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ESPN tanks to all-time 41-year ratings low as WokeCenter on steroids takes over

Clay Travis
Outkick the Coverage
Fri, 12 Jun 2020 16:09 UTC
espn ratings fall
On Wednesday ESPN's studio programming, which has become MSESPN's WokeCenter on steroids 24/7, hit a 41 year ratings low. That is, in the entire history of the network existing, it has never had lower overall studio ratings than it did this week.

The network, which has become more left wing than MSNBC and CNN combined over the past several weeks, has completely abandoned sports coverage. The result? Viewers, many of whom were willing to watch the channel even during a pandemic disaster with limited sports to consume, have abandoned it in droves. How bad was it? We're talking full on crisis mode level awfulness.

First Take was the highest rated ESPN studio show all day, posting just 211,000 viewers. That was the 93rd highest rated program on all of cable. Putting those numbers into context compared to other shows airing the same day on cable: Nick Cannon Wild and Out 15 on VH1 had 50% more viewers than ESPN's top show. Smuggler: Secret Stash on National Geographic doubled First Take. Not to be outdone, Craig of the Creek on the Cartoon Network posted 200,000 more viewers.

Hell, even Jay Leno's Garage on CNBC soundly defeated First Take.
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Red Flag

Revolution redux? How a movement for reform is becoming a platform for radicalism - and will turn on its own actors

Jonathan Turley
jonathanturley.org
Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
French Revolution
Below is an updated version of my column in The Hill newspaper on how the discussion of reforms following the killing of George Floyd has been increasingly overtaken by the most radical elements in politics and commentary. The atmosphere is strikingly similar for those familiar with history and specifically the course of the French Revolution. That image of reformists becoming reactionaries was particularly evident in New York Mayor Bill de Blasio being booed by a crowd calling for his resignation and the same response to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey when he refused to commit to defunding and dismantling the police department. In Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the square near the White House to be named "Black Lives Matter" Square with giant letters painted on the street. BLM however denounced it as a meaningless stunt and activists added 'Defund the Police." Bowser refused to answer multiple questions on whether she would remove the added words. To do so is to risk a scene like the ones in Minneapolis and New York.

As writers, editors, and politicians yield to extreme measures, they might want to consider the fate of those who sought to ride the radical wave of the French Revolution.

Here is the column:

Jean-Paul Marat, one of the key leaders of the French Revolution, once mocked the notion that liberty could be established by his fellow revolutionaries since "apart from a few tragic scenes, the revolution has been nothing but a web of farcical scenes."
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2 + 2 = 4

You can be against police brutality AND looting & rioting at the same time

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
Eric July
It is possible for people to condemn all violence. Just because someone says they don't support the looting and rioting, does not mean they support police brutality. Just because someone says that the police shouldn't kill people with qualified immunity, doesn't mean they support looting and rioting.

The mainstream media and those who still are stuck in the left/right paradigm want you to choose a side. Police brutality, or looting. It is possible to side with neither at the same time because they are both wrong. What a surprise! They need you to choose to stay divided instead of standing up together against all violence and all shows of violence.

"The state and its aggression, and the people the loot innocent businesses are not justified in their actions. It doesn't even mean their both equal, it just means they're both wrong and it's easy to speak about both. It is a false choice, a false dichotomy to suggest otherwise," says July. "Anybody that doesn't have a brain the size of a coronavirus can actually hold two positions at the same time."

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Arrow Up

Up to 80% of coronavirus sufferers don't show symptoms, new study suggests

Harriet Brewis
The Evening Standard
Thu, 11 Jun 2020 20:12 UTC
Matt Hancock 1

Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed the study's findings at Thursday's Downing Street press briefing
Up to 80 per cent of people who test positive for coronavirus don't show any symptoms, a new study of the pandemic in England suggests.

Research carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) uses swab testing to determine how many people are infected with Covid-19 across the country at any one time.

In the vast majority of cases, those who tested positive had not been displaying any symptoms, Matt Hancock revealed on Thursday.

The Health Secretary told the daily Downing Street press briefing: "Yes, there are some people who don't have symptoms but do have the virus.

"And in fact, in the ONS study we find that around 70-80 per cent of people who test positive don't have symptoms. That is quite a significant finding."

Mr Hancock acknowledged that asymptomatic transmission is "one of the things that makes controlling this disease really hard."

Comment: New studies are showing that at least 60% of people are naturally resistant to SARS-COV2:
The research, conducted by a team of scientists at the University Hospital in Zurich, is titled: "Systemic and mucosal antibody secretion specific to SARS-CoV-2 during mild versus severe COVID-19", and found that Sars-Cov-2-specific antibodies only appear in the most severe cases, or about 1 out of 5.

The authors infer from this that antibodies are inexplicably absent from the majority of mild cases of covid19. But, given the known inaccuracy of the diagnostic tests and the well-documented tendencies to over-diagnose by clinical observation, another potential explanation would appear to be that the absent antibodies were due to the fact the subjects had never actually been infected with SARS-COV-2 in the first place, and their 'mild' cold-like symptoms were due to some other pathogen, like...the common cold.

However, if the authors are indeed correct in their estimation, this might mean SARS-COV-2's infection rate (IFR) would need to be revised downward yet again. If 80% of those infected really do not produce antibodies then there is a live possibility the virus is present in many more people than usually supposed. Which would in turn potentially reduce the IFR, possibly considerably.

[...]

In other words, large numbers of people may be immune or resistant to this virus because they have already been infected by other coronaviruses.

This may not be surprising, given the close relationship between most coronaviruses, but it is a further indicator that this virus, known to be harmless in the vast majority of cases, is neither especially unique nor especially dangerous.

The evidence continues to mount that the original estimates of the danger posed by this virus were massively exaggerated.
See also: WHO does a 180, now says asymptomatic spread of coronavirus 'very rare'

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Bizarro Earth

'He's eating himself!' Man dies in custody after chewing own arms in confrontation with California cops

Molly Sullivan
Sacramento Bee
Tue, 09 Jun 2020 15:02 UTC
Morgan James Davis
© Redding Police Department
A half-naked man who appeared to bite off pieces of his arms and spit flesh on the ground died in custody early Tuesday, the Redding Police Department said. Five officers were placed on administrative leave after his death.

The call began at 1:09 a.m. in the Americana Modern Motel in the 1200 block of Market Street. Police responded to a 911 call reporting a woman heard screaming at the motel and a "possible domestic disturbance," the department said in a social media post.

Officers found a man at the motel on a second story balcony who was bleeding from his arm and had taken off his pants and underwear. Police described the man as a "heavyset white male adult, in excess of 400 lbs."

After communicating with the man, he came down from the balcony to the parking lot, and in video of the incident it appears that he begins to walk toward the officers before a loud pop is heard. The man then turns and appears to take bites of his left arm and scratches as his face before spitting. He then falls to the ground.
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Dominoes

'You won't need to abolish us - we won't be around for it': Why I and many of my colleagues are quitting as US police officers

Travis Yates
Law Officer
Fri, 12 Jun 2020 14:58 UTC
cops
© Getty Images / Justin Sullivan
The nasty words we, the police, get called all the time have now turned into rocks, bottles and gunfire. It's over, America: we are leaving.

This is the hardest thing I have written.

I grew up in a law enforcement family. My father worked his way up to the rank of Captain at the Fort Smith, Arkansas, Police Department. As a kid I remember going with him on Friday to pick up his check and I was in awe of these super heroes he worked around.

My dad sacrificed a lot and so did my late mother. Whether it was the week-long surveillance or wiretap or chasing drug runners across the country, he gave it all for my family and worked plenty of extra details to never let our family be without. Some would call that privilege but where I grew up, it was called hard work.
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Heart - Black

Congressman claims Chicago cops lounged in office, made popcorn & coffee while looters destroyed city

Fran Spielman
Chicago Sun_Times
Thu, 11 Jun 2020 14:38 UTC
chicago rioters
© Twitter / @ChipMitchell1; REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (
Thirteen Chicago Police officers — including three supervisors — slept on a couch, popped popcorn and drank coffee in U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush's South Side campaign office while looters had a field day in the same strip mall earlier this month, the congressman and Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday.

An outraged and emotional Lightfoot, her voice breaking at times, joined Rush at a City Hall news conference, apologizing to her former political nemesis for the "unspeakable indignity" and vowed to hunt down the officers responsible.

"Let me lead by apologizing to you again on behalf of our city that you and your office were treated with such profound disrespect. That's a personal embarrassment to me. And I'm sorry that you and your staff had to deal with this incredible indignity," the mayor told Rush.

Lightfoot said the officers' "deplorable failure to do their jobs" will only underscore the widespread perception that police officers "don't care when black and brown communities are looted and burned."
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Stock Down

Britain's economy paralysed by lockdown, GDP plunges by a record 20% - three times greater than the crash of 2008

Richard Partington
The Guardian
Fri, 12 Jun 2020 10:06 UTC
motorway
© Ben Birchall/PA
The M5 at Highbridge in Somerset on 22 April is a stark example of the effect of the coronavirus lockdown.
Britain's economy shrank by a record 20.4% in April as the first full month of the coronavirus lockdown triggered an economic crash three times greater than the 2008 financial crisis.

Revealing the scale of the downturn, the official figures for gross domestic product (GDP) from the Office for National Statistics showed no area of the economy was left unscathed as the government imposed tight controls on business and social life to limit the spread of the disease.

GDP monthly figures

The decline was the largest since comparable monthly records began in 1997 and was more than triple the previous record fall of 5.8% in March, when the lockdown was imposed late in the month.

Comment: The full impact of the tyrannical lockdown is just beginning to be felt, and it is undeniable that it has done more damage than the flu-like virus ever could:

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X

Canada: Former PM's daughter, Jessica Mulroney, turfed by Bell Media after 'white privilege' scrap with blogger


National Post
Thu, 11 Jun 2020 20:16 UTC
Jessica Mulroney
Jessica Mulroney has earned the wrath of a Canadian lifestyle blogger for her silence as protests surrounding Black Lives Matter grow louder.

And the ensuing online war of words has now prompted Bell Media and CTV to part ways with the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

The online imbroglio pits Meghan Markle's BFF against Sasha Exeter, who posted a video on Instagram documenting the work she's been engaged in to encourage other social media influencers to speak out during the current "race war."

Comment: Spoiled rich girls fighting on social media is hardly news-worthy, but it interesting to note how quickly Mulroney chose to bend the knee. Dissenting opinions are not allowed (although there's no real indication of what her opinion actually is) - opposing Black Lives Matter in any way will have you cancelled and unpersoned.

See also:

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Arrow Up

ECHR rules France violated rights of pro-Palestinian BDS activists, orders compensation


RT
Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:46 UTC
BDS palestine
© FILE PHOTO. Reuters / Vincent Kessler
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that France violated the rights of 11 pro-Palestinian activists when it convicted them for campaigning against Israeli goods, and has ordered the government to pay damages.

The criminal conviction against the activists with the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement "had no relevant and sufficient grounds," the ECHR said in its ruling on Thursday, arguing that their basic right to freedom of expression had been violated. The court ordered France to pay €101,000 ($115,000) in compensation to the activists.

The case dates back to 2009 when a group of protesters led by French activist Jean-Michel Baldassi staged a demonstration in a hypermarket in the eastern French town of Illzach. The group handed out leaflets calling for various forms of boycott against Israel in response to its treatment of Palestinians and occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Comment: See also:

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