Happening Around The World: Iraqi Kurds overwhelmingly voted for independence in a referendum on Wednesday, with the election commission reporting that 93% of the 3.3 million Kurds who reside in Iraq supported secession. Will this matter to Baghdad? Probably not. Still, it can’t go any worse than Brexit is. (BBC, Telegraph)

You almost feel bad – no, wait. You don’t.

Happening In The US: Trump is now a LOSER after incumbent senator Luther Strange (R-AL), his preferred candidate for the seat left open by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, lost in a runoff to Roy Moore. Moore is a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, an Evangelical Christian, and a hardline conservative. Of course, this doesn’t mean much change in policy making. As one NYT commenter put it, the runoff led to “a bigoted hatemonger defeating another bigoted hatemonger who happened to have the support of the bigoted hatemonger in charge.” Small victories, though. (NY Times)

Happening In NYC: Marquees have gone up and previews will soon start for Springsteen on Broadway, which is exactly what it sounds like. We can look forward to this: Instead of 50,000 drunk New Jerseyans coming through the Holland Tunnel, there will only be 1,000 – for five nights a week until February 3rd. Exorbitantly-priced tickets can be bought here.

Happening At Columbia: If you’ve been intrigued by the ad on Bwog’s own site, you’re in luck: “This is Sex” with CNN’s Lisa Ling is happening tonight at 5:30 in the Low Library Faculty Room.

Overseen: At the sundial, I came upon a bro in an “In Trump We Trust” hat, which is somehow even worse than #MAGA. As always, no points for creativity.