Bill Gates Says Schools Should Reopen; CDC Director Admits There Are More Suicides and Overdoses Than COVID Deaths, Lockdowns Bad for Mental Health

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Bill Gates Says Schools Should Reopen Despite COVID-19

By Fox News Business. Bill Gates is siding with President Trump, saying US schools should reopen in the fall despite the continued spread of the coronavirus — claiming “the benefits outweigh the costs.”

“I’m a big believer that for young children, the benefits in almost every location — particularly if you can protect the teachers as well — the benefits outweigh the costs,” the billionaire philanthropist said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in an interview aired Tuesday.

“As you get up to age, like, 13 and higher, then you’ll have to look at your locale to decide what you’ll do with high schools,” Gates said. “And if they’re not in, then you have to put massive effort into trying to get there to be continued learning online.”

The comments come as Trump continues to push for schools to reopen in September, warning that students are falling behind in their education after months of at-home learning due to the coronavirus lockdown. (Read more from “Bill Gates Says Schools Should Reopen Despite COVID-19” HERE)

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CDC Director Admits There Are More Suicides and Overdoses Than COVID Deaths, Lockdowns Bad for Mental Health

By Townhall. Center for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield testified in a Buck Institute webinar that suicides and drug overdoses have surpassed the death rate for COVID-19. Redfield argued that lockdowns and lack of public schooling constituted a disproportionally negative impact on young peoples’ mental health.

“We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We’re seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID,” he said.

Roughly 146,000 people have died from COVID or COVID-related causes in the U.S., according to CDC data.

The most recent publicized federal data records 48,000 deaths from suicide and at least 1.4 million attempts in 2018. In 2019, almost 71,000 people died from drug overdoses.

Where Redfield obtained his data is unknown, although a doctor at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, CA claimed the facility has “seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.” He did not say how many deaths occurred, or whether the statement was exaggerated for emphasis. (Read more from “CDC Director Admits There Are More Suicides and Overdoses Than COVID Deaths, Lockdowns Bad for Mental Health” HERE)

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Oregon Governor Declares Federal Agents Are Leaving Portland, but DHS Says Not So Fast

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By Washington Times. The governor of Oregon announced on Wednesday that federal officers will be leaving the city of Portland starting on Thursday, but the Department of Homeland Security signaled that a withdrawal won’t be happening so quickly.

“After my discussions with VP Pence and others, the federal government has agreed to withdraw federal officers from Portland,” Democratic Gov. Kate Brown posted on Twitter. “They have acted as an occupying force & brought violence. Starting tomorrow, all Customs and Border Protection & ICE officers will leave downtown Portland.” . . .

The governor’s team insisted to the Washington Examiner that all of CBP and ICE officials would be leaving Portland “on Thursday” and added, “A limited contingent of federal officials — who provide security year-round to the federal courthouse — will remain and stay focused on its interior. Oregon State Police troopers will be downtown to protect free speech and keep the peace.”

But a statement from acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf offers no timeline and suggests that the drawdown process will not be immediate.

“The Department will continue to maintain our current, augmented federal law enforcement personnel in Portland until we are assured that the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked and that the seat of justice in Portland will remain secure,” Wolf said. (Read more from “Oregon Governor Declares Federal Agents Are Leaving Portland, but DHS Says Not So Fast” HERE)

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Federal Agents Withdraw From Portland

By New York Times. Federal tactical teams that have clashed with protesters in Portland in recent weeks will soon begin leaving the city, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon said Wednesday.

Under an agreement between Ms. Brown and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the governor’s office said the Oregon State Police will provide security for the exterior of the city’s federal courthouse, while the usual team of federal officers that protects the courthouse year-round will continue to provide security for the interior of the building.

Ms. Brown said the federal tactical teams that had deployed to the city would begin a phased withdrawal on Thursday. But Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that though the department has agreed with the Oregon governor on a plan, the department will proceed with the withdrawal of security personnel in Portland only if federal officials are confident that federal properties will no longer be under attack. (Read more from “Federal Agents Withdraw From Portland” HERE)

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Bernie’s Campaign Co-Chair: Voting for Biden Is Like Eating ‘a Bowl of S***’; Dems May Face Revolt at Convention; Another Democrat Rep Refuses to Endorse Biden

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By Daily Caller. Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign co-chair Nina Turner on Monday compared voting for 2020 presidential nominee Joe Biden to “eating a bowl of s**t.”

In an Atlantic piece titled “Don’t Count Trump Out,” Turner was asked about voting for Biden, to which she said: “It’s like saying to somebody, ‘You have a bowl of s**t in front of you, and all you’ve got to do is eat half of it instead of the whole thing.’ It’s still s**t.” (Read more from “Bernie’s Campaign Co-Chair: Voting for Biden Is Like Eating ‘a Bowl of S***’” HERE)

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‘Squad’ Member Rashida Tlaib Refuses to Endorse Biden

By Townhall. When it comes to Joe Biden, Democrats have an enthusiasm problem, and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is the latest example.

In an interview with Newsweek contributor Steve Friess, Tlaib said she would not be endorsing the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. But Tlaib, who represents Detroit and is a member of the progressive “Squad,” is no friend of President Trump.

“If there is one person who wants Donald Trump out of the White House, it’s me,” Tlaib stated. “And I’m going to work extremely hard. . . Why? Because my residents cannot afford another four years of Trump. They just can’t.” . . .

“If the ultimate goal is to get rid of Donald Trump, that doesn’t have to involve me actually endorsing Biden,” she said. “My constituents don’t need to be bogged down in, ‘Is he the best candidate?’ That’s not what you have to convince my residents. They need to come out in droves and be inspired by something. And that is going to be a vote against Donald Trump.” (Read more from “‘Squad’ Member Rashida Tlaib Refuses to Endorse Biden” HERE)

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Bernie Sanders Delegates Mount Convention Rebellion Over ‘Medicare for All’

By Politico. A revolt is brewing among Bernie Sanders delegates three weeks from the Democratic National Convention.

More than 360 delegates, most of whom back Sanders, have signed on to a pledge to vote against the Democratic Party’s platform if it does not include support for “Medicare for All,” the petition’s organizers told POLITICO. They argue that single-payer health care is an urgent priority amid a worldwide pandemic and the biggest unemployment crisis since the Great Depression.

“This pandemic has shown us that our private health insurance system does not work for the American people. Millions of people have lost their jobs and their health care at the same time,” said Judith Whitmer, a Sanders delegate and chair of the convention’s Nevada delegation who helped spearhead the pledge. “There’s people leaving the hospital now with millions of dollars in medical bills. What are we going to do about that?”

The warning is all but certain to set up a clash between Sanders’ most dedicated supporters and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who opposes Medicare for All, at a time when the party is seeking to demonstrate unity ahead of its August convention. Though the petition signers have little chance of revising the platform to include Medicare for All support, they do have the numbers to draw attention to their protest and cause. (Read more from “Bernie Sanders Delegates Mount Convention Rebellion Over ‘Medicare for All'” HERE)

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Republicans Concerned TikTok Could Be Used by Chinese Government to ‘Manipulate’ U.S. Elections

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Republicans are raising concerns over the expansive reach of Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and its possible effect on this year’s elections.

Sens. Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio signed onto a letter to the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday to highlight the possibility that the social media app could be used to “manipulate” the public.

“TikTok has become a popular forum for Americans—particularly younger Americans—to engage in political conversations,” the GOP members wrote. “I’m greatly concerned that the CCP could use its control over TikTok to distort or manipulate these conversations to sow discord among Americans and to achieve its preferred political outcomes.”

This isn’t the first time that federal lawmakers have called attention to TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company Bytedance and is one of the most downloaded apps in the world, over concerns about the security and privacy data of its U.S. userbase. (Read more from “Republicans Concerned TikTok Could Be Used by Chinese Government to ‘Manipulate’ U.S. Elections” HERE)

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Trump to Nominate Retired Colonel Who Downplays Iran Threat, Points Fingers at Jews

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U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intent on Monday to nominate retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor as U.S. ambassador to Germany to succeed Richard Grenell, despite the veteran’s views of Jews and the Iranian threat.

In a 2012 interview with The Daily Bell, Macgregor blamed neoconservatives, or “neocons,” for “making decisions in Washington that in their minds are beneficial to a foreign power and are not necessarily good for the American people or the United States.” . . .

In an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show on Fox News, Macgregor dismissed the Iranian threat, saying “there’s no evidence that Iran wants to attack us.”

Macgregor also blamed “neocon” advisers for Trump eliminating Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani earlier this year. (Read more from “Trump to Nominate Retired Colonel Who Downplays Iran Threat, Points Fingers at Jews” HERE)

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Election Interference: Google Busted Suppressing Content

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A few days after the 2016 election, at an internal meeting later leaked to Breitbart News, top Google executives, including Sundar Pichai, Sergey Brin, and Kent Walker, lamented President Trump’s victory, comparing Trump voters to “extremists” and discussing their desire to make Trump’s election and the populist movement a “blip” in history.

True to their word, four years later, Google is deliberately working to interfere with the reelection of Trump in 2020.

There are several ways in which Google is interfering in the 2020 election, but this article will focus primarily on one of them: political search bias. . .

After Google’s May core search update on or about May 5, 2020, Google search impressions and search traffic to Breitbart for “Joe Biden” and other Biden-related search terms has gone to zero. Zero. . .

On May 1, Google searches for “Joe Biden” generated approximately 30,000 impressions (views, used as a metric for advertisers) for Breitbart links. After May 5, both impressions and clicks went to zero. (Read more from “Election Interference: Google Busted Suppressing Content” HERE)

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Over 100 Police Agencies Pull Out of Democratic Convention

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More than 100 police agencies are withdrawing from agreements to send personnel to bolster security at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, in part because they’re concerned about a recent directive ordering police in the city to stop using tear gas to control crowds.

A citizen oversight commission last week directed Milwaukee’s police chief to publicly account for why the department used tear gas during protests in late May and early June after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and to change Milwaukee’s police policies to ban the use of tear gas and pepper spray. The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission said in its order that Police Chief Alfonso Morales could be fired if he fails to comply. . .

Since the Milwaukee order was issued, more than 100 law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin and across the country decided against coming to Milwaukee, Morales told WTMJ-TV on Tuesday. They were concerned with directives placed on the police department, including not allowing tear gas or pepper spray, he said. (Read more from “Over 100 Police Agencies Pull Out of Democratic Convention” HERE)

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Twitter Suspends Donald Trump Jr.’s Account for Sharing Video of Doctor Saying Hydroxychloroquine Cures COVID-19

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Twitter temporarily suspended Donald Trump Jr.’s account after the president’s son tweeted a video of a group of doctors making some questionable claims about COVID-19, CNN Business reported.

The video featured doctors from a group called America’s Frontline Doctors. The group’s website advertises a White Coat Summit in Washington, D.C., on July 27 and 28, and the video in question was from a press conference associated with the summit.

Perhaps the most inflammatory claims from the press conference came from Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Houston pediatrician and religious minister who said hydroxychloroquine is both the cure and prevention for COVID-19 and called studies that say it doesn’t work “fake science.” . . .

The suspension means that Trump Jr. will be unable to tweet for 12 hours, after which point he will be granted full access to his account.

Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said the video was removed from that platform for “sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19” and that Facebook would be showing messages to people who had interacted with the video directing them to World Health Organization-approved information. (Read more from “Twitter Suspends Donald Trump Jr.’s Account for Sharing Video of Doctor Saying Hydroxychloroquine Cures COVID-19” HERE)

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Joe Biden Reveals When He Will Name His VP Pick

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Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday charged that President Trump is “determined to stoke division and chaos” in cities where protests are raging in order “to revive a failing campaign.”

The former vice president, taking questions after a speech in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, also reiterated that he would choose his running mate by “the first week in August.”

Biden has said for a couple of months that his running mate announcement would come in early August, ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which starts on August 17. The former vice president told reporters “I promise, I’ll let you know when I do.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee – after unveiling the fourth component of his plan to revive an American economy flattened by the coronavirus pandemic — said “I think I have laid out the most details plans on the economy” and touted “if I’m elected and this passes, I’m going to go down as one of the most progressive presidents in American history.”

Biden spoke with reporters as violence continues to flare in some cities across the country. The demonstrations protesting police brutality and racial injustice were sparked by the death two months ago of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota who died in police custody. Protesters in recent weeks surrounding Portland, Oregon’s federal courthouse have clashed with federal agents under the control of the Department of Homeland Security. (Read more from “Joe Biden Reveals When He Will Name His VP Pick” HERE)

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The Real Danger With Mail-In Voting Is Presenting Itself Clearly; Soros, Wealthy Donors Pouring Millions Into Fraud-Laced Effort

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By Townhall. Say what you will about President Trump on this issue. He may not frame it right or whatever, but he is right that mail-in voting is a disaster. There is a possibility of fraud. Sorry, even The New York Times admitted that, and on top of those concerns, it’s the viability of this system. We’ve lost close to 30 million ballots in the last four elections. They’re gone. Lost forever. Still, the so-called fact-checkers say mail-in voting is pretty much fine.

In New Jersey, municipal elections in Paterson have been a disaster. One-in-five ballots were discovered to be fraudulent. Four people are being charged. In New York, their primaries from a month ago have yet to be called. As Fox News’s Brit Hume noted, it’s a “train wreck” (via NYT):

More than three weeks after the New York primaries, election officials have not yet counted an untold number of mail-in absentee ballots, leaving numerous closely watched races unresolved, including two key Democratic congressional contests.

The absentee ballot count — greatly inflated this year after the state expanded the vote-by-mail option because of the coronavirus pandemic — has been painstakingly slow, and hard to track, with no running account of the vote totals available.

In some cases, the tiny number of ballots counted has bordered on the absurd: In the 12th Congressional District, where Representative Carolyn B. Maloney is fighting for her political life against her challenger, Suraj Patel, only 800 of some 65,000 absentee ballots had been tabulated as of Wednesday, according to Mr. Patel, though thousands had been disqualified.

(Read more from “The Real Danger With Mail-In Voting Is Presenting Itself Clearly in New York” HERE)
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Wealthy Americans Pouring Millions into Mail-In Voting Effort

By AP. Deep-pocketed and often anonymous donors are pouring over $100 million into an intensifying dispute about whether it should be easier to vote by mail, a fight that could determine President Donald Trump’s fate in the November election.

In the battleground of Wisconsin, cash-strapped cities have received $6.3 million from an organization with ties to left-wing philanthropy to help expand vote by mail. . . “The pandemic has created a state of emergency,” said Laleh Ispahani, the U.S. managing director for Open Society, a network of nonprofits founded by billionaire progressive donor George Soros. “Donors who haven’t typically taken on these issues now have an interest.”

How much will be spent is unclear because many of the organizations are nonprofits that won’t disclose those details to the IRS until well after the election. Even then, many sources of money will remain unknown because such groups don’t have to disclose their donors, commonly referred to as “dark money.”

(Read more about wealthy Americans’ mail-in voting funding HERE)

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