Most schools would open with at least one infected student . . . Based on current infection rates, more than 80 percent of Americans live in a county where at least one infected person would be expected to show up to a school of 500 students and staff in the first week, if school started today. In the highest-risk areas — including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Nashville and Las Vegas — at least five students or staff would be expected to show up infected with the virus at a school of 500 people. New York Times

 

Kids learning at home causing emotional difficulties . . . With the sudden halt to in-person learning, many students missed their friends, yearned to be out of the house, developed erratic sleep habits and drove their (often, working) parents crazy. On top of that, many were dealing with the trauma of sick or dying family members, economic hardship and disruption to the life they once had. As the pandemic drags on, it's clear that not all kids are all right. Nearly 3 in 10 parents said their child is experiencing emotional or mental harm because of social distancing and school closures, according to a nationwide Gallup poll in June. USA Today

 

Birx: No evidence hydroxychloroquine works . . . Dr Deborah Birx says there is 'no evidence' that hydroxychloroquine can treat COVID-19. The drug, which is most typically used to treat malaria, lupus and arthritis, has been touted by President Donald Trump, but has not proven successful in clinical trials. 'We know in the randomized control of the trials to date - and there's been several of them - that there's no evidence that [hydroxychloroquine] improves the patients' outcomes, whether they have mild, moderate disease, or whether they're seriously ill in the hospital,' she said. Daily Mail

 

Americans less likely to resume daily activities . . . Only 44% of Americans say they would send their child back to school if restrictions were lifted by public health officials. That is a 4 percentage point drop from June, when 48% of Americans said they would. In a July 16 survey, 44% of Americans who regularly engage in this activity said they would attend a religious service, a 5 percentage point drop from June. The largest drop was among those who said they would have dinner at a friend’s house, with 59% saying they would, an 8 percentage point drop from June. USA Today

 

Flu cases hit record lows amid distancing . . . Global social distancing rules targeting coronavirus have pushed influenza infection rates to a record low, early figures show, signalling that the measures are having an unprecedented impact on other communicable diseases. In China, where the earliest wide-scale lockdown measures began, new reports of diseases including mumps, measles and some sexually transmitted diseases, have declined significantly, though influenza cases have seen the sharpest drop off. Reuters

 

He changed the whole news day from what it would have been, which is that the economy declined at an annualized rate of 33.9 percent the second quarter of the year. Trump is a genius at stealing the news cycle, and he did it again. He didn’t have the authority anyway. Takes an act of Congress. Pot stirred. Media goose cooked.

 

 

Conservative expert: Trump should be impeached for suggesting election delay . . . The Federalist Society co-founder Steven Calabresi wrote that Trump’s tweet suggesting that the 2020 election be delayed is grounds for impeachment. “Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats’ assertion that President Trump is a fascist,” Calabresi wrote. “But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate.” Calabresi said that despite voting for Trump in the 2016 election and writing an op-ed opposing the president’s impeachment, he was “frankly appalled by the president’s recent tweet seeking to postpone the November election.” Daily Caller

 

Epstein hosted  Bill Clinton on private island; Court docs . . . Bill Clinton was a guest at Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island, according to testimony from an Epstein accuser which was unsealed on Thursday. Virginia Giuffre told lawyers in 2011 that Clinton visited Epstein’s private Little St. James Island with Maxwell, herself and “two young girls” from New York. She added that Clinton stayed in Epstein’s private residence on the island, where “orgies were a constant thing that took place.” Giuffre recalled being surprised to see the former president on the island. New York Post

 

Video || At John Lewis funeral, Obama calls for eliminating the filibuster . . .  Obama proposed a new civil rights act, making Election Day a national holiday, automatically registering everyone to vote, making Puerto Rico and Washington DC states, and then said:

“And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the Go-driven rights of every American, then that’s what we should do,” he said. Apparently now the filibuster is also racist. White House Dossier

 

Well then, that's one bit of racism Democrats will definitely do away with if they take power. How come Republicans never think of these things when they hold the reins of power? Of our elected officials only Democrats seem to understand that this is a war for the future.

 

 

European economy contracts by record 40% . . . 

Stringent lockdowns weighed heavily on Europe’s economy in the second quarter, causing a record decline that was even more severe than in the U.S., but the continent’s strategy of containment coupled with aggressive stimulus is fanning hopes of a robust recovery. The eurozone’s gross domestic product fell 40.3% annually in the three months through June, exceeding the U.S. economy’s 32.9% contraction, according to data published Friday. However, recent statistics suggest Europe is having a “much bigger snapback and there are some indicators that it may be getting ahead [of the U.S.],” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank. Wall Street Journal

 

Hong Kong now under Beijing's grip . . . A Hong Kong government source familiar with Beijing’s thinking said the new security law may have shocked many people but it had spelt out China’s limits on what is tolerable and not: a political reality people must accept. “It’s no longer the old era,” the government source said. “The bottom line is much worse than we expected and people are shocked. No one has to guess any more.” The law has brought a chill and the pulling of pro-democracy books from library shelves, disqualifications of democrats from a city election and the arrests of three teenagers for Facebook posts deemed secessionist. Reuters

 

Virus surges in Australia despite lockdown . . . Australia’s second lockdown in the city of Melbourne seems to be failing to slow the coronavirus’ spread, a sign that governments are running out of options to contain the pathogen as it reemerges across the globe. Three weeks after the population of 5 million was put under lockdown again in response to a fierce flareup, the infection curve in Victoria state, which Melbourne is the capital of, hasn’t flattened. Instead, cases have surged, with a record 723 new infections on Thursday and a further 627 on Friday, raising fears the virus will spread nationwide. Bloomberg

 

Amazon, Apple Facebook and Google raking it in during coronavirus . . . America's top four tech giants added a combined market value of $250billion on Thursday as they reported astonishing quarterly earnings just hours after their leaders were grilled in a congressional hearing about the alleged abuse of their global dominance. Apple, Amazon, Facebook Inc and Google's parent company Alphabet each posted profits or revenue that far exceeded analysts' expectations and caused their shares to soar even higher than they were already. With combined sales of $200 billion from April to June, the companies proved that they are not only surviving but thriving amid shutdowns from the coronavirus pandemic. Daily Mail

 

The police are being defunded . . . Facing the dual forces of coronavirus pandemic budget shortfalls and the national movement to "defund the police," law enforcement agencies across the country are bracing for budget reductions not seen in more than a decade. Nearly half of 258 agencies surveyed this month are reporting that funding has already been slashed or is expected to be reduced. Much of the funding is being pulled from equipment, hiring and training accounts, even as a number of cities also are tracking abrupt spikes in violent crime, the report concluded. USA Today

 

Prosecutor: No charges in Michael Brown death . . . St. Louis County’s top prosecutor announced Thursday that he will not charge the former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It was nearly six years ago that a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot Brown, a Black 18-year-old. Civil rights leaders and Brown’s mother had hoped that Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, the county’s first Black prosecutor, would reopen the case after he took office in January 2019. Bell announced his decision after quietly re-investigating the case in a five-month review. Associated Press

 

The NBA takes a knee . . . NBA teams bowed their heads and knelt during the playing of the U.S. national anthem while wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts on Thursday as the league returned for the first time since the coronavirus halted play in March with two thrilling games. Coaches and game officials joined players from the Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers in taking a knee to protest against racial injustice and police brutality in the first games in 140 days. Black Lives Matter was also written on the courts. Reuters 

 

Court docs reveal Ghislaine Maxwell's "constant orgies" with young girls . . . Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell used his private Caribbean island to host “constant” orgies and once flew in a group of European models to fulfill their sexual fetishes, an Epstein accuser claimed in newly released court documents. Virginia Giuffre, who has accused Epstein and Maxwell of abusing her, detailed the sex-obsessed world of the pair in a 2016 deposition in a civil case against Maxwell that was made public for the first time Thursday. Giuffre testified that Maxwell had “continuous” sex with girls and women in front of her, some she believed were as young as 15. New York Post

 

Taylor Swift fans threaten to burn down house of reviewer of her new album . . . On Monday Pitchfork’s senior editor Jillian Mapes published a review of the singer’s eighth album Folklore, and hours later was bombarded with angry messages on social media where crazed fans tweeted out her address, phone number and photos of her home and herself. However, Mapes's review gave Swift’s album an eight out of 10 rating and praised it as 'a sweater-weather record filled with cinematic love songs and rich fictional details.' The review wasn’t positive enough for fans who harassed the writer even though the score wasn't her own, it was determined by the ratings of multiple staffers. Die-hard fans proceeded to dox the editor, threaten to burn her home, and send her 'hexing' tweets paired with satanic images of Swift. Daily Mail