It’s roundup time
Lots of depressing news, too many stories to cover in depth. So here’s another roundup. Wish I could be more cheerful, but here goes:
(1) Another case of anti-black hate graffiti turns out to be a hoax perpetrated by a black student. Business as usual.
(2) New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are giving illegal aliens some hefty COVID relief. I wonder whether most New Yorkers think this is just fine:
New York lawmakers struck a deal this week to establish a $2.1 billion coronavirus relief fund for undocumented immigrants and other unemployed workers who were ineligible for federal aid during the pandemic.
The fund, which was announced as part of a broader $212 billion state budget agreement, will offer one-time payments of up to $15,600 to undocumented immigrants who lost their jobs during the virus-induced crisis.
(3) As promised, Biden appoints a commission to “study” the Supreme Court and with an eye to future Court-packing – otherwise known as “reform.” No surprise there, although I suppose some poorly-informed people will indeed be surprised by this move from Joe the Moderate Healer. I also wonder whether it’s cricket (that is, constitutional) for the executive branch to appoint a commission to study and aim to “reform” another supposedly co-equal branch.
(4) RIP Britain’s Prince Philip, dead at 99. He and the Queen were married for 73 years, and apparently it was very much a love match.
(5) You can read Andrew Branca’s summary of yesterday’s testimony in the Chauvin trial here. It sounds as though there was a lot of very strange medical testimony, and for some of it the defense counsel wasn’t given related documents until last night. How on earth could the defense properly prepare for cross-examination on it, then? The testimony’s strangeness involved, among other things, supposed analyses of precise oxygen levels for Floyd on the basis of viewing the videos. That seems delusional on the face of it, but this testimony was allowed. I can only hope that when the defense gets to present its own evidence, its witnesses will address these issues.
(6) Let’s hear it for Britain’s Daily Mail, which often reports better on American news than the American media does. Of course, that’s a very low bar. And speaking of low, the paper has a detailed story, with photos, about Hunter Biden’s laptop. It includes the fact that they had forensic experts authenticate the laptop as being Hunter’s, which I think was clear anyway even before this – although American media and social media has been doing its level best to cover that up, as well. Ace writes about some of the sordid details here, as well as describing the process by which the laptop was authenticated as being Hunter’s.
One of the many things becoming even more clear is that Hunter lied on his firearm application, which is a crime. It’s the sort of crime the left professes to care about, but I think we can safely say they don’t care about it when Hunter Biden is the perpetrator. The Biden story and photos remind me of certain Fellini movies, the story is so sordid and grotesque in its debasement. But the left says nothing much to see here; move along.
When I was reading at that link about the reception the 1969 Fellini film “Fellini Satyricon” received, I was struck by this quote from Italian reviewer Giovanni Grazzini: “These ancient Romans who spend their days in revelry, ravaged by debauchery, are really an unhappy race searching desperately to exorcise their fear of death.” It seems to me that could be a description of Hunter Biden himself.
“He had models illustrating loses in lung function to the individual percent, although he had no personal knowledge of Floyd’s respiratory capacity when alive.”
I was waiting for him to explain how Floyd was breathing OK with his lungs full of liquid. The guy was drownding.
.
I think Satyricon (which I remember seeing about 45 years ago and wondering “what was that all about?”) is more than a description of Hunter Biden but of Western Civilization itself. Hardly an original thought I know.
The overwhelming majority of so-called “hate-crime” incidents are fabricated for political purposes; on campuses nationwide, it is nearly certain that any such incident, even before the investigation, can summarily be dismissed. Unfortunately, until the wholly illegitimate and completely unconstitutional category of hate-crime (fully as fraudulent as that of “hate-speech”, which is also completely arbitrary and subjective) is relegated to the dust-bin of history, those who are ideologically motivated to perpetrate such hoaxes will continue to be incentivized to lie.
But wait, there’s more! Sham-wow!
8) https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/04/09/blm-cofounder-just-bought-some-fancy-new-digs-n357977 1.4 million dollar compound in Topanga Canyon (LA area). A trained marxist scores some serious cash it seems. Would be a shame if there was a wildfire in that canyon. Climate change and all that?
Oxygen levels from a VIDEO????!!!
Absolutely IMPOSSIBLE.
I use oxygen levels in my work , and it is not possible to tell oxygen levels with any meaningful accuracy by looking at white people. Black people–please!
That’s why the pulse oximeter was invented–because there was NO WAY of telling oxygen levels in a person until the heart rate got slow, or blood in the surgical field was dark.
(That clip that goes on your finger which calculates oxygen saturation by analyzing light transmission through tissue and stays on til you leave the Post Anesthesia Recovery Unit. Why anesthesia is now safer than your drive to the outpatient center.)
The court packing scheme is taking me straight back to Venezuela. That was a key element in Chavez’s consolidation of power. Without a truly independent judiciary, even after the Opposition won 2/3 of the National Assembly, a super-majority that should have allowed them overrule Chavez on nearly everything, Chavez used his control of the Supreme Court to effectively neuter the Opposition by applying criminal charges to all the Opposition politicians.
Make no mistake… they are following the same playbook.
The evidence of Chauvin’s innocence is effectively inadmissable.
The evidence of his ‘guilt’ preordained.
He’s a white cop and a black man died while under his knee.
It wouldn’t have mattered if Floyd had immediately pulled out a gun and blew his own brains out.
It would still be Chauvin’s fault.
A white cop arresting a black man or woman is effectively, ‘proof’ of racism. If a black person dies, regardless of the cause, it’s murder one.
That is the reality every white cop in America now faces…
Case closed.
It’s cricket insofar as the executive branch nominates justices. There is absolutely nothing to stop a president from nominating as many justices as he wants and nothing to stop the Senate from confirming them.
My hope is that appointment of the commission to “study” the Supreme Court’s “reform” will turn out to be a punt by the puppet Biden Regime’s operators. The mere announcement of this appointment can still serve as an effective threat to the court’s conservative majority.
Worked for FDR, and The Cloth Headed Dummy is cut from the same cloth as …..
Hunter’s idea of heaven: Two hookers, a bichon frise, and a stuffed full-size teenage ninja mutant turtle. All recorded for posterity by a hooker taking a selfie in a mirror; that somehow ended up on Hunter’s laptop.
If you pull up the slide show on the DailyMail link, you can also read a text message exchange about the discarded handgun.
om, that story got the poster banned from Twitter.
The race pimps are in control right now.
Lee, CO2 monitors were made mandatory on anesthesia machines when I was just beginning as a surgeon. That device alone dropped the malpractice rates for anesthesia to the same as internal medicine. The oximeter is now almost a toy they are so cheap and common.
The Albion College thing is of some minor interest to me because it’s my neck of the woods, peripherally. I notice that Albion happens to be where the two branches of the Kalamazoo River converge. Further, this thing with the graffiti is remarkably similar to another fake hate crime that happened at my alma mater just down the road a number of years ago. It seems almost as if student bodies at such small or smallish liberal-arts schools in the upper Midwest seem to be growing prone to such ‘incidents’.
I’m sad about Prince Philip. The fact that he and I share a name is part of it, of course. (Checking into his biography, it is of interest that he was born in Greece and had some connections with German royal houses. I suppose I can take this to combine little touches of three countries that I esteem in one way or another.)
In other roundup news:
Sigh.
@Philip Sells:
Apparently one of his nicknames (behind his back of course) in the Firm was Stavros.
I’ll miss his irreverent sense of humour.
I wonder how many other participants in the Battle of Cape Matapan are still living today.
}}} (4) RIP Britain’s Prince Philip, dead at 99. He and the Queen were married for 73 years, and apparently it was very much a love match.
Perhaps, but one has to wonder how much of Charles being a total buffoon (obvious candidate for the “English Upper-Class Twit of the Year” for multiple years) is his fault, as the father. :-/
Another item for your roundup: Roberta Jacobson, who served as US Ambassador to Mexico from 2016 to 2018, and who was appointed
“White House Coordinator for Border Matters,” resigned today. The National Security Advisor claims she essentially served as long as she committed to: “the first 100 days.”
I suspect we will gradually learn that she grew so frustrated with the Biden policy that she decided to get out before her reputation was destroyed. I would not be surprised if others follow her out the door.
}}} I think Satyricon (which I remember seeing about 45 years ago and wondering “what was that all about?”) is more than a description of Hunter Biden but of Western Civilization itself. Hardly an original thought I know.
Actually much more a stark view of the value of Avant Garde film-making, popular in that era, as the PostModernists took over much of the art world. It was after this that you got such artistic wonders as “Virgin Mary in Elephant Dung” and “Piss Christ”
}}} The oximeter is now almost a toy they are so cheap and common.
There’s one on my fitness watch, somehow. No idea how accurate it actually is.
Further to my comment about Roberta Jacobson — it turns out the source I was reading got it wrong. She will retire (resign?) effective the end of April. So she is completing nearly 100 days.
I just read through Branca’s account of the trial.
Eric Nelson is a living clone of Perry Mason on cross-examination.
I hope he doesn’t succumb to fatigue or worse.
And I hope he is already packing to leave town.
Does his family live in Minneapolis?
I didn’t know so I looked for some data and found this information about him, and now I have some answers to that and other questions. Excerpts are not in the same order as in the article.
https://heavy.com/news/eric-nelson-derek-chauvin-attorney/
I really, really hope they have already left town.
I had always found it concerning that he was the only legal person at Chauvin’s table in court, and especially if the union has this many on retainer, but apparently he isn’t actually working alone.
He has good credentials and a great reputation, and, as Branca has shown, lives up to his billing.
But the trial is making things hard for other local lawyers.
A salute to Eric Nelson and his client. Minneapolis is well served by both of them.
Perhaps, but one has to wonder how much of Charles being a total buffoon (obvious candidate for the “English Upper-Class Twit of the Year” for multiple years) is his fault, as the father. :-/
The English Royal Family has a long history of buffoons. Philip was probably an effort to get some new genes into the chromosomes. Victoria and Elizabeth II are probably the best since Elizabeth I.
The mere announcement of this appointment can still serve as an effective threat to the court’s conservative majority.
Yep. And we know that four of the six Republican appointees on the court are easily rolled.
Perhaps, but one has to wonder how much of Charles being a total buffoon (obvious candidate for the “English Upper-Class Twit of the Year” for multiple years) is his fault, as the father. :-/
Actually reading commentary on Charles reminds one that high school never ends for some people. The man has done one disagreeable thing in his life – he had an affair with an old friend then married to someone else. (Don’t tell me about Diana – she was a borderline personality who had three affairs to her husband’s one). He doesn’t do anything undignified in public venues, so the ‘buffoon’ complaint makes no sense.
I saw the Hunter Biden article. It felt like running my fingers through raw sewage.
Anyone who has ever had a loved one who was an addict will find the article, especially the text-message exchanges, depressingly familiar. As we are told in AlAnon: addicts lie, addicts cheat, addicts steal. It goes with the addiction; it’s part of the disease. All of this was on full display in Hunter’s messages.
We are also taught in AlAnon not to enable the addict. Hunter’s father has clearly not learned that lesson (although his love for his son seems heartfelt). As I said, it’s depressing.
Daniel Schwartz:
It’s indeed depressing. But far more depressing, and important, was/is the media and social media coverup. This was published in a British paper, not an American one. In our media, Hunter is getting interviews about his new book and treated with respect.
It goes with the addiction; it’s part of the disease.
It isn’t a disease. It’s a way of life.
Art+Deco on April 10, 2021 at 2:31 pm said:
It goes with the addiction; it’s part of the disease.
It isn’t a disease. It’s a way of life.
No, I think there is a genetic component. My older son had both grandfathers alcoholics. He was an alcoholic from age 16 to 26. At that point, thanks to a terrific rehab outfit in LA, he got sober and has remained so for almost 30 years. He is a successful trial lawyer and although we disagree on politics, he is doing well.
Fortunately, it skipped a generation but I think there is something to genetics. I also think there is some biology to massive obesity. Maybe it has something to do with gut bacteria and not genetics. There is some evidence for morbid obesity and I know of none for alcoholism. Probably a genetic element.
No, I think there is a genetic component.
There’s a heritable component to a wide array of dispositions and behaviors, or so they tell us. Life isn’t a disease.
I’m pleased your son’s on the wagon. In my family, we’ve two cases who quit drinking ‘ere there was any such thing as rehab and one case where stints in rehab were just steps in her dance macabre. (And two cases who never bothered with temperance or rehab).
And let’s raise a glass to government-sanctioned voter fraud!!
Georgia was vilified.
No doubt Wisconsin will be praised to the skies….
https://www.theepochtimes.com/wisconsin-supreme-court-rules-state-shouldnt-purge-thousands-of-voters-who-may-have-moved-from-rolls_3769625.html
For myself it was both a disease and a way of life. I kicked the disease by changing my way of life.
Some of the things they tell you in AA is suspect but if you work the program and REALLY want to stop chances are you will.
Today I can have a drink or two and walk away BUT I’m not in the environment that I was when I was drinking heavy/daily. So your environment at least for me anyway played a big part.
Also I noticed some that went to AA weren’t really alcoholics per say. They were sad lonely people. Also some were there because it was the popular thing to do at that time.
I would put Hunter in the cat of sad and lonely plus a friging attack.
Also crack head, alcoholic sex addict. He’s probably addicted to anything he touches!
I would put Hunter in the cat of sad and lonely plus a friging attack. Also crack head, alcoholic sex addict. He’s probably addicted to anything he touches!
He was married at age 23 to a handsome woman who gave him three children. He’s never had an extended bout of unemployment leaving him broke. He’s had no objective reason to be sad or lonely. He’s been in the connections biz since he got out of law school, which certainly takes some energy and skill. That having been said, it’s a social corrupting and personally corrupting way to make a living. He could have earned an honest living and provided for his wife and children adequately. He could have kept his pants zipped when not with his wife. He could have obeyed the drug laws, as any prudent person does. He could have quit drinking when his wife asked him to, as she almost certainly did. He chose not to live that way.
You realize that he has a real talent for seducing women and enticing them into his crazy. That’s something else he shouldn’t be doing.
As we are told in AlAnon: addicts lie, addicts cheat, addicts steal. It goes with the addiction;
Ponder a different direction of causality: people foundationally willing to lie, cheat, and steal are well-adapted to the life of the addict. If they had actual scruples, they’d lay of the booze and the drugs as such are placing them in occasions of sin. (Yes, I’ve seen this up close and personal. She was showing signs of moral degeneration nine years before liquor was a gross problem).
Enough of Hunter?
Her’s something about Prince Phillip (RIP) from WWII in the med. Not a buffoon.
https://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/
When I see Hunter Biden photos and read about his frenetic, sordid, obsessive, gross, repulsive, selfish (x eleventy-billion) behavior, it’s clear he’s running from something. As though a literal demon is chasing him.