Society's ChildS


Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: Michigan barber wins in court against Gov. Whitmer: 'Health Department failed to show threat'

barber
© AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Karl Manke, the 77-year-old folk-hero barber who stood up against the empress governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, has been vindicated in court. A judge ruled on Thursday that the health department failed to show that Manke's business cutting hair was a specific threat to public health.

Manke faced incredible harassment, including police intimidation and losing his license. Not even that stopped him. The Washington Times reported Manke's reaction.
Manke, 77, has received at least two tickets for violating Whitmer's orders, and his barber license was suspended last week. Nonetheless, he said he's still cutting hair - "Oh, heavens yes" - including the hair of a squirming 2-year-old Thursday.

"Listen, I've been in this business for 59 years. She wants to come cut my hands off, that's another story," Manke said in an interview, referring to the governor.

Comment: Now THAT is how you 'fight the power'.


Bullseye

US double standards on domestic riots and Hong Kong turmoil mocked on Chinese internet

police and protesters
© AFP
"Beautiful landscape" and "America Spring" became hot words used online in China to mock the double standards and hypocrisy of the Trump administration and some US Congress members, as well as US media outlets, for being critical and tough toward their domestic massive nationwide demonstrations but encouraging violent activities in Hong Kong.

Chinese experts noted that if US politicians understood that if they encourage violence in another country, their words might backfire on them one day, they would probably "think twice" before commenting again on the Hong Kong turmoil in the future.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in June 2019 called the Hong Kong citywide protests "a beautiful sight to behold" but her words were deployed back against her sarcastically online over the weekend by Chinese net users commenting on nationwide riots across the US.

Stormtrooper

Think US cops need to be better armed? Here's why full-on European-style riot control police wouldn't work in America

secret service officers
© Reuters / Tom Brenner
The violence that has gripped Minneapolis begs for the kind of effective deployment of riot police seen in Europe. But it's not about batons or tear gas - without people's trust, the police are the problem, not the solution.

For the past several days, the world has watched in awe and horror as the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota, ceded control of the streets to bands of marauding demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers. While riot police have periodically materialized to temporarily regain control of neighborhoods subjected to arson and desecration at the hands of an angry citizenry, these specialized units, despite their body armor, batons and tear gas, have so far proven incapable of holding their ground.


Comment: Or so it would seem. In fact, it looks like they were ORDERED to 'stand down'. The notion that America's heavily militarized police couldn't handle rioters armed with bricks and bottles is laughable.


This has led some to question the Minneapolis approach to riot control, especially when contrasted with the specialized riot police employed by nations such as France, Germany and Russia.

Comment: Crowds are fickle. They could easily have been cowed into submission, if the Democratic bosses in Minnesota so chose.

They chose not to.

To 'git Trump'.

And now their city could very well burn to the ground.

Democrats are fiddling while America burns...


Heart - Black

The great COVID job crisis: 122 million went out of work in April in India

india fruit vendor
© AFP / Sajjad Hussain
For Pawan Yadav and millions like him April proved to be a cruel month. Yadav lost his job at the lathe machine workshop at Delhi's Govindpuri area, where he had worked for 12 years, starting at age 18.

"One day last month, the owner's son rang up and said I can take my March's salary but they were unsure how long they would be able to run their workshop and that was that," said Yadav.

He is not alone. According to statistics compiled by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a privately run data firm, 122 million Indians lost their jobs last month, with the unemployment rate which was 6.7 per cent on March 15, falling to near 24 per cent in April.

"Even before the Coronavirus-induced lockdown, our unemployment rate was rising... April's huge jump was of course in line with global trends. In the US where they had a jobs boom just before the lockdown unemployment was down to 3.6 per cent in January and then rose sharply in April to 14.7 per cent," pointed out Biswajit Dhar, professor at JNU's Centre for Economic Studies and Planning.

Sheriff

Best of the Web: Cops kill because we gave them the legal framework to do it

george floyd murder
© TwitterGeorge Floyd moments before his death in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
The brutal Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd has sparked violent protests, looting, and arson attacks in Minneapolis and St. Paul. A police precinct building was torched and destroyed and the Minnesota National Guard has been called out to restore order. But the killing in Minnesota is the latest reminder that politicians and judges — through federal law and judicial interpretation — have turned police into a privileged class that is most often unaccountable, if not entitled to oppress other Americans.

Almost everyone agrees that Floyd's death was a horrendous injustice. President Trump, who urged police officers in 2017 to not "be too nice" to suspects they arrested, condemned what the police did to Floyd as "a very bad thing." Former Minneapolis police chief Janeé Harteau said that the video of Floyd's killing was "the most horrific thing I've seen in my career and in my lifetime." Washington, D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham declared that the officers' actions were "nothing short of murder." Derick Chauvin, the police officer who killed Floyd was arrested today and charged with murder; he and three other police involved in Floyd's death were fired earlier this week

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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: 13,000 unnecessary deaths in UK due to lockdown, 2.4 million UK cancer patients miss out on critical tests and treatment

patient hospital
File photo: Almost 2.5million patients have missed out on vital cancer tests and treatment because of the pandemic
Almost 2.5million patients have missed out on vital cancer tests and treatment because of the pandemic.

The NHS faces the shocking backlog of cases as it tries to return to normal - and also cope with new victims of the disease.

Cancer Research UK says 2.1million patients are awaiting crucial screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancer.

Another 290,000 have missed out on urgent referrals to confirm or rule out tumours.

And at least 21,600 patients have had surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy postponed in the past nine weeks.

Extinguisher

Protesters chant 'eat the rich' while marching through Beverly Hills

beverly hills protest
© AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa
Protesters marching against the death of George Floyd chanted "Eat the Rich" while moving through Beverly Hills, California.

The Raw Story reports that protest in Beverly Hills "was one of dozens being held across America following the killing of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department."

Jamie Loftus tweeted video of the protesters moving down Rodeo Drive:


Comment: The tweet referenced has been deleted. Here's another video of the protest:



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USA

Unrest overshadows peaceful US protests for another night

george floyd riots
© AP Photo/Alex BrandonDemonstrators protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers.
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across America again Sunday, with peaceful demonstrations against police killings of black people overshadowed by unrest that ravaged cities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and flared near the White House.

City and state officials deployed thousands of National Guard soldiers, enacted strict curfews and shut down mass transit systems to slow protesters' movements, but that did little to stop parts of many cities from again erupting into mayhem.

Protesters in Philadelphia hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, officials said, while thieves in more than 20 California cities smashed their way into businesses and ran off with as much as they could carry — boxes of sneakers, armloads of clothes, and cellphones, TVs and other electronics.

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Info

George Floyd family rejects medical examiner findings and will get results of private autopsy Monday

I can't breathe protest george floyd
The family of George Floyd is set to receive the results of a private autopsy by Monday after rejecting the medical examiner's findings.

According to CBS News, the family's lawyer Ben Crump said they disagreed with the conclusion found in the autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office, which found "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation."

The report also said Floyd's underlying health conditions included coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. It concluded that the underlying health conditions, combined with Chauvin's restraint and any possible intoxicants in Floyd's system, likely contributed to his death.

Comment: Given the riots currently gripping the US have taken on a life of their own, with many of those involved likely not even knowing who George Floyd is, it's likely that the results of the autopsy will have very little impact. Regardless of whether Floyd actually died of asphyxiation or not, it is undeniable that his death was caused by being pinned by a police officer, his knee to Floyd's neck, for nearly 9 minutes is what killed him.

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Attention

Big-city Dems who had imposed strict coronavirus lockdowns now let George Floyd rioters flout rules

Demonstrators Minneapolis
© Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via APDemonstrators standing off with police in downtown Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis.
The coronavirus lockdown is seemingly down and out, as many Democrats in charge of big cities -- including several who once insisted on strict quarantine measures -- line up to champion the nationwide mass demonstrations over the in-custody death of George Floyd, sans social distancing.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo lashed out at protesters calling to reopen the state earlier this month, saying at a news conference, "you have no right to jeopardize my health ... and my children's health and your children's health." Cuomo's directives have been enforced throughout the state: A New York City tanning salon owner told Fox News he was fined $1,000 for reopening briefly last week, calling the situation "insane" and saying he already was "broke."

On Friday, though, Cuomo said he "stands" with those defying stay-at-home orders: "Nobody is sanctioning the arson, and the thuggery and the burglaries, but the protesters and the anger and the fear and the frustration? Yes. Yes, and the demand is for justice."

In April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the Jewish community that "the time for warnings has passed" after he said a funeral gathering had violated social distancing guidelines. On Sunday, the mayor asserted, "We have always honored non-violent protests."

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, meanwhile, had warned that in-person worship services would be a "public-health disaster," disregarding constituents' concerns that he was violating their First Amendment rights. Now, his administration has been distributing masks to rioters, even though public gatherings of 10 or more are still ostensibly banned. Frey also allowed a police station to burn, saying it was necessary to protect police and rioters.

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