HIGHER EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: The Art Institute of Chicago fires all 122 of its (unpaid and volunteer) docents because they aren’t sufficiently ‘diverse.’

The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), one of the world’s finest art museums, harbors (or rather, harbored) 122 highly skilled docents, 82 active ones and 40 “school group greeters.” All are volunteers and are all unpaid. Their job is to act as guides to the Museum’s collection of 300,000 works, which they explain to both adults and schoolchildren. I’ve seen them in action at the Museum, and they’re terrific.

Despite the lack of remuneration—they do this to be helpful and because they love art—their training to be docents is extremely rigorous. First, they have to have two training sessions per week for eighteen months, and then “five years of continual research and writing to meet the criteria of 13 museum content areas” (quote from the docents’ letter to the Director of the AIC). On top of that, there’s monthly and biweekly training on new exhibits. Then there are the tours themselves, with a docent giving up to two one-hour tours per day for 18 weeks of the year and a minimum of 24 one-hour tours with adults/families. Their average length of service: 15 years. There are other requirements listed by the Docents Council in the ChicagoNow column below (first screenshot).

Many of the volunteers—though not all—are older white women, who have the time and resources to devote so much free labor to the Museum. But the demographics of that group weren’t appealing to the AIC, and so, in late September, the AIC fired all of them, saying they’d be replaced by smaller number of hired volunteers workers who will be paid $25 an hour. That group will surely meet the envisioned diversity goals.

Read the whole thing.

This came courtesy of a reader who doesn’t use Facebook much, but decided to try and share this story — only to have sharing squashed.

THE RACISM THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME: Newsom Signs ‘Ethnic Studies’ Bill for High School Graduation Requirement—But Don’t You Dare Call It Critical Race Theory.

HMM: Capitol Police Whistleblower Claims Leadership Botched Jan. 6th And Lied to Congress About It. “Truth be told, Pelosi wants this committee to set up their third annual impeachment of Donald Trump, or at the very least ban him from running again as the Democrats are frightened that he will run again and win.”

OUTRAGEOUS: Biden Might Send Foreign Aid to the Taliban.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Biden Exempts Some Crimes by Illegal Immigrants as Basis for Deportation. “Critics of President Joe Biden’s new policy as stated by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas note that it will allow those who commit domestic violence, drunk drivers, and others convicted of crimes to stay in America—amid an ongoing border crisis.”

#RESIST: L.A. County Sheriff Says No to Forced, ‘Politicized’ Covid Shots for Cops.

SHUT UP, THEY EXPLAINED: There will soon be no more ads denying climate change on Google.

THE “OR ELSE” IS HEAVILY IMPLIED: Xi Says He Wants ‘Peaceful Reunification’ With Taiwan After Sending 150 Warplanes Near the Island.

But: Taiwan President Stands Up To China, Says Island Won’t ‘Bow To Pressure.’

REPUBLICANS POUNCE! McConnell seizes on debt standoff to undermine Biden agenda.

That Biden doesn’t have enough muscle on Capitol Hill to wrangle his own caucus is McConnell’s fault, apparently.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Can America Survive the Addled Lunatic Biden? “Near the end of this section in last Friday’s Briefing, I said ‘I have enough life experience and perspective to know that everything isn’t an existential crisis. Joe Biden’s Reign of Error is starting to make it feel as if the country is in the throes of one though.’ That got me pondering things I would generally prefer to not ponder but, circumstances being what they are, I pondered.”

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Executive Order Bombshell: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, BNB, XRP, Solana And Dogecoin Are Braced For A Massive Earthquake Amid Huge Price Pump. “The executive order, which is still under consideration, would see federal agencies charged with making recommendations on bitcoin and crypto and would touch on “financial regulation, economic innovation and national security,” Bloomberg was told by White House insiders who added a ‘crypto czar’ could be appointed to ‘coordinate agencies’ work on digital currencies.'”

#RESIST: Southwest Cancels 1,800 Flights. Is There a ‘Sickout’ Over the Vaccine Mandate?

Let’s go, Brandon!

THEY OWN IT: Democrats Have Tried to Distance Themselves From ‘Defund the Police,’ but the RNC Has the Receipts.

JASON WHITLOCK: Dave Chappelle’s Netflix special channels Patrick Henry and Malcolm X and lays bare the war between black men and the Alphabet Mafia. “I’m a writer. I can recognize literature even when it’s delivered verbally from a stage. Chappelle conveyed an essay, a letter from the prison cell social justice warriors have built for straight black men.”

Read the whole thing.

A VERY PUBLIC EDUCATION: New York City Has Run Out of ‘Gifted and Talented’ Students. “The group of kindergarten students currently enrolled in the special programs will be the last to be offered the accelerated learning courses. The reason? Not enough black and Hispanic students are able to qualify for the program. So rather than offer accelerated learning to anyone who can qualify, the city is catering to the lowest common denominator.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: It’s Starting To Feel A Bit Like July 2008. “One of the theories seeking to explain the Lehman collapse and the ensuing financial crisis points to the record surge in oil prices which rose as high as $150 in the summer of 2008, and which combined with tight monetary conditions, precipitated a giant dollar margin call which in turn pricked the housing bubble with catastrophic consequences. In his latest note, SocGen’s resident permabear draws on that analogy and writes that ‘as energy prices surge with a backdrop of central bank tightening it’s starting to feel a bit like July 2008’ referring to that moment of ‘unparalleled central bank madness as the ECB raised rates just as oil prices hit $150 and the recession arrived.'”

REPORT: Florida Redistricting Is GOP’s ‘Biggest Weapon’ for Retaking Congress.

This one is just for our PJMedia/Townhall VIP members, so if you’ve been thinking of becoming a member, you can do so here — and don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.

#RESIST: ‘Arrest Me!’: Mom Challenges Attorney General’s Call for Probing Threats to School Boards.

THE ONLY THING WE AREN’T RUNNING LOW ON IS “UNEXPECTEDLIES”: U.S. Adds Just 194,000 Jobs in September as Hiring Slows to a Crawl.

Previously: ‘Stagflation is here,’ following months of rising prices, BofA analysts say.

And: Inflation has turned growth in wages into a setback.

At least we know whom to thank:

UNMERRY CHRISTMAS: Ho-Ho-NO! Xi Just Found Another Way to Ruin Your Christmas Shopping. “Scared Chinese manufacturers of Western electronics components are being starved of electricity by their own government, causing some to consider leaving the country — and putting a real pinch on this year’s Christmas shopping.”

NO, IT’S JUST REALLY FUNNY: Critics Call Dave Chappelle’s Netflix Special ‘Closer’ Bigoted, Transphobic.

FOUR DOLLAR GAS IS THE LEAST OF IT: What’s the Price of No Mean Tweets?

BIDENFLATION: Real cost of inflation to average American household: An extra $175 a month.

DAVID SOLWAY: Leftism Is the True Pandemic. “It is a political disease for which we have many names—progressivism, Wokeism, Agenda 2030, the Great Reset, etc.—but they are all subsumed under the aegis of the Left, which approaches in stages or ‘waves.’”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: DC COVID Policies Leave Hundreds of Students Without Clean Drinking Water.