Read it.

I’ve always thought that the best deterrent to vehicle theft is a radio-controlled bomb. It’s very easy to rig a burner cellphone to act as a trigger.

But that’s me.

Read it.

Members of Virginia’s disability community are slamming Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe after he ditched a candidate forum hosted by a disabilities advocacy group to attend a swanky Las Vegas fundraiser.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it.

The United States has been a longtime member of Interpol, which has traditionally been led by democracies like France and Britain. When functioning properly, Interpol makes it less likely that murderers, human traffickers, and other criminals can escape their home nation’s criminal justice system. When it is abused, however, it can allow authoritarian regimes to harass political dissidents or to legitimize the expropriation of legitimate businesses.

Reinhard Heydrich was the head of Interpol in the 1930s.

Read it.

Ummmm……. Because life is better here than there? Despite systemic racism, People of Color being lynched left and right, and men in dresses being ‘misgenered’?

Joseph Bernstein in Harper’s tries to push an increasingly shabby narrative.

In the beginning, there were ABC, NBC, and CBS, and they were good. Midcentury American man could come home after eight hours of work and turn on his television and know where he stood in relation to his wife, and his children, and his neighbors, and his town, and his country, and his world. And that was good. Or he could open the local paper in the morning in the ritual fashion, taking his civic communion with his coffee, and know that identical scenes were unfolding in households across the country.

Over frequencies our American never tuned in to, red-baiting, ultra-right-wing radio preachers hyperventilated to millions. In magazines and books he didn’t read, elites fretted at great length about the dislocating effects of television. And for people who didn’t look like him, the media had hardly anything to say at all. But our man lived in an Eden, not because it was unspoiled, but because he hadn’t considered any other state of affairs. For him, information was in its right—that is to say, unquestioned—place. And that was good, too.

And then things went to Hell because the Establishment gatekeepers lost control of the gates. Pity Party!

Severian regresses a little.

The thing you’ll notice right away if you read them is how utterly tedious life was pre-electricity. Actually, no, tedious is the wrong word, since in our usage it implies “mindless” and that’s exactly the opposite of Victorian and especially Tudor life. A much better word is “laborious,” maybe even just “hard.” Life was hard back then. Even the simplest tasks took hours, because everything had to be done by hand. You had a few simple machines, of course — simple in the mechanical sense, though nearly every page brings its “gosh, I never would’ve thought of that!” surprise — but mostly it’s muscle power. If you’re lucky, a horse’s or a donkey’s muscles do some of the heaviest work, but mostly it’s straight-up human effort.

And dirty. And smelly. And just plain ugly.

Read it.

Apple Card will start to change by 2027. Mastercard announced it’s “swiping left” on magnetic stripes after decades of supporting this technology. “The shift away from the magnetic stripe points to both consumers changing habits for payments and the development of newer technologies,” says the company in a blog post.

ZMan peers through a glass, darkly.

Back during the Cold War, there were people whose job was to figure out what was happening inside the Soviet government. Many were like F.B.I. profilers, in that they were hyped as experts, but just made up stuff to play the role. Others actually tried to read party media to figure out what was happening. These Kremlinologists were well-versed in the “Aesopian language” popular with both dissidents and party officials, so they could connect external clues to internal clues.

One of the many signs that America is authoritarian is that we have to use the same tactics to figure out what is happening with the ruling elite. The uniparty members are mostly just making noises to impress the faction leaders. They are the dancing boys of the American regime. Still, they give a sense of the mood within the factions. The media gives a sense of what is happening with party leadership, especially the semi-permanent elements within the security branches.

Read it.

After fires ripped through Washington State’s Olympic National Forest in 2018, firefighters found evidence of a tree heist gone wrong — sawed-off stumps of protected bigleaf maple trees.

They turned to tree DNA — a new area of forensic evidence — to connect the stumps with the missing tree and caught the poachers red-handed.

Well, brown-handed, anyway.

Read it.

Shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a ‘vaccine’ that doesn’t prevent someone from getting the disease and doesn’t prevent someone from spreading the disease. After COVID, how hard could it be?

Read it.

When President Barack Obama released five Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for an American deserter in 2014, he assured a wary public that the dangerous enemy combatants would be transferred to Qatar and kept from causing any trouble in Afghanistan.

In fact, they were left free to engineer Sunday’s sacking of Kabul.

Soon after gaining their freedom, some of the notorious Taliban Five pledged to return to fight Americans in Afghanistan and made contacts with active Taliban militants there. But the Obama-Biden administration turned a blind eye to the disturbing intelligence reports, and it wasn’t long before the freed detainees used Qatar as a base to form a regime in exile.

Eventually, they were recognized by Western diplomats as official representatives of the Taliban during recent “peace” talks.

Read it.

For more than a quarter-century, Toyota’s sturdiest pickups and SUVs have been the Taliban’s vehicles of choice. They’re rugged enough for Afghanistan’s terrain, and they have air-conditioning to beat the summer heat. Asim Elhag, an independent Sudanese researcher who studies conflict in Africa, has seen Toyota Land Cruisers retrofitted with anti-aircraft guns. As in troubled regions all over the world—Syria, Iraq, Chad, Mali—the Toyota was indispensable to the Taliban’s ambition to control a population scattered over difficult terrain.

Read it.

Leaving the Golden State? California’s 13.3% rate is the same on ordinary income and capital gain, and under a pending tax bill the top 13.3% rate could climb to 16.8%. Plus, California has even proposed a wealth tax. Even without proposed hikes, paying 13.3% in non-deductible state taxes (after the IRS $10,000 cap) is painful. You can leave for Nevada, Texas, Washington or other no-tax states, but if you aren’t careful, you could end up being asked to keep paying California taxes. In some cases, California can assess taxes no matter where you live. California’s tough Franchise Tax Board (FTB) monitors the line between residents and non-residents, and can probe how and when you left. The burden is on you to show you are not a Californian. If you are in California for more than nine months, you are presumed to be a resident, and more than six months usually means that too. Moving sounds easy, but if you aren’t careful how you do it, you could end up saying goodbye California high taxes, and hello residency audit. It pays to know what you are up against.

Read it.

A Swedish family went on a vacation trip to Afghanistan just before the fall of Kabul, and now they are stuck there.

Read it.

Betcha they require you to wear a mask.

Read it.

The scale of failure in Afghanistan is hard to overstate. Our “intelligence” services (who deserve to be referred to in scare quotes until they display some actual intelligence some day) were incapable of picking up any signs that the Taliban were arming and organizing on a large scale for their swift takeover of the entire country, or if they did gather any on-the-ground signals, their interpretive process (a polite term for “groupthink”) prevented them from drawing accurate and meaningful conclusions. This is the opposite of intelligence: it is the product of an establishment that simply lacks the capacity to think at all.

Our ‘intelligence’ agencies aren’t. That’s the bottom line. Everybody in the top echelons of the CIA, NSA, DIA, etc., ought to immediately lose their jobs.

Read it.

Oh, like  that will ever happen.

China Expert: Xi Knew From Beginning COVID Was Highly Contagious

Fauci: ‘Put Aside’ Concerns of Personal Liberties to Fight COVID-19

Eviction Moratorium: A Postmortem On Private Property

The Texas Covid crisis worsens – why is the governor resisting masks? (The Guardian) He’s not ‘resisting masks’ – he’s ‘resisting mandating masks’, which is a different thing entirely.

The scientific case against masks (Washington Times)

The blunt truth about what comes next with Covid-19 (CNN) As if CNN ever told the truth.

Shocking & Dehumanizing Discrimination Against The Unvaxx’d Is About To Make Life Very Difficult Eh. The sort of people who are refusing to get the vaccine are used to being oppressed.

The FDA and CDC Standards on the J&J Vaccine and the Immunocompromised are Unintelligible

Experts Say Herd Immunity Against COVID May Never Be Achieved

Texas Supreme Court Sides With Gov. Abbott, Temporarily Bans Mask Mandates

Masks and Police on 1st Day of School in Colorado County

Cuomo Mandates COVID Vaccine for NY Healthcare Workers  I guess he wants to piss everyone off on his way out.’

In Texas, Local School Officials Stick With Mask Mandate, Despite Court Setback

Fauci Downplays New COVID-19 Vaccine Study

National Park Service Makes Masks Mandatory

Jimmy Fallon Audience Weirdly Celebrates Demographic Decline Of White People

Biden Administration Approves Record Increase in Food Stamps

The Lucrative Business of Woke Education

Taxing the Rich Is Failing to Ease the Global Housing Crunch  It’s working very well in pissing off the rich, however.

US Senate bill would legally require Apple to build a backdoor into iPhones

Schumer Urges Crackdown on Fake Vaccination Cards  Obviously more important than the fentanyl crisis or the porous border.

Bond Money to Build Water Reservoirs Sits Idle in California

Facebook bans publication of original historical documents

Company Behind Wall Streets’ Fearless Girl Statue Leaving NYC Offices

Orwellian! DHS May Tap Private Companies to Spy on Americans, Concerns on Rise: Report

CNN Sweats for Newsom: ‘Fighting For Every Vote’ Against ‘Vastly Out-Of-Step’ Elder

China Mocks “Embarrassed, Arrogant” US Forces While Praising “Friendly” Relations With Taliban

The Rehab Begins: Sick CNN Host Spins Biden’s Chaos in Afghanistan as ‘Brave’

Deranged MSNBC: ‘95%’ of Americans Agree With Biden

Vacuous Vaccine Hype: White House Press Secretary Claims The Shots Have Saved “Tens Of Millions Of People’s Lives”  Take your shoes off, Jen.

CNN Does It Again: Says ‘Death To America’-Chanting Taliban Warriors “Seem Friendly”

Former Bears QB Loses Uber Eats Commercial After Dissing School Mask Mandates

Guardian Demands a 100x Increase in British Climate Investment

Gulf Stream is nearing a Critical point of Collapse

Worst Frosts Hit Brazil Adjusted Away!

The Sun, Not CO2, to Blame for Global Warming: Study

Another Round Of Anti-Science From The IPCC

Hungry, Hungry Microbes in Tree Bark Gobble Up Methane

Matt Taibbi.

Adrian Bonenberger, author of “Afghan Post” and veteran of two tours, reflects on the withdrawal announcement, the MRAP boondoggle, and reporting fraud.

Read it.

“The way the US runs away and leaves a country to the atrocities of terror groups is a bad sign that will have major effects on some countries,” said an Israeli defense source.

Read it.

Hey, tenure doesn’t grow on trees.

“Is there any news that doesn’t involve China being bad?” — Scott Adams

Read it.

The U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan has quickly become the most embarrassing national security debacle since the Vietnam War. Perhaps more importantly, however, the debacle is one of the most inclusive of its kind in American history.

The Biden administration’s Afghanistan policy may have failed in the conventional sense, but it was remarkably successful in terms of the gender and racial diversity of the individuals responsible for that failure. Many will die as a result, but blame for their deaths will be shared among an impressive array of female and BIPOC officials. All in all, this was a triumph of American exceptionalism.

Our diversity is our enemies’ strength.

Severian speaks truth to cower.

For as dumb as the average voter is — and you certainly don’t have to tell me — about specific stuff, the general questions of public policy aren’t that hard. The public, if consulted, gets them “right” about as often as the refs get the calls right, if only because, like the majority of balls and strikes etc., most times the “right” call is pretty obvious. Just to take one recent example, “our” ingnominious (a word this iteration of WordPress insists is a typo, how ya like that?) retreat from Afghanistan. Had the public been consulted at any point after the first, whack-’em-with-SF stage, none of the subsequent bullshit would’ve happened.

Is “nation-building” a viable thing in one of the world’s most backward places? Of course not. Any idiot can see that. Put the facts fairly to The People, let them vote on it, and the war is over by spring 2004.

The key concept with ‘democracy’ is not that The Peepul will get it right all of the time — they won’t, you know that and I know that — but that they get to decide, be they right or wrong, it’s their decision to make.

Read it.

For 20 years America built a Potemkin village and called it Afghanistan. Now this cardboard democracy has been trampled down in a matter of days by the Taliban. The speed and comprehensiveness of the rout cannot be explained by Joe Biden’s blunders. The war has drawn to a humiliating end not because of a weak president’s missteps in the final weeks but because the entire project was misconceived. Afghanistan was not ready for democracy and trillions of dollars in American aid could not even begin to change that fact.

And that about sums it up.

Read it.

We have the technology.

Read it.

It is probably too much to expect that there will be accountability for the debacle in Afghanistan–we have a Democratic president, after all. But we can still hope.

Climate Change Can Be Stopped, Scientists Say. Computer Models Show How (NPR)

The Guardian Accuses the Biden Administration of Climate Denial

NASA at Your Table: Where Food Meets Methane

Meet the “Genius” Government Climate Advisor

Taliban Seen Flying Captured Military Helicopters Over Afghanistan

Only Kabul Left Standing as Jalalabad Falls

Taliban entering Kabul ‘from all sides’

US helicopters evacuate embassy as the Taliban advances on Kabul

Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster

Afghanistan Meant Nothing: A Veteran Reflects on 20 Wasted Years

Afghan President Ghani Flees Country As Taliban Enter Kabul

Pro-Amnesty Groups Supplied These 5 Players on Biden’s Immigration Team

Slow Joe: Let the Parodies Begin

Official says Taliban to declare Islamic Emirate

Tapper DESTROYS Sec. Blinken on Biden’s ‘Ineptly Planned’ Afghan Withdrawal

Trump Calls on Biden to Resign

‘This is starting to look really ominous in the South,’ expert says, as US is among nations with highest rate of new Covid-19 cases (CNN)

‘Breaking society apart’: Unvaccinated people are angry as they face more Covid restrictions (CNBC)

Another Texas judge temporarily blocks Gov. Abbott’s order banning local governments from mandating masks

Get the vaccine or get fired? In Shenandoah Valley, some nurses choose termination. (Washington Post)

NY Times Denies Biology, Math in Crazy Covid Reporting: ‘Pregnant People’

The Great Parent Revolt

Vexed by the Un-Vaxxed

New treatment may prevent heart damage from COVID-19

Jen Rubin Spreads Completely Screwed-Up COVID Math by Texas Tribune

CNN Praises Taliban For Wearing Masks During Attack  Babylon Bee.

Study Links Excess COVID-19 Cases And Deaths To Wildfire Smoke

Do Masks Work? A Review Of The Evidence

‘Mostly Peaceful’ Stabbing: Antifa Attacks Demonstration Against Vaccine Mandate

Man Stabbed, Reporter Attacked at Anti-Vax Mandate Protest in LA

Infectious Disease Expert: Delta Variant Makes Outdoor Gatherings More Risky  Imagine that.

Study Finds Children Born During Lockdown Have Lost IQ Points, Impaired Cognitive Functioning  Note: not “COVID” but “lockdown”. (Not mentioned: How you test the IQ of a young child.)

Inexpensive anti-depressant could be best COVID treatment yet, Canadian-led trial finds

The Waste Product That Could Help Mitigate Climate Change – Locking Carbon in the Soil “For Hundreds to Thousands of Years”  Charcoal is also an excellent fuel.

Rhode Island Teachers’ Union Sues Mother For Daring To Ask To See Her Kindergartener’s Curriculum

Hong Kong Democracy Group Behind Massive Protests Disbands

Taliban Spokesman Has Active Twitter Account, Trump Still Suspended

MSNBC’s Velshi Crew Condemns GOP: Redistricting Meant to ‘Disappear’ Minorities

ABC Defends Afghan Disaster, NBC Disappointed It’ll ‘Haunt’ Biden’s Legacy

DHS Bulletin Says Opposition To COVID Mandates Is Potential “Domestic Terrorism Threat”

CIA mocked from all sides over new ‘woke’ recruitment video

Lindsey Graham Warns Trump That Jan. 6 Riot May Be His ‘Political Obituary’

This Pro-Trump Lawyer Was a Rising ‘Stop the Steal’ Star, His Firm Erased Him (Daily Beast)

Google Rewrote News Algorithm to Target Trump

Read it.

A group of culture-enriching “Albertans” is giving the grooming gangs of Rotherham and Oxford a run for their money. Police in Calgary are shocked — shocked! — to find a practicing physician among the respectable citizens who were pimping out little girls to customers at multiple locations in Alberta.

Of the eight people in custody, two are juveniles. The case has a Mohammed Coefficient of at least 50%, which is unusually high for that large a group.

The mayor of Lethbridge says he is “very disappointed” with the misguided perpetrators. I’m sure his disappointment will prompt them to repent their misdeeds and help with their rehabilitation. Perhaps they will one day become model citizens of Modern Multicultural Alberta.

Severian has something to say.

In another, more accurate way, though, it’s really the American people who are the big winners. Note the lack of quotation marks around the proper noun, because I really do mean Americans — we few, we happy few, who enjoy things like “indoor plumbing” and “knowing how to read” and “living past 35.” For those who were worried that the Regular Army was going to be deployed on American streets in the near future, I think it’s time to take it down a notch. I think the big takeaway from Uncle Sam’s Afghan Adventure is that SEAL Team 6 can’t be everywhere. Eventually they have to turn it over to the Fightin’ Hairdressers of the 4077th Trannie Battalion…

Consider, too, that when it comes to Dolchstossen (or whatever the plural is in German), this one’s a doozy. No doubt The Media have had their “how this is all Trump’s fault” stories queued up and ready to go for a week or two now; the only mystery is how they’ll manage to blame The Unvaccinated and Climate Change, too (though they most assuredly will). But the actual fighting troops know better…

Read it.

Afghanistan’s military was molded to match American operations and collapsed without U.S. air support and intelligence

Read it.

In the corner of an Ohio field, a laser-armed robot inches through a sea of onions, zapping weeds as it goes.

This field doesn’t belong to a dystopian future but to Shay Myers, a third-generation farmer whose TikTok posts about farming life often go viral.

He began using two robots last year to weed his 12-hectare (30-acre) crop. The robots – which are nearly three metres long, weigh 4,300kg (9,500lb), and resemble a small car – clamber slowly across a field, scanning beneath them for weeds which they then target with laser bursts.

Read it.

The easiest way to identify a dyed-in-the-wool authoritarian is to mention Fox News on social media. It’s like reciting an ancient Gaelic incantation that makes the banshees rise from the swamp and scream their lamentations at the top of their voices. “Baaaaaan themmmmmm!” “The FCC should revoooooooke their license!” “Ruuuuuuuuupert!” And then they all get naked, hold hands around the sacrificial altar and say the magic words: Fairness Doctrine!

Now, these people only know two things about the Doctrine. One, it had the word “Fairness” in the title so it had to be, you know, “fair.” And two, Ronald Reagan was President when it was ditched and he was evil so it had to be good.

In their minds, the FCC was watching every television show and listening to every radio broadcast to make sure that everything was “fair” and that all points of view were being presented on every issue. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Read it.

Antifa, the urban terrorists, brutally assaulted Christians who were praying in a Portland park Saturday and the media have almost totally ignored it. Dressed in black, with face coverings, the left-wing nihilists destroyed the sound system and assaulted the Evangelicals with pepper spray and projectiles.

Andy Ngo, the reporter who has covered Antifa better than anyone—and has been beaten up for doing so—recorded this savage event. Flash bombs were thrown at kids as young as four months old. “Where is your god now?” asked an Antifa thug.

The Problem With Climate-Change Politics

Squaring The Circle: The UN’s Climate “Code Red” Versus The Real World

Eastern Hemlocks Face Extinction. A Tiny Fly Could Save Them  Or maybe not.

Independent probe into Instagram shut down

Obama Flack on MSNBC: Afghanistan ‘Hasn’t Quite Worked Out As We Thought’  No shit.

Hobby Lobby Loses Transgender Bathroom Access Case in Illinois

America is full of ‘democracy deserts’. Wisconsin rivals Congo on some metrics (The Guardian) Full of black people behaving badly?

The problem isn’t ‘inflation’. It’s that most Americans aren’t paid enough (The Guardian) And the Guardian, of course, knows what everyone ought to be paid.

Gender Reassignment Surgery Is Child Abuse, Says Texas Commissioner

Did Rep. Ilhan Omar Marry Her Gay Brother?

Study Finds Most Parents OK With Government Brainwashing Their Children If It Means Free Babysitting  Babylon Bee.

Matthew Dowd Wails GOP Trying to Be ‘Tyranny of the Minority’

Washington Post Applauds End to ‘Reality Villain’ McCain’s Reign on ‘View’

An Overlooked Reason Why, Generation After Generation, Blacks Don’t Make Much Progress

Whites Made Up 85% of US Soldiers Who Died in Afghanistan

SECRET Tape Reveals How Sharon Osbourne’s CBS Tenure Was Ruined for ‘Anti-Racism’

Report: Biden WH Discussed Interstate Vaccine Passport

Sen. Joni Ernst, first female combat vet in Senate, laments Afghan collapse: ‘It is all on President Biden’

Afghanistan Spiraling Into Failed State Where al Qaeda Will Thrive, UK Says

Taliban Afghanistan Aggression Threatens Biden’s ‘America Is Back’ Claim

Afghanistan: Even Scarborough Scoffs At Biden Spokesman’s ‘No Abandonment’ Claim

Judge Orders Biden to Revive Trump’s Remain-in-Mexico Asylum Policy