Hi everyone,

Welcome back, and a happy Friday to you all!  Where did this week go?  We're already halfway through October?  How did that happen?  What's on tap for the weekend?  We're hoping to do some yard work and watch the New England Patriots game.  Oh, and tomorrow is a big day.  BDH and Little Buddha have spent the past few weeks working on GOTV letters to voters in Georgia and Florida, and we're mailing them on Saturday.  We just have to put the stamps on all of the envelopes first. (The guys say today's forecast calls for heavy rain, so that should be a fun indoor activity.)   After we send the letters, yours truly is heading to a local early voting location to cast our ballot.  So, that's the schedule.  Let's check out the headlines.  The guys made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Clutter.

NBC's decision to give Donald Trump a public forum at the same time as Joe Biden's town hall on ABC last night was shameful.  However, even on separate channels, it's clear that the two men are living in different realities.  Joe Biden discussed policy concerns that average Americans have about issues like the coronavirus, the environment, and fighting against LGBTQ+ discrimination among others.  Meanwhile, Donald Trump thinks the pandemic is over, isn't sure about whether masks are helpful, and much like white supremacists, he couldn't disavow his supporters who think he's leading a crusade against Satanic pedophiles. 

Biden was respectful of everyone at his event, while Trump attacked Savannah Gutherie for calling him out on retweeting a Obama/bin Laden conspiracy theory.  We're going to go out on a limb here and say Trump didn't pick up a single new voter last night, and he probably won't like the next set of poll numbers that come out after having yet another meltdown.  However, hiscampaign has nothing to do with winning over people.  He's out to steal the election through the courts, so that's why it's so important he loses by a large enough margin to survive the challenge.

There's only one serious candidate in this race.  (pic via abc7chicago.com)

Donald Trump is losing to Joe Biden in the polls, and he's also losing the money war after announcing he took in $135 million less than Biden last month.  We deplore the role of money in politics, and the sums both men in raised September alone (Biden: $383 million / Trump: $247.8 million) are obscene, but the disparity tells an important story.  More people see Joe Biden as the future, and they want to put Donald Trump in the rear view mirror. 

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie decided that masks are important after all after spending a week in the hospital battling the coronavirus that infected him at the Rose Garden ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.  Typical Republican, something only becomes real once it directly impacts them.  We'd say Christie's call for everyone to wear masks, and for leaders not to be "cavalier about being infected or infecting others,” will get him kicked off Team Trump.  However, since we don't remember one single person from the administration talking about Christie while he was in the hospital, it seems like he was already given the boot.

The failed casino operator/WWE Hall of Famer promotes "herd immunity" for dealing with the coronavirus.  The public health expert who has spent his entire life working in this field says that theory is "total nonsense."  Hmm, which one to believe?  On the one hand, Anthony Fauci is a doctor, but on the other hand, Donald Trump once got dropped by "Stone Cold Steve Austin" at Wrestlemania 23.  That's clearly the same thing.

Senate Democrats warn Republicans that the motto of "doing it because we can" can apply to either party.  Now the question will be if they have the backbone to stand by those comments next year to start undoing the years of damage Mitch McConnell has inflicted on our government institutions.

With less than three weeks to go until November 3, Senator Susan Collins still trails challenger Sara Gideon by a margin of 47%- 40%, according to a new poll.  The people of Maine have had enough of Collins' claims of being an independent politician, when she's really as much of a Trump lackey as the rest of the MAGA crew.

Mortgage rates have fallen once again to a new low this week, as the average 30-year-fixed rate is now 2.81%  We salute anyone who can take advantage of that to either refinance or buy a place.

This is the most exciting tech announcement we've heard in years:  The Google app will now help you identify a song just by humming it.  Goodbye, earworms!  We've long-resisted getting the app, because we assume it sends Google every last bit of personal information in our phone, but who needs privacy if you never have to worry about another song title again?  That's a fair trade-off, right?

Here we go again:  The New England Patriots are still currently scheduled to face the Denver Broncos on Sunday at the moment.  However, the NFL's coronavirus problems continue to spread with the news that the Atlanta Falcons closed down their facility after at least one person tested positive.  Atlanta's game against the Minnesota Vikings is still a go for now, but you have to wonder if they're going to be rescheduled.

Let's talk about last night's Supernatural for a minute.  Remember, we're going into spoilers for the show's final run, so if you don't want to hear about what happened, jump down two paragraphs for the chat about Sammy Hagar.  Ready?  Last call.  Okay, so first off, we were reminded that we can't really think of these last seven episodes as a mini-series.  They were meant to be part of Season 15 in early 2020, so of course it's snowing during the episode.  The story itself was fairly straight-forward, as Castiel and Jack investigate a murder, and Dean and Sam try to figure out how to trick Amara into her own death. 

The bombshell (pun intended) was finding out that Jack isn't meant to survive the plan to kill Amara and God, which of course bums out Castiel to no end.  We also shouldn't forget that Castiel will be sent to the Empty the minute he's truly happy.  Does this mean, they find a way to save Jack, which is when the angel fulfills his destiny?  We'd like to think everyone will make it out of here alive, but we can see that happening, with Jack pledging to live a life which would make Castiel proud.  It also opens the door to a storyline for a reboot/special episode/etc. a few years down the road to have Jack and the Winchesters save Castiel.  There are only five episodes left to resolve all of this.  How do you think it plays out?

We're probably too cynical for our own good, but we just don't buy Sammy Hagar's claim that he and Eddie Van Halen buried their grudge before the guitar god died.  We've got nothing to back that up, just a sense that Hagar is a constant showman, and our gut tells us he'd rather sell a story about reconciliation, that Eddie obviously can't confirm, than spend the rest of his life talking about how the two men were never able to make peace. 

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's have Public Enemy (with George Clinton and Cypress Hill) wrap up the week with their new single, "Grid," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  BDH and Little Buddha say you're welcome to come back later if you want to help us put all of these stamps on our letters.  Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day, wear your masks, and we'll catch up with you again soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.