EARTH AND THE GOLDILOCKS PRINCIPLE: Dr. Jeff Miller looks at five examples that illustrate one thing notables on both sides of the Existence of God issue agree about – the Earth appears to be designed specifically for human habitation and development. Not too this, not too that, but just right. Otherwise, none of us would be here to debate about it.

DON’T SWEAT IT — OBAMA ASSURED US THEY’RE JUST THE J.V.: No biggie, but ISIS appears to be in Kabul.

MIKE KERRIGAN: Peer Pressure Can Be Good.

Here’s what occurred to me one Saturday: “Don’t give in to peer pressure”—that bankable adage I grew up believing—is wrong, or at least incomplete. The lesson should be: If bad peers are applying untoward pressure, find better peers. They’re out there.

Yes.

FACT CHECK: SURPRISINGLY TRUE! White House chief of staff Ron Klain retweets Paul Begala saying Biden’s handling of Afghanistan has been ‘Trumanesque.’

Let’s review the criteria: 76 years ago this month, Truman dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to decisively end World War II. In contrast, Joe Biden’s administration, staffed with plenty of Obama retreads, is determined to give Iran the capability of making A-Bombs. So, Analysis: FALSE.

But, as a result of the debacle in Afghanistan, as Clay Travis notes, “Biden’s job approval rating has turned negative for the first time in his presidency. Rough chart. Not sure if it will ever be positive again.”

Similarly, Harry Truman’s poll numbers cratered as a result of the Korean War and an American recession. So, Analysis: TRUE.

However, that was after Truman squeaked through his election in 1948 after becoming president upon FDR’s death three years earlier. One factor that played a role in Truman’s shock election was his relentlessly negative campaign against Thomas Dewey in the final weeks of the campaign, leading to this October 26, 1948 New York Times headline: “PRESIDENT LIKENS DEWEY TO HITLER AS FASCISTS’ TOOL.”  Last year, Biden on the way to his own shock victory, used similar language, as this September 26, 2020 Politico headline illustrates: “‘He’s sort of like Goebbels:’ Biden compares Trump to Nazi propagandist.” Once again, Analysis: TRUE.

During the Korean War, Truman famously sacked MacArthur in 1951. While Biden has yet to fire any generals, he did give the Afghani army a surprising dressing down immediately after Kabul fell, as Allahpundit paraphrased on Monday: “Biden doubles down on withdrawal: How many more Americans should die to defend people who won’t defend themselves?” This is a close enough comparison that we can say: Analysis: TRUE!

And like Truman, Biden will likely walk out of the White House (if what’s left of his health holds out) seen as a mammoth failure as president. But also like Truman, an army of leftist historians and Democratic Party operatives with bylines will devote their lives to telling the American people, “who are you going to believe when it comes to how wonderful a president Biden was, us or your lying eyes?” Yet again, Analysis: TRUE!

As Mickey Kaus asked in 2011, “Do the Truman analogies come before or after the Call for the Wise Men? I’ve misplaced my copy of the Failing Presidency Playbook.”

MORE QUESTIONABLE RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, WHICH SEEMS TO BE FULL OF IT: A Big Study About Honesty Turns Out To Be Based On Fake Data.

UVA DISENROLLS HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS FOR NOT BEING VACCINATED.

IT’S COME TO THIS:

THE PROBLEM ISN’T A SHORTAGE OF AIRPLANES: US considers ordering commercial airlines to help in Afghan evacuation: DOD says the decision to activate Civil Reserve Air Fleet is “pre-decisional” and that “there are other options” in upping Afghan evacuations.

OPEN THREAD: Home of the block rockin’ beats. Ah, that was a simpler, more elegant time.

TRUMP RALLY: LIVE IN ALABAMA.

The contrast between Trump and Biden today is very striking.

ITERATIVE LEARNING: Every SpaceX Starship explosion and what Elon Musk and team learned from them (video).

EXPECT MORE OF THIS, WORLDWIDE: In Melbourne, Australia, a protest against Covid restrictions turned violent. The powers-that-be have taken a big reputation hit due to their heavyhanded but largely ineffective response.

Related: To Defeat Delta Variant, Experts Recommend Doing All The Things That Didn’t Work The First Time.

UPDATE: How could I forget this one? Try ‘glory holes’ for safer sex during coronavirus, B.C. CDC says.

2021: If you can’t take in anymore, there’s a reason: an essay on circuit breakers, empty buckets, and the shame-show of social media.

CHANGE: Rice University Turns to Online Classes: The Texas school has high vaccination rates. And strict mask rules. Now, it’s taken another step to fend off the coronavirus.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Nevergreen, by my friend Andrew Pessin, a biting satire of woke campus life.

PRAISE THE LORD, AND PASS THE AMMUNITION:

YEP. Afghanistan proves our failed generals no longer care about winning.

Related: Unfit to Serve, Undeserving to Lead.

THE PRICE OF LOUSY ELITES:

HIPS DON’T LIE: Humans ditched swiveling hips to shorten their stride; chimps do the opposite.

THE LATEST STRATEGYTALK TALKS TURKEY: From Ottoman Empire To Erdogan Empire. Recorded the morning of August 6. An MP3 version is available here. The webmaster asked me to add this to the instapost: if you like StrategyTalk on YouTube, please subscribe. Since the recording Turkey faces a wave of Afghan refugees, though there were signs that problem was developing. Jim Dunnigan and I recorded a StrategyTalk episode on Afghanistan yesterday. I’m not certain when it will be available but I suspect its production will be fast-tracked.

MY LATEST CREATORS SYNDICATE COLUMN: Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster Didn’t Have To Happen. I wrote it Tuesday. StrategyPage had it up very early Wednesday, so I linked to it. Glenn bumped it yesterday. Powerline also linked to it (thanks guys). As time passes it becomes crystal clear the last sentences are tragically accurate: “There was time. Incompetent, arrogant and oblivious White House leadership compounded by obscenely bad interagency planning created the horror we witness and the slaughter to be.” Time for what? A systematic and coordinated (with allies) withdrawal of deserving Afghan civilians, U.S. equipment and U.S. military personnel The column also briefly discusses the planning time line for a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) for an area as large as Afghanistan. And it deplores the abandonment of Bagram.

RELATED: A photo from 2012 of a USAF C-17 taxiing at Bagram Airfield. Good picture. Bagram was/is an impressive facility. If we’re serious about evacuating 80,000 people we need to regain control. I visited Bagram twice, the first time in 2005 the second in 2007. During the 2005 trip I spent three or four days there, in my foreign correspondent embed role. One day during the stint I accompanied a U.S. Army MP platoon on a motor patrol. The patrol’s purpose was “presence” –check out routes for signs of suspicious activity and meet and greet the locals. In at least two small villages the platoon leader and the interpreter spoke with local leaders. Just remembered this: the medic on the patrol checked out a sick child. All told the patrol took maybe six hours. The interpreter was outstanding and unusual: an Afghan who was a naturalized U.S. citizen. He’d been living in California for 30 years and if I recall correctly, owned a chemical engineering firm. He told me he was a wealthy man and could be home in California. But the Afghan people deserved better and now (2005) they have a chance. He didn’t need to expand on a chance for what. I knew what he meant.

I HOPE WE’RE NOT TOO MESSIANIC, OR A TRIFLE TOO SATANIC: ‘Hail, Satan!’ — An Australian broadcaster accidentally ran footage of a satanic ritual during a news segment on police dog welfare.

BUT OF COURSE: Senate Democrats are now seeking revenge on behalf of their friends in Silicon Valley. Just days after Armslist filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Instagram over being deplatformed, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced legislation ‘to hold accountable online gun marketplaces that allow illegal gun sales to be conducted on their platforms.'”

KURT SCHLICHTER: How Are Those Mean Tweets Looking Now? “This is a disaster on every level. Look, I’m crusty. I’m old. I’m not Joe Biden old, and I don’t sit in a rocker with a shawl on watching ‘Murder She Wrote’ reruns eating gruel and wetting myself, but I am old. I am old enough to remember Saigon and the fall of Saigon. I think I was about ten years old. But I remember it vividly. I remember what a disaster it was. This is worse.”