Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
June 3, 2020
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Relative calm as protests continue despite curfews . . . Mass demonstrations across the U.S. gave way to a night of relative calm Tuesday, in contrast with the destruction of recent nights, as anger simmered over the killing of George Floyd in custody and police violence more broadly. Thousands of peaceful demonstrators gathered during the day in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee and the Washington, D.C., region,
protesting the killing of Mr. Floyd, which was captured in a video that circulated widely last week. In New York, a protest in Union Square ran past the 8 p.m. curfew established for the city but without reports of violence or problems, according to one police officer. About a thousand people gathered outside the White House
to protest peacefully Tuesday, remaining past the curfew. Law-enforcement personnel monitored the protesters’ movements but didn’t intervene, and there were no visible acts of violence as of 9:45 p.m. A protest in Portland, Ore., did turn violent late Tuesday night, according to the Portland Police Bureau on Twitter. Police said demonstrators threw projectiles at them, set fires and lit fireworks. Wall Street Journal
Looting in NYC, but less of it . . . Looters struck in Manhattan again on Tuesday, though the damage appeared to be a much smaller than the outright chaos of the previous night, with cops seen making several arrests outside of stores. Videos posted on social media by reporters showed the NYPD making arrests after a group broke into a Zara at Broadway and Vesey Street near the World Trade Center.
A PBS reporter said he witnessed a brawl erupt outside the clothing store, as a protester attempted to stop the looting. New York
Post
Poll: Most Americans approve of protests . . . A majority of Americans sympathize with nationwide protests over the death of an unarmed black man in police custody and disapprove of President Donald Trump’s response to the unrest, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on
Tuesday. The survey conducted on Monday and Tuesday found 64% of American adults were “sympathetic to people who are out protesting right now,” while 27% said they were not and 9% were unsure. More than 55% of Americans said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of the protests, including 40% who “strongly” disapproved, while just one-third said they approved - lower than his overall job approval of 39%, the poll showed. Reuters
Shutdowns partially to blame for protests . . . Pent-up frustrations from job losses and months of isolation during the coronavirus lockdowns played a role in the riots across the country, according to psychologists and pandemic researchers. “I do think the pandemic aggravated things,” said historian John Berry, who has written books focused on past pandemics. Tension built up during the lockdowns due to the massive joblessness — especially for
those making less than $40,000 a year, African Americans disproportionately getting sick from the virus, and people being shut in the house for months, Berry said. Washington Examiner
I guess there won't be talk about him "politicizing" Floyd's death.
Cuomo says he has the power to "displace" de Blasio . . . New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday slammed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of riots in his city, calling it a "disgrace" and saying he has the power to "displace" the mayor -- although doesn't want to at this point. "The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night, I believe that," Cuomo said of the mayor. Fox News
Minneapolis police union chief: Floyd had "violent criminal history" . . . The head of the Minneapolis police union says George Floyd’s “violent criminal history” needs to be remembered and that the protests over his death are the work of a “terrorist movement.” “What is not being told is the violent criminal history of George Floyd. The media will not air this,” police union president Bob Kroll told his members in a letter posted Monday on
Twitter. Floyd had landed five years behind bars in 2009 for an assault and robbery two years earlier, and before that, had been convicted of charges ranging from theft with a firearm to drugs, the Daily Mail reported. New York Post
Right, well, that doesn't justify murdering him over a fake $20 bill.
Retired black St. Louis police captain killed protecting friend's pawn shop from looters . . . A retired St Louis police captain has been shot dead Tuesday by looters who had broken into his friend's pawn shop. David Dorn, 77, was found dead on the sidewalk in front of Lee's Pawn & Jewelry in the early hours following unrest that followed a peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The shooting and theft at the pawn
shop apparently was posted on Facebook Live, but the video has since been taken down. A second Facebook video showed a man walking up to Dorn as he lay dying. The man could be heard pleading with him to stay alive as he lay in a pool of his blood. Daily Mail
WSJ: Hydroxychloroquine has not yet been proven ineffective . . . Trump Derangement Syndrome may be denying people access to a potentially useful drug in the fight against COVID-19. And now, we may never know whether the drug works. From an opinion piece by editorial page writer Allysia Finely: "The Lancet published a study on May 22 that purported to find a 30% increased risk of death for hospitalized Covid-19 patients treated with HCL or chloroquine, a related treatment. In an open letter to the Lancet’s editors and the study’s authors, some 120 doctors, statisticians and epidemiologists write that the headlines about the study “have caused considerable concern to participants and
patients enrolled in randomized controlled trials” evaluating the drugs. Thus many researchers have scrutinized the data, and the “scrutiny has raised both methodological and data integrity concerns.” White House Dossier
Smokers appear to be protected against the coronavirus . . . Smokers are less likely to test positive for the coronavirus, according to research that offers yet more evidence that the habit may be protective. Since the crisis spiralled out of control,
researchers have seen unusually low rates of smokers with Covid-19 in hospitals - suggesting they rarely get severely ill. Now, for what is believed to be the first time, experts in Israel have found adults who smoke cigarettes are less likely to pick up the virus in the first place. Researchers analysed data from 3million people, including 115,000 swabbed for the virus. They discovered a 'genuine' protective effect of smoking. Daily Mail
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Trump to move GOP convention out of North Carolina over social distancing . . . President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Republicans will seek another state instead of North Carolina to hold its August convention after a prolonged standoff with the state's Democratic governor. "Because of" Gov. Roy Cooper, he added, "we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention," Trump
tweeted. The tweet came hours after Cooper rejected the GOP’s plans for a full-fledged convention in Charlotte, telling Republican officials the only way the event would move forward is with proper health protocols in place. “The people of North Carolina do not know what the status of COVID-19 will be in August, so planning for a scaled-down convention with fewer people, social distancing and face coverings is a necessity," Cooper wrote in a letter to the RNC. Politico
Biden accuses Trump of "hate" and racism . . . Former Vice President Biden portrayed himself as someone who could heal the country’s wounds – while saying President Trump was dividing the country with his racism, “hate,” and “narcisism.” Rarely has a presidential candidate used such inflammatory rhetoric, all while preaching tolerance and unity. He has to understand that he is also implicating the nearly half of Americans who support the
president. “The president held up the Bible at Stl John’s Church yestesrday. I just wish he opend it once in a while,” Biden said during an appearance in Philadelphia. “I wish I could say that hate began with Donald Trump and will end with him. It didn’t, and it won’t." White House Dossier
Seven-in-ten voters think America on "wrong track" . . . Nearly seven-in-10 voters say things in the U.S. are pretty seriously on the wrong track, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. Only 31 percent of voters say the country is headed in the right
direction, the lowest mark recorded in POLITICO/Morning Consult polling since President Donald Trump took office in early 2017. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed from May 29-June 1 say the country is on the wrong track. The poll was conducted May 29-June 1, amid historic disruption in American life. Politico
Not a great sign for Trump's reelection prospects. He's lucky voters would have to choose Biden instead.
Rod Rosenstein to face Senate grilling . . . Senate Republicans are planning to press former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on his oversight of the Russia investigation. Rosenstein's appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee comes as allies of President Donald Trump take fresh aim at the investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign. They have pointed to newly declassified information to
allege Trump and his associates were unfairly pursued and have drawn vindication from the Justice Department's decision to drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn. USA Today
Valerie Plame loses congressional bid . . . Valerie Plame's congressional bid came to an end on Tuesday when the former CIA operative, who has battled accusations of anti-Semitism and carpet bagging, was defeated in a Democratic primary. Plame finished second in a field of seven candidates battling to replace outgoing congressman Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.), who is
running for Senate. Local attorney and activist Teresa Leger Fernandez won the race with 42.6 percent of the vote, nearly doubling Plame's 23.1 percent total as the AP called the race early Wednesday morning. Washington Free Beacon
Democrat Rep. Engel admits he doesn't care about speaking at riot press conference . . . Democratic New York Rep. Eliot Engel was caught on a hot mic Tuesday appearing to admit that he only cared about speaking at a press conference on the George Floyd protests because he has a primary opponent. Local officials held a press conference Tuesday after rioters and looters ransacked New York City on Monday night. The press conference livestream appears
to show Engel asking to speak at the event before telling a local official: “If I didn’t have a primary I wouldn’t care.” Daily Caller
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China and Russia use George Floyd unrest to make case against democracy . . . China and Russia are using the fallout from the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer to try to diminish the appeal of democracy. “The whole world has watched as things unravel in the U.S.,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday. “American politicians had better get their own house in order.” That sneer accompanied a complaint about past U.S. condemnations of China’s crackdown on Hong Kong, as Beijing seeks to tighten control over the former British colony and trading center in violation of international agreements. Yet the comment, with
its focus on how other countries view the American unrest, suggests how the U.S.-China rivalry features a renewal of the ideological competition between the United States and a communist rival. Washington Examiner
What might NSA do with coronavirus surveillance tech? . . . We have surveillance systems that can map out the movements of entire populations, thanks to the invisible signals emitted by the smartphones we carry in our pockets. And we have applications that can be installed on our phones to tell us—with varying degrees of accuracy—whether we have come into close contact with an infected person. The technology could help societies recover from
Covid-19. But there’s a fierce debate about its use, with some fearing that governments could exploit the pandemic to usher in broad invasive powers to enable them to pry on people’s private lives. Could we be sleepwalking into some kind of surveillance dystopia? Bloomberg
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Sweden admits COVID approach caused too many deaths . . . Sweden’s top epidemiologist has admitted his strategy to fight Covid-19 resulted in too many deaths, after persuading his country to avoid a strict lockdown. “If we were to encounter the same illness with the same knowledge that we have today, I think our response would land somewhere in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done,” Anders Tegnell
said in an interview with Swedish Radio. Tegnell is the brains behind Sweden’s controversial approach to fighting the virus, and the government of Stefan Lofven has deferred to the
epidemiologist in its official response to the pandemic. Gatherings of more than 50 people continue to be banned, but throughout the crisis Swedes have been able to visit restaurants, go shopping, attend gyms and send children under 16 to school. Bloomberg
WHO was privately angry about China's response . . . The World Health Organization praised the Chinese government's early response to the coronavirus even as WHO officials privately expressed frustration about China's refusal to hand over life-saving data, according to a new report. The WHO has remained a steadfast cheerleader of the Chinese regime since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, commending its "openness to sharing
information" with global health authorities and other countries as early as January 28. The delayed release of such data set back the global response to the deadly disease by weeks. Washington Free Beacon
It's great to know the world's leading health organization is staffed by liars.
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Economic circumstances of African Americans had been steadily improving . . . In the decade before Covid-19, African-Americans’ economic circumstances, crushed during the 2007-09 recession, had slowly but steadily improved. Then lockdowns crashed the economy, and last week the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police touched off a wave of angry and at times violent protests. The events have highlighted
painful inequities that continue to weigh on African-Americans, in their health, their incomes and their treatment by the justice system. Between 2011 and February, the black unemployment rate fell from 16% to 5.8%, near the lowest since records began in the early 1970s. That was still roughly double the white rate. Wage gains for black Americans had also started to accelerate. Wall Street Journal
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John Legend, Natalie Portman, other celebs sign letter to defund police . . . Singers John Legend and Lizzo, and actresses Natalie Portman and Taraji P. Henson are among the Hollywood celebrities who’ve signed a letter pushing the defunding all police departments in the wake of the police involved death of Minneapolis man George Floyd. The open letter claims that in 2017, $194 billion was spent on the police by America’s various governments even as police have “continued profiling, harassment, terror and killing of Black communities.” The letter — which was also singed by Common, Jane
Fonda, America Ferrera, Brie Larson, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero — goes on to insist that the money spent on police would be better spent on “building healthy communities,” or to go “to the health of our elders and children, to neighborhood infrastructure, to education, to childcare, to support a vibrant Black future.” Breitbart
I guess they can afford private security.
NY Times writer says property destruction is not violence . . . New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones defended rioting as a reasonable response to George Floyd’s death, and dismissed concerns about property destruction, saying property “can be replaced.” “Destroying property which can be replaced is not violence,” Hannah-Jones said. “I think any reasonable person would say we shouldn’t be destroying other people’s property. But
these are not reasonable times.” Hannah-Jones was the lead writer of the New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which won a Pulitzer Prize last month, despite being panned by many historians as inaccurate. Daily Caller
Well, she's right about one thing. These are not reasonable times.
Last American receiving a Civil War pension dies . . . The last American citizen receiving a Civil War pension has died in North Carolina at the age of 90. Irene Triplett, whose father fought for the Union Army between 1863 and 1865, passed away Sunday in Wilkesboro from complications following surgery. Irene suffered from from mental disabilities and therefore qualified for federal financial support as a 'helpless adult child of a veteran.'
She received a monthly check of $73.13 from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which went towards expenses for the nursing home where she lived. Her father, Mose Triplett, was 83 years old when his much younger wide, Elida, gave birth to Irene in 1930. Daily Mail
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Hitler's alligator is finally dead . . . An alligator that many people believe once belonged to Adolf Hitler has died in the Moscow Zoo. The zoo said the alligator, named Saturn, was about 84 years old when he died on Friday. According to the zoo, Saturn was born in the United States and later sent to the Berlin Zoo, from which he escaped when the zoo was bombed in 1943. His whereabouts were unknown until 1946, when British
soldiers found him and gave him to the Soviet Union, the zoo said.
“Almost immediately, the myth was born that he was allegedly in the collection of Hitler and not in the Berlin Zoo,” the zoo said in a statement. Associated Press
Okay, so maybe it wasn't Hitler's alligator. But I'm sure it was anti-Semitic.
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Keith
Keith Koffler
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