OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: Broken water pipe knocks out data processing for NASA sun-studying spacecraft.

WELL, GOOD, HE WAS A BAD CHOICE: Unrepentant covid tyrant withdraws from DEA nomination. Accountability. Chad Chronister’s nomination fell apart in just three days.

WAIT, IT’S NOT A WARNING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE? “Venus’s reputation as a cautionary tale of an Earth Gone Bad may have been somewhat exaggerated.”

WELL, GOOD: Six-Month HIV Prevention Shot Achieves 99% Efficacy in Major Study.

PEOPLE ARE ASKING HOW TO DONATE TO INSTAPUNDIT AGAIN, SO HERE YOU GO. You can donate via stripe using the silver “Donate” button at the top of the right sidebar, or by using this link to go to Stripe. You can mail a check (made out to Glenn Reynolds, not InstaPundit) — people still do that — to 118 N. Peters Rd. #12-230, Knoxville, TN 37923. Or you can become a paid subscriber to my Substack, which is always appreciated. Any way you choose to do it, I thank you, and my family thanks you.

THEY HAVE THEIR PRIORITIES.

To my fellow Californians who are struggling to make ends meet, who want better schools, better roads, and safer communities, this is what your democrat politicians are spending your money on. https://t.co/KEVls1mWPN

— Senator Melissa Melendez (@senatormelendez) December 2, 2024

SO WHEN GERMAN SOLDIERS USED METH IN WWII THEY WERE JUST FOLLOWING TRIBAL TRADITION: Barbarian warriors in Roman times used stimulants in battle, findings suggest.

EV COSTS: Why Did Our Kia EV9’s First Service Cost $322? Aren’t EVs Supposed to Be Cheaper To Maintain? On top of everything, we have to visit the service department again.

FIGHT THE POWER: SAF Asks Supreme Court to Review Its Challenge to California’s Ban on Gun Shows on State Property.

NATURE IS HEALING: President-elect Donald Trump will attend the weekend reopening of the restored Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which was ravaged by a 2019 fire.

I hope his jet still says Trump Force One.

COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Infants exposed to animals on farms are less likely to develop allergies, study finds.

PEOPLE ARE ASKING HOW TO DONATE TO INSTAPUNDIT AGAIN, SO HERE YOU GO. You can donate via stripe using the silver “Donate” button at the top of the right sidebar, or by using this link to go to Stripe. You can mail a check (made out to Glenn Reynolds, not InstaPundit) — people still do that — to 118 N. Peters Rd. #12-230, Knoxville, TN 37923. Or you can become a paid subscriber to my Substack, which is always appreciated. Any way you choose to do it, I thank you, and my family thanks you.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Over the weekend, China debuted a new rocket on the nation’s path to the Moon.

SLEEP HYGIENE: Irregular sleep might increase risk of heart attack, stroke.

NOTHING IS EVER THE FAULT OF THE ANOINTED.

This is exactly what Hillary's top advisers did after 2016. And it's also exactly what cable personalities and digital media outlets are doing now.

The failures in elite liberal sectors are too glaring to deny, but the one thing they adamantly refuse is any self-reflection: pic.twitter.com/Ojo3OzZfzH

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 3, 2024

NGOS AND NONPROFITS HAVE FORMED A SORT OF UNACCOUNTABLE SHADOW GLOBAL GOVERNMENT FOR TOO LONG. They need to be reined in and made accountable.

We need to scrutinize U.S. government funding of “non-government organizations.” It’s an oxymoron that represents a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the real problem runs deeper: Americans deserve transparency on opaque foreign aid & nonprofit groups abetting our own border crisis. https://t.co/KiD9ahRLAk

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 2, 2024

BAD FOR BUSINESS: Alex Berenson: Why is Dr. Scott Gottlieb so desperate to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out of Trump’s cabinet? Gottlieb – Pfizer director, Biden v Berenson defendant – is openly trying to block RFK from the Dept. of Health and Human Services. “Gottlieb is a walking, talking conflict of interest who personifies everything wrong with American medicine.”

WAIT, WHAT? Soldiers surround parliament after South Korea declares martial law: President blames ‘Pro-North Korean forces’ for dramatic move.

JESSE SINGAL HAS QUESTIONS:

But at a moment when liberals have less political power than we’ve had in a long time — a situation that will maintain, at the federal level, for at least the next two years — it’s vital we take an honest, self-critical look at how we’ve wielded the power we have had in recent years. Instead, many people are embracing a nonsensical — if comforting — worldview in which the only actors with agency are conservatives, and in which we liberals have no power to choose how to run our institutions, to make tough but strategic decisions, to weigh trade-offs, and so on.

None of this is actually the case.

***

“How have we liberals used our power in recent years?” is obviously a big and complex question, and it goes without saying that I’m going to be able to give a partial answer. So a few examples will have to suffice.

The university system is an obvious place to start, because universities tend to be overwhelmingly dominated by liberals. And here, it’s beyond obvious that liberals have instituted — or allowed to be instituted — unpopular policies that violate most Americans’ notions of fairness.

Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Michael Clune, an English professor at Case Western Reserve University, rails (thoughtfully) against the politicization of higher ed. “We Asked for It,” argues the headline, and Clune makes the case that if the Donald Trump 2.0 administration is as harsh on higher education as it is bragging it will be, that’ll largely be the fault of these institutions themselves. . . . Who asked for any of this? Who thought it was a good idea?

Is there a place or an institution run by the left anywhere that is a good advertisement for letting the left run things?

AND YET THE PRESS IS ACTING LIKE HUNTER WAS A ROGUISH FRAT BOY INSTEAD OF A 50+ CORRUPT LAWYER WITH TOP POLITICAL CONNECTIONS:

The New FBI Director Concurs… pic.twitter.com/3KI0JrMXuz

— The_Bayou_Boy (@_The_Bayou_Boy) December 3, 2024

UNDOING THE CRAZY: UMich regent: Board re-thinking DEI statements, programs after intense ‘scrutiny.’

AN ART EXHIBIT GIVING OBAMA SIMILAR TREATMENT WOULD HAVE BEEN TREATED DIFFERENTLY, I DARESAY: ETSU president resists Congressional pressure, maintains controversial art exhibit depicting Mike Johnson as a Nazi with new ‘waiver’ requirement for viewing. I don’t mind some lame-ass “art” calling a Republican a Nazi. But the double standard is obvious, and the absurd waiver treatment is too. Either man up and say “free speech” or shut up. But it’s hard to say “free speech” when academia has diverged from that for over a decade.

In the long run, it’s easier and safer to have principles.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY IS UP: Welcome to the Party, Pal (cont’d): Nate Silver discovers a problem with our expert class.