Instead of the "fall" of Trump, it looks like we now have the "Fall of Trump".

Two October polls:
PPP - Trump +10
Morning Consult - Trump +18

Last year the state passes a law that requires a drivers license to vote, this year they close 31 offices that issue drivers license, and they just happen to be in areas with lots of black folks.

Alabama DMV closings draw call for federal voting rights probe

Citing budget constraints, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said last Wednesday that driver's license examiners would no longer work at 31 offices around the state. As John Archibald, an Alabama newspaper columnist, noted that day, eight of the 10 counties with the highest share of non-white registered voters will see their offices closed. That includes all five of the counties that voted most strongly Democratic in the 2012 presidential election.

Alabama passed a voter ID law in 2011, to go into effect in 2014. The state didn't seek approval for the law from the Justice Department, known as pre-clearance, as was required at the time under the Voting Rights Act (VRA). In 2012, DoJ blocked Texas's voter ID law from taking effect, citing its impact on minority voters. But in 2013, the Supreme Court neutered the VRA's preclearance provision. Hours later, Alabama announced that its law would go into effect in 2014 as scheduled.

The head of the FBI has said it is "ridiculous [and] embarrassing" that the federal government has no better information on police shootings than databases compiled by the Guardian US and the Washington Post.

"It is unacceptable that the Washington Post and the Guardian newspaper from the UK are becoming the lead source of information about violent encounters between [US] police and civilians. That is not good for anybody," said James Comey, the FBI director, on Wednesday.

Yeah, it's ridiculous that the FBI doesn't want to know how many people are killed by the police, if only one of us were in a position to change that...

Like so many bullies, Trump has skin of gossamer. He thinks nothing of saying the most hurtful thing about someone else, but when he hears a whisper that runs counter to his own vainglorious self-image, he coils like a caged ferret. Just to drive him a little bit crazy, I took to referring to him as a "short-fingered vulgarian" in the pages of Spy magazine. That was more than a quarter of a century ago. To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him--generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers. I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby. The most recent offering arrived earlier this year, before his decision to go after the Republican presidential nomination. Like the other packages, this one included a circled hand and the words, also written in gold Sharpie: "See, not so short!" I sent the picture back by return mail with a note attached, saying, "Actually, quite short." Which I can only assume gave him fits.

Via Digby, from Graydon Carter at Vanity Fair.

I'm  not a big 3D guy so I wish I had seen The Martian in 2D.  It wasn't like Gravity where depth perception was a big deal.   It's Ridley Scott's best film in a long time.

The Walk, on the other hand, is definitely a film you should see in Imax 3D.  I'm a  huge fan of Phillipe Petit and I ejoyed the tightrope walking CGI scenes even though I'm not wild about heights.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked him: "Just clarify, if there had been no gun control laws in Europe at that time, would six million Jews have been slaughtered?"

Carson replied: "I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed ... I'm telling you that there is a reason that these dictatorial people take the guns first."

There is literally no problem in which the idiot brigade hasn't convinced themselves that guns will fix.  It's just getting so hard to imagine that my fellow countrymen/women can be so GD stupid.

And what does the good doctor do when he is held up ?

However, Carson's gung-ho attitude was undermined by a story he shared with SiriusXM radio on Thursday, in which he recalled being threatened with a gun in a Popeyes chicken restaurant in Baltimore on an unspecified date.

"The guy comes in, put the gun in my ribs," Carson said. "And I just said, `I believe that you want the guy behind the counter' ... I redirected him."

How noble, if only you had followed your own advise you could have single-handedly stopped a robbery instead of 'redirecting' the robber onto someone else.  But A+ on being a complete douchebag.

This is not Bernie bashing.  And it may be nothing new since honestly I have not paid that much attention to his foreign policy stuff because frankly he is not my candidate and more to the point, I never thought he would be the nominee.   Again not Bernie bashing, just my opinion.  
But I was surprised how hawkish he sounded about dealing with ISIS, by working with Russia and other stuff.   I suppose I "assumed" ( that word is dead to me) he would be less aggressive than Hillary.  But he didn't sound that way.

The talk should be up some place soon if any are interested in hearing it.

Discussing this sort of thing the other day with a neighbor, he remarked how another neighbor got the cable company's fastest internet for 24 months for half price after telling them he was sick of their non-service and craptacular service interruptions and turtle speed.  All it took was his contacting the competition (the phone company) and telling the cable company he was saying goodbye.  A day or so later the cable company called begging him to stay.  A little bargaining later, and they rolled over.

With the Repubs reeling, it would be a good time now--a very good time--for Democrats to amp up the push against the Benghaziii fiasco as well as the right-wing witch hunt against women that is telecast via Cecile Richards.  We should ramp up the push for meaningful gun legislation as well. We should openly push back against the Repubs latest attempts to tamp down the vote & disenfranchise minority voters.  A gigantic initiative on our part in the days ahead could have an impact as the Repubs find themselves in the deep political sea.

The Speaker does not have to be in congress.   It's possible if they can't agree on someone in the house who will take it they could bring someone in from the outside who they can all agree on and is dumb enough to do it.

Interesting.  Relatively speaking not the most dangerous inmate in the asylum.

I'm asking because last December, NextEra submitted a $4.3 billion bid to purchase Hawaiian Electric, and I have some very serious concerns about that. So much so, that I'm part of an interisland coalition that's organized in opposition to the proposed HECO-NextEra deal.

In three weeks, I'm going to be making a public presentation on Oahu before the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, which must first approve any such deal before it can go forward. So, if you don't have anything nice to say about NextEra, please tell me all about it.

Actually, even if you do have something nice to say, I still want to hear your impressions. But especially, if you have concerns about NextEra as a current or former customer, I'd really welcome your input. You can reach me via email, which I have listed here at TL.

I keep waiting for the armed heroes to start saving someone and when all the guns are going to make the world a safer place...

"Surveillance video shows 30 seconds of high drama and raw violence in midtown Sacramento before 1 a.m. Thursday. What starts with a few punches thrown on a dark street corner quickly spills into the street. Five or six people are in the middle of it all pushing, shoving and trading blows. [...] Stone was one of those who walked away. But he did so with multiple stab wounds, Sacramento Deputy Police Chief Ken Bernard told reporters. Bernard singled out two males who allegedly had a part in wounding Stone, who had been visiting bars in the area with four friends."

Yet here's what the hometown Sacramento Bee reported:

"Before the incident, Stone's group was drinking at the Badlands Dance Club at 20th and K streets, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Bernard said officers had not yet spoken to Stone and did not know if he had been drinking. [...] The area is home to numerous popular bars, including Badlands and Faces, two nightclubs that cater to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. [...] For much of the morning, a swelling media contingency outnumbered potential interview subjects on the block, where the Lavender Heights intersection at 20th and K had been updated the day before with rainbow crosswalks." (Emphasis is mine.)

While the police investigation is obviously still open and ongoing, the Bee's report that Stone and his party were apparently followed as they left Badlands, and then assaulted one block away, indicates a possibility that they were perhaps deliberately targeted because their assailants perceived them to be gay. And if that's the case, then that's gay-bashing and a hate crime. Even if Stone is straight, if the assault occurred because he was mistaken for gay, that's still a potential hate crime.

Yet this information about where Stone and his friends were prior to the attack was omitted by CNN in its report, as well as by other national sources in their own reporting of the story. In so doing, they've left readers with the impression that Stone's stabbing was likely the result of a random attack or a drunken brawl in some dark and dingy part of town, when the assault had in fact occurred in Sacramento's trendy and very well-lit gay district. Why they decided to do that, I don't know.

I admit that a lot of this is speculation on my part, and for their part Sacramento police have thus far declined to offer any possible motive for the stabbing while they're still investigating what happened. Spencer Stone underwent emergency surgery at UC-Davis Medical Center yesterday and is in serious condition, but he is expected to recover. Best wishes that he gets well soon.

According to a recent report just aired by the local ABC affiliate in Sacramento, police say that a cab driver who witnessed the incident reported that the assailants had allegedly made derogatory remarks to at least one of the Stone party's members prior to the attack, and that Stone was clearly attempting to defend himself when he was stabbed. I'll try to link the report when it's finally posted.

Sacramento police are presently searching for three suspects (including the getaway driver) who are of Asian ancestry. The Midtown Business Association, led by the five LGBT establishments in the Lavender District, also just announced that they are offering a reward for any information which leads to the suspects' arrest. Stone is a USAF airman stationed at Travis AFB, which is about 25 miles west of Sacramento.

Regardless of whatever motivation prompted the incident, it's becoming clear that Stone and his friends were likely the victims here and not the aggressors or co-instigators of a brawl. And as I said above, when such an assault occurs upon patrons who are departing a gay establishment, as was apparently the case here, my first instinct is to assume gay-bashing based on prior such incidents in the past around the country.

"Leadership is not putting a finger into the wind and waiting for the polls to tell you it's safe to do so. Leadership is forging a new consensus based on the principles we share as a people that will actually give our children a more just and more prosperous future."

Yes.

My thought exactly.