WELL, BYE: The Mayor of Antifastan, Portland’s Ted Wheeler, Will Not Run for Re-election.

LET THE SUNSHINE IN: Florida Advises Against New Covid Boosters For Most Age Groups, Citing No ‘Sufficient Clinical Evidence.’ “According to a press release from the FDOH, the agency based its new recommendations on the ‘absence of any meaningful booster-specific clinical trial data performed in humans’ that warrants the shots’ approval by federal health agencies. FDOH also claimed that the federal government ‘failed to provide sufficient data to support the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.'”

FORBIDDEN PALACE INTRIGUE [VIP]: Could Xi Get Khrushchev’d?

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: NY bail laws required most of 30 drug dealers busted on LI for peddling ‘tranq,’ cocaine and fentanyl to be ‘automatically released.’

NOT THAT MUCH MORE FAKE OR DERIVATIVE THAN AUTOTUNE OR SAMPLING: And So It Begins: Warner Music Just Signed an AI-Generated Pop Star to a Record Deal.

IT’S WORKING: Bidenomics strikes again: Real household income suffers biggest drop since Great Recession. “Even Obama auto bailout czar Steve Rattner blames Bidenomics: ‘The original sin was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March. The bill — almost completely unfunded — sought to counter the effects of the Covid pandemic by focusing on demand-side stimulus rather than on investment. That has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels.'”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.

THIS IS CNN: CNN Fact Check Hilariously Proves Case for Biden Impeachment Inquiry.

CHANGE: California quietly disavows medical misinformation law before courts can strike it down.

California’s COVID-19 medical misinformation law, which threatens the licenses of doctors who deviate from a fluctuating “scientific consensus” in conversations with patients, got a frosty reception in front of trial and appeals courts this year.

Signed into law by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom nearly a year ago, AB 2098 may not exist by the time judges get around to deciding its constitutionality.

A provision to repeal the law was apparently added to Senate Bill 815, which makes changes to the Medical Board of California, in late August or early September with the legislative session winding down. Nobody seems to know, or is willing to say, how it got there.

Heh.

Whoever did it, I’m sure it was at Gavin Newsom’s behest to avoid an embarrassing First Amendment court loss as he seeks the White House.

MILT HARRIS: Boston Now Has Two Green Monsters. “One in left field at Fenway and one in the Mayor’s office.”

ICE, ICE, BABY: Even Blue-State Voters Oppose a Ban On New Gas-Powered Cars, Poll Shows.

A strong majority of voters in blue New Jersey, including nearly 60 percent of independents and more than 40 percent of Democrats, oppose liberal governor Phil Murphy’s plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, a new poll shows.

The Public Opinion Strategies poll, conducted in August, found that 58 percent of New Jersey voters oppose Murphy’s proposed environmental rules, which would force vehicle manufacturers to make 100 percent of their passenger cars, trucks, and SUVs electric by 2035. That figure includes 58 percent of independents and 42 percent of Democrats. In total, 36 percent of the state’s voters say they “strongly” oppose Murphy’s proposal, compared with just 33 percent who support it.

Spoiler: They’ll get a ban on gas-powered cars, anyway, if they don’t stop electing Democrats.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Get Ready for an Onslaught of Saint Romney Hot Takes From the Dems. “The junior senator from Utah has reached a point in his career where many Republicans loathe him. He still has some fans among the avowed Trump-haters, but most of us wish we could have our 2012 votes for him back. If a ‘Most Regrettable Presidential Vote Ever’ award existed, Romney would be its first recipient.”

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Country Superstar John Rich to Rolling Stone: Pound Sand. “When Rolling Stone glamorized the Boston bomber, they lost all credibility as a serious publication. I’d rather do an interview with the Cartoon Network.”

ONE PLAGIARIST RIPPING OFF ANOTHER: Biden Ripped Obama in 2010 Email.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: The Fed Is Losing Money And You’re Going To Foot The Bill.

According to the Federal Reserve’s quarterly report for Q2, the central bank reported a loss of $57.3 billion through the first half of the year. The Fed is on pace to lose over $100 billion in 2023.

Rising interest rates are a big problem for the Fed, as they are for other banks. The central bank earns interest income on the bonds it holds on its balance sheet. But the Fed also pays out interest to other financial institutions that park money there. The bonds it bought during multiple rounds of quantitative easing (QE) and still holds on its balance sheet were relatively low-yielding. But with rates much higher today, it is paying out interest at a much higher rate.

According to the Fed report, as of June 30, the central bank held roughly $5.5 trillion in US Treasuries with an average yield of 1.96%. It also held $2.6 trillion of mortgage-backed securities with an average yield of 2.20%. Meanwhile, the average interest rate the Fed paid on money it held, along with repo agreements and other operations averaged around 5%.
…
Under the Fed’s charter, the Fed remits its profits to the US Treasury. This helps pay down the massive federal budget deficits. When the Fed loses money, the Treasury loses its payday. That means even bigger budget deficits.

Exit quote: “The last time the Fed reported net operating losses was in 1915.”

HEY MAN, NICE SHOT: Starlink Not Needed: Ukraine Hits Two Russian Warships with Missile Strike. “That brings me to the one important bit of news you won’t read in many other places. For all the talk about sending Ukraine more modern tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and even jets, what they need just as badly — if not more so — is mine-clearing equipment. Clearing mines isn’t nearly as sexy as driving a modern Abrams tank or flying an F-16 Falcon, but forgetting the unsexy stuff loses battles and even wars.”

IMPRESSIVE: Minor League Pitcher Turns Family Tragedy Into Character and Confidence.

IT’S EXACTLY WHO YOU THINK IT IS (UNLESS IT ISN’T): Here’s Who PJ Media Is Supporting in the GOP Primary.

NEVER TRUST ANYONE OVER 80: Mitt Romney will RETIRE: Republican Senator, 76, says he won’t seek a second term in 2024 because he’ll be too old in video slamming Biden and Trump and calling for a ‘new generation.’

INFLATION ISN’T AS BAD AS IT WAS, BUT SO LONG AS WASHINGTON KEEPS PRINTING AND BORROWING BY THE TRILLIONS, WE AREN’T OUT OF THE WOODS: Inflation Jumps in August As Warning Signs Blink Red at the Fed.

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Meta’s Threads is temporarily blocking searches about Covid-19. “People will be able to search for keywords such as ‘COVID’ in future updates once we are confident in the quality of the results.”

All the results that fit the narrative, I’m sure.

Related: Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘Twitter killer’ stalls after launch.

FINALLY, TRANSPARENCY IN THE MEDIA: CNN Breaks Story About Secret White House Media Directive to Bash Impeachment — to Bash Impeachment.

CNN could hardly be more transparent with this one.

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Xi Stresses Military Unity After Purging Rocket Force Chiefs.

While the Chinese leader has regularly stated the need for stability within the nation’s military, including during a trip to Inner Mongolia in June, his comments come after a series of abrupt personnel moves in the PLA.

Earlier this year, Xi abruptly purged two generals leading China’s secretive rocket force, which manages the country’s nuclear arsenal, without explanation. That came shortly after the Chinese leader ousted Qin Gang from the role of foreign minister, after the latter disappeared from public view for a month.

On Friday, Rahm Emanuel, the US Ambassador to Japan, linked Defense Minister Li Shangfu to those unexplained personnel moves, saying in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the Communist Party official hadn’t been seen in public for two weeks.

He still hasn’t been seen.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I find this worrisomely like the way Japanese officials opposed to war with the US were assassinated in the runup to Pearl Harbor. I don’t know that Xi is clearing the decks of people who think starting a World War is a terrible idea, but if he were it would look a lot like this.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP [VIP]: My Internet Sex Videos Somehow Got on the Internet. “Virginia Democrat Susanna Gibson’s internet sex video was seen on the internet, totally violating her privacy. ‘I need, like, more tokens before I let him do that,’ she said of a different violation.”

Plus:

• How to raise your kids to be as awful a human being as you are.
• Mexico’s mummified space aliens.
• Jailbreaking dog finds the perfect new home.

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

IF ANY SINGLE COLUMNIST FULLY REPRESENTS THE DRAB CONFORMITY OF INSIDE-THE-BELTWAY THINKING, IT’S DAVID IGNATIUS: President Biden should not run again in 2024.

TO BE FAIR, REPORTERS AREN’T GENERALLY VERY WELL INFORMED: Reporter Gets Destroyed After Claiming ‘No Evidence’ for Biden Impeachment.