THINGS ARE GOING SWIMMINGLY ON THE PUBLIC HEALTH FRONT: First U.S. polio case in years sparks alarms from New York to California.

The polio patient is a 20-year-old unvaccinated man who traveled to Hungary and Poland earlier this year and was hospitalized in June, the Washington Post reported, citing a public health official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The New York Times reported that the patient is a member of the Orthodox Jewish community.

Genetic analysis of a polio virus sample from the patient indicates that it was picked up from a person who had received the oral polio vaccine, which has not been used in the U.S. since 2000, health officials said.

The oral vaccine contains a weakened live polio virus.

The spread of “wild” virus to unvaccinated people was once considered a feature, rather than a bug, since even people who didn’t get the live-virus vaccine could be “vaccinated” by exposure to people who did. It was, however, controversial at the time.

Meanwhile, of course, the unsatisfactory Covid vaccine experience has probably reinforced vaccine skepticism in general.

FASTER, PLEASE: Researchers discover new approach to healing skin infections and wounds.

READER FAVORITE: Alpha Grillers Instant Read Meat Thermometer. #CommissionEarned

DOES ANYBODY EVEN CARE ANYMORE? FDA: 3 at-home COVID-19 tests needed to confirm negative result.

HOW IT STARTED: Starbucks barista arrested for spitting in police officers’ beverages.

How it’s going: Crime Driving Chain Businesses Out of Cities.

Starbucks has announced that it is closing many stores over crime concerns, often in cities led by progressive prosecutors. This development could be fodder for a joke about progressive hipsters whose voting inclinations wind up costing them their venti frappucinos. But these closures risk leaving citizens in the most troubled areas with ever-dwindling opportunities to buy basic necessities for their families.

Starbucks was an early and loud adopter of every progressive whim. The coffee chain demanded implicit-bias training for all employees. After police in Philadelphia removed two black men—who refused to buy anything—from a store at an employee’s request, Starbucks apologized and opened its stores to anyone and everyone.

But the rising tide of crime in progressive cities has proved too much even for the coffee behemoth. Citing safety issues, Starbucks is closing stores in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland, and its hometown of Seattle. Each of these cities has a radical prosecutor dedicated to non-prosecution of even serious crimes, such as George Gascon in L.A. and Larry Krasner in Philly. The next time you can’t get a good cup of coffee in one of these cities, consider whom you voted for in the district attorney’s race.

Speaking of which: ‘Woke’ NYC Starbucks now a haven for junkies and homeless. “‘Starbucks got too woke too fast,’ said java joint regular Constantine Dobryakov. ‘Now some customers are too scared to go in because you’ve got a bunch of homeless people sleeping in there. They got to be ready to kick people out and not give everyone a free cup of coffee. You give them a finger and they’ll take a hand.’”

BUT HE DIDN’T GET ELECTED, DID HE? Roy Moore wins defamation case against Democratic PAC, jury awards him $8.2M.

ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, STILL A TOTAL MYSTERY: NPR: Salman Rushdie hospitalized as police seek motive in stabbing.

Police identified the suspect as Hadi Matar, 24. He was arrested after the attack at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center where Rushdie was scheduled to speak.

Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, was born in the United States to Lebanese parents who emigrated from Yaroun, a border village in southern Lebanon, Mayor Ali Tehfe told The Associated Press.

Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” drew death threats after it was published in 1988. It was viewed as blasphemous by many Muslims who saw a character as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections. The book was banned in Iran where the late leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.

Police said the motive for the Friday attack was unclear.

Related: Iran media hails stabbing of ‘apostate’ Salman Rushdie, praises assailant.

FASTER, PLEASE: Breakthrough: Ignition confirmed at California fusion reactor.

IS THE NEW YORK TIMES A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER? OF COURSE IT IS: Source Backs Bari Weiss Account That the New York Times Wanted to Run Tim Scott Op-Ed By Schumer.

The New York Times has repeatedly denied the explosive account from former Times journalist Bari Weiss that a senior opinion-page editor instructed a colleague to “check with” Senator Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) before running an op-ed from Senator Tim Scott (R., S.C.). But a second source with direct knowledge of the matter has backed up Weiss’s story to National Review. The source also quoted a message sent by a senior editor at the time insisting that the Times check with Schumer — even providing the email address of Schumer press representative Justin Goodman.

The second source also revealed that Scott’s op-ed, which focused on the Republican senator’s police-reform package, was initially solicited by the Times — as opposed to having been pitched to the newspaper — a detail that was not clear from the original account.

New York Times owner Tom Cotton really has a lot to answer for here.

(Classical reference in headline.)

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Aren’t Electric Vehicles Becoming More Affordable?

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: ‘The FBI Raid On Melania’s Closet Was Justified,’ Says Merrick Garland Wearing Gorgeous New Evening Gown And Sun Hat.

To be fair, he really looks fabulous in that rig:

SPYWARE PROTECTION: Hands-on with Lockdown Mode in IOS 16.

THE BANNINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES: Twitter Suspended Paul Sperry, but He’s Still Reporting Some Troubling Things About FBI Raid.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Making oxygen with magnets could help astronauts breathe easy.

BIDEN VOTERS POSTING THEIR L’S ONLINE: David Brooks: Did the FBI just reelect Donald Trump?

According to a Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action survey, 83% of likely Republican voters said the FBI search made them more motivated to vote in the 2022 elections. More than 75% of likely Republican voters believed Trump’s political enemies were behind the search rather than the impartial justice system, as did 48% of likely general election voters overall.

In a normal society, when politicians get investigated or charged, it hurts them politically. But that no longer applies to the GOP. The judicial system may be colliding with the political system in an unprecedented way.

What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the GOP nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House?

I presume in those circumstances Trump would be arrested and imprisoned. I also presume we would see widespread political violence from incensed Trump voters who would conclude that the Regime has stolen the country. In my view, this is the most likely path to a complete democratic breakdown.

In theory, justice is blind, and obviously no person can be above the law. But as Damon Linker wrote in a Substack post, “This is a polity, not a graduate seminar in Kantian ethics.” We live in a specific real-world situation, and we all have to take responsibility for the real-world effects of our actions.

America absolutely needs to punish those who commit crimes. On the other hand, America absolutely needs to make sure that Trump does not get another term as president. What do we do if the former makes the latter more likely? I have no clue how to get out of this potential conflict between our legal and political realities.

We’re living in a crisis of legitimacy, during which distrust of established power is so virulent that actions by elite actors tend to backfire, no matter how well founded they are.

My impression is that the FBI had legitimate reasons to do what it did. My guess is it will find some damning documents that will do nothing to weaken Trump’s support. I’m also convinced that, at least for now, it has unintentionally improved Trump’s reelection chances. It has unintentionally made life harder for Trump’s potential primary challengers and motivated his base.

Flashback: How David Brooks created Donald Trump.

JUST LIKE PEOPLE: For older dogs, risk of dementia rises with hearing loss.

THE ATTACK ON SALMAN RUSHDIE IS AN ATTACK ON US ALL:

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Polio found in sewage in NYC; health officials urge vaccination.

ROGER SIMON: Can a GOP Congress Stop the New IRS Gestapo?

Naturally, conservatives are alarmed, even terrified, that the IRS could be so politicized. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been rushed into the fray to reassure us, through a “directive”:

“Specifically, I direct that any additional resources—including any new personnel or auditors that are hired—shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels,” she said.

Would Yellen, the woman who told us inflation was transitory and that there was no recession, lie to you? Or if she has issued such a “directive,” does it have legal force? And what are these historical levels anyway? What part of history is she referring to?

I have a two-word of rebuttal to Ms. Yellen: Lois Lerner.

From the Daily Mail:

“After nearly two years of jockeying with Congress over the IRS’s history of discriminating against conservative nonprofit groups, former official Lois Lerner won’t be charged with a crime for defying a congressional subpoena and refusing to answer questions.

“U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen, on his last day in office, told House Speaker John Boehner in a seven-page letter that Lerner could wrap herself in the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, even though she offered a self-serving opening statement before clamming up during a May 22, 2013, hearing.”

With 87,000 new employees, almost all avid statists—who else would join the agency—we are headed for déjà vu all over again, i.e., Lerner’s “historical level,” only worse in a yet more divided time. (As someone once said, “Personnel is policy.”)

So to Republicans in the House and Senate, speechify all you wish, but start really acting now, being concrete, even before you might have majorities. Get with the smartest conservative tax lawyers you can find and figure out some way to put a halt to as much of this as possible. Throw a wrench in the machine.

Keep America free. It’s barely hanging on.

As Mark Steyn has written, maybe it would be easier to list which federal agency doesn’t have its own personal SWAT team?

COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Restaurant scraps plant-based dishes after becoming fed up with “holier than thou” vegans.

An award-winning cafe has at hit out at “holier-than-thou” vegan customers saying they shouldn’t have to adapt their menu to “suit” customers who don’t eat animal products.

The Kitchen at London House on the Isle of Wight went online to defend itself against “nasty” and “bullying” vegans who were outraged at their decision to refuse to cater to their diets.

Addressing its critics, it said: “If you want vegan food, go to a vegan restaurant.”

The popular high street restaurant in Ventnor said that though it used to serve some vegan food, they decided to stop because of a “militant minority” that spoilt it for the majority.

Me, I go to vegan restaurants and demand beef to support my carnivore diet, then call them bigots if they refuse.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Great Raid Edition.

HEH: AOC Says It’s Dumb For Republicans To Call U.S. A Banana Republic Since It’s More Like A Forever 21. “When fellow U.S. representatives and journalists attempted to explain that a ‘banana republic’ refers to a politically unstable country dependent on the export of natural resources she accused them of mansplaining.”

THE ODDS THAT EVEN ONE PERSON ACTUALLY SAID THIS TO LIZ WARREN ARE NO BETTER THAN 1/1024:

SKIP THE GPS: Rand McNally 2023 Road Atlas. #CommissionEarned

NO COMMENT IS OFTEN A BIG COMMENT:  According to NPR, Salman Rushdie is on a ventilator. Of course, few of the MSM papers dare to offend Linda Sarsour and other Islamic militants, though the LA Times deserves kudos for doing a story on what is likely at the heart of this:

“That death sentence — a fatwa — had immediate effects on Rushdie’s life, spurring him into hiding for the better part of 10 years and dogging him and others around him who were related to the publication of the book. But what exactly is a fatwa? And how might it be a factor in Friday’s stabbing, which took place in front of a 2,500-person audience?”

Most telling of all is that CAIR (sort of the ADL for Muslims but without self-restraint) has not uttered a word of condemnation. They’ll condemn flyers at collage campuses, politicians and pundits who raise legitimate questions about terrorism financing and so on, but a man under a ten-year old death sentence issued by their religion’s highest leader? Not a peep. And our media is stuffed with incurious, unenterprising reporters who fail to ask or even explore this most important of questions.

I suppose that’s what happens when you fire the experienced journalists and replace them with uninformed wokist garbage babies. Ben Rhodes was correct:

“Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”

LET’S HOPE THEY BRING AN END TO RACE DISCRIMINATION IN HIGHER ED: Supreme Court sets date for UNC, Harvard affirmative action cases.

THE ATTACK ON SALMAN RUSHDIE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU EQUATE WORDS WITH PHYSICAL VIOLENCE. Too many Americans, especially younger ones, think it’s clever to equate offensive speech with physical violence as a way of shutting their opponents down, or justifying violent tactics to silence them. Yesterday we saw what that looks like in horrifying fashion: a 24-year-old man repeatedly stabbing a 75-year-old in the eye and the liver and severing the nerves in his arm, all for the non-crime of writing a book some people didn’t like. It’s way past time for the “speech is violence” people who infest every cultural institution in this country to grapple with the reality that what happened to Rushdie is exactly what they say they want for all of us.

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER! University of Utah investigated over doctoral program only open to black students.

HEH: ‘The FBI Raid On Melania’s Closet Was Justified,’ Says Merrick Garland Wearing Gorgeous New Evening Gown And Sun Hat.

J. Edgar Hoover smiles.

THERE’S ALWAYS A JEFFREY EPSTEIN ANGLE:

AS I KEEP SAYING, IT’S NEWS THAT THIS HAS BECOME ROUTINE: SpaceX launches 46 Starlink satellites, lands rocket on drone ship.

WHO DOESN’T BELIEVE BIDEN, HILL DEMS? Well, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for one, at least when it comes to promises those 87K new IRS agents will only be going after taxpayers making $400,000 or more annually, according to Robert Schmad of the Washington Free Beacon. Seems the CBO reported to Hill Republicans that the Inflation Reduction Act will generate at least $20 billion in new revenue from taxpayers in lower brackets.

THERE ARE MORE GUNS THAN THAT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD: IRS starting point: 4,600 guns, 5 million rounds of ammunition, ‘hitman suits.’ What’s a “hitman suit?” Sorry, “no explanation was provided.”

UPDATE: From the comments:

From the article:

Today the agency is deeply engaged in fraud, tax evasion, terrorist financing, and narcotics trafficking.

They should also add that the IRS will also occasionally investigate criminal behavior involving such, when that behavior is conducted by political opponents of the ruling regime.

Heh.

EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED: Union Refuses To Aid Teacher Who Faced Termination for Criticism of Woke Training.

MARTIN GURRI: The Elite Panic of 2022: From the end of Covid restrictions to Elon Musk’s Twitter bid to the Dobbs ruling, startling developments threaten progressives’ grip on power.

They constantly pretend to be the bearers of calm, sane expertise even as they lurch from one hysteria to another, usually getting things comically, or tragically, wrong. And always, always, reeking of unfounded entitlement.

Plus: “Honesty is a rare quality in the exercise of the will to power. For at least a generation, our elites haven’t valued anyone’s freedom but their own: but it was fascinating to hear them say it.”

MADE IN THE USA: Chef’sChoice 130 Professional Electric Knife Sharpening Station. #CommissionEarned

THEY’VE BEEN OFF FOR A WHILE ON ONE SIDE: ‘Now, the Gloves Are Off’: Christina Pushaw Resigns as DeSantis’ Press Secretary. “Don’t fret, because Pushaw isn’t going too far. She’ll be joining Ron DeSantis’s reelection campaign to serve as director of Rapid Response.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University professors are afraid. Florida’s crackdown on ‘woke’ academia is already working.

Universities have been rejecting academic freedom and free speech for decades, while talking about the need to use government power to “change society.” Well.

ISSUES & INSIGHTS: Defund The FBI! “No, that headline’s not a joke. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, once so popular it had its own TV show solely dedicated to its heroics, has become a hyper-politicized, jackbooted bully that no longer serves the American people or the U.S. Constitution, which its employees are sworn to protect. It has become, instead, the intelligence arm and domestic enforcer of the far left. Did we say defund? Yes. But we don’t mean simply to cut its funding, as leftists have disastrously proposed for police forces across the country. We mean tear down the entire rotting edifice of the FBI and replacing it with a new agency that respects the Constitution and holds itself accountable to all Americans.”

READER BOOK PLUG: Now out from Mitzi Perdue: Relentless: Mark Victor Hansen: The Wisdom Behind the Incomparable “Chicken Soup for the Soul” Series.

Lots of useful lessons about life, career, and everything.

I’M POSTING LIVE UPDATES AS THEY COME IN: Salman Rushdie Stabbed on Stage in New York.

(Bumped)

OPEN THREAD: Keep it clean. Well, relatively.

SALMAN RUSHDIE ON A VENTILATOR, LIKELY TO LOSE AN EYE AFTER ON-STAGE ATTACK:

“The news is not good,” the 75-year-old writer’s agent, Andrew Wylie, told The New York Times.

“Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” said Wylie.

Rushdie, who is still unable to speak, was attacked by a lone man while speaking at an event at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY, about 75 miles south of Buffalo.

Related: The best response to Salman Rushdie’s stabbing. What happened in New York today cannot be allowed to win. The illiterate cannot be allowed to dictate the rules of literature.

SPACE: Army looking at new ways to use space technology for unconventional warfare.

I IMAGINE THERE WAS AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: New study of moon rocks finds they contain gases from Earth. “A new study of six moon rocks has discovered proof that the moon includes chemical elements from Earth’s interior — a finding that supports the theory that the moon was created when something smashed into Earth.”

THE TIK TOK KIDS AREN’T IMPRESSED WITH BIDEN’S ORATORY:

@therealcoachjosiah

ONE WORD 😂

♬ original sound – Josiah T Alipate

BEWARE OF MUCUNA PRURIENS: Study: Dangerous levels of levodopa found in certain botanical supplements.

THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF LEFTIST BITCHING ABOUT BIG TRUCKS, calling them “Three Tons of Fascism.”

But why are pickup trucks so big? “In brief, Obama-era fuel regulations incentivized automakers to build bigger trucks.”

But of course.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The Rise of Lonely, Single Men.

A couple of points: First, in my own observation, there seem to be a lot more lonely single women. But that’s just anecdotage.

Second, one of the takeaways here is that men need to raise their game. This may in fact be true, but if the article were about lonely single women, the takeaway would be that . . . men need to raise their game. Because rule number one in articles about dating and relationships is that men are always the problem.

BREAKING: Search Warrant and Property Receipt From Mar-a-Lago Raid Released.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY: He’s Got an Appetite for Destruction. “This week we have a joyriding construction equipment thief, the quickest case of recidivism ever, and Utah Man’s stolen raccoon.”

It’s VIP, so don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

WELCOME BACK, CARTER! Dems ‘inflation reduction’ plan will have these 3 terrible economic consequences, new analysis finds.

BACK WHEN I WAS A SOUND ENGINEER I COULD DO THIS KIND OF THING; MY EARS AREN’T AS SHARPLY TUNED NOW: Human echolocation is real—and you might be able to do it.

OUT ON A LIMB: Tablet: It’s not anti-Semitic to talk about George Soros’ criminal justice reform efforts.

ZOOM FLASHER JEFFREY TOOBIN BENCHED BY CNN AS NEW BOSS CHRIS LICHT SWINGS THE AXE.

MATT MARGOLIS: Another Huge Red Flag in the Trump Raid Story.

RIP: Actress Anne Heche dead at 53 after horror car crash. “Though the actress is legally dead, her heart is still beating and she remains on life support in order to donate her organs, her rep said.”

MAKING WAR ON AMERICANS: Biden’s War on Guns: A Multi-Generation Florida Family Gun Business is the Latest Casualty.

I ASSUME A CUSHY MSNBC GIG WILL EASE THE PAIN: New Poll Shows Liz Cheney Getting Absolutely Crushed.

SO I WAS DONATING BLOOD EARLIER TODAY, and as I’m lying there filling the bag, a guy walks past me on the way out and says he passed his donation time by catching up on InstaPundit. Glad blog readers are out there donating too.

THE KNISH MAN: Dead Man Found in NYC Surrounded by Biohazard Cans and WMD Plans.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Calphalon Premier Hard-Anodized Nonstick Cookware. #CommissionEarned

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A MUCH BIGGER FINE: Australia fines Google $40 million over location tracking on Android.

WAR ON WOMEN UPDATE: Gender-neutral Joan of Arc at Globe. “Joan of Arc will be portrayed as a gender-neutral character in a new play at the home of Shakespeare in London, in a radical departure from the usual depiction of the historic figure. Audiences for I, Joan, which will open on August 25 at the Globe and run for two months, will hear Joan use the pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them.’”

Finally.

NOW FIND A WAY TO BLOCK IT: Study uncovers what happens inside artery plaque to trigger strokes.

JIM TREACHER: Wait. The Bad Orange Man Had… Nuclear Documents? Seriously? “It’s been seven years since You-Know-Who rode down that escalator and threw his hat into the ring, and the Democrats have learned absolutely nothing. The more they try to hurt this guy, the more they end up helping him. Now they’re galvanizing the right behind him. Even traitors like me, who think 1/6 was bad and probably wanted Hillary to win, are incredulous that they’re abusing their power like this. It’s already backfiring, but at least the libs can still air out their bloodthirsty fantasies:”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Liz Warren Says She’d Be President If She Had a Penis and I Can’t Stop Laughing.

A PROBLEM WITH A DELICIOUS SOLUTION: Wild boar runs loose through Spanish beach.

THE LEFT’S WAR ON… PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING: 5 Transportation Industries the US Government Is Crushing With Regulations.

Energy is how you get things done and transportation is how you move things around and the Left wants control — and rationing, really — over both.

I’ll TAKE THINGS NO ONE IS SAYING FOR $500, ALEX: “We’d talked about the dynamics of Iowa, her competitors and the pressure she put on herself not ‘to screw this up.’ But here and now [Elizabeth Warren] offered her plainest view of the landscape yet: ‘Everyone comes up to me and says, ‘I would vote for you, if you had a penis.’”

POLITICIANS ARE SAFE: Study: Thinking hard makes people tired because of ‘noxious’ accumulations in brain.

REVEALED: Nancy Pelosi’s Son a Major Investor in Chinese Telecoms Company.

THEY WEREN’T OFF BEFORE? WOW: ‘Now, the Gloves Are Off’: Christina Pushaw Resigns as DeSantis’ Press Secretary.

BURGERS AND FRIES, BEST THING FOR YOU: Women who eat vegetarian diets at higher risk for hip fracture.

THINKING ABOUT JOINING THE IRS? Babylon Bee helpfully provides the 17 job requirements you must satisfy in order to be considered. Instapunditeers should pay particular attention to #14.

COLORADO: What’s Happening With ‘South Park’ Creators’ Casa Bonita? “The answer to that question’s a complicated one, and first, we need to review exactly what’s going on with the South Park creators’ quest to reopen the shuttered landmark with actual ‘good food,’ not the stuff that makes everyone only remember the fountain-waterfall attractions and maybe the sopaipillas.”

SCHEDULED FOR 5:40 PM ET: Watch SpaceX launch 46 Starlink satellites, land rocket today.. It’s a big deal that this has become so routine.

EX-CIA CHIEF ENDORSES EXECUTING LEAKERS OF NUCLEAR SECRETS AFTER TRUMP RAID BOMBSHELL:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Eisgruber’s Emails: A nine-month correspondence with Princeton’s president sheds more light on his administration’s deceitful embrace of woke fanaticism at the expense of excellence.

Our institutions are run by people who are substituting their own agendas for the institutions’ missions.

AND NOT A CLEVER OR BELIEVABLE HOAX: Trump: Nuclear Weapons Documents Story ‘a Hoax’

STUDENTS SUE COLLEGE PRESIDENT WHO INVENTED RULES TO BAN CONSERVATIVE FLYERS. A new lawsuit from FIRE.

I’ve been at FIRE almost 19 years, and I continue to be amazed how scared administrators are of flyers.

RESEARCHERS SAY REGULAR BIBLE READING IS HEALTHY? Well, yes, according to HillFaith, that’s what the authors of the American Bible Society’s (ABS) 2022 State of the Bible Report say they found among Gen Zers, the youngest and typically least happy generation. The report is a product of a joint effort between University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC) analysts and those with the ABS.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Brett Kavanaugh assassination suspect said he was a ‘sissy slave’ and ‘trans gamer girl’ named ‘Sophie’ in online posts, asked how to ‘take out’ high-value targets: Report.

SALMAN RUSHDIE ATTACKED ON LECTURE STAGE IN WESTERN NEW YORK. “An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. The author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained.”

THE HOME FRONT: Russians Fleeing Crimea. “For all the talk of how Crimea is ‘inseparable’ from Russia, it seems like an awful lot of actual Russians are separating from it as quickly as they possibly can.”

This is fallout from the mysterious explosions at Russia’s Saki airbase, previously thought to be safe behind the front lines.

NO, 87K NEW IRS AGENTS WON’T JUST AUDIT MILLIONAIRES: The Heritage Foundation’s Rachel Greszler digs into the data and the history and concludes that “even increasing recent audit rates 30-fold for taxpayers making over $400,000 — including 100 percent audit rates on taxpayers with incomes over $10 million — still would fall more than 20% short of raising the estimated $35.3 billion in new revenues in 2031.” 

Ergo – the auditors will focus on everybody making less than $400,000, especially those filing W-2 and 1099-based returns claiming multiple deductions. Those claims will be red flags for the auditors.

IT’S AS IF TWITTER IS A GARBAGE PLATFORM RUN BY GARBAGE PEOPLE: Ex-Twitter Manager Convicted of Being Secret Agent for Saudi Arabia + Leaking Private User Information.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: As FBI Raids Trump’s Home, Hunter Biden Rides Off on Air Force One to Vacation With the Big Guy.

HELPFUL BOOK: Stretching Anatomy. #CommissionEarned

THE CALL CAME FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE: FBI Informant ‘Really Close’ to Trump; 6-8 People Knew About Mar-a-Lago Safe.

SUNLIGHT IS A DISINFECTANT: College deletes race-based job posting after news inquiry.

POLL: Mar-a-Lago Raid Backfires Spectacularly on Democrats.

DIVERSITY PROBLEM: Democratic professors dominate University of Nebraska-Omaha departments. And pretty much every other university department everywhere.

HMM: Democratic Operatives Control Voter Rolls In 31 States, Report Shows.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Republicans Better Not Wuss Out If They Win Big in November. “If the Republicans get some power back we’re going to need more than a lot of dog-and-pony show hearings. And we definitely won’t need any ‘above the fray’ garbage. If there are hearings, there had better be results. Democrats in orange jumpsuits kinds of results.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Why Americans are increasingly dubious about going to college.

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: WSJ: Chinese Student Visas To U.S. Plunge 50% From Pre Pandemic Levels, Imperiling University Finances.

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

WOKE, BROKE: U.S. Subscriptions At Ultra-Woke Disney Slow To A Crawl After Company Loses Left-Wing Political Battles.

CHANGE: Trump’s odds of winning in 2024 surge, DeSantis also rising.

Related: FBI raid boosted MAGA voting fury.

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN IS ON PUBLIC-CHOICE ECONOMICS: Woke elites control the institutions meant to serve us.