Wednesday, September 2, 2020

And another day of authoritarianism slowly suffocating American democracy comes to a close:

“Why is murder an appropriate response to property damage but property damage isn’t an appropriate response to murder?” — Jeffrey Levin

Deaths

US: 189,964 (+1064)

World: 867,347 (+6098)

Cases

US: 6,290,737 (+33,166)

World: 26,177,535 (+276,836)

Countdown: 62 days.

President Donald Trump suggested that people in North Carolina should vote twice in the November election, once by mail and once in-person, escalating his attempts to cast confusion and doubt on the validity of the results. -- Nevermind the fact he is actually asking people to commit a felony, he is setting the election up to be so flawed he’ll get to stay in power.

Bill Barr pretends he’s not sure if it’s illegal to vote twice. -- Yeah. The US Attorney General is a liar and a danger to American democracy.

U.S. attorney general says mail-in voting is 'playing with fire,’ even as experts say fraud is rare. -- I am so looking forward to receiving my ballot in the mail and then quickly voting for Biden. It may be our last chance to have an actual choice in an election. Choose wisely.

DHS withheld July intelligence bulletin calling out Russian attack on Biden’s mental health. Beyond warnings of Russia's purported activity, critics said the decision to withhold the document will fuel concern that the Trump administration has sought to politicize intelligence, particularly after an announcement over the weekend that senior intelligence leaders will cease congressional election security briefings due to alleged leaks from lawmakers, and will instead provide only written reports.

Eighty-one Nobel Prize winners endorsed Joe Biden for president in an open letter on Wednesday, citing the former vice president's "willingness to listen to experts" and his "deep appreciation for using science to find solutions."

CDC tells states to prepare for vaccine Nov. 1, raising red flags from health experts. Several experts expressed concerns a vaccine may be rushed through and say they don't understand how it could be. -- Um, this is, at best, questionable.

Weeks after Sturgis motorcycle rally, first COVID-19 death reported as cases accelerate in Midwest. Some 260 cases across 11 states had already been recorded before the first death linked to the Sturgis bash, a sometimes raucous event that ran from Aug. 7 through 16 during which the bars were packed and where there was barely any attempt made at social distancing, let alone wearing masks.

FEMA Says It Will Stop Paying For Cloth Face Masks For Schools.

Study: Washington ranked best state to work in during COVID-19 pandemic.

NFL QB Kirk Cousins on contracting coronavirus: "If I die, I die". -- I don’t really give a shit if you contract the virus and die, Kirk. It’s the innocent people you may unknowingly infect and quite possibly kill that bothers me.

Trump silent as world leaders call for answers from Putin on Navalny poisoning. -- Shocking, I know.

Trump threatens to cut funding to Democratic-led cities over unrest. Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut federal funding to several major US cities -- all run by Democrats and located in blue states -- on the grounds that their leaders are allowing "anarchy, violence, and destruction."

Biden calls for live fact-checking at debates with Trump. "What I’d love to have is a crawler at the bottom of the screen, a fact-checker as we speak," he continued. "If we really wanted to do something, I think that would make a great, great debate if everything both of us said was instantly fact-checked." -- He then acknowledged it may not be feasible.

Bill Barr says there is a 'false narrative' that many Black people are shot by white police officers. U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday said the Justice Department was monitoring the protest movement antifa, saying that it is at the heart of violence in cities around the country...Barr on Wednesday also said he thought there was no systemic racism in the U.S. justice system, and that there is a “false narrative” that the country is in an “epidemic” of unarmed Black people being killed by white police officers. -- They want you to not believe your own eyes.

The Little Cards That Tell Police 'Let's Forget This Ever Happened'. Some cops give their friends and family union-issued "courtesy cards" to help get them out of minor infractions. The cards embody everything wrong with modern policing. — Um, this is wrong.

Whistleblower: California Deputy Killed Teen to Join Department’s “Gang”. The deputy who shot and killed 18-year-old Andres Guardado outside a car shop in Gardena was a prospective member of a violent clique inside the Compton Sheriff’s station, according to the sworn testimony of a whistleblower.

Video in Black man’s suffocation shows cops put hood on him.

Police: Teacher with far-right ties harassed health officer. A California community college instructor with ties to the far-right, anti-government “boogaloo” movement was in custody on suspicion of sending two dozen misogynistic and threatening letters to a county health officer involving the coronavirus pandemic...Alan Viarengo, 55, was arrested last week and investigators seized 138 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and explosive materials from his home.

Biden's evolution away from drug-and-crime warrior mirrors America's — and Democrats' — changing attitudes. Biden has never apologized for his role in shaping the modern criminal justice system, but he has changed his position on several key points. He has admitted that the sentencing disparities between crack cocaine (most often used by Blacks) versus powder cocaine (more commonly used by whites) were unfair; he helped create the disparities in a bill passed in 1986. The former vice president is also now in favor of eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing and has reversed his position on the death penalty, which he now opposes. Biden’s evolution is a reflection of society’s, Sterling said. Crime is down and people better understand and seek to preempt the racial disparities that have long been at the heart of the criminal justice system.

Biden’s Early Climate Focus and Hard Years in Congress Forged His $2 Trillion Clean Energy Plan. Former Vice President Joe Biden's long political career spans the early days of hope for U.S. climate action, and the present days of alarm. He sponsored one of the first pieces of climate legislation in Congress, a benign proposal to study the greenhouse effect that met enough resistance to signal the hard fight ahead. More than 30 years later, as the Democratic nominee for president, Biden is seeking to seize what many see as the last opportunity for the U.S. to stave off catastrophe.

John Boyega calls Disney out for marketing a Black character, only to ultimately push them aside.

Brazil has equal pay policy for women’s and men’s national team. The Brazilian Football Confederation says it agreed in March to pay women’s national team players the same as their peers on the men’s side, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Online school means online tests, along with computerized surveillance. The practice may prevent cheating, but it is also upsetting some students and faculty who feel the computerized surveillance goes too far and question how well it works.

Wear a mask while having sex, Canada's top doctor suggests.

New type of black hole detected in massive collision that sent gravitational waves with a 'bang'. Astronomers have detected the most massive merging of two black holes yet through the oldest and most distant gravitational waves to ever hit Earth. — Science. It’s freaking cool. 

RIP Tom Seaver. He was 75. 

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

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