November 8, 2016

“The most disturbing lesson about this election is that the United States is a good deal less open to women in positions of power than it would like to pretend that it is.” Malcom Gladwell tells fellow Canadians about sexism and elitism in America. / The National

“While everyone I met voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, none plan to vote for the Democratic party in 2016. They believe that the president and the party have failed them. ‘We saw him as the first Native in office, in some ways, because he seemed to really listen to us, but now he won’t even get involved.’” The Dakota Access fiasco is costing Democrats a key constituency in red states: Native Americans. / The New Inquiry

“It’s certainly instructive to look across the Atlantic at the increasingly spiteful and vulgar Presidential election in America—a race to the bottom in which, over a matter of weeks, one of two deeply divisive individuals will be elected Head of State. Who could sensibly want to replace what we here enjoy with such a system?” The Brits still think they’re better than us. / Spalding Today

“The folly of the masses has replaced the wisdom of crowds as the dominant theme in polite discourse... All that really remains of liberalism is fear of the future.” John Gray diagnoses us as post-liberal, and reminds us that the middle class has thrown in with despots as often as with democracy. / New Statesman

On Sunday, the weekend before the election, the New York Times decided to give op-ed space to the chancellor of the International League of Monarchists—a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy and a UKIP candidate—to cite Edward Gibbon and implore America to give up the vote. / The New York Times

Hereditary rule wasn’t exactly on the agenda at the framing of the Constitution. Then again, politics have always been a family affair in the US: half the first Congress served alongside a close relative. / econ.brown.edu

Would a CEO of America be more like a monarch or a president? You can get rid of them, but their power is closer to absolute. Let’s hope we don’t have to find out how this harebrained Silicon Valley fetish for total corporate despotism would qualify. / thebaffler.com

In case you need to stick your head in the sand and stream away Election Day—after voting, of course—we suggest The Crown, new on Netflix. / netflix.com

A quick tutorial on some of the ways in which the democratic process can go wrong. / YouTube

Completely unrelated to the election: artful log stacking. / Wimp.com

You voted? Can’t focus on work? Need something to accompany that fourth cup of coffee?

1. The end of marijuana prohibition is necessary and inevitable, but that doesn’t mean voters should approve any/all pro-cannabis legislation. / Slate

2. Gisele fact-checks Trump’s claim that Tom Brady voted for him. / The Washington Post

3. Why some conservative intellects broke from Trump and not others is linked to the East Coast-West Coast feud in right-wing thought. / Politico

4. America’s democracy is strong enough to withstand the risk of fascism—but liberal society is not immutable. / The Economist

5. Oh look: butt cupcakes. / YouTube

“I’ve stood on sea ice, and I feel like when I’m standing on it, I occupy about a square meter of sea ice. To imagine my personal use of fossil fuels is causing about 50 or so square meters to disappear each year… it was very profound.” Ice, ice, maybe: Americans are each responsible for the loss of 645 square feet of Arctic ice per year. Even with current climate targets, the Arctic ice sheets will be gone in three decades. / The Atlantic

How to make the Nasty Woman: An election night cocktail. See also: Life lessons from Sasha Petraske’s posthumously released book Regarding Cocktails. / saveur.com

“California has over a quarter of the country’s death-row population, but the state hasn’t executed anyone since 2006.” Death on the ballot: 538’s Oliver Roeder on the ballot measures to watch if you care about the death penalty, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s upcoming schedule. / 538

Cute or cause for despair? Calculate your share of today’s vote. / iamgreaterthanzero.com

“All this frivolous debate underscores the ouroborosian nature of web discourse in 2016. Because who cares, really? How often do you even need to say ‘read receipts’ aloud?” Adrienne LaFrance on the state of language and pronunciation on the internet. / The Atlantic

“Facebook needs to embrace its status as a major media company and find ways to improve the average quality of the news stories it recommends to its users.” Facebook is bad for politics and for readers. It provides journalists with perverse incentives and readers with an inferior product. It should rewrite clickbait headlines, hire better editors, and make the algorithm more transparent. / Vox

Oof, this Election Day has us dizzy! So here’s a beautiful little movie about a fisherman, by Roger Gómez and Dani Resines. / Vimeo

“Leading up to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announcement, his inner circle was arguing about whether it needed balloons, models and even a live elephant.” So begins a “Trump insider”-sourced view into the garish spectacle that kicked off Trump’s efforts to push America into chaos. / Yahoo! News

Wearing white is all the rage today. Even Lady Gaga is getting in on it. Here are some photos of “badass” suffragettes in American history. / Quartz, bustle.com, BuzzFeed

In case you also plan to spend Election Day in bed anxiously refreshing webpages until you throw your computer across the room and cower under the blankets, here’s a disparate group of liveblogs so you can switch things up throughout the day:

The live blog at Quartz, the business site for snake people, has things like “how will the election affect global currency markets” and “how are the candidates trading on UK gambling exchanges” covered. / Quartz

Slate appears to be going with a “just-the-news-ma’am” approach, but it shouldn’t be too long until the ghost of Matt Yglesias pops up to comment that actually, voter suppression is good. (We will not be linking to Vox’s liveblog.) / Slate

Leafly is tracking the five states set to make major decisions on medical or legal cannabis tonight. / leafly.com

The Root’s staff asks you to join them as they “make fart noises and throw toilet paper over this entire travesty of an election cycle.” / The Root

For those interested in just how fucked-up and broken our voting system is, ProPublica, Reveal, BuzzFeed, and Bellingcat are all taking different approaches to tackling Election Day mishaps and hoaxes with their liveblogs. / ProPublica, revealnews.org, BuzzFeed, bellingcat.com

African culture site Okayafrica will be covering the diaspora’s take. / okayafrica.com

For self-indulgent journalists, MediaShift’s liveblog promises to provide “tidbits about how the media is covering the historic day online and on social media.” / mediashift.org

Most importantly, at 7:30 Eastern Time, Cafe will be demolishing a Donald Trump piñata on its Snapchat, which is like a liveblog but for nudes. / cafe.com, snapchat.com