The Horror, The Horror

Update: For some on-going good information along the lines of "Crazy In NC: McCroy Losing Edition" be sure and look at Anon's posts in the comments below. I'm glad some folks can still trudge on, I'm still broken.
Update: See for comments for a KKK debacle in NC.
Update: Kudos to commenter Anon for keeping the blog alive while I'm in recovery. Crazy In NC continues (see comment below for links): "But the threat of using the pain of hurricane victims for an outrageous power grab remains. Last year, Senate Leader Phil Berger manipulated the rules to help his son get elected to the Court of Appeals. Now he apparently wants to undermine the voters' decision by moving the Board of Elections and other agencies under the control of his friends and out of the control Governor-Elect Roy Cooper."

The Only Remaining Election Question...

...is when will it be coming to my corner?

It Never Takes Two To Polka In Punditville

Eschaton: Pundit Bingo:

...The Democrats must heal this nation by appointing Paul Ryan co-president and Stephen Bannon the head of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. It's time to end racism against white people once and for all! It's the new War on Racism!

Both Siderism will be flowing like the sweet wine of Jesus come Wednesday morning, and, yes, the winners are supposed to completely capitulate to the losers. I think I heard that routine in the second grade: "Heads I win, tails you lose."

Honoring Susan B. Anthony

Hundreds flock to Susan B. Anthony's grave on Election Day - CNNPolitics.com:

Voters made an Election Day pilgrimage to Susan B. Anthony's gravesite in honor of the pioneering activist who fought for women's suffrage.
Since early voting commenced in October, voters have paid their respects to Anthony by decorating her tombstone with stickers...

Media Failed America

driftglass: David Brooks Cannot Remember What David Brooks Wrote:

Of all the institutions that have failed the stress test of this election, none has gone up flames more spectacularly than the American political media. Sure, some people may say that the meltdown of the Republican Party was worse that the implosion of the punditocracy, but those people are stupid and wrong and you should not listen to them...

Truer words have not been spoken.

Crazy In NC: Flogging Comey Edition, Part 1

A tip of the Mad Hat to Anon for putting me onto this story:

Comey’s threat to democracy is unprecedented:

As a retired FBI Agent, I write to express my view of your recent actions regarding the so-called email scandal involving Hillary Clinton.

First, I served the FBI honorably for 32 years, two of which were in FBI headquarters as National Coordinator of Organized Crime related Public Corruption investigations. I testified before Congress and made innumerable decisions that affected investigations in many U.S. cities and states. These were high-profile corruption cases involving officeholders of both parties. As election cycles occur annually, I was acutely aware of the FBI’s solemn responsibility to conduct fair and responsible investigations that did not cross a line that could be perceived as interference in our American voting system. In fact, the Department of Justice (DOJ) policy of non-interference was viewed as sacrosanct...

Truth in writing-- I may be related to the FBI agent in question. Don't know for sure.

Could This Election Drive A Union Resurgence?

The Latino surge of 2016: Early voting points toward the real “hidden voters” of this election? - Salon.com:

...Most of these immigrants are hardworking folks, doing manual labor or service jobs — people who are also benefiting from unionization drives (which aren’t easy) and a helping hand from government for health care and education. They contribute massively to our economy, our culture and our society. All those pundits and analysts who been wringing their hands over the plight of the angry Trump voters and the Democrats’ alleged abandonment of the working class don’t even seem to see these working-class people.

There are millions of these newly energized voters all over the country and they are voting in vast numbers. With Trump’s threats and Clinton’s outreach, after this election they will very likely be Democrats with a lot of clout in a party that has an agenda that might actually be able to deliver for them. If Trump’s voters can cool down and clear their heads, they might realize they’d be better off standing with these folks than against them.

tRump Lies Touting MOY Honor

Did Donald Trump Just Make Up An Award He Won? | Huffington Post:

It was a throwaway line, offered in a stream-of-consciousness riff about the state of the auto industry. Donald Trump, during a speech on Sunday, claimed that five years ago he was “honored” as “Man of the Year in Michigan.”

We have no clue what he’s talking about.

That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. But there is no apparent record of it happening, and the folks who might know aren’t talking...

Deplorables Roust Disabled Kid

Steve Schale ‏@steveschale

Yesterday, this young man was kicked out of a Trump rally. As he was leaving, people kicked at his wheelchair. Today, he met his President.

We're Burning Up

Chunky Gal fire from last week

Sundown through the smoke and hze

The mountains are aflame all around us. It has taken two weeks of pressure to get the state to impose a burn ban, meanwhile idiot arsonists have been lighting the tinder dry woods on fire. We haven't had any significant rainfall in a month; five years ago we were the wettest spot in the nation. Smoke has settled into our valley (Iotla Valley) and ash is starting to fall. No rain is forecast until at least Saturday. Voting on Tuesday could well be a very dicey affair. I have no idea what the GOP will do if our polls are on-fire. If you want to see the general area, Google Franklin NC.

Rabun County, GA

Daily PUMA Nails tRump Tax Problem

Go read the whole post. The snippet below is just that.

Daily PUMA: Donald Trump Bombshell. The Real Reason Donald Trump won't release his income tax returns, Donald Trump may face IRS Tax Fraud, Income Tax Evasion, billions in penalties, and possibly Jail Time.:

...So when Donald Trump says he can't reveal his Income Tax Returns, it is because as soon as Mr. Trump publicly reveals his prior Income Tax Returns, a tax expert will realize that Mr. Trump HAS NO IRS TAX FRAUD IMMUNITY regarding his annual tax write-offs that he took right up until possibly 2015. So the IRS Income Tax Statute of Limitations clock would start from the moment the final write off was taken, which was probably around 2015...

Comment Of The Day: Kudos For Cons Edition

Steve Schmidt Offers Trump Advice: Spend Some Serious Time Preparing A Concession Speech | Crooks and Liars

IndyGuy  colorowdy  an hour ago

He's been really great with his commentary. He's a conservative Republican who is disturbed by what he see's in his party today. I have respect for him and people like David Frum who have held to their convictions and refused to back the madness -- even with their purge in conservative circles. They've both hit back in their articles and TV appearances. Bravo to Steve and his fellow small band of conservativeswho put the country before their ideology!

Key Facts About Obama Presidency

Darn good list. Ton of information. With sources!

14 Facts About Obama's Presidency Most People Don’t Know | Soapboxie:

People have many perceptions of how the US economy or the country as a whole has done in recent years. Depending on your political views, you may think the country is doing exceptionally well or is teetering on the verge of collapse.

Listed below are fourteen objective facts, without interjected opinion, about the state of America under the leadership of President Obama. Every statement is followed up with a link to a reputable source where you can verify the fact for yourself...

Kasich Flogs tRump

New Kasich ad: If Trump becomes president, ‘you better hope there’s someone left to help you’ - The Washington Post:

The gloves are off in the fight between John Kasich and Donald Trump.

Well, technically they've been off since last Friday. But the Kasich campaign released a Web ad Tuesday directly attacked Trump with a darker tone than any other candidate has used so far to go after the business mogul...

I thought all the "New Republicans" might be low-life scum, with the exception of Kaisch. Looks like I was right. If the GOPers had nominated Kaisch, they would probably be winning this election.

Hannity Goes Occult

Hannity’s Latest Whopper: Linking John Podesta To Black Magic | Crooks and Liars:

In the same week that Fox’s Sean Hannity apologized for suggesting President Obama had scrubbed his Twitter timeline of Hillary Clinton mentions and might be headed to jail as a result and Fox’s Bret Baier apologized for suggesting Clinton was about to be indicted, Hannity misinterpreted a WikiLeak email to suggest that Clinton campaign manager John Podesta practices black magic...

Latino Surge In FL

Florida Moving Faster From Battleground To Blue? Thanks, Donald. | Huffington Post:

...And this election, perhaps because of Republican nominee Donald Trump, they seem to be doing precisely that. Of the early votes cast by Friday, close to one-third of the Hispanic voters had never voted in an election before. And polling makes clear that they are overwhelmingly voting for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“That, my friends, is the definition of a surge,” said Steve Schale, the Democratic strategist who helped win the state twice for President Barack Obama and has been closely analyzing the early voting numbers in Florida for two weeks...

The Most Comphrensive Analysis Of Emailgate

According to Shareblue, the MSM has run an email story every day for over 600 days. I believe it.

The real Clinton email scandal is that a bullshit story has dominated the campaign - Vox:

Some time ago, Hillary Clinton and her advisers decided that the best course of action was to apologize for having used a personal email address to conduct government business while serving as secretary of state. Clinton herself was, clearly, not really all that remorseful about this, and it showed in her early efforts to address it. Eventually aides prevailed upon her to express a greater degree of regret, which they hoped would lay the issue to rest...

Long. Thorough. And the conclusion you knew it would have.

Is Ghoulianni Another Russian Agent?

FBI Complaint Filed Against Rudy Giuliani for Knowledge of Russian Hacks | Hinterland Gazette:

...The complaint was filed by the Democratic Coalition Against Trump on Friday.

DCAT said in a news release, “In July, Giuliani said that Russia has the 33,000 emails deleted from Clinton’s private email server, going on to say that he does “cybersecurity for a living” so it’s a subject he knows according to a Politico article. Giuliani then stated, “The Russians have those emails, they’ve had them for some time.””

“Rudy Giuliani stated that he knew the Russians had hacked into and stole property that belonged to Secretary Clinton, it doesn’t get much more clear-cut than that,” said Scott Dworkin, Senior Advisor to the Coalition.

“It’s not surprising that someone so close to Trump’s campaign would have knowledge of the attacks perpetrated at the hand of a foreign government...”

Give US O'Drama!

Cannonfire "Bombs Away":

...We need DRAMA, Obama! President Obama can end this election once and for all if he takes a single bold step. I do not expect him to do so: "No Drama Obama" has had a phobic reaction toward boldness since 2008...

tRump Defrauds Consumers, Too

EXCLUSIVE: AFL-CIO calls on Trump to explain misleading "Made in the USA" claims - Shareblue:

Some of Donald Trump's suits were advertised on Amazon as being made in the United States. But AFL-CIO research into Trump's supply chain suggests that none of his apparel products are manufactured here, nor substantially changed after arrival to meet the guidelines for the claim. In fact, after the misrepresentation was exposed by BuzzFeed, Amazon took it down. Like everything else related to Trump: It appears to have been a fraud...

Could I interest anyone in a class action lawsuit?

Pilot Whales Convicted

Best buds of the Outlaw Jersey Whale are going down. Top Chris Christie Aides Found Guilty Of All Charges In Bridgegate Scandal | Huffington Post:

A federal jury on Friday found two of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) former aides guilty of all charges in the Bridgegate scandal that has continued to plague the governor...

More Russian Interference

Report: FBI Examining Fake Documents Targeting Clinton Campaign | Huffington Post:

...U.S. intelligence officials have warned privately that a campaign they believe is backed by the Russian government to undermine the credibility of the U.S. presidential election could move beyond the hacking of Democratic Party email systems. That could include posting fictional evidence of voter fraud or other disinformation in the run-up to voting on Nov. 8, U.S. officials have said...

Comment Of The Day: Slave Labor Edition

WATCH: Unhinged White Supremacist Senate Candidate Loses His Sh*t In Mid-Debate | Crooks and Liars

LockeNessMonster  didnotpa  2 hours ago

Disagree. People, especially then, are fully aware of the labors of slaves. That is why they were so expensive and valued. And caused a war. If the value of slave labor was not recognized, why fight for it? Racists simply think that is how things are supposed to be - an inferior people serving a superior race. They may say otherwise, but it's simply doublespeak trying to justify their beliefs.

And the northern factories gladly accepted the products of their tolls. Lincoln slapped a huge tax on exported southern cotton. Not because it was the result of slave labor, but because it was being sent to England instead of the north. Point, it was hardly just the south that was built and became rich from the backs of slaves. The south just had the land and better weather to grow crops.

There is more than a little hypocrisy that goes along with various liberal claims of moral superiority when it comes to the issue of slavery in the US. The North gladly took the goods and services provided by the South, as did the hypocritical European powers, who, decades before the Civil War, were decrying slavery from the pompous heights of soulful purity while buying goods from the American South and from various colonies, which were often held in a state of virtual slavery. Only the Quakers, on both sides of the ocean, who originally raised the cry about slavery, resisted the lure of profit and comfort from slavery.

tRumper Murders Cops: Media Says Nothing

Guess What, Iowa Cop Killer Was ‘Troubled Loner.’ There’s A Lot Of Those!:

...Oh, the WingnuttoSphere should have a field day with that, although it’s also worth noting the Greene house has a “Trump-Pence” campaign sign in the front yard. The Register story also has a more detailed account of the October domestic dispute between Greene and his mother, who grabbed a necklace holding set of dog tags belonging to Greene’s late father and reportedly said “You don’t deserve these,” according to the police complaint...

Crazy In NC: Still Vote Suppressing Edition, Part II

Emails Show How Republicans Lobbied To Limit Voting Hours In North Carolina | Huffington Post: When Bill McAnulty, an elections board chairman in a mostly white North Carolina county, agreed in July to open a Sunday voting site where black church members could cast ballots after services, the reaction was swift: he was labeled a traitor by his fellow Republicans.

“I became a villain, quite frankly,” recalled McAnulty at a state board of elections meeting in September that had been called to resolve disputes over early voting plans. “I got accused of being a traitor and everything else by the Republican Party,” McAnulty said.

Following the blowback from Republicans, McAnulty later withdrew his support for the Sunday site...

tRumpers Building Booby Traps

A Political Stunt In Plano Draws Blood � CBS Dallas / Fort Worth:

The hostility between Trump and Clinton supporters has been escalating as election day nears. But Tuesday someone attached razor blades to a Trump-Pence sign, then used it to cover the official polling site sign at a polling location in Plano...

How An FBI Nothingburger Is Chewed

Secret Recordings Fueled FBI Feud in Clinton Probe - WSJ:

...The FBI had secretly recorded conversations of a suspect in a public-corruption case talking about alleged deals the Clintons made, these people said. The agents listening to the recordings couldn’t tell from the conversations if what the suspect was describing was accurate, but it was, they thought, worth checking out.

Prosecutors thought the talk was hearsay and a weak basis to warrant aggressive tactics, like presenting evidence to a grand jury, because the person who was secretly recorded wasn’t inside the Clinton Foundation...

Gee, do you think somebody whose gonads are in a vise might just tell the people who make him a deal a little fairy tale? Naw. Never happen.

O Finally Gets GOPers

Obama Nails Republicans For Hyper-Partisan Reversal On Supreme Court Nominees | Huffington Post:

President Barack Obama let Republicans have it Wednesday for their change of tune on how they might deal with Supreme Court vacancies.

Speaking at a rally for Hillary Clinton in North Carolina, the president pointed the finger at that battleground state’s Sen. Richard Burr. Obama chided Burr, who is fighting for his own re-election, over his recent vow to leave the high court short-handed for four more years if Clinton wins next week.

“Some are saying they won’t appoint a ninth Supreme Court justice at all,” Obama said. He noted Burr “just said that if Hillary wins, he’ll do everything he can to block all Supreme Court nominations...”

Lest We Forget: Slavery Edition

The belief that slavery was solely a Southern institution is bunk:

Slaveholding and the business of slavery undergirded the economy of British North America and later the United States. Historians long have demonstrated that the institution of slavery was central to the social and economic development of the northern colonies and states; and since the 1990s there have been a number of studies on how white northerners used slave labor and were key participants in the business of slavery—the buying and selling of people and goods that sustained plantations throughout the Americas. Nevertheless, there is little public knowledge or acknowledgement that the institution of slavery was socially accepted, legally sanctioned and widely practiced in the North. For many Americans, slavery was a southern institution. The divide between scholarly work on northern slavery and public knowledge can be in part attributed to a lack of public education. K-12 history classes often sideline slavery and when it is discussed it is presented as a southern institution. There are also few public memorials to slavery in the North...

Extortion Is The GOP Platform

The Republican Party Is Now Just a Shakedown Racket:

...I have no idea whether the campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton knows how to fight on this simple, brute level, or whether her prospective administration will understand that it has to do so in order to be able to govern. The last two decades of Democratic party politics do not lend themselves to optimism on this score. There seems little doubt that, if a President HRC wants to get anything real done, she's going to have to break a few teacups in order to keep her political opposition from burning down the china cupboard, the house, and the two city blocks surrounding it.

If we go back to 2009, with a Democratic president who believes these people can be reasoned with, the consequences will be instant and they will be severe. This time, the big bag of fcks has to be empty on Inauguration Day.

tRump Lying About Mob Ties

Video shows Trump with mob figure he denied knowing:

A newly uncovered video appears to contradict Donald Trump’s claim that he never knew a high-stakes gambler who was banned from New Jersey casinos for alleged ties to organized crime...

Weld On Clinton

Libertarian VP Candidate Praises Clinton: 'She Deserves To Have People Vouch For Her' | Crooks and Liars:

...Then he went further, toward what sounded like an endorsement.

"I have a lot to say about Mrs. Clinton that has not been said by others recently, and i think needs to be said," he said. "I have known her for 40 years. I know her well professionally, personally, I know her to be a person of high moral character, a reliable person. and an honest person, however so much Mr. Trump may rant and rave to the contrary. People can make their own choices."

Later in the interview, Rachel pressed him on the contradiction between his statements and the campaign's which essentially contradicted everything he just said.

Weld answered, "I'm doing it based on my personal experience with her. I think she deserves to have people vouch for her, other than members of the Democratic National Committee, so i'm here to do that."

I don't like Libertarian principles. I'm distrustful of Republicans as a general rule. But my sense of him is that he was absolutely genuine and sincere. Good for him for doing what's right.

The Daily Flashback: Who SOS Clinton Is Edition

Hillary Clinton is one of the most ethical (and most lied about) political leaders in America - Shareblue:

Democrats are sick and tired of the endless lies about Hillary Clinton, the character attacks, the distortions of her record, the contorted caricature portrayed in the media. They want an unfiltered connection to her without the prism of GOP-style talking points and false frames.

If the headline of this piece blows some minds, you can thank three decades of relentless lies and smears by the conservative attack machine and its corporate media enablers, who have labored to create an aura of corruption around Hillary Clinton. Her detractors on the right, left and center reel off a laundry list of unsupported accusations with an air of absolute authority, as though it is simply a given that she is a terrible, horrible, no-good human being...

Got to the link for a great reminder.

KKK Hitting The Bricks For Their Racist

The KKK Is Working To Get Out The Vote -- For Donald Trump, Of Course | Huffington Post:

With just a week until Election Day, the Ku Klux Klan appears to be ramping up its effort to get GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump into the White House.

Residents in Alabama, Georgia, Kansas and Louisiana have all reported finding fliers from the KKK outside their homes in recent days. The materials contain calls for people to vote and join the organization as it tackles hot-button social issues with exactly the level of contemplation you might expect from a racist hate group...

Talking About Comrade tRump

David Corn Dishes Some Truth About Russia, Trump And The Election | Crooks and Liars:

David Corn appeared on Tamron Hall's show today to discuss his blockbuster report on Mother Jones about Trump's ongoing relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin. He was joined by Washington Examiner chief Congressional correspondent Susan Ferrechio, who argued that it was all simply false because the New York FBI office says so.

At this point, let's all agree that the New York office of the FBI is nothing more than an opposition research tool for Donald Trump, shall we?....

Is The RNC An Enemy Combatant?

If we're attacked by a foreign power, shouldn't special rules about agents of that power kick in? Since the Russians are working for the RNC and trying to destabilize the country and over-throw our government, is not the RNC now an enemy combatant? Perhaps, Homeland Security should seize the RNC email server and let the military rummage through their panty drawers. After all, there could be a smoking hard drive in there. Com'on Obama. Kick that hornet's nest.