Time To End Lockdowns

In an episode of Star Trek: Voyager there is a time ship that has been running around the Delta Quadrant offing planets, comets and entire populations in order to "fix" a "mistake" in history that resulted in the death of the captain's wife. He's been at it for years because no matter who he eliminates from history he cannot get his wife back. It turns out that the first time he used his time ship to eliminate an enemy, a crucial genetic component that gave his people immunity from a disease went missing. This in turn cost him his dear beloved. In the end, the only way to bring back his wife was to eliminate the future him AND his time ship.

One of the few lessons of this episode is that there are almost always unintended consequences of decisions. Sometimes those consequences are worse than the situation we sought to remedy. The other point, relevant here, is that sometimes we ARE the problem and our thinking we can "technologically" get ourselves out of a problem, IS the problem.

As the Last Poets said: The White Man has a God complex.

So lets understand WHY we got into lockdowns in the first place so we understand why we need to get out of it.

The Wuhan virus started in China. The Chinese freaked out. Why? China has a population of 1.4 billion people. China also has a lot of air pollution. Air pollution means that the Chinese people are susceptible to respiratory problems(1,2). Now since the Wuhan virus is a [mainly] respiratory disease that invokes and/or is "attracted" to inflammation, this put the Chinese people at a high risk of severe cases and deaths.  In some cases the Wuhan virus had a 10% IFR. If the entire Chinese population got infected and 10% died you're talking 140 million dead people. That's about half the entire US population.

So in the face of a new disease that wasn't understood, China panicked. Due to the internet, this panic went worldwide as people started telling people in other parts of the world. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Over the weekend I posted a video that mentioned that the Wuhan virus was seen in Brazil back in Nov 2019.  

So we know that by the time the March lockdowns occurred, seeding of the rest of the world had been going on for at least four months.

In that time we saw China massively lock down a province. Then we saw Italy go ballistic with massive infections and deaths. What was it about Italy? Well turns out the epicenter in Italy, northern Italy was also an air pollution problem location  They also have a massive amount of Chinese residents.

This population of Chinese is important because we know that the Chinese allowed international flights to leave its affected areas. So for months Chinese nationals (and other tourists to China) were seeding infections all across the globe.

Back in January I knew something was afoot because I noticed a significant lack of Asians in casinos. Chinese love to gamble. Baccarat tables are usually packed with them. Attendance was way down.  At that point I decided on an enhanced disinfectant protocol for my visits. I sanitized every station I used and changed visiting times to when there were less people around. 

Once the virus became public knowledge I surmised that it had already been in the US for some time, that far more people had and are infected than the authorities knew and that most attempts to stop it would be fruitless. And this was before it was known to be in circulation in November (note: I was sick in Nov and believe I picked up whatever it was IN a casino).

Soon thereafter NY blew up in cases soon followed by NJ. I was completely not surprised by this. NYC alone receives half a million Chinese visitors per year. NYC alone got 13.5 million international visitors in 2018. In other words, the populations of some countries simply visits NYC. And that's ONE city on a CONTINENT.

So every time I see someone chattering about so and so country with a population less than the number of visitors to NYC, having "beat the virus", I know they are full of shit because there is no way to compare the US with any little island country.  By the time Feb rolled around there were already hundreds of thousands of cases, the "contain it" ship had long sailed and disappeared over the horizon. They, being those in charge, just didn't realize it.

So cases piled up and people started dying. Indeed there was little information on how to treat those who got severe cases. This induced a panic mentality. Fair enough, it was early and information was limited. We didn't know that ventilators were essentially death machines. We didn't know that simple things like rolling patients onto their stomachs, helped. We didn't quite understand that the triggering issue for most of the severe cases was inflammation which affects ACE-2 and CD-146 expression. The latter being affected by diabetes and obesity the leading co-morbidity. We also did not know that severe vitamin D deficiency was a factor is nearly all severe cases of the Wuhan virus.

We also were in the early phases of learning that HCQ + Zinc-Sulphate + Antibiotic was an effective EARLY intervention, in the proper dosage. We also didn't know yet that certain inhaled steroids were effective as well. 

So with a lot of deaths and little knowledge it certainly appeared that we could have a serious capacity problem. So states started locking down. I get that and actually supported that. What was the goal supposed to be?

We were told, and generally agreed to, that we need to "flatten the curve" Why? Because we needed to expand capacity to treat patients. It was NEVER about eliminating the virus or the spread thereof. It was controlling the capacity. Yes I'm repeating myself because you need to understand this. It was NOT about case elimination!!!!! I cannot stress this enough. a flattened curve only spreads out the cases and deaths.

The goal was to literally buy time (ended tax revenue for the time of lockdown) to expand capacity such as the use of the Javits in NYC, the Central Park hospital, etc.  Once this capacity was created the lockdowns were supposed to be over.  What happened?

Well a couple of things. Firstly, in the US the virus was politicized as a weapon against Trump. Early on Trump banned travel from China and was called racist. His mistake was also not banning flights from Italy and UK. I'm not going to clean that up for him. Then we had Pelosi in California at a Chinese New Year rally saying there was nothing to fear. In NYC they did the same thing. The only thing to fear, they said, was Trump's xenophobia. You won't hear any of THAT nonsense now and they would more than happy for you to forget that.

The second thing was the god complexes that many of the current leadership has. They liked that they could control so much via "emergency" orders. NJ governor Murphy famously said that the Constitution was "above his pay grade" on a national TV program. In other words, damn your rights, WE (the government) control.

In Michigan the governor went so far as to say you couldn't buy seeds.

Many of these people in leadership positions were also subject to guilt tripping. "You want to kill grandma!!" became the phrase of choice to those who wanted to impose all kinds of nonsense. This was closely followed by "you first" for anyone questioning the extended lockdowns. People who are susceptible to guilt tripping are bad leaders. Leadership often entails making very unpopular decisions. If one is constantly trying to be "popular" then clearly making such decisions is nigh impossible.

So the unpopular decision, particularly for the panic crowd was that once the capacity was created was to re-open the society completely. None of this half-assing.  Cases would have gone up (as they are anyway) but the difference would have been that we know more now about mortality and treatments than we did back in Jan/Feb. Those who were sick should stay home (heck, let the government pay them to stay home). Anything other than an N95 mask is useless for those not sick and not in regular contact with sick persons. As a matter of fact I'll go out on a limb and say that if you've been in any enclosed space for hours while NOT wearing an N95 mask, you've probably ALREADY been infected and don't or didn't know it. This is particularly true of multi-family dwellings with central air.

Now I'm not saying NOT to wear a mask. I believe in individual liberty and the responsibility of the individual to protect themselves. If you feel that wearing a mask makes you feel safer for whatever reason, please do so. If you feel that hiding out in your house or apartment makes you feel safe, knock yourself out. If you feel that you're not safe in a mall, movie theatre, etc. 100% stay away from those places. Give people the information, not propaganda and let them do a risk assessment for themselves. Instead we have fear mongering. People getting into fights, killing people over mask wearing. We have various states deploying government agents wandering the streets looking to bankrupt citizens for simply walking around breathing the air no one owns into their body that the government has no power over.

Then you have the people that think that this is some kind of movie where in two shakes a vaccine is going to show up, 100% effective. These things rarely go that way. Worse, many of them say that things cannot go back to "normal" until there is a vaccine. Seriously? If this was an Ebola level virus I could understand this. I certainly would make MAJOR changes to my life if this was an Ebola level event. Yo, you do NOT want any parts of Ebola. The Wuhan virus is nowhere near as deadly. Things can go back to normal right now.  The Wuhan virus is one with a current 3% global fatality rate. This means on a global scale you have a 97% chance of recovering from a COVID infection. Of the current active cases (per Worldometer) 99% of the current 6 million active cases are mild (sore throat, cough, low grade fever).

1% of current active cases are serious (pneumonia, high fever, blood clotting issues, etc). 1%. In other words, if you get infected right now, you're 99% likely to have no symptoms whatsoever to maybe a low fever. This is not something you shut down peoples lives and livelihoods for.  And most certainly you don't wait for a vaccine.

So we have Sweden and New Zealand as two examples at polar ends of the debate (which we shouldn't even be having). New Zealand has claimed eradication. Fine. They also have locked themselves off from the rest of the world.  It means that their population only has whatever natural immunity was present prior to  the outbreak. So long as they are isolated, they remain susceptible to Wuhan and every and any other Corona viruses that comes out in the future. They may find themselves in the situation of the Star Trek character. Worse, those citizens may be unable to travel anywhere else in the world, lest they get sick. Also they may be subject to rolling lockdowns as sporadic cases arise from those arriving in New Zealand to deliver goods.

On the other end we have Sweden, Sweden did not do lockdowns. They did restrict groupings. Other than that, no mask mandates, no school closures (official), no locking citizens in their homes under penalty of law.  They had a relatively large hill of deaths but are now down to zero and 2 deaths a day depending on the day. 

And

The very fact that Sweden has achieved this without lockdowns undermines ANY argument in the US for continued lockdowns. The only reasons for lockdowns at this point is politics and power plays.

So again, the lockdowns need to stop. Now. The increased capacity should stay online heading into the fall mostly because we have already wasted over half the summer. What should have happened in May the latest, was a full reopening and go the Sweden route. since 99% of people will have mild symptoms and NOT DIE or have long term complications, let it run through the country during the warm weather months when Influenza is largely dormant. If the Sweden model holds, the cases and deaths would drop to near zero by late August and we could avoid a Influenza +COVID winter of 2020-2021. Right now we are on track for not only Influenza+ COVID but another lockdown come Nov-Dec. Don't say you weren't warned.

Now I'll get into the theorizing. I don't think what's going on is accidental. What do I mean? When 9-11 happened the powers that be saw an opportunity for a power grab and took it. The growth of state power after 9-11 was huge. Surveillance of everything you do on the internet, telephony, etc. No one says that what happened on 9-11 was fake or didn't happen. But there are those who saw those as opportunities to gain power while a panicked public was willing to go along. The Wuhan virus has a very similar profile. Yes the virus is real. Yes the risks of infection are real. But the response to it is unprecedented in opportunities for governments to exert more control and private to profit.

Below is a video that discusses this angle:

George Floyd Body Cam Video

Not sure how long this will be publicly available.

I am not sure why the 4 clips posted here are incomplete, but these links have the full footage:

Part 1: https://t.co/XP1bhQdrlD
Part 2: https://t.co/Bq06k5k85E

"I can't breathe" long before he was on the ground. Come to your own conclusions. #georgefloyd #bodycam

— Joe (@joeg816) August 3, 2020

In case Twitter removes: https://streamable.com/qkicjg https://streamable.com/smlf8g

The Case of Australia

So remember back in May when Australia was considered the safest place [ever] in terms of Wuhan? No? Let me remind you:

"I think many people are surprised in Australia at how well we have done. Really, when you look across all the states and territories, this is the safest place to be in the world, perhaps other than New Zealand," she said...

"Safety has been our fundamental focus and the success of our suppression strategy has meant Australia is in a very similar (place) to New Zealand, which has stated its strategy is aimed at elimination."...

In the remote Northern Territory, where no new cases have been reported for three weeks, residents will be able to use public swimming pools, waterparks, go fishing with friends and play golf starting from Friday. The state has also laid out plans to restart its economy, allowing restaurants, pubs and gyms to reopen on May 15 and lifting the remaining restrictions on June 5.

And now:

Melbourne has entered Stage 4 coronavirus restrictions as of 6pm on Sunday night, the strictest level of lockdown yet in Australia.

Further restrictions will also be enforced on regional Victoria, including the Mitchell Shire, which will move to Stage 3 restrictions from Wednesday.

The restrictions will be in force for at least six weeks until 13 September.

Premier Daniel Andrews has also declared a State of Disaster across the state from 6pm tonight.

During these hours, the only reasons to be outside of your home are to give or receive care, or go to and from work.

Outside the curfew, people will only be allowed to leave the house for four reasons: purchase food and and necessary supplies, exercise, give or receive care, or work.

“Going to a mate's place, visiting friends, being out and about for no good reason, all that will do is spread this virus,” Mr Andrews said.

Additionally, residents will no longer be able to travel further than five kilometres from their home, unless the reason is to give or receive care.

Sweden said that the path it took, no hard lockdowns, was because they saw that those places that locked down were merely kicking the can down the road and would get hit again once they opened back up. Thus far their prediction is panning out.

Mask Usage

I'm gonna drop this with no comment.

Crucial Viral Immunity Reality

Very informative video. This is the source of my Argentina post. Also of note here is a discussion on why diabetics and obese people are getting the short end of the COVID stick, which further explains the rates in the African-American population.

It's long so I suggest putting the audio up and doing other things while listening.

The Case Of Argentina

So I'm watching a video which I'll post later when I'm done but I had to share this part about Argentina. As you know I have hypothesized that everyone gets infected at some point. The vast majority will survive unscathed, a small percent will have serious reactions that will linger and an even smaller percent will die sooner rather than later (as in we all die, it's just a matter of when and how).

Of interest here is whether "lock downs" work. I have been against lock downs because of the huge disruption it causes. I think people should be free to make their own decisions based on their risk tolerance. I do think that the government should have spent the energy and time to acquire and setup extra facilities in case they were needed for patients, but that government lock downs were and are antithetical to a free society. But even further, history shows us that isolation is not a good idea. Recall that much of the eradication of the American native population was due to the fact that they had never been exposed to certain European, well better put, "Old world" diseases. Isolation can be deadly.

Lastly, if the virus was that contagious then going back to my original point, it's only a matter of time since all air circulates and there is no hiding from air. Also, while people can be cautious, eventually you slip up. Infect surface is touched, face is touched, and you're sick. Matter of fact, I had one of those yesterday when I accidentally poked myself in the eye. I suppose I'll know the effects of that in the next few days.

Anyway, so the argument has been that lockdowns prevented infections. Well lets look at Argentina:

Argentina has been under lockdown since March 20, though restrictions were previously relaxed in many parts of the country.

On July 17, Fernandez announced a plan for the country to gradually return to normal life in several stages. Outdoor recreation was permitted and shops, hair salons and some professional services re-opened earlier in Buenos Aires earlier in the month. The capital has one of the highest concentration of new cases, along with the province of Buenos Aires.

Most office buildings and restaurant dining rooms remain closed and public transportation is restricted for those without government permission.

Argentina is in the middle of it's winter. Exactly when respiratory viruses are most active. Now look, they've been on lock since March 20. It's now August 1. That's 4 months.

The South American nation has seen its caseload spike in recent weeks and recorded a record daily tally on Thursday with 6,377 new cases. There are now 185,373 confirmed cases and 3,466 deaths, according to the latest government data.

What a spike. If lock downs somehow "eradicate" the virus then this spike should never have happened. They relaxed some rules after 3 months of lock down and still. As a matter of fact Argentina has as more cases than 46 US states and had more new cases than every US state except Florida.

Sweden by the way (as of this writing), has reported, 80k total cases, no new deaths today and a total death count that is ~2/3 that of Argentina and Sweden had no official lockdown policy although the people did their own thing and did change behavior based on their own risk tolerance, like adults should be allowed to do).

If Sweden can have such a result with no hard lockdown while Argentina can have the result it did WITH a harsh lockdown, it is CLEAR that lockdowns have no effect on the eventual case and death rate other than to prolong and compound the misery.

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.

BlackListed By Visa

Gab, an alternative to Twitter (and I suppose, now Parler) has been blacklisted by Visa. This is a very important development. I have long warned people of the consequences of censorship. I came out against the censorship and de-platforming of Stormfront because I knew that it would not stop there. Indeed anyone [now] paying attention has seen the circle of "acceptable" speech closing quite rapidly. This now includes you being punished for the speech of your close family.

If you don't bend the knee, they will make you unemployable, then the financial institutions you depend upon to do any business will refuse to provide service to you. You will be unable to even work for yourself since customers will be unable to pay you. Customers will eventually be cut off for doing business with you.

To those Christians reading this, this is some "mark of the beast" type regime being put in place. Alternately this is your "before the cock cries" moment. And if you haven't had one yet, it's coming for you.

For the Odu-Ifa types out there, this is a "heard and did not sacrifice (prepare)" situation. But back to Gab:

We were told this week that not only is Gab blacklisted by Visa as a business, but my personal name, phone number, address, and more are all also blacklisted by Visa. If I wanted to leave Gab tomorrow (something that isn’t going to happen) and start a lemonade stand I wouldn’t be able to obtain merchant processing for it...

We were told that Visa has someone camping on our website watching our payment processing. As soon as we get a new processor up they find out who it is on their end and contact them. They tell the processor that Gab is flagged for “illegal activity” and if they do not stop processing payments for us they will be heavily fined.

I'm not here telling you to support Gab. What I'm telling you is that you should be very concerned about this. Remember, the circle will eventually close far enough to put you on the outside.

In the above picture Stalin's right hand (on the left, HA!) man was chillin' in the circle. Eventually the circle of "right speech" and "right though" left him on the outside and he was literally removed from pictures. It will happen to you eventually.

Zuby - The Problem with Black Lives Matter

A decent way to spend an hour of your time.

"Fair And Lovely"

Unilever will drop the word "fair" from its Fair & Lovely skin lightening products, it said on Thursday, in the latest makeover of a brand in response to a global backlash against racial prejudice.

*head hits table*

Grand Jury Indictment in Arbery Homicide

from Fox Atlanta:

Cobb County District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes announced the charges at the Glynn County Courthouse at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The indictment has nine charges, including malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment; and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

Under GA law:

2014 Georgia Code
Title 16 - CRIMES AND OFFENSES
Chapter 5 - CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON
Article 1 - HOMICIDE
§ 16-5-1 - Murder; malice murder; felony murder; murder in the second degree

GA Code § 16-5-1 (2014) What's This?

(a) A person commits the offense of murder when he unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or implied, causes the death of another human being.

(b) Express malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take the life of another human being which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof. Malice shall be implied where no considerable provocation appears and where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart.

(c) A person commits the offense of murder when, in the commission of a felony, he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.

(d) A person commits the offense of murder in the second degree when, in the commission of cruelty to children in the second degree, he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.

And for false imprisonment:

2010 Georgia Code
TITLE 16 - CRIMES AND OFFENSES
CHAPTER 5 - CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON
ARTICLE 3 - KIDNAPPING, FALSE IMPRISONMENT, AND RELATED OFFENSES
§ 16-5-41 - False imprisonment

(a) A person commits the offense of false imprisonment when, in violation of the personal liberty of another, he arrests, confines, or detains such person without legal authority.

To the last charge I'll repost the current GA law on arrests by private persons:

2010 Georgia Code
TITLE 17 - CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
CHAPTER 4 - ARREST OF PERSONS
ARTICLE 4 - ARREST BY PRIVATE PERSONS
§ 17-4-60 - Grounds for arrest
O.C.G.A. 17-4-60 (2010)
17-4-60. Grounds for arrest

A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape, a private person may arrest him upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion.

Since we already have multiple video of Arbery in the property and running from the scene, the defense can make a reasonable argument of "reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion". Note that suspicion does not have to be right. So I can see a reasonable and unbiased jury tossing this charge. However; given the current climate, particularly in Georgia, I seriously doubt we will have a "reasonable jury".

I believe the "malice murder" is going to stem from the false imprisonment, but I certainly cannot say. I think that charge will hang on how this part is determined by the jury:

" Malice shall be implied where no considerable provocation appears and where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart."

Certainly the defense will argue that Arbery charged the defendant and therefore there was "provocation". The state may counter that Arbery was within his right to "provoke" the defendants because he feared for his life. The defense will likely counter with the alleged trespass.

No doubt the state will use the "fucking nigger" comment after the fact to try to establish an alternate motive to the defendants. We shall see.

Does Recent US Rise in Wuhan Cases Support Sweden's Decision?

Short post. Between work, recent Supreme Court decisions and half marathon training in the heat, writing has fallen to the wayside.

The recent surges in CV cases in the southern US presents an interesting situation. Firstly, given the weeks of protests the spike among younger persons (more likely to be out and involved) we shouldn't be surprised by the spikes. Since some government officials, sympathetic to the protestors AND mobs have decided to not ask whether individuals were involved in any protests, we may never know the impact that has.

That issue aside, one of the things that was hoped for was that since all previous known corona viruses failed to produce large infections during summer months likely due to a combination of heat, humidity, UV radiation and increased vitamin D production in humans, that Wuhan would also drop off. It appears that this is not happening. That would definitely make Wuhan far more, shall we say, "interesting" and quite troubling as we go back into cold weather later this year.

Now we get to Sweden. One of the major reasons that Sweden went the "no official lock down" route is that they predicted that countries that locked down their population would suffer a [large] increase once they opened back up. They thought it better to let the pathogen make its way through the population in one go, get it over with and not suffer a second, or however many, wave.

As of this writing:

Sweden: no new deaths or cases, USA 1,339 new cases and 31 new deaths.

Lastly, my conspiracy theory: Not long after the full frontal assault on Hydroxy-chloroquine using badly designed meta-analyses and the revocation of "emergency use" by various governing bodies, the ICU count goes up. Remember the HCQ+Zinc-Sulphate and an anti-viral was to be used early in disease stage to prevent graduating to stages requiring ICU treatment. It's 'Interesting" that now these ICU admits are going up. Oh and that the Fed apparently pays out a 20% premium for hospital admits. But that's a theory. Just something to think about.

Bubba Wallace: Total Loser

[See update below]

I knew the "noose found in garage" story was BS when I heard it. How did I know? There was no picture of said noose. It is 2020. Everybody and their grandmother has a device with a camera on it.

EV-ER-Y-One.

If I find an actual factual noose left on my locker, office door, car or whatever, I'm taking a picture immediately. Like RIGHT NOW.

Time and datestamp that joint and send copies to friends and family.

However; this noose story was without a picture. I waited all day to see a picture. None forthcoming. No video of how he walked in and saw said noose. Say that Wallace wasn't the person who found it? Doesn't matter. The minute they thought "noose" the phone should have come out and pictures taken.

But this wasn't about the alleged noose. No, this was about one Bubba Wallace and/or one of his associates looking for attention. Just like Jussie Smollett. Well to do black folks, feeling guilty about having "made it" and living a decent [material] life who think they need to be a part of some "revolution" in order to burnish their black bonafides (looking at your Kaepernick). In the absence of actual big deal racism, they have to actually make up events (looking at you Lebron) because nobody with a decent sized megaphone will call them out and make them pay for their fake stories.

Say, Where's the video from that spray paint on Lebron's gate? But I'm off topic.

How does a professional driver such was Wallace NOT know that there are pull ropes on the garage doors? How does Wallace and crew not realize that there are cameras everywhere and swipe cards for access and thus the story could be verified either way with ease? See Wallace could have saved himself and his associates by making a public statement in which he apologized not only to his teammates and fellow drivers, but to the country as a whole for "mistaking" a pull rope for a noose and that the responsibility for the mistake was his and his alone and did not and does not reflect NASCAR or it's fans in any way. But of course he did not. Neither did NASCAR. Why? Because there is currently massive money to be made on racism the likes that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson of 80's and 90's could never dream of. Marxists in America have their hands on the levers and spigots and NASCAR doesn't want to get the Tucker Carlson treatment.

[Update 6-25-2020; 5:30PM] So NASCAR released the photo of the "noose". It should have been done when the report was first made public. I'm not a knot expert (knots on my sneakers come undone all the time) and I've read (and seen) examples of knots that look entirely like a noose yet are not slip knots like a noose is. Therefore I'm not qualified to say either way. I'm pretty certain that someone could have pulled on it to determine if it was a noose. Since the FBI did in fact refer to it as a noose, I'll let that stand. Still, given the report that said noose was on the garage door since last year and thus couldn't possibly have been targeted at Wallace, I still call it a hoax since given it's prominent placement, it simply could not have been missed by staff between when it was first attached to the garage and when it was reported.

The Great Erasure

I saw the following last week but failed to comment on it:

A nearly two-centuries-old Virginia landmark denoting the location where slaves were once sold as property prior to the Civil War has finally been removed.

The 176-year-old auction block — recently defaced at least twice in the wake of worldwide police brutality and Black Lives Matters demonstrations — was yanked from its Fredericksburg site on June 5 in the wake of worldwide civil rights protests, reported Washington TV station WRC.

Formerly situated on a street corner in the middle of the city, the knee-high stone monument — which the local chapter of the NAACP deemed a relic from a "time of hatred and degradation " — had been a simmering contention point for years.

Before I comment on this directly I want to share a bit of my life with you. Many years ago I read a few books on Denmark Vesey. I learned many things including his proper name: Telemaque and decided that since I couldn't find a documentary on him, I would make one. So one hot summer day, I packed my clothes, video cameras and tape (yes, tape) into my car and drove to Charleston SC. For the next week I walked the entirety of downtown Charleston as well as a side trip to the Santee river. Let me tell you that it was the most emotional thing I had ever done and I hadn't cried more times since my first viewing of Rosewood.

It was extremely difficult to locate historically important areas at that time (I cannot say how it is now) as nothing was marked. So in order to find things I had to go to the Charleston library and get into what I believe was the Carolina room (you can e-mail and correct me if I have it wrong). There I had to correlate the books I read with the current map of Charleston as well as pre-fire Charleston. As a result I was able to find where Denmark Vesey lived. Not a marker in sight. I found an auction house which had been converted into a jewelry store if memory serves (it's been a long time). I think there may have been a marker but I don't think so.

And that's a part of why I am strenuously opposed to the removal of such artifacts as they are. They are SUPPOSED to remind us of painful and bad times so that we don't repeat them (or too repeat them when they are acts or events worthy of repeating).

Anyway. I found my way to the Santee river where innumerate Africans used as a guide to freedom and where Telemaque gave speeches to convince enslaved Africans to rise up. I cannot describe how it felt to be standing where some of my ancestors had actually attempted to "get free". Where some had paid the ultimate price. Those were heavy days.

I also located the "Work House" where Telemaque and his compatriots were held prior to being executed. It was reported that they sang hymns the entire night and when they were executed not a one of them showed fear. Speaking of hanged, I found where most of the hangings happened. No markers.

Two nights before I left I went to the shore (where the canons face the sea) and retraced the route the Africans took that fateful night. Up Meeting street and King street. Past Market street.

Let me tell you that it was an impactful night. To be where black men and women risked everything to not be victims of their circumstances (and some to give up quite comfortable livings) to be free people. So you'll excuse me if I'm not on board with people complaining about their "hurt feelings" over a block of concrete marking a historical event. You'll excuse me if I'm not sympathetic to people who think they are oppressed due to "micro-aggressions" and other assorted Bull. Shit.

This is why I'm against the removal of monuments. The monuments are opportunities to ponder who, what, where, when, how and why. The answers are usually not neat. Such is life. Personally I'm for more monuments that tell more of the stories. So no, this removal is not good. All it does is erase history. And shame on the NAACP for advocating for its removal.

Alleged Black Professor's Letter to Collegues RE Floyd and BLM

I don't know if the below is real as in it actually came from a professor. It is supposedly anonymous which, if true is a condemnation of academia in general and the specific college/university and department in particular. Note: Apparently, due to either programming on Blogger or the size of the image. clicking on the image results in an itty bitty version. Instead, do not click on the image but increase the view size of this page and the image will increase in size.

An Example of Why The Mass Hysteria called BLM Makes No Sense

This moment from @RepJeffries going after @dbongino is absurd. He repeatedly brings up white terrorists and their skin color and when pressed by Dan on why he's making it racial, Jeffries says "Black Lives Matter."

Dan has to remind him: "I arrested those people, you did not." pic.twitter.com/lG6pENHJ9q

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 10, 2020

In the above video the not so bright Hakeem Jeffries attempts to make a point about white heavily armed white men who were arrested "without incident". He is so dense that he doesn't realize that he answered his own question when he said "without incident". The vast majority of police killings of both armed and unarmed people happen when the suspect resists arrest. As if ti's some kind of option. If the person doesn't resist arrest there is a 99% chance that they will not be killed during the arrest. I say 99% because there have, in fact, been cases where unarmed people who have followed directions have been killed. In most, if not all of those cases, the police gave conflicting orders.

See, too many people are too damn slow, and not too bright to understand that the initial reason for the contact is often NOT the reason for the killing. Often it is what happens afterwards, which usually starts with someone saying "I'm not gonna..."

Another example of this is the recent shooting of an unarmed motorist on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway. In that situation Maurice Gordon the driver had been clocked doing 100 on the GSP which has a top speed limit of 65 and people generally go about 80. He pulled over on the wrong side of the road. The officer treated him with nothing but respect and courtesy. He called a tow truck for Maurice and even offered to drop him off somewhere. Of importance was that since Maurice Gordon pulled over on the wrong side, both his and the state trooper's vehicles were partially in the high speed passing lane. This is a very dangerous situation.

Near the end of the video about time index 36:00 Maurice decided to exit the trooper's vehicle after being offered a mask and get into a fight with the state trooper. Do you realize that Maurice could have easily pushed the state trooper into oncoming traffic? Do you realize that the state trooper could have lost his footing during the fight and fell into the lane of traffic and been hit and run over?

That is why an "unarmed person" is not necessarily NOT A THREAT to your life and why the entire "unarmed black man" theme is fraudulent. Those of us who do martial arts know that all it takes is one "proper" hit to do serious bodily harm or even death. We are not impressed by the "unarmed" claim because we know better. The general public doesn't understand this. Neither does Jeffries.

Don't be stupid like Jeffries.

Will Trump Get A Nixon Wave From The Protests and Riots?

I don't think so. I've seen a lot of smart commentary pointing back to how Nixon swept with the "silent majority" that responded very negatively to the riots they witnessed. If America had both 1968 demographics as well as 1968 attitudes I would say that one should expect a Trump landslide. But I don't foresee that at all.

Here's a graph of the changing demographics of the US as a whole:

As you can see the white population in the US has shrunk from near 90% in 1950 to 72% in 2010 and I'm certain that the white population has contracted further as of 2020. If we assume a 3% contraction based on the previous 10 years, then the white population as on election day 2020 would be 69% and likely less.

Add on top of that white elderly people are historically Republican. The Wuhan virus has taken a scythe to that population country wide. I'm not going to call it a conspiracy that governors just happened to put sick people into places where white elderly people are likely to be. I'm just saying...

Trump won his last election on the slimmest of slim margins. Sheer demographics has him losing unless some largely absent and invisible white voting block shows up out the blue. History is not favorable of such an event.

Of further consideration is that Democrat or Republican, US citizens were by far anti-riot, anti-communist, anti-socialist of any stripe, pro borders and anti-illegal immigration. What some would consider "sane". This kind of unanimity is long gone. Open socialists are in the federal government and those who are not open socialists make socialistic policy statements without so much as stuttering. Well except Joe Biden.

This past week we have seen police and military personnel bowing to protestors. Never would have happened in 1968. We've seen white people washing black peoples feet in public. Never would have happened in 1968. The white population in America is fractured and generally speaking lacking in self-respect. It's as if a large percentage of white people are incapable of having self-respect AND not be racist. Yes it is quite possible (and desirable) for white people to have self-respect and also not treat black people as sacred objects and/or children incapable of self-control and agency. But I digress.

No, The forces arrayed against those, white and non-white who refuse to take part in the new BLM religious cult (that's what it is) and see the long run communist game for what it is has to face fare greater consequences than those of 1968. Sure there will be "backlash" in certain quarters of the country. But I see nothing to indicate Trump will be "gifted" with a landslide because there are far more people out there that simply hate Trump and even if it means they have to deal with crazy shit from Democrats, they will do so just to be rid of the man. That is, they think this mob (and I'm not just talking about the ones in the streets) can be negotiated with. Indeed this mob WILL present themselves as amenable to negotiation. It's short term though. Remember, homosexuals just wanted to be left alone in the privacy of their homes. See where that went.

So no, I don't see Trump winning a landslide due to the recent events. As a matter of fact Trump is looking more and more like a one term president in part due to what has been done to him as well as his failure to do the things he promised to do.

Ahmaud Preliminary Hearing

I think this is a fair discussion of the case thus far. As I've said repeatedly in my discussion of the matter: it depends on what evidence comes out and certainly the social media, etc. comments (which I have not seen) certainly can go to state of mind.

I still think there are grounds for reasonable doubt and think that if the McMichael's previous comments are going to be fair game in a trial, and there will be a trial, then Ahmaud's past is going to be fair game. Generally I am opposed to bringing in past statements or history of any party unless it is directly related to the events in dispute. For example, the past behavior of Trayvon, which is trotted out every time I see his killing discussed, is irrelevant to me because not only was all of that unknown to Zimmerman but also it had no bearing on the events that occurred that night.

Similarly I've seen people discuss Ahmaud's past run in with police. I haven't posted on it because I think it's irrelevant and if I were on the jury I would dismiss it. The only past behavior of Ahmaud that would interest me is his previous "visits" to the house under construction because that has a direct bearing on the behavior of the defendants.

I Told You They Were Trying To Kill You To Own Trump

Readers will have noticed nary a peep from me in regards to the recent "studies" showing that Hydroxychloroquine was ineffective. Why. Because when I read the paper I knew it was shit. I also knew that actual scientists who actually adhere to scientific methods rather than "Woke" not science, the kind that says a man who thinks he's a woman is a woman, would tackle the paper. Well here it is:

If you are a supporter of various media outlets that have done everything they could to discredit HCQ in order to "own" Trump, you need to seriously re-evaluate your consumption habits. I'm not telling you who to support or not to support in your next election, be it president, governor, Senator, House Representative, heck School board member. All I ask is you hold any of them, D,R or I accountable if they supported suppressing information or straight out lying about information that could *save your life* in order to get or maintain political power.

The Floyd Autopsy Report

You can read it for yourself here: https://www.hennepin.us/-/media/hennepinus/residents/public-safety/documents/Autopsy_2020-3700_Floyd.pdf One very important note which will play a significant role in the trial: Floyd was VERY high.

I don't see this as providing reasonable doubt to the murder 3 indictment since that will likely focus on the extended length knee to the neck that I still say was the fatal move.

Again, I am not a medical professional so what I think can be taken with many grains of salt. That said I do not agree with others that say that this portion:

means that the knee to the neck was not the cause of death, or as it could be stated, the straw that broke the camel's back. The reason I say this is because I don't think there would necessarily be any "signs" of trauma to the carotid artery from being compressed enough to drop Floyd's blood pressure enough to cause his death. Recall from my last post on the subject that you can simply button your shirt too tight to cause the same thing. It simply doesn't take THAT much pressure and nearly 10 minutes of it is certainly *not good*

I would hope that the prosecutors would ask the medical examiner whether such pressure over an extended period of time would necessarily show damage in an autopsy. And if I were on the jury I would certainly want that question asked and answered. Failure to show beyond reasonable doubt in regards to that would be grounds for conviction in my opinion. [see update below]

As for the other three officers who were charged, I believe this report along with video of the struggle in the vehicle will get them acquitted (again this depends on what other evidence comes out). I believe they can reasonably argue that their participation in holding Floyd down was due to his resisting and they were doing as they were trained to do (which puts the city on the hook) in such situations. I don't think that arguing that they enabled or should have stopped Chauvin from his continued neck restraint is going to fly legally. I think a reasonable jury can find Chauvin guilty of 3rd degree murder while acquiring the other officers (again, given what evidence I know about as of this writing). [update: 2:05PM EDT] I'll have to hold off on the portions of the jury questioning of the neck injury or lack thereof. My theory depends on the fact that the compression of the carotid artery would show up as injury to the brain or heart. This report doesn't find that.

I'll be interested in the findings of the family's ME, but they will have to explain this part if they are going with the neck compression as ultimate cause of death. Here's a run down of Hypoxic-Ischemic:

When the brain is deprived of oxygen, brain cells are injured. Some may recover, some may die. The most common causes of oxygen deprivation to the brain are low levels of oxygen in the blood or a reduced flow of oxygen to the brain...

There are two stages of injury with HIE: The first stage happens immediately after the initial oxygen deprivation. The second occurs as normal oxygenated blood flow resumes to the brain. This is called “reperfusion injury” and occurs as toxins are released from the damaged cells.

Yes I know the above is in regards to birthing, but the science is the same. There should be some level of injury present. So either this ME got it wrong or this ME got it right. This is significant because it seems to me that the crux of the murder charge IS the knee to the neck. If they cannot show the knee to the neck is what killed Floyd then they cannot prove murder at any degree.

Here's a good source on Hypoxic - Ischemic Encephalopathy:

The brain has no energy stores of its own except for a small amount of glycogen in astrocytes. Anaerobic glycolysis of this glycogen provides neurons with some lactate that can be used by mitochondria but is insufficient to meet energy needs. The brain can also use lactate from the circulation. Fatty acids cannot be used because they are not transported across brain capillaries, but the brain can use ketone bodies derived from fat. In the ketogenic diet that is used for treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy, ketone bodies become the main energy source. However, the bulk of ATP is derived from oxidative phosphorylation of glucose. Thus, the brain depends on a second by second supply of oxygen and glucose by the blood.

Here's what I'm concerned about:

With this background, let us examine what happens with different grades of HIE. Suppose that someone has a brief episode of global ischemia, say from fainting. Within seconds, energy failure causes electrical activity in neurons to cease and the patient loses consciousness. Neurons and glial cells are viable and, if circulation is promptly restored, the patient returns to normal. If, however, ischemia lasts longer, first the integrity of cell membranes will be compromised and then cellular metabolism will cease and neurons will die. Ischemia lasting 4-5 minutes can damage irreversibly hippocampal and neocortical pyramidal cells, striatal neurons, and Purkinje cells. More protracted ischemia can damage thalamic and brainstem neurons.

The fact that Floyd had his neck compressed and therefore presumably still under a hypoxic condition, there should be neuron damage. If the ME report OR the family report doesn't show it, then how to prove Floyd's death was a result of the knee to the neck? Presumably the following would help:

If a patient dies shortly after the insult, the brain is usually grossly and microscopically normal.

If the brains "grossly and microscopically normal" as this ME report states, then such findings would NOT rule out the neck compression as cause of death since Floyd did, in fact, die "shortly after the insult".