They're Everywhere

The big picture is that we are stuck. It is an in-between time between what has befallen our society and what, if anything, is going to be done about it.

Our economy is in tatters. Too many people are out of work with limited prospects for getting their old jobs back. Many renters face eviction. Single parents are struggling with how to support their children when they can't go to school.

The pandemic rages; science races to catch up. There are indications that the number of infections may be far greater than the official numbers reported by the CDC and WHO, but nobody seems to know for sure.

The political environment features a polarizing President who is frightened he will lose in his bid to be re-elected to a second four-year term, and a non-charismatic challenger with a reputation for compromise and getting things done.

Accordingly, many Republicans are defecting from Trump's team to support Biden. Whether enough voters follow this course to sway the election is unclear.

What is clear is that incumbent Presidents rarely lose. The only two in my lifetime to lose are Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

So Biden has his work cut out.

An additional complication is what many consider to be the outmoded Electoral College, which allowed two candidates in my lifetime -- Al Gore and Hillary Clinton -- to win the popular vote but lose the election.

Except for that antiquated electoral vote system, therefore, the Democrats would have won every election since 1992. But wait -- what about 2004? Didn't W win re-election?

That was due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks -- Gore as the incumbent would have won re-election also. A cat as President would have won re-election that year.

So from the perspective of simple mathematics, the Republicans have been a minority party for a long time now.

Another use of the term "minority" is one of the reasons for that. The Democratic Party has courted minoritie voters much more assiduously than Republicans for generations now. The Republicans have never run a minority candidate on the national ticket.

This year's election will test that strategy as never before.

***

So what's happening this overnight?

* Facebook Braces Itself for Trump to Cast Doubt on Election Results --The world’s biggest social network is working out what steps to take should President Trump use its platform to dispute the vote. (New York Times)

* The 14-hour storm caused extensive damage. Now Iowans are trying to recover from the 'land hurricane' (CNN)

* Since she first ran for state attorney general in California a decade ago, Kamala Harris has forged close ties with the tech industry. [The New York Times]

* A series of lightning-sparked wildfires has devastated California's oldest state park.--Big Basin Redwoods State Park endured extensive damage from the CZU Lightning Complex Fire in Santa Cruz on Tuesday, according to a press release from the California Department of Parks and Recreation. (CNN)

* Cases rising again in Europe; crowded events in U.S. raise concerns--Large, crowded gatherings raised new worries among health authorities about possible super-spreader events in the U.S. and around the world. (Washington Post)

* Touting conspiracy theories, Trump welcomes fringe views into the political mainstream--Beyond being unfounded, many of the ideas Trump is bolstering are dangerous, according to intelligence officials, political scientists and, increasingly, members of the president’s own party. (Washington Post)

* How the impeachment inquiry laid bare Trump’s fixation on Biden--In “Trump on Trial,” which will be published Aug. 25, Washington Post reporters reveal how the president's alarm-raising request to a foreign country centered on one person — his political rival Joe Biden. (Washington Post)

* Trump retweeted Russian propaganda about Biden that the U.S. intelligence community recently announced was part of Moscow's ongoing effort to "denigrate" the Democrat ahead of November's election. (CNN)

* Trump remains largely silent on reported poisoning of Russian dissident (CNN)

* After World War II, thousands of Japanese-Americans returned to the West Coast from internment camps with nowhere to live. Poverty, restrictive housing covenants and racial prejudice led many to seek out housing wherever they could. [The New York Times]

***

Personal updates:

(1) The mother quail has hatched a chick! This is a domesticated breed that supposedly ignores their eggs but she built a nest and has been sitting on four eggs for weeks.

(2) My youngest daughter may have found a house to rent with two friends for her senior year. in college. It's on the Jersey shore. We'll find out tomorrow.

***

Smile:

A rabbi walks into a bar with a parrot on his shoulder. The bartender says, “Where did you get that?” The parrot says, “Brooklyn, they’re everywhere!”      -- The Internet

One Down, One to Go

So, the "news" is that the Democrats have nominated a ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And you certainly don't need a retired journalist to tell you that this isn't news. It's entertainment, but your faithful correspondent watched every minute of it, and it was a pretty good show.

Next week, the Republicans will nominate Donald Trump and Mike Pence. That, too, will not be news. But if Trump gets his way, it will most definitely be entertaining. I will be "there." 

The pandemic's impact has revealed these shows for what we already knew them to be -- television productions. As such, I'd give the Democrats a B. As they prepared their live-to-tape segments for broadcast, the editors failed to update the Covid-19 death totals cited by two speakers, including Michelle Obama.

Thus, the toll, which stood at over 170,000, was referred to as 160,000 and 150,000 in those two segments. You don't need carbon dating to trace the dates those pieces were filmed, all you need to do is reverse engineer the daily figures as certified by the CDC.

A cardinal rule of this kind of TV is to not let such embarrassing slips make it on the air; thus the reduced grade for the overall performance. The fix in such cases is a simple text line -- "At the time this interview was taped the death total was 150,000. Currently, it stands at 170,000."

Beyond that, the little Zoom squares of people clapping was sometimes silly and sometimes effective. The determining factor was how emotionally resonant the speech they were clapping for actually proved to be. Jill Biden's speech proved to be the emotional highlight of the convention, IMHO.

The final fireworks show in a parking lot outside the convention center with all he cars flashing their lights and people cheering was highly effective. As were the content creators, especially the Bidens, Obamas and Harris. Those speeches get an A.

***

Somewhere, strewn among my distributed possessions, is my press placard to the 1996 Republican convention. It was held in San Diego, where the GOP nominated Sen. Bob Dole to oppose the sitting President, Bill Clinton.

San Diego is such a beautiful city that landing there takes your breath away as your plane lands. It also traditionally was one of the most conservative cities on the west coast, and a big military town. It's become much more liberal in recent times.

As it happened back in '96, my hotel was the same one used by the Michigan GOP delegation, and we all left at the same time for the climactic night's proceedings, save for a few stragglers who had tied one on the night before and were too groggy to get out of bed. I joked and exchanged pleasantries with my former state's delegates, who were a friendly lot in the familiar way us Michiganders tend to be.

That year, I was coordinating coverage for my employer, Hotwired, one of the first media websites and the online arm of Wired magazine. My specific job was the producer of a daily political news site called the Netizen, and we had various reporters on the scene to serve our audience, which for the web at that time was substantial.

As I sat in the press section, which unlike the TV News area was distant from the podium, Sen. Dole was lit up as he spoke from a tiny peninsula thrust out over the arena filled with a massive crowd. He resembled a tiny silver finger bent at the waist, leaning into his moment.

***

Well, the Democrats have done their thing. We now enter a brief hiatus before the Republicans do theirs. Normally, each party gets a bump in the polls after these galas, so watch the polls this weekend.

Here are the headlines from overnight:

*  Joe Biden Accepts Democratic Nomination: ‘I Will Draw on the Best of Us’ -- Mr. Biden urged Americans to have faith that they could “overcome this season of darkness,” and he pledged to bridge the country’s divisions in ways President Trump had not. (New York Times)

* Fox's Bret Baier right after the speech: That was "the best he's been, as far as his delivery." Chris Wallace: "It was an enormously effective speech. Remember, Donald Trump has been talking for months about Joe Biden as mentally shot, a captive of the left, and yes Biden was reading from a teleprompter and a prepared speech, but I thought he blew a hole -- a big hole -- in that characterization."

* New York City teachers threaten to strike over reopening plan--The teachers union says Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to return to classrooms Sept. 10 imperils the health and safety of students and staff. (Washington Post.

* Trump said that he “appreciates” that supporters of QAnon, the far-right conspiracy movement, “like me very much.” Supporters of QAnon, which has been identified by the FBI as a potential domestic terrorism threat, believe that an individual dubbed “Q” has been leaving “breadcrumbs” of information online about Trump and others. [HuffPost]

* Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor, who is endorsing Joe Biden for president, said that Trump asked if America could swap Puerto Rico for Greenland and frequently made disparaging comments about the Puerto Rican people. Taylor said that during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2018, the president actually began tossing around the idea of “swapping” Puerto Rico for the autonomous Danish territory. “In his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor,” Taylor said. [HuffPost]

* Airbnb bans parties amid continued coronavirus outbreaks. The ban caps house occupancy at 16 people. (C/NET)

* About 11,000 lightning strikes have sparked 367 wildfires in California. (New York Times) New satellite images show smoke drifting roughly 600 miles from wildfires scorching California. (CNN) Tens of thousands evacuated as California wildfires double in size--Wildfires sparked by lightning strikes in central and northern California have more than doubled in area since Wednesday. (Washington Post)

* American Airlines to cut service to 15 cities once terms on billions in pandemic aid expire--The service cuts would leave nine airports without any airline flights for at least a month. (Washington Post)

* A federal judge on Thursday said New York state prosecutors could have access to President Donald Trump's accounting records for a criminal investigation, siding harshly against the President and increasing the possibility the tax records could go to a grand jury before the November presidential election. (CNN)

* As the Dixie Chicks take Democratic convention stage, three generations of country singers challenge genre’s conservative stereotypes -- While country music expands its popularity on the coasts and some of the format’s young stars are outspoken about voting for Democrats, the stereotypical “country music listener” is still seen as a conservative from the South. (Washington Post)

***

My six-year-old granddaughter's assignment yesterday was to answer the question "Why am I special?"

Her answer was "I'm special because I like dogs." (I later suggested to her that there are many other reasons also.)

It strikes me that during our present circumstances, that exercise is one that we all should consider.

Why am I special? Why are you special? Let me count the ways. (If you like dogs, that certainly qualifies.)

These are indeed, as Joe Biden noted last night, dark times.l, So don't make them worse. Remember to connect.

"And anytime you feel the pain
Hey Jude, refrain
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders
For well you know that it's a fool
Who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder"

                    -- Beatles

-30-

The Only Rule That Matters

By mid-day Wednesday, at least 33 wildfires were burnIng in the Bat Area, burying this area under a layer of acrid smoke. Ash littered the car as we started it up here in the northern East Bay to head for my doctor's office in the mid-peninsula.

Driving on the freeways and over the Bay Bridge was a surreal experience, with little visibility of the surrounding buildings and hills and water. Vehicles emerged from the thick haze only to disappear back into it.

The heat has eased along this coast but the oppressive humidity remains. We are living with a heaviness that makes us yearn to breathe deeply once again.

This is just the latest additive factor in the sequence of problems that make so many feel trapped. We've accommodated best we can to the social isolation, the lack of mobility, the need to conduct meetings remotely and the financial stresses that beset so many.

We miss seeing our friends and family members as often as we would have.

We miss our popular sports, reduced as they are to caricatures of their former selves.

We miss eating out at the many excellent restaurants that grace most of our towns and cities.

We miss our exercise venues.

We miss travel.

We miss unrestricted movement around the region where we live.

We miss normal routines like going to the store.

We miss celebrations. Even weddings have to be virtual.

We miss mourning. This is a bad time to die, alone and with our any real memorial service possibility.

We miss seeing our kids and grandkids off to school.

We miss cheering for them on the sidelines of their games or dramatic performances.

We miss going to the theater and the movies.

We miss concerts.

This list could go on and on but we all know the score. Of course this is our new reality but it sucks.

***

* Barack Obama and Kamala Harris gave effective speeches at the DNC's third night. (DW)

* Ocasio-Cortez’s speech serves as a warning to Democratic establishment and Biden--A new generation of liberals is growing their ranks and preparing to take on the former vice president should he win on Election Day. (Washington Post)

* SALLY YATES: TRUMP WOULD RATHER 'FAWN OVER A DICTATOR' THAN DEFEND AMERICA Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates excoriated Trump for what she called a relentless attack on democracy in a blistering speech at the DNC, urging voters to unite behind Biden. “From the moment President Trump took office, he’s used his position to defend himself rather than our country,” Yates said. “Rather than standing up to Vladimir Putin, he fawns over a dictator who is still trying to interfere in our elections.” [HuffPost]

* Young people emerge as main coronavirus spreaders, WHO says--Experts fear that the global trend seen by the World Health Organization may grow in the United States as many colleges and schools reopen. (Washington Post)

* Fires across Northern California sent residents fleeing from their homes in triple-degree temperatures, amid the ongoing threat of power outages. Follow continuing updates. Thousands of people were under orders to evacuate in regions surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area Wednesday as nearly 40 wildfires blazed across the state amid a blistering heat wave now in its second week. Smoke blanketed the city of San Francisco. (AP) [The Press Democrat | The San Francisco Chronicle]

* Uber and Lyft have threatened to suspend operations in California -- if they’re forced to abide by a contested new labor law. But they’re also exploring another way of doing business — sort of like a taxi company. [The New York Times] 

***

As the Democratic convention proceeds this week, the contrast between Biden and Trump is stark. This election is not about ideas or policies or ideology. 

It is about human decency.

The choice is between a man who may not inspire you with his vision but who is a decent, caring human being committed to public service -- and a cruel narcissist who belittles women and men who oppose him, cages children at the border, and gasses peaceful protestors so he can have a photo opportunity.

The year 2020 is the year when Americans need to put their political preferences and ideological differences aside and unite for once.

There is no greater wisdom than the Golden Rule, the principle of treating others as you want to be treated.

One candidate lives by that rule. The other has never heard of it.

-30-

Honoring Our History

With the confusing turmoil around voting by mail, I found myself double-checking my voter registration yesterday morning. After voting in 13 straight national elections, I'll be damned if I am going to be cheated out of my 14th.

I'm pretty sure it was a redundant "change-of-address" form I submitted to the California DMV, which is how most of us register to vote out here, but I did it anyway.

It's simple to understand people's fears that their ballots may not count this November. The current President has been explicit that he will withhold money from the postal service to ensure that the venerable service will not be able to handle the expected in-flux of ballots coming through the mail due to Covid-19.

If Trump has accomplished one thing of note during his term in office, it is to demonstrate for those who needed reminding just how fragile our democratic traditions really are. Here is a man so obsessed with his own electoral success that he is openly undermining public confidence in voting by mail.

He isn't doing this because there is any danger of fraud -- that is a fantasy that has been debunked many times. There is no systematic fraud in the vote by mail system.

He also isn't doing it because he fears more Democrats will vote that way than Republicans. There's no evidence for that either; in fact the opposite may be true.

He isn't doing it because he has some sort of a personal principle against it. He votes by mail himself.

No, he is doing it as part of a calculated plan to undermine your confidence in our election results. He intends to contest the election, which he desperately fears he is going to lose, since every credible poll shows him trailing Joe Biden badly.

When I think back about that my experiences with that voting system during my long lifetime, I remember going to garages, schools, libraries to cast my vote. When my children were small, I remember taking them with me to witness the process.

When my girlfriend, who was Japanese, asked to come one year, I took her. She wanted to see American democracy in action. Coming from a society where women are second-class citizens, she had trouble imagining a woman on the ticket of a major political party.

But there was a woman that year -- Sarah Palin was the vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 2008. She followed by 24 years Geraldine Ferraro's run for VP on the Democratic ticket in 1984. (Ferraro passed away nine years ago.)

This year we have Kamala Harris running for VP. Will the third time be a charm?

Meanwhile, of course, we all know what happened to the first woman who ever ran on one of the two party tickets for President. She won the popular vote by 3 million votes in 2016, and no Mister President, there was no voter fraud involved. You lost fair and square.

Trump's all-out assault on our democracy is frightening to any person who values it. The reason is that we have a fragile system that rests on the consent of the governed. And it presumes a certain decency of character that this President sorely lacks.

George Washington set the tone when he refused to run for a third term though he would have won easily. But it would have been legal for him to do so, which is why FDR did that in 1940 and again for a fourth term in 1944. That convinced those who care about our system to restrict the number of terms any President may serve consecutively to two.

Back to women running for office and voting, it was 100 years yesterday that women won the suffrage, on August 18, 1920, when the 19th Amendment was finally ratified.

It's vital to remember that women *won* the right to vote; men didn't just give it to them. Women organized, marched and demanded their rights in order to win them.

Over the past four years, the modern women's movement has organized massive demonstrations to demand that the remaining vestiges of gender discrimination, such as pay inequality, be eliminated.

The current President opposes those efforts as well and he treats women abysmally. So there is much work yet to do.

I've described democracy as fragile, but it also is strong and vibrant with great resiliency. With 77 days left before this year's election, we can all hope for a historical result, as opposed to the ahistorical vote in 2016.

Because of the anniversary, I've focused on women's rights today, but an equally significant moment is upon us for the struggle to attain cilvil rights for black people. The same high stakes await us on November 3rd in that critical battle to democratize our society.

Republican, Democrat, Independent, whatever...Vote!

***

* Jill Biden's powerful speech highlights convention's second night. (CNN)

* Trump erupts angrily at Michelle Obama's convention takedown but it boomerangs (AFP)

* High school students want schools to teach more Black history, include more Black authors -- Young people band together to demand change wherever they attend school: at large public systems, elite private schools or small parochial institutions. (Washington Post)

* DeJoy says he is ‘suspending’ policies blamed for causing mail delays ahead of election -- The postmaster general said retail hours would not be changed, neither mail-sorting machines nor blue mailboxes would be removed, no mail-processing facilities would be closed, and overtime would be available as needed. (Washington Post)

* The River Fire has torn through thousands of acres south of Salinas. The pandemic has complicated firefighting and evacuations.(The Salinas Californian) 

* Record-crushing heat, fire tornadoes and freak thunderstorms: The weather is wild in the West (Washington Post)

*  The Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election posed a “grave” counterintelligence threat, a Senate panel concluded Tuesday as it detailed how associates of the Republican candidate had regular contact with Russians and expected to benefit from the Kremlin’s help.The report, the fifth and final one from the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee on the Russia investigation, describes how Russia launched an aggressive, wide-ranging effort to interfere in the election on Donald Trump’s behalf. (AP)

* A former senior Trump administration official who is endorsing Joe Biden's presidential campaign said Tuesday that if President Donald Trump wins a second term he will "align with dictators around the world." (CNN)

***

Recovering the confidence and ability to do simple tasks is satisfying in the wake of serious illnesses that precluded such activities. Yesterday I did two small tasks I hadn't done in over 18 months.I walked around a mall and located a place to eat a frozen yogurt for lunch.

That sounds simple. But as I only make out shapes and signs in a fuzzy haze, it was challenging to do so on my own.

After that, I got directions and continued walking until I found an ATM, where I withdrew some cash.

That also sounds simple and it was. Eluding the traffic was a bit trickier.

This is the middle of an extended period of medical visits for me, as we try to address chronic problems that could not be treated during the worst of the lockdown. That's because they were all considered "non-essential." 

Thus, they became worse. There are many more appointments to come, according to Google Calendar, and hopefully, many more opportunities to regain simple functions that have been lying dormant.

For now, it's baby steps, one at a time.

-30-

Childhood Heroes

Just as my first three children were reaching their Tweens, they took an interest in baseball, especially the local team, the Sam Francisco Giants.

It was the mid-80s and the team had not fared very well for years. Then Will Clark, a talented and fiercely competitive first baseman with a hot bat and a high-pitched voice showed up. In his very first at bat, Clark hit a home run off the great Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.

As a divorced father, I was looking for every way possible to keep connecting with the kids and Will Clark's heroics turned out to be one of our mutual passion. His smooth left-handed swing was a thing of beauty, and I rediscovered my childhood love of the game.

I managed to get tickets to home games at the old Candlestick Park and took them out there as often as possible.

When my son turned nine or ten, I got Clark to sign his rookie card during a photo shoot for my magazine, and  I framed it in a plexiglass card holder as a surprise birthday present.

In one game we attended, after his teammate Robby Thompson was hit in the head by a pitch, an enraged Clark hit a massive home run to the opposite field to win the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. A waiter gave my son a baseball that night.

The Giants intend to "retire" Clark's number -- 22 -- this season. He didn't make it to Cooperstown but he definitely has a permanent place in our family's Hall of Fame.

Thank you, Will Clark!

***

Well, it's election season so many of the news summaries I select will be political for the next two-plus months. But there's plenty of Covid news and where possible I'll mix in other stuff as well:

* Joe Biden leads Donald Trump by a nine-point margin nationally, 51-42 percent according to a CNN Poll of Polls on the general election matchup released Monday. (CNN)

* The Democratic National Committee’s presidential nominating convention kicked off Monday, with headliners Michelle Obama ("If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me they can"), and Sen. Bernie Sanders ("We have a come a very long way). The host city was set to be Milwaukee, but Joe Biden plans to accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination later this week from his home in Delaware due to the coronavirus. [HuffPost]

* Miles Taylor, a former senior Trump administration official, endorsed Joe Biden'spresidential campaign on Monday, becoming one of the highest-ranking former Trump administration officials to do so. Taylor, who served as chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, also accused President Donald Trump of repeatedly using his office for political purposes, including directing officials to cut wildfire relief funding to California because voters there overwhelmingly opposed him in 2016. (CNN)

* WHO reports record global Covid-19 increase over 24 hours (WHO)

* "The pandemic is a wake-up call for me to jot down keepsake ‘letters’ for my kids" --- A parent asks: What should I tell them about the lives we’ve all lived? What do they need to know about our family? My journals will preserve our memories. (Washington Post)

* Judge Blocks Trump Officials’ Attempt to End Transgender Health Protections )New York Times)

* Death Valley soars to 130 degrees, potentially Earth’s highest temperature since at least 1931 (Washington Post)

* More Americans Go Hungry Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, Census Shows -- Causes include higher food prices, school closings; expiration of federal jobless benefits deepens distress (Wall Street Journal)

* Violent clashes erupt between far-right groups and racial justice protesters in Portland and other cities-- Police did not intervene despite reports of violence and gunshots in downtown (Washington Post)

* ‘A national crisis’: Millions of disconnected students are being left behind -- As the pandemic forces many schools to switch to remote learning, more than 17 million U.S. schoolchildren do not have high-speed Internet at home and are locked out of virtual classes. (Washington Post)

* A Michigan college is requiring students to download a phone application that tracks their location and private health data at all times in an attempt to protect them from the coronavirus.Albion College, located in Albion, Mich., is one of the first schools in the country to tackle contact tracing. The school is working to create a "COVID-bubble" on campus, and asking students stay within the school's 4.5-mile perimeter for the entire semester; if a student leaves campus, the app will notify the administration, and the student could be temporarily suspended. (Washington Free Beacon)

* A mural paying tribute to country singer and Tennessee native Dolly Parton and her stance supporting the Black Lives Matter movement has emerged outside "The 5 Spot" on Forrest Avenue in East Nashville. (CNN)

***

Closing with a couple lines from a love song:

Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song

   -- Norah Jones

-30-

Wonderful World

Just like that, in the course of one sleepless overnight, summer ended and the school year began.

I didn't see that coming, but of course I'm not going to see anything coming until those damn cataracts are dissolved by laser surgery next month.

Do you remember back in the old days when kids got new clothes and backpacks for the start of the school year?

Ah, sweet memory.

Now they just discard their pajamas for the first time in three months and the backpack industry has probably long since gone bankrupt.

"Grandpa," the younger ones may ask, "What is school? I mean is it an actual place with walls and desks like in the books we read or is that just what's on Zoom?"

You can see how soon adults will lose all of our remaining semblance of credibility. ("There he goes again," one kid says to the other behind their Grandpa's back, "telling us to wear our good shoes for the Zoom call. When was the last time you saw somebody's shoes on a Zoom call?")

In that context, the question has been raised whether a certain fourth grader should take her aged grandfather into class this week as the answer to the question,  "What happened over summer break?"

"Grandpa," she could say. 

In an era when absolutely nothing happens over summer break, the arrival of a Grandpa at your front door can indeed be a notable event. it shows you can order pretty much anything from Amazon these days.

***

*  Kamala Harris on Donald Trump's campaign to question her eligibility to serve as vice president and president. "They're going to engage in an attempt to distract from the real issues that are impacting the American people. And I expect that they will engage in dirty tactics. And this is going to be a knockdown, drag-out. And we're ready," Harris said. (TheGrio)

* ‘Reagan Democrats’ found a permanent home in the GOP after 1980. The tables may now turn at last for 'Biden Republicans'. (Wall Street Journal)

* CNN Poll: Biden and Trump matchup tightens as enthusiasm hits new high -- Biden leads Trump 50-46 percent with margin of error of 4 points. (CNN)

* Hong Kong journalists harassed, arrested and lose press freedoms under new China law (L.A. Times)

* State officials rush to shore up confidence in November 3 election as voters express fears about mail voting (Washington Post)

* Baseball is honoring the Negro Leagues. It needs to explain why they existed. --As Major League Baseball pays tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues, it should also admit its history of social injustice. (Washington Post)

* Trump’s Policies Are a Boon to the Super Rich. So Where Are All the Seven-Figure Checks? Only a small fraction of the president’s top donors from 2016 have given as much to his re-election effort. (New York Times)

* COVID-19 Economic Downturn Triggers Exodus From San Francisco and other cities (CBS)

* Scientists See Signs of Lasting Immunity to Covid-19, Even After Mild Infections -- New research indicates that human immune system cells are storing information about the coronavirus so they can fight it off again. (New York Times)

***

In my ongoing quest to find some reason or inspiration to restart work on my stalled memoir,  yesterday I reviewed tapes of our 25th anniversary party for the Center for Investigative Reporting back in 2002. They came my way courtesy of my co-founder Dan Noyes, who's saved many items from our shared past.

The great muckraker Molly Ivins, who has since passed, served as the Master of Ceremonies at the gala affair. A large crowd was in attendance. There is  a video of the celebration but it runs out just as I started speaking. So I have only a vague idea what I actually said that night.

Maybe it's just as well, since I suspect I spoke about my motivation to do investigative reporting, which was a deep anger at the injustices I saw all around me in the world. So it was at least partially an angry speech on what was supposed to be a happy occasion. 

Afterward, a friend told me that a mutual friend listening in the crowd was very upset that I had spoken about my anger; that she thought it was not appropriate to do so. It was a difficult night for me on other levels as well; my mother had just passed away and my second marriage was crumbling.

But what I said about my motivation to do the work was true then and it still is today.

***

WONDERFUL WORLD

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be

Now, I don't claim to be an A student
But I'm trying to be
For maybe by being an A student, baby
I can win your love for me

Don't know much about history...

      -- Sam Cooke

Which Side You On

Desperately seeking something -- anything -- funny, I binged on old SNL episodes. That worked, sort of. Then I watched a baseball game with my grandson -- that worked better. His team won the game, making him happy.

My team lost, making me sad.

In the process, I taught him the basics of fantasy baseball, which is as much about math as the actual sport. This seemed to energize him as he repeatedly checked various players' statistics and drew conclusions thereupon.

The overall problem here in the newly tropical Bay Area is, of course, that the ponderous news cycle will never help matters. And this global warming has become really oppressive. There is just no relief in sight.

It's Desperation Row around here. That has a certain ring to it.

Coming to us this sweaty overnight are the following tidbits:

* ‘We’re Clearly Not Doing Enough’: Drop in Testing Hampers Coronavirus Response -- For the first time during the pandemic, the United States saw a downward trend in the number of coronavirus tests conducted each day. (New York Times)

* Cedar Rapids and nearby Iowa communities, still in shambles days after destructive derecho, plead for help -- Dispatches from Cedar Rapids reveal a disaster zone, with damage to most homes and businesses, some severe, trees down everywhere, roads blocked and hospitals overrun. (Washington Post)

* The election is a choice between Donald Trump — and Kamala Harris (Washington Post)

* Bald Eagle Sends Government Drone Into Lake Michigan  -- In a rare case of nature taking on a manmade machine and winning, a bald eagle attacked and destroyed a government drone that was flying above Lake Michigan on an environmental monitoring mission. The Phantom 4 Pro Advanced quodcopter drone was about 162ft in the sky when it is thought the bird of prey attacked – possibly mistaking the flying machine for a rival bird or tasty snack. The drone had one of its propellors torn off and spiraled from the skies, sinking to the bottom of the lake. (The Guardian)

Obama condemns Trump attempt to 'kneecap' USPS to discourage voting – as it happened

 

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The Phantom 4 Pro Advanced quodcopter drone was about 162ft in the sky when it is thought the bird of prey attacked – possibly mistaking the flying machine for a rival bird or tasty snack.The drone had one of its propellors torn off and spiraled from the skies, sinking to the bottom of the lake.“The attack could have been a territorial squabble with the electronic foe, or just a hungry eagle,” the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy in a statement.

* Leaders at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were blindsided this week when President Donald Trump announced that the agency could deploy teams to assist schools with safely reopening in the fall, a senior CDC official told CNN. "My administration also stands ready to deploy CDC teams to support schools that are opening and schools that need help in safety and in order to safely reopen," Trump said on Tuesday during a briefing.The announcement left CDC officials scrambling this week to train-up staff to be able to deploy if they are called upon, the senior official said. (CNN)

* Two senior Trump political appointees departed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a senior official at the agency confirmed to CNN. Kyle McGowan, the chief of staff, and Amanda Campbell, the deputy chief of staff, resigned effective Friday, leaving to start a consulting firm, the official said. Both left voluntarily, the official added. (CNN)

* The media was far less likely to let birtherism attacks slide this time -- When Trump launched in birtherism attacks, the media was more prepared this time. (Washington Post)

* In Big Ten cities, a fall without college football is a crushing economic blow  -- Some college towns expect losses to measure in the tens of millions of dollars, crippling businesses already struggling through the pandemic. (Washington Post)

* Several fights broke out in Kalamazoo, Michigan, during a rally held by the far-right group Proud Boys, police say.Members of the group were marching in downtown Kalamazoo when they clashed with counter protesters and officers moved to disperse the crowds. (WXMI) 

***

Don't blame me for the news. At least I added the bald eagle story.

DESOLATION ROW

They're selling postcards of the hanging, they're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner, they've got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants
And the riot squad they're restless, they need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight, from Desolation Row

Cinderella, she seems so easy, "It takes one to know one," she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo, he's moaning. "You Belong to Me I Believe"
And someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend, you'd better leave"
And the only sound that's left after the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row

Now the moon is almost hidden, the stars are beginning to hide
The fortune telling lady has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel and the hunchback of Notre Dame

Everybody is making love or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing, he's getting ready for the show
He's going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row

Ophelia, she's 'neath the window for her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic she wears an iron vest
Her profession's her religion, her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah's great rainbow
She spends her time peeking into Desolation Row

Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood with his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago with his friend, a jealous monk
Now he looked so immaculately frightful as he bummed a cigarette
And he when off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet
You would not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients, they're trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser, she's in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read, "Have Mercy on His Soul"
They all play on the penny whistles, you can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row

Across the street they've nailed the curtains, they're getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera in a perfect image of a priest
They are spoon feeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words
And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls, "Get outta here if you don't know"
Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation Row"

At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row

Praise be to Nero's Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn
Everybody's shouting, "Which side are you on?!"
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much about Desolation Row

Yes, I received your letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke
When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke
All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they're quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
Right now, I can't read too good, don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row.

-- Bob Dylan