COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: JAMA network open paper policing misinformation is full of misinformation.

NEW BUSINESS STRATEGY: (1) Sell your business to a big woke corporation; (2) Watch them drive it into the ground; (3) Buy it back at a steep discount and return it to its roots. Anheuser-Busch heir offers to buy back Bud Light: ‘We’ll make that brand great again.’

DARKNESS: Misinformation isn’t killing America, secrecy is.

RELATED: It’s democracy in the dark without Nashville shooter manifesto’s release.

BY ED LACY, REISSUED BY D. JASON FLEMING:  Enter Without Desire (Annotated): The pulp noir classic.

#COMISSIONEARNED

OH. SO THAT’S WHY MORE TRUMP INDICTMENTS:  Breakdown of $21 Million the Biden Family, Associates Received From Foreign Sources: GOP Reports.

THE CULT OF TRANS SHALL NOT BE MOCKED:  Edinburgh Venue Cancels Comedy Show Over Appearance by ‘Father Ted’ Co-creator Graham Linehan.

IS THERE NOTHING FRACKING CANNOT BE BLAMED FOR DO?  Study Suggests Link Between Fracking and Childhood Lymphoma.

Also I’ll pay attention when the study has been reproduced two or three times.

OH REALLY? AFTER GOING ALONG HE NOW WANTS TO FIGHT?  Manchin Vows to Push Back Against ‘Radical Climate Agenda’ Implemented Through Inflation Reduction Act.

OR YOU KNOW, IT COULD BE BEING BLAMED FOR EVERYTHING, INCLUDING FOR BEING DRIVEN TO DESPAIR:  ‘Cowboy mentality’ blamed for worsening suicide rate among men.

OF COURSE. MEN ARE TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING, INCLUDING NOT… ER… POSITIONING WOMEN FOR SUCCESS IN THIS:  Men are failing women during sex — here’s how to change that: expert.

MAYBE. I MEAN, HE ONLY KILLED SOMEONE. IT’S NOT LIKE HE WON AN ELECTION AGAINST HILARY CLINTON!  Alec Baldwin could be charged again in ‘Rust’ shooting after analysis finds trigger was pulled.

BLUE ON BLUE:  Gov. Hochul slams Mayor Adams’ migrant response as slow in scathing letter.

WELL,OF COURSE. BIDEN THINKS ATTACKING AMERICA IS A GOOD THING:  Biden administration tells 9/11 families that attack mastermind, 4 others could be spared death penalty.

THEY KNEW BETTER:  The Fire in Maui and the Lesson of Greece.

SOMETIMES THE GOOD GUYS WIN:  Here’s the Zoom link to the 43rd Prometheus Awards ceremony Aug. 19, with past winner Sarah Hoyt to present Best Novel to Dave Freer and Heinlein Society/Trust leaders celebrating Heinlein’s legacy.

RON HART: ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’ — America’s Cry For Help Against Washington’s Permanent Elite.

THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST:

@americanpolitiks Margarita Joe ☺️ . . . . #margarita #darkbrandon #biden2024 #biden #trump2024 #trump #trumptrain ♬ original sound – American Politiks 🇺🇸

OPEN THREAD: Do that comment voodoo that you do so well.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Survey: Number 1 Quality Men Look For In A Wife Is A Woman Who Will Fight Off Invisible Lizard People On The Plane Who Aren’t Real.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chandrayaan-3 vs. Luna-25: Are India and Russia racing to the moon’s south pole?

WELL, THAT WOULD BE KINDA BIG, IF TRUE: Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Allege that David Weiss “Reneged” On Their Deal, Strongly Implying That Weiss Did Agree to a Secret Immunity for All Crimes, and Only Withdrew That When the Judge Started Asking Questions.

On the other hand, it’s from Hunter Biden’s lawyers. There may be a less trustworthy source out there somewhere, but. . .

DAVE PORTNOY STRIKES BACK: Note the place that claims to hate him and his audience still has the sticker for his 2018 9.1 review in the window. The 2023 review is 7.3.

7.3 isn’t actually a bad review for Portnoy, but a 9.1 is almost unheard of — it means the place is worth a special trip. Don’t worry, Sauce Pizza, I don’t think you’ll have very many of those Barstool Bros you say you hate cluttering up your restaurants anymore.

CONSERVATISM, ANIMAL-STYLE:

Whenever I am down in the LA area, as I am today, my mind runs to ordering French fries “animal style” from In-and-Out burgers. (IYKYK.) But today, opening up the Washington Post, I discover the origins of a possible new sect of conservatism: Animal-House conservatives, who naturally do things “animal-style.”

Yes, the Post really does suggest that the 1978 comedy blockbuster Animal House bears some responsibility for the Reagan era coming to pass. The movie, quite simply in the eyes of the Post, “changed everything.” You think I’m kidding? The author offers a disclaimer:

I’m not saying that “Animal House” led directly to the election of Ronald Reagan two years later. But I am saying the movie empowered a generation of 20-somethings to aspire to a new hedonism — call it, at best, enlightened selfishness — that spilled over into the political sphere.

Senator Blutarsky smiles.

QUESTION ANSWERED: Why Bill Watterson Vanished.

“Work and home were so intermingled that I had no refuge from the strip when I needed a break,” Watterson recalls. “Day or night, the work was always right there, and the book-publishing schedule was as relentless as the newspaper deadlines. Having certain perfectionist and maniacal tendencies, I was consumed by Calvin and Hobbes.”

By Watterson’s own admission, he cannot accurately recall a whole decade of his life because of his “Ahab-like obsession” with his work. “The intensity of pushing the writing and drawing as far as my skills allowed was the whole point of doing it,” he says. “I eliminated pretty much everything from my life that wasn’t the strip.” While Watterson’s wife, Melissa Richmond, organized everything around him, he furthered his isolation, burrowing ever more deeply into the strip’s world. There was no other way, he believed, to keep its integrity absolute. “My approach was probably too crazy to sustain for a lifetime,” he says, “but it let me draw the exact strip I wanted while it lasted.”

When crises arose, it often seemed like the end of the world. First, there was the fight with the syndicate. It looks like a piddling matter now, when few newspapers turn a profit, but in the Reagan era, there was still some money to be made in print media—particularly in licensing the rights to popular cartoons. Watterson wasn’t opposed to licensing in principle, but he felt that nearly all the merchandising proposals presented to him would devalue his strip of its artistic merit. He fought with his syndicate for years and expressed his dissatisfaction with the business side of the comics industry in speeches, in interviews, and, eventually, in court. At last, he won a renegotiated contract and the right to draw bigger, more complex Sunday strips, something Watterson had wanted since he began. The victory was pyrrhic. “For the last half of the strip, I had all the artistic freedom I ever wanted, I had sabbaticals, I had a good lead on deadlines, and I felt I was working at the peak of my talents,” he says. But Watterson had designed a world for himself so self-contained that any disruption could mean its destruction: “I just knew it was time to go.”  

Read the whole thing.

TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: The Trump Trials Will Be an O.J.-Level Media Frenzy.