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GREAT POWER POLITICS: China Plays the Japan Card.

The reason for Xi’s apparent turnabout is clear enough: Relations with Washington are rapidly getting worse, and President Donald Trump is not backing down from either his trade war or his increase in U.S. military operations in maritime areas claimed by China. Beijing’s bluff and bluster has failed, and Xi likely is realizing that he is in for a long war of attrition with Washington.

Thus, the Japan card. Beijing needs to remain an attractive trade partner, especially given Abe’s success in pushing through the Trans-Pacific Partnership after Trump’s withdrawal and in signing a new free-trade pact with the European Union. Perhaps Xi believes that Tokyo will be enticed to join Beijing’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, leaving only America out in the cold. Promising to ease the pressure over the Senkakus is an easy concession by Xi, given that Tokyo remains committed to defending them. Perhaps, if relations appear to warm enough, Beijing will try to persuade Tokyo to slow down its increases in defense spending.

If the Japan card works for Beijing, what’s in it for Tokyo? As China represents the greatest long-term threat to Japan’s security, Abe is eager for any reprieve in the pressure Xi has brought to bear since taking office, even though he has been uncommonly successful in reaching out to other Asian leaders and positioning himself as an alternative to dealing with the often overbearing Chinese. The summit with Xi will bolster his diplomatic credibility while also potentially opening up Chinese markets that could help keep his economic plans on track. Yet Abe undoubtedly harbors no illusions as to why Xi is reaching out at this particular time.

In reality, there are all too few areas of common interest between Japan and China. The poisonous history between the two fuels nationalism in both countries, but especially in China. Their struggle for predominance in Asia remains a zero-sum game, as Japan under Mr. Abe has assiduously deepened its relations with India, in Southeast Asia, and with Australia, all due to fears of China’s growing military ambitions and its expansive Belt and Road Initiative. For his part, Xi has shown no inclination to back down from China’s assertive regional policies.

That last line is the key. China is a disruptive power, full of seething grievances and with territorial ambitions. The United States is none of those things, which makes it unlikely that Beijing can displace us as Japan’s (or South Korea’s, or Taiwan’s…) international partner, without the use of military force.

WE REALLY NEED BETTER VACCINES: This flu season should serve as a wake-up call – we need to redouble our efforts to prevent and treat the flu.

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: ‘Nazis Weren’t Socialists’ Says SJW History Major Arrested For Throwing Milk At Conservatives.

A MAJOR THREAT TO SMALL CHILDREN: Falls from Sofas and Beds.

TYLER O’NEIL: 5 Reasons to Vote Republican in the Mid-Terms.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Does antimatter fall upwards? New CERN gravity experiments aim to get to the bottom of the matter.

Predictions say that antimatter particles should mostly follow the same rules as their normal counterparts, but it’s worth double-checking to be sure – after all, any other differences could bring into question the entire Standard Model of particle physics. A few years ago, the CERN team trapped and studied the optical spectrum of antihydrogen for the first time and, breathing a big sigh of relief, found that it was identical to that of hydrogen.

Another fundamental question is whether antimatter reacts to gravity the same way. Again, predictions say it should fall like regular matter, but there’s about a one-in-a-million chance that it actually falls up instead. So far, antimatter has only been studied while suspended in an electromagnetic trap, since letting it fall to the bottom (or top?) of any normal container will destroy it.

Two new experiments at CERN are ready to test out the problem. In both cases, after the antimatter is created, the scientists will switch off the electromagnetic traps holding it, then examine where in the tube the annihilations occur. That will allow them to measure the effects of gravity on antiatoms, and see if there are any discrepancies.

Fascinating.

CALIFORNIA’S PROPOSITION 209 PASSED ON THIS DAY IN 1996, THUS AMENDING THE CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION: Its operative clause states: “The State shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.”

The hope of many Proposition 209 supporters was that the measure would reduce the effects of mismatch. And during the years it was adhered to, it appears to have done exactly that: Minority graduation rates rose rapidly, and minority on-time (four-year) graduation rates rose even faster. At the same time, minority science and engineering rose by about 50%, while the number of minority students majoring in ethnic studies or communications fell by 20%. And minority GPAs increased.

You can read about it in A “Dubious Expediency”: How Race-Preferential Admissions Policies on Campus Hurt Minority Students.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: When Democrats’ Tactics Backfire. “Some leading Democrats haven’t seemed to figure out that the harder they’ve worked to expose, silence, scream at, attack and bully those with whom they disagree, the more they’ve invigorated the other side.”

SCRAPPLEFACE: Election Outcome Uncertain, Expert Says Stay Angry.

KAROL MARKOWICZ: Don’t join this year’s Women’s March unless you’re good with anti-Semitism. “With the Pittsburgh shooting so fresh and anti-Semitism (alas) so necessary a topic, it’s time for a reckoning with the Women’s March. This January, women who say they stand with Jews need to boycott the Women’s March. The first year of the march, it made sense that many otherwise normal people would attend. It was just two months after Donald Trump’s shocking victory. Many were dazed and upset. The march was quickly organized by people whose names were not yet known to everyone. Linda Sarsour is one of the leaders. Articles soon sprang up about terrible comments she made: She supported the radical Muslim Brotherhood. She praised Sharia law, which, among other things, includes second-class status for women. She was open about her fandom of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam.”

ROGER KIMBALL: The Democratic faithful are spooked about Tuesday: How will the blue-dyed media react if results do not go their way tomorrow night? Disgracefully, is my prediction.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Don’t Romanticize What America Has Been Like for the Jews. “Quotas still exist, and if the current band of student radicals have their way, there will be more of them. In my day, Jews were limited because of their religion. Nowadays, it’s Zionism. But the effect is the same, and throughout the establishment, suspicion of Jews is more common than you’d imagine.”

ROGER SIMON: Tuesday America Takes an IQ Test.

MICHAEL WALSH: Under Obama, the CIA Suffered a ‘Catastrophic’ Disaster. “With prominent links to Iran and China. Why are we just hearing about this now?”

To ask the question is to answer it.

OH, THAT LIBERAL FASCISM: On the eve of election day, James Lileks reviews the infamous 1933 film, Gabriel Over the White House.

As the New Yorker notes, “the new U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, loved it”  — which isn’t all that surprising, since he helped advise its script during his presidential campaign.

RASMUSSEN: Generic Congressional Ballot’s All Tied Up.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that 46% would choose the Republican candidate if the elections for Congress were held today. Forty-five percent (45%) would vote for the Democrat. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

A week ago, Democrats held a 47% to 44% lead. Since Rasmussen Reports began the weekly surveying in early May, Democrats have led every week but one until early last month. Following the controversy surrounding the Senate confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanuagh, the Generic Congressional Ballot was tied for two weeks, but then Democrats moved back ahead.

The GOP now has a small lead among voters not affiliated with either major party. But significantly, 20% of these voters remain undecided or prefer someone other than the Republican or Democratic candidates.

In other words: Don’t get cocky.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student groups furious at Cal State-Long Beach for supporting First Amendment.

AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: Utah mayor, a father of 7, ID’d as US service member killed in ‘insider attack’ in Afghanistan.

AND THAT MAKES IT OK THEN? ‘I Was Angry’: Woman Referred to DOJ and FBI for Alleged False Rape Claim Against Kavanaugh.

LOST: ‘About 500,000 Young Men Are Missing, and It Isn’t Clear Why.’

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CUSTOMIZING AIR WEAPONS FOR THE F-35 AND F-15: The analysis focuses on the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and Joint Strike Missile (JSM). It also mentions the special bomb rack that allows the F-35 to carry eight Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs).