ME? I’M AN URBAN CREATURE:  Why They’ll Never Push Us All Into The City.

After all, my ancestors were building cities while some people in some small island somewhere were painting their bellies blue.
But — speaking of blue — the blue cities kill the very reasons I like cities: the ability to walk around and find the unexpected little shop or cafe; the zoos, museums and other amusements that only exist when there is enough population.

Blue and city aren’t necessarily linked. In fact, Democrats and other leftists are — generally speaking — the death of cities. And states. And countries. And everything they touch.

I bear no malice to my friends who prefer the unsullied countryside, and communing with nature. Give me a crowded cafe, and a corner where I can watch human nature. Let’s hope that will be viable again before I die.

YEAH. THE JUNTA, LIKE ALL WOULD-BE-DICTATORIAL REGIMES IS SECRETIVE, ISN’T IT?  Judicial Watch Sues Biden Administration Over Cover-Up of Illegal Aliens’ COVID Information.

YOU KNOW, AS WITH ALL THE CRUSADES THE LEFT HAS ENGAGED IN, THEY’LL TURN OUT TO BE WRONG:  Thank You For Smoking.

Sure, cigarettes have some terrible downsides, mostly because of the method of delivery for the nicotine. Nicotine itself has beneficial effects, at least for those of us who are incredibly ADD. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that humanity’s most prosperous era came at a time when coffee and cigarettes were both common in the west.  And the author isn’t wrong about obesity.

Should you smoke? I don’t know. I can’t. At least not regular cigarettes, since it always seems to end in pneumonia. However, note that the various e-cigs don’t have that problem. And that the left still screams and chases after them, and tries to get them banned.

Because their hatreds are irrational, and the things they want banned almost always turn to have some usefulness.  Now, are they without dangers? No. There is nothing without dangers. There is nothing without downsides. And you know what? What is acceptable to some people might not be acceptable to others. Leave it to the individual to decide what they can and can’t afford to endure.

I’M ASHAMED I EVER SUPPORTED HIM:  Mitt Romney’s malicious envy.

CALIFORNIA MAKES ITSELF A LAUGHING STOCK:  California Adds Five More States to Travel Ban Based on LGBTQ+ Litmus Test.

And slowly erodes all the gains in gay rights.

SOME ARE FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT:  Court Orders SUNY Upstate Medical University To Turn Over Critical Race Training Docs To Legal Insurrection Foundation.

Do what you can, where you are in the measure of the possible.

THE INSANE STUPIDITY OF THE JUNTA HAS NO END:  Biden Executive Order Promotes Critical Race Theory.

Ignore them at every possible turn. Countravene them, thwart them and sabotage them when it’s not. Because the road we’re traveling on, if we don’t do that leads to much more unimaginable horror.

OUR DESCENDANTS, FOR THE FEW OF US WHO HAVE THEM, WILL LAUGH AT OUR ILLUSIONS:  The Population Bomb Doomsday Scam.

THAT’S NICE: Ivanka Trump Donates To Surfside Condo Collapse Rescue Efforts. “Former President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have reportedly pitched in to help out with the rescue effort at the collapsed Surfside, Fla. condo building. According to a local NBC-TV affiliate WTVJ, the pair have opened up their wallets to help organize over a week’s worth of food for first responders and volunteers who have jumped in to help with the search and rescue efforts in the Champlain Towers South building. The source told NBC 6 that the Kushners are ‘supporting the community that has welcomed them, and they’re praying for all those affected by the tragedy.'”

WHY IS THE LEFT SUCH A CESSPIT OF VIOLENT XENOPHOBIA? Egyptian migrant beaten by Pride Parade attendees thought he was going to die.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: How the Global World Is Losing Control. “One of the most fascinating aspects of principal-agent theory, the study of how representatives can be controlled by those they represent, is the problem of agent escape.”

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED THIS, SINCE MOST OF THE ATTENTION WENT TO THE #3 COMPETITOR: Video: DeAnna Price breaks multiple records in hammer throw final.

Related, via a friend:

#JOURNALISM:

OPEN THREAD: Ain’t that a lot of love, for one thread to hold?

IT’S COME TO THIS: Oregonians Allowed to Pump Their Own Gas . . . for Two Days. A brutal heat wave led to a temporary suspension on the state’s law prohibiting customers from filling up their own tanks.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s super heavy rocket to construct space-based solar power station.

UNEXPECTEDLY! States Ending Ultra-Generous Welfare Are Doing Better in One Big Way, New Data Show. “So, dozens of conservative-leaning states have discontinued the benefits early, while dozens of liberal-leaning states have left it in place. Thanks to recently released Labor Department data on unemployment claims, we can now, quite predictably, see the welfare rolls expanding in the states where the unemployment bonus remains in place. Yet the number of people on welfare is rapidly shrinking in the states where the supplement is set to expire or already has expired.”

SOMETIMES THE LEFT HAND DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE FAR LEFT HAND IS DOING: McAuliffe Calls Critical Race Theory a ‘Right-Wing Conspiracy.’ His Union Ally Says It’s Needed to ‘Teach the Truth.’

THE MINNEAPOLIS EFFECT:

It’s easy to blame protesters directly for the violent crime wave. But responsibility for the Minneapolis effect, and for stopping it, lies ultimately with public leaders and the powerful. Municipal policymakers have fanned the flames, amplifying radical criticisms of the police and sometimes acceding to activists’ demands to shrink departments. Their alternatives are untested and likely ineffective, and will make violent crime worse. If they don’t want officers to keep leaving their cities, mayors and councilors need to support unequivocally the institution of policing, even as they weigh reforms.

The media have contributed by turning shocking viral videos into referenda on policing. Police use of force is surprisingly rare, and the public routinely overestimates the scale of police killings. Liberals, for example, guess that the number of unarmed black men killed by police in 2019 is somewhere between 100 and 1,000; the true figure is between 13 and 27. Such beliefs are reinforced by media narratives that paint most officers as vicious thugs. These are not only false, but may be costing lives.

At the same time, there is a crisis of police legitimacy, and whether or not officers are fully at fault, leadership is still responsible for solving it. Police executives are moving toward strategies that emphasize police-community relations, and that target those people and places most prone to serious crime. Done right, that can increase public trust and decrease crime, as long as civilian leaders and the media back them up.

Earlier: White Progressives Shocked to Learn Black and Latino Voters Don’t Share Their Radical ‘defund the Police’ Views.

Hence the recent Oceania-style pivot, as a form of triage as the midterms loom large.

I REMEMBER WHEN EVERYONE WAS SAYING HOW WE WERE BLOWING IT: U.S. Tops List of Best Places To Be as Covid Ends. “Restaurants are packed, masks are no longer required for vaccinated people and Americans are going on vacation again, emboldened by a vaccination rate that covers half of the population.”

I WAS EXPECTING A UNIVERSE-SHATTERING KABOOM: Scientists Confirm Black Hole And Neutron Star Collisions in World-First Discovery.

GLENN TRIES IT: So I recently read reader William Stroock’s The Austrian Painter. (Found via Helen’s Page.) Very interesting alternative history, and certainly a better 20th Century than we actually got in most respects.

JIM TREACHER: Is the Pandemic Over?

Is the pandemic over? Well, that depends. Do you know how vaccines work? Are you willing to accept the real-world results? Have you gotten through the past year and a half with some remaining scrap of sanity?

According to Gallup:

Although a record-high 89% of Americans now say the coronavirus situation is improving, most are not yet ready to declare the pandemic over in the U.S. More than twice as many think the pandemic is not yet over (71%) than think it is over (29%).

The partisan breakdown is funny: 57% of Republicans think it’s over, but only 4% of Democrats. That’s one out of 25 Dems! Why is it that the libs are always bragging about how much they love science, but they can’t accept that these vaccines are working?

Actually, Democrats declared the pandemic as having been concluded right around this time a year ago:

● After telling GOP to downsize convention due to COVID-19, N.C. governor marches in crowded protest.

● NJ governor admits COVID-19 double standard, says recent protests are different from business owners’ complaints.

● De Blasio: Large Group Protests Are Acceptable, Religious Observances Are Not.

● NPR: Dozens of public health and disease experts have signed an open letter in support of the nationwide anti-racism protests. “White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19,” they wrote.

● ‘Did I miss the memo?’: Hospital workers in full PPE applaud George Floyd protesters as they march past.

Related: The Suicide of Expertise.

MY EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN GOOD SO FAR: Elon Musk Just Announced That Starlink Will Go Global in Five Weeks.

POPCORN: Stop the steal: NYC mayoral frontrunner hints at election chicanery as lead slips during ranked-choice voting count.