Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  BDH and Little Buddha were just checking out the weather forecast.  Looks like we've got scattered showers for most of the day.  I can work around that.   We decided that we're not going to do Halloween this year.  It just doesn't make sense in light of the pandemic.  However, we may still buy a bag of candy.  Of course, I will have to set limits again for how many pieces the guys can have at one time.  It doesn't take much for BDH to get himself all hopped up on sugar, and Little Buddha gets a bellyache if he eats too much.  Anyway, the guys made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Monday Clutter.

White House Chief of Staff  Mark Meadows admitted yesterday that the Trump administration has given up fighting the coronavirus, saying, "We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas."  225,000 Americans (and counting) have died because of the coronavirus, and this group of incompetent fools just shrugs and says, "Hey, this is too hard."  If Donald Trump spent as much time on this crisis as he has on Hunter Biden, the country would have been done with this problem by April.  If it's too hard for for the MAGA clowns, make them pack their bags today and let Joe Biden and Kamala Harris get to work.  The public needs leaders who actually care whether or not they die.

Fire him.  (pic via wftv.com)

The seven-day average for new daily coronavirus cases in the United States is now the highest it has ever been since the pandemic began.  Friends, please take the appropriate steps to keep you and your loved ones safe.  The risks are increasing, and we want all of you here with us in 2021.

Donald Trump's much-hyped appearance on 60 Minutes finally aired last night, and in case there was any doubt, Trump lied a lot.  Once he sensed that wasn't working, he attacked interviewer Leslie Stahl and ran away, because women who don't buy his dishonesty and don't back down from doing their jobs terrify him.  He's a coward who is incapable of fulfilling his duties, which is why he hides in the White House watching TV and rambling on Twitter every day. 

Donald Trump loves to claim the stock market will implode if Joe Biden wins next week, but even Goldman Sachs doesn't seem concerned about a Democratic sweep.

Senate Republicans are expected to confirm Judge Amy Barrett Coney's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court today.  The top reason she's being rushed to the seat is so that she's available to try to save Donald Trump when his campaign protests next week's election results.  After that, it's on to pursuing an extremist right-wing agenda that Republicans could never get approved through the legislative process.  If Joe Biden wins the White House, and Democrats win the Senate, expanding the court to undo Mitch McConnell's corruption of the judiciary has to be an immediate priority.

The Dunkin' mothership is for sale?  How come no one asked us if we were interested in buying it?  Apparently Dunkin' Brands is in talks with private equity firm Inspire Brands about a deal that could be worth $8.8 billion.  Well, that explains why we didn't get a call, but it still hurts.  Inspire owns Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s and Sonic, so Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins would seem to be logical additions to the company's portfolio.

We were fairly confident that the New England Patriots would beat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.  The Pats seemed to have put their coronavirus issues behind them, and the 49ers were beat up, so we were looking for a pretty straight-forward home win.  Never mind.  The 49ers embarrassed the Patriots 33-6 yesterday.  There's plenty of blame to go around, because everyone looked bad.  Quarterback Cam Newton was atrocious again, going 9-for-15 for just 98 yards, 0 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on the day.  You have to wonder if he's hurt, whether it's his shoulder or his foot.  Newton was replaced late in the 3rd quarter by Jarrett Stidham who also did nothing, going 6-for-10 for 64 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 1 interception of his own for good measure.  Meanwhile, the New England defense was outclassed, giving up 467 total yards.

There's nothing to point to as a reason to be optimistic about this season.  For the first time in 20 years, we encourage the Patriots to be sellers before the trade deadline expires on November 3.  Meanwhile, the 2-4 Patriots have to prepare to face the 5-2 Buffalo Bills next Sunday.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians claims Tom Brady "had nothing to do with" the team's decision to sign human car wreck Antonino Brown.  Mark yesterday down as the day Arians officially lost any legitimacy with that silliness, because Brady is clearly calling the shots.   We also want to thank TB12, because his obsession with Brown now makes it easy for us to root against the Buccaneers going forward.

We heard a sports talk radio host on Friday pick the Dallas Cowboys to beat the Washington Football Team, because he "can't believe the Cowboys are really that bad."  Turns out they are, because the Cowboys lost 25-3 to Washington yesterday.  Hope no one made their bets based on his prediction.

The Los Angeles Dodgers didn't let their meltdown on Saturday night get to them, as they beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 on Sunday to take a 3-2 lead in the World Series.  The Dodgers will try to win their first championship since 1988 on Tuesday night.  32 years is a long time between titles.  That's also the minimum length it will take us to get over our bitterness about Mookie Betts being traded to Los Angeles.

Ozzy Osbourne says Eddie Van Halen once invited him to join his group.  Ozzy couldn't remember the year this conversation took place, except that it was after Sammy Hagar's first departure in 1996.  Can't imagine that idea ever had any traction.  Hearing the late guitar icon put his spin on Ozzy's songs might have been interesting, but Ozzy singing "Poundcake?"  Yeah, don't see that working.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  It's looking pretty dreary outside, so it seems fitting to close things out with New Order's, "Blue Monday," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  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.