HONG KONG IN HISTORY’S LENS:

Consider the past 10 days. On Nov. 8, security forces killed a student protestor. Another was wounded Nov. 11. On Nov. 12, Beijing sycophants claimed mobs had brought the city to “the brink of total collapse.”

Beijing blames the U.S. and Britain for the violence. But accusing adversaries of doing what communist sympathizers and agents are actually doing was a standard Cold War Soviet and Red Chinese tactic.

Stuart Heaver (reporting from Hong Kong for The Independent) thinks Beijing is already invading. “There may be no tanks,” Heaver wrote, but many locals believe “PLA troops are already here, disguised as Hong Kong riot police …” They intend “to impose Tiananmen by stealth and create a climate of fear.”

The suspect police “are often heard speaking in Putonghua dialect,” Heaver writes. Putonghua is Mandarin (Beijing) Chinese. Most Hong Kongers speak the Cantonese dialect. Eighty-five to 95 million Chinese living along the south China coast speak Cantonese or Hakka, a related “southern” dialect.

Which leads to a linguistic connection that disturbs Beijing’s mandarins (pun intended): Seventy percent of Taiwan’s 24 million people speak Hakka.

Read the entire column.

ADDITION, THANKS TO A COMMENTER: My sources on Taiwanese dialects all said Hokkien and Hakka. Hokkien failed to make it into the column– my error. I’ve emailed my Creators editor and asked her to include it.

YOU KNOW WHO’D BAN FRACKING? A PUTIN PUPPET. THAT’S WHO’D BAN FRACKING. Elizabeth Warren’s fracking ban pledge shows a ‘total lack of understanding,’ oil guru Yergin says.

WELL, MARXISTS: A Marxist Takes a Swing and a Miss at Justice Thomas’s Jurisprudence.

JAMES BOVARD: As the deep state attacks Trump to rave media reviews, don’t forget its dark side. “Five years ago, Brennan’s CIA ignited what should have been a constitutional crisis when it was caught illegally spying upon the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was compiling a massive report on the CIA torture program. . . . But the only official who went to prison was John Kiriakou, a former CIA operative who publicly admitted that the CIA was waterboarding.”

JULIE KELLY: Inside the ‘War’ on Biden-Ukraine Reporting. “The goal is to protect Joe Biden, the only candidate most Democrats think can beat Trump, both from any political fall-out for his son’s shady dealings in Ukraine as well as how the Democrats enlisted Ukrainian help to sabotage Trump’s presidential campaign.”

THESE PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS CALLING FOR SHOW TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS: Liberal Media Scream: Jane Fonda wants ‘Nuremberg trials’ for energy executives.

If we’re going to start punishing people whose products damaged America, Hollywood had better watch out.

POLL: Buttigieg claims narrow Iowa lead amid primary surge.

OK, SNOWFLAKES: When 29 Courses on Black Writing Isn’t Enough at Williams.

CHRIS BARRON: President Trump Should Call the Democrats’ Infrastructure Bluff.

The Democrats have abandoned any pretense of governing in favor of an ‘impeachment-first’ strategy—one that is much more about crass partisan politics than it is about the Constitution or the rule of law.

The President is a builder by nature, and he understands infrastructure. A comprehensive infrastructure package would not only play to the President’s strengths and expose the Democrats’ sham, it would—most importantly—rebuild America, grow our economy and create millions of jobs all across the country.

This is more than an election-year gimmick. We face a staggering infrastructure shortfall, across almost every sector. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, our nation’s infrastructure merits a D+ and it is estimated that the U.S. needs to spend $4.5 trillion by 2025 to improve—among other things—our roads, airports, bridges, and dams, or risk catastrophic failure.

There are easy fixes this White House could support.

Democrats keep promising big infrastructure improvements and shovel-ready jobs, but they don’t usually deliver much more than traffic jams and bike lanes for the affluent.

CONRAD BLACK: The Democrats Won’t Find a Savior in Michael Bloomberg.

IT STARTED THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION: Sharyl Attkisson: The curious timeline for taking down Trump. “We continue to get evidence of an orchestrated effort among government insiders and the well-connected to take down President Trump at all costs. The public evidence indicates that the effort was hatched even before he took office.” And, actually, even before the election.

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP OR ELSE, INFIDEL: Philadelphia commission looks the other way on Muslim school kid’s “chop off their heads” song.

DUMB SNOWFLAKES INDULGED AGAIN.

Last Friday, we announced a decision to cancel two scheduled public performances of “The Foreigner.” This play—written in the 1980s and frequently produced at educational and professional institutions across the country—centers on a group of people who feel “othered” by society in various ways, including premarital pregnancy, neurological differences, and age. Over the course of the play, these individuals build a community together through listening, learning and, humor, but their bond is threatened by the xenophobic anger and self-proclaimed entitlement of two other characters. In the climax of the play, the community of disenfranchised protagonists rises up to easily defeat the bigoted antagonists (who reveal themselves as members of the KKK). It is through the portrayal and defeat of these villainous characters that the play conveys its message about the evils of xenophobia, the dangers of “othering,” and the importance of empathy.

We made the decision to cancel the performances after listening to members of our campus community who told us that they were deeply hurt and affronted by the existence and portrayal of characters associated with the KKK—even though these characters are clearly portrayed as villains and are easily vanquished by the play’s protagonists. Our intent in cancelling the production was to prevent further harm to members of our community who already feel marginalized. However, the decision to cancel the play has been interpreted by some as a form of censorship on the part of the College. Censorship is anathema to the core values of Washington College, and this was never our intent.

The decision was perceived as censorship because it was censorship. Don’t do that. They should be scolded and shamed for their silly ideas. That’s the only way they will learn. University administrations should help them learn, not give in to a few woke loudmouths. The faux-therapeutic language of “further harm” is absurd and demeaning.

PRIORITIES: San Francisco: Where It’s OK to Crap in the Streets But They Arrest People for Eating on a BART Platform.

RIP, THE SULLIVAN BROTHERS.

THE TRUTH ABOUT INCOME INEQUALITY IS THAT IT’S MOSTLY A LIE:

The Census Bureau also fails to count $1.9 trillion in annual public transfer payments to American households. The bureau ignores transfer payments from some 95 federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps, which make up more than 40% of federal spending, along with dozens of state and local programs. Government transfers provide 89% of all resources available to the bottom income quintile of households and more than half of the total resources available to the second quintile.

In all, leaving out taxes and most transfers overstates inequality by more than 300%, as measured by the ratio of the top quintile’s income to the bottom quintile’s. More than 80% of all taxes are paid by the top two quintiles, and more than 70% of all government transfer payments go to the bottom two quintiles.

America’s system of data collection is among the most sophisticated in the world, but the Census Bureau’s decision not to count taxes as lost income and transfers as gained income grossly distorts its measure of the income distribution. As a result, the raging national debate over income inequality, the outcome of which could alter the foundations of our economic and political system, is based on faulty information.

Why would they do that?

THIS LOOKS LIKE FUN: Die Behind the Wheel: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Steely Dan. “This is the book of the expanding man.”

IT’S BILL JACOBSON: Conservative Law Professor Challenges Campus Left on Free Speech (and Wins Them Over). “Bill Jacobson, founder and publisher of Legal Insurrection as well as a clinical professor of law and director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell Law School, shares his insights on Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College. Jacobson also talks about how he turned a hostile greeting at Vassar College into an incredible teaching experience, and discusses his views on social media censorship. Read the lightly edited transcript below or listen to the podcast.”

SO DO I, AND THEN I’M GRATEFUL FOR TRUMP: Hillary on BBC Radio: ‘I Think About What Kind of President I Would Have Been All the Time.’

OPEN THREAD: Thread away!

HARSH BUT FAIR: Baby Trump Balloon-Slasher Says He’s Never Seen Liberals ‘Mad About Chopping Up A Baby.’

WEIRD: HPV may protect against skin cancer.

WE MUST IMPEACH TRUMP IN THE NAME OF ACCOUNTABILITY, INSTITUTIONAL STABILITY, AND THE RULE OF LAW. ALSO, WE’RE GOING TO DO IT BY A SECRET VOTE. A Secret Ballot for Impeachment Would Be a Terrible Idea.

Some people really want to give Trump his Yeltsin-on-a-tank moment. But why should Trump supporters accept an impeachment based on such a procedural travesty? And if they resort to violence, well, we’ve already been told that violence is fine when your opponents are really bad. You know, by the people who care about stability and democracy and stuff.