Two little kids sit outside a Taco Bell to use WiFi so they can "go to school" online, sad reality.

China Just Called Trump's Bluff on TikTok

(Bloomberg via Msn) Imagine a bidder wanting to buy KFC, but being told the deal might not include the Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices. That’s effectively what Beijing has told the list of U.S. companies keen to purchase short-video app TikTok: The key ingredients may be out of reach.

At first it looked like the Trump administration had it all figured out.

ByteDance Inc., it decided, was a risk to national security and the Chinese company’s main product for international markets had to be sold. For reasons that remain confounding, Satya Nadella entered the fray and Microsoft Corp. put in a bid. Soon, suitors were apparently lining up to buy the hip new product that claims 100 million U.S. downloads. A short deadline — Sept. 15 — helped build a sense of urgency. TikTok is essentially going through a forced sale.

Then Beijing stepped in. China’s Commerce Ministry added new items to its list of export controls late Friday. Now, artificial intelligence interface technologies such as speech and text recognition, as well as methods to analyze data and make personalized content recommendations, are matters of national security.

snip

This move puts the ball back in Donald Trump’s court. The U.S. president may need to contend with the real possibility that TikTok doesn’t find a buyer, and he’ll have to decide whether one of the nation’s most popular products should be removed from the app store of its most valuable company. Trump may think that strong-arming China will boost his re-election chances, but being outplayed could backfire. It’s also possible that if TikTok ends up being banned altogether, there will be a backlash by the app’s fans.

Read More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/china-just-called-trump-s-bluff-on-tiktok/ar-BB18x0Ze?li=BBorjTa

Trump sent Paul Manafort to Cuba to meet with Castro's son in 2017

Hillary Clinton urges Biden not to concede in close election

(MSN) Hillary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump in 2016, said Tuesday that this year's Democratic challenger Joe Biden should refuse to concede until all votes are counted in a tight and possibly drawn-out contest. Clinton said that possible delays in tallying ballots -- with mail-in voting set to reach unprecedented levels -- mean Biden must hold back from accepting defeat initially.

"Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances because I think this is going to drag out and, eventually, I do believe he will win if we don't give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side," Clinton said in an interview with Showtime's "The Circus."

Clinton, who won almost three million more votes than Trump overall in 2016 but lost to him in the state-by-state electoral college count, suggested that the Republicans are hoping to get the result they want through in-person voting on the day -- and not necessarily wait for any delayed mail-in ballots to be counted.

Her comments follow warnings from both sides that the result of the election may not be known on the evening of November 3rd. Republicans "have a couple of scenarios that they are looking toward. One is messing up absentee balloting," she said. "They believe that helps them so that they then get maybe a narrow advantage in the electoral college on election day," Clinton said.

She called for Democrats to mount a "massive legal operation." (Read More)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hillary-clinton-urges-biden-not-to-concede-in-close-election/ar-BB18mYX7?ocid=mailsignout

I don't know if your local stations run that City Furniture ad

where there is a woman swimming in her pool while the pool boy checks out her "patio furniture" (it runs constantly down here in South FL) I just spit out my drink laughing because I realized that ad could be a home video of Falwell, wife Becki & their pool boy they picked up at the Fountainbleau in Miami.....

In case of a presidential recount, Florida counties will keep digital images of all votes cast.

U.S. Senate Democrats unveil $400 billion-a-year plan to tackle climate change

(Reuters) Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a wide-ranging plan to tackle climate change that calls for the U.S. government to spend more than $400 billion a year to eliminate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The plan is the latest in a series of blueprints from congressional Democrats detailing how the United States can combat global warming. None are likely to proceed in the current Republican-controlled Senate but could get traction if the chamber flips in November’s election.

The plan calls for accelerating wind and solar energy deployment, public investment in electric vehicle infrastructure and incentives, and funding public transit.

snip

The Senate Democrats’ plan would target creation of at least 10 million jobs in areas like clean energy manufacturing and research and development for new technologies, the report by the Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis said. (Read More)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climate-change-democrats/u-s-senate-democrats-unveil-400-billion-a-year-plan-to-tackle-climate-change-idUSKBN25L27P

What's so funny 'bout peace, love & understanding...

Oh, great: NASA says an asteroid is headed our way right before Election Day

(CNN) Well, 2020 keeps getting better all the time.

Amid a pandemic, civil unrest and a divisive US election season, we now have an asteroid zooming toward us.

On the day before the presidential vote, no less.

Yep. The celestial object known as 2018VP1 is projected to come close to Earth on November 2, according to the Center for Near Earth Objects Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It was first identified at Palomar Observatory in California in 2018.

"Asteroid 2018VP1 is very small, approximately 6.5 feet, and poses no threat to Earth. If it were to enter our planet's atmosphere, it would disintegrate due to its extremely small size," NASA said in a statement. "NASA has been directed by Congress to discover 90% of the near-Earth asteroids larger than 140 meters (459 feet) in size and reports on asteroids of any size."

NASA says that, "based on 21 observations spanning 12.968 days," the agency has determined the asteroid probably -- phew! -- won't have a deep impact, let alone bring Armageddon. The chance of it hitting us is just 0.41%, data show. CNN has reached out NASA for any additional or updated information but has not heard back. (Read More)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/us/asteroid-earth-november-2020-scn-trnd/index.html

ACLU: Know Your Rights - How to Deal With Voter Intimidation (pdf)

*I tried to copy and paste, but couldn't so here is the link- sorry

https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_pdf_file/kyr-voterintimidation-v03.pdf