Friday, July 31, 2020

And another day of plans, errors, inconsistencies, children’s camp, school videos, unsealed documents, genocide, political distancing, a “secretive clique,” an old guy wanting to ban TikTok, a digital Dark Ages, and Tucker Carlson is not “News” comes to a close:

“Very few people can afford to be poor.” -- George Bernard Shaw

Deaths

US: 156,747 (+1462)

World: 682,998 (+6239)

Cases

US: 4,705,889 (+70,904)

World: 17,757,501 (+282,810)

Countdown: 95 days.

How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”. Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration abruptly required hospitals to stop reporting COVID-19 data to the CDC—and to use a new online system instead. But that new system has proven to be rife with errors and inconsistent updates, data analysts say.

Some 260 cases of the coronavirus have been tied to attendees and staff at a North Georgia YMCA children’s camp in June, according to a report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the largest known superspreading events in the state. The report details how COVID-19 spread rapidly among children and teens within the camp and raises questions about the effectiveness of safety protocols as school districts and colleges contemplate reopening for in-person instruction this fall.

More than 150,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. Here is that tragic story in figures. These are the key stats so far.

A Florida school district shared a video of its reopening. Some parents call it 'apocalyptic-y.'

House Democrats find administration overspent for ventilators by as much as $500 million. But internal emails and documents obtained by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee suggest that the Trump administration failed to enforce an existing contract with a major medical manufacturer, delayed negotiations for more than a month and subsequently overpaid as much as $500 million for tens of thousands of the devices — a costly error at a time when officials from some of the biggest states were warning of shortages.

Scientists have discovered why coronavirus causes some patients to lose their sense of smell.

Election officials say that it's more important to focus on accuracy than speed in counting results. A delay in counting mail ballots should be seen as a sign that officials are safeguarding against the fraud President Trump says he is worried about. — There’s no need for the country to know who won on election night. Put aside your instant gratification crap. 

Unsealed documents show Epstein, Maxwell correspondence in 2015. Attorneys for Maxwell have argued that she hadn’t had any contact with the accused sex trafficker for more than a decade.

Women in Xinjiang shine a light on a campaign of abuse and control by Beijing. For years, Uyghur women both inside Xinjiang and around the world have accused the Chinese government of a campaign of abuse, including forced sterilization, cultural indoctrination and incidents of sexual violence. It's part of a wider pattern of human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang, where authorities are accused of detaining up to two million Muslim-majority Uyghurs and other minority ethnic groups inside vast, fortified centers as part of efforts to enforce greater control over the region...”You don’t look like a human.” -- A genocide is occurring in China.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signals to Republican Senate candidates: Distance from President Trump if necessary. -- Oh no. You’re all complicit. There is no “distancing.” Vote every Republican out of office.

Fox lawyers admit Tucker Carlson doesn’t always tell the truth. “”Would a reasonable viewer be coming here [to ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’] and thinking, ‘This is where I’m going to be hearing the news of the day’?” Fox News attorney Erin Murphy asked in a hearing-via-telephone on Wednesday, according to reporter Frank G. Runyeons’s story at Law360.com. Did you get that? If you watch Carlson’s show and think it has anything to do with news, according to Murphy, you’re just not that bright....And in an earlier court filing, Murphy referred to “Tucker Carlson Tonight” as “hyperbolic opinion commentary,” not “sober factual reporting.” That’s not exactly a surprise — the only surprise is that Fox’s lawyers openly admitted that.”

Officers in Vallejo, California, bent badges to mark each fatal police killing, ex-captain says

Some officers involved in fatal shootings reportedly marked those incidents with backyard barbecues and were initiated into a "secretive clique."

As calls to remove Confederate monuments grew louder, states passed new laws to protect them.

Trump tells reporters he plans to ban TikTok as soon as Saturday. -- Well this should be fun to watch.

Ellen DeGeneres apologizes, says she's committed to ensuring workplace allegations "do not happen again".

The Dark Virality of a Hollywood Blood-Harvesting Conspiracy. A centuries-old anti-Semitic myth is spreading freely on far-right corners of social media—suggesting a new digital Dark Age has arrived. THE DARK AGES were rife with plague, fanaticism, and accusations that Jews secretly fed off the blood of children. In 2020, we too are beset with plague, rampant medical misinformation, and a persistent rumor that “global elites” torture children to harvest the chemical adrenochrome from their blood, which they then inject in order to stay healthy and young.

Australia is moving to impose sweeping new rules that would require Facebook and Google to pay media organizations for the use of their news content.

Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack that targeted high-profile accounts.

Twitter confirmed that it has permanently banned former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke for violating its policy against promoting violence.

Twitter is surveying users on what features they’d want from a subscription. — Um, security?

MLB commissioner warns of shutdown if coronavirus isn't better managed.

Football’s first fa’afafine: trans rights trailblazer Jaiyah Saelua on stardom and sisterhood. The first openly transgender woman and fa’afafine to compete in a Fifa World Cup qualifying match for men, she has become a global champion for the rights of transgender and fa’afafine athletes, and now - almost disbelievingly - finds her life portrayed in an upcoming Hollywood film, directed by Oscar winner Taika Waititi, to be released later this year.

Germany is banning single-use plastic straws, cotton buds and food containers.

RIP Alan Parker. He was 76.

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

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