IT’S COME TO THIS: All Google’s self-driving car crashes were caused by humans, testers claim. “California’s DMV revealed the vehicles had been involved in nine crashes in the last year – mostly by being rear-ended or side-swiped by other cars.”

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HILLARY’S NIGHTMARE: Gennifer Flowers Is Back.

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: The Speaker Fight Isn’t Chaos, It’s Democracy. Why do you think the establishment of both parties is so upset?

WELL, THAT MAKES SENSE: Clinton Emails Became the New Focus of Benghazi Inquiry.

I BLAME HIPSTERS: There’s a Major Global Coffee Crisis Brewing.

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JAY COST: What The Hell Is Going On? The Fraying Of The National Consensus.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Why the Democratic Party is squelching Larry Lessig’s message.

HOW’S THAT WORKIN’ OUT SO FAR? The End Of The Pax Americana: Obama’s ‘Accomplishment.’

TRUE: Pauline Cafferkey case shows we still know little of Ebola’s long-term effects. “More than a year after the epidemic, doctors are still learning about the long-term effects of Ebola. Before the latest outbreak, which has killed 11,300 people in west Africa, it was known that the virus remained in semen and vaginal fluid, and survivors were advised to abstain from sex for three months after recovery. This year US researchers and medics have discovered that the virus also continues to be present in ocular fluid in the eye and in spinal fluid.”

THE NEW AXIS OF EVIL: Michael Ledeen writes:

The “Axis of Evil” went hand in hand with Bush’s analysis of the threat we faced:  it was, he said, a combination of terrorist groups and countries that supported them.  He promised that the United States would not distinguish between the two groups.  We would go after the terrorists and their sponsors and allies.  That we did it badly—Iran, not Iraq, was the logical target after Afghanistan, and political warfare, not invasion, was the logical method—shouldn’t blind us to the fact that it was already clear in early 2002 that we had to deal with multiple threats, and we’d eventually have to defeat them all or face a grim future.

Would that we’d kept that thought.  Instead, we got the grim future.

We now face a more potent Axis of Evil that includes two of the original three (North Korea and Iran, with Iraq up for grabs), plus Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries, and terrorist groups including al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Islamic State.  With the exception of their hatred of the West, there is no single ideology that unites them.  The new Axis includes Sunni and Shi’ite radical Muslims, Communists and other radical leftists, and nationalistic secular tyrants like Vladimir Putin.  They have certainly succeeded in wrecking hopes for a peaceful world.

There is no escape from this war, whatever Western leaders might wish.  We will either win it or lose it, and right now we are losing, most obviously in the Middle East and Central Europe, less dramatically in Africa from Somalia to Nigeria, and in Latin America where Iran is busily strengthening its cooperation with local autocrats.

“We can win this thing.  But we’d better get at it fast.  It’s getting worse right now,” Michael adds. And it will continue to do so until at least 2017.

Speaking of which, “Iran [Reportedly] Tests New Ballistic Missile in Violation of Nuclear Deal.” Or as Amir Taheri today writes in the New York Post, “Obama will be the only person sticking to Iran deal.”

TWO LORNE MICHAELS IN ONE! Weekend Update Slams Excessive Gun Ownership: ‘What Are We Preparing For, a Rap Beef?’

As Stephen Miller ‏responds, “Try getting into SNL’s studio. Armed guards inside and outside of 30 Rock.” Additionally, Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, the mid-‘80s book by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad features this anecdote from the show’s fifth season, when drug use by the original cast was rampant:

Cocaine, in fact, was a principal cause of the surliness the reporters sensed in Saturday Night. The drug itself made many of those who used it hostile. It also made them suspicious of the media, because now they had too much to hide. By the fourth season cocaine had become a staple on Saturday Night, an integral part of the working process there. Fears of a bust increased. In the fifth season Lorne actually posted a guard, a huge black man named Alvin, outside the elevators on the 17th floor. Ostensibly Alvin was there to keep away fans and other well-wishers, but few on the show doubted that an important part of his job was to prevent any sudden surprises from visiting law-enforcement officers.

Was Alvin armed? The book doesn’t say, but he was certainly a rough man hired to do violence on the show’s behalf, to paraphrase the line frequently (and mistakenly) attributed to George Orwell.

A VACCINE WOULD BE NICE: Desperate Families in Delhi as Dengue Overwhelms Hospitals.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Why the Democratic Party is squelching Larry Lessig’s message.

THEN: TEXT FROM DOG. NOW: TEXT FROM VAGINA:

There’s nothing like the thrill of an incoming text message, particularly when that text is from your vagina.

Looncup is a no ordinary menstrual cup—it’s smart. “Yes, this is the very first smart menstrual cup so it is the very first of it’s kind,” Kate of the Looncup team told the Daily Dot in an email.

For the uninitiated, a menstrual cup is a bell-shaped, silicone receptacle worn inside the vagina to collect period blood during that time of the month. Some women prefer to use a menstrual cup as an eco-friendly alternative to disposable pads and tampons. Menstrual cup wearers must empty their receptacle periodically, but the question is, how do you know when it’s full?

Enter the Looncup: It’s connected to an app on your smartphone, which will tell you in real-time how full your cup is, when it’s time to empty it, and the volume at which you’re flowing. The fuller your menstrual cup, the more alerts you’ll get. It also claims to help detect gynecological problems by monitoring the color the period blood, which could indicate potential issues.

So does this get filed under the “too good to check,” “Well, this is the 21st century, you know,” or “The 21st century isn’t working out the way I had planned” department? Let me know in the comments.

(Oh, and here’s the link to Text from Dog if you’ve never seen the series.)

DON’T MESS WITH THE SCA: Indiana Woman Uses Society For Creative Anachronism Skills To Capture Intruder:

Karen Dolley, 43, was sleeping in her bed when she heard the sound of a man’s voice in her house in the middle of the night, the Indiana Star reports. She flipped the lights on a discovered there was a strange man standing in her living room.

But Dolley didn’t cower. Instead, instincts from years of training and conditioning in Medieval combat skills kicked in. She punched the man 10 times and cornered him.

“I didn’t think I was getting good blows in but my knuckles are bruised today,” Dolley told the Star. “Hitting someone like that, it isn’t like the movies. You’re expecting it to be louder and see people jerk around, but that’s not how it happens in real life.”

Dolley owns a gun, but when she went to grab it, she opened the wrong drawer in the chaos of the moment. So she reached for her ninjato — which is a sword used in the Japanese feudal period.

She held the man at sword point until police arrived minutes later.

She began training in combat when she was 18 as a fighter for the group Society for Creative Anachronism, the Star reports. The group is dedicated to recreating arts and skills of pre-17th Century Europe.

That was a rough period, so if your skills are suitable for pre-17th Century Europe, you’re pretty good.

FASTER, PLEASE: Researchers Have Developed A Lyme Disease Treatment That Will Prevent Infection.

I BLAME CARLY FIORINA. OR MAYBE CONDI RICE: DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Republicans Are Saying ‘Yeah, Let’s Kick Women … Out Of This Country’ [VIDEO]:

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I believe that any one of our candidates will stand in stark contrast, when it comes to the priorities of the American people and how they’re going to make their decision on who they’re going to vote for for President, to any of the Republican candidates. The Republicans are trying to out-right wing each other. Look, between the fifteen Republican candidates who are left — all of whom are trying to out-Trump Donald Trump — by saying, “Yeah let’s kick women. Let’s kick them and immigrants out of this country. Let’s take away health care from women.” … Yes, I think any of the candidates on our side of the aisle … will be chosen and eventually elected as the 45th president of the United States of America because of that contrast.

Wait — are Republicans going to kick everyone out of the country, or put them back in chains? (Or allow women to stay, but leave them barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen?) I wish the Democrats would synchronize their crazy pills and extremist talking points.

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UH OH: ‘Climate Change’ — Massive El Nino About to Hit California.

EVERYWHERE ELSE, THE CHARGERS STAND LONELY: In California, Electric Cars Outpace Plugs, and Sparks Fly. “Unlike gas stations, charging stations are not yet in great supply, and that has led to sharp-elbowed competition. Electric-vehicle owners are unplugging one another’s cars, trading insults, and creating black markets and side deals to trade spots in corporate parking lots. The too-few-outlets problem is a familiar one in crowded cafes and airports, where people want to charge their phones or laptops. But the need can be more acute with cars — will their owners have enough juice to make it home? — and manners often go out the window.”

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of space at the Turkey Creek charging station in Knoxville.

UH OH: Hillary Meltdown Close? ‘Childlike Tantrums’ that Leave Staff ‘In Tears.’

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 885.