Millionaire Republican Donald Trump isn't just on the ropes: he's practically upside-down and tangled up in them, trailing his opponent by huge margins and seemingly finished in the race to become the next president of the United States of America. But Hillary Clinton is an infamously weak closer, leading to amusements like this New Yorker cartoon...

... which reminds us that the older Millennials are nearing 40 and have New Yorker subscriptions.

All the "what to expect from the third debate" articles--which I had intended to aggregate here--are surprisingly bland, given the sheer insanity of the campaign and its increasingly deranged closing weeks. I guess this is because everyone acknowledges that there is such a huge difference in expectations between the two candidates that it's not really a "debate" at all. If Trump manages to get through it without sniffing or frotting his chair, he's done OK. If Hillary umms and ahhs too much, she's missed an opportunity to crush the bug. No-one--not pundits, not journalists, not viewers--expects anything of substance to be said. It is all about the performance, about the hope that one of them will lose it and do something entertaining.

Trump's invited president Barack Obama's half-brother as his guest, a choice so inexplicable it suggests a return to Birtherism amid rumors Trump's been ditched by advisor Roger Ailes and simply has no idea what to do. Hillary's invited the least awful billionaire she can think of, just to remind Trump that he isn't one.

All that said, it's going to be the most-watched third debate ever. Read the rest

The New York Times' presidential forecast has millionaire Republican Donald Trump at his lowest ebb of the campaign, with only an 8 percent chance of winning the Nov. 8 general election.

A victory by Mr. Trump remains possible: Mrs. Clinton’s chance of losing is about the same as the probability that an N.F.L. kicker misses a 31-yard field goal.

The analysis corresponds closely with that of FiveThirtyEight, though it gives Trump a little more space with a 12 percent chance (as of Wednesday Oct. 19)

The situation is so dire, with only three weeks to go, that polls are finding the candidates within the margin of in Texas, a Republican stronghold where a Clinton victory would represent a spectacular obliteration of the party's ticket.

...it seems utterly unlikely that Clinton could actually win Texas. Though the state's large Latino population, combined with where Trump has led the GOP with his rhetoric about Mexicans and policy on immigration, could soon make winning Texas a real possibility for Democrats.

There are other reliable Republican states where the Clinton campaign is investing more seriously, which is a sign of where the race stands. Clinton is positioned to win the White House if she gets just the battleground states that are already leaning to the Democrats. Her campaign says it's putting the "lion's share" of resources in traditional battleground states like Ohio and North Carolina, which remain toss-ups. But they also have the luxury of being able to invest in some states that traditionally go to Republicans.

Vogue today endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the first ever female president of the United States of America, and ran this gorgeous portrait of our future POTUS by photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vogue, in December 1993. Read the rest

The Clinton campaign has released a tool that compares notable events in the Democratic and Republican candidates for President lives, year over year. Someone at the Clinton campaign has a wonderful sense of irony, and humor, as the entries are frequently regrettably hilarious.

It also stands as sad testimony to the state of our union, when a woman whose life has clearly been dedicated to public service has to suffer the meaningless, hate filled rage of a misogynist billionaire blowhard. The Trump campaign continues to tarnish our national dignity.

Hillary could simply respond to Trump in the next debate by reading these.

The Making of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Read the rest

An ultra-right Russian politician aligned with Vladimir Putin says American voters should elect Donald Trump for president, or prepare for nuclear war. Vladimir Zhirinovsky likes to compare himself to Trump, and is a similarly unrestrained blowhard.

"Americans voting for a president on Nov. 8 must realize that they are voting for peace on Planet Earth if they vote for Trump,” he said. “But if they vote for Hillary it's war. It will be a short movie. There will be Hiroshimas and Nagasakis everywhere." Read the rest

From Vic Berger at SuperDeluxe, a psychedelically weird edit of the already horrifyingly bizarre second presidential debate in St. Louis last Sunday, with Donald Trump stalking Hillary Clinton around the stage. Read the rest

“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” said a statement today from the Obama administration about a series of cyberattacks on U.S. political figures and organizations.

Them's fightin' words. Read the rest

Topps has released a 2016 Presidential campaign themed "Garbage Pail Kids" edition. They're updating the series pretty quickly! There's already a Donald Trump vs. Alicia Machado card. Read the rest

From our prolific internet songwriter friend Jonathan "Song a Day Man" Mann, a wonderfully catchy little ditty for this shitshow of an election season. The Hillary Shimmy Song.

This dude is coming at me I just smile and let him be The dude brought your own rope He put the bullet in the gun so I’m just gonna shimmy

Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy HRC Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Hillary

He just keeps on shouting, “Wrong!” So I’ll get my Jim Halpert on He is a flightless bird I think I’ll never say another word I’ll just be singing this song

Jonathan Mann writes a song every single day, and he has been doing that for the last 7+ years.

Through sick days, tired days, days with no inspiration, the death of my grandma, the breakup of a 5 year long relationship, the marriage to my wife and the birth of our son - I've never missed a day. This is my life's work. You can see my most current song, as well as songs from year's past over at songaday.org. If you want to support me in my Song A Day quest, there are several ways!. I have many albums for sale on Bandcamp.

Wiggle wiggle.

[via IMGUR] Read the rest

Politico reports that Kathleen Hartington Kennedy overheard George H.W. Bush saying he's voting for Hillary Clinton instead of party candidate Donald Trump.

On Monday, Townsend posted a picture on her Facebook page shaking hands next to the former president and this caption: "The President told me he’s voting for Hillary!!”

In a telephone interview, Townsend said she met with the former president in Maine earlier today, where she said he made his preference known that he was voting for a Democrat. “That’s what he said,” she told POLITICO.

The republican and 41th President evidently has no liking for the millionaire TV star and real estate tycoon, but declined to confirm Kennedy's claim to Politico's Darren Samuelsohn.

The report comes--tellingly, perhaps!--a day after Republican National Committee chairman Rince Priebus publicly threatened Republican candidates who refuse to vote for Trump. Read the rest

Today was health record day in the 2016 US presidential campaign news cycle. After an embarrassing round of press involving Hillary Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis, the Democratic nominee's team released some medical reports. Dr. Lisa Bardack says "she is in excellent mental condition," and is “healthy and fit to serve as president.” Read the rest

Responding to the bombshell Kurt Eichenwald cover story in Newsweek on Donald Trump's tangled web of foreign business matters and the national security risks they'd pose if Trump were elected, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has questions. Twenty of them. Read the rest

A day after describing half of Donald Trump's supporters as "deplorables," Hillary Clinton is apologizing, reports the BBC.

US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has apologised for calling half of Donald Trump's supporters "deplorable" people. But the Democrat launched a furious attack on her Republican opponent and promised to keep fighting "bigotry and racist rhetoric". Mr Trump had responded by saying the comment was "insulting" to "millions of amazing, hard working people". Opinion polls suggest Mr Trump is gaining on Mrs Clinton.

It's a plain fact that many of Trump's supporters are racist, sexist and homophobic, that his campaign has energized the support of white nationalist groups in particular. One in five of his followers think the emancipation of the slaves was a mistake.

Here's what she said:

To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call 'the basket of deplorables.' Right?" the Democratic presidential nominee told donors at the event. "Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric."

American media, particularly major newspapers and television news, cultivate the false balance that's required to make insulting these people a political misstep, and the false equivalence to cast it all as a horse race between two equally undesirable nags.

But equivocating like this after a moment of plain speaking is an exemplary Hillary mistake:

How very sad. Read the rest

Anonymous U.S. intelligence sources cited by NBC News say the White House has ordered a special intelligence task force to look into Russia's recent hacks of various Democratic political organizations. Read the rest

The U.S. State Department said today that about 30 or so emails out of the nearly 15,000 the FBI obtained from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may have involved Benghazi.

Last week, officials announced that the FBI had recovered 14,900 emails that Clinton did not turn over with the server she used while secretary of State. Read the rest

Republican millionaire Donald Trump is pretty much just going to wing it in his first debate with rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, reports the New York Times. Just four weeks away, the event will pit her meticulous preparation against his extemporaneous ramblings.

The Clinton camp believes that Mr. Trump is most insecure about his intelligence, his net worth and his image as a successful businessman

Just imagine the full list.

“Trump has severe attention problems and simply cannot take in complex information — he will be unable to practice for these debates,” said Mr. Schwartz, who was the subject of a New Yorker profile last month that portrayed Mr. Trump as a charlatan. “Trump will bring nothing but his bluster to the debates. He’ll use sixth-grade language, he will repeat himself many times, he won’t complete sentences, and he won’t say anything of substance.”

Clinton must remember the wise words of Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, compiling a dictionary of common situations and things for which there are no words, and wedding them to place names.

Aboyne (v.) To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly that none of his clever strategies are of any use to him.