Members of Congress took small-business loans — and the full extent is unknown

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/16/congress-small-business-loan-320625

And there are almost certainly more, according to aides and lawmakers. But only the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department have that information, and the Trump administration is refusing to provide any details. That leaves it entirely up to business owners — including elected officials — to decide whether to come forward about a loan, which can be as large as $10 million.

 

Why Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch protected LGBTQ rights

Americans Learn First-Hand The Burdens Of Post-Policy Politics | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Fox News runs digitally altered images in coverage of Seattle’s protests, Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/fox-news-runs-digitally-altered-images-in-coverage-of-seattles-protests-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone/

The image was actually a mashup of photos from different days, taken by different photographers — it was done by splicing a Getty Images photo of an armed man, who had been at the protest zone June 10, with other images from May 30 of smashed windows in downtown Seattle. Another altered image combined the gunman photo with yet another image, making it appear as though he was standing in front of a sign declaring “You are now entering Free Cap Hill.”

 

Fox News Removes Digitally Altered, Misleading Photos of Seattle 'Autonomous Zone' From Website

https://time.com/5853408/fox-news-altered-photo-seattle/

As of Saturday, Fox News included an editors note posted at the top of at least three stories on its website covering the protest zone, saying it replaced a “home page photo collage” because it “did not clearly delineate between these images” and that it mistakenly included a St. Paul, Minnesota, photo in a slideshow about Seattle.

The Seattle Times reports Fox News’ website featured at least two photos on Friday that inserted an image of a man standing with a military-style rifle, and that there were no disclaimers on how they were manipulated when featured on the network’s website for most of the day Friday.

The image of the gunman is from a Getty Images photo that was taken on June 10 at what is known as the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” protest area. The original photo showed an unidentified man wearing a green mask who was carrying a weapon while standing in front of a car.

 

Treasury Sec. Mnuchin plays Hide and Seek with taxpayer dollars

Trump's wish for an end to the pandemic contradicts reality

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/16/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-politics-oklahoma-election-2020/index.html

Despite pleas from health authorities in Oklahoma to postpone his upcoming rally to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus, the President is doing the opposite -- talking about organizing a second mass rally indoors to showcase what his campaign says is an overwhelming response to the event. Trump's campaign said it will test temperatures of rallygoers and offer masks and hand sanitizer. But thousands of people are set to be crammed together in a hot arena for hours in conditions that are ideal for the spread of the virus.

FDA revokes authorization of drug Trump touted

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/15/politics/fda-hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus/index.html

The Food and Drug Administration has revoked its emergency use authorization for the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19.

Hydroxychloroquine was frequently touted by President Donald Trump, and he has claimed to have used it himself.

After reviewing the current research available on the drugs, the FDA determined that the drugs do not meet "the statutory criteria" for emergency use authorization as they are unlikely to be effective in treating Covid-19 based on the latest scientific evidence, the agency noted on its website on Monday.

 

President Trump's West Point walk sparks questions about his health

Trumps boosts candidate who posed with neo-Nazi, peddles anti-Semitic conspiracy

https://www.timesofisrael.com/trumps-boosts-candidate-who-posed-with-neo-nazi-peddles-anti-semitic-conspiracy/

  US President Donald Trump boosted a Georgia Republican candidate who refuses to disavow a white supremacist she posed with in a photograph and has seemingly promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. “A big winner,” Trump wrote in a tweet Friday attached to a story on a pro-Trump website noting Marjorie Taylor Greene performed well in the primary for the heavily Republican 14th District, despite having an ad banned by Facebook. “Congratulations!”

Comparing how Germany and US confront evil racial past, author finds US wanting

https://www.timesofisrael.com/comparing-how-germany-and-us-confront-evil-racial-past-author-finds-us-wanting/

“We would be outraged in the US if, within Germany, you would see statues of Nazi soldiers, with people claiming, ‘They were just my ancestors fighting for my homeland,’” Neiman said. “It’s actually what both descendants of Nazis and of Confederates believed, but it’s highly problematic to fight for your homeland and forget the ideology that started the war.”

 

Drainimg the swamp!? Democrats demand details from banks, Treasury on small business bailout

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/15/steven-mnuchin-congress-business-bailout-319921

The request, led by House Majority Whip James Clyburn and six colleagues, came after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the government would not reveal the names of the Paycheck Protection Program’s nearly 4.6 million loan recipients––even though the PPP loan application told borrowers their information would be released.

Clyburn and his colleagues say evidence of a “two-tiered” process, through which banks gave priority to wealthier customers, requires a more transparent understanding of how the government distributed hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Under the PPP, banks have issued nearly $512 billion in loans.

“We have significant concerns that the two-tiered system that some banks reportedly developed for wealthy clients may have diverted PPP funds intended for vulnerable small business owners in underserved and rural markets,” they wrote in letters to JPMorgan, Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other large financial institutions.

Covid-19 may trigger the onset of diabetes in previously healthy people

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/12/covid-19-may-trigger-onset-diabetes-previously-healthy-people/

 

Covid-19 may be triggering the onset of diabetes in previously healthy people, experts warned on Friday.

New-onset diabetes is being observed in patients who have tested positive for the virus, an international group of 17 leading diabetes experts wrote in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine published on Friday.

It remains unclear exactly how the virus that causes Covid-19, impacts diabetes.

more nonsense from Fox -- Tucker: Healthy societies do not destroy their own history

https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/tucker-healthy-societies-do-not-destroy-their-own-history

  this is not History - monuments are not made for traitors  nor are most from Civil war period. how about a statue for Benedict Arnold? or maybe Pharoh or Amalek? anyone for a statue of Titus next to the Kotel? This was never about reconciliation but rather racism. King George maybe  on the mall next to the Vietnam memorial or perhaps a statue of Hirohito at Arlington or Pearl Harbor. Why is there an obligation to destroy ancient residues of Idolatry?

This country is filled with national cemeteries that honor Americans who fought and died in our wars and many of those cemeteries hold Civil War soldiers from both sides and contain monuments to their sacrifice.

Those soldiers blue and gray Confederate and Union are buried alongside one another and they are for a reason. One side in that conflict was right, the union side and the other was wrong, the Confederate side.

But when it was over, they were all Americans again and allowing them to lie in the same cemeteries next to each other allowed this country to heal its deepest fissure.

But healing is the opposite of what Elizabeth Warren wants to do now. She has no time for healing. Warren profits from hatred and division, particularly racial division, no matter how mindless. Exactly how many dead Confederate soldiers own slaves or even supported slavery? Elizabeth Warren doesn't know. She doesn't care to know.