SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

BANNON OUT OF BREITBART – FROM FOX:   Stephen Bannon has stepped down as executive chairman of the pro-Trump, populist website Breitbart News, less than a week after a dramatic falling out with President Trump.  Breitbart announced the news Tuesday afternoon on its website, saying it would work together with Bannon on “a smooth and orderly transition.”  “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform,” Bannon said in a statement on the site.  “Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish,” Breitbart CEO Larry Solov said.  Yikes.  I guess the next step for Steve is the Witness Protection Program.

INCREDIBLE ACADEMIC BREAKTHROUGH – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   You’d expect the typical progressive to say that calling someone lazy is an ableist slur.  If you’re the department chair of higher education at the University of Denver, on the other hand, being called lazy is a badge of honor.  Prof. Ryan Evely Gildersleeve, whose background is “primarily out-of-classroom learning contexts with non-dominant youth,” argues today in the research journal Qualitative Inquiry that “lazy practices can become useful for postqualitative inquiry that seeks to disrupt normative explanations of the world.”  In fact, laziness is “a political stance”:  "As political action, laziness, then provides postqualitative inquiry with an additional tool for contributing to social justice via social research. Laziness combats the neoliberal condition in which academic research is situated and might serve as a virtue of postqualitative inquiry."  No question about it.  Absolutely no question.  I'm sold.  Just make sure to include the power steering.

OPRAH? – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  At least one conservative think tank is taking the possibility of an Oprah Winfrey presidency seriously. Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James just invited Oprah to join her for “substantive policy discussions and debates.”  Before the presidency of Donald Trump, that would probably seem more like a public relations gimmick than a legitimate offer. But in the era of celebrity politics, Oprah isn’t just an option — if she runs in 2020, she'd make a big splash, and even if she doesn't run, she has tremendous influence.  And while Oprah is clearly a liberal—she helped catapult Barack Obama to the White House in 2008—some conservatives see a real opportunity for bipartisan compromise.   What can one say?  If she runs, she'll probably choose a vice presidential candidate from a Super Bowl commercial.

January 9, 2018