BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum Ends Long-Shot 2024 Presidential Bid.

Exit quote:

GOT WOKE, GOING…: The Marvels Ends Box Office Run as Lowest-Grossing MCU Movie in History.

And the (lack of) hits just keep on coming! John Nolte: Disney’s Wish Officially a Box Office Catastrophe — LOL.

UPDATE: It’s The Mouse’s House: How Disney ‘Captured’ Local Government With Perks ‘Akin to Bribes.’

DISPATCHES FROM BAGHDAD BOBBIE: ‘You … Do Realize He Got Crushed?’: Jessie Watters Calls Out Dem Strategist For Gushing Over Newsom’s Debate Performance.

EFFORTS OF THE JUNIOR ANTI-SEX LEAGUE CONTINUE TO ENJOY DOUBLEPLUSGOOD SUCCESS, COMRADES! Gen Z might moan but we need more nudity on TV – otherwise violence will become more normal than sex. Even well-established names in Hollywood are reluctant to film steamy scenes.

JAMES LILEKS: What Are We Nostalgic For?

We have a nagging feeling that our urge for reinvention makes us lose something we’ll regret when it’s gone. The newspapers of the ’20s, an era of astonishing energy and sophistication, are full of laments for the loss of the old ways. The ads of the ’30s had amused affection for the Gay ’90s. Simon and Garfunkel wondered where Joe DiMaggio had gone. Tony Soprano was haunted by the fact that he’d come in at the end of something. Every American era will be reviled as it unfolds and admired when it is over.

The difference now is that we’ve stopped evolving and entered a remix culture, where the vast past is just a thrift store of costumes and artifacts, consumed in solitude through glowing glass rectangles, shared in an incorporeal community where avatars speak in unpunctuated text, memes and algorithmically selected TikTok moments. It’s a level of hell Dante never named, the one populated entirely by willing volunteers.

But don’t despair. There’s a lot that’s grand about our current age. People will, one day, have nostalgia for 2023. The reasons may vary. I hope it’s because the seeds of a better world—more or less, overall, all things considered—are growing today, and we don’t notice them for all the brambles and thistles. I fear the nostalgia may be due to how free and prosperous our era seems in retrospect. They might wonder if we knew how good we had it. Ice machines, gas stoves, private cars, home ownership, no social credit, hot showers without timers, actual hamburgers made from meat instead of crickets…

A golden age!

Well yes. If some can look back on the 1970s in a nostalgic fog as an earlier example of a golden age, many likely have similarly rosy memories decades from now about 2023.

KNOW YOUR PLACE, PEASANTS: Climate elites should take easyJet flights like the rest of us, or be quiet.

As usual, this is more “eat the rich” thinking than anything remotely helpful. The world is not fast on its journey to hell in a hand-basket because of private jets flying in and out of the UK. But then, the Greens love to ban things, blame the West for everything, and cry catastrophe, much more than they like to create, invent or solve things.

That said, the idea of banning some private jets is appealing. Specifically, those in use by the climate elite: the Leonardo DiCaprios, Barack Obamas, Harry and Meghans and Silicon Valley executives of the world. In fact, anyone who bleats on about the evils of flying – low-cost flights possibly being the most democratic invention of all time – should be prevented from boarding their private jets.

When it comes to their international lifestyles, only two options can satisfy after years of incessant hypocrisy: they can take easyJet like the rest of us, or they can stop preaching.

But they won’t, of course. The hypocrisy is the message to the rest of us from the Inner Party: John Kerry flew on private jet to accept climate award: ‘Only choice for somebody like me.’

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Watch Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood Sing ‘Imagine’ at Rosalynn Carter’s Funeral.

Because “Imagine there’s no heaven” and “Imagine there’s no countries” are comforting words inside the church funeral for a 96-year-old former first lady of America.

OLD AND BUSTED: Welcome Back, Carter!

The New Hotness? Welcome back, Johnson! Muslim leaders in swing states launch campaign to ditch Biden in 2024.

Their main objection to Biden, according to the outlet, is that he has not sufficiently pressed Israel for a cease-fire in their war against Hamas.

The campaign is titled the #AbandonBiden National Coalition.

“Right behind me, what Mr. Biden should see is 111 electoral votes. And he won last time with 74,” Salam continued.

While the leaders of this movement are not supporting Biden, they made it clear they are not supporting former President Donald Trump either.

“We’re not supporting Trump,” coalition member Jaylani Hussein said. We’re not going to make the same mistake of thinking about President Biden the way we thought. We don’t have two options. We have many options, and we’re going to exercise that.”

While the Corbynization of the Democratic Party has long continued apace, which candidate will be sufficiently pro-Hamas to win their support?

ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, STILL A TOTAL MYSTERY: Man, 26, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ allegedly kills one, injures two in Paris knife attack near Eiffel Tower.

SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST, PART DEUX:

‘WOKE’ MEDIA TRIED TO CANCEL A CHILD IN A RACISM HOAX. IT BACKFIRED SPECTACULARLY:

Some random weirdos on X got angry about this supposed “racist costume.” But the outrage really started after a sports writer for Deadspin wrote an article demanding that the NFL “speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress.”

“It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once,” Carron Phillips wrote. “But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time.”

Other small sports media outlets parroted a similar narrative accusing this fan of both wearing “blackface,” an offensive way of wearing black face paint that was historically used to denigrate black people, and anti-Native American racism.

There was just one problem: The entire narrative was based on a falsehood.

The young boy was objectively not wearing blackface. While the image shared by Phillips and other outrage-mongers only showed one side of his face, which was painted black, the full image shows his face was painted half black and half red. Can you guess what the Chiefs’ team colors are?

As with the Covington kids in 2019, why are the DNC-MSM obsessed with doxxing children?

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Is the UN Culpable in Hamas Terrorist Attacks on Israel?

SNOWFALLS ARE NOT JUST A THING OF THE PAST: The Global Warming Outside is Frightful: UK Edition.

(Classical reference in headline.)

NOT ANTI-WAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE: Rockefeller Brothers Fund funding pro-Palestinian groups, at least one Israel calls ‘terrorist’ org.

GREAT MOMENTS IN HARD-HITTING JOURNALISM: Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators Occupy Campus Buildings, Stage Mock Trial of President Pollack. “Editor’s note: The [Cornell] Sun is choosing to blur the faces of participants due to safety and doxxing concerns.”

THE 21st CENTURY ISN’T WORKING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Iowa Demolishes Its First 3D Printed House.

Printing of this first house began in May 2023, and nine more were to be completed by the end of the year. Unfortunately, when tested for compressive strength, the cement mixture this first home was printed out of failed to meet the 5,000 PSI minimum required for the project. Rather than compromise on safety, the parties involved decided to knock it down and start over.

I wonder how hideous the first replicator experiments turned out — or will turn out — in Star Trek’s universe?

SQUARING THE CIRCLE IS NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX: Here’s my review from August: Squaring the Circle: New Documentary Explores How Hipgnosis Created Rock’s Greatest Album Covers.

REMY: Moving to South Dakota. New video from Reason TV:

RADICAL WOLFE IS NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX: Here’s my review from September: Radical Wolfe: Does the New Tom Wolfe Documentary Cover the Man in Full?

BRUCE BAWER: Napoleon: Full of Sound and Fury — But Signifying What?

All artists are at the mercy of timing. Sometimes it benefits them, sometimes not. The fact that Napoleon opened just a few weeks after the monstrosities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 is unfortunate for Scott, not least because his movie begins with a horribly grisly depiction of the guillotining of Marie Antoinette that can’t help reminding you of the decapitations in the kibbutzim and at that dance party in the Negev. And Marie Antoinette, as it turns out, isn’t the only one to lose her head in this film.

To watch Napoleon is to be aghast at his transcontinental butchery — and to ponder his motives. Historians write about his eagerness to spread the French Revolution, topple monarchies, and create a United States of Europe characterized by liberty, equality, and fraternity. But Scott doesn’t seem to be terribly interested in such matters and doesn’t strain to address the obvious contradictions. (Why, for example, would a principled enemy of royalty want to found a dynasty?)

So why did Scott make this picture? Simply to offer a spectacle of sheer savagery on an unimaginable scale? If you’ve seen his earlier work, you know he’s drawn to gore. Yes, Napoleon is better than last year’s remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, but in Scott’s film, unlike Edward Berger’s, there’s never any suggestion that we’re expected to be appalled at the extraordinary and meaningless loss of human life. On the contrary, the idea seems to be to impress us with Napoleon’s mastery of (as the Military History and Atlas put it) the military art.

“So why did Scott make this picture?” Several scenes play like homages to Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 film Barry Lyndon, which itself used the research that Kubrick had banked before MGM pulled the plug on his production of Napoleon. Scott really does seem to want to say that after his modest 1977 film The Duellists, itself inspired by Lyndon, that he’s finally topped the Maestro after all these years. He hasn’t, but it’s tough to fault him for wanting to aim high.

Related: The Critical Drinker wanted to like Napoleon, but is similarly confused by what Scott was hoping to accomplish with his new movie:

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Chick-fil-A, Buc-ee’s, Hobby Lobby Merge To Form Most Popular Store Of All Time.

AMAZON’S GRAND TOUR SET TO CONCLUDE: The Grand Tour Not Moving Forward at Amazon Prime Video With Hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

Amazon Prime Video’s automotive series “The Grand Tour” is not moving forward at the streamer — at least with its current hosts, former “Top Gear” trio Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

Sources tell Variety that Clarkson, May and Hammond have just returned from filming the show’s final special in Zimbabwe, which will launch at a later date next year and conclude the fifth season. A special set in Mauritania will launch before that, in February. Though options to continue the series with different hosts are being explored, it has not yet been greenlit. The “Grand Tour” news follows the announcement earlier this week that Clarkson’s other show on Amazon Prime Video, “Clarkson’s Farm,” is getting a fourth season.

Clarkson said in a statement to The Times on Thursday, “We’re done. I have reviewed cars on TV since 1989. That’s 34 years. And after next year, I won’t be doing that any more.”

The presenter further confirmed the news in a post on his Instagram, writing: “Been a busy day. No more ‘Grand Tour’ after next year but a LOT more ‘Clarkson’s Farm.’”

A Grand Tour with younger hosts is being teased:

The trio have just returned from filming in Zimbabwe, which will be their last outing with the series. The next Grand Tour special is set in Mauritania and will launch in February 2024.

The Independent understands that the hit series will not necessarily end with the current hosts’ departure and that other options, including new presenters, are being explored.

Given the multiple stillbirths of Top Gear America and the post Clarkson, Hammond and May Top Gear era on the BBC, I’m not sure if “The Grand Tour: The Next Generation” will work. The original hosts and their chemistry together are what makes the show work, not whatever cars they’re testing or tooling around in that week.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Smackdown Edition.

HOW IT STARTED: Wages are rising. Jobs are plentiful. Nobody’s happy.

—Young Adult Website* Vox.com, November 20th.

How it’s going: Vox Media Lays Off 4% of Staff in 2nd Round of Cuts This Year.

Vox Media let employees know Thursday that it was laying off 4% of its staff. The layoffs are primarily in its product, design, technology and analytics team, as well as their animal-focused site, The Dodo.

“This reflects continued turmoil in advertising and the need to build even more loyal audience relationships given the increasing volatility of search and social platforms, among other factors,” a Vox spokesperson said in a statement.

The Vox Media Union said in its own statement, “This news is especially devastating in the midst of the holiday season, and we are furious that management has short-sightedly opted to eliminate these essential roles.” It also noted that the cuts included multiple union members.

Fortunately, there’s a simple answer: Obama: Everybody’s Got to Learn How to Code.

—Vox.com, February 14th, 2015.

* Classical reference.

TO BOLDLY GO WHERE GRETA HAS GONE BEFORE: Star Trek’s William Shatner warns ‘we’re dying’ as he makes King Charles plea.

Shatner came under fire from fans who reminded the star that he recently went to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Viewers of the ITV programme took to social media to protest his warning.

One moaned: “William Shatner didn’t care about the climate when he went into space polluting the air with rocket fuel, a case of do what I say but not what I do.” While someone else said: “@GMB Williams Shatner, on your news, is a hypocrite and all these people travelling around the world talking about climate change.”

Another raged: “Did I just hear that right? William Shatner who apparently went to space says climate change is due to stupid people.” While a fourth fan posted: “The irony. William Shatner, the man that went to the edge of space in the Blue Origin for fun. Hypocrisy at its absolute finest.”

He became the oldest person to travel to space in 2021, experiencing several minutes of weightlessness as the rocket hit zero-G. But his trip left him feeling grief and an “overwhelming sadness”, writing in his book Boldly Go: “The extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna … things that took 5 billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread.

“My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.” He said the wealthy should be “trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.”

If only Shatner had made his bones portraying a man who lived in an optimistic view of the world’s future, perhaps he wouldn’t be so filled with stereotypical leftist Malthusian doom.  Especially when the first go-around of Star Trek reruns competed against so much early ’70s doomsday porn: