Beauty v. Hate

This pandemic is having many ancillary effects, some only obliquely related to the suspension of our old lifestyles. One such effect may be a renewed interest in the past.

For me, this became apparent during my virtual reunion with fellow Rolling Stone staffers from the San Francisco era in the 70s. Although I visited the magazine's office in Manhattan many times after it moved there in 1977, I didn't realize until Wednesday that the San Francisco years have acquired something approaching legendary status in the collective memory of those who worked there.

The most spot-on comment any of us who attended the call was made by Jann Wenner, the founder, editor and publisher of Rolling Stone, when he said that after all this time, mainly it's the good memories that remain.

We all remember the disputes, the firings, and the melodrama of a fledgling Baby Boomer institution growing up in a warehouse South of Market Street. But that was then.

As Rolling Stone evolved into a cultural icon, we all grew stronger in the process. Perhaps most importantly, those of us who are writers and artists developed a sense of responsibility to speak out about what is right and what is wrong in this society.

What is right and good is the diversity of today's America. We are fortunate that our neighbors speak so many languages, practice so many religions, and reflect so much of the lovely racial diversity of the larger world. 

It is also beautiful that so many millions of our fellow citizens are willing to march peacefully in support of the movement to end the structural racism that stains this society.

But what is NOT beautiful is the attempt to berate people who are different from the traditional white European culture that once but no longer dominates this society.

And what is NOT beautiful is using code words to celebrate racism and hate.

This is why people of conscience are speaking out against Trump. Not because he espouses conservative views, many of us like conservative ideas and thinking. Not because he is a Republican, most of us don't like either party, frankly.

No, we oppose Trump because he epitomizes what is wrong at a time when we need to embrace what is right.

One small but important example. The Affordable Care Act that Trump wants to dismantle protects those among us with pre-existing conditions like diabetes and asthma. If he succeeds, they will no longer have access to affordable health care.

That is simply wrong. 

By contrast, Biden won't undo that protection.

That is right.

***

Sadly, the news indicates that the faultiness dividing us are widening, not narrowing. Too many are still falling for the wrong. That is indeed bad news.

* ‘Vote him out’ chant greets Trump on rare trip outside his hyperfriendly political bubble (WashPo)

* Americans say by a 13-point margin that Trump should allow the winner of the presidential election to nominate a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds. And they say 44% to 37% that presidents in the final year of their term should generally wait until after the election to handle any Supreme Court vacancies. Ginsburg's casket was laid in repose on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. [HuffPost]

* “Don’t think of it as the warmest month of August in California in the last century. Think of it as one of the coolest months of August in California in the next century.” [The New York Times]

* China is building vast new detention centers for Muslims in Xinjiang (WashPo)

* Of the Americans who’ve contracted COVID-19, 63% are facing serious financial problems, according to a survey from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (NPR)

* Weeks after universities reopened across much of Europe, thousands of students are in quarantine (WashPo)

* San Francisco expanded its Slow Streets program, creating a car-free route through Golden Gate Park. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

* Wildfires taint West Coast vineyards with taste of smoke (AP)

* Trump said that the expansion of mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic is a “scam” and that he wants a new Supreme Court justice in place to ensure election-related cases are decided in his favor. (HuffPost)

* Commissioner Ellen Weintraub of the Federal Election Commission has a news flash for Trump and anyone else who needs to hear it: “In the United States of America, we do not ‘get rid of’ ballots.” (HuffPost)

***

The county clerk hereabouts confirmed my accurate address, so I'll be voting soon.  By mail, which is the patriotic way to do it in the time of Covid-19.

Though my picture never appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, my byline did. 

My memories of those days are available via Google (isn't everything?) The best piece, "Wenner's World," appeared in Salon.com in 1999.

Well, we're big rock singers
We got golden fingers
And we're loved everywhere we go (that sounds like us)
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten-thousand dollars a show (right)
We take all kinds of pills that give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we've never known
Is the thrill that'll gitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin' Stone

-- Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show

Big Waves & the Moon

Amidst the usual sludge moving through the news channels overnight are two encouraging stories. One, a woman surfer rode the biggest wave this year, and two, NASA plans to send a woman to the moon.

These are notable in themselves but especially because women's rights have again moved to central stage in this year's election debate. Among a woman's most fundamental rights -- to have an abortion if she chooses to -- is now at risk due to the next justice Trump and his Senate allies plan to place on the Supreme Court.

Roe v. Wade could well be struck down this winter.

The historic struggle to gain equal rights and in the case of abortion, a gender specific right, has been long and difficult, marked by heroic efforts by many people, not the least of whom was the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Part of me can't believe this country could be on the verge of going backward in this way, but the trajectory of what Trump intends to do is clear.

I suppose this will secure Trump's renewed support from evangelical Christians, despite his many depredations on the very notion of what it means to be a person of faith, especially a Christian. The hypocrisy of all involved is breath-taking.

If the worst comes to pass, many women will fight back and many of us will be right by their sides. Because this is another stark case where there may be two "sides" to the issue, but only one is right. And that right, guaranteeing a woman's right to choose, will prevail.

BTW, one need not like or even support abortion to be on the right side of history here. It is not the state's business to tell a woman what to do with her own body, period.

On to the sludge, and the two bright spots:

* Trump's refusal on Wednesday to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power if he loses to Joe Biden in November is leading America towards a dark place during a year of incendiary political tensions.Trump intransigence, included in his latest assault on perfectly legitimate mail-in ballots on Wednesday, posed a grave threat to the democratic continuum that has underpinned nearly 250 years of republican government. (CNN)

* Protests erupt across the U.S. after no officers indicted in Breonna Taylor's killing by Louisville police.(CNN)

* Louisville police confirm two officers shot, one suspect in custody (CNN)

* As Schools Go Remote, Finding ‘Lost’ Students Gets Harder -- Early data for the new school year suggests that attendance in virtual classrooms is down, possibly because students are working or caring for siblings. (NYT)

* Latinos are disproportionately getting sick, dying of coronavirus, exacerbating historic inequalities (WashPo)

* The Russian Trolls Have a Simpler Job Today. Quote Trump. -- As part of their attempt to interfere with the 2020 election, Russians are grabbing screenshots of President Trump’s tweets, or quoting his own misleading statements, analysts and officials say. (NYT)

* Study shows virus mutating and potentially evolving amid rapid U.S. spread (WashPo)

* NASA revealed this week that it plans to send a woman to the moon for the first time in 2024. [HuffPost]

* In secret tapes, mine executives detail their sway over leaders from Juneau to the White House (WashPo)

* Democratic Donors Push Biden for a Cabinet Free of Fossil Fuel Connections -- A group of more than 60 donors is urging Joe Biden to renounce advisers with ties to the fossil fuel industry. (NYT)

* You Can Get Covid-19 And Flu At The Same Time – And It Can Be Deadly (HuffPost)

* Uber and Lyft Could Gain From U.S. Rule Defining Employment -- The Labor Department proposal would most likely treat drivers and other gig workers as contractors, not employees. (NYT)

* Trump has launched another racist diatribe against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). “She’s telling us how to run our country!” he said at a rally in Pennsylvania. “How did you do where you came from? How is your country doing?” Omar was born in Somalia and immigrated to the United States as a child when her family fled the violence there. She’s been a U.S. citizen for 20 years. She fired back on Twitter: "Firstly, this is my country & I am a member of the House that impeached you. Secondly, I fled civil war when I was 8. An 8-year-old doesn’t run a country even though you run our country like one." [HuffPost]

* Governor Gavin Newsom of California announced that the state will phase out sales of internal combustion engines. By 2035, every new car will be an emissions free vehicle, in order to green and decarbonize the transport sector. (4media-group.com)

* Trump, Biden in tight races in Florida and Arizona, polls find (WashPo)

* The Biggest Wave Surfed This Year -- A 73.5 footer ridden by a 33-year-old Brazilian woman, Maya Gabeira, was the biggest wave surfed by anyone in the 2019-20 winter season, a first for women in professional surfing. (* Trump celebrated violence against journalists during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, mocking a reporter who was injured covering this summer’s racial injustice demonstrations and calling the act “actually a beautiful sight.” The president’s comments are the latest of many attacks on the free press but an overt endorsement of members of the media coming under attack. [HuffPost]*** Great reunion with former Rolling Stoners from the San Francisco era yesterday; lots of faces from long ago. Good to see Jann Wenner, founder and editor, who is writing his memoir. Woman I can hardly express My mixed emotions at my thoughtlessness After all, I'm forever in your debt And woman I will try to express My inner feeling and thankfulness For showing me the meaning of success  Woman I know you understand The little child inside the man Please remember my life is in your hands And woman Hold me close to your heart However distant, don't keep us apart After all it is written in the stars --John Lennon -30-

Loveless Jam "Lodi"

Tears and Surprises

 

So now Covid-19 has killed over 200,000 Americans, more than all who died in the last five wars combined. And of course there is no end in sight. We may my be experiencing a slight respite before the winter flu season kicks in, but health experts say we're unlikely to see any real improvement in the situation until sometime later in 2021, if then.

Life has changed beyond anything we could have imagined as recently as early March. Only about ten percent of the office workers in New York City are going into their high-rise offices these days, and no one expects the others to return soon. Many people with the means to do so have fled cities like New York and San Francisco for second homes in less densely populated areas.

These predominantly are wealthy white people. Meanwhile, black and Latino people are roughly twice as likely to get Covid, probably because they have many of the front-line jobs that put them at increased risk. And they have nowhere else to go.

This as Trump continues to spread misinformation (that's the polite term) that "virtually nobody" is getting sick.

The president's campaign for re-election is being boosted by Russia, and according to some reports, being personally directed by his buddy, Vladimir Putin. Some Russian media satirize Trump as Putin's puppet, which could have never been said about any previous GOP president.

As a native of the Midwest, I struggle to understand why the people I grew up among with would ever fall for a charlatan like Trump. We were always skeptical of his kind of coastal huckster who showed up with  potions and sales pitches.

Trump is the ultimate pitchman. He sells the fiction that he is an outsider draining the "swamp" of Washington politics, but he oversees the most corrupt administration in modern history. He violates every value I was taught as a child -- honesty, decency, modesty, compassion, a good work ethic and respect for people of faith.

Over the decades, I've occasionally fantasized about moving back to Michigan, with its lakes and rivers and trees, and people and places I love. But my fate is tied up with California, a land of its own and the birthplace of all six of my children.

Those of us out here reject Trump and his policies en masse. But all we can do is hope our family members and friends in the Midwest join with us to take our country back from the edge of tyranny. It's really all up to them now.

I hope everybody recognizes that 200,000 isn't a number -- it is two hundred thousand individual lives, now lost, directly affecting two million other survivors and friends. We need to grieve these terrible losses,  and we need to allow ourselves to cry with them.

***

One certainty in all of this is that the news will get worse before it gets better. But I still, against the odds, trust that one day it shall get better.

* Women working in retail jobs are struggling as they are forced to choose between keeping their jobs and making sure their kids are keeping up with remote learning. (NYT)

* Biden’s moderation contrasts with Democratic rage as court fight looms (WashPo) The Democratic Party will likely split in the next few years. (DW)

* Hollywood unions and major studios have reached a deal to resume filming. (NYT)

* Sen. Mitt Romney said Tuesday he would support a floor vote to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, essentially clinching consideration of Trump’s nominee this year despite the impending election. (Politico)

* Climate Disruption Is Now Locked In. The Next Moves Will Be Crucial. -- The Times spoke to two dozen experts who said decisions made now would spell the difference between a difficult future and something far worse. (NYT)

* NYPD officer, an Army reservist, worked as spy for China, federal prosecutors allege (WashPo)

* CDC guidelines urge families to avoid trick-or-treating this Halloween (CBS)

* So far this year, 3.6 million acres, an area roughly the size of Connecticut, have burned just in California. That’s about 23 times the acreage that burned in the state last year. (NYT)

* A new conservative Supreme Court justice could boost religious rights at the cost of LGBTQ protections (WashPo)

* Race to Rescue Hundreds of Whales Stranded Off Tasmania -- More than 450 pilot whales became stranded on the west coast of the island state in Australia. Rescuers estimate that over half of them have already died. (NYT)

* Berkeley City Council Approves Nation’s First Healthy Checkout  -- Grocery Stores Required to Sell Nutritious Options (Center for Science in the Public Interest)

***

On a personal note, my youngest daughter is traveling east next week to live in the best time zone for her senior year in college at a small private college outside Baltimore. As she told me yesterday, "No more 6 a.m. classes three times a week!" She's moving to the Jersey shore with a friend and I'm thrilled this is working out for her.

Also, my old friend David Talbot, founder of Salon.com, had his birthday yesterday. Each birthday is a gift after a serious stroke, which David suffered and has written a book about. There's talk of a virtual reunion of those of there at the founding and early years of Salon 25 years ago later this fall.

Speaking of virtual reunions, later today I'll be participating in one with fellow staffers from Rolling Stone in the 70s and 80s when the magazine achieved its status as an icon of American culture. Founder Jann Wenner is said to be attending.

I'll write about that event tomorrow.

***

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." -- Robert Frost

-30-

Decision Time

With all of the artificial controversy over mail-in ballots created by Trump, millions of Americans have to worry that their votes may not be counted in the election now only six weeks away. 

I'm one of them.

Th facts: There has never been any evidence of systematic fraud involving ballots mailed in by voters. What there are, naturally, are occasional cases of human error, which is what happened to me.

My current address is the third I've had this year, and it is one of those four-digit street numbers that can easily be transposed when somebody is in a hurry. That's exactly what occurred on the way from the county clerk's office to me. The letter "9" became a "7" while an actual  "7" became a "9." I got the confirmation of my registration courtesy of a neighbor who figured out the error.

In my case, when it comes to the presidential election, it really doesn't matter, because the electoral votes from the state I reside in will be cast for Joe Biden -- that is a foregone conclusion. But I will be disappointed if my ballot does not show up in what will undoubtably be a massive popular majority rejecting Trump across this nation.

That's right. Trump will lose the popular vote -- that is another foregone conclusion. Ultimately, from all of the polling I can locate so far, the Electoral College appears to be going Biden's way too, but by the time that all gets sorted out, and the mailed ballots counted, all sorts of damage is likely to have been done to American democracy.

Do I exaggerate? Hardly. Trump has made it clear he intends to do everything within his power -- legal or illegal, ethical or unethical -- to secure his re-election. His current obsession is to appoint to the Supreme Court a justice who will help him steal the election.

Americans of all persuasions have two stark choices and only two: We can sit by passively and let this criminal undermine our constitutional freedoms, or we can speak out, rise up, and rebel if it comes to that.

We can speak, we can write, we can sing, we can walk, we can march and we can organize a rebellion against the tyrant if need be. We can even go beyond that when the time comes. Perhaps for some this is a difficult decision, but not for me.

I already  know which side I'm on. Do you?

* Under a lawless Trump, our system of checks and balances is being destroyed (WashPo)

* House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday left open the possibility of using the impeachment process to prevent the Senate from confirming a new Supreme Court associate justice in the next few months. [HuffPost]

* In Colorado, six protesters, including organizers of demonstrations over the killing of Black 23-year-old Elijah McClain in Aurora, could face years in prison over what critics say are trumped-up charges representing an attack on the Black Lives Matter movement. McClain died in 2019 when police used a stranglehold to arrest him and paramedics injected him with an excessive dose of a powerful sedative. [AP]

* Trump's Ohio suburb slide signals peril in industrial north (AP)

* New York City is one of three places that "have permitted violence and destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract criminal activities," leading to its designation as an "anarchist jurisdiction," the Justice Department said Monday. (Portland, OR and Seattle are the other two. (NBC)

* House, Senate on collision course over government funding as shutdown looms in nine days (WashPo)

* Denial and Defiance: Trump and His Base Downplay the Virus Ahead of the Election -- With resistance to face masks and scorn for science, President Trump and a sizable number of his supporters are pushing an alternate reality minimizing a tragedy that has killed almost 200,000 Americans. (NYT)

***

To everything 
There is a season 
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

--The Byrds

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

 

On Saturday, I watched the film "Before Sunset," one of my favorites. The first time I saw it was in the summer of 2004, soon after its release, when my new girlfriend and I went to watch it at the Opera Plaza Theatre on a Monday afternoon.

We had just declared our love for each other the night before, about half a year after meeting in a group therapy session. It was the first serious relationship after my divorce, and I felt that I loved her with all of my being.

We kept our own places but saw each other every day and night for the next year and a half. We took trips to Mexico, Hawaii and New York, where she shopped the second-hand shops on the lower east side for shoes and vintage clothes, and we ate the incomparable lunches at Katz's.

She was a few years younger than me but she didn't want to have kids. Her approach to my three young ones at home was matter-of-fact -- she always talked with them as if they were adults. She was never condescending.

When my youngest, then six, got into a funk because she couldn't read, my girlfriend researched the issue, bought a gaggle of the appropriate books and told her, "You're going to read these."

She did.

All the time we were together, I could tell that sooner or later I was going to lose her, not to another man but to her ambition to work with people who really needed her help.

Eventually,she did just that, on the other side of the country in New Orleans.

"Before Sunset" is such a romantic story, where a couple meet after a ten-year hiatus and discover they still love each other. It's Hollywood, so the ending is happy.

But my love story ended sadly. That was a long time ago now, and since then everything has changed. She  probably doesn't even remember that summer afternoon at the movies

But I do, and for me the film brings back my hopefulness in that moment, a hopefulness that proved to be fleeting. Despite many disappointments, I still believed in romantic love at that time.

In reality, good things rarely last, and there is almost never a happy ending. There is no forever and ever, amen.

Just whatever memories we retain and the relentless passage of time. 

***

Unlike lovers, the news never goes away, though there are times that I wish it would.

* The president is likely to nominate a successor this coming week to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday, but Senate Republicans are weighing whether they have the votes to confirm his choice before the Nov. 3 election. (NYT)

* Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Sunday that she opposes taking up a Supreme Court nomination prior to Election Day, becoming the second GOP senator this weekend to voice opposition to Senate movement on the matter before the 2020 election. "For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election. Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed," the Alaska Republican said in a statement. (CNN)

*  If Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly wins a seat in the U.S. Senate, he could take office as early as Nov. 30, shrinking the GOP’s Senate majority at a crucial moment and complicating the path to confirmation for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.Kelly has maintained a consistent polling lead over Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat held by John McCain, who died in 2018. (AP)

* Vigils for Justice Ginsburg Held Across the Country -- Mourners gathered around courthouses across the nation on Saturday to remember the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (NYT)

* Gulf Coast mayors say hurricane season has changed for the worse. Many blame climate shifts. (WashPo)

* Nursing Homes Oust Unwanted Patients With Claims of Psychosis -- They are finding what families say are pretexts to send patients to hospitals for psychiatric care — and then refusing to let them return.(NYT)

* Fires Scorch a Way of Life That Still Grows From the Trees -- Oregon’s fate has always been intertwined with the forests that blanket the state. Now millions of trees are charred, and those who live from them face a future full of uncertainty. (NYT)

* How California Became Ground Zero for Climate Disasters -- The engineering and land management that enabled the state’s tremendous growth have left it more vulnerable to climate shocks — and those shocks are getting worse. (NYT)

* Trump Supporters Disrupt Early Voting in Virginia -- A group waving Trump flags and chanting “four more years” created a commotion at a polling location in Fairfax, Va. A county official said some voters and staff members felt intimidated (NYT)

* A new ABC News/Washington Post poll from Minnesota finds Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with a 57% to 41% lead over President Donald Trump among likely voters. (CNN)

***

For all our exes:

If I should stay, I would only be in your way
So I'll go, but I know
I'll think of you every step of the way

And I will always love you
I will always love you
You, my darling you, hm

Bittersweet memories
That is all I'm taking with me
So, goodbye
Please, don't cry
We both know I'm not what you, you need

And I will always love you
I will always love you, you

I hope life treats you kind
And I hope you have all you've dreamed of
And I wish to you joy and happiness
But above all this, I wish you…love

--Dolly Parton

-30-

Synergistic Times

As the news cycle keeps mutating in 2020, I've found myself thinking back to some research I did many years ago on a completely different subject.

Please bear with me; this is going to seem abstract and only vaguely relevant.

In the 1970s and 1980s, I devoted much of my journalism to exploring the role pesticides play in our global agricultural systems. That work resulted in two books, "Circle of Poison" and "The Bhopal Syndrome," as well as numerous articles and two documentaries.

Most news stories by others in that era focused on one agrochemical at a time. For example, when laboratory studies indicated that DDT might be carcinogenic, the U.S. government restricted its use. That was a big story at the time.

So it went, pesticide by pesticide until a very long list had been banned, restricted, or heavily regulated in this country.

Although their use was curtailed here, these hazardous chemicals continued to be sent as "foreign aid" to poor countries around the world. There, they were responsible for poisoning farmworkers, damaging the environment, and contaminating the food crops sent back to this country for consumption by Americans. Thus, the "circle" of poison.

At some point, during a long telephone conversation with a source who was an epidemiologist, it occurred to both of us that no human being's exposure is ever restricted to a single pesticide; rather we are all subjected to what is essentially a chemical cocktail, whereby small amounts of many chemicals enter our systems simultaneously.

So, I began researching the nascent field of synergistic or interactive effects of various agrochemicals and other petrochemical products.

The existing research was sparse but suggestive. When scientists mixed two or more chemicals together and fed them to lab animals, various results were discovered. In some cases, the tests suggested, serious diseases such as cancer or central nervous damage was observed.

In other cases, a counter-intuitive result appeared: Combining certain chemicals seemed to help organisms eliminate some of the toxins, thereby reducing their overall chemical load.

The science was extremely obscure; I could find no major articles in any of the leading journals, and it remained well under the radar of most regulatory agencies.

From the point-of-view of regulators at the EPA, FDA, OSHA, FAO, WHO, UNEP and elsewhere, it was difficult enough to marshal the evidence to get any one individual pesticide banned, let alone condemning the entire system of man-made chemical inputs altogether.

The historical context was that at the conclusion of World War Two, the U.S. government (and the governments of other "advanced" countries) engaged in a massive effort to transform the chemicals developed as military weapons in the first half of the 20th century into "miracle drugs" that could vastly expand food production in the second half.

At first, this effort appeared to be an unmitigated success, as the productivity of traditional farming methods increased to the point that far fewer farmers could grow the food necessary to feed more and more people.

Visionaries predicted a world where hunger would soon be eliminated once and for all.

That did not come to pass. Within the first decade after the war, indications of problems with the new miracle drugs appeared in the form of insect resistance to pesticides. It started to become necessary to apply heavier and heavier doses of the chemicals to kill off the pests.

Eventually, it became clear, the chemicals would stop working all together. Nature would prevail.

As the huge agrochemical companies like Monsanto, which made fortunes off of pesticides, continued to devise new chemical combinations to overcome insect resistance, the issue of synergistic/interactive effects became even more relevant.

Ultimately, the research proved too inconclusive for me to present it in a popular media format, and I moved on to different topics, different scandals, different ways to use my journalistic skills. I just let the topic go.

And I never did tell that story. Or maybe I just did.

My point is a simple one: The crises we are trying to cope with -- the pandemic, the economy, the wildfires, the political upheaval, and now the impending culture war over women's rights -- are all interacting synergistically. For that reason, they resist any simple analysis.

Meanwhile, let's get back to the relatively simple, modular list of the latest news headlines:

* Wildfires Grow in Southern California and Oregon -- Videos show the continued spread of fires near Los Angeles and in parts of Oregon (NYT)

* Ginsburg’s death sets off political battle over her replacement, Supreme Court’s future (WashPo)

* Shortly before the announcement that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died Friday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in an interview that if she was presented with a vacancy on the court, she would not vote to confirm a nominee before the election. (Alaska Public Radio)

* Republican Sen. Susan Collins on Saturday weighed in on the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, saying that she believes waiting until after the election is the right decision. "Given the proximity of the presidential election, however, I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election," the Maine senator said in a Saturday statement. "In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the President or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the President who is elected on November 3rd," said Collins. (CNN)

* ‘We Are Now Seeing a Second Wave,’ Johnson Says -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain spoke about efforts to combat the latest wave of coronavirus cases in Europe. (Reuters)

* Long lines and hand sanitizer on the first day of early voting for general election (WashPo)

* China Sends Warning to Taiwan and U.S. With Big Show of Air Power -- Beijing sent 18 aircraft into the Taiwan Strait as a senior American diplomat held meetings on the island. (NYT)

* Dwindling ranks and declining public trust plague police agencies amid summer of protests (WashPo)

* ‘This Does Not Look Good for Children’: Fires Pose Risk to Young Lungs -- The wildfires blazing in the West could hinder developing lungs, worsen asthma and even lead to the condition in those who don’t have it but are genetically disposed to it. (NYT)

* The San Francisco District Attorney’s office has begun reviewing potential wrongful conviction cases and will soon be deciding whether to vacate the convictions of people who it determines were wrongfully convicted, the office announced on Thursday. (Mission Local)

*EBay is shifting more business to UPS and away from Postal Service because of mail delays (WashPo)

* Biden’s polling lead nears magic number in states needed to win Electoral College (Politico)

* Virus Pulls Down Trump, Poll Shows, and G.O.P. Senators Suffer With Him -- A New York Times/Siena College survey showed Joe Biden leading President Trump by wide margins in Maine and Arizona, and effectively tied in North Carolina. Susan Collins trailed her Democratic rival in Maine’s Senate race. (NYT)

* Biden is favored to win the election -- We simulate the election 40,000 times to see who wins most often. The sample of 100 outcomes below gives you a good idea of the range of scenarios our model thinks is possible. Biden 77%, Trump 22%. (538)

***

I feel like I should apologize for the arcane nature of today's essay, but that's the way my mind works. Tomorrow, promise, I'll write instead about romantic love.

Do what they say, say what you mean, and baby

One thing leads to another

You told me something wrong, I know I listen too long but then

One thing leads to another

--The Fixx

-30-  We simulate the election 40,000 times to see who wins most often. The sample of 100 outcomes below gives you a good idea of the range of scenarios our model thinks is possible.