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On Friday, October 2, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that he and First Lady Melania Trump had both tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, he has spent three nights in a hospital and the majority of his time quarantined at the White House. President Trump insists that he is well, that he will win the election, and that the recovery of the nations health and economy is imminent. However, many Americans have doubts about their relative safety with COVID-19 and the prospects for the nations future.

For many, the Presidents diagnosis felt like just another piece of unsettling news in a momentand in the year 2020that has felt like one shock after another. Johns Hopkins Medical Center reports that to date, there have been 214,300 deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States (U.S.) and over 7.7 million confirmed cases. Only 13 states have a rate of transmission below 1.0, meaning that in the remaining 37 states the number of new positive COVID-19 cases is actively climbing. In addition, like advertisements, social media sites, and friends will remind you, the presidential election is less than a month away.

The aftershocks of President Trumps announcement have rippled across the world. Social media and major news outlets are rife with speculation about how sick the President really is. Many are concerned by the skyrocketing number of COVID-19 cases within The White House and the political elite of the U.S. The diagnosis has also raised questions about how the line of succession works. In other words, who will fulfill the Presidents duties if President Trump is unable to if the worse is to come. Interestingly, voters may be swayed one way or the other by the news that President Trump is sick.

And President Trumps Health?

The most immediate concern centers on the Presidents health. Former presidentsnotably President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when he had polio, and President Ronald Reagan, when he was shot in an assassination attempthave hidden their infirmities while in office. Based on this presidential precedent, some people are concerned that the public will be given the most reassuring spin on the situation possible rather than be given the hard facts of President Trumps health.

Presently, what the public does know at this point is that on October 1, President Trump had a slight cough and felt fatigued. The next day he reported a high fever and flew to Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment. His doctors told the press that over the weekend his oxygen levels dropped several times, but that he got stabilized once oxygen was administered. Thus, he was able to work from inside the hospital. While at Walter Reed, President Trump was treated with commonly used steroid Dexamethasone, an emergency-approved antiviral called Remdesivir, and the experimental immunity booster Regeneron.

On October 5, President Trump tweeted that he felt better than I did 20 years ago! and returned to the White House. He made a public appearance from his balcony on October 10, and later that night, his doctor reported that he had no risk of transmission but declined to elaborate whether he had actually tested positive for COVID-19 or not.

The most recent news coming out of the White House, as of the evening of October 12, is that President Trump has tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days. Whether this means he is well or not contagious has yet to be seen. Notably, there is little public information and discourse about the First Ladys health and condition

COVID-19 infections are known to last weeks, and in some cases, they grow significantly worse after the patient has seemed to be improving. It is highly unlikely that President Trump poses no risk of transmission so soon after having been tested positive for COVID-19 and some significant symptoms. While many are discussing the potential for the President to die of COVID-19, it is much more likely that he will survive the initial illness but have lingering symptoms, and quite possibly, organ damage for the rest of his life.

The White House COVID-19 Hot Spot

In an effort to maintain an image of so-called courage and freedom despite the threat of COVID-19, President Trump and those around him have frequently gone without masks and abandoned social distancing all together. The White Houses strategy has been to rely on expensive and relatively rapid testing to keep them safe from the effects of the virus.

This week, that strategy failed. On September 29, President Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee in a public event at the Rose Garden where a few masks were seen among a group of people. Approximately 30 people who were present at the event have tested positive for COVID-19 leading Dr. Anthony Fauci to call that day a super-spreader event in a recent interview with Steven Portney.

Like dominoes falling, positive tests have been announced almost daily. President Trumps senior counselor Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19 on October 1, and ever since, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, campaign manager Bill Stepien, senior advisor for policy Stephen Miller, and his advisor Chris Christie have all tested positive.

The outbreak is now much larger than President Trumps inner circle. Republican National Convention Chair Ronna McDaniel, Republican Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Thom Tillis of South Carolina, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin all developed COVID-19 in the last two weeks. So have Admiral Charles Ray of the Coast Guard and Reverend John I. Jenkins (the President of Notre Dame University). Despite the rapid spread of COVID-19 within and around the Rose Garden, the White House will not coordinate contact tracing or halt in-person tours for potential visitors.

The Presidential Line of Succession

Although it is unlikely that President Trump will die before the election, it is important to understand what would happen in this hypothetical situation. LA Times reporter Sewall Chan took to Twitter in the hours after Trump announced his positive test result to explain the protocol for the death of a candidate to the concerned American people. According to his tweets, If either nominee dies or withdraws before the Nov. 3 election, his party@DNC or @GOPhas to designate the replacement. But whether theres enough time for that nominee to get on the ballot is up to the states. Given that 29 states have already begun mailing ballots to voters, this could be a big legal mess, tied up in state and federal courts. Nevertheless, the vacantSupreme Court seat adds to the nations uncertainty.

There is also the issue of who would retain the powers of the presidency if President Trump were to die before the election, or after the election if he is still in office? The 25th Amendment states that the Vice President becomes the acting president if the President of the U.S. is temporarily incapacitated. The Vice President becomes the President proper if the sitting President dies in office. If the Vice Presidency is vacated for whatever reason, the responsibility falls to members of the Cabinet beginning with the House of Representatives. Presently, Vice President Mike Pence is second in line followed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

The Possible Implications for the 2020 Presidential Election

With voters deeply divided into two main camps that follow wildly different news narratives, it is difficult to see how President Trumps positive test could impact the Presidential Election. By now, many have voted or had already firmly decided who they want in office.

One line of thinking suggests that President Trump will use his illness to empathize with those personally affected by COVID-19. If he can beat the virus, he can continue to downplay the threat to public health and use his own experience to anecdotally claim that COVID-19 is not a frightening or a dangerous illnesspropaganda 101. He may gain sympathetic votes from the sudden spike in nationalism that often accompanies a sick leader. In the U.S., even those who opposed President Ronald Reagan rallied around him after the attempt on his life and allowed many of his failings as a politician to get swept under the rug. More recently, the United Kingdoms Prime Minister Boris Johnson saw an increase in nationalism and nonpartisan support when he was hospitalized with COVID-19.

On the other hand, a SurveyUSA poll shows a swing in Joe Bidens favor. Voters may be persuaded to vote for a candidate who they see as more healthy and capable of leading the country. After seeing the rapid spread of the virus through the highest ranks of the Republican Party, some people may finally be convinced that the mitigation of the virus rather than an emphasis on opening the economy is the best route to keeping the U.S. government and society functioning.

Reactions from the Clark Community

In an Instagram poll I created, I asked Clark University students if they were happier or stressed to learn that the President has COVID-19. Six of the seven students who answered said they were more stressed than happy. In a follow-up poll, seven out of nine students said that they believed that this news would help Biden in the presidential election while the remaining two students said that they thought it would help President Trump. Eliza Humphrey (24), expressed that she was stressed and believed that President Trumps illness would help him gain re-election.

, Im worried about him infecting more people and also using it as a way to get sympathy, Humphrey said. People naturally feel kinda bad when others are hurt.She cited the fact that the Biden campaign strategically pulled its advertisements off the air while President Trump was in the hospital as evidence.

Humphrey concluded, Im not one to wish harm upon others, but being sick doesnt mean that Trump shouldnt be held accountableOf course, as should be stated in all such discussions, f*** Trump.

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COVID-19 Strikes the White House The Scarlet - The Scarlet

Time and again we hear that liberalism is the last bulwark against fascism. It represents a defense of the rule of law and democracy in the face of aberrant, malevolent demagogues who are intent on destroying a perfectly good system for their own gain. This apparent opposition has been deeply engrained in contemporary so-called Western liberal democracies through their shared origin myth. As every school child in the U.S. learns, for instance, liberalism defeated fascism in World War II, beating back the Nazi beast in order to establish a new international order that -- for all of its potential faults and misdeedswas built upon key democratic principles that are antithetical to fascism.

This framing of the relationship between liberalism and fascism not only presents them as complete opposites, but it also defines the very essence of the fight against fascism as the struggle for liberalism. In so doing, it forges an ideological false antagonism. For what fascism and liberalism share is their undying devotion to the capitalist world order. Although one prefers the velvet glove of hegemonic and consensual rule, and the other relies more readily on the iron fist of repressive violence, they are both intent on maintaining and developing capitalist social relations, and they have worked together throughout modern history in order to do so.

What this apparent conflict masks -- and this is its true ideological power -- is that the real, fundamental dividing line is not between two different modes of capitalist governance, but between capitalists and anti-capitalists. The long psychological warfare campaign waged under the deceptive banner of totalitarianism has done much to further dissimulate this line of demarcation by disingenuously presenting communism as a form of fascism. AsDomenico Losurdoand others have explained with great historical precision and detail, this is pure ideological pap.

Given the ways in which the current public debate on fascism tends to be framed in relationship to purported liberal resistance, there could scarcely be a timelier task than that of scrupulously re-examining the historical record of actually existing liberalism and fascism. As we shall see even in this brief overview, far from being enemies, they have been -- sometimes subtle, sometimes forthright -- partners in capitalist crime. For the sake of argument and concision, I will here focus primarily on a conjunctural account of the non-controversial cases of Italy and Germany. However, it is worth stating at the outset that the Nazi racial police state and colonial rampage -- which far surpassed Italys capabilities -- weremodeled on the United States.

Liberal Collaboration in the Rise of European Fascism

It is of the utmost importance that Western European fascism emergedwithinparliamentary democracies rather than conquering them from the outside. The fascists rose to power in Italy at a moment of severe political and economic crisis on the heels of WWI, and then later the Great Depression. This was also a time when the world had just witnessed the first successful anti-capitalist revolution in the U.S.S.R. Mussolini, who had cut his teethworking for MI5to break up the Italian peace movement during WWI, was later backed by big industrial capitalists and bankers for his anti-worker, pro-capitalist political orientation. His tactic was to work within the parliamentary system, by mobilizing powerful financial supporters to bankroll his expansive propaganda campaign while his black shirts rode roughshod over picket lines and working-class organizations. In October of 1922, magnates in the Confederation of Industry and major bank leaders provided him with the millions necessary for the March on Rome as a spectacular show of force. However, he did not seize power.

Instead, as Daniel Gurin explained in his masterful studyFascism and Big Business, Mussolini was summoned by the king on October 29and was, according to parliamentary norms, entrusted with forming a cabinet. The capitalist state turned itself over without a fight, but Mussolini was intent on forming an absolute majority in parliament with the help of the liberals. They supported his new electoral law in July 1923 and then made a joint slate with the fascists for the election on April 6, 1924. The fascists, who had only had 35 seats in parliament, gained 286 seats with the help of the liberals.

The Nazis rose to power in much the same way, by working within the parliamentary system and courting the favor of big industrial magnates and bankers. The latter provided the financial support necessary to grow the Nazi party and eventually secure the electoral victory of September 1930. Hitler would later reminisce, in a speech on October 19, 1935, on what it meant to have the material resources necessary to support 1,000 Nazi orators with their own cars, who could hold some 100,000 public meetings in the course of a year.

In the December 1932 election, the Social Democrat leaders, who were far to the left of contemporary liberals but shared their reformist agenda, refused to form an eleventh-hour coalition with the communists against Nazism. As in many other countries past and present, so in Germany,wrote Michael Parenti, the Social Democrats would sooner ally themselves with the reactionary Right than make common cause with the Reds. Prior to the election, the Communist Party candidate Ernst Thaelmann had argued that a vote for the conservative Field Marshal von Hindenburg amounted to a vote for Hitler and for war. Only weeks after Hindenburgs election, he invited Hitler to become chancellor.

Fascism in both cases came to power through bourgeois parliamentary democracy, in which big capital bankrolled the candidates who would do its bidding while also creating a populist spectacle -- a false revolution -- that marshaled or suggested mass appeal. Its conquest of power took place within this legal and constitutional framework, which secured its apparent legitimacy on the home front, as well as within the international community of bourgeois democracies.

Leon Trotsky understood this perfectly anddiagnosed what was going on at the timewith remarkable insight:

The results are at hand: bourgeois democracy transforms itself legally, pacifically, into a fascist dictatorship. The secret is simple enough: bourgeois democracy and fascist dictatorship are the instruments of one and the same class, the exploiters. It is absolutely impossible to prevent the replacement of one instrument by the other by appealing to the Constitution, the Supreme Court at Leipzig, new elections, etc. What is necessary is to mobilize the revolutionary forces of the proletariat. Constitutional fetishism brings the best aid to fascism.

Once its power was secure, however, fascism revealed its authoritarian face, transforming itself into what Trotsky referred to as a military-bureaucratic dictatorship of the Bonapartist type. It unflinchingly set aboutat a rather different pace in Italy than in Germanycompleting the task it had been hired to accomplish by crushing organized labor, eradicating opposition parties, destroying independent publications, putting a halt to elections, scapegoating and eliminating racialized underclasses, privatizing public assets, launching projects of colonial expansion and investing heavily in a war economy beneficial to its industrial supporters. In establishing the direct dictatorship of big capital, it even destroyed some of the more plebeian and populist elements in its own ranks, while crushing many confused liberals under the juggernaut of repressive class warfare.

It was not only within Italy and Germany that bourgeois democracy allowed for the rise of fascism. This was also true internationally. Capitalist states refused to form an antifascist coalition with the U.S.S.R., a country that fourteen of them had invaded and occupied from 1918 to 1920 in a failed attempt to destroy the worlds first workers republic. During the Spanish Civil War, which historians like Eric Hobsbawm have characterized as a miniature version of the great mid-century war between fascism and communism, Western liberal democracies did not officially support the left-leaning government that had been elected. Instead, they stood idly by while the Axis powers provided massive support to General Francisco Franco as he oversaw a military coup dtat.

It is highly revealing that Franco, aself-declared fascistwho is often sidelined in discussions of European fascism,understood with remarkable claritywhy the epiphenomenal characteristics of fascism would differ considerably based on the precise conjuncture: Fascism, since that is the word that is used, fascism presents, wherever it manifests itself, characteristics which are varied to the extent that countries and national temperaments vary. It was the U.S.S.R. that came to the aid of the Republicans battling fascism in Spain, sending both soldiers and materials. Franco would later return the favor, so to speak, by deploying a volunteer military force to fight godless communism alongside the Nazis. Franco would also, of course, become one of the great postwar allies of the United States in its fight against the Red Menace.

In 1934, the United Kingdom, France and Italy signed the Munich Agreement, in which they agreed to allow Hitler to invade and colonize the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The sheer reluctance of Western governments to enter into effective negotiations with the Red state,wrote Eric Hobsbawm, even in 1938-39 when the urgency of an anti-Hitler alliance was no longer denied by anyone, is only too patent. Indeed, it was the fear of being left to confront Hitler alone which eventually drove Stalin, since 1934 the unswerving champion of an alliance with the West against him, into the Stalin-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, by which he hoped to keep the U.S.S.R. out of the war. This non-aggression pact was then disingenuously presented in the Western media as an undeniable indication that the Nazis and communists were somehow allies.

International Capitalism and Fascism

It was not only large industrialists and bankers, as well as landowners, within Italy and Germany that supported and profited from the fascist rise to power. This was equally true of many of the major corporations and banks whose headquarters were in Western bourgeois democracies. Henry Ford was perhaps the most notorious example since in 1938 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle, which was the highest honor that could be bestowed upon any non-German (Mussolini had received one earlier the same year). Ford had not only funneled ample funding into the Nazi Party, he had provided it with much of its anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik ideology. Fords conviction that Communism was a completely Jewish creation, toquote James and Suzanne Pool, was shared by Hitler, and some have suggested that the latter was so close ideologically to Ford that certain passages fromMein Kampfwere directly copied from Fords anti-Semitic publication,The International Jew.

Ford was only one of the American companies invested in Germany, and many other U.S. banks, firms and investors profited handsomely from Aryanizations (the expulsion of Jews from business life and the forced transfer of their property into Aryan hands), as well as from the German rearmament program. According to Christopher Simpsonsmasterful study, a half-dozen key U.S. companies -- International Harvester, Ford, General Motors, Standard Oil of New Jersey, and du Pont -- had become deeply involved in German weapons production.

In fact, American investment in Germany sharply increased after Hitler came to power. Commerce Department reports show,writes Simpson, that U.S. investment in Germany increased some 48.5 percent between 1929 and 1940, while declining sharply everywhere else in continental Europe. The German subsidiaries of U.S. companies like Ford and General Motors, as well as several oil companies, made wide use of forced labor in concentration camps. Buchenwald, for instance, provided concentration camp labor for GMs enormous Russelsheim plant, as well as for the Ford truck plant located in Cologne, and Fords German managers made extensive use of Russian POWs for war production work (a war crime according to the Geneva Conventions).

John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who would later respectively become the Secretary of State and the head of the CIA, ran Sullivan & Cromwell, which some consider to have been the largest Wall Street law firm at the time. They played a very important role in overseeing, advising and managing global investment in Germany, which had become one of the most important international marketsparticularly for American investorsduring the second half of the 1920s. Sullivan & Cromwell worked with nearly all of the major U.S. banks, and they oversaw investments in Germany in excess of a billion dollars. They also worked with dozens of companies and governments all over the world, but John Foster Dulles,according to Simpson, clearly emphasized projects for Germany, for the military junta in Poland, and for Mussolinis fascist state in Italy. In the postwar era, Allen Dulles worked tirelessly to protect his business partners, and he was remarkably successful in securing their assets and helping them avoid prosecution.

Whereas most liberal accounts of fascism focus on its political theater and epiphenomenal eccentricities, thereby avoiding a systemic and radical analysis, it is essential to recognize that if liberalism allowed for the growth of European fascism, it is capitalism that drove this growth.

Who Defeated Fascism?

It is not surprising that the bourgeois democracies of the West were extremely slow to open the Western front, allowing their erstwhile enemy, the U.S.S.R., to be bled by the pro-capitalist Nazi war machine (whichreceived ample funding from White Russians). In fact, the day after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union,Harry Truman flatly declared: If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I dont want to see Hitler victorious in any circumstances. After the U.S. entered the war, powerful officials like Allen Dulles worked behind the scenes to try and broker a peace deal with Germany that would allow the Nazis to focus all of their attention on eradicating the U.S.S.R.

The widespread idea, at least within the U.S., that fascism was ultimately defeated by liberalism in WWII, due primarily to the U.S. intervention in the war, is a baseless canard. AsPeter Kuznick, Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton reminded listeners in a recent discussion, 80% of the Nazis who died in the war were killed on the Eastern Front with the U.S.S.R., where Germany had deployed 200 divisions (versus only 10 in the West). 27 million Soviets gave their lives fighting fascism, whereas 400,000 American soldiers died in the war (which amounts to approximately 1.5% of the Soviet death toll). It was, above all, the Red Army that defeated fascism in WWII, and it is communismnot liberalismthat constitutes the last bulwark against fascism. The historical lesson should be clear: one cannot be truly antifascist without being anti-capitalist.

The Ideology of False Antagonisms

The ideological construction of false antagonisms, in the case of liberalism and fascism, serves multiple purposes:

+ It establishes the primary front of struggle as one between rival positionswithinthe capitalist camp.

+ It channels peoples energy into fighting over the best methods for managing capitalist rule rather than abolishing it.

+ It eradicates the true lines of demarcation of global class struggle.

+ It attempts to simply take the communist option off the table (by removing it entirely from the field of struggle, or disingenuously presenting it as a form of totalitarianism).

Not unlike sporting events, which are very important ideological rituals in the contemporary world, the logic of false antagonisms amps up and overinflates all of the idiosyncratic differences and personal rivalries between two opposing teams to such an extent that the frenzied fans come to forget that they are ultimately playing the same game.

In the reactionary political culture of the U.S., which has attempted to redefine the Left as liberal, it is of the utmost importance to recognize that the primary opposition that has structured, and continues to organize, the modern world is the one between capitalism -- which is imposed and maintained through liberal ideology and institutions, as well as fascist repression, depending on the time, place and population in question -- and socialism. By replacing this opposition by the one between liberalism and fascism, the ideology of false antagonisms aims at making the fight of the century into a capitalist spectacle rather than a communist revolution.

(Gabriel Rockhillis a Franco-American philosopher, cultural critic and activist. He the founding Director of theCritical Theory Workshopand Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University. In addition to scholarly work, he has been actively engaged in extra-academic activities in the art and activist worlds, as well as a regular contributor to public intellectual debate.Follow on twitter:@GabrielRockhill). This piece was posted on CounterPumch.org.)

[[[ https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/ ]]] Art by Nick Roney. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

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Liberalism and Fascism: Partners in Crime - City Watch

Joe Biden started spouting nonsense about his background again this week. Trying to sound all man of the people, he told a rally in Ohio that he would be the first president in 80 or 90 years who did not attend one of those fancy Ivy League schools. Well no, Joe Reagan didnt go to an Ivy, nor did Carter, Nixon, Johnson, Eisenhower, Truman or Hoover. Joe also likes to claim that he is the first in his family to go to college. Its a line he famously pilfered in 1987 from a Neil Kinnock speech. It also happens to be untrue.

Three decades ago, people cared when Biden lied. Now nobody cares. Its hard to oppose, let alone revile, a man who no longer seems to have any idea of what he is saying. Biden lost contact with reality years ago; maybe we did too. On Monday, he forgot the name of Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 the senator who was a Mormon, the governor, OK? Later he declared, for the second time this year, that he was a proud Democrat running for the Senate. Pssst, Joe, its the presidency youre after the Senate was in 1973. Biden makes similar or worse gaffes almost every day on the campaign trail. Never mind hes still going to be the 46th President of the United States, unless those polls are wildly wrong again.

Americans will vote for Biden, were told, because they crave a return to normalcy after four mad years under President Donald J. Trump. But whats normal or sane about giving a somewhat demented 77-year-old the most powerful job on the planet? Leading the free world shouldnt be a retirement activity, yet nobody who has been paying attention can expect Biden to serve even one full term. Its more likely that he will end up delegating his more arduous tasks to his vice president Kamala Harris. Republican talking heads like to make out that the Kamala and the radical left will depose their frail leader as soon as possible. In July, former New Hampshire senator Judd Gregg wrote that within a few months of assuming the presidency, Biden will find himself being the next statue toppled as the socialist/progressive movement moves closer to power. The woke devils, Gregg suggested, would oust Biden by triggering the 25th Amendment, through which an incapacitated president can be removed. It will be a coup, he said.

That may be hysterical. Yet its easy to imagine Harris gradually taking over a Biden White House, as the ailing Commander-in-Chief plods about the East Wing in his slippers telling anyone wholl listen that he used to be Barack Obamas vice president back in the day. Almost nobody expects Biden, who will be 82 by inauguration day in 2025, to attempt a second term. Whats striking is quite how many Americans seem to be happy to elect such a figure so long as it means four fewer years of Donald Trump.

But Biden isnt just winning this election because people despise Trump. Hes winning because he isnt all that left-wing and hes more likable than Hillary Clinton. Lots of Americans were willing to believe that Mrs Clinton had a secret plan to turn their great country into a socialist hellhole. They just dont think Biden will do that at least not on purpose. Again, his age helps here: when he intones radical pieties about transforming America or dismantling white privilege, he sounds like a priest talking about grime music. People think he cant really mean it.

Bidens moderate instincts finely honed over four decades in Washington usually prevent him from sounding too dangerously progressive. He took too long to condemn the violent riots that began as Black Lives Matter protests, but he didnt go along with the electorally suicidal Defund the Police slogan that many in his party took as gospel over the summer. He sounds very open-minded about transgendered people, but hes skeptical about cannabis legalization. Hes a centrist granddad. Biden plans to spend an additional seven trillion dollars to address the COVID crisis. At the same time, he promises he wont raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year. Nobody quite believes his sums add up, and polls suggest Americans believe Trump would handle the economy better. Still, more than 50 percent of Americans now seem to want Biden in charge.

The idea that, under Biden, America might revert to normalcy such an odd word is not based on any faith in his leadership. Its more an assumption that, in terms of governance, Bidens America would default to its pre-Trump settings and everything might calm down. It will be back to business as usual for better and worse, is how one experienced Democratic operative put it to me this week.

Biden 2020 is in many ways the Obama restoration project. Obama-era figures are likely to dominate his future cabinet: Susan Rice, the former ambassador to the United Nations, is tipped to be his secretary of state. That aristocratic dinosaur John Kerry, who served as Obamas secretary of state, is expected to be given some big advisory role. Michle Flournoy, formerly the under secretary of defense, could be promoted to secretary of defense.

As soon as Trump became Commander-in-Chief, he gleefully set about undoing Barack Obamas proudest international achievements. Team Obama must now be salivating at the prospect of their imminent revenge. Expect the Iran Deal, which Trump tore up, to be stitched back together. A Biden-Harris administration would also, amid much fanfare, reenter the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and shove America back into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, now renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trumps more disruptive America First policies will be taken out back and strangled.

It wont just be cocktail hour at Davos, though. Unlike most machine Democrats, Team Biden has been shrewd enough to accept some of Trumps political victories and to understand that a winning presidential candidate must speak to families in rust-belt states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Thats why Bidens Build Back Better manifesto a slogan pinched from Boris Johnson includes a buy American pledge to expand federal commitments to procure goods made only in the USA. Its also why Biden has conceded that Trumps United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement is better than Bill Clintons North American Free Trade Agreement, which he supported in 1993. Trumps replacement deal includes more provisions to protect American workers and unions. Maybe old Joe isnt as dotty as he looks.

Beijing Biden as Trumpists call him will probably take a softer approach towards China than Trump, who incurred the wrath of Wall Street by demanding a more reciprocal trading relationship between America and the worlds number two superpower. After the pandemic, however, mistrust of China has spread far and wide. Future US administrations will have to stand up to Beijing far more than vice president Biden did in the first half of the 2010s. There will be no going back to the global order before Trump.

***Get a print and digital subscription toThe Spectator.Try a month free, then just $7.99 a month***

On the domestic front, if the Democrats keep the House (likely) and win the Senate (possible) on November 3, Biden could indeed be pulled hard left by the activist wing of his party. But that seems unlikely. The Democratic establishment still has enough clout and financial backing to keep the insurgents at bay.

Without the binding force of shared Trump hatred, however, a Biden-Harris administration might very quickly start to resemble the tail end of the Obama-Biden years. This week @realDonaldTrump summed up the election nicely on Twitter, as he often does. Remember, he tweeted, I wouldnt be president now had Obama and Biden properly done their job. The fact is, they were TERRIBLE!!! The trouble for the President, it seems, is that most Americans do remember. Still, they want Trump gone.

Presidential elections arent meant to be referendums on the man in the White House. The successful challenger ought to have his or her own vision for America. The last three one-term presidents were replaced by politicians with bold agendas; Hoover lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt; Carter to Reagan; and George H.W. Bush to Bill Clinton. Biden offers little beyond a geriatric rerun of the Obama administration with memory lapses instead of pretty speeches. You dont need an Ivy League degree to see thats a recipe for failure.

This article was originally published inThe Spectators UK magazine.Subscribe to the US edition here.

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If Biden wins, who will govern? - The Spectator USA

Plumbers have warned people not to use washing up liquid to clean a toilet after a cleaning hack went viral.

We've put togetherwhat you need to know about the cleaning hack - and why you shouldn't do it.

What was the hack?

Originally posted to Facebook group, Mums Who Clean, one woman explained how shed been using washing up liquid to keep her toilet clean.

She wrote, [Put] Dishwashing liquid in the toilet tank compartment and every flush is fresh, clean smelling bubbles and the toilet always looks clean.

The writer explained:I do a big squeeze about three days a week and the toilet is used all the time.

She also said how she had been doing it for years with no problems.

Why you shouldnt put dish soap in your toilet

It appears, however, that not everyone is on board with this DIY toilet hack - with other users warning against the trick.

It ruins your system, so dont do it, wrote one person, and another added, Please dont do this - the rubber/seals in your toilet cistern can break down when anything else but water is used in there.

Peter Daly, CEO of Master Plumbers, said that you should be wary of using products that arent designed to go into a toilet system.

Talking to News.com.au, Daly said:Master Plumbers advises that its safest to use cleaning products specifically designed for flush toilets. People living in outside built-up areas who are using septic tanks (rather than sewers) should ensure the product used is compatible with septic systems.

Daly also added that people should think about the environment when selecting cleaning products.

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Plumbers reveal why people shouldn't use this popular cleaning 'hack' - Gazette

Tribune News ServicePatiala, October 12

A sanitation worker died from inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning sewer lines in Rajpura town, officials said on Monday.

Officials identified the victim as Sanjeev Kumar, and said another worker, Vicky Kumar, has been admitted to a hospital.

They were cleaning sewers at Talhi Wala Chowk.

Rajupra Executive Officer Ravneet Singh said that the man was employed at the municipal council but that the civic body did not carry out sewer works (sic), which he said came under the sewerage board.

He could have been working privately but it is yet unclear. Our inspectors have been directed to find out how the man went into the sewer line, he said.

Manual scavenging continues to pose a massive challenge to the country despite a 2013 legislation called the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act (Manual Scavengers Act) banning it. The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said in its reply to a question in Parliament earlier this year that 282 people had died of asphyxiation in septic tanks and sewers across the country between 2016 and November 2019.

Critics have pointed out that the deaths are grossly underreported and could be much higher.

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Sanitation worker dies of inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning sewer lines in Patiala - The Tribune

Phosphorus pollution from farming runoff and septic and sewer systems is steadily declining in the St. Croix River, but the nutrients continue to threaten what has long been one of the cleanest waterways in the Upper Midwest.

Overall, the river is in relatively good condition, according to a study released this week by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

Bug and fish populations are thriving. Endangered freshwater mussels one of the strongest indicators of a healthy ecosystem that have been wiped out of more polluted rivers across the state are still surviving in the St. Croix. And, most importantly, nearly all of the historical wetlands and much of the forest protecting and enhancing the northern headwaters of the river are still intact.

But long reaches of the river, which runs along the Minnesota and Wisconsin border, still have too much nutrient pollution from runoff and urban development to meet health and environmental standards. Mercury levels, most likely carried in from air pollution, remain high in fish. Over the past few years the MPCA has also found evidence that PFAS, harmful forever chemicals that dont naturally degrade, have made it into every part of the river.

Phosphorus pollution, which causes toxic algae blooms that can kill off fish and make certain pools and lakes of the river unsafe to swim, gets worse as the river gets closer to the Twin Cities, according to the study.

While nutrient concentrations are still too high, they are lower than they were before the Clean Water Act was passed in the 1970s, said Pam Anderson, who manages the MPCAs surface water monitoring program.

Were seeing an improving trend, Anderson said. Wastewater treatment practices have improved, and theres been work to get better soil retention in agricultural areas to reduce runoff.

The St. Croix was added to the list of the states impaired waters more than a decade ago, largely because of excess nutrients. Still, it remains one of the cleanest and most resilient major water bodies in the region. It is being used as a refuge and incubator for young river mussels to grow and mature before they are reintroduced in other parts of the state.

Remarkably, more than 90% of the wetlands that were near the rivers headwaters before European settlement are still there, according to the MPCA.

Those wetlands act like a sponge, soaking up all the excess water from the heavy rains that have caused the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers to swell and flood in recent years, Anderson said.

The St. Croix is just not seeing those same big blowouts, she said.

The river was also one of the first in the U.S. to be designated as a National Wild and Scenic River, which allows the National Park Service to keep a quarter-mile-wide natural buffer along much of the rivers edge.

The rivers condition remains precarious, especially as more homes, businesses and farms are built within its watershed, said Deb Ryun, executive director of the St. Croix River Association. The association released a State of the River study at the same time the MPCA released its findings.

Were cautiously optimistic that well be able to keep this resource the way it has been for the last 150 years, Ryun said. We have to be diligent. It can tip really quickly.

Continued here:
St. Croix River water quality improving, phosphorus pollution remains a threat - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF), the not-for-profit arm of FMCG giant Marico, recently announced the winners for its biannual Innovation for India awards. See our interviews with Marico Chairman Harsh Mariwala and MIF head Priya Kapadia, as well as coverage of the 2018 awards edition.

Since 2006, more than 60 organisations have won MIF awards in the categories of startup, business, social, global gamechanger, and public services. This years innovation winners include Agatsa Software, Genrobotic Innovations, and Innaumation Medical Devices.

Goonj and Olympic Gold Quest were declared winners in the Global Game Changers Category. Indian School of Development Management (ISDM) won a special mention, as well as one of its pedagogies for creating social impact leaders.

Necessity is truly the mother of invention. When we faced a cardiac care emergency in our family, we realised there is no tool to recognise a heart problem quickly, said Neha Rastogi, Founder of Agatsa Software, in a chat with YourStory.

Existing methods were too cumbersome, complex, and time taking. We needed a tool to not just help in detecting the problem on time but also help in monitoring and managing the diseases, she recalls.

The Eureka moment came when she and her husband Rahul made a makeshift lab at home and started developing a simple Internet of Things (IoT)-based ECG device. It was portable and could connect to a basic smartphone.

The device integrates with the cloud and is useful for personal usage, small clinics, and in rural areas. The companys products can measure heart fitness and conditions like stress.

Neha Rastogi, Agatsa Software

A throat cancer patient who had come to us had not spoken for a very long time as he could not afford the expensive imported prosthesis available in the market. That is when I had this moment of conviction that I should be working towards making a speaking device for these patients, recalls Dr Vishal Rao, inventor of the Aum Voice Prosthesis, Innaumation Medical Devices.

Vishal and his co-founder Shashank Mahesh were of the firm belief that speech and communication are not a privilege but are everyones right. This has been the guide for me throughout this journey, he affirms.

The Bengaluru-based medical device startups award-winning innovation helps with voice restoration for throat cancer patients via affordable, affable, and accessible devices. Surgical removal of the voice box due to cancer therefore need not mean complete loss of speech.

Way back in 2016, we came across an article that led to the birth of our idea. The article was titled Braveheart Kozhikode auto driver dies after jumping into the sewer to rescue sewage workers, recalls Rashid K, Co-founder of Genrobotic Innovations, which makes robots to clean manholes.

Unfortunately, the two sewage workers also died in the reported incident. This newspaper heading shook us all and we collectively decided that we will develop a technology that completely eliminates manual scavenging from our society, Rashid affirms.

He cites shocking evidence that at least 110 workers were killed last year while cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Manual scavenging is strictly prohibited by the Supreme Court of India and is a punishable offense, Rashid adds.

To tackle this harsh reality, he founded the Thiruvananthapuram-headquartered company, which creates a robot called Bandicoot to clean manholes using computer vision and advanced robotics.

We realised there was a huge gap in learning, practicing, and understanding of development management in social purpose organisations (SPOs), explains Ravi Sreedharan, Founder, Indian School of Development Management (ISDM). Existing business and management practices have not been able to solve problems in the social development sector.

Ravi cites data, which shows India has 3.3 million Non-Profit Institutions (NPIs) employing over 18.2 million people, supported by funders, enabling organisations, the government, and businesses.

ISDM has come up with a new lens and approach to groom leaders for the development sector. The aha moment for seizing an opportunity came when we saw students from over 20 states across the country joining the first batch in 2017, Ravi recalls. Since then, more than 200 development managers have graduated.

ISDM was founded in 2016, and its Knowledge and Research Centre is working to create a Body of Knowledge for Development Management. Ravi was earlier at HSBC and former lead of the Education and Leadership Management at Azim Premji Foundation.

The founders also shared market activities, traction, and impact of their offerings.

We have sold more than 10,000 devices since launching our first beta product in 2017. It is available on all ecommerce platforms including our own webstore, says Neha Rastogi of Agatsa Software. The medical-grade devices are also used by state governments in their initiatives of improving rural health.

Having gathered huge data in our cloud databases, we are working on improving the outcomes of our products by continuously implementing our patented AI algorithms and making the devices more intelligent, she adds. Hospitals, diagnostic labs and tele-healthcare companies are integrating these services to improve judgment and diagnosis.

We have already reached out to more than 400 patients who have been able to speak with Aum Voice Prosthesis, says Vishal Rao of Innaumation Medical Devices. The company has also set up the Aum Voice Chain to help rehabilitate poor patients who cannot afford the device.

We are on a mission called #MissionRobohole, which is about converting manholes into 'Roboholes' and replacing manual labour with robots. Moreover, we are upskilling manual scavengers to become robot operators, says Rashid K of Genrobotic Innovations.

The Bandicoot robots have been deployed in 11 states with more than 40 implementations. Hundreds of manual scavengers have gone through our rehabilitation program to become robot operators and make a change to their life, Rashid proudly says.

Over the last four years, ISDM has developed a unique curriculum and pedagogy, and over 200 students have graduated across three batches since 2017, according to founder Ravi Sreedharan.

The approach resonates well with CSR groups under Hindustan Unilever Foundation, Srijan, Dasra, and Azizji Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, among others. Faculty collaborations have been formed with the IIMs, Wharton, Oxford, HBS and INSEAD.

Winners: Genrobotic Innovations (L), Innaumation Medical Devices (R)

The global COVID-19 pandemic has turned life upside down for societies and businesses around the world. But despite the challenges, resolute entrepreneurs have ploughed on.

The worldwide pandemic has been a very unfortunate event and slowed down many business activities from design to supply. The lockdowns posed manufacturing and logistic challenges, Neha Rastogi of Agatsa Software recalls.

But the company changed track to more of R&D and innovation. We shifted our focus towards understanding the need for user-friendly, portable, and connected devices during the COVID-19 pandemic, considering health concerns, social distancing, and quick screening, she explains.

The company launched a multi-parameter device, SanketLife Multi-Vital that is capable of taking blood pressure, SpO2, temperature, and ECG all with one single device.

Due to the pandemic, many cancer hospitals have been converted to COVID centres and are not seeing laryngectomy patients, according to Vishal Rao of Innaumation Medical Devices. Most of the patients are not visiting these hospitals due to the fear of contracting COVID-19. This has impacted sales negatively, he adds.

But the company has utilised this time to set up the distribution network for India, and reach out to patients and surgeons using digital media. We have used this time to develop a breathable bib made from Dupont Tyvek to help patients stay protected, Vishal adds.

Recent studies show the presence of COVID-19 RNA in sewage, and there is a risk that sewage-related activities can be the next source for spreading the virus, cautions Rashid K of Genrobotic Innovations. Medical waste from quarantine periods has also increased.

Sanitation services cannot be postponed or locked down, hence the life of sanitation workers became riskier, he adds. This became a challenge and an opportunity for his company.

I am happy to share that the Bandicoot robot is helping sanitation workers clean manholes without any direct contact with sewage. Thus, it avoids the chance of getting the virus from sewage, Rashid proudly says.

The shutdown of all educational institutes to curb the spread of COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the entire education sector of India, laments Ravi Sreedharan of ISDM. The batch this year has been the smallest, and the institute had to adopt to online activities.

However, the pandemic and the humanitarian crisis has not been able to dampen the spirit or resolve at ISDM. We see the present crisis as requiring, more than ever before, strategically equipped and trained development managers who are able to navigate challenges with critical innovations, he emphasies.

A Learning Management System (LMS) helps students access all academic and research resources without barriers. We have also strengthened our subscription to journals and resources to ensure that all learning continues for students without any interruptions, Ravi adds.

MIF has helped the winners with support and handholding in their journeys to sustain and scale ahead.

Being recognised by MIF is a very important and prestigious event in the world of startups. They also work very closely with the winners to guide and steer them through various challenges, Neha Rastogi of Agatsa Software explains.

MIF has helped in areas like digital marketing activities and factory set-up in Bengaluru, says Vishal Rao of Innaumation Medical Devices. We are certain that this will lay a strong foundation for our activities and help us scale up our operations in the near future, he adds.

MIF has given great support and guidance as well as an excellent platform to spread #MissionRobohole and help make India free of manual scavenging, according to Rashid K of Genrobotic Innovations.

We hope that being recognised for our work on the prestigious MIF platform will help open new doors for us and give us the opportunity to collaborate on building a pool of knowledge, wisdom and new ideas, adds Ravi Sreedharan of ISDM.

The award-winning founders shared tips and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, ranging from mindset to skillsets.

Everyone looking to be an entrepreneur should believe in the problem they are solving. And there are a lot of problems to be solved in our country, says Neha Rastogi of Agatsa Software.

Your own belief will compel others to believe in your idea, and thats where the magic starts. Other than that, perseverance is the key it takes time to progress and succeed, she adds.

Always keep identifying the problems and study its root cause, then get into the process of solving it. This will help you to develop the best solution for the customer, advises Rashid K of Genrobotic Innovations.

Founders should not lose focus or patience. Just put your heart and soul into the process completely, he adds. The combination of dream, passion and hard work will bring the best output.

Innovators should believe in themselves, and begin with an innovation for a single user. Markets will develop around the innovation. Leverage the power of uncommon collaborations, recommends Vishal Rao of Innaumation Medical Devices.

To all aspiring entrepreneurs, we would like to say please continue to dream enormous and audacious dreams much as we have at ISDM. We would encourage people to become social entrepreneurs, treading the balance between helping society and finding adventure in what you pursue, advises Ravi Sreedharan of ISDM.

As alumni examples, he cites those working on waste recycling and management in urban areas (HaritGriha in Meerut), helping the elderly (Grey Shades), and creating fellowships for social purpose (Kayantar Foundation).

Entrepreneurs now shoulder the responsibility equally, alongside policy makers and decision makers, to attain a syncretic relationship where each grows without impeding on the other, Ravi signs off.

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From problem to product: entrepreneur insights from winners of the Marico Innovation Foundation 2020 awards - YourStory

Mallika* returned to her parents' house earlier this year after being abused by her husband Amar*, who belongs to a higher caste, for over a month.

"He used to rape me every day. He forced a cloth into my mouth so that my screams couldn't be heard outside when he beat me. It's like he wanted to destroy my very existence," she said.

Like many women in Indias conservative areas, Mallika married her rapist. Although she filed a complaint at a local police station, the group of village elders or khap panchayat intervened to save him and forced them to marry.

After the marriage, Amar's family physically and mentally abused her, in the hope that she would die and Amar could marry again."I was on the verge of dying. They didnt give me food to eat or water to drink. They used to constantly refer to me as achoot [untouchable], because of my caste," she told DW.

Read more: Opposition calls for 'satyagraha' sit-ins following rape, murder

Mallika ran away from Amars house and filed a report alleging domestic violence and criminal intimidation, among other charges. Her case was disposed by the district court, but she is contesting the judgement. However, she is under immense pressure to retract her complaint.

"The female police officers keep telling me that I should settle the matter outside the court. They say I will lose my case as I am powerless against an upper-caste family," Mallika said. She is being supported by Manisha Mashaal, an anti-caste activist and founder of Swabhimaan Society, an NGO.

In a nutshell, the caste system is a classification of people into four groups or Varnas: the Brahmins, who are priests and teachers, are on top, followed by Kshatriyas or the warriors, the Vaishyas or the merchants and the Shudras, including groups like cobblers, butchers and so on. The last group is considered outside the caste system and comprises the so-called untouchables, who were traditionally involved in cleaning, disposing off corpses and similar work. In the past and in several parts of India today, untouchables known collectively as Dalits have been marginalized, forced to live outside villages in deplorable conditions and have little or no access to health, education and sanitation.

Mallika belongs to the Valmiki caste. In several parts of India, Valmikis engage in manual scavenging - the manual cleaning of septic tanks and sewers, and the removal of human excreta from streets and public toilets. Their dirty work is often cited as a reason for them being at the rock bottom of the caste hierarchy and makes them susceptible to discrimination from both upper castes and other Dalits, who may be slightly higher placed in the caste hierarchy.

"People of the Valmiki community are referred to as suar or 'pig' by members of upper castes, owing to the nature of their profession," Vijay Kumar, a Dalit rights activist in New Delhi explained, adding, "Most people in the Valmiki community are extremely poor, and existing caste hierarchies and discrimination impede their social upliftment.

The plight of Valmiki women has come into focus after a 19-year-old woman belonging to the community was raped in Hathras, a city in Uttar Pradesh in north India recently. Their low status makes them particularly susceptible to violence from upper caste men in villages because they go out of their homes to work, according to JP Chaudhary, a writer and commentator on Dalit rights.

"Almost 80% of India's manual scavengers are women, because gender discrimination within the Valmiki community forces women to take up work such as sweeping. They sweep homes or streets, making them vulnerable to violence from upper-caste men, as they are seen as easily available," he told DW.

For upper caste men, raping a Valmiki woman isn't just a sign of their caste privilege it also establishes power over the untouchables. "There is this feeling of entitlement among upper caste men that they can do anything to a Valmiki girl and get away with it," Dalit rights activist Vijay Kumar said.

According to activist Manisha Mashaal, women from the Valmiki community are usually missing from the mainstream narrative around gender-based violence as the voices that speak up for women are mainly upper-caste.

Read more: 'Indian government only provides a band-aid after rape'

"Caste-based violence is quite common, but it doesn't receive coverage in upper-caste dominated newsrooms. It's common for Dalit villages to be burnt down, for the cops to refuse a post-mortem for women who have been raped, for the local administration and upper caste people to suppress cases filed by Dalit people. The atrocities are immense, and the rape case in Hathras is just the tip of the iceberg," added Mashaal. Also, India's National Crime Records Bureau does not separately detail data on rapes against women belonging to specific Dalit communities, making it difficult to ascertain how many Valmiki women exactly have experienced assault.

According to Leslee Udwin, who directed India's Daughter, a documentary on the 2012 gang rape of a 23-year old woman in Delhi, violence against Valmiki women cannot be prevented by dealing with just the violence and not its cause, which is the caste system.

"Rape isn't an India-specific issue. Caste and caste-based gender violence is specific to India, she told DW, adding, If you're born as a Dalit, you can't even walk in the shadow of someone who is sacred just because they were born into an upper caste family. The rest of the world shouldn't ignore this blatant discrimination and should impose economic sanctions on India for this discriminatory practice."

Read more: India bans documentary 'India's Daughter' on rape

But even Dalits as a community are hardly homogeneous and often divided into hierarchies of upper and lower-rung castes. "Other Dalit communities also discriminate against the Valmikis. They don't even allow marriage with the Valmikis owing to the caste difference," writer-activist Chaudhary, who is a Valmiki himself, said.

Valmikis have traditionally voted for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has exploited the marginalization of the Valmikis within the Dalit community for its benefit. Valmiki support for the BJP has come into question following the rape in Hathras, but according to JP Chaudhary, the case won't make much impact, because Valmikis vote according to economic need.

"This community is very poor. They can't even afford more than one meal in a day. A day before the election, if someone pays them to vote, then they vote for that person, Chaudhary said, adding, "Valmikis can put India to a grinding halt if they choose to not work for just a week. But they can't afford to do that, as they are too poor. That's the tragedy of being a Valmiki."

*Names have been changed to protect privacy

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Gruesome rape in India's Hathras reveals the plight of lower castes - Taiwan News

The difference between a so-so stretch of grassand a truly beautiful lawn both now and next spring is two fall feedings. Fertilizing in early fall helps your lawn begin rebuilding grassroots that were damaged during the hot, dry summer. Since fall is also a great time to kill several types of lawn weeds, including clover and dandelion, you can do two jobs at once (boom!) by applying a weed and feed likeScotts Turf Builder WinterGuard Fall Weed & Feed3. If you live in the South and have a St. Augustine, zoysia, or centipedegrass lawn, use Scotts Turf Builder Southern Triple Action instead. It not only kills weeds and nourishes the lawn, but also kills and prevents fire ants. (Because, as the name implies, fire ants are never a good thing.)

Follow-up with a second fall feeding 6-8 weeks after your first fall fertilization. Scotts Turf Builder WinterGuard Fall Lawn Food gives your fall grass the nutrients it needs to store up energy for a healthy spring push, plus helps to break down mulched-up leaves.

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Fall Lawn Care Prep, including Lawn Food and Mulching Leaves

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Get out the lawn chair, because it's time to enjoysome fresh cut 'grass.

Enigmatic songsmith Sturgill Simpson releases a 20-song collection of bluegrass recordings this Friday, according to a post on the singer's Instagram page.

Called "Cuttin' Grass Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions," Simpson tracked the album with an ace bluegrass band after the ongoing global health crisis derailed his arena tour with fellow Kentucky songwriter Tyler Childers.

"Welp," Simpson wrote on Instagram, "was hoping to surprise everybody on Thursday but somebody somewhere (Germany) got all excited and just couldnt hold their horses."

The collection features 20 Simpson songsin a reimagined bluegrass flavor. Staple Simpson songs such as "Turtles All The Way Down," "Life of Sin" and "Long White White" get the 'grass cuttin' treatment.

Sturgill Simpson performs for his fans at Bonnaroo on June 13, 2015, in Manchester, Tenn.(Photo: John Partipilo / The Tennessean)

Simpson enlisted a handful of primetime Nashville players for his studio band. The lineup, per his Instagram, includedMark Howard onbanjo, Scott Vestal onbanjo, Mike Bub onbass, Sierra Hull onvocals mandolin, Tim OBrien on vocals and guitar,Miles Miller onvocals and snare and Stuart Duncan onfiddle.

David Ferguson produced the album, which Simpson and company recorded at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville.

The project follows Simpson's promise to record an album if fans raised money forNashville tornado relief, the Special Forces Foundation, the Equity Alliance and MusiCares' COVID-19 fund.

During a livestream bluegrass concert at the Ryman Auditorium earlier this year, Simpson confirmed his listeners rallied for nearly $250,000 in a week. Fans raised an additional $150,00 during the livestream event, Simpson said at the time.

In return, Simpson said he'drelease two bluegrass collections.

"These are how these songs were originally written and Idecided after climbing the ropes ofcountry music stardom and completely destroyingthat career to make a rock 'n' roll record I have great ambitions of a life ofgravel lots and Porta Potties. I'mgonna be a bluegrass musician," he said during the Ryman livestream in early June.

He continued, "That's the music in my heart and soul. That's the music I was raised on."

More: Music returns to the Ryman with a bluegrass show from Sturgill Simpson: Watch

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Sturgill Simpson's 20-song bluegrass album is coming this Friday - Tennessean