Some things not worth their own post:

Stephen Miller is the latest to follow a string of White House staff getting COVID-19. (His wife had been with Mike Pence, prepping him for the debate but she left when she got the news about her husband. She had the virus in May).

Kellyanne Conway, aka Ms. Most Unimportant Person in the World, is still fighting with daughter Claudia over Claudia's airing of the family's dirty laundry on TikTok. Claudia says her mom gave the virus to her. And in one TikTok, now deleted, you can hear Kellyanne screaming at Claudia and using the F word. I guess this is what goes for "more mama less drama" in the Conway household. At the Rose Garden ceremony, there were serveral photos of Kellyanne and Bill Barr, standing shoulder to shoulder, laughing and talking spiritedly, with their mouths just inches away from each other and neither wore a mask.

There's a debate tonight between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence. I haven't decided whether to watch yet. I might choose to re-watch some episodes of Money Heist (casa de papel) or the 4th season of Reign, or the 4th episode of Tehran. I hate when streaming services release one episode a week. Don't they know we're all binge-watchers? Also good: Trackers (South African) and Departures. So many movies with bad CIA characters these days. [More...]

Donald Trump loses once again, this time in the Second Circuit appeals court which upheld the refusal of the trail court to quash subpoenas in New York state investigation of Trump wronging.

The decision is Trump v. Cyrusr, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 31772 and is available free here.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, two of the four ISIS members known as "the Beatles" who are accused of being prison guards who tortured Americans James Foley, Kayla Mueller, Steven Sotloff, and Peter Kassig while they were held as hostages, are coming to the United States for trial in Virginia. This follows months of neogtiating with Great Britain which finally agreed to turn over evidence in its possession based on on William Barr's agreement not to charge a death penalty offense.

The third member of the group, British citizen Aine Davis, is being held in Turkey. The fourth member and leader of the group,"jihadi john" aka Mohammed Emwazi, was targeted and killed in a U.S. airstrike several years ago.

Several European journalists captured and held by ISIS were eventually released, when their countries or families paid the ransom. The U.S. and Britain do not pay ransom, and thus,Foley and the other Americans were killed.

And still no definitive word on what happened to John Cantlie. Most assume he is dead, but some captured ISIS fighters have said they saw him after the collapse of ISIS in Iraq. [More...]

Donald Trump and Melania Trump have tested positive for Covid-19.

[Trump] will quarantine in the White House for an unspecified period of time, forcing him to withdraw at least temporarily from the campaign trail only 32 days before the election on Nov. 3.

....Even if Mr. Trump, 74, remains asymptomatic, he will lose much of his remaining time on the campaign trail. If he becomes sick, it could raise questions about whether he should remain on the ballot at all.

Hope Hicks also is infected. She is just one of "scores of people" in the last week.

Ms. Hicks received the diagnosis after she began experiencing symptoms on Wednesday while attending the president’s rally in Minnesota.

The Trump family did not wear masks during the debate. Mask-less Ivanka sat right next to mask-less Melania during the debate. [More...]

CNN has the worst talking heads for the debate: Van Jones, former Republican Senator Rick Santorum. What hole did they find Santorum in?

I'm changing the channel.

I wonder who prepped Donald. If it's Jared , and Trump did as bad as he did in Tulsa, I wonder if he'll be sent packing finally.

Some other CNN commentator just said this will be an evenly matched debate. Seriously?

I'm going to listen in the car while getting groceries. I have three words for Donald Trump.

[More...]

Donald Trump held a live ceremony today nominating Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court. She has been a judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals since 2017 when Trump nominated her. She is a former law clerk to Anton Scalia.

She and her husband have seven children, one of whom has Downs syndrome and two of which are adopted from Haiti. She is the first mother of school age children to serve on the Supreme Court.

Trump says, "Amy will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution".

In July, Barrett was part of a three court panel that unanimously ruled against the Republican Party in a lawsuit it had brought against Illinois Governor Jay Pritzger, seeking a Temporary Restraining Order against coronavirus restrictions he had ordered. The suit was based in part on freedom of religion. The 7th Circuit opinion includes this: [More...]

Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky Attorney General announced yesterday that no police involved in the raid that led to the shooting death of of Breonna Taylor will be charged with murder. One former officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with First Degree Criminal Endangerment (the victims of which were Taylor's neighbors), while the other two officers involved, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officer Myles Cosgrove, were not charged with any criminal offense. (It was Cosgrove who fired the bullet that struck and killed Ms. Taylor).

The charges accuse Hankison of firing blindly into several apartments and recklessly endangering Taylor’s neighbors, but do not charge him with firing at or killing Taylor. Two other officers involved in the March 13 incident, Detective Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, were not charged. Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Taylor, according to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, but the grand jury considered his action justifiable.

[More..]

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away today from complications of pancreatic cancer.

Ginsburg had experienced a series of health issues. In July she disclosed she had a recurrence of cancer after bouts with pancreatic cancer in 2019 and 2009. She also survived bouts with lung cancer in 2018 and colon cancer in 1999.

Tonight is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. According to Jewish wisdom (called Midrash), a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness and justice.

when a tzaddik departs, then the "glory (hod), splendor (ziv), and beauty (hadar)" that infuse his being accompany him as he moves on. There is a profound feeling of gratitude for the gifts the tzaddik bestowed upon the community while he was present. At the same time, there is an unavoidable and genuine sense of loss that marks his departure.

The politics of replacement have already begun. But for today, let us all remember she was indeed a Champion of Justice. May she rest in peace.

This is the funniest thing I've read all day. Andrew Giuliani, the golfing son of Rudy hired by Donald Trump in 2017 as an "assistant to the public liaison office" for which taxpayers shelled out $90k a year says he is seriously thinking of running for Mayor of New York:

“I am certainly thinking about it. It’s something that a bunch of people that I trust have approached me with,” the younger Giuliani told The Post. “It’s been terrible to see over the last few years how the city has spiraled. I am afraid if the right candidate doesn’t win in 2021, four more years of de Blasio’s policies will remind us of the 80s.”

I guess Don Jr., who once was toying with running for mayor, has now passed the post on to Andrew. Don, Jr. probably thinks the job isn't good enough for him, he'd make a better governor or Senator. (I doubt he'll run for Congress, it's too much work to have to reapply to your constituents every 2 years.) [More...]

Donald Trump's is holding an indoors rally today in Henderson, Nevada.

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.

200,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus. It is not going away. Cases have risen in 11 states this week: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Is Michael Cohen's book now chopped liver?

Making a bigger splash today is the release of Bob Woodward's Rage,, which exposes more of Donald Trump's incompetence and lie, as told to Woodward by Trump himself, in 18 separate interviews, only 3 of which took place in office settings: The remaining 15 were Trump calling Woodward late at night from his private (and likely unrecorded) phone line from the White House bedroom. It may be that Trusty Trump let Woodward record his calls without him recording at his end. Which would mean White House Staffers have never heard most of the 18 hours of tapes. No wonder they weren't all over the air last night giving advice.

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis, former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, all hired at the start of Trump's presidency, are quoted detailing their frustrations with Trump's inability to focus, their alarm over his refusal to accept facts or listen to experts, their fears over the consequences of his impulsive decision-making -- and one top official even suspected Russian President Vladimir Putin had something on Trump.

The Washington Post published snippets of Trump's taped comments to Woodward.

Wouldn't a normal person in Trump's situation apologize and resign, after which the media would get in position to broadcast his final frog-march across the White House lawn, with his stiletto-heeled wife and towering son at his side? But Donald Trump is not normal. [More...]

The Rolling Stones and Axl Rose of Guns 'N Roses singing "Salt of the Earth." It's my favorite song for Labor Day.

Below is one of my favorite sculptures. It is in downtown Omaha, at the Lewis & Clark landing, along Omaha's Missouri River Walkway. Created by Matthew Placzek, it is the second-largest labor monument in the U.S.. Two-hundred-fifty tons of cement and 39,000 pounds of steel were used in its construction.

Larger version here. If you are ever in downtown Omaha, I highly recommend seeing it up close. The trail that leads to it is right by most of the major downtown hotels.

Enjoy the weekend everyone and if you are going out, please avoid large crowds.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.