IN WAR [AGAINST WRONGTHINK], TRUTH IS THE FIRST CASUALTY: The University of Pennsylvania had long been one of the few colleges that did not have any written speech codes. Now that it’s brought them back, surprise–admins aren’t telling the truth about it!

MINDING THE CAMPUS: The Campus Tendency To Extremism. “There is a common cultural dynamic in which competition among members of a social or political movement for the prestige of ideological purity and group leadership leads to more and more extreme substantive positions.”

If the right were trying to destroy the prestige and credibility of higher education it could do no better than higher education is doing for itself.

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KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Alleged Moderate Dem Biden Adopts Prog Anti-Corporation Rhetoric. “The elevator pitch for Biden is that he’s the only one who can compete with and beat Trump in the non-coastal parts of the United States that Democrats like to spend most of their time pretending don’t exist. One BIG reason for that is that Biden hasn’t been hanging out on the progressive lunatic fringe with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.”

UPDATE: Link was missing — fixed now. Sorry!

OVER AT USA TODAY, I HAVE A CONTRIBUTION TO this forum on impeachment, yes or no. I come down no. The words “hissy fit” are used.

HMM: Biden’s Democratic challengers don’t really want to win — here’s the proof.

Do Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Mike Bloomberg, and all the other Democrats running against Joe Biden really want to be president?

Because it sure doesn’t seem like they want the job.

The question is on behalf of the millions of Americans who are either working for, donating to, or simply rooting for any of the other 12 candidates still officially in the race. Put them together, and those 12 other candidates have the support of more than 70% of Democratic Party primary voters and a lot more donated money than Biden on his own. So it would be a good idea for those candidates to answer the question.

If they answer truthfully, it sure seems like all of them would have to say they really don’t want to win. At least they don’t want it enough to use Biden’s most vulnerable weaknesses against him.

Maybe Biden is stuck with the Bob Dole role from 1996: Send the old guy out one last time against an almost-unbeatable incumbent. And if Trump does suddenly look vulnerable, the Dems will trot out Hillary or Michelle as a savior.

LEFTIST BIGOTRY IS EVERYWHERE: Again. California uniformed deputies denied service at Starbucks. Well, not really everywhere. It’s mostly in California.

MICHAEL BARONE: Boris Johnson’s Revolution.

First, the numbers. The Conservatives won 365 seats in the House of Commons, which gives them a majority of 80 if every other member votes against them. The election yielded the most seats Conservatives have won since the days of Margaret Thatcher, when they took 397 in 1983 and 376 in 1987. It’s a parliamentary majority that will endure for the five-year limit on this term of Parliament.

The Labour Party won only 203 seats. That’s the lowest number for Labour since the election of 1935, 84 years ago. This is a harsh repudiation of the party and its left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Second, this was an immense personal victory for Johnson. Twelve months ago, he was a much-mocked backbencher, having resigned as foreign minister in July 2018 to protest the latest feckless proposal by Prime Minister Theresa May to reach an agreement to withdraw from the European Union. British voters, in their highest election turnout ever, voted to Leave rather than Remain in the EU, but May, a Remain voter, placed the negotiations in the hands of civil servants — “Yes, minister” types — determined to frustrate the will of the 17.4 million Leave voters, the largest number of Britons in history voting for any party or position.

Remainers on the BBC, and even at Sky News, the Times, the Financial Times, and the Economist — affluent and fashionable Londoners — increasingly felt free to dismiss Leave voters as bigoted and stupid. Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major called for a second referendum, while the Liberal Democrats promised to ignore any referendum result that didn’t support Remain. A majority of parliamentary constituencies voted for Leave, but a majority of members of the House of Commons supported Remain and, as May fumbled, became increasingly bold in their contempt for their fellow citizens.

In the end, they didn’t capture the hearts of the people.

Nope. And despite their best efforts, they haven’t been able to dissolve the people and elect another. Yet.

CRIED WOLF, AND WENT AFTER AJIT PAI’S WIFE AND KIDS BECAUSE OVERWHELMING MORAL NECESSITY OR SOMETHING: On second anniversary of net neutrality repeal, don’t forget how the Left cried wolf.

HOW DARE YOU! Greta Thunberg Documentary Set At Hulu, Chronicling Climate Activist’s Global Rise.

But this presents the Greta worshipper — and Hulu — with a paradox: worship St. Greta, or keep that carbon footprint as low as possible: Greenpeace says binge-watching all those TV shows is bad for the environment.

Knowing that, presumably, Hulu is hoping for the smallest viewing numbers possible for this project. Perhaps someone  could ask Greta if she thinks Hulu subscribers should cancel their subscriptions and unplug their Roku or Apple TV boxes.

Earlier: Time’s Commie Nag of the Year Can Go Pound Sand.

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE: TV host Montel Williams defends West Point and Navy students making ‘OK’ hand gesture: The media ‘branded these young people as racists without a shred of evidence.’

HMM: Is China Planning To Incite A “People’s War” To Dominate The South China Sea?

Party leaders have regaled the populace with how they will use seagoing forces to right historical wrongs and win the nation nautical renown. They must now follow through.

It was foolish to tie China’s national dignity and sovereignty to patently absurd claims to islands and seas. But party leaders did so. And they did so repeatedly, publicly, and in the most unyielding terms imaginable. By their words they stoked nationalist sentiment while making themselves accountable to it. They set in motion a toxic cycle of rising popular expectations.

Breaking that cycle could verge on impossible. If Beijing relented from its maritime claims now, ordinary Chinese would—rightly—judge the leadership by the standard it set. Party leaders would stand condemned as weaklings who surrendered sacred territory, failed to avenge China’s century of humiliation despite China’s rise to great power, and let jurists and lesser neighbors backed by a certain superpower flout big, bad China’s will.

No leader relishes being seen as a weakling. It’s positively dangerous in China.

Small men can start big wars.

I’m currently reading Geoffrey Wawro’s A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire. It’s a great read on the Habsburgs’ political and military problems dating back to 1866, which I haven’t seen in such detail in any other WWI history. But it also reveals just how small some of the men were making Austria-Hungary’s and Germany’s biggest decisions.

REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: IG Report Undercuts Credibility of Impeachment Manager Nadler.

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman who has drawn up articles of impeachment accusing President Trump of abusing his power, last year falsely accused a Trump campaign aide of being a Russian spy who helped Moscow interfere in the 2016 election — an accusation the Justice Department’s watchdog declared unfounded in his newly released report.

Nadler made the accusation in a letter distributed on Capitol Hill in early 2018. In the same document, he also defended the FBI for obtaining a highly invasive FISA warrant to wiretap the Trump aide, Carter Page. The watchdog now concludes that this warrant, renewed three times, was obtained under false pretenses.

The Democratic leader — who’s expected to argue the impeachment case before the Senate next month — dismissed as “a conspiracy theory” the president’s characterization of the FBI spying as an “abuse” of the government’s surveillance powers.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the FBI did in fact abuse its authority, including withholding exculpatory evidence from its spy warrant on Page and subsequent renewals — including one in which the evidence was falsified by an FBI lawyer whom Horowitz referred for criminal investigation.

Capitol Hill sources say the inspector general’s scathing report uncovering FBI misconduct undercuts Nadler’s credibility as a prosecutor for the impeachment case.

I mean, to the extent that he had any before, yeah.

COVERUP: Bloomberg Refuses to Release Accusers From NDAs. “Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign will not comment on his company’s refusal to release women who would like to speak out on the work environment at Bloomberg L.P. from strict nondisclosure agreements, according to ABC News. Bloomberg’s company has faced more than a dozen legal complaints of workplace discrimination and harassment, including many that involve the billionaire businessman himself.”

TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREETS: Schiff town hall erupts into clashes amid shouts of ‘liar’ and ‘treason.’

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Vox Media fires hundreds of freelance writers over California ‘gig economy’ law — and they’re tweeting angrily about it.

To paraphrase future Beverly Hills gynecologist Eric Stratton, the fired Voxers f***ed up; they trusted Vox:

TAKING THE FIGHT TO THE ENEMY: Boris Johnson threatens BBC with two-pronged attack.

Downing Street is threatening the future of the BBC by insisting it is seriously considering decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee, while boycotting Radio 4’s Today programme over the broadcaster’s supposed anti-Tory bias.

No 10 pulled ministers from Saturday’s edition of the Today programme and sources said it intended to “withdraw engagement” from the show in future.

The row is seen as an ominous sign of Boris Johnson’s willingness to bypass independent scrutiny and follows criticism of the BBC’s election coverage from both left and right.

“Independent scrutiny?” The Beeb is bunch of left wing operatives with a license fee.

BATTLESPACE PREP: Opposition To Trump’s Antisemitism Executive Order Is All About The 2020 Election.

KITTY HAWK:  On this day in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright got their flying machine into the air for a successful 12-second flight.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE DOLLARS GONE, BANKS ARE ASKING… Why Is the World’s Cash Disappearing? Banks Are Asking, But No One Seems to Know.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: People are filtering political noise out.

PAUL MIRENGOFF: Recession? What Recession?

Related: Dow gains 10,000th point since Trump’s election. “The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 28,332.74 on Monday, meaning it has rallied 10,000 points, or more than 54 percent, since Trump’s election victory on November 8, 2016. The benchmark S&P 500 has gained more than 46 percent.”