This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Tuesday, June 2, 2020.
Not the Bee: NBA Reporter Cheers Rioters Torching Lowing Income Housing & then Two Days Later Freaks When They Come for His Gated Community
Adam Ford writes for Disrn: “Veteran NBA reporter Chris Palmer, who has worked for ESPN and Bleacher Report, delivered a “Not the Bee”-worthy performance on Twitter in recent days, showcasing incredible hypocrisy by cheering the destruction of America’s inner cities and then, just two days later, publicly wetting his pants when the same “animals” showed up at his gated community.
His first tweet, from Friday, was a picture of a building burning in a raging inferno in downtown Minneapolis. He captioned the picture, “Burn that s**t down. Burn it all down.”:
The second tweet completing his double-double of hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness came just two days later, as he took to social media to freak right out after rioters showed up at his gated community. He called them “animals” and said, “Go back to where you live.”:
As if this one-two could be any more stunning, the first picture he tweeted was actually of a brand-new $30 million affordable housing complex that was just about to open up for low-income individuals in Minneapolis, while Palmer tweeted from his gated community.
Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1-3
Before we getting to the next story, I want to invite you to sign up for our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1st through 3rd. Rowdy Christian media meets the conference world – not for the faint of heart. We will kick the whole thing off with beer and psalm singing the first night, followed by a slate of speakers committed to driving the nails of the gospel into your every day life including Douglas Wilson, George Grant, Rod Martin, Glenn Sunshine, yours truly, and more. The conference will conclude with a massive Fight Laugh Feast Network mashup, with representatives from all your favorite shows all on one show, fighting, laughing, and feasting. And then we really will feast together, with food trucks bringing in dinner to close out the conference. So please join us this October 1st through the 3rd as we build a rowdy Christian culture for God’s glory and our good. Go to Fightlaughfeast dot com and register today.
Even NPR Admits Coronavirus is Less Risky Than First Claimed
Jon Hamilton at NPR reports: “Mounting evidence suggests the coronavirus is more common and less deadly than it first appeared. The evidence comes from tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus in a person’s blood rather than the virus itself. The tests are finding large numbers of people in the U.S. who were infected but never became seriously ill. And when these mild infections are included in coronavirus statistics, the virus appears less dangerous.
“The current best estimates for the infection fatality risk are between 0.5% and 1%,” says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
That’s in contrast with death rates of 5% or more based on calculations that included only people who got sick enough to be diagnosed with tests that detect the presence of virus in a person’s body.
Mr. Hamilton scrambled to defend Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force by noting that one time in an editorial back in March Dr. Fauci and colleagues wrote that the case fatality rate for COVID-19 “may be considerably less than 1%.”
Mr. Hamilton added that this means we should still believe every blessed thing that our overlords tell us. Ok, he didn’t really.
But the data available now allows scientists to calculate something called the infection fatality rate (or IFR) — the odds that an infected person will die. Previously, scientists had relied on what’s known as the case fatality rate, which calculates the odds that someone who develops symptoms will die.
In a study in Indiana, infection fatality rate turned out to be about 0.58%, or roughly one death for every 172 people who got infected.
And the results in Indiana are similar to those suggested by antibody studies in several other areas. In New York, for example, an antibody study indicated the state has an infection fatality rate around 0.5%.
Studies in Florida and California have suggested even lower fatality rates, but the results are less certain, Rivers says. But we don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up or for anyone to get the idea that the lockdowns were pointless.
Studies suggest a healthy young person’s chance of dying from an infection is less than 1 in 1,000. But for someone in poor health in their 90s, it can be greater than 1 in 10.
But Daniel Horowitz says the IFR (Infection Fatality Rate) is even lower.
Daniel Horowitz at the Conservative Review writes: “Now that the media is fixated on fanning the flames of racial tensions, watch for them to completely drop all news about the virus. But the evidence against lockdowns continues to mount, whether the media discusses it or not.
On May 22, I publicized groundbreaking data from the CDC’s website suggesting that the bottom-line infection fatality rate of COVID-19 is just 0.26%, even assuming a likely low estimate that 35% of all infections are asymptomatic. What was viewed by the political and scientific “experts” as hearsay from right-wingers was confirmed by their own gold standard agency. Now we have corroborating evidence from a very large sample size in the state of Colorado.
Until now some have criticized other serology tests as having too small a sample and perhaps inaccurate. But nearly all of them converged on an infection fatality rate (IFR) of roughly 0.2%. Now, Colorado has published the results of ongoing antibody tests with a massive sample size of 56,000. The study found, as of Thursday, that 7.75% of the entire state has been infected. That means that an estimated 489,500 Coloradoans have already had the virus. If you divide Colorado’s 1,135 deaths by the number of infections, you get a 0.23% IFR – almost exactly what the CDC pegged as the IFR nationwide.”
Thoughts on this American Moment
Nearly 40 US cities have imposed curfews over the weekend due to widespread violence, vandalism, and looting. Images filled the news of burning buildings, looting businesses, and violent skirmishes beginning in Minneapolis and spreading across the country. Over 4,000 people were arrested over days of demonstrations, many of them not local members of the community they were arrested in, raising questions about who exactly is doing what. The lights were turned off at the White House as multiple fires were set near the White House over the weekend. Multiple videos surfaced with peaceful protestors blocking buildings from attempts at vandalism. Other videos showed black protestors confronting white vandals tagging buildings with “Black Lives Matter” slogans.
Many reports have surfaced suggesting that Antifa and similar far-left groups are behind the violent attacks and vandalism, or at least leading the way. Over the weekend, President Trump and Attorney General William Barr identified Antifa and similar groups as terrorist organizations. Someone has also pointed out that thousands of felons and violent criminals have also been released from prisons around the country in the name of protecting the prison population from COVID-19. Any chance any of those released criminals might be up for a little night time violence? Speaking of which, you should definitely read That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis if you haven’t already and maybe re-read it if you haven’t read it in a while. The parallels to what Lewis saw was possible with our situation are uncanny.
Meanwhile, over in Snohomish, Washington a report states that rumors that antifa were on their way Sunday night inspired a thousand concerned citizens to show up on the streets of the small town heavily armed. The report says they stood shoulder to shoulder with the police and watched as small groups arrived, assessed the situation and moved on. Not a single store was damaged, no one was hurt. This is a good example of Romans 13 in action in a constitutional republic. It’s also what needs to happen the next time Chief Antifa Thug Governor Inslee orders a mass lock down in Washington.
Many videos have also surfaced of peaceful prayer meetings with law enforcement officers, police officers joining demonstrators and marchers, as well as many images of community efforts to clean up businesses and streets after the rampaging. Other videos have surfaced of police officers arresting peaceful protestors, seemingly completely unprovoked.
Protests began in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, after a video emerged showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Independent autopsy results on Monday cite that George Floyd died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression. All four officers involved in the George Floyd arrest were immediately fired last week, and Derek Chavin, the officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
While many have been quick to see this as primarily racial conflict, I don’t think that is primarily what this is at all. There may have been racial animosity in the cruelty and violence of Officer Chavin, and no doubt many protestors have taken to the streets for that purpose. And it is certainly true that police officers have sometimes used their power in racially motivated ways. I do not deny that, and I do not deny that there are hotspots of deep racial tension and police brutality. But I don’t think that explains the depth of depravity that we are seeing, the violence, or the complete disregard for property and human life. The people burning down personal businesses are every bit as violent and deranged as Officer Derek Chavin. That problem isn’t racism. That problem is just malice and bloodlust. When you get that violent and destructive you can’t see anything, including the color of the person’s skin you’re destroying. Rage is blind. Too many black owned businesses have been destroyed in the recent riots for me to believe this is fundamentally about racial animosity. Some folks going on about racial stuff are no doubt well meaning, if naïve, but a whole bunch of it is pure virtue signaling.
The bigger thing to see behind all of this is the complete flip of the narrative in the media from the Covid-19 panic to the glorification of protests. The Babylon Bee captured this wonderfully in their headline: Clever Churchgoers Avoid Arrest By Disguising Themselves as Rioters. Remember, just a few weeks ago (and perhaps for some even today) the great threat was COVID-19 and businesses and churches were shutdown because of this threat. If COVID-19 was anything like a real threat, these marches and protests would need to be shut down ASAP.
No, what is actually going on is purposeful destabilization. This called rock the canoe politics. This is three parts anti-Trump, two parts anti-Christianity, and another part straight Marxism. And if my cocktail estimates are off, the point is that Russian Collusion, Covid-19, and so-called Race Riots are all of the same cloth. The goal is not justice and truth. The goal is destabilization and chaos. Why? The immediate goal is to prevent Trump from being re-elected. The next goal is to force economic and social chaos that requires more government bailouts and buyouts. And the ultimate goal is for the savior gods of the left to swoop in. These are the gods of collectivism and socialism and the promise of utopia by fiat. And make no mistake: those gods are more violent and hateful than the knee of Officer Chavin.
This is Toby Sumpter with Crosspolitic News. You can find this and all of our shows at Crosspolitic.com or Fightlaughfeast.com or on our app, which you can download at your favorite app store, just search “Fight Laugh Feast”. Our app is the only way to get In the Bullpen with Mark Dewey. Support Rowdy Christian media, and become a Fight Laugh Feast Club Member, and for a limited time you can get your very own Fight Laugh Feast t-shirt and access to tons of content on Biblical Counseling, God and Government, End Times Eschatology (hint: we’re not in them), Pastors and Politics, Proverbs with Me, and our very own Worldview Shotgun Series. You also get $100 off your registration for our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference, where we hope to meet many of you in Nashville, TN October 1st through the 3rd. Go to fightlaughfeast.com to register now. Have a great day. https://flfnetwork.com/coming-soon/