WHEN THE MOBIUS LOOP COLLAPSES:

HMM: ABA Releases New Bar Pass Data By Race, Ethnicity, Gender.

IDEOLOGICAL GROOMING: Read the ‘Antiracism Fight Club’ Guide Distributed at a Public Elementary School

Janney Elementary School hired “antiracist” activist Doyin Richards to host an online discussion for parents in November, the Daily Caller first reported. Following the event, parents received copies of what Richards calls a “Fistbook,” a name inspired by the combative nature of the activist’s approach to fighting racism. The “Fistbook,” a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, provides definitions for white privilege and white supremacy and asks parents where they see racism in their “daily life” and in themselves.

The parents-only webinar was followed by a separate event for students that left some young kids traumatized, according to anonymous posts on an online message board.

“Anyone else’s Kindergarten kid freaked out by an anti-racism assembly today?” one parent posted on November 30. “My kid needed to sleep with a light on and the door open tonight. Anyone know what specifically was talked about? My kid couldn’t relay much except that she was scared.”

Sounds like Richards told those poor kids the first rule of Fight Club.

MAKE AMERICA FLORIDA AGAIN: DeSantis is Right to Push for Constitutional Carry.

I ASSUME THIS WILL BE BLOCKED ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA BECAUSE SCIENCE: New study: Face mask usage correlates with higher death rates. Using data from 35 countries and 602 million people, peer-reviewed study confirms previous research and cautions use of face masks “may have harmful unintended consequences.”

BARI WEISS: The Shocking Supreme Court Leak.

I called up one of the smartest professors I know at one of the top law schools in the country, and he echoed that: “To my knowledge, it’s never happened before in the modern history of the court. It is the most serious possible breach.”

Serious, severe, shocking, he said. But in the end, not surprising. Why not? Here’s how he put it: “To me, the leak is not surprising because many of the people we’ve been graduating from schools like Yale are the kind of people who would do such a thing.”

What did he mean by that? “They think that everything is violence. And so everything is permitted.”

He went on: “I’m sure this person sees themselves as a whistleblower. What they don’t understand is that, by leaking this, they violate the trust that is necessary to maintain the institution.”

Weiss adds, “The most obvious take here is that the Democrats were in for a bruising in the midterms and this was leaked by a liberal to galvanize Democrats. Galvanize how? Perhaps to get voters to turn out as if their lives depended on it.”

But as Ed Morrissey writes, “When Roberts practically dared people to produce a direct challenge to Roe and the court granted cert in Dobbs, abortion-rights activists knew the writing was on the wall. What this will likely do is simply accelerate the outrage and the outrage exhaustion even further ahead of the midterms, which will make this even somewhat less impactful in November. If this dropped a week before the general election, it might have generated enough voter anger on the Left to perhaps shift the election. Instead, the outcome may well be even more ennui and despair for Democrats.”

BIRTHING PEOPLE: Suddenly the Left Remembers That Men CAN’T Get Pregnant.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Electric Vehicle Maintenance Is Super-Cheap, But The Dark Secret Is Tires.

BY THE WAY, THERE’S STILL A WAR IN UKRAINE: Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow plans to annex Donetsk and Luhansk, US says; European Union preparing sanctions on Russia oil – live.

Related: The Ukraine War is Far From Over.

Also: Ukraine has pushed Russian forces 40 kilometres east of Kharkiv, Pentagon says.

DON’T GET COCKY (UKRAINE EDITION): Russia’s victory parade may cause further humiliation for Putin by showing ‘weakened’ army.

The parade in Moscow has traditionally become a show of military power and strength for Russia, but after the conflict in Ukraine and Russia sustaining losses, the parade may seem much sparser. There will be fewer soldiers, armoured vehicles, tanks, and self-propelled artillery vehicles and, according to Russia’s defence ministry, there will be no T-80BVM tanks, Solntsepek flamethrower equipment or Pantsir-S anti-aircraft systems due to their continued use in the conflict.

Compared to the 191 military vehicles that were paraded last year, approximately 130 vehicles will be displayed this year.

Meanwhile, 2,000 fewer military personnel will take part in this year’s parade compared to the 12,000 people of last year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that the lack of military equipment at the parade demonstrates how much the Russian army has suffered from the war.

Or they could just be economizing because there’s a war on.

NOT SURPRISED, IT SEEMED REAL: Justice Roberts confirms authenticity of SCOTUS leak, says “the work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”

OH, THE HUMANITY: Florida Ford GT Owner Crashes Because He’s “Unfamiliar” With Manual Transmission: Police.

A Ford GT owner in Boca Raton, Florida crashed his recently purchased supercar into a tree Friday evening because he was “unfamiliar with how to drive stick shift,” police say.

The driver, 50-year-old Robert J. Guarini, told cops he lost control after downshifting while leaving his housing development at around 6 p.m, a police report says. This led to a head-on collision with a palm tree. Guarini then told a nearby security worker that he did not have his phone and needed a ride back to his house, where he spoke to authorities via landline after leaving the vehicle unattended, the report says.

Though the police report says Guarini told officers the crash was caused by inexperience with a manual transmission, the Ford GT owner told Road & Track over the phone that there was more to the event. Guarini claims old tires, muddy pavement, and a fresh detailing were all factors causing the 550-horsepower supercar to swing out and hit a tree. The driver also told R&T the crash occurred as he shifted up into second gear from first, not while downshifting, as the official report says.

“I don’t want people to think I was racing at 90 mph,” Guarini says. “I was going 35 mph.”

From the police report, it’s unclear if speed played a role in the crash.

Found via Iowahawk, who tweets:

DOBBS LEAK UPDATE: “I have little doubt as to the inherent power of the Court to protect the confidentiality of its internal operations by whatever judicial measures may be required.”

The ball is indeed in Chief Justice Roberts’ court.

JOEL KOTKIN: Triumph of the Red States: Millennials and minorities, priced out of Democratic metropolises, are now thriving in Florida and Texas.

SO I HAVEN’T SEEN ANYTHING ABOUT BIDEN CONDEMNING THE LEAK FROM THE SUPREME COURT in his statement. Did I miss something?

Flashback: The Takeover of America’s Legal System: The kids didn’t grow out of it.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: After the Dobbs Leak, Here Comes the Real Insurrection. “It was the pro-choice side the usurped the rule of law. It was the pro-life side that did the difficult work of using moral suasion and our legal processes to undo the Left’s assault on our federal system.”

Plus:

• The antifascists sure look an awful lot like fascists
• Beijing is about to get Shanghaied
• Indiana Jones explains the current thing we have to care about

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

DON’T GET COCKY: It’s Not Just Hispanics. The Democrats Are Losing the Black Vote. “According to Pew Research Center, fully 25 percent of Black Democrats identify as ‘conservative’ (around 40 percent identify as ‘moderate’). And with these voters, like their Hispanic counterparts, there was also a massive shift between 2016 and 2020.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Update On Food Plants: More Fires, FBI Alert, One Off-The-Wall Explanation. “Now the fact-checkers have come out in force, so we know there’s nothing to worry about. Right?”

DEAL OF THE DAY: Seat Cushion Pillow for Office Chair. #CommissionEarned

SNOWFALLS ARE A THING OF THE PAST: Vail Mountain completes longest season on record with snow to spare.

I REMEMBER WHEN LOYALTY OATHS WERE FROWNED UPON (CONT’D): Brandeis students, faculty urged to publicly pledge allegiance to diversity.

UKRAINE? WHAT’S THAT? There’s a new Current Thing now.

CHRIS QUEEN: Georgia District Attorney Calls Grand Jury to Investigate Trump. But Why? “Fulton County, Ga. is the county where Atlanta is located. It’s a reliably Democrat county, and that party has dominated much of the county’s politics in recent years. It’s also home to an ambitious district attorney who is clearly looking to make headlines for herself by convening a grand jury to investigate Donald Trump’s calls to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.”

LOYALTY OATHS USED TO BE FROWNED UPON: Diversity statements can determine who gets hired at universities.

JOSH BLACKMAN: I’ve Finished Reading The Apparent Dobbs Draft Opinion. “After my spate of blog posts from Monday evening (1, 2, 3, 4), I took the time to read the apparent Dobbs draft opinion. It is a tour de force. Justice Alito meticulously dissects, and forcefully responds to, every conceivable position in favor of retaining Roe and Casey. I could teach an entire law school seminar class on this opinion. It touches on nearly every facet of constitutional law. Moreover, the opinion carefully addresses the concerns of other members of the majority.”

I suppose that makes it less likely the majority will break down.

Related: Chief Justice Roberts’s “Long Game” Was Turned Upside Down In An Instant. “No one–not even John Roberts–is omniscient enough to steward the Court as if it were a role-playing game. Indeed, I think many of the Court’s current problems, including the leak, stem from Roberts’s blatant attempt to rest his rulings on political currents. NFIB v. Sebelius established the playbook. It is not surprising that someone, no matter how poorly informed, though it would be a good idea to leak this draft.”

I warn my students that one of the most dangerous traps for a lawyer is thinking you’re smarter than you are. The Chief Justice has fallen into that trap. As Jurgen eventually discovered, cleverness is not on top, and never has been.