"And let's just be really honest. The Democratic Party in the weeks leading up to this election? Deeply unpopular."

"Our polling showed only 28% of voters were satisfied with the party. My colleague put it this way, the only people less popular than President Trump are Democrats. So did you win this election? Or did he lose it and you were just a receptacle and all these candidates you recruited were a receptacle for the fury?"

Said the NYT interviewer, Michael Barbaro, talking to Chuck Schumer on today's episode of "The Daily," "Chuck Schumer on Governing With (Or Without) Trump" (audio with transcript at Podscribe).

Schumer's answer is, as you will have predicted, evasive. What can he say? Yeah, Michael, I'm a receptacle. I'm a trashcan, a regular spittoon, a toilet, if you will.

How insulting is it to call a human being a "receptacle" of this or that? I see that T.S. Eliot wrote: "The poet’s mind is in fact a receptacle for seizing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together."

So perhaps the Senator's mind is a receptacle to be filled up with the numberless feelings of the people — fury, etc. — and the various particles jitter about and recombine into some sort of legislative action. But what?

As with "dilettante" yesterday, I'm moved to search my blog archive for the word. Before today, it had come up 4 times — that's 4 times in 22+ years. The first 2 are quotes — from the NYT and Slate, respectively. Only ##3 and 4 are from me, and oddly enough, both name Hillary Clinton (though neither characterizes her as a receptacle. Here they are (click on the link for the context):

"He is my age. He sounded like I could have talked to him myself. He’s somebody normal, like me."

Said Tristan Waumsley, 35, of Richmond, Texas, "who voted straight Democratic at the state level for the first time in his life," quoted in "Fed Up With Politics and Struggle, Young Voters Rose Up/Young people powered Democratic candidates, joining global demands for generational change from a cohort weary of older people sitting on jobs and devouring resources" (NYT).

"He" = Talarico.

Though it felt unfamiliar to vote for Democrats, Mr. Waumsley said he was happy about his choice. But he emphasized that he was voting for the people, not the party, and that he would be watching them closely to make sure they followed through. 

"I really want to move on from what we currently have,” he said, “because what we have isn’t doing it."

A helpful graph:

Sunrise.

"Too bad the Senate has not yet approved the Sunshine Protection Act or, the I Don’t Want to Change My Clocks Anymore Act. It’s so dark outside..."

"... so early (Sunset was 5:06 P.M., and it was dark by 5:31 P.M. — Isn’t that ridiculous?). Just a few days ago it was so nice and sunny at this same time. In addition, everyone’s been running around changing their clocks all over the place. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of this prior to the Election because I didn’t want to have certain Senators lose their Race, in a landslide, but it is too bad they can’t get it done.... President DONALD J. TRUMP (at Truth Social)."

Now that the elections are over, he can concentrate on what really matters: the way it was nice and sunny a few days ago and now it's dark because the clocks reset. 

Yes, the clocks reset themselves. No one — not "everyone" — is "running around changing their clocks all over the place."

"Victories by moderates in competitive or Republican-leaning states and districts paved the way for large new Democratic majorities likely to be shaped by their priorities."

That's the subheadline for a NYT article titled "Moderate Democrats Increase Their Numbers, and Their Clout."

[T]he path to Democrats’ sweeping victory this week... was paved overwhelmingly by moderates who had spent months persuading voters in Republican-leaning states and competitive congressional districts that they could be trusted to govern and would deliver dissatisfied voters a practical alternative to President Trump.

Their success has fundamentally altered the balance of power among Democrats in Congress, handing Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the presumptive next speaker, and Senator Chuck Schumer, the would-be majority leader — both New York moderates viewed with disdain by the left — majorities built around lawmakers who campaigned not as left-wing heroes but as pragmatic populists.

"Rivera had never hiked before. He’d never been camping. For his trip across the United States, he chose the most direct route the map showed..."

"... which mostly meant walking on highway shoulders, drowning out the car traffic with his big headphones on.... 'You doing all right?' a law enforcement officer in Indiana asked. 'We got a call that you were pulling a cart and looked exhausted,' the officer continued. 'Just wanted to make sure you were all right.' 'Yeah, I’m good,' Rivera said. 'I’m walking across America.'... 'People are like, What are you doing?' Rivera said. 'What are you doing it for? When I tell them I’m walking across America — "Oh, what’s your reason?" You need to have a reason? I just want to be free. I’m just walking because I’m using my free will. That’s it.'"

From "He Felt Stuck in New York. So He Started Walking to California. A Bronx native who’d spent his whole life in the city left on foot in May" (NYT).

Here's his Instagram. Sample:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chantz Mula (@yo.mula)

Pick another protein?!

If he wins, this has to go down as one of the best political ads of all time.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 5, 2026

I made a "Scott Colom" tag, so that means I think he's going to win. But it's very close. See "A Viral Ad and a Trump Rally Visit Helped a Democrat Compete in Mississippi/Scott Colom, a Democrat, ran a viral ad and courted Republicans at a Trump rally before winning virtually the same number of votes as Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican" (NYT).

Just thinking about dreams where the umbrella is folded.

Fr. Antonio Spadaro has revealed that Pope Leo XIV introduced himself to Bob Dylan as a 'a son of St. Augustine' in reference to Dylan's song 'I Dreamed I saw Saint Augustine' https://t.co/PTfopIuE51

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) November 4, 2026

I'm struck that Bob brought his umbrella along. You'd think he'd have someone to hold it for him as he approached the Pope. He must have wanted it for its real or symbolic meaning. 

My post title refers to the only Bob Dylan song with an umbrella, "Series of Dreams (Studio Outtake — 1989)": 

Just thinking of a series of dreams

Dreams where the umbrella is folded
Into the path you are hurled
And the cards are no good that you’re holding
Unless they’re from another world

A folded umbrella may symbolize an awareness of vulnerability. You've brought the umbrella, but you have not opened it. You would never need to open it indoors. In fact, it's an old superstition: opening an umbrella indoors is bad luck.

In the song, there is bad luck, even though the umbrella is folded: "the cards are no good." For good luck, Bob is relying on the possibility that the cards are "from another world." 

Russell Brand convicted of rape.

Russell Brand is convicted of rape and sexual assault charges on allegations dating back more than 20 years. The judge said Brand would receive a prison sentence. https://t.co/5WoLOrtk6U https://t.co/XLDt4kpBAK

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 5, 2026

Someone put this montage up on X, for what it's worth.

Of course Russell Brand is guilty.
He's joking about it all here.
Narcissistic nonce. pic.twitter.com/XjnawkK0h6

— funkybanana (@funkybananaskin) November 5, 2026

The comedian was being comedic/The rapist was being rapey/The rapist was being comedic/The comedian was being rapey.

Did moderates do so well in the elections because people were getting their information from talking to A.I.?

"What if the dilettante’s perpetual movement from one thing to another is not a failure of nerve but a different and defensible way of being..."

"... one whose exploratory zeal turns out to be just what a hyper-specialised, over-optimised and all-too-serious world needs most? Then the dilettante would turn out to be not a capricious buffoon but a kind of modern anti-hero. That, I argue, is a dilettantism worth defending...."

Writes Nigel Warburton, in "In praise of the dilettante/A wayfaring cosmopolitan who never gets stuck, the dilettante is the right anti-hero for our hyper-specialised age" (Aeon).

I was moved to make a tag for "dilettante"! It seemed absurd, at first, but once I saw the old posts to which I could add it, I liked it:

1. "But 'dilettante' is one of those words which deter people from taking up new pursuits as adults."

2. "And so if what you're trying to do is micromanage and solve everything then you end up being a dilettante but you have to have enough knowledge to make good judgments about the choices that are presented to you." 

3. "One moment they are a king, the next a murderer, a jaded dilettante, a passionate and forsaken lover...." 

4. "It must gall Biden to know that his predecessor... actually installed his dilettante daughter and-son-in-law at the highest level of policymaking...."

5. "[S]he is a millionaire dilettante, despite the fact she drives a Prius and lives in a modest Madison home...."

6."The mountains are the artifice of a clever scene painter... it is as if the whole region were an album, the mountains drawn on a blank page by an adroit dilettante for the lady who owns the album...."

7. "It is precisely at times of chaos that morally informed but tough-minded triage decisions must be made, otherwise morality is simply a dilettante’s luxury and a mere intellectual puzzle for the philosophy classroom, but irrelevant on the street."

8. "He's no dilettante. He's the real deal when it comes to being a celebrity judge... He's an ardent and opinionated fan of the show.''

Wednesday morning, 6:13 a.m. — sunrise was at 6:36 — the rain made things extra dark.

"Vice President JD Vance, a potential 2028 presidential contender, broke sharply with the president in owning the failures of the administration’s policies."

That's the WaPo subheadline, under the headline "Vance blames Republicans’ midterm losses on Iran war, cost of living" (gift link).

Here, read Vance's post. It doesn't strike me as a "sharp break" from Trump. I see it as just analyzing the  substance of yesterday's big losses:

The meeting between Pope Leo and Dylan—who wore a black hooded sweatshirt—was brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges."

"The Holy Father presented the singer with a rosary, while Dylan reciprocated with a book: Chronicles: Volume One, his autobiography, which has been published in the United States and other countries around the world."

Vatican News reports.

Pope Leo XIV met with American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in a private audience on Wednesday, November 4. https://t.co/7OAJcluj0n

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) November 4, 2026

Is the Pope mentioned in "Chronicles: Volume One"? Yes

"'I will forever mourn not having a daughter... I cry about it regularly.' Brazell’s complicated feelings are part of a larger conversation about 'gender disappointment'..."

I'm reading "Bye bye boys! The provocative reason so many moms now only want girls" (NY Post).

What's the "provocative reason"? 

I think that language refers to this quote from Heidi Murkoff, author of "What to Expect When You’re Expecting": "It’s being driven by a social-media and media generated narrative about toxic masculinity that’s become pervasive and self-perpetuating, but that’s really not grounded in biological fact."

That makes little sense to me. If you're genuinely worried about "toxic masculinity," you'd be better off with a boy. 1. You'd be actively involved in the development of one man and you could try to make him nontoxic, and 2. If you have a daughter, she's likely to want a man for a partner, and if he's toxic, that will be truly painful. 

"At first, he kept his apartment and a few changes of clothes. But gradually and methodically, Greenfield embraced asceticism and dedicated himself to it full-time."

"He let go of his possessions, as well as his connections to the government and commercial society. He has no phone, car, driver’s license, passport, health insurance, property, bank accounts or credit cards. He wears biodegradable clothing and has not paid taxes or taken pharmaceuticals for more than a decade. He lives under the poverty level, and said he has no romantic or sexual attachments. He brushes his teeth with a twig.... He likens his practices to those of wandering sadhus, holy men who take vows of poverty and celibacy to pursue spiritual freedom in India....  In June, he offended a group of women in California who had picked him up in a car to look for mushrooms. He was expecting just one person, he told them curtly, announcing that he did not like surprises, recalled a woman who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is part of a tight-knit foraging community where Greenfield is revered. The difference between the mild-mannered online persona — an amalgam of Henry David Thoreau and the Dude — and the aggravated guy in the back seat was upsetting, she said."

From "He Wants to Be One With Nature. But He Can’t Quit Instagram. Once, Robin Greenfield aspired to wealth. Now, he has no home and eats from the earth. He chronicles it all on social media, but does the persona match the man?" (NYT).

I blogged about Greenfield a couple weeks ago, here, but there's different material in this NYT article and more skepticism about the man. 

Also, here's the list of 100 things Greenfield came up with back in 2020 — positive changes he wanted to make in his life — to "live free of lies and corruption." Much of it is what you might predict from a radical environmentalist, so let me — a connoisseur of travel critique — focus on the part about travel: