NYT: Who is leading the polls (as of Feb. 13)?
Biden, Bloomberg, Buttgieg, Klobuchar (47%)
Sanders, Warren (38%)

538: Who’s ahead in the national polls (as of Feb. 22)?
Biden, Bloomberg, Buttgieg, Klobuchar (48.8%)
Sanders, Warren (37.8%)

Trump is having some sort of meltdown. He is actively covering up Russian interference in the next election and dismantling US intelligence services in the process. McConnell is complicit.

This is a national emergency.

Alas, Trump is going to get reelected. Unless his "base" and whatever is left of the Republican party wake up and realize they are being played by a vulgar, third-rate grifter who has become alarmingly unstable. Y'all need to primary him out of office. It doesn't appear that Democrats are up to the task.

After sitting through four hours of the City Council meeting tonight (the selection of District 1 council rep), I decided to watch the remainder of it at home on CTV stream. The image is almost unviewable and the audio unintelligible. This is how CTV explains it:

We apologize for any technical difficulties we may experience from time to time with our Live Stream and Facebook Live when online viewer demand is high. We appreciate your patience.

Technology surely exists for quality streaming. Why isn't the city using it?

Is there some place to look up Knoxville and Knox County traffic statistics? Like where most DUI tickets are written, speeding, cell phone hands-free, amount of traffic, accidents, intersections with most accidents, etc? I assume that, and more, are kept somewhere.

The Knox County primary for Public Defender has two Republicans, an independent, and no Democrats so the election will likely be decided in the primary. It appears this special election is a heated contest with questions about who is most qualified. Compass has a profile of the candidates here. Here's KnoxTNToday's profile.

Public notice from City Council:

This is a public notice that multiple Members of the Knoxville City Council may attend a Parkridge community meeting tomorrow, February 18, 2020 at 6:30pm at the John T. O’Connor Senior Center, 611 Winona St Knoxville, TN 37917. The meeting will be for the purposes of discussing the proposed closure of a portion of Myrtle Street between the northern right-of-way line of East Fifth Avenue and terminus and dead-end. Members of the public and media are welcome to attend.

NOTE: The city is proposing this as an alternative to the controversial Caswell Park plan which was abandoned. Previous discussion here...

How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election

Tony Willnow, a 34-year-old maintenance worker who had an American flag wrapped around his head, observed that Trump had won because he said things no other politician would say. When I asked him if it mattered whether those things were true, he thought for a moment before answering. “He tells you what you want to hear,” Willnow said. “And I don’t know if it’s true or not—but it sounds good, so **** it.”

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President

(link...)

It was the 44th consecutive January, and the 421st consecutive month, with temperatures above the 20th century average, according to NOAA.

Earth just had its hottest January in recorded history

Message to canvassers...

Compass has a comprehensive overview of local candidates. (Not paywalled.)

The Republican National Committee is mailing a survey/fundraising package disguised as a "2020 Congressional District Census" to Tennessee residents. They also demand a $15 fee for "processing" the "census document." The Maryville Daily Times reports...

Literally.

If you feel like you have to crossover vote, who do you recommend?

Keeping my fingers crossed for Amy in New Hampshire tonight. I long ago narrowed my top two candidates to Klobuchar and Michael Bennet and have been sending both small but regular donations. I’ve considered other candidates along the way, but keep coming back to these two. I think Bennet is out of the running, but Amy is rising.

Early voting starts tomorrow. I was going to check the schedule and the sample ballot, but the election office website is down. It appears that all of knoxcounty.org is down.

Update: Appears to be working now.

Washington Post: The budget would cut Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and also wring savings from Medicare despite Trump’s repeated promises to safeguard Medicare and Social Security.

I'm out of snarky analysis so you'll have to make up your own.

The developers want to host large wedding and other events with overnight accommodations in a rural storybook setting

Ancient Lore Village now proposed as a wedding & event venue

Cities that say they are renegotiating their sewage agreements with the agency include Cleveland; Seattle; Kansas City, Mo.; South Bend, Ind.; and Chattanooga, Tenn. Other cities, including Pittsburgh and St. Louis, have already concluded talks for new terms.

E.P.A. Is Letting Cities Dump More Raw Sewage Into Rivers for Years to Come

Sad news to report. Michael Silence has passed away at the age of 62. During his 30 years at the News Sentinel he was an early pioneer of blogging and engagement with readers. He also supported and helped promote bloggers and "citizen journalism" around the state, including this site. Moreover, he was a truly decent man of the highest ethical standards. Obituary...