Donald Trump wins the South Carolina primary. Cruz and Rubio battle for second.

Trump's victory was sweeping. He won among veterans and non-veterans, moderates and conservatives, evangelicals and non-evangelicals, women and men, according to the results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and the major television networks.

As he has throughout the campaign, Trump dominated the vote of Republicans without a college education and those with incomes below $100,000. College graduates were closely divided among backers of Trump, Cruz and Rubio. Those with incomes above $100,000 split their vote between Trump and Rubio, the exit poll indicated.

Why am I watching the Late Late Show with James Corden for the third time this week (having never seen it before?) Because he's so happy.

I'm serious. I'm really tired of bickering, negativity and Republicans. And bedtime has to be the worst time to watch, read or write about politics.

Since we already have new threads up today on South Carolina, Nevada, Trump and Hillary, here's an open thread for non-election related topics. All other topics welcome -- happy or not.

Today is caucus day for Nevada Democrats. Will Nevada Latinos buy into Bernie Sanders? Or will they take a pass? Nevada civil rights activist Dolores Huerta is pushing hard for Hillary. She says Bernie Sanders is a spoiler on immigration.

©ivil right activist Dolores Huerta intercepted potential voters as they lined up to make their lunch orders [at Tacos El Gordo restaurant] and urged them to caucus for Hillary Clinton.

"I was reminding them -- these are young Latinos, children of immigrants -- that way back in 2007, we had a great opportunity to pass immigration reform," Huerta said. "And Hillary Clinton also co-authored that bill with Senator [Ted] Kennedy. But Bernie Sanders came out against the vote."

"He was a spoiler on the immigration bill and he’s a spoiler in this campaign."

Her online editorial recounts Bernie's immigration vote as an Independent in the Senate and calls him a "Johnny Come Lately" on immigration reform: [More...]

It's finally time for Republicans to vote in South Carolina. Last minute predictions?

Time Magazine reports:

For Republicans, South Carolina offers 50 pledged delegates, about 2% of the convention total, of which 29 will will be awarded to the highest statewide vote getter, and three will be awarded to the higher vote getter in each of the state’s seven congressional districts. The hybrid system may allow multiple candidates to find a reason to claim success.

Ted Cruz is fighting Trump and Rubio for the evangelical vote. [More...]

I just came across a post I wrote in 2008 quoting a Hillary Clinton campaign press release on Feb. 13, 2008 titled "The Path to the Nomination." It included the following:

After Iowa, every poll gave Barack Obama a strong lead in New Hampshire, but he ended up losing the state. And after a defeat in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton went on to win by large margins in California, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

As history shows, the Democratic nomination goes to the candidate who wins the most delegates – not the candidate who wins the most states. In 1992, Bill Clinton lost a string of primaries before clinching the nomination. He ceded Iowa, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland, Arizona, Washington, Utah, Colorado, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont and South Dakota.
[More...]

Donald Trump, calls for a boycott of Apple because it won't turn over the encryption code to the San Bernadino shooters' phone.

While his views on Apple are about as important as one grain of sand is to a whole beach, his views as a whole seem to be swaying Republicans. He's leading with one-third of the early Republican vote.

CNN is airing a Republican presidential town hall in South Carolina.

John Kasich is on now. I think he's the only non-crazed Republican in the race. But I happened to see him last night on Stephen Colbert's show and he seemed really off. Tonight he seems really tired.

He also said last night that the debates are worthless -- nothing more than sound bites. He said the town halls are the only worthwhile events.

He's got Martin O'Malley syndrome -- mentioning his experience as a state governor way too often.

Update: Did Jeb Bush have laser surgery or get contact lenses? He looked better with glasses.[More...]

My blogging hiatus is officially over. Everything is unpacked and the place is clean. All that is left is finding someone to hang my art and I'm not in any hurry. The place looks great -- just like I expected it would five months ago when I first moved.

What else I've been doing while not blogging: I'm almost done testing out my new Dell Inspiron laptop. I really wanted the new Vaio Canvas or Flip or upcoming Vaio S, or even the Dell XPS 15, but they were $1,000 more than the Inspiron (for the same features. ) The trade-off and sacrifice was weight -- the Inspiron weighs 6 pounds and feels like 8 (probably since I'm used to my Sony Vaio which weighs 4 pounds.) [More...]

Maybe it was a slow news day, but CNN really seemed to want to crank up this story about the Pope's criticism of Donald Trump on immigration and make it have legs:

Asked if American Catholics should vote for someone with Trump's views, Francis said, "I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt."

Much ado about nothing. Slightly more entertaining was Trumps' statement that the Vatican is in ISIS' cross-hairs and ripe for an attack, and that after it gets attacked, it will realize that had Trump been President, the attack would never have happened because ISIS would have been taken out. [More....]

Apple says no to turning over encyrption key on San Bernadino shooters' phone.

To hack the phone, the FBI wants Apple to build a new version of its iOS software that Cook claims bypasses the iPhone's security features and creates "the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession."

"The US government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create," Cook wrote in an open letter posted on Apple's website. "They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone."

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Grammy's started at 6 pm here -- way too early, I missed the first 45 minutes. I tuned in during a Lionel Ritchie segment.

At least I didn't miss the Glenn Frey tribute.

Why did "Girl Crush" get a standing ovation?

This is a thread for all things Grammy's and music related. Updates below [More...]

On Scalia and his legacy, I wrote this.

The issue of replacing Scalia, Kagro and I did this. Starting at the 40 minute mark, I think David and I discuss this in a manner that, imnsho, you won't find anywhere else. Take a listen.