Friday, June 26, 2020

And another day of firsts, bounties, hypocrisy, treason, reverses, frustration, ‘cooking,’ shutdowns, classrooms, rejections, job skills, and a new protest song comes to a close:

“Hey, hey, I’m an army of one.” -- The Chicks

“If your voice held no power, they wouldn’t try to silence you.” -- Unknown

Deaths

US: 127,640 (+860)

World: 496,866 (+5083)

Countdown: 130 days.

The House of Representatives passes legislation that would grant statehood to the District of Columbia. — That’s great! Unfortunately, it won’t pass the Senate because...Republicans. 

The Republican Choice. How a party spent decades making itself white. The political wisdom is ingrained at this point: Black and brown people don’t vote for Republicans. The one thing that the party has stayed true to is its reliance on the politics of race and racism. While membership in the party wanes and America grows more diverse, the GOP has become practiced at speaking to its core members’ desire to maintain a white-centric American society. Trump’s appeal relies heavily on attacks against the media and “PC culture,” the medium and mode of expression, respectively, of a diversifying country.

Obamacare Must 'Fall,' Trump Administration Tells Supreme Court. — Healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Republicans are literally trying to kill you.

Russia 'offered bounties to Afghan militants to kill American troops'. -- Trump was told about this in March. He’s done nothing since except seek to invite Putin to an expanded meeting of the Group of 7. -- If he does nothing, wouldn’t that fall under ‘treason’?

US President Trump appears ready to move on from a still-raging coronavirus pandemic. But the measures meant to protect him from catching the virus have scaled up dramatically. -- He’s concerned about himself, but he is literally trying to kill you.

Texas to close bars, limit restaurant dining due to explosion of COVID-19 cases. Gov. Gregg Abbott made the move one day after he hit the pause button on Texas’ plans to reopen and the numbers of new cases continued to soar. — Too little, too late. This is all on you, Abbott. 

Public health experts are increasingly frustrated with American leadership that has shirked its role in the pandemic, passed responsibility onto citizens to decide for themselves and turned simple public health measures into divisive, partisan talking points.

Florida governor under fire over claims state is 'cooking the books' on Covid-19. Rebekah Jones, who says she was fired from her job in charge of the state’s official Covid-19 database in May for refusing to manipulate its figures, claimed on social media to have evidence that employees at Florida’s department of health “have been instructed this week to change the numbers and begin slowly deleting deaths and cases so it looks like Florida is improving next week in the lead-up to July 4, like they’ve ‘made it over the hump’.” “They’re only reporting all these cases now so they can restrict reporting next week to make everyone think it’s over,” she said.

California urges hard-hit Imperial County to resume shutdown. — The return of staying st home. 

The future of the coronavirus recovery runs through the classroom. Nobody knows what school will look like in the fall, and that's a huge problem for everything from the economy to November's elections.

Biden says that if he were president, he would require people across the country to wear masks in public during the coronavirus pandemic.

As world approaches 10 million coronavirus cases, doctors see hope in new treatments.

Supreme Court rejects mail-in voting for all in Texas during pandemic.

Trump to sign order prioritizing job skills over college degree in government hiring. — And the GOP further their attack on education. 

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration doesn't have the authority to divert Pentagon funds to construct additional barriers on the US-Mexico border.

Germany And France Promise New Financial Support To World Health Organization.

After ad boycotts, Facebook says it will label rule-breaking posts — including Trump's. — We shall see. 

Car crashes become deadlier as drivers speed up during lockdown.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.