“Senate Democrats forced Senate Republicans on Wednesday to filibuster the Freedom to Vote Act, which is sort of the light version of the comprehensive For the People Act that Senate Democrats forced Senate Republicans to filibuster last month. Chuck Schumer also made it known that, as soon as next week, Senate Democrats plan to force Senate Republicans to filibuster the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, an effort to restore portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the U.S. Supreme Court gutted in 2013. The idea is to show how committed Democrats are to voting rights – and how determined Republicans are to let states get away with voter-suppression legislation that turns back the clock on voting rights. But at some point, you have to wonder if the message Democrats are really sending to constituencies worried about voting rights is a bit different: We can’t get this done, and part of the reason we can’t get this done is that some in our own ranks care more about preserving the filibuster than about voting rights.”

“Perhaps party leaders should think about that as they examine disturbing signs of Democratic-base discouragement and disillusionment that could produce an electoral disaster in 2022… Democrats can loudly blame this on Republicans or more quietly blame it on Manchin and Sinema. They would be right to do either or both. But perhaps the lack of results speaks more loudly than any words on the Senate floor. ‘Messaging’ votes that aren’t really designed to accomplish anything have become extremely common in Washington these days. But it’s important to remember that legislative offerings promising bold action on strongly felt needs and grievances can gradually and then rapidly undermine confidence anything will change. On voting rights in particular, Dems should beware drawing too much attention to their own futility” – New York Magazine.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Police have arrested a Kentucky woman who allegedly threatened a Georgia judge and his family after he dismissed a lawsuit that sought to inspect absentee ballots for signs of fraud in last year’s presidential election. Erin Northup, 42, is accused of leaving a threatening voicemail with Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero’s judicial assistant soon after he issued his ruling last week, according to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities declined to release details about the call. Amero received ‘a plethora of calls’ after he threw out the last remaining major lawsuit over Georgia’s 2020 election.”

“The lawsuit, filed by supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump, asked the judge to unseal 147,000 absentee ballots cast in Fulton County so they could search for counterfeits. ‘I’m all for respecting a person’s First Amendment rights. However, when it crosses the line and it becomes minacious, it will not be tolerated. We will track you down and arrest you,’ Henry County Sheriff Reginald Scandrett said Wednesday. Amero dismissed the case a day after election investigators said they were unable to find any counterfeit ballots within batches identified by Republicans who participated in an audit in November. Amero found that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue because they hadn’t suffered a specific injury. Three ballot counts showed that Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by about 12,000 votes. Northup faces a felony charge that she made a terrorist threat. She was arrested by the Louisville Police Department on Friday and is awaiting extradition to Georgia.”

Reporter who alleged Manchin was mulling exit from Dem party doubles down: It's not 'B-U-L-L,' it's 'T-R-U-E'https://t.co/4t4D7NIWK9

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 21, 2021

For those keeping score at home, David Corn co-authored the 2018 New York Times bestseller “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump” which chronicled the links between the 2016 Trump Campaign and Russian intelligence, among other details of a scandal described verbatim as the “Russia Hoax” (or “Russian Hoax”) 1,623 times on Fox News programming (per the TV News Archive) since January 20th, 2017. But if the guy reports that Joe Manchin is willing to leave the Democratic Party and put Moscow Mitch back in charge of the Senate then Fox News says you should hear him out, even if Manchin denies it.

This is not to cast doubt on Corn’s earnestness, there are any number of reasons why his sources leaked this plan to him and Manchin quickly denied it, probably an ill-advised warning shot, or a staffer in his office getting carried away. This is to point out Fox News’s selective hyping of a guy who made millions propagating a “hoax”, and how they can’t even remain consistent on who’s good and who’s evil inside their own warped alternate universe of simplistic binaries. He can’t be telling the truth now to Fox News viewers if he’s been attacking their Orange God Emperor with a hateful hoax about Russia for years. At least you’d think that, but here we are nonetheless.

“I am a lifelong conservative. For the past 20 years, I have been a leader in the Federalist Society. I was nominated by President Donald Trump three times to serve as a federal judge, though I never secured a hearing, because then-Senator Kamala Harris blocked my nomination. I did not vote for President Joe Biden in 2020, and I hope he is defeated in 2024 by a principled and ethical conservative Republican. But I also believe that Biden won the 2020 election fairly. Those who are enabling Trump’s ongoing effort to challenge the legitimacy of the election – John Eastman chief among them – should be rejected by all conservatives who love their country. He and others like him pose a clear and present danger to the health of our republic.”

“Now he is complaining about supposedly being deplatformed by the Federalist Society. He has specifically called me out, writing, ‘Some of the more vicious attacks on me have come from Federalist Society leaders like Jeremy Rosen, with no rebuttal opportunity afforded to me.’ An email I wrote in the aftermath of the events of January 6, criticizing Eastman, was reported in the press, but I was far from the only conservative to make such points. Thus, I am not sure why he is singling me out. It gives me no joy to fight him on this. I have known Eastman for roughly 20 years and considered him a friend. We were connected on Facebook [note use of the past tense ‘were’], we have many mutual friends, I contributed to his campaign years ago for California attorney general, and each year for about a decade, I invited him to participate in the annual Supreme Court roundup event sponsored by the Los Angeles Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society” writes Federalist Society lawyer Jeremy B. Rosen in an Atlantic piece chock full of qualifiers about how he’s a Conservative but he canceled John Eastman over Eastman’s infamous January 2021 coup memo.

The piece is titled “John Eastman is not a victim of cancel culture”.

AFP: “Nearly 200 people have died in floods and landslides in India and Nepal, officials said Thursday, with whole families buried in their homes and two young girls swept away as forecasters warned of yet more heavy rain. Experts say that they were victims of the ever-more unpredictable and extreme weather that has hit South Asia in recent years caused by climate change and exacerbated by deforestation, damming and excessive development.”

“Nepal recorded the sharpest rise in casualties, with officials saying that 88 people have died, among them a family of six including three children whose house was obliterated by a sudden avalanche of soil and debris. ‘All District Disaster Management Committees have been actively working for the rescue and relief operations. Under the committee, Nepal Police, Armed Force Police, Nepal Army and other agencies have been mobilised,’ emergencies official Dijan Bhattarai said. In the Himalayan northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, 55 people were confirmed Thursday to have died – five of whom were from a single family whose house was buried by a massive landslide. Many bridges and roads have been damaged and many towns have been cut off, and the army has been brought in to restore contact and reach thousands of people stranded.”

CNN:  “Police in New Zealand leapt into action to attend the house of a 4-year-old boy — to check if his toys were as cool as he said they were. The force shared a clip of the exchange, which was ‘too cute not to share’ to Facebook, where the call begins in the usual fashion, with the dispatcher asking what the nature of the emergency was.

“‘Police lady?… Can I tell you something?’ a boy asks. ‘I’ve got some toys for you,’ he tells the operator.

“‘You’ve got some toys for me?’ she asks. ‘Come over and see them!’ he adds. There is then a scuffle, and an adult comes to the phone, informing the operator that there is no emergency.  After the call, a police dispatch was sent out asking for any officers near the address, stating: ‘There is a four-year-old there who is wanting to show police their toys, over.’

Reuters:  North Korea said on Thursday the United States was overreacting to its recent missile test and questioned the sincerity of Washington’s offers of talks, accusing it of operating “double standards” over weapons development.

“Pyongyang has said in recent weeks that its weapons tests are aimed at boosting its defence capabilities just as other countries do, accusing the United States, South Korea and the United Nations of adopting a hostile policy and ‘double standards’ towards it.  This week’s test of a new ballistic missile from a submarine was North Korea’s normal activity to carry out its mid- and long-term defence plan and was not aimed at the United States or any other country, an unnamed spokesperson at Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said, according to the official KCNA news agency.

“The spokesperson said Washington had nonetheless taken ‘very provocative moves’ by calling for a gathering of the U.N. Security Council. The Security Council met on Wednesday following a request from the United States.  The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, urged Pyongyang to comply with U.N. sanctions banning nuclear and missile tests and accept offers of talks, reiterating that Washington has no hostile intent toward it.”

Laura Ingraham has it right:  the turkey population has plummeted in the United States in the last few days.  It’s like they’re being slaughtered.  I’m glad Fox News is all over this growing crisis.

Jason Miller, the CEO of GETTR, the social media site long rumored to be the platform for Donald Trump, released the following statement after learning through press reports that Trump was starting a new site:

Congratulations to President Trump for re-entering the social media fray!  Now Facebook and Twitter will lose even more market share.  President Trump has always been a great deal-maker, but we just couldn’t come to terms on a deal.  And get ready for the new platform features GETTR has on the way: … [continued pitch for GETTR].

Remember to read it while sobbing, just as Miller wrote it.

The upper part of the graphic above is from the homepage of the newly announced Trump-led social media site, truthsocial.com.  The bottom part of the social media site that bills itself as “America’s ‘Big Tent’ social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest conversation” is part of the Terms of Service of the site, in which users are banned from criticizing “us and/or the Site.”

“Big Tent,” indeed.

Twitter user Ron Filipkowski posted this notice:

On a television “news” network that has repeatedly been caught broadcasting Republican talking points verbatim–including posting graphics with the same typos found in the GOP handouts–and featuring Party members as unbiased, everyday Americans, Fox News host and moderately sentient crash test dummy Tucker Carlson questions stations that broadcast speeches by politicians.

“Why are they continuing to repeat, day after day, point by point, word for word, the talking points of a political party?” Carlson asks rhetorically.  “They’re not getting paid for this, and in exchange, they lose all of their self respect and dignity.  I mean, they’re just marionettes.  It’s embarrassing.  How can they live with themselves?  I think that all the time.”

The Food and Drug Administration authorized booster doses for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, bringing them on par with the Pfizer vaccine, and the FDA also approved mixing the various formulations for the third booster shot, the Associated Press reports.

The move still needs approval by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel before it takes effect.  The CDC panel will be the final recommendation on who can get a booster shot and when.  Currently, people over the age of 65, those with underlying conditions and people at high-risk jobs are eligible for getting a third Pfizer shot.

The FDA panel also recommended all people who got a J&J single-dose shot can get a J&J booster at least two months after their vaccination.  The J&J version has a lower effectiveness against the coronavirus, and the second dose is expected to greatly increase patients’ ability to stave off the coronavirus.

Washington Post:  “Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) stepped down Wednesday as the top Republican on the House appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, one day after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of lying to federal investigators about his campaign contributions.”

“Under House Republican rules, lawmakers who have been indicted must resign from their committee assignments while the charges are pending. Fortenberry’s resignation from the appropriations subcommittee was accepted without objection, according to the House Clerk’s Office. The congressman, who was elected in 2004, said in a video released Monday evening that he anticipated the indictment. His wife, Celeste, in a letter to supporters before the indictment was announced, labeled it a ‘false accusation.’ Fortenberry, 60, served on the Lincoln City Council for four years before winning an open House seat in 2004 on a conservative record of opposition to abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He has easily won reelection in the Republican-leaning district.”

“The federal grand jury with one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators looking into illegal contributions to his 2016 campaign, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California. The charges center on a $30,200 donation made by Gilbert Chagoury, a wealthy Nigerian business executive of Lebanese descent, in January 2016 ‘using other individuals as conduits,’ according to the indictment.”

Florida Man and accused sex trafficker Matt Gaetz (Q-Florida) claimed on the House floor that he is the target of a murder plot but offered no evidence to support the claim.  “I think someone may be trying to kill me and if they are successful,” Gaetz said after interrupting another member, “I would like my constituents and my family to know who stopped their arrest.”

Gaetz goes on to say that an individual from Oregon posted a threatening tweet and then traveled to Washington, DC.  Gaetz claims that the Capitol Police recommended arresting the individual, but someone at the Department of Justice overrode that.  (Gaetz doesn’t explain how this happened given Capitol Police do not report to the Department of Justice.)

“It is just yet another example of the Department of Justice having a double standard,” Gaetz went on to say.  “If my name weren’t Gaetz, if it were Omar or Tlaib, you bet this person would’ve been arrested because that’s what the Capitol Police recommended but the Department of Justice doesn’t care so much when it’s Republicans.”

“For the past ten months, several nonpartisan entities interested in investigating the attack on the Capitol Building have worked diligently to determine what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. Unfortunately, the select committee Speaker Pelosi established on a nearly party-line vote has demonstrated it is more interested in pursuing a th partisan agenda to politicize the January 6th attack rather than conducting a legitimate good faith investigation into the security failures leading up to and on that day. Congress has a significant and important oversight power to secure needed information in order to legislate, however, Congress does not have enumerated constitutional powers to conduct investigations or issue subpoenas outside of that scope.”

“The issue before the House is not whether Congress should conduct oversight, but instead whether Congress has the authority to conduct this investigation for a legislative purpose. Congress’s oversight authority also does not include law enforcement powers — those powers belong to the Executive and Judicial Branch and the FBI and the US Attorney’s office are the law enforcement entities investigating the events of January 6th. The Supreme Court has agreed that: – Congress has no authority to issue a subpoena for law enforcement purposes and if Congress believes a crime has been committed, that is the purview of the judicial and executive branches of government – Congress has no authority to issue a subpoena to compel exposure for the sake of exposure because that is not deemed a valid legislative purpose – Congress may not issue a subpoena in an attempt to ‘try’ someone before a committee for any crime or wrongdoing. Speaker Pelosi’s select committee does not get to step into the shoes of law enforcement solely because it would be politically expedient” – House GOP internal memo with canned lines to help members justify to themselves voting against criminal contempt for Steve Bannon.

WABC: “When a cat made its way onto the subway tracks earlier this month, train operator Allan Mahadeo jumped into action to rescue it. Mahadeo was operating his 2 train southbound to Times Square when he spotted the cat just before 10 p.m. on Oct. 7. The small black cat was sitting nervously next to the third rail ahead of his train. He brought the train to a stop, got down to the tracks and being a cat owner himself, was able to persuade the cat to let him pick it up. Then Mahadeo propped it safely back onto the platform – all without causing a single service delay.”

“Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Wednesday struggled to answer questions about his communications with then-President Donald Trump during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, telling a House panel that he doesn’t recall the number of times he spoke with Trump that day. The statement from Jordan, a staunch Trump ally and a potential witness in the House’s investigation of the attack, came during a Rules Committee meeting on whether to hold former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon in contempt for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena.”

“‘Of course I talked to the president,’ Jordan told members of the Rules Committee on Wednesday, in response to questioning from the panel’s chairman, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). ‘I talked to him that day. I’ve been clear about that. I don’t recall the number of times, but it’s not about me. I know you want to make it about that.’ In the months since the attack, Jordan has given conflicting answers as to his communications with Trump that day. In a July interview with Spectrum News, the GOP lawmaker said he was not certain exactly when on Jan. 6 he spoke with Trump. ‘I spoke with him that day, after?’ Jordan said during the interview. ‘I think after. I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know. … I don’t know when those conversations happened.’ Then, in an August interview with Politico, Jordan confirmed for the first time that he spoke with Trump ‘more than once’ on Jan. 6” – Washington Post.

“Manchin on report about him contemplating switching parties, per pool: ‘This is bullshit.’ Manchin followed up by saying ‘I have no control of the rumors,'” reports Axios’s Andrew Solender.

Time to remove the statues of Christopher Columbus and replace them with ones of Cnut the Great.  (And yes, the Viking ruler’s name was Cnut.)  It turns out, Columbus’s famed “discovery” of the New World wasn’t that impressive.

According to NBC News, tree ring analysis and carbon dating of wood on a suspected Viking settlement site in Newfoundland, Canada shows wood cut for the structures was hewn by metal tools like those used by Vikings led by Cnut the Great in 1021 A.D, one millennium ago.

Up to 100 people lived in the village constructed near at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, which survived between three and thirteen years before the settlers returned to Greenland.  They used their unique tools–metal tools were used by the indigenous peoples of North America at the time–to construct building and repair their ships with the ample wood supply from the Canadian forests.