Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Drunk Blogging the Debates

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10:39pm:
Final analysis:  Biden did not lose, so he won.

Trump really didn’t make a case for himself though.

I am at no risk of alcohol poisoning at this juncture, so I call this personal win.

10:37pm:
The debate is over, thank God.

It was far less chaotic than I had anticipated.

10:35pm:
OK, I have learned that rum and coke is dangerous.

This may be the drunkest I have ever been in a debate.

10:32pm:
F%$# this, I need to watch cat videos.

10:30pm:
A quick note:  Biden just has to not lose.

He has managed not to lose so far.

10:29pm:
Trump is talking about the bird kills and massive carbon footprint of windmills.

This is a lie.

He goes back to claiming that Biden will ban fracking.  (False)

10:26pm:
Had to feed the cats some wet food to make sure that Destructo gets enough water in his diet.

I am so f%$#ing sh%$faced right now.

10:23pm:
Anthropogenic climate change comes up.

10:21pm:
Trump has a valid queation, “Why didn’t you  do anything you get anything done in the 8 years that you were VP?”  About crime.

This is a talking point of his, but it is accurate.

10:20:
Biden actually admits to his earlier crime bills were a mistake.

I am completely sh%$ faced.

10:18pm:
Biden, “This guy has a dog whistle as big as a fog horn.”

Heh.

10:16pm:
Moderator confronts Trump on his racist rhetoric.

Trump claims to be the least racist person in the room.  Only if David Duke is stuck with him in an elevator.

10:14pm:
Trump brings up a valid point:  Biden has over 40 years in politics, and over 8 years as VP, and these things were never addressed.

Don’t know whether this will stick.

Thank god for real-time spell checking.  Without it, this will be comepletely incpomprehensible.

10:12pm:
I am unequivocally drunk.

Biden correctly reminds people that Trump called for the innocent kids from the Central Park 5.

10:10pm:
Biden talks relatively honestly, but does not mention his role in shepherding Clinton’s horrible crime bill through the Senate.

Trump brings up the 1994 crime bill.  (True)  And claims that he has done more for the minority community than anyone since Lincoln (F%$#ing lie).

Trump talks up opportunity zones, which is money to rich white developers like ……… Donald Trump.

10:08pm:
Race in America.

Talking about “The Talk” that minorities have to give their kids a talk about how cops will just shoot you.

10:06pm:
The colloquy over immigration is just dueling liars.

Trump is horrible and cruel, and Obama, and by extension Biden, was horrible and cruel.

Trump talks about immigrant murders and rapists.  Take an drink.

10:04pm:
Trump makes the point that punitive immigration policies start with Obama.  The cages, etc.

That is actually true.  

Take a drink.

10:02pm:
Trump talks about the beautiful wall.

There is not enough alcohol in the world.

10:00pm:
$15.00/hr minimum wage.

Trump says, “Leave it up to the states,” just like segregationists said about civil rights.

Bullsh%$.

9:58pm:
Trump says that the stimulus is a bailout for blue cities and states, and handouts to illegal aliens.

When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When the law is on your side, pound the law. When neither is on you side, pound the table.

9:56pm:
Trump accuses Nancy Pelosi of playing politics with stimulus.  Well, duh!

9:55pm:
Trump claims that Biden living in Scranton as a kid is a fraud.

I need to drink more.

9:52pm:
Trump says that Kamala Harris is more liberal than Bernie Sanders.

I am clearly not drinking ENOUGH.

9:50pm:
Biden notes that his plan adds a public option, and that he is opposed to single payer.

Bad move, let the ambiguity benefit your electoral prospects.  Single payer polls over 50% with Republicans.

9:49pm:
Trump claims that Biden will create a single payer system.

This is:

  • Not true.
  • A stupid thing to accuse Biden of, it’s like accusing Biden of supporting motherhood.

9:46pm:
Shifts to Amy Coney Barret and Obamacare.

Trump claims credit for eliminating the personal mandate, and that Obamacare sucks.  

He’s right that Obamacare sucks, but he has no plan, and if he did it would be worse.

9:45pm:
The moderator is losing control.  Will they cut the mic?

9:42pm:
The DPRK comes up.

Trump’s claims of his wonderful relationship with Kim are bullsh%$.

So is Bidens’s dick swinging on the DPRK, the standard Council on Foreign Relations crap.

Tweedle Dee, meet Tweedle Dumber.

9:38pm:
Trump: China, China, China!

9:34pm:
Biden talks about Trump’s secret China bank accounts and his refusing to release his tax returns.

Trump claims that he he prepaid his taxes (bullsh%$) and accuses Biden of corruption.  

More drinking.

9:32pm:
Biden talks about Trump’s formerly secret China accounts

9:30pm:
Trump brings up the Ukraine story.  Take two drinks.

9:28pm:
Pivots to national security, and now it’s all Russia and Iran and election meddling.

Screw that.  I want to know how we get out of forever wars, and how we stop the US from being a purveyor of misery and drone strikes.

 9:25pm:
Good question from the moderator.  She called out Trump for trash talking Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Trump responds with false praise for the doctor.

9:23pm:
Biden notes that Trump is responding by blaming blue states.

Trump responds to this by blaming blue states.

9:20pm:
Trump notes that there is soaring drug abuse, domestic violence, suicides, etc. during the pandemic.

Remind me, who is sitting in the oval office right now?

9:19pm:
I am watching on the BBC, because American talking heads make me ill.

Unfortunately, there is some sort of problem at the Beeb studios, with libs not matching the words.

It’s refreshingly surreal.

10:38pm:
It’s over. Jeebus.  I need a f%$#ing drink.

9:18pm:
Getting some cross-talk now drinking.

9:16pm:
Biden:  Paraphrases to, “What did he know, and when did he know it?”

I love it when someone uses a classic.

9:14pm:
Not much interruptions yet, so I’m just having a pleasant drink and an unpleasant watch.

9:13pm
Biden notes that Trump is spending his time claiming that it will go away, instead of dealing with the problems.

9:11pm:
Trump tries to deflect to China.

9:09pm:
Shorter version Joe Biden response on Covid-19, “This guy has no clue, and is lying, and the US is in worse shape than the rest of Europe.

9:07pm:
Donald Trump is asked about what he will/has done on Covid-19.  Claims that everything is good, and that he is immune.

I think that he is arguing that he is Superman.  Take a drink.

9:04pm:
Introduction with notes that the microphones will be off for person B when person A is asked a question.

Good News on Initial Claims

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They have fallen to within spitting distance of the pre-2020 record.

Obviously, this is good news only in a relative context.

 I still do not know what is keeping the economy afloat

New applications for unemployment benefits so far this month fell to the lowest levels since the coronavirus pandemic shut many businesses in March, a sign of improvement for the U.S. economy.

Weekly initial claims for jobless benefits, a proxy for layoffs, fell by 55,000 to a seasonally adjusted 787,000 in the week ended Oct. 17, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims for the prior two weeks were revised lower, reflecting new data from California. The revised level of claims for the week ended Oct. 3—767,000—was the lowest since the March 14 week, when less than 300,000 new claims were filed.

Declining layoffs add to indicators the economy is continuing to heal from the pandemic downturn. The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that existing-home sales rose 9.4% in September to the highest level since 2006, and consumer spending rose last month, despite historically high unemployment.

Still, with millions out of work and concerns about a resurgence of the virus in many parts of the country, many economists expect the pace of economic recovery to slow.

 Still waiting for the other shoe to drop,

We Have Lost a Giant

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Skeptic, magician, and exposer of frauds James Randi, aka “The Amazing Randi”, has died at age 92.

He was central to the skeptic community, which debunked phony claims about ghosts, ESP, and aliens.

One of his most important accomplishment was that he showed that the skill set of scientists was inadequate to exposing deliberate fraud, because the frauds use the techniques of stage magic:

James Randi, a famed magician known as “The Amazing Randi” and a scientific investigator who debunked sensational claims of paranormal and occult occurences — has died. He was 92.

The James Randi Foundation announced his passing in a tweet, saying he died of “age-related causes” on Tuesday.

Randi was remembered on Wednesday by magician Penn Jillette in a pair of tweets as an “inspiration, mentor and dear friend.”

………

By age 60, Randi had retired from magic and was one of the co-founders of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, or CSI. The committee responded to a rise of interest in the paranormal in the ’70s and promoted scientific inquiry and critical thinking in the investigation of extraordinary or controversial claims.

Among one of Randi’s more famous instances as a debunker — a word he said he disliked in favor of “investigator” — was of the religious televangelist Peter Popoff, who became famous in the mid-’80s for televised healing sermons in which he seemed to know intimate details of random attendees. Randi discovered that Popoff was using an electronic transmitter to get information about his subjects broadcast to him by his wife behind the scenes, and he then exposed the preacher on “The Tonight Show.”

In 1996 he founded the James Randi Educational Foundation, a non-profit group that encouraged and educated the public and media on vetting unverified and outlandish claims, later launching the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge for people who could demonstrate paranormal abilities under agreed-upon scientific testing conditions. While over 1000 people have applied, no one has proved their supernatural strength. The New York Times described the trials in detail in an article republished back in 2014.

………

Randi is survived by his husband, Deyvi Peña.

Re wad devastating, and very entertaining, when he exposed frauds.

Son of a Bitch, He Stole My Line

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What Robin Williams said

Pope Francis has made statements supporting civil unions for LGBT couples in a documentary.

But for my brother beating me to the punch on Facebook, I’d be calling this, “Fabulous.” 

I am not sure if this will end up being a matter of official doctrine, but it is a welcome development.

I expect to that many of the conservatives in the church to push back against this hard.

They tend to follow the Pope only it is convenient for them:

Pope Francis expressed support for same-sex civil unions in remarks revealed in a documentary film that premiered on Wednesday, a significant break from his predecessors that staked out new ground for the church in its recognition of gay people.

The remarks, coming from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, had the potential to shift debates about the legal status of same-sex couples in nations around the globe and unsettle bishops worried that the unions threaten what the church considers traditional marriage — between one man and one woman.

“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” Francis said in the documentary, “Francesco,” which debuted at the Rome Film Festival, reiterating his view that gay people are children of God. “I stood up for that.”

………

His conservative critics within the church hierarchy, and especially in the conservative wing of the church in the United States, who have for years accused him of diluting church doctrine, saw the remarks as a reversal of church teaching.

“The pope’s statement clearly contradicts what has been the longstanding teaching of the church about same-sex unions,” said Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I., adding that the remarks needed to be clarified.

………

Francis had already drastically shifted the tone of the church on questions related to homosexuality, but he has done little on policy and not changed teaching for a church that sees its future growth in the Southern Hemisphere, where the clerical hierarchy is generally less tolerant of homosexuality.

The remark “in no way affects doctrine,” the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit priest and close ally of Francis, told the television channel of the Italian bishops conference on Wednesday evening.

………

In 2010, as Argentina was on the verge of approving gay marriage, Francis, then cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, supported the idea of civil unions for gay couples.

………

“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family,” Francis says at another point in the documentary. “They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.”

Church teaching does not consider being gay a sin, but it does consider homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered” and by extension holds that a homosexual orientation is “objectively disordered.”

Church doctrine also explicitly states that marriage is between a man and a woman, a teaching Francis unwaveringly supports.

Francis’ predecessors had also expressed their opposition, though, to civil unions.

The important question is whether or not Francis will follow through.

If he does not make an effort to add an official imprimatur these statements will mean nothing.

We Are Definitely in the Political Weird Season

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As a part of the get out the vote efforts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez headlined an Among Us gaming session on Twitch to almost ½ a million viewers.

I’m not sure if this is brilliant, or just silly:

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) drew more than 430,000 concurrent viewers to her first-ever Twitch stream Tuesday night.

Ocasio-Cortez’s 3.5 hour Among Us session—which she used in part to encourage viewers to vote—included fellow Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and popular streamers like Pokimane and Disguised Toast, who responded rapidly to an off-handed tweet invite on Monday. And just in case you were wondering, Omar tweeted out the specs of her (very nice) gaming rig.

The debut instantly made Ocasio-Cortez—who admitted to having little experience with Among Us beforehand—one of the most popular streamers on the Amazon-owned video streaming service. Her peak of 435,000 viewers put her in the top 20 most popular streams ever on the site, according to data gathered by TwitchTracker, an echelon that’s dominated by major gaming brands with massive marketing departments. As of this writing, the AOC Twitch account has over 571,000 followers, and her debut video clip has attracted over 4.73 million views.

In between gasp-filled games full of Among Us‘ usual accusations and back-biting, Ocasio-Cortez directed viewers to “make a voting plan” via IwillVote.com. She also found time to talk about universal health care with her fellow players and share some thoughts on the world-building of Among Us itself. “When it comes to video games, it’s the lore,” she said on the stream. “How did these people get here? What year are we in? Et cetera.”

My son watched some clips, and thought it was brilliant.

Me, I’m dubious, but maybe I’m just an old fart.

Tweet of the Day

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the “check engine” light is such a racket. the car knows what condition, sensor, whatever, tripped it. modern cars have screens, that can display actual words.

but no, they light a little LED in the dashboard and make you take it in for a $150 “diagnostic”.

— Steve Randy Waldman (@interfluidity) October 19, 2020

He’s right. You could display the error code and the lookup right on your display.

Hell, you could do it on my 2004 Prius.

Hello Nurse!!!!

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Be still my beating heart

In a few weeks, they will be releasing the first new episodes of Animaniacs in over 20 years.

This will include Pinky and the Brain, but, unfortunately, no new Goodfeathers bits:

Readers of a certain age will have fond childhood memories of weekday afternoons spent in the company of the Warner siblings, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, the central figures of the hugely popular, Emmy-award winning animated series, Animaniacs. Now a whole new generation can appreciate their comic genius with Hulu’s revival of the show, slated to debut next month.

The premise of the original Animaniacs was that Yakko, Wakko, and Dot were characters from the 1930s who were locked way in a water tower on the Warner Bros. lot until they escaped in the 1990s. Now they exist to wreak havoc and have fun. The format borrowed heavily from sketch comedy, with each episode typically featuring three short mini-episodes centered on different characters, connected by bridging segments. Other regular characters included two genetically altered lab mice, Pinky and the Brain, who are always trying to take over the world; Ralph the Security Guard; Slappy Squirrel and her nephew, Skippy; Chicken Boo; Flavio and Marita, aka the Hip Hippos; studio psychiatrist Dr. Otto Scratchansniff and Hello Nurse (also a common catchphrase); and a trio of pigeons known as The Goodfeathers.

As appealing to adults as to kids, the show was smart, funny, irreverent, and even educational, especially with its playful songs listing the nations of the world, for instance, or all the US states and their capitals—set to the tune of “Turkey in the Straw”—or all the presidents set to the “William Tell Overture.” (My personal favorite was “The Solar System Song,” complete with the obligatory joke about Uranus.) The writers were masters of parody, so much so that it became something of a badge of honor to be so featured. Honorees included A Hard Day’s Night, Seinfeld, Friends, Bambi, Power Rangers, Rugrats, and The Lion King, as well as the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore. And of course, the Goodfeathers segments invariably parodied characters from both The Godfather and Goodfellas.

When the original series began streaming on Netflix, it proved so popular that Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation began thinking about reviving Animaniacs. They ultimately inked a deal with Hulu, which included the rights for the original series, as well as Tiny Toon Adventures, Pinky and the Brain, and Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain. (That means we can all revisit our favorites on Hulu.) Spielberg returned as executive producer and insisted on bringing back most of the original voice cast for the reboot. A first-look clip debuted earlier this month at the virtual New York Comic-Con (embedded below), parodying Jurassic Park (John Hammond—or rather, a cartoon Spielberg channeling Hammond—reanimates the Warner siblings).

I hope that the writing holds up.

The original was magic.

Reading the Tea Leaves

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In Space!!!!

It appears that there has been a tiny air leak in the International Space Station for months that they have been unable to identify, and they finally found it using loose tea leaves:

The International Space Station has been leaking an unusual amount of air since September 2019.

At first crew members held off on troubleshooting the issue, since the leak wasn’t major. But in August the leak rate increased, prompting astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the orbiting laboratory to try to locate its source in earnest.

Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, announced on Thursday that crew members had finally pinpointed the leak after devising an unusual test: They let tea leaves guide their search.

The cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin released a few leaves from a tea bag in the transfer chamber of the Zvezda Service Module, the section of the station’s Russian segment that houses a kitchen, sleeping quarters, and bathroom. Then the crew members sealed the chamber by closing its hatches and monitored the tea leaves on cameras as they floated in microgravity.

The leaves slowly floated toward a scratch in the wall near the module’s communication equipment — evidence that it was a crack through which air was escaping.

The crew has since patched the leak using Kapton tape, Roscosmos said on Monday.

Behold the power of tea.

I Learned 2 Things Today

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The first is that when you clear private data from the Chrome browser it keeps data for Google and Youtube, which is owned by Google.

The second, and completely related thing that I learned today is that the DoJ has finally filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Google.

I’m a bit dubious of the lawsuit, it reeks of William Barr rat-f%$#ery, it appears to be timed to maximize the political benefit to Trump and his Evil Minions™, but it’s been pretty clear for a while that much of tech company profitability is based on extracting monopoly rents.

I do hope that Google, and Facebook, and (particularly) Amazon get nailed to the wall, but I think that this effort is more likely to benefit the monopolists than reign them in:

The Justice Department accused Google on Tuesday of illegally protecting its monopoly over search and search advertising, the government’s most significant challenge to a tech company’s market power in a generation and one that could reshape the way consumers use the internet.

In a much-anticipated lawsuit, the agency accused Google of locking up deals with giant partners like Apple and throttling competition through exclusive business contracts and agreements.

………

“For many years,” the agency said in its 57-page complaint, “Google has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising and general search text advertising — the cornerstones of its empire.”

………

Google called the suit “deeply flawed.” But the agency’s action signaled a new era for the technology sector. It reflects pent-up and bipartisan frustration toward a handful of companies — Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook in particular — that have evolved from small and scrappy companies into global powerhouses with outsize influence over commerce, speech, media and advertising. Conservatives like President Trump and liberals like Senator Elizabeth Warren have called for more restraints over Big Tech.

………

………

Democratic lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee released a sprawling report on the tech giants two weeks ago, also accusing Google of controlling a monopoly over online search and the ads that come up when users enter a query.

“A significant number of entities — spanning major public corporations, small businesses and entrepreneurs — depend on Google for traffic, and no alternate search engine serves as a substitute,” the report said. The lawmakers also accused Apple, Amazon and Facebook of abusing their market power. They called for more aggressive enforcement of antitrust laws, and for Congress to consider strengthening them.

………

………

He put the investigation under the control of his deputy, Jeffrey Rosen, who in turn hired Mr. Shores, an aide from a major law firm, to oversee the case and other technology matters. Mr. Barr’s grip over the investigation tightened when the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, recused himself from the investigation because he represented Google in its acquisition of the ad service DoubleClick in 2007.

………

This sort of revolving door is precisely why we haven’t seen meaningful antitrust lately:  That revolving door is tremendously lucrative.

While it is possible that a new Democratic administration would review the strategy behind the case, experts said it was unlikely that it would be withdrawn under new leadership.

Your mouth to God’s ear.

 And if you are wondering, I am VERY MUCH aware of the irony involved in my saying this on a Google owned platform.

Vote Early and Often

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The whole family voted today.

We got absentee ballots and then drove to Hannah Moore park to drop them off.

I voted for Biden, though the I was very tempted to vote for the Bread and Roses Party candidate, they are socialists on the ballot only in non-swing states like Maryland, but in the end, my family’s arguments prevailed.

I wanted to stop at the marijuana dispensary down the street after voting though.

It took about 15 minutes, and we caught it on video:

About Damn Time

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I understand that a wedding, particularly the wedding of the grandson of a prominent rabbi, will traditionally be a time of celebration, but authorities were correct to shut down a wedding in the Hasicic community that would have had over 10,000 guests.

After the debacle that was the Sturgis rally, where thousands, if not tens of thousands of cases resulted, it is clear that these sorts of large social events are a clear and present danger to society.

The one of first steps to mending the world (תיקון עולם) is not to spread disease during a pandemic:

New York State health officials have taken extraordinary steps to shut down an ultra-Orthodox wedding planned for Monday that could have had brought up to 10,000 guests to Brooklyn, near one of New York City’s coronavirus hot spots.

The state health commissioner personally intervened to have sheriff’s deputies deliver the order to the Hasidic synagogue on Friday, warning that it must follow health protocols, including limiting gatherings to fewer than 50 people.

On Sunday, the synagogue, the Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, accused state officials of “unwarranted attacks” on the wedding, where a grandson of Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, the synagogue’s rabbi, was to be married. The congregation said that the ceremony and meal would have been restricted to “close family members,” while the public would have been invited to participate only “for a short period of time.”

The wedding will continue, the synagogue said, but will be limited to a smaller group of family members. “It’s sad that nobody verified our plans before attacking us,” Chaim Jacobowitz, the congregation’s secretary, said in a statement.

The state health commissioner, Dr. Howard A. Zucker, took the rare step of issuing what is known as a Section 16 order, which can carry a daily fine of $10,000 if violated. The state has issued dozens of Section 16 orders during the pandemic.

A wedding involving 10,000 guests is insane even when you are not in the midst of a pandemic.

Smart Move

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The Michigan Secretary of State has banned the open carry of firearms within 100 feet of polling places.

The theory is that open carry of weapons at a polling place is a clear attempt to intimidate, which it is.

Needless to say, the ammosexual crowd are squealing like the pigs that they are:

Michigan is prohibiting the open carry of guns within 100 feet of polling places amid fears of voter intimidation during the pivotal Nov. 3 election, prompting criticism from the National Rifle Associationand the possibility of a lawsuit from Second Amendment advocates.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson sent guidance to local election officials on Friday — 18 days before Election Day — to clarify that the open carry of firearms on Election Day in polling places, clerk’s offices and absent voter counting boards is banned.

“The presence of firearms at the polling place, clerk’s office(s), or absent voter counting board may cause disruption, fear or intimidation for voters, election workers and others present,” the new guidance says.

Open carry these days is primarily an attempt to intimidate people that the ammosexual crowd disagree with.  It has been for decades.

The intent is to terrorize their opponents, and they should be treated as such.

Fascists Defeated in Bolivia

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Despite the best efforts to destroy the left wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) by the racist white elites in La Paz, as well as efforts by tye US state seucrity apparatus to overthrow the government, including a fraudulent claim of electoral fraud by the OAS, they outright won the first round of elections today.

The election, though the numbers are not official yet, are so overwhelming that the people who promulgated the coup have conceded.

My guess is that during the interregnum, the right will attempt to do whatever they can to privatize public resources and otherwise hamstring the MAS, despite the fact that the MAS presided over historic economic success and a reduction in poverty over its 14 years in power.

 Actually, the right will try to hamstring MAS BECAUSE it presided over historic economic success and a reduction in poverty over its 14 years in power.

After all, the exiting president was not only a right winger, but she thought that the indigenous populace was literally Satanic: 

Evo Morales’s leftwing party is celebrating a stunning political comeback after its candidate appeared to trounce rivals in Bolivia’s presidential election.

The official results of Sunday’s twice-postponed election had yet to be announced on Monday afternoon, but exit polls projected that Luis Arce, the candidate for Morales’s Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas), had secured more than 50% of the vote while his closest rival, the centrist former president Carlos Mesa, received about 30%.

Mesa conceded defeat on Monday lunchtime, telling supporters that a quick count showed a “very convincing and very clear” result. “There is a large gap between the first-placed candidate and us … and, as believers in democracy, it now falls to us … to recognise that there is a winner in this election,” Mesa said

Arce, a former finance minister under Morales, had earlier claimed victory in a late-night broadcast from La Paz. “We have reclaimed democracy and above all we have reclaimed hope,” said the 57-year-old UK-educated economist, who is widely known as Lucho.

………

Even Morales’s nemesis, the rightwing interim president, Jeanine Áñez, conceded that the left had come out on top. “We do not yet have the official count, but the data we do have shows that Mr Arce [has] … won the election. I congratulate the winners and ask them to govern thinking of Bolivia and of democracy,” Áñez tweeted.

………

For Áñez’s outgoing conservative interim government, which took power after Morales’s banishment, it was a stinging rebuke. “It tells us that the rightwing in Bolivia has no broad political support – not even close,” Shultz said. “The rightwing was given a chance to govern and proved that it is only interested in its own power and in itself and has contempt for the indigenous and poor of the country. They demonstrated that by pretending they had legitimacy that they didn’t, by overseeing real human rights abuses and impunity, and by being incompetent and corrupt in their governance. And people weren’t going to have it.” 

I expect to see more attempts by both the right in Bolivia, as well as by the US state security apparatus to overthrow this government.

Adding to My List of They Who Must Not Be Named

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Jeffrey Toobin.

I’m pretty sure that he won’t care about this.  He has his hands full. (Heh)

My standard statement upon putting someone on this list is:

Absent some sort of political activity, such as endorsements, running for office (PLEASE GOD NO!!), or their attempting to assassinate someone, they will not be mentioned here.

Toobin is primarily a pundit, so it’s unlikely that he will actually break news, or have an original idea, so this is probably the last time that you will hear about him here.

Linkage

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Machiavelli’s Advise for Nice Guys:

I Need 175,863 Refrigerator Magnets Placed Around Mar-a-Lago

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Asteroid 2018VP1, a refrigerator-sized space-rock, is hurtling towards us at more than 40,000 km/hr.

It may buzz-cut Earth on Nov 2, the day before the Presidential Election.

It’s not big enough to cause harm. So if the World ends in 2020, it won’t be the fault of the Universe. pic.twitter.com/eiy9G9w4Ez

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 18, 2020

Definitely Mar a Lago

Prominent astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson has just announced a refrigerator-sized asteroid might hit the United States on November 2.

While this would not create widespread damage, given that iron has a density of 7,870 kg/m3, we would be looking at about 15,000 kg hitting the ground at about 10,000 m/s. (I am figuring an iron asteroid of 4 m3 volume, with half of it vaporizing before it hits the earth)

The kinetic energy involved is therefore ½mv2, or about 7.5✕1011 Joules.

This is roughly equivalent to the detonation of about 180 tons of TNT.

So, the blast is much smaller than Hiroshima, but about 15 times bigger than the GBU-43/B MOAB. 

Definitely enough to depress property values: 

A certain asteroid is currently moving toward Earth, said the world’s most prominent astrophysicists Neil deGrasse Tyson.

It could theoretically strike the planet just before the forthcoming US presidential elections slated on November 2.

The prominent astrophysicist said that if the planet eventually ends in 2020, it would not entirely be the world’s responsibility.

The asteroid identified as 2018VP1 has been on the radar since the moment it was observed by the famed Palomar Observatory in California in November 2018.

This is so 2020.

This Was Forseeable

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The PRC is threatening to detain US Citizens in China in retaliation for the US detention of Chinese scholars. 

This was foreseeable, particularly given that the US prosecutions appear in some cases to be largely pretextual and politically motivated:

Chinese officials have told the Trump administration that security officers in China might detain American citizens if the Justice Department proceeds with prosecutions of arrested scholars who are members of the Chinese military, American officials said.

The Chinese officials conveyed the messages starting this summer, when the Justice Department intensified efforts to arrest and charge the scholars, mainly with providing false information on their visa applications, the American officials said. U.S. law enforcement officials say at least five Chinese scholars who have been arrested in recent months did not disclose their military affiliations on visa applications and might have been trying to conduct industrial espionage in research centers.

American officials said they thought the Chinese officials were serious about the threats. The State Department has reiterated travel warnings as a result, they said. Western officials and human rights advocates have said for years that the Chinese police and other security agencies engage in arbitrary detentions.

This is not a surprise.

Police are the Same Everywhere

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And by that, I mean, as Yanis Varoufakis notes, that they are objectively pro-Fascist.

He is talking about Greece, but the same thing happens in the US, France, Germany, the UK, former Soviet Republics, etc.

Perhaps the only police force that MIGHT not tilt toward Nazis is the Saint Petersburg constabulary, but that is an accident of history, specifically the 872 day Siege of Leningrad.

I rather imagine that even in the former Leningrad, the police are still reactionary:

October 7 was a good day for democrats. The Greek Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of the leaders of Golden Dawn, the only openly Nazi party to have won seats in any parliament since the 1940s, on charges of murder, grievous bodily harm, and directing a criminal organization. A crowd of 20,000 Athenians celebrated outside the court.

Our celebration lasted precisely 40 seconds, before the police dispersed us with teargas. Gasping for air, my wife and I tried to join hundreds of others struggling to escape via a narrow street leading to the safety of nearby Mount Lycabettus. A dozen riot police were there, firing gas canisters into the fleeing crowd. I pleaded with their commanding officer to stop. “There is no purpose in gassing people trying to go home,” I told him calmly. He swore at me. When I produced my parliamentary ID card, his response startled me: “Yet another reason to fuck you.”

The conviction of Greece’s Nazi leaders is a decisive victory against the revival of far-right extremism in Europe. But while they were being sent to prison, their ideas, manners, and hatred of parliamentary democracy were in police uniform, terrorizing the streets.

A week later, a police internal affairs officer interviewed me as part of an investigation triggered by my testimony. I could not recognize the riot policeman’s face, because I was unable to breathe or see properly at the time of the incident. But I did recognize one thing: the look of calm loathing in his eyes – a look that reminded me of Kapnias, once a trained Gestapo interrogator.

………

When I met him in 1991, I had assumed that figures like Kapnias were relics that would disappear one funeral at a time. I was wrong. A sense of permanent defeat, hopelessness, and widespread humiliation create an environment in which Nazism’s dormant DNA reawakens. Once Greek society was immersed in wholesale indignity, following our state’s bankruptcy in 2010, a new generation of Nazis, with Kapnias’s look in their eyes, took their seats in Parliament. Now, most of them are in prison for heinous crimes. But that look remains in the eyes of too many, not all of them in uniform.

At this I’m inclined to believe that law enforcement is INHERENTLY pro-Fascist, and pro-Nazi.  It just comes with the job.

Who Would Have Him?

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Trump has been saying that he might leave the country if he loses the election.

This raises an obvious question:  When is revealed to be both a criminal and broke, and this is clearly the endgame, who would actually not just put his sorry ass back on the the next plane to the Southern District of New York?

There are doubtless some tin-pot dictators out there who would be inclined to host him for ideological reasons, but the costs, both in terms of domestic unrest and foreign pressure.

I’m wondering what the over and under is on Trump ending up in prison.