You're So Pretty

If -- and this is a big if -- Trump loses the election and goes away quietly, Joe Biden will face the daunting task of trying to heal this nation.

I don't envy him that task. Now that so much pent-up populist rage has been unleashed, it will take patience and persistence to restore a sense of calm and trust.

In these final days before Election Day, desperate Trump supporters are once again turning to conspiracy theories to try and break down Biden's support. But they are fighting a losing battle and they know it.

One of the GOP's major raps against Biden is that he has been in politics 47 years and hasn't accomplished anything. That seems like a fair enough charge, in the rough and tumble of political rhetoric.

But then they launch into the dubious theory that he is somehow corrupt, and their only support for that is to point at activities of his son, Hunter Biden, who is not on the ballot and faces no criminal charges but -- it is alleged -- somehow has corrupted his father.

Well, I'm here to tell them they can't have it both ways. Any candidate who has held office for 47 years has been so thoroughly researched and vetted over and over again that if one scintilla of evidence existed of his corruption it would have been headline news a long time ago.

And when it comes to one's children, if I were one of the GOP operatives, I would not be casting aspersions on Biden while working for a nepotist like Trump.  If Biden chose to attack Trump's family for misdeeds, there would be a very long list of disreputable behavior to discuss indeed.

But Biden is too decent (and perhaps too far ahead) to do that.

One fact remains paramount: The ugliness that Trump has unleashed in the form of racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and pure hate toward anyone who can be considered "other" in his eyes has stained our nation. What a horrible legacy! Those carrying his water share his shame.

Biden's fate will be to have to try and clean that all up. That, while trying to establish a successful war against Covid-19, which may prove impossible, and the need to repair an economy in tatters. In the latter effort, he will no doubt be successful, just as he and Obama were in 2009.

But perhaps the biggest challenge of all will be to restore hope and mutual respect among our people. I honestly don't know how he can do that, and that makes me sad. This society is like Humpty Dumpty --  no one can put the pieces together again.

Still, in sadness there can be music. For some reason the lovely, haunting melody by the Cranberries plays over and over in my head, beat by beat. "You're-so-pretty-the-way-you-are...But you won't change me."

***

The news is not so pretty, but it won't change me...

* There is an unmistakable effort underway to intimidate voters — specifically Democratic voters — when they go to the polls. Right-wing groups are organizing to show up at polls with guns, a development election officials fear will create an unsafe environment for other voters to cast their ballots. In one swing state, an effort to limit the presence of guns at polling locations was met with a court fight and a standoff between the state’s election officials and some members of law enforcement. Only about a dozen states explicitly ban open or concealed carry of firearms at the polls. [HuffPost]

* Dr. Anthony Fauci Says a National Mask Mandate is Needed. (CNN)

* The Surging Virus Has Crashed Into Campaigning in Every Imaginable Way (NYT)

* New study suggests COVID-19 may age some patients' brains by 10 years. (Reuters)

* The U.S. Supreme Court issued two decisions Wednesday evening, declining to stop a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling and a North Carolina Board of Elections order that both extended the deadlines for mail-in ballots to be received in their states. Though both decisions are temporary victories for voting rights advocates, the dissents in each case suggest an ominous possibility. At least three justices ― Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch ― are open to taking up the Pennsylvania case again and potentially throwing out any ballots that arrive within the three days after Nov. 3. [HuffPost]

* Can we ever heal after the election? (WashPo)

* Young and Jobless in Europe: ‘It’s Been Desperate’ (NYT)

* Trump keeps demanding that all ballots be counted by election night, even though federal law permits states to count ballots from troops stationed outside the United States, diplomats and other Americans abroad to have their ballots counted days later, as long as they were sent no later than Election Day. In a tweet flagged by Twitter for being misleading Trump wrote: “Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3rd.” [HuffPost]

* Why winning rural areas should be a progressive priority (WashPo)

* Democrats throughout the country are winning back a small but potentially critical number of voters in counties and cities that flipped to support Trump four years ago, thanks to a renewed outreach from Democrats and the loss of the populist edge the Republican Party developed in 2016. These areas, where voters are disproportionately white, rural and older, and without college degrees, are mostly in the northern half of the country, especially in the Midwest. They have disproportionate political power due to the overrepresentation of rural states in the Senate and the Electoral College. [HuffPost]

* ‘We Need to Hold On’: Macron Says France Will Reimpose Lockdown (NYT)

* “America is facing a serious challenge to its position as the leader of the ‘rules-based’ world.” Former Gov. Jerry Brown weighs in on the election. [The New York Review]

* As Election Day nears, Trump ponders becoming one thing he so despises: A loser (WashPo)

* Businessman Pleads Guilty in Probe of Giuliani Associates -- A Florida businessman pleaded guilty to charges that he duped potentialinvestors in a fraud-insurance company and that he helped associates of Rudy Giuliani lie to federal election officials about a $325,000 donation to a super PAC supporting President Trump. (WSJ)

* Republicans’ only way to win is to stop people from voting (WashPo)

* Exxon to Slash Up to 15% of Global Workforce, Including 1,900 Jobs in U.S -- The struggling oil giant said it expects to make the cuts over the next year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the oil-and-gas industry (WSJ)

* Make Science Great Again: U.S. researchers dream of life after Trump (Reuters)

* Days From Election, Police Killing of Black Man Roils Philadelphia (NYT)

* Biden is favored to win the election -- We simulate the election 40,000 times to see who wins most often. The sample of 100 outcomes below gives you a good idea of the range of scenarios our model thinks is possible. Biden 89%, Trump 11%. (538)

***

You're so pretty the way you are

You're so pretty the way you are

And you had no reason,

To be so insolent with me

You're so pretty the way you are 

La, la, you got to say it, if you want

to,

But you won't change me.

La, la, you got to say it, if you want 

to.

But you won't change me.

-- The Cranberries

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