Deaths Up, Stocks Down

Viral News: The Dow Jones dropped 1,860 points yesterday on investor fears that the coronavirus is making a major resurgence in the US that will further stall the economy.

  The Dow dropped 7 percent and the S&P, 6 percent.

  This morning, 113,820 Americans are dead of the virus, an additional 896 in the last 24 hours.

  As the crisis spins up in states other than New York, and New Jersey, Florida reported nearly 1,700 new cases yesterday morning and Arizona reported 1,412. 

  Lisa Lerer and David Umhoefer write in The NY Times that, “Fiercely polarized over public health, public safety and, perhaps, truth itself, many people are united only in their collective anxiety.”

  President Trump has said and done nothing to soothe the country in the midst of racial and health crisis. Amid calls for police reform, he tweeted within the past day, “The Radical Left Democrats: First they try to take away your guns. Then they try to take away your police!”

  Speaking at a white evangelical church in Dallas yesterday, Trump praised the use of tear gas and other force to disperse Minneapolis protesters, calling it a “beautiful scene” and describing the National Guard’s actions “like a knife cutting butter.”

Sound Retreat: The country’s top military officer has apologized for accompanying President Trump in uniform on his photo-op stunt to hold up a Bible in front of a damaged Washington church.

  “I should not have been there,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a video commencement address to National Defense University. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

  Milley had accompanied the President and other officials after federal authorities had violently cleared a crowd of peaceful protesters.

Gender Confusion: Transgender girls in Connecticut may no longer compete in school sports with biological girls, according to a ruling by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

  This is a touchy issue. Girls who were originally boys often have stronger physiques. 

  “Today’s finding, which is not a legal ruling, represents another attack from the Trump administration on transgender students,” said Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Since 2017, (Betsy) DeVos’ Department of Education has taken consistent aim at transgender students.” 

The Bulletin Board: People who attend President Trump’s June 19th rally in Tulsa will have to sign a pledge not to sue if they contract the coronavirus. — The President is moving his August 27thRepublican nomination acceptance speech to Jacksonville, Florida because Democratic officials in North Carolina want to take precautions against the coronavirus during the convention. —  Louisville, Kentucky has outlawed no-knock police warrants after the turmoil over the police killing of 26-year-old Breona Taylor in her own home — The popular country band Lady Antebellum has changed its name to “Lady A,” saying its members are “regretful and embarrassed” that they had not previously considered that their original name was a reference to the slave days in American history. — A Washington Post reporter writes in a new book about the first immigrant first lady that Melania Trump delayed moving to the White House in 2016 while she negotiated improvements in her pre-nuptial agreement with the President.

On the Job: About a dozen Chicago cops were caught on camera lounging around the south side offices of Rep. Bobby Rush while protests and violence raged out in the streets. Some “white shirt” supervisors were among them.

  “One was asleep on my couch in my campaign office,” Rush said at a press conference. “They even had the unmitigated gall to go and make coffee for themselves and to pop popcorn, my popcorn, in my microwave while looters were tearing apart businesses within sight and within their reach.”

That’s a Croc: A team of researchers has concluded that some pre-historic crocodiles might have been able to move around on two feet. The evidence comes from preserved fossil tracks in South Korea.

  The international team behind the discovery says it will probably change the perception of crocodiles.

  Martin Lockley, an emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, told the BBC  that, “People tend to think of crocodiles as animals that don’t do very much; that they just laze around all day on the banks of the Nile or next to rivers in Costa Rica. Nobody automatically thinks I wonder what this [creature] would be like if it was bipedal and could run like an ostrich or a T. rex.”

  We’ve thought about it. The creature would be the star of a low-budget horror movie. 

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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