THAT’S BECAUSE THE CONGRESSIONAL GOP HAS BEEN A DISAPPOINTMENT. AGAIN. Voters’ support is slipping for congressional GOP – even among Republicans.

When you look more loyal to K Street than to your voters, you lose. They should have learned that lesson in 2006.

RETENTION: Stop-Loss an Option for Air Force to Keep Departing Pilots.

We’re having trouble keeping enough pilots for an Air Force with about half the jets it had 30 years ago.

BE SMART: Liz Sheld’s indispensable morning brief is live at Hot Mic.

I FOLLOW JILL FILIPOVIC ON TWITTER, so I’m not surprised that her review of K.C. Johnson & Stuart Taylor Jr.’s The Campus Rape Frenzy turns out to be crappy and dishonest.

GO LEFT, GO LOSER: Kurt Schlichter: Trump Can’t Let His Real Or His Fake Friends Turn Him Into Schwarzenegger 2. Nobody wants to see that sequel.

BLUSTER: North Korea state media warns of nuclear strike if provoked as U.S. warships approach.

Tension has escalated sharply on the Korean peninsula with talk of military action by the United States gaining traction following its strikes last week against Syria and amid concerns the reclusive North may soon conduct a sixth nuclear test.

North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the country was prepared to respond to any aggression by the United States.

“Our revolutionary strong army is keenly watching every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases not only in South Korea and the Pacific operation theatre but also in the U.S. mainland,” it said.

Pyongyang must also be keeping a wary eye on the northern border, where China is supposed to have sent several army divisions.

So this is either when Kim Jong-Un ramps up the bluster some more before making a few concessions and wringing some more aid out of the West, or when he does something crazy even for him.

THAT’S AN UNDERSTATEMENT: United Airlines’ public relations disaster.

So how could United have handled the situation better?

John Bailey is a specialist in crisis communications and has handled public relations for many of the aviation industry’s biggest players, including Malaysia Airlines following the disappearance of MH370.

“Any airline which allows its employees the discretion to take this kind of heavy-handed action against a paying customer is asking for trouble,” he says.

“Every other passenger on that aircraft was a potential citizen journalist. What’s astonishing is that United responded so poorly to an absolutely predictable reputational risk.

“But businesses generally are struggling to adapt to the new communications landscape. Research suggests that it takes companies an average of 21 hours to issue meaningful external communications in a crisis situation, leaving them open to ‘trial by Twitter’.”

The only way the situation could have been made worse is if United CEO Oscar Munoz had lawyered up and defended his company’s actions, instead of defending his company’s customers — which is exactly what he did.

United is in trouble, and Munoz doesn’t seem to understand that.

THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA, AND I CAN’T THINK OF A GOOD REASON WHY SESSIONS WOULD DO THIS: Sessions orders Justice Dept. to end forensic science commission, suspend review policy. The crime labs have been a disgrace, and as far as I know the only reason to do this is as a sop to law enforcement. But law enforcement shouldn’t want bad forensic evidence either.

ANOTHER CASUALTY IN THE WAR ON COLLEGE MEN, THIS TIME AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON: Texas student commits suicide after Title IX kangaroo court.

If every other egregious example of a male student denied due process after being accused of sexual misconduct gets ignored – this one should not be.

A male student who was accused of sexual harassment committed suicide just days after the University of Texas at Arlington ignored its own policies in order to punish him. The accused student’s father, a lawyer acting as the administrator of his son’s estate, is now suing the school for violating his son’s Title IX rights.

College administrators, as well as members of the media and legislators, would do well to remember the name Thomas Klocke. Klocke, a straight male, was accused by a gay male student of writing anti-gay slurs on his computer during a class. Klocke vehemently denied the accusation, and administrators who investigated the incident acknowledged there was no evidence to support the accuser’s claims, yet Klocke was still punished.

I’m delighted that the father is suing everyone in sight. I think they should also be named and shamed. We don’t know the accuser’s name, but we do know the name of Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Heather Snow, and that of UTA’s associate director of academic integrity, Daniel Moore.

Plus:

Just days after Klocke was punished, he took his own life. Had Snow and Moore followed proper UTA policy, Klocke might never have been punished in the first place, as he would have been allowed a hearing to present evidence in his defense.

Klocke’s father alleges his son was discriminated against because he was a male accused student, and that Snow and Moore selectively enforced UTA’s Title IX procedures.

Klocke had no prior history of mental health problems, and by all accounts was happy and looking forward to the future after graduation.

This is a disgrace. People should lose their jobs over this, at the very least.

JOHN MCGINNIS: Why Many Universities Make Free Speech a Low Priority.

Three reasons combine to make actual protection of free speech a low priority on colleges campuses. The first is the tendency to treat students as simple consumers rather than as participants in the university community with duties that are no less important than professors. Administrators worry that cracking down on the students that disrupt talks may get their university a bad reputation for toughness that may discourage applicants and lower their rankings. To be sure, there are a few universities that cultivate a reputation for free inquiry, like the gloriously tough-minded University of Chicago. But counter programming has always focused on niche markets.

Second, administrators’ other most important constituency—the faculty—generally has no passion for protecting talks by the right because they are so overwhelmingly on the left. Of course, there are a few honorable liberals who are concerned, but for many academics the kind of people who are prevented from speaking are exactly those with whom they would not like to be associated. It is important to remember that a faculty behaves in many ways like a social club, and these speakers are not in their view clubbable.

Finally, it is notable that most of the recent disruptions concerned race. Heather spoke in part about policing in black communities and while the topic of Charles Murray’s talk at Middlebury was problems of working class whites, he was being attacked for his discussion of race in his decades old book, The Bell Curve. Nothing is more important to the administrators of most colleges today than diversity and thus avoiding discipline with a disproportionate effect on minorities would naturally have a higher priority than protecting free speech.

Some might argue that we should not worry too much about these high profile disruptions, because they are relatively few in number. But they have a deterrent effect—on the willingness to invite speakers who challenge received wisdom on campus, the willingness of such speakers to endure disruption and even violence, and perhaps most importantly the willingness of students and faculty on campus to consider departures from left-liberal orthodoxy, particularly when it touches on the matter of race. The resulting chill makes it clear that for free inquiry on many campuses, winter has already arrived.

Schools that do not protect free speech should be ineligible for federal aid money. Groups that interfere with free speech should be criminally prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. 241, and civilly sued under 42 U.S.C. 1985.

BLAMING MEN WILL NEVER FIX OR HELP ANYTHING: Camille Paglia Urges Feminists to Stop Blaming Men for their Discontent.

IF THIS CHICKEN WERE A DINOSAUR (MY LOVE): A chicken embryo with a dinosaur-like snout instead of a beak has been developed by scientists.  (Yes, I know it’s an old link, but I wanted to use that line!)

ANYTHING THAT THREATENS CHOCOLATE SUPPLY IS A TEOTWAWKI SITUATION:The very real threat that could rob you of your daily coffee and chocolate fix.

MEN ARE PHYSICALLY STRONGER… AND WOMEN BENEFIT:Here’s to All the Men Who Help Women Reach the Finish Line.

IS DENIAL A RIVER IN FEMINISM?Feminists Find ‘The Red Pill’ Hard to Swallow.

IN THE EMAIL FROM STEPHANIE OSBORN:Division One: A Small Medium At Large.

OR, YOU KNOW, TAKE A VALIUM LIKE A NORMAL PERSON:Dear Joss, Take Some Lithium. Seriously, if the TDS continues, we’ll need to bring back mental hospitals.

AT LEAST SOME GOOD NEWS:Mostly quiet on the southern front.

WATCH OUT FOR SNEAKER WAVES, FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE ACHANGING: Currents.

AH! FAMILY AFFECTION FLORIDA MAN STYLE!  Deputies: Drunk Florida man head-butts his dad.

HELPING JERRY BROWN TO REDUCE CALIFORNIA’S CARBON FOOTPRINT: Kubota Tractor Moves Headquarters To Texas From California.

THEY DO KNOW THEIR JOB ISN’T HANDICAPPING KIDS, RIGHT?A Stupid Thing I’ve Seen Today.

HOLY TDS, BATMAN! Trump Derangement Syndrome in full glory.

AT AMAZON, fresh savings in Game Downloads.

Plus, deals in Amazon Instant Video. Why be bored?

THIS COLLECTION OF SHOWS-WITHIN-SHOWS is nice, but leaves out the full McBain movie hidden within Simpsons episodes.