NEWS YOU CAN USE: Behind Hollywood’s A-List Bidding War for a McDonald’s Monopoly Article.

Which would all be a happy Hollywood ending for any ink-stained wretch trying to pump out long-form narrative nonfiction these days. Except this wasn’t just good luck or some kind of fluke that “McScam” had so thoroughly connected with Hollywood: Klawans and Maysh had been developing the article with the specific aim of turning it into a film since 2016.

* * * * * * * *

In an era when grown-up mid-budget studio movies like the eventual McScam film are becoming an endangered species in Hollywood, it would be hard to overstate how thoroughly and successfully Maysh and Klawans captivated the entertainment-industrial complex with their planted story. Not that the town’s populace of agents, development executives, and stars looking for flashy projects seems to care.

“It was an intense experience,” says Klawans. Adds Maysh: “It was quite overwhelming. But I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it.”

Read the whole thing.

ART OF THE DEAL: U.S. Oil Vanishing From Chinese Tariffs Reveals America’s Clout. “China’s original plan to target U.S. crude came at an inopportune time for the country’s buyers. Sinopec’s trading unit, Unipec, was embroiled in a dispute with Saudi Arabia, saying the producer’s prices were costly and cutting purchases just as it was boosting American imports. Two months on, refiners were faced with the risk of supply disruptions from Iran to Venezuela and paying more to take advantage of booming U.S. output.”

BRENDAN O’NEILL: WHO’S REALLY RACIST — BORIS JOHNSON OR HIS CRITICS?

Media outlets play their role in shushing any conversation about the repressive culture that exists in some Muslim communities. The BBC and others always wheel on university-educated niqab-wearers who gaily explain that they love their face-blocking veils and in fact view them as feminist garments since they prevent men from ogling the women underneath. So it’s all fine, then. These garments are great. Even empowering. Anyone who believes this is the whole story is kidding themselves, and they know they are. They know that the majority of women who wear these garments didn’t go to Oxford and will never appear on the BBC and instead live in communities, or at least households, in which women are considered second-class citizens and so intensely the property of their husbands that only he may see their face and hair. If another community was treating women like this, there would be uproar. But when it is the Muslim community our feministic elites turn away. ‘The burqa’s great. It is part of their culture. Shut up.’

Read the whole thing.

SPACE FORCE: Buzz Aldrin: Space Force is ‘one giant leap in the right direction.’

IT’S SO CRAZY, IT JUST MIGHT WORK: Should the U.S. Air Force Bomb Forest Fires?

DNC CONSIDERS REPEALING FOSSIL FUEL DONATION BAN AFTER ONLY TWO MONTHS.

I’ll believe global warming is a crisis, when the people who tell me it’s a crisis start to act like it’s a crisis themselves, to coin an Insta-phrase.

LET THERE BE AFFORDABLE LIGHT: The Department of Energy is proposing ending the Obama-era ban on incandescent light-bulbs.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Will Broadcast, Cable Nets Cover? Democratic Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen suggests that fellow Tennessee Congresswoman and Republican senatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn should kill herself.

I DON’T THINK THE PRESS IS GOING TO LIKE WHERE ITS TRUMP DERANGEMENT IS LEADING IT: New Poll: 72% of Americans Think ‘It Should Be Easier to Sue’ Media Who Knowingly Publish Fake News.

SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST: NBC’s Al Roker Now Says Climate Change Causing Fewer Hurricanes.

Is there nothing it can’t do?

(Classical reference in headline.)

THIS IS PRETTY RICH, COMING FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: Go Ahead, Speak for Yourself.

“As a white man,” Joe begins, prefacing an insight, revelation, objection or confirmation he’s eager to share — but let’s stop him right there. Aside from the fact that he’s white, and a man, what’s his point? What does it signify when people use this now ubiquitous formula (“As a such-and-such, I …”) to affix an identity to an observation?

You could write a whole book about that phenomenon, the byproduct of the left’s obsession with identity politics — as Mark Lilla did last year. But as Sonny Bunch tweets, “[That face when you] publish a 1000 word subtweet of your latest hire.”

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Only Nixon Could Go to China, and Only Trump Could Go to Space.

Read the whole thing – but please consume all liquids first. The staff and management of PJ Media is not responsible to what happens to your keyboard, monitor, or iPad.

BRUCE BAWER: Death by Entitlement.

On August 7, the New York Times ran a story by Rukmini Callamachi about Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, a young American couple, both graduates of Georgetown University, who decided to quit their humdrum office jobs and go on an epic bike ride and camping trip that would take them all over the world. “I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige,” Austin wrote. “I’ve missed too many sunsets while my back was turned.”

So in July of last year, they flew from Washington, D.C., to Cape Town, and from there bicycled through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Malawi to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From there, they flew to Cairo, and after seeing the pyramids flew on to Casablanca, from which they cycled through Morocco, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Greece, to Turkey. From there, another flight took them to Kazakhstan. They biked through Kyrgyzstan and entered Tajikistan. It was in that country that their journey came to an abrupt end this past July 29, when five ISIS members deliberately plowed their car into the two adventurers, killing them along with two temporary cycling companions, one from Switzerland and the other from the Netherlands. “Two days later,” wrote Callimachi, “the Islamic State released a video showing five men it identified as the attackers, sitting before the ISIS flag. They face the camera and make a vow: to kill ‘disbelievers.’”

Read the whole thing.

ZOOM: The 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt Doesn’t Need Nostalgia To Be Great.

AT AMAZON, save on Office Supplies.

Plus, deals in Outdoor Recreation.

NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST CAN’T FIGURE OUT IF RACIST TWEETS ARE A FIREABLE OFFENSE OR NOT:

Times columnist Bret Stephens, an outspoken NeverTrump activist, effusively praised ABC when it fired Roseanne Barr for a single tweet, but when it comes to a mountain of racist tweets over nine years, he says his new colleague Sarah Jeong deserves a whole lot of grace and a second chance. What could possibly explain this blatant double standard?

Related: NYT Feature Writer Elizabeth Williamson Writer Forced To Apologize To Sarah Jeong After Criticizing Jeong’s Racist Tweets.

Between Jeong’s lengthy past criticism of Times’ columnists, and management’s apparent pressure to keep her on the job, the Fast Times at Sulzberger High must be a fun environment to work in. As Stephen Miller tweets, “NYT Christmas parties are going to be lit af.”

However, the Gray Lady’s readers are a bit more uncomfortable with Jeong’s racism than hew newfound colleagues: Surprisingly, NY Times’ readers are bothered by Sarah Jeong’s tweets.

MEDICAL MYSTERY: Woman with ‘bloated’ stomach discovers she had 14 pounds of ovarian tumors.

MARC THIESSEN IN THE WASHINGTON POST: Explain the Chinese spy, Sen. Feinstein.

Imagine if it emerged that the Republican chairman of the House or Senate intelligence committee had a Russian spy working on their staff. Think it would cause a political firestorm? Well, this month we learned that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) had a Chinese spy on her staff who worked for her for about 20 years, was listed as an “office director” on payroll records and served as her driver when she was in San Francisco, all while reporting to China’s Ministry of State Security through China’s San Francisco Consulate. The reaction of the mainstream media? Barely a peep.

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and the silence makes perfect sense.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Study: Tighter fitting briefs lower chances of becoming a father.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: GOP Congressman Praises 3D Gun Printing for Making Gun Control ‘Obsolete.’

NFL CONTINUING ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Kneeling And Raised Fists During The National Anthem Mark First Preseason NFL Games.

RICHARD TRUMKA PLAYING KING CANUTE: The AFL-CIO President claims unions are back in a big way. My colleague Trey Kovacs points out the flaws in his stance.

ETA: Yes, I know about Cnut. If you’d like to know more about the history of the story of Cnut and the waves, may I recommend A Clerk of Oxford? Her blog is a treasure trove of information about Anglo-Saxon England.

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Here’s How a Night of Heavy Drinking Gives You The ‘Drunchies.’

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO TRUMP: Ben Rhodes and The World as It Wasn’t.