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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
The United States recorded 1,000 deaths in a single day for the first time this month, right as expanded unemployment benefits are about to expire, and Trump admits that the virus will get quote “worse before it gets better.”
Meanwhile, a Republican Representative from Florida fully lost it at Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, calling her a quote “fucking bitch,” after an argument over poverty and crime rates on the Capitol steps.
And lastly, Twitter announced late on Tuesday evening that it would be cracking down on QAnon conspiracy accounts on its service. You know what they say -- better 3 years late than never!
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
The U.S. logged 1,000 coronavirus deaths in a day for the first time in July on Tuesday.
That’s a long way from the peak of the New York City epidemic, which pushed the country to a staggering 2,752 deaths in a day, but now the increasing wave of death is nationwide, not confined to a few hot spots.
The rising death toll and sinking poll numbers prompted a slightly different press conference from Trump today, where he admitted that quote: “It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better,” endquote.
He also urged everyone to get a mask. Clearly, someone has realized that if he continued his current path of denial and disruption there’s no way he stands a chance in November.
But though credulous commentators claimed once again that Trump was taking on a new, more somber tone, he had just been ranting on Twitter about the China virus, Michael Flynn, and mail-in voting. They may have calmed him down for one presser, but don’t be fooled by the new act.
All of this is happening as the American working class is about to get slammed. The expanded unemployment benefits passed as part of the coronavirus relief package are set to expire at the
end of July, just over a week away. According to the New York Times, that means more than 20 million Americans could see their weekly income fall by half, or more.
GOPer Flips Out on AOC
New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez weathered a shockingly blatant and vulgar attack from a colleague on Tuesday, after Republican Ted Yoho accosted her on the Capitol building’s steps.
Yoho, in typical GOP fashion, took issue with AOC’s accurate analysis that systemic causes like poverty and unemployment might be driving a rising crime wave in New York City. According to the Hill, which first reported the exchange, Yoho told AOC she was quote “disgusting,” and then said quote “You are out of your freaking mind,” endquote.
AOC told him he was being rude, and the two parted ways. But as Yoho was walking away, the Hill reports that he said quote “fucking bitch.” The epithet wasn’t said directly to AOC, but it’s pretty clear who it was describing. Yoho is now trying to spin the thing, of course, with a spokesperson saying that he used a “barnyard epithet” to describe her policies, not her. Sure man, that’s what you meant.
The confrontation is shocking in its sexism, of course, but even outside the context of a spat between two professional politicians it’s telling. If correctly analyzing the systemic roots of crime gets Republicans so riled up, it’s pretty clear that their party has zero desire to change things for the people that crime actually affects.
Instead, like every other problem, their solution is to throw more cops at it. For the past two months, we’ve been seeing in real time how that goes.
Twitter Bans QAnon Posters
In news that we should have gotten years ago, Twitter finally decided to do something about the rampant abuse of its platform by QAnon conspiracy cultists.
On Tuesday night, the platform banned 7,000 QAnon accounts and restricted 150,000 others, according to NBC News.
Most of the outright bans came down on accounts that had violated Twitter’s harassment policies, or their policies against using multiple accounts to evade suspensions.
The big step is that the platform will stop recommending QAnon accounts to users who follow similar accounts. That’s a big step in stopping these accounts from spreading to users and limiting the reach of the conspiracy, and it’s frankly shocking it’s taken Twitter this long to do it.
But hey, QAnon has only been around since 2017, so it’s only had almost three years to spread unchecked around the internet. Better late than never, I guess.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
The Justice Department accused two Chinese hackers of trying to steal coronavirus vaccine research data on behalf of their government. The DOJ’s complaint notes that this is part of a years-long effort to steal U.S. technology, but there’s no question that the story fits very conveniently into the Trump administration’s efforts to scapegoat China for our own country’s terrible pandemic.
Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Larry Householder and four of his close associates and colleagues were arrested on Tuesday after a bribery investigation involving a $1 billion nuclear bailout plan and dark money payments to a shell company set up by the Speaker.
Ilhan Omar’s primary challenger, Antone Melton-Meaux, has some extremely weird spending habits, namely that nearly 65 percent of his campaign spending has gone to three strange, anonymous companies. That means it’s very difficult to tell who’s actually being paid by the campaign, as the anonymous companies could be paying out to basically anyone.
And lastly, the Trump administration is still attempting to use the 2020 Census to crack down on immigrants and undocumented people, by introducing a provision that would mean undocumented people are not counted.
July 22, 2020 - AM Quickie
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Jack Crosbie
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn