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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious-diseases expert, gave an assessment of his vocal critic Tucker Carlson in an interview with The Washington Post on Friday.
While Fauci said he is “not concerned about” what the Fox News host says about him, he said that Carlson’s remarks often “triggers some of the crazies in society to start threatening me.”
Fauci was recently assigned personal security after receiving threats to his and his family’s safety, which he said on Friday was “ridiculous.”

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Dr. Anthony Fauci criticized Tucker Carlson on Friday, saying the Fox News host “triggers some of the crazies in society” to threaten him.

Fauci, the top US infectious-diseases expert on the White House coronavirus task force, made the comment in a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post’s Geoff Edgers on Instagram Live.

When asked whether he had heard of Carlson, Fauci said: “He’s the guy that really loves me, right?”

Edgers went on to recite various criticisms the Fox News host had made of Fauci in recent weeks — such as “Unelected Fauci has been leading this country” — and asked if it bothered or concerned Fauci.

Fauci responded: “I’m not concerned about what he says. It’s a little bit — I think you could say that when he does that, it triggers some of the crazies in society to start threatening me, actually threatening, which actually happens.”

Fauci and his family were assigned personal security after receiving threats to him and his family last month.

He told The Washington Post on Friday: “I mean, who would have thought when I was in medical school doing things to save people’s lives, I’d have to be going around with a security detail? That’s really ridiculous.”

In the interview, Fauci also said that he does not pay attention to people who appear to idolize him, saying: “I actually don’t pay attention to that, because that can really be distracting. I mean that sincerely.”

“I don’t see the hero part, and I don’t pay attention to the death threats and harassments either. We live in an extraordinary society where public-health issues become so politicized and divisive that when you start talking about prudent things to do to preserve public health, that’s actually considered by some — hopefully a really small minority — by some as something worthy of threatening you. That’s really bizarre.”

You can watch this segment in the video below. It appears around …read more

Source:: Business Insider

President Donald Trump mentioned a second round of COVID-19 stimulus checks on Twitter, writing on August 14 that he had directed the Treasury Secretary to get ready to send “direct payments” to all Americans amounting to $3,400 for a family of four.

“I have directed @stevenmnuchin1 to get ready to send direct payments ($3,400 for family of four) to all Americans. DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING THIS UP!” Trump wrote in the tweet, mentioning Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

I have directed @stevenmnuchin1 to get ready to send direct payments ($3,400 for family of four) to all Americans. DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING THIS UP!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2020

Trump continued, “I am ready to have @USTreasury and @SBA send additional PPP payments to small businesses that have been hurt by the ChinaVirus. DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING THIS UP!”

The president added: “I am ready to send more money to States and Local governments to save jobs for Police, Fire Fighters, First Responders, and Teachers. DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING THIS UP!”

Here’s the catch: Trump didn’t include stimulus checks in his round of executive orders a week ago to deal with some elements of the stimulus relief package that Democrats and Republicans couldn’t get done. When the negotiations between the two sides fell apart, the president stepped in to use his executive powers on things like extended unemployment benefits and an eviction moratorium. However, the Constitution gives Congress funding power, so the legality of Trump’s executive orders is unclear.

Because Trump didn’t – or couldn’t – use an executive order to get stimulus checks approved, his tweet is simply a challenge to Congress to pass a deal including them, and he’s clearly hoping to extract a political price from Democrats for Americans not receiving checks yet. To be clear, checks are not going out simply because of the tweet, and the two sides don’t seem at all close to reaching an agreement. In fact, Congress recently broke for its summer recess and won’t come back until Labor Day barring some last-minute agreement. It will likely take a deal between Congressional Republicans and Democrats to get the checks done.

The $3,400 thrown out by Trump is the number that both sides generally agreed on for a second stimulus check because the checks would follow the same parameters as the first round, for the most part. That means that single people who qualify would get $1,200 checks. …read more

Source:: Heavy.com

So many simple pleasures are gone, casualties of the pandemic. Baseball games. Live concerts. Summertime parades. One civic ritual that’s neither simple nor necessarily pleasurable is also withering under the virus’s spread: the presidential nominating convention as we know it. Starting next week, the parties will hold stripped-down versions of the quadrennial gatherings to formalize the Donald Trump–Joe Biden matchup, creating, perhaps, a template for the future. It’s been evident for years the conventions have outlived their original purpose; there’s never any real mystery as to who will come away with the nomination. Yet they’ve also produced surprising speeches and unexpected dramas that have upended the nation’s politics. Those sorts of moments could be lost forever if the conventions don’t return in more than minimalist form.

In some ways, the choreographed conventions of old won’t be missed. “They’re completely obsolete—they never matter anymore,” Susan Estrich, who ran the Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis’s 1988 campaign and has helped manage several conventions, told me. Brian Ballard, a Trump fundraiser, is every bit as blunt. “Conventions are going away, and this may be the beginning of the end of them,” he told me.

For safety, the parties are pushing much of the proceedings online. Biden won’t travel to Milwaukee, the Democratic convention’s host city, for his speech accepting the nomination. Trump still hasn’t revealed exactly where he’ll be for his own address during the Republican convention, but he’s been loath to let the virus trample his moment. His campaign anticipates a mix of videos and live events, culminating in an acceptance speech whose location has ping-ponged up and down the East Coast as his variable moods dictate.

This week, he teased that he’ll give the speech at either the White House or the old Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, both settings that raise ethical questions about the use of public resources for a partisan purpose. (I was interviewing Walter Shaub, a former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and a Trump critic, at the moment the president tweeted that he might give the speech at Gettysburg. “Holy crap! Oh my God,” Shaub said when I read him the tweet. “Gettysburg is a national park! Basically, a political party is seizing control of a public park if that happens.” Shaub’s old office issued an opinion earlier this week that Trump is legally permitted to give the speech from the White House should he …read more

Source:: The Atlantic – Best of

Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s unexpectedly found itself in a huge row with the British government after the company criticized its handling of migrant boats arriving from France.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has taken a strict stance on the issue, announcing that the government would stop any “illegal” attempts to reach the country.
In a scathing Twitter thread, Ben & Jerry’s called on the British government to show more “humanity”, adding “people cannot be illegal.”
In retaliation, British ministers branded Ben & Jerry’s ice cream “overpriced junk food,” and told the company to “stick to making ice cream.”

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Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s has found itself in a heated row with the British government after the company criticized its handling of migrants arriving by boat from France.

The UK has seen more than 500 people arriving in dinghies on its beaches in the last few days, prompting Home Secretary Priti Patel to announce certain measures the government was taking to stop “illegal” attempts to reach the country.

Patel has called in the British military to help and asked the French government to stop the craft from leaving. She also recently announced the creation of a “Clandestine Channel Threat Commander,” whose job is to make the Channel route “unviable for small boat crossings,” CNN reported.

“I know that when the British people say they want to take back control of our borders — this is exactly what they mean,” Patel wrote on Twitter last week, referencing a slogan commonly used by Brexit supporters.

In a Twitter thread posted on Tuesday, Ben & Jerry’s UK account lashed out at Patel and urged the British government to show more “humanity.”

“Hey @PritiPatel we think the real crisis is our lack of humanity for people fleeing war, climate change, and torture,” Ben & Jerry’s tweeted.

“Let’s remember we’re all human and have the same rights to life regardless of the country we happen to have been born in,” it added. “People cannot be illegal.”

The Twitter thread also included several links to media reports about the dangerous 21-mile crossing migrants have to take in overcrowded dinghies to get to the UK.

Hey @PritiPatel we think the real crisis is our lack of humanity for people fleeing war, climate change and torture. We pulled together a thread for you..

— Ben & Jerry’s UK (@benandjerrysUK) …read more

Source:: Business Insider