DEFENDING BERNIE SANDERS (!): Bernie Sanders Says Not All Voters Who Feel ‘Uncomfortable’ With Black Candidates Are Racist.

People of Sanders’s generation would have distinguished between being “prejudiced” and being “racist.” That linguistic distinction has been lost, but it’s a useful one. Most people who are “prejudiced” against members of a group don’t have the hatred/hostility that “racist” implies. (Same is true of “anti-Semitism.”) It would be better if we had still a way to linguistically distinguish, for example, between people who have mild negative stereotypes of a group but interact with members of those groups in a totally respectful way (“mildly prejudiced”) and, say, fans of Stormfront (“virulently racist”).

WAS COMEY’S CLINTON EMAIL DECISION SELF-INTERESTED? Turns out former FBI Director James Comey talked about sensitive government business on his personal email routinely, according to new documents turned up by the Cause of Action Institute (COAI) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Here’s the key: “The FBI reviewed 526 pages, released only 156 pages, and withheld 370 pages in full. Notably, the FBI withheld seven emails under the FOIA’s law enforcement exemption, which applies only where the government can show that (1) a law enforcement proceeding is pending or prospective, and (2) release of information about that proceeding could reasonably be expected to cause some articulable harm,” COAI said.

So in July 2016 when Comey told the nation that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her key aides had acted “extremely carelessly” but without the intent of harming U.S. national security,  he not only was mis-representing the law, which doesn’t consider intent, but he also appears now to have been setting an agency precedent that might well have been beneficial to himself.

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we lie to the American people to protect our own behinds.

GOOD: The UC-Berkeley student senator who was disavowed by her own party over her conservative Christian beliefs is refusing to back down, despite calls for her to resign.

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TWITTER DEZINFORMATSIYA: A survey of Russian agitprop and disinformation operations focusing on Twitter. The post also discusses Chinese agitation propaganda. A good read.

THE PENNY DROPS: To her credit, actress/SJW Alyssa Milano is one of the few “feminists” of late to recognize the anti-Semitism baked into the Left, at least the leadership of the “Women’s March.” Tablet Magazine reports:

“Any time that there is any bigotry or anti-Semitism in that respect, it needs to be called out and addressed. I’m disappointed in the leadership of the Women’s March that they haven’t done it adequately,” Milano said in an interview with The Advocate when she was asked about the march leader’s relationship to the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan. Milano said she would decline to attend the next Women’s March.”

Better late than never.

ALL INFECTIOUS DISEASES MAY BE SEASONAL: New research finds evidence of seasonality in 69 infectious diseases.

In a new paper, Micaela Martinez, PhD, a scientist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, makes a case that all infectious diseases have a seasonal element. The “Pearl” article appears in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

Martinez collected information from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and peer-reviewed publications to create a calendar of epidemics for 69 infectious diseases, from commonplace infections to rare tropical diseases. A given year will see outbreaks of flu in the winter, chickenpox in the spring, and gonorrhea and polio in the summer—to name a few of the best described seasonal outbreaks.

The article summarizes the research — and is worth reading.

U.S. NAVY AND JAPANESE CARRIERS IN THE PHILIPPINE SEA: It’s Exercise Keen Sword 2018. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga sail in formation with 16 other ships from the U.S. Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as aircraft from the U.S. Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force fly overhead. Japan insists on calling the Hyuga a helicopter destroyer, but it’s really a small aircraft carrier. With some minor modifications it could carry the F-35B. This article discusses similar ships being built by South Korea and mentions the Hyuga. “Although called a destroyer, it very much looks like an aircraft carrier. While its primary function is anti-submarine warfare, the Hyuga will also give Japan its first real power projection capability since 1945.”

THE LEFT NEVER ADMITS DEFEAT. HELL, AS SOMEONE ON TWITTER NOTED YESTERDAY, THEY’RE STILL DEFENDING THE ROSENBERGS. Byron York: As world moves on, the Brett Kavanaugh fight continues.

IT’S ONLY A WAR ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT WHEN REPUBLICANS CRITICIZE THE PRESS, NOT WHEN DEMOCRATS OPENLY THREATEN ARRESTS FOR REPORTING: Weird. The Palm Beach elections supervisor threatened to arrest reporters and it’s not a bigger story.

Related: No big deal, just Palm Beach County refusing to comply with the recount court order.

Plus:

Also:

It’s like all this defense of “norms” and “rule of law” in response to Trump is really just the same kind of hackish self-serving bullshit that got him elected in the first place.

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: What Does History Tell Us About The Midterm Election?

The lesson of 2018 is that the political class is addicted to drawing lessons. Every two years, after the ballots are counted and the winners declared, our reporters, pundits, officials, activists, and analysts turn immediately to the next election. What do these results portend? Will Trump be reelected? Will the suburbs stay Democratic? This emphasis on the future allows the political class to indulge in its favorite activity: mindless speculation. For once, it might be more useful to look backward rather than forward. History has much to tell us.

What it says is that the midterm was about average.

Well, where are the clicks in saying that?

JIM MEIGS AND RICHARD DAVIES TALK MIDTERMS AND PURPLE PUDDLES ON the How Do We Fix It? podcast.

LIKE OPERATION CHOKE POINT, WEAPONIZING REGULATORS AGAINST LEGAL BUSINESSES FOR POLITICAL REASONS: Federal Judge Says It’s Plausible That Andrew Cuomo Violated the First Amendment by Pressuring Banks and Insurers to Shun the NRA.

QUESTION ASKED: Why Hasn’t Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes Been Fired Yet?

WELL, THIS IS TROUBLING:

IT’S NOT JUST LEGEND:

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FRAUD AND COVERUP GO TOGETHER: Arizona GOP Accuses Dem Recorder of Destroying Evidence: Says actions ensured there could be no review of alleged voting irregularities.

ORWELLIAN TELESCREEN OF DOOM: We Tried Facebook’s New Portal Device (So You Don’t Have To). “Of course, I can see people objecting — wait, not only are you putting a Facebook-connected machine in your house, but its camera will also follow you around the room, like some kind of digital Eye of Sauron?!”

Plus: “That was my biggest problem — and likely Facebook’s most difficult hurdle to overcome when selling the Portal. It was the idea that I was putting an always-on camera in my home, connected to Facebook, 24 hours a day. There was no shaking the feeling that I was being watched.”

But at least they’re doing something I’ve recommended for devices for years: “Facebook anticipated this. To protect from that creepy feeling, they built a kill switch into the hardware that turns off the microphone and camera. They also provided a piece of plastic to physically sheathe the camera’s eye. No more taping over the laptop lens like Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, once did. Facebook also went out of its way to let us know that all video chats are encrypted, and the company does not store the contents of the calls, nor does it listen in on them.”

Well, okay then. Who wouldn’t trust that? “Facebook has a demonstrably worse record on privacy than many of its big-tech peers. It also has a business model, targeted advertising, which encourages it to walk up to the limit of what users will accept, and sometimes to walk beyond that line. Let’s not forget that Mark Zuckerberg once said that privacy is an outdated social norm.”

THAT’S WEIRD. I WONDER WHAT THE SECRETS TO HER SUCCESS ARE. 12 million followers: 32 photos of an ordinary personal trainer Amanda Lee turned Instagram sensation.

SPACE: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket Certified to Launch NASA’s Most Precious Science Missions.

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PAUL CARON REPORTS ON Malibu Burning.