Nichols Canyon, 1980, David Hockney (b.1937).

Richard Diebenkorn, Seawall, 1957.

Zelenskyy knew what he was doing when he bombed all data centers in Russia before the midterm elections in U.S. 🇷🇺 😈

President Trump continues to say "if I were on the ballot, we would have won." Even his most loyal supporters don't believe this. Members of his family don't believe it. I doubt that the President himself actually believes it. This election was a referendum on him. He made it so.

Asheville, North Carolina

"I was molested hundreds of times in my bed, including the night before competing in the Olympic Games." McKayla Maroney was 13 when the team doctor started. In 2015 she sat on her bedroom floor for nearly three hours and told the FBI everything, including Tokyo, where he gave her a sleeping pill on the plane when she was 15. It should have been over right there. Instead the agent went silent, then asked, "Is that all?" In the video below, she tells the Senate about that call. "I began crying at the memory over the phone, and there was just dead silence." "Is that all?" "My abuse was enough, and they wanted to cover it up." It got worse. The FBI didn't write up her interview for 17 months. When it finally did, the Justice Department's watchdog found the report "materially false." It put words in her mouth. While it sat in a drawer, the doctor, Larry Nassar, abused at least 70 more girls. The head of that FBI office was talking to USA Gymnastics about a job with the Olympic Committee at the same time. She settled with USA Gymnastics for $1.25 million. The deal reportedly carried a $100,000 penalty if she talked. The agent was fired. His boss retired. The Justice Department reviewed it twice and charged no one. The government paid the victims $138.7 million instead. Were those agents covering for a predator, or just bad at their jobs?

Let’s stop talking about the Epstein files And start talking about the Epstein TRIALS

The Republican Party is at war with itself today. The White House blames Fox News and lazy candidates. The vice president blames the war he’s been selling to voters. Fingers are pointing in every direction. But for the first time, a lot of them are pointing at Donald Trump. A senior Senate Republican called it a bloodbath, then added three words: “Trump did this.” For ten years you couldn’t get a Republican to say that out loud. Now they’re lining up. A former GOP legislator in Texas calls it an abject repudiation of Trumpism. A county chair in Ohio says the party has to drop Trump’s style. And the Republican who just lost in Maine says Trump’s going to be gone in two years. Whatever happens to Trump, the Congress that let him do whatever he wanted is gone for good. And he knows it. I break it all down in today’s show (link in reply).

霧の高原

President Bush's response to Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election

Wassily #Kandinsky (1866-1944) - Nine stripes, c 1932

I can argue that the guy most damaged by the results, is JD Vance. He went into election day known for a chameleon-like disingenuousness, having zero charisma, being uncomfortable in his own skin, and capable of tone-deaf sound bites. He already stunk of Trump and Thiel. But now he's got the putrid stench of Ramaswamy too. No way he ever ascends. He's toast.

Democrats have an opportunity to work with Republicans to reform our immigration system, lower health care costs and restore Congress’ authority. Put those ideas in front of President Trump. Let him veto them.

I think Jonah Goldberg is right here about what Vance is trying to do, the sleight of hand.

Do not fear. The church is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.

Yep.

Meanwhile, a federal judge has ordered Team Trump to appear in court on Nov. 19 for a hearing about a legal challenge to halt Trump's gutting of the Kennedy Center

Post whatever you'd like for #WhateverWednesday

Excellent. So much good news this cycle.

My wife has taught high school in Tokyo for twenty years. Every year, a few of her students spend a year living with a family in America. When they come home, she asks each of them one question. "What do you miss?" She expects hamburgers. She almost never gets hamburgers. And these aren't old stories. Most of these kids came home in the last two years. "Every time I left the house, my host mom said, 'Text me when you get there.' In Japan, nobody needs to know where I am. In Ohio, somebody always did." (Mina, 17, Ohio) "If you walk toward a door, an American will hold it open. Even if you are very far away. So you have to run. I ran to so many doors." (Itsuki, 16, Georgia) "My host brother screamed on the floor of a grocery store. A stranger walked by and said to my host mom, 'You're doing great, Mama.' She almost cried. I didn't know strangers were allowed to say that." (Aoi, 17, Texas) "We went away for the weekend and left our trash can at the curb. When we got back, it was by the garage. Nobody said who. My host dad said if it had been there one more day, the neighbor would have knocked." (Haruto, 16, Minnesota) "A car got stuck in the snow in front of our house. Four men came out of four houses. Nobody called them. They pushed, the car drove away, and they went back inside without saying their names." (Ren, 17, Michigan) "Every American has jumper cables. Maybe half of them know which clip goes where. The other half help anyway." (Shin, 16, Montana) "In July, my host family put a cooler on the porch. Cold water, snacks, and a sign: 'For our delivery drivers. Thank you!' I asked if they knew the drivers. They said no." (Nanami, 16, Arizona) "Downtown, there are banners on the lampposts. Photos of soldiers from the town. Some old, some very young. My host grandpa walked me down the street and told me every name." (Yuna, 16, Iowa) "I got a C-plus on my first test. My host dad said, 'I'm proud of you,' and put it on the fridge. In Japan, nobody is proud of a C-plus." (Takeru, 17, Pennsylvania) Then the quietest girl in the class raised her hand. Sora. Seventeen. Missouri. "Nobody asks me 'home safe?' anymore," she said. She was wrong. In September, there was a typhoon warning for Tokyo. At 2 a.m., Sora's phone lit up. It was her host mom. In Missouri. Watching the weather in a country she had never been to. "Saw the storm. You home safe?" Sora told my wife she cried for a long time. Then she typed the answer she had typed a hundred times, from football games and friends' driveways. "Home safe." Her host mom wrote back one line. "Good. That's all I needed." My wife has asked that question for twenty years. Not one kid has ever said they missed how big America is. They miss how America says goodbye. And how it checks that you got home. So, America. You think you've lost something. You haven't. It's on a porch in Arizona. It's pushing a car in Michigan. It's awake at 2 a.m. in Missouri, watching our weather. You don't remember doing any of it. A kid in Tokyo will never forget.