Million Mask March Anarchists 'Glassed' Six Police Horses, Stabbed Them in the Eye With Sticks (VIDEO)

At London's Daily Mail, "Scotland Yard chief slams 'despicable' Million Man Mask protesters who glassed six police horses and rammed them in the eye with sticks," and "Chaos on the streets of London: Million Mask March anarchist - in a £500 jacket - trashes police car as fireworks are aimed at horses in clashes outside Buckingham Palace and Hunger Games premiere."

Also at the Mirror UK, "Million Mask thugs burned and cut police horses and tried to gouge eyes out with sticks."

Stalin’s Daughter

I don't know.

I keep coming across all this new scholarship on Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union.

Here's Rosemary Sullivan, Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva.

Last night I posted Sheila Fitzpatrick's, On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics.

And I'm reading, Stephen Kotkin, Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928.

Ceramic Heater with Adjustable Thermostat

A best-selling item at Amazon, with these cooler nights coming, even on the West coast.

Here, Lasko 754200 Ceramic Heater with Adjustable Thermostat.

And for some reading by the room heater, Alonzo Hamby, Man of Destiny: FDR and the Making of the American Century.

And by popular demand, from Fredrik Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam.

Many Residents in California, Arizona, and Nevada Claimed to See UFO on Saturday Night (VIDEO)

Heh.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:



Added: At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Mystery light over ocean was missile test" (via Memeorandum).

Controversial Alabama-LSU Sign Urges 'Finish What Katrina Started'

Meaning, "Get blacks to move out of the 9th ward"?

Or something more sinister.

At AL.com, "How far is too far? Controversial Alabama-LSU sign decried on social media."

The sign's seen here, "Shots fired..." (And here.)

Via Memeorandum.

More at NOLA.com, "Odell Beckham responds to Hurricane Katrina sign at Alabama, including Leonard Fournette picture."

Western Civilization is Slipping Away

From Victor Davis Hanson, at National Review, "Is the West Slip, Slip, Slipping Away?":

Sometimes a culture disappears with a whimper, not a bang. Institutions age and are ignored, and the complacent public insidiously lowers its expectations of state performance.

Infrastructure, the rule of law, and civility erode — and yet people are not sure why and how their own changing (and pathological) individual behavior is leading to the collective deterioration that they deplore.

There is still a “West” in the sense of the physical entities of North America, Europe, many of the former British dominions, and parts of Westernized Asia. The infrastructure of our cities and states looks about as it did in the recent past. But is it the West as we once knew it — a unique civilization predicated on free expression, human rights, self-criticism, vibrant free markets, and the rule of law?

Or, instead, is the West reduced to a wealthy but unfree leisure zone, driven on autopilot by computerized affluence, technological determinism, and a growing equality-of-result, omnipotent state? Tens of thousands of migrants — reminiscent of the great southward and westward treks of Germanic tribes in the late fifth century, at the end of the Roman Empire — are overwhelming the borders of Europe. Such an influx should be a reminder that the West attracts people, while the non-West drives them out, and thus should spark inquiries about why that is so. But that discussion would be not only impolite, but beyond the comprehension of most present-day Westerners, who take for granted — though they cannot define, much less defend — their own institutions.

No one claims that such mass immigration into Europe is legal. No one wonders what happened to the fossilized idea of legal immigration, much less the legal immigrant who went through what has now been rendered the pretense of bureaucratic application for legal entry into Europe. Germany, which lectures others on law, is lawless. In theory, Westerners have the power to stop the mostly young males from the Middle East from swarming their borders, but in fact they apparently lack the will. Or is it worse than that?

Without confidence in their own values, much less pride in their accomplishments, are they assuaging the guilt over their privilege by symbolic acts of undermining the foundations of their own culture? Certainly, Germany, which insists on European Union laws of finance applying to its fellow European nation Greece, has no compunction about destroying, for its own particular purposes, the Union’s immigration statutes as they apply to Middle Easterners.

The same is true in the United States. Millions of foreign nationals from Latin America, and Mexico in particular, simply have crossed the border without even the pretense of legality. They assume Americans not only won’t enforce their own laws, but also will find ways to demonize any who suggest that they should. If there is now no such thing as an “illegal alien,” what in theory prevents anyone from arriving from anywhere at any time and making claims on the American state?

Again, the irony is not just that millions of Mexican nationals want into the U.S., but that, ostensibly, no one in Mexico or even the United States knows why that is so (certainly not the National Council of La Raza [“the Race”]) — much less wonders whether Mexico might learn from the U.S. about ways to make a nation’s own people become content enough to stay in their homeland. Only in the West does a migrant fault his host for insufficient hospitality while exempting his homeland, which drove him out.

Sanctuary cities illustrate how progressive doctrine can by itself nullify the rule of law. In the new West, breaking statutes is backed or ignored by the state if it is branded with race, class, or gender advocacy. By that I mean that if a solitary U.S. citizen seeks to leave and then reenter America without a passport, he will likely be either arrested or turned back, whereas if an illegal alien manages to cross our border, he is unlikely to be sent back as long as he has claims on victimhood of the type that are sanctioned by the Western liberal state.

Do we really enjoy free speech in the West any more? If you think we do, try to use vocabulary that is precise and not pejorative, but does not serve the current engine of social advocacy — terms such as “Islamic terrorist,” “illegal alien,” or “transvestite.” I doubt that a writer for a major newspaper or a politician could use those terms, which were common currency just four or five years ago, without incurring, privately or publicly, the sort of censure that we might associate with the thought police of the former Soviet Union...

Still more.

Book Publishers to Release Some of Most Anticipated Titles on Tuesday

They're hoping to cash-in on familiar faces for the holiday season, after a lackluster sales year so far.

At WSJ, "Book Publishers Hope Holidays Bring Cheer":

The biggest bets are on familiar names and faces, a reminder of how much track records matter to readers at this time of the year. HarperCollins Publishers, for example, has printed 700,000 hardcover copies of Mitch Albom’s “The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto,” a story narrated by a guitarist touched by the supernatural. HarperCollins, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.

Tuesday also marks the return of Jon Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Random House is printing 390,000 copies of Mr. Meacham’s new work, “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,” making it the publisher’s biggest nonfiction work of the year.

On the lighter side, Grand Central Publishing will publish 120,000 hardcover copies of model Christie Brinkley’s “Timeless Beauty: Over 100 Tips, Secrets, and Shortcuts to Looking Great,” while Simon & Schuster has teed up 75,000 copies of TV producer Shonda Rhimes’s memoir “Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person.”

The relatively large print runs come at a time when the digital book market is in flux. E-book sales in the first half were down 10% from a year earlier, according to an industry report, a decline that industry executives attribute in part to higher prices set by the major publishers.

“There may not be one stand-out title yet, but I think the breadth and complexion of this holiday’s new titles is better than in 2014,” said Mary Amicucci, Barnes & Noble Inc.’s vice president of adult trade and children’s books...

Keep reading.

And don't miss all your best-seller book sales at Amazon.

Donald Trump Chases Television Ratings with Appearance on 'Saturday Night Live' (VIDEO)

It's not clear that Nielson ratings translate into political votes, according to Mary McNamara, at the Los Angeles Times, "Why huge 'SNL' ratings won't help Donald Trump become president":

Every presidential candidate is obsessed with polls, but only Donald Trump fixates on ratings. Not approval ratings, television ratings.

"I get the best ratings," he said recently, appearing to channel NBC executives to explain why he had been asked to host "Saturday Night Live" this weekend.

It's something Trump says a lot, almost as often as he says "I'm going to build a wall." In September, he warned that television itself would collapse should he withdraw from the race — no doubt something that he will be saying even more if he continues to lose his lead in the polls.

There is something quaint and almost endearing about Trump's faith in Nielsen; it may be one of the last great attempts to restore ratings to their former position of glory, and, indeed, empower them further.

But ratings have never been the same as votes — just ask the cast of "Empire" — or even political support, and for all his frequently self-referenced business experience, Trump seems to have missed a major shift in the television industry: Ratings ain't what they used to be.

Once an easy and instant predictor of success, the television numbers game has become if not outdated then deeply complicated. Judging from the awards bestowed in recent years, ratings have an almost antithetical relationship with voters' notions of "best" or "outstanding." A narrow but deeply dedicated group of followers is now deemed as valuable as a large, less passionate audience who may be tuned in more out of curiosity or habit.

Overnight ratings, which is what Trump deals in for the most part, have become less meaningful, and any gains he brings to shows like "Saturday Night Live" are one-time bumps rather than a business model; it's not as if he were joining the cast (or at least not yet.)

Like the current crop of Republican candidates, television is now too broad and disparate for its traditional measurements, making "success" an increasingly complicated term, gauged as much, if not more, in nuance than numbers.

And Donald Trump has never been big on nuance...

Interesting, but I think she misses the point.

Candidates nowadays are looking to reach younger voters, especially Millennials, by appearing on late-night television. It's not just SNL --- which Hillary Clinton exploited to massive positive media spin of late --- but folks like Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, and Stephen Colbert, etc. If campaigns didn't expect political dividends from such appearances they wouldn't schedule them.

But keep reading, in any case.

Peter Beinart Justifies Jihad Terrorism

At the Astute Bloggers, "PETER BEINART IS EVIL."

And flashback to April, at FrontPage Magazine, "PETER BEINART GOES FULL ANTI-ISRAEL."

Wide Chute Antioxidative Slow Masticating Juicer

Boy, the hipster products these days are amazing!

At Amazon, SKG New Generation Wide Chute Antioxidative Slow Masticating Juicer.

Lots more stuff here, Shop Holiday Home & Garden Gift Guide - Trendsetter.

Matt Bevin’s Kentucky Win Is the End of an Era — And That Should Scare Democrats Everywhere

A great piece, from Josh Kraushaar, at National Journal:

Former House Speak­er Tip O’Neill fam­ously said, “all polit­ics is loc­al.” After Re­pub­lic­an Matt Bev­in’s sur­pris­ingly con­vin­cing vic­tory to be­come Ken­tucky’s next gov­ernor, the max­im should be re­versed. All loc­al polit­ics are now na­tion­al. Bev­in, with help from the Re­pub­lic­an Gov­ernors As­so­ci­ation, ef­fect­ively util­ized na­tion­al is­sues—gay mar­riage, Planned Par­ent­hood, fed­er­al en­ergy policy, Pres­id­ent Obama’s health care law—to bludgeon Demo­crat Jack Con­way, who tried to dis­tance him­self from his party’s na­tion­al brand to no avail.

And the biggest drag of all for Con­way was Obama. The RGA un­leashed a last-week $1 mil­lion ad blitz con­nect­ing the Demo­crat­ic state at­tor­ney gen­er­al to Obama—a po­tent line of at­tack in a state where the pres­id­ent’s dis­ap­prov­al rat­ing is near 70 per­cent.

Just as the Ken­tucky gubernat­ori­al cam­paign car­ried na­tion­al over­tones, the res­ults from Tues­day night’s elec­tion carry na­tion­al les­sons. Here are four of the most sig­ni­fic­ant takeaways...

Keep reading.

And ICYMI, the best piece since last Tuesday, from Molly Ball, "Leftists Are Losing the Culture Wars?"

LAUSD Teachers Reeling from 'Restorative Justice,' with Unruly Students Escaping Consequences for Their Actions

Tell me about it.

"Restorative justice" approaches on campus have basically repealed actual consequences for student misbehavior. It's been like this at my college for awhile, and it's not even formal policy. All kids have to do is cry "racism" and they'll get off scot-free.

Thank the radical left, and the Democrat Party, for this.

At LAT, "Why some LAUSD teachers are balking at a new approach to discipline problems":

In a South Los Angeles classroom, a boy hassles a girl. The teacher moves him to the back of the room, where he scowls, makes a paper airplane and repeatedly throws it against the wall. Two other boys wander around the class and then nearly come to blows.

"Don't you talk about my sister," one says to the other. The teacher steps between them.

When she tries to regain order, another boy tells her: "Screw you."

It's another day of disruption on this campus in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has been nationally hailed by the White House and others for its leadership in promoting more progressive school-discipline policies. The nation's second-largest school system was the first in California to ban suspensions for defiance and announced plans to roll out an alternative known as restorative justice, which seeks to resolve conflicts through talking circles and other methods to build trust.

The shift has brought dramatic changes: Suspensions districtwide plummeted to 0.55% last school year compared with 8% in 2007-08, and days lost to suspension also plunged, to 5,024 from 75,000 during that same period, according to the most recent data.

The district moved to ban suspensions amid national concern that they imperil academic achievement and disproportionately affect minorities, particularly African Americans.

But many teachers say their classrooms are reeling from unruly students who are escaping consequences for their actions.

They blame the district for failing to provide the staff and training needed to effectively shift to the new approach — and their complaints are backed up by L.A. schools Supt. Ramon Cortines. He said the new discipline policies, which were pushed through by the Board of Education and former Supt. John Deasy and which he supports, were poorly executed. He compared the implementation to the flawed effort to equip students and teachers with Apple tablets.

"I will compare it to the iPad," Cortines said. "You cannot piecemeal this kind of thing and think it is going to have the impact that it should have. Don't make a political statement and then don't have the wherewithal to back it up."

Keep reading.

And flashback, "'Restorative Justice' at Beach High School Questioned Amid Breakdown of Discipline."

Mayra Suarez Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

She's fabulous.

Mikhail Lesin, Former Aide to Vladimir Putin, Found Dead in Washington, D.C., Hotel

Well, it's not like anyone would have a motive, or anything.

This guy Lesin was the founder of Russia Today, the Russian government's propaganda network, so it's an intriguing story.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Former Putin Aide Mikhail Lesin Found Dead at D.C. Hotel."

Also at Euronews, "Putin's former aide found dead in Washington hotel."

Plus, at ABC News, via Mediagazer, "Creator of Russia Today and former Russian minister of press, Mikhail Lesin, found dead in Washington DC hotel."

In Frankfurt, Germany, Hot Dog Haters Are the Wurst

Heh.

At WSJ, "German sausage fans say U.N. is full of baloney; meat warning ‘nonsense’":

FRANKFURT—Here in the city that gave its name to the famous sausage, the World Health Organization’s warning against eating processed meats is hard to swallow.

The United Nations body last week said eating frankfurters and their ilk can cause cancer. To Germans, many of whom consider sausage and cured meats comfort food, that idea doesn’t go down well.

“It’s total nonsense,” said Simone Kluge while selling sausages to a line of customers in Frankfurt’s main market hall. “If it were true, every German would have already died of wurst,” she scoffed, using the German word for sausage.

Many cultures make sausages. Italian salami, Polish kielbasa, French saucisson and British bangers are widely known. But Germans have a special affinity for the oblong food.

Of 31 types listed in the U.S. National Hot Dog and Sausage Council’s online sausage glossary, 11 come from Germany and two more come from heavily Germanic Austria. Italy is a distant second place, with six varieties.

Germany has at least three museums devoted to sausages. Sausages were a hot potato in national elections two years ago and the language is peppered with sausage references.

In a make-or-break situation, Germans say: “It’s about the sausage.” For indifference, they say: “It’s sausage to me.”

“Sausages to Germany are like pasta is to Italy,” said Andreas Fuhr, a master butcher selling his products at a weekly market in Frankfurt.

Sausages are so integral to the German diet that German Food and Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt quickly reacted to the WHO warning with a statement reassuring German consumers of their safety and he posed in the country’s biggest newspaper holding a platter piled with sausages.

“No one should be afraid of eating a bratwurst,” he declared, referring to the most ubiquitous sausage. “What counts is quantity,” he added. “Too much of something is always bad for health.”

Austria’s agriculture minister didn’t mince words, calling the WHO report “a farce.”

Two days after the WHO announcement, German newspapers were bursting with more than 200 articles about the wurst alert.

World-wide reaction to the WHO report was so vocal that the organization later issued a clarification that its finding “does not ask people to stop eating processed meats,” though eating less of them can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.

While the criticism of processed meats gnaws at many sausage fans, it was particularly biting in Frankfurt. “Examples of processed meat include hot dogs (frankfurters), ham, sausages, corned beef, and biltong,” the agency said.

“We won’t let the WHO simply kill off our fine Frankfurt sausages,” fumed Oliver Bergmann, a master butcher at Waibel Butcher shop in Frankfurt, who has been in the trade for 30 years...

Keep reading.

On Stalin's Team

I'm on a Soviet Union jag right now, especially biographies of Stalin.

I've been checking out Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick, whose latest book is On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics.

Melissa Debling for Zoo Today (VIDEO)

She's a sweetie.

Watch, "Melissa Debling's very rude strip!"

More.

Faisal Mohammed

Boy, authorities were quick to rule out terrorism. But I mean, a knife attack? Just a coincidence that there's a stabbing intifada going on right now in Israel, you think?

At Atlas Shrugs, "Knife Jihad at UC Merced: Faisal Mohammad identified as Muslim who went on ‘smiling’ stabbing spree at California University," and "UC Merced jihadi’s manifesto PRAISED ALLAH, cops say motive NOT TERRORISM."

Also at Jihad Watch, "Islamic State praises Muslim who stabbed four at UC Merced," and "UC Merced stabber “devout Muslim,” manifesto included “praise Allah,” beheading plan."

Gifts for the Trendsetter

At Amazon, Shop Holiday Home & Garden Gift Guide - Trendsetter.

Plus, ICYMI, from Fredrik Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam.

Ben Carson's Past Faces Deeper Questions (VIDEO)

Carson's getting the Herman Cain treatment, and it's harsh.

Enormous coverage at Memeorandum, "Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied."

And at the Wall Street Journal, "In harsh light of presidential politics, parts of his inspirational biography are questioned":

The day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968, Ben Carson’s black classmates unleashed their anger and grief on white students who were a minority at Detroit’s Southwestern High.

Mr. Carson, then a junior with a key to a biology lab where he worked part time, told The Wall Street Journal last month that he protected a few white students from the attacks by hiding them there.

It is a dramatic account of courage and kindness, and it couldn’t be confirmed in interviews with a half-dozen of Mr. Carson’s classmates and his high school physics teacher. The students all remembered the riot. None recalled hearing about white students hiding in the biology lab, and Mr. Carson couldn’t remember any names of those he sheltered.

“It may have happened, but I didn’t see it myself or hear about it,” said Gregory Vartanian, a white classmate of Mr. Carson’s who served in the ROTC with Mr. Carson and is now a retired U.S. Marshal.

Mr. Carson’s biography, a rise from poverty to become a top neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University, is central to his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Now, his story—told in nine books and countless inspirational speeches over the past 25 years—has come under the harsh scrutiny of presidential politics, where rivals and media hunt for embellishments and omissions that can hobble a campaign.

In 2008, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton said she was mistaken when she claimed she and her daughter, Chelsea, had come under sniper fire and had to run for cover during a trip to Bosnia in 1996 while she was first lady. A video of the trip unearthed after her comments showed no gunfire.

The threat to the Carson candidacy is that the inconsistencies or hard-to-check anecdotes, which were told long before he ever considered a presidential run, will put off voters only now getting to know him.

Mr. Carson’s campaign manager, Barry Bennett, said Friday there was “no evidence” that any aspect of Mr. Carson’s biography wasn’t true. “There’s no facts saying they are not true. We are guilty until proven innocent,” he said. “You have no reason to believe that they are not true. There’s no evidence to point to the fact that they are even questionable.”

Still more.

Let's see how long he can hold out.

Leftists Are Losing the Culture Wars?

Actually, I don't believe leftists are losing the culture wars, although the left came out the big loser during this week's elections. It remains to be seen if we have an actual retrenchment in public policy. Homosexual marriage is here to stay, I'd say. Transsexuals using women's restrooms is a lunatic fringe issue that's only on the agenda in Democrat Party strongholds. And electing a Republican to the White House will have a dramatic effect in federal civil rights enforcement in the schools.

It's not just homosexuals and trannies, however.

See Molly Ball, at the Atlantic, "Liberals Are Losing the Culture Wars":

In Tuesday’s elections, voters rejected recreational marijuana, transgender rights, and illegal-immigrant sanctuaries; they reacted equivocally to gun-control arguments; and they handed a surprise victory to a Republican gubernatorial candidate who emphasized his opposition to gay marriage.

Democrats have become increasingly assertive in taking liberal social positions in recent years, believing that they enjoy majority support and even seeking to turn abortion and gay rights into electoral wedges against Republicans. But Tuesday’s results—and the broader trend of recent elections that have been generally disastrous for Democrats not named Barack Obama—call that view into question. Indeed, they suggest that the left has misread the electorate’s enthusiasm for social change, inviting a backlash from mainstream voters invested in the status quo.

Consider these results:

Ohio voters rejected a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana by a 30-point margin.

Voters in Houston—a strongly Democratic city—rejected by a 20-point margin a nondiscrimination ordinance that opponents said would lead to “men in women’s bathrooms.”

The San Francisco sheriff who had defended the city’s sanctuary policy after a sensational murder by an illegal immigrant was voted out.

Two Republican state senate candidates in Virginia were targeted by Everytown for Gun Safety, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s gun-control group. One won and one lost, leaving the chamber in GOP hands.

Matt Bevin, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Kentucky, pulled out a resounding victory that defied the polls after emphasizing social issues and championing Kim Davis, the county clerk who went to jail rather than issue same-sex marriage licenses. Bevin told the Washington Post on the eve of the vote that he’d initially planned to stress economic issues, but found that “this is what moves people.”

More.

U.S. Officials Suspect Islamic State Planted Bomb Aboard Russian Jetliner in Egypt (VIDEO)

Following-up from earlier, "Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Downed Russian Passenger Jet in Egypt (VIDEO)."

There were lots of doubts initially, but not so much now.

At Telegraph UK, "Russian plane crash: US intelligence suggests bomb was planted by Islamic State as Britain suspends Sharm el-Sheikh flights - latest news."

And here's Lester Holt, at NBC Nightly News:

America's Moral Crisis and Election 2015

D.C. McAllister, at the Federalist, uses Michael Walsh's, The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West, as a launchpad to analyze Tuesday massive repudiation of the Demonic-rats.

See, "America’s Crisis Isn’t What You Think":

In politics, as in all of life, it’s imperative to see our choices in that context. Distinguishing between heroes and villains is integral to us deciding what kind of society we want to be.

The True Nature of Our Crisis

This is how many voters are looking at the candidates running for president, even if they’re doing it unconsciously. They’re asking, who are the tricksters, the deceivers? Who are the support characters? Who are the healers? Most importantly, who will be the hero, the leader, who will stave off America’s enemies both from without and within? Who will defend her no matter the cost to himself? Who will love her and protect her? Who will heal her from the sickness that has spread throughout her body politic?

They can’t always define the sickness. Is it immigration, federal overreach, the education system, the debt, high taxes, political corruption, activist courts, all of the above? Whatever the issue, the conclusion is the same: America is in trouble. America is in crisis.

But what is the true nature of that crisis? Is it a fiscal crisis? A security crisis? A constitutional crisis? It’s all of these, but so much more. “The crisis in which the United States of America currently finds itself enmeshed is a moral crisis, which has engendered a crisis of cultural confidence, which in turn has begotten a fiscal crisis that threatens—no, guarantees—the destruction of the nation should we fail to address it,” Walsh writes.

This is an important point, because if you don’t see the crisis as a battle between good and evil—a moral crisis, as Walsh explains, that has been created by Leftist German philosophies (Hegel, Marx, Frankfurt School), subverting our culture by luring us into thinking there is no battle between good and evil (only a synthesis of both)...

Keep reading.

The left is truly diabolical, and the sheer depth of Tuesday's shellacking has even radical leftists questioning the sustainability of the Democrats as a national party.

Americans' Mood Darkened by Widespread Anger, New WSJ/NBC News Poll Finds

This is a fascinating poll, particularly in light of this week's election results.

America is deeply polarized, and not just over economics and the elitist establishment. At root here is a massive cultural divide. We've literally become two Americas, with the left militantly anti-religious and collectivist, and mainstream Americans and conservatives alienated by the nation's cultural rot. Homosexuality, race and "social justice," and murderous open borders have pushed regular people to the edge. It's not good for the country, and frankly, it's not good for the Democrats.

At WSJ, "WSJ/NBC Poll Finds Anger at Political System":

GOP primary voters are overwhelmingly unsettled by societal changes transforming the country, new WSJ/NBC poll finds https://t.co/vqGlIRPhkT

— Capital Journal (@WSJPolitics) November 4, 2015

Amy West, a 61-year-old retired schoolteacher, traces her frustration with the rest of the country to a local fight banning prayer at area schools more than a decade ago. “I have to have the Bible in my life,” she said.

A Republican from Vilonia, Ark., she plans to support Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in next year’s GOP presidential primary. She thinks he is best equipped to tackle her concerns, starting with the dwindling influence of religion in Americans’ daily lives.

Republican primary voters are overwhelmingly unsettled by societal changes transforming the country, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds, while Democratic primary voters describe themselves as proud that the country has moved further to protect the rights of minority groups and to accept gay marriage.

The results show that, in many ways, Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are being forced to tailor their messages for deeply disparate groups. If there is a unifying theme, it is anger at the political system, the Journal/NBC News poll suggests.

Some 71% of GOP primary voters agreed when asked whether they felt “out of place” in their own country and uneasy about widespread illegal immigration, the shrinking role of religion in public life and the growing acceptance of gay and lesbian rights. Among these GOP voters, 45% strongly agreed with that view, compared with just 12% among Democratic primary voters.

This sentiment is sending many GOP voters into the camps of candidates articulating their fears, including Mr. Cruz, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and businessman Donald Trump, whose slogan is “Make America Great Again.”

By contrast, three of four Democrats voiced pride in how the country “continues to make progress as a tolerant nation” that has taken significant steps to protect the rights of African-Americans and same-sex couples, and to change how women are viewed. Some 45% of Democrats strongly held that belief, compared with 10% among Republican primary voters.

This trend helps explain former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emphasis on gay rights and support for other societal changes. She announced her support for same-sex marriage in March 2013.

“Candidates for both parties can win their respective primaries by appealing to progress on the Democratic side and unease on the Republican side,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt, of Hart Research Associates, which conducts the Journal/NBC survey with Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican firm...

Keep reading.

Californians Less Safe After Passage of Proposition 47

Crime's going to be a major issue in 2016, one more plank in the left's platform of culture war against America.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Sheriff Jim McDonnell: Thanks to Prop. 47, Californians are less safe than they were a year ago":

One year ago today, California voters adopted Proposition 47, changing drug possession and five other nonviolent felonies into misdemeanors. Proposition 47 was supposed to ease pressure on California's overflowing prisons and jails and open up funds for rehabilitation programs, along with education and victim services. But the state funds that were earmarked won't arrive until August 2016. Crime is up in many California communities. Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell says Prop. 47, though well-intended, is to blame.

RTWT.

Lily Aldridge Wears the Victoria's Secret Fantasy Bra 2015 (VIDEO)

The 2015 fashion show is December 8th.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Lily Aldridge reveals $2-million Victoria's Secret Fantasy Bra":

Talk about over-the-top underpinnings. Victoria’s Secret model Lily Aldridge revealed this year’s $2-million Fireworks Fantasy Bra at the company’s Third Street Promenade store in Santa Monica this week.

Crafted by the 125-year-old Geneva-based luxury jeweler Mouawad, the bejeweled brassiere, inspired by Victoria’s Secret's new Very Sexy Flirt demi bra, is encrusted with more than 6,500 precious stones, including diamonds, blue topaz, yellow sapphires and pink quartz, set in 18-karat gold, with a red garnet and blue topaz centerpiece. The bra comes with an equally spectacular coordinating belt that can be worn over any panty. Weighing in at a total of 1,300 carats, the set took nearly 700 hours to make.

In 1996, Claudia Schiffer debuted the very first, and least expensive, $1-million Fantasy Bra, while Gisele Bundchen modeled the most pricey version in 2000 — a $15-million satin bra embellished with more than 1,300 diamonds and rubies — so the 2015 design falls on the lower end of the price spectrum, historically speaking...

More at London's Daily Mail, "Ready for the catwalk! Lily Aldridge dazzles in stunning behind the scenes images from her Victoria's Secret Fantasy Bra shoot."

Benjamin Golden, Fired Taco Bell Marketing Manager, Remorseful After Attacking Uber Driver (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Uber Driver Attacked by Drunk Passenger in Costa Mesa (VIDEO)."

The dude was fired by Taco Bell, and now he's remorseful?

Why Depraved Leftist Democrats Lost on Houston Transsexual Bathroom Ordinance (VIDEO)

From Kelsey Harkness, at the Daily Signal, "Why LGBT Advocates Think They Lost in Houston Election":

Failing to pass the Houston Equal Rights Protection Ordinance Tuesday night came as a blow to LGBT advocates, who have won recent victories at the U.S. Supreme Court and beyond.

“We are disappointed with today’s outcome,” said a coalition of partners that make up Houston Unites, the group behind the sexual orientation and gender identity measure. “We’ve learned some important lessons, as well.”

On Wednesday, members of the campaign and LGBT supporters shared some of those lessons, dissecting what went wrong in Houston, which voted for President Barack Obama in 2012 and 2008, and how they can prevent it from happening again.

Here’s a brief recap.

The biggest hurdle LGBT groups say they failed to overcome was the branding of the Houston Equal Rights Protection Ordinance as “the bathroom bill.”

Dominic Holden, a BuzzFeed news reporter, spoke to people on the ground before the vote who appeared to be under the impression that bill was entirely about bathrooms.

“Bathrooms are the hot-ticket item—that’s what everybody is talking about,” Cory Alters, a Houston resident, told BuzzFeed. “I don’t want girls in my bathroom, and girls don’t want guys in their bathroom.”

The Houston Equal Rights Protection Ordinance (HERO) would have created legal protections in 15 categories. Sexual orientation and gender identity were two of those categories.

Opponents focused on that angle, branding HERO as a “bathroom bill.” Their fear was that the inclusion of sexual identity could allow persons with biological male bodies who identify as women to use women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-specific facilities, without having legally changed their names or undergone surgery or hormone treatment....

Similar to how LGBT analyzed why they lost, conservatives say they won by pushing both the “bathroom bill” narrative and connecting with “real people”—including minorities—on the ground...

Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, another group that’s been fighting the ordinance for the past 18 months called the outcome a “victory of common decency.” In an email to The Daily Signal, he said:

The victory of common decency in defeating this ordinance is a reminder to pastors across the country that together and united, our voices can make a difference, even when outnumbered by a massive propaganda campaign and vastly outspent. These ordinances that are part of a national campaign of the Human Rights Campaign in their attempt to force their radical anti-faith, anti-family, anti-freedom agenda on local communities can be defeated, so we hope this encourages pastors and citizens around the country.

Ultimately, the people in Houston decided against the measure by a 62-38 margin. That margin, supporters say, is an honest reflection of the city’s values...

Feminism: How a Privileged Elite Can Claim Permanent Victimhood

Here's Robert's book, Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against Human Nature.

And at the Other McCain:

COLLEGE 2015: My Advice for Male Students https://t.co/B3AjGDXGrj @DateOffCampus @g56yu @instapundit @AsheSchow pic.twitter.com/YbVcuEYKCu

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 4, 2015

No matter how rich her parents are, no matter what the tuition was at her prestigious private prep school or how elite the university she attends, a feminist always believes she is a victim of male supremacy. She’s got a trust fund, a luxury car and spends her holidays at the family vacation home, but she knows she is oppressed by patriarchy, and that guy over there? The poor slob sweating his life away for an hourly wage? He is a beneficiary of male privilege, who oppresses her by his mere existence.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

If you reject these categorical claims — if do not view the world through feminist lenses — you are a misogynist, a sexist, a rape apologist...

Keep reading.

Democrats Brutal Shellacking 2015

I guess this would be Shellacking 3.0, after 2010 and 2014.

Even far-left WaPo blogger Greg Sargent can't disguise the damage to the Democrat brand, this late stage in the Obama administration trainwreck.

See, "A brutal reality check for the Democratic Party" (at Memeorandum):

The news that Tea Party Republican Matt Bevin snatched the Kentucky governor’s mansion away from Democrats is a particularly stark reminder of how deep a hole Democrats have dug for themselves at the state level, and of the consequences that could have for the long-term success of the liberal and Democratic agenda...

There's a bunch of bullshit filler and blah, blah about how great ObamaCare is in Kentucky, or something, and then he continues:

The broader point is that the Kentucky loss underscores once again that there are serious policy consequences to the profound deficit Democrats face on the level of the states. As I’ve reported, Democrats are well aware of this and are trying to something about it: it’s conceivable that by the end of this decade, the picture could look very different. But last night is a reminder of the stakes involved.

See the whole thing at Memeorandum.

Meanwhile, from Peter Suderman, at Reason, "Yesterday’s Election: A Challenge for Democrats—and a Crisis for Politics."

Matt Bevin Kentucky Victory Underscores Democrat Downfall Under Obama (VIDEO)

Following-up from this morning, "Conservatives Roll Up Huge Victories Across the Country."

Democrats are the biggest statist assholes. Losers and depraved statist assholes.

More, from Guy Benson, at Town Hall, via Memeorandum, "Analysis: Bevin Win in Kentucky Underscores Decimated Democratic Party Under Obama":

Last night's off-year elections produced a number of noteworthy outcomes, none larger than Republican Matt Bevin's upset victory in Kentucky's gubernatorial race. Bevin ran as a hard-charging outsider conservative, warts and all. Public polls gave his opponent, Democrat Jack Conway, a modest but stable lead throughout the race's home stretch, averaging out to a three-point Conway advantage in a three-way contest. They were off by double digits. Bevin won handily....

Bevin, boosted by a massive investment from national Republicans and help from his former nemisis Mitch McConnell, nationalized the race, tying Conway to President Obama at every opportunity -- on coal, on school choice, on social issues, and especially on Obamacare. Democrats have cited Kentucky as a model of the law's success, touting its functioning exchange, improved insured rate, and the unequivocal support of the state's term-limited governor. Here's the timeless advice he dispensed to his party as Kentuckians went to the polls yesterday:

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear says Democrats will run on Obamacare in 2016 and “pound the Republicans into dust.”

Oops. Matt Bevin ran as an unflinching opponent of the promise-shattering, cost-increasing law, and pounded Beshear's would-be successor into dust. Democrats reacted by chalking their loss up to the "unexpected headwinds of Trump-mania," a hilarious piece of trolling. Also swept away by the anti-Obama current was a Democratic "rising star" seen by many as a viable challenger to Sen. Rand Paul. Oops, again. Bevin becomes just the second Republican governor of Kentucky in approximately four decades. His Lieutenant Governor, Jenean Hampton, is the first non-white politician ever elected to statewide office. A black woman. Elected by Republicans. With Bevin's victory, Republicans are now set to control 32 governorships, compared to Democrats' 17 (Alaska's independent governor was opposed by Republicans, but endorsed by Sarah Palin). Barack Obama has proven quite adept at getting himself elected, but has acted as a one-man wrecking ball to his party's electoral performance across all levels of government...

Click through for the whole thing, including embedded tweets.

Also at Legal Insurrection, "Bevin Wins – Reports of the death of the Tea Party prove greatly exaggerated" (via Memeorandum).

Politics Isn't Local Anymore

Postcards from the culture war.

From Noah Rothman, at Commentary:

Democrats who had hoped to witness some sign in last night’s off-year elections that the public had abandoned their antipathy toward the president’s party ahead of 2016 saw those hopes unceremoniously crushed. With only a few of exceptions limited to the Northeast and a handful of urban centers, Democratic candidates and liberal causes were again trounced at the polls.

In Virginia, Democrats had hoped to recapture control of the state Senate, but the GOP majority held. Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe’s aspirations to turn his state into a laboratory experiment in which every progressive social policy favored in Washington would be imposed on Old Dominion’s residents were dashed. In San Francisco, the city’s sheriff who had staked his career on defending his “sanctuary cities” policy, which came under fire following the murder of Kate Steinle by a Mexican illegal immigrant, lost his job. Ballot measures in Ohio and Houston, Texas, regarding legalized marijuana and transgendered bathrooms (which would allow all men dressed as women to access female-only restrooms), went down in flames. Perhaps the most fascinating and far-reaching result from last night was the election of conservative outsider candidate Matt Bevin as Kentucky’s governor...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Houston's Transsexual Bathroom Ordinance Massively Repudiated at the Ballot Box."

(Be sure to watch the video above. It includes an advertisement produced by opponents of the transsexual bathroom ordinance.)

Houston's Transsexual Bathroom Ordinance Massively Repudiated at the Ballot Box

Radical leftists have gone into full psychiatric meltdown mode, even threatening opponents of the measure for harassment and intimidation.

At Twitchy, "Houston’s ‘bathroom ordinance’ is ‘absolutely crushed’ at ballot box, staining city’s reputation."

And at the Houston Chronicle, "Houston Equal Rights Ordinance fails by wide margin."

HOUSTON residents reject transgender bathroom redefinitions in referendum vote. https://t.co/kDuSLpy6Ec

— Vicki Mckenna (@VickiMcKenna) November 4, 2015

Supporters released a written statement Tuesday night: "We are disappointed with today's outcome, but our work to secure nondiscrimination protections for all hard-working Houstonians will continue. No one should have to live with the specter of discrimination hanging over them. Everyone should have the freedom to work hard, earn a decent living and provide for themselves and their families."

The ordinance bans discrimination based not just on gender identity and sexual orientation, but also 13 classes already protected under federal law: sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy and genetic information, as well as family, marital or military status.

Businesses that serve the public, private employers, housing and city contracting are all subject to the law and face up to $5,000 in fines for violations. Religious institutions, however, are exempt. The ordinance was in effect for only three months between extensive legal challenges.

City Council passed the law 11-6 in May last year, but conservative foes launched an effort to force a repeal referendum that spanned more than one year of legal challenges. In July, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the city to either repeal the law or place in the ballot. By a 12-5 vote, City Council opted for the latter, officially unleashing two dueling campaigns.

Political scientists expected the law to drive turnout, though without complete results it's not clear to what extent that has happened.  But in early voting, approximately 130,000 city voters cast ballots, more than doubling pre-election day turnout in Houston's last open-seat mayor's race six years ago...

Get Ready for Thanksgiving

At Amazon, Thanksgiving Store.

Conservatives Roll Up Huge Victories Across the Country

From Glenn Reynolds, at Instapundit, "WASHINGTON POST: From coast to coast, conservatives score huge victories in off-year elections. “Even in San Francisco, the sheriff who steadfastly defended the city’s ‘sanctuary city’ policy went down”."

I'll have more. Last night was obviously a major preview of the 2016 election, which in addition to the economy, will no doubt be waged over the left's culture war on America.

More Evidence of the Toxic Environment on Many College Campuses Today

From Glenn Reynolds, at Instapundit, "HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, ANTISEMITISM EDITION: Israeli academic shouted down in lecture at University of Minnesota."

China Rolls Out First Large Passenger Jet (VIDEO)

This is interesting, at WSJ:

BEIJING—China’s first large passenger jet rolled off the assembly line on Monday after years of delays, bringing Beijing’s dream of developing a rival to Boeing Co. and Airbus Group SE closer to reality.

Still, the single-aisle C919 airliner won’t be delivered to airlines for at least another three years, highlighting the difficulties China has faced in becoming a global player in aviation.

Developed by state-run Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd., or Comac, the twin-engine jet was initially set for its first flight in 2014, ahead of commercial deliveries starting in 2016. Production setbacks forced Comac to repeatedly extend its deadlines. Company executives say flight testing should start next year, with deliveries expected in 2018 or 2019 at the earliest.

Comac hasn’t disclosed list prices for the C919.

Thousands of guests, including government officials and aerospace executives, witnessed the C919’s rollout at an assembly plant near Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, according to Chinese state media.

As patriotic songs blared in a large hangar, the C919 prototype—decked out with white, blue and green Comac livery—emerged from behind red curtains under a banner that proclaimed “Dreams take flight” in Chinese, footage aired by state broadcaster China Central Television showed. The jet was then towed past guests before slowing to a stop just outside the hangar.

The 158-to-174 seater, designed in Shanghai but incorporating components sourced globally, relies on foreign technology, including avionics from Rockwell Collins Inc. and engines developed by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric Co. and the Snecma engine unit of France’s Safran SA. The jet is expected to undergo ground and flight tests spanning two to three years, before attaining certification from China’s civil-aviation regulator and entering commercial service.

China unveiled plans to develop the C919 in 2006 as part of a decadeslong effort to create an advanced aerospace sector capable of breaking the Airbus and Boeing duopoly. Coming after an abortive effort in the 1970s and early 1980s to develop a large commercial jetliner, the C919 was meant to help satisfy growing air-travel demand on the mainland, competing with the likes of Airbus’s A320 family and Boeing’s 737 series.

Airbus and Boeing, in separate emailed statements, congratulated Comac and welcomed competition from the Chinese aerospace firm, saying the aviation market is large enough to accommodate an additional manufacturer.

Airbus and Boeing, for their part, are seeking to shore up their market shares in China by building up an industrial footprint on the mainland, and developing new aircraft that can outperform coming Chinese rivals. Airbus assembles some A320s in the northeastern city of Tianjin, while Boeing in December announced plans for a 737 completion-and-delivery center in China, where aircraft will be painted and interiors installed.

Both companies also plan to widen the number of jets they make using carbon-fiber composite materials, which are lighter and considered more efficient. Boeing Chairman Jim McNerney said last year that Boeing was considering a new composite-materials aircraft that would replace its 737 Max in part because of potential competition from the C919...

More.

Teenagers Spend Average of 9 Hours Per Day Using Electronic Media (VIDEO)

At the Los Angeles Times, "Teens spend an average of 9 hours a day with media, survey finds":

Millennials might be obsessed with social media, but among teens, television is still king, according to a survey by Common Sense Media, an organization that monitors media use among young people.

Surveying 2,658 tweens and teens ages 8-18, the organization found that 58% of respondents said they watch television every day, while two-thirds of respondents said the same about listening to music. By contrast, 45% said they use social media every day, and only about a third of those social-media users said they liked it “a lot.”

In terms of video consumption, half of respondents said they watch a television program at the time it originally airs, while the rest is spent with DVDs, online video, or time-delayed viewing.

And while that’s a lot of screen time, Common Sense Media founder and chief executive James Steyer said the more concerning part is half the teens surveyed watched TV, sent text messages or consumed other forms of media while doing homework...

Also, "Here's what teens are really doing on their smartphones."

Embers of War

A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, from Professor Fredrik Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam.

ONE OF THE MOST ACCLAIMED WORKS OF HISTORY IN RECENT YEARS — Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians • Winner of the American Library in Paris Book Award • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award • Finalist for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature.

Demand for Books on Marxism Surges in Britain with Rise of Labour's Jeremy Corbyn (VIDEO)

Yeah, because no doubt all these leftist loons are running out to scoop up copies of Marx's Capital.

Oh brother.

Watch, at Russia Today, where else?

Leftist Humanities Professoriate Abandons and Excoriates Traditional Curriculum

Here's Heather Mac Donald, for Prager University.

The video reminds me of an earlier entry, "Increasingly Leftist Colleges Abandon Greats and Teach Garbage."

New ObamaCare Open Enrollment Begins with Surging Premiums and Deductibles (VIDEO)

At WSJ, "Next Enrollment Season for Affordable Care Act Kicks Off":

This year has been described as one of the most difficult yet for the health law because the administration is trying to get the holdouts—an estimated 10.5 million or so uninsured who qualify for coverage on the exchanges—to buy health plans. They are seeking to market the coverage as affordable, especially because about eight in 10 shoppers are expected to be eligible for tax credits that reduce their premium costs.

But overcoming their affordability concerns will be made more difficult by the rising cost of health care on the exchanges. An analysis of 2016 plan data released Friday by the administration show deductibles on the midtier silver plans will go up 8% to $6,480 for a family plan, according to HealthPocket.com, a company that compares health-insurance plans.

Premiums are going up for 2016. The second-lowest-cost midrange “silver plan”—a key metric for premiums around the country—will increase 7.5% on average across the roughly three dozen states that rely on HealthCare.gov, according to the administration.

Seven in 10 returning customers will be able to buy a plan for $75 a month or less in monthly premiums, according to Health and Human Services.

Independence Blue Cross brought out a tractor trailer dubbed “Independence Express” at a shopping center in suburban Philadelphia with licensed agents and computers on board. They also saw calls from consumers looking to re-enroll for coverage Sunday.

“We’re seeing a steady stream of traffic,” said Paula Sunshine, vice president of consumer sales at Independence Blue Cross. “People are very pleased with their rates.”

Saumya Narechania, national field director for Enroll America, said churches and temples in Cincinnati, Ohio, were enrolling consumers. At event in Charlotte, N.C., had one or two customers lined up before the sign-up assistance kicked off. More than 2,000 people have made appointments for in-person assistance in the next seven days, he said. The organization is a key supporter of the health law.

The administration’s goal is to have about 10 million people with paid up coverage on the state and federal exchanges by the end of 2016. That is lower than earlier projections. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office earlier this year estimated that at least 20 million people would buy policies under the law for 2016 coverage.

“Affordability is a big issue in terms of how people make decisions, and we’ll be focused on that,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell in a briefing Wednesday with reporters.

Some consumers remain concerned. Peter Wainwright, 63, who retired from a telecommunications job, is a returning customer. He and his wife don’t get a subsidy and pay about $2,230 a month, and the rate is increasing for 2016.

“I get no subsidy,” said Mr. Wainwright, of Half Moon Bay, Calif. “Everything has gone up.”

RTWT.

Paranoia and the Surveillance State

I'm generally not paranoid, but still.

Don't miss this chilling piece at the Atlantic, "If You’re Not Paranoid, You’re Crazy."

And flashback to last month, "Social Media Self-Defense."

Sacramento Florin High School Principal Body-Slammed Trying to Break-Up Fight (VIDEO)

Following-up from Sunday, "Sacramento Unified High School Teacher Suspended after Allegedly Wrestling Student in Classroom (VIDEO)."

This story's interesting because the student who caught the principal being body-slammed was suspended for taking a video and sending it viral. She'd win a First Amendment case, no doubt.

At the Sacramento Bee, "Florin High’s punishment of student whose video went viral draws free speech questions."

And at CBS News Sacramento:

Heidi Klum Transformed Herself Into 'Jessica Rabbit' for Halloween

When she transforms she really transforms.

Check it out.

On Twitter, here, here, and here.

Also at ABC News, "Heidi Klum's 2015 Halloween Costume Finally Revealed," and TMZ, "Heidi Klum Throws Model Halloween Party."

Sexy Halloween at the Playboy Mansion (VIDEO)

Scary and sexy.

Watch, "Let the Playmates Guide You Through Our 2015 Halloween Party at the Playboy Mansion."

Has Obama Set Loose a New Willie Horton?

Well, Democrat-leftists are the party of Willie Horton, so yeah.

At Politico, "Advocates on both sides of the sentencing reform movement are carefully watching the reentry of 6,000 federal prisoners released this weekend":

President Barack Obama is hoping there’s no Willie Horton among the 6,000 inmates being released early from federal prison.

Reducing the prison population is a key part of Obama’s push for criminal justice reform in his last year as president. He sees it as a way to repair broken communities and spare taxpayers the cost of housing low-level criminals. A bipartisan coalition in Congress is on board, too.

But the mass release set to be completed Monday will test the resolve of this new consensus heading into an election year. The infamous Willie Horton ad is on the minds of activists on both sides: They haven’t forgotten how the grainy, black-and-white mug shot of a bearded black man helped sink Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign. As Massachusetts governor, “he allowed first-degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison,” said a voice-over, before describing how Horton kidnapped a couple and raped the woman while out on furlough.

The people released from Friday through Monday are not first-degree murderers — they’re low-level drug offenders, and almost a third are immigrants just headed for a different, predeportation detention — but opponents of sentencing reform are already looking for the next Horton.

“We’re fooling the public when we tell them we’re releasing nonviolent drug offenders,” said Steven Cook, head of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who says downward trends in crime are thanks to the current system of tough sentences...

This is not good. "Non-violent criminals" are a leftist media myth.

Crime's already going up with the Black Lives Matter's "Ferguson effect." It's going up more. A lot more.

Donald Trump to Negotiate Directly with Networks on Presidential Debates

Well, it least he's looking to negotiate directly, and frankly, I'll bet he does.

At WaPo, "Trump's campaign says he'll negotiate directly with TV networks on debates":

The format and content of upcoming Republican debates became increasingly uncertain on Monday after Donald Trump’s campaign said the real estate mogul would negotiate his terms directly with television executives instead of as part of a joint effort with his rivals.

The move by Trump, coming just hours after his and other campaigns huddled in a Washington suburb to craft a three-page letter of possible demands, thwarts an effort to find consensus after what most candidates agreed was a debacle hosted by CNBC last week.

As a celebrity billionaire who has been a leading factor in drawing record ratings, Trump has little interest in working to promote the wishes of his opponents, his allies said...

Smart.

I wouldn't be promoting the interest of my opponents either, especially Jeb Bush.

More (via Memeorandum).

Uber Driver Attacked by Drunk Passenger in Costa Mesa (VIDEO)

Gnarly.

At the Next Web, "Uber driver uploads video of him being beaten by passenger in California."

And at CBS News This Morning:

Owner of Orange County Register Files for Bankruptcy

These guys have had an absolutely bizarre business strategy, focusing heavily on print media, which is strange in this day and age, to say the least.

At the O.C. Register, "With bankruptcy filing, local group bids for ownership of Freedom Communications":

When [Aaron] Kushner and [Eric] Spitz took over in July 2012, they stunned an ailing and shrinking newspaper industry. Their bets were heavy on print products. They expanded newspaper sections, added magazines, bought The Press-Enterprise for $27 million in November 2013 and launched the Los Angeles Register in April 2014. In addition, they dramatically increased subscription costs, de-emphasized Web publishing and put up one of the industry’s hardest online paywalls.

Few of those strategies paid off. As losses mounted, the owners turned to layoffs, buyouts and staff furloughs in 2014. The Los Angeles Register folded after five months.

Mirman, a veteran casino marketing executive, took over day-to-day leadership on an interim basis in October 2014 and became the top executive of Freedom and the two newspapers six months later. He said what started as simply a financial fix-it job for him has morphed into a passion to create a profitable and sustainable news operation. He now lives in Irvine.

“I’ve caught the bug of what news journalism can do in its community,” Mirman said. “I’m very intrigued by translating what we do into a long-lasting business. There are ways to make money in new and innovative ways.”

The bankruptcy move is not without risks. Numerous business decisions require court approval. The company gains relief from paying creditors, but those same creditors can wield some power in the process. There’s no guarantee the so-called stalking horse bid by Mirman and his investment team – which includes Michael Harrah, owner of the Santa Ana-based development firm Caribou Industries – will win the bankruptcy auction, which may be held within 90 days. (Harrah purchased the Register’s Santa Ana headquarters in 2014.)

RTWT.

Hundreds Arrested at Electronic Music 'Raves' in Pomona and San Bernardino (VIDEO)

Media sources last night were reporting just over 200 hundred arrested. Now it's 500 arrested.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Nearly 500 arrested at electronic music festivals in Pomona, San Bernardino":

Nearly 500 people were arrested this weekend at two electronic music festivals in Pomona and San Bernardino, authorities said.

On Sunday, the second and final day of the Halloween-themed HARD Day of the Dead festival at the Pomona Fairplex, 162 people were arrested, according to figures released early Monday morning by the Pomona Police Department. An additional 148 people were arrested on Saturday.

Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >>

Authorities in San Bernardino arrested about 180 people at Escape: Psycho Circus, a two-day festival that began Friday at the National Orange Show Events Center.

At the Pomona rave, which featured headliners such as Skrillex, Deadmau5 and Hot Chip, most were arrested on charges of public intoxication, possession of illegal drugs or being under the influence of a controlled substance, police said in a statement. About 100 people were arrested on charges of carrying fake identification, authorities said...

More.

Republican Candidates Meet, Demanding Greater Control Over Presidential Debates (VIDEO)

This isn't as big of a mess as the left-wing media would like folks to believe, much less George Stephanopoulos, who interviews Reince Priebus at the clip below.

And at the New York Times, "Republican Campaigns Meet in an Effort to Alter Debates":

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The presidential candidates in the crowded Republican field finally can agree on at least one thing: just how frustrated they are with the debate process so far.

In a meeting here Sunday evening following the fallout from last week’s CNBC debate — in which the campaigns blamed both the Republican National Committee and the television network for what they said was an unfair debate — representatives of most of the campaigns met to discuss how to exert more influence over the process.

They emerged with a modest list of demands, including opening and closing statements of at least 30 seconds; “parity and integrity” on questions, meaning that all candidates would receive similarly substantive questions; no so-called lightning rounds; and approval of any graphics that are aired during the debate.

The campaign representatives also moved to take the Republican National Committee out of the debate negotiating process, calling for the campaigns to negotiate directly with the TV networks over format, and to receive information about the rules and criteria at least 30 days before each debate.

Ben Ginsberg, a top Republican lawyer and debate negotiator who was invited to serve as a facilitator at the meeting, is drafting a letter — without the R.N.C.’s input — that the campaigns plan to send to the networks within 48 hours. Mr. Ginsberg called the committee immediately after the meeting to convey the group’s next steps...

More.

The Ginsberg letter is at WaPo, via Memeorandum, "Read the letter that Ben Ginsberg drafted for the GOP summit."

They'd Be Shooting by Now

What would the Founding Fathers say about our current political crisis?

Again, I think Donald Trump's tapping into something deeply anti-establishment. See, "The Political Establishment's Terrified by Donald Trump's 'Tangible American Nationalism'."

Monica Crowley on Today’s Totalitarian Left

This is great!

Mark Tapson has an interview with the brilliant Monica Crowley, at FrontPage Magazine.

Her book's a freakin' classic, What the (Bleep) Just Happened . . . Again?: The Happy Warrior's Guide to the Great American Comeback.

America’s Shattered Postwar Order

Instapundit had this posted, and it looks good.

From James Piereson, Shattered Consensus: The Rise and Decline of America’s Postwar Political Order.

Special Operations at Amazon

Here, Books on Special Operations Forces.

And just out last month, Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win.

What 'Rape Culture' Really Means: Your Male Heterosexuality Is Problematic

From Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain.

Donald Trump Slams Obama Over Ground Troops in Syria (VIDEO)

At CNN, via Memeorandum, "First on CNN: Trump slams Obama over ground troops in Syria."

Sacramento Unified High School Teacher Suspended after Allegedly Wrestling Student in Classroom (VIDEO)

Bizarre.

At the Sacramento Bee, "Police identify McClatchy High teacher arrested after allegedly wrestling student."

And at CBS News Sacramento:

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – DNCBC Debate."

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "Democratic Communist or Democratic socialist, at this point what difference does it make."

Home & Garden Gift Guide for the Season

At Amazon, Shop Holiday Home & Garden Gift Guide - Seasonal Celebrator.

Bonus: Best Sellers in History.

Bernie Sanders Going Up in Iowa and New Hampshire with 60-Second Spot Targeted to Blacks (VIDEO)

He's making "overtures" to black Americans.

At WSJ, "Sanders Releasing 60-Second Ad in New Campaign Phase":

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is putting out his first ad of the 2016 campaign, a 60-second spot that highlights his biography and makes overtures to a constituency that he will need to beat frontrunner Hillary Clinton: African-Americans.

Mr. Sanders’s campaign is spending more than $2 million on the ad, which will air in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that hold the first two contests of the primary campaign.

“Thousands of Americans have come out to see Bernie speak and we’ve seen a great response to his message,” Jeff Weaver, the Sanders campaign manager, said. “This ad marks the next phase of this campaign. We’re bringing that message directly to the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire.”

In national polls, Mr. Sanders is running second to Mrs. Clinton, who has been running television ads since the summer.

The Sanders ad, called “Real Change,” opens with pictures of a young Mr. Sanders: “The son of a Polish immigrant who grew up in a Brooklyn tenement.”

A female narrator says that “fighting justice and inequality” is Mr. Sanders’s overriding project. The ad shows a picture of Martin Luther King, with a caption that reads Mr. Sanders joined the March on Washington, where Mr. King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

At another point in the ad, Mr. Sanders is shown with his arm around an African-American supporter.

Polling shows Mrs. Clinton has a large advantage over Mr. Sanders among African-Americans, a core part of the Democratic base.

While Mr. Sanders is running a close race against Mrs. Clinton in two states that are largely white—Iowa and New Hampshire—polls show he trails badly in South Carolina, a state that holds the fourth contest of the primary season.

Blacks account for about half of South Carolina’s Democratic electorate...

More.

Peggy Noonan's New Book Out Tuesday

At Amazon, The Time of Our Lives: Collected Writings.

And she's interviewed at this morning's "Face the Nation":

Donald Trump Towers Over GOP Field in Latest IBD/TIPP Poll

At IBD, "Trump Leads GOP, Carson Stays Strong, Rubio 3rd: Poll" (via Conservative Tree-house):

After taking a battering in last month's poll, Donald Trump has re-emerged at the top of the Republican field in the latest IBD/TIPP poll.

Support for Trump among registered Republicans and those leaning Republican is 28%; support for Carson is 23%. Last month's poll had Carson up by 7 points over Trump.

Marco Rubio comes in third at 11%, the same as last month.

No other GOP candidate reached double digits. Support for Jeb Bush dropped two points to 6%; Carly Fiorina collapsed to 3% from last month's 9%. Ted Cruz held at 6%.

"Trump's support in the last poll suffered somewhat because of his nearly weeklong boycott of Fox News, which has since been lifted," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, which conducts the IBD/TIPP poll. "Carson has recently been under more scrutiny by both the media and other candidates."

Mayur added, "Though our latest poll shows Trump leading Carson, the poll's margin of error of +/- five points means that Trump and Carson are still running a close race."

That's evident from other polls. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows Carson in the lead by four points, while the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll has Trump up by three points. Several Iowa polls show Carson well ahead of Trump.

The RealClearPolitics average has Trump at 26.8% to Carson's 22%, with Trump down from his mid-September peak of 30.5%.

Interestingly, Carson does beat Trump among investors in the IBD/TIPP Poll — 27% to 24% — as well as among independents by 30% to 21%. Trump leads among men — 38% to Carson's 18%. Among women, it's Carson at 28% to 18% for Trump...

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