ONE TO GO: Two more House races called for the GOP (Update: 3 more races called, GOP at 217).

SCRUTINY: Trouble in Texas: Governor Abbott orders investigation into Harris County election day problems.

NOW CAN WE CALL IT A RECESSION? Jeff Bezos advises to ‘take some risk off the table,’ says economy currently ‘does not look great.’

HOUSE: ‘Dems Can’t Catch a Break’: CA-41 Called.

Related: 3 more races called, GOP at 217.

ROGUES GALLERY: Sam Bankman-Fried Is Not Alone: Some of History’s Greatest Monsters Were Democratic Megadonors: Disgraced crypto guru continues a storied tradition.

LIST: List: 11 solutions to thwart school shootings.

Flashback: People Don’t Stop Killers, People with Guns Do.

UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY: Christopher Rufo on The “Stochastic Terror” Lie. The Left’s latest gambit for suppressing speech is built on preposterous grounds.

The scheme works like this: left-wing media, activists, and officials designate a subject of discourse, such as Drag Queen Story Hour, off-limits; they treat any reporting on that subject as an expression of “hate speech”; and finally, if an incident of violence emerges that is related, even tangentially, to that subject, they assign guilt to their political opponents and call for the suppression of speech. The statistical concept of “stochasticity,” which means “randomly determined,” functions as a catch-all: the activists don’t have to prove causality—they simply assert it with a sophisticated turn of phrase and a vague appeal to probability.

Though framed in scientific terms, this gambit is a crude political weapon. In practice, left-wing media, activists, and officials apply the “stochastic terrorism” designation only in one direction: rightward. They never attribute fire-bombings against pro-life pregnancy centers, arson attacks against Christian churches, or the attempted assassination of a Supreme Court justice to mere argumentation of left-wing activists, such as, say, opposition to the Court’s decision in Dobbs. In those cases, the Left correctly adopts the principle that it is incitement, rather than opinion, that constitutes a crime—but conveniently forgets that standard as soon as the debate shifts to the movement’s conservative opponents.

Read the whole thing.

WORSE, THEY BECLOWN US: Biden and Trudeau Beclown Themselves by Parading Around Asia in Commie Mao Jackets.

BUT THEY ALL VOTED FOR HIM, PRETTY MUCH: American Rabbis Blast Biden Admin for Funding Palestinian Terrorism: Rabbis call State Department’s condemnation of Israeli politician while ignoring Palestinian terror ‘blatant double standard.’

BIOLOGICAL MALE WINS WOMEN’S ELITE DIVISION OF CYCLING RACE:

A biological male won the women’s elite division of a cycling race in Massachusetts on Saturday.

Austin Killips, who identifies as a transgender woman, won the Verge Northampton International Cyclocross held in Northampton.

* * * * * * * *

The wins were not the first by Killips this year. The cyclocross competitor has also kept biological women off the podium in other women’s races, including a third-place finish at the Women’s Elite Cyclocross in Rochester, New York, in September, along with two wins in other events in Massachusetts.

Killips made headlines in 2019 as a cyclocross racer, later becoming the first biological male to race in the sport’s World Cup in the women’s field. In an interview on the topic, Killips called the achievement significant.

“I haven’t pored over records, but I think I’m the first trans woman to race a World Cup in the Women’s field. I know Molly [Cameron] has raced, but she’s always raced the Men’s category,” Killips said. “I do think it’s significant and notable. You know, when I’m at bike races and have other queer and trans folks come up to me, it’s super meaningful, and I guess I’m very aware you can’t just separate the two out. When I’m training and racing, I’m just a bike racer. I’m out here competing with these people.”

America’s Newspaper of Record produced a video last year exploring this topic:

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Secretive US space plane X-37B lands after record 908 days in orbit. “The USSF didn’t respond to a request for comment, but a statement issued by Joseph Fritschen at the organisation said: ‘The X-37B continues to push the boundaries of experimentation, enabled by an elite government and industry team behind the scenes. The ability to conduct on-orbit experiments and bring them home safely for in-depth analysis on the ground has proven valuable for the Department of the Air Force and scientific community. The addition of the service module on OTV-6 allowed us to host more experiments than ever before.’ Fritschen didn’t respond to a request by New Scientist for interview.”

Everyone is very hush-hush where the X-37B is concerned.

I SAW THE VIDEO AND IT DIDN’T LOOK LIKE A TECHNICAL PROBLEM: Tesla to Help Police Probe into Fatal Crash in China. “Tesla said videos showed the car’s brake lights were not on when the car was speeding and that its data showed there was no move to step on the brakes throughout the vehicle’s journey.”

QUESTIONS ASKED: What Is Behind Trump’s Attack on DeSantis? Has He Lost His Marbles or Does He See Things the Rest of Us Do Not — Such as the Florida Governor Being Set Up as a Stool?

CHRISTOPHER RUFO: The “Stochastic Terror” Lie: The Left’s latest gambit for suppressing speech is built on preposterous grounds. “I browsed the news recently only to discover that, according to a popular science magazine, I was responsible for the attempted murder of Paul Pelosi, husband to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In an opinion piece for Scientific American, writer Bryn Nelson insinuated that my factual reporting on Drag Queen Story Hour was an example of ‘stochastic terrorism,’ which he defines as “ideologically driven hate speech” that increases the likelihood of unpredictable acts of violence.”

The most dangerous thing to our society is the group of people who view disagreement as violence, and political opposition as criminal.

ATHENA THORNE: How Trump’s Big Announcement Will Help Republicans.

FROM FRANK J. FLEMING:  Hellbender 2: Double Hockey Sticks.

#CommissionEarned

This is the sequel to the novel Hellbender.

I’m not sure what to do here. If you read and enjoyed the first one, I don’t feel like I need to sell you very hard on this one. The characters you love from Hellbender — Doug, Bryce, Lulu, and Charlene — get into further misadventures, while I also expand on the lore from the first one. Are the people in charge really demons? What happened in the Last War? Well, there are more answers and more questions in the sequel — you know how it works.

If you haven’t read the first one, it seems like I should just point you to the blurb for that novel. I mean, I made my best attempt at explaining the story in that one. It’s a post-apocalyptic comedy. There’s a mercenary gang of loveable losers (called Hellbender) in constant conflict with more powerful forces out to destroy or oppress them. And Satan — or a guy who says he is Satan — is involved. It’s intriguing, and it’s funny.
In this one, Hellbender faces an indescribable horror, a terrorist group that just enjoys terror and makes no demands, and a bunch of nuclear weapons. The gang is in way over its head again, and it’s going to be fun. I am excited for you. You know what? If you haven’t read the first one, just go ahead and jump into this one and read the first one later — consider it a prequel. You can call this book Hellbender and the previous one Hellbender: Origins.

FLASHBACK: “Under capitalism, rich people become powerful. But under socialism, powerful people become rich.”

OH, LOOK, PEOPLE CRAZIER THAN THE BIDEN JUNTA:  Australian Government Hopes China will Lead on Climate Change and Peace in Ukraine.

THE ARISTOS DON’T GET ECONOMICS:  Dissecting a Wind Project: An Introduction to Bad Economics (and political correctness).

Or reality, really.

IT WAS TIME EIGHT YEARS AGO:  After Epic Failure, Growing Chorus Of Senators Signals It’s Time For McConnell To Go.

BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE:  Female U.S. Journalist Asks Human Rights Question, Manhandled By Chinese.

YEP. OR LET’S HAVE THE TRUTH WITH NO BARK ON IT: CHEAT OR BE CHEATED ON:  Republican Leaders Have A Choice: Roll Back Early Voting And Mail-In Ballots Or Learn To Take Advantage Of Them.

I’m a fool, I’d prefer clean elections.

VOTE BY FRAUD MAIL.  SHE NEVER HAD A CHANCE:  ‘Ballot Curing’ Might Cost Lauren Boebert Her Colorado Seat.

DON’T LET US GET TO THIS POINT, PLEASE:  Chinese Citizens Use Cantonese to Denounce Covid-Zero Policies to Avoid Censors.

THEY MANUFACTURED ENOUGH VOTES:  NBC News: Democrat Katie Hobbs Beats Trump-Endorsed Kari Lake for Arizona Governor.

Trump-endorsed has nothing to do with it. Vote theft for abortion-mouse does.