KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump Needs to Be Outside the Margin of Magic Mail-In Ballots. “True, I’m happy that Trump is ahead right now, but I’m not going to get carried away by optimism. I can think of no worse way to wrap up this election than by finally passing out from exhaustion in the wee hours of November 6 with Trump leading in all of the swing states, only to wake up and see votes for Harris ‘Poof!’ into existence in all of them.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: The SLS’s launch tower now costs far more than the world’s tallest building.

In 2019, NASA awarded Bechtel a contract to deliver a launch tower – a glorified steel truss far simpler than the booster catching towers SpaceX assembles in weeks – by March 2023 for a total cost of $383m.

As of today, the OIG reports that the tower will cost $2.7b and is to be finished by September 2027, but more likely 2029. For reference, the Burj Khalifa is seven times taller, contains paying tenants, hotels, and shops, and was built in five years for just $1.5b.

If you had $2.7b in 27 million $100 notes, and you piled them up, they would be so much taller than Bechtel’s non-existent launch tower that you’d need not one, not two, but 23 separate piles to exhaust the supply. Whoever wrote Bechtel’s side of the contract certainly earned their bonus. Whoever wrote NASA’s side should be made to paint the entire structure with a toothbrush – but I expect they’ve long since been on Bechtel’s payroll in some kind of advisory no-show job.

I’m out of words — and the launch tower failure is just one of several billion-dollar failures-by-design described in detail at the link.

IT TAKES A LOT, SINCE NOT NOTICING IS THEIR JOB: POLITICO Notices Tim Walz Is a Liar.

SALENA ZITO: Election will hinge on ‘cosmetologists and truck drivers’ in Pennsylvania.

ABORTION PILL SAFE FOR MOM? In a word, no. Data compiled by the FDA shows women using the abortion pill experience far more side effects requiring emergency room visits than Tylenol users, according to the latest  “What Would You Say” video on HillFaith. And thus does another Lie of the Left go down in flames.

FREE SPEECH WIN IN VIRGINIA: French teacher Peter Vlaming was fired by West Point (Va.) public schools officials when he refused to use the pronouns insisted upon by a student undergoing sex transitioning procedures, according to the Christian Post.

But Vlaming, refusing to submit quietly, sought out legal representation by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and sued the school board. He won this week, including a settlement of $575,000 in damages and attorneys fees, plus agreement by the board to remove the firing from Vlaming’s official records.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN POLICY PROFESSIONALS FOR TRUMP:

A lot of big names here: National Security and Foreign Policy Professionals come out for Trump.https://t.co/5HWoLAoAXY

— Glenn Reynolds (@GlennReyno62674) October 4, 2024

LIKE DOUG EMHOFF, HE LEFT SEVERAL MARKS: Yes, Gov. Kemp Blasted Biden-Harris Admin’s Hurricane Helene Response.

WOW:

I will be there to support! https://t.co/nokR0g3dn1

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2024

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: Harris Hits A Walz: How Kamala Harris’s first big decision backfired.

Related: Firefighters Union, a Key Biden Supporter in 2020, Will Not Endorse Harris.

THEY VETTED WALZ LIKE THEY VET ILLEGALS: Walz says he ‘speaks like everybody else.’ And it’s not working for the campaign.

Buried lede:

It’s unclear whether Walz’s verbal errors will undercut his credibility with voters. But the need to continually clean up those claims could politically hurt Walz and Harris, who are locked in a tight race with Donald Trump and JD Vance. And in some cases, key members of Harris’ circle weren’t aware of some of the inaccurate statements until they became public despite the vetting process, according to four people familiar with the conversations who were granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

Emphasis added.

Walz had repeated lies like his Tiananmen Square and military service stories for decades.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: SUPA MODERN Cooling Bed Pillows for Sleeping 2 Pack. #CommissionEarned

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Jesse Singal: after the replication crisis and into the youth gender medicine debate.

THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT COVERING ITSELF WITH GLORY HERE: The Hurricane Helene Hall of Shame.

TYPICAL: NYT opinion columnist M. Gessen displays shockingly little concern for free-speech values.

Flashback: “There are no working-class censors.” “The dirty secret of content moderation all over the world is that it’s a tiny sliver of educated rich correcting everybody else. It’s telling people what fork to use, but you can get a degree in it, basically. The problem is America has the most useless aristocrats in history. . . . These people have no honor, no belief, no poetry, no art, no humor, no patriotism, which is unique to them, no loyalty, no dreams, and no accomplishments. They are simultaneously illiterate and pretentious, which is very hard to pull off. They may have one idea, and it’s not even an idea, but a sensation. Fear. Rightly so, because they snitch each other out at the drop of a hat. They’re afraid of each other. But they’re also terrified of everyone outside their social set, and they live in near constant dread of being caught with even one original opinion.”

KIMBERLEY STRASSEL: Jack Smith’s October Surprise: It’s impossible not to suspect the special counsel’s filing is politically motivated. “Politics hath no fury like a prosecutor scorned, and it appears the American electorate won’t be allowed to forget it. That’s the best read of special counsel Jack Smith’s newly unsealed filing in his criminal case against Donald Trump. Congratulations, Attorney General Merrick Garland: You’ve got your own 2024 ‘election interference’ story line. Mr. Smith filed the 165-page brief last week, his latest response to an embarrassing defeat at the Supreme Court in July.”

Everything Jack Smith does is politically motivated.

MEANWHILE, IN CALIFORNIA: Let a Thousand Deep Fakes Bloom!

HEH:

MSNBC's Ari Melber loses it after the anti-Trump impeachment witness he invited on his show said he was voting for Trump because of how bad things are

Melber: You said it was a no from me after J6. Now you say it's a yes?

Sondland: It's an absolute yespic.twitter.com/aMx1x5jfER

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 2, 2024

INCOMPETENT PROSTITUTION, IS WHAT IT IS:  Glasgow’s response to an art installation.

“An artist who takes subsidies from the government is a whore; an incompetent one” Robert A. Heinlein.

FREE ENQUIRY AND PURSUIT OF TRUTH SHOULD HAVE NO WALLS:  When science’s walls start crumbling down.

HE’S JUST HOPING WE’LL FORGET HIS BEHAVIOR WHEN THE HELICOPTERS FLY:  Zuckerberg Says He Regrets Censorship, So Why Is Meta Still Trying to Interfere With the Election?

In minecraft.

OY, DO YOU ‘AVE A LICENSE TO SAVE THOSE LIVES?  A NOTAM has been issued by the FAA that won’t allow anyone not approved by the state to fly aid missions.

They want us to die. They’re not even hiding it.

I REMEMBER WHEN THEY PITCHED KEIR STARMER AS THE CAUTIOUS MODERATE: No Time Like the Present for the UK to Give Away *gulp* Diego Garcia.

GRAB THAT CASH WITH BOTH HANDS AND MAKE A STASH: Pink Floyd Sells Music Rights to Sony for $400 Million.

Sony has spent more than a billion dollars on catalogs from Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Queen’s non-North American rights in the past few years (with backing from investment firms like Eldridge Industries), and has never officially comment on the deals. Variety and others reported just two weeks ago that the Pink Floyd transaction was nearing closure.

The catalog had been in play for several years with a reported asking price of $500 million, and the group was close to a deal in 2022, but the bitter infighting between the band’s members — primarily over main songwriter Roger Waters’ controversial political statements against Israel and Ukraine, and in favor of Russia — have complicated the deal enormously and scared off a number of suitors. There seems little question that Waters’ incendiary comments, which have made him a pariah from all but his biggest fans and cost him his solo record deal, devalued the catalog.

Billboard asks: Could the Floyd’s publishing rights be up next? “While Luminate doesn’t track global album sales, Pink Floyd’s on-demand global streams averaged 2.37 billion over the last three years. Consequently, if the group owns all of its publishing, Billboard estimates that the band’s recorded masters bring in about $11 million in publishing royalties annually. If the band eventually decides to sell and can achieve a 20-times multiple — the going rate for superstar songwriters — it could bring in another $200 million-plus for the band’s songwriters. In general, music publishing asset trade at a higher multiple than recorded music assets, although the latter is catching up on that front.”

UPDATE: David Gilmour Will “Absolutely Not” Perform with Roger Waters Again. “I tend to steer clear of people who actively support genocidal and autocratic dictators.” “Gilmour and Waters have been at odds for decades. In 2023 alone, Gilmour blasted Waters as a ‘misogynistic, antisemitic, Putin apologist’ and shared a documentary detailing Waters’ alleged antisemitism. The paid last shared the stage together during Roger Waters’ ‘The Wall’ tour in 2011.”

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Joe Biden inadvertently writes the epitaph for his administration:

Reporter: “What do the states in the storm zone need — after what you saw today?”

Biden: “Oh, storm zone? I didn’t know which storm you’re talking about"

Holy crappic.twitter.com/qdXRBzcr68

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 4, 2024