As Conor Friedersdorf writes, we are closing in on a series of moments when Trump is going to expect Republican officials and members of Congress to endorse the concept that he and his aides and family cannot be investigated or held accountable for any infractions of the law. He's just short of saying "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and Congress would let me get away with it!"

Call me a cockeyed optimist but we've just had an election which has shown that the backing of Trump is a liability in some areas for those running for office or another term. I'm thinking there are some Republicans who are going to think what Trump is angling for is going too far. Remember they're kind of being asked to protect Trump from criminal prosecution when they don't know what crimes he may have committed which may come out later. A lot of Republican Senators and Congressfolks during Watergate were leery of protecting Nixon for that reason.

And there have got to be some current Republican leaders who are thinking there could be a big opening to run for President in 2020 if Trump is too mired in scandal to run or there's a sizeable G.O.P. movement out there to get a guy who'll advance their agenda without all the scandal Donald brings to the party. You couldn't take advantage of that opportunity if you'd voted to shield him from the law.

At least, I hope someone's thinking like that.

Last night was the 55th anniversary of the evening the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had its world premiere at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.  It was also the 55th anniversary of the evening that the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood opened.  A packed audience was there to see the movie in its natural habitat (where it ran for 66 weeks!) and to mark the birthday of a wonderful place to watch cinema on a wide, wide screen.

The ceremonies were hosted by a couple of gents involved in the history of the building, followed by Karen Sharpe Kramer, the widow of Stanley Kramer. Mr. Kramer produced and directed so many fine films, Mad World among them.  Karen then introduced two special guests — the lovely (still and forever) Barrie Chase and Sandy Hackett, son of Buddy.

Barrie is one of only three people who had speaking roles in the film who is still alive. The other two are Nick Georgiade, who played the detective working with Norman Fell's character, and Carl Reiner. Mr. Reiner, who is 96.7 years old, is reportedly not going much of anywhere these days…and if he did make an appearance, it might not be to celebrate this movie which he wasn't all that wild about. It was great though to hear Barrie talk about the film. In the past when she appeared at screenings of Mad World, Mickey Rooney was usually there and not inclined to let her or anyone else say anything.

The film was the film…which I love for reasons I've written about here in the past. It's not the slapstick I like so much as just seeing all those great comedians interacting with one another and performing at the height of their comedic powers. Everyone is just so good in it…even Milton Berle, who otherwise did not leave behind much supporting evidence for his status as an important comic.

Mad World is available in a DVD/Blu Ray set from Criterion and even though I can be heard on the commentary track along with my pals Mike Schlesinger and Paul Scrabo, I only recommend this set as something you watch after you've seen the movie on a big screen with a big, enthusiastic audience. It's quite a different film watched alone or with a small group on your home TV. It was quite different on screen last night at the Dome.

You may be wondering how my friend Amber liked it. As you might recall, I held off showing it to her because I wanted her to experience it for the first time the way I did, 55 years ago — at the Cinerama Dome with a full house. Well, sadly, she wasn't feeling well enough to go. I may have to keep fooling her into liking me until the 60th anniversary screening.

An hour ago, I was lying in bed looking occasionally at news headlines on my iPhone. The "active shooter" at last night's horrible murder spree in Thousand Oaks had not been identified and I was thinking how so many people are waiting for that info to see if it can be of any use to them. Like if it turns out he's a Muslim, those who want to ban or restrict Muslims will be happy they have that new little weapon to add to their arsenal. Or if he's a militant Vegan, that could be useful to any hostile carnivores or maybe to the meat industry.

And of course, these incidents are always helpful to the cause of those who simply want to make guns — especially automatic and semi-automatic weapons — harder to acquire. Since I'm more or less on their side, I can temper my horror at the news with a sliver of silver lining and think, "Well, maybe this will convince more people we need to do something about guns." Which is a kind of baseless optimism because it never does. (Actually, it isn't so much a matter of convincing more people we should do something. It's a matter of convincing them to do something, which is not the same thing. I do not expect this to happen in my lifetime.)

So now they just said the shooter was "a former Marine who may have had PTSD." I'm not sure what anyone can do with that but someone will try.

This has been Today's Post About Yesterday's Mass Shooting. Stay tuned for the next installment of Today's Post About Yesterday's Mass Shooting…coming sooner than you'd like to your computer screen.

• This just in: Trump fires Jeff Sessions. Also claims "My dog ate my tax returns!"

Trump's about to give a press conference where I expect he'll keep saying, "We won, we won, we won!" That's part of his personality. Heck, it's part of his success. He convinces people, "Stick with me because I always win." This morning, I'm even happier than I was when I went to bed last night. I'm reading pieces like this one and this one by Kevin Drum, who is a sane, non-spin Liberal who I think has the right take on what just happened. It was an "about as good as could be realistically expected" night for Democrats.

And things could still get better for them with recounts and late results. Any election where Dana Rohrabacher loses is a good election. He'll be free to go work full-time for V. Putin.

What I'm waiting for now is for Nancy Pelosi to announce, "Our No. 1 priority is to make this president a one-term president" and for Mitch McConnell to say what a sleazy, unAmerican thing that is to say.

Someplace tonight, one Republican Senator turned to another Republican Senator and said, "Well, we've got good news and bad news.  The good news is that Ted Cruz is being returned to the Senate.  The bad news is that Ted Cruz is being returned to the Senate."

Results have been coming in earlier than I expected and, so far, being contested less than I expected.  I'm happy Democrats have taken back the House.  I'm unhappy that the lesson many will take away from certain races is that Trump-style campaigning — smearing your opponents, blatant lying and stoking racial fears — can work.

It's closing in on Midnight here in California and there are still people standing in lines here and there waiting to vote. Vote by mail, people! Vote by mail!

I think this country is better off today than it was yesterday if only because Trump won't have both halves of Congress rubber-stamping his whims and unlikely to hold him accountable for high crimes and low. Yeah, it could have been better but think how much worse it would have been if the House had gone the other way. And though Trump will surely hail today as a big win for him — because he says that about everything — he can't get rid of the Mueller investigation now or bury its findings. That could be, as he says, yuge.

Baby sloths learning to climb…

I don't know how long it's going to be there but Late Night with Seth Meyers is running a YouTube marathon of all his "A Closer Look" segments since Donald J. Trump was sworn in. It runs more than 35 hours (!) and I think it's in a loop until such time as they take it down. You can catch some of it at this link and after it's over, you may be able to access the videos individually at this link. And then again, you may not. In any case, I think this is some of the sharpest political comedy/commentary ever done for television.

I may change my mind in five minutes but I've decided not to watch the coverage of Election Day today, either online or on TV, until we have some real results…like candidates conceding races. I not only think this will be a roller coaster ride but a much longer roller coaster ride than most people expect. If the news is disappointing or even inconclusive, I'd like to go to bed tonight thinking, "At least I got a lot of work done today."

Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers are apparently doing their shows tonight live but that means Colbert does his at 8:35 Pacific Time when the polls won't even have closed in some parts of the country. And not much more may be known when Meyers goes up at 9:35. Whatever they do know, it'll be way outta date by the time we get those shows out here on the Left Coast.

I assume I don't have to tell anyone who's smart enough to read this blog that they have to go out and vote today. My vote-by-mail ballot is long since in and I didn't even have to walk anywhere or stand in line to do that. If your polling place today looks like a ticket booth handing out free passes to see Springsteen, you might want to consider going the "by mail" route next election. That's assuming there is a next election. These days, you can't take things like that for granted.

Saturday evening, a friend of mine and I were at the last stop for Stephanie Miller's Sexy Liberal Blue Wave Tour, which was about 75% stand-up comedy show and 25% campaign rally. Ms. Miller, host of a popular radio show I've never heard, was the M.C. and she did stand-up about the election and politics and Trump but mostly about them driving her to drink. She was followed by John Fugelsang, host of a popular radio show I not only listen to but have guested upon. His stand-up was followed by Margaret Cho, who also did stand-up, somewhat about current events but mainly about herself.

The evening started with an appearance by the President of the United States — Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet, aka Martin Sheen. Mr. Sheen was very eloquent, as he always is. Later, he joined a panel discussion that included the three stand-ups, plus Congressmen Ted Lieu and Adam Schiff, plus Rob Reiner.

A couple of observations.  While there was, of course, Trump-bashing galore, I think the crowd was nicer to the opposition than what I see of folks who attend Trump rallies.  At the very least, no one at this event was chanting "Lock 'em up!" about folks who've never been charged with an actual crime, let alone convicted. There seem to be a lot of Trump fans who want to live in an America where you can throw someone in prison just because you hate them.

I also really liked the people I was with, some of whom I fell into conversation with.  They did not seem angry so much as concerned…and not concerned just about themselves.

I wasn't wildly impressed with the two ladies on stage.  Stephanie Miller hit one of my main comedic peeves: The presumption that everyone in the audience loves to get roaring drunk.  Margaret Cho, who I have seen be very funny, seemed to be having an off night and didn't have a lot to say about the main topic of the night…current political events.

But John Fugelsang, who was the main reason I went, was sensational — not only funny but funny about topics that had occurred in the previous 72 hours. I once heard Mort Sahl say that a comic who deals in current events has to read at least three newspapers every morning and write at least ten jokes about what happened yesterday. Mr. Sahl said this in an appearance around 1986 just before he launched into a story about Adlai Stevenson and Eleanor Roosevelt.

But Fugelsang, as I already knew from his Sirius XM radio program, practices what Sahl preached and, like I said, he managed to be very funny. I'd quote some of better lines but I didn't take notes, even mental ones. I think I was concentrating too much on the current lines to remember the ones before. Also, I believe a few of them have already reached their expiration dates. Jon Stewart once wisely remarked that topical humor often has the shelf life of potato salad.

After Fugelsang and the overall fellowship of the attendees, I guess I liked the panel discussion the best. Both Congressfolks seemed restrained in their mud-hurling… though much to Stephanie Miller's delight, Congressman Schiff unleashed a few "f" bombs. That would have been shocking in pre-Trump America but Donald has pretty much done away with the premise that leaders can't have the composure of Andrew "Dice" Clay. Rob Reiner, by the way, revealed that authorities (the F.B.I., I think he said) notified him he was on the pipe-bomber's "to do" list.

I would describe the mood of the evening as guardedly optimistic but it also felt very refreshing to be, just for a few hours, surrounded by generally like-minded individuals. I think it's dangerous to surround yourself constantly with those who agree with you. They tend to reinforce the dumber things you believe. But a few hours a few days before the election seemed good for the soul. Afterwards, many of those on stage were available for "meet and greet" (which meant a lot of photos) and I really enjoyed talking with my Congressman and with John F. And then on our way out, there was a brief chat on the sidewalk with Martin Sheen that had a strangely calming effect on me. These days, we could all do with a few strangely calming effects.

Randy Rainbow is back with a timely message…

My pal Shelly Goldstein pointed out to me the probable reason that the Barbra edition of Mr. Corden's Carpool Karaoke had her driving him around instead of, as usual, putting James in the driver seat. Barbra always insists on being photographed from what she considers the better side of her face. In order to do that, she had to be on right side of the screen facing left…which means she had to be behind the wheel. Bill Maher, when he had her on, did what I think was his first-ever one-on-one interview with a guest where he was on the left. (Bill Maher is usually on the left but you know what I mean…)

A friend of mine who works at CBS and asked that I not quote him by name, wrote to tell me, "Every time I see one of those Carpool Karaoke bits, all I can think of is Craig Ferguson watching it and fuming that his budget for a week of shows was roughly what Corden gets to spend on one bit." Probably an exaggeration but not by a huge amount.

And a third friend, Marc Wielage, sent me the following. Marc knows more about video and production than anyone I know…

For insurance reasons, they do generally do tow cars on projects like this, but it's possible for some they kept it simple and did it as you say: had Corden drive and then just "caravan" them off to prevent any potential problems. But given that Ms. Streisand is 76 and already looks nervous, instead of letting her drive I would tow it as a "picture car."

Microphones are generally hidden in the visors. Musical playback is usually wireless, going to small receivers that the actors have strapped to their waist, and then the signal is fed to their ears with earbuds (and that can be done wirelessly as well). That way, the car interior mics don't pick up any leakage from the instrument track.

I would bet there's a sound person and a director in the car just ahead of them, monitoring sound & picture (respectively). If they're towing the picture car, they would just run wires from the picture car to the camera car. If there's no towing, you could do it wirelessly but they generally have to cheat by putting transmitting antennas on top of the car. They work around this by shooting exterior "beauty shots" of the car driving down the street without the antennas.

They can record both the new vocals and the existing instrumental backing with a multitrack recorder, usually battery-operated Sound Devices or Zaxcom recorder. Multiple takes are not a problem, and often they'll do pickups if either of them hits a bum note. (BTW, Streisand is notorious for asking for a teleprompter, so I bet that was going on, too, so she'd have a safety net in case she forgot the lyrics.)

The camera part is pretty tough, since they generally run upwards of 6 or 7 GoPro cameras jammed on the side windshield roof posts, visors, and on the windshield itself down low. When cars are towed, they usually have a black tarp on top of the windshield to cut down on glare and they also bring in extra lighting to make the actors look better. Hiding this many cameras and lights and microphones in a car is tough. It's amazing it works as well as it does.

BTW, syncing up these cameras for editing in post is a bit of a nightmare, since they tend to run off-speed and aren't the greatest in terms of quality. But the Corden people have this down to a science.

This is more than you ever wanted to know, but that's basically what goes on.

In a follow-up e-mail to me, Marc added…

BTW, they may be using more sophisticated cameras than GoPro (a $400 camera), but that was the gist of how I've seen it done in the past. It's a very complex, messy procedure, because it's very tough on the editors to wrangle all the footage for editing. Corden has certainly pushed this idea beyond any level anybody has done before, certainly a lot more sophisticated that Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Okay, I have one more question: Why don't they pre-record the vocals and is it possible they did that in this case? Ms. Streisand is said to be a very poor lip-syncer but it can't be that difficult when (a) she isn't singing solo and (b) she's only seen in quick cuts. I'd think it would be easier to sync-up her voice to picture in post than it would be to do thirty takes driving around in a car if she wasn't happy with something. And she is famous for spending hours if not days in a recording studio doing take after take to get a song the way she wants it to be.

Dialogue and singing are quite separated in these bits. Why wouldn't they pre-record the singing? That would sure make it easier on the road.

Thanks to Shelly, Marc and the person who cannot be named. And I'll bet one of these days, Corden does one of these with Kermit the Frog and a back seat full of Muppets.

This coming Wednesday, November 7, will mark two anniversaries: 55 years since the Cinerama Dome movie theater in Hollywood opened for business and 55 years since It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had its premiere screening there. That night, it was filled with celebrities, many of whom were in the movie. This Wednesday night, it will be filled with…well, people like me who love the movie. (Only three cast members are still alive and I would not expect any of them to be present. Well, maybe Barrie Chase…)

This is not a plug to sell tickets for the evening since it's sold out. I just wanted to post something that isn't about the election. The first time I saw that movie — and I saw it in that building — it was the day after one of our greatest national tragedies…the murder of President John F. Kennedy. I'm hoping I will not see it this time the day after another national tragedy.

Notice how I was unable to avoid mentioning the election for an entire paragraph.

I love this film and don't care that some people don't…except that some people are really nasty about not liking it, like somehow they're angry that some of us do. I love perceptive film reviews and discussion but have grown tired of gratuitous insults, not just about movies but about everything. Part of my fondness for this film has to do with affection for its cast and part of it has to do with what it meant to me in 1963. A film does not have to inspire everyone to inspire some people and a movie that inspires some people has value even if you weren't one of those people. I've been left pretty cold and unentertained by every film or TV show that had both the words "Star" and "Trek" in their titles but if they bring joy to others, great.

I'm taking my friend Amber who has a good excuse for not seeing Mad World back in the sixties or seventies…or even the eighties. She wasn't born yet. She knows of some performers in the film — Don Knotts, the Stooges, Jerry Lewis (I think) and maybe one or two others — but this will be the first time she's ever had the opportunity to see Sid Caesar and Phil Silvers and Milton Berle and many others in their natural habitat: With an audience. Yeah, you can hunt them down on YouTube but (a) she hasn't because she had no reason to and (b) they're not that wonderful in grainy black-and-white on chopped-up clips in a little window and watched all alone.

I've held off showing the film to her in my den. Better that her introduction to it and those wonderful performers will be on a big screen with what I'm told will be a wonderful, restored print, and that we'll be in the middle of a warm, enthusiastic live crowd. I'm looking forward to that even more than I'm looking forward to seeing this film for the seventy-nine-quadrillionth time.

If you're there and you see us, please say hello. Those of us who love this film are old friends, even if we've never met.

I was at a political event last night which I'll tell you about later. An oft-heard discussion topic was, of course, "What do you think will happen on Tuesday?" I heard absolutely no one make the following prediction but I will courageously post it here.

I think Tuesday will be the messiest Election Day in the history of Election Days. I think at some polls people will be waiting in line for a ridiculous number of hours and you'll hear all sorts of reports of governors and judges ordering polling places to stay open late to accommodate hundreds of voters who are still in line when the polls were supposed to close.

I think reporters all day will be pouncing on stories of voting machines not working…or registering a vote for Candidate A when the voter clearly chose B…and people being turned away when they clearly should have been allowed to vote. You will hear the term "provisional ballot" hundreds of times. You will also hear terms like "voter fraud" and "hacking" and "challenge the outcome" and "voter intimidation." Somewhere, there will be protesters or "poll watchers" who will be charged with trying to scare legitimate voters away.

You will also hear the word "recount" a lot. And "investigation." And maybe even "Russia."

And of course, you'll have You-Know-Who fanning the flames, charging that every race where the Democrat won was won by cheating and that the Republican should be seated and he already has the proof to reverse the outcome and send many, many people to prison. In the meantime, every race where the Republican won is a huge (excuse me, yuge) victory which would have been even bigger if the Dems hadn't hacked and conspired and he's going to have it investigated and he already has the proof to send many, many people to prison.

What I'm getting at is that you may be eager for this all to be over on Tuesday night before you get to bed but it probably won't be over on Tuesday night. We may all go beddy-bye with many cliffhangers still dangling out there…and people charging fraud over votes their side seems to be losing. In some cases, they may even be right.

Heading for New York City? Then you might do well to take a lesson or two from Sarah Funk. I don't quite know who this woman is but she has a number of helpful, informative videos online that can save you money and/or keep you from being harmed in non-monetary ways. This one is about the cheapest ways to get to the center of Manhattan from the three airports that serve the Big Apple.

I've never tried using public transportation to and from those airports. When I go lately, I almost always travel with someone else and we have too much luggage to schlep on and off a train or bus. Instead, I call Carmel Limo, which is fine except that it's murder to connect with your ride at the airport. If I were traveling alone or lighter, I'd listen to Sarah, especially on the routes that go by train and are therefore unlikely to get stuck in traffic…