UM, REALLY? The Surprising Surge of Andrew Yang.

Andrew Yang was sitting here in a rented silver Suburban outside a black chamber of commerce surrounded by five members of his rapidly growing campaign staff when he saw a new Fox News poll in which he was tied for fifth in the sprawling Democratic presidential primary.

He stared at the screen of his phone and scrolled.

“Three percent!” Yang said, in his characteristically dry, droll way. “This team. Is the team. That’s going to go … all. The. Way. To the White House!”

Yang breezily walked into the chamber building and got onto a packed elevator. To the county party chair squeezed into a corner, Yang excitedly passed along the results of the poll, listing in order the only people who were ahead of him—a former vice president (Joe Biden) and three high-profile senators (Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris).

“And then me!” he exclaimed, flashing a goofy, exaggerated smile.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but Andrew Yang is … surging?

He’s trading at 10-to-1 or sometimes 11-to-1 on the PredictIt market.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Study: Selfie-takers viewed as self-absorbed, less successful.

CROWDSOURCING LIBERTY: How the Hong Kong Protestors’ Tactical Brilliance Backed Beijing into a Corner.

One of the reasons for the effectiveness of the protest movement is the decision to remain leaderless. In an op-ed article in 2017, Nicholas Berggruen, chairman of the Berggruen Institute, suggests that resistance movements need strong and charismatic leaders to succeed. Many resistance movements such as the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King Jr., the resistance to apartheid with Nelson Mandela, and the India Independence Movement with Gandhi benefited greatly from such leadership.

But the outcome of Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy movement suggests that the current protests would not be nearly as robust or effective if it did have such leaders. Joshua Wong, the strong and charismatic leader of the Umbrella movement in 2014, was jailed in 2017 for unlawful assembly. With strong leaders present, the authorities can arrest them, fatally weakening a movement. Given the deterioration of the rule of law in Hong Kong, the authorities could conceivably jail all of the movement’s linchpins with considerable ease. But with a leaderless movement, the authorities have no such power. So far, the Hong Kong Police Force has arrested hundreds of protesters while the movement has not lost any momentum because the contribution of no single individual is vital.

Didn’t somebody write a book about this, once upon a time?

OLD AND BUSTED: Avoid Gas Station Sushi.

The New Hotness? Avoid Gas Station Sex Pills: Major League Baseball warns of stiff penalty over gas station sex pills.

NOBODY, NOT EVEN A HOLLYWOOD ACTOR, IS ACTUALLY THIS STUPID: Lori Loughlin reportedly thought college ‘bribe’ was like donating a library.

DEPRESSION LUST: No One Wants a Recession… (Video):

(Classical reference in headline.)

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Intimidation-Produced Silence at Stanford.

Cost of attending the toxic environment of Stanford University: $68,152 per year.

IT’S THE SAME OLD SONG: Biden Promises Unions Can Keep Their Health Insurance Plans if He’s Elected.

MSM LAUNCHES JIHAD AGAINST RIGHT MEDIA? Tuesday, it was The Epoch Times in the cross-hairs of the fact-free-zone newsrooms at NBC/MSNBC today it’s the New York Times going after Floyd Brown and the Western Journal. Anything contrary to the elitist MSM narrative is branded “disinformation,” or worse.

The people in those newsrooms call themselves “journalists,” yet, with few exceptions, that is no longer a credible label for what they do. Who will be tomorrow’s target, The Federalist? The Daily Caller? Washington Examiner? Washington Free Beacon? Instapundit?

GONE WITH THE WIND: Strong wind blows dozens of air mattresses through Denver park (video).

IF SOMETHING CANNOT GO ON FOREVER, IT WILL STOP: CBO Projects Trillion-Dollar Deficits for the Next Decade—And No One Seems to Care.

FLASHBACK: Trump Administration & Pelosi Negotiate $2 Trillion Budget Deal Over the Corpse of Fiscal Conservatism.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Team Biden to Dems: Sorry, You’re Stuck with Joe.

SOME THINGS ARE BETTER LEFT UNSAID: Ring asks police not to tell public how its law enforcement backend works.

A VIPER ON ITS WAY TO WORK: A USMC AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter takes off from the deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer. The ship is passing through the Strait of Hormuz– which means Iran is nearby. Note the Light Assault Vehicle (LAV) on the deck. That seems to be a standard procedure. Here’s a LAV on the deck of the USS Wasp. I put this photo up on Instapundit earlier in the month. At the earlier post you’ll find a link to a discussion about Iranian small boat “swarm” tactics.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Study finds ‘ideological similarity, hostility, and discrimination’ rampant in academic philosophy. Remember, when taxpayers tire of funding this, we’ll be told it’s because of “anti-intellectualism.”

“WE BLEW IT:” 50 Years Later, the Spirit of ’69 Feels Like a Hangover.

THIS DOESN’T SURPRISE ME: The Truth About Faster Internet: It’s Not Worth It.

The Wall Street Journal studied the internet use of 53 of our journalists across the country, over a period of months, in coordination with researchers at Princeton University and the University of Chicago.

Our panelists used only a fraction of their available bandwidth to watch streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube, even simultaneously. Quality didn’t improve much with higher speeds. Picture clarity was about the same. Videos didn’t launch quicker.

Broadband providers such as Comcast Corp., Charter Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. are marketing speeds in the range of 250, 500 or even 1,000 megabits a second, often promising that streaming-video bingers will benefit. “Fast speeds for all of your shows,” declares one online ad from Comcast.

But for a typical household, the benefits of paying for more than 100 megabits a second are marginal at best, according to the researchers. That means many households are paying a premium for services they don’t need.

What follows is our evidence that you’re being oversold.

We upgraded our speed when we ditched cable, figuring why not, because the overall bill was lower. But except for being able to complete large downloads in less time — which I hardly ever do — I haven’t noticed any real-world difference.

INDOCTRINATION DISGUISED AS TOLERANCE: NC art prof slams faculty diversity workshop, claims admin using Orwell as ‘instruction manual.’ And the disguise has worn pretty thin.

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KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Spicey’s Dancing With the Stars on Liberal Feelings. “Democrats all across the land are having yet another foot-stomping, snot-bubbling, toddler-esque meltdown, this time because a Republican guy they don’t like is going to be on a television show they’ve never watched.”

WHAT HATH HONG KONG’S PROTESTS WROUGHT?: China is the Pentagon’s “number 1 priority” says Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Of course those fake islands filching territory in the South China Sea and Beijing’s pervasive spying and intellectual property theft (theft of American creativity) factor in America’s military and economic response to China’s aggressive expansionism.

My latest Creators Syndicate column examines the disinformation campaign Beijing is waging against Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

DEEP BACKGROUND: Chapter 3, Cocktails from Hell. The Dragon Revives. Beijing’s cocktail from hell of intimidation and lies isn’t working out as the ChiCom leaders thought it would.

QUESTION ASKED: If Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib can boycott Israel, why can’t Israel boycott them?

Of course, there’s no guarantee such a boycott could work…

SKYNET FROWNS: Google DeepMind Co-Founder Placed on Leave From AI Lab.

POSEURS GONNA POSE:

How does one “bully” a prince and a duchess?

Related: How green is St Greta’s Ark? Er, not very. “Some intriguing revelations about the crewing arrangements emerged soon after departure. It turns out that the three westbound crossing crew will be flying back from New York to Europe, while the replacement crew of five will be flying from Europe to New York for the return passage.”