Update 5:48 pm MT: I think I will watch after all. I heard CNN on the car radio today and some official said that the mute button is only for the first two minute segments when they each get a chance to talk. (Shouldn't it be for all questions if the one not asked the question butts in and hogs the other candidate's time?) I think they should go further and block out the offender's face and mute his statements and have a chyron that says "Stand by. We will be back momentarily".

Does anyone need another debate to decide between voting for Trump or Biden? I doubt it. Does anyone need a final debate to decide whether to vote at all? Perhaps. [More...]

This was on the playlist of the Peloton class I took this morning. It's hard to find a clear video of all of the Byrds performing it live (as opposed to a lip synced version from an old 60's TV show or an out of focus 1970's reunion show), but it's still a great song and it made me think of Trump as I pedaled today:

"And I'll probably feel a whole lot better when you're gone"

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

95% of the time I think the election will be a slam-dunk for Biden and a decisive rejection of Donald Trump. But then, I think of all the millionaires and billionaires exercising their clout for Trump, and the unknown faction -- the number of marginalized, unhappy, under-informed lost souls out there somewhere in rural America, and I wonder, could they bring the election home for Trump?

The Wall St. Journal today has a "path to victory" chart in which you can move the battleground states into either candidate's column to see how they can reach 270 electoral votes. (Note: Paywall, but I think the NY Times had a similar feature a few weeks ago).

Biden starts way ahead of Trump with 226 electoral votes to Trump's 165. But, Florida is big, with 29 E.V. and Texas has 38. PA, Ohio and MI are next with 20, 18, and 16. Personally, I think Biden will take Florida, but even if he does, Trump could still win. For example, if the only undecideds Biden takes are FL, IA and NV.

Biden has the edge, and I hope he trounces Trump in a landslide, so Trump can never claim his legacy is anything but the failure that it is. [More...]

The Lancet has an article about a 25 year old man in Nevada who tested positive for COVID-19 in April and recovered but then at the end of May, he was infected again. He did not have any serious underlying conditions and there were no indications his immune system was compromised. But on May 28, he felt sick and on May 31 he got tested, and his test was positive. hThis time his symptoms were more severe.

We present, to our knowledge, the first North American case of reinfection with SARS-CoV-2. A 25-year-old man, who was a resident of Washoe County in the US state of Nevada, had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in April, 2020, followed by secondary infection within a period of around 6 weeks, in June, 2020. The second infection was symptomatically more severe than the first. Genomic analysis showed the two viral agents were genetically distinct. The patient's immune reaction in vitro was not assessed and, thus, conclusions cannot be made about the duration or degree of immunity.

The Lancet reports that at least 4 people have been reinfected. Does this man immunity Herd does not exist or individual immunity is not be a sure thing (unless you are a contestant on Survivor)? [More...]

Donald Trump wanted to return to the campaign trail (pun intended, as he trails his opponent be several points) today. but he is now planning on heading out on Monday. His doctor says:

White House physician Sean Conley said in a memo released on Thursday that Trump had completed his course of therapy for COVID-19, remained stable since returning home from the Walter Reed medical facility on Monday and could resume public engagements on Saturday.

“There are medical tests underway that will ensure that when the president is back out he will not be able to transmit the virus,” McEnany said, adding Conley would lay out the details later. “He won’t be out there if he can transmit the virus.”

[More....]

Some things not worth their own post:

Stephen Miller is the latest to follow a string of White House staff getting COVID-19. (His wife had been with Mike Pence, prepping him for the debate but she left when she got the news about her husband. She had the virus in May).

Kellyanne Conway, aka Ms. Most Unimportant Person in the World, is still fighting with daughter Claudia over Claudia's airing of the family's dirty laundry on TikTok. Claudia says her mom gave the virus to her. And in one TikTok, now deleted, you can hear Kellyanne screaming at Claudia and using the F word. I guess this is what goes for "more mama less drama" in the Conway household. At the Rose Garden ceremony, there were serveral photos of Kellyanne and Bill Barr, standing shoulder to shoulder, laughing and talking spiritedly, with their mouths just inches away from each other and neither wore a mask.

There's a debate tonight between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence. I haven't decided whether to watch yet. I might choose to re-watch some episodes of Money Heist (casa de papel) or the 4th season of Reign, or the 4th episode of Tehran. I hate when streaming services release one episode a week. Don't they know we're all binge-watchers? Also good: Trackers (South African) and Departures. So many movies with bad CIA characters these days. [More...]

Donald Trump loses once again, this time in the Second Circuit appeals court which upheld the refusal of the trail court to quash subpoenas in New York state investigation of Trump wronging.

The decision is Trump v. Cyrusr, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 31772 and is available free here.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, two of the four ISIS members known as "the Beatles" who are accused of being prison guards who tortured Americans James Foley, Kayla Mueller, Steven Sotloff, and Peter Kassig while they were held as hostages, are coming to the United States for trial in Virginia. This follows months of neogtiating with Great Britain which finally agreed to turn over evidence in its possession based on on William Barr's agreement not to charge a death penalty offense.

The third member of the group, British citizen Aine Davis, is being held in Turkey. The fourth member and leader of the group,"jihadi john" aka Mohammed Emwazi, was targeted and killed in a U.S. airstrike several years ago.

Several European journalists captured and held by ISIS were eventually released, when their countries or families paid the ransom. The U.S. and Britain do not pay ransom, and thus,Foley and the other Americans were killed.

And still no definitive word on what happened to John Cantlie. Most assume he is dead, but some captured ISIS fighters have said they saw him after the collapse of ISIS in Iraq. [More...]

Donald Trump and Melania Trump have tested positive for Covid-19.

[Trump] will quarantine in the White House for an unspecified period of time, forcing him to withdraw at least temporarily from the campaign trail only 32 days before the election on Nov. 3.

....Even if Mr. Trump, 74, remains asymptomatic, he will lose much of his remaining time on the campaign trail. If he becomes sick, it could raise questions about whether he should remain on the ballot at all.

Hope Hicks also is infected. She is just one of "scores of people" in the last week.

Ms. Hicks received the diagnosis after she began experiencing symptoms on Wednesday while attending the president’s rally in Minnesota.

The Trump family did not wear masks during the debate. Mask-less Ivanka sat right next to mask-less Melania during the debate. [More...]

CNN has the worst talking heads for the debate: Van Jones, former Republican Senator Rick Santorum. What hole did they find Santorum in?

I'm changing the channel.

I wonder who prepped Donald. If it's Jared , and Trump did as bad as he did in Tulsa, I wonder if he'll be sent packing finally.

Some other CNN commentator just said this will be an evenly matched debate. Seriously?

I'm going to listen in the car while getting groceries. I have three words for Donald Trump.

[More...]

Donald Trump held a live ceremony today nominating Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court. She has been a judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals since 2017 when Trump nominated her. She is a former law clerk to Anton Scalia.

She and her husband have seven children, one of whom has Downs syndrome and two of which are adopted from Haiti. She is the first mother of school age children to serve on the Supreme Court.

Trump says, "Amy will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution".

In July, Barrett was part of a three court panel that unanimously ruled against the Republican Party in a lawsuit it had brought against Illinois Governor Jay Pritzger, seeking a Temporary Restraining Order against coronavirus restrictions he had ordered. The suit was based in part on freedom of religion. The 7th Circuit opinion includes this: [More...]

Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky Attorney General announced yesterday that no police involved in the raid that led to the shooting death of of Breonna Taylor will be charged with murder. One former officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with First Degree Criminal Endangerment (the victims of which were Taylor's neighbors), while the other two officers involved, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officer Myles Cosgrove, were not charged with any criminal offense. (It was Cosgrove who fired the bullet that struck and killed Ms. Taylor).

The charges accuse Hankison of firing blindly into several apartments and recklessly endangering Taylor’s neighbors, but do not charge him with firing at or killing Taylor. Two other officers involved in the March 13 incident, Detective Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, were not charged. Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Taylor, according to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, but the grand jury considered his action justifiable.

[More..]