EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: The U.S. Air Force Is in Serious Decline.

There are three sections to the report but the one on standards stands out:

From its founding in 1947 through the end of the Cold War, the Air Force placed a premium on building and sustaining a cadre of the most exceptional aviators in the world. Selection for flight school was based on performance during the accessions process and previous flight experience—criteria that sent those with the highest potential to excel to flight school. Screening for excellence continued through every phase of training beyond.

Washout rates for flight schools exceeded 20 percent in the 1980s, and the bar was high for every successive school beyond. But the drive for efficiencies in the 1990s and the initiative to improve racial diversity in the 2020s has made a mockery of the screening process. In 2021, just 0.27 percent of flight school candidates were eliminated because of performance. Screening beyond flight school is effectively non-existent, even for promotions.

Every Air Force captain without legal or ethical issues has been promoted to Major since 2017, which means even poor performers graduate and advance. Accessions, training, and promotion standards are at all-time lows, which places the big picture—the service’s ability to execute its wartime mission—into jeopardy.

Just as bad, low promotion standards and handing out pilot wings like participation trophies make the Air Force look unattractive to the best candidates, further reducing and diluting the pool of recruits.

YOU WOULD NEED A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH:

Another brazen break-in caught on camera. Another L.A. business owner fed up:

“I voted for Karen Bass. I voted for Biden. I voted for Gavin Newsom. I’m sick of it. At some point you have to give me a reason to vote for you again.”@FOXLA pic.twitter.com/EKGtDE5rb6

— MarlaTellez (@MarlaTellez) December 7, 2023

WELL, YES: DEI Drives Campus Antisemitism.

Related: Defund the Diversity Police.

In recent decades, American universities have erected a multitude of new offices, deploying swarms of bureaucrats to harass undergrads and eat out the substance of campus intellectual life. Under the banner of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), these officers wield administrative power to stamp out behaviors that make students feel “unsafe” or “unwelcome.”

Of course, in DEI Thought, some students’ sensitivities count for more than others’. Faced with pro‐​Hamas protests sweeping college campuses in the wake of the 10/7 massacre, university administrators suddenly lost their zeal for punishing “microaggressions.” When it comes to offenses like pro‐​Trump graffiti or culturally insensitive Halloween costumes, they’re ready to pounce: that stuff’s traumatizing, after all. But pogrom‐​endorsement? Hey, it’s complicated. . . .

DEI’s post‐​10/​7 disgrace should be a teachable moment, but many would‐​be reformers are learning the wrong lesson. Congressional Republicans have offered nostrums like using student loans to force deplatforming of “Anti‐​Semitic events” or ramped‐​up “hostile environment” enforcement from the Biden administration’s Office of Civil Rights. GOP state legislators in New York have drafted a “Dismantling Student Antisemitism Act” that would freeze state funding for SUNY schools unless they implement mandatory antisemitism training and bias reporting procedures.

But trying to make DEI programming “fair and balanced” is a fool’s errand. As Milton Friedman once quipped, “What would you think of someone who said, ‘I would like to have a cat, provided it barked’?”

Elected officials have no business trying to micromanage campus culture using the levers of state power. But neither is there any reason the taxpayer should be expected to fund this destructive nonsense.

Instead, at the state level, reformers should use the power of the purse to break the power of the DEI bureaucracy at public universities. T

Yes. Related:

What makes the Harvard / Penn presidents claiming their schools' deep, unshakable commitment to free expression even more hilariously pathetic: they are literally the bottom 2 in FIRE's campus free speech ratings of 248 universities pic.twitter.com/MPpEQ8g4rn

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 7, 2023

And inevitably, the Republicans Pounce! take: Republicans Try to Put Harvard, M.I.T. and Penn on the Defensive About Antisemitism.

HOW GOVERNMENT WORKS: Washington State Economist Refused to Lie, So They Forced Him Out.

CHANGE: Compromise Defense Bill Removes Restriction on Military Travel for Abortion.

FROM CEDAR SANDERSON:  Running Into Time.

#CommissionEarned

Time travel isn’t possible. Is it?
If it was feasible, how would it work?
And what price would the world’s powers pay to have the inventor under their control?

Garry never asked to be assigned to protect the girl he really liked in his classes. He just wanted time to get to know her better.

Pol never minded being called a mad scientist. He had good reasons for being mad. His top priority was protecting his sister, no matter the cost.

Both men were about to run headlong into a surreal reality, where the only answer might be held by a little white mouse cupped gently in a woman’s hands…

ROGER KIMBALL: The disgraceful, ducking, diving, dodging college presidents.

It was a clarifying moment, wasn’t it? The presidents of MIT, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania testifying for the House Education Committee about the wave of rabid antisemitism on their campuses. Representative Elise Stefanik of New York asked the same question of UPenn’s Liz Magill, MIT’s Sally Kornbluth and Harvard’s Claudine Gay. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your campus’s rule of conduct, yes or no? That was the question.

You might think it was a pretty simple question. Stefanik, exhibiting a mixture of incredulity and barely contained rage, stressed: “This should be be the easiest question to answer.”

Well . . . .

THE LEFT HAS LOST IT, DECADES AGO:  Trump embraces ‘dictator’ moniker by promising to enforce border laws and promote energy independence… and the left loses it.

SO CAIR SHOULD BE PUT ON THE TERRORISM WATCH LIST:  CAIR Executive Director: ‘I was Happy to See’ Hamas Terror Attack on Israel on October 7.

SURE, BUT SINCE THEY SHOT THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT BY KICKING OUT ONE OF THEIR NUMBER…  House Republicans Publish Resolution Authorizing Biden Impeachment Inquiry.

AND IT’S TIME TO FACE IT:  The ‘Why’ is Now Obvious.

FIRST SLOWLY, THEN VERY FAST:  How Were the Universities Lost?

But mostly by letting it happen.

THIS ISN’T THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS HOPING FOR:  I was waiting for my grandchildren at the park — everyone thought I was a pedophile.

IT TAKES TWO TO PLAY CHICKEN, JOE – AND WHEN YOU POINT A FINGER THREE POINT BACK TOWARD YOU:  Senate blocks Ukraine aid after Biden says Republicans ‘playing chicken’ with border demands.

OH, IT JUST SHOWS HAMASS LIES, WHICH IS NOT NEWS TO ANY THINKING PERSON:  Hamas fighters surrender in droves, and their photos tell an interesting story.

YEAH, SOME OF US HAVE KNOWN:  Americans might finally be noticing the depravity in academia that has existed for more than two decades.

PERSONALLY, I THINK PEOPLE WHO CAN ONLY RELATE TO CHARACTERS WHO LOOK LIKE THEM ARE INTELLECTUAL TODDLERS:  The double standards of entertainment.

ANYONE LIVING IN THE REAL WORLD HAS KNOWN THIS FOR A WHILE:  An interesting look at who raises more well-adjusted kids.

AND THIS TOO!  Federal court will decide if Fed’s bank heist is legal.

OH, THAT’S RICH:  Facebook and Instagram Steer Predators to Children, New Mexico Attorney General Alleges in Lawsuit.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Reverse Speech Codes Aren’t the Answer: Fighting Campus Hate and Anti-Semitism at the Roots of the Problem.

I also note how much easier the lives of the embattled Ivy League presidents would be if they had just had some principles all along.

And as always, if you like this, please sign up for a paid subscription.

CLAUDINE GAY’S CAREER IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Rabbi Resigns From Harvard’s Anti-Semitism Advisory Committee: ‘Ignoring Jewish Suffering Is Evil.’

THE REST OF THE MONEY, HE WASTED:

Hunter Biden has been federally indicted on new felony tax-related charges. The indictment said he spent millions on drugs, luxury hotels, prostitutes, exotic cars and luxury clothing while defrauding the government and evading taxes. Read: https://t.co/6ki9LeWp69

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) December 8, 2023

I take this to mean that the establishment has decided that Biden has to go. Probably in favor of Newsom. Remember, the primaries aren’t necessary for the Dems to field a candidate.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY FOR THE IVY LEAGUE: Universities Face Congressional Inquiry and Angry Donors Over Handling of Antisemitism: Congress has opened an investigation into Harvard, M.I.T. and University of Pennsylvania, a $100 million gift was withdrawn, and demands have grown for the universities’ presidents to resign. “Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said all three presidents should leave their posts.”

OPEN THREAD: Just run with it.