Category: Current Events

“COVID-19 has sounded a death knell for malls in B, C, and D markets that were struggling to survive before the pandemic struck, according to a new report from Coresight Research.”

“…up to 25,000 stores will close by the end of 2020 and that more than half of those closures will happen in malls. Within five years, this trend will spell an end for as many as 300 of the 1,200 malls currently in operation in the United States, the report said.”

Article (https://chainstoreage.com/report-25-us-malls-will-be-gone-within-next-five-years)

Source (with the less alarmist title “US Mall Closures: Impact of Covid-19 Likely To Accelerate Mall Consolidation”) (https://coresight.com/research/us-mall-closures-impact-of-covid-19-likely-to-accelerate-mall-consolidation)

“Satellite image of Aug. 18, 2020, appears to show a Chinese submarine using an underground base on Hainan Island on the South China Sea.”

(https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/21/asia/china-submarine-underground-base-satellite-photo-intl-hnk-scli/index.html)

(https://www.ft.com/content/d37179bf-5269-496b-a2fc-2d6aace4ad59)

(https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article243817017.html)

“The theft of top-secret computer hacking tools from the CIA in 2016 was the result of a workplace culture in which the agency’s elite computer hackers “prioritized building cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own systems,” according to an internal report prepared for then-director Mike Pompeo as well as his deputy, Gina Haspel, now the director.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/elite-cia-unit-that-developed-hacking-tools-failed-to-secure-its-own-systems-allowing-massive-leak-an-internal-report-found/2020/06/15/502e3456-ae9d-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html)

“Why do working-class white men—the most reliable component of Donald Trump’s base—support someone who is, by their own standards, the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency?”

“the question is why so many of Trump’s working-class white male voters refuse to hold Trump to their own standards of masculinity—why they support a man who behaves more like a little boy.”

“Is Trump a man your father and grandfather would have respected?”

“Trump behaves in ways that many working-class men would ridicule: “He wears bronzer, loves gold and gossip, is obsessed with his physical appearance, whines constantly, can’t control his emotions, watches daytime television, enjoys parades and interior decorating, and used to sell perfume.”

“Trump’s lack of masculinity is about maturity. He is not manly because he is not a man. He is a boy.”

“Trump is a hero to a culture in which so many men are already trapped in perpetual adolescence. And especially for men who feel like life might have passed them by, whose fondest memories are rooted somewhere in their own personal Wonder Years from elementary school until high-school graduation, Trump is a walking permission slip to shrug off the responsibilities of manhood.”

“so many of the men who support Trump have morphed into childish caricatures of themselves. They, too, are little boys, playing at being tough but crying about their victimization at the hands of liberal elites if they are subjected to criticism of any kind.”

(https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/donald-trump-the-most-unmanly-president/612031/)

Monday, May 18, 2020:

“Trump Says He’s Taking Hydroxychloroquine, Prompting Warning From Health Experts”

“His announcement drew immediate criticism from a range of medical experts, who warned not just of the dangers it posed for the president’s health but also of the example it set.”

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/us/politics/trump-hydroxychloroquine-covid-coronavirus.html)

Tuesday, May 19, 2020:

“FDA appears to soften stance on hydroxychloroquine after Trump says he takes malaria drug”

“However, in a warning issued last month, the FDA advised consumers against taking drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 outside a hospital or formal clinical trial due to the risk of “serious heart rhythm problems.”

(https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/fda-appears-to-soften-stance-on-hydroxychloroquine-after-trump-says-he-takes-malaria-drug.html)

Sunday, May 24, 2020:

“Trump said he has finished taking his regimen of hydroxychloroquine, a controversial drug he has promoted as a treatment for the coronavirus despite warnings from his own U.S. Food and Drug Administration and medical professionals about its effectiveness and potentially dangerous side effects.”

“Finished, just finished,” Trump said in an interview … which aired Sunday.”

(https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/24/coronavirus-trump-says-he-finished-taking-hydroxychloroquine/5253492002/)

Monday, May 25, 2020:

“WHO pauses trial of hydroxychloroquine, once touted by Trump as a ‘game changer,’ over safety concerns”

“For months, President Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for covid-19, calling the antimalarial drug a “game changer”; asking patients, “What do you have to lose?” — and even announcing that he was taking the drug in an attempt to ward off the novel coronavirus.”

“On Monday, however, the World Health Organization announced it had temporarily halted its global trial of the drug, citing a new study that found a significantly higher risk of death among those taking hydroxychloroquine or the closely related drug chloroquine.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/26/hydroxychloroquine-who-trump-study/)