Estrogen appears to protect women against the coronavirus . . . Women don't seem to get Covid-19 as bad as men and it could be down to oestrogen, according to a new study that set out to explain the gender disparity.  A number of studies show that men face a much greater chance of getting a severe case of Covid-19, and could be as much as twice as likely to die from the virus. Daily Mail

 

Biden to break out of basement . . . After months of political jokes about him hiding in his basement, Joe Biden looks set to join President Trump in returning to the campaign trail in September. "I’m a tactile politician. I really miss being able to, you know, grab hands, shake hands, you can’t do that now. But I can, in fact, appear beyond virtually, in person, in many of these places. That’s what you’re going to be seeing after Labor Day," the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee said Thursday. Washington Examiner

 

 

 

Pelosi begins drumbeat for Biden to avoid debates . . . Here we go. Democrats desperately want to keep a mentally deteriorating Joe Biden away from the debate stage. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday began setting the table, saying Biden should refuse to debate because President Trump doesn’t tell the truth. “I don’t think there should be any debates,” she told reporters. White House Dossier

 

They’re in a box though. If he does no debates, people will understand why. But it would probably be worse for them to have Biden go out there and not be able to handle himself.

 

Study says polling support for Trump understated . . . A new online study finds that Republicans and independents are twice as likely as Democrats to say they would not give their true opinion in a telephone poll question about their preference for president in the 2020 election. That raises the possibility that polls understate support for President Donald Trump. Some 11.7% of Republicans and 10.5% independents said they would not give their true opinion, vs. 5.4% of Democrats, according to the study by CloudResearch LLC. Bloomberg

 

Effort to restart coronavirus aid talks sputters . . . An effort to restart stalled coronavirus negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House went nowhere Thursday, with the top House Democrat saying the talks are fruitless until GOP negotiators agree to a massive $1 trillion concession. Pelosi had little new to say after a 25-minute phone conversation with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Thursday afternoon, the first communication between the two since the coronavirus relief talks collapsed in early August. Politico

 

 

College cancels Pence speech fearing BLM protests . . . A private Milwaukee college has canceled plans to have Vice President Mike Pence deliver a commencement address this weekend, citing unrest in nearby Kenosha where police shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, and two people were killed during protests that followed. Wisconsin Lutheran College said Thursday that “after further review with careful consideration of the escalating events in Kenosha,” it decided to not have Pence deliver the speech. Washington Times

 

 

Biden and Harris prejudge Jacob Blake shooting . . . Jacob Blake is a black man who was shot in the back multiple times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. What is clear is that this is a tragic situation. What is not completely clear, and what is still being investigated, is exactly why the police officer shot him. Nevertheless, the Democratic ticket has already decided the case. Vice President Joe Biden said of the shooting, “The shots fired at Mr. Blake pierced the soul of our nation.” “It’s sickening to watch, It’s all too familiar. And it must end,” said Kamala Harris. White House Dossier

 

As horrible as this is, we are a nation that presumes people innocent, including the cop who fired the shots, and we don’t have mob justice in our society. Yet.

 

Russia has forces on standby to keep Belarusian autocrat in power . . . Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to deploy forces to help Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko maintain control in the face of widespread protests against election fraud, the Kremlin chief said, blaming the unrest on Western countries. “Mr. Lukashenko has asked me to create a reserve group of law enforcement personnel, and I have done this,” Putin told Russian media in an interview. “Now, it is not necessary, and I hope that it will never be necessary to use this reserve, which is why we are not using it.” Washington Examiner

 

Philippines warns Beijing it will enlist US help if China attacks . . . A violent encounter between China and the Philippines would trigger a confrontation with the United States, according to an unusual warning from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. If "something happens that is beyond incursion but is, in fact, an attack on, say, a Filipino naval vessel … then I call up Washington, D.C.,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said during a national broadcast this week. Washington Examiner

 

 

Lord & Taylor to close all its stores . . . Lord & Taylor will close all of its stores under pressure from the pandemic, ending the department store chain's nearly 200-year run. The company on Thursday said that it would close all of its 38 stores in liquidation sales, a reversal from last week's decision to keep 14 locations open as it pursues Chapter 11. Lord & Taylor, which began as a Manhattan dry goods store in 1824, was sold to the French rental clothing company Le Tote Inc last year. Daily Mail

 

United Airlines to cut thousands of pilots . . .  United Airlines s preparing for the biggest pilot furloughs of its history after announcing on Thursday the need to cut 2,850 pilot jobs this year, or about 21% of the total, without further U.S. government aid.  Airlines, reeling from the devastating impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic on air travel, have asked the U.S. government for another $25 billion to cover employee payroll through March. Reuters

 

Trump promises tariffs on companies that leave US to create job overseas . . . Trump said on Thursday that if he was re-elected, his administration would impose tariffs on any company that leaves the United States to create jobs elsewhere. “We will impose tariffs on any company that leaves America to produce jobs overseas,” Trump said in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. “We’ll make sure our companies and jobs stay in our country, as I’ve already been doing. Reuters

 

Hurricane Laura leaves Louisiana neighborhoods in ruins . . . Hurricane Laura, one of the strongest to ever strike the U.S., barreled across Louisiana on Thursday, shearing off roofs, killing at least six people and maintaining ferocious strength while carving a destructive path hundreds of miles inland. Aerial photos have laid bare the extent of the destruction caused by the Category 4 storm, that left entire neighborhoods submerged in green-brown floodwater, high-rise buildings with missing windows, and an airport hangar shredded into ribbons of metal. Most of the homes that remained intact still had missing shingles, shattered windows and yards strewn with debris. But despite a trail of demolished buildings, entire neighborhoods left in ruins and almost 900,000 homes and businesses without power, a sense of relief prevailed that Laura was not the annihilating menace forecasters had feared. Daily Mail

 

Kenosha shooter hit with slew of charges . . . The teen vigilante who allegedly gunned down two Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was hit with a slew of charges on Thursday.

Kenosha County prosecutors charged Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, with one count each of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, court records show. New York Post

 

We will soon learn about his endless hours playing violent video games. I guarantee it.

 

March on Washington will mark MLK speech . . . Tens of thousands of people were expected to march in Washington, D.C. on Friday to denounce racism, protest police brutality and commemorate the anniversary of the march in 1963 where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr made his “I Have a Dream” speech. Reuters

 

 

Elon Musk to show off brain-hacking device . . . His brain-hacking company, Neuralink, applied to start human trials last year. But Friday's demonstration will involve a robot and "neurons firing in real time", a series of tweets reveals. The interface could allow people with neurological conditions to control phones or computers with their mind. But the long-term ambition is to usher in an age of what Mr Musk calls "superhuman cognition". BBC

 

Neighbors sought $1.1M in coronavirus relief by pretending to be farmers . . . A pair of neighbors in Florida is accused of working together to commit an estimated $1.1 million in coronavirus relief fraud by falsely claiming they were farmers, officials announced. Miami residents Latoya Stanley, 38, and Johnny Philus, 33, were charged Wednesday in connection with allegations they filed four bogus COVID relief applications for forgivable loans, including two in which they claimed they ran farms on their residential properties. Fox Business