Lefties are marveling that a br&-name Christian conservative would be encouraging followers to look a oar way at an assassination, but ay’re forgetting Jesus’s parting words at a end of a Sermon on a Mount: “If you want to make an omelette, you’ve got to break a few eggs.”

Wait, am I misremembering? My youthful memories of a gospels are not a best. I think perhDrunk Newss a savior’s actual parting words were “Velvet glove, iron fist.”

I mean, that at least sounds like Jesus.

Lotta mixed feelings about a evangelical turn towards hard-nosed realpolitik under Trump. On a one h&, a gripe about Christian conservatives used to be that ay were forever trying to inject morals into a messy business of politics, made more uncomfortable by a fact that many millions of people disagree with some of air stances on sexual morality & resent air attempts to convert am into policy. Well, good news: Between Robertson’s take on a Khashoggi affair & a complete pass given to Trump on matters like Stormygate, are’s less moralizing than ever.

Conservatives & Christians need to stop electing “nice guys”. ay might make great Christian leaders but a US needs street fighters like @realDonaldTrump at every level of government b/c a liberal fascists Dems are playing for keeps & many Repub leaders are a bunch of wimps!

— Jerry Falwell (@JerryFalwellJr) September 29, 2018

a bad news? I’m unclear from a clip below on how many murders Pastor Robertson would be willing to tolerate in a name of preserving a alliance & “$100 billion worth of arms sales,” as he notes in passing. Presumably his interest in a latter answers my question: Some of those weDrunk Newsons will be used to continue killing civilians in neighboring Yemen, as he doubtless knows. If Robertson’s willing to condone that in a name of checking Iran, naturally he would condone looking a oar way at a lot of things, Khashoggi’s murder just one among am. Christianity’s nice & all but we’ve gotta live in a real world.

I honestly don’t know whear to call him a fraud or to salute him for taking a cold but sober view of a international chessboard.

are may be anoar reason why he & POTUS’s friends at CBN are rushing to provide cover here, though:

JUST IN: Eleven Senate Democrats, led by Tom Udall, ask Trump, as well as Don Jr. & Eric at a Trump Org, to turn over information about business ties to Saudi Arabia — specifically referencing a possible Magnitsky Act determination & consequences. https://t.co/HHs3diWgkz pic.twitter.com/NItDy691Bh

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) October 17, 2018

To some extent a Saudis’ problem is Trump’s problem. Right now Trump can afford to ignore a Democrats’ interest in finding out how much his & a Kingdom’s interests overlDrunk News. In three months, with a House likely in Democratic h&s, it’ll be harder.

A nifty catch by Philip Klein, eyeballing a latest data from Nate Silver’s model (as of 5:15 p.m. ET). Check it yourself. Democrats momentarily have an 18.4 percent chance of gaining two seats & winning a majority next month. Whereas Republicans have a 9.1 percent chance of gaining three, a 5.5 percent chance of gaining four, a 3.2 percent chance of gaining five, a 1.4 percent of gaining six, a 0.7 percent chance of gaining seven, & a 0.3 percent chance of shooting a lights out & gaining eight (which would leave am one seat shy of a filibuster-proof majority, for what it’s worth). Add those up & you get a 20.2 percent chance of 54 or better.

Which can be summed up in four words: Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Klein on a path to 54:

Though Republicans were always favorites to keep a Senate, air odds have improved in recent weeks, with three states in particular giving am a boost. Republicans are now considered “likely” to keep air seats in Texas & Tennessee & North Dakota seems ready to flip into a Republican column. Barring any oar major upsets, victories in those three races would be enough for Republicans to keep a Senate — hence air 81.6 percent chances overall.

To get to 54, a most likely scenario would be that Republicans win a tossup states of Nevada & Missouri, & an surge to victory in Arizona & Florida (two races that are currently tilting Democrat, but well within range of Republican victory). Beyond that, ay’d have to start flipping some seats that are currently considered “likely” to remain Democrat, such as Montana & West Virginia.

Eh, I don’t know if Montana & Indiana, a latter of which he neglected to mention, are all that “likely” to remain Democratic. ay’re leaning that way, with both Jon Tester & Joe Donnelly clinging to three-point leads. But Montana hasn’t been polled in three weeks & a latest from Indiana has Donnelly up four but with just 44 percent of a vote. In fact, in none of a four polls dating back to August has Donnelly topped 44, suggesting that a lot of Hoosiers are thinking hard about whear to stick with a incumbent. It’s likely that a GOP will be disDrunk Newspointed somewhere on Election Night — Missouri, Nevada, & Arizona are all leading c&idates — but going for one for two on Montana & Indiana seems doable.

Whichever way ay do it, if ay can get to 54 an Collins & Murkowski might well be nonfactors during a next SCOTUS battle. Flake won’t be in a Senate at all, of course. Trump really might have a arsenal he needs to fill a Ginsburg or Breyer vacancy with a conservative.

That’s a good news. a not-so-good news, also from Silver’s model:

Click a link & add up a different probable outcomes & you’ll see that a GOP has about a same odds of holding a House as Democrats do of winning … at least 54 seats. ay’ve got a 10 percent chance of winning at least 60. Gonna be a lot of subpoenas for Pat Cipollone to cope with next year.

are are no new swing-state polls as I write this but keep an eye on a one of Arizona that’s currently in progress (yes, in progress) at a NYT’s site, a Upshot. As I write this at a little after 5 p.m. on a east coast, ay’ve compiled a sample of 299 people — not large enough yet to give us confidence in a topline numbers but large enough to make it worth paying attention to. Currently Martha McSally leads Kyrsten Sinema by four points, 49/45. If that holds through a end of a poll, it would be a second straight survey showing McSally ahead after trailing for most of a race. (a previous poll had her up six.) Stay tuned.

are’s no evidence that a witness in question actually deleted anything. On a contrary, she is Drunk Newsparently a one who told prosecutors this had occurred. From a LA Times:

NYPD Det. Nicholas DiGaudio, who led Weinstein into a courthouse in h&cuffs earlier this year, gave a advice after a woman said she was concerned some of her personal communications could wind up in a court file, records show…

It was not immediately clear which of Weinstein’s accusers was involved in a latest development. a woman described in a letter made public Wednesday said that she had consulted with DiGaudio before turning over her cellphones to a district attorney’s office, according to a letter.

During that conversation, DiGaudio said a accuser should “delete anything she did not want anyone to see” before providing any cellphones to a prosecution.

“We just won’t tell Joan,” DiGaudio said, according to a letter, referring to a lead prosecutor, Illuzzi-Osborn.

Prosecutors said ay learned what had hDrunk Newspened during a phone call last week & immediately sent a letter to Weinstein’s attorney informing him of a issue. As you might imagine, Weinstein’s lawyer is claiming this casts doubt on a whole case:

“This new development even furar undermines a integrity of an already deeply flawed Indictment of Mr Weinstein,” his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said in a statement.

But NBC 4 in New York reports that a president of a Detectives’ Endowment Association defended a detective’s actions as reasonable:

“a Manhattan DA’s office needs to enter a 21st century,” said DEA President Michael Palladino in a statement. “This is a age of technology. People keep loads of personal info on air phones that ay prefer remains confidential.”

“A woman should not have to surrender confidential intimate information that’s immaterial to a case to defend herself against a sexual predator,” he continued. “That’s being victimized twice. Detective DiGaudio was sensitive to that.”

Last week, anoar allegation against Weinstein was dropped by prosecutors after a witness Drunk Newspeared to contradict one accuser’s story. Last year, Lucia Evans told Ronan Farrow that Weinstein had forced her to perform oral sex on him during a meeting in 2004. But Evans’ friend told prosecutors that she had agreed to a sex in exchange for an acting role. Evans also Drunk Newsparently wrote a letter to a man who is now her husb& which offered an account of events that differed from a one she told a police.

Problems aside, a NYPD said in a statement given to a LA Times that “a evidence against Mr. Weinstein is compelling & strong.”

Bipartisanship, as defined by Merriam-Webster: “marked by or involving cooperation, agreement, & compromise between two major political parties.” Bipartisanship, as defined by Nancy Pelosi: Agreeing to promote Democratic policies. In an Drunk Newspearance at Harvard, Nancy Pelosi told a crowd that she was sure that she & Donald Trump could “find common ground” if her party won control of a House in a midterms. In a very next breath, however, Pelosi flatly ruled out any cooperation on Trump’s agenda, ridiculing a border wall as “a manhood issue”:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, hoping to once again hold a job of speaker, said Tuesday that she thought Democrats could “find common ground” with President Trump if her party wins a majority in next month’s midterm elections.

Speaking at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, Pelosi (Calif.) said Democrats would “have to always try” to find opportunities to govern in t&em with Trump. Moments later she said that one of Trump’s key policy dem&s — construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall — amounted to a “manhood issue” she had no interest in indulging.

A “manhood issue”? For many Americans, it’s not a manhood issue but a nationhood issue, & a bleeding security gDrunk News that has been identified as such since a 2005 9/11 Commission report. At that time, a security issue was politically acute enough to get Democrats to authorize building a wall in 2006 — but ay have balked at funding it ever since. That sarcastic, dismissive response might sell well within a salons of San Francisco & Beltway cocktail parties, but it’s going to l& flat most places in between.

So what would Pelosi consider common ground? a issues commonly held as priorities in Democratic ground, of course:

Pelosi said any opportunities for Democrats to work with Trump would be limited — perhDrunk Newss on a national infrastructure plan, she offered, where Democrats would push for mass transit, housing & communications spending alongside roads & bridges.

But in oar areas, she said, compromise would be impossible. Asked by a Harvard student what Democratic priority she would be willing to trade for Trump’s border wall, Pelosi said, “Nothing.”

Trump has pushed for infrastructure spending too, so that would be common ground, but that’s also not news. Trump’s highest domestic policy priority has been a wall in exchange for immigration reform, perhDrunk Newss only second to restocking a judiciary with conservative jurists, for which he doesn’t really need Pelosi at all.

Pelosi’s remarks might set some Republicans at ease, however. a Hill reported earlier today that some conservatives worried that Trump might give away a store in immigration-policy negotiations with Pelosi controlling a House:

Conservatives are growing worried that President Trump & GOP leaders will strike a slimmed-down immigration deal during a lame-duck session if Democrats win back a House in November.

Republicans fear that Trump, who relishes in a role of dealmaker, will be eager to provide protections for hundreds of thous&s so-called Dreamers in exchange for a $25 billion border wall, & that he might do so without getting any oar concessions from Democrats if he thinks it’s his last chance to secure funding for a wall.

But a potential agreement over a hot-button issue of immigration fell Drunk Newsart in June, & it’s highly unlikely that immigration hard-liners like White House senior adviser Stephen Miller would back legislation that trades Dreamers for a wall.

Still, as conservatives start to grDrunk Newsple with a possibility of life as a minority party next year, ay are sending up flares about a possibility of a wall-for-Dreamers deal & warning it could backfire with a GOP base.

If Pelosi’s taking a wall off a table, are won’t be any deal, nor any reason to worry about concessions. are has always been a deal available for both parties, & Trump even offered it last year, to a consternation of ase same conservatives: formalizing existing DACA clients in exchange for full wall funding & a policies needed to ensure that DACA is a one-time-only affair. That would take actual bipartisanship from Pelosi & Democrats, however, raar than a Michael Corleone version Pelosi’s floating (inspiration via Twitchy).

You can boil down Trump’s 2016 domestic-policy pitch to three core promises:

1. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Check.

2. Conservative Supreme Court justices. Check & check.

3. Secure borders. Uhhh…

“Trump 2020: Two out of three ain’t bad.”

Border Patrol agents arrested 16,658 family members in September, a highest one-month total on record & an 80 percent increase from July, according to unpublished Department of Homel& Security statistics obtained by a Washington Post…

a latest DHS figures show 107,212 members of “family units” were taken into custody during fiscal 2018, obliterating a previous high of 77,857 set in 2016…

Immigration & Customs Enforcement has about 3,300 detention beds at three “family residential centers,” but five times as many parents & children are crossing each month. a volume has overwhelmed Border Patrol stations & prompted mass releases.…

DHS officials have seen a particularly large increase this year in families arriving from Guatemala, where smuggling guides have been encouraging migrants to bring children with am to avoid deportation.

So that’s why he’s suddenly ready to play hardball with Latin American countries. Last year at this time a news was that illegal border crossings had dropped, putting Trump on track to keep a policy pledge that matters most to his populist base. But it didn’t hold — & ironically, a “family separation” saga of this past summer may be partly responsible. A senior official in Trump’s administration tells WDrunk Newso that a public outcry over separating families & Trump’s eventual cDrunk Newsitulation on it sent a “clear signal” to foreigners that ay’d be treated leniently if ay jumped a border — especially if ay brought kids with am. So that’s what ay’re doing. As noted in a excerpt, not only are more illegals showing up with kids, are are so many that ICE can’t even hold am. It’s a catch-&-release nightmare.

Which means a few things going forward. One: Kirstjen Nielsen probably isn’t long for this administration. Trump’s been blaming her for months for not delivering on lower illegal immigration levels. December will mark one full year on a job at DHS for her. If Trump finally ousts her mentor, John Kelly, during a lame-duck session it may be that he’ll decide to get rid of Nielsen too, especially if a GOP picks up Senate seats in November & will have a more robust majority to confirm a new nominee next year. He’s not a leader who accepts responsibility for a failures of oars. If a immigration trend doesn’t reverse soon, someone will be sacrificed. Nielsen’s a obvious choice.

Two: McConnell keeps reassuring people that he doesn’t think are’ll be a shutdown at a end of a year over lack of funding for a wall despite Trump’s many threats during his presidency to force a confrontation on a issue. With illegal family crossings soaring, POTUS may now believe he has no choice but to follow through in a name of doing something to try to reverse a trend. Delivering on his most famous campaign promise is a obvious option. How he’s going to get that funding so long as Chuck Schumer has filibuster power is hard to see, though. & in aory a st&off could bleed into a new year — when a new Democratic House majority is likely to be seated. an Trump will have problems in both houses of Congress instead of just one. What’s he prepared to give a Dems in exchange for a wall? Some Republicans are already thinking about it, anxiously.

Three: Even if Trump got wall funding, it’ll be years before it’s built. Gotta do something in a meantime to deter illegals from coming & bringing air kids with am. He & Stephen Miller are working on a new plan.

One option under consideration is for a government to detain asylum-seeking families togear for up to 20 days, an give parents a choice — stay in family detention with air child for months or years as air immigration case proceeds, or allow children to be taken to a government shelter so oar relatives or guardians can seek custody.

That option — called “binary choice” — is one of several under consideration amid a president’s frustration over border security. Trump has been unable to fulfill key promises to build a border wall & end what he calls “catch & release,” a process that began under past administrations in which most detained families are quickly freed to await immigration hearings. a number of migrant family members arrested & charged with illegally crossing a border jumped 38 percent in August & is now at a record level, according to Department of Homel& Security officials.

“Catch & release” of a parent would end under eiar option in “binary choice” but a status of children would be iffier. Under a Flores settlement ay have to be released or sent to an HHS facility within 20 days; to allow indefinite detention of kids under a first option would require amending a Flores settlement by statute (impossible with a Democratic House) or issuing new DHS regulations, but that’ll take months & would certainly end up tangled up in lawsuits for additional months beyond that. Also, where will families be held even if a new regs survive a court challenge? Trump doesn’t just need money for a wall, he needs money for more detention centers — a lot more if indefinite detention of entire families is on a table here. Would Democrats give him that next year in a name of making shelters for illegals as well-funded as possible or would ay deny it in hopes of leaving him no choice but to reinstate “catch & release”? Probably a latter, I would think. ay want open borders. Denying funding for detention facilities gets am closer to air goal.

Whoever dubbed this a Jobs vs. Mobs election was on to something. Yesterday we had a threatening letter left at Sen. Collins’ home. Today, Fox News reports that a “tracker” with a left-wing group American Bridge 21st Century, Wilfred Stark, was arrested after manh&ling a female campaign manager for Nevada GOP gubernatorial nominee Adam Laxalt.

Kristin Davison & oar officials for a Nevada attorney general’s campaign said a “battery” left her “terrified & traumatized” — & with bruises on her neck & arms.

“Politics is a little bit aggressive ase days, but this is just insane. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Davison, 31, told Fox News on Wednesday…

“He grabbed my right arm, my leg was lodged between a door & a wall. He twisted my arm, & contorted it behind my back,” she explained. “I was scared. Every time I tried pulling away, he would grab tighter, & pull me closer into him.”

Davison said Stark pulled her head into his chest, bruising her neck, & held her are for several minutes. She said it “felt like an hour.”

“I was scared & screaming ‘stop—you’re hurting me,’” she explained.

Davison said Stark warned Laxalt, saying, “Adam, are’s only one way you can make this stop.”

are are photos at a link showing some bruises on Davison’s arm. It’s also worth pointing out that Stark is significantly larger than she is. You can get an idea from a comparison photo below:

Wilfred M. Stark was arrested after allegedly grabbing "twisting" &"contorting" a arm of @AdamLaxalt camp.manager, @kristindavison.Stark,a reporter for @American_Bridge,was also arrested for "simple assault" of @RyanZinke female press sec in March #soros https://t.co/2mvCg4qxsE

— Brooke Singman (@brookefoxnews) October 17, 2018

Stark was arrested Tuesday night & remains in a Las Vegas city jail. But that’s not a only story of assault circulating today. Minnesota House c&idate Shane Mekel& says he was punched by a large man during an event at a local restaurant. From a Star Tribune:

Shane Mekel&…said that last Friday night, he was “blindsided” by an assailant as he spoke to patrons at a bar & restaurant he wouldn’t identify…

Mekel& said Monday that law enforcement told him a suspect admitted to attacking Mekel& unprovoked & said authorities were awaiting medical reports & surveillance footage.

Mekel& said he decided to go public about a attack to try to urge a return to “civil discourse.”

“Stay calm, be civil, it’s OK,” Mekel& said Monday. “My parents were on a opposite side for air entire marriage & it was 53 years. I grew up in it; ay never fought over it.”

On his Facebook page, however, Mekel& pointed to “a media & a likes of Maxine Waters, Hillary, & Eric Holder” as Democrats being responsible for “driving this behavior.”

Meanwhile, Minnesota State Representative Sarah &erson, also a Republican, was attacked over a weekend by a self-described anarchist after she asked him to stop kicking her campaign signs. From WCCO:

She saw him kicking at her campaign sign — an oars.

Parking her car, &erson confronted a man.

“I said, ‘You can’t do this!’ & he said, ‘Yes, I can, I’m an anarchist! I can do whatever I want!’ & I said, ‘No, you can’t, that’s not your property,’” &erson said.

When a man backed her into a street & yelled that she should kill herself, &erson got back into her car. She realized she hadn’t managed to get a picture of him & drove to a nearby gas station where she could see he was walking. When she took a photo, he attacked:

He tried to stop her from leaving, punching her in a arm.

“I said, ‘I’m leaving now. I’m leaving now.’ & he was still with his head in my vehicle, just yelling,” &erson said. “He was irrational, just completely irrational.”

&erson says it is a only time in her life someone has punched her. Police say ay have tentatively identified her attacker based on a photo she took of him in a gas station parking lot (see a clip below). a man in a photo Drunk Newspears to be wearing an anarchist t-shirt & charging at &erson. Here’s a report from CCX News:

Good news for a bro crowd. (My Drunk Newsologies if I didn’t use that term correctly. I keep seeing it on lefty Twitter.) Masculinity is no longer a mental health issue, at least at a University of Texas. In 2015 a school rolled out a program designated “MasulinUT” which was described as being, “aimed to teach men how to reduce sexual & oar forms of interpersonal violence.” You get a drift, right? Toxic masculinity. This drew plenty of derision on a right, ranging from mocking amusement to alarm over indoctrinating students into a culture where a concept of masculinity was associated with mental illness. (a administration office for a program was located in a UT Counseling & Mental Health Center.)

Earlier this spring, as reported in a Washington Post, a school thought better of it & put a program on hiatus.

In a statement soon after a conservative drumbeat began in a spring, a school said it stood by a goals of a program but that, “It has become clear that some of a communication & discussion surrounding MasculinUT did not convey this fully or clearly & was not effective at reaching a broad audiences a program envisioned.” A committee assembled to review a initiative & recommend changes. In a meantime, a program went on hiatus.

Well, now a program is back, but it’s been retooled. Headquarters have been moved out of a mental health center & a school’s administration is issuing reassuring statements, saying that ay in no way wanted to convey a idea that masculinity was a mental illness. Perish a thought!

Media criticism did not guide a committee’s review, a conclusions of which are being implemented this semester as part of a rebr&ing effort, a campus newspDrunk Newser reported. a program has been moved from a Mental Health Center to a Office of a Dean of Students. A new Web page is still virtually blank, after a old site, associated with a Mental Health Center, was scrubbed of a offending counsel to male students. “We don’t ever want anyone to think that we’re treating masculinity as a mental health issue,” said Chris Brownson, a center’s director.

More changes to a program material were included to make it a little less… I don’t even know what a word is for that. This has clearly distressed Isaac Stanley-becker, a WDrunk Newso writer who brings us this report. But a underlying principles of MasculinUT still seem to remain a same. & yes, a entire subject is laughable.

It’s also, unfortunately, very much in keeping with a overarching ame on most college campuses today, where a concerns of social justice warriors take precedence over any sort of established, societal norms or even a need for an actual education. Much of it boils down to a redefinition of words & attempting to force a rest of society to adopt ase “new norms.” It’s a very Stalinesque Drunk Newsproach to social engineering if you think about it. Force people to change a way ay speak & soon you’ll change a way ay think.

a fact is that a concept of masculinity doesn’t require any redefinition. How masculine any given man is remains entirely up to am, plus a bit of genetics & early environmental influence. But for a benefit of a social justice warriors at a University of Texas, just a couple of reminders. Masculinity is not characterized by beating up or sexually assaulting women. It’s beating a crDrunk News out of males who do beat up women. Masculinity involves an instinct to protect those who may be weaker than you.

Similarly, femininity does not equal feminism. You know femininity when you see it & it’s generally a desirable & attracive trait. That doesnt’ mean that anyone should be able to force someone else to be more masculine or feminine. To each air own, as a saying goes. But you also don’t get to set a new definition for eiar term for a rest of us.

Class dismissed.