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NYPD van torched, hundreds arrested as fiery protesters storm NYC By Joe Marino, Larry Celona and Craig McCarthy

Posted By on May 30th, 2020

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.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

EU Will Use Coronavirus Pandemic Relief to Push Climate Change Agenda By Rick Moran

Posted By on May 30th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/05/29/eu-will-use-coronavirus-pandemic-relief-to-push-climate-change-agenda-n458940

The European Union has discovered what Democrats in America have known for years: never let a crisis go to waste.

In that spirit, the EU is presenting a massive relief package for European economies to help them get back on their feet following the coronavirus lockdowns.

But the plan isn’t designed solely to alleviate the crisis. It’s mainly structured to advance the EU’s climate change agenda to make the world safe for windmills…or something.

Guardian:

The EU’s plan seeks to pour money into emissions-busting sectors: €91bn (£81bn) a year for home energy efficiency and green heating, €25bn of renewable energy, and €20bn for clean cars over two years, plus 2m charging points in five years. Up to €60bn will go to zero-emissions trains and the production of 1m tonnes of clean hydrogen is planned.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why Did It Take So Long to Arrest Derek Chauvin? By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on May 30th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/why-did-it-take-so-long-to-arrest-derek-chauvin/

The claim that the prosecutor had to wait to authorize an arrest until the investigators nailed down all the evidence is nonsense.

Rich and I were still recording The McCarthy Report this afternoon when news broke that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had been arrested for the murder of George Floyd. The homicide occurred on Monday. Today is Friday. That’s why, before we heard the news, I spent several podcast minutes grousing about the fact that Chauvin had not yet been arrested.

As of this writing, the charging documents are not publicly available. Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman announced that Chauvin is being charged with third-degree murder — sometimes called “depraved heart” or “depraved indifference” homicide. Under Minnesota law, third-degree murder occurs when a person, without intent to effect the death of a person, nevertheless causes death by an act that is “eminently dangerous to others” and “evince[es] a depraved mind, without regard for human life.”

POLITICS Comments turned off

Congresswoman Valerie Plame? She rewrites the Scooter Libby scandal history as she runs for the House.

Posted By on May 30th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/congresswoman-valerie-plame-11590792699?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

New Mexico’s primary is on Tuesday, and of seven Democrats vying for the open House seat in Santa Fe, Valerie Plame is “considered one of the favorites,” reports the Albuquerque Journal. Ms. Plame’s campaign has spent twice as much as her nearest rival, according to data from Open Secrets.

Ms. Plame is trying to get to Congress by leveraging the notoriety of the 2003 scandal that turned her into a household name, fictionalized in a 2010 movie starring Naomi Watts. Ms. Plame’s campaign has reported out-of-state donations from Hollywood types, such as $2,000 from a Naomi Watts who’s listed in campaign-finance records as an actor from Beverly Hills, Calif.

But Ms. Plame’s campaign has bent the truth of the scandal, starting last fall in a high-octane introduction video. “I was an undercover CIA operative,” she narrated, while hot-rodding a car in the desert. “Then Dick Cheney’s chief of staff took revenge against my husband and leaked my identity. His name? Scooter Libby. Guess who pardoned him last year?” Cut to footage of President Trump, pumping a fist in satisfaction.

This is political pulp fiction. The public record shows that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was not responsible for outing Ms. Plame. The journalist who put her CIA connection into print, Bob Novak, later said the information came from Richard Armitage, then Deputy Secretary of State. A Washington Post fact-checker gave Ms. Plame’s video three disapproving Pinocchios.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Now We’ll See How the Snowflake Generation Handles the Barbarians By Rick Moran

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/05/29/now-well-see-how-the-snowflake-generation-handles-the-barbarians-n456612

“The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans,” President John F. Kennedy said at his inaugural in 1961. Today, this generation is passing that torch to invite a new generation of barbarians to burn and loot and pillage, not serve and protect.

The modern urban mayor is epitomized by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has chosen not to crack down on the barbarians torching his city, but encourages them to keep the flames hot because “The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life.” That laughable, sophomoric statement isn’t going to save anyone or any structure.

That building is not a “symbol.” It has value to the person who owns it. And that’s the problem with Frey and the generation of snowflakes who are moving into positions of power and responsibility. Quite simply, they don’t believe in private property. In fact, they see private property as a genuine evil. So, of course, it doesn’t matter if you burn it. It’s not worth protecting.

We saw this same attitude in Baltimore in 2015 when Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake expressed the notion that protesters should be given space to destroy.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Rioters Destroy Bar That Black Minneapolis Firefighter Bought with His Life Savings By Zachary Evans

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/rioters-destroy-bar-that-black-minneapolis-firefighter-bought-with-his-life-savings/

Rioters protesting the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, an African-American man who died after being arrested and pinned to the ground by officer Derek Chauvin, destroyed a bar owned by a black former firefighter Wednesday night.

Korboi Balla had invested his life savings in the bar and was planning to open it before the coronavirus pandemic caused mass business closures. Balla then moved the opening date to June 1, when Minnesota plans to lift restrictions on restaurants, but the bar has since been wracked and looted in the riots, CBS first reported.

CBS was filming a segment at the bar when looters entered through the back of the establishment to try to steal Balla’s safe.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Balla said in an interview. “It hurts, man. It’s not fair, it’s not right. We’ve been working so hard for this place. It’s not just for me, it’s for my family.”

Balla’s wife Tywanna said that the bar was not insured.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Media This Is Easy: Don’t Excuse, Defend, or Encourage Rioters By Kyle Smith

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/this-is-easy-dont-excuse-defend-or-encourage-rioters/

The Left’s privileged commentators don’t have to worry about losing their homes or businesses.

Why do they keep doing it? Decade after decade, generation after generation, progressives keep making the same, elemental mistake: They downplay, excuse, and in extreme cases even encourage urban rioters.

We’ve been down this road before, and it’s a straight stretch of highway with no twists whatsoever. It would take a moral moron to get lost on it, and yet somehow progressives keep managing to do so. This isn’t hard. The people of Minneapolis are right to be angry about the savage death of George Floyd, but rioting will not bring him back or honor his memory, and the riots will make everything even worse. The Democrats and the media should be shouting as loudly as they can: Stop what you’re doing, you’re hurting your cause.

The person closest to Floyd — the deceased man’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross — made exactly this point: “Waking up this morning to see Minneapolis on fire would be something that would devastate” Floyd, Ross told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “He loved the city. He came here [from Houston] and stayed here for the people and the opportunities.” She added that people should “know that I understand their frustration” but “I want people to protest in a peaceful way.”

Yet all over the media, progressives are in effect rubbishing these wishes. They support the riots, starting by downplaying the nightmare in Minneapolis as a series of mere “protests” (no, those are what Martin Luther King Jr. engineered — and they worked). Once you’ve reconceived destruction as mere expression, you’ve mentally prepared yourself to take the side of the destroyers.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Amy Klobuchar Takes a Big Hit By John McCormack

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/amy-klobuchar-takes-a-big-hit/

The former prosecutor faces scrutiny over decisions not to prosecute police officers in Minneapolis.

As Minneapolis burned this week, so too did Amy Klobuchar’s prospects of becoming Joe Biden’s running mate.

Just six weeks ago, Klobuchar looked like the frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic veepstakes, but the Minnesota senator happens to be the former top prosecutor in Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis, and she is facing an increasing amount of scrutiny over her record of not prosecuting several police officers facing allegations of excessive force.

“Amy Klobuchar didn’t prosecute officer at center of George Floyd’s death after previous conduct complaints,” reads the headline at The Week. The police officer seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck was involved in the killing of another suspect who allegedly pulled a gun. The final decision not to prosecute was made after Klobuchar left the job, but as the Washington Post reported in March, Klobuchar “declined to bring charges in more than two dozen cases in which people were killed in encounters with police.”

Assume for the sake of argument that the facts in each case vindicate Klobuchar’s decision not to prosecute. Can Biden really pick her if she’s seen as turning a blind eye to police brutality, even if that view is unfair?

David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report goes so far as to say that “Amy Klobuchar is off the list now” to be Biden’s running mate. It’s not clear her odds are nil, but they have taken a huge hit.

Who benefits? Kamala Harris is the odds-on favorite on the betting and prediction websites, but the firestorm in Minnesota threatens to engulf her VP prospects as well.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The End of Hong Kong?

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/the-end-of-hong-kong/

The 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to the People’s Republic of China marked the end of Western colonial rule in the region. Optimistic Western policy hands hoped that the final mending of the “unequal treaties,” as they were called by the Chinese Communist Party, would initiate Beijing’s integration into the rules-based world order.

Recent events in Hong Kong put paid to this hope.

The days of China’s “peaceful rise,” when the CCP steadfastly denied its hegemonic ambitions, are long gone. In light of China’s clampdown on Hong Kong, the transfer of the autonomous region now appears to have entailed swapping one imperial government for another. As if to remove any doubt, China’s National People’s Congress bypassed the Hong Kong Legislative Council this week and imposed a new national-security law. The law, which bans all “seditious activity,” effectively nullifies the Hong Kong Basic Law according to which the territory is guaranteed autonomy from the Mainland until 2047.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded appropriately in announcing that, under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed last year, Washington would no longer consider Hong Kong independent of China. The White House will reconsider the privileges and immunities granted to the autonomous region, including its preferential trade status, visa exemptions, and flexible foreign-exchange regime.

Critics argue that the measures will cause undue economic harm to the region. Hong Kong’s economy will suffer, but the millions of Hong Kongers who have taken to the streets in protest have demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they value freedom over GDP growth. Indeed, the rule of law is what allowed Hong Kong to build a thriving economy in the first place. The short-term harms from reduced trade and investment pale in comparison to the disaster of Mainland dominance of Hong Kong. Worse, allowing China to violate the 1984 Sino–British Joint Declaration, registered at the U.N., will send a signal that the U.S. is unwilling to stand by a basic element of the international order.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Run the Numbers, Survey the Folly Peter L. Swan

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/05/run-the-numbers-survey-the-folly/

As of May 22, Australia had suffered 7,088 cases of COVID-19 and 102 people who died with the virus, the majority were males between 70 and 89. A sizeable proportion of those admitted to hospitals’ intensive care unitss were suffering from comorbidity issues such as cardiac disease and diabetes. Australia’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) has told a Senate Inquiry that the Australian government’s actions in locking down the economy saved 14,000 lives.

In the meantime, Camilla Stoltenberg, director of Norway’s public health agency, has confessed:

Our assessment now, and I find that there is a broad consensus in relation to the reopening, was that one could probably achieve the same effect – and avoid part of the unfortunate repercussions – by not closing. But, instead, staying open with precautions to stop the spread.

The cost to the Australian economy of the global pandemic could be as high as one thousand billion dollars with an additional direct cost to the taxpayer of $260 billion this year alone. It will be a while before our Prime Minister and the premiers admit the lockdown was entirely unnecessary and unjustified.

Rampant alarmism

With the support of 289 or more top economists, four economists, Edmond, Hamilton, Holden and Preston (2020) deny “that there is a trade-off between the public health and economic aspects of the crisis.” I answered this here. Two of the four, Richard Holden and Bruce Preston estimate that without lockdowns and similar interventions, but presumably with voluntary social distancing, 90 per cent of our population of 25.5 million would have resulted in 225,000 deaths, based on an assumed fatality rate of 1 per cent, and yielding an incredible rate of 882 deaths per 100,000 residents.

The claimed deaths saved are higher than argued by Australia’s CMO by a factor of 16 times. The same methodology yields nearly three million COVID deaths in the U.S. and seventy million deaths globally. But is this simply fanciful alarmism and fearmongering designed to frighten all Australians into acceptance of continuing lockdowns and restrictions on normal life, or is it an astute economic analysis?