600,000 early votes cast in Cook County. The most ever. The majority of voters are women. PEople of color are coming out in droves. Lines for early voting stretch blocks long in certain areas.

No matter who wins, this appears to be the highest turnout ever, according to a Cook County election official.

Heh, take that, Bruce Donald Rauner. Your $26,000,000 personal investment did little but make radio and local tv companies happy.

Sigh, still there is a problem. For 5 minutes of local evening news, it feels like there are 20 minutes of attack ads.

What if the race is closer than we expect (or hope), and one or two states will make the difference, say, Ohio, NC, or even Florida?

Bush v. Gore was wrongly decided by a 5-4 majority. No such vote is possible now, even by my maths, given only 8 supreme justices. So, there is a possibility that the conservative 6th circuit or a conservative group of another federal appeals court will be issuing the final ruling on this election.

I shudder at the thought. Hopefully, we will kick as so broadly and widely, it will never come to this. But still . . . . .

https://m.

Make sure your volume is on high.

Had a great opportunity yesterday to check the pulse of 'Murica. Every year, SOFA has a show at Navy Pier on Chicago's magnificent lakefront. Artists and art lovers from around the world. Korea, Japan, Australia, and more. The place was packed with boys and girls, moms and dads, and children of all ages.

There was some truly inspired and inspiring art pieces here. Overall, I have to say that of the 20 or so SOFA shows that I have been to, this is probably the most talented and fun.

People were extremely friendly to one another, and it was easy to strike up conversations with total strangers. While the talks started out on art, it seemed (and I slightly pushed) the conversations slowly ebbed to the topic of the election. Despite talking to many dozens of visitors, (I was there Thurs., Fri. And Sat.) I was hard pressed to find anyone supporting the Teh Donald. The foreign art lovers who were here expressed concern because even after George W. Bush, America is still viewed as a pillar of democracy and the leader of the free world. They are actually fearful of Trump, and believe him to pose a danger to the world. Some of them either have, had, or escaped some sort of fascist or overpowering form of government, or have had recent wars on or near their borders. A buffoon, a fool, a pig, but a dangerous one.

The americans here (from every state), uniformly expressed a hope that Hillary wins, even if some did not care for her or for her self-imposed issues and questions. I did not find one Trump supporter - or at least anyone who would admit it at a huge art show.

OK, as surveys go, this has some problems. First, this is Chicago. Not only is our sky blue because of the EPA, our politics are too. Second, one gets the feeling that art and today's Trump supports mix about as well as oil and water. Lastly, most of the people were well read, interested in current affairs, and were well versed on the arts - again, not traits commonly found in bible beating, gun toting, small-minded, Trumpistas.

So, while the crowd was large, and pretty much set on electing Hillary, I concede that there may be a bias in favor of reality that may not exist among those who will vote the Cheetoh Head.

And he pounded the shit out of his son in public?

AND, Melania was illegal while working here sans a visa?

And then, to top it off, the NY office of the FBI is conspiring with Trump?

What the hell happened to our political cistern?

I want to understand what a "Texas Gentleman" is and what or who they are supposed to be.

When a high ranking elected state official calls the democratic candidate a cunt, and even the current governor is offended, how does that comport with the pride that Texas has over its manners and behavior?

Unlike Cook County (Chicago), DuPage County, which voted against Obama both times and is the spiritual home of the Illinois GOP, is flooded with campaign signs.

One thing of interest. Not one sign showed the party affiliation. Not one. Even the aired TV ads (which seem to last 45 minutes out of each hour) never mention the party to which their candidate belongs. The closest they come is by trying to tie a candidate to Mike Madigan, the long standing state house leader. On TV and radio, this has been the nastiest, most disgusting, and vile campaign I have ever experienced in my 58 solar orbits around this flat earth.

One sign did make me laugh. A yoga center asked, "Election Stressed?" "Get your FREE yoga here. Only $18 a session."

Free. uh huh.

According a a neighbor who is a voting judge this year, voter turnout was, is and appears to be one of the highest ever. I guess running an insane egotist for president might cause turnout to rise.

From Chicago Sun-Times:

In Chicago alone, 17,493 voters had already cast ballots as of about 5:30 p.m. Monday, on the first day of expanded early voting. That beats a city record of 15,000 early voters on Day One in 2012, according to Chicago Board of Election Commissioners spokesman Jim Allen. Another 22,000 voters have already voted early — as Chicago voters were able to vote at a “super site” in the Loop beginning on Sept. 29. That marks the earliest early voting had begun before an election in Illinois.

“We’ve never seen early voting 40 days before the election,” Allen said. “In 2008, we started 22 days before and in 2002, we started 15 days before.”

Illinois also had more than 7.9 million active registered voters as of Monday — beating the state’s previous high total of 7.8 million registered voters in the 2008 election during Barack Obama’s first presidential election, according to Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Jim Tenuto, who said he analyzed records all the way back to 1970.

State files analyzed by the Chicago Sun-Times show the Illinois record holds until at least 1960, the earliest statewide voter registration figures available.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/state-voter-registration-breaks-record-pols-push-early-voting/

Southern Cook County, my nape of the forest, only allowed early voting since this past Monday. And anecdotal reports from my nay-bores (only a handful of whom support the orange domed baboon) suggest that the whole week has been busy and filled with early rise and shining voters.

I dunno about anyone else here, but I am smelling napalm in the morning, and it smells like victory.

Now, if we could land the senate and the house, that would make my day.

Because our Teabuggered Governor filed suit to keep turnout low in Cook County (chicago), and won, today is the first day of early voting in suburban Cook County. They even cut down on locations, meaning that people could not just go to their city halls as we have in previous years.

I got there at 9:15. The line was to the door.

12 electronic voting machines, all with a printed secure paper trail. Every booth filled. Four intake stations, which both signed you in and allowed for early registration. All four stations in use, with a long line of people waiting. Finally got to vote by 9:40, and by the time I was done, the line had actually grown.

There was one technical glitch in that the voting card they program with a unique number (prevents voter fraud) was not programing in one prep station. They had to clean the cards' computer chip with an eraser, and it worked fine.

By 9:45, I'd guess that 50-60 votes had been cast. The judges commented that they had never seen it so busy, so early.

Not one red shirt to be seen (if that is still Trumpenstein's idea to intimidate other voters).

This is southern Cook County. With a few pockets of red, pretty uniformly democratic. I am getting a feeling that this will be a blowout election. For the good guys' and gals' side. (That is not sexist. If they could name a musical that way, in which all the good songs were not assigned to Frank Sinatra, when he was in his prime, I can use it here).

They just issued a notice to all employees - "Take our buyout offer."

News Corp’s The Wall Street Journal on Friday offered all of its news employees the option to take buyouts, according to a memo reviewed by Reuters.

“We are seeking a substantial number of employees to elect this benefit, but we reserve the right to reject a volunteer based on business considerations,” wrote Gerard Baker, editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/wall-street-journal-offers-all-news-employees-the-option-to-take-buyouts-memo/

Ever since the reptilian Lord Morlock decided to add the Urinal to his Fox News mega-corp, I started to wonder how soon the Fox way of doing things would adversely impact its continued operations. One thing about the Urinal, before the purchase, its OP-ED pages were hideous blatherings of ultra-conservative isms and beliefs, competing with Washington Times in a race to the bottom. But, its news pages, although clearly centered on and about business, trade, and related topics. Conservative? Sure, but they used to play it straight with facts, even unpleasant ones.

Once Fox took over, the OP-ED began to bleed into the news columns, as many predicted. I guess that shift has turned off readers. Downsizing (or as Human Resources calls it, reorganization for future progress and sustainability) is now a reality.

There are a couple of folks who played it smart, and none of them are named Marco Rubio.

Top long time winner? John Kasich. His refusal to accept Trump or his antics gives him a leg up on the rest of te scrum.

Second place? Possibly Mike Pence, only because his demeanor is so anti-trump. His ideas are so scary, that they are bound to attract the Trumpians who still support the Gropin-Fuehrer.

George Pataki? Other than the fact that he has become so invisible as to give Saran Wrap a run for its money, the former gov of NY may be good in the long run.

Ted Cruz? He is probably the most problematic of the group. True believers love his idiotic ideas. And true Trumpians trust him as far as they can throw him. The one thing he has in common with Trump is his self-serving ego, and drive to beat up all opponents. But, the stain runs deep with this one, my little padawan.

As for the rest of the Klown Kar, there really are no winners. Scott Walker? As dumb and crafty as he is, he is tainted by a trumpian stain. Sanitorium? On what flat earth would he have a chance? Ever? Rick Perry? Nope. Carli Fiorina? Maybe she can raise her profile, but not on a national level in a sustainable fashion. Rand Paul? Who? Mike Huckabee? As stale as three week old bread.

Who is completely destroyed? Rudi Giuliani, Chris Christie, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush. Not only will the footage of them be left on the editing floor, the entire script will be rewritten to remove them from reality - about the same way as the political world has already passed them by.

I really don't see any other potential winners in the GOP. Whiners, yes. Angry, nasty, vile attakers against Hillary? Sure. But winners? Nary a one.