The Commentariat -- Sept. 15, 2020

Afternoon Update:

An Extraordinary Endorsement. Denise Chow of NBC News: "Scientific American has endorsed Joe Biden for president, the first time the venerable science magazine has backed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. The endorsement was published in Scientific American's October issue, in which the magazine's editors explained their reasons for publicly supporting Biden, adding that they 'do not do this lightly.' They said they were motivated to endorse Biden after seeing how science has been ignored and politicized by ... Donald Trump and his administration.... The editors said Trump's failure to develop a national strategy to fight the pandemic helped accelerate the spread of the disease across the country and his misrepresentations of the facts have done even more damage. 'His lies encouraged people to engage in risky behavior, spreading the virus further, and have driven wedges between Americans who take the threat seriously and those who believe Trump's falsehoods,' they wrote.... Though much of Biden's [environmental & climate] plan would require approval from Congress, the magazine's editors said the candidate 'is acutely aware that we must heed the abundant research showing ways to recover from our present crises and successfully cope with future challenges.'"

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Posts' live updates for Tuesday are here: "Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer called for Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to resign, saying that his department has 'become subservient to the president's daily whims' and that Azar, the nation's top health official, has been 'almost entirely silent about the chaos and mismanagement in his own agency.' In a floor speech Tuesday, Schumer (D-N.Y.) added: 'We need a secretary of health and human services who will look out for the American people, not President Trump's political interests.'" Mrs. McC: Why, whatevah could Chuck mean? ~~~

~~~ Adam Cancryn & Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar led an escalating pressure campaign against his own Food and Drug Administration this spring and summer, urging the agency to abandon its responsibility for ensuring the safety and accuracy of a range of coronavirus tests as the pandemic raged. Then in late August, Azar took matters into his own hands. Overriding objections from FDA chief Stephen Hahn, Azar revoked the agency's ability to check the quality of tests developed by individual labs for their own use, according to seven current and former administration officials with knowledge of the decision.... At some points the dispute was so intense that it boiled over into screaming matches between Azar and Hahn, four of the sources said.... Azar's decision is the latest example of Trump administration appointees overruling experts at public health agencies. It comes at a particularly perilous time for the FDA, which is struggling to balance ... Donald Trump's push for a coronavirus vaccine by Election Day with public fears that the agency will rubber stamp an ineffective or even dangerous shot." ~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Everything is going very smoothly. Azar, a graduate of Ken Starr's Institute of the Independent Counsel, is a former top pharmaceuticals lobbyist & executive. He is not a medical doctor. His Wikipage should make you cringe -- and perhaps make you even more leery of a coronavirus shot you know has been "approved" by Azar & Trump. ~~~

~~~ Shadows on the Ceiling, Ctd. Adam Cancryn, et al., of Politico: "The health department's top spokesperson Michael Caputo called an emergency staff meeting on Tuesday to apologize for drawing negative attention to the Trump administration's health care strategy and signaled that he might be soon departing his role, according to five people with knowledge of the meeting.... Caputo told staffers that his series of false accusations on Facebook Live this weekend -- which included unfounded allegations that the Centers for Disease Control was harboring a 'resistance unit' -- reflected poorly on HHS' communications office. He blamed his recent behavior on a combination of physical health issues and the toll of fielding death threats against his family. Caputo also acknowledged that he had never read one of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, despite his team's ongoing efforts to try to edit those documents. Caputo told staff that he is scheduled to meet with HHS Secretary Alex Azar later Tuesday, the people with knowledge of the meeting said.... Donald Trump -- a close ally of Caputo who helped install him as HHS' communication head this year -- is also expected to be involved in any decision about Caputo's next steps." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC: IOW, Azar can't fire Caputo, once Roger Stone's man, unless Donald says so.

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that the House will stay in session until a new economic relief deal is reached, facing pressure from Democratic lawmakers over Congress' failure to address the ongoing fallout from the health care crisis as the election looms.... The House is scheduled to adjourn on Oct. 2 until after the election. Bipartisan talks on a new relief measure collapsed last month and have not been revived, leading to speculation that Congress and the administration will be unable to reach a bipartisan accord before Election Day.... The stock market has mostly recovered its losses from March, however, and President Trump has suggested he thinks a robust recovery is [already] underway."

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether President Trump's former national security adviser John R. Bolton unlawfully disclosed classified information when he published a memoir this summer, a case that the department opened after it failed to stop the book's publication this summer, according to three people familiar with the matter. The department has convened a grand jury, which issued a subpoena for communications records from Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Mr. Bolton's memoir, 'The Room Where It Happened.' In the book, Mr. Bolton delivered a highly unflattering account of his 17 months working in the Trump administration.... Mr. Trump has made clear that he wants his former aide prosecuted. He said on Twitter that Mr. Bolton 'broke the law' and 'should be in jail, money seized, for disseminating, for profit, highly Classified information.' He has also called Mr. Bolton 'a dope,' 'incompetent' and the book 'a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad.'" Politico's report is here. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Mrs. McC: Another Trump/Barr hit job. As Trump says, "There has to be retribution." (See Jamelle Bouie's column, linked below.)

Tim Craig & Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "The city of Louisville announced on Tuesday a $12 million settlement with the family of Breonna Taylor and a number of changes in how local officers obtain and execute search warrants, among the largest payouts for a police killing in the nation's history, according to a Taylor family attorney.Louisville police killed Breonna Taylor, 26, while executing a 'no-knock' search warrant at her apartment during a drug raid in March that uncovered no illegal substances and has become a driving symbol in the Black Lives Matter movement." A CNN story is here.

Late Morning Update:

Today's Late Morning Updates are brought to you by Trump's increasing advocacy for violence, first in the casual passive killing of tens of thousands Americans who died of Covid-19 & its complications, then in his & his allies' incitement of violence against Biden voters and those who would demand he leave the White House if he is not re-elected, then in the revelation of his plan to assassinate Bashar Al-Assad. Even Chuck Todd has noticed.

     ~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "The television ad will air in battleground states and on cable in Washington, D.C., according to the DNC."

Now we sent in the U.S. marshals for the killer, the man that killed the young man in the street. Two and a half days went by, and I put out 'when are you going to go get him.' And the U.S. marshals went in to get him. There was a shootout. This guy was a violent criminal, and the U.S. marshalls killed him. And I'll tell you something -- that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution. -- Donald Trump, on the extra-judicial killing of suspected killer Michael Reinoehl, whom a witness claimed was unarmed ~~~

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "If the president’s allies are talking about the moment 'shooting will begin' [Michael Caputo] and 'martial law,' [Roger Stone] it's not by accident.... [Donald Trump is running] a campaign to hold on to power by any means necessary.... Caputo, in that sense, is only taking cues from his boss.... If he doesn't win, [Trump] says again and again, then the outcome isn't legitimate.... Along with this warning comes Trump's call for supporters to act as 'poll watchers' to prevent imaginary fraud at voting locations.... He added that after they vote, his supporters should 'make sure it counts.'... Asked on Fox News about 'riots' if he wins re-election, Trump said he would 'put them down very quickly,' before adding: 'Look, it's called insurrection. We just send in and we do it, very easy. I mean, it's very easy....' For Trump..., this is the campaign, and it is laying the groundwork for chaos and violence should the outcome show the slightest ambiguity (and even if it doesn't). In a half-functioning country, all of the president's rhetoric on this score would be grounds for removal from office. But we don't live in a half-functioning country -- we live in the United States of America." ~~~

     ~~~ Chuck Todd, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump has talked about the upcoming presidential election in conspiratorial and often violent ways, as liberal New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie notes.... It's become easy for the political community to dismiss this as your normal Trump rhetoric; after all, he says these kinds of things all the time, including when he was trailing Hillary Clinton four years ago. But it's another thing when the President of the United States says it, and when his supporters and allies starting saying it, too.... Trump's 'rigged' election talk is more dangerous than it was four years ago." ~~~

~~~ Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The former senior CIA official once in charge of the hunt for Osama bin Laden has spent the summer calling for the slaughter of his fellow Americans. Michael Scheuer calls Black Lives Matter a 'terrorist organization' and a 'semi-human mob.' On his blog and his podcast, Scheuer rages against a widespread, treasonous conspiracy targeting not only President Trump but the fundamental character of the American republic. It deserves 'punishment... we've not seen before in this country.' Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year old charged with murder for shooting demonstrators at a Kenosha, Wisconsin, protest, is a 'young hero.'... Scheuer's advocacy of violence follows a long trajectory. In December, he endorsed the increasingly violent QAnon conspiracy movement.... Counterterrorism experts have long since written Scheuer off as a crank. Yet Scheuer's advocacy of political violence looks disturbingly like a harbinger.... Roger Stone urged Trump to declare martial law and jail his critics if he loses the November election. Ally Michael Caputo ... invented a left-wing insurrection on a Facebook Live chat. And over the weekend, Trump endorsed federal agents shooting dead a suspect in the killing of a right-wing protester."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "In [a 'Fox & Friends"] interview [Tuesday], Trump criticized former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who has in recent months warned the country strongly against reelecting Trump. But in the course of making that case, Trump offered an odd claim: He said Mattis had effectively stood in the way of his efforts to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 'I would've rather taken him out,' Trump said. 'I had him all set. Mattis didn't want to do it. Mattis was a highly overrated general.'... In the book ['Fear', published in 2018, Bob Woodward] reported that Trump had considered assassinating Assad. Trump, on Sept. 5, 2018, flatly denied it. 'I heard somewhere where they said the assassination of President Assad by the United States. Never even discussed,' Trump said, adding: 'No, that was never even contemplated, nor would it be contemplated.... It's just more fiction. The book is total fiction. Okay?'... Even planning such an operation as a contingency would be highly questionable, given its impact in a volatile region...." The Hill has a story here. Mrs. McC: In general, the U.S. has had a policy of not assassinating heads of states since President Gerald Ford signed an executive order in 1976 outlawing political assassinations.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Mrs. McCrabbie @2:15 pm ET Monday: Biden gave a very good speech, raising his message & rhetoric way above & beyond Trump's remarks, which so far have been mostly limited to his old admonition to California to "clean the forest floors" -- a remark made more ridiculous by the fact that 58% of the forests in California are federally-owned, so Trump is responsible to "manage" them, while California state owns only 3% of them, the rest in private or Native American hands:

     ~~~ Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Joe Biden said Monday that ... Donald Trump's refusal to acknowledge the scientific reality of the climate crisis is 'unconscionable' and that he has failed to protect the United States from the 'ravages of climate change.' 'Donald Trump's climate denial may not have caused these fires and record floods and record hurricanes, but if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating and more deadly,' Biden said, speaking from Wilmington, Delaware.... The former vice president said, 'If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under water?'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Yes, the Suburbs Are in Danger. If we have four more years of Trump's climate denial, how many suburbs will be burned in wildfires? How many suburban neighborhoods will have been flooded out? How many suburbs will have been blown away in superstorms? If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? -- Joe Biden, in Wilmington, Delaware, Monday ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "With wildfires raging across the West, climate change took center stage in the race for the White House on Monday as former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. called President Trump a 'climate arsonist' while the president said that 'I don't think science knows' what is actually happening. A day of dueling appearances laid out the stark differences between the two candidates, an incumbent president who has long scorned climate change as a hoax and rolled back environmental regulations and a challenger who has called for an aggressive campaign to curb the greenhouse gases blamed for increasingly extreme weather. Mr. Trump flew to California after weeks of public silence about the flames that have forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, wiped out communities and forests, burned millions of acres, shrouded the region in smoke and left at least 26 people dead. But even when confronted by California's governor and other state officials, the president insisted on attributing the crisis solely to poor forest management, not climate change." ~~~

~~~ On Monday, California's Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot urged Donald Trump to put away his forest-sweeping broom & start working with local officials on climate change. No luck! ~~~

Caroline Kelly, et al., of CNN: "The Nevada company that hosted an indoor campaign rally for ... Donald Trump attended by thousands of people will face a fine of $3,000 for violating state coronavirus guidelines banning large gatherings. Sunday's rally in Henderson, Nevada -- which was held inside a facility owned by Xtreme Manufacturing -- was expected to violate the state's restriction on gatherings of 50 people or more. Attendees at the rally were not required to wear masks, and there was little social distancing. The city of Henderson had warned Xtreme Manufacturing that it would be violating the regulations if the rally proceeded. 'During the event, a compliance officer observed six violations of the directives and the City's Business Operations Division has issued a Business License Notice of Violation to Xtreme Manufacturing and assessed a penalty of $3,000,' Kathleen Richards, senior public information officer for the city of Henderson, told CNN in a statement Monday." Mrs. McC: I would have charged them $500 per person for whatever number Trump claimed attended the rally, minus the 50 people allowed.

Trump: To Hell with Everyone But Me. Annie Karni of the New York Times: “President Trump and his campaign are defending his right to rally indoors, despite the private unease of aides who called it a game of political Russian roulette and growing concern that such gatherings could prolong the coronavirus pandemic. 'I'm on a stage, and it's very far away,' Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday, after thousands of his supporters gathered on Sunday night inside a manufacturing plant in a Las Vegas suburb, flouting a state directive limiting indoor gatherings to fewer than 50 people. The president did not address health concerns about the rally attendees, a vast majority of whom did not wear masks or practice any social distancing. When it came to his own safety, he said, 'I'm not at all concerned.'"

Pennsylvania. AP: "Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's pandemic restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered 'non-life-sustaining' businesses to shut down are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, who was appointed by ... Donald Trump, sided with plaintiffs that included hair salons, drive-in movie theaters, a farmer's market vendor, a horse trainer and several Republican officeholders in their lawsuit against Wolf, a Democrat, and his health secretary.... Courts had consistently rejected challenges to Wolf's power to order businesses to close during the pandemic, and many other governors, Republican and Democrat, undertook similar measures as the virus spread across the country." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "Within hours after the decision was filed, Trump retweeted nearly two dozen posts about the blow to the Democratic governor's oversight of his state. In one post, seniors wag their fingers and peel off their face coverings to the beat of Twisted Sister's 'We're Not Gonna Take It.' 'PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR TOM WOLF AN YOUR STUPID WIFE .....YOUR NOT GOING TO MURDER US !!! TRUMP 2020 ... WE LOVE PENNSYLVANIA,' the caption read." Mrs. McC: Nice to see Trump's supporters are just as familiar with the English language as Trump is.

Wisconsin. Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court decided on Monday to keep the Green Party candidate off the presidential ballot, ending a legal dispute that briefly threw the state's mail-in voting plans into chaos, and clearing the way for clerks to mail out ballots this week as planned. 'We would be unable to provide meaningful relief without completely upsetting the election,' the Supreme Court wrote in its 4-3 decision.Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered local clerks to stop sending out ballots -- creating an impasse that threatened to derail the mail-in voting procedures in the key battleground state. Wisconsin state laws require clerks to mail ballots to voters who asked for them by Thursday." The Washington Post's story is here.

Craziness, Corruption, Laziness & Lies

** Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "CNN released another snippet of the on-the-record, taped conversations between ... Donald Trump and journalist Bob Woodward, this time revealing that the nation's leader was admitting on April 13 that the Covid-19 virus was 'a killer.'... 'These audio tapes show an ongoing pattern by Trump of misleading and playing down Covid to the public as you said while privately telling Woodward how dangerous the virus was,' [CNN correspondent Jamie] Gangel explained. 'And it wasn't just the February call or the March call. On April 5th, before we get to our audio, Trump tells Woodward it's a horrible thing. It's unbelievable. And then a week later on April 13th, [Trump] tells Woodward this...'[:] [Audio:]'This thing is a killer if it gets you. If you're the wrong person, you don't have a chance.... [So this rips you apart.... It is the plague.]'[End audio.] Notably, a New York Times analysis of Trump's press conference on that same day showed a swaggering leader, who confidently predicts the death toll will be easily kept in check...." Includes video clip, which is worth watching. ~~~

~~~ ** Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "... Bob Woodward ... premiered a new exclusive audio recording of ... Donald Trump admitting behind closed doors how dangerous he knew the coronavirus to be long before he started taking it remotely seriously in public. 'Bob, it's so easily transmissible, you wouldn't even believe it,' Trump can be heard saying on the tape, which Woodward recorded on April 13th, 2020, and shared with Stephen Colbert for Monday night's episode of The Late Show. The president goes on to tell what he apparently thought was a hilarious story about being in the Oval Office with a group of advisers when one of them let out a sneeze. 'A guy sneezed, innocently,' Trump says. 'Not a horrible -- just a sneeze. The entire room bailed out, OK? Including me, by the way.'... Woodward ... remind[ed] viewers that Trump was still 'downplaying the virus' at this point, as he admitted to the journalist a few weeks earlier. ~~~

     ~~~ This video should play through to another segment.

"A Useful Idiot." Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic interviews Alexander Vindman. "'President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,' [Vindman] says.... 'They [the Russians] may or may not have dirt on him, but they don't have to use it,' he says. 'They have more effective and less risky ways to employ him. He has aspirations to be the kind of leader that Putin is, and so he admires him. He likes authoritarian strongmen who act with impunity, without checks and balances. So he'll try to please Putin.'... In the Army we call this "free chicken," something you don't have to work for -- it just comes to you. This is what the Russians have in Trump: free chicken.... Authoritarianism is able to take hold not because you have a strong set of leaders who are forcing their way,' he says. 'It's more about the fact that we can give away our democracy. In Hungary and Turkey today, in Nazi Germany, those folks gave away their democracy, by being complacent.' He goes on, truth is a victim in this administration, I think it's Orwellian -- the ultimate goal of this president is to get you to disbelieve what you've seen and what you've heard. My goal now is to remind people of this.'" The site is subscriber-firewalled. Mrs. McC: I used one of my freebies on this. (Also linked yesterday.)

"Shadows on the Ceiling." A Crazy Trump Aide Tosses Out Conspiracy Theories & Warns of Violence. Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus accused career government scientists on Sunday of 'sedition' in their handling of the pandemic and warned that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election. Michael Caputo, 58, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, said without evidence that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was harboring a 'resistance unit' determined to undermine President Trump. Mr. Caputo, who has faced criticism for leading efforts to warp C.D.C. weekly bulletins to fit Mr. Trump's pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger. 'You understand that they're going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think that's where this is going,' Mr. Caputo, a Trump loyalist installed by the White House in April, told followers in a video he hosted live on ... Facebook....

"'I don't like being alone in Washington,' he said, describing 'shadows on the ceiling in my apartment, there alone, shadows are so long.' He then ran through a series of conspiracy theories, culminating in a prediction that Mr. Trump will win re-election but his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., will refuse to concede. 'And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,' he said. 'The drills that you've seen are nothing.' He added: 'If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it's going to be hard to get.'" Mrs. McC: You may remember Caputo from his days as a rabid, fact-averse CNN "commentator" who labelled George Papadopolous as the "coffee boy." He is a protégé of Roger Stone's. (Also linked yesterday.) Paul Campos republishes much of the NYT story in LG&$. The Hill has a summary story here. ~~~

~~~ Summer Concepcion of TPM: "Senate health committee ranking member Patty Murray (D-WA) on Monday called for Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar to demand the resignation of Michael Caputo, HHS assistant secretary of public affairs...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If we had a normal administration, Murray's demand would be unnecessary. Caputo would be gone. But according to the Hill story linked above, "In a statement, HHS said 'Mr. Caputo is a critical, integral part of the President's coronavirus response, leading on public messaging as Americans need public health information to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.'" ~~~

~~~ Steve M. People who associate with antifa "loathe Joe Biden. Joe Biden, for many of them, is no better than Donald Trump.... But nearly everyone on the right believes that antifa and the Democratic Party are part of one big evil, murderous octopus. It's a ridiculous notion believed even by right-wingers who aren't afraid of shadows." Steve republishes tweeted antifa-associated comments about Biden. ~~~

~~~ Caputo's Rant Is Trump on ... Something. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Michael "Caputo, who is playing a leading role in dictating the administration's public communications about the coronavirus pandemic, suggested that 'deep state' scientists are shaping their handling of coronavirus around the deliberate goal of not allowing 'America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.' And Caputo, who admitted that his 'mental health has definitely failed,' also referred to leftist 'hit squads being trained all over the country,' who will enter into a shooting war to depose President Trump after he's reelected, and advised his supporters to prepare. Everyone is understandably aghast at all this. But ... in an important respect, Caputo's rantings are just a more lurid version of what President Trump himself says constantly -- that the political opposition to Trump is at its core fundamentally illegitimate and, indeed, that there is no legitimate way for Trump to be removed from power.... As Crooked Media's Brian Beutler notes, Trump has been 'relentlessly messaging that he'll reject anything but election-night victory as illegitimate,' but it 'has had almost no impact on how journalists cover the horse race.'" Read on, if possible. ~~~

~~~ Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "House Democrats are launching an investigation into the Trump administration's political interference with the publication of scientific reports at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, led by Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), cited reporting from Politico that showed administration appointees have repeatedly interfered with the CDC's reports on the pandemic, which are published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The lawmakers said they are investigating the scope of political interference with the CDC's scientific reports and other efforts to combat the pandemic, the impact of the interference on the CDC's mission, whether the interference is continuing and any 'steps that Congress may need to take to stop it before more Americans die needlessly.'"

Julia Ainsley & Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General has begun investigating the circumstances surrounding the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone..., according to two sources familiar with the matter. The investigation is focused on events in February, according to the two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, when prosecutors for Stone have said they were told to seek a lighter sentence for Stone than they had previously considered. One of those prosecutors, Aaron Zelinsky, testified before Congress in June that he was told by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to recommend a lighter sentence for Stone than he otherwise would have because of Stone's close personal relationship with [Donald] Trump. Zelinsky said the U.S. Attorney, Timothy Shea, was 'receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break, and that the U.S. Attorney's sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations.' Attorney General William Barr ultimately intervened to override the prosecutors' recommendation of seven to nine years and ask for a lighter sentence. All four prosecutors quit the case as a result." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "Several legal advocacy groups on Monday filed a whistleblower complaint on behalf of a nurse at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center documenting 'jarring medical neglect' within the facility, including a refusal to test detainees for the novel coronavirus and an exorbitant rate of hysterectomies being performed on immigrant women.... Multiple women ... were subjected to hysterectomies -- a surgical operation in which all or part of the uterus is removed ... with one detainee likening their treatment to prisoners in concentration camps.... According to [the whistleblower], ICDC consistently used a particular gynecologist -- outside the facility -- who almost always opted to remove all or part of the uterus of his female detainee patients.... 'That's his specialty, he's the uterus collector.... Everybody he sees, he's taking all their uteruses out or he's taken their tubes out. What in the world.'" --s

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Postal Service last month abruptly ordered its police officers to stop investigating mail theft that occurs away from post office property, the Postal Police Officers Association alleged Monday, suing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to block a change they say could erode the safety of mail carriers and delivery. 'The Postal Service's sudden change is unwarranted, impermissible, and contrary to the language of the statute and also to collective bargaining promises it has made to the officers' union,' the association said in its lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Washington D.C. Per the union, USPS implemented the change on Aug. 25, a day after DeJoy testified to Congress amid mounting concerns that policy changes he implemented were delaying mail service and could jeopardize record numbers of mail-in ballots expected in the presidential election."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Companies Use Intermediaries to Get Speedy Test Results. Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "Through a growing number of intermediaries, [businesses] can generally obtain test results in one to three days, often by circumventing large national labs like Quest and LabCorp that have experienced backlogs and relying on unused capacity at smaller labs instead.... Businesses for which an outbreak among employees would be extremely costly -- possibly curtailing or halting operations -- are generally the most likely to seek out tests."

Michael Grabell & Bernice Yeung of ProPublica: "In late April, as COVID-19 raced through meatpacking plants sickening and killing workers, President Donald Trump issued a controversial executive order aimed at keeping the plants open to supply food to American consumers...But emails obtained by ProPublica show that the meat industry may have had a hand in its own White House rescue: Just a week before the order was issued, the meat industry's trade group drafted an executive order that bears striking similarities to the one the president signed...[W]hile the final wording wasn't verbatim, Trump's order emphasized the points the industry had proposed and furthered the same goal, directing the agriculture secretary to take action 'to ensure that meat and poultry processors continue operations.'" --s

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that the Trump administration acted within its authority in terminating legal protections that have allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants to live and work legally in the United States, sometimes for decades, after fleeing conflict or natural disasters in their home countries. The 2-1 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit effectively strips legal immigration status from some 400,000 people, rendering them deportable if they do not voluntarily leave the country. The decision affects the overwhelming majority of beneficiaries of a program offering what is known as 'temporary protected status,' which has permitted them to remain in the United States after being uprooted from their unstable homelands. The Trump administration has argued that the emergency conditions that existed when people were invited to come to the United States -- earthquakes, hurricanes, civil war -- had occurred long ago.... The long-awaited decision does not immediately end the protections. The Trump administration has agreed to maintain them until at least March 5, 2021, for people from five of the affected countries and until November 2021 for people from El Salvador." A Politico story is here. ~~~

~~~ Yeah But. Laura Ly & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "A federal judge in Maryland on Friday ruled that Chad Wolf is likely unlawfully serving as acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and temporarily barred the Trump administration from enforcing new asylum restrictions on members of two immigration advocacy groups, according to court documents."

Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "As Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies tackled Josie Huang to the street on Saturday night, the reporter for NPR affiliate KPCC screamed repeatedly she was a journalist. Deputies arrested her anyway, leaving her with scrapes, bruises, a five-hour stay in custody -- and an obstruction charge that carries up to a year in jail. Police claimed Huang, who also reports for LAist, didn't have credentials and ignored demands to leave the area. But those claims are contradicted by video Huang shared on Sunday showing her quickly backing away from police when ordered to do so and repeatedly identifying herself as a journalist. Huang said she also had a press badge around her neck. NPR executives and reporters groups condemned Huang's arrest, demanding her charges be dropped and the sheriff's department explain why officers forcefully tackled her." Related story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Marie Fazio of the New York Times: "South Dakota's attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg, was driving home alone from a Republican Party dinner on Saturday night when his car hit something, possibly a deer, he told the authorities. By the next day, the news had taken a grim turn: A man had been found dead near the highway. And the state's top law enforcement officer was under investigation. The dead man was officially identified Monday as Joe Boever, 55, of Highmore, S.D. He had apparently been walking along the highway to his disabled truck.... Because the attorney general oversees South Dakota's Department of Public Safety, Gov. Kristi Noem announced Sunday evening that her office had taken over supervision of the case, with assistance from investigators in neighboring North Dakota, to avoid any conflicts of interest. Both Governor Noem and Mr. Ravnsborg are Republicans.... The statement did not say if Mr. Ravnsborg had pulled over to look for the deer or to check his vehicle for damage." An NBC News story is here.

News Lede

Weather Channel: "Hurricane Sally is moving slowly near the northern Gulf Coast, where it will bring an extremely dangerous storm surge, potentially historic flooding rainfall and damaging winds through midweek. Sally will also pose a threat of flooding rainfall farther inland across parts of the Southeast. Sally will produce a deadly duo of human-height storm surge and a foot or more of rainfall along parts of the northern Gulf Coast. Nearly 90% of deaths caused by hurricanes are the result of a combination of rainfall flooding, storm surge and rip currents."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 14, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Julia Ainsley & Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General has begun investigating the circumstances surrounding the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone..., according to two sources familiar with the matter. The investigation is focused on events in February, according to the two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, when prosecutors for Stone have said they were told to seek a lighter sentence for Stone than they had previously considered. One of those prosecutors, Aaron Zelinsky, testified before Congress in June that he was told by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to recommend a lighter sentence for Stone than he otherwise would have because of Stone's close personal relationship with [Donald] Trump. Zelinsky said the U.S. Attorney, Timothy Shea, was 'receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break, and that the U.S. Attorney's sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations.' Attorney General William Barr ultimately intervened to override the prosecutors' recommendation of seven to nine years and ask for a lighter sentence. All four prosecutors quit the case as a result."

AP: "Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's pandemic restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered 'non-life-sustaining' businesses to shut down are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, who was appointed by ... Donald Trump, sided with plaintiffs that included hair salons, drive-in movie theaters, a farmer's market vendor, a horse trainer and several Republican officeholders in their lawsuit against Wolf, a Democrat, and his health secretary.... Courts had consistently rejected challenges to Wolf's power to order businesses to close during the pandemic, and many other governors, Republican and Democrat, undertook similar measures as the virus spread across the country."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here.

Mrs. McCrabbie @2:15 pm ET: Biden gave a very good speech, raising his message & rhetoric way above & beyond Trump's remarks, which so far have been mostly limited to his old admonition to California to "clean the forest floors" -- a remark made more ridiculous by the fact that 58% of the forests in California are federally-owned, so Trump is responsible to "manage" them, while California state owns only 3% of them, the rest in private or Native American hands:

     ~~~ Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Joe Biden said Monday that ... Donald Trump's refusal to acknowledge the scientific reality of the climate crisis is 'unconscionable' and that he has failed to protect the United States from the 'ravages of climate change.' 'Donald Trump's climate denial may not have caused these fires and record floods and record hurricanes, but if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating and more deadly,' Biden said, speaking from Wilmington, Delaware.... The former vice president said, 'If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under water?'"

"Shadows on the Ceiling." A Crazy Trump Aide Tosses Out Conspiracy Theories & Warns of Violence. Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus accused career government scientists on Sunday of 'sedition' in their handling of the pandemic and warned that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election. Michael Caputo, 58, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, said without evidence that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was harboring a 'resistance unit' determined to undermine President Trump. Mr. Caputo, who has faced criticism for leading efforts to warp C.D.C. weekly bulletins to fit Mr. Trump's pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger. 'You understand that they're going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think that's where this is going,' Mr. Caputo, a Trump loyalist installed by the White House in April, told followers in a video he hosted live on his personal Facebook page....

"'I don't like being alone in Washington,' he said, describing 'shadows on the ceiling in my apartment, there alone, shadows are so long.' He then ran through a series of conspiracy theories, culminating in a prediction that Mr. Trump will win re-election but his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., will refuse to concede. 'And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,' he said. 'The drills that you've seen are nothing.' He added: 'If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it's going to be hard to get.'" Mrs. McC: You may remember Caputo from his days as a rabid, fact-averse CNN "commentator" who labelled George Papadopolous as the "coffee boy." He is a protégé of Roger Stone's.

"A Useful Idiot." Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic interviews Alexander Vindman. "'President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,' [Vindman] says.... 'They [the Russians] may or may not have dirt on him, but they don't have to use it,' he says. 'They have more effective and less risky ways to employ him. He has aspirations to be the kind of leader that Putin is, and so he admires him. He likes authoritarian strongmen who act with impunity, without checks and balances. So he'll try to please Putin.'... In the Army we call this "free chicken," something you don't have to work for -- it just comes to you. This is what the Russians have in Trump: free chicken.... Authoritarianism is able to take hold not because you have a strong set of leaders who are forcing their way,' he says. 'It's more about the fact that we can give away our democracy. In Hungary and Turkey today, in Nazi Germany, those folks gave away their democracy, by being complacent.' He goes on, truth is a victim in this administration, I think it's Orwellian -- the ultimate goal of this president is to get you to disbelieve what you've seen and what you've heard. My goal now is to remind people of this.'" The site is subscriber-firewalled. Mrs. McC: I used one of my freebies on this.

Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "As Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies tackled Josie Huang to the street on Saturday night, the reporter for NPR affiliate KPCC screamed repeatedly she was a journalist. Deputies arrested her anyway, leaving her with scrapes, bruises, a five-hour stay in custody -- and an obstruction charge that carries up to a year in jail. Police claimed Huang, who also reports for LAist, didn't have credentials and ignored demands to leave the area. But those claims are contradicted by video Huang shared on Sunday showing her quickly backing away from police when ordered to do so and repeatedly identifying herself as a journalist. Huang said she also had a press badge around her neck. NPR executives and reporters groups condemned Huang's arrest, demanding her charges be dropped and the sheriff's department explain why officers forcefully tackled her." Related story linked below.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Jennifer Medina & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Thousands of Trump supporters, the vast majority of them forgoing face masks, packed inside a manufacturing plant on Sunday night in a Las Vegas suburb, where President Trump brashly ignored a state directive limiting indoor gatherings to under 50 people. There were no signs of any attempts at social distancing inside the venue. Attendees wearing red MAGA caps sat in white folding chairs crammed together on the floor of the Xtreme Manufacturing plant, which said on its website that it had 'restricted meetings and gatherings to no more than 10 people in large areas.' In his remarks, Mr. Trump unloaded his regular, inaccurate onslaught against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., falsely accusing him of waging a 'dangerous war on the police' and claiming that 'he's shot and everybody knows it.'" Mrs. McC: Look at the photo of Trump at the top of the story. He looks exactly like a wind-up doll whose batteries ran down mid-sentence, mid-gesture. Weird. Maybe Jared got one of his "brilliant" friends to build an automaton alter-Donald because the real Donald Trump died of Covid, doesn't want to catch it, or is too busy watching Fox "News."

~~~ Earlier. Eric Fiegel, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is expected to rally thousands of supporters indoors on Sunday for the first time in nearly three months. The campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada -- which will be held inside a facility of Xtreme Manufacturing -- is expected to violate the state of Nevada's restriction on gatherings of 50 people or more. ... The venue is not expected to enforce social distancing for the attendees who will be sitting in chairs lined up next to each other in rows, and few people attending any of the recent rallies have been wearing masks. Mrs. McC: Brian Stelter said on CNN Sunday, "Some, if not all, of the major TV networks have decided not to send their cameras inside." He said there would be a pool camera set up inside the facility. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump should be encouraging, rather than discouraging mail-in voting. Some of his supports will be dead or too sick to go to the polls on election day. ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak slammed ... Donald Trump Sunday night for violating state rules by holding a 2020 campaign rally indoors with thousands of people. In a lengthy thread on Twitter, the Democratic governor said that Trump 'is knowingly packing thousands into an indoor venue to hold a political rally' and has 'forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global pandemic.'... Henderson authorities said in a statement late Sunday that officials warned the event organizer in writing and verbally that they must obey the governor's directives, which include not gathering in groups larger than 50 people, wearing face coverings and social distancing."

Trump Plans Unconstitutional Third Term. Daniel Politi of Slate: "Speaking to a packed, largely mask-less crowd in Nevada on Saturday night..., Donald Trump once again said he wanted to serve three terms in office. Trump said he is 'probably entitled' to an additional four years in the White House. 'Fifty-two days from now we're going to win Nevada, and we're going to win four more years in the White House,' Trump told a crowd of at least 5,000 people in Minden, Nevada that was standing shoulder-to-shoulder. 'And then after that, we'll negotiate, right? Because we're probably -- based on the way we were treated -- we are probably entitled to another four after that.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

RNC Chair Blames Biden for Trump's Covid-19 Failure. Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "On Twitter Sunday, Republican Party chair Ronna Romney McDaniel blamed former Vice President Joe Biden for the virus, saying that Biden 'can't run from his disastrous record responding to the coronavirus.' The virus didn't exist when Biden was in office, as it started in 2019." Mrs. McC: I think Ronna is pretending that Biden is Trump, and therefore a complete fuck-up, and Trump is Biden, the guy vowing to correct the mistakes of the fuck-up. I'm sure backing a complete fuck-up is a challenge for Ronna, and I'm sad to see it has driven her off the deep end.

Colorado. Elizabeth Joseph & Devan Cole of CNN: "A federal judge has temporarily barred the US Postal Service from sending mailers containing what Colorado's top election official calls 'false statements' that may discourage voters from participating in the November election, according to court documents filed Saturday evening. Unless extended by the court, the temporary restraining order remains in effect through September 22, the filings shows.... Jena Griswold, Colorado's secretary of state..., a Democrat, filed a lawsuit on Saturday seeking a temporary restraining order to stop delivery of mailers that have yet to be delivered."

Florida. Sabrina Rodriguez & Marc Caputo of Politico: "George Soros directs a 'Deep State' global conspiracy network. A Joe Biden win would put America in control of 'Jews and Blacks.' The Democratic nominee has a pedophilia problem. Wild disinformation like this is inundating Spanish-speaking residents of South Florida ahead of Election Day, clogging their WhatsApp chats, Facebook feeds and even radio airwaves at a saturation level that threatens to shape the outcome in the nation's biggest and most closely contested swing state. The sheer volume of conspiracy theories -- including QAnon -- and deceptive claims is already playing a role in stunting Biden's growth with Latino voters, who comprise about 17 percent of the state's electorate. 'The onslaught has had an effect,' said Eduardo Gamarra, a pollster and director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at Florida International University."

Chutzpah, Corruption, Laziness & Lies

** "Trump Endorses Extrajudicial Executions." Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump appeared to give a nod to law enforcement officers killing suspected criminals, describing the death of an alleged shooting suspect by U.S. Marshals as 'retribution.' Speaking in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, Trump spoke of the incident in which a law enforcement officer killed a self-described anti-fascist activist earlier this month in Washington state as they sought to arrest him on suspicion that he fatally shot a right-wing protester in Portland. Trump seemed to endorse the killing. 'This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him,' Trump told Pirro. 'And I will tell you something, that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not sure other news media are picking up on this remark, but every outlet should attach a big fat caveat to every instance in which they allow Trump to self-describe as a "law & order" advocate.

Eric Tucker of the AP Puts It Mildly: "A whistleblower's allegation that he was pressured to suppress intelligence about Russian election interference is the latest in a series of similar accounts involving former Trump administration officials, raising concerns the White House risks undercutting efforts to stop such intrusions if it plays down the seriousness of the problem. There is no question the administration has taken actions to counter Russian interference, including sanctions and criminal charges on Thursday designed to call out foreign influence campaigns aimed at American voters. But Trump's resistance to embracing the gravity of the threat could leave the administration without a consistent and powerful voice of deterrence at the top of the government heading into an election that U.S. officials say is again being targeted by Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin 'is not deterred,' said Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee. Himes said Putin feels 'empowered, probably inoculated in the U.S. because of the president's behavior.'"

Heidi Pryzbyla of NBC News: "A two-decade-old audit of mail equipment transport contracts by the U.S. Postal Service's inspector general found that a company previously run by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was awarded multiple noncompetitive contracts by the Postal Service that may have cost taxpayers as much as $53 million more than if they'd been competitively bid. The 2001 audit found that New Breed Logistics, a supply chain services provider based in North Carolina, was awarded more than $300 million in Postal Service mail equipment transport contracts that could have come in at a much lower price had they been shopped competitively to a range of vendors.... The audit raises questions about whether New Breed knowingly overbilled the Postal Service, and it renews scrutiny of the background and qualifications of DeJoy.... The House Oversight Committee has scheduled a hearing Monday to delve further into DeJoy's business history and qualifications to run the Postal Service." --s

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "It's standard for drug companies to withhold details of clinical trials until after they are completed, tenaciously guarding their intellectual property and competitive edge. But these are extraordinary times, and now there is a growing outcry among independent scientists and public health experts who are pushing the companies [developing coronavirus vaccines] to be far more open with the public in the midst of a pandemic that has already killed more than 193,000 people in the United States. These experts say American taxpayers are entitled to know more since the federal government has committed billions of dollars to vaccine research and to buying the vaccines once they're approved. And greater transparency could also help bolster faltering public confidence in vaccines at a time when a growing number of Americans fear President Trump will pressure federal regulators to approve a vaccine before it is proved safe and effective."

Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "CNN's Jake Tapper abruptly ended his interview with White House adviser Peter Navarro after repeatedly confronting him and clashing with him on President Donald Trump's admission to Bob Woodward about downplaying the coronavirus." The articles includes video. Mrs. McC: This is Navarro's SOP in on-air interviews. I don't know why CNN books him unless producers think a liar shouting lies is good teevee. (Also linked yesterday.)

Here's a video & transcript of Scott Pelley interview of Bob Woodward on "60 Minutes" re: Trump's lies on the effects of the coronavirus. In their last phone call, on August 14, Woodward told Trump, "'It's a tough book. There are going to be things that you are not gonna like, judgments that I made.' And he, at the end, said, 'Well, I didn't get you on this book. Maybe I'll get you on the next one.'... [Woodward says,] 'An hour and a half later, he tweeted out that the Bob Woodward book is gonna be fake.'"

Kevin Freking of the AP: "Public health officials were already warning Americans about the need to prepare for the coronavirus threat in early February when ... Donald Trump called it 'deadly stuff' in a private conversation that has only now has come to light.... Trump, however, had a louder megaphone than his health experts, and in public he was playing down the threat. Three days after delivering his 'deadly' assessment in a private call with journalist Bob Woodward, he told a New Hampshire rally on Feb. 10, 'It's going to be fine.'... Mixed safety messages added to confusion. There was considerable discussion about mask-wearing in the early days of the pandemic, with leading experts advising the public against it, saying to leave the masks for health care workers." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It is absolutely clear that public health officials, including Anthony Fauci, have spent months bending over backwards to appear to align with Donald Trump's lies about the severity of the coronavirus. Their duty is to the public (that's why they're called public health officials), not to politicians. At some point, these scientists & doctors should have had the guts to stand up, en masse, to Trump. They did not, and people died because of it.

Lara Jakes & Pranshu Verma of the New York Times: "... as President Trump campaigns for re-election and the coronavirus has claimed more than 193,000 lives nationwide, the [U.S.A.I.D.] has been micromanaged by the White House and the State Department. That has prompted critics to say the intervention has slowed pandemic relief efforts to some places, weaponized aid in other areas to chastise Trump administration adversaries and disengaged the United States from the World Health Organization's coronavirus response." (Also linked yesterday.)

Casey Smith of the AP: "With many teachers opting out of returning to the classroom because of the coronavirus, schools around the U.S. are scrambling to find replacements and in some places lowering certification requirements to help get substitutes in the door. Several states have seen surges in educators filing for retirement or taking leaves of absence. The departures are straining staff in places that were dealing with shortages of teachers and substitutes even before the pandemic created an education crisis." ~~~

~~~ Miriam Berger of the Washington Post: "From picket lines to Zoom calls and even jail cells, the pandemic has thrust teachers unions to the forefront of the debate over education during the coronavirus pandemic. How to safely reopen schools has become a central question, with school closures affecting well over a billion students, according to the United Nations, in addition to economies and daily life for working families.... Last month, the Trump administration did that, declaring teachers 'essential' front-line workers, in an effort to push schools to reopen.... The 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers has authorized unions nationwide to strike if their demands, including billions of dollars in emergency federal funding to ensure schools are safely equipped, are not met."

Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "Susan Sandler, a liberal philanthropist, will invest $200 million in racial justice organizations, targeting areas across the South and the Southwest that are experiencing rapid demographic transformation. Ms. Sandler, who learned she had a rare form of brain cancer four years ago, will announce the effort in a lengthy post on Medium scheduled to publish on Monday morning. In the post, which was shared with The New York Times before publication, Ms. Sandler says her investments will be made through a new organization, the Susan Sandler Fund, aimed at combating systemic racism and building civic power.... Initial recipients of grants from Ms. Sandler's fund include several progressive organizations working in battleground states to register new voters from underrepresented groups. The organizations include the Texas Organizing Project, New Virginia Majority, New Florida Majority and the Arizona Center for Empowerment."

Riding While Black. Bill Hutchinson of ABC News: "A white Georgia sheriff's deputy seen in a viral video repeatedly punching a Black man who was pinned to the ground has been fired after the man's family demanded he be released from jail immediately. Roderick Walker, 26, remained locked up at the Clayton County Jail on Sunday, two days after video surfaced showing him being held on the ground by two Clayton County sheriff's deputies and being pummeled by one as he cried out 'I can't breathe' and as his 5-year-old son sat in a car screaming, 'Daddy.'... An attorney for Walker said the incident quickly escalated after a ride-share vehicle Walker was a passenger in was pulled over for a routine traffic violation." Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill says Walker remains in jail because of several outstanding warrants in other jurisdictions. (Also linked yesterday.)

Artemis Moshtaghian & Amir Vera of CNN: "The two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies who were shot and critically injured Saturday night are out of surgery, according to a LACSD spokesperson. The deputies, one male and one female, were 'ambushed as they sat in their vehicle, police said. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a press conference Saturday night that the shooting in Compton was done 'in a cowardly fashion' and that both deputies were being treated at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. Capt. Kent Wegener said the shooting happened at 7 p.m. Wegener said the suspect approached from behind the deputies' vehicle and walked along the passenger side. He acted as if he was going to walk past the car, raised a pistol and shot multiple times hitting both deputies, Wegener said." (Also linked yesterday.) A New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Emily Zanotti of the Daily Wire: "A Los Angeles National Public Radio reporter was arrested early Sunday, Los Angeles County Sheriffs said, after she 'interfered' with police trying to prevent alleged Black Lives Matter protesters from storming the hospital where two severely wounded LA County Sheriffs deputies were taken following a horrific ambush attack.... 'Witnesses later said that the far-left activists, who shouted outside that they hoped the deputies died, attempted to storm the emergency room where the deputies were taken,' the Daily Wire's Ryan Saavedra reported Sunday. A number of protesters were arrested in the altercation.... Footage shows deputies taking [KPCC's Josie] Huang to the ground and handcuffing her before taking her away in a police vehicle.... A number of people on Twitter lashed out at the LA Sheriffs Department for arresting Huang, arguing that her press credentials can be seen hanging around her neck in the ABC footage. The Sheriff's Department, though, later tweeted that Huang admitted that she was not properly identified."

David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "The owner of the Chinese app TikTok rejected an offer on Sunday from Microsoft to take over the firm's U.S. operations, Microsoft said, as time runs out on an executive order from President Trump threatening to ban the popular app unless its American operations are sold. Microsoft was seen as the American technology company with the deepest pockets to buy TikTok's U.S. operations from its parent company, ByteDance, and with the greatest ability to address national security concerns that led to Mr. Trump's order. The move leaves Oracle -- one of the few Silicon Valley firms to publicly ally with Mr. Trump -- as the sole publicly known remaining bidder for TikTok." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. New Lede: "The Chinese owner of TikTok has chosen Oracle to be the app's technology partner for its U.S. operations and has rejected an acquisition offer from Microsoft, according to Microsoft officials and other people involved in the negotiations, as time runs out on an executive order from President Trump threatening to ban the popular app unless its American operations are sold." A Washington Post story is here.

Ben Smith, the New York Times' media columnist, has a long piece on troubles at the Intercept, stemming largely, but not entirely, from its failure to do the least thing to protect whistleblower Reality Winner. Mrs. McC: I read it because I don't like Glenn Greenwald.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Belarus. Radio Free Europe: "Tens of thousands of Belarusians jammed the streets of Minsk and other cities and towns, as opposition protesters pressed their nearly five-week campaign to pressure President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to call new elections. The Interior Ministry reported more than 400 arrests in the September 13 protests. Still, the turnout in the Belarusian capital and elsewhere was the latest indication that opposition activists, and many average Belarusians, have been undaunted by thousands of arrests, beatings, and other intimidation tactics used by Belarusian security forces.... The Interior Ministry's press department, meanwhile, described the women protesters as 'aggressive.' It's a shame to watch: screams, screeching...' the ministry said. 'Such behavior is unfeminine.'" Mrs. McC: Really, ladies, must you?

Indonesia. The Jakarta Post: "Eight people in Gresik regency, East Java, were ordered by local authorities to dig graves for those who have died of COVID-19 as punishment for not wearing face masks in public." --s

Japan. Ben Dooley & Makiko Inoue of the New York Times: "Japan's governing party on Monday anointed Yoshihide Suga, the current chief cabinet secretary, as its choice for the next prime minister, settling on what it saw as a safe pair of hands to grapple with the country's many economic and strategic challenges. Two weeks after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he was stepping down because of ill health, Mr. Suga was overwhelmingly elected as leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party during a conclave of members of Parliament and select delegates at a luxury hotel in central Tokyo. The party handily controls Parliament, virtually guaranteeing that Mr. Suga, 71, will be elected prime minister this week during a special session of the legislature."

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Sally has quickly intensified into a hurricane as it tracks toward the northern Gulf Coast, where it will bring an extremely dangerous storm surge, flooding rainfall and damaging winds early this week. Sally will also pose a threat of flooding rainfall farther inland across parts of the Southeast. Sally will produce a deadly duo of human-height storm surge and a foot or more of rainfall in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Nearly 90% of deaths caused by hurricanes are the result of a combination of rainfall flooding, storm surge and rip currents."

The New York Times' live updates of West Coast wildfire developments Monday are here.

Guardian & agencies: "Nearly all the dozens of people reported missing after a devastating blaze in southern Oregon have been accounted for, authorities said, as crews battled wildfires that have killed at least 35 from California to Washington state. The Democratic governors of all three states say the fires are a consequence of climate change, taking aim at Donald Trump ahead of his visit Monday to California for a briefing. Joe Biden planned to address the fires and the climate crisis during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. Flames up and down the west coast have destroyed neighborhoods, leaving charred rubble and burned-out cars, forcing tens of thousands to flee and casting a shroud of smoke that has given Seattle, San Francisco and Portland some of the worst air quality in the world. The smoke filled the air and spread to nearby states. While making it difficult to breathe, it helped firefighters by blocking the sun and turning the weather cooler as they tried to get a handle on the blazes, which were slowing in some places."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 13, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Eric Fiegel, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is expected to rally thousands of supporters indoors on Sunday for the first time in nearly three months. The campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada -- which will be held inside a facility of Xtreme Manufacturing -- is expected to violate the state of Nevada's restriction on gatherings of 50 people or more. ... The venue is not expected to enforce social distancing for the attendees who will be sitting in chairs lined up next to each other in rows, and few people attending any of the recent rallies have been wearing masks. Mrs. McC: Brian Stelter said on CNN Sunday, "Some, if not all, of the major TV networks have decided not to send their cameras inside." He said there would be a pool camera set up inside the facility. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump should be encouraging, rather than discouraging mail-in voting. Some of his supports will be dead or too sick to go to the polls on election day.

** "Trump Endorses Extrajudicial Executions." Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump appeared to give a nod to law enforcement officers killing suspected criminals, describing the death of an alleged shooting suspect by U.S. Marshals as 'retribution.' Speaking in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, Trump spoke of the incident in which a law enforcement officer killed a self-described anti-fascist activist earlier this month in Washington state as they sought to arrest him on suspicion that he fatally shot a right-wing protester in Portland. Trump seemed to endorse the killing. 'This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him,' Trump told Pirro. 'And I will tell you something, that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not sure other news media are picking up on this remark, but every outlet should attach a big fat caveat to every instance in which they allow Trump to self-describe as a "law & order" advocate.

Trump Plans Unconstitutional Third Term. Daniel Politi: "Speaking to a packed, largely mask-less crowd in Nevada on Saturday night..., Donald Trump once again said he wanted to serve three terms in office. Trump said he is 'probably entitled' to an additional four years in the White House. 'Fifty-two days from now we're going to win Nevada, and we're going to win four more years in the White House,' Trump told a crowd of at least 5,000 people in Minden, Nevada that was standing shoulder-to-shoulder. 'And then after that, we'll negotiate, right? Because we're probably -- based on the way we were treated -- we are probably entitled to another four after that.'"

Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "CNN’s Jake Tapper abruptly ended his interview with White House adviser Peter Navarro after repeatedly confronting him and clashing with him on President Donald Trump's admission to Bob Woodward about downplaying the coronavirus." The articles includes video. Mrs. McC: This is Navarro's SOP in on-air interviews. I don't know why CNN books him unless producers think a liar shouting lies is good teevee.

Artemis Moshtaghian & Amir Vera of CNN: "The two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies who were shot and critically injured Saturday night are out of surgery, according to a LACSD spokesperson. The deputies, one male and one female, were 'ambushed as they sat in their vehicle, police said. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a press conference Saturday night that the shooting in Compton was done 'in a cowardly fashion' and that both deputies were being treated at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. Capt. Kent Wegener said the shooting happened at 7 p.m. Wegener said the suspect approached from behind the deputies' vehicle and walked along the passenger side. He acted as if he was going to walk past the car, raised a pistol and shot multiple times hitting both deputies, Wegener said."

Riding While Black. Bill Hutchinson of ABC News: "A white Georgia sheriff's deputy seen in a viral video repeatedly punching a Black man who was pinned to the ground has been fired after the man's family demanded he be released from jail immediately. Roderick Walker, 26, remained locked up at the Clayton County Jail on Sunday, two days after video surfaced showing him being held on the ground by two Clayton County sheriff's deputies and being pummeled by one as he cried out 'I can't breathe' and as his 5-year-old son sat in a car screaming, 'Daddy.'... An attorney for Walker said the incident quickly escalated after a ride-share vehicle Walker was a passenger in was pulled over for a routine traffic violation." Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill says Walker remains in jail because of several outstanding warrants in other jurisdictions.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here.

Lara Jakes & Pranshu Verma of the New York Times: "... as President Trump campaigns for re-election and the coronavirus has claimed more than 193,000 lives nationwide, the [U.S.A.I.D.] has been micromanaged by the White House and the State Department. That has prompted critics to say the intervention has slowed pandemic relief efforts to some places, weaponized aid in other areas to chastise Trump administration adversaries and disengaged the United States from the World Health Organization's coronavirus response."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Ellen Berry of the New York Times how Kamala Harris's parents Shyamala Gopalan & Donald Harris met at Berkeley.

Florida, Florida, Florida. Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg plans to spend at least $100 million in Florida to help elect Democrat Joe Biden, a massive late-stage infusion of cash that could reshape the presidential contest in a costly toss-up state central to President Trump's reelection hopes. Bloomberg made the decision to focus his final election spending on Florida last week, after news reports that Trump had considered spending as much as $100 million of his own money in the final weeks of the campaign, Bloomberg's advisers said. Presented with several options on how to make good on an earlier promise to help elect Biden, Bloomberg decided that a narrow focus on Florida was the best use of his money." Politico's story is here. Mrs. McC: Hey, it's only money.

Daniel Politi of Slate: "Twitter once again flagged a tweet from ... Donald Trump, this time for a message that sure made it seem like the commander in chief was encouraging some people to vote twice. The social media platform placed a warning label on one of the tweets Trump sent Saturday. Twitter placed a 'public interest notice' on the message and limited its circulation for violating its policies, 'specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice.' In his message, Trump called on North Carolinians to potentially vote twice by saying they could send in their mail-in ballot and the go to their polling station to see if it was counted and if they saw it wasn't they could cast another ballot. 'Don't let them illegally take your vote away from you!' Trump wrote."

Trump Headlines Another Super-spreader. Jonathan Lemire & Scott Sonner of the AP: "Kicking off a western swing..., Donald Trump barreled into Nevada on Saturday looking to expand his paths to victory while unleashing a torrent of unsubstantiated claims [Mrs. McC: that is, lies] that Democrats were trying to steal the election. Trump defied local authorities by holding a rally in tiny Minden after his initial plan to hold one in Reno was stopped out of concern it would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. Unleashing 90-plus minutes of grievances and attacks, Trump claimed the state's Democratic governor tried to block him and repeated his false claim that mail-in ballots would taint the election result. Addressing a mostly mask-less crowd tightly packed together, Trump spoke in front of mountains draped in haze, the scent of smoke in the air from wildfires raging a state away in California." ~~~

~~~ Now for the Racist Part: "Trump claimed that the Democrat's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, would be president 'in about a month' if Biden won, asserting that the former vice president would be but a figurehead and that Harris would hold power." Mrs. McC Translation: A vote for Biden is a vote for Scary Black Woman President.

Desperate Fear-mongering. Blake Montgomery of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump's campaign solicited donations Saturday with a fear-mongering text warning of impending violent attacks by anti-fascist activists under a Joe Biden presidency: 'ANTIFA ALERT: They'll attack your homes if Joe's elected. Pres Trump needs you to become a Diamond Club Member. Your name is MISSING. Donate.'"

Marshall Cohen of CNN: "While election officials across the country try to prepare Americans for the chance of a prolonged vote-counting process this year..., Donald Trump and his allies have drawn a line in the sand and say they want to see a winner declared on election night. As a result, Trump and his allies are setting unrealistic expectations, and undermining warnings from bipartisan state and local election officials and experts that a slower vote-count doesn't always indicate a problem.... White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said last Wednesday that the Trump administration wants to see a presidential winner projected on election night this November. 'What we want election night to look like is a system that's fair, a situation where we know who the President of the United States is on election night. That's how the system is supposed to work. And that's ultimately what we're looking for and what we're hoping for,' McEnany said in a Fox News interview, where she criticized Democrats for expanding access to mail-in voting." ~~~

~~~ Roger Stone Has Some Election Advice for Donald Trump. Timothy Johnson of Media Matters: "Roger Stone is making baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and is urging Donald Trump to consider several draconian measures to stay in power, including having federal authorities seize ballots in Nevada, having FBI agents and Republican state officials 'physically' block voting under the pretext of preventing voter fraud, using martial law or the Insurrection Act to carry out widespread arrests, and nationalizing state police forces.... Stone ... urged Trump to ... [use] his powers to arrest Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, 'the Clintons' and 'anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.'... Stone declared that the only legitimate outcome to the 2020 election would be a Trump victory.... Stone, a longtime confidant of the president, made the comments during a September 10 appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones" Infowars network."~~~

     ~~~ Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post, republished in Yahoo! News: "Long-time Donald Trump confidant, and convicted felon, Roger Stone said that the president should declare 'martial law' to seize power if he loses what Stone characterized as an already corrupt election. The results will only be legitimate if the 'real winner' -- Trump -- takes office, regardless of what the votes say, Stone declared. A loss would apparently be justification for Trump to use force to take over the nation."

A Change of Plans. Matthew Brown of the AP: "Vice President Mike Pence has canceled plans to attend a Trump campaign fundraiser in Montana following revelations that the event's hosts had expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.... Donald Trump's reelection campaign told The Associated Press on Saturday that Pence's schedule had been changed, but the campaign did not provide a reason or say whether the fundraiser might be held at a later time. The change comes after the AP reported Wednesday that hosts Cayrn and Michael Borland in Bozeman, Montana, had shared QAnon memes and retweeted posts from QAnon accounts."

Jake Johnson of Common Dreams: "Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Saturday filed a federal lawsuit against Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and other top U.S. Postal Service officials for sending out mailers containing information that could mislead and disenfranchise voters. 'These false statements will confuse Colorado voters, likely causing otherwise-eligible voters to wrongly believe that they may not participate in the upcoming election,' reads the complaint (pdf), which was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. 'This attempt at voter suppression violates the United States Constitution and federal statutes and must be stopped immediately.' Griswold said in a statement that she first learned just two days ago that the postcards would be sent to households across the U.S., and voters have already begun receiving them in the mail. While the postcard contains broad advice that could be applicable to voters in some states, Griswold noted that the mailer's specific recommendation that voters request a mail-in ballot 'at least 15 days before Election Day' could confuse Coloradans. 'In Colorado, every registered voter is sent a ballot without having to make a request and voters are urged to return ballots by mail sooner than seven days before the election. My office asked USPS officials to delay or not send the mailer in Colorado, but they refused to commit to that,' said Griswold. Voters in states with similar vote-by-mail, such as California and Washington, could also be misled by the postcard's recommendations." A New York Times story is here.

Maine Senate Race. Christina Cauterucci of Slate: "Donald Trump's shadow loomed over ... Friday night's Senate candidate debate in Maine. From the first question to the closing statements, Sen. Susan Collins was repeatedly asked to answer for the leader of her party, who currently trails Joe Biden by a double-digit margin in statewide polls. As soon as the debate began, a moderator from a Maine NBC station asked Collins how she felt about the fact that Trump lied to Americans about the novel coronavirus in February.... 'I believe the president should have been straightforward,' she said, calling the president's handling of the pandemic 'uneven.'... Trump's unpopularity in Maine ... has been the principal advantage enjoyed by Collins' Democratic challenger, Sara Gideon, who currently serves as the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and is leading Collins by a slim margin in all major polls. Gideon played to that strength throughout the debate, pressing Collins on two separate occasions to reveal who she supports in the upcoming presidential election." Collins refused to answer.

Chutzpah, Corruption, Laziness & Lies

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "After weeks of public silence about the wildfires devastating the West Coast, President Trump scheduled a visit to California on Monday, where he will join local and federal fire and emergency officials for a briefing on the crisis. The announcement of the visit, which was added to a three-day campaign swing through Nevada and Arizona, came after Mr. Trump tweeted Friday night thanking the firefighters and emergency medical workers. It was the president's first acknowledgment in almost a month of a wildfire season that has claimed at least 20 lives and destroyed millions of acres of land in California, Oregon and Washington.... Mr. Trump's silence has been more noticeable because of his outspokenness over the past week on many other subjects that advisers believe could have a more direct effect on his standing in the polls against ... Joseph R. Biden Jr. On Labor Day, for instance, Mr. Trump held a news conference to herald the improvements in the economy and defend himself after The Atlantic published a report that said the president had made disparaging remarks about the military's service members. At two rallies in Michigan and North Carolina, Mr. Trump made inflated and inaccurate statements about his own accomplishments.... And on Twitter, he has attacked Democrats and protesters while promoting false claims about the dangers of mail-in voting.... In one of the last times he mentioned the fires, he blamed the state of California for its forest management." A Politico story is here.

Maureen Dowd reports some anecdotes about Trump's desire to impress the elite journalists he knocks as part of the "fake news," "failing" media elite. "Even though [Bob] Woodward keeps writing books about Trump with titles that sound like Hitchcock horror flicks -- first 'Fear' and now 'Rage' -- Trump somehow thought he could win over the pillar of the Washington establishment.... At least with Nixon, Woodward had to follow the money to expose the venality. With Donald Trump, he simply had to turn on a recorder." (Also linked yesterday.)

William Rashbaum & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "President Trump's lawyers on Friday accused a federal judge of 'stacking the deck' against Mr. Trump in his long-running fight to block the Manhattan district attorney from getting his tax returns. The assertion came in a legal filing in which Mr. Trump's lawyers asked a federal appeals court to scrap a lower court's decision that would allow the district attorney to obtain the returns and other financial records.... The appeal was the latest turn in a protracted legal battle that began in August 2019, when the office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, issued the subpoena to Mr. Trump's accounting firm seeking eight years of the president's personal and corporate tax returns and other financial records as part of a criminal investigation." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services have sought to change, delay and prevent the release of reports about the coronavirus by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because they were viewed as undermining President Trump's message that the pandemic is under control. Michael Caputo, the top HHS spokesman, said in an interview Saturday that he and one of his advisers have been seeking greater scrutiny of the CDC's weekly scientific dispatches, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, for the past 3½ months. The adviser, Paul Alexander, has sent repeated emails to the CDC seeking changes and demanding that the reports be halted until he could make edits. The emails, first reported late Friday by Politico [and linked here yesterday], describe the CDC documents ... as being 'hit pieces on the administration.' Caputo confirmed the authenticity of the emails." ~~~

     ~~~ Noah Weiland, et al., of the New York Times: "Current and former senior health officials with direct knowledge of phone calls, emails and other communication between the agencies said on Saturday that meddling from Washington was turning widely followed and otherwise apolitical guidance on infectious disease, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, into a political loyalty test, with career scientists framed as adversaries of the administration. They confirmed an article in Politico Friday night that the C.D.C.'s public morbidity reports, which one former top health official described on Saturday as the 'holiest of the holy' in agency literature, have been targeted for months by senior officials in the health department's communications office. It is unclear whether any of the reports were substantially altered, but important federal health studies have been delayed because of the pressure."

Jeff Stein & Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "The emergency unemployment benefits approved by President Trump last month are already running out, leaving millions of Americans without extra support as prospects dim for a congressional deal to provide more relief for jobless Americans.... In recent days, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the agency funding the unemployment aid program, said the benefit was scheduled to last for a maximum of six weeks from the beginning of August. The benefit has been going to workers in 48 states, Guam and D.C. The agency has told states including Texas, Iowa, Montana, Tennessee and New Hampshire that the week ending Sept. 5 was the last covered by the additional benefit. Some states appear to have received even less. New Mexico, for example, told residents that they could expect only four weeks of payments -- assistance lasting only through Aug. 22."

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "A coronavirus vaccine trial resumed Saturday in the United Kingdom after the study was paused for a week because of an unexplained illness in a trial participant. The recommendation to resume human testing of the vaccine candidate being developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was made by an independent safety review committee and by the U.K. health regulator." Politico's story is here.

Michigan. Meredith Deliso of ABC News: "All local Michigan State University students have been asked to self-quarantine immediately for the next two weeks to contain the 'exponential growth' of COVID-19 cases, county health officials sad. At least 342 people affiliated with the East Lansing school have tested positive for the coronavirus since Aug. 24, according to the Ingham County Health Department. In the three weeks prior, there were only 23 such cases, officials said. Cases started to rise once thousands of students returned to the area for the fall semester, officials said. At least a third of the people who tested positive had recently attended parties or social gatherings -- and at least a third of those were associated with a fraternity or sorority, the health department said."

All the Best People, Ctd. Climate Science Denier Gets a Top Post at NOAA. Rebecca Hersher of NPR: "David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Legates confirmed to NPR that he was recently hired as NOAA's deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction. The position suggests that he reports directly to Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the agency that is in charge of the federal government's sprawling weather and climate prediction work."

Ava Wallace of the Washington Post: "The newly minted 2020 U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka wore seven different masks for her seven matches this year in New York, each sporting the name of a victim of violence. Osaka, who was born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, has fielded questions for two weeks about what she hopes to achieve by wearing names including Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Tamir Rice in her televised on-court interviews. Almost every time, she answers that she simply wants to bring awareness about racial and social injustice in the United States and overseas. Osaka has unique reach in that regard -- inarguably a celebrity in the United States, where she spent most of her childhood and currently lives, she plays for Japan and captures an international audience as well."

Virginia. Statue of Very Fine Confederate Soldier Removed. Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "... a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Va., the site of a violent white supremacist rally in 2017, was removed on Saturday morning from its pedestal at the Albemarle County courthouse after 111 years. The removal of the monument, 'At Ready,' which depicts a Confederate soldier holding a rifle in his hands, along with two cannons and several cannonballs on either side of it, was live-streamed on the Albemarle County's official Facebook account. At the start of the removal process at 6:30 a.m., Ned Gallaway, chairman of the county board of supervisors, read a brief history of how the statue was erected in 1909 using taxpayer money and how supervisors voted last month to remove it.... On Tuesday, the board of supervisors voted to send the Confederate monument -- including the statue, cannons and cannonballs -- to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation." The Guardian's story is here.

Rosie Gray & Ryan Mack of BuzzFeed News: "Four years ago, billionaire venture capitalist and Facebook board member Peter Thiel made one of his biggest bets: He went all in on Donald Trump ... tying his reputation as one of the most successful figures in modern tech to a presidential candidate despised throughout Silicon Valley.... Even as Thiel staked his reputation on the candidate in public, he met in private with the racist fringe that felt emboldened by Trump&'s rise to power.... [D]uring the summer of 2016, Thiel hosted a dinner with one of the most influential and vocal white nationalists in modern-day America [Kevin DeAnna] -- a man who has called for the creation of a white ethnostate and played a key role in an effort to mainstream white nationalism as the 'alt-right.'... Thiel emailed the next day to say how much he'd enjoyed his company.... The people he met or had had plans with ... were for a time key figures pushing racist ideology and white nationalism toward a place of greater acceptability within the hard-right world of Trumpism.... Newly uncovered emails seen by BuzzFeed News show white nationalist leaders were chattering about plans with Thiel in the summer of 2016.... Thiel's dinner coincided with the apex of the alt-right movement's influence in mainstream political discourse." Very informative reporting. --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "Conservation groups on Friday raised alarm about the Trump administration's push to lift protections for gray wolves across the country after an analysis revealed how a record-breaking 570 wolves, including dozens of pups, were brutally killed in Idaho over a recent one-year period.... Wolves no longer have Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and parts of Oregon, Utah, and Washington state but are still protected elsewhere. However, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith told the Associated Press last week that her agency is 'working hard' to delist wolves nationwide by the end of the year, calling the policy change 'very imminent.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Bob Brigham of RawStory: "The FBI on Friday denounced numerous false claims that 'extremists' are intentionally setting fires in Oregon, saying the misinformation is hampering efforts to bring devastating wildfires under control.... One of the false claims about Antifa arsonists appears to have originated with Paul Romero Jr, who unsuccessfully ran as a Republican to be one of Oregon's US senators." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Meerah Powell, et al., of Oregon Public Radio: "A Clackamas County sheriff’s deputy was placed on administrative leave Saturday after a video was posted online of the deputy claiming anti-fascist activists had been starting fires in the area. The patrol deputy’s statements in the video are in direct conflict with efforts by law enforcement to dispel false rumors that antifa is responsible for wildfires burning in Clackamas County. The deputy, whose face and name badge are not fully shown in the video, is recorded saying: 'Antifa motherfuckers are out causing hell, and there's a lot of lives at stake. And there's a lot of people's property at stake because these guys got some vendetta.' The sheriff's office said in a statement Saturday that the on-duty patrol deputy was tasked with ensuring residents knew of wildfire hazards in the area.... The deputy has not been publicly identified."

Lois Beckett & Maanvi Singh of the Guardian: "Most news coverage of the wildfires raging in California, Washington and Oregon on American TV channels made no mention of the connection between the historic fires and climate crisis, according to a new analysis from Media Matters. Reviewing coverage aired over the 5-8 September holiday weekend, the progressive media watchdog group found that only 15% of corporate TV news segments on the fires ;mentioned the climate crisis. A separate analysis found that during the entire month of August only 4% of broadcast news wildfire coverage mentioned climate crisis.... A consensus of research has made clear that extreme heat and drought fueled by global heating has left the American west tinder-dry and especially vulnerable to runaway fires." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Peter Gleick in the Guardian: "My own work on climate and water 35 years ago found that rising temperatures would alter California's snowpack, water availability, and soil moisture in ways we’re now seeing in our mountains and rivers.... Projections have turned to reality. The future has arrived. What we're seeing now, with massive wildfires, worsening storms, unprecedented heat, and record droughts and floods is just the beginning of the climate changes to come. On top of rising oceans, the accelerating destruction of the Arctic ice cap, expanding water crises, and new health disasters, these climate impacts are something no human society has ever experienced and for which we remain woefully unprepared." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Last summer, oil and gas-industry groups were lobbying to overturn federal rules on leaks of natural gas, a major contributor to climate change. Their message: The companies had emissions under control. In private, the lobbyists were saying something very different. At a discussion convened last year by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, a group that represents energy companies, participants worried that producers were intentionally flaring, or burning off, far too much natural gas, threatening the industry's image, according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The New York Times.... A[n oil] well can produce both oil and natural gas, but oil commands far higher prices. Flaring it is an inexpensive way of getting rid of the gas. Yet the practice of burning it off, producing dramatic flares and attracting criticism, represented a 'huge, huge threat' to the industry's efforts to portray natural gas as a cleaner and more climate-friendly energy source, [Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council,] said."

News Ledes

The New York Times' live updates of Western wildfire developments Sunday are here.

Washington Post: "Oregon authorities and experts described the wildfires as unprecedented, leaving a painful trail of destruction across a wide swath of the state. Officials had linked the fires to at least nine deaths Saturday, a toll that could rise. In California, more than 3 million acres have burned in historic blazes now connected to at least 22 deaths. In Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on Saturday urged residents to keep their doors and windows closed as smoke clogged the air."

AP: "Tropical Storm Sally slowed down Sunday as it churned northward toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, increasing the risk of heavy rain and dangerous storm surge before an expected strike as a Category 2 hurricane in southern Louisiana.... Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sally is expected to become a hurricane on Monday and reach shore by early Tuesday, bringing dangerous weather conditions, including risk of flooding, to a region stretching from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Ocean Springs, Mississippi."

Hill: "Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the state prepares for Tropical Storm Sally. Edwards said in a statement Saturday that Sally is expected to strengthen into a hurricane that could make land fall in Louisiana Monday morning. 'While we ultimately don't know where Sally will make landfall, much of Southeast Louisiana is in the storm's cone and the risk of tropical storm force or hurricane strength winds continues to increase,' Edwards said."