REGISTER for our conversation Tuesday with Milwaukee Bucks SVP ALEX LASRY and Bucks assistant coach VIN BAKER. Register here BREAKING … JOSH GERSTEIN: "Judge can move forward with Flynn hearing, appeals court says": "A federal appeals court has dealt a setback to former Trump White House adviser Michael Flynn by ruling that a district court judge can proceed with a planned hearing on the Justice Department's attempt to abandon a criminal case against Flynn. "The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, voted 8-2 to reject Flynn's effort to dismiss the case immediately. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to a false-statement charge brought by special counsel Robert Mueller but was seeking to back out of the plea when Attorney General William Barr moved in March to drop the case." POLITICO … The opinion NEW … House Majority Leader STENY HOYER sent a note to Democratic lawmakers laying out the September election-year agenda: -- A STOPGAP FUNDING BILL is "likely" to keep government from shutting down Sept. 30. Surface transportation authorization and federal flood insurance need to be renewed. -- DECRIMINALIZING marijuana and "expunging records of nonviolent federal cannabis convictions." -- REP. MARCIA FUDGE'S (D-Ohio) "Strength in Diversity Act" … Rep. BOBBY SCOTT'S (D-Va.) "Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act" … Rep. JERRY NADLER'S (D-N.Y.) "Pregnancy Workers' Fairness Act." -- A PACKAGE OF BILLS TO "invest in energy innovation and clean energy development." UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS: The month will be dominated by a messy government funding fight, which will be twinned with a second (third?) round of brawling over Covid relief. After that, Congress will likely go home until after Election Day. All else is just noise. THE UNITED STATES is crossing another awful Covid-19 threshold: 6 MILLION people testing positive, per the NYT and the Johns Hopkins dashboard. (The actual number of cases is likely much higher.) IOWA, NORTH DAKOTA and SOUTH DAKOTA are currently the worst per-capita hot spots. And though we're down significantly from the July peak, the pandemic is still twice as widespread as it was in June. More from Adriel Bettelheim ON AVERAGE, about 900 Americans are dying from Covid daily. The numbers are so large they can become kind of numbing, and we've been living with them for so many months that it's easy for them to slip from the headlines. But that's 900 lives cut short each day, 900 new concentric circles of grief rippling through communities across the country. Here's one recent story: a 23-year-old Special Olympian from Sioux City, Iowa. (h/t @FacesofCOVID) THE PEOPLE DYING are disproportionately poor and Latino or Black, and they're no longer as concentrated in major population centers. That makes them more distant from a chattering class and national press that are disproportionately wealthy, white and working from home in big coastal cities. MEANWHILE, the Republican convention last week largely tried to play down the pandemic as a thing of the past. AND ON CAPITOL HILL, neither party has budged from their negotiating positions for months to provide economic and health relief to an ailing nation. JOE BIDEN will speak at 1:30 p.m. in PITTSBURGH. -- What Biden will say: "This president long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can't stop the violence -- because for years he has fomented it. He may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is. "Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected? We need justice in America. And we need safety in America. We are facing multiple crises -- crises that, under Donald Trump, keep multiplying. Covid. Economic devastation. Unwarranted police violence. Emboldened white nationalists. A reckoning on race. Declining faith in a bright American future. "The common thread? An incumbent president who makes things worse, not better. An incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order." SIREN -- "New Trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial 'herd immunity' strategy, worrying public health officials," by WaPo's Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey: "One of President Trump's top medical advisers is urging the White House to embrace a controversial 'herd immunity' strategy to combat the pandemic, which would entail allowing the coronavirus to spread through most of the population to quickly build resistance to the virus, while taking steps to protect those in nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, according to five people familiar with the discussions. "The administration has already begun to implement some policies along these lines, according to current and former officials as well as experts, particularly with regard to testing. The approach's chief proponent is Scott Atlas … That this approach is even being discussed inside the White House is drawing concern from experts inside and outside the government … "With a population of 328 million in the United States, it may require 2.13 million deaths to reach a 65 percent threshold of herd immunity, assuming the virus has a 1 percent fatality rate, according to an analysis by The Washington Post." Good Monday afternoon. Press secretary KAYLEIGH MCENANY is briefing at 1 p.m. NEW … ZIAD OJAKLI is leaving Softbank -- where he led government affairs -- Sept. 22 "to begin a new chapter in his career." BRUCE ANDREWS and BRIAN CONKLIN will co-lead government affairs for the Japanese company. Internal staff email NYT'S JONATHAN MARTIN in Boston on KENNEDY-MARKEY: "Mr. Kennedy pointed to his strength with working-class Democrats and voters of color who are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, all but scorning what he suggested was the hypocrisy of white liberals. "'For a progressive left that says that they care about these racial inequities, these structural inequities, economic inequities, health care inequities, the folks that are on the other side of that are overwhelmingly supporting me in this race,' he said. 'Yet there seems to be a cognitive dissonance.' … "Mr. Markey, who was elected to the House before Mr. Kennedy was born, has harnessed the energy of the ascendant left and wielded his rival's gilded legacy against him. And he has used his support from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom he featured in an ad, and their joint authorship of the Green New Deal to establish himself as the clear front-runner. "It wasn't supposed to be this way -- at least not in the minds of Massachusetts Democrats, who have spent a lifetime watching a parade of Kennedys win elections against little opposition. When Mr. Kennedy first considered leaving his House seat last year to challenge Mr. Markey in a primary race, some in the party wondered if the 74-year-old incumbent would step aside for the 39-year-old political scion." DAN GOLDBERG: "Falling Covid-19 cases create opportunity and peril for Trump": "Hospitalizations have dropped 37 percent in the last month and the daily death count is leveling off. But that doesn't mean the pandemic is over, even if Trump and his team portray it that way. The circumstances create a moment to reinforce public health measures like testing, tracing and social distancing that could finally bring the outbreak to more manageable proportions, while the world waits for a vaccine or new treatments. "Trump hasn't been inclined to go that route, instead pressing states to reopen and slowing down testing. … Even with the numbers looking better, Trump still has to convince people it's truly safe to venture out in order to get the bounce he's looking for — and fully rebut the charge that his mishandling of the pandemic has sunk the economy and killed Americans." POLITICO HUNT FOR A VACCINE -- "A Nightmare Scenario: Here's What Happens If China Gets the Covid-19 Vaccine First," by Elizabeth Ralph: "It's very possible that a Chinese vaccine could be the first to succeed in Phase III trials. If Warp Speed contenders fail, the U.S. could be perhaps six to eight months behind in developing one. What happens then? … "Health and national security experts envision, in that case, the future unfolding like a kind of 'choose your own nightmare' narrative, each potential pathway leading to geopolitical quagmires and thorny scientific traps. What if China refuses to give a safe vaccine to the United States, instead using it as a bargaining chip to combat U.S. power? What if the Trump administration, or a Biden administration, refuses to accept it?" POLITICO Magazine THE ATLANTIC'S DEREK THOMPSON: "Mask Up and Shut Up": "[C]ompared with yelling, quiet talking reduces aerosols by a factor of five; being completely silent reduces them by a factor of about 50. That means talking quietly, rather than yelling, reduces the risk of viral transmission by a degree comparable to properly wearing a mask." AP/KENOSHA, WIS.: "Police: Most arrested during Kenosha protests not from city": "Of the 175 people arrested during protests in Kenosha since [Jacob] Blake was shot in the back Aug. 23, leaving the 29-year-old Black man paralyzed, 102 have addresses outside of Kenosha, including 44 different cities, police said in a statement Sunday night." AP -- @realDonaldTrump at 9:10 a.m.: "If I didn't INSIST on having the National Guard activate and go into Kenosha, Wisconsin, there would be no Kenosha right now. Also, there would have been great death and injury. I want to thank Law Enforcement and the National Guard. I will see you on Tuesday!" AGAINST THE GRAIN … NBCLX: "What Happened When We Put the Speed of the USPS to the Test": "The US Postal Service isn't delivering mail as quickly as it used to, but the situation – with only two months until Election Day – doesn't appear to be as dire as the picture painted by some members of Congress. NBCLX, in partnership with the NBC Owned Television Stations in a dozen cities across the country, is testing the speed of first-class mail delivery each month leading up to the election, as more Americans are expected to vote by mail than ever before." E-RING READING … NYT: "The Few, the Proud, the White: The Marine Corps Balks at Promoting Generals of Color," by Helene Cooper: "[N]ever in its history has the Marine Corps had anyone other than a white man in a senior leadership post. … Proud and fierce in their identity, the Marines have a singular race problem that critics say is rooted in decades of resistance to change. "As the nation reels this summer from protests challenging centuries-long perceptions of race, the Marines — who have long cultivated a reputation as the United States' strongest fighting force — remain an institution where a handful of white men rule over 185,000 white, African-American, Hispanic and Asian men and women." NYT AD WARS … ABC'S WILL STEAKIN (@wsteaks): ".@JasonMillerinDC says Trump campaign will go up on TV in MN, WI, NC, GA, and FL this week." THE FLORIDA PROJECT -- "Who Gets to Vote in Florida?" by The New Yorker's Dexter Filkins: "Even though Florida is closely split, Republican leaders dominate state politics; since 1999, they have controlled both houses of the legislature and the governor's mansion. One key to their success has been restricting access to the polls." THE JILL STEIN EFFECT! -- "Poll: Third party voters from 2016 are backing Biden 2-to-1," by NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Ben Kamisar and Melissa Holzberg: "The combined national NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls from this year have interviewed 215 voters who said they backed either Johnson or Stein in 2016 … Forty-seven percent say they're voting for Biden, 20 percent are supporting Trump, and 33 percent are unsure or say they're backing another candidate." NBC -- BUT, BUT, BUT … @Bencjacobs: "Kanye West is going to make the ballot in Iowa after both challenges to his candidacy have been dismissed." ABC: "National LGBTQ chamber of commerce endorses Joe Biden," by John Verhovek LEBANON LATEST -- "Lebanon Taps a New Prime Minister Amid Swirling Crises," by NYT's Ben Hubbard in Beirut: "A little-known diplomat was designated as Lebanon's next prime minister on Monday through a rushed process aimed at showing official progress in addressing the country's many crises since a massive explosion destroyed parts of Beirut. The diplomat, Mustafa Adib, has served as the Lebanese ambassador to Germany since 2013." NYT FUNNY HOW THAT HAPPENS -- "Another Kremlin critic is attacked, as opposition leader Navalny recovers in German hospital," by WaPo's Robyn Dixon in Moscow: "Prominent Russian blogger Yegor Zhukov was beaten near his Moscow home late Sunday in the latest attack on a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin. Zhukov was beaten on the head and face by two thugs waiting near his apartment who escaped on scooters. "The attack came weeks after opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned during a trip to Siberia, falling ill on an Aug. 20 flight, before being evacuated to Germany two days later for medical treatment. He remains in a coma and is expected to survive, although doctors have said the long-term impact is not yet clear. It also comes amid a crackdown by authorities on activists, bloggers and journalists in recent weeks." WaPo MEDIAWATCH -- "Voice of America Journalists: New CEO Endangers Reporters, Harms U.S. Aims," by NPR's David Folkenflik: "A group of veteran journalists for the Voice of America delivered a letter of protest Monday denouncing their parent agency's new CEO, Michael Pack, and alleging Pack's remarks in a recent interview prove he has a damaging agenda for the international broadcasters he oversees. … "The protest was triggered by Pack's interview with the conservative and pro-Trump website the Federalist but came after a long line of sweeping changes and purges at the federally funded networks overseen by Pack, an appointee of President Trump. During the half-hour conversation, Pack joked with the Federalist's host, senior editor Chris Bedford, about deporting his own employees and forcing them to adopt unsafe workplace practices that could expose them to COVID-19. Pack said the agency was ripe for espionage and possibly rife with spies." NPR BOOK CLUB -- "Chris Cillizza's new book to focus on presidents' love of sports," by Axios' Mike Allen: "CNN's Chris Cillizza has inked a book deal with Twelve to write a book — aimed for Father's Day 2022 or sooner — about how the sports presidents played, and watched, help us understand the men who have run our country. "Cillizza tells me the book, tentatively titled 'It's Way More Than a Game,' aims to explain how each post-World War II president (and the society they governed) is best understood through sports — Ike and golf, Nixon and bowling, Obama and basketball." Axios ENGAGED -- Morgan Dwyer, a fellow and deputy director for policy analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Ben Haas, advocacy counsel and Pennoyer fellow at Human Rights First, got engaged Thursday. TRANSITION -- Ralph Jones Jr. is joining Raphael Warnock's Senate campaign in Georgia as deputy comms director. He most recently was comms director for Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.). | 
