New top story from Time: Donald Trump and Trump Biden Square Off for First Debate

https://ift.tt/3kQSmpA

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are facing off on the debate stage during one of the most turbulent periods in modern American history. A viral pandemic has killed 200,000 Americans and pummeled the economy, racial justice protests continue in towns and cities, and vast fires wreak environmental disaster across the American West. Adding to the national sense of foreboding, Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses the election and is using his bully pulpit to sow distrust in the voting process and spread false allegations that voting by mail—a safe alternative for many during the pandemic—will lead to rampant voter fraud. (It won’t.)

There’s a lot to debate.

While the head-to-head is an opportunity for both candidates to convince Americans that they are the right person to lead the country through this tumultuous time, it’s also a moment for voters to see the two men’s styles set side by side, in stark relief. The President is trailing Biden in national polls, but the race is close in battleground states Trump would need to win to get to 270 electoral votes.

Trump will try to deflect questions about his taxes

Tonight’s debate comes on the heels of explosive revelations in the New York Times laying out long-awaited details about Trump’s personal finances that tarnish his image as a successful business mogul, including that he paid little to no federal taxes for most of the last two decades and that he has massive debts coming due soon.

Even if the debate moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace, doesn’t explicitly ask about the fairness of Trump’s tax avoidance, you can bet Biden will bring it up. Trump has dismissed the report as “totally fake news” and is likely to fall back on the same defenses he used in 2016: that he intends to release his financial details once they’re no longer under audit (the IRS has repeatedly said there’s nothing preventing him from doing so) and that paying less in taxes just makes him a smart businessman.

Trump will try to paint Biden as the standard bearer of an old order and make the case that only Trump can engineer an economic rebound from the pandemic. He’s repeatedly called Biden “sleepy” and led a conservative media push attacking Biden’s age (Biden is 77; Trump is 74) and implying he’s not mentally up to the job. There are few more transparent windows into mental acuity than a debate stage.

Biden won’t miss the chance to slam Trump on taxes — but he won’t linger long

For his part, Biden all but bought a billboard across from the debate site to headline what at least part of his strategy would be. Just ahead of the candidates’ arrivals on stage at the Cleveland Clinic, Biden’s campaign released tax returns for 2019, showing an almost $300,000 tax bill on combined Joe and Jill Biden adjusted gross income of $985,233. The disclosure is now the twenty-second year of tax returns made available to the public from Biden — and a clear taunt to Trump, who is notoriously thin-skinned when it comes to questions about his claims of wealth.

But Biden’s advisers are also keenly aware that the trio of chaotic through-lines to this election have had far greater effects on voters than the extent of Trump’s tax planning. Biden is expected to have his fun casting doubts on Trump’s legitimate success and telling voters they can’t trust someone who doesn’t pay his fair share, but he’s not going to linger. After all, the debate team is very familiar with how Hillary Clinton tried to make Trump’s tax dodges an issue in 2016 and then-candidate Trump’s reply of so what? inoculate him.

More pressing? The coronavirus death toll has now topped 200,000 Americans and Biden’s team has seen that stunning reality does far more to help their chances than anything that can be said about tax loopholes.

Comments

Muni Drivers Prove the Perfect Muse for this San Francisco Artist

Muni Drivers Prove the Perfect Muse for this San Francisco Artist By Jonathan Streeter Muni has long been an enjoyable part of artist Kurt Schwartzmann's life, riding the bus to work, to school and as a sightseer. Kurt — utilizing his monthly pass — has ridden countless trains and buses and befriended several operators. Taking the time to learn their names and stories, Kurt envisions both the reality and the dream of navigating a bus through San Francisco streets. Pointing to an image he created (see above photo far right), Kurt noted, "I drew an escape hatch for this driver, so he could get away when he needed a break." In fact, Kurt’s website " Yellow Line Art ," is named in honor of the demarcation at vehicle entrances behind which passengers are asked to stand. "Conversation welcome but cannot interfere with safe operation of the bus," has real meaning for Kurt, who sees the yellow line not a...

FOX NEWS: Teacher catches mother bear and cub playing on school playground Even bears like to play.

Teacher catches mother bear and cub playing on school playground Even bears like to play. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3ATd0he

Van Ness Improvement Project Nears Completion

Van Ness Improvement Project Nears Completion By Nehama Rogozen After years of planning and construction, work on the Van Ness Improvement Project is progressing rapidly and the end is in sight! Construction is projected to be finished by the end of this year, with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service running on Van Ness Avenue from Mission to Lombard beginning in early 2022. Work on the red transit lanes between Broadway and Pacific is almost complete. Crews have been busy on Van Ness Avenue. You may have noticed them building new medians and sidewalks, paving the roadway and installing poles that provide lighting and power to the BRT system. Most recently they have installed the red lanes that will allow buses to move Muni and Golden Gate Transit riders quickly along the corridor, without getting stuck in traffic. To ensure durability and reduce fading, these red transit lanes are made from poured red concrete, as opposed to red paint or thermoplastic on top of concrete. We are als...

New top story from Time: Russia Is Murdering the Kremlin’s Biggest Critic in Plain Sight. Who Will Save Alexei Navalny?

https://ift.tt/2PgkHLS “If you saw me now—maybe you would have a good laugh,” Alexei Navalny wrote on Facebook April 20. “Look at him! A skeleton walking, wobbling around his prison cell. In his hands he is holding his court ruling, rolled up in a tube. With that tube he fervently swings away at mosquitoes covering the walls and the ceiling of his cell. Those buzzing stinging monsters can finish up a man faster than any hunger strike.” The tone is characteristic of the world’s most famous political prisoner: comic stoicism in the face of approaching death combined with a Gogolian fascination for all the absurdities and trivialities still imposed by a cruel Russian system responsible for its arrival. Navalny has been starving himself for three weeks. It is a feeble protest, perhaps, against being an involuntary guest of a 21st century gulag, but at least it is wholly his own. For someone who eight months ago was almost killed with a weapon of mass destruction (Novichok),...

New top story from Time: These Are the Best Fantasy TV Show Adaptations to Watch Now

https://ift.tt/3eQcVRN Netflix’s Shadow and Bone , which dropped on April 23, marks yet another hit fantasy book series getting inducted into the TV adaptation circuit—or rather, two series in one, as the new show creates one cohesive narrative out of storylines from Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy and the first book in her Six of Crows duology. The series, starring newcomers Jessie Mei Li, Archie Renaux and Freddy Carter, flies by over the course of eight episodes of magic, espionage, violence and romance—in other words, all of the necessary ingredients to satisfy a fantasy fan. The good news for fans is that TV adaptations of fantasy series have become essential television in recent years, with more en route. (Look out for Amazon’s future Lord of the Rings show.) While we wait for season two of Shadow and Bone , however, here are the best fantasy TV show adaptations you can watch right now. Game of Thrones It’s been 10 whole years since Game of Thrones p...

New top story from Time: I Left Poverty After Writing ‘Maid.’ But Poverty Never Left Me

https://ift.tt/3kXte3r I signed my first book contract without paying much attention to what it said. I didn’t know at the time that the book would be a best seller or that it would one day inspire a Netflix series . I just needed the money. I was a single mom with a 2-year-old and a 9-year-old, living in low-income housing, and because of a late paycheck, I hadn’t eaten much for a few weeks, subsisting on pizza I paid for with a check I knew would bounce. This wasn’t my first bout of hunger. I had been on food stamps and several other kinds of government assistance since finding out I was pregnant with my older child. My life as a mother had been one of skipping meals, always saving the “good” food, like fresh fruit, for the kids I told myself deserved it more than I did. The apartment was my saving grace. Housing security, after being homeless and forced to move more than a dozen times, was what I needed the most. Hunger I was O.K. with, but the fear of losing the home wher...

New top story from Time: “It’s Not Just About Shots.” Judith McKenna, Walmart International CEO, Talks Vaccination Rollout

https://ift.tt/3w38j2i (Miss this week’s Leadership Brief? This interview below was delivered to the inbox of Leadership Brief subscribers on Sunday morning, March 28; to receive weekly emails of conversations with the world’s top CEOs and business decisionmakers, click here .) Doug McMillon ‘s last job before the CEO slot at Walmart was running its international division. That position is currently held by Judith McKenna. It’s a really big job. McKenna, as CEO of Walmart International, is responsible for 5,141 stores in 23 countries—from Costa Rica to India to China—staffed by nearly 550,000 employees. In addition, she is responsible for Walmart’s global sourcing operation, arranging for the purchase and delivery of the goods that contributed to Walmart’s $ 559 billion in revenue last year. In a recent video conversation from her office at Walmart’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, McKenna discussed Walmart’s vaccination efforts and the country with the fastest delive...

New Express Service Comes to the 1 California

New Express Service Comes to the 1 California By Melissa Culross Newly painted Muni flag stop indicating the pilot 1X California Express Beginning February 21, 2023, a pilot program will offer express bus service on the new 1X California Express between the Richmond neighborhood and the Financial District. The SFMTA plays a significant role in San Francisco’s economic recovery, and this pilot that serves downtown is part of that. We have been working on improving travel time and reliability over the last several years. Travel times are now 11% quicker on the 1 California thanks to new transit lanes on California, Clay and Sacramento streets. But our work is not done on the corridor! The new 1X California express will provide another option for riders to zoom from the inner Richmond into and out of downtown even faster. We also expect this service to ease crowding on the 1 California as more people head back to the office. Three morning 1X California Express buses will ...

New top story from Time: Watch TIME’s Exclusive Footage of NASA’s Most Powerful Rocket Ever Under Construction

https://ift.tt/3xqnVOf Rockets are built slowly—slowly and exceedingly carefully—which is in keeping with giant machines on which humans stake their lives and nations stake their prestige. In NASA’s cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, America’s next great moon rocket—the Space Launch System (SLS)—is being constructed with all that in mind. It is here too that TIME set up half a dozen cameras over the course of two months, capturing 3 million images for a time-lapse video that makes it possible to compress those months of work into just a few kinetic minutes. Under the eyes of the cameras, the rocket’s twin solid-fuel boosters came together—each of them 177 feet tall, weighing 1.6 million pounds and generating 3.6 million pounds (1.6 million kg) of thrust. Twenty-five percent taller than the solid boosters on the space shuttle, the twin engines are made of five separate segments, compared to the shuttle’s four. When they are completed, they will be attached ...

New top story from Time: 11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know

https://ift.tt/330kaRq More than 30 years after President George H.W. Bush signed a law that designated May 1990 as the first Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month , much of Asian American history remains unknown to many Americans—including many Asian Americans themselves. Often the Asian-American history taught in classrooms is limited to a few milestones like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the incarceration of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and that abridged version rarely includes the nearly 50 other ethnic groups that make up the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group in the U.S. in the first two decades of the 21st century . To many, the resulting lack of awareness was highlighted after the March 16 Atlanta spa shootings that left six women of Asian descent dead. The killings fit into a larger trend of violence against Asians failing to be seen or charged as a hate crime , even as leaders lamented that “racist attacks [are]… no...

My precise view

Search This Blog