New Stimulus Checks, Google Continues Telework, Television Stations Promote Conspiracy Theories

Americans could soon receive another $1200 stimulus check, CNET reported.

On Monday, Senate Republicans plan to introduce the CARES 2 bill, the successor to March’s CARES Act. Once introduced, negotiations will begin over how much money the checks will contain and who qualifies for the funding.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that he expected the checks to be distributed in August, before the Senate’s recess begins on August 7th.

“We’re prepared to move quickly,” he said.

The bill will follow the same model laid out by the original CARES Act, which Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said could speed up the process.

“If the parameters stayed the same, we could do it really quickly,” he said.

Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service has already made a Get My Payment tool for tracking stimulus checks.

Google will continue telework for another year

Google will keep its workers remote through July 2021, Axios reported.

“To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we’ll be extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

The announcement will affect almost all of the 200,000 employees of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. It could also encourage other tech companies to take similar measures.

The tech sector of the economy has been arguably the best-suited to telework because much of its work was online even before the pandemic struck the United States in late February. However, some tech jobs cannot be done remotely, such as sales and hardware work.

Television stations further conspiracy theories

Several television stations have touted debunked conspiracy theories in the last week, Axios reported.

Sinclair Broadcast Group planned on using its dozens of local affiliates to air an interview with a woman who believes that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “manufactured the coronavirus,” before pulling the segment amid pressure.

“All stations have been notified not to air this and will instead be re-airing last week’s episode in its place,” a series of tweets read. “…This documentary has been widely discredited and we as a company do not support the baseless claims that were rebutted during the original segment.”

Additionally, Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed that the conspiracy group QAnon, which once claimed that a small pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. was home to a basement pedophile sex ring, has “uncovered a lot of great stuff when it comes to Epstein and the Deep State.”

He later said that he does not believe in QAnon and does not support it.

“While discussing the double standard of big tech censorship, I mentioned the conspiracy group QAnon, which I don’t support or believe in,” he said. “My comments should not be mistaken for giving credence to this fringe platform.”

Many conservative figures, from Jesse Watters to President Donald Trump, have embraced conspiracy theories.

Last month, when New York police officers pushed a peaceful elderly protestor to the ground, where he hit his head and began bleeding, Trump accused the man of being a part of Antifa, a loosely defined term for militant anti-fascists, although no such official group exists.

“Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur… I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?” he tweeted.

The man was taken to the hospital in stable condition.