We shouldn’t necessarily believe the polling, [Trump’s] arguing, because Americans who intend to vote for Trump are too embarrassed to admit it when asked for their preference in surveys. Once you account for the fact that Trump supporters feel a sense of shame, and don’t want to acknowledge their true beliefs to pollsters, maybe he’s doing far better than the data suggests.

Is there anything to this? I doubt it – there was some chatter about this during the GOP primaries, but the polls tended to be pretty accurate – though it says quite a bit about Trump’s candidacy that he’s been reduced to reassuring partisans by telling them that he has secret supporters who don’t want to admit they’re voting for him.

[L]egal scholars are deeply dismayed by Trump’s suggestion in February that if he wins in November he intends to “open up our libel laws, so that if they [the press] write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money”.

“If you open up the libel laws, the first person who would be sued is Donald Trump,” said Richard Epstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago who is highly regarded in conservative legal circles. “He makes false and malicious statements about public and private people … I regard him as semi-hysterical and self-righteous [and] utterly unfit to be president of the United States.”

There’s every reason to think that Trump can pull off the near-impossible task of losing by more than 10 percent and possibly by much more. Moreover, as he continues to feud with members of his own party, he’ll drive down the value of the Republican brand so the party could end up losing both the Senate and the House. If he manages this feat, Trump will truly have left his mark on American politics.

Even [Paul] Ryan, who has endorsed Trump despite criticizing his behavior, joked during his presentation on Friday that in a recent conversation with magician David Copperfield, he said that he wished he could make himself disappear.

[A New York City public swimming pool is] unmoored from the laws of New York City and the Constitution, and commonly held principles of fairness and equal access… Orthodox Jewish beliefs demand modesty in dress, and a strict separation of the sexes, and those are the beliefs to which the taxpayer-owned-and-operated Metropolitan Recreation Center will yield [in mandating sex-segregated swimming hours].

[The city cannot let stand this] religious intrusion into a secular space. [The city should] immediately end religious segregation in the pools…

Let those who cannot abide public, secular rules at a public, secular pool find their own private place to swim…

Bravo, New York Times.

Andrew Sullivan answers the Should we start freaking out? question.

… by choosing a fanatic as his running mate.

… her sister.

Will perform “Franziska” Liebkind in upcoming West End production of the The Producers.

Compulsory woman-covering for our crew landing in Tehran.

Air France. Relax, sit back, and enjoy the flight.

***************

UPDATE: Haha, just kidding, gals! If some of you prefer not to be forced to cover your head and body when walking around outside (and what an odd preference! but okay…), then you don’t have to fly to Tehran. Okay? Satisfied?

Sheesh. What next.

A wee bird cam’ to his platform, he warbled sweet and early
And aye the o’ercam’ o’ his sang: They’re votin’ for Ol’ Bernie.
And when they heard the wee bird sing, applause cam’ thunderin’ cheerly
They took their bonnets aff their heids, and whistled for Ol’ Bernie.

.. Heidi/Ho dispute raging between our next presidents. There’s nothing like men for a catfight, and these two cats…!

Already dark rumors begin to surface of rad-rectitudinous Ted having strayed… And if you think UD is not champing at the bit to watch the Ted Cruz version of this, you have not been reading this blog with care. Dear Lord, bring it on.

****************

And don’t forget to bring guns!

Well, yes, there was a seven-foot high screen keeping me and my sisters away from the men… But if it weren’t there, our London School of Economics brothers would rape and ravish us and that wouldn’t be lovely, would it? I mean, for us. For the sisters hidden behind the curtain. That wouldn’t be lovely.

I thought it was a very tasteful way of keeping them from raping us. I so look forward to next year’s dinner. Maybe place the curtain a tad higher and put more layers of clothing on us.

Rob Ford, 1969 -2016

********************

Yet weep not:

What though the sea with waves continuall
Doe eate the earth, it is no more at all…
Nor is the earth the lesse or loseth aught,
For whatsoever from one place doth fall,
Is with the tide unto another brought…
For there is nothing lost, but may be found, if sought…

*********************

Do not allow yourself with grief to slump…
The blesséd tide hath brought us Donald Trump.

How they learned to stop worrying and love Donald Trump.

… but you have to admit that, given the context, it’s pretty brilliant.

MP Amna Nosseir, professor of comparative jurisprudence at [Egypt’s] Al-Azhar University, who has backed [a niqab] ban, said that wearing the [full face] veil is not a requirement of Islam and in fact has non-Islamic origins. She has argued that it is a Jewish tradition…

Whatever works.