Breaking News Events

[homoe]

US president Donald Trump went on the attack against Barack Obama on Wednesday morning, saying his predecessor's eulogy for John Lewis was "terrible" and evidenced an "anger that people don't see".

In an interview with Fox News, president Trump also pushed for US schools to reopen, whilst claiming that children were 'virtually immune' from the virus - despite studies last week suggesting teenagers could be as infectious as adults.

Mr Trump, who suggested on Tuesday that a “bomb” was involved in a “terrible attack” on Beirut after a massive explosion shook the Lebanese capital, was meanwhile derided for those comments, with one ex-national security official calling the president’s comments “wildly irresponsible” as Lebanese authorities continued to assess the situation, with at least 100 dead and thousands wounded.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-new...073207831.html

[homoe]

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates will testify Wednesday morning in a Senate Judiciary Committee probe into the Russia investigation. Committee chairman Lindsey Graham confirmed the Obama-era official’s attendance on Monday.

The testimony is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. EST The probe is delving into the origins of the “Crossfire Hurricane” FBI investigation into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign as well as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Sidebar: C-Span is carrying this live so if you prefer it without interruptions from those endless blathering, self absorbed pundits switch over to it...

[homoe]

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Voters on Tuesday made Missouri the 38th state to approve expanding Medicaid health care coverage to thousands more low-income adults.

Support for the constitutional amendment means that as many as 250,000 more adults could choose to be covered by government health insurance beginning in July 2021, according to estimates from the state auditor.

“As Medicaid expansion is fully and expeditiously implemented so that Missourians are no longer forced to choose between putting food on the table and seeing a doctor, today’s victory will be a true turning point in the history of the Show Me State,” said A.J. Bockelman, the pro-Medicaid campaign manager.

The vote on health care, which was paired with Missouri’s primary elections, came as confirmed coronavirus cases have been rising in the state and the economy continues to suffer.

https://news.yahoo.com/missouri-vote...125805866.html

[homoe]

It’s unsafe for a vast majority of Washington’s 1.1 million students to return to classrooms for in-person learning this fall, including in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, according to recommendations Gov. Jay Inslee and the state’s top health and education officials announced Wednesday afternoon.

The guidance offers advice to districts — but doesn’t mandate school closures or other measures — based on current local levels of community transmission of the novel coronavirus. Inslee announced the recommendations during a Wednesday press conference, where he was joined by the state’s schools chief Chris Reykdal and state health officer Dr. Kathy Lofy.

Officials said where risks are low, schools should prioritize face-to-face instruction for those who are most likely to struggle with remote learning: elementary schoolers and those with disabilities.

Schools located in “high-risk” areas, which they defined as places with more than 75 cases per 100,000 residents, should “strongly consider distance learning, with the option for limited in-person instruction” for some students, such as those with disabilities, according to the guidance.

As of Tuesday, 25 Washington counties including King, Snohomish and Pierce, were considered high risk. Schools in these counties should also consider canceling all sports and extracurricular activities, the guidance states.

Schools in the state’s nine “moderate risk” counties, including Clark and Whatcom, should consider prioritizing in-person learning for elementary school students and those who receive special education services.

Only five of the state’s counties — Asotin, Garfield, Jefferson, San Juan and Wahkiakum — are “low risk” and have logged fewer than 25 cases per 100,000 in a recent two-week period. Schools here should teach elementary schoolers in person and consider a hybrid model for older students that splits their time between in-person and remote instruction.


https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...ampaign=627178

[homoe]

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s demand that the U.S. government get a cut from a potential Microsoft purchase of TikTok is the latest unprecedented scenario in an unprecedented situation.

Microsoft is in talks to buy parts of TikTok, a forced sale after Trump threatened to ban the Chinese-owned video app, which claims 100 million U.S. users and hundreds of millions globally. The Trump administration says TikTok is a national-security concern. How a ban would have worked was not clear; that federal authority has never been used before with a consumer app. TikTok denies that it would send U.S. user data to the Chinese government.

Microsoft did not address a potential price when it confirmed the talks.

Trump said Monday to reporters that the U.S. “should get a very large percentage of that price because we’re making it possible,” adding that “we want and we think we deserve to have a big percentage of that price coming to America, coming to the Treasury.”


https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...unprecedented/

[homoe]

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. said on Wednesday that he had apologized for posting a photo of him in unzipped pants and arm around a woman — but also defended the incident as a vacation “costume party” that was “just in good fun.”

The now-deleted photo showed Falwell, a leading evangelical supporter of President Donald Trump, with his pants unzipped and his underwear showing beneath, while he had one arm around a woman whose shorts also appeared to be unbuttoned and his other holding a glass with a dark-colored liquid. The photo appeared to be on board a yacht.

The posting — which was quickly withdrawn — drew a sharp backlash and charges of hypocrisy because the evangelical university that he leads prohibits students from having sexual relations outside of a “biblically-ordained” marriage and consuming media with lewd lyrics, sexual content and nudity. The university’s policy also counsels “appropriateness” and “modesty” in how students must dress.

“I’ve apologized to everybody,” Falwell said in an interview on the Morningline show on WLNI 105.9FM, a local radio station in Lynchburg, Va., Falwell’s home town and that of the Liberty campus. “And I’ve promised my kids I’m going to try to be — I’m gonna try to be a good boy from here on out.”

Falwell described the woman in the photo as his “wife’s assistant.” On his Instagram account, Falwell tagged a picture of the woman as Kathleen Stone, who lists on her Facebook account that she works for Liberty University. A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/falwell-a...212807692.html

[homoe]

Twitter, Facebook Remove Trump Post Over False Claim About Children And COVID-19

Both Twitter and Facebook have removed a post shared by President Trump for breaking their rules against spreading coronavirus misinformation. Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump election campaign account from tweeting until it removed a post with a video clip from a Fox News interview from Wednesday morning, in which the president urged schools to reopen, falsely claiming that children are "almost immune from this disease."

Facebook also removed a post containing the same video from Trump's personal page. Both Facebook and Twitter said the post violated their rules on COVID-19 misinformation. Research has shown that while children tend to get infected with the coronavirus less often and have milder symptoms than adults, kids can still contract and spread it. Some have gotten seriously ill and even died.

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/05/89955...n-and-covid-19

[homoe]

Obama endorses challenger to Maine's Susan Collins, under fire for Kavanaugh confirmation vote. Former President Barack Obama released a list of endorsements for the 2020 elections on Monday that included Democratic Senate candidate Sara Gideon, who is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. The race could help decide which party controls the Senate for at least the next two years.

“Our country’s future hangs on this election, and it won’t be easy. But pandemics have a way of cutting through a lot of noise and spin to remind us of what is real, and what is important,” Obama said in a statement that accompanied his endorsement of 51 candidates for the House and five for the Senate. “Elections matter. And we need Americans of all political stripes to get involved in our politics and our public life like never before.”






The one thing we know for sure....she's not a person who keeps her word!

[homoe]

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Tests Positive For COVID-19

The Republican was tested shortly before he was scheduled to greet President Donald Trump in Cleveland. Just ahead of his planned meeting with President Donald Trump on Thursday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive for COVID-19 and is now heading into isolation for the next 14 days.

“Governor DeWine has no symptoms at the present time,” his office said. The Republican lawmaker is 73 years old.



https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ohio-...b6b9cff7eeb125

[homoe]

The NFL could stand to lose a whopping $7 billion should fans be barred from attending games of any kind during the regular season this year, according to data from an event ticket search engine.

Some NFL teams have already decided that there are going to be no fans in the stands when games are played this season. The Las Vegas Raiders, New York Giants, New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles have already decided to play in empty stadiums while the 28 other teams have yet to decide.

[homoe]

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that he’s had to hire security to protect himself and his family after receiving death threats from people who object to his work on the coronavirus pandemic and the science behind regulations.

During a livestreamed talk with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosted by Harvard’s School of Public Health, the infectious disease expert said he was taken aback by the harassment he and his family have received in the last few months. Noting that crisis “brings out the best of people and the worst of people,” Fauci said, “getting death threats for me and my family and harassing my daughters to the point where I have to get security, it’s amazing.”

Fauci said his wife and daughters were “fine” but stressed by the threats.

“I wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that people who object to things that are pure public health principles are so set against it and don’t like what you and I say, namely in the world of science, that they actually threaten you,” he said.

Fauci previously revealed that he and his family were facing “serious threats” during an interview on “The Axe Files” podcast in July. At that time, he called the threats “a little bit disturbing.”

Fauci had his own personal security detail as early as April, according to reports from CNN and The Hill.


https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/antho...201418280.html

[homoe]

President Donald Trump referred to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday as "a real beauty" while attacking her stance on the environment.

Trump, 74, was delivering remarks at a Whirlpool facility in Clyde, Ohio, when he began to rail against left-wing environmental policies and then turned his attention to the 30-year-old lawmaker's physical appearance about 45 minutes into his speech.

The president began by criticizing Ocasio-Cortez's large-scale environmental plan, the Green New Deal, which he said “was conceived by a young woman AOC — AOC plus three, I say."

"AOC, that’s a real beauty, isn’t it?” Trump said. “She knows as much about the environment — do we have any young children here? — as that young child over there. I think he knows more. And she certainly knows nothing about the economy."

Ocasio-Cortez did not respond to the president directly, but she retweeted others' defense of her educational background. She majored in economics and international relations while graduating cum laude from Boston University in 2011.

[homoe]

Originally Posted by homoe

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. said on Wednesday that he had apologized for posting a photo of him in unzipped pants and arm around a woman — but also defended the incident as a vacation “costume party” that was “just in good fun.”

The now-deleted photo showed Falwell, a leading evangelical supporter of President Donald Trump, with his pants unzipped and his underwear showing beneath, while he had one arm around a woman whose shorts also appeared to be unbuttoned and his other holding a glass with a dark-colored liquid. The photo appeared to be on board a yacht.

The posting — which was quickly withdrawn — drew a sharp backlash and charges of hypocrisy because the evangelical university that he leads prohibits students from having sexual relations outside of a “biblically-ordained” marriage and consuming media with lewd lyrics, sexual content and nudity. The university’s policy also counsels “appropriateness” and “modesty” in how students must dress.

“I’ve apologized to everybody,” Falwell said in an interview on the Morningline show on WLNI 105.9FM, a local radio station in Lynchburg, Va., Falwell’s home town and that of the Liberty campus. “And I’ve promised my kids I’m going to try to be — I’m gonna try to be a good boy from here on out.”

Falwell described the woman in the photo as his “wife’s assistant.” On his Instagram account, Falwell tagged a picture of the woman as Kathleen Stone, who lists on her Facebook account that she works for Liberty University. A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/falwell-a...212807692.html

Jerry Falwell Jr., president and chancellor of Liberty University, is taking an “indefinite leave absence from his roles” at the school, the university’s board of Trustees announced Friday.

The announcement comes after Falwell, a top evangelical Christian personality in the U.S., shared ― and then deleted ― a vacation photo on Instagram in which his pants were unbuttoned and unzipped.

Falwell has faced pressure this week to resign over the photo, which he defended as having been taken “in good fun.”

[homoe]

Originally Posted by homoe

The NFL could stand to lose a whopping $7 billion should fans be barred from attending games of any kind during the regular season this year, according to data from an event ticket search engine.

Some NFL teams have already decided that there are going to be no fans in the stands when games are played this season. The Las Vegas Raiders, New York Giants, New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles have already decided to play in empty stadiums while the 28 other teams have yet to decide.

In a year when the NFL’s ticket-selling framework was poised to produce arguably the richest windfall the league has ever seen, it’s now looking like a double-loss is inevitable.

Not only is the NFL staring at losing its traditional ticket revenue — from season-ticket holders and one-off retail buyers — the league has now also lost several of its richest double-dipping resale markets, including the Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets and New York Giants. Those are the first four franchises to completely eliminate fans in 2020, with more venues likely to follow suit in the coming month.

After several years of consolidating the secondary ticket market and cutting out brokers through partnerships with StubHub and others, the NFL will also be losing a back-end revenue stream.

[homoe]

The man who created Facebook in his dorm room is now worth at least $100 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg’s fortunes have risen even more, propelling the Facebook founder and CEO into the ranks of the “centibillionaires” — those whose net worth is at least $100 billion.

As of Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 36-year-old Zuckerberg was the third-richest person in the world, right behind Bill Gates, worth $120 billion, and Jeff Bezos, worth $190 billion. His net worth — the majority of which is derived from a 13% stake in Facebook — is 1,590,552 times the median U.S. household income, Bloomberg reported.

The bump in Zuckerberg’s fortunes occurred as Facebook stock jumped up 6.3% one day after the company’s Wednesday release of Instagram Reels, a short video feature so reminiscent of a certain rival social media network that TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer outright declared it a “copycat product.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mark-...b6b9cff7f1c848

[homoe]

If you’re among the nearly 70 million people receiving Social Security benefits, you might be wondering what, if any, cost of living adjustments (COLA) you'll receive in 2021.

The government won’t officially announce the next COLA until October, but experts are predicting a small raise or none at all.

“It's really tough to say what Social Security's COLA may be for 2021, given that we're in uncharted territory with the economy at the moment,” said Jim Blankenship, author of "A Social Security Owner's Manual."

Social Security's general benefit increases have been based on increases in the cost of living, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...ts/5510309002/

[Cin]

Speaking to MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Friday, two foreign policy experts explained the shocking ways in which President Donald Trump has ignored the continued attacks on the American election at the hands of Russia. Trump has spoken to Vladimir Putin five or six times since it was discovered that Moscow was paying bounties for the deaths of Americans. He didn’t address any of it; he confessed because he believes the report was a hoax.

But when Wallace turned to the doctor on her panel to ask about the next steps of the coronavirus, things looked even worse.

“President Trump is in a dilapidated political state because of his inactions and failures to lead the country through a global pandemic,” Wallace began. “You said, we would stop being America if things got much worse — you said a few weeks ago. You first raised my attention to the disinformation being spread around the pandemic and vaccines. What strikes you about this intel report that Russia is now actively working to hurt Biden to help Trump with the specter of disinformation spread around the pandemic and vaccines. Facebook and Twitter both took down some of Trump’s disinformation as it pertained to infection risks for children. It’s probably like whack-a-mole if you had to pull it all down.”

“Yes, there’s a number of things, we’ll call this chaotic Friday, we’re projecting a lot of chaos across the country as we head into the fall,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, the director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. “Look, we’re at the U.S. right now, leads the world in the number of new cases and deaths over the last seven days, and this has been true for the last few months. So, our epidemic is still spiraling out of control. The new estimates are 300,000 deaths by December and possibly 400,000 deaths by January. To put that number in perspective, that’s the number of Americans that died in World War II. We’re dealing with something of that magnitude, and still no plan for control at all.”

He went on to say that at the same time, there’s no real plan to deal with the virus, there are so many conspiracy theories coming out of the president and the White House.

“Including those put out by the White House, around the Chinese Communist Party or blaming the World Health Organization,” Dr. Hotez said of the conspiracies. “Part of this is a larger anti-science disinformation campaign. And we’ve also learned that the Russians are involved in spreading false information about vaccines, and we have this terrible number now that — depending on whose survey you want to look at, between 25% and 50% of Americans will refuse COVID-19 vaccines even when they become available next year.”

The anti-science movement began as an anti-vaccine movement, he said, and now it has evolved into people who oppose contact tracing, social distancing, and wearing masks. It’s further fueling deaths, he explained.

“I wrote an article a few weeks back,” he added. “It predicted a chaotic time in the country as the president’s poll numbers drop because of COVID-19. And the White House continues to deflect by blaming China, and the World Health Organization. Then scientists, right after that came out, they attacked Dr. Fauci. This will continue the targeting of scientists. So, put your tray-table up in the upright and locked position. It’s going to be a tough fall. I’m afraid.”

Wallace asked about Jenny McCarthy, who she said has spent years trying to undo the damage she created with her anti-vaccine movement. Using that as a case study, she asked Dr. Hotez how one can predict the impact of an anti-science president on the pandemic.

“Yeah, we could have, and still can, contain this virus,” he said. “But it requires leadership at the federal level, and there was never an interest in letting the federal level lead this. It was always put the states out front, and the federal government will provide FEMA support and backup support.”

He noted that there was never an attempt by the president to encourage people to wear masks or support contact tracing.

“This is why we have the world’s worse COVID-19 epidemic,” said Dr. Hotez. “We talk about this like it’s in the past, but the worse is yet to come. We’re going to double the number of deaths over the next few months and now we know it’s not just deaths. We’re seeing long-term injury to the lungs, to the vascular system, to the heart, neurological deficits, cognitive deficits. This will plague the country for years and years, even after the vaccine is out.”

Wallace closed the panel by thanking them for “scaring the bejesus out of me.”

See the segment below:

https://dai.ly/x7vgb6l

[homoe]

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) — Seizing the power of his podium and his pen, President Donald Trump on Saturday bypassed the nation's lawmakers as he claimed the authority to defer payroll taxes and replace an expired unemployment benefit with a lower amount after negotiations with Congress on a new coronavirus rescue package collapsed.

At his private country club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump signed executive orders to act where Congress hasn't. Not only has the pandemic undermined the economy and upended American lives, it has imperiled the president's November reelection. Perhaps most crucially, Trump moved to continue paying a supplemental federal unemployment benefit for millions of Americans out of work during the outbreak. However, his order called for up to $400 payments each week, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those higher payments to lapse on Aug. 1, and negotiations to extend them have been mired in partisan gridlock.

Sidebar: So come election time remember, while you were sitting at home struggling with how you were going to survive, 45 was not only out enjoying himself but slashed you unemployment benefits too boot!

[homoe]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Bob Garick was looking forward to being a field supervisor during the door-knocking phase of the 2020 census, but as the number of new coronavirus cases in Florida shot up last month, he changed his mind.

With widespread home visits for the 2020 census set to begin next week, the Census Bureau is losing workers like Garick to pandemic fears. The attrition could complicate the bureau's plans to ramp up efforts to reach the hardest to count communities, including minorities and immigrants, on a shortened schedule.

“Before, I thought it was my civic duty, to do my part, but now it’s like the health concerns are too great,” said Garick, 54, a software development director who is between jobs.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/census-bu...125534629.html

[PlatinumPearl]

Arkansas Man Plants Mysterious Seeds from China Being Sent Across the U.S..