June 29, 2020

I went out to dinner this weekend...

NYS has authorized restaurants to open for outside service (with appropriate table spacing), and is allowing the placement of tables in the parking lanes. Its actually added a lot more street energy than there was before COVID hit.

https://twitter.com/ChrisBastianBkl/status/1276684396687503365?s=20

June 29, 2020

Just a reminder: Tuesday is the Senate Republican lunch...

Senators will have to do the "walk of shame" past reporters asking their opinion on the Russia bounty story, or Trump's White Power tweet, or.....

June 29, 2020

New from Donald Trump: "Lies, all lies!!!"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1277431695248183298

June 29, 2020

Progressives zero in on another House chairman in primary

The Hill

Progressives energized by last week’s congressional primaries have another high-ranking House Democrat in their sights: Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts.

Neal, 71, is facing a challenge from Alex Morse, a 31-year-old mayor who was born just a few weeks after Neal began his first term in Congress.

Morse spent Tuesday in New York campaigning for progressive insurgent Jamaal Bowman, who holds a double-digit lead over House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel as officials continue to tally up the votes.

He hopes to build on last week’s strong showing by the left in New York and Kentucky with a primary victory on Sept. 1 against Neal in the 1st Congressional District, which spans the western and central parts of Massachusetts.

June 29, 2020

500,000 global deaths are reported as the world's case total reaches 10 million.

Source: New York Times

The global total of deaths passed 500,000 on Sunday, according to a New York Times database, while the number of confirmed cases surpassed 10 million.

The grim markers were hit as countries around the world struggle to keep new infections from reaching runaway levels while simultaneously trying to emerge from painful lockdowns.

In April, roughly a month after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic, deaths topped 100,000. In early May, the figure climbed to 250,000. Now it has doubled in less than two months.

More than a quarter of all known deaths have been in the United States.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/28/world/coronavirus-updates.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

June 28, 2020

Live updates: Arizona, Florida, Texas are latest coronavirus epicenters

Source: Washington Post

Confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 2.5 million on Sunday as a crushing new wave of infections continued to bear down throughout the country’s South and West. Across the nation, more than 38,000 new daily cases were reported by 5:15 p.m. on Sunday.

Florida, Texas and Arizona are fast emerging as the country’s latest epicenters after reporting record numbers of new infections for weeks in a row. Positivity rates and hospitalizations have also spiked. On Sunday, Arizona (3,857) and Georgia (2,225) hit new one-day case highs.

Global cases of covid-19 exceeded 10 million, according to a count maintained by Johns Hopkins University, a measure of the power and spread of a pandemic that has caused vast human suffering, devastated the world’s economy and still threatens vulnerable populations in rich and poor nations alike.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/28/coronavirus-live-updates-us/

June 28, 2020

BREAKING: Trump wants a new nickname for Biden...

https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1277345163338276864

June 28, 2020

"He is losing. And if he doesn't change course...then he will lose"

Chris Christie on ABC this morning.

June 28, 2020

Health secretary says "window is closing" to get coronavirus under control

Source: Axios

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warned on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that the "window is closing" for the U.S. to take action and get the coronavirus under control, calling the current state of the outbreak a "very, very serious situation."

Why it matters: Azar's rhetoric stands in stark contrast to that of President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who claimed at a press briefing on Friday that the U.S. has "flattened the curve" and that much of the surge in new cases is attributable to an increase in testing.

Throughout the pandemic, health officials on the White House coronavirus task force have sounded the alarm about the seriousness of the crisis while political figures like Trump have sought to paint a rosier picture.

The reality is that the U.S. today is getting closer to the worst-case scenario envisioned in the spring — a nationwide crisis, made worse by a vacuum of political leadership, threatening to overwhelm hospitals and spread out of control.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/alex-azar-hhs-coronavirus-control-dd6c3540-d6a8-4405-a32a-bec741c74ada.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100

June 28, 2020

Trump denies he was briefed on reported bounties on US troops

Source: The Hill

President Trump early Sunday denied that he had been briefed on reported Russian bounties placed on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and called for The New York Times to identify its source.

"Nobody briefed or told me, @VP Pence, or Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an 'anonymous source' by the Fake News @nytimes," Trump tweeted.

"Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us..... ...Nobody’s been tougher on Russia than the Trump Administration. With Corrupt Joe Biden & Obama, Russia had a field day, taking over important parts of Ukraine - Where’s Hunter? Probably just another phony Times hit job, just like their failed Russia Hoax. Who is their 'source'?" he added.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/504890-trump-denies-he-was-briefed-on-reported-bounties-on-us-troops