Associated Press:  “Hertz announced Monday that it will buy 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla, one of the largest purchases of battery-powered cars in history and the latest evidence of the nation’s increasing commitment to EV technology.  The purchase by one of the world’s leading rental car companies reflects its confidence that electric vehicles are gaining acceptance with environmentally minded consumers as an alternative to vehicles powered by petroleum-burning internal combustion engines.

“In an interview with The Associated Press, Mark Fields, Hertz’ interim CEO, said that Teslas are already arriving at the company’s sites and should be available for rental starting in November.  Hertz said in its announcement that it will complete its purchases of the Tesla Model 3 small cars by the end of 2022. It also said it will establish its own electric vehicle charging network as it strives to produce the largest rental fleet of electric vehicles in North America.

“Fields wouldn’t say how much Hertz is spending for the order. But he said the company has sufficient capital and a healthy balance sheet after having emerged from bankruptcy protection in June.  The deal likely is worth around $4 billion because each Model 3 has a base price of about $40,000. It also ranks at the top of the list of electric vehicle orders by a single company. In 2019, Amazon ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian, a startup manufacturer of electric van, pickup trucks and SUVs. Amazon is an investor in Rivian.  The Hertz order helped send the price of Tesla shares jumping more than 8% in early trading Monday, to an intraday record of $997.57, before pulling back slightly by Monday afternoon.”

Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove reports that outside of the New Jersey elementary school President Joe and First Lady Jill Biden visited on Monday were a group of MAGA protestors waving “FUCK JOE BIDEN” flags. Outside of an elementary school, we add again, to emphasize that detail.

Politics website HillReporter.com has an exclusive featuring a photo of now Florida Governor Ron DeSantis partying drinking beer with female students at the Darlington School in Georgia, where he taught history during the 2001-2002 year before starting law school at Harvard.

The pic itself doesn’t mean much besides showing a 23 or 24 year old man drinking with 17 to 18 year old girls that he’s in a position of authority over – which is sketchy though not criminal behavior, but you never know – sometimes these things have a way of snowballing.

A Barnes and Noble location on Long Island, NY is selling a book that is very offensive to me. I hate right wing media personality Ben Shapiro’s rodent-like face and squeaky voice, not to mention his apparent desire for a breakup of the United States, so this book should not be sold here. The book is polluting the minds of children-like adults who deal in simplistic binaries by making them hate their fellow Americans. Overpriced, non-woke propaganda whose sales end up lining the pockets of a creepy, diminutive weirdo obsessed with a lewd rap song called “WAP” has no place in the place where I buy picture books and Hot Wheels Monster Trucks for my son.

The things I like about Barnes and Noble do not outweigh this part that I don’t like, so therefore they must be canceled. We will hire James O’Keefe to apply for a job at Barnes and Noble, wear a hidden camera, and then ask an assistant manager why they sell Ben Shapiro’s books here. If that doesn’t work then we’re going to leave bad reviews on Yelp. Then if the Yelp reviews don’t work we’ll stand outside and scream at people for shopping here. Then we’ll find out where the CEO lives and protest outside his house. Finally, whether or not any of that works, we’ll start a “STOP B&N PAC” and raise millions of dollars in our campaign to cancel them completely for selling books written by cartoonish right wing midgets. And then after nothing happens you’ll never hear about it again, because we’ll start complaining that the Quaker guy on the Quaker Oats oatmeal package is religious discrimination against non-Quakers. What the fuck is the deal with guy that anyway?

“As of Saturday, 665,734 people have early voted in Virginia, nearly four times the number of all early voters in 2017” reports Bloomberg’s Ryan Teague Beckwith.

Fox hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino claim Donald Trump, who played roughly 300 rounds of golf while in office, spend his weekends at the White House (which he enjoyed) and worked throughout weekends.  (According to USA Today, Trump spend 38 weekends in his first year in office at one of his resort or golf properties.)

Daily Beast: “In the four years since Charlottesville, Virginia residents filed a sprawling lawsuit against some of the nation’s most prominent white supremacists, two of those defendants have gone missing. Others have served jail time, paid hefty sanctions, or seen their far-right groups dissolved under pressure of the lawsuit. On Monday, the case is finally going to trial.”

“The case, Sines v. Kessler, takes aim at the organizers of Unite the Right, the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The two-day rally began with a torchlit march, during which white supremacists assaulted counter-demonstrators, and concluded with neo-Nazi James Fields Jr. driving his car into a crowd of protesters, murdering one and injuring dozens more. Survivors of the attacks were left with lasting injuries and emotional distress. Sines v. Kessler, which represents nine survivors, argues that event organizers planned for violence. And after four years of dramatic pre-trial developments, the plaintiffs are finally going to make their case.”

“Greitens is a formidable presence in the race, armed with a solid base, right-wing media savvy and a billionaire backer. But the scandal-plagued Greitens is also viewed by many Republicans – both nationally and in Missouri – as the candidate most likely to jeopardize a GOP-held Senate seat. With the Senate majority in sight in next year’s midterm elections, the prospect of blowing the opportunity weighs heavily on party minds. Pointing to Greitens’ baggage – he resigned the governorship in 2018, midway through his first term, following allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman – many Missouri Republicans view him as an opportunist who has shamelessly recast himself as a MAGA warrior to revive his political career” – Politico

“Republicans for National Renewal is hosting an open bar reception featuring VIPs from national-populist politics – With national-populist candidates rising across the country, the Republican establishment has never been more terrified than it is today. Join us to celebrate Halloween at an open bar reception with leading VIPs at the forefront of national-populist politics today” says the Eventbrite page for the Halloween “NIGHTMARE ON RINO STREET” event at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, featuring Matt Gaetz, Trump fanboy Florida state Rep Anthony Sabatini, and “Justice for J6” asshole Matt Braynard.

CNN: “Sean Parnell may have the backing of former President Donald Trump, but the Pennsylvania Republican also has significant personal baggage that is raising concerns about the GOP’s ability to hold one of the most competitive Senate seats in the country next year. A rival Republican candidate has revealed details about Parnell’s ongoing and messy divorce and custody cases, part of an increasingly ugly GOP primary in the Keystone State that is giving Republicans pause.”

“While it is unclear what Parnell’s estranged wife had alleged about him, documents showed she was granted two protective orders against him, though they were later expunged. But the news coverage in local papers of the revelations are prompting party leaders to privately question Trump’s choice to succeed retiring Sen. Pat Toomey in one of Democrats’ top-targeted seats. As the 2022 midterm primaries approach, Trump is using the sway of his endorsement to reshape the party in his image, backing challengers to Republican incumbents who cross him or rewarding the most loyal candidates with his blessing. But questions around some of his chosen candidates – both their alleged pasts and their ability to clear the field in primaries – suggest there may be limits to the Trump effect.”

BBC:  “A pair of trainers worn by the US basketball star Michael Jordan have sold for a record $1.47m (£1.1m) at auction.  Jordan used the pair of red and white Nike Air Ships during his first season with the Chicago Bulls in 1984.  That was the year he and Nike began their collaboration to create his signature brand of clothes and shoes.

Pro Publica:  “Universities across the country have long faced scrutiny for their handling, and mishandling, of sexual assault cases. But Liberty University’s responses to such cases stand out. Interviews with more than 50 former Liberty students and staffers, as well as records from more than a dozen cases, show how an ethos of sexual purity, as embodied by the Liberty Way, has led to school officials discouraging, dismissing and even blaming female students who have tried to come forward with claims of sexual assault.

“Three students, including Axley, recalled being made to sign forms acknowledging possible violations of the Liberty Way after they sought to file complaints about sexual assaults. Others say they were also warned against reporting what had happened to them. Students say that even Liberty University police officers discouraged victims from pursuing charges after reporting assaults.

“Some students still confided in school staff — who at times did not report the cases to the Title IX office, despite being legally required to do so. When students filed complaints themselves, they were often not given legally required notice that they had the option of going to the police.”

Daily Beast:  “Houston cops carrying out a welfare check on an apartment found a nightmare: three siblings abandoned and living with the skeletal remains of a fourth.  ‘A very horrific situation out here, very tragic,’ Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a Sunday press conference. ‘I’ve been in this business a long time and I had never heard of a scenario like this. It really caught me by surprise.’

“The surviving children were ages 15, 10, and 7, and they had been living in ‘deplorable conditions’ for ‘quite a long time,’ Gonzalez said. Asked whether he meant weeks, the sheriff said the kids were on their own for a much longer period of time. ‘It seems they were in there while the body was deteriorating,’ he said.  It was unclear where the children’s parents were or how long they had been gone from the apartment at the City Parc II apartments. Someone answering the phone at the management company hung up on a reporter.

“’Somebody alerted us that we need to check that apartment,’ Gonzalez said, though he added that he did not know who that person was.  Deputies sent to the scene found the three unsupervised minors and then saw the skeleton, which was out in open view. The age and cause of death of the dead child was unknown.  ‘It appears they were basically fending for each other. The older sibling was doing the best she could to take care of the others,’ Gonzalez said. ‘Our hearts break for those three.’

Rolling Stone:  “As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.

“Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.”

WNBC NBC-4 New York:  “Demonstrators supporting Nets guard Kyrie Irving and protesting New York’s vaccine mandate gathered outside Barclays Center on Sunday before Brooklyn’s home opener.  A few dozen people were in the plaza outside the arena, some chanting ‘Let Kyrie play! Let Kyrie play!’ and holding signs that said ‘Stand with Kyrie.’  A small group even broke through barriers and got all the way to the front entrance of the arena about an hour before tipoff.

“Irving is not with the Nets because of his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. A New York mandate requires professional athletes playing for a team in the city be vaccinated in order to play or practice in public venues.  The Nets could have allowed Irving to play in road games, but they decided he wouldn’t be with the team until he could be a full participant. Irving explained during an Instagram Live post that he was doing ‘what’s best for me.’

“Protester Curtis Orwell said he and others were fighting for ‘bodily autonomy and sovereignty,’ and the right to choose what goes in their bodies.  ‘We also know so much more than we knew 18 months ago about the virus,’ he said. ‘We have therapeutics that have been tried and proven to great success. Unfortunately, those kinds of voices are being totally suppressed and censored.’  Orwell said he was not vaccinated and knew some people who had lost jobs because they weren’t.  ‘It doesn’t feel right to them and that’s OK,’ he said. ‘We need to respect that.'”

Democratic California Congressman Eric Swalwell released audio of a voicemail message left at his office threatening him on behalf of “Trump Nation” and stemming from lies told about Swalwell on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program.  “This is the Tucker Carlson effect where you see a straight line from Tucker Carlson lying about me, inciting his viewers, and then aiming them at me,” Swalwell said.

Associated Press:  “A strong Pacific storm system that triggered mud flows in wildfire-scarred areas of California also slammed the coasts of Washington state and Oregon Sunday, threatening coastal flooding and causing power outages affecting thousands of customers in the Pacific Northwest.

“Wind gusts topping 60 mph (96 kph) downed trees on Interstate 90 east of Seattle and cut power to more than 150,000 customers in the metro area and around Puget Sound, KOMO-TV reported. In Oregon, about 25,000 customers lost power in Portland and the northwest part of the state, according to The Oregonian.  More power outages are possible through Monday, Samantha Borth, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Seattle, told The Seattle Times.

“Forecasters issued severe thunderstorm warnings with damaging winds and hail possible for the Oregon coast and Portland area as well as northwestern Washington.  The weather service urged mariners to stay in port due to heavy seas, with waves up to 25 feet (7.5 meters) accompanied by 50-mph (80-kph) wind gusts capable to eroding beaches and causing coastal flooding from northern Washington to central Oregon. Dangerous conditions were expected to continue overnight into Monday.  Conditions were expected to slowly subside on Monday.”

Talking to crowd at the QAnon-Con in Las Vegas this weekend, the “Cowboys for Trump” founder and Capitol rioter Couy Griffin complained that after telling his fans he would lock Hillary up during his 2016 campaign “at the end of your 4 year time, the only ones locked up were men like me, and others like me, that have stood by the president the strongest.”

“Senate President Wilton Simpson late Saturday sharply criticized a top official in the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis for failing to adhere to a request from state Sen. Tina Polsky to wear a mask while visiting her in her office. Polsky, a Democrat from Palm Beach County who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and is about to start radiation treatment, asked Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo to leave her office this past week after Ladapo refused to don a mask,” reports Florida Politics.

“Colombian security forces have captured the country’s most wanted drug trafficker, a rural warlord who stayed on the run for more than a decade by corrupting state officials and aligning himself with combatants on the left and right. President Iván Duque likened the arrest Saturday of Dairo Antonio Úsuga to the capture three decades ago of Pablo Escobar. Colombia’s military presented Úsuga to the media in handcuffs and wearing rubber boots preferred by rural farmers,” reports France 24.com.

“Úsuga, better known by his alias Otoniel, is the alleged head of the much-feared Gulf Clan, whose army of assassins has terrorized much of northern Colombia to gain control of major cocaine smuggling routes through thick jungles north to Central America and onto the US. He has long been a fixture on the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted fugitives list, for whose capture it had been offering a $5 million reward.’