WELL, SOME STUDENTS: Students protest potential appointment of conservative president.

WELL, IT WAS: Trump Exposes House J6 Committee as a ‘BUST’ in Response to Final Hearing.

Related:

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Education Department ‘best practices’ webinar: ‘Not all egg producers are women.’

FINALLY: John Fetterman’s Odds Are Tanking for the First Time in the PA Senate Race. “Since July, the bookies were consistently giving Fetterman a 2/3rds chance of winning the race, with the odds giving as high as a 75% chance of winning in Mid-August. But on the day NBC’s above interview aired, there was an explosion in betting volume, bringing the odds down to nearly 50/50.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Forget the Red Wave. It’s Tsunami Time. “My gut instinct is that the red wave is going to hit harder than most people think. This isn’t based on deep analysis, it’s just a feeling I have. If I’m wrong I’ll own up to it immediately.”

SASSE JUMPING FROM SENATE POT TO FLORIDA FIRE: Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) will almost certainly become president of the University of Florida after he leaves the U.S. Senate, but, as Campus Reform’s Logan Dubil reports, lefty students aren’t going to let him do so quietly.

KEEP IT REAL: Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Rule the World and He’s Getting Closer Than You Think.

Zuck wants the “Metaverse” to be the place where corporations and universities set up shop. He wants to be able to have a universe where everything goes through him be it business, information, entertainment, and more. Instead of going to the theater, he wants you to slip on the headset and walk into a virtual movie theater to see the latest flick. He wants you attending class on a school planet, working your 9-5 at an office building on a virtual moon, and then speeding off to planet DOOM in your Millenium Falcon to kill demons for fun.

Everyone will pay for the privilege and all Zuck will have to give back are ones and zeroes. Corporations will jump at the chance to move their operations into the Metaverse because it means they can cut down on all sorts of costs. Their offices will now be virtual, their transportation will now be virtual, and the only thing they may need that involves brick and mortar is a warehouse from which they ship their goods via drone.

In fact, Zuck is aiming at businesses specifically. According to Fox News, Meta unveiled a $1,500 headset geared specifically toward businesses.

But will consumers go for it?

UPDATE: Meta has burned $15 billion trying to build the metaverse — and nobody’s saying exactly where the money went. “This continues to be a risky bet by Zuckerberg and the team because, for now, they’re betting money on the future while they continue to have massive headwinds on their core business.”

WELL, WE HAVE A PUPPET IN THE WHITE HOUSE: ‘Pessimistic’ voters: Crushed by gas prices and fading personal finances.

LEGAL CHALLENGE MOUNTED TO ZUCK BUCKS: This has the odor of a rotten scandal developing for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Capital Research Center’s (CRC) Hayden Ludwig reports that two complaints have been filed with the IRS that focus on three non-profits to which Zuckerberg and his wife gave millions for the express purpose of turning out the vote in 2020.

All three groups claim to be non-partisan, of course, as well they must in order to retain their tax exempt status. But the first of the complaints points out that the actions of the exempt trio indicate they went about their activities in a hyper-partisan manner. The second complaint alleges that the Zuckerbergs claimed improper tax deductions in connection with their contributions to the trio.

Here’s a taste of what Ludwig and his colleagues at CRC found when they dug into the patterns and practices of the Zuck Buck’s recipients:

“In reality, these ‘Zuck bucks’ promoted insecure drop boxes to collect the unprecedented flood of mail-in ballots created by last-minute election law changes—mostly engineered by Democratic elections officials — in key states across the country, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Very little of the money went to personal protective equipment.

“Wisconsin, in fact, was ground zero for the first influx of Zuck bucks to the state’s five cities, which in summer 2020 produced a joint Safe Voting Plan that hinged upon early voting and vote by mail with funds from a private organization, CTCL. Zuck bucks even paid for a mobile voting van — a ‘polling booth on wheels’ — in Racine.

“On a per-capita basis, CTCL’s Zuck bucks overwhelmingly favored Democratic vote–rich cities like Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit over counties that broke for Donald Trump. In Pennsylvania, CTCL grants in Trump counties averaged $0.60 per capita compared with $2.85 in counties Joe Biden won. In Georgia, it was worse: $1.41 per capita in Trump counties versus $5.33 in Biden counties.”

This could get really interesting, so keep an eye on it.

REMEMBER’S JONI MITCHELL’S ‘AMAZING GRACE?’ That a pop star of the 60s and 70s like Joni Mitchell would think to record John Newton’s classic hymn is a testimony to its enduring power and popularity. Whatever you thought of her politics (she was a radical lefty from Canada if I recall correctly), the woman had a unique voice and boy could she sing.

Newton’s work has immense significance for me personally, which you may or may not find of interest, and it  is a cultural indicator of some significance as well that more than 11,000 comments have been left on the Mitchell version’s YouTube entry.

WARNING: Spiritual!

NEGATIVE COATTAILS: Joe Biden’s Strange Itinerary Leading Into the 2022 Midterms.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Men’s Slim Airtag Wallet. #CommissionEarned

UNEXPECTEDLY: Pandemic Side Effect? Kids Bombing College Admissions Tests at ‘Particularly Alarming’ Rate.

REPORT FROM THE BLUE ZONES: DC’s deputy mayor for public safety resigns after being charged with assault.

TENNESSEE COURT OF APPEALS: Public Housing Complexes May Not Ban Gun Possession by Tenants.

The quoted analysis is entirely based on the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. I don’t know if the Court of Appeals analyzed this based on the Tennessee Constitution’s right-to-arms clause, but I believe the case would be even stronger under that provision.

UPDATE: Okay, I found the opinion and there’s no discussion of the Tennessee Constitution at all.

CONSEQUENCES ARE BAD, SAY JUDGES: Professors, Judges Speak Out Against Boycott Of Yale Grads For Judicial Clerkships. “We should reserve boycotts, shaming, and shunning for intolerable behavior.”

Maybe we have reserved it for that. And where were all these people when we learned about the (administration-sanctioned) bullying and silencing at Yale Law?

GO LONG ON BLANKETS AND SWEATERS: US Homes Face Longest Streak of Energy Bill Increases in Decades. “Gas bills in September were about 33% higher than a year earlier to chalk up an 18th consecutive double-digit percentage gain, according to Labor Department data. That’s the longest streak in more than three decades, when a 58-month run of such gains ended in September 1983. Electric bills, which rose 15.5% last month, are on a seven-month streak of double-digit gains, the longest run in 16 years.”

DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT: As ‘ESG’ Falters, the Left Seeks to Rebrand.

Related: The Deadly Threat of ‘ESG.’

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Revenge of the Material Economy: Elites suddenly realize they need blue-collar workers they derided.

Well, some of them realize it.