Hit Hard: Rachel Maddow and MSNBC

I briefly flipped over to MSNBC, but it was too freakin' boring.

And CNN had John King doing the magic wall all night, with the micro-analyses of the county-level results. Also not my cup of tea.

Frankly, Fox News was very refreshing. I even enjoyed Karl Rove. And Megyn Kelly was magnanimous, even appearing to kiss up to Donald Trump.

What a night.

In any case, at Twitchy, "MELTDOWN of the night: Rachel Maddow is losing it as Trump wins Ohio, N.C. and it’s hilarious; Update."

I'm speechless #ElectionNight https://t.co/UANsIHoNKK

— FREDDY (@FreddyAmazin) November 9, 2016

Leftists Absolutely Crushed at Donald Trump's Election Victory

Crestfallen. Crushed. Emotionally devastated.

How else can you describe leftists, other than delectable, heh?

At the Los Angeles Times, and below at Twitchy:

"When reality sets in." What a piece by @mattdpearce. https://t.co/14zoqt9ww5 pic.twitter.com/TQ1k59wpnx

— Laura J. Nelson (@laura_nelson) November 9, 2016

SCHADENFREUDE: Check out these pitiful photos, video of supporters at Hillary Clinton Headquarters https://t.co/p8OOxHzqiX

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 9, 2016

Hillary Clinton supporters are crying at Clinton Headquarters #ElectionNight #Election2016 pic.twitter.com/HxdMuJGMTE

— An0maly (@An0malyMusic) November 9, 2016

Today's Front Page at the Los Angeles Times

I'll be absorbing the news all day, looking for the best stories to post to the blog.

Thanks for reading.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trump wins presidency in stunning upset, vows America will 'no longer settle for anything less than the best'."

The front page of tomorrow's Los Angeles Times. pic.twitter.com/Ma9lemwqya

— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) November 9, 2016

Morning in America

It really feels like it.

From lamblock, on Twitter:

It's morning again in America.

— #JeSuisJuive (@lamblock) November 9, 2016

A Nation Divided: Rage and Suspicion Reign as Americans, Painfully Split, Cast Their Votes

Well, I can't disagree about a nation divided.

I'm just cracking up now that the shoe's on the other foot, so to speak.

Progs told us to get in line once Obama was elected. You were racist if you opposed him. You were un-American.

Maybe all these leftists will move to Canada after all.

At the New York Times.

How Could the Polling Be So Wrong?

Folks, I'm still absorbing this stunning repudiation of the progressive establishment, and honestly, I believed the polling predicting a Clinton victory last night in the Electoral College.

So, I have as many questions as anyone else.

Look for a lot of blogging on that over these next few days.

Meanwhile, at Politico:

How could the polling be so wrong? https://t.co/U3CHmtklo5 | Getty pic.twitter.com/lFhzDZ7LS1

— POLITICO (@politico) November 9, 2016

Theodore White's 'Making of the President' Series

I took my first political science class in 1986.

The professor, Mr. McDonald at Saddleback College, was into the old machine-style urban politics of the turn of the 20th century. I remember him talking about that all the time. I also remember him giving us a reading assignment for the semester, where we had to read two books of political journalism and write reports.

I read Theodore H. White's, The Making of the President, 1960, and Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon.

In his presidential election series, White also wrote The Making of the President, 1964, The Making of the President, 1968, and The Making of the President, 1972.

Breach of Faith is out of print, but all the books in the president's series are available. They're unsurpassed in presidential election journalism, and given the nostalgia of the 2016 election, I'm sure some of my readers might enjoy Teddy White.

I haven't read Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House. It's been on my list for a while. From what I hear it's a magisterial tome in the style of the Teddy White series.

In any case, more blogging tonight. I should be home sometime after 5:00pm.

Have a wonderful day.

Crystal Ball's Final Projection: Clinton 322, Trump 216

At Sabato's Crystal Ball, "Our Final 2016 Picks: Clinton 322, Trump 216; 50-50 Senate; GOP holds House":

The Crystal Ball's final presidential map. Toughest calls were FL, NC, OH. Clinton 322, Trump 216. https://t.co/KW5wKGQ9nn pic.twitter.com/I5Ez48RG04

— Geoffrey Skelley (@geoffreyvs) November 7, 2016

Despite some wobbles along the way, we’ve favored Hillary Clinton as the 45th president of the United States ever since we did our first handicapping of the Clinton vs. Donald Trump matchup back in late March. The edge we had for her back then has eroded a little bit at the end — we had her as high as 352 electoral votes, and in the final tally we have her down to 322, with 216 for Trump. If this is how it turns out, Trump will fare 10 electoral votes better than Mitt Romney, and Clinton will do 10 electoral votes worse than Barack Obama in 2012 — 11 or 12 if rogue Washington electors follow through on their threat to refuse to vote for Clinton (but we can’t assume that at this time).

The two closest states here are North Carolina and Ohio. For a long time, it appeared that Florida was a shakier state for Clinton than the Tar Heel State, but our sources indicate that the Sunshine State looks somewhat brighter for her now, although both should be tight. Meanwhile, Ohio may be a real Toss-up state. Buckeye history and demography point to Trump, but Clinton’s ground operation could come through for her in the end. If Ohio does vote for Trump while he is losing the White House, it will be just the third time in 31 elections that Ohio will have voted for the loser. We’re picking that to happen, but if Clinton gets any benefit out of James Comey’s final (?) intervention into campaign 2016, it may be that it generates a tiny bounce that allows her to leapfrog Trump in the Buckeye State. Arizona and Iowa seem like heavier lifts for Clinton but her campaign still holds out hope in both. Ultimately, we think North Carolina and Ohio are the hardest calls in the Electoral College, so we think it makes the most sense to just split them.

The buzz in the final days has been about a late Trump play in Michigan. He will likely eat into traditional Democratic margins there, but remember that Barack Obama won the state by nearly 10 points in 2012 (450,000 votes). Trump’s climb there is steep, but out of an abundance of caution we’re moving the state from Likely Democratic to Leans Democratic. We’re doing the same thing in New Hampshire, where some polls were close last week (although many operatives do not believe the state is tied), and Pennsylvania, two states (like Michigan) that have very little early voting. Clinton is focusing on these states at the end, too, and with good reason. If Trump pulls an upset, it’ll probably be because he narrowly fought off Clinton in Florida and North Carolina and managed to spring a shocker or two in the Rust Belt.

Florida may tell us a lot about whether we’re going to have a long night or a short one. About two-thirds of voters will likely have cast their ballots early, so the vote count should not take that long. If Clinton wins the state by two or three points and is declared the victor early on, it’ll be hard to find a plausible path to Trump victory. If Trump captures the state, though, then we’ll have to see if her firewall states, like the aforementioned states of Michigan, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, as well as Colorado, Nevada, and Virginia, come through for her.

In the prognostication business, what you predict at the end — when the drift of the year is usually fairly clear — is less significant than what you predict months before, at a time when the future is foggy. Starting in March, we have released a total of 17 Electoral College maps in the Clinton-Trump race. Not even on Clinton’s worst campaign days did we ever have her below 270 electoral votes...

Keep reading for the rest of the picks.

They're really good over there at Crystal Ball, and frankly I've been looking at the final polls this week and it all seems just too tight for Trump. I'm going to be sad, but I don't think he's going to pull it out.

But, we won't know until the people cast their ballots, so check back tonight.

PREVIOUSLY: "Donald Trump’s Narrow Path."

Democratic Socialism is Still Socialism

It's the hilarious Steven Crowder, for Prager University:

The 'Unskewed Polls' of 2016

We've seen this movie before.

Back in 2012, a bunch of conservatives became fixated on some obscure website called "Unskewed Polls," which adjusted that year's election polling correcting for partisan composition, and so forth.

The results were spectacularly wrong. That is, most of the polling in 2012 was accurate. Indeed, Gallup quit doing presidential horse race polling this year because it botched its surveys four years ago, especially its prediction of Romney winning the popular vote.

I'm not going down that rabbit hole again.

I've already scheduled a post for tomorrow morning, linking Sabato's Crystal Ball, which has Hillary Clinton winning with 322 electors. Perhaps she won't do that well. It's just that based on current polling, Donald Trump falls well short of the 270 electors needed to pull off an upset.

He'd need to win Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Ohio to get 269, according to the Wall Street Journal. He'd need to pick up one more state to go over the top, perhaps Colorado.

 We'll see, in any case.

Meanwhile, here's this year's "Unskewed Polls," at Gateway Pundit (don't get too excited).

See, "Here’s Why THE POLLS ARE WRONG=> Trump Will WIN IN A LANDSLIDE! (POLLS)."




I'd love for tomorrow map to turn out like this, although I'm realistic.

I mean, c'mon, they've even got Trump winning the Keystone State. I'm just a wee bit skeptical.

Donald Trump’s Narrow Path

I really don't see an Electoral College path, but that's me.

He's going to need to sweep up all the states Mitt Romney won in 2012, and then take back a few that Obama won, like Iowa and Colorado, not to mention Florida and Ohio.

At WSJ, "Donald Trump’s Path to Victory Is Narrow":

PHILADELPHIA — After months of campaigning, the presidential race has come down to this: Democrat Hillary Clinton has several apparent paths to the White House, while Republican Donald Trump must all-but sweep the battlegrounds where the race has centered, and will likely need at least one Democratic-leaning state, too.

For Mrs. Clinton, victory would require her winning one or two of the most contested states, if she can hold on to those that have long favored Democratic nominees. Mr. Trump has said he has a shot at those Democratic-leaning states, which include Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and New Mexico. Yet polls in each show Mrs. Clinton ahead.

Nationally, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Sunday found Mrs. Clinton leading Mr. Trump by 4 points among likely voters as the two nominees head into their final day of campaigning before Tuesday’s election.

For Mr. Trump to win, he must finish ahead of Mrs. Clinton in the battleground states of Florida, Ohio and, in most calculations, North Carolina, analysts from both parties said. His path to victory, far narrower than Mrs. Clinton’s, also likely requires a win in at least one state that has long been in the Democratic column.

“He has to run the table,” said Russ Schriefer, a strategist for Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign.

Mr. Trump’s chances are dim unless he can wrest away a state such as Michigan or Pennsylvania, where he campaigned Sunday, places that haven’t voted Republican in presidential races since 1988. Looking to shore up Mrs. Clinton’s base, her campaign added stops in both states Monday and began TV ads in Michigan, where polls have shown the race tightening.

Mr. Trump on Sunday followed a campaign schedule that outlined a possible path to victory—cutting through Midwestern and mid-Atlantic states, regions rich in the working-class, white voters who help form his base of support. He campaigned in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania, each of which has a largely white voter pool that could boost his chances.

He also appeared in Virginia, a state where the Clinton campaign is so confident that Mrs. Clinton last campaigned there in July.

Democrats begin with an advantage in the hunt for the 270 Electoral College votes required to win. In every election since 2000, they have won states that account for 242 electoral votes; Republicans have won states that total 179 in the same period. The GOP, however, gets to a starting tally of 190 by adding Indiana, which backed Barack Obama in 2008 but has since shifted reliably Republican.

“The map naturally has a blue tilt to it simply because there’s a history of these states voting Democratic,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican strategist and pollster. “Simply because of that, she starts on our 40-yard line.”

Mr. Trump is testing the proposition that a Republican can win with an economic message in the industrial Midwest, where states remain largely white.

“We’re going into what they used to call Democrat strongholds where we’re now either tied or ahead,” Mr. Trump said at a rally Saturday. “We’re doing well in places that they don’t believe.”

Beyond his Midwest strategy, Mr. Trump could also win by carrying a large set of battleground states where polls show him within striking distance or ahead: Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire. That combination of victories would produce a 269-269 Electoral College tie...

Well, that's all we need, an Electoral College tie. The election would go to the House, where Trump would likely win. Talk about Democrats blowing through the roof. It'll be worse than 2000.

But keep reading.

Rhian Sugden Frolicking on the Beach

She's so sweet.

At Page 3, "Rhian Sugden pours curves into gorgeous red bikini for birthday beach holiday: The glamour model celebrated her 30th birthday with fiance Oliver Mellor."

Can you guess which of our #Page3 princesses we spotted frolicking on the beach? https://t.co/NULv6uwvUz pic.twitter.com/GTT08a9Y4g

— Page 3 (@Page3) November 7, 2016

Top Products: Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones, Black

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Deal of the Day: The Hunger Games: Complete 4 Film Collection (Blu-ray and Digital HD)

At Amazon, it's $24.99 for the complete set, The Hunger Games: Complete 4 Film Collection [Blu-ray + Digital HD].

Also, Save Up to 30% on Panasonic Shavers.

BONUS: Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House. Also, Theodore White, The Making of the President 1960.

In the Sunset of the Baby Boomers' Generation, Election Reawakens an Old Divide

I'm a boomer, born on the tail end of the generation, in the early 1960s.

At the New York Times:

8 years after Obama lamented "psychodrama of the baby boom generation" & 12 years after litigating Bush, Kerry, Nam!https://t.co/U4ZrD0vpWO

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) November 7, 2016

They came of age in the 1960s and ’70s, in the traumatic aftermath of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They fought and protested a war together, argued over Nixon and Kissinger together, laughed at Archie Bunker together. As children, they practiced air-raid drills; as adults, they cheered the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In the 1990s, they saw one of their own become president, watching him gain glory as one of the most gifted politicians of his time, but also infamy as one of its most self-indulgent — a poster child for the Me Generation.

They are of course the baby boomers, the collective offspring of the most fertile period in American history. At 75 million strong, they have been the most dominant force in American life for three decades, and one of its most maligned. Enlightened but self-centered, introspective but reckless, they are known among the cohorts that followed them — and even to some boomers themselves — as the generation that failed to live up to its lofty ideals, but still held fast to its sense of superiority.

If Bill Clinton was their white-haired id, Hillary Clinton is their superego in a pantsuit. A second Clinton presidency could represent a last hurrah for the baby boomers. But it could also offer a shot at a kind of generational redemption.

“There is a kind of do-over quality to it,” said Landon Y. Jones, the author of the 1980 book “Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation.” “This is their last chance to get it right.”

A shared history binds the boomers — as do, broadly speaking, some shared traits. Their parents suffered through the Depression and World War II before rearing them in the most prosperous society the world had ever seen. Inevitably, perhaps, they were guided by two polestars: responsibility and entitlement.

Those dueling impulses powered the rise of both Clintons: one impulse galvanizing supporters who deeply admired their commitment to public service, the other galling critics who saw them as playing by their own rules...

Well, if the Clintons are going to be representative of the boomers, I think it's time to pass the baton.

Frankly, even Obama's a better representative, at least in terms of family values. He does seem like he's kept and raised a nice family, which is not true for the Clintons.

The Cyberwarfare Election

I was already thinking about this, as I was considering how I was going to analyze the 2016 election in my upcoming classes.

It's not just cyberwarfare as a political issue, but also a factor impinging directly on the campaigns, such as all the WikiLeaks revelations and accusations of Russian political influence.

In any case, the New York Times, "Under the Din of the Presidential Race Lies a Once and Future Threat: Cyberwarfare":

MANCHESTER, N.H. — The 2016 presidential race will be remembered for many ugly moments, but the most lasting historical marker may be one that neither voters nor American intelligence agencies saw coming: It is the first time that a foreign power has unleashed cyberweapons to disrupt, or perhaps influence, a United States election.

And there is a foreboding sense that, in elections to come, there is no turning back.

The steady drumbeat of allegations of Russian troublemaking — leaks from stolen emails and probes of election-system defenses — has continued through the campaign’s last days. These intrusions, current and former administration officials agree, will embolden other American adversaries, which have been given a vivid demonstration that, when used with some subtlety, their growing digital arsenals can be particularly damaging in the frenzy of a democratic election.

“Most of the biggest stories of this election cycle have had a cybercomponent to them — or the use of information warfare techniques that the Russians, in particular, honed over decades,” said David Rothkopf, the chief executive and editor of Foreign Policy, who has written two histories of the National Security Council. “From stolen emails, to WikiLeaks, to the hacking of the N.S.A.’s tools, and even the debate about how much of this the Russians are responsible for, it’s dominated in a way that we haven’t seen in any prior election.”

The magnitude of this shift has gone largely unrecognized in the cacophony of a campaign dominated by charges of groping and pay-for-play access. Yet the lessons have ranged from the intensely personal to the geostrategic...

Keep reading.

Why America Can't Make Up Its Mind Three Days Before the Election

From Salena Zito, at the New York Post:

I drove 2000 miles on the back roads-from Appalachia to the Rockies.
Meet the other America https://t.co/tgqSybd3uJ pic.twitter.com/WA75u99dZc

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) November 7, 2016

Deal of the Day: Char-Broil The Big Easy TRU-Infrared Oil-Less Turkey Fryer

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More, Save Up to 35% Off Select Britax Car Seats.

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Also, Kindle Paperwhite E-reader - Black, 6" High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers.

BONUS: Robert S. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War. (I'm still plugging away on this book, and it's worth it!)

Clinton, Trump in Dead Heat for Florida and Ohio, at CBS News Battleground Tracker (VIDEO)

It's Anthony Salvanto, who've I've come to like a lot, for Face the Nation:

Watch, "CBS News Battleground Tracker: Trump, Clinton in Dead Heat in Ohio, Florida."

On election night, it's a bad sign for the Democrats if Hillary's not ahead in states as the polls close. If they're too close to call, that's going to be a good sign for the Republicans.

I'll probably get home around 5:30pm or so, depending on whether there's a line at my polling place, and there's never been one this last few years. Hence, when I turn on the television, it's possible the networks could be projecting a Hillary Clinton electoral college victory. The nets pretty much called it for Obama by 6:00pm on the West Coast in 2012, and I was surprised, since everyone was talking about how it was going to be a long night.

Well, it's possible we'll have a long night this year, and I hope so.

More later.

J.D. Vance and Arlie Russell Hochschild Have Arrived

My books came yesterday.

Here, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, and Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.

There's a combined review of the books at the New Republic, "Red-State Blues: Why do people support Trump and the Tea Party? A native son and a sociologist search for answers."

And thanks to everyone's who's been shopping through my Amazon links.

As you can see, I invest my associate's fees right back into more books!

Hillary Would Complete Obama's Fundamental Transformation of America

I've been saying this for a while.

From John Fonte, at the Claremont Review, "Transformers":

Four Years of Hillary

Hillary Clinton will consolidate and expand Obama’s “fundamental transformation.” America will see both an increase in power for the administrative state, which will breech the parchment barriers of the separation of powers and federalism, and the relentless advance of identity politics, which undermines our traditional civic morality centered on the concept of individual American citizenship.

Since we are perhaps the most litigious society in the world, any Clinton-Trump political comparison must consider how each will treat the interpretation and enforcement of the law. Besides appointments to a sharply divided Supreme Court, the next president will appoint scores of lower court judges and U.S. attorneys, the Attorney General, and lawyers in the Justice Department and throughout the federal agencies. There is every reason to expect that the Clinton Legal Behemoth will push the legal envelope with a vengeance on: Obamacare; climate change; green energy; guns; coal; international law; housing; education; immigration; gender, racial, ethnic, and linguistic disparities; and, of course, expanding the administrative state’s scope and power to the detriment of the separation of powers and federalism. One could well imagine a legal Blitzkrieg against political critics like Dinesh D’Souza, sheriffs who enforce immigration law like Joe Arpaio, climate skeptics, conservative activists, fossil-fuel industry executives, Christians, purveyors of alleged “hate speech,” and perceived enemies of social justice and ethnic/gender equity.

Hadley Arkes writes that Obama “has made a nullity of Congress and the separation of powers. And an administration of the Left will only confirm and entrench these changes.” Under Hillary Clinton, “We can expect a campaign to force religious schools to incorporate abortion in their medical plans and have outreach to LGBT groups. And we can expect new judges in the lower courts to support this war on the religious.”

Clinton’s immigration-integration-diversity agenda will create a new regime and, in many ways, a new people. She has promised even less enforcement than Obama, both at the border and in the interior. Word would get out, certainly in Central America, that any youth able to reach the US border can claim refugee status and then eventually bring his parents. Clinton has also promised to exceed Obama actions on executive amnesty. If she is temporarily blocked by the courts she will, after enough appointments, ultimately get the judges who will approve her actions.

In tandem with Clinton’s promise to increase Syrian refugees by over 500%, the Obama administration recently announced that it seeks to add a new ethnic-racial category to the U.S. Census: “Middle Eastern and North African people.” Doing so would provide “protected status” to many American Muslims, giving them affirmative action preferences and the legal privileges of a “marginalized” group. According to data from DHS there has been a 29% increase under Obama in green cards given to immigrants from Muslim majority nations.

Clinton has promised new “comprehensive immigration reform” legislation in her first 100 days. Republican Congressional leaders eager to “get things done,” not “appear obstructionist”, and “get immigration off the table” might well facilitate this goal by permitting a “conscience vote” in the House, where a unanimous Democratic minority will find enough Republicans to form a majority, and consideration under simple regular order in the Senate. A bill close to the Gang of Eight legislation would mean issuing about 13 million new green cards in Hillary’s first term to overwhelmingly low-skilled, non-English speaking immigrants … who will, of course, vote Democratic. This, in turn, will only accelerate ongoing family chain migration and continuing illegal immigration. As in the Gang of Eight bill, all enforcement provisions will be subject to waivers by Clinton’s DHS Secretary. (There were over 1,000 such waivers in the original Gang of Eight bill.) The massive importation of millions of new low-skilled, non-English speaking, immigrants, of course, cannot be reversed in the election of 2020.

Yet some Republicans seem more concerned about Trump’s alleged sexual misconduct decades ago than Clinton’s endorsement of “open borders” in a speech to foreign bankers on May 16, 2013. Most importantly, this deliberate policy of open borders and mass immigration will be accompanied by an official anti-assimilation policy as the new federal government “integration” strategy, inaugurated by Obama, urges new immigrants to maintain their native languages and cultures, instead of prioritizing English and assimilating into the American way of life...

Read the whole thing.

That piece is a keeper.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies." (It's not posted yet.)



Also at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "See No Evil."

Hillary Clinton Seems Unfazed by Criticism of Alicia Machado

Pfft.

I ignored this controversy from a few weeks back, but Heat Street's running with an update, posting near-topless photos of this woman Alicia Machado.

Here, "Clinton's campaign seems unfazed by criticism of her surrogate Alicia Machado."

And at Egotastic!, "Alicia Machado Playboy Pictures for the Venezuelan In All of Us."

A political Rule 5, for the last weekend before election day.

What a year and a half it's been. Sheesh.

Feminist Jessica Valenti Knows How She's Gonna Vote

Heh.

On Twitter:

I know what finger I'm voting with! Thanks so much to Stephanie Tamez at @savedtattoo for the beautiful work. pic.twitter.com/KrG8yRgHlc

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) October 27, 2016

And ICYMI, see Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain, "Bad Habits: Cocaine and Feminism."

What Happens After Tuesday? The Mood is Bleak

From Cathleen Decker, at the Los Angeles Times, "What happens after Tuesday? Dismayed voters weigh in on the future of a divided nation":

The uncivil war of rhetoric and resentments is ending, but few have any idea how to bind the nation's wounds. https://t.co/Jqrc1RdvxC

— Cathleen Decker (@cathleendecker) November 6, 2016

The presidential campaign eight years ago is forever wrapped in the soaring and optimistic Obama slogan: “Change we can believe in.” This one’s imagery is the detritus of FBI investigations, a candidate’s vulgarities, accusations of dishonesty, racial dog whistles, misogynist insults.

Any campaign belongs to its times, and this one fits squarely into a worldwide dislocation of the masses from the elites — those of governments, businesses, religions, media. In Great Britain, those sentiments led to the vote to leave the European Union. Here, it has helped to fuel Trump’s rise and limit Clinton’s success.

In an October tracking poll by SurveyMonkey, 50% of Americans said that the country was more divided now than ever before and that the splits would persist “far into the future.” Another 30% agreed that America was more divided than ever, but said the nation could knit itself together in the near future.

That left fewer than 1 in 5 people to assert that the country hadn’t actually sunk to its most divided state.

A cycle of distrust has bred pessimism, no matter the improving unemployment rate or other favorable statistics.

“Even when the news is good, people don’t trust it,” said Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford law professor and political scientist who has studied the national mood. The randomness of threatening events — whether economic collapse or terrorism —  also “makes people jittery,” he said.

That sense of pessimism and dislocation is particularly strong among America’s shrinking white majority.

“Whites are feeling like the earth is moving beneath their feet. Whether it’s an African American president or immigrants, they feel the meaning of America is changing for them,” he said. “And it’s heaped onto the other insecurities.”

All of that can be found in the campaign...

RTWT.

The Death of Elitism

From Salena Zito, at the Washington Examiner":

Somewhere off U.S. 62 between Sharon, Pa., and Masory, Ohio, a sign reads, "You had your chance, it's our turn now."

That homemade sign, located in the fault line of this election in the Mahoning Valley between Ohio and Pennsylvania, in all its simplicity found a way to capture the essence of this presidential cycle.

In fact, it offered more insight into the discord between the American electorate and the governing elite than any pundit has been able to explain, let alone comprehend.

In short, the biggest takeaway from this election no matter who wins is that we have witnessed the end of elitism.

And the power of elites to persuade us has evaporated.

The public no longer has faith in big banks or big companies or big government. People cannot trust the banks because they create sham accounts to meet sales targets, or trust technology companies because they make shoddy cell phone equipment that blows up in our hands only to be replaced with another shoddy phone that blows up in our hands.

And the governing class has failed us miserably, from wars in the Middle East that never end, to a healthcare bill that erodes our income to the politicization of the once trustworthy institutions of the Pentagon, NASA and the Justice Department.

To them, the system is genuinely rigged, and the divide between the Ivy League educated and the state or trade school educated, between the haves and the have-nots, has become so deep that there is no bridge long or sturdy enough to connect them.

It is that very thing that explains why so many Americans are attracted to the deeply flawed candidacy of Donald Trump...

Keep reading.

Paul Rahe: 'How I Might Be Wrong' in Attacking the Never Trumpers

At Ricochet, "How I Might Be Wrong."

He's had second thoughts in light of Trump's foreign policy, and he cites Jeremy Rabkin and John Yoo, at the Los Angeles Times, in August, "Filling Supreme Court vacancies isn't a good enough reason to vote for Trump."

Hat Tip: Instapundit.

Great 'Hacksaw Ridge' Review from David Edelstein

I've read at least three reviews of the movie, but Edelstein seems to cut closest to the essence.

At Vulture, "'Hacksaw Ridge' Is a Massive Achievement for Mel Gibson":

Say what you will about Mad Mel Gibson, he’s a driven, febrile artist, and there isn’t a second in his war film Hacksaw Ridge — not even the ones that should register as clichés — that doesn’t burn with his peculiar intensity. He has chosen exactly the right subject for himself. His hero is the Virginia-born Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), the first “conscientious objector” to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor based on lives he saved as a medic during the spring 1945 battle for Okinawa, one of the most hellish in the entire Pacific campaign. Doss had no problem with serving in the military. He longed to serve. But in insisting that, as a Seventh-day Adventist, he couldn’t carry a weapon, he flouted the central tenet of military cohesion: You protect your fellow soldiers and they protect you. He had to put himself in the middle of the inferno before the Army understood the nature of the protection he offered.

It’s the right subject for Gibson because violence is central to his work. The formula for the action films in which he starred was Make Mel Mad: hurt him, hurt his ­women, hurt his kids, and stand back. What’s clearer now is that violence — done by him and to him — is a form of self-obliteration. He is, for whatever reason, a man so brimming with self-disgust that he embraces violence as the straightest path to transcendence...

Keep reading. Also, "Mel Gibson's 'Hacksaw Ridge': Sadism and Pacifism Go to War (VIDEO)," and "Mel Gibson's a Different Person Now."

Donald Trump and the End of American Exceptionalism

Blah, blah, blah.

Here's yet another leftist screed warning about the dangers of Donald Trump and Trumpism. These screeds have been polluting the web with an increasing frequency this last few weeks. That's how frightened the political class has become.

From Jelani Cobb, at the New Yorker:

In the sixteen months since he declared his candidacy, Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign has elicited comparisons to those of George Wallace and Barry Goldwater, to the hallucinatory paranoia of Joseph McCarthy, to the fascist preoccupations of Charles Lindbergh, and to lesser lights of American demagoguery like Father Coughlin and the Know-Nothings of the nineteenth century.

The unifying theme among these figures, beyond their disdain for democracy, was their common residence in the loser’s aisle of American history. McCarthy’s conspiratorial manipulation of the public eventually earned him the enmity of both Republicans and Democrats and a vote in the Senate to censure him. Wallace carried just five states and garnered thirteen per cent of the popular vote. Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson by sixteen million popular votes, winning just fifty-two Electoral College votes to Johnson’s four hundred and eighty-six. Richard Hofstadter’s 1964 classic “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” charted the lunatic genealogy of fringe movements dating back to the early years of the Republic, but the more sanguine assessment of that lineage is that few of these movements—anti-Catholicism, anti-Freemasonry, or Know-Nothingism, for instance—managed to sustain themselves in the long term or to fully inhabit the political mainstream.

Goldwater is heralded as the father of modern conservatism, but he could occupy that niche only because successive generations of his heirs refined and streamlined his message, buffing away the elements that the public saw as extremist. The modern Republican Party staked its claim on conservatism, not on Goldwaterism.

All this points to yet another reason why Trump represents a unique danger in American politics. Trumpism does not seek simply to make a point and pass on its genes to more politically palatable heirs, nor is it readily apparent why he would need to settle for this. When George Will announced his departure from the G.O.P., last summer, he offered a modified version of Ronald Reagan’s quote about leaving the Democrats—“I didn’t leave the Party; the Party left me.” But a kind of converse narrative applies to Trump; he didn’t join the Republican Party so much as its most febrile elements joined him. Trump is partly a product of forces that the G.O.P. created by pandering to a base whose dilated pupils the Party mistook for gullibility, not abject, irrational fear that would send those voters scurrying to the nearest authoritarian savior they could find. The error was in thinking that this populace, mainlining Glenn Beck and Alex Jones theories and pondering how the Minutemen would have fought Sharia law, could be controlled. (For evidence to the contrary, the Party needed look no further than the premature political demise of Eric Cantor.) The old adage warns that one should beware of puppets that begin pulling their own strings.

In this light, Trump represents a kind of return to the old-time religion, a fundamentalism that rejects the effete nature of dog-whistle politics the way the religious right defined itself by rejecting the watery tenets of liberal Christianity. Implicit within dog-whistling is enough respect for democratic norms and those outside one’s base to speak to that base in terms that the mass populace can’t readily decipher. Here, plausible deniability is at least a recognition that there are people with interests different from one’s own and that their influence, if not their interests or humanity, warrants a certain degree of respect. Trump is doing the opposite of this. He is an exhorter in a midsummer tent revival: direct, literal, and speaking at a decibel that makes it impossible to misunderstand his intentions. The end result of Trump’s evangelism is that a xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, serially mendacious narcissist is poised to pull in somewhere north of fifty million votes in the midst of the most bitterly contentious election in modern American history. The easy analysis holds that Trump’s jihad against decency has wrecked the Republican Party, but the damage is far more extensive than this...

The main problem here is its incompleteness. Cobb completely omits the Democrat Party from any responsibility for the rise of Trumpism. But as anyone with half a brain knows, the radicalization of the Democrats since at least the Iraq war has unleashed ideological forces that just now seem to have spun out of control, mainly because Trump is unfiltered (in his professed disdain for political correctness, and so forth). Also, Cobb forgets that the culture itself has changed since the the days of both Goldwater and Reagan. Social media has only accelerated a coarsening of American life that's seeped into politics like a cancer. Trumpism won't go away because Obamism isn't going away. Polls show that partisans on both sides have increased in strength and there's precious little incentive to cooperate with the opponent. Fractured, polarized politics lets out the worst. If Cobb were honest he'd at least concede that forces across the ideological spectrum are responsible for where we are today, and his failure ---- along with those of his political class ---- will ensure that these same forces of a long shelf life.

But keep reading.

And see also, "Social Media Enables Prejudice to Slip Back Into the Mainstream."

Welcome to Friday's 'The Crap We Missed' Featuring Ariel Winter Braless

At the Superficial, "The Crap We Missed – Friday 11.4.16."

Hat Tip: Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY."

Social Media Enables Prejudice to Slip Back Into the Mainstream

Blah, blah, blah.

Everybody's prejudiced about something. It's human nature.

I mean, Hillary Clinton slammed Bernie Sanders' supporters as a "basket of losers," and I don't see leftists getting all uptight about that.

See? Prejudices.

But check Edward Luce, at FT, "The age of vitriol: Edward Luce on US politics and social media":

Age of vitriol. I talk to co-founder of alt-right, @RichardBSpencer & his antidotes - @juliaioffe and @LibyaLiberty https://t.co/3hJS28wGSS

— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 4, 2016

I was first alerted to Richard B Spencer by a horrific Twitter post. The tweet in question showed the ubiquitous photo of a Syrian boy, face covered in blood and dust, with the tagline: “Hey, let’s start WWIII for this f***king kid!” Like most people who saw it, I was offended. That, of course, was the point. Unlike many of his peers, Spencer tweets under his real name. He then revels in the outrage.

Provocation is the goal of the so-called alt-right — the amorphous world of rightwing extremist groups that have thrived in the age of Donald Trump. Memes, such as the one of the Syrian boy, are their weapon. Notoriety is their oxygen. The past year or two have been a field day. “No matter what happens, I will be profoundly grateful to Trump for the rest of my life,” says Spencer.

After what seems like the worst-tempered US election ever, America will at last make its decision on Tuesday. History may look back on 2016 as the year when the US finally chose a woman to lead it, or when the postwar US-global order started to break up. Others will remember it as the election when a rank outsider — a reality-TV star, no less — stormed the citadel and changed the way the game was played.

For my part, having lived in America on and off since the end of the past century, this is the year when democracy’s sense of restraint seemed to vanish. The glue of mutual respect that is so vital to any free society came unstuck. People no longer bother trying to persuade each other. They simply shove their views — or the mere fact of their identity — in your face. Or else they just insult you. The more retweets the better.

For all its pluses, social media has drowned politics in vitriol. New technology has opened up a galaxy of thought once confined to libraries, but it has also enabled ancient prejudices to seep back into the mainstream — anti-Semitism, for example, and hatred of women. In the past few months, the Twitter hashtags #whitegenocide (the view that whites are endangered by multiculturalism) and #repealthe19th (the US constitution’s 19th amendment gave women the right to vote) have trended heavily.

Obnoxiousness has infected all sides of the spectrum but the right has learnt how to play the game better. Partly because it is rebelling against political correctness, it works with fewer boundaries, or none at all. The level of trust between electors and elected has been falling for years. In 2016 the electorate has begun to turn viciously on itself. Is this a blip or a permanent shift? The future of free society may depend on the answer. Democracy cannot prosper for long in a swamp of mutual dislike...

Dramatic much Mr. Luce?

There's more to life than social media. My solution to ugliness and rancor is the be nice. I say hello to everyone, especially at my school. I catch my students off guard when I remember their names and say hello to them outside on the walkways. They really like that, although most don't tell you because they're shy and often don't have many social skills, partially because they spend so much time staring down at an electronic screen.

A solution of course is to get people to interact with each, and to double-down and decency and respect. It's as simple as holding a door for someone, or letting someone pass in front of you (without cutting them off, which is something that happens to me a lot, and that's before social media came along; society's been coarsening for some time).

More at the link.

New WikiLeaks Podesta Emails Spark Accusations of Democrat Party Satanism

I saw some weird tweets earlier today with some strange pictures with a woman holding a bloody animal skull, featured alongside Hillary Clinton's "I'm with Her" logo. I didn't think much of it, other than it looked a little, er, unusual.

Well, now I see what the fuss was.

See the Guardian U.K., "Marina Abramović mention in Podesta emails sparks accusations of satanism."

Marina Abramović mention in Podesta emails sparks accusations of satanism https://t.co/dVndszCX0H

— Guardian US (@GuardianUS) November 4, 2016

Hmm, bizarre seems too mild here.

But see Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "No, John Podesta's Spirit Cooking Dinner Wasn't About Devil Worship":

Calm the hell down everyone, "Spirit Cooking" is name of a MoMA featured cookbook, not about Satan https://t.co/wQLNJ4z8Qz

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) November 4, 2016

@KatiePavlich The editor's note on this is one of my favorite things of the year. #deepregrets

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) November 4, 2016

Oh 2016. Thank goodness you'll soon be over.

The internet is in a panic today over an email published by Wikileaks and belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The email shows Podesta's brother, Tony Podesta, forwarding an email to John Podesta asking if he can come to a dinner. The dinner is described in the forwarded portion of the email, which is an email from artist Marina Abramovic to Tony Podesta expressing excitement over hosting a "Spirit Cooking" dinner at her home.

Because of the "Spirit Cooking" reference, a number of right-wing websites have rushed to condemn Podesta as a cult involved, blood sucking, hair eating devil worshipper. Twitter is ablaze with satanic images.

First off, we have no proof Podesta did or did not attend the dinner. Second, this dinner was about a "cookbook" and weird art, not devil worship.

Marina Abramovic is an artist (a strange, extreme artist) and published a "cookbook" called Spirit Cooking in 1996. The "cookbook" was featured at New York City's MoMa art museum. She was hosting a dinner at her home promoting the "cookbook" and invited the Podestas....

The dinner likely included a real dinner and Abramovic giving a presentation of her "art." Watch at your own risk here.

Abramovic is into "art" that involves bodily fluids, but that doesn't mean John Podesta is and again, there isn't proof he attended the dinner.

Everyone needs to calm down the hell down, pun intended.

This post has been updated with additional information for clarifying purposes. The "cookbook" is recipes of thoughts, not traditional food recipes. The author deeply regrets ever diving into this topic.

Mel Gibson's a Different Person Now

My son said that "Hacksaw Ridge" was his "favorite" from all the war movies he's seen, which is probably a half dozen, since I almost always drag him along when I go to the movies.

And I think that's because "Hacksaw Ridge" is an epic tale of valor and perseverance in belief, which combines with the harrowing battle scenes to be something of a statement on the meaning of life, faith, and freedom. (I like it a lot myself, although "Saving Private Ryan" remains my favorite movie of all time, combat film or otherwise.)

I was going to write another post about seeing this one, perhaps with the title, "My Oldest Son Said 'Hacksaw Ridge' Was His Best War Movie He'd Ever Seen," although that'd be redundant at this point.

In any case, I've always admired Mel Gibson, especially after "Passion of the Christ." I wasn't too involved with the controversy surrounding the anti-Semitic outburst during his DUI arrest 10 years ago, although it's inexcusable. Justin Chang's movie review suggests that Gibson's reemergence as a top-tier director is in part an effort to get back in good graces with Hollywood, where many in power there probably still hold him in contempt. Be that as it may, I'm going with the personal redemption angle. Certainly, a public statement of apology would be nice, but given his gifts as a director, one of the few working today making eminently memorable classic motion pictures (patriotic movies, in other words), I'm cutting him a little slack.

So, here's a piece at USA Today, "Mel Gibson talks about his troubled past: 'I fed the bullet to the gun'":

Mel Gibson is unveiling a new film with Hacksaw Ridge this week, the first film he's directed in 10 years.

But the Oscar-winning director is aware that people remember his tabloid meltdown era, which started with his infamous 2006 drunken driving arrest in Malibu, Calif. Gibson peppered the arresting officers with anti-Semitic taunts.

Speaking to USA TODAY, Gibson, 60, says he's apologized and moved on from that troubling time, and believes the public has as well.

"A lot of time goes by. People are tired of petty grudges about nothing. About somebody having a nervous breakdown (after) double tequilas in the back of a police car,” says Gibson, now sober. “Regrettable. I’ve made my apologies, I’ve done my bit. Moved along. Ten years later. Big deal."

“I’ve worked on myself a lot,” Gibson adds in a somber voice. “I’m a different person than I was back then. But the thing that remains the same is I think I could always tell a story.”

Gibson says any anti-Semitic label is unfair.

"It's not true. None of my actions bear that sort of reputation, before or since. So it’s a pity, after 30 or 40 years of doing something, you get judged on one night. And then you spend the next 10 years suffering the scourges of perception,” says Gibson. “But it’s my fault for having (allowed) that perception, I fed the bullet to the gun.”

Keep reading.

Also, "Review: Mel Gibson soldiers on with gripping 'Hacksaw Ridge'."

PREVIOUSLY: "Mel Gibson's 'Hacksaw Ridge': Sadism and Pacifism Go to War (VIDEO)."

Vicki Gunvalson Real Housewives of Orange County Topless Photo FBI Investigation

I've watched the show a couple of times.

Ostentatious wealth and vanity's not my thing, however.

Still, this is too much.

At TMZ, "'Real Housewives' Topless Pic Triggers FBI Porn Complaint":

This topless pic of 'Real Housewives of Orange County' star Vicki Gunvalson has triggered an FBI complaint, and the agency is now looking into it ... TMZ has learned.

The pic was taken in Dublin, Ireland where cast members were on a retreat. Production sources say Tamra Judge took the pic and sent it to other cast members and producers with some snarky comments.

Somehow, the photo ended up on the social media account of a 15-year-old girl, who tweeted it out.

A woman named Rosalie saw the photo and filed a complaint with the FBI, saying "Tamara Judge ... sent a nude photograph of an acquaintance of hers (taken at a small gathering) to a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD girl & asked her to distribute it online in an effort to humiliate & harass one Vicki Gunvalson."

More at Casey Anthony's, "Real Housewives of Orange Country Topless Picture Sparks FBI Investigation."

Harper Polling Shows Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Tied in Pennsylvania

I've never heard of Harper Polling, although apparently the firm's got a decent reputation (a "B-" rating at 538).

Here's the survey, "Pennsylvania Statewide Poll":

.@HillaryClinton and @realDonaldTrump tied in new @HarperPolling poll in Pa. https://t.co/V0KIrp9cC9

— ByJohnLMicek (@ByJohnLMicek) November 4, 2016

With signs of the race trending Trump in the waning days of the campaign, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are tied in the Keystone state (46-46%, 2% Johnson, 1% Stein, 4% Undecided). Clinton has a steady lead with women (49% Clinton-44% Trump) while Trump has expanded his advantage with men (43-49%, 9/22: 42-44%). Independents prefer Trump (26-46%) but self-identified Moderates choose Clinton (57-31%).

Well, we'll see. Pennyslvania's a Democrat state, so folks shouldn't get all excited about it. It's just going to be fun on election night as far as I'm concerned. If a couple of blue states fall to Trump in the early evening, look out: It could be a cliffhanger.

More at Breitbart:

Pennsylvania Poll Shows Tie Between Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton - Breitbart https://t.co/KDdALt1bgf

— ProudAmerican.357 (@SonofLiberty357) November 4, 2016

ADDED: Here's Salena Zito, who's recently been on the ground in key battleground states. Like I said, election night's going to be a blast. We could see a few surprises. I can't wait:

<-drove across country on #LincolnHighway in Iowa Colorado Pennsylvania Ohio decent shot Trump could win them pic.twitter.com/qfiBloMSQW

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) November 4, 2016

Hillary Clinton Sent Classified Information to Daughter Chelsea

This should be a scandal of exponential proportions relative to anything Donald Trump has said or been accused of.

But it won't be. The Democrats want Hillary in office, damn the lies and utter venality.

At Politico, plus Judicial Watch below:

Hillary Clinton sent daughter Chelsea info now deemed classified https://t.co/wjLZQVrX7A | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/Ylw1cBTLL6

— POLITICO (@politico) November 4, 2016

Judicial Watch forces releases of document showing HRC sent classified information to Chelsea Clinton. https://t.co/VlX9cRnthL

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) November 4, 2016

BREAKING @HillaryClinton sent classified information to Chelsea Clinton. More information coming soon! pic.twitter.com/aU3AeKbNz8

— Judicial Watch 🔎 (@JudicialWatch) November 4, 2016

HIllary Clinton's Shrinking Electoral College Map (VIDEO)

I don't expect Donald Trump to pull an upset, although anything's possible.

Mostly, I think CNN's hyping the tightening public opinion polls, perhaps creating tension among voters and driving ratings, of course.

I'll have plenty of political coverage over the weekend, and on Tuesday night.

Here's John King:

Mel Gibson's 'Hacksaw Ridge': Sadism and Pacifism Go to War (VIDEO)

That's the message from this great review from Justin Chang, at LAT, "Andrew Garfield goes to war in Mel Gibson's pacifist bloodbath 'Hacksaw Ridge'":

“Hacksaw Ridge,” Mel Gibson’s latest high-minded cinematic massacre, tells the story of Desmond T. Doss, a God-fearing American pacifist who served as a combat medic during World War II and personally carried 75 wounded soldiers from the Battle of Okinawa, ultimately becoming the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor.

His journey straddles two war zones — the first a largely psychological one, in which Doss endures the scorn and harassment of his fellow soldiers, and the second an intensely physical one, atop a treacherous 350-foot escarpment that gives the movie its title. Steeped in blood, guts and Christian iconography, “Hacksaw Ridge” is a tribute to one man’s courageous adherence to his deepest beliefs, made by a director whose commitment to his aesthetic principles is no less unswerving.

As he did in “Braveheart” and “The Passion of the Christ,” Gibson equates spiritual virtue with a hellish corporeal endurance test. His favorite subject is the testing and purification of a man’s moral mettle — a goal that can be achieved only through a sickening, uncompromising display of brutality.

His new film differs in that its hero nobly refuses to participate in the slaughter. Unlike William Wallace — or Jaguar Paw, the warrior protagonist of Gibson’s previous film, “Apocalypto” — Doss has sworn a sacred vow that he will never use a weapon. And unlike the flayed and battered Jesus we meet in “The Passion,” Doss does not personally endure the bulk of all that digital and prosthetic carnage.

He is an altogether unique kind of hero: a healer, a witness, a patriot and a pacifist. His commitment to nonviolence is established in the first 15 minutes, when, as a spirited young boy (played by Darcy Bryce) growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he strikes and almost kills his brother, Hal, with a brick.

That near-fatal mishap brings Desmond to a powerful, almost Damascene moment of reckoning, one that Gibson dramatizes with anguished close-ups, swelling music and a heavy-handed reference to Cain and Abel. By the time we see a grown-up Doss in 1942, with the American war effort in full swing, he is a changed man — quite literally, as he’s now played by Andrew Garfield, whose reedy physique and gawky charm immediately cast him as an unusual kind of soldier.

A Seventh-day Adventist who refuses to bear arms, Doss nonetheless longs to serve his country and enlists in the Army — though not before falling in love with a pretty nurse, Dorothy (Teresa Palmer), whom he pursues with the same cheerful, ingratiating stubbornness that characterizes his every decision. He doubtless inherited some of that iron will from his father, Tom (Hugo Weaving), a scarred, embittered World War I veteran who regularly erupts in fits of drunken abuse at his children and their long-suffering mother, Bertha (Rachel Griffiths).

As a filmmaker, Gibson has a certain genius for the familiar: Even when tackling ancient settings and foreign dialects, his command of the Hollywood blockbuster idiom is such that all cultural differences are effectively rendered nil. That’s very much the case with “Hacksaw Ridge,” a thoroughly American concoction (despite all the top-notch Australian and British acting talent) that eases before long into the sturdy, straightforward rhythms of the platoon picture.

The men Doss meets at boot camp are a predictable mix of tough guys and comic archetypes, none funnier than than a barking drill sergeant wittily played by Vince Vaughn as a benign riff on Gunnery Sgt. Hartman from “Full Metal Jacket.” All these soldiers — including a surly alpha dog, Smitty (Luke Bracey), and a steely commanding officer, Capt. Glover (Sam Worthington) — turn on Doss when they learn he has no intention of touching a rifle. Yet even as he faces accusations of cowardice and enormous pressure to drop out, Doss doubles down on his training, as well as his belief that an important destiny awaits him in Okinawa.

In reconstructing one of the Pacific theater’s deadliest conflicts, “Hacksaw Ridge,” to its credit, seeks to strike a balance and honor the fighters whose courage made Doss’ valor possible. For lengthy stretches of Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan’s script, we are not with Doss at all but instead with his comrades in the heat of battle — charging, shooting, stabbing and immolating an equally vicious enemy...

Keep reading.

An excellent review.

I'm heading out to see the movie right now.

More blogging later.

Don't Be Scared, Be Prepared

I like Sarah Kendzior because she's smart. She's super far left, but she's smart and intellectual. I like reading her stuff, even if I disagree. It's brain food.

See, "Our fate was sealed long before November 8 (and not because the election’s rigged)."

Like I said: She's interesting.

As I've said a million times: don't be scared, be prepared. Don't put your head in the sand. Analyze situation, help others, and carry on.

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) November 4, 2016

This warning is two months old. It still stands. They are making a fool's bargain. pic.twitter.com/Li29pnqlJC

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) November 4, 2016

'The ABC/WaPo Poll's Track Record Since 1992 is Insane...'

Says Kristen Soltis Anderson, on Twitter.

The ABC/WaPo poll's track record since 1992 is insane. Freakishly accurate. FWIW. https://t.co/SztpfPuKik

— Kristen S Anderson (@KSoltisAnderson) November 4, 2016

She's the author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up), which I desperately need to read.

Character Ultimately Determines Support for Donald Trump

It's not racism after all?

From the erstwhile balanced commentator Jamie Kirchick, at the Tablet, "Who Goes Trump? What ultimately determines support for the GOP nominee isn’t race, class, or political ideology. It’s character":

It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Trump. Having gone through the experience many times, I have come to know the types: the born Trumpkins, the Trumpkins whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would go Trump.

It is preposterous to think that Trump supporters are created by economic or regional characteristics. The rural white working-class may be more susceptible to Trumpism than most people, but I doubt that preference is inherent. Hispanics are barred, but that’s an arbitrary, circumstantial ruling. I know lots of Hispanics who are born Trumpkins and many others who would support Trump tomorrow morning if given an opening to do so. Trumpism has nothing to do with class, ethnicity, or even gender. It appeals to a certain type of mind...

A certain kind of crazy mind, apparently.

But keep reading.

Is Clinton Slipping?

At Sabato's Crystal Ball, "There are more signs of erosion, but her floodgates appear to be holding."

Chanel West Coast

At Drunken Stepfather, "CHANEL WESTCOAST INSTAGRAM ASS AND NIPPLES OF THE DAY."

Some Obama Voters Now See Donald Trump as Agent of Change

The headline you never thought you'd see.

At NYT, "Some Who Saw Change in Obama Find It Now in Donald Trump":

Gary Kerns, who voted for Obama and now supports Trump, called himself a “bandwagon voter." https://t.co/U4HNzBIDUn pic.twitter.com/R78W5o7vSv

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) November 3, 2016

GRANTVILLE, Pa. — It didn’t take long for Jack Morris to regret voting for President Obama. A few months after Mr. Morris, a lifelong Republican, cast his first vote for a Democrat in 2008, he learned that the carpet company where he worked planned to lay off 36 people in Pennsylvania and move his job to Maryland.

He went home and lamented to his wife that he had made a big mistake buying into Mr. Obama’s message of hope and change. The president had been in office less than half a year, and already the disappointment that would color the next eight years for Mr. Morris was sinking in.

“I just told my wife, ‘I screwed up. I should’ve never voted for him,’” said Mr. Morris, 46, who now supports Donald J. Trump. “I took the chance, left my party to come and try and vote for him to change. It didn’t work, and now I’m back to my party.”

Mr. Morris is one of a small subset of voters who supported Mr. Obama in 2008 and have now embraced Mr. Trump, attracted by his vow to shake up the political status quo and restore lost jobs. A CBS News poll conducted last month found that 7 percent of likely voters who supported Mr. Obama in 2012 now back Mr. Trump, a ray of hope for a candidate who remains behind in most polls and has alienated many centrist voters.

Interviews with Mr. Morris and more than a dozen others show a common theme: The message of change that inspired them to vote for Mr. Obama is now embodied by Mr. Trump, whom they see as a brash outsider unconnected with Washington bureaucrats and the big-money donors funding Democratic and Republican candidates.

Many of those interviewed said they felt duped by the president and frustrated by their personal circumstances. They said Mr. Obama had not done enough to create jobs, unfairly pushed through the Affordable Care Act, and damaged the international reputation of the United States with his handling of foreign affairs. Some also complained that the first black president had bungled his response to racially charged killings...

Keep reading.

In the Mail: Lawrence W. Reed, ed., Excuse Me, Professor

At Amazon, Excuse Me, Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism.

Received from Katie McMenamin, Director of External Relations, at the Young America's Foundation.

Donald Trump Says the System is #Rigged

Is he right?

Is it rigged?

Lauren Southern investigates, for the Rebel:

'Fire Down Below'

At the Sound L.A., from Tuesday morning's drive-time.

From Bob Seger:

THE FIRE DOWN BELOW
BOB SEGER
7:01 AM

Saved By Zero
The Fixx
6:55 AM

What Is Life
George Harrison
6:51 AM

Runnin' Down a Dream
Tom Petty
6:35 AM

Rock'n Me
Steve Miller Band
6:32 AM

Shake It Up
The Cars
6:28 AM

Paint It Black
The Rolling Stones
6:25 AM

Go Your Own Way
Fleetwood Mac
6:21 AM

Don't You (Forget About Me)
Simple Minds
6:05 AM

Something About You
Boston
6:02 AM

White Nationalists Plot Voter Intimidation 'Show of Force' for Election Day

I'll believe it when I see it.

The mass media acts like the 1960s rights revolution never happened.

At Politico, "White nationalists plot Election Day show of force":

White nationalists plot Election Day show of force https://t.co/aUm8TKYHKw | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/gquu7xkAvF

— POLITICO (@politico) November 2, 2016

KKK, neo-Nazis and militias plan to monitor urban polling places and suppress the black vote.

Neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin plans to muster thousands of poll watchers across all 50 states. His partners at the alt-right website “the Right Stuff” are touting plans to set up hidden cameras at polling places in Philadelphia and hand out liquor and marijuana in the city’s “ghetto” on Election Day to induce residents to stay home. The National Socialist Movement, various factions of the Ku Klux Klan and the white nationalist American Freedom Party all are deploying members to watch polls, either “informally” or, they say, through the Trump campaign.

The Oath Keepers, a group of former law enforcement and military members that often shows up in public heavily armed, is advising members to go undercover and conduct “intelligence-gathering” at polling places, and Donald Trump ally Roger Stone is organizing his own exit polling, aiming to monitor thousands of precincts across the country.

Energized by Trump’s candidacy and alarmed by his warnings of a “rigged election,” white nationalist, alt-right and militia movement groups are planning to come out in full force on Tuesday, creating the potential for conflict at the close of an already turbulent campaign season.

“The possibility of violence on or around Election Day is very real,” said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Donald Trump has been telling his supporters for weeks and weeks and weeks now that they are about to have the election stolen from them by evil forces on behalf of the elites.”

It is difficult to know at what scale these plans will materialize, because Anglin and his fringe-right ilk are serial exaggerators, according to Potok. And rather than successfully uncover widespread voter fraud — for which there is a lack of compelling evidence — or successfully suppress minority turnout, Potok said the efforts are most likely to backfire...

Mark Potok?

The guy's a fraud. If he's making the allegations then I'd bet money there won't be a massive "white nationalist" vote suppression "show of force" on election day.

Sheesh.

More at the link.

And from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "IN THE FUTURE, EVERYONE WILL BE ADOLF HITLER FOR 15 MINUTES – AND THE FUTURE IS NOW: 'Everyone Who Disagrees with the Southern Poverty Law Center Is Hitler'."

Salma Hayek for GQ Mexico

At Drunken Stepfather, "SALMA HAYEK IN GQ MEXICO OF THE DAY."

Paris Hilton as Tinkerbell

For Halloween.

On Twitter, "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it..."

Also, at Egotastic!, "Paris Hilton Big Cleavage as Tinkerbell."

ICYMI: Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land

At Amazon, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.

I've got this one on order, along with J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

And thanks once again for shopping through my Amazon links.

It's greatly appreciated.

The 2016 Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra

This year's fashion show will feature "Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Karlie Kloss and returning favorites Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Lily Aldridge, Elsa Hosk and Jasmine Tookes, who will be wearing the $3 million Bright Night Fantasy Bra."

The show airs Monday, December 5th.

Check back here for all your pre-show hotness.

Deal of the Day: EcoSmart ECO 27 Electric Tankless Water Heater

At Amazon, EcoSmart ECO 27 Electric Tankless Water Heater, 27 KW at 240 Volts, 112.5 Amps with Patented Self Modulating Technology.

Also, Save on Philips Wake-Up Lights.

More, Up to 50% Off ECCO Men's and Women's Shoes.

Plus, Save Up to 35% on PURELL Solutions.

BONUS: Thomas Piketty, The Economics of Inequality.

Black Turnout Falls in Early Voting

Well, enthusiasm's down for Hillary Clinton all around, although I'm not sure it's going to make that much difference.

It's going down to the wire. Donald Trump has to run the table on all the states he needs, plus a couple others he's not expected to get. He's got a hard path to 270.

But we'll see. We'll see.

At NYT:

BAD OMEN: Black turnout falls in early voting, boding ill for Hillary Clinton https://t.co/AI8NnQGzkS pic.twitter.com/AfqycmbDK8

— slone (@slone) November 2, 2016

World Series Goes to Climactic Game 7

Well, the Indians bobbled the ball last night, literally.

Tonight's going to be epic.

Great! Cubs-Indians magic words: #WorldSeries Game 7. https://t.co/naeLE16wNg

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 2, 2016

Orange County Could Go Democrat in 2016

The leftist hordes have stormed the barricades and breached the Orange Curtain.

At LAT "Orange County has voted for the GOP in every presidential election since 1936. This year, it could go blue":

It was the home of Richard Nixon, the cradle of Ronald Reagan’s career and, for decades, a virtual synonym for the Republican Party of California.

Now, for the first time since the Depression, Orange County stands on the verge of choosing a Democrat for president, potentially ending the longest streak of Republican presidential victories of any county in the state.

That possibility symbolizes how the American political map has been upended by Donald Trump’s campaign: He has sped up a decade-long shift in which the GOP has gathered strength in white, blue-collar regions that once routinely elected Democrats, but traditional Republican suburbs increasingly have turned blue.

From Chester County outside Philadelphia to Gwinnett County east of Atlanta and on to Fort Bend County near Houston and Tarrant County west of Dallas, big, affluent suburban regions seem likely to shift significantly toward Hillary Clinton this year, according to analysts who track county-level voting trends.

That’s an immediate hurdle for the GOP, which has long counted on suburban strength to offset Democratic votes in the cities. It could be an even bigger problem in the longer term because those suburbs are among the nation’s most economically dynamic, growing regions.

The shift reflects changing demographics: As with Orange County, many of the nation’s suburbs have become racially and ethnically diverse, shedding their status as all-white enclaves.

It has been accelerated by Trump’s weakness among college-educated, white voters. That group has sided with the Republican in every presidential election since reliable polling began in the U.S. in the 1940s, but this year it has consistently shown a Democratic majority in polls...

Keep reading.

Jackie Johnson's November 2nd Weather Forecast

It's cooler in the mornings, but nice in the afternoons. The fall weather's enough to stay in Californian. Not so much the politics of course. Even the O.C. might go Democrat this election. The left's has finally stormed the Orange Curtain!

Here's Ms. Jackie, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles: