ROGER L. SIMON: In the grand world of nothing is as good as it seems or as bad as it seems, Ed Klein is reporting over at Newsmax that a plea bargain is in the works for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Developing…

VIDEO: “Recently terminated Google engineer James Damore chooses Dr. Jordan B Peterson to give his first interview, ahead of any cable news outlet. On Google’s own YouTube platform no less.”

UPDATE: From the comments at Small Dead Animals, “I must say that is truly impressive. This is the ultimate in trolling. A guy that Google banned interviewing the guy that Google fired for expressing dissent on their YouTube.”

AT AMAZON, save in Heating, Cooling, and Air Quality.

Plus, fresh deals in Industrial and Scientific.

WELL, NOW YOU CAN’T SAY “SO NO ONE TOLD YOU LIFE WAS GONNA BE THIS WAY:” America’s Nuclear Response Procedure Explained, Using GIFs From Friends.

CLIMATE OF HATE: Democratic anti-Trump activist shot/killed a Republican.

BECAUSE COLLEGES HAVE SPENT THREE DECADES CREATING A HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT FOR MALE STUDENTS? The Atlantic: Why Men Are the New College Minority. “Where men once went to college in proportions far higher than women—58 percent to 42 percent as recently as the 1970s—the ratio has now almost exactly reversed.”

And yet the admissions and student-conduct offices almost everywhere are overwhelmingly female. Plus:

“There’s a lot of attention on empowering girls. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but males are the ones in crisis in education.”

Jackson thinks there’s a surprising racial component. There’s not much work being done to encourage boys to go to college, he said, because not all of those boys are from racial and ethnic minorities society regards as disadvantaged. A lot of them are white.

“It’s a tough discussion to have and a hard pill to swallow when you have to start the conversation with, ‘White males are not doing as well as one might historically think,’” he said. “We’re uncomfortable as a nation having a discussion that includes white males as a part of a group that is having limited success.”

Well, if you start paying attention to facts like that, progressive politics will lose one of its favorite hate objects.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Ted Balaker: This University President Can’t Take a Joke.

A university president recently addressed his campus community about an incident that had shaken his Wisconsin school.

“The last few days have been painful ones for many members of our community, as they have also been for me,” wrote Lawrence University’s Mark Burstein. “The event and its aftermath have left many students wondering whether the University cares about their safety.”

Again and again, Burstein returned to the issue of safety: “We are working closely with the Appleton Police Department to investigate all instances where physical safety is threatened. If there is anyone who has an immediate safety concern, please contact Campus Safety….”

Television news crews captured the aftermath of an event so disturbing that Burstein never identifies it specifically. So what was it? A spate of muggings? A murder?

No. The disturbing event was a campus screening of my documentary, Can We Take a Joke? The film examines the clash between comedy and outrage culture, and in it comedians ranging from newbie college jokesters to successful veterans such as Gilbert Gottfried, Penn Jillette, Adam Carolla, Lisa Lampanelli, and Jim Norton push back against the “Outrage Mob” and stand up for comedy and free speech.

The film includes a variety of free speech scholars, and pays special attention to the college scene. It explains how universities have taught generations of students that they can shut down opinions they don’t like simply by declaring they’re offended.

Read the whole thing.

WALTER OLSON: Google memo drama really is about free speech.

Because Google and Silicon Valley are cutting-edge workplaces, there’s a tendency to assume that the premise of the Google memo furor — “Your erroneous opinions are making my work environment hostile” — is somehow new as well.

But it isn’t the least bit new. The application of hostile work environment law to workplace speech — including basically political or ideological discussions, not just vulgar jokes or unwanted personal talk — goes back decades.

I had a chapter on it 21 years ago in my book on employment law, “The Excuse Factory.” Others wrote about it then and earlier.

Jonathan Rauch, for example, in the New Republic in 1997, wrote that “quietly, gradually, the workplace has become an exception” to the general rule that in America the law does not seek to restrain wrongful opinion and expression.

And Rauch explained the indirect mechanism by which this has come to pass: “What the government cannot do directly, it now requires employers to do in its stead: police ‘discriminatory’ speech.”

There’s a word for big government and its big business cronies working hand-in-hand to suppress the individual. I’ll give you a hint: It’s something the Left always accuses the Right of being, but they’re projecting.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE FEELS REALLY, REALLY WEIRD.

THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: 6.5 million Americans chose to pay the fine rather than sign up for insurance on the Obamacare exchanges.

Insurance so good, people won’t even buy it under penalty of law.

TOM NICHOLS: About Those Bombs.

First, let’s be clear about what kind of bomb the Norks have developed. A nuclear bomb relies on splitting atoms of uranium and plutonium through the process of nuclear fission to produce an explosion. This is the kind of bomb the North Koreans tested in 2006 and the only kind they have.

That’s plenty bad, but not as bad as the more powerful thermonuclear bomb uses that fission explosion to fuse hydrogen atoms together (which is why it’s also called a fusion bomb) to produce a much, much more devastating explosion. This is the bomb used in the nuclear arsenals of the advanced nuclear powers, and while the North Koreans claim to have tested one, it’s unlikely.

A bomb without a ride to its destination is just a really dangerous paperweight, and the North Koreans have made progress on testing an ICBM, the acronym for an inter-continental ballistic missile, a rocket that throws a warhead—the bomb—into space, after which that warhead falls back to earth at many times the speed of sound.

This is different from short-range rockets or artillery, or even Saddam Hussein’s infamous SCUDs, which are fired at short range and go relatively smaller distances. Those are easy to make; Saddam’s missiles were of 1960s vintage. ICBMs are a different game entirely. ICBMs are like the rockets that sent men to the moon, capable of traveling huge distances and landing close to a designated target.

A crude nuclear bomb isn’t that hard to make, if you have enough uranium and don’t care how big it is. (The first nuclear bomb was the size of a small automobile and had to be shoved out of an airplane in 1945.) A nuclear ICBM is a lot tougher to manufacture, because a small, reliable bomb is a lot more complicated, and placing that warhead on top of a space-capable vehicle is yet more of a challenge.

This is because a nuclear ICBM requires a small enough warhead to fit on top of a big, wobbly missile and withstand the pressures of launch, traversing space, and re-entry into the atmosphere. Nuclear bombs are not hand grenades; they are delicate and finely engineered weapons that will not explode if their machinery is destroyed while plunging to earth at Mach 20.

Read the whole thing.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: STUDY: BEER IS A BETTER PAIN RELIEVER THAN TYLENOL. Probably no harder on your liver, either.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Tillerson on ‘Fire and Fury’ Warning: North Korea ‘Doesn’t Seem to Understand Diplomatic Language.’

THE HORROR. THE HORROR. Newark Terrorized by Whole Foods:

Let’s recap the slate of urban worries on the left. “Food deserts,” meaning a lack of availability of fresh food (or a lack of market demand for it), are bad. The opening of a gigantic store dedicated to selling healthy comestibles and produce, though, is also bad.

When large corporations don’t invest in urban communities, that’s shameful. Investment? Also shameful. White flight by people moving to suburbs in the 1960s? Racist. Their grandchildren’s return? Also racist. Increased disorder that leads to garbage-strewn vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and declining property values is troubling, but increased order that leads to refilled buildings, cleaned-up neighborhoods, and rising rents is also troubling. Segregation? Bad. Integration? Bad.

Exit quote: “Whole Foods is plainly worried that in Newark the shiitake might hit the fan.”

Heh, indeed.™ Read the whole thing.

AT AMAZON, shop the Safety & Security Store.

And if you’re worried about a nuclear attack from North Korea, you can always stock up on potassium iodide pills.

SHOT: US government’s grim climate summary draft gets unofficially published.

It has been four years, and the next report’s draft has been completed and has undergone scientific vetting.

The draft paints a grim picture of how the US is already dealing with a variety of issues related to climate change and how much worse most of those issues will get during the coming decades. And the report places the blame squarely on humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions.

This message won’t go over well with the administration of President Donald Trump, which has a number of members who are openly hostile to the scientific community’s conclusions.

Goodness.

But…

CHASER: ‘Dodgy’ greenhouse gas data threatens Paris accord.

Air monitors in Switzerland have detected large quantities of one gas coming from a location in Italy.

However, the Italian submission to the UN records just a tiny amount of the substance being emitted.
Levels of some emissions from India and China are so uncertain that experts say their records are plus or minus 100%.

These flaws posed a bigger threat to the Paris climate agreement than US President Donald Trump’s intention to withdraw, researchers told BBC Radio 4’s Counting Carbon programme.

It’s almost as though all of this scientific certainty is just a gussied-up modern religion providing cover for old-fashioned statism.

TB USED TO BE RARER: Dozens tested for tuberculosis after school worker dies in Las Vegas.

SHERLOCK HOLMES INVESTIGATES DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ AND HER ROGUE COMPUTER TECHNICIANS. (bumped)

Hey, he’s way ahead of both the FBI and the mainstream media.

BILL WHITTLE: Republic of Emotion.

This one actually came out a couple of weeks ago, but is even more relevant today after the Google Memorandum.

QUESTION ASKED: “Compared with how you felt last week, how do you feel today about someday entrusting your life to a Google self-driving car?”

BUH-BYE: Disney to give Netflix the white-gloved Mickey middle finger in 2019.

Starting in 2019, Disney will operate its own paid video-streaming service. This news came about as Disney announced on Tuesday that it would acquire a majority stake in a video-streaming company called BAM Tech. (Following a 2016 stock purchase, Disney had previously owned a 33-percent stake in BAM Tech.)

Currently, Disney has an exclusive deal with Netflix for streaming its films and TV series; the deal began in 2012 and expanded last year. Terms for that deal, particularly its expiration date, were never publicly disclosed. It’s possible that the Netflix deal’s expiration will line up perfectly with the launch of what Disney describes as “the exclusive home in the US for subscription-video-on-demand viewing of the newest live-action and animated movies from Disney and Pixar.” This paid online service will also include a selection of classic Disney and Pixar content, along with “original movies, TV shows, short-form content, and other Disney-branded exclusives” made exclusively for the streaming service.

Disney already has two or three (more?) of its own streaming channels with original content, but given the breadth and depth of their library and production studios, they’ll probably do just fine with one more.

But then there’s this:

This announcement will bear fruit sooner for the Disney subsidiary ESPN, whose own dedicated sports-streaming service will launch in 2018. This as-yet-unnamed subscription service will deliver broadcasts from leagues like the NHL, MLB, and MLS (the NBA and NFL will not be included).

In the last couple of years, you can’t even give away ESPN for free.

TAMARA KEEL: In Defense of the ‘Hobbyist’ Gun Owner. “I love running into people who share my hobby. I love expanding it. I would love to see more people shooting and training and carrying religiously. I would love it if armed robbery became known as a good way of getting shot rather than as a good way of getting a cell phone and a wallet. But if they don’t have a lot of training and a big gun with them all the time, then some training and a small gun with them most of the time beats no training and no gun at all.”

I THINK GOOGLE SHOULD HIRE HER TO SHOW THEIR COMMITMENT TO OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN: Marissa Mayer reportedly wants another CEO job.

THIS ISN’T GOING AWAY: Grassley Seeks Immigration Files For Pakistani Suspects In House IT Probe. “Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has requested copies of immigration files for the six Pakistani suspects in the House IT scandal, who allegedly stole equipment from Congress and accessed computers without permission. Grassley is seeking more information on Imran Awan, his wife, his two brothers and two of his close friends in connection to the scandal. Capitol police have accused Awan and his associates of violating congressional security policies and stealing equipment from Congress. Awan is from Pakistan, and was arrested by the FBI in July as he boarded a flight to the country. . . . All of the congressmen involved are House Democrats, including several on the intelligence, foreign affairs and homeland security committees. The IT aides had access to all of the emails and office files of the congressmen, who employed them on a shared basis.”

JOHN FUND: Is Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ motto still relevant? “Gail Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego and an independent member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, is also disappointed in Google’s action. ‘It’s particularly troubling to see this coming from the company that we rely on to bring us information. Can a company this intolerant of differing opinions be trusted to do that job?'”