WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, September 17, 2020

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• ???? Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

• Global: Total confirmed cases: ~29,995,000; deaths: ~943,000

• U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~6,665,000; deaths: ~198,000

• Source: Johns Hopkins University

• ???? COVID-19 Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / CNN / The Guardian

• ???? How To Vote In The 2020 Election In Every State. Everything you need to know about mail-in and early in-person voting in every state in the age of COVID-19, including the first day you can cast your ballot in the 2020 election. (FiveThirtyEight / Washington Post / NBC News / Wall Street Journal)

1/ Another 860,000 people applied for unemployment insurance last week – the 26th-straight week that unemployment claims have remained above the 1960s pre-pandemic record. The total number of people claiming unemployment insurance went up by about 100,000 to 29.7 million as of Aug. 29. (Washington Post / New York Times / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Attorney General William Barr criticized his own Justice Department, equating them to preschoolers and “headhunters.” Barr insisted that he has the ultimate authority to intervene in investigations and to overrule career lawyers as he sees fit. “What exactly am I interfering with?” he asked at an event hosted by Hillsdale College. “Under the law, all prosecutorial power is invested in the attorney general.” In February, Barr overrode a sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, and in May he directed federal prosecutors to withdraw the government’s case against Michael Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. (NBC News / Washington Post / New York Times /