It's a jail day in the mountains for me (no time to go during the week), which means an open thread for you.

All topics welcome. Please stay civil and don't blogclog.

Yom Kippur began at sundown last night. It is the holiest Jewish holiday. A time to fast, pray and repent.

Yom Kippur means "Day of Atonement" and refers to the annual Jewish observance of fasting, prayer and repentance. Part of the High Holidays, which also includes Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur is considered the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. In three separate passages in the Torah, the Jewish people are told, "the tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a sacred occasion for you: You shall practice self-denial."(Leviticus 23:27). Fasting is seen as fulfilling this biblical commandment. The Yom Kippur fast also enables us to put aside our physical desires to concentrate on our spiritual needs through prayer, repentance and self-improvement.

Yom Kippur is the moment in Jewish time when we dedicate our mind, body, and soul to reconciliation with God, our fellow human beings, and ourselves. We are commanded to turn to those whom we have wronged first, acknowledging our sins and the pain we might have caused. At the same time, we must be willing to forgive and to let go of certain offenses and the feelings of resentment they provoked in us. On this journey we are both seekers and givers of pardon. Only then can we turn to God and ask for forgiveness: “And for all these, God of forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, and grant us atonement.”

To those of you observing the holiday, G’mar Chatimah Tovah - May You Be Sealed for a Good Year (in the Book of Life). (I hope I got that right.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Rolling Stones played at Coachella in the Desert yesterday. They opened with Start Me Up. The full version, including their entrance is below:

Mick Jagger may be the most unique, inimitable performer on the planet. He's an international treasure.

The Stones just released their first new studio album in a decade. It's a blues album. They played Ride 'Em On Down at the Desert show. Here's a clip of the audio of another song on the new album, Just Your Fool.

More from their Desert performance: Gimme Shelter (with Voice alumna Sasha Allen, who joined the Stones' "touring lineup" this year); You Can't Always Get What You Want and Sympathy for the Devil.

Here's a terrific video featuring Keith Richards and You've Got the Silver from Santiago Chile this March.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, except Donald Trump. There are several Thump threads open for commenting.

The new iPhone update really sucks. I hate it so much I want a different phone. Mashable has 7 reasons not to update. Too bad I hadn't read it before absently clicking on the update button.

After the update, I spent over an hour turning off every app, messaging app, calendar app and location feature I could find and it still opens with messages on the home screen and then goes to a dark screen that says "Wednesday October 5" and under that the whole screen is dark blue except for a button that says "edit."

When I click on "edit" a screen comes up asking me to add widgets. Did Apple become Wordpress overnight? I don't want fricking widgets, I want my phone back. [More...]

Busy work day.

Hillary widens her lead in Pennsylvania

The Right wing in Colombia refused to approve the peace deal with FARC. The mis-guided public listened to the right wing rhetoric of former President Alvaro Uribe.

Hurricane Matthew slams Haiti, heads to Florida.

Anyone watching the Veep debate tonight? I'll pass.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The New York Times publishes some of Donald Trump's tax records and says he may have avoided paying taxes for 18 years based on his loss amount for 1995.

Alec Baldwin plays the Thumper tonight on Saturday Night Live. [More...]

Is anyone not sick of hearing about Donald Trump?

There's a new report by the Inspector General finding the DEA misused money for informants. It paid informants $237 million between 2011 and 2015.

We found that the DEA did not adequately oversee payments to its sources, which exposes the DEA to an unacceptably increased potential for fraud, waste and abuse, particularly given the frequency with which DEA offices utilize and pay confidential sources,” the inspector general’s office wrote

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's never my birthday until I see a chocolate cupcake with icing and a cherry on top!

I'm grateful to be younger than the candidates running for President.

Birthday wishes (and donations for a birthday drink, paypal here) are welcome.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Charlotte police have released the dash cam video of the shooting of Keith Scott. (No link due to auto-play video -- I can't even find an article without one to know what's in the video, so if you are following the story, use google.)

If there's one thing I won't be buying, it's the new Spectacle sunglasses by Snapchat. I wouldn't be surprised to learn Homeland Security has invested in the product. What a privacy invasion. Beware of people wearing the brightly colored sunglasses around you.

They're connected sunglasses that record video snippets that get saved to your Snapchat Memories....Tap the button on the top left-hand corner of the sunglasses to begin recording a snap. It will automatically stop recording after 10 seconds — but if you want additional recording time, you can tap again to add another 10-second increment.

I think this has the potential to cause violent reactions from anyone who realizes they are being recorded by a stranger.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Thumper's running mate, Michael Pence, today said:

“Trump and I believe there’s been far too much talk about institutional bias and racism within law enforcement.”

Trump thinks bringing back stop-and-frisk is a solution to city crime problems.

Thumper's son, Donald, Jr., today defended his much criticized Skittles tweet about refugees, saying in Utah it was an analogy.

University of Utah political science professor Tim Chambless, associated with the U.'s Hinckley Institute of Politics, said Trump Jr. did nothing to help alleviate those concerns with his latest statements.

"You wonder where is his and his father's sense of humanity and decency," Chambless said, noting that many Utahns trace their roots back to the Mormon pioneers who were driven out of their homes and came West as refugees themselves.

They are all out to lunch. Seriously, could they be any more tone deaf, let alone disconnected? If there's any consolation, in my personal opinion, it's that his supporters mostly seem to be the lunatic fringe of America -- joined at the hip by their fanaticism, misplaced nationalism and Clinton hating. Who knows how many of them intend to vote-- or are even eligible to vote? [More...]

I really don't like writing about Donald Trump, he just leaves such a bad taste. In my opinion, he's a sour, dour, spoiled, arrogant, and uninspiring individual, lacking in any identifiable talent and I don't trust a word he says. I have no idea what he really believes. Electing him would really be like buying the proverbial pig in a poke.

Trump's had a bad week. I still don't believe he will win -- I think people are bemused by him, and curious as to what outlandish thing he will do or say next. I doubt his supporters will turn out in big numbers to vote.[More...]

It's a court day for me. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.