urgis Motorcycle Rally Draws Thousands To South Dakota, Few In Masks —
 

The massive annual gathering of motorcycles in Sturgis, South Dakota, takes place this weekend, with event organizers expecting 250,000 people to attend despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Dakota has no mask mandates or restrictions on indoor gatherings.

Associated Press reporter Stephen Groves counted fewer than a dozen people wearing masks in a crowd of thousands of people over a period of several hours.

He may have "claimed the authority", but I'm pretty sure that only Congress gets to control spending. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I was a census taker during the 2000 Census. I went to the addresses of people who hadn't answered during the mail-in phase, knocked on their doors, asked them the questions and filled out a form for them. I did it in my neighborhood, so it was really kind of fun getting to know people, and it paid well for a part-time job.

I always think about it when Census-taking time comes around, but no way would I do it this year with coronavirus.

Can you believe that narcissistic moron wants his face at Mt. Rushmore ~ He doesn't deserve to be there or any where else we have to be reminded of the WORST president ever. ~ dayummm he is a very mentally ill man.

It would be another disrespectful move to the Oglala Lakota Sioux people on the land given to the tribes then gradually ruined 1)Uranium mining 2)Smallpox laden blankets 3)Strip mining 4)Remaining land stolen back as soon as it was deemed profitable 5)Battles of Wounded Knee #1 and #2 6) Mt. Rushmore 7) Buffalo (primary source of food and just about every important aspect of Sioux life killed on the plains by wasicu (white) men for sport and the further humiliation of the Oglala Sioux men.
Trump stone carving...I think not. I'd enjoy helping with the demolition of that structure.

Postmaster General Touts Postal Service Overhaul But Promises On-Time Election Mail...
 

The head of the U.S. Postal Service promised Friday to make the organization more efficient and more financially stable, but his remarks may do little to quell fears that the post office's cost-cutting measures will hurt service during the coronavirus pandemic.

"We are at the beginning of a transformative process," Louis DeJoy said in his first public remarks since becoming postmaster general. "Our goal is to change and improve the Postal Service to better serve the American public, and I am excited about the opportunities ahead."

DeJoy confirmed news reports that part of that transformation will involve cutting back on overtime costs and "running our operations on time and on schedule." Many Americans on both sides of the aisle worry that the cuts will delay the delivery of important mail, from prescriptions for veterans to mail ballots for this year's presidential election, during a once-in-a-century health crisis.

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/07/90012...-election-mail

CHICAGO (AP) — More than 100 people were arrested Monday following a night of looting and unrest that left 13 officers injured and caused damage in the city's upscale Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city, authorities said.

Police Superintendent David Brown said it “was not an organized protest” but instead “an incident of pure criminality” that began following the shooting of a person by police the previous day in the city's Englewood neighborhood. At one point early Monday, shots were fired at police and officers returned fire. Brown said a heavy police presence is expected in the downtown area until further notice.

“This was straight up, felony criminal conduct,” said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. "This was an assault on our city.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/crowds-cl...100903478.html

Before deciding on whether to hold the 80th annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, the local city council turned to its residents to get their take. A little more than 60% of people in the city voted against holding the event but the city council approved it anyway.

"There was a significant amount of discussion that the council had with residents, businesses and state health officials as well as local health officials," Daniel Ainslie, the city manager, told CNN Sunday.

The city, home to fewer than 7,000, sent a survey to all households asking if they wanted the rally to proceed on its scheduled date. The massive event usually brings in crowds of about 500,000 over 10 days of drag races, contests and concerts. On its 75th anniversary, nearly three quarters of a million people showed. The decision, Ainslie says, was all about being able to prepare for the crowds.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/th...dua?li=BBorjTa

Lebanon’s Cabinet resigns over Beirut blast amid public fury
 

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s government resigned Monday amid widespread public fury at the country’s ruling elite over last week’s devastating explosion in Beirut. The move risks opening the way to dragged-out negotiations over a new Cabinet amid urgent calls for reform.

Prime Minster Hassan Diab headed to the presidential palace to submit the Cabinet’s group resignation, said Health Minister Hamad Hassan. It follows a weekend of anti-government protests in the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut’s port that caused widestpread destruction, killed at least 160 people and injured about 6,000 others.

The moment typified Lebanon’s political dilemma. Since October, there have been mass demonstrations demanding the departure of the entire sectarian-based leadership over entrenched corruption, incompetence and mismanagement.

But the ruling oligarchy has held onto power for so long — since the end of the civil war in 1990 — that it is difficult to find a credible political figure not tainted by connections to them.

Although Diab’s resignation had appeared inevitable after the catastrophe, he seemed unwilling to leave and only two days ago made a televised speech in which he offered to stay on for two months to allow for various factions to agree on a roadmap for reforms. But the pressure from within his own Cabinet proved to be too much.

Diab’s government was formed after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down in October in response to the demonstrations. It took months of bickering among the leadership factions before they settled on Diab.

His government, which was supported by Hezbollah and its allies and seen as one-sided, was basically doomed from the start, tasked with meeting demands for reform but made up of all the factions that reformers want out. His government was basically doomed from the start, tasked with meeting demands for reform but made up of all the factions that reformers want out.

Now the process must start again, with Diab’s government in a caretaker role as the same factions debate a new one.

“I hope that the caretaking period will not be long because the country cannot take that. Lets hope a new government will be formed quickly,” Public Works Minister Michel Najjar told reporters. “An effective government is the least we need to get out of this crisis.”

The weekend protests saw clashes with security forces firing tear gas at protesters.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of highly volatile ammonium nitrate. The material had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

The result was a disaster Lebanese blame squarely on their leadership’s corruption and neglect. Losses from the catastrophic blast are estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion, with nearly 300,000 people left homeless.

The last decision taken by Diab’s government before its resignation was to refer the case of the explosion to the Supreme Judicial Council, which handles crimes infringing on Lebanon’s national security as well as political and state security crimes. The Supreme Judicial Council is Lebanon’s top judicial body.

A judge on Monday questioned the heads of the country’s security agencies. Public Prosecutor Ghassan El Khoury questioned Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, the head of State Security, according to state-run National News Agency. It gave no further details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the material at the port and sent a copy to the offices of the president and prime minister on July 20. The investigation is focused on how the ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port and why nothing was done about it.

Najjar, the public works minister, said he learned about the material’s presence 24 hours before the blast, receiving a report about the material and holding a meeting with port officials before calling its chief, Hassan Korayetem.

“I wrote a report in the morning the explosion happened in the evening,” Najjar said. Asked why he only learned of it the day before, Najjar said, “I don’t know. Truly I don’t know.”

About 20 people have been detained after the blast, including the head of Lebanon’s customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former Cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

On Sunday, world leaders and international organizations pledged nearly $300 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut, but warned that no money for rebuilding the capital would be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people.

Iran, meanwhile, expressed concern that Western countries and their allies might exploit anger over the explosion to pursue their political interests. Iran supports the Hezbollah militant group, which along with its allies dominates the government and parliament.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said “it is natural for people to be frustrated.” But he said it would be “unacceptable if some individuals, groups and foreign countries use the incident as a pretext for their purposes and intentions.”

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz drew a line Monday between the blast and claims that Hezbollah stores its rockets and weapons deep inside civilian areas.

While he did not accuse Hezbollah and its arms of being linked to the blast, Gantz said villages and towns across Lebanon were packed with Hezbollah arms that, if set off — whether by Israeli operations or by accident — would destroy homes. He said Hezbollah was Lebanon’s biggest problem.



Source: inquirer.com
Website: https://bit.ly/2XNXv8O
Date: August 10, 2020

Dr. Sonia Angell, abruptly resigned on Sunday
 

Dr. Sonia Angell, California's director of the Department of Public Health, abruptly resigned on Sunday. Angell, who had been in the position for less than a year, reportedly resigned via an email sent to the California Health and Human Services Agency.

Angell has, among others, been leading the state's battle against the novel coronavirus. More than 10,000 Californians have died of the illness, and most of the state remains on shutdown following a brief reopening period in early summer.

"Our department has been front and center in what has become an all-of-government response of unprecedented proportions to COVID-19. In the final calculation, all of our work, in aggregate, makes the difference," Angell reportedly wrote in her resignation letter.

"I want to thank Dr. Angell for her service to the state and her work to help steer our public health system during this global pandemic, while never losing sight of the importance of health equity," wrote Governor Newsom in a Sunday night statement.

During her time in office, Angell held the dual role of director of the state Department of Public Health and California's public health officer. Those roles will now be divided between Sandra Shewdry, a vice president at the nonprofit California Health Care Foundation, and Dr. Erica Pan, who served as public health officer in Alameda County.

Angell's departure comes as the state government reckons with a data glitch that failed to log nearly 300,000 infectious disease testing records, resulting in hindered decision-making at the highest levels of the California government.

The secretary of California Health and Human Services, Mark Ghaly, recently apologized to state residents for the error. "Bottom line, our data system failed," said Ghaly. With more than half a million reported cases of the virus, California tops the nation for positive diagnoses. The data blunder, however, has impeded state authorities' ability to determine policies moving forward, specifically the decision on whether to reopen schools for in-person learning as the new school year is set to begin.



Source: justthenews.com
Website: https://bit.ly/3iEHhab
Date: August 10, 2020

A sad day for sure........
 

SEATTLE — Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best has announced that she will be resigning next month. The news of Best's resignation comes on the same day the Seattle City Council voted to cut spending for the Seattle Police Department.Best has been with SPD for 28 years. She was the first Black police chief in Seattle's history. She took on the role as chief of police on Aug. 13, 2018.

Excerpt from her letter:

"To the Women and Men of the Seattle Police Department –

I wanted to notify you that I will be retiring from the Seattle Police Department, effective September 2nd, 2020. I wanted you to hear this from me, but some media have reached this conclusion on their own.

This was a difficult decision for me, but when it’s time, it’s time.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/l...3-8f3d9787d0c3

Downtown Chicago under lockdown in wake of looting, violent unrest..
 

Chicago goes into lock down as city bridges are raised and freeway exit ramps are closed.

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said police will not stand by and watch downtown Chicago become “someplace people fear.” He promised a “heavy police presence” to restore order. Downtown to be shut down at 8 P.M. with Lake Shore Drive closed, expressway entrances blocked, trains stopped

The lock-down will run 8 p.m.-6 a.m. daily for the foreseeable future, officials said.

DeVos publicly absent as critical decisions are made on public school reopenings..
 

DETROIT — As public schools grapple with the challenge of reopening during a pandemic, public education advocates are criticizing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for working remotely from Michigan, where she owns a sprawling waterfront estate with a round-the-clock security detail paid for by taxpayers.

And while keeping herself largely physically distanced as the coronavirus continues to spread, DeVos has been a forceful advocate for President Donald Trump's demand that schools reopen in full and in person — potentially placing millions of teachers and students at risk of infection.

It's a striking bit of mixed messaging for DeVos, a billionaire heiress, major GOP donor and charter school advocate who had no experience with public education before she became education secretary. DeVos is the nation's top education official as school administrators deal with one the biggest health crises facing the nation: how to safely bring 51 million American children back into classrooms or administer virtual education during a pandemic.

Trump Says Men May Be 'Insulted' By Biden's Female VP Pledge..
 

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that some men may feel "insulted" by his Democratic rival Joe Biden's committment to choose a woman as his vice presidential candidate.

"He roped himself into a certain group of people," Trump told Fox Sports Radio in an early morning phone-in interview.

"Some people would say men are insulted by that and some people would say it is fine," Trump said.

Declaring that he wants a government as diverse as the country itself, Biden committed early in his campaign, in March, that he would name a woman on the ticket. He is expected to announce his choice this week.

Only two other women have been nominated vice presidential candidates -- Sarah Palin by the Republican party in 2008 and Geraldine Ferraro by the Democrats in 1984 -- and neither made it into the White House. No woman has won the presidency either.

In the radio interview, Trump praised his own vice president, Mike Pence, but said bluntly: "people don't vote for the vice president, they really don't."

https://www.barrons.com/news/trump-s...efsec=afp-news

Russia Develops First Coronavirus Vaccine
 

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that the country has become the first in the world to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine, according to multiple reports.

The Russian leader claimed that the vaccine underwent clinical testing and has proven to offer immunity from the coronavirus. However, the approval was granted by Russian health officials after just two months of human testing, Reuters noted.

Putin said at a government meeting broadcast on state television that the vaccine, which was developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, is safe and has been administered to one of his adult daughters.

“I know that it works quite effectively, forms strong immunity, and I repeat, it has passed all the needed checks,” Putin said, according to Reuters.

Putin said his daughter had a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius – 104.4 degrees Fahrenheit – on the day of the first vaccine injection. He claimed her fever dropped to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit the following day, and that the second shot brought a slight increase in temperature, which later went away, The Associated Press reported.

Russia’s health ministry said Tuesday that the vaccine is expected to provide coronavirus immunity for up to two years, according to the AP. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said the inoculations could be available for doctors as soon as next month.

However, so-called Phase III trials on the drug have not yet been completed, which typically take months and involve thousands of human participants, Reuters reported. Putin’s announcement Tuesday sparked international skepticism, as the trials usually occur before a vaccine approves regulatory approval from health officials.

Professor Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya Institute, said in May that he and other researchers have tried the vaccine on themselves.

Over 100 possible vaccines are being developed around the world as countries race to come up with the vaccine that could prevent COVID-19.

Russia has documented at least 890,799 cases of coronavirus and 14,973 deaths.



Source: thehill.com
Website: http://bit.do/fHpei
Date: August 11, 2020

Dr. Pepper Shortage
 

* On Monday, Dr Pepper acknowledged a shortage of some of its products in stores after customers complained they couldn't find their favorite flavors.

* The news follows recent customer complaints about a shortage of Coca-Cola products.

* Coca-Cola plans to discontinue some product lines, but Dr Pepper said that it is working on bringing all of its products back.

* Supply chain issues are a widespread side effect of the pandemic that has touched all corners of the grocery store.


If you're craving a specific kind of Dr Pepper, you just might be out of luck.

On Monday, Dr Pepper confirmed on Facebook and Twitter that the company is suffering a shortage of some of its products in stores.

Fans previously reached out to Dr. Pepper on Twitter saying they couldn't find their favorite flavors anywhere.

Coca-Cola has faced similar shortage issues of late.

In July, after fans complained they couldn't find some Coca-Cola drinks, Coca-Cola announced in its earnings report that it planned to discontinue some of its less profitable brands.

Coca-Cola did not specify which products it plans to discontinue, and also indicated that some of the shortages may be due to pandemic-related production lag. Part of those production delays may be related to a nationwide shortage of aluminum cans.

But it appears none of the missing Dr Pepper items will be discontinued. While Dr Pepper did not give a reason for its product shortage, it noted that the company was working on restoring all of its flavors to store shelves.

Supply chain woes have been a costly side effect of the pandemic, and soda companies are far from the only ones impacted. A breakdown in the meat production process has left farmers with millions of pigs to euthanize and billions of pounds of potatoes to destroy.



Source: businessinsider.com
Website: http://bit.do/fHpnP
Date: August 11, 2020

Trump attacks Kamala Harris over Kavanaugh hearings in first remarks since she was named Biden's running mate...
 

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked Sen. Kamala Harris over her questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings in his first public remarks since she was named Joe Biden's running mate.

Harris, a former prosecutor, grilled the judge over sexual misconduct allegations against him during the contentious 2018 confirmation hearings.

"And the horrible way she treated Justice Kavanaugh, that was a horrible event. I thought it was terrible for her, I thought it was terrible for our nation," Trump told reporters during a White House briefing. "I thought she was the meanest, the most horrible most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate."

Trump saved his remarks on Harris for the scheduled briefing. But minutes after the announcement, Trump tweeted a new campaign attack ad on Harris, a vocal critic of the president. The ad accuses Biden of "handing over the reins to Kamala while they jointly embrace the radical left."

"She is also known, from what I understand, as being just about the most liberal person in the U.S. Senate and I would have thought Biden would have tried to stay away from that a little bit," Trump said.

Following the announcement, the Trump campaign seized on a feisty exchange between Harris and Biden during a June 2019 Democratic debate, when the California senator was still in the race. Harris challenged Biden over his remarks about working with segregationist senators and criticized him for his previous opposition to federal busing mandates – a moment that hobbled his campaign and led to her brief surge in national polls.

"Not long ago, Kamala Harris called Joe Biden a racist and asked for an apology she never received. Clearly, Phony Kamala will abandon her own morals, as well as try to bury her record as a prosecutor, in order to appease the anti-police extremists controlling the Democrat Party," Trump senior adviser Katrina Pierson said in a statement Tuesday.

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-attacks...222437201.html

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best on Tuesday announced her resignation, saying that she was not leaving because of pay cuts to her department, but because of the “lack of respect” toward her fellow officers.

Best’s resignation comes amid the City Council’s decision to reduce the department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition.

In response to a reporter who asked if her decision was motivated by protesters who appeared at her home earlier this month, or the City Council’s decision, Best said it "is not about the money, and it certainly isn’t about the demonstrators." “I mean, be real, I have a lot thicker skin than that," Best said. "It really is about the overarching lack of respect for the officers, the men and women who work so hard, day in and day out."

She added: “The idea that we’ve worked so incredibly hard to make sure our department was diverse, that (it) reflects the community that we serve, to just turn that all on a dime and hack it off, without having a plan in place to move forward, is highly distressful for me.”

Trump Rewrites Rules On Showerheads Amid Growing Water Crisis...
 

The president has long complained that water-saving standards from 1992 make it harder for him to wash his hair.

The Energy Department proposed rolling back three-decade-old efficiency standards for showerheads Wednesday following President Donald Trump’s repeated gripes about subpar water pressure while bathing. The plan essentially seeks to change the federal definition of a showerhead to allow manufacturers to dramatically increase water use.

Under rules Congress passed in 1992 in response to severe droughts, water flow from an entire showerhead is limited to 2.5 gallons per minute. The proposed change would allow manufacturers to apply that restriction to each nozzle on a showerhead. The proposal would reverse 2011 guidance from the Department of Energy that determined that when Congress used the term “showerhead,” it “actually meant ‘any showerhead’ ― and that a showerhead with multiple nozzles constitutes a single showerhead for purposes of [the] water conservation standard.”



https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump...b6fc009a610dcb

Alabama Passes Law to Approve Castration for Convicted Pedophiles
 

The measure was signed into law by Alabama's Gov. Kay Ivey on Aug. 10, and had been introduced by Republican state representative Steve Hurst of Calhoun County. Hurst would prefer that those offenders who have been convicted of these crimes were permanently castrated through surgical means, according to NBC News.

Hurst said "My preference would be if someone does a small infant child like that, they need to die. God's going to deal with them one day."

Under the new law, the prospective parolee would be required to begin the drug treatment at least one month prior to the date of their release. The drugs would be administered for as long as a judge deems necessary before the parolee would be permitted to live a regular life.

This makes Alabama one of at least seven states that either require or allow chemical castration on a voluntary basis for sex offenders before they are released. Those others include Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, Montana, Louisiana, and California. Guam also has this measure as a voluntary procedure from sex offenders of this type who are after parole.

The ACLU has taken issue with the law, and the Alabama chapter has called it "unconstitutional." Randall Marshall, the executive director for Alabama's ACLU, has said that chemical castration for sex offenders who harm minors under 13 shows that legislators "really misunderstand what sexual assault is about. Sexual assault isn't about sexual gratification. It's about power. It's about control."

Representative Hurst disagrees. "If they're going to mark these children for life, they need to be marked for life," he said.



Source: thepostmillennial.com
Website: https://bit.ly/3gT9sBC
Date: August 12, 2020

Baseless birther attack on Kamala Harris shows how Trump is struggling to define her..
 

President Trump amplified a false claim Thursday that California-born Kamala Harris might be ineligible to serve as vice president, a smear that recalls the racist "birther" campaign he waged against former President Obama.

It marked a new turn in Trump's scattershot response to Democratic rival Joe Biden's selection of Harris as his running mate. Trump and his allies have careened through a jumble of contradictory attacks on the California senator's ideology, demeanor and background, using well-worn sexist and racist tropes. Harris is the first Black woman and first Asian American on a major-party ticket.

In questioning Harris' American citizenship, Trump is returning to what fueled his rise in Republican politics — his insistence that Obama, the nation's first Black president, was born in Kenya instead of Hawaii.

"This is only the second time that that has happened in our nation’s history. And the first time was with President Barack Obama. So why is it that only the two Black candidates are questioned about the legitimacy of their citizenship?" said Valerie Jarrett, a former top Obama advisor.

The conspiracy theory about Harris' standing to be vice president began on Wednesday, when John C. Eastman, a law professor and failed Republican candidate for California attorney general in 2010, wrote a column in Newsweek stating that Harris may not meet the constitutional requirements for the vice presidency of being a "natural-born citizen." He questioned whether Harris' parents — her father is from Jamaica and her mother was from India — were naturalized citizens at the time that Harris was born in Oakland.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/baseless-...014841856.html

‘It Was a Planned Attack.’ Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Says Looting Was Organized..
 

A day after looters smashed-in retailer’s windows, carried away loads of high-end merchandise and overwhelmed police officers in downtown Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the violence was an organized raid and not a demonstration of angry protest.

“When people showed up on Michigan Avenue in the downtown area with U-Haul trucks and cargo vans, and sophisticated equipment used to cut metal, and the methods that were used, and how quickly it got spun up… that wasn’t any spontaneous reaction,” Lightfoot told TIME in her fifth-floor offices at Chicago’s City Hall on Tuesday.

The chaos that unfolded Sunday night, and into the predawn hours Monday, was initially blamed on a police shooting in the city’s southside Englewood neighborhood. News of the incident—along with misinformation that a minor had been shot—pinballed on social media, resulting in “caravans” of cars headed north downtown, Lightfoot says.

“To be sure, there are people that did join in that were motivated by lots of different reasons, and certainly were motivated by social media posts encouraging people to come downtown,” Lightfoot says. “But the core of what happened — that’s organized criminal activity… It was a planned attack.”

For three hours that night, Chicago was under virtual siege. Hundreds of people flooded the streets. Looters broke into buildings and came out with armfuls of jewelry, clothes, electronics and other goods. The 911 switchboard was swamped with 1,800 calls between midnight and 3 a.m., a figure that’s typically in the teens at those hours. Lightfoot says the looters knew that police staffing would be low that early Monday morning and therefore picked “the moments where they feel like they have the best opportunity to make a move.”

Seattle police Chief Carmen Best’s decision to abruptly retire next month was driven by City Council members who didn’t consult her as they sought to cut the Police Department’s budget this summer, and who showed a lack of respect for the department’s employees, Best said Tuesday.

In a news conference with Mayor Jenny Durkan, who praised her leadership during a turbulent time, Best said she realized she couldn’t bring herself to carry out officer layoffs the council had unanimously voted for Monday. The chief had opposed the move, warning that a rule mandating layoffs by reverse seniority would result in new officers, who are more likely to be officers of color, losing jobs. Council members had asked her to pursue a waiver allowing out-of-order layoffs, arguing cops with sustained misconduct complaints should be let go first.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...ruptly-retire/

Head Tax failed so now a new payroll tax on big businesses.
 

SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council voted Monday to impose a new payroll tax on big businesses. The measure passed 7-2. This tax targets big earners and the companies that employ them. Companies with more than $7 million in annual payroll will be charged a percentage based on how many people they employ with salaries of at least $150,000. Companies that have billion-dollar payrolls will pay an even bigger share for high wage workers.The tax rate will range from 0.7% to 2.4%, depending on annual payrolls and individual salaries. Lead sponsor of the bill and Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda says the new tax targets companies with many highly paid employees, whereas the 2018 "head tax" would have applied to all employees at large companies.

Amazon considers relocating some employees out of Seattle...
 

Amazon.com Inc. is offering Seattle-based employees a choice of smaller offices outside the city, suggesting the Covid-19 outbreak and a new local employers tax have pushed the e-commerce giant to consider alternatives to its hometown.

In a message to employees Thursday, Amazon asked which communities near Seattle — including Tacoma and Redmond — they’d prefer. The title on the message, which was shared on Reddit and later deleted, was “office workplace options.” Amazon declined to comment on the matter.

Amazon, which reported a total global workforce of almost 877,000 as of June 30, has been expanding beyond Seattle for years. It is building a second major office center in suburban Virginia near the nation’s capital and has satellite locations in cities including New York, Austin and Los Angeles.

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...de-of-seattle/

Coronavirus stimulus checks: President Trump calls for 'direct payments' to 'all Americans'...
 

President Trump called for additional stimulus checks to be sent to Americans amid stalled talks with Democrats over a new bill to address various issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Both Republicans and Democrats agree that another round of stimulus checks should be included in any legislation, which is stalled after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ceded the GOP-side of negotiations to the White House and Trump attempted to bypass negotiations with unilateral action on a looming eviction crisis, student loans, extra weekly unemployment benefits, and payroll taxes.

The president tweeted that he had directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “to get ready to send direct payments ($3,400 for family of four) to all Americans.” The tweet added that Democrats are holding up the stimulus payments, though there are several actual disagreements unrelated to stimulus checks.

Sidebar: Perhaps a bribe or to ingratiate himself with voters?

Stone Mountain, Georgia is once again the potential scene of left vs. right-wing bloodshed.

I live near Stone Mountain (like close enough to barely hear the fireworks), and occasionally right-wing activists, including chapters of the KKK, decide to have a rally. They apply for a permit, the permit gets denied, and they show up anyway (complete with guns and rebel flags). Far left-wing activists, including Antifa followers, show up with guns and protest against the protesters. Sometimes Stone Mountain Park, the organization that runs and maintains the attractions and landscaping, decides to close the park for a day, rather than deal with the crazies. So then, all the protesters decide to congregate in the City of Stone Mountain.

The county government sends out texts to citizens who have signed up for emergency notifications. I received one today for tomorrow's anticipated rally. The park is closing, which means the city will be overrun with freaks with guns. For those who may recall my past posts, I am not totally opposed to gun ownership - but these people are nuts. All it would take is one lame-ass gun novice to make a mistake, and a chain reaction bloodbath could take place. The best we can hope for, other than a peaceful rally where no one makes any mistakes, is that all the uninvolved people stay far, far away. Most of the businesses in the city will also be closed. Hopefully, the police have a plan - it's not like this is the first time this has happened. This one is just projected to attract more people than in the past.

Keep us in your thoughts, please. :candle:

Twitter Labels Anti-Trump Ad ‘Manipulated Media’ After Sean Hannity Complains...
 

Sean Hannity on Friday blasted an attack video on Donald Trump that used Hannity’s own words to mock the president. Twitter labeled the video “manipulated media” after complaints from the Fox News host. The video, which racked up more than 2.2 million views after he brought it up, was not “corrected,” but rather marked with a “manipulated media” label, which links to a Twitter policy explaining that Twitter “may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context.”

The video, made by super PAC MeidasTouch, flipped the script, using Hannity’s criticisms of Biden to mock Trump.The video featured scenes of Hannity talking about Democratic conspiracy theories, and mocking Joe Biden as a “frail guy” with questionable “cognitive fitness.” Those accusations were spliced with clips of Trump spinning his latest birther conspiracy theory, looking frail and not making sense.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sean-...b69fa9e2fbd988

Follow up:
Thanks for the good juju to everyone who sent us some. About 500 people showed up, mostly counter-protesters. It was peaceful for a few hours, and then some fights broke out. Police in riot gear then quickly shut things down. Apparently, downtown Stone Mountain was cleared out by 2 p.m. Thank the Goddess it didn't seem to amount to much more than a pissing contest.

Meadows denies reports that postal sorting machines were decommissioned...
 

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday denied reports that several U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter sorting machines were decommissioned after orders from the postmaster general. Meadows told CNN’s “State of the Union” that reports about hundreds of postal service sorting machines being taken out of service are a “political narrative” and “not based on fact.”

NBC News reported on Friday that an internal document showed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is decommissioning 671 of USPS’s letter sorting machines across the U.S.

“There's no sorting machines that are going offline between now and the election,” Meadows said. “That’s something that my Democrat friends are trying to do to stoke fear out there. That’s not happening.”
Meadows also called on House Democrats to return to D.C. to negotiate Postal Service funding along with enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks and small-business reform, adding that the president will “sign that.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper pushed back on the chief of staff, saying, “Are you saying that sorting machines have not been taken offline and removed?” “I’m saying that sorting machines between now and the election will not be taken offline,” Meadows replied, prompting Tapper to ask about the “ones that have been taken offline in the last couple of months.” “Why were these sorting machines taken offline?” Tapper asked. Meadows answered, “Get your producer to share where exactly those sorting machines were taken offline. Let them whisper in your ear because what I’m telling you is you’re picking up on a narrative that’s not based on facts.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-...-machines-were

Citing ‘customer concerns,’ Postal Service says it will halt mailbox removals....
 

After reports surfaced in the past week of postal workers removing those iconic blue mail collection boxes from street corners in multiple states, the U.S. Postal Service said it will halt further removals for 90 days, citing "recent customer concerns."

Local news outlets in places from Montana to Oregon and New York have reported on mailboxes being "hauled away in flatbed trucks" and "seen discarded behind a post office" in recent days.

On Sunday, the Postal Service said the removals were in keeping with "routine" efforts to "identify redundant/seldom used collection boxes."" This process is one of the many ways the Postal Services makes adjustments to our infrastructure to match our resources to declining mail volumes," said Postal Service spokeswoman Kimberly Frum.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/citing-cus...193600715.html

Pelosi to call House back into session to vote on USPS bill...
 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she is calling the House back into session over the crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, setting up a political showdown amid growing concerns that the Trump White House is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election.

Pelosi is cutting short lawmakers' summer recess with a vote expected the Saturday after the Democratic National Convention on legislation that would prohibit changes at the agency as tensions mount. President Donald Trump's new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has sparked nationwide outcry over delays, new prices and cutbacks just as millions of Americans will be trying to vote by mail to avoid polling places during the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier Sunday, Democratic lawmakers demanded that leaders of the Postal Service testify at an emergency oversight hearing Aug. 24 on mail delays.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee said it wants to hear from DeJoy and from the chair of the Postal Service board of governors, Robert “Mike” Duncan.

With heightened scrutiny of its operations, the Postal Service is now requesting a temporary preelection rate increase, from mid-October through Christmas, although not for first-class letters.

The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether the two men would appear before the House committee.

https://apnews.com/8cd319f66ae12bc23f4cadd38cc21f5f

American tourists are further banned from entering Canada until September and 'citizen detectives' are on the lookout...
 

Canada has extended its ban on American tourists at least one more month, until September 21 Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced Friday.

An estimated 80% of Canadians want their southern neighbors to be kept out until 2021 at the earliest as the coronavirus pandemic continues to escalate in the United States. Fear of American travelers bringing the coronavirus into Canada has led some citizens to begin reporting cars with foreign license plates to the police.

The US-Canada border has been closed since March 31, when the two countries banned all nonessential travel between in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus and extended several times. The border closure was just one part of Canada's somewhat successful national effort to shut down the pandemic, while the number of both confirmed cases and deaths has continued to spiral in the United States. "We're taking this step to keep people in both our countries safe - because your health and safety is always our top priority," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Treadeu tweeted Friday.

https://www.businessinsider.com/auth...-nicole-rogers

Former FDA Chief Calls Out Jared Kushner For Comparing COVID-19 To Common Flu..
 

e former head of the Food and Drug Administration criticized Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for casually comparing COVID-19 to the common flu during an interview Sunday.

“We need to be careful about making comparisons to flu — and the death and disease we see in flu relative to COVID,” former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.”

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths has remained “fairly persistent” over the last few weeks, noted Gottlieb, a Republican who served in both the Obama and Trump administrations.

“There’s been a fairly persistent level of infection, hospitalizations and deaths over the last couple of weeks,” he said. “We’ve had over a thousand deaths a day for at least two weeks now, over 50,000 infections a day on average.”

Gottlieb called out the White House adviser after Kushner said on the same program earlier that he would “absolutely” send his children back to school this fall. His children’s school, however, will “principally use distance learning” with some in-person “opportunities” for “outdoor education and community building,” according to the school’s plan.

“Our school is not opening up five days a week; I wish they were,” Kushner stated. Kushner insisted his children have a “six times greater risk of dying from the flu as from COVID-19, adding: “I don’t believe that’s a risk.” Gottlieb said he had no idea where that figure came from, and Kushner didn’t mention a source. Kushner dismissed the significance of COVID-19 for children just as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Saturday that cases in children 17 and younger have been “steadily increasing” from March to July. Children can develop severe illness and complications, even if that risk is lower compared to adults, the CDC cautioned.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jared...b6959911e61d0b

Corrupt Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to House Democrats’ request for him to testify next Monday August 24 before the Oversight and Reform Committee.

Kate Porter is on the committee! She tweeted this: “I hope the Postmaster General comes prepared. I know I will.”

Also on the committee:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Ayanna Pressley
Rashida Tlaib
& More

He better show up. This is going to be epic!

~~

......:goodpost:.....

Anne Heche Reflects on Dating Ellen DeGeneres: 'Our Time Was a Beautiful Part of My Life'...
 

Twenty years after their romance ended, Anne Heche looks back on her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres fondly.

"Our time was a beautiful part of my life and one that I wear with honor," the actress, 51, said her cover interview with Mr. Warburton magazine for the September issue.

"I was a part of a revolution that created social change, and I could not have done that without falling in love with her," Heche said, recalling the mistreatment she and DeGeneres received in the 1990s for being open about their same-sex relationship. For example, Heche says she was escorted out of her own premiere for the 1997 disaster flick Volcano because she brought DeGeneres, who had just come out as gay in her sitcom Ellen.

"The difference between what would happen today and what happened then is that I would not have been ushered out of my own premiere and fired from a multi-million dollar picture deal with Fox for taking a girl as my date," Heche said.

https://people.com/tv/anne-heche-has...eres-in-years/

Postmaster general suspends service changes until after election..
 

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he is suspending changes to mail service that raised concerns over slow delivery of ballots in the fall election after Democrats accused President Donald Trump of hampering the vote-by-mail process.

“To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded,” DeJoy said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

DeJoy said that mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are, and no mail processing facilities will be closed. Overtime work will “continue to be” approved as needed, he said.

The announcement follows concerns from Democrats and others over apparent mail slowdowns as the coronavirus pandemic leads to the necessity for increased mail-in voting options. DeJoy is to appear twice before Congress in coming days: on Friday at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and on Monday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Anderson Cooper Puts MyPillow Guy To Bed Over Virus Remedy: “Snake Oil Salesman” Replies “Glory To God!”...
 

Today on Celebrity Death Match: COVID-Edition: CNN anchor Anderson Cooper vs. MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell. Check out some of the action below.

On Monday, Lindell told CNN that President Donald Trump was “enthusiastic” about an unproven and untested oleander-based therapeutic for coronavirus that he and POTUS discussed in a White House meeting last month. Today, Cooper had Lindell on his primetime show for a sometimes-heated interview.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...191727779.html