BOEING TAKE NOTE: New algorithms could enhance autonomous spacecraft safety.

IT’S ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Scientists discover a long-sought global electric field on Earth.

COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Study: Recreational drug use triples odds of repeat heart emergencies.

MARK JUDGE: Exploding the Left’s ‘Language Virus’ with William S. Burroughs.

HMM: Fifth Circuit’s Won’t Revisit Its Earlier Precedent Holding Illegal Aliens Lack Second Amendment Rights.

Full opinion here.

THEY’RE JUST ANOTHER ARM OF THE MACHINE, AND SHOULD BE TREATED THAT WAY: Corporate Media Partnered with DNC to Smother Dissent at Convention.

WHICH MAKES CALLS FOR “GENDER JUSTICE” RATHER PROBLEMATIC: International ‘equity’ scholars can’t define ‘gender’ after 5 years of research.

CHANGE: DC suburbs now allow MAGA.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U of Wisconsin offers LGBT courses on ‘Queering Ecofeminism’ and ‘performance activism.’

KIRA DAVIS: Does It Matter If Kamala Is Really Black Or Not?

Trump has been suggesting Kamala Harris isn’t really a Black woman, or at least doesn’t identify as one. Naturally left-wingers are deeply offended by this line of questioning, and view it as yet another racial aggression from the WORLD’S WORST PERSON™. There are plenty of conservatives who are also uncomfortable with Trump’s questions about Kamala’s race. Some say it’s a distraction. Some say it’s Trump’s ego clouding his judgement. Some say he needs to stop obsessing about this meaningless issue because it makes him look petty and unstable.

There’s something I’ve learned to do with Trump when he utters uncomfortable things – which he does frequently. The instinct of the modern American, particularly in the intellectual class, is to clutch one’s pearls and declare the questionable utterances “unhelpful” or “Trump’s ego in action.” It can end there, if you let it. But I’ve learned to ask, “Is it true?”

Nine times out of ten, if you look past the uncomfortable bluntness of Donald Trump and just evaluate the thought he’s conveying, he is saying something true.

So, when I heard him being (seemingly) petty about Kamala’s race case, I first cringed and then asked, “Well, is it true? Does it matter if Kamala considers herself black or not?”

I’ve thought about that for a while now and I’ve come to the conclusion that, yes, it does matter. And yes, Trump is right to bring it up. . . . Trump’s point is that Harris never really identified as a Black woman before very recently. Critics says she was part of an HBCU and that’s proof enough of her identity claims, but even white people attend HBCUs.

He usually is. The pearl-clutching doesn’t come from any sort of decency or delicacy. It is a defensive mechanism to keep people from talking about things that undercut the narrative.

WHEN THE RULING CLASS ACTIVELY PROMOTES DECLINE:

Red Sea
Black Sea
South China Sea
Gaza Pier
Panama Canal
Baltimore Bridge
Navy shipbuilding delays
China's maritime dominance

Why do DC politicians, the DoD, and US media treat these as isolated incidents instead of symptoms of the systemic decay in American ocean influence?

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) August 28, 2024

Related: Our Crisis of Institutional Competence.

UPDATE:

The fact that the US Navy seems to have entirely given up on securing access to the Suez Canal – only one of the top five or so strategic locations on Planet Earth – and nobody's gotten so much as a letter of reprimand over this strategic defeat is genuinely disturbing. pic.twitter.com/hT4J7oyzIY

— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) August 29, 2024

NEITHER ONE CAN SPEAK COHERENTLY IN PUBLIC, WHICH IS A PROBLEM: White House Report Card: Biden, Harris hiding instead of building ‘Big Mo.’

LET’S HOPE: We’re Seeing the Death of ‘Woke,’ Discriminatory ESG Corporate Policies.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. “Many law schools operate in a manner that reinforces ideological orthodoxy and chills dissenting views.”

IT’S COME TO THIS: Last June, we learned of a study that found that 25% of Gen Z job applicants brought a parent along with them to a job interview. This week, we learn that the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States is bringing “America’s Dad” to her first interview.

Related:

Strong, Capable Woman Asks Man To Come With Her To Job Interview In Case They Ask Any Hard Questions https://t.co/17fwDAbmdZ pic.twitter.com/ldKX8dDFWh

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 28, 2024

Related:

Any interviewer who doesn't hold Kamala's feet to the fire over this has abandoned journalism. https://t.co/tVJUhQjnKA

— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) August 28, 2024

ROGER SIMON: Jack Smith Makes Me Think Trump Won in 2020. “I still remain somewhat agnostic, but the tenacity, resembling monomania, with which our Torquemada-like special prosecutor Jack Smith seeks to indict and convict Donald Trump leads me to believe Mr. Trump actually won. . . . So when I say Smith’s ongoing lawfare jihad against Trump makes me believe 45 actually won in 2020 more than I ever did, it is another way of saying something that should be apparent to those in and outside the legal world. Something fishy is going on here that goes beyond what is already obvious to many of us—the flagrant attempt to interfere with the 2024 election.”

FORKED TONGUE: From ‘Israel Has a Right To Defend Itself’ to ‘Immediate Ceasefire’: Rep. Susan Wild Caught Sending Contradictory Letters to Constituents, Stating Dueling Views on War.

MAYBE WE DON’T ACTUALLY NEED A PRESIDENT. OR A GOVERNMENT. Joe Biden Appears to be Done Pretending to be President.

MEDICINE: How Do Dubious Norms Get Established?

TIME FOR SOME SUNSHINE: Where Are the Facebook Files on Censorship?

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Professor at Toulouse School of Economics Writes Open Letter Accusing Harvard Professor of Plagiarism.

#JOURNALISM:

He didn’t have a role in it https://t.co/OSzYcvYlSN

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) August 28, 2024

OPEN THREAD: Just do it.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: With successful airlock test, Lockheed Martin invests in inflatable space structures.

DECISIONMAKING: How 2 fatal shuttle disasters weighed on NASA’s decision to bring Boeing Starliner astronauts home on SpaceX Dragon.