PRIORITIES: Unearthed Strategic Plan Unveils Army Corps Of Engineers’ Goal To Force DEI Onto Service Members.

SPACEX’S 69TH LAUNCH OF THE YEAR: SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida.

IN HIS CASE, THE LOYALTY WAS TO AN ACTUAL DICTATOR, CHAIRMAN XI: Mark Milley says military’s oath isn’t to ‘wannabe dictator’ in retirement speech.

I would say good riddance but for the fear that, unlikely as it may seem, his successor might be worse.

JURY FINDS FORMER LOUDOUN COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT GUILTY OF CRIME STEMMING FROM TRANS RAPE COVERUP.

PENN IS HAVING A BAD DECADE: Free Speech and Anti-Semitism at the University of Pennsylvania.

GREAT MOMENTS IN EXHIBITIONIST NARCISSISM: Cleanup of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate after climate protest to be longer and more expensive.

The cost of cleaning the gate was initially put at about 35,000 euros ($36,900). But the management company, Berliner Immobilienmanagement, made clear that it now expects a bigger and much more expensive effort.

The color that was used has seeped deeper into the sandstone monument than originally thought because of its water content, BIM said in a statement. It added that various cleaning techniques have been tested, and a combination of those methods will probably have to be used — as well as the potential use of laser technology.

That means the cleaning work will probably take “several weeks” and the costs will increase, BIM added. It said that it’s not currently possible to give a precise figure, but it expects “costs in the six-digit region” because scaffolding will have to put up around parts of the gate.

Earlier: Joel Kotkin: Environmentalism is a Fundamentalist Religion.

And Michael Shellenberger has a thread on the intersection of apocalyptic environmentalism and exhibitionist narcissism that’s well worth a read:

MARK JUDGE: Fresh and Powerful Mother Teresa & Me Offers a Fresh Look at an Iconic Saint.

THIS BARELY QUALIFIES AS PARODY: Gavin Newsom Says California Believes In Free Speech And If You Disagree You Will Be Arrested.

THE FIRST OF TRUMP’S GEORGIA CO-DEFENDANTS TAKES PLEA DEAL:

One of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the sweeping Georgia racketeering case has entered into a plea deal.

Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit election interference on Friday.

He is the first of the 19 defendants charged in the Fulton County election interference case to plead guilty.

As part of his plea deal, Hall will serve five years of probation, pay a $5,000 fine, and do 200 hours of community service. He also agreed to write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia and to “testify truthfully” at future court proceedings in the case.

It will be interesting to hear what he’s “testifying truthfully” about going forward.

JOHN LUCAS: Moral Standards Crumble, Senators Fiddle.

LOL: Right-Wing Conservative Patriots Need a Hero Who Fights for Their Values. Meet Hunter Biden. Big stick energy: This pro-gun, anti-tax American capitalist is doing everything he can to take down the Democratic president.

OPEN THREAD: It’s Friday Night.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China to attempt lunar far side sample return in 2024.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: What We Can Learn From Dianne Feinstein.

NOW OUT FROM THOMAS SOWELL: Social Justice Fallacies.

RFK, JR. TO RUN AS AN INDEPENDENT: “While the cope in public will be that the party is better off without RFK Jr. and that he’ll pull perhaps more from Trump’s support than Brandon’s, neither of these claims is true in reality. Democrat voters, who are given no real option besides Brandon at the moment and are constantly mocked by party apparatchiks that they have no other choice, will take their support elsewhere in 2024. If RFK Jr. goes through with his plans, and he’s not suicided Epstein-style in the process, this will very probably be the death knell for Brandon’s re-election prospects, which were on thin ice as it was.”

The Epstein thing is alas real, as are other threats. I mean, there have already been issues.

SPIDER VENOM AS the next Viagra.

YOUR GRANDMOTHER WAS RIGHT: Debunking Freud: Suppressing Negative Thoughts May Be Good for Mental Health. “Researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit trained 120 volunteers worldwide to suppress thoughts about negative events that worried them, and found that not only did these become less vivid, but that the participants’ mental health also improved. . . . Suppressing thoughts even improved mental health amongst participants with likely post-traumatic stress disorder. Among participants with post-traumatic stress who suppressed negative thoughts, their negative mental health indices scores fell on average by 16% (compared to a 5% fall for similar participants suppressing neutral events), whereas positive mental health indices scores increased by almost 10% (compared to a 1% fall in the second group). In general, people with worse mental health symptoms at the outset of the study improved more after suppression training, but only if they suppressed their fears. This finding directly contradicts the notion that suppression is a maladaptive coping process.”

A cynic might suggest that suppression is disfavored by mental health practitioners because it generates less business for mental health practitioners.

KILLJOYS ARE EVERYWHERE: Broadcasters should avoid ‘problematic’ shots of alcohol covering sporting events, researchers say. “Broadcasters providing news coverage of sporting events should avoid “problematic” shots of fans drinking alcohol, a team of researchers said Thursday. Frank Houghton and Daisy Houghton, a team of social scientists in Ireland, made the declaration in a commentary article published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine focusing on gender equity in sports driven by this year’s Women’s Soccer World Cup Final.”

Oh, please.

AT THIS POINT, I’LL ONLY BELIEVE THEM IF THERE ARE HONORABLE SUICIDES:

If the establishment is sensing impending disaster on all fronts; that revelations they've concealed so far are going to break, perhaps the prepared narrative for 2024 is the story a penitent, born-again Dem party vs an unrepentant, dirty DJT — if you'll buy it.

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) September 28, 2023

DON SURBER: Bring back the chaos then: In the 3rd year of Little Red Bidenhood, our nation needs Trump.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: It’s Your Birthday and You’ll Do WHAT If You Want To? “This week we have a daring police cruiser escape, a CIA bike ninja, and the Oklahoma judge who really should have known better.”

REPORT: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Planning to Announce Independent Run.

GOOD QUESTION: Ruger Wants to Know Why Texas’s AG Gave Wells Fargo a Pass on Their Financial Discrimination Policy.

EBOLA IS A RIVER, ZIKA IS A FOREST:  My Civil Right Commission colleagues rightly say that opposition hate crimes shouldn’t be a partisan issue.  But for something nonpartisan, the Commission’s report on Anti-Asian Racism (released Wednesday) spends an awful lot of time suggesting Trump’s use of the term “China virus” and “Wuhan virus” inspired violent crime against Asians.  In my response to the report, I point out just how many diseases are named for their point of origin.