ACCOUNTABILITY’S A BITCH: Students who shut down University of Oregon president’s speech panic after they’re charged.

AFTER THE DEMISE OF THE ISLAMIC STATE: Who controls Syria?

It is basically a showdown between Iran (which has been at war with Israel since the 1980s) and Israel (which does not want Iranian military forces on its Syrian border under any circumstances). Iran is also at war with Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies. Not surprisingly the Saudis and Israel have been cooperating more since 2001 because of this shared threat.

Read the entire post.

THEY TOLD ME IF TRUMP WERE ELECTED, WE’D SEE OPEN, UNASHAMED RACISM. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Prof exempts ‘black fraternities’ from call to abolish frats.

HEY NOW: Jeffrey Tambor Being Investigated by Amazon Following Sexual Harassment Allegation.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Hillary Clinton Is Finally Making Her Way to Wisconsin.

CHANGE? Jerry Jones threatens to sue NFL if Roger Goodell’s contract extension is approved.

MICHAEL BARONE: 2016 is looking like the new normal.

If you wanted to predict the results of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, you would have been wise to ignore the flurry of polls and campaign events. You would have paid no heed to the conventional wisdom that Republican Kim Guadagno was uncompetitive against Democrat Phil Murphy in New Jersey, while Republican Ed Gillespie had a solid chance to beat Ralph Northam in Virginia.

In fact, Northam’s 9 point victory margin in Virginia was not much different from Murphy’s 13 point margin in New Jersey. And both almost precisely mirrored the 2016 presidential results. Hillary Clinton carried New Jersey 55 to 41 percent; Murphy won it by 56 to 43 percent. Clinton carried Virginia 50 to 44 percent; Northam won it 54 to 45 percent. The two Democrats, lacking Clinton’s reputation for dishonesty, gained a few points she lost to third-party candidates; the two Republicans got almost exactly the same percentages as Trump.

It’s neither a catastrophe for the GOP nor a breakthrough for the Dems. Nobody should get cocky, especially since voters basically hate both parties.

DC MCALLISTER: Tuesday’s Elections Reveal That Many Americans Are Suffering From a Mental Disorder.

Churchill put it somewhat more gently.

SOME OF THESE CLIPS SHOULD MAKE GOOD CAMPAIGN ADS: Watch: Liberals Gather to Scream at the Sky on Election Anniversary.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? To prevent revenge porn, Facebook will look at user-submitted nude photos.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: 5 Takeaways On Virginia’s Election Sweep For Democrats.

Here’s one:

Democrats are finally focusing on statehouse races, and this should terrify Republicans. Democrats lost some 958 state legislative seats during the Obama administration. Those years saw a strong federal executive, but very little attention paid to Democrats at the state and local level.

The Washington Post had a story last week that suggested the huge win for Democrats in Virginia was no accident, but the result of a carefully crafted campaign being tested for nationwide rollout:

For a new crop of Democratic groups, Virginia is the opening salvo and a testing ground ahead of what they hope is a wave election in 2018.
Virginia is the first state to hold a competitive contest for governor after Trump moved into the White House, and both parties want to win it — the Democrats as a rebuke of Trump, and the Republicans to show they are not blemished by an unpopular president.

It’s also a purple state where Democrats have been winning statewide since 2009, but Republicans hold 66 of the 100 seats in the House of Delegates. Democrats are running in 54 GOP-held districts this year, and scores of groups — some well-financed, some loosely organized, are looking to leave their mark on those contests.

There’s a Democratic super PAC planning to spend $1 million — with an eye to a bigger goal of raising $100 million to take control of state houses across the country.

An organization founded by wealthy Virginia donors and bankrolled by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur is beta-testing technology to help low-budget campaigns run more efficiently.

Given the success this high-dollar, high-technology strategy yielded, expect to see many more resources applied in a state near you to achieve the same effect.

The Democrats seem to be learning the lessons of 2016. Will the GOP learn the lessons of Virginia 2017?

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Michigan Senate OKs concealed pistol carry in schools, churches, day care centers. The vote wasn’t even close.

EU AND WHAT ARMY? EU to Sign Joint Defense Pact in Show of Post-brexit Unity.

UPDATE: Link was broken. Fixed now — sorry!

DON SURBER: “The purge of princes in Saudi Arabia is the final humiliation for the Washington Establishment. The action repudiates everything President George Herbert Walker Bush said in his ‘Toward a New World Order’ address to a joint session of Congress. On September 11. 1990.”

DEBUNKING FAKE NEWS:  Rand Paul’s neighbors rip media ‘landscaping dispute’ reports.

SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED TO AWWWW:  These adorable cats and bunnies are purr-fect doppelgängers.

PERHAPS BECAUSE OF GENTLY ROUNDED HILLS?  Giant wooden penis rises in Alps, and nobody knows why.   (Oh, please.  I bet you thought I was going to make a comment about wood, right?)

I REFUSE TO SHOOT FISH IN A BARREL!  Sheep learn celebrity worship.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG:  Rats are getting tiny human brain implants.

A REGRETTABLY VIABLE BUSINESS:  What it’s like to clean up crime scenes for a living.

BUT WON’T GET IT FROM THE PRESS:  Sutherland Springs Deserves Better.

DO AS THEY SAY NOT AS THEY DO:  Rep. Behind Sexual Harassment Bill Accused of Ignoring Claims About Top Aide.

NO. ONLY PEOPLE WHO ARE STUPID COULD THINK THIS:  Is the National Anthem Racist?

AND YET THE SCHADENFREUDE IS STILL FRESH:  Flashback: One Year Ago Tonight, Donald Trump Defeated Hillary Clinton and the GOP Liberal Legacy Donor Class.