K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Hudson mayor: School board should resign over material suggesting kids write about sex, drinking. “The Hudson mayor is asking all five school board members to resign or face possible criminal charges over high school course material that he said a judge called ‘child pornography.’ . . . One speaker said he was ‘appalled’ by the content and requested that cameras be put into the classroom so parents could monitor what is being taught to their children. Another speaker said the material was ‘disgusting” and that it amounted to ‘grooming.'”

I’m not convinced that this material actually rises to the level of child pornography — nothing in this story actually suggests that — but it’s just another illustration of how out of touch with parents public schools have gotten. Best to send the money to parents and students, rather than to out-of-touch educrats who will use it to advance their own agendas.

WE’RE HAVING A VIP MEMBERSHIP DRIVE AT PJ MEDIA and would truly appreciate your support.

BLOWBACK: AOC slapped with ethics complaint for accepting free Met Gala tickets. “Although House rules allow members to accept free tickets to charity events directly from event organizers, Jones argues that the Met Gala doesn’t count because the guest list is curated by a private company, media giant Condé Nast.”

Anna Wintour, who’s a Met Trustee, works for Condé Nast, but if Condé Nast is paying for the tickets I don’t think her relationship matters. Sure, nothing will come of it, but it’s fun to watch.

If I were a member of Congress I’d introduce a bill capping deductibility of event tickets at $1000. Tax the rich!

NEWS FROM THE AMERICA THAT WORKS: SpaceX Inspiration4 all-civilian orbital mission ready to fly.

YEP: Nicki Minaj Blasphemes Against The Woke: The rapper encourages prayerful contemplation before getting vaccinated, calling down the wrath of the secular theocrats.

And she’s not backing down:

Plus: “The vaccine is such a useful foothold in the censorship effort. You can point to statements that are clearly wrong and get a lot of leverage for arguing that vast harm is occurring. These earnest assertions and stray musings are killing people! I’ll just earnestly muse that the idea is to soften up the general population to censorship.”

The argument for censoring “misinformation” is undermined by the miserable performance of the “experts” on this disease.

I MIGHT NOT MIND SO MUCH IF I GOT SOME VALUE FOR MY TAX DOLLAR: Americans Spent More on Taxes in 2020 Than on Food, Clothing, Healthcare and Entertainment Combined.

POLL: Half agree: Jan. 6 suspects are ‘political prisoners.’

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Racist CA Democrats Reject Chance to Elect Historic Black Governor. “It’s no use exhorting my friends there to get out, even though I really wish they would. I know they would love living in America. California mesmerizes people though, especially Southern California. The perfect weather and the beaches help you block out the politics and the fact that lunch always costs at least $100. It’s a sort of lifestyle-induced Stockholm Syndrome that makes conservatives stay. I did it for almost 25 years, all the time believing that I would eventually help bring about some change.”

BOMBSHELL: Blinken Just Told Us How Many Biden Really Left Behind in Afghanistan.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Lawmakers Silent on Biden Solicitor General Nom’s Financial Conflict.

JOE BIDEN WANTED TO LET EVERYONE KNOW HE’S NO FAN OF THE ‘F**K JOE BIDEN’ CHANT…ON 9/11:

For all the talk about Donald Trump having a thin skin, Joe Biden is probably worse. It was the 20^th anniversary of the heinous 9/11 attacks this weekend—and he decided to make it all about himself. He obviously knows about the “f**k Joe Biden” chants heard at college football across the country. He’s also obviously seen more than a sign or two from Trump supporters as he visited disaster-struck portions of the country after Hurricane Ida. Inflation is rising. Job creation is in the toilet. And we still have Americans trapped in Afghanistan. He also can’t get his protocols or his advice straight on COVID.

But Joe had previously signed off approvingly on politicizing sports — just last month, in fact: Biden Takes A Knee, Calls Megan Rapinoe, Seattle Storm SJWs America’s Finest. “At the close of remarks, the president wandered back and forth across the stage before taking a knee in front of the [Women’s National Basketball Association champion Seattle Storm], provoking laughter. It was certainly not the type of behavior befitting of a president.”

As Glenn wrote on September 11th, the “f**k Joe Biden” chants “seems to be happening all over. It’s amusing to see Democrats respond by demanding respect for the office, and the separation of politics and sport. Too late guys. Enjoy the new rules you made.”

TWO AMERICAS: Startup Will Provide Conservative Alternatives to Woke Corporations.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Massachusetts schools are short on bus drivers. The governor is sending the National Guard to get kids to class.

THE MASKED BALL OF COWARDICE: How fear of admitting error in trusting China’s coronavirus propaganda is driving Western societies into a doom spiral. “The world has been fighting a virus from China with a public health policy from China that transforms the world into China. But if the national security community has noticed this bizarre development, they haven’t said so. Instead, their preoccupation has remained largely unchanged since February 2020.”

Plus: “The truth is that even as scientists and politicians support lockdown mandates, few really believe in them. This can be said with certainty based on their own actions. It’s hard to find scientists and politicians who haven’t been caught breaking their own COVID rules.”

Also:

At the heart of the lockdown madness was the collective fantasy of controlling a common respiratory pathogen—a feat the epidemiology profession had agreed was impossible and self-destructive just months prior. When China’s fraudulent data was left out of the mix, it was abundantly clear that no country was ever able to “control” COVID-19. Instead, the virus appeared to resurge in “waves” despite the use of these socially and economically suicidal measures.

The truth is that the origin of lockdown “science” cannot be factually discussed without the Chinese government looking very bad—something media investors are reluctant to allow. It’s even harder to explain phenomena like the fake videos of residents dropping dead during Wuhan’s lockdown, which went viral all over global websites blocked in China, without implying some degree of foul play by the CCP. So instead, overcompensating for Beijing, media outlets portrayed China as not only a responsible international stakeholder, but an admirable one whose example should be followed.

Yeah, about that.

COMEDY LEGEND: Remembering Norm MacDonald.

SUBSIDIZED JOURNALISTS, JUST WHAT AMERICA NEEDS: Washington Free Beacon points to tax-credit provisions in Biden’s “Build Back Better” $3.5 trillion spending bonanza. How long before newsrooms are stuffed to the gills with ghost reporters? And public trust of the media goes from 21 percent to zero?

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: Breaking: Newsom Survives Recall By Attacking Trump Voters.

NO MATTER WHAT, HE LOOKS BAD: GEN. MILLEY: A TRAITOR, OR NOT?

COLLUSION: Several Pentagon officers present in Milley’s secret meeting are willing to testify against him under oath, per WH official.

Why is the White House leaking this?

LIVE UPDATE: The California Recall Election. “As the Globe reported, the Globe was told by many long time California voters showed up at the polls only to be told ‘you already voted.’ Some reports are saying this happened only in LA County. But voters in other counties contacted the Globe with similar experiences.”

THE POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT’S WORST NIGHTMARE ALLIANCE:

Flashback: A black Tea Party? How Black Lives Matter echoes the right.

I can’t find it now, but I remember a heartwarming video where Black Lives Matter people showed up at a Tea Party rally — or maybe it was the other way around — and they found lots of common ground.

BLM as a movement is a scam — and the Tea Party wound up attracting a lot of grifters too — but the underlying core of both has something real.

UPDATE: From the comments: “While Left vs. Right is still a real dichotomy, increasingly the division is between the elites and the commoners. The division isn’t about just money and position, but also outlook. The elites want power and control, and they will do all they can to get and keep it. And as time goes on, they become more nakedly open about it. Very often, the mask doesn’t just slip, it’s tossed aside. This is why Trump got elected in the first place, and also why they worked so hard to destroy him.”

WHEN PEOPLE OVERVALUE THEMSELVES.

Related, this classic of the genre:

SUPPORT THE OLDER WHITE MALE, FOR DIVERSITY! Gavin Newsom: A Vote for Larry Elder is a Vote Against ‘Diversity’ and ‘Racial Justice.’

OPEN THREAD: Waiter, pour me some more Bacardi.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Fauci: Please, I beg you, pay no attention to Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend’s balls.