A federal judge granted a 48-hour extension for voter registration in Virginia on Wednesday morning, a day after a cut cable shut down the state’s online voter registration system. The outage happened on the state’s final day for voter registration and impeded early in-person voting as well. Continue reading “Federal Judge Grants Virginia Voter Registration Deadline Extension After Outage”
Trump Urges CA GOP To Keep Using DIY Ballot Boxes Despite Prosecution Threat From State
President Donald Trump on Tuesday night urged Republicans in California to keep using home-brewed ballot drop boxes that state officials have said are illegal. Trump argued Democrats are doing the same — they aren’t — and that that alone was enough to justify the California GOP’s move.
Court Throws Out Texas GOP Lawsuit Targeting ‘Drive-Thru’ Voting
Texas Republicans’ latest attempt to make voting harder in the pandemic didn’t get very far. Continue reading “Court Throws Out Texas GOP Lawsuit Targeting ‘Drive-Thru’ Voting”
Anchorage Mayor Resigns After Admitting To ‘Inappropriate’ Messaging With TV Anchor
Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz (D) resigned on Tuesday after admitting to a consensual yet inappropriate extramarital text messaging relationship with a television anchor, Alaska Public Media reports.
The mayor’s departure is the latest in a scandal involving Maria Athens, a local news anchor who on Friday alleged on her Facebook page that the mayor had posted “his male genitalia” on an underage girl’s website. Athens also shared a nude photo of a man from behind who she alleged was Berkowitz.
On Monday, Berkowitz, a prominent Democrat who was once a state lawmaker and was later elected mayor in 2015, denied the allegations regarding minors, while admitting he had previously engaged in a “consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship” with the anchor.
Investigations by the FBI and Anchorage police reportedly found “no evidence of criminal conduct” by the mayor. In a statement Tuesday, the FBI added that there was “no immediate evidence to support a violation of federal law; however, the FBI Anchorage Field Office continues to monitor the situation.”
Municipal Manager Bill Falsey later said top city officials concluded that “it would be untenable for the mayor to continue in his role,” adding, per Alaska Public Media, that Berkowitz had independently arrived at a similar decision to step down.
Berkowitz acknowledged “unacceptable personal conduct” in a resignation statement that was read at an Assembly meeting on Tuesday.
“It is with profound sadness and humility that I resign as the mayor of the municipality of Anchorage,” the statement said.
“My resignation results from unacceptable personal conduct that has compromised my ability to perform my duties with the focus and trust that is required. I know my conduct has done great injury to my family, my staff, to municipal employees and to the people of our community, and for that I am deeply sorry.”
Berkowitz’s resignation is effective Oct. 23, the mayor’s chief of staff Jason Bockenstedt said.
The mayor’s departure was met by cheers during Tuesday’s Assembly meeting, according to Alaska Public Media. Berkowitz’s decision comes as Anchorage reports record high cases of COVID-19 in a city whose economy has buckled under the pandemic. Many of those in attendance on Tuesday had opposed the extension of the mayor’s emergency powers.
Per Anchorage municipal rules, Assembly Chair Felix Rivera would be next in line to serve as acting mayor.
Foreign Operatives and Rudy Try to Bail out Trump Again
Right on time we seem to have our first Giuliani-linked foreign intelligence drops into the 2020 campaign. The New York Post ran a story today purporting to suggest Hunter Biden had introduced a Burisma colleague to his father in 2015. They appear to all be from the Ukrainian colleague thanking Biden for purportedly making the introduction.
I should note that the purported blockbuster only really amounts to anything of consequence inside the maze of Ukraine conspiracy theories but I want to focus on the alleged chain of custody. We’re told that an unidentified computer story owner had someone bring in three computers for data recovery. He/she thinks but can’t confirm that that person was Hunter Biden. They seem to base this on a Beau Biden Foundation sticker on one of the laptops. The unidentified computer store owner says the hard drives were subpoenaed by the FBI. But before turning over the drives he made his own copies of their contents and then gave a copy to Rudy Giuliani.
Continue reading “Foreign Operatives and Rudy Try to Bail out Trump Again”
After SCOTUS Win, Trump Admin Will End Census Counting This Week
The Census Bureau is shutting down its decennial census counting operations this week, after the Trump administration received an okay from the Supreme Court to end the survey’s data collection two weeks earlier than what the bureau had planned.
Continue reading “After SCOTUS Win, Trump Admin Will End Census Counting This Week”
White House Embraces ‘Herd Immunity’ Declaration That Encourages COVID-19 Infections
The White House has embraced a declaration by a group of scientists urging free spread of the coronavirus among healthy young people in an effort to achieve “herd immunity” through widespread infection instead of a vaccine, The New York Times reports.
The Times reported that during a White House call on Monday two White House officials cited an Oct. 4 petition titled The Great Barrington Declaration, with more than 9,000 signatories worldwide that condemns lockdowns and pushes for businesses and schools to reopen to achieve herd immunity, suggesting that young people are at “minimal risk of death” from coronavirus.
“Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health,” the declaration states, adding: “The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.”
The “herd immunity” approach would aim to protect the elderly and the vulnerable while allowing for infections among the young until the disease stops spreading on the assumption that most of the population has contracted the virus. But it’s nearly impossible to protect all Americans who are elderly or are otherwise saddled with underlying conditions that put them at higher risk of death from COVID-19.
Per the Times, the document emerged from a meeting hosted by the libertarian-leaning American Institute for Economic Research.
Among its lead authors is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert from Stanford University. President Donald Trump’s science adviser Dr. Scott Atlas also hails from Stanford and has previously advocated for reaching herd immunity by ending lockdowns and eliminating mandates on mask-wearing and social-distancing.
According to the Times, leading experts have estimated that roughly 85 to 90 percent of the American population is still susceptible to the coronavirus, meaning that the nation is far from achieving herd immunity.
Responding to news of the declaration during a CNN interview on Wednesday morning, Dr. William Haseltine, a former professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, warned against the White House embracing a herd immunity approach.
“I’m extremely concerned that the president is being advised by people who speak of herd immunity,” Haseltine said, adding: “herd immunity is another word for mass murder.”
Trump To Hold Competing Town Hall During Biden’s On Thursday After Debate Cancellation
NBC News announced on Wednesday morning that the network will be hosting a town hall with President Donald Trump on the same day and time Democratic candidate Joe Biden is scheduled to hold a town hall of his own on Thursday.
Trump Mocks The Elderly Days After Calling Seniors ‘My Favorite People In The World’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday night mocked the elderly and disabled when he shared a meme that appeared to show his Democratic opponent Joe Biden Photoshopped in a wheelchair inside at what looks like a nursing home.
Trump’s portrayal of Biden as old and disabled comes as the two candidates fight to secure support from elderly voters, especially in battleground Florida where both candidates have campaigned this week. Trump carried the demographic in 2016, but recent polling shows Biden has narrowed that margin and might have a slight edge, per the Washington Post.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020
Trump’s support among the senior voters has likely softened at least in part due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic which has killed older Americans at a higher rate than any other age group. But the President has also offered conflicting messages on whether or not he will use a second term to advocate for seniors.
Last week, Trump tweeted out a video where he makes a shout out to seniors calling them “my favorite people in the world!”
The Post pointed out that video clip was a sharp contrast from Tuesday night’s meme making light of Biden’s age which has been a central narrative in the President’s attack of Biden, 77, who is three years his senior.
Trump, who was recently cleared by the White House physician to resume public engagements after he was hospitalized for coronavirus has repeatedly sought to paint himself as invincible amid his diagnosis, even though he is 74 and overweight, two factors that have likely complicated his recovery.
Seeking to expand his appeal among older voters, Biden addressed residents at a senior center in Florida on Tuesday, arguing that Trump has failed the nation’s senior citizens.
“You’re expendable. You’re forgettable. You’re virtually nobody. That’s how he sees seniors,” Biden told a crowd of senior voters on Tuesday. “The only senior that Donald Trump cares about — the only senior — is the senior Donald Trump.”
‘Hilariously Embarrassing’: Women Mock Trump’s Desperate Plea For Them To ‘Like’ Him
President Donald Trump, trailing in the polls and whose support among women continues to erode, once again tried to invoke a glaringly racist appeal to “suburban” women during a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday night.
“I ask you to do me a favor. Suburban women: will you please like me? Please,” he begged. “Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?”