OLD AND BUSTED: In the future, everyone will be Hitler for 15 minutes.

The New Hotness? Everybody Is Tipper Gore Now. Kevin Williamson on the New York Times wanting to nationalize the news media, and the Times, Slate, and other leftists getting the vapors over the new Joker movie:

The moralistic busybodies were wrong in the Eighties. They’re wrong today. They deserved the contempt they received then. They deserve it now. The difference is that free speech and heterodoxy used to have allies in such venues as The New Yorker and the New York Times, where both political and artistic freedom now have so many enemies. But I understand that retro-Eighties nostalgia is hot right now. If we’re going to bring back big hair and shoulder pads, we may as well resuscitate the public career of Tipper Gore, last seen skulking around Democratic fundraising circles at the junior-varsity level. Perhaps we could bring back Johnny Carson and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation while we’re at it.

And maybe we can find someone to speak for the cause of art that declines to be subordinated to anybody’s political agenda, current social-improvement projects, the tender sensibilities of critics at the New York Times, or the increasingly baroque rules of etiquette that organizes the lives of New Yorker readers as they sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn.

Nuclear annihilation remains the safer bet, but one may still dream.

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™

THE SEINFELD EFFECT: How to make a story out of nothing. Axios and Politico breathlessly report that “Judge orders White House to preserve records of Trump’s calls with foreign leaders.” Well, my, oh my, that must mean something serious is happening! We’ve got him now!

Not so much. In the initial stages of ANY lawsuit (even the fender-bender down the street) once an action has commenced parties are REQUIRED to preserve records. Here, the “whistleblower” had asked for an injunction ordering preservation and the Trump team agreed before the judge even “ruled.” The judge’s minute order said:

“In accordance with Defendants’ representations to the Court which obviated consideration of the motion for temporary injunctive relief since there was no issue in dispute, defendants are hereby ORDERED to preserve…”

This is an example of the hype-fest circus going on. If there are any courtroom hearings, I fully expect Axios to report that “An armed court security officer was present in the courtroom.”

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Napoleon Chagnon, the Yanomamö bushmen, and Noble Savages Revisited.

Exit quote:  “‘Chagnon…turned the romantic image of the ‘noble savage’ on its head.’ He had to pay the price.”

Read the whole thing.

DISPATCHES FROM THE NO FAITH LEAGUE: NFL Fines Player $7,000 for Wearing ‘Man of God’ Headband.

GOP SENATOR RON JOHNSON RIPS INTO CHUCK TODD’S ‘VERY BIASED’ OPEN, FIGHT ENSUES:

Todd moaned and groaned and then said “I have no idea why Fox News conspiracy propaganda stuff is popping up on here. I have no idea why we’re going here.” When Johnson said this is why people hate the media, “This is not about the media! Senator Johnson, please!!” As in “please stop criticizing the heroic press.”

* * * * * * * *

If Johnson was going to get “personal” with Todd, he would have brought up Todd working for Tom Harkin’s presidential campaign, or his wife’s Democrat direct-mail fundraising business, or the couple’s 2015 dinner party at their home for Hillary Clinton’s campaign communications director.

Read the whole thing.

Related: Touched a nerve? Chuck Todd comes unglued when Sen. Ron Johnson brings up Strzok/Page texts.

WHY, INDEED? Stephen Cohen: Why Did American And Foreign Intelligence Agencies Set Out To Destroy Donald Trump?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: The Joker – Patron Saint of Incels, or Bernie Bros? “[Director Todd] Phillips has spoken about how it’s ‘good’ that movies like this could lead to discussions about violence, but it would have been nice for Joker to explore it more. It has one point to make, and makes it in slightly different ways throughout: the rich are terrible and society needs to do more to help people like Arthur. That’s not to say that Joker turns Arthur into an anti-hero, at least not for the audience. It’s clear throughout that he’s a psychopath and is not someone to be celebrated.”

#WALKAWAY: ‘It Just Exploded’: #WalkAway Movement Grows as Former Democrats Leave Party.

WELL, FOR CERTAIN VALUES OF “US” — LIKE GENTRY-CLASS GATEKEEPERS — IT’S TRUE: The New York Times Says ‘Free Speech Is Killing Us.’ But Violent Crime Is Lower Than Ever.

CAPITALISM, THE UNKNOWN IDEAL: Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Wealth Tax’ Is Punishment, Not Taxation.

Add that the Democrats’ “ban all the things” rhetoric at the CNN “climate change town hall” from last month, and that’s a whole lot of potential decline to hide. (Biden has signed off on his support for the Green New Deal — so much for his posing as the moderate among the candidates.) As Bryan Preston wrote afterwards, “If you like Venezuela, voting for any of them will bring you a whole lot of Venezuela. Thank you, CNN, just for letting these people talk. Do it again next week? Please?”

CNBC reports that “Bernie Sanders will be at the next debate, spokeswoman says, one day after health scare,” to help the candidates out-socialist each other.

A SHAMBLES, REALLY? ‘Foreign Policy is in Shambles’: Colin Powell Unloads on Trump and the Republican Party. We haven’t started any new wars, China and North Korea are being managed, the middle east is looking more promising than it has in decades, and Colin Powell regards this as a shambles compared, I guess, to back when he was in office. Uh huh.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Columbia’s library building features the names of only male authors. After three decades of trying, these students have fixed that.

In an op-ed for the Columbia Spectator, representatives of the Butler Banner Project explained that the names displayed prominently on historic campus buildings are more than just tributes to donors or revered figures.

“They are constant yet subtle reminders of the values of their respective institutions,” they write. “Every time someone walks past Butler, they see the names of eight white men and internalize that these are the writers and thinkers that Columbia deems deserving of cultural admiration.”

The new 140-foot banner emblazons the last names of Toni Morrison, Diana Chang, Zora Neale Hurston, Ntozake Shange, Maya Angelou, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gloria E Anzaldúa and A. Revathi across the face of Butler Library and directly above the original names.

Those original names being Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, and Vergil.

Related: Elites Against Western Civilization: Teaching youth that there is nothing good about our democratic cultural inheritance, the intellectual class is working to discredit our past and demolish our future.

ICYMI: Michael Avenatti puts attorney fee lien on Stormy Daniels strip club arrest settlement.

LIST: Every New Car With 500 HP for Under $100,000.

AT AMAZON, save in Office and School Supplies.

Plus, save on Heating and Cooling.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Why now is the time to disrupt the colonialist model of healthcare.

A Grauniad article finds itself disrupted by a serious fisking from David Thompson.

THIS IS HOW THE THE MOVIE STARTS: Researchers used CRISPR to give ‘monarch flies’ superpowers—here’s why.

RIP: Ginger Baker, Cream’s volatile drummer, dead at 80. “While Rolling Stone magazine once ranked him the third-greatest rock drummer of all time, behind Moon and Bonham, Baker had contempt for Moon and others he dismissed as ‘bashers’ without style or background…With blazing eyes, orange-red hair and a temperament to match, the London native ranked with The Who’s Keith Moon and Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham as the embodiment of musical and personal fury. Using twin bass drums, Baker fashioned a pounding, poly-rhythmic style uncommonly swift and heavy that inspired and intimidated countless musicians. But every beat seemed to mirror an offstage eruption — whether his violent dislike of Cream bandmate Jack Bruce or his on-camera assault of a documentary maker, Jay Bulger, whom he smashed in the nose with his walking stick. “‘John Bonham once made a statement that there were only two drummers in British rock ‘n’ roll; himself and Ginger Baker,’ Baker wrote in his book. ‘My reaction to this was, ‘You cheeky little bastard!’”

THIS DOESN’T LOOK GOOD FOR ELIZABETH WARREN: And neither does this critique of her bankruptcy study.

TRANSHUMANISM: Where Physical and Digital Worlds Meld.

THAT WAS THE EAT THE BABIES WEEK THAT WAS: It’s #EatTheBabies Week at Legal Insurrection, if you’d like a quick, link-filled recap of the prior week’s DNC-MSM craziness.

DRIVING INTO OLD AGE.

19TH CENTURY TECHNOLOGY: Let’s Think About Using Hot Air Balloons to Get to Space.

WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE: Scientists Implant False Memories in Birds to Teach Them Songs They’ve Never Heard.