OPEN THREAD: This is it, we’ll hit the heights. And oh what heights we’ll hit.

GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: The Lost Art of the Sitcom Opening.“Always underneath these broadly comedic shows of the ’70s ran that intriguing undercurrent of melancholy. The juxtaposition is striking. Perhaps it was a sign of the times.”

FINALLY: Colorado Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit harassing cake artist Jack Phillips. State high court rules in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop owner, brings an end to attorney’s harassment of Phillips.

Until the next lawsuit, of course. Once again, it’s a reminder of the stunning business opportunity hidden within the Centennial State: With a population of 5.84 million, why on earth won’t someone open up a second bakery there?

I DUNNO, THIS SEEMS MORE LIKE AN OBAMA-STYLE MOVE: Joe Biden pushed UK to surrender Chagos Islands.

The Telegraph understands that American officials pushed the UK toward the deal, fearing that if it was not signed, Mauritius would successfully apply for a binding ruling at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take control of the islands, effectively shuttering the air base.

The base is considered strategically important because it puts some bomber aircraft within range of the Middle East. Diego Garcia was previously used by the US to conduct bombing runs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US officials told the Foreign Office that a quick deal should be signed before the American and Mauritian elections next month, agreeing to give up UK territory in exchange for the base.

The officials argued that handing over the islands would safeguard Britain’s special relationship with the US, and that a binding court ruling would make it more difficult to fly aircraft to the base, conduct repairs, and cooperate with UN agencies.

Well, let’s hope it works out well for our interests there. Otherwise: No Time Like the Present for the UK to Give Away *gulp* Diego Garcia.

BAY AREA BLUES: Bay Area poll: 7 in 10 residents say the region’s quality of life is getting worse.

Naturally of course, the San Jose Mercury buries the real lede paragraphs deep into the article:

A whopping 46% of respondents said they were likely to leave the Bay Area in the next few years, with two-thirds of those citing high housing costs as the main reason to consider a move. During the pandemic, people fleeing the region contributed to a 3% population drop, though that exodus has since slowed.

Hey, remember that Welcome Wagon program, wealthy Red State Republicans? Any thoughts on actually getting it going?

I SHOT ONE OF THESE YEARS AGO, AND HONESTLY THE RECOIL WASN’T BAD: Gun Review: The Magnum Research Desert Eagle is 50 Caliber Perfection. That’s no doubt because it’s huge and heavy. (It weighs nearly 4 1/2 pounds empty, much more when loaded). It’s also because the .50AE cartridge, while powerful, isn’t as powerful as you probably think.

POSTMODERN PROBLEMS: Sexbots? In My Cloud Stack? It’s More Likely Than You Think. “I’ve long been amazed at the hyperparasitism of the hacker exploit ecosystem, where hackers penetrate systems not to steal credit card numbers, but just to steal the resources to run bot farms. And now hackers are stealing cloud resources to run AI sexbots.”

COLD WAR II: U.S. Nuclear Deterrence: What Went Wrong and What Can Be Done? “Contemporary U.S. plans for the modernization of nuclear forces are an approximately 15-year-old legacy of the Obama Administration. They were established at a time when many U.S. officials believed that U.S. relations with Russia and China were relatively benign and would remain so, or improve further. Correspondingly, these plans reflected no sense of urgency and, with the exception of a modified B61 bomb, nothing is soon-to-be operational. How a new presidential administration and Congress decide to (or not) adapt the U.S. nuclear posture given the unmistakable reality of a much more dangerous than expected contemporary threat environment will affect the U.S. nuclear force posture for decades, and, consequently, U.S. deterrence strategies and options.”

Previously: Obama: The ’80s called, they want their foreign policy back.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Saturday Night – When Liberals Loved Free Speech.

There’s plenty to chew on during the film. The cast members do good-enough impressions of Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase and John Belushi. It’s fun to see comedy institutions like “Weekend Update” in their earliest forms.

Another takeaway? How much “SNL” has evolved over the years.

It’s gotten worse. Much worse. And the show’s political leanings are now to the Left of Stephen Colbert. And it shows.

They always were; Chevy Chase thought that hapless liberal Republican Gerald Ford was the antichrist. But in the beginning, Lorne Michaels was essentially making the weekly television version of National Lampoon magazine. (Chase, Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and original head writer Michael O’Donoghue were all originally with the Lampoon.) As a result, the show was hip and irreverent; decades on though, it now exists only to provide Sunday column fodder for Beltway journalists. As John Hinderaker wrote in 2017 at Power Line, political reporters and wire services love to recap SNL episodes, because it allows them to get their biases in print while still maintaining a thin veneer of objectivity. “‘Respectable’ news outlets like the AP can’t publish absurd comedy skits ripping President Trump, much as they might like to,” Hinderaker wrote. “But by covering Saturday Night Live, they turn such meaningless attacks into fake ‘news.’”