Wolf and Levine: Masks and Empty Bar Stools Before Starving Children

According to this August 16th, 2020 WSJ article (https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-americans-go-hungry-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-census-shows-11597570200) "As of late last month, about 12.1% of adults lived in households that didn’t have enough to eat at some point in the previous week, up from 9.8% in early May, Census figures show. And almost 20% of Americans with kids at home couldn’t afford to give their children enough food, up from almost 17% in early June."

At least one economist quoted in the article believes this is worse than the Great Recession (for those with a college education it started in September of 2008).  “It is clear to me that there is a big problem here, and the problem seems to be worse than it was at the height of the Great Recession,” said Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, a Northwestern University economist.

From the article as to "why" children are starving:  "First, it can take a while for laid-off workers to begin receiving unemployment benefits. Getting enough food can be a challenge during that interval.

Second, some schools and child-care facilities that provided free meals are closed. Paying for those meals can be expensive, even for parents with jobs."

Unemployment is bad (from https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-unemployment-rate.htm)

And, based on the 20% statistic underlined in the first paragraph, it would seem that the result of this is starving children - a lot of them: based on (https://www.infoplease.com/us/census/pennsylvania/demographic-statistics) about 26% of Pennsylvania's 12,281,05 people are 19 years old or younger: 3,254,479 children.

And 20% of these 3,254,479 children, so 650,000 plus or minus, don't get enough to eat as of August 2020 based on the above stats.

This is an every day thing, mind you - these children don't eat each and every day.

Yet our friend Tom Wolf (along with is cohort Rachel Levine) threatened the children back on July 15:  to wit (according to https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/07/wolf-would-pull-the-plug-on-school-reopening-if-new-covid-surge-cant-be-stopped.html) "Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday he’s willing to “pull the plug” on school reopening if a new surge of COVID-19 infections continues to grow."

To be clear: many children eat only because of school and other food programs.

Also to be clear: cases are surging along (or perhaps in parallel) with testing, not deaths, not hospitalization.

So why is Tom Wolf taking work away from parents (hospitality industry forced to operation at 25% of capacity) and not "covering the nut" on their children's food bills?  (Actually according to https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.pa.htm the industry represents around 600k jobs in PA - and it dropped to half that during the "lockdown.")

I would have thought the concept of "public health" would involve everybody (including "the children") in the state and not just those killed by Wolf and Levine putting Covid-infected patients in otherwise healthy nursing homes...?

(Are hospitals overrun? No.  Is care being rationed? No. Are people dying in the streets? No.)

According to PA's website (https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Cases.aspx) daily Covid-19 deaths hover around 15-20 a day (and have since June).

So the mask and bar thing are more important than people feeding their children?

That's the take away here.

So how does history spin this?

Take a look at what Cris Dush, a PA State Representative, had to say back in May of 2020 (https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/05/pa-lawmaker-compares-gov-wolfs-handling-of-covid-19-crisis-to-socialist-playbook-used-in-nazi-germany-ussr.html): 

"State Rep. Cris Dush said Gov. Tom Wolf’s lack of transparency in his management of the coronavirus crisis resembles a page out of a “socialist playbook.”

...

“More and more I go back to the German Democratic Nationalist Socialist Party, the Nazi party. I go to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR,” Dush said. “This is a socialist playbook.”

...

Dush responded, “It’s a statement of history. It’s history. It’s history.”

Nazis, Mao, Stalin, etc. all had a hand in this sort of thing: Children are simply cannon fodder for the larger political aspirations of the "leader."

These are facts.

Uncomfortable facts.

Given substantial evidence (for example: https://www.primarydoctor.org/masks-not-effect?fbclid=IwAR2r8QsmWaWpduM4rvz24TlZTAjoMo4Nq2ftmES8KBEWP7fsFq3WjbqSQMM) that things like masks and lockdowns are of dubious value you have to wonder at the motivation here?

And this is not the only person equating the behavior of Wolf and Levine to Nazi's:

Here: (https://www.readingeagle.com/news/local/berks-county-gop-stands-behind-facebook-posts-some-criticized-as-anti-semitic-governor-target-of/article_a33ce7c0-9794-11ea-b0eb-3710a3861d40.html)

Here: (https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/local-restaurant-owner-under-fire-facebook-post-comparing-governor-health-secretary-nazis/NE2CMUZUVRHCVL2NZ7UX5FQYYI/)

Though, of course, the posts themselves are criticized as "offensive to Jews" and so forth.  

Ironically those complaining seem to miss the point of what happens when those in charge are given free reign to control a population as they see fit...

There is, of course, a reason for the US Constitution (not that anyone with a college education would think it as anything but racist hog wash).

Doesn't it seem better to keep the infrastructure that supports children (jobs, schools) functioning rather than "punishing" some group for a "surge of COVID-19 infections"?

(As you hide at home all smug that you are saving people by wearing your mask in the bathroom remember this: you are starving children.)