What we're learning here is that it's Hillary who could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and still win

I know, I'm getting ahead of myself.

George Will steals half of my idea

Here.

Here.

And who is George Will to call anyone a sexual lout anyway?

With 28 days to election day, Hillary has expanded her Electoral College lead over Trump and is now projected to win 339-199

With 28 days to go to the election, Hillary has reset the Electoral College map from Real Clear Politics in the last week by adding four states to her blue column: PA, MI, WI, CO. This boosts her Electoral College total by 55 in the last week from 205 to 260. Trump has again added nothing to his column and still stands at 165.

That leaves 113 Electoral College votes in Toss-Up vs. 168 last week.

Of these, the polling as of this morning indicates Trump retains AZ by +1, IA by +3.7, GA by +5, and ME-2 by +8.7. OH has peeled off to Hillary, however, at 0.5, and Trump has lost ground in AZ and IA.

Hillary is winning NV by +1.4, MN by +4.3, NC by +2.6, FL by +2.4, and ME-1 by +3.8. She has lost ground in ME-1 and FL.

To Hillary's 260 therefore add 79 for a total of 339.

To Trump's 165 therefore add 34 for a total of 199.

As of this morning, Clinton's leads over Trump in NM, CO, WI, MI, NH and VA can be explained statistically by the vote peeled off from Trump by libertarian Gary Johnson. But this is not the case in CT, NJ and PA. Johnson also polls higher than the spread in all nine Toss-up states.

Once again Job One for libertarians is to spoil elections for Republicans.

Bob Dole isn't deserting Trump like John McCain & Co.

The better American, here.

Les Deplorables: A name for Hillary that rhymes with the three streets in Chicago "Paulina", "Melvina" and "Lunt"

The share paying for their own health insurance has soared 22% since 2013, by about 9 million, while the number covered by employers has actually fallen by 220,000

So says the table from Gallup, here. The 3.9 pt. difference in the share fully paying for their own coverage since 2013 represents a 22% increase.

How many was that in millions of people, you may ask.

In 2013 there were approximately 190 million Americans 18 to 64 years of age. 17.6% fully paying for their own coverage was approximately 33 million people at the time. Fast forward to 2016 and the number is now approaching 42 million. Meanwhile even though the sample population is up 3 million over the period, the number receiving coverage from an employer has actually fallen 220,000 to 83.76 million in 2016.

And as everyone knows who buys their own coverage, costs have soared. My costs since 2010 are up only 67%, but that's only because I chose higher deductibles as time went by. My deductible is now up 300%. Same plan, but it would now cost me $10,000 out of pocket instead of $2,500 in any emergency. Apart from that, everytime I need routine healthcare, like seeing a doctor to update a prescription, or the prescription itself, or glasses, or my teeth cleaned and checked, it's all on me.

So it's no surprise that apart from coverage costs soaring, healthcare services spending in unchained dollars of GDP is up 19% since 2012, from $1.836 trillion then to almost $2.185 trillion annualized as of the second quarter now. That's an extra almost $350 billion being spent on actual healthcare services consumption in the last four years, all coming out of consumers' pockets.

Obamacare has been a disaster to the budgets of millions of ordinary Americans.

The Rod Dreher snowflakes at The American Conservative are horrified by Trump's threat to appoint a special prosecutor

Here:

Baron Harkonnen says:

October 9, 2016 at 11:57 pm

By the way – am I the only one freaked out at the fact that one candidate threatened to jail the other if he wins? What are we in Zimbabwe? Yet another thing nobody cares about. It’s all normal now. It’s unthinkable. Trump is openly threatening to weaponize federal government agencies against political opponents. Disqualifying reason #812. B-b-b-b-b-ut Clin-ton!!!

As if the federal government hasn't been weaponized against Republicans and conservatives throughout the Obama administration to a degree never before seen or imagined.

In correcting the fallible bureaucrats Kyle Smith also gets the homeownership rate wrong: It's as low as in 1965

Here:

And 80 percent of [bureaucrats] guessed that the rate of home ownership is lower than it is: 67 percent. With all of this underestimating going on, it’s not surprising that Washington is constantly pushing urgent, potentially disastrous fixes (such as re-inflating the housing bubble by encouraging more and more Americans with sketchy credit ratings to buy homes) for imaginary ills. Renting your home is a perfectly acceptable way to live, and Fannie Mae shouldn’t be in the business of enticing renters of modest income to commit to large amounts of debt by obtaining mortgages.

John Hinderaker heard a different debate than I heard

Here:

Happily, immigration figured prominently. Shockingly, in the first debate the moderator never mentioned the topic. Tonight, it was discussed extensively. That is a big plus for Trump. The exchanges on foreign policy were inconclusive, of course, but in general I think Trump did better. And there was even talk about Obamacare, which is great for Trump and Republicans.

Debate Two: Trump promises special prosecutor to investigate Hillary's e-mail scandal

Here:

If I win, I'm going to instruct the attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there's never been so many lies, so much deception.

Never been anything like it and we're going to have a special prosecutor. When I speak, I go out and speak, the people of this country are furious. In my opinion, the people that have been long-term workers at the FBI are furious. There has never been anything like this, where e-mails and you get a subpoena and after getting the subpoena, you delete 33,000 e-mails and then acid wash them or bleach them. A very expensive process, so we're going to get a special prosecutor because people have been, their lives have been destroyed for doing one fifth of what you've done. And it's a disgrace and honestly, you ought to be ashamed.

Trump wins Debate Two hands down but may still lose the race

The establishment isn't just going to lie down and die. Expect more dirt.

Once again illegal immigration got short shrift because it's Trump's signature issue. The establishment isn't going to ask him questions about it, except insofar as it thinks it makes him look like a racist. Trump has to make it about illegal immigration and keep it about illegal immigration, and tonight he did so here and there but not enough.

Obamacare, however, did make an appearance. And Trump scores big on this with ordinary middle class Americans who have to pay more for less for themselves in order for poor people to get Medicaid.

But when is Donald Trump going to tell Medicaid recipients' families that it isn't free? The state will come after whatever was spent on their care from their estates. That means no inheritance from your dead mom or dad until the government is reimbursed for what it spent.

Hillary enjoying Pussy Riot in 2014 . . . and tweeting about it

A photo has emerged of Trump grabbing a pussy

The Republicans' condom senator, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, joins the Alinskyites, can no longer support Donald Trump

Reported here:

Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire was the first Republican senator facing a competitive re-election to say she would no longer back Mr. Trump, announcing in a statement that she would write in Mr. Pence for president instead. “I’m a mom and an American first, and I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” she wrote on Twitter. ... Mr. Trump, after monitoring television coverage, realized he was becoming isolated by his party.

New UK Prime Minister Theresa May excoriates elites like Obama: "If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere"

From the text of her speech to the Tories, reproduced here, in which you will hear echoes of American politics:

... [I]n June people voted for change. And a change is going to come. 

Change has got to come because as we leave the European Union and take control of our own destiny, the task of tackling some of Britain’s long-standing challenges - like how to train enough people to do the jobs of the future - becomes ever more urgent. But change has got to come too because of the quiet revolution that took place in our country just three months ago – a revolution in which millions of our fellow citizens stood up and said they were not prepared to be ignored anymore. Because this is a turning point for our country. A once-in-a-generation chance to change the direction of our nation for good. To step back and ask ourselves what kind of country we want to be.

... [T]he referendum was not just a vote to withdraw from the EU. It was about something broader – something that the European Union had come to represent. It was about a sense – deep, profound and let’s face it often justified – that many people have today that the world works well for a privileged few, but not for them. It was a vote not just to change Britain’s relationship with the European Union, but to call for a change in the way our country works – and the people for whom it works – forever. Knock on almost any door in almost any part of the country, and you will find the roots of the revolution laid bare. Our society should work for everyone, but if you can’t afford to get onto the property ladder, or your child is stuck in a bad school, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you. Our economy should work for everyone, but if your pay has stagnated for several years in a row and fixed items of spending keep going up, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you. Our democracy should work for everyone, but if you’ve been trying to say things need to change for years and your complaints fall on deaf ears, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you. And the roots of the revolution run deep. Because it wasn’t the wealthy who made the biggest sacrifices after the financial crash, but ordinary, working class families.

And if you’re one of those people who lost their job, who stayed in work but on reduced hours, took a pay cut as household bills rocketed, or - and I know a lot of people don’t like to admit this - someone who finds themselves out of work or on lower wages because of low-skilled immigration, life simply doesn’t seem fair. It feels like your dreams have been sacrificed in the service of others. So change has got to come. Because if we don’t respond – if we don’t take this opportunity to deliver the change people want – resentments will grow. Divisions will become entrenched. And that would be a disaster for Britain. Because the lesson of Britain is that we are a country built on the bonds of family, community, citizenship. Of strong institutions and a strong society. The country of my parents who instilled in me a sense of public service and of public servants everywhere who want to give something back. The parent who works hard all week but takes time out to coach the kids football team at the weekend. The local family business in my constituency that’s been serving the community for more than 50 years. The servicemen and women I met last week who wear their uniform proudly at home and serve our nation with honour abroad. A country of decency, fairness and quiet resolve. And a successful country - small in size but large in stature - that with less than 1% of the world’s population boasts more Nobel Laureates than any country outside the United States… with three more added again just yesterday – two of whom worked here in this great city. A country that boasts three of the top ten universities in the world. The world’s leading financial capital. And institutions like the NHS and BBC whose reputations echo in some of the farthest corners of the globe. All possible because we are one United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – and I will always fight to preserve our proud, historic Union and will never let divisive nationalists drive us apart. Yet within our society today, we see division and unfairness all around. Between a more prosperous older generation and a struggling younger generation. Between the wealth of London and the rest of the country. But perhaps most of all, between the rich, the successful and the powerful - and their fellow citizens.

Now don’t get me wrong. We applaud success. We want people to get on. But we also value something else: the spirit of citizenship.

That spirit that means you respect the bonds and obligations that make our society work. That means a commitment to the men and women who live around you, who work for you, who buy the goods and services you sell. That spirit that means recognising the social contract that says you train up local young people before you take on cheap labour from overseas. That spirit that means you do as others do, and pay your fair share of tax.

But today, too many people in positions of power behave as though they have more in common with international elites than with the people down the road, the people they employ, the people they pass in the street. But if you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what the very word ‘citizenship’ means. So if you’re a boss who earns a fortune but doesn’t look after your staff… An international company that treats tax laws as an optional extra… A household name that refuses to work with the authorities even to fight terrorism… A director who takes out massive dividends while knowing that the company pension is about to go bust… I’m putting you on warning. This can’t go on anymore. A change has got to come. And this party – the Conservative Party – is going to make that change.

Trump audio: Democrats follow Alinsky rules to neutralize Trump

Rule 4: The Democrats are trying to make the Republican enemy live up to its own book of rules, which state that Trump's sexual immorality will not play well in Peoria. 

Rule 6: It's a good tactic because Democrats especially enjoy embarrassing Republicans as hypocrites to their religion, which is Democrats' real enemy.

Rule 10: If enough Republicans can be turned to denounce Trump the target will have been effectively personalized, frozen and polarized, ensuring a Democrat victory.

Americans didn't want Boy Scout Mitt Romney in 2012, but may well end up with a gay Brownie in 2016

Adriana Cohen stops just short of going there in The Boston Herald, here:

Donald Trump is not a Boy Scout. If that’s what Americans were looking for they could have elected Mitt Romney in 2012. But they didn’t, proving these latest attacks are nothing more than slimy political theater.

Joe Pags thinks "not in the labor force" does not include the retired, but it does

It's shocking how many people still think, wrongly, that "not in the labor force" includes huge numbers of people who could be or should be working but aren't.

Today on his show Joe Pags said the number not in the labor force, currently over 94 million, does not include retired people, when, for example in 2014 the retired constituted 44% of those "not in the labor force". The truth is the retired always constitute the single largest proportion of those "not in the labor force".

The sick and disabled in 2014 accounted for almost 19%, and people going to school made up another 18% of the total "not in the labor force". Tell me there are some claiming disability who don't have one who should be working, but don't tell me the damn kids should be working. 15.5% were homemakers while 3.5% had other reasons. There's probably many people in these categories who might want a job but can't find one, or ought to be working but aren't, but nothing even remotely close to the almost 39 million retired at the time.

Joe Pags joins a long list of idiots who are quite outspoken in their ignorance about this, including Zero Hedge, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Donald Trump, et alia. Thinking there might be vast numbers of hidden unemployed in "not in the labor force" is just plain lazy stupid.

None of these apparently have had the slightest interest in checking this out on Al Gore's amazing internet using the google machine, which takes you to this page at the Bureau of Labor Statistics with one of the better explanations out there.

I can only conclude the ignorance in the case of Joe Pags is willful because Joe Pags is smarter than that. But then again, he thinks Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen.

His bad.

Well now, the Trump audio, as embarrassing as it is, actually helps make the choice in this election easier than before

There's transgressing normal, and then there's transgressing not so normal.

Clinton to Brazilian bank in 2013: "My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders"

Hacked comment revealed here (private position), which is consistent with her pro-TPP stance while Secretary of State, but inconsistent with her opposition to it now that she is the Democrat nominee for president (public position):

The speech transcripts, a major subject of contention during the Democratic primary, include quotes from Clinton about her distance from middle-class life (“I’m kind of far removed”); her vision of strategic governing (“you need both a public and a private position”); and her views on trade, health care, and Wall Street (“even if it may not be 100 percent true, if the perception is that somehow the game is rigged.”) ... "My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders,” Clinton is quoted as telling a Brazilian bank in 2013. “We have to resist, protectionism, other kinds of barriers to market access and to trade.”