Court of Reversal: After five hours of hearing arguments and asking questions yesterday, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court appeared ready to rule that affirmative action — taking into account race and ethnicity for college admissions — is unconstitutional.

  The six conservative justices appeared to be skeptical about the value of “diversity” in a student body

  “I’ve heard the word diversity quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means,” said Justice Clarence Thomas, who is one of only three black justices in the history of the Supreme Court. “It seems to mean everything for everyone.”

  Justice Samuel Alito Jr. asked a similar question about the term “underrepresented minority.”

  The cases at hand are Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.

  Affirmative action is based upon the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, considered the court’s greatest ruling, that held unanimously that racial segregation and “separate but equal” is not equal and not constitutional. It’s commonly described as the court’s greatest decision.

  But as it did on the matter of abortion, the court has shown it’s willing to overturn long standing precedent. Separate but equal may not return, but considering race in school admissions might be thrown out by this court.

  Justice Neil Gorsuch observed that if preferences for legacies are ended — and that’s mostly white people, “We just would have a crummy squash team and no art museum. Then what?”  

Hammer Man: The man who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s  San Francisco home intended to break the House Speaker’s kneecaps, authorities say. Instead, the assailant encountered Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul, fracturing his skull. 

  Pelosi was able to call 911 from a bathroom and police entered the house just as the two men were struggling over a hammer. Pelosi was struck in the presence of the cops.

  David DePape, 42, is charged in federal court with attempting to kidnap Ms. Pelosi and assaulting the relative of a federal official. He had “a roll of tape, white rope, a second hammer, a pair of rubber and cloth gloves, and zip ties” according to the US attorney’s office for the Northern District of California. 

  DePape is also being charged in state court with attempted murder, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, and more. 

  Prosecutors say DePape was looking for Ms. Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, to question the speaker about political matters, according to the federal complaint. DePape told police officers that if Pelosi told the “truth,” he would let her go, but if she “lied,” he would break her kneecaps — forcing her to be wheeled into Congress as a lesson to other Democrats. 

  Various announcement say Paul Pelosi will recover, but he’s still in intensive care recovering from a broken skull.

The War Room: Eighty percent of the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv was without running water by the end of the day yesterday as Russia continued its attacks on civilian infrastructure. Residents were filling bottles from spigots at old stone water wells.

  Asked by a state television journalist whether Monday’s missile strikes were a response to the attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “This is, in part, the case, but this is not all that we could do.”

  Many Ukrainians are without power and heat as the cold weather rolls in and Vladimir Putin attempts to make the cities unlivable. The attacks only appear to be strengthening the resolve of Ukrainians at home and at the front, where the Army is now fighting ill-trained conscripts and battered veterans who only want to survive.

  Despite Russia backing out of the agreement to allow grain to be shipped out of Ukrainian ports, loaded ships have begun departing anyway. So far, as many as 15 grain ships have set to sea despite Russia saying they cannot guarantee their safety.

Chief Twit: Moving quickly to make Twitter profitable, Elon Musk is busy laying off employees, reorganizing, and planning to charge $20 a month for verified accounts of notable users. 

  Musk has brought in teams of technical experts and business advisers that employees are already calling “Elon’s goons.” The Washington Post reports that he and his team plan to lay off 25 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 person work force.

   He has already dismissed the entire board of directors.

   The new boss made profitability even harder to reach by saddling the company with $13 billion in debt out of the $44 billion purchase price at a cost of $1 billion  a year in interest.

The Ball Game: Game 3 of the World Series was postponed because of rain.

The Spin Rack: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro so far has not conceded or said anything about losing the presidential election. Protests have erupted over the election results. — The Justice Department says that the monitoring of ballot boxes by armed men is likely illegal. The feds joined a lawsuit by the league of Women Voters saying, “When private citizens form ‘ballot security forces’ and attempt to take over the State’s legitimate role of overseeing and policing elections, the risk of voter intimidation — and violating federal law — is significant.” — Oil companies have been reporting record profits from high prices at the pumps. President Biden yesterday accused them of “war profiteering” and threatened a windfall profits tax.

Below the Fold: Paul Pelosi had barely hit the floor in his San Francisco home before right wingers were launching lies and conspiracy theories about what happened in the botched attempt to attack Nancy Pelosi.

  Police said Paul Pelosi was in a pajama top and boxer shorts, spawning the theory that the encounter was really a meeting with a gay prostitute.

  Donald Trump Jr. posted a picture pair of his baggy white underpants and a hammer on twitter with the caption “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.”

   Have you ever noticed that Don Jr. has no chin?

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