August 13, 2020

Trump called Kamala Harris 'nasty' - is it because she grills powerful men?

Trump called Kamala Harris 'nasty' – is it because she grills powerful men?
Harris has subjected Trump’s allies – and even Joe Biden – to rigorous cross-examination. We choose her best moments

Poppy Noor
@PoppyNoor
Wed 12 Aug 2020 17.16 EDT


(Guardian UK) On Tuesday, Donald Trump referred to Kamala Harris as a “nasty woman”, referencing her 2018 grilling of Brett Kavanaugh over allegations – denied by Kavanaugh – that the now supreme court justice attempted to rape Dr Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers.

Nasty or “not nice” seem to be words Trump reserves for women who hold men in power to account: Trump similarly insulted Hilary Clinton during the 2016 election race, when she hinted at his reluctance to publish his tax returns. Trump also ordered female reporters who question him to “be nice” and has previously said it was not “nice” to call a woman “tough”.

But Harris, who was previously California’s top prosecutor – for which she has drawn criticism – doesn’t like to go easy on her opponents. In fact, she routinely subjects them to strong and thorough cross-examination.

Here’s a list of her “nastiest” – or, depending on how you view it, strongest – lines of questioning. ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/12/trump-kamala-harris-nasty

August 13, 2020

Colombia arrests Florida men accused of selling fake COVID cure that allegedly killed 7 people

(CBS News) Colombian officials say they have arrested two Florida men wanted in the U.S. on charges they illegally sold a bleachlike chemical as a miracle cure for the new coronavirus and other diseases. The Colombian prosecutor's office said Tuesday that Mark and Joseph Grenon were arrested in the beach town of Santa Marta, and were shipping their "Miracle Mineral Solution" — chlorine dioxide — from there to clients in the United States, Colombia and Africa.

It said seven Americans had died from using the substance.

Mark Grenon is the archbishop of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, based in Bradenton, Florida. The church is centered on use of the toxic chemical as a supposed sacrament it claims can cure a vast variety of illnesses ranging from cancer to autism to malaria and now COVID-19. ...........(more)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-men-accused-selling-fake-covid-cure-arrested-colombia/

August 13, 2020

Fox News threw everything but the kitchen sink at Kamala Harris

(CNN) Fox News was in full attack mode Tuesday night, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Kamala Harris. From depicting her as a "radical running mate" to mocking the pronunciation of her name to suggesting Joe Biden didn't actually select her himself, the conservative network's prime time lineup was in overdrive.

Frankly, if you stripped the network's programming of any identifying labels or names, and just looked at a transcript of the 8pm to 11pm hours, you'd be forgiven if you mistook the channel for a Trump 2020 campaign livestream.

Of course, that isn't terribly surprising. The alliance between Fox News and President Trump has been well documented. But the attacks on Tuesday night serve as a guide for what the Trump campaign and right-wing media at large are going to throw at Harris. So I thought it would be useful to provide a tick-tock of the network's coverage here.

.....(snip).....

Meanwhile, Ingraham scrapes bottom of barrel

Laura Ingraham opened her show by perpetuating the theme from right-wing media that Biden won't actually be in control of his White House. Ingraham read what she characterized as a "telling tidbit" from Biden's email to supporters in which he said, "I've decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021."

Ingraham then commented, "Wait, wait, to lead this nation? Wasn't that you supposed to be on the top of the ticket doing all that leading for us, Joe? You know, that whole presidency then? Come on, man. Even Joe is witted enough to understand that he's not really going to be running the show if he wins in November." Ingraham deserves credit for extrapolating all of that from an innocuous line in the Biden campaign email. ...............(more)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/media/fox-news-kamala-harris/index.html

August 12, 2020

Thailand protesters 'cross the Rubicon' and risk all to criticise the monarchy

(Guardian UK) Thai protesters have broken a long-standing taboo, risking lengthy jail terms to criticise the king, after weeks of student-led pro-democracy rallies that have swept across the country.

Over recent weeks, high school and university students have targeted the government of prime minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, calling for its dissolution and for democratic reforms. Now, some protesters have begun openly criticising the country’s wealthy and powerful monarchy.

Such public comments are highly unusual, and have left the government in a bind. Allowing criticism to pass would undermine the status quo that keeps them in power, say analysts, while cracking down hard on the students could foment further protests and intensify scrutiny of the monarchy.

Thailand has some of the strictest lèse-majesté (wounded majesty) laws in the world, and anyone who “defames, insults or threatens the king, queen, heir-apparent or regent” can face up to 15 years on each charge.

Protests, which are organised by different groups, are broadly united around three demands: dissolve the government, end the intimidation of activists and rewrite the constitution, which was written under military rule and has cemented the army’s power. ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/12/thailand-protesters-cross-the-rubicon-and-risk-all-to-criticise-the-monarchy

August 12, 2020

How Kamala Harris's friendship with Beau Biden united her with Joe

(Guardian UK) Long before Joe Biden named Kamala Harris as his running mate, and even before they faced off as rival Democratic presidential candidates, the two had bonded over their mutual love for Biden’s son Beau – and grief over his death.

Harris’s friendship with Biden’s late son, who died in 2015 at the age of 46 from brain cancer, was something that Biden said he “thought a lot about” as he made the decision to name her as his running mate. “There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s and I’m proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign,” Biden wrote in a campaign email.

Harris and Beau Biden both served as attorney generals – she of California, he of Delaware – and began working closely together while negotiating with banks during the foreclosure crisis in 2011 and 2012.

In her memoir, Harris called him an “incredible friend and colleague” who became a close collaborator. “There were periods, when I was taking heat, that Beau and I talked every day, sometimes multiple times a day,” she wrote. “We had each other’s backs.” ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/11/kamala-harris-beau-biden-friendship-joe

August 11, 2020

What Arpaio's primary loss could tell us about Trump's future

(Guardian UK) Nothing much surprises Alfredo Gutierrez.

Widely viewed as the patriarch of Latino civil rights activism in Arizona, Gutierrez, now 74, helped Cesar Chavez organize farm workers in California lettuce fields and led immigrant rights marches through the streets of Phoenix. He’s battled institutional white supremacy in the American south-west for most of his life, and his memoir is a primer on the difficulty of eradicating something that is always present but sometimes hides itself.

It follows that Gutierrez was not surprised but “fascinated” when 88-year-old Joe Arpaio decided to run again for sheriff of Maricopa county, Arizona – a post Arpaio had held on to for 24 rocky years and lost four years ago amid national outrage over his abusive policing tactics and immigration crackdowns.

.....(snip).....

Arpaio’s defeat is viewed by national politicos as a possible indicator of Donald Trump’s diminishing popularity in Arizona, now a purple state in play in the presidential election.

But the race was so close it couldn’t be called for days. Arpaio lost by about 6,000 votes to his former right-hand man, a once blindly devoted chief deputy named Jerry Sheridan. ......(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/11/sheriff-joe-arpaio-arizona-primary-election-donald-trump

August 11, 2020

Florida's unemployed struggle with system designed to fail

'I'm homeless': Florida's unemployed struggle with system designed to fail
Governor Ron DeSantis admits the benefits process is intended to deter people as the coronavirus crisis wreaks havoc with lives

Michael Sainato
Published on
Tue 11 Aug 2020 05.30 EDT


(Guardian UK) Crystal Tucker of Polk county, Florida, has spent months trying to solve issues with her unemployment benefits since she was furloughed in March 2020 from her job in the admissions department at Legoland in the Orlando area.

Like millions of other people in Florida and across the country, Tucker is a victim of an unemployment system unable to cope with the record number of claims that have swept the country during the coronavirus pandemic. In Florida the situation is particularly catastrophic.

Tucker started to receive benefits, but she was deemed ineligible when she completed her weekly filings on 10 June because she resigned from her position as a claims supervisor at Walmart after 14 years. Tucker quit due to a flare-up of lupus, an autoimmune disease, just as her workloads increased due to job cuts in her department. She was worried about the impact a coronavirus infection could have on her already-compromised immune system.

“I am now homeless,” said Tucker. “I have no vehicle and have sold everything of value, so I would be able to pay for my doctor appointments, medications and dog food. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it together.”

Florida’s unemployment system has come under harsh scrutiny since the pandemic reached US shores and unemployment soared. .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/11/florida-unemployment-coronavirus-benefits-system

August 11, 2020

Florida Man Jailed After Allegedly Dousing 7-Eleven Employee With Slurpee During Price Dispute

A Florida man was recently arrested and jailed after he allegedly doused a 7-Eleven employee with a Slurpee over a dispute over the drink's price, police said.

The man, Brian Duffy, 40, was identified by Pinellas Park County court documents obtained by The Smoking Gun. He was arrested on August 7 and charged with battery after an argument broke out with a 7-Eleven employee and Duffy hit a Slurpee out of an employee's hand, the documents said.

"The video surveillance shows the victim grabbing the cup off the counter," the court documents show. "The defendant is seen on camera...handing the cup full of Slurpee drink towards the victim while in the victim's hand." ...........(more)

https://www.newsweek.com/florida-man-jailed-after-allegedly-dousing-7-eleven-employee-slurpee-during-price-dispute-police-1523988?

August 10, 2020

Drunk Florida Man drives lawnmower on the highway

MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida man who admittedly had “maybe a little too much to drink” was caught on dash camera video riding a lawn mower on a highway, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said they caught Paul Burke, of Fort McCoy, driving the riding lawn mower in the middle of Highway 316 on Wednesday.

Video provided by the department shows Burke slurring his words and admitting that he had been drinking, although he never quantifies exactly how much he had. ...... (more)

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2020/08/10/video-drunk-florida-man-drives-lawn-mower-on-highway-deputies-say/

August 10, 2020

Welcome to Nashville, Where We're Just Realizing There's a Pandemic

Welcome to Nashville, Where We’re Just Realizing There’s a Pandemic
After weeks of tourists flocking to the bars on Broadway, the city is finally taking action. But is it enough?

By JOSEPH HUDAK


(Rolling Stone) Last weekend, in a new building with sweeping views of Nashville’s skyline in a gentrifying neighborhood in East Nashville, organizers advertised a party on social media dubbed “The V.I.P. Viewing of the Fashion House.” Masks were scarce. Hookahs were plentiful. And bodies by the hundreds packed and writhed in tight. Judging by videos posted to Instagram the next day, Nashville looked like it had opened its own Hedonism resort.

One out-of-town attendee who goes by DaddysJuiced appeared in a video that showed him on his knees, his face burrowed in the ass of a woman. Framed in one of the home’s massive windows, DaddysJuiced did his thing while being gawked at by a long line of people waiting to get inside on the street below.

.....(snip).....

We should have seen it coming. For nearly 10 years, Nashville has cultivated its image as Las Vegas East (its nickname is NashVegas, after all), a city that advertises itself as a tourist-friendly destination to drink to excess and get rowdy, then validates it with an unbalanced focus on Broadway tourism. Romanticized as ground zero for rising country singers who play for tips in overhyped cover bars like Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and Kid Rock’s Badass Honky Tonk and Rock & Roll Steakhouse, the district on weekends pre-pandemic was typically tense and crowded. The threat of a sucker punch feels imminent. Party buses, wagons pulled by tractors, and mobile hot tubs creep by with drunk tourists crammed inside. It’s a sad hell that not even Kristofferson could envision in a song.

Up until this weekend, little of this had changed during the pandemic. Nashville, while publicly trying to combat a raging virus, remained addicted to tourism. In early July, just a few days after the city abruptly canceled its Fourth of July fireworks spectacle because of a surge in COVID-19 cases, the city’s Twitter account asked, “What’s your first stop in Nashville?” Most replies referenced various bars and landmarks; a few tweeted “hospital” or “COVID test.” It wasn’t an overt call to visit, but nonetheless, the tourists came. .............(more)

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/nashville-broadway-bars-party-pandemic-masks-1041693/