SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE LEFT THE STATE YEARS AGO: Colorado’s one-party rulers enjoy a progressive press pass. “Unfortunately, the demographic and political realities of this state mean nothing about this will be changing any time soon. With most of the state’s politicians clustered in the blue Front Range, Democrats know that they don’t have to venture into parts of the state where they might face tough questions. They don’t have to appear on the media outlets that the red parts of the state watch and read. Why would they when there’s no penalty for it? No one will hear the complaints from outlets like Center Square over Weiser’s lack of transparency when he can easily shout any story down by talking to Colorado Public Radio.”

“Democrat operatives with bylines” remains as true as ever.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE:

FLASHBACK:

SOLID CONCLUSION, BUT I THINK HE MEANT “JUST EXPECTED” AT THE START:

ROBERT SPENCER: Romeo and WHO? “Next month, Riverside Studios, a trendy “arts centre” in London, is proudly (what else?) presenting Romeo and Hamed, which it describes as ‘a bold, provocative queer reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy from debut writer Scott Horgan.’ It is likely quite provocative, and queer it certainly is, both in the old and new senses of the word, but bold? Nah. The play, you see, was originally called Romeo and Mohammed, but the leftists at Riverside Studios allowed themselves enough “Islamophobia” to realize that a production with a title like that could get them all killed, and they decided to tone it down a bit.”

Where is James Talarico to explain that Mohammed was nonbinary?

THE COMEDY CONTINUES:

OLD AND BUSTED: Paper Lion

The New Hotness? Politburo Compliant:

ASTROTURF ALL THE WAY DOWN:

“PERHAPS MAMDAMI STILL SEES THE WORLD IN TERMS OF THE TOP-HATTED, TUXEDO WEARING, DIAMOND TIE PIN GARBED, PIED-A-TERRE DWELLING CAPITALIST ELITE, which it is his moral duty to tax. But I think the world has changed:”

MAN BITES DOG: AN EXCELLENT, NON-PC ARTICLE IN THE ATLANTIC. Confessions of a Token Black Professor. Why I Quit the Tenure Track: The insufferable hypocrisy of elite academia. (Link was free to me, but here’s an archive link just in case.)

I attended an informal orientation event for early-career Black faculty, where I assumed we would talk about our research interests or simply get to know one another. Instead, the gathering felt more like a combined therapy session and HR seminar. At one point, someone casually rattled off a series of local establishments to steer clear of, vaguely implying that they were filled with bigots. Alarmed by the notion that race relations were so bad in Lewiston that there were places I should avoid eating, I asked why one restaurant in particular had earned a reputation for intolerance. My colleague said that a student of color had worked there and not liked it very much.

The source of the most intense racial monomania on campus, I came to realize, was senior leadership. . . .

In retrospect, it is no coincidence that wokeness blossomed at prestigious American colleges at the very moment when those schools were facing rising discontent over student debt and tuition costs. For the academic aristocracy, touting fealty to Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, trans rights, and other progressive movements served as a convenient distraction from the intractable economic and social issues that the colleges themselves were perpetuating. This allowed higher education to reclaim the moral high ground after Occupy Wall Street and the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign—to say nothing of the anti-elite fury that gave rise to Donald Trump—had kicked mud all over academia’s ivy-twined walls. Even better, embracing social-justice rhetoric and adopting schemes to boost faculty diversity were cheap. Cheaper, anyway, than lowering tuition or hiring more tenure-track professors.

Indeed. Read the whole thing.

Plus, this sequel on X:

STOPPING FRACKING WOULD HAVE WEAKENED AMERICA, AND THAT WAS THE GOAL: