OLD AND BUSTED: Cocaine Bear.

The New Hotness? Weekend Parting Shot: Cocaine Raccoons.

MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE: Thousands of Minors Went Under the Knife to ‘Affirm’ a Transgender Identity, Study Shows.

IS THE NEW YORK TIMES A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER? OF COURSE IT IS: New York Times Column Strains to Find Nefarious Reason Conservatives Oppose Chinese Totalitarianism.

(Classical reference in headline.)

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Critical Drinker on What A Lightsaber Would Really Do To You (Video).

RIP: Jimmy Buffett, enduring ‘Margaritaville’ singer turned mogul, dies at 76.

UPDATE: Jimmy Buffett’s cause of death revealed: Margaritaville singer ‘died following secret skin cancer battle,’ says friend, after star ‘lived his life in the sun’ and was diagnosed four years ago.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Geezer Edition.

JOHN COUGAR FOOTINMOUTH: Only 1%-2% of Black people live better than slaves. “To me the most interesting thing about Mellencamp’s exchange with Maher was not his insane assertion that modern America remains a hellhole for Blacks; by now one has come to expect insane takes from racialists who fetishize invented oppression and marinate in it. No, it was his admission after Maher called him out on the stupidity of what he was saying. Mellencamp admitted that he just pulled the number 1%-2% out of his ass. He simply made it up, and that is just fine with him.”

GOODER AND HARDER, FUN CITY: New Yorkers told to mask up for Labor Day as new Covid variant sparks superspread fears.

DEMOCRACY DIES IN VERY PUBLIC MELTDOWNS: “You Don’t Listen to the Press . . . I’m Telling You”: WaPo Columnist Philip Bump Strikes Out at Those Questioning Prior False Claims.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Governor Murphy Refuses to Accept NYC Migrants after Vowing to Make New Jersey ‘Sanctuary’ State.

TREASON OF THE SCIENCE JOURNALS: How Anthony Fauci manufactured consensus on the origins of COVID-19 with the help of science writers and the media.

New emails released in a congressional probe show that Fauci helped direct the publication of “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” an influential scientific paper published in Nature Medicine on March 17, 2020, that claimed COVID-19 could not have leaked from a laboratory. Fauci then cited the paper—in effect quoting himself, since he coordinated the article behind the scenes and was given final approval before it published—as if it was an independent source corroborating his assertions that COVID could only have come from a bat and not from a lab.

Read the whole thing.

RIP: Gil Brandt, pioneering Cowboys exec who helped create ‘America’s Team’, dies at 91.

Brandt was the antagonist in Skip Bayless’ fist book, God’s Coach. As I wrote in 2020, “Bayless’s book should be called ‘God’s Vice President of Player Personnel,’ but that wouldn’t have the same ring to it on the cover — and wouldn’t have sold nearly as many copies. Not surprisingly, having made Brandt the main scapegoat for the Cowboys’ demise in the 1980s, in 2019, Bayless was shocked that his bête noire, the then-85-year-old Brandt became the last of the Cowboys’ original triumvirate to reach the NFL Hall of Fame.”

WELCOME BACK, CARTER! Biden Emulating The Failed Middle East Policies Of Carter.

“SECRETARY BOOTYJUICE:” Booty What?! Bahaha! Biden accidentally gives Pete Buttigieg hilarious new nickname (watch).

GREAT MOMENTS IN STATE-RUN MEDIA: NPR Moves Its Goal Posts On Senility From Trashing Trump’s Age To Defending Biden’s Decline.

NPR tried to reassure Americans that their commander in chief, who has suffered several notable spills in recent months, forgets certain people have died, and speaks in lies sprinkled with gibberish, is just taking normal precautions to avoid “bad optics.”

“Using the safer stairs is common sense, says an aging expert,” one of the article’s subheads suggested.

The publication conceded that “recent presidents mostly used the tall stairs” to enter the iconic aircraft but defended short stairs for Biden as a procedural decision that benefits everyone and should alarm no one.

“When Biden is asked about his age, he often says, ‘Watch me.’” Last week, while he was on vacation, he twice went to pilates and spin classes at a fitness studio called Pelodog. And then he boarded Air Force One to return to Washington, using the short stairs,” NPR states.

The author even quoted Obama adviser David Axelrod, who said he “isn’t convinced voters will care about this,” in an attempt to beef up its case for Biden.

“You don’t measure presidents by their ability to navigate steps,” Axelrod declared. “You elect presidents based on their ability to navigate problems.”

Really? The first season of Saturday Night Live crucified Jerry Ford every week for precisely that.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Have you missed them?

If you struggle to tolerate all five of these hosts giving their own shows’ usual opening monologues on the issues of the day, then imagine all five of them, giving the same monologue, while talking over each other. In the first episode they dive into the writers’ strike from 2005, because that’s a historical event that not many people seem to remember or, much like this writers’ strike, care about. This is a podcast about the hosts, talking about the hosts and an entertainment strike, a problem that seems to be at the back of most Americans’ minds, as they face up to with issues like inflation and credit card debt.

That’s ultimately the real problem with Strike Force Five: it’s boring. Their writers aren’t available for jokes, so it’s mostly just five talk-show hosts talking about how they aren’t talk-showing, instead discussing the name of the podcast and the cute nicknames they have given each other. John Oliver and Stephen Colbert were comedian colleagues while appearing on The Daily Show, so you would think there might be some funny behind-the-scenes stories there. Alas the listener isn’t treated to any of that. Instead they get to hear why John Oliver is listed as “Joliver” in Stephen Colbert’s phone. Hilarious. Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon were writers and performers on Saturday Night Live together; the history of backstage antics from that show’s cast members is legendary. Sorry, no, no stories about that either. It’s mainly five former comedians, making a living off their politics now, all talking about themselves. Jimmy Kimmel likes to fish. That’s interesting, I guess.

Or as America’s Newspaper of Record notes: Five Late Night Hosts Combine Forces In Vain Attempt To Produce A Single Funny Joke.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Democrat senator wants to BLOCK Hurricane Idalia relief—unless it includes more money for Ukraine.

SAYING THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD: Biden says government’s ‘gonna need a whole hell of a lot more money’ to spend.

Covid “relief.” Ukraine. Global warming. It’s as if Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore. (Not that he ever did, of course.)

HOW IT STARTED:

No, Los Angeles is and should remain a Sanctuary City and the LAPD should not be burdened with the federal government’s responsibility to enforce immigration law. I do not support an ICE presence in local and state correctional facilities, nor do I support ICE transfers, absent a judicial warrant.

—“Karen Bass on how she will reach Latino voters,” Calo News, November 1st, 2022.

How it’s going: Los Angeles City Council wants Texas Gov. Abbott to face human trafficking charges over busing of migrants.

—The Blaze, yesterday.

Earlier: Sanctuary Cities Seethe as Illegal Immigrants Actually Arrive.

The surest sign that public policies are simply virtue signals is when the messages don’t cost anything. The easiest way to tell when that signal starts to fail is to watch politicians flounder as the costs start to rise and voters demand relief.

It was free—and meaningless—for progressive churches to post banners calling themselves “nuclear free zones” during the Reagan era. Their dwindling congregations loved it. It was free, after George Floyd‘s murder, to post woke catechism signs on your front lawn, proclaiming “In this house, we believe: Black Lives Matter, women’s rights are human rights, no human is illegal” and so on. Maybe the neighbors gave you high-fives. And for years it has been free for deep-blue cities to proclaim themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants. That’s changing now that voters want some sanctuary for themselves.

Changes like this happen when voters realize the old virtue signals actually entail serious costs—and that they will have to pay them. That is exactly what’s happening in New York City and Washington D.C. now that Texas governor Greg Abbott is sending those cities a few busloads of illegal immigrants from his state.

These progressive bastions were silent when the Biden administration flew planeloads of illegal immigrants to suburban airports in the middle of the night. TV coverage was prohibited, and the arrivals were secretly dispersed. Abbott’s buses, by contrast, arrive downtown greeted by local TV crews. Now you can hear the politicians screech.

Why, it’s as if: Democrats Discover Only The Federal Government Can Solve The Border Crisis.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Yes, the pandemic-era school closures were a disaster.

A brief reminder: Back in the summer of 2020, I tried to hammer home the point that preventing kids from going to school full-time and in-person during the coming school year would be a terrible idea with serious consequences for the kids and the country. School is more than just a place where younger students stay while their parents work, or a way for older students to get a certificate that helps them find better jobs. Deep economic research has shown that education really matters in helping kids grow into productive adults, including as workers in a complex, globalized economy. Those findings are seen to be as true today as when they were first identified in the 1950s. Indeed, a 2018 World Bank analysis shows the benefits increasing since 2000.

We now have a pretty good, albeit unsurprising, idea of the impact of the move to online learning and hybrid schedules. Here are some key takeaways from the Richmond Fed review:

• “Learning progress slowed substantially in the U.S. during the pandemic.” According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test of U.S. eight graders, the average score of students rose by 20 points in the 30 years before the pandemic. But between 2019 and 2022, the average score went down by 8 points, which means that they lost almost half of what they had gained before.

Of course. And teachers unions look poised to try it again: Spread of Covid impacting start of classes for some schools across U.S.

CHANGE: Giuliani loses support of billionaires Langone, Cooperman: ‘I wouldn’t give him a nickel.’

WE NEED A COMPLETE AND TOTAL SHUTDOWN OF THE WASHINGTON POST UNTIL WE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE: Alert: Taylor Lorenz Tries To Murder Trans Activist Who Tanked Bud Light Sales.

Why it matters: If Taylor Lorenz is going to denounce others for spreading death and disease, she should stop posting photographic evidence of her own efforts to spread death and disease. Her reckless actions are bound to get someone killed.

Bottom line: We are literally shaking right now.

Same.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: NYC Pride: ‘We’re Coming For Your Children.’

NEWSBUSTERS: Soros-Funded Group Pressures Big Tech to Silence So-Called ‘Election Disinformation.’

WAR FACTORIES: YouTube Documentary Series Explores How the Allies’ Assembly Lines Pulverized the Axis.