Officer Sicknick’s death: the only surprise here is that the NY Times actually issued any sort of retraction at all, even a mild one
I’ve been writing about the problems with the story about Capitol Police Officer Sicknick’s cause of death since just a few days after it happened. It was clear even then that the report that Officer Sicknick had been hit in the head with a fire extinguisher wielded by rioters and that he died of that injury was shaky from the start, and was contradicted by his family members who had spoken to him after the riot. These difficulties with the reporting could have been easily perceived weeks ago by anyone with a computer and a spirit of curiosity (and see this for a list of links to my posts about it).
But the NY Times couldn’t bother to report on any of this, because there was an anti-Trump narrative to get out and an impeachment to be effected.
Now that the preferred narrative is firmly set in the public’s minds and the impeachment trial is over, the fact that nearly every newspaper in the US and the House managers lied to the nation about Sicknick’s death can be whispered or at least hinted at. Here the “update”, and it’s pretty subtle. Most of America will probably miss the correction, because it’s attached to the original January 8 article that first reported on the fire extinguisher story told by “officials,” and the headline is still intact, “Capitol Police Officer Dies From Injuries in Pro-Trump Rampage.” The update is posted at the beginning of the article and is dated February 12. Here it is:
UPDATE: New information has emerged regarding the death of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick that questions the initial cause of his death provided by officials close to the Capitol Police.
Oh, so those unnamed “officials” who told the fire extinguisher story to the Times originally were not even officials within the Capitol Police. Just “close” to it.
Then in the body of the piece it now says this:
Law enforcement officials initially said Mr. Sicknick was struck with a fire extinguisher, but weeks later, police sources and investigators were at odds over whether he was hit. Medical experts have said he did not die of blunt force trauma, according to one law enforcement official.
Even now the Times has kept this paragraph:
It was unclear where Mr. Sicknick’s encounter with the rioters took place, but photos and a video posted by a local reporter during the night of chaos showed a man spraying a fire extinguisher outside the Senate chamber, with a small number of police officers overlooking the area on a nearby stairway.
They still want you to think this might have happened. And really, they should have written a new article and placed it on the front page. But of course they didn’t.
To refresh your memory, the original Times article said this:
“[P]ro-Trump rioters attacked that citadel of democracy, overpowered Mr. Sicknick, 42, and struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials. With a bloody gash in his head, Mr. Sicknick was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support. He died on Thursday evening.”
The bloody gash? Merely corroborative detail – and if you’re not familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado,” the relevance of the following will escape you. But if you know the operetta, it’s pretty apropos:
Ko-Ko. Well, a nice mess you’ve got us into, with your nodding head and the deference due to a man of pedigree!
Pooh-Bah. Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
Pitti-Sing. Corroborative detail indeed! Corroborative fiddlestick!
Ko-Ko. And you’re just as bad as he is with your cock-and-a-bull stories about catching his eye and his whistling an air. But that’s so like you! You must put in your oar!
Pooh-Bah. But how about your big right arm?
Pitti-Sing. Yes, and your snickersnee!
Helen Gilliland & Derek Oldham, 1921 Yum-Yum & Nanki-PooKo-Ko. Well, well, never mind that now.
[NOTE: Some of you may recall that Andrew C. McCarthy hopped on the “Sicknick was murdered by rioters who hit him with a fire extinguisher” bandwagon. There was some discussion here of that in the comments in this thread. I see now that McCarthy has issued a sort of mea culpa. I’ve noticed that McCarthy is one of the few people who can actually say he was wrong without offering a ton of excuses [emphasis mine]:
…I am one of the analysts who uncritically relied on the Times’ initial reporting, deducing from it the conclusion that Sicknick had been “murdered” by the rioters — not a long logical leap if you credit the assertion that a police officer was bashed over the head with a lethal object by rioters who were intentionally and forcibly confronting security forces. Julie Kelly took me to task again yesterday for having “regurgitated” the “narrative that Sicknick was murdered,” which I certainly did do — although I am not, as she describes, a political pundit of the “NeverTrump Right.” Because I repeated a very serious allegation that had not been supported by credible evidence from identifiable sources, I thought it was important to make clear, to the extent it is in my power to do so, that there is now immense reason to doubt the original reporting — while confessing (with a link to the column in which I included the “murder” allegation) that I was as guilty as any other analyst or reporter who amplified the dubious account.
Second, and more significantly, the death of Officer Sicknick became a building block for the House’s impeachment of former President Trump and of the allegations posited by the Democratic House impeachment managers that were publicly filed in their pretrial brief on February 2. By then, there was already substantial reason to question the fire-extinguisher allegation.
Prosecutors have an obligation, rooted in due process and professional ethics, to reveal exculpatory evidence. That includes evidence that is inconsistent with the theory of guilt they have posited. Even if Sicknick’s death was causally connected to the rioting, prosecutors would be obligated to correct the record if it did not happen the way they expressly represented that it happened. The House impeachment managers had not done that last week when NR published my column raising that issue, and to this day, although the impeachment trial is now over, we are still in the dark about the circumstances surrounding the officer’s tragic death, at age 42.
In his article McCarthy offers a pretty good analysis of what the Times did and what the House managers did. And I don’t think McCarthy is happy with himself, either.
McCarthy is correct that he’s not a NeverTrumper, and he’s a smart guy and I think a basically honest one. But I wrote this in a previous thread about what I think is going on with him:
I think McCarthy has long had a couple of problems. The first is that he’s somewhat naive and trusting (for example, of Comey, against whom he finally turned but it took a long time). The second is that he has an aversion to Trump. That doesn’t mean he won’t defend him at times – he will, but he has to overcome his natural aversion to the man in order to do so, and he’s often willing to think the worst of him. It’s almost a relief to him to think the worst of him, I think, so in this case he jumped right back into it for a while. But his basic honesty led him out of it again.
It would be nice if this incident finally cures McCarthy of his naivete. He should never “uncritically” accept anything he reads in the MSM, especially if it’s ascribed to unnamed officials.]
Best apology for this sort of thing I’ve ever seen.
He as much as admits he believed the story uncritically. IOW, he did not think critically about the so-called facts, or the possibility of deliberate or fog-of-war errors.
For a writer wanting to be taken seriously, he did everything wrong except turn off his spellcheck.
He can’t have gotten to his present position, or any before this, without thinking critically about what is presented to him.
So, either he wanted this to be true–to damn Trump–or if fit so neatly into his world view that it was as good as gold.
Eventually, you learn not to step on the rake. Takes some people more lessons than others.
Gyges ring. If they can get away with it, then they will do it.
Any “aversion to Trump” that isn’t rooted in fact, which McCarthy is repeatedly guilty of – does indeed make you a member of the #NeverTrump right.
deadrody:
I disagree. McCarthy doesn’t like Trump and yet has supported him on many issues. That’s not a NeverTrumper. Nor has McCarthy ever supported Hillary or Biden at all, as NeverTrumpers often do.
Well, as Michael Crichton pointed out (and attributed to Murray Gell-Mann) we all know this, and about 90% of the time we forget it. (I’d give the commenters here more credit that that, but it’s far from 0%.)
The class of professional pundits like Andrew McCarthy is, I am afraid, complicit to some degree. They know better than we do here how the sausage gets made because they contribute to it. They comment on the news professionally and so they have to pretend it has some value or what have they got to say? Once upon a time our friend Andy was someone’s unnamed source.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the news is all lies. But I would go so far as to say it’s 95% facts carefully selected to fit someone’s agenda. That agenda may not belong to the reporter or the reporter’s editor.
Much of what passes for news today is regurgitated press releases with a reporter’s byline tacked on.
And yeah, we here all get that, but like Crichton says, we still manage to forget it 80% of the time, or 60%, more often than we should.
That’s why I use the word “kayfabe” to describe national politics. I think the narrative is every bit as rooted in reality as pro-wrestling. It’s not one set of writers behind it is all…
So the only actual death from the riots was that of Ashley Babbitt (sp). We have video of her death but we still don’t even know who shot her. Amazing!
Second, and more significantly, the death of Officer Sicknick became a building block for the House’s impeachment of former President Trump and of the allegations posited by the Democratic House impeachment managers that were publicly filed in their pretrial brief on February 2. By then, there was already substantial reason to question the fire-extinguisher allegation.
–Andrew McCarthy
This was the part which especially bothered me. It wasn’t just McCarthy (or anyone) inflating Trump’s incautious rhetoric into flat murder, but that it was being used with utter cynicism to impeach Trump again.
If Democrats had managed to stampede enough people into a successful conviction on this bogus basis, I don’t want to think how much closer America would have moved towards some grave rupture.
Still, all’s well that doesn’t end horribly badly. Good for McCarthy to acknowledge more responsibility.
It is one of the best apologies, as Richard Aubrey put it, I’ve seen too.
I am less inclined than you, neo, to be forgiving of McCarthy. Many of us who are less well-connected than McCarthy have understood for years how biased the media is. I am not a ravenous consumer of media but two things were quickly apparent to me soon after Sicknick’s death: 1) the manner and cause of his death were very much open to question and 2) the MFM had ZERO interest in finding out what really happened because the fire extinguisher narrative was too convenient for them. If you and I could see this why not McCarthy?
Andrew McCarthy and his aversion to Trump is similar to Sean Hannity and his deep deference towards the FBI. In fact, in certain respects of over trusting LEO, unlearning an over solicitousness of Federal authority — the DOJ, in McCarthy’s case — is lacking.
Neo writes “I think McCarthy has long had a couple of problems. The first is that he’s somewhat naive and trusting (for example, of Comey, against whom he finally turned but it took a long time).” No – no “somewhat.” Extremely naive.
John Solomon has new declassified documents show at Comey approved the false scam against President Trump, and knowingly provided false documents to the FISA Court to keep the illegal Obama spy ring against Trump going.
HEADLINE: “Smoking gun: Comey told Clapper FBI unable to ‘sufficiently corroborate’ Steele — then signed FISA” anyway.
“In January 2017 email to intel chief coughed up under court order, the former FBI director contradicted sworn avowal to FISA court that Steele dossier was verified.”
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/comey-told-intel-chief-steele-dossier-was-not
When will NR folks like McCarthy learn that the “media” viscously, methodically, reliably and corruptly lies.
When do same voices there learn that the once honest Federal authorities are now deeply, thoroughly, reliably and deeply corrupt? That the Swamp has been exposed by Trump to be a Deep State cesspool? Which justifies exercising extreme skepticism over everything contentious with them!
As always, the times had a convenient source for this story. And in this case it was obviously a blatant lie-there was no bloody gash and rush to the hospital. These aren’t things that are a mistake, the fog of breaking news etc. At best these are sources that know they can lie with impunity. At worst, it’s nyt reporters knowing they can make up sources
I suspect it won’t cure McCarthy, although it ought to. He’s a creature of Inside-the-Beltway, and while that doesn’t make him irredeemable, it does mean that he’s a creature of cultural habit, an example being the instinct to defend before the merits are established. That’s what he did here; and while I appreciate his retraction, it’s pretty classy and complete, but it’s not without a little subjective slipperiness.
Most importantly, the point needs to be made and re-made: Where are the autopsy and the Coroner’s findings? Where are the answers to these two very important questions:
1. With those autopsy findings certainly having been available to the Authorities prior to the impeachment, who decided to exclude them from consideration and continue to spin the yarn about Sicknick’s cause of death, with him lying in state in the Capitol like some kind of effigy, while knowing with certainty what didn’t cause his death?
2. Why have they not be publicly released now? What – and who – is preventing it?
“McCarthy is one of the few people who can actually say he was wrong without offering a ton of excuses”
Which is nice but maybe because he’s had so much practice?
Like others, I’m quite negative on McCarthy because of his early and repeated assertions that FBI, DoJ and so on were highly professional and not political. NO ONE from the gov’t bureaucracy stood up to support Trump NO ONE came forward to expose the Swamp creatures. Department after department turned out to be another wing of the Dem Party
Saw a headline that Speaker Pelosi will launch an “independent” 9/11-style commission on the DC Insurrection … now that all the dead Congress members have been buried, the invalids returning from trauma wards of DC hospitals and the hulks of buildings having been cleared away and reconstruction begun.
Just kidding.
The Insurrection was a minor event IMO.
And “independent” means it will include both anti-Trump Dems and anti-Trump Repubs. So, it’s got that going for it.
I agree that McCarthy’s mea culpa is admirable and complete.
I also fully agree with FOAF, that by now McCarthy should know that the MSM are professional liars, propagandists and utterly untrustworthy. In fact, I’m virtually certain that he does know and turns a blind eye to it because as Aggie points out, he’s fully invested in the Beltway.
But, to his credit, he’s too honest a man to be corrupted by it.
That leads to the supposition that like Dershowitz, McCarthy simply can’t face the full truth because to do so requires facing that it all needs to be burned down to the ground by another Cromwell. Though one unshakably committed to an Article V Convention of the States, whose representatives have resworn an oath to the Constitution. An oath to which they would be held fully accountable.
The Daily Mail is still peddling the lie about Officer Sicknik’s death, even in an article about how Trump fans lined the streets in Florida.
As for Hannity, I am not a fan but doubt he is a big FBI fan. He made a bit of his reputation (the good part) covering the Atlanta bombing case which was a huge black mark on the FBI. He was on TV in Atlanta before Fox.
Agree with TJ and Geoffrey Britain (and many others here).
Not sure, though, that I’d classify McCarthy and Dershowitz together even if the two appear to be similar in many ways. Dershowitz is quite outspoken of his—for me, admirable—no-holds-barred/come-what-may defense of the Law/Constitution, as opposed to the person who is President, and has, to me at least, acted consistently—and honestly—regarding this.
I’ve consistently and greatly admired McCarthy for what appeared to me, at least, his ability to change his views according to the evidence, his consistent efforts to present and argue for the truth in a clear, in-depth (as far as posts, allow), logically constructed, and—this is the key—non-partisan manner (though one’s mileage may vary on this last) over the past several years; but his response in the Jan. 6 affair bothered the hell out of me—as did the blanket condemnation by (far too) much of the right-of-center commentariat, particularly the “Commentary” crowd, that—Trump’s post-election claims and actions were totally irresponsible, unconscionable and off the wall. (Apparently, the Total Demonization of Trump waged by the media and the Left—and particularly, in this case, granted the “appearance” of “legitimacy”, by the Never Trumpers—have had far-reaching impact on far too many of them.)
How could it even by possible, after all these years of venal, unrepentant, Democratic Party and media lying, misrepresentation and toxic propaganda, that he was taken in? (The answer is, of course, that 1. he saw everything as it was filtered through the lying media lens; and 2. he—for whatever reason, and in spite of everything—concluded that the election was won legitimately by Biden.)
In any event this apology strengthens my appreciation of the man.
(And though it may be small solace given such an obvious—but that’s the problem, isn’t it?—disaster, that at least right-of-center columnists/analysts are STILL ABLE to acknowledge their mistakes and apologize for them….)
JimNorCal – “The Insurrection was a minor event IMO.”
Considering the months of raging antifa + blm rioting, looting, occupying & terrorizing so many innocent Americans, I agree. I am sickened by the self-importance expressed by elected DC thugs, who never lost a hair that day, nor a red cent, yet will milk it forever & use it to try to shame any one questioning election integrity.
Thank you, Rhonda
It is not easy to recognize that institutions have failed. McCarthy had a long history as a federal prosecutor working with honorable people there and believing it to be an honorable culture. Also, the NYTimes has leaned left for many years and has long blurred the line between fact and opinion journalism. Still, before 2016 or so one could count on it to get the basics of fact journalism correct.
This is one reason that I’m not terribly optimistic right now. It is difficult for a right-of-center person like McCarthy to understand that institutions like the FBI and NYTimes have been corrupted. I suspect it is nearly impossible for a left-of-center person to realize the same thing while the corrupt institutions craft exactly the (mostly false) narrative that the left-of-center person wants to hear.
“Buh buh are there any conceivable civilian uses for zip ties?”
The thing that bothers me most about the narrative the democrats are pushing on the capitol riot is that it was a substantive threat to the function of our “democracy”.
How can less than a thousand people (800 per wikipedia) change anything in this country by force.
Holding the capitol building does not make you the congress. This is of a part with the weird media fantasies about Trump refusing to leave the White House. This was never even a possibility and even if he had attempted do do so, occupying the White House is not what makes a President.
For the record, McCarthy voted for Trump and wrote a pretty good article explaining his decision. Then, after Jan 6, he tweeted that he was wrong to vote for Trump. I’ve seen a lot of that type of reversal going around. The Dem’s strategy of casting as a knuckle dragging “insurrectionist” anyone who even whispers (or has whispered) something positive about Trump has been pretty effective, at least in some quarters.
Screw McCarthy and screw his apology. He saw what the NYT did to Trump on “Russian collusion.” He saw what the NYT did to Brett Kavanaugh. He saw how the NYT treated Romney, McCain, Bush the Younger, and every previous Republican President or presidential candidate. He saw their ridiculous treatment of Biden. He publicly defended the people who tried to destroy Trump’s Presidency and then publicly admitted he was wrong.
And he STILL unquestionably swallowed a NYT story quoting ANONYMOUS SOURCES about the death of a law enforcement officer being blamed on Trump supporters. That’s not being naïve. That’s not being trusted. That’s not being too good and pure to ever suspect bad behavior in others. That’s blind class prejudice and there’s no sign McCarthy is ready to give that up.
Mike
Geoffrey Britain:
I think it’s become a quaint notion that when a person swears to tell the truth, he or she will do so. That notion only applies to those rare persons who believe,** to the bottom of their hearts, that telling a lie will condemn them to the consuming fires of everlasting hell. Which is why I especially scoffed at those who wanted to put Hillary Clinton on the witness stand and ask her to swear to tell the truth.
**But any such believers would never make it past voire dire.
A leading theory is that Sicknick succumbed to bear spray which is a concentrated form of pepper spray. It causes eye, skin, and lung irritation. In extreme cases, bear spray can cause respiratory failure due to lung inflammation and death can occur hours later. It can also cause heart failure. Rapid heartbeat often results from eating hot peppers. If a person has pre-existing non-diagnosed heart or lung conditions that pose no danger in normal situations, the concentrated capsicum of bear spray can produce fatal reactions. There were several other civilian deaths that day attributed to heart attacks and other natural causes that may also have been instigated by bear spray in the air.
When Bunge has insight or a vocabulary of comparable value to McCarthy about the law well Bunge may have a following. Now we know that when McCarthy strays away from the law and into politics you take a big risk. Caveat emptor.
Indigo Red:
Could be but no autopsy.
Wonder why?
We “can’t handle” (don’t deserve) the truth?
They must preserve the narrative.
This post from J. Dyer starts out discussing the reporting of Officer Sicknik’s demise. Then it transitions to the assault on the capital. Read the embedded eight page letter from the Capital Police commander Steven Sund on that day and the dereliction of duty from his superiors (Pelosi, et al.). He resigned that day, January 6th. After reading this letter I think it was as a protest against the elected leadership.
This should have been submitted as evidence in the impeachment farce (I will not deign to call it a trial).
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/15/capitol-riot-prying-out-the-narrative-bringing-in-nuggets-of-reality/
It makes my blood boil. It makes my resolve stronger. I will not be silent about this. I will share this post far and wide. As an aside the current union leadership has gotten a thumping vote of disapproval as they implement the elected leadership new rules.
https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2021/02/16/failed-us-capitol-police-reject-leadership-overwhelming-no-confidence-vote/
I also read this post as re-posted from Bayou Renaissance Man. I am not at this point but I think many people are. We have to work hard to bring people back into the process and work to get our country back. The second graphic is chilling. It reminds me of the statement I have used before. “Set your face to a stony expression, gird your loins for battle and act with purposeful cold anger.”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2021/02/tinvowoot.html
https://ncrenegade.com/editorial/if-you-think-you-can-just-be-silent-and-obedient-and-they-will-leave-you-alone-you-best-think-again-these-people-hate-you-and-they-are-out-to-replace-you-they-want-everything-that-we-stand-for-gone/
“When Bunge has insight or a vocabulary of comparable value to McCarthy about the law well Bunge may have a following.”
What makes you think I want a “following?” I don’t even want you.
What “insight” has McCarthy ever particularly demonstrated? And if you think vocabulary and intellect are in any way actually connected…well, that pretty much fits in with most of what you contribute around here.
Mike
Mike
Bunge Bunge
“Screw” your vocabulary. Consider where you are writing. This may not be your usual sewer.
Why would neo consider McCarthy sometimes insightful? Too big question for the Bunge to ponder?
“Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, keep on the sunny side of life, …” 🙂
Bunge:
Intelligence is often thought to be correlated to the use language (words, vocabulary) in oral and written forms. Clarity, precision, quickness, subtlety in the use of words (vocabulary) to express thoughts. Can you follow that Bunge?
Why indeed does the SAT have “Verbal” and “Math” scores?
Now you can be inarticulate and still be intelligent, but odds are not in your favor of being inarticulate and intelligent.
Now sophistry is another problem.
Indigo Red:
Since Jan 6 I’ve read a lot of articles about pepper (bear) spray, looking to see if people can die from it. I saw zero mention of that possibility. Maybe you could provide a link. Also, when Officer Sicknick talked to his family hours after the riot, he reported that he had been sprayed but felt fine. If he had sustained the sort of damage you describe, I don’t think he’d be feeling fine.
I’ve read many reports about the deaths of the other three, and it’s not even clear they were in the vicinity of any spray at any point. One of them, from what I gather, wasn’t even near the Capitol. I don’t think any of them were inside the Capitol – perhaps the woman who is alleged to have been trampled? – but I’ve seen very little reporting on that.
McCarthy has been right about islamist terrorism, it took him letting ali mohammed slipping away to ‘case’ the embassies to learn that lesson, about the sdny’s malpractice from martha stewart to lewis libby, to mueller related matters to ukraine to voter fraud, he has been behind the curve every time,
Cervantes: I have reread my view of McCarthy’s apology and I see I did not mention the learning of a lesson. Didn’t see any.
Just another “oops” unconnected to anything else.
Agree with others on McCarthy: How many times has he parroted the MSM line, only later to admit he was wrong? And then he goes and does it all over again. It’s worse than Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football, because there are consequences to McCarthy’s utterances. It allows the false stories to gain credibility and momentum, at least to anyone who doesn’t know how gullible McCarthy has shown himself to be.
MBunge; om:
Disagree all you want, but please cut out the petty personal squabbling.
Jimmy:
McCarthy has been correct more often than most pundits/columnists. The times he was wrong, that I can remember, are two: about Sicknick’s death, and about Comey’s and Mueller’s integrity. Each time he has taken it back and admitted having been wrong. If he keeps being naive it will prove he’s not learning anything, but two big errors in all these years doesn’t seem all that bad to me.
If anyone else recalls something on which he was wrong other than these things, I’d like to know. Those are the ones I recall.
The mistakes on Comey and Mueller are pretty huge, and in my recollection cover a series of errors over many months. I also recall him suggesting that Flynn was guilty early on in that travesty. It seems to me there have been others, though perhaps they were all in that same vein. More recently he’s been highly critical of Trump, including a claim that Trump incited the Capitol kerfuffle. He’s also extremely critical of Trump’s post-election behavior, which is maybe just an opinion, not a mistake. But it either implicitly or explicitly dismisses the issue of election fraud, which I think is a mistake insofar as it hasn’t been shown one way or the other.
neo. Error size is debatable. If, for example, I am screwed out of a lot of money by a guy I had trusted, I learn NEVER to trust him, ever again. The distrust might spread to people with his same name. Or even somebody with the same eye shape, although that might be unconscious. I don’t need a second lesson.
McCarthy should have looked at the second example of media “reporting” and seen a huge “LYING LIAR” sign flashing.
He doesn’t get his fake information from one source, such as the NYT or National Enquirer. He gets it from what would look like all kinds of sources. Which, again and again, turn out to be one, single source. Then he knows he looked like an idiot in front of hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions if he’s interviewed on FNC.
Back when the Malaysian airliner was still missing, a Fox contributor said his sources told him the thing had been hijacked and we would shortly be seeing the passengers used as negotiating currency. He hasn’t been seen since. McCarthy must know he risks the same fate, apologies notwithstanding.
McCarthy didn’t step on a pebble. He stepped on a freaking RAKE whose handle was covered with…stuff which sticks.
At the very least, he should have twigged to the fact that the first reports of Sicknick’s death were far too convenient. Red Flag. He could have waited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRq1Ksh-32g
Neo:
1. http://web.archive.org/web/20000817004624/http:/www.ncmedicaljournal.com/Smith-OK.htm
2. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-18-mn-14572-story.html
3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2016/03/16/lethal-in-disguise-the-health-hazards-of-pepper-spray/?sh=4cc3e2a32979
4. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-what-is-bear-repellent-20181205-story.html
5. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4814-6
6. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/188069.pdf
There is really little difference between bear spray, pepper spray, and mace. All are made from capsicum in a 1%-2% sprayable solution with differing added chemicals which can also be irritants with their own problem causing issues. Bear spray has two advantages – increased range and spray duration. The dangerous effects they all have in common are on the heart and lungs both susceptible to delayed fatal reactions.
There is a photograph of a civilian male at the Capitol riot using a canister of bear spray that looks like a small fire extinguisher. It could be a Counter Assault Bear Deterrent spray can like this: https://www.rei.com/product/154930/counter-assault-bear-deterrent-spray-81-fl-oz?sku=1549300001&store=74
We’ve hiked the Blue Ridge, the Smokies, and the Adirondacks. All before, we were assured, the bears were awake. Still, we could rent this bear spray…. But DO NOT test it on yourself. DO NOT.
Various reports show it being used in the summer’s riots without, as far as has been reported, any related fatalities.
Glenn Greenwald has a new piece on Sicknick and the Capitol Armed Insurrection
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-false-and-exaggerated-claims
They had nothing to lose by issuing a vague retraction. The impeachment trial is over now. In their eyes, they damaged Trump some more. What’s a little bad PR in the short term when the narrative did the damage it needed to do? The NYT just took one for the team.
I Callahan:
I think it’s even worse than that. I don’t think the Times “took one” at all, not with those who matter. The way they did it attracted minimal attention, and it’s not really even a retraction and certainly not a rewrite, and they put in on an old article. I would guess that the only people paying attention are people on the right in the first place. Plus, the Times never explains its error and never acknowledges that much of the information indicating it was an error has been out there for over a month.
Where is the Ministry of Truth when it is truly needed? Providing cover (circling back) for a Ducklo,
“merely corroborative detail” is an in-family joke here with my me and my kids, we’ve watched Topsy Turvy several times and the scene where they rehearse that scene is hilarious.
I’ve tried to share Topsy Turvy with some friends and they don’t get it. Maybe we’re a weird family. It’s Mike Leigh’s film about the conception of and rehearsing for the Mikado after a falling out between Gilbert and Sullivan. Leigh’s way of making films is to let the actors research the characters, assisted by him, and with an outline make up their own lines. There’s a wealth of G&S “in-jokes” throughout the movie with lines from their various operettas quoted here and there. See it if you haven’t. It is long and somewhat slow but I find it charming. No car crashes or explosions though, be warned. Stellar cast, too many to list but Timothy Spall shines.
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