus run rampant through society.
"We are trying to keep the transmission rate as low as we can. We have taken reasonable measures without really hurting health care or schools. We are going for a sustainable strategy; something we can keep on doing for months.
"Coronavirus is not something that is just going to go away.
"Any country that believes it can keep it out (by closing borders, shuttering businesses, etc.) will most likely be proven wrong at some stage. We need to learn to live with this disease.
#4
An asshole bureaucrat will never admit he was wrong. If we look at Sweden, they constantly increase their closure measures because they have 10 times the per capita casualties of any other country. They just talk about being different - because Sweden: backseat driver of Western Civilization for the last 100 years.
p.s. I look at word-o-meter stats for Sweden, and I see no flattening. Guess I lack the proper Swedish perception genes.
#5
World o meter site 8 am EDT, Cases per million/Deaths per million
Sweden - 1943/233
Germany - 1910/75
France - 2542/362
USA - 3129/179
Italy - 3333/453
Iceland - 5260 (!) /29
Norway - 1413/38
Perhaps Sweden has more deaths/million because they are forecast to be short 2600 ICU beds (IHME)on May 21st? Italy was reported to be very short of medical facilities, too.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/29/2020 8:33 Comments ||
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#6
#5 You want to look (same site) on final outcomes: death vs. recovery, Bobby.
Now some countries, like Holland & UK, do not provide this statistic - I wonder, why?
Most of the others do. Compare Sweden to Italy & France - the two industrialized countries hardest hit: because no warning, just China-WHO lies. Also compare Sweden to it's neighbors - who had the same warning.
#7
A note on statistics and Swedish culture: from everything I've seen, Sweden has probably the most thorough, rigorous, careful and professional statistical agency in the world. It appears to be the case that they count everything; they are known for not cooking their books. Here's their data site for their health agency.
In addition, in their humble and scrupulous manner - their culture disdains self-aggrandizement - they have decided to go to an extreme in counting deaths as COVID-related, even though it doesn't flatter them, in fact does the opposite. If you compared apples to apples and normalized for their enormous Muslim immigrant population, the Swedish fatality:population rate is comparable to that of their Nordic neighbors -- a bit higher but then, Sweden will have many fewer deaths of despair due to economic ruin than their neighbors will.
Even with all of the above, and with moderate, prudent restrictions on mass gatherings, they still have managed to flatten their curve - as I've said, even with their extremely liberal attribution model they flattened the curve WEEKS AGO -- and avoid overwhelming their healthcare resources. They will get their society back to a semblance of normal much faster than anyone and with far less economic damage than we will.
The last point means that Sweden will SAVE lives overall -- by learning to live with this disease and by NOT killing more people with denial of urgent care, surgeries, and economically-induced despair than COVID kills.
Again, the NYC data make clear that the panicked approach causes more deaths overall - at least 5,000 needless non-COVID deaths so far this year. And the absurd overreaction in California will eventually kill 10x as many, from not just foregone surgeries but also the tally of suicides, heart attacks, addiction, domestic violence and all other deaths of economic despair resulting from the needless destruction of millions of livelihoods.
Sweden's reasonable and balanced approach SAVES LIVES.
#10
Again, we have huge inconsistencies across geographies and nations in the methodology for recording cause of death.
Relative to other countries, Sweden is over-counting COVID deaths because they include nursing home deaths which might possibly be in part attributable to COVID. This is why the Swedish COVID-attributed deaths are so overwhelmingly concentrated in the over-80 population, much more so than other countries' counted deaths.
Only recently have other countries such as Belgium even bothered to include nursing-home deaths of this elderly population in their COVID totals.
When/if they do, their total counted COVID deaths will rise sharply and converge with Sweden's counted total. Norway's total would be on par with Sweden's if Norway were to count deaths the same way that Sweden and now Belgium and also recently New York, count them.
#13
Not that I am suspicious of the MSM or anything, but it sure seems that the nursing/old-folks-home factor is de-emphasized (let alone a bunch of stacked-up dead bodies in one place in New Jersey).
I am surprised it took YouTube this long.
[Summit] Deleted after racking up over 5 million views.
YouTube has censored a viral video in which two doctors criticized the logic of whether California’s stay-at-home coronavirus order is necessary.
The video, which had racked up over 5 million views, featured Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi, co-owners of Accelerated Urgent Care in Bakersfield, Calif.
In the clip, Erickson asserts that there is only a "0.03 chance of dying from COVID in the state of California," prompting him to ask, "Does that necessitate sheltering in place? Does that necessitate shutting down medical systems? Does that necessitate people being out of work?"
Erickson also asked why fatalities were being counted as COVID-19 deaths when other ailments were actually more to blame.
"When someone dies in this country right now, they’re not talking about the high blood pressure, the diabetes, the stroke. They’re saying ’Did they die from COVID?'" Erickson said. "We’ve been to hundreds of autopsies. You don’t talk about one thing, you talk about comorbidities. ER doctors now [say] ’It’s interesting when I’m writing about my death report, I’m being pressured to add COVID. Why is that?"
The video was deleted late last night for "violating YouTube’s terms of service."
Earlier this month, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told CNN that the company would ban any video content that contradicted World Health Organization recommendations. However, Wojcicki suggested that this would mainly be focused on banning information about fake cures, not questioning of government policy.....
#1
Earlier this month, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told CNN that the company would ban any video content that contradicted World Health Organization recommendations.
But WHO recommends herd-immunity (for anybody except China).
#2
Earlier this month, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told CNN that the company would ban any video content that contradicted World Health Organization recommendations.
#4
They also remove the UV video from Cedar Sanai. Nothing like digital book burning to keep the narrative heading to the left. Don't they understand that Americans are waking up to the over power grab with the media? Their day in the sun is coming..
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/29/2020 11:45 Comments ||
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[Sometimes I just really really REALLY believe these politicians are either horribly arrogant or just stoooopid.]
[WLBT] JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi Justice Institute filed a lawsuit against mayor of Jackson over the suspension of open carry law.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba issued an executive order this weekend that suspends the open carry law in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that the state statute, Mississippi Code 45-17-7, grants him the right to issue such order.
"The City of Jackson faces a significant challenge with illegal guns," Lumumba said. "Prior to the open carry law, when Jackson police officers saw a gun in plain view, it gave them probable cause to seize the weapon and determine if it was an illegal weapon or not. The open carry law not only provides protection to individuals who armed with illegal weapons, it creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the community."
Mississippi Justice Institute argues this action is unconstitutional. Their lawsuit was filed on behalf of State Rep. Dana Criswell.
"The U.S. Constitution and the Mississippi Constitution protect the right to openly carry firearms in public for self-defense, as do Mississippi statutes. A mayor does not have the authority to override these constitutional rights, even during a state of emergency," a statement from the group reads.
MJI Director Aaron Rice said that while the crime in Jackson saddens them, the crimes have nothing to do with the public health crisis or the right to open carry a firearm in public for self-defense.
"Mississippians should know that when the government tries to take away your constitutional rights, MJI will always be in your corner to help you fight back," Rice said. Copy of 19-page lawsuit is in the link.
#2
Damn! g(r)omgoru beat me to it! Was just thinking of this scene when thinking about Waffle House. Come for the food and stay for the show! I defer to a true man of culture.
[Yahoo] New satellite images showing the recent movements of luxury boats by Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, have provided further indications that he may be ensconced in his seaside villa in Wonsan, on the country's east coast.
The location of the reclusive leader has been a mystery since his unprecedented no-show at April 15 events to mark the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.
His absence, for the first time since he took power in 2011, unleashed a torrent of speculation about his health conditions, with unverified and conflicting reports claiming he was both recuperating from cardiovascular surgery and in "grave danger."
On Tuesday, commercial satellite imagery obtained by North Korea-monitoring website NK PRO showed boats often used by Kim had made movements in patterns that suggested he or his entourage may be in the Wonsan area.
"Extensive analysis shows that similar leisure boat movements at an exclusive villa in Wonsan and a nearby island near the Kalma peninsula have aligned with Kim's public appearances in the area in every one of a half-dozen instances since last summer, and many more dating back to 2013," it said.
The imagery adds to earlier satellite pictures studied by the Washington-based North Korea monitoring project 38 North, which appeared to show that a train similar to Kim's was parked in the resort's so-called "leadership station" reserved for the use of the Kim family a week ago.
#1
It would seem to be the shortest line between 2 points. He is after all a dictator. China is preoccupied and his own population must be even more locked down than usual. So why not fire up the yacht, break out the hookers and champagne.
[Ynet] U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said the United States believes there are many laboratories in China working on contagious pathogens, but does not know if the facilities have adequate security to prevent future pandemics.
[Newsweek] Health experts in India have advised against further use of coronavirus testing kits procured from Chinese companies, disclosing its intentions to return all previously acquired tests to suppliers in an announcement released on Monday.
The statement, issued by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Dr. G. S. Toteja, cited reports of performance issues from various states and corroborated their claims with conclusions drawn from the council's own evaluations.
"The results have shown wide variation in their sensitivity, despite early promise of good performance for surveillance purposes," ICMR said of the antibody assessments, which aim to identify individuals who have contracted the novel coronavirus by detecting the presence of certain antibodies in blood. Earlier this month, India received roughly 500,000 testing kits from two biotechnology companies based in China, Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech and Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostics.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in India, Ji Rong, responded to ICMR's announcement on Tuesday, calling its analysis of the testing kits "unfair and irresponsible." His statement also noted that both products met quality standards established by China's governing medical board as well as India's national virology institute.
[The Street] IBM (IBM) - Get Report declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $1.63 a common share, an increase of a penny and marking the 25th year in a row that the company has increased its quarterly cash dividend.
The dividend is payable June 10 to shareholders of record May 8.
The decision to raise its dividend enables IBM to keep the promise Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh made during its earnings conference call last week, when he said, "we remain fully committed to our dividend."
Evercore on Sunday published a note advising investors to watch what IBM does with its dividend because it allocated about half its free cash flow toward its dividend payments.
Companies that allocate half their free cash flow, which is calculated by subtracting capital spending from operating cash flow, "need to be monitored," according to Evercore's note, "particularly in the event that [free cash flow] is reduced by 20% to 30%."
Last week, IBM reported a mixed first quarter as earnings topped estimates but revenue lagged expectations. Meanwhile, IBM's free cash flow of about $1.4 billion matched the $1.4 billion it returned to shareholders through dividends.
CHEVILLY-LARUE, France (Reuters) - When French doctor Christian Chenay saw his first patients in 1951, penicillin was state of the art.
Now 98 years old, he is still working and opens his surgery in the Paris suburbs two mornings a week for patients, some of whom he has treated for decades.
With no health woes of his own - he doesn’t even wear glasses during his consultations - Chenay said a quiet retirement had no appeal.
"If you’re over 60 they put you with the old people. One day you’ve got cards, the next day bingo, then there’s sudoku... With all that you become a complete idiot. I’m better off being a doctor!"
Originally from Angers in western France, Chenay worked as a welder before becoming a doctor, ultimately qualifying as a radiologist before moving back into general practice.
His surgery does not look high tech - there is a fax machine but no computer on the desk - but Chenay says he keeps up to date with all the latest developments via his subscriptions to online medical journals.
He says a new development in his nearly seven-decade career is patients who erroneously diagnose themselves on the internet and then turn up at his surgery demanding drugs.
Many of his patients say they struggle to get appointments in Chevilly-Larue, which has three doctors for a population of 19,000, so they queue early to see Chenay who runs a drop-in surgery, promising to see the first 20 patients who sign up.
"(In France) we have the doctors, we have the sick people, but to bring the people together is really not easy," he said.
[Washington Free Beacon] At first glance, Las Vegas Public Radio (LVPR) looks like any other local FM radio station. It has local community sponsors, vaguely right-wing talk show hosts, and a website begging for a makeover. But there's a disclaimer on the bottom of that website noting that, contrary to the name, the station is not an NPR affiliate.
That disclaimer makes no mention of the fact that LVPR, the self-proclaimed "People's Voice of Las Vegas," is registered to lobby for Huawei Technologies, a Chinese company widely considered a national security threat to the United States.
Funded in part by Nevada taxpayers, according to its founder, LVPR has also developed close ties with Chinese officials and, under the guise of a local American radio station, it has become a voice for a Chinese technology giant that the Trump administration and other national security experts have identified as a threat to the global communications network. Federal disclosures show that the station is registered to lobby for Huawei and, in that capacity, has scheduled programming to push back against mounting concerns that the company could serve as a conduit for Chinese espionage if it builds the 5G network in the United States.
"We'll tell the American people that Huawei is being f—ed in America by politicians," LVPR founder and president Gregory LaPorta told the Washington Free Beacon. "They are no different from Qualcomm and Google ... [Huawei] wants a place in the world like anyone else."
LaPorta blamed the station's rocky finances on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a government-backed entity that offers grants to public broadcasters. LaPorta said the CPB's refusal to offer financial support for his station has forced him to seek revenue elsewhere, including China.
"This is why we're going out of the country. Our own f—ing country has let us down," LaPorta said. "They don't want to support us? F— them."
"We're not going to be a fake news agency," he said.
He dismissed concerns about China's routine suppression of the freedom of the press, and expressed no qualms working with the Chinese government, given what he saw as the corrupt nature of the American government.
"The United States has probably more sins than the Chinese," he said. "America, we're the most corrupt nation on Earth, probably, at this point." Looking for that sweet PressTV $ too?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/29/2020 00:00 ||
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{Arutz-7]-US President Donald Trump received the support of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) for his promotion of an anti-malarial drug to treat the coronavirus.
AAPS presented data obtained after a study of 2,333 coronavirus patients treated with the hydroxychloroquine drug. The study found that 91.6% of patients got better after being administered the drug.
In a letter to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, AAPS urged doctors to use hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients without waiting for the results of "gold standard" tests.
The recommendation comes after President Trump called hydroxychloroquine a potential "game changer" in a press briefing on the coronavirus crisis.
Some of President Trump's critics, including US doctors, have attacked the president's recommendation, claiming the drug does not help treat coronavirus and even increases the risk of death from the disease. According to the AAPS, the deaths cited were of people in very serious condition and "not indicative" of any adverse affects of hydroxychloroquine.
#5
^Psychosomatic, I believe.
Would like to do some experiments on USA Trump haters. Would both HCQ and Placebo cause, what was it, blinding head aches?
#10
#8 chloroquine according to the article. But, read this: The 40-year-old told the newspaper Expressen he began suffering cramps, peripheral vision loss and a headache that felt like stepping into 'a high voltage plant'
To me, this sounds kinda familiar
#14
Just as a mind exercise, but consider that the Wuhan Flu was a contagion attack upon the U.S. medical system. Yes, I know other countries got hit also, but consider them collateral damage or as below.
A small amount of research could easily determine source countries providing largest visit counts to a couple of targeted U.S. areas. Thence work backwards.
[YNet] - An 11-year-girl who was hospitalized in serious condition due to complications of coronavirus regained her consciousness on Wednesday.
The hospital said that the girl had already recovered from the virus several days ago but remained in a serious condition due to damage caused to her heart by the disease.
reason via Instapundit
A brewing company in Hawaii is being investigated by a liquor board for giving away hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 outbreak with alcohol purchases.
With the temporary death of the bar scene across the country due to stay-at-home orders, brewers and distillers large and small have adjusted on the fly and have started converting to the production of sanitizer instead of beer or liquor, for now.
Maui Brewing Co. in Hawaii began manufacturing hand sanitizer late in March after shutting down its restaurants and brewery to anything but takeout sales. They've been giving away hand sanitizer with purchases at their Kihei location, and they've also donated more than 1,000 gallons of hand sanitizer to local first responders.
According to media outlets in Hawaii, the company is now in trouble with the Maui County Department of Liquor Control and its overseeing Liquor Control Commission. Maui's extensive liquor regulations forbid anybody with a liquor license from giving "any free goods of intoxicating liquor or other merchandise in the connection with the sale of any intoxicating liquor; or to provide any premium or free goods of intoxicating liquor in connection with the sale of other merchandise."
In other words: It's against the law in Maui to give away hand sanitizer to people who buy liquor from you. And it's also against the law to give liquor away to people who buy hand sanitizer from you.
[The Hill] The Pentagon is taking money from 19 construction projects, including several in Europe meant to deter Russia, in order to pay for construction projects stateside that had been delayed because funding was reallocated to President Trump’s border wall.
In a memo dated Monday obtained by The Hill, Defense Secretary Mark Esper directed acting Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker to take $545.5 million from projects largely outside the United States to pay for projects within the country.
Top House Democrats slammed the move in a statement Tuesday, accusing the Trump administration of "making an end run around Congress" after lawmakers refused to replenish funding Trump took from military construction for the wall.
"Even worse, Trump is doing this by canceling funding for critical European Deterrence Initiative projects that were designed to bolster real national security needs and prevent Russian aggression against American allies and partners in Europe," House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the subcommittee in charge of military construction, said in a statement.
#1
Mark Esper directed acting Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker to take $545.5 million from projects largely outside the United States to pay for projects within the country.
When the Russians begin streaming across our Southern border, perhaps the issue can be re-looked.
#4
"critical European Deterrence Initiative projects that were designed to bolster real national security needs and prevent Russian aggression against American allies and partners in Europe"
Diversity and Inclusiveness Studies?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/29/2020 8:34 Comments ||
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#5
My gawd, actually protecting our homeland. Idgits with stars long ago forgot that fundamental.
#6
All of this funding redistribution could eventually impact the service Uniform Boards and the need for semi-annual camo redesigns and contracting competes. I strongly recommend someone have a look.
#7
We've reached the height of surreal stupidity when our elites consider non-deterrence of a non-threat to non-Americans 7,000 miles away to be more important than stemming the flood of literally millions of job-, wage- and community-destroying illegals across our own southern border. Madness. Decadence is probably a better descriptor.
[PioneerInstitute] As we approach the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the United States Department of Education in May, shocking trends in student performance should lead us to reconsider the federal role in education and whether the initiative for policymaking should be returned to local schools, communities, and states.
Breaking with decades of slow improvement, U.S. reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other assessments have seen historic declines since most states implemented national Common Core English and math curriculum standards six years ago, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.
While Common Core was promoted as improving the international competitiveness of U.S. students in math, our international standing has remained low while the skills of average and lower performing American students have dropped in both math and reading.
Nationally, fourth- and eighth-grade NAEP math scores were rising gradually in the years before Common Core was implemented (2003-2013). Post-Common Core, scores at both grades have fallen, eighth grade at nearly the same rate as it was previously increasing.
The declines are most acute for the lowest-achieving students, increasing inequality. Scores for students at the 90th percentile have mostly continued their pre-Common Core trend of gradual improvement. But the farther behind students were, the more substantial the declines, with the biggest drops occurring for those at the 25th and 10th percentiles.
#1
Has anybody ever met someone who was a staunch believer or proponent of this rubbish Common Core? I haven't. So, with so many people/parents loathing this, how did it become reality and get introduced into US schools? BTW, do any other nations do this in their primary education systems?
#2
The real question is if Common Core is so bad that this has made public school teachers even worse, or if it has made the testing show a drop because to pass you need to use Common Core and its various absurdities, or else be deemed to be lacking in proficiency with the material.
Both could be true, but saying it is a cop out. One is undoubtedly more true than the other (I personally never bet against public school teachers becoming even bigger idiots, but these tests are clearly moronic on their own).
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/29/2020 10:05 Comments ||
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#14
On it all, it turned into a nice fig leaf for grade school teachers who don't understand math themselves to kinda shrug, "Eh, its how its done now."
My first was a pioneer in the program. It was an exercise in frustrating classmates (and parents) into outright disgust of math. Teaching algebraic concepts to 2nd graders before they even had their math charts memorized, using English as Second Language word problems and proto-woke themes.
#15
Even back in the 80's, we used to run multiplication/division tables, and other math games, with our kids at home.
Teachers got upset with us for doing that because it gave our kids an 'edge' over the other students.
All our children are now in math-heavy fields and are part of the 'essential' work force. Plus they get paid really well (no 'parent loans' needed from us...ever).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/29/2020 10:57 Comments ||
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#16
Math isn't hard. We homeschooled K-12, and our oldest got her degree in math from an Ivy.
I like to make an analogy to history, which is essentially just the best stories humanity has to tell. How do you make *that* boring? Takes lots and lots and lot of government, incompetence and whackadoodle ideas.
#22
Home-schooling + courses at the local community college.
The educrats must be running scared. If the masses get wind of the above formula for success, they'll leave the public schools in droves. Every child the public schools lose costs them ~$12,000 a year in state funding.
= downward spiral for public schools, with no way out except...
#23
Looking around Khan, it appears that they are using common core practices as the main way to teach arithmetic.
I don’t think they teach addition/subtraction tables at all - they use an intuitive method involving counting and a collection of what I’d call tricks to get it done. That works for him, but he’s brilliant. I think it is not the optimum way to teach the average (or less - remember, half the kids in elementary school are below average!) pupil. Common core is ok for bright kids, but it mystifies the average person.
Personally, I know some advanced math, but my addition/subtraction skills are very poor. Something went wrong in first or second grade. I actually use techniques similar to Khan, but I’m very slow on things like when the nurse practitioner checks for mental acuity with “count backwards from 100 by 7”. That should be nearly instantaneous, if you really learned the tables.
My multiplication is fine - I learned those tables properly :-)
Granted, people use calculators these days, but they should be able to do quick estimates in their heads.
He does make the comment that learning the multiplication tables would be useful. They have vids on subjects like “patterns in multiplication tables”, which is typical common core.
#29
George Dyson tells a story about the Manhattan Project days: Ulam or Metropolis (I forget which) using a Marchant desk calculator, one fellow using a slide rule, and John Von Neumann doing the math in his head. Typically, they all finished in about the same time.
Sets made sense to me. But I remember the others in my class struggling back in 1967. Then — being the child of educators and stubborn — I refused to memorize the the multiplication table because rote memorization does not lead to deeper understanding, and therefore is pedagogically unsound. I just added really really fast when called up to display my progress to the teacher... and of course, as one progresses through the table, there is ever less to learn, 6x7 having the same answer as 7x6.
By the time I was a parent I had figured out I hadn’t been nearly as clever as I thought when I was nine, and drilled my toddlers in their addition, multiplication, and squares facts as a car game. So by the time they were nine, any silly conclusions they might draw were already superseded by prior knowledge. ;-)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Townhall] In their effort to attack the Trump administration as it battles the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in the US, the anti-Trump opposition press has peddled Chinese propaganda and now it looks like they’ve rallied around someone who is now under a homicide investigation. Remember that Arizona couple who ingested chloroquine phosphate because they thought it could ward off the virus? Wanda Lenius and her husband, Gary, ingested the fish tank cleaner with soda and the effects were dire. The husband died, while it left Wanda in critical condition. Now, she’s being investigated for homicide. Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon has the scoop. One thing that struck friends of the late Gary Lenius as odd was this notion that this retired engineer would just take poison willingly. 
[PJ] As far as we know, not one single American has injected disinfectant into his or her veins after the media reported the president said that injecting disinfectant would cure coronavirus.
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
[Israelnationalnews] British PM Boris Johnson announces birth of baby boy
Also from space. Messages to Dr. Fauci ? 
I still consult mine now and then. It's here in my desk somewhere. 
