Category U. S. Politics

Dec 24 2021

Former Police Officer Kim Potter Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Accidental Shooting of Daunte Wright


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 23, 2021 | Sundance | 473 Comments

Former police officer Kim Potter was found guilty on two counts of manslaughter by a jury in Minneapolis, Minnesota.   After four days of deliberations the jury originally came back with a deadlock.   The judge instructed the jury to keep deliberating and try to resolve their differences.  The jury came back today and delivered a guilty verdict:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Jurors on Thursday convicted a suburban Minneapolis police officer of two manslaughter charges in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black motorist she shot during a traffic stop after she said she confused her gun for her Taser.

The mostly white jury deliberated for about four days before finding former Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter. Potter, 49, faces about seven years in prison on the most serious count under the state’s sentencing guidelines, but prosecutors said they would seek a longer term.

Potter, who testified that she “didn’t want to hurt anybody,” looked down without showing any visible reaction when the verdicts were read.

Potter, who is white, shot and killed the 20-year-old Wright during an April 11 traffic stop in Brooklyn Center as she and other officers were trying to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for a weapons possession charge. The shooting happened at a time of high tension in the area, with former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin standing trial just miles away for the killing of George Floyd. Potter resigned two days later.

Jurors saw video of the shooting that was captured by police body cameras and dashcams. It showed Potter and an officer she was training, Anthony Luckey, pull over Wright for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rear-view mirror. During the stop, Luckey discovered there was a warrant for Wright’s arrest for not appearing in court on the weapons possession charge, and he, Potter and another officer went to take Wright into custody.

Wright obeyed Luckey’s order to get out of his car, but as Luckey tried to handcuff him, Wright pulled away and got back in. As Luckey held onto Wright, Potter said “I’ll tase ya.” The video then shows Potter holding her gun in her right hand and pointing it at Wright. Again, Potter said, “I’ll tase you,” and then two seconds later: “Taser, Taser, Taser.” One second later, she fired a single bullet into Wright’s chest.

“(Expletive)! I just shot him. … I grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun,” Potter said. A minute later, she said: “I’m going to go to prison.”

In sometimes tearful testimony, Potter told jurors that she was “sorry it happened.” (read more)

The judge in this case was/is really weird.

Dec 24 2021

President Trump Supports Vaccine, Doesn’t Support Mandates


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 23, 2021 | Sundance | 694 Comments

President Trump gave an interview to Candace Owens for The Daily Wire.  The full interview is only available for subscribers [link]; however, there is a segment released by Mrs. Owens where Donald Trump talks about the specifics of his position on the vaccine and the mandates.

President Trump supports the three vaccines that were developed during his administration, and is proud of the system he put into place to develop them and get them available to the public.  However, President Trump does not support mandating the vaccine or forced vaccination for anyone, and believes that people should have the freedom to decide what is in their individual best interests.  WATCH:

At approximately 05:10 of the interview, President Trump notes the specific issue of a government mandated vaccine developed by a private corporation, and the risk of corruption and conflicted interests involved.   President Trump accepts that reasonable people would be skeptical of the vaccine itself and would have personal reasons not to participate.

Toward the very end of the interview Trump states he is proud of the accomplishment and will not “give up” on his belief of the vaccine development as a success during his administration.  However, he sees the forced mandate as very detrimental to the economy and views the consequences of the mandate itself as a problem for national security.

Given the range of opinions on the issue of the vaccines overall, and the mandate specifically, President Trump’s position seems quite pragmatic and reasonable.  He’s proud to have developed the vaccines, believes they are of benefit, but strongly respects individual choice, liberty and the freedom to decide for yourself and your family.  I don’t see anything controversial in this position.

Dec 24 2021

FDA Announces Approval for Two COVID Therapeutic Oral Medications in Last 24 Hours


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 23, 2021 | Sundance | 241 Comments

Yesterday, the political FDA approved Pfizer’s Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use) for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults and pediatric patients {LINK}.

Today, the political FDA approved Merck’s molnupiravir for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing {LINK}.

The White House has been under considerable criticism for their lack of preparedness for the latest COVID variant called Omicron.  The FDA has rushed both oral medications under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) process.

FDA Announcement – […]    Molnupiravir is not authorized for use in patients younger than 18 years of age because molnupiravir may affect bone and cartilage growth. It is not authorized for the pre-exposure or post-exposure prevention of COVID-19 or for initiation of treatment in patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 because benefit of treatment has not been observed in people when treatment started after hospitalization due to COVID-19.

[…] Molnupiravir is a medication that works by introducing errors into the SARS-CoV-2 virus’ genetic code, which prevents the virus from further replicating. Molnupiravir is administered as four 200 milligram capsules taken orally every 12 hours for five days, for a total of 40 capsules. Molnupiravir is not authorized for use for longer than five consecutive days.  (read more)

The White House has also been criticized for not having a program for mass distribution of testing kits in advance of their vaccine or test mandate.  However, we can reconcile the lack of planning for the testing program by accepting the premise that the Biden vaccine, or test mandate, was a pressure point intended to get people to take the vaccine, and they never originally intended enforcement.

Dec 24 2021

White House Has Dancing Nurses Perform “Christmas Amid a Winter of Death” in The East Room


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 23, 2021 | Sundance | 353 Comments

Leftism is driven by committee advice; it’s how the echo-chambering communal groupthink works.

After the White House COVID “Winter of Death” messaging was ridiculed and ignored by almost everyone in the general public, the communications team quickly went back to the drawing board.  You can almost hear Ron Klain instructing the team to find ways to avoid the ‘Grinch team‘ labeling.

However, the ordinary emotional disposition of leftists and Democrats, writ large, is depressing, angry and negative, the result from a lifetime of blame casting.  The most valued skillset advancing the career of any professional leftist, is their ability to project victimhood.  If you do this long enough, it becomes the only thing you know how to do.  ‘Hang around a one-legged man long enough, and you will walk with a limp’.

As a direct result, the political left genuinely does not understand or experience joy, nor do they have a connection to the emotion of happiness. So, when the political left gets together in a focus group to discuss the urgent need to shift messaging from pessimism, which turns everyone off, they end up with recommendations like this:

Yes, White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, hired dancing nurses to come into the East Room to deliver a performance for the First Lady.  In the video below, the group sings about the joy of covid, the “winter of death”, and needing to spread a little Christmas cheer.

You might find the entire performance cringeworthy, because it is.  The messaging is ridiculous, odd and, well, just plain weird.  However, this is what happens when the narrative pendulum swings wildly amid the communications team.   The base of Biden supporters, ideological leftists, do not see the cringe, instead they see it as cute – but that’s because they have no connection to the actual emotion of Christmas joy.



Odd Note:  All the people of color were forced to wear a mask and dance, the two white ladies prominently featured were not.  If the politics of the administration was reversed, this implied message would be amplified by those who are highly skilled at looking for the victim narrative.  The media would be shouting racism.  However, with a Democrat ally in the White House, the media must pretend not to notice such things.

It’s all bizarre. All of it.

Dec 23 2021

Rental Costs on the Rise Amid Diminished Supply


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate Re-Posted Dec 23, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

Demand for rentals in the US is increasing at an alarming pace. Single-family rentals rose 10.9% in October year-over-year, according to a report by CoreLogic. There are simply not enough rental properties available to meet demand. Vacancy rates are at a 25-year low as those priced out of the buyer’s market search for housing.

Rentals in every price range are on the rise. The lower-priced homes that represent 75% or less the regional median rose 9.5%. Lower-middle priced homes that represent 75% to 100% of the regional median are up 10.1%. Higher-middle priced homes representing 100% to 125% of the regional median are up 11.3%, while the highest-priced homes (125%+) advanced 11.4%.

On a regional basis, Miami saw the largest spike with rentals increasing 29.7% in the past year. Phoenix (19.3%) and Las Vegas (16.5%) also experienced notable increases. Thanks to Lori Lightfoot, Chicago experienced the lowest annual growth among larger cities at 4.2%.

The National Association of Home Builders stated that housing starts specifically for rental units reached a high in Q3. However, there is simply not enough available housing to meet the growing demand. Additionally, numerous landlords are also now converting their spaces in desirable areas to Air BnBs and vacation rentals, further diminishing the supply. As remote work becomes prominent in American culture, people are flocking to the suburbs and areas that were not designed to host a growing population.

Dec 23 2021

Joe Biden Says 200 Million Americans Vaccinated, Amid U.S. Population of 350 Million


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 22, 2021 | Sundance | 138 Comments

I don’t mean kick up a cloud of dust here, but something is weird again.  Last week we spotlighted information provided by media about the U.S. vaccination rate being considerably overstated {Go Deep}.  In essence, the CDC data was being revised downward to correct prior rates of vaccination that were not accurate.

During an ABC interview today (segment below), Joe Biden told ABC News’ David Muir that as of right now, there are “200 million people fully vaccinated.”  WATCH (1 min):

Counting illegal aliens, there are roughly 350 million Americans right now [Census Data].  If 200 million Americans are vaccinated (60%), that means there are approximately 150 million Americans NOT vaccinated (40%).

During his speech yesterday, Joe Biden said: “Thanks to the progress on vaccinations this fall, we’ve gone from nearly 90 million adults in July who had not even started their vaccination process to fewer than 40 million today.” [LINK]

There’s a big difference between 150 million unvaccinated and “fewer than 40 million” unvaccinated.  Can you reconcile the difference?

As we noted last week, with the CDC adjusting the numbers downward […] this would align with several tangential datapoints which have always seemed to be in conflict with the preferred government narrative.  Additionally, there’s also an obvious motive on behalf of the government to overinflate vaccination in order to generate peer pressure and the self-fulfilling prophecy needed to garner vaccine acceptance.

As now noted by Bloomberg:

[…] “CDC data show 240 million people with at least one shot, or about 72.5% of the population. But the agency says only 203 million are fully vaccinated, or 61.3%, an 11-percentage-point difference that is far larger than in other developed countries.

State and local officials say it’s improbable that 37 million Americans got one shot without completing their inoculations. Instead, they say, the government has regularly and incorrectly counted booster shots and second doses as first doses.” (more)

Perhaps this disparity reconciles why many people look quizzically at the high vaccine data while not finding any correlation to their own community, friends or family.  Indeed, there has always been a disconnect between the number of people the government reports as having been vaccinated, when contrast against the open admissions of those who have not wanted to participate in this wide-scale vaccination program.

Biden’s statement today aligns with the adjusted statements from the CDC of 200 million Americans being fully vaccinated.   However, Biden’s statement today does not reconcile against his statement yesterday of “fewer than 40 million Americans” remain to be vaccinated.

If the 200 million vaccinated number is accurate, then 150 million Americans are not vaccinated.

Dec 23 2021

Supreme Court Accepts and Schedules Hearing on Biden Vaccine Mandate for January 7


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 22, 2021 | Sundance | 360 Comments

BREAKING TONIGHT – The Supreme Court has announced [LINK HERE and LINK HERE] it will hold a special hearing next month to consider challenges to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for large employers and a separate coronavirus vaccine mandate for health-care workers.

[Order 595 LINK]

Both vaccine mandates have been partially blocked from going into effect by lower courts after challenges from states, business and religious coalitions.

Justices Alito and Kavanaugh both received requests, both affirmed acceptance, and then both cases were consolidated by THE COURT.  The court will hear oral arguments for one hour on Friday January 7, 2022, just before the court begins regularly scheduled oral arguments. [SCOTUS Order Link]

Additionally, earlier today a Florida judge blocked the federal contractor mandate writing in part:

“The extent of any absenteeism attributable to COVID-19 among contractors and subcontractors is unexplained.  The frequency and duration of any procurement delay attributable to COVID-19 is unexplained. The extent of any cost increases attributable to COVID-19 is unexplained.”

“In other words, the extent of any procurement problem, past or future, attributable to COVID-19 is undemonstrated and is merely a hastily manufactured but unproven hypothesis about recent history and a contrived speculation about the future. Obviously, no massive extension and expansion of presidential power is necessary to cure a non-existent problem and certainly neither ‘good cause’ nor ‘urgent and compelling circumstances’ exists to justify summary disregard of the requirements of administrative law and rulemaking.”

~ U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday 12/22/21

U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday granted a motion filed by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody for a preliminary injunction against the vaccine requirement for federal contractors in Florida.

Dec 23 2021

Biden Goes Back to The Stage Set to Participate in Supply Chain and Economic Propaganda Broadcast


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 22, 2021 | Sundance | 145 Comments

Joe Biden went back to the White House stage set today (always weird) to read from his script and hold a broadcast zoom meeting with the supply chain and inflation ‘task force’ led by Brian Deese.  [Read Transcript Here]

The occupant of the White House proclaimed that gas prices have dropped ten cents, the port container backlog was almost fixed, and all the retail sales shelves are stocked for Christmas purchasing.   Smiles everyone, smiles.  [Excerpt Below]

♦ A couple of overall notes.  Biden is proclaiming a massive improvement in the port backlog in California.  However, a more careful review of the specifics from the ports themselves, via John Porcari, reveals this nuance: “The percentage of — the number of long-dwelling containers — the ones that have been there eight days or more — has been cut in half.”  The percentage of, the number of, 8+ day delayed containers has been reduced by 50% in the past two months.

So, the container backlog problem is half as bad as the percentage of the problem was two months ago.  That’s some professional parseltongue right there.

Expanding, Porcari says, “Since mid-October, the dwell times for those containers has dropped from 12 days to 5 days; that’s 140 percent improvement.  And in Los Angeles, from nine days to four days — 125 percent improvement.”  LOL..

The 8+ day containers have dropped from 8 days + twelve (20 days) to 8 days + five (13 days), and that’s an improvement of 140%.   At that rate in two more months the 8+ day container backlog will be reduced to,… wait for it…. 8+ days.  Brilliant!  They will have achieved backlog statis!

Who wouldn’t love a job where the goal of your performance review is to get your horrible performance to the point of ordinary failure, instead of it being at a level of extraordinary failure, or failure+.

Seriously, these guys just crack me up.

On the gasoline side of things, I shall remember to use my correct thinking and thank Dear Leader for the new 10¢/gal savings on the gasoline that increased $1.50/gal this year.

#FJB

Dec 23 2021

The Economy is Doing So Well, the White House Extends Loan Repayment Freeze for 90 Days


Posted originally on the conservative tree house December 22, 2021 | Sundance | 132 Comments

The White House occupant cannot afford to lose the little support he has left from the fractured sheeple masses and special interest groups.

With polling collapsing Biden’s influence on an almost daily basis, Chief of Staff Ron Klain deployed the puppy strategy. Not surprisingly that fell flatter than curling ice, and making matters worse, people realized to the Biden family dogs are politically disposable tools for optics only.  Add on the rebuke of the Build Back Better spending boondoggle and, well, there’s panic in the corps.

According to the White House, the U.S. economy is doing great, things are perfect and getting better.  The economy is doing so well, students can’t afford or find jobs to pay back their loans.  Wait a min.., wha… huh?

WHITE HOUSE – […] “today my Administration is extending the pause on federal student loan repayments for an additional 90 days — through May 1, 2022 — as we manage the ongoing pandemic and further strengthen our economic recovery. Meanwhile, the Department of Education will continue working with borrowers to ensure they have the support they need to transition smoothly back into repayment and advance economic stability for their own households and for our nation.” (read more)

Pay no attention to the conflicted messaging.  You are not allowed to ask the question: if the economy is so great, then why do former college students need even more time to start paying back their loans?   Remember, in order for moonbat Democats to continue advancing their insane ideology, they must pretend not to know things.

We have another three months before we need to find a job, cool.

Dec 23 2021

Considering the COVID Rules, Vaccine Mandates and Censorship of Opinion…


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 22, 2021 | Sundance | 322 Comments

…Are we in an abusive relationship with our own government?

You decide.