THE GRAUNIAD DISCOVERS ALEX P. KEATON, THE NEXT GENERATION: My son was struggling – then he fell for Trump’s toxic brand of ‘masculinity’. I’m heartbroken.

I’m a 59-year-old progressive and a special education teacher, and I’m voting for Kamala Harris in November. Nick* is 21, and he would say that he holds traditional, conservative values – but he’s conflating those values with radical Maga ideas, which correlate the right with patriotism, manhood, intelligence, independence and honesty. I understand where my son’s vulnerabilities came from, and why this rightwing posturing was able to seep into him. I understand it, but I still regret it.

Nick’s mom and I wanted to teach our son that democracy is an active sport. You don’t just sit back and watch. We lived in Houston, in the belly of the petrochemical beast, and I remember going to a demonstration against Halliburton, the Iraq war, and Dick Cheney’s role in the company. Groups brought puppets – it was almost like street theater – and we rolled Nick along in his stroller. That was the community we were plugged into: artists, musicians, teachers, writers. That’s how Nick came up.

* * * * * * * * *

We had moved to the Bay Area in 2017, after Trump won the election. Nick was 15 or 16 when he said that he liked Trump. I can understand how Trump appealed to a childish sensibility: he’s this clownish figure who does whatever he wants.

I also know that when you come of age, you want to reject your parents’ beliefs. My father was a Reagan Republican who was really old school, values wise. A lot of my political development was a rejection of his values, so I wonder now how much of Nick’s fascination with Maga is a reaction against the way I brought him up.

If you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s the Cliff’s Notes summary:

Somebody should do a TV show based on this story:

As Rob Long wrote at Commentary in 2020, “But by the time Family Ties made it to American living rooms, it had acquired the character of Alex P. Keaton, the blazer-wearing Young Republican teenage son of the loony-lefty parents, brought to unforgettable life by Michael J. Fox. We all know how this story ends: The parents are squeezed to the side, Michael J. Fox is on the lunch box, Alex P. Keaton is the heart of the show. In the end, Family Ties is about Alex raising his parents, shaking them awake from their 1960s brain fog, and teaching them what most Americans who do not live in Brentwood or who do not have tenure already know—which is that capitalism is terrific.”

WOEING: The Fall Of Boeing Is Complete: Imagine How Bad They Must Be To Be Called Out By NASA!

An honest appraisal of the many departments of the federal government would be hard-pressed to find an efficient and competent one in the sea of catastrophically wasteful and downright damaging divisions.

Okay…I can think of one. The United States Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing does a pretty good job of producing our coins and bills. Far too many, but that’s a different issue. And they are probably pathetically inefficient, but at least the end result is of good quality.

But in the main, the federal government is a pathetic collection of career apparatchiks, layabouts, no-nothings, no-shows, thieves, and the flat-out laziest people in the country. So when they criticize one of their biggest contractors, you know something is up!

NASA Inspector General Report Criticizes Boeing’s Quality Control

What should the astronauts stuck on the ISS by Boeing’s incompetence do to pass the time? The solution is obvious!

JAMES LILEKS: Why is this column like deep-dish pizza? You can stick a fork in both.

For my last column at the [Minneapolis] Star Tribune, I am going to be as self-indulgent as the medium permits. Consider this the equivalent of a condemned man’s request for a last meal.

Speaking of which, what would you choose for yours?

Sometimes I think I’d go for deep-dish pizza, if only for the argument I could have with the prison official who walked me down the last mile. “That wasn’t pizza,” he’d say. “That’s more of a casserole.”

“No, it has the elements of pizza, just in an exaggerated form.” I’d turn to the priest walking alongside. “Father, back me up here.”

Read the whole thing.

NEW ELECTRIC LADY STUDIOS DOCUMENTARY HIGHLIGHTS JIMI HENDRIX’S BRILLIANT MANHATTAN RECORDING STUDIO: My latest, over at Ed Driscoll.com.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Oooof.

They have Karl red-handed here. https://t.co/T0kGexUknm

— Sunny (@sunnyright) August 12, 2024

Jim Geraghty writes, “The Media Have Forgotten Why They Exist,” that “Large swaths of the national media believe that their job, at this moment, is to tell you how awesome the presidential and vice-presidential candidates are, instead of pointing out their records and policies. (In the case of Kamala Harris, all we have are her policy stances from her 2020 campaign and the current Biden administration policies, even though her campaign staff insists those positions from 2019 are no longer operative.)”

To be fair, they’ve “forgotten why they exist” since 2008, and arguably, since 2004:

Vance knows this, and he deserves a lot of credit for going into the lion’s den and letting them expose themselves for what they are.

THE 21st CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: The Working Woman’s Newest Life Hack: Magic Mushrooms. For a select group of moms in high-powered jobs, microdosing psilocybin has become the answer to a packed social and professional calendar with no time for hangovers

PARTY OF YOUTH UPDATE: Biden: Can’t Even Say How Old I Am.

To be fair to Joe Biden, he did follow up the remark about not being able to say how old he is by saying, “It’s hard for me to get it out of my mouth.” So what did he mean? Is he sometimes unable to remember his age? (He’s still 81, for the record. He’ll turn 82 a couple of weeks after the election.) I can relate to a certain extent. I’m getting ready to turn 65 and I sometimes have to pause and figure out my current age. This might also have been an admission that he realizes he trips over his words sometimes and he’s not sure if he would pronounce his age correctly. The most charitable interpretation would be that he knows how incredibly old he is and he finds it difficult to say it aloud. It’s left to the viewer to decide for themselves.

Also in the interview: Biden admits he was pushed out of presidential race, name-drops Pelosi in first interview since exit.

“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it’d be a real distraction,” he told “CBS News Sunday Morning.”

“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition president. I can’t even say how old I am — it’s hard for me to get out of my mouth,” he went on, adding that it was a combination of those factors and a key priority of “maintaining this democracy” that underpinned his decision.

But was it “his decision?” Pissed Off Top Biden Adviser Spills the Beans on What Really Happened and WHO Really Pushed Biden Out.

Bookending Greg’s view of Pelosi taking credit for pushing Biden out:
“They spent all this time accusing Trump of an insurrection…of a coup. But she’s actually saying they removed him. They put Kamala in place…she’s never been nominated. It just doesn’t seem like it’s legal.” pic.twitter.com/aEJRKQspuJ

— David Asman (@DavidAsmanfox) August 10, 2024

OLD AND BUSTED: Tim Walz’s Stolen Valor.

The New Hotness? Kamala Harris’s Stolen Policy! Kamala Harris Laughably Steals Trump’s Idea to Not Tax Tips, but the Receipts Tell a Different Story.

Kamala Harris has made her first major policy announcement since being handed the nomination by a cabal of Democrat elites. During a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Harris said that, as president, she would end the IRS collecting tax on tips.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because Donald Trump took the same policy position back in June. In true Kamala Harris fashion, after going almost a month with no policy platform, her first move was to steal a plank from her opponent’s platform. You can’t make this stuff up. That’s how absurd the 2024 election cycle is.

* * * * * * *

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane because it’s going to be instructive.

Harris was for banning fracking before she was against it. She was for defunding the police before she was against it. She was for a federal gun buyback program before she was against it. She was for decriminalizing illegal immigration before she was against it. She was for eliminating private health insurance before she was against it.

Believe it or not, this “no tax on tips thing” is yet another flip-flop from Harris and perhaps her most egregious. While the positions listed above were rhetorical commitments, she was the deciding vote for the law on the expansion of the IRS that specifically targets people who don’t pay taxes on tips. Again, you can’t make this stuff up.

I eagerly await the press turning on her viciously for broadcasting such a “lame political stunt:”

UPDATE: “Harris bragged about casting the tie-breaking vote for the bill that allowed the IRS to crack down on service workers tips. Now she’s adopting Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’ proposal. Will she admit that her vote was a mistake and the IRA was bad for America?”

DISPATCHES FROM AIRSTRIP ONE: The UK descends into dystopian levels of censorship.

“Think before you post.”

That’s the chilling message that was just posted from social media accounts affiliated with the United Kingdom’s government. Amid the riots and civil unrest in the streets of Britain that were initially sparked by anti-immigration protesters, the posts warned citizens not directly involved in the uprisings that they too could face arrest even just for their speech.

“Content that incites violence or hatred isn’t just harmful — it can be illegal,” the Crown Prosecution Service tweeted. “The CPS takes online violence seriously and will prosecute when the legal test is met. Remind those close to you to share responsibly or face the consequences.”

These aren’t just idle threats, either.

Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions of England and Wales, warned that there are “dedicated police officers” tasked with “scouring social media” to “follow up with identification [and] arrests” when people “publish or distribute material which is insulting or abusive which is intended to or likely to start racial hatred.”

This censorious effort is coming from the top levels of government. In an interview with Sky News, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said social media is “not a law-free zone” and that he wanted to issue “a reminder to everyone that whether you’re directly involved or whether you’re remotely involved, you’re culpable, and you will be put before the courts if you’ve broken the law.”

The arrests have already begun.

George Orwell didn’t intend for 1984 to be a how-to guide.

UPDATE: America’s Newspaper of Record reports that the answer to England’s woes is actually quite simple: Elon Musk Buys The United Kingdom To Establish Free Speech There.

RIP:

Super Sky Point to Juan Antonio “Chi-Chi”Rodriguez, whose signature unsheathing of his putter sword elevated his birdies to a goddamn swashbuckling art form. There will never be another quite like him. #RIP

pic.twitter.com/DJfJBai9kF

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) August 9, 2024

Although there was some debate in the news media as to the pronunciation of his name:

GREAT MOMENTS IN ASTROTURF: Maine Gov’s Democrat Brother Admits ‘Republicans for Harris’ Organized by Harris Campaign.

STRENGTH THROUGH JOY: Kamala rebrands as the ‘joy’ candidate.

Democratic strategists have repeatedly assured me that she will adopt whatever platform comes out of the Democratic National Convention, which certainly won’t help the perception that she is a manufactured candidate willing to do whatever it takes to seize power, but I digress. The clear indication we are getting from the early stages of the Harris-Walz campaign is that it is all about “vibes” and the idea that Harris is selling “joy.”

After all, what better way to rebrand a deeply unpopular vice president who, in focus groups put together by her own party, is said to have a laugh that sounds more like a cackle? Joy! “Kamala Harris used to worry about laughing,” the dutiful stenographers at the New York Times said. “Now joy is fueling her campaign.” The Washington Post similarly describes Harris-Walz as seizing “on a joyous message.” Walz even thanked his running mate for “bringing back the joy.”

At the Federalist, Elizabeth Stauffer writes, “Kamala Harris Can’t Articulate The Case For Voting For Her.” So as with “hope” and “change” in ’76 and 2008, the DNC-MSM have chosen their buzzword, and are now hoping to run out the clock on their opponents:

THIS IS CNN: CNN Cut Short Interview With Tim Walz’s Ex Unit Commander Because of ‘Technical Difficulties.’

Cause of “technical difficulties:”

‘SPLAINS THOSE GUSHY ‘BIG DAD ENERGY’ BARFTASTIC ARTICLES: Minneapolis Star Tribune Publisher Worked for Walz.

More here: The role of the Star Tribune revisited.

SONNY CROCKETT, CALL YOUR OFFICE! Hurricane Debby blew $1 million worth of cocaine onto Florida beach.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Who Is Tim Walz?

BEAR MARKET: Joe Rogan says he supports RFK Jr. over Trump, Harris.

UPDATE: Or Not! Joe Rogan RETRACTS comment on which candidate he likes for president in 2024 after sparking outrage.

HE SEEMS NICE: Kamala’s VP Wannabe Tim Walz Levied WHOPPING 95% Tax on Zyn. “The tax on cigars, including premium cigars, smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, e-cigarettes, and vapor products in Minnesota is also set at 95 percent.”

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE!

Biden: "28 out of every high school students is Latino, we better start figuring it out." pic.twitter.com/Xdp9YjWryu

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 8, 2024

DEVELOPING: Terrifying footage shows passenger plane in an out-of-control death spiral before crashing in Brazil killing all 62 passengers and crew onboard.

STOLEN VALOR: Tim Walz Thanked Pelosi After She Recognized His Service ‘On the Battlefield.’

C-Span’s Chyron described Walz as an “Afghanistan War Veteran.”

FLASHBACK: Tim Walz thanked Nancy Pelosi at a press conference in 2007 in which she said while introducing him that "we appreciate his service on the battlefield."

CSPAN then identified Walz as an "Afghanistan veteran." pic.twitter.com/6HaKNyfKsf

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 9, 2024

‘THINK BEFORE YOU POST:’ Britain’s slide into censorship.

Britain has fallen. That’s been the take on the anti-woke chattersphere this past 24 hours, as prime minister Keir Starmer’s post-riots crackdown has taken an Orwellian turn. Alongside coming down hard on the violent racist thugs on our streets, a move no sane person has a problem with, Starmer has also trained his ire on the apparent cause of every societal ill, at least according to our ruling class: too much free speech on social media.

All week, the government has been calling on the Big Tech firms, particularly Elon Musk’s X, to do more to clamp down on misinformation and hate. Of course, we’ve seen plenty of both, online and off, recently. A lurid claim that the Southport child-killings, the spark for nearly two weeks of unrest, were committed by a Muslim asylum seeker swirled in the wake of that horror. But while you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who is passionately in favour of misinformation or hate, the past few days have reminded us of the sinister territory you enter into when the powers-that-be try to police them.

Since Musk has refused to play ball, even goading Starmer with accusations of ‘two-tier policing’ and feverish suggestions Britain is verging on ‘civil war’, the government has resorted to doing the silencing itself. Yesterday, we had director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson telling us that even a retweet could land you in an all-grey prison tracksuit. ‘You may be committing a crime if you repost, repeat or amplify a message which is false, threatening, or stirs up racial / religious hatred’, Parkinson told the PA news agency. ‘Think before you post’, screamed the Gov.UK X account last night, reminding Brits that ‘content that incites violence or hatred isn’t just harmful – it can be illegal’.

London’s chief of police hates free speech so much that he’s already attempted to smash at least one microphone, and now he’s aiming for one of the biggest:

Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley threatens to EXTRADITE and imprison American citizens over online posts.

He does not rule out Elon Musk. pic.twitter.com/AUJhEgTTtJ

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 9, 2024

鸟不是真实的: China Shows Off New Drones Disguised as Birds. “A newly released video showed a well-known Chinese elite special operations force using a biomimetic drone disguised as a small bird during a shooting competition in the country…According to Chinese military observers, this drone is classified as a miniature biomimetic ornithopter, an aerial vehicle that flies by flapping its wings like birds and insects. Due to its realistic appearance, this type of unmanned aircraft has military application potential.”

(Classical reference in headline.)

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD NOW DOING STRAIGHT-UP REPORTAGE: Tim Walz Clarifies That He’s Never Been To Iraq, But He Has Been To Downtown Minneapolis Which Is Basically The Same Thing.

MARK FELTON: The People Still Living in WW2 — UK Wartime Prefabs in 2024 (Video).