Donald Trump’s Batshit Ravings Could Return to Facebook on Wednesday

For nearly four months, a relative peace and quiet has existed on the internet. Oh sure, it’s still filled with people that the American Psychiatric Association would characterize as “crazier than a shithouse mouse,” and whom most of society regards as the King of Douchebags. But the Twitter and Facebook bans of Donald Trump have brought a kind of calm and level of serenity that was absent the four years prior, in which the leader of the free world would fire off his inane thoughts approximately 35 times a day and, on special occasions, encourage his followers to storm the Capitol. Thanks to the people at Twitter who decide such things, Trump will never, ever be allowed back on the platform, writing in one of his final tweets ever, of the violent insurrection that left five people dead and more than a hundred officers injured, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

Facebook, though, didn’t want to be too quick to rid itself of ever hearing from the guy again, apparently thinking that there was some merit to having one of the worst people on earth share his thoughts online. Instead, it decided to leave the door open and kick the decision to its “Supreme Court,” an oversight board apparently necessary when your platform is used to undermine democracy and incite literal genocide. And on Wednesday, that group will announce if it will make its temporary ban official, or welcome Trump back with open arms.

Per Politico:

The ruling, which Facebook has said will be binding, could usher in Trump’s return to the world’s biggest social network—or cut him off permanently from yet another major online platform. It will also mark the highest-profile test to date for the board, which has overturned a series of Facebook’s decisions, but not yet ruled on a case of this magnitude…. Members of the oversight board—made up of lawyers, scholars, and other outside experts appointed by Facebook—initially said they planned to rule on Trump’s case as early as possible. But the deliberations extended beyond the 90-day review period, as the board was flooded with more than 9,000 public comments on Trump’s case—dwarfing the input it had received on all prior cases combined. The board tweeted Monday that the decision will be posted on its website “on May 5, 2021 at approximately 9:00 a.m. EDT.“

And while a lot of people are likely hoping Facebook decides to keep its ban permanent, elected official on both sides of the aisle believe he should be allowed back. Last month, Representative Ro Khanna told Axios, “I’m less concerned about the fate of Donald Trump as much as I am about the precedent that this is setting for the removal and de-platforming of everyone else,” while Senator Bernie Sanders has said he is worried about a “a handful of high-tech people” holding so much power. On the right, Representative Jim Banks has said, “No corporate CEO or their ‘oversight board’ should be more powerful than the leaders you elect.” Meanwhile, former Barack Obama administration staffer and human rights executive Suzanne Nossel recently joined the board after writing an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times entitled “Banning Trump from Facebook may feel good. Here’s why it might be wrong.”

What can we expect in the event the ex-president is allowed back on the platform? Most likely, a lot of what we were hearing from him in the run-up to being kicked off, i.e. certifiably insane claims about how he actually won the election that, in reality, he lost six months ago.

Also, the kind of rambling, incoherent musings he’s been reduced to sharing at crashed Mar-a-Lago weddings.

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Andrew Cuomo throws out interesting theoretical given the whole nursing home death count coverup

In reversal, Joe Biden decides not to take Trump’s lead on refugee caps

Which is probably a good thing both from a humanitarian perspective and as a policy of never taking Trump’s lead on anything in general. Per Bloomberg:

President Joe Biden set the number of refugees who can enter the U.S. through September at 62,500, he said Monday, after facing pressure from allies who blasted his earlier abandonment of that goal…Biden has faced criticism from across the political spectrum for his handling of immigration. Republicans have said he is responsible for an influx of migrants arriving at the southern border. And liberal Democrats have said he hasn’t moved quickly enough to reverse former President Donald Trump’s policies curbing the number of refugees allowed into the U.S.

The U.S. has for decades allowed in tens of thousands of refugees each year who are fleeing persecution or war in foreign countries. Presidents have the power to set annual goals for how many to try and admit, though many years those targets are not met. Trump lowered the ceiling each year of his presidency as part of his efforts to slash both legal and illegal immigration. The cap was lowered last year to 15,000, the lowest since the Refugee Act of 1980 became law.

Also on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that families who were separated under the Trump administration’s uniquely cruel policy will start to be reunited this week. In a statement, Mayorkas said that his Family Reunification Task Force “has been working day and night, across the federal government and with counsel for the families and our foreign partners, to address the prior administration’s cruel separation of children from their parents.” Under Trump and henchman Stephen Miller, the architect of the family separation policy, more than 5,400 children were taken from their parents, according to the ACLU. As of last April, the government was still unable to locate the parents of 445 children.

Bill and Melinda are about to be single and ready to mingle

The Gates are going their separate ways:

Bill and Melinda Gates said on Monday that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage. At stake is one of the largest fortunes and one of the largest philanthropy endeavors on the planet. How the couple decides to split the fortune and whether they continue running the foundation together has billion-dollar consequences. “After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the two said in a statement posted on Twitter. “We have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.”

It’s the second bombshell split among the uppermost ranks of the world’s richest people in recent years, following the 2019 separation announcement of Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott. At stake is the world’s fourth-biggest fortune, currently valued at $145.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

According to Melinda, who recounted the story in the Netflix documentary Inside Bill’s Brain, her soon-to-be ex-husband made the decision to marry her after writing out a pro/con list on whiteboard. Pretty sexy stuff, ladies!

Elsewhere!

F.D.A. to Authorize Pfizer Vaccine for Adolescents by Early Next Week (NYT)

N.Y., N.J. and Connecticut to Let Many Businesses Fully Reopen Mid-May (NYT)

E.U. proposal would allow vaccinated American tourists by the end of June (NYT)

Australia warns its citizens of jail and $50,000 fine if they return from India (Washington Post)

Refusing the Covid Vaccine Is Legal But Could Still Cost You Your Job (Bloomberg)

Wealthy may face up to 61% tax rate on inherited wealth under Biden plan (CNBC)

Cheney doubles down on Trump criticism (CNN)

LSD, Cargo Shorts and the Fall of a High-Flying Tech CEO (Bloomberg)

Arrestee Tried To Smuggle Drugs Hidden In Prosthetic Leg Into Jail, Cops Charge (TSG)

A Grudge Match in Japan: One Corner, Two 7-Elevens (NYT)

— The Great Villain of the Financial Crisis Is Dead
— Inside the Antiracism Tug-of-War at an Elite NYC Private School
— Ivanka Trump’s Vaccine Selfie Didn’t Go Over as Planned
— The Clubhouse Party Is Over
— Will Bill Barr Spill the Beans on Donald Trump?
— Brett Kavanaugh Rules Children Deserve Life in Prison With No Chance of Parole
— With Eye-Popping Auctions, News Outlets Are Jumping on the NFT Gravy Train 
— From the Archive: Bernie Madoff’s World

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