WE DESERVE BETTER THAN A LOT OF THE THINGS WE’RE GETTING: Don Surber: Chaturbate Nation: We deserve better than porn stars and a zombie in public office.

But we get what we put up with, not what we deserve.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Water ice on the moon may be key for future space missions. But is there enough?

READER FAVORITE: Compressed Air Duster – Keyboard Cleaner for Office.#CommissionEarned

I DO NOT TRUST THE INTERNET OF THINGS: The Man Amazon Erased.

On Thursday, May 25, Brandon Jackson, a software engineer in Baltimore County, Maryland, discovered that he was locked out of his Amazon account. Jackson couldn’t get packages delivered to his home by the retail giant. He couldn’t access any files and data he had stored with Amazon Web Services, the company’s powerful cloud computing wing. It also meant that Jackson, a self-described home automation enthusiast, could no longer use Alexa for his smart home devices. He could turn on his lights manually, but only in the knowledge that Amazon could still operate them remotely.

Jackson soon discovered that Amazon suspended his account because a Black delivery driver who’d come to his house the previous day had reported hearing racist remarks from his video doorbell. In a brief email sent to Jackson at 3 a.m., the company explained how it unilaterally placed all of his linked devices and services on hold as it commenced an internal investigation.

The accusations baffled Jackson. He and his family are Black. When he reviewed the doorbell’s footage, he saw that nobody was home at the time of the delivery. At a loss for what could have prompted the accusation of racism, he suspected the driver had misinterpreted the doorbell’s automated response: “Excuse me, can I help you?”

Read the whole thing.

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS: Biden Administration Will Establish a Federal Office of Gun Control.

CHANGE: Project Veritas Suspends All Operations Amid Devastating Layoffs and Fundraising Struggles.

Project Veritas, the conservative organization founded by James O’Keefe, suspended all operations on Wednesday after another round of layoffs, Mediaite has learned.

According to a letter titled “Reduction in Force” that was sent to Project Veritas staffers by HR director Jennifer Kiyak on Wednesday, the organization is putting all operations on pause amidst severe financial woes.

“In the interest of preserving the possible future existence of Project Veritas we need to put operations on pause and, as communicated since the Spring, another Reduction in Force (“RIF”) is necessary,” Kiyak wrote.

Six staffers were laid off from the embattled organization this week, sources said, including all remaining journalists and one development associate. One former Project Veritas staffer said just 11 people remain on the non-profit’s payroll, including CEO Hannah Giles.

Despite all the bad-mouthing O’Keefe got from his old organization when they forced him out, his new organization seems to be doing just fine.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Project Veritas Is Dead. Cause Of Death? Pushing Out James O’Keefe.

SPACE: What SpaceX—and anyone else going to the moon—can learn from the prep for Starship’s next launch.

HUH — WHAT CHANGED? NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s migrant U-turn: Video reveals how Democrat welcomed asylum seekers ‘with open arms’ in 2021 — but today she tells them: ‘Go somewhere else.’

Jim Acosta, call your office!

SHOT: Trump’s Plan to Visit Auto Workers May Have Democrats Scrambling.

Chaser: Striking Autoworkers Are Cool to Biden’s Embrace.

Hangover: Biden and GM CEO Mary Barra are buds. It could affect the strike.

ONCE AGAIN, YOUR GRANDMOTHER WAS RIGHT: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all, study suggests.

I DO ENJOY THESE: Bad Guy Beatdown Roundup. “Time for a roundup of criminals who had critical failures in their Victim Selection Process rolls.”

LET’S GO BACK TO THE ROCK, AND SEE IT AT 440: NASA to live stream asteroid sample’s return to Earth this weekend.

PAULA BOLYARD ON MERRICK GARLAND: Is This the Most Dangerous Man in America?

NEWS FROM THE BLUE CITIES: Georgia researchers report rats carrying rat lungworm near Atlanta.

Totally, completely unrelated: Atlanta has entire families living in parks.

WELL, YES: It’s No Accident The Southern Border Is Collapsing, It’s Intentional.

Customs and Border Protection shut down two international bridges to deal with the crisis. The mayor of Eagle Pass, Rolando Salinas, declared an emergency on Wednesday, it seems with good reason. He told The New York Post that the surge of illegal immigrants, most of them single adult men from Venezuela, has swamped the city’s only migrant shelter. Many of them, says Salinas, “don’t want to listen to instructions.” He added, “Not all of them come in peace.”

Bill Melugin of Fox News has been in Eagle Pass this week posting jaw-dropping videos and images of the influx, which sure enough consists of mostly single adult men. The lines stretch over the river and along both banks as far as the eye can see. Whatever you think of the border and U.S. immigration policy, this is shocking.

All of it recalls the mass encampment of some 15,000 Haitians under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, two years ago. At the time, images of what looked like a refugee camp you might see in a war-torn country dominated several news cycles, goading the Biden administration to disband the encampment and deport a small number of Haitians as a warning to others. Most of them fled back across the Rio Grande rather than face being deported to Haiti, a country they had left years ago for better jobs in South America (which countries they in turn left for better jobs in the United States).

But notice how the illegal immigrants in Melugin’s footage are walking calmly, not running, not trying to evade Border Patrol. They show every indication they believe they will not be detained long.

You might call it a crisis by design, to coin an Insta-phrase.

DAVE PORTNOY PULLS OFF BRILLIANT TACTIC TO STYMIE WASHINGTON POST HIT PIECE:

During the call, Portnoy called out Heil for saying Portnoy had made “misogynistic comments” and displayed “other problematic behavior.” He called her out for seemingly having her opinion made up and for not treating him fairly. She defended herself by saying her opinion was not made up, but she was using a scare tactic in order to get the company to respond to her email.

The end result is they agreed to speak the next morning.

The bottom line is that when the article is released, at least some people will now know the exact process for how the Portnoy hit piece was made, which will allow them to evaluate the article more fairly.

Always good to see how the sausage gets made:

I Caught Wind That The Washington Post Was Writing A Hit Piece About Me And My Pizzafest So I Did What I Do. I Went on the Offensive pic.twitter.com/5oK2zJqVAs

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 20, 2023

UPDATE: WaPo’s Emily Heil locks account:

CHANGE: Rupert Murdoch Stepping Down as Chairman of Fox and News Corp.

NORTH CAROLINA’S MARTIN CENTER FOR ACADEMIC RENEWAL TURNS 20. A lot of progress has been made in NC higher ed thanks to their work, including making our state the national leader in campuses lacking speech codes. I’m proud to be on the board (though I can’t take any credit, that goes to the staff!).

ALL THE SMARTEST PEOPLE TOLD ME DISNEY HAD ALREADY WON: Huge Win for DeSantis and Florida as Disney Announces Massive New Investments.

ANSWER: THEY LOST RUSSIAN AND CHINESE RESOURCES. Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy. What happened?

TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS RACISM: U. Maryland professor gets $600k grant to make math more ‘diverse’ and ‘equitable.’

Nobody actually believes this garbage, but for mid-six figures, they’ll happily sell the hell out of it — and destroy their own institutions in the process.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: NY Gov. Hochul Is the Biggest Dem Hypocrite on Illegals and That’s Really Saying Something. “Incentives: how do they work, Kathy?”

IMPRESSIVE: SpaceX rocket launches Starlink satellites on record-breaking 17th flight.

The company has also already topped last year’s record-setting 61 successful launches in a single year.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Universities welcome students back with ‘Queering Menstruation,’ ‘Anal 101’ events.