thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--Melania Trump Weighs In On President's Reported Military Insults: It's 'Not True'

In a rare tweet strongly defending her husband , Melania Trump on Friday denied reports that the president has insulted fallen military service members .
Donald Trump has called the military casualties “ losers ” and “ suckers , ” and he has refused to visit graves of American war heroes in Europe , The Atlantic reported Thursday .
The first lady slammed The Atlantic ’ s use of “ anonymous sources ” and called the article “ activism , ” not journalism .
She claimed it has “ become a very dangerous time ” when anonymous sources are believed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ TheAtlantic story is not true .
It has become a very dangerous time when anonymous sources are believed above all else , & no one knows their motivation .
This is not journalism - It is activism .
And it is a disservice to the people of our great nation .
— Melania Trump ( @ FLOTUS ) September 4 , 2020 Twitter critics hit back by informing her that nearly every major news source has confirmed the article , including the right-leaning Fox News .
They also noted that Trump has already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very publicly — disparaging the military service of the late Sen. John McCain , a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for more than five years .
“ He ’ s not a war hero , ” Trump said during his last campaign .
“ He ’ s a war hero because he was captured .
I like people that weren ’ t captured.
” Trump also said of the senator : “ I don ’ t like losers.
” It 's been confirmed by multiple outlets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what it is .
pic.twitter.com/v8270ytM5R — Paul 👻 ( @ pablo_honey1 ) September 4 , 2020 ... .because of course , he has NEVER disrespected a veteran or serving officer before ... ... .
pic.twitter.com/xxtwsJ8mTB — Douglas Cramphorn ( @ Doug_Cramphorn ) September 4 , 2020

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In a rare tweet strongly defending her husband, Melania Trump on Friday denied reports that the president has insulted fallen military service members.
Donald Trump has called the military casualties “losers” and “suckers,” and he has refused to visit graves of American war heroes in Europe, The Atlantic reported Thursday.
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The first lady slammed The Atlantic’s use of “anonymous sources” and called the article “activism,” not journalism. She claimed it has “become a very dangerous time” when anonymous sources are believed “above all else.”
.@TheAtlantic story is not true. It has become a very dangerous time when anonymous sources are believed above all else, & no one knows their motivation. This is not journalism - It is activism. And it is a disservice to the people of our great nation. — Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) September 4, 2020
Twitter critics hit back by informing her that nearly every major news source has confirmed the article, including the right-leaning Fox News.
They also noted that Trump has already used exactly those kind of insults — very publicly — disparaging the military service of the late Sen. John McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for more than five years. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said during his last campaign. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” Trump also said of the senator: “I don’t like losers.”
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It's been confirmed by multiple outlets, including Fox News. It is what it is. pic.twitter.com/v8270ytM5R — Paul 👻 (@pablo_honey1) September 4, 2020
Oh. Ok. pic.twitter.com/Ga1CLPINAK — Carol Ann Leif VOTED FOR THE OVERPREPARED LADY (@carolannleif) September 4, 2020
....because of course, he has NEVER disrespected a veteran or serving officer before....... pic.twitter.com/xxtwsJ8mTB — Douglas Cramphorn (@Doug_Cramphorn) September 4, 2020


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--A Perfect Storm Sank Progressive Challenger Alex Morse In Massachusetts

Erin Clark/Boston Globe via Getty Images Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse unsuccessfully sought to unseat Rep. Richard Neal in Massachusetts ' @ @ @ @ @ Some supporters think a political smear hurt him .
Morse came under fire on Aug. @ @ @ @ @ , the student newspaper of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst , published a leaked @ @ @ @ @ of Massachusetts informing Morse that he was no longer welcome at the group ’ s @ @ @ @ @ “ his position of power for romantic or sexual gain ” with college students .
@ @ @ @ @ had had sex with male college students he met on dating apps while lecturing at @ @ @ @ @ messaged College Democrats activists on social media in a way that made them uncomfortable .
@ @ @ @ @ ’ t say what he did to cause discomfort or provide any other information about @ @ @ @ @

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse unsuccessfully sought to unseat Rep. Richard Neal in Massachusetts' Democratic primary on Tuesday. Some supporters think a political smear hurt him. Erin Clark/Boston Globe via Getty Images
HOLYOKE, Mass. ― Rep. Richard Neal’s margin of victory over progressive Holyoke, Massachusetts, Mayor Alex Morse on Tuesday came as something of a surprise to national observers expecting a tighter race.
The final pre-election public poll in Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District showed Morse trailing by 8 percentage points. In the end, he lost to Neal, a 16-term incumbent and chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, by over 17 percentage points; Neal even defeated him in Holyoke, where Morse has been elected mayor four times.
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But the mood at the bed-and-breakfast where Morse’s supporters gathered at an outdoor reception awaiting results Tuesday night was upbeat rather than gloomy.
The tight-knit, multiracial circle of family and friends that has grown up around Morse since he became the youngest and first openly gay mayor of an impoverished, postindustrial city in 2011, are used to fighting long-term battles.
Juan Burgos-Anderson, a progressive ally of Morse’s on the City Council, ran unsuccessfully against the mayor’s conservative opposition leader in 2015 after enduring racist and homophobic epithets while knocking on doors. He came back in 2017 and won ― a formula he believes Morse can replicate against Neal in 2022.
“He’s going to get back up, and I’m going to push him to do it again.” - Juan Burgos-Anderson, Holyoke City Council member
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“He’s going to get back up, and I’m going to push him to do it again,” Burgos-Anderson said.
Nationally, the activist left saw an opportunity in Morse’s bid to unseat one of the most powerful, corporate-friendly Democrats in Congress. In the final weeks, it also became a referendum on a tawdry, establishment-backed smear that smacked of homophobia.
In truth, though the politically motivated accusations of sexual impropriety may have hurt Morse, the race was always more about local dynamics than the out-of-state poll watchers understood ― and none of those dynamics favored Morse. Neal enjoys a deep popularity in the district that seems impervious to accusations of corruption. Morse’s mayoralty, heralded by Holyoke’s emerging Puerto Rican majority, has been marked by incessant conflict with a conservative City Council that happens to represent the same Irish American constituency that makes up Neal’s base. And Neal’s endless heap of campaign cash, drawn almost entirely from wealthy individuals and corporations, allowed him and his allies to broadcast the criticisms of Morse’s mayoralty within Holyoke across the geographically vast district.
The discredited allegations against Morse, which coincided with the start of early mail-in voting, likely added to a vague public sense that whatever Neal’s flaws, Morse was not a suitable replacement.
“There was a lot of momentum building for Alex, and then those came out and it raised a lot of doubts,” said Doug Rubin, a veteran Democratic consultant who advised Morse’s campaign beginning in July.
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Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), left, at a political event in September 1989, during his first term in Congress. He remains popular in Western Massachusetts. Laura Patterson/CQ Archive via Getty Images
‘They Love Richie Neal’
For one thing, unlike the incumbent House Democrats who have fallen to progressive challengers, Neal retained near-demigod status in a district he has represented in one form or another since 1978, when he was first elected to the Springfield City Council. As a mayor from 1983 to 1989 and a congressman since 1989, many residents credit Neal for using his power to bring business and jobs back to a city that had been hemorrhaging unionized manufacturing jobs as metalworking and machine-building factories were shuttered.
Neal and business leaders “got together and brought this town up,” said Ed Crowley, a retired teacher who grew up in Springfield and now lives in Holyoke. “By the 1980s, people were really talking about Springfield.”
And with Springfield once again teetering on the brink because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Crowley ― who voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the presidential primary ― and other Neal voters were reluctant to let go of Neal’s seniority at the helm of Congress’s tax-and-spending panel.
“When your district has the second-most powerful position in the House under their control, you don’t give that up for a new guy on the street who’s going to end up with an office someplace in the cellar without a window,” said Jim, a retired commercial banker who declined to give his last name.
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Neal still lives in Springfield’s historically Irish American Hungry Hill district, where locals have stories of growing up with “Richie.” And as the city’s Latino and Black populations have made up an increasing share of the population, Neal has made sure to maintain warm relationships with their leaders as well.
Diana Kibodya, a social worker and political refugee from apartheid South Africa who immigrated to Springfield in the 1980s, came to cheer Neal on outside his polling place on Tuesday. Neal’s decision to divest Springfield from South Africa as mayor was among the many actions that had endeared him to her.
“He’s an icon to me because he fights for social justice,” she said.
Asked about her opinion on Morse, Kibodya sounded unaware of his candidacy. “I don’t listen to that,” she said.
Neal’s ties to the Puerto Rican community also limited any momentum that Morse might have had thanks to his fluency in Spanish and efforts to bring Puerto Ricans into the political fold in Holyoke.
“There was not enough action on the streets of Springfield and in the inner city ― from either candidate.” - Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, Springfield attorney
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Adam Gómez, a progressive city councilman who unseated an Anglophone, incumbent state senator on Tuesday, was neutral in the U.S. House race and credited Morse for advancing the Puerto Rican cause in Holyoke. Still, he noted, Neal won the city’s Puerto Rican wards that powered Gómez’s upset win.
Morse “ran a strong campaign when it came to mailers, commercials ― but it’s just evident, they love Richie Neal,” Gómez said.
Asked why Morse’s support for canceling Puerto Rican debt and disbanding the oversight board that has imposed austerity on the island territory didn’t play a greater role in the race, Gómez, who agrees with Morse on the topic, said, “I don’t think nobody brought it up.”
Even Jesse Lederman, a progressive ally of Gómez’s on the City Council who supported Sanders in the presidential primary, stayed out of the House race. “I wanted the voters to decide, and they did,” he told HuffPost, declining to comment further on the race.
Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a Black Muslim attorney in Springfield who challenged Neal in 2018 and remained neutral in 2020, praised Morse’s debate performances but argued that he did not have enough of a field presence in Springfield’s communities of color.
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“There was not enough action on the streets of Springfield and in the inner city ― from either candidate,” said Amatul-Wadud, noting that, given Neal’s overall advantages, the flaws in his campaign strategy were less consequential.
The campaign that Neal did run, however, was far better funded than Morse’s. The campaign employed eight full-time staffers and 70 paid interns to do field organizing across the district.
Morse’s coordinated campaign with the left-wing group Justice Democrats, by contrast, assigned seven staffers to field organizing. That team had the help of 40 unpaid fellows.
“We needed to really figure out a better way to mitigate Neal’s advantage in the big cities,” Rubin conceded.
Jonell Santiago works at Green Thumb Industries cultivation center in Holyoke on Jan. 31, 2019. Mayor Alex Morse recruited the cannabis grower to open its business in one of Holyoke's defunct mills. Morse's tenure has been marked by big accomplishments and constant resistance from the city's old guard. Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe via Getty Images
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Alex Morse’s Thankless Mayoralty
Holyoke and Springfield have had similar economic and demographic trajectories. Just as paper mills in Holyoke began shutting down in the 1960s and ’70s, Puerto Rican newcomers began arriving in search of affordable housing, jobs and relative economic stability. The 40,000-person city is now majority Latino and has the largest per capita Puerto Rican population of any mainland municipality.
But unlike Springfield, Holyoke’s postindustrial economic recovery has been painfully slow. Morse inherited a city bedeviled by crime, poverty and blight. A predominantly Irish American old guard has tried to thwart his efforts to forge a more inclusive city at every turn. Neal’s victory in Holyoke was driven by especially high margins in areas like Ward 5, which is a hub of Irish American, anti-Morse sentiment. Those voters may have been more likely to turn out thanks to a competitive state representative race in which Holyoke-based conservative Democrat David Bartley was running (Bartley still lost).
“They’re holding on to what used to be,” said Andres Villada, a friend and supporter of Morse’s dating back to high school.
In 2012, Morse’s first year in office, the Holyoke City Council sued Morse to stop the operation of a needle exchange to provide clean syringes for intravenous drug users. Facilitating harm reduction and treatment for habitual drug users is personal for Morse, whose older brother battled addiction for years before dying of an opiate overdose in February.
Morse has made some unforced errors. Although he ran for mayor in 2011 as an opponent of the construction of a casino in Holyoke, Morse gave the idea a second look after his election before dropping the initiative once more amid a backlash from some of his most dedicated supporters. Instead, the region’s gamblers drive along the Connecticut River to Springfield to try their luck at a new MGM Grand casino in the city’s commercial district.
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But Morse has presided over even higher-profile triumphs for the city’s economic development. For example, his outspoken support for marijuana legalization helped convince Green Thumb Industries, a major commercial cannabis grower, to set up shop in one of Holyoke’s old industrial spaces once Massachusetts legalized marijuana in 2016.
“It was part of the discussion, part of the narrative that had been created for Mayor Morse over the course of the last decade.” - Tony Cignoli, political consultant
As with any struggling city, though, crime, poverty and out-of-control police misconduct are liable to trip up even a historically progressive mayor. In 2014, city police responded to a call about a suicidal man firing a handgun. In the course of pursuing the shooter, police allegedly beat a 12-year-old Latino unconscious. The boy had been trying to help the man, a neighbor, and ran away from the scene in fear. The city finally settled with the boy’s family for $65,000.
The following year, the Massachusetts government took over Holyoke’s school system, citing the “chronic underperformance” of students in the city’s district.
Morse, who fought the state’s takeover, subsequently celebrated the increase in the city’s high school graduation rates ― from 49% when he took office to 72% in the 2017-18 school year. As a congressional candidate, Morse also highlighted his work improving the police force’s diversity, claiming it now reflects the city’s majority-Latino population.
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With virtually limitless funds, though, Neal and his allies effectively created a cloud of negativity around Morse’s mayoralty that followed him into progressive parts of the district where he was hoping to introduce himself to anti-Neal voters as a fresh face. A labor union and health care industry-backed pro-Neal super PAC hammered Morse in TV ads for a “brutal” policing record and alleged absenteeism at school board meetings prior to the state takeover.
“It was Neal’s campaign ― or the outside anti-Morse groups ― that heralded some of these issues in their ads,” said Tony Cignoli, a Springfield-based political consultant who was neutral in the race. “But it was there. It was part of the discussion, part of the narrative that had been created for Mayor Morse over the course of the last decade.”
For Morse’s allies, the attacks on his record show just how difficult it can be for mayors of troubled cities who launch campaigns for higher office.
“It’s incredibly difficult to be the Mayor of any city. More-so than any elected position, Mayors are subject to vitriol and blame for just about everything,” Morse’s mayoral chief of staff, Mike Bloomberg, tweeted Thursday. “The job is even more difficult in cities that have experienced decades of economic decline and public health despair.”
Alex Morse makes a campaign stop at a Springfield bakery on Aug. 26. His campaign says that the timing of a sexual misconduct smear hurt him with early voters in particular. Erin Clark/Boston Globe via Getty Images
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A Scandal That Sowed Doubts
Morse’s campaign will likely be remembered most for a smear attempt by College Democrats leaders that the screenwriters for HBO’s political satire “Veep” couldn’t have dreamed up.
Morse came under fire on Aug. 7 when The Daily Collegian, the student newspaper of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, published a leaked letter from the College Democrats of Massachusetts informing Morse that he was no longer welcome at the group’s meetings because he had used “his position of power for romantic or sexual gain” with college students. The letter claimed that Morse had had sex with male college students he met on dating apps while lecturing at UM Amherst and that he messaged College Democrats activists on social media in a way that made them uncomfortable. However, the letter didn’t say what he did to cause discomfort or provide any other information about the allegedly offensive interactions.
The charges outlined in the article, which lacked a byline, were just specific enough to spark wall-to-wall coverage from respected national media outlets and a crisis within Morse’s campaign but also vague enough to prevent the broader public from assessing the claims on their merits.
After a restless night spent combing through all of his communications in an effort to identify any of the potentially incriminating interactions, Morse came to the conclusion that, although he had had sex with college students he’d met on dating apps who were not in his lecture sessions, the charges of misconduct were unfounded.
Still, humiliated by the national attention and the prospect of a bruising final stretch of the campaign, Morse went back and forth over the weekend on whether he wanted to withdraw from the race.
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Emotional appeals from Morse’s staff and the staunch support of the LGBTQ Victory Fund ultimately convinced him to stay in the race. The Victory Fund, which tries to elect gay candidates at all levels of government, emphasized to Morse that baseless attacks on gay people’s personal lives remain common in competitive elections.
“They made the point that this is much larger than you, and you need to stand up for every queer kid who is going to be scared to run for office,” someone familiar with internal campaign conversations told HuffPost.
Morse apologized for making any students uncomfortable but stressed that in keeping with university policy, he had not taught any of his romantic partners and that all of his relationships were with consenting adults.
“Elections here in the district aren’t won nationally. They’re won here on the ground.” - Alex Morse
Then, five days after the initial story airing the allegations, evidence emerged exposing the claims as the work of politically motivated saboteurs. The Intercept reported that two leaders of the UMass Amherst College Democrats chapter plotted to entrap Morse with flirty social media messages in the hopes of currying favor with Neal. A second Intercept article revealed that the Massachusetts Democratic Party had referred former health insurance executive and Neal donor Jim Roosevelt to the College Democrats as a volunteer attorney to advise them on how to confront Morse in the letter.
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The revelations proved to be a fundraising bonanza for Morse, who brought in $130,000 the day of the first exculpatory story and would go on to raise $1 million in the final month of his race. (He raised about that much over the previous 13 months of his bid combined.)
A number of his supporters maintain that the one-two punch of the smear and the Intercept revelations was a net benefit for his campaign by portraying Morse as a victim of dirty tricks designed to exploit homophobic stereotypes. “When those allegations were made, people automatically assumed ― even though it wasn’t proven ― that it came out of Neal’s campaign,” said Zaida Govan, a Springfield social worker who voted for Morse. “People said, ‘No, we’re not going to let that happen. We have to protect Alex and make sure that he’s OK.’”
Neal’s campaign, which denied any involvement in the smear and disavowed an ad that brought it up, told HuffPost that their internal polling never showed Morse within single digits of Neal and that they did not detect any difference in polling after the scandal emerged.
Morse and his campaign, however, see the smear as a pivotal blow to Morse’s candidacy, though they concede that there was no one factor that did him in. They note that voters in the district began receiving their mail-in ballots in the days after the incriminating Daily Collegian story was published, and they tie it to Morse’s weaker performance among early voters in key municipalities. For example, in the city of Pittsfield, Neal ran up the score in early voting while Morse had a narrow edge on Election Day.
The benefits that Morse reaped nationally from the Intercept’s reporting, his allies claim, were felt far less on the ground due to local media outlets that covered the initial claims more diligently than the later evidence. And both because of the media maelstrom and the decision by backers such as the Sunrise Movement to pause their support following the allegations, the campaign, these Morse supporters say, lost a critical week it needed to get out Morse’s core message: that Neal’s reliance on corporate money has prevented him from properly serving the district’s ordinary residents.
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“Elections here in the district aren’t won nationally. They’re won here on the ground,” Morse told reporters on Tuesday night. “Those people involved in the attack knew exactly what they were doing and the impact it would have.” But the campaign, which by that time had enough money to air more than one TV ad, deliberately chose not to devote a spot to rebutting the allegations. It’s a decision that Rubin, Morse’s consultant, now has second thoughts about.
Most of the Neal voters who spoke to HuffPost over the course of three days cited their affection for Neal or negative things they had heard about Morse’s mayoral performance.
But the UMass Amherst allegations also appeared to seep into voters’ consciousness.
After Jim, the retired banker in Springfield, explained to HuffPost why, given Neal’s seniority, he would never consider voting for anyone but the incumbent, HuffPost asked for his impression of Morse.
“I haven’t seen anything wrong with this guy. I certainly have nothing wrong with the fact that he’s gay. That’s irrelevant to me,” Jim said. “But at the same time, if he had been soliciting female students, they’d have run him out of Holyoke on a rail.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that David Bartley won his state House race. He lost.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--10 Of The Wildest And Wackiest Conspiracy Theories Pushed By Trump This Week

Trump told Ingraham during the interview ― which was broadcast in two parts on Monday and Tuesday ― that “ somebody ” had seen the planeload of “ thugs , wearing these dark uniforms ... with gear and this and that ” traveling from some unknown city to wreak havoc at the Republican National Convention , which was largely held remotely this year using pretaped videos amid the coronavirus pandemic .
Trump told Ingraham that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appears to be hopped up on some sort of drug .
He continued to push a false claim that COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health agencies have reported .
Trump retweeted a post on Sunday , since deleted , that erroneously claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had “ quietly ” updated its numbers “ to admit that only 6 % ” of people who died of the coronavirus had “ actually ” died of the virus since “ the other 94 % had 2-3 other serious illnesses.
” While the CDC has said that 6 % of COVID-19 victims ’ death certificates list the coronavirus as the sole of death , officials have made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ― including chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes ― doesn ’ t mean the person did not die of COVID-19 .
“ A small number of people have COVID ascribed as the sole cause of death .
It may be they had no co-morbidities or they were just not noted , ” Dr. Myron Cohen , director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , told Politifact of the data .
“ However , it is also clear that advanced age @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bad outcomes with COVID infections .
The people dying were not going to die but for the acquisition of COVID.
” Trump insisted he won the 2016 popular vote , which he lost by nearly 3 million ballots to Clinton .
Trump repeated the claim that the November election will be “ rigged ” because of mail-in voting .
He did this again on Wednesday , retweeting an article published by the right-wing website The National Pulse about how Trump may appear to win by a landslide on Election Day because mail-in votes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet .
The Pulse article is based on an interview aired on “ Axios on HBO.
” According to Axios , far more Democrats are expected to vote by mail in November than Republicans .
Since those votes may not be counted for days or weeks after Election Day , Trump may appear to have won at first ― even if he ultimately loses the vote .

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He’s also refused to reject the far-right QAnon movement, calling supporters of the outlandish conspiracy theory “people who love our country.”
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But Trump appears to have outdone himself this week, publicly parroting multiple conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims in recent days. Here are 10 egregious examples:
At a Monday press conference, Trump defended Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Trump supporter who fatally shot two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Trump defends Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old supporter of his who is charged with murdering two protesters in Kenosha pic.twitter.com/KdfkdTPRVG — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 31, 2020
The president said, without evidence, that Rittenhouse had acted in self-defense when he opened fire at a Black Lives Matter protest, killing two people and wounding another. The demonstration had been organized in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man.
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Trump blamed the unrest on “left-wing political violence” and claimed Rittenhouse had been “trying to get away” from protesters who then “violently attacked him” when the shooting occurred.
Also Monday, Trump touted several conspiracy theories in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, including the claim that there had been a plane full of “thugs” who attempted to disrupt the GOP convention.
"We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend, and in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that. They're on a plane."
Trump says this is "under investigation right now." pic.twitter.com/UjBBvsBaU3 — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) September 1, 2020
Trump told Ingraham during the interview ― which was broadcast in two parts on Monday and Tuesday ― that “somebody” had seen the planeload of “thugs, wearing these dark uniforms ... with gear and this and that” traveling from some unknown city to wreak havoc at the Republican National Convention, which was largely held remotely this year using pretaped videos amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump has offered zero evidence to back up this wild claim.
Trump suggested that “some very stupid rich people” are bankrolling violent protesters involved in anti-racism demonstrations across the country.
The president has similarly not provided any evidence to support this conspiracy theory.
He also claimed that Portland, Oregon, where protests against racism and police violence have raged for three months, has been burning for decades.
Portland fire officials were quick to push back against this claim.
“We are not on fire. We have not been on fire,” Lt. Rich Chatman, a spokesperson for Portland Fire & Rescue, said this week.
Trump told Ingraham that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appears to be hopped up on some sort of drug.
the Biden Is Roiding thing rules pic.twitter.com/bOn7mcsQrv — Brendan Karet 🚮 (@bad_takes) September 2, 2020
“He’s on some kind of an enhancement, in my opinion,” Trump said, adding that both he and Biden should take a drug test to check.
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Back in 2016, Trump made similar allegations about his Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Trump claimed that “people that are in the dark shadows” are controlling Biden.
“People that you’ve never heard of” are controlling Biden, the president told Ingraham, prompting her to question whether Trump was touting a “conspiracy theory.”
He continued to push a false claim that COVID-19 isn’t as deadly as federal health agencies have reported.
Trump retweeted a post on Sunday, since deleted, that erroneously claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had “quietly” updated its numbers “to admit that only 6%” of people who died of the coronavirus had “actually” died of the virus since “the other 94% had 2-3 other serious illnesses.”
Trump repeated this claim in his interview with Ingraham ― despite its inaccuracy.
While the CDC has said that 6% of COVID-19 victims’ death certificates list the coronavirus as the sole of death, officials have made it clear that the listing of co-morbidities ― including chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes ― doesn’t mean the person did not die of COVID-19.
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“A small number of people have COVID ascribed as the sole cause of death. It may be they had no co-morbidities or they were just not noted,” Dr. Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Politifact of the data. “However, it is also clear that advanced age and several other underlying diseases lead to bad outcomes with COVID infections. The people dying were not going to die but for the acquisition of COVID.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, also contradicted Trump’s claim.
Over the weekend, the President retweeted misinformation on the coronavirus death toll, claiming it's much lower due to comorbidities. Dr. Anthony Fauci responded this morning on ABC: “The numbers that you’ve been hearing, the 180,000-plus deaths, are real deaths from Covid-19." — Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) September 1, 2020
Trump insisted he won the 2016 popular vote, which he lost by nearly 3 million ballots to Clinton.
The president told Ingraham that he actually won the popular vote “in a true sense” because the votes of a libertarian candidate should have counted for him.
Trump also suggested, without evidence, that there was “tremendous” voter fraud in California, New York and “other places.”
"I think I did win the popular vote, in a true sense. I think there was tremendous cheating" -- Trump claims falsely that he actually won the popular vote in 2016 pic.twitter.com/CUa7rv63Ow — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 2, 2020
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Trump repeated the claim that the November election will be “rigged” because of mail-in voting.
Trump has, in recent weeks, repeatedly sought to undermine public confidence in mail-in voting ― even as he and first lady Melania Trump have requested mail-in ballots themselves ― by pushing baseless conspiracy theories about potential voter fraud.
He did this again on Wednesday, retweeting an article published by the right-wing website The National Pulse about how Trump may appear to win by a landslide on Election Day because mail-in votes won’t all have been counted yet.
The Pulse article is based on an interview aired on “Axios on HBO.” According to Axios, far more Democrats are expected to vote by mail in November than Republicans. Since those votes may not be counted for days or weeks after Election Day, Trump may appear to have won at first ― even if he ultimately loses the vote.
“Rigged Election?” Trump tweeted in response to this possibility.
On two consecutive days, he appeared to encourage voters to cast their votes twice.
For 2nd straight day, Trump suggests his supporters in some cases should vote twice, which is illegal: "Sign your mail-in ballot, okay? You sign it & you send it in & then you have to follow it. And if, on Election Day or early voting, it's not tabulated and counted, you go vote" pic.twitter.com/ZhrF2rdGPb — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2020
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While Trump warned, baselessly, of potential voter fraud on the one hand, he also appeared to encourage his supporters to commit voter fraud themselves by voting twice.
Speaking at a Pennsylvania rally on Thursday, Trump said mail-in ballots “are a disgrace” and urged voters to send in their absentee ballots before voting again in person.
“What you have to do is send in your early ballot and then go and make sure that ballot is tabulated or counted, and if it’s not counted, vote,” he said. “And then they have the job, if it comes in late, or if it’s not too late, they have the job of making sure that it’s not counted.”
The president had made a similar suggestion on Wednesday to supporters in North Carolina.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--White Supremacists Are Top Terror Threat In DHS Draft Assessments: Report

As for threats from elsewhere , Russia reportedly tops the list of DHS concerns .
Russia “ probably will be @ @ @ @ @ actor and purveyor of disinformation and misinformation in the Homeland , ” the drafts state @ @ @ @ @

As for threats from elsewhere, Russia reportedly tops the list of DHS concerns.
Russia “probably will be the primary covert foreign influence actor and purveyor of disinformation and misinformation in the Homeland,” the drafts state, according to Politico.
Read the entire Politico story here.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--Trump Is Desperately Trying To Greenwash His Record Ahead Of The Election

The Trump administration has worked to weaken safeguards for some 35 million acres of public land — nearly 1,000 times more than it has protected — and has stacked environmental agencies with former industry lobbyists and lawyers , many with histories of contempt for the very agencies they now lead .
And it has continued to cheer on the fossil fuel industry amid a rapidly worsening climate crisis .
“ We ’ re doing a very tough job , and not everybody knows it , ” Trump said in a July 2019 environment speech at the White House , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spin that have defined the current presidency .
“ We have only America .
We have only one planet … That ’ s why , every day of my presidency , we will fight for a cleaner environment and a better quality of life for every one of our great citizens.
” Punking Or Pulling The Plug On Pebble Mine ?
“ There ’ s so many bad decisions ― anti-environment , anti-science decisions ― that so overwhelms any analysis of Trump ’ s policies with regard to energy and environment that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call , ” he said .
“ It ’ s a direct reflection of what happens when you literally allow fossil fuel lobbyists to run the agencies that are supposed to regulate the fossil fuel industry .
”

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During a May 2018 roundtable with more than two dozen outdoor sporting and conservation organizations, after more than a year of leading the Trump administration’s fossil fuel-centric “energy dominance” push, then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke promised to make a “grand pivot” away from energy development and toward conservation.
Zinke’s decree was an admission that the agency had fallen short on its stewardship mandate, and an acknowledgment that Americans wanted better protection of public lands and waters.
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And yet, Zinke’s grand pivot never came. Instead, the administration plowed ahead with its unprecedented assault on environmental protections ― at least 100 regulatory rollbacks, according to a New York Times tracker ― and treated the federal estate as little more than a place for industry allies to extract resources.
The Trump administration has worked to weaken safeguards for some 35 million acres of public land — nearly 1,000 times more than it has protected — and has stacked environmental agencies with former industry lobbyists and lawyers, many with histories of contempt for the very agencies they now lead. And it has continued to cheer on the fossil fuel industry amid a rapidly worsening climate crisis.
But in the last year, President Donald Trump’s campaign seems to have realized that this could cost him a second term. And instead of changing course, the president has undertaken a noticeable greenwashing campaign.
“We’re doing a very tough job, and not everybody knows it,” Trump said in a July 2019 environment speech at the White House, a 45-minute event full of the lies and spin that have defined the current presidency. “We have only America. We have only one planet … That’s why, every day of my presidency, we will fight for a cleaner environment and a better quality of life for every one of our great citizens.”
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The following month, after skipping a Group of Seven summit meeting on climate and biodiversity, Trump boasted, “I’m an environmentalist” and “I think I know more about the environment than most people.”
On Fox & Friends, President Trump denies that he has plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling -- he only says he's thinking about it. He also says "I should go down as a great environmental president." pic.twitter.com/n6pRJyYG9g — Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) August 17, 2020
That effort to rebrand Trump as a champion on environment and conservation has only ramped up as the 2020 election draws closer. But Trump’s record is clear. Much like Zinke’s roundtable comments, the administration’s last-ditch effort to improve the president’s image indicates it’s well aware his legacy is not one of stewardship.
“It’s like he drowned someone, put on a whistle and called himself a lifeguard,” said Kate Kelly, public lands director at the Center for American Progress and a former Interior Department official during the Obama administration. “It’s too late. It’s too late for Trump to be anything other than the most anti-conservation president in history.”
The White House did not respond to a number of HuffPost’s specific questions. In an email statement, spokesperson Judd Deere argued that the Paris climate accord, which Trump last November began the process of pulling the U.S. out of, “shackles economies and has done nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
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Judd also claimed ― falsely ― that the Green New Deal, a progressive set of guiding principles to rein in greenhouse gas emissions and build climate-resilient infrastructure, “would outlaw cows, cars and planes.”
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a tree-planting ceremony in recognition of Earth Day and Arbor Day on the South Lawn of the White House on April 22. Drew Angerer via Getty Images
A Rare Win With Greens
As 2020 ramped up, the administration badly needed a conservation win, something to point to in the run-up to the election. So in March, Trump did an about-face on the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a federal conservation program established in 1964 that Trump tried for years to gut funding for.
“I am calling on Congress to send me a Bill that fully and permanently funds the LWCF and restores our National Parks,” Trump tweeted that month. “When I sign it into law, it will be HISTORIC for our beautiful public lands.”
The president’s newfound support for LWCF, which uses offshore oil and gas revenues to establish and protect parks, wildlife refuges, forests and wildlife habitat, came shortly after he sat down at the White House with Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), two loyal Trump allies facing tough roads to reelection.
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During the meeting, according to The New York Times, Gardner told Trump that passing a public lands bill would be the biggest conservation victory since President Theodore Roosevelt established America’s system of national parks, refuges and forests in the early 1900s.
Trump holds up a walking stick given to him by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) after he signed the Great American Outdoors on Aug. 4. "There hasn’t been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect,” Trump said at the time. Drew Angerer via Getty Images
Congress went on to pass the Great American Outdoors Act, which fully funded the LWCF and allocated $9.5 billion to address the mounting maintenance backlog at America’s national parks. At last month’s signing ceremony, Trump repeatedly compared himself to Roosevelt (who protected over 230 million acres of federal land), praised Daines and Gardner, and characterized the law’s passage as a Republican victory.
At some point people “will have to start thinking about the Republican Party and all the incredible things we’ve done on conservation,” he said.
Trump earned rare points with green groups for signing the bill into law, effectively hijacking a yearslong fight to secure permanent LWCF funding by senators like Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.). He made no mention of the fact that all but three of the 132 votes against the public lands package in the Senate and House were cast by Republicans.
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“It’s like he drowned someone, put on a whistle and called himself a lifeguard. ... It’s too late. It’s too late for Trump to be anything other than the most anti-conservation president in history.” - Kate Kelly, former Interior Department official
The greenwashing event also featured some astonishing, if not downright comical, self-deception. In hopes of rewriting history, Trump has apparently convinced himself that gutting two protected national monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante, was good for his conservation legacy.
“When you add all of this to what we did in Utah, if you remember that ... We did Bears Ears,” he said, proudly referring to cutting the monument boundary by 85% and opening the door for energy and mineral development. “The kind of things we’ve done are really record-setting.”
It was indeed record-setting: the largest rollback of federal land protections in U.S. history.
Trump added to his record of dismantling monuments this summer when he opened Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, a nearly 5,000-square mile sanctuary off the East Coast, to commercial fishing. Meanwhile, William Perry Pendley, a conservative lawyer with extreme anti-environmental views and a history of advocating for selling off federal lands, continues to lead the federal Bureau of Land Management.
Punking Or Pulling The Plug On Pebble Mine?
In another recent about-face, the Trump administration delayed a key permit for Alaska’s Pebble Mine ― a controversial project that the Obama administration blocked and that Trump revived early in his term.
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In a letter to the Canadian company behind the project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the proposed open-pit copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska would cause “unavoidable adverse impacts” to the area’s aquatic resources, and gave the company 90 days to come up with a plan to mitigate the environmental damage. It’s a hurdle that some say could kill the project.
Notably, the surprise decision came a month after the Army Corps concluded the project at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the most productive sockeye salmon fishery in the world, would have no “measurable” effect on salmon stocks or the watershed.
So what changed? Several conservative sportsmen, including Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff Nick Ayers, suddenly spoke out against the mine development.
“The headwaters of Bristol Bay and the surrounding fishery are too unique and fragile to take any chances with,” Trump Jr. wrote in an Aug. 4 tweet.
Sockeye salmon are tethered to the shore along the fast-moving current of the rapids on the Newhalen River near Iliamna in Alaska. The site of the proposed Pebble Mine is less than 20 miles away, and many residents fear it could irreparably harm the local ecosystem. Luis Sinco via Getty Images
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The delay and 90-day deadline came 71 days before the election, likely pushing a final decision until after Nov. 3.
Asked about Pebble Mine during a recent interview with The Daily Caller, Trump Jr. said he’s “as pro-business as it comes” but that some places are “just sacred.” He dismissed the idea that Republicans are environmental foes and that his father is governing based on where his son likes to chase salmon.
“Donald Trump will never get credit for some of the environmental things he’s done,” his son said, noting among other things that his father supported increased funding for restoring the Florida Everglades. “You can do good things for the environment without destroying the middle class.”
Cementing An Anti-Environmental Legacy
As HuffPost previously reported, public lands are getting big play in the 2020 elections in the West, much as they did during the 2018 midterms. And there are plenty of signs that the Trump administration is worried about how its industry-first agenda has landed with Western voters who value federal lands and environmental protection.
This week, the EPA announced the creation of a new Office of Mountains, Deserts and Plains, located in Colorado, that will focus on cleaning up legacy mine pollution. “The West is a special place, with special environmental challenges deserving of its own office within EPA,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement.
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During a speech Thursday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the agency, Wheeler claimed that under Trump, the EPA has done “well if not better than [under] any recent administration” at upholding its mission of protecting human health and the environment ― an assertion that drew immediate fire from environmental advocates.
Meanwhile, the steady drumbeat of anti-environmental rules and rollbacks continues as the administration works to cement changes ahead of November. This week, the EPA weakened an Obama-era rule that sought to limit toxic wastewater released from coal-fired power plants. The U.S. Forest Service unveiled a proposal to expedite oil drilling on national forests and grasslands. And the Interior Department is rushing to open Alaska’s fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, with a lease sale possible by the end of the year.
Asked during an interview last month on “Fox & Friends” about his effort to green light refuge drilling, Trump offered this: “I hate to say it. In theory, I should go down as a great environmental president.”
Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), a former environmental attorney and member of the House Natural Resources Committee, told HuffPost that Trump and his team can attempt to rewrite their record all they want, but it speaks for itself.
“There’s so many bad decisions ― anti-environment, anti-science decisions ― that so overwhelms any analysis of Trump’s policies with regard to energy and environment that it’s really not even a close call,” he said. “It’s a direct reflection of what happens when you literally allow fossil fuel lobbyists to run the agencies that are supposed to regulate the fossil fuel industry.”
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--Don't Call It A Garbage Patch: The Truth About Cleaning Up Ocean Plastics

In the north Pacific Ocean , four currents come together to create a huge clockwise-churning vortex that stretches from the equator up to southern Canada .
Trapped within this massive gyre is an ever-growing swell of trash known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch .
It ’ s not one island-like accumulation of debris .
Clumps of plastic bottles , abandoned fishing gear and beer crates are scattered across the expanse of ocean from Japan to California , though largely concentrated in two broad patches in the eastern and western parts of the Pacific .
Floating below the surface are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ All of it pollutes our planet .
“ On one of our voyages , we came across this field that must have had four to five thousand big white laundry detergent bottles , ” said Mary Crowly , founder and executive director of the Ocean Voyages Institute , a nonprofit that has been working for over a decade to clean up the gyre .
“ On another one of my voyages , ” she said , “ I found what I called the graveyard of ghost net fragments.
” Ghost nets are plastic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dumped overboard , often chopped up by boat propellers , and left to float in the oceans or get caught on reefs .
No one knows for sure how much plastic is in the Pacific Ocean .
There ’ s an estimated 88,000 tons of artificial debris in the eastern stretch of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch ― a 617,000-square-mile expanse between Hawaii and California first discovered in the late 1990s .
Nearly half of the waste is discarded fishing gear , in which marine animals can become fatally entangled .
But microplastics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long ― are also an increasingly significant source of the pollution .
Over time , sunshine and the water ’ s turbulence work to break down larger pieces of plastic .
Harmful chemicals leach into the water and the resulting microplastics can be mistaken by animals as food , potentially killing them .
It ’ s a monumental problem to tackle .
It would take 67 ships one year to clean up less than 1 % of the waste , according to one estimate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is growing worse .
A July report , commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts and sustainability consultancy SYSTEMIQ , warned that plastic waste in the oceans could nearly triple over the next two decades unless the world takes unprecedented action ― everything from producing less plastic to improving recycling and waste collection infrastructure to stop plastics from entering the sea .
Crowly and her team made their first trip to the garbage patch in 2009 ( although she doesn ’ t like the term “ garbage patch ” since that sounds like a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a huge area in terms of distance and a phenomenal amount of plastic garbage ” ) .
Together with six scientists , including one from the California Environmental Protection Agency , they spent a month out on the water .
The goal was to assess the situation , surveying the types and amounts of plastic out there , and test their cleanup methods .
They returned with more than 3 tons ( 6,000 pounds ) of ocean debris .
Since then , the Ocean Voyages Institute has conducted cleanup missions nearly every single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cranes and excavators are used to pull up hundreds of pounds of heavy ghost nets tossed overboard by fishing fleets .
Fishing nets are also adapted by the team to scoop up plastics ― from bleach bottles to car fenders ― floating up to 10 feet below the surface .
Smaller items like toothbrushes and children ’ s toys can be retrieved by adapting oil skimming equipment , which often sits unused until the next disaster strikes .
As for recovering microplastics , experts around the world are still trying to solve that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the plastic garbage gets a second life .
“ None of it goes back to the ocean , and we ’ re sure that none of it goes into landfills , ” said Crowly .
The coronavirus pandemic , of course , has posed its challenges ― the crew had to make sure to quarantine and get tested for COVID-19 before heading out ― and a momentary gap in funding meant they almost weren ’ t able to set out on the second voyage .
But Crowly remains optimistic .
The nonprofit aims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reach its goal of collecting a total of a million pounds of ocean trash by 2021 .
“ We are on a roll , ” she said .

In the north Pacific Ocean, four currents come together to create a huge clockwise-churning vortex that stretches from the equator up to southern Canada. Trapped within this massive gyre is an ever-growing swell of trash known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
It’s not one island-like accumulation of debris. Clumps of plastic bottles, abandoned fishing gear and beer crates are scattered across the expanse of ocean from Japan to California, though largely concentrated in two broad patches in the eastern and western parts of the Pacific. Floating below the surface are many, many microscopic plastic particles. All of it pollutes our planet.
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“On one of our voyages, we came across this field that must have had four to five thousand big white laundry detergent bottles,” said Mary Crowly, founder and executive director of the Ocean Voyages Institute, a nonprofit that has been working for over a decade to clean up the gyre.
“They were spread out over several miles of ocean and I’m sure they weren’t all dumped in the ocean together,” she told HuffPost. “The ocean has an amazing way of sorting things.”
“On another one of my voyages,” she said, “I found what I called the graveyard of ghost net fragments.” Ghost nets are plastic fishing nets that have been lost or dumped overboard, often chopped up by boat propellers, and left to float in the oceans or get caught on reefs.
The Ocean Voyages Institute has been working to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for over a decade. Jackson McMuldren/Ocean Voyages Institute
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No one knows for sure how much plastic is in the Pacific Ocean. There’s an estimated 88,000 tons of artificial debris in the eastern stretch of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch ― a 617,000-square-mile expanse between Hawaii and California first discovered in the late 1990s.
Nearly half of the waste is discarded fishing gear, in which marine animals can become fatally entangled. But microplastics ― tiny particles less than 5 millimeters long ― are also an increasingly significant source of the pollution. Over time, sunshine and the water’s turbulence work to break down larger pieces of plastic. Harmful chemicals leach into the water and the resulting microplastics can be mistaken by animals as food, potentially killing them.
It’s a monumental problem to tackle. It would take 67 ships one year to clean up less than 1% of the waste, according to one estimate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program. And the problem is growing worse. A July report, commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts and sustainability consultancy SYSTEMIQ, warned that plastic waste in the oceans could nearly triple over the next two decades unless the world takes unprecedented action ― everything from producing less plastic to improving recycling and waste collection infrastructure to stop plastics from entering the sea.
But when they do, that’s where groups like the Ocean Voyages Institute come in.
No one knows exactly how much plastic waste is floating in the Pacific Ocean. Jackson McMuldren/Ocean Voyages Institute
Crowly and her team made their first trip to the garbage patch in 2009 (although she doesn’t like the term “garbage patch” since that sounds like a small problem: “It’s a huge area in terms of distance and a phenomenal amount of plastic garbage”).
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Together with six scientists, including one from the California Environmental Protection Agency, they spent a month out on the water. The goal was to assess the situation, surveying the types and amounts of plastic out there, and test their cleanup methods. They returned with more than 3 tons (6,000 pounds) of ocean debris. Since then, the Ocean Voyages Institute has conducted cleanup missions nearly every single year.
"We are on a roll," said Mary Crowly, founder of the Ocean Voyages Institute, of their efforts to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Jackson McMuldren/Ocean Voyages Institute
While on their cleanup voyages, the nonprofit also gathers data to help them better identify, track and remove ocean waste.
Industry equipment like barges, cranes and excavators are used to pull up hundreds of pounds of heavy ghost nets tossed overboard by fishing fleets. Fishing nets are also adapted by the team to scoop up plastics ― from bleach bottles to car fenders ― floating up to 10 feet below the surface.
Smaller items like toothbrushes and children’s toys can be retrieved by adapting oil skimming equipment, which often sits unused until the next disaster strikes. As for recovering microplastics, experts around the world are still trying to solve that problem.
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Nearly half of the waste is discarded fishing gear, in which marine animals (like turtles in the photo) can become fatally entangled. Jackson McMuldren/Ocean Voyages Institute
Once back on land, the plastic garbage gets a second life. “None of it goes back to the ocean, and we’re sure that none of it goes into landfills,” said Crowly.
Instead, the debris has been become fuel to power homes in Hawaii, turned into sculptures and museum displays, remade as building materials and insulation, and transformed into bracelets, key chains and dog leashes.
Last year the nonprofit managed to collect 42 tons (84,000 pounds) of waste, Crowly said. While it can be daunting to battle a never-ending flow of fresh waste seeping into the blue, every little bit counts.
“What we brought in in 2019 really helps ocean creatures. We definitely saved the lives of some whales and dolphins and fish and turtles,” she said.
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The Ocean Voyages Institute hopes to collect one million pounds of ocean waste by 2021. Jackson McMuldren/Ocean Voyages Institute
This summer, however, was even more productive.
The team wrapped up two cleanup trips and returned to Hawaii in August with a total of 170 tons ― 340,000 pounds ― of netting and consumer plastic waste. The nonprofit claims the June journey, which collected 206,000 pounds of plastic, was the largest single open-ocean cleanup in history.
“That feels like that’s really beginning to address the issue more,” said Crowly, who coordinated matters from Hawaii, bringing together information, including from satellites, to give the boat the best shot at finding trash to collect.
The coronavirus pandemic, of course, has posed its challenges ― the crew had to make sure to quarantine and get tested for COVID-19 before heading out ― and a momentary gap in funding meant they almost weren’t able to set out on the second voyage. But Crowly remains optimistic. The nonprofit aims to collect 564,000 pounds next year to reach its goal of collecting a total of a million pounds of ocean trash by 2021. “We are on a roll,” she said.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--Tucker Carlson Claims Democrats Encourage 'Race Riots' To Increase Voter Turnout

Tucker Carlson argued without evidence Thursday that the protests and racial tension sweeping the United States this year were part of a “ nationwide fear campaign ” engineered by Democrats to spur their supporters to vote .
“ Sometimes , under extraordinary circumstances , convincing Democrats to vote requires race riots and a nationwide fear campaign , ” the Fox News host argued .
“ Unfortunately , that ’ s what we ’ re seeing right now.
” Carlson claimed that Democrats were saying things that could turn the country into “ a permanent maelstrom of angry tribalism ” to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against Trump .
There is no evidence that the Democratic Party is engineering such a fear campaign , and Carlson ignored recent events that are the real reasons for the United States ’ current turmoil .
They include the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of Black Americans such as George Floyd at the hands of police .
Nor have the protests been riots , as Carlson claimed .
The vast majority of U.S. protests between May 24 and Aug. 22 were peaceful , with only 570 out of 10,600 resulting in violence , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. Crisis Monitor , a joint effort between the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project and Princeton University ’ s Bridging Divides Initiative .
Moreover , according to a report by The New York Times , current unrest and looting in Kenosha , Wisconsin , have caused local Democrats to worry that protests might backfire and aid Trump ’ s reelection prospects .
For his part , Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned any violence at protests .
Rioting , looting and setting fires were “ lawlessness , plain and simple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Pittsburgh Monday .
Carlson himself has stirred up his own brand of “ angry tribalism.
” He accused Biden ’ s running mate , Sen. Kamala Harris ( D-Calif. ) , of denying people COVID-19 vaccines if they aren ’ t of a “ certain color.
” He warned his viewers — again , without supporting evidence — that Black Lives Matter protests will result in demographic shifts that will destroy America ’ s cities .
Carlson also criticized Biden for meeting with Jacob Blake Sr. , whose son was paralyzed from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ several times in the back by police officers in Kenosha , Wisconsin , on Aug. 23 .
Carlson pointed to Blake Sr. ’ s past anti-Semitic social media posts and accused Biden of raising him “ to a position of greater prominence in this country and greater moral authority.
” Biden met privately with the Blakes on Thursday to discuss systemic racism and police reform and to extend to “ Jacob Jr. a sense of humanity , treating him as a person worthy of consideration and prayer , ” according to a statement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ family .

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Tucker Carlson argued without evidence Thursday that the protests and racial tension sweeping the United States this year were part of a “nationwide fear campaign” engineered by Democrats to spur their supporters to vote.
“Sometimes, under extraordinary circumstances, convincing Democrats to vote requires race riots and a nationwide fear campaign,” the Fox News host argued. “Unfortunately, that’s what we’re seeing right now.”
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Carlson claimed that Democrats were saying things that could turn the country into “a permanent maelstrom of angry tribalism” to get voters riled up enough to vote against Trump.
There is no evidence that the Democratic Party is engineering such a fear campaign, and Carlson ignored recent events that are the real reasons for the United States’ current turmoil. They include the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of Black Americans such as George Floyd at the hands of police.
Nor have the protests been riots, as Carlson claimed. The vast majority of U.S. protests between May 24 and Aug. 22 were peaceful, with only 570 out of 10,600 resulting in violence, according to a report published Thursday by the U.S. Crisis Monitor, a joint effort between the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project and Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative.
Moreover, according to a report by The New York Times, current unrest and looting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, have caused local Democrats to worry that protests might backfire and aid Trump’s reelection prospects.
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For his part, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned any violence at protests. Rioting, looting and setting fires were “lawlessness, plain and simple,” Biden said in a speech in Pittsburgh Monday.
Carlson himself has stirred up his own brand of “angry tribalism.” He accused Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), of denying people COVID-19 vaccines if they aren’t of a “certain color.” He warned his viewers — again, without supporting evidence — that Black Lives Matter protests will result in demographic shifts that will destroy America’s cities.
Carlson also criticized Biden for meeting with Jacob Blake Sr., whose son was paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot several times in the back by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 23.
Carlson pointed to Blake Sr.’s past anti-Semitic social media posts and accused Biden of raising him “to a position of greater prominence in this country and greater moral authority.”
Biden met privately with the Blakes on Thursday to discuss systemic racism and police reform and to extend to “Jacob Jr. a sense of humanity, treating him as a person worthy of consideration and prayer,” according to a statement released by a lawyer for the Blake family.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--Stare At The Depths Of A Sunspot, Courtesy Of These Solar Telescope Images

The highest-resolution images of the sun taken by a European telescope revealed an uncanny and disturbingly close look at the surface of our solar system ’ s star .
The pictures were captured by GREGOR , a solar telescope located at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife , Spain , and operated by German scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics .
They offer a detailed look at the twisted structure of solar plasma , as well as sunspots — areas where the sun ’ s magnetic field is extraordinarily high and causes a spike in pressure that drops the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The GREGOR telescope began operation in 2012 and underwent a major redesign this year that was temporarily halted due to the coronavirus pandemic .
It now offers a view of details as small as 50 kilometers — or 31 miles — which is tiny relative to the sun ’ s diameter of 1.4 million kilometers , or about 870,000 miles .
“ This is as if one saw a needle on a soccer field perfectly sharp from a distance of one kilometer , ” according to a press release announcing the photos .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ also extremely challenging project , ” said Lucia Kleint , who led the GREGOR ’ s revamp , in a statement .
“ In only one year we completely redesigned the optics , mechanics and electronics to achieve the best possible image quality.
” A sunspot as seen in high resolution via the GREGOR telescope .
Similar images of the sun ’ s surface taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii were released in January , drawing reactions across social media from commentators who said that the star ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @

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The highest-resolution images of the sun taken by a European telescope revealed an uncanny and disturbingly close look at the surface of our solar system’s star.
The pictures were captured by GREGOR, a solar telescope located at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain, and operated by German scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics.
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They offer a detailed look at the twisted structure of solar plasma, as well as sunspots — areas where the sun’s magnetic field is extraordinarily high and causes a spike in pressure that drops the temperature and darkens the surrounding atmosphere.
The GREGOR telescope began operation in 2012 and underwent a major redesign this year that was temporarily halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. It now offers a view of details as small as 50 kilometers — or 31 miles — which is tiny relative to the sun’s diameter of 1.4 million kilometers, or about 870,000 miles.
“This is as if one saw a needle on a soccer field perfectly sharp from a distance of one kilometer,” according to a press release announcing the photos.
“This was a very exciting but also extremely challenging project,” said Lucia Kleint, who led the GREGOR’s revamp, in a statement. “In only one year we completely redesigned the optics, mechanics and electronics to achieve the best possible image quality.”
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A sunspot as seen in high resolution via the GREGOR telescope. KIS
An animation of a sunspot viewed via the GREGOR telescope. KIS
A high-resolution view of the sun's solar magnetic fields. KIS


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--Anita Hill Says She Will Vote For Joe Biden

Though Anita Hill still believes former Vice President Joe Biden has yet to truly apologize for his handling of her sexual harassment claims against now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas , the Brandeis University professor said Saturday that she will nonetheless vote for the Democratic presidential nominee .
“ Notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past , and the mistakes that he made in the past , notwithstanding those ― at this point , between Donald Trump and Joe Biden , I think Joe Biden is the person who should be elected in November , ” Hill told CNN .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ president , she ’ s “ more than willing to work ” with him to find solutions to the issues of sexual harassment , gender violence and gender discrimination .
“ It ’ s more about the survivors of gender violence .
That ’ s really what it ’ s about , ” she said of her vote .
Hill said last year that she ’ d be open to voting for Biden if he ended up on the presidential ballot — even though Biden ’ s actions during Thomas ’ 1991 confirmation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Biden ― who , as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , had overseen the hearings ― refused to allow testimony from several witnesses who could have corroborated Hill ’ s sexual harassment claims against Thomas .
Still , in an NBC News interview last June , Hill said she didn ’ t believe Biden ’ s handling of the Thomas hearing had “ disqualified him ” from becoming president and said he was “ perfectly capable of running ” for the role .
But Hill has maintained that Biden has never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she was treated during the hearing ― despite his insistence to the contrary .
“ An apology , to be real and sincere , has to take responsibility for harm , ” Hill told CNN .
“ He didn ’ t take responsibility .
He didn ’ t hold himself accountable in any way , except that he was sorry that I felt I wasn ’ t treated fairly , ” she continued , referring to a 2019 phone call between her and Biden , who said he ’ d apologized to her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t take ownership of his own role as chair of the committee .
”

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Though Anita Hill still believes former Vice President Joe Biden has yet to truly apologize for his handling of her sexual harassment claims against now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the Brandeis University professor said Saturday that she will nonetheless vote for the Democratic presidential nominee.
“Notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past, and the mistakes that he made in the past, notwithstanding those ― at this point, between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden is the person who should be elected in November,” Hill told CNN.
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She added that, if Biden becomes president, she’s “more than willing to work” with him to find solutions to the issues of sexual harassment, gender violence and gender discrimination.
“It’s more about the survivors of gender violence. That’s really what it’s about,” she said of her vote.
NEW: Anita Hill vows to vote for Joe Biden and will work with him on gender issues if he becomes president https://t.co/Milqx917Ja pic.twitter.com/WMwcLsH1Ax — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 5, 2020
Hill said last year that she’d be open to voting for Biden if he ended up on the presidential ballot — even though Biden’s actions during Thomas’ 1991 confirmation hearings botched her testimony against the judge.
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Biden ― who, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had overseen the hearings ― refused to allow testimony from several witnesses who could have corroborated Hill’s sexual harassment claims against Thomas.
Still, in an NBC News interview last June, Hill said she didn’t believe Biden’s handling of the Thomas hearing had “disqualified him” from becoming president and said he was “perfectly capable of running” for the role.
But Hill has maintained that Biden has never satisfactorily apologized to her for the way she was treated during the hearing ― despite his insistence to the contrary.
“An apology, to be real and sincere, has to take responsibility for harm,” Hill told CNN.
“He didn’t take responsibility. He didn’t hold himself accountable in any way, except that he was sorry that I felt I wasn’t treated fairly,” she continued, referring to a 2019 phone call between her and Biden, who said he’d apologized to her during the conversation. “He didn’t take ownership of his own role as chair of the committee.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--NY Attorney General To Form Grand Jury To Investigate Suffocation Death Of Daniel Prude

ROCHESTER , N.Y. ( AP ) — New York ’ s attorney general on Saturday moved to form a grand jury to investigate the death of Daniel Prude , a Black man who died after being hooded and held down by Rochester police earlier this year .
“ The Prude family and the Rochester community have been through great pain and anguish , ” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement about Prude ’ s death , which has sparked nightly protests and calls for reform .
She said the grand jury would be part of an “ exhaustive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his brother called for help for his erratic behavior in March has roiled New York ’ s third-largest city since video of the encounter was made public earlier this week , with protesters demanding more accountability for how it happened and legislation to change how authorities respond to mental health emergencies .
“ This is just the beginning , ” Ashley Gantt , a protest organizer , said by email after James ’ announcement .
“ We will not be stopped in our quest for truth and justice .
It is always necessary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Advocates for legislation say Prude ’ s death and the actions of seven now-suspended Rochester police officers — including one who covered the Black man ’ s head with a “ spit hood ” during the March encounter — demonstrate how police are ill-equipped to deal with people suffering mental problems .
Having police respond can be a “ recipe for disaster , ” The National Alliance on Mental Illness said in a statement Friday .
Prude ’ s death “ is yet another harrowing tragedy , but a story not unfamiliar to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ People in crisis deserve help , not handcuffs.
” Stanley Martin , an organizer of Free the People Rochester , told reporters : “ We do not need violent workers with guns to respond to mental health crises.
” Activists have marched nightly in the city of 210,000 on Lake Ontario since police body camera videos of the encounter with Prude were released by his family Wednesday .
Friday night ’ s protest resulted in 11 arrests , police said .
As they had the night before , officers doused activists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to drive them from barricades around the building .
As the night wore on , demonstrators were pushed further back , as police fired what appeared to be pepper balls .
Fireworks were shot off and a bus stop was set on fire .
Prude ’ s family has said he appeared to be spiraling into crisis in the hours before police handcuffed him on a street and pinned the naked man face down .
In the video , police are also seen covering his head with the white “ spit hood , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fluids .
“ You ’ re trying to kill me !
” the 41-year-old man is heard saying .
He died days later in what the medical examiner ruled was a homicide .

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s attorney general on Saturday moved to form a grand jury to investigate the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died after being hooded and held down by Rochester police earlier this year.
“The Prude family and the Rochester community have been through great pain and anguish,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement about Prude’s death, which has sparked nightly protests and calls for reform. She said the grand jury would be part of an “exhaustive investigation.”
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Prude’s death after his brother called for help for his erratic behavior in March has roiled New York’s third-largest city since video of the encounter was made public earlier this week, with protesters demanding more accountability for how it happened and legislation to change how authorities respond to mental health emergencies.
“This is just the beginning,” Ashley Gantt, a protest organizer, said by email after James’ announcement. “We will not be stopped in our quest for truth and justice. It is always necessary to do what’s right.”
Another protest was planned for Saturday on the street where Prude was detained.
Largely peaceful protesters demonstrating against the suffocation death of Daniel Prude marched Friday outside police headquarters in Rochester, NY — as officers doused some activists with a chemical spray & repeatedly fired an irritant to disperse crowds https://t.co/1DqBfsY5MF pic.twitter.com/iJUE0xHMdP — CBS News (@CBSNews) September 5, 2020
Advocates for legislation say Prude’s death and the actions of seven now-suspended Rochester police officers — including one who covered the Black man’s head with a “spit hood” during the March encounter — demonstrate how police are ill-equipped to deal with people suffering mental problems.
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Having police respond can be a “recipe for disaster,” The National Alliance on Mental Illness said in a statement Friday.
Prude’s death “is yet another harrowing tragedy, but a story not unfamiliar to us,” the advocacy group said. “People in crisis deserve help, not handcuffs.”
Stanley Martin, an organizer of Free the People Rochester, told reporters: “We do not need violent workers with guns to respond to mental health crises.”
Activists have marched nightly in the city of 210,000 on Lake Ontario since police body camera videos of the encounter with Prude were released by his family Wednesday.
Friday night’s protest resulted in 11 arrests, police said. As they had the night before, officers doused activists at police headquarters with a chemical spray to drive them from barricades around the building.
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As the night wore on, demonstrators were pushed further back, as police fired what appeared to be pepper balls. Fireworks were shot off and a bus stop was set on fire.
Prude’s family has said he appeared to be spiraling into crisis in the hours before police handcuffed him on a street and pinned the naked man face down. In the video, police are also seen covering his head with the white “spit hood,” designed to protect police from bodily fluids.
“You’re trying to kill me!” the 41-year-old man is heard saying. He died days later in what the medical examiner ruled was a homicide.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--Multiple Boats Sink During 'Trump Boat Parade' On Texas Lake

A parade of boats on a Texas lake intended to honor President Donald Trump threatened to turn disastrous when multiple vessels began sinking .
The “ Trump Boat Parade ” took place Saturday afternoon on Lake Travis , northwest of Austin , Texas .
Authorities began getting distress calls around 12:15 p.m. , said Kristen Dark , spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff ’ s Office .
“ During the boat parade we received multiple calls from boats that were in distress and several boats did sink , ” she said .
Trump supporters on Lake Travis , Texas .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ three to four hundred boats .
See if it make news today !
pic.twitter.com/2K1uJ8Ln3i — Linda Hawthorne ( @ l_hawth67 ) September 5 , 2020 The calls came in from “ all over the parade route ” and described situations that included a boat taking on water , a boat capsizing and a boat “ stalled and smacking on the rocks , ” Dark said .
“ It was all over the place.
” Dark did not know the exact number of boats that participated in the event overall .
“ There were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said .
“ And it ’ s a very , very large lake.
” At least four boats sank at an event promoted as a Trump Boat Parade on Lake Travis in Texas on Saturday , the authorities said .
https : //t.co/osOlxc0FPO — The New York Times ( @ nytimes ) September 5 , 2020 At least four boats sank , according to The New York Times .
Firefighters on the scene rescued people from the water , the Lake Travis Fire Fighters Association president told the Times .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The sinkings were under investigation , but law enforcement did not suspect foul play , Dark told The Associated Press .
A description of the event on Facebook told participants to “ decorate your boats in patriotic colors and fly as many Trump flags as she can handle .
Let ’ s really make a statement !
”

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A parade of boats on a Texas lake intended to honor President Donald Trump threatened to turn disastrous when multiple vessels began sinking.
The “Trump Boat Parade” took place Saturday afternoon on Lake Travis, northwest of Austin, Texas. Authorities began getting distress calls around 12:15 p.m., said Kristen Dark, spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.
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“During the boat parade we received multiple calls from boats that were in distress and several boats did sink,” she said.
Trump supporters on Lake Travis, Texas. What a site to see at least three to four hundred boats. See if it make news today! pic.twitter.com/2K1uJ8Ln3i — Linda Hawthorne (@l_hawth67) September 5, 2020
The calls came in from “all over the parade route” and described situations that included a boat taking on water, a boat capsizing and a boat “stalled and smacking on the rocks,” Dark said. “It was all over the place.”
Dark did not know the exact number of boats that participated in the event overall.
“There were a lot of boats on our lake,” she said. “And it’s a very, very large lake.”
At least four boats sank at an event promoted as a Trump Boat Parade on Lake Travis in Texas on Saturday, the authorities said. https://t.co/osOlxc0FPO — The New York Times (@nytimes) September 5, 2020
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At least four boats sank, according to The New York Times. Firefighters on the scene rescued people from the water, the Lake Travis Fire Fighters Association president told the Times. No injuries were reported as of midafternoon.
The sinkings were under investigation, but law enforcement did not suspect foul play, Dark told The Associated Press.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--Northeastern University Dismisses 11 Students For Gathering In Room Together

BOSTON ( AP ) — Northeastern University said Friday it has dismissed 11 freshman students for the fall semester for violating campus social distancing guidelines after they were discovered in the same hotel room .
The students were given 24 hours to leave the Boston campus and were ordered to undergo COVID-19 tests , the university said in a statement .
It said any who test positive would be moved into isolated wellness housing rather than sent home , to contain the spread of the coronavirus .
Northeastern said the 11 people , whose names were not released , were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ students .
It said they were among more than 800 students housed in two-person rooms at the Westin Hotel not far from the main campus .
“ Northeastern and its community of students , faculty and staff take violations of health and safety protocols very seriously , ” said Madeleine Estabrook , the university ’ s senior vice chancellor for student affairs .
“ Cooperation and compliance with public health guidelines is absolutely essential.
” The university said students in the program had been formally notified multiple times over the past week that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ avoid crowds and wear masks when around others .
Staff members discovered the 11 jammed into the hotel room Wednesday night , officials said .
They said the students would not be reimbursed for tuition and fees for the fall semester .

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BOSTON (AP) — Northeastern University said Friday it has dismissed 11 freshman students for the fall semester for violating campus social distancing guidelines after they were discovered in the same hotel room.
The students were given 24 hours to leave the Boston campus and were ordered to undergo COVID-19 tests, the university said in a statement. It said any who test positive would be moved into isolated wellness housing rather than sent home, to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
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Northeastern said the 11 people, whose names were not released, were part of an international experience for first-year students. It said they were among more than 800 students housed in two-person rooms at the Westin Hotel not far from the main campus.
“Northeastern and its community of students, faculty and staff take violations of health and safety protocols very seriously,” said Madeleine Estabrook, the university’s senior vice chancellor for student affairs. “Cooperation and compliance with public health guidelines is absolutely essential.”
The university said students in the program had been formally notified multiple times over the past week that they needed to practice physical distancing, avoid crowds and wear masks when around others.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-05--Majority Of U.S. Adults Under 30 Now Living With Parents, Study Finds

More than half of adults under 30 ( 52 % ) , or 26.6 million , are living with one or both of their parents as of July , according to a study from Pew Research Center .
That ’ s up from 47 % in February and exceeds the previous high of 48 % in 1940 , according to Census data .
It ’ s also the highest recorded level from the Census dating back to 1900 , but no data is available from the Great Depression , which likely was worse , according to Pew .
The increase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 1960s , but the coronavirus distorted that trajectory after states implemented shutdowns and companies laid off workers or moved to remote work .
But the effects could take awhile to wane .
“ For the most part , nobody wants to be living at home with mom and dad , ” said Jeremy Sopko , CEO of Nations Lending Corporation , a mortgage lender .
“ It ’ s a difficult situation that ’ s been exacerbated by the pandemic and it may take years , if not the better part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recover and be financially stable enough to leave home.
” More than half of adults under 30 ( 52 % ) , or 26.6 million , are living with one or both of their parents as of July , according to a study from Pew Research Center .
‘ Slew of factors working against the younger demographics ’ Growth was sharpest for those between 18 and 24 , which increased from 63 % living at home in February to 71 % in July .
The number of households headed by an 18- to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 12 % , between February and July 2020 .
Notably , the change is not because of college closures in the spring .
The Census data already considers unmarried students who live in campus dorms as living in the family home .
But the rapid rise in unemployment does correlate with the increase in young people living at home , according to Pew .
The percentage share of 16- to 24-year-olds who are neither in school or employed increased more than two-fold to 28 % in June from February , when it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve got a slew of factors working against the younger demographics in this country right now , ” Sopko said .
“ You have to take into account two huge factors : massive student loan debt and a lack of available work , especially in service fields , hospitality , and the travel sectors.
” Similarly , 18- to 24-year-olds had the highest unemployment rates in July than any other age groups .
The rate was 19.8 % for 18- to 19-year-olds , after spiking to 34.3 % in April .
It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for 20- to 24-year-olds , following a jump to 25.7 % in April , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .
“ The relatively large increase in non-Hispanic white young adults living with parents compared with young adults of other racial and ethnic backgrounds was unexpected , ” said Richard Fry , senior researcher of the study at Pew Research Center .
“ Earlier Pew research shows that the job losses associated with the pandemic were less severe for whites.
” Historically , white young adults were less likely to live with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hispanic young people .
But Pew found that gap has shrunk since February as white young adults moved back home at a faster rate than their Asian , Black , and Hispanic counterparts .
White Americans accounted for more than two-thirds of the increase .
The move back home could be more of a lifestyle choice during the pandemic for some young adults , rather than a financial necessity after a job loss , said Brent Cohen , executive director of Generation Progress , a research and advocacy center for young people .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , this was likely a short-term move so that they weren ’ t alone in their apartments when social distancing measures were put in place , ” Cohen said .
“ But , what was expected by many to last two to four weeks , has now extended for nearly six months.
” While all regions saw increases in young people living with their parents , the South experienced the largest jump from February to July .
Rural and metropolitan areas saw similar change in living arrangements among young adults .

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The number of young adults living with their parents hit at least an eight-decade high in July, as the pandemic’s disruption of jobs hit young generations particularly hard.
More than half of adults under 30 (52%), or 26.6 million, are living with one or both of their parents as of July, according to a study from Pew Research Center. That’s up from 47% in February and exceeds the previous high of 48% in 1940, according to Census data.
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It’s also the highest recorded level from the Census dating back to 1900, but no data is available from the Great Depression, which likely was worse, according to Pew.
The increase is part of an upward trend since the 1960s, but the coronavirus distorted that trajectory after states implemented shutdowns and companies laid off workers or moved to remote work. But the effects could take awhile to wane.
“For the most part, nobody wants to be living at home with mom and dad,” said Jeremy Sopko, CEO of Nations Lending Corporation, a mortgage lender. “It’s a difficult situation that’s been exacerbated by the pandemic and it may take years, if not the better part of a decade, for younger demographics to recover and be financially stable enough to leave home.”
More than half of adults under 30 (52%), or 26.6 million, are living with one or both of their parents as of July, according to a study from Pew Research Center. Maskot via Getty Images
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‘Slew of factors working against the younger demographics’
Growth was sharpest for those between 18 and 24, which increased from 63% living at home in February to 71% in July. The number of households headed by an 18- to 19-year-olds declined by 1.9 million, or 12%, between February and July 2020.
Notably, the change is not because of college closures in the spring. The Census data already considers unmarried students who live in campus dorms as living in the family home.
But the rapid rise in unemployment does correlate with the increase in young people living at home, according to Pew. The percentage share of 16- to 24-year-olds who are neither in school or employed increased more than two-fold to 28% in June from February, when it was 11%.
Pew Research Center
“Unfortunately you’ve got a slew of factors working against the younger demographics in this country right now,” Sopko said. “You have to take into account two huge factors: massive student loan debt and a lack of available work, especially in service fields, hospitality, and the travel sectors.”
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Similarly, 18- to 24-year-olds had the highest unemployment rates in July than any other age groups. The rate was 19.8% for 18- to 19-year-olds, after spiking to 34.3% in April. It was slightly lower at 18.3% in July for 20- to 24-year-olds, following a jump to 25.7% in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
‘Large increase in non-Hispanic white young adults’
But unemployment only explains part of the increase in living at home.
“The relatively large increase in non-Hispanic white young adults living with parents compared with young adults of other racial and ethnic backgrounds was unexpected,” said Richard Fry, senior researcher of the study at Pew Research Center. “Earlier Pew research shows that the job losses associated with the pandemic were less severe for whites.”
Historically, white young adults were less likely to live with their parents than Asian, Black and Hispanic young people. But Pew found that gap has shrunk since February as white young adults moved back home at a faster rate than their Asian, Black, and Hispanic counterparts. White Americans accounted for more than two-thirds of the increase.
The increase in those living with their parents is largest among 18- to 24-year-olds, according to Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center
The move back home could be more of a lifestyle choice during the pandemic for some young adults, rather than a financial necessity after a job loss, said Brent Cohen, executive director of Generation Progress, a research and advocacy center for young people.
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“For those who were working remotely, this was likely a short-term move so that they weren’t alone in their apartments when social distancing measures were put in place,” Cohen said. “But, what was expected by many to last two to four weeks, has now extended for nearly six months.”
While all regions saw increases in young people living with their parents, the South experienced the largest jump from February to July. Rural and metropolitan areas saw similar change in living arrangements among young adults.
“This underscores the wide reach of the pandemic geographically,” Fry said.
As the virus spreads and communities work to contain it by restricting many activities, the speed of recovery of the U.S. labor market remains uncertain, Fry said.
“It is hard to know if living with parents has peaked,” he said.
Dhara is a reporter Yahoo Money and Cashay. Follow her on Twitter at @Dsinghx.
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