I DON’T EVEN MIND THAT THE LEFT IS ALL JUST-SO STORIES. IT’S THAT THE STORIES MAKE NO SENSE:  Bad Feminist World Building.

THEY CAN’T WIN. wE CAN LOSE, BUT THEY CAN’T WIN:  Don’t Be So Sure That The Climate Extremists Have “Won”.

WHAT CAN’T GO ON, WON’T:  The World as We Know It Ends If It Can’t Find Its Bearings.

THAT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE ALL KIN: America’s Authoritarians Echo Chinese and Iranian Tyranny.

THE ONLY WOMAN IN AMERICA LESS LIKEABLE THAN HILARY CLINTON:  Beware — Michelle Obama’s Book Launch of her 2024 Campaign.

Of course, when you have fraud, you don’t need likeability.

IS KNOWING SOMETHING ABOUT THE PELOSIS AS LETHAL AS KNOWING SOMETHING ABOUT THE CLINTONS?   ‘Where’s Miguel?’: NBC News Reporter Behind Retracted Paul Pelosi Report Remains Off-Air.

ALWAYS DO WHEN DEMOCRATS GET CONTROL, RIGHT?  Gun Related Homicides of Black Men Climb to Rates Not Seen Since the 1990s.

FOR REAL?   Appeals Court: Feds Can Keep All Records Seized In Mar-a-Lago Raid, And There’s Nothing Trump Can Do About It.

TO BE FAIR, THEY’RE TRYING TO BLACKLIST ALL AMERICANS:  Today’s blacklisted American: Princeton considering blacklisting John Witherspoon, Founding Father and signer of the Declaration of Independence.

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE TIMELY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ERROR:  Twitter’s ex-safety chief Yoel Roth finally admits mistake of censoring Post’s Hunter Biden scoop.

Which this ain’t. Also, they’ll do the same again, given half a chance. Remember that.

I HAVE A COFFEE IV DRIP ON A TIMER:  Sleepyheads need these three habits to get rid of grogginess: study.

And there’s always puppy smoothi-–  Wait, I’m getting a sign. There are absolutely no puppy smoothies at Instapundit headquarters.

SOMEHOW I DON’T THINK THESE RESULTS WILL MANIFEST AT THE GROCERY OR FAST-FOOD JOINT:  Why a four-day work week could be in your future.

FIGHT THE POWER: Volokh v. N.Y. A.G.: “New York Can’t Target Protected Online Speech by Calling It ‘Hateful Conduct.'”

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: Thing o’ beauty: Harvard professor reams corporate wokesters on CNBC.

WHY IS THE IVY LEAGUE SUCH A CESSPIT? Lawsuit: Yale dumped students in mental health crisis rather than help them.

OPEN THREAD: Speak, friends, and enter.

KANYE WEST’S APPEARANCE ON ‘ALEX JONES’ EXPOSES A BROKEN MAN.

AT THAT PRICE, IT SHOULD: Artemis 1 moon rocket, NASA’s most powerful ever, aced its debut launch, agency says.

NEO: Radical leftism then and now: defiance versus compliance.

QUESTION ASKED: Did the pandemic create an ‘urban doom loop?’

You probably remember how there were so many people fleeing New York City in the early days of the pandemic that they helped seed outbreaks of the virus around the country. Here’s a bit of what the Washington Post reported in March of 2020:

From the Catskills to Wisconsin’s Door County, communities whose economies usually revolve around seasonal visitors are asking them to stay away. Over the weekend, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) urged people with cottages on the Jersey Shore to “stay at your primary residences,” while Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) warned that those with property on Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard should “stay on the mainland.”

Their concerns aren’t exactly unfounded. In Vermont, where ski towns have been “bustling at levels normally seen at peak times during winter holidays,” according to alt-weekly Seven Days, one of the first confirmed coronavirus cases was a man from Westchester County, N.Y., who fled to his vacation home in hopes of avoiding the virus. Within 24 hours of arriving, he had started to show symptoms.

One Long Island resident was quoted by the NY Post saying, “We’re at the end of Long Island, the tip, and waves of people are bringing this s–t. We should blow up the bridges. Don’t let them in.”

This was happening all over the place but it was especially conspicuous around New York City where lots of wealthy people with second homes immediately began acting like doomsday preppers planning to ride out the zombie apocalypse at their cottage in the Hamptons or Vermont or wherever. So many people fled New York, often taking the virus with them, that the Times later reported the state had been the “primary gateway” for outbreaks around the country.

But as Edsall pointed out, what was at first a temporary situation for a lot of people gradually became permanent. As the lockdowns lingered and more and more white collar workers were doing business from home over zoom, many of them realized there was no reason to maintain an expensive apartment in the city. Many of them decided to relocate permanently. And that in turn has a major impact on cities.

Don’t overlook the out of control crime, looting, road blockages by protestors, and rioting that followed in the spring of 2020 as yet another reason why telecommuting looks especially desirable these days.

HMM: “Tipping point”: Has China begun a retreat from zero-COVID — and is it too late? “The population may well be exhausted with Xi’s zero-COVID policies, but they have gotten more energized than ever against the regime. That may have started with their brutal lockdown policies, but the populist revolt may have a broader mandate by now. Beijing writer and political-science expert Wu Qiang warned yesterday in the NYT than the communists have lost the people, and they won’t get them back with just a momentary rollback of lockdowns.”

Washed away by a preference cascade? We can hope.

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: CNN Initiates Mass Layoffs.

 On Thursday, CNN initiated the layoffs that CEO Chris Licht foreshadowed the day prior in an email sent to staff.

Chris Cillizza, a political reporter and editor-at-large, Martin Savidge, Alex Field, Mary Anne Fox, and Alison Kosik were among the most recognizable names let go by the network. HLN, the subsidiary network formerly known as CNN Headline News, is expected to be scaled back significantly and will no longer feature live programming as a result of the cuts, according to Variety.

* * * * * * * *

Cilizza’s exit is perhaps the most surprising of the reported cuts to this point, given his prominent role at the outlet, where he was given his own vertical, The Point, and hosted its Downside Up podcast.

Related: CNN boss Chris Licht guts HLN amid cost-cutting bloodbath. “CNN boss Chris Licht has gutted sister network HLN, terminating all live programming as part of ongoing layoffs and budget cuts. Licht slashed HLN’s ‘Morning Express with Robin Meade,’ as well as ‘Weekend Express,’ he announced in a memo to CNN’s remaining staff on Thursday.”

Exit quote:

JEFFREY CARTER: Sam Bankman Fried, Television Star: There Is Only One Reason He Is On TV.

Contrast SBF’s actions with Jon Corzine. Corzine did the exact same thing SBF did at MF Global, take customer money to cover bad trades.

Do not let SBF’s sweet talk and deflection sway your opinion. He is a fraudster. Charles Ponzi would be jealous. He should go to jail.

Maybe FTX didn’t start out that way, but as soon as the business went south, the company and its employees turned to fraud to cover the holes. Not only that, but they took the advice of their parents and immediately started donating to Democratic candidates, along with a tidy $1MM to Mitch McConnell, and at the same time began virtue signaling about how they were going to donate to causes to save the world.

That alone is practically proof of guilt . . . . Plus:

SBF is ensconced in the Democratic Party elite bubble. His parents and his girlfriend’s parents are high up in the Democratic Party. They know people that know people. His girlfriend ran Alameda Research so it’s pretty unlikely that he didn’t know what was going on there contrary to his public television statements.

Did SBF launder money for the Democrats? It’s possible. But, it has to be proven and only the Department of Justice can bring that sort of investigation. Watch Merrick Garland. If he sits on his hands, SBF will stay out of jail. If Garland sits on his hands, you know that the Democratic central authorities told him to sit on his hands.

You know he’ll do what he’s told. That’s what this “man of integrity,” this “moderate straight-shooter” we were told was prime Supreme Court material, does.

LEARN TO CODE: Robin Meade, entire Atlanta HLN news operations nixed amid CNN layoffs.

UPLOAD YOUR MIND: “Eventually, it seems plausible that most minds will become software.”