DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVE WITH A BYLINE: Andrea Mitchell Falsely Claims Donna Brazile Leak Story Has Been ‘Completely Knocked Down’

IN WITH THE OUTLIERS: Over at VodkaPundit, it’s time to see what those funky “outlier” polls do to the Electoral College math.

DEATH SPIRAL: Obamacare Premiums Up 30% In TX, MS, KS; 50% In IL, AZ, PA; 93% In NM.

To be clear, these are approved rate hikes, not mere rate-hike requests from the dwindling number of ObamaCare insurers.

More:

President Obama calls this a “transition” because insurers aggressively priced too low to get healthy people to sign up.

It’s a transition all right, to hell, for those watching rates skyrocket.

Meanwhile, young and healthy millennials have decided it is ridiculous to overpay for healthcare with $5,000 deductibles to support chronically ill smokers with cancer.

Who says Millennials are innumerate?

COLLEGE SEX MEETS THE STAR CHAMBER: At Yale’s sexual misconduct tribunals, defendants can’t even cross-examine witnesses.

Under Yale’s sexual misconduct policy, sexual harassment includes verbal statements that have the “effect” of creating an “intimidating” environment. Sexual assault includes any contact without “positive, unambiguous, and voluntary” consent. According to Yale, consent must be “ongoing” at each stage of an encounter but “cannot be inferred from the absence of a ‘no’ ” or presumed from “contextual factors.”

With these expanded definitions in hand, “independent investigators”—eager to justify their employment by a university desperate to appear tough on sexual misconduct—rush off to find evidence of violations. They build dossiers on professors’ offhand comments made decades earlier. They probe the murky “he said-she said” of drunken hook-ups seeking to prove that consent was not freely given, irrespective of whether a crime has been committed. Administrative tribunals, lacking due process protections provided in a court of law, determine guilt and mete out punishments that forever label people misogynists, harassers, or perpetrators of sexual assault.

The “intimidating environment” is the one Yale men are studying and working in.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Duterte’s Flip-Flop Into Bed With China Is a Disaster for the United States.

Max Boot:

From the American viewpoint, Duterte’s flip-flop — assuming it leads to a lasting strategic shift — is a potential disaster. Aligned with the United States and its regional allies, the Philippines can provide a vital platform to oppose Chinese aggression in the South China and East China seas.

If the Philippines becomes a Chinese satrapy, by contrast, Washington will find itself hard-pressed to hold the “first island chain” in the Western Pacific that encompasses “the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyus, Taiwan, and the Philippine archipelago.” Defending that line of island barriers has been a linchpin of U.S. strategy since the Cold War. It now could be undone because of the whims of one unhinged leader.

China could either neutralize this vital American ally or even potentially turn the Philippines into a PLA Navy base for menacing U.S. allies such as Taiwan, Japan, and Australia. At the very least, the U.S. Navy will find it much harder to protect the most important sea lanes in the world; each year $5.3 trillion in goods passes through the South China Sea, including $1.2 trillion in U.S. trade.

Boot notes that this “massive geopolitical shift is entirely Duterte’s doing,” and that “the Philippine people remain largely pro-American.” With any luck, Duterte’s rule will be short, and the Philippines will return to the fold before any lasting damage is done.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Amid ‘rigged’ election charges, Russia wants to monitor U.S. vote.

CUE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: WikiLeaks poisons Hillary’s relationship with left.

Liberal groups and activists are assembling opposition research-style dossiers of the most dismissive comments in the WikiLeaks emails about icons of their movement like Clinton’s Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders, and their stances on trade, Wall Street reform, energy and climate change. And some liberal activists are vowing to use the email fodder to oppose Clinton policy proposals or appointments deemed insufficiently progressive.

“We were already kind of suspicious of where Hillary’s instincts were, but now we see that she is who we thought she was,” said one influential liberal Democratic operative. “The honeymoon is going to be tight and small and maybe nonexistent,” the operative said.

The Left is finally learning what most on the Right have known all along: That Hillary Clinton doesn’t believe in much of anything other than Hillary Clinton.

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: Hillary and the Book-Burners.

She began by arguing that the Supreme Court, and lesser federal courts, should be political partisans who take sides in disputes rather than adjudicate them according to the law. Many politicians — perhaps even most — believe that, or act in a way that suggests they do, but most of them feel at least the need to shamefacedly insist that judges are there to impartially apply the law. Not Mrs. Clinton. The Supreme Court that exists in her mind is the worst version of the highest judicial body, which is to say the American answer to Iran’s Guardian Council. The justices already wander into American-ayatollah territory too often, and it is only shame that constrains them. It is impossible to overstate the damage this is doing to our constitutional order, and to the legitimacy of the federal government itself.

What is worse — if something can in fact be worse — is that Mrs. Clinton seeks to unmoor the Supreme Court from the Constitution in order to pursue her own repressive and self-interested political program, namely the censorship of publications, organizations, and institutions that are critical of her.

Read the whole thing.

THE THIEF WHO CAME TO DINNER: No happy warriors to be found at Al Smith dinner.

The rivals showed up Thursday night at a fabled staging post on the final stretch of presidential campaigns — the Al Smith charity dinner in New York.

Smith, the former New York governor and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee, was once dubbed the “happy warrior of the political battlefield” by Franklin Roosevelt.

But Trump and Clinton looked anything but happy when they limped off the 2016 campaign trail Thursday night.

They struggled to disguise the anger, bitterness and sheer open dislike that has pulsed through their recriminatory White House race, perhaps not surprisingly since he has threatened to throw her in jail and she says he’s a threat to the republic.

Can this really be the government we deserve?

DIVERSITY OF OPINION: Leaked Memo Reveals What Mark Zuckerberg Plans to Do About Trump-Supporting Board Member Peter Thiel.

In a leaked internal memo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a stand for free speech and rejected the idea that Thiel should no longer serve as a member of the social media giant’s board because of his Trump support.

“I want to quickly address the questions and concerns about Peter Thiel as a board member and Trump supporter,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We care deeply about diversity. That’s easy to say when it means standing up for ideas you agree with. It’s a lot harder when it means standing up for the rights of people with different viewpoints to say what they care about. That’s even more important.”

Good for Zuckerberg.

SPOILING ATTACK: ISIS Fighters in Iraq Attack Kirkuk, Diverting Attention From Mosul.

Dozens of uniformed Islamic State fighters in vehicles assaulted Kirkuk, setting off gun battles for hours in the heart of the city, according to local officials and to the militant group itself. Imams shut down all mosques in the city, canceling Friday Prayer.

The battle scenes and the sound of automatic gunfire inside the city, broadcast live on local television, were reminiscent of the Islamic State’s brazen march across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014. That offensive also involved multiple suicide attacks on police positions inside the city, and gunmen later took up positions in a mosque and a school, and on top of other buildings.

The attack on Kirkuk — a vital city to Iraq’s Kurds that has been under their control for more than two years — diverted attention, at least for a day, from the four-day offensive on Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which has been under the control of the Islamic State for more than two years.

The tragedy is that ISIS could have been nipped in the bud three years ago.

NOPE, NOT BUYING IT: ‘I’m the victim,’ Iowa teacher who had sex with student says on ‘Dr. Phil’

RESET: Russia Holds Missile Drills Near Western Border.

The Defense Ministry said on October 20 that the war games were held at a shooting range near the city of Luga, some 100 kilometers east of the Estonian border.

The exercises featured the deployment of Iskander missiles and preparations for firing them, but didn’t involve actual launches, the military said.

Nuclear-capable Iskander missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometers.

Russia’s recent deployment of Iskander missiles to its Kaliningrad exclave puts Warsaw under a two-minute threat of nuclear annihilation. Russia is also believed to be developing a medium-range nuclear missile in violation of the 1987 INF treaty, appears have kept SS-25 mobile nuclear missile launchers in violation of the 2010 New START agreement, and last year Putin unilaterally withdrew from the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.

HMM: Trump national political director ‘steps back’ from campaign.

Jim Murphy, Donald Trump’s national political director, is no longer playing an active role on the campaign, according to three sources briefed on the move – a troubling development for the Republican nominee coming just 19 days before the election.

“I have not resigned but for personal reasons have had to take a step back from the campaign,” Murphy said in a statement to POLITICO. He did not elaborate on the reasons for his departure.

Several Trump aides said that Murphy has been conspicuously absent in recent days as the campaign mobilizes for the final push.

Turnover has always been high in the Trump campaign, but losing a national political director this close to election day stands out.

THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER: Teacher Sparks Controversy After Telling Students, “To Be White Is To Be Racist”

“Am I racist? And I say, yeah. I don’t want to be. It’s not like I choose to be racist,” the teacher is heard saying in audio obtained by KFOR. “But do I do things because of the way I was raised?” The student who recorded the statement says the remarks were made during a lecture on healing the racial divide. The student began recording after finding some of the discussion offensive.

“Half of my family is Hispanic, so I just felt like, you know, him calling me racist just because I’m White…I mean, where’s your proof in that? You start telling someone something over and over again that’s an opinion, and they start taking it as fact,” she told KFOR.

Joseph Siano, superintendent of Norman Public Schools, agrees that the teacher should have handled the discussion differently.

At the very least.

I’M NOT SAYING IT’S ALIENS… BUT IT’S ALIENS: Mysterious Planet Nine is making sun tilt, adding ‘wobble’ to the solar system.

Caltech researchers announced the findings at the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences meeting Wednesday — nine months after the group initially reported about the massive planet lurking at the outer reaches of our solar system.

The planet is believed to have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and takes about 15,000 years to orbit the sun.

Its existence has fueled speculation about Planet X or Nibiru, a mythical rogue planet that doomsayers believe will collide or pass near Earth.

Lord John Whorfin was not immediately available to comment on this story.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: 2K Seattle Teachers Wear Black Lives Matter Shirts to Class.

CAUGHT IN THE CLUTCH: St. Louis carjacker thwarted because he couldn’t drive a stick shift, victim says.

UH-HUH: DNC boss Brazile claims WikiLeaks emails ‘doctored’ in contentious interview.

Watch the video at the link. Brazile doesn’t look quite as unconvincing as Nathan Thurm — but it’s close.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: A surface vessel just commanded a submarine to launch an aircraft—all unmanned.

DAVID HARSANYI: The 5 Most Outrageous Hillary Clinton Lies From The Last Debate.

It couldn’t have been easy narrowing it down to five.

PODESTA WIKILEAKS HORROR: Voter ID Doesn’t Stop Alien Voting.

J. Christian Adams:

Podesta’s right. Alien registration and voting is the next big battle for election integrity, because federal mandates created vulnerabilities in our election process.

Here’s how it works.

Under Motor Voter, registrants can get registered to vote while they get their driver’s license or “photo ID.” How? Well, getting registered to vote is as easy as marking “YES” to the question: “Are you a citizen of the United States?”

As Podesta notes, when you attest you are a citizen, you get registered. It’s automatic. It’s mandated under federal law.

The registrant then signs the form, stating under “penalty of perjury” that the answers are correct. It’s an honor system — but only four states engage in citizenship verification.

And three of those four states are currently entangled in litigation with leftist groups trying to end that verification: Kansas, Alabama, and Georgia.

These leftist groups have allies in the Justice Department, which has also fought citizenship verification measures ferociously.

They’re playing for keeps.

Read the whole thing.

NOAH ROTHMAN: Clinton’s Mandateless Presidency.

Too late, however, Democrats are beginning to realize that winning by substantial margins is not itself enough to claim a mandate to pursue sweeping legislative reform. That will be particularly true if Clinton manages to win the White House by a substantial margin and Republicans retain control of one or both chambers of Congress. That mixed message would (rightly, as the Founders would have had it) yield gridlock. Clinton ran a campaign predicated on the dual notions that her place in the waiting line entitled her to the presidency and that she was not Donald Trump. That’s a winning message, but it does not a mandate make. Unable to conjure up a rationale for Clinton’s presidency, Democrats have taken to mocking Republicans who believe that they have their own obligations to their voters.
…
Others have noted that this election will be the sixth out of the last seven presidential elections in which Democrats will have won the popular vote. That, too, should incent some bipartisanship on the part of defeated Republicans, Democrats say. It will also likely be a year in which the House remains in Republican hands. That means that the Republican Party will have controlled the most responsive legislative chamber for 18 of the last 22 years. Rarely do you hear opinion makers marvel at the mandate conferred upon Republicans’ control over the first branch of government, the body the Founders insisted was the very embodiment of representative democracy. I wonder why.

I can live with gridlock — it’s far preferable to the next most-likely result, the kind we got from 2009-2011.

ED MORRISSEY SUMS UP THE FINAL DEBATE: Last opportunity, lost opportunity?

Trump — after the first 30 minutes in which he dominated — had a good debate, in terms of campaigning to the Right.

Hillary, on the other hand, had difficulty finding a consistent voice. Thanks to Chris Wallace’s adept moderation, she had to argue within a ten-minute period that the 2nd Amendment’s right to bear arms can be subject to “reasonable” restrictions, but that the derived “right” to abortion has to be completely unencumbered by any regulations. She sputtered when Wallace contradicted her claim to be opposed to open borders by reading directly from one of her own speeches. Like so many other occasions in which she gets openly challenged, Hillary sounded shrill and strident at times, and evasive at others.

However, Hillary did accomplish two key things. First, she campaigned to the center rather than to the Left (after the Supreme Court and abortion discussions). Even on guns, Hillary tried to frame herself as a moderate, even while making an absurd claim that Heller was wrongly decided because of toddlers — a clear reference to a new Brady Campaign effort. Because she didn’t need to shore up her base, Hillary could work toward the center and position herself as the reasonable and rational choice, a task made a little easier with Trump’s answer on the election and a couple of his late personal insults.

Second, Hillary didn’t screw up. That was her real mission last night — not to make a fatal mistake.

Trump had a higher bar to clear, and today of course the usual worrywarts are raising it even higher because of his answer about accepting the election results.

A DISH BEST SERVED COLD: Kerry Warns Russia Bombing Will Trigger ‘Revenge’

“If they destroy most of Aleppo in order to ‘take’ it, what will that taking produce? Will it change the attitude of the people who have been driven out and the people who have been radicalized?” he asked at a press conference in Washington, D.C. “No. They will be even more determined to seek revenge and even less inclined to come to the table to negotiate.”

Hamburg and Hiroshima could not be reached for comment.