Just A Coincidence, I'm Sure

So you know how so many media talking heads are saying that HCQ is "not effective" and all that jazz. Well look at what dropped into my reading list today:

(Bloomberg) -- Shares of Eastman Kodak Co. have leapt 2,441% higher this week, sending its market valuation to nearly $2 billion, after it won a government loan to help produce ingredients used in key generic medicines to fight the coronavirus.

"Generic medicines" that do what? "Fight the coronavirus"? Really? Why would investors spend sooooo much money buying into a company that produces "ingredients used in key generic medicines to fight the coronavirus" if those "key ingredients" didn't, you know, work? Say, What exactly are those "ingredients used in key generic medicines"?

Kodak shares tripled on Tuesday on news of a $765 million loan to shift part of its factories to produce drug ingredients. The development bank loan was the first of its kind under the Defense Production Act in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, and intended to speed production of drugs in short supply and those considered critical to treat Covid-19, including hydroxychloroquine, the controversial antimalarial drug touted by President Donald Trump.

What? Including WHAT?

Oh.

Now of course Bloomberg is saying how HCQ is "not effective" and quoting Dr. "Masks are not effective today but are effective, now, but I take mine off at will, but you can't" Fauci. So either the Defense department risked a whole lot of money, and investors risked a whole lot of money on something they "know" is "not effective" or THEY know something is effective and YOU are being told otherwise for reasons other than YOUR health.

"COVID-19 pandemic is 'one big wave'"

So Reuters is reporting on WHO saying the following:

A World Health Organization official on Tuesday described the COVID-19 pandemic as “one big wave” and warned against complacency in the northern hemisphere summer since the infection does not share influenza’s tendency to follow seasons.

If this is the case then it bodes extremely well for Sweden, Italy and anywhere else that got massively infected early on. My lingering concern is that since Coronaviruses are usually seasonal, that Sweden and NY would face a serious problem come late fall when conditions become more favorable. However; this report, if accurate will mean that herd immunity may not only be possible at lower numbers than "expected" but also may have already occurred iun Sweden and possibly NYC. It also means that the strategy of lock downs possibly lengthened the "crisis".

WHO officials have been at pains to avoid describing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases like those in Hong Kong as “waves” as this suggests the virus is behaving in ways beyond human control, when in fact concerted action can slow its spread.

These "waves" are IMO, based on this report, actually a byproduct of attempts at limiting its spread.

It’s going to go up and down a bit. The best thing is to flatten it and turn it into just something lapping at your feet,” she said.

Or get it over with and go dry your feet.

We will soon find out.

Wuhan Pack Apparent Success in India

I've been saying since April that the Wuhan Pack was an exit strategy for the lockdown. Infected people could be treated early in the course of the disease with The Wuhan Pack, and avoid ICU's and the attendant death rates. Hospitals would be freed up and the impending economic disaster scenarios currently playing out would be avoided.

Instead the media went full bore press against The Wuhan Pack by citing "studies" that were specifically NOT the Wuhan Pack, nor used in the way the Wuhan Pack is to be used. Why? Because, in my opinion, the media along with the DNC wants Trump out of office so bad, they are willing to kill American citizens. I don't use the word "kill" lightly. Despite knowing how deadly the Wuhan virus was for the elderly, Democratic governors of NY and NJ put Wuhan patients into nursing homes. I'd call this premeditated murder except I can't prove that they didn't look at alternative placements.

These same governors threatened to sue states that wished to either bar NY residents from entering their states or required them to quarantine even though genetic testing showed that NY and NJ sent the Wuhan virus out to almost every other state. These same governors are now imposing quarantines on people arriving from the states, that NY and NJ residents infected with their travels. And these same governors are talking shit to and about the states their residents infected. That's a whole lot of nerve.

Anyway, this is not a post on THAT. Back to the Wuhan Pack. So despite the absolute fake news that surrounds HCQ, various medical personnel in various countries have in fact been using the Wuhan Pack and we have a report out of India that is very encouraging.

Dharavi's COVID-19 infection rate dropped drastically from April through June. In July, new infections were very low, almost reaching zero on July 9.

Officials have credited this turnaround to "[a] combination of hydroxychloroquine, vitamin D, and zinc tablets along with homeopathic medicines."

I'll remind the reader that President Trump has been in contact with people who have tested positive for C-19 and has been taking HCQ+Zinc since then. He's not sick is he.

Oh.

Here's the Tribune of India on the subject:

According to senior police officials, the force managed to protect the health of its personnel by first asking those above the age of 55 and those with co-morbidities to stay at home. Members of the force who were deployed in sensitive areas like Dharavi, a major hotspot for the virus, were given hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic in addition to vitamins and zinc tablets.

So we, stuck in the US, where a political party along with the media would prefer to see us spend our savings (if we have any), lose our businesses (if we have one) and go on a death ventilator rather than try The Wuhan Pack along with quick turn around testing can only do what we can:

1) Eat anti-inflammatory foods, particularly before bed time.
2) Take zinc (don't overdo it).
3) Get plenty of sunshine so that vitamin D (actually a hormone) can be created. Supplement if you cannot do so but natural is best.
4) Drops of oil of Oregano to the mouth if you expect to go somewhere where there will be lots of people. Oil of Oregano has a natural anti-viral compound that can help stave off initial infection loads.

The Alternative: Make That Move

So we had a series of videos that showed some of the alternatives to "white supremacy culture" where things like math, schedules, safety, reliable power, etc. are not exactly "important". Where there is a "this will do" or "that's what it's like here" kind of attitude in regards to things that have solutions or improvements looking them dead in the eye. But these things also present an enormous opportunity for black people in the diaspora. See these two videos:

And

Mind you, you'll want to be carefull about what you say though:

I have more respect for these individuals than ANYONE talking that Black Lives Matter stuff in the US. 10X more respect. Why? Because if they feel so oppressed and without opportunity in America, there is a huge land mass, the home of black people where they can go and create their own opportunity AND provide opportunities for the people already there.

Note that if you have something like $30k you can be absolutely balling in certain parts of Africa. If you have 6 figures of wealth you can live like royalty. All you have to do is take one of those flights that leave the US every day. There are thousands of Chinese and Europeans who are doing this. What's stopping you?

Now you may say "this is my home, I shouldn't have to leave." Well sure. I'm pretty sure that the millions of people who have come into the US both legally and illegally have thought the same thing. And yet here they are. They don't let such an attitude stop them from going somewhere where they think they can make a better life. Why should you?

Mind you West Africa is not the only place you can go to. Botswana is a very stable country in southern Africa, but it's land locked.

So there are alternatives for black people. Garvey said it a long time ago: Take advantage of opportunities where you live but you won't be seen as equals until you build up your own land(s).

More Than Antibodies

Taking a break from the "Alternative" series (no, I'm not done) and turning to the Wuhan virus, I wanted to bring the following article to the attention of the reader. If you've followed me you know that I don't do the fear mongering that is being done by the media and various government officials. I'm also not doing the "this is a fake pandemic" thing either. Just the facts. Such facts are:

1) HCQ with Zinc and an ant-biotic is very effective if taken at the early stages of the disease.
2) Vitamin D (actually a hormone) is protective against the inflammation response the body can trigger if you get infected. It's a good idea to get regular (daily) sunlight. Dark skinned people such as myself need to be out in the sun for 45 minutes.
3) There are anti-inflammatory foods you should take on a regular basis that will also help to reduce the inflammation response if you get infected and is good in general.

With that out of the way, I want to get to immunity. I've long contended that this virus would become endemic like HPV. HPV infects half the population and most people aren't affected by it. Those who are can have issues like cancer (oral, cervical, anal). So I have the expectation that I will (or have) contracted the virus. So if getting infected is a matter of when rather than if, then one has to think of what can make it so that one is not very affected by it. So in that vein we want to know what is protective. Which brings me to this article:

Support for the idea that something resembling SARS-CoV-2 might have been circulating in the region before the pandemic began also comes from another intriguing observation: the low incidence of covid-19 in South-East Asia, particularly in Vietnam. John Bell, a professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, says everyone thought there would be a flood of cases in Vietnam because the country is right across the border from China. Yet Vietnam has reported only 300 in a population of 100m, and no deaths. The country did not have a great lockdown either, he adds. Nobody could work out what was going on.

This is important. I read some material earlier about Vietnam that says they had a robust response to Wuhan which did not involve large scale lock downs, but did involve isolation (totally agree with that).

One explanation, he suggests, is that Vietnam’s population is not as immunologically “naive” as has been assumed. The circulation of other SARS-like viruses could have conferred a generalised immunity to such pathogens. So, if a new one emerged in the region, it was able to take hold in the human population only when it travelled all the way to central China—where people did not have this natural resistance.

This would tie in with the idea that infection with one coronavirus can provide protection against others, and that even in countries away from the evolutionary cauldron of South-East Asia part of the population may have some protection against the current pandemic. In particular, there are suggestions that protection might be conferred mainly via part of the immune system called T-cells (which work by killing virus-infected cells) rather than via antibodies (which work by gumming up pathogens). If that is the case, then serological studies which look at antibodies may be underestimating natural immunity. [my underlines]

So two points here:

1) This is the third time I've read about how having been infected by a Coronavirus in the past, may confer immunity (for however long) against Wuhan.

2) The discussion of T-cells. You hear a lot about anti-bodies and how people who don't have serious symptoms tend to not produce any or a lot of anti-bodies. However; if T-cells can recognize and deal with the virus, then anti-body tests tell a very distorted picture. It also means that herd immunity may be far closer than we think.

Sunetra Gupta, an epidemiologist at Oxford, argues that natural immunity to covid-19 is conferred by infections with seasonal coronaviruses. If correct, this has implications for the level of vaccination needed to reach herd immunity. It is widely assumed that over 50% of people need to be vaccinated to prevent a resurgence of SARS-CoV-2. In a preprint released on July 15th Dr Gupta says this figure could be much lower if a significant part of the population is already resistant to infection.

I've hear numbers as low as 20%. If that is the case, NY/NJ and Sweden are probably at herd immunity. Doesn't mean nobody gets infected, just means you have very, very low numbers. We will know this for certain come late October. If NY/NJ and Sweden do not see a spike in cases and deaths then it will be strong evidence for herd immunity AND it will show that the current "spikes" in infections in various southern and western US states will be a good thing in the long term.

The Alternative: Schedules and Overloading

Continuing the video documentary of the various alternatives to so called "white supremacist" concepts of rule following, time observation, etc. We have a river "boat" in DRC.

Imagine if you will that you want to take a Greyhound bus from NY to Alabama. Trip takes about 24 hours. Imagine reaching Port Authority to get in line to get on the bus and the bus arrives at the gate but doesn't leave for 3 days.

Imagine the bus driver comes by a few times while you are sprawled out on the floor to explain that the gas hasn't been delivered for the bus yet. He's stressed out and he's leaving now to go wherever it is he rests his head.

Imagine then that once it's time to board the bus not only is every seat taken but people are packed into the aisles as well. Oh and people are put on the roof.

Imagine now that this 24 hour trip takes 3 days instead.

On other notes. Why is it with all the university educated Congolese that nobody has updated the maps of the river and made them available. I mean boats "regularly" sinking and taking 140 people with them? Ok. Fine. Why not put some kind of homegrown markers where there are issues? Heck tax the boats to pay villagers to do it, since they clearly are willing to take risks most people in the West wouldn't.

If there's anything that stands out fromm these series of videos, it's the constant overloading of vehicles. Seems to me that a lot of problems with transport could be resolved if these vehicles weren't overloaded all the time. Less break downs. Less getting stuck in mud with maxed out suspensions. River boats that can move faster due to having to pull less.

Public Service Announcement: Stop Running With Masks On

For the record, I do not wear a mask when I go for my near daily runs. I have another blog where I discuss that part of my life. However; i see a lot of people biking and running with these oxygen restricters in place. Bad. Bad. Bad.

. Medical professionals believe the life-threatening condition may have been caused by his wearing of a mask while jogging. In an interview with doctors who treated the man, it was revealed that he began running about two weeks ago, gradually increasing the distance covered with each run. He was wearing a mask each time he ran because of the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan...

On Thursday, the man decided to cut his run short as he was already having difficulty when breathing and walked home. After his condition worsened, his family decided to bring him to the hospital. According to Chen Baojun, the director of the department of thoracic surgery at the health facility, the man was vulnerable to spontaneous pneumothorax due to his tall and slender frame.

There is certainly a possibility that this individual had some pre-existing condition he was unaware of. However; this is not the first mask-exercise medical emergency I have read about. Look, just keep your distance when running up on people and keep your hands off your face until you can wash them. There is a lot of fear mongering and politics going on around this outbreak.

The Alternative: Occupational Safety? Silly Oyimbo

Two more installments for your viewing pleasure. Oyimbo is Yoruba for "white person/people". Nigeria is Africa's most populous country. The people of the country make up a lot of the genetic origins of African-Americans.

I'm not judging what people do to survive. Nor am I unaware that there are plenty of places in Nigeria that the material doesn't apply to. What I intend by showing this material is that many black people in America with no idea as to what goes on outside of America, complain way too much about their situations and I'm pretty certain most would not want to trade places.

The Alternative

So there is this chart going around where "white supremacy culture" is defined with various examples. I was going to dissect it line for line, and might still do so if I feel so moved, but I think that the following rather lengthy videos demonstrate the alternatives to much of what is being called "white supremacy culture". These videos are about an hour long each, so you'll either want to put aside a good amount of time or bookmark this post to return to it.

One comment on the above video: This taxi is ferrying vaccines. Under the front passenger seat of the taxi" with no refrigeration which arrives 5 hours after the ice melted. How would you like to live in a country (assuming you, dear reader are living in "The West" or some other "advanced" country) where things that require refrigeration is transported in this manner?

This guy says the trip will take 4 days. The trip takes a month. Imagine, you live in NY and want to go to Atlantic City NJ. Imagine that this trip is supposed to take 4 hours. The driver tells you 4 hours. But you show up 5 days later. Imagine this is a regular occurrence.

Also you know how Libertarians talk about how roads don't need to be built or maintained by government because the people can (and supposedly will) make their own "hoe ass roads". You'll notice in all these videos that the "roads" are essentially wide mud paths. How come these people after years of dealing with these "roads", haven't come together and built their own "hoe ass roads" so that trips between the villages aren't so...ummm....bad?

Also you know how trucks are limited to carrying certain weights. Yeah. After watching these videos you'll understand why.

Ahh Liberia. Firestone got a lot of money out of that country (rubber).

Shall I discuss the child labour? Who knows, perhaps the cotton you're wearing right now was picked in Benin by the children. Hope your comfortable.

And wouldn't you love to have to walk 5 miles to get dirty water rather than that whole white supremacist thing called plumbing based on mathematics and physics?

Makes you wonder how many of the people in the videos above would trade their current situations with the "systematic racism" that so many are talking about in America and elsewhere. Break rocks or go to school. Sand wood or go to school. Dig for precious metals for cell phones or go to school. Go to a "hospital" where the medicine is likely expired or transported in such a way that it is no good, or have access to an ER within 10 minutes of a call to 911?

Also you notice how all the vehicles are exports from Europe and Japan. You'd think the locals would be making their own trucks by now. Why not?

You Know Who's The Boss

So Nick Cannon lost [one of] his jobs after video of him speaking "ill" of white people and referring to blacks as the "real Semites".

Viacom kicked Nick to the curb due to his anti-Semitism.

Interesting that they didn't fire him for calling white people less than human since they lacked melanin which he said was why black people are so compassionate.

Black murder compassion

Anyway.

So supposedly "Charlamagne Tha God" said that "Jews Have The Power" in reference to Cannon's dismissal.

Apparently there is some outrage about that. However; we need to observe a couple of things: 1) Large media companies not run by black people regularly make profits off of black artists calling each other very vile things and about killing each other while referring to black (and other women) as bitches.

No jobs lost for that.

2) Multiple celebrities, so-called journalists, etc. have said quite racist things in reference to white people, usually men. These persons get hired, promoted and invited to panel discussions on "racism". No shit.

None get fired.

3)Recently a football player said something about Jews that was claimed to be anti-Semitic. He got into trouble and has to visit a Holocaust museum or something to that effect. Drew Brees got hounded for saying that he thought people should stand for the flag and anthem.

You know, eventually people start noticing patterns.

Now I ain't sayin' she's a gold digger,
But she ain't messin' with no broke, broke...

Trump Says More White People Shot By Police

Fact Check: True.

We dealt with this topic back in 2015

One:

In a year-long study, The Washington Post found that the kind of incidents that have ignited protests in many U.S. communities — most often, white police officers killing unarmed black men — represent less than 4 percent of fatal police shootings.

Two:

The Post’s database shows. In the majority of cases in which police shot and killed a person who had attacked someone with a weapon or brandished a gun, the person who was shot was white. But a hugely disproportionate number — 3 in 5 — of those killed after exhibiting less threatening behavior were black or Hispanic.

Then we go to my piece on Black on Black crime and you find the NYPD compstat data where:

Blacks are 62% of those arrested for murder and whites are 3%. Not only are blacks committing more crimes in NYC, but they are over an order of magnitude (times 2) more than whites. But there IS NO BLACK ON BLACK CRIME PROBLEM!

And this kind of discrepancy is countrywide. So whites commit far fewer crimes (per capita) and yet are the majority of people shot by police. So to clarify:

96% of police shootings were of people who were in fact armed.

The majority of cases where a person was armed, shot and killed were white people even though per-capita they commit far less crime than black people do.

So since this has been known since at least 2015, why are various media outlets saying the exact opposite?

Because there is money to be made [currently] by gas lighting white people and selling lies to black people. There are political ends trying to be made as well. They know that if they say 'Trump said [insert something triggering]" that large numbers of people will get outraged and won't check. Then a 2 year old is shot by "protestors" and that news is quickly pushed down the memory hole.

My New Collector's Item

So I was in the supermarket this evening and remembered I needed some syrup for my waffles. I got to the aisle and lo and behold there was no black lady looking at me from the shelves. I looked up. I looked down. I pushed a few of the Butterworths aside just to be sure. But nope. No Aunt Jemima in sight. Well actually there was some pancake mix at the very bottom shelf. I'm sure that was an oversight.

So either there was a mad run on all things Jemima or The Great Cancellation has hit my store. In either case, if you have one of the last remaining Aunt Jemima syrup containers it's probably a collectors item. If it's full, it may, at some point, become a very valuable item from the Great Before(tm).

Me, I'm not ever throwing this out.

Side note: If you have one of the older Aunt Jemima's with the bandana wearing Jemima, you have a certifiable collectors item.

The Thing

I don't usually post memes but I found this amusing.

But for real though. If you're voting for Biden just understand you're actually voting for whomever his running mate will be.

Budesonide As A COVID-19 Treatment

Watch.

I have long wondered about why Japan, etc. have not had the high number of deaths as elsewhere. I have been skeptical of the "it's because they wear masks" argument given the known issues with masks. The use of an inhaled drug doesn't surprise me as my own regimen includes inhaled anti-viral when I expect to be in a relatively crowded public or indoor space.

The George Floyd Transcripts

As I have consistently warned people in the case of trials involving police killing someone, proving criminal intent is near impossible. A lot of people thought the George Floyd tape would be enough to get a murder conviction. Of course when the trials happen, evidence not generally available to the public is shown the jury who is tasked with making a finding that is beyond reasonable doubt. Often that evidence contradicts the popular narrative. We may have such an example in the recent release of transcript of the attempted arrest of George Floyd

Transcripts show that Lane approached the car and called on Floyd at least five times to show his hands, drawing his gun when he didn’t. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Floyd responded, according to a transcript of Lane’s body camera. “I didn’t do nothing. . . . What did I do though? What did we do, Mr. Officer?”

Asked five times? *Before* drawing his gun? OK. So what was Floyd doing during those requests? Personally, when I'm pulled over by police, I have my hands on the steering wheel. I don't need to be told more than once to have my hands visible.

As Lane asked him to step out of the car, Floyd apologized several times and repeatedly asked the officer not to shoot him.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. God dang man. Man, I got shot. I got shot the same way, Mr. Officer, before,” Floyd told Lane, the transcripts show. “Mr. Officer, please don’t shoot me. Please man.”

So Floyd has had run ins with the police before. Hence he knows the "show the hands" drill. Again, why did it take the gun to get compliance? Secondly, why did he go straight to "don't shoot me"? I would think that if he had been shot by police before, he would be more likely to engage in behavior that doesn't get a police officer tense? No?

“I’m not going to shoot you,” Lane replied.

The transcripts show that Floyd continued to ask officers not to shoot him as he stepped from his vehicle, and suggest that he struggled with officers as they tried to handcuff him. “Stop resisting Floyd!” Shawanda Renee Hill, a witness inside the car, called out, according to the transcript of the footage from Lane’s camera.

"I'm not going to shoot you". Well there goes criminal intent. Mind you, the prosecutors office had this information a long time ago, they charged officer Lane knowing full well there was no criminal intent. This is clearly malicious prosecution.

Secondly, I find it interesting that Floyd's lady friend even felt it would be proper for Floyd to cooperate. Clearly she didn't see a life threatening situation.

As Kueng walked Floyd across the street, Lane asked Hill about Floyd’s behavior. “Why’s he getting all squirrelly and not showing us his hands and just being all weird like that?” he asked, according to the transcript.

“I have no clue, because he’s been shot before,” Hill said.

Lane asked whether Floyd was “drunk” or “on something.”

“No, he got a thing going on, I’m telling you, about the police,” Hill replied. “He have problems all the time when they come, especially when that man put that gun like that.”

Given that we know that Floyd had Fentanyl and Meth in his system. If this woman gets on the stand the question will be: 'Are you lying now or were you lying then"?

According to the transcript of footage from Kueng’s body camera, the officer sat Floyd down on a sidewalk and explained that he was being detained for suspicion of passing fake U.S. currency. Floyd said he understood.

So Floyd knows he's getting arrested. Knows he's headed to the precinct.

Lane asked Floyd whether he was on drugs while Kueng pointed out the “foam” around his mouth. But Floyd insisted he was on “nothing” and had been playing basketball earlier.

“You acting real erratic,” Kueng said.

“I’m scared man,” Floyd replied.

Umm you don't foam at the mouth while playing basketball. Now you can get get 'salt lips" from gatorade and other "replacement" sodium drinks, but you don't foam at the mouth.

According to the transcripts, the officers tried placing Floyd in the squad car, but he resisted, repeatedly telling them he was “claustrophobic” and had “anxiety.” He begged to be released from his handcuffs, promising he wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Y’all, I’m going to die in here,” he told them. “I just had COVID man, don’t want to go back to that.”

Claustrophobics get "anxious" when they cannot see a way out of a confined space. If he was claustrophobic about being in a vehicle then he can't drive. So this is his excuse. But notice how this goes from "I understand" to struggling. Secondly, since we know he's had run ins with the police before, he knows that they do not have a choice in cuffing suspects in a car. You can promise whatever you want, but they're not doing it.

By then, Chauvin and Thao had arrived as Kueng and Lane were struggling to get Floyd in the car. It’s unclear whether they were attempting to assist, but at one point, an unknown officer sought to intervene, according to the transcripts. “Man, you’re going to die of a heart attack,” one of the officers told Floyd. “Just get in the car.”

For this "unknown officer" to make such a statement, Floyd must have been really putting up a fight.

Floyd began to bleed from the mouth, after bumping his head inside the vehicle, and Lane called emergency medical help to the scene. Floyd began to complain that he couldn’t breathe. “I just had COVID, man,” Floyd said. “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. Please one of you listen to me.”

Oh wait, I thought that the story was that he said he couldn't breath due to the neck compression. Now we see he's saying he can't breath prior to being restrained on the ground. Also, that he potentially had a lingering symptom of Wuhan virus makes an argument that he died due to reasons other than the neck restraint a lot stronger.

Chauvin asked whether Floyd was going to jail, and the officers pulled him from the car. “Get him down on the ground,” Chauvin said.

The transcripts show Floyd continued to complain that he couldn’t breathe and called out for his mother. The officers restrained him on the ground — Lane at his feet, Kueng at his back and Chauvin at his head. “You’re under arrest guy,” Chauvin told him.

And this is where the video we have all seen starts. Look at how much we didn't know about.

“All right, all right. Oh my god. I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this,” Floyd said. “Mama, I love you . . . Tell my kids I love them. I’m dead.”

“You’re doing a lot of talking, man,” Chauvin replied.

So since Floyd has been making "can't breath" claims prior to even being put on the ground, we can see a "reasonable doubt" argument that Chauvin reasonably believed Floyd was being melodramatic rather than actually in distress. Now we can say that the foam at the mouth and bleeding from the mouth could contradict that. I would find such an argument valid, not sure if I would say it defeats reasonable doubt. The jury will definitely have a job contemplating that.

As the officers held Floyd to the ground, Chauvin asked the other officers whether Floyd was “high.” Kueng told him they’d found “a pipe on him.” Floyd again told the officers he couldn’t breathe. “You’re doing fine. You’re talking fine,” Kueng said, as Lane told him to take a “deep breath” and Chauvin told him to “relax.”

“My neck hurts,” Floyd said.

“Uh huh,” Chauvin replied. “You’re doing a lot of talking, a lot of yelling.”

“They going to kill me,” Floyd said. “They’re going to kill me man.”

“Takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to say that,” Chauvin said.

Again, in the moment this conversation can reasonably been seen as being callous towards Floyd. However; when taken with the entirety of the transcript, it can also be reasonably argued that Chauvin doesn't show, well SPEAK, anything of malice to Floyd.

The transcripts show Lane asked Chauvin several times whether Floyd should be moved.

“No, leave him,” Chauvin told him. “Staying put where we got him.”

Lane told Chauvin he was worried about “excited delirium,” citing a term used by medical examiners to describe the sudden in-custody death of people who may be under the influence of drugs or in an agitated state.

This part right here is going to earn Lane an acquittal. He did "intervene" verbally. He showed concern for Floyd's health and apparent deteriorating situation. No way Lane gets convicted of anything by a fair jury.

As for Chauvin, I think Lanes commentary could be used by a jury to show that he showed disregard. After all, a fellow officer was telling him of a concern he observed. Chauvin chose to ignore that observation by a fellow professional. That could definitely be seen as negligence.

All Time High

See this guy here:

Former NBA player Stephen Jackson responds to Desean Jackson’s Hitler post by saying it’s “truth” pic.twitter.com/Web0y3bhoQ

— The Conspiracy Libel (@ConspiracyLibel) July 7, 2020

Now see where he says "racism at an all time high"?

I bet he begs to differ.

Them too.

And these fellows.

Them too.

See that's my problem with so many of these so called "conscious" black folks who act like they woke up this very morning on some cotton plantation circa 1800. Only thing at an "all time high" is historical ignorance and entitlement complexes.

CNN Highlights A Good Idea

Yes. Yes. I know CNN is garbage media. However; as I have admonished people for years, I read across the spectrum because you never know who is going to give you good information or ideas. This one is about non-police interventions

(CNN)Around 30 years ago, a town in Oregon retrofitted an old van, staffed it with young medics and mental health counselors and sent them out to respond to the kinds of 911 calls that wouldn't necessarily require police intervention...

It works this way: 911 dispatchers filter calls they receive -- if they're violent or criminal, they're sent to police. If they're within CAHOOTS' purview, the van-bound staff will take the call. They prep what equipment they'll need, drive to the scene and go from there.

An exceptionally good idea on the part of the town that I would definitely see replicated nationwide.

CAHOOTS was created in part because of another disturbing statistic -- around 25% of people killed by police show signs of mental illness, according to a journal review of the Washington Post's extensive officer-involved shootings database.

I'm all for reducing such incidents to as close to zero as possible.

"I believe it's time for law enforcement to quit being a catch-base for everything our community and society needs," Skinner said. "We need to get law enforcement professionals back to doing the core mission of protecting communities and enforcing the law, and then match resources with other services like behavioral health -- all those things we tend to lump on the plate of law enforcement."

Absolutely nothing to argue with here. The rest of the article is a good read and something those who are interested in actual reform should seriously look at. And I'll say that these "CAHOOTS" people have done more to save lives than BLM.

No Contradiction To See Here. Move Along

So NJ Governor Murphy is mulling a mandatory outdoor mask usage order. The current order is that you wear a mask indoors. Outdoors use is strongly suggested but not required where "Social Distancing" and/or exercise is being done. I personally don't have an issue with the order as it comports with the known data. Now Murphy is thinking this:

“We’re constantly assessing and reassessing the variety of the advisories and recommendations that we have out there,” Murphy said during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “We’re looking at outside masking as we speak.”

Now look 'pon this:

The rate measures the number of people one infected resident passes COVID-19 to. It had fallen to 0.70 in early June but sits at 1.03, meaning every infected resident gives the virus to more than one other person.

And what happened in late May early June for weeks?

Right.

So since we have a pretty good explanation for why NJ's numbers went up, what else does Murphy say?

Murphy — who marched in a pair of Black Lives Matter protests last month — also said there’s no evidence that mass outdoor activity at beaches, parks, or protests has led to major spikes in cases./

Oh the marches I participated in, CONTRARY TO MY OWN ORDERS, had no effect. No. Not at all. Also, all the other outdoor activities like going to the beach and going to the park shows "no evidence" of leading to major spikes.

Well if that's the case, why even "looking" at mandatory mask wearing in all outdoor situations?

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Lets not forget that NY and NJ's huge cases and deaths were due in large part to sending ill patients into nursing homes and other vulnerable populations. I know they'd like for you to forget that but don't.

The Great Leap Forward

So that you can understand exactly what Antifa and BLM are trying to do wherever they are active in "The West".

Yes, it's long. It's the weekend though.

"Consider Repealing Laws"

The Epoch Times has an article entitled "If Fewer Police Is the Goal, Consider Repealing Laws" which encapsulates an argument I have made to people in the past.

While the rule of law means that everyone is equal under the law, it also means a lot more. It means that the initiation of force against someone is only justified to enforce the law, and that every time such force is used or threatened, there is an unfortunate and inherent risk of escalation, even to the point of lethality.

Municipal laws contain many of the most minor offences. In some cities, for example, it is an offence to spit on the sidewalk. Is this distasteful behaviour? Most definitely. But should it be outlawed, say with only a small fine? How might its enforcement play out?

I made this point during the Eric Garner situation. Recall that Garner was approached by police because he was breaking NYS laws. First by selling loose cigarettes, This rule is supposedly to "protect the children" who could obtain cigarettes by not having to go through an "authorized" seller. So Eric Garner ended up dead in part to "protect the children". Who put that law on the books? NY Representatives, Most of them Democrats.

Oh.

But also, more insidiously, the prohibition of loosies is to make sure that NYS gets its tobacco tax money. So Garner lost his life, in part in order for NYS to maintain its income.

Recently I was discussing the Raychard Brooks situation and the person said that all he was doing was sleeping in his car. Well no. By the laws passed, a person who operates a motor vehicle while ability impaired, including being drunk, is subject to immediate arrest. That he had driven to the Wendy's was evidence of a felony. The cops had to arrest him. If you don't like that, get the drunk driving laws repealed. Good luck with that.

And say, what if they had let him go and he drove off before having regained control of his body and killed someone. I would bet large sums of money that there would be calls for the heads of the police that let him go, knowing he was drunk.

There is one other way to reduce police presences, particularly in black communities, lower the rates of criminal behavior. Police are sent where the crime is. Reduce the crime, reduce the police presence. Bet you haven't heard that one from your local BLM.