FIGHT RACIAL BIGOTRY AND DISCRIMINATION: White University Administrator’s Race Discrimination Case Can Go Forward.

SAUSAGE-MAKING, COLORADO STYLE: Proposal from Democratic leaders ‘completely’ exempts lawmakers from open meeting laws. “Leaders of the Colorado General Assembly, along with several Democratic members, are seeking sweeping exemptions for lawmakers from the state’s open meetings law, which contains guarantees of transparency when officials craft policies.”

PROGRESS: GOP-backed bill to hold colleges partly responsible for student loan debt advances.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Paying the ‘Stupid Tax’: A True Tale of EV Woe.

WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF ANTI-SEMITISM? University of Missouri student pleads guilty after destroying Jewish group’s Shabbat display.

JOANNE JACOBS: Why Joe College can’t read.

Students also lack reading stamina: They have trouble staying focused on a challenging text. In middle and high school, they read short passages to prepare for tests, but rarely whole novels, Kotsko writes. He links to Peter Greene’s lament that students’ knowledge of literature “is Cliff’s Notes deep, and they may never develop the mental muscles to work their way through a long, meaty piece of literature.”

Learning “to follow extended narratives and arguments” is a valuable life skill, Kotsko argues. Young people who can’t engage with complexity won’t be prepared for the world.

He lays blame on Common Core, teaching to the test, smartphone addiction and other factors. I’d add: The contempt for knowledge, which gives readers context, and the tendency to assign simplistic young-adult books.

“What’s happening with the current generation is not that they are simply choosing TikTok over Jane Austen,” he concludes. “They are being deprived of the ability to choose.”

Read the whole thing — which seems particularly apt this time.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: War on Women — Woke Medical Charlatans and Man Boob Milk Fantasies. “I am, of course, old enough to remember living in a world where satire and reality weren’t blurry kissing cousins. I could think and say the most absurd things and not have to worry about them maybe becoming true one day. Nowadays, anything one throws out into the universe might go through some sort of David Lynchian mind warp drug trip and end up being manifested in the real world.”

I TALK ABOUT REGULATING NONPROFITS: A conversation with University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Part 1 of 2).

Plus: A conversation with University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Part 2 of 2).

HIDE THE DECLINE: Nate Silver Drops Truth Bomb on White House for Trying to Hide Biden’s Cognitive Decline.

I’M SUSPICIOUS THAT THIS IS JUST ANOTHER BUREAUCRATIC ATTACK ON SPACEX/ELON MUSK: U.N. committee to take up issue of satellite interference with astronomy after refusing to do so last year.

POLITICO: Biden’s brother used his name to promote a hospital chain. Then it collapsed. “For then 67-year-old Jim Biden, the third of four Biden siblings, his ties to his older brother made up much of his pitch as he pursued deals that could help Americore make money from drug rehab, lab testing and even cancer treatment.”

More:

The email, obtained by POLITICO from a person close to the company, documents one of the many ways in which Jim Biden invoked his brother’s name and clout in the course of his work with Americore, which has since gone bankrupt, wreaking havoc in rural communities in the process.

Jim Biden spoke of plans to give his brother equity in Americore, according to one former Americore executive, and install him on its board, according to a second. He also said that if Americore could find a winning business model for rural health care, his brother could promote the company in a future presidential campaign, a third former executive told POLITICO. All were granted anonymity to discuss a company mired in legal and political controversy.

In order to fund Americore’s expansion, Jim Biden offered to secure capital from investors in the Middle East, according to the emails and executives. When the expected money did not arrive, it aggravated Americore’s preexisting financial issues. The company collapsed, leaving behind unpaid bills and neglected patients.

None of this is “news” in the sense that it’s new. What’s new (and news) is the press’s willingness to dump on Joe Biden now that he looks like they can’t drag him across another finish line.

DEMOCRATS. NEXT QUESTION? From Fani’s Cash Stash to Gangland Attorneys: What’s Up With Fulton County’s Justice System?

FIGHT THE POWER: En Banc Fifth Circuit Will Hear NCLA Lawsuit Against Legally Defective Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has agreed to an en banc rehearing of the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s National Center for Public Policy Research v. SEC lawsuit challenging “Board Diversity Rules” that SEC promulgated without statutory authority. These rules impose race, gender, and sexual orientation quotas on corporate board membership for companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, along with compelling corporate speech to explain any quota missed. SEC also furnishes lists of quota-satisfying names to companies unable to meet such quotas on their own. NCLA welcomes the opportunity to argue this case before the full Fifth Circuit, where we will urge the Court to set these unlawful rules aside. The Court also granted the petition for rehearing en banc filed in the case by the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment.

Nasdaq reported a wave of alleged investor interest in discriminating against some companies and in favor of others based on the gender, race, and sexual orientation of those companies’ directors. Nasdaq responded by proposing a set of rules to SEC that would help investors discriminate with respect to these identities. One Rule forces every Nasdaq-listed company to either include on its board minimum quotas of individuals of a certain gender, race, and sexual orientation, or else to explain why the board does not meet such quotas. The Rules also require the companies to publicly disclose information about their directors’ self-identified gender, race, and sexuality. These measures compel speech in derogation of the First Amendment, and they further violate Americans’ rights to due process of law and equal protection under the law.

Reminder/Disclosure: I’m on the NCLA Advisory Board.

I’M NOT, I ONLY KEEP A SINGLE BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE ON HAND, USUALLY: The New Yorker Wonders: Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event?

JOSH BLACKMAN & SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Griffin’s Case (1869) and The Enforcement Act of 1870.

INNOVATION: U.S. military reports 1st Houthi unmanned underwater vessel in Red Sea.

The U.S. military conducted five self-defense strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Saturday, including one against an unmanned underwater vessel, U.S. Central Command said Sunday.

Saturday’s incident marked the first observed Houthi use of an unmanned underwater vessel since attacks in the Red Sea region started in October, CENTCOM said.

The military on Saturday between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time also conducted self-defense strikes against three mobile anti-ship cruise missiles and an unmanned surface vessel. CENTCOM “determined they presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region,” the military said in a news release. “These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels.”

The problem with “proportionate” responses is they allow the bad guys to determine the pace and severity of our operations, while giving them time to come up with attacks we aren’t expecting.

AT AMAZON, Shop Today’s Deals. #CommissionEarned

RULE OF LAW IN NEW YORK: “What is the ‘extraordinary, unusual circumstance’? Being Donald Trump? If so, she’s revealing that she believes the prosecutors went after the man, not the crime, an abhorrent abuse of power. So, whatever she thinks, she can’t mean to be saying that. What else is there?”

Nothing. We were told up front not to normalize Trump, and the Democrats have denormalized themselves in response.

From the comments: “I’ve always thought that Donald Trump was a bit of a clown. I largely still think that. So why are our rulers so hell bent on eliminating him that they are willing to throw away every last vestige of their credibility? It makes me wonder.”

Me too.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: From ‘Take the Money and Run’ to ‘Run and Take the Money.’

SOMETIMES A CAT GOT TO ENGINEER:  The Engineer And His Apprentice.

Yes, I actually did say “A cat.” It is what it is.

LIFE IN THE BLUE ZONES: School Committee members explain why they want National Guard’s help at Brockton High. “In the letter, the four School Committee members wrote that the school has experienced a disturbing increase in incidents related to violence, security concerns and substance abuse over the past few months. They also claimed that the situation at Brockton High has gotten so bad that 35 teachers recently missed school.”

THEY’VE BEEN TRYING REALLY HARD, THOUGH:  In matters of conscience, the state has no say.

And Tilting At Windmills is still having a subscription sale!

THAT’LL REALLY BRING IN THE BIG BUCKS:  Hawaii poised to slap tourists with $25 climate tax: ‘Small price to pay to preserve paradise’.

And it won’t upset people at all at all!

BIT RETAIL IS MUCH EASIER TO REGULATE:  One victim of the war on small retailers.

And that’s how fascism operates. Through governmental control of business.

WHAT IS DISTURBING ABOUT 2024? WELL, TRUMP IS MEETING WITH TWO SOUTH-OF-THE-BORDER LEADERS AND IS –ARGUABLY– THE MOST LEFTIST OF THE THREE: CPAC scores ‘chainsaw’ Argentine President Javier Milei.