IT’S BETTER JUST TO TRANSFORM THEM INTO “FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS” INSTEAD: ‘On-Again, Off-Again’ Relationships May Be More Trouble Than They’re Worth.

NEWS YOU CAN USE? Toyota is recalling 1 million hybrids at risk of catching fire. “More than half of the affected vehicles are in Japan, while just under 200,000 are in the United States. The rest were sold in Europe and other markets. US drivers will start receiving recall notices by mail this month.”

SCRAPPLEFACE: New Cruz Ad: Beto ‘Not as Cool as Every Texan Thinks.’

DERANGED: That’s the only rational way to describe the reaction to this tweet by Zina Bash’s husband.

FASTER, PLEASE: Acne vaccine successful in rodents, human skin samples.

TOXIC DEMASCULINIZATION FROM GETTY IMAGES: Discover Masculinity Undone.

HMM: Probiotics are drugs, so we should test them like drugs: Only a few probiotic pills have actually been proven to work, despite all the health claims supplement companies make about them.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: France ready to deploy navy in scallop dispute with Britain.

FASTER, PLEASE: Space Elevators Getting First Test in Space. “There are several technical reasons why space elevators have not been seriously attempted in the over 100 years since they were originally dreamed up by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895. Chief among them is that a cable capable moving from the surface of the planet through orbit all the way to a counterpoint in space would have to lighter and stronger than any known material due to the extreme stresses it would face.”

HAM-FISTED: Texas GOP Gives Beto O’Rourke a Boost, ‘Exposing’ His Punk Band Roots. “Ted Cruz must be wondering why the Texas GOP is helping his Democrat opponent.”

You have to wonder if there might be some intraparty fighting over Cruz involved in this stuff.

IT’S AS IF ALL THE VIRTUE-SIGNALING IS ABOUT HIDING THE UNDERLYING CORRUPTION: Why are America’s elite universities censoring themselves on China?

Money.

DAN MITCHELL: Some Unsolicited Advice for Colin Kaepernick and the NFL Players.

COUNTERPUNCH: Trump Mocks Chuck Todd’s Call For Press To ‘Fight Back.’

To be fair, Todd is eminently mockable.

DR. HELEN: Is Feminist Brainwashing a Form of Child Abuse?

AL-BRITAINIA: Fan of Iran’s Revolution Topped Labour’s NEC Poll.

Last night’s NEC election results focused on the shocking election of Peter Willsman, a man dropped from the Momentum slate, disowned by media savvy Corbynistas like Owen Jones, Ash Sarkar, and Matt Zarb-Cousin after his rant about the anti-Semitism crisis being faked by Jewish Trump supporters. Little attention has been given to the person who topped the poll, Yasmine Dar.

On this video from last year Dar is celebrating the Iranian Islamic Revolution, a regular annual event for her which Guido reported on last year. The Iranian regime is built on a foundation of the corpses of enemies and has no greater enemy than Israel, a nation that they have many times promised to “wipe from the face of the earth”. Iran competes with North Korea among the dregs of states which systematically violate human rights. Amnesty International reports document the harsh penalties for “un-Islamic behaviour”, most famously the death penalty for same-sex relationships. This is the regime she celebrates, her “happy time” with holocaust deniers, anti-semites and conspiracy theorists.

Dar won seat on the NEC, the governing body of the Labour Party, after topping the poll with 88,176 votes, an astounding margin of victory for someone without a significant national profile.

Labour seems to think the crocodile they imported will eat them last, but the fact is that it’s consuming them first — from the inside.

(Hat tip, Seth Tillman.)

NOW OUT FROM GREG LUKIANOFF AND JONATHAN HAIDT: The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.

ANGELA MERKEL’S LEGACY: Immigration and welfare fears merge as Sweden lurches to the right.

SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Car Ramming Attack on Dallas Fox Affiliate After ‘Meet the Press’ Host Says to ‘Fight Back’ Against Fox News.

Update: We know more about the (alleged) attacker now, and while it’s impossible to tell what his politics might be, he does seem unhinged enough to be triggered by what he sees on TV.

GIVING IN TO THE DIGITAL MOB: Now Twitter Edits The New Yorker. The core mistake is in assuming that the opinions of “activists” are of any value. It gets even worse if you assume that they’re coming from a position of moral superiority.

WHEN YOU FORGET THAT YOU’RE RUNNING IN TENNESSEE: Will Hoge, Scheduled to Headline Karl Dean Event, Says NRA Members Worst Thing About America. “A country music singer on record as calling NRA supporters whores and pimps will headline a Karl Dean for Governor event in Nashville Thursday. The singer in question, Will Hoge, said he has disdain for pro-Second Amendment politicians.”

IT’S AS IF ALL THE VIRTUE-SIGNALING IS JUST VIRTUE-SIGNALING: New Study Finds Zero Evidence That Hiring a Chief Diversity Officer Produces More Diversity on Campus.

Of course hiring a chief ___ officer seldom produces more ___ on campus, for almost every meaning of ___.

RED ON RED: Former Kansas Governor Endorses Democrat over Kobach. “Bad news for a badly divided Kansas Republican party.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University demotes Title IX coordinator in midst of lawsuit claiming she’s anti-heterosexual; Moonlighting as ‘victim services’ consultant while investigating accused student.