More confirmation, earlier than previous reported:

AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019

I kind of want to read the Breyer dissent in U.S. Trademark Office v. Booking.com but I also extremely do not care lol (majority of 8 held that "generic term dot com" is allowed to be a trademark)

why the fuck was this granted especially considering it was affirming the lower court

I uh

What?

SCOTUS has ordered Montana to fund private religious schools

(well, it's a tax benefit)

@TimStone booking dot com is allowed to be a trademark

But the weird thing is that the state said "Well if you're going to get upset we'll just remove this for secular private schools too"

And SCOTUS here is like "no, not giving any private school a tax benefit is unacceptable"

🤔

So essentially now all states that get federal vouchers must fund all types of private schools and apparently not funding any private schools is also possibly not okay since that's what the decision in Montana was to begin with

@Unionhawk lol remember going on vacations and such?

Carl Reiner has died, age 98. RIP

🚨🚨🚨Gorsuch joins Thomas in declaring that the First Amendment's Establishment Clause likely allows states to establish an official religion. Not even Scalia was willing to go that far. t.co/lPOerqajJI

That's fucked

> Ok, I've finally seen enough: Amy McGrath (D) has defeated Charles Booker (D) in the #KYSEN primary

Booooooooooo

Imagine if Booker had received the "OMG BEAT MCCONNELL!!!" Resistance crap instead of McGrath

> A Real Housewives of New Jersey star’s ex-husband allegedly hired a member of the Lucchese Crime Family "to assault his ex-wife’s then-boyfriend in exchange for a deeply discounted wedding reception.”

> At least three members of the Toledo City Council have been taken into custody by federal law enforcement officers. So far the FBI is unwilling to comment except to say it is an ongoing matter

Apparently four council members have been accused of accepting bribes

Bets on those bribes coming from red light camera companies?

Supposedly it was bribes from local businesses, but I'm not sure

> We are tracking down the two Anarchists who threw paint on the magnificent George Washington Statue in Manhattan. We have them on tape. They will be prosecuted and face 10 years in Prison based on the Monuments and Statues Act. Turn yourselves in now!

lol

Yes that classic move to overthrow the government, putting some paint on a statue

@TimStone area candidate who outspent 40:1 wins by like 2 points

looking forward to more ads like "donald trump wants to do prescription drug reform but freakin moscow mitch doesn't"

@Wipqozn It's like he read the word "establishment" and literally nothing else.

@Unionhawk whoa, whoa, whoa. Do you mean to suggest that the wealthy (and those who support them) have a huge advantage when it comes to politics!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?111onmeonee!!?!?!?!one!111!?!?!?!?

Oh I'm sorry CORRECTION: wins by about 0.2 points

So what you're saying is that this is definitely George Takei's fault

Yes

Interestingly it seems that people sending in absentees early was a large factor

Good luck to KY's terrible senator either way now

I hope the consulting firm that came up with "selling california libs hats that say moscow mitch" got paid a lot

@Unionhawk I still think McGrath has a slightly better chance against Mitch compared to Booker. "Leftist Blank man" is a great place to start an attack ad.

I don't but that's really beside the point at this point

and we're not going to find out

US Senate races are by state-wide popular vote, right?

That's correct

it might depend on the state let me check but in general

According to Senate.gov, all US senators are chosen by direct popular election.

Yeah but no nonsense with electoral college-esque "people vote in districts and whomever gets a plurality of the districts gets the Senate seat" stuff?

Following the 17th amendment

previously (prior to 1813) senators were selected by the state legislature

@Yuuki Correct

Also a Louisiana Primary is: All candidates from all parties appear on the ballot. If no candidate has a majority in the first round, hold a run-off between the top two in one month.

@Unionhawk So you mean like how France elects mayors and presidents?

They do it the same way: One ballot with 1 candidate per party. Majority wins, run-off round if needed

@Nzall probably

it's probably just the french system verbatim given Louisiana's history

> a democrat who criticized McConnell for getting in the way of Trump's agenda!

Okay, that tells me more about McGrath

Yeah it's a whole thing

but like at the same time she doesn't really have credibility in that weird niche either?

@Wipqozn I mean, "a tennis player" is probably an understatement. He's currently #1 on the men's tour.

@Yuuki yeah

So the "briefing" to the Dems was just a spin job:

Dems leave frustrated after White House briefing on Russian bounties

> House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who led a group of nearly a dozen Democrats to the White House early Tuesday, said Congress still needs to hear from the heads of various Intelligence agencies — not White House officials — on the stunning allegations. The Trump administration officials tasked with briefing the Democrats, Hoyer said, expressed their opinion of the allegations but didn’t share the underlying evidence.

(emphasis mine)

Republicans have been skipping House Intelligence meetings for months

Schiff mentioned this last night on Chris Hayes' show, and Chris was like, wait, what??

Here's the clip from the show, the entire interview (about the Russian bounties) is good, but the relevant portion about the House Intelligence committee starts at 3:00

Hayes befuddled expression is at 4:15

Chris is so confused, it'd be funny if it wasn't such a serious topic

So, apparently even the White House briefing to Congressional Republicans was a snow job:

> EXCLUSIVE: Data intercepts showed GRU-to-Taliban $ transfers & a key intermediary fled to Russia, bolstering earlier detainee accounts about a Russian bounty op. Trump WH omitted in its briefing to GOP lawmakers as it downplayed intel as murky/contested

(NYTimes article link)

lmao

"Look the intelligence is contested, no one can agree"

"Actually we have a check from GRU with 'Kill Americans' in the memo line"

> Press Sec: "These are rogue intelligence officers imperiling our troop's lives. We will very likely not be able to get a consensus on this intelligence because of what was leaked to the NYT." Q: Members of the IC are going after Trump? Press Sec: "It very possibly could be."

Completely unhinged

> Facebook is “designating a violent U.S.-based anti-government network (the Boogaloo movement) as a dangerous organization and banning it from our apps.”

Toronto's city council has voted to make non-medical masks and face coverings mandatory in indoor public spaces to help limit the spread of the coronavirus. cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/…

Masks are mandatory inside any shop and public transportation for a long time here

@MadScientist Yep. Speaking of which, its even a better choice with regard to the economy:

A National Mask Mandate Could Save The U.S. Economy $1 Trillion, Goldman Sachs Says

People aren't especially good about following the rules here, but still, most people seem to follow them well

> “If a face mask mandate meaningfully lowers coronavirus infections, it could be valuable not only from a public health perspective but also from an economic perspective because it could substitute for renewed lockdowns that would otherwise hit GDP,” the researchers wrote.

If masks work at all, even if it's just 10-20% it would be easily worth it. And odds are they're more effective than that

Went out at lunch to get my hair cut for the first time since February: a real mix of people with masks and without

My stylist was great with me keeping it on while she cut my hair; I just had to hold it on when she needed to cut behind my ear

@BradC Wouldn't matter, honestly. The anti-science sentiment in the USA is just so strong.