Political gerrymandering not an issue for the courts, SCOTUS rules 5-4.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (previously), the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, has proposed abolishing Columbus Day (which honors a raping, murdering, enslaving, genocidal pedophile) and replacing it with a day off for voting (which most other developed democracies give their citizens). Read the rest

This isn't a self-aware Trumpkin or media supplicant, or an internet anti-semite putting names in brackets. She's an American who voted for Donald Trump. She believes not only that millions of illegal immigrants voted, but that mainstream news media told her they did.

She's "glad you brought that up," but soon realizes it's not true. Then she blurs the numbers and places and sources until it doesn't matter whether it was ever true or not, so long as it feels like it might have been. Read the rest

Oh, just the 7th largest gathering of humans in history happened last week.

Five million of the most patient humans in the world -- Cubs fans -- descended on Chicago's lakefront last week to celebrate a victory that was against all odds. But win they did, ending the longest World Series drought in baseball history -- 108 years -- and the lifting of the Billy Goat Curse. Friday's event was the 7th largest get-together in human history, about a million shy of the 2015 papal visit to the Philippines. The rest of us can keep it simple and get a glimpse of the Cubs on The Tonight Show Monday. The event in Grant Park turned out to be a pretty tame party for Chicago, when you consider the things fans have done over the years to try to lift the curse.

But first, what is the Billy Goat Curse? In 1945, Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy Sianis and his goat were ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the Cubs first World Series since 1908. Apparently the goat's odor was offensive, Sianis was offended and enraged, and legend has it that he declared, "Them Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more." The Cubs lost the game that day and haven't even been a contender in another World Series, let alone champions, in the 108 years since. Until last week.

Actual Things People Did -- and Ate -- To Lift the Curse

As the century passed without a win, younger generations sought to "reverse the curse." Here's a few notable attempts from just the last ten years:

Hanging a butchered goat on the statue of beloved Cubs sports announcer, the late Harry Caray, famous for his hearty rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Passionate move, folks, but gross. Read the rest

The pitch-perfect sketch comes from Joss Whedon’s Save The Day voting campaign. Read the rest

Some 370 economists have written a blistering, evidence-based criticism of Trump that scorches the GOP nominee for his role in promoting “magical thinking and conspiracy theories,” and generally ruining reality for everyone else who's stuck living in it. Eight Nobel laureates in economics co-signed the letter calling him a “dangerous, destructive choice” for the country. Read the rest

Hillary Clinton's email woes won't die.

Federal investigators today obtained a fiercely-sought warrant to begin searching a large cache of emails sent to or from Huma Abedin, longtime confidante and senior aide to Hillary Clinton. Federal law enforcement officials told reporters the warrant was in on Sunday, as prosecutors with the Justice Department and agents from the F.B.I. rushed to review as much of the emails as possible before Election Day, which is now only one week away. Read the rest

FBI Director James Comey writes in a letter sent Friday to congress that the bureau is investigating more emails related to Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server.

In previous congressional testimony, I referred to the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had completed its investigation of former Secretary Clinton's personal email server. Due to recent developments, I am writing to supplement my previous testimony

In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.

Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony.

The letter's vague. Everyone is losing their shit over it, either thinking it's saying more than it is (there's no suggestion that it's her email), or finding its lack of detail suggestive of a partisan effort to spread fear and doubt days before an election.

If we don't hear more from Comey, we just have to conclude that he was trying to swing election.

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Ijeoma Oluo’s latest for The Establishment is one of the best, most empathetic pieces I have read on this election. Here's an excerpt:

I would really love it if I lived in a country where bragging about sexually assaulting women on tape would disqualify you from the presidency.

I would really love it if I lived in a country where being an unapologetic White Supremacist would disqualify you from the presidency.

I would love it if almost 50% of the country weren’t currently openly supporting placing hate in the highest office of our land.

I would love it if we could talk about Trump without someone mentioning Bill Clinton, as if it’s not fair that we’d elect one rapist and not another.

I would really love it if Hillary had believed women.

I would really love it if people didn’t call the women who support bad men “even worse” than the bad men who are choosing with their own free will to commit bad deeds.

I would really love it if I never heard someone say “boys will be boys” ever again.

You can read Oluo’s full piece over on The Establishment.

[Imagine via fivethirtyeight.com] 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

It's got a catchy beat, I could dance to it! (And Peggy!) Read the rest

An image identified as a scanned copy of U.S. first lady Michelle Obama’s passport was published online today by "DC Leaks," along with personal emails associated with a man identified as a “low-level White House staffer who worked with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.” Read the rest

In the 2012 election, as it became clear Barack Obama was polling better than Mittens Romney, it was claimed the polls were "skewed" in favor of Democratic candidates. Turned out that the polls underestimated Obama's margin of victory. But with Donald Trump trailing Hillary Clinton in similar fashion four years on, the "unskewers" are back. Read the rest

Donald Trump, sinking lately in the polls, is to "reboot" his campaign, writes the Wall Street Journal.

Part of the issue for the New York businessman is that he has run his campaign much like his family business, with his grown children as his top counselors and surrogates. That has meant he hasn’t developed a strong connective tissue to party stalwarts and activists that can sustain a candidate through difficult times. Reports of Republicans leaving the party, lining up behind Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or even backing Mrs. Clinton gained momentum last week, after the nominee criticized the parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.

This means he's going to be more of a good ol' Republican: less talk of China and returning jobs to the heartland, more talk of freeing banks from regulation and "strengthening intellectual property protections" and other exciting policies sure to delight the Trumpkin base.

Trump will take direct aim at the Clintons and Obama, pointing to Detroit as an example of their failed economic policies. He will argue that their “record-breaking pace of new regulations, tax increases, restrictions on private-energy production and one-sided trade deals” have hurt Detroit and other cities, according to excerpts of his remarks shared with Bloomberg Politics. He will call Obama’s Clinton-backed regulations a “lead-weight on the economy, an anchor dragging us down.” And he will say that Americans “need to hit the pause buttons on these regulations so our businesses can reinvest in the economy.”

After all, the GOP is still his to lead, whatever their paper scruples used to be. Read the rest

THIS is CNN. (Thanks, UPSO!)

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Vic Berger and Tim Heidecker’s epic RNC special is terrifying and hilarious. Read the rest

Anthony Clune put together a highlight reel of the most interesting and salient moments from last night's keynote address at the Republican National Convention, in which Donald Trump accepted the party's nomination for United States President. Read the rest