QUESTION ASKED: Is V-J Day anniversary a last hurrah?

Japan declared total surrender to the Allies on Aug. 15, 1945. Many nations do use the 15th for V-J Day remembrances, but President Truman delayed the official U.S. commemoration until Sept. 2, when the formal surrender document was signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. I guess, like the coroner of “Oz,” Truman wanted to ensure that imperial Japan was “not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.”

* * * * * * * *

This 75th anniversary is a sobering milestone. 76th or 80th or 90th anniversaries just aren’t as catchy, and by the time the 100th anniversary of V-J Day arrives, only a handful of centenarians with adult memories of World War II will be around for interviews.

As time marches on, “Today In History” articles will mention 75th anniversaries of Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech, the rise of Red China, the beginning of the Korean conflict, etc.; but details of World War II will be even more “irrelevant” than they are now. (This will delight some people. I just read of a young man in Great Britain who demands that schools skip teaching about the war because the Holocaust and warfare are too “intense” for modern sensibilities.)

So, regrettably, this is sort of a “last hurrah” for the Greatest Generation.

That’s why we should all make the most of the occasion. Fly your flag proudly. Dig out a dusty family scrapbook. Ponder how Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s magnanimous treatment of postwar Japan led to friendly ties today. Pray that world leaders may go another 75 years without using an atomic bomb in combat. Do something thoughtful for a veteran, whether they served as sniper or mail clerk.

Earlier: Taking a Second Look at WWII with Victor Davis Hanson’s The Second World Wars.

IN OTHER NEWS, CAPONE ASSOCIATE CRITICIZES DOJ FOR PROSECUTING DILLINGER: Mueller deputy Weissmann criticizes DOJ for bringing case against ex-FBI lawyer.

OUT ON A LIMB: Left-wing media owes Sarah Palin host of apologies.

After Palin wowed the Republican convention crowd with her speech, CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin lashed out: “I thought, very smug, very sarcastic, very cutting. And you know what? The Republicans had been trying to portray her as a victim for the last couple days. Well, she’s not going to be a victim anymore. She’s going to be a target.”

New York Times columnist David Carr echoed Eleanor Clift in underlining the media’s sexist contempt: “Before Gov. Sarah Palin came flying in from the wilds of Alaska for the Republican convention in St. Paul, there was a lot of sniggering in media rooms and satellite trucks about her beauty queen looks and rustic hobbies, and the suggestion that she was better suited to be a calendar model for a local auto body shop than a holder of the second-highest office in the land.”

Everyone who watches the left-wing media can see that you can be intensely sexist toward Sarah Palin and no one will ever apologize. To them, conservative Blacks aren’t really Black; conservative Latinos aren’t really Latino; and conservative women aren’t really women.

Read the whole thing, although missing from the 2008 flashbacks are Andrew Sullivan’s turn as Professional Uterus Detective, and Naomi Wolf’s hilarious fantasy of Sarah ‘Evita’ Palin and the Rovian Police State.

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I’VE CONSIDERED THIS RIG: I Carry: SIG Sauer P365 Pistol in a Blackhawk Holster.

Though the way things are going I’m considering a P226 with a 20-round mag in a Galco Combat holster.

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QUESTION ASKED BUT NOT ANSWERED: Did Newt Gingrich Make American Politics Toxic?

CTRL-F: “Ted Kennedy,” not found.

HOW IT CHOOSES TO IDENTIFY IS ITS OWN BUSINESS: Researchers capture footage of fluid behaving like a solid.

IT MAY TURN OUT THAT NONSTOP OVER-THE-TOP INSANITY ISN’T THE BEST RESPONSE TO LOSING AN ELECTION.

REMAIN CALM. ALL IS WELL. Florida’s Aug. 19 Online Bar Exam In Jeopardy As Software Crashes; Deans, Legislators Demand Plan B.

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CHANGE: Breakthrough extends quantum state stability by 10,000 times.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Democrat-Controlled Chicago Spent $66 Million On A Coronavirus Facility That Treated 38 Patients—Total.

Earlier: ‘Extreme dysfunction:’ New York City dropped $52M on a coronavirus hospital that served fewer than 80 patients.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Democrat-Controlled Chicago Spent $66 Million On A Coronavirus Facility That Treated 38 Patients—Total.

Earlier: ‘Extreme dysfunction:’ New York City dropped $52M on a coronavirus hospital that served fewer than 80 patients.

NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS:

Related: New York Police Union Announces Their Presidential Endorsement.

CHANGE: New U.S. COVID-19 cases decline to 51K; California tops 600,000.

WHEN AUTHORITY VANISHES: Chicago’s leaders have surrendered to vandals.

The sacking of Chicago’s North Side was more than a tactical failure. For months, key officials—the state’s attorney responsible for prosecution, the mayor, and the governor—have failed to condemn criminals sufficiently or act with necessary force against such violence. They have contributed to a culture of impunity that tolerates mobs and hoodlums.

Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney for Cook County, has already become nationally notorious for refusing to prosecute Jussie Smollett, the actor who lied to the police that he was a victim of racial violence. But her offenses against public order are far worse than her condoning of a provocateur who tried to fracture the city with a falsehood. Foxx has dismissed felony cases brought by the police at a rate 35 percent higher than her predecessor. She raised the threshold for felony shoplifting from $300 to $1,000—and as a result, thieves steal brazenly in broad daylight as well as under cover of darkness. Chicago police chief David Brown suggested that Foxx’s failure to prosecute looters from the previous sacking of the city in June was partly responsible for emboldening the current round of looting.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is also responsible. She has hardly been enforcing a zero-tolerance policy against lawless mobs. When crowds assaulted statues of Christopher Columbus, she did not defend these public monuments, instead removing them under pressure in the dead of night. The message was clear: Chicago would not defend its civic order. Lightfoot did denounce the current round of looting, but she still felt the need to make distinctions between these looters and those who had rioted in the wake of the George Floyd killing, as if there were degrees of culpability in the intentional taking of others’ property. Contrast her uncertain tones in calling vandals to account with her schoolmarmish insistence on closing parks to protect against the coronavirus, when epidemiologists agree that the greatest risk comes from indoor activity.

Somebody has noticed Foxx’s role at least: (Photo) Sign on Chicago’s Mag Mile Luxury Retailer Michael Kors: ‘Kim Foxx Enabled This Chaos Vote Her Out in November.’

Related: Chicago Black Lives Matter Leader Declares Looting Gucci and Macy’s ‘Is Reparations.’

ICYMI: Hurricane-force storm in Iowa flattens 10 million acres of crops. “A powerful derecho storm that swept through the Midwest on Monday has left thousands of acres of crops completely devastated, and officials say more than half a million people could be without power for quite a while. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said the storm, which had hurricane-force winds up to 112 mph, destroyed at least one-third of the entire state’s crops. More than 10 million acres were completely flattened, leading Reynolds to say she thinks the storm should qualify for federal disaster declaration. The Washington Post reports between 180 and 270 million bushels of corn were likely damaged, shortly before harvesting usually begins in September.”

We’re lucky to live in a country where news like this doesn’t presage a famine, but it’s still bad news.

DON’T GET COCKY: Democrats peddling grievance on their way to losing the presidential election.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Kamala Edition.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Six Reasons to Vote Democrat in November.

ENDORSED: Renowned law professor: Antifa is on campus, expel them if they commit violence.

If they don’t, complain to grantmaking agencies under Executive Order 13864.