BIG SHOW

A CNN/SSRS poll of Florida’s Senate and gubernatorial races released Sunday had some good news for Democrats that CNN says “could be an outlier” or “an indicator of renewed Democratic enthusiasm.” In the gubernatorial race, Democrat Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, opened up a 12-point lead among likely voters over former Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), 54 percent to 42 percent. Incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) has a smaller 5-point lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R), 50 percent to 45 percent, within the poll’s margin of error.

The Democrats, especially Gillum, are being buoyed by lopsided advantages among women, younger voters, and non-white voters. The Republicans have a wide lead on the issue of the economy and the Democrats dominate on the issue of health care. Gillum and Scott are seen getting a boost from their responses to Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle.

As CNN political analyst Mark Preston notes in the video below, the races are likely tighter than this poll suggests — according to the RealClearPolitics average, Gillum leads DeSantis by 3.7 percentage points, thanks largely to the boost from this CNN poll, and Nelson leads Scott by 1.3 points. FiveThirtyEight rates the Gillum-DeSantis race a “likely Democratic” pickup. Several reputable polls have registered greater Democratic enthusiasm.

SRSS conducted the CNN poll Oct. 16-20 on landlines and cellphones, contacting 1,012 adults, including 872 registered voters and 759 likely voters. The margin of error for registered voters is ±3.9 percentage points and for likely voters, ±4.2 points. “The Democratic advantages in the poll were similar across multiple versions of a likely voter model, including those driven more by interest in the campaign and those which placed stronger emphasis on past voting behavior,” CNN notes.

His photo shows just how hard it is for men to change diapers in public restrooms

A discussion has been going on for some time about the need for changing tables in men’s public restrooms. And while my husband tells me it’s gotten better in recent years, there are still so many public places that only have tables in women’s rooms, making the process either very difficult (and disgusting) for fathers or left falling on the mom’s shoulders every time a diaper needs changing (assuming there’s a mom in the picture). So, when a dad posted a pic of how he has to change diapers, it had all parents nodding their heads in unified frustration.

“This is a serious post!!!” dad-of-three Donte Palmer wrote on Instagram. “What’s the deal with not having changing tables in men’s bathroom as if we don’t exist!! #FLM #fatherslivesmatter clearly we do this often because look how comfortable my son is. It’s routine to him!!!!” The photo he shared shows Palmer balancing, ninja style, against the wall while his son is stretched out on his knees, looking pretty chill about the whole process (because he’s used to it).

This is a serious post!!! What’s the deal with not having changing tables in men’s bathroom as if we don’t exist!! #FLM #fatherslivesmatter clearly we do this often because look how comfortable my son is. It’s routine to him!!!! Let’s fix this problem! I Kaepernick drop a knee to this issue! @theshaderoom let’s show the innovation of fathers!

A post shared by Donte Palmer (@3boys_1goal) on Sep 23, 2018 at 5:20am PDT

He copied The Shade Room, a trending news website, which in turn shared Palmer’s photo, sparking discussion and shared stories of other dads’ frustration at the issue. “Let’s fix this problem! I Kaepernick drop a knee to this issue! @theshaderoom let’s show the innovation of fathers!” he wrote.

Palmer tells Scary Mommy that the photo is a typical situation he runs into when he’s out in public with his three boys, ages 12, seven, and one. “Honestly, I’ve been in enough places that didn’t have them so now I don’t even bother to look,” he said. On this occasion, they were at a Texas Roadhouse for lunch when his youngest son, Liam, need a change. So, he and his oldest son, Isaiah (who took the photo) went to the bathroom to tag-team the diaper changing process.

Oldest son training for middle school football and me… well you guessed it! I am training to change my next diaper! 🤦🏽‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️ #5amWorkout #DedicatedSon

A post shared by Donte Palmer (@3boys_1goal) on Sep 25, 2018 at 2:10am PDT

Palmer said that for a long time, fathers have been looked at as “being absent in our children’s lives. Taking care of children has been a job deemed necessary for women. At times society complains about the presence of fathers not being involved but in all actuality there are a ton of fathers willing to step up to the plate.”

And Palmer has a good point. Why should it be on the mom to always be responsible for changing a baby? Not only are there single fathers and gay couples who don’t have the option, as capable of taking care of their kid’s needs as a woman. Period. The fact that in most places they must do so on the ground or while squatting, balanced against a wall is ridiculous.

Kudos to Palmer for continuing to bring the topic into public conversation and reminding business owners that #fatherslivesmatter, too.

In a social media post on Saturday, a writer for CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” seemingly celebrated the damage done to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation during his bruising and bitterly partisan confirmation battle.

“Whatever happens, I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life,” the writer, Ariel Dumas, posted on Twitter. Dumas later briefly made her account private, preventing others from viewing her posts without her approval.

Her tweet came as the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court by a 50-48 vote, with Republicans saying that the several allegations of decades-old sexual misconduct brought against him simply lacked sufficient corroboration and credibility.

Dumas apologized on Sunday, claiming she was being “sarcastic” because Kavanaugh’s elevation to the Supreme Court demonstrated that his life had not, in fact, been entirely derailed by the accusations as some Republicans had claimed.

“Whatever happens, I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life.”

— “The Late Show” writer Ariel Dumas (deleted tweet)

“The last couple of weeks have been hard for the country and for me personally,” Dumas wrote. “The complexity of frustration, anger and sadness can’t be accurately conveyed on twitter, and I regret my tone-deaf attempt at sarcasm in the wake of it.”

Dumas previously had quoted news analysis pieces criticizing Kavanaugh for saying the accusations had “destroyed” him, including a piece that observed, “the bar for a man’s ruin is, apparently, quite low.”

Reached for further comment by Fox News, CBS said Dumas’ apology spoke for itself. The network confirmed that Dumas currently works for Colbert’s show.

Dumas’ IMDB page lists that in addition to “The Late Show,” she has worked on “Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going to Clean Up This Sh*t?” as well as the 2017 Emmy Awards, which were hosted by Colbert. Both events were markedly and caustically anti-Trump throughout. For his part, President Trump tweeted at the time that he was “sad” to see that the Emmy Awards had their “worst ever” ratings.

Dumas’ account included several other anti-Kavanaugh tweets. “Brett Kavanaugh is 100% gonna ask Justice Sotomayor to fetch him coffee,” she wrote on Saturday. Dumas also criticized Kavanaugh for invoking his family in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, saying, “it is not automatically a moral achievement to be a son, a husband, a dad. It is biology, a legal decision, and biology again. Plenty of a–holes are all three.”

She previously had written that she was “emotionally shattered by the current state of affairs.”

Colbert’s show has mocked Kavanaugh repeatedly. In July, shortly after Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was announced, Colbert even criticized the then-nominee’s first name, saying it “sounds less like a Supreme Court justice and more like a waiter at a Ruby Tuesday’s.”

And, after Kavanaugh and Ford testified at a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Colbert skewered Kavanaugh and minimized his complaints that his reputation was being dragged unfairly through the mud by politicians and uncritical media reports.

“Save your indignation that finally someone is taking one woman’s sexual assault seriously,” Colbert said, responding to Kavanaugh’s fiery opening statement at the hearing.

Kavanaugh, at times emotional and teary-eyed, said the accusations against him were false and had “destroyed” his family, leading to several violent death threats against his wife and daughters.

Colbert, though, derided Kavanaugh’s at times belligerent testimony as coming with a “well-coiffed head of steam.”