RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.newsmax.com/us/coronavirus-covid-twitter/2020/08/30/id/984567/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report late last week showing that just 9,683 Americans, or 6%, died with only having COVID-19 listed on their death certificates, leading to a social media trending topic on the issue.

The other 94% of deaths were listed as having at least one additional medical condition linked to their death.

Some of the underlying diseases listed by the CDC include influenza and pneumonia, respiratory failure, hypertensive disease, diabetes, vascular and unspecified dementia, cardiac arrest, heart failure and renal failure.

Twitter proponents on both sides of the issue made their case that the data either proved that CDC had been wrong all along or that that health officials have said from the start that comorbidities were more likley to cause a person to die from COVID-19 anyway. 

At least 182,885 people have died from coronavirus in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The CDC has long said that pre-existing health conditions can cause people to experience more severe COVID-19 symptoms.

Many health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have rejected claims that coronavirus deaths are being exaggerated.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/democrat-violence-takes-life-portland-daniel-greenfield/

Mayor Ted Wheeler recently told Oregon Public Radio that his only strategy for dealing with the violence in Portland is to let it “burn itself out.”

The admission came after he falsely claimed that Federal law enforcement’s presence was “leading to more violence” only to see the leftist violence continue to grow after the pullout deal.

On August 28, Mayor Wheeler tweeted a letter that he wrote to President Trump turning down his offer of federal law enforcement aid while insisting that, “There is no place for looting, arson, or vandalism in our city.”

That was and is an obvious lie.

Several days earlier, Wheeler had let slip his now infamous “burn itself out” line while suggesting that the so-called ‘non-violent’ protests “won’t end for quite some time.”

After a pro-Trump activist was shot by one of the leftist rioters whom Mayor Wheeler had enabled, the Democrat boss began his comments on the shooting by denouncing President Trump and his supporters who had traveled in a caravan flying Trump 2020 flags.

“It’s you who have created the hate and the division,” Mayor Wheeler ranted. “And now you want me to stop the violence you helped create. What America needs is for you to be stopped.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-portland-clashes-11598829099?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The violent protests of the last three months in Portland, Ore., escalated on Saturday night into a right-left confrontation that resulted in one man shot dead in the streets. This is what happens when political leaders fail to perform the most basic responsibility of government to protect innocent lives and property.

The main failure here lies with Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Gov. Kate Brown, who have consistently indulged the rioters. Every night for more than 90 days, Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters have demonstrated in Portland. Many are peaceful, but a hard core have repeatedly attacked police and burned buildings.

When President Trump sent federal law enforcement agents to Portland this summer to protect federal buildings, the mayor and Governor blamed Mr. Trump for the violent clashes. But when federal agents stood down, the violence continued against Portland police and property. On Friday Mr. Wheeler issued an open letter rejecting Mr. Trump’s latest offer of federal help to restore order.

“We don’t need your politics of division and demagoguery. Portlanders are onto you. We have already seen your reckless disregard for human life in your bumbling response to the COVID pandemic. And we know you’ve reached the conclusion that images of violence or vandalism are your only ticket to reelection,” Mr. Wheeler wrote.

Yet his city is the one burning and where someone has now been killed. Mr. Wheeler, Gov. Brown and state lawmakers have hamstrung police by limiting anti-riot tactics. At a Sunday press conference the Portland police chief said his department lacked the resources to separate the fighting factions, but the feckless Mr. Wheeler offered little more than a plea against violence and rhetoric about reform to address racial injustice.

That hasn’t stopped Democrats from blaming Mr. Trump for the violence, as they did all day Sunday. Democrats spent their convention never mentioning the urban violence, but after the Kenosha riots and the GOP convention, this has become a political liability. So they’re pivoting to blame Mr. Trump and claim that “his America” is causing it. As if Trump supporters belong to Antifa and dominate U.S. cities.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/29/blake-sexually-assaulted-victim-in-may-defied-restraining-order/

According to news reports, Kenosha police were responding to a 911 call related to an existing warrant on Jacob Blake for felony sexual assault, trespassing, and domestic abuse before Blake was shot on August 23. The Kenosha Professional Police Association issued a statement on Friday that detailed the May assault; police filed charges against Blake in July.

Blake allegedly broke into the bedroom of the victim, an ex-girlfriend, in the early morning of May 3 and sexually assaulted her while one of her children slept beside her. The victim told police that Blake attacks her “around twice a year when he drinks heavily,” the New York Post reported August 28. A 911 call from that same residence triggered Blake’s encounter with police, which sparked looting and rioting in Kenosha, a city located on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin, that spread to other cities across the county.

Police also confirmed that Blake had a knife in his possession; video taken during the incident supports that claim. Blake resisted arrest and ignored officers’ commands before he was shot in the back. He remains in stable condition at a Milwaukee hospital.

Political leaders, celebrities, and athletes have rallied to Blake’s defense. In a video message taped at his home, Joe Biden said Blake’s shooting was another example of “systemic racism” and fretted about what Blake’s children watched unfold. “Our hearts are with his family, especially with his children,” Biden told the camera. “It’s horrible what they saw.” (Blake, 29, has six children under the age of 8.)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/08/28/us-tech-stocks-are-n

U.S. tech stocks have been pushing the stock market to record highs, and now the sector has now become more valuable than the entire European stock market for the first time in history, according to the latest research from Bank of America.

KEY FACTS

The bank said in a note that the total market capitalization of U.S. tech stocks reached $9.1 trillion, eclipsing that of the entire European market—including the UK and Switzerland, which is now valued at $8.9 trillion.

In 2007, by comparison, the European market was four times the size of the U.S. tech sector, the firm said.

The news comes as no surprise as big tech names continue to play a large role in leading the market to new record highs: The S&P 500 has rebounded over 55% from its low point in March.

But the growth has also led to rising concerns about the U.S. stock market becoming increasingly concentrated in a handful of megacap tech stocks.

The five biggest companies—Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google-parent Alphabet and Facebook—account for 23.8% of the S&P 500, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. 

KEY FACTS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/let-them-boycott/

No one is saying athletes should not have social consciences or forums to express their political views. But the game is not such a forum, not if they expect people to attend or tune in.

O stensibly, the NBA boycotts, which other sports are adopting, are illogical. But then, the animating concept behind the player protests — “systemic racism,” derived from the smear that the nation’s police forces are hunting down young black men — is irrational, a triumph of distorted narrative over critical thinking. Why should the boycotts be any different?

For a work stoppage to be successful, it has to withhold something the potential consumer wants. Or, at least, wants badly enough to be depressed by its absence. Big-time professional sports has been that something for a long time. The sand is running out of the hourglass, though, and that won’t change if the players don’t figure out why.

With some exceptions, the astronomically paid athletes are inexperienced in anything other than their sport — understandably so: They are young, and it takes full-time dedication to compete at their elite level. They are ill-informed, or flat uninformed, about the phenomena they claim to be animated by. They do not approach public policy with an open mind. That, too, is not their fault. Modern-era education has supplanted critical thinking with tribalism, grievance-mongering, and hostility to the free exchange of ideas and viewpoints. It seems paradoxical, given how self-regarding athletes tend to be, but marination in progressive tropes has left them devoid of self-perception. The wealth, the adulation, and the open doors enjoyed by the players, a large percentage of whom are African American, defy the Manichean tale they parrot about America.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cuomo-gets-a-nursing-home-inspection-11598655585?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has resisted inquiries by the press and his own Democratic Legislature into how his policy of returning Covid-19 patients to nursing homes contributed to an untold number of elderly deaths. But New Yorkers may finally get an honest accounting thanks to the Trump Justice Department.

Justice on Wednesday sent letters to Mr. Cuomo and the governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey requesting virus data from their nursing homes. DOJ says it wants to determine whether the states’ orders “requiring admission of COVID-19 patients to nursing homes is responsible for the deaths of nursing home residents.”

To recap: Mr. Cuomo decreed on March 25 that “no resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to [a nursing home]” because of a virus diagnosis. And he prohibited homes “from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested” for the virus before admission. The other governors issued similar orders.

They were understandably worried that hospitals would be overwhelmed, so they pushed to discharge elderly patients as soon as they were medically stable. But as it turned out, 15% of New York hospital beds and 10% of its intensive-care units remained unoccupied at the Covid-19 peak. Other states also had spare capacity.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/a_tempest_in_a_tiburon_teapot_is_a_microcosm_of_the_war_on_police.html

A store owner’s interaction with a respectful police officer ought to have been over quickly but is now another act in the left’s grievance theater.

Mostly lily-white Tiburon, in Marin County, is being roiled by a black store owner’s claim that a police officer racially harassed him. In advance of a town hall to discuss the matter, town officials have released footage from the officer’s video camera. It is illuminating, to say the least, and shows the breakdown in civil order when people no longer respect a community’s police officers.

As a starting point, you need to understand that the small town of Tiburon, which is one of the wealthiest communities in America, is also one of the most tightly policed. The police make sure that the residents and businesses are safe and sound.

The historic downtown is filled with pricy boutiques for residents and tourists alike. One of those pricy little boutiques is a store called Yema, owned by Yema Khalif and Hawi Awash, a husband and wife partnership. He’s from Kenya; she’s from Ethiopia. Both are black.

At around 1:00 a.m., on August 21, the entire downtown was shut down, except for Yema, where the owners and an employee were working late. When an officer knocked on the door to check that everything was okay, Yema answered it but refused to provide any information about who he was or why he was in the store. From the first, he was incredibly rude and defensive in response to very polite questioning:

Look at this whole thing from the officer’s perspective: In a business community that shuts down at 9 p.m., he sees unusual activity in a store. The person who opens the door refuses to provide any information. That instant hostility alone arouses suspicion. For all that the officer knew, the people in the store were robbers, or there was a hostage situation. After all, an owner would usually be grateful to know that the police were looking out for his business.