Zilla
Saturday April 10, 2021
George Floyd – The defense has been trying to suggest that there were other factors in the death of Mr. Floyd, other than a policeman having his knee and body weight on the man’s neck for close to ten minutes. That was put to rest this week by three medical experts: a pulmonologist, a forensic pathologist (I think that was her title), and the doctor who did the autopsy. It’s hard to say which one was the most damning. Certainly the pulmonologist had the jury on the edge of their seats as he explained when Floyd took his last breath and for how long the police officer continued to keep his knee in place. The other thing the pulmonologist pointed out was that at one point Floyd’s knuckle was slightly pushed out. That the pulmonologist pointed out was Floyd’s attempt to breath through his finger tips. His last act before his breath left his body.
The defense went to the autopsy report, which mentioned hypertension and coronary problems as “contributing factors.” So the defense asked couldn’t those have contributed to his death. No, they are listed as contributing in the sense that they didn’t help his condition, but they didn’t kill him. What killed him according to the autopsy was asphyxiation – period.
Then the defense asked the forensic pathologist if his drug use and hypertension didn’t cause his death? No, there is no evidence that it did. She went into some detail as to why. Basically, there was nothing to suggest that this was a drug overdose or contributing factor.
We watched the first episode of “This is a Robbery” about the theft of paintings from the Isabella Gardiner Museum in Boston thirty years ago. I had been to the Gardiner before the theft and returned after as well. It is one of my favorite museums. Not only do they have some terrific works of art it is also like a walk through western history of art. Each room is a gallery with a different look and feel. To hear some of the guides talk about what it is like to be there at night and to be around all those fabulous paintings is enough to make me cry with joy for them.
Gardiner stopped collecting about the time the Impressionists were getting going. She has a Manet but the collection stops about there. That is where my other favorite museum picks up The Barnes Collection now in Philadelphia. Both museums are not large. Not small but not huge, like the Metropolitan or the British Museum. You can see the whole collection in a day, but it takes a lifetime to appreciate. They are places to come back to. Every time you will see something new, although nothing has changed. It’s like seeing old friends.
What strikes me about the Gardiner theft is how amateurish it was. There was some forethought, but not a lot. It may have been an inside job, but who? And where are the paintings? There are only three possibilities. Either a very rich person hired these thieves to do the job and has them hidden in a room, of they are still in storage somewhere – too hot to handle. The third possibility is a hybrid of the first two. Someone could be painting fakes of the stolen paintings and passing them off as the real thing. Selling multiple copies to be hidden away.
I suspect it option 2 – too hot to handle. If the robbers were in their 30s at the time of the robbery they are in their late 60s or early 70s now. I suspect a deathbed confession soon or a locker somewhere goes unpaid after someone’s death. We’ll see.
Then there’s the whole vaccine thing. Some people are saying they are “still considering” whether to get the shot. WTF? Okay, let’s break this down. How many people in the USA have gotten vaccinated? Answer: 132,000,000. How many have died as a result of getting the vaccine? Answer: 0.
How many people in the USA have gotten Covid? Answer: 30,734,477. How many have died from Covid? Answer: 557,093.
What are the chances of getting Covid once vaccinated? Close to 0.
What are the chances of getting Covid if not vaccinated? 1%
What are the chances of dying from Covid? 2%
Hum.
The unanswered question is if you get Covid what are the chances you will pass it to someone else? What if they die? Can you live with that?
Leave a Reply