DECLINE IS A CHOICE: “Students and professors, editorial assistants and editors in chief—all are aware of what kind of society they now inhabit. That’s why they censor themselves…”

CONSERVING CONSERVATISM MOST CONSERVATIVELY: The Bulwark’s Jim Swift is just so disappointed and disgusted about ‘what happened to the Babylon Bee.’

HE PRETTY MUCH IS: ‘The smartest person in any room anywhere’: in defence of Elon Musk.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Carolla, Dr. Drew Shred Comey, Media on ‘Insurrection’ Lies. “Neither podcaster is a de facto conservative. They just happen to share a common sense mien that overlaps with conservative thought. It’s why they didn’t buy the media’s ‘insurrection’ narrative regarding the Jan. 6 riots in the nation’s capitol.”

BIDEN PRESSURED GHANI TO CREATE ‘PERCEPTION’ TALIBAN WEREN’T WINNING:

President Biden pressured Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani to create the “perception” that the Taliban weren’t winning, “whether it’s true or not,” in a phone call just three weeks before the insurgents seized control of the country, a bombshell leaked transcript shows.

Biden and Ghani spoke for roughly 14 minutes on July 23 in what would be their final call before the Taliban overran the government and Afghanistan descended into bloody chaos amid the botched US withdrawal, according to a transcript and audio obtained by Reuters.

A phone call to a foreign leader, eh? Trump impeachment inquiry: Dissecting the phone call behind it.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Social Security trust funds now projected to run out of money sooner than expected due to Covid, Treasury says.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Ever hear of “Disability Rights South Carolina” and “Able South Carolina?” No? Well, your federal tax dollars are the primary source of revenue for these two groups, according to the Capital Research Center (CRC). And they are fronting an ACLU lawsuit against South Carolina seeking to bar schools from giving students a choice about wearing masks.

If reading that fact upsets you, just always remember that it’s for your own good that your tax dollars are being spent, thanks to federal bureaucrats, on litigation to force you and other citizens to do what our betters instruct us and our kids to do, particularly when public health is involved.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK TO THE WATER: Microsoft will release Windows 11 on October 5th.

But will there be launch parties?

REFRESHER: AR-15 Basics.

LONG MARCH THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS: UNC course says WWII was ‘Japan’s attempt to roll back Euro-American colonialism.’ “Campus Reform obtained the fall 2021 syllabus, covers the concept of race since the 19th century, but also contains what appears to be revisionist narratives of American history, specifically World War II.”

WHEW: Pentagon debunks reports claiming US abandoned dozens of military service dogs in Kabul.

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER! University of Wisconsin-Madison Hosts ‘Welcome BBQ’ ‘Intended’ For ‘People Of Color.’

DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS OR WHATEVER: Congressman Markwayne Mullin Has Gone Missing… Or Has He?

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! The Cynical, Despicable ‘Stuttering’ Con Unravels. Biden’s handlers are losing control.

VERY LIKELY, YES. NEXT QUESTION? Has Biden forgotten he was vice president for eight years?

INTERESTING: Evidence mounts that MMR and TDAP vaccines strengthen protection against severe COVID-19.

THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A FIVE-ALARM MEDIA FIRE LAST YEAR: In a major blow to vaccine efforts, senior FDA leaders stepping down. “Two of the FDA’s most senior vaccine leaders are exiting from their positions, raising fresh questions about the Biden administration and the way that it’s sidelined the FDA.”

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and their likely radio silence makes perfect sense.

Evergreen:

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: In secret texts, U.S. military officials lamented leaving Americans behind in Kabul.

President Biden declared to a puzzled country on Tuesday that the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan was an “extraordinary success,” while his Pentagon portrayed a prosaic, workaday process to repatriate Americans still stranded in the war-torn country.

But text messages between U.S. military commanders and private citizens mounting last-minute rescues tell a far different story, one in which pleading American citizens were frantically left behind at the Kabul airport gate this past weekend to face an uncertain fate under Taliban rule while U.S. officials sought to spread the blame between high-ranking generals and the State Department

“We are f*cking abandoning American citizens,” an Army colonel assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division wrote Sunday in frustration in a series of encrypted messages that detailed the failed effort to extricate a group of American citizens, hours before the last U.S. soldiers departed Afghanistan.

Read the whole thing.

YES, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MURDER HORNETS?! The fully vaccinated are more likely to die from bee stings than COVID-19.

Still though, Fauci’s gonna Fauci: Fauci Hints at Another Lockdown this Fall.

THE LOCKDOWNS MAY KILL MORE PEOPLE THAN THE DISEASE DID: Study: U.S. kids gained weight faster during pandemic, more are overweight, obese.

JIM TREACHER: 8/31 Is the New 9/10.

In the weeks and months after the September 11 terror attacks, there was a lot of talk about “9/10 thinking” and “a 9/10 mentality.” Americans had been too complacent, we realized. We ignored all the warning signs that the attack was imminent. We were so blind. We dropped our guard. In retrospect, we had been foolish, but it wouldn’t happen again. A hard, painful lesson learned.

Or not.

Listening to that angry old man yelling at me yesterday, as if somehow it was my fault he completely botched the Afghanistan withdrawal, it sure felt like a return to 9/10.

There’s a Democrat in the White House, so of course it is: Right on Cue, the President’s Mistakes Are Our Fault Again.

LONG MARCH THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS: Antifa AP Government Teacher Brags About Indoctrinating Kids, Turning Them Into ‘Revolutionaries.’

You can see the video here.

GOOD: Monoclonal antibody combo keeps high-risk COVID-19 patients out of hospital.

MATT TAIBBI: On Afghanistan, the Revolving Door, and Media Failure to Disclose Contracting Ties of Guests.

HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS: Even a 42-Ton Boulder Isn’t Safe From Woke Cancel Culture.

If you’re being oppressed by a boulder, you aren’t being oppressed.