Linkee-poo reaches another Friday on Nov 6

Hang in their, folks. We're almost to the halfway mark. After which we need to right the ship of state and fix what these bumbling fools broke. Not to mention fighting for fair redistricting next year.

"Dozens of people are dead and hundreds have been evacuated after Tropical Depression Eta slammed into Central America, flooding homes and bringing devastating landslides… The storm has now reentered the Caribbean Sea and is forecast to pass over Cuba Saturday night into Sunday morning. It is expected to head toward Florida after that."

"According to Johns Hopkins University, 121,888 new confirmed cases were added to the count on Thursday, which now totals more than 9.6 million since the first case was diagnosed in the U.S. in January. On the same day, another 1,210 COVID-19 deaths were recorded. Almost 235,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since January." We're about to learn the meaning of "exponential growth."

"Officials in France said Friday that seven people have been arrested for selling false certificates of negative coronavirus tests to travelers at Paris’s largest airport, Charles de Gaulle."

"Luxury fashion boutiques, jewelry shops and most of Milan’s flagship department were shuttered Friday, as the center of Italy’s vibrant financial capital fell into a gray quiet on the first day of a partial lockdown in four regions aimed at stopping the virus’s resurgence."

"An armed suspect is on the run after shooting two officers on Friday morning in Wisconsin, police said… Police in Delafield, Wisconsin said the two officers, one from Delafield police and the other from Hartland police, were responding to a hit-and-run crash at the Holiday Inn Express in Delafield, 30 minutes west of Milwaukee, NBC affiliate WTMJ reported."

"The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 638,000 and the unemployment rate was at 6.9%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a payroll gain of 530,000 and an unemployment rate of 7.7% a touch lower than the September level of 7.9%… October’s gain was just slightly off the September pace of 672,000."

"The U.S. government seized an unprecedented $1 billion worth of bitcoin linked to criminal marketplace, the Silk Road… Thousands of bitcoins were taken by law enforcement this week, in what the Justice Department said was the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the history of the agency."

"Twitter permanently suspended an account belonging to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon after he suggested Thursday morning that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded. His comments were made in a video posted to his Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts." This is also a violation of his bail.

And exactly what Steve Bannon said.

"The increasingly heated language around the election has also included interventions from more mainstream figures, including the former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich, who appeared to call for election workers in Pennsylvania to be arrested."

"Protests in Portland once again turned violent Thursday night as protesters targeted a city commissioner's home and then set fire to the Portland City Hall, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office."

"Russian lawmakers have introduced a bill to parliament that would give Vladimir Putin lifetime immunity from prosecution if and when he decides to leave office… The draft bill would give a former president immunity from criminal prosecution for any offences committed during his lifetime. A supermajority of lawmakers would be required to revoke the protections. Currently, ex-presidents are protected for actions taken only while they were in office." Waves to my Russian friends. Also, I doubt that protection will be extended to you.

"Ethiopia’s prime minister on Friday night said airstrikes have been carried out against the forces of the country’s well-armed Tigray region, asserting that the strikes in multiple locations “completely destroyed rockets and other heavy weapons” and made it impossible for a retaliatory attack."

"President Donald Trump and his Republican allies made significant inroads with Latino voters in Tuesday’s election, alarming some Democrats who warned that immigration politics alone was not enough to hold their edge with the nation’s largest minority group."

How can that be, you may ask? "A lot of the anger about non-white people voting for a white nationalist is because some people don't understand one inarguable historical truth… THAT'S EXACTLY HOW YOU BECOME WHITE!… A thread:" That's a great explainer.

"No matter whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden winds up carrying the state of Georgia in the 2020 presidential race, the Peach State is already guaranteed to be the center of the political universe come early 2021… With virtually all of the votes counted in the state, it now seems entirely possible that Georgia could host not one but two(!) Senate runoffs in January, races that, if numbers in the rest of the country hold, will be positioned to decide which party controls the world's greatest deliberative body for the next two years."

"As the nation held its collective breath and awaited the result of the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump stepped to the podium in the White House on Thursday and made a full-frontal attempt to undermine the integrity of the vote, which was leaning in the direction of Democrat Joe Biden."

"If this is the last test that President Donald Trump poses to American institutions -- a final attempt to contravene norms and fabricate facts to further a political mission, using the powers of the presidency -- it’s going to be a doozy."

Why is that important? "Philadelphia police said they arrested two men Thursday for not having permits to carry the guns they were armed with near the state convention center, where vote counting is ongoing."

"Election officials in several closely contested states said they are worried about the safety of their workers amid threats and gatherings of angry protesters outside vote tabulation centers, drawn by President Donald Trump’s baseless claim of widespread fraud in the race for the White House."

"Joe Biden edged ahead of President Trump in Georgia overnight as vote counting continued there and in the other critical swing states of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina. According to elections data from Clayton County, which was part of the congressional district of the late civil rights icon John Lewis, Biden added 1602 votes and Mr. Trump 223, leaving Biden with a remarkably thin statewide lead of 917 votes."

"Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Thursday criticized Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign saying a victory over President Trump was 'imminent,' with Conway arguing 'we're still counting votes.'" She then went on to defend her former boss for doing exactly the same thing.

"A key Republican senator said Friday he saw no evidence to support President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that Democrats are trying to 'steal' the election and called the president’s words 'very disturbing.'" The Caucus of Concerned Senators are once again concerned.

"One other fact is worth noting. In the current Senate, Democrats control a majority of the seats from the most populous half of the states (26-24). Republicans owe their current majority to a crushing 29-21 lead in the least populous half of the states. In the new Senate, Democrats will control between 27 and 29 seats from the most populous half, depending on who prevails in the Georgia runoffs."

"With former Vice President Joe Biden inching closer to 270 Electoral College votes, President Trump and his campaign have ramped up their efforts to delegitimize the vote-counting process… Those efforts have come both in public comments, with Trump airing unfounded conspiracies and incorrect information about voting during remarks Thursday night, and in lawsuits that have thus far had almost no success."

"A close margin and a large number of outstanding votes are what’s making the Pennsylvania contest between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden too early to call." Why the AP is not calling PA yet.

Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "Trump warns Dems aiming to take the Senate, doubles down on final victory."

"Fox News is instructing its anchors not to call Joe Biden the 'President-elect' when the network calls the race, according to two memos obtained by CNN… The memos say Fox should "stay away" from using the description, and instead say something such as Biden has 'enough electoral votes to win the presidency.'"

"Support for President Trump increased in 2020 in many of the U.S. counties that lost lives at the highest rate to COVID-19, according to an NPR analysis… Of the 100 counties with the highest COVID-19 death rates per capita, 68 had a higher proportion of votes cast for Trump this cycle than they did in 2016. This includes both Republican-leaning counties and counties that supported Joe Biden." Times of stress are strong psychological calls for authoritarianism.