Frank Rich:

His opponent is the coronavirus. He is flailing against a pandemic that is now surging as it hasn’t since late July, and especially so in regions (the South, the upper Midwest) considered his electoral strongholds. The Biden campaign has wisely never lost its focus on Trump’s cataclysmic failure to address the crisis. But even if it had, the morbid facts speak for themselves. The ever-replayed video of the White House gleefully playing host to a super-spreader event is our era’s Zapruder film. Trump wants to change the subject, but he can’t.

I would also argue POTUS is running against himself.

Minnesota sets a new daily record in new COVID cases. It’s firmly in the red zone.

[A] Minnesota Department of Health spokesman said Friday that the record-high case count includes few backlogged cases. The number of tests reported to the state Thursday were unusually high, with 44,398 tests. That is more than double the 20,646 tests reported one day earlier. Health officials also said that there were 13 additional deaths, with six of those among residents of long-term care facilities. In total, Minnesota so far has recorded 119,396 COVID-19 cases along with 2,212 deaths.

Is this official?

Senate elections have become increasingly tied to presidential voting results. This shows up in this year’s polling, as the margins for states’ presidential and Senate races are closely linked.”

An analysis of these polling data suggest that Democrats are likely to achieve a net gain of between one and eight seats with the most likely result a net gain of five seats, enough to give them a small Senate majority.

The GOP cognoscenti are nervous.

A series of setbacks for President Trump has left some Republican operatives and donors fearing that the race for the White House is slipping away and proposing that the party shift focus to protecting seats in Congress,” Said GOP consultant Brendan Buck: “We need to protect the Senate and limit the damage in the House. They can’t say it out loud, but the president is likely toast.”

Question is, is POTUS still living in as much of an alternate state to know?

A hospital/university system merger designed to fail.

Fairview Health announced a dramatic downsizing of hospital and clinic operations on Monday to stem financial losses, including the shutdown of the 90-bed Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul that had been converted in March to treat COVID-19 patients.

St. Joseph’s Hospital will become Fairview’s new flagship for COVID-19 care but will cease being a general hospital, as its emergency room will close by year’s end and specialties such as neurology and bariatrics will be relocated. Inpatient mental health care will continue at the downtown St. Paul hospital at least through 2021.

Sixteen clinics in Minnesota and western Wisconsin will close, and 900 jobs will be eliminated as Fairview Health braces for a $250 million operating loss this year that was exacerbated by the pandemic.

I attended Vanderbilt University as an undergrad, graduating in 1990. The GOP rush nominee, Amy Barrett, who was stupidly referred to as a Rhodes Scholar, attended Rhodes College, a small liberal arts college in Memphis – where I grew up. Apparently, at least 1500 alums have voiced opposition to her confirmation, which, if more GOP senators keep testing positive for COVID-19, could be in jeopardy.

The former VPOTUS and his wife, Jill, have tested negative – as well as the current Veep and his wife, the second lady. Ever since news broke about 12 h ago of POTUS’s postive novel coronavirus test, all hell has broken loose in his WH upper stratum. Increased worry about adversarial intervention on the world stage from security concerns; prepping the VPOTUS for the likelihood of succession (unlikely at this point); the campaign trail; upcoming Senate confirmation hearings (Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has just tested positive) – are just the tip of the logistical iceberg of preparation in this chaotic WH as the novel SARS-Cov-2 upends the national political consciousness.

It was only a matter of time.

Well, it had to happen sooner or later.

The rider was a man in his 60s with underlying health conditions who was hospitalized and placed in intensive care following his infection with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Fifty Minnesotans who took part in the Sturgis event, which draws hundreds of thousands of people each summer, have tested positive.

It’s the first known (documented) COVID-19 related death, taking the entire Sturgis festival as a so-called superspreader event.

Think Minnesota has achieved control with respect to the the percentage positivity rate and new case (incidence) rates? Think again.

Minnesota now has a new case rate above the national average, according to data [White House COVID-19 task force leader] Birx provided to [State Health Commissioner Jan] Malcolm on Sunday. The state also has reported an increase in the positivity rate of diagnostic tests from 4.9% two weeks ago to 5.2% last week. Case growth has increased 7.9% over the past week and for the first time was larger than the 7.6% increase in testing activity, Malcolm said.

The new #1 song in the U.S. this week is by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, “WAP”, which is an acronym for, well. This virtual interview – commissioned by Elle featuring the rapper and the presumptive Dem nominee for POTUS – is probably the only time one covering this story could utter the words “Joe Biden” and “wet ass pussy” in the same sentence and say she was just doing her job.

Though the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul are contiguous, their individual identities as municipalities could not be starker. Here’s another example of why:

In Minneapolis, on a desolate lot where Don Blyly’s bookstore stood before being destroyed in the May riots, two men finish their cigarettes and then walk through a dangerous landscape filled with slippery debris and sharp objects. The city won’t let Blyly haul away his wreckage without a permit, and he can’t get a contractor to tell him how much it will cost to rebuild the store until that happens.

In St. Paul, where Jim Stage’s pharmacy burned down during the same disturbances, crews have already removed the bricks and scorched timbers. A steel fence keeps out trespassers. Stage expects construction of his new Lloyd’s Pharmacy to begin later this month.

The main reason for the different recoveries is simple: Minneapolis requires owners to prepay the second half of their 2020 property taxes in order to obtain a demolition permit. St. Paul does not.