TikTok threatens legal action against Trump’s executive order, saying it sets a ‘dangerous precedent’

Published Fri, Aug 7 20206: 57 Min Ago

TikTok threatened legal action against an executive order issued by President Donald Trump that would ban the Chinese social media app from doing business with U.S. firms.

The app has been at the center of an escalating technology war between the U.S. and China. Washington had already threatened to ban TikTok in the U.S. due to national security concerns.

It said the app could allow Beijing to spy on U.S. government employees and contractors, collect personal data for blackmail, conduct corporate espionage and be used for “disinformation campaigns” that benefit the Chinese government.

TikTok has denied the allegations, and Beijing has opposed the executive orders, saying it will defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese businesses…

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/07/tiktok-threatens-legal-action-against-trumps-executive-order.html

Ohio governor says he tested negative for COVID-19 hours after announcing positive result

August 7, 2020 / 7:32 AM / CBS News

Ohio governor Mike DeWine announced Thursday morning that he had tested positive for the coronavirus — but on Thursday night, he said a second test came back negative. The reason for the discrepancy between the test results was not immediately clear.

DeWine's initial test results were reported ahead of a planned meeting with President Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. Instead of meeting with Mr. Trump, DeWine returned to Columbus and was ultimately tested for coronavirus a second time.

The Ohio governor's office said in a statement that the second test was a PCR test, which the office described as "extremely sensitive, as well as specific, for the virus." When DeWine was tested earlier in the day, an antigen test was used.

The PCR tests for both the governor and his wife were run twice, and came back negative both times, the office said.

"We feel confident in the results from Wexner Medical Center," the office said of the PCR test. "This is the same PCR test that has been used over 1.6 million times in Ohio by hospitals and labs all over the state." It did not say how often antigen tests are used in the state.

Officials will be "working with the manufacturer to have a better understanding of how the discrepancy between these two tests could have occurred," according to the statement.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-dewine-ohio-governor-covid-19-negative-test-hours-after-positive/

New Potus Twats

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump

Democrats turn up the heat on Wray over foreign campaign interference

08/07/2020

In a letter, three top senators urged the FBI director to be transparent about threats targeting Congress and the 2020 presidential election.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/07/democrats-wray-foreign-campaign-interference-392527

Biden: "Are you my son?"

They are already trying to get ahead of October Surprise blaming Barr…

Here’s why we should expect an October Surprise from Bill Barr

Published 2 hours ago

on August 7, 2020

One of the staples of presidential elections has become the so-called “October surprise.” Often occurring in the final days before an election, the targets of such a surprise are constrained from defending themselves because of the lack of time to do so. As Max Boot suggests, the Trump administration could be in the process of planning several October surprises, which would mean even more chaos in the run-up to the November election.

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In addition to what the president and his campaign have planned, Attorney General William Barr is all but promising to launch his own October surprise. As Ken Dilanian reports, the federal prosecutor Barr tasked with investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, John Durham, is nearing completion of his work. As a final step, Durham is in the process of arranging an interview with the man Barr has been targeting all along—former CIA Director John Brennan.

It is important to keep in mind that the attorney general came to a conclusion about this investigation before he was even nominated for his current position. For example, back in 2017, Barr told Peter Baker that he saw “more basis for investigating the uranium deal [ie, Hillary Clinton] than any supposed collusion between Mr. Trump and Russia.” And nearly a year before he determined that Trump had not obstructed justice during the Trump-Russia probe, Barr sent a letter to Rod Rosenstein criticizing the Mueller investigation and suggesting that it wasn’t possible for Trump to have obstructed justice.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/heres-why-should-expect-an-october-surprise-from-bill-barr/

A mask in every mailbox? California Democrats up pressure campaign in Congress

11 hrs ago

WASHINGTON — California Democrats in Congress are increasing pressure on their leaders to get all Americans to wear masks to fight the coronavirus pandemic — including by mailing them to every household.

Reps. Ro Khanna of Fremont andAdam Schiffof Burbank wrote a letter this week to House and Senate leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, asking them to include a free-masks-for-all program in a coronavirus relief package that is now the subject of intense negotiations on Capitol Hill. Khanna and Schiff have proposed similar bills to distribute free masks through the Postal Service.

They held a live talk Wednesday night on Instagram to promote their efforts, acknowledging they face a tall task but expressing some optimism their provisions could make it into a legislative deal.

And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been pushing for legislation to make federal coronavirus relief funds to states contingent on whether they have imposed requirements to wear masks in public. She has written a letter to Senate leaders Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., calling for such a provision, and she wrote an opinion piece asking for a national mask mandate.

Khanna has teamed up with Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to propose mailing three masks to every American, along with creating free distribution sites in communities. The bill would set aside $5 billion for the effort. It’s a small sum in relation to the more than $3 trillion in relief Democrats are seeking, but Republicans are fighting to pass a slimmed-down bill for less than one-third of that price tag.

Schiff’s bill would direct the Health and Human Services Department to establish a program that would mail free masks to Americans who ask for them, without putting an appropriations figure behind it….

Moar: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-mask-in-every-mailbox-california-democrats-up-pressure-campaign-in-congress/ar-BB17EjOq

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Civil liberties groups accuse Adam Schiff of protecting unauthorized FBI surveillance of citizens==

Eleven civil liberties groups wrote a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate expressing concerns that Rep. Adam Schiff may be protecting an expired FBI surveillance tactic.

They accused Schiff of allowing a section of the Patriot Act that permitted “unauthorized dragnet surveillance of people in the United States" to continue after the provision expired in March during the congressional debate on the future of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants. The letter was first obtained by Gizmodo.

The groups said that Schiff, a California Democrat, and former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican, both made "alarming statements and actions” signaling their support for the online surveillance program to continue without authorization from Congress.

“Throughout the 2020 debate in Congress about whether and how to reauthorize these authorities, activity by the House and Senate intelligence committees has spurred critical questions as to what surveillance of people in the United States occurred under Section 215 [of the Patriot Act] and may still be occurring despite the sunset of these authorities, on the basis of secret claims of inherent executive power or through the misuse of other authorities,” the groups stated in the letter.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/civil-liberties-groups-accuse-adam-schiff-of-protecting-unauthorized-fbi-surveillance-of-citizens