OUT: GAIN OF FUNCTION. IN: LOSS OF TRUST. Just 15% of unvaccinated voters believe Dr. Anthony Fauci makes his policy recommendations based primarily on scientific data and research. “In terms of encouraging more people to get vaccinated, these numbers suggest that Dr. Fauci is not an effective messenger.”

JOANNE JACOBS: When a D becomes a ‘pass.’

Teachers see grades as a mark of achievement, writes Darren Miller, a high school math teacher, on Right on the Left Coast. Grades aren’t supposed to be “candy.”

In response to the inequities created by remote education, California will let high school students change low grades to “pass” to protect their grade point averages.

The University of California, California State University system and many private colleges have agreed to accept the pass/fail grades, even in required college-prep courses. Applicants can turn as many grades into “pass” as they like.

It seems the value of almost everything is being inflated away.

HE FIGHTS: Florida’s DeSantis Is Just Trolling the Media With Another Bold Move and It’s Fantastic to Watch.

TO BE FAIR, IT WAS DESIGNED TO: POLL: MOST BELIEVE GREEN NEW DEAL WILL INCREASE ENERGY COSTS AND REDUCE AMERICA’S ENERGY INDEPENDENCE.

BIDENFLATION: Joe Biden has just given you a pay cut, America. Get ready for more. “The CEO of Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest chicken producer, said on a recent earnings call that costs are rising faster than the company’s ability to raise prices. Half of second-quarter nominal GDP growth is phantom inflation gains.”

IN RELATED NEWS, JOHN DILLINGER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST ANTI-BANK-ROBBING LAWS: U. Nebraska students, profs speak out against anti-critical race theory resolution.

Students and professors at the University of Nebraska are speaking out against a resolution which would prohibit compelling students to study critical race theory.

U. Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen’s anti-CRT resolution does not ban the teaching of the topic; as noted, it prevents the university from requiring students to study it, a point he reiterated in an email to The College Fix a week and a half ago.

But members of the NU community nevertheless view the proposal as a threat to ongoing efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion, The Daily Nebraskan reports.

Students and faculty for mandatory indoctrination. I doubt a majority of either body actually supports this position, but having shouted down opposition on campus, they must now deal with people who aren’t afraid of them.

IT’S CALLED BREASTFEEDING: Don’t Call It ‘Breastfeeding’ When You Can Refer to It as ‘Parent’s Milk.’

RESISTANCE: University of South Carolina reverses mask mandate after policy deemed discriminatory.

DECADES LATE, DESPERATELY NEEDED: Boebert bill a move towards meaningful forest management. “Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, with 16 cosponsors, has introduced the “Active Forest Management, Wildfire Prevention, and Community Protection Act.” Were the bill to pass, it would significantly improve the health of national forests by removing beetle-killed trees, thinning and restoring forests on a landscape-scale, and streamlining the bureaucratic paralysis and unending litigation that for decades have hampered virtually any large-scale solution.”

TO BE FAIR, IT’S ALMOST PUDDING-CUP TIME: A defiant Biden mostly silent amid Afghanistan criticism as WH weighs response.

A friend texts: “Yesterday was VJ Day. Last time America won a war. 76 years ago. Now coincides with DA Day.”

SADLY TRUE: Kurt Schlichter: Our Military is a Woke Joke. “Look at the generals, in their stupid throwback uniforms from the Forties that are supposed to make the gender studies seminar we call the US Army think it’s the same force that broke Hitler. It’s not. A serious organization does not alternate its designation of America’s most serious threat between the weather, ‘racism,’ and other Americans who dissent from the generals’ bosses’ political priorities.”

MONEY TALKS: Taliban Is Paying Military Commanders to Surrender Cities, Journalist Embedded in Afghanistan Says.

MARK JUDGE: Mom and the Miracle of Affirmation.

OUCH:

MILLEY MUST RESIGN OR BE FIRED:“While Mark Milley was reading books about ‘white rage,’ the Taliban were busy plotting to take over Afghanistan.”

Fretting about white supremacy is what our ruling class does instead of their jobs.

IT’S NON-LETHAL: The first hand-held electric rail gun for the public and law enforcement. “The Anvil generates muzzle energy – the energy of the projectile as it leaves the barrel – of around 85 joules, according to New Scientist, comparable to high-end air rifles ‘or about half the power of a .22 caliber rifle.'”

I’m holding out for a phased-plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

BUT IF YOU WON’T WEAR A MASK, YOU’RE A TERRORIST: DHS dropped 40,000 COVID-19-positive migrants in US cities.

It’s only a pandemic crisis when they need it to be a pandemic crisis.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: So…Anything Happen In Afghanistan Over the Weekend? “The situation in Afghanistan went from ‘Let’s see what happens…’ to ‘The Taliban are waltzing into Kabul with the greatest of ease…’ in less time than it took the NFL to complete its weekend preseason schedule. By the time Sunday morning rolled around in any time zone, the news coming in from Afghanistan was a firehose of awfulness.”

FLASHBACK: “For the last seven months I’ve watched Generals engage in twitter fights with people, debate the merits of Critical Race Theory on Capital Hill. It seemed like our generals were more concerned with fighting Tucker Carlson than they were the Taliban.”

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWER, DON’T ASK THE QUESTION: Census replaces income loss inquiry to make room for gender identity in COVID questionnaire.

Nothing shady or politicized about that . . .

SO WHY’D THEY VOTE FOR HIM? Only 39 percent of suburban voters back His Fraudulency’s grandiose spending if doing so requires tax hikes, according to the latest Issues & Insights/TIPP survey. Suburban voters were a key support bloc for Biden in 2020, but now that the bill is coming due, they get cold feet?

AFGHANISTAN ROUT: Biden, Psaki Remain Silent While Kabul Weeps.

COLORADO: Polis Says He’ll Lower Hammer on Scofflaw Districts to Stop COVID School Shutdowns. “This doesn’t necessarily mean that state officials would order such districts to impose the use of face coverings for all students and staffers, too. In the governor’s words, ‘If you don’t like mask-wearing, maybe you’ll have to do universal testing surveillance’ — rapid-testing of all employees and attendees at the beginning of every school day.”

Meanwhile, the hospitalization rate for 5-17-year-olds remains essentially zero.

Last week’s hospitalization rate for all age groups shows that the much-dreaded Delta spike is already fading — without the dead lining hospital corridors like cordwood.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: “The most tragic thing about Joe Biden’s cascade of failures is what it reveals about the man and his leadership team as a whole. He never had the capability to anticipate the problems which now overwhelm him and still less appears to possess the capacity to improvise a solution. Reality, so long kept at bay by the media narrative, is now inside his OODA loop and pulling ahead. What began with the border crisis was joined by the covid outbreak. The trillions of dollars in stimulus turned on him to become inflation. Without a pause Afghanistan came out of the box months ahead of his scenario. Now with stunning speed, Kabul has almost fallen. Before he can react to one thing, yet another challenge emerges. Each time the loop goes round he is further and further behind.”

The destruction wrought by the media’s narrative-maintenance is enormous, and just beginning to take hold.