PenPals

Do today's kids know what a Pen Pal is? When I was young, it was intriguing that you might find someone on the other side of the world, or at least the other side of the country, to exchange letters with.

Ah, written letters. What a quaint concept!

Maybe today Facebook Messenger fills that function. Or the Comments section. 

Every day that I publish, I hear back from people, through those two channels or a variety of others. To me, it feels like we're exchanging bits of our lives as we go about the business of living separately.

Every now and again we discover that we are living parallel experiences, that we have a new thought or feeling in common.

If I am right, my role is that of  a convenor -- the one who gets the conversation going. That suits me; it's consistent with my training and experience as a journalist.

Anyway, everyone could use a pen pal. Even dictators. Clearly, President Trump is always at his happiest when he's gotten another love letter from Kimmy Jong-Un or Vlady Putin.

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 In my other role as aggregator, here it goes:

* Right-wing activists gather near Portland for pro-Trump ‘cruise rally’ -- More than 1,000 supporters of President Trump, including some aligned with white nationalist extremist groups, gathered in a show of force against left-wing protesters. (WashPo)

* At the traditional, post-Labor Day start of the fall campaign, we are zeroing in on eight critical battlegrounds where the 2020 election will be won or lost: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. (Politico)

* The Electoral College Will Destroy America -- And no, New York and California would not dominate a popular vote. (NYT)

* Most Americans won’t be allowed to get a vaccine immediately -- The most likely scenario is that the FDA would grant initial approval to vaccinate front-line health workers, those older than 65 and those with underlying medical conditions, two industry experts say. (WashPo)

* Early this year, Michigan advanced a bipartisan measure to let election officials take absentee ballots out of their mailing envelopes — but not to unseal the ballots or count them — the day before Election Day. It was the kind of small, bureaucratic switch that could make the difference between timely results in this fall’s presidential election and chaos. Then, Trump made it clear that he preferred chaos. “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” he tweeted in May. Since then, the bill has barely budged. [HuffPost]

* Manhattan’s Office Buildings Are Empty. But for How Long? -- As they grow accustomed to working from home, many businesses are delaying signing new leases until rents drop and the pandemic passes. (NYT)

* White supremacy is 'most lethal threat' to the US, DHS draft assessment says (CNN)

* Wildfires have burned a record 2 million acres in California this year, and the danger for more destruction is so high the U.S. Forest Service on Monday said it was closing all eight national forests in the southern half of the state. Two of the three largest fires in state history are burning in the San Francisco Bay Area. More than 14,000 firefighters are battling those fires and dozens of others. A three-day heat wave brought triple-digit temperatures to much of the state during Labor Day weekend. But right behind it was a weather system with dry winds that could fan fires. One major blaze was ignited during a gender reveal party Saturday, and iconic landmarks are looking apocalyptic as fires approach.(AP)

* On Monday, rounding out a Labor Day weekend of record-breaking heat and stress on the state’s already strained power grid, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties due to fires driven by climate change, (NYT).

* The Valley Fire in San Diego County continued to chew through rugged terrain on Monday afternoon, making it difficult for firefighters to work. [The San Diego Union-Tribune] * Evacuations prompted by the El Dorado Fire have spread into Riverside County. [The Riverside Press-Enterprise] * The recent Dome Fire left behind mass Joshua tree carnage. It’s a dark signal about the plant’s odds of survival in a climate-change-ravaged future. [The Desert Sun] * Amid West Coast wildfire outbreak, Calif. winds raise threat further -- Blazes have destroyed a Washington town and closed national forests, with red-flag warnings extending from the Canada border to San Diego. (WashPo) * ‘You Couldn’t See Anything’: Harrowing Helicopter Rescues as California Wildfires Rage (NYT)

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You gotta go where you want to go
Do what you want to do
With whoever you want to do it with

You don't understand
That a girl like me can love just one man
Three thousand miles, that's how far you'll go
And you said to me please don't follow

-- Mamas and Papas