Beto needed your hat
Beyoncé fans lit into the singer last week for failing to wear a hat soon enough to save Texas Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke.
Really.
On Election Day, Beyoncé shared several photos on Instagram of her wearing a cropped black sweatshirt and a black and white cap that said "Beto For Senate."
"I'm feeling grateful for everyone before me who fought so hard to give us all the right to have a voice," she said on one of the posts. "We can't voice our frustrations and complain about what's wrong without voting and exercising our power to make it right.
"We need you," she added. "We all need each other, because when we are truly united we are unstoppable. Sending you all love and positivity on this happy voting day! Every vote counts. Every race matters. Everywhere."
But O'Rourke didn't have enough votes, losing to incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, 50.9 percent to 48.3 percent.
"You have such a huge, influential voice and you wait until Election Day to post this?!" said one Twitter fan. "Beto needed you sooner. Maybe you could've actually made a difference."
"#Beyonce4Beto is great," said another, "but also what took her so long? Three hours before the polls close?"
"Too late @Beyonce!!!!!," a third tweeted. "Timing is everything. If there's a [Dec. 4 runoff] election for Georgia between Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams, I hope you'll DO THE RIGHT THING & get out there SOONER. We need you."
Claire as mud
A candidate blaming anyone but herself for her loss. Where have we heard that before?
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, did not take her loss last week in her bid for a third term very well. After falling to state Attorney General Josh Hawley, she blamed Fox News for her loss, saying it swayed rural voters and referring to it as a "state-owned news channel."
"The further you get from the metropolitan areas," she said, "the more powerful Donald Trump is and the more allegiance there is to whatever he says and does."
McCaskill voted against confirming U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, was exposed for taking a private plane when she was supposed to be touring the state in an RV, and her husband was revealed to have received $131 million in federal subsidies while she was in the Senate. But blame? It was Fox News.
"It's time we all quit dancing around what is now a state-owned news channel," she said.
The "state-owned" phrase is one officials and hosts at CNN, which routinely loses to Fox News in ratings, occasionally trot out.
Fox News, according to Nielsen, has been the top-rated news network for nearly 17 years - long before Trump ever thought about running for president.
No citizenship, no problem?
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Jeff Mateer said they would look into the claims, but James O'Keefe's Project Veritas released an undercover video last week of a Lone Star State poll worker saying "tons" of noncitizens were being allowed to vote.
In the video, the undercover video journalist tells a poll worker her boyfriend is in the car and is nervous about not being able to vote. She said he is a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient, which is an Obama-era executive action that protects certain young illegal immigrants from being deported.
"If he has his ID, that's all he needs - if he's registered," the poll worker says.
"It doesn't matter that he's not a citizen?" the undercover journalist asks.
"No," the poll worker says, "don't pay any attention to that. Bring him up here."
When the journalist repeats her dilemma to another poll worker, he pooh-poohs the problem. "We've got tons of them (illegal immigrants)," he says.
Abbott, in a tweeted response to the video, made clear he could not say if the video was accurate. But if it was, he said the votes would be tossed out and the wrongdoers prosecuted.
Ronald Morgan Jr., chief deputy clerk of Travis County, where the incident occurred, took the opposite tack. He said the video was "distorting reality" and wants to seek legal action against Project Veritas for potentially violating laws prohibiting electronic devices in a voting place.
In other words, he missed the forest for the trees.
Sickness personified
Hollywood actress Ellen Barkin blamed President Donald Trump for a gunman who killed 11 and a responding highway patrol officer at a California bar last week, unleashing irrational tweets that called him a "blood-soaked monster" who is an "illegally elected criminal" who has "murdered our country" and doesn't "deserve to touch ur own children."
While tweeting, she also excoriated Wayne La Pierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, and Dana Loesch, a spokeswoman for the organization. "u will reap what u sow," she wrote.
As if that weren't enough, Barkin brought the president's 12-year-old son, Barron, into the mix, writing that "you are not responsible for what [you're] father has done. you are not him. you are yourself, a brilliant young man w love-filled eyes. i see only you, not him. i have faith in u to break the chain of hate. i hold you in my heart. bless you beautiful boy."
If the Trumps do nothing else, they probably would be wise to seek a restraining order against the actress out of fear of what she might do.