JOHN LUCAS: Biden Administration Orders Ideological Purge Of U.S. Military Academies. “There is no greater danger to the country than this effort to politicize the military by ensuring that all officers hew to the political party line of this administration.”

PREVIOUS TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS AT LEAST ALLOWED HEAVY DRINKING AS AN ESCAPE: Now they’re confiscating alcohol delivered to locked-down Australian apartments if booze volume exceeds state-sanctioned limits.

THE HYPE HAS ALWAYS BEEN ARTIFICIAL: Bucknell University’s new Intro to Trans Studies class attracts five students.

IT’S SUCH A RELIEF HAVING THE GROWNUPS BACK IN CHARGE: Amid Disasters at Home and Abroad, Biden White House Staffers Busy Choosing ‘Magic Spirit Animals.’

EVERYONE IS CONSERVATIVE ABOUT WHAT HE KNOWS BEST: Students aren’t concerned about inflation…until they hear about the price of beer.

I’M NOT READING TOO MUCH INTO STORIES LIKE THIS ONE UNTIL THERE’S A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS: Fissures grow in House Democrats’ support for Biden’s $3.5 trillion social welfare bill.

GIVEN THE BLATANT FBI MISCONDUCT NEEDED TO BRING CHARGES, THIS WAS THE RIGHT OUTCOME: Chinese researcher accused of spying under DOJ initiative acquitted of all charges.

“[E]ven viewing all the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, no rational jury could conclude that defendant acted with a scheme to defraud NASA” in failing to disclose his affiliation with the Beijing University of Technology to UTK, U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan wrote in the decision.

The judge added “there was no evidence presented that defendant ever collaborated with a Chinese university in conducting his NASA-funded research, or used facilities, equipment, or funds from a Chinese university in the course of such research.”

Flashback:

Will there be consequences for this misbehavior? Will anyone be charged, or even fired?

And will the University of Tennessee give him his job back? I think it should.

UPDATE: Here’s the opinion. Note that the defense motion for acquittal was opposed by the Justice Department. Some local media — cough, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, cough — is trying to spin this as some sort of racist Trump prosecution, but the Biden Administration didn’t drop it. In fact, they planned a retrial. They just lost. And the notion that the FBI was a willing tool of Trump seems . . . dubious anyway.

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Masks are here to stay as long as libs need to shame their political enemies.

BIDEN’S BUNGLED BUGOUT: Afghanis Selling Their Kids to Buy Food.

NON-COMPLIANCE IS AN AMERICAN VIRTUE going back before abolitionism.

MISANDRY: “Teenage boys are six times more likely to suffer from heart problems from the vaccine than be hospitalised from Covid-19, a major study has found.” Because it is happening to boys, will anyone other than their parents care?

BITE ME, BIDEN: More Biden: Wear your mask while flying or you’ll face steeper fines — and show some respect while you’re at it.

UPDATE: A friend comments: “Chris Plante points out today that President Trump was often angry on our behalf, but Joe Biden is angry AT us.”

WHY ARE SO MANY AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS RUN BY PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA? National Archives and Records Association puts “harmful content” label on Constitution, founding documents.

But they’ve backed down now that they’re under the spotlight.

MARK PULLIAM: California and Texas: The Blue and the Red? “Once a state reaches a certain degree of political uniformity, it tends to repel those who disagree and attract fellow adherents, reinforcing its identity, but California only recently attained this monolithic status.”

THAT’S NOT GOOD: Smoke detected in Russian module on space station. “Roscosmos said a smoke detector and an alarm were set off on the Zvezda service module, which provides living quarters for crew members on the ISS, when batteries were being recharged overnight.”

MOVING AN AIR FORCE SUPER BIG GUY: Good photo of an airman directing a C-5M Super Galaxy transport prior to takeoff. Photo snapped Aug. 21, 2021, at Travis Air Force Base, California.

TO BE FAIR, HE’S TERRIBLE: Oh Joe: More Americans ‘than ever’ turn against Biden, Democrats sour.

OILY ANTONY AND JAW DROP JEN MIMIC “THE BIG GUY” BIDEN: Biden Administration Word Games Cannot Hide Prolonged Hostage Crisis — but they’re trying.

Blinken and Psaki mimic President Joe Biden’s repugnant example. On Aug. 31, Reuters published a July 23 telephone exchange between Biden and Afghan then-President Ashraf Ghani. Biden told Ghani that ” … the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban. And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture. ”

The Reuters report has decisive historical importance. Biden knew his clumsy, incompetent and haphazard withdrawal was failing. However, instead of assisting the Afghan government in order to safely and successfully evacuate U.S. citizens, Biden wanted Ghani to use word and image perception gimmickry to conceal Biden’s real-world leadership, policy and battlefield failure.

My latest Creators Syndicate column (bumped).

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Biden Takes His COVID Tyranny to a Disturbing New Level. “Biden would never have gotten to play Occupy Oval Office had the Wuhan Chinese Bat Flu not arrived in America during a presidential election year. He knows that and has been conducting himself as if he owes the virus a debt of gratitude and is determined to keep fear of it alive. It’s his Precious.”

COLLUSION: Microsoft Exec Sounds Alarm About Chinese Tech Abuses as Company Collaborates With China: Company’s top scientist says China’s use of AI is ‘chilling.’

GOOD POINT:

Though I’d say, “he polls better on his Covid handling so far.”

WANTED: A JAMMER FOR THIS. Facebook on your face.

Starting Thursday, the first pair of smart glasses made by Facebook and Ray-Ban are going on sale for $299. They’re called Ray-Ban Stories, and you’ll be able to find them pretty much anywhere Ray-Bans are sold, including LensCrafters and Sunglasses Hut stores.

The frames feature two-front facing cameras for capturing video and photos. They sync with a companion camera roll app called Facebook View, where clips can be edited and shared to other apps on your phone (not just Facebook’s own). There’s a physical button on the glasses for recording, or you can say “Hey Facebook, take a video” to control them hands-free.

I’d be genuinely shocked if these glasses weren’t uploading to Facebook more or less continuously.

DICTATORIAL CORPORATISM: Jen Psaki Just Confirmed the White House Is Going to ‘Force’ Vaccine Mandates on Private Enterprise.

GEORGE KORDA: Mixed messages in 2020 may be behind some ongoing vaccine resistance.

The people who got it wrong owe the country either a non-self-defensive admission of their error, or an apology.

Throughout the summer of 2020, President Donald Trump predicted that a COVID-19 vaccine would be ready by year-end. Trump’s expectation was met with a wall of skeptical political, medical, and media reaction. One wonders especially about the effect on Americans predisposed to vaccine hesitancy, regardless of race, age, gender, or political party.

For example, a Sept. 16, 2020 Associated Press story quotes then-candidate Joe Biden saying, ’I trust vaccines. I trust scientists, but I don’t trust Donald Trump, and at this moment, the American people can’t, either.” As Trump told Americans a vaccine would be ready by year-end, Biden was telling American to not believe him – and that’s what dominated the headlines.

The publication Scientific American weighed in with a June 22, 2020, commentary headlined, “The Risks of Rushing a COVID-19 Vaccine, Telescoping testing time lines and approvals may expose all of us to unnecessary dangers.”

Among the article’s points: “But there are risks that come with a fast-tracked vaccine delivered end of this year, not the least of which are the risks related to the safety of the vaccine itself … Aside from questions of safety that attend any vaccine, there are good reasons to be especially cautious for COVID-19. Some vaccines worsen the consequences of infection rather than protect … As recently as 2016, Dengavxia, intended to protect children from the dengue virus, increased hospitalizations for children who received the vaccine.”

A Sept. 3, 2020 CNN Health Report headlined blared, “Doctors warn against rushing a COVID-19 vaccine as Fauci says it’s critical to have a safe Labor Day.” The report said many health experts thought a safe and effective vaccine could be ready by early 2021, but added warnings. A graphic illustrating five phases of vaccine development included, “Typically each step can take two years or more to complete.” The graphic was followed by this: “Some doctors say they’d rather see a vaccine go through all the rigors to get a full FDA approval.’

‘”How can you justify a substandard or lesser review for something that would be injected in tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of Americans?’ said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.”

Speaking of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, his changing comments on masks and other subjects, including Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA) for COVID-19 vaccines, did little to build confidence.

An August 2020 Newsweek article on EUAs for COVID-19 vaccine began: “Dr. Anthony Fauci has said experimental coronavirus vaccines should not be given emergency use authorization (EUA) — especially if their effectiveness has not been proven — as it could undermine the development of others.” In Dec. 2020, the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were issued EUAs from the Food and Drug Administration.

The Trump-related nature of some of the vaccine-wariness articles was encapsulated in two national stories in May 2020: “Trump promises coronavirus vaccine by end of the year, but his own experts temper expectations – A vaccine has never been developed so quickly,” ABC News, and “Fact check: Coronavirus vaccine could come this year, Trump says. Experts say he needs a ‘miracle’ to be right,” NBC News.

That doesn’t matter now because shut up.