A Different Way: With Congress unable to reach an agreement on a second pandemic stimulus bill, President Trump is noodling the idea of taking executive action. Whether he can do that is questionable; Congress has sole power to appropriate money.

  In a late-day press conference he said, “If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need.”

 Talks between congressional Democrats and Republicans were described yesterday as being on the brink of collapse. Democrats have offered to lower their $3.4 billion demand to $2 trillion, but the Republicans are sticking with $1 trillion.

  Trump tweeted, “Pelosi and Schumer only interested in Bailout Money for poorly run Democrat cities and states. Nothing to do with China Virus! Want one trillion dollars. No interest. We are going a different way!” 

Econ 101: The economy added 1.8 million jobs in July, but tens of millions of people are still laid off because of the pandemic. Unemployment is 10.2 percent.

  With no new relief bill in sight, millions of Americans may face eviction from their homes, an event one economist described as “an eviction crisis of unprecedented magnitude.”

  Despite the harsh reality, President Trump gave a rosy press conference late yesterday, speaking as if the country is in an economic boom. “I will say that the job growth that we’ve seen over the last three months, 9.3 million, is the single greatest three-month period of job creation in American history. That’s big stuff. That’s big news and great news.”

  It is good news, but it’s only a piece of a dismal picture.

  NY Times columnist Paul Krugman writes that, “One pretty good forecasting rule for the coronavirus era has been to take whatever Trump administration officials are saying and assume that the opposite will happen.”

  Trump and his coterie have been claiming that the economy will bounce back, but there’s no money out there to make that happen. Buy shoes with what?

  Krugman writes, “Put it all together and the expiration of emergency aid could produce a 4 percent to 5 percent fall in G.D.P. But wait, there’s more. States and cities are in dire straits and are already planning harsh spending cuts; but Republicans refuse to provide aid, with Trump insisting, falsely, that local fiscal crises have nothing to do with Covid-19.”

Viral News: With the coronavirus largely under control in his state, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said yesterday that schools may re-open for in-person instruction this fall. He’s leaving it to local authorities to decide what to do next.

  The cover of New York  magazine has a picture of a child in a hazmat suit carrying a lunchbox.

  Despite claims by the President, the virus is dangerous for children. A seven-year-old boy with no underlying conditions became Georgia’s youngest coronavirus death. The boy was exposed attending a Savannah church where he was in contact with two infected elderly people, who also died of the virus. 

  This morning the US is on the brink of five million coronavirus cases. Deaths are at 161,367.

The Bulletin Board: Jerry Falwell Jr. has agreed to take an indefinite leave of absence from his job as president and chancellor of Liberty University after the posting of a picture depicting Falwell and a woman who was not his wife with bellies bared and shorts slightly unzipped. As Christian sex scandals go, it’s pretty disappointing. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a variation of the anesthetic and party drug ketamine as a fast-acting nasal spray for suicidal patients with major depression. — Despite the pandemic, tens of thousands of motorcyclists rumbled into Sturgis, South Dakota, yesterday for the annual biker rally. It’s got a big pro-Trump contingent. — The former communications director of the Los Angeles Angels has been charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl in connection with the fatal overdose of Tyler Skaggs, a pitcher for the team. 

The Obit Page: Former Air Force General Brent Skowcroft, who served two presidents as national security adviser and was a foreign policy consultant to seven administrations, has died at age 95.

  Skowcroft’s desire to be a fighter pilot in World War II was thwarted by a plane crash. He went on the become a general and later, as a civilian, a preeminent expert on foreign policy and international relations.

  He accompanied President Nixon to China in 1972, oversaw the harried evacuation of Americans from Saigon in 1975, worked with Jimmy Carter on the  Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1979, evaluated missile systems for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and directed President Bush’s strategy in the Persian Gulf war in 1991.

  Skowcroft opposed the invasion of Iraq in the second Gulf War under George W. Bush. He said at the time, “Historically, the world has always given us the benefit of the doubt because it believed we meant well. It no longer does.” 

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