AND ANOTHER ONE: BuzzFeed has fired its White House correspondent after allegations of inappropriate comments to a colleague.

Adrian Carrasquillo was let go following an internal investigation, a representative told Business Insider on Wednesday.

“We are saddened by these circumstances, but we take these issues extremely seriously,” the representative said. “We’re committed to ensuring that BuzzFeed remains a place where everyone is treated respectfully by his or her peers.”

Last month, BuzzFeed News began investigating several of its staffers after their names appeared on a Google spreadsheet titled “S—-y Media Men” that was being passed around media circles. It listed unverified allegations against men in the media and publishing industries. Carrasquillo’s name appeared on a version of the list seen by Business Insider.

The White House correspondent was fired Wednesday after a new complaint came to light that included evidence of inappropriate comments he’d sent to a coworker.

“In responding to a complaint filed last week by an employee, we learned that Adrian violated our Code of Conduct by sending an inappropriate message to a colleague,” a spokesman said. “This followed a reminder about our prohibition against inappropriate communications.”

The existence of the list, which was circulated following revelations of decades-long harassment by the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, was reported by BuzzFeed, with the list including anonymous allegations of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse that the list’s author advised should be taken “with a grain of salt.”

The JournoList lives.

BYRON YORK: McCain associate subpoenaed in Trump dossier probe.. “House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has issued a subpoena to David Kramer, a former State Department official who, in late November 2016, traveled to London to receive a briefing and a copy of the Trump dossier from its author, former British spy Christopher Steele. Kramer then returned to the U.S. to give the document to Sen. John McCain. . . . McCain later took a copy of the dossier to the FBI’s then-director, James Comey. But the FBI already had the document; Steele himself gave the dossier to the bureau in installments, reportedly beginning in early July 2016.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Prof urges ‘abolition of white democracy’ during lecture. Remember, when taxpayers get tired of funding this sort of thing, it will be blamed on “anti-intellectualism.”

AT AMAZON, Hot New Releases, Updated Hourly.

Plus, new Kindle Daily Deals.

And, today’s Digital Deals.

MICHAEL BARONE: Trying To Take Trump Seriously.

Their deep reduction in the corporate tax rate, from the highest in the developed world to below average, obviously incentivized both U.S.- and foreign-based firms to invest here. Trump’s rejection of the Trans Pacific Partnership and renegotiation of NAFTA, in Cowen’s view, will make lesser-developed Asian nations and Mexico less attractive alternatives to the U.S. for investors.

Trump critics are right to say that this upends—the regnant cliché—the thrust of American policy since the years just after World War II. Then there was bipartisan agreement on encouraging free trade and foreign investment, as economist Douglas Irwin writes in Clashing Over Commerce. Europe was in ruins and voters thought its revival was in our interest.

But that was 70 years ago, and economic situations seldom remain static so long. A revived Europe has turned sluggish, while low-wage nations in Asia, Latin America, and even Africa are open for investment. First Japan, then China, now others will be moving up as competitors.

America has proved competitive at the top levels. But a country whose labor force is always going to include many low-skill workers may have some continuing interest in incentivizing low-skill employment. That’s not Cowen’s view or mine, but it’s apparently President Trump’s. Maybe it’s not just dismissible as crazy ranting.

Something similar may be said for the Trump foreign policy, considered as a perhaps unstable amalgam of his sober drafted national security Strategy and his sometimes impulsive tweets. This view explicated by David P. Goldman, writing this month in the Asia Times.

Trump’s view, Goldman argues, is of an America that is more competitive than cooperative, not necessarily hostile to others but not willing to rely on assertions of abstract common interests. “Competition does not always mean hostility, nor does it inevitably lead to conflict—although none should doubt our commitment to defend our interests.”

The national security strategy has a tough enough approach to Russia to disabuse all but the most dogmatic believers of the notion that Trump is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Manchurian candidate. It is sharply critical of some actions by President Xi Jinping’s China. It drops former President George W. Bush’s earnest promotion of democracy in the Middle East and former President Barack Obama’s gauzy faith that Iran will abandon its nuclear weapons program and become a normal constructive power in the region.

Read the whole thing.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: More Jobs in 2018, Obama’s Echo Chamber and Much, Much More.

JUST THINK OF THE MEDIA AS DEMOCRAT OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES, AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: CNN Host Ignores Democrat’s Misconduct Settlement For Entire Interview [VIDEO].

POWER PROJECTION: South Korea, Japan Mull F-35Bs for Amphibious Assault Ships.

Citing military sources, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the Lockheed Martin Corp.-made short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35Bs would be part of South Korea’s long-term plan to build a “blue water” navy.

South Korea currently has one amphibious assault ship, the 14,300-ton, 653-foot Dokdo, which is the largest ship in the South Korean navy. A second Dokdo-class amphib is planned for 2020.

“I understand that the military top brass have recently discussed whether they can introduce a small number of F-35B fighters and operate them aboard the new ship that has already been deployed and one to be additionally built,” a military source told Yonhap.

Japan is also considering buying F-35Bs to operate from its helicopter carrier, the Japan Times reported.

None of this comes as a surprise to anyone who has been following the development and deployment of Japan’s Izumo-class “destroyer” for any length of time.

SHEILA JACKSON LEE IS THE PERFECT FACE FOR THE DEMOCRATS: Woman accused of racism by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is human-rights activist.

The woman Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee accused of racism is a celebrated photojournalist who helped document human-rights abuses in war-torn Guatemala during the 1980s.

Jean-Marie Simon, whose first-class seat on a United Airlines flight was given to Ms. Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, lived and worked in Guatemala during the turbulent decade that saw the military seize control of the government in a coup. Hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans were killed or “disappeared” during the conflict.

Now a teacher, Ms. Simon, 63, is the author of “Guatemala: Eternal Spring Eternal Tyranny.” A 2012 blog post on Amnesty International saidMs. Simon donated 1,000 copies of her book to schools and universities in Guatemala “to keep the truth of what happened alive.”

In a tweet Tuesday, Ms. Jackson Lee suggested Ms. Simon was upset about her seat being given away because it was given to an “African-American woman.”

I also think that someone with Lee’s documented history of abusing her position has no business on the Homeland Security committee, much less as ranking member on the Transportation Security committee.

WHY ARE DEMOCRATS SO HOSTILE TO THOSE WHO FIGHT OPPRESSION? Woman accused of racism by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is human-rights activist.

ACTORS ARE SELF-IMPORTANT, GENERALLY NOT VERY BRIGHT, AND USUALLY POORLY EDUCATED. That goes double for members of the Baldwin family.

WINNING: Perhaps ‘Fewer Than 1,000 ISIS Jihadists Left in Syria and Iraq.’

WHY ARE DEMOCRAT-DOMINATED ORGANIZATIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF SCOPOPHILIA? CNBC director accused of spying on teenage nanny with bathroom cam.

NBC’s alumni include Al Franken, David Letterman, the late Roger Ailes, and yes, Donald Trump. At the start of this year’s fall season, its on-air talent included Matt Lauer, Chris Matthews, and fabulists Brian Williams and Al Sharpton. Then there’s management’s creepy attempt at squashing Ronan Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein. That’s some corporate culture going on at NBC and its affiliated networks.

“Our media crowd is just one big Harper Valley PTA,” Glenn noted last week in regards to the Chris Matthews’ scandal report, “So basically, all the people on the teevee going on about ‘have you no decency, sir?’ are predators and pervs.” And peeping toms, if the New York Daily News’ article is correct.

LINDA SARSOUR: You Have No Right to Tell Us We Can’t Kill Jews.

The full quote, in case you think the headline might be hyperbolic:

“Nobody gets to tell an occupied people how to respond to their own oppression and the continued stripping of their humanity, agency and land whether they are Palestinians or not. Nobody. Oppressed people determine how, when and where to resist. They set the parameters.”

In other words, you have no right to tell them they can’t kill Jews.

IT’S HEAVILY POLITICIZED. IT NEEDS TO BE DEPOLITICIZED. The Hill: GOP lawmaker defends calling for ‘purge’ at FBI: ‘I’m pretty frustrated.’

And to be honest, its track record was never that good, all the way back to Hoover.

LICENSING GONE WILD: Why Does Blow-Drying Hair in Arizona Require 1,000 Hours of Training?

Picking up a hair dryer in the state of Arizona and using it to dry someone else’s hair, for money, requires more than 1,000 hours of training and an expensive state-issued license. Blow-drying hair without a license could—incredibly—land you in jail for up to six months.

America is saturated with ridiculous licensing rules that do little to protect public health or safety. They exist mostly as a way to drive-up prices and restrict employment. Cosmetology licensing laws are some of the worst offenders of common sense, and Arizona’s cosmetology licensing laws truly boggle the mind. Doing something as simple as shampooing, drying, and styling hair requires a full-fledged cosmetology license, which includes years of training in hair and skin care, makeup application, and other un-related skills.

Before applying for that license, an applicant would have to graduate from a beauty school, which can cost as much as $15,000 in tuition.

State Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-Scottsdale) says the licensing requirement is particularly troublesome for so-called blow-dry bars—salons that offer nothing more than shampooing and styling of hair, without cutting, coloring, or other more advanced hair care.

She plans to introduce a bill to exempt workers who “dry, style, arrange, curl, hot-iron, or shampoo and condition hair” from the state’s cosmetology licensing law, as long as they do not use chemicals to permanently straighten or curl hair and do not cut hair either.

That would be nice, but a complete dismantling of these legally-mandated trade guilds would be even better.

A STRANGE GAME. THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY.

● Shot:

As part of her Let’s Move campaign, [Michelle Obama] wants to help families make better choices — especially the 23.5 million Americans living in largely urban, low-income areas where access to healthy food can be spotty.

The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity has identified this challenge of bringing more nutritious, affordable foods to so-called food deserts as one of the key pillars to solving the epidemic.

“We can give people all of the information in the world about healthy eating… but if parents can’t buy the food they need to prepare those meals… if their only options for groceries are in the corner gas station or the local mini mart, then all of that is just talk… and that’s not what Let’s Move is about,” she said.

—“First Lady: Let’s Move Fruits And Veggies To ‘Food Deserts,’” NPR, July 20, 2011.

And what happens if businesses go along with this, and take the risk of installing Whole Foods or farmers’ markets-style venues in higher crime urban areas? As they at the college that gave us the esteemed Senator Blutarsky, you f***ed up; you trusted us. And — unexpectedly! — you’ll be called a racist either way.

● Chaser:

Two professors from San Diego State University claim…that 44 percent of San Diego’s farmers’ markets cater to “households from higher socio-economic backgrounds,” which raises property values and “[displaces] low-income residents and people of color.”

“The most insidious part of this gentrification process is that alternative food initiatives work against the community activists and residents who first mobilized to fight environmental injustices and provide these amenities but have significantly less political and economic clout than developers and real estate professionals,” the academics write.

The men claim that negative externalities of “white habitus” formed at farmers’ markets can be managed through “inclusive steps that balance new initiatives and neighborhood stability to make cities ‘just green enough.’”*

—“Professors claim farmers’ markets cultivate racism: ‘Habits of white people are normalized,’” the Washington Times, yesterday.

* “Just green enough?” I knew Al Gore declared Mission Accomplished on radical environmentalism when he sold off his cable television network to Big Oil five years ago; it’s nice to see his fellow far leftists confirm that.

UNFORCED ERROR: “We’ve centralized all of our data to a guy called Mark Zuckerberg” says Pirate Bay Founder.

At its inception, the internet was a beautifully idealistic and equal place. But the world sucks and we’ve continuously made it more and more centralized, taking power away from users and handing it over to big companies. And the worst thing is that we can’t fix it — we can only make it slightly less awful.

That was pretty much the core of Pirate Bay’s co-founder, Peter Sunde‘s talk at tech festival Brain Bar Budapest.

But then there’s this:

Everything has gone wrong. That’s the thing, it’s not about what will happen in the future it’s about what’s going on right now. We’ve centralized all of our data to a guy called Mark Zuckerberg, who’s basically the biggest dictator in the world as he wasn’t elected by anyone.

Trump is basically in control over this data that Zuckerberg has, so I think we’re already there.

Huh?

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: NFL plots a cure for sagging ratings, empty seats.

FREE, COMPLETE SHORT STORY: The White Lady of Christmas.

A REVIEW OF MARGARET BALL’S BOOK:  Insurgents.

NEWS FROM THE FRONTIERS OF BRAIN SCIENCE?  Proof that the human mind is one part awesome, one part terror.

CONSIDER YOURSELF FOREWARNED:  North Korea soldier who defected had immunity to anthrax.

YEAH, THE LEFT DOES THIS TO EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH, INCLUDING SCIENCE FICTION:  Sports: An Excuse to Talk About Politics.