Sweden, Where No Lockdown Was Ordered, Becomes Second Most-Infected Country

https://www.newsweek.com/sweden-where-no-lockdown-was-ordered-becomes-second-most-infected-country-1511885

Sweden's total number of coronavirus cases grew by more than 100 overnight Wednesday, making it the second most-infected country per capita in the world.

The Scandinavian country known for its light-touch approach to battling the pandemic reached 54,562 total cases Wednesday, according to covidgraph.com, which compiles current data from multiple government health agencies and universities across the world.

 

Father of Toddler in Trump's Fake 'Racist Baby' Video Blasts 'Hate Agenda'

https://www.newsweek.com/cnn-chastises-trump-fake-toddler-video-twitter-1512048

The father of a child featured in a mocked-up CNN report titled "terrified toddler runs from racist baby" posted to Twitter by Donald Trump has criticized the president's use of his video.

Trump shared an edited version of the footage that went viral last year of a black and white child running towards each other in the street and hugging, taken by Michael Cisneros.

 

Fearing Internal Dissent Ahead of the Election, Trump Expands His War on Washington

https://time.com/5855482/fearing-dissent-trump-expands-war-on-washington/

The top Democrat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel, was alarmed at the prospect of Pack pushing out career experts at the agency. The agency’s mission is “‘to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy’—not to be a mouthpiece for the President in the run up to an election,” Engel said in a statement. “Mr. Pack needs to understand that USAGM is not the Ministry of Information. The law requires that our international broadcasting be independent, unbiased, and targeted toward audiences around the world,” Engel said.

Facebook removes Trump ads containing symbol used by Nazis

https://www.timesofisrael.com/facebook-removes-trump-ads-containing-symbol-used-by-nazis/

Anti-Defamation League says inverted red triangle closely resembles badge used to identify political prisoners in concentration camps

Trump calls for ‘new justices’ on Supreme Court, as conservatives rage at Roberts

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-justices-supreme-court-conservatives-roberts

President Trump, in the wake of Thursday's defeat at the Supreme Court in his efforts to repeal the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, called for new justices as conservatives took aim at Chief Justice John Roberts for what they called a “pattern” of siding with the liberal wing in key decisions.

While Democrats and immigration activists cheered the decision, conservatives fumed at the ruling, accusing the justices of preventing Trump from overturning what they have long seen as an illegal executive order. As the day went on, their ire turned to Roberts -- the Bush appointee who has a history of deciding outcomes favorable to liberals by siding with the liberal bloc.

Bolton's Book Further Exposes Trump: What About the Republican Accessories After the Fact?

The Trump presidency is at its absolute lowest point right now

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/18/politics/donald-trump-supreme-court-coronavirus-george-floyd/index.html

 Everywhere Donald Trump looks right now, he sees political fires that threaten to engulf his presidency.

The Supreme Court, with two hand-picked Trump approved justices, has handed the President two stunning rebukes in the last week -- one on gay, lesbian and transgender rights in the workplace and the other, on Thursday morning, blocking the President from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for children brought to America illegally.

In Congress, Senate Republicans have shown increasing willingness to buck Trump. On Wednesday alone, every GOP senator wore a mask at a press conference announcing a package of police reforms. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander insisted that there will be a second surge of the coronavirus and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley announced he would block future legislation until the White House explains its recent spate of firings of inspectors general.

Trump's repeated attempts to suggest that the United States has effectively beaten the coronavirus are belied daily by reports that almost half the states in the country are experiencing an increase in cases. His push to return to the campaign trail on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is widely regarded as endangering public health.

Trump's absolutely tone-deaf response to the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis -- most notably a photo-op of Trump holding a Bible outside of St. John's church in Washington -- has been roundly criticized, including by many top former White House officials. "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people -- does not even pretend to try," said former Defense Secretary James Mattis earlier this month. "Instead he tries to divide us."

 

Supreme Court rules against Trump administration bid to end DACA program

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-rules-against-trump-administration-over-move-to-end-daca-program

President Trump quickly reacted to the decision, which came days after an opinion from his own appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch that said employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity was prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

"These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives," Trump tweeted Thursday morning, suggesting that the Second Amendment could be at risk if he does not get elected and have the chance to potentially appoint more justices.

 

Supreme Court blocks Trump from ending DACA

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/18/politics/daca-immigration-supreme-court/index.html

 The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Trump administration's attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that protects hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation.

The 5-4 ruling was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

 

The Unhappy Liberals Inside Trump’s Favorite Network

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/18/oan-liberal-reporters-327915

One America News employees say a majority of the reporters at its San Diego headquarters are liberals—and they’re chafing at their own network’s coverage of national protests and the coronavirus.

 

Lawrence O’Donnell: Donald Trump And John Bolton Deserve Each Other | The Last Word | MSNBC

Trump bashes 'washed-up' Bolton over forthcoming book, says ex-national security adviser 'broke the law'

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-bashes-washed-up-bolton-broke-the-law

President Trump lashed out at former national security adviser John Bolton in an exclusive interview on "Hannity" on Wednesday night, saying Bolton "broke the law" by writing a forthcoming book about his time in the Trump administration.

"He was a washed-up guy," Trump told host Sean Hannity, referring to Bolton. "He couldn't get Senate-confirmed. So I gave him a non-Senate-confirmed position. I could just put him there, see how we worked. And I wasn't very enamored."

 

John Bolton betrayed his country

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/17/opinions/boltons-staggering-profile-in-cowardice-honig/index.html

 John Bolton has offered the nation a staggering profile in cowardice. He has left no doubt about his own monumental betrayal of his country.

By his own belated admission, Bolton directly witnessed not one but multiple acts that could have been cited in the impeachment of President Donald Trump. But Bolton did nothing about it while he held a powerful post in the Trump administration. And he stayed quiet and took cover when Congress and the nation pleaded with him to speak out during the impeachment process. Yet now that he has entered book promo mode, Bolton suddenly has summoned the spine that he was sorely missing back when it would have made an actual difference.

Bolton had ample opportunity to speak up throughout the monthslong impeachment of Trump over the Ukraine scandal. House investigators first asked that he appear to give voluntary testimony; Bolton was a no-show. Bolton then retained counsel, who requested a subpoena and promised to go to the courts for adjudication.

 

What we learned from John Bolton's eye-popping tale of working with Trump

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/bolton-book-what-we-learned/index.html

John Bolton details a troubling and shocking series of allegations in a new book about his tenure as President Donald Trump's national security adviser, alleging Trump requested Chinese help to win the 2020 election, that the President argued Venezuela is part of the US, that he casually offered to intervene in the criminal justice system for foreign leaders and that his own senior officials mocked him behind his back.

 

The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell Highlights: June 16 | MSNBC

Tulsa

Chyna

Conservatives Should Feel No Investment in Confederate Monuments

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/17/conservatives-should-feel-no-investment-in-confederate-monuments-327137

The Richmond statue of Lee, which Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has said is coming down, has long been a point of contention. Its unveiling in 1890 was a key moment in the creation of a cult of Lee, as a man of “moral strength and moral beauty” as a speaker put it that day.

Frederick Douglass appropriately scorned this movement. “It would seem,” he wrote sarcastically, “that the soldier who kills the most men in battle, even in a bad cause, is the greatest Christian, and entitled to the highest place in heaven.”

 

Antifa, Big Tech, and abortion: Republicans bring culture war to police brutality debate

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/17/judiciary-color-327023

The House Judiciary Committee late Wednesday approved a major police reform bill on a party-line vote, the first step by Congress to address a crisis that has roiled the country since George Floyd died in police custody on May 25.

Yet for much of the day, the panel was ensnared in acrimonious cultural and political quarrels that had little to do with the underlying issue of police brutality, which the legislation is supposed to address.

 

The "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone," in fact, was a recurring theme throughout the proceedings. Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) at one point offered an amendment to cut off federal police grants to any municipality that allows an autonomous zone to be created within its borders.

 Rep. Pramilya Jayapal (D-Wash.), whose district is home to the Seattle zone, was upset by Republicans’ repeated attempts to raise the issue. She blamed Fox News and “right-wing media pundits” for what she said was “misinformation” being spread about her hometown.

“I don’t know how to keep telling people that what they’re saying are lies,” Jayapal said, growing exasperated as she again slapped down Republican accusations of a “law-enforcement-free micro-state” in her district. “Please stop this nonsense and let’s get back to the bill that's at hand.”

Bolton says Putin 'thinks' he can play Trump 'like a fiddle' in new claims ahead of book release

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bolton-putin-play-trump-like-fiddle-book

Former national security adviser John Bolton took President Trump to task Wednesday, saying he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin can play Trump “like a fiddle.”

Bolton made the claim during an appearance on ABC News’ “World News Tonight with David Muir,” ahead of his 592-page memoir. The book is expected to paint a scathing portrait of Trump and his administration, lending the most vivid first-person account yet of how Trump conducts himself in office.

 

“I think Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle. I think Putin is smart, tough -- I think he sees that he’s not faced with a serious adversary here,” Bolton said of the president’s relationship with Putin. “I don’t think he’s worried about Donald Trump.”

Host Martha Raddatz asked Bolton why certain deals with other leaders like Putin have gone awry despite Trump seeing “himself as a dealmaker.”

“Well the president may well be a superb dealmaker when it comes to Manhattan real estate. Dealing with arms limitation treaties on strategic weapons, dealing in many many other international security issues are things far removed from his life experience,” Bolton said. “When you’re dealing with somebody like Putin who has made his life understanding Russia’s strategic position in the world, against Donald Trump, who doesn’t enjoy reading about these issues or learning about them -- it’s a very difficult position for America to be in.”