“I NOW UNDERSTAND HOW NELSON MANDELA FELT:”

So what are we to make of my ban? The only sensible conclusion is that Twitter is run by a coterie of crypto-fascists. Needless to say, this bodes ill for the social justice movement. Like it or not, the successors to humanitarians such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi are now to be found on social media. One thinks immediately of Gary Lineker, Lily Allen, and that guy who played Mr Sulu on Star Trek.

Unfortunately, those who fight for the progressive cause are continually bombarded by alt-right trolls who like to engage in a form of harassment known as “debate.” Only a few days before my suspension, a misogynist referred to me as “shrill and humourless.”  As I was quick to point out, humour is a patriarchal construct. This is why it has been so gratifying to see the success of our current wave of feminist comedians, those brave women who are subverting the genre by ensuring that it doesn’t make anyone laugh.

Do not pity me. As a woman in a heteronormative patriarchal world I am accustomed to males like Jack Dorsey attempting to keep me silent. In my absence from Twitter, I took the opportunity to spend some time at a resort in Val d’Isère, where I could relax and contemplate my oppression. I even managed to write a book which I have entitled Woke: A Guide to Social Justice. I did want to call it My Struggle, but that title was already taken apparently.

It’s satire — or is it?

MEMORIAL TO TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE SHOOTING VICTIMS VANDALIZED AT POMONA COLLEGE: But the perpetrators were apparently leftist activists, not neo-Nazis, so no one at Pomona cares. As the saying goes, if the left didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all.

TODD HENDERSON’S THRILLER NOVEL MENTAL STATE, which I’ve praised here before, is now $2.99 on Kindle.

SCOTT WALKER TO DC? THE TIMING’S RIGHT. Report: Walker listed as possible replacement for Trump’s interior secretary.

CLAIM: The Cadillac CTS V-Sport Is Criminally Overlooked. “The V-Sport brings everything into balance. The chassis tuning is spot on and the transmission, an Aisin unit, not one from GM, is excellent. It’s been at the top of its class since it debuted, a better interpretation of a German sports sedan than most German companies are building.”

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OLD AND BUSTED: Radical Chic.

The new  hotness blandness: Radical Bleak. At Quillette, Conor Barnes explores life among the “Sad Radicals:”

When I became an anarchist I was 18, depressed, anxious, and ready to save the world. I moved in with other anarchists and worked at a vegetarian co-op cafe. I protested against student tuition, prison privatization, and pipeline extensions. I had lawyer’s numbers sharpied on my ankle and I assisted friends who were pepper-sprayed at demos. I tabled zines, lived with my “chosen family,” and performed slam poems about the end of the world. While my radical community was deconstructing gender, monogamy, and mental health, we lived and breathed concepts and tools like call-outs, intersectionality, cultural appropriation, trigger warnings, safe spaces, privilege theory, and rape culture.

Read the whole thing. As Norman Podhoretz once wrote about his time as a nascent anti-Vietnam War radical,  “Do you realize that every young person in this room is a tragedy to some family or other?”

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: In Pennsylvania, People Lined Up For Free Naloxone. I was hoping that if we had a drug problem it would at least be something interesting and futuristic, like thionite or anagonon. Can’t find a zwilnik when you need one.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Democrats’ Border-Barrier Flip-Flop.

Why are Democrats ignoring the advice of Bill Clinton and Harry Reid?

IF YOU’VE LIVED RIGHT, BY THE TIME YOU’RE OLD THERE SHOULDN’T BE MANY THAT ARE NEW TO YOU: Doctors should encourage elderly people to try new SEX positions, study claims.

MEET MARC ELIAS, QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST DANGEROUS DEMOCRAT IN D.C.: Political junkies Left and Right have heard of him but even folks with an above-average interest in public affairs could rarely pick Marc Elias out of a lineup of D.C. VIPs.

Name a major national Democratic figure, issue, donor or campaign entity, however, and odds are Elias is an advisor, counsel or otherwise involved at the highest level, and that creates something akin to a political MOAB.

The reason, as Capital Research Center’s Christine Ravold explains, is “this constellation of left-leaning interests shows a unique concentration of Democrat strategic intelligence—all protected by attorney-client privilege.” Go here for the first of Ravold’s two-parter on Elias. Part two will be worth the short wait.

TOUT CE QUI EST VIEUX EST NOUVEAU: Macron’s Speech To Yellow Vest Protestors Channels Jimmy Carter’s Malaise Talk.

Though the American left have pretty much been in perma-malaise mode since Bobby Kennedy.

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CHANGE: Fetal Tissue Research Is Curtailed by Trump Administration. “Should the government pay for medical research that uses tissue from aborted fetuses? This debate, ever smoldering, has erupted again, pitting anti-abortion forces in the Trump administration against scientists who say the tissue is essential for studies that benefit millions of patients. In a letter last week that read like a shot across the bow, the National Institutes of Health warned the University California, San Francisco, that its $2 million contract for research involving the tissue, previously renewed for a year at a time, would be extended for only 90 days and might then be canceled.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Stanford Professor: Dungeons and Dragons Perpetuates Systems of White, Male Privilege.

No, it just perpetuates Doritos-covered fingers. But I’m so old, I can remember earlier blue noses who thought that D&D was a gateway drug to Satanism and witchcraft.

YOU CAN’T TRUST THEM: Facebook’s Latest Leak Is a Timely Reminder That Your Data Is Snagged Even Before You Hit Publish.

LET’S GET METAPHYSICAL: If God Is Both All-Good And All-Powerful, Why Did He Allow The Star Wars Prequels?

It’s from the Babylon Bee, so it’s satire — or is it?

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: PHOTO OP EDITION.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Elizabeth Warren Finally Says Something True.

ROGER SIMON: Good Riddance to Obamacare.

PALEFACE FINALLY SPEAKS TRUTH. Elizabeth Warren: By the way, “I’m not a person of color.”

Why not? I thought personal identity was entirely fungible in the 21st century.

COMING? Get Ready For The Coming War Against Merit.