ANALYSIS: TRUE. It’s No Longer Democrat Vs. Republican: It’s Us Vs. Them.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese launch startup Cosmoleap secures funding for rocket featuring chopstick recovery system.

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Portland Predicts a Violent Election Night.

BEZOS’S EFFORT TO ADD SOME BALANCE IS OFF TO A SLOW START: WashPost Pays to Promote Anti-Trump Stories. “The Washington Post this week ‘aggressively ramped up’ its paid advertising on social media platforms to boost stories criticizing former President Donald Trump after the backlash over owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to kill an endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.”

ARE THERE ANY INSTITUTIONS THAT STILL GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THEIR REPUTATION? Nate Silver Claims Pollsters are ‘Putting Their Finger on the Scale’ to Make it Appear the Race is Close.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

Exclusive footage obtained by The Free Press shows LA teachers discussing how to organize their students for the pro-Palestine cause.

“Some of the things we can do as teachers is to organize. We just have to be intelligent on how we do that….We have to know that Zionists and… pic.twitter.com/RJgqXCXC9k

— The Free Press (@TheFP) October 31, 2024

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: This Is Domino’s Pizza, Please State the Nature of Your Emergency. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news and this week we have one quick-witted assault victim, $100,000 worth of stolen bacon, and Tennessee Man using the wrong kind of donuts to trick the police.”

BUILT TO LAST: Voyager 1 Just Phoned Home From 24 Billion Kilometers Away On A Transmitter Not Used Since 1981.

On October 18, the spacecraft did not respond. Voyager 1 uses an X-band radio transmitter to communicate with the Deep Space Network. The mission team knows its spacecraft and worked out that the command might have triggered the fault protection system, leading to a lower rate of data transmission with a change to the signal from the X-band transmitter.

The team searched for that signal and were able to find it. The situation was a bit of a hiccup, but didn’t seem to cause any alarm. Not like last year, when the spacecraft started producing gibberish.

With that in mind, the team started to look deeper. Then, on October 19, in a concerning development, the signal stopped altogether. Luckily, Voyager 1’s onboard computer somehow found a solution – a truly left-field one.

“The flight team suspected that Voyager 1’s fault protection system was triggered twice more and that it turned off the X-band transmitter and switched to a second radio transmitter called the S-band,” NASA’s Tony Greicius writes in the Voyager Blog.

“While the S-band uses less power, Voyager 1 had not used it to communicate with Earth since 1981. It uses a different frequency than the X-band transmitters signal is significantly fainter. The flight team was not certain the S-band could be detected at Earth due to the spacecraft’s distance, but engineers with the Deep Space Network were able to find it.”

The team has confirmed that the S-band transmitter is working well, even after all this time and at such an incredible distance. They are currently working to restore the spacecraft to its normal operations.

Parts of America still work — after almost 50 years and 15 billion miles.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

Monroe County District Attorney said the fraudulent voter registration forms were traced to FieldCorps whose clients included Biden-Harris, Mark Kelly and Arizona Democrats.
Calls to the number listed went unreturned and the FieldCorps website was mysteriously taken down. https://t.co/EhpDauPa8a pic.twitter.com/gzjojz01cL

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) November 1, 2024

At least with Elon Musk owning X, these reports can’t get squashed any longer.

CORN, POPPED: Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Referred for Criminal Prosecution.

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: Texas Buys More Land To Build Border Wall. “Sometimes, if you want something done right, you just have to do it yourself. That’s Texas, faced with the lawbreaking refusal of the Biden-Harris Administration to secure the border. As such, they’re buying their own border land to build their own border wall.”

EXCLUSIVE: Pollster Explains Why This Election Feels Like Reagan vs. Carter.

MILBLOGGER LAUGHING WOLF REMINDS YOU TO Brace, Brace, Brace.

I highly recommend going back and re-reading Larry Correia’s excellent takes on the 2020 elections, here and here. There are some other good ones out on that election, and 2022, but those do a very good job of establishing the patterns. Patterns we are already starting to see in Colorado (passwords, multiple other issues, trying to keep Trump off the ballot), Minnesota (multiple votes same voter ID number, etc.), Michigan (Chinese student voting), Pennsylvania (closing lines, voter intimidation, etc.), and, well, there are more.

In some cases, you will hear ‘oh, it’s just the one’ and other excuses, but keep in mind: each of these is a canary in the coal mine. Where there is one, there are usually more. Unlike 2020, the RNC and others are quick to file complaints, lawsuits, and such — but they still don’t stop many of the efforts (cough, Pennsylvania, cough). Oh, and if you watch some of the video from Pennsylvania starting with the two ‘Emergency Services’ people stopping the line. Pay particular attention to the body language of the dark-haired guy: that’s someone hoping for a fight, a chance to use force. Nor is he alone if you look at the other videos and watch the body language. Remember, mouths lie but body language rarely does. Also keep in mind that at least one person associated with a campaign has apparently been arrested in PA for telling people not to leave the line when (illegally) ordered to do so. While it will be an interesting case to follow later, it’s already succeeded in intimidation and more for now. Also remember, process is punishment.

While we are at it, don’t forget this going on in Arizona and elsewhere. Now, for non-domestic shenanigans, please pay attention to this story as this and worse are quite likely to be happening well outside the Pacific NW.

Much more to chew on at the link.

VANCE, LIKE TRUMP, IS COMFORTABLE IN HIS OWN SKIN: The PR Fallout of JD Vance Joining the Joe Rogan Experience: Let the Bromance Begin!

ANALYSIS: TRUE. It doesn’t matter if Trump or Harris win. Europe has already lost.

As U.S. voters choose a new president, Europeans are anxiously waiting to see if the victor will be Donald Trump — a nightmare for many — or Kamala Harris, who’s seen as much better for the transatlantic relationship.

Here’s a tip from a lifelong Euro-American: Worry less about the U.S. presidency and more about how Europe can hack it alone on a dangerous global stage. The uncomfortable truth is that American interest in Europe has been dwindling for the past 30 years. And neither candidate is likely to bring back the transatlantic heyday of the early 1990s.

A couple of thoughts. One is that “the transatlantic heyday” was little more than a post-Cold War sugar high that allowed deeply unserious leadership (I’m looking at you, Bill Clinton) to begin frittering away our economic, social, and military capital.

The other is that Europe matters less to us because Europe matters less, period. The EU turned into an innovation- and growth-crushing mistake at a time when much of the rest of the world was booming.

THIS IS CNN:

Disgusting. CNN mocks JD Vance's mom, who struggled with drug addiction.pic.twitter.com/cFh2fefynX

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 1, 2024

CNN is a garbage outfit made worse because, unlike MSNBC, they pretend to be news.

THIS DOESN’T LOOK GOOD: The Internet Is Getting Flushed Down Orwell’s Memory Hole.

I HATE TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO…: Why sanctions on Russia are literally backfiring.

The U.S. and its allies have relied on sanctions as one of the primary tools for curtailing Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.

Running the gamut from individual limits against Russian leaders and businesses, to comprehensive restrictions on key sectors like Russian oil and natural gas, these sanctions are intended to impose unacceptable economic costs that directly hinder Russia’s war effort and indirectly incentivize Russia to end its campaign.

However, experts have been debating whether and how well they have worked. Some argue that the comprehensive sanctions, and in particular the widespread restrictions against its oil and gas revenue, are bringing Russia’s economy — and therefore its military campaign — to its knees. Others concede that sanctions may not successfully end the war outright, but contend they at least offer an inexpensive and low-risk way to slow Russian advances and take a public stand against the invasion. And yet, after nearly three years, the war still rages, Russia’s economy has rebounded, and Russian domestic support for Putin and the Kremlin are at an all-time high.

The problem with this solely economic debate is that it overlooks the risk for more serious counterproductive consequences. Sanctions are not just failing to end the war in Ukraine or weaken the Kremlin’s warfighting currency, they’ve also backfired, inadvertently strengthening Moscow’s hardline position, undermining the utility of alternative strategies, and shoring up the Kremlin against future international coercion. As a result, the fallback position that sanctions are at least better than nothing ignores their long-term perverse consequences for regional peace and international stability.

VodkaPundit, two-and-a-half years ago: “When it comes to natural resources, Russia lacks for nothing. It’s impossible to sanction a country with Russia’s resources into submission.”

So the sanctions regime has turned out even worse than I imagined, and I started off as a pessimist.

BILL WHITTLE: Garbage In / Garbage Out. “It’s not being called ‘garbage’ that should enflame half the country… it’s being called NAZIS and FASCISTS that are the real fightin’ words. Bill breaks down the origin of the words ‘Nazi’ and ‘Fascist,’ shows how it’s the DEMOCRATS who share the same characteristics on his patented ‘Garbage Matrix,’ and reminds us of who the REAL victims of this ten-cent cheap shot really are.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: A Pessimist’s Election Weekend Wish — Godspeed to the Trump Train. “If Trump does win, he should send President LOLEightyonemillion a couple of Lego sets to play with as thanks. Maybe Melania can tell DOCTOR Jill where to buy clothes that don’t look like recycled upholstery.”

SLOUCHING TOWARD WORLD WAR THREE: US says 8,000 North Korean soldiers to begin combat operations in war with Ukraine ‘in coming days.’ “The secretary said that of the 10,000 North Korean soldiers believed to have been sent to Russia for training, 80% of that force is now in the Kursk region, where Ukraine first launched an incursion in August.”

Meanwhile, back in North Korea: Satellite images show North Korea dug large border trenches after demolishing road, rail links. “Work on the trenches appears to have begun shortly after North Korea staged choreographed demolitions of a road near Kaesong, a western North Korean border city, and a combined road and rail section near the Koreas’ eastern border on Oct. 15. In Planet Labs images examined by the Associated Press, the first sign of the trenches appeared on Oct. 17, after cloud cover blocked the view for the four previous days.”

The satellite photo shows more than just a simple trench. It looks like a serious defensive position.

STARVE THE BEAST, STRANGLE THE CORRUPTION [VIP]: Trump Can’t Ditch the Income Tax for Tariffs, But Here’s What He Could Do.

FORTUNE: The stock market points to a win for Kamala Harris—unless it’s 1968 or 1980 all over again.

Kamala Harris should have a cakewalk to the Oval Office. At least, that’s what the stock market says. It’s surged to record highs since the vice president entered the race in July, which has historically been very good news for incumbent candidates.

In reality, of course, polls show a virtual dead heat, with prediction markets signaling recent momentum for Donald Trump as the race enters its final days. As the chart below shows, a Harris loss would be just the third time since World War II that a candidate representing the fortunes of an incumbent party hasn’t been correlated to the performance of the stock market. The outliers are Dwight Eisenhower’s victory in 1956, and the respective losses of Hubert Humphrey and Jimmy Carter in 1968 and 1980.

Bloomberg: The Trump Trade: Why Wall Street Is Betting on a Trump Win. “Investors are effectively betting on a Trump win — in the stock market, in the bond market, in currencies and crypto. Bloomberg Opinion’s John Authers says he’s never seen anything like it: Wall Street paying such close attention to a presidential election.He compared what is happening now to his first election he covered in the US — Dole vs Clinton in 1996.”

William Goldman: “Nobody knows anything.”

Goldman was talking about Hollywood, of course, but everyone knows Hollywood is just politics for attractive people.

SURPRISING NOBODY: The Truth Comes Out: Mark Cuban Is a Misogynist.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Jazz Shaw, Rest in Peace. “All of these public details you probably know, so I want to share one of those little personal stories that get to the heart of who a person really is.”