HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Stanford’s STEM departments overrun with DEI directives.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: JILL BIDEN SHOCKED – Hispanics Are Not Breakfast Tacos. “We need to figure out a way to make all these Hispanics we’re lumping together under ‘Latinx’ feel unique.”

Plus:

• You’ll never guess what California is banning next
• Stacy Abrams war chest stuffed full by Soros, Hollywood megadonors
• NYC gives subway riders the finger — literally

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

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, CULTURE OF HATE EDITION: Student op-ed claims certain voting privileges should be revoked from ‘cis men.’

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: First Laser Weapon For A Fighter Delivered To The Air Force. “The U.S. Air Force has received a high-energy laser weapon that can be carried by aircraft in podded form. The news came today when Lockheed Martin disclosed that at least one of the weapons, which it developed, has been delivered to the Air Force for test work. This effort falls within the wider framework of still-evolving plans to have laser-armed fighter jets that can engage enemy missiles, and possibly other targets too.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: America’s Cop-Hating Cities Will Soon Face an Ugly Reckoning. “Many of the big ‘defund the police’ cities quickly realized the error of their ways and tried to undo some of the damage they’d done, largely to no avail. It turns out that blaming cops for everything kind of sticks with the cops. It’s a dangerous and difficult profession as it is, why would anyone want to do it in a city run by people who would rather side with criminals?”

“ILYA MAY HAVE BEEN WRONG:” Chief Judge Srinivasan’s Cursory Emoluments Clauses Analysis: After four years of contested litigation, the D.C. Circuit cursorily resolves the meaning of the Emoluments Clauses without any acknowledgment of contrary positions.

NOW OUT FROM KURT SCHLICHTER: We’ll Be Back: The Fall and Rise of America.

HMM: Arizona says you can start teaching before you earn a degree.

Public schools in the state have struggled to fill teaching vacancies for years, he writes. One survey found 26 percent of jobs are not filled by a certified teacher.

Would 19-year-olds be learning to teach on the job? I suspect districts that use the flexibility will be hiring aides as classroom teachers while they move toward a bachelor’s degree. Many districts have programs to help aides, who tend to be “diverse,” become teachers, but it takes a long time for someone working full-time to complete college.

Some Arizona districts are experimenting with team teaching. Arizona State’s Next Education Workforce initiative is working with schools to create teaching teams that combine veterans and novices.

How about pulling in more — many more — private-sector retirees with real-world experience and knowledge?

LIGHT THIS CANDLE: Fireball briefly engulfs SpaceX’s huge Starship booster during test. “‘Yeah, actually not good. Team is assessing damage,’ Musk tweeted. The fireball resulted when an ‘engine spin start test’ did not go according to plan, he explained in another Twitter post.”

PRIME DAY DEAL: Amazon Basics Non-Stick Cookware Set. #CommissionEarned

HEH: Biden’s Approval Ratings, or What I Like to Call the Roarin’ 20s.

THE TERM I’VE SEEN LATELY IS “AWFL” — for Affluent White Female Leftists. The Spectacle of Woke Feminists: An army of privileged unhappy neurotic women – with an endless amount of spare time – try to bring meaning to their boring lives.

They shouldn’t be indulged or empowered. They should be encouraged to become better people.

DID YOU KNOW FDR’S FBI TARGETED A JEWISH GROUP: I was not aware of this rancid footnote to the New Deal era of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but The Lid’s Jeff Dunetz knows all about it. FDR’s attitude toward the Holocaust has always been a puzzler, and now we see in it a disturbing precedent for the politicalization of the FBI.

I’M BACK, AS YOU CAN SEE! No, I wasn’t scuba diving, I was actually in London, where I saw a bunch of fun people including Samizdata bloggers Perry De Havilland and Adriana Cronin. International travel wasn’t as bad as reports have it. Nobody asked for a vax card, no mask rules, zero bullshit. Flights were on time and smooth, though immigration in Philly was a debacle that barely let us make our flight. But we did!

YAWN: New coronavirus mutant raises concerns in India and beyond. “Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other omicron variants, including the globally prominent BA.5.”

Left unsaid: How many people are actually sick or how badly. They’re trying to scare people with infectious new variants that don’t actually do any harm outside the usual risk groups.

YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT THIS: What About All the Other R. Kellys? I Knew Many Growing Up. “I also saw other things, like the tall, muscular, light-skinned brother who looked like LL Cool J. It was said he could get any woman he wanted, but chose kids. He got my brother, who then did the only thing he could to protect me: He made sure I was never alone around Lafayette. He never told me why until I was older. . . . There always seemed to be an ‘uncle’ or ‘mother’s old friend from high school,’ who was diving into little girls’ beds. These R. Kellys were the open-secret. The closed-secret was how many boys were being taken advantage of.”

Plus: “Our fraught relationship with America has resulted in the tension that so many of us felt over R. Kelly. How could we champion sending another Black man to prison when the state has imprisoned so many unjustly? And yet, his victims were also Black. They were ours. Don’t they deserve justice? Don’t all the boys and girls whose abusers continue to roam free?”

IF YOU’RE NOT READING THIS, THIS IS PROBABLY WHY:  Giant sunspot threatens Earth as solar flare may cause blackouts.

PRIME DAY DEAL: Keurig K-Elite Coffee Maker, single cup. #CommissionEarned

MEGAN FOX: Ohio Attorney General Throws Cold Water on ’10-Year-Old Rape Victim’ Story: ‘There Is No Case.’

20th CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “When women move out of the traditional feminine role and move into the traditional masculine role, they don’t do a better job with it than men have.”

DAY ELEVEN OF MY ATTEMPT TO FUND MY BLOG:  TANSTAAFL DAY 11 — Now with itty bitty kitties — and a free ccby picture.

In which I awkwardly defuse my embarrassment with cute kitten pics.  And you thought only liberal women did that!

THE MANUFACTURER ASSURES US “THAT ALL OF ITS PRODUCTS ARE IN LINE WITH QUALITY STANDARDS SET BY CHINA’S NATIONAL AUTHORITY”:  Terrifying Chinese ice cream doesn’t seem to melt — even under a blowtorch.

TEEN VOGUE IS STILL A THING?  Teen Vogue: COVID Is Still Happening, Stay Scared.

ETHNIC PEOPLE ARE JUST LIKE FOOD:  Jill Biden: Hispanics Are As ‘Unique As Breakfast Tacos’.

Stupid or crazy?  Why not both.

NEWS YOU CAN USE:  Avoid self-serve checkouts, lawyer warns, or it could cost you ‘thousands’.