If you have followed the 2016 presidential race, you've probably heard that Donald Trump is doing much better among white voters than Latinos, Asians, and black voters — and that, demographically, this is a problem for Trump. New U.S. Census data released Thursday added 31 new counties to the list of those whose population of non-Hispanic whites is less than 50 percent, bringing the total number of majority-minority counties to 370 in 36 states as of July 2015. That's only 12 percent of the 3,142 U.S. counties in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal says, but they collectively hold a third of the U.S. population.
On BBC News, David Frum, a conservative commentator (whose resume includes a stint at The Week), points to this demographic shift, noting that 69 percent of the 2016 eligible electorate will be white, down from 78 percent in 2000, and arguing that this shift spells trouble for Trump — and not just in the obvious way. "The very strategy that helped him lock up the white voters who don't have university educations is endangering his appeal to white voters who do have university educations, especially women," Frum says:
The Donald Trump people point out he's doing very, very well with the white vote, and then they look yearningly back at the past and say, "If only we had the same electorate as we did a generation ago, then this share of the white vote would be enough to make him president." But what they don't understand is that a generation ago, his issues would not have worked — the white vote would have been more divided, because this type of appeal to white consciousness that Trump is making is only effective because of the very demographic transition that makes the appeal to white consciousness a doomed political strategy. [David Frum]
Watch Frum's argument — and the curious graphic the BBC chose to represent non-college-educated whites, plus its musical selection — below. Peter Weber
President Trump is coming to Brett Kavanaugh's defense.
During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Trump said that Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee who California professor Christine Blasey Ford claims attempted to rape her at a high school party in the 1980s, is an "incredible individual," per CBS News. Trump also said that he feels "so badly for [Kavanaugh] that he's going through this," adding that "this is not a man that deserves this." Kavanaugh has denied the allegations against him and reportedly told Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that he wasn't at the party in question.
Trump additionally criticized Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), who in July received a letter Ford wrote detailing her allegation; the president asked why Feinstein did not bring the matter up earlier, in her meetings with Kavanaugh. Ford has said she requested anonymity from Feinstein and only decided to come forward with her story this weekend after the media began to report on her confidential letter.
Prior to Tuesday's news conference, Trump had been uncharacteristically quiet about the Kavanaugh allegation, having yet to send a single tweet about it. He did, however, say earlier Tuesday that while he hasn't spoken to Kavanaugh, "I'm totally supportive, I'm very supportive," per CNBC. On Monday, he said that Kavanaugh was "one of the finest people that I've ever known," while saying that "we want to go through a process" regarding the allegation. Watch Trump's Tuesday comments below. Brendan Morrow
President Trump says he feels "so badly" for Brett Kavanaugh after the Supreme Court nominee has been accused of sexual assault. "This is not a man that deserves this" https://t.co/LXL6s6ZBIN pic.twitter.com/ypgnYUf7cm
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 18, 2018
Once again, Netflix has given the people a much-desired revival. This time, the streaming service is working on a live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Netflix announced Tuesday it will adapt Avatar alongside its original creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino. The series is set to go into production in 2019 and will be produced in partnership with Nickelodeon, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Avatar: The Last Airbender first premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005 and subsequently went on to win both Emmy and Peabody Awards. The animated series follows a young boy named Aang as he tries to master control of the four elements — earth, air, fire, and water — and bring together four nations of warriors to take on an oppressive villain, all with the help of his friends.
In a press release, the creators revealed that they're thrilled to bring the world of Avatar back to life. "We can't wait to realize Aang's world as cinematically as we always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone's great work on the original animated series and go even deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building," Konietzko and DiMartino said.
In 2010, M. Night Shyamalan directed a live-action Avatar film that was promptly panned. But Netflix says it's committed to honoring the creators' vision, so hopefully the new adaptation will, as General Iroh once told Aang, "come to a better place." Read more at The Hollywood Reporter. Amari Pollard
As Spock once said, "In critical moments, men sometimes see exactly what they wish to see." But a new scientific discovery may be more than just wishful interpretation.
Researchers have discovered a planet that matches the description of Planet Vulcan, Spock's home planet, that Star Trek's original creator Gene Roddenberry gave almost 20 years ago. Of course, it's not the exact same planet from the fictional franchise, but it is a real-life rock with very Vulcan-like properties.
In collaboration with astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Roddenberry declared back in 1991 that if Vulcan really existed, it would likely orbit the real-life star 40 Eridani A, Science reported. Because 40 Eridani A is a few billion years old, Roddenberry theorized that a planet orbiting that star would have had enough time to develop a civilization as advanced as the Vulcans. 40 Eridani A is an orange dwarf about 16 light years away from Earth, and it is sometimes visible in the night sky.
Now, the Dharma Planet Survey, which is a widespread effort to catalogue planets in star systems near to our own, has found a planet orbiting 40 Eridani A — right where Vulcan would be. The planet, officially dubbed HD 26965b, is about twice the size of Earth and has a year that lasts only 42 days, Space explained.
The Dharma Planet Survey's findings are due to be published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in October. Read more about our new "Planet Vulcan" at Space. Shivani Ishwar
Facebook may offer users unlimited gender options, but choosing anything other than "male" may have cost them a job.
That's what three female Facebook users found when looking for work on the social network, a new complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday alleges. The complaint is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Communication Workers of America and could be the first step toward a lawsuit against Facebook.
Screenshots attached to the EEOC complaint show how Facebook lets advertisers target their messages to "single dads," "soccer moms," and a variety of other gender-based interests. The female complainants also attached screenshots showing, when they clicked "Why am I seeing this?" on an ad, that the employers "wanted to reach men ages 21 to 50" or another specific demographic. The complaint specifically cites 10 employers found to have tailored their ads to a certain age and gender. Meanwhile, gender-based ads were outlawed in newspapers decades ago, the ACLU noted in a blog post.
Past investigations found advertisers could tailor ads to people of a specific race or sexual orientation, and Facebook subsequently shut down those targeting options. Still, gender- and age-based targeting persists, the ACLU maintains. And if this EEOC complaint doesn't convince Facebook to clean up its gender-biased act, USA Today suggests the company could face a lawsuit. Kathryn Krawczyk
Some Republicans have been growing anxious that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) might be in danger of losing his re-election campaign to rising Democratic star Rep. Beto O'Rourke. But a new poll of the Texas Senate race may ease their concerns.
Quinnipiac University found in a poll released Tuesday that among likely voters in the race, Cruz leads O'Rourke 54 percent to 45 percent. Previous polls had shown O'Rourke closing in on the incumbent senator, with Cruz having a perilously small 1-point advantage in an Emerson poll conducted in August. But as ABC News reporter Adam Kelsey points out, Emerson polled all registered voters while Tuesday's Quinnipiac survey is among likely voters specifically. Quinnipiac additionally found that 93 percent of respondents had already made up their minds about the election.
Per Real Clear Politics, Cruz's 9-point lead in the Quinnipiac poll is his best showing since June, when he scored a 10-point advantage over his Democratic opponent in a survey from CBS News/YouGov.
The Quinnipiac poll was conducted by speaking to 807 likely voters over the phone from Sept. 11 - 17. It has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. Read the full results here. Brendan Morrow
During the opening monologue of the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, comedian Colin Jost quipped that the audience watching at home consisted of merely "hundreds" of people. He was exaggerating — but not by as much as host network NBC would have hoped.
Per Nielsen, the company that measures television ratings, approximately 10.2 million people watched the 2018 Emmys, Deadline reports. That's over 1 million fewer viewers than watched in 2017, when 11.4 million people tuned in, per Variety. Indeed, 10.2 million is yet another new low for the television awards show; the 2016 ceremony drew what was then the smallest audience of all time with 11.3 million viewers, Variety reports, but that seems downright massive compared to 2018's dismal showing.
Lest one assume the ratings drop was simply because the show was on a Monday this year rather than a Sunday, the Emmys were also held on a Monday in 2014 — and that show scored 15.6 million viewers, Deadline reported at the time.
Instead, television ratings have just been in steady decline across the board as consumers cut cable and grow disinterested in live events like awards shows. But as The Wrap points out, there's a silver lining: By dropping about 11 percent, this year's Emmys at least didn't see as sharp a ratings dip as the 2018 Oscars, which experienced a decline of 16 percent in 2018. So that's something. Brendan Morrow
For companies looking for flexible office space in Manhattan, WeWork just seems to work.
The coworking company now officially occupies the most space in Manhattan, The Wall Street Journal reports, surpassing JPMorgan Chase for the record. WeWork now rents 5.3 million square feet throughout the borough, edging out JPMorgan Chase's occupation of 5.2 million square feet — a development that reveals how flexible leases are undermining traditional real estate.
Because WeWork rents out large office blocks and divides them up among tenants, it can offer smaller spaces and shorter leases than a normal landlord. These flexible plans, paired with attractive amenities like lounges and beer on tap, originally attracted small startups. But even big firms such as Amazon and Verizon have hopped on the coworking train, driving WeWork's recent growth, the Journal points out.
This freedom comes with a price. Square footage in a coworking spot often costs double or triple what a traditional office does, and flex-space companies pack about three desks into the space typical offices usually reserve for one, the Journal says.
Still, growing interest in flex-space spots has led WeWork and its peers to dominate 9.7 percent of new Manhattan leases so far in 2018. The same companies only made up 3.3 percent of leases in 2017, per the Journal. WeWork has grown even more dramatically than its coworking peers, boosting its total space around the world from 19.5 million square feet in 2017 to 36.4 million so far in 2018. And with larger companies starting to pour in, the Journal expects WeWork and pals to start slinging a lot more cucumber water in the next few years.
Read more about WeWork's rise at The Wall Street Journal. Kathryn Krawczyk
