RICHARD EPSTEIN ON COMEY AND THE CLASSIFIED(?) EMAILS: AN IMPERFECT GUIDE TO THE PERPLEXED:

But the more difficult issue is that the FBI cannot release those emails that are classified without creating some serious national security complications.

The same is true, moreover, for Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin, assuming that they still have these emails in their possession. They could surely release them if they contained no classified information. But they surely cannot release these emails if they do contain classified information.

But by the same token, they cannot say that they refuse to release them because they contain classified information: that admission would be evidence enough that they illegally shared information, which would be grounds for the prosecution of both women.

Read the whole thing.

POLL: PUBLIC OVERWHELMINGLY THINKS MEDIA IS IN THE TANK FOR HILLARY.

Just think of the MSM as Democrat operatives with a byline, and it all makes sense.

Flashback to 2008:

AN ARMY OF NONE: Are some of the Army’s best soldiers being forced out?

The Army is in a talent crisis. Its most recent study on the issue, in 2010, found only 6 percent of Army officers thought the service did a good job of retaining its best leaders.

The Army fights to keep private industry from leeching its best soldiers. With better pay, more comprehensive benefits and a stable location, the private sector seems tempting compared to military life.

But former Army officials and experts who spoke to Federal News Radio as part of our special report: The Army is Shortchanging its Future Force say the service is forcing out some of its best leaders even without the appeal of a private sector job luring them away.

The reports also says that “as the Army continues the drawdown of its total force from 1.3 million to 980,000, experts fear the service will push out the wrong people at an even faster rate.”

Retaining good soldiers is difficult even with good policy, and Washington and the Pentagon aren’t even getting the policy right.

TO BE FAIR, I DON’T THINK HARRY REID’S A VERY GOOD MORMON: Gowdy on Reid: ‘I Did Not Know Mormons Used Drugs.’

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy slammed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Sunday for suggesting FBI Director James B. Comey might have broken the law in divulging some details of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

Reid sent a letter to Comey saying that he might have violated the Hatch Act by influencing an election when he revealed that the bureau was reviewing new emails that might be pertinent to its investigation of the Democratic presidential candidate’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State.

The Nevada Democrat accused Comey of practicing a double standard because he said the FBI director hasn’t released “explosive information” about coordination between Republican nominee Donald Trump, “his top advisers and the Russian government.”

“Thank God, he’s leaving, is my initial reaction,” Gowdy told Fox News. “My second reaction is, I did not know Mormons used drugs and anyone who is capable of sending out that press release has to be under the influence of something.”

Gowdy, who chairs the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said that the blame rests with Clinton for using a private server, not the FBI director.

But you’ll notice the press has spun it as all about Comey.

FBI finds 650k Hillary State Dept emails on PC of notorious dickpic pervert. Headlines: "Comey Embroiled in Controversy"

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) October 31, 2016

“WHEN YOUR OPPO DUMP JOURNALISM AGAINST TRUMP IS SO BAD THAT THE NYT DEBUNKS IT, YOU DONE MESSED UP:” John Podesta runs with story of secret Trump email server, trips over New York Times report.

BLACK LIKE ME HAS ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN: Rachel Dolezal memoir to explore ‘discrimination while living as black.’ “In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World will chart her path from a child of white evangelical parents to an activist who identifies as black.”

CNN’S DAVID GREGORY RIPS FBI’S COMEY, ‘UNPRECEDENTED INTERJECTION:’ “In making his case against Comey, however, Gregory did not mention that his lawyer wife has represented former Clinton aides involved in the scandal.”

I’m old enough to remember when Gregory had no problem with DC-area law enforcement making an unprecedented interjection – just as long as it was on his behalf.

MORE UNITY: John Kasich Snubs Trump With Write-In Vote for McCain.

McCain?

UNITY: Dem analyst Doug Schoen: ‘As of today, I am not a supporter of’ Clinton.

“I am deeply concerned that we will have a constitutional crisis if she’s elected,” Schoen said during an interview Sunday on Fox News.

“I want to learn more this week, see what we see, but as of today, I am not a supporter of the secretary of State for the nation’s highest office.”

His comments come after the FBI’s decision to review new emails it says are “pertinent” to its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server.

The scope of Clinton’s email problem was evident by the summer of 2015. Where was Schoen then?

THE HILL: Trump on early debate question: ‘Why aren’t they firing’ Clinton?

Donald Trump on Monday questioned why Hillary Clinton can still run for president after apparently receiving a question ahead of a primary debate, casting his Democratic opponent as “corrupt.”

At a rally in Warren, Mich., the GOP presidential nominee blasted interim Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Donna Brazile for apparently sharing a debate question with Clinton’s campaign during the Democratic presidential primaries.

Trump called on Brazile to be fired from the DNC at a rally Monday in Grand Rapids, Mich., after WikiLeaks published an email in which Brazile appears to alert Clinton aides to a question planned for the next day’s debate. Brazile resigned as a CNN contributor earlier this month after a separate email included her saying she got questions in advance of a town hall. The network accepted her resignation.

“If they fired Donna Brazile, why aren’t they firing Hillary Clinton?” Trump asked on Monday afternoon. “Why is she allowed to run?”

The real estate mogul also criticized the media, arguing Clinton should be asked why she never admitted to receiving questions in advance.

“The media which is one of the most dishonest groups you’re ever going to meet,” Trump said. “The media never says, ‘Why didn’t you turn it in?'”

If I were a Bernie supporter, I’d feel like the whole thing was rigged.

SEOUL FEUD: President’s confidante detained.

Prosecutors placed Choi Soon-sil, who has been described as a Rasputin-like character, under “emergency detention” late Monday, Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office tells CNN.

Choi is South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s friend and an informal adviser whose access to confidential government documents has led to noisy demands for Park’s ouster, with thousands taking to the streets last weekend demanding that she step down.

Must be nice.

IF BIDEN WAS A REPUBLICAN, LATE NIGHT COMEDIANS WOULD MOVE IN LOCKSTEP TO MAKE THIS A RECURRING, GERALD FORD OR DICK CHENEY-STYLE JOKE: Once again, Joe Biden’s motorcade has an accident. This time, vehicle in his motorcade hits three cars in Wilmington, Delaware.

Earlier (and not necessarily a complete list!):

● “Two Secret Service employees driving along the Suitland Parkway struck and killed a man early Wednesday morning in the vehicles the agency uses to transport Vice President Joe Biden.”

—The Hill, November 11, 2009.

● “A Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy escorting Vice President Joe Biden’s motorcade was hit this afternoon at Gibson and Carlisle.”

—Albuquerque Journal, November 16, 2009.

● “A police car assisting Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s motorcade collided with another vehicle on the West Side of Manhattan on Tuesday as Mr. Biden was on his way to…a taping of ‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,’ which is recorded at a studio on 11th Avenue near West 52nd Street….Two officers and the driver of the livery cab were taken to a hospital with neck and back injuries, the police said. None of the injuries were serious.”

—The New York Times, November 17, 2009.

● “Peggy Fleming hurt in Biden motorcade crash, former Olympian Vonetta Flowers also slightly injured, VP’s office says.”

—NBC, February 14, 2010.

● “Part of a motorcade escorting Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a minor accident Thursday while traveling in Queens, N.Y., WNBC-TV reported. Two officers with the New York Police Department motorcycle unit sustained minor injuries during the incident and were undergoing treatment at a local hospital, according to the report. Biden was not delayed by the accident, who met with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier Thursday.”

—The New York Post, August 5, 2010.

● “Joe Biden Motorcade Van Hits San Francisco Police Motorcycle.”

—SF Weekly, October 14, 2014.

● “NYPD officer injured in Vice President Joe Biden’s motorcade.”

— AP, September 11, 2015.

● “Detroit police officer serving on VP Joe Biden’s motorcade injured in motorcycle accident near I-94.”

—WXYZ-Detroit, September 17, 2015.

As James Joyner of Outside the Beltway wrote in November of 2010 after a Forbes columnist wrote a piece satirically asking, “Strip Joe Biden of His Motorcade?” “Do I think the vice president should be stripped of his motorcade privileges?  No.  For one thing, I’m pretty sure Joe Biden wasn’t driving any of the cars in question, so it’s unreasonable to blame him. And, despite my general distaste for VIP motorcades and the inconveniences they pose for The Little People, there are legitimate security concerns for someone in Biden’s position. But there is something odd going on here.  At very least, an investigation ought to be launched to figure out why this is happening.”

Fortunately for Biden, his boss’s administration had much more pressing scandals to cover up over the years.

MARK STEYN ON “OCCAM’S WEINER:” “Weiner is an ambitious man with apparently insatiable sexual proclivities. Until 2013 he thought those two primal drives were reconcilable. The sex cost him his ambition — and is now threatening his liberty. He has very little standing between him and the abyss — other than what he knows about his wife and her patrons.”

Read the whole thing.

JUST DON’T CALL IT A DEATH SPIRAL: Inside the Affordable Care Act’s Arizona Meltdown.

A look at what happened in Arizona shows problems with the design and implementation of the ACA, combined with early missteps by insurers. Some priced plans aggressively, angling for market share and betting special programs built into the law would protect them from losses. Those protections didn’t work as expected. Enrollees’ health-care expenses repeatedly overshot the projections of nearly all Arizona’s insurers. The result: a flood of red ink, then withdrawals and premium increases.

“The Arizona market is the poster child for the problems the exchanges are experiencing nationally,” says Tom Snook, a Phoenix-based actuary for consultants Milliman Inc.

Can individuals be mandated to buy a product no one is selling?

OUT TODAY FROM MICHAEL Z. WILLIAMSON: Angeleyes, a Freehold novel. I’ve read all the earlier ones in this series and enjoyed them!

REPORT: Trump Backer Thiel: Hillary ‘Much More Dangerous’ on Foreign Policy.

Entrepreneur Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, said Hillary Clinton would be “much more confrontational” and “dangerous” with foreign affairs as president when compared to Donald Trump.

National Press Club President Thomas Burr asked Thiel if he is concerned about Trump’s “temperament” when it comes to the nuclear codes.

“I think he [Trump] wouldn’t even get us into a situation where it would be even close with respect to Russia, so I think if you actually look at the specifics, where might something happen, where might something go wrong, I would think that in some ways Hillary is much more dangerous than Trump. I don’t think Hillary would get us into a nuclear war, either, but it’s a much more confrontational foreign policy,” Thiel said during a “Newsmakers” event at the National Press Club today.

Thiel announced in mid-October that he planned to donate $1.25 million to Trump’s campaign. Thiel, who spoke at the Republican National Convention, said LGBT magazine The Advocate turned on him since the endorsement. Thiel argued that someone only counts as “diverse” if they are aligned with liberal political views.

“The Advocate, a magazine which once praised me as a gay innovator, even published an article saying that as of now I am, and I quote, ‘not a gay man,’ unquote, because I don’t agree with their politics,” he said. “The lie behind the buzzword of diversity could not be made more clear. If you don’t conform, then you don’t count as diverse, no matter what your personal background.”

Thiel said voters who support Trump are “tired of war,” want less government regulation particularly on small businesses, and believe free trade has “not worked” for America as a whole.

“Faced with such contempt, why do voters still support Donald Trump? Even if they think the American situation is serious, why would they think Trump of all people could make it better? I think it is because of the big things that Trump gets right,” he said. “For example, free trade has not worked out well for all of America. It helps Trump that the other side just does not get it. All of our elites preach free trade. The highly educated people who make public policy explain that cheap imports make everyone a winner according to economic theory, but in actual practice we’ve lost tens of thousands of factories and millions of jobs to foreign trade. The heartland has been devastated.”

To be fair, life’s still pretty great in Capital City.

THIS TIME WITHOUT A COOL VIDEO PEOPLE KEEP SUBTITLING IN FUNNY WAYS: Downfall.

NO, I DON’T THINK SO: You may miss the election madness when it’s over.  Though I contend we’ll look back on this year as “the good year by comparison to the next.”

THIS IS AWFULLY FAMILIAR: The events she describes here for St. John’s are what I grew up with.  All Soul’s Eve was tamer, though.  All we did is go to the cemetery and light candles. (Fixed)

IN THE EMAIL FROM DECLAN FINN: Unsub.

IT’S LIKE A SHOW NONE OF US EVER WANTED TO WATCH: The top ten of the (so far) top 100 wikileaks.

THE HORROR, THE HORROR:  A Clinton Christmas Carol.

IF ONLY THEY’D KNOWN BEFORE THE CONVENTION… OH, WAIT: Huma Abedin’s April warning from the FBI.

IF OBAMA THINKS COMEY IS MISBEHAVING, HE CAN ALWAYS FIRE HIM: “Earnest did reiterate that President Barack Obama thinks Comey is a man of ‘integrity’ who didn’t do anything to ‘intentionally’ influence the impending election when he offered Congress sketchy details about a new line of inquiry into the scandal over Clinton’s use of a private email server at the State Department.”

ROGER SIMON: “In the midst of the welter of charges and counter charges that may or may not sink the national nervous breakdown that is the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, it’s worth examining who exactly is Huma Abedin and how bizarre it is that such a person ever could be the closest confidante of the woman who would be our first female president.”

Plus: “My guess is Weiner’s perversions were to some extent a cry for help. He wanted to be caught. At some point, he desperately wanted out of the Clinton nexus (who wouldn’t?).”