1-2% of the $2.9T Stimulus Goes to Vaccines, ISIS=Varsity Cancel Culture?, The George Floyd Trial's Biggest Problem, No Arrests For Burning a Portland Courthouse (The Five for 03/12/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Here’s what I’m not covering, today or in the future:
Any COVID or vaccine stuff. What am I going to say here that someone else hasn’t covered?
Biden’s public address last night. I’ve been pretty consistent that State of the Union style addresses don’t really matter. I didn’t cover Trump doing them, not covering Biden.
The Weeknd boycotting the Grammy Awards. Actually, I’m just never covering awards shows. The Weeknd is right, awards shows are run by “secret alliances.” Cool. So, don’t watch them. Pay them no mind.
Before we begin:
John Oliver’s 2017 rant on “what Meghan Markle was getting herself into” by marrying into the British Royal Family has gone viral, and is worth a watch.
Also as a follow up to Royalsgate, an FYI that Queen Elizabeth II was 13 years old when her now-husband Prince Phillip started “corresponding” with her…from the Navy. Also, they’re second cousins. When their son Charles needed a wife and had already slept with pretty much every other woman in England, 19 year old Diana was “recruited” to the role. Charles continued carrying on an affair with a married woman, until Diana finally divorced him. Inbreeding. Pedophelia. Infidelity. These people are white trash with money and titles. I would highly recommend you stop paying attention to them.
This (very long) podcast episode featuring Jocko Willink and Tulsi Gabbard is worth a deep dive. The former Dem POTUS candidate claims she was labeled an outcast from the party when she pushed back on efforts to “tip the scales” in favor of Hillary Clinton in 2016, who was in danger of losing the primary to Bernie Sanders. Tulsi claims the Democratic party more or less sabotaged her chances at at the 2020 nomination.
[one]
Let’s start with the George Floyd Trial.
Dr. Andrew Baker, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who conducted the autopsy on George Floyd, has certainly cast doubt on officer Derek Chauvin being convicted of murder.
NBC Minneapolis reports:
"If he were found dead at home alone and no other apparent causes, this could be acceptable to call an OD. Deaths have been certified with levels of 3," Baker told investigators.
In another new document, Baker said, "That is a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances."
But then Baker added, "I am not saying this killed him."
Defense attorneys for the officers have signaled they will argue Floyd died from the drugs and pre-existing health conditions.
The new documents say Floyd had a "heavy heart" and "at least one artery was approximately 75% blocked."
Dr. Stephen Nelson, chairman of Florida's medical examiners commission, who is not affiliated with the case, reviewed the new files and says that doesn't mean the drugs or health condition is what caused Floyd's death.
"We've all had cases where those kinds of of levels come into play. You've got to look at the whole picture," Nelson said. "It's one thing to die *with* something. It's another thing to die *from* something."
The documents say Baker performed the autopsy before watching the videos of police restraining Floyd, with Officer Derek Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck, because Baker wanted to avoid bias in his autopsy.
In Baker's final report after watching the videos, he ruled Floyd's death a homicide caused by "law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."
To me, common sense points to George Floyd surviving the arrest if it weren’t for how Officer Chauvin handled the situation. However, it’s going to be a tough road for the prosecution, who are attempting to convict Derek Chauvin of 2nd degree murder, when Floyd had enough drugs in his system to kill an elephant:
(Read the complete autopsy here).
To me, there are three possibilities:
A. Chauvin is not guilty of any wrongdoing.
B. Chauvin was overly aggressive with Floyd during the arrest because they had a history of personal issues, and those reckless actions, perhaps unintentionally, led to Floyd’s death.
C. Chauvin intended to kill Floyd, and accomplished it.
Keep in mind, I’m not a lawyer, and although I’ve done a good bit of reporting on government issues (including trials), no one would consider me a legal expert.
But from where I sit, there’s almost no chance Chauvin will be convicted of C., and the prosecution skipped going after B. to pursue murder charges.
If I had to put money on it, I’d say Chauvin walks. Not saying that’s the right thing in the eyes of heaven, but the most likely legal outcome.
My mom, who studied Judo in college, told me it’s really obvious the second someone goes unconscious. That’s anecdotal, but may be what the prosecution uses as an argument that Chauvin caused Floyd’s death, as Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after Floyd had become non-responsive.
Remember, the defense only has to create doubt. It’s on the prosecution to create a rock solid case.
I expect a fresh round of riots this summer, with Chauvin’s acquittal kicking off “Hot City Summer”* (as in, literally on fire) 2021.
*That was a joke referencing the Megan Thee Stallion single Hot Girl Summer. I know jokes aren’t as funny when you explain them, but half the readership probably didn’t get this one. So maybe I should have left the joke out, huh?
[two]
A breakdown of the most recent stimulus package from the Foundation for Economic Education found that 90% of the spending isn’t directly related to COVID 19:
Of the bill’s nearly $2 trillion in spending, PolitiFact reports that just $14 to $20 billion goes to vaccine distribution and vaccine-related efforts. This is a tiny fraction, a mere 1-2 percent. Overall, the spending that actually goes to health-related matters pales in comparison to the hundreds of billions doled out for partisan priorities.
For example, at least $350 billion goes to bailing out state and local governments—despite most not actually experiencing predicted COVID-19 tax revenue shortfalls. That means Biden’s bill spends more than twice as much lining the pockets of bankrupt blue states than it does actually addressing public health.
The problem is that state and local governments aren’t experiencing a revenue shortfall, which was reported by the CATO Institute.
The balance on this bailout WILL come due. That means, if you’re a taxpayer in St. Louis or Orlando or Nashville, you’re going to get the good pleasure of paying off San Francisco’s debts from terrible management practices…deficits racked up by a reckless mayor and city council you didn’t vote for, to provide services you didn’t use, in a place you might never visit.
Goodie.
[three]
Former Democratic POTUS candidate Tulsi Gabbard took on cancel culture this week, comparing the phenomenon to terrorist groups ISIS and Al Qaeda.
“Let’s look down the path and say where does this cancel culture lead us? You see the final expression of cancel culture in Islamist terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda who basically go and behead those who they deem to be infidels or heretics in order to silence them, in order to protect others from being misled by those heretical ideas in the eyes of ISIS or Al Qaeda,” she said.
“When you look at the foundation of our democracy, it is based on this ideal, this principle of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom for every single one of us to be able to share our ideas and debate them, to argue them, to agree or to disagree, to pick and choose in this marketplace of ideas, those that we deem to be right or wrong to be superior or inferior and even for those ideas that may be misleading or dangerous, that in this free marketplace, we have the right to then defeat those ideas with with superior ones,” Ms Gabbard said.
[four]
Portland, Oregon has suffered under the weight of Antifa violence for nearly a year, and the far left Communist group is gearing up for a fresh round of terrorist tactics.
Last night, Antifa set a Portland Court House of fire while people were still inside.
This time, the rioters’ target was the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service; fliers read, “No borders! No nations! Abolish deportation.” But not “no vandalism”: They smashed windows of restaurants, banks and grocery stores, destroyed a security car and left anti-ICE graffiti on buildings along the way.
Police, stretched thin by multiple shooting incidents around the city, made only two arrests. Then again, Portland prosecutors routinely spring these thugs, so what’s the point?
The arrests were not for burning the courthouse, but for attacking police officers, including Darby Howard, 22. Mr. Howard resides in Montana, but had apparently gone on a road trip to partake in the destruction public property.
I mean, I tend to focus my road trips on live music, baseball games and/or activities like hiking…but then again, I don’t have a Black Widow inked on my throat, so maybe I’m just not in the cool club.
What’s most striking about Portland comes with the comparison to Washington D.C., which is criss-crossed in barbed wire and barricades and staffed with thousands of federal troops.
And on the other side of the map? Portland doesn’t have enough police to arrest people who burn federal buildings. This has to be one of the worst misallocation of resources the government has ever blundered into.
I condemn (and take seriously) the January 6th attack on the Capital by right wing conspiracy theorists. There’s little to no chance of any follow up attacks in the near future, and yet our nation’s capital lives under a near police state as CNN reports endlessly on Q-Anon.
By contrast, Portland experiences violence at the hands of Communist terrorists on a weekly basis, with little national coverage and no additional resources to combat the terrorism playing out in real time.
Antifa is calling for more violence this weekend. The federal troops who could stop them are hanging in Washington D.C. with nothing to do.
[five]
Let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
If you like history and murder-y stuff, add Age of Samurai (out now) and The Lost Pirate Kingdom to your Netflix queue. Both are documentary shows with live action re-enactments.
The lineage of legendary country music singer Hank Williams continues as his great-grandson, who simply goes by “IV” prepares his debut album for April. Hank Jr. (perhaps best known, oddly enough, for the ABC network “Are You Ready for Some Football” NFL promos), grandson Hank III (IV’s father) and Hank’s granddaughter Holly Williams (who released one of my favorite albums of all time in 2013. Check out “The Highway” here) have all made their contributions to the sound of country music, to varying degrees of success. IV hasn’t released a proper single yet, but based on the song clips on Instagram, I’m intrigued.
Elsewhere in the Americana world, my favorite-so-far album of 2021 is from newcomer North Carolina native Pony Bradshaw, who makes mountain music for the highly literate. Loretta Lynn’s classic 2005 album Van Lear Rose (produced by then-28-year-old Jack White) was pulled from streaming and download sites due to some sort of record label legal issue. This is a good reason to not “rent music” via streaming services, I suppose. Heck, it’s a good reason to own physical media in the era of Cancel Culture when you never know when a book/album/movie could be removed from public platforms.
Notable albums out today: The National’s Matt Berringer releases a Deluxe Edition of his 2020 solo outing Serpentine Prison. Memphis based Americana/Soul artist Valarie June drops her third project, the Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers. Chris Wollard, formerly of the pioneering Florida hardcore outfit Hot Water Music returns with the band Ship Thieves new album Irruption. Recommended if you actually know how Hot Water Music or Chuck Ragan are.
QUICK SPORTS ROUNDUP: The basketball team at Michigan State will now be known as MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage. That’s going to make play-by-play quite the mouthful. The Texas Rangers will open their season at full capacity (40,518 fans) with masks required while the other MLB team in the Lone Star state, the Houston Astros, follow something closer to 25-30% capacity that most MLB teams are adopting. Mississippi, Tennessee and Idaho have now banned biological men from competing in women’s sports, regardless of stated gender identity. Twenty two other states could follow suit. Finally, as March Madness is around the corner, perennial powerhouse Duke may miss the tournament due to COVID-19 cases on the team. The NCAA tournament kicks off next Thursday, March 18.
[epilogue]
The French History Podcast posted a pretty cool video to Twitter of elementary school students learning how Caesar conquered Gaul by having them arrange in testudo (turtle) formation.
Teachers then hurled pool noodles and and foam balls at the formation to emulate spears and boulders.
Speaking of French history, a group of adults re-enacted the heroics of a French military unit during the German invasion of 1940.
Oh, that’s a yoga class?
My bad.
Until the next one,
-sth