Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Monday August 3, 2020
THE DAILY SIGNAL
Aug 03, 2020
Good morning from Washington, one battleground where “wokeness” attacks the nation’s history and institutions. The destructive mentality didn’t come out of nowhere, Jarrett Stepman writes. What do the numbers say about the deadliness of the coronavirus? Norbert Michel and Drew Gonshorowski break it down. On the podcast, Heritage Foundation cybersecurity expert Klon Kitchen unpacks China’s high-tech theft. Plus: Obama targets the filibuster, mainstream journalism denies facts, and Rep. Ted Budd examines identity politics. On this date in 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, commanding three ships, sets sail from Spain to find a western sea route to China and India. His eventual discovery will make history.
Traditional Marxist ideas were adopted but changed in the 1920s by Italian communist Antonio Gramsci and others. That new theory focused more on shaping culture, marrying traditional Marxism with Freudian psychology and other social theories to change the way people think.
The 30 counties with the most COVID-19 deaths account for 28% of all the cases in the U.S. and 46% of all deaths, much greater than their 17% share of the U.S. population.
Identity politics stands diametrically opposed to e pluribus unum, and therefore, stands diametrically opposed to the values of the United States of America.
A cybersecurity battle is raging. In recent weeks, Chinese hackers stole, or attempted to steal, terabytes of data from the U.S. government, businesses, and private individuals.
The former president says during a politically charged eulogy for Rep. John Lewis that it may be necessary to do away with the filibuster and inaccurately calls the procedure a “Jim Crow relic.”
Cancel culture is a direct assault on the construct of forgiveness. It seeks not to fix, but to destroy. It’s the poisonous pill that fatally blocks a prescriptive cure for human weaknesses.
The Chinese Communist Party has a massive global apparatus to spread propaganda, from paid inserts in The Washington Post and the New York Times to networks of Twitter bots.
Portland Protests Grow More Violent as Feds Step Back
From the story: New violence over the weekend seems to undercut city and state leaders’ claims that it was the presence of the feds that had sparked the violence. Portland police also reported Sunday morning that they’re seeing demonstrators cloaking themselves as journalists to engage in the violence — a tactic the federal officers also faced, and one that complicates questions about press freedom and the ability to control the crowds (Washington Times). A man was filmed burning Bibles in front of the federal courthouse in Portland (Washington Examiner). Meanwhile, the Portland mayor, who has been excusing the violence, is drafting plans to revitalize downtown business. But business owners fear it will likely be too little too late (MSN).
2.
Murder Rate Continues to Climb in Large Cities Nationwide
From the story: A Wall Street Journal analysis of crime statistics among the nation’s 50 largest cities found that reported homicides were up 24% so far this year, to 3,612. Shootings and gun violence also rose, even though many other violent crimes such as robbery fell (WSJ). New York City has already surpassed the shootings from all of 2019 (Fox News).
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3.
Some Chicago Leaders Demand Schools Stop Teaching History
Until it can be retooled to appear more inclusive.
Pelosi Says Dr. Birx Can’t Be Trusted Because Trump Appointed Her
From the story: “I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus, and she is his appointee, and so I don’t have confidence there, no,” said Ms. Pelosi on ABC’s “This Week.” Her comment came after Politico reported Friday that Ms. Pelosi said in a private meeting Thursday that Dr. Birx was “the worst,” which came after a July 18 article in the New York Times that described her as overly optimistic about the impact of reopening the economy (Washington Times). Another story notes “She was previously appointed by President Barack Obama to be the ambassador at large and U.S. Global AIDS coordinator” (Washington Examiner). Meanwhile, a New York Times White House correspondent complained in a tweet “Still no national mask mandate” (Twitter). From Jay Cost: This is what happens when a whole generation learns about government from the West Wing (Twitter).
5.
Black Lives Matter Group Harasses Minnesota Senator at His Home
Shouting, banging on his door, demanding he come out. One man stood on his lawn banging a drum.
From the story: On Friday Beijing’s local factotum used the pandemic as an excuse to postpone elections for a year, and dissenters are being arrested or fired. The Legislative Council elections were scheduled for September, but Chief Executive Carrie Lam invoked emergency powers to cancel them. She claims there is “absolutely no political agenda” behind the postponement, but Beijing clearly fears the will of Hong Kong voters.
From the story: North American consumers are splurging on old-school entertainment favorites like Barbie dolls and the card game Uno, which makes Mattel a winner in an otherwise depressed economy. Sales are expected to continue to be strong in the coming months as schools remain closed. Mattel has seen its shares rise by about 4%.
Letter Calling for NCAA to Support Female Athletes Now Has Over 300 Signatures
A response to the ACLU-led effort to force girls to compete against boys. The far-left female soccer player Megan Rapinoe is among those pushing for men to be able to compete as women.
Organization Warns Wealthy New Yorkers May Not Return
From the story: Wealthy New Yorkers who fled the city during the coronavirus crisis “don’t want to come back” — and may be further deterred by talk of rising taxes, an economic watchdog warned Sunday. “They want to go to the office, but they don’t want to come back to the city,” Partnership for NYC President Kathryn Wylde said Sunday (New York Post). Meanwhile, New York faces a budget deficit of $30 billion (Washington Examiner).
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“Isaias: Saved by Saharan dust and a Bahamas drag; ‘it just pooped out’” via Kimberly Miller of the Palm Beach Post — A nagging Isaias sputtered up the Florida coast, never living up to its potential but teasing just enough drama to keep the Sunshine State on high alert. While Isaias managed to claw back to 70 mph late in the day, dry Saharan air, which is seasonable for this time of year, added to its unhealthy diet. “It just pooped out,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Brett Rossio about Isaias’ decline into Sunday. As of 5 p.m., Isaias was 65 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral and 410 miles south of Myrtle Beach with 70 mph winds. It was moving north-northwest at 9 mph.
Isaias blew over the Bahamas, then seemed to lose steam (somewhat) on its way to the Atlantic Coast. Image via AP.
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Good things happening to good people — “Insurance pro BG Murphy joins Florida Association of Insurance Agents, Kyle Ulrich named CEO” via Florida Politics — Insurance lobbyist and policy pro Murphy is joining the Florida Association of Insurance Agents (FAIA) as director of Government Affairs. He begins his new role starting Monday. Murphy is replacing Kyle Ulrich, who is moving up to become FAIA president and CEO as of September 1. Before coming to FAIA, where he will lead the association’s in-house lobbying efforts, Murphy served two years as Government Affairs regional director for Sentry Insurance, overseeing advocacy efforts throughout 15 Eastern states, including Florida. Before his time at Sentry, Murphy worked at the Florida Department of Financial Services, serving under Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and his predecessor Jeff Atwater, as legislative affairs director and deputy legislative affairs director, respectively.
Congratulations to BG Murphy, newly named director of Government Affairs for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents.
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Breaking overnight — “Randy Fine hospitalized for COVID-19” via Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon of Florida Today — “So I got the X-ray back, and it wasn’t what I expected. Doctor said I have some pretty serious damage in my lungs and is ordering me admitted to the hospital,” Fine wrote on his Facebook page. In a text message, he confirmed he was at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne. “I’m not going to lie — I’m pretty scared. I didn’t even see the boys before I left because I figured I’d be back in a couple of hours,” he said. Fine’s coronavirus infection was confirmed on July 22, along with that of his two sons, David, 8, and Jacob, 12, just days after his wife Wendy tested positive.
Our best to Randy Fine, who has been hospitalized with COVID-19.
Situational awareness
—@RealDonaldTrump: Wrong! We have more cases because we have tested far more than any other country, 60,000,000. If we tested less, there would be less cases. How did Italy, France & Spain do? Now Europe sadly has flare-ups. Most of our Governors worked hard & smart. We will come back STRONG!
— @JoyAnnReid: As @EricHolder also affirmed this morning, at 12:01 p.m. on January 20, if he loses the election and if he refuses to leave the White House, Donald Trump will be merely an intruder in that house and will be removed physically, like any other intruder would. He will have no power.
—@StevenTDennis: The *entire* European Union — population 446 million — is still averaging fewer cases per day than Florida alone.
—@NHL: Together, we must be part of the movement to end racism. Together, #WeSkateForBlackLives.
—@AnthonySabatini: The only thing that needs to be cancelled [sic] is the media
Tweet, tweet:
Days until
Florida primaries for 2020 state legislative/congressional races — 15; Florida Bar exams begin online (rescheduled) — 16; Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee begins — 16; Regal Cinemas reopen in U.S. — 18; Indy 500 rescheduled — 20; Republican National Convention begins in Charlotte — 21; NBA draft lottery — 22; Rev. Al Sharpton’s D.C. March — 25; U.S. Open begins — 28; Christopher Nolan‘s “Tenet” rescheduled premiere in U.S. — 31; Rescheduled running of the Kentucky Derby — 33; Rescheduled date for French Open — 48; First presidential debate in Indiana — 57; “Wonder Woman” premieres — 60; Preakness Stakes rescheduled — 61; Ashley Moody’s 2020 Human Trafficking Summit — 64; First vice presidential debate at the University of Utah — 65; NBA season ends (last possible date) — 70; Second presidential debate scheduled at Miami — 73; NBA draft — 74; Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” premieres — 74; NBA free agency — 77; Third presidential debate at Belmont — 80; 2020 General Election — 92; “Black Widow” premieres — 96; NBA 2020-21 training camp — 98; Florida Automated Vehicles Summit — 109; “No Time to Die” premieres — 109; NBA 2020-21 opening night — 120; Super Bowl LV in Tampa — 188; “A Quiet Place Part II” rescheduled premiere — 200; “Top Gun: Maverick” rescheduled premiere — 333; New start date for 2021 Olympics — 354; “Jungle Cruise” premieres — 362; “Spider-Man Far From Home” sequel premieres — 459; “Thor: Love and Thunder” premieres — 557; “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” premieres — 599; “Black Panther 2” premieres — 641; “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” sequel premieres — 795.
Corona Florida
Positive cases:
— 481,668 FL residents (+16,638 since Friday)
— 5,464 Non-FL residents (+108 since Friday)
Origin:
— 3,713 Travel related
— 131,768 Contact with a confirmed case
— 3,725 Both
— 320,696 Under investigation
Hospitalizations:
— 27,150 in FL
Deaths:
— 7,084 in FL
“Florida’s summer of dread” via Patricia Mazzei of The New York Times — A public health crisis. An economic calamity, with more than a million Floridians out of work and an unemployment payment system that was one of the slowest in the country. And now an early debut of hurricane season to remind the state that the inevitable convergence of the pandemic and the weather is likely to play out again, and perhaps much more seriously than this relatively mild storm before this nightmare season ends. “It’s just kind of been the way 2020s gone so far,” said Howard Tipton, the administrator for St. Lucie County, on Florida’s Treasure Coast. “But we roll with it, right? We don’t get to determine the cards that we’re dealt.”
COVID-19, masks, unemployment, and now its hurricane season. Florida is having one stressful summer.
“Virus hits Florida state prisons chief and top deputy” via Ana Ceballos of the News Service of Florida — As COVID-19 spreads throughout the state’s prison system, Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch and one of his top lieutenants have tested positive for the virus, the state agency announced late Friday night. Inch began experiencing mild symptoms shortly after visiting Columbia Correctional Institution. In this North Florida prison, 1,300 inmates and 72 corrections workers have tested positive for the virus, according to a news release issued by corrections officials Friday. Deputy Secretary Ricky Dixon has also tested positive for COVID-19, but is currently asymptomatic, the release said. “Just like the numerous correctional and probation officers and staff who we’ve asked to stay home and recuperate after a positive test, Deputy Secretary Dixon and I are self-isolating as a result of our recent COVID-19 test results,” Inch said in a statement Friday night.
“Young people in Florida are also dying from coronavirus” via Romy Ellenbogen and Connie Humburg of the Tampa Bay Times — Across Florida, 84 percent of people under the age of 65 who died from the coronavirus had an underlying medical issue, according to an analysis. Reporters reviewed thousands of death reports compiled by medical examiners from across the state. Some of the common ailments were diabetes, heart issues and obesity. Many patients had more than one condition. Deaths among younger people like Hergenreder have been notably rare during the pandemic. In Florida, 18 percent of people who have died from the coronavirus were under the age of 65. Public health officials have said for months that seniors, who tend to be most at risk for preexisting medical conditions, are the most vulnerable in the pandemic.
Once thought to mostly affect the elderly, now younger people are dying of COVID-19.
“NYC’s wealthiest flocking to Florida even while COVID-19 rages” via Oshrat Carmiel of Bloomberg — Lavish Florida retreats were a popular escape for rich New Yorkers riding out the COVID-19 lockdown. Now, many are rushing to make things more permanent even while the virus surges in the Sunshine State. Sellers in places like Miami and Palm Beach are getting flooded with offers, and the supply of available properties is plunging. Florida’s favorable tax laws have long been a draw for high-net-worth individuals. Still, the pandemic’s disruptions to work, school, public safety and northern states’ budgets have increased the allure, pushing many of the wealthiest to finally make good on aspirations to relocate. Purchase contracts in South Florida soared across all price ranges last month compared with a year earlier when there was no contagion to worry about. At $1 million and above, deals more than doubled in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
Back to school?
“Many private schools — and some charters — will return to buildings in the fall.” via Scott Travis of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Parents hoping to send their children to an actual school campus this fall may have to shell out money for a private school. Despite pressure from the state and federal governments to open their campuses for the new year, most South Florida public schools plan to start off online only due to the continued surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths in South Florida. A few charter schools plan to offer in-person instruction, but most say they will begin online until conditions improve. For private schools, it’s a different story. “Most of the private schools we’ve heard from or about in recent weeks said they were planning to open for in-person learning at the beginning of the school year,” said Ron Matus, director of policy and public affairs for Step Up For Students.
“Miami Dolphins give plasma in fight against COVID-19” via Spencer Fordin of Florida Politics — The Miami Dolphins are doing the opposite of isolating themselves from the community. They’re donating their plasma to help people stricken with COVID-19. Several members of the Dolphins team and support staff spent part of their day Thursday aboard OneBlood’s Big Red Bus donating their antibodies to the treatment of other people with the virus. Rookie Malcolm Perry, a graduate of the Naval Academy, was among the players who tested positive and recovered from COVID-19, and there he was Thursday donating his plasma. Perry is the only Dolphins player that has been publicly identified as having recovered from COVID-19, but a news release from the team indicated that several players participated Thursday in donating plasma.
Tweet, tweet:
“Gadsden and Jackson counties among nation’s Top 10 coronavirus hotspots” via TaMaryn Waters of the Tallahassee Democrat — Rural Gadsden and Jackson counties in North Florida are among the country’s Top 10 coronavirus hot spots with cases growing rapidly. The warning was issued in an internal daily CDC report that detailed “areas of concern” because cases are “high and still growing.” Nine of the 10 counties were in Florida and Texas. The grim outlook comes as both counties reported spikes and deaths in recent weeks and continued public events, such as the “End of Summer Concert in the Park ” event on Thursday at Citizens Lodge Park in Marianna. As of Friday, Gadsden County had a total of 1,347 cases, 109 hospitalizations and 18 deaths as a local State of Emergency has been in effect for months. In Jackson County, there have been 1,566 positive cases, 84 hospitalizations and 31 deaths.
“‘It didn’t have to happen this way’: Daughter recalls Marianna man’s trepidatious COVID-19 decline” via Nada Hassanein of the Tallahassee Democrat — Even in his late 80s, Willie Stevens would change his grandchildren’s car oil. The senior member of his small Marianna community at Jerusalem A.M.E. Church, Stevens was the local carpenter who’d teach budding woodworkers who then went off to start their own businesses. But on July 27, Stevens died after being diagnosed with COVID-19. He was 94. The diabetic man was transferred between four different medical facilities before his death, according to his family.
“Walton commissioners get sobering COVID-19 report from Sacred Heart official” via Jim Thompson of the NWF Daily News — Walton County, and much of the rest of Northwest Florida, is in a “dramatically different” position concerning COVID-19 than even just a couple of weeks ago, and certainly since March, when the first cases in the pandemic began showing up in this part of the Panhandle, according to a high-ranking official with the Ascension Sacred Heart health care facilities from Pensacola to Port St. Joe. Roger Hall, soon to be “semiretired” from his position as regional president of Ascension Sacred Heart facilities, painted Walton County commissioners a sobering picture of the status of COVID-19 in the area at their meeting last week before a commission decision to take no action on any ordinance requiring face masks to be worn in public as a means of helping to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
“Financial fallout from a canceled football season would be significant for Florida State” via Wayne McGahee IIII of the Tallahassee Democrat — The coronavirus has already caused significant issues for the Florida State athletic department. FSU announced earlier this month that it was reducing its budget by 20% with coaches taking pay cuts and the elimination of 25 full-time positions. Football coach Mike Norvell took a 25% pay cut, athletic director David Coburn a 20% pay cut, and basketball coaches Leonard Hamilton and Sue Semrau each took 15% pay cuts. But these budget cuts came before any clarification on whether or not the 2020 football season will be played. Coburn said budget cuts would look “insignificant” to the cuts FSU will have to make if football isn’t played this year.
Corona nation
“Coronavirus threat rises across U.S.: ‘We just have to assume the monster is everywhere’” via Joel Achenbach, Rachel Weiner and Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post — The coronavirus is spreading at dangerous levels across much of the United States, and public health experts are demanding a dramatic reset in the national response, one that recognizes that the crisis is intensifying and that current piecemeal strategies aren’t working. This is a new phase of the pandemic, one no longer built around local or regional clusters and hot spots. It comes at an unnerving moment in which the economy suffered its worst collapse since the Great Depression, schools are rapidly canceling plans for in-person instruction and Congress has failed to pass a new emergency relief package. President Donald Trump continues to promote fringe science, the daily death toll keeps climbing and the human cost of the virus in America has just passed 150,000 lives.
As cases of COVID-19 crop up nationwide, some experts say we should assume the coronavirus ‘monster’ is everywhere. Image via AP.
“Sun Belt hospitals are feeling the strain from virus’ surge — and bracing for worse” via Griff Witte and Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post — In a nation gripped by a record number of coronavirus cases — with severe outbreaks across multiple states and regions — medical systems are increasingly showing the strain, with shortages of critically-needed personnel, equipment and testing. And officials are concerned that hospitals will soon hit a breaking point if the trajectory of ever-growing caseloads doesn’t change. “We can withstand a surge. We can withstand a disaster. But we can’t withstand a disaster every single day,” said Jason Wilson, associate medical director of the emergency department at Tampa General Hospital. “How many jumbo jet crashes can you handle before you run out of capacity? That’s what we’re facing.”
Corona economics
“With $600 checks disappearing, unemployed Floridians are facing a ‘perfect storm’ of problems” via Lawrence Mower and Alex Daugherty of the Tampa Bay Times — For the last four months, unemployed Floridians were handed a lifeline through the $600 weekly benefits doled out by the federal CARES Act. The payments were a critical supplement to Florida’s standard benefits, which are among the stingiest in the nation. And the $9 billion in payments sent to Floridians was a major boost to the state’s fraying economy, which has been decimated by the pandemic. Because Congress failed to reach a deal before the $600 checks expired Friday, unemployed Floridians are going to have to live on payments of no more than $275 per week. Nearly 900,000 Floridians applied for or received unemployment benefits during the most recent period. Nearly 600,000 Floridians are behind on their power bills. The only thing keeping many from being evicted from their homes is an executive order by Ron DeSantis.
“U.S. small business bailout money flowed to Chinese-owned companies” via Alan Rappeport of The New York Times — Trump blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis, but as the White House looks to stabilize small businesses in the United States, the rescue effort has had an unintended beneficiary: Chinese companies. Millions of dollars of American taxpayer money have flowed to China from the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program that was a lifeline for struggling small businesses in the United States. But because the economic relief legislation allowed American subsidiaries of foreign firms to receive the loans, a substantial chunk of the money went to America’s biggest economic rival. According to a review of publicly available loan data, $192 million to $419 million has gone to more than 125 companies that Chinese entities own or invest in.
Millions of dollars of American taxpayer money went to Chinese-owned companies from the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program Donald Trump signed in April. Image via AP.
“A new Chuck E. Cheese children’s ride but no one to ride it” via Eva Dou of The Washington Post — Fallout from the bankruptcies of dozens of American companies is rippling across the globe, as suppliers find themselves with orders abruptly canceled and customers saying they can’t pay their debts. One major problem for suppliers: they are at a lower priority level for debt repayment under Chapter 11 bankruptcy rules, compared with secured creditors like banks. That means for many factories, their new orders have not only stopped, but they face grim chances of recouping payment for products already shipped. The hit to industries like textiles, in particular, threatens livelihoods in the developing world. Countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Ethiopia rely heavily on making shirts, socks and other apparel to provide jobs and support their economies.
“With loan money gone, restaurants are at mercy of coronavirus” via Joyce M. Rosenberg of The Associated Press — The check has arrived and beleaguered restaurant owners across America are looking down on their empty wallets. Government coronavirus loans in the spring helped eating establishments rehire laid-off employees and ride out the pandemic’s initial surge and the wave of shutdown orders. But that Paycheck Protection Program money has now been spent at many restaurants, leaving them in the same precarious position they were in during outbreak’s early days: Thousands of restaurants are being forced to close down again on mandates from state and local officials combating the virus’s resurgence, particularly in the South and West.
More corona
“Is the subway risky? It may be safer than you think” via Christina Goldbaum of The New York Times — Five months after the coronavirus outbreak engulfed New York City, riders are still staying away from public transportation in enormous numbers, often because they are concerned that sharing enclosed places with strangers is simply too dangerous. But the picture emerging in major cities across the world suggests that public transportation may not be as risky as nervous New Yorkers believe. In countries where the pandemic has ebbed, ridership has rebounded in far greater numbers than in New York City, yet there have been no notable superspreader events linked to mass transit.
Experts found that the subways are safer than originally thought, coronavirus-wise. Image via AP.
Smoldering
“DHS official whose office compiled ‘intelligence reports’ on journalists and protesters has been removed from his job” via Shane Harris and Nick Miroff of The Washington Post — A senior Department of Homeland Security official whose office compiled “intelligence reports” about journalists and protesters in Portland, Oregon, has been removed from his job, according to people familiar with the matter. Brian Murphy, the acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, was reassigned to a new position in the department’s management directorate, an administrative support office, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf decided Friday.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official who compiled ‘intelligence reports’ on Portland protesters and journalists has been relieved of duty.
“Calm returns to Portland as federal agents withdraw” via Adam Taylor, Nick Miroff and David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post — This city’s battle-scarred downtown was calm much of Friday after federal agents withdrew from the streets where they had faced off with protesters for days, though dozens remained stationed downtown to respond to any further violence. The agents, who had been posted at a federal courthouse that protesters had targeted with graffiti and fire, moved to other downtown locations, held in reserve under a deal between Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the Trump administration. Amid criticism of the federal officers’ tactics, local and state police who took their place at the courthouse were far less aggressive, largely staying out of sight Thursday night, making no arrests and firing no tear gas.
“Video caught guard pummeling handcuffed man in Miami-Dade jail. The inmate got charged” via Haley Lerner and Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald — In April of last year, a handcuffed jail inmate was punched repeatedly by a Miami-Dade County corrections officer, a confrontation caught on a jail security video obtained by the Miami Herald. The pummeling at the Metro West Detention Center only ended when a second officer stepped in, pushing his colleague off and wrapping his arms around the inmate, Mike Neal. The video, key evidence in a state criminal case and a federal civil rights lawsuit, shows a third corrections officer then also stepping in to separate his fellow guard, Delman Lumpkin, from Neal. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges in the case, but against the inmate, not the guard. Prosecutors initially charged Neal with aggravated assault, a felony. But after viewing the video, prosecutors reduced the initial charge to a misdemeanor assault. Still, they added a new felony charge accusing Neal of “stalking” the corrections officer in the months leading up to the violent jail confrontation. The basis of that charge is unclear.
“The moment impeachment managers realized how corrupt Donald Trump’s defense was” via Norman Eisen of The Washington Post — As soon as Pat Philbin, the deputy White House counsel, uttered the lie, my head shot-up from my note-taking. “In the Judiciary Committee,” he said to every member of the U.S. Senate assembled for his boss’s impeachment trial, “ … there were no rights for the President.” It was just past 10 p.m. on Jan. 21 — the first day of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial. I was sitting near the head of the narrow, curved House managers table across from committee Chairmen Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff. They, too, looked astonished. The President’s lawyers could have defended him capably without stooping to this. Lawyers are not in place to repeat the excesses of their clients. And yet Trump had managed to finagle his team into an alarming display of mimicry.
A lie by deputy White House Counsel Pat Philbin revealed how corrupt Donald Trump’s impeachment defense would be.
“Congress deeply unpopular again as gridlock on coronavirus relief has real-life consequences” via Paul Kane of The Washington Post — After a springtime boomlet of bipartisan legislation, Congress has slid back into its familiar posture of hitting gridlock on everything from combating police violence to determining which statues should remain in the Capitol. And, over the past two weeks, the heated negotiations over the next coronavirus relief package have stalled as Trump’s advisers and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have openly feuded after each of their private huddles. The public took notice. Over the past two months, congressional approval ratings have crashed downward, after a sudden previous bump in approval. Fewer than 1 in 5 voters say they like what lawmakers are doing on Capitol Hill.
“The CFPB once defended consumers. Thanks to Trump, it now helps companies prey on them instead.” via Helaine Olen of The Washington Post — For two days this week, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger testified to Congress about protecting consumers during the coronavirus pandemic, first in the Senate and then in the House. It went about as well as could be expected, which is not particularly well at all. Kraninger, a thoroughly unqualified Trump appointee, has shown little interest in doing her purported job, which is protecting Americans from the financial services industry. Rep. Nydia Velázquez said she lacked empathy, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren demanded she resign. Kraninger’s main accomplishment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the loosening of regulations on payday loans. Previously, regulations stopped people who couldn’t afford to repay the loans from taking them on.
“Rick Scott has one eye on 2022 — and another on 2024” via Gabriel T. Rubin of The Wall Street Journal — Scott is lining up support to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 2022 midterms, a plum post that would put him in close contact with top Republican donors and finance chairs around the country as he mulls a potential presidential run in 2024. Scott has discussed the post with his Republican colleagues, who will vote on the next chair following the November election. Indiana’s Todd Young currently chairs the NRSC. Floridians could crowd the 2024 Republican primaries, with speculation growing that not only Scott but also Marco Rubio and DeSantis could throw their hats in the ring.
Statewide
“Florida faces budget cuts due to COVID-19. One agency wants to drop $915K on PR campaign.” via Samantha J. Gross and Kirby Wilson of the Miami Herald — In Florida’s mental health system, it’s almost impossible to find areas to cut spending. As a pandemic ravages the state’s economy, the already underfunded system has become an even more critical lifeline for some of Florida’s most vulnerable populations. But cut is exactly what the state must do, as Florida came up almost $1.9 billion short of its projected revenue during the 2019-20 fiscal year. Starting in March, COVID-19 decimated tourism and left 10.4% of Floridians jobless by May. State agencies are being asked to hold back on planned spending so the state can report a balanced budget, as is constitutionally required, for the fiscal year that began July 1. To the state’s “managing entities,” which contract with the Department of Children and Families to oversee local mental health and addiction treatment programs, the cuts would mean reducing essential services for those who need them most.
Florida faces massive budget cuts due to COVID-19, which means even further cuts to essential services. Image via AP.
“License to live’: Florida quietly changed driver’s license requirements for immigrants” via Monique Madan of the Miami Herald — Tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants who have been able to drive legally in Florida may be unable to get driver’s licenses again after the state quietly changed its identification requirements for obtaining licenses. In mid-May, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles tightened its document requirements that outline what some immigrants must provide to get their driver’s licenses. It’s the most striking change of at least six that have been made in the past six months, making it almost impossible for people who are in the deportation process to drive legally, something they had been able to do before. Before May 11, people with pending deportation hearings were able to get a driver’s license as long as they had a court document proving they had a future hearing date.
“How the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has used a shadowy charity fund in criminal cases” via Daniel Rivero of WLRN — Manuel Marin, former owner of the Presidente Supermarket chain, was accused of hiring a group of mixed martial arts fighters to kill Camilo Salazar. Police said Salazar was sleeping with Marin’s wife. When Salazar was found on a dirt road in west Miami-Dade County in 2011, his body was severely beaten, his throat slit, and there was evidence that his genitals had been set on fire. Years passed, and Marin had disappeared. Then in 2018, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle made an announcement: arrests had been made in the murder case. Among them, Marin’s son Yaddiel was charged with being an accessory to the murder after the fact.
“Bo Rivard rebuts shady contract claims” via Florida Politics — Northwest Florida business owner Rivard is pushing back against claims he flexed his political connections to land state contracts for his company, Consolidated Disaster Services. A Florida Bulldog article alleged that the company landed contracts to provide personal protective equipment to the state without going through the normal bidding process. Jay Trumbull Sr., the father of Rep. Jay Trumbull, holds a stake in Consolidated Disaster Services. Rivard said that couldn’t be further from the truth. According to Rivard, the state approached the company about procuring PPE because it was already an approved vendor for emergency supplies such as ice and bottled water that the state needs during emergencies.
FWC Chair Bo Rivard insists he did not use political influence to steer government money to his companies.
“Hurricane Maria survivor struggles at rundown Kissimmee motel with intermittent power, water” via Kate Santich of the Orlando Sentinel — In the Kissimmee motel room she calls home, Kathia Badillo Feliu keeps a machete wedged in the wall above her bed. Another is tucked under a sofa cushion, and two more are hidden among her family’s belongings — protection against whatever may come in the darkness when the power is shut off. The power is often off. At least, for now, there is running water. For most of the past year, Feliu has lived in this 12-by-24-foot space at the Star Motel along U.S. Highway 192, a property largely abandoned by its owner. Forced from her home in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria in 2017, she lived in North Carolina before winding up here, her last option after her family was swindled out of $6,800 deposit on a local rental house by a man pretending to be the landlord. Osceola County began foreclosure proceedings on the property, which includes the Star Motel and its neighbor, the Lake Cecile Inn & Suites, the latter boarded up after a fire.
2020
“Trump’s top strategist reboots campaign with focus on early-voting states” via Alex Isenstadt of POLITICO Florida — Trump’s campaign is reorienting its summer TV advertising strategy to focus on states that will begin voting sooner than others, after the reelection went dark on TV in an unusual move this week, leaving the airwaves to Joe Biden. Trump’s campaign will begin running ads Monday in a cluster of states ahead of the early voting period. The move represents a shift for the campaign, which for months has been spending heavily in a wide array of battlegrounds. Bill Stepien, Trump’s newly appointed campaign manager, has spent recent days reevaluating the advertising strategy as the President gears up for the final three months of the election. Trump advisers declined to specify which states the ads would be focused on, but there are several key battlegrounds at the front of the early voting calendar.
Donald Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien is reexamining TV advertising.
“Renomination of Trump to be held in private” via The Associated Press — The vote to renominate Trump is set to be conducted in private later this month, without members of the press present, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Convention said, citing the coronavirus. While Trump called off the public components of the convention in Florida last month, citing spiking cases of the virus across the country, 336 delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24 to vote to make Trump formally the GOP standard-bearer once more. Nominating conventions are traditionally meant to be media bonanzas, as political parties seek to leverage the attention the events draw to spread their message to as many voters as possible. If the GOP decision stands, it will be the first party nominating convention in modern history to be closed to reporters.
“How the Trump campaign came to court QAnon, the online conspiracy movement identified by the FBI as a violent threat” via Isaac Stanley-Becker of The Washington Post — The online viral movement, which took root on Internet message boards in the fall of 2017 with posts from a self-proclaimed government insider identified as “Q,” has triggered violent acts and occasional criminal cases. As the worldview took shape online, its followers flocked to Trump rallies with QAnon apparel and placards. Recently, as the election has drawn closer, actions by the president and his associates have brought them more directly into the fold. The Trump campaign’s director of press communications, for example, went on a QAnon program and urged listeners to “sign up and attend a Trump Victory Leadership Initiative training.”
“A group of FL sheriffs without face masks stand by as Trump spews insults on people and groups” via Diane Rado of Florida Phoenix — Standing without face masks behind Trump in Tampa on Friday, several Florida sheriffs endorsing the President stood by as Trump streamed numerous insults on people and groups. Trump called U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — second in succession to the presidency — “Crazy Nancy Pelosi.” Trump referenced the news media as “those people” — “a couple of good ones, mostly bad ones.” At least twice, Trump used the term “China virus” to describe COVID-19. Some people consider the term used by Trump as racist. While the president has insulted various people and groups before, Trump is gearing up to take on Biden in the big swing state of Florida. The president on Friday mentioned that polls in Florida “are going up up up,” in the president’s favor.
“’Our band is getting back together.’ How Trump plans to win Florida” via David Smiley of the Miami Herald — Amid sagging polling, and with mail voting beginning in eight weeks, Trump is trying to turn his campaign around in the must-win battleground. He is returning his attention to the state and bringing back former advisers to help him recreate his 2016 victory. “He’s going to win Florida,” Republican Party of Florida Chairman Joe Gruters said. On Friday, he even found a way to bring back his rallies with a gathering on the tarmac at Tampa International Airport. To help guide him through a campaign he can’t run his way, Trump has called back Susie Wiles, a veteran GOP operative. Wiles steered Trump’s 2016 Florida campaign and helped DeSantis eke out a win two years ago in the Florida Governor’s race.
Sen. Joe Gruters is adamant that Donald Trump is going to win Florida big.
“Florida’s summer to forget: How July derailed the presidential campaign in the biggest swing state” via Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times — In the middle of a pandemic, Republicans chased a doomed party convention in Jacksonville that Trump ultimately canceled mid-month because of the coronavirus. Democrats stepped into a scandal by taking federal loans intended to help businesses hurt by the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the effort to elect former Vice President Biden in Florida is beset with criticism from rank-and-file Democrats who fear the party is on the same failed trajectory as four years ago. Missteps, shake-ups, internal strife — none of this is uncommon in the sometimes messy world of presidential campaigns. But this is Florida, the king of all swing states, where elections are won and lost by razor-thin margins.
“‘Castro sympathizer’: Florida GOP moves to sink Bass over Cuba” via Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida — Fidel Castro is once again casting a long shadow over U.S. presidential politics. The former Cuban president is a topic of derision for both political parties in Florida and Republicans here used him on Saturday to bash Karen Bass, a California Democrat who is rising on Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist. “She will be the highest-ranking Castro sympathizer in the history of the United States government,” Sen. Marco Rubio said on a conference call organized by the Trump campaign to trash Bass. Bass made numerous trips to Cuba dating back to the 1970s and professed her sympathies when Castro died in 2016, a position that is politically poisonous in Miami, a key block of voters in a state central to Trump’s reelection bid.
“Ransomware feared as possible saboteur for November election” via Eric Tucker, Christina A. Cassidy and Frank Bajak of The Associated Press — Federal authorities say one of the gravest threats to the November election is a well-timed ransomware attack that could paralyze voting operations. The threat isn’t just from foreign governments, but any fortune-seeking criminal. Ransomware attacks targeting state and local governments have been on the rise, with cybercriminals seeking quick money by seizing data and holding it hostage until they get paid. The fear is that such attacks could affect voting systems directly or even indirectly, by infecting broader government networks that include electoral databases. Even if a ransomware attack fails to disrupt elections, it could nonetheless rattle confidence in the vote.
“How the media could get the election story wrong” via Ben Smith of The New York Times — The media specializes in fighting the last war and has done a decent job this cycle of avoiding the mistakes of 2016. Reporters are calling out Trump’s falsehoods, showing skepticism about polls and avoiding turning politics into a sport. But the American media plays a bizarrely outsize role in American elections, occupying the place of most countries’ national election commissions. the media establishes the narrative to explain what happened. But at the highest levels of most news organizations and the big social media platforms, executives and insiders told me that it simply hasn’t sunk in how different this year is going to be — and how to prepare audiences for it.
More from the trail
“Homeowner falsely accuses candidate Mark Oliver of stealing mail while delivering campaign literature” via Kelly Hayes of Florida Politics — A Pinellas County homeowner accused Oliver of stealing mail when he was captured on a Ring camera delivering campaign flyers recently. Oliver’s campaign believes the young Black candidate was the subject of racial profiling. The candidate runs miles every day to deliver campaign literature to constituents in the district, which includes southern Pinellas County as well as parts of Hillsborough and Manatee counties. As part of his campaign, he has been posting videos with the caption: “I’m running for office, literally.” “My efforts to connect with voters safely during COVID-19 by running masked, door to door, unfortunately, have been subject to scrutiny,” Oliver said. “However, this gives our community a platform to discuss some important racial disparities still happening today.”
Mark Oliver was falsely accused of stealing mail during canvassing.
“Anne Gannon: Michael Weinstein’s sexist double standard should outrage female voters on” via Florida Politics — HD 81 candidate Weinstein sent a mailer attacking his primary opponent, Kelly Skidmore, for being a “career politician.” Weinstein claims Skidmore ran for office seven times, but he arrived at this number by double-counting primary and general elections. In truth, she served in the Florida House for four years. Weinstein holds a double standard when it comes to female candidates. When someone criticizes a male candidate for being a “career politician” — sue them; but when you’re the candidate yourself, running against a female, bring that accusation out in full force. Weinstein’s attack calling Skidmore a “career politician” is an assault on female candidates everywhere. We know that women holding office are worth fighting for.
“Publix founder’s relatives dole out large political sums” via Gary White of the Ledger of Lakeland — Separately from Publix’s political action committee, some Polk County residents whose wealth derives from the company have been active in supporting candidates and political committees. Julie Fancelli, a part-time Lakeland resident and the daughter of Publix founder George W. Jenkins, has contributed $171,300 to a committee supporting Trump and another $170,900 to the Republican National Committee. Her son, Gregory Fancelli, also a part-time Lakeland resident, has given $11,200 to a committee supporting Trump. He has contributed $5,600 to the campaign of U.S. Rep. Ross Spano, the local representative who has not received money from the Publix PAC. Carol Jenkins Barnett, also a daughter of the Publix founder, and her husband, Barney Barnett, have contributed $41,800 to candidates and committees in the current cycle. That amount includes a gift of $20,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Down ballot
“Voters and candidates to return to the polls as early voting begins Monday in Miami” via David Smiley of the Miami Herald — As Florida struggles with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country, elections supervisors will welcome voters back to the polls Monday, kicking off a two-week run-up to the Aug. 18 Florida primary. Nearly two dozen early voting centers will open at 7 a.m. in Miami-Dade County, and dozens more in Monroe and Palm Beach counties. Early voting doesn’t begin in Broward County until Aug. 8. The election is Florida’s second since the coronavirus pandemic began to spread. Close to 3 million people voted statewide in the March 17 Florida presidential preference primary, 650,000 of whom voted during Florida’s two-week early voting period. At that time, the scope of the pandemic was only beginning to become clear. Now, more than 7,000 Floridians have died of COVID-19, many public venues remain closed and masks are required in public, including the polls.
“Mail-in fail: Vendor snafu leads to FEA members receiving faulty instructions to request mail-in ballots” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — In late July, the Florida Education Association (FEA) sent out instructions to approximately 70,000 of its members, providing them easy-access forms to request mail-in ballots from their local Supervisor of Elections (SOE). Thanks to a vendor’s technical glitch, the return envelopes sent to many of those members listed an incorrect SOE address, resulting in those forms being sent to a different county’s SOE office. The episode led to the FEA terminating its nearly two-decade relationship with Deliver Strategies. A representative from Deliver says the firm took full responsibility for the mistake and called it a result of “human error.” Upon reviewing information with their members, the FEA did find some return envelopes did contain correct addresses.
“Former members of Aramis Ayala’s inner circle say Deborah Barra was ‘de facto state attorney’” via Monivette Cordeiro of the Orlando Sentinel — Ayala’s decision to un-endorse second-in-command Barra’s bid to replace her as Orlando’s top prosecutor has drawn backlash from former members of Ayala’s inner circle, who called her explanation for the decision “misleading and disingenuous” Friday and said Barra is already the “de facto state attorney.” The onetime members of Ayala’s executive team, who support Barra’s campaign, include the state attorney’s ex-spokeswoman Eryka Washington and two former deputy chief assistant state attorneys, Josephine Colón and Harold V. Bennett III.
Aramis Ayala’s decision to ‘un-endorse’ Deborah Barra is under scrutiny.
Top opinion
“Coming forward ended my career. I still believe doing what’s right matters.” via Alexander S. Vindman of The Washington Post — After 21 years, six months and 10 days of active military service, I am now a civilian. I made the difficult decision to retire because a campaign of bullying, intimidation and retaliation by Trump and his allies forever limited the progression of my military career. This experience has been painful, but I am not alone in this ignominious fate. The circumstances of my departure might have been more public. Yet, they are little different from those of dozens of other lifelong public servants who have left this administration with their integrity intact, but their careers irreparably harmed. Our citizens are being subjected to the same kinds of attacks tyrants launch against their critics and political opponents.
Opinions
“Will Trump defy the voters? Let him try.” via Matt Bai of The Washington Post — In 2017, Trump became the first American president in history to complain about the fairness of an election he had just won. So it should surprise no one that Trump has already declined to accept the results of an election he is likely to lose. It’s no longer really a question of whether Trump will try to defy the will of the electorate, should he lose, but rather how. For months now, he’s been assailing the credibility of mail-in voting and refusing to say whether he’d honor the election results. In the most likely scenario, Trump would launch a legal challenge to the results in several states with Republican-led legislatures, banking on supportive state lawmakers to intervene and choose their own electors. Ultimately, any legal or political challenge would end up with the Supreme Court, which ruled for Republicans in the most recent disputed election 20 years ago.
“The next Lost Cause?” via Caroline E. Janney of The Washington Post — The Lost Cause offered former Confederates and their descendants a salve for the past. According to this mythology about the Civil War, the South was the victim, even in defeat. Even as Confederate monuments tumble this summer, we may be witnessing an attempt to form a new lost cause. Today, Trump describes his opponents as “unfair,” the pandemic sapping his popularity as a “hoax,” the polls that show him losing to Biden as “fake,” and the election in which he’ll face ultimate judgment in November as “rigged” or potentially “stolen.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy” via Eli Saslow of The Washington Post — I dream about going back to normal. I’d love to be open. These kids are hurting right now. I don’t need a politician to tell me that. We only have 300 students in this district, and they’re like family. I get phone calls from families dealing with poverty issues, depression, loneliness, boredom. Some of these kids are out in the wilderness right now, and school is the best place for them. Every time I start to play out what that looks like on August 17, I get sick to my stomach. More than a quarter of our students live with grandparents. These kids could very easily catch this virus, spread it, and bring it back home. It’s not safe. There’s no way it can be safe. If you think anything else, I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy. Kids will get sick or worse. Family members will die. Teachers will die.
Today’s Sunrise
Over the past week, Florida set another record for COVID-19, as the Department of Health reported 1,230 deaths, smashing the old record of 872 fatalities in the previous week.
Also, on today’s Sunrise:
— At times like this, we could all use a bit of a distraction. How about the SpaceX crew returning to earth off the coast of Pensacola?
— And if that’s not distracting enough, what about that tropical system brushing the Atlantic Coast? COVID-19 complication meant not many evacuations.
— But in the end, all roads lead back to #coronavirus. State prisons were hard-hit during the pandemic and now — after visiting a prison in Lake City — the secretary of the Department of Corrections has tested positive for the virus.
— We look at the Blue Gala hosted by Miami-Dade Democrats, as they prepare for the August primary and the November election.
— Since Miami-Dade is also the epicenter of the virus in Florida, the Democrat’s gala was virtual. That includes the appearance of Biden.
— Checking-in with a Florida Man who crashed his golf cart. He blamed Trump.
“The buildup to the NBA’s return was a slow burn, but games in the bubble have started with a bang” via Ben Golliver of The Washington Post — The NBA took great pains to ease into its return to play after a monthslong pause amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, instituting a phased program that began more than a month before the regular season was set to resume July 30. Week by week, players were cleared to return to practice facilities and go through individual workouts before they traveled to Disney World, entered the league’s bubble, began team workouts and finally played dress rehearsal scrimmages against opposing teams. While those deliberate steps were primarily designed to help the NBA establish its coronavirus protocols, they also provided an extended ramp-up for players who had been away from the court since March. For all the justified anxiety about the living conditions at Disney World, the sport’s biggest names wasted no time making the most of their new situation and brushing off concerns about the quality of play after the long layoff.
The Lakers’ LeBron James faced the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard during the opening night of the NBA’s bubble. Image via AP.
“Cutting-edge technology could help Miami Dolphins beat COVID-19 — and their opponents” via Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald — The Miami Dolphins’ No. 1 advantage over their competition in 2020 might not be their star rookie quarterback or their new-look coaching staff. Rather, it might be the air they breathe. The Dolphins recently became the first franchise in football to install a series of new air purification devices throughout their team headquarters designed to wipe out the coronavirus before it lands on a surface or ends up in their players’ lungs. And they are using one of the safest, and most natural, disinfectants on the planet: ultraviolet rays. Over the coming weeks and months, a company called Healthe Lighting, which includes Dolphins owner Stephen Ross among its investors, will retrofit the team’s facility with a series of UV-C lights and filters that the business says can eliminate virtually all of the coronavirus in the environment.
“Jaguars place QB Gardner Minshew on reserve/COVID-19 list” via John Reid of The Florida Times-Union — Jaguars starting Minshew was placed on the team’s reserve/COVID-19 list Sunday, becoming the 12th player on the team to make the list since the rookies reported July 21. Earlier Sunday, the Jaguars announced starting left tackle Jawaan Taylor, third-round defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton and reserve tight end Charles Jones had been removed from the list. However, Jones returned to the COVID-19 list by Sunday afternoon and was joined by running back Ryquell Armstead, WR Michael Walker, and safety Andrew Wingard and Minshew. Before Sunday’s new additions, the Jaguars had only three remaining on the list — cornerback Parry Nickerson, offensive lineman Ryan Pope, undrafted rookie Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms. Rookie cornerbacks Josiah Scott and Luq Barcoo were activated from the list last week and both are now on the active roster.
“‘Last shot:’ Florida is trying to save the Apalachicola oyster fishery by shutting it down” via Zachary T. Sampson of the Tampa Bay Times — The tourism video opens with a scene of boats, birds and blue water, lit by a postcard dawn. “If you’re looking to do the real Florida, look no further,” a deep-voiced narrator says. “We’re in Apalachicola Bay, where the birds are four-feet tall, the water’s six-feet deep, and the world-famous oysters are just laying on the bottom, ripe for the picking.” VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s marketing corporation, uploaded the clip to YouTube eight years ago. Since then, 130,000 people have watched a veteran fishing guide pluck piles of oysters from the bay, raking the floor with a long set of wooden and metal tongs.
Happy birthday
Belated birthday wishes to two great Floridians, former House Speaker Dean Cannon and Democrat strategist and media guy Kevin Cate. Celebrating today are Jay Caruso and Nancy Smith.
“A group of conservatives are turning on their own side in a bid to see Donald Trump defeated in November… While political advertisements usually try to win the hearts and minds of voters, the Lincoln Project says it has a target audience of just one man: Donald Trump. They want Mr Trump to lose the election — and believe the best way to do that is by trolling him online and on TV through political advertising.” ABC AU
From the Left
The left is divided over the antics and efficacy of the Lincoln Project.
“The Lincoln Project’s ads—personally abusive, overwrought, pointlessly salacious, and trip-wired with non sequiturs—are familiar: They are undertaken with all the relish the president shows when he jokes about the mental hiccups of ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden, just as four years ago, he happily implied that Hillary Clinton suffered from some nameless disease…
“Try to imagine the ‘disaffected conservatives’ or ‘Republican-leaning independents’ whom the Lincoln Project says it hopes to win over. They straddle their fences, scroll through their timelines, leaning first this way then that … Biden, Trump … Trump, Biden … until at last they come upon a Project Lincoln ad and they discover—can it be?—that the president’s genitalia aren’t functioning nearly as well as the world thought! ‘By God,’ they might cry. ‘This is the last straw! We need Joe Biden to restore the soul of America!’ But probably not… This is an old story: We become what we behold. The project partakes of the spirit of a famous Republican president, all right. But he’s not Lincoln.” Andrew Ferguson, The Atlantic
“To a large extent, the Lincoln Project’s raison d’être is simply to annoy Trump and his closest allies… Political scientists have long been skeptical of advertisements’ ability to persuade voters of anything. And in 2016, Hillary Clinton ran many high-quality ads aimed at getting Trump-skeptical Republicans to vote for her, to apparently little effect. Like those 2016 ads, the Lincoln Project’s spots seem designed to go viral, not necessarily to persuade… Despite the widespread belief that dunking on Trump is a successful political strategy, there’s little evidence that doing so accomplishes much, no matter how many retweets follow… What, then, is the Lincoln Project up to?” Alex Shephard, New Republic
“If they did want any influence within the Democratic Party, they’re not doing any of the things that would get them there. So what are they up to? What they say motivates them is both fear of a second term for Donald Trump and, especially for some of the campaign professionals involved, a sense of responsibility for what the Republican Party has become. It’s possible that there’s really nothing more to it than that… this might be the end of the line — they may be burning bridges with one party without building any connection to the other…
“My sense is that the group would be happiest with some sort of reformed Republican Party, but that they don’t quite know how to get there from here. The obvious problem is that the more elections Republicans lose, the more the remnant in office will tend to be from the safest districts, which usually produce the most extreme politicians… ultimately the Lincoln Project will be a curiosity — a marker of the deep dysfunction of the Republican Party, but not a group able to do much about it or to find a home elsewhere.” Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg
“Trump’s concern about the Lincoln Project has only helped to fill its coffers… The group raked in more than $20m by the end of June, far ahead of its target of raising $30m by the end of the election cycle. Most of those funds came after Trump’s attacks in May, with small donors making up the bulk of its supporters: the average donation is around $50. Now the group has enough funds to go after Trump’s supporters in tight Senate races.” Richard Wolffe, The Guardian
“If you believe (as I certainly do) that defeating President Trump is the prerequisite for anything good happening again in American politics, you should welcome everyone willing to help get the job done. And in light of Trump’s threats to challenge the results if he loses, the health of our democracy may depend on Biden’s winning by a landslide that would leave not a smidgen of doubt about what the voters were saying. This is an all-hands-on-deck proposition.” E.J. Dionne Jr, Washington Post
From the Right
The right is critical of the Lincoln Project.
“[The Lincoln Project has] chosen to target the entire Republican Party and its Senate majority in particular… Ironically, the most vulnerable Republican incumbents, including Susan Collins, Tillis, and Cory Gardner, represent swing states and exemplify the moderate Republicans Never Trumpers claim to represent. The most ardent Trump supporters, such as Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, are not at risk of losing their seats. Working to defeat centrist senators will only solidify Trump followers’ control over the party after he is gone…
“Never Trumpers claim to support many of Trump’s policies and to oppose many the Democrats propose, such as the Green New Deal, public option, abortion on demand, and tax increases. Yet, if they oppose the reelection of Republicans and support the elevation of Schumer and Pelosi, they should admit they are Democrats.” Bobby Jindal, Washington Examiner
“The Lincoln Project’s leaders clearly align with Democratic values on questions such as trade, immigration and the Internet, and are willing to, at best, overlook Democratic values on matters such as taxes, climate change and religious liberty. Democratic principles in Republican clothing…
“The Lincoln Project has no future if its objective is to remake the post-Trump Republican Party in its image. Republican voters didn’t want what they were selling before Trump, and they certainly won’t want it afterward. Worldwide, center-right voters are seeking populist-tinged conservatism, and so the initiative’s only effective purpose will be to elect Democrats this fall and in the future. There’s a name for people who want to do that: Democrats.” Henry Olsen, Washington Post
“One of the least persuasive arguments against Trump’s GOP from the left and chunks of the anti-Trump right is when they point out often senator-so-and-so votes X percent of the time for the ‘Trump agenda.’ The vast majority of these votes are for things that Republican senators would have voted for under a president Rubio or Cruz. In other words, that stuff isn’t ‘Trumpism.’ I mean, should Republicans not have voted for Neil Gorsuch, just to send a message to Trump? Their voters wanted them to vote for Gorsuch… I just don’t buy the argument that elected Republicans shouldn’t vote like traditional conservative Republicans.” Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch
“The Never Republicans refuse to account for the practical calculations of practical politicians hoping, in difficult circumstances, to achieve practical results. Was Mitch McConnell supposed to say after Trump’s election, ‘I can’t work with him,’ and, to borrow a phrase, burn down any chance of achieving anything constructive during a rare instance of unified Republican control of Washington?…
“What the Never Republicans are hoping for is not just a repudiation of Trump, but a major shift of the Overton Window of American politics to the left. They want the least resistance to the most progressive president of our lifetimes to give him the greatest possible running room on abortion, conscience rights, health care, judges, climate, immigration, transgender policy, policing, gun rights, campaign finance, taxes, spending and, surely, things we can’t even think of yet. This is a high cost to pay, not just for the Republican Party, but for the country—at least that’s what you think if you are a conservative who believes progressives are deeply wrong on all these questions.” Rich Lowry, Politico
“The media can keep calling you ‘Republicans,’ but if you support Democrats, take Democratic Party positions, make voting for Democrats all the way down the ticket a binary choice and moral imperative, and then take most of your money from big Democratic Party donors, you’re a Democrat. That’s fine. You should embrace it… the biggest funders of the Lincoln Project aren’t distraught Republicans but long-time Democratic Party operatives… Call me cynical, but I’m suspicious that these donors, or those who take their money, have the best interests of the conservative movement or Republican Party at heart.” David Harsanyi, National Review
Back-to-school is the second-biggest shopping season, after the holidays. At a time when stores are already struggling, traditional sprees are expected to be smaller with students learning at home, Axios’ Courtenay Brown reports.
Laptops are closing the gap for some merchants: The National Retail Federation forecasts a record-breaking back-to-school season because of more being spent on electronics for at-home learning.
But Michael Pachter, an analyst at investment firm Wedbush Securities, told MarketWatch that any uptick in demand for electronics will “be offset by those households with one or more parents laid off or unemployed because of the pandemic.”
Jie Zhang, a retail management fellow at the University of Maryland’s School of Business, said in a research note that Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Apple are positioned to benefit from the online learning shift.
Traditional clothing stores will struggle.
Carter’s, the kid apparel company, cut its back-to-school inventory.
The bottom line: The retail apocalypse is being accelerated by new realities caused by the pandemic, like virtual schooling. The result could be more dominance by the already biggest players that can quickly pivot.
Macy’s, which is struggling like other department stores, is using a new slogan: “No matter how we school, let’s be ready.”
🛍️ More retail woes … Lord & Taylor, the oldest U.S. department store, known for its upscale fashions and extravagant holiday window displays, sought bankruptcy protection in Richmond yesterday, Bloomberg reported.
The company was founded in Manhattan by two English immigrants in 1826.
2. 36 of top 50 cities see double-digit rise in homicides
Shell casing markers litter the ground as police investigate a shooting in Chicago on July 21. At least 14 people were taken to hospitals. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
“A Wall Street Journal analysis of crime statistics among the nation’s 50 largest cities found that reported homicides were up 24% so far this year, to 3,612,” senior writer Jon Hilsenrath reports (subscription).
“Chicago, the worst-hit, has tallied more than one of every eight homicides.”
Why it’s happening, per The Journal: “Institutions that keep city communities safe have been destabilized by lockdown and protests against police. Lockdowns and recession also mean tensions are running high and streets have been emptied of eyes and ears. … Some attribute the rise to an increase in gang violence.”
The context: “The murder rate is still low compared with previous decades, and other types of serious crime [including robbery] have dropped in the past few months.”
3. Scoop: Top CEOs have loud message for Congress
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
With a new coronavirus relief measure stalled in Congress, CEOs of some of the world’s biggest companies have banded together to send a message to Washington: Get money to small businesses now!
“By Labor Day, we foresee a wave of permanent closures if the right steps are not taken soon,” warns the letter, organized by Howard Schultz and signed by more than 100 CEOs, including the heads of Salesforce, Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft, Walmart, McDonald’s, Disney, Quibi, IBM, Merck, Marriott, the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and more.
Axios Marketseditor Dion Rabouin writes that the letter to the top four congressional leaders lays out a recipe for a sizable small-business aid package.
The project, Schultz’s first big public push since he suspended his run for president, calls for “federally guaranteed loans, at favorable terms, that will enable small businesses to transform and sustain themselves.”
“Businesses should have flexibility in how loan funds are used.”
“The hardest-hit businesses should be eligible for at least partial loan forgiveness.”
“Relief needs to be delivered expeditiously. Building on the existing PPP infrastructure would be one way to quickly stand up a new loan program.”
“These funds must flow to all small businesses in need, particularly those run by people of color, who have traditionally had less access to capital.”
Between the lines: Neither the House’s HEROES Act nor the latest version of Senate Republicans’ HEALS Act include significant funding for small businesses besides the PPP extension.
The last word: “Tens of millions of Americans have already lost their jobs in this pandemic. … By year end, the domino effect of lost jobs — as well as the lost services and lost products that small businesses provide — could be catastrophic.”
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after a historic flight to and from the International Space Station, powered by SpaceX, Axios’ Miriam Kramer writes.
Why it matters: The landing, the first splashdown by U.S. astronauts in 45 years, begins a new NASA phase tied to partnerships with private companies.
A SpaceX mission controller told the Crew Dragon: “Welcome back to Planet Earth, and thanks for flying SpaceX.”
Photo: NASA TV via AP
5. TikTok gets reprieve
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
President Trump gave Microsoft 45 days to negotiate an acquisition of TikTok, following a Sunday conversation with CEO Satya Nadella, Reuters scoops.
Why it matters: In the short run, 100 million U.S. users won’t lose access to the service. Trump had said Friday night that he planned to ban the Beijing-based app.
Microsoft said in a statement disclosing the call with Trump:
Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.
6. What Biden means for tech
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
A Joe Biden presidency would put the tech industry on stabler ground than it’s had with President Trump, writes Axios tech editor Kyle Daly.
Although Biden is unlikely to rein in those Democrats who are itching to regulate the big platforms, he’ll almost certainly first have other, bigger priorities.
What to expect …
Any early tech policy initiatives will be wrapped up in crisis response, like closing the “digital divide” for those without high-speed internet.
Don’t expect an aggressive tech policy agenda during the campaign, as it could distract from the referendum on Trump.
Once in office, Biden would take cues from the party — which could mean getting more aggressive against the industry.
The Trump administration recently touted its approval of America’s first West Coast terminal to export liquefied natural gas, but political and business hurdles mean it probably won’t be built, Axios’ Amy Harder writes in her “Harder Line” column.
Why it matters: The southern Oregon project’s problems embody the struggles facing a once-promising sector that’s now straining under the weight of the pandemic and more.
From Brian Stelter’s weekly “Reliable Sources” show on CNN, this fascinating window into cable-news viewing patterns, keyed to the 11 a.m. funeral for Rep. John Lewis:
Screenshot via CNN
9. The most-watched man in summer TV
David Muir. Photo: ABC News
A quirk of the shutdown era, going back to March, has been the resurgence of evening news shows.
With no Olympics, and “60 Minutes” and other shows in summer reruns, ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” — for weeks — has been the most watched show on all of television.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” also has at times averaged more viewers than any program in prime time TV, AP reported from Nielsen data.
This isn’t a chart of news shows — this is a chart of all TV:
Graphic: Van Scott/ABC News. Source: Nielsen total viewers, July 2 to July 29 (Total Day and Live + Same Day data stream)
10. 1 smile to go: Jeans = out. Stretchy = in
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Amid the homebound lifestyle of the pandemic, “jeans have been usurped by more comfortable — and stretchier — options,” writes WashPost’s Abha Bhattarai.
“Denimsales have fallen by double digits in the past three months,” and things are even worse for “super premium” jeans — which can cost more than $200 — and saw sales drop more than 40%.
One big reason: “[W]ith many stores and fitting rooms still closed, it’s easier to buy a pair of sweatpants online.”
Mike Allen
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The administration is holding talks on what it can do to try to address some of the economic fallout from the pandemic if no relief deal is reached with Congress, according to two people aware of the deliberations.
The Bay Area’s progressive residents generally have been inclined to follow the rules. But more than four months after the region put some of the nation’s first shelter-in-place orders in effect, it has become a cautionary tale for government and health officials.
The confident depiction by politicians and companies that a vaccine is imminent may give people unrealistic beliefs about how soon the world can return to normal — and may spark resistance to simple strategies to tamp down transmission.
The presumptive Democratic nominee has extended his search by as much as two weeks. Even some longtime allies are concerned that the process is pitting women, especially Black women, against one another.
The Grady County, Ga., election has become a referendum not just on another four-year term for Harry Young but on all he’s come to represent in a county where the face of law enforcement had always been White and male.
Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who spent two months on the International Space Station, completed the first crewed launch from U.S. soil since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011.
By Jacob Bogage and Christian Davenport ● Read more »
President Trump’s image of political invincibility, critical to his influence with congressional Republicans and grassroots conservatives, is under assault amid a sweltering summer of gloomy public opinion polls.
Several executives of Big Tech companies testified before Congress last week at a critical point for future regulation of the industry. Though the hearing was ostensibly about antitrust, in practice, it was a forum for members of Congress to air their grievances about the influence that technology companies have, especially over public discourse.
Congressional negotiators expect the lapsed $600 a week federal unemployment benefits to be retroactively paid from July 31 onward after lawmakers find agreement on extending them.
Crime statistics for the month of July painted a grim picture of Chicago as the city’s murder rate more than doubled, with many of the victims being children.
A black man who said he was on his way to work was recorded getting out of his car and shouting at a group of Black Lives Matter protesters who were blocking a highway near Austin, Texas.
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Some suburban and rural leaders got their wish when their counties were separated from Chicago’s for purposes of monitoring the coronavirus. But now officials warn that many collar counties are seeing higher rates of positive tests than the city, which could prompt tighter restrictions.
In a region where nursing homes once accounted for the majority of cases, health officials say now large gatherings of young people without proper precautions are sparking outbreaks. Positivity rates have been rising in the counties surrounding Chicago, prompting Gov. J.B. Pritzker to ask local officials to start tightening the leash on COVID-19 restrictions.
If all goes according to the current proposal, most Chicago Public Schools students will return to classrooms for in-person learning two days a week in September. But even before CPS makes a final decision about whether to reopen schools, parents have learned that they must indicate by Aug. 7 whether their children will participate in the proposed hybrid approach or stick with all remote learning. Here are some frequently asked questions about the current hybrid proposal.
Online education was a mess in the spring. As COVID-19 prompts schools to stay virtual, will it get better this fall?
Janari Ricks, 9, shined in school and was going to be in fourth grade this fall. He loved sports, and his beaming face was a regular sight in the Cabrini Green neighborhood, where he lived, family and friends said.
On Friday evening, Janari was playing with friends behind the Cabrini Green townhomes in the 900 block of North Cambridge Avenue when a gunman opened fire into a parking lot around 6:45 p.m., striking and killing the boy, an unintended target, Chicago police said. Police officials said they did not know who the target was.
Nearly 60 different types of fish are swimming in the Chicago and Calumet rivers these days, up from fewer than 10 during the early 1980s, according to a new study of sampling conducted by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. More robust and diverse populations of fish are examples of how a long fight to clean up the rivers is paying off after decades when regional leaders turned them into industrialized sewage canals.
Many parents have felt the stress of balancing being a parent, a de facto teacher and a child’s sole entertainer during months stuck at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, but there is a silver lining. Some moms say the quarantine has helped them grow closer to their daughters. Of the more than 500 moms in the United States in one recent survey, 59% said they felt the relationship between mother and daughter was becoming more connected.
The stay-at-home shutdown triggered by the coronavirus turned the streets of downtown Chicago into a virtual ghost town. But private investors who leased Chicago’s parking meters had plenty of cushion to absorb the blow.
Chicago’s parking meter system raked in another $138.7 million in 2019, allowing private investors to recoup their entire $1.16 billion investment and then some with more than 60 years to go on the 75-year lease. Fran Spielman has the story…
Said Duckworth, “I’m just going to keep doing my job … and I’ll let the process move along on its own schedule, whatever schedule (Biden’s campaign) may have.”
Chicago’s parking meters raked in $138.7 million in 2019. All told, private investors have earned $1.6 billion. That’s nearly $500 million more than their initial, $1.16 billion investment — with 64 years worth of parking meter revenues to go.
“Caleb was a son, a brother, a community organizer, and a neighbor. His light and potential have been extinguished at the hands of gun violence, like so many others in Chicago,” Ald. Andre Vasquez said.
The Chicago Fire Department on Sunday said it’s launched an investigation into a recent online post that alleged two men from a firetruck removed a Black Lives Matter banner in Kenwood near Lake Shore Drive.
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. It is Monday (and hello August)! 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 Monday morning: 154,860.
The average weekly death count is rising in nearly half the states (The Washington Post).
A final countdown has begun for former Vice President Joe Biden as he nears the selection of a running mate and remains in pole position to unseat President Trump in exactly three months.
Biden told reporters last week that he plans to make his vice presidential selection this week, but sources say the announcement is expected next week as candidates continue to jockey for the spot. On Sunday, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) made the television rounds to describe why the vice presidency interests her and what she would bring to the role.
The Washington Post: Biden campaign is signaling that a VP announcement will likely wait until the second week of August.
Appearing on a pair of Sunday morning programs, Bass, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, sought to explain her 2016 comment referring to Fidel Castro as “Comandante en Jefe” following his death. It’s a potential problem in Florida, which is home to many Cuban immigrants. Bass acknowledged to “Meet the Press” that people in the key swing state viewed her description as “endearing” to the former Cuban dictator.
“I didn’t see it that way. I was expressing condolences to the Cuban people, to the people in Cuba, not Cubans around the world,” she told moderator Chuck Todd. “I don’t think that’s a toxic expression in California, but let me just say, Chuck, lesson learned. Wouldn’t do that again” (The Hill).
Adding to the intrigue, Bass also became a target of Trump World on Sunday as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez (R) heavily criticized the remarks in a call organized by the reelection campaign. Rubio said that Bass would be “the highest-ranking Castro sympathizer in the history of the United States government” (The Hill).
Nevertheless, Bass has a lot of admirers, and many have lobbied the Biden camp to turn her way. According to one House Democrat, members from across the political spectrum within the House Democratic caucus have vouched for her to Team Biden.
“She’s very progressive but doesn’t come off as scary,” the lawmaker told the Morning Report.
As The Hill’s Amie Parnes points out, Bass is battling a number of top Democrats for the spot, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Susan Rice.
The Hill: VP contender Bass explains her 2010 remarks praising Scientology.
The New York Times: Elizabeth Warren’s journey on race is a preview of her party’s.
The Hill: Biden up 4 points in North Carolina, 1 point in Georgia: poll.
On the other side of the aisle, the president’s team stepped back from remarks last week questioning whether the November election should be delayed due to the large number of mail-in ballots, which he argues will be rife with voter fraud. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the contest will indeed take place on Nov. 3, but argued that the infrastructure is not prepared to handle the number of mail-in ballots that will be cast this fall.
“[The president] has not looked at delaying any election. What we will do is if we try to transform this and start mailing in ballots all across the country, all 50 states, what we will see is a delay because they’re just not equipped to handle it,” Meadows said. “We’re going to hold an election on Nov. 3rd and the president is going to win” (The Hill).
As The Hill’s Jonathan Easley writes, Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting are a burgeoning concern among conservatives, who argue that his repeated comments could suppress the GOP vote, allowing Democrats to take advantage of expanded voting opportunities.
The Hill: Trump struggles to stay on script, frustrating GOP again.
Unions and airlines agree: a clean extension of the CARES Act will position the airline industry to support economic recovery. Learn why.
LEADING THE DAY
CONGRESS: Negotiators are no closer to reaching a resolution on a new coronavirus relief package as the two sides lobbed barbs at each other on Sunday and are set to resume talks this week.
Trump administration officials were pessimistic on Sunday about the chances of striking an accord in the near future, with Meadows (pictured below) noting that the gulf between the two sides remains expansive on myriad issues (The Hill).
“There are more unresolved issues than resolved issues. There are more than a dozen initiatives that remain miles apart,” Meadows told the Morning Report late Sunday.
The Washington Post: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Mnuchin, Meadows point to disagreements as deal on unemployment benefits, coronavirus relief remains elusive.
The Hill: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on $600 unemployment benefit: We can’t be “paying people more to stay home.”
The Washington Post: Trump administration examining options for unilateral action if no coronavirus deal is reached with Congress.
As The Hill’s Jordain Carney writes, lawmakers across the Capitol complex are frustrated as the bill’s negotiators blow past deadlines with little to show for their efforts.
After two weeks back in Washington — with one week spent crafting the GOP plan and the other on fruitless bipartisan talks — lawmakers wonder whether an accord may elude Congress as the pandemic and economic downturn continue and the November elections approach.
“I’m telling people the truth — that this entire thing has been a very impressively large cluster,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “As bad as … it is from the outside, they ought to see it from the inside … just the mess that this is.”
The Hill: Stimulus impasse threatens both economy and Trump.
The Wall Street Journal: Democratic, administration negotiators at loggerheads over $600 jobless benefit.
While the $600 weekly unemployment payments garnered the most attention as the provision neared expiration, Republicans and Democrats also have key differences on proposals for a second round of direct checks to some Americans that is expected to become part of any deal.
As The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda writes, lawmakers in both parties have released proposals for a second round of payments that have a number of similarities, but two key issues remain unresolved: The amount of the payments for children and other dependents, and whether taxpayers need to have Social Security numbers to get the payments.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
CORONAVIRUS: As August begins, news about COVID-19 in the United States is a sobering stew of the terrible — rising deaths, out-of-control spread and talk of a “new phase” of contagion as well as complicated questions about safety in schools and continued economic carnage. The bleak headlines are only somewhat leavened by the outlook for vaccines and the work of determined clinicians who are using more tools to stave off the worst fate for some patients infected by the coronavirus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projected in an internal document that by Aug. 22, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 could top 180,000, Yahoo News reported on Friday. With more than 60,000 new cases a day, the virus has shown no signs of disappearing, and while the rate of increase is slowing, deaths, which lag behind infections, are climbing.
In March, White House public health experts pointed to disease models that projected U.S. deaths could reach 240,000 from COVID-19 (The Hill).
Florida alone on Sunday surpassed the record among states for the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in a single week, or 1,230 over seven days (The Hill).
The Washington Post: Experts push for new tack on virus. “We just have to assume the monster is everywhere.”
The optimism about an eventual vaccine (forecasts suggest one or more may be in wide circulation by mid-2021) is now accompanied by ample doses of caution in the public health community. Some medical experts worry that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could face unprecedented political pressure to approve a COVID-19 vaccine before it is ready (The Hill and The New York Times).
“You saw the issue of politicization around hydroxychloroquine and the pressure that was put on FDA then. There’s a legitimate concern that does not happen again,” said Jesse Goodman, a Georgetown University professor who was previously FDA’s chief scientific officer.
Trump’s persistent cheerleading for hydroxychloroquine, deemed by respected researchers to be ineffective as a treatment for COVID-19 in five randomized, peer-reviewed, double-blind scientific studies and discarded by the FDA as a treatment for the coronavirus, remains a public communications headache for federal scientific advisers. And it is political quicksand for the president, who gets low marks from Americans for his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Brett Giroir, assistant secretary at the Health and Human Services Department, said on Sunday that “it is time to move on” from conversations about hydroxychloroquine because the drug is not effective against the coronavirus. Giroir, a pediatrician and specialist in federal testing efforts during the pandemic, responded during an interview on “Meet the Press” about Trump’s habit of circulating false or misleading medical and scientific information.
The Washington Post: What the government must do to successfully administer a COVID-19 vaccine, by Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Topher Spiro.
> Teetering: Voices of the pandemic: An Arizona superintendent of schools, Jeff Gregorich, is struggling with a decision about whether schools in his district can reopen safely during a pandemic (The Washington Post). … Daniel Vought, 30, a former bar worker; Lakeisha Rollins, 30, a single mother with a baby due this month who had worked in a grocery store; and Thomas Kennerly, 48, a former police officer, were each separately cast adrift in Washington, D.C., by COVID-19’s economic devastation. All need help from the D.C. and federal governments. All are ensnared in Washington’s dysfunctional, overwhelmed social services system and caught in limbo because of an impasse among lawmakers in Congress (The Washington Post).
> Name-calling, mistrust: Pelosi denigrated White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx, describing her during a private negotiating session last week with Mnuchin and Meadows as “the worst” and calling Anthony Fauci, another federal adviser on infectious diseases, a “hero” (Politico). Pelosi said on Sunday that she believes Trump disseminates inaccurate information, abetted at times by Birx (Reuters).
“I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus, and she is his appointee so, I don’t have confidence there, no,” she told ABC’s “This Week.”
Two of the president’s White House communicators came to Birx’s defense on Twitter on Sunday, saying Pelosi was “deeply irresponsible” for wielding “baseless political attacks” that are “disgusting and shameful.”
Birx, appearing on CNN on Sunday, said COVID-19 outbreaks are not under control in the United States because “people are on the move.” Birx has traveled to 14 states to assess conditions on the ground. “All of our discussions about social distancing and decreasing gatherings to under 10 [people] — as I traveled around the country, I saw all of America moving,” she added (The Hill).
Birx said people who vacationed in “hot spots” should assume they are infected. “What we’re seeing today is different from March and April,” she said. “It is extraordinarily widespread. …And to everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus.”
Pelosi, who is negotiating with Republicans to support more federal money for schools with no strings attached about in-person or online instruction, said on Sunday that slowing outbreaks of COVID-19 in many states will be necessary before schools can safely restart (The Hill).
“When you … reduce the spread, you can open up the schools, when you reduce the rate of infection in a community,” the Speaker said. “But until you do that, you have to be very careful.”
Baseball is playing for its life, and ours, by Doug Glanville, opinion contributor, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3k3YKdw
A COVID-19 outbreak among children at a Georgia summer camp is a warning, by The Washington Post editorial board. https://wapo.st/3gAcxXf
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The CARES Act: Good for workers, good for America
Unions and airlines agree: a clean extension of the CARES Act will position the airline industry to support economic recovery. Learn why.
WHERE AND WHEN
The House reconvenes on Tuesday at 11 a.m.
The Senate will meet at 3 p.m. and resume consideration of the nomination of Mark Menezes to be Energy Department deputy secretary.
The president at 11:30 a.m. will meet with U.S. tech company employees in the Cabinet Room and will sign an executive order dealing with hiring U.S. workers. He will have lunch with Vice President Pence.
Pence will have lunch at the White House with the president at 12:30 p.m.
HBO’s “The Swamp,” a documentary about Washington insiders, partisan politics and Congress, airs Tuesday from 9 to 11 p.m. ET (trailer HERE). Directed by filmmakers Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme, “The Swamp” probes national politics in the now alien-looking pre-pandemic Capitol Hill period during Trump’s impeachment last year. The film features GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ken Buck of Colorado as well as Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna of California and John Sarbanes of Maryland.
➔ Supreme Court: Senate Republicans are divided over whether to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise anytime soon. While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has pledged to fill any vacancy rapidly, some GOP senators think such a move would be a starkly partisan flip-flop because Republicans refused to fill the election-year vacancy created after Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016. Senate Republicans held the seat open for a year, and McConnell refused to schedule a hearing for Judge Merrick Garland, former President Obama’s nominee for the seat. The decision to wait out Obama’s term allowed Trump to seat two conservative justices on the Supreme Court in quick succession. At the time, McConnell cited the 1992 “Biden rule,” an interpretation of Biden’s statement following the Clarence Thomas hearings that it would be advisable to delay SCOTUS confirmation hearings until after that year’s presidential election. “The Senate will continue to observe the ‘Biden rule’ so that the American people have a voice in this momentous decision,” McConnell said four years ago (The Hill).
➔ Death penalty: Trump on Sunday tweeted his opposition to a ruling by a federal appeals court to throw out the death sentence in the conviction of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. A three-judge panel on Friday ordered a new penalty-phase trial for the 27-year-old inmate. U.S. prosecutors said they are weighing options, which include asking the full appeals court to hear the case or take it to the U.S. Supreme Court (The Associated Press). “The Federal Government must again seek the Death Penalty in a do-over of that chapter of the original trial. Our Country cannot let the appellate decision stand. Also, it is ridiculous that this process is taking so long!” wrote Trump, who is running for reelection as a defender of law enforcement and capital punishment.
➔ Immigration: Conservative law professor John Yoo met with Trump at the White House on Thursday following publication in June of a National Review article he wrote asserting that a recent Supreme Court ruling that blocked Trump’s plans to end the Obama administration’s protection of “Dreamers” under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program could help the president institute future policies without needing congressional approval. Yoo, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has long espoused an expansive view of presidential power, which he defended after 9/11 in controversial legal memos seeking to protect officials from prosecution for war crimes for waterboarding terror suspects at a time when he worked for former President George W. Bush (The Hill).
➔ International: Officials have declared a state of disaster in Victoria, Australia, amid rising coronavirus cases and deaths in the region. The declaration went into effect on Sunday, with the region reporting more than 11,000 confirmed cases of the virus. Under the new restrictions, Melbourne residents will be able to shop for essential items within approximately 3 miles of their homes during daytime hours before an 8 p.m. curfew begins (The Hill). … Without completing human clinical trials, Russia says it will begin mass vaccination in October against COVID-19. First to receive the experimental medication: health care workers and teachers. The rush to be first in a global race to inoculate is part of Russia’s national pride (The New York Times).
➔ Sports: Another Major League Baseball team (St. Louis Cardinals) is having a COVID-19 outbreak, but the league is moving forward with its season on the fly and calling on players to batten down the hatches to limit the number of cases (The New York Times). … Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson announced late Sunday that he has tested positive for the virus as the number of players who have opted out continues to grow by the day (ESPN). … Finally, it was a rousing opening weekend for both the NBA and the NHL as the two leagues made their respective grand returns to play with expansive slates of games (The Associated Press).
And finally … 🚀 NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who made history by launching into space from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade, splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast on Sunday ahead of Tropical Storm Isaias. It was NASA’s first landing in the Gulf in the 59-year history of crewed American space travel.
Behnken and Hurley, whose flight was the first to take place in a commercially built SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, began their return to Earth from the International Space Station on Saturday evening (NBC News).
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Kansas Republicans will decide whether to pick a Senate candidate the national party would rather they didn’t, while several House incumbents, including one recently charged with voter fraud and another who is part of the “squad,” face challengers Tuesday as five states hold primaries. Read More…
Rep. Louie Gohmert’s positive coronavirus test this week raised questions about whether people in or around the Capitol should get regular testing — but it’s not as simple as it sounds. “The Capitol physician has not said yet that he thinks that we should be tested,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Friday. Read More…
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POLITICO PLAYBOOK
Will they ever get a deal?
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DRIVING THE DAY
IT’S NOT ONLY REPUBLICANS … A DEMOCRAT EXPRESSES DISCOMFORT WITH THE HILL COVID WORKPLACE (in this case, in a direct message box to @JakeSherman. We granted anonymity): “Hi I wanted to share this without my name or office. I work for a progressive Democrat in Congress and our chief of staff has also been upset with me and other staff/ putting pressure on staff to come to the office in person. I voiced I didn’t feel safe coming into the office since I’m immunocompromised and Republican members routinely didn’t wear masks in the halls, and was visiting my sick grandmother in the hospital.
“There was a day … that 4-5 staff were physically in the office even though it’s not permitted per the attending physician’s recommendations. She told me I just had to ‘wear a mask and come in’ (which also would have gone against a mandatory quarantine period since I was in another state at the time) and was disappointed I didn’t tell her earlier (I had multiple times). We literally had a staffer get Covid in March and she still didn’t seem to think our health was more important than staffing the Member. …
“Congressional staff have no workplace rights (unless a protected class) and have no way to unionize. The hypocrisy of working for a progressive [D]emocrat is that our office advocates for others to have equal pay and right[s] etc but doesn’t practice what we preach in our own office. Our chief of staff emotionally abuses staffers and we either have to suffer in a toxic work environment or risk losing our job if we speak up.”
— KEEP ON SENDING YOUR STORIES.
THE NYT ED BOARD CALLS FOR MEMBERS TO BE TESTED … “Congress, Test Thyself”: “Elected officials have a particular responsibility both to model responsible behavior during this pandemic and to take extra precautions so they don’t become super spreaders. Put another way, when a lawmaker behaves like a ‘ding dong,’ as one Republican aide said of Mr. Gohmert, he puts everyone at risk. …
“For one thing, [Rep. Louie] Gohmert’s experience has led to renewed calls by members and staff workers to implement a testing regimen on the Hill. That’s an important next step.
“Congress members are influential figures, and in this time of crisis they ought to be leading by example. By taking steps to protect themselves, their staff members and their constituents, lawmakers can send a signal about the seriousness of this situation to a confused and weary public.”
DRIVING TODAY: MARK MEADOWS and STEVEN MNUCHIN are expected to be on Capitol Hill for negotiating sessions on Covid relief. Staff held a policy call Sunday.
WE ARE MOVING INTO the phase where serious progress has to be made, or it may be time to reconsider who’s at the negotiating table. If a deal is reached today — it won’t be, but let’s assume it is for argument’s sake — we’re looking at votes late this week or early next week. Enhanced unemployment expired Friday.
— THE QUESTION DRIVING THE WEEK: How much longer will Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL stay on the sidelines?
THE TIKTOK TICK TOCK … “Microsoft Aims for a Deal to Buy TikTok’s U.S. Business,” by WSJ’s Georgia Wells, Mike Bender, Kate O’Keeffe and Cara Lombardo: “Microsoft Corp. said it will move forward with plans to buy the U.S. operations of the hit video-sharing app TikTok, capping weeks of covert dealmaking that were almost upended by an 11th-hour intervention from President Trump. The transaction could reshape the global tech landscape and further strain already tense U.S.-China relations.
“Following a phone call Sunday between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Mr. Trump, the company put out a blog post saying it would move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd. of Beijing and aims to complete the negotiations by Sept. 15. The statement, the software giant’s first confirmation it was interested in acquiring TikTok’s U.S. business, said the deal talks also entail the app’s service in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.” WSJ
A NEW PROBE … NYT: “Deutsche Bank Opens Review Into Personal Banker to Trump and Kushner,”by Jesse Drucker and David Enrich:“In June 2013, the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and two of her Deutsche Bank colleagues purchased a Park Avenue apartment for about $1.5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates, according to New York property records.
“Mr. Kushner … disclosed in an annual personal financial report late Friday that he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had received $1 million to $5 million last year from Bergel 715. A person familiar with Mr. Kushner’s finances, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said he held an ownership stake in the entity at the time of the transaction with Ms. Vrablic.
“When Ms. Vrablic and her colleagues bought the apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner were her clients at Deutsche Bank. They had received roughly $190 million in loans from the bank and would seek hundreds of millions of dollars more. Typically banks restrict employees from doing personal business with clients because of the potential for conflicts between the employees’ interests and those of the bank.”
CORONAVIRUS RAGES ON … More than 4.6 MILLION AMERICANS have tested positive for the disease. More than 154,860 AMERICANS have died.
— “U.S. lacks plan for getting vaccine to communities of color devastated by virus,” by Rachel Roubein and Sarah Owermohle: “The United States is mounting the largest vaccination effort in its history — without a plan on how to reach racial and ethnic groups that have not only been devastated by the virus but are often skeptical about government outreach in their communities.
“For decades, communities of color have been underrepresented in clinical trials, faced greater barriers to getting vaccinated and harbored deeper distrust of a health care system that’s often overlooked or even harmed them. But now, the large-scale effort to defeat the virus depends not just on developing a safe and effective vaccine, but ensuring it reaches all corners of America.
“‘We’ve got a situation where FDA standards have been relaxed in order to bring these new therapies into the marketplace quicker, and we all want them to be successful. But the groundwork has not been laid to persuade minority populations that they need to accept those vaccines,’ said Gary Puckrein, head of the National Minority Quality Forum, a nonprofit focused on reducing health care disparities.” POLITICO
—WAPO,by Rebecca Tan: “The pastor of a Catholic church on Capitol Hill who urged people not to ‘cower in fear’ of the novel coronavirus has contracted covid-19, the disease the virus causes, prompting D.C. health officials to tell about 250 staff and parishioners to self-quarantine for two weeks.”
—DETROIT FREE PRESS, by Paul Egan: “A Republican state senator who sponsored a bill to limit the emergency powers Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has used to address the pandemic has tested positive for COVID-19. State Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, issued a statement Sunday that said he does not have ‘any significant symptoms,’ and ‘will be self-isolating according to medical guidelines.’”
NEW … THE INDEPENDENT RESTAURANT COALITION is teaming up with Morgan Freeman and Andrew Zimmern’s Intuitive Content on a new ad pressing Congress to include the RESTAURANTS Act, which would provide support for independent restaurants and bars, in the next round of Covid relief. It will air on national cable and in select local markets throughout the week. “Without your help, our favorite places to eat will be gone — forever.” The 1-minute ad
TALKER … BEN SMITH’S MEDIA EQUATION COLUMN, on the NYT BizDay front: “How the Media Could Get the Election Story Wrong”: “I spoke last week to executives, TV hosts and election analysts across leading American newsrooms, and I was struck by the blithe confidence among some top managers and hosts, who generally said they’ve handled complicated elections before and can do so again. And I was alarmed by the near panic among some of the people paying the closest attention — the analysts and producers trying, and often failing, to get answers from state election officials about how and when they will count the ballots and report results.”
VEEPSTAKES … NATASHA KORECKI and CHRIS CADELAGO: “Biden VP short-listers jockey as search enters final round in secrecy”: “The competition to be named Joe Biden’s running mate has entered the final stretch with huge unknowns about how it will unfold — among even some of the candidates themselves.
“At least some of the contenders were in the dark on Sunday about their upcoming interviews with Biden: They were told to be prepared for in-person sit-downs while at the same time cautioned that could change due to health and logistical concerns surrounding Covid-19.
“For weeks, aides of contenders going through the vetting process said they had little visibility into the campaign’s thinking. They’ve scoured news reports for tidbits on the finalists and any window into where they are in the horse race.
“Amid the uncertainty, short-listers have adopted competing strategies, with several lesser-known candidates taking to TV news shows to raise their profiles while more prominent contenders such as Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren remain out of the spotlight.
“On Sunday, a Biden aide maintained that 11 women remain in the mix, despite most of the attention in recent weeks swirling around five women: Harris, Warren, Rep. Karen Bass, Sen. Tammy Duckworth and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice.” POLITICO
— WAPO’S ANNIE LINSKEY: “Biden’s delay in choosing a running mate intensifies jockeying between potential picks”: “Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has extended his vice-presidential search by as much as two weeks, intensifying the jockeying and lobbying between allies of the women who hope to join his White House. Even some longtime Biden allies worry the process has become ‘messier than it should be,’ pitting women, especially Black women, against one another.
“The dynamic threatens to undermine Biden’s effort to use the vice-presidential search to spotlight some of the party’s brightest female stars during the highly public vetting process. And it’s already providing President Trump’s campaign an opening to dig up dirt and launch attacks on potential rivals.
“‘It’s been relentless. It’s been unfortunate. But I must say it’s been predictable,’ said Donna Brazile, a former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee. ‘It’s extremely disappointing, because many of these attacks . . . are being made by Democratic men who should know better. … I would hope that in this selection process, we are mindful that Black women — and women of color — deserve respect,’ she added.”
AP: “‘If not now, when?’: Black women seize political spotlight,”by Claire Calofaro and Kat Stafford in Marietta, Ga.: “Black women have long been the heart of the Democratic Party — among the party’s most reliable and loyal voters — but for decades that allegiance didn’t translate to their own political rise. There have been zero Black female governors, just two senators, several dozen congresswomen.
“And the people representing them instead have not met their needs: Disparities in education and opportunity resulted in Black women making on average 64 cents for every dollar a white man makes. Long-standing health inequities have caused Black people to die disproportionately from COVID-19.
“And countless cases of police brutality have left many Black women terrified every time their children pulled out of the driveway, fearing that they might not make it home alive. Now Black women are mobilized and demanding an overdue return on their investment. Over the last several years and across America, Black women ran and won elections in historic numbers, from Congress to county school boards.”
— “PACs hit Trump for ‘police state,’ racism and Covid in ads targeting Black voters,” by Laura Barrón-López: “Two Democratic PACS are using footage of recent police violence against protesters, President Donald Trump’s past comments about Black voters, and images of mass coronavirus graves in new ads aimed at persuading Black voters.
“Priorities USA and Color of Change PAC are set to launch five new digital ads — three of them on Monday — in a roughly half-million-dollar buy. It’s part of a larger, $3.4 million persuasion effort focused on Black voters that the two groups are running through the election in Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.” POLITICO
“There, Bill Hagerty, most recently ambassador to Japan, has the full backing of President Trump and appeared to be cruising to a victory in the primary, which would make him the prohibitive favorite to win the general election given Tennessee’s conservative lean.”
TRUMP’S MONDAY — The president will meet with tech workers and sign an executive order on “Hiring American” at 11:30 a.m. in the Cabinet Room. He will have lunch with VP Mike Pence at 12:30 p.m. in the private dining room.
PALACE INTRIGUE … MELANIE ZANONA: “Republicans prep for leadership battle if Trump goes down”: “The maneuvering for power in a possible post-Trump world has already broken out among House Republicans — a worrisome preview for the GOP of potentially chaotic leadership fights this fall.
“The party’s long-simmering divides were largely papered over after Donald Trump won the White House in 2016. But members expect the truce among the GOP’s warring factions to crumble if Trump’s presidency ends, and the current leadership could face the fallout.
“How that will shake out for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise and GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney is not completely certain. But according to interviews with over a dozen Republican lawmakers and aides, there’s a growing sense that if Trump loses the White House — and the GOP fails to make meaningful gains in the House — the fight for the future of the party will play out in challenges across leadership.
“‘If Trump loses, there’s gonna be a mad scramble if we’re in the minority,’ said one Republican lawmaker, who was granted anonymity to speak more freely. ‘There’s people seeing this as an opportunity. … I think it’s gonna be a real fight.’” POLITICO
TATA REEMERGES AT PENTAGON — “Trump skirts Senate to install nominee under fire for Islamaphobic tweets in Pentagon post,” by Lara Seligman: “President Donald Trump has installed a nominee for a top Pentagon job in a senior Department of Defense post on a temporary basis after lawmakers abruptly canceled his confirmation hearing last week amid lingering questions about his fitness for the role.
“Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, a novelist, former state government official and Fox News regular, withdrew Sunday from consideration to be undersecretary of defense for policy, a position that requires Senate confirmation, the Pentagon said in a statement emailed to POLITICO Sunday.
“Instead, he has been designated as the official ‘performing the duties of’ the deputy undersecretary of defense policy. The position Tata will assume is one that James H. Anderson was confirmed for in June; Anderson has also been serving as acting undersecretary of defense policy and will remain in that post.” POLITICO
GRIM STATS — “Homicide Spike Hits Most Large U.S. Cities: Journal analysis shows double-digit increases in 36 of 50 biggest cities amid pandemic, though other types of violent crime fell,” by WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath
THE VACCINE RACE … NYT: “Scientists Worry About Political Influence Over Coronavirus Vaccine Project,”by Sharon LaFraniere, Katie Thomas, Noah Weiland, Peter Baker and Annie Karni: “Under constant pressure from a White House anxious for good news and a public desperate for a silver bullet to end the crisis, the government’s researchers are fearful of political intervention in the coming months and are struggling to ensure that the government maintains the right balance between speed and rigorous regulation, according to interviews with administration officials, federal scientists and outside experts. …
“The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who is helping to steer the re-election campaign from the White House, is a regular participant in meetings of a board formed to oversee the vaccine effort.
“While White House officials do not specifically mention the election during the board’s discussions, people familiar with the conversations say they ask regularly about October, a date that hangs over the effort. Trump campaign advisers privately call a pre-election vaccine ‘the holy grail.’”
MASS SENATE UPDATE — “New pro-Kennedy super PAC set to launch ad barrage,”by the Boston Globe’s Victoria McGrane: “The political action committee, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, has reserved close to $1.6 million worth of air time in media markets across the state, according to a Democratic media buyer.
“The pro-Kennedy super PAC, which goes by the name ‘New Leadership PAC,’ has reserved airtime starting Aug. 10 through Sept. 1, the last day of voting, with ad time scheduled across the Boston, Springfield, and Providence media markets, according to a Democratic media buyer and Ben Taber, an account manager with Advertising Analytics. Those three media markets cover much of the state. …
“The pro-Kennedy super PAC was organized by Mindy Myers, a former top aide to Senator Elizabeth Warren who went on to become the first woman to lead the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to a Democratic operative familiar with the PAC. Members of the Kennedy family are among those making calls to raise money for the effort, including Kennedy’s twin brother, Matthew Kennedy, according to the operative.”
TRANSITION — Jill Tiefenthaler is now CEO of the National Geographic Society, the first woman to hold the position in its 132-year history. She previously was president of Colorado College.
WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Kasey Lovett is joining from HUD and Emily Weeks from Labor. Both will be working on the broadcast media team
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Ansley Rhyne, senior health policy adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Curtis Rhyne, director of federal affairs at GlaxoSmithKline, welcomed Harrison Fox Rhyne on Saturday.
— Lucia Graves, a freelance writer, and Alex Seitz-Wald, a digital politics reporter at NBC, recently welcomed Phoebe Baller Seitz. She came in at 7 lbs, 6 oz, and takes her name from her grandmothers on both sides. Pic
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Bernadette Meehan, chief international officer at the Obama Foundation. How she’s celebrating: “I’ll continue a childhood tradition of celebrating with a Carvel ice cream cake, at home this year with my husband, Evan and daughter, Milly. Milly is 2 years old and a creature of habit, so we’ll take a walk with a plastic musical hedgehog she keeps on a leash, as has become our custom. We’ll be wearing masks to help protect us from Covid-19, and to protect/respect others.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is 47 … Joe McLean … Doug Burnett (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Jacob Weisberg, CEO of Pushkin Industries … Josh Cherwin is 43 … James Wegmann, comms director for Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) … Michael Frazier … Kaiser Health News’ Rachana Pradhan … Kelly Ganzberger, 43 Alumni for Biden co-chair (h/t Kris Purcell) … FT’s Emily Goldberg … Tom Qualtere … ABC’s Ben Siegel and John Parkinson … Scott Parkinson … WaPo’s Gene Park … Rick Murphy, partner at Forbes Tate Partners … Addison Smith … Claire Olszewski … Reuters’ Bradley Brooks … Jennifer Swanson … Michael Clements … Jeff Dressler, director of national security policy at SoftBank … Ann Elise Davison (h/t Jon Haber) … Tom Freedman … CNN’s Joe Ruiz … Josh Greenman is 47 … political comedian Tim Young is 4-0 … Matt Compton …
… Ken Nahigian is 49 … Joe McCarthy … Nick Juliano … former Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) is 83 … Nathan Thomas, legislative aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) … Uber’s Jonathan Smith and Jordan Burke … Max Samis … POLITICO’s Clarissa Matthews … Allison Haley … Lambertville, N.J., Mayor Julia Fahl … Andra Moye … former Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla is 49 … Rebecca Rice … Alex Mackler … Allison Abner … Jonathan Young … Charles Dharapak … Karin Walser … Erikka Knuti … Graham MacGillivray … Andrew Craft … Dmitri Mehlhorn … Alberto Pimienta … Roger Kodat … Pennsylvania state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie … Jessica Ennis … Kenneth Grubbs … Vicki Cram … Katie Todd Reilly … Walter Bishop … Matthew Foldi … City Journal editor Brian Anderson … Aaron Lewis … Michael Hilder … Joe Peyronnin … Robin Joy Robinson
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope,” (Romans 15:13, ESV).
By Caffeinated Thoughts on Aug 03, 2020 02:00 am
Chuck Grassley: The Chinese Communist Party is now targeting researchers in an apparent effort to either hijack or disrupt the vaccine development process. Read in browser »
By Caffeinated Thoughts on Aug 03, 2020 01:00 am
Iowa’s county auditors and staff, IT administrators and emergency management coordinators will go through scenarios that could disrupt elections. Read in browser »
By Steve C. Sherman on Aug 03, 2020 12:00 am
Steve C. Sherman: One interest group that the Senator Joni Ernst can’t count on is the Washington DC-based “Big Ethanol” lobbyists. Read in browser »
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 sign an executive order to protect American tech workers then have lunch with Vice President Mike Pence. Keep up with Trump on Our President’s Schedule Page. President Trump’s Itinerary for 8/3/20 – note: this page will be updated during the day if events warrant Keep up with …
There is a constant stream of propaganda articles that try to convince people that “masks work.” Here is but one example from UCHealth Today, The science says: Wear a mask In one of the greatest farces of 2020, it still matters to these zealots to convince people of the “science” …
I always liked Herman Cain. He was the quintessential example of the American Dream. He was born into abject poverty. His mother was a house keeper and father worked three jobs to help raise the family. Throughout his career Herman showed that by hard work and perseverance you could become …
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has been taking a break from being the Progressive Princess of Stupidity lately but we all knew that she would be back at some point. It is almost impressive how awfully ignorant AOC can be at times, as if she is constantly trying to embarrass herself.
Her most recent foray into brain-dead finds her criticizing Roman Catholic St. Damien of Molokai for being a “colonizer.” Rick has the full story here:
Most missionaries avoided administering to lepers for fear of contracting the disease themselves. But Father Damien didn’t listen. Eventually, he also became a leper and died at age 49 of the disease.
Damien did more than pray for the lepers. He helped initiate reforms of how native people were treated. He also “aided the colony by teaching, painting houses, organizing farms, organizing the construction of chapels, roads, hospitals, and churches. He also personally dressed residents, dug graves, built coffins, ate food by hand with lepers, shared pipes with them, and lived with the lepers as equals.
Damien’s “colonizing” involved ministering to people who were so loathed by society that they were ostracized and sent to live in remote places in colonies where they were to fall apart and die.
What an awful guy.
It’s not just that AOC is wrong about so many things, it’s that she’s always spectacularly wrong. Her hot takes sound more like the ravings of a toddler than what one would expect from a member of Congress. In this particular case, it seems that she knew nothing more about St. Damien than that he was white. AOC is the one millennial who has never heard of Google or Wikipedia.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
What makes AOC’s ongoing dumb takes so disturbing is that she has become a revered guiding light for the Democrats. The radical fringe AOC wing of the Democratic party has become the main wing. Joe Biden has completely abandoned any pretense of being a moderate and is now devoted to sucking up to AOC and her squad.
Every utterance of hers is treated as brilliance by the mainstream media, no matter how simple it is to disprove. AOC is the Left’s Golden Child right now and she’s a blithering idiot.
To her credit, AOC never backs away from any of her paste-eating stupid statements. Nobody loves AOC as much as AOC does, and she is just thrilled with everything she says. She will often double-down on her monumental wrongness just because she knows the media will back her up.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
If AOC weren’t so young she would be a shoo-in for Crazy Joe the Wonder Veep’s running mate. Thanks to the Constitution, the United States still has five years to come to its senses and realize just how dumb this woman is. Or Biden can win and the Constitution will be memory-holed.
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Happy Monday! For transparency’s sake, an update on our GOP Senate tracker since we last emailed you Friday morning: As of Sunday night, 42 of 53 Republican senators have condemned or otherwise thrown cold water on President Trump’s floating of an election delay. We’ve refreshed our full list here.
A reminder: This is the version of TMD available to non-paying readers. We’re happy you’ve made The Dispatch part of your morning routine, and we hope you’re enjoying The Morning Dispatch and the rest of our free editorial offerings. If you do, we hope you’ll consider joining us as a paying member. In addition to the full version of TMD each day, you’ll get extra editions of French Press, the G-File, Vital Interests, our new campaign newsletter called The Sweep, and our other paid products. And members can engage with the authors and with one another in the discussion threads at the end of each of our articles and newsletters. If this appeals to you, we hope you’ll please join now.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
The United States confirmed 44,511 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, with 6.1 percent of the 725,902 tests reported coming back positive. An additional 392 deaths were attributed to the virus on Sunday (2,786 over the weekend), bringing the pandemic’s American death toll to 154,841.
The Trump administration and House Democrats remain far apart on the next coronavirus relief package, despite talks between the two sides continuing over the weekend. Negotiators reportedly had positive discussions on Saturday, but White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows conceded they “still have a long ways to go.”
Tropical Storm Isaias—which may make landfall as a hurricane—is poised to hit the Atlantic coast this week, bringing storm surge flooding, heavy rain, and strong wind gusts from Florida all the way up to New England.
A wildfire ignited in southern California on Friday, and has since spread to more than 20,000 acres and forced the evacuation of nearly 8,000 residents. As of last night, no injuries had been reported.
A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court threw out Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence, citing mistakes made by the judge ruling over Tsarnaev’s original case in not sufficiently screening jurors for biases. “Make no mistake,” Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson wrote. “Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution.”
We Hate To Say It, But the Virus Is Getting Worse
If you’ve paid attention to media coverage of the coronavirus over the last week, you’d be forgiven for feeling a startling sense of déjà vu. The utility of hydroxychloroquine, the reliability of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the feasibility of reopening schools—we’ve been having the same fights since the early days of the pandemic. The impression such squabbles give is that America’s fight against the coronavirus is in a holding pattern—with nagging and often pointless partisan debates consuming far more attention than they should in the middle of a pandemic.
Unfortunately, each day brings new numbers that underscore the unsettling reality: Despite the hope that months of lockdowns would at least prepare us for the next round of fighting against the virus, we’re way out in uncharted waters when it comes to that fight now.
You’d be hard pressed to find a metric that didn’t look grim last month. New diagnoses of the virus accelerated between mid-June and mid-July before seeming to level off again—although that may be due in part to reporting lag. July 1 was the last day fewer than 50,000 new cases were reported across the country; the average over the last few weeks has been closer to 65,000 new cases per day.
TikTok, the popular short-video sharing social media app, had quite the turbulent weekend. Hours after Bloomberg first reported on Friday that the Trump administration would force TikTok’s parent company—the Chinese business ByteDance—to divest its stake in the music and video app, President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One he would be using emergency economic powers or an executive order to ban the app entirely. As of late Sunday night, we’re back to a sale from ByteDance, with Microsoft looking like the most likely landing place for TikTok.
Let’s back up a bit.
The White House has for months made clear its desire to reduce the presence of TikTok and other Chinese-owned services in the United States, citing concerns over user privacy, censorship, and misinformation. The line between the public and private sectors is often blurred in China, and the governing Communist Party has been known to exert influence through a variety of channels. TikTok—which hired Disney’s Kevin Mayer as CEO in May—has denied these charges, claiming it operates independently. But lawmakers remain skeptical.
Historian Claire Potter’s new book is about the danger political junkies present to the health of our democracy. Using the online shaming of the Covington Catholic students in early 2019 as an example, Potter argues in The Bulwark that similar sagas will keep playing out until we stop prioritizing our partisan addictions over everything else. “Digital media outlets are still shaping stories to create conflict, and mainstream media outlets still lean on social media feeds as tip lines,” she writes. “[These practices] will continue to hurt all of us until we grapple with what digital media has become, what role it plays in our political imagination, and why we are so unwilling to put our responsibility to be informed citizens ahead of the pleasure and excitement of being political junkies.”
Is the left’s tendency to delegitimize elections that place its opponents into positions of power born out of genuine concern for our democratic institutions, or simply a political tool to write-off unfavorable electoral outcomes? The answer, Sahil Handa argues in his first piece for Persuasion, is some combination of both. “Two things can be true at once,” he writes. “Even though some liberals do have a penchant for paranoia, there really are plenty of right-wing demagogues who seek to dismantle democracy.” Drawing on examples of authoritarianism in Hungary and Poland, Handa urges readers to reserve the label of “anti-democratic” for policies—like holding unfair elections and dismantling the independent press—that directly target democracy. Applying the term as catch-all for every unpopular and even abhorrent action by a political leader “helps aspiring autocrats shift the debate onto their preferred turf—from corruption and democratic malfeasance to immigration, religion, and the culture wars.” For more on this theme, check out last week’s episode of The Argument.
David’s Sunday’s French Press revisits the topic of Christian political engagement in light of John Lewis’s death, arguing that the mid-20th-century civil rights movement was one of the best marriages of Christian belief and Christian behavior in American history. He wonders if such a movement would still be possible today. “It is now increasingly clear that the un-Christian de-linking of ends and means is working its dark magic on the United States of America, including on the American church,” David writes. “When confronting lesser evils, our political selves are behaving far worse than we should, and there’s strong evidence that the religious right is now joining the irreligious right on the march down that dark path.”
In Friday’s G-File, Jonah—somewhat begrudgingly—enters the “burn it down” vs. “save the Senate” debate happening right now among Trump-skeptics on the right, and his answer is sure to disappoint those on both sides of the argument. It doesn’t matter. “Problems without solutions aren’t really problems,” he quotes James Burnham as saying. “Even if the burn-it-down folks are right that the ideal option would be to raze the current GOP and build it anew, they can’t do it.” Be sure listen to this week’s Ruminant too. He expands on these themes, as well as “cancel rent” insanity, “plandemic” insanity, and additional flavors of insanity.
Democratic political strategist Joe Trippi joined Sarah and Steve on Friday’s episode of the Dispatch Podcast to discuss presidential campaign mechanics, Biden’s veepstakes, and the rise of personality politics.
Check out Nate’s review of White Noise, a new documentary that provides a behind-the-scenes look into the lives of America’s most avid white supremacists. “Acolytes of the alt-right are often portrayed as larger-than-life supervillains,” Nate writes. “White Noise reveals them to be broken, deeply isolated individuals.”
On the site, Charlotte Lawson delves into the mysterious and shrouded word of high-end art dealing, an industry that is lightly regulated in the United States. It’s a situation that allows sanctioned Russian oligarchs to have access to the U.S. economy.
Check your inbox for the latest edition of The Sweep, Sarah’s newsletter about the 2020 campaign. Today she looks at what might happen if, as in New York’s primary in June, many mail-in ballots are rejected, as well as explaining how campaigns create “voter scores” and what they mean. If you don’t receive The Sweep, you can sign up to get it here.
Kemberlee Kaye: “Violent crime in NYC and Portland is off the charts. What did they think would happen when they neutered police and placated the mob?”
Fuzzy Slippers: “I’m always happy to see pushback against Cancel Culture, and this one has pizza! “
Vijeta Uniyal: “European Union economies have taken a big hit in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, registering their biggest decline in recent history. The eurozone economies, comprising of 19 out of 27 EU member states, reported an annualized GPD decline of 40.3 percent, higher than the annualized drop of 32.9 percent registered in the United States.”
David Gerstman: “It’s often hard to know which of George Orwell’s worlds we’re living in. When people are ostracized or punished for thinking the wrong thing, it’s 1984. But when the privileged makes rules and exempts themselves from those very same rules, it’s Animal Farm. The death of Mike Adams and the reaction to John Kass’s accurate essay on George Soros, are the 1984 sort of story. But DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to allow those attending Rep. John Lewis’s funeral in Georgia to return to the city and not be quarantined is an Animal Farm story; of course the political class is more equal than the people they govern.”
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“As coronavirus cases rise across the nation, the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) have struck upon a narrative: COVID-19 has been mishandled by Republicans. This is, to be sure, a dubious proposition….”
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Trader Joe’s Persists
Two weeks ago, BRIGHT told you about the reports that Trader Joe’s would be dumping its harmless labels for its international food, such as Trader Ming’s, Trader Giotto’s, and Trader Jose’s, after a whopping 1,400 people signed a petition against it. In their new announcement, Trader Joe’s wrote:
“Recently we have heard from many customers reaffirming that these name variations are largely viewed in exactly the way they were intended—as an attempt to have fun with our product marketing. We continue our ongoing evaluation, and those products that resonate with our customers and sell well will remain on our shelves.”
So, Trader Joe’s didn’t bend to the mob yet. However, the mob with their enablers in the media aren’t quitters. Over the weekend, CNN continued to push the petition as it reached a paltry 5,000 signers. CNN also repeats the ridiculous claims that these names are offensive and racists and wrote, “But Trader Joe’s is defending the practice.” Because we’re all just supposed to accept the view that it’s racist. It is a frequent tactic of the media and the mob to pump up a small number of complainers as evidence of a huge groundswell movement. Thankfully, Trader Joe’s had the good sense to listen to their customers and not the media, at least for now.
Who Owns the Chaos?
Over the weekend, Portland “Antifa” rioters found out that city leaders might have reached their limit for lawlessness. Journalist Andy Ngo posted video of the Portland police holding rioters back. According to Red State, the change came after the “announcement of a deal reached between Oregon Governor Kate Brown and DHS for the shift in responsibility for securing the parks and streets to the Oregon State Police and Portland PD.”
In a must-read piece for American Greatness, former Congressman Thaddeus McCotter writes how the current chaos affects how independents vote. He writes:
“Not surprisingly, if ironically, Democratic power brokers and party opinion-makers have used the cancel culture-driven media to urge a truce during the purge because it is beginning to impact their party’s electoral chances. The only argument these leftist opinion-makers can offer to their equally Trump-deranged fellow travelers is to cynically pause the purge and the accompanying regressive street violence in Portland and Seattle because, you guessed it: “This helps Trump.”
Why? Because the middle of the electorate loathes violence and disorder even more than it hates radical shifts in public policy. The fear among the Democratic power brokers is that their party’s moderate mask is slipping too low and endangering their electoral objectives, such as retaining their House majority; gaining a Senate majority; retaking the presidency; and securing a host of state and local offices. While the apparently few in number centrist voters and their justified concern for their lives, liberty, and property in Portland and Seattle can be dismissed by left-wing elected officials during these riots, the tens of millions of Americans in the middle cannot be so easily dismissed, endangered, and abandoned by the Democratic Party.”
My Weekend Reads
In Pro-Life Tweets, Kanye West Says He’s Concerned The World Doesn’t Cry Over Aborted Babies (The Federalist)
Are Lockdowns Necessary? What Data From 10 Countries Show (The Daily Signal)
July Lifestyle Favorites Are Here!
With July over, it’s feeling like summer has flown by without any celebration or vacation! Mostly I’ve been working from home and watching YouTube videos. Oh, and some light shopping. For cardio. This month I found a wireless bra after trying several (including the ones you see on Instagram all the time), a book that might be a little too realistic about the future, and other must-haves. Read more here!
A Case of the Mondays
A 9 year-old’s first book review and he’s not wrong (Twitter)
Dad ‘seconds from death’ – but hero dog senses danger and saves him (Express UK)
Biden Campaign Says He Is So Close To A VP Pick He Can Smell Her (The Babylon Bee)
Last week the White House announced that the First Lady will oversee a “significant renewal” of the Rose Garden. The project will be privately funded by donations made to the White House Historical Association. In the announcement, the First Lady said, “The very act of planting a garden involves hard work and hope in the possibility of a bright future.”
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.
Aug 03, 2020 01:00 am
The Department of Justice continues to fight my computer intrusion case in court. They are spending your tax money to protect the guilty parties rather than hold them accountable. Read More…
Aug 03, 2020 01:00 am
Wars and their postmortem historical analyses are full of what-ifs, which we can dissect until the end of days. Here’s an analysis of what did happen. Read More…
Aug 03, 2020 01:00 am
The Black Lives Matter Global Network touts itself as a civil rights movement. Its real priorities, however, seem to lie elsewhere. Read More…
Black Lives Matter (except if you are Black)
Aug 03, 2020 01:00 am
So how does BLM help black people? It doesn’t. What does it do for them? Teaches them a new skill, statue removal 101, burning down Starbucks for beginners? Read more…
Minneapolis surrenders to the criminals
Aug 02, 2020 01:00 am
“Be prepared to give up your cell phone and purse/wallet,” the police said in their email. In essence, residents are being told to “close one’s eyes and think of Black Lives Matter,” it seems. Read more…
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Former President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy at the funeral of John Lewis in Atlanta on Thursday. While paying tribute to the civil rights pioneer at the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church, Obama utilized the widely-viewed platform to take jabs at President Donald Trump. “As we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darne … Read more
With such shoddy information collection and analysis methods, there was never any reason to give credence to any of the salacious allegations in the dossier. That didn’t stop corporate media.
In its attempts to defend and legitimize Antifa, the elite media has tried to claim the movement has a long ‘antifascist’ and communist pedigree, a deep historical lineage, and an ideological coherency
Dr. David Tucker, the son of a famed opera singer, gave substantial support to young American artists from all backgrounds. It didn’t matter to the mob.
Families found the last Muppets reboot lacked innocence. ‘Muppets Now’ on Disney+ seeks to recapture classic Muppets, while advertising a cross-dressing entertainer.
Obama’s claim that the filibuster is racist is an alarming harbinger for how Democrats will attack and reject limits on power — and it shows the former president is willing to throw his lot in with the 1619 Project and other cultural arsonists.
To understand just how normalized radical ideas are on college campuses, look at the curriculum for which students pay thousands and thousands of dollars.
If schools don’t open their doors and refuse online learning, it would be not only silly but outright unjust to send checks to shuttered doors over struggling families.
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
News that Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best’s suburban home was “protested” by aggressive Antifa and Black Lives Matter “activists” last night first hit my feed a few hours ago. Citizen journalist Katie Daviscourt posted about it on her Twitter feed, but I could not get any other verification. Mainstream media was silent. Conservative media was silent. Searches for “Carmen Best” or “Snohomish” yielded no verification on either Google or Twitter.
Why won’t mainstream media report this targeted harassment?
I believed Daviscourt as her reporting has been spot-on about domestic terrorism in Seattle and surrounding areas, but without a second source I couldn’t run with the story. That second source came in the form of Chief Best herself sending a letter to the Seattle City Council:
August 3rd, 2020
Lorena González, President and Lisa Herbold, Public Safety Chair
Seattle City Council, City Hall
600 Fourth Ave, 2nd Floor
Seattle, WA 98104
Re: Intimidation of Public Officials and Employees
Dear President González, Chairwoman Herbold, and Seattle City Council Members:
I wanted to update you on recent events, particularly those that occurred late last night.
A residence of mine in Snohomish County was targeted by a large group of aggressive protestors late last night. My neighbors were concerned by such a large group, but they were successful in ensuring the crowd was not able to trespass or engage in other illegal behavior in the area, despite repeated
attempts to do so. Currently, the local sheriff (not SPD resources) is monitoring the situation.
I urge both of you, and the entire council, to stand up for what is right. These direct actions against elected officials, and especially civil servants like myself, are out of line with and go against every democratic principle that guides our nation. Before this devolves into the new way of doing business by mob rule here in Seattle, and across the nation, elected officials like you must forcefully call for the end of these tactics.
The events of this summer were initiated in a moment of grief and outrage over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and so many other Black and Brown people suffering at the hands of injustice. All of us must ensure that this righteous cause is not lost in the confusion of so many protestors now engaging in violence and intimidation, which many are not speaking against.
Sincerely,
Carmen Best
Chief of Police
Seattle Police Department
CC
Tammy Morales, Councilmember, District 2
Kshama Sawant, Councilmember, District 3
Alex Pedersen, Councilmember, District 4
Debora Juarez, Councilmember, District 5
Dan Strauss, Councilmember, District 6
Andrew Lewis, Councilmember, District 7
Teresa Mosqueda, Councilmember, District 8, At-Large
Community Police Commission, Co-Chairs
This is intimidation. This is mob rule. This is domestic terrorism. And if feckless leaders continue to let “protesters” in places like Seattle and Portland set the agenda, more people will get hurt or killed.
COVID-19 may take down an indepentent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. We need approximately $11,500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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.
When I played football in high school, I wore the number 34 because it was Herschel Walker’s number. It’s a bit ironic that my childhood football hero would later become my favorite athlete from an ideological perspective. The outspoken conservative Christian has inspired millions to ask questions about what’s really going on in America, and a Tweet yesterday may be the most important he’s asked thus far.
While discussing seeing Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters burning Bibles, the United States flag, and crosses, Walker lamented recent actions by seemingly most in professional sports. They are generally kneeling during the National Anthem in support of Black Lives Matter. But what he and many (though not enough) Americans know is the base ideology of BLM which is hidden in plain sight. This is not an organization attempting to end systemic racism. They are a self-designated Neo-Marxist organization using race as a backdrop upon which they can promote Cultural Marxism in America.
This is why they have embraced anarcho-communism as the vehicle through which to terrorize cities across the nation. Are there peaceful protests? Yes. But the way mainstream media and the radical left tell the story, one would believe nearly all involved are peaceful and only tiny pockets of lone wolf domestic terrorists are out there burning down Starbucks buildings or setting Bibles ablaze. In yesterday’s video, Walker asked, “People, are we being fooled?
Professional sports have been embedded as important components of Americana. But their history of patriotism and national pride have been erased by modern day social justice athletes like Colin Kaepernick who see the United States as an evil empire that must be destroyed. This is why their message is resonating, or to be more accurate, it’s why their false message has resonated within their organizations. Either they know the truth about Black Lives Matter and they’re ignoring it for political reasons or they’re simply too ignorant to see the truth. The same question should be asked of them, with an addendum. “Professional athletes, are you being fooled or are you part of the cause to destroy America?”
Should we boycott professional sports? That seems to be in order, but it’s a problem that runs deeper than that. The cat’s out of the bag, but it’s not the right cat. Supporting BLM is considered to be virtue signaling by celebrities and even many organizations. They do this in many cases without understanding the implications of supporting an organization that wants to dismantle and reassemble the nation. They are signing their own death warrants and ours along with them.
It behooves us to heed the warnings Herschel Walker delivers in this video and to ask ourselves the question he asked of the nation. Are we being fooled? Unfortunately, the answer for many is, “Yes.”
COVID-19 may take down an indepentent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. We need approximately $11,500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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.
Last week’s “hearing” before the House Judiciary Committee has been well-documented as a power-play by Democrats to attack and discredit Attorney General William Barr. It was blatantly obvious they brought him before their committee to listen to them speak, not to actually testify to anything. He was too be a silent listener as they scolded him like drunken school marms on the wrong side of an argument.
It was a time for Barr to shine, not just with what he said but with what he didn’t say. Time and again (29, to be exact), he was viciously interrupted and had every right to leave the fake “hearing.” But he persisted. He was frustrated but didn’t do anything to make himself look bad, opting instead to let Democratic Congressmen destroy their own credibility. As Fox News host Jesse Watters told conservative commentator Mark Levin, he was impressed Barr didn’t jump over the table and go after his interrogators.
— The Dirty Truth (@RealDirty on Parler) (@AKA_RealDirty) August 2, 2020
Levin summed it all up last week with a Tweet that needs no explanation or justification, at least to those who watched the proceedings as they were happening.
House Judiciary Committee Democrats … I’ve never seen a bigger bunch of assholes. There’s no other way to put it more accurately.
Democrats have been desperate for a while, but it’s really starting to manifest in their unhinged reactions to the truth. This wasn’t a hearing. It was a chance for them to be heard. Hopefully, America got the real message loud and clear.
COVID-19 may take down an indepentent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. We need approximately $11,500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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.
Cancel culture is the currently preferred weapon of the nation’s socialist left for the suppression of free speech. This is the use of pressure to punish those who dare speak their mind. It falls in line with the bigoted enforcement of the law that is now coming into focus.
The left is pushing for a bigoted justice system whereby one’s rights or even guilt or innocence are based upon ideology rather than blindfolded justice. That is the inescapable conclusion born of recent events. The system used to be based on fairness. Now it is to be based on skin color and past inequities.
Those who are of the true liberal mindset – one based in liberty, tolerance, and individual rights – are now at least sensing the approaching danger of a bigoted justice system becoming the norm.
The tyranny of a ‘workaround for the First Amendment’
The past few days have seen many people who are falsely presumed as belonging on the left side of the political spectrum chafe at the freedom restrictions of cancel culture. This used to be called censorship, but the nation’s socialist left has been pushing for the ‘First Workaround For The First Amendment In History’ as termed by Greg Gutfeld:
“Here’s the thing about cancel culture,” Gutfeld explained. “This is the first workaround for the First Amendment in history. Because whenever you complain about cancel culture, they will say you have the First Amendment, freedom of speech. We’re just going to ruin your career and take your livelihood and drive you to suicide. So it’s actually making the First Amendment meaningless.”
It isn’t hard to discern why far-leftists of the tyrannical ten percent are trying to exploit this ‘workaround for the First Amendment’. It’s just a matter of whether or not they do this to deceive themselves into thinking they are still liberal and stand in the defense of liberty, or to deceive others.
Either way doesn’t matter, since the result is the denigration of freedom. Technically, the First Amendment only applies to Congress, but it is based on a mindset of liberty. Someone who pretends to still support the First Amendment while pushing a bigoted standard of justice has no real interest in freedom and in a larger sense, has become an enemy to liberty.
“Only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom.” – Jose Marti
True liberals are waking up to the danger of the suppression of free speech
This became manifest with the Harper’s open letter supporting debate but has expanded to other prominent personalities standing up for liberty against censorship and cancel culture. Others have made the point that cancel culture is merely Old Tyranny in New Bottles.
He had invited former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss on his HBO show “Real Time.”
Bari Weiss described cancel culture as being less about criticism and more about “punishment” for people who do not ascribe to every cornerstone of left-wing political and social thought.
“We’re used to criticism. Criticism is kosher in the work that we do,” said Weiss, as reported by The Hill. “Criticism is great. What cancel culture is about is not criticism. It is about punishment. It is about making a person radioactive. It is about taking away their job. The writer Jonathan Rauch [of The Atlantic] called it ‘social murder.’ And I think that’s right.”
This issue illustrates the wide gulf between the nation’s far-left socialists and those who still believe in liberty. The former do not since socialism is based in force and is the antithesis of freedom. Polls have shown that these are the only people who don’t see a problem in the suppression of free speech.
The tyrannical ten percent doesn’t care about this danger to liberty
The Washington Examiner reported on a recent poll from Yahoo News/YouGov survey showed that 72% of Republicans and 78% of Trump’s supporters called it a major problem. Contrasted with 47% of Democrats seeing it as a big problem while It was just 41% for backers of Joe Biden.
The bottom line: Voting for Joe Biden means voting for the suppression of free speech
While many of those who still believe in freedom are moving away from the tyrannical ten percent of the nation’s socialist left, the lack of concern of this faction means they support it. It is their way of silencing the opposition and it will only get worse as time goes on.
The nation’s socialist left is the primary purveyor of this tactic that is antithetical to freedom of speech. These are the same people behind Joe Biden and the one’s propping up his campaign. The far left has revealed itself the enemy of liberty. Its exploitation of cancel culture is the best illustration of this fact.
Keep NOQ Report going
Nobody said running an independent news outlet would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. We need approximately $8500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be great and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. Last month, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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.
One of President Trump’s best campaign tactics is to shock people. It’s not just that he says and does things that are newsworthy and often get him into “trouble,” but it’s in the timing that he’s so masterful. He did it last week and it worked wonders.
A Tweet the President put out said voter fraud through mail-in ballots should make us consider delaying the election. As expected, mainstream media and pretty much everyone on the left and even many on the right lambasted the Tweet. Nevertheless, it received over 190K retweets and nearly a quarter-million likes.
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
Later, he walked back the statement, saying he was just trying to get people to pay attention to the risks of mail-in balloting. He has distinguished in the past between opposition to ubiquitous mail-in voting and absentee ballots. But he has also stated that voter fraud and inaccurate election results happen when there is an abundance of mail-in ballots. It’s true.
What wasn’t discussed much by the media or anyone else is news that broke a couple of hours before the President’s Tweet. The nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) dropped a record 32.9% last quarter, a sign that the effects of the coronavirus lockdown are even bigger than what has been reported. But the story was essentially buried as a result of the President’s voter delay Tweet, allowing the bad news about the economy to go largely unnoticed.
Republicans need to take note of this strategy. The President has guided the narrative masterfully despite mainstream media being generally against him. He knows how to shock people. The GOP can do the same, as can Trump supporters. No, we can’t do it nationally the way he does, but we can and should be out there shocking people with the truth. We don’t need to be bombastic about it, but there’s something that can be said about the President’s style and how he uses controversy to his advantage. JD discussed this thoroughly on the latest episode of Conservative Playbook.
To do what the President does requires boldness and strategy. He knows how to change the conversation in the direction he wants it to go even if it’s considered “bad” news. We should all use this strategy until election day.
Keep NOQ Report going
Nobody said running an independent news outlet would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. We need approximately $8500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be great and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. Last month, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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 deafening silence by mainstream media is the sound of a populace left in the dark about COVID-19. “Conspiracy theories” about inflated death counts have been proven time and again, but mum’s still the word as far as CNN, MSNBC, NY Times, Washington Post, and even Fox News is concerned.
In what should have been a blockbuster story, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield acknowledged more than the likelihood that coronavirus death counts are being exaggerated by hospitals for higher compensation. He even declared this has been happening for a while, citing the AIDS crisis when hospitals would count pretty much any death by someone HIV positive as an AIDS death because they would receive more money from the government. According to The Blaze:
During a hearing by the House Oversight and Reform Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Friday, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) asked whether hospitals have “perverse incentive” to inflate COVID-19 fatality numbers.
Shockingly, Redfield admitted that they do.
“I think you’re correct in that we’ve seen this in other disease processes, too,” Redfield said.
“Really, in the HIV epidemic, somebody may have a heart attack but also have HIV — the hospital would prefer the [classification] for HIV because there’s greater reimbursement,” he explained. “So, I do think there’s some reality to that.”
“When it comes to death reporting, though, ultimately, it’s how the physician defines it in the death certificate, and … we review all of those death certificates. So I think, probably it is less operable in the cause of death, although I won’t say there are not some cases,” he continued. “I do think though [that] when it comes to hospital reimbursement issues or individuals that get discharged, there could be some play in that for sure.”
Debate has raged over whether coronavirus deaths are being counted accurately, and various studies have found conflicting conclusions.
Even Fox News buried the story, opting for a different and arguably less relevant lede for their story on Redfield’s testimony. They focused on his statements regarding suicides. While this is important as well, it does not reach the status of “bombshell” that the faked death count revelation does.
The fear over the coronavirus is as manufactured and inflated as the death rates. One would think the CDC Director admitting foul play in the numbers would be a front page story. Instead, most in the media intentionally yawned.
Keep NOQ Report going
Nobody said running an independent news outlet would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. We need approximately $8500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be great and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. Last month, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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.
These days, one of the most frequent laments of conservatives is that so much damage has been inflicted on our nation in such a short amount of time. With the economy humming along and the nation brimming with optimism as recently as the spring of this year, it seems that our world has been transformed almost overnight into an unrecognizable cauldron of chaos, despair, and even death.
However, while the Wuhan virus, the riots, and the raging lawlessness of the last five months are a major calamity, they are really only the inevitable culmination of attacks being waged against America for several decades. The level of these attacks has been increasing in intensity and audacity the entire time. But although Americans found it too easy to retreat from the mayhem for much of that period, the boldness and extent of the leftist onslaught have increased to the point that no more room for surrender exists.
Currently, in a despicable display of animosity towards the founding of this nation, pro athletes kneel enmasse during the playing of the National Anthem. Where Colin Kaepernick, the originator of such antics, was marginalized only a few years ago, he is now lauded and embraced, as the nation itself is disparaged and disgraced. Yet even this is not an isolated episode.
In 1992, as America prepared to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of Columbus’s exploration of the New World, “PC” leftists were shrill and venomous in their denigration of the event as nothing but a genocidal attack on the indigenous people of North America. So the celebration was essentially cancelled. Similar abominations were committed against the commemoration of the B-29 Bomber Enola Gay in 1995, which brought America to the cusp of victory in the Second World War.
In 2007 President George W. Bush allowed the left to hijack the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the Jamestown Colony, turning the event into an “apology” to the Indian tribes that must now be called “Native Americans.” Have any of those tribes ever been compelled to apologize for all of the conquest and massacres that they committed against each other throughout eons before, and even after Columbus or Jamestown? Or are those atrocities like all of the black on black crime in Chicago, where those lives do not matter now, and never have, because leftist Democrats can’t leverage them against America for political gain?
Just as America’s devotion to its heritage and institutions have been ravaged, so have the legal protections for the inherent rights of citizens which were enshrined and protected by those institutions. Here again, the abhorrent actions of governors and mayors (overwhelmingly Democrat) to abuse power, with total indifference or even hostility to the Constitution and the rule of law, have reached a crescendo since March. But the effervescing contempt they held for the principles of the nation’s founding have been evident for several decades.
Still, only a few years back, any flagrant exhibition of such contempt would have been an instant and universal disqualifier for public office. But with the advent of the vile and seditious Clinton White House, and the openly hostile mindset of the Obamas, such behavior became “acceptable” to the Washington “Establishment.” In between those abhorrent administrations, the deferential treatment such individuals received from the obsequious George W. Bush only served to validate and thus further entrench their vile ideology and actions as “legitimate.”
Throughout this long chain of abuses and usurpations by those in government, Americans largely reacted by either ignoring all of it, or on occasion expressing their displeasure with a bit of grumbling. But over decades of real and dangerous excesses and corruption, nobody responsible was brought to accountability.
Meanwhile, the next generation of Americans was being force-fed all of the poisoned thinking of the leftist counterculture, five days a week, in the nation’s thoroughly leftist government schools. A recent arrest of a violent antifa mob in Portland revealed thirteen of the twenty criminals taken into custody to be government school “teachers.”
Can people even grasp the significance of this? Prior to the riots, these vile leftist monsters were in the “classroom” every day, poisoning the minds of gullible young people at great expense, all paid by your tax dollars!
Prayer was removed from the schools nearly sixty years ago, and with it went any teaching of worthwhile citizenship or human decency. Children were summarily pummeled with the perversity of “values clarification” and the nihilism of “multiculturalism,” eventually convincing them that inherent right and wrong do not exist.
When all vestiges of morality are eradicated, and real right versus wrong is entirely absent, any personal or social conscience is dead. In its place, the only driving “morality” is the desire for acceptance in the “herd” or mob. The mindless brutality of leftist rioters is a direct consequence of this.
More disturbingly, the hesitance of mainstream America, including too many on the right, to oppose these ongoing rampages is no less a result of such conditioning. Our side is nearly hamstrung from even opposing the glaring evil we see in our midst. Any push-back is loudly condemned by the left, at which point we almost reflexively retreat and apologize, too often even joining in the condemnation of any who dared stand against evil.
Of course it is critically important for us to show up at the polls in November. It is essential to the future of America for President Trump to be re-elected. And if the House can be turned back to Republican dominance, that may be the start of something good, but only if real Republicans end up running things, as opposed to the treacherous RINOs of the Paul Ryan and John Boehner genre. Yet if the future of America hinges on this one election, it is guaranteed that the left will not simply go to the polls and wait for the results. Every manner of cheating and voter intimidation should be expected. Only a sufficiently vigorous and determined campaign against such criminal action will stop it.
Post election, the difficult decision to confront and fully engage the leftist enemy is America’s only option. The goal must be to thoroughly rout the leftist cancer that seeks to overtake and destroy our nation. Rolling things back to where they were five months ago would only leave us hanging on the same precipice, waiting for the next leftist “crisis” to prompt yet another unrestrained criminal attack on the nation, until one of them finally succeeds.
Bio
Christopher G. Adamo is a lifelong conservative from the American Heartland. He has been involved in grassroots and state-level politics for years. His recently released book “Rules for Defeating Radicals,” subtitled “Countering the Alinsky Strategy in Politics and Culture,” is the “Go To” guide to effectively overcoming the dirty tricks of the political left. It is available at Amazon.
Keep NOQ Report going
Nobody said running an independent news outlet would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. We need approximately $8500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be great and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. Last month, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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.
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One of the basic tasks of the political Left, not only in contemporary America but on a worldwide basis ever since the French Revolution, is to identify those social institutions that are healthy and functional, then ruin them completely, and call this result “reform.” Sometimes millions of people die as a result of the Left’s appetite for “reform” (e.g., collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union), but always innocent people are made to suffer on behalf of the allegedly idealistic motives of the self-anointed progressive “reformers.”
A woman born a man is not a woman. This is a heretical statement to the most high prophets of the Church of Intersectionalism (the feminist religion that creates hierarchies of grievance based on how one’s statuses overlap), but it is true nonetheless. It is, to use a word that’s been beaten nearly to death and shivers cowering in the corner, science. It is objectively definitional that a person with an X and a Y chromosome is a man and therefore, and by definition, is not a woman. He is something that means that he is not something else.
Last week the Beijing puppet government of Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam postponed parliamentary elections for a year supposedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese police continue to arrest pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong under China’s new law, which prohibits the last vestige of political freedom there.
Meanwhile, Chinese aggression all around the world is taking new and ever more dangerous forms. From the minor (Ecuador is trying to deal with a Chinese fishing fleet poaching off the Galapagos Islands) to the major (China’s recent oil deal with Iran), Xi Jinping’s regime is steadily raising the pressure on us and our allies. And it is willing to partner with the world’s principal terrorist nation to do so.
Two days after President Trump told reporters that he plans to ban TikTok from the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in an interview with Fox News that executive action may soon be taken against many other apps owned by Chinese firms. Trump remarked to journalists aboard Air Force One on Friday that he could ban TikTok “with an executive order,” suggesting that the president has made up his mind about the popular short video platform. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance, has been at the center of a months-long debate over whether the data that it collects from American users could be exploited by China’s government.
My father, Herbert Stein, was a famous and brilliant economist. But he was in his heart deeply interested in poetry. In going through some files I recently rediscovered these poems, which my father had given me long ago.
What can you say about Rush Limbaugh that he already hasn’t said about himself? The Big Voice on the Right. America’s Anchorman. The Doctor of Democracy. A living legend. The harmless, lovable little fuzzball operating with talent on loan from God. His ideological opponents use slightly different language. The Daily Beast has called Limbaugh a “racist radio pioneer.” A 2012 CNN essay compared him to Josef Goebbels and asked the FCC to punish radio stations airing his program.
Only two weeks married and precariously close to broke, I jumped at the opportunity to move to Washington, D.C., for an unpaid three-month internship in the White House Photo Office. Set within the first year of President Donald J. Trump’s tenure, it was well worth it: affording me an intern’s-eye view of the most talked-about administration in history.
One of the problems of being both a collector and single is not having a wife to firmly if lovingly insist that enough is enough. I will always find room for another acquisition. Just move a couple items around and, voila!, space magically appears. As a result, my house is, to put it politely, “full.”
US in a new phase of COVID-19 pandemic: Dr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator for the White House task force, said Sunday that the United States is in a new phase of the pandemic and that nobody is immune or protected from the coronavirus. “What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread,” she told CNN. “It’s into the rural as equal urban areas.” Birx said Americans in multigenerational households should assume they are positive and consider wearing masks, even at home. Meanwhile, after federal pandemic unemployment benefits officially expired on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained that her party and the Trump administration still don’t see eye to eye regarding the “strategic plan” necessary to combat the virus and prop up the struggling economy. In an exclusive interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Pelosi blasted the Trump administration for being in disagreement over defeating the coronavirus. But later, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin argued that eradicating COVID-19 is a point of unity. The opposing arguments come as the parties are locked in negotiations on the new relief bill — at the center of which lies a disagreement about the amount of federal aid to be offered to unemployed Americans. “We have been for the $600, they have a $200 proposal, which does not meet the needs of America’s working families,” Pelosi said. Get the latest mobile updates about the coronavirus here.
President Trump says he will ban TikTok in US: President Donald Trump said that he plans to ban TikTok in the United States through executive authority. The app, which allows users to film and share short videos of themselves along to accompanying music, is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The relationship between China and the U.S. has caused the Trump administration, as well as lawmakers across both aisles, to accuse the app of being a security threat. Microsoft, which is in discussion to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok, said in a statement Sunday that the company is moving quickly to pursue discussions with ByteDance “in a matter of weeks” and “is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.” When asked for comment, a TikTok spokesperson told ABC News that 100 million Americans have used TikTok for entertainment and connection especially during the pandemic, and the company has hired nearly 1,000 people for its U.S. team this year alone. With some of the app’s biggest investors in the U.S., it also said that it is “committed to protecting our users’ privacy and safety.” In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union called Trump’s decision a “danger to free expression and technologically impractical.”
SpaceX Crew returns to Earth: The first NASA-SpaceX astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, have safely returned to Earth after more than two months in space. Their mission, which began on May 30 aboard the Dragon Endeavour, undocked from the International Space Station at about 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday to head back to Earth — and the stakes were high, as they only had 48 hours of oxygen in their capsule after undocking. Upon reentry through the Earth’s atmosphere, the Dragon’s surface reached temperatures above 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and a communications blackout began, which prompted the spacecraft to go fully autonomous for four minutes. With “great” weather on their side, the Dragon Endeavour splashed down near Pensacola, Florida, at 2:48 p.m. ET and were greeted by a recovery boat with several dozen crew members. Once Behnken and Hurley reached the port in Pensacola, they boarded the NASA Gulfstream and headed to Houston for a ceremony at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base.
Baby in NICU sees parents’ faces for 1st time thanks to innovative masks: For many new parents, bonding with their newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit amid the pandemic can be difficult with so many precautions in place like constant mask-wearing. But at the Ochsner Baptist Medical Center in New Orleans, babies like Amara Mason-Folse, who was born premature, have been able to see their mother’s face thanks to clear masks. “A team at the hospital was working on creating clear masks for people who work with deaf patients,” Amara’s mom, Aria Mason-Folse, told “GMA.” “We thought it would be a great way to solve our problem.” Aria and her husband, Henri, tried the masks as part of a pilot program and noticed a change with their daughter almost immediately. “You can see her watching our mouths, especially when I was singing to her,” Mason-Folse said. “I feel excited by that, that she is responding so well to it.”
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” as kids across the country gear up to go back to school, we have expert advice on the best types of laptops to help them thrive in a homeschool setting. Plus, dietician Dawn Jackson Blatner joins us to share some recipe inspiration that you can use on those lazy days. And T.J. Holmes sat down with Val and Mercedes Kilmer to talk about their upcoming movie, “Paydirt.” All this and more only on “GMA.”
Hundreds of U.S. businesses have been cited for illegally denying paid leave to workers during the pandemic, Labor Department records show. Plus, Microsoft is set to move forward with talks to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations, and two NASA astronauts made an historic water landing as they returned to Earth aboard their commercially built spacecraft.
Here’s what we’re watching this Monday morning.
Sickened by COVID, low-wage workers lose jobs and are denied paid leave
Lucie Joseph started to feel sick on April 28 as she rang up customers at the gas station where she worked in Delray Beach, Florida.
Two months before she was fired, President Donald Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which requires certain small and medium-sized businesses to pay a worker’s full salary for two weeks if they become infected with COVID-19 and prohibits businesses from firing employees for taking leave.
However, hundreds of U.S. businesses – including some familiar names – have been cited for illegally denying paid leave to workers during the pandemic, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Meanwhile, other workers face wildly varying rules about whether COVID-19 is covered as a workplace injury. More than a dozen states have changed their laws or rules since the pandemic, often so that a nurse would be presumed to have contracted the virus at work, leaving it up to the employer to prove that the worker got it someplace else.
Here are some other coronavirus developments:
The opioid crisis has steadily worsened as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on
Microsoft to ‘move quickly’ on TikTok deal following Trump talks
Microsoft will move forward with talks to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations following a discussion between its chief executive, Satya Nadella, and President Donald Trump, the company said Sunday.
The announcement suggests that the White House is open to a deal that would see TikTok’s U.S. operations pass entirely to an American owner. Trump had said Friday that he would ban TikTok and that he would not approve a Microsoft takeover.
In recent months, U.S. officials have expressed concerns over TikTok’s Chinese ownership and fears that Beijing could use the social media app to gain access to U.S. user data. TikTok claims more than 100 million users in the U.S.
‘They are obsessed’: Why Germans have so much riding on the U.S. election
During the Trump administration, few places have recoiled with as much horror as Germany, once a vital friend that the White House now berates with open hostility.
But anyone hoping the U.S. presidential election in November will quickly reverse years of turmoil may be sorely disappointed, according to former U.S. diplomats, and officials and analysts in Berlin.
“How interested are the Germans in the U.S. election? They are obsessed with it,” said John B. Emerson, U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2013 to 2017.
Meanwhile, Democrats are warning Republicans not to fill a possible Supreme Court vacancy this year after denying President Barack Obama the chance in 2016, saying it would embolden a push on the left to add seats to the court whenever they regain power.
“If they show that they’re unwilling to respect precedent, rules and history, then they can’t feign surprise when others talk about using a statutory option that we have that’s fully constitutional in our availability,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in an interview.
When Biden announces a vice presidential pick he will be telling voters who he thinks has the traits to bring America out of the health and economic crises. (Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP – Getty Images)
NASA astronauts make historic splashdown in SpaceX capsule
Two months after NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley made history by launching into space from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade, the duo returned to Earth on Sunday.
It marked a major milestone for human spaceflight — the first time that NASA astronauts have traveled to and from space aboard a commercially built spacecraft. It also marked the first water landing for an American crew spacecraft in 45 years.
Prior to the launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, NASA hadn’t sent astronauts into orbit from American soil since the agency’s space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011. NASA has already announced the astronauts selected for the next Crew Dragon launch to the space station planned for late September, but the capsule will first need to complete NASA’s certification process.
Experts recommend wearing clothing with built-in sun protection. We consulted dermatologists on thebest UPF hats to consider this summer.
One touching thing
Weddings these days may be a bit different than usual but that doesn’t make the bride’s dress any less important. One organization is helping healthcare workers get the perfect gown – for free.
Brides Across America was founded in 2008 to give free wedding dresses to military and first responder brides. Now their mission has expanded to include those working on the front lines of COVID-19.
“This is what we are about, supporting those that support us on a daily basis,” said Heidi Janson, founder and CEO of Brides Across America.
I’m filling in for Petra Cahill while she’s taking a break. If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — send me an email at: rachel.elbaum@nbcuni.com
If you’re a fan, please forward it to your family and friends. They can sign-up here.
Thanks,
Rachel
NBC FIRST READ
From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg
FIRST READ: Three months to go, the presidential election is still taking a backseat to other news
If you’ve wanted American elections to more resemble Europe’s – where big elections last weeks, not years – you’re getting your wish in 2020.
With the U.S. presidential election now exactly three months away, it remains on the news backburner, even with Joe Biden’s vice-presidential selection and the conventions coming up within the next two weeks.
REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Think about the top news today: The coronavirus (deservedly so with more than 156,000 U.S. deaths), the tropical storm approaching Florida and the East Coast, Congress still unable to reach a deal on coronavirus relief, and President Trump’s threatening to ban TikTok.
The presidential election and Biden’s VP pick come after those stories.
And even WHEN Biden announces his running mate and when the conventions begin (virtually) on Aug. 17, it’s an open question whether they will dominate the news – or continue to take a backseat.
Now this lack of news doesn’t mean voters are less interested in the election; voter interest is sky-high and so is expected turnout.
But it’s a significant departure from past election cycles, when the presidential race was the news driving everything else.
“We’re under 100 days til election day (and way less than that til some people start voting via mail/absentee), and the election isn’t close to being the top story right now. That’s not something a lot of us are used to.”
Trump’s own coronavirus experts continue to contradict him
The Trump administration’s top coronavirus experts continue to contradict the president’s claims on the virus.
While Trump has promotedhydroxychloroquine as a way to combat the virus, here was Admiral Brett Giroir on “Meet the Press” yesterday: “The evidence just doesn’t show that hydroxychloroquine is effective right now.”
While Trump continues not to wear a mask in public – with one notable exception – here was Giroir again: “Wearing a mask is incredibly important, but we have to have like 85 percent or 90 percent of individuals wearing a mask and avoiding crowds. That is essentially — gives you the same outcome as a complete shutdown.”
While Trump attributes the current spike in coronavirus cases to more testing, here was Dr. Anthony Fauci speaking to Congress on Friday: “If you do more tests you are going to see more cases. But the increases that we are seeing are real increasing in cases as also reflected by increasing in hospitalization and increasing in deaths.”
And while Trump continues to talk about the virus as treating “embers,” here was Dr. Deborah Birx saying the coronavirus has become widespread: “But I want to be very clear. What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It’s into the rural as equal urban areas… This epidemic right now is different, and it’s wide — it’s more widespread.”
If you want to know while polls show Trump getting low marks for his handling of the coronavirus, as well as his trust on the issue, this is a big part of the story.
DATA DOWNLOAD: The numbers that you need to know today
156,137: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 2,835 more than Friday morning.)
56.81 million: The number of coronavirus TESTS that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers at The COVID Tracking Project.
TWEET OF THE DAY: Be prepared
2020 VISION: Karen Bass meets the scrutiny
Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., one of the finalists to be Joe Biden’s running mate, appeared on “Meet the Press” yesterday. Here were some of the highlights from the interview:
What makes her prepared to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?
“Having served as speaker of the house in California, as you know, California is the world’s fifth largest economy. The largest state in the union. I led at a time when we went through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. I led in a very bipartisan manner. I worked with Governor Schwarzenegger, worked well with my Republican colleagues.”
[snip]
[W]hat I’m the most proud of is my ability to bring people together because I think that our country needs healing.”
On her work as a young activist in Cuba
“In my early twenties, I went to Cuba to help the Cuban people, to build houses… Now, that doesn’t excuse the fact that I know the Castro regime has been a brutal regime to its people. I know that there is not freedom of press, freedom of association.”
On Republicans who have criticized her over Cuba
“Well, one, don’t consider myself a Castro sympathizer. Number two, my position on Cuba is really no different than the position of the Obama administration. As a matter of fact, I was honored to go to Cuba with President Obama.”
AD WATCH from Ben Kamisar
Today’s Ad Watch is a return to the airwaves for the Trump campaign.
The campaign has spent virtually nothing on TV ads since last Tuesday. But now, as NBC’s Shannon Pettipiece previewed to start the weekend, the Trump campaign announced Monday that it is launching a round of new TV ads in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Arizona, pivotal states with early voting. The forthcoming ad buy also includes Spanish-language ads and a national cable buy, the campaign said.
The two new spots released by the Trump campaign this morning aim at stoking fears about an America under Joe Biden, a theme Trump has played up repeatedly on Twitter and during events as recently as Friday’s trip to Tampa.
The first ties Biden to the “policies of the radical left,” warning of things like “crushing” new taxes and “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants during a Biden presidency.
The second one is Trump’s “silent majority” meets “Love Actually.” In it, a mother cycles through cue cards to say she’s afraid Joe Biden is “too weak,” too far “left,” and a “risk” to her “children’s future.” But the bit is: She’s too afraid to say it out loud.
Breakdown
After a weekend of talks, there is still no deal on a coronavirus relief package between Senate Republicans, the White House and the Democrats. And now the weekly federal unemployment benefit has expired. While making their rounds on TV yesterday, here’s what Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said about the talks:
“We proposed a one-week extension at $600 so that while we negotiate a longer-term solution, at least all those people don’t lose their money, and I’m surprised that the Democrats won’t agree to that. They are insistent on having this as part of a larger deal.” But when asked why Republicans waited so long to negotiate a deal, Mnuchin said, “We wanted to wait and see how the money was going to work,” and “we have to be careful about not piling on enormous amounts of debt.”
Of course, the current Republican legislation only calls for a $200 benefit, and Democrats have said they don’t want short-term legislation. Here’s Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
“The amount of money that is given as an enhancement for unemployment insurance should relate to the rate of unemployment. So when that goes down, then you can consider something less than the $600, but in this agreement it’s $600.”
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world?
The White House is looking to make unilateral moves if no deal is reached in Congress on coronavirus relief.
Tropical Storm Isaias is churning off the east coast of Florida and is moving toward the Carolinas. Also, the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator warns that the U.S. is in a new phase of the pandemic. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.
Watch Video +
Tropical Storm Isaias churns off Florida coast, heads north
Watch Video +
How different nations are responding to spikes in coronavirus
Read Story +
Companies “need to ban” skin-lightening creams, activist says
Over a lifetime of scholarship and public engagement, economist Thomas Sowell has illuminated controversial topics such as race, poverty, and culture.
By Coleman Hughes City Journal Summer 2020 Issue
“Congress should update the tax code to reflect this new reality: The American home is no longer just a place for family and leisure, but also a place of business.”
By Nicole Gelinas New York Post
August 3, 2020
Tomorrow, join us for a discussion with education policy expert Chester E. Finn, Jr., law professor Nicole Stelle Garnett, and charter school expert M. Karega Rausch, on the legal and policy consequences (and possibilities) of charter schooling following the Supreme Court’s Espinoza decision.
“Protesters in Gotham and other cities around the nation are so used to getting their way, they’ve been spoiled.”
By Seth Barron New York Post
August 3, 2020
Radical calls to abolish law enforcement won’t lead to anything good—and most Americans seem to know it.
By Charles Love City Journal Online
July 31, 2020
“If history is any guide, confining police focus to serious crimes will do little to manage those offenses — and the strategy may further damage the relationship between police and citizens.”
By William H. Sousa New York Post
August 1, 2020
Adapted from City Journal
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, New York City will need to identify subway improvements that can be done cheaply. In a new issue brief, Connor Harris details five fixes that the MTA can make at little up-front cost—and some would even save money.
What do young progressives believe? On Thursday, join Manhattan Institute fellow and City Journal contributing editor Coleman Hughes; New York Times opinion columnist, Ross Douthat; and columnist for Tablet Magazine, Wesley Yang – to discuss the “Successor Ideology” that is quickly becoming a major force in our national life.
On July 30, we hosted a panel of experts — Musa Al-Gharbi (Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in Sociology, Columbia University); Zach Goldberg (PhD candidate in political science, Georgia State University); and Eric Kaufmann (Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, and author of the 2019 book Whiteshift) – for a discussion of how the “Great Awokening” has impacted the public debate, reshaped our two major parties, and upended the media landscape.
On July 29, we hosted a conversation between Manhattan Institute President, Reihan Salam, and writer and author, Andrew Sullivan, on viewpoint diversity in media, political polarization, and how social media is changing how the country understands itself.
Cities have been magnets for talented young adults in recent decades. But in the wake of a global pandemic and urban unrest, will these trends of millennial migration continue? On July 28, the Manhattan Institute hosted a conversation with City Observatory’s Joe Cortright on young talent and the fate of America’s urban renaissance.
Nicole Stelle Garnett joins Brian Anderson to discuss the importance of Catholic schools, their struggle to compete with charter schools, and what the Supreme Court’s recent Espinoza decision will mean for private-school choice—the subjects of her story, “Why We Still Need Catholic Schools,” in City Journal’s new summer issue.
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
08/03/2020
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Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
Bad Behavior; Journalists’ New Mantra; the Real Coolidge
By Carl M. Cannon on Aug 03, 2020 08:15 am
Good morning. It’s Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. On this date in U.S. history, the presidency passed in the middle of the night to Calvin Coolidge as he slept in his family’s Vermont farmhouse while on summer vacation. Coolidge’s father had eschewed getting a telephone even after his son had become vice president, but as Warren G. Harding drew his last breaths in a San Francisco hotel room, a telegram was sent across the country. It was hand-delivered to the Coolidge farmhouse at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 3, 1923.
“I was awakened by my father coming up the stairs, calling my name,” Coolidge recalled in his memoirs. “I noticed that his voice trembled. As the only times I had ever observed that before were when death had visited our family, I knew that something of the gravest nature had occurred.”
Calvin Coolidge dressed swiftly, knelt in a quick prayer, and descended the stairs with his wife, Grace — to their new lives. Coolidge had his stenographer type out the oath of office from a copy of the Constitution. By the light of a kerosene lamp, the oath was administered by his father, a notary public and justice of the peace.
In a moment, I’ll have more on “Silent Cal” Coolidge, whom I’ve written about in this space before. 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:
* * *
Capitol Hill in D.C. Is an Occupied Protest Zone, Too. Democrats’ behavior during William Barr’s congressional hearing last week prompted some comparisons for Frank Miele.
“Peaceful Riots”? Journalism Bows to the Woke Mob. Mark Hemingway takes issue with news outlets tempering their descriptions of violent riots that have broken out repeatedly in cities nationwide.
Biden: Transition to What? Steve Cortes considers the sources of input for the self-described “transition candidate’s” agenda as president.
Thomas Sowell Goes to Bat for Charter Schools — and Whiffs. The conservative economist’s new book ignores the fact that these schools reject America’s neediest children, Glenn Sacks argues.
Myths the Media Perpetuate About Gun Control. John R. Lott Jr. lists statistics and research that news outlets seldom choose to relay.
Biden’s Clean Energy Plan Will Fix Everything — and Nothing. In RealClearEnergy, Oliver McPherson-Smith asserts that the 7,000-word document is more hot air than substance.
School Reopening Debate Exposes One-Size-Fits-All Flaws. In RealClearEducation, Adam Peshek calls for greater flexibility amid the pandemic.
* * *
When Calvin Coolidge referred to the specter of death visiting his family, he was alluding to something he knew all too well. His mother and sister had died when he was a teenager. His father had remarried a schoolteacher named Carrie Athelia Brown, and she had passed away in 1920. Personal tragedy would also follow Coolidge to Washington.
Eleven months into his presidency, his two sons, John, 18, and Calvin Jr., 16, were playing tennis on the White House courts when young Calvin developed a blister. Then, as now, such a lesion could become infected. But with no antibiotics at that time, even small wounds could be deadly if the infection spread, and this one did. This beloved boy was gone within a week.
“The power and the glory of the presidency,” Coolidge said sadly, “went with him.”
Some of Coolidge’s famously stoic demeanor stemmed from these losses, and some of it was due to his Yankee upbringing. Coolidge also adhered to an early 20th century sensibility that using words sparingly could be an effective tool of leadership.
Alice Roosevelt may have gotten laughs by saying that Coolidge looked like he had been “weaned on a pickle.” And there’s that oft-told, and probably apocryphal, yarn of the White House dinner guest who gushed to the president that she had wagered she could get him to say more than two words to her — only to be told icily, “You lose.”
But even if most people don’t see it, there was always a joke hidden within the joke: You see, in that story, the supposedly anti-social Coolidge was hosting a dinner party. This was something Calvin and Grace Coolidge did quite often. His wife was outgoing, and the taciturn president enjoyed the company of people, even if he wasn’t much for small talk.
Even this was only half the story. Calvin Coolidge was a very public presence as chief executive. In 67 months the White House, he held 520 press conferences. He was the first president to appear in a talking film, and he was a cameraman’s dream. He liked being photographed and didn’t mind posing in farmer’s overalls, Indian headdresses, or even cowboy hats and chaps.
The public seemed to appreciate his dry Yankee wit, and admired his decision not to run for reelection in 1928. Today, Calvin Coolidge is remembered mainly for something he didn’t really say. The (mis)quoted Coolidge line is usually rendered as: “The business of America is business.”
This is employed, usually by Democrats, to impeach the supposedly mindless Republican embrace of the bottom line. These Coolidge critics are cribbing from a 1925 speech Coolidge delivered to newspaper editors at the National Press Club in which used the phrase, “After all, the chief business of the American people is business.”
But Coolidge was building to a larger point — the opposite point, really.
“Of course, the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence,” he added. “We want wealth, but there are many other things that we want very much more. We want peace and honor, and that charity which is so strong an element of all civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism.”
Please join us Monday at 1 PM for the fourth in the Center for Security Policy’s five-part Biosecurity Webinar Series as Center President and Executive Chairman Frank Gaffney inteviews Rosemary Gibson on America’s dependence on China for essential medical supplies and drugs. Gibson, a senior advisor at the Hastings Center and an expert in health care, health care reform, and patient safety, will explain China’s threats to withhold medical supplies and drugs during the virus crisis in retaliation for criticism of its mishandling of the pandemic. She also will discuss how many of the medical supplies sent by China to other countries during the pandemic, such as protective masks, were defective. Gibson believes it is urgent for the United States and the world to end its dependence on China for crucial medicines and medical supplies.
Rosemary Gibson will discuss during the webinar her chapter in the Center’s groundbreaking new book, Defending Against Biothreats: What We Can Learn from the Coronavirus Pandemic to Enhance U.S. Defenses Against Pandemics and Biological Weapons available for purchase now on Amazon.com.
Over the past several years, public discourse in the United States has seen a lot of new lows. It saw another one this month when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to federal officers in Portland, Oregon as “stormtroopers,” that is, Nazi Brownshirts.
In a tweet on July 18 and in subsequent remarks, Pelosi accused the federal forces deployed to Portland of “kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti.”
President Trump has declared that he’s going to follow India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in banning the popular Chinese application called TikTok. He said the company’s sale to an American one wouldn’t change his conclusion that its widespread use, mostly by young people, is a threat to their privacy and to the national security.
Mr. Trump is absolutely right. TikTok has been engineered to collect vast amounts of weaponizable information from its users and transmit such data to China. Worse yet, the app can reportedly be remotely reconfigured to be even more of a Chinese black hole for unsuspecting Americans’ privacy.
Friend-of-China Microsoft is seeking to put an American front on this Chinese collection operation. Its CEO spoke with the President and says he’s going ahead with buy-out negotiations.
Mr. Trump must hold firm: TikTok has to be banned, not bailed out.
This is Frank Gaffney.
DAVID GOLDMAN, Best known for his series of essays in the Asia Times under the pseudonym Spengler, Author of new book You Will be Assimilated: China’s Plan to Sino-Form the World:
China’s belief that the world is in the fourth industrial revolution
Below is a sneak peek of this content! If you want to know what the United States would look like if progressives someday take over the federal government, just turn on your television set and watch the chaos play out before your eyes in cities run by progressives. Ted Wheeler,… 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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By Donald J. Boudreaux | “I cannot explain why the public reacts rationally – that is, without much concern – to news of famous young people testing positive for COVID but, to other news about COVID, reacts irrationally. This discrepancy itself…
Paul Krugman’s Ad Hominem Defense of Central Banking
By Richard M. Ebeling | “Paul Krugman may hide behind rude and crude ad hominem attacks on those who do not share his views, but that does not prove his case. It only serves to harm his own reputation and legitimacy in the arena of public policy…
By Art Carden | “Hutt was a complex thinker in a difficult time who worked to split the difference between the best world we can imagine and the best world that is feasible subject to the constraints we face in the world we actually inhabit.
How Did Spending on Health Care Plunge During a Pandemic?
By Robert Hughes | Americans spend on health care. In 2019, the total was just over $3 trillion or about 14.3 percent of gross domestic product, measured in nominal terms. For the 20 years through the end of 2019, nominal spending on health care…
By Thomas L. Hogan | “Considering the evidence, it appears to be Mr. Rattner, rather than Ms. Shelton, who holds “long-discredited positions on the monetary system.” Historical bank failures and crises, particularly during the Great Depression…
By Taleed Brown | For the last 5 months, Americans have been bullied and punished by political elites who decided in their wisdom, to mask us, take away our jobs, depress our economic prospects, order us indoors and fine us, if we dare not comply.
It’s the small things that we use daily in life that reveal our loyalties. This is precisely why we made an AIER coffee mug. It suggests stability, dignity, and determination. It has personalized a matte-finish exterior with a shiny lip and interior. It has a 17-oz capacity and a flat handle for comfort. It says everything it needs to say!
“The 1619 Project, it seemed, could serve as both an enduring long-term curriculum for high school and college classrooms and an activist manual for the 2020 campaign season. Unfortunately the blending of these two competing aims usually results in the sacrifice of scholarly standards in the service of the ideological objective.”
On the menu today: A new analysis of crime figures illustrates why “defund the police” will never catch on beyond the hardest of the hard-left enclaves; a New York Times column offers a bizarre and near-apocalyptic scenario for the upcoming presidential election; the coronavirus restrictions in New York City make less sense by the day; and a fun, wide-ranging chat.
Defund the Police? In Our Biggest Cities, Homicides Are Up 24 Percent So Far This Year
A Wall Street Journal analysis of crime statistics among the nation’s 50 largest cities found that reported homicides were up 24 percent so far this year, to 3,612. Shootings and gun violence also rose, even though many other violent crimes such as robbery fell.
Police, researchers, mayors and community leaders see a … READ MORE
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Facebook’s Summer of Support program helps small businesses
As many storefronts remain closed, Boost with Facebook’s Summer of Support program is helping millions of people and small business owners gain skills and find resources they need to grow and transition online.
“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
Obama Senior Advisor would not answer whether former President Obama directed any of the spying and investigations into candidate and President Trump when on with… Read more…
There is more than enough evidence today for the American public to demand an audit on the legitimacy of the coronavirus numbers. There have been… Read more…
There is more than enough evidence today for the American public to demand an audit on the legitimacy of the coronavirus numbers. There have been… Read more…
Far left billionaire George Soros has been systematically targeting district attorney races throughout the United States for several years now. Many of his candidates are… Read more…
The Crew Dragon SpaceX capsule splashed down off the coast of Florida on Sunday. Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley returned to earth on Sunday… Read more…
An unhinged lunatic approached two men, sitting outside in Manhattan Beach, California. The woman then lectured the men for not wearing masks. She didn’t like… Read more…
President Trump’s Rasmussen approval rating hit 51% on Monday. This is despite the horrific attacks by Democrats and their fake news media over the coronavirus… Read more…
Well, this is a no-brainer. President Donald Trump SURGED past Sleepy Joe in the latest monthly Democracy Institute/ Sunday Express poll on the economy. Trump… Read more…
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If there is a potential silver lining to the United States’ experience with COVID-19, it can be found in the domain of primary and secondary education, where the demand for alternatives to traditional public schools is surging. The pandemic has both laid bare the US education gap and pointed the way to a solution.
With sovereign-bond markets still showing little concern for the massive levels of borrowing and spending across advanced economies, it is tempting to think that there is effectively no limit to further stimulus. But we owe it to future generations to recognize how spending today could affect investment tomorrow.
John Kay and Mervyn King talk about their book, Radical Uncertainty, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. This is a wide-ranging discussion based on the book looking at rationality, decision-making under uncertainty, and the economists’ view of the world.
A Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and co-author of “Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present and Future of Advanced Placement,” Chester E. Finn, Jr., joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss standardized testing, and how higher education is moving away from requiring tests as part of the application process amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
President Trump needs to tell the American people how he plans to fix our health care system if he wants to win reelection. It’s an issue that many Americans care deeply about, and one that the President and Republicans should not be afraid to address.
It gets more ludicrous with every passing day – and more sinister. Take the case of Professor Patricia Simon, from Marymount Manhattan College in New York, who made the mistake of failing to be sufficiently enthusiastic in the course of a Zoom meeting.
In his 1987 book Crisis and Leviathan, economic historian Robert Higgs argued that in the 20th century, the U.S. federal government grew mainly as a result of three crises: World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. During those crises, the feds raised taxes, introduced more spending programs, and took on more regulatory power.
Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz discusses the thinking behind the the new Commission on Unalienable Rights’s report and the conclusions it presents.
Hoover Institution fellow Lanhee Chen joins a panel to discuss whether US elections are secure, mail-in voting, Biden’s running mate, and the COVID-19 stimulus issues.
Kevin Williams reviews Thomas Sowell’s new book on charter schools in the July 27 issue of National Review. The review is published under the headline “The Collapsing Case against Charter Schools.”
Joe Biden sent his own children to an elite private school, and parades as the Black Lives Matter candidate, yet his policies are openly hostile to the educational choices that offer the best chance for minority advancement.
While many parents rightly wonder if their kids will “ever get an education” as teachers’ unions threaten “safety strikes,” David R. Henderson at The Wall Street Journal is “optimistic about the future of education” in general.
Democratic vice-presidential hopefuls sprinted for the finish Sunday as the 2020 veepstakes entered the home stretch in what could be the most crucial running-mate selection since World War II.
The widespread view that fossil fuels are “dirty” and renewables such as wind and solar energy and electric vehicles are “clean” has become a fixture of mainstream media and policy assumptions across the political spectrum in developed countries, perhaps with the exception of the Trump-led US administration.
Welcome to 2020. The New York Times wins a Pulitzer Prize for its “1619 Project,” which depicts slavery as a distinctly American phenomenon and as the very foundation of American civilization.
Steven Millies, a scholar who explores the Catholic Church’s relationship to politics, feels more optimistic today than he has in a long time about young people in this country voting in a national election.
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
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Kansas Republicans will decide whether to pick a Senate candidate the national party would rather they didn’t, while several House incumbents, including one recently charged with voter fraud and another who is part of the “squad,” face challengers Tuesday as five states hold primaries. Read More…
Rep. Louie Gohmert’s positive coronavirus test this week raised questions about whether people in or around the Capitol should get regular testing — but it’s not as simple as it sounds. “The Capitol physician has not said yet that he thinks that we should be tested,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Friday. Read More…
Georgia Democratic Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr. may have used thousands in campaign funds for personal expenses on gas fill-ups for him and his family, greens fees at country clubs, luxurious trips and school tuition, according to an Office of Congressional Ethics report released Friday. Read More…
Last week on Capitol Hill, another lawmaker tested positive for COVID-19, everyone yelled about masks, and no one remembered to silence their phones or mute their Zoom calls, and Sen. John Kennedy introduced the world to the concept of “spending porn.” Read More…
The House on Friday formally reprimanded Arizona Republican Rep. David Schweikert for permitting his office to misuse taxpayer dollars, violating campaign finance reporting requirements, and several other violations of federal law and House rules, a rare sanction of an individual member by his colleagues. Read More…
Georgia Rep. John Lewis made one last visit to the Capitol and negotiations on the latest coronavirus aid package continued in the Senate as both chambers attempt to wrap up business before the start of the summer recess. Here’s a look at the week ending July 31 as seen through the lenses of CQ Roll Call’s photojournalists. Read More…
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August 03 2020
On the menu today: A new analysis of crime figures illustrates why “defund the police” will never catch on beyond the hardest of the hard-left enclaves; a New York Times column offers a bizarre and near-apocalyptic scenario for the upcoming presidential election; the coronavirus restrictions in New York City make less sense by the day; and a fun, wide-ranging chat.
“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
Episode 311: Sparta’s Second… 
Joe Biden Shortens His… 
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