Crooked Media - What A Day: The taming of the Q

After backing out of a virtual debate that he feared would make him look bad, Donald Trump instead spent the evening at an NBC town hall relentlessly making himself look bad. 
 

• The president refused to condemn the antisemitic, violence-prone cult of QAnon, in a brilliant pivot from his days-long refusal to condemn white supremacy. Trump instead both amplified and encouraged the conspiracy theory’s central premise: “What I do hear about it is they are very strongly against pedophilia. I agree with that. I do agree with that.” Trump also shrugged off his retweet of the berserk conspiracy theory that the Obama administration had a SEAL team killed, prompting this pushback from NBC’s Savannah Guthrie: “I don’t get that. You’re the president. You’re not, like, someone’s crazy uncle.” (Mary Trump begs to differ.)
   
• Other lowlights of Trump’s combative performance included his refusal to say whether he tested negative on the day of the first debate, his garbaggio answer on the importance of mask-wearing that included an outright lie, and an attempt to frame his debt of $421 million to unknown lenders as no big deal. (As Jesus said, let he that does not owe anyone $421 million cast the first subpoena.) By contrast, viewers who flipped over to the Joe Biden town hall were met with the spa-like experience of watching a normal human being calmly discuss his coronavirus plan and other policies in detail, and stick around afterwards to answer more voters’ questions. 
   
• The events’ respective ratings don’t matter in any real sense, but because Trump counter-programmed Biden with the obvious aim of bragging about his ratings triumph, it is both noteworthy and very funny that he didn’t get one. We would also be remiss not to spread petty joy in the fact that Paulette Dale, a Florida voter played by Allison Janney who grossed out a nation by calling Trump hot, plans to vote for Biden. 

A record-obliterating 22 million Americans have already voted, and while Trump hasn’t been making the, uh, strongest case for himself, persuading voters was never really the GOP endgame. 
 

• Judge Karen Nelson Moore, a federal appeals judge, wrote a dissent to a decision about Tennessee’s signature-matching rules in which she excoriated judges across the U.S. for siding with states in “a systematic effort to suppress voter turnout and undermine the right to vote.” Citing other recent decisions in Florida and Wisconsin, Moore wrote, “Hiding behind closed courthouse doors does not change the fact that ruling by ruling, many courts are chipping away at votes that ought to be counted. It is a disgrace to the federal courts’ foundational role in ensuring democracy’s function, and a betrayal to the persons that wish to participate in it fully.” Finally, at the end of a long year, a redemption for all Karens. 
   
• Good Karen’s not wrong. A study of 2020 election-related rulings from Take Back the Court found that Republican-appointed judges interpreted the law in a way to make voting more difficult 80 percent of the time, compared with a 37 percent rate by those appointed by Democratic presidents. Trump-appointed judges earned an even worse score, making “anti-democracy” decisions in 85 percent of cases. Just a lil something for Democrats to take into account if and when (knock on wood) they have the chance to rebalance the Supreme Court next year. 

The first step towards making future elections fairer is winning this one in a landslide. Take this reminder from Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon that national polls don’t tell the real story, and that this election is closer than it looks. Nothing is written, everything is on the line, and we’ve got 18 days left. When you wake up on November 4, how will you have spent them?

Intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Rudy Giuliani was the target of a Russian influence operation, and raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed misinformation to the president. The warnings reportedly prompted national security adviser Robert O’Brien to caution Trump that any information Guiliani brought back from Ukraine shouldn’t be trusted, lest Trump start spouting foreign disinformation about the Bidens in the middle of being impeached for seeking out the same. Trump replied to the warning with a shrug and “that’s Rudy,” almost as if the possibility of colluding with Russian intelligence to damage his opponent didn’t bother him. Anywho, federal authorities are now investigating whether the Hunter Biden emails that Giuliani provided to the New York Post were connected to the ongoing Russian disinformation effort. We are on the edge of our seats. 

• The Supreme Court has agreed to review the Trump administration’s policy to exclude undocumented immigrants from the Census count. The Court will hear arguments on November 30, a month before the population data for reapportionment of the House is due, so that’s...concerning.
   
• The White House has installed two political operatives at the CDC to try to control the information that it releases about the pandemic. Imagine if the government tried to contain the deadly virus as hard as it tried to contain data about that virus! Could be neat!
   
• The Trump administration initially rejected California’s emergency aid request for wildfires, before changing course and approving the relief package following a phone call from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
   
• Pfizer said it could have a vaccine ready for emergency-use authorization by late November, revealing itself to be a Deep State entity bent on sabotaging the Trump campaign.
   
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has lost the support of NARAL after metaphorically and literally embracing Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at the end of Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings. 
   
• Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has been financially supporting the state legislative campaigns of two fervent QAnon followers, if anyone needed an extra-spicy reason to call some voters in Maine this weekend.
   
• Twitter has eased up on its policies limiting the spread of the New York Post Hunter Biden article, after conservatives got mad.
   
• Chris Christie is now urging everyone to wear masks, in the great GOP tradition of “not giving a shit until personally affected.” Christie spent seven days in the ICU, where he had privileged access to Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody therapy.
   
• Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) would like a post-Trump political career, please. 
   
• Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) said he did not vote for Trump (great) and instead wrote in Ronald Reagan (mortifying).
   
• Democratic candidate Theresa Greenfield smoked Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) on agriculture prices in the Iowa Senate debate. The greatest trick 2020 ever pulled was making it a visceral thrill to watch someone correctly recite the price of corn. 

Law enforcement agencies in multiple states have withdrawn support from domestic violence programs that back the Black Lives Matter movement. Embrace, a domestic violence organization in Wisconsin, put up Black Lives Matter signs at its four locations over the summer. After fielding emails from local law enforcement officials who interpreted them as anti-police, the organization posted an explanation online: “If we want to end intimate partner violence and sexual violence, we must grapple with our country’s long history of racism, slavery, genocide, and colonization.” In response, one county voted to strip Embrace of $25,000 in funding for 2021, and a majority of the 17 law enforcement agencies that work with the organization have indicated they’ll no longer refer women there. A number of groups have faced similar backlashes around the country, in an awful trend that could result in victims being denied services. The Cancel Culture Is Destroying America crew has kept oddly quiet on this one! Embrace has set up a GoFundMe, if you’re in a position to help out. 

The ACLU is urging the Senate to delay a vote on the Supreme Court nomination until after the next president is inaugurated. This isn’t about a particular nominee – it is about the time and careful deliberation required to adequately vet them. Trump is threatening the very legitimacy of the Court – and all of us – by trying to rush through a nominee. This decision will shape civil liberties in our country for generations. Hurrying a nomination means that the Senate cannot meaningfully do its job with so little time left in this term and it means that the people already voting, including you, won't be heard. You’re your voice heard with the ACLU. Tell your senator to delay the vote – click here to add your name today. 

More Than A Vote has created a two-part series about voting within the video game NBA 2K21 in an effort to reach young people. 

A new study found that coronavirus antibodies can protect against infection for at least five to seven months, and potentially longer.

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Sara Gideon has raised $39.4 million in the last three months, financially leaving Susan Collins in the dust. 

The cats are on it.