Rain has been pelting down on Johnstown all day, but still it is a sunny day, metaphorically. Let me explain.
First, there is word out of New York City that Daniel Penny has been found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, this after the judge and prosecution had punted on a more serious charge Friday.
Make no mistake, Penny still faced legal jeopardy with the remaining charge, which reportedly could carry up to four years in prison. Fortunately, the jury invoked common sense. The jury members concluded – reasonably – that a man such as Neely with a background of mental problems who on this day was said also to be high on drugs, who had threatened passengers with death, and was quite the career criminal, set the stage for his death.
Penny was merely trying to help out those in the subway car who could not help themselves, invoking his military training to do so.
Predictably, there will be a civil suit from the Neely clan, trying to extract money from Penny in a proceeding with a lower burden of proof.
And the usual suspects will protest blindly, playing the race card.
To borrow a tactic of protesters: Daniel Penny. Say his name. Not Guilty.
This Penny verdict is just another indictment of the legal lunatic asylum of Manhattan prosecution, which you might recall has taken it upon itself to persecute Donald Trump, too.
Also on the death and destruction front with a New York City angle, there are reports that a man has been taken into custody in an Altoona McDonald’s who just might be the man who gunned down health care executive Brian Thompson on a New York City street last week.
Just as leftists ignored reality to go after Penny, so it is that many on the far left took to social media seemingly defending the murder of Thompson because his company, United Healthcare, supposedly denied too many claims.
That such thinking is commonplace on the left speaks to the massive job Trump faces in attempting to make good on his campaign promises.
Another ray of sunshine today comes in the form of news that CNN and Jake Tapper have lost ground in a defamation suit currently playing out in the courts.
Basically, CNN was forced to retract a story accusing a U.S. Navy veteran and his company of being part of a black market operation overcharging Afghans to get out of that failing country.
The judge has given the man suing CNN the right to punitive damages, among other rulings in his favor.
CNN had promoted the story widely, but ran one of the typically low-profile corrections. I’ve spoken of this sort of thing previously, where newspapers smear people with banner headlines on the front page, often for multiple days running, then slip in a correction at the bottom of page 2, consisting of a few paragraphs and a tiny headline.
That’s supposed to make it all okay, but it doesn’t. And this CNN case seems to be recognizing that reality.
One more ray of sunshine before we go, this a personal one. I was checking the open of precious metals trading at 6 p.m. local time Sunday night and the wide swings caught my attention. Gold and silver opened up strongly, soon fell back considerably, and spent much of the night on that see-saw.
I awoke this morning to news that China not only has its central bank buying gold again, the government also is stimulating its economy through fiscal policy.
My investment accounts responded appropriately.
Let the sun shine!
Sam Ross Jr's site 