White House ramps up PR campaign to improve Trump's image

https://us.cnn.com/2020/05/16/politics/trump-coronavirus-vaccine-image/index.html

CNN's election poll released this week showed former Vice President Joe Biden leading Trump 51% to 46% nationally among registered voters. But in an encouraging sign for Trump, 52% of those voters in key battleground states favored the President compared to 45% who backed Biden.

 

Sweden Stayed Open. A Deadly Month Shows the Risks.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/15/world/europe/sweden-coronavirus-deaths.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

No two countries are exactly alike, making comparisons inexact. Luck, travel patterns and personal actions play a role, not just government policy. 

Swedish officials chose not to implement a nationwide lockdown, trusting that people would do their part to stay safe. Schools, restaurants, gyms and bars remained open, with social distancing rules enforced, while gatherings were restricted to 50 people. 

Two months later, it has not been the worst-case scenario many envisioned. Covid-19 deaths have disproportionately hit the elderly and those in nursing homes, as is the case in most countries, but hospitals have not been overwhelmed. As with the rest of the world, it will be months, or even years, before the full picture of mortality emerges.

“It is clear that mortality in Stockholm has been a lot higher than you would expect from a normal year,” said Martin Kolk, a demographer at Stockholm University. “But we will have to wait and see what happens. It’s a very big difference if we continue to see excess mortality for six more months, or if it will be back to normal levels in a few weeks.”

There Are Sensible Ways to Reopen a Country. Then There's America's Approach

https://time.com/5836607/reopening-risks-coronavirus/

Much of the blame for that disarray falls on Trump himself. The President has repeatedly undermined the guidance of his own public-health officials, fomented antiquarantine protests on Twitter and politicized cautious positions taken by some governors. On May 7, the AP reported that the Administration had “buried” more detailed CDC advice to states on how to safely reopen.

Trump’s erratic political response to the public-health crisis reflects his own leadership style, but also the larger challenge of America’s cultural idiosyncrasies. Americans are uniquely attached to our civil liberties. It’s difficult to imagine South Korea’s contact-tracing program—a massive, state-run surveillance system that tracks and records the movements of every citizen—flying on U.S. soil. The same is true of Chinese officials’ reopening of Shanghai Disneyland. While the first day back at the Happiest Place on Earth was successful, attendees willingly scanned QR codes on their phones, allowing the government to monitor their exact where-abouts in case of future outbreaks.

 

US church sues after bible study 'Zoombombed' by child abuse

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52668124

A California church is suing video chat company Zoom after a hacker allegedly hijacked a virtual Bible study class to post graphic images of child abuse.

The company pointed to its "recently updated security features", adding that Zoom users should not widely share meeting access and passwords "as appeared to be the case" with the church group.

Americans' Trust in Mass Media Edges Down to 41%

https://news.gallup.com/poll/267047/americans-trust-mass-media-edges-down.aspx

 Although trust in the media has edged down this year, it is well above the record low of 32% in 2016 when Republicans' trust dropped precipitously and drove the overall trust reading down during the divisive presidential campaign. Republicans' trust is still at a very low level and a wide gap in views of the media among partisans persists as 69% of Democrats say they have trust and confidence in it, while 15% of Republicans and 36% of independents agree.

Former federal judge who brought down the 'Teflon Don' steps into Flynn case

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/14/politics/john-gleeson-profile/index.html

An esteemed former federal judge himself, Gleeson, 66, entered the discourse around the Flynn case on Monday, when he and two other former Justice Department officials wrote in The Washington Post that among the steps US District Judge Emmet Sullivan could take would be to "appoint an independent attorney to act as a 'friend of the court,' ensuring a full, adversarial inquiry."

Saying the case "reeks of improper political influence," they wrote that "if prosecutors attempt to dismiss a well-founded prosecution for impermissible or corrupt reasons, the people would be ill-served if a court blindly approved their dismissal request. The independence of the court protects us all when executive-branch decisions smack of impropriety; it also protects the judiciary itself from becoming a party to corruption."

 

Why Donald Trump's idea that he saved millions of lives is laughable

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/11/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-quarantine/index.html

It's obvious what he is doing. Cherry-picking a jaw-dropping number -- 2.2 million! -- to frame the deaths of more than 100,000 Americans as not all that bad, all things considered. (Worth noting: On April 21, Trump said this: "Now we're going toward 50 -- I'm hearing, or 60,000 people. One is too many. I always say it. One is too many, but we're going toward 50 or 60,000 people. That's at the lower -- as you know the lower (end of the projections) was supposed to be 100,000 people.")

Sessions responds to Trump attack: 'I do not and will not break the law'

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/08/politics/jeff-sessions-donald-trump-obligated/index.html

Sessions said in a statement that he recused himself because he was abiding by the law.

"To not recuse myself from that investigation, of which I was a target as a senior campaign official and a witness, would have been breaking the law. I do not and will not break the law," Sessions. "I did the right thing for the country and for President Trump. If I, as a target of the investigation, had broken the law by not recusing myself, it would have been a catastrophe for the rule of law and for the President."

 

The President was asked during a Friday morning call to "Fox & Friends" if there would have been a Russia probe had Bill Barr, the current attorney general, been attorney general during the start of the Trump administration.

"No, there wouldn't be. He would have stopped it immediately. ... Jeff Sessions was a disaster. I made him -- I didn't want to make him attorney general but he was the first senator to endorse me so I felt a little bit of an obligation," Trump said.

Roy Cohn Trump's role model

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn

Representation of Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch

In 1971, businessman Donald Trump moved to Manhattan, where he became involved in large construction projects.^[39] In 1973, the Justice Department accused him of violating the Fair Housing Act in 39 of his properties.^[40][41] The government alleged that Trump's corporation quoted different rental terms and conditions and made false "no vacancy" statements to African Americans for apartments it managed in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.^[42]

Thirty Workers, Four USDA Inspectors Dead Amid Meat Plant Coronavirus Outbreaks

https://time.com/5836973/usda-inspector-meat-workers-dead-coronavirus/

A fourth U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety inspector died Wednesday from Covid-19, according to a union official, amid an outbreak of the virus in the nation’s meat processors.


President Donald Trump issued an executive order April 28 directing meatpackers to reopen and the USDA announced Friday that 14 processing facilities were reopening. Schelling didn’t provide details on when the deceased inspector contracted the virus.

Lindsey Graham Rejects Trump's Call to Force Obama to Testify in Russia Investigation

https://www.newsweek.com/lindsey-graham-rejects-trumps-call-force-obama-testify-russia-investigation-1504145

Trump has repeatedly called on Congress to force Obama to testify over what he alleges —without evidence—was a conspiracy against his administration. Trump has called the purported scandal "worse than Watergate" but has declined to offer specifics when asked to explain the charges.

Hannity: Why did the Obama administration's unmasking requests jump threefold from 2013 to 2016?

Here’s what ‘unmasking’ means, the phrase used in the Michael Flynn controversy

https://nypost.com/2020/05/13/heres-what-unmasking-means-the-phrase-in-the-michael-flynn-controversy/

Why unmasking in the news now:

In the Flynn case, Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak was overheard talking to a “masked” individual about the possibility of lifting sanctions imposed by the Obama administration.

Obama-era officials asked intelligence agencies to reveal the American’s name and found out it was Flynn, then an adviser to President-elect Trump.

This week, acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell declassified a list of 23 officials who sought to “unmask” or learn Flynn’s identity during the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Trump administration and some Republicans have accused the Obama administration of acting inappropriately in requesting the information.

However Grenell’s memo, which was released by Republican senators, notes that the “unmasking” was approved through the NSA’s “standard process.”

 

'Obamagate': Trump seeks to draw Biden into conspiracy theory

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/13/donald-trump-obamagate-conspiracy-theory-biden-flynn-unmasking

Grenell, a Trump ally, declassified and sent the list of names to Republican senators.

“I am providing a revised list of identities of any officials who submitted requests to the National Security Agency at any point between 8 November 2016 and 31 January 2017 to unmask the identity of former National Security Adviser, Lieutenant General Michael T Flynn,” read a memo from Gen Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, released by Grenell.

 

Unmasking is a routine practice used to identify a person anonymously referred to in an intelligence document. It takes place hundreds of times a year, without controversy.

Flynn was under scrutiny because of his conversations with the Russian ambassador about sanctions.

The list of officials released by Grenell includes former ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, former director of national intelligence James Clapper, former FBI director James Comey and former CIA director John Brennan. The last name on the list, from 12 January 2017, is Biden.