MAKE THEM PAY: Court rules for fired U. Louisville professor who criticized gender ideology. “University of Louisville officials can be sued for their roles in firing a psychiatrist who criticized transgender drugs and surgeries for minors, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.”

JUST THINK OF IT AS A DONATION-IN-KIND FROM TERRORISTS: Someone Is Still Hacking the Trump Campaign, Probably Iran.

HARRIS LOSES TO QUAYLE: Just as Jimmy Carter sighed with relief over the fact Joe Biden relieved the Georgian of the “Worst President Ever” title, Issues & Insights reports that those uproarious laughs you may be hearing are Dan Quayle, who has been relieved by Kamala Harris of the undeserved (in his case) title of “Worst Vice-President Ever.”

HIGHER EDUCATION, A CESSPIT OF BIGOTRY AND MISINFORMATION: UPenn anti-Israel group falsely blames Jewish state for bombing it didn’t commit.

DECOUPLING CUTS BOTH WAYS: Huawei laptop teardown shows China’s steps toward tech self-sufficiency.

The “safe and reliable” device features a self-designed processor and a Chinese-made operating system, having stripped out foreign-made components and software as much as possible.

The computer, which is being snapped up by governments and state groups across the country, has become the signature model of China’s localization campaign known as Xinchuang, or “IT application innovation.”

For decades, Chinese officials have dreamt of creating a domestic tech supply chain, especially in building-block components like semiconductors. Progress was slow. But Washington’s ratcheting embargo on high-tech goods has spurred Beijing to redouble its efforts.

“We must ramp up R&D efforts in semiconductors, machine tools, and foundational software,” President Xi Jinping exhorted top scientists and policymakers this summer. “They provide the technological backbone for independent, secure, and controllable supply chains,” he said.

Chinese officials are now combining the heft of state spending and financial support with top-down directives to buy local tech, particularly in semiconductors.

All that state control might help China catch up to where the West (including Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan) is now — but likely won’t do much for innovation.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Joe Biden Goes Off-Leash to Help Write a Campaign Ad for Trump. “Perhaps they just needed to get him out of the way for a while so that DOCTOR Mama Jill Biden could run another Cabinet meeting. For some reason, Joe Biden’s handlers decided to juice him up with an Adderall cocktail and let him babble with the shrieking harridans on ‘The View.’ That was a real heavyweight intellectual roundtable. When you divvy up one brain cell among that many people, it’s rough to watch.”

GRIFT AS USUAL: Nancy Pelosi’s husband sold more than $500K in Visa stock ahead of DOJ action. “The X account “Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker” flagged the trade on Tuesday, the same day the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the company maintained an illegal monopoly over the U.S. debit card market.”

The VodkaPundit Plan™ is to implement a capital gains tax of 100% on returns earned by politicians and their families in excess of the 7% annual return that private investors hope to make.

Paying your fair share is patriotic, I’m told, and what could be more patriotic than financial solidarity with your constituents?

WOKE FOREST: It’s not surprising at this point that some moral imbeciles at a prominent university would invite a supporter of Palestinian terrorists to speak on the anniversary of the October 7 atrocities. It’s not even surprising that it would happen at a relatively conservative campus like Wake Forest. It is surprising, and outrageous, that the event would be sponsored by several academic departments, giving the event an official university imprimatur. Academic departments are agents of the university administration, and Wake needs to put a stop to this. Note the university’s name on the bottom of the flyer, suggesting official endorsement. And what is the National Endowment for the Humanities doing providing funding for this?

THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY: Poll: Most expect third assassination attempt and blame Harris and Bide.

DON SURBER: Trump Is Not Alone.

REINING IN: En Banc Fifth Circuit Tells Judge Ezra to RTFM. “Again, for all the outrage about rogue judges in Amarillo and Fort Worth, the eyes of Texas should be upon Judge Ezra.”

MAYBE WALZ WILL WANT HIM FOR SECRETARY OF EDUCATION:  “Walz Education Appointee Calls for Overthrow of the U.S.”  It’s stories like this that make me fantasize about writing a “Dear President Washington” letter updating the Father of Our Country about how things are going.

LIGHTNING DEAL: ROCOCO 13PCS Butcher Cleaver Knife Set for Meat Cutting. #CommissionEarned

DON’T GET COCKY: Will This Scandal in Maryland Cost Democrats Another Senate Seat?

QUESTION: WOULD HE BE MAKING NICE TO REPUBLICANS IF HE EXPECTED KAMALA TO WIN?

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hires Republican strategist to fix his PR with conservatives after years of censorship.

Zuckerberg reportedly now identifies as “libertarian.”

Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/fZUMck71GM

— AF Post (@AFpost) September 25, 2024

COLD WAR II: China Says It Test-Fired Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.

Drew Thompson, a senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, wrote on X that the timing of China’s launch appeared to be motivated at least in part by geopolitical frictions with Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.

“Timing is everything,” wrote Thompson, a former Pentagon official, who said separately that he believed it was Beijing’s first public acknowledgment of an ICBM test launch since 1982. “This launch is a powerful signal intended to intimidate everyone.”

China is developing its nuclear arsenal, including expanding its stockpile of warheads, the Pentagon has said.

One likely motivation in that buildup is to limit the U.S.’s ability to intervene in any conflict over Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own. China’s leaders have seen U.S. wariness over direct involvement in Ukraine as a validation of the need for a powerful nuclear force, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Previously: Don’t Look Now, But There’s a Nuclear Nightmare A-Brewing. “China is engaging in what the Pentagon calls a ‘strategic breakout.’ Over the last few months, it’s been revealed that Beijing is constructing silos for an additional 230 nuclear-tipped ICBMs.”

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: ABA Standard 208, Law Schools, and the First Amendment. “New guidance makes explicit what should have been clear already: Standard 208 obligates law schools to embrace First Amendment principles.”

LOL:

‘Trump Will Start World War III,’ Says Party Autographing Bombs To Be Launched At Russia https://t.co/yIfvEMFmG0 pic.twitter.com/I0SnDifiwJ

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) September 25, 2024

TOMORROW’S POSTMORTEMS TODAY! Presidential Election Pre-Postmortem:

THE 2024 ELECTION IS OVER and [Donald Trump // Kamala Harris] has won. Or, perhaps it’s more correct to say that [Kamala Harris // Donald Trump] has lostthe election, because after [Trump’s // Harris’s] stumbling, error-ridden campaign, it seems inappropriate to describe [him // her] as a “winner.” It was obvious from August on that [Trump // Harris] would defeat [Harris // Trump], and it’s astounding how wrong the political experts’ predictions proved to be.

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™

(Via SDA.)

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Biden Is Totally Trying to Sabotage the Harris-Walz Campaign.

FROM JAMES YOUNG: Dispatches From Valhalla: An Alternate History Collection.

#CommissionEarned

“But now and again, the traveler reaches eminences where he sees…the deathless deeds of the great who have passed to Valhalla…” – George S. Patton
This collection contains “What ifs…” of military alternate history so daring their heroes would be welcomed into any warriors’ hall:

Stand on the deck of the H.M.S. Illustrious off the Falkland Islands as the Royal Navy sails into the first carrier battle since 1945 in “Fate of the Falklands”
In “The Lightnings and the Cactus,” see what happens when an unfortunate heart attack leads to P-38 Lightnings arriving at Henderson Field in October 1942
Ride with M-18 Hellcats as they come to the aid of Task Force Smith in “Mr. Dewey’s Tank Corps”
Finally, witness Vice Admiral Lee’s Task Force 34 clash with the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Center Force in the novella Wonder No More.

Ten years after Acts of War’s publication, long-term Usurper’s War readers will also be thrilled to find two entries in James Young’s signature universe:

“Winifred,” the origin story in which a lost RAF bomber crew jettisons their payload…and changes history
The Victorious Meeting, a novella that not only tells the story of the Royal Navy’s actions in Against the Tide Imperial, but sets the stage for A Feather Upon the Waves, the final novel in the series.

Whether you’re a new alternate history fan or an experienced traveler of the multiverse, you’ll find great tales within Dispatches from Valhalla. So grab the proverbial mead horn, erm, beverage of choice and prepared to be regaled once more by tales of battles that never were…but could have been.

DIVERSITY PROBLEM:

With professors like these, who needs political hacks. https://t.co/V5qfNFonSg pic.twitter.com/aY49IgjOE2

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 25, 2024

NOT A HOPE:  Ubisoft Hopes Black History Month Can Save Assassin’s Creed Shadows! [VIDEO]

BECAUSE IT’S MARXIST:  Why Critical Theory gets (almost) everything wrong – PT 1.

IT’S SURPRISING HOW MUCH A PEBBLE CAN DO. PARTICULARLY IN AN AVALANCHE: Pebbles And Votes.