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:

Assessing the Fallout From the Comey Effect

Well, I think a number of folks who liked Hillary may have second thoughts, and if that's as much as a percentage point or more in some states, it could make a difference.

But let's see.

Here's Larry Sabato et al., "The Comey Effect":

Crystal Ball: New Electoral College map. AZ/FL/OH to Toss-up https://t.co/HRDHetpcwz pic.twitter.com/dZ5FAQ5Z68

— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) October 31, 2016

FBI director throws a curveball into the presidential race with a week to go; Clinton slips in ratings but retains clear edge.

The purest version of the “October surprise” is a political bombshell that no one sees coming. In the closing days of the craziest campaign in modern history, we have just been witnesses to an October surprise so pure it would qualify for an Ivory Soap commercial (“99 and 44/100 percent pure”). When FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to certain members of Congress about a new development in the long-running Hillary Clinton email mess, the resulting earthquake could be picked up by a seismograph.

There are very legitimate questions about whether Director Comey was right or wrong to do what he did. It’s indisputable that Comey broke normal FBI practice in order to comment publicly on an incomplete, ongoing investigation. Moreover, Comey violated longstanding FBI standards that prohibit announcements within 60 days of an election that would influence the public’s choice. Just 11 days before Nov. 8, Comey took an unprecedented step that could affect the outcome of an election for president and Congress. The vagueness and ambiguity of his letter to some senior members of Congress guaranteed a leak to the press within five nanoseconds, and invited the rankest speculation from Clinton’s opponents.

To the extent that Clinton loses ground this week, and falls behind in battleground states where she had been leading, we will call this “the Comey Effect.” Similarly, if Comey’s decision results in Republicans holding onto the Senate and losing fewer House seats because he has invigorated their “checks and balances” argument, we will also attribute this to the Comey Effect.

The all-emails-all-the-time media coverage has already had an impact on the presidential race. Polls were tightening a bit before this, mainly due to some reluctant Republican partisans returning home at the end to their party’s ticket. We also need to remember something that has defined this race: The candidate in the spotlight, except for the convention period, has generally suffered in the polls. After the conclusion of the third debate, the focus seemed to move back to Clinton, as negative headlines about the Affordable Care Act and the daily trickle of sometimes embarrassing emails from WikiLeaks’ John Podesta treasure trove accumulated. This took the focus off of Donald Trump and put it on Clinton — and the Comey Effect has kept the spotlight on her. That the Democrats have struck back so hard against Comey, with some even calling for his resignation, indicates the seriousness with which they are treating this new development in the race.

Republicans will thrill to the Comey Effect. Democrats will heatedly denounce it. Yet it is real and impossible to ignore, and the FBI director’s extremely controversial move must be noted in the Crystal Ball, and maybe even in the history books.

Still, Clinton remains the clear favorite in the race, and there were not immediate signs that the overall race dramatically changed as a result of the Comey Effect. However, the race may have been getting closer anyway...

Keep reading.

Donald Trump Campaigns in Blue States, Looking to Overturn the Electoral Map

Althouse has an entry on Donald Trump challenging Hillary Clinton's "firewall."

It's completely unorthodox, but what if it works?

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trump is placing a long-shot bet to win a handful of states. It could overturn the electoral map":

With one week before election day, Donald Trump spent the bulk of Tuesday campaigning in Wisconsin, a state that has not backed a Republican for president since 1984.

His unorthodox visit came on the heels of trips to Michigan and Pennsylvania, states that also haven’t gone red since the 1980s.

For the final stretch of the presidential race, the GOP nominee has embarked on a strategy of long-shot bids, holding rallies and airing ads in states that have been reliably Democratic in recent elections. Trump’s gambit sacrifices face time in battleground states, but if successful would upend the political map and likely hand him the White House.

“The Trump campaign is on the offensive and expanding our presence in battleground states into blue states,” David Bossie, Trump’s deputy campaign manager, told reporters Tuesday.

Trump’s campaign believes it can flip states by relying on his populist rhetoric that connects with white working-class voters hurt by the Rust Belt’s decline in manufacturing.

Michigan was among 13 states where the Trump campaign placed a $25-million ad buy for the final week of the race, digital director Brad Parscale announced. Pennsylvania and New Mexico, other mostly reliably blue states, were also on the list.

At a rally Monday in Warren, Mich., Trump seemed almost giddy as he repeatedly mentioned how a win in the state would buck historical precedent.

“No Republican has won since like Reagan or something many years ago” — it was actually George H.W. Bush — “and I said, ‘I love Michigan,’” he said.

Trump has made a number of high-profile visits to the state, and he has enthusiastic grass-roots groups such as the Michigan Conservative Coalition organizing flash mobs and knocking on doors on his behalf.

His campaign also has more than 30 offices in the state and consistently knocks on at least 100,000 doors a week, said Scott Hagerstrom, who runs Trump’s campaign in Michigan.

The biggest challenge, he said, is “to get people to believe again, to believe that it’s possible.”

Trump faces steep hurdles in Michigan, Pennsylvania and here in Wisconsin, a state that has voted Democratic since 1984. He trails in public polls by 5 to 6 points in those states, according to averages maintained by RealClearPolitics.

But if the race tightens significantly, the time invested in those states may yield dividends...

Keep reading.

Americans Think the Media Wants Hillary Clinton by Nearly 10-to-1 Margin

Well, somebody's got some common sense.

At the Hill, "Public overwhelmingly thinks media is in the tank for Clinton."

Poll: Public overwhelmingly thinks media is in the tank for Clinton https://t.co/krQVwAHYTP pic.twitter.com/Hf3Hbgv8aV

— The Hill (@thehill) October 31, 2016

The polls here, at Suffolk University, "Suffolk University/USA Today Poll Shows Clinton Leading Trump by 9 Points Nationwide":

Despite Trump’s claim that the election is rigged, nearly 57 percent of likely voters said that the election results will be fair and accurate, while 38 percent said they are worried that the results could be manipulated. However, voters appeared to agree with Trump’s claim that the media has chosen Clinton. Asked whom they think the media preferred, 75 percent said Clinton, 8 percent Trump, and 5 percent said the media preferred neither.

Joanna Krupa Halloween

This lady goes all out.

At the Sun U.K., "SENDING PULSES AFLUTTER: Model Joanna Krupa goes topless for Halloween as she dons body paint for extremely sexy butterfly costume." (On Twitter here as well.)

Also, at London's Daily Mail, "Whip it good! Joanna Krupa wields riding crop in very revealing dominatrix Halloween costume." (On Twitter here as well.)

Still more, "Joanna Krupa unleashes her inner Aphrodite in a risqué Greek Goddess outfit at Halloween bash as she dons THIRD costume in as many days."

Heidi Klum's Halloween Clones

This is trippy.

At London's Daily Mail, "It's Heidi CLONE! Model Klum unveils her most ambitious costume yet as she arrives at her annual star-studded Halloween party with five lookalikes in prosthetics."

Arlie Russell Hochschild Discusses Anger and Mourning on the American Right (VIDEO)

On Sunday I ordered Arlie Russell Hochschild's, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.

I'm getting into the whole sociology of the disaffected white working class. I'm having the Hochschild book sent along with J.D. Vance's, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

And as noted, I started reading Charles Murray's 2012 book yesterday, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. (It's a great read, by the way.)

In any case, here's Professor Hochschild on Democracy Now! She's amazingly sympathetic to the mourning Americans, even if she can't quite understand them.

Interesting:

The Far-Left's Nightmare Fantasies

Robert Stacy McCain refers to leftists here as "liberals," something I rarely do anymore.

They're not liberal, in the classical sense of the term. They're not even J.F.K liberals, which is the Cold War Democrat version. Nope. They're neo-communists, in David Horowitz's formulation. And they're bringing the Marxist-Leninist collective closer and closer by the day. It's not just "cultural" Marxism either. Leftists these days are giving us a preview of the prison camps of the 21st century, which won't look much different from the prison camps of the 20th century. Think Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and you won't be far off base.

In any case, at the Other McCain, "Liberals and Their Nightmare Fantasies."

Forty-Five Percent of Voters Say Hillary Clinton's Email Scandal is Worse Than Watergate

That's almost half. Among all voters, that's almost half.

You've got more than Donald Trump partisans in a statistic like that. Forty-five percent is capturing a lot of independents, and perhaps quite a few Democrats.

See Politico, "Poll: Comey’s bombshell changes few votes." (Via Althouse.)

More here:

WaPo-ABC poll: 34% say the new FBI review makes them less likely to support Hillary Clinton. https://t.co/vPgojeddrz pic.twitter.com/CgcoZ5W6yD

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 30, 2016

'In North Carolina, as in Ohio, Colorado, Florida and the other major swing states, the election will likely unfold as a test of strength between metropolitan areas breaking for Clinton and non-metropolitan areas rallying to Trump...'

More great election analysis, from Ronald Brownstein, along with Leah Askarinam, at the Atlantic, "The Tipping Points of the 2016 Election."

Ben Cohen Reviews Socialism of Fools

A very interesting book review, at Commentary.

Cohen's reviewing Michele Battini's, Socialism of Fools: Capitalism and Modern Anti-Semitism.

Also, FYI, Cohen's the author of Some of My Best Friends: A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Antisemitism.

In any case, at the magazine:

Book Review, "Socialism of Fools". https://t.co/0dBPxQqVCs @BlazingCatFur

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 31, 2016

Julian Assange Belongs in Jail

Marc Thiessen nails it with this piece, "Wikileaks is no hero":

Wikileaks is no hero. @marcthiessen: https://t.co/nGrJz8ElJL

— AEI Foreign Policy (@AEIfdp) October 28, 2016

Winston Churchill once said that “if Hitler invaded hell, I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.” So it’s not surprising that many conservatives are thrilled to see WikiLeaks and the Clinton campaign at war, as Julian Assange releases emails exposing the duplicity and potential self-dealing of the Clinton machine and the blurred line between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department.

But in our excitement, let’s not forget: Julian Assange is no hero. He is the devil.

Some conservatives seem to have lost sight of this. Rudy Giuliani recently said, “I find WikiLeaks very refreshing.” And Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) declared on Twitter, “Thank God for Wikileaks — doing the job that MSM WON’T!”

These conservatives seem to have forgotten that before Assange was revealing Clinton campaign emails, he was serially leaking stolen, classified national security information that has endangered the United States and its allies across the world. In 2010, WikiLeaks dumped more than 76,000 unredacted, secret U.S. intelligence documents into the public domain, including the identities of at least 100 Afghans who were informing on the Taliban. At the time, Assange admitted in an interview that his leaks might harm innocent people (“collateral damage, if you will,” he declared) and that WikiLeaks might get “blood on our hands,” but this was a price he was willing to pay for transparency.

In the years that followed, Assange continued his serial disclosures of stolen U.S. secrets. He released a troveof classified documents on Guantanamo Bay detainees, an unredacted archive of more than a quarter-million secret U.S. diplomatic cables, classified CIA documents exposing how CIA operatives maintain cover while traveling through airports, secret details of European military operations to intercept refugees traveling from Libya to Europe, and top-secret documents describing National Security Agency intercepts of foreign government communications, among others.

The cost of WikiLeaks’s disclosures to our national security is unfathomable. As former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden has put it, “We will never know who will now not come forward, who will not provide us with life-saving information” because of WikiLeaks, “but we can be certain that the cost will be great. And foreign intelligence services, with whom we have established productive and legitimate partnerships, will ask, ‘Can I trust the Americans to keep anything secret?’ ”

For these and other crimes, Assange should be in jail. But instead, he is being given sanctuary by the left-wing, anti-American government of Ecuador. Moreover, let’s not forget that Assange is attacking Hillary Clinton not because he thinks she is a corrupt liberal, but because he believes that she is too interventionist. “She’s palled up with the neocons responsible for the Iraq War,” Assange recently told Megyn Kelly, “and she’s grabbed on to this kind of neo-McCarthyist hysteria about Russia.” Assange wants the United States to pull back from Iraq and Afghanistan and stop criticizing Russian President Vladi­mir Putin — not exactly conservative priorities.

While the conservative embrace of Assange is troubling, the hypocrisy displayed by some in the media in not fully covering WikiLeaks’s Clinton revelations are equally galling. They had no problem reporting on WikiLeaks’s revelations of highly classified national security information, falling over themselves to publish what amounts to espionage porn. But according to the Media Research Center, between Oct. 7 and Oct. 13, “the morning and evening news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC dedicated 4 hours and 13 minutes to discussing the recent allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding Donald Trump’s campaign,” while “the continual release of the WikiLeaks emails from top Hillary staff [got] a comparatively puny 36 minutes of coverage .” That is a ratio of 7 to 1. And much of that meager coverage has been focused not on the revelations themselves, but on how the emails were hacked and leaked.

The Clinton campaign has a clear strategy for tamping down coverage of WikiLeaks — to paint the revelations as an assault on American democracy...

Still more.

Kimberley Strassel Explains the Intimidation Game

Here's her book, at Amazon, The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech.

And for Prager University:

Forget the F.B.I. Cache; the Podesta Emails Show How America is Run

From the interesting Thomas Frank, at the Guardian U.K., "WikiLeaks’ dump of messages to and from Clinton’s campaign chief offer an unprecedented view into the workings of the elite, and how it looks after itself":

The emails currently roiling the US presidential campaign are part of some unknown digital collection amassed by the troublesome Anthony Weiner, but if your purpose is to understand the clique of people who dominate Washington today, the emails that really matter are the ones being slowly released by WikiLeaks from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta. They are last week’s scandal in a year running over with scandals, but in truth their significance goes far beyond mere scandal: they are a window into the soul of the Democratic party and into the dreams and thoughts of the class to whom the party answers.

The class to which I refer is not rising in angry protest; they are by and large pretty satisfied, pretty contented. Nobody takes road trips to exotic West Virginia to see what the members of this class looks like or how they live; on the contrary, they are the ones for whom such stories are written. This bunch doesn’t have to make do with a comb-over TV mountebank for a leader; for this class, the choices are always pretty good, and this year they happen to be excellent.

They are the comfortable and well-educated mainstay of our modern Democratic party. They are also the grandees of our national media; the architects of our software; the designers of our streets; the high officials of our banking system; the authors of just about every plan to fix social security or fine-tune the Middle East with precision droning. They are, they think, not a class at all but rather the enlightened ones, the people who must be answered to but who need never explain themselves.

Let us turn the magnifying glass on them for a change, by sorting through the hacked personal emails of John Podesta, who has been a Washington power broker for decades. I admit that I feel uncomfortable digging through this hoard; stealing someone’s email is a crime, after all, and it is outrageous that people’s personal information has been exposed, since WikiLeaks doesn’t seem to have redacted the emails in any way. There is also the issue of authenticity to contend with: we don’t know absolutely and for sure that these emails were not tampered with by whoever stole them from John Podesta. The supposed authors of the messages are refusing to confirm or deny their authenticity, and though they seem to be real, there is a small possibility they aren’t.

With all that taken into consideration, I think the WikiLeaks releases furnish us with an opportunity to observe the upper reaches of the American status hierarchy in all its righteousness and majesty...

Well, he's on to something here, no doubt.

The Podesta emails, and all the salacious, scandalous, and unsurprisingly outrageous revelations therein, should be getting near non-stop coverage on the television and cable networks, and should be leading the newspaper headlines each and every morning.

I'm glad Frank's laying it out like it really is. Others have said virtually the same thing about this unaccountable political class (Angelo Codevilla, for one), although it's refreshing to see this coming from the far-left Guardian U.K.

In any case, more here.

Democrat Donna Brazile Shared Second Debate Question with Clinton Campaign, Hacked Email Indicates

These ghouls literally make me sick.

At WSJ:

A second hacked email has surfaced that appears to show Democratic consultant Donna Brazile sharing a debate question with Hillary Clinton‘s campaign in advance of a March primary debate.

Ms. Brazile—then a CNN contributor and Democratic Party official—warned one day before a March primary debate hosted by CNN in Flint, Mich., that a question would come “from a woman with a rash.”

“Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the [people] of Flint,” Ms. Brazile wrote in an email addressed to Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri and campaign chairman John Podesta.

The email was stolen from Mr. Podesta’s inbox and posted by the website WikiLeaks. Ms. Brazile currently is the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee.

The Clinton campaign has declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the stolen emails and has pointed to possible links to the Russian government as evidence of foreign tampering in the election...

And it's no wonder huge numbers of Donald Trump supporters say the system's rigged, and they expect rioting if not a revolution if Hillary's elected.

It's going to be rough out there on election night.

Still more.

Kylie Jenner for Halloween

At Egotastic!, "Sexy Little Sister Kylie Jenner Wears Eye-Popping Bikini and Chaps Costume for Halloween."

Kelly Rohrbach Sexy in Iconic Red Swimsuit for Reshoots of New 'Baywatch' Movie (PHOTOS)

At Egotastic!, "Kelly Rohrbach Swimsuit Hottie for 'Baywatch' Reshoots."

Kendall Jenner in Daring Latex for Halloween Party at Kate Hudson's

Happy Halloween everybody!

At London's Daily Mail, "Kendall Jenner flaunts her legs in a dominatrix dress at Kate Hudson's Halloween party."

Clinton and Trump Are Shuffling the Electoral Map

From Ronald Brownstein, at the Atlantic.

Charles Murray, Coming Apart [BUMPED]

I've finished Frederick Douglass' autobiography, which, as noted, sat on my shelf for over 20 years unread (and what a mistake that was).

So, I'm picking up some other books that have been sitting around, the most relevant of which (for the moment) is Charles Murray's Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. (I had it linked as a bonus book at yesterday's Deal of the Day post.)

Murray is cited at the survey, "The Vanishing Center of American Democracy."

I'm also ordering my copy of J.D. Vance's, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

Thanks for all the support everybody. I appreciate it.

Democrats Erupt With Fury at Anthony Weiner's Return

Well, I'm just all shaken up about this.

At NYT, "For Democrats, Anthony Weiner Makes an Unwelcome Return":

Dems acknowledge ppl helped Weiner in various ways out of respect for his wife. Now call him variations of "sick" https://t.co/MWu3kL5bnk

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 30, 2016

Carolyn B. Maloney, a congresswoman from the Upper East Side, was riding in a taxi on Friday when she heard the news: Emails discovered in an investigation into Anthony D. Weiner’s sexting had revived the F.B.I.’s interest in the case of Hillary Clinton’s private server.

“I said: ‘Oh, no, not this, not happening now,’” she said.

And then Ms. Maloney’s thoughts turned to Mr. Weiner. “I can’t stand him — even before this,” Ms. Maloney said.

On the West Coast, John L. Burton, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, informed of Mr. Weiner’s inadvertent intrusion into the election on Friday evening, let loose an emphatic expletive.

“We’re still talking about that guy during a presidential election?” Mr. Burton fumed, using a profane seven-letter word instead of “guy.”

Weiner — the name became almost a curse word among senior Democrats over the past two days, as the disgraced congressman unexpectedly surfaced in the final stretch of the presidential contest. The news resurrected memories of previous Weiner scandals.

“He is like a recurring nightmare,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “It’s like one of those ‘Damien’ movies — it’s like every time you think he’s dead, he keeps coming again.”

The fury that many leading Democrats feel toward Mr. Weiner had been building for years. His sexting habits embarrassed them. His attempted political comeback in 2013 disgusted them.

But their high regard for his now-estranged wife, Huma Abedin, always kept them from going public. On Friday that was over.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers and an influential Clinton supporter, said she had long held her tongue out of “enormous respect and love” for Ms. Abedin.

But Ms. Weingarten said Mr. Weiner’s treatment of women demanded forceful censure.

“I don’t care who it is, no one should be a sexual predator,” Ms. Weingarten said. “I think we all have to take a stand about that, and I think what’s happening now is that people are.”

Mr. Weiner, who lost his seat in Congress and his mayoral hopes after repeated episodes in which he sent lewd messages to women, is now under federal investigation for allegedly sending sexual messages to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. In that inquiry, the F.B.I. this month seized a laptop that contained thousands of messages belonging to Ms. Abedin, a top aide to Mrs. Clinton.

The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, told Congress on Friday that investigators will now review those messages for possible relevance to the Clinton inquiry, news that rattled the Clinton campaign and stung her supporters.

For some, the development touched off more worry than anger: former President Bill Clinton, who learned of the news en route to his last event of the day, in Pennsylvania, fretted that it would draw hostile attention to Ms. Abedin, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

Around the country, former aides to Mr. Weiner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, traded emails and texts throughout the weekend, fuming at the “collateral damage” inflicted by their onetime boss....

Keep reading.

Will Hillary's Email Investigation Cost Her the Election?

I don't think so, although the angst on the left following the Comey announcement is pretty delectable.

At the Guardian, "Will Hillary Clinton lose the election because of the FBI's email investigation? Pollsters and observers think not, but as election day looms the Democratic nominee is losing support just as Donald Trump is experiencing a resurgence."

Also, at CBS News, "CBS battleground poll: Partisans divide on news of FBI, emails":

News of the FBI’s decision spread quickly through the battleground states – eight in ten likely voters had heard about it by Saturday – and partisans quickly went to their respective corners: Republicans think it’s bad and expect the emails to contain things damaging to Clinton, and most Democrats say too much is being made of it. While a sizeable third of Democrats also say it’s bad, we found yet another reminder that the election has become a relative choice between the two candidates: those same Democrats also feel the email matter is not as bad as things they dislike about Donald Trump, so they aren’t re-evaluating their vote.

The survey was done following the announcement, across the thirteen “battleground” states.

There’s a suggestion the new email issue could limit Clinton’s chances of growing beyond the base that already supports her. Only 5 percent of Democrats say it could make them less likely to vote for Clinton, and among voters overall, 71 percent say it either won’t change their thinking, or in some cases, they’re already voted.

Most of those who say they’re less likely to vote for Clinton are Republicans, who are not supporting her anyway. Just 5 percent say it all depends on what is in the emails, a wait-and-see approach. Overall, 52 percent of battleground voters expect the emails to contain “more of what we already know” and 48 percent - the largest group of which are Republicans – expect things that are additionally damaging to Clinton...

Keep reading.

Huma Abedin Laptop May Contain Thousands of Emails Sent To or From Hillary's Private Server

Comey's really busted some Democrat balls, heh.

At WSJ, "FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe":

As federal agents prepare to scour roughly 650,000 emails to see how many relate to a prior probe of Hillary Clinton’s email use, the surprise disclosure that investigators were pursuing the potential new evidence lays bare building tensions inside the bureau and the Justice Department over how to investigate the Democratic presidential nominee.

Metadata found on the laptop used by former Rep. Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide, suggests there may be thousands of emails sent to or from the private server that Mrs. Clinton used while she was secretary of state, according to people familiar with the matter. It will take weeks, at a minimum, to determine whether those messages are work-related from the time Ms. Abedin served with Mrs. Clinton at the State Department; how many are duplicates of emails already reviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and whether they include either classified information or important new evidence in the Clinton email probe.

The FBI has had to await a court order to begin reviewing the emails, because they were uncovered in an unrelated probe of Mr. Weiner.

The new investigative effort, disclosed by FBI Director James Comey on Friday, shows a bureau at times in sharp internal disagreement over matters related to the Clintons, and how to handle those matters fairly and carefully in the middle of a national election campaign. Even as the previous probe of Mrs. Clinton’s email use wound down in July, internal disagreements within the bureau and the Justice Department surrounding the Clintons’ family philanthropy heated up, according to people familiar with the matter.

The latest development began in early October when New York-based FBI officials notified Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s second-in-command, that while investigating Mr. Weiner for possibly sending sexually charged messages to a minor, they had recovered a laptop with 650,000 emails. Many, they said, were from the accounts of Ms. Abedin, according to people familiar with the matter...

Keep reading.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



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

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "Democratic Decay."

The Vanishing Center of American Democracy

This report may well be the best thing I've ever read on American political ideology, or at least the best on the current plague of political polarization.

It's a keeper, for sure.

From the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, "The Emergence of a New Culture War."

Read "The Vanishing Center of American Democracy," a revealing report on American political culture, here: https://t.co/ZaB589EDtq pic.twitter.com/8FZubi4T8M

— IASCulture (@iasculture) October 12, 2016

From the press release:

The Vanishing Center of American Democracy, a report based on an in-depth survey just completed by the Gallup Organization for the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, suggests that the depth of public disaffection exhibited during the 2016 presidential election may reveal the emergence of a new culture war, one marked by both divergent values and social divisions.

The dramatic twists and turns of the 2016 presidential race exposed profound shifts in America’s political culture that challenge the legitimacy of the governing institutions of our democracy, according to report authors James Davison Hunter and Carl Desportes Bowman. The Vanishing Center reveals the multiplying fault lines of a culture war that pits many of America’s highly educated and prosperous against the less-educated and economically struggling.

The Institute's 2016 Survey of American Political Culture limns the contours and depths of Americans’ dissatisfaction not only with the economy, electoral politics, and our political leaders but with the very underpinnings of our political culture.

The full results of the survey, along with The Vanishing Center, were released at noon Oct. 12 at the Gallup headquarters in Washington, D.C. The report’s authors, James Davison Hunter, author of Culture Wars, and Carl Desportes Bowman, IASC survey research director, as well as New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall, and Professor Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.

The nationally representative survey took place between Aug. 8 and Aug. 31, with more than 1,900 Americans taking part.

Read The Vanishing Center of American Democracy here.

Sunday Morning Rule 5

Here's a quickie to get the Rule 5 juices flowing.

At 90 Miles from Tyranny, "Morning Mistress."

⚡⚡⚡⚡#TheGirls ⚡⚡⚡⚡ pic.twitter.com/bCfq9ZEjtQ

— Best Trim & Tail100K (@carlosdelgado28) October 22, 2016

Also, at Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup."

And from Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY."

Evil Blogger Lady has "Raquel Welch Rule 5."

From Dana Pico, "The left are shocked, shocked! that the Affordable Care Act isn’t working the way they thought it would."

The Right Way has "Friday Babe."

And the Last Tradition has "Rule 5 Laenn Amos."

More, at Egotastic!, "Bella Hadid Bra Peeks."

Also at the Chive, "Sunday is for the Triple-B: Beers, Babes and Burgers (46 Photos)."

At Last Men on Earth, "LINDSEY PELAS BIG GUNS OUT," and "LARSA PIPPEN IN SHORT SHORTS AND OTHER BLESSINGS OF THE INTERNET."

Ella Dawson, the Woman Tackling the Stigma of STDs

Leave it to Robert Stacy McCain to go where no rational man has gone before.

See, "Feminism and the Cult of the True Self."

That thing when you're a herpes-infected Gender Studies major and someone notices your bisexuality is mostly fake. https://t.co/x7xRXw7yDr pic.twitter.com/Hv48MF0M3F

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) October 30, 2016

Blink 182 Recreates 'What's My Age Again?' (VIDEO)

At the Independent U.K., "Blink 182 recreate 'What's My Age Again?' music video with naked women for new single 'She's Out Of Her Mind'."

Today's College Students

And other media-whacked know-nothings.

Today a sweet college student asked me what impact social media had when I was in college, bless his heart. pic.twitter.com/fY06IxZ5rW

— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) October 24, 2016

On a Mt. Vernon tour, a millennial just asked if George Washington had electricity. SMH.

— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) October 23, 2016

Cautionary Note on the Election's Public Opinion Polls

I don't know?

I remember the arguments in 2012, and even that one website called "unskewed polls," or something like that, that said Mitt Romney was going to win the election. And of course Gallup saw a Romney surge to 51 percent a couple of days before the election.

I've forgotten which ones, but some or the other polls also had Romney winning Ohio. It was looking really good for the GOP.

And then what? I remember the networks calling Obama's reelection by 6:00pm on the West Coast. There was no cliffhanger. No all night of recounts. Nothing. It was over before it had barely begun.

So, I'm not going to over-analyze the polls this year. I expect Trump's doing better than is shown in most polls, but I'm not going to underestimate the enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton. The Democrats have a ground game. Trump's campaign not so much.

In any case, at IBD, "What Explains the Wide Range of Poll Results Between IBD/TIPP and Others?":

What Explains The Wide Range Of Poll Results Between IBD/TIPP And Others? https://t.co/mOisA3xK4n #tcot #tlot #polls

— IBDeditorials (@IBDeditorials) October 24, 2016

IBD/TIPP is fairly transparent. The typical poll is intended to have between 750 and 900 respondents, a random sample of registered voters. Those are then further winnowed by identifying likely voters, as opposed to just registered voters, through both targeted questions and demographics of the respondents.

The Oct. 24 poll is pretty typical: It yielded 815 likely voters with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.6 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. That means, based on the sample, there's a 95% certainty that the "true" support levels for the candidates are within 3.6 percentage points of the reported results.

TechnoMetrica, IBD's polling company, conducts the survey by telephone. It uses both landline and cellphones, with about 35% coming from landlines and 65% coming from cellphones. All of the interviews are done live — no "robocalls" or other dodgy techniques that might bias the outcome.

The numbers are not reported raw. They are adjusted to match the presumed registration percentages of the political parties. That way no party is systematically underrepresented. The same is done for race, gender, region, and party affiliation.

This ensures a more accurate end result than simply relying on raw poll responses. On party affiliation, the presumed mix is as follows: Democrats 37% of likely voters; Republicans a bit over 29%; and independents at 34%.

In the end, that latter category may be key. IBD/TIPP in its latest poll has Trump ahead among independents and "other" by 41% to 32%. That's much wider than most other polls, and one possible explanation for why the poll differs from others.

Polls are, by their very nature, approximations. They use a wide variety of means to guess what literally tens of millions will do, based on just a small sample. Sometimes that yields very big differences, as it has this time.

What about political bias, as some darkly allege? Well, no pollster wants to be wrong. If any poll is really out of whack, it's likely because they missed something in their polling — not political bias.

The Political Environment on Social Media

At Pew Research:

New report @pewinternet: The Political Environment on Social Media https://t.co/blGn6apAVT pic.twitter.com/FUITJoLmBW

— PewResearch Journo (@pewjournalism) October 25, 2016

Some users enjoy the opportunities for political debate and engagement that social media facilitates, but many more express resignation, frustration over the tone and content of social platforms.

In a political environment defined by widespread polarization and partisan animosity, even simple conversations can go awry when the subject turns to politics. In their in-person interactions, Americans can (and often do) attempt to steer clear of those with whom they strongly disagree.

But online social media environments present new challenges. In these spaces, users can encounter statements they might consider highly contentious or extremely offensive – even when they make no effort to actively seek out this material. Similarly, political arguments can encroach into users’ lives when comment streams on otherwise unrelated topics devolve into flame wars or partisan bickering. Navigating these interactions can be particularly fraught in light of the complex mix of close friends, family members, distant acquaintances, professional connections and public figures that make up many users’ online networks.

A new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults finds that political debate and discussion is indeed a regular fact of digital life for many social media users, and some politically active users enjoy the heated discussions and opportunities for engagement that this mix of social media and politics facilitates. But a larger share expresses annoyance and aggravation at the tone and content of the political interactions they witness on these platforms. Among the key findings of this survey...

F.B.I. Announcement Was Like an '18-Wheeler Smacking Into' the Clinton Campaign

Well, I think it's great.

Hillary's stroll to the finish line got knocked off like a blitzing linebacker blindsiding a quarterback. I love it.

For Democrats, the new focus on Hillary Clinton's emails is "like an 18-wheeler smacking into us" https://t.co/w1nNqLunxD pic.twitter.com/7W1jc9k42L

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) October 29, 2016

Is There Any Level to Which Democrats Won't Sink? (VIDEO)

Word is InfoWars has been getting a lot more attention these days, considering what's going on and all.

I don't care for it, although I think Alex Jones is a funny character. I'm just not into 9/11 trutherism or (more recently) anti-Semitic conspiracies.

Still, he's pretty hilarious.

Watch:

Deal of the Day: Save on Dyson Multifloor Canister Vacuum [BUMPED]

At Amazon, Dyson DC39 Ball Multifloor Canister Vacuum (Certified Refurbished).

Also, Save on WMF Flatware.

And, Save on Select Cuisinart Kitchen Products and Accessories.

Shop for Kind Food Bars.

More, Amazon Accessories.

BONUS: Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.

Taylor Hill and Emmy Rappe in Las Vegas (VIDEO)

Via Michael Kors:

Kate Upton Modeling with Penguins (VIDEO)

Ms. Kate's been out of the limelight, although she's sure as easy to behold as ever.

Via Sports Illustrated:

We Are Confronted with a Struggle for Political Power in Which, for Once, All is at Stake

See the commentaries from Mark Danner, Andrew Delbanco, and Elizabeth Drew, at the New York Review of Books, "On the Election—II."

Previously: "What Is to be Done About the Republican Party?"

ABC Tracking Poll 'Mysteriously' Shows 10-Point Shift Toward Donald Trump in One Week

"Mysteriously."

If Trump is disciplined like he was in September, when we last saw him genuinely surging in the polls, perhaps election night might be a cliffhanger?

At this point, though, I think the leftist media might have done enough damage to the Manhattan mogul's chances. I'm skeptical the latest F.B.I. bombshell's going to make that much difference.

But at least we're kept on the edge of our seats, and leftists are freakin' out. That part's to die for, lol.

At Hot Air.

And ICYMI, "F.B.I.'s Announcement Re-Frames Election as Referendum on Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)."

Saturday Tessa

Here's the lovely Tessa Fowler, "A hard man is good to find."

Also, "'Yellow? I'm gonna have to call you back'."

Sabine Jemeljanova Page 3 Saturday

At the Sun U.K.:

Sabine from London slowly slips off her little black dress https://t.co/mF4xtMHpYm pic.twitter.com/Kzeqr1errI

— Page 3 (@Page3) October 29, 2016

Ava Sambora Bikini Pics

Here's some Rule 5 for all of your babe-blogging cruisers out there.

At Egotastic!, "Ava Sambora Bikini Photoshoot in Malibu," and "Ava Sambora Bikini Dream and Emily Ratajkowski Booty Highlight the Weekly Social (VIDEO)."

BONUS: At the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

Describe the 2016 Election in One Word

Spectacular.

Incredible.

Awesome.

Unprecedented.

Disastrous.

I don't know? Those are just a few words that come to mind for me. Actually, this has been the most interesting election in my lifetime, regardless of who wins. As noted previously, I'm especially pleased to see the crackup of the GOP coalition. I love the populist uprising and I expect it to continue for some time. This is all healthy to me, not dangerous. America's a big enough and great enough country to tackle all these problems. There's no threat to the survival of the American republic, although there's definitely a threat to the culture and ideological foundations that have made us great. Those things may be going away. Leftists are cheering such developments, because they hate American exceptionalism. The dis-empowered "coalition of restoration," however, isn't so pleased. They're going to be on the outside of the dominant culture looking in, and they'll get burned as society keeps up its inexorable movement to the radical left.

In any case, it is what it is.

At the Los Angeles Times:

We went to the ‘happiest place on Earth’ and asked people to describe the election in one word https://t.co/yRm9CaB6Kl pic.twitter.com/VUwD2AZ1vD

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) October 29, 2016

F.B.I.'s Announcement Re-Frames Election as Referendum on Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)

As well it should.

At USA Today, "Trump sees opportunity in Clinton emails":

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton's presidential bid takes a heavy blow, and Donald Trump sees a big opportunity.

The stunning statement by FBI Director James Comey that agents are reviewing newly discovered Clinton emails rocked the presidential race this weekend, though analysts said it will be a few days before the campaigns know whether actual voters are being changed.

Certainly Trump sees the probe as an election-changing event, telling supporters in New Hampshire that "Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we have never seen before," and voters should "not let her take her criminal scheme" to the White House.

"This is the biggest political scandal since Watergate and I'm sure that it will be properly handled from this point forward," Trump said Friday night during a rally in Lisbon, Maine.

Clinton and her aides, who are demanding that the FBI release more information about its review, said voters have already made up their minds about her use of a private email server as secretary of State.

"I think that's factored into what people think," Clinton told reporters in Des Moines, "and now they're choosing a president."

At first glance, it appears the new FBI development will benefit Trump, who trails Clinton in most national and swing-state polls, analysts said – maybe not by changing peoples' minds, but by prompting equivocal voters to back the New York businessman.

"It re-frames the election as a referendum on Clinton and all the baggage she brings into office with her," said Republican consultant Bruce Haynes, founding partner of Washington-based Purple Strategies. "It puts the spotlight squarely back on her, all her faults and all the truckloads of baggage she brings."

There are more email stories to come...

Keep reading.

Fifty-One Percent of Voters Fear Violence on Election Day

Following-up, "Some Donald Trump Voters Warn of Revolution if Hillary Clinton Wins."

I doubt there's going to be a revolutionary insurrection, although election day violence seems like a distinct possibility, especially if Donald Trump wins, heh.

Here's Thursday's front-page at USA Today. So dramatic:

On today's #frontpage: 51% fear #ElectionDay violence; More major-college football coaches hit $3M mark pic.twitter.com/oKukzSQMbQ

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 27, 2016

And see, "Poll: Clinton builds lead in divided nation worried about Election Day violence."

Do We Want a Criminal in the White House?

From Roger Simon, at Pajamas, "America Is at Its Most Perilous Crossroads Since World War II."

Leftists Angry at F.B.I. Director James Comey

Well, I went back to bed yesterday after posting a couple of entries in the morning. I slept and read books intermittently, then picked up my son from school at 3:30pm. When I got back, I checked the television to see if the World Series was starting, and that's when I caught all the news about the F.B.I. bombshell.

Legal Insurrection has the story, "Who could have predicted Weiner would bring down Hillary’s campaign?"

And at Memeorandum, "Emails in Anthony Weiner Inquiry Jolt Hillary Clinton's Campaign."

The biggest kick is the leftist meltdown, heh.

Progs thought they had this thing in the bag and now the F.B.I's dropped a bummer of an October surprise on them.

Here's far left Jane Mayer, at the New Yorker, "James Comey Broke with Loretta Lynch and Justice Department Tradition" (via Memeorandum).

And WaPo's Matthew Miller, who is former communications flack for the Department of Justice, flipped his wig. You gotta love this:

I wrote a piece in July on why Comey's public comments about Clinton were such an inappropriate abuse of power. 1/ https://t.co/G8croz4qWZ

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

He flagrantly violated DOJ rules with his press conference. Then went on to break new ground discussing details of the case to Congress...2/

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

Each time, he either violated or seriously stretched DOJ rule & precedent. Press conference was the original sin, & it begat the rest. 4/

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

But today's disclosure might be worst abuse yet. DOJ goes out of its way to avoid publicly discussing investigations close to election. 5/

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

Not just public discussion either. Often won't send subpoenas or take other steps that might leak until after an election is over...6/

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

Why? Because voters have no way to interpret FBI/DOJ activity in a neutral way. Who is the target of an investigation? What conduct? 7/

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

This might be totally benign & not even involve Clinton. But no way for press or voters to know that. Easy for opponent to make hay over. 8/

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

Which takes us back to the original rule: you don't comment on ongoing investigations. Then multiply that times ten close to an election. 9/

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

For whatever reason (& there are many theories), Comey continues to ignore that. But only for Clinton. 10/

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 28, 2016

And then there's the precious Clinton lackey Kurt Eichenwald, bless his heart:

No emails being examined by FBI were to or from Clinton. All of this has to do with procedures followed by an aide. https://t.co/mcsBi7j7XU

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) October 29, 2016

And Eichenwald's really only worried about the reputation of the F.B.I., not Hillary's chances or anything. Nah.

My deepest concern is not the election. It's the incalculable damage that Comey has done to the @FBI by making it (wrongly) seem political.

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) October 29, 2016

Right.

Some Donald Trump Voters Warn of Revolution if Hillary Clinton Wins

This was at the New York Times on Thursday, via Memeorandum.

Well, I doubt we're going to see revolutionary agitation on the right, although people will be pissed if Trump loses. The anger in the electorate's going to linger a long time, and will continue to dramatically shape American politics. Trumpism (populism and nationalism) isn't going away.

Trump supporter brings effigy of Clinton with noose to rally https://t.co/J4x6q1rFln pic.twitter.com/PSC4RX54Ge

— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 27, 2016

Lolz. More at Shakesville, "This Is Intolerable."

WikiLeaks Dumps Mean Hillary's Presidency Would Be Tainted from Day One

It's John Fund, via Instapundit.

A Clinton White House will be corruption central, and it'll keep congressional investigators busy. See WaPo, "House Republicans are already preparing for 'years' of investigations of Clinton."

'We Are in for a Pretty Long Civil War...'

From Julia Ioffe, at Politico, "In back rooms and think tanks, Republicans are already mourning their party — and plotting the fight over who’s going to be in it after Trump":

As the country geared up for the third and final presidential debate last week, the fellows of the storied conservative Hoover Institution gathered in Palo Alto to present their research to the think tank's wealthy patrons. Elsewhere in America, in the homestretch of perhaps the weirdest election the nation has ever experienced, things were getting tense, excited, even feverish. But the rooms at the Hoover retreat at Stanford University could have doubled as a funeral parlor, and the lectures as eulogies for a bygone era. Larry Diamond, a prominent political sociologist known to fellow scholars as “Mr. Democracy,” talked about the breakdown of the party system. Kori Schake, a National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration and adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign, spoke about how the U.S. was endangering the international order it had itself created. Peter Berkowitz, a conservative political scientist and commentator, gave a talk about “the unraveling of civil society” in America.

“Obviously the party and the conservative movement are very troubled, and there will obviously be a crisis whether Trump wins or loses,” Berkowitz told me later. “What are the core conservative convictions going forward?”

“If he wins, he will for all intents and purposes reshape what it means to be a Republican,” said Schake when I called her. “We’re fumbling our way through, which I hope will lead us to consensus, but we’re nowhere near it now.”

This election, the conventional wisdom goes, has done tremendous damage to the American body politic, but nowhere is the damage as severe as it is inside the party that nominated the wrecking ball known as Donald Trump. Now the party of Ronald Reagan is being led by a man with no discernible ideological leanings, save for an affinity with some of history’s ugliest. In the face of mounting evidence that Hillary Clinton is set to dominate the electoral map on November 8, Republicans across the right side of the spectrum recognize there’s defeat coming. And behind the scenes, in conversations and closed-door venues—the Hoover gathering was not open to the public—the people who once considered themselves the heart, or at least the head, of the party have begun a very pessimistic reckoning.

As yet there seems to be no coherent vision for what kind of future November 9 brings for the Republican Party—or, for that matter, if there will even be a Republican Party they could support. “You’re assuming that ‘establishment Republicans’ are going to be Republicans anymore,” said Juleanna Glover, a GOP lobbyist and former staffer to then-Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri.

“The likelihood of the Republican Party surviving this, of there being another Republican president in the future, is small,” said one movement conservative who served in the Bush White House. “I don’t think the party survives.”

Far from the halls of the Hoover Institution and big Washington policy shops is a force they cannot control: the Trump campaign, a small collection of social-media gurus, Breitbart alumni, and Trump family members who have managed to capture the majority of Republican voters in the U.S., and who may use their new power to launch a media network, or take over as the new axis of the GOP, or both. And as the old establishment looks on in horror, the civil war in its ranks has already begun.

I agree with this. The GOP is crashing, although the Republican establishment, including most of those up at Hoover, bear much of the blame. There's no underlying voter coalition supporting the GOPe. I doubt the huge white working class vote, especially the 60 percent-or-so of white non-college-educated men, will care much about rekindling the GOP if Trump loses on November 8th.

I personally welcome the crackup of the party. I've been saying for a long time that the two-party system needs a major realignment. It looks like the Democrats are going to be the majority party for a while, and there needs to be a real party of opposition to challenge them in upcoming elections. "Democrat-lite," which has been the sellout GOP in recent years, won't do.

In any case, still more at the link. (Via Memeorandum.)

(If Trump loses, I hope we can get a leader like Marine Le Pen to form an American nationalist party. Heh, that'd be so cool.).

Teaching Again Today

I'm teaching all day again today, my regular Thursday schedule.

I did manage to get some things posted on the blog overnight, and I'll have more tonight and over the weekend.

Meanwhile, keep shopping through my Amazon links. Every little bit helps. And remember, when you shop through my links, you're helping me finance my book addiction through no additional cost to yourself. I'm always thankful.

Here, Shop Books.

Also, Best Selling Products.

More, Kind Bar Plus Bar: Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate PLUS Protein, Box of 12.

Shop for Amazon Accessories as well.

BONUS: Edward Klein, Guilty as Sin: Uncovering New Evidence of Corruption and How Hillary Clinton and the Democrats Derailed the FBI Investigation.

What Is to be Done About the Republican Party?

See the commentaries from Russell Baker, G.W. Bowersock, and David Bromwich, at the New York Review of Books, "On the Election—I."

Queer Feminism at Marquette University

From Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain.

The Right's Fever Swamps Aren't Going Away

I got a kick out of this, despite its far-left progressive bent.

Heh. The Fever Swamps Aren’t Going Away, So We Need to Adapt https://t.co/LeLYCGtvs4 @PatriarchTree @EdDriscoll

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 26, 2016

Neighbors Come Together Over Stolen Campaign Sign

Good news:

Neighbors with opposing political views come together over stolen campaign sign https://t.co/LbzlNctX9T pic.twitter.com/mSpJcSWKnK

— KMBC (@kmbc) October 22, 2016

Keeley Hazell

Found on Twitter:

#ManicMonday 😰 @KeeleyHazellFan @Fan_of_Boobies pic.twitter.com/10Xl8kkcU0

— World Class Beauty (@LoveLucyP) October 24, 2016

Election 2016: The American Way or the European Way?

Excellent video, as always.

From Pat Condell:

Kendall Jenner Loves Showing Off

At W Magazine, "KENDALL JENNER, REVEALED: THE 20-YEAR-OLD MODEL LOVES SHOWING OFF HER BODY."