Waking up to the hot news this morning.

Just woke up and wow, huge news https://t.co/Ez6GgZkeaJ

— Kat Rosenfield (@katrosenfield) October 2, 2020

Get ready for Jim Carrey as Joe Biden.

Ladies and gentlemen…
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. #SNLPremiere pic.twitter.com/khYgAvXKpw

— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) October 1, 2020

We've kept quiet and waited patiently, and now what we expected to hear is announced.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

Madison police announced Friday morning that they were not able to corroborate allegations made by a Madison woman that she was burned by four white men in Downtown Madison in June in what was initially reported as a hate crime.

Althea Bernstein, 18, of Monona, told police she had a lighter fluid sprayed on her and was set on fire on June 24 by four white men after one of them yelled a racial epithet.

But in a statement Friday morning, Madison police said it is "closing the investigation into this case. After an exhaustive probe, detectives were unable to corroborate or locate evidence consistent with what was reported."

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division came to the same conclusion, according to the statement....

In mid-August, I asked:

"Borat 2 trailer reveals Sacha Baron Cohen was the Trump impersonator who interrupted Mike Pence's CPAC speech."

"Vice President Mike Pence didn't know it at the time, but when he delivered his speech at CPAC earlier this year, he was actually taking part in a secret sequel to Borat," Yahoo News reports.

Here's the trailer for the film, which seems to be titled "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan":

"Harvest Moon Morning."

That's the title of today's audio version of the blog — which you can play here — or subscribe to in various places, including iTunes, where it is up right now. The audio version includes all the text of the blog thus far this morning, plus quite a bit of added commentary, and is only about 25 minutes long. I will update the same episode when there are additional posts.

A new birdsong at dawn on Lake Mendota today — can you tell me what it is?

It's soft but clear at the beginning of this video, which scans the same expanse seen in the "Rainbow Panorama" 2 days ago. And do notice the moon at the beginning of the video. I'll give you a still for reference:



It did not look yellow to the naked eye. It looked white. It is a full moon. It's the Harvest Moon!

Overheard at Meadhouse: "You don't mind if I have your voice in this video?"/"I don't know — what was I saying?"/"Oh, nothing"/[Squawks]/"It was an unusual Meadsong."

"If Trump and Pence both get very sick, it’s not clear who would be president/President Pelosi? Invoking the Succession Act would lead to chaos."

That's the headline on a May 20, 2020 WaPo article by lawprof Sanford V. Levinson, which is getting tweeted about this morning as there's a lot of wild talk about Nancy Pelosi becoming the first woman President laterally — that is, breaking not the glass ceiling by opening the glass window that never had a working lock anyway.

It's good to have some sober, thoughtful, professional analysis standing by:

Should only the president become ill, then the vice president can take over, following the protocol laid out in the 25th Amendment. But if the vice president becomes incapacitated as well, then we could face a constitutional crisis. It would be triggered by the inadequacies of the Presidential Succession Act passed in 1947 (when there was no vice president, because Harry Truman had succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt)....

This is hate speech against the disabled — the idea that if you have something physically wrong with you, you can't do your job.

He should resign immediately.

— Jennifer 'Vote Early' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) October 2, 2020

"Over the course of three years, the number of Americans who say that they feel justified in using violence to achieve their political goals has gone up from 8 percent to over 33 percent."

Holy s**t.

Over the course of three years, the number of Americans who say that they feel justified in using violence to achieve their political goals has gone up from 8 percent to over 33 percent. pic.twitter.com/JBg3Y83ASK

— Yascha Mounk (@Yascha_Mounk) October 1, 2020

The shocking/not shocking headline this morning is: "Trump Tests Positive for the Coronavirus."

Subheadline — in the NYT — imposes the narrative: "The president’s result came after he spent months playing down the severity of the outbreak that has killed more than 207,000 in the United States and hours after insisting that 'the end of the pandemic is in sight.'"

When did this begin? Was he sick at the debate? I thought he looked weary, and his performance was off. He seemed under-powered at his Minnesota rally the next day. Did he expose Joe Biden? Both Trump and Joe have extra vulnerability.

Can we stop talking about what Trump failed to say exactly right about white supremacy as the debate? That was already over-played.

The VP debate next week looms large. We've been talking about how Kamala Harris is perhaps secretly the real presidential candidate, and now we can say the same thing about Mike Pence.

At the Tenacious Tree Café...

... you can write about anything you want.

"She has always been a night owl, but has recently become nocturnal, typically going to bed around 8 a.m. She attributes the change in her sleep pattern to the news, which she says she watches constantly."

In case you were wondering if it is possible for you to live your life like Stevie Nicks. Yes, it is. Put on the TV news and watch the news all night. Go to bed after a few of the morning shows. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Oh! The glamour!

I'm getting my info from "The moonlight confessions of Stevie Nicks" (Yahoo reprint from L.A. Times).

She does not have a computer. She does have an iPhone, but it doesn’t have cellular service and she uses it only as a camera. Despite her distaste for social media, Nicks has gone viral a few times in recent months. Earlier this week, the internet discovered a TikTok video in which "doggface208" skateboards while singing along to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," swigging from a container of cran-raspberry juice and generally living his best life.

Oh, yeah, I saw that. It underscores the notion that Stevieness is accessible to all:

I don’t use this verbiage often but this is a whole vibe. simple as that pic.twitter.com/NfdLsgLkxu

— DrewFrog (@DrewFrogger) September 25, 2020

If you think you need to change the rules, you must be revealing that you believe you lost.

That's the meaning of this new Trumptweet:

Why would I allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third Debates when I easily won last time?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2020

Sumac, dawn light.

"Mr. Drudge 'effectively invented clickbait,' wrote the Columbia Journalism Review."

"Frank Rich, writing in The Times in 1999, said he was a 'grandstander whom many, I included, once feared as the Devil of journalism incarnate.'... [Journalist Matthew Lysiak, author of 'The Drudge Revolution'] said in an interview that rival websites are 'licking their chops — they see blood in the water.' But he noted that there may be another factor in Drudge Report’s recent loss of traffic: the rise of social media. 'Matt Drudge was always first at everything, but not anymore, not even close — Twitter’s first,' Mr. Lysiak said. 'For years now, people have been wondering who the next Drudge is, but it isn’t a person. It’s a social media revolution, and he sees that writing on the wall.' But Mr. Drudge has a deep desire, and a talent, for staying relevant, Mr. Lysiak said. Betting big on Mr. Trump did the trick in 2016. Betting against him could work this time around. Mr. Lysiak suggested that readers who expected Mr. Drudge’s site to stay true to one line of political thought were misguided. 'In reality, while Matt Drudge has his own personal political opinions, his website has absolutely no loyalty to any political party or ideology,' he said. 'Now he’s thinking long-term, really putting his political capital on a Biden candidacy. And if that happens, he will once again weaponize his site on behalf of more conservative causes.'"

From "Drudge Report, a Trump Ally in 2016, Stops Boosting Him for 2020/A rift between the president and the online news pioneer Matt Drudge is playing out in pithy headlines and needling tweets as the campaign heats up" (NYT).

But wait... didn't you hear that Matt Drudge sold The Drudge Report (and that's why it changed)? Here's "Matt Drudge rumored to be seeking investors for Drudge Report" (NY Post)(also quoting Lysiak):

"Biden continually interrupts Ryan in a way I find incredibly annoying."

I'm rereading my live-blogging of the October 11, 2012 debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. It's making me view Trump's debate behavior in a different way. I hated the way Biden treated the very polite, earnest Midwesterner Ryan. Excerpts (with timestamps omitted):

Biden is being rude, laughing and mouthing words.... Biden mutters an interruption. When Biden is given a turn, he calls what Ryan said "malarky."... Ryan is speaking earnestly... and Biden is chuckling toothily, his body shaking like Santa Claus.... When Ryan speaks, Biden is laughing clownishly again. It looks just awful... Biden is acting as though he cannot physically tolerate Ryan having a turn to speak!... Biden continually interrupts Ryan in a way I find incredibly annoying.... While Ryan is talking... Biden sighs long and loud... Biden interrupts. Ryan says: "Mr. Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think everyone will be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other." I love the politeness of "if we don't keep" — we — when Biden has been an interruption machine and Ryan has barely interrupted and only occasionally has talked over to keep from losing his turn. The moderator, Martha Raddatz has done nothing at all to control Biden.... The stress level is rising. Biden is so angry. Why is he yelling? Ryan needs nerves of steel not to lose his cool. I'm impressed that Ryan, when he gets his turn, is able to speak in an even, natural voice. It's hard to concentrate on the policy itself, because the emotional static is so strong... That debate was so annoying! Some of the CNN commentators are talking about how Biden did what he came to do, to fire up the Democrats. "This was not for the independents," says Van Jones. Okay, well, but independents were watching, and Biden was horribly rude. He created this disturbing atmosphere of anxiety.

Debating Trump, Biden got a big serving of what he dished out 8 years ago. Ryan did a fantastic job of maintaining his cool, staying substantive, and going high when Biden went low. And then he lost the election. I'm sure Biden would have been willing to do what he did in 2012 and be completely rude and irritating as hell once again, but he's 8 years older, and, more importantly, Donald Trump is not Paul Ryan. Trump is Trump, and Trump saw the ultra-polished and polite Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan go down to defeat.