WHAT DESPERATION LOOKS LIKE: The Latest Spin: Blaming the Gun Store for Hunter Biden’s Illegal Purchase.

SORRY, I’M LOW-CARB: Researchers predict new phase in neutron stars that favors ‘nuclear pasta.’

CHANGE: David Shapiro Was Talking AGI in September 2024 and Now Transformative AI in 2027-2030.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Planned SpaceX launch from Florida to carry first satellite built entirely in Turkey.

HMM: Weight loss drug Zepbound outperforms Ozempic in new published study.

“ANTI-ZIONIST:” Court Rejects Allegedly Anti-Zionist Professors’ Claims That University Should Have Stopped Jewish Professors from Filing Religious Discrimination Complaints Against Them.

THEY’LL ALSO SOON FAVOR INCREASING VOTER TURNOUT BY CASTING VOTES FOR VOTERS WITHOUT EVEN ASKING THEM WHO THEY FAVOR: Colleges aim to increase enrollment by admitting students who didn’t apply: Direct admissions saves money, reduces ‘barriers,’ scholar says. “Scholar says.”

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, HOME OF UNREPENTANT ANTI-SEMITISM: Columbia admin complain about ‘privilege’ of Jewish students: ‘Amazing what $$$$ can do.’

True privilege is being able to say stuff like this and keep your job.

IS IT REALLY ALL THAT LOW KEY? The low-key lunacy of Britain’s new ruling class: The new Labour government is full of people who believe the craziest things.

To be fair, our entire ruling class monoculture throughout the West — including much of the political leadership on the right — believes crazy things, or at least feels as if it has to pretend to.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Europe set for crucial first launch of Ariane 6. It’s sked for this afternoon.

JOHN LUCAS: Some advice for the GOP and some questions for the Dem nominee. “So that I am not misunderstood, it is important and necessary to rebut the constantly changing stories about Biden’s mental fitness for office, but that should now become a peripheral effort, not the main focus. Why? Because if Biden is replaced as the Democrat nominee, as seems increasingly likely, that issue will disappear immediately. The state media will instantly begin crowing about how wonderful Kamala is, or Gavin, or whomever the Democrats run after ousting Biden, no matter who it may be. The GOP and its supporters therefore need to keep focusing the voters now on the ball — what substantive issues will Trump support that the eventual Democrat nominee will fight?”

ROGER KIMBALL: Despite defeat, Le Pen’s party has made steady progress. This election is very bad news for the country formerly known as France.

IT’S IN COMMON USE: Justice Thomas: Of course, the AR-15 is legal under Second Amendment.

THE GOAL IS TO AVOID SERIOUS REFORM, OR ANY CONSEQUENCES FOR THE NOMENKLATURA: Moving the Priests Around: Columbia To Reassign Deans at Center of Texting Scandal.

WHAT OUR NAVY HAS BEEN DOING INSTEAD OF GETTING READY TO ACTUALLY FIGHT: Ready for a Lean Six Sigma Flashback?

While money and efficient processes are important when you look at the last quarter century, what did we gain?

Did the “business best practices” fads of the 1990s-2000s make LCS better? Did it make DDG-1000 a success? Did it control technology risk assessment with FORD? Did it create a more effective maintenance infrastructure?

Did our proposed cure for perceived ills – spreadsheets and motivational speaker seminars – really address the core problem?

Was it really the system that produced our process – and not the system that selected our people – that needed to be looked at? Was it both problems, but we decided to attack the more comfortable of the two?

The system that selects our political leaders is also deeply flawed, also with potentially fatal results.

THIS IS WHAT DESPERATION LOOKS LIKE: Legal Scholar Suggests Scheme To Put Obama Back In White House.

STILL TRICKY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: Final Chicago Holiday Body Count: 19 Killed, 89 Wounded…Mayor Blames Richard Nixon.

Sure, blame a dead Republican, and not the live Chicago Democratic politicians who are in bed with the gangs behind the violence.

Related: One More Time: It’s Not ‘Gun Violence’ It’s Gang Violence.

ALEX BERENSON IS NOT AMUSED: In stealing my story today, the New York Times committed a serious breach of journalistic ethics (yes, that’s a thing). Is it, really? Plus:

I want to explain why what Times reporters Peter Baker and Emily Baumgaertner did today in stealing my Saturday scoop about the visits by a Parkinson’s specialist to the White House was so offensive – and not just to me.

For the Times didn’t merely steal my reporting, it appears to have tried to hide its theft. Their original story – available at the Internet archive called Wayback Machine – claimed the White House had released the visitor logs showing that Parkinson’s specialist Dr. Kevin R. Cannard has visited the White House at least eight1 times since summer 2023 “in response to a request from The New York Times.”

That line is an apparent effort by Baker and Baumgaertner to explain how they discovered the visits – which the Times reported as “Breaking News” – and why they happened to write the article now, two days after mine, rather than months ago.

In reality the Biden Administration’s visitor logs are public, online, and available to everyone at any time. The Times did not need to “request” them, it simply needed to go to whitehouse.gov and search them, as anyone can. And – after I pointed out that fact on X – the Times secretly edited the story to remove that line.

Stealth edits are kind of their thing.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

A LESS-THAN-EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Low-intensity explosion caused Russian satellite to spew debris.

MATT TAIBBI: Details On the Proposed “Blitz Primary:” The oddest primary season in modern times may take an even stranger turn, as calls for Joe Biden to step down as presumptive Democratic nominee grow louder. “This story is happening so quickly it defies analysis, but this crisis has a clear Gilbert Gottfried death-or-Ugu type of vibe to it for Democrats. If Biden insists on staying in the race, as he seems determined to do, he’ll be automatically in conflict with a growing roster of elected Democrats who’ve called for his ouster. If he does change his mind, insiders seem set on fashioning a nomination process that would only include Democratic voters in an ominously indirect way. A ‘blitz primary’ in which celebrities like Taylor Swift and Stephen Colbert engage in ‘positive only’ banter with candidates chosen by Biden delegates could permanently saddle Democrats with an entertainingly hideous celebrity-and-insider template for a voterless nomination process. Either that, or such a gambit could be a brilliant means of gobbling enough public attention to turn disaster into PR triumph just in time for the Republican convention. Either way, we’ll find the plan out soon.”

BAFFLED: Scientists Baffled: Webb Uncovers Ancient Galaxies That Defy Explanation.

AMERICA SIGHS IN RELIEF, AT LEAST THE PARTS OF IT THAT AREN’T ASKING “WHO?” Whitmer: I’m Out. “Gretchen Whitmer–the decidedly ‘meh’ Governor of Michigan, has been one of the favorites for donors and political insiders for the nominee of the Democrat Party should President Biden step down or be forced out of the race. Early on in the post-debate saga, she was clearly angling for the job, but as the Biden Crime Family run by the triumvirate of Joe, Jill, and Hunter made clear that Slow Joe wasn’t leaving, she has begun to backtrack. Now she is shutting down the speculation that she is open to the job, although there has been no Shermanesque ‘If nominated I will not run’ pronouncement.”

WELL: The Authoritarian Side of Effective Altruism Comes for AI.

HMM: 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning XLT Long-Term Verdict: Right Truck; Bit Early. “Our 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning XLT yearlong test truck might just have landed a year or two early here in the nation’s midsection. As it was, Tesla’s Supercharger network opened to Ford vehicles just before our truck left us. Perhaps having access to 15,000 additional (vastly more reliable) chargers might have eased the substantial pain of road-tripping.”