MIGHT? A Partisan War Awaits Trump. That Just Might Suit Him.

On Election Night my dear friend and Instapundit coblogger Sarah Hoyt worried that Trump would seek to cut deals with Pelosi, and get blindsided by nefarious Democrats the way both Bushes did. My take is that Trump looks forward to a two-year fight, and will run for reelection, with apologies to Harry Truman, against the “Do-Crazy” Congress.

A mass shooting occurred at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif., this morning with reports now coming in that the suspected gunman is dead with 11 others shot, including a Ventura Country Sheriff’s Deputy.

OH, PLEASE: Attorney General Jeff Sessions Out, Constitutional Crisis Murmurs Begin. By “murmurs,” they mean “emails from Media Matters.”

ANALYSIS: HALF-TRUE. Complaining About the ‘Senate Popular Vote?’ You Suffer From Civic Illiteracy.

As Will Collier pointed out on Twitter the other day, Ezra Klein floated this trial balloon as a mythical “House popular vote,” and it was quickly picked up across the Journolist spectrum. Er, journalist.

These folks aren’t civic illiterates, but they are counting on their readers to be just that — with the apparent goal of further sullying Constitutional rule of law.

SENATE: Grassley to make chairmanship decision after meeting with colleagues next week.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: Fight Against Last Vestige of ISIS in Syria Stalls, to Dismay of U.S.

Booby traps, land mines and a militant counterstrike during a fierce sandstorm after the campaign began in September have knocked the coalition back on its heels.

And last week, the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led militia that is fighting the Islamic State with American help, suspended operations after Kurdish positions farther north were shelled by Turkey — not far from United States advisers.

American diplomats and generals rushed to ease tensions with the Turks, who consider Kurdish fighters terrorists despite their partnership with the United States.

But the episode underscores the shifting nature of the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, a still-potent threat as it pivots from its battlefield losses in Iraq and Syria to directing guerrilla insurgencies in the Middle East and beyond.

Trump made remarkable progress against ISIS almost from the moment he was sworn in, but the terror group was given ample opportunity to grow and dig in under Obama.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Orange Man Says ‘Bye’ to Sessions, Acosta and Much, Much More. “At The Borderline Bar and Grill, Thursday night is ‘country nights.’ Make of that what you will. ‘The gunman was throwing smoke grenades all over the place,’ a different witness told KABC. ‘I saw him point to the back of the cash register … and he just kept firing. I ran out the front door’.”

THEY REALLY DO THINK THEY’RE SOME SORT OF PRIESTHOOD: CNN: Trump’s Criticism of Acosta, Media Is ‘Disturbingly Un-American.’

THE ACADEMY IS IN THE BEST OF HANDS: A professor of political science actual at a leading state university tweeted the tweet below. He apparently failed to notice that only one-third of the Senate is up for reelection at any one time, and of the seats that were actually being contested the Democrats did significantly better than 55.4%. This was the case even though there was no Republican candidate running in California, by far the most populous state. Anyone can tweet something foolish once in a while, but the fact that this tweet is still up twenty-four thousand likes later suggests that he still doesn’t get the underlying fallacy. (Of course, his tweet also assumes that the Senate should reflect the popular vote, but even if that were the case it’s hard to see why a Democrat would object on “democratic” grounds to winning almost two-thirds of the contested seats on a day when they received 55% of the vote. If anything, someone who believed in proportional representation should be calling on some Democratic senators to resign in favor of Republicans.)

CAPTAIN, THIS TIRED FACE CANNOT TAKE MUCH MORE. I’M GIVING IT ALL SHE’S GOT!  Uncritical News Media Gave Blanket Coverage To Flawed Climate Paper.

CAN THEY TAKE OCCASIONAL CORTEX OCASIO-CORTEZ HOME? Just today at lunch I was remarking to my husband how she seems to be reverting to her insectoid form. Interstellar object may have been alien probe, Harvard paper argues, but experts are skeptical.

Of course, she’s not sentient.  Maybe some kind of interstellar pet that got lose?  Somewhere on the intergalactic byways there are posters saying “Occasional Cortex missing. Please help.”

OH, THE DEMS ARE JUST LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE TO RIOT, BECAUSE THAT, THEY THINK, WILL TOTALLY GET THE REST OF THE COUNTRY ON THEIR SIDE:  Jeff Sessions resigns: so long, it’s been not all that good to know you.  I don’t know. I don’t think there’s enough Thorazine — or dried frog pills — in the world to minister to a mind diseased when the mind is the collective entity known as the democratic party and its adherents.

IT’S WHERE THE MONEY AND THE POWER ARE … FOR NOW: Big Labor Still All-In for Dems.

NO, GUYS. HALF THE COUNTRY HAS GONE MAD, BECAUSE WHOM THE GODS MEAN TO DESTROY, ETC…  A Country Gone Half-Mad.  Also because since they lost all pretensions that their statism would bring about paradise — when the wall fell — they’ve been a religion masquerading as an ideology. Now their faith in the arrow of history and the glorious apotheosis of Marxism keeps being tested, and they have nothing to fall back on.  Just keep the koolaid away from them, okay?

BUT WAIT, THERE’S GOOD NEWS:  CNN’s Jim Acosta has press pass suspended by White House, Sarah Sanders announces.  Complaints that he’s being suppressed in two, three one.  Because, you know, curbing his abominable behavior and suspending his privileges is exactly the same as deplatforming CNN.  Bah.

SERIOUSLY. AT THIS RATE, THE SHOCKED FACE IS GOING TO NEED — AT THE VERY LEAST — PATCHING:  CNN’s Acosta Attacks Trump But Fake News Spins It.

YEAH. I HEAR HE’S THINKING OF RUNNING IN LOUISIANA AS BETOUX O’ROURKE:  Cruz Sends O’Rourke Home On His Skateboard.

YEAH, BUT BARRY THE UNREADY CAN’T GO AWAY. HE’LL HANG AROUND MAKING A SPECTACLE OF HIMSELF AND  — ON THE GOOD SIDE — CAUSING DEMOCRAT LOSSES FAR AND WIDE:  Biggest loser at midterms? Barack Obama.

YOU KNOW, IF YOU WEAR OUT MY SHOCKED FACE, YOU HAVE TO BUY ME A NEW ONE:  Financial Hype, Flawed Policies, and Corruption Abound in NYC Schools.

THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION IS THAT THEY’VE BEEN SOLD ON THE IDEA THAT THEY’RE SPECIAL VICTIMS AND EVERYTHING THAT EVER WENT WRONG IS SOME MAN’S FAULT. THEY FIXATED ON THE IMPROBABLE KAVANAUGH ACCUSATIONS BECAUSE SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW SOME MAN DONE THEM WRONG:  What’s Behind College-Educated, Suburban Women Flipping To Democrats.

Or, in Alonzo Rachel’s immortal words, “They’re sheep, they’re babies, they’re shaaaaaaabies.”

YEAH, I’M MUCH BETTER TODAY: Part of the issue was being very tired last night.  Of course I knew we’d lose some battles.  This is a long war. The other side gets a say.  It’s just that I despise Grey Goose Pelosi since she went to the Middle East to negotiate behind George W’s back.  The thought of her having any power revolts me.

But today, since Trump gives no signs of wanting to be friends with them, and the left’s crazy is leaking all over, I’ve started thinking maybe this is the best possible outcome.  Better even than holding both houses. You see, they won just enough to confirm them in their insanity.  The Romans said that those the gods meant to destroy they first drove insane:  Incoming Democrat Chairman: Dems Will Go ‘All-In’ On Russia, Impeach Kavanaugh For ‘Perjury’.

WHOOPS, APOCALYPSE: “Understandably, people worry about the temperament of anyone with access to US nuclear codes. It turns out Bill Clinton solved that particular problem in a uniquely Clintonian way. He lost the codes,” Tim Blair writes.

Plus a cameo by Jane Fonda during her salad days — waxing approvingly about “socialist maniac turned eventual mass-killer Jim Jones.”

(Classical reference in headline.)

DUTCHIES HAVE BEEN PASSED: Cannabis Industry Cheers Sessions’ Departure at DOJ.

THE ONION: Beto Voter Struggling To Refocus Her Sexual Fantasies On Ted Cruz.

Be careful — word on the street is that Cruz is into some pretty dark stuff.