GOOD RIDDANCE: Israel confirms Hamas leader Sinwar killed in attack in Gaza.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: Get out there and vote!

We voted early yesterday (the first day of early voting in Georgia). The line wasn't long for us -- in and out in 10 minutes or so -- but election officials said over 300,000 voted the first day. In my neck of the woods, I'd suggest at least 10:1 Republican.

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: California seeks to repeal the laws of economics.

Economic laws, like physical laws, are hard to repeal. Coercion, even government coercion, doesn't work well outside the Left's fantasy world of rainbows, unicorns, and ... pipe dreams.

THIS IS WHY YOU CAN'T TAKE THE WOKE SERIOUSLY: they’re not serious people.

They're clowns. And they go out of their way to prove it every single day.

THIS EXPLAINS A LOT: Kamala Harris hosts a 'town hall' for a hired audience.

ONE AMERICA NEWS: Are colleges eroding the workforce?

The link says it all. It's to a video which -- to me -- proves that recent college graduates can neither read, write, nor comprehend standard English.

But they are emoji literate ... (I think).

STELLANTIS PLANS TO MAKE RAM PICKUPS IN MEXICO. Expect Ram sales to drop sharply.

SSHHHHH...BE VERWY VERWY QUIET ... Tim Walz is rwealy ... Elmer Fudd.

SO LET'S HEAR IT, JOE: If Biden really wanted to trip up Harris for backstabbing him, he only needs to say one thing.

'KAMALA HARRIS IS AN IDIOT' and other 'Just So Stories'.

PJMEDIA'S MORNING BRIEFING: The idiot doesn't fall far from the moron.

ELON MUSK WORKS ANOTHER MIRACLE; lilliputial progressives snipe.

Prognostication: the first colonists on Mars will be from Texas....

KURT SCHLICHTER: Don't get complacent.

IT'S ALL THEY'VE GOT: The Left keeps fanning the flames of Trump hatred.

EVERYTHING IS RACIST: A University of Colorado (CU) Boulder 'professor' is arguing that buildings can be racist. Even open spaces surrounding the buildings.

On the bright side, 'academia' is loudly broadcasting to the normal world where not to waste its money....

IT'S 1776 AGAIN. Do you know where your country is?

SOCIETY HAS COME TO THIS? Meteorologists face death threats for debunking man-made hurricane theories.

PANDERING: The Democrat party writ large.

From the Fox News cartoon page.

THAT IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE: Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster!

FORMER JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHAIRMAN, RETIRED ARMY GENERAL MARK MILLEY, fears that a Trump win in November will see him recalled to active duty and court-martialed.

Nah. Just fire the remaining DEI morons still on active duty and let Milley live in ignominy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Christopher Columbus.

Gov. Walz should move to Canada when Trump takes office....

FINALLY! Consequences.

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures has posted. My favorite:

My thoughts exactly. Now go see the rest.

(See)BS NEWS: 'Standards' are what we say they are.

Longish, but read it all.

IT’S A BAD IDEA to have morons in charge of guns. That goes for the government as well.

RANDOM COMMENT: I'm giving up on Fox News because of their incessant demand that I give them my email address in order to read their stories. NO. Never.

I've read their "privacy" statement and there is no way in Hell I'm going to submit to their pushing their crap to my spam filter -- it already collects more garbage every day than I take to the dump waste management site in a week.

FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE, SOME THOUGHTS on electronic health records and privacy.

I originally wrote that post on January 13, 2010 and in the last 14 years have been proven right on every single assertion. My health records have been compromised/hacked, most recently in January and February of this year and I have had spam emails in my inbox within hours (hell, minutes) of leaving my doctor's office. On my streaming television service over 60% of the advertisements -- and there lots of them -- are directed at senior health services.

In that earlier post, I wrote that "electronic health records are about control - not care." In that statement I was a bit off; I should have written 'government health care' in place of 'electronic health records' in the certainty that some progressive politician (Kamala?) would resurrect that Bernie Sanders nightmare.

REPORT: Artifical Iintelligence chatbots give increasingly liberal answers to questions on gun control and crime.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "artifical intelligence is no smarter than the dumbest programmer and just as biased." Its only saving grace is that it is fast.

JD VANCE'S REACTION to a woman's screams at his North Carolina rally a reminder of how good he is.

NO, FORCE IT TO LIVE WITHIN ITS CORE RESPONSIBILITIES: Congress must ensure full funding for FEMA.

REVENGE: What's up with Joe?

IT'S ONLY MONEY (which we don't have): Kamala Harris’s irresponsible proposal to expand Medicare.

NORTH CAROLINA NATIONAL GUARD admits they 'rotor washed' a hurricane Helene relief site. But here's the nut graf: the North Carolina National Guard reports directly to Gov. Roy Cooper, who said

"Politicians, billionaires and grifters who peddle lies during a time of crisis should be held accountable." ... Cooper should definitely be held accountable. The "unprecedented response" he crows about had little to do with him and everything to do with billionaires like Elon Musk, the relief organizations, and the incredible Americans who entered the breach and were the first to respond. Instead, Cooper chose to cozy up to FEMA heads and play at CENTCOM from his cushy office and home in Raleigh, while the people he hindered and maligned were the ones doing the work of saving lives and offering hope.

If you can vote him out do so.

BREAKING: Third Trump assassination attempt thwarted.

And the suspect was released? YGBFKM!

JOHN STOSSEL on the real cost of free money.

THE "NATIONAL SECURITY LEADERS FOR AMERICA" expose themselves as partisan agents with their ill-advised one-sided endorsements.

The 3-letter national 'securitiy' agancies are the Deep State writ large hiding behind their security clearance blanket.....

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA DONOR who cut ties with his alma mater redirects millions to Israeli universities instead.

FALLING LEAVES 2024 WEEK 4: Here is this week's threesome.

I changed picture location a bit this week to get slightly better views up and down our road. Not a whole lot has changed. We haven't had any cold nights yet, so there haven't been any significant color changes and last week's breezes took down most of the dead leaves (and a few branches to go into the fire pit tonight), so -- not a lot of change.

I did go down to the pond yesterday and here are two pictures taken from our dock. No leaf fall yet, but at least some color change. I'm hoping for more.

Until next week....

KAMALA HARRIS just cut Trump's closing campaign ad for him.

Compare Harris' response with that of Vice President George W. Bush's response when he was campaigning to follow President Reagan (second bullet point).

HEH: Elon Musk speculated about why Vice President Kamala Harris is getting backed by certain billionaires: they may be connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

It's funny (in the ha-ha sense) but frankly I wouldn't be surprised. At it's core, the Deep State is very shallow.

EXPLAINING WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE PUT ON A STRICT DIET: Government employees exceed the population of Florida.

According to Census Bureau data, Florida is the third most populous state.

ONLY AFTER THEY'VE GIVEN UP ALL THEIR WEAPONS: Hezbollah wants a ceasefire now.

WELL PAST ITS DUE DATE: U.S. considers Google breakup in landmark search case.

WELL, WHO DID YOU VOTE FOR? UCLA professor says $70,000 salary has left him homeless.

I'm not a betting person, but if I were, I'd bet his voting records all showed D's.

ISRAEL TO IRAN: take out your Hezbollah terrorists -- or we will.

WHY I AVOID THE CLOUD: Sexbots? In my cloud stack?

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW about the Federal Emegency Management Agency (and the Harris-Biden administration).

FEMINIST LAW PROFESSOR will vote Republican after experiencing the ultimate betrayal by Democrats.

When hit multiple times with a sledgehammer, even concrete begins to crack....

AN OCTOBER 7TH ANNIVERSARY REMINDER: longer, link-filled, and eminently worthy.

WE’RE NOT LED BY THE BEST: Wretchard is on a roll today.

Linked from this Instapundit post.

OUR WORTHLESS RULING CLASS: Wretchard the Cat tweets.

AND YOU CAN THANK ELON MUSK: Hillary Clinton lets the cat out of bag on Democrats and controlling speech.

Someone should cut her chardonnay rations....

JUST ANOTHER ACADEMIA FAIL: Stop sending humans into space — it’s ‘imperialist.’

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS? Donald Trump has agreed to an upcoming town hall with Fox News.

Overall I think it's good news, since a town hall format has an in-person audience, one in which Trump thrives.

CANADA'S CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER: We could use a man like him.



Trump, possibly? Certainly no Democrat I'm aware of.

NOT EXACTLY A SURPRISE: The deep state is gunning for Elon Musk.

And shooting blanks....

THE NEW YORK TIMES: We should abandon the idea of masculinity.

Better to abandon the idea that the NYT is relevant.

NOT A SURPRISE: New poll suggests Kamala totally committed political suicide.

KAMALA HARRIS sends out Tim Walz to talk man-stuff to men about being manly.

UPDATE from The Drunk Republican and linked from this Instapundit post.

OUR DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AT WORK suing Virginia for daring to do its job on election integrity.

BECAUSE SHE'S A TERRIBLE CANDIDATE? Here is the reason Kamala Harris keeps doing terrible interviews.

IMPRIMIS: Our out-of-control federal law enforcement agencies.

To be blunt, our whole damn progressive federal government is out of control.

IT GETS IN OUR WAY. Tim Walz calls for elimination of the Electoral College.

No, Walz needs to go. We don't need an Autocrat (née Democrat) party.

DEROY MURDOCK: Kamala Harris could stop fracking without banning it.

With the power of a Democrat-fueled federal government, why not?

NO, THANK YOU. Make me a martyr.

LAUGHABLE SPIN FROM BRIAN STELTER tells us everything about Kamala's upcoming 'interview' schedule.

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures supports hurricane Helene victims....

Now go see the rest.

INSTAPUNDIT COMMENTS on Schrodinger's election.

MEAN-SPIRITED, SNOBBY, AND UNFORGIVING: If you don’t believe in our values, bad things should happen to you.

ONCE ISN'T ENOUGH: Kamala Harris, FEMA and Pete Buttigieg victimize hurricane Helene survivors a second time.

I'D SAY 'FLAME UP': The EV flame out.

HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH ARE HIRING. Employment opportunities for liberal activists.

Free transportation (one way) can be arranged....

SO DO I: Joe Biden proves again he wants Kamala Harris to lose.

'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' so to speak.

HURRICANES AND DEMOCRATS: That was then; this is now.

MORE PROOF that academia is a lost cause.

YGBFKM: Ex-Obama adviser suggests Helene will help Harris win storm-ravaged North Carolina.

Democrats only care about Helene to the extent that it -- and their 'help' -- ensures that those damned rednecks don't vote November 5th.

FALLING LEAVES 2024 WEEK 3: It hasn't been cold enough yet to encourage the trees to go dormant, but we have had enough light winds to start the dead leaves dropping -- mostly, it seems, on the road. Here is today's picture threesome:

This photo is of the woods across the road from our driveway. We had two dead trees removed this year, and from appearances it looks like a couple more are going down based on the dearth of leaves in this picture.

This last picture is of the tree line along the highway in Blue Ridge, taken from our normal Sunday morning breakfast cafe. There is some brown showing, but the local area is still mostly green

Until next week....

ANOTHER WIN FOR THE SECOND AMENDMENT: Las Vegas homeowner shoots intruder.

A HELICOPTER PILOT'S RESCUE OF A COUPLE shows everything wrong with the government's response to Helene.

AMMO GRRRLL: “You can lead a horticulture – but you can’t make her learn.”

When you (finally) stop laughing, read the whole thing.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Why the slow collapse of Harris-Walz won't stop before Election Day.

I think we're past 'slowly' and into 'suddenly'.

I'VE NOTICED: Big brother (sister?) is watching your car, your license plate, bumper stickers, yard signs....

DECLINE IS A CHOICE, and our institutions have made their choice.

NOTICE IT DOESN'T SAY 'SMART': Study finds AI-generated college admissions essays tend to sound male and privileged.

ONLY IF KAMALA LOSES: Joe Biden 'concerned' about peaceful transfer of power post-election.

ALLAH SPEAKS: Iranian Muslim cleric says Israelis had supernatural help to kill Hezbollah’s Nasrallah.

And helps?

WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA cries for resources while FEMA lets them languish on the tarmac.

AGREED. Nobody listens to Biden-Harris anymore.

Other than to mock them.

THE PROBLEM is America has the most useless aristocrats in history.

'GENDER BIAS EXPERT' accuses JD Vance of 'mansplaining' at debate.

I'm reminded of an old definition of 'expert' -- a has-been drip under pressure.

THESE ARE MY PEOPLE: Dolly Parton joins Hurricane Helene relief efforts with $1M donation. Also Dollywood, $1M, and WalMart/Sam's Club/WalMart Foundation, $10M).

What has the Biden/Harris administration done? Other than not being on the ground and closing airspace to private aircraft, drones, and helicopters trying to help.

BELIEVE IT: The incompetence of the Biden/Harris administration is astounding.

SALENA ZITO: Trump hits all the right places and messages in his Pennsylvania tour.

PLANTS ARE PEOPLE, TOO. "Animal rights have been around for quite a while now, but I have spotted the next big thing for the misanthropic left: plant rights."

The author is a little bit behind the times; intelligent plant life has been a staple in the science fiction world for at least 50 years.

DONALD TRUMP TWEETS THE TRUTH:

I'm not quite that cynical; I think the backhoe hit solid granite with Kamala and can go no deeper.

SURPRISED? It's been a bad news week for lithium ion batteries.

Not.

HEH: School shooters distance themselves from Tim Walz.

Yeah, it's the Babylon Bee.

NEVER MIND BUYING POPCORN FUTURES. "If Harris and Walz win, I’m going very long on lettuce futures, because there’s no way we can produce enough to supply the four years of word salads we’d be in for."

Lifted from PowerLine's occasional Loose Ends post.

KAMALA-APPROVED! Because it’s good to be in the nomenklatura.

FROM THE PARTY OF 'SCIENCE': Natural disasters are a product of racism and racist policies.

Linked from Instapundit here.

CDR SALAMANDER'S THEORY quoted in full:

What can help explain the apparent federal level indifference to the nightmare brought from Florida’s Big Bend up to Appalachia from hurricane Helene?

I have a theory, and it has to do with Idaho that I think @ComfortablySmug would appreciate.

Let me take you back to season 5, episode 1 of Veep.

I looked for a video of the scene, but can’t find it.

So, I’ll quote the script:

“- KENT: Also, ma’am, catastrophically mudslides in Idaho. The governor is requesting a federal state of emergency.

– MEYER: How much did we lose Idaho by?

– KENT: Shellacked. Uh, well over 212,000 votes.

– MEYER: Then I declare a state of go f^ck yourself. I’m not spending money to scrape mud off a bunch of dirt roads.”

Ahem.

What are the polling averages for the states most damaged by Helene?

-FL: Trump +5.0 (NYT average) -GA: Trump +1.0 (NYT average) -NC: Trump +0.1 (NYT average)

Trump is so far ahead in SC and TN that no one is bothering to take polls.

You would think GA & NC would cause concern, but perhaps their internal polls tell the Harris campaign they’re already lost.

IDK… but the snark from the left to those trying to recover from Helene, and knowing who is on the Harris campaign team ... the Veep explanation is as good as any other I have heard of.

I'm inclined to agree with the above. Ever since Trump's election in 2016 the Left has been increasingly open, hostile, and vindictive toward those unwilling to 'bend the knee' to their delusions of moral superiority.

TRULY: Doug Emhoff is less masculine than a Ken doll.

THE DAILY CHART: How to tell the Ivies are cheating.

Kind of obvious....

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: America sinks into the abyss.

Linked from here.

WHAT? YOU EXPECT ME TO WORK? Secretary of Commerce Gena Raimondo admits "I haven't been focused on that [the longshoreman's strike]."

PROGRESSIVISM: JD Vance mocks MSNBC anchor for fact-checking 'most obvious hyperbole' about his sons' eating habits.

Richly deserved.

DEMOCRATS ARE FINDING OUT THAT LAWFARE IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD: Republicans file numerous lawsuits before 2024 election.

DEI IS IN THE LEAD IN HURRICANE HELENE'S FEMA RESPONSE. Biden admin's FEMA 'equity' plan faces backlash amid historic hurricane damage.

SEE ALSO: Hurricane victims to get the Maui treatment from Biden-Harris administration.

I SURE HOPE SO. Is Iran's nuclear program next on Israel's target list?

AT LEAST THIS DEMOCRAT is honest about being as crazy as a March hare.

ISRAEL STOPS taking counsel from the Biden administration.

About time.

A LITTLE LATE: The chief medical officer for Britain has apparently acknowledged that perhaps they went overboard in warning people about the dangers of COVID.

Actually, far too late.

SELF DEFENSE IS A CIVIL RIGHT; 'being safe' is not.

But Vice President Kamala Harris believes the right to be safe is a civil right provided by government.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Watching Life, Liberty, and Levin Saturday night, I was reminded of Professor Irwin Corey. Kamala Harris must have studied under him.

SHALOM, Hassan Nasrallah. He's dead. Good riddance.

THEIR PROBLEM IS THE MARGIN OF FRAUD IS GETTING WIDER: Is this how Democrats are hoping to steal Arizona in November?

CHINA WANTS DOMINANCE IN THE PACIFIC -- but its latest attack sub has sunk. Dockside....

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: Trump derangement syndrome meltdown of the week.

The Times Editorial Board is the ugly mean girl at the dance who's mad that the cute boy still won't notice her.

With any luck, she'll be going home alone on Election Night.

CAN WE REPLACE OUR CIA/FBI WITH MOSSAD? It certainly seems like Netanyahu recently gave Mossad a hunting license with no bag limit.

IS THIS A SURPRISE? The Harris campaign is straight-up delusional.

ACOPALYPSE NO: Resist the Democrats' attempts to make us despair.

A WORD FROM MIRANDA DEVINE: "Joe Biden is still president and, on Wednesday, when he appeared on ABC’s rancid talk show, 'The View,' he showed himself, yet again, to be morally unfit for the job."

She speaks for me.

WITH PROFESSORS LIKE THESE who needs political hacks?

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WHEN THEY'RE NEVER PUNISHED? Art instructor who threatened journalist with machete chants about ‘slitting the master’s throat.’

SO STICK TO FACTUAL INFORMATION ONLY: Wikipedia employs left-wing groups to edit controversial topics.

THERE IS NOTHING MORE PEACEFUL than a dead troublemaker.

WHAT AN AMAZING CONCIDENCE. Nancy Pelosi's husband unloads $500K in VISA stock prior to antitrust lawsuit.

BECAUSE ECO-WARRIORS ARE STUPID: Why have eco-warriors gone to war with a rural Irish pub?

ACORNS, TREES: Would-be assassin's son arrested for child pornography.

CORRUPTION: Something has gone seriously wrong in America.

741 'INTELLIGENCE' CHIEFS Endorse Kamala Harris.

I want to publish the names of those 741 morons so they can be properly ridiculed.

Elon Musk killed off 80% ot Twitter jobs. That's not nearly a high enough percentage here.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Taxing unrealized capital gains is the modern day equivalent of slavery.

Get back on the plantation, you rich white dudes....

OH, SHUT UP: Leon Panetta calls the Hezbolla pager attack terrorism.

And go away.

SPILL THE MEMES:

Linked from Red State's Morning Minute.

THE DAILY CHART: Climate confusion.

Is global cooling returning from the 1970s?

MORE PROOF that Dimocrats are, um, dim.

JUST DESSERTS: Afghan men are feeling the effects of Taliban rule.

If they're not willing to stand up and fight, they deserve what the get.

OH YEAH, THEY TRIED TO KILL THE PRESIDENT ... I forgot about that.

THE HILTON HOTEL near Oakland airport closes its doors after 56 years amid crime crisis.

Read it all, then answer this question: "Should progressives to be confined to the cesspools they've created?"

TRUMP PROMISES FEDERAL RECOGNITION OF LUMBEE TRIBE IN NORTH CAROLINA SPEECH — and it could matter in November.

For what it's worth, in my view the U.S. and the native tribes would be better off if they were officially told "we won, you lost, get over it, we're all Americans now". Privatize the tribal areas and close the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It won't be quick, or easy, but it should be done.

THIS ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION is naifs, weaklings, idiots, and Marxists.

That's being kind.

BLUE STATE COUNTY BUCKS TREND ON HANDOUTS – and homeless population craters.

Sort of obvious, don't you think?

DIVERSITY PROBLEM: University of Michigan committee urges institutional neutrality despite official pronouncements on controversial matters suggest that those who disagree are unwelcome.

In plain English, "like us or shut the (you-know-what) up."

MEXICAN PRESIDENT blames us for the wave of cartel violence currently engulfing the state of Sinaloa, Mexico. Apparently we had the effrontery to arrest one of their cartel honchos in the U.S.

Bad United States. Bad, bad United States....

DON'T BE LIKE ENGLAND: Don Surber writes on making a House (and Senate) seat an inheritance.

HOW DID ISRAEL PULL THIS OFF? This may be the most ingenious part about Israel's exploding pager attacks.

RANDOM THOUGHT: You're fleeing hurricane Helene and your Tesla's battery is running low....

Oops....

JIMMY CARTER TURNS 100: trying to make sure he's only rated as the third worst President in U.S. history.

I wish him well in his quest.