Contributing Factors: In the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the Hennepin County medical examiner testified that while police restraint was the main cause of George Floyd’s death, drug use and heart disease contributed.

  It’s some of the first prosecution testimony that even slightly gives a nod to the defense claim that Floyd died as a result of heart disease and drug use.

  Dr. Andrew Baker in his autopsy declared Floyd’s death a homicide, meaning he was killed by the actions of other people. In his testimony yesterday he said that despite Floyd’s compromised heart and drug use, the primary cause of death was the way Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine and a half minutes. 

Free Shipping: Amazon workers in Alabama voted against forming a union, dealing a major blow to organized labor. The mail order behemoth has more than a million full and part time employees, 6000 of them at its site in Bessemer, Alabama.

  Under current labor law, unions are required to hold organizing votes site by site which, in the case of Amazon, would require hundreds of campaigns and elections. Amazon has repeatedly defeated efforts to organize its workers.

Boogaloo: Four California men associated with the extremist “Boogaloo Bois” have been indicted on charges of obstructing the investigation into the  killing of two federal law enforcement officers last year. 

  The four Northern California men ages 21 to 33, who call themselves “Grizzly Scouts,” are accused of conspiring to destroy communications and other evidence linked to the killing of Federal Protective Services Officer Dave Patrick Underwood last May, and the killing of Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller the following week.

  Steven Carillo, another member of the group, has already been charged with murder and attempted murder in those two incidents. 

  A statement by the US Attorney’s office  said Carillo told the other men via WhatsApp, “Dudes i offed a fed.” 

Replacement Theory: The Anti-Defamation League is calling for the firing of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular mouthpiece, for espousing the racist “replacement theory,” the idea that white American voters are being replaced by people from the Third World. Of course, there’s no chance Fox will fire Carlson because he’s a moneymaker and Fox is a racist network.

  Carlson said on the air, “I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World. But they become hysterical because that’s what’s happening actually. Let’s just say it: That’s true.”

  Carlson went on, “This is a voting rights question. I have less political power because they’re importing a brand new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that? The power that I have as an American guaranteed at birth is one man, one vote, and they’re diluting it. No, they are not allowed to do that. Why are we putting up with this?”

The Obit Page: Earl Simmons, the rapper known as DMX, who had No. 1 albums in the late 1990s and early 2000s has died in a hospital White Plains, NY after being on life support following cardiac arrest a week ago. He was 50.

  A true rapper in both lyrics and life, Simmons had spent time in prison but sold millions of albums and three times was nominated for a Grammy Award.

The Spin Rack: President Biden proposed a $1.52 trillion budget for next year, including a 16 percent increase in domestic programs. He would beef up discretionary programs on education, health research, and climate change. It comes in addition to Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package and his $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill. — Kentucky’s governor just signed a law limiting the use of no-knock warrants just over a year after the mistaken police killing of Breonna Taylor, one of the deaths that spurred the Black Lives Matter movement. — The Pentagon has just completed a 60-day “stand down” aimed at weeding out white supremacy in the military. They became concerned after learning of the number of veterans who were part of the January 6^th Capitol insurrection.

America First: The House Ethics Committee announced that it is investigating Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who’s already under federal investigation on suspicion that he consorted with a teenage girl. The Ethics Committee investigates people who are lacking them. Hiding behind the flag, Gaetz told a crowd in Miami yesterday, “Let me assure you, I have not yet begun to fight for the country I love, and for the nation that I know benefits from America First principles.” Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

-30-