FIVE THIRTY EIGHT: Senate Update: Clinton Is Surging, But Down-Ballot Democrats Are Losing Ground.

In recent elections, more and more voters have been choosing candidates from the same party for president and Senate. That trend appeared to be holding true this year too, even with Donald Trump, unusual as he is, on the ballot. So as Hillary Clinton jumped out to a bigger lead in the polls starting after the first presidential debate in late September, we might have expected Democratic Senate candidates to poll better as well. That hasn’t happened — the chance of Democrats controlling the Senate is only 54 percent in our polls-only model and 56 percent in our polls-plus model.

Indeed, the races for Senate control and the White House have split.

Ann Althouse comments: “It makes perfect sense to me. The more clear it seems that Clinton will win, the more important it becomes to those who worry about her that she should be offset and balanced by a Republican-led Congress. It seems really risky to empower a President Trump with a same-party Congress, but once he’s not a threat, the risk-averse among us should gravitate toward a Republican Congress to put a brake on President Clinton.”

True, though honestly a GOP Congress isn’t really “same party” regarding Trump the way a Democratic Congress would be for Hillary. Too many anti-Trump types among mainstream Republicans.

DUH: Did the FBI chief lie to Congress about the Hillary email probe?

PAY FOR PLAY: Clinton Backed Puerto Rico Debt Relief Bill After Lobbyist Donor’s Email.

IN THE EMAIL, FROM MARINA FONTAINE: The Product.

THE FOLKS MINING YOUR EMAIL AND SOCIAL MEDIA WANT TO MINE YOUR DREAMS: We’re Already Turning Our Robot Overlords Into Therapists.

GRESHAM’S LAW ALSO APPLIES TO SCIENCE: Science is becoming increasingly unscientific.

NORMALLY “AURORA VIEWING” IN COLORADO MEANS LET’S GO SEE HOW VIBRANT IT IS TODAY, SO THIS IS NEW: Geomagnetic Storm In Progress, Auroras Possible If It Strengthens.

YOU CAN TRUST HER WITH YOUR LIBERTIES: Hillary Campaign Vows To Destroy Opposition Website.

NOT ONE OF MY FAVORITES, BUT: What Shirley Jackson Can Teach Us About the Virtues of a Messy Life.

WELL, THEY’RE THE ONES WHO KNOW HER BEST: Even Democrats think Hillary’s a serial liar.

THESE PEOPLE SEEM TO DO A LOT OF MOCKING: Clinton aides mocked ‘terrorist’ de Blasio’s public flirtation with Sanders.

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Also: Boys’ Clothing $12 and under.

SCOTT ADAMS:

If the latest groping/kissing allegations against Trump hold up – and I assume they will, based on quantity if not credibility – it won’t matter what Wikileaks says about Clinton. She will win easily. . . .

Anyway, getting to the point of this post, if Clinton wins, it will be because women voted for her in landslide proportions while men (on average) preferred Trump. And that means two things of historic importance.

1. We will elect the first woman to be President of the United States. That’s good for everyone.

and…

2. Everything that goes wrong with the country from this point forward is women’s fault.

I feel some relief about that. The next four years are likely to be some of the worst in our country’s history.

Well, that’s cheerful.

FOUR YEARS AGO, THE GOP NOMINATED MITT ROMNEY, AND THE PRESS MADE HIM OUT TO BE A MORE-MISOGYNIST VERSION OF HITLER: John Hinderaker: The Liberal Media’s Perpetual Smear Campaign.

SO, BASICALLY, EVERYBODY BUT DEMOCRATS THINKS HILLARY BELONGS IN JAIL? Poll: Republican and Independents Approved of Trump Threatening to Jail Clinton.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, AUTOPHAGY EDITION: The University Of California’s Extraordinary Legal Battle With Ex-Berkeley Law School Dean.

MY COLLEAGUE PENNY JO WHITE on skills education at the University of Tennessee College of Law:

I had received a message from a judge asking me to take a look at a book he had written, which he described as “premised upon the fact that law school teaches nothing about how to try a case.”

“Being as how I direct the oldest continually existing legal clinic in the world, where 85 percent of our students represent clients and go to court before they graduate,” I wrote in my reply, “and direct the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, which employs more than thirty lawyers and judges who teach our students every conceivable lawyering skill from interviewing and counseling, to voir dire, to closing argument; and teach Evidence, Trial Practice, Pretrial Litigation, and Negotiation, all in a concrete, applied format—ouch! Judge, I doubt I’d be a very objective reader of the book you describe.”

The judge’s premise continued to bother me. I did read some of his book—and I’ll likely read the rest, but one statement in the early paragraphs stuck: “The law student is taught in those three years what the rules are, not how to use them.”

Not so, judge. Maybe in your day and my day, but not anymore. Maybe at your law school, but not at ours.

Yeah, if you want to learn how to try a case, we’ve got that covered.

NO. JUST NO. Finally, a Whiskey for People Who Prefer Vodka.

Drink whiskey like you mean it, or don’t drink it at all.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why so many of America’s sushi restaurants are owned by Chinese immigrants. If you guessed “because the markup is better than on Chinese food,” well, you got it right.

JIM TREACHER: I Hereby Condemndorse Donald Trump. “Donald Trump is a disgrace to the Republican Party and to the United States of America, and I hope you’ll join me in supporting him on Election Day!”

WHY ISN’T SCIENCE BETTER? Look at career incentives.

RIGGED: Democrats planned to fool ‘self-righteous’ Sanders backers at convention.

WHAT CAUSED THE BLACK DEATH, and could it strike again? “The late Russian plague expert, Igor V Domaradskij, who was also the co-designer of the Soviet bioweapons programme known as Biopreparat, told me in 2003 that the only plague strain the Soviets worked with was marmot plague, whose explosive power they well understood.”

IT’S COME TO THIS: Trump Spokeswoman Pierson: Fixed Armrests on Planes in Early 1980s Debunk Groping Story.  “What’s really amazing is that yet again there is crazy airplane talk on Don Lemon’s show, and it’s not HIM doing it.”

Heh, indeed.™

I’M NOT SAYING THAT IT’S ALIENS. BUT IT’S ALIENS. A mystery space plane has been orbiting Earth for 500 days – and we still don’t know why.