GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: Apes on a Treadmill.

I stumbled on Annie Jacobsen’s new book “Nuclear War: A Scenario” while looking for something to read on a long day of airline travel this past weekend. I’ve long considered myself a “Prepper” and have devoured more than my share of apocalytpic fiction over the years, and so this book seemed like it would be right up my alley.

It is an engrossing highly-technical story full of bracing details, a book I described to a friend as “A Tom Clancy novel without a happy ending.” What makes it terrifying is that Jacobsen’s “scenario” can only be labeled fiction because well, technically, it hasn’t happened yet.

“Nuclear War: A Scenario” is the story of how a single nuclear-tipped ICBM fired at the United States, in this case by North Korea, leads inexorably to full-scale nuclear war and the end of the world in only seventy-two minutes… just over one hour.

It’s important to understand that in Jacobsen’s story, the world does not end because of “bad luck” or some black swan cosmic misunderstanding… in “Nuclear War: A Scenario” the world ends because it has to… because that’s how the system is designed to work.

Turns out, they don’t call it “Mutually Assured Destruction” for nothing.

George MF has written a thoughtful and disturbingly timely essay.

FULL CIRCLE: Mizzou–which spawned modern campus racial protests–to close its DEI office.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Venezuelan Gang Gets ‘Green Light’ to Kill American Cops. “A memo from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) informs us that the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has stampeded over the Biden administration’s open Southern border and committed hundreds of crimes, just became an even bigger threat, specifically to our law enforcement officers in Denver.”

I REMEMBER WHEN HIGHER EDUCATION WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A CIVILIZING INFLUENCE: Palestinians arrested for thwarted terrorist attack attend West Bank university that partners with American colleges.

Honestly, there’s never been a lot of evidence for that proposition.

OUCH: Delta CEO lashes out at CrowdStrike: This cost us $500 million and they offered us nothing.

“If you’re going to have priority access to the Delta ecosystem in terms of technology, you’ve got to test this stuff,” Bastian said. “You can’t come into a mission critical 24/7 operation and tell us we have a bug. It doesn’t work.”

The computer problems at Delta knocked its crucial crew tracking system off line for the better part of a week, making it impossible for the company to find pilots and flight attendants it needed to fly its aircraft. While other airlines were quick to resume normal operations after the CrowdStrike outage, Delta was forced to cancel about 30% of its schedule over five days, leaving an estimated half-million passengers stranded. It took many days after that to re-book affected passengers on other flights and return their checked bags.

Delta has yet to file a lawsuit against either CrowdStrike or Microsoft, but a person familiar with its actions confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that it had hired the law firm of high-profile attorney David Boies to pursue compensation from the two companies.

Outsourcing critical support or manufacturing can be cheaper or provide expertise you don’t have in-house. But when things go wrong…

MOST GOP HILL AIDES BACK POPULISM: Two-thirds of the Republican congressional aides responding to a CNCT survey expressed favorable views of “populism,” compared to just 35 percent of the Democrats.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems Don’t Know It, but Trump Is Steamrolling Kamala’s Honeymoon. “He’s also exposing the leftists in the media, which is something that happens far too infrequently in the Republican Party. Trump leans into their awful treatment of him, makes them even more frustrated and miserable, and then draws energy from the conflict. It’s a lot of fun to watch, especially when he triggers the lefties like he did yesterday when he told Scott that Kamala Harris was ‘always of Indian heritage’ until ‘she happened to turn black.'”

LONG-TERM COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS: Jessica Vaughn of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) examines the long-term costs of the entry of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as a model for what to expect for the nation as a while. Trust me, it ain’t pretty and it won’t be cheap.

THE COUNTRY IS IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS… BUT WOULD IT BE RUDE TO ASK WHOSE?

JACQUI TIME from earlier: “[C]ould you sort of give us an idea of how much the President's schedule has changed since the ticket changed? Because if you look at what we look at, the big event on Tuesday was a phone call. Big event today is a lunch. Tomorrow, we don't know what… pic.twitter.com/F9YaNzTWmB

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 31, 2024

“We are recalibrating. I mean, that is very true. I mean, there — there is a — there is a change in — in just him stepping down for re-election. He’s still very much the President, and we’re trying to figure out what the next six months are going to look like, but we are committed.”

I hope that clears things up.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: BLM activist ‘furious’ after ‘dear brother’ Hamas leader killed.

AS A CENTER OF THE ESTABLISHMENT, I ALWAYS ASSUMED THE FED WOULD HELP KAMALA: September Rate Cut Would Thrust Fed Into Brutal Election Campaign.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Massachusetts Bill Removes ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ From Birth Certificates.

ADHERING TO OUR ENEMIES: Kamala’s NatSec Adviser Probed Over Ties to Iranian Influence Network. ‘The Biden-Harris Administration is no stranger to Iran accommodators, appeasers, and accomplices,’ Cotton and Stefanik write.

AN INDIAN, LIKE FROM INDIA:

Her words. https://t.co/ejWR04fLlh

— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) July 31, 2024

SYMPTOM, NOT CAUSE: So much to think and pray about in this analysis of the growth of America’s “Marriage Deserts” by Brad Wilcox and Chris Bullivant.

IT USED TO BE UNTHINKABLE FOR THEM NOT TO BE, EVEN IF THEY HAD TO FAKE IT: Is it really all that ‘weird’ for politicians to be pro-family?

MORE STOLEN VALOR: Wes Moore apologizes for ‘honest mistake’ in claiming a Bronze Star. “Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has apologized for incorrectly stating on a White House application more than a decade ago that he was a Bronze Star recipient. Moore, a rising star in the Democratic Party, served in the Army Reserve between 1996 and 2014. He was deployed to Afghanistan in August 2005 through March 2006.”

Nobody is “mistaken” about whether they’ve received that medal.

OUT: DEI. IN: MEI. Merit, Excellence And Intelligence: An Anti-DEI Approach Catches On In Companies — Is Higher Ed Next?

An idea so crazy it just might work! But note the basically-racist take from someone whose rice bowl is threatened: “‘Saying you hire for merit, excellence and intelligence is really saying people who are historically underrepresented are not worthy,’ says Seena Hodges, a DEI consultant who calls herself the Woke Coach.”

HOW INCOMPETENT CAN YOU BE? “The discussion revolves around a video showing a person moving on a rooftop near where President Trump was shot, leading to widespread speculation that the incident was an inside job. Many users express disbelief that the Secret Service and FBI could have missed the shooter, suggesting intentional negligence or involvement. The video, obtained by Fox News, has fueled further theories and calls for accountability, with some users pointing to additional suspicious activities and connections related to the event. The overall sentiment is one of deep distrust in government and media, with a strong belief that the incident was orchestrated from within the security apparatus.”

WELL, BOEING IS CONNECTED: 737 MAX Crashes Victims’ Families Object to Boeing’s “Sweetheart” Plea Deal. “It is often assumed that once the parties in a criminal case (the prosecutors and defense) reach a plea, that’s the end of things. But under the federal rules, a district judge must approve the plea agreement under what is essentially a public interest standard.”

A DAY IN THE LIES: Don Surber: I read the news today, Oh, Boy.

THE MEDIA GASLIGHTING FOR HARRIS IS JUST GETTING STARTED: August Is Gut-Check Time, and You’ve Got to Hang Tough.

MATT TAIBBI: Checking the Checkers: “Border Czar.” “The new line is an open paradox: Harris was never given a border mandate, and that job she never got was also an impossible cross to bear.”

THOSE ARE FOR SERIOUS COUNTRIES, WHICH WE NO LONGER ARE: National Defense Strategy? What National Defense Strategy? Imagine the summer of 1940 blissfully planning like it was 1938. “In the name of all that is holy. There is nothing more worn out in natsec discussions coming from the Imperial City than ‘all elements of national power.’ The ‘whole of government’ mating with the ‘interagency.’ Yes, yes, yes, we know – the four walls of the food trough. This is not an insight, this is rice bowl protection.”

Plus: “The primary lesson of the Russo-Ukrainian War, a three-week war now in its third year, is that the West’s iterative layering of assumptions about ‘the needs of the future,’ waiting for magic beans to make war easier, cheaper, and faster, has led to an existential decline in the industrial capability and magazine depth required to actually wage war as it is required. Not as it is desire, but as it is required.”

UTAH HAS BEEN A DISAPPOINTMENT FOR A DECADE OR MORE: Utah Gets Exposed For Its Pro-illegal Alien Sanctuary Policies. “We have to remember that the present migration crisis that’s afflicting the US is a bipartisan endeavor, where both Democrats and Republicans have their hands in the mass migration cookie jar. In reality, the US has a pro-mass migration uniparty.”