I hope you too are taking a well-deserved break this weekend.

Trump doesn't want to lose.

Seems like an act of political Hari-kari to me...

Just Trump being the self-centered and vain SOB he's always been. He doesn't care about doing his job... just settling personal grievances and being the biggest victim on planet Earth. His right wingnut cult members and QAnon nut job base live in another world where they are spoon-fed a steady diet of bullshit. They believe Fauci caused and is also profiting off the pandemic while also believing that China caused it. Yes, I know it sounds batshit crazy... but no crazier than their belief that John F. Kennedy, Jr. is alive and Trump is going to name him as his vice presidential running mate... (checks watch)... any day now.

So to recap: Trump shits himself at night, whines a lot like a victim, and is a dick who isn't qualified to hold the office of the presidency... but he definitely wants to win the presidency in order to avoid criminal prosecution for multiple crimes he's committed both before and during his presidency.

I sure can, but I don't think he'll get away with it. The supremes sided with state judges in PA and against a federal judge in WI.

It's nuts isn't it, JFC? I'm sure these bozos will appeal, but they did lose today... sort of lost twice too because the Judge found they had no standing to bring suit but also stated that even if he had made a ruling on their case, he would have allowed the votes to count.

ACB is the wild card.

You are so dead on accurate, JFC, but there's an ace in the hole which Republicans (not a typo) made clear in an Amici Curiae brief filed by Benjamin Ginsberg and Joseph Straus:

Amici are particularly sensitive to the irony that Republicans are now seeking to throw out votes cast by eligible voters because of what would amount to a technical error by elections officials. During the 2000 presidential election recount, it was Democrats who sought unsuccessfully to exclude 25,000 absentee ballots in the predominantly Republican counties of Martin and Seminole. During that election, amicus Mr. Ginsberg, alongside co-counsel that included now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett, argued that this same provision of federal law, then codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1971(a)(2)(B), prohibited that effort to disenfranchise eligible voters based solely on an administrative error by elections officials. Not so long ago, it was a core tenet of the Republican Party that the vote of every qualified voter should be counted, even if, at times, it did not work in the Party’s favor. While the Republican plaintiffs might seek to disavow that principle by bringing this action, amici respectfully ask this Court to reaffirm it.

Respectfully submitted,
HAYNES AND BOONE, LLP

Amici Curiae Brief of Benjamin Ginsberg and Joseph Straus

*
Republicans intervened on behalf of Texas voters; I guess they see the handwriting on the wall that Texas is going to go Blue... it's only a matter of when (not if).

Additionally, Ben Ginsberg wrote an op ed in the Washington Post dragging Donald Trump the GOP for its political tactics to discount the votes of Americans:

My party is destroying itself on the altar of Trump
*
Good for him. Credit where credit is due. :)

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/40/b4050670-230a-541e-bf75-fac8f1eac3e5/581b381d4c811.image.jpg

If Trump gives Fauci the 'slippery chicken, with a slide-toe heeler peeler' would that make an impact on voting day?

Fauci well-liked and is widely acknowledged as the big wheel at the CDC, Trump is wide...Is this seen as final proof that Trump is working for loss at the polls?

Seems like an act of political Hari-kari to me...

LL&P

I cannot fathom a federal court intervening in a Texas issue and invalidating ballots and disenfranchising 127,000+ voters in Texas.

I sure can, but I don't think he'll get away with it. The supremes sided with state judges in PA and against a federal judge in WI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VO2_KG6g-Q

That's a pretty awesome Biden ad, too. I liked it very much!

"You've marched for four years.
Now it's time to run."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VO2_KG6g-Q

I knew you would approve!

I really love that ad.

I was listening to the tunes tonight but didn't have time to post any tunes. I was here but flippin' busy... busy flippin'.

I'm home now, and Monday is number crunching day where I cease moving around and get ready for Tuesday. It'll be just like Super Tuesday. I just realized it is Monday... dang.

I have a Biden ad I really like too. Want to see it? I will assume you said yes and post it below. :)

Any thoughts Kick??

On October 22, the Texas Supreme Court (all Republicans) denied (with only one dissenting judge) the first Republican attempt against the drive-through voting and allowed it to continue. On Sunday, these candidates who filed their petition requesting the ballots be invalidated lost in the Texas Supreme Court. That's twice the GOP has lost in the Texas high court regarding this drive-through voting.

Harris County conducted primary run-offs this way and cleared it with the Texas Secretary of State before doing it. Many of the people who used the drive through voting were hospital workers and first responders attending to COVID-19 patients who wished to vote without putting their fellow Texans at risk. The law in Texas is clear that these ballots should be counted. I cannot fathom a federal court intervening in a Texas issue and invalidating ballots and disenfranchising 127,000+ voters in Texas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkCvwvcT1zE&app=desktop

I haven't really been watching any of the political ads this season but, this one is beautiful.

This one is awesome, EM. :)

I've always felt that the definition was squishy. Not really my favorite genre.

Lemmy Kilmister was a member of Hawkwind at one point, so I used to joke that Motörhead was art metal.

R.A.M.O.N.E.S.

My other favourite political analyst is a big Bond fan and actually met Connery at a small dinner party and had a chance to chat. He wrote briefly today about the first Bond and said, "There are true stars and there are all those people scuffling around for attention on “reality” TV, in all its various incarnations. This was a true star, perhaps the greatest."

Here's the wonderful theme from Goldfinger ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2WlDM3tEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJoTxywiRG0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxroXF2U79M

Isn't prog rock more about a feeling than anything else?

If you read the whole article, you read how the term has spiraled out of control to the point of meaninglessness. As far as I can tell, it basically applies to any band that is not "Classic Rock" or "Pop". So Jethro Tull, Queen, and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer are all the same type of rock and roll. That's not a definition, that's a bin.

Not that I don't like most of the bands on that list that I know. I do. But I never thought they were all, without exception and fitting no other term, prog rock. I like wikipedia's note that 'art rock', which its separate article defines partly as "music ... created with the intention of listening and contemplation rather than for dancing" was the original basis for prog rock.

What happened next was that any band or sound that tried to be different in any way - style, subject, instrumentation, tone, volume, historicity, etc. - from mainstream standard formula rock began to claim that it too was 'progressive'.

The result, as the original article notes, is that prog rock is a retrospective term, applied more since the 90s by aging hipster critics than it was by listeners at the time when the bands on this list were most active.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH7pdYa7sfQ&list=RDNfp1yFFdvlk&index=10

You can't have in the lyrics "Jerry and Linda in the White House' and not be a prog rock tune. You just can't. Heh.

Did I ever mention that Prism used to have a horn section?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6XuL6qEQf8&list=RDNfp1yFFdvlk&index=7

Here's another prog rock classic as PRiSM foretells of the surveillance state with 'Satellite' ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfp1yFFdvlk

Is it surprising, though? It has the Trumpian thumbprint all over it. A frequent trait you will find in "conservatives" in general is to claim how great Donald Trump has been for minorities while repeatedly pissing all over them at the same time. For instance, Donald Trump has been running around the country claiming over and over ad nauseam that he's done more for "Black Americans" than any other president except (maybe) Abraham Lincoln, and then in the same speech he'll brag to "suburban housewives" how he's kept "low-income people" out of their suburban neighborhoods.

Every time I hear the above rhetoric spewed in the same speech, I cannot fathom why no one is connecting the dots and calling him on this BS. The President of the United States is claiming to be great for Blacks while bragging to Whites how he's keeping them out of their neighborhoods... and right-wing minions and "conservatives" in general are not known for being able to connect the dots so you've got to do it for them. So...

Dear dumb GOP sheeple, minions, and useful idiots: Bragging to "suburban housewives" how you've kept Black people in their place and out of their suburban neighborhoods is the definition of White Supremacy and doesn't come close to qualifying you as a champion for "Black Americans." Connect the dots. :)

Here is the first climate apocalypse song from PRiSM Ron Tabak Era, written in the mid seventies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv24gN27kRM

It doesn't get more prog rock than this! :)

Walking In The Wind

Long Distance Love

Wait! You're missing some of my faves from the Canterbury Scene:

Soft Machine
Caravan
Hatfield and the North
The National Health
Kew Rhone
Robert Wyatt

Just found out Gowan is doing another live event tonight at 7pm in support of Canadian troops stationed around the world so I'll really need your help with our little Sunday night shindig!

Get our prog rock night off to a good start and we won't forget to do a little tribute to our favourite 007, too!

I noticed you left PRiSM off your prog rock list. That was a mistake. Prism's roots are embedded in the sixties, for starters. And, they did their part to carry their version of prog rock through the mid to late seventies. Sadly, the Ron Tabak era of the band ended tragically by the end of 1980 and, again, four years later. Prism's style and lyrics are prog rock, through and through, in my opinion, of course.

See ya tonight!

Yeah, you got that right!

Add that to the list of things he doesn't know.

In addition to that idiotic move, he Twitter-mocked Fauci for making a bad first pitch at a ballgame as if anybody outside the death cult cares.

Nice job of bringing more attention to the one topic the orange one's campaign should not be highlighting down the stretch.

But are they? Ducking Ulysses Cents

Auto-correct isn't for people who can't spell, it's an inside joke of iPhone's to make people who can spell look stupid.

;)

LL&P

Election Day forecast: Great!

Outside of the Pacific Northwest (where folks vote by mail), basically no rain or snow is in the forecast across the entire country. That means voters waiting in pandemic-mandated lines outside polling places should stay dry, if maybe a little chilly.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-if-we-dump-donald-trump-these-forces-will-continue-to-strangle-america?ref=wrap

It hangs loosely around CW's observations of the post-Trump GOP existence, not quite going so far as to suggest the 'Shadow' scenario I'm glad Chris dared to imagine. Judge for yourself if it's prone to tangential shift.

LL&P

From the POLITICO article,

On balance, state polling at the end of the race suggests Biden is as well-positioned at the end of the campaign as he has been for much of the race. More New York Times/Siena College polls in Arizona and Wisconsin show leads for Biden, including an 11-point advantage in Wisconsin. A poll conducted for a number of media outlets in Michigan showed Biden ahead by 7 points. CNN polls released Saturday put Biden up 12 percentage points in Michigan, 8 points in Wisconsin, 6 points in North Carolina and 4 points in Arizona

"If Facebook were around in the 1930s," says SB Cohen in the NYT link below, "it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his ‘solution’ to the 'Jewish problem'."

A thin line more easily toed by a devout Jew than a former skinhead.

It's heartening that my bizarre vehicle of social observation is taken as meant; Think-Act-No regret. The reverse, No thought-React-Regret, makes for an angry life surrounded by people you don't trust, or believe even when the truth and facts line up behind them 'beak to butthole'... My father is an endless supply of time-hewn Yorkshire sayings and truisms. One I'm reminded of when politics are afoot is, "A bodyguard can only protect you from your enemies, they can do nothing to protect you from your friends"... I've always taken that to mean, think for yourself, carry no one else's water.

The Link...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/style/sacha-baron-cohen-maureen-dowd-interview.html

LL&P

(damned auto correct)

My laptop died so I do all this stuff on a smartphone.

Kitar?

Progressive rock (often shortened to prog or prog rock; sometimes called art rock, classical rock or symphonic rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States throughout the mid- to late 1960s.

A (partial) list of Prog Rockers:

Blue Oyster Cult
Buckethead
The Decemberists
Deep Purple
Electric Light Orchestra
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Brian Eno
FM
Robert Fripp
Peter Gabriel
Genesis
Gentle Giant
Jethro Tull
King Crimson
Kraftwerk
Kitar?
Led Zeppelin
The Moody Blues
Nine Inch Nails
The Nice
Mike Oldfield
Phish
Pink Floyd
Procol Harum
Primus
Queen
Renaissance
Some Canuck band, called themselves "Rush"
Spirit
Styx
Tool
Traffic
Vangelis
The Yardbirds
Yes
Frank Zappa

That was, indeed, a beautiful ad.

On a personal note, I'm a little embarrassed at how much more you Canadian Brothers and Sisters know about American politics than I know about Canuck politics. Y'all don't mess up the world the way 'Muricans do so we don't need to pay you much attention. Having said that I resolve to give you similar respect, especially because, if the Orwellian dystopia continues down here I may defect to your wonderful country.

(thinking)

On second thought, could Washington, Oregon and California simply defect and join Canadia? That way I could live in a civilized country without having to move.

Don't say yes, don't say no -- have your people call my people and we'll do lunch!

"But what about '16?"
The Democrats did fret,
But don't you worry, Darling
On Joe Biden I would bet.

In the spirit of a Progressive Tsunami on Tuesday, how about Progressive Rock?

Olbermann's 100 Cringeworthiest Trump Moments

Now, THAT is what I like to hear - very good job, MtnCaddy!

And, very well said, JTC!

Are we ready for a wild CW Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party?

Any request for what the theme should be tonight?

I really like this:

Let's see if America has the stones to vote the 'K' out of *Demockracy this week...

Whew! Um, just how do you really feel, Mr. Canuck?

The majority of 'Muricans polled support raising taxes on the rich, inclusivity, a living wage, protecting the environment etc. My perception that the Democrats don't hammer this fact home, from sea to shining sea, has led me to believe that the Democratic Establishment is truly not behind addressing income inequality. That is, they're as happy as the Repugs are to let the bottom 90% of us fight over things like abortion and LGBTQ issues while they laugh all of the way to the bank.

BTW I received my ballot on 7 October. I voted a straight Democratic ticket, took my time researching the Propositions and yesterday hand carried it to my polling place -- done deal!

Let Freedom reign!

Unprecedented

Cancer

Priceless

Remember El Paso

" When I get to the bottom, I go back to the top of the slide, Where I stop, and I turn, and I go for a ride
Til I get to the bottom, and I see you again"

This is what's most draining, as a fan sitting in the bleacher nose-bleed seating, is the disregard for the representative democratic voting system emanating from every orifice of the Republican machine...It's stark, from every corner of the Democrat's sphere all you hear is 'Get out and vote', alternately, the GOP are in every court in every state trying to get votes extinguished for whatever reason their nimble little brains can conjure up to blow past the card-carrying lifelong Republican judge.

My point is obvious, why fucking bother? America is just playing an embarrassing game of 'dress-up democracy'...

Democracy might be what you're most proud of, but it's a hollow pride when it dances on your lips and dies in your heart.

I get that the folks here are slightly beyond the collective experience in that it's recognised what the Republican's do around election time is self-preservation. Conservatism is in decline in North America, no doubt due to the connectivity of society and the generational urge to not be tied to parental beliefs. GenX and Millenials are less and less religious and less conservative than previous generational groups because they are more accepting of the differences between people than they are loathing of them. Ergo...A 'beautiful, bright, shiny ready to rock and roll for democracy, fuck the lord and pass the bong, let's go vote' block of voters has been created. If I was going into politics, I would cater almost exclusively to that block, they're chomping at the bit to have their say, and by all accounts, they can't fuck up the system any worse than it is now.

Let's see if America has the stones to vote the 'K' out of *Demockracy this week...

It'll be a bumpy ride, it's a Tilt-A-Whirl™, after all...

Good luck, truly, I do mean that.

LL&P

This is absolutely the worst voter suppression that I have heard of so far.

Any thoughts Kick??

I agree, the ad is the best political ad I've ever seen!

The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney is truly beautiful! And Biden’s rendition of it was expertly done! Kudos to whoever coached him on how to get the most powerful performance out of Joe... Not sure if Obama could have done it as well as this version from Biden! The imagery in the video was just as powerful as the words we were hearing... the combination results in one of the finest ads of this election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkCvwvcT1zE&app=desktop

I haven't really been watching any of the political ads this season but, this one is beautiful.

But, yours was fun, too!

where on earth did that come from?

Once in a night as black as pitch
Isabel met a wicked old witch.
the witch's face was cross and wrinkled,
The witch's gums with teeth were sprinkled.
Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed,
I'll turn you into an ugly toad!
Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry,
Isabel didn't scream or scurry,
She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,
But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.
~ogden nash

Very nice.

And, now, I'm really missing Sean Connery. :-(

Why? The tangerine nightmare hasn't put him in prison yet. He was on TV last night.

I miss the guy who used to be funny. Is that what you mean?

Good inning, Sir Sean Connery, 90 is respectable give the late obstacles. Hitting Sixes and fours at whim, keeping the wickets for the Bond franchise tidy and being Badger to other great efforts (The Man Who Would Be King, one of my fav's) made our Lad a standout.

He made his bat a buffer and had balls that bite even the worst Packer pitches.

How-is-he? All out for 90.

Ashes to England, Kilts and Kinsmen...To the Glen.

RIP, Sir Sean Connery.

(LL&P)

Glad you mentioned the Obama-sledging of Trump last weekend, I mentioned it briefly, I thought it was, (and indeed all subsequent Obama husting-hurts), about 4 years of percolating cold loathing that Obama needed to strut off his stuff with Trump...

If anyone can think any other individual so central to Trump's galloping, hate-fuelled never veiled uber-racism than Obama, I pity the wretch if such a benighted entity exists in our or any other world... barring a last-minute appearance of Zarquon and time is called permanently, who deserves the right to swing the cat at Trump than Obama.

And boy. Did Obama ever roll up his sleeves to take Trump back to school, no holds were barred. For over an hour, Obama systematically dismantled everything Trump from his dopey dippy CV19 bleach clanger to sharpiegate. It was a tour-de-force of character flaw exposure and 'over-his-head' accounting.

I doubt Trump caught much of the speech, later that day he was seen, head unexploded, on the mount, proselytizing pointlessly to his pliant plebs.

I'm still not getting why Trump and his flock are drawn to these political events. The Risk being seen at such heathen gatherings should be reason enough to give them a healthy swerve, but... A heaving mob of sweating, hollering, belching and farting Trumpeteers shoehorned into any space can't be a healthy place to be, given they hang on Trump's every word in all matters medical, a gas chamber has more appeal.

I must be missing the nuance of retracing your steps on the hustings, exhaulting the same folk, ones already committed to your cause. My gut tells me what Trump could really make use of between now and Tuesday are converts to his weltanschauung, not packs of gobshitery groupies, and 'Orange Scruffs'...

I won't miss the abnormal, absurd chaos that Trump generates wherever he goes. The only thing worse than being exposed to a preening-self absorbed half-witted ne're-do-well, is doing it twice imagining the more you do it the more sense it might make in the retelling.

LL&P

'Barrett's comments were a response to a lengthy statement by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who detailed why many in the LGBTQ community may be concerned that the rights granted in Obergefell could be overturned if Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court.

"Not once but twice you used the term 'sexual preferences' to describe those in the LGBTQ community," Hirono said. "Let me make clear, 'sexual preference' is an offensive and outdated term. It is used by anti-LGTBQ activists to suggest that sexual orientation is a choice."'
https://www.npr.org/sections/live-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-confirmation/2020/10/13/923444137/barrett-clarifies-comments-on-lgbtq-rights-after-criticism-from-sen-hirono

And it can't burnish Sen Purdue's reputation that this burn hurt his feelings so much that he withdrew from the subsequent debate!
'“Perhaps Sen. Perdue would have been able to respond properly to the Covid-19 pandemic if you hadn’t been fending off multiple federal investigations for insider trading,” Ossoff said during a debate Wednesday. “It’s not just that you’re a crook, senator. It’s that you’re attacking the health of the people that you represent.”

Ossoff, 33, posted the clip to Twitter and it has since been viewed 12.5 million times as of Friday.'
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/georgia-sen-perdue-pulls-out-of-final-debate-after-bitter-clash-at-previous-face-off

My nominee for an honorable mention for MIDOW is Anthony Guevara. I haven't seen any article mention his party affiliation nor his profession. With his 'prank' Mr Guevara highlighted in a spectacular fashion how vulnerable is FL's voting system.
NB: No 'hacking' was required.

How many FL voters will have their ballots rejected because of address mismatch?

'Anthony Guevara, 20, from Naples, Florida, was arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and charged with altering a voter registration without consent and unauthorized access of a computer in connection to DeSantis' address change.
...
Officials say Guevara only made changes to DeSantis' registration.

Guevara's attorney, Mike Carr, told NBC News that the incident was a prank.

"It shows just how vulnerable the voting system is. Someone with no computer skills, no intent can go in and do this," Carr said. "He wasn't doing any hacking."

Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee told AP that the state's election website and computer system are secure.'

https://www.businessinsider.com/gov-desantis-had-trouble-voting-someone-changed-his-address-2020-10?op=1

And of course, the State of Florida is SO EXEMPLARY at election security that they immediately locked up Mr Guevara, rather than award him a prize for revealing an obvious flaw.

Has anybody ever watched Monsters Inside Me? It's a truly horrifying show about infections and parasites on the Animal Planet network. I had a stroke in 2016 just about two weeks before the election. I was hospitalized for a month and had to endure their very limited cable TV options. To avoid CNN, I actually watched lots of Monsters Inside Me. I remember thinking Who needs Halloween?. I don't recommend watching it and haven't since I was discharged from the hospital.

So, now we have this coronavirus infecting the nation and that repulsive orange parasite in the White House.

Monsters Inside Us! Who needs Halloween?

Check the last paragraph:

Drop off your ballot (it's too late to mail it). Go to an early-voting site.

You're welcome...

:-)

-CW

It would have been better if you had reminded folks who have not voted yet, but live in a place without in person early voting and have yet to mail in their ballot. NOT TO MAIL IN THIER BALLOT, it is too late for that...

Again if you plan on voting by mail it is too late to mail in your ballot. Visit your counties voting office website and deliver it to a designated location or drop box yourself.

DO NOT MAIL IN YOUR BALLOT, IT IS TOO LATE.

Sounds like we need a fun CW Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party this weekend, more than usual, even.

:-)

"What we have seen this year which is completely unprecedented... is a concerted national Republican effort across the country in every one of the states that has (sic) had a legal battle to make it harder for citizens to vote," said Trevor Potter, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission who served as general counsel to Republican John McCain's two presidential campaigns. "There just has been this unrelenting Republican attack on making it easier to vote." was quite funny. It has the flavour of being Sinfeldish..." imagine that... one of the two main parties in a thriven democracy isn't really into all that voting schemata, at the end of the day, they prefer duplicity over democracy, and don't even think about the nuts suggestion of one man/woman, one vote malarky the others were counting on.

See the breadth of my pragmatism, I invoked 'malarky', an obvious Americanism to describe the sentiment and its idiocy that 'more' could be anything other than 'best' where democracy is in play.

*Have. Tenses.

;)

LL&P

And four of them were the Piano Guys.

LL&P