FOX NEWS: Living with family amid the pandemic? Follow this mental health advice

Living with family amid the pandemic? Follow this mental health advice



Before young adults move home, one psychologist said it’s important to establish clear boundaries and expectations to avoid misunderstandings.

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FOX NEWS: Wasn’t summer supposed to kill the coronavirus?

Wasn’t summer supposed to kill the coronavirus?



Why has hot weather had no effect on curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus?

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Tucker Carlson’s Journey From Coronavirus Alarm-Puller to COVID Truther

In early March, while President Donald Trump’s loudest allies at Fox News downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, with some claiming it was nothing more than an “impeachment scam” to destroy the president, Tucker Carlson received widespread—and usual, considering his notoriously far-right rhetoric—praise for calling out his colleagues and Trump for “minimizing” the impending danger.The Fox News primetime star continues to receive plaudits for reportedly convincing the president to finally take the crisis seriously. Days after that March 9 monologue, which was delivered shortly after Carlson privately spoke with Trump about the virus, the president publicly addressed the nation and his administration began pushing social-distancing guidelines.While Carlson sounding the alarm much earlier than his Fox News peers may have a had a positive impact (on his viewers, especially, as studies show his audience took protective measures before Trump confidant Sean Hannity’s), it didn’t take long for the right-wing TV host to shift gears and rage against social distancing, lockdowns, and any other measure implemented to slow the spread of the virus.Over the past two months, Carlson has devoted much of his coronavirus coverage to discrediting public-health experts, specifically top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force. On top of telling his audience to stop listening to Fauci and other health officials, the Fox News star has repeatedly boosted a fellow contrarian, former New York Times reporter-turned-spy-novelist Alex Berenson, as an expert on the deadly virus.Less than a month after his much-lauded call to action on the virus, Carlson declared the crisis to be over—a claim that received far less attention from the mainstream press than his rogue stance against the president. Despite the United States having already experienced 13,000 deaths by that point, Carlson pointed to revised models showing lower expected deaths to call for the easing of stay-at-home orders, insisting that the “short-term crisis may have passed.”Since the Fox star’s assertion that the pandemic was essentially over and it was time to go back to business as usual, the nation has suffered roughly 115,000 more deaths and at least two million more confirmed cases.Carlson, in his quest to convince viewers that social distancing was futile and lockdowns were useless, began taking aim at Fauci almost immediately, framing the Medal of Freedom honoree as a power-hungry bureaucrat who had suddenly become the most powerful person in the world. Furthermore, the conservative talk-show host repeatedly portrayed the top doctor as incompetent and unknowledgeable about infectious diseases.One way Carlson often sharply criticized the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was by highlighting his shifting opinions on the virus as more information became known about the disease. In particular, he hit Fauci for initially saying mask-wearing was unnecessary—a position the renowned immunologist quickly reversed, as have other health officials who initially worried that masks might instill a false sense of security.Tucker Carlson Wants to Have It Both Ways on CoronavirusAt one point in mid-May, following Sen. Rand Paul dressing down Fauci in a Senate hearing, Carlson applauded the pro-Trump Republican before delivering his own lengthy takedown of Fauci, arguing that the top doctor’s advice was “buffoon-level stuff,” later describing him as “the chief buffoon of the professional class.” Weeks prior, Carlson called it “national suicide” for Fauci to urge aggressive social-distancing restrictions.“We should never let someone like that run this country,” he fumed.Besides repeatedly dismissing social distancing, Carlson has also told his viewers that the virus is just not that deadly, even as the death toll continues to rise. In late April, for instance, Carlson pointed to some antibody studies—which have since largely been dismissed due to a large number of false-positive statistical errors—and the laughable claims made by a pair of California doctors who pushed for reopening by claiming the disease “just isn’t nearly as deadly as we thought it was.”The segment was steeped in so much disinformation on the disease that MSNBC host Chris Hayes, his direct 8 p.m. time slot competitor, directly called out Carlson for peddling “coronavirus trutherism” the next evening, picking apart the arguments put forth by the Fox star.“There is a reason many of the employees of Fox News, which is based in New York, are working from home right now,” Hayes pointedly stated. “At least someone there understands why it is important to continue to keep physical distance.”Weeks later, Carlson again pointed to antibody tests and cherry-picked surveys to claim the deadly virus was relatively tame.“We now know, thanks to widespread blood testing, that the virus isn't that deadly,” he said on May 21. “An enormous percentage of coronavirus infections produce mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, they're asymptomatic. The death toll is a tiny fraction of what we were told it would be.”Carlson, meanwhile, has also seemed more than willing to accept that the death toll—which is now approaching 130,000—is overinflated and possibly a hoax, despite overwhelming evidence showing it has likely been undercounted. Besides giving airtime to “COVID Contrarian” Berenson, who has repeatedly suggested the death toll is inflated or would remain low, he has also hosted Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume to make those same claims. “Dr. Birx said tonight during the briefing at the White House that all deaths from anyone who died with coronavirus is counted as if the person died from coronavirus. Now, we all know that isn’t true,” Hume said on April 7 before relaying anecdotal evidence: “ I remember my own doctor telling me at one point when I was discussing prostate issues, he said about prostate cancer—I didn't have it, as it happened, but he said, ‘You know, a lot more people die with it than die from it.’”In recent weeks, amid nationwide unrest following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, Carlson has spent far more time demonizing the Black Lives Matter movement than covering the outbreak of new coronavirus cases, many of which are occurring in the states that rushed to reopen. When the Fox host did shift from fear-mongering about a race war to cover the virus, however, he actively minimized the damage of the pandemic while once again claiming lockdowns do not work.Just as multiple states began seeing a massive uptick in confirmed cases following relaxed restrictions and Memorial Day weekend celebrations, Carlson definitively declared social-distancing rules to be useless.“We do think it’s worth, for a minute, taking a pause to assess whether or not they were in fact lying to us about the coronavirus and our response to it,” he said on June 10, taking issue with media criticizing lockdown protests but praising police brutality demonstrations. “And the short answer to this is: Yes, they were definitely lying.”“As a matter of public health, we can say conclusively the lockdowns were not necessary. In fact, we can prove that and here’s the most powerful evidence: states that never locked down at all, states where people were allowed to live like Americans and not cower indoors alone, in the end turned out no worse than states that had mandatory quarantines, the state you probably live in,” Carlson continued. “The states that did lock down at first but were quick to reopen have not seen explosions of coronavirus cases.”Since making that proclamation, Florida, Texas and Arizona have all set single-day records for confirmed cases, and have reported newly overwhelmed hospitals and ICU capacity. Presented with Carlson's repeated claims that social distancing and stay-at-home orders have been unnecessary, Dr. Irwin Redlener, a Daily Beast contributor and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University outright dismissed the TV host’s analysis.“Tucker Carson is one of the most fervent anti-science commentators on the airway,” the public-health activist told The Daily Beast. “He, like Sean Hannity, seems to relish in unwavering support for Donald Trump, no matter how outlandish, dishonest or ignorant the president’s statements or policies might be. I assume that Tucker is probably a bright guy, but his uncritical support of Trump is a dangerous disservice to his audience.”While Carlson has privately advised the president on several issues and is regularly cited by the president's Twitter account, he has also stood out among his Fox primetime peers in offering up criticism of Trump. Besides subtly calling the president out over his COVID-19 response, Carlson has also knocked the president for not being tough enough in dealing with the protests, arguing that it is placing him on a trajectory to lose.An analysis from Columbia University, meanwhile, has found that if the United States had implemented physical-distancing guidelines just one week earlier in March, as many as 36,000 American lives could have been saved.I Spent a Week Down the Right-Wing Media Rabbit Hole—and Was Mesmerized by ItAs Carlson has dismissed the expertise of epidemiologists and scientists, while boosting spy novelists and talking heads, he has occasionally sought the advice of actual medical professionals to provide pandemic analysis. One of the most frequent voices on his show in this respect has been Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel.While the Fox News primetime star has blasted Fauci and others for their inaccurate predictions and so-called buffoonery, he doesn’t seem to have an issue with Siegel’s history of comically over-the-top projections and medical punditry that seemingly bends over backwards to please the Fox audience.For example, Siegel, who infamously said in March that the “worst-case” for coronavirus is that it “will be the flu,” told Carlson last month that “we're not going to have a big second wave,” citing the low number of cases in Australia. “That’s the southern hemisphere,” he said. “That’s essentially our November right now.”He would eventually walk back that claim on Carlson’s show days later, noting that Brazil—which is also in the southern hemisphere—was experiencing a huge surge in cases. And last week, Siegel lashed out at the European Union for possibly banning American visitors due to the latest rise in cases. “Could this be retaliatory? Possibly,” he huffed. “Could it be public health? Whatever it is, it is not the tone they sounded back in March, when they were horrified at our travel ban, at a time when thousands and thousands of cases were coming here.” And then the unmistakably Carlson-esque reactionary barb. “So I have a message for the European Union tonight: How about remembering what we did for you in the middle of the 20th century?”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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National parks – even Mount Rushmore – show that there's more than one kind of patriotism

July 4th will be quieter than usual this year, thanks to COVID-19. Many U.S. cities are canceling fireworks displays to avoid drawing large crowds that could promote the spread of coronavirus. But President Trump is planning to stage a celebration at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on July 3. It’s easy to see why an Independence Day event at a national memorial featuring the carved faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt would seem like a straightforward patriotic statement. But there’s controversy. Trump’s visit will be capped by fireworks for the first time in a decade, notwithstanding worries that pyrotechnics could ignite wildfires. And Native Americans are planning protests, adding Mount Rushmore to the list of monuments around the world that critics see as commemorating histories of racism, slavery and genocide and reinforcing white supremacy. As I show in my book, “Memorials Matter: Emotion, Environment, and Public Memory at American Historical Sites,” many venerated historical sites tell complicated stories. Even Mount Rushmore, which was designed explicitly to evoke national pride, can be a source of anger or shame rather than patriotic feeling. Twenty-first-century patriotism is a touchy subject, increasingly claimed by America’s conservative right. National Park Service sites like Mount Rushmore are public lands, meant to be appreciated by everyone, but they raise crucial questions about history, unity and love of country, especially during this election year. For me, and I suspect for many tourists, national memorials and monuments elicit conflicting feelings. There’s pride in our nation’s achievements, but also guilt, regret or anger over the costs of progress and the injustices that still exist. Patriotism, especially at sites of shame, can be unsettling – and I see this as a good thing. In my view, honestly confronting the darker parts of U.S. history as well as its best moments is vital for tourism, for patriotism and for the nation. Whose history?Patriotism has roots in the Latin “patriotia,” meaning “fellow countryman.” It’s common to feel patriotic pride in U.S. technological achievements or military strength. But Americans also glory in the diversity and beauty of our natural landscapes. That kind of patriotism, I think, has the potential to be more inclusive, less divisive and more socially and environmentally just. [Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.]The physical environment at national memorials can inspire more than one kind of patriotism. At Mount Rushmore, tourists are invited to walk the Avenue of Flags, marvel at the labor required to carve four U.S. presidents’ faces out of granite, and applaud when rangers invite military veterans onstage during visitor programs. Patriotism centers on labor, progress and the “great men” the memorial credits with founding, expanding, preserving and unifying the U.S. But there are other perspectives. Viewed from the Peter Norbeck Overlook, a short drive from the main site, the presidents’ faces are tiny elements embedded in the expansive Black Hills region. Re-seeing the memorial in space and contextualizing it within a longer time scale can spark new emotions. The Black Hills are a sacred place for Lakota peoples that they never willingly relinquished. Viewing Mount Rushmore this way puts those rock faces in a broader ecological, historical and colonial context, and raises questions about history and justice. Sites of shameSites where visitors are meant to feel remorse challenge patriotism more directly. At Manzanar National Historic Site in California – one of 10 camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II – natural and textual cues prevent any easy patriotic reflexes. Reconstructed guard towers and barracks help visitors perceive the experience of being detained. I could imagine Japanese Americans’ shame as I entered claustrophobic buildings and touched the rough straw that filled makeshift mattresses. Many visitors doubtlessly associate mountains with adventure and freedom, but some incarcerees saw the nearby Sierra Nevada as barricades reinforcing the camp’s barbed wire fence. Rangers play up these emotional tensions on their tours. I saw one ranger position a group of schoolchildren atop what were once latrines, and ask them: “Will it happen again? We don’t know. We hope not. We have to stand up for what is right.” Instead of offering visitors a self-congratulatory sense of being a good citizen, Manzanar leaves them with unsettling questions and mixed feelings. Visitors to incarceration camps today might make connections to the U.S.-Mexico border, where detention centers corral people in unhealthy conditions, sometimes separating children from parents. Sites like Manzanar ask us to rethink who “counts” as an American and what unites us as human beings. Visiting and writing about these and other sites made me consider what it would take to disassociate patriotism from “America first”-style nationalism and recast it as collective pride in the United States’ diverse landscapes and peoples. Building a more inclusive patriotism means celebrating freedom in all forms – such as making Juneteenth a federal holiday – and commemorating the tragedies of our past in ways that promote justice in the present. Humble patriotismThis July 4th invites contemplation of what holds us together as a nation during a time of reckoning. I believe Americans should be willing to imagine how a public memorial could be offensive or traumatic. The National Park Service website claims that Mount Rushmore preserves a “rich heritage we all share,” but what happens when that heritage feels like hatred to some people? Growing momentum for removing statues of Confederate generals and other historical figures now understood to be racist, including the statue of Theodore Roosevelt in the front of New York City’s Museum of Natural History, tests the limits of national coherence. Understanding this momentum is not an issue of political correctness – it’s a matter of compassion.Greater clarity about value systems could help unite Americans across party lines. Psychologists have found striking differences between the moral frameworks that shape liberals’ and conservatives’ views. Conservatives generally prioritize purity, sanctity and loyalty, while liberals tend to value justice in the form of concerns about fairness and harm. In my view, patriotism could function as an emotional bridge between these moral foundations. My research suggests that visits to memorial sites are helpful for recognizing our interdependence with each other, as inhabitants of a common country. Places like Mount Rushmore are part of our collective past that raise important questions about what unites us today. I believe it’s our responsibility to approach these places, and each other, with both pride and humility. This is an updated version of an article originally published on June 26, 2019.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * More than scenery: National parks preserve our history and culture * The twisted roots of U.S. land policy in the WestJennifer Ladino received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support her book on national memorials.

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Russian state exit polls show 76% so far back reforms that could extend Putin rule

Russian state opinion pollster VTsIOM said on Monday that its exit polls showed that 76% of Russians had so far voted to support reforms that could allow President Vladimir Putin to extend his rule until 2036. The nationwide vote on constitutional reforms began on June 25 and is being held over seven days as a precaution against the coronavirus pandemic. If approved, the changes would allow Putin to run twice for president again after his current term expires in 2024.

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Bob Woodward story on Kavanaugh's veracity 'pulled' during Senate hearings

یہ خلاصہ دستیاب نہیں ہے۔ پوسٹ دیکھنے کے لیے براہ کرم یہاں کلک کریں۔

Study finds asteroid impact, not volcanoes, made the Earth uninhabitable for dinosaurs: 'Only plausible explanation'

A new study found what happened to the Earth's dinosaurs. An asteroid strike blocking out the sun for years and causing permanent winters was cause.

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Woman shot in back while trying to steal man's Nazi flag, authorities say

The victim had been with friends at a nearby party when she apparently snatched one of the swastika flags displayed outside the man's home.

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Elderly woman choked and robbed by thief in New York City

Thief chokes and robs an elderly woman, then calmly walks away with her bag.

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La familia que perdió cinco integrantes a causa del coronavirus quiere que sepas esto

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White couple who pointed gun at protesters say they support Black Lives Matter but felt threatened by ‘angry mob’

A white couple who pointed guns at protesters in St Louis have said they were threatened as crowds marched down their street.Video shared online showed 63-year-old Mark McCloskey and 61-year-old Patricia McCloskey stationed on the lawn outside their St Louis home on Sunday night as protesters walked past.

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This file was published in error

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'Dirty' depiction of Kim's wife outraged NKorea: Russian envoy

North Korea's fury over anti-Pyongyang leaflets launched from the South is driven by "dirty, insulting" depictions of leader Kim Jong Un's spouse, Russia's top envoy in the reclusive country has said. In recent weeks Pyongyang has issued a series of vitriolic condemnations over anti-North leaflets which defectors based in the South send across the militarised border -- usually attached to balloons or floated in bottles. The campaigns have long been a point of contention between the two Koreas, but this time, Pyongyang upped the pressure, blowing up a liaison office and threatening military measures.

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Can’t Request an Absentee Ballot Online? This Group Wants to Help

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Swift Charges Against Atlanta Officers Met With Relief and Skepticism

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U.S. Calls for Indefinite Arms Embargo of Iran, but Finds No Takers

By BY RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA, LARA JAKES AND FARNAZ FASSIHI from NYT World https://ift.tt/3gbCY4L

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

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How Women Did Pride in a Pandemic Year

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Cuts to the Arts Help Philadelphia Address Huge Budget Gap

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Fauci Says U.S. Could Reach 100,000 Virus Cases a Day as Warnings Grow Darker

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Pence Raised Nearly $500,000 From Donors to Pay Mueller Legal Defense

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$1 Billion Is Shifted From N.Y.P.D. in a Budget That Pleases No One

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Wikipedia article of the day for July 1, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 1, 2020 is Battle of Malvern Hill.
The Battle of Malvern Hill was fought on July 1, 1862, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee, and the Union Army of the Potomac under George B. McClellan. It was the final battle of the Seven Days Battles during the American Civil War, taking place on the 130-foot (40 m) elevation of Malvern Hill, near the Confederate capital of Richmond. Including inactive reserves, more than 50,000 soldiers from each side took part, using more than 200 pieces of artillery. The Union's V Corps, commanded by Fitz John Porter, took up positions on the hill on June 30. The battle occurred in stages: over the course of four hours a series of blunders in planning and communication caused Lee's forces to launch three failed frontal infantry assaults across hundreds of yards of open ground, unsupported by Confederate artillery, charging toward strongly entrenched Union infantry and artillery. These errors provided Union forces with an opportunity to inflict heavy casualties.

South Pole warming three times faster than rest of Earth: study

The South Pole has warmed three times faster than the rest of the planet in the last 30 years due to warmer tropical ocean temperatures, new research showed Monday. Antarctica's temperature varies widely according to season and region, and for years it had been thought that the South Pole had stayed cool even as the continent heated up. Researchers in New Zealand, Britain and the United States analysed 60 years of weather station data and used computer modelling to show what was causing the accelerated warming.

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China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization

The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encourages some of the country’s Han majority to have more children. While individual women have spoken out before about forced birth control, the practice is far more widespread and systematic than previously known, according to an AP investigation based on government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex-detainees, family members and a former detention camp instructor. The campaign over the past four years in the far west region of Xinjiang is leading to what some experts are calling a form of “demographic genocide."

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Wildfire Spreading Rapidly on Traverse Mountain 'Started by Fireworks'

A large brush fire, estimated to have reached 150 to 200 acres, was “rapidly spreading” on Traverse Mountains near Lehi, Utah, on June 27, according to ABC4.

Utah Fire Info reported that the fire was “started by fireworks” and said “strong, gusty winds” were responsible for the rapid spread of the fire across the mountain side.

Lehi Community Emergency Response Team issued an evacuation order in a quarter mile radius in the city.

Video shows the fire burning on the mountain side from a residential area in the hills of the city of Lehi. Credit: Jeremy Roberts via Storyful

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What we know about Steven Lopez, the suspect in the fatal Louisville protest shooting

Steven Lopez is accused of firing a gun into the crowd at a protest at Louisville's Jefferson Square Park, killing a 27-year-old photographer.

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Trump accuses California Democrats of 'incredible stupidity' in row over John Wayne's white supremacy remarks

Donald Trump is accusing some Democratic officials of "incredible stupidity" for calling for actor John Wayne's name to be removed from an airport in California even after an interview resurfaced of "The Duke" embracing white supremacy.John Wayne Airport in southern California serves Orange County and Los Angeles. Mr Trump in January 2016, as a presidential candidate, held a special event at the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset, Iowa. He spoke at a lectern with a wax statue of the late actor behind him.

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Supreme Court makes it easier for president to fire CFPB head

In her scathing dissent, Justice Elena Kagan called the ruling the "civics class version of separation of powers."

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2 Oklahoma police officers shot, suspect taken into custody

Two police officers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were shot and critically wounded on the city's east side Monday morning and police arrested the suspected gunman following a more than seven-hour search, authorities said. David Anthony Ware, 32, was arrested about 10:45 a.m., said Capt. Richard Meulenberg. The officers — Sgt. Craig Johnson and rookie officer Aurash Zarkeshan — remained in critical condition Monday afternoon and were “fighting for their lives,” said Police Chief Wendell Franklin.

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The A-12 Avenger Shows Why The Navy Needs A Long-Range Strike Aircraft

The Navy’s carrier air wings would have greatly benefited from an A-12-like capability had the program survived.

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Shipbuilding suppliers need more than market forces to stay afloat

Without deliberate action, the U.S. shipbuilding industry will become increasingly fragile.

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China to impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals over Hong Kong

Beijing said on Monday it will impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals with "egregious conduct" on Hong Kong-related issues, mirroring U.S. sanctions against unnamed Chinese officials deemed responsible for curbing freedoms in the city. The announcement comes as the top decision-making body of China's parliament deliberates a draft national security law for Hong Kong that pro-democracy activists in the city fear will be used to eliminate dissent and tighten Beijing's control. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who announced the new sanctions during a press briefing in response to a question about Washington's new visa restrictions, did not specify which U.S. individuals have been targeted.

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In pictures: Huge Nevada wildfire turns Las Vegas sky red

The fire in Mount Charleston, Nevada, engulfed about 5,000 acres (20 sq km) within an afternoon.

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Fact Check: Joe Biden's great-grandfather didn't own slaves, fight for Confederacy

There is no evidence to support the claim that former VP Joe Biden's great-grandfather owned slaves or fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.

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Israel orders evangelical Christian media network God TV to take channel off air

“The channel does not appeal to the Christian population in Israel, but rather to the Jews,” Israel's broadcasting regulator said in a statement.

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‘It’s More Than a Seat at the Table’

By BY JENNIFER MEDINA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3ioBZjI

A White Gatekeeper of Southern Food Faces Calls to Resign

By BY KIM SEVERSON from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2NJradC

Remote School Is a Nightmare. Few in Power Care.

By BY MICHELLE GOLDBERG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2NFsmij

In Texas, Voting Reflects Partisan Split Over How to Deal With Virus

By BY J. DAVID GOODMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2NHHmMI

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

By BY JONATHAN WOLFE AND LARA TAKENAGA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3dLG6CS

‘Our Luck May Have Run Out’: California’s Case Count Explodes

By BY SHAWN HUBLER AND THOMAS FULLER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3ePoVl6

Three Hikers Are Missing on Mount Rainier

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Is This the End for Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star?

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In a Season of Challenges, the Mets See a Unique Opportunity, Too

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Obamacare Versus the G.O.P. Zombies

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Three Words. 70 Cases. The Tragic History of ‘I Can’t Breathe.’

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Trump’s Real Reason for Running for a Second Term: Fear of Being Remembered as a One-Term ‘Loser’

At a Thursday night “town hall” event hosted by his most obsequious of interviewers, Fox News star Sean Hannity, Donald Trump struggled with the simplest of questions: What did he want to accomplish in a second term in office?The president had no answer. And the rambling response he did offer raised the specter that there actually is no second-term agenda in place.That’s not true. The president and his administration have been drawing up plans on what to prioritize, should he vanquish former Vice President Joe Biden. Half a dozen knowledgeable sources—administration officials, campaign aides, and people close to President Trump—tell The Daily Beast that planning has long been underway for potential 2021 policy pursuits. But a prevailing interest driving Trump’s desire for another four years is not ideological. It’s reputational.Two of those sources said that one of the president’s real motivations for running is to simply avoid embarrassment. He doesn’t want to be humiliated by the title of “one-term president.”“The president has told me [on multiple occasions] that he is determined to not be a one-termer, and says that history forever remembers them as ‘losers,’” said a former senior Trump administration official. “A lot of it is about legacy for him and how he will be remembered. And if he loses, I don’t think he’ll take a defeat [at the hands of] Biden, of all possible people, lightly.”Another individual familiar with the president’s private remarks said they recalled Trump making similar comments as far back as late 2018. Trump, the source said, specifically referenced former President Jimmy Carter as an example of a modern political “loser,” and how “you never want to be that guy,” the source said, paraphrasing Trump.Trump Seems Resigned Biden Will Win: ‘He’s Going to Be Your President’All politicians, to a certain degree, are motivated by the desire to win office. But Trump stands out for the degree to which ego-stroking itself is the primary inducement for much of what he does. All of which is not to say that he and his advisers don’t have other interests in mind as they pursue re-election. The president and administration brass have, in recent months, discussed plans to continue stacking the judiciary with conservative judges, expanding the conservative majority on the Supreme Court (should the likelihood of another vacancy, or other vacancies, occur), slashing taxes, and further reducing both legal and illegal immigration numbers. “[The president] put together a plan on legal immigration reform…that I worked on [two years ago]. That would be a real accomplishment for Trump if he gets re-elected. I would actually have some degree of hope that that could get done. A lot of ideas in the reform bill that was put together, Democrats have embraced in the past,” Stephen Moore, a conservative economist at the Heritage Foundation who has advised Trump for years, said in a brief interview on Friday. “There would also be a huge push to make the Trump tax cuts permanent,” Moore added, recounting that in private conversations with the president, Trump has been emphatic that slashing taxes again would be a top priority for a second term. “It’s an important part of his legacy. He is 100 percent committed to making them permanent,” Moore said.Trump's New Virus ‘Plan’ Is to Quit Even Trying, Pray for a Vaccine Before NovemberBeyond the standard conservative fair, Trump and his team have also repeatedly talked about using the second term to finally catch their white whale, one they’ve been so unsuccessful in achieving that it’s become a recurring punchline in the West Wing: a major infrastructure investment.“‘Infrastructure Week’ never ends,” a senior White House official joked.Advisers acknowledge that any Trump second-term agenda would be severely complicated by two major components: the lingering effects of the coronavirus, which has claimed more than 120,000 lives in the United States and torpedoed the American economy; and the likelihood of Democratic control of one, or perhaps two, chambers of Congress. Re-election, in short, would come with the demand to repair the damage from the pandemic and more protracted partisan squabbles and standoffs that yield scant major legislative victories.But to get to even that point, Trump must win first. And not every Republican working to re-elect the president believes that he has made a coherent or winning sales pitch to voters, or even believes he’s defined himself properly as a candidate. As poll after poll has recently shown the president dramatically trailing Biden nationally and in critical swing states, Trump has leaned heavily on senior campaign aides and political lieutenants to help reassure him that all is well, even if it’s very much not.“From May to Election Day in 2016, there [are] 173 national polls on the Real Clear Politics website,” John McLaughlin, a top Trump pollster, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday, echoing arguments that he’s made directly to the president. “Only 13 had Trump winning. On Election Day 10 of the final 11 had him losing and they gave him only 164 electoral votes. It’s deja vu all over again. Same polls. Same results. Same message. They just don’t want the president to be re-elected.”Still, others in the Trump orbit freely admit that the true obstacle right now to his re-election isn’t the news media, or pollsters, or even the Democrats. It’s Donald J. Trump.Ed Rollins, a longtime GOP strategist who leads the pro-Trump group Great America PAC, was harshly critical of the president’s campaign relaunch in Tulsa, Oklahoma, calling last week’s rally a clear-cut “disaster.” On Friday afternoon, Rollins said that for Trump to win, he now has to “put out his plans on what he’ll do in a second term, and where he’ll take the country. Obviously, he’s not there at this point in time.”“And he should get there,” the strategist bluntly added. “I don’t want to talk about the past. I don’t care what Biden did 40 years ago. I care what Biden can do as president, especially if he has a [Democratic] House and Senate… The president likes to attack, he likes to fire off his Twitter gun, and he likes to beat up people. But at this point in time, the polls have given him where his targets are and where he has to go.”Various Trump advisers have long said that if the president hones his message, and quits running off on bizarre and damaging tangents, he’d have a good shot at victory. However, several of them privately concede that this president’s apparent inability to stop being consumed by wild personal grievances and petty feuding has continued to hobble his chances.“Before the booming economy was artificially interrupted by an unprecedented pandemic, President Trump’s pro-growth policies, tax cuts, and deregulation delivered record economic success—and he’ll do it again,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager said in a statement on Friday.During the Fox town hall-style event on Thursday, instead of just saying some version of that, the president was content to simply brag about his “experience” in office and also bash his former national security adviser, John Bolton—who says a Trump re-election would be catastrophic for the country—as a warmongering “idiot.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Mask Exemption Cards From the ‘Freedom to Breathe Agency’? They’re Fake

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Don't blame Sharia for Islamic extremism -- blame colonialism

Warning that Islamic extremists want to impose fundamentalist religious rule in American communities, right-wing lawmakers in dozens of U.S. states have tried banning Sharia, an Arabic term often understood to mean Islamic law. These political debates – which cite terrorism and political violence in the Middle East to argue that Islam is incompatible with modern society – reinforce stereotypes that the Muslim world is uncivilized. They also reflect ignorance of Sharia, which is not a strict legal code. Sharia means “path” or “way”: It is a broad set of values and ethical principles drawn from the Quran – Islam’s holy book – and the life of the Prophet Muhammad. As such, different people and governments may interpret Sharia differently. Still, this is not the first time that the world has tried to figure out where Sharia fits into the global order. In the 1950s and 1960s, when Great Britain, France and other European powers relinquished their colonies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, leaders of newly sovereign Muslim-majority countries faced a decision of enormous consequence: Should they build their governments on Islamic religious values or embrace the European laws inherited from colonial rule? The big debateInvariably, my historical research shows, political leaders of these young countries chose to keep their colonial justice systems rather than impose religious law. Newly independent Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia, among other places, all confined the application of Sharia to marital and inheritance disputes within Muslim families, just as their colonial administrators had done. The remainder of their legal systems would continue to be based on European law. To understand why they chose this course, I researched the decision-making process in Sudan, the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from the British, in 1956.In the national archives and libraries of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, and in interviews with Sudanese lawyers and officials, I discovered that leading judges, politicians and intellectuals actually pushed for Sudan to become a democratic Islamic state. They envisioned a progressive legal system consistent with Islamic faith principles, one where all citizens – irrespective of religion, race or ethnicity – could practice their religious beliefs freely and openly.“The People are equal like the teeth of a comb,” wrote Sudan’s soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Hassan Muddathir in 1956, quoting the Prophet Muhammad, in an official memorandum I found archived in Khartoum’s Sudan Library. “An Arab is no better than a Persian, and the White is no better than the Black.” Sudan’s post-colonial leadership, however, rejected those calls. They chose to keep the English common law tradition as the law of the land. Why keep the laws of the oppressor?My research identifies three reasons why early Sudan sidelined Sharia: politics, pragmatism and demography.Rivalries between political parties in post-colonial Sudan led to parliamentary stalemate, which made it difficult to pass meaningful legislation. So Sudan simply maintained the colonial laws already on the books. There were practical reasons for maintaining English common law, too. Sudanese judges had been trained by British colonial officials. So they continued to apply English common law principles to the disputes they heard in their courtrooms. Sudan’s founding fathers faced urgent challenges, such as creating the economy, establishing foreign trade and ending civil war. They felt it was simply not sensible to overhaul the rather smooth-running governance system in Khartoum.The continued use of colonial law after independence also reflected Sudan’s ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity.Then, as now, Sudanese citizens spoke many languages and belonged to dozens of ethnic groups. At the time of Sudan’s independence, people practicing Sunni and Sufi traditions of Islam lived largely in northern Sudan. Christianity was an important faith in southern Sudan. Sudan’s diversity of faith communities meant that maintaining a foreign legal system – English common law – was less controversial than choosing whose version of Sharia to adopt. Why extremists triumphedMy research uncovers how today’s instability across the Middle East and North Africa is, in part, a consequence of these post-colonial decisions to reject Sharia. In maintaining colonial legal systems, Sudan and other Muslim-majority countries that followed a similar path appeased Western world powers, which were pushing their former colonies toward secularism. But they avoided resolving tough questions about religious identity and the law. That created a disconnect between the people and their governments.In the long run, that disconnect helped fuel unrest among some citizens of deep faith, leading to sectarian calls to unite religion and the state once and for all. In Iran, Saudi Arabia and parts of Somalia and Nigeria, these interpretations triumphed, imposing extremist versions of Sharia over millions of people.In other words, Muslim-majority countries stunted the democratic potential of Sharia by rejecting it as a mainstream legal concept in the 1950s and 1960s, leaving Sharia in the hands of extremists.But there is no inherent tension between Sharia, human rights and the rule of law. Like any use of religion in politics, Sharia’s application depends on who is using it – and why.Leaders of places like Saudi Arabia and Brunei have chosen to restrict women’s freedom and minority rights. But many scholars of Islam and grassroots organizations interpret Sharia as a flexible, rights-oriented and equality-minded ethical order. Religion and the law worldwideReligion is woven into the legal fabric of many post-colonial nations, with varying consequences for democracy and stability.After its 1948 founding, Israel debated the role of Jewish law in Israeli society. Ultimately, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his allies opted for a mixed legal system that combined Jewish law with English common law. In Latin America, the Catholicism imposed by Spanish conquistadors underpins laws restricting abortion, divorce and gay rights.And throughout the 19th century, judges in the U.S. regularly invoked the legal maxim that “Christianity is part of the common law.” Legislators still routinely invoke their Christian faith when supporting or opposing a given law. Political extremism and human rights abuses that occur in those places are rarely understood as inherent flaws of these religions. When it comes to Muslim-majority countries, however, Sharia takes the blame for regressive laws – not the people who pass those policies in the name of religion.Fundamentalism and violence, in other words, are a post-colonial problem – not a religious inevitability. For the Muslim world, finding a system of government that reflects Islamic values while promoting democracy will not be easy after more than 50 years of failed secular rule. But building peace may demand it.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * What Sharia means: 5 questions answered * How Islamic law can take on ISIS * Trump’s travel ban is just one of many US policies that legalize discrimination against MuslimsMark Fathi Massoud has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, and the University of California. Any views expressed here are the author's responsibility.

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FOX NEWS: Sharing America's treasure chest with the world

Sharing America's treasure chest with the world



Power Player of the Week: Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

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