Stranger Than Fiction

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• GOP, After Delay, Tees Up Virus Bill “After days of disagreements between the White House and GOP lawmakers, Republicans are set to release their proposal for the next coronavirus relief bill on Monday, with millions of Americans on the verge of losing expanded unemployment benefits.”

• Coronavirus Is Back With a Vengeance in Places Where It Had All but Vanished “Hong Kong, Japan and Australia have all reported new highs for daily infections, showing how difficult it can be to keep Covid-19 at bay—even in places lauded for taking early and decisive action.”

• Biden Tax Plan Targets Profitable Companies Paying Almost Nothing “Profitable companies could no longer use legal breaks to drive their U.S. tax bills almost to zero under Joe Biden’s proposal to increase and overhaul corporate taxes.”

• Cities in Bind as Turmoil Spreads Far Beyond Portland “The U.S. government exercised extensive authority in Portland, Ore., a city that has made it clear it opposes the presence of federal agents. New protests in other cities are creating a dilemma for local leaders who had succeeded in easing some of the turbulence in their streets.”

WHAT I’M READING + WATCHING + LISTENING TO

• 🎧 LISTEN: Radio Rental

• John Lewis makes final crossing over Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma “Fifty-five years ago, Alabama state troopers beat Lewis and hundreds of protesters as they crossed the bridge. On Sunday, law enforcement paid tribute to the late civil rights leader.”

• "A better life isn’t one that steers clear of the most pain, managing to arrive at the end with the eulogy, He had it easy, or She was the least scathed person I know." - Heather Lanier

• Security firm Area 1 finds six local election officials, in tiny localities, using vulnerable versions of email software that the NSA linked to GRU attacks back in May.

THE COMMENT

“I’ve been really struck by how much the federal government scrambled to save the airlines — “Oh, wouldn’t it be terrible for our economy if we lost all our airlines?” I guess it wouldn’t be great. But how terrible would it be for our economy if we lost all our child care and our schools? That would be way worse than losing our airlines! That would leave not only the current working generation unable to go back to work in the same way, it would mean that we are not preparing the next generation so that they have skills. I mean, it is so substantially worse than losing your airlines. And yet we gave less money to the entire child care sector than we gave to one single airline, Delta. I don’t mean to pick on Delta, but it seems crazy that we care more about saving Delta Airlines than we do about the entire child care industry. Child care is one of those issues where we still really think it’s a personal problem: ‘You made the choice to have those little rugrats. You deal with them.’ Compare that with elder care. We recognized it was a social issue. We built a series of nursing homes and institutional care, and we have societal grants to cover some of that through Medicaid. But with child care, we’ve said this isn’t a social issue. And I think the pandemic has revealed that it is a social issue.” - Betsey Stevenson

THE STRANGEST

• Man fined for pretending to be a ghost in Portsmouth cemetery

THE AV ROOM