Neal Katyal and Joshua Geltzer in NYT on how bad it is at Justice...

The resignations are a forceful public signal that something is seriously awry with the Justice Department under Mr. Barr. A hallmark of the department, where both of us worked, is its tradition of political independence, forged over decades since its creation in 1870. Neither of us ever heard of career civil servants resigning because they believed the attorney general was acting politically.

Meanwhile, more than 27,000 Americans returned to the U.S. from mainland China in the first month after the ban went into effect and, as the Associated Press notes: “U.S. officials lost track of more than 1,600 of them who were supposed to be monitored for virus exposure.”

From Bess Levin in her Vanity Fair newsletter, remembering Feb 2020...

The ban, which took effect in early February, allowed travel to the United States from Hong Kong and and Macao territories, and more than 8,000 Chinese and foreign nationals based in those areas entered the country in the first three months after the restrictions went into place, according to the Associated Press.

😎 😜 😂 😍 🌏 😘 😆

Don't mind me, I'm just practicing my cut and paste skills...

By acting together, we can transform a period of deep adversity into one of shared wellbeing for us and for future generations.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/covid-silver-linings-playbook-by-mohamed-a-el-erian-2020-09

Finally, the crisis has required many companies to hold candid conversations about work-life balance, and to devise innovative solutions to accommodate employees’ needs.

But that is all the more reason to make the most out of our collective response. The challenge now is to expand and refine this list, so that we can seize the opportunities on offer and lock in more positive trends for the long term.

This speaks to a fifth silver lining. The pandemic has led country after country to run a series of “natural experiments,” which have shed light on a host of issues that go well beyond health and economics. Systems of governance and modes of leadership have come under scrutiny, revealing a wide divergence in their capacity to respond to the same large shock.

there is a massive surge of interest in innovative new methods of measuring economic activity through granular high-frequency indicators like mobility (smartphone geolocation), electricity consumption, and retail traffic, as well as credit card usage and restaurant reservations.

Fourth, the COVID-19 shock has raised our collective awareness and sensitivity to low-probability, high-impact “tail risks.”

Second, deeper cross-border private-sector collaboration, often outside the purview of governments, is fueling this process of scientific leapfrogging.

Third, the economic disruptions resulting from the pandemic have fueled multiple private-sector efforts to collect and analyze a broader range of high-frequency data in domains extending far beyond medicine. In the economics discipline, for example,

Mohamed A. El-Erian in Project Syndicate on COVID Silver Linings...

Now is the time to look to lock in trends and conditions that will reshape our society and economy for the better over the long term. With this overarching objective in mind, here are the top six silver linings that I see.

The first is that we are living through one of the most exciting and promising periods of medical invention and innovation in history.

It would cut taxes for the 97 percent of residents who make less than $250,000 in taxable income — and raise taxes for the remaining 3 percent, according to the study. If the Fair Tax had been in place over the past two decades, it would have effectively transferred $50 billion in wealth from this richest 3 percent to everyone else.

according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The middle-earning fifth pays 12.6. The highest-earning 1 percent of residents pays 7.4 percent.

This year, Illinoisans will vote on whether to change this system, through a constitutional amendment to authorize a more progressive tax, called the Fair Tax.

From David Leonhardt's newsletter today on FAIR TAX...

IDEA OF THE DAY: THE ‘FAIR TAX’
Many states have tax systems that are regressive: They take a greater share of income from the poor than the rich. And because a disproportionate share of the richest taxpayers are white, these state tax systems also widen racial wealth gaps.

In Illinois, for example, the lowest-earning fifth of the population pays 14.4 percent of its income in state and local taxes, ...

When you seek to divide, you get division...

#pups4peace

Ken-Dogger: Hey Rex, morning, a question?

Rex: Well yes, are you my friend?

KD: What kind of question is that? Of course, I’m your friend. I help you, I give you food, and I keep you healthy, I’d say that qualifies.

R: Wow, didn’t realize it was all that.

KD: It’s not too much, it’s a friendship cost.

R: Oh, you mean sometimes you give a little and then you get a little…

KD: Yes, mutuality…a balance between, not a layering of things done.

R: Hmmm, I like friendships.

Driving to Beaver tomorrow to see if I can secure a Utah driver's license and get registered to vote...and I did study for written knowledge test

#2020nothing4granted

Great line fro. MAX Boot's pm piece...

But that has not deterred right-wingers from trying to portray this as another “Flight 93 election.” Their theory seems to be that only a Trump second term can save us from the death and destruction of his first term.

The machine I love to hate...how I end my workouts, do yourself a favor, if you do nothing else, ROW, ROW, ROW...

Yard scorpion bite this morning...it freakin stings bad

[The Washington Post] Big Ten football reverses decision, will return to play in late October
Big Ten football reverses decision, will return to play in late October
By Emily Giambalvo

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/09/16/big-ten-football-resumes/

Don't fuck with America's football...

I admit I'm conflicted about this due to spillover economic effects being a good thing