FRIDAY short TAKES.

Ronald Reagan's nine scariest words made incarnate in Shanghai.  "No one in China actually believes that the government can or will help them."

The weekly refreshers of traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.  It's a long post, and a relief train might be run early next week on current trends.

1.  A lament for Scat Francisco.  "Our cities’ current terrible lawlessness is destroying/driving out not only businesses (big and small), but the public realm itself, so crucial to democratic life."  The extension to New York or Chicago or Minneapolis is straightforward.

2.  Biden did that!  "A government that has spent its entire term up until this point printing money shouldn’t be surprised by rampant inflation."

3.  Gooder and harder.  "Whether Hoyer, Clyburn, and the rest should all have retired long ago to pave the way for the next generation of leaders is, well, ultimately a question for the constituents who keep sending them back to Washington to decide."  You know what I think.

4.  Sixty years of deconstructing bourgeois norms gets you to a bad place.  "For that matter, the idea that someone might want to read the room before putting their politics on blast seems less like censorship than like good manners."

5.  It might be cathartic to confiscate a few Russians' yachts.  "Powers used against wealthy Russians now will be deployed in the years to come against people who cross the authorities and have fewer resources for defending themselves."  Sooner or later, though, you run out of Russian yachts.  "It's extremely hard for everyday people to navigate the labyrinthine process to get their money back without paying for an attorney, which in [Cristal] Starling's case would have probably cost enough to make a victory in court negligible."  Plus, what's the difference? "It's a cynical ploy more fit for a kleptocracy or the mafia than a government for the people."

6.  Levelling down.  "Cutting out algebra, and in doing so making calculus a much less pragmatically achievable goal, is a perfect scenario for leaving poorer kids behind!"  What do I keep telling you about no kids get ahead?

7.  The land-grants and mid-majors are in the same business as the Ivies.  Will they act like it?  "Today, the dispersal of talent has meant that great scholars can be found all across the country. As Steven Brint has shown, public flagships and other public research universities now produce the most patents and high-impact scholarly articles and books."

8.  "There's a crash here every week."

9.  Emergence for the win.  "Combating 'disinformation' is actually code for America’s elite recapturing the gate-keeping powers it lost during the advent of social media."

10.  Advantage, market tests.  "Politicians only have to face voters every two or four years. But businesses have to earn the confidence of customers, employees, and shareholders—with widely varying opinions—on an ongoing basis."

11.  The pretty pig problem.  "Donald Trump broke enough moderate brains to push Branden over the top. People are having their 'morning after' moment – like all such moments, a day late and a dollar short."

12.  Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment.  "The Senate, [Cub fan and ancient Tory George] Will argued, 'has become a purely performative stage where people strike poses, issue statements, and make gestures — but it’s not involved in serious government.'"  All of that done with the intention of seeking the presidency, which Mr Will would like to prohibit senators from seeking.

13.  The deprivation is the point.  "It’s probably a bad idea to let environmentalists do your energy planning. They actually prefer for you to be uncomfortable."

14.  Universities continue to fail at their mission.  "It’s stunning to me (and others) that [insiders are]  surprised that demonizing and creating a hostile learning environment for male students has…resulted in male students avoiding college altogether."

15.  Brandon at work.  "When an American president predicts a food shortage in what used to be the breadbasket of the world, then we see the wages of socialism in all their unapologetic cruelty."

16.  Focus on the school boards and the sheriffs, not the presidency.  "[B]y the time Inauguration Day rolls around, half the country is already heartily sick of the new guys and the media is openly wondering who'll be running four years later."  Dear reader, nobody is forcing you to watch the Sunday shows.

17.  Literacy tests might have merit.  "We should assume that when citizens are authorized to vote, they are responsible for what they mark on a ballot."  And get what they deserve, if it's Chicago, Minneapolis, or San Francisco.

18.  The Tragic Vision and the Fatal Conceit.  "That supposedly Smart People have Zero understanding of this reality is a shocking commentary on our 'progressive' age."

19.  Speaking of unserious voters,  "Of course the real takeaway from [TV psephologist Steve] Kornacki’s analysis is that the 19th Amendment should be repealed."  No, seriously.  "Does feminism make women unhappy? What about less marriageable?"

20.  Reality doesn't give a f**k about your pronouns.  Neither, apparently, do real men.  "[F]ew straight men are interested in having a physical relationship with a person who was born the same sex as them."

21.  Nor does reality give a f**k about your wishful thinking.  "Biden policies often demonstrate the unseriousness, incompetence, and partisanship of the governing class. Even as energy prices spike, for example, Democrats continue to indulge in their clean-energy fairy tales."

22.  As an exercise, identify as many ways as you can.  "It’s so much easier to serve evil when you think you’re doing good."

23.  See the racism hidden in the inclusion.  "Democrats are seen to be anti-meritocratic and opposed to standardized tests, test-in elite schools, and programs for the gifted and talented — areas where Asian children have excelled."  That's part of a long essay by one of the last people you'd expect to see in National Review, and it's well worth your attention, whether you want Democrats turfed out or not.

24.  The lie that is liberating tolerance.  "Why does silencing a political viewpoint protect democracy?"

25.  The first step in fixing higher education's failures is to acknowledge them.  "The liberal arts curriculum is designed to teach students to think critically. But if we treat ideas and academic work like therapy, we send a message that says just putting something out there is enough. Even if it’s not good, not insightful, not grounded in solid research, you will still get a participation trophy."