PODESTA AUDITIONS FOR COMEDY CENTRAL: Says Press Gave Trump ‘a Pass.’

One upside to the election? Podesta has freed up much more time to get to the bottom of his UFO obsession. As with his belief that the press gave Trump a pass, the truth is out there.

BOB ZUBRIN: Ron Howard’s Mars: Space Flight Travels beyond NASA.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1283: IRS Handed Defeat in Court Ruling Against Tea Party Group It Stiffed.

TRUMP SHOULD APPOINT K.C. JOHNSON OR ROBERT SHIBLEY TO REPLACE CATHERINE LHAMON AT THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Trump Administration Could Shake Up Campus Sex Wars.

Donald Trump’s stunning victory on Tuesday night has already sent shockwaves through colleges and universities, islands of cosmopolitan left-wing politics where the President-elect is hated and feared more than in perhaps any other sector of American life. And while it’s unlikely that the panicked and overwrought fears of the academic establishment will be vindicated, the Trump Administration—combined with unified Republican control of Congress—looks likely to strike a major blow against the heart of the campus Left’s agenda by rolling back federal support for the academic sex bureaucracy that has expanded dramatically during the Obama years. . . .

The Office for Civil Rights in Education is the agency responsible for controversially expanding federal power over campus sexual assault and harassment investigations, ordering colleges to reduce the burden of proof required for disciplinary action, and leaning on them to expand the definition of proscribed speech and behavior. Fearful of losing federal funding, colleges have ramped up the intensity of their sexual misconduct investigations and hired armies of consultants and Title IX coordinators to help them with the task, often at a real cost to the civil liberties of students and faculty.

And whoever’s handling Department of Education stuff for the transition needs to read Robert Shibley’s Twisting Title IX.

And, maybe, you know. . . .

A QUALIFIED DEFENSE OF U.S. SOCCER:

I have an unholy inclination to enjoy the sport because I lived in England during my formative years; it’s my cross to bear, and I won’t try to convert you. But allow me to offer one qualified defense of United States soccer (as opposed to “soccer,” generally speaking). And that defense is this: It’s an opportunity for America to prove that we’re great even at things we actively disdain.

I mean, imagine living in Ghana. Literally the only thing you have to be proud of in your dreadful, giraffe-free nation is the fact that your ragtag band of brothers has managed to lay low the Great Satan in the World Cup two outings running. You love soccer so much that the government was literally rationing electricity to ensure that you had enough power to watch the game. You’ll have been looking forward to this day for months, if not years.

And America ruined your shit yesterday.

This is what it means to be a global superpower, the hegemon of hegemons, the big bad bully on the block. We don’t even care about soccer and we still manage to field a decent team. We’ve appeared in the World Cup 10 times; only 12 nations have appeared more frequently than us. We haven’t missed a World Cup since 1990; only a handful of squads can say the same.

Heh, indeed.™

Though I won’t urge you to read the whole thing, because, you know, soccer.

ENJOY HAPPY FUN VICTORY WEEK: Video: Here’s a Mashup of All the Dems Saying Donald Trump Will Never Be President.

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REPORT: HILLARY CLINTON’S CAMPAIGN IGNORED BILL’S SUGGESTION TO COURT WORKING-CLASS WHITES.

Her teenage fling as a Goldwater Girl notwithstanding, Hillary’s always been a woman of the far left, but she’s been better at times keeping her worst impulses under wraps. To illustrate how far to the left Hillary traversed from 2007 to 2016, Obama’s infamous and revealing bitter clingers sneer was an attack on her Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania in 2008. By 2016, as her tone-deaf attack on coal miners illustrated, Hillary was on the same page as Obama when it came to working-class whites, and – fortunately for all concerned – it cost her the election.

In the early 1990s, Bill Clinton did much to erase the radical chic McGovernite connotations of the Democrat party.* I wonder what he thinks about Gore, Obama and Hillary choosing ideology over his more inclusive approach.

* Only to scare the bejesus out over many Americans all over again by initially pushing gun control and Hillarycare once in office, but that’s whole ‘nother post.

IT MEANS “I’M IN NEED OF A DIAPER CHANGE.” Misreadable Protest Symbology. “If you go to that #SafetyPin hashtag, I think you might find most of the tweets making fun of it.”

NOW PEOPLE WILL START TO CARE ABOUT SURVEILLANCE AGAIN: Whistleblowers warn against surveillance authorities in wake of Trump victory.

Members of the whistleblowing community took to Twitter to warn advocates of government power after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, noting programs aimed at making it easier to engage in surveillance and conduct assassinations overseas remain on the books.

“Remember how you legalized assassinating anyone, NSA mass spying, prosecuting publishers, CIA drones everywhere,” secret-leaking organization WikiLeaks said. “It’s all Trump’s in 71 days.” . . .

Thomas Drake, a former NSA executive who leaked information that he contended was unclassified but nonetheless faced charges under the Espionage Act, echoed those sentiments. “[National security] authorities under Bush passed to Obama who gives Trump legal framework for mass surveillance & special powers on Presidential platter,” Drake wrote.

Related:

And I guess this is a good time to re-up my Don’t Fear The Leaker piece.

CALIFORNIA MISSES ANOTHER ELECTORAL WAVE — IN THIS ALTERNATE UNIVERSE STAGNANT LIBERALISM IS DOING JUST FINE: “Granted, our state is far different from what it was in the 1970s and somewhat different from what it was even when Schwarzenegger was in charge, but I haven’t totally given up hope that things could possibly change. I’ve never liked Trump in any way, but his victory shows that paradigms can shift — and in a rapid and dramatic way. Can it happen in California? I think so, someday. But we do things in our own way and our own schedule. Until something changes, however, we’ll have to suffer through the same kind of awful policies the rest of the nation just rejected.”

Read the whole thing.

WASHINGTON POST: House Democrats Scramble To Avoid Post-Election Revolt Against Pelosi.

House Democrats close to Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are circulating a letter within the Democratic Women’s Caucus pledging support for the California Democrat to remain House Democratic leader amid growing frustration at the party’s disastrous showing in Tuesday’s election.

The letter, written by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), says that Pelosi helped Democrats achieve “historic progress in the lives of women, workers, students, veterans, seniors and LGBT Americans,” according to a copy of it obtained by the Washington Post. As of Friday afternoon 40 of the 54 women had signed the letter, according to aides. . . .

Rank-and-file House Democrats are angry with leaders at every level of the party and want to see blanket changes to Democrats’ message, approach and leadership structure, according to many aides. A growing number of young and recently elected House Democrats want term limits for committee leaders and are pushing to elect at least one reform-minded member to their official leadership ranks.

The only open seat within Democrats’ ranks is Vice Chair of the caucus, the fifth position in the leadership slate. The race pits Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) against Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Well, I think one of them should replace Nancy Pelosi. I understand from Samantha Bee that white women are the worst.

IMPOSSIBLE. HE’S GAY, AND I’M ASSURED BY PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK THAT TRUMP WANTS TO DEPORT ALL GAYS: Peter Thiel: America’s CEO Under a Trump Presidency?

YOU WENT FULL PAULINE KAEL, MAN. NEVER GO FULL PAULINE KAEL: While the New Yorker’s cover illustration of a wall about to envelop the magazine’s venerable masthead is of course a shot at Trump and the idea of a nation with a properly functioning border and immigration policies, it’s a dual-edged sword. The New Yorker was of course the home of film critic Pauline Kael, who in the midst of championing such nihilistic Hollywood fare as Bonnie and Clyde and Last Tango in Paris famously said, “I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.”

And it was for the New Yorker whom only a few years later artist Saul Steinberg drew his famous cover “The View of the World from 9th Avenue,” a witty parody of the insular worldview of the magazine’s staff and core readers, with nothing but blank space in-between the Hudson River and the Pacific Ocean. With its latest cover, the New Yorker is cocooning itself infinitely more so than the wall Pink Floyd built around itself in the late 1970s. Will a glimmer of reality intrude the tiny mummies’ offices ever again?

HOW’S THAT WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA?

GONE HOME BEHIND THE CURTAIN: Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter of love, death and philosophical longing, dies at 82.

Where, hopefully it’s better than before.

THEY PROJECT LIKE CINEMAX: The Tolerant Liberal Reaction.

AND ANOTHER VIEW: Trump: The Hail Mary Pass That Connected.

ATTEMPTING TO TALK SENSE TO EUROPEANS: At some point there will be conversations with my family.  Not my mom, she already called and she GETS it (and knows their press is even worse than ours) but the rest of the family.  And they’re not going to believe me. “Why Trump?”

BROWN CORDS TIME AT THE EPA: Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition.  I’m really starting to feel good about my vote here.

ACCORDING TO MY CIRCLE, THE MAN HAD NOTHING ON HIM TO IDENTIFY HIS VOTE: So it seems this was straight up racism.  Not that that makes it worse.  Mob pummels man supposedly because he voted for Trump.

BUT I WANT A LIKE BUTTON: This election reminds us that social media is not reflective of real life.  Actually I’m relieved it’s not.  Otherwise the world would be filled with cry-babies.

IN THE EMAIL FROM THE DEPLORABLE (AND PROUD) JON DEL ARROZ: Star Realms: Rescue Run.