HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS? Kamala Harris busts some cringey “granny moves” during celebration of Hip-Hop.

OPEN THREAD: This is fine.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: India’s Chandrayaan-3 robotic moon explorers don’t have heaters. Can they survive the frigid lunar night?

SKYNET SMILES: This Self-Destructing Robot Vanishes Into a Puddle of Goo.

AMERICAN REFUGEES: At my Substack: A Letter From Knoxville: Life under the Great Sort.

SPACE: FAA orders upgrades after finishing probe into failed SpaceX Starship launch.

THEY TEST ME FOR IT AT EVERY EYE EXAM, BUT I GUESS IF YOU DON’T GET EYE EXAMS. . . Many seniors don’t know they have glaucoma, study shows.

THE REVOLT OF THE SOMEWHERES.

That divide—to use social analyst David Goodhart’s formulation—is between progressive Anywheres (around a quarter of the population) and locality-centred Somewheres (around half the population). That is, folk whose professions and connections are not anchored in a particular locality—and have networks that regularly cross national boundaries—and those whose lives, jobs and connections are much more centred on their local communities.

The latter are mainly working-class folk, but also include locally-based businesses and professionals. The former include both the human-and-cultural capital class and “big end of town” commercial capital.

Various types of Anywheres overwhelmingly dominate most organisations and institutions, including the political class (politicians, staffers, activists) among both Brahmin Left and Merchant Right. This leaves the Somewheres largely unrepresented by—and somewhat alienated from—institutional politics.

This roughly corresponds to Chris Arnade’s front row/back row dichotomy. I will add that the domination of institutions by the Anywheres and the decline of institutions representing Somewheres — like trade unions, churches, fraternal organizations, etc. — is not accidental, but engineered.

THEY CLAIM A LOT ABOUT A LOT OF THINGS: Bob McManus: NY Democrats claim they’re working ‘behind the scenes’ on migrant crisis — fat chance.

DIRECTOR IS BAFFLED AFTER REPORTER ASKS WHY NO DIVERSITY IN FILM ABOUT 18TH CENTURY DENMARK: “The film takes place in 1750. Admittedly, entertainment reporters aren’t the brightest bulbs in the room, but this guy is from Denmark. Doesn’t he know the history of his own country? The scary answer is that he does, but he thinks that historical accuracy should be sacrificed on the altar of diversity. No wonder artists involved in films hate the new standards.”

NEW CIVILITY WATCH: MSNBC columnist demands Trump ‘must die in prison’ to protect democracy.

UNDERPERFORMING: Tales of Towing With Our Rivian R1T: Electric motors are great for pulling trailers, but batteries? Not so much.

‘WE RIGHTED A WRONG:’ Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin Pardons Father Whose Daughter Was Sexually Assaulted at School.

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: What physicians get wrong about the risks of being overweight. “Based on cues she’d picked up from popular culture and public health guidance, Stanford Medicine statistician Maya Mathur, Ph.D., had always assumed that being overweight decreases lifespans. She was surprised, then, to come across research that suggested the life expectancy among overweight people—those with a body mass index between 25 and 29.9—wasn’t generally shorter than for people in the normal BMI range, controlling for factors such as age and whether they smoked. In fact, a 2013 paper—which analyzed nearly 100 studies that included more than 2.8 million people—found that being overweight slightly reduced mortality risk. (That wasn’t the case for those considered obese, with a BMI at or above 30.)”

More vindication for my grandmother, who said “you need to carry a little more around on you when you get older, in case you get a wasting illness.” Or her grandmother, who talked about “putting on some good, healthy flesh” as you got older.

Generally speaking, this is an era in which grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers are being vindicated a lot. . . .

ROGER KIMBALL: A Civil Rights Catastrophe at New College of Florida.

How’s this crumpet to accompany the morning tea? Under the rubric “insanity” a friend just wrote with the news that the Department of Education has opened a civil rights investigation into New College of Florida. Why? Have they excluded black students from the tennis team? Have they made Mexican students sleep in the parking lot? Nothing so minor. No, this is serious. Put a pat of butter on that crumpet and listen: the former director of “DEI” (“diversity, equity, inclusion” for the innocents among my readers) has revealed that Chris Rufo, a trustee of New College, “mocked and misgendered” this creature after she (or so I am guessing) complained.

Serious stuff. Can a dawn raid from the Stasi (aka, the FBI) be far behind?

The news is full of such reports these days. It is partly comic, yes, but also, when you step back, profoundly depressing, for at least two reasons.

Read the whole thing.

I DON’T WANT TO BE NUDGED, AND I WANT MY DAMN FORK: Nudging food delivery customers to skip the fork drastically cuts plastic waste, study shows.

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Staff Pulls Plug on Presser as Biden Goes Over Edge in Vietnam With Confusion, Dog-Faced Pony Soldiers.

He’s talked about this before, but no one can find the film that he’s talking about. Just another one of those things brewed up in the fertile imagination of Joe Biden. What a rambling mess.

Watch as his staff cuts off the press conference even as he’s still answering a question from the podium, that’s how bad it was going. I don’t think I’ve seen this before, cutting him off mid-word. The staff knew that he was completely off the tracks at this point, and they moved to step in. Then they play music to get him off the stage and cover up anything he might be saying.

Apparently it’s tough for his White House handlers to get John Gill’s adrenochrome dosage just right when he’s on a road trip.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Fourth-grade teacher and mother of two charged with raping boy, 12, at her Tennessee home: ‘It’s unspeakable.’ “A fourth-grade teacher in Tennessee could face 25 years behind bars after she was arrested for allegedly raping a 12-year-old and befriending other former students online. Alissa McCommon, 38, was arrested outside her home Friday by Covington Police Department and booked into the Tipton County Jail. The mother-of-two has been accused of sexually assaulting a former student in 2021 in her home, Covington Police Chief Donna Turner said.”

HELL’S KITCHEN: Tyler Florence Tries To Save San Francisco.

It looks like celebrity chef Tyler Florence will try and save a post-apocalyptic city by opening two cafes in the once-trendy hotspot of San Francisco, Union Square.

Dear Tyler, we wish you luck with that endeavor. And he seems hopeful:

“I think people need to just look in the mirror every day and realize that we can’t live like this any longer, with the crime, car vandalizing, theft and robbery,” Florence. “I think on the other side of the coin is the positivity in the city.” – Breitbart

Hot off the press! 🥐 Celebrity chef @TylerFlorence is opening two cafes on the historic @UnionSquareSF in @OnlyInSF. One cafe will focus on fresh pastries and the other on savory snacks perfect for a picnic. 🥪 Read more below. ⬇️ https://t.co/5Tv5d6WMXn

— Visit California (@VisitCA) September 7, 2023

That ought to turn things around!

BOOK OF THE DAY: Treat Your Own Knee. #CommissionEarned

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM: How college diversity statements got started as a way to weed out white and Asian job applicants.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: New Mexico Criminals Excited To Hear No One Will Be Armed For Entire Month.

AS LONG AS THE RIGHT MONEY WOUND UP IN THE RIGHT HANDS, THEY’RE A SUCCESS: Amtrak’s New Trains Can’t Hit Full Speed On Its Ancient Track.

SPACE: United Launch Alliance launches Atlas V rocket on defense mission.

RIOTS FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME: Story About ‘Dismantle Police’ Dem Who Got Carjacked Takes Another Wild Turn With New Report.

A Minneapolis law enforcement source tells me officers in the 4th precinct are being encouraged to patrol Sathanandan’s neighborhood when not responding to calls.

“Now she wants extra police presence? She can eat the largest bag of dicks,” the source added. https://t.co/JEEiUhItTV

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 9, 2023

(Classical reference in headline.)