Its early September and the season ahead for college basketball is filled with uncertainty. No schedules have been released and although on Tuesday Jon Rothstein reported that the Mens and Womens Basketball Oversight Committee will propose a start date of November 25th to the Division 1 Council, there are still many questions on what the next few months will look like.

Despite the challenges that have come with the global pandemic COVID-19, Rutgers mens basketball head coach Steve Pikiell has continued to navigate the program forward. After producing the schools first 20 win regular season campaign in 37 years, only to have their NCAA Tournament dreams dashed due to the health crisis that still remains, there is legitimate hope that the Scarlet Knights will be even better this coming season.

Rutgers returns seven of its top eight contributors from last year and welcomes a four member recruiting class that was ranked 40th nationally and 6th in the Big Ten.

I was able to discuss the current state of the program with Pikiell this week and covered topics such as how he is handling the challenges with COVID-19, the reason his players continue to grow their games despite an unusual offseason, the depth and versatility of the roster, why he is so excited about them being even better defensively, and much more. Lets tip things off here.

What has last season, this off-season and dealing with the challenges COVID-19 has brought taught you as a head coach, both on the court and off it?

I think the most important thing is the players in your program and their safety and wellness. You think about that more than ever. How many times are we washing the locker room? How are they getting into the building? You really think about the things that are important in life like your health. The safety of our student-athletes, weve never spent more time talking about how to keep them safe and healthy like we have the past 5 months. Whether it be their dorm room or cars they are driving, the gym we are in. Weve spent as much time with their health and safety as much as anything.

We've had a lot of time to spend watching film and improving that way. Im really just thankful. Ive always tried to recruit kids who love basketball and when no one is watching they are in the gym getting better. When I watch our guys workout, some were here all summer and some were at home all summer, they all got better. It goes back to having a good philosophy in the recruiting process and Im thankful for my staff. The assistant coaches for recruiting kids that really want to get better. I feel really good that our program got better even during a pandemic and thats a good sign. Its a sign of recruiting kids with those kind of core values that they love basketball. If they only had an outdoor basket to shoot on, they were fine with that. I think thats just a credit to them and their families.

How much has it helped having a strong returning core in regard to dealing with the current situation and uncertainty while preparing for the season ahead?

I think its like anything, the more you have guys that have been through it a little bit, it helps. I understand what I have in the program too. I think your first two or three years, youre always figuring stuff out as your roster changes and flips.

I know I have good leadership on the roster. I know Ive got guys that have played in big games. I know Ive got guys that know our offensive and defensive philosophies. And I know I have great kids, we really do. Our team had a 3.57 GPA last semester. Even in the middle of a pandemic with classes online and so many changes to their daily lives. They were mature enough to handle all that stuff and did a really good job academically.

Now our main job is to keep them on the same path. Keep them healthy, keep them safe and get them ready for our season.

Entering your fifth season, the program is building off success on the court and in the classroom. This offseason has seen players on the team become empowered by you to be leaders who are outspoken on issues like social injustice and COVID-19. Geo Baker and Myles Johnson were on MSNBC on Monday, for example. How has this helped strengthen the programs culture youve built?

We are proud of our guys with how they are handling all these obstacles. I love the fact that theyre outspoken and communicate well thought of ideas. Theyve attacked all the different things on the court that we need them to do. Theyve done all that and theyve kept their grades up along with the basketball things. I have a really good staff, quite honestly, and Im real thankful that I was able to keep them all again this year. We got phone calls and guys had opportunities to go to other places. I love the fact that we were able to keep our staff intact for another year.

Im proud of our guys with how theyve come through during unprecedented times in our country. I love the fact that we have some real spokesman and leaders. Geo and Myles were great Monday on MSNBC, but theyre great on on all the issues that they had to attack and these are tough issues.

How much did last seasons ending with those two big wins in the last week and then obviously the abrupt ending help to shape the teams mindset for this season and the approach going into it?

We had a great year last year but the year is over. I think they learned a lot of lessons. I think we accomplished a lot of firsts for the program. The players had to learn to play with pressure. They had to learn to play being ranked. They had to learn to play with the winning streak at home that we wanted to keep intact. And we play in the best league in the country.

I think they learned a ton of lessons last year and they got through a ton obstacles. You always hope as you get older as a program that those obstacles will help you to attack the new obstacles that are coming. Right off the bat, were preseason ranked. Thats a huge new obstacle this program hasnt had in how long? You would know that answer. (Editors note, 1978 was the last time Rutgers was ranked in the preseason polls, beginning 15th in AP Poll and 18th in Coaches Poll)

I dont talk about the past like that but I certainly know in my tenure here weve never thought about being ranked in the preseason. They have to play with new pressures and hopefully last years lessons they learned and obstacles they went through will help them with this years new obstacles that will be faced.

Last years team seemed to have a little bit of a chip on its shoulder in a good way just in terms of wanting to prove the doubters wrong. How do you approach that this year now that you are getting national respect and there are greater expectations?

The kids I recruited all play with chips on their shoulders, they always have. Theres always doubters so that wont ever change. I just want our kids to have a great season this year. Theyve worked hard to do that. Weve got to stay healthy and weve got to play together. Weve got to be really good defensively and we will in order to have a real good year. I think theyre looking forward to the challenge. I do know they love getting back in the gym. Its been a real joy for them during this pandemic to get back in our gym and facility. Getting back to workouts and watching film. Doing something that they all like has been a real blessing for them.

Were looking forward to this year and weve got good leadership and good seniors. Geo has been around. Ron Harper has been around. Jacob Young has been around. Paul Mulcahy just walked into my office, hes a veteran now. Montez Mathis had a great summer and came back improved in every area. Caleb McConnell has gained some weight, looks bigger and stronger.

I think the guys that returned got better and our freshman class is going to add size weve never had and athleticism that we havent had with a class in a long time. Its an exciting time. Hopefully, we can get organized with when the season is actually going to start and what our schedule will look like. Hopefully in the next few weeks that picture becomes a little bit clearer.

What have you been able to do with the team in workouts so far with NCAA offseason rules and policies with COVID-19? Are you on schedule with the typical start of practice for the season at the end of September?

Weve been on it all summer long. We get eight hours a week all summer long, so weve been doing that four hours in the weight room and four hours basketball wise. Theyve been on that and well continue on that until the NCAA allows us to have the twenty hours a week thats permitted in-season. I dont quite know what that date will be, but the guys have been lifting and playing pick up games. Theyve been working as usual.

And obviously thats just another challenge as a head coach in terms of it being September 1st and you dont know when the season is going to start.

Whenever the games are played, it seems unlikely fans will be able to attend. Theres a lot of talk about how great the RAC was last year and the disadvantage youd have without fans this season potentially. But isnt there a flip side with road games potentially not having the same type of difficult environment either? As a coach, does it simplify the mental approach of your team to just go out and play versus dealing with those extra kind of challenges?

You still have to play and play well, fans or no fans. The players are still really good on the other team. You dont have to fight the fan noise. If thats how we can keep these guys safe and thats the kind of challenges we have for this season, well embrace them and and be excited about those.

I would love to have our fans and that obviously made the RAC the hardest place in the country to play last season. Now our fans are going to tune in on TV and be the highest ranked in that area. Thats what I would love to have happen.

Your team plays so well off of emotion. You cant replicate the same type of environment without fans, so how do you try to tap into that with your team?

I think you can be more focused during these games now. You dont have all of these distractions. Players have distractions too. You can really get your team locked in. I think you see with the NBA and the bubble, those games are as good as theyve ever been. Those guys are locked in to the task at hand. Its going to be a challenge.

We obviously want to have as many people at all the games. Maybe by that time in November, December, January we will have a vaccine and in a better place. Im very confident we will have a season, so Im excited about that. Whatever happens I think you just have to be able to bob and weave with all the challenges that are going to come from having this kind of season. Not the normal challenges that we face every year. These are different times so theres going to be some different challenges. Youve got to be prepared and your team has got to be ready.

Something that I loved and made me laugh was your interview with Brendan Quinn of The Athletic were you said you didnt really like the defense last year, despite finishing sixth in the nation in defensive efficiency. I know youre not huge on advanced statistics, but despite that strong performance statistically speaking, where do you think you can improve defensively this year?

Weve already started. We can implement so much more stuff defensively. A big part of that is we are older. Geo is in his last year. Jacobs been here three years. Ron has played as many minutes as anybody. Myles Johnson is experienced and going into his fourth year actually with the redshirt year. We are much older and much more experienced. I think we had a lot of new pieces last year between Paul Mulcahy and Jacob playing here for the first time. Akwasi Yeboah showed up in July for the first time. I really believe our versatility defensively is something we havent even scratched the surface on.

I know what the stats said last season and I study them, but its a look thing too. Its being versatile with more options, more screen coverages, more sets in our defensive package, being able to go full court and not foul. There are so many more things we can do on that end of the floor and weve already started. I think our player versatility is going to allow us to switch some things at times, trap some things and just do some different stuff that we have never you been able to do since Ive been here. Im really looking forward to it.

Can you point out some of that versatility on the roster?

We have Oscar Palmquist who is 68 and 230 pounds who can guard the one through four. Paul Mulcahy can guard the one through four. Ron Harper Jr. can guard the two through five if we want him to, which is different. We have different pieces. I look forward to moving them around a little bit more and changing up our defenses to make us even a little harder to prepare for.

Last year one match up that was tough for you was Michigan with the three seven footers. Now that youve added a lot of height with Cliff Omoruyi and Dean Reiber, is part of the plan to utilize the size of the frontcourt along with Myles Johnson and Mamadou Doucoure to create different matchup problems?

The one thing is this year when you look at our team with our size, this is the biggest weve ever been across the board and our freshman class is huge. Dean Reiber is athletic and big. Cliff Omoruyi is athletic and big. And Oscar is athletic and big. Mawot Mag is 67 and 225 pounds, hes big. I think weve added some pieces.

I think Michigan gets you because all of their seven footers shoot threes. Theyre a little bit of a different team with their big men shooting threes, so they space you out a bit more.

We have more traditional bigs around the basket, so a little different in that way. We can go big or we can go quick and athletic. We will be able to press more and do some different things that way. I look forward to being able to use our versatility by going with some big lineups. We can put Paul out there at the point guard position at 67. We can go really big with some lineups. Ron (66) at the 2, Oskar (68) at the 3, Dean (610) at the 4 and Myles Johnson (611) at the 5. We can be really big if we want to go that way or if we think its going to help us win a game.

Offensively you made a big jump last year, but obviously there is still room for more improvement this season. You played a lot more up tempo last season. How much do you want to continue that trend and what are you focused on in terms of getting more improvement out of the offense?

We can improve. Obviously, weve got to become a better free throw shooting team. Thats really an important part of what weve tried to spend time on this summer. Weve got to make free throws and thatll improve our offense five or six more points a game. Then everyone will be saying its one of the best offenses in the league.

Thats what we need to do but I love the fact that we share the game. I think its so important to keep your core offensively. We had nine different guys lead us in scoring last year. Weve got to pass the ball and take advantage of our strengths. Weve got a lot of ball handlers. When I first took over the program, we had one ball handler. Now we have all these guys who can put it down, so its really just teaching them how to play in space and share the game. Those are things we are really focused on. If we can improve our free throw shooting and get that up into the middle of the pack, that will improve a lot of our stats like points per possession and all that stuff.

In the past youve singled out guys that have improved the most during the offseason. Is there anyone that has stuck out so far this offseason?

Honestly, I really like the jumps all of them have made. Montez Mathis has been tremendous since he has been back. His ball handing and shooting. Mamadou Doucoure has improved a great deal. I think Geo continues to get better. His body looks better. He is 202 pounds right now, so thats a great weight for him as hell lose weight during the season. Jacob Young is ready to go. Caleb has filled out and getting better. And weve added four freshmen whose bodies are good and ready to help.

We have to stay healthy and continue to play together. Weve got to get through COVID-19 and get organized with some dates coming up here, but weve been full go since June. Weve had quarantines and to deal with all that stuff, but no one has had issues with COVID-19, knock on wood. I think we got better this summer and thats what I wanted our program to do in the middle of all this during a crazy time.

How important is it for Ron Harper Jr. to continue to develop as a player for this team to take another step forward? As opponents try to take away Geo Baker once again at the end of games, does Harper need to become that 1a option behind him this season for forward progress to continue?

He is another guy thats improved a ton this summer and his body looks great. Hes really done a good job of staying healthy and has improved his jump shot. I think its really important.

Ron certainly is a really capable scorer. He can score at three levels too which is a hard thing in our league. He can post you and score, he can take you off the dribble and he can shoot the ball. Ron becomes a hard matchup.

Everyone last season tried to take the ball out of Geos hands. That will continue and has been that way for a couple years now. Geo has still found a knack in light of all that to find ways to make big plays. Hopefully, games dont come down to as many big plays this season. Hopefully, we are in a better place defensively with our program.

I think Oskar Palmquist is going to give us another guy who can score off the post, score off the dribble and score from three. I think Paul Mulcahy too. We have other guys. Jacob Young made huge plays for us down the stretch last season. He stepped up and gave us some really good minutes. He has an ability score in a lot of levels. I think Geo can do that too.

I like the fact that we are one of those teams now thats hard for opponents to say what are you going to take away from Rutgers? Theyve got enough guys and different options. We dont just need a 1A, we need a 1B, 1C, and a 1D. Foul trouble factors into the end of games. Sickness factors into the end of games. Guys not being on the floor for various reasons. You always have to be prepared for plan B, C and D. I look forward to those challenges and I think that the guys are excited for each other. If I decide to run a play at the end of the game for Ron Harper Jr., Geo would be excited for him and be the first guy to say he has the advantage here. I do also like it when Geo tells me Hey give me the ball, I have the advantage.

For continued coverage of the Rutgers mens basketball team, visit us here.

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Q&A with Rutgers mens basketball head coach Steve Pikiell - On The Banks

Yet in late March Congress passed, and Trump signed, the CARES Act, a huge spending bill that in important ways was just what America needed.

Now, the act was a Christmas tree bill, with something for almost everyone. Small businesses got loans that they could convert into grants if they used the money to maintain payrolls. Big businesses got loans, too. Most adults got stimulus checks, typically $1,200, in the hope that they would spend the money and hence support consumer demand.

But the really crucial element of the CARES Act was expanded aid to the unemployed. Benefits were expanded to people like gig workers who had previously fallen through the cracks, and everyone receiving benefits got an extra $600 a week.

This expansion of aid to the unemployed did double duty. It alleviated hardship, letting laid-off workers continue to pay rent and put food on the table. And it supported overall spending much more effectively than those stimulus checks, most of which were probably just saved.

Who deserves credit for this very good policy? A recent Times article describes Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, as the architect of the CARES Act and the bill as a victory for Trump. Actually, however, the crucial unemployment provisions were devised largely by Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and the most you can say about Mnuchin and Trump is that they didnt reject Democratic demands that these provisions be included.

Thats something, I guess.

But Republicans hated that $600 supplement, insisting with no evidence that it discouraged workers from taking jobs. Trump appeared to agree, and perhaps buoyed by rising stocks encouraged Senate Republicans to take a hard line as key provisions of the CARES Act expired. And because Republicans refused to extend crisis aid, or make a good-faith counteroffer, the supplement expired a month ago, even though were still down 13 million jobs from where we were in February.

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Trump Had One Good Response to Covid-19. His Party Killed It. - The New York Times

Texans have found themselves in the middle of some serious drama in Republican National Conventions in years past.

Heres a look back at memorable moments involving former Gov. John Connally, future President George H.W. Bush, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, and former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

The Houston Republican became Donald Trumps most significant primary challenger in 2016. In May, Cruz would drop out of the race, but not before winning 11 states and amassing the second-highest number of delegates in a battle that had frequently turned bitter.

Still, when it came time for the convention in Cleveland, Cruz was given a prime time speaking spot on the third night of the convention, just before Mike Pence would speak.

When Cruz was called on stage, he congratulated Trump on his victory, but boos rained down on him as it became clear he would not endorse Trump. The next day Cruz defended his decision by saying I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.

In 2012, Texas Congressman Ron Paul ran for president against eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Although he lost, Paul built a passionate following with his Libertarian views.

While Paul was offered a chance to speak at the convention, he had to agree to endorse Romney and to have his speech first reviewed by the Romney camp.

It wouldnt be my speech, Paul told the New York Times then. That would undo everything Ive done in the last 30 years. I dont fully endorse him for president.

After negotiations broke down, Romneys team when to Plan B making a video tribute to Paul that resembled a movie trailer.

In 1980, when Houstons George H.W. Bush arrived in Detroit, he did not expect he would leave the city as Ronald Reagans running mate.

The former CIA director had lost to Reagan in the primary, but Reagan had not named a vice president as the convention started. Reagan and his team were negotiating with former President Gerald Ford about the position late into the evening when the deal fell through. At 11:38 p.m., Reagan called Bush to see if he wanted the position.

No one was more surprised than I was when I answered the phone in my hotel suite and Ronald Reagan was on the other end of the line, Bush said in his book All The Best.

Reagan would go to the floor of the convention just past midnight to announce Bush would be his vice presidential pick.

In joining the Reagan ticket, Bush gave a less than 7-minute acceptance speech on the final night of the convention.

Conventions in the 1970s were very different. In 1976, Ronald Reagan took to the floor of the convention to challenge the renomination of President Gerald Ford. Although Ford appeared to have enough delegates to win, Reagan triggered a procedural vote that was seen as a key test to whether Ford would survive.

It was right before that vote that former Texas Gov. John Connally was tasked with delivering a speech to distracted delegates in Kansas City as vote wrangling was ongoing.

Connally had been a Democrat as governor but three years before his speech he had switched to the Republican Party. There was a lot riding on the speech. Ford still hadnt named a running mate, and Connally was seen as a potential vice presidential candidate that could help Ford win southern states against Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter.

But Connallys speech received mostly polite applause as he failed to mention Ford or Reagan by name during the nearly 30-minute talk. Texas Monthly would call the speech a clunker and Ford bypassed Connally, instead picking U.S. Sen. Bob Dole to be his running mate. Connally would run for president in 1980, but his campaign never got far off the ground.

Watch Connallys speech here: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4901321/user-clip-connolly1976

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Ted Cruz gets booed, and other Texans memorable RNC moments - Houston Chronicle

After three years of insisting that unvetted information should never form the basis for an investigation into an active presidential candidate, Republican members of the Senate would never attempt to do such a thing themselves, right?

Wrong. That is exactly what some are attempting to do in the home stretch of the 2020 election. Specifically, Senator Ron Johnson has been laying the groundwork to undertake Ukrainegate 2.0: An attempt to accomplish through a congressional hearing what President Donald Trump was unable to achieve through his quid pro quo to Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelensky, namely, to put Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, under a cloud of suspicion before the country votes this November. And rather than wait for any report voted out by his committee, Johnson has taken to penning an open letter and tweeting out insinuations.

But Ukrainegate 2.0, like the original, has a dual purpose. The goal isnt just to smear Biden, but also to shift blame for 2016 election interference to Ukraine. An architect of that false narrative about Ukraine is Paul Manafort, and the probe has accordingly served the former Trump campaign chairmans interests along numerous fronts in Ukraine politics and at home. With regard to his personal interests, Manafort is currently serving a 7 1/2-year federal sentence for bank fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, false statements, and witness tampering. Manafort has attempted to use the Ukraines election interference conspiracy to discredit the evidence that led to his own prosecution.

Whats not received sufficient attention is how Johnsons efforts have worked in tandem with Manaforts as Johnsons probe looks to discredit the same Ukrainian officials responsible for working with American investigators in bringing charges against Manafort. Undermining Manaforts prosecution offers a basis for President Trump to tie up the last loose end from the charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign and finally give the pardon he had dangled to Manafort over a year and a half ago.

To understand how these two parallel efforts are linked, we need to rewind the tape a few years to when the Ukraine conspiracy began and also look at the common denominator in this combined effort, Trumps personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

The Origins of the Ukraine Conspiracy

Manafort began floating the false theory during the 2016 campaign that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for the hack of the DNC server, according to interviews conducted by Muellers team with Rick Gates, Trumps former deputy campaign chairman. (The US intelligence community unanimously attributed the hack to Russia, and Special Counsel Mueller later indicted 12 GRU Russian military officers for the hack.) In the ensuing months, Manafort and his close collaborator Konstantin Kilimnik a Russian intelligence officer actively engaged in secretive efforts to promote the idea that Ukraine interfered in the election not only with respect to the server; their narrative also included the idea that Ukraine officials targeted Manafort in the final stretch of the campaign using false documents. Manafort embraced and promoted the narrative of Ukraines alleged involvement in the 2016 elections, the recently released bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report explains. Kilimnik almost certainly helped arrange some of the first public messaging that Ukraine had interfered in the U.S. election, which included fostering stories in the media.

Key to understanding the interference aspect of the conspiracy theory as it relates to Manafort is the release of a document in August 2016, known as the black ledger, by an independent Ukrainian anti-corruption agency, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and publicized by a Ukrainian parliamentarian, Serhiy Leshchenko. The ledger appeared to detail $12.7 million in undisclosed payments from Yanukovychs Russia-aligned political party, the Party of Regions, to Manafort. The Anti-Corruption Bureau had, a month and a half prior, signed an evidence-sharing agreement with the FBI. For his part, Manafort denied receiving the payments and questioned the authenticity of the ledger, though he stepped down from the Trump campaign following public reporting of these payments. This was part of the disinformation campaign described, at length, in the Senate Intelligence Committees report. Manafort and Kilimnik both sought to promote the narrative that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election and that the ledger naming payments to Manafort was fake, the report states.

A Media Report: What Was and Wasnt In It

The Ukraine interference theory gained traction in right-wing circles especially after reporter Ken Vogel published a piece in 2017 fleshing out some aspects of the narrative in an article titled, Ukrainian Efforts to Sabotage Trump Backfire. Central to this circuitous article which has become key to Senator Johnsons current probe was a consultant to the DNC, Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American lawyer, who since 2014 had been investigating Manaforts ties to former Ukrainian president Yanukovych and pro-Russian oligarchs. One of the articles most explosive allegations came from Andrii Telizhenko, who worked as a diplomatic aide at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, DC. He told Vogel, among other things, that Ukrainian embassy officials were coordinating an investigation with the Hillary team on Paul Manafort with Alexandra Chalupa. This was also an aspect of the story that Vogel highlighted on social media:

We have detailed the central role that Telizhenko plays as a conduit for Russian disinformation and in Johnsons probe in our previous article for Just Security. Since the publication of our piece, the Senate Intelligence report has also identified Telizhenko as part of the effort to spread disinformation through the media that Ukrainian officials framed Manafort. (At the time of Vogels story, there was no public record of Telizhenkos connections to Russian disinformation.)

Specifically on the black ledger, Vogels article includes interviews with Manafort and Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, who served as Poroshenkos head of security but had since become affiliated with a leading opponent of Poroshenko. In their comments, Manafort and Nalyvaichenko cast doubt on the authenticity of the ledger. (For additional information on Nalyvaichenkos more recent activities, see the Kyiv Posts 3 Ukrainian lawmakers doing Trumps dirty work in scandal.)

The Vogel article was careful to disclaim proof of a centralized effort involving President Poroshenko and never touched on the issue of the hack of the DNC server, but that did not stop right-wing circles and some Republican Senators from invoking the article to support wider claims not actually found in Vogels piece. It was widely cited as the GOPs evidence of Ukrainian election interference during Trumps impeachment hearings two years later. (Some of those same commentators have also disregarded or downplayed Vogels other reporting. He was, for example, the first reporter to identify Kilimnik and the operatives connections to Manafort and Russian intelligence, and he has reported on other elements such as Telizhenkos months-long work with Johnsons staff.)

The Causal Logic of the Ukraine Conspiracy

The causal logic that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, as spun up by Manafort, Kilimnik and Telizhenko, appears to be that Chalupa, with ties to the Hillary team/DNC, worked with Ukrainian officials to smear Manafort. The Ukrainian side, the logic goes, engineered the production of the black ledger, which effectively framed Manafort, forced him to resign from the Trump campaign, and ultimately led to the FBI investigation into his activities and ultimate prosecution and conviction. Or, as the-White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders summed it up in 2017, If youre looking for an example of a campaign coordinating with a foreign country or a foreign source, look no further than the DNC, who actually coordinated opposition research with the Ukrainian Embassy.

Except thats not what happened. For starters, U.S. law enforcement agents have been conducting an investigation into the financial dealings of Manafort since 2014, and, in January 2016, the FBI initiated a money laundering and tax evasion investigation of Manafort based on his work with Ukraine political groups. That was well before Manafort joined the Trump campaign or the known existence of the black ledger. Second, FBI Director Christopher Wrays said in December, We have no information that would indicate that Ukraine tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Likewise, in discussing Manafort and Kilimniks disinformation campaign, the Senate intelligence committees report states that during the course of the investigation, the Committee identified no reliable evidence that the Ukrainian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

Whats more, the essential veracity of the black ledger has held up over time. As Robert Mackey explained:

Bank records described in an FBI search warrant, and reviewed by the Associated Press, confirmed that at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the records next to Manaforts name were actually deposited in one of his firms bank accounts in Virginia.Andrew Kramer, the New York Times foreign correspondent who first revealed the secret payments to Manafort, also reported at the time that others in Ukraine who were named in the ledger had confirmed that the records were genuine.

As a BBC fact check on the ledger explained, More than three years since it emerged, no one has managed to cast serious doubt on its contents. The Washington Posts fact checker Glenn Kessler noted, While some Republicans have suggested that the ledger was fake, Manaforts defense lawyers did not make that argument.

Simply put, Manafort was not framed. He was convicted of 8 felonies by a jury and pleaded guilty to money laundering and acting as a foreign agent for Ukraine to avoid a second trial (and likely to avoid detailed evidence of his Ukraine activities from being aired publicly in court).

Enter Rudy Giuliani

Not one to let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory, Trumps personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, picked up the torch on the Ukraine election interference idea after he came on board in 2018. Over months Giuliani consulted several times with Manafort through the federal prisoners lawyer in an effort to find any information that he could use to say the black ledger was a forgery cooked up by officials in Ukraine. Giuliani has hoped that by discrediting the authenticity of the black ledger, he could show that the investigation against Manafort was a pretext and discredit the Russia investigation more generally.

Giuliani, for example, declared on CNN that the ledger is a completely fraudulent document that was produced, in order to begin the investigation of Manafort. He added that people in the Ukraine who knew about this plot were trying to get to us but they were being blocked by the Ambassador [Marie Yovanovitch] who was Obama-appointee, in Ukraine, who was holding back this information.

To understand why Giuliani may care specifically about Manafort, or has ongoing communication with his lawyer, it helps to remember the findings of the Mueller investigation. Specifically, Manafort originally agreed to cooperate with Muellers team in their investigation. Part way through that agreement, Muellers team discovered that Manafort was not being truthful, and was continuing to share information about the Mueller investigation with Trumps personal lawyers. Giuliani defended the arrangement between Trumps and Manaforts attorneys when it surfaced publicly. Mueller also uncovered evidence that Trump had floated the possibility of a pardon to Manafort, as an incentive for him not to cooperate with Muellers team. The Mueller report also describes several instances in which Giuliani personally used media interviews apparently to dangle the pardon for Manafort. Mueller terminated the cooperation agreement with Manafort, and along with it, any possibility of a plea deal or reduced sentence.

The Senate Intelligence Committees counterintelligence report also underscores how much information Manafort may have with regard to Russias activities in 2016, and which we still do not know. As stated in the report:

Prior to joining the Trump Campaign in March 2016 and continuing throughout his time on the Campaign, Manafort directly and indirectly communicated with Kilimnik, Deripaska, and the pro-Russian oligarchs in Ukraine. On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik. The Committee was unable to reliably determine why Manafort shared sensitive internal polling data or Campaign strategy with Kilimnik or with whom Kilimnik further shared that information. The Committee had limited insight into Kilimniks communications with Manafort and into Kilimniks communications with other individuals connected to Russian influence operations, all of whom used communications security practices. The Committee obtained some information suggesting Kilimnik may have been connected to the GRUs hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election.

A member of the committee, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), noted that the unredacted version of the report includes indications of Manaforts own connections to [the hack and leak] operations.

In sum, Manafort may hold the keys to the kingdom, not only in terms of shedding light on Russias activities in 2016, but also how much coordination or assistance they received from members of the Trump campaign.

The upshot here is that Manafort could have spilled the beans to Mueller, but didnt presumably gambling that he could get off scot-free, via a presidential pardon, if he kept his mouth shut. NBCs Howard Fineman reported in 2018, that Trump decided that a key witness in the Russia probe, Paul Manafort, isnt going to flip and sell him out, friends and aides say a further indication that Manafort has derogatory information about Trump and the president knows it. Manaforts leverage, of course, likely includes whatever information he never revealed to Muellers team: He could still say what he knows. Simply put, it has been in Trumps interest to keep Manafort happy, which involved laying the groundwork for a pardon. But until now, at least, Trump seems to have assessed that an outright pardon could be too costly. Hes needed a politically expedient reason, and a cooked up investigation of Manafort would provide the right grounds.

Which brings us to the July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky. A review of the summary of the call shows that the quid pro quo offered by Trump has as much to do with asking Zelensky to help substantiate the idea that Ukraine was responsible for interfering in the 2016 election as with investigating the Bidens. Trump references Ambassador Yovanovitch, and the people she was dealing with in Ukraine as bad news; he adds, shes going to go through some things. I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call. Trump also mentions [t]he other thing, in which he elaborates on the Bidens. Zelensky notes that one of his assistants has already spoken with Giuliani and that he looks forward to meeting with Giuliani when he comes to Ukraine.

In short, Giulianis mission to discredit Ukrainian officials involved with Manaforts investigation preceded the July 25 phone call, and the Biden ask was added to that effort. As we have previously written, Giuliani also appears to be one of the main channels funneling disinformation about Ukraine into Sen. Johnsons committee.

But theres an important element in the timeline that should not be missed. While some have said that Johnsons investigation began last year as counterprogramming to the House impeachment process, that cant explain the senators original motivation. Johnsons efforts actually began before impeachment and even before Trumps phone call with Ukraines president. The timing indicates that Johnsons probe, like Guilianis efforts, were also undertaken initially to advance the Ukraine conspiracy theory, and thereby discredit Manaforts prosecution and the Special Counsel investigation more generally.

In fact, around early July 2019, the senator was already exercising poor judgment meeting personally with Telizhenko; and Johnsons staff spent over 5 hours with the Ukrainian operative to discuss the the DNC issue a reference to his unsubstantiated claim that the Democratic National Committee worked with the Ukrainian government in 2016 to gather incriminating information about Paul Manafort, the Washington Post reported. Johnsons meeting followed Giulianis interviewing Telizhenko for several hours in May. according to Telizhenko, Giuliani said that he was representing Trump, that he was the presidents personal lawyer, and that he was working on proving that the DNC had colluded with Ukraine in 2016.

On May 23, 2019, Sen. Johnson attended a meeting in the Oval Office as part of a small delegation of senior officials who returned from a trip to Ukraine. President Trump directed the group going forward to work with Giuliani on Ukraine, Ambassador Gordon Sondland told Congress. In an interview in Oct. 2019, Johnson responded that he had no recollection of the president mentioning Rudy Giuliani at the May meeting. In November, the House Intelligence Committee released the depositions from Ambassador Bill Taylor, who corroborated Sondlands testimony, and from Ambassador Kurt Volker who said he interpreted the President not as an instruction but just as a comment, talk to Rudy. Tim Morrison would later testify along the same lines as Volker. Somehow Johnson was the only one who failed to recall the presidents making any statement about their working or speaking with Giuliani.

* * *

The promotion of the Ukraine-interference conspiracy theory has served multiple objectives over time, including the personal interests of Manafort. Its unclear if Manafort still seeks a pardon as desperately. In May, Bill Barrs Justice Department released Manafort to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement, notably despite Manaforts failure to qualify for the categories prioritized for release under DOJ coronavirus guidelines. Manafort has about five years left in his sentence. We dont have any experience with anyone serving this much time in home confinement, Kevin Ring, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, told Bloomberg News. Compared to prison its so much better, but you are being monitored and you cant screw up.

More:

Manafort's Reward: Sen. Ron Johnson and the Ukraine Conspiracy Investigation - Just Security

During the 2016 presidential election, U.S. president Donald Trump captured 306 electoral votes en route to his shocking upset victory over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Narrow victories in states like Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin carried the day for Trump who actually lost the national popular vote to Clinton by a little more than two percentage points.

As we have previously reported, several of these swing states are very much in play in the 2020 election cycle which pits Trump against former U.S. vice president Joe Biden in his bid for a second four-year term.

Meanwhile, Clinton coronated by the pollsters (most of them, anyway) as the first female president in American history won 232 electoral votes four years ago, although she did not receive all of them when the Electoral College convened on December 19, 2016. Nor did Trump wind up receiving all of his electoral votes.

What happened?

Five faithless electors pledged to Clinton instead cast their ballots for other candidates. Three from Washington State voted for former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell, while another voted for native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle. Also, an elector from Hawaii who was pledged to Clinton cast his ballot for U.S. senator Bernie Sanders her rival for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

Two other electors pledged to Clinton (one in Maine and another in Minnesota) voted for Sanders instead while an elector in Colorado pledged to Clinton voted instead for Ohio governor John Kasich. All three of these electoral votes were invalidated and recast, however.

When it was all said and done, Clinton received only 227 electoral votes (five fewer than she earned).

Trump was also the victim of faithless electors. Two pledged to him in the state of Texas cast their electoral college votes for other politicians (one for Kasich and one for former U.S. congressman Ron Paul). Both of those ballots stood, giving Trump 304 total electoral votes two shy of the total he earned.

Electoral faithlessness is the focus of an even, eloquent and expansive forthcoming treatment by Emily Conrad a South Carolina author who is self-publishing a book that every American needs to read before they go to the polls on November 3.

Conrads soon-to-be released book The Faithless is driven predominantly by the personal narratives of the individual electors who defied convention (and the will of their home states voters) by voting their consciences in 2016. But this untold story of the Electoral College also delves into the essence of electoral faithlessness and its potential implications on the 2020 presidential election.

(Click to view)

(Via: Provided)

Our readers may recall Conrad (above) as having contributed several thought-provoking columns to this news outlet over the years including this piece on the then-brewing trade war between the United States and China back in early 2018.

Until recently, she was studying at Peking University in Beijing, China. There, one of her professors tasked her with including a chapter about swing states as part of her masters thesis. As Conrad explored that topic, she found herself steeped in research about the Electoral College.

The concept of faithless electors immediately intrigued her, and as she read more about the individuals who cast these votes she became more and more captivated.

Who were these people who were willing to completely alienate themselves from their respective political parties? Conrad wrote. What sorts of people would risk it all to do something that seemed so futile? What message were they trying to convey?

Prior to 2016, only nine faithless votes had been cast during the previous 104 years (most recently an anonymous 2004 elector in Minnesota who voted for John Ewards despite being pledged to cast a ballot for former U.S. secretary of state John Kerry).

That number was eclipsed in the last election.

As of 2016, there have been 165 separate instances of electoral unfaithfulness including 71 electors who cast ballots for candidates who died prior to the Electoral College convening. And while the faithless voting in 2016 did not impact the outcome of the presidential race, the possibility of another close contest in 2020 certainly raises the specter that it could.

I believe that faithless electors may become a more influential trend in future presidential election cycles, Conrad wrote, adding that it is possible for electors to be easily identified and targeted by bad-faith domestic or foreign actors.

As mentioned, Conrads book is primarily focused on the stories of the individual electors but within those narratives are ideological leanings we believe are worth watching as the 2020 campaign hits the homestretch.

Take the story of David Mulinix of Hawaii whose disdain for establishment Democratic politicians like Clinton and Biden is what has fueled the rise of Sanders. Like the other faithless, he spoke at length with Conrad about what motivated him to betray his pledge.

In Bernies speeches, he always focused on the we, Mulinix told Conrad. Bernie said things like, We can make change happen or We can build a better tomorrow. Whenever Clinton spoke it was always about the I. She said things like I want this or I did that.

I began to think about the election process and about the millions of people who voted for Bernie because they believed in him, Mulinix continued. Hillary Clinton had done nothing to earn my Electoral College vote. In fact, the Democratic nomination was stolen from us: from us Bernie supporters.

Wait is Mulinix correct? Was the 2016 Democratic primary rigged?

Yes

Which is why he said it was his duty to lend his vote and his voice to the millions of Sanders supporters who were robbed.

The election had been stolen, Mulinix said. All I did was validate all of their efforts all of our efforts to make the world a better place. At that moment, I felt so proud. I thought to myself: This isnt my protest vote; this is our protest vote. This is our stand.

Could ber-liberal progressive electors take a similar stand in 2020?

Last month, the U.S. supreme court issued a ruling (.pdf) in the case of Chiafalo v. Washington (591 U.S. ___, 2020). This unanimous decision determined that states can demand that (an) elector actually live up to his pledge, on pain of penalty.

What does that mean, though, precisely?

While the mainstream media interpreted the courts ruling as a decisive defeat for faithless electors and a victory for electoral order the truth is far murkier. As Conrad noted in a postscript to her book, only 32 states have laws currently in place which bind electors, while only fifteen states have laws in place to remove and replace an elector after a faithless vote.

(Click to view)

(Via: Getty Images)

So while the courts decision empowered state governments to exert some measure of control over their electoral votes not all states have such controls in place. And those that do .. well, they are in place to varying degrees.

Also, the court appears to have sidestepped a significant question as to the constitutionality of the laws. Specifically, its decision does not resolve whether statutes that strip faithless electors of their right to cast a ballot as they desire or preemptively bar them from voting (in the case of Colorado elector Michael Baca) are constitutional.

For example, if an elector in one state can be imprisoned and have their faithless vote invalidated (the irony is thick there, we will admit) how is it fair that a faithless elector in another state could have their vote counted and see themselves subjected only to a nominal fine for the same action?

Perhaps the most complicated part of binding elector laws is that different state governments may have different interpretations about the constitutional role of electors, Conrad noted, adding that those in the know couldnt help but to notice that the supreme court decision left gaping holes unaddressed.

One national consultant we spoke with earlier this month warned us that the courts ruling not only failed to resolve the issue of faithless electors it more ominously failed to address the issue of potential bribery associated with those who hold these powerful votes in their hands.

There is nothing to prevent some of these electors from selling their votes, the consultant told us. We have statutes on the books that keep our politicians from selling their votes, but show me the statute that says a presidential elector cannot pledge their vote for whomever they choose based on whatever agreement they wish.

This issue was actually raised by justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito during oral arguments on the Chiafalo case.

Want to learn more about this debate? Conrad is hosting a book launch party this coming Tuesday (August 25, 2020) beginning at 5:00 p.m. EDT at the Dray Bar and Grill in Spartanburg, S.C. She will be signing copies of the book and answering questions from readers.

And again, those of you looking to pick up your own copy of the book can do so by clicking here

-FITSNews

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Why 'The Faithless' Could Be The Most Important Political Book In America - FITSNews

This has been one of the worst summers on record for most people, what with the pandemic, political divisiveness and social injustices plaguing the country. But even still, its a pretty cool time to be a member of the Cephas Jones family. In July, dad Ron and daughter Jasmine each earned Emmy nominations.

And while Ron has been through this excitement before (hes won an Emmy for the role of William on This Is Us), this is Jasmines first nomination for the Quibi short program "#FreeRayShawn. But the 31-year-old actress has already experienced the Hamilton whirlwind, earning a 2016 Grammy for the Broadway smashs soundtrack.

The duo is remarkably close despite living on opposite coasts. They recently Zoomed in together on a call with The Envelope and talked about taking advice from Philip Seymour Hoffman, how jazz and acting overlap, and why its important to show up and just do the work.

What was it like to find out youd each been nominated?

Jasmine Cephas Jones: I was walking my dogs and grabbing a coffee and somebody texted me and was like, Congrats, Emmy nom! I said, That would be awesome, but I dont think Im nominated. I went on Google and started crying.

Ron Cephas Jones: I was excited also but more excited that my daughter was nominated; that was everything for me. [She grew] up being dragged around in the theater for so many years.

Did you offer Jasmine advice when you found out she wanted to be an actor?

Ron: The advice I gave her was advice I continue to give her its all about the work. Shes hung out with me in the theater company that I was involved in [LAByrinth] and two plays that I did [there] were both directed by [longtime theater leader] Philip Seymour Hoffman. Jasmine used to be at the rehearsals, and there were two words that he said to me. And what were those two words, Jasmine?

Jasmine: You guys were in rehearsal and [Hoffman] was giving out notes, and he said, Youre acting.

Ron: Youre acting. Dont act.

Jasmine: It wasnt until I started studying Meisner [technique] where [I] was like hit over the head, and I was like, I know what he means. He means live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.

Was there ever a time you tried to dissuade her from becoming an actor?

Ron: No; it was an opportunity to hang out with my daughter. We had a lot of fun growing up together.

Jasmine: It was also inevitable. I was like at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe as a little kid, you know, 4 or 5. I was there watching poetry till 2 or 3 in the morning just hanging out with my dad.

And your mother is singer Kim Lesley, correct?

Jasmine: She is a jazz singer. And she was performing when she was pregnant with me. She was really big with this band called Paul Young in England.

Wait, 80s singer Paul Young, from Everytime You Go Away?

Jasmine: Yeah, she was one of the Fabulous Wealthy Tarts. She came to New York to follow her dreams and create a solo career.

Obviously, acting is key to your lives, but music threads through it for both of you Jasmines got a Grammy, and Ron, you were going to study jazz at one point, right?

Ron: Well, if you look behind Jasmine [whose bookshelf displays several albums], its a copy of Miles Davis Kind of Blue. That album was Jasmines bedtime lullaby. When she was a little girl, I would put that on as well as Charlie Parker With Strings. [Parkers] nickname is Bird. I ended up nicknaming her Bird. Its a world that Ive always been connected to, and I connected my daughter to it in a way that we could share the artistic and beautiful sound of it.

Jasmine: Jazz is a form of improv that if you study and really listen to, you know, it can also translate into your acting as well.

That give and take in jazz that translates into acting, you mean?

Ron: Its like organized chaos, but you know, like a band you have to work together and you have to listen. So, its the art of listening to where your fellow musician or actor is taking you. And then go with that and giving and taking.

You both landed major breaks around the same time 2015 for Jasmine with Hamilton, and for Ron, This Is Us the following year. What was it about those productions that grabbed you?

Jasmine: The first time that I heard the music from Hamilton, it was something Ive never, ever heard in my entire life. Immediately, I was like, This is a game changer. I walked into the audition not being in musical theater at all. And it was a very new world for me.

Ron: I was at that audition I sat outside, and I was listening to her inside. And I knew, I just knew.

Jasmine: Oh, my God. Yeah, that was for one of my callbacks, I think, because we were going to get lunch.

Ron: I had spent most of my career on the stage. Each time I would book a television show, it would last maybe one season or my character would get killed off in the second season. So, when I got that role on This Is Us, it just was right. Everything about that character, I already knew from my history in the theater from [James] Baldwin to August Wilson to Ralph Ellison to Richard Wright. So, when I read him, I didnt really have to do anything but just show up in the room. My blessing was that [show creator] Dan Fogelman noticed it.

And again, like Ive taught my daughter, Do the work and everything else will eventually happen the way you want it to happen. Or not really the way you want it to happen but in the way its supposed to happen. So regardless of the time, my whole blessing is that my daughter is healthy, happy and pursuing that which she loves to do. And nothing, nothing could be greater for a parent than that. Nothing.

Original post:

Father and daughter earn 2020 Emmy nominations - Los Angeles Times

Letter writer Ron Eldridge, as a retired CFO, would, I hope, know the meaning of the words transfer payment. In economics, this is a payment made as a redistribution of income by government.

That is what Social Security is and always has been. Social Security takes money from working Peter and gives it to retired Grandpa Paul.

Im fine with that and believe that it is important and should continue. It is one of our basic promises to all Americans.

But Eldridge seems, like many Americans, to believe it is a savings account. It is not. Any payroll tax money left over after paying benefits was given to the federal government for U.S. Treasury bonds. This money was then spent by the federal government immediately.

It is as if you had money left after paying your bills, so you wrote yourself an IOU and then spent the money. A cookie jar full of IOUs to yourself is not a savings account.

If Social Security stopped collecting payroll taxes for a number of years as Eldridge suggests, and tried to use funds from the sale of U.S. Treasury bonds to fund Social Security benefits, the money to redeem these government IOUs could be found in three ways: Increase other federal taxes, sell the bonds to someone other than the federal government (China, perhaps) or print the money. I dont see why we would want to do any of these things; they would all hurt the American people.

Instead, we must face the simple truth that we, the American people, allowed Washington to use excess payroll taxes as another source of revenue for the past three generations. We have a Social Security system that still works the way it always has, where people like me who are working pay our payroll taxes so that the retired Eldridge can collect his Social Security check.

ROBIN MOULDER

engineer

Baton Rouge

See the original post here:

Letters: Taking from 'working Peter' and giving to 'retired Grandpa Paul' - The Advocate

Its been 26 years since The Fast Show first aired. Originally running from 1994-97, the frantic sketch shows sex-mad car showman and innuendo-crazed tailors perhaps wouldnt find their way on to TV today. But that hasnt stopped Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse, Simon Day, Arabella Weir, John Thomson and Mark Williams reuniting for a one-year-late silver anniversary special packed full of unacceptable 90s humour. We caught up with the shows best-loved characters to see how they are coping with the modern world.

Hi, Swiss. In what ways is turning 26 very much like making love to a beautiful woman?For me, turning 26 was very much like making love to a beautiful woman because I spent the day making love to a beautiful woman. In fact, as it was my birthday, I made love to three women and what turned out to be a goat with a hat on.

Following #MeToo, is it still politically correct to lure women with the promise of fine wines, Belgian chocolates and the manly smell of a pipe?Whats the alternative? A face mask, some compostable carrier bags and a scented candle? Anyway, I object to the term lure, I prefer court. Courtship is a dying art. These days its just swipe left, swipe right, bullseye!

In what ways is travelling by public transport while adhering to strict social distancing guidelines during a worldwide pandemic very much like making love to a beautiful woman?I have absolutely no idea. I have never used public transport. I am a driver and always will be. To get me on to a bus they will have to prise the steering wheel out of my cold dead hands. But I have seen people using a bus on the television. It looks fairly straightforward, even if youre sticking to the government guidelines. In fact, Id go so far as to say its very much like making love to a beautiful woman. First, consider entering via the lesser-used rear entrance. The front entrance generally sees more traffic and can be a honey trap for germs. On entry, remember to smile with your eyes, it doesnt matter what youre really thinking because they wont be able to see you behind your mask. Then simply enjoy the ride. When you get off, wash your hands and sanitise your PPE your personal pipe end.

The Euros, the Olympics and Wimbledon are all off! How are you coping, Ron?Oh, isnt it, the football? Hmm? Association soccer the soccer experience? The piped-in chants of racial abuse, the empty stadia (notice how I used the correct term for the plural of stadium there?), sad, isnt it? If a defender is nutmegged in a forest with no crowd to cheer, does it make any sound? Or something. But we will fight this virus, we are British after all, and unlike every other country in the world we wont give in. We shall fight them on the beaches. Although I dont think Churchill meant we should fight each other on the beaches like our lads are doing in Wales and Bournemouth kicking each other up their ba (notice how I used the correct term for the plural of bum there?).

Oh, yes. This pandemic. Pandemonium isnt it? Wasnt it? Like the shadow of Hitlers jackboot stamping its way across Europe. That was the last time the football was cancelled. Small boys, on the beach, oil-covered, rotting seagulls for goal posts. Isnt it? Wasnt it? And, quite frankly, I dont give a toss about the tennis.

Have you ever had an infectious disease?COVID! Aaaaaaargh! Ive had almost every disease known to mankind . I believe it was either in Rio de Janeiro, or Dar Es Salaam, or was it Kettering? Anyway, I had running sores all the way up my inner thigh and up the back of my head . Extremely high temperature the highest ever recorded for a human being . I remember the beautiful painted floorboards third in line to the throne I was looked after by a beautiful Mayan woman. Interesting people, the Mayans did you know they played the earliest team sport in the world?! With a brain not allowed to use their head, hands or feet! Offside ref I got sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker and I Brexited all over the carpet . I was quarantined for rabies, Ebola, Lassa fever and the foxtrot. Tintin Quarantino. And the upshot was to this day I still cant. . Is that all right? My grandchildren tell me I need to keep up with the modern world and use emojis. They did show me how, but Im afraid I was very, very drunk.

So, Dave, how are you coping with the virus?We must track and trace. If you are showing signs of Covid get home and get the snooker on the time will fly by. For me, putting on a mask took me right back to a sub-post office in Wicklow in Essex. Happy days, nobody got hurt and the insurance paid out.

Has lockdown has been good or bad for the planet?There has sadly been a massive increase in single-use plastic, which is pointless and dangerous for the old globe. The turtles have been strangled just so you can have a tiny bottle of fake spring water sourced from a sewage works in Dagenham. And now we are being stung by jellyfish. Get down the cash and carry and get a barrel of water. Better still, drink TAP WATER! The planet enjoyed a break cos of Covid but we need a permanent one. Lets go back to nudity and bartering seriously.

How has your tailors shop coped in the lockdown crisis?Kenneth: Lockdown? Ooh, suit you, sir. Locked right down sir. In a dungeon Ooooh. Our shop has reopened, but it has all changed. You have to wear a mask.

Ken: Do you wear a mask, sir? Do you? Does it add a little spice to your life?

Kenneth: Ooh. Do you get your wife to wear a mask and pretend shes someone else, sir one of the Kardashians, perhaps, or even Kanye West? Were all fluid in this modern world, arent we, sir, or madam, or non-binary person Im not fussy. I like all 227 genders. You can use whatever pronoun you like with me. Ooh, suit you.

People have been buying fewer clothes in lockdown. Isnt fashion bad for the planet anyway?Ken: Well, body shapes change sir. And we need to accommodate that. Now the large booty is in fashion.

Kenneth: Do you like the large booty, sir? Straining at the Lycra, showing every contour known to mankind, like a 3D map of Jupiters moons. Ooh, suit you! Sorry, what was the question again?

Arent the royal family brilliant? They only have four different names, Edward, George, Henry and George again. Oh yeah, and Charles, but hell never be king, not as long as Olivia Colmans on the throne. The amazing thing about the British royal family is that theyre not really British at all. First they were Normans, which were a sort of French with funny helmets, then they were Scottish, then they were Dutch, then they were Germans and then they became British, just in time for world war two. Which was handy, cos it might have got confusing and wed have been at war with ourselves. And I think theyre probably still a bit confused, which was why Harry dressed up with all swastikas and that. Anyway, shes forgiven him, Meghan Sparkle, and now they live in Los Angeles, which is in Hollywood. Arent films brilliant? Except the ones that arent, which is most of em Int Prince Philip fantastic? Hes 325 year old and hes not dead yet, bout the same age as Dracula although some people reckon Prince Philip died years ago and was replaced by a robot or an alien or something. Id like to be replaced by an alien. Arent aliens fantastic? Nothing ever happens round here. Specially since lockdown. Except when we go to illegal raves in the park, take hippy crack and fight each other. Int hippy crack brilliant? Its like a drug you can also use to whip cream. Brilliaaaaant!

The Fast Show: Just a Load of Blooming Catchphrases is on Gold on 29 August. Words 2020 Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse, Simon Day.

Link:

'Lockdown? Suit you, sir!' The Fast Show characters on the Covid era - The Guardian

Im honored to be a part of the Black community in MLB the one that Jackie created and the one that we are continuing, Fowler said in the statement.

Speaking to the media before the game, the 34-year-old Fowler said, Obviously, the past few days have been pretty emotional. I wanted to play baseball but some things are better than baseball. African Americans in this country have been hurting for some time, and I took that day just to bring awareness.

Fowler said he also went through some emotions driving home that night while his team was preparing to play the Kansas City Royals. And, then when he got home, his 6-year-old daughter, Naya, had a burning question for him.

Daddy, why arent you playing tonight?

I had to explain that to her, said Fowler, and she goes, Thats not right. For a 6-year-old to realize the difference between right and wrong definitely hits home.

Fowler said he had talked to his father about his decision not to play. Hes one of the guys I lean on all the time and he said, I think youre making the right decision. With that, I went on and did it, Fowler said.

Hopefully, the conversation keeps going.

Asked whether he had personal experience of racial injustice, Fowler, who grew up in the Atlanta area, said, Thats for a whole another day.

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Fowler says he 'put my money where my mouth is' - STLtoday.com

Ron Paul, byname of Ronald Ernest Paul, (born August 20, 1935, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.), American politician, who served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives (197677, 197985, 19972013) and who unsuccessfully ran as the 1988 Libertarian presidential candidate. He later sought the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and 2012.

Britannica Quiz

American History and Politics

What kind of government does the United States have?

Paul grew up on his familys dairy farm just outside Pittsburgh. He earned a bachelors degree in biology from Gettysburg College in 1957 and a medical degree from Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, in 1961. He later served as a flight surgeon for the U.S. Air Force (196365) and the Air National Guard (196568). In 1968 Paul moved to Brazoria county, Texas, where he established a successful practice in obstetrics and gynecology.

Paul was inspired to enter politics in 1971 when Pres. Richard M. Nixon abolished the Bretton Woods exchange system. Paul believed that the abandonment of the last vestiges of the gold standard would lead to financial ruin for the United States. Though he was unsuccessful in his initial run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974, his opponent resigned before completing his term, and Paul won a special election to complete it. He lost the seat in the subsequent general election, only to regain it two years later. He chose not to seek reelection in 1984 and instead campaignedunsuccessfullyfor the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. He broke from the Republican Party to run as a Libertarian in the 1988 presidential election, ultimately winning more than 430,000 votes. He returned to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1997, though his votes were often at variance with the majority of his party; for example, in the early 2000s he voted against authorizing the Iraq War and the USA Patriot Act.

Pauls presidential campaign platform remained libertarian in spirit. It focused on free-market economics, a radical reduction in the size of government, increased privacy protections for individuals, and a reduction of U.S. participation in international organizations. Having claimed only a handful of delegates, he ended his bid for the White House in June 2008 and launched Campaign for Liberty, a political action committee. In April 2011 Paul, who was popular within the Tea Party movement, formed an exploratory committee to assess the viability of a third presidential run. The following month he formally announced his candidacy. In July 2011, in order to focus on his presidential campaign, Paul announced that he would not seek a 13th term in Congress. Although supported by a devoted and energized base, Paul was selective in the states where he actively campaigned. A second-place showing in New Hampshire was among his best performances in January 2012. He garnered a number of other second-place finishes before announcing in May that he would not campaign in the remaining states. Paul did not endorse the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, and said on the night of the general election that he believed the only winner would be the status quo. He retired from the House in January 2013, at the age of 77.

Pauls views are outlined in Freedom Under Siege (1987), A Foreign Policy of Freedom (2007), and The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008).

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Ron Paul | Biography, Education, Books, & Facts | Britannica

by RON PAUL || For months, The Washington Post and the rest of the mainstream media kept a morbid Covid-19 death count on their front pages and at the top of their news broadcasts. The coronavirus outbreak was all about the number of dead. The narrative was intended to boost governors like Cuomo in New York and Whitmer in Michigan, who turned their states authoritarian under the false notion that destroying peoples jobs, freedom, and lives would somehow keep a virus from doing what viruses always do: spread through a population until eventually losing strength and dying out.

The death count was always the headline.

But then all of a sudden early in June the mainstream media did a George Orwell and lectured us that it is all about cases and has always been all about cases. Death, and especially infection fatality rate, were irrelevant. Why? Because from the peak in April, deaths had decreased by 90 percent and were continuing to crash. That was not terrifying enough so the media pretended this good news did not exist.

With massive increases in testing, the case numbers climbed. This is not rocket science: the more people you test the more cases you discover.

Unfortunately our mainstream media is only interested in pushing the party line. So the good news that millions more have been exposed while the fatality rate continues to decline meaning the virus is getting weaker is buried under hysterical false reporting of new cases.

Unfortunately many governors, including our own here in Texas, are incapable of resisting the endless lies of the mainstream media. They are putting Americans again through the nightmare of forced business closures, mandated face masks, and restrictions of Constitutional liberties based on false propaganda.

In Texas the second wave propaganda has gotten so bad that the leaders of the four major hospitals in Houston took the extraordinary step late last week of holding a joint press conference to clarify that the scare stories of Houston hospitals being overwhelmed with Covid cases are simply untrue. Dr. Marc Boom of Houston Methodist said the reporting on hospital capacity is misleading. He said, quite frankly, were concerned that there is a level of alarm in the community that is unwarranted right now.

In fact, there has been much reporting that the spike in Texas cases is not due to a resurgence of the virus but to hospital practices of Covid-testing every patient coming in for any procedure at all. If its a positive, well that counts as a Covid hospitalization.

RELATED || Coronavirus Death Toll Dramatically Lowered Again

Why would hospitals be so dishonest in their diagnoses? Billions of appropriated federal dollars are being funneled to facilities based on the number of Covid cases they can produce. As Ive always said, if you subsidize something you get more of it. And thats why we are getting more Covid cases.

Lets go back to the original measurements used to scare Americans into giving up their Constitutional liberties: the daily death numbers. Even though we know hospitals have falsely attributed countless deaths to Covid-19 that were deaths WITH instead of FROM the virus, we are seeing actual deaths steadily declining over the past month and a half. Declining deaths are not a great way to push the second wave propaganda, so the media and politicians have moved the goal posts and decided that only cases are important. Its another big lie.

Resist propaganda and defend your liberty. That is the only way well get through this.

(Via: Gage Skidmore)

Ron Paulis a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the leader of the pro-liberty, pro-free market movement in the United States. His weekly column reprinted with permission can be foundhere.

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Ron Paul: Media Is Lying About 'Second Wave' Of ...

Former Rep. Ron Paul on Thursday called for the firing of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease specialist leading President Trumps medical response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. Paul, a retired doctor who ran three times for president during his decades in politics, also called Dr. Fauci a fraud and encouraged Americans to quit listening to him.

The former Republican congressman from Texas made the remarks during an internet program he co-hosts, the Ron Paul Liberty Report, after Dr. Fauci slashed the number of Americans projected to die from COVID-19, the infectious respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Even the bad guys are admitting it, and that is they made these dire predictions so that they could go ahead and destroy peoples civil liberties and spend a lot of money and make up an excuse on why the stock market actually went down all kinds of things by having this coronavirus event blown way out of proportion, Mr. Paul said.

He should be fired, Mr. Paul said about Dr. Fauci. But if you dont do it in the literal sense, the people have to fire him. And they have to fire him by saying hes a fraud.

Dr. Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the presidents coronavirus task force, told NBC during an interview aired earlier on Thursday that the coronavirus may cause far fewer deaths within the U.S. than previously estimated because of Americans following social distancing practices recommended to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The real data are telling us it is highly likely we are having a definite positive effect by the mitigation things that were doing, this physical separation, Dr. Fauci said on the Today show, adding that the number of deadly COVID-19 cases in country could be closer to 60,000 rather than the 100,000 to 240,000 projected by his task force days earlier.

Mr. Paul subsequently responded on his internet program by alleging that future efforts to curb the pandemic will further erode civil liberties.

The plan that they have is when things are getting back to normal, yes, people can return to their work, and they do things, and go to the golf course if you get a stamp of approval, Mr. Paul said. Your liberties are there if you get the proper stamp from the government.

Its an excuse to have total control over the people, Mr. Paul claimed during his podcast.

Mr. Paul, 84, previously referred to Dr. Fauci as the chief fearmonger of the Trump Administration in a column he published last month titled The Coronavirus Hoax.

He is the father of Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, who tested positive last month for COVID-19 and has since recovered.

More than 466,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. Of those, over 17,000 died and more than 26,000 recovered.

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Ron Paul, former GOP congressman: Trump should fire Dr ...

For our purposes, Fed bugs are peoplewith a faith-based belief in the power of central banks (and central bankers) to engineer economic growth using "monetary policy," despite decades of history and current evidence to the contrary. They believe tinkering with inputs and rates and velocity and flows somehow makes us richer in terms of productivity, goods, and services. They believe in financial alchemy, as economist Nomi Prinsputs it, rather than precious metals. They believe paper has value so long as government issues it and legislates its use. Most of all, they believe in technocratic control over money in the economy.

Read the whole article

Because no individual is all-knowing, it necessarily means that to a great degree, we are all ignorant. No matter how much knowledge we're able to cram between our ears during our time here, ignorant we will always be.

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According to media accounts, the Berlin protesters held signs reading We are being forced to wear a muzzle, Natural defense instead of vaccination, and We are making noise because you are stealing our freedom!

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The real damage is far deeper, however, and is reflected in millions of small businessespermanently destroyed, tens of millions of households wiped-out financially and thevicious daisy chain of delinquencies, deferrals and defaults just beginning to rip through

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Politicians and Central Bankers attempt to do the impossible. They believe that with dictates and counterfeit money they can control the economy. The reality is the exact opposite. They only destroy the economy. Is it any wonder that the ultimate international money - Gold - has hit all-time highs in terms of The Fed's debased dollars? Gold has no ties to any politician or central banker. It is a source of independence. More and more people are wanting that kind of independence.Streamed LIVE Aug. 7, 2020

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is desperately begging rich people to return to the state and to New York City. He's killed off the old people by sending Covid patients into nursing homes and he's killed off the economy by shutting down, but he's offered to cook a meal for any rich person who returns to the burned out shell of the former great city. Any takers? Plus in today's Report: LA Mayor: "Want to party? Try it without any electricity or water!" Houston begs people to get Covid tested after new "cases" continue to fall. And Sweden has advice on how to open schools. Should we listen to success?Streamed LIVE Aug. 6, 2020

The authoritarians who have locked this country down ostensibly to fight the outbreak of a coronavirus are not going to let up once a vaccine is ready. Already we are seeing additional qualifiers and contingencies being made that will only serve to prolong their rule-by-decree. A vaccine is not going to end it. Also today: More Americans are saying "no" to any vaccine; CDC Director admits a financial incentive to list deaths as "Covid"; Gov. Whitmer cracks down harder...but why? And more...Streamed LIVE Aug. 5, 2020

According to a recent Axio-Ipsos poll, Americans are increasingly skeptical of the official case and death reports being served up by politicians and the mainstream media. Are we getting closer to the awakening needed to put an end to Covid tyranny? Plus in today's program: New York Times admits that lockdowns will kill more than Covid; What is happening to Australia; Houston Mayor threatens residents; and the real danger to Americans is not Covid according to this important map.Streamed LIVE Aug. 4, 2020

They are rushing through a Covid vaccine at a blistering pace, while granting immunity to big Pharma for any damage it might do to the American people. They are lowering the minimum effectiveness level to 50 percent - like tossing a coin. The propaganda machine is in high gear. Should we line up for the shot? Also in today's Liberty Report: Massive anti-lockdown protests in Europe!Streamed LIVE Aug. 3, 2020

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Ron Paul Liberty Report

By Dr. Ron PaulFormer CongressmanThe Ron Paul Institutehttp://ronpaulinstitute.org/

Tens of thousands of Germans marched through Berlin on Saturday, proclaiming a Day of Freedom and demanding an end to government-mandated face masks and social distancing. The UK and Netherlands also saw large protests against their governments tyrannical actions in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

According to media accounts, the Berlin protesters held signs reading We are being forced to wear a muzzle, Natural defense instead of vaccination, and We are making noise because you are stealing our freedom.

Good for them!

The New York Times Tweeted that the masses of Berlin demonstrators were all Nazis and conspiracy theorists. Does the paper of record really want us to believe there were perhaps a million Nazis active in the streets of Berlin? Wouldnt that be alarming?

The fact is, Europeans are realizing that their government-mandated lockdowns did little or nothing to protect them from the virus, while causing economic catastrophe and untold human suffering.

They likely looked around and noticed that Sweden, which never locked down its economy, rejected face masks, and kept its restaurants and other places of business open, did not fare any worse than the countries that have been turned into open air prisons for much of the year. In fact, Sweden had a lower death rate from the virus than strict lockdown states like the UK and France. No wonder people are starting to get angry.

Unfortunately, while the Europeans are waking up, Americans are still asleep as our freedoms continue to be trampled. While Europeans demand an end to government tyranny, here we see states with minuscule new deaths returning to lockdown. It is as if all the wannabe tyrants from mayors to governors are finally realizing their secret dreams of ruling by decree. Their dreams are our nightmares.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy put citizens on notice that he will lock the state back down if people dare to go outside without a face mask or even to have guests inside their own homes. What kind of politician puts his own constituents on notice?

It is not as if the experts are even looking into treatments for the viral infection. Doctors who report their own successful experience treating Covid patients with hydroxychloroquine, for example, are ridiculed, censored, and even fired from their jobs. The rush to silence Americas Frontline Doctors last week and to disappear their video down the memory hole should terrify anybody who still believes in free speech.

No, they say, we must keep locked down and masked until we have a vaccine. The US government is dumping billions into a vaccine that may be less than 60 percent effective to prevent a virus that has something like a 99.8 percent survival rate. What kind of math is that?

How many may be harmed more by the vaccine than helped? Well probably never know because the U.S. government has just granted big pharma immunity from liability claims if the vaccine produces damaging side effects.

They keep moving the goal posts to keep us terrified and isolated. First it was body counts and then cases. The numbers have been so wildly off that its hard to trust any reporting. People are getting angry. They are confused. They are facing an economic depression of historic proportions. But worst of all, they are watching as Leviathan government snatches every last bit of freedom.

Three cheers for the Europeans. Lets hope America wakes up soon.

Excerpt from:

Europeans are waking up to COVID-19 tyranny - The Highland County Press

Posted: Aug 8, 2020 / 03:16 PM EDT / Updated: Aug 8, 2020 / 03:17 PM EDT

Eries Little Italy is packed with cars this weekend. This is a new twist on a traditional Erie festival.

This weekend is the 40th annual St. Pauls Italian Festival where despite the pandemic, people made their way out to enjoy some Italian take out food.

Some of the food offered at the Italian Festival includes subs, pepperoni balls, pasta fagioli and cannoliis.

The online sales have sold out quickly, but there is also a walk up and drive thru option as well.

Chariman Ron Divecchio felt that it was the right move to keep the spirit of the festival moving forward.

Weve done well with our pasta fagioli dinners and we just wanted to keep it going, but it was a tough decision, said Ron Divecchio, Chairman at Saint Pauls Italian Festival.

On Saturday August 8th, the festival will go from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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The 40th annual St. Pauls Italian Festival continues this weekend - YourErie

with help from Marianne LeVine and Heather Caygle

STIMULUS SCRUTINY -- Last week, we wrote about how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was facing scrutiny for his decision to wait until July to start negotiating the next coronavirus bill. And now with a deal essentially dead and President Donald Trump moving ahead with executive actions Democratic leaders are facing questions of their own about their strategy.

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were unyielding in some of their demands during the negotiations and were trying to hold out for more. The GOP did offer some concessions, including $400 per week in unemployment insurance until December. But Democrats rejected some of those proposals, calling them woefully insufficient and betting that Republicans would eventually back down.

But thats not what happened. Instead, White House officials involved in this round of negotiations which, for the first time, included conservative hard-liner Mark Meadows essentially walked away from the negotiating table, at least for now, and told Trump to follow through with unilateral action (more on that later).

Now, its unclear if lawmakers will still press for a deal before August recess or just try to pick things back up again in September (though notably, Pelosi said she doesn't want to tie the relief talks to the looming government funding debate). There were no meetings over the weekend, none are on the books for today, and Dem leaders have not been in contact with Trump despite what the president claimed last night. Meanwhile, the Senate is still technically in session, but most of the members are gone.

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Pelosi was asked by Chris Wallace if she made a mistake in the deal-making process. But the speaker wasnt having it. Her response: "Clearly you dont have an understanding of what is happening here. And during a Democratic caucus call over the weekend, frontliner Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) expressed concern that if they dont get a deal it will be a pox on both chambers of Congress, sources told Heather, which could be used against lawmakers in tough races.

Democrats, however, say Republicans are the ones to blame and point out they offered to come down on the overall price tag of the bill by $1 trillion if the White House came up by $1 trillion, but the GOP rejected it. And Pelosi emphasized Sunday that we have to reach an agreement" and stressed that theres room for compromise. Expect Dems to keep bashing the executive orders and call on Republicans to keep negotiating.

Related reads: Pelosi Is Playing Hardball on Coronavirus Relief. She Thinks Shell Win, via NYTs Emily Cochrane and Nicholas Fandos: https://nyti.ms/2PDWQCm; and Mark Meadows Brings Harder Spending Line to Coronavirus Talks, from WSJs Siobhan Hughes: https://on.wsj.com/2CfdFk3.

AND SPEAKING of Trumps executive actions Democrats are slamming the orders as weak and unconstitutional. And there are also legitimate questions about whether the actions are effective or even accomplish what Trump says they do. For example, Trump said he was extending unemployment insurance at $400 per week, but his order would require states to match part of it and administer a new program to get the extra federal benefits. And Trump also said he was extending the federal moratorium on evictions, but his order just instructs agencies to study whether a moratorium on evictions is feasible.

Some Republicans were also unhappy with Trumps unilateral moves. The statement from Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.): The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop. President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law. More from Nolan McCaskill: https://politi.co/2F90mCL.

Related read: Trump Relief Plan Faces Hurdles, by WSJs Sarah Chaney and Natalie Andrews: https://on.wsj.com/2PFUPFD.

President Donald Trump hold up one of the four executive orders that he signed that addresses the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. Trump signed the executive orders and bypassed the nation's lawmakers as he claimed the authority to defer payroll taxes and replace an expired unemployment benefit with a lower amount after negotiations with Congress on a new coronavirus rescue package collapsed. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)| Susan Walsh/AP Photo

HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MARJORIE? -- When we uncovered racist Facebook videos from GOP congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican leaders raced to disavow her, calling her comments disgusting and saying there's no tolerance for them in the GOP. But in the two months that followed, Republicans have done little to stop her from winning a seat in the House despite finally getting rid of Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who also has a long history of controversial and racist remarks.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is staying neutral in Greenes runoff race and letting the primary process play out. In fact, Greene said she has spoken to McCarthy since the POLITICO story published; she claims they have a great relationship and that he told her his public rebuke was just a miscommunication. Meanwhile, there has been no major outside spending in the race. Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) lobbied the conservative Club for Growth to get involved, which they considered doing, but they ultimately decided to sit out.

That being said, there have been about a dozen Republicans including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise who have worked to boost Greenes opponent, neurosurgeon John Cowan. But GOP lawmakers, donors and strategists still fear that Greene could actually win her runoff race in Georgia on Tuesday, which would almost guarantee that she comes to Congress since it's a deeply conservative district. The story from your Huddle host and Ally: https://politi.co/3ipRTcO.

Related read: A confluence of events has created a moment for a Georgia pastor to take a Senate seat away from warring Republicans, per WaPos Paul Kane: https://wapo.st/2XGFPM3.

HAPPY MONDAY! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this August 10, where your host hopes your week goes more smoothly than the Nats ground crew trying to unroll the tarp at yesterday's game.

FRIDAYS MOST CLICKED: The APs report on Congress urging the Postal Service to undo changes slowing mail was the big winner.

UNDER PRESSURE -- Democrats feel like their public pressure campaign on the intelligence community is paying off. Andrew and Kyle explain: Congressional Democrats stung by the Obama administrations soft-pedaled approach to Russian election interference in 2016 have a plan to prevent a repeat under President Donald Trump: make as much noise as possible, early and often. For weeks, top Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate have been blaring warnings and demanding briefings and public disclosures from the intelligence community, shrugging off Republican charges that theyre politicizing intelligence.

And Democrats can now point to evidence that their pressure campaign might be working. On Friday, the Trump administrations counterintelligence chief publicly confirmed that Russia is attempting to harm Joe Bidens candidacy in 2020. The official, William Evanina, even singled out a pro-Russia Ukrainian, Andrii Derkach, as a key participant in the Kremlins new effort. The statement, which also indicated that Iran and China prefer a Trump loss in November, was hailed by Democrats as vindication of their strategy to lean on the administration for additional disclosures to help educate the public. More: https://politi.co/30JojZz.

Related read: Ron Johnson subpoenas documents from FBI director, via Betsy Woodruff Swan: https://politi.co/2XKU6rm.

BATTLE FOR THE SENATE -- WaPos Lisa Rein has a dispatch from Montana on the states Senate race: Republican Steve Daines, the freshman senator in this sparsely populated state of hunters, fishers and big-government skeptics where President Trump crushed Hillary Clinton four years ago, was supposed to coast to reelection in November. Democrats were mounting a modest field to oppose him. Daines, if not defined by legislative wins in Washington, had forged a close alliance with the president. Hes a reliable conservative in a state that has voted Republican for president every year since 1968, except for Bill Clinton 28 years ago.

Then came Steve Bullock and the coronavirus pandemic. And with less than three months until Election Day, the faceoff between the two-term Democratic governor from Helena and the wealthy former software executive from Bozeman has transformed into a margin-of-error race that has helped put Senate control within reach for Democrats. It will measure whether Montanas proud history of political individualism is sustainable in an era when voters are more polarized than ever. More: https://wapo.st/3kxEqRO.

Related read: Thom Tillis built the fire. Now it could consume him, by The Intercepts Paul Blest: https://bit.ly/2DKfw0x.

THE GOPS NEW BOGEYMAN -- After a brief period of playing nice with the Black Lives Matter movement, Republicans are now trying to villainize it in the run-up to November. The dispatch from Laura Barrn-Lpez and Alex Thompson: Facing possible electoral calamity, Republicans are now turning to a familiar playbook: stoking fear by trying to redefine the Black Lives Matter movement as a radical leftist mob looking to sabotage the white, suburban lifestyle.

Republicans are using two lines of attack: the Trump administration, candidates in safe red seats and right-wing social media channels seek to label the entire movement Marxist and anti-family as they try to energize their conservative base. Republicans running in swing districts and states, meanwhile, are tying their Democratic opponents to activists demands to defund police departments, while avoiding explicitly mentioning Black Lives Matter. Instead, Republicans running in competitive general election races have focused recent ads on more abstract targets like left-wing radicals and the liberal mob." More: https://politi.co/30IzOAF.

Related read: John Roberts emerges as a 2020 campaign issue, from The Washington Examiners W. James Antle III: https://washex.am/3aeuYhq.

IN IT TO WIN IT -- WinRed, the GOPs answer to ActBlue, brought in a whopping $164 million last month welcome news for the GOP as it fights to keep the Senate and not sink further into the House minority. More from The Hills Julia Manchester: Republican grassroots fundraising group WinRed raked in $164.3 million in the month of July, raising $15.7 million in one day alone, according to figures exclusively obtained by The Hill. The group received a total of 3.217 million donations, with the average donation given to the group coming in at $51.

The latest fundraising figures mark a major uptick for the group over the past year. WinRed raised just $31 million in July of 2019. The group raised a total of $275 million in the second quarter. The left-leaning group raked in $710 million during the second quarter from 5.7 million individuals donors. The development comes as fundraising heats up between Republicans and Democrats ahead of the general election in November. More: https://bit.ly/2XO5aUF.

Related: 2020 election ratings update: House more solid for Democrats, per Roll Calls Nathan L. Gonzales: https://bit.ly/3adHyh9.

WEEKEND WEDDING -- Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Iowa) and Daniel Wasta, the new Iowa political director for Joe Bidens campaign, got married Saturday at their home. A small group of family members and close friends attended the socially distanced, outdoor ceremony, with many more joining via livestream. Pic, via Roots + Wilds Photography

Scott Luginbill is now director of congressional affairs for the Trump reelect. He previously worked on congressional affairs for the GOP convention, and is a Mark Walker alum.

Chadwick Carlough is now campaign policy coordinator for the Trump reelect. He previously was chief of staff for Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.).

Subhan Cheema is now director of coalition comms and North Carolina press secretary for the Biden campaign. He previously was comms director/adviser for Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and is a Richard Blumenthal and Obama HHS alum.

The Senate meets at 3 p.m.

The House is not in session.

Crickets.

FRIDAYS WINNER: John Pitney was the first person to correctly guess that JFKs presidential campaign was the first to rely on computer-driven simulations and big data analytics to inform policy positions and campaign strategy.

TODAYS QUESTION: From John: California Governor Jerry Brown got married in 2005. Which well-known California politician officiated at the ceremony? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess to [emailprotected].

GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each morning.

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Did Dems overplay their hand? - POLITICO - Politico

The nightmare scenario for liberals across Americawhat if a defeated Donald Trump refuses to leave office?reared its head last week when the president floated the idea of delaying the election. With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history, he tweeted and then wondered: Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??? White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller later defended the suggestion, saying it was shocking that nobody who mails in a ballot has their identity confirmed and that nobody checks if the voter is a citizen, which is not true. But many other Republicans disagreed with the president, if timidly; Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN it was not a particularly good idea.

If this specific suggestion went too far even for the Republicans, they should not have been surprised at what their partys actions had unleashed. There is a very fine line that separates the broader Republican Party position that American elections are seething with Democratic voter fraud and the Trumpian conclusion that we should therefore postpone them indefinitely. (Leave it to Trump to fail at Subtext 101.) But to pretend that walking right up to that line is acceptable, stopping just short of authoritarianism, legitimizes the longstanding Republican project of undermining elections, which began long before Trump.

The Republican Party has spent decades sowing doubt about the legitimacy of elections through high-level campaigns of propaganda about incredibly rare instances of voter fraud, successful purges and measures to restrict the vote under the guise of protecting the ballot, and racist fantasies about buses of immigrants showing up to vote for Democrats. They dont even seem to care whether undermining mail-in ballots will actually hurt them; they dont seem to care if the coronavirus kills their own constituencies, after all. The ones who do mewl, often anonymously, about how Trumps attacks on mail-in voting should realize that this is simply a taste of their own medicine, a poison that they have spent years dripping into our democracy. The Republican machine now has no other mode than to say that elections are fake. (Except, of course, the ones they winalthough sometimes those, too.) It will continue to churn on, even if it eats itself.

This did not start with Trumps candidacy in 2015 or even with the Tea Party in 2010. Republican schemes to purge black voters from the rolls have been defended as ballot security for decades, as Vann Newkirk reported in The Atlantic. In 1981, the Democratic National Committee sued the Republican National Committee for allegedly sending out off-duty cops as a National Ballot Security Task Force, a ploy to intimidate votersall in the name of protecting the ballot from voter fraud. In 1987, Democrats protested again after Republicans used letters sent to voters being returned as undeliverable as a pretext to challenge those voters eligibility to vote. A Republican spokesperson claimed the purpose of the program was to help election officials make certain that no dead or fictitious persons vote, but an RNC official said the quiet part loud in stating that these tactics would keep the black vote down considerably.

But the national partys rhetoric against voter fraud reached a new leveland this is undoubtedly a total coincidencein 2008, after the Democrats had chosen the first Black nominee for president. Most prominently, the Republicans accused ACORN, an organization that helped register voters in low-income communities, of trying to register fake voters and thus steal the election for their old pal Barack Obama, who had represented ACORN in a lawsuit and worked with ACORN-affiliated groups during his time as a community organizer. (As Zach Carter and Arthur Delaney covered in detail for Huffington Post, ACORN did not, in fact, intend to steal the election.) This campaign culminated in a hugely bipartisan congressional vote to defund the organization in 2009 when Democrats had solid majorities in both chambers. The organization folded in 2010.

Excerpt from:

The GOP Is the Anti-Election Party - The New Republic

The Times-Union| Florida Times-Union

12:55 p.m. |Americans are sitting on record cash savings amid pandemic and uncertain economy

While millions of people could lose most or all of the $600 bonus in their weekly unemployment benefits, threatening to slow consumer spending and the nation's economic recovery, one thing could help cushion the blow: Americans have been saving lots of money during the COVID-19 crisis.

The savings rate the portion of monthly income that households are socking away hit a record 33.5% in April before edging down to a still outsized 19% in June, Commerce Department figures show. Before the pandemic, Americans were squirreling away an average 7.5% of income.| Read more

12:20 p.m. |Big Ten presidents have voted against playing college football this fall due to coronavirus concerns

The Big Ten presidents have votedagainst conducting a season in the fall, threepeople with knowledge of the decision confirmed to the Detroit Free Press.

The peoplerequested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the decision. A formal announcement is expected on Tuesday, the peoplesaid.The situation remains fluid as the details of what happens with a spring season remains unclear. | Read more

11:30 a.m. |Duval reports fewer than 100 new cases amid reduced testing

Duval County recorded fewer than 100 new COVID-19 cases for the first time in nearly two months in Monday's daily report, although the numbers were affected by asharply reduced volume of testing for the coronavirus pandemic.

The Florida Department of Health added 4,155 new cases of COVID-19 in Monday's daily report, for a new total of 536,961.Those were the fewest newly-added cases since June 23, when the health department tallied 3,289 new positive tests, but test volume sharply declined all across Floridato 58,153 laboratory results processed on Sunday.| Read more

9:35 a.m. |'Pragmatic and cautious': As some Americans avoid travel, others visit COVID-19 hot spots anyway

Jacqui Slay, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mom of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, planned her family trip toDisney World in Floridaa year ago. One month away from her scheduled tour in early September, she said she wasn't sure if she would go, citing recentrecord-high COVID-19 cases in Florida.

Slay is one of many Americans who faces a travel dilemma during theCOVID-19 pandemic: Is it worth therisk to traveland escape the monotony of quarantine life, or is it better to wait until the country has the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, more under control? | Read more

EARLIER

State adds 77 deaths, none in Northeast Florida

Northeast Florida recorded no additional deaths from the coronavirus pandemic in Sunday's daily report, while statewide numbers were also reduced in comparison to recent levels as the United States surpassed the 5 million mark in COVID-19 cases. |Read more

COVID-19 outbreak expands in Baker County

Driven by a prison outbreak, Baker County has recorded surging coronavirus numbers over the past week, its COVID-19 totals more than doubling in the statistics of the Florida Department of Health.

Now, after months of ranking among the counties least touched by the novel coronavirus, Baker County is grappling with a fast-rising wave of infections, with 522positive tests within the past week to raise the county's cumulative total from 385to 907.| Read more

'Can you hear me?' America's first trial-by-Zoom comes to Duval County

Americas first Zoom trial with a binding verdict will come Monday to Duval County, to the courts remote civil division CV-E.

After months where criminal and civil justice has come to a halt, Duval County will see its first virtual trial Monday, a one-day affair for a lawsuit against a gentlemans club.| Read more

Mark Woods: More than numbers on the COVID frontline in Jacksonville

I wish everyone in Jacksonville couldve been on the line, listening to Dr. Jennifer Fulton.

I wish they couldve heard some of the stories behind some of our COVID numbers.

I wish they couldve heard her voice in April and now.| Read more

Brisk back to school sales tax holiday sales in Jacksonville despite COVID-19 pandemic

Saturday was the second day of the statewide Back to School Sales Tax Holiday, whichbegan Friday and concludes Sunday. During that period, residents won't have to pay state sales tax an approved list of back to school supplies.

This year the qualifying list of merchandise includes face masks and hand sanitizers because of the COVID-19 pandemic. | Read more

Disney World to cut theme park hours in September as visits drop amid COVID-19

The magic is back at Disney World, but for fewer hours a day.

Afterlower-than-expected attendance amid the coronavirus pandemic, Disney is scaling back operating hours at the Magic Kingdom and several other Florida theme parks.| Read more

'An administrative nightmare': Trump's executive action is a scramble for unemployment aid

President Donald Trumpsigned an executive orderand issued three memorandumsSaturday, including one that will provide an additional $400 per week in unemployment benefits to millions of out-of-work Americans following the economic fallout from thecoronavirus pandemic.

But theres a catch: Its unclear whether Trump has the authority to extend enhanced unemployment benefits by executive action while side-stepping Congress. It lowers the weekly bonus to $400 from the extra $600 that expired in late July, with states beingasked to cover 25% of the costs.| Read more

Family Dollar, Dollar Tree requiring masks for customers

Dollar Tree and Family Dollar havereversed course againabout the use of masks amid thecoronavirus pandemic.

The two retailers, both part of Dollar Tree, Inc., are now requiring shoppers wear masks likemost of the nation's largest retailers. | Read more

'Totally unacceptable': Testing delays force labs to prioritize COVID tests for some, not others

Federal officials and private labs acknowledge they must prioritize the nation's limited supply of coronavirus tests for hospitalized patients, health care workers and other high-risk individuals.But many Americans worried about contracting the sometimes deadly virus often must wait in long lines andseveral days for results.

Without a national plan on how to best allocate hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests each day, there simply is not enough capacity now to screen Americans who might unwittingly pass the virus to others.| Read more

Despite federal guidance, schools cite privacy laws to withhold info about COVID-19 cases

Thousands of American parents have already sent their children back to the classroom and millions more will soon join them amid fears about the raging pandemic and whether theyll even be notified when coronavirus hits their campuses.

School districts, health departments and state agencies across the country have provided mixed messages about whether they will release information about coronavirus cases in students, teachers and staff at K-12 campuses. | Read more

The deadly cost of COVID-19: Paul Simkonis was a retired Marine, woodworker

Paul M. Simkonis was a modest man devoted to his family, country and community.COVID-19 took his life March 18.| Read more

250 students and staff quarantined in Georgia school district after one week of school

After only one week of school, more than 250 students and teachers from one Georgia school district will be quarantined for two weeks after several teachers and students tested positive for COVID-19, according to the district's website.

Cherokee County School District, which is just north of Atlanta,is sharing regularupdateson coronavirus cases in its schools on its website.| Read more

12,000 crew members still on cruise ships in US waters months after COVID-19 pandemic shut cruising down

AkashDookhun, a Celebrity Cruises crew member from Mauritius, an island nationin southeastern Africa, has not set foot on dry land since he was on a port call in New Zealand in early March. And he doesn't knowwhen he'll stand on solid ground again.

Nearly five months after thecoronavirus pandemicshut down the cruise industry,more than 12,000 crew members remained on ships in U.S. waters, according to the U.S.Coast Guard. | Read more

'Feels like the world is against you': Young people struggle with finding mental health support amid COVID pandemic

Kathryn Boit feels "guilty for struggling so much" these past few months.

As the president of the Harvard Student Mental Health Liaisons, she has "college friends, acquaintances, and strangers reach out to me for resources and advice," she said. "I don't know the answers anymore."| Read more

Party killers: Colleges hope new rules will slow COVID-19 spread, students aren't convinced

Colleges want their students back this fall. That much is clear.

Whats less clear are the new rules for student conduct in the midst of a pandemic, and how universities will go about enforcing them, especially when the offensive behavior takes place off-campus or overnight.| Read more

Department of Health not giving schools guidance puts Duval in 'double bind situation'

When the Florida Department of Education ordered state schools to reopenthis fall, it was presented to superintendents as a choice: brick-and-mortar five-days-per-week orcoordinate with your local department of health

But a new review by the Gannett USA TODAY Network revealed that a directive from Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration suppressed county health directors' ability to adviseschool districts about remaining closed or reopening during a pandemic.

Jacksonville is no exception. | Read more

Gene Frenette:Momentum for college football season slipping away

Unmistakable cracks are forming across the college football landscape, and it almost feels like a matter of time before the dam starts breaking.

Look around, the momentum is heavily swinging more toward a canceled season than one in which all scheduled games would be played. | Read more

Health directors told to keep quiet as Florida leaders pressed to reopen classrooms

As Gov. Ron DeSantispushed this summerfor schools to reopen, state leaders told school boards they would need Health Department approval if they wanted to keep classrooms closed.

Then they instructed health directors not to give it.

Following a directive from DeSantis administration, county health directors across Florida refused to give school boards advice about one of the most wrenching public health decisions in modern history: whether to reopen schools in a worsening pandemic, a Gannett USA TODAY NETWORK review found.| Read more

1.8M jobs added in July, unemployment falls to 10.2% as some states halt reopening, others press ahead

The U.S. added 1.8 millionjobs in July as payroll growth slowed amid a split-screen economy that had employers stepping up hiring in parts of the country that continued to let businesses reopen, even as COVID-19 spikes forced Sunbelt firmsto pull back and lay off workers.

The unemployment rate fellto 10.2%from 11.1% in June, the Labor Department said Friday.| Read more

How do Duval students feel about going back to school? We asked them.

Worry. Masks. Dont feel safe. Sick.

Those are some of the words Duval County Public Schools students used most frequently when asked about returning to school.

With less than a month until the 2020-21 school year is supposed to start, the district has heard from hundreds of parents, teachers, bus drivers and other education stakeholders when it comes to its recently approved back-to-school plan. But what about the students? | Read more

Jacksonville distributing $3 million in additional COVID-19 aid

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said Wednesday that city officials are working to distribute additional financial relief forsmall businesses, senior citizens and residents with disabilities.

The City Council recently added$2 million into its small business relief fund and $1 million into its relief program for senior residents and people with disabilities. The money comes from the federal CARES Act grant the city received earlier this summer. | Read more

The rest is here:

Coronavirus in Jacksonville: What you need to know for Monday, August 10 - The Florida Times-Union

Its all connected. This is Perry Masons argument as he takes on his star witness (and a hostile one at that), Sgt. Ennis, in court. It beggars belief that an accountant like George Gannon could have executed his two accomplices (both of them professional hoods), driven across town with a bullet wound, then blown his own head off with a shotgun.

But Ennis? He has history in Colorados mining wars with both the two dead strikebreakers and their boss, Elder Eric Seidel, currently missing and presumed dead. He has been tied to the Chinese-American sex worker whose heroin-laced milk suffocated baby Charlie Dodson. He was somehow the first man at nearly every crime scene connected to the case. Hes the linchpin for six murders, and hes about to break

but only in Perrys mind. The entire courtroom sequence that helps open this fine season finale is a figment of Masons imagination as he rehearses with his associates Della Street, Paul Drake and Hamilton Burger.

No one confesses on the stand! Burger yells from the illusory gallery, repeating himself as Perrys mind flashes back to the real world. Calling Ennis to the stand without having real, hard evidence linking him to each of the murder victims would be a disaster. You dont go in unless you got him, says Drake, and you dont got him.

So much for the Perry Mason courtroom-confession clich of yore. In this climactic episode of the shows first season, the showrunners, Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald, have definitively abandoned the definitive convention of the old Perry Mason series; its as if a Columbo remake did away with the whole One more thing bit.

The amazing thing is that the new Perry Mason doesnt need these dramaturgical training wheels. Just look at that opening courtroom sequence, with its intense direction by Tim Van Patten, its impassioned performance by Matthew Rhys once again allowed to burst into outright rage and its fantasy-dismantling intervention by Justin Kirks Hamilton Burger. To attempt a bait-and-switch like this takes guts. To pull it off takes talent.

An odd thing to say, perhaps, about an episode that hinges on its main characters relative lack of talent. This is not to say hes a bad lawyer; his closing argument moves his associate Della Street to tears, and he manages to secure a mistrial for his client, Emily, whom he put on the stand (at Dellas urging) at great risk to the case.

But a mistrial isnt the same as being found not guilty, let alone exonerated in full as the real killer is brought to justice. (Ennis meets his end at the hands of his partner and their vengeful associates, one last loose end to be tied up.) Thats the [expletive] of this lawyering thing, Perry tells his old partner, Pete Strickland. You can have all the truths on your side, but if you cant prove, if you cant hold it in your hand, it doesnt exist.

And while two of the jurors who hung the jury came to their positions honestly, a third was bribed by Perry via his now-former partner, Pete. Strickland ends up going to work for Burger, helping him take down the surviving hierarchy of the Radiant Assembly of God rather than joining the newly minted Perry Mason & Associates with Della and their new investigator, Paul Drake, who quits the police force in what is arguably the seasons top feel-good moment.

Other moments well, Im not exactly sure how to describe them, whether feel-good or feel-bad. Theres the matter of Mother Birdy McKeegan, for one thing. She almost certainly orchestrated the disappearance of Charlie Dodsons body and the miraculous appearance nearby of a baby who looks nothing at all like Charlie in an attempt to salvage Sister Alices promise to resurrect the slain infant.

This costs her her relationship with Alice, who flees, changes her hair color and goes to work as a diner waitress, as Paul Drake dutifully uncovers. But it gives Emily Dodson a second chance at motherhood, at a time when she is totally at loose ends. If she has to pretend at Mother McKeegans traveling revival show that the baby is her own, who are we to tell this woman that what shes doing is wrong? She only wanted to be a good mother to her child.

Looking back on this refreshingly ambiguous season of whodunit television, I think Ill revisit Perrys reunion with Sister Alice quite a bit. Before he gives up on the case entirely, before he takes out the stitch he saved from baby Charlies eyes and blows it into the Pacific Ocean, he tells Alice about her mothers new ministry and wonders who removed Charlies body.

But however much she has questioned her own gifts, Alice is still a woman of faith. What comfort has digging for proof of the truth ever given Perry, she asks? In the end, both of them, with their diametrically opposed views of how the world works, will be alone. (Shes more right than she realizes; Perry has officially called off his relationship with Lupe, though he has finally admitted that her asking price for his family farm was a fair one and given her the land.)

Which leaves Perry with one final question: Did you really think you could bring Charlie back?

I did, didnt I? Alice replies. As far as her mother and Charlies mother are concerned, the answer is, for all intents and purposes, yes. Its not true, of course. But maybe its right.

From the case files:

The first visitor to Perrys new firm is straight out of film-noir central casting, a blonde bombshell who says simply, Im in trouble. Well, that, and that she can pay the retainer. Youve come to the right place, Perry says.

Perry reveals during the course of the episode that he knows Della is gay. He doesnt care except for resent, perhaps, that she felt she could, and should, keep this from him. I wonder how hell feel if he ever finds out about Burger?

I was struck by how Birdys minions made their initial overture to recruit Emily to their cause: a note that was nothing more or less than the footprint of the baby they claimed was Charlie. Simple, but brutally effective.

The thing I keep coming back to in all my conversations with friends and readers about this show is how little reason there was to expect it to be anywhere near as good as it was. I mean, Perry Mason? In this economy? Apparently the answer is yes, and I couldnt be happier about it.

Visit link:

Perry Mason Season 1 Finale Recap: The Defense Rests - The New York Times

August 07, 2020 -In its Fiscal Year 2021 minibus package passed this week, the House of Representatives once againvotedto remove aprovision that effectivelybans providing federal funds to the Department of Health and Human Services for the development of a national patient identifier.

HHS was initially called on to adopt standards for a distinct, uniquepatient ID, which would be used to identify the medical records of individuals, employers, providers, and healthplans under HIPAA regulations. But in 1998, former Congressman Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas introduced the funding ban, and it has been written into every Congressional budget proposal since 1999.

Advocates for a national patient identifier, such asCHIME, argue that a unique identifier would help toimprovepatient privacy and patient safety, while supportinginteroperability. CHIME and 55 other health groups urged Congress to remove the funding ban or at least adopt a unique patient identifier in August 2019.

In June 2019, Housemembersmade a similar voteto lift the ban, but theSenateopted not to remove thethe funding ban languagein its owndraftfederal appropriations bill. Sen. Rand Paul, MD, R-Kentucky, took it a step further inSeptember2019, moving to remove the national patient identifierlanguagefrom HIPAA altogether.The viewpoint was largely rejected.

But in December,Congressdirected the Office of the National Coordinator to work with private sector stakeholders to develop a national strategy for improving patient identification.

READ MORE: Congress Directs ONC to Support National Patient Identifier Efforts

The latesteffort spearheaded by Reps. Bill Foster, D-Illinois,and Mike Kelly, R-Pennsylvania,was unanimously adopted by the House. Foster argued that the unique patient identifier would help in slowing the spread of COVID-19 and prevent doctor shopping when it comes to opioids, while reducing medical errors and costs.

Removing this archaic ban is more important than ever as we face the COVID-19 pandemic, Foster said in a statement. Our ability to accurately identify patients across the care continuum is critical to addressing this public healthemergency andremoving this ban will alleviate difficult and avoidable operational issues, which will save money and, most importantly, save lives.

HIMSSsignaledsupport of the amendment, launching Patient ID now with other healthcare stakeholders to address patient identification though legislative and regulatory advocacy.

However, the American Civil Liberties Union rejected the effort, citing privacycocnerns.

Absent strong privacy protections, useof unique health identifierscould empower HHS and potentiallyother federal agencies, including law enforcement, to gainunprecedented access to sensitive medical information,ACLUleaders argued.

READ MORE: Would a Unique Patient Identifier Increase the Risk to Patient Privacy?

For thisreason, it is critical that any use of unique health identifiersbesubjectto strict privacy and security protections, which areapproved by Congress and subject to public debate, they added. Historically, we have seen examples of inadequate health privacyregulations, underscoring the importance of requiring Congressionalapproval of health privacy standards in this arena.

The privacy arguments have been previously made by ACLU and other groups. But industrystakeholdersbelieve the risk to privacy is no different than that posed by Social Security numbers, which are tied to a patients financial information. Thus, a national patient identifier is seen as an improvement to privacy.

Use of a national identifier instead of SSN should lessen the burden of security breaches because the ability to steal an identity is limited withoutaSSN, Corinne Smith, a healthcare attorney with Clark Hill Strasburger, toldHealthITSecurity.comamid the Congressional patient ID discussions in 2019. I fail to see how use of the national identifier would pose an increased risk over use ofaSSN.

The ban has prohibited effective conversations,LeslieKrigstein, vice president of Congressional Affairs for CHIME, toldHealthITSecurity.comduring the same timeframe.How can we have a dialogue if were prohibiting HHS from coming to the table with how they would like to identify patients? Or work with private partnerships to move forward on this? Without HHS at the table, were not going to see any change.

The Senate will be the next deciding factor on lifting the HHS funding ban from the appropriations bill, scheduled fornext month.

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House Votes to Lift HHS Funding Ban on National Patient Identifier - HealthITSecurity.com