THIS ‘NEWS STORY’ EPITOMIZES THE DEATH OF REAL JOURNALISM: Roll Call piece is a barely concealed appeal for censorship of non-leftist viewpoints: “Karen Kornbluh, who directs the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, described how social media algorithms can quickly lure a user from innocuous political content to instructional videos for forming a militia.”

It’s all the fault of the algorithms, not the little dictators in the cubicles or the big ones in the executive suites. And the solution, as always, is to let government control the algorithms.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Democrats Are Clinically Insane. Discuss. “Democrats and economics have a very casual relationship in which the former is quite abusive.”

I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER GODDAMN THING ABOUT MY CARBON FOOTPRINT:

POLITIFACT RATES THIS STATEMENT “TRUE, BUT INCONVENIENT:”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: A once-quiet battle to replace the space station suddenly is red hot.

In recent years, signs of aging have become more apparent, particularly with cracks spreading across the Zvezda module. And more than the hardware is coming apart. The political forces that drove the formation of the space station partnership, principally the desire of the United States and Russia to work together after the Soviet breakup, have given way to a zealous anti-Americanism in Moscow and suspicions in Washington, DC. The partnership remains intact for now, thanks to healthy working relationships among astronauts, cosmonauts, and engineers. But politically, the rhetoric is at times toxic.

Although nothing has been formalized, a general consensus has emerged among the international partners that the International Space Station can probably keep flying through 2028 or 2030. But after that? NASA realizes it needs a succession plan.

Politicians and policymakers have started employing the spectre of the dreaded “g” word, saying NASA must avoid a “gap” in flying a low-Earth-orbit space station. This has become especially urgent with China’s recent, successful launch of its own Tiangong space station in April. In response to these concerns, NASA has hatched a plan. Recognizing the maturing US commercial space industry, NASA intends to become an “anchor tenant” of one or more privately developed space stations.

If Jeff Bezos is serious about space habitats, he should get Blue Origin out of direct competition with SpaceX for launch capability (a competition they’ve pretty much already lost), and redirect the company to building space station modules.

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Merrick Garland has proved himself unfit for Supreme Court — but he shouldn’t be AG either.

ROLL UP! ROLL UP! FOR THE MAGICAL TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE TOUR! Roger Kimball: Joe Biden takes his failures on tour.

Biden’s lack of a vote is also going to be a problem after he leaves Rome and travels to Glasgow to talk about “climate change.” He was supposed to have lots of money for that, too. Glasgow is a good place to hold a conference on climate change, because the weather there is always changing, though of course partisans of the green agenda don’t mean “weather” when they utter the word “climate.” What exactly do they mean, comrade? Shhh! Don’t be a spoil sport. Anyway, there is not much evidence in Glasgow of the “global warming” that is supposed to consuming the world any minute, right after the population bomb, global cooling, or whatever ChickenLittle fabricated threat — is COVID caused by global warming? — is next up to break the world and require more obedience, more taxes, more mandates, and decidedly less common sense.

During the Revolutionary War, Adam Smith famously told a forlorn correspondent not to worry because, even though America was set to win that conflict against Britain, “there is a deal of ruin in a nation.” I once quoted that line to a savvy friend who said, “especially this nation.” That was during the Troubles Economic of 2007-2008. He was right and the United States soldiered on and, under Donald Trump, performed brilliantly. We had reasonable growth, very low unemployment, lower taxes, rising wages, less regulation, secure borders and the slogan “Make America Great Again” seemed to be a wish that was coming true.

“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f*** things up,” as a legendary community advisor warned last year.

I’M BEGINNING TO THINK THE VACCINES WERE A BIT OVERSOLD: Vaccinated People Easily Transmit COVID-19 Delta Variant in Households: UK Study. “The Delta COVID-19 variant can easily transmit from vaccinated people to their household members, said a recent UK study, although its researchers concluded that vaccinations and boosters are the way forward.”

UPDATE: More: Delta Variant of COVID-19: Fully Vaccinated People Can Contract The New Variant And Spread It Further, Lancet Study Confirms.

Plus: “A total of 205 household contacts of Delta variant index cases were identified, of whom 53 tested positive for COVID-19. Among vaccinated contacts infected with the Delta variant, the median length of time since vaccination was 101 days, compared with 64 days for uninfected contacts, the researchers said. This suggests that the risk of infection increased within three months of receiving a second vaccine dose, likely due to waning protective immunity, they said.”

I’m beginning to think that the responsible thing to do if you’re low-risk is to contract actual Covid so that you have the superior natural immunity.

WRONG, OBAMA: Most say critical race theory, transgender teaching not ‘phony’ issues.

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE K-12 IMPLOSION AND WEIMAR AMERICA: Florida School Board Member Takes Young Children to Gay Bar on a Field Trip.

THERE’S A WORD FOR SPENDING MONEY YOU DON’T HAVE FOR GOODS THAT AREN’T BEING PRODUCED: BIDENFLATION. U.S. Economy Is in Freefall As Biden’s Only Answer Appears to Be ‘Spend More Money.’

TOP SELLER: Vont 4 Pack LED Camping Lantern. #CommissionEarned

RIGGED: Poll: Majority of Americans Say Big Tech Censorship of Hunter Laptop Story Interfered With Election.

Well, that’s because it did, and it’s why many will regard the Biden/Harris administration as illegitimate.

SO DEEPLY YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE IT: HOW DEEPLY HAVE THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS PENETRATED OUR INSTITUTIONS? The Chinese appear to have figured out that our military was hard to fight, but that our ruling class is corrupt, venal, incompetent, and easily penetrated.

CLOWARD AND PIVEN SMILE: New Report Shows Growth of the Welfare State Has Fueled Long-Term Declines in the Labor Force.

Flashback: Milton Friedman’s Revenge.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Supply Chain Update. “Our supply chain problems are a culmination of years of bad policy decisions by America’s elites.”

THE DAVE CHAPELLE PROBLEM IS WORSE THAN YOU THINK:

Which is why I put quotation marks around “controversial” above. What controversy? A handful of Netflix employees — the New York Times reported it was “dozens” in a firm that employs 9,400 — attended a rally last week to make some noise about Chappelle, but every day in this country there are “dozens” of protesters showing up to rally against this or that. Dozens of protesters routinely show up for school-board meetings without the national media taking any interest whatsoever, much less assigning two reporters to the matter as the Times did.

The Chappelle affair, then, is merely a case of the media hyping and exaggerating the popularity of an extremist agenda enthusiastically backed by its woke reporters and commentators. And what is that agenda? No jokes that find humor in transgenderism. Not even the mildest, tamest, gentlest, most sympathetic comic musings are permitted. We’re watching the rollout of a new policy before our eyes; transgender jokes are the new N-word and must be scrubbed from the public discourse. Chappelle may be too popular to be shut down, but the rest of the culture is receiving the message loud and clear. To the comics who pride themselves on being “rebels” and “free thinkers” who “break boundaries” and “don’t play by the rules,” it’s your move.

I’m tired of losers and assholes deciding what we can say.

TEAM MCAULIFFE EMAILS REVEAL EFFORT TO ‘KILL THIS’ FOX NEWS STORY:

[Marc] Elias has represented Democrats in efforts to contest elections. Going into the 2020 election, he represented Democrats challenging a Texas law barring “straight-ticket voting.”

House Republicans accused Elias of having a “serious conflict of interest” when he represented Iowa Democratic candidate Rita Hart in her effort to overturn the results of her extremely narrow loss to Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. GOP members House Administration Committee said that Elias had a conflict because he and Perkins Coie – where he still worked at the time – also represented half of the Democratic committee members who would be deciding the case.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote that McAuliffe hiring Elias is an “astonishing move.”

“There are a host of election lawyers but McAuliffe selected an attorney accused of lying to the media, advancing rejected conspiracy theories, and currently involved in a major federal investigation that has already led to the indictment of his former partner,” Turley wrote.

“McAuliffe may be preparing to challenge any win by Republican Glenn Youngkin,” he wrote on Twitter.

Fox News reached out to the McAuliffe campaign for comment on Turley’s suggestion. McAuliffe spokesperson Christina Freundlich responded to the email with a message apparently meant for colleagues, not for Fox News.

“Can we try to kill this,” Freundlich wrote.

It’s PJM alum Tyler O’Neil, so read the whole thing.

DON’T GET COCKY: One Democrat Leader Seems to Think His Party Is Doomed Next Year.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT:  Barbarella (2021-) #4.

Having come face-to-shocking face with the identity of her would-be assassin, Barbarella’s quest has turned from merely combatting tyranny to one of survival! How handy that the two quests amount to one and the same. Barbarella and Vix follow the trail to Automata, a factory world populated solely by worker drones, which begs the question: do androids dream of electric freedom?

DEMOCRATS AT WAR WITH THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES: NYC vaccine mandate: Police, fire unions warn of possible staffing ‘crisis’ as deadline looms.

Also: NYC to pay a huge price for DeBlasio’s vaccine mandate:. “And remember: Not one police officer was vaccinated before this year — no one was. Yet they still did their jobs. In fact, they were among the few professionals that kept coming to work to protect the public at great personal risk. Their reward? Forced vaccination on pain of dismissal.”

Related: Dems’ vaccine mandates for police are bound to backfire.

If I were a billionaire, I’d set up a fraternal organization for the police, fire, and military people laid off because of the mandates.

AFRICA, THIRD WORLD HURT MOST BECAUSE AMERICA MANDATES UNNECESSARY JABS:  World faces shortage of syringes as COVID vaccine doses rise.

DEMANDS FOR CIVILITY NO LONGER WORK:  Civility.

We are no longer at home to civility. Soon we won’t be at home to anything they want. Oxi!

I’D SAY PUT THEM IN BIKINIS AND THROW THEM IN A JELLO-FILLED RINK:  Is Jill Biden asking about a ‘process’ for removing Kamala Harris?

But I’ve seen what these two look like*, and we can’t afford to turn conservative men off women for good.  So, no.

*We should long ago have started a “good eye care for Willie Brown” fund raiser.

IF YOU HAVE KIDS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL, YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO NOD OFF:  Kansas schools duck questions about sex education standards.