Moving on

-- Now that the Traditional Media has finally realized that the 2016 election is fait accompli with Orange Hitler having disintegrated as a candidate, a campaign, and even a respectable human being ... it's time to pay attention to other things, like down-ballot races, whether the Senate and even the House might flip blue, and pretty much anything other than what Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton might have to snark at each other about.  I'm exhausted by both of them and I feel certain a vast majority of the electorate on all sides of the aisle -- not just both -- can agree on that.

For the past eighteen months, I appear to have been the only Texas blogger following the presidential twists and curves on a day-to-day basis, beginning with the best thing I wrote here, about Bernie Sanders and socialism and how his campaign would be undermined by the Democrats.  That was posted a couple of weeks before the birth of Black Lives Matter at Yearly Kos, and I have felt confident in all the time since about the insights I have shared here.  But now I'd like to blog about something else besides the latest "Clinton/Trump slams Trump/Clinton for (fill in the blank)" and will, going forward.

-- Nate Silver uses the 'b' word, as in 'blowout', to describe the current state of the presidential race.  I told you it was over almost two weeks ago.  Nearly a half a million Americans have already voted, and the number climbs every day.  If there is an October Surprise, it's isn't going to have much effect.  Let's move on, and leave the weirdo undecideds to their own devices.

-- Gadfly has hit it out of the park, back-to-back, with these two posts about The Nation and RBG.  If you want to understand the difference between liberals and progressives, and why fewer of the latter are sticking with the Democrats, then read them both.  If you don't want to understand the difference -- and I'm looking at every one of you who have been with Her from the get-go -- then don't read them.  It's too late to help you now.

-- Hillbots keep saying that Wikileaks and Russia are colluding on the drip-drip-drip of her damaging emails.  Blaming the (incorrect) source of the leak instead of what's contained in the campaign messages doesn't wash with any thinking person, and US intelligence is not convinced, either.

There are a lot of things that Julian Assange the person and Wikileaks the organization are, but Russian foils they are not.  Perhaps one day in this country we'll erect statues of whistleblowers, but that day seems far away.

 -- Jill Stein's Texas tour hits El Paso this Friday, Houston on Saturday, San Antonio on Sunday, and Austin on Monday.  These are festival-style events, with live music, food, down-ballot Greens, specialized discussion groups, and more.  She may make an early swing through Houston's East End Street Fest if time and scheduling allows.

-- Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party, Rocky De La Fuente of the Independent, Reform and American Delta Parties, and Gloria LaRiva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation are scheduled to face off in the Free and Equal People’s Presidential Debate at at the campus of Colorado University - Boulder on October 25th.  Kweku Mandela, grandson of the late Nelson Mandela, will provide the keynote address prior to the debate.  It's all part of the United We Stand Festival.

Only Castle -- the best choice for principled Christian conservatives (sic) and Ted Cruz and Ben Carson supporters  -- can be voted for in Texas as a qualified write-in candidate.  (De La Fuente was rejected as a Texas presidential option only last week by a federal judge under the 'sore loser' law.)  Free & Equal hosted Stein, Gary Johnson, Virgil Goode, and Rocky Anderson in two debates moderated by Ralph Nader and Larry King four years ago, which I reported on at the time.

More in the pipeline about down-ballot contests in Texas and Harris County, the prospects of the Democrats retaking both houses of Congress, and a P-Slate just before the start of early voting here on Monday, October 24.

No knockout blows, and nobody got grabbed

With all of the dread leading up to last night's townhall, I have to say ... having come through the other side and now looking back, it wasn't as awful as I feared.  Though it was plenty bad.

Say this for Donald Trump's Sunday night: For about an hour, America stopped parsing his apparent bragging, in the now-famous tape that surfaced Friday, about sexually assaulting women. [...]

Of course, that's because he gave the country so much other grist on which to chew as he flailed his way through a deeply weird, at times nasty, second presidential debate.

There was his promise to appoint a special prosecutor against Clinton if he wins the election. This is banana republic-type stuff, a vow to prosecute one's political opponent. "It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country," Clinton said, prompting the Trump response: "Because you'd be in jail."

Go read the rest.  Throwing these pieces of red meat to his fanatical caucus is essentially all that he has left.  As Nate Silver has observed, it simply won't be enough.

At roughly the 20-minute mark of the Sunday’s debate — about the point at which Trump said he’d appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton and that she’d “be in jail” if someone like him had been president — it seemed prudent to wonder whether Trump’s campaign was over. I don’t mean over in a literal sense (it would be almost impossible to replace Trump on the ballot). But over in the sense that we knew the outcome of the election for all intents and purposes, to a higher degree of confidence than FiveThirtyEight’s statistical models — which gave Clinton “only” about an 80 percent chance of winning heading into the debate — alone implied.

Definitely go read the rest.  Clinton performed a surgical evisceration of Trump within the first ten or so minutes, but she did not finish as strongly and seemed to be trying to run out the clock.  She stumbled over the questions about the hacked Podesta emails that contained portions of her undisclosed speeches to corporate titans.

(Trump) put Clinton on defense over private speeches she gave to Wall Street firms, transcripts of which posted on Wikileaks late last week. He presented a steadier front and avoided chasing Clinton into terrain that might damage him, largely keeping the conversation on his own terms. 

More from Think Progress (Podesta's old shop).

Those e-mails included excerpts from her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street entities, in which she dismisses Americans’ concerns about a “rigged” financial system, says bankers are best equipped to be their own regulators, expresses a desire for free trade in the hemisphere, and asserts that it is often necessary for political leaders to take one position in public and another one in private.

Debate moderator Martha Raddatz pressed Clinton on that final point, reading a question submitted online that asked, “Is it okay for politicians to be two-faced? Is it acceptable for you to have a private stance?”

Clinton responded that she made the comment about public and private positions when talking about the movie Lincoln, in which Abraham Lincoln uses back room deals to secure the constitutional amendment to end slavery. The document revealed by Wikileaks corroborates this account.

The best Tweet of the night.

“As I recall, I was speaking about the wonderful movie LINCOLN. And also about how CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is really underrated.” #Debate

— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) October 10, 2016

Sandernistas were livid about the leaked transcripts, but Bernie Sanders himself gave her a pass  (notice I had to use overseas media to find these stories).  Whaddaya gonna do with this lousy sellout, folks?  Fall in behind him?  Write his name in?

The sniffle count was 104.  Juanita Broaddrick made her way into the media spin room.  Her appearance at the presser before the debate, along with Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and others prompted the night's second-best Tweet.

How can any victim of sexual assault sit next to a man accused of sexual assault many times, who brags about his assaults? #debate

— Victoria Graveyard (@VictoriaAveyard) October 9, 2016

In the end, Clinton 'won', but Trump didn't lose.  And none of it makes much difference.

McMullin-Finn

A wrap of last night's shitstorm is coming later today; while you wait ... did you know #NeverTrump candidate Evan McMullin's running mate is a Kingwood native named Mindy Finn?

Finn, 35, has worked for former President George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Twitter and Google. This cycle, she was a senior digital strategist for the RNC and oversaw digital programs for the NRSC’s targeted races in 2014.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Finn explained why she wanted to join the unlikely never-Trump ticket.

“I’ve been part of the group opposing Donald Trump in the Republican Party really since he announced last summer and as he continued to alienate and vilify people in this country” and while she has “encouraged others to run for office, this is now an opportunity to walk the walk.” 

Disillusioned Republicans and sober Libertarians: this is your ticket.  They're good to go as a write-in here in Texas and thirty or so other states.

In 2012, she worked for Twitter, leading their politics and advocacy sector. A Republican activist who has worked to encouraged female Republicans to run for office, she also founded the non-profit Empowered Women, a network to connect center-right and independent women.

She described seeing Republicans coming around to Trump as “pretty discouraging,” but now she is “thrilled to be on the ticket” and she is “all in for the right reasons.”

“This is how it should feel to participate in a democracy,” she said. "I’ve also been incredibly impressed by the amount of traction they have in such a short amount of time and I am thrilled to be part of continuing to build a new movement."

The McMullin campaign acknowledges what an uphill climb they have up against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Most polling does not include McMullin, who announced his bid in August. Their strategy is dependent on attempting to block Trump and Clinton from obtaining 270 electoral votes and sending the election to the House of Representatives. An election hasn’t been decided by the House of Representatives since 1824.

Click on that most previous link and note that this #OpDeny270 effort is something the #StillSanders crowd is also advocating.  Our political lines have really been blurred this cycle, haven't they?  It sure would be horrible if the House were the only ones picking our next president.  Thankfully it stands no realistic chance of happening.  Still, hats off to the brave.

“The path is difficult, but not as unlikely as people think,” McMullin strategist Rick Wilson told ABC News. "This is all about giving Americans a sense they can vote for people they can be proud of and have a more affirmative version of leadership in this country.”

They really ought to campaign in Montgomery County at the very least, where some of Kingwood lies and where Dan Patrick says the free conservative world hangs in the balance.

(Who says I don't want Hillary to carry Texas?)