HMM: The RNC Has Called A Meeting Tonight With Having Given No Agenda, Or Reason.

Brandon Morse says that “apparently the call is to last only 30 minutes,” which does sound “more like an announcement then a conference.”

The call should be going on right now.

UPDATE:

Per sources, Reince main message on RNC call: "We are full in coordination with the Trump camp and nothing has changed in our relationship"

— Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) October 10, 2016

BREAKING: Reports of Gunfire, Explosion at San Diego Navy Hospital.

UPDATE: Electrical fire, no gunshots.

SAYING NOTO TOFU: Google releases open source font Noto to eliminate the tofu problem.

You may not have heard of the tofu problem, but you have almost certainly experienced it. If you visit a website or open a document that can’t display a particular character, you’ll see a white box symbol resembling a cube of tofu. Now Google has a solution.

The Noto font project (it’s a mashup of ‘NO more TOfu’) has been something of a labor of love, taking five years to reach its conclusion. But the result is an open source Noto font family which Google says includes “every symbol in the Unicode standard, covering more than 800 languages and 110,000 characters”.

It’s an ambitious project, cleverly executed, and if you’re interested at all in fonts and typefaces you’ll want to read the whole thing.

You can download the Noto font here, free of charge.

TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT: Why Did NBC News Sit on the Trump Tape for So Long?

WIKILEAKS BOMBSHELL: Clinton Relied on Trump Primary Win, GOP Obliged.

YOU DON’T SAY: Leaked Email Reveals Potential Collusion Between State Department And Clinton Campaign.

Now, courtesy of the latest leak by Wikileaks, which earlier today released another 2,000 emails by Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, we may have stumbled on evidence of collusion between the State Department and the Clinton Campaign itself. In an email from close Hillary’s confidant Heather Samuelson, also known as “the Clinton insider who screened Hillary’s emails”, we learn the intimate details leaked by Samuelson regarding a FOIA request submitted previously by Judicial Watch regarding Bill Clinton speeches, which shows that virtually entire process was being “translated” over to Hillary’s campaign.

By way of reminder, here is a quick Politico primer on who Heather Samuelson is, from September 2015:

Hillary Clinton chose a former campaign staffer who followed her to the State Department to make the initial determination about which of her emails should be preserved as federal records, according to closed-door testimony by Clinton’s former chief of staff Cheryl Mills, a GOP source told POLITICO.

Heather Samuelson, a lawyer and 2008 Clinton campaign staffer, worked under Mills and Clinton’s attorney David Kendall to sift through her ex-boss’ messages. She helped separate those that were purely personal, which were not turned over to the State Department, from those that were work-related.

The Daily Caller adds the following:

A longtime Clinton campaign staffer who worked for as White House liaison at Clinton’s State Department and, later, as her lawyer.

As a lawyer, Samuelson led up the 2014 review of Clinton’s emails to determine which ones were work-related and which were personal.

Most importantly, as we reported previously, Samuelson received DOJ immunity in exchange for turning over the laptop she used during the review of Clinton’s emails in 2014.

The Obama Administration is only average corrupt — more corrupt than the Bush Administration it followed, less corrupt than the Clinton Administration that may follow it.

JOHN SCHINDLER: Obama Blows Off Putin, Encouraging Kremlin Aggression Against NATO.

“Putin’s playing for real now,” explained a senior defense official in Warsaw, who indicated that his country’s military and intelligence moves in response to Putin’s Iskander gambit are “appropriate to the new situation.” The problem in Warsaw isn’t just Putin, whose bad behavior Poles now see as part of NATO’s “new normal” on the Alliance’s eastern flank—but President Obama, who is a no-show in this hour of crisis.

Indeed, four days into Putin’s Cuban Missile Crisis on the Baltic Sea, our president remains invisible. There has been no public statement on the Iskander deployment from either the White House or the Pentagon. The U.S. military has made some quiet moves in response to the Russian move, including flights by our spy planes over the Baltic to monitor Kremlin moves. However, the lack of any public support or demonstrations of NATO solidarity by Washington right now is deeply troubling to our allies in Eastern Europe, most of whom had minimal confidence in Obama’s courage even before his latest no-show.

Our semi-retired President still could not be reached for comment.

THAT WE HAVE ONE IS THE SCANDAL: Obama Administration Draws Criticism Over Iran Investment Policy.

“The new guidance overturns the long-running understanding that the U.S. dollar cannot be used to facilitate international trade with any Iranian entities, let alone sanctioned entities. And by allowing foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to transact business with Iranian entities, the president is ignoring the clear text of a law passed by Congress,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) said on Sunday.

Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who chairs a Senate banking committee with oversight over Iran sanctions law, said the new guidelines amounted to the White House granting Tehran new concessions.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) said Treasury’s changes “green-light business with terrorists. The updated FAQs remove barriers for foreigners to engage with firms the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps controls. From this and other appeasements, it appears the Obama administration has given up on any democratic or pro-Western future for Iran.”

We’re all state sponsors of terror now.

OUCH: Clinton up by double digits after Trump tape’s release.

The Democratic nominee also eclipsed the 50-percent margin in a head-to-head matchup.

Clinton leads the GOP nominee 52 percent to 38 percent in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted on Saturday and Sunday. In a four-way matchup, Clinton leads by 11 points, 46 percent to 35 percent, with Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson posting 9 percent.
During the last NBC/WSJ poll in September, Clinton led Trump by 7 points in the two-way race and 6 points in the four-way scenario.

Clinton’s 14-point margin in the head-to-head and 11-point margin in the four way represent Clinton’s largest lead since an August McClatchy/Marist poll. That poll was taken after Clinton’s post-convention bounce and as Trump faced criticism over his comments about a Gold Star family.

We’ll see if last night’s debate turned things around any, but down-ticket Republicans might already be praying for some record-setting ticket-splitting.

HIGH TIMES: Lawmakers want to defund the DEA’s marijuana eradication program.

The DEA’s $14 million marijuana eradication program has been the subject of a fair amount of criticism in recent years. Twelve members of Congress have pushed to eliminate the program and use the money instead to fund domestic-violence prevention and deficit-reduction programs.

Its purpose is to “halt the spread of cannabis cultivation in the United States,” a mission that has become complicated as more states have legalized medical or recreational marijuana programs. Several more states have similar measures on the ballot this year.

The story doesn’t list the lawmakers involved, which is a shame because it would be interesting to know whether this was a bipartisan effort.

BUT I HAD BEEN TOLD THAT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: Believe it or not, the bees are doing just fine.

WHY ARE DEMOCRAT-RUN CITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF VIOLENCE? 40 shot, 5 of them fatally, in Chicago over weekend.

RESET: Russia’s top spin doctor in nuclear warning.

“A Russian takes a long time to harness a horse, but then rides fast,” said the news anchor, quoting a famous Russian saying.

By “riding fast”, Kiselyov was referring to a string of recent Russian military deployments:

•Last week, Moscow sent three warships from the Black Sea Fleet to the Mediterranean: on board, cruise missiles that can carry nuclear warheads

•Russia deployed nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles into the Kaliningrad region bordering Poland

•The Russians announced they would send 5,000 paratroopers to Egypt for military exercises

•Moscow also suspended three nuclear agreements with the United States

Kiselyov said that in recent days there had been a “radical change’ in the US-Russian relationship.

Moscow was taking action, he said, because of “the loud talk in Washington of a ‘Plan B’ for Syria. Everyone understands what this plan means: direct military force in Syria against President Assad’s forces and the Russian military”.

In Washington, the US state department said last week it was continuing internal deliberations about “non-diplomatic” options regarding the war in Syria.

I came of age politically during one of the tensest parts of the Cold War: From the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, through the KAL 007 shootdown, to the Pershing II missile deployment.

And I can’t recall Moscow ever talking like this before.

Much more of this Smart Diplomacy and we’re going to find ourselves in a shooting war with Russia over Syria.

SOCIAL JUSTICE MEDIA: Twitter’s shares slump on report that bids are unlikely.

DONALD TRUMP’S MISSION: Make Clinton’s life hell for the next month.

CNN says that like it’s a bad thing.

LAWRENCE SUMMERS EXPLAINS THE NEW NORMAL ANEMIA: The global economy has entered unexplored, dangerous territory.

The International Monetary Fund’s growth forecast released just before the meeting was once again revised downward. While recession does not impend in any major region, growth is expected at rates dangerously close to stall speed. Worse is the spreading realization that the central banks have little fuel left in their tanks. Recessions come intermittently and unpredictably. Containing them generally requires 5 percentage points of rate cuts. Nowhere in the industrial world do central banks have anything like this kind of room, even allowing for the effects of unconventional policies such as quantitative easing. Market expectations suggest that it is unlikely they will gain much room for years.

Summers adds that “It can hardly come as a great surprise that when economic growth falls short year after year, and when its beneficiaries are a small subset of the population, electorates turn surly.”

In this country, the regulatory state has never been so intrusive or capricious, entitlements and disability payments dwarf the Great Depression’s New Deal, deficits are set to explode again even without a recession, and our public debt is at levels unprecedented without a global war. Perhaps worst of all, not even nine trillion in new debt and a multitrillion dollar expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet could buy us a “recovery” with GDP growth close to the postwar average.

That’s some bad luck making voters so surly.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Army Abrams Tanks to Control Robotic Attack Drones.

“As I look to the future and I think about game-changing technologies, manned-unmanned teaming is a big part of that. There’s a set of things that we think could be really transformational,” Bassett said.

This kind of dynamic could quickly change the nature of landwar.

Autonomous or semi-autonomous robotic vehicles flanking tanks in combat, quite naturally, could bring a wide range of combat-enhancing possibilities. Ammunition-carrying robotic vehicles could increase the fire-power of tanks while in combat more easily; unmanned platforms could also carry crucial Soldier and combat supplies, allowing an Abrams tank to carry a larger payload of key combat supplies.

Also, perhaps of greatest significance, an unmanned vehicle controlled by an Abrams tank could fire weapons at an enemy while allowing the tank to operate at a safer, more risk-reducing stand-off range.

The important question is whether such technology could be reduced enough in size to fit in the back of a midsize SUV, like one might find in my garage.

DEATH RATTLE… BUT FOR WHOM? Donald Trump Makes History With Zero Major Newspaper Endorsements.

GANGSTER GOVERNMENT: White House Coordinated on Clinton Email Issues, New Documents Show.

Newly disclosed emails show top Obama administration officials were in close contact with Hillary Clinton’s nascent presidential campaign in early 2015 about the potential fallout from revelations that the former secretary of state used a private email server.

Their discussion included a request from the White House communications director to her counterpart at the State Department to see if it was possible to arrange for Secretary of State John Kerry to avoid questions during media appearances about Mrs. Clinton’s email arrangement.

In another instance, a top State Department official assured an attorney for Mrs. Clinton that, contrary to media reports, a department official hadn’t told Congress that Mrs. Clinton erred in using a private email account.

It’s the crime and the coverup.

MODERN POLITICKING: Trump’s Ground Game Footprint Remains Small.

Jeremy Baker, a field director for AFP in central Pennsylvania, estimates he has knocked on 30,000 doors with his team. “Trump has a campaign office nearby, but I don’t see them out knocking on doors,” Baker said. “I’ve never seen a door hanger, I haven’t seen people walking around.”

Even in more populous areas of the state, like southeast Pennsylvania, Trump’s ground game has been invisible.

“They’ve started to see campaign people down there,” said Beth Anne Mumford, the Pennsylvania state director for AFP, who joined the canvassers that day. “But we haven’t seen presidential anywhere.”

This would be panic-inducing to see in a normal campaign, but Trump’s isn’t a normal campaign.

I suppose we’ll find out on November 8.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: Hey Republicans, Time to Limit or Scrap the Judgment Fund.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: The Children Have Been Left Behind.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ “Nation’s Report Card” program, private and parochial schools have routinely outpaced public schools in math and reading assessments. But the absence of voucher programs puts this education out of the reach of many underprivileged and minority students, who are most in need of better educational opportunities. Charter and magnet schools are often a more realistic option, with an added layer of accountability as staff are easier to replace and there are real consequences for the school administration if they fail to produce results.

But private schools require tuition, and charter schools have such high demand that they select their students through interview processes and lotteries. This results in these higher-quality educational opportunities drawing away students who are already performing well, leaving poor & underperforming students — the ones most in need of an alternate education method — in the lurch.

Read the whole thing.

MOSCOW ABHORS A VACUUM: Russia Might Restore Its Military Bases In Vietnam And Cuba.

Heckuva job, Barry.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Young America, You’re Getting Screwed.

Bob Kerrey:

Clinton is pushing 70. Trump just passed it. Both have substantial amounts of non-employment income to supplement their Social Security benefits. Neither have any personal concern about the Social Security trustees’ report warning that the so-called trust fund for the Old Age and Survivors program will be depleted in 18 years.

Congress is in the same privileged condition. The average age of senators and House members is 62 and 57 years, respectively. They will have congressional pensions to supplement their Social Security. And thanks to the lucrative revolving door to the private sector, it is unlikely that they, like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, will be personally impacted by the dire predictions of the report.

However, for every American under the age of 50—especially the growing numbers whose only source of retirement income will be Social Security—the trustees’ report is very bad news. The “Do Nothing Plan” supported by nearly every member of Congress and the presidential candidates contains a large cut in benefits or a comparably large increase in taxes. And every year support for the “Do Nothing Plan” is sustained, the burden on young Americans grows.

As I noted above, the “second screwing” of young Americans costs them more than $10,000 per year. And if you exclude government employees that number is almost $20,000 a year about the total average amount of college debt.

Very few younger Americans understand just how much has been taken from them, or just how much they already owe for services which will they will likely never receive.

When they finally do understand, the political eruption may make 2016 seem tame.

GOOD FOR THEM: Horizontal fracking can go ahead, the government has said, in a landmark ruling for the UK shale gas industry.