George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo

*BUMPED.*

Saunders just won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 2017 (an award for the best work of fiction published in the U.K.).

At Amazon, George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo.

Paradise Papers

The world's elite shelter their assets. Well, that's not going to fuel the fires of populist revolt, or anything.

At the Guardian U.K., "Paradise Papers leak reveals secrets of the world elite's hidden wealth: Files from offshore law firm show financial dealings of the Queen, big multinationals and members of Donald Trump’s cabinet."

Huge leak reveals secrets of world elite's hidden wealth #paradisepapers https://t.co/KhkIQyz3qs

— The Guardian (@guardian) November 5, 2017

Shop Deals

At Amazon, Shop Today.

See especially, Coleman Camping Classics.

And, Coleman North Rim 0 Degree Sleeping Bag.

More, Gatorade Variety Pack, Limited Edition, 20 Oz Bottle (Pack of 12).

Also, KIND Breakfast Bars, Peanut Butter, Gluten Free, 1.8 Ounce, 32 Count.

And, CLIF BAR - Energy Bar - Crunchy Peanut Butter - (2.4 Ounce Protein Bar, 12 Count).

Still more, AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (48 Count) - Packaging May Vary.

Here, AmazonBasics Lightning to USB A Cable - Apple MFi Certified - Black - 6 Feet /1.8 Meters.

BONUS: Joachim Fest, Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich.

Nathan Hill, The Nix

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Nathan Hill, The Nix: A Novel.

Why Dems Aren't Winning Against Trump

At U.S. News and World Report, "You Can't Beat Something With Nothing":

The Democrats seem to enjoy gloating about the hot mess that is the Republican Party these days. Former GOP presidents warning the president about the people he surrounds himself with; sitting Republican U.S. senators calling the president unstable and unqualified; and a former GOP speaker of the house saying "there is no Republican Party. The president isn't a Republican." And Democrats' friends in the mainstream media have kindly created an echo chamber that makes them think that they are always right and the Republicans are a bunch of sexist, racist, whack jobs.

So why aren't they winning?

They must be longing for the halcyon days of the Obama election in 2008. They were so eager to lay all of America's troubles entirely at the feet of President George W. Bush: The Iraq War (which most of their party voted to support), Hurricane Katrina response (ignoring any involvement by Democratic local officials) and the financial collapse (which had little to do with Washington – although President Bush and President Barack Obama worked hand in hand to bail the country out of it). They were so full of hope! They were ushering in a new America. A post-racial America where everyone has health care and a good middle-class job. Stories written in the wake of the November election wrote the obituary on the Republican Party (too white, too rich, too old and on top of that, technology morons who can't turn out the vote). The Democrats were here to stay – or so they thought.

That arrogance caused them to nominate Hillary Clinton to be their party's standard bearer. Possibly the only candidate who could lose to Trump. (It's generally accepted that, had Vice President Joe Biden been the nominee, he would have won. And just this week, Trump's pollster posited that Sanders would have beaten Trump, too.) Her major primary opponent was a bit nutty, but that was largely because the Democratic establishment had crowned Clinton early on and crowded everyone else out. She was a fairly strong candidate in the Democratic Party: a well-known former first lady to a very popular president, former U.S. senator, former secretary of state. It was her turn.

Never mind that there is no figure in American politics as guaranteed to unite the GOP base in opposition as the person who coined the term "vast right-wing conspiracy" in an effort to deflect from her husband's misdeeds (which everyone in the country seemed to find plausible, except for her). Never mind her inability to connect with working-class voters in the same folksy way as her husband. Never mind her reputation for refusing to take responsibility for things that happened on her watch (like Benghazi). Everyone should ignore all that. Because it's time for us to shatter that glass ceiling, and no one but Hillary can do it.

The Democrats seemed shocked the race between Clinton and Trump remained relatively close because they seemed to stop talking to the white working-class voters who, for decades, had defined their base.

So when they lost the election, there was a reckoning. The leadership of the Democratic Party was drummed up and new, forward-looking leaders took the reins and offered an alternative to what they saw as the disaster of Donald Trump. Wait, no. That isn't what happened. Instead, they re-elected Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the house. They elected Chuck Schumer as Senate majority leader and completely sold out to the New York and California wings of the Democratic Party.

Instead of talking about middle-class tax cuts, they talked about transgender bathroom access. Instead of talking about fixing Obamacare, which was crushing many in the middle class with high premiums and complicated doctor selections, they walked right into the trap of the alt-right and began tearing down Civil War statues.

In the first big test of party strength: the Virginia governor's race, they have thrown up all over themselves. Virginia should be easy for them. Clinton won it in 2016. Trump's numbers are completely under water. The Republican candidate has awkwardly embraced Trump and some of his controversial positions while trying not to hug him too close. But somehow they ended up with one of the least inspiring Democratic candidates Virginia has seen in a long time. And they backed an ad that seemed to depict Virginians who drive pickup trucks as a bunch of rednecks looking to plow down children of color...

More.

Here the now-pulled Latino Victory Fund ad from the Virginia governor's race. For shame:

Jennifer Delacruz's Cloudy and Overnight Showers Forecast

It's cool and cloudy out right now in Irvine, although it doesn't look like it rained. [UPDATE: My wife says it rained, and my son left the passenger-side window down on his new Jetta. Ooops!]

Either way, here's the beautiful Ms. Jennifer with today's forecast, from last night, at ABC News 10 San Diego:

Trump Voters Are Still Optimistic

At the Irish Times, "Trump has made many Americans feel connected again: Trump – one year on: Those who voted for him are still optimistic – and in Erie, Pennsylvania, a former Obama stronghold, they would do so again":

Frank Victor sits at the head of the conference table at Fralo Industries, the high-tech sheet metal manufacturing plant in downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, he owns with his brother Mike – who is now the president of Mercyhurst University – a prestigious private Catholic university located within the city limits.

Across from him is John Bauman, the president of the manufacturing company and a minority owner. Both men are highly educated, successful businessmen who have left this city – which has arguably seen better days – throughout their careers, but returned to invest and be part of pushing its renewal.

A process both men admit will be long.

They both voted for Donald Trump last November and were part of the movement in Pennsylvania and across the Rust Belt that flipped traditional Democratic counties like Erie from Democrat to Republican; a flip which helped push Trump over the top to win the presidency.

And they would do it again.

“In a heartbeat,” said Victor, 54, as he gives a tour of his factory that employs 68 locals in well-paying jobs, something hard to come by in America’s Rust Belt.

Victor and Bauman are the type of American voters who were hiding in plain sight for the American news media and political strategists to see – but didn’t. Not because they weren’t available, not because they would not have admitted they were going to vote for him – but because much of the media and political class, both Democrat and Republican, could not understand why they would, so they didn’t ask.

Twelve months later they still don’t understand why they did.

In fact much of the US is still stuck in a singular moment in politics; for the most part it is still November 8th, 2016 around midnight. If you voted for Trump, you are still excited and still optimistic about his presidency. If you didn’t? You still believe it must be illegitimate; you either still believe the only reason Trump won was because of Russian interference or because former FBI director James Comey’s late actions cast doubt...

More.

'It’s Okay to Be White'

Well, it should be. It should be okay to be whatever natural color or ethnicity you are.

But not on the left. The left hates whiteness. And it hates anyone who doesn't toe the hateful race-bating white supremacy line.

At Instapundit, "SO I GUESS IT’S NOT OKAY. GOOD TO KNOW. ‘It’s Okay To Be White’ Signs Posted At Harvard Law School, Denounced by Dean."

Journalists Spreading Lies and Degrading Democracy

It's Glenn Greenwald, at the Intercept, "Four Viral Claims Spread by Journalists on Twitter in the Last Week Alone That are False":

Four viral claims spread by journalists on Twitter in the last week alone that are false: https://t.co/KrkOFYztQH by @ggreenwald

— The Intercept (@theintercept) November 5, 2017

There is ample talk, particularly of late, about the threats posed by social media to democracy and political discourse. Yet one of the primary ways that democracy is degraded by platforms such and Facebook and Twitter is, for obvious reasons, typically ignored in such discussions: the way they are used by American journalists to endorse factually false claims that quickly spread and become viral, entrenched into narratives, and thus can never be adequately corrected.

The design of Twitter, where many political journalists spend their time, is in large part responsible for this damage. Its space constraints mean that tweeted headlines or tiny summaries of reporting are often assumed to be true with no critical analysis of their accuracy, and are easily spread. Claims from journalists that people want to believe are shared like wildfire, while less popular, subsequent corrections or nuanced debunking are easily ignored. Whatever one’s views are on the actual impact of Twitter Russian bots, surely the propensity of journalistic falsehoods to spread far and wide is at least as significant.

Just in the last week alone, there have been four major factually false claims that have gone viral because journalists on Twitter endorsed and spread them: three about the controversy involving Donna Brazile and the DNC, and one about documents and emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. It’s well worth examining them, both to document what the actual truth is as well as to understand how often and easily this online journalistic misleading occurs...

Keep reading.

Anxiety is High in Hollywood

Rape allegations rocking Tinseltown.

At LAT, "Who's next? High anxiety in Hollywood":

To women and men in the industry, it would be wise of you to not promote Alec Baldwin. Fair warning. #ROSEARMY pic.twitter.com/x1I9Rti3LX

— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) November 5, 2017

The curtain has been pulled back, and, oh, is it messy.

Hollywood has always reveled in scandal. The rumor. The whisper. The unfortunate photograph. The apology and return to grace. But the recent sex abuse stories have turned into a parade of tawdry violations and twisted passions, the stuff of movies acted out in real lives against the unglamorous air of disgrace, endless transgressions that even Ray Donovan, Showtime's half-shaven mercurial fixer, couldn't clean up with all his hush money and muscle.

The rape and sexual abuse allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner, James Toback and others have shattered the awards-season aplomb in a town that imagines itself bold and freewheeling but prefers the tempered and scripted. The entertainment industry has slipped into a multi-polar catharsis of emboldened women, nervous men, threatening lawyers, broken deals, spoiled careers and the uncertainty that comes when cracks run like lightning through facades.

“I think the industry is forever changed,” said Marcel Pariseau, a publicist whose clients include Scarlett Johansson and Olivia Munn, one of six women who accused Ratner of sexual misconduct in The Times last week. “Every morning we wake up and we don’t know what’s going to be next. You’re almost afraid to get on your gadget to see what the new story is.

"No one is going to be going to a producer or director's hotel suite anymore," he added. "All meetings will be done with somebody else in the room for protection for both sides. It's a defining moment. It's vigilance."

Instagram accounts are being scrubbed, Facebook pages edited, publicists consulted and memories jogged about what might have happened where and with whom on that blurry night years ago. The cocktail circuit is jittery; the Oscar buzz feels a bit listless. Talent agencies are dropping clients and scouring their own houses. Studios are pruning relationships, firing executives hours after an allegation is made public.

In every pitch or development meeting, “people want to talk about it,” said a female television writer who preferred to remain anonymous. “It’s like everyone needs a little bit of therapy. It’s preoccupying people’s minds because they either have a direct connection to it or it’s like driving by a car crash; you’re just riveted. In the way Trump stuff used to lead a lot of things, now this stuff leads every single sit-down.”

This is the new Hollywood. Restless, unsure, demanding justice, looking for cover and wondering how to move beyond a long history of discrimination and sexual harassment and toward the kind of enlightened world it so often supposes in its art.

“We’re all having a conversation now about whether or not we are protecting people in our industry from people committing violent crimes against them,” said comedian and producer Judd Apatow. “I personally would not be comfortable making it a big part of my business trying to keep rapists and people who commit sexual assaults on the street. We all decide how we want to make money. We all decide what’s ethical. I’m well aware that all criminals deserve representation, but at the same time sometimes we’re putting other people in danger.”

It's hard to fix things when even hallowed names are in the headlines: Dustin Hoffman has apologized after being accused of sexually harassing a 17-year-old intern in 1985. Kevin Spacey said he was seeking "evaluation and treatment" after allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

The consequences against the accused have been swift: Netflix canceled Spacey's "House of Cards" and Warner Brothers cut ties with Ratner, who has denied claims of sexual harassment and misconduct from a number of women.

"When the Dustin Hoffman thing broke I was like, my gosh, now there's going to be a library of great movies that I can't watch anymore because of the ick factor. The ick factor is real," said the TV writer.

Audiences and critics have already begun reevaluating Weinstein's films, many of which were nominated for and won Academy Awards, including "Shakespeare in Love," whose star Gwyneth Paltrow says that the producer assaulted her in a hotel suite when she was 22...

More.

Philip Roth, The Human Stain

At Amazon, Philip Roth, The Human Stain: American Trilogy (3).

Philipp Meyer, American Rust

At Amazon, Philipp Meyer, American Rust: A Novel.

Democrats Poised for Complete Dominance in the West

And what good's it done for us in California? Now I'm afraid to get a blood transfusion, should I ever need one, God forbid, because the state's Democrats have passed legislation allowing AIDS-infected homosexuals to give blood without disclosure. (It doesn't matter if all blood donations are tested; sometimes those tests fail.)

So, all you do is move East, I guess. The West is pretty much fucked.

At NYT (safe link), "Poised for West Coast Dominance, Democrats Eye Grand Agenda":

It's the stuff of liberal fantasies: a vast, defiant territory governed by Democrats resisting Trump at every turn https://t.co/rvaaX90ZlI

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 4, 2017

SAMMAMISH, Wash. — It is the stuff of liberal fantasies: a vast, defiant territory, sweeping along the country’s Pacific coastline, governed by Democrats and resisting President Trump at every turn.

A single election in a wealthy Seattle suburb on Tuesday could make that scenario a reality, handing the party full control of government in Washington State — and extinguishing Republicans’ last fragile claim on power on the West Coast. The region has been a rare Democratic stronghold on an electoral map now dominated by vast swaths of red, and Republicans’ only toehold on power there has been a one-seat majority in the Washington State Senate.

The prospect of such far-reaching autonomy for Democrats, who already hold all three governors’ offices as well as both houses of the legislatures in Oregon and California, has infused extraordinary energy into what might have been a low-key special election. The race is on track to draw more than $9 million in campaign spending, a record-breaking sum for Washington State. National environmental and abortion rights groups have mobilized, business associations and oil companies have poured in money, and a former vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., has intervened on the Democratic side.

Sharon Nelson, the Democratic leader in the Washington State Senate, conveyed the party’s grand aspirations in an almost Trump-like phrase: “A blue wall,” Ms. Nelson enthused, “from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.”

Leading in the polls and anticipating victory, Democrats have sketched an aggressive agenda on issues where strong consensus appears to exist in the party, including new laws on gun control, contraception and environmental regulation. Ms. Nelson said she had met with the speaker of the Oregon Statehouse about enacting policy across state lines. The three states’ Democratic governors have spoken regularly about policy collaboration, and over the summer began coordinated talks on climate change with foreign heads of state.

Perhaps most ambitious of all, Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, harbors dreams of enacting a muscular carbon pricing plan along with California, Oregon and officials in Canada. In an interview, Mr. Inslee said the special election in Eastside Seattle could open the way for broad action, including taxing carbon but also joint initiatives on energy efficiency, research and clean water.

“We intend to make a full-scale effort in the next session of the Legislature if we win,” he said. “It will be a bell in the night, showing hope for the country, rejecting the Trump agenda of denying climate science.”

A coastal alliance, Mr. Inslee added, especially when cities such as Seattle and Portland, Ore., and throughout California are booming economically, would help make the case to a national audience that addressing climate change through energy policy is good for business and job creation.

“The more we can have uniformity in a carbon pricing system or regulatory system, the better,” he said.

Both parties see Democrats as favored to win the district, which voted heavily for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Republicans held the area’s State Senate seat largely because of the personal popularity of an incumbent lawmaker, Andy Hill, who died of lung cancer last fall.

Despite their dominance at the federal level and in most state capitals, West Coast Republicans have been driven to the point of extinction as the party’s standing has plummeted in prosperous cities and suburbs, from San Diego to Seattle. Their candidate in the State Senate race, Jinyoung Lee Englund, a polished former political operative, has strained to set herself apart from the national party, declaring that she did not vote for Mr. Trump in 2016 and pleading with voters to embrace divided government in Olympia.

Ms. Englund, 33, has campaigned explicitly against the “blue wall” scenario, warning that voters should not let Washington “go the way of California” and other one-party states. She expressed deep skepticism of Mr. Inslee’s climate proposals and suggested Democrats were mainly focused on trying to raise general revenue by another name. Republican groups have aired commercials saying that “Seattle liberals” could wreak havoc on the state’s finances if Democrats are allowed to govern unchecked.

“You don’t want to go the way of Oregon,” Ms. Englund said in an interview. “Washingtonians are more independent.”

Ms. Englund rebuked Democrats for what she characterized as using the state government as a partisan bludgeon. “I think that’s wrong,” she said. “The role of a state senator is not to go and lambaste what’s happening nationally.”

But the 45th District, a diverse suburban patchwork that stretches across the high-tech haven of Redmond and into more rural territory beyond — north and east of Bellevue — is emblematic of the territory that has lurched away from the Republican Party over the last year, recoiling from Mr. Trump’s brand of hard nationalism. Manka Dhingra, the Democratic candidate, has led in the polls by a comfortable but not overwhelming margin...

More.

Truth About New York City Terror

Political correctness is literally killing us.

Here's Paul Joseph Watson:

Uma Thurman Too Angry to Talk About Sexual Assault Allegations Right Now

She looks genuinely upset and angry.

She's a good lady. I don't care if she's a leftist. It's leftists who've been raping Hollywood's women for a century.

Uma Thurman's response when asked about the flood of sexual misconduct allegations....wow. pic.twitter.com/Sw5Br1GwFg

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 4, 2017

Peter McLoughlin and Tommy Robinson, Mohammed's Koran

At Amazon, Peter McLoughlin and Tommy Robinson, Mohammed's Koran: Why Muslims Kill for Islam.

Pamela Geller, Fatwa

At Amazon, Pamela Geller, Fatwa: Hunted in America.

Cristina De Stefano, Oriana Fallaci

At Amazon, Cristina De Stefano, Oriana Fallaci: The Journalist, the Agitator, the Legend.

Evelyn Taft's Mostly Cloudy and Cooler Forecast

Well, we're into November now, after that very hot October, and it's nice and cool.

Here's the lovely Ms. Evelyn, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles, from last night:

David Horowitz, Unholy Alliance

At Amazon, David Horowitz, Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam And the American Left.