Crooked Media - What A Day: Do not pass Gohmert

A week after debuting Somber New Tone #325793, President Trump has reverted to promoting a drug that’s dangerous to coronavirus patients, and spreading misinformation about masks, now with the help of a physician whose medical worldview includes, uh, sex demons. 
 

• Trump and his top advisors are once again aggressively peddling hydroxychloroquine, after clinical studies have overwhelmingly found it to be an ineffective coronavirus treatment. White House trade advisor Peter Navarro took the lead in a CNN interview today, begging doctors to prescribe the useless drug the administration already spent a bunch of money on: “I’m pleading with you and the American people to look at this drug again. Because I literally have tens of millions of tablets sitting in the Strategic National Stockpile.” 
   
• After retweeting and deleting a viral video featuring Stella Immanuel, seemingly the only doctor conservatives could find to champion hydroxychloroquine, Trump has continued to promote her. Immanuel’s other beliefs include doctors using alien DNA in medicine, and that some gynecological problems are caused by people having sex with demons in their dreams. (These conditions are called “Rosemary’s Scabies.”) While Trump was amplifying deranged medical opinions and falsely claiming that much of the country is “corona-free,” more than 1,300 Americans died on Tuesday, the largest single-day toll since May. Six states—Arkansas, California, Florida, Montana, Oregon, and Texas—each reported record spikes in fatalities. 
   
• Trump’s months-long rejection of public health guidance may well have sparked a superspreading event on Capitol Hill. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who has loyally refused to wear a mask, tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of a planned trip on Air Force One. (Yet another reminder that the fastest way to confirm a coronavirus infection in this country is to have plans with Trump.) Gohmert attended multiple committee meetings this week, including yesterday’s hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr, and returned to his Capitol Hill office after testing positive. One of Gohmert’s aides told reporters that he’s insisted on having his full staff in the office and berated them for wearing masks, and unsurprisingly, it seems he’s not the only GOP lawmaker to do so.

If only Republicans cared about their staff and colleagues as much as the Trump administration pretends to care about federal buildings. 
 

• Gov. Kate Brown (D-OR) announced that her office had reached an agreement with DHS to begin withdrawing federal agents from Portland, on the condition that the state protect the exterior of the federal courthouse. The agents deployed to Seattle on standby last week have left the city, after pushback from local officials. That’s not to say Trump’s law-and-order role playing is over: The Justice Department plans to divide nearly 100 federal agents between Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—all run by Democratic mayors in prominent swing states—in an expansion of “Operation Legend.”
   
• Alarmingly, federal agents’ tactics against protesters seem to have been embraced by local police forces. Plainclothes NYPD officers were filmed grabbing a young trans woman off the street and dragging her into an unmarked van on Tuesday. (She’s since been released.) Just as outrageous as the abductions and tear gas is what federal authorities in Portland have been doing behind the scenes: Protesters who had been arrested were forced to agree not to attend further protests as a condition of their release from jail, a move described by one ACLU expert as “sort of hilariously unconstitutional.”

The longer Republican leaders rehash the same batshit insane arguments over basic scientific health measures, the longer the rest of us are forced to relive the same day over and over in quarantine—and that’s if we’re lucky enough to still have a home, and our health. The only way out of the feedback loop is to elect a new president. Ninety-seven days. 

As part of our Every Last Vote week of action, Vote Save America has launched a brand new fund with our friends at PowerPAC. This fund directly supports on the ground organizations making aggressive efforts to mobilize Black, brown, indigenous, and other marginalized communities that are routinely victims of targeted voter disenfranchisement efforts. Chip in to make sure voters in these communities are heard at votesaveamerica.com/everylastvote →

The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google testified before Congress in a landmark antitrust hearing. The inquiry centered on a simple question: Are these tech companies too powerful for America’s good? Lawmakers questioned Google’s Sundar Pichai about his company’s work in China and whether it steals ideas from other businesses; Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg about his platform’s shitstorm of disinformation and acquisition of competitive threats; and Apple’s Tim Cook about whether his company treats app developers equally. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in his first congressional appearance, was grilled about the company’s alleged use of third-party seller data in developing competing products. Republicans were more focused on claims of tech companies’ bias against conservatives (hahaha), and it wouldn’t be a tech hearing without one congressman doing an Old and another asking for tech support.

• President Trump said he has not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Russian bounties on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, confirming he didn’t bring it up during their phone call last week. Trump also tried to suggest that since the U.S. armed Afghan fighters against the Soviet Union in the ‘80s, this simply makes us even, no harm done.
   
• Speaking of which, The Pentagon will move forward with Trump’s plan to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany, which will cost billions and take years, and is, in the words of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), “a gift to Russia.”
   
• A campaign-finance watchdog accused the Trump campaign of illegally concealing $170 million in campaign spending. Demoted campaign advisor Brad Parscale allegedly funneled the money to Trump family members and other personal associates through two firms. 
   
• A New York Times survey has found at least 6,300 coronavirus cases linked to U.S. colleges, before the academic year has even begun. Good to get them out of the way early! :)
   
• What do you know, there’s no evidence that $600 federal unemployment payments have deterred people from going back to work. Anyway, federal unemployment expires in two days and, thanks to Republicans, Congress is nowhere close to a stimulus agreement. 
   
• Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh reportedly urged his colleagues to punt decisions on cases involving Trump’s financial records and a Louisiana abortion law.
   
• The USDA will test the contents of unsolicited mystery seed packages that hundreds of people across the country have received from China. The packages seem to be part of a retail scam to boost online sales, but could also contain some sort of harmful invasive species, and if we know 2020, Seeds of Doom are probably a safe bet. 

QAnon has exploded into a global movement during the pandemic. Another quality American export! You’re welcome, world. The conspiracy theory has seen huge online growth since March, as people scramble for community and a sense of meaning in the uncertainty. QAnon has had a 71 percent increase in Twitter content, and a staggering 651 percent increase on Facebook. The number of QAnon Facebook groups have doubled, and most of the new groups are international. QAnon “armies” can now be found in several European countries, as well as Canada, Japan, and Iran. The international chapters work together to create content, translating propaganda for each other and adapting it for each audience, but all centered around the cultishly pro-Trump movement. 

Don’t be trash. Stay home (if you can). Protect your community. Defend the planet we all love for ever generations to come.

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A federal judge blocked the Trump administration's "public charge" rule from taking effect. 

A study is now underway to see whether harvested COVID-19 antibodies can protect high-risk patients who have been exposed to the virus. 

The House passed two bills aimed at making child care more affordable, and helping child care providers reopen safely. 

MacKenzie Scott (formerly Bezos) has donated nearly $1.7 billion across 116 organizations since pledging to give away most of her fortune last year.