Phillip Halpern, an Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of California, has resigned from the Department of Justice after a 36-year career, citing the malpractice of Attorney General William Barr as the primary cause, according to a letter he wrote to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The lead prosecutor in the cases against former Congressmen Randy “Duke” Cunningham and Duncan Hunter, Halpern cited a number of instances in which he and other prosecutors questioned Barr’s statements and actions, starting with Barr’s intentional mischaracterization of the report prepared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

“Unfortunately, over the last year, Barr’s resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases,” Halpern wrote. “In each of these cases, Barr overruled career prosecutors in order to assist the president’s associates and/or friends, who potentially harbor incriminating information. This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.”

Axios: “C-SPAN placed political editor Steve Scully on administrative leave Thursday after he lied about his Twitter account being hacked. Scully was set to moderate the second presidential debate on Thursday before it was canceled. Scully sent a tweet last week asking Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House aide who has become a prominent critic of the president, if he should respond to President Trump’s attacks on him and the Commission on Presidential Debates.”

At a rally in North Carolina Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump insinuated the US Marshall summarily and extrajudicially executed a supposed antifa follower who had killed a right-wing protester in Portland, Oregon, drawing cheers from the gathering, HuffPost reports.

Michael Reinoehl was suspected in the death of Aaron Danielson, a member of the right-wing militia group Patriot Prayer, who had threatened Reinoehl with pepper spray during protests in Portland August 29th.

“We sent in the US Marshals, took 15 minutes and it was over,” Trump yelled.  “They knew who he was, they didn’t want to arrest him, and 15 minutes, that ended.”

The shooting of Reinoehl has come under scrutiny, with eyewitnesses saying Reinoehl was not threatening law enforcement.  After his death, a gun was found in Reinoehl’s pocket, but Trump claimed that Reinoehl had been shooting at them and died in a gunfight.  Attorney General Bill Barr claimed that Reinoehl had “produced a firearm’ which prompted US Marshals to shoot.

Trump leads Biden 47% to 46% on the “Who do you think would better handle the economy as president?” question. Read more here.

Washington Examiner: “Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, in a private call with constituents, excoriated President Trump, saying he had mishandled the coronavirus response, ‘kisses dictators’ butts,’ ‘sells out our allies,’ spends ‘like a drunken sailor,’ mistreats women, and trash-talks evangelicals behind their backs. Trump has ‘flirted with white supremacists,’ according to Sasse, and his family ‘treated the presidency like a business opportunity.'”

“In what appears to be a conference call with his Nebraska constituents, Sasse said Trump could drive the Senate into the hand of the Democrats and cause permanent damage to the Republican Party. It is unclear when the call occurred, though it had to have happened well into this year because Sasse discusses Trump’s handling of the coronavirus. Sasse, a possible GOP candidate for president in 2024, is up for reelection on Nov. 3 and is expected to cruise to victory.”

Brazilian Senator Chico Rodrigues was arrested Wednesday after Brazilian police found him trying to hide a stack of cash during a search of his house by squeezing the wad between his buttcheeks, Reuters reports.

The lawmaker, under investigation by officials trying to get to the bottom of the misuse of coronavirus relief funds, confirmed that his house had been raided but denied any wrongdoing.

Rodrigues denied any wrongdoing, claiming that he hasn’t cracked during his 30 years in public office to the corruption that permeates Brazilian politics.  His office declined to provide a reason behind him hiding the 30,000 reais, about $4,100.

Police have not said, but we can assume the money was in bills, not coins.

The government’s infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, decried the support for the nation to adopt a “herd immunity” strategy that has become the favored tactic of the White House to battle the coronavirus, CNBC reports.

“I’ll tell you exactly how I feel about that. If you let infections rip as it were and say, ‘Let everybody get infected that’s going to be able to get infected and then we’ll have herd immunity.’ Quite frankly that is nonsense, and anybody who knows anything about epidemiology will tell you that that is nonsense and very dangerous,” Fauci told Yahoo! News.

In an interview with Fox Business “News” Stuart Varney Thursday morning, President Trump cited his pride as a reason for not coming together with Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, HuffPost reports.

Last week, one day after leaving Walter Reed Military Medical Center where he was treated with steroids for coronavirus, Trump tweeted that he was halting all relief package negotiations with Democrats.  That send the markets plummeting.

Trump then started backpedaling as he felt the political repercussions of his demand.  After a series of tweets calling for various aid packages, Trump tweeted “go big or go home!” and said he supported a package bigger than the $2.2 trillion proposed by Democrats.

New York Times: “President Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham have established clear but not overwhelming advantages in South Carolina, a heavily Republican state that is showing signs of competitiveness this year, according to a new New York Times/Siena College poll. Mr. Trump leads Joseph R. Biden Jr., 49 percentage points to 41, while Mr. Graham, who is facing the most serious challenge of his career, is winning 46 percent of the vote compared with 40 percent for his Democratic rival, Jaime Harrison.”

London will re-implement tighter public health restrictions starting Friday night as a coronavirus outbreak sweeps through the city, and stock markets are reacting negatively to the news of increasing cases in Europe and the United States, Reuters reports.

Health officials will elevate the public health warning from “medium” to “high” in London and the adjacent Essex County, meaning that people cannot socialize indoors with members of another household.  Travel restrictions are also recommended but not mandatory.

“Things will get worse before they get better,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. “But I know that there are brighter skies and calmer seas ahead – that the ingenuity of science will find a way through and until then we must come together.”

“Senate Republicans said the Senate Judiciary Committee would issue a subpoena Tuesday to Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey after the social-media company blocked a New York Post article relating to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden” – WSJ.

Yahoo News: “A top Republican senator with close ties to President Donald Trump said Thursday he believed Democrat Joe Biden had a ‘good chance’ of winning the presidency in the November 3 election. ‘You all have a good chance of winning the White House,’ Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Democratic colleagues at the opening of a hearing on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. ‘Thank you for acknowledging that,’ responded Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, to which Graham added: ‘Yeah, I think it’s true.’ Graham’s comments though did not change expectations that conservative Barrett would gain easy confirmation to the high court in the Republican-controlled Senate.”

Robert Brissette, a Utah Trump supporter, intentionally coughed on peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators at a gas station in Kanab, Utah, mocking concerns about the coronavirus, the New York Daily News reports.

“Oh, I’m so scared of your little fucking virus,” Brissette said in a mocking voice after intentionally coughing in the face of protesters who were set up on a sidewalk by the gas station. “You look like a little pansy-ass piece of shit.”

CAUTION:  NSFW language in video.

Trump supporter in Utah says "Black lives don't matter" & coughs on protesters pic.twitter.com/P012t6EFhL

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) October 14, 2020

Monmouth University: “Among all registered voters in Arizona, the race for president stands at 50% for Biden and 44% for Trump. The contest stood at 48% to 44% one month ago and 46% to 43% in a poll taken shortly before the state’s presidential primary in March. Another 2% currently support Jo Jorgensen and 4% are undecided. Biden (42%) trails Trump (51%) among non-Hispanic white voters, but has a large advantage among the state’s sizable Latino electorate (66% to 28%). Using a likely voter model with a relatively high level of turnout, the race stands at 51% for Biden and 44% for Trump. The race tightens to 49% Biden and 47% Trump when using a likely voter model with lower turnout. Trump beat Hillary Clinton by just under 4 points in 2016. Arizona has given its electoral votes to the Democratic candidate just once (1996) in the past 70 years.”

🚨🚨 NEW ENDORSEMENT 🚨🚨@mtgreenee has officially endorsed our campaign! I’m so proud to have this strong, conservative fighter on Team Kelly! #gasen #gapol pic.twitter.com/N0qC2x5Yhj

— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) October 15, 2020

The Trump campaign Twitter account was apparently suspended, according to Politico.

Mike Hahn, a social media specialist for TeamTrump posted a screenshot of the suspension notification Wednesday afternoon.  The notice specified that the account was suspended because it posted a false or misleading slanderous claim, specifically the debunked New York Post story about a claimed Hunter Biden laptop.

The account was reinstated Thursday morning by 11 a.m. ET.

“Today we’re further expanding both our hate and harassment policies to prohibit content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence. One example would be content that threatens or harasses someone by suggesting they are complicit in one of these harmful conspiracies, such as QAnon or Pizzagate. As always, context matters, so news coverage on these issues or content discussing them without targeting individuals or protected groups may stay up. We will begin enforcing this updated policy today, and will ramp up in the weeks to come. Due to the evolving nature and shifting tactics of groups promoting these conspiracy theories, we’ll continue to adapt our policies to stay current and remain committed to taking the steps needed to live up to this responsibility” – YouTube blog post.

The Atlanta Falcons have shut down their practice facilities after multiple members of the team and staff tested positive for the coronavirus Thursday morning, CBS Sports reports.

On Wednesday, the team placed one player, rookie defensive tackle Marlon Davidson, on the reserve/COVID-19 list after a previous positive test was confirmed.  Each of the other players and team staff who tested positive will have an additional test done to confirm results.  The team is isolating until those test results come back.

The Falcons are scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis on Sunday.  A decision about whether the game will be rescheduled will be made when the second round of test results are returned.

The NFL has had at least six games that have had to be rescheduled due to players testing positive for coronavirus.

Data for Progress: “In Iowa, Democrat Theresa Greenfield is going up against incumbent Republican Joni Ernst. We find that Greenfield has a four point lead over Ernst (47 percent Greenfield, 43 percent Ernst). This puts Greenfield running five points ahead of Biden in the state. Compared to our last poll of this race in July, where we found Greenfield with a two point lead and 11 percent of voters not sure, these results suggest undecided voters are making up their minds in Greenfield’s favor. Libertarian Rick Stewart and Independent Suzanne Herzog enjoy three percent support (2 percent Steward, 1 percent Herzog).“