Holy shit,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...?itid=hp_alert

Governor Northam of Virginia was also discussed as a kidnapping target by militias.

These people are terrorists and should be treated as such.

Time to bring in the bulldozers and take down their trailers of resistance.

The ending graphs in a piece by James Joyner responding to SCOTUS denying cert to Congressional Dems suing over emoluments.


The Trump presidency has cost us dearly. So much of what we used to believe would check a corrupt president has been exposed as unenforcable blather.

It's been clear to me for decades that those protections no longer functioned. I think Watergate is the last time it even arguably worked, and even then big cracks were already visible.

The DoJ is suing the author of the Melania book for violating an NDA.

Pelosi is on CNN right now tanking Bidens chances trying to talk to Wolf Blitzer about the rejection of the stimulus package. She is giving the trump campaign so much ammo.

Why is the DoJ involved in a civil matter?

Because they're Trump's attorneys now, personally.

"Immune".
Is it ok to call him a moron?

The DOJ is quietly dropping the "Unmasking" investigation with no charges. This is looking like all of the big investigations like this and the Durham report is going to be such big nothing's.

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Almost like nothing illegal happened.

Especially when one of the reasons she isn't willing to move forward is she wants a tax cut for the rich in it.

Not sure if you watched, but she completely acted the part of the nasty, unhinged, witch the right paints her to be.

Dems should put somebody like Schiff in charge of the House.

Holy shit, she is awful. The fucking worst.

Wasn't there some agreement amongst Dems at the start of this term that Pelosi would only serve for this term then step aside for new leadership? I appreciate what she's had to deal with Trump, but I hope she holds true to that agreement

So he'll kiss the guys, he'll kiss the hot women, but if you're an ugly chick, well you're not getting a piece of Donny.

Until 2022

I don't know how it's enforceable, but I saw yesterday that the deal requires 3/4 of Dems to support her for Speaker in 2021.

Because someone would give up the opportunity to be a Supreme Court justice. It's not her fault she was nominated.

Saw a poll on Scottish independence and it was at 58%. Solid job by the Tories if they end up breaking up Great Britain.

Is there any chance Wales would leave, too?

The trick is that the UK has to agree to allow a second referendum. Boris has indicated he has no intention of ever doing so. And Labour would be very unwilling since Scotland tends to be the most liberal country of the UK.

At some point, though, that becomes untenable. If independence is supported by 60 or 70 percent, that can't be ignored forever.

Wales will never leave - no industry to speak of and the demographics just don’t line up. Scotland at least has oil and fishing to fall back on. The majority of people in Wales live in cities in the south and rely on links with the rest of the UK - not to mention that overall Wales receives far more from the UK government (and formerly the EU - nice job voting for Brexit morons) then it puts in.

It wouldn’t be too unlike Alabama and Mississippi deciding to leave the union after the election. Which might not be completely unthinkable if Biden wins, so hey...

Perhaps, but would require the SNP to make a deal with the Tories most likely.

Also it’s worth noting that Labour lost a ton of ground in Scotland in the last election, so the assumption that they wouldn’t be willing to discuss Indyref2 might not be 100% accurate. It’s fair to say that not-Tory is still a good outcome (whether that’s SNP, Lib Dem or themselves) but the idea that Scotland and the north (as well as South Wales ironically) are safe Labour bastions is very much in flux.

But Labour lost ground to SNP, which is basically pretty far left as well. In England, Wales, and N Ireland, Labour gets tattooed. I know Labour feels that they have a shot of regaining some of their traditional Scotland seats, but if you let them go, it'll be like Tory rule for a few decades.

It'd be akin to California having a Calexit Party. The Democrats would still be loath to let California go.

If the Dems really want to play hardball they should threaten to use section 2 of the 14th amendment on states that are supressing the vote.

In case there are still people playing dumb on this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inves...l?itid=hp_mr_1

Can someone explain why Trump - losing in every public poll - would want to schedule a town hall at the same time Biden is holding a town hall? Is he really going to prioritize a potential TV ratings win over the chance to reach more voters if he had a time slot to himself? I take this as a sign he knows he is going to lose and is just looking for more ego stroking before he leaves office.

You can look at that both ways, can't you? I mean, if people are watching him that means they aren't listening to Biden. Maybe he thinks he can't afford for people to have their undivided attention on the opposition.

I don't think that he "knows" he is going to lose.

But he wants a ratings win over Biden. He's probably convinced himself it is smart strategy. But it's really b/c he wants the TV win.

One of the very consistent themes for Trump has to always prioritize the short term over the long term. That's a good reason why he's losing by 10 points.

"We have to keep control -- or else there will be totalitarianism!"

He might even get a ratings win. What do you want to watch, a train rolling by, or a train wreck?

He'd likely just get the win because Biden supporters won't tune in to watch him like Trump's supporters would tune into him. They won't tune in to watch Trump, either...but Trump's supporters will watch their messiah so they can yell Hallelujah at their TVs.

The more it's about Trump, the worse his chances.

He's backed himself into a corner that's impossible to get out of. He does best when he's off TV, not tweeting, and not making public appearances. The problem is he's down 10 points and the only way to get out of a hole like that is to reach out to moderate voters and try to swing them his way, but he's only capable of dividing people rather than reaching out to moderates. He can't stand people that aren't already aligned with him.

I have a deal for Trump. He can win the ratings wars for the town halls, and Biden can win the Presidency. Everyone gets something to be happy about!

I think he is trying to muddy the waters. If he wins the ratings and then loses the election, he can say the election must have been rigged against him since he won the tv ratings.

Which makes total sense in his mind and can easily be pushed to rile his base up. What a fucking disaster this guy has been for America.

I don't even think he's thought it through that much.

He just wants to win the ratings war.

Yeah, I don't want to boost Trump's ratings but would be curious to see the shit show live. I may just wait for youtube clips ;)

Agree

This is the equivalent of Fauci getting to throw out a first pitch and Trump announcing he's throwing out a fiedt pitch for the Yankees. He can't let someone else get the spotlight.

Well. Here it is:

@thedailybeast
EXCLUSIVE: According to multiple sources familiar with the president's thinking, Trump has told close associates that he wishes to counter-program the Biden town hall and score higher TV viewership numbers, and then use such a contrast to humiliate Biden


I mean, if he gets a ratings win, it's because his voters are tuning in. I'm not watching either because I knew who I was voting for months ago. That's not a humiliation for Biden, it's more a sign that Trump has a 30% cult and most other voters are not still undecided.

Exactly what I'm thinking as well. He's been a disaster his whole life, it's just now we are all paying for it. At least before he was pretty much contained in his properties.



I totally agree with you that he wants to win the ratings war. Donny's not smart, but, his people know what they are doing and know how to manipulate him which in turn manipulates his base. Strictly my opinion of course, but, given the past behavior of his, I wouldn't be surprised if it happens. I mean, the republican controlled senate is about to rubber stamp a judge that has clearly only been picked because she will do what she is told, not because she qualified. If it's not a landslide for Biden, man are we in for one hell of a rollercoaster of a ride before the first week of November is even over.

What’s the over/under on Burisma mentions by Trump tonight?

They have no October surprise so they just decided to invent one

That 'Hunter Biden's laptop' story was/is falling apart comically mere hours after being reported. It's still like the top 12 stories on FoxNews.com of course.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/man-wh...arre-interview

The Post is the trashy outlet that Fox uses to test run and break stories while trying to maintain the high ground for journalism (as much as that exists at Fox.)

The Real Origins of the Religious Right - POLITICO Magazine

This is a really interesting article. SOme stuff in there on a timeline even before I was politically aware. Where I grew up, Carter was nothing but a punchline to a joke, southerners were totally made fun of. Especially building steam for the Reagan era.

And this was BFE Indiana

I paid good money for Russian disinformation...

and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

You didn't dial Yakov Smirnov's 1-900 Russian Joke-a-day number did you?

But Fox News loves them this story - all over the front page.

SI

So here's my only thought on this Hunter Biden e-mail deep fake or whatever this is:

I see lots of commentators clutching their pearls about Facebook and Twitter banning accounts or fact-checking/suppressing this story.

And I'm like this: if it's okay to make naked displays of raw power on your side (i.e., ramming your Supreme Court justice through), then you also have to allow that it's okay for the other side to do the same. If the liberals control the media and the big tech companies you've come to rely on, that's *your* problem. You put all of your eggs in the political basket and ignored the cultural/tech/media baskets.

If it's okay for conservative business owners to say conservative things or hold conservative positions in their business models and get a pass (lookin' at you, Chik-fil-A), then it's okay for liberal companies and business owners to apply their positions to their business models.

It's like none of these people have ever gone for a Cultural victory in Civ, for fuck's sake.

another email story...hard pass...

Mitch McConnell Laughs When Confronted On Senate Inaction Over Coronavirus | HuffPost

I expected his lizard tongue to come zipping out

In Soviet Russia, the emails find you.

I guess I am to the point where I am just grasping for silver linings after four years of this. But thanks to Trump being so repulsive and so anti-immigration, support for increasing legal immigration is the highest it has been since Gallup started recording. And, for the first time ever, it is higher than support for decreasing legal immigration.

Leave aside the debate over the cultural impact of increased immigration. (I think that more heterogeneity is great and should be encouraged. But I understand that it a hot button issue for a lot of people).

The economic impact of massively increased immigration is an unalloyed good and could lead to another century of American dominance. Simply put. We. Are. Not. Having. Enough. Babies. In a generation, we will not have enough working age people to support all of us in retirement. GDP will shrivel. Other than climate change, it is the biggest problem facing us that no one want to do anything about. Massive immigration would solve it. Congress could pass one law that would do more to grow the economy than anything else they could do. But they haven't been able to because of all of the "They'll take your job" rhetoric out there confusing people. Now, maybe, hopefully, Trump has poisoned the anti-immigrant position so much that we have a chance of actually doing some real good here.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/1660/immigration.aspx

See also Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration by Bryan Caplan

Thank you :)
:D

The speed with which this insane conspiracy about Seal Team 6 and Osama bin Laden has planted roots among conservatives is shocking and deprssing.

QAnon is an abhorrent wart on the ass of America, but even worse are the idiots that buy a word they say. I hope the source of this trash is identified and rooted out at some point.

If you want a glimpse into the world of Q and how it hits families, I've been lurking at r/QAnonCasualties. You can get a feel for just how people are being sucked in and families pulverized. It's disheartening, but the support that people have there is very good. This ties in with the fear and longing for a powerful leader article that I posted earlier. This is a very real subset of our society. This isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. It very well could consume the R party and all right leaning media.

Nailed it

That is a sad indictment on the ability of so many people in this society to be independent thinkers and apply simple logic and common sense. It is like Jonestown on a national scale.

Sounds like Fascism to me.

https://marker.medium.com/forget-shu...y-3062e94c122e

In what should be a surprise to no one who has been paying attention, a bunch of MAGA governors waving their magic wand and declaring their economy "OPEN" didn't do shit.

The economy is crumbling because there's a contagious virus out there that gives people "COVID fog" even if they manage to not die from it, so a bunch of people are rightly choosing not to engage in behaviors that make them more likely to catch it.

Unless and until we get the virus under control, the economy will remain hobbled.

I saw yesterday some polling where 70% of people said they were uncomfortable going to movies or using public transportation and 60% said the same about malls and restaurants.

At least the government will support public transportation. Malls, restaurants, theaters - there is going to be some big closures and changes. Things had been trending away from indoor malls to outdoor ones - that may accelerate.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Donald Trump Says China Will Pay for Stimulus Bill: 'They're the Ones That Caused This Problem'

I'm sure they'll pay right after Mexico pays for the wall.

When nothing else works keep playing the hits.

Ain't no one going to a Trump rally to hear shit off his new album.

Well, he's got a new album to promote, but no new songs yet. But two weeks from now, he's gonna blow your socks off with the greatest song you've ever heard.

I'm confused - Trump went out of his way to secure a national TV audience opposite Biden to humiliate him, and now he's back to playing victim about a town hall he asked for and got? Is he having second thoughts about his ability to out-draw Biden? Or did he find out they rejected the campaign's insistence to allow them to choose who sits in the audience?

"I'm being set up tonight," Trump says of his NBC town hall, says its parent company is "CONcast, C-O-Ncast," and that the network is "home of Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 15, 2020

Also - Sleepy Eyes? Really? That's the best he's got now?

He is literally so stupid he doesn't know when to shut up. There are legit questions about the death of Reinoehl and President Moron says this out loud.

Trump: We sent in the US Marshals, took 15 minutes and it was over... They knew who he was, they didn’t want to arrest him and 15 minutes that ended pic.twitter.com/fJA5BsJVeF

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) October 15, 2020

There's going to be a huge commercial real estate bust, or, rather, an acceleration of what was already going on. The economy 10 years from now is going to look totally different than it does now in many dimensions - there are going to be far fewer competitors in the few sectors that hadn't already consolidated into monopolies/oligopolies since the 80s. Consumers are going to be totally screwed but it's going to take a while to notice.

Then again, I'm not sure what the economy next year looks like. I'm still a bit concerned with the prediction I saw back in March or April: "The economy is already dead - we just don't know it yet"

SI

It's an incredible time we live in when Barr isn't corrupt enough and is likely out the door if Trump gets a 2nd term.

I'm sure that trump will be super excited to hear this:

Rupert Murdoch Predicts a Landslide Win for Biden

Somehow my state government has a record surplus, 10 times what was projected before COVID.

I'm sure it won't look as good next fiscal year. And there's certainly been a lot of businesses which have closed forever. But others have adapted (we have new pedestrian-only areas with outdoor dining downtown that they're going to make permanent), real estate in the urban parts of the state is booming, population is increasing, unemployment is back to pre-COVID levels.

We still have restrictions in Boise and most everyone wears masks, though they're rare in the rural parts of the state. New COVID cases are about at their peak (so far), but deaths and hospitalizations are low.

I guess in a state like this we didn't have a lot of regular tourism to lose, or a lot of big events to cancel. Meanwhile tourism from neighboring states to rural areas and small towns here seems to have gone up this year, as people are taking more road trips. Yellowstone just had its biggest September ever. Places like McCall and Sun Valley in Idaho had huge summers too, and it was impossible to find a campground or cabin the state and national parks.

He's guaranteed to have a bigger audience. Biden is on ABC and ABC streaming while Trump is on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and all those streaming options. Trump's just permanently aggrieved.

I saw a prediction from one of the big financial companies that business travel will be back to pre-COVID levels...

in 2024.

When big companies have to cut back, travel is always first on the chopping block. And that's not even factoring in a possible ongoing health situation as a reason not to travel.

My wifes company is booming and they still have not only cut all travel, but also are organizing to go to a work from anywhere model and will save millions on real estate.

MSNBC is showing it. TV guide is telling me that Shark Tank is on CNBC

I wonder if Trump expected to hand-pick the audience and NBC insisted on having at least a few undecided/Dem voter ask questions. That might be why he's calling it a set-up.

That's what I was thinking. He moved so quick on it that the details were just being ironed out today.

My company is planning for 2023 right now.

Did Christie die yet?

Things might have changed. What I posted was the deal from yesterday.

When I worked at AIG, I was ahead on the work from home model. I would not move for the job so I lived an hour away and worked from home 3-4 days a week. When Superstorm Sandy hit NYC, AIG learned quickly about remote work. Then they scaled back their real estate leases in Manhattan and had people hotelling in the remaining office space. Many companies are basically going through the same forced realization of savings thanks to Covid. I ended taking a job in downtown Louisville (same drive as AIG which was across the river in Indiana) and I'm doing the same thing here as well.

Well, maybe Trump was right - he set himself up on this Town Hall.

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Man, the first time he gets a tough question he completely talks down to the female moderator.

This exchange was all I need for tonight’s belly laugh.

Guthrie then asked Trump why he had retweeted this week a random Twitter user who suggested an unfounded conspiracy that former president Barack Obama and Biden had killed the Navy SEAL team that had killed Osama bin Laden to cover up the fact that it had actually killed a body double.
“I know nothing about it,” Trump said. “That was a retweet. That was an opinion from somebody. I’ll put it out there — people can decide.”
“I don’t get that,” Guthrie replied. “You’re the president, not somebody’s crazy uncle."

But is the economy dead, or is the economy as we knew it dead... - there's definitely a lot of real negative effects, but I think it's also greatly accelerated trends towards work from home/telecommuting as companies that are still by & large run by an older generation are forced to do it & realize oh shoot it's actually not that bad, and even has some benefits!

Definitely would not want to own downtown commercial real estate in major cities, though I think there is an opening there to branch out to whoever jumps on it first. Turn commercial real estate towers in to residential in cities like Boston/NY/SF? Turn low rise development into green space (or better transportation?) COVID is going away, there will always be a market where people want to live in a walkable neighborhood and that was priced out in the bigger cities the last 20-30 years, I wonder if that comes back & you start to see in a Boston where younger/single people live in the city, older people/families live in the suburbs, but even the whitest collar jobs migrate more to the 95 corridor.

I think the fact that the unemployment rate has gone down five consecutive months and is better now than a lot of predictions thought it would be by the end of 2021 is significant there. We'll see what the winter holds but I think economically we've done much better than I expected.