https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-administration-discussed-conducting-first-us-nuclear-test-in-decades/2020/05/22/a805c904-9c5b-11ea-b60c-3be060a4f8e1_story.html


The last full-scale underground test of a nuclear weapon was conducted at the Nevada Test Site in September 1992. (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

By John Hudson and Paul Sonne

May 22, 2020 at 9:04 p.m. EDT

The Trump administration has discussed whether to conduct the first U.S. nuclear test explosion since 1992 in a move that would have far-reaching consequences on relations with other nuclear powers and reverse a decades-long moratorium on such actions, said a senior administration official and two former officials familiar with the deliberations.

The matter came up at a meeting of senior officials representing the top national security agencies last Friday, following accusations from administration officials that Russia and China are conducting low-yield nuclear tests — an assertion that has not been substantiated by publicly available evidence and that both countries have denied.

A senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive nuclear discussions, said that demonstrating to Moscow and Beijing that the United States could “rapid test” could prove useful from a negotiating standpoint as Washington seeks a trilateral deal to regulate the arsenals of the biggest nuclear powers.


The meeting did not conclude with any agreement to conduct a test, but a senior administration official said the proposal is “very much an ongoing conversation.” Another person familiar with the meeting, however, said a decision was ultimately made to take other measures in response to threats posed by Russia and China and avoid a resumption of testing.

The National Security Council declined to comment.

</snip>

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-press-secretary-check.html

The $100,000 check was made out to a government agency. This time his account and routing numbers were clearly visible.


President Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, did not appear to use a mock check as others have done.Credit...Pool photo by Andrew Harrer

By Annie Karni

May 22, 2020, 7:41 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — It’s a feel-good story that President Trump’s press secretaries have relished over the years: the quarterly announcement of which government agency Mr. Trump has selected to be the lucky recipient of his salary, an easy way to show the president sticking to his 2016 campaign pledge to forgo his $400,000 salary and donate it.

In the past, the $100,000 check from Mr. Trump has been made out to the Small Business Administration initiative to help veteran entrepreneurs, to the Office of the Surgeon General to fight the opioid epidemic, and to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, among other places.

But on Friday, Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, did not just reveal that the president was sending his salary to the Department of Health and Human Services to help “support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain and combat the coronavirus.”

She also displayed the president’s private bank account and routing numbers.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1263818537132531714
Anand Giridharadas ✔@AnandWrites

A misbegotten, warped freedom obsession is killing us.

Embedded video

9:06 AM - May 22, 2020

https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/1263877841046982656
Zeke Miller ✔@ZekeJMiller

A man in just boxer shorts jumped a USSS barricade on Pennsylvania Ave. He's now in custody.

1:02 PM - May 22, 2020

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1263866923231535105
Aaron Rupar ✔@atrupar

It's like a deleted scene from Idiocracy

Jeff Mason ✔@jeffmason1

Riding on the White House grounds.

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12:18 PM - May 22, 2020

https://twitter.com/MaryMurrayNBC/status/1263486314244190210
Mary Murray ✔@MaryMurrayNBC

Story of the day! A mayor in Peru out drinking w buddies gets caught by the cops for violating #coronavirus curfew. Mayor jumps into a casket and pretends he‘s dead to avoid arrest. Not sure where they were partying but there was a handy casket nearby.

https://elcomercio.pe/peru/huancavelica-alcalde-de-tantara-se-hizo-el-muerto-en-ataud-para-no-ser-detenido-video-nnpp-noticia/ …
Huancavelica: alcalde de Tantará se hizo el muerto en ataúd para no ser detenido | VIDEO
Jaime Urbina Torres fue intervenido, junto con otras personas, cuando incumplía el toque de queda y las normas sanitarias para enfrentar el COVID-19. El alcalde habría estado ebrio.

11:06 AM - May 21, 2020

https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/1263474280806875141
Brian Schatz ✔@brianschatz

A little context, from the inside. 1) Mcconnell says he doesn't feel a sense of urgency to do COVID bills, w 90 thousand dead and millions out of work. 2) House passed bill is at Senate Desk for action. 3) All we do is unqualified judges selected by dark money groups.

Jake Sherman ✔@JakeSherman

MCCONNELL, on the Senate floor, calls the House its “absentee neighbors across the rotunda.”

He says the House is on paid leave and he’s wondering if senators should go “collect their newspaper and water the plants."

10:18 AM - May 21, 2020

https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1263476423202934785
Jake Sherman ✔@JakeSherman

SCHUMER: “For leader McConnell to say thah the senate is working and the house is derilict is the opposite of what happened.”

10:27 AM - May 21, 2020