Read it.

On Monday, X filed an objection in The Onion’s bid to buy InfoWars out of bankruptcy. In the objection, Elon Musk’s lawyers argued that X has “superior ownership” of all accounts on X, that it objects to the inclusion of InfoWars and related Twitter accounts in the bankruptcy auction, and that the court should therefore prevent the transfer of them to The Onion.

The legal basis that X asserts in the filing is not terribly interesting. But what is interesting is that X has decided to involve itself at all, and it highlights that you do not own your followers or your account or anything at all on corporate social media, and it also highlights the fact that Elon Musk’s X is primarily a political project he is using to boost, or stifle, specific viewpoints and help his friends. In the filing, X’s lawyers essentially say—like many other software companies, and, increasingly, device manufacturers as well—that the company’s terms of service grant X’s users a “license” to use the platform but that, ultimately, X owns all accounts on the social network and can do anything that it wants with them.

“Few bankruptcy courts have addressed the issue of ownership of social media accounts, and those courts that have were focused on whether an individual or the individual’s employer owned an account used for business purposes—not whether the social media company had a superior right of ownership over either the individual or the corporation,” Musk’s lawyers write.

Read it.

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without turkey, long lines, and people browsing their phones for Black Friday deals in which the products had their prices raised by 80% and then cut by 80% before being stealthily replaced by Amazon with identical looking Chinese knockoffs.

And it also wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without the media launching another round of shots in its endless war on America with ‘explainers’ claiming that the Pilgrims were racist and that we should be ashamed of the holiday.

Raw Story, a Voice of the Woke Fringe.

With Donald Trump set to return to office, the Christian nationalist far right is already plotting how to take control of the schools, and indoctrinate children with “mindless obedience” for their cause, Amanda Marcotte wrote for Salon.

I guess woke people object to non-woke people doing what woke people routinely do.

Read it.

A German man who described a judge as “obviously mentally disturbed” — after the judge issued a light sentence to a Syrian who raped a 15-year-old girl — was slapped with a €5,000 fine for “insulting” the judge. This fine given to Paul S., whose name has been changed to protect his identity, was fine almost double the fine given to the Syrian rapist. The Syrian not only did not have to serve prison time but was even complimented during his trial by the district judge for his integration efforts.

Daily Signal.

“The Census Bureau’s review of the 2020 Census revealed substantial miscounts and discrepancies tending to benefit Democrat-run states,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement to The Daily Signal. “Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of these massive errors to ensure they are not repeated in the 2030 census.”

U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Santos, an appointee of President Joe Biden, is set to testify at the hearing.

“Additionally, current integrity issues with the Census must be addressed,” Comer said.

Read it.

Whereas we can understand how a political agenda can find its way into government institutions, how does this happen in the private sector?

What motivated these corporations that operate in a free marketplace and are owned and controlled by private stockholders to incorporate a political agenda into their business and operating practices, and what is motivating them now to back off these programs?

Has management of these corporations changed their minds regarding the business efficacy of these programs? Or did they put them in place initially to curry favor with a political regime once in power and now they are backing off to curry favor with a new regime?

Let’s recall, again, how profoundly our culture has changed.

ADP.

On November 15, 2024, a Texas federal court struck down a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule that raised the minimum salary required to be paid to most employees classified as exempt from overtime and minimum wage requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court’s order invalidates the rule nationwide effective immediately.

…

On April 23, 2024, the DOL released a final rule that would have raised the minimum salary required to be paid to most employees classified as exempt from the FLSA overtime and minimum wage requirements (the salary level test). The final rule specifically impacted those employees classified as exempt under the executive, administrative and professional employee exemptions.

The final rule raised the minimum salary in two phases. First, the final rule raised the salary amount from $684 per week ($35,568 annually) to $844 per week ($43,888 annually) effective on July 1, 2024. A second increase would have raised the salary amount to $1,128 per week ($58,656 annually) on January 1, 2025.

The final rule also increased the salary amount for certain highly compensated employees (HCEs) who are paid a salary, earn above a higher total annual compensation level, and satisfy a minimal duties test. Employees meeting the requirements of this alternative HCE test, are also exempt from the FLSA overtime and minimum wage requirements. The final rule increased the amount required to be paid to HCEs from $107,432 annually (including at least $684 per week paid on a salary or fee basis) to $132,964 annually (including at least $844 per week paid on a salary or fee basis) effective on July 1, 2024. A second increase would have raised the amount to $151,164 (including at least $1,128 per week paid on a salary or fee basis) on January 1, 2025.

Finally, the rule would have provided for an automatic update to the minimum salary and HCE amounts every three years.

UPDATE: Small business owners breathe easier over labor costs after decision to strike down overtime rule (Associated Press)

UPDATE: Overtime Rule Blocked by Court, Salary Level Takes Big Drop to $35K (HRMorning)

UPDATE: What employers should know now that the 2024 overtime rule is vacated (HRDive)

Marginal Revolution.

It’s been said that the radical left often ends up duplicating the policies of the radical right, just under different names and justifications, e.g. separate but equal, scientific thinking is “white” thinking and so forth. Here’s another example from Salim Furth: the re-creation of redlining. Redlining was the practice of making it more difficult to access financial products such as mortgages by grading some neighborhoods as “hazardous” for investment. Either by design or result, redlining was often associated with minority populations.

Salim shows that Massachusetts has created a modern redlining system.

ZMan can only shake his head.

It appears the plan is to fill the time between now and when Donald Trump regains the White House with stories about starting a nuclear war with Russia. First, we got the NATO missiles strikes on Russia, then it was the Russian use of a mystery weapon that should terrify everyone. Instead, the response from NATO is a series of stories about doing even dumber things than the missile strikes. It is as if Western leaders are in a contest to see who can think of the dumbest idea possible.

So far this week we have stories leaking out from Europe that the Brits and French are talking about sending an “expeditionary force” to Ukraine. That was followed by comments from the head of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, suggesting NATO launch preemptive strikes on Russia. All of this is taking place in the looming shadow of a second Trump administration. The Europeans are carrying on as if Godzilla is approaching the continent.

Of course, all these ideas are being floated by people who would urinate themselves if faced with a physical confrontation. Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are ridiculous people who have landed in these positions due to the collapse of their respective political classes. The rest of the European political class is equally silly, but most lack the vanity of these two. Most are like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who seems to cherish being a middling mediocrity.

The American Mind.

It did not take long for the Left to demand a consolation prize for their failed leader Kamala Harris. The opening bid was replacing Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor with “Justice” Harris. What joy that would be. But it’s also mercifully implausible. Not only would the Wise Latinx Justice need to retire to make way for a proud black Brahmin, but Chuck Schumer would have to wrangle a one-vote majority that includes departing former Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. In his lame duck era, Schumer doesn’t really have the ability to rally this captious crowd behind any nominee. But for Harris? Please.

We must go back to the beginning of our quest: how to console the hapless Harris? She’ll have to do what she always does: fail upward. And there’s only one logical next step on that path: the governorship of California.

The ghastly Gavin Newsom is termed out in two years. Unless California Rs get their stuff together in a big way, he will inevitably be followed by another progressive D. And there is no bigger progressive D in Cali Town than Kamala D. Harris, D-San Francisco.

Washington Free Beacon.

Up to one million migrants are expected to have entered the United States under the controversial CPB One program by the time President Joe Biden leaves office, with the figure already nearing 900,000, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

CBP One allows migrants who want to claim asylum in the United States to apply for the program in their home country using a mobile phone application. Those migrants are then given court dates, which are often scheduled years later. The Biden administration broadly expanded the program last year under the belief that it would ease pressure on the southern border.

That decision prompted criticism from Republicans who said CBP One was nothing more than a way to facilitate illegal immigration and mask the true number of individuals entering the country. Migrants who enter the country via CBP One are not counted by law enforcement agencies as traditional border crossers.

Daily Signal.

In June, illegal alien Victor Martinez-Hernandez was charged with the murder of Rachel Morin, a mother of five in Maryland. Police in Oklahoma tracked the accused repeat offender down with a sample of his DNA recovered from a Los Angeles home invasion in which a 9-year-old girl and her mother were assaulted.

Police say Martinez-Hernandez came to the U.S. illegally to escape prosecution for at least one other murder in his native El Salvador in December 2022.

“That should never have been allowed to happen,” said Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, referring to the numerous missed red flags the case presented. His office apprehended Hernandez in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

New York Post.

So now we know that the cop who fatally shot unarmed Donald Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, 36, during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was rewarded with a promotion and a $36,000 bonus.

There were no ill consequences for his rash actions that day. Instead, Capt. Michael Byrd, 56, was held up as a hero of democracy, despite the fact that he had a lengthy disciplinary record that includes leaving his loaded handgun in a public bathroom in the Capitol Visitor Center, “improperly” firing his gun at a car near his home while off duty and abusing a Maryland cop who tried to stop him entering a high school football field as a “racist a–hole,” again while off duty, according to a letter released last week by the GOP-led House Administration Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight.

Three entries in Byrd’s internal affairs record are missing, wrote subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) in a letter to Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger.

Read it.

Former military Commander-in-Chief and Ukraine’s current ambassador to the UK, Valery Zaluzhny, has warned that World War Three is already underway in a recent interview published by Politico.

“I believe that in 2024 we can absolutely believe that the Third World War has begun,” he said. He referenced the greater internationalization of the war with the presence of North Korean troops, and Iranian technology on the battlefield, as well as Chinese support to Moscow.

Read it.

As you might expect, they’re all Blue states.

The Foundry.

People eagerly give money to rich environmental groups. The Natural Resources Defense Council has $463 million in assets.

The NRDC claims it uses law “to confront the climate crisis.”

What it really does is pay lawyers to torture people who try to do useful things.

Read it.

As the Biden administration winds to a close, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is aggressively expanding its influence in South America. On Nov. 14, Xi Jinping and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte inaugurated a $3.6 billion port in Chancay, Peru, marking another major step in China’s economic foothold in the region.

Earlier this year, Boluarte traveled to Beijing to strengthen Sino–Peruvian ties, cementing Peru’s position as the second-largest recipient of Chinese foreign direct investment in Latin America. Notably, this includes China Southern Power Grid’s acquisition of Peru’s electricity distribution, placing 100 percent of this critical infrastructure under CCP control.

In stark contrast, the White House failed to engage Boluarte during her 2023 visit to Washington, missing a key opportunity to counter Beijing’s growing influence. The port inauguration coincided with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, where U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders from 21 member economies convened. The timing underscores a stark reality: while the United States watched from the sidelines, the CCP was actively drawing Latin America deeper into its orbit, delivering a clear and humiliating message to the United States about its waning influence in the region.

Washington Free Beacon.

When patients turn to professional societies like the AMA or the American College of Physicians or the American Association of Pediatrics for vital health information, one might expect that the information is based on publications in prestigious medical journals of carefully designed and meticulously interpreted studies. Dr. Marty Makary, in his book Blind Spots, shows how wrong these assumptions can be.

Makary is a frequent commentator on health-related topics. He is a surgeon and surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Blind Spots consists of several examples where the medical establishment has perpetuated a myth often based on a single academic’s opinion that became ingrained in the culture as “truth” despite the flimsiest of evidence. Using examples like avoiding exposure to peanuts in infants, producing an epidemic of peanut allergy, or denying the benefits of hormone replacement therapy in perimenopausal women, resulting in premature deaths and suboptimal health outcomes, Makary proves his case against groupthink in medicine. He goes on to rail against the overuse of antibiotics because of their potential for altering the microbial composition in the GI tract. Recent research shows that this effect of antibiotics may contribute to serious complications, including risks for cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Newsbusters.

The progressive perverts of the Left are banking on the idea they can claim the minds of our youth while they’re most impressionable.

What do you remember learning when you were in Kindergarten? Was it shapes? Arithmetic? Learning how to read or spell your name?

For New York’s public schools, creepy sex abnormalities are the most important thing your 5 year old must learn during this formative stage of development.

That’s why Hillside Elementary school is forcing their Kindergarteners to endure a new “gender curriculum” that “focuses on Hillside’s core value of respect and aims to center discussions on gender identity.”

Lesson: Don’t send your kids to a government school.

New York Times.

Jared Bernstein, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, was a leading architect of “Bidenomics.”

What would you think of a medical doctor whose wrong-headed ideas made people sick?

Calling in from Paris on Friday after serving as chair of an economic meeting of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation at the Château de la Muette, Mr. Bernstein, a longtime Biden confidant, spoke with The New York Times about how he is making sense of the moment.

Just roughing it.

Read it.

Probably the most useful thing he could do.

Read it.

George Orwell’s body lies a-spinnin’ in the grave….

Read it.

In a seven-page letter to the district council, the staff described an environment of increasing aggression, violence, and educational struggles that has left them overwhelmed and desperate for support.

Bringing the Turd World home.

Read it.

Time to leave.

Read it.

The Massachusetts Education Association apparently pushed three neighboring teachers unions to go on strike at the same time, sources close to the unions say.

Because of the strikes, schools in three districts in Massachusetts have been closed for over two weeks, leaving working parents in the lurch without child care and extending the school year into the summer break.

The Massachusetts Education Association, a branch of the far-left National Education Association, asked teachers union members in the North Shore area whether they’d be willing to strike for higher salaries and better benefits after the November 2024 elections, someone with knowledge of the meeting told The Daily Signal.

The Gloucester Teachers Association and the Beverly Teachers Association went on strike Nov. 8; the Marblehead Education Association followed suit Nov. 12.

Strikes are illegal for public employees in Massachusetts, so the teachers unions each have incurred fines north of $100,000.

Lesson: Don’t send your kid to a government school.

ZMan says the quiet part out loud.

As the democratic mindset has settled upon us, the truth has been pushed to the edges of the public domain. Back in the bad old days when certain parts of the population were discouraged from voting, politicians were discouraged from lying. As we have become obsessed with making sure every voice is heard, politicians are now rewarded for perfidy. America is on the verge of becoming a nation of liars, just as Cyrus described the Greeks.

This is by design. The argument for democracy and the “free market” is that the magic of the marketplace will solve the perfidy problem. The expert who is always wrong, due to incompetence or discerption, will be revealed and ignored. The seller who rips off his customers will be found out and before long word will get around that he is a bad guy, and no one should buy from him. We no longer need a moral code in a democratized society, because the market will do the policing.

It turns out that this was a lie. For example, the drug makers lie about all sorts of things and never face any consequences. The miracle weight loss drug Ozempic may cause your heart to explode, but at least you will look good in the casket. Time after time we see the drug companies roll out miracle cures that are worse than the thing they seek to cure, but they suffer no loss of reputation. The people who needed to redefine the word “vaccine” are no redefining the word “healthy.”

Read it.

This is what the Democrats have in mind for America.

Read it.

Now if you own stock in a company, and you read a report that the prospects for that company are not good, that the cash dividend that the company is expected to pay to stockholders is in jeopardy, you can get out. You can sell the stock and invest somewhere else.

Per the Social Security Administration, there are 184 million Americans now working and paying Social Security taxes. Per the above notice from the Social Security Trustees, all those 184 million ages 57 and below will get only 79% of their entitled benefits at retirement (assuming they choose to start collecting benefits at age 67).

Does any one of the 184 million have an option to say, “No, thanks, I don’t want to be part of this,” and get out? Certainly not. The government forces you to participate, allegedly for your own good. They decide; you obey. It’s a reminder of what President Ronald Reagan called “the most terrifying words in the English language: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and always has been.

Read it.

The issues arising from thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into Chicago from around the world have united many in the city’s black and Hispanic communities, who blame the government for the resultant social problems, including crime.

Local citizens say that their neighborhoods are less safe, their schools are overcrowded, already scarce jobs are now even harder to come by, and the distribution of municipal resources favors illegal immigrants.

“My beef is with the government, not with the migrants,” said Hector, a Hispanic pastor from Brighton Park on the city’s south side.

“There are a lot of injustices. We do not see equality. The migrants are given everything. The money is coming from our pockets.”

Watch it.

How did college go from being a guaranteed ticket to the American dream to leaving graduates ghosted for minimum wage jobs?

Read it.

Last November, University of Minnesota vice provost Harvey Charles traveled to Guangdong, China, to tour Sun Yat-sen University, the Chinese Communist Party-controlled college known for its top business school. It marked the first time a University of Minnesota delegation had visited the school since COVID, though Charles made clear that any geopolitical tensions stemming from the pandemic did not weaken his relationship with his Chinese counterparts.

“We were received warmly,” he said, “and their desire to continue collaborating with us was as enthusiastic, if not more so, than prior to the pandemic.”

Read it.

Reducing body weight to improve metabolic health and related comorbidities is a primary goal in treating obesity. However, maintaining weight loss is a considerable challenge, especially as the body seems to retain an obesogenic memory that defends against body weight changes. Overcoming this barrier for long-term treatment success is difficult because the molecular mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon remain largely unknown. Here, by using single-nucleus RNA sequencing, we show that both human and mouse adipose tissues retain cellular transcriptional changes after appreciable weight loss. Furthermore, we find persistent obesity-induced alterations in the epigenome of mouse adipocytes that negatively affect their function and response to metabolic stimuli. Mice carrying this obesogenic memory show accelerated rebound weight gain, and the epigenetic memory can explain future transcriptional deregulation in adipocytes in response to further high-fat diet feeding. In summary, our findings indicate the existence of an obesogenic memory, largely on the basis of stable epigenetic changes, in mouse adipocytes and probably other cell types. These changes seem to prime cells for pathological responses in an obesogenic environment, contributing to the problematic ‘yo-yo’ effect often seen with dieting. Targeting these changes in the future could improve long-term weight management and health outcomes.

Read it.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler, a noted Jewish human-rights advocate who has strongly criticized the Middle Eastern nation’s regime.

The Globe and Mail, quoting an unnamed source Tuesday, reported that the RCMP informed Cotler on Oct. 26 that he was under the threat of assassination within 48 hours by agents of Iran.

Law enforcement knew about two suspects, but it is not known if they were arrested or if they left the country, the source said.

Imagine how peaceful the world would be if the Religion of Peace didn’t exist.

Nomad Capitalist. “Go Where You’re Treated Best.”

Read it.

A useful rhetorical power move in any conversation about the future is to nod sagely and say, “Well, of course, Huxley’s vision was more accurate than Orwell’s”. Not only does this tell your companions that you have read at least one book which does not feature regularly on the GCSE English syllabus, but the “hedonist nihilism” (in Christopher Hitchen’s words) of Brave New World permits plenty of opportunities for sneering at the less sophisticated with their diet of fast food and reality television.

But books from the past do not need explicitly to aim to describe the future to tell us something about the present. History may not repeat, but it does rhyme. What was relevant in decades past may still be relevant today. And so, allow me to offer an uber-power move for future dinner parties, “Neither Orwell in 1984 nor Huxley were particularly accurate, but Animal Farm was pretty bang on.”

Read it.

In other words, perfect little Democrats.

Thousands of American kids are being sent to camps run by a Chinese influence and intelligence agency that promote Chinese Communist Party propaganda and even train some children to act like “Little Overseas Chinese Police,” a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

The Chinese government advertises the “Root-Seeking Summer Camp In China” as an opportunity for ethnically Chinese children living in the U.S. and other countries to immerse themselves in the Chinese language and culture. However, a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese government announcements and the program’s website discovered the camps are overseen by a Chinese influence and intelligence service.

The program not only exposes participants as young as 10 years old to CCP propaganda, but some even operate like boot camps run by officers from the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Public Security, Chinese government social media posts reveal.

Read it.

Read it.

California is where freedom goes to die. Its annual legislative orgies consist of politicians stealing billions of dollars for special interests and finding exotic new things to ban.

Read it.

A California health department poured millions of taxpayer dollars into anti-police groups over the last year for projects ranging from COVID-19 treatment to coaching teens on social justice activism, a Washington Free Beacon review of state grant spending found.

The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), which runs the Golden State’s Medicaid program for some 15 million residents, or a third of the population, doled out nearly $2.4 million to the anti-police groups. Recipients include the Anti Police-Terror Project, an Oakland-based police abolition group, and several organizations that joined its defund the police coalition, such as Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice.

DHCS, which has a $164 billion budget and a staff of nearly 4,700, promises “to use our state’s tax dollars as effectively as possible.” The grants, meanwhile, were awarded during the 2023-24 budget year, as California faced a $22.5 billion shortfall. A DHCS spokeswoman said the department wouldn’t be able to provide a response before “the middle of next week.”

Read it.

On November 16, 2023, just before 8:00 a.m., hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters formed a human chain across the San Francisco Bay Bridge, blocking all westbound traffic and trapping tens of thousands of vehicles in a five-mile backup.

Among those vehicles were three trucks associated with the University of California, San Francisco, health system. Each was transporting organs that were set to be transplanted later that day, and the couriers, who had budgeted just 30 minutes of travel time, had their arrival delayed by nearly four hours.

The holdup forced UCSF to postpone pressing operations and put organ recipients at greater risk. “Every minute of time on ice is hard for the organs,” Garrett Roll, a UCSF transplant surgeon, told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time, adding that organs function less well for patients the longer they remain in transit. Twenty-six demonstrators were ultimately charged, eight of them with felonies.

Read it..

The red-area members of President-elect Donald Trump’s America are increasingly disenfranchised by being the governance of Democrat strangleholds their deep-blue states like California, Illinois, and Oregon.

Read it.

Donald Trump’s transition team is making a list of senior military officers who oversaw the disastrous 2021 withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, and considering the possibility of court-martialing them for their failings, according to two sources cited by NBC News.

“They’re taking it very seriously,” said a source who claims to have knowledge of the initiative. The most notorious incident of the chaotic withdrawal was the Aug. 26, 2021 suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, just outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Thirteen US service members and more than 170 Afghan civilians were killed. In the following days, a US airstrike intended to kill the leader of the Islamic State instead killed 10 innocents. The rapid collapse of the US-sponsored Afghanistan government allowed enormous quantities of US weapons to fall into the hands of the Taliban.

Read it.

A year ago this month, I was able to rid my left-wing college of liberal gender ideology. In January, President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party have a historic opportunity to do the same for the entire nation.

Final victory against the woke mind virus is possible. I know, because I did it myself at just 19 years old.

The Register.

Google has decided the European Union’s Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising will be so hard to comply with it’s better off not trying.

The search and ads giant on Thursday announced that it will stop serving political advertising in the EU sometime before October 2025 – when the Regulation (TTPA) comes into force.

Annette Kroeber-Riel, the big G’s veep for government affairs and public policy in Europe, wrote that the TTPA “unfortunately introduces significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties for political advertisers and platforms.”

“For example, the TTPA defines political advertising so broadly that it could cover ads related to an extremely wide range of issues that would be difficult to reliably identify at scale,” she wrote. Another concern is the “lack of reliable local election data permitting consistent and accurate identification of all ads related to any local, regional or national election across any of 27 EU Member States.”

Read it.

Adolph would be so proud.

Thank God for the First Amendment.

Wall Street Journal.

From the dense jungle connecting Panama and Colombia to the banks of the Rio Grande, human smugglers are spreading a message to U.S.-bound migrants: Hurry up and sneak in before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Trump’s second term is creating an incentive for migrants to try to reach U.S. soil before the Jan. 20 inauguration, because many anticipate the president-elect will dismantle legal pathways to entry. Those paths include a U.S. government app that allows people to apply for U.S. asylum while in Mexico and then cross legally when they have an appointment—a system created last year that some migrants think will be upended by Trump.

Beatriz Fuentes, who manages the Casa Fuente shelter for women and children in Mexico City, said her shelter began emptying out even before the election. “They were told to hurry up in case of a possible change,” she said.

Read it.

The number has grown each year, and represents 6 to 7 percent of ICE detainers issued in those years. Each declined detainer represednts a deportable criminal alien who was released back into the community and given the opportunity to prey on more victims. The number reported by ICE include detainers declined by the law enforcement agency with custody of the alien, cases in which the local law enforcement agency provided insufficient notice to ICE to arrive before the alien’s release, and early releases of aliens despite a detainer.

Read it.

In the history of the social sciences, no other field of study has attracted so great a level of hostility as the science of economics. Since the inception of the science, the onslaught against it has been on the rise, extending across individuals and groups. And the outlook for a favorable reception of the science is bleak, given that a significant number of people are incapable of following through the extended chains of reasoning required for comprehending economic arguments.

Economics takes ends and goals of action as a given and—in matters of value judgments—it assumes neutrality (i.e., non-normativity), which is characteristic of a science. However, questions of suitability of means and various policies adopted to attain chosen ends are not beyond the scope of economic analysis.

David Brooks.

i’ve spent much of my adult life attending or teaching at elite universities. They are impressive institutions filled with impressive people. But they remain stuck in the apparatus that Conant and his peers put in place before 1950. In fact, all of us are trapped in this vast sorting system. Parents can’t unilaterally disarm, lest their children get surpassed by the children of the tiger mom down the street. Teachers can’t teach what they love, because the system is built around teaching to standardized tests. Students can’t focus on the academic subjects they’re passionate about, because the gods of the grade point average demand that they get straight A’s. Even being a well-rounded kid with multiple interests can be self-defeating, because admissions officers are seeking the proverbial “spiky” kids—the ones who stand out for having cultivated some highly distinct skill or identity. All of this militates against a childhood full of curiosity and exploration.

Most admissions officers at elite universities genuinely want to see each candidate as a whole person. They genuinely want to build a campus with a diverse community and a strong learning environment. But they, like the rest of us, are enmeshed in the mechanism that segregates not by what we personally admire, but by what the system, typified by the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, demands. (In one survey, 87 percent of admissions officers and high-school college counselors said the U.S. News rankings force schools to take measures that are “counterproductive” to their educational mission.)

…

The whole meritocracy is a system of segregation. Segregate your family into a fancy school district. If you’re a valedictorian in Ohio, don’t go to Ohio State; go to one of the coastal elite schools where all the smart rich kids are.

The American Mind.

With his historic re-election to the presidency, it would seem that Donald Trump’s legal problems are over. Trump, as practically everybody knows, has been the target over the last two years of numerous federal, state, and local prosecutions. Now that Trump will be returning to the nation’s highest office, these cases will be put indefinitely on hold or dropped altogether.

But if Trump’s problems in this respect are over, America’s are not. These cases present a problem for the nation because of the popular perception that they were merely a form of political “lawfare” brought to damage Trump, impair his candidacy, and prevent his return to power. Polls have shown that substantial numbers of Americans view these cases as politically motivated. Indeed, in what may come as a galling surprise to Trump’s political enemies, exit polls indicate that he won a majority of the votes of those Americans who believe democracy is under threat. This result surely reflects these voters’ sense that the various prosecutions of Trump were really an attempt to undermine democratic self-government by depriving the people of a free choice in the presidential contest.