MAKE THEM PAY: After SCOTUS Affirmative Action Victory, Edward Blum Is Suing Law Firms Over Their Diversity Programs.

JOEL KOTKIN: America is unprepared to fight a war on three fronts: The democratic world is sleepwalking once again towards military disaster.

NOW INCLUDING MAINE: Colorado Bans Trump From Running Over Concerns Usual Election Rigging System Could Fail.

PROGRESSIVISM ALWAYS LEADS TO THE SAME THING: Death by Doctor May Soon Be Available for the Mentally Ill in Canada.

HOMELESSNESS IS MOSTLY A CALIFORNIA PROBLEM: Raw data: Homelessness is down everywhere except California. “I didn’t realize this until I saw it this morning, but if you exclude California homelessness has been steadily declining in the US since 2007. It’s down by a quarter over the past 15 years.”

Related:

The record level of US Homelessness is really a record California (and NY) level alone. If you remove just CA the national change is 37,000 fewer unhoused people since 2007.
Of the top 10 areas that saw the highest increase in homelessness, California areas take 7 of them. pic.twitter.com/LdxtdLcXNE

— Darrell Owens (@IDoTheThinking) December 19, 2023

Hey, if Gavin Newsom manages to become president, it will be an everywhere problem.

COLLUSION: It’s Time to Replace the US China Business Lobby: The Pro-Beijing Advocates of the US Business Community Need to Leave.

MATT TAIBBI: Democracy Dies in Daylight: Eight years ago the Washington Post pledged to save democracy, but now argues we need to be saved from it.

NOT DIFFICULT ENOUGH: Arnold Kling: The Left had a difficult year: Its internal splits were pronounced.

OPEN THREAD: Just do it.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Japan’s SLIM lander beams moon images home before Jan. 19 landing.

WELL, GOOD: Scientists Destroy 99% of Cancer Cells in The Lab Using Vibrating Molecules.

ALIENS: Scientists Propose New Explanation for “Impossible” Gamma-Ray Burst.

WELL, GOOD: ‘Tummy tuck’ surgery found safe, reliable over 16-year study.

EV UPDATE: What Happens When Your 446-Mile Lucid Air Runs Out of Range? We Didn’t Expect This.

COMBAT MEDIC: The Life-Saving Work That Starts Once You’re Shot.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Behind the Shortage Keeping Cancer Patients From Chemo. “The disruption this year in supplies of key chemotherapy drugs has realized the worst fears of patients — and of the broader health system — because some people with aggressive cancers have been unable to get the treatment they need.”

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Beef can stimulate muscle protein synthesis more effectively than plant-based proteins, says study.

MAKE THEM PAY: College pays fired conservative professor $185,000 to avoid free speech lawsuit.

There should really be at least one more zero on this amount, though.

DON SURBER: Questions We Should Ask. “Police showed deference and avoided the criminal harassment of congressmen and a mayor on Christmas. That’s good. I applaud them. The restraint of the officers reflects professionalism and SWAT training. But what about the rest of us? It is not a prank to have gun-toting police officers arrive at your home on a holiday or in the wee hours of the morning.”

LOL. IT’S NOT BECAUSE SHE’S BLACK, IT’S BECAUSE SHE’S AWFUL. Syracuse prof claims critiques of Claudine Gay are rooted in bigotry against black women.

If you’re not allowed to criticize black women in positions of authority, then we shouldn’t have black women in positions of authority.

Also, why is Syracuse such a hotbed of woke dumbassery?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. George Korda: Education isn’t the priority in public schools. Competing agendas are. “If learning were a priority, public education wouldn’t find itself with just 36% of Americans saying they’re satisfied with the system, tying a record low, according to Gallup. Education is frequently cited as the country’s most important issue because (pardon the cliché), children are our future. Candidates for public office are expected to present education platforms. Education frequently ranks high on lists of voter concerns. However, based on dismal-for-decades analyses and assessments of American and Tennessee educational progress, all the talk, platforms and polls aren’t getting us much of anywhere. If that weren’t true, educational achievement wouldn’t be at the same mediocre levels at which it’s been for many years, and Knox County and the nation would be well beyond education’s continuing achievement doldrums.”

There’s a reason people are abandoning public schools. And the reason is the public schools and the people who run them.

THIS MAY NOT HELP HER AS MUCH AS HE THINKS: Obama Defends Harvard’s Genocidal-Jew-Hater-Protecting Serial Plagiarist Prez to Save DEI Regime: If Claudine Gay were to fall, it could topple the entire house of cards the left, led by Barack Obama, helped build.

ANOTHER MEDICAL SHORTAGE: Pyrophosphate imaging agent shortage reported, could last weeks. “The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) is alerting its provider members of a pyrophosphate shortage, which could potentially last for weeks. The ASNC has received reports of imaging agent 99mTechnetium-pyrophosphate (PYP) being in low supply, citing statements it received from two manufacturers, Curium and Sun Radiopharma, who blame the shortage on supply chain disruptions.”

The lockdowns are years in the past, but supply chain disruptions remain, for some reason.

THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED. Gonorrhea, Then and Now: — And when — if ever — will resistant super-bugs increase the use of condoms?

OPEN THREAD: This thread’s for you.