MAYBE THE “SHADOW” FOREIGN POLICY WAS BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE KENT, VINDMAN, HILL, AND C*ARAMELLA?The President, Not Diplomats, Sets ‘Official Foreign’ Policy.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Tom Steyer Spending 67% of All TV Ad Dollars, Still Getting 1% in the Polls. “ He’s a simple billionaire, just trying to get the filthy corporate stink-dollars out of politics. When it comes to Steyer’s own money —- step back. He’s got Sam Jackson’s BMF wallet from Pulp Fiction, and you don’t want to stand too close when he whips it out.”

This is my regular, daily PJMedia column — no VIP paywall. If you’re not a VIP member but are interested in the extra content, the coupon code VODKAPUNDIT still works for a nice little discount, they tell me.

EXPLAINER: Jim Jordan Explains Why Trump Held Up the Money to Ukraine Without a Quid Pro Quo.

CHOOSE THE FORM OF YOUR DESTRUCTOR: Yoram Hazony to Bret Stephens: You Hate Trump, But You Created Him.

(Classical reference in headline.)

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Day 1 of the Trump impeachment hearing was a lost day for Democrats.

DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS: University employee was involved in disappearance of campus newspapers, school says.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Media’s Silence on CBS Firing Ashley Bianco Proves #MeToo Is a Sham.

Related: Not only is CNN maintaining their omertà on Bianco and Amy Robach‘s admission that her expose on Jefferey Epstein was killed by ABC’s management, Jake Tapper is inviting viewers via George Stephanopoulos to attend a taping of ABC’s Good Morning America:

UNLESS THE DEMOCRATS GET THEIR WAY: Oil And Gas Development To Boost Front Range Property Tax Revenue By Up To $2 Billion In Coming Decade.

SOMETHING ODD ABOUT THAT WHISTLEBLOWER: Charlie Martin wonders how you get fired for leaking in the White House but still be able to return to your former agency, the CIA? Very good question, that!

NOT ANTIWAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE: VIDEO: Students can’t name a single just war the U.S fought.

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KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Dear Hollywood, Stop Ruining Fun With Wokeness. “Some may say I dream too big, but I one day hope to be able to sit down, turn on my television, and watch something without fear of hearing a liberal talking point painfully shoehorned into the script.”

But this is not that day.

UPDATE: Link was missing. Fixed now — sorry!

NY TIMES: Campus Protesters Complaining About Student Journalism May Have A Point.

Well, it’s the Times, where they take wagging the dog seriously:

If you keep your eye on media news, you know that The New York Times, the most important newspaper in America, has been roiled internally over whether or not a headline it published over a Trump story (about his post El Paso speech) exonerated the president from racism. The original headline read “Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism.” After a staff revolt, the headline was later changed to “Assailing Hate, But Not Guns”.

The paper’s executive editor, Dean Baquet, met with the staff about the headline, and the paper’s coverage of race. Slate published the transcript of a leaked recording. I encourage you to read it to get an idea of how the people who put out the most influential newspaper in the world think about this stuff. They go on and on and on, torturing Baquet over this one measly headline that accurately and neutrally described Trump’s speech.

As Glenn wrote on Monday: “‘Is this what students at the country’s most prestigious journalism school are learning these days? That self-censorship is the paper’s best practice if someone is offended by what’s happening in the world?’ Yes. That’s exactly what they’re learning there.” As Ambassador de Sadeski would say, their source was the New York Times.

Related: Journalists Against Free Speech. From fellow Insta-co-blogger John Tierney at City Journal.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: We Likely Won’t Cut Carbon Dioxide Emissions 45 Percent by 2030.

AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK: DOJ Announces Project Guardian to Reduce ‘Gun Violence’ By Enforcing Existing Laws.

AND THAT’S THE OFFICIAL, INFLATED FIGURE: China’s 2020 growth will drop below 6.0 per cent says Chinese think tank – first government-linked body to make such a prediction.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Entitlement Liabilities Are a Graver Threat to the Next Generation of Americans Than Climate Change.

21ST CENTURY WARFARE: Hypersonic Weapons: Tactical Uses and Strategic Goals.

Are these weapons and their employment simply an evolution of existing missiles? Or a revolution that threatens to upset the balance of power? The answer still depends on decisions yet to be made. Russia appears closest to fielding hypersonic missiles, as it aspires to deploy the Avangard glide vehicle before the year is out. The United States has ambitious goals for accuracy and precision, but its most viable programs are not expected to reach operational capability until 2022. Meanwhile, China has been characteristically vague on their hypersonic weapons while still letting it be known that they are firmly committed to their development.

For now, it seems hypersonic weapons’ predominant value is to give user countries a Clausewitzian capability (i.e., reaching a limited culminating point of victory quickly and decisively) in support of a Sun Tzu-inspired strategy (i.e., to win without fighting).

Everybody seems to think that a big enough knockout blow in the opening stage of a war will lead to rapid victory. But modern history — the Schlieffen Plan, Barbarosa, Pearl Harbor, Korea 1950, 9/11, “shock and awe” over Iraq — indicates otherwise.

HEH: Capitol Building To Be Decorated As Giant Circus Tent For Duration Of Impeachment Hearings.

As soon as congressional maintenance staff heard that the impeachment hearings were going to begin, they went into storage and got out “the Big Top,” also used during the Kavanaugh hearings last year.

“We keep the Big Top on hand for certain situations,” said one staff member. “Usually these big inquisition-style trials, that kind of thing. They’re great entertainment. And the kids love the monkeys.”

Congressional vendors will be selling peanuts, popcorn, programs, and those big foam fingers to enhance viewers’ experience.

Rep. Adam Schiff was furious with the changes, saying they make a mockery out of a serious show trial.

“These are serious proceedings, and we will not have them mocked!” Schiff cried, wearing a clown nose, riding an elephant, and juggling fourteen flaming bowling pins. “The American public needs to know how super serious we are about this.”

“And now for my last stunt, I will create evidence for impeachment out of thin air!”

From America’s newspaper of record.

UPDATE:

A FAIR POINT FROM A HARVARD LAWPROF:

UPDATE: Related: Schiff’s lead witnesses have no real evidence — and neither does he.

WE NEED A COMPLETE AND TOTAL SHUTDOWN OF NPR UNTIL WE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE: NPR downplays actual human sacrifice.

I get the feeling every now and then that academics and journalists place a low value on human life, thinking of it as no more precious than a commodity to be depleted and replenished as necessary.

That is certainly the impression I get this week from reading National Public Radio’s astonishingly gentle take on Aztecan human sacrifice. That is not hyperbole. The publicly funded newsgroup indeed published an article this week downplaying the Aztecs’ practice of mass human slaughter.

The NPR report, titled “500 Years Later, The Spanish Conquest Of Mexico Is Still Being Debated,” centers on efforts by the director of the urban archaeology program at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, Raul Barrera Rodríguez, to excavate Aztecan ruins.

Exit quote: “‘When the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan was consecrated in 1487 the Aztecs recorded that 84,000 people were slaughtered in four days. That is 21,000 sacrifices per day. I am not even mad about this — I am impressed. They didn’t even kill that many people at Auschwitz on the average day.’ As many reasons as the invading colonialists have to be ashamed, that they wiped a genocidal death cult off the planet is not one of them.”

HARD PASS: ‘Charlie’s Angels’ – Kicks, Punches and Feminist Lectures. “The unnecessary reboot for a marginal TV series exists for two reasons. Branded properties remain Hollywood’s higher power. Plus, writer/director Elizabeth Banks wanted to send a message about girl power over and over again. The studio handed her $48 million to do just that.”

Christian Toto, so worth your click.