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.

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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."

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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."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 12, 2020

Late Morning Update:

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."

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."

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." --s

Common Dreams in RawStory: "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

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

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

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

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Planning Ahead -- What a Concept! Yasmeen Abutaleb & Laurie McGinley of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden has created a war-cabinet-in-waiting on the coronavirus pandemic, with major figures from the Obama, Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations drafting plans for distributing vaccines and personal protective gear, dramatically ramping up testing, reopening schools and addressing health-care disparities. The effort began six months ago when the campaign consulted David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner under Presidents Bush and Bill Clinton, and Vivek H. Murthy, surgeon general under President Barack Obama, on how to run a presidential campaign during a pandemic. The pair, along with a growing cadre of volunteer health experts, has been working behind the scenes to craft plans that could take effect Jan. 20, when the next president will take the oath of office, said Jake Sullivan, a senior policy adviser on the Biden campaign."

Annie Karni, et al., of the New York Times: "The two presidential contenders put their acrimonious political sparring on hold* on Friday to pay their respects to the Americans killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a pause in an extraordinarily polarizing race in which the candidates have offered drastically different visions on virtually every issue, including what it means to comfort a grieving nation. President Trump offered somber remarks in Shanksville, Pa., honoring those who died on Flight 93, the plane that was hijacked and headed for Washington but instead crashed into a field after passengers fought back. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee, traveled to New York before visiting Shanksville to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the attacks, speaking with family members of the victims but not making a formal address." ~~~

     ~~~ * Not Quite. Meghan Roos of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump suggested in a new interview with Fox News that... Joe Biden 'probably' uses drugs to amplify his debate performance. Fox News shared a clip of the interview online before its scheduled airtime on Saturday night. 'There's probably, possibly drugs involved. That's what I hear,' Trump told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro." ~~~

~~~ Lia Eustachewich of the New York Post: "Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence shared an elbow bump Friday at the annual 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City. The 2020 presidential ticket foes, each wearing face masks, greeted one another according to coronavirus pandemic protocol and briefly chatted at Ground Zero just before the 19th annual commemoration kicked off. They were among a number of elected officials and dignitaries to attend the event, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, George Pataki, who was governor of New York during 9/11, New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Why didn't Trump go to New York, the city of his birth? Was he afraid of being ambushed by a subpoena-server? Or of being booed? Did he not want to go to his apartment where he would have to look down upon a "Black Lives Matter" street mural? Probably he just thought he'd get more of a campaign boost from going to Shanksville, and unlike Biden, Trump does not have the strength to attend two memorial services.

The Truth Shall Get Ye Ousted. Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press: "Kathleen Gray, a longtime political reporter for the Detroit Free Press who now works for the New York Times, said she was removed from ... Donald Trump's Michigan rally on Thursday after tweeting that few in the crowd appeared to be wearing masks. 'First for me: Trump campaign tracked me down from pics i tweeted and escorted me out,' Gray said in a post on Twitter. Earlier she had posted photos of the crowd and said 'Maybe 10% have masks.' National media reported that Trump campaign officials said she was removed from the rally at MBS International Airport in Freeland because she did not have campaign-issued credentials and was working in the general audience area rather than in a designated press area. Gray told Bridge Magazine that she had missed the deadline to get credentials but had tried multiple times to contact the campaign to get them after that and received no response. She acknowledged that she entered the general admission section of the rally because she didn't have the campaign-issued media credentials." (Also linked yesterday.)

Russian Election Interference, Brought to You by Donald Trump. S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "An anti-Joe Biden conspiracy theory pushed by ... Donald Trump, his personal lawyer and his favorite television network has been labeled Russian interference into the coming U.S. election -- by Trump's own administration.... [Andrii] Derkach had been working with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and One America News network, which Trump has come to favor in the past year, to push the falsehood that ... [Biden] acted improperly when, as vice president, he worked to remove a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor, supposedly to protect a company his son, Hunter, had been working for.... Trump, who was impeached last year for his efforts to extort Ukraine's new president into opening an investigation into Biden, has nevertheless continued to push that conspiracy theory. 'Where is Hunter? -- Where is Hunter? -- I call him "Where is Hunter?"' Trump said at a White House news conference Monday. 'He walked away with a fortune from Ukraine.' His own handpicked Cabinet members, however, on Thursday, issued statements that describe Derkach's work as part of ongoing Russian attempts to sway the outcome of the coming election." As Date's headline writer puts it, "Trump's Own Officials Label His Ukraine Theory As Russian Election Interference." ~~~

~~~ Anna Nemtsova, et al., of the Daily Beast: Rudy Giuliani "and a key Ukrainian ally [Andriy Telizhenko] in their plot to smear Former Vice President Joe Biden have both tried to distance themselves from collaborator Andriy Derkach after he was sanctioned and outed as an 'active Russian agent' by the U.S. Treasury Department.... Giuliani, who worked with Derkach and whose work as Trump's lawyer and top Biden-dirt-digger culminated in his own client's impeachment, told The Daily Beast on Friday that he was no longer in touch with the Russian intelligence asset. Asked if he was going to continue communicating with Derkach, Giuliani -- who has since started working with the Trump 2020 campaign -- simply replied, 'Haven't talk[ed] to him in months.' Asked if this week's news means his friendship and collaborations with Derkach are over, Giuliani tersely responded, 'No idea.'... Although Telizhenko claims not to have been a close ally of Derkach, the pair have a history of working with Giuliani on propagating debunked conspiracy theories about Ukraine's interference in the 2016 presidential election."

Florida. Appeals Court Upholds Racist Florida Poll Tax. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court on Friday blocked hundreds of thousands of felons in Florida who still owe fines and fees from registering to vote, putting a halt to what was potentially the nation's largest re-enfranchisement of voters in more than 50 years. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta agreed with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) that the payment of fines and fees by ex-felons is part of their 'terms of sentence' and must be satisfied before they can register. The decision comes less than a month before the presidential swing state's Oct. 5 deadline to register to vote for November's general election." Mrs. McC: This is, @ 4:45 pm ET, a fairly incomplete report. There's no link to the decision, no information on who the judges were or if the vote was split. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I did two things Tuesday. I voted. And I convinced the IRS that I did not owe them thousands of dollars. But the first was not dependent upon the second. Whether or not I owed the government a bundle made no difference to my right to vote. The same is true for almost every voter. Being in arrears on property taxes or school taxes or traffic fines or state taxes or federal taxes or whatever does not disenfranchise most Americans.

Chutzpah, Corruption. Laziness & Lies

Nicole Wallace of MSNBC pointed out that Donald Trump was obsessed with protecting a federal building in Portland, Oregon, but he has not said word one about protecting Americans from the fires engulfing the West, including Oregon. L.A. Times reporter Eli Stokols said that on Thursday, Trump said he had watched 8 hours of television over the previous 24 hours, yet the governor of Oregon said she could not get through to him about the fires in her state. ~~~

~~~ Carla Marinucci of Politico: "California and the West have been on fire, but ... Donald Trump went more than three weeks without mentioning it. During that time, Trump tweeted, golfed, held news conferences and appeared at campaign rallies. He visited Louisiana in late August after Hurricane Laura killed 27 people, saying he wanted 'to support the great people of Louisiana, it's been a tremendous state for me.' But as wildfires ravaged Western states with a similar number of deaths, Trump waited until Friday night to reference it publicly after coming under growing criticism for his silence. 'THANK YOU to the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington,' he wrote. 'I have approved 37 Stafford Act Declarations, including Fire Management Grants to support their brave work....' The Trump administration has behind the scenes approved emergency declarations and pledged federal relief to states trying to contain fast-moving fires. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he spoke to Trump for 30 minutes Thursday.... Last month, when California was under siege by hundreds of lightning-caused fires, Trump held up the state as an example of liberal excess in a speech to Pennsylvania rallygoers. 'I see again the forest fires are starting,' he told supporters. 'I said, you gotta clean your floors you gotta clean your forests -- there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they're like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up.'"

** CDC Pressured to Mimic Trump's Lies about Covid-19. Dan Diamond of Politico: "The health department’s politically appointed communications aides have demanded the right to review and seek changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly scientific reports charting the progress of the coronavirus pandemic, in what officials characterized as an attempt to intimidate the reports' authors and water down their communications to health professionals. In some cases, emails from communications aides to CDC Director Robert Redfield and other senior officials openly complained that the agency's reports would undermine ... Donald Trump's optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to emails reviewed by Politico and three people familiar with the situation.... Since Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official with no medical or scientific background, was installed in April as the health department's new spokesperson, there have been substantial efforts to align the reports with Trump's statements, including the president's claims that fears about the outbreak are overstated, or stop the reports altogether.... CDC officials have fought back against the most sweeping changes, but have increasingly agreed to allow the political officials to review the reports and, in a few cases, compromised on the wording, according to three people familiar with the exchanges. The communications aides' efforts to change the language in the CDC's reports have been constant across the summer and continued as recently as Friday afternoon."

Imagine you were an alien who landed on planet Earth, and you saw that our planet was afflicted by an infectious disease and that masks were an effective way to prevent the spread. And yet, when you went around, you saw some people not wearing them and some people wearing them. And you tried to figure out why, and it turned out it was their political party. And you would scratch your head and think, 'This is just not a planet that has much promise for the future, if something that is so straightforward can somehow get twisted into decision-making that really makes no sense.' -- NIH Director Francis Collins on CNN Thursday ~~~

~~~ NIH Director Implies Trump Rally Was an Indicator Trump Has Doomed Earth. Alternate Headline: Scientist Discovers Earth's Biggest Asshole. Quint Forgey of Politico: "Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Thursday he was 'pretty puzzled' and 'rather disheartened by ... Donald Trump's crowded campaign rally in Michigan -- at which few of the several thousand attendees could be seen wearing face masks and virtually none appeared to be practicing social distancing. In unusually frank remarks during a CNN town hall event focused on the novel coronavirus, the nation's top public health official lamented that commonsense mitigation measures had become politicized and claimed that aliens from far-off worlds viewing Americans' behavior amid the pandemic would conclude that Earth was all but doomed." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rick Wilson & Molly Jong-Fast discuss "The New Abnormal." Daily Beast: "'No American has killed more of their fellow Americans in this country than Donald Trump, except for Robert E. Lee and Jefferson fucking Davis,' [Wilson] says. 'No one has a body count to rival Trump's. He knew it. He knew it was there. He did it. He let it happen. It is the most unbelievable and horrifying outcome that we can imagine.' Molly adds, 'Mike Pence was at a pro-life event the other day. And I was thinking about the irony, right? This administration has killed 100,000 plus plus plus people. And they're talking about embryos. Like, it's almost beyond parody'" (Also linked yesterday.) :

Bill Barr's Bad Day

** Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "Nora Dannehy, a federal prosecutor who is a top aide to U.S. Attorney John H. Durham in his Russia investigation, has quietly resigned from the probe, the Hartford Courant reports. Dannehy's resignation was at least partly out of concern that the investigative team is 'being pressed for political reasons to produce a report before its work is done,' her colleagues tell the Courant." Includes commentary from legal pundits. The Courant report, which is firewalled, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Adam Silverman of Balloon Juice reprints a chunk of the Courant report. ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Kovensky of TPM: "... Nora R. Dannehy's ... decision, the [Hartford Courant] says, was at least partly motivated by alleged attempts at speeding up the investigation for political reasons by Attorney General Bill Barr. The report cites colleagues of Dannehy's, who told the paper that, in the Courant's words, she 'has been concerned in recent weeks by what she believed was pressure from Barr -- who appointed Durham -- to produce results before the election.' Citing the same anonymous colleagues, the paper also reports that Dannehy has been considering resignation in recent weeks amid 'concern about politics.' The report offered few specifics about the reasons for Dannehy's concerns. But it notes that other 'Durham associates' believe that Barr has been pressuring him to produce some sort of result before the November election." A breaking CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: The Washington Post story, by Devlin Barrett & Matt Zapotosky, is here. A New York Times report, by Charlie Savage & others, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Former U.S. prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said on MSNBC Friday that Dannehy would have announced the reason for her resignation had it been for, say, personal family considerations, so as not to hurt the investigation. IOW, something is rotten in Connecticut.

** "A Corrupt Political Errand for the President." Jan Wolfe of Reuters: "A retired judge blasted the U.S. Justice Department's plan to drop the criminal case against ... Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn as corrupt on Friday and urged the judge presiding over the case to reject the move. John Gleeson, a former trial judge and prosecutor, was named by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to argue against the department's stance in the high-profile case in Washington. Critics have accused the department and Attorney General William Barr of going light on Flynn, a Trump ally who twice pleaded guilty in the case to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's former ambassador in Washington. In a court filing, Gleeson said ... the department's effort to [drop the case] was a 'corrupt and politically motivated favor unworthy of our justice system.'... The department unsuccessfully sought to force Sullivan to drop the charges, but an appeals court allowed the judge to consider the matter further." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

The government makes virtually no effort to deny or rebut the powerful evidence that its ... motion improperly seeks to place this Court's imprimatur on a corrupt, politically motivated favor for the president's friend and ally. -- John Gleeson, brief re: Michael Flynn case ~~~

     ~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "In an unsparing, 30-page brief, John Gleeson ... suggests that the Justice Department's arguments for letting Flynn off the hook conflict with its positions in other cases -- and even in earlier rounds of the Flynn case itself -- and therefore can only be chalked up to Trump's pressure campaign. Gleeson's brief is here, via Politico. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "An elected prosecutor [-- John Choi --] who took a role in Donald Trump's presidential commission on law enforcement has resigned, telling Attorney General William Barr that he is concerned the commission was 'intent on providing cover for a predetermined agenda that ignores the lessons of the past' and will issue a final report that 'will only widen the divisions in our nation.' Trump formed the Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice late last October, announcing its formation at the International Association of Chiefs of Polices annual meeting. Trumps order mandated that the commission issue a report within one year ― a deadline that falls just days ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The commission is stacked with members of law enforcement, and the American Civil Liberties Union has questioned whether it is a 'sham commission formed only for the purposes of advancing a Thin Blue Line' law and order agenda.'" The Justice Department & two commission members then trashed Choi.

Trump Treasury Stealing from 9/11 Heroes Fund. Michael McAuliff of the New York Daily News (Sept. 10): "The Trump administration has secretly siphoned nearly $4 million away from a program that tracks and treats FDNY firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11 related illnesses, the Daily News has learned. The Treasury Department mysteriously started withholding parts of payments -- nearly four years ago -- meant to cover medical services for firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics treated by the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program, documents obtained by The News reveal. The payments were authorized and made by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which oversees the program. But instead of sending the funds to the city, the Treasury started keeping some of the money. 'This was just disappearing,' the program's director, Dr. David Prezant, told The News. 'This is the most amazing thing. This was disappearing -- without any notification.'"

Donna Cassata of the Washington Post: "The chairman of a House committee issued a subpoena Friday to compel Chad Wolf to testify next week after the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security declined to appear at a hearing on worldwide threats. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the panel had been in contact with the department since June to secure Wolf's testimony along with that of FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Chris Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center.... In a Sept. 8 letter to Thompson, the department's assistant secretary for legislative affairs, Beth Spivey, said Wolf's appearance before the committee would be inappropriate as officials formally nominated typically do not testify to Congress before they have been confirmed by the Senate. Wolf was installed to run the department about 10 months ago on an interim basis, a move that a government watchdog has called unlawful. Trump formally nominated Wolf Thursday." ~~~

~~~ Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "The Senate intelligence committee is investigating a whistleblower complaint filed by a former top U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official alleging he was pressed to skew official intelligence reports for political purposes, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Warner, the committee's Republican acting chair and Democrat vice chair, wrote to DHS deputy general counsel Joseph Maher on Thursday, saying they had received the complaint and asking for related documents. Brian Murphy, who until recently was acting chief of DHS' intelligence and analysis (I&A) office, alleged in the complaint that acting DHS chief Chad Wolf asked him to stop providing assessments on Russian election interference and to play down U.S. white supremacist activity." ~~~

~~~ Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Adam Goldman of the New York Times profile Brian Murphy the DHS whistleblower who is scheduled to testify before House committees in the coming weeks regarding his complaint that he was ordered to "play down the primary national security threats of white supremacy and Russian election interference, thus distorting intelligence to mirror President Trump's messaging." Murphy is, according to the report, a loose cannon.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronoavirus developments Saturday are here: "The United States should not expect a return to regular life until 'well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021,' Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... said on Friday.... I have to disagree,' Dr. Fauci said of Mr. Trump's read on the situation. 'We're plateauing at around 40,000 cases a day, and the deaths are around 1,000.'"

The New York Times' live updates of coronoavirus developments Friday are here.

DHS Caused Virginia Covid-19 Outbreak as Part of Effort to Police D.C. Protests. Antonio Olivo & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration flew immigrant detainees to Virginia this summer to facilitate the rapid deployment of Homeland Security tactical teams to quell protests in Washington, circumventing restrictions on the use of charter flights for employee travel, according to a current and a former U.S. official. After the transfer, dozens of the new arrivals tested positive for the novel coronavirus, fueling an outbreak at the Farmville, Va., immigration jail that infected more than 300 inmates, one of whom died.... A former ICE official who learned about [the travel arrangements] from other personnel, said the primary reason for the June 2 transfers was to skirt rules that bar ICE employees from traveling on the charter flights unless detainees are also aboard. The transfers took place over the objections of ICE officials in the Washington field office, according to testimony at a Farmville town council meeting in August, and at a time when immigration jails elsewhere in the country had plenty of beds available because of a dramatic decrease in border crossings and in-country arrests." (Also linked yesterday.)

About Trump's Article II. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "More than a month after Mr. Trump signed an executive memorandum to defer the collection of the payroll taxes that workers pay to help fund Social Security, few companies or people are taking part. Trade groups and tax experts say they know of no large corporations that plan to stop withholding employees' payroll taxes this fall. As a result, economic policy experts now say they expect the deferral to have little to no effect on economic growth this year. The fizzling of the payroll plan is the most prominent example of the difficulties Mr. Trump has encountered in trying to stimulate the economy while bypassing Congress. Another of his executive actions, to repurpose disaster funds to create a temporary lift in unemployment benefits, has quickly lost steam: Federal officials told states this week that the benefits would run out after six weeks for workers. Still, Mr. Trump has told reporters he believes he has the power to do more on his own, and might try to if Congress does not approve new stimulus."

Michael Crowley & David Halbfinger of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Friday that Bahrain would establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, following the United Arab Emirates, in another sign of shifting Middle East dynamics that are bringing Arab nations closer to Israel. Mr. Trump announced the news on Twitter, releasing a joint statement with Bahrain and Israel and calling the move 'a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East.' Speaking to reporters, the president said the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was a fitting day for the announcement. 'There's no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11,' he said.... The deal, which isolates the Palestinians, comes as Mr. Trump tries to position himself as a peacemaker before the elections in November."

Alex Horton of the Washington Post: Army First Sgt. Thomas P. "Payne, now a sergeant major, received the highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, in a White House ceremony Friday for his role in the operation to free about 70 captives [from ISIS], a mission in which he led many out of the compound and went back in for one last man.... The Army has said the mission was one of the largest hostage rescue operations in history. It was partially captured on the helmet camera of a Kurdish soldier, which shows Payne in a doorway leading a stream of captives out before going back to look for other survivors."

Kate Conger, et al., of the New York Times: "Officials dealing with catastrophic fires on the West Coast have had to counter social media rumors that the blazes were set by antifascist activists, publicly pleading that people verify information before sharing it. Despite their efforts, misinformation about the origin of the fires -- which have killed at least 15 people and consumed millions of acres -- continues to spread on Facebook and Twitter. Several law enforcement agencies in Oregon said they had been flooded with inquiries about rumors that activists were responsible. On Thursday, several journalists reporting on fires near the city of Molalla, Ore., said they had been confronted by a group of armed people who were worried about unverified reports of arsonists in the area." A CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "A 36-mile-wide line of flames edged into the towns around Portland, Ore., and cities along the West Coast were smothered in acrid smoke and ash on Friday as history-making wildfires remained unchecked, killing at least 17 and leaving dozens of people missing. 'We are preparing for a mass fatality incident based on what we know and the numbers of structures that have been lost,' Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, said as firefighters struggled to contain blazes that have spread across millions of acres of the Pacific Northwest." ~~~

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