Since crawling out of her hole to promote her new book, she's been seen everywhere.
 

~~~
Her new book, Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom, and the Fight of Our Lives Inside the Trump White House, is not about settling scores like many books about the Trump White House. It's an unabashed homage to Trump and a feathering of her nest for a probable run for governor in Arkansas.

IMHO being the lair she was, for Trump, I think she can pretty well wish her political aspirations goodbye!

Cindy McCain endorses Biden for president in rebuke of Trump...
 

Trump has had a fraught relationship with members of John McCain's family since he disparaged the Arizona senator during his 2016 campaign. But the McCains have until now stopped short of endorsing Trump's rivals.

Cindy McCain cited the decadeslong friendship between her family and Biden's and their bond as the parents of children serving in the military.

“He supports the troops and knows what it means for someone who has served,” McCain said in a phone interview. “Not only to love someone who has served, but understands what it means to send a child into combat. We’ve been great friends for many years, but we have a common thread in that we are Blue Star families.”

McCain's backing could help Biden appeal to Republicans disaffected with the GOP president and give the former vice president a boost in Arizona, a crucial swing state that McCain represented in Congress for 35 years. He's remained a revered figure since his 2018 death from complications of a brain tumor, particularly with the independent voters whom Biden is courting.

“I decided to take a stand, and hopefully other people will see the same thing. Other women particularly," McCain said. “You may have to step out of your comfort zone a little bit, but Biden is by far the best candidate in the race."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cindy-mcc...225532818.html

Bumble Bee responds to Trump's claim about protesters throwing cans of tuna...
 

Bumble Bee Seafoods responded Tuesday to President Donald Trump's fishy claim that protesters chucked cans of tuna at law enforcement officers during civil unrest prompted by the deaths of Black Americans in encounters with police.

"They go out and buy tuna fish and soup. You know that, right? ... Because they throw it, they throw it, it's the perfect weight — tuna fish," Trump said at a rally in Pittsburgh. "They can really rip it, right? And that hits you. No, it's true. Bumble Bee brand tuna."

There have been no media reports of police being hit with cans of tuna. Bumble Bee Seafoods responded to the claim Tuesday on Twitter.

"Eat em. Don't throw em," the company said on its official Twitter account.

Sidebar: I wonder why he names Bumble Bee brand specifically?

Fed Program Meant to Help Workers Amid Pandemic Prioritized Wall Street Investors Instead: Analysis
"The primary beneficiaries of the program have been corporate executives and investors, not workers."

A new analysis out Wednesday reveals that the Federal Reserve bond purchasing program meant to prevent workers from losing their jobs amid the Covid-19 pandemic instead bolstered companies who laid off more than one million workers while paying massive dividends to shareholders—a finding escalating concerns that the central bank's behavior is "contributing to an economic recovery that benefits wealthy executives and investors but leaves behind American workers."

The report put forth by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis —titled "Prioritizing Wall Street" (pdf)—examines individual corporate bonds purchased through the Fed's Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF), a lending system supported by funds from the CARES Act but which lacks taxpayer and worker protections included in other programs backed by the legislation passed earlier this year.

For corporations hoping to become eligible to issue bonds purchased by the Fed, the SMCCF "imposes no conditions requiring companies to save jobs or limit payments to executives or shareholders," the report notes.

The central bank has purchased corporate bonds issued by approximately 500 large companies since June. Subcommittee staff compared those transactions to public data on layoffs, dividend payouts, and illegal conduct.

"Fed Chair Jerome Powell testified in June that 'the intended beneficiaries of all of our programs are workers,'" the report states. "In May, he justified purchasing corporate bonds that had been downgraded to junk status since the start of the coronavirus crisis by stating that, because of the Fed's intervention, 'those companies have been able to go out and finance themselves. They've been able to avoid big layoffs. That is the point of all this.'"

However, the analysis shows that several of the companies whose bonds were purchased by the Fed conducted substantial layoffs, "suggesting that the primary beneficiaries of the program have been corporate executives and investors, not workers."

According to the report, nearly 140 of the companies that issued bonds purchased by the Fed have carried out furloughs or layoffs since March, affecting over one million workers.

The analysis notes several key instances of corporate opportunism. For example:

Boeing turned down a CARES Act loan, which would have imposed job retention requirements, limitations on executive pay, and restrictions on payouts to shareholders. Instead, it issued a massive corporate bond offering following the Fed's announcement of its corporate credit facilities, thanking the Fed for its intervention in the market. Boeing then laid off more than ten percent of its workforce, totaling about 16,000 employees.

The report also reveals that 383 of the roughly 500 companies whose bonds were purchased by the Fed have paid out dividends to their shareholders since April.

Ninety-five of these companies paid dividends and simultaneously laid off employees, "prioritizing their shareholders over their workers in the midst of the pandemic."

In addition, Subcommittee staff found that the Fed purchased bonds issued by 227 companies accused of lawbreaking since 2017, "including violations of workplace safety and environmental standards, as well as allegations of defrauding the government."

Tyson Foods is a beneficiary of the Fed's bond purchasing program even though the "multinational food processing company has been cited by the Department of Labor for at least 35 workplace safety or health violations since 2017 and at least five environmental violations from the EPA." Furthermore, the company "also failed to take adequate precautions to protect workers from the spread of the coronavirus," and "outbreaks in its facilities have led to the deaths of more than 24 employees and over 7,000 infections."

Finally, the report shows that oil, gas, and coal companies have benefited disproportionately from the Fed's actions. While fossil fuel companies employ only 2% of workers at large companies, they accounted for more than 10% of bond purchases.

Subcommittee staff wrote that "BlackRock—which executes the bond purchases on behalf of the Fed—has recognized that 'climate risk is investment risk'." Nevertheless, despite the exacerbation of the climate crisis and the declining status of the dirty energy sector, "the Fed, acting on behalf of U.S. taxpayers," has invested heavily in the fossil fuel industry.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...reet-investors

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2...rigs-elections
...it's one thing to have voting rights and quite another to be able to exercise those rights. Today, in a coordinated, methodical, richly funded scheme, corporate-minded and right-wing candidates are being "elected" not by winning votes but by preventing votes.

One of the GOP's tried-and-true vote-suppression techniques is deploying squads of partisan muscle into non-white, immigrant and other Democratic-leaning neighborhoods and precincts. These "poll watchers" single out voters they view as "suspicious" and accuse them of trying to vote illegally. They aren't subtle. Sometimes packing guns, badges, cameras, arm bands, etc., to pose as official ballot police, they literally pull people out of line to loudly demand proof of eligibility. It's ugly and frighteningly autocratic ... and yet legal in many states.

The national GOP has been recruiting and training up to 50,000 partisans to confront voters in 15 key states!
And it's going to be bigger than ever this November because its one legal restriction has been lifted. Back in 1982, Republican thuggishness had gotten so out of hand that a federal judge imposed a consent decree to stop some of the crudest intimidation methods. But, with the Trump campaign's support, that ban was withdrawn in 2018, and this year's presidential election will be the first in four decades to allow no-holds-barred voter intimidation.

The national GOP has been recruiting and training up to 50,000 partisans to confront voters in 15 key states! Adding to the mayhem, True the Vote, a manic fringe group of Trumpeteers, is signing up a freelance militia that includes off-duty police officers and veterans to enforce "ballot security" in communities of color. The group leader explained the scheme at a February meeting of Republican operatives: "You get some Seals in those polls and they're going to say, 'No, no ... this is how we're going to play this show."

Don't want Black people to vote? Or tribal members on reservations? Or students on campus? Simple: Eliminate their polling places. Or just slash the budgets for voting machines, poll workers and early voting in their precincts, creating punishingly long lines and waits. COVID-19 can turn this systemic disenfranchisement lethal. In Georgia's June primary, for example, poll closures and machine malfunctions created seven-hour waits for many Black citizens to vote.

We were puzzled over President Trump's crazed hostility toward the U.S. Postal Service. But now we see why: USPS workers could securely handle our ballots in the coming election, making it easier and safer for America to vote. But that would increase turnout and democracy — two things Trump hates.

Vote by mail totally discombobulates Donald. Desperate to save himself from letter carriers, he personally killed a bipartisan congressional provision in March that ensured America's crucial mail service would survive the pandemic and installed one of his rich funders as postmaster general in May. Louis DeJoy's first action was to sabotage timely mail delivery by drastically cutting postal workers' hours and then removing mail-sorting machines and street-side letter boxes. Thus, America's globally admired mail system is being wrecked by an unhinged president determined to keep you and me from using it to vote.

The Sightline Institute has state-by-state resources for what you can do to protect mail-in voting in your state. Check out its website at
https://www.sightline.org/VoteByMail2020/

Thanks Cin for the link provided with your CommonDreams article. I followed up with the link and learned that my county has already prepared in advance for those of us displaced by recent fires in our region. Apparently we should get ballots by Oct 14th. That is a slim window of time for ballots to be returned by USPS. But I plan on taking mine to county drop off center, bypassing USPS.

It is alarming how partisan politics by the GOP has been going on for ages and is used to disenfranchise voters. Sad that this is still going on in our country. :(

But thanks for your article and useful link for voters! :rrose:

Lori Loughlin will have access to Pilates classes, music lessons while serving time for the college admissions scandal...
 

~~~
Oh boy, that'll sure show her!

VANITY FAIR 9/24/2020: DONALD TRUMP GOES FULL DICTATOR, VOWS TO STAY IN OFFICE REGARDLESS OF ELECTION RESULTS, By Bess Levin

[snip]
Asked by reporter Brian Karem, “Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transferral of power after the election,” Donald Trump didn’t even attempt to give the impression he cares whatsoever about preserving democracy. “Well, we're going to have to see what happens,” Trump said. “You know that. I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster.” Pressed again to “commit to making sure there’s a peaceful transfer of power,” Trump responded, “Get rid of the ballots and...we'll have a very peaceful—there won't be a transfer frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it. You know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know better than anybody else.”
[snip]

Rachel Maddow covered this last night and said "if you ever wondered what you would do during a coup, it's whatever you're doing RIGHT NOW"

Here's what I'm doing: preparing for the boogaloo

He may not need a coup. He may just win the election outright, fair and square. Or as fair and square as the Republicans ever play. The most recent polls show his popularity is increasing, not waning. A lot of people feel a repeat of 2016 is a very real possibility with winning the popular vote but losing the electoral. I certainly hope that isn't true. Although getting him out even if the Democrats win might prove challenging. No matter how you look at it, it's a fucking mess.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/polit...sis/index.html

I read the Atlantic article and found it to be highly impausible, not to mention the fact why would they be giving away their evil plan a month ahead of November 3?

Attorney Teri Kanefiled lays it out well.


https://twitter.com/teri_kanefield/s...51838406610945

Easier to read version here: https://threader.app/thread/1308851838406610945

Below are excerpts:

A few weeks ago, a theory that Trump could steal the election in this manner made the rounds. For this to happen, a string of very unlikely and highly improbable things would have to happen.

The story died down.

The press right now is very bad for Trump.

Next thing we know, a legal advisor to the Trump campaign tells a reporter that this extremely unlikely event WILL happen because the states will line up and do what Trump wants (overturn the will of the people).

The Trump campaign wants this in the headlines.

I'm pretty sure everyone knows Trump would cheat, lie, steal, and even let 200K people die if he thought it would help him win.

There are several ways to respond to this story, but we have to begin by wondering why the "legal advisor" wants us to have this information.

First, remember that each state has rules that govern the certifying of their elections.

Yes, laws still matter.

The Trump legal advisor wants you to think they don't.

Why? Because when enough people lose confidence in democracy, democracy will fail.

Trump is trying his best to get you to lose confidence in democratic processes.

He is trying to make you think he can pull this off.

New polls came out today showing that Trump is ten points behind nationally.

The Strongman needs you to think he's strong. He doesn't want you talking about the polls.

If he was winning, he'd want you talking about the polls.

He's losing so he needs to present a situation that makes him look strong.

He wants you to think state legislatures will do whatever he tells them to do, including overturning the will of their own constituents because Trump ordered it.

Why is it unlikely?
(1) State legislatures do not certify elections.
(2) States have laws governing how elections are certified.
(3) State legislatures answer to their constituents, not Trump.
(4) The election would have to come down to a few states in which the elected officials were willing to go against the will of their voters and against their own laws.
(5) They'd have to break the laws (and defy their voters) for Trump.
(6) The courts would have to allow it.
(7) The Supreme Court along with multiple state legislatures would have to be willing to basically install a dictator.
(8) Remember what @stuartpstevens said. They would be putting themselves forever at Trump's mercy.
(9) In a close election, like 2000, where the election comes down to a few thousand votes, something like this might work.
(10) We're looking at an election in which Trump loses the popular vote by upwards of 7 percentage points. . .. . . and multiple states give Biden the electoral college win.

Beginning with the fact that state legislatures have nothing to do with certifying elections, this isn't plausible. The story is why Trump wants us to think he can pull something like this off.

Let's not pretend that we are at the mercy of Trump, or that we give two hoots about whether he will "respect" the results of the election.

Secret service can escort him out of the White House in January.

Look how much time we spent on this.

Win for Trump.

Dear those of you who explaining why I'm wrong and that Trump can easily steal this election (and I'm naive to doubt it) let me ask you this: Suppose you succeed in persuading lots of people of this?

What will you accomplish?

Of course: Trump knows he can't win by persuading people to vote for him, so he will try to create chaos.

What you can do: Volunteer to work on the election.

What Biden will do: Put together a top-notch legal team.

Facts matter.

All the doom and gloom and fear mongering is really bugging me. No we should not take anything for granted and we need to keep an eye on the dirty tricks but what we really need is action - VOTE!

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/09/i...ngs-trump-says

Excerpts:

Trump Is Not King, And Media Needs To Stop Acting Like He Is

There's a lot of fear mongering going on out there, and it's time for it to stop. Trump is not all-powerful; he's the puny coward behind the curtain.

Republicans have a motive for putting this kind of rumor out -- it tells people their vote doesn't count.

This is hardly a power play. They are essentially powerless when the voters speak, while trying to disguise that fact by telling you that they have some secret hidden power. They don't.

Here's the thing: Articles like this, fear mongering like this already suppresses the Biden vote. When you tell people that Trump and his games are more powerful than the people, you're telling them their vote doesn't matter. And if their vote doesn't matter, then why should they bother to vote at all? All the fear mongering about what Agent Orange and his gang of GOP thugs does is suppress the vote. It also creates an environment of fear, which is the soil upon which REPUBLICANS thrive.

I am not saying to ignore the experts. I am saying that the answer to the bullshit Trump spews is to ignore it and vote in numbers the likes of which no one has ever seen before. Even Gellman discounts the possibility of a landslide, despite the fact that all of the evidence points to huge turnout (see Virginia's early voting turnout, or the soaring requests for absentee ballots in a number of states, for example):

This election is a turnout election. There won't be any question about who the winner is on Election Night if everyone votes. Articles telling people it doesn't matter if they vote because Trump has some magical powers to contest things are suppressive, unhelpful and best limited to email lists of election lawyers who can actually do something about Republicans' weak efforts to grab power.

I think voter suppression and voter intimidation tactics in use today are clear examples of the in-your-face Con job by T---p and GOP officials. It reminds me of corrupt white collar criminals like Madoff, etc. One "ponzi" scheme after another.

Democracy works when people exercise their power by voting for officials who will uphold the will of the people and not the will of people drunk on their own brand of power (autocractic dictatorial mindset "rule").

I can hardly wait until Americans vote out TP and his GOP minions.

JACOBIN* 9/24/2020: To Fight Trump’s Rising Authoritarianism, Dems Must Drop Their Learned Helplessness. By David Sirota and Andrew Perez

Donald Trump is making it very clear that he has few qualms about using undemocratic, authoritarian means to stay in power. If they’re serious about stopping him, Democrats will have to stop cowering in fear and act like a real opposition party.When a dictator sees weakness, the dictator tries to increase his own power — which is exactly what Donald Trump has done over the last twenty-four hours.

After Democrats spent the weekend signaling surrender on the Supreme Court vacancy and suggesting they have no appetite to fight over the judiciary or threaten to expand the court, Trump on Wednesday declared that he may not agree to a peaceful transfer of power, and he openly admitted that he is trying to rush through a judicial nominee so that the court can give him a second term. He suggested that he will “get rid of the ballots” and “there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There’ll be a continuation.”

This is a crime in process — specifically, a coup that will be engineered remotely by Zoom, as Republican lawmakers now plan to leave Washington without passing a pandemic relief bill and return only for votes to install a new Supreme Court justice to throw the election.

Amid this onslaught, Democrats are behaving as if you can stop a coup merely by telling people to vote in an election where their ballots might get thrown out.

But the lesson here is the converse: Democrats’ culture of learned helplessness is no match for authoritarianism.

If opposition party lawmakers don’t stop imagining a return to normalcy and brunch — and if millions of Democratic voters don’t start immediately demanding that their party’s leaders begin fighting to stop Trump’s court pick right now — then whatever is left of American democracy is probably finished.

Yes, the situation is that dire.

* sharing this link not intended to imply objectivity of source

David Sirota is one of the worst assholes from the Sanders campaign (no not all campaign advisors to Sanders are assholes). Our job is to vote. Biden has a huge team of lawyers to deal with the legal challenges.

The Senate Republicans do have the power to ram through a Supreme Court justice. If the Democrats could stop it they would.

What's Sirota's brilliant solution? I skimmed through the article and didn't see any- surprise, surprise. Just a lot of trash talk.

Top U.S. Republicans promise peaceful transition after Trump sows doubts..
 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans on Thursday repudiated President Donald Trump's refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, assuring American voters the lawmakers would accept the outcome of November's election.

"The winner of the November 3rd election will be inaugurated on January 20th. There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792," McConnell wrote in a morning tweet. Like other Republicans, McConnell did not directly criticize Trump.

Oh yes, god forbid they insult or contradict the delicate genius!

New York judge rules Eric Trump must sit for deposition before election...
 

(CNN)A New York state judge ruled Wednesday that Eric Trump must sit to be deposed by the state attorney general's office by October 7, denying his request to delay an interview as part of an investigation into the Trump Organization until after the presidential election, according to the attorney general's office.

Trump, the President's son and the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, had proposed the deposition take place after the November 3 election.
An attorney for the company wrote in a recent court filing that the delay should be made to accommodate "Mr. Trump's extreme travel schedule and related unavailability between now and the election, and to avoid the use of his deposition attendance for political purposes." A lawyer for Trump declined to comment on the ruling.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/polit...ion/index.html

Seattle Cop Captured On Video Rolling Bike Over Demonstrator’s Head...
 

Last night.....

So disappointing to see this.

It makes sense they would select him, no offense but he is..
 

The Weakest Link....

Activists Are Calling on Democrats to Stop Trump’s SCOTUS Pick From Advancing

Progressive activists are gathering Saturday outside Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn, New York home with a clear message for the Senate minority leader: “Democracy has its eyes on you, Chuck.”

The action kicks off just hours ahead of President Donald Trump’s expected formal announcement of “far-right ideologue” Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.

Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have vowed to push a vote on a replacement for Ginsburg ahead of Election Day, prompting fierce outrage from Democrats and democracy advocates like MoveOn Political Action executive director Rahna Epting, who said the move amounts to “a brazen and transparently political power-grab.”

Hosts of the Saturday mobilization targeting the New York Democrat — including Center for Popular Democracy Action, New York Communities for Change, and Common Cause New York — say in their call-to-action: “At this moment everything is at stake: Trump using the high court to steal the election, the future of the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade, voting rights, and civil rights. All in the middle of a pandemic and escalating climate disasters.”

Given the stakes, event organizers are demanding Democratic leadership do everything within their power to block Trump from moving the Supreme Court further to the right. The groups outline three key demands:

The Minority Leader and the Democrats must publicly, vocally refuse to hold any hearings or confirm any new justice until after the inauguration of the next president.

The Minority Leader must use every procedural block to jam processes and delay proceedings: suspending unanimous consent; refuse to play on any vote; force everything to be read; filibustering; objection.

The Minority Leader must make it very clear that when Democrats take back the Senate, they will repeal the filibuster repeal and expand the court.
Failure to block the president’s nominee from advancing, warned Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director at CPD Action, would add to fears Trump won’t accept a peaceful transfer of power—as he has stated—should Democrat Joe Biden win the November election.

“We’re here to tell Sen. Schumer and the Democrats that our eyes are on them—they must do everything in their power to stop Barrett’s nomination from moving forward,” Archila said in a statement ahead of the action.

“The president has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election, and Barret’s nomination makes this scenario even more plausible,” she said.

“A court with Barrett will not protect our votes; it will protect Trump’s desire to stay in power,” added Archila. “We’re calling on Democratic leaders to safeguard the American people’s right to choose our president by stopping this nomination.”

Trump, for his part, said Friday that he’ll announce his Supreme Court pick Saturday at 5 pm from the Rose Garden. Barrett is expected to be named.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said this week that she would “certainly satisfy the core of the retrograde Trump coalition: Evangelicals who are heartily behind Trump because he is giving them control over the courts and otherwise advancing their vision of a Christian, white supremacist state, as well as mega-capitalists who benefit from the endless spirals of deregulation this administration has brought.”

“Trump’s primary personal motivation in her nomination is to ensure a vote that will support any and all election challenges to benefit Trump—entrenching the harmful legacy of Bush v. Gore,” said CCR.

https://truthout.org/articles/activi...rom-advancing/

Yes the Democrats in the Senate are going to try to stall the Supreme Court nomination:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...rmation-421849]]

My hope is they can stall this long enough so that Barrett cannot vote on the ACA on November 10. The Republicans are bound and determined though and they have the power in the Senate.

Pelosi and Schumer know full well what is and is not available to them. They know the rules of Congress better than any of us for sure. I wish the activists picketing Schumer's house would go do something useful that might make a difference like registering people to vote.

Brain-Eating Amoeba Found In Southeast Texas Water Supply
 

(CNN) --- Residents of eight cities have been alerted that a brain-eating amoeba was found in a southeast Texas water supply, leading one of the towns to issue a disaster declaration.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued a water advisory to residents served by the Brazosport Water Authority warning customers not to use any water due to the presence of Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, found in the water supply on Friday evening.

"The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality at the direction of the Governor's Office is working with Brazosport Water Authority to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," the advisory reads.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the brain-eating amoeba is commonly found in soil, warm lakes, rivers, and hot springs. It can also be found in poorly maintained or unchlorinated pools and in warm water discharge from industrial plants.

The Do Not Use Water Advisory was issued for residents of Lake Jackson, Freeport, Angleton, Brazoria, Richwood, Oyster Creek, Clute and Rosenberg, Texas, as well as for the Dow Chemical plant in Freeport and the Clemens and Wayne Scott Texas Department of Criminal Justice corrections facilities.

The TCEQ has since cleared all but one location, according to a statement on Twitter.

Disaster declaration issued in Lake Jackson

Lake Jackson has issued a disaster declaration and residents are still being urged to heed the Do Not Use Water Advisory until the Brazosport Water Authority has completed an adequate flush out of its water system, according to TCEQ.

The incident started on September 8, when the city was made aware of a 6-year-old boy who was hospitalized with the amoeba. The boy's problem was traced back to two possible sources: a water fountain "splash pad" in front of Lake Jackson Civic Center or through water emitted from a hose at the boy's home, according to a statement from the city.

City authorities said the the splash pad was immediately closed and they hired a private lab to run a test on a five-gallon water sample from the fountain. The results came back negative on September 14 for Naegleria fowleri, and the CDC was contacted for further water testing from the splash pad.

Representatives from the Texas Department of Health Services collected water and tested samples from the splash pad for the CDC, and on On September 25, three of the 11 water samples tested positive for Naegleria fowleri.

The CDC sent the test results to the TCEQ, and the Texas agency then required that the Brazosport Water Authority issue a Do Not Use water advisory for their customer base, the statement reads.

TCEQ is currently testing the chlorine levels in the City of Lake Jackson's water source and has determined it will take approximately three days to clear the system. Local residents can receive a free case of water from the city in the interim.

The CDC says that while Naegleria fowleri infections are rare most are fatal. From 2009 to 2018, only 34 infections were reported in the United States. Of those reported cases, 30 people were infected by recreational water.

According to the CDC, 145 people were infected from 1962 to 2018 and only four survived.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated how many Texas cities were alerted to a brain-eating amoeba. It was eight.



Source: cnn.com
Website: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/26/us/br...q_5GLjmwNomcB0
Date: September 26, 2020

In Joe Biden's remarks today he focused on the Barrett nomination being a direct threat to people's healthcare and the end of the ACA.

He was asked about expanding the Supreme Court and said this:

“I know you’re gonna be upset with my answer, but what I’m not gonna do is play the Trump game, which is a good game he plays – take your eye off the issue before us,” Biden responded.

“If I were to say yes or no to that, that becomes a big issue,” he added. “That’s the headline here.”

“I’m focused on making sure the American people understand that they’re being cut out of this process that they’re entitled to be a part of,” Biden said. “And the cut out designed in order to take away the ACA and your health care in the midst of a pandemic.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...anding-supreme

Good for you Joe Biden on staying focused.

Trump Taxes
 

The New York Times has obtained over two decades worth of Trump's taxes - up to 2017. In 10 out of the past 15 years he paid no federal income taxes and in 2016 and 2017 he paid only $750.

What we all knew but still interesting: he's a horrible businessman, broke, and very likely a tax cheat.

It is a very long and detailed article:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ump-taxes.html

Here is a short version of some of the findings:

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...k-times-2020-9

President Donald Trump avoided paying federal income taxes for 10 of the last 15 years and paid just $750 in 2016 and 2017, respectively, according to an investigation by The New York Times.

Trump avoided paying the income taxes "largely because he reported losing much more money than he made," the Times reported.

The Times obtained a variety of tax-return data from Trump and the hundreds of companies that comprise his business empire after the president refused to reveal them publicly, sparking an ongoing legal battle over the documents.

The tax-return documents obtained by the Times covers more than two decades and includes "detailed information from his first two years in office," according to the report.

Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, denied the Times' reporting, telling the outlet that "most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate"

The report attributes Trump's longtime tax avoidance to factors like relying on a massive tax refund of $72.9 million and writing up his spending for the family businesses and personal expenses.

The tax refund is the subject of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service, the Times noted, and at least $100 million is on the line in the audit battle.

The data also details huge losses among Trump's business entities, including $315.6 million of reported losses from his golf courses and $55.5 million lost in his Washington, DC hotel since it opened in 2016.

One moneymaker identified by the Times is Trump's personal brand, which the outlet calculated made him a combined $427.4 million between 2004, when "The Apprentice" debuted on NBC, and 2018.

The Times promised "additional articles will be published in the coming weeks."

Trump is broke and has hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due. He's a tax cheat who pays way less in taxes than most hard-working Americans.

The only "businesses" that have really been successful for him is licensing the Trump name (which is just businesses paying money to slap "Trump" on their businesses and buildings) and money earned from the Apprentice. Everything else has lost bigly - golf courses, casinos, hotels, and more! And he started with an inheritance of over $400 million from his father.

Paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees to Ivanka even though she is an employee of the Trump Organization - employee or consultant - pick a lane Ivanka you can't be both.

He is in deep legal jeopardy.

I thought this article was a good summary:

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/5...axes-bombshell

House Democrats unveil new $2.2T proposal for virus aid...
 

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats unveiled a scaled-back $2.2 trillion aid measure Monday in an attempt to boost long-stalled talks on COVID-19 relief, though there was no sign of progress in continuing negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The latest Democratic measure would revive a $600-per-week pandemic jobless benefit and send a second round of $1,200 direct payments to most individuals. It would scale back an aid package to state and local governments to a still-huge $436 billion, send a whopping $225 billion to colleges and universities, and deliver another round of subsidies to businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program.

The proposal represents a cutback from a $3.4 billion bill that passed the House in May, but remains well above what Senate Republicans are willing to accept. Republicans have endorsed staying in the $650 billion to $1 trillion range.

Pelosi said Monday that she remains in contact with Mnuchin, with whom she negotiated several earlier relief packages. The two spoke briefly on Sunday and Monday evening and are slated to talk again Tuesday morning, according to Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill.

“We’ve come down $1 trillion, and they need to come up because we have to crush this virus,” Pelosi said Monday on MSNBC. “It takes money to crush the virus. It takes money to make the schools safe. It takes money to put money in people’s pockets.”

Sidebar: We need to call our senators and representatives, whether republican or democrat, and tell them to stop their pissing contests and for once think of Americans who so desperately need help during this time of upheaval!

All these things T---p is guilty of and is yet to be held accountable for?

I can't think of a better teaching tool than the stark differences between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris vs Team Lie Like Hell (aka, infamous GOP).

I hope every voting American feels motivated to take the trash out and elect the best team we've got:

The Biden/Harris Ticket.


:vigil::vigil::vigil:

Black Friday is on 27th November this year with Cyber Monday following straight after on 30th November, with Small Business Saturday falling in between! Black Friday falling on the 27th of November this year means it’s less than a month before Christmas. Things will be a little different this year thanks to the pandemic. In the USA, shops are giving staff Thanksgiving off with most stores not opening thanks to Covid-19.

Amazon Prime Day is later this year (Oct 13-14th). Expect too see a lot more online deals rather than in store only deals (like the Nintendo Switch Asda deal last year), which will be a good thing for everyone reluctant to venture.

Crowd control methods by various brick and mortar stores, as well as malls, could get creative this upcoming holiday season...:present:

I wouldn't put anything past that dirty rotten SOB!

Ex-Watergate Prosecutor Says ‘No Question’ Trump And Ivanka Could Both Face Prison...
 

A former federal prosecutor during the Watergate proceedings that brought down President Richard Nixon says new tax revelations about President Donald Trump could ultimately send him to prison.

“No question about it,” Nick Akerman said Monday on CNN. “And his daughter could go to jail, too.”

Both the president and his oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, who also serves as a White House adviser, are named in the New York Times report detailing the schemes that allowed Donald Trump to avoid taxes for much of the past decade and a half.

“Tax evasion is a five-year felony,” said Akerman, who was an assistant special Watergate prosecutor investigated Nixon’s taxes. “It’s a pretty serious crime, and the more money that’s stolen, the longer you go to jail for.”

Trump has denied any wrongdoing. However, he has also refused to publicly disclose his tax returns, as has been customary for presidential candidates for nearly half a century.

Akerman said the Times report details “a whole series of activities that could qualify as tax fraud, not tax avoidance.”

Avoidance, he said, is merely taking advantage of the tax code in legal ways to maximize deductions. Fraud, on the other hand, involves lying about income and deductions.

He pointed specifically to consultant fees paid by Donald Trump to Ivanka Trump. Since Ivanka Trump was already an employee of the Trump Organization, Akerman said, there was “no legitimate reason” for those payments.

He speculated the two could have been shifting the money around to avoid paying taxes on it.

That, he said, could lead to an ominous development for the president should he leave office in January.

“The only thing that’s saving him at this point is the Department of Justice’s guideline that says you can’t indict a sitting president,” Akerman said. “Once he’s no longer a sitting president, he is subject to being indicted.”

He added that “any decent prosecutor” could make a “pretty viable” case:

Seattle restaurants will have to 'get creative' to survive rain, cold temps...
 

Over the past few months, Seattle restaurants took on temporary closures in wake of restrictions in place as a result of the novel coronavirus. Seattle restaurants bought up protective equipment and outdoor umbrellas to block the sun for outdoor dining. Seattle restaurants ponied up pocket cash for outdoor tables and chairs, only to later be swept up in a cloud of smoke during some of Seattle's final few weeks of summer.

Rain and colder temperatures are on the way. For Sodo restaurants in general , they’re taking on not only a lack of downtown workers, not only incoming fall and winter seasons, but also few sports fans in what would typically be a bustling neighborhood come game day. Seattle doesn’t tend to receive high winds, wild storms, freezing temps or heavy snowfall, but it does get cold and rainy enough to be uncomfortable for many of those hoping to nosh on comfort food at their neighborhood restaurants.

At restaurants like Capitol Hill’s eclectic eatery, Nue, indoor seating is next to impossible these days. Famed for its usual communal seating, social distancing has pushed the restaurant to outdoor dining only.


https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/...dium=cta-click

Just got home from work. I glanced at head line coverage of the debate. Lol. That jacka$s in the WH has been talking over Biden and screaming at Chris Wallace.

I am guessing American voters are poised to deliver a massive cup of Shut-the-fu*k-up to the toddler having a massive temper tantrum on the stage tonight.

4 years. Your time is up, T---p.

In my mind, it's jettison time. Pronto.

Trump's proving that he is a fool. let him keep talking ~ self destructive lolol

I was surprised that the Bidens earned over $900,000 in 2019 (even if they did pay tax on it). How much does a vice-president earn annually?

I would have rather been in the dentist chair having my teeth drilled than watch that.

I think Biden did the best he could to hold his own and anyone who votes for Trump after seeing this is an idiot and an asshole.

Unreal.

I predict there will be a huge part of his base that will be energized by his shoutout to the Proud Boys and celebrate his "bravery" in refusing to repudiate white supremacy

Sad to say, but I think you're absolutely right!

Proud Boys celebrate after Trump's debate callout....
 

The Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, pledged allegiance to President Donald Trump on Tuesday night after he told the group to "stand back and stand by" during the first presidential debate.

Many people on social media who identify with the group echoed that language, saying they were "standing down and standing by." One known social media account for the group made "Stand back. Stand by" part of its new logo.

Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University in North Carolina who tracks online extremism, said Trump's giving the Proud Boys orders was their long-sought "fantasy."

"To say Proud Boys are energized by this is an understatement," Squire said. "They were pro-Trump before this shoutout, and they are absolutely over the moon now. Their fantasy is to fight antifa in his defense, and he apparently just asked them to do just that."


https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...l-out-n1241512

Remember The Texas Salon Owner?
 

Salon owner who refused coronavirus lockdown orders makes Texas Senate runoff.

2020 strikes again.

A Dallas salon owner who disobeyed Texas’ coronavirus lockdown restrictions and refused to close even after she received citations and was arrested has made the runoff for a Texas state senate election.

In the six-person race, Shelley Luther and fellow Republican finished in a near tie. Luther received 31.7% of the vote and Drew Springer, a four-term holder of a state legislature seat, received 31.83% of the vote. The winner will take over the seat vacated by Republican Pat Fallon who resigned to run for a U.S. House seat.

The North Texas district includes parts of the Dallas suburbs as well as Fort Worth and Wichita Falls.

Luther spent two days in jail for defying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency orders. She rebounded from her arrest and her salon being shut down by receiving $500,000 in donations.

The date of the election has not been scheduled.



Source: dailynews.com
Website: https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavi...xpe-story.html
Date: September 30, 2020