SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:  

THE TRUTH COMES OUT – FROM FOX:   The public editor for The New York Times said Sunday that the number of complaints the newspaper received over its coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign spiked to five times its normal level.  Complaints to the paper included claims that its coverage was biased against Trump during the general election as well as accusations from readers that it favored candidate Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries.  “My colleague Thomas Feyer, who oversees the letters to the editor, says the influx from readers is one of the largest since Sept. 11,” public editor Liz Spayd wrote.  Spayd says others are calling into customer care at multiple times the usual rate and had “a variety of concerns, including the election coverage.”  If the public inflicts enough economic pain on wayward newspapers, maybe some editors will listen.

LET THEM FOLLOW THEIR DREAM – FROM MSN:    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Supporters of a plan for California to secede from the union took their first formal step Monday morning, submitting a proposed ballot measure to the state attorney general's office in the hopes of a statewide vote as soon as 2018. Marcus Ruiz Evans, the vice president and co-founder of Yes California, said his group had been planning to wait for a later election, but the presidential election of Donald Trump sped up the timeline.  "We're doing it now because of all of the overwhelming attention," Evans said.  The Yes California group has been around for more than two years, Evans said. It is based around California taxpayers paying more money to the federal government than the state receives in spending, that Californians are culturally different from the rest of the country, and that national media and organizations routinely criticize Californians for being out of step with the rest of the U.S.  The first thing the new nation of California would do is apply for foreign aid from the United States.

GREAT LESSON IN POLITICS – FROM AFP:   Wisconsin served up one of the biggest surprises of an election day that shocked America and the world: no one thought the midwestern state would fall to the Republican billionaire.  Clinton was so sure of victory she did not even bother to campaign here after the Democratic primaries, instead sending her daughter Chelsea or her husband, former president Bill Clinton.  "She probably thought she had Wisconsin wrapped up," said Ronald Roberts, a 67 year old retiree, as he left a shop called Bill the Butcher. Its aging sign is missing the R.  "You can't take the voters for granted because they'll stay home," said Roberts, who used to work as an auto mechanic.  That is just what happened here, according to exit polls taken on November 8. Stop anyone in this part of town, where there is not a white person in sight, and they will tell you as much.  "I feel that she is no better than Trump. That's why I didn't vote," said Brittany Mays, a young woman who works in a beauty salon.  The stay-at-home Democrats, one of the great election stories of 2016.  The only poll that counts is the one on election day.

November 21,  2016