Zika Warning, “What Have You Got to Lose?”
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Vol. 5, No. 232
Zika Zone: The federal government has issued a travel warning for pregnant women considering a visit to a 20-block stretch of Miami Beach, one of the busiest tourist destinations in the country. Five people, including travelers from New York, Texas and Taiwan, were infected with the Zika virus in the area.
Zika has also been identified in Miami’s hip Wynwood arts district, but health officials say they believe they can fight off a widespread outbreak.
It’s Political: Some days it’s hard to know where to start with Donald Trump. In the last 24 hours he lost another campaign manager and stood in front of a white audience to ask for the support of black voters. In his plea in Charlotte, NC, yesterday, Trump said to black voters who were not there, “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose?”
Earlier in the day Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort resigned. Manafort has been embarrassed by reports coming out of Ukraine that he was on the payroll for millions of dollars coming from his former client, the political party of the deposed pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Political Maladies: The Trump campaign and sympathetic right-wingers are pushing a story that Hillary Clinton is not healthy enough to be president, recalling Clinton’s 2012 concussion and pointing to a single photograph in which she’s being helped up a short set of stairs.
The website Conservative Outfitters said, “Throughout the campaign Clinton has been plagued by regular chronic coughing fits leaving her unable to speak and seizure like episodes.”
Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said, “What’s new are the other reports of the observations of Hillary Clinton’s behavior and mannerisms,” also mentioning “her dysphasia, the fact that she’s fallen, she has had a concussion.”
While Clinton’s concussion is not secret, there’s no proof there’s anything wrong with her. But her detractors have even gone so far as to circulate a false medical report saying Clinton has seizures and early onset dementia.
The Games: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt finished his Olympics last night winning three gold medals in his third straight games. Nine gold medals. Bolt ran away from the pack sprinting the final leg of the 4×100 relay. The Americans finished third but were disqualified for a bad baton pass. — The US women won their second consecutive gold in water polo, defeating Italy.
Olympic Dope Scandal: American swimmer Ryan Lochte issued a half-hearted apology for claiming he was robbed in Rio. “I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend—for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning and for my role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics,” Lochte wrote online.
Well, he lied is what he did.
Lochte and three other swimmers made up a tale about being robbed by men dressed as police officers when in fact they vandalized a gas station bathroom and were held at gunpoint by a security guard.
His friends Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger returned to Miami yesterday. Jimmy Feigen paid a more than $10,000 fine to be allowed to leave Brazil.
All four are likely to be suspended by US swimming and Lochte may pay an even higher price in the loss of sponsorships and endorsements.
Permawar: The US warned the Syrian government to back off after an airstrike hit close to where American troops were operating with Kurdish fighters.
In the multi-sided war, Russia has stepped up its use of power, for the first time firing cruise missiles from ships in the Mediterranean.
Harder Day: Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette, who wrote the book “No Easy Day” about killing Osama bin Laden, has agreed to forfeit $6.8 million in royalties because he didn’t clear his manuscript with the Pentagon.
Yo, Tickets!: Speaking of Olympic dope scandals. Pat Hickey, the head of both the Irish and European Olympic committees, was arrested this week for scalping Olympic tickets, which is illegal in Brazil. The Olympic committee immediately stopped paying Hickey his 800 euro daily stipend, but that may not be a problem because he was being held in prison without bail.
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