SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

GREAT BREAKTHROUGH IN EDUCATION – FROM DAILYWIRE:   A university in the United Kingdom is so concerned about the fragile egos of its students that it has banned lecturers from using capital letters when assigning work.  Leeds Trinity released a memo to its staff regarding their students in which the university stated that uppercase letters might “scare them into failure.” In addition to that ruling, the memo also instructed the teachers to make sure their writing was friendly and eschewed overbearing and negative language.  The memo stated, “"Despite our best attempts to explain assessment tasks, any lack of clarity can generate anxiety and even discourage students from attempting the assessment at all. Generally, avoid using capital letters for emphasis and "the overuse of 'do', and, especially, 'DON'T'."  Historians 500 years from now will look at documents like this as examples of the mentality that destroyed Western civilization.

SAD – FROM THE HILL:  Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams (D) defeated incumbent GOP Rep. Mia Love by fewer than 700 votes in a hotly contested race for Utah’s 4th Congressional District, turning the district blue for the first time in six years.  The race had been initially too close to call, with both McAdams and Love at different points taking a slight edge over each other. In the end, the Associated Press called the race for the Democrat on Nov. 20.  Polls had showed McAdams with a slight edge over Love, with Sabato's Crystal Ball shifting her race from a “toss-up” to “leans Democrat” just days before the election.  Love had faced an uphill battle in the district, where President Trump's approval rating has been underwater amid a midterm election that has been widely framed as a referendum on the president.  Mia Love is talented, an African-American Republican in a very white state.  I hope she stays in politics. 

SHRINKING OF AN INDUSTRY – FROM HOT AIR:  Contrary to suggestions of a slow-down, the number of Americans severing their ties to cable and satellite TV soared to the largest number ever during the third quarter this year.  For the first time satellite and cable TV providers lost more than a million subscribers from July through September this year. To be exact, they lost 1.1 million customers. Which is a lot of of monthly fees gone poof!  Dish TV lost 367,000 satellite subscribers in the third quarter compared to gaining 16,000 in the previous third quarter. It added only 26,000 new ones to its Sling service this time.
In a financial report AT&T said DirecTV lost 359,600 satellite subscribers during the quarter, while adding only 49,000 new subscribers to DirecTV Now, its streaming TV service...“Cord cutting does not appear to be slowing at all,” according to MoffetNathanson, a media and telecommunications research firm.  Technology advances and devours the technology it replaces.

November 20, 2018