JOURNALISM: “I don’t think the press — with respect to the Trump administration — represents the people. I think the statement ‘They are the opposition party’ is much more accurate. Too bad they did that to themselves. We could use a vigorous, professional press.” We could, if such existed.

I EXPECT NOTORIOUS ROBOPHOBE MATTHEW YGLESIAS WILL APPROVE: Europe calls for mandatory ‘kill switches’ on robots.

AS ALWAYS, LIFE IN THE 21st CENTURY IMITATES ARTHUR C. CLARKE:

One aspect of the movies that won’t change in the next century is subject matter. There is no reason to believe that the traditional film genres won’t be as popular forty years from now as they were in the 1930s and 1940s. Love stories, science fiction, teenage comedies, war films, sweeping adventures, and rugged Westerns will be among the most successful movies of 2019. [On this, Clarke was slightly off; if only today’s Hollywood proffered that much variety. — Ed]

However, new technologies will make possible a different approach to the traditional themes. Computer-graphic techniques will enable producers to re-create electronically the voices and physical appearances of great movie stars from the past A new movie featuring a cast of Hollywood hall-of-famers — Jimmy Stewart, Greta Garbo, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe — isn’t just possible, it is probable once computer synthesis techniques are perfected.

Computer graphics hold myriad implications for the movies of the twenty-first century It will be more practical and cost effective to design sets and synthesize almost any location on Earth or off using computers. Special effects that now require models and miniatures can be replaced by digital picture-making. Animation, once the most visually exciting area of film, today has, except for an occasional Disney film, almost vanished. Computer graphics will cut the cost of animation in the next century, and cartoons featuring solid-looking, three-dimensional characters will breathe new life into this art form.

—An excerpt from the chapter in Clarke’s 1986 book Arthur C. Clarke’s July 20, 2019: Life in the 21st Century titled “A Night at the Movies,” quoted at Ed Driscoll.com in 2015, when the makers of Fast & Furious 7 digitally recreated franchise co-star Paul Walker, who had died (grimly enough) in a car crash midway through that film’s production.

We’re told that we can judge a society by how it treats its animals, and its prisoners, but what if we can judge it, too, by how it treats its celebrities (who are, in some respects, a hybrid of both)? The modern famous are, paradoxically, rare and ubiquitous. There has only been and ever will be one Sinatra, one Marilyn—and yet there they are, too, over on that shower curtain, and this cookie jar, revered banalities.

To staunch this eventuality, some celebrities have wisely arranged their estates to prevent posthumous commodification and “cyberslavery”; Robin Williams thought to block “anyone from digitally inserting him into a movie or TV scene or using a hologram, as was done with rapper Tupac Shakur at Southern California’s Coachella music festival in 2012—16 years after his murder.”

Would that others had done likewise. (I’m looking at you, Joe Strummer—but note: A mere 10 years ago, this sick campaign cost Saatchi its Doc Martens account, and they weren’t even legally in the wrong. Would the same happen today?)

But it’s disconcerting that human beings have to undertake such rearguard measures at all.

—“No Peace in the Uncanny Valley”, Kathy Shaidle, Taki’s Magazine, January 10th, 2017.

This ABC News clip – really an infomercial for Disney’s latest product, as the newsreader explains at the end of the segment – explains how the Rogue One producers digitally recreated the late Peter Cushing, and created the visage of Carrie Fisher in 1977:

As Clarke predicted three decades ago, expect much more of this technique in the years to come.

And presumably, in the music business as well.

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DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Roger Kimball on How to Deal with Trump Derangement Syndrome on Campus.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

“Has there ever been a more repugnant example of political pandering than John McCain’s decision to vote against a bill banning waterboarding, putting hoods on prisoners, forcing them to perform sex acts, subjecting them to mock executions, or depriving them of food, water, and medical treatment?

That’s right, John McCain, the former POW who has long been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s disturbing embrace of extreme interrogation techniques. But that was before his desperate attempt to win over the lunatic fringe that is running the Grand Old Party. Earlier this week, I showed how outdated the image of McCain as an independent-thinking maverick had become — and called on the media and independent voters to snap out of their 2000 reverie and see the 2008 McCain for what he has turned into: a Rove-embracing Bush clone, willing to jettison his principles in his hunger for the presidency.

And now comes this latest unconscionable capitulation, which should drive a stake through the heart of the McCain-as-straight-talker meme once and for all.

McCain the maverick had been unequivocal in his condemnation of torture, and eloquent in expressing why. “We’ve sent a message to the world that the United States is not like the terrorists,” he said at an Oval Office appearance in December 2005, after he had forced the president to endorse an earlier torture ban McCain had authored and pushed through (a ban the president quickly subverted with a signing statement). “What we are is a nation that upholds values and standards of behavior and treatment of all people, no matter how evil or bad they are. And I think this will help us enormously in winning the war for the hearts and minds of people throughout the world in the war on terror.” He made a similar case on the campaign trail in Iowa in October 2007: “When I was imprisoned, I took heart from the fact that I knew my North Vietnamese captors would never be treated like I was treated by them. There are much better and more effective ways to get information. You torture someone long enough, he’ll tell you whatever he thinks you want to know.”

And there was this pithy and powerful summation of why torture should never be an option: “It’s not about who they are, it’s about who we are.”

Of course, all that was before he put his conscience in leg irons — and before caving to the would-be Torquemadas on the Right became his campaign strategy.”

—Rosie O’Donnell on John McCain, February 17, 2008.

[Sen. John McCain] “FOR EMERGENCY INTERIM PRESIDENT – ONE MONTH INAUGURATION PAUSE – ILLEGITIMATE PRESIDENTS SHOULD NOT BE SWORN – GOD DAMN IT.”

— Rosie O’Donnell on John McCain, today. All-caps in original tweet.

Of course, this past week, as Twitchy noted, “No biggie, but Rosie O’Donnell is cool with imposing martial law to keep Trump from being inaugurated.”

Perhaps her “EMERGENCY INTERIM PRESIDENT” gambit is Rosie in a more thoughtful, introspective, nuanced, all-caps frame of mind.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Old white dons ‘unable to teach black students.’

Black students’ progress is being stalled by university tutors who are “60-year-old white men” and “potentially racist”, according to students at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London.

In a report called Degrees of Racism, the student union demands that “all academics must be prepared to acknowledge that they are capable of racism”. . . .

It quotes black undergraduates who say their academic progress is being hampered by older white professors who cannot relate to them. “Both of my tutors are white men. How can I have a rapport and feel comfortable talking to a 60-year-old white man?” asks one.

Worried about racism? Try looking in the mirror, kids.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Emory College professor is calling for “abandonment of the term ‘microaggression’” and “a moratorium on microaggression training programs” in a new research study.

Faster, please.

SO A FATAL COFFEE SPILL killed the Apple “Magic” Keyboard that came with my iMac. I wasn’t too broken up about that because I never liked that keyboard. I tried substituting an old (ca. 2005) Apple USB keyboard, but it kinda sucked too. I’m not sure why exactly, but my typing was bad, and the feel was unsatisfactory. I wound up getting this Azio mechanical keyboard and I’m pretty happy with it. It’s not as good as my old IBM AT keyboard was, but it’s better than any keyboard I’ve used from Apple. The backlighting is a nice touch, and the clatter of the keys makes me feel more productive somehow.

WHAT HATH MERKEL WROUGHT? Lack of Jobs in Africa Could Spark Massive Migration to Europe.

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THE SHAUN KING OF THE NORTH: A Voice for Indigenous Canadians Defends His Claim to Be One. He looks about as Inuit as I do. But I don’t get this: “Native people should have the right to determine who should be a member of our communities.” I mean, straight white men don’t get to choose who counts as a straight white man — it’s all about how people self-identify, right?

BUT THAT WON’T STOP YOU YAMMERING AND VIRTUE-SIGNALLING, WILL IT, SPARKY? Centuries of kidnapping, torture, murder, rape. What white person can understand black lives? Not me.

REASON: The Case Against Hamilton: The hit Broadway musical was all that was wrong with 2016, and will likely be wrong with 2017, too.

On first take, I thought it sounded a bit like a University of Iowa freshman—the kind who only listens to “real hip-hop”—attempting his first mixtape. One of my Twitter followers corrected me, however. It’s closer to a Braintree elementary school making a rap song for parents’ night. The latter description hints not merely at the simple, formulaic quality of the material, but also the cloying, bourgeois quality of it all. From the reference to “ten-dollar Founding Father without a father” to “when the British taxed our tea we got frisky,” the whole affair sounds more like something made by precocious children than a professional composer.

We have Lin-Manuel Miranda to blame for this cultural atrocity, a scion of a psychologist and an advisor to New York mayor Ed Koch, who attended the same elementary and high school as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. Sure, he got bullied by Immortal Technique in school, but how much street cred is that really worth? After this he attended Wesleyan University, a top-10-ranked school that costs $65,000 a year, according to Forbes, before making his mark writing jingles for noted prostitute-enthusiast Eliot Spitzer’s 2006 campaign. The original version of Hamilton debuted at a Vassar College workshop. All this is, of course, an attempt to firmly establish Miranda’s street cred, which is unassailable.

Some are irritated about the people who aren’t white playing white people, but I’m not. The whole production plays so fast and loose with the truth that it’s hard to pick any particular piece to criticize, there’s a reality correlation approximating that of the Weekly World News. At the top of the list, though, has to be casting Alexander Hamilton as some sort of proto-multicultural progressive. That’s either stupidity or mendacity, take your pick. Hamilton was, if anything, the most aristocratic of the Founding Fathers, the closest thing to a Colonial Tory. You know that electoral college you’ve been gnashing your teeth over for the last couple months? Guess whose idea that was?

Of course, shit music and feels-over-reals weren’t the whole problem with America in 2016—and they aren’t the biggest deal facing us in 2017, either. No, the worst thing about this present moment in time is the smugness with which zillionaires and their sycophants on the coasts piss all over anyone who does actual work for a living.

That’s not just one of the main reasons that Trump won the election. That attitude makes for garbage art.

Read the whole thing.

CLARICE FELDMAN: The Trump Dossier Puts the Deep State in Deep Doo-Doo. “As you will see, the dossier is so ridiculous, if anyone in the Intelligence Community fell for it, he’s too stupid to allow in place, and if no one did but they still played a role in publicizing it, everyone involved needs to be fired.”

DON SURBER: The Press’s New Mission: Save The Bureaucracy.

HEALTH: Yellow Fever Outbreak in Brazil Prompts a State of Emergency.

The governor of the Minas Gerais State in southeastern Brazil declared a public health emergency on Friday over an outbreak of yellow fever that appears to have killed at least 10 people so far and led to reports of more than 100 suspected cases of the disease.

The state authorities said Friday they were investigating 133 suspected cases of yellow fever, of which 20 were considered probable, pending further testing. They said they were also looking into reports of 38 deaths, 10 of them suspected of being caused by yellow fever, according to the State Health Secretariat’s website.

The state health authorities said the number of suspected cases had more than doubled in recent days: 48 suspected cases had been reported as of Wednesday, and that figure rose to 110 on Thursday.

According to the World Health Organization, yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting. A small number of patients develop severe symptoms, and about half of those die within seven to 10 days.

With so many mosquito-borne diseases on the upswing, I guess we should be grateful that there’s at least a vaccine for this one.

THE MAN WHO LOST THE DEMOCRATS A THOUSAND ELECTIONS SAYS HIS WORK ISN’T FINISHED: Obama and His Movement Prepare to Challenge President Trump. And despite all the puffery packed into this NBC story, the conclusion is what matters: “The Democrats’ huge losses in terms of state legislative, gubernatorial and congressional seats during Obama’s eight years in office may reduce his credibility in telling party leaders what to do in the future.”

UPDATE: From the comments:

There’s one: the tradition that ex-Presidents back out of politics and mostly stay out of their successor’s way regardless of party. That’s a valuable, important institution in American politics. It goes back to George Washington (who retired to his farm). And, of course, the press is totally whitewashing that.

Well, one more American political tradition in the crapper. I have a feeling it will do even his own party more harm than good. Notice also that Obama’s special criterion for violating the tradition is if Trump backs policies that are “not who we are”. IE whenever Obama feels like it.

There’s another American tradition. The respect and deference shown to past American Presidents, even the bad ones. That tradition exists in large part because ex-presidents are no threat politically to current ones. Their job is to be the grown-ups, elder statesmen who protect the system as a whole (typing this, I’m seeing why Obama’s incapable of that role) and quietly work to foster the future of their party. If Obama’s going to cater to his own narcissism and remain defiantly on stage heckling President Trump, then there’s no reason for Trump to show any deference and respect to Obama.

Obama and the media will surely try to have it both ways: he’ll be marching around picking political fights, while acting wounded and disappointed when he isn’t treated like a non-combatant. American political traditions only exist insofar as they serve immediate democrat political expediency. Otherwise, if they’re mentioned at all it’s as antiquated foolishness.

Yeah, pretty much.

THE NEW FACE OF THE RESISTANCE:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: University Of Washington Delays Launch Of New Law School In Tacoma. Not enough people want to be lawyers.

GERMANS IN THE ARDENNES: Winter combat in a dense forest. Today’s StrategyPage Battle of the Bulge photo and another one that’s new to me. It’s sourced to a German archive. The caption says the photo was snapped December 22, 1944. The grenadier in the foreground is carrying an assault rifle.

UNKNOWN INDIVIDUALS ATTACK MOSUL HOME OF ISLAMIC STATE SENIOR LEADER: Can’t vouch for the source or its accuracy.

Unidentified individuals attacked the house of an Islamic State’s senior leader, north of the city of Mosul, a local source told Shafaaq News on Sunday.

The source said, “Unidentified individuals attacked the house of Omran Abu Mariam, the Islamic State’s leader in Diwan al-Harb (War Council), in al-Arabi neighborhood, north of Mosul, using hand grenades.”

“No casualties were reported so far, but the terrorist group started to lose its control over many areas in Mosul,” the source added on condition of anonymity.

A militia action? Who knows. The long house-to-house city fight for Mosul continues.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK: “While everyone was banging on about Trump being Hitler, Obama sent thousands of troops into Poland. The satire is writing itself these days.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Famed French Philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy: Anti-Zionism Is the New Dressing for the Old Passion of Antisemitism.

A SMALL VICTORY FOR FREEDOM: Tesla Autopilot Will Let You Speed After All. Plus: “If the majority of drivers stuck religiously to posted speed limits, that would be one thing. But very few people actually drive exactly the speed limit in a 35-mph zone. Considering that interrupting the flow of traffic is more dangerous than driving with the flow of traffic, this change may actually make Autopilot safer than before.”

THE SJW SINGULARITY HAS BEEN REACHED: “Fighting Trump via a romance novel about gay Muslims who pretend to be animals. No, really.”

Slate is the last Website owned by the Graham family, which also owned the Washington Post until its 2013 sale to Jeff Bezos. Something very strange has gotten in the water there recently. In addition to their above weirdness spotted by Rod Dreher, NewsBusters notes that “Slate Boss Salutes Irresponsibility: ‘I’m Glad BuzzFeed Published It.’”

CBS — which has refused to publish the details — brought on Slate editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg, who saluted BuzzFeed’s decision to disseminate the anti-Trump hit piece.

Weisberg admitted that the document was composed of “gossip” including some which is “not true,” but nevertheless “I’m glad BuzzFeed published it because I got to read it.”

So it’s fake but accurate in Weisberg’s mind, to borrow from the New York Times’ phrase excusing RatherGate. Just think of them as Democrat operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense. Well, other than the gay Muslim furries part – that’s still pretty darn weird, even for Slate.

D.B. COOPER HIJACKING UPDATE: The FBI closed the 1971 airplane hijacking and ransom case in July 2016. The hijacker parachuted from the plane, with the cash. However, amateur sleuths have turned up an intriguing lead.

The three amateur scientists have found rare-Earth elements on the JCPenney tie the infamous skyjacker left behind when he jumped out of a commercial airplane on a blistering night in 1971, with $200,000 in unmarked bills, a parachute, and a raincoat. The sleuths say the elements could indicate Cooper was an engineer or manager in the aerospace industry.

This is an informative article with a succinct summary of the crime.

READER BOOK PLUG: From Clay Chambers, Success: How People Succeed.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Alan Dershowitz: Obama’s Mid-East Legacy Is Tragic Failure.

TEN YEARS AGO TODAY ON STRATEGYPAGE: Intelligence: The New Noise from Director of National Intelligence.

I’m posting this oldie without comment and current links — really don’t have time to do what I did yesterday with Strategic Weapons. Scan the decade-old post, consider current U.S. intelligence reports in the media, etc.

Oh yes — here’s one from January 13, 2007 I should have posted but I had no time. Information Warfare: Microsoft, the NSA and China. Scan the old post. Pull your chin. Hacking and digital privacy issues– are they topics with current resonance?

A lot’s changed, a lot hasn’t.

LIFE IN THE AGE OF OBAMA: What You Need To Know About Syphilis. “If you thought we were basically done with syphilis as a society, you’re not the only one. Back in the early 2000s, the disease was considered to be quite rare. But we’ve seen a steep and troubling increase in cases over the past decade.”

TOLERANT LEFT STRIKES AGAIN: Andrea Bocelli backs out of Trump inauguration because of death threats.

ANDREW KLAVAN’S STRANGE NEW TRUMPIAN GLEE:

Look, I don’t care if the Trump fan-bots rail against me, Trump is an unreliable chap, to put it mildly. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he throws away his promises too easily and a lot of his instincts are leftist in the worst way. Everything he’s done so far could be scuttled on the rock of his personality.

But that hasn’t happened yet and every day is another day. And today, after eight years of a dishonest, undemocratic, anti-American scold in the White House, I am feeling gleeful. Almost pretty. Okay, gleeful.

He’s far from alone; the left’s psychotic post-election meltdown – after years of promising “a new civility” and demanding the same of Trump voters had Hillary won — has done much to remind reluctant Trump supporters why they voted for him.

ATLANTIC CITY CASINOS REFUSED TO GIVE PROFESSIONAL GAMBLER WHAT HE HAD WON. INSTEAD OF PAYING HIM, THEY SUED HIM: Gambler Phil Ivey Can’t Get His Millions Because Casinos Are Too Big To Fail: “The Borgata alleged that Ivey’s actions, which the casino agreed to in advance, constitute cheating. In fact, they merely constitute a gambler getting a legitimate advantage over the casino. In this age of cozy cooperation between the state and the gaming industry, that’s something that’s just not allowed.”

IN THE MAIL: From M.F. Thomas and Nicholas Thurkettle, Sickness in Time.

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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1346: IRS Chief Counsel William Wilkins Resigns, Effective Jan. 20; GOP Questioned His Role In Tea Party Targeting.

IF HE CAN’T, WHO CAN? Roger Simon: Can Peter Thiel Save California? “To have someone in the State Capitol in Sacramento with Thiel’s creativity would be extraordinary, scratch that, astonishing. He might make the most libertarian governor in American history. . . . But could he win? I dunno. Could Trump?”

For those who say that the Hispanicization of California makes a Thiel win impossible, remember Victor Davis Hanson’s Hispanic neighbor who voted for Trump. People said demographic changes made Trump’s win impossible, too.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Law professor gets a traffic-camera ticket. Hilarity ensues.

I then asked the question one is taught never to ask on cross—the last one. “So, you signed an affidavit under the pains and penalties of perjury alleging probable cause to believe that Adam MacLeod committed a violation of traffic laws without any evidence that was so?”

Without hesitating he answered, “Yes.” This surprised both of us. It also surprised the judge, who looked up from his desk for the first time. A police officer had just testified under oath that he perjured himself in service to a city government and a mysterious, far-away corporation whose officers probably earn many times his salary.

The city then rested its case. I renewed my motion to dismiss, which the judge immediately granted.

Vindication! Well, sort of. When I tried to recover my doubled appeal bond, I was told that the clerk was not authorized to give me my money. Naturally, the law contains no procedure for return of the bond and imposes on the court no duty to return it. I was advised to write a motion. Weeks later, when the court still had not ruled on my motion, I was told I could file a motion asking for a ruling on my earlier motion. Bowing to absurdity, I did so. Still nothing has happened now several months later.

Why This Matters

Traffic camera laws are popular in part because they appeal to a law-and-order impulse. If we are going to stop those nefarious evildoers who jeopardize the health of the republic by sliding through yellow lights when no one else is around and driving through empty streets at thirty miles per hour in twenty-five zones, then we need a way around such pesky impediments as a lack of eyewitnesses.

Yet traffic cameras do not always produce probable cause that a particular person has committed a crime. To get around this “problem” (as a certain law-and-order president-elect might call it), several states have created an entirely novel phylum of law: the civil violation of a criminal prohibition. Using this nifty device, a city can charge you of a crime without any witnesses, without any probable cause determination, and without any civil due process.

It’s all about money.

FROM PROF. STEPHEN L. CARTER: A SAFE PREDICTION: “Once Trump takes office, the left will swiftly rediscover the virtues of limited government and, in particular, strong constitutional restrictions on the independent exercise of authority by the executive. In a further turnaround, the left will celebrate corporate power as a check on government.”

Since the Left will then change its position immediately whenever it resumes power, Republicans should require that this newfound lefty enthusiasm for small government be put it in hard-to-reverse form, like a constitutional amendment . . . .

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HATE-FILLED ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC FROM DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MARTIN O’MALLEY:

With this sort of over-the-top insurrectionism from leading voices, do the Democrats even deserve to be treated as a serious political party anymore?

UPDATE: Cultural shaming of differing views as an authoritarian mindset.

I HOPE SO: Will Christians Urge UK Leaders to Seek U.S. Support by Rejecting Paris/UN Anti-Israel Moves?

KYLE SMITH: It’s time to face facts: Obama’s presidency was a failure.

The closing arguments for the Obama years are arriving, and they aren’t helping the outgoing president. A case in point is a new book published this week, one that acknowledges “Obama’s supporters have experienced [his presidency] as a continuous disappointment.”

Those supporters, and others, must have noticed that “for most of Obama’s term, wage gains were largely confined to the rich.” Or that “The administration’s planning in Libya clearly failed” or “It is certain that the actual outcome [of Obama’s Syria policy] was disastrous.”

Even many of President Obama’s proudest achievements look about as enduring as April snow: “If there was a single aspect of Obama’s legacy most vulnerable to reversal, it was his achievements on climate change,” the book says, and “Obama’s regulatory offensive is, of course, vulnerable to reversal by Donald Trump or the Supreme Court, since it rested upon executive action.” The longest chapter is titled “The Inevitability of Disappointment.”

Yet the title of the book containing these quotations is “Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail,” by the New York magazine columnist and lefty firebrand Jonathan Chait.

Denial.

SO THE OTHER DAY I MENTIONED THE FEDS’ student loan cutoff at Charlotte Law School. But I have a few more thoughts.

This is an interesting move for the Obama Administration as it heads out the door. It sets a precedent allowing the Trump Administration to crack down on higher ed in general — there are probably a dozen or more law schools as vulnerable as Charlotte — while saying it’s just following policy developed under the Obama Administration.

Then, if they wanted to make life tough on universities in general, they could just agree-and-amplify on the Obama Administrations sex-discrimination policies, while hammering schools over dishonest graduation, employment, and placement claims. Four to eight years of that and nobody would be going to college.

It’s weird that the Obama Administration, for whom higher education has functioned as a gigantic political-action committee, would lay this sort of foundation for higher ed’s ruin. It reminds me of Conquest’s Third Law: “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.”

UPDATE: Obama’s even set a precedent by going after Harvard.

THIS ISN’T A PROTEST, IT’S A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY: Inauguration Protesters Plan To Destroy Property And Disrupt Balls.

JOHN HINDERAKER: Trump Hits Back at John Lewis [Updated].

Lewis is invariably described as a “civil rights icon,” but the man is an utter fraud. He has been coasting on his 50-year-old reputation for decades. Andrew Breitbart exposed Lewis as a liar when he claimed, falsely, to have been subjected to racial epithets by a crowd outside the Capitol. Lewis disgracefully testified against Jeff Sessions’s nomination as Attorney General, again playing the fake race card. And, for what it’s worth, he didn’t consider George W. Bush a legitimate president, either.

There is no reason to treat John Lewis with kid gloves, and Donald Trump doesn’t do so.

Plus: “The Democrats are already fundraising, dishonestly, off this exchange. A little while ago they sent out an email headed: ‘BREAKING: Donald Trump INSULTS Rep. John Lewis.'” But of course.

Related: The AP Spins Lewis vs. Trump. “Enough with the ‘civil rights legend!’ That was 50 years ago, and has nothing to do with Lewis’s claim that Trump is an illegitimate president-elect, or Trump’s Twitter riposte to the effect that Lewis is an ineffective Congressman. Nor does the impending Martin Luther King day, or the departure of Barack Obama from office, have any relevance. These references are just thrown in so you know whose side you are supposed to be on.”

Yes, but fewer and fewer people care.

Plus: “Lewis has devoted his life to being a hack Democratic Party politician. John McCain was a hero 50 years ago, too, but has that ever stopped the Democrats from criticizing him? No.” That’s different, because shut up racist.

Takeaway:

A LADLE WIELDED WITH FEROCITY BEATS A KNIFE WITHOUT IT: Defensive Ladle Use: Watch cooks chase knife-wielding robber from Chinese eatery. “Note the second cook grabbing the stool as he went after the perp. Smart move. A chair is a great defensive weapon against a knife. My Krav instructor would approve.”

NO, BUT THE REST OF US SHOULD KEEP POINTING IT OUT: Sharpton Can’t Admit Tawana Brawley Hoax. “Brawley claimed she was kidnapped and gang-raped by white men, including a police officer and local prosecutor, in 1987. The story became a national sensation and was a career-maker for Sharpton, who was largely unknown at the time. But after a long investigation revealed Brawley’s claims to be false, it was dropped. Brawley finally began making defamation payments in August for her false accusations in the case, but Sharpton would still admit no fault Tuesday for his controversial involvement.”

OKAY, I LINKED THIS TED CRUZ BEATDOWN OF CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS’ NEWFOUND CONCERN FOR THE RULE OF LAW EARLIER, but it’s worth a full-on embed.

INAUGURATION FUN: Bikers for Trump Ready to Stand up to Protesters.

ENDORSED: Peter Thiel For California Governor.

WHAT HAPPENS TO AN INFLUENCE-PEDDLING OPERATION WHEN THERE’S NO INFLUENCE TO PEDDLE: Clinton Global Initiative to be discontinued.

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THE END OF RINGLING BROTHERS CIRCUS?: Say it ain’t so. Appears animal rights activists bear part of the blame.

After 146 years, the curtain is coming down on “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The owner of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus told The Associated Press that the show will close forever in May.

The iconic American spectacle was felled by a variety of factors, company executives say. Declining attendance combined with high operating costs, along with changing public tastes and prolonged battles with animal rights groups all contributed to its demise.

The animal rights extremists forced Ringling Brothers to get rid of its elephants.

In May of 2016, after a long and costly legal battle, the company removed the elephants from the shows and sent the animals to live on a conservation farm in Central Florida. The animals had been the symbol of the circus since Barnum brought an Asian elephant named Jumbo to America in 1882. In 2014, Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements from groups including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year fight over allegations that circus employees mistreated elephants.

The animal rights bullies helped put some of the more talented people on the planet out of a job — I mean Ringling Brothers clowns and acrobats.

Some 500 people perform and work on both touring shows. A handful will be placed in positions with the company’s other, profitable shows – it owns Monster Jam, Disney on Ice and Marvel Live, among other things – but most will be out of a job. Juliette Feld said the company will help employees with job placement and resumes. In some cases where a circus employee lives on the tour rail car (the circus travels by train), the company will also help with housing relocation.

Too late to push back?

IF TRUMP IS REALLY HITLER, WHY IS OBAMA EMPOWERING HIM? Obama Opens NSA’s Vast Trove of Warrantless Data to Entire Intelligence Community, Just in Time for Trump.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, TAKING-SIDES EDITION: Profs pledge to ‘use regular class time’ to protest Trump. Huh. I thought universities were nonprofits that were supposed to be nonpartisan.

Related: ‘Tolerant’ educators exile Trump voters from campus.

Plus: When campus microaggressions are real.

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ANDREW FERGUSON: Golf Comes to the Killing Fields.

Read the whole thing.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, BLUE-STATE CORRUPTION EDITION: Flashback: In Illinois, Substitute Teaching For One Day Reaped Nearly $1 Million in Taxpayer-Funded Pension Money.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH LABELS U.S. A ‘HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSER’ BECAUSE OF TRUMP.

Give the left points for consistency at least – Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize only a few months after taking office; despite Trump not even in office, the Soros-funded Human Rights Watch is performing the mirror universe version of the same stunt. Someone hold its beer.

UPDATE (From Glenn): If this works out like Obama’s Nobel, Trump will wind up doing more for human rights than any previous president!

Related: Hey, nice beard!

JOEL KOTKIN: FAKE NEWS AND THE ECONOMY:

Perhaps no president in recent history has more pressure on him to perform economic miracles than Donald Trump. As someone who ran on the promise that he could fix the economy — and largely won because of it — Trump faces two severe challenges, one that is largely perceptual and another more critical one that is very real.

To start, Trump must cope with the widespread idea, accepted by much of the media, that we are experiencing something of an “Obama boom.”

He is widely portrayed as inheriting a very strong economy, notes MSNBC, in which the U.S. is “the envy of the world.” Fortune sees Trump inheriting “the best economy in a generation.”

Yet this is more a matter of perception than reality, a kind of “fake news.” To be sure, President Barack Obama inherited a disastrous economy from George W. Bush and can claim, with some justification, that on his watch millions of jobs were restored and the economy achieved steady, if unspectacular, growth. Under Obama average GDP growth has been almost twice as high as under his predecessor, but roughly half that of either President Reagan or Clinton.

Less appreciated, however, are the fundamental long-term weaknesses in the U.S. economy that Obama and Bush have left for Trump. A recent report from the U.S. Council on Competitiveness details a litany of profound, lingering flaws — historically slow growth, rising inequality, stagnant incomes, slumping productivity and declining lifespans. As the report concludes: “The Great Recession may be over, but America is dangerously running on empty.”

On the other hand, if people thought the economy was as good as the press has been claiming, would Trump have won?

UPDATE: From the comments:

I’d be delighted if Trump started his first State of The Union speech with, “My fellow citizens, after many years of being absolutely lied to, by both politicians and the media that support them, I’d like to throw a monkey wrench in their spin-jobs and tell you some rock solid facts, quoting the statistics from the government agencies responsible. Here’s what has been going on with the economy… labor participation rates… violent crime… illegal immigration… the revolving door of media, government service and political campaigns… size of the federal bureaucracy… how much of your tax money actually goes to the purposes they’re allocated for…”

Heh.

TROLL LEVEL: GALACTIC OVERLORD. “One proposal on dealing with the media that was pitched to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team calls for drug testing the White House press corps.”

WELL, THAT’S THE MESSAGE THEY’RE TRYING TO SPIN:

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON ON TRUMP AND THE AMERICAN DIVIDE:

As the nation became more urban and its wealth soared, the old Democratic commitment from the Roosevelt era to much of rural America—construction of water projects, rail, highways, land banks, and universities; deference to traditional values; and Grapes of Wrath–like empathy—has largely been forgotten. A confident, upbeat urban America promoted its ever more radical culture without worrying much about its effects on a mostly distant and silent small-town other. In 2008, gay marriage and women in combat were opposed, at least rhetorically, by both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in their respective presidential campaigns. By 2016, mere skepticism on these issues was viewed by urban elites as reactionary ignorance. In other words, it was bad enough that rural America was getting left behind economically; adding insult to injury, elite America (which is Democrat America) openly caricatured rural citizens’ traditional views and tried to force its own values on them. Lena Dunham’s loud sexual politics and Beyoncé’s uncritical evocation of the Black Panthers resonated in blue cities and on the coasts, not in the heartland. Only in today’s bifurcated America could billion-dollar sports conglomerates fail to sense that second-string San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protests of the national anthem would turn off a sizable percentage of the National Football League’s viewing audience, which is disproportionately conservative and middle American. These cultural themes, too, Trump addressed forcefully.

Read the whole thing.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF NANOTECHNOLOGY.

I THINK TRUMP MAY BE THE ROCK UPON WHICH THE RACE-HUSTLERS BREAK: ‘We will not be Trumped’: Sharpton calls for protests against Sessions. Sharpton’s rather iffy affairs have enjoyed a de facto immunity from Democrat Administrations who find him useful and Republican who are afraid to be called racist. That may not persist.

UPDATE: From the comments: “There are lots of anti Semites on the left but Sharpton has the distinction of actually organizing a pogrom.”

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: What If China’s Money Stream Stops Flowing to Hollywood?

Movies might suck less, for one thing, since their plots and dialogue are often dumbed for foreign consumption — not to mention censored as well to placate the Chinese government. Or as even urban haute bourgeois* left Vanity Fair asked in August, “Did You Catch All the Ways Hollywood Pandered to China This Year?”

(Via Blazing Cat Fur.)

* Classical reference.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: How Long Can an Engine Run Using Coca-Cola as Oil?

DEEP CONTEXT ON THE NEWS: How new is the news? Often it isn’t so new. For about five years the StrategyPage webmaster and I have been discussing starting a “Ten Years Ago On StrategyPage” feature. Two years ago a reader said we should have a feature that linked posts and analysis in the archive to current news. I told her we’re a garage band. Who has the time?

But we’re going to give it a try. When I became an Instapundit co-blogger Glenn encouraged me to make use of StrategyPage’s archives to provide readers with background on current defense and international topics.

Modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal is a current topic.

From January 14, 2007: Strategic Weapons: The Cost of Maintaining Missiles: “January 14, 2007: The U.S. Navy will pay about $400,000 a year for maintenance on each of its Trident II D5 SLBM (sea launched ballistic missiles)…”

The decade-old post is about maintenance. It’s short. But it’s a window into what it takes to maintain complex weapons. As time passes maintenance costs increase. Now it’s time to modernize.

Here’s an analysis of cost and consequences of current nuclear arsenal modernization (from The Hill.) And GEN Mattis’ take on the issue.

This archived post from January 18, 2007 is also related to current strategic weapons issues: THAAD Goes Into Production.
A battery of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles is now operational on Guam. Note the system’s name has changed but its acronym hasn’t.

I’m not sure how often I’ll have the time to do this, but I’ll try another one tomorrow. Maybe.

FLASHBACK: JOHN LEWIS (D-GA) COMPARES JOHN McCAIN AND SARAH PALIN TO GEORGE WALLACE (D-AL).

Is there any Republican president or presidential candidate Lewis hasn’t cried wolf over?

Related: “Lewis is invariably described as a ‘civil rights icon,’ but the man is an utter fraud. He has been coasting on his 50-year-old reputation for decades,” John Hinderaker writes today at Power Line. “There is no reason to treat John Lewis with kid gloves, and Donald Trump doesn’t do so. This morning he used his favorite medium to respond to Lewis’s slanders…Trump could have been a lot harsher,” he adds, after linking to Trump’s tweets.

TRUMP TURNED BEN CARSON INTO A MILITANT WHITE GUY SO GRADUALLY I BARELY EVEN NOTICED:

Hat tip: Benny Johnson on Facebook.

FEMALE PRIVILEGE: Woman Raped Boy, 13, With ‘Nice Body,’ Gets Probation. Elaine Goodman faced up to 15 years.

CARTEL DRUG LORD ORDERED TO PAY $1 MILLION INDEMNITY FOR DEA AGENT’S MURDER:

A Mexican federal court made the ruling.

A federal judge has ordered a drug lord convicted in the 1985 killings of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a Mexican government pilot to pay relatives of the victims nearly $1 million in compensation, officials said Friday.

The Federal Judicial Council announced the 20.8 million peso penalty in a statement without naming any of the parties involved.

But a judicial official confirmed that the order is directed at Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseca Carrillo, co-founder of the Guadalajara cartel, for the case of the kidnapping, torture and killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.

THE FATHER OF PINYIN WRITING SYSTEM DEAD AT 111: Zhou Youguang’s efforts helped raise literacy rates in China. He became a critic of the dictatorship. He was born in 1906 during the Qing dynasty. Read the whole thing.

LIFE IN THE POST-ANTIBIOTIC ERA: A superbug resistant to every available antibiotic has killed a woman in the US. But don’t worry, the government’s on it: “Many major pharmaceutical companies have stopped developing new antibiotics altogether. Last year for example, the FDA turned down Cempra Pharmaceuticals‘ new antibiotic, a drug designed to fight a type of bacterial pneumonia called solithromycin, citing too little information on how the drug might impact the liver. That additional trial would require testing out the antibiotic on 9,000 people.”

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE “IMPOSSIBLE” EM DRIVE: “It’s much more likely that the researchers are overlooking something than that much of our physics is wrong.” Nevertheless, it moves.

GOOD ADVICE: Democrats Should Not Even Dream About President Beyoncé.

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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1346: The Trump Dossier, The Left, And Tea Party Targeting.

JULIETTE OCHIENG: Steve Harvey, Talladega College, and the Shame Mob. “The trick to resisting them is to realize that shame is the only weapon they’re wielding. They have nothing else. And if one is immune to their form of shaming–name-calling–reading it is like watching a toddler throw a fit, only funnier.”

WHEN IT BECAME POLITICALLY INCONVENIENT FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Why Did the Bureau of Justice Statistics Stop Publishing the Data on Interracial Crime?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, RAMPANT HOMOPHOBIA EDITION: Censorship: UC-Davis Student Protesters Shut Down Milo Yiannopoulos.

JON GABRIEL LOOKS BACK AT President Obama’s Disastrous Record On Race.

Every time an officer of any race used lethal force against a black suspect, most of them ruled justifiable, Black Lives Matter cast it as another example of privilege and white supremacy. BLM harassed bewildered customers at malls and brunches, and regularly blocked traffic on major freeways. Concerned Student 1959 tried to shut down the University of Missouri as Amherst Uprising did the same for their school.

Did Obama comment on the widespread racial unrest wracking his country? Occasionally. But each time he used his “on the one hand, but on the other” formulation that defines himself as the moral fulcrum amidst the madness. The President didn’t mention that his fingerprints were all over the riots.

Before getting into politics, Barack Obama was a community organizer. This anodyne term was created by Chicago leftist Saul Alinsky who created the position to “rub raw the sores of discontent.” Many thought Obama’s moderate sounding speeches meant he had tossed Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals in the dustbin. Instead, upon entering the White House, Obama created Organizing for Action, which has trained 5 million Americans in Alinsky tactics.

Occupy Wall Street, Wisconsin’s anti-Walker protests, and Black Lives Matter didn’t arise of their own accord. They were the bitter fruit intentionally cultivated by OfA.

More disturbingly, Obama’s goal to “fundamentally transform America” is far from over. In his farewell speech, Obama repeatedly stressed the need for the crowd to “lace up your shoes and do some organizing.”

If Obama had wanted racial healing, he would have pursued racial healing.

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Trump rips John Lewis: Worry about your ‘crime infested’ district. “Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!”

MIKE PENCE TO BE SWORN IN AS VICE PRESIDENT BY CLARENCE THOMAS. That’s a nice step toward breaking down the marginalization that official Washington has inflicted on Thomas for years. Maybe next the Smithsonian’s African American History museum will admit he exists.

HAPPY DIVORCE SEASON:

Unbeknownst to me, family lawyers apparently call January “divorce month.” As the Christmas tree is thrown out and the wrapping paper cleared away, the empty Champagne bottles taken out behind the garage, Google searches for terms like “divorce lawyer” and “file for divorce” spike. Many of the people researching how to untie the knot will probably not do so. But some will.

Brad Wilcox and Samuel Sturgeon of the Institute for Family Studies suggest that there might be good reason to hold off, particularly if you have kids. Of course, there might be good reason not to hold off! But the majority of divorces involving kids don’t come from “high conflict” marriages or situations involving abuse; Wilcox and Sturgeon point to data indicating that most divorces come from couples who are still basically functioning as parents.

Counterintuitively, kids whose parents divorce amid flying crockery and lurid accusations may actually do better, post-divorce, than kids whose parents unhappily fizzle out. But if you think about it for a while, that’s not all that surprising. In homes with major conflict, divorce brings a certain measure of peace and stability. But if your parents are basically civil to each other, divorce could come as an unwelcome surprise.

Our parents, our family unit, are the first and most bedrock fact of our lives. Suddenly breaking that apart — for no reason apparent to the children involved — shakes a faith in the world that will never be rebuilt in quite the same way. Moreover, divorce often means downward economic mobility. Unless you are hugely wealthy, splitting your income across two households means that sacrifices have to be made by both parties, and often, that financial stress is added to the emotional upheaval of unraveling two lives.

Small wonder, then, that the children of divorce tend to have worse outcomes on various measures than the children whose parents stay together.

Small wonder, indeed.

SO APPARENTLY IT WAS THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION that got Legal Insurrection’s YouTube channel taken down, claiming that the audio it posted of speakers at the MLA’s debate on anti-Israel sanctions was some sort of “copyright infringement.”

It’s probably a bad idea to make bogus copyright claims against a Cornell law professor, especially one who’s represented by blogosphere legal titan Ron “the Shark” Coleman.

RENDEZVOUS NEAR RIVER L’OURT: The latest in StrategyPage’s Battle of the Bulge commemorative photo series. Bed sheets turned used as winter camouflage. The snow is deep.

THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN AMERICAN HISTORY, MAYBE THE WORLD: Pelosi blames Bush for $9 trillion in debt added under Obama.

Is there anything he can’t do?

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Oikophobia on the rise after Trump win: Irrational fear of fellow countrymen is spreading among America’s ruling class.

SELF-DEFENSE: Beloved 78-year-old Texas Landlord Takes Out Would-be Robber.

GEORGE SCOVILLE: “Fake News?” Media, Heal Thyself.

In December, PolitiFact awarded its “2016 Lie of the Year” award to “Fake news.” But mainstream press deserves plenty of blame. We can’t all be gullible rubes, after all. Why are American news consumers turning away from mainstream media? The answer is simple: contemporary reporting is awful.

According to George Mason University economist and political scientist Tim Groseclose, whose work has focused on measuring partisan bias in the press, news editors and reporters overwhelmingly skew left on the American political spectrum. To wit, the Center for Public Integrity found that, of the over $396,000 that members of the press gave in 2016 to the two major presidential campaigns, 96 percent of the funds went to Clinton.

Recent headlines claiming that malicious foreign actors “hacked” the 2016 election suggest that editors make deliberate choices to try to shape how we think about current events. Although federal officials have found no evidence of vote-tampering, the damage is already done: over 50 percent of Democrats in a recent YouGov poll think Russians hacked actual vote tallies to help Trump. This conspiracy theory rivals the belief that President Obama is a Kenyan Muslim.

Michael Cleply, a former New York Times reporter, wrote after the election that his editors often assigned stories to him with prepackaged narratives. His job was to gather facts and comments from sources to support the storyline. This is not “reporting.” It is little wonder that many people distrust mainstream media.

Nope.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Media beware, your credibility is all you have.

I GUESS AMERICA IS FEELING TRUMPTASTIC! Gallup: ‘Personal satisfaction’ highest in 16 years.

EUGENE VOLOKH ON BUZZFEED: When ‘there is serious reason to doubt’ rumors and allegations, is it libelous to publish them?

RUSSIANS! HACKING OBAMA’S DOGS! White House defends Sunny and Bo after biting report.

President Obama’s top spokesman on Friday defended the first family’s dogs after a report this week that one bit a young visitor.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest refused to confirm the report, but said with a grin that “Bo and Sunny have been genuine ambassadors to the American people.”

The comment elicited laughter from the reporters assembled inside the James A. Brady Press Briefing Room.

“They’ve represented themselves and their country quite well,” a smiling Earnest added.

TMZ reported Thursday that the younger Obama dog, Sunny, recently bit an 18-year-old family friend when she went to pet her.

The bite reportedly left a cut under the girl’s eye, which was treated by the White House physician.

Ouch.

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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Georgia Tech’s Model Expands: Three years after its low-cost MOOC-inspired master’s degree program in computer science launched, the institute announces a new program in analytics priced at less than $10,000. “The announcement is perhaps the clearest indication yet that Georgia Tech views OMSCS as a successful model for delivering graduate education. The program hasn’t lived up to best-case projections — early on, the institute said it could grow to as many as 10,000 students in its third year — but it has generated a positive cash flow, positive evaluations and plenty of buzz in higher education circles.”

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.