MY LATEST: A Substack About Nothing: Well, about Jerry Seinfeld, anyway. And some related items.

SPACE: SpaceX will try to launch Polaris Dawn civilian crew during early morning hours.

INSERT KAMALA JOKE HERE: World’s first combined whole eye, face transplant at NYU called success.

SELECTIVE OUTRAGE:

JD Vance jokes about cat ladies

Cat ladies: 😡😡😡

Cats go missing after 20,000 Haitian immigrants are sent to a small town

Cat ladies: 😴😴😴

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 9, 2024

"I am your voice, I am your warrior, I am your justice, I am your retribution." pic.twitter.com/LKItV5Hi5n

— Nightmare Vision (@GodCloseMyEyes) September 9, 2024

RETURN OF THE PRIMITIVE: Animal sacrifices on the rise in Queens with chickens, pigs being tortured in ‘twisted’ rituals.

GREEN POLICIES BEAR THEIR USUAL FRUIT: WSJ: Lights Out in La-La Land.

Meet modern life in Los Angeles. On Sunday night the Hollywood Bowl had to cancel a concert because of a city power outage. On Saturday a brief blackout disrupted a University of Southern California football game. Why aren’t La La Land’s progressive leaders upset? Maybe because they’re partly responsible.

Heat waves with triple-digit temperatures are unpleasant, though not unusual during the summer in the South and West. Yet Los Angeles’s electric power system suffered widespread failures this weekend as temperatures surged, causing more than 70,000 utility customers in the city and surrounding neighborhoods to lose power, including the Los Angeles Coliseum and Hollywood Bowl.

Tens of thousands of Californians in other parts of the state also lost power, but L.A.’s grid meltdown was the worst. Its municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), faulted overloaded cables and overheated equipment. Customers were told they might not get power back for more than 24 hours. Better crash at a friend’s place—and hope it doesn’t lose power.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass blamed the outages on “extreme heat.” But the electric systems in Arizona, Texas and Nevada withstand sizzling temperatures without buckling. Why can’t L.A.? Perhaps because the municipal utility has prioritized the city’s climate goals over hardening its system and replacing aging equipment.

At my university, they were threatening to turn up thermostats to reduce electrical demand because of “unprecedented heat.” Spoiler: 90-95 in August in Knoxville isn’t unprecedented, it’s dead-normal and always has been, with no need for “climate change.”

Flashback: Thank the green-energy cult for major blackouts this summer.

Also: Greens want electric cars — but not the things required to run them.

You know the difference between California and the Titanic? The lights were still on when the Titanic went under.

You know what socialists used before candles? Electricity!

ABOLISH THE IVY LEAGUE: A Brown University trustee announced his resignation over the weekend in protest of what he described as a “morally reprehensible” decision to hold a vote on divesting from Israel.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Students for Justice in Palestine plans ‘Day of Action’ one day after 9/11.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Crew Dragon launches on Polaris Dawn private astronaut mission.

OUT TODAY: Against the Corporate Media: Forty-two Ways the Press Hates You. I have a chapter in it.

THE FIRST FULLY SYNTHETIC CANDIDATE:

“They finally added an ‘Issues’ section to her website . . . Unfortunately for Harris, its release was undermined by a simple but telling error: The page’s source code revealed that parts of the platform were copied directly from Biden’s campaign page.” https://t.co/0V3HLDSL3w

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) September 10, 2024

WHEN NARRATIVES FAIL: Jan. 6 convicts greeted with cheers: ‘There’s a patriot!’

ELECTIONS AND LIES: Colin Allred Features His Wife in Border Security Pitch. She Fought To Release Criminal Illegal Aliens.

WORST PRESIDENT: Biden was hellbent on leaving Afghanistan — ignoring military advice, NATO objections and Afghan pleas: House report.

Plus:

I keep forgetting that Biden is still technically in charge of the country 😂

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2024

WELL, YES: Kamala chooses divisiveness, spiced up.

Ed Morrissey adds:

So much for turning the page on divisiveness or a new way forward. It is, however, a good reminder that Donald Trump was the product of a political environment of demonization, not its cause. Or has everyone forgot how Joe Biden claimed to black voters Mitt Romney would “put y’all back in chains,” how Harry Reid smeared him as a tax evader, and how Barack Obama campaigned against him as a “vulture capitalist”?

I think Mittens has. But it’s probably just Stockholm Syndrome.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: “Contrary to the prediction of underperformance, Trump judges outperform other judges, with the very top rankings of judges predominantly filled by Trump judges.”

LAWRENCE PERSON ON VENEZUELAN GANGS.

OPEN THREAD: Be here now.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China is taking a keen interest in lava tubes as possible lunar habitats: China’s lunar plans should be a wake up call to NASA, according to lunar scientist.

THE FIRST FULLY SYNTHETIC CANDIDATE:

Oh look, the biggest search engine monopoly on planet earth is openly admitting it rigs its algorithms to benefit Kamala https://t.co/8ObT5BYNQ8

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) September 9, 2024

R.I.P. James Earl Jones.

I LOVE THE SENSE OF IRREVERENT FUN: Tesla’s summon feature just got a lot smarter — and a cheeky new name.

UPDATE: Link’s good, but story isn’t there anymore. It still shows up on search on their website, but no actual story there. Don’t know why. Sorry!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Try this version at AOL. In other news, AOL still exists.

NEWS I CAN’T USE: How We’d Spec It: 2025 Aston Martin Vanquish.

NEXT, GIVE IT A BOOST WITH ORBITAL LASERS: NASA releases first photo of 860-square-foot solar sail in orbit.

COLD WAR HISTORY: The Golden Age of offbeat Arctic research: The Cold War spawned some odd military projects that were doomed to fail.