HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Columbia Law Review Refused To Take Down Article On Palestine, So Board Of Directors Took Down Its Website.

A SEVERE BEATING WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER, BUT THIS IS NICE:

Epic. Shoppers at a store in Nashville, Tennessee block a group of thieves after they attempted to loot the store until police arrived. It took the cops 30 minutes to come. pic.twitter.com/ZqIa7HL4ZU

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 5, 2024

And to be fair, in Nashville, for all its blue-city flaws, they probably won’t get the catch-and-release treatment.

SCIENCE MARCHES ON: “The long-held myth that men who own guns are … err, overcompensating for something … has been debunked by scientists in a new study published in the American Journal of Men’s Health. Rather, researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio found that men quite satisfied with certain physical assets are most likely to have guns.”

JIM TREACHER: Why Is Alec Baldwin Forgiven But Louis CK Isn’t?

The only time you’ve seen Louie on TV in the past seven years is if you happened to flip over to Animal Planet at 3:30 in the morning.

In the meantime, what has his SNL colleague Alec Baldwin been up to?

Well, there was this.

Baldwin shot a woman on the set of a movie, and next month he’ll stand trial for involuntary manslaughter.

Which makes it the perfect time to announce his latest project!

Hey, remember when Mike Brady shot somebody?

That’s right: Alec and Hilaria Baldwin are doing a TLC reality show, which is set to premiere in 2025. If he’s not in jail, I guess? I don’t know how that works.

That’s the question that Fox News anchor Kennedy is asking in the London Daily Mail: Will Alec Baldwin’s fake-Spanish baby-factory Hilaria drag their seven bambinos to meet him in JAIL to film this revolting new reality show?

As Kennedy rhetorically asks, “You know who won’t have their own family reality show? Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer and young mom who Baldwin accidentally shot and killed on the set of ‘Rust’ in 2021.”

HOW THE MONOCULTURE MADE SUPER SIZE ME:

If the filmmaker didn’t face serious health repercussions, Spurlock’s film would be dead on arrival. A five pound weight gain and some heartburn just wouldn’t cut it.

But here crafty Spurlock delivers again.

Not only does he gain 25 pounds, but he engages in all kinds of theatrics including throwing up on camera, and reporting troubling symptoms such as chest palpitations and difficulty breathing.

Spurlock’s doctors express horror at how his experiment has affected his blood tests. Most dramatically, they declare that it seems as though his liver had been flooded by alcohol.

Here’s how one doctor put it:

The results for your liver are obscene beyond anything I would have thought. You know that movie [Leaving Las Vegas]—Nicolas Cage? Pickled his liver during the course of a few weeks in Las Vegas. I never would have thought you could do the same thing with a high-fat diet.

Bloodwork that evokes Nic Cage at his booziest? Now that’s what I call high stakes!

Spurlock’s recipe worked.

* * * * * * * *

In 2017, Spurlock figured the #MeToo movement was coming for him. So in a preemptive move, the he released an open letter where he admitted to many incidents of sexual misconduct, including repeated infidelities and the sexual harassment of an assistant. He also notes a one-night-stand. He regarded it as consensual, but he women he was with accused him of rape.

The letter included a detail that reflected on his private and professional life. As Spurlock questions what drove him to behave so badly, he asks, “Is it because I’ve consistently been drinking since the age of 13? I haven’t been sober for more than a week in 30 years.”

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, filmmaker Phelim McAleer wonders if that’s what explains why his liver resembled that of an alcoholic:

Mr. Spurlock’s 2017 confession contradicts what he said in his 2004 documentary. “Any alcohol use?” the doctor asks at the outset. “Now? None,” he replies. In explaining his experiment, he says: “I can only eat things that are for sale over the counter at McDonald’s—water included.”

Would that revelation spur the monoculture to finally disavow the project it had done so much to champion?

As Ted Balaker goes on to write in his Substack column, of course not. Ed Morrissey adds:

When Nick Gillespie offered a shorter but still pointed criticism of Super Size Me last week, some commenters on social media took swipes at him for waiting until Spurlock died. The truth is that many of these criticisms have been circulating about that documentary for years and even came up at the film’s release, including criticisms of overdramatization and questions about whether Spurlock deliberately manipulated his intake for maximum impact. Those criticisms got buried by the same Eight Percenters* that Ted discusses here.

When Spurlock died late last month, we linked to James Glassman’s 2004 review of Super Size Me. The general public knew nothing of Spurlock’s alcoholism when his faux-documentary debuted, but Glassman was astute enough to smell a rat.

Incidentally, here’s Gillespie’s Reason TV retrospective from last week on Spurlock:

* “Only about eight percent of America is progressive, yet the biggest brands so often tailor their material for that demographic,” Balaker wrote last month, in a Substack column that asks (and answers) the question, “Why is Late Night Comedy One-Party Territory?”

FASTER, PLEASE: First metal 3D printer on space station dribbles molten steel. “The first metal 3D printer aboard the International Space Station successfully dribbled out a molten ‘S curve’ last Thursday, in what the European Space Agency (ESA) is calling a ‘giant leap forward for in-orbit manufacturing.’ Combining a high-power laser and stainless-steel wire, an Airbus-built metal 3D printer deposited its first liquefied test lines inside the ESA’s Columbus research module. For ‘safety reasons,’ the machine operated in a ‘fully sealed box, preventing excess heat or fumes from escaping.'”

GIVE MSNBC ANOTHER DAY OR TWO AND THEY’LL TOP IT: This Might Be the Most Insane Take on Biden and the ‘Rule of Law.’

BE PREPARED: Natural Gas Detector, TopTes PT205 Gas Leak Detector with Audible & Visual Alarm. #CommisisonEarned

THIS ISN’T SURPRISING: Stress literally eats away at your brain’s cognitive reserve.

There are few more stressful jobs in the world than POTUS — and Joe Biden didn’t take office three years ago with an abundance of cognitive reserves.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: What a Damn Shame for Our Combat Veterans.

READER FAVORITE: COOFANDY Men’s Linen Shirts Casual Button Down Short Sleeve Summer Beach. #CommissionEarned

STAR BORES: ‘The Acolyte’ – Woke, Wobbly and Steeped in Feminism. “It’s all an imitation, an attempt to recreate a fabled universe and the passion it once stoked.”

NO TECH COMPANY HAS: Windows Recall demands an extraordinary level of trust that Microsoft hasn’t earned.

ANOTHER TORPEDO CIRCLES BACK: The Trump Verdict Continues to Backfire on Biden.

WELL, GOOD: An anti-inflammatory curbs spread of fungi causing serious blood infections.

ANOTHER WIN FOR THE NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE: In NCLA Amicus Win, Fifth Circuit Topples SEC’s Unlawful Effort to Regulate Private Funds. “Following the New Civil Liberties Alliance amicus curiae brief’s advice, the Court declared that SEC exceeded its statutory authority in promulgating the unlawful rule because Congress never gave SEC oversight of this aspect of private funds. NCLA thanks securities law scholars Paul Mahoney, Adam Pritchard, and J.W. Verret for joining in NCLA’s brief as amicus partners.”

Reminder/disclosure: I’m on the NCLA Board of Advisors.

THE ENEMY WITHIN:

Preteen boy holding a Palestinian flag screams that he wants to be a shahid — a martyr.

Gaza?

Nah.

Massachusetts.pic.twitter.com/dEtA4qQwOg

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) June 5, 2024

Colonialism, straight up.

UPDATE: Pro-Palestinian Protesters Arrested at Stanford After Takeover of President’s Office.

As Glenn asked earlier today, “When can we start the purge?”

HMM: Surgery to relieve nerve compression may help ease migraines.

BIDEN DOESN’T HAVE THE JUICE: Americans still not sold on EVs despite Biden push, poll shows. “Despite hefty tax incentives for purchasing all-electric cars, a majority of U.S. adults — 6 in 10 — of those surveyed cited high prices as the major reason they would not buy an EV, and some 25% cited cost as a minor reason.”

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: A Quick Q&A with … economist Michael Strain on AI.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: How Did So Many Sex Offenders Get Jobs In Texas Schools? “Both Texas Scorecard and The Texan have done good work highlighting a disturbing reality: Numerous public school teachers of all grade levels have been arrested for sex offenses, many involving children.”

JIM GERAGHTY: What Did the President Know, and How Long Did He Remember It?

On the menu today: Way back in June 2022, I wrote, “I think the single most predictable ‘bombshell’ of the coming years is that sometime in 2025, someone like Bob Woodward or Robert Costa will publish a book with a title like Perpetual Crisis: Inside the Biden White House, and we will ‘learn’ something like, ‘the president’s official health report said he was in fine shape for his age. But behind the scenes, Jill Biden, Ron Klain, and Susan Rice were deeply concerned the president’s health was rapidly declining, and that he would soon be unable to perform his duties.’” This morning, the Wall Street Journal takes us another half-step toward that minimally shocking revelation, interviewing more than 45 sources and offering a grim portrait of President Biden behind the scenes: forgetful, mumbling, increasingly reliant on notes to remember basic facts, and seemingly oblivious to his own administration’s policies and decisions. The assessment from some sources that Biden has some good days and some not-so-good days reminds our Luther Ray Abel of visits to family in nursing homes throughout his childhood and early adulthood. It’s as bad as you fear, Americans, because all of us with experience with elderly relatives know that over time, the good days become rarer, and the bad days become more frequent.

Put another way, Biden’s never going to be as young and sharp-minded as he was yesterday.

If the Journal is shocked by how Biden behaves behind the scenes:

Wait until the WSJ finds out what he looks like out in front of everyone. https://t.co/EyptbzNk53

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 5, 2024

DEI: Didn’t Earn It. The new meaning of DEI goes viral, infuriating progressives and offering hope, as Orwell wrote in “The Politics of the English Language,” that doublespeak can be defeated “if one jeers loudly enough.”

ELIZABETH PRICE FOLEY IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Trump’s Trial Violated Due Process: He was denied notice of the charges, meaningful opportunity to respond, and proof of all elements.

Whether you love, hate or merely tolerate Donald Trump, you should care about due process, which is fundamental to the rule of law. New York’s trial of Mr. Trump violated basic due-process principles.

“No principle of procedural due process is more clearly established than that notice of the specific charge,” the Supreme Court stated in Cole v. Arkansas (1948), “and a chance to be heard in a trial of the issues raised by that charge, if desired, [is] among the constitutional rights of every accused in a criminal proceeding in all courts, state or federal.” In in re Winship (1970), the justices affirmed that “the Due Process Clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged.” These three due-process precepts—notice, meaningful opportunity to defend, and proof of all elements—were absent in Mr. Trump’s trial.

The state offense with which Mr. Trump was indicted, “falsifying business records,” requires proof of an “intent to defraud.” To elevate this misdemeanor to a felony, the statute requires proof of “intent to commit another crime.” In People v. Bloomfield (2006), the state’s highest court observed that “intent to commit another crime” is an indispensable element of the felony offense.

New York courts have concluded that the accused need not be convicted of the other crime since an “intent to commit” it is sufficient to satisfy the statute. But because that intent is, in the words of Winship, “a fact necessary to constitute the crime,” it is an element of felony falsification. Due process requires that the defendant receive timely notice of the other crime he allegedly intended to commit. It also requires that he have opportunity to defend against that accusation and that prosecutors prove beyond a reasonable doubt his intent to commit it.

Mr. Trump’s indictment didn’t specify the other crime he allegedly intended to commit. Prosecutors didn’t do so during the trial either. Only after the evidentiary phase of the trial did Judge Juan Merchan reveal that the other crime was Section 17-152 of New York’s election law, which makes it a misdemeanor to engage in a conspiracy “to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.”

To recap, the prosecution involved (1) a misdemeanor elevated to a felony based on an “intent to commit another crime,” (2) an indictment and trial that failed to specify, or present evidence establishing, another crime the defendant intended to commit, and (3) a jury instruction that the other crime was one that necessitated further proof of “unlawful means.” It’s a Russian-nesting-doll theory of criminality: The charged crime hinged on the intent to commit another, unspecified crime, which in turn hinged on the actual commission of yet another unspecified offense.

To make matters worse, Judge Merchan instructed the jury: “Although you must conclude unanimously that the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were.”

If I had more money, I’d have paid someone to release live kangaroos in the courthouse.

She concludes: “Mr. Trump, like all criminal defendants, was entitled to due process. The Constitution demands that higher courts throw out the verdict against him. That takes time, however, and is unlikely to occur before the election. That unfortunate reality will widen America’s political divide and fuel the suspicion that Mr. Trump’s prosecution wasn’t about enforcing the law but wounding a presidential candidate for the benefit of his opponent.”

Well, that’s because that’s precisely what it was about.

WHEN CAN WE START THE PURGES? Ayaan Hirsi Ali: We Have Been Subverted.