Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Monday August 10, 2020
THE DAILY SIGNAL
Aug 10, 2020
Good morning from Washington, where concerns grow about China’s interference in this fall’s election. Fred Lucas breaks down the issues. Take the talk of coronavirus hot spots with a grain of salt, Doug Badger and Amy Anderson write. On the podcast, the secretary of the interior outlines a new kind of national defense. Plus: prodding tech companies to respect free speech; The Washington Post’s factual errors on election fraud; the left’s assault on traditional values; and the return of your letters. Seventy-five years ago today, Japan agrees to an unconditional surrender to the Allies after the U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki in the space of three days.
Experts say China would not be able to change votes cast by Americans. But this could be cyberwarfare that the United States might not be prepared for, and could create chaos and lack of trust in the integrity of the election results.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows says the Trump administration is contemplating some type of regulation for social media companies as part of the COVID-19 relief legislation being negotiated with Congress.
As practically every American institution comes under attack from the far left and its allies, two of our most essential values seem to be especially targeted in an effort to “transform America.”
“Although I do feel that the majority of Minnesotans support our police, I work in the heart of the metro surrounded by far-left supporters and it is difficult to feel comfortable speaking about this topic,” writes Susie O’Konek.
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Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges have a combined market capitalization of over half a trillion dollars. But they don’t comply with American financial regulations, because Beijing restricts access to full audits.
Hong Kong Police Arrest Media Tycoon Under New Security Law
An outspoken, pro-democracy figure. From the story: Hong Kong police arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the publisher’s headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year (AP). From Katie Pavlich: “Will tech giants in the U.S. finally speak out against the Chinese Communist Party? (Twitter).
2.
Portland Rioters Attack Elderly Woman, Cover Her in Paint
She was trying to persuade rioters to stop the vandalism (Washington Examiner). From Andy Ngo: “We’re gonna burn your building down” “We know where you live” As #antifa have taken to Portland residential areas to riot, they’ve also assaulted & intimidated residents there. Tonight, they threatened those who looked out the window (Twitter). From Rod Dreher: If the Crips or the Bloods or MS-13 were doing this night after night, does anybody think that the authorities would tolerate it? Why does Portland put up with antifa? (Twitter). They set the police union building on fire Saturday night (CBS News). In Seattle, a pro-police rally was met by Antifa members trying to start fights, burn flags (KTTH).
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3.
Colorado Police Department Losing Officers as Politicians Make the Job Worse
From the story: What’s the upshot of all of this been? Far fewer interactions with the public and a significant increase in police officers retiring early or simply quitting and seeking new types of employment.
Teacher Says Online Teaching is a Problem Because Parents See What They’re Up To
And in his case, he is teaching them things parents would quite rightfully object to (American Conservative). From Matt Walsh: Public school teachers are afraid that you might be able to hear them brainwashing your kids (Twitter).
7.
Amazon Removes Another Book on Homosexuality for Political Incorrectness
The book is “Growth into Manhood: Resuming the Journey” by Alan Medinger. It’s from the year 2000. From John Stonestreet: Just received from @amazon: “We are writing to let you know that the following detail pages have been removed from our catalog: Title: Growth into Manhood: Resuming the Journey During a review, we found the subject matter of your book violates our content guidelines for books” (John Stonestreet). From Denny Burk: This is chilling (Twitter).
8.
Study Finds Elite Media Lives in Unrealistic Bubble
From the story: “Most of the time, what happens on Twitter does not reflect the real world. But in the case of political journalism and political elites, generally speaking, what happens on Twitter is reality.” It’s an online reflection of their offline lives and work, she said, and plays a significant role in agenda-setting.
USC Student Government Leader Resigns as Anti-Semitism Puts Her in Danger
From Rose Ritch’s resignation letter: I… am disappointed that the university has not recognized the need to publicly protect Jewish students from the type of antisemitic harassment I endured. At this point, resignation is the only sustainable choice I can make to protect my physical safety on campus and my mental health.
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After more than a decade of experience as a state government communications director, Jenn Meale Poggie is joining Sachs Media Group as senior account manager of public affairs.
In that time, Poggie has held senior roles in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. But since former Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam left office, Poggie has taken time off to get married and grow her family.
Congrats to Jenn Meale Poggie, who is joining Sachs Media Group as senior account manager of public affairs.
Now, she is making her first foray into the private sector for Sachs Media, a Tallahassee-based public relations firm.
“Jenn is an exemplary talent whose vast, respected experience and diverse skills deepen our leadership bench with outstanding strategic thinking, a powerful network of relationships, and proven communications skills,” said Sachs Media Group Founder and CEO Ron Sachs. “Her top-level background makes her a very strong, major addition to our team.”
Poggie brings experience in national media relations, crisis communications and public safety initiatives.
“Jenn will play a key role in leading significant accounts that involve statewide outreach, important public policy issues, and insider knowledge of state government,” said Michelle Ubben, president and partner at Sachs Media. “We run on talent, so it’s exciting to welcome a superb professional like Jenn to our great team.”
Poggie is making the transition to public relations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted business operations everywhere. But she isn’t deterred by the new normal, and with her years in state government, she has already built relationships with much of the company’s leadership team.
“I am thrilled to be joining the high-caliber, talented team at Sachs Media,” she said. “During the course of my career, I have seen firsthand how the firm’s effective strategic campaigns have advanced positive public policy, changed public behavior and achieved its clients’ vital missions.”
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More great news for our friends at Sachs Media Group:
Situational awareness
—@Geraldo Rivera: There are reasons to vote against @realDonaldTrump. If he loses though, I’ll blame Republican traitors.
—@MarcoRubio: 82% of #COVID19 deaths in #Florida were people over 65, about half of who were residents or staff of nursing & long-term care facilities. So then why don’t we make it our singular priority to protect people over 65, especially those in nursing & long-term care facilities?
—@RobertMaguire_: Social media from friends and family in Taiwan — which acted quickly to address the pandemic and has only seen SEVEN deaths — is like looking at an alternate universe: Maskless friends snap dinner pics at packed restaurants, parents pick their kids up at schools that never closed …
—@Golikehellmachi: when unemployed Floridians don’t see any of T the moon rump’s unemployment money (setting aside whether it materializes at all), who throws who under the bus first? Trump, or [Ron] DeSantis?
Tweet, tweet:
Tweet, tweet:
Tweet, tweet:
Days until
Florida primaries for 2020 state legislative/congressional races — 8; Florida Bar exams begin online (rescheduled) — 9; Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee begins — 9; Regal Cinemas reopen in U.S. — 11; Indy 500 rescheduled — 13; Republican National Convention begins in Charlotte — 14; NBA draft lottery — 15; Rev. Al Sharpton’s D.C. March — 19; U.S. Open begins — 21; Christopher Nolan‘s “Tenet” rescheduled premiere in U.S. — 24; Rescheduled running of the Kentucky Derby — 26; Rescheduled date for French Open — 41; First presidential debate in Indiana — 50; “Wonder Woman” premieres — 53; Preakness Stakes rescheduled — 54; Ashley Moody’s 2020 Human Trafficking Summit — 57; First vice presidential debate at the University of Utah — 58; NBA season ends (last possible date) — 63; Second presidential debate scheduled at Miami — 66; NBA draft — 67; Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” premieres — 67; NBA free agency — 70; Florida Chamber’s Future of Florida Forum — 71; Third presidential debate at Belmont — 73; 2020 General Election — 85; “Black Widow” premieres — 89; NBA 2020-21 training camp — 91; Florida Automated Vehicles Summit — 102; “No Time to Die” premieres — 102; NBA 2020-21 opening night — 115; Super Bowl LV in Tampa — 181; “A Quiet Place Part II” rescheduled premiere — 193; “Top Gun: Maverick” rescheduled premiere — 326; New start date for 2021 Olympics — 347; “Jungle Cruise” premieres — 355; “Spider-Man Far From Home” sequel premieres — 452; “Thor: Love and Thunder” premieres — 550; “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” premieres — 592; “Black Panther 2” premieres — 634; “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” sequel premieres — 787.
Countdown to primary 1
“Candidates spend big in CD 15 as Ross Spano faces opposition from both sides” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics — Candidates in Florida’s 15th Congressional District spent big in July as the push toward the Aug. 18 primary shifted into full gear. All but one candidate dipped into six-figure spending throughout the month. Democratic Jesse Philippe hasn’t filed financial reports for the month, missing the Aug. 6 deadline to do so. As of June 30, the most recent report available for the candidate, Philippe had raised less than $16,000, meaning his July report likely didn’t show the aggressive spending represented in the more competitive candidates’ reports. The race is one of Florida’s most hotly contested, with candidates from both parties going hard after Spano, whose campaign finance snafu in 2028 continues to haunt him as he wards off what has become a more difficult first reelection campaign than it should have been. Spano drew a primary opponent in Lakeland City Commissioner Scott Franklin.
Ross Spano faces aggressive attacks from both sides.
“Pam Keith ad says Brian Mast ‘betrayed’ CD 18 voters” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Keith is releasing her first TV ad targeting Mast as Keith seeks his seat in Florida’s 18th Congressional District Keith is competing against lawyer Oz Vazquez for the Democratic nomination. Mast is also facing a primary challenge from retired police sergeant Nick Vessio. Keith’s new 30-second ad is titled “Betrayed” and launched with fewer than two weeks remaining until the Aug. 18 primary. “Donald Trump lied, calling COVID a hoax. Mast was silent,” the ad’s narrator begins. It should be noted fact-checkers have ruled Trump did not call COVID-19 a hoax. Rather, he used the phrase in response to Democrats’ efforts to pin the blame for the virus on him. Trump called those efforts to blame him for the virus’s spread a “hoax.”
“Laura Loomer crosses $1M raised ahead of CD 21 primary” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Loomer added another $216,000 to her campaign ahead of the Aug. 18 primary for Florida’s 21st Congressional District. That haul puts her over $1 million raised for the cycle so far. Loomer is largely raising that money from pricey fundraising services. Much of her incoming cash has been sent right back out to pay for fees associated with those various services. For instance, around a third of Loomer’s pre-primary haul — nearly $70,000 — was spent on “email fundraising fees,” “online fundraising fees” and other similar charges to help the insurgent candidate raise money. Loomer also paid more than $59,000 to the Fort Lauderdale-based firm Voter Infusion for text messaging. Nearly $12,000 went toward a company called The Blackout Bureau for similar services.
This is over the top — “Shady tactics suggest GOP is scared it picked a loser in Jason Brodeur” via Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel — A secretive political committee with GOP connections is spending big bucks to support a Democratic candidate in Seminole County. Perhaps that sentence confused you since it said a Republican-linked firm was supporting a Democrat. If it did, that’s probably because you’re a normal person who doesn’t immerse yourself in the skankiness of Florida politics. Republicans are worried that their chosen candidate in a key state Senate race is going to lose. So they’re trying to take down a promising Democrat before she has a chance to take out their guy. Brodeur voted in 2011 to create the failed unemployment system. He was named Florida’s biggest recipient of money from opioid-makers in 2018. And he made national headlines when he filed a dangerously bad bill that attempted to imprison doctors who discussed gun safety with their patients.
Does the GOP think they have a loser in Jason Brodeur? It’s a stretch.
“Irv Slosberg has now spent more than $1 million of his own money in bid for SD 29 seat” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Slosberg is spending big once again, as he’s now dropped more than $1 million in his bid to secure a Senate seat as the Aug. 18 primary closes in. That spending spree has come in just over two months, as Slosberg declared for the seat in late May. Slosberg is competing against Rep. Tina Polsky in Senate District 29. He added another $335,000 in loans to his campaign in the most recent reporting period, which covered July 25-31. Slosberg also spent nearly $234,000 during that same span. In the previous reporting period, Slosberg barely added any money, allowing Polsky to easily top him in fundraising. Slosberg has largely self-funded his campaign, raising only $42,000 in outside money since launching his campaign. Polsky collected more than $58,000 in the most recent one-week reporting period alone.
“Michele Rayner grows cash lead in HD 70 race to replace Wengay Newton” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics — Rayner leads the House District 70 race by far in both overall funds raised and cash on hand, according to the latest campaign finance reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections. Rayner is running against three other Democrats in the race to replace Newton who is not seeking reelection to run instead for Pinellas County Commission. Rayner has raised nearly $97,000 to date including $12,020 in the last week of July. It was Rayner’s second-best fundraising period to date behind March when she first filed for the race and raised more than $20,000. However, that period covered nearly a month while the most recent report spanned just seven days. Rayner maintains just shy of $20,000 on hand heading into August. Rayner’s contributions show broad support with 52 individual contributors donating $231 on average. Rayner spent more than $15,000 during the week, most of that to Statecraft Digital in Orlando for digital advertising.
“Adam Botana holds 16-point lead on Jason Maughan in HD 76” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics — The latest polling shows Botana with a double-digit lead on Maughan in a Southwest Florida House primary. A St. Pete Polls survey of likely Republican voters in House District 76 found nearly 35% would vote for Botana is the primary were held today. Just over 19% would pick Maughan. Pollsters report a 5.6% margin of error. That’s after both sides have pumped more than $300,000 into a race, selling their business background and loyalty to Trump — and on publicizing the other candidates’ arrest records. With more than 46% of voters still undecided, there’s still room for Maughan to catch up, but time is running out before the Aug. 18 primary.
“Kevin Rader: Sorry, Michael Weinstein — Kelly Skidmore has stronger ties to HD 81; you should apologize, not attack her supporters” via Florida Politics — Last week, Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon rightly observed that Weinstein portrayed sexist double-standards when he attacked Skidmore as a “career politician” for serving four years in the Florida House while commending men like his father for serving 14 years in the Florida Senate and many years as chief judge in Broward. Weinstein was infuriated by Gannon’s editorial and quickly trotted out the Ted Yoho-esque “some of my best friends are women” defense in a column of his own, pointing to his mother and wife. This defense just added to the insult. I have heard from many women who wholeheartedly agreed with Gannon, and having served many years in public office myself, know better than to suggest that it is not all right for women to pursue the same.
Michael Weinstein is accused of having a sexist double standard about ‘career politicians.’ Image via Facebook.
“Florida Keys state House race turns ugly with attack mailers and texts” via David Goodhue of the Miami Herald — Rhonda Rebman Lopez’s campaign is denying it is behind a series of mailers attacking both her opponent for the District 120 state House election and a candidate for a county commission seat in the Florida Keys. However, at least one of the mailers targeting James “Jim” Mooney, one of Rebman Lopez’s two opponents running in the GOP primary, was sent by South Florida First, a political action committee. She is registered with the state as chairperson. The others were sent by an electioneering communication office called Voters Response, which shares the same street address in Tallahassee as South Florida First. One of the mailers, asks, “Who is the real Jim Mooney?” Then it ticks down three other questions. The first, bulleted with the Soviet hammer and sickle, asks: “Communist Sympathizer?” The others ask: “Fiscally Irresponsible?” and “Tax and Spend Liberal?”
“Amy Mercado blasts Rick Singh over ‘Hispanic female’ comment” via Steven Lemongello of the Orlando Sentinel — Mercado called on Orange County Property Appraiser Singh to apologize for comments he made implying she was picked to run against him because she is a “Hispanic female.” Singh refused, and called Mercado’s concerns a “bogus issue.” In an interview published Monday in the Orlando Sentinel, Singh said Mercado, who along with Khalid Muneer is challenging Singh in the Aug. 18 Democratic primary, was recruited by business interests tied to Disney because of her gender and ethnicity. “They went out and found someone with a larger name ID” than another one of his 2020 opponents who dropped out, Yesinia Baron, “and of course a Hispanic female, [because] they’re targeting minority Democratic women,” Singh said.
Amy Mercado is calling out Rick Singh for a racially insensitive comment.
“Big developers bundle campaign cash for commission incumbents” via Karl Etters of the Tallahassee Democrat — Prominent developers, builders and real estate people well known for bundling campaign donations for their favorite candidates are throwing considerable financial support behind two Tallahassee city commissioners facing tough primary competition. The Commissioners, Elaine Bryant and Curtis Richardson, are running in the Aug. 18 primary. Bryant, who was appointed in 2018, is locked in what appears to be a close contest with challenger Jack Porter. Prominent developers, builders and real estate people well known for bundling campaign donations for their favorite candidates are throwing considerable financial support behind two Tallahassee city commissioners facing tough primary competition. The most prolific donors can get around the limits easily by giving through multiple corporate entities, a perfectly legal practice that irks proponents of campaign finance reform.
“Lee Sheriff Carmine Marceno running on record, leadership; opponents say he’s not qualified” via Ryan Mills of the Fort Myers News-Press — Marceno, 48, is now running his first campaign, facing off in the Aug. 18 Republican primary against Jim Leavens, a 30-year veteran of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. The winner will likely be the favorite in November’s general election against Democrat Robert Neeld and two candidates without party affiliation, Carmen McKinney and Coach Ray. Marceno is approaching Election Day with several advantages — name recognition, a decreasing crime rate, a flush bank account and key endorsements, including the Mayors of Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Sanibel. Marceno’s critics say he doesn’t have the experience to be sheriff — he was never a detective, never led a district or a specialty bureau and had little command experience before he was appointed sheriff.
“Miami-Dade judicial candidate Joe Perkins misrepresents editorial board’s intent” via the Miami Herald editorial board — Perkins, a candidate in the race for Miami-Dade District Court, Group 55, has twisted our words in an email ad sent to Miami-Dade voters. Perkins’s ad is right: He “did not get the endorsement” from the Miami Herald. And he’s correct that our recommendation said that “he would be a judge favored by attorneys, prosecutors and public defenders.” But he takes those words out of context, presenting them as a compliment when our complete paragraph made clear that it was not meant as praise. The ad’s offending sentence: “We are grateful for this recognition of our broad and diverse support …” Our concern [was] that defendants and others in the court system would come in second in his courtroom.
Joe Perkins takes a Miami Herald non-endorsement completely out of context. Image via Twitter.
“Republican newcomers face off in primary race seeking to replace Collier Commissioner Donna Fiala” via Patrick Riley of the Naples Daily News — Three Republicans — Mark Batchelor, William Douglass and Rick LoCastro — are facing off in the Aug. 18 primary election. The winner is set to go head-to-head with Democrat John Jenkins at the Nov. 3 general election. Jenkins recently faced calls from his own party to drop out of the race after his arrest in connection with a drug-related charge. His campaign coordinator has said she is confident that after the investigation the charges against Jenkins will be dropped or dismissed. As of Friday morning, he remained in the running. Two other Republican candidates are no longer in the race: Cliff Donenfeld did not qualify and Jacob Winge dropped out in May, citing the difficulties of running a campaign during a pandemic.
“Growth, development shape race for sprawling, rural Collier Commission District 5” via Patrick Riley of the Naples Daily News — In Collier County’s largest commission district by area, where builders plan rural communities and environmentalists worry about preserving wildlife habitat and wetlands, growth and development issues frequently bubble up. The topic is helping shape the race for District 5 and four candidates are vying to represent the vast area. Commissioner Bill McDaniel, a Republican, has held the seat since he was elected in 2016 and now faces Republican challenger Mike Petscher in the Aug. 18 primary. The winner of that contest will go up against Raymond Christopher, who switched from running as a Republican to no party affiliation, and Democrat David Turrubiartez Jr. in the general election Nov. 3.
“Another election, another chance for write-in candidates to disenfranchise Florida voters” via the Orlando Sentinel editorial board — If you ever wondered what it feels like to single-handedly deny tens of thousands of people the ability to cast a vote, just ask Janette Martinez. She’s one of this year’s poster children for why Florida needs to reform the rules for write-in candidates, who have the state’s permission to legally disenfranchise voters nearly every election cycle. Martinez is running for Osceola County Commission as a write-in candidate in a district that covers the northwest part of the county. It’s the same district where her friend, incumbent Commissioner Peggy Choudhry, is running in a primary against two other Democrats. But because Martinez qualified as a write-in candidate for the general election this fall, that disqualified the majority of voters in Osceola, including more than 50,000 Republicans and 76,000 independents, from casting a ballot, closing what otherwise should have been an open primary for all voters.
“History professor who has accurately predicted every election since 1984 says Donald Trump will lose” via Allison Gordon of CNN — History professor Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted the winner of each presidential race since Ronald Reagan‘s reelection victory in 1984 using his “13 keys” system. Now, Lichtman and his “13 keys” are ready to call 2020. In an interview, Lichtman was definitive in his answer: “The keys predict that Donald Trump will lose the White House this year.” “The secret is keeping your eye on the big picture of incumbent strength and performance. And don’t pay any attention to the polls, the pundits, the day-to-day ups and downs of the campaign. And that’s what the keys gauge. The big picture,” Lichtman explained. When asked if the key model could account for something as cataclysmic as the COVID-19 pandemic, Lichtman remained confident.
History professor Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted every election since Ronald Reagan. He believes Donald Trump will lose in 2020.
“Ahead of Florida bus tour, Corey Lewandowski talks Trump reelection strategy” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida politics — Lewandowski will be on a three-day journey starting in Kissimmee and Orlando with former Attorney General and current Ballard Partners lobbyist Pam Bondi, former Never-Trumper and current Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and Eric Trump. In 2016, Lewandowski said Trump capitalized on an element of surprise. Democrats “never believed Donald Trump was running for President.” The President outworked the Democrats with rallies galore. This time around? It’s a rally-free environment due to the pandemic, creating unique challenges for a President who relied on rallies as the energy in 2016. The change of campaign managers was an organic process, he said. The President, meanwhile, has a “promises made, promises kept” record to run on.
“Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor Adelson in heated phone call” via Alex Isenstadt of POLITICO — When Trump connected by phone last week with Adelson, perhaps the only person in the party who can cut a nine-figure check to aid his reelection, the phone call unexpectedly turned contentious. The 87-year-old casino mogul had reached out to Trump to talk about the coronavirus relief bill and the economy. But then Trump brought the conversation around to the campaign and confronted Adelson about why he wasn’t doing more to bolster his reelection. One of the people said it was apparent the president had no idea how much Adelson, who’s donated tens of millions of dollars to pro-Trump efforts over the years, had helped him. Adelson chose not to come back at Trump.
“Joe Biden campaign, women’s groups are working to blunt sexist attacks on his vice presidential pick” via Annie Linskey and Isaac Stanley-Becker of The Washington Post — The all-hands-on-deck approach within the Biden campaign is being separately bolstered by some of the country’s leading women’s groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice America, EMILY’s List, She the People and UltraViolet, who have been strategizing for months about how to best defend Biden’s vice-presidential pick from sexist and racist insults. Even before the nominee is named, some being considered by Biden are beginning to face the same sorts of attacks, playing on negative stereotypes, that the campaign and independent groups have vowed to confront. The posture by Biden’s campaign and women’s groups is meant to be far more aggressive than the way gender attacks were dealt with in 2016.
Joe Biden’s campaign and women’s groups are preparing for sexist attacks on his eventual vice-presidential pick. Image via AP.
“New registration numbers show GOP gains” via Bill Cotterell of the Tallahassee Democrat — Florida has nearly 14 million registered voters, an increase of just over a million since the last presidential election, and the latest statistics seem to favor the Republicans. Not necessarily home Trump, though. Depending on turnout the narrowing of the partisan gap between the two parties should augur well for down-ballot races, at the legislative and county levels. That’s significant in the long term because maintaining Republican control of the Florida House and Senate, or maybe increasing GOP strength, will be important in redrawing legislative and congressional district boundaries in the coming term. What’s a little surprising in the raw data is that the Republicans gained 377,196 voters since the 2016 general election, while the Democrats picked up 290,181.
Corona Florida
“Florida’s coronavirus stats dip: 77 deaths, 6,229 new cases” via Brendan Farrington of The Associated Press — That compares to 187 new deaths and 8,502 confirmed cases reported Saturday. Still, the average number of deaths reported over the last seven days is 158. And the number of hospitalizations due to the virus crept up slightly. The state reported 6,857 patients treated in hospitals because of the virus, compared to 6,836 the day before. Miami-Dade County had the most hospitalizations with 1,510, followed by Broward County with 909.
“Many who have died of COVID-19 in Florida’s prisons were eligible for parole” via Grace Toohey of the Orlando Sentinel — When Florida’s parole board reviewed his case in late 2018, it had been decades since Stephen “Steve” Maxwell last resembled the “bad boy” sentenced to prison for a crime spree in the 1970s, his longtime friend Nancy Watson said. Maxwell was eligible for parole on robbery, battery and kidnapping charges. The state Commission on Offender Review decided not to grant it at the time but indicated he would likely be released this December. Instead, Maxwell, 68, died in April from complications of COVID-19 at Sumter Correctional Institution in Bushnell. There are at least 13 cases in addition to Maxwell’s in which the inmate had been eligible for parole upon their passing.
“‘It ain’t the flu’: Rep. Randy Fine released after COVID-19 hospitalization” via Tyler Vazquez of Florida Today — Fine was released from the hospital after a five-day stay related to severe COVID-19 symptoms and lung damage. Fine tested positive for the novel coronavirus and experienced somewhat mild symptoms for nearly two weeks before being hospitalized. In a Facebook live broadcast Friday, he expressed deep gratitude for the “miracle workers” at Holmes Regional Medical Center who he credits with saving his life since he was admitted to the hospital Sunday. “They don’t get to social distance. They come right over to you,” he said of the health care workers who helped him pull through the worst of the disease. “I had sort of COVID pneumonia that’s not regular pneumonia covering 30% of my lungs,” Fine said. “My blood oxygen was critically low apparently.”
Randy Fine, recovering from COVID-19, says it is definitely not “the flu.”
“This Florida lawmaker tried donating plasma after getting COVID-19. FDA policy turned him away.” via Samantha J. Gross of the Tampa Bay Times — Rep. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat currently running for the state Senate, says he was turned away Friday while attempting to donate his plasma at a OneBlood truck set up in the parking lot of the Pembroke Park church where his father’s a pastor. Jones, who went to donate plasma with his father, mother and brother, all of whom recently recovered from COVID-19, said his donation was “deferred” after he answered “yes” to a screening question that asked if he had sex with a man in the last three months. Jones is one of Florida’s few openly gay lawmakers. The question is part of a Food and Drug Administration rule called the Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM) policy, which generally bars gay or bisexual men from donating blood for a 12-month period. The FDA implemented a new rule in April that reduced the period from 12 to three months of abstinence before a gay or bisexual man can donate.
Back to school?
“Amid controversy and worry, Orange County schools start academic year Monday” via Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel — Orange County’s public school students return to classes Monday, the first in Central Florida to usher in a school year that will be marked by required face masks, deep teacher unease and reliance on online education in the face of COVID-19. Orange’s students will start the year at home, turning on their laptops to log in to live, online classes, following the same “bell schedule” used on campus. Nearly 30% have signed up to shift to in-person classes on Aug. 21, when Orange campuses open for students. The rest will continue to study online. The academic year will start in Orange as teachers, and their unions, argue statewide that schools should not be opening at all, given the number of coronavirus cases in Florida. Three lawsuits, two filed in Orange, challenge the state’s efforts to compel public schools to open this month.
Orange County schools will soon open amid uncertainty and unease by students and teachers. Image via AP.
“Department of Health not giving schools guidance puts Duval in ‘double bind situation‘” via Emily Bloch of The Florida Times-Union — When the Florida Department of Education ordered state schools to reopen this fall, it was presented to superintendents as a choice: brick-and-mortar five-days-per-week or coordinate with your local department of health But a new review revealed that a directive from DeSantis’ administration suppressed county health directors’ ability to advise school districts about remaining closed or reopening during a pandemic. Jacksonville is no exception. “I have been transparent,” Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Diana Greene said on Tuesday at a school board meeting. “I said, ‘we haven’t been getting any direction from DOH [the Duval County Department of Health].'” It was at that meeting the school board voted to send a formal letter to the Duval County Department of Health, requesting guidance. And they’re not the only school district still waiting for feedback.
“Most Hillsborough voters don’t want kids to return to schools yet” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics — A majority of Hillsborough County voters don’t think it’s safe to send kids back to school in-person Aug. 24 and even more believe students should return to e-learning until COVID-19 is under control. A survey found 57% of voters polled don’t feel it’s safe for children to return to school in-person yet with only 33% believing it is safe; 10% were unsure. The disparity is even larger among respondents asked whether they think students should stay home and participate in e-learning until COVID-19 numbers improve. More than 60% of respondents said they should stay home while less than 32% said they should not. Only 8% were unsure. The difference in support for kids using e-learning compared to whether respondents think school is safe appears to come down to the number of unsure respondents, which indicates some would rather err on the side of caution than send kids into a potentially dangerous situation.
“Florida teacher posts own obituary on Facebook prior to returning to school” via Stacy Shanks of Click Orlando — A Florida teacher wrote and posted her own obituary on Facebook on Tuesday as the reopening of schools draws closers. Whitney Reddick, a teacher with Jacksonville public schools, told Action News Jax the social media post was “her way of protesting the reopening of schools with brick and mortar education.” Reddick is one of the thousands of Florida teachers returning to the classroom soon and told Action News Jax, “she does not believe it is safe for teachers to do so, and would rather see a 100% virtual start in Duval County.”
Corona local
“More than numbers on the COVID front line in Jacksonville” via Mark Woods of the Florida Times-Union — As director of critical care for Baptist Health, Jennifer Fulton isn’t just on the front line of dealing with the pandemic. She’s one of the people involved in setting up that front line at five area Baptist hospitals. At the time, she sounded upbeat. Fulton, 43, grew up in New York. Before we caught up again last week, she mentioned that the ICU had been busy. When she found a few minutes to get on the phone, she sounded different. At times, her voice cracked. She sounded weary. They all are, she said. “It’s not just me,” she said. “It’s our nursing staff. When we put our heart and soul into trying to save these patients and then they pass away …”
The stress of COVID-19 is starting to show in front-line workers like Dr. Jennifer Fulton.
“She caught COVID caring for others. She’ll survive a grueling recovery. Her hands may not” via Linda Robertson of the Miami Herald — Rosa Felipe was one of the first health care workers tending to the sick on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic to contract COVID-19. That was in early March, just before she was hooked to a ventilator, when she gasped to a friend, “I’m drowning.” Felipe is on the verge of going home. She is a survivor among the 573 Jackson employees who have tested positive; three of their co-workers died. But in her case, one of the most severe at Miami-Dade’s public hospital and the largest medical center in the state, the bargain for beating the disease is especially cruel. She expects to lose her hands and the career she loved.
More local
“One of Florida’s biggest disparities: How coronavirus spread in Pinellas’ Black community” via Ian Hodgson of the Tampa Bay Times — In Pinellas, Black residents are 2.5 times as likely to contract the coronavirus than white residents, state data shows. That’s one of the largest disparities in Florida. Among the 12 counties with over 500,000 people, only Duval has a similar gap. The infections are centered in a handful of neighborhoods on the south side of St. Petersburg, where most of the city’s Black residents live. There’s no one clear reason why the virus has spread so quickly among Pinellas’ Black residents. But experts and community leaders like Jabaar Edmond point to a history of systemic neglect and failure on the part of state and local government that has left Black residents in jobs that expose them to the virus.
“’Isolation has taken its toll:’ COVID puts older adults at greater risk for anxiety, depression” via Kate Santich of the Orlando Sentinel — Some days it’s hard to tell who is suffering more from the isolation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic — Bill Warren, a 98-year-old World War II veteran who hasn’t been allowed visitors at his Winter Park nursing home for nearly five months, or his 64-year-old daughter waiting in agony as she watches his emotional health deteriorate from afar. “This isolation has taken its toll on him,” said Linda Warren, who has tried to keep in touch with her father, a retired engineer, by “visiting” from outside a window or reading to him via Amazon’s Alexa. “I can see more and more confusion and depression setting in.”
Isolation is taking a toll on seniors’ health and well-being, something that can’t be fixed with a Zoom call.
“‘It’s hard burying three people in one week’: Pensacola family reflects on loved ones lost to COVID-19” via Jake Newby of the Pensacola News Journal — In the face of unthinkable tragedy, a Pensacola family is responding with unimaginable strength. Granddaughters Shanaita Kirkland and Rakisha Collins lost their grandmother and two uncles in a span of five days this summer when Voncile Rich, Sylvester Rich and Arthur Rich all died of COVID-19 complications between July 29 and Aug. 2. The family said their newfound commitment to weekly Sunday get-togethers will start this weekend, one day after the funerals. They plan to keep their relatives’ memories alive while taking every precaution possible. Kirkland and Collins said they now know all too well how deadly the virus can be, and they implored the public to take it seriously.
“Six months after it was created, COVID-19 phone line stays hot in Okaloosa County” via Tony Judnich of the NWF Daily News — Almost half a year after it was established, the Florida Department of Health-Okaloosa County COVID-19 information line continues to buzz along with hundreds of calls per day. From 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, county residents, visitors and the general public can call the line at 1-850-344-0566 for answers to questions about the disease and details on testing sites and test results. The call center for the information line was established in March, at the onset of the coronavirus crisis. “It varies, but we can get anywhere from 300 to 700 calls a day,” Allison McDaniel, state DOH-Okaloosa County public information officer, said Friday. “It’s been pretty steady in the hundreds” each day since the center began operating. So far, most callers have called to schedule a test for COVID-19 or find out the next scheduled testing date
Corona nation
“U.S. tops 5 million confirmed virus cases, to Europe’s alarm” via Nicole Winfield and Lisa Marie Pane of The Associated Press — With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe. Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at 35,000. But after a strict nationwide, 10-week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment. Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn’t have when the first COVID-19 patients started filling intensive care units.
A sign informs customers at the Edison Hotel restaurant about wearing a protective face mask during the coronavirus pandemic along Ocean Drive in Miami Beach. Image via AP.
“Trump attempts to wrest tax and spending powers from Congress with new executive actions” via Jeff Stein, Erica Werner and Renae Merle of The Washington Post — Trump on Saturday attempted to bypass Congress and make dramatic changes to tax and spending policy, signing executive actions that challenge the boundaries of power that separate the White House and Capitol Hill. At a news event in Bedminster, N.J., Trump said the actions would provide economic relief to millions of Americans by deferring taxes and, he said, providing temporary unemployment benefits. The measures would attempt to wrest away some of Congress’ most fundamental, constitutionally mandated powers tax and spending policy. Trump acknowledged that some of the actions could be challenged in court but indicated he would persevere. The White House and Democrats have clashed for weeks about what to do with the $600 enhanced weekly unemployment benefit that expired at the end of July.
“Trump’s go-it-alone stimulus won’t do much to lift the recovery” via Jim Tankersley of The New York Times — The executive actions Trump took on Saturday were pitched as a unilateral jolt for an ailing economy. But there is only one group of workers that seems guaranteed to benefit from them, at least right away: lawyers. Trump’s measures include an eviction moratorium, a new benefit to supplement unemployment assistance for workers, and a temporary delay in payroll tax liability for low- and middle-income workers. They could give renters a break and ease payments for some student loan borrowers. Even conservative groups have warned that suspending payroll tax collections is unlikely to translate into more money for workers. Trump’s own aides concede the orders will not provide any aid to small businesses, state and local governments or low- and middle-income workers.
“Shortages threaten Trump’s plan for rapid coronavirus tests” via David Lim and Rachel Roubein of POLITICO — The Trump administration is gambling that a new generation of fast, cheap coronavirus tests can bring the U.S. outbreak under control. The challenge now is getting enough of these tests to pursue that strategy. The rapid antigen tests, which hunt for proteins on the virus’ surface, give results in less than 30 minutes. They are less accurate than lab tests now in widespread use, which detects the virus’s genetic material and takes hours to analyze. Getting more test results in a matter of minutes, rather than days, could help public health agencies move faster to quarantine the sick and trace their contacts. Nursing homes have been told it could be months before antigen tests are available in sufficient numbers. And states, which have spent months scrambling for protective equipment and testing supplies on the open market, are now competing for the tests. Other rapid tests on the market are still hard to come by.
Health care workers at a coronavirus testing site. Shortages are hamstringing the search for a rapid COVID-19 test. Image via AP.
“Federal spending on COVID-19 vaccine candidates tops $9 billion, spread among 7 companies” via Karen Weintraub and Elizabeth Weise of USA Today — The federal government has allocated more than $9 billion to develop and manufacture candidate vaccines. More than $2.5 billion more has been earmarked for vials to store the vaccines, syringes to deliver them, and on efforts to ramp up manufacturing and capacity. And they’re not done yet. So far, the largest sums have gone to pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and collaboration between Sanofi and GSK, as well as biotech firms Moderna and Novavax — all of which have candidate vaccines being tested in people. To save time in the development process, the companies have been running trials simultaneously that they usually run in sequence. None of the candidate vaccines use the whole virus, so they cannot cause COVID-19. Once the immune system is trained to recognize the spike protein, it should be able to rapidly clear the virus should the person be exposed again.
“Forty percent of people with coronavirus infections have no symptoms. Might they be the key to ending the pandemic?” via Ariana Eunjung Cha of The Washington Post — Efforts to understand the diversity in the illness are finally beginning to yield results, raising hope the knowledge will help accelerate the development of vaccines and therapies or possibly even create new pathways toward herd immunity in which enough of the population develops a mild version of the virus that they block further spread and the pandemic ends. The coronavirus has left numerous clues, the uneven transmission in different parts of the world, the mostly mild impact on children. One mind-blowing hypothesis is that a segment of the world’s population may have partial protection thanks to “memory” T cells, the part of our immune system trained to recognize specific invaders. Some experts have gone so far as to speculate whether some surprising recent trends in the epidemiology of the coronavirus might be due to preexisting immunity.
“Hispanic, Black children at higher risk of coronavirus-related hospitalization, CDC finds” via Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post — Hispanic children are approximately eight times more likely and Black children five times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than their White peers, according to a study. The report acknowledged that most pediatric cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are asymptomatic or mild and that hospitalization rates among children remain relatively low. But like COVID-19 in adults, Black and Hispanic children are far more likely to experience symptoms warranting hospitalization. The report calls for an improved understanding of the broader social forces that affect health so that racial and ethnic disparities in pediatric hospitalization rates can be mitigated.
Corona economics
“The U.S. economy is on the verge of a ‘lost year’” via Heather Long of The Washington Post — The U.S. economy is facing one of its most uncertain moments ever as the deadly coronavirus remains a constant threat. According to a survey, people are growing more pessimistic about how America’s leaders have handled the virus and the nation’s ability to contain it, which only digs a deeper hole for the economy. As soon as the virus flares in a part of the country, cellphone data show people immediately stay home instead of venturing out to restaurants, stores and entertainment. As so much hangs in the balance, the bulk of the federal government aid for small businesses and unemployed has expired. When uncertainty is high, it usually triggers more layoffs, less investment and more business closures.
“Without $600 weekly benefit, unemployed face bleak choices” via Ben Casselman and Gillian Friedman of The New York Times — On Saturday, with negotiations in Congress stalled and on the verge of collapse, Trump signed four directives aimed at providing economic assistance, including financial help to the unemployed. But for many of the 30 million Americans relying on unemployment benefits, it could already be too late to prevent lasting financial harm. Without a federal supplement, they will need to get by on regular state unemployment benefits, which often total a few hundred dollars a week or less. There are already signs that the economy has slowed down this summer as virus cases have surged in much of the country.
The loss of the $600 weekly unemployment benefit will cause many people to make some hard choices. Image via The Washington Post.
“It is the state’s largest PPP loan scheme. Three from South Florida have been charged” via Jay Weaver of The Miami Herald — Three South Florida people have been charged with collaborating in a $24 million loan scheme to bilk a federal program meant to aid businesses ailing from the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said. It is the state’s largest alleged fraud case involving the SBA’s relief program. The defendants, arrested this week and granted bonds in Fort Lauderdale federal court, are accused of submitting 90 loan applications to the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program. The SBA guaranteed more than $17 million in bank-issued loans to the defendants and other co-conspirators, according to FBI criminal complaints filed by the U.S. Attorney Office against each of them. The three are accused of participating with others in a conspiracy to apply for falsified loans from the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program in connection with a related South Florida scheme that extended to Ohio where other defendants have been charged, prosecutors said.
More corona
“The winter will be worse” via Joe Pinsker of The Atlantic — “There really is no easy way to socialize during late fall [and] winter in large parts of the country if you’re not doing it outside,” Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said. He did, however, bring up a possibility that could spare him, and the rest of us, this discomfort: the widespread use of cheap, quick coronavirus tests. “Imagine those tests get better and they become ubiquitous — could you go and hang out with a friend if you both tested negative that morning, in a community that doesn’t have a large transmission? I would feel comfortable” doing that, he said. But “I probably wouldn’t give them a hug and sit right next to them.”
“Immunology is where intuition goes to die” via Ed Yong of The Atlantic — The immune system is very complicated. Arguably the most complex part of the human body outside the brain, it’s an absurdly intricate network of cells and molecules that protect us from dangerous viruses and other microbes. Picture a thousand Rube Goldberg machines, some of which are aggressively smashing things to pieces. Now imagine that their components are labeled with what looks like a string of highly secure passwords: CD8+, IL-1β, IFN-γ. Immunology confuses even biology professors who aren’t immunologists. Immunity, then, is usually a matter of degrees, not absolutes. And it lies at the heart of many of the COVID-19 pandemic’s biggest questions. Why do some people become extremely ill and others don’t?
“Virus-quieted oceans open window for Shark Week researchers” via Lynn Elber of The Associated Press — The coronavirus pandemic forced people to stay put, but it gave sharks a travel passport and scientists a rare opportunity. Ocean spots cleared of fishing boats and other intrusions by COVID-19 quarantines saw increased and even unusual marine life behavior — and Discovery Channel’s Shark Week jumped through hoops to capitalize on the brief window. “It really was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study these sharks without the impacts of human activity,” said Howard Swartz, Discovery’s senior vice president for production and development. Along with the scientists, local production crews scurried to take advantage of the ocean solitude before those nations gained relative control of the virus and began lifting restrictions on internal travel and business activity.
This image from Discovery Channel shows a shark breaking through the water in a scene from ‘Shark Lockdown,’ one of three programs kicking off Shark Week 2020. Image via AP.
D.C. matters
“In Florida, where Social Security is vital, Democrats blast Trump payroll tax pledge” via Antonio Fins of The Palm Beach Post — Democrats on Sunday ratcheted up their assertion that Trump’s order to suspend payroll taxes will “defund” Social Security without offering relief to millions of unemployed Americans. On Saturday, speaking to reporters and watched by members of his New Jersey golf club, Trump issued an executive order suspending payroll taxes through the end of the year. And he also promised that, if reelected, he will make the tax freeze permanent. Florida Democrats immediately seized on the potential ramification of the pledge, which would deprive Social Security of its main funding source. “Amid yesterday’s train wreck of neglect, Trump still manages to needlessly imperil seniors’ Social Security and Medicare benefits,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in a statement. “The only certainties his executive orders deliver are more debt for working families, deeper state and local layoffs and a continuing refusal to address the testing and tracing measures needed to pull us out of this pandemic quagmire.”
Florida Democrats are blasting Donald Trump for his pledge to suspend payroll taxes. Image via AP.
“Census Bureau dropouts complicate door-knocking efforts” via Mike Schneider of The Associated Press — Door-knockers started heading out last month in six areas of the country in a test-run of the most labor-intensive part of the 2020 census, and their ranks have increased with each passing week as more locations were added. But next week, the full army of 500,000 census-takers will be in the field for the first time, knocking on the doors of more than a third of U.S. households that haven’t yet responded to the once-a-decade head count. Bureau officials acknowledge that they’ve had door-knockers, also known as enumerators, come to training but then not show up for work. The door-knockers wear cloth face masks and come equipped with hand sanitizer and cellphones. Some enumerators are uncomfortable with the technology, as iPhones have replaced the clipboards of censuses past. The pandemic has forced training to be held mostly online and there’s less in-person interaction with supervisors should enumerators need help.
Statewide
“We knew this storm season would be bad, but NOAA’s forecast just upped the ante” via Kimberly Miller of The Palm Beach Post — NOAA ratcheted up the angst Thursday in an already busy hurricane season with a revised forecast that calls for the highest number of named storms the agency has ever predicted. An update to the Climate Prediction Center’s May forecast calls for as many as 25 named storms, including up to 11 hurricanes. Of those 11 hurricanes, as many as six will be major tropical cyclones of Category 3 or higher. The new numbers include the nine already-named storms that have formed since May. A normal hurricane season has 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes. Thursday’s update is a regular fine-tuning released ahead of the peak of hurricane season, and one the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration normally does via news release.
“Virgin Trains no more: Brightline severs ties with Richard Branson empire” via Sam Howard of The Palm Beach Post — Less than two years after Brightline announced a “strategic partnership” with Virgin Group and rebranded its trains as Virgin Trains USA, the rail service now says its parent company has scrapped the agreement. Brightline leaders wrote in a monthly report published Friday that Virgin now “has no remaining affiliation with us.” The company will drop Virgin from its branding and will instead be named Brightline Trains LLC, according to the report. Brightline’s parent company informed Virgin of the termination July 29, but the report said Virgin disputes the validity of the notice. A Brightline spokeswoman did not respond Saturday to requests for comment. The cancellation represents an abrupt and apparently acrimonious end to the ties between Brightline and Virgin Group, the global business empire led by eccentric British billionaire Branson.
Brightline is severing ties with Richard Branson and Virgin Trains USA.
“Simon Property and Amazon’s reported talks to convert department stores into fulfillment centers will have major implications in Florida” via Ashley Gurbal Kritzer of the Tampa Bay Business Journal — Simon, based in Indianapolis, has been in talks with Amazon for months, The Wall Street Journal reported. The WSJ says that Simon and Amazon have discussed converting vacant Sears and JCPenney Co. Inc. stores into fulfillment centers. Some of the discussions have reportedly centered around buying out occupied space from the retailers. In Florida, Simon has 22 properties — the most of any state. Amazon has been gobbling up distribution space and striking deals to build new throughout the Sunshine State. In the Tampa Bay region alone, the e-commerce giant has recently confirmed the development of two new projects: a 110,000-square-foot last-mile fulfillment center in Pasco County and a massive, multistory fulfillment center in Temple Terrace.
Top opinion
“The coronavirus is never going away” via Sarah Zhang of The Atlantic — What does the future of COVID-19 look like? That will depend, says Yonatan Grad, on the strength and duration of immunity against the virus. Grad, an infectious-disease researcher at Harvard, and his colleagues have modeled a few possible trajectories. If immunity lasts only a few months, there could be a big pandemic followed by smaller outbreaks every year. If immunity lasts closer to two years, COVID-19 could peak every other year. At this point, how long immunity to COVID-19 will last is unclear; the virus simply hasn’t been infecting humans long enough for us to know. Even if the virus were somehow eliminated from the human population, it could keep circulating in animals — and spread to humans again.
Opinions
“We are only beginning to suffer the consequences of Trump’s failures” via Dana Milbank of The Washington Post — “Elections have consequences.” Republican leaders were enraged when President Barack Obama reminded them of this after his 2008 victory. But Trump has given new and macabre meaning to the phrase. For now, five months after we put our way of life in mothballs, we see how much ruin and unnecessary suffering has been caused by his election and his attempt at reelection. Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton said his former boss’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic is a national security concern. Our suffering for Trump’s failures is just beginning. We have sacrificed half a year, $3 trillion of our treasure and 157,000 lives and it has been squandered by one man’s incompetence. Not just incompetence, but incompetence in the misguided pursuit of his personal interests over the needs of the nation he leads.
“That tweet about mail-in voting and Trump’s Florida lies” via Steve Bousquet of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — As he railed against voting by mail in Nevada this week, the tweeter-in-chief warned us about a “corrupt disaster” and said this in the context of elections planning: “Florida has built a great infrastructure over years, with two great Republican Governors.” Nothing could be further from the truth. While Florida for the most part has strong voting systems, it’s in spite of these two. The credit goes to county supervisors who actually run elections, and advocacy groups that mobilized public opinion and went to court when needed. That’s especially true in the case of Scott, who was openly hostile to even minor voting reforms, and has been labeled by advocacy groups as a “repeat offender” at suppressing the vote.
“Use science, not politics, in reopening Duval schools” via Julie Delegal of The Florida Times-Union — The decision whether to reopen Duval County Public Schools, given our current COVID-19 infection rate, should be no more controversial than the decision to close schools in the face of an impending hurricane. Just as we look to meteorologists to understand our risks of being hit by a hurricane, so should we look to medical experts to guide our decisions during this global pandemic. The silence of current state and local health officials on the subject has been deafening. Fortunately, the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics has chimed in with science-based guidelines for reopening schools. Children are, without question, better off in school than out of school, says the Academy of Pediatrics, but only when school is safe.
“Deloitte screwed up unemployment website, but at least Florida believes in second chances” via Carl Hiaasen of the Miami Herald — The DeSantis administration is poised to award a lucrative new contract to the same company responsible for the train wreck of an online system that has delayed or blocked thousands of Floridians from unemployment checks during the coronavirus crisis. Deloitte Consulting, which the governor has bashed for its frequently crashing website known as CONNECT, has just won a $135 million state contract to manage Medicaid data for Florida patients. All of you who waited weeks or even months for your first unemployment check have good reason to be baffled, and also pissed off. Taxpayers ended up paying Deloitte Consulting $77 million for its defective software system, $14 million more than the original estimate.
Today’s Sunrise
Gov. DeSantis’ big gamble is underway — public schools are beginning to reopen amid the worst pandemic in a century. And if county health officials don’t think it’s safe, too bad. The Governor has tossed them out of the decision loop.
Also, on today’s Sunrise:
— Smaller school districts have the dubious distinction of being first for reopening, serving as a test run for the rest.
— Remember how DeSantis berated the media for focusing on the number of new COVID-19 cases? He insisted hospital and ICU admissions were a better indicator of how the state is doing. Florida just set a record over the past week, with 3,355 people hospitalized for COVID-19. It might be time for the Governor to find a new metric.
— Florida Department of Health reported 77 more fatalities Sunday, bringing the state’s death toll to 8,315, including more than 1,100 in the past week alone. The total number of infections in Florida since the start of the pandemic is now almost 533,000. But DeSantis is saying it would actually be a good time to hold a convention in a Florida hotel.
— Sunrise speaks with some of the people on the front lines of the COVID-19 battle in Miami-Dade, including a nurse, a teacher and a construction worker. They want Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott to stop playing political games and approve the coronavirus stimulus package known as the “HEROES Act.”
— They’re also tired of hearing wealthy politicians (like Scott) say $600 a week is too much for people who lost their jobs and their health insurance because of the pandemic.
— And the latest with Florida Man, who is accused of felony assault with a Slurpee.
“NBA time zone: Body clocks get a reset inside the bubble” via Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press — The NBA body clock is finely tuned. Game days are marked by a morning shoot-around, afternoon nap and then the actual contest in the early evening. Practice days typically feature a late-morning or midday workout. Teams tend not to deviate much. In normal times, anyway. In the bubble, all bets are off. Before games inside the NBA bubble started July 30, there was a three-week stretch where most teams were practicing pretty much daily. Teams were given three-hour windows to practice at one of seven facilities at Disney, with at least an hour before another team could enter the same facility because of cleaning and disinfecting requirements. Besides, it’s not like teams can go anywhere.
Toronto Raptors’ head coach Nick Nurse applauds his players during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat. Playing in the ‘bubble’ is wreaking havoc on NBA players’ internal clocks.
“Puncher’s chance: Fighting is up during unique NHL playoffs” via Stephen Whyno — Fighting has decreased drastically in recent years, especially in the playoffs when every shift matters, but the unique circumstances of hockey’s restart, several months off, empty arenas and more intense best-of-five series, have ratcheted up the fisticuffs in the battle for the Stanley Cup. Four months of built-up testosterone might explain some of this, though the reasons behind each fight have varied. In other cases, emotions just boil over. It happened twice in four games between Minnesota and Vancouver, including the opening minutes of Game 4 when Ryan Hartman and Jake Virtanen squared off. Rivalries will continue to emerge, so don’t expect the gloves to stay on as the stakes get higher.
Happy birthday
Best wishes to lobbyist Jack Cory and Democratic operative Joshua Karp. Belated wishes to Yolanda Cash Jackson of Becker and Jay Malpass of Motorola.
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The right believes the executive actions will help Trump politically but that they have worrying implications for the separation of powers.
“The moves might’ve been meant mostly to light a fire under Dems and prompt concessions. As with past packages, Democrats have been slowing any agreement, demanding the moon and figuring they can blame Trump for any stalemate. They’ve resisted, for instance, narrow stand-alone measures, even those both sides agree on. They started the bidding for a deal at a ridiculous $3.4 trillion, more than the entire GDP of any other country except Germany, Japan and China. (The GOP plan, at a still-sky-high $1 trillion, was modest in comparison.) And this, after Congress already set aside nearly $3 trillion in the four previous packages.” Editorial Board, New York Post“As a political matter, Trump’s move looks like a masterstroke. Since the days of FDR, the public has always seemed to approve of presidents who act to ameliorate suffering while Congress diddles. A flurry of activity, even of the futile or potentially counterproductive kind, makes a president look energetic and caring. In this instance, Trump’s move might well force congressional Democrats to reach a deal. That outcome, too, would be a political win for the president.” Paul Mirengoff, Power Line Blog“The Democratic complaint that [deferring payroll taxes] jeopardizes Social Security and Medicare is dishonest. Democrats supported the payroll tax holiday when Mr. Obama did it and Mrs. Pelosi praised it at the time. Mr. Biden wants to expand Medicare to anyone at age 60 instead of 65, which would bankrupt the program without benefit cuts or huge tax increases…“Mr. Trump’s worst order would redeploy up to $44 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund to finance extra jobless benefits by $300 a week (plus $100 a week if states choose to match it with previous relief money)…“Mr. Trump is commandeering the power of the purse that the Constitution reserves for Congress. Yes, Mr. Obama did it first. He paid health insurers cost-sharing subsidies under ObamaCare without an appropriation from Congress. More famously, as part of his ‘pen’ and ‘phone’ strategy, he used executive diktats to provide work permits for millions of undocumented aliens… These columns opposed Mr. Obama’s orders, and one constitutional abuse doesn’t justify another.” Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal“The president has used national emergencies to legislate what Congress denied him no less than three times. The first was to secure funding for the border wall in February 2019. A few months later, in May 2019, the president declared another emergency to facilitate the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia after Congress balked in the Kashoggi murder. The COVID relief emergency orders are President Trump’s third trip to the well…“[Trump’s] tendency to legislate by emergency orders is one that can be easily adopted and expanded by the next Democrat in the White House. You may like Trump handing out money and managing the economy by executive fiat, but you probably won’t like it when President Biden or some other president declares a national emergency to combat climate change or gun violence.” David Thornton, The Resurgent
From the Left
The left is critical of the executive actions, arguing that they are both insufficient to combat the crisis and infringe upon Congress’s powers.
“In an unofficial campaign rally at one of his golf courses last night, Trump announced that he’d sign executive orders that freeze the payroll tax, put a moratorium on evictions, and give a $400-a-week unemployment benefits to those laid off. The fine print: The eviction moratorium isn’t binding (it only encourages landlords not to throw people out of their homes) and the $400-a-week aid must be paid 25 percent by states with an unclear policy on how that will work. Plus, all of it could be illegal because only Congress can approve federal spending.” Jacob Rosenberg, Mother Jones“Trump says he is extending an unemployment insurance subsidy of $400. This is a cynical ploy. ‘He calls for $44 billion of funding from the Department of Homeland Security’s Disaster Relief Fund that is normally used for hurricanes, tornadoes and massive fires to be shifted over to unemployment,’ The Post reports. Having snatched money from the military for his wall, he now robs disaster relief without authorization to pay for something entirely unrelated. Moreover, even on its own terms, it would pay for just [five] more weeks of unemployment insurance.” Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post“Since Congress has not authorized an extension of extra federal unemployment assistance, states would have to set up an entirely new system to deliver the aid. Building those programs could take months, according to Michelle Evermore, an unemployment expert at the National Employment Law Project. ‘The states that don’t get the program set up as quickly as other states aren’t going to get any funding because it will run out,’ Evermore told CNN’s Kristen Holmes on Saturday evening.” Zachary B. Wolf, CNNRegarding the payroll tax cut, “The payroll tax funds those two vital and beloved programs. When you suspend collection of the revenue that funds those two programs, you endanger their viability. Say it with me, Democrats: Donald Trump wants to gut Medicare and Social Security…“This is not his first attempt. His 2021 and 2020 budgets each proposed deep and painful cuts in Social Security and Medicare. How deep? How painful? $2 trillion over ten years, according to the Wall Street Journal. What a coincidence: that’s about how much Trump’s 2017 tax cut for corporate America cost… Fittingly, Trump issued his order and memorandums at his Bedminster, New Jersey country club, where the initiation fee is reportedly $350,000 — yet another proof-point that Trump’s heart is really with the Forgotten Upper Class.” Paul Begala, CNN“Trump has been fixated on the idea of cutting payroll taxes to stimulate the economy for months now. It has never made sense, and never will make sense, since by definition, cutting payroll taxes gives the most help to people who need it least right now (namely, people who still have well-paying jobs, as opposed to the unemployed)… [Moreover] Trump can’t actually rewrite the tax code, and employers are going to owe the money eventually. In all likelihood, that means they’ll continue withholding it from their workers’ earnings, and few people will actually see their take-home pay increase… the much more helpful move here would be to just reach a deal with Democrats on an actual relief bill.” Jordan Weissmann, Slate
🚗 Good Monday morning.Tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. ET, Axios Navigate author Joann Muller will host a virtual event on the future of autonomous vehicles, including a conversation with Mothers Against Drunk Driving national president Helen Witty.
New this morning: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is out with a N.Y. Times op-ed (subscription),“Gig Workers Deserve Better,” proposing a “third way” — flexible benefits for drivers, without making them employees.
“I’m proposing that gig economy companies be required to establish benefits funds which give workers cash that they can use for the benefits they want, like health insurance or paid time off.”
1 big thing: Cost of closing gym class
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Gym class will be limited or eliminated for millions of pupils as schools go all-online or open with limited offerings, Axios Sports author Kendall Baker writes.
Why it matters: While classroom learning can be done virtually, it’s nearly impossible to replicate physical education — which plays a crucial role in kids’ physical and mental health — through a screen.
And with sports on hold in most states, P.E. is the only physical activity outlet some kids have.
Even schools offering in-person instruction this fall must re-imagine what gym class looks like amid a pandemic, with kids unable to share balls or equipment and with strict social distancing and sanitation guidelines in place.
While tech-savvy teachers have been hosting live workouts on apps like Facebook and Instagram, others wouldn’t even know where to begin.
Youth sports organizations helped ensure that kids got their daily 60 minutes of exercise this summer by hosting Zoom workouts, offering virtual training and providing parents with tips and ideas.
Some organizations will continue in that role once school resumes. But with youth sports participation on the decline — particularly among lower-income families — the majority of students will rely solely on P.E.
Our thought bubble: The social interaction alone is something kids desperately need, particularly when they’ve been cooped up for months and won’t be chatting with friends in hallways or socializing in lunchrooms.
2. 💡 New way to think about the virus: Like fire, never snuffed out
The time from 1 million U.S. coronavirus cases, in April, to 5 million cases, this weekend. Screenshot via CNN
Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer-winning science journalist who has been one of the most prescient voices on the pandemic, had this fresh frame on MSNBC:
It is best to assume that this is a new permanent feature in the human landscape. And that means that we have to come up with policies and responses that … see it as a fire that moves around with the winds.
And we spot the first embers and we put it out fast. We have to have policies that … assume the virus will be constantly trying to revisit our communities. …
[W]e need to just think: OK, it’s just like knowing I live in Florida, and a hurricane will come. Or I live in New York, and we might have a blizzard.
3. College football on the brink
Athletic directors and industry sources don’t sound hopeful about college football this fall, Axios Sports author Kendall Baker reports.
“In the next 72 hours, college football is going to come to a complete stop,” a source told Sports Illustrated.
“I think it’s inevitable” the fall season will be scrapped, a Power 5 athletic director told CBS Sports.
“It feels like no one wants to [postpone the season], but it’s reaching the point where someone is going to have to,” a Power 5 administrator told ESPN.
4. School goes viral, then virtual
On Tuesday, students crowd a hallway at North Paulding High School in Dallas, Ga. Photo: Hannah Watters/Twitter via AP
After going viral because of this photo of a crowded hallway between classes, an Atlanta-area high school reports that six students and three staffers have tested positive for COVID-19.
North Paulding High School is going to “Digital Learning” today and tomorrow to disinfect the building “and look for other potentially infected individuals” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Why it matters: This early experiment shows how hard back-t0-school will be for every Middlesex village and farm.
Go deeper: Read the superintendent’s 2-page letter.
5. Trump’s tax trap for Biden
President Trump is trying to lure Joe Biden into a Walter Mondale trap — attempting to force the Democratic nominee to embrace middle-class tax increases as part of his election strategy, Axios’ Hans Nichols writes.
Why it matters: With his Saturday evening executive action to unilaterally rewrite the tax code, Trump again is demonstrating the lengths to which he’ll go to change the conversation — and try to make the election a choice between him and Biden, and not a referendum on him.
In Biden’s response, he didn’t take the bait. Instead, he used the White House effort to suspend payroll taxes as a way to double down on his appeal to seniors and cast himself as the defender of Social Security.
Look for Trump to try and force Biden to take a more explicit position on the payroll tax suspension for those making less than $100,000.
Joe Biden wants to go big on climate change and big on unions. Elon Musk leads on the former but lags on the latter, Axios’ Amy Harder writes in her weekly “Harder Line” column.
Catch up fast: Biden’s climate plan calls for renewable energy to largely replace oil, natural gas and coal and for a huge buildout of electric vehicles. He is also pushing clean-energy industries to embrace unions, which they largely have not.
Tesla falls somewhere between automaker and tech company. But Musk is a classic Silicon Valley CEO, most of whom eschew unions.
Hong Kong arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 71, today and searched the headquarters of his Apple Daily and Next Digital group, carting away boxes of what they said was evidence, AP’s Zen Soo reports.
Why it matters: This is the first time Hong Kong’s new national security law has been used against news media.
Next Digital operates Apple Daily, a feisty pro-democracy tabloid that often condemns China’s Communist Party government.
Next Digital said Lai was charged with collusion with foreign powers.
Below: Police inside Apple Daily headquarters in Hong Kong.
Jim Mahoney, 67, a Bank of America executive who was a friend for more than a dozen years, has sadly lost his long fight after a bike accident in Boston last year.
Jim was always a big supporter and encourager of what Jim VandeHei, Roy Schwartz and I were up to at Politico and now Axios. He was always curious, and loved trading gossip in hotel bars. And I do mean trade: Jim stayed wired into the Democratic political world where he made a mark in his youth.
The Boston Globe’s Larry Edelman has the story of a worthy life:
Mahoney, an experienced cyclist, suffered a head injury after falling from his bike while riding with a friend …
Mahoney … spent the past 25 years at Bank of America and its predecessor, FleetBoston Financial, most recently as executive vice president and global corporate strategy and public policy executive. … [H]e worked closely with vice chairman Anne Finucane and chief executive Brian Moynihan.
Mahoney served four years as chief spokesman for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston … Prior to the Boston Fed he worked in politics, volunteering for the unsuccessful 1980 presidential campaign of Jerry Brown …
Mahoney later worked as an aide and spokesman for US Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II of Massachusetts.
9. Time capsule
The Sacramento Bee’s front page yesterday marked California’s sad milestone of 10,000 coronavirus-related deaths, reached Friday.
10. 🦈 Amid pandemic, even Shark Week gets serious
French artist Sam Dougados marked Shark Week last year by raking a 50-meter fish in the sand of Côte des Basques beach in Biarritz. Photo: Iroz Gaizka/AFP via Getty Images
Ocean spots cleared of fishing boats by quarantines saw increased and even unusual marine life behavior — and Discovery Channel’s Shark Week jumped through hoops to capitalize on the window, AP’s Lynn Elber writes.
The 32nd annual slate of all things shark, airing this week with a record two-dozen shows, includes a pair taped earlier this year during the lull.
Tonight, 8 ET: In “Abandoned Waters,” researchers were able to closely observe great whites near Australia’s Neptune Islands minus the usual fishing and tourism traffic.
The jump in pediatric cases comes as children are entering close quarters for the first time in months as some schools open their doors to students again.
The party was on in the hedonistic playground this summer — until it wasn’t. Clubbing and dining hot spots on the French Riviera were shut down after covid-19 popped up in the wake of summer vacationers.
Teachers are threatening strikes, and students are already coming home infected with the coronavirus, which has upended American education. The 2020-21 school year has dawned and it’s more chaotic than any before it.
By Laura Meckler, Valerie Strauss and Nick Anderson ● Read more »
The latest violence came days after Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler lashed out at protesters who barricaded exits to a police precinct and started a fire that “was intended to cause serious injury or death.”
The 23-year-old’s first major victory came at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco after a tightly contested final round, which at one point had seven players tied at the top.
By Chuck Culpepper, Cindy Boren and Des Bieler ● Read more »
When businesses closed their doors at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of hardworking people were sent home, furloughed, or worse — laid off.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has become an issue in the 2020 presidential campaign as conservatives question whether they can rely on Republicans to appoint and confirm judges who will not frustrate and rule against them.
A top Senate Republican said a newly declassified FBI document on the bureau’s 2018 briefing of the Senate Intelligence Committee shows the FBI misled Congress about the reliability of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is sure President Trump’s recent executive actions on coronavirus relief will pass any legal challenge against them.
The number of shootings that have taken place in New York City so far this year is nearly double what was reported last year during the same time period.
Sen. Tom Cotton poked fun at the New York Times after the paper issued a correction for a column concerning female candidates running on the Democratic ticket for the White House.
CNN pundit Brian Stelter and a guest on his program suggested there are media companies that exist solely to attack presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden, a phenomenon they said has no equivalent on the Left.
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Good morning, Chicago. Here’s the coronavirus news and other stories you need to know to start your day.
Illinois public health officials on Sunday announced 1,382 new confirmed case of COVID-19 and eight additional deaths. The numbers followed a statewide count over 2,000 for two straight days.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is dropping felony cases involving charges of murder and other serious offenses at a higher rate than her predecessor, according to a Tribune analysis that comes amid a growing debate over criminal justice reform.
During Foxx’s first three years as the county’s top prosecutor, her office dropped charges against 29.9% of felony defendants, a dramatic increase over her predecessor, the Tribune found. For the last three years of Anita Alvarez’s tenure, the rate was 19.4%.
For months, memes have appeared to show Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot watching for crowds and threatening to close parts of the city if residents don’t abide by orders and closures during the coronavirus pandemic.
But on Saturday, Lightfoot herself — not just an edited photo of her, like those used in such memes — apparently had a hand in breaking up a large gathering at Montrose Harbor, according to social media posts by the mayor and crime blog CWB Chicago.
When it has come to getting a standardized test score during the onslaught of COVID-19, fate has been cruel to Illinois’ rising high school seniors. They were unable to take the SAT at their schools in April, and many ACT sittings were canceled over the spring and summer after test sites, mostly schools, closed their doors.
That led to a mad dash last week as aspiring test-takers swamped ACT’s website trying to reserve a spot this fall. The bedlam is happening even as colleges seek to assure applicants that standardized test scores will be optional this year. But parents and students interviewed by the Tribune don’t buy it. They’re still convinced the lack of a good score will be a disadvantage at a competitive school.
The pandemic has sent people searching for ways to cope with the anxiety of a global health crisis and economic downturn. Marijuana — which only became widely legal in Illinois Jan. 1 — has emerged as the coping mechanism of choice for many. Stores selling it were deemed essential businesses by the state, new dispensaries have opened and product introductions continue. People are taking the money they would have spent on restaurant meals and nights out and using it to buy weed.
A global pandemic, surging gun violence and widespread civil unrest quickly revealed that the ongoing structural reorganization of the Chicago Police Department — put into motion by Supt. David Brown’s predecessor, interim Supt. Charlie Beck — would need changing. Sam Charles has the story…
History was quietly made last month when the Chicago Police Department promoted 28-year veteran Eric Carter to 1st Deputy Superintendent. It meant the top three brass are African American — a milestone in 185 years.
Democratic Party of Illinois executive director Mary Morrissey said the party wants to use virtual delegation convention meetings “to broaden our outreach.”
House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President Don Harmon and top Republicans Rep. Jim Durkin, Sen. Bill Brady all have gotten around post-Blagojevich-era reforms.
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. Hello Monday! 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 as of Monday morning: 162,938.
The United States reports more than twice the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections as India, a democracy with 1.4 billion people that ranks third behind the United States and Brazil in the number of infections.
President Trump didn’t satisfy either party with his quartet of administrative and executive actions signed on Saturday and intended to fill a void created by Capitol Hill negotiators who have thus far failed to agree how to help millions of Americans who have no jobs, incomes or safety nets during a pandemic.
On Sunday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin signaled their willingness to return to the bargaining table this week (Reuters). Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told NBC News that Democrats whittled a proposed price tag down to “the range of $2 trillion” from $3.4 trillion, while Republicans want $1 trillion. “We’ve asked them to come up a trillion [dollars],” Durbin added.
Bloomberg News: Mnuchin rejects Pelosi’s offer to come down $1 trillion as a “non-starter.”
The president’s actions, announced at his country club in New Jersey, were immediately described by legal and legislative experts as ineffective and administratively cumbersome substitutes for extensions of law that could immediately revive federal unemployment benefits that expired last month, suspend rental evictions during the pandemic and offer relief to people with mounting college loan debts.
The actions offered no lifeline to state and local governments, whose budgets are in shambles, or small businesses that remain desperate to weather the crisis and stay open. And they offered no help to jittery school systems, which the president continues to argue should open for in-person instruction.
Trump was also faulted for ordering a temporary halt to the collection of payroll taxes that support Social Security and Medicare. The president has for months tried to cut payroll taxes, which in his calculus would benefit Americans who are still working. The president asked Congress to enact the change in relief legislation but was rejected by both parties. Under the new executive policy Trump unveiled, employers can suspend a portion of the tax, but employees would have to come up with the money to repay it next year.
Trump assured Americans that his unilateral actions “will take care of pretty much this entire situation,” an assertion countered by legal analysts. “It’s a Band-Aid on an open wound,” University of Chicago Law School professor Daniel Hemel told The Washington Post on Sunday, expanding on his tweets.
Trump “can do it, legally, but to provide real lasting relief he needs help from Congress — and if anything, he made that less likely,” he said. “Most of us won’t see more money in our paychecks, and the millions of families on unemployment will still be in crisis come September.”
One threshold question over the weekend began with the Constitution. Article 1 says: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
The Hill: Mnuchin: Democrats will “have a lot of explaining to do” if they want to challenge Trump orders in court.
Jim Tankersley, The New York Times analysis: Trump’s memo seeking to repurpose other federal money to essentially create a temporary $400-a-week bonus unemployment payment in place of the $600 per week that expired is expected to be challenged in court and is unlikely to deliver additional cash to laid-off workers anytime soon.
The Washington Post: Trump’s four most recent executive actions explained. The president’s reliance on his presidential pen is a familiar pattern after running up against roadblocks with Congress (The Washington Post).
The president’s orders sparked confusion among unemployed Americans, state officials and businesses — and even Trump advisers, who were not all in lockstep on Sunday, report The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Associated Press.
The Hill: States and companies are increasingly launching their own efforts to bail out workers.
The Daily Beast: GOP lawmakers prefer that Trump stay out of relief bill talks because he has a record of complicating and prolonging the process.
The Associated Press: For the pandemic jobless, the only real certainty is uncertainty.
It’s time for updated internet regulations to prevent election interference
We’ve more than tripled our security and safety teams to 35,000 people, added 5-step political ad verification and partnered with security researchers, other tech companies and law enforcement to combat foreign election interference.
POLITICS: The political world continues to wait as former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce his running mate ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention while jockeying continues among Democrats for the spot.
The Hill’s Amie Parnes recaps the latest ups and downs for each candidate ahead of the expected announcement. Among those on helium watch are Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who remains among the favorites for the position, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who is back on the rise.
Whitmer met with Biden on Aug. 2 to discuss the VP position and has found herself climbing up the VP standings after she became caught in a political storm back home during the opening months of the COVID-19 pandemic (The Hill).
“Not surprised she’s in the mix,” one Biden confidant said of Whitmer. “He likes her. Always has.”
Also high on Biden’s list are Susan Rice, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
“One of the most interesting things is watching it all play out,” said a source close to one of the contenders. “No one knows exactly where they are.”
The Washington Post: Biden’s campaign braces for sexism over his VP pick. Women’s groups join staffers to blunt the expected attacks.
The speculation over the VP pick is coinciding with a couple of rough moments for the former vice president, who was forced to apologize after he suggested that the black community is politically monolithic and had an odd confrontation with a news anchor over whether he has taken a cognitive test.
As Niall Stanage writes in his latest memo, Biden supporters insist these were comparatively minor kerfuffles compared to many of the things Trump says. However, the remarks have caused unease among some Democrats as less than less than three months stand between them and Election Day.
The Hill: Trump, Biden tactical battle intensifies.
The New York Times: The wallets of Wall Street are with Joe Biden, if not the hearts.
Axios: Inside Trump’s debate prep (the Trump campaign views the three scheduled debates as crucial inflection points before Nov. 3).
> Official events turn political: The president has long blurred the lines between campaigning and governing, but he is taking those occurrences to a new level as he is unable to hold his trademarked campaign rallies and increasingly turns to White House events for his political edge.
As The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports, in recent weeks, Trump has used official White House events in a number of battleground states to give campaign speeches before audiences filled with supporters. In Florida, he addressed and greeted supporters on the tarmac before giving a campaign-focused address in Ohio that was supposed to highlight the economic recovery.
Political scientists and advisers to the president argue he has little choice but to try to get on the road in any way, shape or form to generate enthusiasm and boost his reelection hopes.
The Hill: Poll: Biden leads Trump in battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
Lauren Gambino, The Guardian: Trump and the suburbs: Is he out of tune with America’s increasingly diverse voters?
> Stimulus stumbles: With Republicans entering the stretch run of their bid to retain the Senate majority, the ongoing coronavirus relief negotiations are creating problems as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hopes for a deal.
A number of states with Senate contests are facing major economic challenges due to COVID-19, including Iowa, Maine and North Carolina — home to three of the biggest races on the 2020 map.
As Alexander Bolton notes, these battleground states are attempting to navigate budgetary shortfalls that could lead to a wave of state and local government layoffs in the fall, eating into overall economic growth much like it did during the Great Recession.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
CORONAVIRUS: Get ready. In about two weeks, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in this country will jump from 5 million cases reported as of Sunday to a staggering 6 million if the pace of contagion is unchecked. U.S. cases have doubled since late June, peaking on July 17 with 76,491 cases reported in a single day (The Washington Post).
> Children infected: As schools reopen and parents and academic administrators agonize about the health and safety of students, a new report finds that nearly 100,000 children became infected with COVID-19 in the last two weeks of July alone. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association jointly found in a data study that at least 338,000 children have been infected since the pandemic began, meaning more than a quarter were infected just in the two weeks studied last month.
More than seven out of 10 infections were from states in the South and West, according to the report, which relied on data from 49 states along with Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam. The tally could be higher because the report did not include complete data from Texas and information from parts of New York State outside of New York City.
Missouri, Oklahoma, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho and Montana were among the states with the highest percent increase of child infections during that period (The New York Times).
> California became the third U.S. state to report more than 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus. At least 10,189 people have died from the virus in the state. Only New York and New Jersey have reported more deaths since outbreaks began.
> Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, on Sunday warned Americans against seeing coronavirus tests as unreliable days after he received a false positive result before a scheduled meeting with Trump last week (CNN).
“I think what people should not take away from my experience [is] that testing is not reliable or doesn’t work,” DeWine said on “State of the Union.” DeWine said the antigen test he took on Thursday that yielded a false positive result “should be looked at as a screening test” and that the PCR test, which he said more than 1.3 million Ohioans have taken, “is very, very, very reliable.”
“The antigen tests are fairly new. And the companies that are coming out with them, quite frankly, have the burden of showing, you know, how good they are,” he said. “Could they be used in some situations? Yeah, they could be, but you have to understand going in that you can get the false positives, like happened in my case, or you can get the false negatives.”
The Washington Post: Ohio governor’s false positive troubles health experts who are mindful of pandemic deniers.
> New Zealand: Significant success in controlling COVID-19 in the Pacific Island nation of 5 million people may be turning to complacency among the populace, which worries officials. New Zealanders have returned to normal life, but authorities are concerned that people are now refusing testing, not using the government contact tracing apps, and ignoring basic hygiene rules in the face of a widespread impression that New Zealand is the safest place in the world when it comes to the pandemic. In nations with similar hard-won success in attacking the coronavirus, COVID-19 outbreaks inevitably recurred (Reuters).
****
ADMINISTRATION: Iran and arms embargo: The Trump administration’s Iran strategy will face a key test this week as the United States calls a vote at the United Nation on its resolution to extend an arms embargo against Tehran (pictured below with missile replicas). If the resolution fails, the Trump administration has threatened to invoke snapback sanctions, which supporters of the Iran nuclear deal fear will be the agreement’s death knell. The moves also risk further alienating the United States from its allies (The Hill).
> Lebanon: Trump on Sunday joined a virtual international conference with Lebanese leaders and pledged U.S. assistance and urged Lebanon to conduct a transparent investigation of last week’s devastating blasts at the Beirut port, according to the White House. World donors attach strings to an offer of $300 million in aid (The Associated Press). French President Emmanuel Macron pushed world leaders to expedite aid in all forms to Lebanon after more than 150 people were killed and more than 6,000 were injured. In a call organized by Macron and the United Nations, more than 30 international leaders and government officials agreed to hasten support (The New York Times). On Friday, Trump announced that the United States sent medical supplies, food and water to Lebanon (The Associated Press). Lebanon was on the brink of economic collapse before the mass destruction that killed hundreds and injured thousands (The Hill).
> Federal Communications Commission (FCC) & Puerto Rico: In the wake of the first tropical storm of the season, the island’s population struggles to rebuild its telecommunications network after Hurricane María almost three years ago. This year’s hurricane season has arrived and a breakdown in communications remains a worry. The FCC is due to auction off slots to access a $1 billion fund to rebuild telecom infrastructure, but local business leaders in Puerto Rico say they are edged out of competition by rules favoring legacy carriers (The Hill).
> Trade punishments: Trump made two major trade decisions last week, reimposing aluminum tariffs on Canada and blocking the use of two China-based apps. Trade watchers worry that Trump’s renewed aggressive posturing ahead of the election will damage an economy already reeling from the pandemic (The Hill). … Canada called Trump’s tariffs “ludicrous” (Bloomberg News). … A petition to reprimand China for illegally trading species could ultimately bar imports of any wildlife from China into the United States amid a heightened evaluation of the risks they may pose for future pandemics. A petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups asks the Interior Department to go after China through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species treaty (The Hill).
> Justice Department: Findings from an investigation ordered by Attorney General William Barr to examine the origins of the government’s probe of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election could emerge by Sept. 4, before Labor Day. U.S. Attorney John Durham has been conducting the probe for months, and if he announces before Nov. 3 any criminal indictments or plea agreements involving former officials or releases a report documenting corruption, such actions could influence voters (RealClearInvestigations). … Inside Trump’s battles with U.S. intelligence agencies (The New York Times Magazine investigation).
Don’t let COVID and the flu team up to pound America. A priority should be developing antiviral drugs that can be given early, by Scott Gottlieb, opinion contributor, The Wall Street Journal. https://on.wsj.com/3acmyY0
I am the CEO of Uber. Gig workers deserve better. We support laws that would make flexibility and benefits possible, by Dara Khosrowshahi, opinion contributor, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/2DR5Zoi
A MESSAGE FROM FACEBOOK
Facebook supports updated internet regulations
We support updated regulations to set clear rules and hold companies, including Facebook, accountable for:
— Combating foreign election interference
— Protecting people’s privacy
— Enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms
👉 INVITATION: The Hill Virtually Live on Thursday hosts “Breaking Through: U.S. Businesses Powered By Global Exports.” Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), co-chairman of the congressional U.S.-China Working Group; former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; and others will join a conversation moderated by The Hill’s Steve Clemons. RSVP: https://bit.ly/3kjRWZl
ELSEWHERE
➔ International: Hong Kong authorities arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday and accused him of violating the national security law, marking the first time the law has been used to target dissent in the news media and press freedom. Next Digital, Lai’s media company which operates Apple Daily, a pro-democracy publication that is critical of China’s Communist Party, was searched by officers, who carted away boxes they said is evidence of wrongdoing (The Associated Press). The news came ahead of China’s imposition of sanctions on 11 Americans, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), with the Chinese foreign ministry saying that they have “behaved egregiously” on Hong Kong issues (Reuters). … Afghanistan released 400 “hard-core” Taliban prisoners as the two sides move toward peace talks after two decades of war. The release will complete the Afghan government’s pledge to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners and comes as talks between the two sides will kick off in Doha this week (Reuters).
➔ Sports: Collin Morikawa, 23, took home the PGA Championship at Harding Park in San Francisco on Sunday, shooting -13 and a final round 64 for his first major title in only his second appearance at a major tournament. Morikawa sewed up the title when he drove the green on the 16th hole, a par 4, to within 7-feet for an eagle — a shot that will go down in major championship lore (ESPN). … Another MLB series was postponed as the St. Louis Cardinals-Pittsburgh Pirates series scheduled for Aug. 11-12 was bumped due to COVID-19. In total, nine Cardinals players have tested positive for the virus. The team has not played since July 29 (ESPN).
➔ Golden mask: The most decorated and expensive mask has arrived. An Israeli jewelry company is creating an 18-karat white gold, diamond-encrusted face mask that carries a $1.5 million price tag — purportedly the most expensive one in the world. According to Isaac Levy, a designer and owner of the Yvel company, the mask will be decorated with 3,600 white and black diamonds and fitted with top-rated N99 filters at the buyer’s request. The mask is to be completed by the end of the year (The Associated Press).
And finally … NASA said last week it plans to remove offensive names from planets and other heavenly bodies. Under new rules, the “Eskimo Nebula,” discovered in 1787 by William Herschel and pictured below, will be referred to as NGC 2392. The previously identified “Siamese Twins,” also known as the Butterfly Galaxies, discovered by Herschel in 1784, will be known as NGC 4567 and NGC 4568.
For some observers, the move away from colonial-era names is overdue. For others, NASA exhibited an excess of political correctness (New York Post).
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Hawaii state Sen. Kai Kahele is favored to be going to Congress after winning Saturday’s Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in the deep-blue 2nd District. Kahale would be the first Native Hawaiian to serve in Congress since Sen. Daniel K. Akaka. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Solid Democratic. Read More…
President Donald Trump on Saturday signed a series of executive actions intended to extend and expand COVID-19 relief, including suspending payroll tax collection and boosting federal support for unemployment benefits. It wasn’t immediately clear the legal authority under which the president was acting in making the orders. Read More…
The Main Street Lending Program is supposed to be a life preserver for midsize companies, but at the first Congressional Oversight Commission hearing Friday, expert after expert said the lending lifeline is falling far short for companies and workers drowning in a coronavirus-ravaged economy. Read More…
Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developmentsin finance and financial technology.
David Vela, the acting head of the National Park Service, abruptly announced his retirement on Friday, vacating a role that a Senate-confirmed nominee has not held during the entire Trump administration. Vela will retire in September, the Interior Department said. Read More…
ANALYSIS — Democrats followed up their historic 2006 midterms with more gains two years later. They’re poised to do the same thing this fall, CQ Roll Call elections analyst Nathan L. Gonzales writes. Dozens of GOP incumbents previously thought as safe for reelection are now potentially vulnerable. Read More…
In a major upset, environmental activist Marquita Bradshaw became the first Black woman to be nominated for statewide office by either major political party in Tennessee when she won the state’s Democratic Senate primary on Thursday. Read More…
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POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: Who called Trump?
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DRIVING THE DAY
SHOT: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP said this Sunday evening about restarting Covid relief negotiations: “The Democrats have called. They’d like to get together. And we say if it’s not a waste of time, we’ll do it. … I hear that Nancy Pelosi wants to call, and she wants to see if she can do something. But they’re much more inclined to make a deal now than they would’ve been two days ago,” TRUMP said at the Morristown, N.J., airport. Video
CHASER: Two senior Democratic aides told us Sunday night Speaker NANCY PELOSI and Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER have had no contact with the White House since the Friday meeting with MARK MEADOWS and STEVEN MNUCHIN. Unless it’s SCHUMER and PELOSI calling, it doesn’t matter — generally speaking.
SPEAKING AT A CLOSED FUNDRAISER Sunday in New Jersey, TRUMP said of the crowds when he has been traveling: “Ohio, Texas and Florida last week, 100,000 people at least in each place, riding down the streets, all over the highways.”
WSJ ED BOARD RAPS TRUMP AGAIN!: “The good news is that President Trump on Saturday escaped the trillion-dollar terms of surrender demanded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The bad news is that he followed the Barack Obama method with executive orders, one of which stretches the law in a way that a future progressive President will surely cite as a precedent. …
“These columns opposed Mr. Obama’s orders, and one constitutional abuse doesn’t justify another. Mr. Trump’s FEMA order is a bad legal precedent that a President Kamala Harris could cite if a GOP Congress blocked her agenda on, say, climate change.
“All of this shows how our polarized politics is stressing the constitutional system. Democrats and the press blame Mr. Trump, but they are as culpable for enabling Mr. Obama’s executive end-runs around Congress. Congress and the President should work it out the constitutional way, but if they can’t, the voters will have to settle the debate.”
BREAKING … BLOOMBERG: “China to Sanction U.S. Officials in Retaliation Over Hong Kong”: “China will sanction 11 Americans in retaliation for similar measures imposed by the Trump administration on Friday, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
“Those sanctioned include Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth and Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, Zhao told a briefing in Beijing. The U.S. on Friday said it was placing sanctions on 11 Chinese officials and their allies in Hong Kong, including Chief Executive Carrie Lam, over their roles in curtailing political freedoms in the former British colony.”
YES, WE ARE … WAPO, via Felicia Sonmez: “In a brief exchange with a reporter near his Rehoboth Beach, Del., home, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden gave no indications Sunday morning whether he has come to a decision on his running mate. ‘Are you ready?’ the former vice president replied when asked whether he’d made his choice.”
— AP’S STEVE PEOPLES and ALEXANDRA JAFFE: “At a minimum, the [VP] decision will shift the force of the campaign — at least temporarily — away from Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency onto Biden himself. That’s not a place many Democrats are comfortable given Biden’s proclivity for gaffes and the persistent lack of excitement behind his candidacy.”
NYT, A15: “The Wallets of Wall Street Are With Joe Biden, if Not the Hearts,”by Kate Kelly, Shane Goldmacher and Tom Kaplan: “Wall Street has fared extraordinarily well under Mr. Trump: deep cuts to taxes, slashed regulations and, until the pandemic hit, record stock prices. But in recent months, dozens of bankers, traders and investors said in interviews, a sense of outrage and exhaustion over Mr. Trump’s chaotic style of governance — accelerated by his poor coronavirus response — had markedly shifted the economic and political calculus in their industry.
“More and more finance professionals, they say, appear to be sidelining their concerns about Mr. Biden’s age — 77 — and his style. They are surprisingly unperturbed at the likelihood of his raising their taxes and stiffening oversight of their industry. In return, they welcome the more seasoned and methodical presidency they believe he could bring.
“They may not exactly be falling in love with Mr. Biden. But they are falling in line. ‘I’ve seen meaningful numbers of people put aside what would appear to be their short-term economic interest because they value being citizens in a democracy,’ said Seth Klarman, founder of the hedge fund Baupost. A longtime independent, Mr. Klarman was at one point New England’s biggest giver to the Republican Party. But in this cycle, he has given $3 million to groups supporting Mr. Biden.”
THE CORONAVIRUS IS RAGING … 5.04 MILLION AMERICANS have tested positive for Covid-19. … 162,938 AMERICANS have died.
THE ECONOMY — “Millennials Slammed by Second Financial Crisis Fall Even Further Behind,”by WSJ’s Janet Admy: “The economic hit of the coronavirus pandemic is emerging as particularly bad for millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, who as a group hadn’t recovered from the experience of entering the workforce during the previous financial crisis. For this cohort, already indebted and a step behind on the career ladder, this second pummeling could keep them from accruing the wealth of older generations.”
— “Pandemic wrecks global Class of 2020’s hopes for first job,” by AP’s Kelvin Chan in London: “Around the world, young people armed with new degrees, diplomas and professional qualifications are struggling to enter the workforce as the pandemic pushes the global economy into recession. COVID-19 has thwarted hopes of landing first jobs – important for jumpstarting careers – as employers cut back graduate recruiting plans or even revoke job offers.” AP
CULTURE WARS … LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ and ALEX THOMPSON: “Facing bleak November, Republicans look to stoke BLM backlash”: “For a brief moment after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis policeman in late May, some members of the GOP joined calls for change as protests exploded onto streets across the country. That moment is over. Facing possible electoral calamity, Republicans are now turning to a familiar playbook: stoking fear by trying to redefine the Black Lives Matter movement as a radical leftist mob looking to sabotage the white, suburban lifestyle.
“Republicans are using two lines of attack: the Trump administration, candidates in safe red seats and right-wing social media channels seek to label the entire movement ‘Marxist’ and anti-family as they try to energize their conservative base. Republicans running in swing districts and states, meanwhile, are tying their Democratic opponents to activists’ demands to defund police departments, while avoiding explicitly mentioning Black Lives Matter. Instead, Republicans running in competitive general election races have focused recent ads on more abstract targets like ‘left-wing radicals’ and the ‘liberal mob.’
“It’s a distinction Democratic pollsters and lawmakers attribute to the dramatic shift in public views on police brutality, and who and what people associate with the declaration that ‘Black Lives Matter.’ The new broad support for the movement, they say, makes it harder to tie Black Lives Matter to one person, organization or ideology.” POLITICO
VEEPSTAKES — “As decision day nears, VP hopefuls rake in big money for Biden,”by Elena Schneider: “The Democrats vying to be Joe Biden’s running mate have made the rounds of the Sunday shows. They’ve enlisted surrogates to talk them up to the vetting committee and have been preparing for their one-on-one interviews with Biden himself. But as the vetting process enters its final stage, there’s another lesser-noticed facet to the veepstakes: how much cash the contenders have raised for him, and their ability to juice donations if they’re chosen.
“Of Biden’s prospective running mates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has brought in the most money for him, totaling more than $7.7 million combined from a high-dollar event — which she vocally swore off during her own campaign — and a grass-roots event that drew 50,000 participants. She’s also sent multiple emails to her own small-dollar list, as well as his. On Tuesday, Warren will host another event for Biden, alongside Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), with tickets ranging from $250 to $25,000, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.”
TRUMP’S MONDAY — The president will have lunch with VP Mike Pence at 12:30 p.m. in the private dining room. He will receive an intel briefing at 2 p.m.
— KAYLEIGH MCENANY will hold a press briefing at 1 p.m.
PLAYBOOK READS
CNN’S JIM SCUITTO has a new book out Tuesday called “THE MADMAN THEORY: Trump Takes on the World.” WE HAVE AN exclusive excerpt about TRUMP’S decision-making process in Syria — and it’s well worth the read. Buy the book for $28.99
BIG NEWS IN HONG KONG — “Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under security law, bearing out ‘worst fears,’” by Reuters’ Greg Torode and James Pomfret in Hong Kong: “Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai became the highest-profile person arrested under a new national security law on Monday, detained over suspected collusion with foreign forces as around 200 police searched the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper.
“Lai, 71, has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing, which imposed the sweeping new law on Hong Kong on June 30, drawing condemnation from Western countries. His arrest comes amid Beijing’s crackdown against pro-democracy opposition in the city and further stokes concerns about media and other freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to China in 1997.” Reuters
BACKLASH IN BELARUS — “Lukashenko’s claim of landslide victory sparks widespread protests,” by The Guardian’s Yan Auseyushkin in Minsk and Andrew Roth in Moscow: “Clashes broke out in cities across Belarus on Sunday evening as riot police used rubber bullets, flash grenades, teargas and water cannon to quash protests against the results of the contested presidential election.
“Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled for 26 years, claimed he had won a landslide victory in an election marred by accusations of vote-rigging. The election commission announced on Monday that Lukashenko took 80.23% of the votes while his main opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has held some of the country’s largest political rallies since the days of the Soviet Union, had only 9.9%.
“Large protests broke out soon after the polls closed in Minsk, where a crowd of thousands gathered in the centre of the capital.” Guardian
BUSINESS BURST — “Amazon and Mall Operator Look at Turning Sears, J.C. Penney Stores Into Fulfillment Centers,” by WSJ’s Esther Fung and Sebastian Herrera: “The largest mall owner in the U.S. has been in talks with Amazon.com Inc., the company many retailers denounce as the mall industry’s biggest disrupter, to take over space left by ailing department stores.
“Simon Property Group Inc. has been exploring with Amazon the possibility of turning some of the property owner’s anchor department stores into Amazon distribution hubs, according to people familiar with the matter. Amazon typically uses these warehouses to store everything from books and sweaters to kitchenware and electronics until delivery to local customers.
“The talks have focused on converting stores formerly or currently occupied by J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp., these people said. The department-store chains have both filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and as part of their plans have been closing dozens of stores across the country. Simon malls have 63 Penney and 11 Sears stores, according to its most recent public filing in May.” WSJ
“‘He understood and operated very effectively at the crossroads of public policy, politics, and news,’ [Bank of America Vice Chair Anne] Finucane said. ‘He dealt with that collectively as a full-contact sport.’”
STAFFING UP — Scott Luginbill is now director of congressional affairs for the Trump reelect. He previously worked on congressional affairs for the GOP convention, and is a Mark Walker alum. … Chadwick Carlough is now campaign policy coordinator for the Trump reelect. He previously was chief of staff for Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.). …
… Subhan Cheema is now director of coalition comms and North Carolina press secretary for the Biden campaign. He previously was comms director/adviser for Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and is a Richard Blumenthal and Obama HHS alum.
TRANSITIONS — R. Christopher Di Mezzo is now press secretary for the Lincoln Project in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Maine. He previously was comms director and spokesperson for the Vermont Democratic Party. … Johanny Adames and Silvina Alarcón are joining Latino Victory Project as comms director and campaigns director, respectively. Adames previously led Latino media and comms for Planned Parenthood Federation of America/Action Fund. Alarcón is a DCCC alum.
ENGAGED — Lauren McBride, a program manager for the House Sergeant at Arms, and Reilly McDonbell, senior director at Dezenhall Resources, got engaged Friday. Lauren surprised Reilly when she popped the question on the speaker’s balcony at the Capitol. Pic… Another pic
— Hunter Morgen, senior adviser at Ballard Partners and former deputy to Peter Navarro and Stephen Miller, and Cora Mandy, deputy comms director at America First Super PAC, got engaged. They met in Trump Tower on the 2016 Trump campaign.
— Ross Olchyk, senior legislative assistant for Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), proposed to Haley Brady, director of operations for Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.), on Friday.Pic… Another pic
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: John Dunagan, president of Highland Advocacy Group. A trend that doesn’t get enough attention: “The damaging impact of the obvious and intentional audience segmentation and subsequent content curation, driven by market and audience research of the three major cable ‘news’ networks.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) is 6-0 … Nancy Cordes, CBS News chief congressional correspondent … Andrew Sullivan is 57 … Meg Ansara, founding partner and CEO at 270 Strategies … Matthew MacWilliams … POLITICO’s Alex Thompson … Sally Garner … POLITICO Europe’s Jan Cienski … Kevin McAlister is 32 … Jim Brady, founder and CEO of Spirited Media … Jessica Wehrman … NYT’s Laura Kim … Paul Conway … Sophie Vershbow of Penguin Random House … Sarah Bryant Burns … Gina Ormand Cherwin …Sarah Kyle, senior adviser and senior director of federal affairs at Eli Lilly … Joshua Karp… Tony Hernandez, press assistant for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (h/t Sara Guerrero) … Tyler Brandon … Justin Jenkins, digital director for Mark Kelly’s Senate campaign … CNN’s Alex Marquardt and Susie Xu … Chris Hansen …
… Time’s Lissandra Villa … Casey Clemmons, campaign director for the Minnesota DFL Party and a Pete Buttigieg alum (h/t Bailey Romans) … Invariant’s Ben Klein and Noah Kowalski … Katie Papa … Chirag Shah … Noah Marine … David Forman of the American Gaming Association … Ipsos’ Neha Jain … Kevin King … Andy Coulouris, director of federal affairs at DTE Energy … Robert Cogan … Ally Harpootlian of ReThink Drones … Arnold Punaro … Jacob Cohen, senior analyst at CME Group (h/t Carl Hughes) … California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (h/ts Jon Haber and Teresa Vilmain) … California state Sen. Steve Glazer … Farnaz Mansouri … Wood Foster … Addison DiSesa … Peter Morgan … Mary Warlick … Genevieve Glatsky … Mark Walker … Lucy Goss … Emily Buck … Cameron Onumah … Paul Foutch … Jack Moline … George Appleby … Mike Linhorst … Larry Remer
By Kelvey Vander Hart on Aug 10, 2020 05:00 am
Kelvey Vander Hart: Are we so full of contempt that we can’t even support political enemies when they agree with us? 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 will have lunch with Vice President Mike Pence then receive his daily intelligence briefing. Keep up with Trump on Our President’s Schedule Page. UPDATED: President Trump’s Itinerary for 8/10/20 – note: this page will be updated during the day if events warrant Keep up with Trump on …
Election officials in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania didn’t respond to repeated inquiries on when the nation could expect the results from the November election. An official in Wisconsin said timing is uncertain. Wisconsin and Michigan have invested millions towards protective equipment, recruiting poll workers and facilitating the count of absentee …
Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday released an FBI memo from 2018 that he says shows investigators lied to the Senate about statements that the primary source for the Steele dossier told the FBI regarding the salacious document. “This document clearly shows that the FBI was continuing to mislead regarding the …
While Joe Biden continues to falter and fumble campaigning from his basement, Trump is out there campaigning and working hard for the people as he always does, making America great. Trump is playing rock’em, sock’em hardball while Biden is playing Wiffle ball and missing the ball Trump recently passed police …
If elected president, Joe Biden will be older his first day in office than when Ronald Reagan left the White House. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has always been gaffe-prone, but his increasingly common verbal missteps and outbursts have led to harsh scrutiny. It’s one reason some believe he’s spending …
Wishing a most happy Monday to you, my dear Kruiser Morning Briefing readers.
I didn’t want to begin the week going off on the mainstream media since that’s where we left off last week, but the MSM hacks couldn’t leave well enough alone over the weekend.
I have had several conversations with people in the past few days who are completely unaware of just how bad things have gotten in Portland. Many of these people do pay a fair amount of attention to the news, but they’ve still missed the Portland stuff.
Because it’s not in the news. It is perhaps the biggest news in the country, but it isn’t being reported.
Portland doesn’t fit the narrative. In fact, it destroys the narrative.
Were we to believe the media, what’s happening in Portland is merely some mild unrest being acted out by some restless kids. What’s actually happening is such a nightmare that the cops there want to quit their jobs and peace out.
The mainstream media in America is not just irresponsible, it is absolutely delusional at times.
It was a truly stunning question, one that I believe Stelter genuinely doesn’t know the answer to because he is so ideologically isolated.
Poppin’ Fresh Stelter may very well be the worst of the leftist media types because his job is to monitor other media for CNN. It has to be a herculean effort for him to be as obtuse as he is.
Sit back and wonder for a moment how any on-air CNN personality could ask with a straight face if any anti-Trump media happened to be out there. It’s so preposterous that you almost want to pity the person asking because he or she is obviously mentally impaired.
Modern American news media is engaged in a daily abuse of its First Amendment privileges. Originally tasked with speaking truth to power, the MSM now is, for the most part, the power. Well, the power for the Left.
What the MSM is doing is a blatant perversion of the rights given to it by the First Amendment. Rather than being freedom’s voice, the American mainstream media is now tyranny’s hammer.
CNN, MSNBC, and the nightly news networks are doing the socialist devil’s work. What every one of them don’t grasp is that they will be the first to be disposed of by the kinds of regimes they are hoping to usher in.
Alternative digital media is becoming an ever-stronger counter to the MSM, but the latter still retains enough power to be a truly freedom-destroying force.
Happy Monday! We typically like to keep TMD short to kick off the week, to let you (and us) ease back into the rhythm of things. Unfortunately, there was Too Much News this weekend—and that’s after we sifted through all the dumb stuff that doesn’t matter on your behalf!
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 49,573 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, with 7 percent of the 711,984 tests reported coming back positive. An additional 522 deaths were attributed to the virus on Sunday, bringing the pandemic’s American death toll to 162,938.
The U.S. economy regained 1.8 million jobs in July, per numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. The unemployment rate fell 0.9 points to 10.2 percent, with the number of unemployed workers dropping 1.4 million to 16.3 million.
William Evanina, a senior U.S. intelligence official and director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released a statement Friday regarding information about hostile foreign powers trying to interfere in the 2020 election. Russia, Evanina’s statement said, is attempting to sway the election for Trump, while China is attempting to sway it for Biden.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on 11 senior authorities in Hong Kong and China involved in the continued crackdown in Hong Kong, including Carrie Lam, the region’s chief executive.
According to unnamed U.S. officials, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sternly warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov against Moscow paying bounties for the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan, directly contradicting President Trump’s claim that recent revelations about the issue were a “hoax.”
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Trump donor before assuming his position in the administration in May, announced a significant reorganization of the Postal Service on Friday purported to increase efficiency in anticipation of an election where millions are expected to vote via mail-in ballots. The move set off cries of foul play from Democratic lawmakers, who argued that the changes are a veiled threat to the integrity of the mail-in voting system. “We are not slowing down election mail or any other mail,” DeJoy said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state’s schools can open for in-person classes in the fall, provided they are in a region where the average rate of positive coronavirus tests remains below 5 percent for a minimum of two weeks. The decision now lies with local officials.
In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that courts can enforce congressional subpoenas against the executive branch and that the House “was entitled to [former White House Counsel Don] McGahn’s testimony pursuant to its duly issued subpoena.” The case will now go back to a three-judge panel to determine whether McGahn can block the subpoena on other grounds.
Brent Scowcroft, foreign policy counselor to seven presidential administrations and national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, died over the weekend at 95.
A new study from Duke University researchers tested the efficacy of a variety of different facemasks on reducing the transmission of respiratory droplets. While most masks were proven to be highly effective—several cotton and polypropylene masks approached surgical- and N95-levels of performance—bandanas and neck fleeces/gaiters were shown to barely limit transmission.
Collin Morikawa, 23, won the PGA Championship—the first golf major since the pandemic shut down the sport in March.
If It Hadn’t Been for Those Meddling Geopolitical Foes
With fewer than 90 days until the final ballots of the 2020 campaign are cast, the bulk of the concern surrounding the integrity of the election has revolved around mail-in voting—and rightly so. But on Friday afternoon, the general public became privy to intelligence reportedly known to lawmakers and both presidential campaigns for days, if not longer: Adversaries are continuing to interfere in our electoral process.
“Ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections, foreign states will continue to use covert and overt influence measures in their attempts to sway U.S. voters’ preferences and perspectives, shift U.S. policies, increase discord in the United States, and undermine the American people’s confidence in our democratic process,” William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in a statement. He cited three countries’ efforts in particular.
Russia, Evanina said, prefers President Trump win re-election and is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.’” He cited Andriy Derkach—a pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian—as a sample vessel for information designed to “undermine” Biden’s candidacy and the Democrat Party. Derkach was the source for various anti-Biden segments on One America News Network, a Trump-friendly conspiracy outlet, during the impeachment investigation last fall.
We told you Friday that President Trump, frustrated with the slow progress of congressional COVID relief talks, was mulling a plan to perform the roles of both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. On Saturday afternoon, he unveiled a series of executive orders targeting a number of the White House’s policy priorities from the negotiations, including a payroll tax freeze, an expanded unemployment extension, a moratorium on evictions, and a deferral of federal student loan payments.
We say targeting those priorities, because Trump is hobbled by the fact that actually tackling them head-on would require making use of Congress’ power of the purse. Instead, the White House has cobbled together a set of actions that gesture in the direction of those policies from existing laws—resulting in a hodgepodge of zigzag strategies that vary wildly in both their likely constitutionality and likely effectiveness.
Over at the site today, Andrew breaks down the basics of what the orders do, what they can’t do despite the president’s assurances otherwise, and what they may end up doing whether we like it or not.
Two are relatively easy to address: The president can waive penalties for late federal student-loan payments, but cannot unilaterally freeze evictions nationwide. (Trump’s eviction memorandum itself quietly acknowledges this fact.)
The other two are a little more complicated. By monkeying around with federal disaster budgets, President Trump can seemingly create a new sort of Frankenstein version of the CARES Act’s expanded unemployment program, one of the most pressing concerns from the latest negotiations. But experts say the program would have to be rebuilt from scratch and could take months to put in place, and would require bleeding FEMA funds that might soon be needed elsewhere, particularly during hurricane season.
The U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs in July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday, marking the third straight month of job growth since states began easing coronavirus-induced lockdown measures in late-spring. July’s employment gains were well below the 4.8 million new jobs added in June and the 2.5 million added in May—a sign the economic recovery is beginning to decelerate.
“I expect us to look like we’re on the ‘V’ trajectory, but that ‘V’ will only get us halfway,” Obama administration economist Jason Furman told Declan back in May. “It’ll look like this incredibly rapid decline in the unemployment rate—from say 20 percent to 12 percent—but then the next 8 percentage points will take much longer than the first eight percentage points.”
David Brooks’ latest column made waves over the weekend—he wrote about potential paths forward for a post-Trump Republican Party. “The basic Trump worldview,” he argues, “will shape the G.O.P. for decades, the way the basic Reagan worldview did for decades. A thousand smarter conservatives will be building a new party after 2020, but one that builds from the framework Trump established.” It’s clear, Brooks writes, that Reaganism’s chokehold over the GOP is finished. But what the party’s post-Trump platform and character will look like depends on who takes the reins in the months and years to come.
Nellie Bowles traveled to Seattle to report on the aftermath of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) for the New York Times. The idea of police abolition is currently supported by only the most activist fringe, but for many small business owners and residents of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle, it was a reality for weeks on end. The picture Bowles paints of a world without police is a disturbing one. “One window broken, then another, then another, then another. Garbage to clean off the sidewalk in front of the store every morning. Urine to wash out of our doorway alcove. Graffiti to remove,” the owner of a printing shop detailed. “Costs to board up and later we’ll have costs to repair.”
The Washington Post is running a series of oral histories from Americans living through—and touched by—the coronavirus pandemic. Its latest installment hit us like a ton of bricks. Francene Bailey believes she gave COVID-19 to her 70-year-old mother, and 10 days later she was gone. “I heard her start to cough downstairs in her room,” Bailey remembered. “It was nighttime, and I leaned against the floorboards to listen. I said, ‘Oh God, no. No. Please, Jesus, don’t let her be sick.’ But I already knew. She sounded exactly like me.”
Today we launch what will become an occasional series, “The Biden Agenda.” Based on Biden’s long career, the views he’s articulated in his low-key campaign for president, the people he’s likely to rely on for advice, and the current political moment, what should we expect from a prospective Biden presidency on the most pressing issues of our time? The first piece is on what health care policy might look like, and it comes from Jim Capretta, one of the country’s leading experts on health care, entitlements, budgets and fiscal policy.
Jerry Falwell, who has been through several scandals regarding his personal behavior, has finally been put on leave as head of Liberty University. David’s Sunday French Press unpacks the latest Falwell revelations and what they mean for the broader Evangelical movement.
In his latest G-File(and Ruminant), Jonah examines the internal debate on the left as to whether class or race is the “central explanation for American perfidy.” He writes: “One camp claimed race as the Rosetta Stone for deciphering America’s sins. The other, older camp clung to class-based explanations. It’s not necessarily the case that the socialists didn’t think racism was a problem, and it’s certainly not the case that the racialists (for want of a better term) didn’t think class and capitalism, etc., weren’t constructs of oppression. The debate was simply over which paradigm should take precedence and explain or illuminate the other side’s concerns or the central challenges to be overcome.”
Kemberlee Kaye: “Our youngest daughter had her first dance recital this weekend. She worked really hard to prepare and had a great time. I’m thankful there are other things outside of the gross political world to look forward to and enjoy, especially with our kids.”
Fuzzy Slippers: “Stacey wrote a great post about black people supporting police and not wanting their presence decreased or “defunded.” It’s almost like the radical left behind the push to abolish/defund police don’t really care what black people actually want. “
Vijeta Uniyal: “Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for a Hindu temple on a site destroyed by Muslim invaders in the sixteenth century. The move received wide criticism in the mainstream media. The Washington Post saw it as an insult to Muslims. “India marks another day of erasure and insult against its Muslim citizens,” the newspaper reported. According to Bloomberg News, rebuilding the “temple is but a symbol of the humiliation of Muslims and liberals.””
Legal Insurrection Foundation is a Rhode Island tax-exempt corporation established exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to educate and inform the public on legal, historical, economic, academic, and cultural issues related to the Constitution, liberty, and world events.
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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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Now Trump Has a Pen
In January 2014, NPR glowingly reported, “Wielding A Pen And A Phone, Obama Goes It Alone.” More from NPR:
“President Obama has a new phrase he’s been using a lot lately: ‘I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.’He’s talking about the tools a president can use if Congress isn’t giving him what he wants: executive actions and calling people together. It’s another avenue the president is using to pursue his economic agenda.”
So, obviously, the media, remembering that using executive orders was not only common but even praised during the Obama Administration, simply reported on the details in Trump’s executive orders. Wait, they didn’t? No way!
In signing orders related to COVID-19 relief, President Trump said, “We have repeatedly stated our willingness to immediately sign legislation providing expanded unemployment benefits, protecting Americans from eviction, and providing additional relief payments to families. Democrats have refused these offers.”
Here’s a breakdown from Axios (via The Daily Wire) on what the orders do
Defer payroll taxes for Americans earning less than $100,000 a year.
Implement a moratorium on evictions and give financial assistance to renters.
Add $400 per week in extra unemployment benefits through the end of 2020, requiring states to cover 25% of the additional benefits.
Postpone student loan interest and payments through the end of 2020.
This puts Democratic candidates and party leaders in the position of telling Americans why these things are bad. Americans aren’t going to listen to a debate on the pros and cons of executive orders. Instead, they see a President taking decisive action and Congress stonewalling during a pandemic.
Riot Declared in Portland
On Sunday afternoon, one media outlet finally decided to notice that it wasn’t just a series of “70 days of protests” in Portland. From CBS News:
“The police union building in Portland, Oregon, was set on fire Saturday night, leading police to declare a riot and order the area cleared. Federal authorities left the city at the end of July after weeks of violent clashes between them and protesters, and local leaders have hoped for calm after the federal agents withdrew.Three officers were injured when police tried to disperse the crowd, Portland police said.
Police said there were several protests on Saturday that were peaceful, but a small group lit a fire at the Portland Police Association (PPA) building. According to The Oregonian, it’s the second time a fire has been lit at the police union building, a regular site of protests since they began in late May.”
One bright spot, their treatment aside, has been these two elderly grandmas who stood up to rioters in Portland and have become heroes for it. God bless them and everyone else who is standing up for their neighborhoods and businesses while city leaders hide.
What I’m Reading This Week
I finally got around to starting Greg Gutfeld’s book this weekend and it is so perfect for this time in my life and probably in yours, too! From the description of The Plus: Self-Help for People Who Hate Self Help:
“In The Plus, Greg teaches you how to brainwash yourself into better behavior, retaining the pluses in your life and eliminating the minuses. His approach to self-help is simple, and perfect for cynics; it’s not about positive thinking in the short term, it’s about positive being in the long term. With tough love and more than a little political incorrectness, he delivers sage wisdom such as:
-If you aren’t getting happier as you’re getting older, you’re doing it wrong.
-Resist the media’s command to expand destructive narratives.
-If you’re in the same place you were three years ago, wake up.
-Don’t tweet when drinking.
Modern life grows emptier and emptier as society becomes increasingly polarized, and even those who don’t subscribe to New Age beliefs are seeking comfort and meaning. In The Plus, Greg shows how skeptics too can advance themselves for the betterment of their lives and the healing of their communities.”
This week I’m so excited to share with you a fun column I wrote highlighting the First Lady’s style. You’ve probably seen a ton of content on the annual Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. What if you could shop the sale with Melania Trump? I go through the entire sale with an eye on what’s worth buying with a little inspiration from the First Lady! Read it here.
Last week we reported on the announcement about the redesign of the Rose Garden. It turns out the First Lady, like many before her, has been making improvements on the White House. One tidbit reported in SFGATE/Realtor.com shows a unique way she updated the historic Green Room:
“Over the years, the Green Room has been used as a dining room, guest bedroom, card room, and parlor.When the room’s drapes needed an update, Melania surprisingly decided to take a more DIY approach, rather than buying a new set.
She simply flipped the curtains inside out, bringing material from the backside to the front. This frugal move meant that only the curtain’s decorative fringe had to be replaced.”
Mondays with Melania is a weekly feature that highlights what the First Lady is doing and wearing.
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 10, 2020 01:00 am
Anarchists’ widespread use of roadblocks to attack motorists requires citizens, and especially potential jurors, to understand the full implications of these incidents. Read More…
Aug 10, 2020 01:00 am
Resistance in response to the Nazi aim to eliminate all Jews has helped preserve the existence and communal life of the Jewish people who have not been eliminated from human history. Read More…
New Jersey student Robert Dailyda faces potential disciplinary action for using a photograph of President Donald Trump as his background during a Zoom video conference last month.Dailyda, a doctoral student at Stockton University, has been accused by his university of violating portions of the student code of conduct because his classmate … Read more
The 1619 Project wants to reorient American history around a year of black enslavement and disaster. Serbian politician Slobodan Milošević pursued this strategy in Yugoslavia and sparked a blood-soaked horror.
Keeping your vote private isn’t a sign of shame — it makes the important point that not every action needs to be performed in public for the mob’s approval.
Narratives regarding COVID-19 are confusing, inconsistent, and often contradictory. Officials owe us accurate and clear explanations of the risks we face.
Our educational institutions have committed intellectual grand theft, withholding critical knowledge from students and replacing it with the poison of identity politics and political correctness.
American Flag Guy noted that the ideas animating the ‘defund the police’ protestors were the greatest source of ‘oppression’ he faces ‘as a black man in America’ today.
Beyond focusing on social issues like racism, Whitmer’s new response plan for COVID-19 takes a more heavy-handed approach to force Michigan residents into compliance via state police.
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
“THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH A POLICE STATE AS LONG AS YOU ARE THE POLICE”
I actually remember a law enforcement officer making that assertion in a forum of colleagues back in the early days of email before the age of social media. It was probably intended to be facetious. But there is always a serious core to what is said in jest.
If you are in a position of authority making decisions that impact the lives and the livelihoods of others, it’s human nature to flippantly dismiss their concerns of civil rights violated and denied. It is the antithesis of the Golden Rule.
Speaking of the Golden Rule, many seem to think that it means that he or she who has the gold makes the rules. Au contraire!
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do ye even so to them.” These are the words of Jesus to the men and women of the evil generation when He was on earth.
Then, as now, this command went against the grain of their corrupted human nature. Times change, technology changes, but the wickedness and selfishness of mortal beings such as ourselves remains a constant in all of our societies throughout the ages.
“THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH AN AUTHORITARIAN STATE AS LONG AS YOU ARE THE AUTHORITY”
You don’t have to be a legal beagle to realize that local police departments, county sheriffs, state police, highway patrol and even federal agencies do not create the statutes and ordinances that they enforce. Laws emanate from deep in the bowels of legislative bodies such as the United States Congress, State Senates and Houses of Representatives and City Councils. They vary as much as night does from day depending upon where you live.
State Constitutions and statutes are not all the same. Here is a recent analysis relevant to Hawaii’s current siege which poses as an interminable state of emergency.
THE COMMON THREAD
“I can better determine what’s good for you than you can for yourself.” No conscious reasoning, let alone articulation, is ever attempted of the basis of this assumption. Rather, it is merely that you (in the collective sense) put me in this position of authority, so you have defaulted on your right to make individual and personal decisions. You have bestowed upon me the power to be your surrogate in the decision-making process. I will henceforth be able to usurp, to supplant, to overrule your wishes in order to ensure your well being as my superior intellect ascertains it to be.
No politician is ever going to comprehend this controlling assumption behind his or her actions. It’s one thing to be the doer of “emergency actions” and altogether different to be on the receiving end of overreaching governmental policies.
SO WHAT CONSTITUTES AN EMERGENCY ANYWAY?
Nature of the Threat
Failure to plan on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on my part. Uncontrollable events such as a hurricane/typhoon, tsunami or earthquake undeniably cause immediate extraordinary preparations and responses. 9/11/2001 created a rare and fleeting kumbaya moment on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in which politicians set aside their petty bickering but that spirit of national unity nearly two decades later is nothing but a distant fading memory in Washington, DC, and around this great country. In fact, an 18-year-old first time voter in the 2020 general election was not even born yet when that Islamic attack on America occurred.
Duration of the Threat
Hurricanes give days of warning; tsunamis either minutes or hours depending upon proximity; tornadoes just minutes, seconds or none at all; earthquakes zero. The aftermath may last for days, months or years based upon severity. But, any emergency declaration must of necessity be for a finite amount of time. It cannot and must not, by definition, be open ended and interminable.
Go back to the fact that lack of planning or a botched response do not justify the imposition of a Police State denying civil liberties or the suspension of the Bill of Rights guaranteed [not granted] by our U.S. Constitution.
APPLICABILITY TO 2020
The 1920’s are recorded in the annals of unrewritten history as the Roaring ’20’s. America and the world had survived, emerging still strong and vibrant from the scourge of the Spanish Flu. [That term wasn’t considered politically incorrect but the Wuhan Virus is.] Keep in mind that the Stock Market crash of 1929 propelled our country into the Great Depression—”great” in the sense of extreme and severe, not in the sense of wonderful and desirable. But there was a decade of indulgence in the day of Speakeasies.
Fast forward 100 years and we find ourselves mired in the unspeakable horror and misery—totally unanticipated, I might add—of the year 2020. Two decades ago we overreacted to the perceived threat of a Y2K cataclysm which was the biggest letdown and non-event of most of our lifetimes. How long did it take you to dispose of all those cases of bottled water and canned goods? Be honest! The computers did not all in a nanosecond or the blink of an eye cease to compute, did they? We didn’t instantly regress to the stone age foraging for food because modern life as we knew and loved it had not really ended forever.
In fact, every honest person felt ashamed of having joined the engineered panic which history has proven unnecessary at best and counterproductive at worst. If we had a do-over [though nobody ever does], we would simply have continued living our lives rather than peering fearfully into the nebulous abyss of self-doubt with an instilled overreliance on so-called experts who constantly lectured us about the scientific explanation of x’s and o’s and how they spelled impending disaster for the human race.
Did we learn anything from that about how “experts” are often the cause of unwarranted panic?
OUR CURRENT YEAR OF PREMEDITATED DISRUPTION
COVID-19
The farther we get into 2020, the year of the coronavirus’s release fades and we may in an increasing feeling of familiarity just refer to it as our constant companion COVID. How many high school graduates in 2038, males and females and other imagined genders, will receive a virtual diploma [all physical relics having become anachronistic] bearing the name Covid Smith [surnames having become too divisive to vary]?
Yes, the virus supposedly like none other has placed us all in a state of suspended animation. Life as we knew it has paused and those in authority warn us not to be either so presumptuous or so blatantly selfish as to want, let alone expect, to ever retrieve our former lives with civil liberties intact. We are told that the current Police State is the inescapable “new normal”. But, not to fret, not to worry, Big Brother will take care of us.
George Orwell’s 1984 just got here 36 years late.
PLANNED INSURRECTION
Recently the bodycam footage of Saint George Floyd resisting arrest have emerged to find a big yawn, a shrug and a lack of interest in the Marxist groups, with Islamic backing, which devastated Minneapolis and then moved on to Seattle and then to the most vulnerable venue of Portland. I went to elementary school in the late 1950’s in the Pacific Northwest when we proudly learned about Lewis and Clark, the Oregon Trail and the pioneer spirit of hardy men and women of the frontier. One of my favorites stories was that of the Native American woman guide Sacajawea.
So, now it’s hard to imagine that the great city on the Columbia River has devolved into racial chaos. Why Portland? Because it was vulnerable with misguided modern “leaders” who had lost their senses along with their sense of historical perspective. What about Portland, Oregon cries out about racial injustice? Only that it was an easy target for Marxist revolutionaries whose longterm goal is to erase American history and remake this once Land of the Free and Home of the Brave into a den of sniveling cowards who bow before the aggressor in self-loathing and subservience. Mission accomplished.
One must clearly distinguish between the truism that black lives matter [to the same degree that Native American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic and indeed ALL LIVES MATTER—a phrase that can get a person killed in today’s toxic environment] on the one hand and the Marxist ally of Antifa that has hijacked and misappropriated those words to pose an in-your-face threat to peaceable Americans of every race and ethnicity on the other hand. Nobody is more vilified by “BLM” than black men and women of conscience who avoid groupthink and live by their conservative Christian principles.
THE ORIGIN OF TODAY’S POLICE STATE
This discussion of a biological attack on the world and the attempt to derail the 2020 Presidential Election in BLM’s avowed short-term goal of removing President Donald Trump from office are the essential ingredients in the cauldron that has brewed this Police State.
Irony
Let it not be lost on a single soul in our midst that the attempt to defund and abolish police departments is a subterfuge. Lawfully constituted law enforcement must cease and go away to create a vacuum to be filled by a Police State composed of an unholy alliance between ultra-leftist progressives in the guise of the Democrat Party and its vegetative puppet Joe Biden and the BLM/Antifa Insurrection.
How many Democrat politicians recognize this and how many are just weak-minded pawns of the Marxist operatives is an open question. From the Hawaii perspective, I would suggest that our U.S. Congressional delegation along with our inept Hawaii Governor and equally vacuous lame duck Honolulu Mayor are in the latter category because none of them is bright enough to circumspectly realize the complete havoc that their handlers have wrought through their complicity.
Who composes the Democrat talking points that they regurgitate? Somebody is actively working to destroy America. The Police State is at the top of their agenda.
First they would need to erase our knowledge of who we are and our proud national heritage of free thought. They would have to convince us that a disease with a very high recovery rate forebodes the absolute annihilation of our species unless and until we surrender our unique identity and sell our soul for the unfounded promise of protection and security provided by our masters. Mission Accomplished.
LIFE AFTER THE POLICE STATE
The key to survival is not to fall into the Stockholm Syndrome by identifying with our captors. I still remember this example from my high school Contemporary American Problems class in 1965:
A Nazi guard in a WW II Concentration Camp tells a Jewish prisoner to dig a hole.
He then tells another prisoner to get into the hole and lie down.
Then he instructs Prisoner 1 who dug the hole to bury Prisoner 2 alive with dirt.
Prisoner 1 refuses.
Nazi guard then tells the two prisoners to switch places.
He then orders Prisoner 2 to bury Prisoner 1 alive with dirt.
Prisoner 2 readily complies.
Nazi guard shouts stop and reverses the roles of the prisoners again.
Nazi guard says you see he was willing to bury you alive, so now you bury him alive.
Question
If you are Prisoner 1, what do you do?
Response
After some class discussion, our teacher suggested that the only proper and ethical thing to do is to recognize that the Nazi guard is not God. He has no right to distort your values of right and wrong. So, you resist the unlawful order to kill your fellow prisoner. Hopefully, Prisoner 2 will come to his senses and join you in resisting the guard’s attempt to play God.
SUMMING IT UP
In 2020, we have arrived at a new Police State. Authorities are assuming the power to control every aspect of our lives. They determine when and if we can emerge from their imposed lockdown and go outside our own homes.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on February 29, 2020 admonished us:
“Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”
Now we are told by our governmental masters and by our fellow citizens whom they have coopted that if we don’t wear a mask, we are callously killing our neighbors. Whom do you believe? No, that’s the wrong question.
The question we should be asking ourselves is who appointed these misguided authorities to act as God. The answer is nobody, but if we accept their pronouncements as infallible, then we have elevated them to that undeserved and unattainable status.
The same people who think there are multiple genders in a gender-fluid world lecture us about not denying their own faux-science. It’s not science, folks. It is a charade to dupe us into rolling over and dying. No, not playing dead. Surrendering all that makes life worth living!
THE POLICE STATE CAN ONLY EXIST IF NO ONE RESISTS
So, there you have it. What are you going to do about it? There are already positive signs of life among the huddled masses here in Police State America. Voters are rejecting “seasoned politicians” even here in Hawaii. We are ready to turn the scoundrels out and infuse our political system with new blood and open minds.
On November 3rd:
We reelect President Donald Trump!
Reject everyone at all echelons of government who thinks we serve them!
Replace them with conservatives who respect our civil liberties while staying out of the way as America becomes America again!
COVID-19 may take down an independent 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. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. 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.
Any other year, I would assume coverage of the rioting, looting, burning, and shooting in Chicago would be completely unavoidable by the media, even leftist media bent on maintaining a narrative. The crime is too blatant for respectable media to ignore. But this is 2020, and as our Editor-in-Chief noted on Twitter, mum’s the word from mainstream media outlets like CNN.
As Chicago’s peaceful protesters burn cars, loot stores, and literally shoot each other, it’s comforting to know @LoriLightfoot is paying attention and @CNN is on top of the city’s woes. pic.twitter.com/fga9k4F7Gt
Sunday night and into Monday morning, hundreds if not thousands of so-called “peaceful protesters” took to the streets of Chicago to steal and destroy as much as they could. Were they responding to a police murder of an unarmed Black man? No. As CBS reported, the triggering event was a criminal shooting at law enforcement who then had the nerve to shoot back instead of allowing themselves to be murdered along with others.
Officers shot and wounded a suspect who was firing at them in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood Sunday afternoon, police said. The shooting led to chaos in the area, with crowds lashing out at what they called extreme police actions, reports CBS Chicago.
Officers gave another story, saying misinformation sparked the widespread outrage that ended with citizens and officers injured and a sense of distrust in the community. Police said they were called around 3:20 p.m. about a person with a gun.
Officers found a man in an alley who matched the description they were given and they attempted to confront him, but the suspect fled and, during the chase, took out a gun and fired at the officers, according to police. They returned fire and hit him, police said. The suspect was in custody at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police News Affairs Deputy Director Tom Ahern tweeted. The officers involved were transported to a nearby hospital for observation, police said.
This hashtag freetianna arrest video is why hundreds of people are looting Chicago at the moment. pic.twitter.com/FPmkbayepj
Correction: A criminal in their late teens to early 20’s attempted to murder police officers by use of a firearm. Subsequently, police officers appropriately responded with return fire injuring the criminal.
As payback for law enforcement officers not allowing a violent suspect to shoot them and others, the “mostly peaceful protesters” of Chicago decided to burn their own city down. They were selective with the stores they looted as they sought what Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would classify as bread, looting stores like Nordstrom, Louie Vuitton, and a Tesla dealership.
But it wasn’t just about looting. Sometimes random, sometimes targeted violence rang throughout the streets. Rioters were attacking law enforcement and citizens caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Multiple reports of guns being fired echoed on police scanners and through livestreamed social media videos. In some areas of downtown Chicago, it seemed worse than the anarchy and chaos we’ve seen in recent months across other cities. This seemed more like a war zone as vehicles burned in the streets.
I’m ready to preach in Chicago. Somebody find a church that won’t be bullied and fearful. I’ll invite loads of social media followers and fill it up for an exciting service. Lightfoot, @chicagosmayor is out of control. It’s time to STAND UP CHURCH!!
The complete anarchy and rampant crime in Chicago last night were responses to a Black man being shot AFTER shooting at law enforcement. This is what Democrats want. It’s what BLM wants. How can any American embrace this narrative?
COVID-19 may take down an independent 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. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. 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.
Chants of “Black Lives Matter” were heard outside the home of Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah’s girlfriend’s house Saturday night. Around 50-60 “peaceful protesters” began breaking windows, entering the premises, and shooting at Mensah and his girlfriend with firearms that included at least one shotgun. Mensah is Black. His girlfriend is Black. The children in the home that Black Lives Matter and Antifa “peaceful protesters” were shooting are black.
Cities in Wisconsin are starting to look more like Portland and Seattle as rampant anarchy rules the streets. Neither law enforcement or the people of these communities are safe. The violence and chaos is being perpetrated in the name of Black lives mattering, but the actions do not match the radical leftist rhetoric.
“Last night, protesters came to my girlfriend’s house while I was there, and tried to kill me, Mensah posted on Facebook. “I was unarmed and tried to defend my property and the property of my girlfriend. We were both assaulted, punched, and ultimately shot at several times. A shotgun round missed me by inches.”
Mensah has been involved in three shootings in his career, prompting the targeting of him specifically. But as a Black police officer, the narrative of racism being the root cause of violence against Black men by law enforcement doesn’t fit. Nevertheless, facts about crimes committed by African-American men are ignored in favor of the current leftist narrative. The race of the police officer involved is of no importance to these “peaceful protesters.”
After reaching out to Mensah for comment, he wrote Heavy through Facebook: “There is a difference between a peaceful protest, and a plan to trespass on private property with the intent to damage it. My girlfriend and I had every right to defend the property from those that trespassed on it. At the end of the day, protesters chose to come to that house, no one forced them to. They chose to stay, they chose to damage property, they chose to assault us. Their decision to come onto the porch, continue their assault on unarmed and defenseless police officers, and ultimately try kill me was their decision, and their decision alone. The incident is currently under investigation and the evidence will speak for itself.”
The morning after the incident, a Wauwatosa police car was sitting near the home. Remnants of toilet paper and silly string and crime scene tape were visible in the yard, and a window appeared smashed.
Mensah’s Facebook post continued, “Not once did I ever swing back or reciprocate any the hate that was being directed at me. I am all for peaceful protests, even against me, but this was anything but peaceful. They threw toilet paper in her trees, broke her windows, and again, shot at both of us as they were trying to kill me.”
In all three shootings involving Mensah over the last five years, the suspects were armed. Two were carrying firearms and one was wielding a sword. That didn’t faze the Black Lives Matter protesters who would not be concerned had any of the incidents gone the other way. If a Black man killed Mensah, they would not be protesting his murderer.
“There are children that live there and they knew that,” Mensah wrote. “The irony in all of this is that they chanted Black Lives Matter the entire time, but had zero regard for any of the black children that live there or me, a black man.”
Last night, protesters came to my girlfriend’s house while I was there, and tried to kill me. I was unarmed and tried…
Despite the attempt on the life of a Black police officer and his girlfriend, mainstream media is silent. As far as they’re concerned, the “peaceful protests” continue in Wisconsin. They won’t ask Joseph Mensah what he thinks about them.
COVID-19 may take down an independent 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. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. 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.
The rise of virtual classrooms as a result of the coronavirus lockdown has had many effects on the education system. The biggest is the shift towards homeschooling that, as we discussed last month, is one of the few silver linings with the draconian mandates across the country. Many parents are opening their eyes to the efficacy of homeschool and the indoctrination happening to children in public schools.
But there’s another effect that I had never considered until today. A thread from educator and commentator Matthew R. Kay captured by The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh exposed a “chief concern” for radical leftist teachers: Conservative parents. Since virtual classrooms will include the “risk” of parents hearing what their children are being taught, Kay expressed his concern over the broken barrier that normally separates those indoctrinating our children and their parents.
Public school teachers are afraid that you might be able to hear them brainwashing your kids pic.twitter.com/jDtig5lAR4
“So, this fall, virtual class discussions will have many potential spectators – parents, siblings, etc. – in the same room. We’ll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse. What does this do for our equity/inclusion work?
“How much have students depended on the (somewhat) secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability? How many of us have installed some version of “what happens here stays here” to help this?
“While conversations about race are in my wheelhouse, and remain a concern in this no-walls environment – I am most intrigued by the damage that ‘helicopter/snowplow’ parents can do in honest conversations about gender/sexuality…
“And while “conservative” parents are my chief concern – I know that the damage can come from the left too. If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kids racism or homophobia or transphobia – how much do we want their classmates’ parents piling on?”
As homeschooling parents, we’ve long avoided exposing our children to the “discourse” they’re exposed to in public schools. But I know that blessing is not available to all which is why I continue to fight the extremism taught in public and even many private schools. They promote their one-sided worldview as the only acceptable mainstream thought. Normalizing sexual perversion, radical ideologies about race, and the anti-science concept of 57 genders are all commonplace in an education system dominated by hyper-leftists. This thread only reveals what many of us have known all along, that many teachers operate with a mindset that they are arbiters of truth and that their classrooms are sacred venues for their truth to spread.
In other words, they believe they can and should assist in raising our children to embrace their values, not just the scholastic education (questionable though it may be) that they provide.
This thread from a popular educator should terrify any conservative-minded parents who do not want their children indoctrinated. Add this to the long list of reasons parents should embrace homeschooling whenever possible.
COVID-19 may take down an independent 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. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. 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.
Going into the end of July, Senator Kamala Harris had all but won the Veepstakes. Joe Biden and his team had chosen her as his running mate and was in the finalizing process of vetting her when all of a sudden a group of powerful Democrats stepped in and canceled her. Between the “leak” on POLITICO of her being selected and the meticulously hand-written notes addressing Harris, the scheduled announcement for the first week of August had Kamala’s name written all over it.
Except, it didn’t happen. They pushed back the date. Buzz about Harris stopped. Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Congresswoman Karen Bass started skyrocketing up the charts. Bass subsequently experienced bad press over past statements, so her star power has faded as well. That leaves Rice as the most likely to get tapped.
As JD notes in the latest episode of NOQ Report, there are two likely reasons for this. Either they found something in the vetting of Harris that spooked them at the last minute or the Deep State stepped in to insert their preferred future president. Both seem about as likely as the other, and we’ll likely never know the real reason. Then again, she may end up getting tapped anyway, in which case this is all moot. We’ll see soon. Perhaps.
Republican strategists are drooling over the prospects of Susan Rice as the VP candidate. She’d give the GOP tons of fodder to bring up corruption in the Obama administration while discrediting the Democrats’ ticket in one fell swoop.
COVID-19 may take down an independent 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. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. 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.
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Trump signs executive actions on coronavirus relief: President Donald Trump signed multiple executive actions one day after coronavirus relief negotiations fell apart in Congress.The executive order is supposed to provide $400 a week for additional unemployment insurance benefits, extend a moratorium on evictions in addition to memoranda that would provide deferments for student loan payments and create a payroll tax holiday for those making less than $100,000 annually. (For two weeks, the two parties struggled to find common ground on their two proposals for a possible relief package and Democrats had insisted the weekly unemployment benefit remain at $600.) Now, not only are the orders facing backlash from critics, but many are also questioning whether they exceed the president’s powers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the directives as “paltry … unworkable, weak and far too narrow” to address the needs of millions of out-of-work Americans. Members of Trump’s administration, like White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, are confident that it “provides significant economic assistance,” though it may take weeks or months to go into effect.
9 test positive for coronavirus at Georgia school that went viral for crowded photo: Nine people have tested positive for COVID-19 at a Georgia high school where a photo of a packed hallway taken by 10th grader Hannah Watters went viral last week. According to a letter sent to parents Saturday, and acquired by ABC News, six students and three staff members who were at the school last week have tested positive. Those cases were reported to the school after private tests. The letter announced that the school is switching temporarily to digital learning as the building is “thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.” Watters was suspended over sharing the photos with the media, but on Friday, her suspension was rescinded. As schools across the country start to reopen, some have seen the challenges of moving forward too quickly. Now, new data from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that COVID-19 is on the rise in children. As of July 30, there were 338,982 total child COVID-19 cases reported since the onset of the pandemic, which represented 8.8% of all COVID-19 cases. For more on how coronavirus affects children, we answered some of the most common questions parents have right now.
26 billboards throughout Louisville demand justice for Breonna Taylor: Dozens of billboards demanding justice for Breonna Taylor are popping up around her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. On Thursday, Oprah Winfrey began erecting 26 billboards — one for each year Taylor was alive — throughout the city. All billboards will be installed by today and they will remain for a month, according to O, The Oprah Magazine. The billboards, which read, “Demand that the police involved in killing Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged. Visit UntilFreedom.com,” also features a powerful quote from Winfrey, “If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it.” Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville police inside her home on March 13 while the officers were executing a so-called “no knock” warrant. Since her death, just one of the three officers involved, Brett Hankison, has been fired, but neither he nor the other two officers involved, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, have been arrested or charged with a crime.
14-year-old girl who was adopted helps shelter dogs in need of adoption, too: Meena Kumar, a 14-year-old from San Jose, California, has raised more than $14,000 for senior dogs in need of forever homes. “I think all dogs are really sweet and older dogs give the same unconditional love as other dogs and they should find a home because they’ve given so much,” Kumar told “GMA.” Her love for dogs began 12 years ago when she was adopted from an orphanage in India. To keep her entertained, her mom, Jayashree Subrahmonia, recalls taking Meena next door to play with their neighbor’s puppies. At 8, Meena adopted her first dog. Soon, she was introduced to Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, a cage-free dog rescue that finds loving homes for senior dogs. Although she was too young to volunteer, she came up with her own dog care boarding company, Pet Fairy Services, with a commitment to donate all the proceeds to Muttville. Meena also walked dogs in her neighborhood and thanks to word of mouth from the community, her business grew. “All of our funds go to saving dogs’ lives,” said Sherri Franklin, who founded Muttville in 2007. “Just $1,000 is able to save a couple of dogs’ lives, so imagine what her donations have helped us do.”
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” Frank Grillo is on live to talk about his two shows, “Kingdom” and “Billions,” and how he’s staying in shape for these roles during quarantine. And Tory Johnson is back with two food-inspired small business deals. Plus, Deborah Roberts gives us a closer look at the upcoming biography, “Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Family.” All this and more only on “GMA.”
President Donald Trump has blurred the lines between his campaign and his official duties, watchdogs and officials from past administrations warn. Plus, inside Wuhan’s Institute of Virology and evictions in South Carolina signal dire straits for renters nationwide.
Here’s what we’re watching this morning.
How Trump erased the election-year line between politics and policy
Presidents running for re-election have traditionally worked to balance official government business with campaign activity. But government watchdogs and officials from past administrations warn that President Donald Trump has smashed that norm, showing an unusual willingness to use his presidential platform for political purposes.
Trump’s penchant for blurring the lines between his campaign and his official duties came to a head last week when he confirmed that he was considering giving his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination — one of the most anticipated moments of the election season — from the White House South Lawn.
The measures, which Trump signed on Saturday and that sidestep Congress after lawmakers failed to reach a deal on Friday, provide an additional $400 per week unemployment benefits among other relief measures such as a temporary payroll tax cut.
Inside the Wuhan lab at the center of an international firestorm
Cloistered off a major thoroughfare, the Wuhan Institute of Virology could pass for a college campus, its red brick buildings distinguishable from their busy surroundings only by a long, imposing driveway lined with cameras, with a security guard standing sentry.
On Friday, NBC News became the first foreign news organization to be granted access to the institute since the outbreak began, meeting with senior scientists working to pinpoint the origins of the virus. The Wuhan institute and its scientists have become the focus of intense speculation and conspiracy theories — some emanating from the White House — about China’s alleged efforts to downplay the outbreak’s severity and whether the virus leaked from the facility.
During the roughly five-hour visit, Wang Yanyi, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said she and others felt unfairly targeted. She urged that politics not cloud investigations into how the coronavirus spilled over into humans.
“It is unfortunate that we have been targeted as a scapegoat for the origin of the virus,” she said. “Any person would inevitably feel very angry or misunderstood being subject to unwarranted or malicious accusations while carrying out research and related work in the fight against the virus.”
A health care worker in an isolation ward at a Red Cross hospital in Wuhan, China on March 10, 2020.
Evictions in one state show how imminent homelessness could be for thousands
When Sineeka Latimer of Greenville, South Carolina wanted to renew her lease, collecting all the documents she needed proved a challenge. She got an eviction notice days later.
She is one ofthousands of people who face or will face evictionas the economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic has led millions across the United States to find their housing situations complicated or to miss their housing payments.
Now, with tens of millions in the United States out of work and the sudden disappearance of the unemployment relief and eviction moratoriums provided by the expired CARES Act, the pain caused by the pandemic could reach a whole new dimension.
Meanwhile, as the start of the new school year nears, 53 Bureau of Indian Education schools run by the federal government are set to reopen on Sept. 16, despite the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on Native Americans.
Fears are running high among educators that it’s not safe right now to do so.
COVID-19 changes to voting could disproportionately affect people of color
Voting by mail has been championed as the safest way to participate in the 2020 election while the nation remains under threat from the coronavirus.
But the changes that states are scrambling to make ahead of November to help protect voters from COVID-19 — expanding their mail and absentee voting systems while reducing the number of polling locations — risk supersizing the issues of racial discrimination and disenfranchisement that Black, Hispanic and other voters of color have already spent generations fighting.
Meanwhile, Former Vice President Joe Biden is closing in on a final decision on his choice of a running mate, four sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. As he does so, women’s groups are mobilizing and issuing warnings about the kinds of attacks they expect to be made against a woman running mate.
“We’ve all been to this movie before,” Tina Tchen, President and CEO of the advocacy group Times Up, told NBC News.
As the nation debates reopening schools during the pandemic, the focus has been on creating physically safe environments. But that does not guarantee students’ psychological well-being, writes psychologist Maggie Mulqueen in an opinion piece.
Live BETTER
Older adults are both tired of the quarantine and more relaxed about the rules. What’s safe to do now?
Shopping
What’s the best food for your cat? We consulted experts and compiled some of the best cat food options around.
One fun thing
Millions were awed by Anthony Madu’s talent after a video of him dancing in the rain in Lagos, Nigeria went viral.
“It make me feel strong and happy when I’m dancing,” said the 11-year-old who wants to be a professional dancer when he grows up.
When actress and singer Cynthia Erivo saw the video she got in touch with the American Ballet Theatre. Their ballet dancers are now offering encouragement from half a world away. And more than that too — the dance company offered Madu a scholarship.
“I think it’s extremely important because I think boys are not encouraged to do this incredibly hard craft that actually encourages strength and stamina and beauty,” said Erivo.
The Leap of Dance Academy, which offers free lessons to kids, has also seen other offers of support pour in. With one viral video, many lives changed.
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.
NBC FIRST READ
From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Carrie Dann, Ben Kamisar and Melissa Holzberg
FIRST READ: Trump’s own campaign ads erase the virus — and the candidate
Aside from how a candidate spends his or her time (a metric that has been scrambled in 2020 due to the pandemic), one of an election’s most revealing indicators is how campaigns spend their money on TV ad messaging.
A week after the Trump campaign went back up on the airwaves after a pause to reset its ad strategy, we can learn a lot about the state of the race just by comparing the ads both campaigns have aired since the start of August.
When it comes to spending, the Trump campaign is still playing catchup after going back on the air.
After Trump outspent Biden’s campaign on TV and radio by about $10 million in July — including millions invested into an ominous crime-focused ad series that has since mostly disappeared from the airwaves — Biden has bested Trump by nearly a 2-1 margin on each day since Trump’s ads returned, according to ad trackers at Advertising Analytics.
But it might be the Trump campaign’s message itself that’s more interesting.
The first thing that really stands out: While Biden appears in almost all of his ads, with his top twomost frequently-airing commercials narrated in his own words, Trump is almost entirely absent from his own campaign’s spots outside of the standard “I approve this message” disclaimer. (The only exception: A little-airing Arizona Spanish language ad that briefly praises Trump’s leadership.)
That means that Trump’s name, policies and image have gone completely unmentioned in more than $2.5 million worth of ads airing so far this month.
Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
At the same time, the Biden camp is spending the largest share of their ad cash on spots that show the candidate giving speeches about the pandemic response — giving some not-so-subtle pushback to the “Basement Biden” theme, we might add.
The second thing that stands out: No active ads by the president’s campaign acknowledge the coronavirus at all, even in passing.
Instead, almost all of Trump’s ads tie Biden to the “far left” or show his image alongside photos of Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But none even allude to the virus that has infected more than 5 million Americans to date.
Compare those ads to Biden’s, which blast Trump for his coronavirus response — and call for Americans to unify to fight the pandemic.
In one Biden spot airing with both English and Spanish versions, a woman mourns the loss of her grandmother from Covid-19. In another, a retiree at The Villages laments not being able to see her grandchildren, saying “while I don’t blame Donald Trump for the virus, I blame him for his lack of action.”
And in yet another pair of spots, Biden asks Americans to wear masks, meet the threat “as one country,” and elect a president who will not “ignore the crisis.”
Here’s what all of this signals to us:
Even as the president has been relentlessly optimistic about the virus “disappearing” and the economy “coming back strong,” his own campaign hasn’t figured out a worthwhile positive message to voters about the president’s role in the recovery.
And the fact that Trump barely appears in his own campaign’s ads is an implicit acknowledgment of his net negative favorability ratings.
Omnipresent? Or a not-so-present president?
Speaking of ignoring the pandemic, the fact that Trump’s ad strategy pretends like the virus doesn’t exist goes hand-in-hand with another Trump trait that was on display over the weekend: His hands-off approach to negotiations.
Despite campaigning as a dealmaker, Trump spent the weekend at his golf resort in New Jersey while his aides tried — and failed — to reach a compromise coronavirus aid package.
And while his executive orders to address jobless benefits and the payroll tax — which will likely face immediate legal challenges — at least acknowledged the economic crisis, confusion over their legality and effectiveness have mostly resulted in more bickering and uncertainty about what — if any — real impact they will have on suffering Americans.
Throughout his campaign and his presidency, Trump has SEEMED omnipresent, continually making public statements opining on policy fights.
But whether it’s outsourcing the coronavirus task force to his vice president, or watching negotiations on immigration or gun reform from afar, or sitting out efforts to get a legislative recovery deal, or being left out of his own campaign ads, it’s worth asking: How present is the president, really, in the nuts and bolts of his administration and his campaign?
2020 VISION: Biden his time
Things got a little tense over the weekend on the vice-presidential pick front, with some high-profile Democrats lamenting the amount of opposition research circulating about the final contenders. And there’s been some grumbling behind the scenes about Biden’s slipping decision deadlines.
NBC News reported over the weekend that top sources indicate the pick could come in the middle of this week “or sooner” — even as soon as today, per NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. But some of the same sources have also stressed that “his only real deadline is the Democratic National Convention,” which begins on August 17.
But as we await the announcement, it’s worth remembering a few general trends about the veep process.
First: There’s always hand-wringing and jockeying about the pick, which is usually quickly forgotten after the rollout. (If the ticket loses, of course, then it all gets rehashed.)
Second: As we wrote in July, candidates who are confident that they’re leading rarely stray from a “do no harm” pick.
And third: Of course, the choice of a governing partner reveals a lot about the nominee’s values and decision-making. But running mates simply aren’t a huge factor in an election’s final results. (If they were, would Bush/Quayle in 1988 really have bested Dukakis/Bentsen?)
DATA DOWNLOAD: The numbers that you need to know today
163,504: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 2,951 more than Friday morning.)
61.79 million: The number of coronavirus TESTS that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers at The COVID Tracking Project.
97,000: The number of children in America who tested positive for COVID-19 during the final two weeks of July, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, a 40 percent increase over that time frame.
5.1: The magnitude of the earthquake that hit near the border between North Carolina and Virginia, the strongest in the area since 1916.
101 days: How long New Zealand has gone without a new coronavirus case from community spread, per the Ministry of Health.
TWEET OF THE DAY: About those Georgia school photos
AD WATCH from Ben Kamisar
Today’s Ad Watch looks zeros in on a little-watched, yet extremely controversial primary in Georgia, where voters will effectively decide their new representative tomorrow in the heavy-Republican 14th district.
Tomorrow’s primary runoff features Dr. John Cowan and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Both are unabashed supporters of President Trump, but Green has been rebuked by her party after Politico reported on her serious of racist and other controversial comments.
But as Politico reports, the cavalry hasn’t really come to help boost Cowan. And he’s been largely alone on the airwaves — neither candidate has received significant outside support on the airwaves, and Cowan has outspent Green on TV and radio $200,000 to $65,000.
Keep an eye on this one amid the handful of competitive primaries across the country tomorrow.
‘Unconstitutional slop’
Negotiations between Democrats and the White House fell apart this weekend as people across the country failed to get their $600 federal weekly unemployment benefit.
But rather than continue with legislation, the president signed four executive orders on Saturday (which Democrats and some Republicans are questioning the constitutionality of) in the attempt to take matters into his own hands.
The E.O.s defer payroll taxes through the end of the year for Americans earning less than $100,000 a year, defer student loan payments through the end of the year, discourage evictions and promise to extend federal unemployment benefits at a reduced level of $400/week.
You can read more about the executive orders — and the pushback about them — here.
On the Sunday show circuit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the president’s actions an “unconstitutional slop” (echoing a phrase first used by Republican Sen. Ben Sasse) and said he’s “undermining Social Security and Medicare” – which are funded through payroll taxes.
But the president’s economic adviser Peter Navarro told one of us that “the Lord and the Founding Fathers created executive orders because of partisan bickering and divided government.”
As for when we can see a legislative package? That’s up in the air. While senators will be under a 24-hour advisement to get back to Washington if there is a deal this week, for the most part, they’re out of town.
THE LID: Phoenix rising
Don’t miss the pod from Friday, when we looked at the nation’s hottest market for political ads.
Sen. Ron Johnson is subpoenaing FBI Director Christopher Wray for documents related to the investigation into 2016 Russian election interference, Politico reports.
Some businesses and government officials are stumped as to how to address President Trump’s new executive orders aimed at coronavirus relief.
Puerto Rico’s primary election was upended by massive issues distributing ballots, disruptions that left many without the ability to vote and has prompted calls for a rescheduled, partial primary and for resignations of top election officials.
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Top Democrats are criticizing President Trump’s executive orders on coronavirus relief, as the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the U.S. tops 5 million. Also, protesters clash with police in Lebanon after last week’s deadly blast in Beirut. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.
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2 Georgia officers on leave for shooting at minors
If the state of things in one of its iconic neighborhoods is any indication, New York isn’t creating the conditions for recommitment to the city.
By Nicole Gelinas City Journal Online
August 9, 2020
“Faced with the biggest New York City fiscal crisis in nearly two generations, the state’s Financial Control Board has punted.”
By Nicole Gelinas New York Post
August 10, 2020
“The push to reform policing is moving on multiple fronts. Not only are governments across America targeting law-enforcement agencies; they’re also imposing new regulations on society.”
By Stephen Eide New York Post
August 9, 2020
Adapted from City Journal
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan joins the Manhattan Institute later today to discuss his new book, Still Standing, and how America’s governors can lead the nation out of crisis.
Manhattan Institute fellows offer ideas and recommendations for lawmakers to consider as they attempt to chart a path forward on a Covid-19 relief package.
Manhattan Institute president Reihan Salam discussed whether the COVID-19 pandemic and current civil unrest in the country will lead to people moving out of large U.S. cities, as was seen after the 1960s.
“The job growth this month led to a small decline in the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent, which is still higher than the worst point during the Great Recession.”
By Beth Akers Manhattan Institute
August 7, 2020
“Joe Biden … appears to have proposed — without quite realizing it — the largest expansion of federal school choice in American history.”
By Max Eden The Philadelphia Inquirer
August 9, 2020
Adapted from City Journal
Ensuring that calories get to people’s plates during an emergency requires flexible, creative thinking.
By Jayson Lusk City Journal Online
August 7, 2020
Heather Mac Donald joins Seth Barron to discuss YouTube’s restriction of her livestreamed speech on policing, allegations of widespread racial bias in the criminal-justice system, and the ongoing reversal of public-safety gains in New York City.
What do young progressives believe? On August 6, Manhattan Institute fellow and City Journal contributing editor Coleman Hughes; New York Times opinion columnist, Ross Douthat; and columnist for Tablet Magazine, Wesley Yang discussed the “Successor Ideology” that is quickly becoming a major force in our national life.
On August 4, Andy Smarick hosted 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.
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.
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
08/10/2020
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Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
Kass and Soros; Filibuster Perils, Pandemic Energy Policy
By Carl M. Cannon on Aug 10, 2020 08:11 am
Good morning. It’s Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. What a weekend. Looting and rioting spread across Chicago after police exchanged fire with a gunman and rumors spread rapidly. In Portland on Saturday and Sunday, a mob tried to torch the police union headquarters. In Washington, D.C., a Sunday night block party ended after midnight when gunfire erupted from multiple shooters, killing one young man and wounding 20 others. Eleven of those shot were women, authorities said, among them a rookie D.C. police officer who is fighting for her life in the hospital this morning.
I’m not sure what to compare this moment to in American history, although it was pleasantly incongruous — if perhaps only fleeting — to hear that Friday’s July jobs report showed a huge gain in U.S. employment. It’s a big country, I guess, and no single narrative fits everything that is happening in this deeply unsettling year.
So this morning, I’m just going to point you to RealClearPolitics’ front page and highlight original material from our own reporters and contributors. I’ll plan to have a history homily ready on Tuesday. In the meantime, here is our recent original material:
* * *
George Soros, John Kass, Liberal Prosecutors, and the Battle for Transparency. I explore criticism by Chicago’s most prominent columnist of billionaire George Soros’ support of local district attorneys as violent crime spikes, and consider the blowback that criticism has received from a once unlikely source – Kass’s own newsroom.
Mea Culpa. Speaking of media criticism, I also wrote an editor’s note Friday regarding a news outlet much closer to home — RealClearPolitics itself — concerning a column we published that fell short of our standards.
Obama Is Wrong About the Filibuster. Bill Scher examines the history of the Senate rule, and argues that eliminating it would work against Democrats’ interests in the long run.
“Unmasking Obama” Also Exposes the Media. Frank Miele spotlights a new book by muckraker Jack Cashill.
Trump Won Last Week, His Allies Say. Steve Cortes compares dueling pronouncements coming from the Biden and Trump campaigns.
The China Challenge and America’s Founding Principles. Peter Berkowitz weighs in on a report from the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights.
Revisiting Big Tech’s Patent Troll Boogeyman. David Kline writes that a variety of regulatory and legal changes have weakened patent rights of startups and other innovators.
Millions Need Help With Cooling Bills as Shut-Offs Loom. Congress must authorize funds for the growing number of Americans who can’t pay their utility bills, Mark Wolfe and Cass Lovejoy assert.
Natural Gas Bans Will Worsen California’s Poverty Problem. In RealClearEnergy, Robert Bryce explains how green policies can hurt the state’s most vulnerable.
Democrats Put the Suburbs on the Ballot. In RealClearPolicy, Rupert Darwell takes aim at Joe Biden’s federal re-urbanization plan.
Tom Cotton’s About-Face on Education. Grayson Logue points out that conservatives have long argued against the federal government dictating content taught in schools, but the Arkansas senator is now going against that grain.
What It’s Like to Travel Abroad Amid a Pandemic. In RealClearLife, Tanner Garrity recaps his recent trip to the U.K.
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A few minutes after 6PM on Tuesday August 4, a fire broke out, the cause of which the Lebanese government has said might be because of a welding accident, in hangar 9 of Beirut’s port. Videos from the first moments afterwards show black smoke, indicative of a grease or other material fire. A few minutes later, a second fairly large explosion (assuming there was a small explosion which caused the first fire) expanded the blast area into hangar 12 and set the stage for the third and final explosion about 20 minutes after the first and about 30 seconds after the second.
The so-called “dog days of August” can be a dangerous time. Enemies of freedom often deliberately choose this window to engage in dangerous, and sometimes game-changing, aggression. The Chinese Communist Party seems to be following that playbook now.
Fresh from its murderous incursion into India and its crushing of freedom in Hong Kong, the CCP is engaging in large-scale exercises that look like cover for an invasion of Taiwanese islands and perhaps Taiwan itself. Massive Chinese fishing fleets, with vessels that could be armed among them, are heading into waters controlled by Japan and those of our own hemisphere’s pristine Galapagos Islands controlled by Ecuador.
Throw into the mix the ongoing effects of the CCP’s biological assault deliberately unleashed on this country and the Party’s increasingly brazen efforts to prevent President Trump’s reelection and this August may literally be an explosive one.
This is Frank Gaffney.
DAVID GOLDMAN, Author of How Civilizations Die, Best known for his series of essays in the Asia Times under the pseudonym Spengler:
The need for the US to produce their own semiconductors
President Trump’s executive order on American medicine production
How to incentivize American investors
DIANA WEST, Nationally syndicated columnist, Blogs at Dianawest.net, Author of Death of the Grown Up, American Betrayal, and Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy:
The importance of a recent Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Antifa
Why don’t Democrats denounce Antifa?
The bias of America’s justice department
JEFF NYQUIST, Has written for Newsmax, WorldNetDaily, SierraTimes, Financial Sense and Epoch Times, Author of the book Origins of the Fourth World War and The New Tactics of Global War :
The potential of California, Washington and Oregon succeeding from the United States
How would this succession impact US national security?
RICK BERMAN, President of Berman and Company, a Washington, DC-based public affairs firm:
Rick’s new website, chinaownsus.com
Chinese influence on American media
Microsoft’s connections with the Chinese Communist Party
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By Alan Reynolds | “The only conceivable rationale for repeating the latest of many failed experiments with fiscal stimulus (borrowing from Peter to pay Paul) might be to ‘stimulate demand.’ But we just tried that. It didn’t work. It never works.”
By Richard M. Ebeling | “Right now, it is still predominantly the force of social pressures that the cancel culture and identity politics warriors are successfully using in the arenas of education, the arts and entertainment, the media, and industry.
By Jeffrey A. Tucker | “This movement, whether it is called anti-lockdown or just plain liberalism, must reject the wickedness and compulsion of this current moment in American life. It needs to counter the brutalism of lockdowns. It needs to…
Experience From Other Countries Show Lockdowns Don’t Work
By Ethan Yang | “For months we have hailed countries like Taiwan and South Korea for their model responses that kept the virus at bay while inflicting relatively minimal restrictions on society. Advocating for draconian lockdown measures while…
By Veronique de Rugy | “I will always support more transparency and more oversight, if only because doing so is part of my job and makes that job easier- one of which I’m proud. But intoning ‘more transparency’ is no silver bullet for shrinking…
Economic Freedom Is Essential for Managing Pandemics
By Vincent Geloso | “There is an important lesson for the future. If one desires the downward trends in the human and economic costs observed over the course of the 20th century to continue, one must push for a greater deal of institutional…
We are on the cusp of a dramatic wave of technological change – from blockchain to automated smart contracts, artificial intelligence and machine learning to advances in cryptography and digitisation, from Internet of Things to advanced communications technologies.
This book presents a call to arms. The liberty movement has spent too much time begging the state for its liberties back. We can now use new technologies to build the free institutions that are needed for human flourishing without state permission.
On the menu today: Some really intriguing new research on why so many people are asymptomatic with the coronavirus, and a theory that masks are effective in part because they aren’t 100 percent effective; a pep talk for everyone in America who’s trying to get a handle on their anxiety, stress, and gloom right now; and strangely enough, it turns out that the presence of federal agents was not the cause of violence in Portland. Go figure!
Your Immune System and T-Cells Might Be Prepared to Fight Coronavirus Already
Last month in this newsletter, we took a look at the role of T-cells in the immune system and noted a particularly intriguing study that suggested a person’s past experiences with non–SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses might give their immune systems a leg up in fighting off an infection of this particular new virus.
The study in Cell concluded, “Importantly, we detected … READ MORE
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It’s time for updated internet regulations to prevent election interference
We’ve more than tripled our security and safety teams to 35,000 people, added 5-step political ad verification and partnered with security researchers, other tech companies and law enforcement to combat foreign election interference.
“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
Guest post by Lawrence Sellin, PhD From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus identified as the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, has been consistently described… Read more…
FOX LA reporter Bill Melugin dropped a bomb on Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin. According to city records Councilman Bonin called police 8 times… Read more…
This should put Democrats in a panic. While Joe Biden continues to drop racist insults against prominent blacks President Trump continues to make inroads with… Read more…
Antifa-BLM militants roved into residential neighborhoods in Portland Saturday night and threatened to kill people in an apartment building. “Black Lives Matter!” the rioters chanted… Read more…
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham on Sunday said a new document he has obtained shows the FBI deceived his colleagues on the Senate Intelligence… Read more…
Attorney General Bill Barr was Mark Levin’s guest on Life, Liberty and Levin on Sunday night. Barr trashed the Democrats, Antifa terrorists and the media… Read more…
Hasbro announced this week it is pulling the DreamWorks Trolls World Tour character doll Giggle ‘n Sing Poppy after complaints about the doll having a… Read more…
Is Jill Biden running for President? Jill Biden did an in-person interview with CBS Sunday Morning with host Rita Braver. Meanwhile feeble Joe Biden is… Read more…
There was another massive boat parade for President Trump on Sunday. More than 1,000 boats were out on Lake Okoboji waving Trump 2020 flags. Still… Read more…
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