RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/what-we-do-and-dont-know-now-about-george-floyds-death/

The official complaint submitted to a Minnesota district court answers some questions, but raises others.

Things are often more complicated than they appear at first blush. That is certainly the case with the murder of George Floyd, with which former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged in a complaint filed on Friday.

For one thing, contrary to most people’s assumption, Mr. Floyd appears not to have died from asphyxia or strangulation as Chauvin pinned him to the ground, knee to the neck. Rather, as alleged in the complaint, Floyd suffered from coronary-artery disease and hypertensive-heart disease. The complaint further intimates, but does not come out and allege, that Floyd may have had “intoxicants” in his system. The effects of these underlying health conditions and “any potential intoxicants” are said to have “combined” with the physical restraint by three police officers, most prominently Chauvin, to cause Floyd’s death.

As I’ve noted in a column on the homepage, Hennepin County prosecutors have charged Chauvin with third-degree depraved-indifference homicide. Now that the complaint has been released publicly, we see that a lesser offense was also charged: second-degree manslaughter. This homicide charge involves “culpable negligence creating an unreasonable risk” of serious bodily harm, and carries a maximum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/05/29/perks-members-of-congress-give-to-themselves–the-selfie-report/#7958e694270f

Once elected to Congress, members are in a rare and exclusive club. In the history of our nation, there have only been 10,363 House members and 1,307 U.S. Senators.

And that club certainly has its benefits.

Our new OpenTheBooks Oversight Report, “Congressional Membership Has Its Privilege — Salaries, Pensions, Travel, and Other Taxpayer-Funded Perks” quantifies and breaks down the lavish perks associated with serving in Congress.

An exclusive club — members of Congress have a lot of privileges.

Here are five major benefits each member of Congress receives:

SALARY: The House Speaker makes $223,500, Majority and Minority Leaders earn $193,400, and the President Pro Tempore makes $193,400. Regular members earn $174,000.

Outside income is restricted to eliminate conflicts-of-interest. However, we found significant loopholes in the ethics laws. Who knew that powerful members can be employed by federal contractors based in their districts?

PROMOTED

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/what_the_rioters_and_their_apologists_have_squandered.html

First of all, a disclaimer: In stark, unmistakable contrast to the narrative being promulgated by the so-called news networks, I am not conflating rioting (with its subsets of looting, burning and pillaging) and protesting.

If there was one positive thing provided by the death of George Floyd, it was the sheer universality of the condemnation of the shameful, inhuman behavior of the police officer and his colleagues in whose custody Mr. Floyd met his end (I say “if there was” instead of “if there were” because that one positive thing is already a thing of the past).

It was the one thing that distinguished this incident from every other one that has inspired widespread protests, be it the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray or any of so many others. In every one of these preceding incidents, there were voices disputing the “victim” status of the departed, and often making a viable case. Not everyone was on board with the protests, even before they degenerated into riots.

But in the case of George Floyd there was nobody who was not outraged at the barbarity of the tactic used on him. Everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity or political persuasion, felt and expressed the same degree of disgust at the cruelty we all witnessed. Even the law enforcement community, famous for closing ranks to defend one of its own (sometimes justifiably, sometimes not), saw the incident as an atrocity, and its members weren’t the least bit shy about saying so. There was not a single voice even attempting to blame Mr. Floyd or to put a positive spin on the actions of the police officers.

https://babylonbee.com/news/scientists-confirm-coronavirus-only-spreads-at-conservative-protests

WHO scientists have confirmed that the coronavirus only spreads at problematic protests, like conservative rallies, Trump campaign events, and Second Amendment rights demonstrations. The study found that the coronavirus will not spread at progressive protests or violent riots.

The WHO study showed that only Republicans, 2nd Amendment demonstrators, and Trump supporters can spread dangerous viruses when they break lockdown to assemble and protest, not any other kind of protesters.

“You only want people to die if you go protest for conservative causes — otherwise, you’re safe,” said a W.H.O. scientist as he mixed two differently colored liquids together. They exploded and his hair went straight back, burning his face. “AHHHHH!!!”

Unfortunately, the scientist was later discovered to be a bunch of raccoons in a lab coat, so the results of the study may be suspect.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/05/29/us_covid-19_death_toll_is_inflated.html

The latest Centers for Disease Control data show that the COVID-19 fatality rate is 0.26% — four times higher than the worst rate for the seasonal flu over the past decade. That is dramatically lower than the World Health Organization’s estimate of 3.4% and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s initial guess of about 2%.

When the CDC projected 1.7 million deaths back in March, it used an estimated death rate of 0.8%. Imperial College’s estimate of 2.2 million deaths assumed a rate of 0.9%. The fear generated by the projections drives the public policy debate. The Washington Post headline, “As deaths mount, Trump tries to convince Americans it’s safe to inch back to normal,” were part of a steady diet of such fare. When Georgia opened up over a month ago, the Post warned: “Georgia leads the race to become America’s No. 1 Death Destination.”

The CDC currently puts the number of confirmed deaths at about 100,000. But even the “best estimate” 0.26% fatality rate is a significant overestimate because of how the CDC is counting deaths. The actual rate is fairly close to a recent bad year for the seasonal flu. And though public health officials have been transparent about how they are counting coronavirus deaths, the implications for calculating the infection fatality rate are not appreciated.

“The case definition is very simplistic,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of Illinois Department of Public Health, explains. “It means, at the time of death, it was a COVID positive diagnosis. That means, that if you were in hospice and had already been given a few weeks to live, and then you also were found to have COVID, that would be counted as a COVID death. It means, technically even if you died of [a] clear alternative cause, but you had COVID at the same time, it’s still listed as a COVID death.”

https://www.city-journal.org/progressive-politicians-watch-as-minneapolis-burns

In 2014, shortly after his release from a Texas prison, George Floyd moved to Minnesota for a fresh start. In Minneapolis, he worked as a truck driver and as a security guard at the Conga Latin Bistro, where he was known as “Big Floyd.” A few months ago, he was laid off due to the strict stay-at-home order imposed by the state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz. Floyd looked for work; it’s unclear if he was eligible for coronavirus-related unemployed benefits.

Bad habits crept back in. Earlier this week, Floyd, apparently under the influence of an intoxicant, attempted to buy a package of cigarettes from a small shop in south Minneapolis with a counterfeit $20 bill. The store’s owner, Mahmod Abumayaleh, called the police. The recorded footage of the arrest showed Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee placed squarely on Floyd’s neck, while Floyd begged for mercy. Floyd, who didn’t resist arrest, died soon after. Chauvin, who was subsequently fired, had 18 prior complaints filed against him with the police department’s internal-affairs division. In a bizarre twist, it appears that Chauvin and Floyd were also once coworkers: they worked security at the same nightclub, and possibly knew each other.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/29/declassified-flynn-transcripts-contradict-key-mueller-claims-against-flynn/

Newly released declassified transcripts of call transcripts and summaries between Flynn and Kislyak contradict key claims made against Flynn by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Highly sought-after summaries and transcripts of intercepted phone calls between former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak contradict key claims made by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his criminal case against Flynn. The transcripts were provided to Congress on Friday and obtained by The Federalist. You can read the full documents here and here.

The intercept transcripts and summaries released on Friday afternoon cover calls between Flynn and Russian ambassador Kislyak or his representatives on December 22, 2016; December 23, 2016; December 29, 2016; December 31, 2016; January 12, 2017; and January 19, 2017. The substance of the December 22 conversation remains entirely classified, while the remaining transcripts and conversations are only lightly redacted.

https://www.city-journal.org/george-floyd-minneapolis-riots

Once again—as in Baltimore, following the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, and long before then, in Watts, Newark, and Detroit—the actions of rioters in an American city are being described as protests, or, by PBS, no less, as an “uprising.” Even Minneapolis’s hapless mayor, Jacob Frey—under siege as his city burns—graces the violence with understanding. “There is a lot of pain and anger in our city,” said Frey, adding that “this is what happens” when long-standing issues of race and poverty go unaddressed. It’s “not just because of five minutes of horror,” Frey noted in a press conference, referring to the images of George Floyd gasping for air beneath a police officer’s knee, “but 400 years.”

Frey rightly called for the arrest of the officer, Derek Chauvin, and Chauvin has now been arrested. But Frey was wrong to ascribe anything close to justifiable motives to those who have torched a police precinct building and a youth center and looted stores serving their own community. It’s as if we have learned nothing over two generations about what happens when public officials give license to the lawless, letting marauders proceed under cover of high-mindedness. We expect as much from inflammatory activists like Al Sharpton but deserve better from elected officials charged with protecting property, lives, and livelihoods.

https://nypost.com/2020/05/29/protesters-storm-cnn-building-in-fiery-atlanta-protest/

ATLANTA — Demonstrators marched, stopped traffic and in some cases lashed out violently at police as protests erupted Friday in dozens of U.S. cities following the killing of George Floyd after a white officer pressed a knee into his neck while taking him into custody in Minnesota. In Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and beyond, thousands of protesters carried signs that said: “He said I can’t breathe. Justice for George.” They chanted ”“No justice, no peace” and “Say his name. George Floyd.”

After hours of peaceful protest in downtown Atlanta, some demonstrators suddenly turned violent, smashing police cars, setting one on fire, spray-painting the iconic logo sign at CNN headquarters, and breaking into a restaurant. The crowd pelted officers with bottles, chanting “Quit your jobs.”

At least three officers were hurt and there were multiple arrests, Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos said in an emailed statement. Campos said protesters shot BB guns at officers and threw bricks, bottles and knives at them. People watched the scene from rooftops, some laughing as skirmishes broke out.

https://nypost.com/2020/05/29/brass-knuckle-wielding-man-punches-nypd-sergeant-at-george-floyd-protest/

Anti-cop rage over the police-custody death of George Floyd boiled over in Brooklyn on Friday night — with an NYPD van being set on fire in Fort Greene Park and hundreds of protesters trying to surround the 88th precinct in Clinton Hill before being rebuffed by a massive police mobilization.

In all, some 200 people were arrested Friday and early Saturday in separate, heated protests in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, sources told The Post.

It was 9:30 p.m. when the empty police van was set ablaze in Fort Greene Park.

A crowd of some 3,000 protesters had converged on the Barclays Center in Prospect Heights hours earlier, with police releasing chemical mace as the demonstration grew unruly and began throwing objects at cops.

And still earlier in the day, in Lower Manhattan, at least 30 protesters were busted, including a man who allegedly punched an NYPD sergeant in the head with brass knuckles.