Crooked Media - What A Day: Build! The! Mom! Wall!

Unemployment is on the rise and Republicans continue to oppose an extension of emergency federal benefits that expire in a matter of days, but at least President Trump’s anonymous goons are also tear gassing the local officials who told them to GTFO. 
 

• The total number of known coronavirus cases in the U.S. passed four million on Thursday, underscoring COVID-19’s exponential spread: the country went from three million confirmed infections to four million in just 16 days. The average number of new cases is now rising by about 2,600 every hour, the highest rate in the world. (U-S-A! U-S-A!) Even with expanded testing, those numbers understate the severity of the U.S. epidemic. A CDC analysis released this week estimated that actual infection rates could be up to 13 times higher than reported in some regions. 
   
• As states reimpose public-health restrictions (because they simply wouldn’t adhere to President Trump’s cautious guidance, according to Kellyanne Conway, in a career highlight lie), job losses have begun to tick up. Workers filed 1.4 million new unemployment claims last week, rising from the previous week for the first time since March. Meanwhile, a federal eviction moratorium will expire tomorrow, and the White House and senior Republicans have slapped down the idea of a short-term extension of expanded unemployment benefits to keep renters from losing their homes while they hammer out a long-term agreement. 
   
• Unfortunately for everyone’s blood pressure, that agreement is still very much unagreed upon. Senate Republicans have killed Trump’s payroll tax cut proposal, but remain completely at odds over the unemployment extension and overall package, and haven’t even begun negotiations with Democrats. A major sticking point will be Republicans’ insistence on liability protections, to prevent more lawsuits like this one: Federal employees from ICE, DHS, and the military have joined a lawsuit suing the Trump administration over their exposure to COVID-19 while performing official duties.

Surely average working Americans are entitled to the same legal recourse as the guys whose “official duties” include throwing chemical weapons at moms and elected officials.
 

• On Wednesday night, federal law enforcement officers tear gassed a crowd of protesters in downtown Portland that happened to include Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. Wheeler said he was outraged by the use of tear gas and called it an “egregious overreaction.” (Some important context here: Portland protesters have long criticized Wheeler himself over the city police force’s use of tear gas.)
   
• The inspectors general for the Justice Department and DHS have launched investigations into federal officers’ use of force against protesters in both Portland and Washington, DC, and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner warned that he’s prepared to make arrests if the violence spreads to his city: “Anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people will face criminal charges from my office.”

Trump’s dystopian America is poised to get exponentially worse, if mass evictions become a reality. Senate Republicans had weeks to start negotiations on the one piece of legislation standing between millions of Americans and homelessness, and after leaving it until the last minute, their infighting has brought the process to a halt. The economic damage will be long-lasting no matter what the next stimulus contains, and if and when (knock on wood) Joe Biden becomes president, we’ll need a Senate that’s ready to do its job.

This Sunday we’ll be 100 days out from Election day, and between now and then, we’ll be up against things like this pandemic, voter suppression, and disinformation that will make or break this election. In an election where we’ll need every last vote, we can’t afford to lose a single one. That’s why this Sunday, Vote Save America is kicking off a week of action to fight back and make sure that every last vote is counted on Election Day. 

Check out votesaveamerica.com/everylastvote for all the details. There’s tool for you to request your vote by mail ballot, opportunities for you to call voters about voting by mail and volunteer as a poll worker on Election Day, AND there’s a brand new fund to support aggressive, on-the-ground efforts to mobilize marginalized communities that are frequently the targets of aggressive voter disenfranchisement efforts. 

Find everything you need to make sure Every Last Vote is counted on Election Day → votesaveamerica.com/everylastvote

President Trump’s private company filed a trademark application for the word “telerally” last week, suggesting it plans to get into the politics business. Just three days after the application was filed, the Trump campaign held an event on Facebook that Trump called “my first-ever TELErally,” and he’s since held several others. It’s not clear if Trump’s company was involved in organizing those events—the campaign spending records won’t be available until next month. The campaign could have funneled money back to Trump’s business without the trademark, of course, and frequently does: The application suggests that Trump’s company plans to license the name to other political campaigns.

• A judge has ordered DOJ to release Michael Cohen from prison back into home confinement, saying he believed the government retaliated against him for planning to publish a book about Trump before the election, in violation of his first amendment rights.
   
• Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has abolished the Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation. The Fair Housing Act still requires local governments to “affirmatively further fair housing,” but the Trump administration just gutted the provision that enforces it, in a move Trump thinks will help him with suburban voters. Not calling them “The Suburban Housewives of America” might be a stronger start.
   
• Trump has canceled the Jacksonville, FL portions of the GOP convention, knowing no one would show up citing the importance of keeping people safe. Trump said he would deliver a campaign speech “in a different form.” (Perhaps a...telerally™?)
   
• Twitter announced that hackers were able to access the DMs of 36 out of 130 accounts compromised during last week’s breach, including those of an elected official in the Netherlands. 
   
• A federal judge has temporarily halted the release of NYPD disciplinary records. Last month New York legislators repealed a law used to keep the records hidden from view, but several police unions sued to block their release.
   
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) delivered a powerful floor speech castigating Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) for his misogynistic attack on the steps of the Capitol: “Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters. I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho's youngest daughter. I am someone's daughter, too. My father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter.”
   
• The Washington football team will temporarily go by the name “Washington Football Team.” Straightforward, accurate, no racial slurs. Two thumbs up. 
   
• Taylor Swift will drop her surprise album Folklore tonight, which she wrote and recorded entirely in quarantine, like some kind of show-off. 
   
• Houston is now home to the first drive-through strip club in Texas. (Ken Burns music) It was in our time of greatest adversity that we saw the true resilience, the creativity, the unfailing horniness of the American spirit. 
   
• Well look who got another Leo.

Hundreds of migrant parents and children are still detained in ICE facilities with coronavirus outbreaks, nearly a month after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release children “with all deliberate speed.” ICE has refused to release children and families together ahead of the judge’s July 27 deadline, and is instead trying to negotiate a waiver deal that would give parents the “choice” of releasing the children separately or remaining detained together. (The July 17 episode of This American Life has a great segment on this.) There are still 346 parents and children in detention and Peter Schey, the lead attorney representing them, has negotiated over the waiver deal rather than fighting for their immediate release.

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The New York State Senate has passed a bill allowing automatic voter registration. 

A Virginia school board voted to rename Fairfax County’s Robert E. Lee High School after John Lewis.

Online bake sales have raised millions of dollars for racial justice.

The House approved a measure to repeal the Trump administration's travel ban. (It won't make it past the current Senate, naturally, but something to look forward to when we've flipped it.)