If you didn't see it, here is Sunday night's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.  The Main Story was on the attack against voting rights.  And though most of the material will be well-known to most people here, it's presented will in a substantive, compact story -- and done is a serious and often very funny way.

I had one quibble -- and unfortunately it's something that the show has done a couple other times recently.  In criticizing President Biden for being lackluster in his efforts to change the filibuster, they do so with comments he made at what appears to be a town hall from many months ago, I believe early in his presidency.  His more recent comments have been significantly more pointed on the subject, and the need to address the filibuster.  If his current position isn't going as far as the show would like -- fair enough, though for all I know it is.  But to use such old footage when they have to be aware that his position has changed (since Last Week Tonight has excellent, up-to-date researchers) is, to me -- again -- irresponsible.

​That aside, if they're going to err, I'm glad it's in this direction to shine a light on the issue.  And it's a wonderful report.  I just wish they didn't "err."   

​I don’t have all that much to add to the coverage of Arizona’s Cyber Ninja “fraudit.”  Whatever they found, good or bad, was utterly meaningless, since this was an official, professional audit much the same way a can of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti-Os are the official food of Italy.
 
Still, considering that this fraudit was almost fully bought and paid for not only by those on the right wing, but specifically by the far-right OANN TV network, and the results didn’t just come back as “Trump won 100% of the votes,” but actually gave about 300 more votes to Joe Biden is a stunning result.  That was a surprise twist ending that made the finale to The Sixth Sense seem obvious. 
 
It is not especially surprising that Trump looked at the results of losing by 300 additional votes to be a vindication and victory.  After all, if you’re not going to accept the results of an actually-regulated and officially certified federal election and instead claim victory that you lost, why on earth should we think he would accept losing in a state’s fake audit for which not only can nothing be verified, but was so screwed up that the state decommissioned all its voting machine since they were breached?  Of course, he could claim victory – he’s a delusional, fascist con man whose only interest is to sew disorder and confusion.
 
It’s also not terribly that most of his far-right supporters, including most elected Republicans in Arizona, claim to believe the results vindicate them somehow.  They’ve already shown their willingness to not accept reality, so why start now. 
 
Because the Cyber Ninja guy was so totally inexperienced, there were issues he didn’t understand about voting, and so raised what he considered unanswered anomalies.  And that’s good enough for Trump and Trump supporters.  Never mind that just because you don’t understand something, that doesn’t mean there’s not actual answers to your bewilderment.  It’s sort of like a third-grader not understanding why eight times seven equals 56 and therefore questions the validity of math.  But the Arizona election officials were expected befuddlement by the Cyber Ninja (after all, his fraudit which was supposed to take three weeks took five months) and fact-check these supposed “anomalies” in real-time online as he presented them in public.
 
Of course, the easy answer to every claim of faux-uncertainty by Trump and his minions which they claim vindicated them was – “The results from the guy who Republicans themselves paid were that Joe Biden won by about 300 more votes over Trump than before.”
 
And when they bring up some other “anomaly,” the simple answer to that, once again, was –
 
“The results from the guy who Republicans themselves paid were that Joe Biden won by about 300 more votes over Trump than before.”
 
And again and again, each time -- “The results from the guy who Republicans themselves paid were that Joe Biden won by about 300 more votes over Trump than before.”
 
There’s no point in refuting their “uncertainties.”  Not only did the Arizona election officials do that already, but these are people who clearly and repeatedly have shown they don’t care about facts and reality.  And when you can make up uncertainties, then you’ll keep making them up and no facts or reality will ever satisfy you, ever.  Ever.
 
And so the only real answer to anything brought up is the very basic, very simple outcome –
 
“The results from the guy who Republicans themselves paid were that Joe Biden won by about 300 more votes over Trump than before.”
 
The road to how the Cyber Ninja guy got there doesn’t matter.  It’s all made up anything.  But the destination was clear, because we all know the destination.  Joe Biden won Arizona, and Trump lost.
 
Yes, other red states will try this, too.  And it’s horrible and divisive and brings about a lack of trust.  But it seems unlikely that other red states aren’t going to hire someone less competent than the Cyber Ninja – because there aren’t many people in this field less competent.  And if he couldn’t turn the results of the election in the state – because we know the results, they were recounted and certified – then whoever else these red states higher aren’t going to get different results.  Because we know the results in all these close states, they were recounted and certified.
 
And in the end, as much divisiveness as this sews, it will also keep reinforcing that Trump lost, over and over and over again.  And it will reinforce how empty, reprehensible, foolish and fascist the Republicans pushing these fraudits are.  Which in the end, should come back to haunt them.
 
Happy Halloween, a few weeks early.

From the archives, the contestants on today's Piano Puzzler are Beau Smith and Sylvia Pacheco from Attleboro, Massachusetts.  For th​e longest time, I had a hard time picking out the hidden song, though I thought I heard a couple possibilities.  But a long ways in, it finally became absolutely clear, and I knew I had it right.  As for the composer style, it danced between several possibilities...all of which were wrong.  But the composer is very popular -- and one of my favorites.  I just didn't think he wrote anything like this. 

​One quibble -- not about the contest, but the discussion afterwards.  The contestants didn't know the hidden song at all, though it's famous with several reasons why its pedigree should have helped -- yet for unimaginable reasons, neither host Fred Child or pianist Bruce Adolphe explained any of them.  They only gave the name of the song.  Not its larger context where it's very famously from, or even perhaps noting the incredibly famous group who made a cover-recording of it.  (Sorry, I don't want to say more to give it away for those playing along.  But when you hear it, you’ll know what I mean.)  At which point, if they had given any of these clues, let alone all of them, the contestants might have said, "Ooohhhhh!  Okay!!  NOW I know what it is."

​On this week’s episode of 3rd and Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guest is Ethan Hawke, a 2021 Writers Guild Award nominee.  His writing credits include Before Sunset, Before Sunset, and The Hottest State) He talks about co-creating, starring in and co-writing several episodes of the limited series, The Good Bird Lord about abolitionist John Brown.
 

On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest is Jane Kaczmarek, who is best known for playing the mother Lois on Malcolm In The Middle.  Her interview with host Peter Sagal is a lot of fun, notably because she is so enthusiastic, including about her early love for baton twirling and marching.
 
Again, this the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but if you want to jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it started around the 20:45 mark.
 

On this week’s Al Franken podcast, his guest is Heather McGhee. It’s not a new, return visit, but rather what Al says is “An encore of my best podcast ever.“  McGhee discusses her powerful book, The Sum of Us, which Al says is “about how white people have been told that anything that benefits people of color hurts them – i.e. a zero-sum game. It ain’t true!”