What’s Causing America’s Baby Bust?
Posted By: Judy W., 3/11/2021 7:05:34 AM
When the COVID-19 pandemic started and lockdowns became part of our daily lives, some romantic souls were predicting that this would produce a baby boom. Now, as the data shows up, we see exactly the opposite. CBS obtained data from health departments in over two dozen states that shows “a 7% drop in births in December—nine months after the first lockdowns began.” Research from the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., predicts that births may well be down 300,000 to 500,000 in 2021. The prediction is based on a negative correlation between birth rates and the unemployment rate. Higher unemployment means fewer babies.
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Much of the daily conversation on social media is consumed by ephemera. (Snip) It's all fine to think about, as long as you don't devote too much mental bandwidth to it and don't forget that there are some enormous things happening in our politics right now. The fact is, the Biden administration, despite its tenuous holds on the House and Senate, is working to make far-reaching changes to American life. Two of the biggest -- and two that could combine to create a crisis -- are the COVID relief bill, which the president will sign into law tomorrow, and immigration. They are two key parts of a progressive agenda
One year ago, I tweeted: “This is what the Left wants. They want people stripped of wealth, isolated, and terrified. They want sources of joy—church, sporting events, vacations, large social gatherings—eliminated. This is how they get control. And it’s far scarier than any virus.”
It was not a popular sentiment at the time.
My initial reaction to government-ordered lockdowns, promoted by politicians on both sides and President Trump, was in the slim minority to say the least. “Flattening the curve” required deep personal sacrifices, we were warned.
(Snip) But from the start, “the curve” was bogus stagecraft. As I explained last year, the curve the authorities presented to Americans wasn’t accurate.
What’s Causing America’s Baby Bust?
20 replies
When the COVID-19 pandemic started and lockdowns became part of our daily lives, some romantic souls were predicting that this would produce a baby boom.
Now, as the data shows up, we see exactly the opposite.
CBS obtained data from health departments in over two dozen states that shows “a 7% drop in births in December—nine months after the first lockdowns began.”
Research from the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., predicts that births may well be down 300,000 to 500,000 in 2021.
The prediction is based on a negative correlation between birth rates and the unemployment rate. Higher unemployment means fewer babies.
Had Trump remained president, his legacy would have included making true peace in the Middle East. This would have encompassed Sunni Arab nations laying down arms as to Israel, while Iran would have been rendered inconsequential – and, perhaps, the beleaguered Iranian people might have been able to eject the mullahs. With Biden, though, Obama pulls the strings, which means wooing the mullahs, being hostile to Israel, and denigrating the Saudis. Nevertheless, some amazing Saudi outreach to Israel means Trump’s Middle East peace plans still matter.
Trump’s genius in terms of the Middle East was to ignore the Palestinians into oblivion.
Kristi Noem for President? Not So Fast.
22 replies
Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem made headlines in 2020 for keeping her state open during the COVID-19 outbreak and opposing Faucian dictates about masks, stay-at-home orders, and church closures. To this, conservatives applauded — and rightly so. But does holding the line during a pandemic in a state with less than 900 thousand people — about the size of Charlotte, North Carolina — now warrant the frenetic swell of support for Noem among conservatives to be the next vice president or even president? Absolutely not — especially at time when the fight for constitutional conservative values is more important than ever.
My husband and I have been Amazon users for about 15 years. (Snip) We became Prime members in July 2017 and delighted in two- and even one-day shipping of everything from diapers to canned goods to dry erase markers to work boots, eliminating the annoyance of running to the store over one or two items. It seemed fun, easy, and exciting.
And then it wasn’t fun, easy, and exciting any more, because Amazon became evil—and I learned how evil they had really been all along. Using it to indulge my own greed and materialism was one problem. Amazon’s use of its market power is another. Both are a big deal.
The Rise and Fall of Andrew Cuomo
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In ancient Greece, they warned that excessive pride and arrogance will without fail lead to punishment. In ancient Rome, slaves rode behind conquerors whispering in their ears “memento mori” -- you are mortal -- meaning that both fame and you die. (Snip) Just consider the rise and fall of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. In this case we can see why he rose to such fame. Why he’s being attacked right now has several explanations. As I detail, I think it’s because others with the same greed for power and fame in his own ranks are vying for the same unearned glory he once held.
She’s My Mother—She’s My Father
13 replies
If you’ve seen the 1974 movie “Chinatown,” you may recall that great scene, where the detective, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), confronts Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) about the identity of the woman he believes is Evelyn’s father’s mistress. (Snip) Fast forward to today, to real life, not a Hollywood film or make believe, with the very confusing news story of a transwoman physician, Dr. Jesnoor Dayara, in Gujarat, India who has frozen his sperm so that when he undergoes sex-reassignment surgery sometime later this year, the child he hopes to give birth to as a woman will be biologically his. It can be confusing to unpack this story too!
In America, class warfare is often disguised as culture war, and culture war is often cloaked by talk of race. But underneath it all, the class warfare is still there. Whether accidentally or intentionally, America’s upper classes seem to wind up harming the working class and small businesses, always in the name of some high-minded cause.
On immigration, for example, the go-to move is to call people who object to open borders racists and nativists. But what’s behind it? As Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein commented: “A tight job market pressures employers to boost wage offers . . . One equally surefire way to short-circuit this useful dynamic
The Gateway Pundit reported on January 9th that the FBI in Georgia stepped in and shut down the forensic analysis of shredded ballots, took the ballots away from the forensic team, and brought them back to the shredder to destroy the evidence.
Today we have more on this incident from two sources.
(Snip) This group of individuals who were connected to the investigation to uncover the 2020 election fraud immediately began sifting through what was not yet fully destroyed. They reportedly found shipment transit receipts linked to China, ballots, and other sensitive information related to the 2020 election.
The Republican Party’s leaders still don’t get it.
That’s the big takeaway from a newly-released strategy document from the largest Super PAC backing Republican House candidates.
The Congressional Leadership Fund spent $140 million in the 2020 cycle, and could very well spend even more in 2022. It will hold enormous sway over what candidates are recruited in next year’s House races, and what their message is.
Republicans substantially outperformed expectations in 2020’s House elections.
(Snip) But according to CLF head Dan Conston in a newly-released memo, the victory came down to one thing: Putting a new, more “diverse” gloss on the tired pre-2016 Republican Party.
Why Deadnaming Matters
14 replies
Richard Levine was born in 1957 in Wakefield, Massachusetts, an affluent suburb 20 minutes north of Boston. He went to Hebrew school and had a bar mitzvah before heading to the very tony (very expensive) all-boys Belmont Hill School, where he played as a linebacker on the football team. (Snip) Eight years after his move to Pennsylvania, the doctor began to see a therapist.
Another eight years after that, he publicly announced his decision to transition to presenting as a woman. Now, a full decade after that announcement, Richard—now Rachel—stands as Joe Biden’s nominee for the United States’ Assistant Secretary for Health.
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The answer to that question may be in his absurd speech on Thursday when he said “we may have to reinstate the lockdown restrictions” if… If what? What if the migrants the Biden Administration is allowing to come across the southern border without being tested, even if showing symptoms, then given bus tickets to any American city they hope to reach, is a grand plan to spread this flu throughout the country again in order to reinstate all the unconstitutional restrictions to which millions of Americans willingly submitted? Chances are that the powers that be never dreamed so many people would give up their freedom
The polling, most especially out of Britain — or is it “England” or “Great Britain”? — has made it pretty clear that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s weekend appearance with Billionaire Race-Hoaxer Oprah Winfrey was a big mistake.
You can see the polling here, here, and here. But it is these numbers that are the most telling of just how badly this interview backfired:
A new YouGov poll, released on Friday, revealed that following the couple’s Oprah Winfrey interview, the couple has fallen very much out of favour with the British public.(Snip) Harry and Meghan damaged themselves with the general public. A ton of goodwill, especially towards Harry, has been squandered.
Dictionary.com announced Thursday that it had added 600 new words to its collection, including many words relating to social justice preferences.The outlet’s article about the new words notes that it added 450 completely new entries along with 94 new definitions to existing entries, many of which have to do with the vocabulary surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.“Technical updates include revised definitions at acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS for short) and variants and strains, owing to new forms of the novel coronavirus. Modified social rituals like the elbow bump caught our attention, especially as the gesture evolved to include more forearm contact than the name implies,” the website wrote.
The Biden administration has managed to quickly duplicate the Obama administration's disastrous foreign policy of appeasement. Now it's busy copying its opposition campaign.
One of the dumber campaigns by the Obama administration was Operation Rushbo.
Operation Rushbo was a campaign by Obama's people to target Rush Limbaugh personally, as the most outspoken voice in the conservative movement, and to, seemingly 'destroy' the conservative movement by making Limbaugh into its public face. [SNIP] Now, the Biden administration has decided to relaunch Operation Rushbo to target Tucker Carlson.
CA Dept of Ed voting on curriculum that
would encourage students to chant to
Aztec god of sacrifice 32 replies
would encourage students to chant to
Aztec god of sacrifice 32 replies
The California Department of Education (CDE) is set to vote on a new ethnic studies curriculum that reportedly calls for the “decolonization” of society in America and encourages students to chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice.The curriculum will focus on “social consciousness” and cultures that have allegedly not gotten enough attention in textbooks. That would include “African American, Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x, Native American, and Asian American and Pacific Islander studies,” according to the CDE. “By affirming the identities and contributions of marginalized groups in our society, ethnic studies helps students see themselves and each other as part of the narrative of the United States,” the overview states.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it is “disturbing” some supporters of former President Donald Trump are unwilling to get the coronavirus vaccine.
Anchor Chuck Todd asked, “I want to talk about vaccine. He has hesitancy here. We are seeing a bigger divide by politics. We talked about it earlier. For instance, among Trump voters, 47% have said they’ll not be vaccinated, 30% say yes, and half Republican men say they’re not going to take this vaccine. You have the PSA with all the former presidents except one, President Trump, in there. Do you think he
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that climate change has contributed to the surge of migrant children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Pelosi said, “There are more children, about 600, 700 more children, unaccompanied children coming over the border. This is a humanitarian challenge to all of us. What the administration has inherited is a broken system at the border, and they are working to correct that in the children’s interest. I’m so pleased that the president, as a temporary measure, has sent FEMA to the border to help facilitate the children going from one 72-hour issue where they are cared for
ICE has asked for volunteers to send to the US-Mexico border 'as soon as this weekend' as a south Texas migrant complex is seven times over capacity and reports are surfacing of children being forced to sleep on floors of detention centers. Michael Meade, ICE's acting assistant director for field operations called for the 'immediate' deployment of available personnel to the border in an urgent email to senior staff Thursday night as he warned the challenging circumstances will likely 'grow over the coming months'.(Snip) Yet the president insists there is no crisis at the border. Biden officials privately warned
New York—For years, researchers have said a lack of diversity in Hollywood films doesn't just poorly reflect demographics, it's bad business. A new study by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimates just how much Hollywood is leaving on the table: $10 billion. The McKinsey report, released Thursday, analyzes how inequality shapes the industry and how much it ultimately costs its bottom line. The consulting firm deduced that the $148 billion film and TV industry loses $10 billion, or 7%, every year by undervaluing Black films, filmmakers and executives.(Snip) The BlackLight Collective, a coalition of Black executives and talent in the industry,
Disillusioned staffers are abandoning embattled Gov. Cuomo, sources said.
“I hear that most people aren’t even coming into work, and the offices at the Capitol are empty,” said one well-placed insider in touch with staffers in recent days.
“He’ll fight and fight and fight, but the staffers I’ve talked to are ready for him to hang up the gloves. Everyone feels like there is an inevitable conclusion — I mean at some point will Biden call on him to step down? They [staffers] just want this torture to stop.”
Rebellion in the ranks deepened
"Real Time" host Bill Maher closed his show Friday night by sounding the alarm on China's growing dominance over the United States.
"You're not going to win the battle for the 21st century if you are a silly people. And Americans are a silly people," Maher began the monologue, alluding to a "Lawrence of Arabia" quote.
"Do you know who doesn't care that there's a stereotype of a Chinese man in a Dr. Seuss book? China," he said. "All 1.4 billion of them couldn't give a crouching tiger flying f--- because they're not a silly people. If anything, they are as serious as a prison fight."
An elderly California man has died from injuries suffered when he was punched in the face by a robbery suspect who prosecutors claim has a history of targeting older Asians. Seventy-five-year-old Oakland resident Pak Ho suffered a traumatic brain injury and brain damage after being knocked to the sidewalk from a single punch in the Tuesday attack. He died Thursday, and his alleged attacker, Teaunte Bailey, 26, now faces murder charges, police said.(Snip) The career criminal’s court-ordered GPS ankle monitor also reportedly placed him at the scene of the crime. In addition to the upgraded special circumstances murder charge,
Comments:
It's part of a long-term trend. The radical feminists have done their work and many women (and men) believe having a rewarding job is more important than having children.