USA today made its first presidential endorsement in its 34 year history. It declares Donald Trump unfit to be President:

We haven't made a voting recommendation in 34 years. For this election, we made an exception

..This year, the choice isn’t between two capable major party nominees who happen to have significant ideological differences. This year, one of the candidates — Republican nominee Donald Trump — is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency.

While this and other mainstream media opposition may not matter to his under-informed fans, that's besides the point if they don't show up to vote. Trump doesn't have a cohesive get out the vote effort. Hillary has been working on hers for 8 years. He doesn't even seem to have much of a campaign. [More...]

It's never my birthday until I see a chocolate cupcake with icing and a cherry on top!

I'm grateful to be younger than the candidates running for President.

Birthday wishes (and donations for a birthday drink, paypal here) are welcome.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Rudy Giuliani, the most contemptible Republican ever (ok, maybe along with Dick Cheney), wants Trump to bring up Monica Lewinsky in the next debate. Seriously? Rudy, whose alleged extra-marital dalliance with his ex communications director Cristyne Lategano-Nicholas was cited by his wife Donna Hanover as a principal reason for their divorce?

Devastating to Trump. On Twitter last night, Alicia Machado thanked Hillary for the shout-out during the debate. Here's Alicia telling her story in May, 2016:

Another interview the same month is here. [More....]

It's gonna be huuuuge.

Great timing for the Tecate beer wall ad mocking Donald Trump's border wall.

Update: The audience has had enough. They are laughing at Trump and cheering Hillary. She even got his sexism in. What a dismal performance by Trump, even worse than I expected. He even blew his attempt to criticize her stamina. No closing statements. The media will have a field day with how unpresidential Trump was. Hillary didn't have a single mis-step.

Updater: PINOCCHIO! Trump lies and says he never supported the war in Iraq. Here's Trump in 2002.

Update: The quiet audience laughed out loud when he said he has a better temperment than Hillary. He says he has a winning temperment.

Go Hillary! She blows off Trump's insult to her temperment and changes the topic back to what the question was. And then gives an example of a Trump statement on Iran that shows he's not fit to be Commander in Chief. Hillary does a good imitation of Trump's cavalier attitude. " A man who gets provoked by a Tweet" should not have his hand anywhere near the nuclear codes. [More...]

As promised, the New York Times editorial board today released its opinion on why Donald Trump doesn't deserve to be President.

The ending is the best part. It sums up the qualities Trump exudes:

....bluster, savage mockery of those who challenge him, degrading comments about women, mendacity, crude generalizations about nations and religions. Our presidents are role models for generations of our children. Is this the example we want for them?

Back to the beginning:

I'm really tired of seeing the media proclaim Trump and Clinton have the lowest favorability ratings in modern history. So what?

If there's a story here, it's that Trump's favorability rating is 9 points lower than Hillary's, according to the latest Gallup poll. And his unfavorability rating is 8 points higher than Hillary's.

Sept 19-25, 2016 and Sept 17 to 24, 2016:

• Trump Favorable 32
• Trump Unfavorable 63
• Hillary Favorable 41
• Hillary Unfavorable 55

Also, Trump favorability is down a point while Hillary's is up a point.

[More...]

Do candidates, like athletes, use music to psych themselves up for the big event? I bet they do.

So what would Hillary be listening to? (I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is tone deaf and listens to nothing but his own voice, so I'm not including him.)

Since she's no millenial, I think the music on her smart phone is going to reflect her generation.

I'm picking three songs for her: One to pump her up, one to watch on her phone and inspire her right before she's introduced, and one to listen to during the break when she thinks she can't stand another moment of being on stage with Donald Trump.

I'd like to hear your choices in comments. My picks below.

At the iHeart Music Festival in Las Vegas Friday -- U2 blows up Donald Trump on the big screen. Bono says, "Las Vegas, Are you ready to gamble?" "Are you ready to gamble your house?" "Are you ready to gamble the American dream?" On the big screen behind him, Donald Trump, with a sneer, proclaims "The American Dream is Dead." Bono screams back "The American Dream is Alive!"

The screen then shows Donald Trump in a baseball cap asking, "What do you have to lose?"

Bono repeats, "What do you have to lose?" He answers, "Everything!"

In the longer clip, available here, U2 then launches into "Desire" with the first words, "You can't deny her."

Loved it.

Pablo Escobar's son lists 28 inaccuracies in Narcos Season 2. Not to be outdone, with Narcos planning of butchering the story of the Cali Cartel next, William Abadia-Rodriguez, son of Cali leader Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela, has an op-ed in La Semana blasting narcodramas in general, and especially the one about his family in particular, En La Boca Del Lobo, calling the informant-protagonist a nobody telling fantasy tales.

The Harvard educated lawyer, now living in Miami (thanks to his plea deal with the U.S, which saw his 21 year sentence reduced to 5 years, after he agreed to testify against his father and uncle, with their blessings, and allowed him, his wife and children and mother-in-law to stay in the U.S) still insists he was only involved in the money laundering and bribery of politician business, not drugs. [More...]

Charlotte police have released the dash cam video of the shooting of Keith Scott. (No link due to auto-play video -- I can't even find an article without one to know what's in the video, so if you are following the story, use google.)

If there's one thing I won't be buying, it's the new Spectacle sunglasses by Snapchat. I wouldn't be surprised to learn Homeland Security has invested in the product. What a privacy invasion. Beware of people wearing the brightly colored sunglasses around you.

They're connected sunglasses that record video snippets that get saved to your Snapchat Memories....Tap the button on the top left-hand corner of the sunglasses to begin recording a snap. It will automatically stop recording after 10 seconds — but if you want additional recording time, you can tap again to add another 10-second increment.

I think this has the potential to cause violent reactions from anyone who realizes they are being recorded by a stranger.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.