Days after Claudia Conway, the 15-year-old daughter of Donald Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway and her husband George, expressed her devastation over her mother speaking at the Republican National Convention this week on Twitter, both Kellyanne and George announced on Sunday that they are stepping down from their high-profile political positions. Kellyanne has served as Trump’s counselor since 2017 and George is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project, a committee formed in 2019 to fight against Trump’s reelection.

Kellyanne announced her intention to leave the White House and shared her parting words on Twitter, writing in an attached statement that she would be “transitioning from the White House at the end of this month.”

“Our four children are teens and ‘tweens starting a new academic year, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months. As millions of parents nationwide know, kids ‘doing school from home’ requires a level of attention,” she stated. “This is completely my choice and my voice. In time, I will announce future plans. For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama.”

George also tweeted that he was “withdrawing” from The Lincoln Project to “to devote more time to family matters,” but that he would “continue to support the Lincoln Project and its mission. Passionately.” He also stated he would take a hiatus from Twitter.

But the Conway’s joint decision to step aside from their current roles leading up to the November election has many speculating. Author and former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson was among many to provide unsolicited advice and reasoning behind Kellyanne’s decision, claiming that this was a direct result of her daughter, Claudia’s public demand for change. “I think Claudia standing up for what she believes politically is brave & beautiful,” Williamson wrote, before suggesting that onlookers stoking division between the family are simply exploiting them.

Amidst her parents’ resigning from their jobs, Claudia also announced that she was seeking emancipation from them, citing alleged abuse. It is unclear whether her parents’ decision or the latter is her reasoning for doing so.

“Y’all, I know I said I was taking a break, but um, um, um, um,” Claudia posted in reaction to the news on TikTok with her parents’ headline announcement in the backdrop.

The 15-year-old’s Twitter and TikTok profiles, where she regularly decries Trump and her parents’ political beliefs, as well as supports the social justice causes like the Black Lives Matter movement, has earned her a significant social media following in the last few months. It’s also caused many to speculate divisions among the family, where three distinct political views are all at odds.

Neither Kellyanne nor George has spoken publicly about Claudia’s social media presence, though George has previously asked for his family’s privacy, citing that Claudia is a minor. But with all of the time the Conway family is about to have together, this could be a new beginning for the family of six, who have certainly engaged in some awkward family dinners.

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George Conway Pens Op-Ed On Trump Lies

How Kellyanne Conway's Daughter Is Trolling Trump

Kellyanne Conway Is Loudly Anti-"Big Tech"

For over 20 years, my mother woke up for work well before 7 a.m. — usually it was still dark out. When we were still kids, my sister and I woke up with her, arriving at school extra-early so that our mom could make it to the post office on time. She wore black, sensible sneakers — the kind that made it comfortable to be on her feet all day. Sometimes, she’d bring pieces of her job home with her: a white postal tote here, a catalog of clothing she could buy with her postal stipend there. And for me and my sister, Sunday morning trips to the Federal Building and Post Office in Brooklyn were considered adventures, even though they were also just a fact of our lives.

The rituals of being a mail carrier were deeply ingrained in me: five decades of my family have been employed by the USPS. My mother, grandmother, uncle, and aunt each donned the classic two-toned blue uniform, signaling that the communications of thousands of New Yorkers were safe in their hands. Even my childhood best friend’s mother and my hairdresser worked at the USPS. Because of this, I have always felt a pang of emotion every time I pass a postal employee on the street, or even saw one on television. They all reminded me of family.

But in the past few weeks, I feel like my family is hurting. The USPS has been shown on every news outlet for days on end, because it’s under attack. Now, I feel something entirely different when I see the USPS uniform: anger — and sadness. Last week, when Donald Trump admitted to intentionally trying to defund the United States Postal Service as a means of upending mail-in voting during the general election, my fury — and my family’s fear — intensified.

But the reality is, attacks on the USPS aren’t new at all. The agency has been steadily losing billions of dollars every fiscal year since 2006. The problem isn’t only that the post office has had to compete with speedier, privately funded delivery services, like UPS and FedEx, but also that fewer and fewer mailed letters are sent in the digital age. All the while, the USPS has had to maintain the costs of health benefits and pension payments for retirees, the very incentives that made working at the USPS so appealing to members of my family and countless others over the years. But still the USPS has been continued because of how many people still rely upon it.Only now, under the direction of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, it’s facing a crisis that could upend the entire institution of mail as we know it — which would be a catastrophic blow to working class people of color.

For working class families of color like mine, particularly those who rely heavily on one breadwinner, USPS jobs were a lifeline. This clearly doesn’t matter to Donald Trump, who sees the USPS as just another agency to downsize or dismantle, as if its half a million people employees don’t matter. But maybe to Trump, they don’t matter. After all, as of 2018, 41% of the USPS workforce was Black, Latinx, or Asian, and therefore don’t number among the demographics who voted for him.

My mother was a single parent, and we occasionally had periods where money was tight. During my younger years, she came home exhausted from a long day at work but didn’t even get out of her uniform until my sister and I were fed and bathed. As I grew older, my mom would often recount the daily dramas of her workplace, filling me in on how the higher-ups would often play favorites on who would get ahead. As an adult, I recognize that my mother, like so many other parents, was overworked and underpaid, all the while having to navigate office politics. I can also recognize that appointing Louis DeJoy as the postmaster general means those very practices will continue unabated.

In the years since my mother’s retirement, the problems at the USPS have only gotten worse, with the number of employees continuing to decline and the threat of salary cuts looming. As of 2019, 496,934 people are employed by the USPS, from letter carriers to service clerks to station managers. Of those nearly 500,000 employees, salaries are determined by a system of sliding variables, called pay steps and pay grades. As of February 2020, according to the American Postal Workers Union, the payment range is between $32,788 and $74,988.

But it doesn’t look like it’s the letter carriers and postal service clerks making upwards of $80,000, according to research done by the Houston Chronicle and Payscale: positions like these reap an average of $16-$18 an hour, putting them closer to the beginning or middle of that range. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms this with 2019 statistics, putting the national mean annual wage for carriers at $52,180, and $50,610 for service clerks.

Earning that amount of money is a good place to start when working a government job, but it’s nowhere to stay, especially when a household depends on you. Black people have long made up a majority of postal workers in major cities across the U.S.; they peaked at 53 and 66 percent, respectively, in Chicago and Washington, D.C. in the fifties, and remained one-fifth of the workforce in 2010 at 21%. Even as the number of postal workers have steadily dropped (there are about 250,000 fewer career postal workers now than there were 25 years ago), thanks to increased retirements and a rise in temp employees, Black people and people of color have continued to make up a large percentage of the workforce. 

For an agency that’s always had a large Black presence (as of 2018, 23% of the USPS workforce was Black), cuts to funding for the USPS, lack of pay raises and lack of opportunity to earn more money is a direct hit to Black quality of life. Black people already struggle with racism in professional settings; getting no support in a field where they play a significant part is a brutal, life-threatening hit to their wellbeing.

It’s hard not to take Trump’s attacks on the post office personally. But I also worry for all the families across the country employed by the USPS who are stuck worrying about the agency’s uncertain future and their own. That fear is driving me to vote in their, and all of our, best interests come November. And also, mail some letters to my loved ones.

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How To Vote Without Relying On A Mailbox

Poll Workers Are Scrambling To Save Our Democracy

Trump's Attack On Mail-In Voting Helps No One

Amidst a global pandemic and during a major election year in the United States, president Donald Trump has set his sights on running the United States Postal Service into the ground. Following service cuts to the USPS under the eyes of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, mailboxes are being removed from neighborhoods, packages and priority pieces of mail are late arriving to their destinations, and postal employees are losing overtime, among other intentional attacks. All the while, Trump hasn’t been shy about the fact that he has been purposefully withholding relief funds for the service.

“They want $3.5 billion for the mail-in votes. Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion — BILLION — for the post office,” Trump told Fox Business journalist Maria Bartiromo on Thursday. But last week, the president explained the real reason he is withholding any relief aid has to do with the election and his desire to impede mail in voting. “Now, if we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. They just can’t have it,” he admitted, prior to a White House press briefing where he confirmed he wouldn’t veto a relief bill that would aid the USPS.

Trump’s flip-flopping stance on whether or not he believes the USPS deserves emergency funding has made voters who were planning on relying on mail-in ballots for November’s election nervous. Service cuts are drawing out delivery times and delaying the arrival of important documents, sparking fear and worry amongst those who don’t want to risk visiting the polls during the pandemic that their ballots may not be counted during the election final tally.

While Americans continue to increase independent efforts to help save the USPS — from buying stamps en masse to signing petitions — the reality is that the American post office is under attack, and these efforts may be fraught come November. Now, many are seeking out alternate ways to safely vote without relying on a mailing system under attack. Ahead, we’ve outlined how voters can still submit ballots received by mail without relying on a mail service to return them.

Use ballot drop boxes

A reliance on drop boxes, created specifically for delivering mail-in ballots, may become more common as the days leading up to the election dwindle. California, Washington, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Hawaii, Oregon, Montana, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona are currently the only states that have drop boxes available to voters, though for states considering creating their own, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission recommends making their location public 80 days before the election, which would’ve been August 15. If drop boxes are available in your state, you can bring your filled out ballot directly there to be counted.

Deliver ballots to a local politician’s office

Voters relying on mail-in ballots have the option to drop off their ballots at their local politician’s office in some states. Voters may also be able to drop off ballots at their local polling place. Those interested can check the Board of Elections website or the Secretary of State website to see if it’s an option for them. 

Try in-person early voting

Early voting is an option around the U.S. for voters looking to avoid large crowds, no doubt including the surge of people who can still turn up to the polls in November. Voters worried about their mail-in ballots possibly getting lost prior to the big election can opt to vote early to guarantee their voices are heard. In order to check if and when early voting is available in your area, you can locate state-by-state information here, as well as contacts to local voting places.

Organize a community ballot drop

If your state offers the option for appointed groups, organizations, or individuals to return ballots on behalf of others, this could be a good solution to safely casting your ballot. This system is currently available in 26 states, where a designated person can collect and return a limited number of ballots on behalf of others deemed high-risk or unable to submit their own. You can help organize a community ballot collection in your area by checking to see if your state has this rule and organizing with neighbors or friends.

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Twitter, as it often does, had some questions for Donald Trump on Monday when “Gettysburg” began trending on the social media platform thanks to the president’s latest election-related tweet. Trump announced that the location of where he would accept the Republican Party’s nomination for his reelection was coming soon, tweeting that “We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations — The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C. We will announce the decision soon!”

The suggestion that he might host his acceptance speech at Gettysburg — the site of a literal war brought on by Confederates in the South — naturally left room for wide criticism. At Twitter’s obvious behest, many pundits pointed out how Trump’s gross choice of location speaks to his recent defense of confederate behavior (like protecting monuments and denouncing the Black Lives Matter movement), as well as just his general fascist-like conduct. The results? Well, here are some pointed criticisms:

Gettysburg would be quite the choice, given the president’s recent defense of generals from the side that lost that battle https://t.co/vKbzGaCnrU

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) August 10, 2020

He knows his side lost at Gettysburg, doesn’t he? pic.twitter.com/F3wkxIdYdu

— Jed Shugerman (@jedshug) August 10, 2020

If he gives the speech at Gettysburg he absolutely should be required by law to put on a fake beard

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 10, 2020

but gettysburg is the site of one of your base’s greatest defeats https://t.co/cqYmqvHt5b

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) August 10, 2020

While Trump’s behavior and defense of white supremacy is always shocking, it should come as little to no surprise at this point. Trump has gone to bat numerous times over the years for the preservation of the Confederate Army’s past: from threatening to veto bills seeking to rename military bases after generals like Gen. Robert E. Lee, to his long standing defense of the presence of Confederate statues around the U.S., which dates back to at least 2017. His ardent defense of the symbols and names made famous because of the Confederate Army has raised eyebrows for years considering the Confederacy was infamously pro-slavery and compiled of white supremacists. He has also championed the lives of famous Confederate generals, whether he fully has a grasp on what they stood for or not.

But tweeting that Gettysburg is in the running for where he wants to give his acceptance speech is especially ironic given that the Confederate Army lost against the Union Army during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Calling it the “Great Battlefield,” Trump is now just blatantly supporting the bigoted beliefs that mounted into the Confederate Army, and he is doing so at a time when the country is seeking justice for violence against Black people.

But some onlookers voiced more serious concerns with Trump’s possible presence at Gettysburg, given that more than 3,500 Union soldiers are buried at the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Many noted that Trump giving the speech atop their many graves is a sign of disrespect, given what the Union stood for. Others likened his possible presence as the beginnings of another Civil War.

The Republican National Convention takes place on Monday, August 24 and ends on Thursday, August 27, when Trump will make his announcement. Until then, one can only hope he picks literally anywhere that wasn’t the site of a Confederate-induced war for his acceptance speech.

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Trump Wanted His Face On Mount Rushmore. OK!

Trump Gives TikTok 45 Days To Sell To U.S. Company

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Donald Trump is nothing if not consistent: he consistently tweets deplorable things about the Black Lives Matter protests, he loves to make up facts about COVID-19 on Twitter, and he fanciest himself the greatest president of all time. OK!

How great? Well, in staying consistent with his brand, Trump believes that his face deserves a permanent fixture on one of America’s most notorious presidential monument. In a recent New York Times article, Trump and the White House were accused of asking to add new presidents’ faces to Mount Rushmore. South Dakota governor Kristi Noem revealed to the Times on Friday that a White House aide got in touch with her office in 2019 saying that Trump had questions about how he’d go about getting his own face on the famous rock.

But, Trump is never one to be made a fool — or at least, not unless it’s at his own hands. Following the news that he wanted his face donned beside Teddy Rosevelt and George Washington, a trigger-happy Trump jumped on Twitter to deny the story. “This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!” AHA — OK!

But Mount Rushmore and its legacy is already wracked with historical controversy. The Great White Men™ who “built” this country were once chosen as the faces of Mount Rushmore; however, the monument’s construction saw mass opposition from the Lakota Sioux tribe for the destruction of their honored Black Hills, and has since been a point of controversy for Native American communities and advocates alike. But of course, the president — who’s failed to lead the U.S. in a pandemic, has actively separated migrant families, and banned transgender troops from serving in the military — now (allegedly) wants to be a part of that history.

And, this isn’t even the first time Trump has sought to mount his face on The Mount. Noem said in an interview back in 2018 that, when visiting the Oval Office to meet the president, Trump casually told her “Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?” She went on to say that “I started laughing. He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.” Trump also casually, and absolutely not borderline obsessively, floated the idea of adding his face to the monument during a 2017 rally in Ohio.

Luckily for Trump (but not for the rest of us), we don’t really have to imagine what he would look like on South Dakota’s most famous stone: photos taken of the president during his visit to Mount Rushmore this past July look almost as if he could be a fifth head etched next to Abraham Lincoln. Almost. He was also presented with a four-foot mockup of Mount Rushmore with his face included, which he used to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Unfortunately, though, we are so sorry to this man, but orange isn’t a color that really works with Mouth Rushmore’s palate.

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Kellyanne Conway Is Loudly Anti-"Big Tech"

Trump's Racist Appeal To "Suburban Housewives"

Trump Gives TikTok 45 Days To Sell To U.S. Company

President Donald Trump has remained steadfast in his plan of allegedly banning TikTok in the United States since announcing the odd decision on July 31. Trump first announced his intention on axing access to the popular social media app to reporters while abroad Air Force One and has since seemed to stick by it; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has confirmed that he and Trump have been continuously discussing how to get rid of it, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has stated that the timeline for TikTok’s ban will come in “weeks, not months.” Even so, there may be hope to save the app best known for creating popular dances to Top 10 hit songs and educating Gen Z users on current politics: Microsoft has been in talks with ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based owner, to acquire the app and keep it available to U.S.-based users. “Savage Challenge” dancers, rejoice!

But, as with every silver lining, TikTok enthusiasts shouldn’t get their hopes up about keeping the app available in the U.S. just yet: Trump is reportedly only giving Microsoft 45 days to finalize acquisition talks with ByteDance for TikTok, according to Reuters. Even then, there’s no guarantee that he won’t turn around and ban the app anyway.

Trump’s sudden laser focus on banning TikTok isn’t out of the realm of the behavior the U.S. has come to know of him over the last four years; he loves to latch onto things that don’t cause harm – things that either bring joy or deal with people’s livelihoods – and make them the enemy. We know that Trump is the definition of petty and he loves to stir up controversy, drama and stress for his own reasons, which leads to the bigger question: why is he really trying to ban TikTok?

Let’s deep-dive into this mystery.

Tensions between the U.S. and China

U.S.-China tensions could very well be a driving force behind his sudden decision to put TikTok on the App store chopping block. China remains high on Trump’s running list of things and places he hates and has been vocal about; for one, an ongoing trade war between the two countries has led to an increase in tariffs on Chinese imported goods more than once. Trump has also continued to be blatantly racist when placing the blame of the coronavirus on China, like when he calls it the “kung-flu.” He’s also come right out and stated linked his proposed TikTok banning as a sort of revenge against China, telling commentator Greta Van Susteren during a recent interview that “It’s something we’re looking at, yes. It’s a big business. Look, what happened with China with this virus, what they’ve done to this country and to the entire world is disgraceful.”

TikTok teens and K-pop stans tanking his Tulsa rally

Could Trump actually still be mad over TikTok’s role in his now-famously sparsely attended June rally in Tulsa, Ok.? The commander-in-chief and his administration bragged about how many seats they would fill during the first rally of his 2020 campaign – originally planned for Juneteenth – on June 20, only to be met with a near-empty stadium on the day of the event. The mastermind culprits behind those empty seats? Teens using TikTok and K-pop stans, who got to work on the app spread the word for their peers to register for free tickets en masse for the Tusla rally, and then not show up. The Trump administration has stood their ground that they were able to confirm that TikTok teens did not play a role in the rally’s low turnout, but we know better. Trump’s ban on TikTok could be, what else, his form of revenge on those who “wronged” him and made him look foolish.

Getting young people to vote in November

Since Trump announced his plan to ban TikTok, one theory as to why has been growing in popularity: the ban may be the key to getting young people to vote in November’s presidential election. Though TikTok is used by people across all age ranges, it’s known for being an app popular among Gen Z. Many of those Gen Z users will be able to vote for the first time in this fall, and should TikTok be banned, we may see a surge of them responding to that ban at the polls. Overall, voting among young people, despite massive pushes on social media and from celebrities, is down compared to 2016, according to the Harvard Institute of Politics. While it’s still speculation, never say never on the TikTok ban being the push young voters need to make their voices heard this fall.

TikTok isn’t perfect, and so many politicians other than Donald Trump know it; last month, former Vice President and Democratice presidential nominee Joe Biden banned the app from the staffers’ work phones over data privacy concerns, and Sen. Marco Rubio called for the U.S. government to investigate TikTok over censorship concerns back in October 2019. But only time will tell why Trump has decided now was the time to dive head first into banning this particular app from the U.S.

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TikTok Ban May Come Sooner Than We Thought

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Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is doing everything in his power to stop the realities of slavery in the U.S. from being taught in schools. Cotton proposed the Saving American History Act of 2020 legislation on July 23, declaring that any school in the country that decided to incorporate The New York Times‘ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project into its curriculum should lose federal funding. Spearheaded by Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones in 2019, the ongoing project looks at the United States’ founding as 1619, when the first African slaves were brought over from their home countries, instead of 1776, considered the country’s founding year by the Founding Fathers.

“The entire premise of the New York Times’ factually, historically flawed 1619 Project…is that America is at root, a systemically racist country to the core and irredeemable,” Cotton told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on Friday, doubling down on his insistence that the realities of slavery not be taught to children. “I reject that root and branch. America is a great and noble country founded on the proposition that all mankind is created equal.” In quoting the Founding Fathers, Cotton then referred to slavery as a “necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”

The 1619 Project, which explores the timeline of American slavery, from its early days to its lasting effects though print essays, poetry, and photo essays, has been lauded since its publication last August. Hannah-Jones even won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her work. While some of its individual claims have been challenged by historians, overall it presents a necessary picture of our country as being rooted in slavery and the brutalization of Black Americans. The fact that Cotton has been bending over backwards to discredit her work and stifle the opportunity teachers have to educate students about the very real origins of the U.S. speaks volumes to his character. That character has been rightfully questioned as racist in the very recent past, thanks to Cotton’s New York Times op-ed calling for the military to take action against anti-police violence protesters and comparing Portland protesters to members of the Confederate Army.

Hannah-Jones challenged Cotton’s push to omit the truth about slavery and insults about her work, leading to a back and forth between the two on Sunday. “If chattel slavery — heritable, generational, permanent, race-based slavery where it was legal to rape, torture, and sell human beings for profit — were a ‘necessary evil’ as @TomCottonAR says, it’s hard to imagine what cannot be justified if it is a means to an end,” she tweeted in response to the news of Cotton’s proposal.

Imagine thinking a non-divisive curriculum is one that tells Black children the buying and selling of their ancestors, the rape, torture, and forced labor of their ancestors for PROFIT, was just a “necessary evil” for the creation of the “noblest” country the world has ever seen.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) July 26, 2020

So, was slavery foundational to the Union on which it was built, or nah? You heard it from @TomCottonAR himself.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) July 26, 2020

Cotton doubled down on his use of the phrase “necessary evil” being one originally said by the Founding Fathers, stating that “Describing the *views of the Founders* and how they put the evil institution on a path to extinction, a point frequently made by Lincoln, is not endorsing or justifying slavery. No surprise that the 1619 Project can’t get facts right.”

Even if he were just *quoting* the *views of the Founders*, it’s quite clear what Cotton’s intent is: To erase the teaching of a historical reality which is more necessary to examine than ever in these times of upheaval.

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Civil rights advocate Rep. John Lewis became the first Black politician to lie in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday when his body was brought to the U.S. Capitol for the final time. Lewis, who died on July 17 following a nearly eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer, was driven through Washington, D.C., as part of his procession, his casket stopping at the newly painted Black Lives Matter Plaza. Previously, it was driven through the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, where he was severely beaten during the Bloody Sunday confrontation of 1965. The resulting injury was a fractured skull.

John Lewis is carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where he helped lead a march for voting rights in 1965, for the last time.

The rose petals on the ground represent the blood spilled on Bloody Sunday. pic.twitter.com/EU0KPQo88l

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 26, 2020

Lewis’ body will lie in state on Monday and Tuesday.

Lewis, who represented Georgia’s 5th District for the last 33 years, was eulogized by politicians during a ceremony in the Rotunda on Monday, with figures including House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus in attendance. Many attendees proudly wore masks that read “Good Trouble” — which Lewis always urged those looking to make a change in the world to get into — and “vote” on them. Former VP and Democratic nominee Joe Biden announced that he will come pay his respects as well.

President Donald Trump, who once got into an argument with Lewis on Twitter, said he will not be attending the memorial services.

Lewis’ lifelong dedication to civil rights has led not only to his life’s work being publicly celebrated, but the enactment of changes within different systems. People have rallied behind the idea of renaming the aforementioned Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a known Confederate soldier and Ku Klux Klan grand dragon, after Lewis for his contributions to history. South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn and House Majority Whip announced on Monday legislation to rename the voting rights bill H.R. 4 after John Lewis. It was successfully passed by the House. Lewis’ impact will also be felt in the education system. Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, VA, was officially renamed John Lewis High School on July 23, a change that will be enacted at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year.

Lewis has been honored and mourned by politicians in the days since his death. “John Lewis once said, ‘You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe,'” Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted in remembrance on July 18, the day after Lewis’ death. “‘You have to have courage, raw courage.’ In his memory, let’s continue to speak out against injustice and have the courage to make #GoodTrouble.”

Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop reflected not only on Lewis’ life, but their five decades of friendship. “The world is a better place because John Lewis spent his life in pursuit of freedom, justice, opportunity, and peace for all of humanity,” Bishop tweeted on July 18. “[…] He inspired us as colleagues as the ‘conscience’ of the Congress and I am blessed to have called him my friend for over 52 years. To say John will be missed is an understatement.”

Florida Rep. Val Demings thought back on how hard Lewis was willing to fight for his equality in the U.S., writing in a press release that “I was in awe in the ‘60s and am still in awe today of the man who was larger than life. Mr. John Lewis was strong as a lion, yet gentle as [a] dove. He loved America and was willing to work hard and sacrifice to make it a better place. In the dark and difficult days, he reminded us to protect our inner light, maintain our hope and our spirit; that only despair can impede the cause of justice.” 

Wintley Phipps performs an emotional rendition of Amazing Grace at a ceremony honoring the life and legacy of civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. pic.twitter.com/NXELdGSANs

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) July 27, 2020

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As a deadly pandemic continues to ravage the U.S. and civil unrest grows every day, First Lady Melania Trump is making it her priority to…make over the White House Rose Garden! No wonder she is the butt of many a Marie Antoinette joke on Twitter on this Monday amid the Summer of the Pandemic in the year of our Lord 2020.

Because if there’s anything that needs to Be its absolute Best right now, it’s the hundreds of roses dotting the White House lawn.

France’s one and only headless queen — who also loved flowers and frivolity — began trending on Twitter after the FLOTUS released a statement saying that she intends to “restore and enhance” the famous White House garden to how it originally looked during President John F. Kennedy’s administration. Horticulturist Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon redesigned the Rose Garden in 1962, creating more open space for public ceremonies and introducing American species of plants.

“Preserving the history and beauty of the White House and its grounds is a testament to our nation’s commitment to the care of this landscape and our dedication to American ideals, safeguarding them for our children and their children for generations to come,” the First Lady said in a statement.

The revamped Rose Garden, according to the First Lady’s press release, will include improved accessibility according to the guidelines set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and “support for audiovisual and broadcasting needs that will allow for the continued enjoyment of the garden’s natural beauty and storied history.”

Twitter came straight for Melania’s head after news of the Rose Garden renovations broke, declaring that Marie Antoinette would totally agree that now is the absolute best time to begin this massive renovation project reportedly funded by private donations. Sure, the coronavirus may be spreading at rapid speed through hotspot states and federal agents may be violently confronting anti-police violence protesters in the streets, but won’t somebody please think of the roses?

That’s some Marie Antoinette shit right there. https://t.co/oA2UZ1r72M

— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) July 27, 2020

In Melania’s defense, a source told CNN that the Rose Garden makeover was planned well before the pandemic began. Still, particularly when this is the first we’ve heard from the mysterious First Lady in a while — her last big news was that she was seen wearing a mask — the timing seems off. This also isn’t the first time she’s undertaken a renovation project during the pandemic: Back in March, as coronavirus was beginning to spread across the U.S., Melania was hard at work spearheading the makeover of the White House Tennis Pavilion.

To the haters who questioned why she would spend her time on a tennis pavilion amid rising death rates, she tweeted, “I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative & question my work at the @WhiteHouse to take time and contribute something good & productive in their own communities,” adding her favorite hashtag #BeBest.

She might as well have said, “Let them eat cake.”  

I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative & question my work at the @WhiteHouse to take time and contribute something good & productive in their own communities. #BeBest https://t.co/03sx0rq2Nx

— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) March 7, 2020

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A man in Austin, TX, who regularly marched in Black Lives Matter demonstrations throughout the city was shot and killed while caring for his fiancée during a protest on Saturday. Garrett Foster, 28, was fatally shot three times by an unidentified shooter in a vehicle that tried turning onto a crowded street filled with protesters on Saturday night. Foster, who regularly carried an AK-47-type rifle with him while attending protests, approached the vehicle prior to being shot, according to Austin Police Chief Brian Manley and multiple witnesses.

Foster had been pushing his fiancée Whitney Mitchell’s wheelchair across the street before the car approached the crowded scene. Mitchell is a quadruple amputee and Foster has been her caregiver ever since she went into septic shock at age 19 and lost her limbs.

Last night, Garrett Foster was murdered in Austin, Texas.

Garrett was pushing his wife’s wheelchair at #BlackLivesMatter march when a man drove into the march and shot Garrett.

Rest in power, Garrett. pic.twitter.com/1YicugNE2J

— agitator in chief (@soit_goes) July 26, 2020

The shooter quickly left the scene after Foster was gunned down, Manley confirmed in a briefing on the homicide published to YouTube on Sunday. Another protester began shooting at the vehicle as it drove away, before first responders arrived to begin performing CPR on Foster. He was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center and was pronounced dead just over half an hour later.

The gunshots leading to Foster’s death were heard in a Facebook video published by journalist Hiram Gilberto. Witnesses also confirmed to various outlets that Foster had not been waving his gun when approaching the shooter’s vehicle.

Foster’s mother, Sheila Foster, recounted how dedicated her son and his fiancée had been to attending Black Lives Matter protests to Good Morning America. “They’ve been participating in these protests almost every day for the past 50 days,” she said. She said Garrett regularly carried his gun with him “because he feels really strongly about justice and he’s very heavily against police brutality, and he wanted to support his fiancée.”

Foster’s sister Anna Mayo agreed, noting to USA Today how many challenges her brother and Mitchell faced as an interracial couple. “They’ve experienced so much hate just for their relationship in general,” Mayo said. “From day one, he’s fought to end that.”

Foster and Mitchell began dating when they were 17, according to a GoFundMe for the family set up on behalf of Sheila Foster. Foster went on to become a flight mechanic in the Air Force, and was later discharged to act as Mitchell’s caregiver. The couple were well-known faces at many of Austin’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations, with Foster always pushing Mitchell’s wheelchair as they marched with their fellow protesters.

A suspect is confirmed to be in custody and is said to be cooperating with the Austin Police Department.

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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson felt the vitriol of the whole Twitterverse on Friday after making it clear during a radio interview that, not only does he not understand what age group is at risk of catching the COVID-19, he doesn’t seem to care. Parson was on the air with host Marc Cox on St Louis’ KFTK-FM and, during the discussion, the two got on the topic of schools reopening in the Fall. The governor declared that children needed to go back to attending in-person classes immediately, despite the major risk putting dozens of students, teacher, and staff together under one roof poses during the pandemic.

“These kids have got to get back to school,” Parson said. “They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctor’s offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.”

Despite Parson’s adamant declaration about schools reopening, the governor showed a real lack of concern — or understanding — of who is really at risk. Yes, younger children are asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus — they may not display any telltale signs of being infected, like the loss of taste and smell — but they can still get sick, or pass the illness to others who they come in contact with. It’s also currently unclear what kind of long term effects COVID-19 can have, especially on children who carry it.

Teachers and faculty, however, are inherently more at risk of developing dangerous COVID-19 symptoms that are passed through children in a classroom. And, those children are going home to parents and other family members that are older or potentially immunocompromised, further spreading the virus.

While there are a lot of unknown factors regarding the transmission of COVID-19 among children, we do know that coronavirus is airborne and often spreads through indoor spaces filled with large numbers of people, according to the World Health Organization report earlier this month. Current results of the spreading virus are traced back to groups who gather mostly indoors and don’t wear masks, making a school setting highly susceptible to rapid transmission.

But there are other factors we cannot ignore: Parents who have to stay home with their kids which schools are still closed are dealing with the mental and financial toll of full-time childcare while working. Some schools across the globe have managed to slowly reopen by keeping groups of students attending classes small and enforcing social distancing. It’s a move that’s up in the air for the United States, according to the New York Times, given the smaller space American schools must work with and the push to reopen schools without a proper plan.

The problem with Parson, specifically, is that he isn’t using any sound judgement regarding the transmission of COVID-19 among the most susceptible populations, or the toll on parents, as a reason to push for schools to reopen. But Parson is not alone in this confusing rhetoric: A growing list of Republican lawmakers, from President Donald Trump to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, seek to send children in the U.S. back to school (or die trying).

The ranks of right-leaning politicians who want schools to reopen without substantial reason, plan, or effort to quell coronavirus concerns is only growing. New York Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh cited parents “trying to juggle teaching their children without any sort of educational background” as a reason for reopening. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also tweeted on July 13 that “The risks in re-opening schools are not insignificant, but the costs of not doing so are extraordinary. We are going to have to be creative & flexible & do the best we can to mitigate risk. But at some point this fall kids need to be back in school.”

The timeline and decision to reopen schools is becoming highly debated, and likely will be until the Fall. What we do know, though, is that Parson is not accounting for any real solutions, and shows a willingness to let children just get sick or pass the virus around without care. Not only does it make him look foolish to suggest that children will get sick and that is totally fine, but it’s dangerous — as a political leader — to say something so cavalier without at the very least weighing out the risks.

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On Sunday morning, Portland mayor Ted Wheeler responded to President Trump’s tweet calling protestors “anarchists and agitators” by once again demanding that he back down and retreat federal officers from the city. “What’s happening here is, we have dozens, if not hundreds of federal troops descending upon our city. And what they’re doing is, they are sharply escalating the situation,” Wheeler said, calling Trump’s tactics “abhorrent.”

This reaction comes after days of federal agents in unmarked vans reportedly detaining Portland protestors en masse. Law enforcement agents without identifiable gear were deployed by the Trump administration, who believed the city was running rampant with demonstrators creating autonomous zones and continuing to protest police brutality as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“They are missing in action. We must protect Federal property, AND OUR PEOPLE. These were not merely protesters, these are the real deal!” Trump tweeted on Sunday, targeting city and state-wide leadership’s response to the protestors. Despite Trump’s assertions and deployment of federal agents, the city’s mayor — along with Oregon’s governor — have repeatedly demanded that the president stand down. “He is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government,” Gov. Kate Brown tweeted on Thursday.

But ongoing reports from Trump and the Department of Homeland Security continue to call the city “under siege,” in an effort to justify the use of tear gas and flash bangs on hundreds of protestors. Using words like “lawless anarchists” to describe the protestors, it seems Trump’s desire to eradicate this specific city’s ongoing demonstrations is both perilous and definitive. But after months of protests across the country, why is Trump targeting Portland?

Trump may be blaming Portland officials for this move, but the president has threatened to enact the use of “troops” multiple times over the course of the Black Lives Matter protests. Along with Republican leaders like Sen. Tom Cotton, who literally suggested in his New York Times op-ed that federal forces intervene in protests the way that they are doing so in Portland, the Trump administration has sought to quell protestors with force in the last 50+ days.

Since Portland is a smaller city that was seeing little intervention from local leadership, many are calling this a “trial run” for further police actions. In Esquire, Charles S. Pierce calls Portland a “dress rehearsal” for what is to come. “This is not an ‘authoritarian impulse.’ This is authoritarian government — straight, no chaser. And this administration has a powerful thirst for it.”

Others see the attack on Portland as a political move, too. Portland, though often considered a liberal city, has become more politically divided since Trump’s 2016 election. The increased presence of white supremacy groups like the Proud Boys and the Portland-based group Patriot Prayer have led to violent rallies and confrontations with local left-wing counter protesters. With clashes between anti-police brutality protests and federal agents escalating in the Pacific Northwest, many political leaders are wondering whether Trump’s deployment of the authorities is meant to stir up division ahead of the 2020 election.

Gov. Brown alluded to these thoughts in her Thursday tweet on the ongoing situation, stating that while she got in touch with Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf to remove the federal agents from Portland streets, “His response showed me he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes.”

As more tales of agents going head-to-head with protesters come out, political leaders have decried Trump and DHS’s presence in Portland. “Oregonians’ demand for answers about this occupying army and its paramilitary assaults in Portland at the direction of Donald Trump and Chad Wolf cannot be stonewalled,” said Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden. 

U.S Representative Suzanne Bonamici also described “the overly aggressive conduct of federal officers in Portland” as “alarming and unconstitutional.” But it doesn’t seem Trump has intentions to let up on Portland protestors in the near future. And at this point, it looks like the moms of Portland are taking it upon themselves to protect demonstrators from the dangerous police state.

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