FALLING LEAVES, 2020: Week Five.

Definitely some color this week, as well as significant leaf fall. The stairs down to the pond are overwhelmed with leaves, and the pond is significantly up since the hurricane/tropical storm left us with about 3-1/2 inches of rain yesterday and this morning.

The dam is now a 'yellow wall' as almost all the foliage along the back side of the dam has turned bright yellow almost as one.

This is the opposite side of the pond alongside the creek that feeds the pond. It seems to be unusually colorful this year, but we have had more than usual fall rain.

This is across the road from our house. Usually it just turns brown, then empty. This is the first year I think I've seen this much color early.

Finally, this from outside the neighborhood. It's a spectacular red, just a bit past its prime.

Last week's pictures are here.

FORGET ABOUT THE 'TAX THE RICH' SCHTICK: Billionaires are getting richer during the COVID-19 pandemic while most Americans suffer.

Yes, wage earners and small businesses are taking it in the shorts (thanks to our obscenely incompetent government mandarins), but what concerns me is the abysmal economic ignorance of what I thought was a business-oriented magazine. It seemed to me that the author thinks all those trillions of dollars are stored in Scrooge McDuck's 'money bin' rather than invested in the economy.

I have to wonder how many businesses and jobs would suddenly disappear if they hadn't made all that money?

NPR FINALLY DOES SOMETHING USEFUL: Amy Coney Barrett's opening statement for tomorrow's confirmation hearing.

THREATS, ALWAYS THREATS: Biden says 'chicanery' at polls is the only way he could lose U.S. election.

Such confidence in the Democratic message....

FROM A COMMENT below this Fox News article.

[I] do not know who wrote this, but am continuing to repost because it is so beautifully written and true, people need to hear it...

I am not voting for a man. I am voting for the principles for which this country has stood since its founding. I am voting for Constitutional government. I am voting for a strong and viable military. I am voting for a vibrant economy. I am voting for the right to keep and bear arms. I am voting for the freedom to worship. I am voting for a national recognition of the founding of our nation on Biblical principles. I am voting for the ability for anyone to rise above their circumstances and become successful. I am voting for my children and grandchildren to be able to choose their own path in life, including how and where their children are educated. I am voting for our borders to be open to everyone who enters under our law and closed to everyone who would circumvent or ignore the law. I am voting for the Electoral College to remain in place, so that a few heavily populated liberal centers do not control the elections. I am voting for a Supreme Court that interprets the Constitution rather than rewrites it. I am voting to teach history, with all its warts, not erase it or revise it. I am voting for the sanctity of life from conception to birth and after.

Let us all Make America Great Again.

Don't waste your time on the Fox News link itself; it's about Fauxcahontas.

AMERICAN GREATNESS: Eat the rich.

I'm not overly interested in 'taxing the rich' but I sure as hell am in favor of curtailing their 'charitable' (i.e., political) contributions, especially when they come embedded in the prices I pay for their products.

MORE THAN 1 MILLION PEOPLE COULD LOSE THEIR VOTE ON NOVEMBER 3RD. That’s the best-case scenario.

This is the lead of a number of connected articles which in toto seem to give a pretty good summary of the state of mail-in (including absentee) balloting in the United States. Read it all.

It also explains why I plan to vote in person on Nov. 3rd even if I have to crawl over broken glass to do it. I'm not willing to have my vote lost or stolen.

NANCY PELOSI'S OBSESSION: the "Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office."

I'd almost be willing to sign on if Pelosi would just change one word: 'Presidential' to 'Congressional'. I think it would be easy to remove a Speaker of the House 'deemed too incapacitated to carry out her responsibilities'.

CALIFORNIA'S REPARATIONS BILL: "a loud virtue signal to make up for failed responses to concrete crises."

THIS WEEK I will post PowerLine's Week in Pictures on time. Here's my favorite:

And just for grins, here's another.

Now go see the rest.

IS PRIVACY MAKING A COMEBACK? DuckDuckGo, EFF, and others just launched privacy settings for the whole internet.

TRUMP IS NOW ONE WITH COUNTLESS ESSENTIAL WORKERS: "President Trump has no reason to apologize for getting sick. He took risks to meet the obligations of his office and is now one with the millions who do the same thing, every day."

It's Victor Davis Hanson, so read it all.

THEY'RE DREAMING: CNN insists we are never going back to normal.

Well, I am. Whether they like it or not....

And if they want to remain locked in their own bubble (and leave me alone), I'm fine with that.

MYSTERIOUS GLITCH CAUSES 50,000 VOTERS IN OHIO to get wrong ballots.

And we're supposed to trust vote-by-mail?

I hope it's not necessary, but Republicans should be prepared for a legal battle....

TRUMP'S HEALTH CARE PLAN: More to look for to.

Just leave ObamaCare in place, go around it -- and let it wither on the vine.

AMERICANS TODAY ARE IN A SITUATION THEY HADN’T BARGAINED FOR, and they are rapidly losing control of their destiny.

Once whatever challenges Americans face are declared medical emergencies, it now appears they have no constitutional rights. All individual actions can now be controlled by executive fiat. If behavior that runs contrary to the objectives of America’s most powerful establishment institutions can be declared a pathology, the inconvenience of due process can be discarded. They’ll just put you in an asylum and throw away the key. They’ll lock you down. They’ll tell you where you can go, who you can see, what products you can consume, and what content you can watch.

If you want to enjoy a look at our dystopian future-to-come, buy and read Ward Moore's Caduceus Wild.

MICHAEL BARONE: Excessive risk aversion is producing a more unequal society.

He's right.

JOE BIDEN CHANNELS NANCY PELOSI: You'll have to vote for me in order to find out what I'll do as President.

JUDGE AMY CONEY BARRETT ESPOUSES 'hard-right' view of the Second Amendment.

So 'as written' is now 'hard-right'?

OUR SOCIALIST FUTURE -- facilitated by “never let a crisis go to waste” opportunism.