Ireland delays full reopening of bars again after COVID-19 rate doubles – Reuters

Ireland has reported an average of 46 cases per day over the past seven days, up from an average of 19 the previous week.

But it still has the 11th lowest rate of new infections of 32 European countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, with nine infections per 100,000 people reported over the past 14 days.

“We’re in a precarious situation in our battle with the virus,” Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told a news conference. “We have lost some ground but it is possible to reclaim it.”

 

Source: Ireland delays full reopening of bars again after COVID-19 rate doubles – Reuters

‘Armageddon’ at Beirut hospitals after blast hurt medics, patients alike – France 24

Medics carried patients from nine separate floors one by one on stretchers, as the blast had knocked out the elevators.

Without electricity or water, nurses took great risks to provide whatever life-saving support they could.

“The hospital lights are usually on 24 hours a day — it was completely dark,” said clinical nurse specialist Lara Daher.

“We stitched up patients by the light of our cellphones last night. I don’t know how we did it. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

 

Source: ‘Armageddon’ at Beirut hospitals after blast hurt medics, patients alike – France 24

Op-Ed: The truth behind Trump’s need to lie – Los Angeles Times

In Trump’s case, it is as if he wakes up each morning nearly oblivious to what happened the day before. What he said and did yesterday, in order to win yesterday, no longer matters to him. And what he will do today, in order to win today, will not matter for tomorrow.

What is truth for the episodic man? Truth is whatever works to win the moment. The boxer faces an imminent threat to his survival. If he takes his eyes off the immediate aim of winning, he may get knocked out. Boxing his way through life, moment by discrete moment, Trump does not have the psychological luxury to consider whether his tactics comport with the conventional criteria for truth — such as consistency over time or concordance with the objective reality of the outside world. Every day is a war. All is fair.

Nearly 40 years ago, Donald Trump conveyed his philosophy of life to an interviewer: “Man is the most vicious of all animals, and life is a series of battles ending in victory or defeat.” Before he was sworn into office, Trump told his advisors to think about each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.

Source: Op-Ed: The truth behind Trump’s need to lie – Los Angeles Times

Oswego County Sheriff Don Hilton was on sheriff’s boat with Trump flag; he defends flying it – syracuse.com

The county’s top legislator, Republican James Weatherup, said Monday that the Trump flag violated county policy by flying a political flag using taxpayer resources on taxpayer time.

“I have spoken to the Sheriff, and expressed our position about our flag policy, and our desire to not see this type of display in the future from his office (or any other) on taxpayer time or taxpayer equipment,” Weatherup said Monday. “I am confident that we will not see this type of action in the future.”

Weatherup did not respond Tuesday to inquiries about the sheriff’s presence on the boat.

The county’s top Democratic legislator, Tom Drumm, who represents parts of the city of Oswego, said that county officials have been mum on Hilton’s presence aboard the boat.

“It certainly looks like the sheriff,” Drumm said, adding that the sheriff needed to acknowledge that he’d crossed a line by flying the campaign flag. “To me, it’s a slap in the face to the taxpayers.”

 

Source: Oswego County Sheriff Don Hilton was on sheriff’s boat with Trump flag; he defends flying it – syracuse.com

A “Bug” In Instagram’s Hashtags Has Been Favoring Donald Trump – (“Bug” a lie – Zuck licks boots?)

The Instagram bug, which was first noticed by the Tech Transparency Project, a nonpartisan tech watchdog group, suggests that hashtags associated with the two main presidential candidates have been treated differently since at least June. In most cases, algorithmically derived related hashtags are displayed to people who search for or click on a given hashtag, pointing them to more content that Instagram believes they might be interested in.

“What we’ve seen with the related hashtags with Biden is that there is so much vitriol, that it appears to be benefitting President Trump,” said Katie Paul, a director with the Tech Transparency Project. The fact that related hashtags didn’t surface for many Trump-related phrases also “removes any possibility that negative hashtags could be associated with his name or campaign slogans,” she added.

 

Source: A “Bug” In Instagram’s Hashtags Has Been Favoring Donald Trump

The Lincoln Project After The Fall

In Saner Thought

Closing Thought–05Aug20

Many of us have been exposed the the ads of the Lincoln Project. It is true Repubs and conservs that are not down with the silliness of the RNC and its defense of the toad Trump.

Their anti-Trump ads have become the stuff of legends.

The Lincoln Project?

President Abraham Lincoln led the United States through its bloodiest, most divisive and most decisive period of our history. He fought not because he wanted to, but because he knew the dual goals of preserving the Union and the end of slavery would be achieved only through armed conflict. Lincoln always kept the enormous human cost of the struggle in the front of his mind. At Gettysburg, he implored us not to forget those that had given “their last full measure of devotion” to preserving the American experiment. As it became clear that the Union would be victorious, Lincoln’s thoughts…

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Beirut explosion: Port officials under house arrest as rescue efforts continue – BBC News

Putting port officials under house arrest is an attempt by the government to show the Lebanese people that it is serious about enforcing accountability, the BBC’s Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says.

But many will dismiss it, as they effectively accuse the entire political elite of culpability through their alleged negligence, incompetence and corruption, our correspondent adds.

 

Source: Beirut explosion: Port officials under house arrest as rescue efforts continue – BBC News