Possible debate questions were the topic of my column this week. Please check out the full column at Newsmax ("Questions for the Next Debate") and the New York Sun ("Will You Take Down the Wall?" and Other Posers for the Last Debate).

Using the website Leakypreet.com, businessman Billy Walters today announced he had filed suit against former federal prosecutors and FBI officials.

The civil complaint in federal district court in the Southern District of New York says, "the primary relief Walters seeks here is a definitive judicial declaration that the individual Defendants conspired to rob him of due process.This pattern of misconduct not only damaged Walters but undermined the constitutional assurance of the fundamental fairness of the federal criminal investigative apparatus. Citizens suspected of crimes by federal officials have a constitutional right to be treated fairly."

From the complaint:

Harvard historian Jill Lepore brings some useful and much-needed perspective in a Washington Post article arguing that "a post-Trump truth and reconciliation commission," which is a hot and newly popular suggestion on the left, would be "a terrible idea."

She writes, "In democracies, a peaceful transfer of power has two elements: The loser concedes without violence, and the winner accepts without vengeance."

Joe Biden's October 14 phone call with Warren Buffett and Biden's October 14 fundraiser with Park Avenue resident Jane Hartley, Blair Effron of Centerview Partners, Deven Parekh of Insight Partners, and Roger Altman of Evercore were covered here earlier.

In addition, on October 15, Kamala Harris had a fundraiser with Tom Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund manager turned climate-change-activist and unsuccessful presidential candidate. A host of that event was Carol Sutton Lewis, whose husband, William M. Lewis Jr., is co-chairman of investment banking at Lazard.

"Pfizer Says It Won't Apply for Vaccine Authorization Before Mid-November" is the headline the New York Times put over its news article in print editions about the latest news from a pharmaceutical company testing a Covid-19 vaccine.

"Pfizer's Timetable for Vaccine Signals Availability This Year," is the headline the Wall Street Journal put over similar news in Journal print editions.

While Biden is going around Pennsylvania and Ohio describing the election as a choice between Park Avenue and Scranton, on Wednesday he had a virtual fundraiser with Manhattan rich people, including one who lives on Park Avenue. A pool report distributed by the campaign said Biden was introduced at the event by Jane Hartley, a former ambassador to France and to Monaco. Press reports and campaign finance filings indicate she lives on Park Avenue. The other hosts of the event were Blair Effron of Centerview Partners, Deven Parekh of Insight Partners, and Roger Altman of Evercore. At the event Biden said he "just got off the phone with Warren Buffett." Buffett lives in Omaha, not Park Avenue, but he is not exactly some Scranton coal miner or out-of-work union laborer.

A New York Times news article reports:

Obese Americans are more likely to become dangerously ill if they are infected with the new coronavirus. Now public health officials are warning that a much broader segment of the population also may be at risk: even moderately excess weight may increase the odds of severe disease.

The warning, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, may have serious implications for Americans. While about 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese, another 32 percent are simply overweight, among the highest rates of obesity and overweight in the world.

Radio Boston, a program of NPR affiliate WBUR, invited me on to discuss the vice presidential debate. If you are interested, you can have a listen here.

Joe Biden's attack on President Trump for being "the same guy who lets you earn a couple bucks parking cars at his country club, but even if you had the money, he wouldn't allow you to join," is the topic of my column this week. Please check out the full column at the New Boston Post ("Biden Takes Campaign to Country Club, But May End Up in Sand Trap"), Newsmax ("Biden Takes Campaign to Country Club, But May End Up in Sand Trap"), and the New York Sun ("Biden Emerges as Country Club Snob, Hypocrite.")

From a news article in the Wall Street Journal:

The most recent data for the more accurate PCR tests showed 14 out of 31 European countries reported that the rate of tests coming back positive was above 3%, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. A higher percentage of positive results suggests other cases remain undiagnosed in the population and more tests are needed to locate and isolate infected individuals to halt the virus's spread, the agency said.

By this measure, France (9.22%), Spain (10.18%) and the Netherlands (8.36%) are struggling—while Italy (1.76%), Germany (1.10%) and the U.K. (1.39%) are posting rates below the 3% threshold.

Recent data from the U.S.—though not strictly comparable because other types of tests are included—suggest some 4%-5% of tests are positive.

Midway through a Wall Street Journal news article about a new crop of partners at Goldman Sachs and an attempt to pay them carried interest comes this passage: "Goldman's success always has been wrapped up in its reputation as a wealth-creation machine, drumming up deals for the financial benefit of its executives as well as its clients. (Today's crop of partners lament having missed out on a wildly profitable investment in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China that was offered to Goldman partners in 2006.)"

The New York Times investigation of President Trump's taxes faults Trump for doing things that the Times Company and the family that control it have been doing for years. That's the topic of my latest column. Please check out the full column at the New Boston Post ("The New York Times Faults Trump for Tax Tactics Used by Sulzbergers Who Own the Paper") and at the New York Sun ("Guess How The Times Knows So Much About Tax Losses Trump Uses.") The column also was picked up in the New York Post ("The NY Times knows tax avoidance...") and in the American Thinker ("New York Times caught naked in bed with Trump's tax strategy..." ).

The attorney general of the United States, William Barr, has given, at Hillsdale College, a wonderful speech on politics and the Justice Department. It builds on Robert Jackson's classic speech of 1940 that we mentioned here back in 2017 in Preet Bharara and Robert Jackson.

Barr made the essential point that political control of prosecutors helps to protect liberty. This aligns with the argument we made here in "Politicize the State Department and FDA, Please. It Beats the Alternative." Here is how Barr put it at Hillsdale:

The most basic check on prosecutorial power is politics. ... political accountability—politics—is what ultimately ensures our system does its work fairly and with proper recognition of the many interests and values at stake. Government power completely divorced from politics is tyranny.

Vice President Biden is really pushing the Wall Street-bashing.

Here is a passage from his remarks as prepared for delivery September 30 in Johnstown, Pa., as provided by his campaign:

Donald Trump can only see the world from Park Avenue.

He only cares what the super-rich and connected think.

He only sees value in stock portfolios. His only metric for how the economy is doing is the Dow Jones.

He doesn't care if communities like Johnstown are still hurting.

He doesn't have a plan to help you get back on your feet or deliver relief to the people who most need the help.

He's too busy planning his next big tax give away to the 100 richest folks in the country. ...

Look, I've dealt with guys like Trump my whole life.

Guys who look down on you because they've got a lot of money.

Guys who think they're better than you.

Guys who might let you park their car at the country club. But would never let you in.

Guys who inherited everything they ever got in life. And then squandered it.

I see the world from where I grew up — in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

The New York Times has an interview with Whole Foods founder John Mackey that includes a couple of interesting passages. On the coronavirus:

there's a very high correlation between obesity and Covid deaths. And one of the reasons the United States has had more of a problem with Covid is simply that the comorbidities like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, they're just higher in the U.S.

This is an interesting interpretation to find in the New York Times, which elsewhere in its news columns has been busily insisting, along with the Biden presidential campaign, that the reason the United States has had more of a problem with Covid is, as one recent New York Times news article put it, "Mr. Trump's vast failures on the coronavirus pandemic."