AP CALLS PENNSYLVANIA FOR TRUMP; TRUMP HAS WON THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES

—Ace

The Obama Captivity is over.

Hillary cancelled her fireworks show. Let's have one ourselves.

Hillary is refusing to concede. She sent over Jon Podesta to say she's not coming to the Javitz Center and won't have anything to say until tomorrow a.m.

I suspect she's drunk a fair amount. Perhaps too much to appear in public.

AP Calls Senate Race in Pennsylvania for Toomey; Dem Challenger Calls to Concede to Blunt in Missouri

—Ace

So the Democrats needed five. They'll get, at most, three, and they probably will only get two -- Ayotte and Kirk, who were pretty useless in the first place.

Still waiting for the big fireworks of a network call of the election.

Election Night Overnight Open Thread (11/8/160 [Mis.Hum.]

—Open Blogger

Election results

Most Americans see themselves as middle class.The Middle Class. Are you part of it?

Facing a criminal charge is bad enough. Shooting yourself in the leg TWICE. That's a Genius Award winner if there ever was.

The feel good story of the day.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by rules.

Posted by Permission of AceCorp, LLC. We reserve the right to refuse service.

Tonight is the conclusion of a lengthy, contentious election season. Yes, it seems it has gone on forever. Most of us have had some type of disappointment tonight. It could have been nationally, on a state or local basis. Hell, it could have been all three. Our country still transfers governance peacefully.

We are Morons. We are the Horde. We have standards here. Piss and moan all you want. You can play arm chair quarterback and tell us how who won and lost and why.

Better yet stick to things that aren't pure 100% politics. But if you must talk politics and tonight's results remember this. We have rules.

And most of you know the rules. But if you don't they basically go like this.

Treat one another as you would like to be treated.
No name calling.
No personal attacks.
No threats of violence.
No wishful thoughts of violence.

The leash is short.

Let's have a good great ONT.

Close it up

Still Waiting for the Last Blow

—Ace

Update: I'm not calling this yet, but Decision Desk HQ is calling it:

Decision Desk now calls Pennsylvania for Trump:

It's not that I doubt them, I just want it to be more official.

I'm going to stay up as long as I can until we get the final resolution, unless something happens to make it appear that the election won't be called tonight.

Someone just told me to be magnanimous (if there is any call for magnamity it all, which I'm not assuming there is, because I do believe in hubris and jinxes).

I said I would not be magnanimous, but I might be #MAGAnimous.

To that end, as we wait for the results, let's check in with the two campaign headquarters:

Trump HQ:

Election ERECTION THREAD: TRUMP WINS WISCONSIN
AND IOWA!

—Ace

Just came

over the airwaves on FoxNews.

Election Thread Five: Fox Calls North Carolina for Trump
Damn: Colorado to Hillary

—Ace

Florida, Ohio, and NC have been called by Fox by various entities.

Those are Trump's must-wins. Now he has one or maybe two other states to win to win the whole thing.

With Colorado to Hillary, that reduces one of Trump's possible pathways.

People keep saying he's ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan. Gotta say, I'll believe it when I see it.

Ron Johnson Defeats Russ Feingold to Hold On to Senate Seat.

Odds of GOP maintaining control of Senate just went up. Plus, Joe Manchin says he may defect (I assume if GOP keeps hold, he'll defect).

Is this really going to happen?

And Decision Desk's Jeff said he was "pretty sure" Trump would win New Hampshire.

Then he updated: "Done. Won."

Election Thread Four: Virginia Called For Hillary By Fox
CBS Calls Ohio for Trump

—Ace

John King on CNN just pointed out that Hillary had just moved ahead in Virginia by a tenth of a percent, and even better for her, the outstanding vote is all located in her counties, except one swing county, which still actually favors her -- just not as heavily as the NoVa counties.

This NYT thing, which I'm going to stop looking at because it's giving me a heart attack, has Trump at 59% to win-- but that's down from 61% a minute ago. (Down for the first time in the night.) Probably down as Virginia firmed up for Hillary.

Update: Sadly, Fox calls Virginia for Clinton.

Update: Burr Wins North Carolina Senate, Reducing Democrats' Odds of Winning Senate.

Ohio Called for Trump by CBS.

This stupid gadget is bonkers:

Decision Desk: We're Now Calling Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio for Trump.

There's a Weird Feeling in My Pants and I Likes It!!!

Election Thread Three: Florida Still Too Close to Call; Virginia Close

—Ace

Trump's ahead in Virginia but here's the thing: In both Florida and Virginia (as in most other places) the urban or urban-ish areas take the longest to report because it takes longest to count the votes determine the number of ballots which must be forged to offset the real vote advantage.

Odds of Hillary Winning Just Fell from 57% (Down from 67% Earlier) to 54% as I Was Watching: The New York Times is saying this.

Shit -- now it's down to 51%. In one minute.

The dial just fell to 50% now.

She's falling in the odds like she falls on the street.

Now 51% for TRUMP.

I have no idea what the hell this thing is or why it's trying to raise my expectations to hurt me emotionally later.

How's this grab at ya?

And this:

Update: Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia just said he's not committed to remaining a Democrat if it's a 50/50 Senate.

He did not add "And if Trump wins," but somehow, I don't think he's thinking about flipping to join the minority.

I think he's saying he thinks Trump is going to win, and Pence will be the tie-breaking vote, and then he might flip.

I Don't Believe It. This is Reverse Romney for me-- I couldn't believe it when he lost (and all of "his" states took forever to call, sometimes being called for Obama).

And I can't believe this shit I'm watching right now:

The good news: Trump might win

The bad news: This means I know nothing at all about anything

The also bad news: Trump might win

Second Election Thread: Florida Tied Up with 86% of Precincts Reporting

—Ace

What a lovely end to the year, should this turn into Bush v. Gore II.

You can glide over each state at Decision Desk to see the votes counted so far.

Young Beats Evan Bayh for Indiana Senate.

On the other hand -- no, on the same hand, actually -- Mark Kirk lost.

Good. I get liberals in Blue States, but what the hell was the point of Mark Kirk?

First Election Thread

—Ace

Well from here on out it's just rumors, exit polls, spin, and watching to see who looks sad and who looks happy as they talk about those things.

A few sources that will update as numbers come in:

The New York Times map of poll closings.

Very soon (7pm EST) is a very big one. Most of Florida (but not the Panhandle -- but that hasn't stopped networks from calling it early before!), Georgia, New Hampshire, Virginia. (Among other states whose outcome is less in doubt.)

At 7:30 comes Ohio, North Carolina, and West Virginia.

At 8:00 comes Maine, the rest of Florida (so a result might come in), and most east-of-the-Mississippi states except for important ones (WI, MI) in the upper Midwest.

The WSJ will be updating as the night progresses. It should be noted that so far exit polls look bad for Trump -- better hope for that Shy Trump Voter effect.

Shelby Steele: Deference to the Stigmatizing Power of PC is "Desptoism"

—Ace

He wrote for the Wall Street Journal, and I'd like to link them, but they're behind a paywall, so try reading it at Zero Hedge.

Since the '60s the Democratic Party, and liberalism generally, have thrived on the power of deference. When Hillary Clinton speaks of a "basket of deplorables," she follows with a basket of isms and phobias--racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and Islamaphobia. Each ism and phobia is an opportunity for her to show deference toward a victimized group and to cast herself as America's redeemer. And, by implication, conservatism is bereft of deference. Donald Trump supporters are cast as small grudging people, as haters who blindly love America and long for its exclusionary past. Against this she is the very archetype of American redemption. The term "progressive" is code for redemption from a hate-driven America.

So deference is a power to muscle with. And it works by stigmatization, by threatening to label people as regressive bigots. Mrs. Clinton, Democrats and liberals generally practice combat by stigma. And they have been fairly successful in this so that many conservatives are at least a little embarrassed to "come out" as it were. Conservatism is an insurgent point of view, while liberalism is mainstream. And this is oppressive for conservatives because it puts them in the position of being a bit embarrassed by who they really are and what they really believe.

Deference has been codified in American life as political correctness. And political correctness functions like a despotic regime. It is an oppressiveness that spreads its edicts further and further into the crevices of everyday life. We resent it, yet for the most part we at least tolerate its demands. But it means that we live in a society that is ever willing to cast judgment on us, to shame us in the name of a politics we don’t really believe in. It means our decency requires a degree of self-betrayal.

He goes on to describe Trump as an avatar of the anti-deference position.

Note that he doesn't say, as I wouldn't say, that Trump arrives at his anti-deference position through rigorous philosophical inquiry. He arrives there only because he has a very large ego and has been rich all his life and, like a superstar athlete, therefore has come to expect people to defer to him and generally get away with behaving like an ass.

However, that's still something. I know a lot of "conservative" writers and politicians who will tell you wonderful reasons why one should not defer to political correctness, but then do so themselves anyway.

Actually, to be honest with you, very few people do that at all. The most they do is write snarky "Look at what these crazy college kids are doing now" posts. They don't propose a philosophical defense of autonomy and resistance to social bulling any more than Trump does.

However, let's say hypothetically that they did: Their actions will still carry more weight than their mere words, and their actions would still be those of a pet whose grown to like his cage and will mount defenses of his cage if attacked for living in a cage made by others.

Trump did not come to the position of defiance in the face of relentless, unending social bullying by philosophical pathways, but unlike most of those in our overly-socialized, let-us-not-defy-popular-opinion, we-all-must-buckle-to-group-thinking party, he did get there.

And that puts him ahead of the game.

There have been a lot of eye-opening things for me this election cycle, but one of the most eye-opening was to see how the "party of individualists" is so girlishly sensitive to Mean Girl social pressures, and of course how people who spend some time occasionally decrying social justice witch-hunts are very, very eager to join in a social justice scalp hunt the moment they have the chance.

It's very much like the playground, where people are just afraid to stick out for fear that they'll be the next to be chosen for group ridicule by the all-important Group, and who merrily join in in the ridiculing of others because at least that takes the spotlight off them for the period of the other's shaming.

Plus, of course, it's just plain fun to be cruel to people in a way that is socially acceptable because The Group decided it was, isn't it?

Should You Re-Friend the People You have De-Friended Over This Election?

—Ace

I wish I was the kind of guy who would say something human and warm like "Of course you shouldn't let politics affect personal relationships," but I'm not.

In fact, I earlier told someone to that effect, when he tossed some bonhomie my way. I basically said "Thanks, but it's not reciprocated, so I'm sparing you further efforts in this vein."

This New York Post article discusses it.

Here's my actual belief: Yes, if you have a genuine personal attachment to someone, then of course you should not only be open to, but actually make efforts towards, the prospect of reconciliation.

On the other hand, we all know collectively "know" a great many more people than we used to know. Before social media, we actually knew people. We'd know, say, 5 people dearly, 10 people closely, 50 people warmly, and 100 more people indifferently.

And that was about it for people you knew.

Now we "know" a lot of people we don't really know at all. We merely see them on the internet. Some of these Fake Internet friends are real friends (given time, or frequency of contact).

Most of them aren't, and it's a bit silly to pretend these Fake Internet Friends are anything other than they actually are, which are people whose paths you just happened to not-really-cross-at-all by dint of having a (weak) mutual interest in wasting time on the Internet.

So yes, real friends should be re-affiliated. The rest of them are just so much detritus that floated past your transom.

I was talking to another person who seemed upset that those who once called her friend were now treating her viciously.

Who are these people to you?, I asked her. Are they really anyone at all? Are they people you see on Twitter and maybe have brief, inconsequential and rote conversations with at CPAC once a damn year?

If they're the latter -- who cares?

I guess I'm kind of saying apply Konami or whatever it's called to relationships -- keep what you love, discard the clutter. Or, as it's already been discarded -- allow this to be a Hoarder Happy Ending and leave things well-discarded discarded.

Note this advice does not apply to anyone you actually like or respect or have broken bread with, though of course it's a sliding scale. Some relationships are, by their nature, very superficial and in fact very circumstantial. As Tim observed on the British "The Office," most people you see at work -- or on Twitter -- are merely people you "share a patch of carpet with for 8 hours a day." If you leave your job tomorrow, how many people would you actually make any effort to keep up with?

As far as the internet, most people only know each other by one way: By their thoughts. That's good and bad. Some people like the internet because the physical and pheremonal aspects of affiliation are removed from the equation.

But as the only thing connecting you to most Fake Internet Friends are in fact their thoughts, and not any sort of deep kinship or long history that would make those relationships more real and permanent -- if you've decided you don't care for their thoughts, what remains to bind you?

Eh. As some comedian observed, social media -- email, he meant, but now texting and Twitter -- keeps a lot of "zombie relationships" alive -- barely -- when maybe the cycle of life would suggest that what is of the earth should be returned to the earth.

This may sound a bit severe, but the sort of "difficult, complicated relationships" we used to have were with people we had a deep natural affiliation to -- a sister. A mother. A father. A spouse or a lover. Maybe a friend one's had since youth.

But those are deep relationships; difficulties are to be tolerated.

I can't help but think the breezy, superficial light relationships we have are supposed to be rather easy. They are, after all, for purposes of mutual enjoyment, and i'm not sure enjoyment should take a lot of work.

If Hillary Wins, There'll Be Nothing Left "To Fix" by the #NeverTrump Wing in 2020

—Ace

I don't think they want to "fix" anything, though. I think they want to retain their careers in saying stupid things about politics they saw someone else say on Twitter, or their careers fleecing older Americans out of donor money to fund increasingly-liberal magazines and think tanks, or to preserve their own or their buddies' jobs in an increasingly niche rump party.

That said, to the extent they have any interest in something besides their own careers and acceptance among their liberal coteries, there'll be nothing to "put back together" in 2020 or 2024.

Prudence Paine:

In 2008, I refused to hold my nose and vote for John McCain. I didn't see the utter destruction to America that wrecking ball Barack Obama could do. Now I know that if Hillary wins today, it will be the end of America as we know it. There will be no chance to ever recover what we have lost. The shameful transformation of America will be locked in.

* All of Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders will remain.

* Obamacare will slowly be shifted into a socialist one-payer system, destroying America's leadership in world-class health care.

* More regulations will be piled on top business, making the economy further groan under the weight. More spending will beget more taxation and borrowing. Been looking for a better job? A full-time job? Hoping to get better pay? [insert sound of Hillary's cackle.]

* Hillary will likely appoint three or more US Supreme Court judges, shifting it into a left-wing Constitution-hating body that will look to international courts for its judgments.

* The Second Amendment will be restricted. The Fourth Amendment will continue to be neglected.

* The welfare state will be expanded. Illegal immigration will not be restrained, but rewarded. Terrorists will be imported under the guise of compassion.

* Our military will continue to disintegrate and our enemies will grow strong and push us around. We will cower before them. We will give in and humiliate ourselves. We will pay more ransoms and let our friends get taken over.

* And the Clinton years of scandal after scandal and the selling of the White House that occurred from 1992 to 2000 will look like child's play during the next eight years. It will be utterly exhausting keeping up with their corruption and criminality.

America will be trashed. It will be over.

There will be no looking to finally elect a Republican that will "fix it" in 2020 or 2024. There will be nothing left to fix. The demolition of all we hold dear will be permanent.

So today, I'm voting for Donald Trump, because he is the only one that has any chance of beating Hillary Clinton. A vote for anyone else--or a lack of voting--is a full acceptance of the destruction of America as we know it.

That's my position too, and that's why I imagine this will be my last rodeo. There is simply no point "fighting" on the side of quislings and traitors who will sell you out if someone applies a little Social Justice Pressure to them on Muh Twitterz.

The GOP, particularly its venal, inbred, incompetent Mandarin class, is in bed with the liberal welfare state, sometimes quite literally. They are heartless, and not in the way their pretend-opponents liberals usually mean it; I mean they have no guts, no grit, no fight, no defiance.

No heart, no animal spirit. A man who makes for a poor man isn't more likely to make for a good adviser.

There is no point "fighting" for an army that yearns to lose.

The future belongs to those who are willing to fight for it.

Our debased political class is not so willing. They have grown comfortable and fat on the six-foot leash their liberal masters permit them.

They only wish, as Mathew Continetti said, to accommodate themselves to a large and ever-growing welfare state and just have some "conservative-tinged" management of it.

Not enough. Not worth fighting for. Not a dream anyone but the most bloodless bureaucratic insect would consider a dream worth fighting for.

They set themselves upon a palace coup -- knifing the rest of the party in the back -- to take back their party.

Well, they can have their party back. I will not belong to any party which demands my vote and support -- but not my input as to my own list of political aspirations.

They will have their party back, much diminished.

And they will fail even in their pathetic dream of "conservative-tinged" bureaucratic management of the ever-growing state.

Guest Post: "Be Not Afraid"

—Ace

Sent by Tusk. What follows, until my update, is his:

I like to lower expectations.

When I see a movie, I convince myself beforehand it'll suck.

That way, if it does actually suck, I'm not too disappointed; if it's good, I'm pleasantly surprised.

In this spirit, I've made myself visualize Hillary Clinton's victory speech daily for the past two weeks.

Every triumphant, vengeful gleam in her eye; every note of the cackle unleashed; every shout; every smirk.

It's already happened in my mind a dozen times.

So if it actually happens tonight, it'll just be the thirteenth time I'm experiencing it. And familiarity breeds content.

Many (including the Head Ewok) say that if we lose this election, it's Game Over.

I respectfully disagree.

If she wins, she comes into office with roughly the same field position as Nixon in January 1974. A bare majority of the country now thinks she's crooked; a significant majority has long thought she's generally untrustworthy and unlikeable.

Even if she has a Democratic Senate, the worst-case scenario for her opponents is that they face an unpopular, uncharismatic President, without Obama's magic force-field. (Of course, the flip side is that if Trump wins, he also comes into office with less-than-ideal field position. But utopia ain't on the menu.)

Will she take revenge on her deplorable, irredeemable enemies?

She'll probably try.

And if she does, we'll resist as best we can.

But if she loses ...

Oh boy.

Oh ... boy.

Be not afraid.

Expect the worst, hope for the best.

And vote. And get ten others to vote too.

Then hug your loved ones extra-tight, pray (if that's your thing--otherwise just plain hope) that we do the least-worst thing as a nation, and sit back to watch the fireworks.

See you on the other side.

...

Ace Back Again. Oddly enough, a friend called this morning with this exact same question -- what will be Hillary's caterwauled first line of her acceptance speech? This is the friend who observed that Hillary speaks like she's solving a puzzle on Wheel of Fortune: LITTLE... HOUSE... ON THE... PRAIRIE...!

His guess was "That noise... you just... heard....? The sound of... the world's... tallest... glass ceiling... being... shattered...!"

I told him I thought she already used that line at the Democrat National Convention.

But in fairness, I could see her deploying it again. She has neurological issues. Her brain is all rotten garbage held together by L-Dopa and snakes.

Hillary Appears Wobbly, Unsteady on Her Feet Last Night

—Ace

Mid-Morning Open Thread [CBD]

—Open Blogger

Male Model Resting
John Singer Sargent

Suggested by, and in honor of Jackstraw.

In the name of all that is holy, do not ever post Male Model Resting.

Posted by: JackStraw at November 01, 2016 09:45 AM

And Muldoon, as usual, has the last word.....

I believe CBD doth conspire
To arouse the Moron Horde's ire
This really ain't pretty
Naked dude on a settee
The Return of the Ottoman Empire.

The Morning Report 11/8/16 [J.J. Sefton]

—Open Blogger

Good morning, kids. Well, after eight long years enduring the destruction/dismantling of everything we hold near and dear, this is it. Day Zero. There are those that think Donald Trump is going to win in a landslide, and there are those who predict just the opposite (see Ace from last night). One thing, at least from my perspective, is you fight for a cause not because you know you can win. You fight because you know it's the right thing to do, even though it's hopeless. Please don't infer from that last sentence my feelings about today's outcome. I have no idea and I'm scared to death. But whether this time tomorrow we are dipping our collective nads in the biggest vat of pudding in the known universe or, G-d forbid, enduring the unendurable the fight goes on. More importantly, life goes on. Take comfort and strength from family, friends, the good Lord above and the things that give you joy. You're a great bunch of people and what I wouldn't give to get you all in bar somewhere this evening, buying rounds of Val-U-Rite for the house. Now, let's win this thing.

• Trump Grabs Dix . . . ville Notch, NH, Scores First
• That Sinking Feeling? Clinton Drops Below 270 EV Threshold as Trump Rises in OH, UT, ME
• Rush: "This Election Defies Traditional Analysis"
• The Smell Test for a Rigged Election
• The Real Meaning of Election Day: Remains of POW Starved to Death by the Norks Return Home 65 Years Later
• Coulter Rips BBC Propagandist a New One
• Govt. Workers Now Outnumber Manufacturing Workers by Nearly 10 Million
• This Woman Probably Tops Nurse Nasty's Short List for SCOTUS
• David Brooks Insults Trump Voters, Or Pompous Gasbag Emits Flatus

Lastly, someone suggested a predictions thread, so with that in mind here's a handy little Interactive Electoral College Map for you to play with. H/T CBD.

Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com

Close it up

Monday Night Overnight Open Thread (11/07/16) Election Eve Edition [Mis. Hum.]

—Open Blogger

T-minus and counting

Quote of The Day, I

A theme here over the years has been the fact that the Conservative Movement has managed to conserve nothing. The reason they are in a crisis is the same reason a losing ball coach finds himself in jeopardy. People will tolerate only so much losing. A salesman, who cannot close deals, gets fired, even if he is the nicest guy in the world. What’s happening today is Official Conservatism™ is being fired. Why they hate us.

Quote of the day, II

"Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry." -Thomas Jefferson

Sounds familiar.

From the German files of unintended consequences. Europe is dissolving into chaos. Will this type of chaos spread to our shores? Time will tell. Fortunately for law abiding citizens here we have to right to protect themselves and our homes. For the time being.

The problem of no-go zones is especially acute in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany's most populous state. According to the Rheinische Post, NRW problem areas include:

Aachen, Bielefeld, Bochum, Bonn, Bottrop, Dorsten, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Euskirchen, Gelsenkirchen-Süd, Gladbeck, Hagen, Hamm, Heinsberg, Herne, Iserlohn, Kleve, Cologne, Lippe, Lüdenscheid, Marl, Mettmann, Minden, Mönchengladbach, Münster, Neuss, Oberhausen, Recklinghausen, Remscheid, Rhein-Erft-Kreis, Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, Solingen, Unna, Witten and Wuppertal.

In Duisburg, spiraling levels of violent crime perpetrated by migrants from the Middle East and the Balkans have turned parts of the city into de facto "no-go zones" for police, according to a confidential police report that was leaked to Der Spiegel.

Call the ONT old-fashioned and out of step at times. However, if you wish to be a people person and work in the service industry. Well unintended consequences.

Future evidence of at best-gridlock; at worst a national divorce?
Once again, a Federal Communications Commission attempt to lower the price inmates pay for phone calls has been blocked in court.

The FCC’s Democrats and Republicans have split on the issue. Republican Ajit Pai criticized Democrats yesterday, saying that this was the fourth time the appeals court stayed the FCC’s inmate calling rate regulations.

“I am not aware of any other proceeding in which the courts have intervened this frequently to block agency action,” Pai said. “It didn’t have to be this way. Three times I have urged my colleagues to adopt reasonable regulations that would substantially reduce interstate inmate calling rates and survive judicial scrutiny. Three times they have declined. And so here we are yet again—left with little more than a faded headline.”

If "They" can't agree upon something as simple as this what hope do we have for agreements on the big issues? Too big to fail? No. Too big to work.

Smart Military Blog news.The A-10 too useful to lose.

Are you still sitting on the fence regarding tomorrow's presidential election? We have debated pros/cons over the months. May the ONT propose one more reason to vote republican tomorrow?

Would you accept a second reason to vote Republican?

Between Stephanopoulos's donations to the Clinton Slush Fund and this declaration Republicans should have nothing ever to do with this guy. He's no more a journalist than I am a rocket scientist.

The GOP seriously has to consider whether or not participating in debates is the right thing to do? It is bad enough that the MSM is biased. It's worse than what we thought. The MSM and Dems collude together now.

Dirty Tricks in VA? It certainly looks like it. VA governor pardons 60,000 felons. Of course McAuliffe is in bed pig pen with Hillary.

James Comey's, Federal Bureau of Incompetence director had his crack staff go through 650,000 emails in 8 days.

But fortunately for Comey’s eyesight—and for Clinton’s presidential campaign—Trump is wrong: the FBI can review hundreds of thousands of emails in a week, using automated search and filtering tools rather than Flynn’s absurd notion of Comey reading the documents manually. “This is not rocket science,” says Jonathan Zdziarski, a forensics expert who’s consulted for law enforcement and worked as a systems administrator. “Eight days is more than enough time to pull this off in a responsible way.”

I call Bull Shit.

Nothing to see here. Move along. The maid promised not to tell anyone.

Janet Reno, RIP passed away. First vagina woman to serve as Attorney General. But she was a woman damn the qualifications.

A Top Ten moment of Janet Reno's Department of Justice.

What does the Horde suggest for her Top 10 accomplishments?

No word if a pre-dawn, guns pulled raid was conducted. CA woman faces jail time for selling food on Facebook. San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Kelly McDaniel said that the group was sent a warning before the charges were given. She doesn't have enough brains to get out of a wet paper bag. She does have a future in the Department of Justice though.

The ONT is happy to report that all other social problems in California have been solved.

Except, California is inching forward to be the Balkans of The U.S.A. We don't need no stinking assimilation.

Who the F serves gluten free wedding cake? Why Chelsea Clinton does. To the tune of $11,000. Must have been some damn awesome frosting.

This is not a scientifically documented fact, But, the ONT opines that everyone reading tonight knows someone who has been afflicted with cancer or Alzheimer's Disease. Over the years there have been numerous breakthroughs on the cancer front. The publicity of the fight has increased. From Rush Limbaugh's Leukemia and Lymphoma donation day to the NFL's October Breast Cancer Awareness month.

It appears that there has been a new breakthrough in the fight against Alzheimer's. "The first FDA approved drug in over 10 years may be coming to market.

Researchers have found that pharmaceutical giant Merck’s new drug, verubecestat, can successfully switch off production of the toxic amyloid proteins believed to be behind the disease in preliminary trials.

Verubecestat stops amyloid proteins from forming the sticky plaques that disrupt signals inside the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. These brain plaques are the disease’s most visible sign that doctors can find.

Did you have a rough day today? Did your favorite NFL team lose? The significant other challenging you? The damn time change screw you over royally?

Right, wrong or otherwise. 10 companies that control the food industry.

Australia SSM bill voted down.

Despite strong popular support for marriage equality, Australia is seen as lagging behind other nations which allow homosexual couples the right to wed.

Same-sex couples can have civil unions or register their relationships in most Australian states, but the government does not consider them married under national law.

Obviously the SCOTUS has not sent over their instruction manual to the Australian courts.

Musical Interlude

Joni Mitchell turns 73 today.

Are lower fuel prices good for you? More money in your pocket? Lower food costs from planting to delivery to the grocery stores? Lower monthly heating and cooling bills? Meet people who want fuel prices to increase. Do you consider their position selfish?

The cross bow/long bow argument is sure to rear it's ugly head. However, there is one homeowner who swears by the long bow.

Samsung has not been having a good 4th quarter. First the exploding cell phone. Now the exploding washing machine.

Going to the polls tomorrow? Keep your eyes open and be careful out there. Unless, you are an illegal. Then everything is cool. Or so says That F*cking Guy.

Heated debate? The most impressive things about all 50 states. Opinions, they are like noses. Everyone has one.

Genius Award Winer

Feel good story of the day.

News tips, spare change and yogurt coupons can be sent here.

Even kids with chicken pox loves The Group.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Monday.

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Can Trump Win?

—Ace

First of all, vote like your life depended on it -- because it does.

Let Colonel Schlichter put some information to you.

[The so-called #NeverTrump/#ProHillaryButLyingAbout it group] have not been persuaded, and they can do what they feel they must – I respect most of them and expect to join them for a big group hug starting Wednesday because we have many battles to fight regardless of the outcome. But I don’t need to hear from the ones who feel compelled to lecture those of us reluctantly voting for Trump, the posers who spit out words like "honor" and "courage" at people who are willing to do the hard and unpleasant thing necessary to save this country while they sit back, comfortable and smug. You can choose not to help defeat Hillary Clinton – or even actively assist her – but do'’t ever confuse holding to your principles with holding some sort of moral high ground over those of us who tried to stop her.

And she must be stopped. Everything Clinton comes in contact with is fouled and corrupted, and we cannot allow our country to fall into her wretched harpy claws. She turned a charity into a criminal racket. If her corrupt pal Obama was not going to pardon them – and he's totally going to pardon them – she would have turned a dozen of her aides into convicted felons. She’s even poisoned the already mortally ill press, compelling it to shed the objectivity it at least used to try to pretend it possessed and become her docile cheerleader. In doing so, we normals have been mobilized to detest the corrupt media as never before. Her legacy is a slime that smears everything she touches.

Win or lose, Clinton – who will likewise be pardoned by Faily McWorsethancarter – is going to go on to live a comfortable life, enjoying her tens of millions of graft proceeds, screaming incoherently at her staff, and numbing the pain of her rejection by her father and husband (and, hopefully, America) with tumbler after tumbler of chilled, soothing Crown Royal – oh, how it takes the pain away! But in her wake, as the Clintons always have, she'll leave a trail of smoldering debris and ruined lives not seen since the last time Godzilla wandered through Tokyo.

He then goes into specifics, but you'll have to pay the people who pay Schlicter with a (free) click.

So can Trump win? I don't think so. I thought to win, we'd need one big Black Swan event, which could have taken several forms:

1. A really killer Wikileak leak. No really killer ones lately. Wikileak is demolishing the media but the media isn't on the ballot.

2. Hillary "nearly stumbles" again, as the media claimed when the nation saw her buckle and have what sure looked like a seizure or a major neurological episode. This should never have been forgotten -- but the public tends to forget things rapidly, when the media isn't reminding them. And the media stopped talking about Hillary's health within 48 hours. We needed another episode to remind people.

3. A major piece of bad economic news. We've gotten plenty of bad economic news, but nothing big enough to break through to the public.

4. Another terrorist attack. No, I'm not hoping for this (as I'm not hoping for a bad economy, either); I'm just saying, the media does not want to talk about terrorism, because hillary doesn't want to talk about it, and the only way we would talk about it is after a terrorist incident.

5. That the polls are just wrong and missing millions of voters.

I have hoped for the last possibility enough times and seen those hopes dashed an equal number of times that I'm not very big on 5.

But I guess that's all we're left with now.

If this were the year 5 would finally come through for us, then this would be that year.

But 5 is pretty slim hope.

On the plus side -- and bear in mind, almost all polls look pretty bad for us right now -- one poll does put Trump within striking distance of Hillary in Pennsylvania, which would not necessarily win the election for Trump (he could still lose must-wins like Florida and North Carolina), but it sure would get him close to winning.

I don't know -- I have a very negative feeling about tomorrow.

But vote. Make your voice heard.

Might be your last time you're actually allowed to do so.

There is a nobility in the fight, even if the fight is lost. Even if all of your one-time allies desert you to join the enemy's army-- especially should that be the case.

Twitchy: Journalists Had One Last Chance to Grill Hillary Clinton, and They Did Exactly What You Expected Them To Do

—Ace

Lovefest.

Meanwhile, H/t to Ed Driscoll at Instapundit,A Andrea Mitchell, who does not strike me as the sort of woman to gush, manages to gush her heart or her wherever out for Hillary's rally of last night:

... the MSNBC host and NBC News correspondent could barely contain her excitement for a Sunday night Hillary Clinton rally that she described as being both "extraordinary" and "magical."

The Media Has Ring-Led Social Media Hate Campaigns For Years.
Only When That Same Social-Pressure Tactic is Directed At They Themselves Do They Suddenly Complain.

—Ace

Here's a storified version of some tweets I dashed off a week ago, when the media began complaining that reporters were being yelled at and made to "feel unsafe" by some Trump supporters. And Trump himself, calling them out.

Thanks to @trueholygoat for that.

Mollie Hemingway made many of these same points on Howard Kurtz's show this weekend. (Note: She hat-tipped me for "inspiration," so it's all cool. Sometimes my brilliance is so potent and insidious people can't help being infected by it)

Transcribed quotes at the link above, video below.

I don't like any of this ghoulish "we will slander you and socially ostracize you and even kind of Threaten you if you say something we don't like" "Call-Out Culture" (as the SJW's call it) world we live in.

But the media, as I say, made this world, brick by brick by vicious Outrage Scalp-Hunting brick, and only now that these ugly tactics of herd animal exclusion are turned on them do they finally complain --

-- but only of the tactic turned on they themselves. Everyone else is still subject to being frightened into silence for fear of being hunted by the Internet Wolfpacks the media itself cheers on and directs.

Republican-Primary Debate Moderator John Harwood Asked Hillary Campaign Manager Jon Podesta What Question He Should Ask Jeb In an Interview

—Ace

I knew this guy only from liberal -- as obliviously liberal as the day is long. He's one of those guys who drinks the Kool-Ade then turns to you with purple-stained lips and says "I drank no Kool-Ade," and he's pass a lie detector on that, because he's one of those liberals who is so absolutely liberal he's entirely unaware there's a way to think which is not his own. He doesn't even taste the Kool-Ade. He thinks it's just Pretty Water.

I and many others cried foul when CNBC invited this New York Times stooge to interrogate the Republican primary hopefuls, and he performed down to expectations, proving to many even in the mainstream media itself that there was a lot of political bias in the media.

Earlier Wikileaks revealed he had bragged to the Hillary Clinton campaign about deliberately provoking Trump at the debate.

I Harwood titled the email "I imagine…" and continued the sentence in the body of the email, writing, "…that Obama feels some (sad) vindication at this demonstration of his years-long point about the opposition party veering off the rails."

"I certainly am feeling that way with respect to how I questioned Trump at our debate," Harwood continued.

Well, maybe this Kool-Ade drinker has finally crossed the Rubiocon: Because now Wikileaks reveals that Harwood was asking Hillary Clinton's campaign manager on advice about what questions to ask then-very-possible Republican nominee Jeb Bush.

Presumably he wasn't shopping for friendly, how's-your-family-and-yoga-routines questions.

Egg McMuffin: We Need a Conservative Movement That Isn't As Deplorably Racist as the One that Currently Exists Is

—Ace

It used to be that conservatives would say, correctly, that while there were of course racists (and criminals, and perverts, and any other sort of degenerate you can name) in the GOP, that is true of both political parties, and they tend to constitute a fringe in either.

And certainly it's no reason to reject a political policy proposal simply because some bad elements support it as well.

White nationalists have resented "Blacks on Welfare" for ages. But so too have non-white nationalists opposed the growing welfare state, not just for blacks or any other nonwhite race, but for anyone, stating, correctly, that it's unfair to take from one to give to another, and furthermore, work is a virtue and a teacher of virtue, and depriving a man or woman of the virtue-making habit of work is to consign him or her to a life of idleness and moral chaos.

We used to call people who said that "Republicans."

However, there's a new breed of "Republicans" out there who are really simply members of the Party of Davos, and buy into most liberal assumptions, like the idea that being against welfare is to "hate" poor people and/or people of a different race, or that to object to the current policy of American Citizenship for Anyone Willing to Break American law is also "racist," though which race in particular is the object of hate here is somewhat unclear, because the racial group currently immigrating (legally or illegally) to the US is Asians, not Latin Americans.

This new breed of "Republicans," the Davoisie is not only willing to join the liberals in claiming that any sort of assertion that Americans should get to decide which non-Americans are permitted to become AMericans is itself deplorably racist and must be rejected in favor of open borders globalism, but anxious to vent these hateful thoughts about other Republicans that they've been suppressing for so many years now.

Egg McMuffin is one of them.

Many people would say that's the old conservative movement, the one that isn't a race-obsessed as the liberal movement -- but the Davoisie wouldn't say that. Anyone who disagrees with the imperatives of open borders, globalism, universalism and patriotic attachment to one's homeland must be cast into the outer darkness of social scorn.

Please, definitely, vote for him. Or else he'll call you a racist.

We haven't heard that enough from non-conservatives already, I guess.

Hillary Asked Her Maid To Access and Print Out Secret Information

—Ace

It's all about the Convenience of the Queen.

Video report below.

Of course, that's a really good reason for Comey to launch a November Surprise and re-clear an obvious criminal of any criminal culpability: Comey announced yesterday in a letter to Congress that all of the 650,000 emails discovered on the Abedin/Weiner computer had been carefully scrutinized, and none would cause him to change his "conclusions" about Hillary (that is, he would not recommend charges against her).

The system is rigged.

Comey had to announce he was at least willing to consider the new email cache to quiet down the noisy rebellion at the FBI, but of course he also had to placate his political masters and come to same corrupt conclusion as before.

Clinton Foundation Official: Before Chelsea Clinton Criticizes Me for Fundraising, She Should Remember She Used Clinton Foundation Money to Pay for Her Wedding and "10 Years of Her Life"

—Ace

Impromptu Art Thread [OregonMuse]

—Open Blogger

Click pic to embiggen.

Of course, this is not the only painting that attempted to warn against the progressive evils of alcohol consumption. See also here and here.

And Nathaniel Currier was one of the partners of the Currier and Ives printmaking/lithography firm that started in 1834 and lasted until 1907.

The Morning Report 11/7/16 [J.J. Sefton]

—Open Blogger

Good morning, kids. One day left. When someone passes away, it's customary to list the significant achievements during his/her lifetime. For Janet Reno, two standouts among many include l'affaire Elian Gonzalez and the enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act. Her obituary portends what another Clinton in the White House will mean. Anyway, the news is depressing but we have one thing to do tomorrow, so let's do it. If you can, offer to take people to the polls with you (assuming they're pro-Turmp/anti-Hillary and can't get there by themselves). Have a better one and remain blessed.

• Janet Reno Dead at 78
• Comey to America: "Psyche!"
• McAuliffe Pardons 60,000 Felons In Attempt to Throw Virginia to Clinton
• Lights Out For Freedom If She Wins, G-d Forbid
• WTF?! GOP Quisling Sensenbrenner Wants to Expand Voting Rights Act
• Indicator? Gallup Survey Shows 52% of Voters Think Media Biased for Clinton, Only 8% for Trump
• Bernie Supporter Escorted From Rally After Trashing Nurse Nasty
• Ambush Killiing of Cops Up 167% This Year

Sunday Night Overnight Open Thread (11/06/16 [Mis. Hum.]

—Open Blogger

Because. Just because.

Tomorrow, November 7th is the 47th anniversary Yoko & John's 2nd LP, Wedding Album.

Because. Just because.

Sex, drugs and text books. A look inside Los Angeles's' University High and its Innovative Program School, or IPS.

What began with 150 or so students would eventually double in size before the program ended in 1978. Several IPS students worked at The Red Tide, an underground newspaper that, among its other agitations, hosted a speech by the actress Jane Fonda, known to conservatives as “Hanoi Jane” for her support of the Viet Cong. The American Nazi Party was also invited to give a presentation, after which Holtby compared the students’ narrow-mindedness to that of the presentation they’d just witnessed. Paul Beahm, who would change his name to Darby Crash and found the pioneering punk band the Germs before dying of a heroin overdose in 1980, met his bandmate—and future Foo Fighters guitarist—Pat Smear when they were IPS students. “People thought it was a really weird school,” Beahm was quoted as saying in the book Lexicon Devil. “Like one of the teachers was a convicted child molester. Carole King’s daughter went there with us, too. And Jeff Bridges used to visit us all the time.”

Will global warming melt the special snowflakes? We can only hope. Can't we?

As if another example of our culture’s narcissism were needed, twenty-something writer Elizabeth Sherman has taken to the pages of The Washington Post to complain that she doesn’t have a term for her boyfriend. Why? Because according to her, the word “boyfriend” isn’t good enough, and society hasn’t provided a new, better one yet.

“Cory is not my boyfriend,” Sherman explains in “He’s Not My Boyfriend. He’s Not My Partner. What Do I Call My Guy?” “That word does not communicate the depth of our relationship. There was no period in our relationship where we were casually seeing each other. We did not engage in the coy games of courtship, never waiting the requisite four to six hours between text messages or closing the door to pee. We aren’t technically dating, either. We both work demanding jobs with long hours, so date nights are a rare treat.”

Wonder what he calls her?

It's not a math test. It's a test to become a U.S. citizen. No, it isn't open book.

Modern art has become obsessed with identity politics at the expense of beauty and form.

During a panel discussion, Ahmari asked two filmmakers if they ever thought about creating projects with nonpolitical content or considered aesthetics. They looked at him like he’d wandered in from another dimension and told him, in so many words, no. He wanted to pull his hair out. “It is almost inconceivable,” he writes, “that so many filmmakers could think of nothing—nothing, nothing, nothing—but the politics of representation, ‘performativity,’ gender, race, queer theory, etc. There must be other subjects, in the world outside or in their inner lives, which belong on the silver (or digital) screen.

Also modern art is gutless. Comparing a swastika to the Star of David is not bold or brave. Bold and brave would be comparing the swastika to the star and crescent (The symbol of Islam)

Don't speak English? Have no marketable skills? Why the U.S.A might be the place for you under Hillary Clinton. Clinton's plan would cost an immediate tax increase of $1.2 trillion.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a vagina shaped Christmas ornament.

Musical Interlude, Just Because.

What happens when you carry at work when policy says "no carry allowed"? You get to protect yourself and others when you are robbed.

California Air Resources Board (CARB) has found out how Audi cheated on emission tests.

But the cheat reportedly works thusly, and it's ingenious in its simplicity:

When the Audi starts up, its transmission engages a 'low CO2' program, shifting gears in such a way as to keep engine revs and emissions artificially low. If the steering wheel is turned more than 15 degrees, car deactivates the program and the car shifts in its normal, more pollutant fashion that burns more gas and produces more CO2.

Holy Crap!!! Could this be the renewable resource of the future? The ONT suggests mining Washington D.C.

Venezuela continues with it's downward spiral. Lack of food, sky high inflation, and now the return of diphtheria. Aint socialism grand?

On Friday a jury found that Rolling Stone magazine defamed an administrator of the U. of VA with malice. The Federalist's Mollie Hemmingway rips their lame ass apology tepid and self-serving response

Food. Everything you know is wrong a lie. As we have discussed before in the past, marketing and the Fed Government. What can go wrong?

The University of California is called out on a curriculum of Anti-Antisemitism.

Two letters were sent this week to UC system president Janet Napolitano, urging her to address the rise of anti-Semitism on campus, especially the use of the classroom by professors and student educators who use their positions to indoctrinate students with an anti-Israel agenda.

Who does the cooking in your home? Who does the dishes? The ONT suggests that the sammich maker shouldn't have to do dishes.

Just another 2 days of political advertising. One of the most tiresome cries? Get the money out of politics. Funny when the Nannies spend money to curtail freedom they are quiet.

Amazing photos. National Geographic photographs. Beautiful. Awesome. Just what the Horde needed.

Genius Award.

Feel good story of the day.

Kids will be kids. Be a kid.

News tips, loose change and your dry cleaning ticket can be sent here.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Yogi's School of Chiropractic

Posted by permission of AceCorp, LLC. Winning lottery ticket numbers not included.

Close it up

Special Correspondent Jay Guevara On The California Ballot Propositions

—Open Blogger

Jay Guevara, our intrepid reporter on the ground in the People's Republic of California, has slogged through the miasma of this year's California Ballot Propositions. In addition to his recommendations (I agree with them), he has given us a bit of analysis and...shockingly...some snark!

Here is the first one....there are a couple of more plus a full list below the fold and a link to the rest in pdf form for those California Morons who need a little prodding to go to the polls and vote....early and often please.

Prop. 51 - Authorizes $9 billion in general obligation bonds for new construction and modernization of K–12 public school facilities;

The Guevara Take: No

Wait, didn’t we already do exactly this last time? And the money went to giving teachers raises? Yeah, we did. So they’re just seeing exactly how stupid we really are. “It’s for the children.” Right.

Even Jerry Brown opposes this stinker. From SF Gate: “Critics including Brown say the money can be siphoned off by large districts fielding flocks of consultants who are adept at pitching construction projects.” Uh, yeah. If any of it goes to construction at all, that is.

Food Thread: Cheese Powder - It's Not For Snorting (I Think) [CBD]

—Open Blogger

Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese -toasted, mostly.

That's from Ben Gunn, a character in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." He is marooned, and has become fixated on cheese, which as food fixations go, makes perfect sense.

But what to do with cheese powder....

This came from King Arthur Flour Company, which is an irritatingly fine company that specializes in...yup...you guessed it...flour. My assumption has always been that flour is a commodity, but their products are simply better. And more expensive, so I don't use them for all of my baking. But when I make something complicated and special, I bite the bullet and buy their stuff.

Anyway, I saw this and was intrigued. Sure, I can make Mac & Cheese, but I think I will bake some sort of cheese bread. I am sure I can find an interesting recipe on their web site, which is worth a look as a baker's resource.

******

Warm Hummus with Spiced Lamb, from David Liebovitz's interesting (but a bit verbose) site sounds like fun. Although the hummus is a bit strange...no tahini! I thought that was illegal, but I may be biased.
******

From Delicious Magazine comes The 2016 delicious. Photography Competition finalists and winners, which includes a fair number of rather nice photographs, in addition to the typical food photos that we see everywhere.
******
And from my favorite food-borne illness site comes a short skewering of the embattled Chipotle fast-food company. This article points out that Chipotle top cheeses make a lot of dough. To compare these two hacks' compensation, Jamie Dimon made $27 million in 2015, running the most successful large bank in America. JP Morgan Chase is probably 25x the size of Chipotle, and much, much more profitable for its shareholders.
******
I wouldn't make this for a large crowd, but for those of you who are having more intimate Thanksgiving dinners, Butternut squash soup served in a squash shell looks great. It's about as perfect a holiday presentation as one can get.
******
From Tyler Florence, a very nice side dish that would be fun for Thanksgiving. I wouldn't bother with fresh corn, since it won't really be fresh, and frozen corn is excellent. And I would fire roast the poblano until it is blackened, then toss it in a paper bag to let it steam. Scrape off the burned skin and then chop it for the recipe. He suggests serving it with chili, but maybe for Thanksgiving we can ignore that part of the recipe.

Corn Pudding with Poblanos

• 2 ears fresh corn
  
• 2 cups milk
  
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
  
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  
• 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
  
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
  
• 1 medium poblano, seeds removed, finely chopped
  
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  
• 3 eggs, separated

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove husks from corn and put in a large pot with milk and cream, Set over low heat and bring to a simmer then shut off heat and cover to let corn steep, about 10-15 minutes. Remove corn from milk and cut the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife and set aside.

Strain the milk mixture and set back over high heat, add butter and pour in the cornmeal in a slow steady stream, whisking at the same time. Cook and whisk constantly until the cornmeal is blended in and the mixture is smooth and thick; it should look like porridge.

Take the pot off the stove and fold in the corn, chives, chopped poblano, and salt and pepper. Mix in the egg yolks, 1 at a time, to make it more like a batter.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites (use a hand blender if you have one) until they hold stiff peaks. Fold the whites into the corn pudding to lighten it.

Coat the bottom and sides of an 8 by 8-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Spoon the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

When it's done, the corn pudding will look puffed and golden brown, like a souffle. Spoon into the bottom of bowls and serve chili over the top.

Close it up

Who Are We...And Open Thread [CBD]

—Open Blogger

Here is an interesting article about a question that we ask quite a bit around here...Who We Are As a People -- The Syrian Refugee Question, from the magazine of Hillsdale College.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who recently named Merkel as her favorite world leader, has frequently indicated that acceptance of refugees is an important reaffirmation of America’s commitment to diversity. It is a reaffirmation of "who we are as Americans," she has said, as if the American character is defined by its unlimited openness to diversity. To show the bipartisan nature of this commitment, Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has used the same phrase to explain his approval of the refugee program. In both cases, the clear implication is that America's commitment to diversity outweighs considerations of national security. Indeed, in what can only be called a self-willed delusion, proponents of the refugee program seem to believe that their commitment to diversity makes us stronger and more secure as a nation, and that any opposition to the program is racist, xenophobic, and most particularly Islamophobic.

Powerful stuff. Read the rest...

Sunday Morning Book Thread 11-06-2016 [OregonMuse]

—Open Blogger

Library of 'Ette All Hail Eris

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, all the 'ettes are gorgeous, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like tornados, hurricanes, IRS audits, and having wikileaks dump your emails into the public domain a week before the election, and special snowflakes can't stand the heat. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these hideous monstrosities. And I hope a whole bunch of man cards were revoked after this photo was taken.

The Bible: Graphic Novel Edition

I don't think there's anything new about "cartoon" depictions of Bible stories, but perhaps not this comprehensively done:

It's an adaptation of the Bible Jesus probably never envisioned, and one most people have never seen before: Bible as comic book.

Christian publisher Kingstone recently released a 2,000-page graphic novel adaptation of the Old and New Testaments, which it claims is the world's longest graphic novel.

It took 45 illustrators seven years to produce the 2,000 page-12 paperback volume "Kingstone Bible," which the publisher calls "the most complete graphic-novel adaptation of the Bible ever published."

The Kingstone Bible Vol. 1 is the first of 12 volumes running from Genesis to Revelation.

I have mixed feelings about this. I believe that the spoken word and words written down are a much more complex, subtle, and rich form of communication than visual images. You can always adapt movies into books, but the other way around is a lot more difficult, and with some books, it simply can't be done. So I worry that something essential is going to get lost in such graphical adaptations. Not that the Christian faith is bereft of visual representations of truth, but it seems to me that God chose a vehicle to carry His thoughts and intentions to His children that is primarily verbal.

So that's my opinion, which you can take down to Starbucks along with $3.50 and get yourself a cup of coffee.

The guys who put out the Kingstone Bible are Christians, but that's not necessarily a requirement. Here is The Book of Genesis Illustrated by legendary cartoonist Robert Crumb. If you're old enough, like me, to remember the 60s hippie era, you will no doubt be familiar with Zap Comix, much of which was drawn by Mr. Crumb. He's known for a number of other things, too, like those Keep on Truckin' cartoon drawings and also Mr. Natural. Crumb is also not shy about drawing what basically amounts to X-rated, hard-core pr0n, so you might want to be careful if you're going to be searching around for samples of his work.

Which is why my reaction to hearing that Crumb had drawn a graphic version of the Book of Genesis was "oh great, he's going to vandalize it", but in his intro (which is in the Kindle sample download), he says he played it straight, with no ridicule or visual jokes, And he even mentions that every other graphical versions of the Bible he's seen contains passages of "completely made-up narrative and dialogue", and that he avoided doing this. His intention, he says, was to draw the Book of Genesis as it is, all 50 chapters, with nothing left out. And this "nothing left out" part is most likely why there's an "adult supervision recommended for minors" warning label on the front cover. Genesis, as the rest of the Bible, does not cover up or soft sell sinful behavior.

I haven't decided whether I want to read this one or not. I don't know if it's any good, other than it was nominated for three 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards: Best Adaptation from Another Work, Best Graphic Album, and Best Writer/Artist.

Library of All Hail Eris, Military History Section
Figure At Right: Gen. E. Rommel

Cubs Win!

So just for grins, I searched the Amazon book section for "Chicago Cubs" to see what it would come up with. The first item was 100 Things Cubs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, wherein chapter 1 is entitled "Watch the Cubs Win the World Series." Of course, fans may now cross this one off the list.

More than a look at the century-long wait for another World Series win, the book contains crucial information for Cubs fans, such as important dates, player nicknames, memorable moments, and outstanding achievements by singular players. This guide to all things Cubs also includes a list of must-do Cubs-related activities, which include taking in Wrigley field, traveling to Arizona for spring training, and sipping beers at the best Cubs bars around the country.

Pro tip: according to this book, you can get away without having to pay for parking at Wrigley Field. What you do is park on the street near Irving Park Road and then take the Red Line to the game. Book claims it's cheaper, faster, and perfectly safe. Never having been there, I have no idea whether this information is accurate.

Also, the first no-hitter at Wrigley Field was thrown by Fred Toney of Cincinnati on May 2nd, 1917. This game is also famous for another reason. The Cubs' pitcher, Hippo Vaughn, also didn't allow a hit for 9 innings, but then he faltered in the 10th. That must have been an incredible game to watch.

I was surprised at the number of books written about Wrigley Field. The first one that came up is A Nice Little Place on the North Side: A History of Triumph, Mostly Defeat, and Incurable Hope at Wrigley Field by George Will (stop laughing).

Winding beautifully like Wrigley’s iconic ivy, Will’s meditation on “The Friendly Confines” examines both the unforgettable stories that forged the field’s legend and the larger-than-life characters—from Wrigley and Ruth to Veeck, Durocher, and Banks—who brought it glory, heartbreak, and scandal. Drawing upon his trademark knowledge and inimitable sense of humor, Will also explores his childhood connections to the team, the Cubs’ future, and what keeps long-suffering fans rooting for the home team after so many years of futility.

It sounds like George Will didn't really write a book about Wrigley Field so much as he wrote a book about George Will.

Chicago Cubs fans can get their children started early with the Chicago Cubs ABC (My First Alphabet Book). So Iguess it's 'E' is for Ernie, 'R' is for Ron...

Lastly, it wouldn't be baseball without a pile of statistics, so with that in mind, there's Cubs by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Chicago Cubs by Uniform Number. It goes through each Cubs uniform number detailing who wore it and when:

Since the Chicago Cubs first adopted uniform numbers in 1932, the team has handed out only 77 numbers to more than 1,500 players. That’s a lot of overlap. It also makes for a lot of good stories. Newly updated, Cubs by the Numbers tells those stories for every Cub since ’32, from current staff ace Jake Arrieta to former third baseman turned division-winning manager Don Zimmer. This book lists the players alphabetically and by number; these biographies help trace the history of baseball’s most beloved team in a new way.

Crank Out A Bestseller This Month

Just in time for National Novel Writing Month, a longtime lurking moron recommends The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel:

The book's authors use an algorithm and a computer to figure out if there is something in the DNA of bestseller - why are 50 Shades of Grey and The Davinci Code the best-selling books of the last x amount of years (not counting Harry Potter)? They fed something like 5,000 books into their machine to see if their theory works, and yes, it works.

The book has answers, including what topics and themes sell and which ones don't. If you're a committed writer who's had little to no success selling your novels, this is the rare book about the subject I consider must-read. I think a lot of the writers who visit the book thread would appreciate this one.

A number of the Amazon reviewers say this isn't really a how-to manual as such, it just gives you a bunch of data concerning what works and what doesn't. However, I am a bit skeptical as even though you can come up with algorithms that explain past success, whether they can be used to predict future performance is uncertain. Climate models and economic forecasting models also suffer from this defect. It would be great if there were testimonials from some authors, such as "I took my crap novel and revised it according to the data and republished it, and now I have Donald Trump chauffeuring me around in my Rolls Royce and I'm blowing my nose with $100 bills." Something like this would boost the credibility of this book immensely.

Of course, if this works, and everybody starts doing it, then you run into the phenomenon where the "natural" data your algorithm depends upon to work gets contaminated with the results of your algorithm, thus skewing future statistical analyses. But that's another issue entirely.

This Year's Bestseller

(h/t @ThePoliticalHat)

Easy Quiz

If you want to boost your ego a bit, try this literary quiz. I mean, who wrote Moby Dick? Come on...

Moron Recommendations

'Ette All Hail Eris recommends Eric Mexatas' book If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty, which she says is about

...what unites us philosophically as a people. His chapter on George Whitefield alone is worth the time. An astounding 80% of colonists are thought to have heard him preach over his many years and miles travelling about the country.

That's amazing, I never knew that about Whitefield. The Amazon blurb says that this book

...is at once a thrilling review of America's uniqueness—including our role as a "nation of nations"—and a chilling reminder that America's greatness cannot continue unless we embrace our own crucial role in living out what the founders entrusted to us. Metaxas explains that America is not a nation bounded by ethnic identity or geography, but rather by a radical and unprecedented idea, based on liberty and freedom for all. He cautions us that it's nearly past time we reconnect to that idea, or we may lose the very foundation of what made us exceptional in the first place.

I always wonder if future historians will marvel at how strange it is that, in the opening decade of the 21st century, there was a man who, from his earliest days, was surrounded by, taught by, mentored by, and befriended by men who despised the very idea of America and American supremacy, and who were actively working to undermine it, and that this man, who by his own admission had more sympathy for 3rd world revolutionary and "liberation" movements than anything given to him by traditional American values, was elected to the office of president of the United States, and that not once, but twice. And that his election was hailed as a tremendous achievement.

I have to think that these future historians are going to be scratching their heads and thinking, "WTF?"

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Close it up

EMT 11/06/16 [krakatoa]

—Open Blogger

You know, if you squint just right, it hardly feels like an election year at all.

Overnight Open Thread (5 Nov 2016)

—CDR M

Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour tonight.

Coexist

I bet this Princeton Librarian has a coexist sticker on her car. She thinks it is her job to silence those skeptical of microaggressions. I don't think she understands what coexist means.

Aviation Tech

Check out the flexfoil morphing wing.

Bacon

Flux Capacitor

Heh. It was on this date in 1955 that Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown invented the Flux Capacitor.

Sammich

How the sammich came to be. Now if someone would kindly make me one.

44 Magnum vs Gel Block

Yahoo Passwords

Based on the leaked Yahoo password database, too many folks are still using easy passwords.

Logic

The simple logical puzzle that shows how illogical we are.

Disney Stock

Good. Disney's stock dips following ESPN's big subscription loss.

WW II Quiz

Take the War History Online World War II quiz. The quiz is harder than you think.

Cat Video

Bonus cat video: Ozzy Man commentates on Tunnel Cat vs Land Cat.

Tonight's ONT brought to you by:

pic.twitter.com/B8rg8XlIMG

— cody (@valarauca1) November 5, 2016

Cat pic via.

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to the cob of your choice or CDR M. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Close it up

Trump Rushed Off Stage Durning Rally in Reno. Unconfirmed Speculation About an Assasination Attempt [Weirddave]

—Open Blogger

CNN has not much more. Trump was rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents. Secret Service agents and SWAT team officers detained a man in the crowd and hustled him off. UNCONFIRMED reports from people in the crowd are that the man had a gun. Since security is usually tight at these events, that seems unlikely, but here I'm just speculating.

Trump later returned to the stage and resumed his speech after thanking the Secret Service, an event that makes the assassination scenario seem less likely.

No further details are available at this time. As always, remember to discount everything you hear in the first 24 hours after an event like this, this post included.

ETA: Video below the cut

Installment #26,915 of "Don't Hold Your Breath Waiting For The Pallies To Change" [CBD]

—Open Blogger

When a group desirous of its own country glorifies the one thing that prevents the almost immediate creation of that country, one has to wonder what the real goals are.

New PA school named for mastermind of Munich Olympics massacre

Israel would not have spent the last 68 years fighting the Arabs and defending its borders if it could be confident that a possible Arab state would not be 100% certain to be not just a strategic threat, but an immediate and existential threat to the existence of the Jewish state and its people.

The Palestinian Authority laid the cornerstone to the new school a few weeks ago, and at the ceremony PA official Issam Abu Bakr, District Governor of Tulkarem, "emphasized the importance of the project of building the school named after Martyr Salah Khalaf, in order to commemorate the memory of this great national fighter." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 24, 2016]

As Golda Meir said, "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

Saturday Afternoon Chess/Open Thread 11-05-2016 [OregonMuse]

—Open Blogger

"On Saturday, I'm going to forget all about politics for a day and just hang out on the AoSHQ Saturday Chess Thread."

Good afternoon morons and moronettes, and welcome to the Saturday Afternoon Chess/Open Thread, the only AoSHQ thread with content specifically for all of us chess nerds who pay homage in the temple of Caïssa, goddess of the chessboard. And, for those of you who aren't nerdly enough for chess, you can use this thread to talk about checkers, or other games, or politics, or whatever you wish, only please try to keep it civil. Nobody wants to get into pie fight on a Saturday afternoon. Especially not on the weekend just before a big election.

Problem 1 - White to To Play (323)

Hint: White mates in 3

3r1k2/1p5p/pqn1Qpp1/5n2/8/5BP1/PP3P1P/4R1K1 w - - 0 1

Continue reading

Problem 2 - White To Play (312)

Hint: White obtains a material advantage

3r2k1/p5pp/2PbRp2/3P4/8/1P4P1/P4P1P/6K1 w - - 0 1

How Chess Got To Be There

Here is a map that shows the spread of chess throughout Europe and Asia over time. And here is a discussion thread where a number of points are disputed.

(H/T to @ThePoliticalHat)

Problem 3 - White To Play (BWTC 18)

Hint: White mates in 5 moves

2rr3k/1b2bppP/p2p1n2/R7/3P4/1qB2P2/1P4Q1/1K5R w - - 0 1

Problem 4 - White To Play (BWTC 31)

OK, noobs, put on your thinking caps, because this one may take you awhile.

Hint: White to play and mate in 10(!)

2qrr1n1/3b1kp1/2pBpn1p/1p2PP2/p2P4/1BP5/P3Q1PP/4RRK1 w - - 0 1

It's On!

World Champion Magnus Carlsen will be defending his title against GM Sergey Karjakin starting this week. The first game will be this Friday, Nov. 11th. Karjakin qualified by winning the 2016 Candidates Tournament, 1/2 point ahead of American GM Hikaru Nakamura.

According to Chess.com,

The match is intended to be 12 games; the first player to 6.5 points wins the match. In the event of a 6-6 tie, there will be a rapid and blitz playoff. The time control for the classical games is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the games. There will be an additional 30 second increment per move starting from move one.

Also,

Agon, the company that holds the commercial rights to events in the world championship cycle, is the organizer of the match. It will be providing official coverage on its WorldChess website, which will include a live video stream with multiple camera angles, 360-degree VR, and expert commentary.

All available on pay-per-view, as they say. The match is being held in New York City. The prize fund is 899,000 euros, which is approximately $1 million.

Endgame of the Week (Endgame 33)

Your job is to demonstrate how White can win this endgame.

3k4/7R/3P4/4K3/6b1/8/8/8 w - - 0 1

___________

Solutions Update

Problem 1 - White to To Play

3r1k2/1p5p/pqn1Qpp1/5n2/8/5BP1/PP3P1P/4R1K1 w - - 0 1

The decision tree for this problem is just a thin branch.

1.Qxf6+ Kg8

There's no place else to go.

2.Bd5+ Rxd5

Again, forced.

3.Re8#

Kaboom.

Problem 2 - White To Play (312)

3r2k1/p5pp/2PbRp2/3P4/8/1P4P1/P4P1P/6K1 w - - 0 1

White's pawn is so far advanced that the Black bishop is a goner.

1.Rxd6! Rxd6
2.c7

Inferior responses to this move are 2...Rc6 3.dxc6 Kf7 4.c8=Q and 2...Rd8 3.cxd8=Q+. In either case, White will quickly. Probably the best of a bad lot is:

2...Kf7
3.c8=Q Rxd5

So Black is left with a rook vs. White's queen, but he did manage to eliminate the 2nd passed pawn. White should win, but it might take a while.

Problem 3 - White To Play

2rr3k/1b2bppP/p2p1n2/R7/3P4/1qB2P2/1P4Q1/1K5R w - - 0 1

1.Qxg7+! Kxg7

No other choice.

2.h8=Q+ Rxh8

If 2...Kg6 then 3.Qh6#

3.Rg5+ Kf8
4.Rxh8+ Ng8
5.Rgxg8#

And 5.Rhxg8# works just as well.

Problem 4 - White To Play

2qrr1n1/3b1kp1/2pBpn1p/1p2PP2/p2P4/1BP5/P3Q1PP/4RRK1 w - - 0 1

The good news is that even though the mate is a long ways off, relatively speaking, most of the moves are forced, so there's not much of a decision tree.

1.Qh5+ Nxh5
2.fxe6+ Kg6
3.Bc2+ Kg5
4.Rf5+ Kg6
5.Rf6+ Kg5
6.Rg6+ Kh4
7.Re4+ Nf4

And here White has two options, but both lead to mate on move 10. The first option is

8.Rxf4+ Kh5
9.Rg3 Bxe6
10. Bg6#

And the second:

8.g3+ Kh5
9.Rxf4 a3
10.Rh4#

Or 9...Rxe6 10.Rh4#, either way, it's mate in 10.

This is one of those positions that separate the masters from mere mortals. Because the decision tree is narrow, I believe that a master would be able to see the 10-move mate pretty much all in advance. In fact, in the old days, he would've announced the mate in 10, then played it out to the delight of the onlookers.

Endgame of the Week

3k4/7R/3P4/4K3/6b1/8/8/8 w - - 0 1

White may be tempted to bait Black with 1.d7 Bxc7. And indeed, there are a number of trappy lines after White moves 2.Kd6. Black is in a tight spot, with mate threatened, or the loss of his piece:

2...Ke8 (or 2...Kc8)
3.Rxd7

2...Bb5
3.Ra7 threatening Ra8#
3...Bd7
4.Rxd7+

But Black can sidestep all of these pitfalls by responding to 1.d7? with 1...Kc7, refusing to allow his king to be hemmed in. There follows:

2.Kd5 Bxd7
3.Rg7 Kc8
4.Kd6 Ba4

...and this KR v. KB endgame will most likely be drawn.

So what is the best move for White? It is

1.Rh4!

Now Black has to decide what to do with his bishop. He has 5 options;

1...Bd7
1...Be2
1...Bf3
1...Bc8
1...Bd1

Let's take them in order.

1...Bd7 severely limits the movement (i.e. escape) of Black's king;

2.Rh8+ Be8
3.Ke6 and Black has just been zugzwanged

3...Kc8
4.Rxe8+ and wins

1...Be2 is not much better:

2.Ke6 Bb5

To stave off checkmate.

3.Rh8+ Be8

4.d7 Kc7

Forced.

5.dxe8=Q and Black is toast.

1...Bf3 really doesn't do anything, either:

2.Ke6 Bc6
3.Rh8+ Be8
4.d7 Kc7

Again, forced.

5.dxe8=Q

The fat lady is singing.

1...Bc8 also falls short:

2.Rh8+ Kd7
3.Rxc8 Kxc8

White is, technically, down the exchange, but his pawn is about to queen, so the point is moot.

4.Ke6 Kd8
5.d7 Kc7
6.Ke7 for the win.

That only leaves one option left:

1...Bd1

But the best response is an immediate pawn push:

2.d7 Kxd7

Any other move, and White replies 3.Kd6 or 3.Ke6

3.Rd4+

Ha! Rook fork! White wins!

Hope to see you all next week!

___________

Note: that cryptic line of letters and numbers you see underneath each board diagram is a representation of the position in what is known as "Forsyth-Edwards Notation", or F.E.N. It's actually readable by humans. Most computer applications nowadays can read FEN, so those of you who may want to study the position, you can copy the line of FEN and paste into your chess app and it should automatically recreate the position on its display board. Or, Windows users can just "triple click" on it and the entire line will be highlighted so you can copy and past it into your chess app.

___________

So that about wraps it up for this week. Chess thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to my yahoo address: OregonMuse little-a-in-a-circle yahoo dott com.

Close it up

Posted by Open Blogger at 04:45 PM Comments