brooklynite
brooklynite's JournalCOVID-19 precautions scarce as lawmakers open special session for election, liability issues
Source: Idaho Statesman
With maskless protesters largely ignoring social distancing regulations, Idaho lawmakers opened their special session Monday, pitching bills to address issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Bills introduced revolved around general election regulations in November, absentee ballots and whether businesses and governments can be held liable should a person contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Many of the state’s more conservative lawmakers did not wear masks or face coverings, despite the existing public health orders mandating masks be worn in Boise and throughout Ada County. Central District Health spokesperson Christine Myron said Monday that the health district’s mask mandate does apply to the Statehouse building and masks should be worn inside the building.
Read more: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article245194280.html
Freedom!
Rating comparison for Conventions (night 1)
https://twitter.com/mulvihill79/status/1298290215157604352DOSE OF JOE - Aug 25
Friends -- see below for today's Dose of Joe.
On the first morning of the Republican National Convention, former Senator Jeff Flake, former Senator John Warner, and more than two dozen additional former Republicans Members of Congress endorsed Vice President Biden. On the first morning of the Republican National Convention, the campaign announced a new effort, Republicans for Biden, to get out the vote among Republicans support Biden-Harris.
Biden for President released a new minute-long ad showing the stark contrast between Joe Biden’s positive, hopeful, and inspiring vision for the country and Donald Trump’s divisive, harmful, and chaotic presidency has let down working families during the national crises.
Joe released a statement on the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin calling for “an immediate, full and transparent investigation and the officers must be held accountable.”
A new morning consult poll has Biden leading at 52% and Trump at 42%.
JOE’S TWEETS TO AMPLIFY
@JoeBiden: President Obama and I established a White House office to prepare our nation for future pandemics. Donald Trump eliminated it — and we've been paying the price every single day.
@JoeBiden: Together, united in our love for America and each other, we’ll overcome this season of darkness and restore the soul of our nation.
@JoeBiden: This moment is bigger than any one political party. We've got to come together as Americans to save our democracy and restore the soul of our nation. Thank you, Senator @JeffFlake.
Brad Ashford to launch write-in bid for US Senate
Source: KETV News
It was announced Monday afternoon that former US Rep. Brad Ashford would be launching a write-in bid for US Senate if democratic candidate Chris Janicek does not step down.
Ashford's running is in response to democratic Janicek insisting on continuing his campaign despite sexual harassment allegations.
The party would prefer he step aside so Alisha Shelton can replace him, but Janicek has refused to do so.
Shelton cannot launch a write-in bid due to losing the primary.
Read more: https://www.ketv.com/article/brad-ashford-to-launch-write-in-bid-for-us-senate/33771006
This was long odds (vs Ben Sasse) before this happened.
Boris Johnson plans to resign in 6 months because of lingering coronavirus health problems
Source: Business Insider
The father-in-law of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's closest aide has reportedly said Johnson plans to stand down in six months because of lingering health problems caused by the novel coronavirus.
The Times of London's Diary column reported a conversation between Humphry Wakefield, the father of Dominic Cummings' wife, Mary, and a woman named Anna Silverman last week in which he is said to have told her that Johnson would resign early next year because of the lasting effects of his time in intensive care.
Silverman told The Times she had the conversation with Wakefield when she bumped into him on a trip to Chillingham Castle in the northeastern English county of Northumberland.
Wakefield is said to have compared Johnson's condition to that of an injured horse that is brought back too early.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/dominic-cummings-father-in-law-boris-johnson-will-resign-february-2020-8
James Comey, Clarence Mingo join anti-Trump Republicans to counter GOP convention
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Disaffected Republicans and others who oppose President Donald Trump said Monday that more is at stake in the November election than policy differences.
“At this moment, while we can have the big policy fights on health care and things like that, that’s not what the country is looking for. It’s not what the country is hungering for. They’re hungering for leadership that brings the disparate parts of the nation together,” said Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chairman.
Steele was among the speakers at the Convention on Founding Principles made up of Republican dissidents, independents and others fighting Trump’s re-election, including former FBI Director James Comey and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.
Speakers on the streaming digital convention painted the election more as a war for America’s heart and principles than disagreements over federal law and regulation.
Read more: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200824/james-comey-clarence-mingo-join-anti-trump-republicans-to-counter-gop-convention
Kenosha becomes center of nationwide protests after police shoot Black man in front of his children
Source: CNN
Buildings and cars in Kenosha, Wisconsin, were set ablaze Monday night amid protests reignited by the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake.
Blake, a Black man, was shot multiple times in the back Sunday evening as he tried to enter an SUV through the driver's side door. In the vehicle were his 3-, 5- and 8-year-old children.
Following the shooting, police said officers rendered aid before the injured man was flown to a hospital in Milwaukee. He remained in intensive care late Monday, his attorney said.
Enraged demonstrators poured onto the streets after video of the shooting began circulating on social media, showing an officer grabbing on to the man's tank top. Seven shots are heard, followed by the sustained sound of a car horn. Two Wisconsin police officers have since been placed on administrative leave, and the police union has urged the public to withhold judgment until "all the facts are known."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/us/jacob-blake-kenosha-wisconsin-protests/index.html
As permanent economic damage piles up, the Covid Crisis is looking more like the Great Recession
Washington PostNow economists fear it’s happening all over again. The devastating surge in unemployment in March and April was supposed to be temporary, as businesses shuttered to avert the greatest public health crisis in more than a century. Most workers reported they expected to be called back soon.
But nearly half a year later, many of the jobs that were stuck in purgatory are being lost forever. About 33 percent of the employees put on furlough in March were laid off for good by July, according to Gusto, a payroll and benefits firm whose clients include small businesses in all 50 states and D.C. Only 37 percent have been called back to their previous employer.
There were 3.7 million U.S. unemployed who had permanently lost their previous job as of July, according to the Labor Department. That figure doubled from February to June, held steady in July, and is expected to hit between 6.2 million and 8.7 million by late this year, according to a new analysis from economists Gabriel Chodorow-Reich of Harvard University and John Coglianese of the Federal Reserve Board.
As Dems push mail-in voting, Black and Latino voters wary
PoliticoDemocrats' push to promote mail-in voting this fall could be undermined by an important fact: Some of their key constituencies don't trust it.
Black and Latino voters consistently voice more discomfort and uncertainty about voting by mail, even as a majority of Democrats overall say they plan to cast absentee ballots this fall, according to polling and focus groups. Generating overwhelming margins and turnout among both groups is a key to victory for Joe Biden in November, and Democrats don’t want to lose any votes by suggesting that mail voting is the only proper way to cast a ballot in the general election.
In a series of recent focus groups conducted in Philadelphia and Las Vegas by iVote — a Democratic group focused on voting rights and secretaries of state — and shared with POLITICO, Black and Latino voters said the experience of voting in person “has been ingrained and they feel secure their vote will be counted,” according to the report summary.
The findings are bolstered by a pair of recent polls from the Voter Participation Center, in partnership with Latino Decisions and the African American Research Collaborative, which showed that nearly two-thirds of Latino and Black voters prefer to vote in person because “they believe their vote is more likely to be counted than if they vote by mail.”
Falwell sought to cut financial ties to pool attendant before Trump's campaign
Source: Politico
Before Jerry Falwell Jr. became the first major evangelical leader to support Donald Trump, he tried to cut his financial ties with Giancarlo Granda, who was involved in a long-term sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki, in which Jerry Falwell sometimes participated by looking on, Granda told POLITICO.
The Liberty University president and his wife met Granda, then just 20 years old, in 2012 while the couple were staying at Miami Beach’s legendary Fontainebleau Hotel, where Granda was a pool attendant. A year after beginning what would become a seven-year affair, Granda said, the Falwells put up money for a Miami Beach youth hostel co-owned by Granda and the Falwells’ son Trey, according to Granda and incorporation documents.
Then, at the meeting at Loews Miami Beach Hotel in May 2015, Falwell surprised Granda by offering to buy him out. He also mentioned something else that caught Granda's attention: Donald Trump, he said, was planning to run for president, a somewhat surprising move that would place the New York developer among roughly a dozen people contending for the GOP nomination.
To Granda, the two events appeared to be connected: Jerry Falwell was trying to remove evidence of his family’s ties to Granda in anticipation of getting involved in politics, which could invite greater scrutiny of his activities.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/25/jerry-falwell-pool-attendant-401398
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Name: Chris BastianGender: Male
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