Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Wednesday July 8, 2020
THE DAILY SIGNAL
Jul 08, 2020
Good morning from Washington, where, as elsewhere, the Black Lives Matter movement has many allies. But do corporations know what organization they’re giving big money to? Fred Lucas reports. On the podcast, a Texas congressman talks about why he had a patriotic adventure. Plus: a Chinese social media app faces U.S. scrutiny; who opposes charter schools; and the roots of homegrown anti-Americanism. Want to know about virtual events at The Heritage Foundation? Sign up here. On this date in 1776, the 2,000-pound “Liberty Bell” rings in Philadelphia, summoning those in earshot to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
The website for the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation notes that replacing the nuclear family structure and promoting the LGBT political agenda are central to its mission.
“We should call out the very socialist Marxist ideology that has driven the left in this country to seek power for government over the mind of man,” says Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
A generation—generations, actually—of indoctrination by America’s most powerful cultural institutions produced an American elite instinctively hostile to praise of America’s past.
“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”
THOMAS PAINE
Good morning,
Shootings in New York last month reached their highest number in 24 years.
Former and current NYPD leaders are blaming the increase on the city’s bail reform and court backlogs, as well as the release of criminals from prisons.
There is a common fear that Wall Street, buoyed by bullish sentiment, has gotten far ahead of the economic recovery and corporate earnings. However, despite continued volatility and uncertainty… Read more
The recent arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and longtime associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has placed her at the center of attention. Read more
Five years ago, on July 8, 2015, the FBI granted an emergency, yearlong, no-bid contract to the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Read more
The Supreme Court stayed a lower court ruling and allowed a slew of pipeline projects to move forward under a fast-track permitting process but left out the controversial, long-delayed expansion of the Keystone XL… Read more
At the crossroads between the East and West, the international hub of Hong Kong has long prospered on its dynamic public discourse, vibrant press, and bustling commercial trade. Read more
A federal appeals court on July 6 upheld a lower court’s decision to block a Trump administration rule that requires asylum-seekers to first seek protection in a country they pass through on their way to the U.S.–Mexico… Read more
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Will Kanye Change the Democrat’s Treatment of Black People?
By Roger L. Simon
It will be interesting to see if Kanye West is truly serious about running for the presidency because he could certainly siphon off a fair amount of African-American votes, besides the white guys Elon Musk and Mark Cuban… Read more
The Slow and Painful Path to Jobs Recovery
By Daniel Lacalle
The United States recovered 4.8 million jobs in June, adding to May’s 2.5 million jobs rebound. The U.S. employment recovery is faster and stronger than the eurozone one, which has over 40 million workers on… Read more
How to Avoid Getting Overcharged at Whole Foods and Elsewhere
By Annie Wu
(June 26, 2015)
After news broke that the popular grocery chain, Whole Foods had been overcharging its customers in New York City by overstating the weight of its prepackaged food items, media outlets and Internet users commented that their suspicions had been right all along—Whole Foods is ripping us off. Read more
China now has cases of the Bubonic Plague, the Black Plague, which was recently confirmed in Inner Mongolia. This adds to the resurgence of the new coronavirus in Beijing and other parts of China…
150 Writers and Academics Sign Letter Condemning Cancel Culture
The letter has some anti-Trump anti-conservative rhetoric early on despite the fact that these issues are all coming from the far left. JK Rowling is among the writers and Noam Chomsky is among the others who have signed the letter (Harpers). From John Sexton: Despite all the throat clearing about the right, it’s really the popularity of this new cancel culture on the left that is the main target. The more the left tries to mainstream these ideas the more people on the left split off and criticize them for doing so. The first wave of people rejecting it became the Intellectual Dark Web. Now you have another, larger wave of people, most of whom are progressives, who are expressing concern about the recent rise of cancel culture (Hot Air). From Ted Cruz: Signs of the apocalypse: Never in my life have I agreed with Noam Chomsky. On anything (Twitter). From Tim Carney: I kinda thought the Harpers letter was pointless. Then it instantly outed everyone who WANTS there to be a climate of fear. So it was a great service (Twitter). From JK Rowling: I was very proud to sign this letter in defence of a foundational principle of a liberal society: open debate and freedom of thought and speech (Twitter).
2.
Woke Now Target Hamilton Play
Because when there’s no one left to eat, they will start to eat their own (The Blaze). Lin-Manuel Miranda responded by explaining “All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game” (NY Post). They also went after Halle Berry for taking the role of a transgender “man.” She apologized for the error of her temporarily un-woke ways (Washington Times). Oh, and crosswalk lights are racist because they’re white (Level).
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3.
DeSean Jackson Apologizes for Anti-Semitic Rant
He claims “I didn’t mean it to the extent that you guys took it.” Later: “I was just trying to uplift African Americans and slavery and just enlighten my people” (Twitter). From Ed Morrissey: He now thinks he “probably” shouldn’t post anything from Hitler, so … yeah, good apology (Twitter). He apparently tried another apology later (Fox News).
4.
Betsy DeVos: Schools Will Be Fully Operational in Fall
She told Tucker Carlson “Kids have got to continue learning and schools have got to open up. There’s got to be a concerted effort to address the needs of all kids, and adults who are fearmongering and making excuses simply have to stop doing it and turn their attention to what is right for students and for their families.”
Washington State Schools to Let Black Students In First
Listed in their “phase-in priority” at the top of page 32 (Washington Schools). In case the office takes it down, the page can be found here (Twitter).
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6.
The Squad Announce Legislation for Reparations and Defunding of Police
China Using Hong Kong as Tool to Force Companies to Toe Party Line
From the story: The new law imposed from Beijing threatens up to life in prison for anyone charged with secession, subversion, terrorism or “collusion” with vaguely defined foreign forces. On Monday the new Committee for Safeguarding National Security released 116 pages of rules that aren’t subject to judicial review. They list broad new police powers, including the ability to conduct warrantless searches, seize property, investigate suspects, intercept communications, freeze assets, and prevent people from leaving Hong Kong.
Friedman: Biden Should Make Absurd Demands to Avoid Debates
Not his exact words, but definitely the point. He opens by admitting “I worry about Joe Biden debating Donald Trump” (NY Times). There’s also a theory that if Biden gets elected, progressives will work to push him out of office (National Review).
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9.
BMW Customers Forced to Pay Subscription Fee for Features Already on Car
For example: “adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, adaptive suspension — and comfort features — a heated steering wheel.” So in the future, if you buy a used BMW with heated seats, you may have to pay a subscription fee to activate the seats.
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A Florida Politics analysis of the Sunshine State’s COVID-19 data, as reported daily by the Florida Department of Health, from March 18 through Tuesday, shows three obvious patterns over the period in which Florida saw cases, hospitalizations, and deaths emerge through March and some of April, dip a bit, plateau, and then rise again.
— The rise and fall and rise again of hospitalizations for COVID-19 lagged the rise and fall and rise of new cases by 11-15 days.
— The rise and fall and rise again of deaths from COVID-19 has lagged hospitalizations by 10-11 days, and lagged the emergence of new cases by 21-26 days.
— Deaths from COVID-19 are increasing again, but not as rapidly as they did in April and May.
Florida’s seven-day averages for new COVID-19 cases first peaked with the Department of Health’s April 8 report, when Florida was averaging 1,214 new cases for the previous week. New case reports then declined, then plateaued in the 700s until June 2.
Examining Florida’s COVID-19 numbers, some disturbing patterns start to emerge.
After June 2, the seven-day average of new cases began climbing again and has done so for 36 consecutive days, reaching the current worst-ever average of 8,766 with Tuesday’s report.
Hospitalizations did not peak until April 23, with an average of 172 new admissions over the previous week.
That came 15 days after cases first peaked.
The daily new hospitalizations average pretty much stayed in the 140-170 range until sagging in late May and early June, reaching a low of 110 on June 9.
On June 13, the second rise of hospitalizations became apparent. Since then, the seven-day average rose almost daily to the current peak of 264 through Tuesday’s report.
So the second rise of hospitalizations began 11 days after the second rise of cases.
Florida’s COVID-19 death toll, as Gov. Ron DeSantis likes to point out, show a different picture. But not entirely.
In the first rise, COVID-19 deaths did not peak until May 8, when Florida was averaging 51 deaths per day over the previous week.
That means the worst point for deaths came 10 days after hospitalizations peaked, and 25 days after cases peaked.
After a slow sag over more than a month, Florida’s average daily death toll did not begin to rise again until June 24.
That is 11 days after the new rise in hospitalizations, and 22 days after the new rise in cases.
The seven-day running average of COVID-19 deaths topped 40 again on July 2 and has reached a second-wave high of 48 through Tuesday’s report, still below what was suffered in early May. Florida’s single-worst day for COVID-19 deaths was May 5, with 72.
Situational awareness
—@RealDonaldTrump: “COVID-19 (China Virus) Death Rate PLUNGES From Peak In U.S.” A Tenfold Decrease In Mortality. The Washington Times@WashTimesValerie Richardson. We have the lowest Mortality Rate in the World. The Fake News should be reporting these most important of facts, but they don’t!
—@MarcoRubio: #COVID19 spreads when people interact. Eventually, no matter what you close, people are going to interact. Protect the most vulnerable, provide clear guidelines & discourage high-risk settings, but #lockdownextension won’t stop spread & they create more problems than they solve.
—@Doug_Hanks: Prez @realDonaldTrumpwouldn’t have to have to wear a mask while leaving Air Force One at Miami-Dade’s Miami International Airport, spox says. He plans trip here later in this week to Southcom HQ, which isn’t covered by county COVID- rules. Private vehicles exempt from mask regs
—@KevinCate: Just because you can get PPP money doesn’t mean you should. Claiming fiduciary responsibility as an excuse is abdicating more important responsibilities to country, customers, and conscience. Save this money for small businesses with no other alternatives.
—@RepTedDeutch: In Florida, Gov DeSantis has replaced “Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step.” with “We’re not rolling back. Live with it.” The raging outbreak in our state was preventable. The governor isn’t doing his job.
—@MarcACaputo: Bracketing today’s Miami event for Ds was FL Sen @JoseJavierJJR, who said DeSantis was the president’s tool: “Trump says jump and DeSantis says, ‘how high? I absolutely think he’s a sock puppet. A sock puppet in good times is embarrassing. A sock puppet in a pandemic is deadly”
—@cbquist: if you are a governor or legislator mandating that K-12 classrooms open on a certain date you must also accept the classes taking a field trip to the state Capitol building on that date I am sorry it is right here in the rule book
—@ShevrinJones: Today is the best I’ve felt in 8 days and my mom and dad are showing no symptoms. Today is a great day! Thank you all for your prayers and positive energy, keep them coming!
—@BSFarrington: Watched the Florida Senate Democratic Caucus press conference on coronavirus on its FB page. When it wrapped up, an @AnnaAkana video popped up called “Should you have sex on the first date?” In the opening seconds, it says, “Thanks for the f***.” Odd juxtaposition.
—@MattGaetz: Pensacola has been long known as the “City of Five Flags.” How many of them will survive this time of mob cancel culture & political weakness?
—@SStaffordTweet: Call me crazy but not sure most of us Tallahasseans have fully processed just how awful the local job losses, business closures, and tax receipts will be if we don’t play college football. Deducting $100-150m from the local economy is a long term disaster
Days until
Disney World Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom to reopen — 3; Disney World Epcot and Hollywood Studios to reopen — 7; Federal taxes due — 7; MLB starts — 15; WNBA starts — 16; PLL starts — 17; TED conference rescheduled — 18; Florida Bar exams begin in Tampa — 20; NBA season restart in Orlando — 23; Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” premieres (rescheduled) — 23; NHL resumes — 24; Florida primaries for 2020 state legislative/congressional races — 41; Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee begins — 42; “Mulan” premieres (rescheduled) — 44; Indy 500 rescheduled — 46; Republican National Convention begins in Charlotte — 47; NBA draft lottery — 48; Rev. Al Sharpton’s D.C. March — 51; U.S. Open begins — 54; “A Quiet Place Part II” premieres — 58; Rescheduled running of the Kentucky Derby — 59; Rescheduled date for French Open — 74; First presidential debate in Indiana — 83; “Wonder Woman” premieres — 86; Preakness Stakes rescheduled — 87; First vice presidential debate at the University of Utah — 91; NBA season ends (last possible date) — 97; Second presidential debate scheduled at Miami — 99; NBA draft — 100; Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” premieres — 100; NBA free agency — 103; Third presidential debate at Belmont — 106; 2020 General Election — 118; “Black Widow” premieres — 123; NBA 2020-21 training camp — 127; Florida Automated Vehicles Summit — 135; “No Time to Die” premieres — 135; NBA 2020-21 opening night — 146; “Top Gun: Maverick” premieres — 168; Super Bowl LV in Tampa — 214; New start date for 2021 Olympics — 380; “Jungle Cruise” premieres — 388; “Spider-Man Far From Home” sequel premieres — 485; “Thor: Love and Thunder” premieres — 583; “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” premieres — 625; “Black Panther 2” premieres — 667; “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” sequel premieres — 821.
Corona Florida
“Florida tops 200,000 coronavirus cases” via Christine Sexton of the News Service of Florida — More than 4,600 health care providers in Florida received at least $1.7 billion in interest-free federal loans meant to prevent massive job layoffs, a review of data released by the federal government shows. The loans, which went to providers ranging from pediatricians to pharmacists to hospice providers and nearly everything in between, helped keep 200,000 jobs. The majority of the 4,637 Florida health care companies included in the data released by the Small Business Association applied for loans in the $150,000 to $300,000 range. Twenty-two companies, though, were awarded loans between $5 million and $10 million, the highest amounts allowable under the Paycheck Protection Program, passed by Congress in April to bolster businesses during the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Florida still not reporting how many hospitalized with COVID-19. Ron DeSantis won’t say why.” via Samantha J. Gross of the Miami Herald — Under pressure last week as COVID-19 hospitalizations soared in Florida, DeSantis’ office said the state would start reporting daily hospitalization data for all 67 counties. DeSantis, however, refused to address the fact that the state has yet to make good on its promise when asked by a Miami Herald reporter. “Obviously not everything is presented in this report but just an unbelievable amount of data is available,” DeSantis said at an indoor press conference held at Florida’s 12th COVID-only nursing facility near Miami International Airport.
Ron DeSantis is staying tightlipped about exactly how many people are hospitalized in Florida with COVID-19.
“DeSantis touts Florida’s elder response as country’s best” via Renzo Downey of Florida Politics — As Florida is seeing more people hospitalized with COVID-19, DeSantis says the state is continuing to improve hospital availability and protect the elderly. Emergency department visits with symptoms of COVID-19 and the flu increased throughout the month of June. And while ICUs still have available beds hospitals are having to isolate more individuals who test positive despite entering the facilities for other ailments. During a Tuesday visit to Miami Care Center, formerly the Pan American Hospital, DeSantis highlighted COVID-19 outpatient nursing home facilities and anticipated manpower assistance from the federal government.
“Sean Hannity, DeSantis talk virus” via AG Gancarski of Florida Politics — DeSantis, on the Monday night edition of Hannity on the Fox News Channel, got the friendliest possible forum to give his side of the coronavirus narrative. Among the chyron graphics: How Florida succeeded where New York failed. Pilloried all day Tuesday on CNN and MSNBC, the Governor finally had what could be called equal time, with Hannity cueing him up via an extended rant about New York’s Governor and COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. Spinning Florida’s stats in the best possible way, Hannity served as hypeman for a Governor who needed one.
“Former COVID-19 data scientist says older patients driving virus surge” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics — The Governor unceremoniously fired a data scientist who did key work on Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard weeks ago, yet the person’s piercing critique of the state’s approach to the virus fight continues. Rebekah Jones, in Tuesday comments, continued her critique of information from the state that she contends is less than accurate. Jones countered DeSantis‘ contentions on a number of fronts, including shifting rationales for what caused the spike in diagnoses in recent weeks, such as the young causing the spread. While there has been an “increase overall,” in Southeast Florida, Jones noted that “we actually see a disproportionate number of the older population.”
“Democrats: DeSantis’ virus inaction cost Floridian lives’” via Terry Spencer and Bobby Caina Calvan of The Associated Press — Florida’s Democratic congressional delegation blasted DeSantis’ response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying that his refusal to issue statewide orders requiring masks and impose tougher restrictions on businesses has caused unneeded deaths and spread the disease. They called on the Republican governor to close beaches and again close gyms and bar inside dining at restaurants statewide. They said he has never met with a bipartisan congressional delegation to discuss the virus and his administration’s order Monday requiring school districts to reopen classrooms this fall usurps local authority and endangers families.
Democrats are accusing Ron DeSantis of inaction, which cost the lives of hundreds of Floridians. Image via AP.
“Senate Democrats warn of looming COVID-19 storm, bash DeSantis” via Renzo Downey of Florida Politics — Senate Democrats hit DeSantis for what they call absent leadership in the state’s COVID-19 response as the second wave of new diagnoses continues to build. Senators called for a mask mandate, transparency in hospital data and leadership on contact tracing and isolating positive individuals, calling the state’s response “terrible.” With the Governor highlighting transitional nursing homes for elderly patients who are stable enough to not be hospitalized but still have the virus, incoming Senate Democratic Leader Gary Farmer pointed to that as a silent admission that hospitals are already feeling the strain. Lantana Democratic Sen. Lori Berman added, “We are at a tipping point. We might even be beyond the tipping point given the numbers that we’re seeing.”
“Can DeSantis force Florida schools to reopen in a pandemic? Some school leaders doubt it” via Andrew Marra of the Palm Beach Post — The emergency order — issued by state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, the same day DonaldTrump called for schools to reopen — appeared at first to undermine the push by some educators to keep classes online when the school year begins. Though the order said schools can remain closed if county health officials deem reopening too dangerous, a Corcoran spokeswoman heaped doubt on that possibility. “Logically, I don’t think they could say schools aren’t safe if they are allowing people to be out in public,” Department of Education spokeswoman Cheryl Etters told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
“School reopening plans due with three weeks” via the News Service of Florida — A day after Corcoran ordered Florida’s public schools to reopen in August, state education officials held a webinar to address questions about the mandate. K-12 Chancellor Jacob Oliva told school district officials that they need to submit reopening plans and agree to all the points in Corcoran’s emergency order by July 31. For example, school districts need to assure the Florida Department of Education that they agree to reopen next month and that they will offer the full panoply of services required by law.
“DeSantis sends 100 nurses to Miami’s Jackson Health as it struggles with COVID-19” via David Fleshler of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — About 100 nurses and other medical personnel will be sent by the state to Jackson Health to help Miami’s public hospital system cope with the surge of coronavirus cases. DeSantis announced the decision Tuesday at a news conference in Miami, as the state posted another 7,347 cases and the highest positivity rate since the beginning of the epidemic. “I think that will be something that will be very useful for them as they continue to deal not only with COVID- patients, but also non-COVID patients,” DeSantis said. “So we’re happy to be able to be supportive, and we’re standing by to do more as circumstances warrant.”
Buckling under the pressure of rising COVID-19 cases, Ron DeSantis orders 100 nurses to Miami’s Jackson Health hospital. Image via the Miami Herald.
“Miami-Dade Mayor reverses course, will allow gyms to stay open as COVID-19 cases rise” via David J. Neal of the Miami Herald — People in Miami-Dade County will still be able to hit the I do not know what is going on the Wi-Fi was everything checks out with the Wi-Fi gym to regain their pre-pandemic bodies. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez said gyms and fitness centers would remain open under an emergency order that will go into effect Wednesday as his response to a spike in the county’s COVID-19 cases, positive test rates, hospitalizations and intensive care unit bed usage. He had originally said gyms would shut down. Giménez was going to put restaurants back under takeout and delivery only, then said Monday night that outdoor seating would be allowed.
“South Florida students won’t be required to return to classrooms” via Lois K. Solomon of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — South Florida students likely won’t be required to return to brick-and-mortar classrooms next month, despite a state order issued Monday that mandates the opening of school five days a week when the new school year starts. The order leaves the decision to local officials based on health considerations. South Florida school officials say it would be difficult to have everyone return to school safely as the coronavirus pandemic continues its relentless spread. “We do not see a realistic path” to every school in the county opening five days a week this fall, Superintendent Robert Runcie said during a Broward School Board workshop on Tuesday.
“Broward clerk of courts hospitalized with coronavirus, she tells event organizer” via Rafael Olmeda of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Broward Clerk of Courts Brenda Forman has been hospitalized with the new coronavirus, she has told an event organizer. Forman, 62, has been running for reelection, touting her record as a manager and an advocate for funding for her office. She was scheduled to speak Monday at a virtual meeting of the Broward Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the organization’s president, Ruby L. Green. “I called her Sunday to confirm,” said Green, a candidate for Public Defender. “She told me she would not be able to join us because she was in the hospital with COVID-19.” Green announced the reason for Forman’s absence during the meeting, which attracted 20 participants. It was not recorded.
No bueno — “Fontainebleau Hotel announces more than 1,300 layoffs. No word on when it might rehire” via Rob Wile of the Miami Herald — The spike in COVID-19 cases has led Miami Beach’s iconic Fontainebleau Hotel to lay off 1,309 workers indefinitely, according to a filing with the state. In a letter dated June 23 and published on the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s website Tuesday, a hotel official said that after recent national media reporting on increased COVID-19 cases in Florida, it had seen a rapid decline in leisure room night bookings. “This weekend alone thousands of group and leisure rooms have been canceled,” it said, referring to the weekend of June 19.
“‘Things are not getting better … they are getting worse,’ Fire Chief says” via Jane Musgrave of The Palm Beach Post — Palm Beach County children are showing long-term lung damage from COVID-19, two firefighters are in intensive care and hospital admissions, along with cases, are spiking, two top county officials said Tuesday, painting a grim picture of the continuing toll of the pandemic. “Certainly, all indications are things are not getting better, they are not getting steady, they are getting worse,” Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Chief Reginald Duren told county commissioners, adding that 109 firefighters are in quarantine. His remarks came after Palm Beach County Health Director Dr. Alina Alonso said the county is failing to meet four of the six benchmarks that it must hit to declare that the deadly coronavirus is under control.
“Lake Worth Beach businesses targeted with anti-mask signs” via Jorge Millan of the Palm Beach Post — Several businesses in the area were the targets over the weekend of a flyer-packing protester pushing back against Palm Beach County’s mandated use of face masks to combat the coronavirus epidemic. The flyers, including one encouraging customers to “ASSERT YOUR RIGHTS,” were taped to storefront windows using blue tape. Stores and shops requiring patrons to use face masks appeared to be the primary focus of the mischief. Heidi Ferguson, who owns Stitches & Rust, said she had a small sign outside her vintage clothing and housewares shop detailing the county’s ordinance passed last month requiring residents and visitors to wear facial coverings inside buildings such as grocery stores and restaurants. “Just an ordinary sign. Nothing that would cause outrage.”
Signs like this are popping up around Lake Worth businesses that require masks to enter. Image via the Palm Beach Post.
Duh — “Ravens QB Lamar Jackson cancels weekend event in South Florida, where COVID-19 cases are surging” via Jonas Shaffer of the Baltimore Sun — Ravens quarterback and South Florida native Jackson has canceled his annual “Funday with LJ” event this weekend in Broward County, a spokesperson for the event confirmed Tuesday. With strict social-distancing guidelines in place amid the coronavirus pandemic, the city of Pompano Beach had set limits on the event’s attendance, the spokesperson said. Because of the number of people already registered for the event, Jackson decided to cancel the event rather than turn away any. On Monday, Jackson had shared a flyer on Instagram for the two-day event, which advertised some of the activities available — flag football games, Go-Karts, waterslides — and noted, in smaller print, that children had to sign a waiver to participate.
More local
“5 Central Florida hospitals hit ICU capacity, but region still has beds available for any COVID-19 surge” via Naseem Miller of the Orlando Sentinel — Intensive care units at several hospitals in Central Florida were at full capacity, as the state reported more than 6,000 new cases of coronavirus and 47 deaths. Orlando Health ORMC, Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, AdventHealth Kissimmee, AdventHealth Winter Park and Poinciana Medical Center had no ICU capacity, according to data from the Agency for Health Care Administration, which provides only a snapshot in time. But the picture is more promising when all available ICU beds are averaged for each county: Orange County had 17% overall ICU bed availability, Lake had 17%, Osceola had 12% and Seminole had 10%.
Some hospitals in Central Florida are hitting the limit for available ICU beds, but the overall region is still in decent shape.
“Orange teachers protest reopening schools, as school board discusses coming academic year” via Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel — In cars decorated with homemade signs that read, “Keep schools closed. Keep teachers safe” and “How many students must die?” dozens of Orange County schoolteachers paraded around their school district’s headquarters Tuesday, urging school leaders not to open campuses for in-person classes next month. The car parade and protest was organized by the local teachers union to coincide with the Orange County School Board meeting to discuss how to reopen schools in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Hillsborough schools to require masks for students, staff” via Jeffrey S. Solochek and Marlene Sokol of the Tampa Bay Times — When students and staff return to Hillsborough County schools in August, they will need to have masks. Superintendent Addison Davis announced Monday that he had changed his view, which had been to encourage but not require facial coverings, after consulting with several medical, education and community leaders, as well as hearing from many angry parents. “This is a movement that must be taken in order to protect our children,” Davis said. “My responsibility is to take every proactive step I can to prevent the spread of COVID-19.” The plan, he explained, is to have students and staff, visitors and vendors, wear facial coverings in any shared space where social distancing cannot occur. That includes classrooms, hallways and buses.
“On further review, concealed permit holders aren’t exempt from Hillsborough mask order” via Charlie Frago of the Tampa Bay Times — Concealed weapons permit holders are not exempt from a county order on face mask requirements. Hillsborough County officials said Tuesday. Its Emergency Policy Group discussed inaccurate information Monday. Further legal research showed there was no such provision in state law, a county spokeswoman said. The county’s Emergency Policy Group voted Monday to tweak its mask order. One of the changes was to clarify that the county measure didn’t conflict with state law regarding concealed carry permit holders.
“Pinellas County sees uptick in ICU bed use for COVID-19 patients, but surge bed capacity is unclear” via Veronica Brezina-Smith of the Tampa Bay Business Journal — Hospitals in Pinellas County are losing space for COVID-19 patients as more are being admitted to intensive care unit beds. But county commissioners said the hospital systems stand by their initial statements that they have enough resources for a surge. More than 100 COVID-19 patients are being treated in ICU beds in Pinellas County, or 32 percent, which is due to more severe life-threatening cases, Pinellas County commissioners said during a virtual board meeting. Pinellas County Health Director Dr. Ulyee Choe said there is a direct link between bed capacity and workforce. The more nurses and staff members a hospital system has is correlated to the number of beds hospitals can manage during a surge.
“St. Pete plans to open coronavirus testing site at Mahaffey Theater” via Veronica Brezina-Smith of the Tampa Bay Business Journal — The city of St. Petersburg is preparing to open a COVID-19 testing site at the Mahaffey Theater. The city is working with the county and state on the new test site, St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman said during a news conference at the city’s emergency operations center. “One of our goals is to see an increase in testing,” Kriseman said. Following the announcement, the Mayor tweeted more details about the site. The tests will be free and will be given regardless if someone is or isn’t presenting symptoms. It will also be drive-thru only with a limit of four people per car. The site will be open for testing on Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
“Some Tampa Bay restaurants choosing to close amid safety concerns and dwindling sales” via Helen Freund of the Tampa Bay Times — Absent any reopening rollbacks at the state or local level, a growing number of Tampa Bay restaurant owners are deciding to temporarily close their businesses, either shutting the doors altogether or staying open for to-go and delivery service. Their reasons vary, but usually include some combination of general safety concerns, declining sales and an increasing number of restaurant employees testing positive for the virus. It’s not an easy decision. Many restaurant owners are still trying to dig themselves out of the financial hole caused by a roughly six-week state-mandated shutdown, and most have said PPP funds won’t be enough to sustain the industry in the long run, especially for those who haven’t received rent abatement from their landlords.
“Mask ordinance fails at Cape Coral council meeting” via Anika Henanger, Taylor Petras and Jack Lowenstein of WINK — The motion to approve a face mask ordinance in the City of Cape Coral failed during the Monday Cape Coral City Council meeting. Council decided to strongly recommend the use of masks out in public and to stick to education of mask use and public safety during the coronavirus pandemic. Public commenters showed up again in large number to be heard by the mayor and council. The messages from the public varied between approval and disdain for the ordinance that eventually failed.
“Fort Myers church fires back at social media claims it intentionally exposed members to COVID-19” via Frank Gluck of the Fort Myers News-Press — A Fort Myers church attended by a 17-year-old Lee County girl who died last month from COVID-19 strongly denied social media allegations that it intentionally exposed members to the coronavirus and ignored safety guidelines on masks and social distancing. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, First Assembly of God called any such claims “false and defamatory.” … “Those allegations are absolutely false and are based upon irresponsible speculation and inaccurate information,” the statement reads. “Because those false reports have been picked up, perpetuated and posted throughout national, local and social media, the church has been subject to a relentless attack and finds itself forced to make this statement in an effort to get the truth out.”
Carsyn Davis of Fort Myers died of COVID-19 after attending a church service that some allege intentionally exposed members to the virus. The church is firing back on those accusations.
“High levels of COVID-19 have been found in Florida sewage, but a local spill hasn’t been tested” via Beau Zimmer of Tampa Bay 10 — After 25 million gallons of raw sewage was discovered leaking from a broken pipe into Sarasota Bay, the town of Longboat Key and environmental crews began testing for the standard environmental hazards … E. coli and fecal coliform. Both can cause environmental damage or even make people sick. But no one thought to test for something else that could cause contamination: COVID-19. “Our wastewater is chuck full the virus,” said Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease doctor who has been following studies on high levels of COVID-19 in the sewer systems of South Florida. “As long as we have COVID circulating in our population and people using the sewer systems to relieve themselves, that wastewater is going to have virus in it,” Dr. Marty said.
“UCF has spent nearly $5 million on COVID-19 safety measures” via Jason Delgado of Florida Politics — As one of the largest universities in the nation, UCF has the tall task of protecting more than 69,000 students and more than 13,500 employees, some of whom may be on campus at anytime come Fall. The cost of UCF’s COVID-19 measures has prompted the university to adjust its budget to help manage the continuing expenses. The university may also consider other budget alternatives such as hiring and purchasing freezes. Documents show that UCF will also utilize disinfectant foggers that can kill viruses on contact and post signs that encourage social distancing and the use of masks. No costs, however, were provided for those items.
“Orlando Magic player tests positive for COVID-19; Markelle Fultz delays entering NBA bubble” via Roy Parry of the Orlando Sentinel — The Orlando Magic entered the NBA bubble Tuesday without an unidentified player, who tested positive for COVID-19, and Fultz, whose entry was delayed due to a personal issue. Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said during a videoconference with reporters on Tuesday that Fultz is dealing with a personal matter unrelated to the virus. His absence is excused and the league is aware of his situation, according to Weltman. He said Fultz is following all safety protocols and expects a “seamless transition” for the guard’s return, although Weltman did not have a specific timetable for when that will be.
Corona nation
“U. S. cases rise 1.8%; Texas infections hit record: Virus update” via Bloomberg — Coronavirus cases in the U.S. rose 1.8% as compared to the same time yesterday to 2.96 million, according to data. That matched the average daily increase over the past week and marked a fourth day in which new cases topped 50,000. Deaths rose 0.6% to 130,813. New cases in Texas topped 10,000 for the first time, rising by 5%, or 10,028, from Monday to 210,585. That exceeded the seven-day average daily increase of 3.9%. Sixty more people died, a 2.3% increase, versus an average 1.4% rise over the previous seven days. An additional 588 hospitalized with COVID-19 also topped the state’s seven-day average.
Betty DeVos and the White House leaned on the CDC to justify reopening schools.
“White House leans on CDC, pediatricians to argue for reopening schools” via Nicole Gaudiano of POLITICO — The push to reopen comes as parents agonize over whether it will be safe to send their kids back to school this fall and districts wrestle with whether and how to conduct classes. Reopening is vital not just to get the economy going, but to Trump’s reelection prospects. The campaign may be banking on the issue to revive his appeal among disaffected suburban women, whose support will be key. The White House is leaning on CDC reopening guidance and a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics that details the importance of in-person learning and “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”
“Betsy DeVos blasts school districts that hesitate at reopening” via Nicole Gaudiano of POLITICO — During a call with Governors, she slammed the Fairfax, Virginia, district for its distance learning “disaster” in the spring and offering a choice of only zero or two days of in-person instruction moving forward. Earlier in the pandemic, DeVos had been more open to kids learning both online and during in-person classes “Education leaders need to examine real data and weigh risk …” she said. HHS Secretary Alex Azar separately backed up DeVos, saying parents should expect schools to deliver a safe learning environment for their children, even during a pandemic. “We must reopen,” he said. “We’ve got to get people back to work, back to school, back to health care, because we can’t stay locked in our homes forever.
“Anthony Fauci warns U.S. is ‘knee-deep’ in first wave of coronavirus cases and prognosis is ‘really not good’” via Savannah Behrmann of USA Today — Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the U.S. handle on the coronavirus outbreak is “really not good” and that action is needed to curb the spread. In an interview via Facebook Live, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said, “We are still knee-deep in the first wave of this. And I would say, this would not be considered a wave. It was a surge, or a resurgence of infections superimposed upon a baseline.” New cases in the USA have reached record highs, climbing to about 50,000 a day. Nearly 3 million Americans have contracted the virus, and more than 130,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
“U.S. will pay $1.6 billion to Novavax for coronavirus vaccine” via Katie Thomas of The New York Times — The federal government will pay the vaccine maker Novavax $1.6 billion to expedite the development of 100 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine by the beginning of next year, the company said. The deal is the largest that the Trump administration has made so far with a company as part of Operation Warp Speed, the sprawling federal effort to make coronavirus vaccines and treatments available to the American public as quickly as possible. Operation Warp Speed is a multiagency effort that seeks to carry out Trump’s pledge to make a coronavirus vaccine available by the end of the year,
“Months into virus crisis, U.S. cities still lack testing capacity” via Sarah Mervosh and Manny Fernandez of The New York Times — Lines for coronavirus tests have stretched around city blocks and tests ran out altogether in at least one site on Monday, new evidence that the country is still struggling to create a sufficient testing system months into its battle with COVID-19. At a testing site in New Orleans, a line formed at dawn. But city officials ran out of tests five minutes after the doors opened at 8 a.m., and many people had to be turned away.
“Protective gear for medical workers begins to run low again” via Geoff Mulvihill and Camille Fassett of The Associated Press — The personal protective gear that was in dangerously short supply during the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. is running low again as the virus resumes its rapid spread and the number of hospitalized patients climbs. A national nursing union is concerned that gear has to be reused. A doctors association warns that physicians’ offices are closed because they cannot get masks and other supplies. And Democratic members of Congress are pushing the Trump administration to devise a national strategy to acquire and distribute gear in anticipation of the crisis worsening into the fall. “We’re five months into this and there are still shortages of gowns, hair covers, shoe covers, masks, N95 masks,” said Deborah Burger, president of National Nurses United.
Protective gear for medical workers is once again in short supply.
“Why does coronavirus hit Hispanics harder? Reasons might be found in Wimauma.” via Juan Carlos Chavez of the Tampa Bay Times — About half the COVID-19 cases reported nationwide include data on ethnicity (or 1.06 million) of them. Hispanics make up more than a third of these cases, nearly twice their share of the population as a whole. The number of coronavirus deaths among Hispanics as of Thursday was 14,572, about 18 percent of the total where ethnicity was reported. Studies are underway to explain the trend, but biological factors likely are not a reason. More likely are factors that were in place long before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared March 11, Dr. Marissa Levine said, factors like the limits experienced by many Hispanics in educational attainment, employment opportunities, transportation, health care access, food security and housing.
Corona economics
“Virus loans helped entities tied to Donald Trump evangelical allies” via Elana Schor of The Associated Press — Those receiving loans include the City of Destiny, the Florida church that Trump’s personal pastor and White House faith adviser Paula White-Cain calls home. The City of Destiny got between $150,000 and $350,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. King Jesus International Ministry, the Miami megachurch where Trump launched his evangelical outreach push ahead of November’s election, received a loan of between $2 million and $5 million according to the data. That church’s pastor, Guillermo Maldonado, was also among a group of faith leaders who met and prayed with Trump at the White House last fall.
Senior Pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress addresses attendees before Vice President Mike Pence made comments at First Baptist Church Dallas during a Celebrate Freedom Rally. Several of Donald Trump’s evangelical allies are beneficiaries of the PPP program. Image via AP.
“Federal pandemic loans flow to health providers” via Christine Sexton of the News Service of Florida — More than 4,600 health care providers in Florida received at least $1.7 billion in interest-free federal loans meant to prevent massive job layoffs, a News Service of Florida review of data released by the federal government shows. The loans, which went to providers ranging from pediatricians to pharmacists to hospice providers and nearly everything in between, helped keep 200,000 jobs. The majority of the 4,637 Florida health care companies included in the data released by the Small Business Association applied for loans in the $150,000 to $300,000 range. Twenty-two companies, though, were awarded loans between $5 million and $10 million.
“Questions raised over how Florida Democratic Party scored Paycheck Protection Program funds” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — The PPP was created to assist small businesses and nonprofits in keeping their staffs employed through the coronavirus crisis. But political parties are explicitly excluded from being eligible for the PPP program. Building funds reportedly are not allowed to spend any money that directly influences an election. That means the 100 employees cited for the Florida Democratic Party Building Fund ought to be someone other than the Democratic Party’s staff. Who are they? A spokesperson released a statement that read, “Congress passed PPP to help ensure employers maintained payroll during this crisis and to keep people employed — and that’s exactly what FDP did.”
“Companies connected to Southwest Florida pols banked PPP funds” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics — A number of Southwest Florida companies connected to prominent regional politics appeared on a now-public list of businesses that received Payroll Protection Program assistance. That included a number of law firms with sitting or prospective officeholders on their payroll. Included on the list was Sarasota 500, the corporate name for Sarasota Ford. The dealership was one of the last that U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan owned for several years, and is still owned by Buchanan’s son Matt. Several law firms with lawmakers on the payroll ultimately ended up receiving funds. Blalock Walters in Bradenton, where state Rep. Will Robinson serves as a principal, collected between $350,000 and $1 million.
“Paycheck Protection Program loan keeps Seminole Boosters, Inc. staffed during pandemic” via Curt Weiler of the Tallahassee Democrat — One Florida State-affiliated organization has benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program. A database released by the United States Small Business Administration includes Seminole Boosters, Inc., on its list of 82,708 small businesses or nonprofit organizations that have received a million dollars or more in funding from the Paycheck Protection Program. According to the database listing, Seminole Boosters was approved for a loan between $1 million to $2 million on April 14 in order to continue to support 54 jobs during the pandemic. Andy Miller, President and CEO of Seminole Boosters, confirmed to the Democrat that the organization received $1,017,455 through the Payroll Protection Program, but later returned $130,430 after a further review of the terms of the loan.
“United Airlines sees risk of stalled rebound on virus surge” via Justin Bachman of Bloomberg — United Airlines Holdings Inc. warned employees that a jump in coronavirus infections in parts of the South and West is jeopardizing a nascent recovery for U.S. travel. The shares plunged. The airline has seen a sharp drop in bookings, particularly at its Newark, New Jersey hub, as states in the New York City metro area add new quarantine rules for travelers, United executives told employees Monday in a town hall meeting. United “expects demand to remain suppressed until a widely accepted treatment and/or vaccine for COVID-19 is available,” the airline said.
“A million jobs lost: A ‘heart attack’ for the NYC economy” via Patrick McGeehan of The New York Times — New York City, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, is mired in the worst economic calamity since the financial crisis of the 1970s, when it nearly went bankrupt. The city is staggering toward reopening with some workers back at their desks or behind cash registers, and on Monday, it began a new phase, allowing personal-care services like nail salons and some outdoor recreation to resume. Even so, the city’s unemployment rate is hovering near 20% — a figure not seen since the Great Depression. What was intended as a “pause” has dragged on so long that for many workers, furloughs are turning into permanent job losses.
More corona
“Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for COVID-19 after months of dismissing the seriousness of the virus” via Tara John, Marcia Reverdosa and Taylor Barnes of CNN — Bolsonaro has tested positive for COVID-19, following months of downplaying the virus. Bolsonaro himself announced the result, speaking on Brazilian TV channels. “Everyone knew that it would reach a considerable part of the population sooner or later. It was positive for me,” he said, referring to the COVID-19 test he took Monday. “On Sunday, I wasn’t feeling very well. On Monday, it got worse when I started feeling tired and some muscle pain. I also had a 38-degree [Celsius] fever. Given those symptoms, the presidential doctor said there was suspicion of COVID-19,” Bolsonaro said, adding that he then went to the hospital to receive a lung scan.
Karma in action: After months of flouting social distance guidelines, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for coronavirus. Image via Getty.
“The retired inventor of N95 masks is back at work, mostly for free, to fight COVID-19” via Sydney Page of The Washington Post — Peter Tsai retired two years ago, but the materials scientist says he’s never been busier. When the novel coronavirus began gripping the globe in March, Tsai was summoned from his short-lived retirement. He was in urgent demand because he is the inventor who, in 1995, patented the filtration material used in disposable N95 respirators. The coveted masks are in short supply and are desperately needed by health care workers and others who require protection from the highly contagious coronavirus. Tsai started receiving a ceaseless torrent of calls and queries from national labs, companies and health care workers in need of help.
“Millions of Americans have moved due to coronavirus” via Breanna Bradham of Bloomberg — Three percent of U.S. adults have moved either temporarily or permanently and 6% say that someone has moved into their home because of COVID-19, according to new Pew Research Center data. In total, more than one in five adults either moved themselves, had someone move into their home, or knew someone who did due to the virus. Nearly one in ten Americans aged 18 to 29 said they had moved because of the pandemic, and many of them have returned home. Reducing the risk of contracting the virus was the most common reason respondents said they moved (28%), followed by the closure of college campuses (23%) and to be with family (20%).
“The bank drive-through makes a COVID-19 comeback” via Orla McCaffrey of The Wall Street Journal — Long before ATMs and online banking, drive-through lanes were a popular customer convenience by the 1950s. The digital age threatened the survival of the mechanical systems, built on 19th-century technology, but COVID-19 has started to reverse their declining fortunes. Banks are reopening decommissioned and unused lanes. Some are installing new ones. Citigroup Inc. reactivated about 30 drive-up teller windows after city and state authorities started telling people to stay home. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., and Fifth Third also have added drive-through capacity.
Smoldering
“White House struggles to explain Trump’s confederate flag stance” via Jordan Fabian and Mario Parker of Bloomberg — The White House struggled for a second day to explain Trump’s embrace of the Confederate flag, with one of his top aides saying the display of the banner should be debated, not rejected outright. Kellyanne Conway, the senior White House counselor, said in an interview that Trump views the Confederate flag, which many views as a symbol of hate, as a “freedom of speech issue.” “But I think it’s a good conversation for this country to have,” Conway said. “I have this same conversation with my own children.”
White House spokespeople are tying themselves in knots trying to explain and justify Donald Trump’s stance on the Confederate flag. Image via Bloomberg.
“Pentagon considering a base-wide ban on Confederate flags” via Missy Ryan and Alex Horton of The Washington Post — Pentagon leaders are considering a ban on Confederate flags at all bases, an official said Monday, in another possible step in the military’s reckoning with racism and its long acceptance of Civil War tributes. The official said the draft policy being considered at the Pentagon’s highest levels would build on recent moves by military services to bar Confederate symbols on facilities they control and, if approved, would represent the first Defense Department-wide prohibition of such iconography.
“What it can cost to get arrested at a protest” via Samantha Fields of Marketplace — Protesters get arrested all the time. No big deal. That’s what D’Angelo Sandidge thought, before it happened to him. “Like, OK, they’ll hold you for 24 hours, and then they’ll release you,” he said. But for Sandidge, one of thousands of people arrested in recent days at protests around the country over systemic racism, police brutality and the killing of George Floyd, there have been significant lingering effects. Sandidge was caught and arrested for violating curfew and for resisting arrest by flight. He was held for more than 24 hours, during which he missed the orientation for his new job.
“Facebook fails to appease organizers of ad boycott” via Mike Isaac and Tiffany Hsu of The New York Times — Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s two top executives, met with civil rights groups on Tuesday in an attempt to mollify them over how the social network treats hate speech on its site. But the CEO and COO failed to win critics over. For more than an hour over Zoom, the duo, along with other Facebook executives, discussed the company’s handling of hate speech with representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Color of Change and other groups. The groups said they discussed several demands to help prevent vitriol and hate from spreading on the site. Zuckerberg and Sandberg agreed to hire a civil rights position, but they did not come to a resolution on most other requests.
“Goodbye, Columbus: The District of Columbia needs a new name” via Dana Milbank of The Washington Post — If we can drink beer and eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day, surely all Americans can enjoy Barolo and Bolognese once a year — and the Indigenous people whose ruin Christopher Columbus set in motion should have their day, too. But this still leaves a glaring problem behind: a 68-square-mile monument to Columbus here in the mid-Atlantic. It is time for the District of Columbia to say goodbye, Columbus — and get itself a new name. As it happens, the House has already approved one. On June 26, Democrats approved, on a party-line vote, H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, welcoming the nation’s capital as a state, with two Senators and a new name: “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.”
Remains of the Christopher Columbus statue near Little Italy after protesters ripped it from its pedestal and dragged it into the Jones Falls in Baltimore. Image via Getty.
“Washington and Lee faculty vote to drop ‘Lee’ from name” via Rachel Kogan of Campus Reform — The faculty at Washington and Lee University voted Monday to remove the name of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from the school. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the motion was approved during a meeting of 260 faculty members and Washington and Lee University President Will Dudley via videoconference. Seventy-nine percent of faculty voted in favor of the change. But some faculty members at the law school say that removing Lee’s name is not enough, and they want Washington’s name eliminated as well. “It is worth exploring why the faculty has decided to make a collective statement on Lee and why the faculty has not included a demand to drop Washington in their petition,” law professor Brandon Hasbrouck wrote in a letter to Dudley. A motion to amend the resolution to include the removal of Washington failed.
“Miami-Dade commission to vote on police oversight panel again” via Alexi C. Cardona of the Miami New Times — For years, community leaders have advocated for a review board to investigate citizen complaints against Miami-Dade police officers. Now, a measure reinstating a long-defunct civilian oversight panel will come up for a public hearing and second vote during Wednesday’s county commission meeting. The county created a police oversight panel in 1980 following riots over the killing of Arthur McDuffie and the acquittal of four Miami-Dade police officers who beat him with batons and flashlights. The panel was defunded in 2009 because of the economic recession. County Commissioner Barbara Jordan tried reviving the panel in 2018 and commissioners passed the measure, but Mayor Giménez vetoed it, saying he wasn’t “entirely convinced” of the need.
“Confederate General statue no longer welcome in Lake County” via Stephen Hudak of the Orlando Sentinel — After a two-year fight, Edmund Kirby Smith’s future caretakers will have to find a new home for the bronzed Jim Crow-era relic of the Florida-born military leader. Lake County commissioners officially rejected the statue Tuesday. Commission Chairman Leslie Campione authored the board’s one-page letter to DeSantis citing the general’s lack of a “direct connection” to Lake County for the decision that the Lake County Historical Courthouse “is not an appropriate location for this particular artifact.” The letter also cited the role the historic courthouse played in the “Groveland Four” tragedy and “the division and strife created in our community over the decision to place the Smith statue in this particular location.”
“Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson recommends removing Confederate monument after staff report” via Jim Little of the Pensacola News Journal — Robinson is endorsing a city staff report recommending the complete removal of the Confederate monument in Lee Square. City Administrator Keith Wilkins sent a memo to the mayor recommending the monument’s complete removal from city property after staff reviewed the history of the monument and found it does not reflect the city’s “current values nor strive to create a more inclusive city.” The Pensacola City Council will still have the final say on the fate of the monument at a July 14 special meeting.
“St. Pete police say they will now ticket protesters for blocking traffic” via Colin Wolf of Creative Loafing — In response to protesters allegedly blocking roads, the St. Petersburg Police Department announced today that they will now enforce stricter pedestrian traffic rules. “For the safety of pedestrians and the community, St. Petersburg officers will be enforcing pedestrian traffic rules,” said a statement. “At first, officers will hand out flyers to educate and warn pedestrians, including protesters. Citations will follow later this week with a $62.50 fine.” “Recent national incidents of vehicles striking protesters who were blocking roadways highlight the importance of following the law and staying clear of traffic,” said the statement.
St. Petersburg police will be ticketing protesters for blocking traffic.
“Milton residents voice opposition to potential ‘Black Lives Matter’ mural on city street” via Annie Blanks of the Pensacola News Journal — Activists had been planning to come to the city of Milton to request permission to paint a “Black Lives Matter” street mural on a city street, but before they could even make the request, dozens of “All Lives Matter” supporters showed up to a City Council meeting to condemn the approval of the painting. The issue was brought before the council. Rumors began circulating on social media earlier in the day that Black Lives Matter organizers were going to request permission to paint a city street with the words “Black Lives Matter,” similar to murals that have been painted in Washington, D.C., Austin and, most recently, Pensacola. However, several people showed up to the City Council’s meeting Monday night to protest the approval of such a mural.
As it should be — “He screamed, ‘I feel threatened’ at Florida Costco customers. Now he’s out of a job” via C. Isaiah Smalls II — Florida was the center of another coronavirus confrontation this week. This one involved a man who reacted badly after being asked to put on a mask in a Costco store. In a video shared on Twitter, the man could be seen screaming, “I feel threatened” at Costco customers in Fort Myers. Now, 24 hours after the drama, he has lost his insurance job. Daniel Maples was a salesman at Tedd Todd Insurance. His role in the virus drama went viral on social media when Miami filmmaker Billy Corben tweeted out the brief clip Monday evening.
D.C. matters
“Trump will visit the Southern Command in Miami in a nod to Venezuelan voters” via Nora Gámez Torres of the Miami Herald — Trump will review the advance of a counternarcotics operation in the Caribbean in a visit to the U.S. Southern Command in Doral. According to the White House, the trip aims to highlight “his Administration’s relentless, whole-of-government approach to curb the trafficking of drugs into our country.” In April, Trump announced an enhanced counternarcotics operation in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific near Central America. The operation has resulted in significant seizures of narcotics totaling more than $1 billion.
Donald Trump will tour Southern Command in Miami. Image via AP.
“Florida’s first aquatic preserve in 32 years a possible snag in federal plans for drilling” via John Haughey of Center Square Florida — DeSantis has made water quality improvements through environmental regulation a priority of his administration. In his 18 months in office, DeSantis has launched a four-year, $2.5 billion plan to address water quality issues in the Everglades, receiving more than $640 million in this year’s budget. DeSantis also has prevailed upon lawmakers to adopt several key policy directives, such as the newly minted Clean Waterways Act, which includes initiatives to reduce nutrient-laden runoff into state waters and increases environmental fines by 50 percent. As a part of that effort, DeSantis resigned House Bill 1061, which designates about 800 square miles of Gulf of Mexico coastal waters off Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties, including 400,000 acres of seagrass, as the Nature Coast Aquatic Preserve.
Statewide
“Florida announced as participant in new automated vehicle initiative” via WJNO — The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced Florida as one of its first participants in the Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safety Testing Initiative, a new USDOT-led effort to improve the safety and testing transparency for automated driving systems. “The AV-TEST Initiative is a monumental step into the future of automated vehicles, and we are proud Florida is one of the first states to participate in such an important effort led by USDOT and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” said Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Kevin J. Thibault, P.E.
Florida will be among the first in the Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safety Testing Initiative.
“Despite Governor’s veto, Tarpon Springs still plans to dredge Anclote River” via Rebecca Torrence of the Tampa Bay Times — Last week, DeSantis vetoed $812,100 in state funding to dredge the Anclote River, but Tarpon Springs says they can pay the difference. The dredging project would remove nearly two decades’ worth of silt and sediment from the river, restoring the Anclote to its normal depth of 11 feet, deep enough to support commercial fishing boats and waterfront tourism. Tarpon Springs has already secured more than $4.5 million to dredge the federal channel. The $812,100 that the city requested from the State of Florida would have gone toward dredging the extended turning basin, which is outside of federal jurisdiction.
“Complaints detail accusations against Palm Coast mayor” via Frank Fernandez via The Daytona Beach News-Journal — A complaint filed with the state’s Ethics Commission claims Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland misused her office and violated the city’s charter to benefit her employer, Coastal Cloud. The city’s compliance manager, Jay Maher, filed the complaint against Holland with the Florida Commission on Ethics earlier this year. He also sent a separate complaint letter to the State Attorney’s Office regarding possible violations of public records laws by several city officials involving emails from Holland in which she discusses Coastal Cloud. “On many occasions over the last year the mayor has interfered with the performance of City of Palm Coast employees in violation of section 11 of the city charter,” Maher wrote in his ethics complaint.
“Why are mosquitoes so bad in Florida this summer and how can we stop them?” via Gabrielle Calise of the Tampa Bay Times — Does it seem buggier than normal this year? Or does it just feel that way as friends opt for outdoor socialization in the time of COVID-19? (The WHO has said that the novel coronavirus cannot be transmitted via mosquitoes). John Bell, the f entomologist at TruGreen, chatted with the Tampa Bay Times to answer our mosquito questions. “Looking at this year, we had a very mild winter. There wasn’t a lot of suppression of mosquitoes. We had early spring, which means our temperatures here in Florida especially rose fairly quickly. We also had a lot of rainfall. So those two factors allow mosquitoes to begin to reproduce. And because of reproducing early, more generations can be produced over the course of the year.”
Lobby regs
New and renewed lobbying registrations:
Michael Corcoran, Matt Blair, Jacqueline Corcoran, Will Rodriguez, Andrea Tovar, Corcoran Partners: Meat Market Tampa
Jorge Chamizo, Charles Dudley, Melissa Ramba, Floridian Partners: NACM of Tampa, Naples Botanical Garden
Douglas Darling, DDarling Consulting: Microbemauraders
Frank Mayernick, Tracy Mayernick, Rob Johnson, The Mayernick Group: FFT Partners
In memoriam
Ballard Partners is launching a scholarship fund to honor the memory of lobbyist Gregory Turbeville, who died last week at the age of 49.
“The loss of Greg Turbeville has been heartbreaking for the entire Ballard Partners family. We all lost a favorite colleague and dear friend. In our grief, we have been inspired to create a living tribute to honor Greg’s blessed memory. The firm has endowed ‘The Gregory Turbeville Scholarship Fund’ within the FSU College of Music,” firm founder Brian Ballard wrote in a statement.
Ballard Partners is launching a scholarship fund in memory of the late lobbyist Gregory Tuberville, who died last week.
“The Scholarship fund will honor Greg’s lifelong passion for music. While many knew Greg as a master of public policy and legislative process during his tenure with our firm and during his public service for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Speaker of the House John Thrasher, those who knew Greg well also admired his deep love of music, as well as his enthusiastic support for all things Garnet and Gold,” Ballard said.
The scholarship will support students who demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and financial need.
Friends of Turbeville can help fund the scholarship with donations made payable to the FSU Foundation.
Check payments should include the “Gregory Turbeville Scholarship Fund” in the memo line.
Online contributions can be made via foundation.fsu.edu, with the “Gregory Turbeville Scholarship Fund” listed in the notes section.
“As soon as we can all safely gather together, we will host a Celebration of Life for all those who knew and loved Greg, and we will announce the date, time and location once it is scheduled. We ask that you please keep Greg’s family in your prayers during this difficult time,” Ballard concluded.
Turbeville had a long career in Florida politics, serving as Chief of Staff to Thrasher in the Florida House and later as Bush’s policy director. Appointed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist, Turbeville also served on the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which made recommendations for revisions to Florida’s Constitution.
2020
“Elections official appointed by Florida’s top Trump supporter says president is wrong about claims of mail-voting fraud” via Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Trump’s repeated, emphatic assertions that voting by mail is riddled with fraud and a way to rig the election are wrong. So says the supervisor of elections in Palm Beach County — the place Trump considers home and where he himself votes by mail. And the elections supervisor who refuted Trump’s claims was appointed to the job last year by DeSantis, one of Trump’s most prominent allies. DeSantis has supported Trump, and Trump has supported DeSantis. “No, he is not correct,” Wendy Sartory Link said about Trump’s assertions. Link is now running to retain the job she was appointed to last year after DeSantis suspended the previous county supervisor of elections, Susan Bucher.
Convention countdown
“Trump’s convention bash upended by Florida’s coronavirus crisis” via Marc Caputo and Gary Fineout of POLITICO — With coronavirus cases skyrocketing in Florida as Trump’s poll numbers drop in his must-win battleground state, it looks like the President won’t get his full-blown festivities there. DeSantis, a close Trump ally, refused to say whether he would lift a rule mandating that indoor gatherings stay under 50 percent capacity — which would hold the Jacksonville convention to 7,500 people. Two octogenarian GOP senators, Lamar Alexander and Chuck Grassley, announced they wouldn’t attend the convention amid the pandemic, which has hit the elderly the hardest.
Tweet, tweet — @JenniferJJacobs: Trump told@greta “flexible” on GOP convention in Jax. “When we signed a few weeks ago, it looked good. And now all of a sudden it’s spiking up a little bit and that’s going to go down. It really depends on the timing. … We can do a lot of things, but we’re very flexible.”
“Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry in self-quarantine after exposure to COVID-19” via Mike Mendenhall of the Jacksonville Daily Record — Curry made the revelation during a virtual news conference on July 7. Curry said he was exposed during a recent family vacation with someone who later tested positive and was symptomatic. Curry says he was tested after the exposure and is negative. The Mayor told members of the news media that he learned of his COVID-19 exposure July 5 and was hosting the news conference from his home instead of City Hall “as a precaution.” “I remain in constant contact with my team at City Hall, emergency management and health care leaders as we continue to respond to this pandemic,” he said.
Lenny Curry is in self-quarantine after exposure to COVID-19.
“Republican National Convention will test Jacksonville attendees daily for coronavirus” via Caroline Kelly and Fredricka Schouten of CNN — Erin Isaac, the spokeswoman for the host committee of the Jacksonville portion of the convention, said in an emailed memo that “everyone attending the convention within the perimeter will be tested and temperature checked each day.” When reached by CNN, Isaac repeated that attendees would be tested for COVID-19 and not just receive a more simple health screening. A party official said the GOP will be laying out more information on how the testing and other health protocols will work as the convention gets closer. If Republicans stick to the itinerary they previously planned, Trump will give his acceptance speech there at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on August 27, the last day of the convention.
“Why the Paul McCartney shoutout in Jacksonville’s RNC video raised some eyebrows” via Emily Bloch of The Florida Times-Union — “We’ve hosted the Super Bowl, the Rolling Stones, McCartney and Tim McGraw,” Jacksonville Mayor Curry said. Just six days earlier, the former Beatles frontman shared some thoughts about the band’s 1960s trip to Jacksonville — in support of Black Lives Matter. “In 1964, The Beatles were due to play Jacksonville in the U.S. and we found out that it was going to be a segregated audience,” McCartney wrote in an Instagram post. “It felt wrong. We said ‘We’re not doing that!’”
More from the trail
“Latest poll: Casey Askar, Byron Donalds lead crowded primary in CD 19” via Jacob Ogles of Florida politics — Naples businessman Askar holds the lead in a crowded Republican field vying in CD 19. That’s according to a St. Pete Polls survey, lawmaker Donalds is in a strong second place. The poll of likely Republican voters in the district pegged Askar’s support just above 30%. Donalds was the favorite of nearly 26% of voters. St. Pete Polls reports a margin of error of 4.3%. Dr. William Figlesthaler came in third with under 16%. House Republican Leader Dane Eagle sits in fourth with under 8%, ahead of Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson at around 5%. With only 12% of respondents undecided, the results suggest any path to victory for these candidates means cutting into Askar’s or Donalds’ support.
Casey Askar and Byron Donalds are taking the lead in a crowded CD19 race.
“Set to become Florida House speaker, Miami’s Daniel Perez still draws GOP primary” via David Smiley and Bianca Padro Ocasio of the Miami Herald — In the years after they won leadership races to become future speakers of the Florida House, neither Steve Crisafulli, Corcoran, José Oliva nor Chris Sprowls faced primary challenges from other Republicans. Perez was not so lucky. Just months after Perez’s colleagues backed him in a competitive race to become the likely Florida House speaker in 2024, the 33-year-old, two-term incumbent from Miami-Dade County drew an opponent from the right in Florida’s House District 116. His rival in the Aug. 18 primary is the ardently pro-Trump Gabriel Garcia.
“Randy Fine calls out opponent’s handling of rape allegations against campaign manager” via Tyler Vazquez of Florida Today — In an emotional news conference, Fine accused his Republican primary opponent of dismissing sexual assault allegations against her campaign manager. Marcie Adkins, who is running for Fine’s District 53 seat representing south Brevard, has defended herself as well as the accused Robert “Bobby” Burns, who works on her campaign running social media and communications. It When asked on Facebook by a commenter if she wanted to “triple down” in defending her campaign manager, she replied “Triple the praise. He is an awesome guy.”
“Ned Hancock, Kaylee Tuck hit mailboxes as HD 55 primary revs up” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics — Flyers hit mailboxes throughout House District 55 with rancher Ned Hancock promising a “farmer’s work ethic” in fighting a pandemic. In a separate mailer, he criticizes government officials who released prisoners or regulated churches in the outbreak. It’s part of more than $60,000 in marketing materials released by the Avon Park Republican. Financial reports on spending from June 13-26 show he dropped $47,786 in those two weeks alone ahead of the August 18 GOP primary. Republican opponent Kaylee Tuck spent $24,226 in the same period of time. Both candidates have raised more than six figures in the contest, with Tuck tallying $114,662 plus a $5,000 loan while Hancock reported $216,197 worth of donations. Most of that will be spent before the August primary for an open seat in a deep-red district.
“Christine Hunschofsky continues to rake in the cash in HD 96 bid” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Hunschofsky is keeping up her advantage in House District 96, as she continues to outpace her opponents in money raised. Hunschofsky added more than $12,000 in the most recent fundraising report covering June 13-26. She’s now raised nearly $57,000 since entering the race in late April and has added more than $10,000 in self-loans as well. She retains nearly $60,000 on hand. That’s leaps and bounds ahead of her next-closest opponent, fellow Democrat Saima Farooqui. Farooqui has raised a little over $4,200 and has less than $2,100 still on hand. Write-in candidate Muhammad Amin, who qualified just before the state’s June 12 deadline, has not reported raising any money through June 26. Amin’s entry means the Aug. 18 Democratic primary will be closed to registered Democrats only.
Christine Hunschofsky is putting up some solid fundraising numbers in her bid for House District 96.
“Maureen Porras beats out HD 105 field in latest fundraising report” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Porras came out on top in the most recent fundraising reports for the House District 105 contest. Porras is one of five candidates competing for the seat. She collected more than $5,000 through her campaign from June 13-26, according to newly-filed reports. New Leadership for Florida, a political committee supporting her bid, added another $5,000. Porras has nearly $54,000 remaining in her war chest as she faces former HD 105 candidate Javier Estevez in the Democratic primary. Estevez has been slow to raise money so far. He added just over $1,600 in the most recent two-week fundraising period, giving him a total this cycle of more than $28,000 raised. Estevez also lent his campaign $2,500 in February. He has less than $25,000 still on hand.
“Hialeah Mayor backs Alex Penelas in Miami-Dade County mayoral race” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Hernández says he will support Penelas as Penelas pushes to return to the office of County Mayor in 2020. Penelas previously served as County Mayor from 1996-2004. He’s one of seven candidates competing in the 2020 contest to replace term-limited Mayor Giménez. “In difficult times, we realize the importance of having true and proven leaders in our community who focus on uniting, rather than dividing us,” Hernández said in a Tuesday statement. “Leaders who know exactly what steps they must take to help us overcome the crisis we are living through, both in terms of health and the economy. That leader is Alex Penelas and that is why he has my support, my family’s, and the support of the great community of the City of Hialeah, to become the next mayor of the County.”
Epilogue — “David Straz’s campaign consultant files lawsuit for more money” via Charlie Frago of the Tampa Bay Times — Bill Fletcher made at least $2.8 million running Straz’s 2019 mayoral campaign, the most expensive race by far in the city’s history and one that ended in a lopsided loss for Fletcher’s candidate. Straz died in November. But Fletcher says the philanthropist’s estate owes him more money: $112,113 to be exact. The Nashville-based political consultant filed suit in Hillsborough County against Straz’s estate last month, saying Straz hadn’t reimbursed him for campaign expenses. Straz’s campaign was almost wholly self-funded with the retired banker spending more than $6 million in a bid that ended in a rout to Mayor Jane Castor.
Bill Fletcher was paid $2.8 million to help David Straz lose spectacularly. Now he is looking for another $112,000.
Top opinion
“Bob Gualtieri: Criminal justice system is not static — it’s constantly improving” via Florida Politics — The ACLU recently published an article entitled, “Racial disparities in Florida’s criminal justice system are shameful.” The article contained several false statements and painted a bleak picture of our current criminal justice system. Census data states 17% of Florida citizens are Black, while the Florida Department of Corrections reports that 47% of men and women in state prisons are Black. Those numbers cannot be disputed, but the conclusion that Florida’s entire criminal justice infrastructure is racist is too simple an answer. First, sheriffs agree there is always work to be done in creating a better criminal justice system that is fair to all citizens. Even today, there is no universal consensus among researchers as to how race impacts these differences.
Opinions
“DeSantis’ nonresponse to virus is biggest threat to Florida’s economy” via Randy Schultz of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — DeSantis is lucky that Florida prohibits petitions to recall the governor. He’s asking for one. On Monday, two days after the state set a national record for COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period, DeSantis declared, “I think we’ve stabilized at where we’re at.” Pair that comment with the governor’s previous eloquence as the surge grew: “We are where we are.” The governor’s reckless indifference to the pandemic aligns with that of his ventriloquist in the White House. DeSantis wants voters to see the state’s economy recovering. So he closed down too late and, like other Trump toadies, reopened too soon. Though DeSantis vowed, “We’re not rolling back,” he’s already broken that vow. He closed bars and allowed only curbside service. Meanwhile, plenty of other “rolling back” proceeds.
“Florida Republicans screwed up COVID-19 response” via Luther Campbell of the Miami New Times — The first failure in dealing with the coronavirus was not making sure everyone had access to testing during the early days of the pandemic in March. For instance, one of the first testing centers at Hard Rock Stadium was initially for only first responders. It took weeks to open it up to the public, but only after critics like me raised hell about it. We should have been rolling out an aggressive testing campaign to get ahead of the virus. Now, as Florida continues to regularly break single-day records for new cases, we are seeing local governments roll back testing sites. The City of Miami recently closed a testing site at Charles Hadley Park in Liberty City, one of the neighborhoods hit hardest by COVID-19. This is typical mismanagement by a banana republic.
“Scared Whites will pick up a gun, but are too scared to face the truth about themselves” via Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald — Certain incidents paint a grim picture of how many White Americans are responding in this summer of racial justice uprising. Namely, with the desperate panic of people who think the race war has come to their doorsteps. They’re breaking out guns and circling the wagons in defense of privilege and prerogative. It’s a dangerous, combustible mindset, egged on by the arsonist in the White House. Which makes one all the more thankful for those White people who have not lost their minds. It cannot be easy to learn that much of what you’ve been taught is a lie, that you are the product of a system designed to inculcate and maintain racism in you, to ensure there are voices you never hear, people you never see, stories you never know.
Today’s Sunrise
Florida Education Commissioner Corcoran is ordering public schools to fully reopen in August, regardless of the COVID-19 crisis. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz says that’s unwise — and unconstitutional.
Also, on today’s Sunrise:
— Gov. Ron DeSantis travels to Miami to announce the state is sending 100 nurses to help with the region’s spike in COVID-19. He claims it wouldn’t be a problem is Floridians would only follow his game plan.
— However, the Governor’s guidelines were not mandatory, and Democrats in Florida’s Congressional delegation say it’s time for DeSantis to grow a spine. Congresswoman Donna Shalala says his meek guidelines put lives at risk.
— The Democrats #1 ask of the Governor is a mandatory mask rule, something he would rather leave to local officials. Miami-Dade Mayor Giménez has already made them mandatory in his county, which is now facing the worst surge in the state.
— But Gimenez has now walked back a couple of the new restrictions — including those imposed on gyms and restaurants in his county. The Miami Herald describes it as “moonwalking.”
— Checking-in with a Florida Man arrested for drunken driving on a lawnmower.
“Colin Kaepernick’s deal with Disney includes a Jemele Hill project at ESPN” via Kevin Draper of The New York Times — Colin Kaepernick and the Walt Disney Company announced a production deal that will see the activist quarterback produce “scripted and unscripted stories that explore race, social injustice and the quest for equity” for the media giant’s various platforms, including ESPN. Work has already begun on a documentary series that will explore the last five years of Kaepernick’s life, as he began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before N.F.L. games to protest racism and police brutality.
“‘Hamilton’ drives up Disney Plus app downloads 74% over the weekend in U.S.” via Todd Spangler of Variety — “Hamilton” delivered for Disney Plus — with the musical movie of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s re-imagining of the founding father’s life spurring a spike in app downloads over its July Fourth weekend debut. The movie premiered on the Disney Plus streaming service on Friday, July 3. From Friday through Sunday, the Disney Plus app was downloaded 752,451 times globally, including 458,796 times in the U.S., according to analytics firm Apptopia. That means that in the U.S., the total Disney Plus downloads were 74% higher than the average of the four weekends in June 2020 over comparable time periods.
The filmed version of ‘Hamilton’ helped push Disney+ downloads up 75%. Image via Disney.
“Dress rehearsal performed for Disney cast members ahead of official reopening” via FOX 35 Orlando — Walt Disney World is preparing to reopen the first of its parks on Saturday and to get ready, a dress rehearsal was performed for cast members on Tuesday. Cast members were allowed to visit the Magic Kingdom, as the park tested safety measures ahead of its official reopening. Both Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom will open on Saturday, with Hollywood Studios and Epcot following on Wednesday. Annual passholders will be the next group to preview the parks, as they will be allowed to visit on the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on Thursday and Friday. Reservations must be made to attend on these dates. Visit the Walt Disney World website to do so.
Happy birthday
Best wishes to Republican super activist Peter Cracchiolo. Belated wishes to Caleb Orr, a policy adviser to Marco Rubio.
“A modernized U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact took effect [last] Wednesday… The [USMCA] includes tighter North American content rules for autos, new protections for intellectual property, prohibitions against currency manipulation and new rules on digital commerce that did not exist when NAFTA launched in 1994.” Reuters
Many across the political spectrum oppose the US pulling out of the WTO:
“Much of the media attention has been on whether USMCA marks an improvement over NAFTA. But there’s another question to ask. The original NAFTA made its debut alongside the birth of the World Trade Organization (WTO), but USMCA is coinciding with an assault on the Geneva-based institution. Does this pose problems for USMCA? Yes…
“USMCA’s chapter on labels, licenses and certification, for example, is written to prevent forum shopping where the dispute is strictly over text ‘incorporated’ from the WTO. This is because labels, licenses and certification impact over 90 percent of U.S. exports, such that any inconsistencies, in terms of lost predictability, would be too costly. And that’s the point. USMCA needs the WTO. It uses WTO rules, and even the WTO’s interpretation of those rules, on key provisions. USMCA and the WTO are complements, not substitutes… USMCA will fall short if it can’t lean on the WTO to the same extent that NAFTA did.” Marc Busch, The Hill
“Since the creation of the WTO, U.S. exports of goods and services have jumped from $700 billion in 1994 to $2.5 trillion in 2019. As a share of the domestic economy, exports have climbed from under 10 percent to 12 percent. The WTO has also encouraged lower U.S. barriers to trade, to the benefit of tens of millions of consumers here at home, as well as import-consuming U.S. producers…
“Like many critics of trade, Sen. [Josh] Hawley [R-MO] blames the WTO for a supposed decline in average real wages for American workers and for the loss of manufacturing jobs. In fact, average U.S. real wages have been rising since the mid-1990s after stagnating for the two decades before then. And while manufacturing jobs have declined, real manufacturing output and value added have increased, indicating that rising productivity – and not trade – is the cause… Instead of misguided calls to abandon the WTO, we need a rational, bipartisan discussion of how to fine-tune and reform a system that has served our nation well for more than seven decades.” Daniel Griswold, The Hill
“Ultimately, there’s no real point to pulling out of WTO, and doing so at this moment would be especially reckless. The pandemic is a crisis without borders, and since COVID-19 began its spread, free trade has proven absolutely essential to the distribution of supplies such as medical tools and personal protective equipment. As the world hunts for a vaccine, international cooperation will be critical, and the WTO will likely play a vital role in these efforts, potentially facilitating the commercial distribution of a vaccine…
“The U.S. needs to stay in the club. In fact, if we play our cards right, we could finally show some strength as an international leader during all the chaos. Storming off from the WTO, claiming the others aren’t playing fairly certainly won’t improve our own position, nor will it keep other nefarious power players in check. Instead, we should lead by example and fight for the liberal values on which we helped found the WTO: non-discrimination, openness, and competition.” Alice Calder, Washington Examiner
Other opinions below.
From the Left
“As if to mock the new NAFTA, a respected Mexican labor lawyer and independent labor organizer, Susana Prieto, has been held for three weeks on fabricated charges… Prieto has been leading strikes and protests demanding better working conditions for workers in Matamoros on the Texas border in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas…It remains to be seen how the Mexican federal government will weigh in, or whether U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will formally object…
“The fact is that [Andrés Manuel] López Obrador may be president, but he doesn’t totally control Mexican union-busting state governments in league with corporations and Mexico’s old-line phony unions. And if López Obrador can’t control what actually happens on the ground when Mexican workers try to exercise their rights as guaranteed by the USMCA, then the whole premise of the deal is called into question.” Robert Kuttner, American Prospect
Regarding China, “Two years ago, when the trade war first hit, China’s $8.5 trillion stock market sank into one of its deepest bear episodes, as worries about the economic damage of decoupling took root. This time, tension with the U.S. hasn’t even made a dent. Rather, mainland shares are on fire. The benchmark CSI 300 Index has rallied 14% this year, to trade at a five-year high. The S&P 500 Index, by comparison, is still in the red. Daily trading volume has exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($142 billion) for three consecutive trading days…
“Washington’s attempt to block mainland businesses’ access to U.S. money — from the delisting of Chinese American depositary receipts in New York, to forbidding federal pension funds from investing in mainland companies — is only forcing Beijing to speed up its capital markets reform… As a result, we can expect China’s stock market to grow to 100% of its gross domestic product in the next five to 10 years, from 60% now, estimates CICC Research… President Donald Trump is giving China’s stock market a second wind.” Shuli Ren, Bloomberg
“Many Americans believe (erroneously) that Trump is the first president to stand up to China… [But] From China’s standpoint, Trump is not so much tougher as he is different. Previous presidents tried to pressure China within the rules of the current global order; Trump prefers to act outside of that system. For instance, his predecessors turned to the World Trade Organization to challenge China’s unfair trade practices, filing 21 complaints between 2004 and early 2017 (with a strong record of success). The Trump administration, openly disparaging of the WTO, has submitted only two complaints, one of which was a response to China’s retaliation against Trump’s own tariffs…
“Chinese negotiators deftly convinced [Trump] to push off discussion of issues most critical to American business—state programs that heavily subsidize Chinese competitors, for example—to a ‘phase two’ of talks, which have yet to materialize. Instead, Trump settled for a narrower ‘phase one’ deal, signed in January, that was centered mainly on large Chinese purchases of American farm produce, but included little to alter Beijing’s discriminatory practices… From Beijing’s perspective, while a Democratic presidency may restore a more predictable form of American diplomacy, that may not best serve Chinese interests.” Michael Schuman, The Atlantic
From the Right
Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia writes, “One key provision of the USMCA requires 40 percent to 45 percent of automobile content be made by North American workers earning, on average, at least $16 an hour, which is a rate that is multiple times the typical manufacturing wage in Mexico…
“The USMCA breaks additional ground with what the director general of the International Labor Organization has called the most comprehensive labor chapter ever included in a trade agreement. Under NAFTA, Mexican companies undercut American prices in part because they were not held to the same labor standards we have for American workers. The USMCA changes this with high standards that are now fully enforceable. It puts American workers on a level playing field with our neighbors… The USMCA is certainly a historic bipartisan achievement by Trump, whose determination produced a trade deal supported by both labor unions and business along with Democrats and Republicans.” Eugene Scalia, The Hill
“The reduction of trade barriers among the USMCA’s parties will strengthen U.S., Mexican and Canadian supply chains, returning manufacturing jobs to North America from China. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic exposed how North America had become too dependent on China for medical equipment and drugs, Beijing’s campaign of intimidation and censorship was already hurting international companies…
“Public and private leaders who are already working together to satisfy demand for Covid-related essential products should shift discussions to a long-term vision for adapting North American economies to the post-Covid world… One discussion topic should be how to build resilient supply chains that reduce the corporate and national-security risk from Chinese espionage and unfair trade practices…
“North American business organizations can help drive the near-term reactivation of regional production hubs and identify long-term ventures to capitalize on the repatriation of production to the region. All should work together to speed USMCA’s implementation in key industries such as automobile and pharmaceutical manufacturing, aerospace and energy.” H.R. McMaster and Pablo Tortolero, Wall Street Journal
“Policies that support economic resilience and industrial capacity might not be opposed to the project of global engagement; they might actually be necessary to make that engagement possible. A United States that does not have ready access to medical supplies, military equipment, foodstuffs, and other key economic goods will be unable to exercise the responsibilities of a great power on the global stage…
“Efforts at nurturing domestic industrial capacity are not incompatible with continued participation in global networks of trade… Today, many countries—such as Germany and South Korea—have used industrial policy to develop a certain economic infrastructure while also trading with the rest of the world. The choice between industrial policy and participation in multilateral institutions is a false one. What exactly a reformed vision of globalization should involve is up for debate, but it nevertheless seems possible to consolidate some of the gains from the current iteration of globalization while also addressing some key challenges of civic and economic integrity.” Fred Bauer, The American Conservative
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⚡ Chief Justice John Roberts, 65, fell at the Chevy Chase Club in Maryland last month and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he got sutures and stayed overnight, the WashPost’s Bob Barnes reports.
“Roberts did not publicly disclose the matter, and the court’s confirmation came in response to an inquiry from The Washington Post, which received a tip.”
🏖️ Virtual California … Axios’ Alexi McCammond and Dion Rabouin will host a virtual event about California’s small-business recovery, tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. ET. Register here.
1 big thing: Trump’s policy trap
President Trump gets a lot more online news attention than Joe Biden — but it’s on topics that don’t help him with most voters.
The three topics generating the most intense interest online are all working against Trump: the virus, racial injustice and foreign policy, Neal Rothschild writes from NewsWhip data provided exclusively to Axios.
Why it matters: Storylines in Trump’s populist sweet spot that carried the news cycle for much of his presidency — immigration, trade, a strong economy — have fallen away during the pandemic.
What’s happening:
On the coronavirus, Trump’s hopes for a swift return to normal have been thwarted by a ferocious surge across the country.
On race, Trump finds himself fighting against the current on public opinion as he stresses “law and order” rather than empathy in the wake of the George Floyd protests.
On foreign relations, Trump continues to be criticized for not acting against Russia over reported intelligence that it offered bounties to the Taliban to kill coalition troops in Afghanistan. The single Trump story with the most social media interactions (likes, comments, shares) last week was Iran issuing a warrant for Trump’s arrest over the January killing of Qasem Soleimani.
Between the lines: Topics in Trump’s wheelhouse that dominated headlines for much of his presidency have begun to work against him, or become less relevant.
Economy: Recent outbreaks of the virus have diminished hope of a sharp V-shaped recovery.
Immigration: An issue that ranked No. 1 on social media for much of 2019, and a big motivator for Trump’s base, is now far down the list of issues on voters’ minds.
Coronavirus deaths are ticking up in the new hotspots of Florida, Texas and Arizona, even as they continue to trend down nationally, Axios’ Caitlin Owens writes.
Why it matters: “It’s a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” Anthony Fauci said yesterday.
A key point about the national death rate: We’ve learned more about how to treat the virus since March, making hospitalizations less likely to result in death.
The latest:
Arizona reported a record 117 deaths yesterday, and hospitalizations are skyrocketing there and in other hotspots.
Texas reported a record 60 new deaths and 10,000 new cases.
The big picture: The U.S. mortality rate declined from around 7% in mid-April to around 2% by early July, and is now significantly lower than many other wealthy countries.
A widely cited model from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) now projects that U.S. deaths could pass 200,000 by Nov. 1, with the outbreak expected to gain new momentum in the fall, per Reuters:
4. Pic du jour: Another Confederate falls
Crews attach straps to the statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart on Monument Avenue in Richmond yesterday.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch notes that it’s the third Confederate statue — after Stonewall Jackson and Matthew Fontaine Maury (plus two Confederate cannons) — to be taken down in the former Confederate capital since July 1.
That’s when a state law took effect granting Richmond control of the statues — except the Robert E. Lee monument, which is owned by the state.
Facebook HQ in Menlo Park. Photo: John Green/Bay Area News Group via Reuters
A civil rights audit commissioned by Facebook, to be released today, found that the platform repeatedly failed to address hatred, bigotry and manipulation, according to excerpts obtained by the N.Y. Times editorial board (subscription).
“Unfortunately, in our view Facebook’s approach to civil rights remains too reactive and piecemeal,” write the auditors, from the law firm Relman Colfax.
“The Auditors do not believe that Facebook is sufficiently attuned to the depth of concern on the issue of polarization and the way that the algorithms used by Facebook inadvertently fuel extreme and polarizing content.”
Why it matters, from Axios’ Sara Fischer: The report is likely to exacerbate tensions with civil rights leaders who, after a tense virtual meeting yesterday, blasted Facebook for “failing to meet the moment.”
Our thought bubble: It’s unlikely that the boycotts have a material impact on Facebook’s bottom line. But they’ll continue to put pressure on it — and other social media giants — to moderate their content more heavily.
That could have a long-term impact on what social media looks like.
🎧 Listen … “Axios Re:cap” podcast: Dan Primack talks to boycott organizers.
6. Trump might ban TikTok
President Trump, speaking to Gray Television’s Greta Van Susteren, confirmed SecState Mike Pompeo’s comment that the administration is looking at a U.S. ban on the popular app TikTok — owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance.
Trump: “Well, it’s a big business. Look what happened with China with this virus — what they’ve done to this country and to the entire world is disgraceful. And we are looking at numerous different things. TikTok’s one of them — one of many.”
7. Data du jour
Jobless claims vs. the market:
8. Republican PAC invites donors to Disney World
The PAC of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) is inviting lobbyists to a $10,000, four-day “Summer Meeting” at Disney World’s Polynesian Village in Florida in early August — daring donors to swallow their concern about coronavirus, according to an invitation obtained by Axios’ Hans Nichols.
Why it matters: Scalise appears to be the first House lawmaker to host an in-person destination fundraiser since the severity of pandemic became clear.
The gathering includes two private evening events, a “Hoop Dee Hoo Musical Revue” and final “character breakfast” on Aug. 3.
9. Networks fear NFL-less fall
While all major sports scramble to rescue their seasons, the networks are fixated on the NFL, which accounted for 41 of the 50 top-rated telecasts of any kind in 2019, the WashPost’s Ben Strauss writes.
Why it matters: The NFL accounted for 39% of all ad revenue for Fox last year, 24% for CBS, 21% for NBC and 17% for ESPN (including ABC playoff simulcasts).
“It’s practically the only thing on the minds of the networks,” John Kosner, a former ESPN executive who is an industry consultant, told the Post.
“If you lost an NFL season, you’re looking at a financial hemorrhage.”
10. 1 smile to go: Rare gorillas caught on camera
This photo, taken by a camera trap in Nigeria’s Mbe Mountains, shows a group of rare Cross River gorillas with multiple babies — proof that the subspecies once feared to be extinct is reproducing amid protection efforts.
Conservationists set up 50 cameras in 2012.
But Cross River gorillas are notoriously difficult to capture together on camera, and no images had captured multiple infants, AP reports.
Mike Allen
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The president’s unfounded accusations that voting by mail causes widespread fraud could end up undercutting Republican candidates, alarmed party strategists say.
Nearly 1 out of every 100 residents is infected with the virus, hospital intensive care units are full or filling up and big-name visitors who chose Florida for their first post-isolation events are now mired in questions about safety.
By Cleve Wootson, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Lori Rozsa ● Read more »
The government has traced the bulk of new infections to a single category of activity: public gatherings, particularly weddings. But Israelis across the political spectrum are demanding to know how their government could have fumbled so badly after getting it so right.
The signing of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick says a lot more about the distance his message has traveled than about how far Disney has come.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has experienced at least two seizures since the early 1990s, but his doctors determined that was not what caused his fall in June, a court spokeswoman said.
President Trump’s view of the world was shaped by his desire during childhood to avoid his father’s disapproval, according to the niece, Mary L. Trump, whose book is by turns a family history and a psychological analysis of her uncle.
Politicians, donors and party officials, especially seniors at higher risk of complications from covid-19, face a difficult choice between a personal risk to their health and a potential backlash from the president and his supporters.
Election 2020 ● By Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey ● Read more »
Religious leaders are divided about whether or not to embrace discussions about systemic racism as protests following the death of George Floyd bring the issue into churches.
As the coronavirus surges across many parts of the United States, hospitals are feeling the strain. The intensive care unit beds are at 100% capacity in some hospitals and are fast approaching that number in others.
Pentagon strategists used a B-52 Stratofortress to send a sharp reminder to both China and U.S. allies: American forces can hurt the People’s Liberation Army in a hurry.
Amy Kennedy could become the first Camelot wife to win elected office, as she headed into Wednesday morning ahead in her bid for the Democratic nomination in a southern New Jersey House district.
Joe Biden said that comments from Tucker Carlson that questioned Tammy Duckworth’s patriotism, and that were amplified by President Trump, were “disgusting” and “sickening.”
After several Supreme Court decisions rattled social conservatives in June, the Trump campaign is broadening its “culture war” pitch to include fights over American history and statues along with the battle against abortion.
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The fight over Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature policy initiative, moving Illinois to a graduated-rate income tax, is intensifying with about four months to go before voters decide the issue.
A coalition of Illinois organizations that represent businesses launched an effort Tuesday to beat back the proposal, a move that follows Pritzker’s recent $51.5 million contribution to the ballot initiative committee that’s backing a shift from a flat state income tax to one that would impose higher rates on the highest earners.
How the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic fallout is adding an emotional element to the battle over Pritzker’s graduated-rate income tax plan
Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Purple Heart recipient who lost both legs in a combat helicopter crash in Iraq, fired back at Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Twitter after he challenged her and other Democratic leaders’ patriotism and charged that they despise the country.
Could Duckworth’s remarkable life story help make her Joe Biden’s pick for vice president? Here’s a look at her chances.
Unlike many of the tests used to detect the coronavirus, which require an uncomfortable swab deep into the nose, a new test at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign relies on saliva. All participants need to do is drool into a test tube, hand it to a worker and wait for results within about 24 hours.
With thousands of students possibly returning for the fall semester, rigorous testing is a core feature of the university’s plan to begin offering safe, in-person instruction during the pandemic. But many professors have voiced opposition to the plan, and key questions about the tests linger.
A Helmut Jahn-designed skyscraper along South Michigan Avenue is on hold at least until September and buyers of the luxury units are being offered some of their deposits back, after the project’s lender stopped funding its construction.
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. It is Wednesday. We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the daily co-creators, so find us @asimendinger and @alweaver22 on Twitter and recommend the Morning Report to your friends. CLICK HERE to subscribe!
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 129,947. Tuesday, 130,306. Wednesday 131,480.
The United States today tops 3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Reuters).
The White House on Tuesday said COVID-19 and its effects are bleak enough to warrant more legislative help from President Trump and Congress, yet the situation is safe enough for students to go back to classrooms in the fall, according to the president and his advisers.
The administration on Tuesday asked Congress to pass a new coronavirus relief bill by August and limit the price tag to $1 trillion. Vice President Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said that in order to get Trump’s signature on another stimulus measure, lawmakers must approve liability protections for businesses whose employees and customers may become infected with the virus as commerce resumes (Bloomberg News, subscription).
“I think we want to make sure that people that are still unemployed or hurting are protected, but at the same time, we want to take into consideration the fact the economy is bouncing back and want to try to contain the amount of spending,” Short told Bloomberg Radio.
The administration’s priorities for another rescue bill also include a payroll tax cut, tax incentives for businesses during the pandemic and a potential back-to-work bonus. Democrats, who passed a $3.5 trillion measure out of the House in May (which was immediately dismissed by Senate Republicans), understand the next major coronavirus measure could be the last before the November elections.
Jostling for advantage will be lively in Congress later this month as many lawmakers seek to deliver more help to the unemployed, families with children, front-line workers, teachers, first responders, and cities and states whose budgets are in tatters because of falling revenues and unanticipated pandemic-related spending.
The Hill: Clash looms over the next coronavirus relief bill.
The Associated Press: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who will steer any new stimulus measure to Trump’s desk, is eyeing more federal aid as rental evictions and the end of beefed-up unemployment benefits loom for millions of Americans.
During a White House event on Tuesday (pictured above), Trump turned his attention to proposals for “safe” back-to-school options for grade school, high school and university students. The president since April has urged states to reopen schools, although the administration has acknowledged the decision is not up to Washington. Trump views school attendance in the fall as essential to encourage parents to return to work, even as the COVID-19 epidemic worsens in regions of the country. “We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools,” Trump said (The Associated Press).
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday rejected proposed part-time school operations. Anything less would fail students and taxpayers, she said during a conference call with governors that was disclosed to the AP. “Ultimately, it’s not a matter of if schools need to open, it’s a matter of how. Schools must reopen, they must be fully operational. And how that happens is best left to education and community leaders,” she said.
The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes that Trump appears to bet that cheerleading for in-person school instruction in the fall gives him some political mileage, especially among parents stressed by months of home-schooling. The president and his campaign want to tie former Vice President Joe Biden to teachers unions, a traditional target for GOP presidential candidates. Politically, Trump’s position is risky as the epidemic worsens in parts of the United States and public health experts warn that young people are not always spared the health consequences of infection.
White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx told Bloomberg Radio on Tuesday that schools will need to oversee frequent COVID-19 testing of pupils of all ages and grade levels to hunt for asymptomatic and early onset infections as a way to keep classrooms and school buildings open (Yahoo News). Whether most parents would readily grant permission for such regular disease testing at schools is unclear.
Meanwhile, the administration is moving medical support into areas of “recent and intense” outbreaks in Florida, Texas and Louisiana, officials said on Tuesday.
> Florida: The coronavirus infection rate in the Sunshine State rose to 16 percent on Tuesday, indicating the spread of COVID-19 is not under control there. Florida, where the president maintains his official address, is now the nation’s coronavirus epicenter (The Washington Post). Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) (pictured below at a Miami press conference) was among governors most reluctant to shut down his state and among the first to reopen for business, but on Tuesday he extended an emergency declaration for 60 days (ABCActionNews) because of the rising number of infections reported by counties daily (Miami Herald).
> Texas: New coronavirus cases exceeded 10,000 on Tuesday in the Lone Star State, a record-breaking surge in a region inundated with community spread. There were 9,268 people in the state’s hospitals with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, another daily record (NBC News). … The nearly month long State Fair of Texas in Dallas was canceled on Tuesday for the first time since World War II because of COVID-19 risks (The Dallas Morning News).
> New York: Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced an expansion to 19 states now affected by New York’s quarantine requirement for people coming domestically into the state from other locales. “If you’re traveling to New York from the following states you must self-quarantine for 14 days,” he tweeted on Tuesday. “The states are: AL, AR, AZ, CA, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, KS, LA, MS, NC, NV, OK, SC, TN, TX, UT.”
> Masks (wear them!): Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Tuesday said he is “strongly in favor” of mandating mask use amid a rise in COVID-19 cases in Alabama and nationwide. Speaking during a Facebook event with Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who is in a tough reelection contest in Alabama, Fauci said ordinances requiring mask use — such as one instituted by Montgomery, Ala., last month — send a clear message about containing the outbreak. “If you say, ‘It doesn’t matter whether you put it on or take it off,’ you’re giving a wrong, mixed signal,” he said. “The message should be, ‘Wear a mask, period’” (Montgomery Advertiser).
> America falls behind the developed world: COVID-19 is out of control in parts of the United States, while European countries and China made greater strides toward containment after five months. Why? Experts say other countries locked down earlier and for longer than the United States, and other nations implemented widespread and better coronavirus testing and tracing for months (The Hill).
> Vaccine news: The federal government awarded $1.6 billion to the company Novavax to test and manufacture possible vaccines for the coronavirus, the largest single award to date under the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” program. The funding will also cover a large-scale phase three trial that could begin by October. Novavax wants to deliver 100 million doses of any potential vaccine it may develop by January (Reuters).
> Attracting immediate denunciations from Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday, the Trump administration notified Congress and the United Nations that the United States has officially withdrawn from the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump declared in May his decision to terminate financial support for the international public health body based on what he said was WHO’s solicitous stance with China as the novel coronavirus spread in Wuhan and globally last year. In 2019, U.S. support for the organization amounted to 15 percent of its total budget. Trump, who has blamed the pandemic on China, has been criticized by world leaders for terminating support for WHO during an international public health crisis (NBC News).
Report: Facebook leads industry on removal of hate speech
At 35,000 people, our safety & security teams work to keep our platforms safe 24/7. A recent EU report found we remove more reported hate speech than other major platforms. But any hate speech is too much — there’s more work to do.
2020 POLITICS: The number of GOP senators planning to skip the Republican National Convention continued to climb on Tuesday, with at least five lawmakers now planning to miss the quadrennial confab in Jacksonville, Fla., in part due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
After Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) became the first two to announce plans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) followed suit. Spokespeople for the two lawmakers confirmed to The Hill their plans. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also will not attend, according to The Boston Globe last month.
The reasoning among the five is mixed. While Grassley and Alexander cited the virus and the idea that they want to let other delegates be there in person, respectively, the other three senators will not be there for political reasons, one way or another. Romney and Murkowski have been the most vocal critics of Trump among the Senate GOP, with the Utah senator being the only Republican to support impeaching the president. Murkowski told reporters last month that she is “struggling” with whether she’ll support Trump in November.
An aide for Collins said that she never planned to attend the convention, noting that she does not go when she is up for reelection (The Hill).
> The left warns Joe: Progressives are issuing a warning to Biden: Don’t compromise with Republicans, or else.
According to The Hill’s Amie Parnes and Jonathan Easley, progressive activists are worried about recent comments by the former VP about the need to compromise if he wins in November, having told the National Education Association’s Virtual Representative Assembly that it is necessary to move the country forward.
“[C]ompromise is not a dirty word,” Biden said. “It’s how our government was designed to work. I’ve done it my whole life. No one’s ever doubted my word and I’ve been able to bring Democrats and Republicans together in the United States Congress to pass big things, to deal with big issues.”
The comments have come under fire from progressives, who are pressing Biden not to stray too far from the left and warning him saying he could be costing himself some support by adopting Hillary Clinton’s strategy from four years ago.
“Biden is transparently taking a bet to win over a group of anti-Trump Republicans but at the expense of what? Potentially losing some of the largest movement in history?” said progressive activist Nomiki Konst. “His excitement is extremely low and that should always be alarming for candidates.”
The Washington Post: Trump’s attacks on mail voting are turning Republicans off absentee ballots.
> Cash dash: Democrats have long pushed for a blue wave to win back power in 2020, but it’s a green wave that could put them over the top.
As Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley write, Democratic candidates are raising gargantuan sums of money less than four months from Election Day, with Senate candidates leading the charge as they set fundraising records ahead of key battles that will determine control of the upper chamber.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) and Cal Cunningham, the Democratic nominee in North Carolina, raised more money in each state than any Senate candidate in history, while Sara Gideon of Maine raised more than twice as much as Collins in the second quarter.
The Hill: Jaime Harrison raises record-shattering $13.9 million for South Carolina Senate bid.
McClatchy: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), facing tough reelection, breaks with Trump.
The Hill: Amy Kennedy wins NJ primary to face Rep. Jefferson Van Drew (R-N.J.).
The Hill: New Jersey incumbents steamroll progressive challengers in primaries.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
CONGRESS: Senate Republicans are cautioning the president that they are likely to override his planned veto of the National Defense Authorization Act as he cries foul about a provision to rename military bases that are named for Confederate figures.
Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, repeated the hope that Trump will not veto the annual defense bill, which the upper chamber is expected to pass after it returns from the July recess. He indicated that the Senate is prepared to override the veto.
“If it came to overriding a veto, we’d probably override the veto,” Grassley said on the conference call.
McConnell and other Republicans have pleaded with Trump not to veto the bill. The Kentucky Republican told Fox News last week that he hopes Trump will “reconsider” his plan, noting that the bill “includes pay raises for our troops” (The Hill).
> Spending: House Democrats are seeking to sidestep a bipartisan spending deal reached last summer by including billions of dollars in emergency spending.
The proposed emergency spending for coronavirus relief, infrastructure, veterans care and a slew of other priorities would exceed the bipartisan budget caps on funding for annual appropriations bills. The move has left Republicans crying foul as the two sides begin the process to appropriate funds for fiscal 2021.
“We are only on our first day of subcommittee markups, and I already have serious concerns about our path forward,” said House Appropriations Committee ranking member Kay Granger (R-Texas). The bills, she noted, “spend billions of dollars on top of what the current budget agreement allows” (The Hill).
OPINION
Victory is close for Trump, despite the noise, by Republican media strategist Adam Goodman, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2DkXuBT
How will American cities avoid economic catastrophe? by Vince Williams, mayor of Union City, Ga., opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3f4k3Zs
A MESSAGE FROM FACEBOOK
How Facebook is combating hate and voter suppression
Facebook is taking critical, new steps to protect its platforms and the upcoming election:
— Strengthening policies against hate
— Expanding voter interference policies
— Launching new Voting Information Center
The House meets Thursday at 2 p.m. for a pro forma session and won’t return to legislative business until July 20. The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a virtual hearing today at 11 a.m. to examine the national response to COVID-19. Witnesses include Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D); Tupelo, Miss., Mayor Jason Shelton (D); Umair Shah, a physician and the executive director of Harris County Public Health in Texas; and Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Hastings. Live video is planned HERE.
The Senate meets on Thursday at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session.
The president will welcome Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the White House at 2 p.m. to mark the enactment of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. The two men will have several bilateral meetings in the afternoon and sign a joint declaration at 3:35 p.m. Obrador will return to the White House at 6:30 p.m. for a joint statement with Trump at 6:35 p.m. followed by a working dinner in the East Room 10 minutes later.
INVITATION: Join The Hill Virtually Live on Thursday for “Health Reimagined: The Future of Healthcare.” Leaders talk about lessons from the pandemic, medical breakthroughs, treatments and cures, and eliminating racial disparities. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield; the National Institute of Health’s Fauci; Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), a registered nurse; physician and American Medical Association President Patrice Harris; and more will join Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons.
The Hill’s Coronavirus Report has updates and exclusive video interviews with policymakers emailed each day. Sign up HERE!
➔ International: Brazillian President Jair Bolsonaro, who persisted in calling COVID-19 “a little flu,” has tested positive for the coronavirus and says he is taking hydroxychloroquine. The diagnosis brings more uncertainty to Brazil (The Hill). More than 65,000 of the president’s countrymen have died from the coronavirus (The New York Times). While Brazil struggles with its heavy coronavirus caseload, it is way ahead when it comes to research into the development of a COVID-19 vaccine (AFP). … Hong Kong reports nine new cases of COVID-19, which it considers a setback in its previously successful efforts to contain the coronavirus just weeks ago (Reuters).
➔ Supreme Court: The Washington Post disclosed on Tuesday night that Chief Justice John Roberts, 65, fell on June 21 at a Maryland country club, was taken by ambulance for medical care, required stitches for a head injury and was hospitalized overnight for observation. He did not make the mishap public until the newspaper received a tip from witnesses to the incident. Roberts in 1993 and 2007 experienced seizures but doctors ruled out a recurrence and believe the cause of his fall last month was dehydration, according to a court spokeswoman.
➔ Urban violence: From New York City to Dallas, from Atlanta to Philadelphia to Chicago, some U.S. cities are experiencing a crushing spate of violence, shooting deaths and vandalism that experts warn defies easy, simplistic explanation (The Associated Press).
➔ Mary Trump pulls back a family curtain on Trump: The president’s niece, in her new book, says “cheating is a way of life” for the president. She alleges her uncle paid someone to take the SAT for him while he was in high school and that the score later helped him gain entrance to Wharton as an undergraduate (The New York Times). Trump’s spokeswoman on Tuesday called it a “book of falsehoods.”
➔ Sports: Although the 2020 Major League Baseball season has not started, the powers that be are already looking ahead to the 2021 schedule and plan to honor the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks by having the New York Mets host the New York Yankees at Citi Field. “I can’t imagine how powerful and how emotional of an event that could be,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about the potential game (The Associated Press).
THE CLOSER
And finally … in the world of the weird Roman Trofimov of Estonia has been stranded and living in the departures area of Manila airport in the Philippines since he arrived on an AirAsia flight from Bangkok on March 20. He said his passport was taken before he went through immigration and remains missing. The airline was also unable to return him to Thailand amid restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic. He was blocked from entering the Philippines when entry visas were no longer issued for arrivals.
The desperate tourist, who says he’s getting by with a makeshift sleeping mat on the floor and donations from staff, said he asked the Estonian Embassy for help but that officials were unable to organize a repatriation flight.
Trofimov, akin to the Tom Hanks character in “The Terminal,” has been left with nowhere to go (The Sun).
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POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: Trump won’t get the convention he wants
Presented by
DRIVING THE DAY
DESPITE WHAT PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP WANTS, the idea of a large-scale, celebratory 2020 political convention is a fantasy.
— IF YOU’RE A COMPANY, a law firm or a lobby shop, why would you ever consider putting any money behind a political convention this year? Would you want your logo anywhere near Jacksonville, Fla., or Milwaukee during Covid-19? Would you want your executives anywhere close to a gathering that has a chance to be a super-spreading event? Would you throw a party? You’d have to be nuts.
— SENATORS are saying “no thanks.” FIVE SENATE REPUBLICANS taking a pass on the RNC convention this summer: SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine), per CBS’ CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS; LISA MURKOWSKI (R-Alaska), per CBS’ ELEANOR WATSON; MITT ROMNEY (R-Utah), per WaPo’s MICHAEL SCHERER and JOSH DAWSEY.CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa) and LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-Tenn.) previously bowed out.
— TV NETWORKS are vowing to stay away.
— READ MARC CAPUTO and GARY FINEOUT on this topic: “Trump’s convention bash upended by Florida’s coronavirus crisis.”Perhaps most importantly: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a close Trump ally, refused to say on Tuesday whether he would lift a rule mandating that indoor gatherings stay under 50 percent capacity — which would hold the Jacksonville convention to 7,500 people.”
AGAIN — the mostly maskless White House wants to act like this is over. Their representatives stick out like sore thumbs around town — maskless on the Hill, etc. — but the rest of America disagrees, and reality indicates otherwise.
QUOTE OF THE DAY … New Hampshire GOP Gov. CHRIS SUNUNU on attending the president’s Saturday rally in his state,via CNN:“I’m going to go and greet the president as the governor. I will not be in the crowd of thousands of people, I’m not going to put myself in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people, if that’s your question specifically. I try to — unfortunately, you know, I have to be extra cautious as the governor, I try to be extra cautious for myself, my family.”
WAPO/ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.: “Florida invited the nation to its reopening — then it became a new coronavirus epicenter,” by Cleve Wootson Jr., Isaac Stanley-Becker and Lori Rozsa: “Hospital leaders, lawmakers, physicians, epidemiologists, advocates and others familiar with the state’s response said a false sense of security set in when grim predictions about the virus’s spread in Florida did not come to pass in March and April. [Gov. Ron] DeSantis declared victory, attending a laudatory news conference at the White House with President Trump. The editor of National Review wrote an editorial titled ‘Where does Ron DeSantis go to get his apology?’
“But observers maintain the state then failed to prepare for a surge of the virus, which struck as residents were seeking refuge in air-conditioned indoor spaces, where the virus is believed to be most easily transmitted.”
ARIZONA REPUBLIC: “Arizona has highest percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in the US. Here’s what it means,” by Alison Steinbach and Rachel Leingang: “One in four COVID-19 tests in Arizona is coming back positive, the highest percentage in the country, according to Johns Hopkins University, and an indicator that there isn’t enough testing to keep up with the new coronavirus’ spread in the state. Arizona’s COVID-19 metrics have been moving in the wrong direction for more than a month.”
Good Wednesday morning.
POSTED OVERNIGHT … FORBES: “Kanye West Says He’s Done With Trump — Opens Up About White House Bid, Damaging Biden And Everything In Between,” by Randall Lane: “Kanye West’s Fourth of July declaration, via Tweet, that he was running for president lit the internet on fire, even as pundits were trying to discern how serious he was. Over the course of four rambling hours of interviews on Tuesday, the billionaire rapper turned sneaker mogul revealed: That he’s running for president in 2020 under a new banner — the Birthday Party — with guidance from Elon Musk and an obscure vice presidential candidate he’s already chosen. ‘Like anything I’ve ever done in my life,’ says West, ‘I’m doing to win.’
“That he no longer supports President Trump. ‘I am taking the red hat off, with this interview.’ That he’s ok with siphoning off Black votes from the Democratic nominee, thus helping Trump. ‘I’m not denying it, I just told you. To say that the Black vote is Democratic is a form of racism and white supremacy.’ That he’s never voted in his life. That he was sick with Covid-19 in February. That he’s suspicious of a coronavirus vaccine, terming vaccines ‘the mark of the beast.’
“That he believes ‘Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work.’ That he envisions a White House organizational model based on the secret country of Wakanda in Black Panther.”
— WE’LL KEEP OUR EYES PEELED for KANYE filing the paperwork for this run, which will have to include a financial disclosure form.
— ALSO, PUBLIC RECORDS seem to indicate he has voted. A man named KANYE WEST with the same birthday as the rapper voted on Nov. 4, 2014, in New York, according to public records.
TOP 22 HIGHEST-PAID WHITE HOUSE STAFFERS, at $183,000, per the annual White House salary report: Avi Berkowitz, Pat Cipollone, Kellyanne Conway, Emma Doyle, John Eisenberg, Alyssa Farah, Kayleigh McEnany, Stephanie Grisham, Hope Hicks, Larry Kudlow, Nick Luna, Derek Lyons, Johnny McEntee, Mark Meadows, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, Kristan Nevins, Robert O’Brien, Matthew Pottinger, Brooke Rollins, Dan Scavino and Amy Swonger.
NYT, A1: “The Inside Story of Why Mary Trump Wrote a Tell-All Memoir,” by Alan Feuer, Michael Rothfeld and Maggie Haberman: “The book makes a number of allegations that Ms. Trump depicts as family secrets, among them a claim that a young Donald Trump paid someone to take his SAT, the standardized test used for college admissions. It also alleges that Mr. Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, a former federal judge, considered him ‘a clown’ who had ‘no principles’ and that the Trump family left Fred Trump Jr. unattended at a hospital on the night that he died.
“In her book, Ms. Trump seeks to explain how Donald Trump’s position in one of New York’s wealthiest and most infamous real-estate empires helped him acquire what Ms. Trump has referred to as ‘twisted behaviors’ — attributes like seeing other people in ‘monetary terms’ and practicing ‘cheating as a way of life.’
“Ms. Trump, a clinical psychologist, calls her grandfather — the president’s father, Fred Trump Sr. — a ‘sociopath’ who damaged his children. His father’s behavior, she concludes, led the president to adopt bullying and other aggressive behaviors to mask his own insecurities. While several close associates of Mr. Trump have published exposés of him and his time in office, Mary Trump, who is 55 and lives on Long Island in New York, is the first member of the family to have broken ranks by writing a book.”
DRIP, DRIP, DRIP — WSJ: “No Americans Are Known to Have Died in Russian Bounty Scheme, U.S. General Says,”by Nancy Youssef: “A top U.S. military official confirmed Tuesday that U.S. intelligence assessed that Russia had offered to pay Taliban militants to kill American service members, but said there was no evidence the proposed payment scheme resulted in any U.S. troop deaths.
“‘I found it very worrisome,’ Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, in charge of U.S. Central Command, said of the intelligence. ‘I didn’t find that there was a causative link there.’ Gen. McKenzie’s public comments to a group of reporters while traveling in Qatar were the first by a top military official regarding the intelligence. Central Command is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
“According to the classified assessment, Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency paid members of Afghanistan’s Taliban movement to carry out lethal attacks on U.S. troops in that country. Russia has denied the existence of the arrangement.”
— THIS LINES UP with the point many administration officials have made privately: Russia is paying the Taliban, but not explicitly ordering them to kill Americans.
DRIVING TODAY: SUPREME COURT rulings will be announced at 10 a.m. … Mexican President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR will be at the White House all day.
— SABRINA RODRÍGUEZ: “Why Mexico’s president is buddies with Trump despite years of insults”: “López Obrador, a lifelong populist and face of Mexico’s left, actually has a lot in common with Trump. They’ve built a relationship based on their respect for each other’s nationalist, authoritarian tendencies and their ability to stay out of each other’s way on domestic issues.”
SWAMP READ — THEO MEYER and DEBRA KAHN: “Trump vowed to ‘drain the swamp.’ But lobbyists are having a field day”: “On a February morning in 2018, representatives of several California water agencies arrived at a meeting at the Interior Department’s austere Washington headquarters to discuss a long-sought goal: weakening the Endangered Species Act so more water could be diverted for farming. Less than three months later, one of the Interior officials at the meeting, Jason Larrabee, stepped down from his government post. Word reached one of the water agencies he’d met with that he was ‘considering various offers from lobbying shops in D.C.,’ as one lawyer put it. …
“Larrabee is one of at least 82 former Trump administration officials who have registered as lobbyists, according to an analysis of lobbying disclosure filings. Many more former administration officials have gone to work at lobbying firms or in government affairs roles in corporate America but have not registered as lobbyists. The mass migration to K Street highlights how little effect President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to ‘drain the swamp’ has had on Washington’s revolving door 3½ years into his presidency.
“As Trump prepared to sign his administration’s ethics pledge in 2017, he joked that ‘most of the people standing behind me will not be able to go to work’ on K Street. Yet one of the people standing behind him — then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus — is now the chairman of a lobbying firm that’s hired several other former White House aides, two of whom have registered as lobbyists.
“Rick Dearborn, who served as a White House deputy chief of staff, is now a lobbyist for clients such as MetLife and Verizon. Chiefs of staff from Vice President Mike Pence’s office, the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Health and Human Services Department, the Transportation Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Environmental Protection Agency have all been absorbed by the influence industry, though not all of them have registered as lobbyists.” POLITICO
OOF FOR THE GOP … CNN: “Democrats hold $30 million ad advantage in battle for Senate control,” by Manu Raju, Alex Rogers and David Wright: “In 12 races that will determine the next Senate majority, Democrats have spent roughly $30 million more on the airwaves than their Republican counterparts, according to a CNN review of data from Kantar’s Campaign Media Analysis. In total, Democrats — including campaigns and outside groups — have spent $109 million on television, radio and digital advertisements, compared with $79 million for Republicans since the beginning of the election cycle last year, the records show.”
… AND THIS: “Trump’s attacks on mail voting are turning Republicans off absentee ballots,” by WaPo’s Amy Gardner and Josh Dawsey: “President Trump’s relentless attacks on the security of mail voting are driving suspicion among GOP voters toward absentee ballots — a dynamic alarming Republican strategists, who say it could undercut their own candidates, including Trump himself.
“In several primaries this spring, Democratic voters have embraced mail ballots in far larger numbers than Republicans during a campaign season defined by the coronavirus pandemic. And when they urge their supporters to vote by mail, GOP campaigns around the country are hearing from more and more Republican voters who say they do not trust absentee ballots, according to multiple strategists. In one particularly vivid example, a group of Michigan voters held a public burning of their absentee ballot applications last month.
“The growing Republican antagonism toward voting by mail comes even as the Trump campaign is launching a major absentee-ballot program in every competitive state, according to multiple campaign advisers — a delicate balancing act, considering what one strategist described as the president’s ‘imprecision’ on the subject.” WaPo
DOWN BALLOT — “Kennedy defeats Norcross-backed Harrison in New Jersey’s 2nd District House race,” by Matt Friedman: “Amy Kennedy, a former school teacher and member of one of the nation’s most famous political dynasties, defeated political science professor Brigid Harrison on Tuesday to win the Democratic nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 2nd District — a victory for the state’s progressives and Gov. Phil Murphy and a stunning blow to the powerful but beleaguered South Jersey Democratic machine.” POLITICO … Listen to Anna’s Women Rule podcast with Kennedy
TRUMP’S WEDNESDAY — The president will participate in the arrival of López Obrador at 2 p.m. in the West Wing lobby. They will hold a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at 2:05 p.m. followed by an expanded bilateral meeting in the Cabinet Room at 2:35 p.m. Trump will sign a joint declaration with López Obrador at 3:35 p.m. in the Rose Garden.
TRUMP will participate in the arrival of López Obrador at 6:30 p.m. in the South Portico. They will deliver a joint press statement at 6:35 p.m. in the Cross Hall. Afterward, they will have a working dinner in the East Room.
PLAYBOOK READS
SCOTUS WATCH — “Chief Justice John Roberts was hospitalized last month after injuring his head in a fall,” by WaPo’s Robert Barnes: “Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. suffered a fall at a Maryland country club last month that required an overnight stay in the hospital, a Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday night.
“The 65-year-old chief justice was taken by ambulance to a hospital after the June 21 incident at the Chevy Chase Club, which was serious enough to require sutures. He stayed at the hospital overnight for observation and was released the next morning. Roberts has twice experienced seizures, in 1993 and in 2007, but Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg said doctors ruled out that possibility in the latest incident. Doctors believe he was dehydrated, she said.
“Roberts did not publicly disclose the matter, and the court’s confirmation came in response to an inquiry from The Washington Post, which received a tip.” WaPo
ON THE WORLD STAGE … WSJ: “Trump Moves to Pull U.S. Out of World Health Organization in Midst of Covid-19 Pandemic,”by Drew Hinshaw and Stephanie Armour: “The U.S. has formally notified the World Health Organization it will withdraw from the United Nations agency over President Trump’s criticism of its ties to China, a move critics say will hamper the international fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and sap the U.S. of global influence.
“The U.S. State Department sent notice to the U.N. on July 6 it would end its 72-year-old membership in the WHO. ‘The President has been clear that the WHO needs to get its act together,’ a department spokesman said. ‘That starts with demonstrating significant progress and the ability to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks with transparency and accountability.’
“The exit won’t take effect until next July, leaving it contingent on Mr. Trump’s re-election. His rival for the White House, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, said Tuesday the U.S. would remain a member if he wins.”
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION — “Arrival of new conflict chief at USAID ratchets up internal tensions,” by Nahal Toosi and Daniel Lippman: “The arrival of a new political appointee is spawning confusion and concern at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where earlier staff changes have already led to serious internal tensions.
“Pete Marocco, who to date has held positions or details at the departments of Defense, State and Commerce under President Donald Trump, has now joined the aid agency, a USAID spokesperson confirmed. His transfer from the Pentagon to the aid agency, which manages roughly $20 billion in foreign aid each year, is being greeted with all the excitement of a root canal.
“Marocco left a bitter trail at the Pentagon and in Foggy Bottom, dogged by criticism that he created a toxic work environment by undermining and mistreating career staffers. POLITICO spoke to seven U.S. government officials worried about Marocco’s move to yet another agency, including three who reached out to a reporter independently and two who worked with him directly.” POLITICO
TRANSITION — Rob Noel has left his job as a speechwriter for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to launch Washington Writers Network, a speechwriting and op-ed agency for freelance writers.
STAFFING UP — THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN has added several new aides to its press shop. Alexa Henning is director of media affairs, after serving as assistant comms director and director of broadcast media at the White House. Thea McDonald is a deputy national press secretary, joining from the National Space Council. USDA alum Audra Weeks is a deputy press secretary. And Sam Dubke and Posie Paoletta are press assistants.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Eric Wilson, chief digital officer for America Rising, and Rachael Dean Wilson, head of external affairs at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, welcomed Winifred Adeline Wilson on July 1. Pic
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Amanda Coyne, speechwriter and senior adviser for Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). How she got her start in politics: “Early in my reporting career in Alaska, I decided to do a day-in-the-life feature of a little-known politician from Wasilla — Sarah Palin. The day ended at the annual Alaska Republican Party picnic, where a Palin supporter, brandishing a Palin campaign sign, decided to at long last confront the ‘old guard’ for all of their sundry infractions. Shouting and shoving ensued. One of the supporters, a 90-year-old woman, thwapped the lawyer for the Alaska GOP on the head with one of the signs. I was hooked.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Steve Holland of Reuters … Anthony Romero is 55 … Neil Newhouse, partner and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies … Nick Simpson, SVP of public affairs at the Consumer Bankers Association … Jim Miklaszewski is 71 … Eve Samborn McCool, co-founder and chief strategist at Assemble (h/t dad Randall Samborn) … Dan Rosenthal, managing principal at Albright Stonebridge Group … Robert Henline … Howard Gutman, managing director at the Gutman Group, is 64 … Kelley Hudak, VP at Cassidy & Associates, is 31 … Geoff Garin, Democratic strategist and president of Hart Research … Andrew Kauders, managing director at Cogent Strategies … Eva Barboni (h/ts Jon Haber) … Marianne Williamson is 68 … Michael Lewan …
… Andy Flick, COS for Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) … Bill Hinkle, editorial producer at CNN … Molly Spaeth, who started this week as a comms manager in Amazon’s D.C. office, is 31 (h/t husband Brian Principato) … Kirk McPike … Ted Baker is 82 … Robb LaKritz … Dean Garfield … Amy Sennett … Laura Zapata … Maddie James is 27 … Ron Kampeas is 6-0 … Adrienne Donato … Erik Huey, president of Platinum Advisors … Michael Gareth Johnson … WSJ’s Doug Belkin is 52 … NYT’s Lara Jakes … Uber’s Anna Uhls … Anna Quindlen is 67 … former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) is 78 … Tina Urbanski … Susie Landau … Cramer Williams … Bret Coulson … Stephanie Berhane … Laura Davis … Patrick Dillon … Greg Pellegrino is 55 … Amichai Stein … Daniel Mintz … Jeff Dunetz
By Caffeinated Thoughts on Jul 07, 2020 06:40 pm
DES MOINES, Iowa – A new Test Iowa clinic site is scheduled to open in Kossuth County on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
The new clinic site will be located at the former Ernie Williams Harley Shop at 2701 US- Hwy 18 in Algona. The hours of operation this week will be Wednesday, July 8, from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Thursday, July 9, from 1-4 p.m.; and Friday, July 10, from 8:30-10:30 a.m.
Clinic sites are partnerships between the State of Iowa and local healthcare providers to increase access to testing in their communities. Clinics operate and staff the test sites. The state provides testing supplies and processes the samples through the State Hygienic Lab.
This site is the first Test Iowa site in Kossuth County.
Test Iowa runs eight additional large-scale, drive-thru test sites in Black Hawk, Buena Vista, Dallas, Linn, Marshall, Polk, Pottawattamie, and Scott Counties. Eleven Test Iowa clinic sites are also available in Black Hawk, Carroll, Cass, Crawford, Des Moines, Dickinson, Dubuque, Mitchell, Page, Pottawattamie, and Union Counties.
Individuals who wish to get tested for COVID-19 at any site must first complete the online assessment at testiowa.com. They will then be directed to schedule an appointment. To date, 852,475 Test Iowa assessments have been completed.
Test Iowa is a statewide initiative to expand COVID-19 testing. Locations and hours of operation for all test sites can be found at testiowa.com or coronavirus.iowa.gov.
By Shane Vander Hart on Jul 07, 2020 05:51 pm
DES MOINES, Iowa – During a press call on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told Caffeinated Thoughts that she supports a federal ban on TikTok and other Chinese social media apps.
“I do not have it on my phone. I will not download them on my phone. I won’t watch any TikTok productions, or whatever they are, because it’s just another way that China is using these various platforms to collect data on us as Americans,” she said.
“They can use it for subversive tech techniques like influencing, you know if you want to talk about influencing elections, China’s right up there. So we certainly want to make sure that we are protecting our information, our data strengths within the United States, and I think TikTok has no part of what we should be doing as an American society,” Ernst added.
India has banned TikTok, and Australia is considering doing that as well over mass surveillance and propaganda concerns about the Chinese-owned social media app.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Laura Ingraham on Fox News Monday night that the U.S. is taking concerns about TikTok and other Chinese social media apps “very seriously” and are considering a ban.
“We’re certainly looking at it. We have worked on this very issue for a long time, whether it was the problems of having Huawei technology in your infrastructure. We’ve gone all over the world, and we’re making real progress getting that out. We declared ZTE a danger to American national security. We have done all of these things. With respect to Chinese apps on people’s cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right, too, Laura. I don’t want to get out in front of the president, but it’s something we’re looking at,” he said.
When Ingraham asked Pompeo whether Americans should download TikTok onto their phones, he replied, “Only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
The focus of the press call that Ernst held with Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann was to discuss ending U.S. dependence on China, the subject of her first campaign ad.
Ernst said that ending U.S. dependence on China includes “reinventing America’s supply chain and bringing critical jobs and manufacturing back home.”
She said that after talking with Iowans all over the state, they agree that American dependence on China needs to end.
“We rely on China for far too much from technology to medicine, and so I’m fighting to bring it home,” Ernst said. “And while President Trump and I remain tough on China, Teresa Greenfield’s silence of how to hold China accountable continues to show just how unprepared she is to lead at this critical moment.”
She reminded the press that former Vice President Joe Biden said China is not competition for the United States.
“I know Miss Greenfield refuses to take positions on critical issues facing Iowa because she’s afraid to tell the truth. Nonetheless, Iowans deserve to know if she agrees with Joe Biden, that China is not competition for us, or will she take a stand for Iowa by supporting my efforts to bring jobs back to the United States and produce the needed medical and technology here at home, instead of relying on Communist China?” Ernst said.
“Where is Miss Greenfield, and what is her plan for Communist China?” she asked.
By Shane Vander Hart on Jul 07, 2020 04:06 pm
URBANDALE, Iowa – Gov. Kim Reynolds, during a press conference at the Iowa Behavioral Health Association, announced she was directing $50 million in CARES Act funding to Iowa’s mental health systems.
“As we’ve dealt with the Coronavirus in this pandemic, COVID-19 has been a challenging time for all of us,” Reynolds said. “And it’s underscored the importance of our mental health infrastructure and access.”
She noted how COVID-19 impacted health-care front-line workers, families, children, small business owners, and recent graduates.
“With these kinds of disruptions in our lives and livelihoods. It’s important for Iowans to be mindful of their mental health and to know that there’s a place to go if they need help. The last several months also have made it more tempting to turn to behaviors that might distract us from the anxiety and the stressors from online gambling to increased substance abuse or alcohol consumption. Again, it’s critical there’s a place to turn when we need help getting back to making healthy decisions for ourselves and our families,” Reynolds said.
She is directing $30 million for the mental health regions, $10 million to mental health providers, and $10 million to substance abuse providers. This new money is in addition to relief funds that the federal government has allocated for the Cherokee and Independence Mental Health Institutes and other hospitals and private practitioners. FEMA also provided $1 million in aid for the Iowa Department of Human Services to provide crisis counseling to those impacted by COVID-19.
“We take obstacles, and we turn them into opportunities. We don’t want to just weather the storm of COVID-19. We want to help our system innovate and adapt to the challenges the future holds,” Reynolds said.
“We are making meaningful investments into Iowa’s mental health services to help vulnerable Iowans and their families,” she added. “Today’s investment is not only about adapting to the challenges we face today, but sustaining a compassionate and coordinated system for the future.”
Reynolds was joined by Flora A. Schmidt, the Executive Director for the Iowa Behavioral Health Association, Andrew Allen, President & CEO of Youth and Shelter Services, Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, and Kelly Garcia, Director of the Iowa Department of Human Services.
Garcia said the state had made progress on its mental health delivery system before COVID-19.
“COVID has changed so much of our landscape, and we must continue to move forward,” she said.
Due to expanding telehealth, Garcia noted that more patients had kept their appointments at higher rates than before. She said that has been one of the bright spots of the pandemic.
Allen, who serves on the state’s children’s mental health system board, noted that mental health and substance abuse issues do not discriminate.
“The National Institute of Mental Health shows 49.5 percent of adolescents – one out of two – will have a mental health illness. One in six of us will have a substance use disorder, and 90 percent of those will start before their 18th birthday. So look around, all of us will be impacted, if not directly by one degree of separation,” he said.
Allen said the mental health stigma still exists.
“People are afraid to talk about their struggles and that of their family. I see it in my own community when kids start secluding themselves and not talking or acting out, and the police get called. Oftentimes, instead of asking for help, families are embarrassed, they feel judged, and they don’t seek treatment instead of suffering alone,” he said.
“On average, the delay between the onset of symptoms of mental health and someone seeking treatment is 11 years living with a diagnosable and treatable illness before even seeking treatment. And today, because of the pandemic and isolation, the trauma that kids are facing is increasing. And for many, it’s happening behind closed doors. The uncertainty that families are experiencing is creating increased levels of stress and anxiety and depression,” Allen added.
He stated that the additional funding could not come at a more critical time.
By Caffeinated Thoughts on Jul 07, 2020 12:07 pm
DES MOINES, Iowa – The National Federation of Independent Business endorsed Republican nominee David Young in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District race over incumbent U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa.
Young’s endorsement on Tuesday comes from NFIB FedPAC, the organization’s political action committee.
“As a former Congressman for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District from 2015-2019, David Young knows the challenges small businesses in our state are facing,” said Matt Everson, NFIB’s Iowa State Director. “He achieved a strong voting record during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives and was instrumental in helping pass important small business legislation, such as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which granted significant tax relief for small businesses. On behalf of small businesses in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, I am proud to endorse David Young today for election to the U.S. House of Representatives.”
“David Young was a strong supporter of small businesses during his time in Congress,” said NFIB National Political Director Sharon Sussin. “He has a deep understanding of the issues that small businesses in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District are concerned about, and we are confident he will continue to be a champion for small businesses in Iowa and across the country in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
David Young is a seventh-generation Iowan and served Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015-2019. Young received a 91 percent NFIB voting record on small business issues during the 115th Congress and a 100 percent NFIB voting record during the 114th Congress. He was an NFIB Guardian of Small Business Award recipient for both of his terms in Congress.
Young was also endorsed in June by the Business Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC) Action Fund, representing smaller and larger employers.
“I am honored to receive the endorsement of the National Federation of Independent Business,” said Young. “The backbone of so many of our communities are small businesses. I will continue to make supporting them and their workers a priority by ensuring their taxes are low and excessive and burdensome regulations are kept in check to give them the freedom to run and expand their businesses and hire more workers and serve their customers.”
Young was elected to serve Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014 and reelected in 2016. He served on the House Appropriations Committee. Before his service in Congress, Young served Iowans as U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley’s Chief of Staff from 2006-2013.
Launched in 2006, Caffeinated Thoughts reports news and shares commentary about culture, current events, faith and state and national politics from a Christian and conservative point of view.
President Donald Trump will welcome President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico to the White House on Wednesday. The two leaders will participate in meetings and hold a joint press conference. Keep up with Trump on Our President’s Schedule Page. President Trump’s Itinerary for 7/8/20 – note: this page will …
Even before the death of George Floyd a whole new culture emerged known as the cancel culture. This culture was founded and promoted by the three black self-admitted Marxist women of Black Lives matter who want to transform this country into something it was never meant to be. They are …
YUMA, Ariz. – Yuma Sector agents arrested a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient from California and apprehended multiple illegal aliens during a human smuggling event Monday night. Agents made the arrest on Monday night, east of Yuma The incident occurred at approximately 5:45 p.m., when Border Patrol agents …
YUMA, Ariz. – Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents thwarted multiple smuggling events and apprehended 21 illegal aliens over a four-day period. In the first event on Thursday, Blythe Station agents performed a vehicle stop on a white Chevrolet Silverado and white Dodge Ram in Quartzsite. The driver of both vehicles …
LAREDO, Texas – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers intercepted hard narcotics with an estimated street value of more than $11.4 million in one enforcement action at the World Trade Bridge. “These drugs will not reach Main Street USA due to the efforts of …
The FBI opens a new counterintelligence investigation related to Chinese espionage every 10 hours, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech Tuesday, which he billed as the most detailed discussion of the threat posed by China that the FBI has ever disclosed to the public. “The greatest long-term threat …
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the Trump administration is strongly considering banning TikTok and other Chinese apps. “We are taking this very seriously. We are certainly looking at it,” Pompeo told Fox News after being asked about whether President Donald Trump is making a move against the …
A King County judge set bail at $1.2 million Monday for a man suspected of weaving a luxury car through a blocked Seattle highway, killing one and seriously injuring another. Dawit Kelete, a black man, was arrested in connection with the hit and run that took place early Saturday morning. …
We lost a country music icon and true patriot, Charlie Daniels yesterday. We enjoyed listening to his music and reading his Twitter timeline, Charlie pulled no punches.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump join administration officials, teachers, administrators and students in a conversation about safely returning our children to school in the fall. The event is scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m. EDT and the president and first lady will join at 3:00 p.m. EDT. …
Millions of potential coronavirus vaccine doses are being made before testing has been completed to expedite the process, National Institutes of Health director Francis S. Collins told New York Magazine. At least four vaccines are being prepared for large-scale testing involving 30,000 volunteers, which could begin this month, said Collins, …
Trump hates Obama. This is no Clinton vs Bush rivalry because one is a Democrat and the other is a Republican. This is pure, raw unadulterated hatred. Trump hates Obama and has done everything, or perhaps I should say, almost everything in his power so far to prove it. If …
President Trump has been proved right again with another shockingly successful hydroxychloroquine study, done by the Henry Ford Health System and published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. This new explosive study proves the experts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have …
The Left has sprinted past what we previously thought was a line in the sand between personal freedom and forced dictates of personal behavior by the state. The breach of that boundary has led to numerous other fundamental rights crumbling to dust along with our historical monuments. There is still …
A man was fatally shot in the Bronx on Sunday as he held the hand of his six-year-old daughter while they crossed the street, surveillance footage shows. The graphic video shows a man at the intersection of Sheridan Ave. and East 170th Street around 6 p.m. with his daughter at …
Two separate House spending bills deny President Donald Trump any funds for the southern border wall’s construction, according to drafts released Monday by the Appropriations Committee. The bills total more than $300 billion in spending and allocate funds for military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as …
2020 continues to impress, finding new ways to throw weird stuff at us and make us question if any of us ever were sane. For the record, I am currently a firm “No” on that at this point. I have been writing about cancel culture a lot this past year, most recently at the end of last month. Prior to even looking at today’s news I talked about cancel culture for much of my latest podcast episode, which is in today’s VIP section.
So it’s on my mind a lot.
Tuesday was shaping up to be one of the more interesting days in the cancel culture wars but — as with almost everything in 2020 — it quickly went right off of the rails.
Brian wrote post yesterday about the need for cancel culture to be canceled, which we here at the Briefing have been pushing for a lot. In it he detailed how even the beloved musical Hamilton is in the wokescolds’ sites:
“…less-woke era…” Hamilton isn’t the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind (which has also faced a cancel threat from HBO). It came out in 2015! And it has made many non-white American actors and theater folks very rich. It has sparked renewed interest in American history. But now some hard leftists who cannot abide anything impure by their own reckoning existing want it canceled.
One of the most anticipated streaming events of this year was the release of the Hamilton movie on Disney+ last weekend. Until these past couple of days, it was one of the most woke entertainment choices one could make. It’s rather disturbing how quickly a few of the scolds can get the social media rage mob moving even on a previously acceptable lefty target. Cancel culture comes at you fast.
Things began taking an interesting turn on the cancel culture front Tuesday when Harpers published a letter that found me agreeing which found me in agreement with lefties like Noam Chomsky and Vox.com’s Matt Yglesias.
On Tuesday, Harpers released a powerful open letter denouncing cancel culture and celebrating open debate. Even far-left anti-capitalist Noam Chomsky signed the letter.
“The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted,” the letter warns. “While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”
The signatories lament that “it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms.”
It’s Christmas in July! We’re going to have conversations and cancel culture is about to be canceled by people on the side of cancel culture! OK, I did feel super awkward about being on the same side as Chomsky — I kind of wanted a Silkwood shower — but, not to worry, the Kumbaya moment didn’t last long. No sooner had the news about the Harpers article begun to get a lot of attention than many of the enlightened co-signatories decided that some of the company were to icky for them to be associated with.
It’s spineless liberal cancel culture at its petulant nadir. The gist was that they were all on board when they thought it was just about a bunch of liberals posturing about tolerance and doing away with cancel culture. Once they found out they would have to actually encounter people who thought differently, the plan was off. These are bitter people who don’t encounter anyone outside of their homogeneous thought bubbles.
Cancel culture is here to stay for a while it would seem. And while I’m not always a fan of playing by their rules I think that the only way we can stop this nonsense is if we bring a little cancel culture to the cancel culture crowd. For now we will just have to revel in the glorious few hours when cancel culture came for itself.
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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
As of Tuesday night, 2,993,759 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the United States (an increase of 58,043 from yesterday) and 131,455 deaths have been attributed to the virus (an increase of 1,171 from yesterday, likely due to a holiday weekend backlog), according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, leading to a mortality rate among confirmed cases of 4.4 percent (the true mortality rate is likely much lower, between 0.4 percent and 1.4 percent, but it’s impossible to determine precisely due to incomplete testing regimens). Of 36,878,106 coronavirus tests conducted in the United States (845,777 conducted since yesterday), 8.1 percent have come back positive.
The Trump administration formally alerted the World Health Organization of its plans to pull out of the U.N. agency on Tuesday. The withdrawal won’t take effect until next July, meaning the move hinges on November’s election: Biden said the U.S. would remain a member if he wins.
The Chinese-owned video streaming app TikTok announced on Tuesday its plans to pull out of Hong Kong, citing concerns over Beijing’s new national security law. India banned the app last week in response to the country’s recent border dispute with China. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the United States is considering banning the app as well.
As part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1.6 billion to Novavax in exchange for 100 million doses of the biotech company’s COVID-19 vaccine, which is currently in early testing. If the vaccine is determined to be safe and effective, it could begin being distributed by the end of this year.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday.
After a violent weekend across Atlanta—during which 31 people were shot and five, including an 8-year-old girl, were killed—Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency and authorizing the activation of 1,000 national guard troops to protect state buildings and patrol the streets of Atlanta.
Democratic Senate Candidates Shatter Fundraising Records
For political hobbyists, end-of-quarter campaign fundraising deadlines carry with them the excitement of an NFL playoff game. Four months from a presidential election, they’re the Super Bowl.
We covered the top-of-the-ticket numbers for Q2 last Thursday: Joe Biden and the DNC out-raised President Trump and the RNC $141 million to $131 million. Now, fundraising hauls for U.S. Senate races have begun trickling out—and Democrats have to like what they see.
Amy McGrath—who just won the right to square off against Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky—raised $17.4 million. Jaime Harrison, running against Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, brought in $13.9 million. Sara Gideon, challenging Susan Collins in Maine, raised more than $9 million. Steve Bullock in Montana, $7.7 million, and Cal Cunningham in North Carolina, $7.4 million. Several of those payloads shattered single-quarter records in their respective states.
We texted a GOP operative working with a Senate campaign this cycle about the news. Their response: “Hiding under covers dot gif.”
When most nations went into some form of lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus in March, Sweden made the controversial decision to remain open, only banning gatherings of more than 50 people and closing schools for students ages 16 and up. The government discouraged nonessential travel, but kept its public institutions—bars, restaurants, schools, gyms, museums and so on—open to the public.
The country’s laissez-faire approach stood in stark contrast to the government-imposed shelter-in-place orders in most other countries, rendering Sweden essentially a control variable in the COVID-19 intervention experiment. What would happen if a government allowed life to proceed as normal in the midst of a global pandemic?
The results of that experiment are becoming more apparent. And they don’t look good.
We’ve repeatedly written about the diplomatic and economic tug-of-war taking place between the U.S. and China over the building of the United Kingdom’s next-generation wireless network. China has been pushing the U.K. (and much of the rest of the world) to build out 5G networks with help from their own telecom giant Huawei; the U.S., which sees Huawei-built networks as a serious intelligence and privacy risk, has rallied its allies to freeze the corporation out.
In early 2020, it seemed the U.S. had lost that fight. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was facing a powerful Chinese carrot-and-stick approach, which included heavy subsidies that allowed Huawei to offer unbeatable prices and dire warnings of economic withdrawal if Huawei were not allowed in for business. He announced in January that Huawei would be heavily involved in building non-“core” parts of Britain’s 5G network—a largely meaningless face-saving distinction.
Yesterday, Harper’s Magazine published a public letter highlighting the importance of “justice and open debate,” featuring signatories such as Jonathan Haidt, Francis Fukukama, Margaret Atwood, Michael Walzer, J.K. Rowling and Noam Chomsky. “The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away,” the letter reads. “We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other.”
The Daily Beast recently uncovered a network of fake personas that have published more than 90 opinion pieces in 46 different publications, many on the right, including Newsmax, The Washington Examiner, RealClear Markets, and The American Thinker. “The articles heaped praise on the United Arab Emirates and advocated for a tougher approach to Qatar, Turkey, Iran and its proxy groups in Iraq and Lebanon,” Adam Rawnsley writes. “This vast influence operation highlights the ease with which malicious actors can exploit the identity of real people, dupe international news outlets, and have propaganda of unknown provenance legitimized through reputable media,” said Marc Owen Jones, the first person to recognize the network’s suspicious activity.
Tech millionaires are creating a new species of political affiliation: the “liberaltarian.” Stanford political economists Edith M. Cornell and David Brockman discussed the origins of this great migration of tech entrepreneurs to the left in a recent Stanford Graduate School of Business interview, where they explain why this demographic is “moving the Democratic Party to the left on almost every issue except government regulation.”
In the latest French Press (🔒), David makes the case for “healthy federalism” as an antidote to toxic polarization. As the United States grows increasingly diverse—in religion, race, and ideology—government better serves the needs of the individual at the local level. “A highly polarized nation is ill-suited for continued consolidation of power in the federal government, much less in the executive branch of federal government,” he writes.
Columbia University linguist John McWhorter joined Jonah on The Remnantyesterday to talk about the shifting nature of language, “literally,” and the grammar police.
Although Gen-Zers have splashed across headlines for partying en masse and engaging in other coronavirus spreading activities, data show us that these incidents don’t speak for the whole. AEI fellow and politics professor at Sarah Lawrence College Samuel J. Abrams explains why for the most part, young people are doing their part to stave off the spread of COVID-19.
Kemberlee Kaye: “The world is crazy but the blessings of family are never-ending. Taking a few days for a quick trip up to north Texas to spend time with some of my favorite people in one of my favorite places. Thanks to the LI team, and especially Prof J and Mary for picking up the slack while we get away for a few days.”
Mary Chastain: “I wrote about the articles and tweets I’ve seen regarding the musical Hamilton. It’s weird how some people have no problem with the play not mentioning Hamilton married into a wealthy slave-owning and trading family. He also really wasn’t an abolitionist if you think about it. Also, why would you make a musical about Hamilton? Of all of our Founding Fathers…Hamilton?! The man wanted a freaking monarchy!”
David Gerstman: “What’s most frustrating: an NFL star cites Hitler favorably and gets very little criticism, authors of a paper ask to retract not because it’s mistaken, but because the wrong people quote it, or that Gov. Cuomo’s health department clears him of any responsibility in his deadly policy of forcing COVID patients to nursing homes?”
Stacey Matthews: “Kellyanne Conway asks the question of the year: ‘How does [cancel culture, toppling statues] get one more kid of color who is in a failing school a better opportunity, a better education?'”
Legal Insurrection Foundation is a Rhode Island tax-exempt corporation established exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to educate and inform the public on legal, historical, economic, academic, and cultural issues related to the Constitution, liberty, and world events.
For more information about the Foundation, CLICK HERE.
“Today, the nostrum goes, it is not enough for Americans to be not racist. They must be “anti-racist.” … What, pray tell, is the difference between being against racism and being anti-racist?….”
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Gun Violence Is Killing Innocent Black Children
The story of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, who was shot and killed Saturday night near the Atlanta Wendy’s that protesters have been occupying since Rayshard Brooks’ death, is heartbreaking. It’s part of a violent crime wave sweeping through Democrat-controlled cities, where protesters have called to “reimagine” and “defund” the police.
“Police said Turner was riding in a car with her mother and her mother’s friend when they exited the interstate at University Avenue,” reports WBS-TV Atlanta. “The driver tried to turn into the parking lot at 1238 Pryor Road when he was confronted by an ‘group of armed individuals’ who had blocked the entrance.”
“‘At some point, someone in that group opened fire on the vehicle, striking it multiple times and striking the child who was inside. The driver then drove to Atlanta Medical Center for help,’ police said in a statement.”
“They say black lives matter,” Secoriea’s father, Secoriya Williamson said. “You killed your own this time. You killed a child. She didn’t do nothing to nobody.”
Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Nashville, Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and New Orleans have all seen murders surge. In Atlanta, there have been 75 shootings this month alone. In New York, shootings are up 205% since the city disbanded its plainclothes unit. Sunday left 10 dead and 30 shot. In Chicago, 87 people were shot and 17 people died in a third straight weekend of gun violence.
Nathan Wallace, the father of 7-year-old Natalia Wallace who was shot and killed in Chicago while playing outside at her grandmother’s home had this to say: “Something has to give in Chicago, and I pray that Lori Lightfoot and chief of police put something together to stop this. At the end of the day, our future is getting hurt.”
Tragically, Natalia and Secoriea’s stories aren’t unique. CNN reports that over the holiday weekend, at least six children were killed. “The children, ages 6 to 14, were all shot and killed while doing everyday things — riding in mom’s car, walking in a mall, and playing in a yard with their cousins.”
WHO, Minus the USA
The U.S. formally withdrew from the World Health Organization yesterday, effective July 21, 2021.
“The formal notification of withdrawal concludes months of threats from the Trump administration to pull the United States out of the WHO, which is affiliated with the United Nations, reports The Hill. “President Trump has repeatedly assailed the organization for alleged bias toward China and its slow response to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.”
The news comes as the U.S. now has so few deaths due to COVID-19 that the CDC said it’s approaching the threshold for dipping below the level of an epidemic. If you want some in-depth, wonky analysis on that front, grab your coffee and read here.
Millions Of Americans Might Be About To Ditch City Living
Are you one of them? I sure am for all of the reasons laid out here.
Wednesday Links Savage: The manager of a small town in Ohio has declared his municipality a “sanctuary city” for statues. (The Daily Signal)
Sigh: Harry and Meghan say Britain must right past ‘wrong,’ reckon with colonial past. (Daily Wire)
Sad: Broadway star Nick Cordero dies after months-long battle with complications from COVID.
And Laugh: 22 funny ways businesses are mandating masks.
Kelsey Bolar is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Forum and a contributor to The Federalist. She is also the Thursday editor of BRIGHT, and the 2017 Tony Blankley Chair at The Steamboat Institute. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, daughter, and Australian Shepherd, Utah.
Note: By using some of the links above, Bright may be compensated through the Amazon Affiliate program and Magic Links. However, none of this content is sponsored and all opinions are our own.
Jul 08, 2020 01:00 am
Borglum’s story is American to its core, like that of the men whose likenesses he carved — all flawed geniuses who accomplished more than what was actually in them. Read More…
Jul 08, 2020 01:00 am
The recent pogroms reflect the expectations of the dwellers of the Democrats’ swamp on the value of their political positions after losing in November. Read More…
Jul 08, 2020 01:00 am
The Democratic Party and every other voice on the left has been virtually silent over the price society is forced to pay for an overreaction to an incident of police brutality. Read More…
Jul 08, 2020 01:00 am
So-called Court independence and neutrality, as promoted by our woke imperial establishment, is whenever the Court rules to defend its illegal imperium. Read More…
Jul 08, 2020 01:00 am
The choice we as a country will make in November is clear: Trump and patriotism or Biden and globalism. Development or decline. It is just that simple. Read More…
A time for choosing
Jul 08, 2020 01:00 am
We’re at a dangerous crossroads, and Ilhan Omar’s radical demands should help Americans understand what’s at stake. Read more…
De Blasio’s cop crackdown will make bodies pile up
Jul 08, 2020 01:00 am
When I heard that NYC mayor Bill de Blasio had disbanded the anti-crime branch of the NYPD, I instinctively knew that the city was in for a new wave of violent crime. Read more…
The grass is greener in red states
Jul 08, 2020 01:00 am
The relative approach to governance between Red and Blue states and cities has become increasingly disparate. Read more…
It got ugly outside Grace Baptist Church in Troy, New York, recently as Black Lives Matter activists — triggered by the church’s AR-15 giveaway — fought with church members, the Times Union report … Read more
As the government lays out ever-changing guidelines for safeguarding the same military who sacrifice their lives all over the world, they risk killing freedom on the home front by restricting religious practice.
By the end of a year five police officers were killed and dozens wounded and hospitalized by Black Lives Matter radicals, BuzzFeed fondly looked back on 2016 as ‘the year Black Lives Matter went global.’
Black Lives Matter activists cite Douglass’s 1852 speech ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’ as proof America is evil. They utterly miss his point.
Now the radicalized media has taken to lying about a speech entirely focused on American pride. This dark turn is merely a preview of what is to come with the less than 120 days until election day.
In his skewed appraisal of Trump’s speeches, The Washington Post’s Dan Balz contends Trump has ‘turned the Fourth of July from a joyful and unifying patriotic celebration … into a partisan political event.’
‘What racial biases do you have that have led you to believe that protesting is a driver of this pandemic instead of the actions that actually are driving it?’ says a post from a Wisconsin health agency.
As politics is downstream of culture, and conservatives sit at a disadvantage, fixing the leftist bias in corporate media and academia are the first steps.
American taxpayers have given more than $3.5 billion to the organization, which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands by spreading communist lies.
The Transom is a daily email newsletter written by publisher of The Federalist Ben Domenech for political and media insiders, which arrives in your inbox each morning, collecting news, notes, and thoughts from around the web.
“You must read The Transom. With brilliant political analysis and insight into the news that matters most, it is essential to understanding this incredible moment in history. I read it every day!” – Newt Gingrich
Before you get out the tar and feathers, note that I am a physician with experience in Expensive Care – the art of getting people who have both feet on the banana peel well – or spending as much money as possible on high tech expensive resources as possible before they assume room temperature. That’s all done in the Intensive Care Unit, for those of you not raised on medical humor.
The US is treating the Wuhan Flu as if it is a single disease that has killed so many people that it will kill the rest of us if we open up. Because we are allegedly having a massive spike in new cases, we have to reverse actions to open up our society. At the very least, we have to put masks on everyone.
In other places I’ve discussed how masks do no good and can actually cause harm. Others have discussed how the actual data on mortality and case count are vastly inflated. But this completely misses a couple of very important points. First, COVID-19 doesn’t kill people.
There. I’ve gone and said it again. There’s a very important reason for this conclusion. If all you get is the Wuhan Flu, you may get a bit sick, but you won’t even need to go to the hospital. You’ll get over it. That’s because you don’t get a “Cytokine Storm.”
In plain English, CS is a different disease process. It’s an uncontrolled release of signaling molecules that engage the immune system at ludicrous speed. A number of different infections can trigger it. An infection is needed before the Storm can start, but the Storm is a different process. Once it’s underway, it drives the train. We know that the risk of dying from CS following COVID-19 in Florida if you are under age 25 is 0.02%, but if you are over 85, it’s 24.5% (FL Dept of Health as of July 6).
That 1,225x difference in risk proves that something else is in play. The infection is necessary, but it’s not sufficient. CS requires something more than just infection such as COVID-19, SARS, or H5N1 flu. In general, age and infirmity are correlated with bad outcomes, but we don’t know in any detail what factor within those categories is needed. What we do know is that the interventions that work don’t have all that much to do with antiviral effects.
Multiple studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine works to reduce severity and duration of the infection complex (COVID + CS) if given in the earlier stages of the disease. We also know that HCQ has both antiviral and immune modulating effects. Which of its effects is important with COVID-19 is not entirely clear. But as we look further, studies have shown that dexamethasone, a common, inexpensive steroid, has beneficial effects, most likely by reducing CS. And new reports indicate that early administration of budesonide, an inhaled steroid that only gets to the lungs, can rapidly reverse the onset of CS.
The common feature of these treatments is an anti-inflammatory effect. HCQ is a mild anti-inflammatory, inhaled budesonide works the same way in the lung, and dexamethasone is a more potent systemic anti-inflammatory. If we add suggestive data that non-steroidal anti-inflammatories may reduce inflammatory symptoms of respiratory virus infections, we start to see a strongly suggestive picture that CS is the major culprit.
When we look at drugs with antiviral effects, the picture isn’t so clear. A search of PubMed reveals no strong candidates for therapy. Lay news reports have remdesivir reducing hospital stays, but detailed studies are still in the pipeline. In short, antivirals don’t seem to be all that useful in advanced COVID-19 cases. At the same time, viral load on admission does not seem to match outcome. But viral load does match inflammatory markers in critically ill patients.
Putting the viral load data together doesn’t tell us much. That suggests that antiviral therapy isn’t likely to be terribly helpful in the critically ill patient. And that seems to be what we’re seeing. The disease that kills people is CS, not COVID-19.
This tells us that we need to be concerned with CS, not Wuhan Flu. But CS can come from a number of infections, not just Wuhan Flu. And it seems to happen almost exclusively in the elderly and infirm. So a focus on stopping Wuhan Flu is misguided. We need lots of young people to get and recover from COVID-19 infection. Their immunity will help protect the rest of us. For them, COVID-19’s just the common cold. Or less. In Florida, under age 25 there have been exactly eight deaths related to COVID-19. That means that we need to re-open all schools ASAP. Even if those kids get infected, they’ll get over it, and they don’t often pass it on.
COVID-19 is not the problem. When it triggers CS, a potentially lethal problem develops. So we need to remember that there are people at high risk. They are the only people who should socially distance, isolate, or wear masks. And the only masks that actually work for them are N-95s. Those filter well as you breathe in, but let you breathe out through a valve. So they protect the wearer, but not those around. We should also actively monitor at-risk populations. With the early onset of symptoms, anti-inflammatory therapy seems likely to be beneficial, possibly averting the onset of CS.
Low risk activities (outdoors) by low risk populations should be completely opened up. Schools need to open up. And indoor activities should be resumed with Americans being allowed to assume the normal risks of daily life. Nothing in any lockdown has been beneficial. In New York we know it increased the number of people getting sick. Why do we want to repeat that?
Dr. Noel is a retired physician who is trained in Critical Care Medicine. He writes on medical and political issues.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
The news has been dreadful as of late, with left still trying to exploit pandemic panic and erase history, not to mention pushing their insane idea of defunding and abolishing the police. In light of that, a ray of hope is emerging from the gloom.
Thus, we have a bit of good news on the pro-liberty front this morning. We are one veto override away from a strengthening of the common sense human right of self-defense in the state of North Carolina.
A measure that would strengthen the safety and security of the people has made its way through the legislature but was vetoed by the Governor. Bearing Arms picks up the story: N.C. House Speaker Wants To Override Gov’s Gun Bill Veto:
A bill that would allow concealed carry holders to attend church services held on properties where a private school is located was vetoed by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper last week, but the Republican Speaker of the House says there are enough votes in the legislature to override the governor’s objections.
House Bill 652 would allow concealed permit holders to lawfully carry during services held at private schools, as long as classes are not in session and the property owner has given approval of the practice. Already in North Carolina concealed carry holders are legally allowed to carry in freestanding churches across the state, so this bill is really a minor fix, though it does also contain a provision that would allow non-police first responders to lawfully carry when they are working with SWAT teams and other police agencies.
As well as a helpful link for those in the state of North Carolina to Find your legislator.
Those in the state may want to contact the people who work for you and voice your support for this pro-liberty legislation. Please note that slight mistake was made in the video in mentioning the wrong date for the override vote. It is scheduled to take place tomorrow on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. So, contact your legislator if you are in the state.
Naturally, Governor Cooper decided to veto the bill because it would open up the way to have good people carry in certain situations to ensure their safety and security. Apparently ‘King’ Cooper thinks that a mass murderer will stop at a sign that says: No freedom allowed. Most sane people realize that disarming the innocent won’t protect them, as has been proven by the fact that 94% Mass Public Shootings Keep Occur In Gun-Free Zones.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
The official Twitter account for the United States Marine Corps reported this morning that an active shooter was present at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center – Twentynine Palms.
#BREAKING: Military police responded to reports of gunshots at approximately 0630 and cordoned the area. We cannot confirm a suspect in custody at this time. More to follow.
#BREAKING: A suspect was in custody Tuesday morning after reports of an active shooter at a marine base in Twentynine Palms. FOX 11 has confirmed that no injuries were reported. https://t.co/dn7d1hYKO7
Gunshots were reported around 6:30 am at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center – Twentynine Palms. Very little information has been released so far. This is a breaking story and will be updated as more information comes available.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Anyone can be taken by a hoax on the internet. It happens. We see something and believe it to be real, only to find out later that it was fake. Maybe it’s confirmation bias clouding our judgment. Maybe we’re just gullible. Maybe it was just a Joe Biden moment. Knowing this, I had to confirm whether an image of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blowing bubbles at a child was real. Surely she can’t be that dense, right?
The freshman Congresswoman took off her face mask to blow bubbles within close proximity to a child. Lest we forget, the coronavirus is preached like a religion by mainstream media and Democrats who believe it’s their ticket to election success in November. They don’t want people to be able to do, well, anything that could allow a single particle to be transferred from one person to another.
In reality, both Democratic lawmakers and mainstream media are well aware that the coronavirus is not the existential threat they publicly claim it to be. And every now and then, their knowledge of this slips out. AOC isn’t trying to kill the kid in front of her. She was simply overtaken by the desire to blow bubbles and let her fake coronavirus panic guard down. But, they have a narrative to maintain, so mask scolding will certainly come next for the Congresswoman when these images spread.
Clearly, the Congresswoman is actively and aggressively transmitting the disease, assuming we believe the mainstream media narrative. Does she hate children? Is she trying to kill grandma?
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Philosopher, theologian, and former hippy E. Michael Jones has had his channel permanently banned on YouTube. This follows a string of high-profile take downs by Google’s video site. It’s unknown what the owner of Culture Wars may have done, but considering his penchant for controversy, it could have been anything.
We all knew this day was coming…
YouTube has finally banned my account, deleting hundreds of videos, millions of views, and 60.7k subscribers… gone in an instant.
They can try to censor me, but nobody can censor Logos.
To be clear, I do not agree with much of what Jones espouses. He has some excellent ideas, but he also has some borderline concepts that he promotes and is often associated with anti-Semitism. His defenders say he’s taken out of context, and to be transparent I haven’t heard examples to make my own determination in that regard. But I don’t have to agree with everything he says to be upset that someone has been censored, that ideologies improperly aligned with what YouTube believes is acceptable will be wiped from digital existence.
He was prepared for this day. He had a backup channel on YouTube, but it was banned as well. Now, all of his videos can be found on his BitChute channel, a video site that embraces free speech.
When someone finds the right vein, blood invariably squirts out. E. Michael Jones found that vein with YouTube, and while we may never know their reasoning, the “platform” has editorialized him off the island.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
by Tony Perkins: Given by any other man, it would have been considered one of the greatest speeches of our time. A triumph of American exceptionalism. But it was not any other man standing under the granite faces of Mount Rushmore on the night before July 4th. It was Donald Trump.
So however inspired his words may have been, however sincere his call to remember the deep well of American goodness, however different his message might have been from all the others the media loves to criticize, he was never going to get a fair shake. The president’s detractors stopped listening a long time ago, missing the moment they would have realized this nation had been waiting for.
What happened Friday night, under the red, white, and blue bunting of a Fourth of July weekend, was defining — not just for this president, but for a hurting country. The scars of 2020 already run deep, with the last several weeks splitting wider old wounds. For most of us, it’s a time of uncertainty we’ve never experienced, a fear for our nation that’s never felt more real. It was with that backdrop that President Trump flew to South Dakota and spoke from the heart. He reminded us about the miraculous story of America, about the men and women of every race who bled and fought to make us the brightest light the world had ever seen. “No nation,” he said, “has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America, and no people have done more to promote human progress than the citizens of our great nation.”
There are so many great chapters of adventure, innovation, and courage waiting to be written, Trump wanted the country to know. But the other side isn’t interested. They don’t want to teach children to love their country, honor their history, and grab on to opportunity. They want to erase our history, he warned. But “their goal is not a better America. Their goal is to end America.” Undermining, the president explained, the very cause they claim to represent — the cause of abolitionists, of Martin Luther King, Jr., of civil rights visionaries the world over.
Passionate at times, eloquent at others, it was the speech of a man who realized it wasn’t just his presidency at stake — but his country. And yet, the same hypocritical voices who demand the very leadership President Trump displayed eviscerated him for it afterward. “Dark,” “divisive,” “traitorous,” and “combative,” the media’s reaction was full of this ridiculous insistence that patriotism isn’t just partisan — it’s racist. “It would be difficult to get a more textbook expression of the American civic religion than the speech at Rushmore,” NRO’s Rich Lowry declared, “…or a more affirming account of the greatness of America and its meaning to the world. And, yet, the speech was tested and found wanting.”
Meanwhile, no one is quite sure what the mob’s solution to this crisis is (if they seek a solution at all). Their idea of justice divides. Their idea of equality silences. If we can’t unite around our common identity as Americans, what is there? And maybe for angry liberals, that’s the point. “Divisive?” the editors of the Wall Street Journal wrote in astonishment. “Mr. Trump’s speech was certainly direct, in his typical style. But it was only divisive if you haven’t been paying attention to the divisions now being stoked on the political left across American institutions.”
Never before, Lowry insisted, “has a speech extolling America’s virtues and the marvels or the nation’s heroes played to such poor — and completely dishonest — reviews.” You can say a lot of things, he argued, “that the speech was insincere, or that Trump’s tweets matter more than anything he reads from a Teleprompter… but you can’t say it was racially divisive.” What it was, Rich wrote, was a celebration of America’s “Founders, its ideals and freedom, its capacity for self-renewal, its astonishing variety of geniuses, adventurers, warriors, inventors, and great musicians and athletes.” If that’s an expression of “white supremacy,” Rich worries, then America is on dangerous ground.
And yet, the Left is so desperate to cancel President Trump that Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) couldn’t even get Democrats to pass a simple resolution condemning mob violence as the Senate left town last week. “[My proposal] was designed to be unifying. It avoided controversial subjects [and encouraged] basic dignity and civil respect. And apparently that’s too much to ask for today’s Democratic Party.” The only way they would consider it, he said on Monday’s “Washington Watch,” is if he inserted language blaming the president for creating this chaos. “I said, ‘Look, I’ll take the rest of [your] language, but… I’m not going to let you turn this into an anti-Trump rant…” And because of that, it failed.
This whole climate, Mike shook his head, “is not good for us as humans. It’s not good for our souls.” Civility, he urged, “ultimately centers on Jesus Christ’s teachings of love and respect. We can disagree with someone without being disagreeable. We can disagree with them even passionately while still loving them and treating them with decency and respect.” Let’s face it, he said, “This is the greatest civilization the world has ever known. And we’re great not because of who we are, but because of what we do, because we’ve chosen to be good and kind to each other.”
There are forces in this country who want to take that choice away. To make hate the only language Americans speak. We cannot let them. The time has come to rise up and defend what 244 years of freedom have already won — if not out of respect for the generations who came before us, then out of concern for the ones who come after.
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Monday, nationally syndicated conservative talker Rush Limbaugh offered listeners an update on his battle with cancer.
In February, Limbaugh announced on air the diagnosis. Since the announcement, Limbaugh has continued his host duties with a rotation of fill-in guest hosts. Transcript as follows (courtesy of RushLimbaugh.com)
by Rush Limbaugh: Okay, time for an update on my condition, my circumstances, my treatment. I told you all from the very beginning that I did not want to be a cancer patient here on the radio. Now, those of you who’ve been through this or have had family members go through it, you know that it takes over your life if you let it. You know that it has deep-seated psychological impacts on everybody in your family, including the person who has come down with it.
It takes a yeoman’s effort to get past all that. It takes a lot of effort to try to live what used to be and what you try to make a normal life again. But there’s always that cloud hanging out over there. So rather than talk about blood draws and all of the medical specifics, what I thought I would do was use a sports analogy.
And since I used to work for the Kansas City Royals I understand baseball a bit, and baseball is probably the best sport to use to analogize where I am to date in my treatment for what is, for those of you who don’t know — there’s new people listening, tuning in every day — advanced stage lung cancer which was diagnosed back in January, on the 20th.
So leaning on my time with the Kansas City Royals, I thought the best way to update you and to inform you would be with a baseball analogy. It was in late January that we learned of the diagnosis. That means we learned of a really tough opponent. So, it was time to go up to bat, time to walk to the plate, bat in hand, and that is exactly what happened. And my first two at-bats were horrible. My first two at-bats struck out. Nothing to show for it.
The first two attempts to deal with the cancer failed. One was a targeted therapy of clinical trial drugs, which worked but nearly killed me in the process. And so we had to get off of those. But that at-bat showed me I could hit the pitch. I wasn’t gonna strike out. I was at least able to make contact. We had some hope that there would be a remedy.
The second at-bat was a total and complete failure. I struck out on three pitches. Did not even make contact. So I’m now up in the bottom of the ninth, I’m 0-for-2. I have not reached first base. I didn’t coax a walk out of anybody. I didn’t get a hit, much less a double or a triple. But on my third at-bat, the third attempt, I managed to get on base. I hit a solid single and then stole second.
I am currently on second base hoping to slide into third and eventually make it all the way home. We’re in the bottom of the ninth. If I get all the way home we get extra innings. And that’s what we’re shooting for here. Another reason why I chose baseball — football and basketball have a clock and they end. Baseball doesn’t. Baseball goes as long as the game is tied. Right now I am tied. I need to round the bases and score. I need, however it happens, I need to either steal third, I need to steal home. The guy hitting behind me needs to come up with something.
But that’s what we’re shooting for here is extra innings, and we want as many of them as we can get. Now, don’t be alarmed by my direct mention of the first two at-bats being total failures. Well, they were both total failures, but one of them held promise. The current treatment regimen — and, folks, it’s really tough because I know that you’ve known people or you’ve heard other people that are in media who are going through this illness or any other kind of illness. They’re so eager to share with you good news that they do. And sometimes they get premature sharing the good news, and it isn’t long before they have to come say, “Uh, uh, oh, we’ve lost ground or it’s come back” or what have you.
And so I am and vowed to be very guarded with the good news because we’re talking about cancer. There are good days, good weeks. There are bad days and bad weeks. This past period, this past treatment, which was a week ago tomorrow, this has been much better than I thought. I was expecting, because of the cumulative effect of the toxicity, I was expecting to be, you know, in that just debilitating fatigue for 10 days. And I wasn’t. It lasted two days, Thursday and Friday. The weekend was good. But, again, anything can change rapidly and on a dime. So, it’s a blessing.
I believe prayer works. I know it does. It is a blessing that in my third at-bat, the last shot that I had at this, I got on base and I stole second, and I’m chugging on to third, and I’m very confident that I’m gonna score. I’m very confident that this is gonna go into extra innings. Meaning — well, you know what it means. I’m trying to avoid being specific in the lingo here. And, again, that’s simply because of how rapidly things can change with this kind of diagnosis.
But I’m feeling extremely good right now, even cautious about saying that. Who knows what tomorrow’s gonna bring. Good days and bad days. But I told you I would share information with you, and I told you I would keep you abreast of it. And so that’s pretty much it. That’s the sum total of it. I mean, I could be even more optimistic if I wanted to because there is reason to be, but, again, when every phase and stage happens that’s an improvement, I’ll be sure and pass it on.
The bottom line is I’m entirely capable of being here today. My energy level is great. I’m doing extremely well. And I don’t think anybody would mind if I told you honestly that I am doing better at this stage than I thought I was gonna be doing. But, again, folks, I know these people who’ve gone through this, and they’re so eager to share good news and they do, and then the next day, in some cases, or the next week they have to pull it all back because that’s how rapidly things can change.
But sitting here right now, I can tell you that the attitude I have is, and the way I’m feeling physically, is much better than I thought I would be, particularly after the first two strikeouts. I mean, they were total failures, total strikeouts. And one of those times at bat was what we thought was the promise, one of those times at bat was where we thought the genuine, long-term answer was.
And when that didn’t work, it was, “Oh, no.” So the alternative has come through. It’s doing well. Translation: I’m responding very well to the treatment. My body overall is responding very well to the treatment that I’m getting, and, you know, again, psychologically, I don’t know what role psychology plays in recovery. There are people that would tell you a positive mental attitude counts for something, counts for a lot. Some would say it counts for nothing. Well, I’m an optimist anyway, so I don’t have to work at being optimistic.
But the psychological pall that accompanies this, and particularly for people in your family, it is as tough on them as it is on the, quote, unquote, patient. And they are to be applauded for the courage that they exhibit dealing with it. It’s just incredible, the support that I have and patience that people have with me. Because, if I lose control, I start blaming myself. I blame myself for ruining people’s lives here. And I’ll tell ’em that, and I apologize for it. And they say, “Nobody deserves to get what you got. You can’t blame yourself for this.”
The support that I’ve had, particularly from my wife, is just, as I’ve told you, impossible to characterize. So that’s the update. The upshot of it is I’ve rounded second base, I’m pushing for extra innings. I gotta score. I gotta get around to home plate to tie the game and to extend the game for as many extra innings as I can. And it looks like, sitting here today, that it may happen.
————————- Continue to pray for Rush Limbaugh.
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by Kevin McCullough: The single most important domestic issue of our time is not the rising number of new people testing positive for COVID-19. Deaths have hit all-time lows.
The single most important domestic issue of our time is not even the continued economic hardship of a nation that was artificially shut down and sent spiraling into a faux recession. Millions of jobs have been added over the past 60 days and the skyrocketing unemployment has turned around to nearly where it was percent wise in most of the Obama early years (11.1 vs 9.9.)
Nope!
The single most important issue, affecting some of the largest swaths of populations in America, is the scandal the media ignores even as it explodes in our faces.
In only six weeks, city after city operated by entrenched Democrats have seen a massive expansion in lawlessness, violence, and murder. Stunningly, many news outlets seem gobsmacked and mystified at how or why such an explosion of lawlessness has occurred.
For the sake of brevity, let’s sample six of the nation’s largest cities, including all of the top three.
New York:
The Democratic mayor has long been understood as anti-police. His wife recently imagined the city as “Nirvana” if the NYPD were eliminated altogether.
Thus far in 2020, homicides are up 21 percent. Shootings are up by 46 percent. The Democratic mayor ’s agenda included emptying the prison known as Rikers Island, bail reform letting perps walk before the paperwork is completed, and the effort to #DefundPolice that took 600 anti-crime units out of commission.
Los Angeles:
June saw disturbing trends. An increase in the month’s first week by 250 percent of homicides, and a 56 percent increase in shootings. Following the death of George Floyd in May the LAPD received a $150 million cut.
Chicago: Year-to-date shootings have eclipsed 1,508 for 2020, putting them 350 ahead of 2019. To date homicides sit at 254, placing them ahead of 2019. Important to note that the Cook County board voted in favor of defunding police. Eleven city alderman raced to the fore to demand that not a single penny of $333 million in federal dollars not go to police, and various proposals are being considered to cut current funding by more than $30 million in current spending.
Washington, D.C. Year-to-date homicide numbers are 13 percent higher than this time a year ago. Nevertheless, the District PD is slated to be defunded by more than $15 million.
Philadelphia:
Shootings are up 67 percent. Victims of armed violence are up 29 percent. Homicides are up 25 percent. So of course it makes sense to defund the Philadelphia PD by $19 million.
Baltimore:
As consistently one of the most dangerous cities in America with a five-year streak of more than 300 murders, last year Baltimore set a new record at 348 homicides. Yet in 2020 they outpace last year’s record and will see defunding to the effect of $22 million.
As I said there are many more that I could highlight for you.
So why did all of these cities take such violent turns? Is it because their leadership capitulated to the anger of the mobs as opposed to thinking clearly and strategically about an effective response?
Or do these Democrat-run towns literally operate with denial in good and evil?
How else can you explain that in the city of Minneapolis (where a nation watched in horror and subsequently responded to the murder of an innocent man) that within 30 days they would record 1,600 shots fired? But then respond by voting to dismantle its police operations all together?
The single most important threat to our nation at this moment are Democrats who are voting in favor of eliminating law enforcement and who are by extension responsible for the greater and greater increase in the loss of life.
They are allowing Marxists and Anarchists to create complete chaos and disorder. They also seem utterly unconcerned about any lives mattering, black or white.
They appear to be holding on to an idea that they are not impacted by the scum and villainy at play under their jurisdiction.
They even perhaps believe that this is all worth it, if it will allow them to have electoral success in the fall.
If so, they need to brace themselves for three basic truths.
Tags:Politics, Trends in Society, Six Weeks, Six Cities, 600 MurdersTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Media Malfeasance
I have reviewed more media accounts of the president’s speech last week at Mount Rushmore. Next to the vile Charlottesville hoax, this has been one of worst examples of the media blatantly lying about what the president said.
Not only did virtually every major media outlet, except for Fox News, twist the president’s remarks, multiple Democrat officeholders lied through their teeth without any interviewer fact checking them.
For example, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said the president “spent more time worried about honoring dead Confederates” than anything else. Trump never mentioned Confederate generals in his speech!
Again, if you missed the president’s address at Mount Rushmore, I encourage you to watch it here. It was a rousing defense of America, and nothing at all like what the media are describing.
Never Trumpers Lie Too
As you may know, the Lincoln Project is a cabal of Never Trumpers led by George Conway, Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson. It recently released an ad suggesting that President Trump thought Operation Desert Storm took place in Vietnam.
The ad is intended to make you think Trump is losing his mental faculties. It’s totally false. In fact, Twitter flagged the ad as “manipulated media” because it was so grossly edited in order to present a false impression that Trump is not up to the job.
Republicans like Schmidt and Wilson got paid big money teaching Republican candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney how to lose. Now they are working hard to make sure another Republican loses again, this time to a candidate who clearly isn’t up to the job.
They also want to make sure that Republicans lose control of the Senate. These so-called “Republicans” want the left to completely dominate America just because they don’t like Donald Trump.
They don’t want any checks at all against “President Biden,” Speaker Pelosi and the radical left’s agenda. That tells you everything you need to know about these swamp creatures, and why it has been so hard for the GOP to be a majority party over the decades!
Since they have taken the name “The Lincoln Project,” I suggest they do something productive and devote their time and money to stopping the left from attacking Abraham Lincoln memorials and statues.
Garden Of Heroes
Over the July 4th weekend, a statue of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass was torn down in Rochester, New York. This is just the latest example of the insanity the radical left has unleashed on America.
President Trump has boldly spoken out against the destruction of our historical monuments and memorials. But he has also called for something else – building a “Garden of Heroes” featuring statues of some of our greatest citizens.
Among those to be included in the “Garden of Heroes” are: Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Christa McAuliffe, Audie Murphy, Douglas MacArthur, Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Antonin Scalia, Harriet Tubman, and Booker T. Washington.
I would love to see this happen! Instead of tearing down memorials, let’s build more of them honoring truly great Americans. Make it a new American shrine to teach our children who we really are.
While the left is committed to attacking and denigrating America, President Trump is dedicated to making America great again and to honoring the Americans who made this such a great nation.
Choosing Chaos
It is hard to be a great nation when lawlessness prevails in your city streets. So I was pleased to see Georgia Governor Brian Kemp get serious yesterday about restoring order. In a bold and significant development, Kemp deployed the National Guard to get control of the violence in Atlanta.
There’s been an uptick of violence there, but it has not been nearly as bad as what is taking place in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, where the left dominates everything. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Yesterday, Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said that the federal government is ready to help states and cities restore law and order, but the progressive politicians must ask for help first because law enforcement is primarily a state and local issue.
“I think that any city that is having increases in violence, burning, rioting, looting is [doing so] by choice at this point,” Wolf said. “Those local elected officials are making a choice to keep their cities very unsafe and dangerous. The president has been very clear we’re here to support and provide resources. We’ll do that at their request.”
But they are choosing not to ask for help. Instead, some progressive politicians are blaming the violence on the coronavirus. (Here and here.)
Sadly, it’s minority communities who are most victimized by such violence, and I believe they would welcome the deployment of more law enforcement and even the National Guard to provide safe streets.
Many Americans want schools to reopen in the fall since the virus presents little risk to children. But I would be worried about the danger to our kids from growing lawlessness, violence and drugs. If mayors and governors were serious about keeping our children safe, they would ask for additional support from the federal government to restore law and order.
Pray For America
The headlines of recent weeks have been disturbing. From the pandemic to protests, from economic stress to mass killings in our cities, millions of Americans are anxious and hurting. But I know that big government doesn’t have the answer to every problem.
Many leaders in the Evangelicals for Trump coalition are calling on men and women of faith to participate in a prayer campaign for America. Please join me in this crucial effort. (Go to Evangelicals for Trump and sign up for more information.)
From racial reconciliation and economic recovery to the preservation of religious liberty, there is so much to pray about. You can start by encouraging friends and family to consider the words of II Chronicles:
“If My people who are called by My name
will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face,
and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Pray for a quick end to the coronavirus. Pray for an end to the divisions in our homes, our communities and our country. Pray for wisdom for our elected leaders and protection for the men and women of law enforcement. Pray that America would be restored and remain a shining city upon a hill.
——————- Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer) is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families
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by Dr. Victor Davis Hanson: Every cultural revolution starts at year zero, whether explicitly or implicitly. The French Revolution recalibrated the calendar to begin anew, and the genocidal Pol Pot declared his own Cambodian revolutionary ascension as the beginning of time.
Somewhere after May 25, 2020, the death of George Floyd, while in police custody, sparked demonstrations, protests, and riots. And they in turn ushered in a new revolutionary moment. Or at least we were told that — in part by Black Lives Matter, in part by Antifa, in part by terrified enablers in the corporate world, the new Democratic Party, the military, the universities, and the media.
What was uniquely different about this cultural revolution was how willing and quickly the entire progressive establishment — elected officials, celebrities, media, universities, foundations, retired military — was either on the side of the revolution or saw it as useful in aborting the Trump presidency, or was terrified it would be targeted and so wished to appease the Jacobins.
This reborn America was to end all of the old that had come before and supposedly pay penance for George Floyd’s death and, by symbolic extension, America’s inherent evil since 1619. As in all cultural revolutions, the protestors claimed at first at that they wanted only to erase supposedly reactionary elements: Confederate statues, movies such as Gone with the Wind, some hurtful cartoons, and a few cranky conservative professors and what not.
But soon such recalibration steam rolled, fueled by acquiescence, fright, and timidity. Drunk with ego and power, it moved on to attack almost anything connected with the past or present of the United States itself.
Soon statues of General Grant, and presidents including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Jackson were either toppled or defaced. The message was that their crimes were being white and privileged — in the way that today’s white and privileged should meet a similar fate. Or, as the marchers, who tried to storm Beverly Hills, put it: “Eat the Rich.” They were met by tear gas, and not a single retired general double-downed on his outrage at law enforcement for using tear gas against civilians. Did the BLM idea of cannibalizing the billionaires include LeBron James, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and likely soon-to-be billionaire Barack Obama?
Name changing is always a barometer of a year-zero culture revolution that seeks to wipe out the past and, with it, anyone wedded to it. And so it was only a matter of time that the Woodrow Wilson Princeton School of Public and International Affairs was Trotskyized. Liberals cringed but kept silent, given that Wilson is still a hero for his support of the League of Nations, and his utopian efforts at Versailles, despite his characteristic progressive allegiance to pseudoscientific race-based genetics.
Rebranding
Any revolution that claims it will not tolerate commemoration of any century-old enemies must put its handwipes where its mouth is. And revolutionaries always follow the path of least resistance. So in our era, that means the mob has focused on the hollow men and women now serving as university presidents, corporate CEOs, sports-franchise owners and coaches, politicians, news anchors, and even in some cases retired high-ranking officers of the military.
It was easy wringing promises from these hierarchies to remove the trademark faces of Aunt Jemimah and Uncle Ben from popular food brands, and to win hundreds of new, costly diversity-coordinator billets, more mandatory race and gender indoctrination training, a “black” national anthem to be played at sporting events, and promises to BLM to rename military bases.
Indeed, in no time, these elites were volunteering to debase themselves. Dan Cathy, CEO of the Chick-fil-A fast-food restaurant chain, urged white people to shine the shoes of blacks in the manner that the disciples had washed the feet of Jesus — and indeed Dan Cathy sort of did just that when he polished the sneakers of rapper Lecrae. Such is the new bottom line of profits in corporate America.
Yet, the culture of erasure takes some time to reach all the eddies and pools of a huge society as variegated as America. Take the new reconstruction of the Civil War. In the old days before this May, the war was considered a catastrophic nemesis due a hubristic Confederacy. Yet, given that there were only 7 to 8 percent of the nation’s households in 1860 owning slaves, it should have been possible to end slavery without harvesting nearly 700,000 Americans.
But it was not, because — according to the traditional American tragic theme — millions of non-slave-owning white poor of the Confederacy fought tenaciously, and ultimately for a plantation culture that had marginalized them. Their rationale was that their sacred soil and homes were “invaded” by “Yankees” in a war of “Northern aggression.”
Liberal Hollywood bought into this tragic notion of misguided but somewhat honorable losers who had headed westward, penniless in defeat, after the war. Most Westerns of the 1950s — John Ford’s The Searchers or George Stevens’s Shane — saw Confederate pedigrees of a losing and disreputable cause as central to the outsider’s creed of the gunfighter. These Confederate vets were dead-enders useful in ridding a fragile civilization on the frontier of its demons, but too volatile to live within it during the peaceful aftermath when gunplay was no longer needed.
The 1960s saw Southern rural folk culture as a sort of hippie alternative to the dominant wealth and suburbanism of the mainstream.
And all that is supposedly over now?
Could Ry Cooder sing “I’m a Good Old Rebel” for a movie like The Long Riders, exploring the contradictions of ex-Confederate thugs like the James boys and the Youngers?
Would anyone play the Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” or even the version of it by leftist Joan Baez?
Could Ken Burns now still make The Civil War, 30 years after its original release, with a folksy Shelby Foote contextualizing the Confederate defeat as thousands of brave men dying for a tragic cause beneath them? Would a liberal Southerner like the late Jody Powell still dare to voice the words of Stonewall Jackson or Horton Foote or Jefferson Davis? In our more enlightened revolutionary times, were all these players useful idiots in the cause of racism?
Are there now three Americas? One of white guilt and penance, one of black anger and victimization, and another seething in silence as they see their 244 years of history written off as something worse than the pasts of Somalia, Peru, Iran, or Serbia.
There are now two realities — beyond two national anthems, beyond black and white dorms, black and white segregated safe spaces on campus, and beyond now segregated black and white history, language, philosophy, and science and math.
For blatantly racist diatribes dug up from the past, there is one standard of contextualization for 1619 architect Nikole Hannah-Jones and the creators of Black Lives Matter, and another that forces silly entertainers like late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to go into exile? In the new America, skin color adjudicates whether one can with impunity be openly racist — as it used to be before the civil-rights movement, whose values and methods the Left purportedly seeks to embrace and resurrect.
If so, then we know from history the script that now follows.
In the exhilaration of exercising power ruthlessly and unchecked, the cultural revolutionists soon turn on their own: poor Trump-hating Dan Abrams losing his cop reality show, the two liberal trial lawyers armed on their mansion lawn in St. Louis terrified of the mob entering their gated estate community, bewildered CHOP activists wondering where the police were once mayhem and death were among them, the inner city of Chicago or New York in the age of police drawbacks wondering how high the daily murder rate will climb once shooters fathom that there are no police, and inner-city communities furious that the ER is too crowded with shooting victims to properly treat COVID-19 arrivals.
Do we now really expect that the Wilson Center in Washington will be cancelled, the Washington Monument cut down to size, and Princeton, Yale, and Stanford renamed?
The logic of the revolution says yes, but the liberal appeasers of it are growing uneasy. They are realizing that their own elite status and referents are now in the crosshairs. And so they are on the verge of becoming Thermidors.
And what will the new icons be under our new revolutionary premises?
Will we say the old statues were bad because they were not perfect, but the new replacements are perfect despite being a tad bad in places?
Will we dedicate more memorials to Martin Luther King Jr., the great advocate of the civil-rights movement, or do we focus instead on his plagiarism, his often poor treatment of women, and his reckless promiscuity? Gandhi is gone, but who replaces him, Subhas Chandra Bose? Will Princeton rename their school of diplomacy in honor of the martyred Malcom X, slain by the black nationalist Nation of Islam?
Malcom may now become ubiquitous, but he said things about white people that would have made what Wilson said about black people look tame.
Puritanical cultural revolutionaries are always a minority of society.
But whether they win or lose — that is, whether they end up as Bolsheviks or Jacobins — hinges on how successfully they terrify the masses into submission, and how quickly they can do that before repulsion grows over their absurd violence and silly rhetoric.
When the backlash comes, as it must when mobs destroy statues at night, loot, burn, and obliterate what Mao called the “four olds” of a culture revolution — Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas — it may not be pretty.
We can see its contours already: Asian Americans further discriminated against to allow for new university mandates jettisoning SAT scores and GPAs, while schools set new larger percentages of African-American admissions and transform their entire diversity industry into a black-advocacy enterprise; virtue-signaling and now hard-left white CEOs and college presidents and provosts asked to step down, to do their own small white-male part in yielding their prized jobs to someone more woke and less pink.
Gun sales are at record levels. I supposed the revolutionaries never investigated the original idea of a police force and the concept of the government’s legal monopoly on violence? It was not just to protect the law-abiding from the criminal, but to protect the criminal from the outraged vigilante.
Only police can stop blood feuds such as the ones we see in Chicago or like the medieval ones of Iceland’s Njáls saga, or the postbellum slaughtering of the Hatfields and McCoys. We are already seeing a counterrevolution — as the Left goes ballistic that anyone would appear on his lawn pointing a semiautomatic rifle to protect mere “brick and mortar.”
Without a functioning police force, do we really believe that the stockbroker is going to walk home in the evening in New York City without a firearm, or that the suburbanite in Minneapolis in an expansive home will not have a semiautomatic rifle, or that the couple who drives to Los Angeles with the kids to visit Disneyland will not have a 9mm automatic in their car console?
The Left has energized the Second Amendment in a way the NRA never could, and for the next decade, there will be more guns in pockets, cars, and homes than at any time in history.
Do Nike, the NFL, and the NBA really believe that their fan clientele will buy into the Black Lives Matter special national anthem and BLM corporate logos on their uniforms? Publicly, perhaps their clients will say so, but at home and in private where fans have absolute control of the remotes or their Amazon accounts, probably not.
The counterrevolution will be easy to spot. Suddenly a left-wing institution will refuse to change its name. Gone with the Wind will insidiously reappear on the schedule of TBN classic movies. Statue topplers all of a sudden will be scouted out and arrested and have felonies on their record — and no one will complain.
NFL’s attendance will crater. Joe Biden will begin cataloguing both good and bad statues, and correct and incorrect name changing, and by October he will be saying, “One the one hand . . . on the other hand . . . ”
Segregation will doom this revolution. It is the worst poison in a multiracial society. Yet it is the signature issue of Black Lives Matter — everything from separate safe spaces and theme houses based on skin color in universities to specials fees and rules for non-blacks. The popular forces of integration, assimilation, and intermarriage will not be harnessed by racial-separatist czars, asking for DNA pedigrees as they sleuth for microaggressions and implicit biases.
The BLM problem is that never in history has a radical cultural revolution at its outset declared itself both race-based and yet predicated on a small minority of the population, whose strategy was to shame and debase the majority that was sympathetic to the idea of relegating race to insignificance.
VIf sowing the wind has been getting ugly, reaping the whirlwind will be more so.
———————— Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) is a senior fellow, classicist and historian and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution where many of his articles are found; his focus is classics and military history. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush. H/T National Review.
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by Stephen Moore: The June blockbuster jobs report is more evidence that the economy is healing, but this remains a brutal period for the some 30 million still unemployed Americans.
Nearly every industry — with very few exceptions — has been forced to impose layoffs, furloughs or dramatic reductions in hours for its employees. The one major exception has been the United States federal government, which has had virtually no layoffs since the start of the year. Since January, federal employment has risen slightly, in part due to Census workers added. Meanwhile, through May, the construction industry has lost nearly 400,000 workers; manufacturing has lost 750,000 workers; retail trade has lost 1.25 million workers; health care and education have lost 1.75 million workers; and the hospitality industry has lost almost 5 million workers.
So much for draining the swamp. The one group of workers who have suffered no loss of wages, salaries or benefits is federal employees.
Why no federal layoffs? Some are involved with health care, safety and other vital jobs related to fighting the pandemic. But there are hundreds of thousands of federal workers at agencies such as the Departments of Education, Energy, Agriculture and so on whose activities are nonessential. Most of these workers have not shown up in the office for three months now, but they keep getting full paychecks. That’s why they call it Club Fed.
This is gross financial mismanagement by Congress given that the federal government is running the biggest losses of any industry in American history — with a deficit of spending over revenues that is expected to reach at least $5 trillion this year. Where are the federal furloughs? Where is the 20% or 25% sequester of nonessential agency budgets?
Private sector workers lose their jobs. Government workers in Washington don’t. What’s wrong with this picture? No wonder the economy lockdowns are so popular in the nation’s capital. No one inside the beltway bears any burden.
States and localities have been slowly furloughing workers. State and local public employment has fallen more than 2 million workers since the start of the year (out of some 18 million employees). Overall, the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report finds that private sector workers throughout this crisis have been laid off nearly twice as often as government employees.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s response has been to propose sending some $500 billion to the states and localities in part so that those government employees can be rehired. Americans would much prefer helping private businesses get up and running and giving private workers a raise by cutting the payroll tax.
The imbalance between public and private employment is reflected in the overall government spending; the private economy shrunk by an estimated 30% in the second quarter of 2020, while government has metastasized to its largest level in peacetime history. This year will see the swiftest transfer of resources from the private sector to the government sector in American history.
Once again, Washington is proving itself recession-proof. All of America is being drained of economic resources and jobs — but the swamp lives on.
———————— Stephen Moore, (@StephenMoore) is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with Freedom Works. He is the co-author of “Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy.” Moore encouraged the ARRA News Service editor at SamSphere Chicago 2008 to blog his articles. His article was in Rasmussen Reports.
Tags:Stephen Moore, Steve Moore, Rasmussen Reports, Good Time to Be, a Government WorkerTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Patrick Buchanan: Where was Biden when Trump was standing up for America on Independence Day? As his Party tweeted that Trump’s trip to Mount Rushmore was aimed at “glorifying white supremacy,” Biden was wailing about the need “to rip the roots of systemic racism” out of America.
Speaking at Mount Rushmore on Friday, and from the White House lawn on Saturday, July 4, Donald Trump recast the presidential race.
He seized upon an issue that can turn his fortunes around, and the wounded howls of the media testify to the power of his message.
Standing beneath the mammoth carved images of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, Trump declared: “Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.”
These mobs are made up of Marxists, criminals and anarchists. Their cause is a cultural revolution. “Their goal is not a better America. Their goal is the end of America.”
After reciting the achievements of his four predecessors, Trump added: “No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart.”
Then he put it right into the basement hideaway of Joe Biden: “No person who remains quiet at the destruction of this resplendent heritage can possibly lead us to a better future.”
Trump is calling out Biden’s silence in the face of an onslaught against our heroes and history as manifest political cowardice that makes Biden a moral accomplice of the mobs.
One day, Basement Boy is going to have to speak out.
Where was Biden when Trump was standing up for America on Independence Day?
As his Party tweeted that Trump’s trip to Mount Rushmore was aimed at “glorifying white supremacy,” Biden was wailing about the need “to rip the roots of systemic racism” out of America.
Does that sound like Harry Truman or JFK?
So the lines are drawn for 2020.
On one side are those who believe America is a good country, the greatest the world has ever seen, and that the men who created this miracle should be respected, revered and remembered.
That is not the view of the left wing of the Democratic Party.
For even as the fireworks were exploding on the Mall, a Baltimore mob was tearing down, smashing up and dumping into the Inner Harbor a landmark statue of Christopher Columbus.
That statue stood next to the Baltimore neighborhood of Little Italy and had been dedicated in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan.
Do the haters of Columbus think that destroying Columbus’ statues across America will not anger and alienate Americans of Italian descent who revere the explorer? Does Biden think Italian-Americans will reward a candidate and party that will not renounce the mob that did this?
As the left wing of the Democratic Party embraces the “defund the police” movement, how long will it hold onto voters who are today watching murder rates climb to new records?
During Independence Day weekend in Chicago, 80 people were shot, and 17 of them killed.
In New York City, the number of shooting victims has risen this year by 50%. In June, there were 250 shootings, an increase of 150 over June 2019. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s response: cutting $1 billion from the NYPD budget.
Over July 4, an armed Black militia arrived at the reopening of the Stone Mountain monument in Georgia, which features huge carved images of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. They want its destruction.
Trump is charged with “dividing the nation.”
But it is not Trump trashing cops or providing cover for “protests” marked by looting and arson. Nor is it Trump tearing down memorials and monuments to the great Americans of the past.
Where the Democratic Party has been a portrait in indecisiveness, Trump has been clear. He stands with the cops who have gone through a hellish six weeks. He stands against defacing statues and destroying monuments. He has denounced the rioting, looting and arson that have accompanied protests the media never cease to describe as “peaceful.”
It is not Trump who is dividing America. He has pledged to resist the rampages with all the weapons in his presidential arsenal.
There are four months until November’s election, 18 weeks until America decides: Do we want to continue an era of protests that revert to rioting, looting and arson? Do we want to see police departments further constricted and trashed as neo-fascist?
Do we wish to see statues of presidents from Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant to Teddy Roosevelt trashed by mobs that hate America, hate her heroes and hate her history?
Trump’s stand for tradition and against mob rule is the only stand the president can take. And it is a necessary stand. For this culture war is going to last long after this presidency. And it is going to determine what kind of country we shall become.
Will it be the great and glorious republic of the past or the social and cultural Marxist hellhole that is the promise of the mobs?
Trump just played the patriotism card, the correct card to play, and it may just work for his reelection.
——————– Patrick Buchanan (@PatrickBuchanan) is currently a blogger, conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior adviser to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.
Tags:Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, A Culture War Battle, Trump Can WinTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Lewis Morris: It’s refreshing to know that the U.S. Supreme Court is still, on occasion, capable of good jurisprudence. In a unanimous decision announced Monday, the High Court ruled that states have the right to remove or penalize faithless electors who vote against the will of the voting majority in presidential elections.
The case in question, Chiafalo v. Washington, concerned three Democrat electors in Washington state who switched their pledged votes in the 2016 election for Hillary Clinton to Colin Powell in hopes of persuading Republican electors to also switch their votes to prevent Donald Trump from winning the Electoral College. In doing so, the electors failed to honor their pledge to vote for the winner of their state’s popular vote, prompting the state to fine each of them $1,000. The electors challenged the fines on the grounds that state law restricting their Electoral College vote was unconstitutional.
Another case tied to Chiafalo concerned an elector in Colorado who also switched his vote against the popular-vote winner of that state, Clinton, in favor of then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich. In this instance, the High Court reversed an appeals-court decision in favor of the elector.
The electors in Chiafalo, represented by Lawrence Lessig, a leftist activist and hardened opponent of the Electoral College, maintained that the Founders intended for electors to use their discretion in choosing the best person for president rather than honoring the will of the voters of their respective states. In this particular case, Lessig argued that Washington state did not have the authority to penalize electors who did not adhere to the will of the voters because the Constitution does not expressly state that electors must honor popular will. Lessig argued that because the framers did not expressly demand faithful electors, they implied that the electors may use their discretion in submitting their votes.
In writing the Court’s opinion, Justice Elena Kagan stated, “Nothing in the Constitution expressly prohibits States from taking away presidential electors’ voting discretion as Washington does… The Electors’ constitutional claim has neither text nor history on its side. Article II and the Twelfth Amendment give States broad power over electors, and give electors themselves no rights.”
In theory, the unanimous ruling should be the last word on the matter. Coming just four months before what is sure to be a bitter and hard-fought presidential election, Chiafalo leaves no wiggle room for electors when it comes to honoring their pledge to their respective states. In doing so, it would also seem to block another illegitimate pathway to power being pursued by those on the Left: the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
The driving force behind the compact is for electors to break their constitutional pledge to honor the popular vote of the states in favor of the winner of the national popular vote. Currently, 16 states plus the District of Columbia, accounting for 196 electoral votes, have signed the compact, which would pledge their votes to the winner of the national popular vote, even if it means ignoring the will of the people of their own state. The compact goes into effect when enough states join it to total 270 electoral votes, the number needed to win the presidency.
Chiafalo puts a stake right through the heart of the compact because it recognizes that states have the power to compel their electors to honor their pledge or face removal and/or punitive measures. Faithless electors who are removed would have their votes nullified. While we can’t underestimate the creativity of the Left in subverting the Constitution, we can take solace in knowing that the Supreme Court got this one right, and unanimously so.
————————- Lewis Morris Writes for The Patriot Post. He has also written several books and magazine articles on American history for children and adults, doing his part to counteract the leftist propaganda that pollutes our modern discourse.
Tags:Lewis Morris, Patriot Post, Chiafalo v. Washington, SCOTUS Slams Door, On Unfaithful ElectorsTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
Edward Said throwing a rock at an Israel Defense Forces
by Caroline Glick: Twenty years ago, on July 3, 2000, an incident occurred along the Lebanese border with Israel that, at the time, seemed both bizarre and, in the broad span of things, unimportant. But with the hindsight of 20 years, it was a seminal moment and a harbinger for the mob violence now taking place in many parts of America.
That day, Columbia University professor Edward Said was photographed on the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese side of border with Israel throwing a rock at an Israel Defense Forces watchtower 30 feet away.
Said, who passed away in 2003, was no mere professor. He was the superstar of far-Left intellectuals. Even better, he was at once both a professor and a member of a terrorist organization. Said served not only as an academic, but as a member of the Palestine National Council, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terror group’s formal governing apparatus.
Still, his action was strange. The PLO had ostensibly forsworn terrorism seven years earlier, when it embarked on a peace process with Israel. True, since then, Palestinian terrorism had risen to unprecedented heights, with more Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists between 1993 and 2000 than had been killed over the previous 15 years. But Said himself insisted that he was a man of peace. So why did he choose to get photographed throwing a rock at Israeli soldiers protecting their border?
To understand his action, it is necessary to understand Said’s intellectual record.
Although his field of expertise was comparative literature, Said became a celebrity intellectual for a work that had nothing to do with comparative literature.
In 1978, Said published Orientalism, a polemical analysis of Western study of the Arab and Islamic worlds. Said’s work, which became the canonical text of postcolonial studies in the American academy, was a repudiation of all Western scholarship on the Islamic world—and, more broadly, a repudiation of the capacity of Western academics to study other regions and peoples of the world.
In Orientalism, Said characterized all Western—and particularly American—scholarship on the Arab and Islamic worlds as one big conspiracy theory. As Middle East scholar Martin Kramer explained in his 2001 work, Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America, Said said that Western scholarship on the Arab and Islamic worlds amounted to an expression of white supremacy, “articulated in the West to justify its dominion over the East.”
From the Enlightenment period through the present, Said wrote, “Every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist and almost totally ethnocentric.”
When Orientalism was first published, scholars across multiple fields panned it. Those whom Said had personally and professionally attacked in the book, as well as those whom he supported in it, rejected both his thesis and his argument.
And this makes sense, because at the heart of Said’s polemic was a clear goal of invalidating fact- and evidence-based scholarship in favor of narrative arguments. If all Western—and specifically American—scholarship of the non-Western world is inherently and inescapably racist, then it didn’t matter how well a person mastered the subject. Nothing he could possibly do would be credible.
At its base, Orientalism was a call to arms against reason.
For students both then and now, the kind of thinking—or non-thinking—that Orientalism prescribes is extremely alluring. Said’s essential message is that a great scholar of Islam—or of Asia, Africa or Latin America—is worse than worthless. If he is a white American, he is an agent of evil. In recent years, the academic areas where Said’s anti-intellectual prescription have determined white Americans are by their nature unfit to work have massively expanded. Among others, they now include African-American studies, gender studies and transgender studies. On the other hand, a student at any level who embraces Said’s postcolonial posture is automatically accorded the status of the moral and intellectual superior to an expert who devotes his life to studying his subject.
The ignorance of the postcolonial academic is rewarded, while the knowledge of the veteran scholar is vilified.
The power of the conspiracy theory is its impermeability to fact. Conspiracies have a built-in explanation for their manifold contradictions: Anyone who questions the conspiratorial worldview is a member of the oppressor class.
In the case of Said, cast aspersions on postcolonial studies and you are deemed a racist if you are white—and a collaborator, or servant of racism, if you are non-white.
This then brings us to political violence.
Said tried to shrug off the criticism of his rock-throwing as much ado about nothing. But Israelis were not convinced. Dennis Zinn, an Israeli television reporter, who was covering the rock attacks at the border when Said threw his stone, explained at the time that there was nothing either indiscriminate or “symbolic” about what he did or where he did it.
According to Zinn, the site where Said threw the stone was the scene of daily assaults. “The Lebanese line up and wait to throw their rocks until soldiers and civilians are exposed.”
Why did Said do it? What was a celebrity professor trying to signal by throwing a rock at Israelis from across the border?
The answer is twofold. First, there is the significance of Said’s membership in the PLO. The PLO wasn’t simply the incubator of modern terrorism—the terror group that introduced the world to airline hijacking and bus bombing. It was a trailblazer in the fusion of political warfare with terrorism. PLO chief Yasser Arafat recognized that it wasn’t sufficient to merely kill Israelis or Jews. The Jews’ right to a state and, indeed, to life, had to be delegitimized and criminalized through political warfare. For Arafat, political warfare and terrorism went hand in hand, from the outset.
From Arafat’s perspective, the purpose of political warfare—delegitimization and criminalization of its intended victims—was to enable and legitimize the terrorist warfare whose goal was the physical destruction of the victims’ society.
For Said, throwing a stone at Israel was a signal that the next phase of the battle against Israel should begin. Notably, the Palestinian terror war against Israel began just two months later.
In a larger sense, though, Said’s championing of the Palestinian war against Israel was part of a far wider postcolonialist crusade he waged against the United States. The purpose of his scholarship was to deny American professors the right to study and understand the world by delegitimizing them as nothing but racists and imperialists. Orientalism formed the foundation of a much broader campaign on campuses to delegitimize the United States as a political entity steeped in racism.
The purpose of the intellectual nihilism these champions of “narrative” over evidence advocate is not simply to leave students ignorant of facts. It is to manipulate students to engage in political violence against the United States. After all, if American scholars are inherently racist and therefore evil, they are so because America is inherently racist and therefore evil. And if America is inherently evil, then the right thing to do is to engage in violence to destroy it.
Said’s rock attack on Israel 20 years ago was the inevitable and desired endpoint of his anti-intellectual scholarship. And now his endpoint has become the reality on the streets of America’s great cities.
———————- Caroline Glick is the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post and the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Israel Security Project. For more information on Ms. Glick’s work, visit carolineglick.com. Article posted in Newsweek.
Tags:Caroline Glick, Edward Said, Prophet of Political Violence, in America, NewsweekTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
Tags:Editorial Cartoon, AF Branco, What Matters Most, Black Lives Matter? Some black lives, like black on black murders, in Democrat-run cities, not so much.To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Bill Donohue: A new Gallup survey on abortion reveals that this is an issue that should worry Joe Biden. It found that 24% of Americans say that the candidate they will vote for must share their position on abortion. Significantly, this was true of 30% of those who are pro-life, but only 19% of those who are pro-abortion. Trump is pro-life and Biden is pro-abortion.
Independents, as compared to Republicans and Democrats, are more likely not to rate abortion as a threshold issue. But even here the news for Biden is not auspicious.
A CBS poll released last month found that 79% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats said abortion should be restricted or banned. For Independents, the figure was 58%. In other words, the majority of Independents do not share Biden’s position that abortion should be unrestricted.
The key issue, of course, is whether abortion is the taking of an innocent human life or not. A study released in 2019 reported that 96% of 5,500 biologists surveyed said that life begins at fertilization. This is Trump’s position as well. Biden says it is his too, but he adamantly refuses to endorse it as a matter of public policy.
“I’m prepared to accept at the moment of conception there’s human life and being,” Biden said in 2015, “but I’m not prepared to say that to other God-fearing, non-God-fearing people that have a different view.”
It is preposterous to say that the issue of when life begins can be dissolved to a mere “view.” Science does not take a “view” on this subject: it declares, on the basis of empirical evidence, that life begins at conception. Similarly, science offers proof—it is not a “view”—that the earth is round.
On the subject of abortion, Biden is on the wrong side of the public (including Independents), the wrong side of science, the wrong side of history, and the wrong side of morality.
———————- Bill Donohue (@CatholicLeague) is a sociologist and president of the Catholic League.
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by Ralph Benko, Contributing Author: America and the world are beset by a pandemic of unknown origin. Confused authorities and experts issue conflicting and changing directives. We get muddled advice about whether or not to reopen for business. There’s tension between measures designed to save people’s lives and livelihoods.
Meanwhile, legitimate demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism are commingled with vandalism against monuments, even anarchy. Polarization reaches epic proportions. How bad is it?
A few years ago, writing at Forbes.com, I warned that unless the political class took decisive steps to restore equitable prosperity America faced a ‘Little Dark Age.’ I recalled “A Saturday Evening Post reporter asked, in 1932, John Maynard Keynes if there had ever been anything like the Great Depression. Keynes replied, ‘Yes. It was called the Dark Ages and it lasted 400 years.’ While the Great Recession is not so severe as was the Great Depression, it begins to appear that the world is enduring something that could be called ‘The Little Dark Age.'”
We no longer face the possibility of the Little Dark Age. We have entered it. Will it be the beginning of a new, long, neo-feudal Dark Ages? Let’s saddle up, not whine.
Most know (or should) that July 4th is celebrated as the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Fewer know (but should) that the idealistic legitimacy, and even success, of the American Revolution was set by Thomas Paine. He began with Common Sense and then a series of pamphlets called The Crisis.
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.I deplore the emergence of a victim mentality by populist leaders (who style America as victimized by our neighbors, trading partners, allies, and adversaries) and self-styled conservatives. I expect the left to play the victim card. We have long made fun of progressives easily triggered into hysterical reactions. We dismiss these hypersensitive souls as “snowflakes,” defined at Wikipedia as implying “overly-emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.”
The emergence on the right of such fragility does not offer a glorious triumph. For instance now, many (by no means all) conservatives claim victimhood at the hands of digital media. Trigger warning! If you look at the companies’ standards and practices these by and large are simple good taste and their enforcement generally even-handed. No, not infallibly. Neither, however, are any conservatives I know infallible.
I don’t agree with every interpretation by the companies. That said, I will defend to the death a private company’s right to decide in good faith what statements are inappropriate, as needed to protect their brands. Nobody forces me to tweet or post on Facebook or search on Google. I do so because I choose to. So what’s up with the call for government censorship or breakup of these companies, or, worse, legislation making them liable for posts by their users?
The First Amendment prohibits the Congress (and by extension the States) from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” What, exactly, do my fellow conservatives find ambiguous about “no law abridging?” When will Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) propound legislation holding Apple, Dell or HP liable for defamatory material typed on their laptops?
Conservatives can and do thrive on social media. We can be fiery so long as we are not bullying. I’m co-proprietor, along with Tea Party progenitor Bill Collier, of the Facebook group The Capitalist League. We have grown this 200-proof conservative group worldwide from fewer than 6,000 to over 100,000 followers in just the past six weeks. We’re hard core and Facebook hasn’t jailed us. And we’re not unique. Heritage Foundation, the Mecca of conservatism, has over 2 million Facebook followers. Judicial Watch, unflinchingly conservative, has over 6 million followers.
Facebook’s prohibitions are almost entirely unexceptional and former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl found no evidence of bias. They readily permit people (including hard-right wing nuts like me) to “share diverse views, experiences, ideas and information”… “even if some may disagree or find them objectionable.”
Conservatives? Leave the whining to the left! It’s time for my fellow members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to become proficient in using social and digital media to advance the conservative cause. Do conservatives encounter an occasional rebuff? (Yes. So, too, does the left.) Oh darn!
Enough with conservative snowflakery! We have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. On to a golden age!
———————— Ralph Benko is Chairman, The Capitalist League and contributor to the ARRA News Service. His article was first shared at NewsMax.
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We spend money. We create money out of thin air. We borrow it. We promise the Moon. We deliver rocks. With each action, we spin the chamber and pull the trigger. That slowround doesn’t immediately hit, so we do it again.
Calling the perennial deficits and ballooning debt a “predictable crisis,” Nick Gillespie at Reasonwrites that our federal government’s debt “is already choking down economic growth, but in the future, it could lead to ‘sudden inflation,’ and ‘a loss of confidence in the federal government’s ability or commitment to repay its debts in full.’” And worse: “‘Such a crisis could spread globally’ causing some ‘financial institutions to fail.’ That’s all according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which has been warning Americans about the long-term consequence of the ballooning debt for years.”
This is an old warning. I have been talking about it for years, too. So have you. But once politicians start playing the game, it’s hard for them to stop. They see and we see the benefits, but that slow motion slug has yet to strike the target.
Gillespie makes a better analogy than “slow bullets” (which don’t exist): “Like the coronavirus, the debt problem has the potential to seemingly appear out of the blue and turn our world upside down in a matter of weeks.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb gained fame talking about “black swans,” major events we cannot predict. But he insists that the financial crisis resulting from government overspending is not a black swan. It’s predictable. We just do not know when.
Here’s a fourth analogy:
In free fall, you don’t feel a thing . . . until you hit the pavement.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
———————- Paul Jacob (@Common_Sense_PJ) is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacob is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.
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by Stephen Kruiser: Joe Biden Doesn’t Like America, Apparently
For reasons that those of us on the right side of the political aisle will never understand, Democrats are always of the opinion that the United States of America is in need of overhauling. Barack Obama famously (infamously?) said that he wanted to “fundamentally transform” America.
Thankfully, he was unable to completely do that. Now Obama’s senile Mini-Me, Joe Biden, is parroting his former boss and going on about “rebuilding” and “transforming” our beloved country. Bryan wrote about Crazy Joe the Wonder Veep’s basement campaign here yesterday, and it’s a magnificent post.
We’ve just spent several days being told that President Trump’s Mt. Rushmore speech was dark and divisive. Patriotism is very much out of fashion on the Left these days. It the eyes of the Democratic half of this country, America is racist, broken, and almost irreparably damaged. When I hear a leftist describe the United States, I can’t believe we’re living in the same place.
Sure, we have our flaws as a nation, but we’re not in need of a complete rebuilding. As Bryan pointed out, the places most in need of fixing have one thing in common:
If we must read more kinetic tea leaves, since no reporter will ask Joe those two words, let’s look at what’s happening in Democrat-run cities around the country. About 26 years of patient law enforcement work to bring violent crime down from its historic high in the early 1990s has been undone in a month. As Kevin McCollough put it over the weekend, Six Weeks, Six Cities, 600 Murders. Kevin’s piece is a must-read.That old public service announcement about “This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs” comes to mind here. The Democratic hell hole cities are the country on leftism. Most of the Democrat-run cities have been dominated by one party for decades, so it’s all on them. Imagine that writ large with the Democrats in control of the White House, the Senate, and the House.
Let’s get back to the whole notion of transformation. The Democrats’ constant refrain about America needing to be changed is wearisome. It’s also being taught in public schools. The woke youth of today go into adulthood truly believing that the United States is terribly broken and in desperate need of a socialist fix. That’s really the end game for modern Democrats. It wasn’t just a few years ago but the whole party has rushed off of the far-left fringe. They aren’t so much interested in “transformation” as they are “undoing.”
America is just fine, thank you. Warts and all, this 244-year-old experiment in freedom is — put mildly — freakin’ glorious. Every leftist who says America needs to be rebuilt or transformed is lying.
What’s really disturbing is that Joe Biden is the most moderate of the Dems to emerge from that large primary field. If he’s going on about transformation then the center of American politics has moved too far to ever get it back to anything resembling “normal.”
We’re fine here, Joe. We won’t be needing your help.
————————– Stephen Kruiser is a professional comedian and writer who has also been a conservative political activist for over two decades. A co-founder of the first Los Angeles Tea Party, Kruiser often speaks to grassroots groups around America and has had the great honor of traveling around the world entertaining U.S. troops. PJ Media shared this article.
Tags:Stephen Kruiser, The Morning Briefing, Beware, America, Crazy Joe Biden, Wants to ‘Transform’ YouTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
A statue of Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York, was discovered
damaged 50 feet from its base and along a nearby river Sunday night.
by Thomas Catenacci: A statue of black abolitionist and freed slave Frederick Douglass was ripped off its concrete base and dragged away in a Rochester, New York, park Sunday night.
The statue was discovered damaged 50 feet from its base and along a nearby river, The Democrat and Chronicle reported. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the vandalism and the perpetrators didn’t leave graffiti on the statue or in the park, according to Rochester police.
“It’s really sad because here in Rochester the statue of Frederick Douglass has always been a face of good,” said Carvin Eison, who helped erect Douglass statues around Rochester, according to The Democrat and Chronicle.
The base where a Frederick Douglass statue was torn from in Rochester’s Maplewood Rose Garden. It was found just over that fence in the background with damage. I’m told this base will now have to be dug up if the statue does return. LIVE on @13WHAM@FoxRochesterpic.twitter.com/Le6x3lGfR8
The statue was located in Maplewood Park, where Douglass and Harriet Tubman shuttled slaves to safety on the Underground Railroad. The vandalism occurred on the anniversary of Douglass’ 1852 “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” speech, which he gave in downtown Rochester, according to The Democrat and Chronicle.
“I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us,” Douglass said, according to The Daily Caller. “The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.”
The Rochester Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A separate Douglass statue in Rochester was the first statue in the country to memorialize a black citizen, according to historical researcher Emily Morry. Theodore Roosevelt, who was the governor of New York at the time, attended the memorial’s 1899 dedication.
“It is fitting that it should stand near a great portal of our city where the thousands who enter it may see that she is willing to acknowledge to the world that her most illustrious citizen was not a white man,” said Mayor George E. Warner at the ceremony, according to Morry.
The base of a Frederick Douglass statue torn down overnight here in Maplewood Park. Bits of the statue scattered around the area. @News_8pic.twitter.com/L6qgV7bVH2
Douglass lived in Rochester for nearly 30 years after he escaped from slavery in 1838, according to The Democrat and Chronicle. More than a dozen Douglass statues have been erected around the city, where he is also buried.
Statues and monuments have been under attack across the country in protests against racial inequality and police brutality following the death of George Floyd. Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody on May 25 after an officer kneeled on his neck, video shows.
“People are making a statement about equality, about community, to be against racism, against slavery. I think those are good statements,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on June 23 in response to a question on statues.
Mayor Bill de Blasio approved the removal of the Theodore Roosevelt statue located outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on June 22, according to The New York Times. Cuomo supported the statue’s removal.
Protesters in Madison, Wisconsin, tore down the statue of abolitionist Col. Hans Christian Heg in June. Heg was a Norwegian immigrant who fought for the North in the Civil War, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. Heg was shot in a battle in Georgia in September 1863 and died the next morning.
———————— Thomas Catenacci (@ThomasCatenacci) is a fellow at The Daily Caller News Foundation. Shared article on The Daily Signal.
Tags:Statue of Frederick Douglass, vanals, tear down, Thomas Catenacci, The Daily Signal, The Daily CallerTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
Tags:Editorial Cartoon, AF Branco, Marching Order, Mainstream Marxist Media, pushing, not the character, but the skin color, as the main qualifier, in a Vice PresidentTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
Supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton
unhappy when Republican nominee
Donald Trump wins the presidential election.
by Andrew Trunsky: The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that states can require members of the Electoral College to vote for the same presidential candidate as their respective state.
The ruling puts an end to the occasional so-called faithless electors, who vote for a candidate different than that of the state they are representing. Though many states already have laws in place that require electors to vote for the winner of their state’s popular vote, electors have at times failed to do so.
“Today, we consider whether a State may also penalize an elector for breaking his pledge and voting for someone other than the presidential candidate who won his State’s popular vote. We hold that a State may do so,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the court’s majority opinion for the case Chiafalo v. Washington.
Though rare, as few as 10 faithless electors could have changed the outcomes of five of the previous 58 presidential elections, The New York Times reported.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that state “faithless elector” laws — which allow states to remove or fine Electoral College delegates who don’t vote for the presidential candidate they were pledged to support — are constitutional.
The ruling comes after courts in Washington and Colorado reached opposing conclusions in cases where electors from each state went rogue.
In 2019, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld $1,000 fines on electors who had voted for Colin Powell instead of Hillary Clinton, saying that the Constitution allowed for states to insist that their electors vote according to their respective popular votes, according to The New York Times. The electors appealed to the Supreme Court after the decision, setting the foundation for the Monday decision on Chiafalo v. Washington.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, Colorado, came to the opposite conclusion of the Washington State Supreme Court in August 2019, ruling that “electors, once appointed, are free to vote as they choose,” according to Judge Carolyn B. McHugh, who wrote for the majority.
The ruling was quickly petitioned in order to seek Supreme Court review of the case, “Colorado Department of State v. Baca,” with the lawyers for Colorado writing that the appeals court’s decision risks eroding “the democratic principles underpinning over two centuries of electing United States presidents.”
The 2016 election saw more faithless electors than ever before, with seven electors succeeding in casting their votes for a different candidate than their state had voted for. In addition to the three in Washington, another elector in the Evergreen State voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American tribal leader.
In Hawaii, a Democratic elector voted for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and in Texas, two Republican electors voted for Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
—————————– Andrew Trunsky (@andrewtrunsky) writes for The Daily Caller News Foundation and article was shared by The Daily Signal.
Tags:Andrew Trunsky, Supreme Court Rules, Electors Must Vote, for Their State’s, Preferred Candidate, The Daily Signal, The Daily CallerTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by NRA-ILA: In 2013, Colorado enacted House Bill 13-1224, which made it a crime, with some exceptions, to sell, transfer, or possess any “large-capacity magazine”after July 1, 2013. A “large-capacity magazine”meant any “fixed or detachable magazine, box, drum, feed strip, or similar device capable of accepting, or that is designed to be readily converted to accept, more than fifteen rounds of ammunition.”
Several gun rights organizations challenged the ban as an infringement on the right to bear arms protected by the Colorado Constitution. They argued, among other things, that HB 1224 had an excessively broad scope because it reached lawful activities that were commonly engaged in by responsible citizens. Further, the actual effect of the “designed to be readily converted”language was to ban almost all magazines with a removable floor plate or base pad, as this inherently created the possibility that the magazine could be converted to hold more than the maximum 15 rounds.
The parties agreed that prior to the ban, the number of magazines in Colorado with a capacity greater than 15 rounds was “in the millions,”that such magazines were not unusual or uncommon in Colorado, and that semi-automatic guns with detachable magazines holding more than 15 rounds were frequently used in the state for multiple legitimate purposes, including defense of the home.
The case proceeded through many hearings and appeals. In late 2018, the Colorado Court of Appeals, applying a “reasonable exercise”standard (that the state may regulate the exercise of the right to bear arms under its inherent police power so long as the exercise of that power is “reasonable”), concluded that the law was “reasonably related to the legitimate governmental purpose of reducing deaths from mass shootings.”
On June 29, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld both that decision and the magazine ban as constitutional.
Reaffirming the “reasonable exercise”test as the correct standard for reviewing challenges brought under the state constitution’s right to keep and bear arms provision, the state Supreme Court found that the plaintiffs “failed to prove that HB 1224 is an unreasonable exercise of the police power or that it has an improper purpose or effect of nullifying the right to bear arms.”The plaintiffs’“overly broad reading of the statutory definition”on prohibited magazines was “contrary to its plain language”and accordingly, the court rejected the contention that HB 1224’s definition of “large capacity magazine”could apply to all magazines with removable base pads.
Because the plaintiffs elected to challenge the law solely under the Colorado Constitution, the court discounted any arguments from U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Second Amendment, like Heller and McDonald. State law had its own precedents, and “our precedent construing [the state right to keep and bear arms] long ago charted a different course from case law interpreting the Second Amendment.”
The appropriate test, therefore, was the undemanding standard established by an earlier Colorado case –namely, whether the law constituted a reasonable exercise of the state’s police power. So long as the law could be said to have a legitimate government end within the police power, such as promoting the public health, safety, or welfare, and did “not work a nullity of the right to bear arms in defense of home, person, or property,”it would clear the bar.
The case highlights the importance of selecting both the appropriate venue and applicable law in gun rights challenges. The court made it clear that “the Second Amendment applies with full force in Colorado and our legislature may not enact any law in contravention of it. But Plaintiffs have challenged HB 1224 only under the Colorado Constitution. Reviewing that claim, we conclude today that the legislation passes state constitutional muster. Because Plaintiffs do not challenge HB 1224 under the Second Amendment, we do not address whether the legislation runs afoul of the federal constitution.”
Tags:NRA-ILA, Colorado Supreme Court, Upholds, 2013 Magazine BanTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Daniel Greenfield: Jewish Democrats are working hard to convince American Jews that Biden will be friendly to Israel, but his latest move once again sends a very different message.
The Biden campaign is busy putting together its transition team and Avril Haines, Obama’s deputy CIA director, will head foreign policy and national security. Putting a former deputy CIA director in charge of foreign policy would be an odd choice, but Haines was already an inappropriate pick at the CIA.
Haines was an Obama legal adviser who was brought in to replace Michael Morell who took the fall for the Benghazi talking points. Bringing in Haines to serve under Brennan was a blatant attempt at embedding an Obama loyalist near the top of the CIA. And Haines has stayed loyal to her former boss.
In May, Haines joined other Obama staffers in signing on to a letter by the J Street anti-Israel lobby which complained that previous DNC platforms had been “silent on the rights of Palestinians, on Israeli actions that undermine those rights and the prospects for a two-state solution.”
That isn’t true, but the J Street letter nevertheless urged the DNC platform to be more critical of the Jewish State.
Haines’ role taking point on foreign policy for Biden signals that the DNC platform and, more importantly, his administration, will take an anti-Israel direction. And that’s not surprising.
Currently, Avril Haines heads up Columbia World Projects. A big part of the university’s internationalization effort is the Obama Foundation Scholars initiative. Being a Foundation Scholar requires “a proven commitment to service and leadership within a community, region or country outside the United States” and, it ought to go without saying, the right set of political agendas.
The Obama “Scholars” at Columbia World Projects include Mor Efrat, the head of the Occupied Palestinian Territories Department for PHR-I. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), despite its name, isn’t really about medicine, it’s an anti-Israel organization whose founder promotes BDS and which seeks to try Israeli soldiers for war crimes. PHR-I’s founder had urged a move to “integrate BDS in every struggle for justice and human rights by adopting wide, context-sensitive and sustainable boycotts of Israeli products, companies, academic and cultural institutions, and sports groups.”
This is the relationship that the Obama Foundation and Columbia World Projects under Haines have toward Israel.
Funding for Columbia World Projects comes from a variety of donors, including a Saudi businessman, a Lebanese billionaire who is the brother of a former prime minister, the daughter of a Turkish media tycoon, a Chilean businessman, and the billionaire head of a major Hong Kong real estate company.
Much like the Clinton Foundation, this raises serious questions about Haines’ conflicts.
An ex-CIA deputy director went to work for a Columbia project closely entwined with the Obama Foundation which received funding from foreign donors and will now head foreign policy for Biden.
Why bring in a former legal advisor to do all this? Haines isn’t qualified as a foreign policy expert, but she knows the limits of the law. Bringing her in is a way of handling dubious legal matters, whether it was the entanglement of the CIA under Brennan with Obamagate and then serving as Legal Adviser to the National Security Council, or the conflicts of interest from the Obama Foundation and Biden 2020.
But it also sends a clear message that Biden is going to build on Obama’s anti-Israel foreign policy.
Even while at Columbia, Haines continued her political work as the co-chair of Foreign Policy for Foreign Policy for America. The board of Foreign Policy for America includes Jeremy Ben Ami, the head of J Street, while the Advisory Board includes Joseph Cirincione, the head of Ploughshares, a key Iran nuclear legalization pressure group, alongside Haines, and Rob Malley, the Obama adviser initially forced out for his Hamas contacts, who now heads Soros’ International Crisis Group. Malley is also an advisor at Columbia.
Avril Haines is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings, which is heavily funded by Qatar. The wealthy tyranny is closely entangled with a variety of Muslim Brotherhood groups, including Hamas.
Haines is not a foreign policy or national security expert. Putting her in the pole position really means that the same foreign policy people who ran things under Obama are the ones who are really in charge.
And that should surprise no one.
Jewish Democrats had a choice between an anti-Israel legacy candidate and a rabidly anti-Israel candidate, but the choice between Biden and Bernie was just a game of good cop and bad cop. The differences between Rob Malley and Cornel West, or Ben Rhodes and Rep. Ilhan Omar are matters of style, not substance. Bernie’s proxies are determined to vent their hate publicly, while Obama’s people play a more careful game, shifting America away from Israel through a series of staged confrontations.
Bernie’s open antagonism toward Israel allowed Biden to appear friendly toward the Jewish State.
Haines’ appointment makes it very clear that Biden’s foreign policy will consist of the same corrupt entanglements with Islamist regimes and attacks on Israel. And pro-Israel Democrats are fooling themselves if they think otherwise. And it’s not just foreign policy where Biden is playing that game.
Biden’s transition team is being drawn from the staffs of some of the most radical Democrat elected officials, including Julie Siegel, Warren’s senior counsel, and Gautam Raghavan, Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s chief of staff. Raghavan had already become infamous for declaring, “I want to be careful that we don’t say there is a kind of balance between equality and religious freedom.”
The Biden campaign has always going to be a trojan horse for radicals. And as the titular candidate declines, it will become easier for the radicals pulling his strings to maintain control over the campaign.
And while they would like to win, their short-term goal is to bend the DNC platform further leftward.
Even as Democrats try to sell pro-Israel Jews on Biden, the campaign has already sold them out. The Biden campaign’s position on Israel will be that of J Street. Its point woman on foreign policy signed a J Street letter calling for the platform to criticize Israel and heads an organization backing an anti-Israel activist.
While Biden is happy to take anyone’s money, the only point of view he’ll be listening to on Israel will be coming from the anti-Israel lobby.
—————– Daniel Greenfield (@Sultanknish) is Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an investigative journalist and writer focusing on radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
Tags:Daniel Greenfield, Sultan Knish, Joe Biden, Avril Haines, Foreign Policy Boss, Called for Anti-Israel, DNC PlatformTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
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WHO suggests ‘emerging evidence’ around airborne transmission of COVID-19: There’s “emerging evidence” around airborne transmission of COVID-19, representatives of the World Health Organization said Tuesday. WHO epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkove said the organization is examining “the possible role of airborne transmission … particularly [in] close settings where you have poor ventilation.” As a result, Benedetta Allegranzi, the WHO technical lead for the infection prevention task force, said that the experts have advised people to avoid closed settings and crowded situations “as much as possible.” “We do recommend appropriate and optimal ventilation of indoor environments, and also physical distancing,” she added. “When this is not possible, in areas with community transmission of the virus, we recommend the use of face masks.” In the United States, nearly 3 million cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed, and at least 131,480 people have died from it. Still, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Tuesday, “We clearly have not reached the peak of the pandemic.” Get the latest mobile updates about the coronavirus here.
Trump insists schools ‘must open’ in fall, but local authorities still hold control: President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will be ”putting a lot of pressure” on governors to make sure that schools open in the fall, despite pushback from teachers and their advocates. “It’s very important for our country,” Trump told reporters at a roundtable event, “National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America’s Schools.” “It’s very important for the well-being of the students and parents.” Trump applauded Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who announced that schools will be open in the fall, and claimed that other governors who don’t follow suit were trying to help themselves politically. Although the president has been outspoken about his belief that students should return to the classroom, senior administration officials acknowledged in a call with reporters that local jurisdictions, not the federal government, hold authority over what happens. “School decisions are local decisions,” said a senior official, who added that the federal government will provide resources to help identify best practices to safely move forward. Teachers and advocates across the country have voiced concerns about how the reopening of schools is being handled: from concerns about underlying health conditions or the possibility of infecting family members, to uncertainty surrounding child care for their own kids.
Johnny Cash, Daisy Bates statues to replace Arkansas’ Confederate-linked ones at Capitol: As the nation faces a racial reckoning in the wake of protests after the death of George Floyd in police custody, the state of Arkansas announced that it will replace statues of former Confederate leaders in D.C.’s National Statuary Hall Collection with statues of singer Johnny Cash and civil rights activist Daisy Bates. On Tuesday, Walmart — which was founded in Arkansas in 1962 — donated $100,000 toward the efforts. “We are pleased to support the state’s action with a gift to the Foundation for Arkansas Heritage and History to help make these new statues a reality,” Anne Hatfield, a Walmart spokesperson, said in a statement to ABC News. The plan to swap out the state’s current statues of former Gov. James P. Clarke and attorney Uriah Rose has been more than a year in the making, but the state required time to raise funds for the replacements.
12-year-old girl wins $20K for inventing a device to help prevent hot car deaths: When Lydia Denton learned that every year children die when they’re accidentally left in cars on hot days, she invented a solution. With the help of her 14-year-old brother and 10-year-old sister, the soon-to-be seventh-grader from North Carolina created the Beat the Heat Car Seat, a car seat device that measures the temperature of a car and will alert parents and emergency officials when the temperature inside the car reaches 102 degrees. “I got really emotional about it because it’s something that’s happening in the real world that I knew could be fixed,” Lydia said. Last year, more than 30 children in the U.S. died because someone left them in a car, strapped into a car seat, according to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA). Lydia’s invention won the grand prize of $20,000 in this year’s CITGO Fueling Education Student Challenge, a competition for “elementary and middle school students to apply STEM skills to develop a solution for a better, more sustainable world.” Using part of her $20,000 prize money, Lydia hopes to continue to develop her product to get into the market.
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” sales of backyard pools are on the rise with many families still working and playing from home. Diane Macedo joins us with the latest warnings from experts and parents on keeping your kids safe this summer. And Janet Mock joins us live to talk about her Emmy buzz and the latest projects she’s working on. Plus, we reveal the cute dog who is our Pet of the Week! All this and more only on “GMA.”
U.S. COVID-19 cases top 3 million, President Donald Trump is “going with his gut” as he focuses his re-election strategy on culture wars and Tom Hanks opens up about his battle with coronavirus.
Here’s what we’re watching this Wednesday morning.
U.S. to help states with ‘surge’ coronavirus testing sites
Amid a surge of new infections in many states, the number of coronavirus cases in the United States topped 3 million
on Tuesday, according to an NBC News tally. More than 46,500 new cases were recorded across the country on Tuesday.
Though some Northeastern states have seen a slowdown, many Southern states are experiencing a spike. Florida, Texas and Arizona have been particularly hard hit, as hospital systems begin to feel the strain of thousands of new cases a day.
Federal health officials announced Tuesday that they are creating temporary “surge testing” spotsto help control the spread of the coronavirus and ease hospitalizations in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
The goal is to help perform 5,000 tests daily in each city at no cost for people who believe they may have been exposed, whether they are showing symptoms or not.
“We want the results as quickly as possible,” Dr. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health and human services who oversees U.S. coronavirus testing, said at a briefing Tuesday.
Lawmakers from both parties, including Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., swiftly criticized the move.
“Certainly there needs to be a good, hard look at mistakes the World Health Organization might have made in connection with coronavirus,” Lamar said. “But the time to do that is after the crisis has been dealt with, not in the middle of it.”
Here are some other developments:
Millions of Americans are going hungryas the pandemic erodes incomes and destroys communities.
A ‘clown’ with ‘no principles’: That’s how Trump’s sister described him, according to new book
A new book by President Donald Trump’s niece — which his family sued to stopfrom being published — paints the president as an emotionally damaged narcissist who’s cheated to get ahead and who is unable to “experience the entire spectrum of human emotion.”
“Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests that he’ll never sit for,” Mary Trump writes in her book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
NBC News obtained a copy of the book. The book’s publication was pushed up by two weeks, it is now scheduled for release on July 14.
While there have been many tell-all books from inside the White House, the fact that this one comes from a member of Trump’s own family — even though she has acknowledged a desire “to take Donald down” — carries a different weight.
Meantime, with the election just four months away and with polls favoring Vice President Joe Biden, Trump is “going with his gut” in fanning racism as part of his re-election strategy, two White House officials said.
But the move is frustrating some White House aides who wish he’d take a different tack.
China’s crackdown in Hong Kong raises fears the great internet firewall could expand
It used to be relatively easy for U.S. tech companies to do business in Hong Kong: Its government was largely autonomous from mainland China, and its citizens were guaranteed certain freedoms.
But after China passed a national security law last week that restricts free speech in Hong Kong, tech companies are having to rethink how they can continue to operate in the region, if at all, without becoming complicit in the repression of dissidents.
The fear among app developers and human rights advocates is that the Chinese government could begin demanding account information or other online data about Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters in ways they haven’t before.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam listens to reporters’ questions during a press conference in Hong Kong, on Tuesday. (Photo: Vincent Yu / AP)
‘No exit strategy’: Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest leaves Prince Andrew in the spotlight
As the lurid headlines swirl in the wake of the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, questions again are surging over what comes next for Britain’s Prince Andrew,who is caught up in the high-profile affair.
Maxwell, a British socialite, is behind bars at a detention center in Brooklyn, New York, and is expected to appear in court in New York next Tuesday, having been arrested in New Hampshire last week.
“It’s a bit of a nightmare at the moment,” British public relations agent Mark Borkowski told NBC News. “He’s inextricably linked with this story, there is no exit strategy.”
Britain’s Prince Andrew should either stay silent or invite U.S. authorities “to come and meet him on home turf” in the U.K., one PR guru has advised. (Photo: Chris Radburn / Reuters)
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Plus
Chief Justice John Roberts was briefly hospitalizedlast month for a head injury after he fell while walking near his home.
Trump, Biden campaign ads are showing up on white nationalist YouTube content, underscoring the site’s failure to crack down on extremist content, according to a report released Tuesday.
Actor David Schwimmer discusses his new spy sitcom “Intelligence” and “leveling the playing field” in Hollywood.
Looking to spruce up your outdoor space? Now may be just the time to save on patio furniture, according to experts.
Quote of the day
“For Donald, lying was primarily a mode of self-aggrandizement meant to convince other people he was better than he actually was.”
— Mary L. Trump, the president’s niece, writes in her book.
‘There is a part that we can all play’: Tom Hanks on the coronavirus pandemic
In an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt, Tom Hanks opens upabout his experience battling the COVID-19, the divide over wearing masks in the U.S., and how his latest film about World War II reflects the state of the world today.
“I don’t understand how something as simple as, doing as little as, wearing a mask, social distancing, washing your hands, enters into any kind of fray of whether or not it’s something we should all be doing in order to take care of our city, our community and each other,” he said.
If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — drop me an email at: petra@nbcuni.com
If you’re a fan, please forward it to your family and friends. They can sign-up here.
Thanks, Petra Cahill
NBC FIRST READ
From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg
FIRST READ: Trump’s insistence on school reopening is missing one thing: A plan.
President Trump appears to be making the same mistake with schools that he did when he called for the U.S. economy to reopen last spring: He’s not putting safety first.
On Tuesday, the president called for schools to be fully opened for the coming school year, and said he would pressure governors to do so.
AP Photo/Darron Cummings
“So we’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open. And it’s very important. It’s very important for our country,” Trump said yesterday at the White House.
Reopening schools is an incredibly complicated issue, as NBC’s Benjy Sarlin has written. Some public health experts have argued schools should reopen given the burden remote learning places on families.
But there’s still no full consensus and lots of skepticism from families and teachers.
How do you keep teachers, students and their families safe? (Our June NBC/WSJ poll found 50 percent of voters with children under 18 saying they’d be uncomfortable about sending their child to school or daycare in August – and that was before the new spike in coronavirus cases.)
How do you pay for it? The White House still hasn’t said what aid schools can expect.
Do children need to keep six feet apart in the classroom and in lunchroom lines, as the Centers for Disease Control recommends? If so, that may force schools to keep some kids at home for space.
What happens if a teacher, principal or student tests positive for the coronavirus?
And should schools reopen in states and communities that have become coronavirus hotspots? (Dr. Matthew Heinz of Tucson, Ariz., told NBC’s Stephanie Gosk on “Today” that he would NOT recommend parents to send their children back to school tomorrow in Arizona.)
Trump hasn’t fully answered these questions.
“I think it’s clear what the administration wants to do. I’m not certain how much the event from [yesterday] provides more clarity or any advice or information that’s actionable,” Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for policy and advocacy at the American Association of School Administrators, tells NBC’s Sarlin.
It’s one thing to call for schools to be reopened.
It’s another to make it as safe as possible.
And we saw what happened when states, cities and communities reopened their businesses, bars and churches starting in May.
TWEET OF THE DAY: The next partisan war
DATA DOWNLOAD: The numbers that you need to know today
132,326: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 1,003 more than yesterday morning.)
36.88 million: The number of coronavirus TESTS that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers at The COVID Tracking Project.
Nearly half: The share of employees at one Arizona ICE facility who have tested positive for coronavirus.
About 40 percent: The share of people visiting food banks who are receiving food assistance for the first time, according to nonprofit group Feeding America
2020 VISION: Breaking down last night’s primary results in New Jersey
Here are the notable primary results from last night’s New Jersey primaries, with the caveat that just 38 percent of the statewide vote is in, per NBC’s Decision Desk.
NJ-2: For November’s general election, it’s going to be GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew – who switched parties – against Amy Kennedy, a former public school teacher and the wife of former Rep. Patrick Kennedy.
NJ-3: David Ritcher leads Kate Gibbs in the GOP primary for the right to take on Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J. in the fall.
NJ-7: It’s going to be Republican Tom Kean Jr. facing off against Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J.
NJ-8: Rep Albio Sires, D-N.J., easily defeated his Democratic primary challenger from the left.
AD WATCH from Ben Kamisar
The college football season might be on the ropes, but there is guaranteed to be one big intra-divisional matchup on the calendar in Alabama this year.
In less than one week, Alabama Republicans will finally pick who they want to go up against Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., in the fall.
The primary race has been brutal, with a new ad from Jeff Sessions typifying the tone. In it, Sessions’ campaign ‘interrupts’ an ad from Tommy Tuberville to blast him as “Washington’s choice”; argues that “Alabama does not take orders from Washington”; and takes a dig at Tuberville’s coaching record by saying “he’s quit or been fired from every job he’s ever had.” One of those jobs was as head coach of Auburn, from which he resigned.
The problem for Sessions is that what makes Tuberville “Washington’s choice” is that President Trump has endorsed the former football coach, and has gone out of his way to criticize Sessions repeatedly.
So on Tuesday, Alabama Republicans will be making the choice between Sessions, their former longtime senator, and Tuberville, Trump’s choice.
The Republican senators who WON’T be attending the GOP convention
While President Trump’s planned convention is still set to take place in Jacksonville, Fla. – despite the state’s spiking coronavirus cases and the city’s mayor currently under self-quarantine due to exposure to the virus – some GOP senators are saying they’ll be skipping the RNC’s big event.
Two senators who frequently spar with the president, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, confirmed to NBC’s Hill team they will not attend the convention this August.
“Senator Collins never made plans to attend the convention because she has never attended the national convention in years when she is up for election,” Collins’ spokesperson told NBC News.
A spokesperson for Murkowski also said she ‘can confirm that she does not plan to attend,’ pointing out that Murkowski spends the August recess in Alaska every year. Murkowski did not attend the RNC in 2016.
Collins and Murkowski join Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander in their choice. Grassley said he wouldn’t attend due to the pandemic, and Alexander said he “believes the delegate spots should be reserved for those who have not had that privilege before as he has had.”
THE LID: Hello from the other side
Don’t miss the pod from yesterday, when we looked at the majorities of Americans who aren’t siding with Trump when it comes to coronavirus fears.
The Trump administration has formally given notice that it’s withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
The Wall Street Journal reports on the Minneapolis police union leader — and why his influence is an example of how police unions around the country wield their power.
Drain the swamp? POLITICO tracks former Trump administration officials who are now working on K Street.
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Dire new projections show the coronavirus could kill 200,000 Americans by November 1. Also, the White House is denying allegations in a forthcoming book by President Trump’s niece Mary Trump. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.
Watch Video +
200,000 Americans could die of COVID-19 by November
Watch Video +
Trump is a “narcissist,” niece claims in scathing new tell-all book
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s fateful decision to return Covid-19 patients to care facilities ought to haunt him—and us.
By Chris von Csefalvay City Journal Online
July 7, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has catalyzed the adoption of telecommunications as a substitute for in-person encounters across many industries, including health care. Join us today at 1:00 p.m. for a discussion with health-care policy and industry experts about telehealth’s promises and challenges, and what implications this innovation has for public policy and medicine in the United States.
Remote work has gone from optional to essential in this time of pandemic. In 2017, at least 5% of the workforce labored full-time at home; today, with the spread of Covid-19, roughly half of Americans work from home. Join us tomorrow for a conversation with Adam Ozimek on the implications of remote work for the future of cities and the American workforce.
The Federal Reserve is aggressively easing monetary policy, but the story behind the recent surge in money stock is much more complex (and interesting) than simply attributing it to expansive policies.
By Mickey D. Levy Economics21
July 7, 2020
“This is a story of two monuments — one of a sort you’d expect to see toppled today, the other never built.”
By Howard Husock Washington Examiner
July 7, 2020
Rafael Mangual joins Seth Barron to discuss the surge in gun violence in New York City and other American cities, the impact of newly enacted criminal-justice reforms on policing, and the connection between “low-level” enforcement and major-crime prevention.
With America and its cities still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent civil unrest, Manhattan Institute scholars are charting a path forward at the federal, state, and local levels. Read more in the Summer 2020 update from president Reihan Salam.
Manhattan Institute is a think tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.
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REALCLEARPOLITICS MORNING NOTE
07/08/2020
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Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
Presented by Author Steven Shafarman: Trump Interview; TikTok; Harding’s Better Half
By Carl M. Cannon on Jul 08, 2020 08:22 am
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, July 8, 2020. I’ve been thinking about first ladies this week. Monday was Nancy Reagan’s 99th birthday and in yesterday’s note I mentioned how Nancy helped Sandra Day O’Connor cope with a cancer diagnosis. In addition, C-SPAN is re-airing its informative 2013-2014 series on the presidents’ wives each evening (and I’m in one of them).
First ladies tend to be more popular than their mates. There are several reasons for this — and there are exceptions to the rule. Also, not all first ladies wear well with time. Which brings me to Florence Kling Harding. Today is the 129th anniversary of her marriage to Warren G. Harding. And Mrs. Harding, by any measure, was a piece of work, as I’ll explain in a moment.
First, I’d point you to RealClearPolitics’ front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters and contributors, including the following:
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Trump: “China Is Involved in This Election.” In an interview with Phil Wegmann, the president described the regime’s role as “a much bigger kind of problem” than that posed by Russia in 2016. Phil also reported on Trump’s response to the left’s “culture war” and his reaction to a Kanye West’s possible presidential bid.
With TikTok Rally Sabotage, Election Interference Morphs Again. Kalev Leetaru reflects on the implications of efforts to subvert last month’s Trump rally in Tulsa.
Selective Media Reporting Further Fuels Our Racial Divide. John R. Lott Jr. spotlights news coverage omission of a key detail when a driver plowed into Seattle protesters on Saturday.
Will Housing Rebound Last? In RealClearMarkets, Jeremy Sicklick assesses factors that reversed the pandemic-induced downward trend.
The U.S. Is Ready to Compete for 5G Dominance. In RealClearPolicy, Steve Forbes reports that American companies are coming together to out-innovate Huawei.
USMCA Is a Win. Now Let’s Focus on Successful Implementation. In RealClearEnergy, Frank J. Macchiarola discusses the critical pact between North American allies.
Why the U.S. Must Still Focus on Clean Coal Technologies. Also in RCE, Dan Ervin underscores coal as a global mainstay.
The Merchant Marine and America’s Founding. In RealClearHistory, James Tobin considers the service branch’s unsung role in the war for independence.
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Her name was Florence Mabel Kling DeWolfe when Marion, Ohio, newspaper publisher Warren G. Harding came a-courting. Harding was a handsome young man on the make; Florence was a divorced, 30-year-old single mother with an overbearing father, a German-American banker who opposed the marriage because he considered Harding a social climber.
Harding’s motivations were likely more complicated than that, as they generally are when matters of the heart are intertwined with professional ambition. But, whether by instinct or calculation, he managed to pair himself with a woman who could help him go much farther in politics than his own talents would have carried him.
He called her “the Duchess,” and she sublimated any aspirations she may have had for herself to her spouse’s political career. She was upfront about it, too, telling people that she had “only one real hobby — my husband.”
Warren Harding, let’s just say, had other “hobbies,” but I’m getting ahead of the story. Florence was also a feminist, albeit within the confines of the 1920s. As first lady, she hosted the first all-women’s tennis tournament on the White House grounds, publicly promoted the Girl Scouts, and proudly exercised her right to vote — the first time an American woman had pulled the lever for her husband in a U.S. presidential election. A member of the League of Women Voters and the National Woman’s Party, she encouraged other women to vote as well.
In Ohio, Florence had helped Warren turn his newspaper around and propelled him into the state’s Republican political circles. She came to Washington with a vision of what a first lady could be and racked up an impressive number of “firsts” for a president’s wife. She also pre-approved his speeches, weighed in on Cabinet appointments, and pushed her husband to appoint women to government posts. Florence adopted the welfare of World War I veterans as her signature issue, helping launch an East Wing advocacy tradition that exists to this day in the form of Melania Trump’s pro-children “Be Best” crusade.
Florence Harding was so strong a personality that when her husband died unexpectedly in office, rumors abounded that she had poisoned him. She didn’t do that, though she had her reasons, but she may have inadvertently contributed to his death by selecting a White House physician who turned out to be a quack (he misdiagnosed his husband’s 1923 heart attack as food poisoning).
Upon the president’s death, Mrs. Harding burned thousands of his papers and letters, explaining that she feared they might be “misconstrued.” The Teapot Dome scandal was brewing by then, however, so perhaps they would have been “construed.” In any event, there were other reasons to get rid of his papers, and by that I mean steamy letters to Harding from various women. But that is a story for another day.
President Obama’s February 2013 Presidential Policy Directive – Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience (PPD-21) established a policy “to strengthen the security and resilience of its critical infrastructure against both physical and cyber threats.” PPD-21 identified a total of sixteen critical infrastructure sectors and designated sector-specific agencies (SSAs) within the federal agencies to assist in protecting those sectors. On January 6, 2017, outgoing DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson designated U.S. election systems as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure, a decision that was later affirmed by the Trump administration. Election infrastructure and all fifteen other Critical Infrastructure Sectors are both targets of America’s adversaries and dependent upon electricity to function.
On July 4th, new amendments to the Russian constitution came into effect, allowing President Vladimir Putin to remain in office until 2036, making him the longest reigning Kremlin leader since Stalin. Additional amendments banned same-sex marriage, stress the superiority of Russian law over international law, grant prosecutorial immunity to former presidents, and add a reference in the constitution to God.
Putin proposed the changes in January which were then approved by Russian parliament and the Constitutional court. Putin insisted on a nationwide referendum, initially schedule in April, but postponed to the end of June due to coronavirus.
FBI Director Christopher Wray yesterday became the latest senior U.S. government official to warn about the Chinese Communist Party’s “unrestricted warfare” against our country. He described a vast, comprehensive and highly successful effort to steal our classified, proprietary and personal information in the service of the CCP’s pursuit of global domination.
Such warnings are welcome, but clearly much more needs to be done. For instance, the fact that the FBI has only 2,500 current counter-intelligence cases involving the PRC suggests a wholly inadequate response – even if a new one is being opened every ten hours.
We have to start rolling up and shutting down the perpetrators of such operations in this country. The obvious place President Trump can start is by ejecting more than 20 “Communist Chinese military companies” currently doing business here. Do it now, Mr. President.
This is Frank Gaffney.
BRIGITTE GABRIEL, President of ACT for America, Author of Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terrorism Warns America:
Below is a sneak peek of this content! Liberal media outlets heard something in President Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech that a lot of regular folks simply didn’t. That’s the topic of my Off the Cuff audio commentary this week. You can listen to it by clicking on the play (arrow)… CONTINUE Read More »
Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news, is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. He has covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 13 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He won six Emmys at CBS, and seven at HBO, where he now reports for the widely acclaimed broadcast Real Sports. [Read More…]
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What you need to know today: the thorny issues that have to be worked out to open the doors of America’s schools this autumn, checking in on the efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and an exasperated cry for clarity.
If We Want to Reopen School Doors in the Fall, We Have to Do a Lot of Homework
Before we dive into the debate about whether schools should open their doors to in-person schooling this autumn, we need to agree on certain premises:
The continued absence of in-person schooling is having bad effects — and in some cases, really bad effects — on our children and must end as soon as possible.
Children can carry the virus and unknowingly spread it to any adults they encounter; schools employ quite a few adults — … READ MORE
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Report: Facebook leads industry on removal of hate speech
At 35,000 people, our safety & security teams work to keep our platforms safe 24/7. A recent EU report found we remove more reported hate speech than other major platforms. But any hate speech is too much — there’s more work to do.
“Makes an original and compelling case for nationalism . . . A fascinating, erudite—and much-needed—defense of a hallowed idea unfairly under current attack.” — Victor Davis Hanson
NEW JERSEY: In NJ-02, health advocate Amy Kennedy (D) defeated college professor Brigid Callahan Harrison (D) in the primary. She will take on Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R) in November. (AP) In NJ-03, former Burlington County Freeholder Kate Gibbs (R) conceded to businessman David Richter (R). He will face Rep. Andy Kim (D) in November. (New Jersey Globe) In NJ-07, state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. (R) won the GOP primary and will face Rep. Tom Malinowski (D). (AP)
KY SEN: 2018 KY-06 nominee Amy McGrath (D) raised $17.4 million in Q2, according to a spokesperson. (New York Times)
PA-01: Brady PAC exclusively told Hotline it is backing Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R), its first Republican endorsement of the cycle. (Hotline reporting)
OUTSIDE GROUPS: Democratic super PAC American Bridge is launching a $25 million TV, digital, and radio ad campaign in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which is intended to weaken President Trump’s support with seniors and rural voters. Two TV ads, running in Michigan and Pennsylvania, feature testimonies from health care workers and former Trump voters who are supporting Joe Biden. (release)
GA SEN: Sen. David Perdue (R) launched his first two TV ads Wednesday, making him the first to hit the airwaves in the general election, where he faces 2017 GA-06 candidate Jon Ossoff (D). In his first ad, Perdue speaks directly to the camera and talks about protecting the things that make America “the greatest country in the world.” In the second ad, Perdue addresses the need for police reform, but begins by saying that “the vast majority of police officers protect us honorably.” (release)
MT SEN: Sen. Steve Daines (R) launched a TV ad that highlights his leadership amid the coronavirus pandemic. The spot also claims Daines is “taking on China and fighting to bring manufacturing jobs back to America.” (Advertising Analytics)
KS SEN: State Sen. Barbara Bollier (D) launched a TV ad Tuesday. The spot is biographical and outlines how her background as a physician and state senator informs her belief that “we need leaders who aren’t driven by party politics.” (Twitter)
TN SEN: An internal poll from former Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty’s (R) campaign conducted by the Tarrance Group (Jun. 28-30; 651 GOP LVs; +/-4%) showed Hagerty leading trauma surgeon Manny Sethi (R), 46%-29%. (release)
WV GOV: Gubernatorial candidates filed campaign finance reports for the period from May 25 through June 30. Gov. Jim Justice (R) raised $71,000 and loaned himself $236,000. He spent $321,000 and had $40,000 cash on hand. (West Virginia Secretary of State) Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango (D) raised $265,000, spent $115,000, and had $251,000 cash on hand. (Secretary of State)
VIRGINIA: The Virginia Board of Elections will allow former Campbell County Supervisor Bob Good (R) and state Del. Nick Freitas (R), running in VA-05 and VA-07 respectively, “to have their names appear on the November ballot despite them failing to file paperwork on time.” (Roanoke Times)
In NJ-02 last night, Amy Kennedy locked up the Democratic nomination, despite the fact that major figures in the state party were united against her. Her Democratic opponent, Brigid Callahan Harrison, boasted dozens of endorsers, including the state’s senators, power broker George Norcross, and several local officials and unions. Meanwhile, a less well-funded Democratic candidate earned the endorsement of The Philadelphia Inquirer, which criticized Kennedy for her lack of political experience. Though Kennedy did have Gov. Phil Murphy’s support, her website does not even include a page dedicated to endorsements. In contrast, her Republican opponent, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, has consolidated support in his party and easily cleared his own primary. With Democratic polling showing her trailing Van Drew by three points, the differences in the two primaries seem to leave Kennedy with a difficult road ahead. — Mini Racker
Fresh Brewed Buzz
“As a high school student in Queens,” Mary Trump writes in her forthcoming book, Trump “paid someone to take a precollegiate test, the SAT, on his behalf. The high score the proxy earned for him, Ms. Trump adds, helped the young Mr. Trump to later gain admittance when he transferred as an undergraduate to the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton business school.” (New York Times)
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Mitt Romney (R-UT) will skip the Republican convention next month. (Washington Post)
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), “co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, has written WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to express her opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement and ask the league to put an American flag on every jersey when play resumes later this month. Loeffler was responding to the WNBA’s having approved displaying ‘Black Lives Matter’ prominently on courts at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where the league will hold its season.” (ESPN)
Former Kansas GOP chairwoman Amanda Adkins’ (R) “father has steered more than $100,000 into a super PAC airing ads attacking” former National Down Syndrome Society President Sara Hart Weir (R), “one of Adkins’ top rivals in the GOP primary race for” KS-03. (Kansas City Star)
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts “suffered a fall at a Maryland country club last month that required an overnight stay in the hospital, a Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday night.” (Washington Post)
“Emma Sanders, one of the few surviving members of a group whose impassioned challenge to an all-white delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention brought an end to segregated delegations, died on June 24 in Brandon, Miss. She was 91.” (New York Times)
“Liveright Publishing announced Wednesday that” former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) has “written ‘Trust: America’s Best Chance,’ scheduled for release Oct. 6.” (AP)
“Audio of the forceful push led by U.S. Park Police to sweep protesters out of Lafayette Square on June 1, moments before President Trump’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church, was not recorded by the Park Police radio communications system, the agency said Tuesday.” (Washington Post)
Darryl Albert Varnum, a “Maryland man who worked for a Defense Department contractor, was sentenced on Tuesday to six months of home detention for threatening to kill a member of Congress who supported vaccination requirements for public school students,” Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL 24). Varnum said “he was drunk when he called in the death threat last year and is ashamed by his impulsive actions.” (AP)
Trump signs a joint declaration with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at 3:35 p.m. and hosts a working dinner at 6:45 p.m.
Swizzle Challenge
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14) had an asteroid named after her following a second-place finish in the Microbiology category of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
Joe Bookman won yesterday’s challenge. Here’s his challenge: Biden is the first presidential candidate to have served 6 terms in the Senate. Name two presidential candidates who ran after being elected to five Senate terms.
President Donald Trump officially withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization on Tuesday, and Democrat politicians are already losing their minds over it…. Read more…
The Justice Department on Tuesday produced more evidence to General Mike Flynn’s legal team. Former FBI counterintel chief Peter Strzok and Special Agent Joe Pientka… Read more…
Everyone knows Kamala Harris is on the short list to be Joe Biden’s running mate. Now something is happening which suggests she might be the… Read more…
During this time of cancel culture will the Marxists and leftists ever get around to targeting the mosques? It is widely known that Muhammad, the… Read more…
You’ve seen the reports everywhere, all over the mainstream media (and sadly, atop the once-great Drudge Report) — confirmed cases of COVID-19 are rising. But… Read more…
Radical Muslima Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Tuesday called for the dismantling of the US economy and political systems. The crazed Marxist lawmaker called for… Read more…
You know the modern day leftist movement has gone off the rails when they attack Marxist hero Noam Chomsky. The world renown Marxist philosopher joined… Read more…
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Lieutenant Colonel Angie Waters, representing the US Air Force, is a National Security Affairs Fellow for the academic year 2019–20 at the Hoover Institution. In this interview, Waters discusses her career as a cyber operator in the US Air Force, her work to establish a cyber curriculum at US Air Force Weapons School, and the role of defensive cyber operations in US military strategy.
With the news dominated by Covid-19 and racial injustice, you might not remember one of the big stories of the past year: the rise of socialism. Previously a dirty word, socialism became popular among young people and polled well with Democrats.
Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses how Joe Biden has fared having emerged from his basement; President Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech and his executive orders on monuments; universities hell-bent for obsolescence; and the Cultural Revolution’s Year Zero.
Hoover Institution fellow Lanhee Chen discusses, with Utah Senator Mitt Romney, China’s rise both politically and economically. Romney shares his deep belief that the US can not stand alone in its drive to require China to play by the same rules as others across the world.
Dr. Thomas Sowell has just published “Charter Schools and Their Enemies.” He presents actual test scores of students in traditional public schools and charter schools on the New York State Education Department’s annual English language arts test and its Mathematics Test.
Dr. Scott Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center, explained Monday why the spike of coronavirus cases across the Sun Belt doesn’t tell the full story.
“Few in authority have been more wrong, and yet more self-righteously wrong, than the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci,” historian Victor Davis Hanson noted in a July 5 column for American Greatness.
Dr. Thomas Sowell has just published “Charter Schools and Their Enemies.” He presents actual test scores of students in traditional public schools and charter schools on the New York State Education Department’s annual English language arts test and its Mathematics Test.
Dr. Scott Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center, explained Monday why the spike of coronavirus cases across the Sun Belt doesn’t tell the full story.
“Few in authority have been more wrong, and yet more self-righteously wrong, than the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci,” historian Victor Davis Hanson noted in a July 5 column for American Greatness.
One doctor said the rate at which high-risk people are being affected and whether the death rate from the virus is increasing is what matters, rather than the total number of cases.
Congress is debating legislation meant to address police misconduct along with a further aid package for state and local governments struggling with budget deficits. Whether those bills pass or not, the states can address both issues themselves with one reform: repealing collective bargaining for public workers.
The nation’s faltering attempt to contain the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed once again the role of political partisanship in every aspect of American society.
The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.
Thank you for subscribing to the Hoover Daily Report.
This email was sent to: rickbulow1974@gmail.com