July 28, 2020

Trump Made Up Invitation To Throw Out First Pitch At Yankees Game To Outshine Fauci

(Talking Points Memo) President Donald Trump claimed last week that he was invited to throw out the opening pitch at a Yankees baseball game, which was reportedly news to the Yankees.

Calling Yankees team president Randy Levine “a great friend,” Trump bragged during a White House briefing last Thursday that Levine had “asked me to throw out the first pitch” at Yankee Stadium on August 15 in the match against the Washington Nationals. The President’s announcement happened to came right before Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent health expert on the White House’s COVID-19 task force, threw out the first pitch at a Yankees game that day.

But according to the New York Times, both the White House and Yankees officials had no idea about any supposed invitation to the game. Though Levine had offered to let Trump throw out the first pitch at some point, the President had reportedly not been invited to do so on that particular date.

Trump’s abrupt announcement was reportedly prompted by his irritation that Fauci, who has clashed with the President’s rosy framing of the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S., had been invited to throw out the opening pitch.

The President walked back his announcement on Sunday, tweeting that plans to throw the first pitch were cancelled due to his “strong focus” on COVID-19.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-made-up-invitation-to-throw-out-first-pitch-at-yankees-game-to-outshine-fauci

July 27, 2020

on ABC News now, John Lewis motorcade coming to capitol....

sorry, I can't type anymore - just wanted to let you all know it's on tv now

July 25, 2020

Local TV stations set to air discredited 'Plandemic' a researcher's conspiracy theory about Fauci

*this is a new low, even for them

New York (CNN Business)Local television stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group are set to air a conspiracy theory over the weekend that suggests Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top expert on infectious diseases, was responsible for the creation of the coronavirus.

The baseless conspiracy theory is set to air on stations across the country in a segment during the program "America This Week" hosted by Eric Bolling. The show, which is posted online before it is broadcast over the weekend, is distributed to Sinclair Broadcast Group's network of local television stations, one of the largest in the country. A survey by Pew Research Group earlier this year showed that local news was a vital source of information on the coronavirus for many Americans, and more trusted than the media overall.

In this week's episode of the show, Bolling spoke with Judy Mikovits, the medical researcher featured in the discredited "Plandemic" video that went viral earlier this year and which was banned from platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. Throughout the segment, the on-screen graphic read, "DID DR. FAUCI CREATE COVID-19?"

Bolling also spoke with Mikovits' attorney, Larry Klayman, a right-wing lawyer who also has a history of pushing misinformation and representing conspiracy theorists.

During the interview Mikovitz told Bolling that Fauci had over the past decade "manufactured" and shipped coronaviruses to Wuhan, China, which became the original epicenter of the current outbreak. Bolling noted that this was a "hefty claim," but did not meaningfully challenge Mikovits and allowed her to continue making her case.

(Read More) https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/24/media/sinclair-fauci-conspiracy-bolling/index.html

July 25, 2020

FEMA Sends Faulty Protective Gear to Nursing Homes Battling Virus

*this is just so outrageous and beyond unacceptable

(New York Times, via msn) Expired surgical masks. Isolation gowns that resemble oversize trash bags. Extra-small gloves that are all but useless for the typical health worker’s hands.

Nursing home employees across the country have been dismayed by what they’ve found when they’ve opened boxes of protective medical gear sent by the federal government, part of a $134 million effort to provide facilities a 14-day supply of equipment considered critical for shielding their vulnerable residents from the coronavirus.

The shipments have included loose gloves of unknown provenance stuffed into unmarked Ziploc bags, surgical masks crafted from underwear fabric and plastic isolation gowns without openings for hands that require users to punch their fists through the closed sleeves. Adhesive tape must be used to secure them.

Health regulators in California have advised nursing homes not to use the gowns, saying they present an infection-control risk, especially when doffing contaminated gowns that must be torn off.

Some nursing homes have received masks with brittle elastic bands that snap when stretched. None of the shipments have included functional N95 respirators, the virus-filtering face masks that are the single most important bulwark against infection.

“People hate to complain about personal protective equipment they’re getting for free but many of these items are just useless,” said Brendan Williams, president of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, which has been fielding a flurry of calls about the defective gear from nursing homes it represents. “It’s mystifying that the government would think this is acceptable.”

Read More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fema-sends-faulty-protective-gear-to-nursing-homes-battling-virus/ar-BB179jcE?li=BBnb7Kz

July 24, 2020

Fauci says that he and his family have experienced 'serious threats' during pandemic

(The Hill) Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said Thursday that he has received “serious threats” to himself and his family since he became one of the public faces of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The doctor said that the anger has appeared on a different level than when he began his work during the HIV/AIDS crisis.

“I’ve seen a side of society that I guess is understandable but it’s a little bit disturbing. Back in the days of HIV when I was being criticized with some hate mail, it was, you know, people calling me a gay-lover and 'what the hell are you wasting a lot of time on that' ... things that you would just push aside as stupid people saying stupid things,” Fauci told CNN's David Axelrod on his “The Axe Files” podcast.

In 2020, Fauci said, “It’s really a magnitude different,” because “as much as people inappropriately, I think, make me somewhat of a hero … there are people who get really angry at thinking I’m interfering with their life because I’m pushing a public health agenda.”

This, he said, has led to both hate mail and “serious threats against me, against my family … my daughters, my wife — I mean, really? Is this the United States of America?”

Fauci added that he had been assigned security due to some of these threats.

Axelrod also noted reports that several House Republicans had called for Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) removal as head of the House Republican Caucus for defending Fauci’s performance during the pandemic.

“Isn’t that weird, David? I mean, it just doesn’t make any sense,” Fauci responded. “I guess it’s just a reflection of the divisiveness in our society at the political level.”

“I can understand very well that you have to be careful because of the negative consequences of things like shutting down … but the hostility against public health issues is difficult not only to understand, but difficult to even process,” he added.

Fauci's comments come after President Trump recently characterized the doctor as "a little bit of an alarmist." Fauci refuted the characterization, saying that he was a realist.

Trump maintains that his relationship with the doctor, however, remains "very good."

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/508835-fauci-says-that-he-and-his-family-have-experienced-serious-threats-during

July 24, 2020

Staffer for Florida Congressman dies of COVID-19

(CBS) Congressman Vern Buchanan announced that longtime staffer, Gary Tibbetts, died of COVID-19 on Friday. Buchanan is a Republican congressman from Florida, which has seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases.

"Devastated by the death of my longtime staffer Gary Tibbetts, who passed away today at Manatee Memorial Hospital from COVID-19," Buchanan said in a statement posted to Twitter. "Gary was the consummate professional and a true public servant in every sense of the word."

This is the first time a congressional staffer has been confirmed to have died of the virus.

Buchanan had announced on July 15 by tweet that Tibbetts had been hospitalized. Tibbetts, who had worked for Buchanan as a special assistant and field representative since 2011, was also a retired Manchester, New Hampshire, police sergeant, according to a social media profile.

There are nearly 400,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Florida, with over 5,500 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. President Trump announced on Thursday that the portion of the Republican National Convention which was to be held in Jacksonville next month would be canceled due to the coronavirus crisis.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpassed 4 million on Thursday. A million of those cases were reported in roughly the last two weeks.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/staffer-florida-congressman-dies-covid-19/

July 23, 2020

Russian Allies Helping Trump Win Reelection Have A Partner In Wisconsin Republican

(HuffPost) Sen. Ron Johnson will not say where material to investigate Joe Biden is coming from, but a former pro-Russian lawmaker in Ukraine has said he is a source.

WASHINGTON ― Allies of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin hoping to give President Donald Trump a second term in office appear to have a new partner: Republican Ron Johnson, who is using his Senate committee to renew debunked allegations against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Johnson, a second-term senator from Wisconsin who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is leading an investigation into the former vice president nearly identical to the one Trump pushed for in Ukraine that led to his impeachment earlier this year, and which echoes allegations being made in Russian-owned propaganda outlets.

On Wednesday, Johnson denied being part of any Russian effort. “This is all being fabricated by Democrats. Have them point to something that we’ve released that’s Russian disinformation,” he told HuffPost. “We’re gathering information, but I’m not aware of anything that is Russian disinformation.”

One former pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker, though, told The Washington Post that material showing the former vice president’s efforts to get a Ukrainian prosecutor fired has been turned over to Johnson’s committee. Oleksandr Onyshchenko is among a group of pro-Russian Ukrainians, including one graduate of a KGB school, who have ramped up claims against Biden and released batches of edited audiotapes.

They have said more material would be released closer to the election, when it would be more useful to Trump.

(Read More) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-senator-ron-johnson-russia_n_5f18a367c5b6f2f6c9f0dc85

July 22, 2020

Senator Leahy demands answers from Barr on potentially illegal surveillance programs

Vermont Business Magazine
Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote to Attorney General William Barr and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday, demanding information on whether and how the Trump administration has halted mass surveillance programs authorized by now-expired Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) provisions under the USA FREEDOM Act. The senators also demanded information on whether the administration is conducting surveillance that bypasses their statutory authorities, under any illegal claim of inherent surveillance powers.

Past administrations have tenuously relied on Executive Order 12333, issued in 1981, to conduct surveillance operations wholly independent of any statutory authorization. With the expiration of three duly-passed statutory surveillance authorities, the executive branch may be secretly relying on this or other alleged inherent powers to continue its intelligence collection efforts. This would constitute a secret system of surveillance with no congressional oversight potentially resulting in programmatic Fourth Amendment violations on a tremendous scale.

“Congress and the American people have a right to know if this or any other administration is spying on people in the United States outside of express congressional approval, with no or diminished guardrails,” wrote the senators.

The senators continued: “The rights of all Americans depend on their government exercising its power responsibly, adhering to the rule of law, and upholding its duty to act transparently. Any surveillance conducted in the absence of statutory authorities and congressional oversight would be extraordinarily concerning and illegal.”

Leahy and Lee authored the USA FREEDOM Act in 2015, which provided the first major overhaul of executive surveillance authorities in decades. In May, the senators also authored an amendment to H.R. 6172, the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020, to strengthen the amici process and improve the disclosure of exculpatory evidence in the FISA court system. That amendment was overwhelmingly approved in the Senate by a vote of 77 to 19 and the underlying legislation, with the Lee-Leahy amendment included, then passed the Senate by a vote of 80 to 16.

Read the letter here. https://www.leahy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Leahy_Lee-Letter_to_Barr_and_Ratcliffe_re_FISA-072120.pdf

(Link to article) https://vermontbiz.com/news/2020/july/22/leahy-demands-answers-barr-potentially-illegal-surveillance-programs

July 22, 2020

Hostage siege ends after Ukrainian president endorses Joaquin Phoenix film

(The Guardian) A gunman in Ukraine armed with an automatic rifle and grenades has surrendered to police and released 13 hostages after the country’s president consented to his demand to recommend the 2005 film Earthlings starring Joaquin Phoenix.

The niche film recommendation, delivered by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over Facebook, helped end an hours-long standoff in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh seized a bus and demanded that dozens of government officials admit to being “terrorists”.

During the hostage crisis, which began on Tuesday morning, Kryvosh opened fire and threw a grenade at a police drone. The reports of automatic gunfire sent some journalists at the scene diving for cover. No one was seriously injured during the standoff. A bullet was reported to have nearly struck the national chief of police.

The gunman also spoke with journalists and monitored social media during the hostage crisis, although his Twitter account was eventually deactivated. One hostage, who spoke with a journalist by telephone during the crisis, begged them to put the gunman in touch with the president’s office.

Zelenskiy spoke directly with Kryvosh, a spokeswoman said, after which three of the hostages were released from the bus. The rest were released shortly after he posted a short video online about a Joaquin Phoenix film critical of the poor treatment of animals.

“The film Earthlings from 2005. Everyone should watch it,” Zelenskiy said in the video released over Facebook. It was deleted after Kryvosh surrendered and replaced with a note thanking police and others who helped end the hostage crisis.

Read More: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/hostage-siege-ends-after-ukrainian-president-endorses-joaquin-phoenix-film

July 22, 2020

Greta Thunberg wins 1 million euro prize, says she will donate it to environmental groups

(CNBC) Climate activist Greta Thunberg plans to donate a 1 million euro ($1.14 million) prize to organizations focused on the environment and climate change.

The 17 year old Swede was named winner of the inaugural Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity on Monday. In a video, she described herself as being “incredibly honored and extremely grateful … this means a lot to me and I hope that it will help me do more good in the world.”

“All the prize money will be donated through my foundation to different organizations and projects who are working to help people on the front lines affected by the climate crisis and ecological crisis, especially in the Global South,” she went on to say.

She added that the money would also “help organizations and projects who are fighting for a sustainable world and who are fighting to defend nature and the natural world.”

Breaking the initial donations down, Thunberg tweeted that 100,000 euros would be donated to the “SOS Amazonia Campaign led by Fridays For Future Brazil to tackle Covid-19 in the Amazon.” A further 100,000 euros will go to the Stop Ecocide Foundation.

The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity says it “aims to recognise people, groups of people and/or organisations from all over the world whose contributions to mitigation and adaptation to climate change stand out for its novelty, innovation and impact.”

snip

Since starting a protest outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, Thunberg has risen to global prominence, becoming the figurehead for a series of school strikes by children around the world.

This is not the first time she has donated prize money to organizations and causes she supports. In April, after winning the Human Act Award, she said she would donate the $100,000 prize money to UNICEF. The Human Act Award matched Thunberg’s donation with a further $100,000.

(Read More) https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/21/greta-thunberg-plans-to-give-away-one-million-euro-prize.html