FROM THE HOME OFFICE IN HEADLEY GRANGE, HAMPSHIRE: The Top 10 Led Zeppelin Riffs Ranked (Video).

SEGREGATION RETURNS AS GEORGE WALLACE HARVARD BRINGS OLD-FASHIONED DISCRIMINATION TO THE DEEP SOUTH BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS? Better check your skin color before you try to hit tomorrow’s performance of Macbeth at Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre.

JOE BIDEN’S RETURN TO DECENCY: Aging Hippies Ruin a Wedding Officiated by Sinema Because That’s What Commies Do.

REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: Clinton Campaign Spread Alfa Bank Ruse Throughout Obama Admin to Press Trump-Russia Prob.

A Hillary Clinton campaign operation to plant a false rumor about Donald Trump setting up a “secret hotline” to Moscow through a Russian bank was much broader than known and involved multiple U.S. agencies, according to declassified documents and sources briefed on an ongoing criminal investigation of the scheme.

In addition to the FBI, the 2016 Clinton campaign tried to convince the Obama administration’s State Department, Justice Department and Central Intelligence Agency to look into the hoax, and continued pressing the issue even after Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.

The goal was to trigger federal investigative activity targeting her Republican rival and leak the damaging information to the media.

They succeeded.

Plus: “Billing the Democrat’s campaign for his work on the ‘confidential project,’ Sussmann recruited Joffe and a team of federal computer contractors to mine proprietary databases containing vast quantities of sensitive, nonpublic Internet data for possible dirt on Trump and his advisers. In a new court document filed last week, Durham revealed his team has obtained more than 80,000 pages of documents in response to grand jury subpoenas issued to more than 15 targets and witnesses, including the computer contractors. Among others receiving subpoenas: political organizations, private firms, tech companies and other entities, including a major university — Georgia Tech — which allegedly participated in the Clinton conspiracy as a Pentagon contractor. Some witnesses have been granted immunity and are cooperating with prosecutors, the sources close to the probe said.”

Also: “One would expect a CIA official to express reluctance in an investigation that would have a largely domestic focus. But as with the FBI, the Clinton campaign found eager officials to move on any such allegation. . . . Sources say it is odd that FBI headquarters continued to pursue the allegations, because internal FBI communications reveal that the bureau’s own cyber sleuths had pooh-poohed them within days of Sussmann’s briefing, RCI has learned.”

WHEN YOU’RE A STAR, THEY LET YOU DO IT. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING: Dana Loesch Gets Ahead of the Liberal Media’s Predicable Move to Protect Alec Baldwin Post-Accidental Shooting. “There is enough blame to go around, but it’s disgusting to see a blatant PR effort aimed at placing the entirety of the blame on the younger women hired by the lead producer and talent running the set. Inexcusable and people are giving Baldwin a pass for it.”

THAT’S A STRETCH: NASA wants to buy SLS rockets at half price, fly them into the 2050s.

NASA can’t even say what the full price is.

LEGAL PUN OF THE YEAR:

AN AMERICAN HERO: Marine Corps Vet Foils Robbery, Accepts Heroism Award Wearing ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ T-Shirt.

OUT SOON: Rush on the Radio: A Tribute from His Sidekick for 30 Years. #CommissionEarned

WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF OPPRESSION AND PREDATION? Full-Time Duke And North Carolina Faculty Receive $2,300 In Settlement Of Claim That Non-Poaching Agreement Stifled Lateral Moves; Adjunct Faculty Receive $150.

VICTIMS OF LEFTY BRAINWASHING: ‘Humans are a mistake’: Why more young women are getting sterilized.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Picard Suspended From Twitter For Saying He Sees Only Four Lights.

RUTGERS HAS A DOUBLE STANDARD ON RACISM: Citing racism, Rutgers removes name of former Supreme Court justice, an alumnus, from building.

Related: ‘Take these m—–f—–s out’: Rutgers prof rails against white people while defending CRT.

I can’t imagine why higher-ed’s reputation has plummeted.

DON’T COUNT THOSE VIRGINIA CHICKENS JUST YET: Stella Morabito in The Federalist points to multiple reasons for skepticism about those “free and fair” election claims repeatedly being made by Virginia Democrats.

FAKE NEWS CAN BE TRUE AS NEEDED: McAuliffe Ads Point to ‘Fake News’ Sites on the Campaign Homestretch.

THEN: ZOMG RON DESANTIS IS GOING TO KILL EVERYONE!!!!!

NOW: Florida Reaches Lowest Case Rate in the Nation.

Plus: “In addition to cases, hospitalizations have plummeted in our state. This has been accomplished by making monoclonal antibody treatments and vaccines widely available throughout our state while protecting Floridians from government overreach.”

Flashback: Ron DeSantis has emerged as America’s awesome ‘shadow president.’ “Unlike a British shadow government, DeSantis has real executive power of his own — not in the federal government, but in his capacity as governor of America’s third most populous state. And he has been doing an excellent job of drawing contrasts between his way and the approach taken by the Biden-Harris administration.”

Related: Florida Acquires Monoclonal Antibodies From GlaxoSmithKline After Biden Administration’s Rationing.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, CULTURE OF HATE EDITION: ‘Take these m—–f—–s out’: Rutgers prof rails against white people while defending CRT.

OF COURSE: Democrats Ponder Cutting Medicare Advantage to Fund $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill. “Compared to traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage provides better benefits, lower costs, and higher quality care.”

#JOURNALISM:

The first criticism I read was “The 14 things you need to know about Trump’s letter in the Wall Street Journal” by Philip Bump in The Washington Post. From the headline, you might think you’re going to get a point-by-point fact check, but that’s not what this is. Bump’s list begins with the assertion that “The Wall Street Journal should not have published it without assessing the claims and demonstrating where they were wrong, misleading or unimportant.”

That’s not a fact “you need to know,” just an opinion about journalistic professionalism. Is there a general rule in journalism — a rule Bump’s newspaper follows — that you don’t publish accusations before you’ve independently checked them? If so, I see that rule broken every day. Maybe there’s the idea that Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election is a special case, because we need to be committed to the legitimacy of the current government and because there’s too much discord and a decent newspaper shouldn’t be roiling people up on this subject.

“We need to be committed to the legitimacy of the current government” is always a journalistic “principle” so long as the current government is controlled by Democrat. And “too much discord” is bad unless it’s promoted by leftists shouting “no justice, no peace.”

Plus: “Now that Trump’s letter is published, it’s time to do the point-by-point fact checking.”

But the Washington Post didn’t do that, did it? Why not?

Here’s Trump’s letter to the WSJ, non-paywalled. Read it for yourself.

EXCLUSIVE: How Long Will Vaccine Authoritarians Sit in the Cold and the Dark?

A network of contractors employ linemen, who generally flock to the scene in advance when the weather patterns predict severe storms in a particular area. There are also archaic rules about which contractors can serve different regions based on union regulations. For example, non-union contractors from the South are generally not allowed to work in New York and California. Usually, IBEW linemen from midwestern contractors would have been flooding to the Northeast before yesterday’s storm that left around 600,000 residents in several states without power. This time they didn’t.

In fact, according to one senior member of an IBEW local in the Midwest, the contractors did not even attempt to raise crews to go. This lineworker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that even if the call went out, almost no one would have volunteered. Anyone who did would be looked upon as a scab and may have difficulty getting jobs out of the union hall in the future. Unions have ways to encourage solidarity. While the union contract prevents these workers from striking, working on a storm crew is voluntary. No employer can compel an IBEW member to go.

According to informal polling out of the halls, the men in these muscular jobs in flyover country who worked consistently during lockdowns have very low vaccination rates.

Things are going to get interesting in the vaccine-mandate states when the winter weather comes.

And do read the whole thing.

A SOCIETY IN WHICH THE PRACTICE OF LAW ATTRACTS THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST IS A SUBOPTIMAL ONE: Law Schools Report ‘Eye-Popping’ LSAT Scores In Their 1L Classes.

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Black and Latino students did worse in schools with ‘diversity officers’: study.

STEALTH IS REALLY HARD: Oops! China’s ‘Stealth Ships’ Aren’t So Stealthy After All. “The Houbei-class fast-attack boats, which bristle with anti-ship missiles, are easily seen in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that remote sensing companies use, according to naval authority H.I. Sutton, author of the Covert Shores blog. He has uncovered convincing evidence that the Type-022’s radar-evading design is a myth. This calls into serious question whether other forms of radar can detect the boats, too, and whether or not their stealthy lines are actually just for show.”

SEN. TOM COTTON TO AG MERRICK GARLAND: ‘Thank God You are Not on the Supreme Court.’ “You should resign in disgrace, Judge.”

Flashback: School boards, bastions of local democracy, persecute dissident parents.

IT’S THE RETURN OF THE BIKE-PATH LEFT! Eric Adams will add 300 miles of protected bike lanes if elected mayor:

Democratic nominee for mayor Eric Adams is promising to build 300 new miles of protected bike lanes across the five boroughs if he wins the Nov. 2 election.

Receiving the endorsement of bike and transit group StreetsPAC in Manhattan on Tuesday, Adams also told reporters he would ride his bike to work as mayor to encourage other New Yorkers to do the same.

“If elected, you’re going to see me on my bike all the time, riding to and from City Hall, in a real way,” he said. “We need to move and get 300 miles of protected bike lanes. I have close friends that won’t even ride their bikes because they’re so afraid, and so intimidated. This is the opportunity to do so. You’re going to need a bike rider to know why protected bike lanes are so important.”

In Commentary a decade ago, Fred Siegel and Sol Stern popped the pin on the “The Bloomberg Bubble,” and Mayor Mike’s absolute obsession with installing bike lines in the Big Apple:

Due to the structure of the city charter, the mayor has almost complete control of the streets. And Bloomberg has proved himself determined to create a new streetscape—closing down half of Times Square to vehicle traffic with plans to do the same for the shopping corridor along 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan. And then there are the bicycle lanes, the pet crusade of his second transportation commissioner, a former business consultant named Janette Sadik-Khan.

In Manhattan and Brooklyn, Bloomberg decreed the installation of bicycle lanes on many of the city’s heavily traveled commercial avenues. Little-used and aesthetically unsightly, the Manhattan bike lanes are so important to the mayor’s vision for the city that they were shoveled clean even as the streets of the outer boroughs were buried in the Christmas storm.

Throughout the city, the lanes have made it more difficult to park, made the streets more congested, and made life miserable for truck drivers and delivery services that had to double park 20 feet from the curb to complete their rounds. These undeniable realities do not seem to matter to a mayor who seems to enjoy imposing change on the city whether it is warranted or not.

To be fair though, New York was a much safer city during Bloomberg’s reign than de Blasio’s deliberate return to the 1970s Death Wish era. Perhaps Adams’ bike path obsession might be a return to sanity in other areas of his likely mayorship.

(Classical reference in headline.)