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Political correctness

The real effects of the Wuhan Virus

March 22, 2020

Mike Huckabee

For those who are panicking about the disease without knowing its real effects, this is a good article to check out.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1252365/Coronavirus-treatment-How-many-people-have-recovered-from-coronavirus-news-latest

It notes that the risk of death is considerably lower than with SARS or MERS. The greatest danger is to the elderly and those with preexisting conditions that weaken their immune systems, and for most people who get it, it’s like a heavy cold. Also, while you’ve heard about the terrible death toll in Italy, less reported is the fact that Italy has one of the oldest populations in Europe, and the majority of fatalities have been among people in their 80s and 90s. Also, their socialized medical system doesn’t have the equipment to handle it, and other European nations have refused to help, keeping it for themselves. Thanks, EU!

In a related story: it’s said that everyone is conservative about the things he knows best. So it’s been very instructive to see all the other nations closing their borders. When President Trump shut down travel from China in January, he was denounced as a racist, a xenophobe and a liar. Chuck Schumer accused him of a “war on immigrants.” We now know that that move slowed the spread of the virus, bought us time and likely saved many lives. Of course, Trump is still being called a racist, a xenophobe and a liar, just as he was when he tried to stop migrants with Central American diseases from flooding across the border.

But now that reality can no longer be denied, look at all the liberal leaders, from Germany to Canada’s virtual-signaling Prime Minister, Justin “Canada is open to everyone” Trudeau, closing their borders. Even Mexico is considering shutting its US border to Americans to keep the coronavirus out.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/14/us-mexico-border-could-be-shut-down-to-contain-coronavirus-officials/

Have they all suddenly become xenophones? Or is it just that once talk stopped being cheap, they had to clam up about fake “xenophobia” because they now have a real disease to deal with.

Necessary response to reader comment

March 22, 2020

Mike Huckabee

The Gov. felt compelled to answer this letter from Tavane:

Governor, I was with you right up until you said "Goodness knows, that’s a more productive use of funds than just passing out money to everyone." Though it may not make a difference to you, I know many, many families who are in dire straights right now because, like many Americans, they live from paycheck to paycheck and have no reserve funds set aside to buy extras to get them through the shutdown of this country. If they do have a 401k or other savings/retirement accounts you can't just get money out of them when you want to as they have special governing rules to them highly inaccessible and also bear steep penalties if withdrawals are made. These citizens also have children who are not going to school now and they also have jobs that need them there so now have to pay for daycare of some sort so they can keep their jobs. I usually find your comments uplifting but to negate the fact that American's need financial help right now to make it through is very negative and unworthy of a man of your stature.

From the Gov:

Good heavens, Tavane, I never said or even meant to imply that the government shouldn’t offer financial assistance to people who are hurting. I said “JUST passing out money to everyone.” People in many industries are devastated right now and need help. To cite just one example, my staff and I know many in the music business (most of whom struggle to stay afloat during normal conditions) who have lost ALL their work for the foreseeable future and are at a complete loss as to what to do and how to survive. I share all of your concerns. You are right about all of this --- except the part where you say I “negate” the fact that people need help.

What I was saying is that we have to find a medical solution to this because we can’t JUST pass out money forever. That alone is a terrible long-term plan, because if we just print billions and even trillions of dollars while everyone stays home indefinitely, we surely will end up like Venezuela. But, yes, of course, we must help Americans who are hurting right now.

Still, we have to find a cure and/or a vaccine that will allow us to get back to work --- and to stay at work with no threat of a "second wave." The longer that takes, the bigger the pit we'll have to dig out of. In the meantime, though, we certainly have to help each other get through this and come out the other side.

Huck's Hero Kurt Kruczek

March 22, 2020

Mike Huckabee

I wrote recently that I seem to live in a very different America from the dog-eat-dog Zombie Apocalypse described by the media. In the America where I live, people are dealing with the current pandemic scare by trying their best to stay calm, keep on keeping on, and helping each other as much as possible.

One great example of a Huck’s Hero in this situation is Kurt Kruczek, owner of Naples Pizza in West Hartford, Connecticut. His business is down 50%, he had to close one location, and he’s struggling to keep paying all his workers. But when he saw the doctors at the local hospital on TV in their “space suits,” working so hard to deal with the coronavirus, he knew he had to help. So he called and asked if they’d like some free pizzas. The gift was greatly appreciated by the overworked staffers and worried patient family members. So he’s now making a weekly delivery of free pizzas to the hospital, one during the daytime and another at night, for the night shift people who tend to be forgotten.

Kruczek appeared Wednesday on “Fox & Friends,” where he urged people to please support their local restaurants that are struggling to survive by ordering good to go or to be delivered. And here’s a great idea: he said if you can afford it, consider buying gift cards and either using them when the pandemic is over, or else donate them as thank-you gifts to your local hospital, police or firefighters.

There’s even a website now that can help you find a restaurant near you that’s offering gift cards, to help your local businesses survive. To learn more, go to www.RallyForRestaurants.com.

Politicizing the Coronavirus Pandemic

March 22, 2020

Mike Huckabee

For those who like to keep track of things in handy list form, here are “10 Ways the Left has Poliiticized the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

https://pjmedia.com/trending/10-ways-the-left-has-politicized-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

There are a lot of stories encapsulated here, from Biden plagiarizing Trump’s plan (plagiarism seems to be Joe’s virus) to Nancy Pelosi trying to sneak a lot of liberal wish list items like taxpayer-paid abortion into the emergency relief bill.

To expand on that, the phrase “40 Republicans” started trending on Twitter when 40 House Republicans voted against the initial coronavirus emergency relief bill. Naturally, they were vilified as heartless monsters. One commenter even asked what they would do next, vote to kill Santa Claus? Well, in a manner of speaking, that’s sort of what this bill was: liberals trying to use a disease like Santa Claus.

As Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert (who is taking tremendous heat for his opposition) explained it, this bill didn’t just cynically get loaded with leftist pork spending. It also contained the type of measures leftists love who’ve spent their lives in politics and academia but have never run a business or met a payroll. For instance, instead of providing shorterm, immediate relief to workers who can't work, it created an endless mandate for small businesses to provide unaffordable paid medical leave to all employees. They got a tax credit in return, but by the time they collected the refund, many of them would be out of business. I've never understood why liberals think they're helping workers by waging war on the people who create their jobs.

As is her wont, Nancy Pelosi made sure House members got the 89-page bill with only 15 minutes to read it, in a ploy to use a health emergency to demand that Congress pass a massive bill first, and then find out what was in it. Fortunately, this time around, we have a GOP Senate that refused to fall for that scam. At this writing, a replacement bill is still being hammered out. Let’s hope it passes quickly, it deals with the current problem, and it gets help to those who need it fast without causing more problems than it solves.

On a side note, I doubt that it will include Mitt Romney’s proposal just to give everyone $1,000, although that will probably help complete his transition to being an honorary Democrat.

Friday's "Wuhan virus" developments

March 21, 2020

Mike Huckabee

In Friday’s developments around the COVID-19 coronavirus (or more accurately, “Wuhan virus”) pandemic, cases continued to rise, with New York City experiencing an average of one death per hour from it. But efforts to combat it are moving swiftly, such as making ventilators from 3D printers...

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/19/open-source-project-spins-up-3d-printed-ventilator-validation-prototype-in-just-one-week/

...And some treatments are showing early positive results.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/malaria-drugs-touted-by-trump-can-work-against-coronavirus-top-doc-tells-laura-ingraham

Both the federal government and New York State are taking actions to prevent people from having their homes foreclosed due to inability to make mortgage payments during the virus shutdown.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/some-homeowners-and-renters-will-get-a-break-from-the-coronavirus-financial-fallout-2020-03-18

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/coronavirus/banks-waive-mortgage-payments-90-days

President Trump announced that our southern border is being closed to nonessential trade. Also, he dismissed talk of a national lockdown and said that he’s suspended certain federal student loan payments for the next 60 days, and the Department of Education won’t enforce standardized test requirements for the current year. Also, the deadline for filing income taxes is being moved from April 15 to July 15.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/government-response-updates-white-house-briefing-expected-amid/story?id=69706088

I’m linking to that ABC News story because it actually contains info on all these important points and more. It wasn’t easy to find. When I Googled for news on this subject, the stories from other news outlets such as the New York Times, CNN and Vanity Fair were obsessed with calling Trump a “sociopath” who went on a “vicious rant” and dispensed “propaganda” because he lost patience with disrespectful reporters and dressed one down for asking a “question” that was a thinly-disguised accusation of giving people false hope.

To these anti-Trump media outlets, even in the middle of a worldwide deadly pandemic, the story is all about their feelings. Maybe that’s why the latest ABC/Ipsos poll shows that Americans’ approval of how Trump is handling the crisis has jumped 12 points in a week, from 43% to 55%. There was no similar jump in trust in the media.

Naturally, the media response to that was not introspection or reassessment of their own attitudes, but to attack Trump again, and list all the ways in which they think he’s handled this all wrong. They attack him for downplaying the threat if he tries to reassure Americans, and they attack him for frightening the nation and scaring stock markets if he delivers bad news frankly. They accuse him of racism for accurately calling it a “Chinese virus” while repeating bogus and vile talking points dispensed by the communist government of China. They badgered him to take a virus test, and when it came back negative, they assailed him for wasting a test. And now they’re baffled why the public is starting to trust Trump more than their reporting?

A reminder: Trump limited travel from China over this issue back in January, and the media called him xenophobic and racist, as did the Democrats when they weren't busy trying to impeach him. After he was proven correct, both later accused him of not acting soon enough to restrict travel from China.

Richard Fernandez at PJ Media made a good point: the media are lashing out in tantrums because not only have they been wrong about Trump’s handling of the virus, but the virus is exposing that they have been wrong about virtually everything they’ve been smugly preaching for years, from open borders to globalization to trusting China.

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