KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Kamala Has the Weirdest Campaign Strategy Ever. “We’ve written approximately 37 million articles about Kamala since the Democrats kicked Joe Biden off the ticket and anointed her, but Thursday gave us a wealth of stories that demonstrated just how much bumbling is going on in Kamalaland.”

BOB GRABOYES: Extraordinary Scholarly Delusions and the Madness of Experts.

Related: The Death of Expertise.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: ComfiLife Gel Enhanced Seat Cushion. #CommissionEarned

HANG UP AND PLAY: The anti-anxiety experiment: Friends without phones, adult-free camping.

After interviewing Haidt for The Sunday Times, Decca Aitkenhead, a British mother, devised an experiment. She’d get her sons, 13 and 14 years old, and their friends to go smartphone-free, except for one hour a day, for a month. Then she’d send them camping, without adults, for a weekend.

The kids locked their smartphone in a kSafe time-lock container, which could be set to release for just one hour a day. “For the other 23 hours they would use a Light Phone, an American wi-fi-enabled device designed to allow calls, texts and group chats, with an alarm, calculator, basic music player, directions, calendar, note/voice memo — and nothing else.”

None of the teens suffered from anxiety or depression. The boys played sports. The girls had busy extracurricular schedules. All had parents who limited their screen time.

Plus this: “‘The no-adult aspect is literally the dream to us,’ said Albie.”

Kids need to be kids without so many screens or grownups around.

THE CRITICAL DRINKER ON THE SNOW WHITE TRAILER: Nightmare Fuel (Video).

Evergreen:

PREDICTABLE: Standardized tests ‘rooted in white supremacy,’ teachers union president says.

GONE WITH THE WINDY CITY: Chicago population hits lowest point since 1920. “At the 1920 Census, Chicago’s population was 2.7 million, up over 516,000 in a decade. More than 100 years later, Chicago’s population is 2.66 million, a loss of 128,034 from nine straight years of decline.”

Chicago’s last Republican mayor left office in 1931.

HMM: Walz Busted By…CNN? “In 1995, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, then a resident of Nebraska, was stopped while driving 96 mph in a 55 mph zone. He failed a sobriety test and was charged with speeding and drunk driving. Walz has been lying about the incident ever since, as CNN rather surprisingly admits.”

FREEDOM WORKS: The Second Largest Economy in the World Is Sick, and the Communists Can’t Figure Out How to Cure It.

China initiated a massive stimulus effort starting in March looking to jumpstart the economy. But the effect has been uneven and in some ways hardly made a ripple.

Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at AEI, believes that China is on the precipice.

“Unless the Chinese government introduces major structural economic reforms that encourage domestic consumer spending, China could experience a Japanese-style lost economic decade. That could have major consequences for the world economic outlook,” he said.

“Get the hell out of my way!” the wise man once said.

COVERUP: Kamala Harris Stonewalls Congressional Probe Into NatSec Adviser’s Ties to Iran Influence Network.

C’MON JAMES, FIND A NEW PLAY TO RUN, HUH? James Carville Says GOP Supports Israel Because ‘Jews Are Whiter Than The Palestinians.’

Flashback:

LIFE IN THE AGE OF UNACCOUNTABILITY:

Who was the pilot aboard the ship that hit the bridge in Baltimore?

Great question!

Who was the USSS agent in charge in Butler, PA?

Who made the plan to evacuate Afghanistan?

Who’s responsible for the frigate, icebreaker & carrier delays?

I DON’T KNOW

They refuse to say https://t.co/L1pczoRt6B

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) August 15, 2024

Related: Our Crisis of Institutional Competence.

DID WE LEARN NOTHING FROM THE SUBPRIME CRISIS?

NEW: Harris will propose providing up to $25K in down payment support for 1st time homeowners, with more generous support for 1st generation homeowners, according to campaign official
She'll announce tomorrow in NC, along w/ her plan to ban corporate price-gouging on groceries

— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) August 15, 2024

The headline is a trick question. Democrats loved the subprime crisis, which was one of those opportunities for overspending and overregulation that they didn’t let go to waste.

INFECTED BY A DEADLY MIND VIRUS: Europe’s Strange, Self-Destructive Delusions. . . The Minister For Drama has entered the chat. “America has underwritten European defense for so long, generations at this time, that many believe they are entitled to it. This dependency is blended with a snobby-contempt that the European elite have, on balance, always had about Americans. Especially after the end of the Cold War, the American appetite for paying to defend people who hold you in contempt has continued to wear thin.”

Plus: “Europe’s contempt for anyone to the right of the American center-left is quickly becoming the existential threat to the alliance they are so quick to accuse others of being.”

DEMOCRACY DIES IN GASLIGHTING YOUR READERS: Washington Post reviews star columnist Taylor Lorenz’s ‘war criminal’ jab at Biden.

Senior editors at the Washington Post are reviewing a prominent tech columnist’s private story on social media, which appears to label President Biden a “war criminal” in a photo.

The Post’s Taylor Lorenz attended a White House event for digital influencers on Wednesday. In the photo she shared with a circle of friends on Instagram, Biden appears over her shoulder; the damning caption rests just below him, accompanied by a text frowny face.

After the New York Post’s Jon Levine — a frequent critic of hers — revealed the Instagram photo caption yesterday in a tweet, Lorenz wrote back at him: “You people will fall for any dumbass edit someone makes.”

A fact-check appended to Levine’s tweet cited her apparent denial. (The contextual note to the tweet says, “Taylor Lorenz says this is a digital manipulation which has added a false caption.”) Lorenz told her editors that someone else had added the caption to the photo.

NPR has obtained a screengrab of Lorenz’s actual post, which contained that caption. It was not shared with her wider Instagram audience of 143,000 followers.

Four people with direct knowledge of the private Instagram story confirmed its authenticity to NPR. They spoke to NPR on condition they not be identified due to the professional sensitivity of the situation for Lorenz.

“Our executive editor and senior editors take alleged violations of our standards seriously,” a spokesperson for the newspaper told NPR. “We’re aware of the alleged post and are looking into it.” Lorenz declined to comment.

I just can’t see something like this coming from Lorenz:

I really can’t: ‘Al Jazeera On the Potomac:’ WaPo Reporter Taylor Lorenz Boosts Defenses of Los Angeles Synagogue Protest.

Flashback: Are There Any Adults at the Washington Post?

HELLUVA PICK, KAMALA: Tim Walz Looks Like an Increasing Liability for Harris. “The reporting forced the Harris-Walz campaign to update Walz’s biography on its website and admit that Walz had lied (they claimed he ‘misspoke’) and certainly hoped that it would put an end to the story. But it didn’t. Other stories are also getting traction in the liberal media.”

INDEED:  Can we stop pretending Europe believes in freedom?

THE IDF IS A LOT MORE CAREFUL THAN HAMAS IN THEIR BODY COUNTS:  Over half of Hamas’ forces have been wiped out as Israel’s war goals are within reach: officials.

YA THINK?  CUNY cops fear schools unprepared for looming onslaught of ‘potentially dangerous’ anti-Israel protests: ‘It’s going to be bad’.

BEFORE THEY HIRE YOU THEY WANT TO BE SURE THEY’VE GOT YOUR PRONOUNS:  This Harris Campaign Job Application Is Absurd, but Real.

WEB OF DECEIT.

SHOT:  Tim Walz’s Replacement in the National Guard Wrote to Him Years Ago About His Rank.

CHASER:  New Details: Walz Also Blatantly Lied About His DUI.

SO, NORMAL DEMOCRAT:  Black Voter on MSNBC: the Kamala Harris Agenda Is Already ‘Killing Us’.

UH… ARE THEY AFRAID THE FRAUD WON’T BE ENOUGH? TRYING TO REMOVE COMPETITION AND ALL:  Democrats Want Green Party Candidate Jill Stein Removed From Wisconsin Ballot.

AT THIS POINT? NOT EVEN A SURPRISE:  Social Security Number of Every American May Be Compromised after Massive Data Hack.

THE FICUS IS AN INTERNATIONAL DISASTER:  OPINION: Biden May Not Have Betrayed Mossad Agents to Iran but the Proof It Didn’t Happen Is Lacking.