BARACK OBAMA: EGOTISTICAL SPENDTHRIFT? Donna Brazile Lays Out How Obama’s Obsession With ‘His Image’ ‘Leeched’ The Democratic Party ‘Of Its Vitality.’

“Barack never had seen himself as connected to the party. He had not come up through it the way Joe Biden and Hillary had, but had sprung up almost on his own and never had any trouble raising money for his campaigns,” Brazile wrote.

Obama “used the party to provide for political expenses like gifts to donors, and political travel.” Because he “also cared deeply about his image,” he used DNC funds for “his pollster and focus groups” late into his second term, even though he couldn’t run for president, Brazile said.

Paying of the party’s debt made the DNC beholden to Clinton and her the de facto head of the party, Brazile wrote. Most decisions had to be run through Clinton’s Brooklyn, N.Y., headquarters. Brazile referred to it as the “high command of Brooklyn” on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos Sunday.

Despite blaming Obama, Clinton and Wasserman Schultz for the party’s troubles, she admitted that the three do love the Democratic party.

They only abuse it because they love it so much.

CHANGE: Pair of 20-year-olds believed youngest black Republicans elected to Connecticut public office.

EVERYBODY, WELCOME A NEW BLOGGER INTO THE INSTAPUNDIT CROWD: David Bernstein is George Mason University Foundation Professor at the George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia, and the author of Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform, among many other things. Welcome aboard, David!

BYRON YORK: Did dossier trigger the Trump-Russia probe? “The FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump-Russia affair shortly after receiving the first installment of an anti-Trump dossier from a former British spy working for the Hillary Clinton campaign. What congressional investigators want to know is whether that was a coincidence or not.” I’m going to go with “not.”

Plus: “Now the moving parts, as far as the dossier is concerned, are the Mueller investigation and Congress. With Mueller, it’s impossible to determine whether he is using the dossier and if so, in what way. For its part, Congress is trying to uncover the dossier story — what did the FBI do to try to verify it? Did agents use it as a basis for seeking wiretaps? — but getting information out of the FBI, as well as Fusion GPS, has been like pulling teeth, even after a House subpoena. Ultimately more will become public. But if the past months have shown anything, it is that the FBI will not reveal its secrets, even to its legitimate congressional overseers, without a fight.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, CENSORSHIP EDITION: University Of Arkansas Profs Bash Proposal That Could Fire Profs For Not Being ‘Cooperative.’

University of Arkansas is receiving heated criticism for a policy proposal that professors claim could make it possible to fire professors for not being “cooperative” or simply being conservative.

Professors allege that the university is using non-academic attorneys to draft the changes and that there is evidence suggesting that the school is trying to move swiftly to implement the changes before university faculty can sufficiently challenge them, according to correspondence obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The policy actually goes much further than using collegiality as a standalone factor in annual reviews: it uses collegiality as a standalone basis for termination (writer’s emphasis),” said Joshua Silverstein, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, in an email to UA faculty. “Here again is the language from the proposal: ‘A faculty member may be…dismissed…for cause on grounds including…unwillingness to work productively with colleagues.’ That smuggles in collegiality and a whole lot more. And thus collegiality is a basis for dismissal independent of the annual review process.”

Key signs of non-collegiality: A Trump bumper sticker, NRA membership, possible pro-life sympathies.

DOES SINAL SALUTE BY INCLINING HEAD WITH THUMB AND INDEX PINCHING THE BRIDGE OF NOSE:   Jerry Brown Climate Rant: “We need a total, I might say, brainwashing.”  Because that’s how science works, you know, by brainwashing.  It’s almost sounds like that other thing…. what is it?  Oh, yeah, a cult.

WHAT AGAIN?  SIGH. THIS MEANS WE’LL HAVE A REALLY HARD WINTER.  SOMETHING THERE IS THAT DELIGHTS IN THWARTING ENVIROWEENIES:  New Irish End of Snow Prediction.  They should cut it out, before it turns into an ice-age.

SHOCKED, SHOCKED:   New Allegations Challenge the Environment Record of Top U.N. Official.

LEST WE FORGET, LEST WE FORGET:  Armistice Day, Veteran’s Day.

THE MASKS HAVE FALLEN:  Not News: Leftists are Hypocritical Swine; News: It’s More Obvious Than Ever.

SHAMBLING AND MUTTERING “BRAINZZZ”:  Is Hillary Shuffling for President in 2020?

FROM KACEY EZELL:  Minds of Men.

“Gritty, dark and damp.Much like the war itself.”
— Michael Z. Williamson, Author of “A Long Time Until Now”

DON’T WORRY – IT’S JUST A “MINOR SOFTWARE BUG”:  High-tech sex toy maker admits to secretly recording users.

POISONED GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS?  The new, clever way hackers can get into your bank account.

“UNSCULPTED AND FLIMSY FOOTWEAR CAN MEAN THAT YOUR FEET AREN’T FIXED IN ONE LOCATION AS YOU WALK”:   Ugg boots are killing your knees, expert warns.