Ella Nilsen, writing for Vox:

Barrier-breaking candidates won races across the country on Election Day this year. The results were a parade of “firsts” from New Hampshire to North Carolina to Montana as women, people of color, and LGBTQ candidates became the first to win elections in their respective contests.

Cities in Minnesota and Montana elected their first black mayors, and Charlotte, North Carolina, elected a black woman as mayor for the first time. Virginia elected its first Latina and Asian-American delegates. Transgender candidates won races in Virginia, Minnesota, California, and Pennsylvania.

Tuesday was a big night for Democrats — and these historic “firsts” show that the party can run a diverse slate of candidates and win.

Last night was a good start and a good reminder that when young people vote, they can decide elections.1 In the lead-up to 2018’s mid-terms I’d encourage everyone to hold your representatives accountable to the progressive policies they campaigned on and check out Swingleft, Flippable, Indivisible, Run for Something, Let America Vote, or any number of local organizations to get involved.

It was nice to feel a little hope after an election for once. Now it’s time to prepare for the next fight.

Scott Meslow, writing for GQ:

I’m sure Daddy’s Home 2 thinks it’s clever to cast Gibson, an actor widely known for his bad behavior off-screen, as Wahlberg’s bad-boy father. And with John Lithgow playing Will Ferrell’s cuddly teddy bear of a father, it’s easy enough to see where this is going: Lithgow will teach Gibson to be a little warmer, Gibson will teach Lithgow to be a little cooler.

But if Gibson’s character in Daddy’s Home 2 actually learns a lesson about the downsides of bullshit macho posturing, it’ll be one more lesson than Gibson seems to have learned in his actual life. You can argue, convincingly, that someone with an open track record of racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism can eventually earn a second chance. But while Gibson has gone to rehab, what’s most striking about his return to the spotlight is his apparent lack of remorse.

The CMA Awards have rescinded their media guidelines that asked press not to focus on politics, guns, or the recent Las Vegas shooting. After backlash from artists like Brad Paisley, Ryan Adams, and Maren Morris, they issued the following statement:

CMA apologizes for the recently distributed restrictions in the CMA Awards media guidelines, which have since been lifted. The sentiment was not to infringe and was created with the best of intentions to honor and celebrate Country Music.

The New York Times:

A nearly century-old law that turned New York bars into no-dancing zones, prevented singers like Billie Holiday and Ray Charles from performing and drew protest from Frank Sinatra, is finally set to be struck down.

The Cabaret Law was created during Prohibition to patrol speakeasies, and while its restrictions on musicians came and went, the ban on social dancing has remained — leaving generations of club owners flicking the lights or playing “Eleanor Rigby” to still the crowd, lest they be fined or padlocked by the police in midnight raids. It is an odd and archaic regulation in a city that thinks of itself as a night life capital, but one that has resisted multiple attempts at repeal.

Kevin Bacon wins again.