GRAMMY HOST TREVOR NOAH MOCKS TAYLOR SWIFT CONSPIRACY THEORIES — AS SHE ARRIVES LATE FOR CEREMONY:

I agree, I thought the Atlantic was pretty out there, as well: Who Said It, Adolf Hitler or Taylor Swift?

OPEN THREAD: It’s Saturday night.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches 20 satellites on separate inland and sea rocket launches.

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL: Antifungal Creams Could Be Triggering a Wave of Superfungal Skin Infections.

PUBLIC HEALTH SUFFERS FROM LOST TRUST: Measles, once controlled through widespread vaccination, is resurging due to misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. “The UK was deemed measles-free in 2016 but lost its status just two years later. And now there are rising case numbers across England, with significant outbreaks in London and the west Midlands.”

NOW OUT FROM ANDREW WAREHAM: The Last Campaign (Innocents No More Book 7).

A FIRE VICTORY AT PRINCETON, AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL MALICE, AND ME ON BIG THINK: On this week’s Weekend Free Speech Update. 

PATRICK MAHOMES SR. ARRESTED ON DWI CHARGE EIGHT DAYS BEFORE SUPER BOWL 2024.

THE CORBYNIZATION OF JEREMY CORBYN’S PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Amid disbelief that ‘chemical attacker’ was allowed to stay in Britain, BBC editor who is paid to help 15 Somalian criminals stay in the UK quits the Beeb after shocking Daily Mail exposé.

A BBC editor was hired as an expert witness to help at least 15 Somalian criminals fight deportation – including a vile offender who sexually attacked a deaf teenage girl.

Last year, The Mail on Sunday exposed how Mary Harper, Africa Editor for the World Service, was paid to give expert witness evidence for Somali gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed during his five-year legal battle to stay in the UK.

Now an investigation by this newspaper can reveal Ms Harper has given expert witness evidence in a string of other controversial deportation appeals by Somali offenders – including for another three sex attackers, three drug dealers and a career criminal who spent a decade in British jails.

Following a series of questions from the MoS, the BBC last night announced that Ms Harper was leaving the Corporation, but refused to say whether she had been sacked or had quit.

In one of the most shocking cases, Ms Harper warned that a Somali man who committed a horrific sexual assault on a profoundly deaf 17-year-old girl would be at ‘severely heightened risk’ if he was sent back to Somalia because he had committed a sex crime.

Earlier: BBC employee called Jewish people ‘Nazis’ and whites ‘parasites.’

IF YOU’RE BUYING “GAS STATION HEROIN” ISN’T IT BASICALLY JUST EVOLUTION IN ACTION? Synthetic pot detected in samples of ‘gas station heroin’ Neptune’s Fix.

I mean, I guess it’s safer than gas station sushi . . . .

OUR FOREIGN POLICY ELITES: Bring Back Playground Psychology: American foreign policymakers would be more successful if they relied more often on a few simple rules of human nature.

WELL, DUH: Survey Shows Auto Dealers Still Annoyed With Biden EV Strategy.

THE ATLANTIC: “Is American Journalism Headed Towards an ‘Extinction-Level Event?'” As Ace of Spades quips, “Dear Jesus, please, I don’t ask for much:”

Is American Journalism Headed Toward an ‘Extinction-Level Event’?

The news industry has been in decline for decades, but the latest round of layoffs is especially ominous.

By Paul Farhi

For a few hours last Tuesday, the entire news business seemed to be collapsing all at once. Journalists at Time magazine and National Geographic announced that they had been laid off. Unionized employees at magazines owned by Condé Nast staged a one-day strike to protest imminent cuts. By far the grimmest news was from the Los Angeles Times, the biggest newspaper west of the Washington, D.C., area. After weeks of rumors, the paper announced that it was cutting 115 people, more than 20 percent of its newsroom.

On the other hand, Jim Geraghty writes: The Collapse of News Is Nothing to Cheer.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to publicly cheer on the layoffs of other people, even if you’ve vehemently disliked their past work. (I’ll make an exception for certain NFL head coaches.) It certainly isn’t very Christian to take pleasure in other people’s suffering and misfortune. If you want to privately feel a sense of satisfaction and say to yourself, “Good, they had it coming,” I suppose there’s less harm in that. But what goes around comes around, and the axe comes for us all sooner or later. I don’t see why you would want to advertise to the world, via social media, that you’re the kind of person who takes glee in kicking a person when they’re down.

When you see larger-scale layoffs or buyouts at major media institutions, the management’s perception of who should stay and who should go probably won’t align with yours. The columnists whom you know, who irked you so, have a better shot at surviving the cuts because they’re well-known enough for you to have heard of them. It’s the less-known figures like the assistant city-hall reporter and the copy editors who are most likely to get the axe. That said, there’s an inverse effect, as the younger, less experienced staffers are also likely cheaper.

And on the gripping hand:

Look how stupid everything has become. pic.twitter.com/1i6M5kpTLX

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) February 2, 2024

* Classical reference.

UPDATE: ‘A Racist and a Tyrant:’ David Frum Tries to Uncancel Racist Woodrow Wilson in the Atlantic, Gets Schooled Instead.

(Updated and bumped.)

WHEN YOU’RE BOTH VARIETIES OF HOMO SAPIENS, IT’S NOT BESTIALITY: Neanderthals and modern humans intermingled in Europe 45,000 years ago.

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY:

I was mystified many years ago to discover that some wealthy educated young folk in the SF bay area, didn’t even know that the USSR was an environmental catastrophe, as well. That argument was persuasive to them in a way that “they were also mass murderers” was not. https://t.co/QYGVeyDH35

— Greg Lukianoff (@glukianoff) February 3, 2024

But why not eliminate the rot right from the start? Question Asked: Will Cancel Culture Find Out About Karl Marx The Racist?

STICK IT TO THE MAN: A camera-based anti-facial recognition technique. This isn’t the sort of thing I’m looking for, though.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

What exactly is preventing you from moving to London? pic.twitter.com/KADSMcqDGU

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) February 3, 2024

Good question. How much time do you have for the response?

• How to respond to an acid attack: Woman and children hospitalized in Clapham.
• BBC employee called Jewish people ‘Nazis’ and whites ‘parasites.’
• 1350% Increase in London Anti-Semitic Crimes Amid Israel-Hamas War.
• ‘Blade Runners’ Fight London’s Car Emission Monitoring Cameras.
• ‘Palestinians’ Want London to Give Back ‘Big Ben.’
• AI cameras introduced in London to monitor social distancing and lockdown restrictions.
• London’s Natural History Museum to review potentially ‘offensive’ Charles Darwin collection.
• London Times: Coronavirus will Kill All the Old Climate Skeptics.
• London Bridge knife attacker known to cops, wore electronic tag, had links to jihad terror groups.
• Alleged Scientists at London Aquarium Seek Public’s Help in Naming Their ‘Gender-Neutral’ Penguin.
• Video: Fed-Up Working-Class London Commuters Drag Extinction Rebellion Protesters Off Trains.

WELL, GOOD: High efficacy and good safety profile for the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine in African children.

GOODER AND HARDER, NYC: Outrageous–But Not Surprising. The Times Square assault of two NYPD officers, and the release of several of the suspects, are predictable outcomes of destructive policies on migrants and public safety.

NOW OUT FROM KURT SCHLICHTER: The Attack.

UNEXPECTEDLY: A Border Crisis By Design. Most Americans still don’t understand what is happening at the border, but it is unequivocally the intended result of Biden administration policy.

ROGER KIMBALL: Biden’s action in Iraq and Syria is merely delayed reaction.

What do you think of the apothegm “Better late than never?” I think it is often dubious. For confirmation, I adduce the airstrike the Biden administration just conducted against eighty-five targets in Iraq and Syria. The attacks, against infrastructure associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, are billed as the opening salvo in response to last week’s drone attack by Iranian assets in Jordan that left three Americans dead and more than forty injured. Taking a page from an earlier, square-jawed time, officials from the administration tersely commented that America’s “multi-tiered” response would continue at a “time and in a manner of our choosing.”

Spoken like a real administration. I wonder from what storeroom they got the script? Memo to the memo writers: if you are going to conduct a a military campaign, it’s generally advantageous to avoid telling your adversary when you are planning to strike. The Biden administration forgot that detail — or perhaps they were worried about causing too much damage to Iranian assets. For several days leading up to yesterday’s strike, the administration reported that a strike was in the works and that it would take place in just a couple of days. As it did.

Wasn’t it kind of Joe to tell the Iranians when he was planning to strike?

In fact, he has been the soul of courtesy, for he has also said that America would not be striking Iran itself.

Unexpectedly, given who is Joe’s boss: How Obama Paved the Way for the Iran-Promoting, Israel-Pummeling, Squad-Like Biden White House.

NIKKI HALEY MAKES SURPRISE APPEARANCE IN ‘SNL’ COLD OPEN:

Republican presidential candidate popped into Rockefeller Plaza on Saturday for a surprise appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” where she called out former President Trump’s resistance to debate and ongoing legal battles.

Haley, playing a “concerned South Carolina voter,” stood up in the mock audience during a fake CNN Town Hall with Trump — played by James Austin Johnson — and asked, “My question is why won’t you debate Nikki Haley?”

Her appearance prompted cheers from the audience and a not-so-happy reaction from Johnson.

As John Hinderaker of Power Line wrote in 2017, the core audience of today’s incarnation of NBC’s Saturday Night Live is the DNC-MSM:

Democratic Party news outlets report on Saturday Night Live skits because they want to amplify SNL’s anti-Trump message. “Respectable” news outlets like the AP can’t publish absurd comedy skits ripping President Trump, much as they might like to. But by covering Saturday Night Live, they turn such meaningless attacks into fake “news.”

And Haley can look back at the successful Republican presidential administrations of John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Gerald Ford’s brilliant second term to see how sucking up to NBC invariably ends: And With That Embarrassing Move, Nikki Haley Has to Know She’s Finished.

READER FAVORITE: Orange Ninja Knife Sharpeners for Kitchen. #CommissionEarned

LARRY DAVID ATTACKED ELMO ON LIVE TV BECAUSE HE ‘WAS GOING ON ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH’ AND ‘I COULDN’T TAKE IT:’ ‘I Throttled Him … I Would Do It Again!’

Larry David‘s viral attack on Elmo became the focal point of his visit later in the day to “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” where the host grilled David on answers for what would make a person want to attack the beloved “Sesame Street” character on live television. Both David and Elmo were guests on the Feb 1. edition of NBC’s “Today” when David crashed the morning show set during Elmo’s interview and throttled his face.

“The clip is going around online, Larry. You can’t hide from this,” Meyers told David. “Elmo, some might say, is loved by all.”

“Yeah, yeah. I did it,” David said when asked for an explanation. He then impersonated Elmo’s high-pitched voice and continued: “Elmo was talking. I was waiting to be interviewed, and Elmo was going on about mental health and I had to listen to every word. And I was going, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, I don’t think I can take another second of this!’ And so I got off my chair and I approached him and I throttled him! I couldn’t take it!”

David then wisecracked: “And you know what? I would do it again!”

Just think of David’s Elmo-driven freakout as a homage to another great comedian, Zero Mostel. After appearing on The Muppet Show in 1977, Mostel quipped that Jim Henson “has the best possible actors. If you have a disagreement with them, you can always use them to wash your car.”

It’s been a rough week for the little red blob of polyester: Here’s a life lesson, Elmo: don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to.

On Monday afternoon, the furry red monster posted this on Twitter (latterly known as X): “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?”

Big mistake. Huge.

* * * * * * * *

What learnings can be made from this in (relatively) buttoned-up Britain? Don’t ask anyone how they are feeling. Ever. Strangers’ overwrought emotions are always better in than out; it’s gruelling enough trying to keep the stopper on your own yawning chasm of Weltschmerz.

Can you imagine what would happen if, say, Paddington Bear checked in on the nation? I’d struggle not to howl; the last time we saw him he was taking tea with Her late great Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, remember?

Yes, that’s better. Have a little private cry now and you won’t need another for decades. And certainly not on social media where, for every kind action, there is an unequal and opposite overreaction.

Poor Elmo is probably in hiding. Definitely in therapy. Will he be cancelled? In the Twittersphere no good deed goes unpunished. See, now I’m emoting. I really need to go where the air is sweet. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

America’s Newspaper of Record advises its readers that they better hurry — it’s going to become much gritty and vibrant soon:

Elmo Radicalized After Migrants Bused To Sesame Street https://t.co/1yINdDnI4G pic.twitter.com/vwhAveQNt8

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) February 2, 2024