Opinion: By Bamsterman. I don't know about you but my head is about to explode.

 

So as I am reading and watching about the debate last night I can say this. My head is going to explode. So much is being said by both sides about the debate. When everyone I have talked to today at work and other places agree. 

The debate was a shit show and no one won. But the far left and far right are claiming victory. As expected. I am shocked Fox News Voters, for the most part, “felt like nobody won” the first presidential debate between President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, pollster Lee Carter told “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday. 

Now this is a comparison between the News Network not endorsement of Fox News. ABC News I could find no stories about the debate. 

CNN did have one opinion piece. Biden did the one thing he had to do to win the debate Sorry CNN no one won. America lost. 

As you search around you find stories all over the place. Most of them full of shit. Sorry America. But you lose no matter what. 

 

 

 

Debate Analysis.

This is anticipated to be the most watched debate in history. What is the reason your watching and what did you think? Who won who lost tied or generally you just don't give a flying rats ass. So bring your comments popcorn should be fun. Give your pre debate predictions and see if they hold up or not.

Disney parks to lay off 28,000 workers in California, Florida

 

The coronavirus pandemic's economic effects have reached the workers of the most magical place in the world.

Disney's park division is laying off 28,000 employees in California and Florida in the wake of the pandemic.

Two-thirds of the planned layoffs involve part-time workers but they ranged from salaried employees to nonunion hourly workers, Disney officials said.

In a letter to employees, Josh D'Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experience and Product, said his management team had worked hard to try to avoid layoffs. They had cut expenses, suspended projects and modified operations but it wasn’t enough given limits on the number of people allowed into the park because of social distancing restrictions and other pandemic-related measures, he said.

ARTICLE LINK 

Trump, Biden push into crucial first 2020 campaign face-off

 

CLEVELAND (AP) — With just 35 days until the election, President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are barreling into their crucial first debate Tuesday night, the most pivotal moment so far in a race that has remained stubbornly unchanged in the face of historic tumult.

Both men huddled with aides in the final hours before the debate, which will offer the candidates their biggest national stage to outline starkly different visions for a country facing multiple crises. Americans are both fearful and impatient about the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans and cost millions of jobs, and many are concerned about racial justice, protest violence or both.

 

Each side hoped the debate would energize its own base of supporters even as the candidates compete over the slim slice of undecided voters who could decide the election.

Biden will step onto the Cleveland stage holding leads in the polls — significant in national surveys, close in some battleground states — and looking to expand his support among suburban voters, women and seniors. Surveys show the president has lost significant ground among those groups since 2016, but Biden faces his own questions encouraged by Trump’s withering attacks.

 ARTICLE LINK

Appellate court halts Wisconsin ballot-counting extension

 

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Sunday temporarily halted a six-day extension for counting absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s presidential election, a momentary victory for Republicans and President Donald Trump in the key presidential battleground state.

As it stands, ballots will now be due by 8 p.m. on Election Day. A lower court judge had sided with Democrats and their allies to extend the deadline until Nov. 9. Democrats sought more time as a way to help deal with an expected historic high number of absentee ballots.

The Democratic National Committee, the state Democratic Party and allied groups including the League of Women Voters sued to extend the deadline for counting absentee ballots after the April presidential primary saw long lines, fewer polling places, a shortage of workers and thousands of ballots mailed days after the election.

 

U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled Sept. 21 that ballots that arrive up to six days after Election Day will count as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day. Sunday’s action puts Conley’s order on hold until the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals or U.S. Supreme Court issues any further action.

No further details were immediately posted by the appeals court.

State election officials anticipate as many as 2 million people will cast absentee ballots to avoid catching the coronavirus at the polls. That would be three times more absentee ballots than any other previous election and could overwhelm both election officials and the postal service, Conley wrote. If the decision had stood it could have delayed knowing the winner of Wisconsin for days.

ARTICLE LINK 

Make chef David Rose’s banana nut pancakes with bourbon banana caramel sauce

 

Chef David Rose showed us on "Good Morning America" how to take your breakfast to the next level with his banana nut pancakes with bourbon banana caramel sauce.

Here is the recipe that will serve 6 to 8 pancakes and get your day started off right.

Ingredients for banana nut pancakes

 1.5 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 bananas (thinly sliced)

6 oz pralines (crushed *for garnish)

1/2 cup powdered sugar (**for garnish)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon bourbon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons unsalted butter or Non stick cooking spray

Directions for banana nut pancakes

In 2 separate mixing bowls, whisk together dry ingredients in one bowl, and whisk wet ingredients in a separate bowl. *Except walnuts, pralines and bananas.

Make a well in the middle of dry ingredients, and gradually whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients until well incorporated and batter is smooth.

Turn griddle to medium high heat, and add butter or cooking spray to griddle.

Pour batter about 4" to 5" diameter, place about 1 T of walnuts and 3 to 4 banana slices in each pancake.

Cook pancakes until bubbles begin to form and flip once golden brown, continue to cook until thru about 3 to 5 mins.

Serve with bourbon banana caramel sauce and top with pralines and powdered sugar.

Ingredients for bourbon banana caramel sauce

 1 1/2 cups bourbon

2 cups heavy cream

2 ripe sliced bananas

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions for bourbon banana caramel sauce

In a large saucepan, bring Bourbon to a boil, and simmer until reduced by 1/2.

Add butter, and brown sugar to pan, and whisk until well incorporated.

Add heavy cream to pan, and bring to a boil, add kosher salt.

Reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for about 6 to 8 mins until sauce thickens and forms into caramel sauce consistency.

Fold in sliced bananas, and continue to simmer for about 2 mins. Serve warm over pancakes.

ARTICLE LINK

President Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court seat

 

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced his nomination of federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The move to select Barrett sets up what promises to be a bitter confirmation fight less than two months before Election Day -- an unexpected twist in an election season already fraught with the coronavirus pandemic and attempts by the president to undermine confidence in the result.

It also promises to upend the relative ideological balance that has marked the court for decades, establishing a clear conservative majority should Trump's nominee be seated.

"Judge Barrett was confirmed to the circuit court three years ago by a bipartisan vote. Her qualifications are unsurpassed. Unsurpassed and her record is beyond reproach. This should be a straightforward and prompt confirmation," Trump said during the Rose Garden announcement.

ARTICLE LINK 

Breonna Taylor's autopsy report reveals how Louisville police shots killed her

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After months of refusing to release Breonna Taylor's autopsy report, the Jefferson County Coroner's Office made the document publicly available Friday afternoon.

And now we know exactly how she died.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Wednesday just one of the six shots that struck Taylor was fatal, but he did not explain which it was or why it would have been mortal.

The autopsy report shows a bullet struck near Taylor's heart, tearing through her main pulmonary artery connecting her heart and lungs, and the lower lobe of her left lung.

FBI's ballistics lab indicated Louisville Metro Police Detective Myles Cosgrove fired that fatal shot. A state ballistics test was inconclusive.

Other bullets struck her forearm, thigh, abdomen, foot and right heel. 

ARTICLE LINK

'Fires Do Not Have Borders': Mexican Firefighters Arrive In California

 

The US Forest Service in California welcomed firefighters from Mexico's National Forestry Commission on Wednesday.

"Fires do not have borders, fires do not have different languages and cultures. In the end we all speak the same language when it comes to fighting fire," said Eduardo Cruz, the Mexican agency's national fire director.

The five crews from Mexico -- a total of 100 firefighters -- will help fight the Sequoia Complex Fire, which spans more than 144,000 acres.

"We're proud to have them here," said Tony Scardina, deputy regional forester of the Pacific Southwest region of the US Forest Service.

ARTICLE LINK

Oregon governor sends state police to Portland for protests

 

ALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency Friday as she announced that state troopers and sheriff’s deputies would be sent to Portland through the weekend to help police, in the state’s largest city, monitor a weekend rally by the right-wing group Proud Boys and counter protests by liberal groups

Portland has been roiled by often violent protests for more than three months following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Demonstrations that went into a lull during Oregon’s recent wildfires resumed this week, fueled by a Kentucky grand jury’s decision to not indict officers in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

 

Brown told reporters she is exercising her gubernatorial authority to place Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese and Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton in charge of Portland’s public safety on Saturday and Sunday. Brown said that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler supports the plan.

“This is our entire community coming together to protect our community,” Brown said. “We want the highest level of coordination and the strongest leadership possible.”

Under the state of emergency declaration, Oregon State Police and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office will have the authority to set curfews and close roads.

In addition, Hampton said officers sent to Portland could use tear gas and less-lethal ammunition to disperse crowds if the protest and counter protests becomes violent or if people’s lives are in danger.

ARICLE LINK 

Breonna Taylor's family demands release of transcripts from grand jury proceeding

 

Breonna Taylor's family is demanding the release of grand jury proceeding transcripts after a Kentucky grand jury indicted one officer for endangering Taylor's neighbors during the police shooting that resulted in her death.

Taylor's family is "heartbroken, devastated and outraged and confused," family attorney Ben Crump said at a news conference Friday.

"There seems to be two justice systems in America -- one for Black America and one for white America," he said.

Crump went on, "What did Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron present to the grand jury? Did he present any evidence on Breonna Taylor's behalf? Or did he make a unilateral decision to put his thumb on the scales of justice to help try to exonerate and justify the killing of Breonna Taylor by these police officers? And in doing so, make sure that Breonna Taylor's family never got their day in court."

Family attorney Lonita Baker demanded a special prosecutor be appointed to present to a grand jury on Taylor's behalf.

 ARTICLE LINK

President Trump intends to pick Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court seat: Sources

 

President Donald Trump intends to nominate Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, multiple sources familiar with the president's intentions told ABC News.

The move to select Barrett, expected Saturday, sets up what promises to be a bitter confirmation fight less than two months before Election Day -- an unexpected twist in an election season already fraught with the coronavirus pandemic and attempts by the president to undermine confidence in the result.

It also promises to upend the relative ideological balance that has marked the court for decades, establishing a clear conservative majority should Trump's nominee be seated.

A devout Catholic, mother of seven, and the favored choice of conservative groups, Barrett is a relative newcomer to the federal bench, having served just three years on the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Despite her short tenure as a federal judge, the longtime Notre Dame Law professor emerged as the front-runner on Trump's shortlist in the days following Ginsburg's death.

ARTICLE LINK: 

Trump or Biden? Peruvian shamans try to predict U.S. election winner

 

LIMA (Reuters) - With incense smoke, flowers and photos of President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden, Peruvian shamans performed an ancestral ritual on Wednesday for the U.S. elections, but there was little agreement about who would win the Nov. 3 ballot.

Chanting and blowing a traditional Andean shell instrument, the shamans, dressed in multicolored garb, invoked the “Pachamama”, or mother earth, for the U.S. vote to take place in peace, without attacks or any witchcraft between the rivals.

Shaman teacher Ana María Simeón, during the ritual held in a low-lit room of an old building in downtown Lima, said she was in favor of Biden.

“That is why we are cleansing him (...) we have seen that they are attacking him with witchcraft, with a black doll, with a voodoo doll they are shadowing to remove him,” said the shaman with necklaces wrapped around her neck.

During the ritual, the shamans, dressed in Andean ponchos and cloaks, rubbed medicinal plants, fruits and even a live snake on photos of Democratic candidate Biden and Republican Trump.

ARTICLE LINK: 

Police raid in Vietnam finds more than 300,000 used condoms being packed for resale

 

Police in Vietnam said they found about 320,000 recycled used condoms that were being repackaged as new, local media reported on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. 

Market inspectors in the Binh Duong province raided a factory near Ho Chi Minh City, where they discovered used condoms being repackaged to be sold at the market. An inspector said the factory's 34-year-old owner, a woman, confessed they purchased the condoms from someone else, the state-owned Tuoi Tre newspaper reported, according to the AP. 

ARICLE LINK 

2 officers shot in Louisville as protests erupt nationwide over Breonna Taylor case

 

Two police officers were shot in downtown Louisville on Wednesday night amid protests over the death of Breonna Taylor, interim police chief Robert Schroeder said at a press conference. It was unclear whether the shooting was related to the protests, but it came hours after Kentucky's attorney general announced that no officers were indicted for their role in the fatal police shooting of Taylor, a Black emergency medical worker killed in her own home. 

At approximately 8:30 p.m. local time, officers were called to respond to a large crowd and reports of shots fired, Schroeder said. While they were deploying, two police officers were shot. 

Both officers were in stable condition, Schroeder said. One was alert, and the other was undergoing surgery.  

Larynzo Johnson, 26, was arrested in connection with the shooting of both officers and was expected to face an arraignment hearing on Friday morning, likely via remote as courts are closed due to anti-coronavirus measures. The FBI has said it was assisting with the investigation into the shooting. 

ARTICLE LINK:

Police officers not charged for killing Breonna Taylor

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against Louisville police for the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong, with prosecutors saying Wednesday that two officers who fired their weapons at the Black woman were justified in using force to protect themselves after they were shot at.

The only charges brought by the grand jury were three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into Taylor’s neighbors’ homes during the raid on the night of March 13. The FBI is still investigating potential violations of federal law in the case.

ARTICLE LINK 

Kentucky city prepares for Breonna Taylor announcement

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Officials in Kentucky’s largest city were preparing Tuesday for more protests and possible unrest as the public nervously awaits the state attorney general’s announcement about whether he will charge officers in Breonna Taylor’s shooting death.

With timing of the announcement still uncertain, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer declared a state of emergency due to the potential for civil unrest, hours after police said they would restrict access in the city's downtown area. The mayor and police said they were trying to plan ahead of time to protect both demonstrators and the people who live and work there.

But some involved in protests seeking justice for Taylor questioned why the police were going to such “overkill” lengths when the city has been the site of peaceful protests for months.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron has declined to set a deadline for his decision. Earlier this month, he remarked that “an investigation, if done properly, cannot follow a certain timeline.”

 

ARTICLE LINK: 

New Hampshire white nationalist on trial over rape threats

 

CONCORD, N.H -- A white nationalist who rose to prominence during a deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, went on trial Tuesday on federal charges of threatening to rape the wife of a man who was part of a racist group he had been feuding with for months.

Christopher Cantwell, a New Hampshire resident, has remained in federal custody since he pleaded not guilty in January to using the Telegram messaging app to convey the threat last year.

He also threatened to expose the identify of the Missouri man if he didn't provide personal details of the leader of the Bowl Patrol, a white supremacist group of which the man was a member. The group's name was inspired by the haircut of Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to death for fatally shooting nine Black church members during a Bible study session in Charleston, South Carolina.

“This is an extortion case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Davis told the jury, adding that Cantwell's intention was to dox or publicize the victim's true identify, a process which “can wreck a person's reputation.”

ARTICLE LINK: 

DOJ announces largest drug, gun and cash seizure in darknet history

 

The Justice Department on Tuesday announced the largest seizure of online drugs in the U.S. darknet history.

According to the Justice Department, the operation resulted in the seizure of over $6.5 million in both cash and virtual currencies, and 274 kilograms of drugs such as fentanyl, oxycodone, meth and other drugs.

The takedown was part of Operation DisrupTor, an international effort with the Justice Department's law enforcement partners in Europe.

According to the Oxford dictionary, the darknet is a computer network with restricted access that is used chiefly for illegal peer-to-peer file sharing.

 

Deputy Attorney General Jeffery Rosen outlined a number of cases from jurisdictions around the U.S.

“There will be no safe haven, or drug dealing in cyberspace,” Rosen said.

ARTICLE LINK:

Official: Toilet display mocking mail-in voting is a crime

 

MASON, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan resident’s apparent joke showing disdain for voting by mail is no laughing matter for one election official.

The resident put a toilet on their lawn with a sign that says, “Place mail in ballots here.”

Barb Byrum, the Democratic clerk of Ingham County, filed a complaint with police over the display, saying it could mislead people who aren’t familiar with the voting system.

“It is a felony to take illegal possession of an absentee ballot,” Byrum said Friday.

“Elections in this country are to be taken seriously and there are many people who are voting by mail for the first time this election,” she said.

Police told the AP that the complaint is being investigated.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that voting by mail could lead to fraud and spoil the election, making distorted claims that elections officials fear could cause anxiety and confusion among voters.

It’s the “safest way to vote during the pandemic,” Byrum said.

ARTICLE LINK 

 

COVID, hurricanes, wildfires, politics: 2020 is an American nightmare that's wearing us out

 

It's too much.

First the pandemic, which divided us, economically devastated us, and has killed nearly 200,000 of us. Then the racial unrest, erupting at the deaths of more Black Americans at the hands of police: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude. 

Now the extreme weather. For only the second time in history, the National Hurricane Center has moved into the Greek alphabet for storm names. This season's wildfires are bigger, deadlier and more frequent than in years past. In the West, people can't breathe.

Dual disasters:How climate change is worsening wildfires and hurricanes

Add the headlines: Feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, lost to complications of cancer on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, 46 days before the presidential election. "Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman, a hero in the Black community, gone at 43 after quietly battling colon cancer. Another woman accuses the president of sexual assault. A whistleblower claims federal immigration detainees underwent full hysterectomies without their consent.

ARTICLE LINK 

Rare conjoined twins, born locked in embrace, successfully separated in Michigan

 

DETROIT – Sarabeth and Amelia Irwin were locked in an embrace when they were born at 11:06 a.m. June 11, 2019.

Conjoined from their chests to their bellies, the identical twins' arms wrapped around one another as they were carefully lifted from their mother's womb at Michigan Medicine's Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, said Dr. Marcie Treadwell, director of Michigan Medicine’s Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center.

About 14 months later, the twins returned to Ann Arbor, where they underwent an 11-hour surgery Aug. 5 at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, becoming the first known set of conjoined twins to be successfully separated in Michigan.

"'They're so rare," said Treadwell, explaining that just 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 250,000 pregnancies involve conjoined twins. Few survive delivery, and even fewer live long enough to be discharged from the hospital and go home, like Sarabeth and Amelia did.

Two teams of surgeons — one for each girl — and more than a dozen other medical staff spent months planning how they'd safely separate Sarabeth and Amelia, giving them a chance at independent lives. 

ARTICLE LINK:

Trump eyes Cuban American judge from Florida for Supreme Court

 

TALLAHASSEE – Federal appeals court Judge Barbara Lagoa of Florida emerged Saturday as a little-known front-runner for President Donald Trump's upcoming Supreme Court nomination.

As a successor to the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Lagoa, 52, would bring lengthy judicial experience in state and federal courts as well as two potential political benefits: She is a Cuban American from a battleground state Trump desperately needs to win in November.

Trump praised Lagoa and another front-runner, appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett, in remarks to reporters Saturday. He said he has "heard at length" about Lagoa. "She's Hispanic and highly respected," the president also said.

Lagoa was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit only last year after serving briefly on the Florida Supreme Court. But she served for a dozen years on the state's 3rd District Court of Appeal after being appointed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush. There she took part in more than 11,000 cases and wrote more than 470 opinions.

ARTICLE LINK: 

Democrats face quandary on vaccine support as election nears

 

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is escalating his promise for a coronavirus vaccine before Election Day.

But across America, Democrats, independents and even some Republicans do not trust his administration to produce a safe and effective vaccine on such an aggressive timeline. Such hesitancy threatens to exacerbate the public health risk for millions of Americans whenever a vaccine is released.

With the Nov. 3 election fast approaching, Democratic officials face a delicate political challenge.

Should they attack Trump’s vaccine claims too aggressively, Democrats risk further undermining public confidence in a possible lifesaving medicine while looking as though they are rooting against a potential cure. But if they don’t push back, it makes it easier for Trump to use the real or imagined prospect of a vaccine to boost his reelection campaign.

 ARTICLE LINK