ROGER KIMBALL: Democracy in Decline: The Subversion of Rule of Law: There are many signs and portents that signal the guttering of the rule of law and its replacement: rule by law. It is an autumnal sign—a sign of civilization at the end of its tether.

FIGHT THE POWER: Victory to the French farmers: Europeans are right to rise up against our eco-obsessed elites.

IT’S A WINNING SLOGAN: ‘Deport every illegal’: Sky News host proposes new DEI slogan.

AT THIS POINT, ANYTHING IS BELIEVABLE: FBI charged with Jan. 6 ‘cover-up’ in Ashli Babbitt shooting case.

HMM: WATCH: Is Biden’s Brain Disease Contagious? Other White House staffers are exhibiting symptoms of severe cognitive decline.

EVERYONE KNOWS THE PLAN, BUT ONLY GREG ABBOTT IS DOING MUCH ABOUT IT: Elon Musk Triggered Lefties by Summing Up ‘Outrageous’ Reason Biden and Dems Want an Open Border.

LOL: Shush! L.A. Times Editor Asks “Departees” Not to Criticize California on Their Way Out.

IT’S BEEN A BLOATED AND CORRUPT SECTOR FOR YEARS: University Budget Cuts Were Overdue: Several large public universities are getting multimillion dollar budget cuts. Of course, the cuts will probably be at the expense of faculty, not administrators. . . .

OPEN THREAD: Make of it what you will.

SOME (MOSTLY LEGAL) THOUGHTS ON THE BIDEN/ABBOTT BORDER STANDOFF.

FREE THE SPACE REVOLUTION: Startups call for streamlined US regulations for emerging space capabilities.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Experts Confirm: US Is Dealing With an ‘Out-of-Control’ STI Epidemic. “The most common STI in the US in 2022 was chlamydia, which has remained in the top spot for years now. Nevertheless, it is the recent rise in syphilis that is concerning health officials most. According to CDC data, syphilis cases of all stages have increased by 80 percent in the past five years.”

Apparently 20-somethings don’t wrap it anymore. They aren’t afraid of AIDS, there are pills for Herpes and anyway everyone has it, they’re vaccinated against HPV, and the other stuff is curable (they at least think) with antibiotics. Good luck with that, kids.

SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Galactic Surprise: Milky Way’s Slower Outer Stars Suggest Dark Matter Overestimated.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches Jielong-3 rocket, paves way for more commercial missions.

THE WAY THINGS WORK TODAY: The Bad Guys Gotta Be White Males or It’s Racist. Preferably Christian:

In London, a man named Abdul Shakoor Ezedi is wanted for an “alkali attack” against a woman and her three-year-old daughter. He threw some sort of corrosive substance on them, causing severe burns. . . .

So this guy flees Afghanistan for the UK, rapes someone, gets a slap on the wrist, and is granted asylum. Then he runs around splashing toxic chemicals on people and attacking children.

That’s happening right now.

I thought about that story as I watched the latest episode of Criminal Record, streaming now on Apple TV+.

It’s a pretty good show, a bit slow-moving but well-acted, intriguing plot, all that. But the fundamental premise really rankles me. If we’re to believe the screenwriters, the worst problem facing London in the 21st Century is racist right-wing cops.

Peter Capaldi plays DCI1 Daniel Hegarty, who’s sort of half-supercop, half-politician. He knows everybody, he sees everything, and he can pull the strings to make his colleagues’ lives as easy or as tough as he wants. And of course, you know he’s the villain because he’s a white male. Boo, hiss!

Hegarty comes into conflict with DS2 June Lenker (Cush Jumbo), and I won’t spoil any of the plot details. But Hegarty and his crew of likeminded white male cops are despicable, and Lenker keeps butting heads with them because they don’t see her as an equal.

Are there racist cops? Of course. Is that a worthy dramatic premise? Sure.

But just once, I’d like to watch a show that actually reflects other stuff that’s happening in the real world. A scenario where the cops are trying to protect the public from, say, insane Islamic immigrants who attack children in the street after being let out of prison for rape.

It’s not racist to notice. It’s not bigoted to empathize with the victims of a crime committed by somebody who’s been designated a victim because he’s not white.

I had a similar problem with another recent thriller series, Condor, currently streaming on MGM+.

Shocking.

MAGAZINES: The Wisdom of Downloading. “The answer to the age-old question of whether or not to top off a magazine to maximize the number of on-board rounds depends on the firearm in question. Even within the same model, individual examples can yield different conclusions.”

IT’S STYLISH, SO IT MUST BE GOOD FOR THE PLANET: Over 2 percent of the US’s electricity generation now goes to bitcoin.

HMM: Is hypnotizability related to risk-taking behavior?

THEY’RE STILL STYLISH, THOUGH: Lead aprons no longer necessary for dental X-rays.

HIGHER EDUCATION HAS GONE PAST SELF-PARODY: Robot Racism: Pittsburgh Professor Sounds Alarm Over “Interacting with White Robots.”

SAME REASON SUVS REPLACED STATION WAGONS: Why Are Pickup Trucks Ridiculously Huge? Blame Government.

LIFE IN THE BIDEN ERA: East Palestine residents still displaced, suffering 1 year after toxic train derailment.

EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED: Inside the Censorship Scandal That Rocked Sci-Fi and Fantasy’s Biggest Awards. “Three months later, the truth came out when McCarty shared the Hugo nominating statistics on Facebook: Someone had stolen nominations from The Sandman legend Neil Gaiman, Babel author R. F. Kuang, Iron Widow novelist Xiran Jay Zhao, and fan writer Paul Weimer. All four of them earned enough votes to be finalists—and therefore eventually winners—but for unknown reasons, someone had secretly marked their works as ‘ineligible’ after the first rounds of voting. . . . When McCarty finally shared last year’s nominating statistics on his Facebook page, authors, fans, and finalists were shocked. In the history of the awards, no works had ever been deemed ineligible like this. Many people who had expected Kuang to win for Babel were now stunned to see she very well could have, and McCarty’s refusal to explain what happened made everything worse. (McCarty did not respond to interview requests for this story.)”

Plus: “All four ‘ineligible’ writers have criticized the Chinese Communist Party or its policies at some point in the past.” Insiders deny that was a factor, but . . .

OH NO! ANYWAY . . . Harvard Faces New Threat Of State Tax On Its $51 Billion Endowment. Subsidizing higher education is like subsidizing tobacco.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Harvard is so loathsome they have made me root for the state government of Massachusetts. Go Massachusetts Go!!”

EVEN A FLATWORM IS SMART ENOUGH TO TURN AWAY FROM PAIN: Californians eager to junk soft-on-crime law pushed by Kamala Harris.

Related: Biden reelection rating worst in 32 years, most want him gone: Gallup.