It's Kamala
“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” -Joe Biden
And just like that, the table is now completely set for a battle royal cage match between Team Trump and Team Biden.
While she is not the "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean” to Biden, she is probably the second one to the former vice president.
The move to pick Sen. Kamala Harris appears to be completely motivated by race. Biden was all but threatened by some Black Americans that if he didn’t pick a black woman as his running mate, his campaign was all-but dead on arrival.
Will Biden’s pandering to the Black community pay off?
Expect Team Trump to deliver a heavy dose of past Biden gaffes and missteps that all-but completely come off as racist and insult the Black community.
It’s gonna happen, but in the meantime, READ MORE about Harris here.
***Your morning JUICE is also sponsored by Fran Flynn. Fran Flynn is a Republican running for Congress in Florida's 22nd congressional district. She's Pro-Trump, Pro-Gun, Pro-Life.***
Rick Scott @SenRickScott-Most players want to play. We fans want to watch. University presidents and conferences should ABSOLUTELY NOT cancel college football this year. Athletics play a hugely important role in our national psyche. The schools and the conferences can figure out how to do this safely.
Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell @RepDMP -And still no statewide mask order...Florida desperately needs leadership to get this under control; older Floridians, students & our community deserve better. We need a comprehensive testing & tracing plan, and to put in place the precautions that will slow this down.
Congressman Ross Spano @RepRossSpano- The brave men and women of this country deserve the resources necessary to defend our country and to support their families. I am proud to have voted yes in both 2019 and 2020 for pay raises for our troops--the largest increase in a decade.
US Rep. Al Lawson Jr @RepAlLawsonJr-With schools reopening, our first priority must be the health & safety of students, staff and their families. I led a letter to Gov. Desantis expressing concern over the mandate to reopen physical school locations during the pandemic. Districts should decide how to safely reopen.
Rep. Michael Waltz @RepMichaelWaltz -#China controls more than 80% of minerals we rely on for our electronics, energy & military and has threatened to cut off all access to them. This is why I joined my colleagues in the House to introduce legislation to finally bring our mineral supply chain home.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy @RepStephMurphy -As our country battles an invisible enemy, it is our duty to help protect our fellow citizens and reduce the spread of the virus by wearing a mask. This is a patriotic gesture that will help us save lives. #MaskUp
Rep. Matt Gaetz @RepMattGaetz -@SpeakerPelosi s holding the future and well-being of the American people hostage so she can massively expand government programs.
Rep. Carlos G Smith @CarlosGSmith- I'm simply disgusted by the repeatedly homophobic attacks on my friend & colleague @ShevrinJones from so-called “Democrats”. First the coded “family values” message often deployed against LGBTQ candidates. Now this. Let's just donate to his campaign
Commissioner Nikki Fried @NikkiFriedFL-Hardships caused by #COVID19, have resulted in countless American children relying on nutritional assistance during the pandemic. Today, I wrote Florida’s congressional delegation on the need for programs like universal free school meals and P-EBT, which are keeping kids fed.
“Joe Biden Picks Kamala Harris As Running Mate” by The Floridian’s Mona Salama – Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he has chosen Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his running mate, the first Black woman ever tapped on a major party’s presidential ticket. “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden tweeted. “I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign,” Biden added. In an email to supporters announcing his VP pick, Biden touted Harris as someone who is “smart, tough, and ready to lead.” “I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021,” Biden said. “I first met Kamala through my son Beau. They were both Attorneys General at the same time. He had enormous respect for her and her work. I thought a lot about that as I made this decision. There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s and I’m proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign.”
“Black Male Leaders Call On Biden To Pick a Black Woman Running Mate Or ‘Lose The Election’” by The Floridian’s Mona Salama – A group of over 100 Black male leaders featuring rappers, activists, preachers and celebrities penned an open letter to Joe Biden, calling on the presumptive Democratic nominee to name a Black woman as his running mate and failure to do so “means you will lose the election.” “As someone who has said throughout the campaign that VP Joe Biden needs to choose a Black woman VP, the urgency for that pick has gone from something that SHOULD happen to something that HAS to happen,” the open letter reads, calling on the former Vice President to “recognize and seize this moment” by selecting a Black woman. The letter was signed by hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who has warned Biden during the 2020 race not to take the Black vote for granted. The co-signers include radio host “Charlamagne Tha God,” who has pressed Biden on the air during the campaign; CNN political commentator Van Jones; Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson; and civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented George Floyd’s family were among the hundred Black men that signed onto the letter. The letter emphasized that they “stand in solidarity” with more than 700 Black women who also wrote a letter last week demanding Biden choose a Black running mate, while denouncing the “relentless attacks” potential Black contenders have faced being vetted.
“Laura Loomer endorses Rick Kozell in Florida State House race 82” by The Floridian’s Javier Manjarres – After running a spirited campaign in the2016 Republican congressional primary race in Florida’s 18th District, Attorney Rick Kozell took that primary defeat experience and learned from it, and is once again running for office. Kozell is now running for the District 82 seat in Florida’s statehouse. Since his 2016 run for Congress, Kozell has been able to broaden his base of support and managed to score the endorsements of GOPAC, Associated Industries of Florida, and the Associated Builders and Contractors, to name a few. Now Kozell has received the endorsement of Conservative journalist and congressional candidate Laura Loomer. In a recent post on the social media platform Parler, Loomer proudly endorsed Kozell over his business prowess and his support for President Donald Trump. “Enough of the same old do nothing politicians!” said Loomer I’m proud to endorse conservative Rick Kozell for Florida House District 82. Rick knows what it takes to build a business, and make a payroll. He’s a strong supporter of President Trump and the Governor DeSantis. He’s A rated by the NRA and Florida Right to Life, and he has been a leader in the local grassroots community for nearly a decade.
“Denied when he tried to donate plasma, Florida lawmaker’s experience highlights 'dehumanizing' FDA policy” by WTSP’s Josh Sidorowicz – Florida Rep. Shevrin Jones would appear to be a perfect candidate to donate potentially life-saving convalescent plasma. The Democratic state lawmaker, after all, is a COVID-19 survivor. And for weeks now, doctors and even Gov. Ron DeSantis have pleaded to people across the state who’ve recovered from the coronavirus to donate their plasma. It’s one of the few options available, doctors say, to treat people in the hospital currently fighting the virus. But when Jones tried to donate he was denied, for the same reason millions of other men haven’t been able to donate blood for decades: He’s gay. “Sitting there in that moment,” said Jones, D-West Park, “dehumanizing is an understatement.” Jones, one of the few openly gay lawmakers in the Florida Legislature, attempted to donate his plasma on Friday during a OneBlood event he helped organize in the parking lot of a Broward County church where his father is the pastor. But when he answered “yes” to a screening question—have you had sex with a man in the past three months—his donation was “deferred.” The question stems from policy dating back to the 1980s when gay and bisexual men were banned from donating blood or plasma during the HIV-AIDs epidemic.
“DeSantis: Florida will need help making ends meet” by Politico’s Arek Sarkissian and Gary Fineout – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said the state will need help covering costs associated with the coronavirus outbreak, expressing confidence that the federal government will help pick up the tab for increased Medicaid outlays. And the state might have to borrow to deliver a $400 weekly benefit to unemployed workers that President Donald Trump mandated in an Aug. 8 executive order, he said. The coronavirus outbreak and the ensuing job losses are expected to boost Florida’s Medicaid enrollment by 570,000 people more than state legislators had estimated, increasing the program's cost by $1.6 billion this fiscal year. A federal stimulus package that covers the increased enrollment expires in December, after which the state will be left to pick up the cost. In an interview at his office in the state Capitol, DeSantis said he expects federal stimulus funding to be extended through the end of the state's fiscal year on June 30. “We think that they're going to continue that as long as there's a state of emergency,” DeSantis said. "If we didn't have that, then we'd have to do more in [general revenue].” The governor's confidence that Congress and the White House will come to the rescue isn't shared by many policymakers in Washington, where negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Trump have come to a standstill. With no guarantee on an extension, the state Legislature could be confronted with a deficit. State economists are expected to draw up new forecasts Friday.
“Employees at Florida state department can't use TikTok, order says” by WTSP’s Andrew Krietz – There will be no more funny cat videos during work time at the Florida Department of Financial Services. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis signed an order Tuesday to ban the use of TikTok on state-supplied devices and within department buildings, according to a news release. It means the popular social media app on employees' personal devices can't be used while at work, either, the order reads. TikTok has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks as President Donald Trump ordered a ban on it and other applications created from Chinese companies over concerns they provide American users' personal information to the communist Chinese government. The Trump administration has not supplied any evidence that TikTok and its owner, ByteDance, have done so. Still, mobile security experts told Wired that TikTok's data collection practices aren't unique for an advertising-based business and are similar to apps made in the USA. The data includes what phone model a person is using, what time zone the user is in and other points. "For the iOS app available to Western audiences, it appears to collect very standard analytics information," Will Strafach, an iOS security researcher and creator of the privacy-focused Guardian Firewall app, told Wired. "Most data collection by apps concerns me, I don’t like any of it.
“Florida Vote-By-Mail Ballots Dominate Early Voting” by CBS Miami – With early voting underway throughout the state for Florida’s Aug. 18 primary elections, more than 1.8 million Floridians had voted by mail or at early-voting sites as of late Tuesday morning. Nearly 90 percent of the ballots had been cast by mail. Early voting started in parts of the state on Aug. 3 and was required to be in place statewide on Saturday. As of late Tuesday morning, 225,522 people had voted early, including 122,366 Republicans and 89,364 Democrats, according to numbers posted on the state Division of Elections website. Meanwhile, 1,645,943 mail-in ballots had been cast, including 815,256 by Democrats and 584,886 by Republicans. In Miami-Dade County, 163,654 vote-by-mail ballots had already been cast as of late Tuesday morning including 50,846 Republicans and 79,417 Democrats.n There have been 30,386 people who have voted early in Miami Dade, 13,799 Republicans and 13,291 Democrats. In Broward, 135,782 vote-by-mail ballots had already by cast by Tuesday morning, including 23,324 Republicans and 92,435 Democrats. There have been 10,616 people who have voted early in Broward, 2,065 Republicans and 7,945 Democrats.
“Brightline drops Virgin as partner for Florida passenger train service” by Associated Press – The partnership between Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and the private Florida passenger train service Brightline is over. Brightline announced the split in a monthly report and said it would halt its plans to rebrand as Virgin Trains USA. Brightline declined comment Monday on the split. Virgin did not respond to an email. The companies had announced the partnership nearly two years ago and celebrated it with a rollout party in April 2019, with Branson getting a rock star’s welcome at Brightline’s new Miami station. Virgin has had several recent setbacks. Its Virgin Atlantic airline filed for bankruptcy last week.
“Florida Cancels Test Of Online Bar Exam Because, You Know, ‘Issues’” by Above the Law’s Joe Patrice – There was supposed to be a test of Florida’s online bar exam platform this afternoon. There won’t be. After Indiana and Nevada had to call off their online examinations due to nagging issues with the ILG platform, we were quick to point out that the provider struggling with Indiana was planning to administer the Florida exam this year, setting the stage for the headline “Florida Man Goes On Rampage After Computer Deletes His Bar Exam.” But ILG is pushing ahead, using the information gleaned from the earlier debacles in an effort to get the software up and running in time for the exam. Part of that effort was supposed to be today’s test, but that… didn’t work out: “Last week, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners asked applicants to download and complete the trial exam in the latest version of the ILG bar examination software. Many applicants have downloaded the software and some have identified issues of concern and provided substantive, and helpful, comments about those issues to both ILG and the Board. The Board thanks all applicants who have downloaded and tested the software and those applicants who provided substantive comments about the concerns they have identified. The Board is working with ILG on issues that have been identified, and if you have not yet downloaded the latest version of the software, there is no need to do so now. The Live Trial Exam of the software scheduled for Monday afternoon, August 10, is postponed. The Board will update all applicants on the date and time of the Live Trial Exam as soon as possible.”
“Flashback: Kamala Harris compared ICE to KKK in Senate hearing” by Fox News’ Adam Shaw – Sen. Kamala Harris, who was announced Tuesday as presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, sparked controversy in 2018 when she compared the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Ku Klux Klan in a Senate hearing. Harris made the remarks at a Nov. 2018 confirmation hearing, asking Ronald Vitiello -- who was President Trump’s nominee to lead the agency -- if he was “aware of the perception” of a similarity between ICE and the KKK. Harris had pointed to a tweet from Vitiello from 2015 in which he said the Democratic Party was comparable to a “liberal-cratic” or “neo-Klanist” entity. Vitiello apologized and admitted that those words were offensive. “What is the history that would then make those words wrong?” Harris asked, to which Vitiello said the KKK would be labeled as a domestic terrorist group by today’s standards and was motivated by race and ethnicity and tried to use "fear and force." “Are you aware of the perception of many about how the power and the discretion at ICE is being used to enforce the laws and do you see any parallels?” she asked. Vitiello pushed back saying “I do not see any parallels” between the immigration enforcement agency and the white supremacist group and inquired whether she was asking him if the two were in the same category.
“US government strikes $1.525 billion deal with Moderna for 100 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine” by CNN’s Jen Christensen – The Trump administration has reached a deal with Moderna Inc. to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of the company's Covid-19 vaccine once it is approved, according to a news release from the US Health and Human Services Department. President Trump announced the deal during a media briefing on Tuesday. Moderna is one of several companies manufacturing the vaccine "at risk," as the industry calls it, meaning the company is currently making the vaccine before it is approved. Clinical trials are currently underway to test whether it's safe and effective. Under this contract, worth up to $1.525 billion for 100 million doses, the doses would be owned by the US government and would be distributed and used as part of its Covid-19 vaccine campaign. If the doses are used, they would be provided to Americans at no cost. The government can also acquire up to an additional 400 million doses of this vaccine, HHS said. The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, was developed by Moderna in collaboration with the US government. It had development help from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and the US Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority, known as BARDA, supported late stage clinical trials and has helped scale up manufacturing. Moderna's advanced stage clinical trial, which started July 27, is the first government-funded Phase 3 clinical trial for a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States.
“Russia Registers World’s First Covid-19 Vaccine Despite Safety Concerns” by WSJ’s Thomas Grove – Russia registered the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, President Vladimir Putin said, marking a milestone in the fight against the new coronavirus but amid safety concerns in the West over the country’s accelerated clinical evaluations. Tuesday’s development was met with anticipation and skepticism in the country and raises questions not only about the efficacy of the Russian vaccine, which some global health officials say was developed by cutting regulatory corners, but also how the registration could alter the landscape for other Western and Asian drug companies still working toward a shot. Some health and pharmaceutical officials in Russia and the West have expressed alarm at the speed with which scientists at Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology developed the vaccine. Scientists employed testing of soldiers, accelerated clinical evaluations and shortened trial times in an attempt to be first with a vaccine. Russia hopes to use it in a massive immunization program at home and to export it abroad under the name Sputnik V—a reference to the satellite it launched into orbit in the Cold War space race, beating the U.S. “We should be grateful to those who have taken this first step, which is very important for our country and the whole world,” Mr. Putin told a government meeting on Tuesday, according to a Kremlin transcript.
“Bernie supporters, progressives trash Biden-Harris ticket: A 'middle finger' to the base” by Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn – Some progressives expressed their frustration and condemnation of Joe Biden's selection of Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as his running mate. Ever since Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee, there has been an ongoing debate on the left as to who he could pick as his vice president that can motivate enough of the base, including supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to support the ticket in November. On Tuesday, Biden announced that Harris would be his vice president. Sanders himself extended his support for his Senate colleague and former 2020 rival. "Congratulations to @KamalaHarris, who will make history as our next Vice President. She understands what it takes to stand up for working people, fight for health care for all, and take down the most corrupt administration in history. Let’s get to work and win," the Vermont senator tweeted. However, several Bernie supporters and other progressive journalists slammed the Biden-Harris ticket. Briahna Joy Gray, who previously served as Sanders' national press secretary and has been an outspoken critic of Biden since her former boss withdrew from the race, invoked Harris' tenure as the California attorney general.
“Watchdog finds documents withheld during interior secretary confirmation process” by CNN’s Gregory Wallace – An Interior Department official ordered documents about David Bernhardt withheld from the public while the Senate considered his nomination to lead the department, the department's inspector general concluded Tuesday. The documents were due under the Freedom of Information Act to watchdog groups that questioned whether Bernhardt complied with ethics and recusal requirements as deputy secretary, the office he held at the time. A court had ordered the department to review the documents. Bernhardt previously led a lobbying office working for fossil fuel and mining companies -- which lease land from and are regulated by the Interior Department. He submitted to ethics officials a three-page recusal list of companies he would not deal with during his first year or so at Interior. Interior Department Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt wrote in Tuesday's report that a senior attorney at the department met with FOIA officials in February 2019 and directed them "to take all documents related to Bernhardt—addressed to him, sent from him, or referring to him—out of the court-ordered document production related to the FOIA litigation." The report says the meeting took place the same month Bernhardt was nominated for promotion to the secretary position. Toward the end of that month, government attorneys told the court that the monthlong government shutdown and staffing changes had slowed their progress reviewing documents. Western Values Project, which sued for the records, noted that Interior Department work on oil and gas permits continued during the shutdown.
“Justice Department Hints Decision to Drop Michael Flynn Case Came From Nonpublic Information” by WSJ’s Bryron Tau – A government lawyer shed new light Tuesday on the decision to drop the case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, suggesting that the Justice Department may have found new evidence as part of its long-running internal investigations. Jeffrey Wall, the Justice Department’s top litigator, told the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that Attorney General William Barr could have made the decision to drop charges against Mr. Flynn based on information that hasn’t been shared with the public. “The attorney general sees this in the context of nonpublic information from other investigations,” said Mr. Wall in response to questions from the court. “It may be possible that the attorney general had before him information that he was not able to share with the court and so what we put in front of the court were the reasons that we could, but it may not be the whole picture available to the executive branch,” Mr. Wall said. He added: “The attorney general made that decision or that judgment on the basis of lots of information. Some of it is public and fleshed out in the motion. Some of it is not.” The revelation came during a lengthy hearing about whether a lower-court judge was required to accede to the government’s request to drop the case or whether that judge could conduct his own inquiry into why the government decided to drop the charges.
“US introduces updated draft Security Council resolution to extend Iran arms embargo” by Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Ben Evansky – The U.S. on Tuesday introduced an updated and more streamlined draft Security Council resolution that would extend a thirteen-year arms embargo on Iran that is due to expire in October -- and that the U.S. has promised to extend. The technical rollover draft resolution, a short four paragraphs, would simply extend the embargo “until the Security Council decides otherwise.” “The United States has engaged in good-faith diplomacy for months," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft said in a statement to Fox News. "The draft we have put forward today takes Council views into account and simply does what everyone knows should be done – extend the arms embargo to prevent Iran from freely buying and selling conventional weapons. It is only common sense that the world’s #1 state sponsor of terror not be given the means of unleashing even greater harm on the world.” Reuters, which first obtained the resolution, reported that the U.S. has asked for comments on the text by 10 a.m. ET Wednesday morning. The initial draft, according to Bloomberg News, had called upon all member states to halt all sales of weapons to and from Iran and, “to refrain from providing any technical training, financial resources or services, advice, other services or assistance related to the supply, sale, transfer, manufacture, maintenance or use of arms,” to Iran.
“Supreme Court will not step in to halt ruling that will allow additional compensation for student athletes” by CNN’s Jessica Schneider – Supreme Court Justice Elana Kagan on Tuesday denied a request from the National Collegiate Athletic Association to freeze a lower court ruling that allows colleges to compensate athletes for education-related expenses, clearing the way for the ruling to go into effect. The NCAA asked the court to put the lower court ruling on hold while it appealed the decision. A panel of judges on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling earlier this year that the NCAA violated federal antitrust law when it barred schools from certain expenditures for student athletes. The case marks the latest battle concerning student athlete compensation. The lawsuit was brought by former West Virginia running back Shawne Alston in 2014 when he and his attorneys argued that NCAA rules that place any limit on compensation from universities to athletes violated antitrust law. The NCAA has argued that additional compensation beyond scholarships blur the line between college and professional sports. The association also said its rules are necessary to maintain the tradition of amateurism in college sports. "Each year, nearly half a million student-athletes play two dozen sports on nearly 20,000 teams at about 1,100 NCAA member schools and 100 member conferences in three divisions across the country," Seth Waxman, attorney for the NCAA argued in court papers. Donald Remy, chief legal officer for the NCAA, told CNN in a statement Tuesday that the NCAA "will comply with the injunction as required." CNN reached out to Waxman for comment Tuesday.
“Facebook Removed Nearly 40% More Terrorist Content in Second Quarter” by WSJ’s Rachael Levy – Facebook Inc. FB -2.61% removed nearly 40% more content that it categorized as terrorism in the second quarter compared with the first three months of the year, the company said. Facebook removed about 8.7 million pieces of such content—which includes, according to the company’s definition, nonstate actors that engage in or advocate for violence to achieve political, religious or ideological aims—in the second quarter of this year, up from 6.3 million in the first quarter. That increase “was largely driven by improvements in our proactive detection technology to identify content that violates [Facebook’s] policy,” a company spokeswoman said. For “organized hate” groups, a separate category, the company said it took down four million pieces of content, down from 4.7 million in the first quarter. And in a third category, hate speech, the company said it dramatically increased removals of such posts from Facebook and its Instagram platform. It said it removed 3.3 million pieces of hate speech from Instagram in the second quarter, more than triple the amount the previous quarter, and 22.5 million pieces from Facebook, more than double what it removed in the first quarter. The company credited its technology’s expansion into several languages, including Spanish, Arabic and Indonesian, for the increase. Instagram removed about 388,800 pieces of terrorist content, down from 440,600 in the first quarter, but it removed more organized hate content in the second quarter—266,000 pieces versus 175,100 in the previous quarter.
President Donald Trump @realDonaldTrump-More Testing, which is a good thing (we have the most in the world), equals more Cases, which is Fake News Gold. They use Cases to demean the incredible job being done by the great men & women of the U.S. fighting the China Plague!
Rep. Nadler @RepJerryNadler -The Trump Admin has exploited COVID19 to dismantle our nation's asylum system. Even for the most anti-immigration White House in history, this is low. This blatant xenophobia cannot stand: I led 40 Members in opposing these immoral restrictions.
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