BETTER CALL SAUL: Protesters gather outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home, call for him to resign.

It will be interesting to see how Rahm reacts, considering the home protest is a tactic straight out of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals — and Alinsky’s son praised Obama in 2008 for his mastery of dad’s techniques:

Barack Obama’s training in Chicago by the great community organizers is showing its effectiveness. It is an amazingly powerful format, and the method of my late father always works to get the message out and get the supporters on board. When executed meticulously and thoughtfully, it is a powerful strategy for initiating change and making it really happen. Obama learned his lesson well.

And now his former chief of staff may learn a few lessons as well — couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Why Equality And Diversity Departments Should Only Hire Rich, Straight White Men. “In an age of grievance politics, where victimhood is currency, only those outside the game of Oppression Olympics can properly adjudicate between aggrieved minorities.”

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: US Attorney declines prosecution of former VA execs.

Federal prosecutors have decided not to press criminal charges against two former executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs who were accused of manipulating the agency’s hiring system for their own gain.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said Thursday it has declined a referral from the VA inspector general for criminal prosecution of Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves.

The inspector general said in a report this fall that Rubens and Graves forced lower-ranking regional managers to accept job transfers against their will. Rubens and Graves then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their pay while reducing their responsibilities.

Rubens had been earning $181,497 as director of the Philadelphia regional office for the Veterans Benefits Administration, while Graves earned $173,949 as leader of the St. Paul, Minnesota, regional office. Before taking the regional jobs, Rubens was a deputy undersecretary at the VA’s Washington headquarters, while Graves was director of VBA’s 14-state North Atlantic Region.

Rubens and Graves were accused of obtaining more than $400,000 in questionable moving expenses through a relocation program for VA executives, the inspector general’s report said.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said it has “referred the matter to the VA for any administrative action that is deemed appropriate.”

Rubens and Graves were demoted in November, but their demotions were rescinded this month after a paperwork mix-up.

Tar. Feathers.

GOOD: ‘I will not stop talking about this’! NRO’s Katherine Timpf won’t let Hillary off ‘feminist’ hook.

FREE SPEECH UPDATE: How Three Professors Banded Together to Beat Back a Free Speech Threat at Clemson.

More like this, please.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: California Laws: On January 1st, Students Won’t Have to Pass High School to Receive Diploma. To be fair, now that public schools are about warehousing and indoctrinating kids, why worry about whether they’re learning anything?

If only someone had warned us.

FROM TEHRAN, WITH LOVE: U.S. Carrier Harry S. Truman Has Close Call With Iranian Rockets:

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman came about 1,500 yards from an Iranian rocket in the Strait of Hormuz last week, two U.S. military officials told NBC News on Tuesday.

As the Truman was transiting the strait, which connects the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, Iranian Revolutionary Guards conducted a live-fire exercise right near the U.S. carrier Saturday, officials said.

Related: “On Thursday night as the ball drops in Times Square, millions of Americans watching on TV will join the revelers in Manhattan to celebrate the new year. For other Americans, alas, the arrival of Jan. 1 will mark only the beginning of another year behind Iranian bars. It’s long past time to bring these men home.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. When You Believe In Nothing, Islam Becomes Something:

France is a country that has lost much of its religion and national pride. They have become increasingly a people without desire, direction, or heart.

Christopher Caldwell points out in his similarly prescient 2009 book, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, that Europe has engaged in self-shaming for so long that it reviles everything about its own culture, idolizing minority culture instead, as a kind of mea culpa for their colonial sins against the Third World. Perhaps the French today are so full of multicultural idealism, but lacking a pride in their own culture, that they would indeed go along with a religious takeover—so long as the pay is good, the wives are pretty, crime goes down, and a stable system is put into place.

Earlier: The crisis of character — Brendan O’Neill on Identity politics and the death of the individual.

ROBBIE SOAVE: Silencing Students: The 8 Most Loathsome Campus Censors of 2015. Normally, I wouldn’t give away who wins the #1 slot, but this year it’s hardly a surprise:

In George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece 1984, an agent of the authoritarian state tells the soon-to-be-brainwashed protagonist, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” Student-journalists, meet your very own boot-stamper: Melissa Click, an assistant professor of communications at the University of Missouri, who easily captures the #1 spot on this list.

The face of higher education in America: “If you want a picture of what’s to come on college campuses next year, imagine the hate-filled visage of Click as she stomps on a student’s camera—forever.” Note that she’s still employed at Mizzou.

WAIT, WAIT MATHEMATICIANS FORM POSSES?  HOW COME MY HUSBAND NEVER TOLD ME? Posse of Mathematicians Bridges Number Theory and Geometry.  His penchant for wearing a cowboy hat in order to keep his glasses snow-free is now explained!

WORST HARRY POTTER SEQUEL EVER: Stephen Miller on Twitter.

BUT IT’S NOT ALL GOOD.  POPCORN IS SO EXPENSIVE: Rahm Emanuel, Stranded in Cuba as His Deputy Gets Assaulted.

THE WORD DOESN’T MEAN WHAT NBC THINKS IT MEANS: Trump corrects NBC: Clinton, Lewinsky affair not ‘alleged’.

REALLY, WHERE IS MY SHOCKED FACE? Bay Area Job Growth Slows After Minimum-Wage Hikes.  In other news, the laws of physics, like the laws of economics, refuse to bend to the “feels” of liberals.

I’LL BE ATTENDING THIS IN FEBRUARY: Unless major disaster occurs. The Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. Attended the last one.  VERY worth it.

IN A MERE THOUSAND VOLUMES:What Obama doesn’t understand about human nature.

I THINK MY SHOCKED FACE IS GETTING WORN OUT FROM USE: Report: Obama’s NSA spied on Israel, Congress, and Jewish Organizations.

THEY ALWAYS PROTECT THEIR OFFENDERS: The Bill Clinton Effect: Why Liberals Treat Women Worse. (BTW this has been my experience with liberals in my business as well.)

VICTIMS ARE VICTIMS ARE VICTIMS: Gay sex slave trial exposes hardships of male trafficking victims.

WON’T HAPPEN: What will it take for Hillary and Obama to condemn the Chicago coverup?

LAYERS AND LAYERS OF FACT CHECKERS: BBC Admits ‘Gaza Under Attack’ Images Fabricated.

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED:New contagious form of cancer discovered.

OBITUARY: George Clayton Johnson, science-fiction author, dies at 86.

FROM THE PARTY THAT GAVE US SLAVERY AND JIM CROW: The ‘mismatch theory’ is a real danger to minority students.

BAD STATS DRIVE BAD POLICY: Census vet weighs in.