Courtesy of Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore, a look at how Mitt Romney is tearing apart one American family.
None of the early polling suggests a majority of Americans want Republicans to fill RBG’s seat right now
Crews told the CDC he would “retire” from his post in the aftermath of this article
The managing editor of the prominent conservative website RedState has spent months trashing U.S. officials tasked with combating COVID-19, dubbing White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci a “mask nazi,” and intimating that government officials responsible for the pandemic response should be executed.
But that writer, who goes by the pseudonym “streiff,” isn’t just another political blogger. The Daily Beast has discovered that he actually works in the public affairs shop of the very agency that Fauci leads.
William B. Crews is, by day, a public affairs specialist for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. But for years he has been writing for RedState under the streiff pseudonym. And in that capacity he has been contributing to the very same disinformation campaign that his superiors at the NIAID say is a major challenge to widespread efforts to control a pandemic that has claimed roughly 200,000 U.S. lives.
Either way, McConnell says there will be a vote
Plans are set for RBG’s funeral
Late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in repose Wednesday and Thursday, the court announced Monday morning.
The longtime jurist’s casket will arrive to the court around 9:30 Wednesday morning ahead of a private ceremony that will include family, friends and members of the court, the court said in a statement. Coverage of the ceremony will be provided by a press pool, though details are still to be announced.
The casket will lie in repose under the building’s portico to allow for the public to pay respects outdoors from the hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday. The last justice to die while serving on the court, Antonin Scalia, laid in repose in the high court’s Great Hall before being interred.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also announced that a ceremony for Ginsburg will be held Friday morning at the U.S. Capitol, where she will lie in state for the day. However due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Pelosi’s office said the proceedings “will be open to invited guests only.”
Republicans are already talking about how they’ll thwart Democrats’ potential response to GOP rushing to replace RBG
Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), who is competing for a Senate seat from his state, said Monday that he plans to introduce a constitutional amendment that would effectively delay any efforts by Democrats to expand the size of the Supreme Court in retaliation for Republicans muscling through a Trump nominee.
“By threatening to pack the Supreme Court, Democrats are eroding the integrity of our nation’s highest court,” Collins said in a tweet. “I will be introducing a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit any changes to the size of #SCOTUS until 10 years after any such legislation is signed into law.”
The odds of adoption of a constitutional amendment in such a divided political environment are extremely long. Such a measure requires a two-thirds vote from both chambers of Congress and approval from three-fourths of state legislatures.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it”
Federal judge blocks Trump’s WeChat ban
A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order banning WeChat downloads in the United States. In issuing the preliminary injunction, Judge Laurel Beeler wrote that the plaintiffs — a group of US-based WeChat users who stand to be affected by Trump’s ban — had shown “serious questions” in their claim that the executive order threatens the users’ First Amendment rights.
“The plaintiffs’ evidence reflects that WeChat is effectively the only means of communication for many in the community, not only because China bans other apps, but also because Chinese speakers with limited English proficiency have no options other than WeChat,” Beeler wrote.
Nor does the order escape First Amendment scrutiny under an easier standard known as intermediate scrutiny, the judge said, because the ban on WeChat does not provide enough evidence that it is narrowly tailored to resolve the US government’s national security concerns with respect to the app.
“And, as the plaintiffs point out,” Beeler wrote, “there are obvious alternatives to a complete ban, such as barring WeChat from government devices, as Australia has done, or taking other steps to address data security.”
It won’t be the last time this happens, or the worst instance
A group of Trump supporters waving campaign flags disrupted the second day of early voting in Fairfax, Va., on Saturday, chanting “four more years” as voters entered a polling location and, at one point, forming a line that voters had to walk around outside the site.
County election officials eventually were forced to open up a larger portion of the Fairfax County Government Center to allow voters to wait inside away from the Trump enthusiasts.
Election officials said that the group stayed about 100 feet from the entrance to the building and, contrary to posts on social media, were not directly blocking access to the building. But they acknowledged that some voters and polling staff members felt intimidated by what some saw as protesters.
Trump endorses the Oracle-TikTok deal
President Trump said he has agreed in concept to a deal under which Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok will partner with Oracle and Walmart to become a U.S.-based company, capping negotiations that have stirred debate over national security and the future of the internet.
“I have given the deal my blessing, if they get it done that’s OK too, if they don’t that’s fine too,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday.
Under the terms of the deal, Walmart and Oracle would share a 20% stake in a new U.S.-based entity that will operate TikTok, with Oracle likely getting a somewhat larger piece between those two, according to a person familiar with the deal. The person said that under the deal, U.S. companies and investors would have a 53% ownership—satisfying U.S. demands for the new company to be under American control. Chinese investors would have a 36% stake, with other investors largely from Europe having 11%, this person said.
The president said the agreement will result in the creation of 25,000 jobs, mostly in Texas, adding that the new company will still be called TikTok and “will have nothing to do with China.”
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