HECKUVA JOB, BARRY: US Productivity Prints Consecutive YoY Declines For First Time In 23 Years.

QUESTION ASKED: Where Did the Obama Coalition Go?

Democrats always knew the day they faced the voters without Barack Obama at the top of a presidential ticket would be a difficult one. With only a week to go before that day arrives, the problem is just as bad as they feared it might be. Though Hillary Clinton still retains a built-in advantage in the Electoral College, the growing demographic edge among minorities that was the Democratic Party’s ace in the hole in the last two presidential elections may not be as great as they were hoping. Reports detailing a decline in African-American early voter turnout in battleground states is alarming news for the Clinton campaign.

If the trend holds up, the marked downturn in black turnout, especially in North Carolina and Florida, calls into question a lot of assumptions about the presidential race.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Minnesota for the last week, and new numbers out this morning show a tightening race in Michigan, too.

ELI LAKE: The FBI Wants to Make America Great Again.

Comey’s letter to Congress has gotten a lot of attention. But his initial blunder was breaking with precedent and explaining to the public his decision not to recommend prosecution of Clinton for her use of the private e-mail server when she was secretary of state.

“When Comey did his press conference in July, I nearly fell off my chair,” Steven Pomerantz, a retired assistant director for the FBI, told me. “I don’t think the FBI should ever make a prosecution recommendation. I believe Comey was honestly motivated, but I just don’t think process- and procedure-wise it was the right thing to do. And it all got compounded when he testified before Congress.”

Victoria Toensing, a former deputy assistant attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and a Trump supporter, told me much of this goes back to the decision not to impanel a grand jury in either the Clinton Foundation or e-mail investigation. “Comey fumbled the ball in the beginning by not demanding a grand jury,” she said. “And now he’s trying to make it up because he was caught between a rock and a hard place.”

In this case, the rock for Comey is the perception that he is influencing the election by informing Congress about Weiner’s computer. The hard place is his pledge to Republicans in Congress to keep them informed of any developments about Clinton’s e-mails.

Comey appears to have done his best to stay out of the election, but he is in the middle of it now.

Left unsaid? That Attorney General Loretta Lynch forced Comey’s hand. Let’s set the Wayback Machine to July 1:

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, conceding that her airport meeting with former President Bill Clinton this week had cast a shadow over the federal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s personal email account, said Friday that she would accept whatever recommendations career prosecutors and the F.B.I. director made about whether to bring charges in the case.

Ms. Lynch said she had decided this spring to defer to the recommendations of her staff and the F.B.I. because her status as a political appointee sitting in judgment on a politically charged case would raise questions of a conflict of interest.

So, yes, Comey “broke precedent,” but only after his boss forced him to.

At the end of his column, Lake implies that the FBI may have “rigged” the election against Hillary Clinton. If so, it would seem to be the almost-inevitable result of events set into motion by Bill Clinton and the head of Barack Obama’s Justice Department.

SO CLOSE: Woman denied $43M slot machine win, offered steak dinner instead.

An unemployed mother of four thought she had hit a nearly $43 million jackpot on a slot machine, changing her life forever. Then she learned the crushing news: There would be no millions because the machine was malfunctioning. The casino offered her a steak dinner instead.

Katrina Bookman of Queens, N.Y., was playing the slots at the Resorts World Casino near La Guardia Airport in late August when the machine she was using told her, “Printing cash ticket. $42,949,672.76.”

Customers and casino personnel surrounded her as she celebrated her massive win. She was escorted from the casino floor and told to come back the next day. Bookman, who grew up in foster care, was already making plans for the money, including a barber shop for her son.

“What did I win?” Bookman asked when she returned to the casino, WABC-TV reported. “‘You didn’t win nothing,'” she says she was told.

The New York State Gaming Commission told Bookman she was not entitled to any winnings because the machine, which is only supposed to pay out a maximum win of $6,500, was malfunctioning. All the machines are labeled with a disclaimer reading, “Malfunctions void all pays and plays.” According to the gaming commission, her actual winnings were just $2.25.

What was an unemployed mother of four doing playing the slots?

PROCUREMENT BLUES: Problems with USS Ford’s Main Turbine Generators will push delivery date into 2017.

By my math, we’re already short at least one aircraft carrier.

HACKING PODESTA: Presenting…the Clinton IT Department!

If you get a notice from your email provider or your bank or anyone who holds sensitive information of yours saying that your account has been compromised, you leave the email, open your web browser, type in the URL of the website, and then manually open your account information. Again, let me emphasize: You never click on the link in the email!

But what makes this story so priceless isn’t that John Podesta got fooled by an fourth-rate phishing scam. After all, he’s just the guy who’s going to be running Hillary Clinton’s administration. What does he know about tech? And Podesta, to his credit, knew what he didn’t know: He emailed the Clinton IT help desk and said, Hey, is this email legit?

And the Clinton tech team’s response was: Hell yes!

No, really. Here’s what they said: One member of the team responded to Podesta by saying “The gmail one is REAL.” Another answered by saying “This is a legitimate email. John needs to change his password immediately.”

It’s like the Clinton IT department is run by 90-year-old grandmothers.

Well…

BREXIT DENIED? British court delivers blow to E.U. exit plan, insists Parliament has a say.

The decision greatly complicates May’s stated plan to trigger Article 50 — the never-before-used mechanism for a country to leave the European Union — by the end of March at the latest.

Most members of Parliament opposed Brexit in the lead-up to Britain’s June referendum, when voters opted for an exit by a 52-to-48 margin. On the streets, however, the court decision risked setting off an angry backlash from voters who favored leaving the European Union and believed the issue was settled.

May’s lawyers argued that she had the right to begin the Brexit process without first getting Parliament’s consent. But a three-judge panel on the London-based High Court sided with a group of plaintiffs who contended that Parliament must first weigh in.

Brexit may come down to whichever way vulnerable MP’s think the wind is blowing.

IT COULDN’T HAPPEN TO A NICER RELIGIOUS DICTATORSHIP: Saudi Arabia’s Bond Success Hides Its Financial Peril.

In truth, the bond sale was a rare bright spot in a series of economic and geopolitical missteps that have not only plunged Saudi Arabia into budgetary chaos but also weakened its grip on global oil markets. The Saudis are well aware of this — witness the firing this week of Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf despite the triumphant bond sale his ministry oversaw.

Riyadh is facing a sandstorm of economic and social challenges. The two-year decline in crude prices has left it with huge budget deficits: $98 billion last year and a projected $87 billion in 2016. This has forced the kingdom to tap into its cash reserves, which have declined from $732 billion at the end of 2014 to $562 billion last month. Last year, the International Monetary Fund predicted that if Saudi Arabia continued its current fiscal path, it could burn through its entire foreign exchange reserves by 2020.

In effect, Riyadh will end up putting the groceries on a new high-interest credit card they were supposed to use for going to school to learn a profitable trade.

CLINTON FOUNDATION INVESTIGATION UPDATE:

I said sources described an "avalanche of evidence" in case & barring obstruction they'd likely continue 2 push to try for an indictment" https://t.co/2TjzxdJod1

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) November 2, 2016

This is, or at least ought to be an even bigger deal than the email scandal.

It just doesn’t feel possible for someone under two simultaneous FBI investigations to get elected President.

BAD LUCK: A Cashless Economy in Zimbabwe? With Little Cash, There’s Little Choice.

To withdraw money from their accounts, many Zimbabweans must spend hours in lines or make multiple visits to their banks. Credit cards are accepted at very few establishments in Zimbabwe.

To keep cash inside the country, the government has banned imports of certain goods. It has also encouraged the use of debit cards and mobile money. In August, there were more than four million debit card transactions in the country, more than three times the total in January, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

For months, business was languishing at the Tipperary’s nightclub, a popular spot for professionals in Harare. Patrons simply did not have the cash to hang out.

“Since the introduction of swiping machines, business has improved a bit,” said Edmund Rukweza, a bartender at the club.

Some have discovered the strange change in consumer behavior induced by plastic.

“I’ve found it less painful to use my card than taking out hard cash from my pocket,” said Edward Vambire, 32, who had spent $3 on three lottery tickets at the MegaGame Sports Betting parlor.

It looks like Zimbabwe has figured out how to get people spending money again — make them feel like it isn’t real.

HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? Oil prices tumble 3 percent on record U.S. crude build.

ANALYSIS: FALSE. Vogue says cleavage is ‘over’

JUSTICE: Hulk Hogan Settles With Gawker for $31 Million.

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: Over at VodkaPundit, (probably) the last 2016 edition of Wargaming the Electoral College.

DINOSAUR: New York Times reports 95.7 percent fall in quarterly profit.

That’s a lot.

UM… NO: Ecosexuals Believe Having Sex with the Earth Could Save It.

These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.

BUTTINSKIES GOTTA BUTT IN: Parents Shamed for Raising Their Children in a “Tiny” Home by the Beach.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: London doctors are first in the world to print a 3D heart model.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, a honorary consultant cardiologist, said the technology was useful in invasive heart procedures and in and treating heart rhythm disturbances in patients born with congenital heart disease.

She said: “Firstly, surgeons and other clinical team members are able to better grasp how a patient’s heart is affected by their condition. This leads to better care and allows us to diagnose and repair conditions with less need for invasive diagnostic procedures.

“Secondly, a 3D model can be a huge help with the communication between the clinical team and the patient. A 3D visual representation of the heart is so much clearer than anything we could put in to words.”

How long before doctors are able to 3D print a self-contained artificial heart?

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY SPIN:

Republicans and Russian hackers have made Hillary Clinton the most transparent candidate in history https://t.co/F3Spbm8z2z

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) November 2, 2016

This isn’t as bad as the man convicted of killed his parents begging for leniency because he’s an orphan. It’s worse — because the story about the killer is apocryphal, but Ezra actually wrote this.

SHOT: 28 percent of Florida GOP early voters picked Clinton.

CHASER: Early Voting a Poor Predictor of Final Results.

It’s 2016; anything can happen.

SHE LIES ABOUT EVERYTHING: Hillary Clinton wrongly says she was in NYC on 9/11.

How can you expect someone to get every little detail right while they’re under sniper fire?

SAYS THE MAN WHO KEPT HILLARY DOWN EIGHT YEARS AGO: Obama Says Sexism to Blame for Close Presidential Race.

Now that’s chutzpah.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: How al-Qaeda and ISIS Have Been Weighing in on Our Presidential Election.

This makes for a nice companion piece to Michael Ledeen’s “Who’s Putin For?”

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Ambush-style killings of police up 300% in first half of year.

The report found that from January to July 20 this year, 14 police officers were shot and killed in ambushes, seven while stopping a suspicious person and five were killed while “executing a tactical arrest or high-risk warrants.”

The report, which was published at the end of July and covers only the first half of 2016, does not include the two officers who were shot and killed in an apparent ambush in Iowa on Wednesday. Both officers were gunned down in their patrol cars after responding to a report of gunfire in Des Moines.

The only good news out of this report is that despite the huge percentage increase, the actual numbers are still small.

PLEASE LET IT BE TRUE: This Is The Least Important Election Of Our Lifetimes.

David Harsanyi:

Yes, government’s increasing involvement in the economic and moral lives of citizens have made political stakes high. It’s true that 2016 features the two suckiest candidates probably ever. It’s also true that our collective vision of the American project has frayed, perhaps beyond repair. With the intense scrutiny of contemporary political coverage, more people are invested in the daily grind of elections, which intensifies the sting of losing. This anger compounds every cycle (although winning brings its own disappointment with its unfulfilled promises).

That’s not to say our constitutional republic isn’t slowly dying. It probably is. This condition isn’t contingent on an election’s outcome, but on widespread problems with our institutions, politics, and voters. Whatever you believe the future of governance should look like, one election is not going make or break it.

During yesterday’s Right Angle taping, Bill Whittle argued that while Trump isn’t a cure, he might at least be a tourniquet.