SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

COLLEGE MADNESS – FROM PJ MEDIA:  Many left-leaning students at the University of Washington-Seattle harbor feelings that Republicans and conservatives are "evil," "inhuman," or "not even a person," according to a new study led by a team of UW psychology professors.  The study, "Improving Relations among Conservatives and Liberals on a College Campus," set out to do just that: bring students from opposing sides of the political divide together in an honest attempt to cultivate empathy and understanding.  The results, published November 10 in the Journal of Contextual Behavioural Science, should raise worry for any parent with a conservative kid in college.  "Here at UW, we're a predominantly liberal campus," said Jonathan Kantor, a professor at UW and the study’s lead researcher, on Tuesday.
"But we have a decent number of students who come from small towns or rural places who are feeling politically marginalized and isolated. That's problematic," Kantor told PJ Media by phone when asked what inspired his research.  It's good to see that there are some scholars who agree that bigotry toward conservatives is problematic.  It's a start, with a long way to go.

VIRTUE SIGNALING GONE WILD – FROM FOX:  Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) joined migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, on Saturday and blasted President Trump for creating a "humanitarian crisis" at the border.
Jayapal, first vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, met with migrants who are seeking asylum in the United States. She told Politico on Friday that Trump is "lying about this caravan."  "He’s trying to use people who are seeking asylum and literally running from death just for his own political benefit and that’s a disgrace," she told the outlet.  In a video posted to Jayapal's Twitter page, she stated that there needs to be a way to process asylum-seeking migrants quickly and called the situation "a humanitarian crisis of Donald Trump's making."  She's a far leftist, a socialist from Seattle, where socialism is all the rage.  But you may be sure the mainstream media will take her seriously.

TROUBLES OF THE NFL – FROM BLOOMBERG:   (Bloomberg) -- For the TV industry, this National Football League season has brought good news and bad news.  The good: Ratings for professional football -- the most valuable type of TV programming -- are up 5 percent compared with last year. NFL broadcasts are averaging 15.8 million viewers this season, boosted by record-high scoring and more competitive games.
The problem is, advertisers typically buy commercial time before the season starts and negotiate ad prices based on ratings from the previous year, and last year’s ratings were down 10 percent from 2016-17. As a result, ad revenue for NFL broadcasters like CBS Corp., Comcast Corp.’s NBC, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and 21st Century Fox Inc. fell 19 percent in the first two months of the season, according to Standard Media Index.  “The effects of the lower audiences last year are spilling into this season,” said James Fennessy, chief executive officer of the advertising research firm.  If this year’s NFL ratings increase holds through the end of the season, however, it could mean those TV networks will see a bump in advertising revenue next season.   I suspect the real reason for the audience increase is the fading of the "take a knee" controversy of last year.  But the NFL handles crises badly, and the league's image is tarnished.  One more round of bad publicity could be devastating.  Football, in part because of concern over serious industries, has lost a part of its luster.

December 2,  2018