Daily Archives: September 1, 2020
Column: Can’t escape ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ dystopia with Trump at helm – Los Angeles Times
problems of this magnitude require deliberation, they require compromise, they require straight talk rather than lies and obfuscation. They require leadership and, yes, empathy. They require more than simple assertions that the virus will go away or that the economy will rebound bigger and better and more beautifully than ever — they require actual policies and plans created in consultation with experts.
Donald Trump is not up to the task.
And since Matt Damon’s not in the race, that leaves Joe Biden, who I suspect will do a far better job than the current president.
Source: Column: Can’t escape ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ dystopia with Trump at helm – Los Angeles Times
Trump campaign accepts neo-Nazi’s donations – The Forward
Morris Gulett, leader of a Louisiana chapter of the neo-Nazi group the Aryan Nations, has donated at least $2,000 to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign — and the campaign has not returned any of the money.
Gulett made 29 separate donations from 2017 through May 2020, according to recent election filings reviewed by Popular Information.
He and his organization are white supremacists; he calls for genocide of all Black people, and ends his sermons with Nazi salutes.
Source: Trump campaign accepts neo-Nazi’s donations – The Forward
U.S. Won’t Join Global Coronavirus Vaccine Effort Because It’s Led By The WHO – (Just-in-time Trump move to cause more US illnesses and deaths from Covid-19…)
The U.S. announced Tuesday that it would not join an international coalition to find and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine worldwide due to the group’s association with the World Health Organization, the latest sign of the Trump administration withdrawing the country from the international health community’s response to the pandemic over political concerns.
Source: U.S. Won’t Join Global Coronavirus Vaccine Effort Because It’s Led By The WHO
Russian agency created fake leftwing news outlet with fictional editors, Facebook says
Internet Research Agency also hired real, unwitting freelance reporters in operation Facebook has removed
The Russian agency that interfered in the 2016 US election created a fake leftwing news publication, staffed it with fake editors with AI-generated photos and hired real freelance reporters as part of a fresh influence operation detected and removed by Facebook, the company said on Tuesday.
The latest operation by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) was still in its early stages when it was detected thanks to a tip from the FBI, according to Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher. The network had 13 accounts and two pages, with about 14,000 total followers.
FEMA to end funding for cloth face masks for schools | TheHill (Just-in-time Trump move to cause more Covid-19 illnesses and deaths)
FEMA’s stance appears to be that masks are necessary to the basic operation of schools in the fall and should not therefore fall under the category of emergency equipment.
Source: FEMA to end funding for cloth face masks for schools | TheHill
Twitter removes video from Trump tweet after ‘Electric Avenue’ copyright complaint
Twitter removed a video from a mid-August tweet by President Trump that featured Eddy Grant’s hit song “Electric Avenue” after the musician …
‘Troll factory’: Facebook, Twitter suspend Russian network ahead of U.S. election
Twitter also suspended five related accounts. The company said the tweets from these Russia-linked accounts “were low quality and spammy” and that most received few, if any, likes or retweets.
‘Scores’ detained as students in Belarus protest against President Lukashenko | #TheCube
Students in Belarus skip class to protest against President Lukashenko
The CDC has failed: Ex-health officials urge states to abandon agency
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is promoting policies that will prolong the COVID-19 pandemic and, as such, states and local leaders should disregard the agency and strike out on their own. That’s according to Harold Varmus, the Nobel-prize-winning scientist and former director of the National Institutes of Health, and Rajiv Shah, the former administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and current president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Enlarge / A security guard walks on the grounds of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Saturday, March 14, 2020. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is promoting policies that will prolong the COVID-19 pandemic and, as such, states and local leaders should disregard the agency and strike out on their own. That’s according to Harold Varmus, the Nobel-prize-winning scientist and former director of the National Institutes of Health, and Rajiv Shah, the former administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and current president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
The two laid out their argument against the CDC in a searing opinion piece in The New York Times Monday, titled: “It Has Come to This: Ignore the CDC.”
Varmus and Shah’s dramatic disavowal of the country’s leading public health agency was spurred by its abrupt changes last week to COVID-19 testing guidance, which now discourages testing of people who have been exposed to the pandemic coronavirus but do not have symptoms.
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