I WAS SURPRISED THERE WAS ANYONE WHO DIDN’T BELIEVE THAT: The Number of Americans Who Believe Biden Is Too Old to Be President May Surprise You.

NO BIG DEAL, IT ISN’T LIKE CHINA HAS BEEN MAKING ANY BIG MOVES IN THE MIDDLE EAST OR ANYTHING: Biden’s Top Candidate To Be Ambassador to Israel Leads Pro-China Think Tank.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Woke Bazaar.

When economic, social, health and environmental imperatives jostle for top spot in virtue, how can they be ranked? Some have recently advocated the return of face-mask mandates. “We can certainly stop it making as many mutations by stopping it infecting as many people – if we block its transmission, if we wear a mask, if we get vaccinated, if we do social distancing,” a health expert said. But is it without cost? “Buy a mask and let his family go hungry, or buy food and go out into the crowded city without one – that is the stark choice facing Hayatullah Khan, an Afghan labourer whose daily earnings have fallen below $1.50 during the coronavirus pandemic,” one journalist observed about poor countries. Yet for some there are no resource conflicts: tax the billionaires and give Hayatullah Khan a free mask, free food, or, preferably, both. Welcome to Woke economics, where payments are made in intentions and virtue pays for everything.

Read the whole thing.

MEMORY-HOLED:

My point here is that there has been a concerted push across all platforms to disappear the story of the 13 American military heroes who were killed unnecessarily in Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. That’s because Biden’s poll numbers crashed afterwards and have never… https://t.co/plnzUw27KS

— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) August 27, 2023

From the replies: You make a good point. A search of Abbey Gate for the past week returns mostly press releases by government officials and scant news articles.

You can see for yourself here.

OH, CANADA: Kayla Lemieux and His Z-Cup Prosthetics Are Making an Oversized Comeback. “Now that Lemieux is returning to the classroom after such a brief paid vacation, it makes you wonder if his delusions of glandeur aren’t sincere.”

HERE’S HOW THAT SPACE PROGRAM IS COMING ALONG: What is OSIRIS-REx? Everything you need to know about the 1st NASA spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

The OSIRIS-REx (short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft was developed for NASA by Lockheed Martin. It is roughly the size of a van and, when fully fueled, weighs around 4,650 pounds (2,110 kilograms).

Besides folding solar panels, onboard cameras, and equipment to map Bennu’s surface, OSIRIS-REx is equipped with a 10-foot-long (3 meters) sample arm for retrieving chunks of rock from the asteroid.

After returning the samples to Earth, OSIRIS-REx is due to launch again in 2029 — this time, to the asteroid Apophis, another potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid laden with intriguing subsurface materials.

OSIRIS-REx’s first target, Bennu, is an 85.5 million-ton (77.5 million metric tons) space rock that is on track to swoop within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of Earth’s orbit between 2175 and 2199. If Bennu, which is as wide as the Empire State Building is tall, were to slam into Earth, the estimated kinetic energy released would be 1,200 megatons — roughly 80,000 times greater than the energy of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

Whether this collision will occur is unknown. The projected odds (the highest for any known asteroid) are slim, at just 1 in 2,700, but unpredictable alterations to Bennu’s orbit, made constantly by tiny nudges from starlight, could still shift it onto a collision course with Earth.

Much more at the link about an underappreciated NASA program.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: AI Wants to Make Us Regret It Sooner Rather Than Later. “Now that AI is exploding much faster than I thought it would, there’s a creep factor that is making me regret not being a little more phased.”

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: More students are in ‘big, big trouble’ in reading, math, and they’re not catching up. “Children who were in kindergarten and first grade when the pandemic first hit are now in third and fourth grade, said Huff. Those who missed out on phonics and phonemic awareness can’t cope. ‘If you’re two or more grade levels below in grade three, you’re in big trouble. You’re in big, big, big trouble.'”

HMM: Central Bank Gold Demand Hits Record High, U.S. Petrodollar on Deathbed?

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: DHS hides monthly number of illegal migrants released into U.S after interacting with border agents. “The only reason why ICE and OFO [Office of Field Operations] would refuse to disclose that information is to hide the fact that it is releasing more than 100,000 aliens per month into the United States, and to conceal the effects of those migrant releases on communities across the United States.”

THANK YOU: Hungary Providing Shelter for 250 Maui Families.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Wyoming Sorority Members Forced to Admit Trans-Identifying Male as Court Rejects Suit.

Despite hearing testimony from the women, some of whom stated Langford had “watched” them undress with an erection, Judge Alan Johnson dismissed the case of Westenbroek v. Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity on August 25. Johnson stated that re-defining “woman” to include males was “Kappa Kappa Gamma’s bedrock right as a private, voluntary organization — and one this Court may not invade.”

In his decision, Johnson wrote: “The University of Wyoming chapter voted to admit — and, more broadly, a sorority of hundreds of thousands approved — Langford. With its inquiry beginning and ending there, the Court will not define ‘woman’ today. The delegate of a private, voluntary organization interpreted ‘woman’, otherwise undefined in the non-profit’s bylaws, expansively; this Judge may not invade Kappa Kappa Gamma’s freedom of expressive association and inject the circumscribed definition Plaintiffs urge.”

This one is on Kappa Kappa Gamma, which young women would have to be crazy to pledge to in the future.

THE OVERT POLITICIZATION OF OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM CONTINUES APACE:

Dems tried to set a March 4th date for Trump's GA trial, but Brian Kemp shut that down

So now they're setting a March 4th date for Trump's **DC** case

Blatantly obvious they want Trump in court the day before Super Tuesday pic.twitter.com/PUHvqzKmgQ

— John Hasson (@SonofHas) August 28, 2023

Full details here from Matt Margolis.

MONKEYS SHOULDN’T BE DRINKING IN THE FIRST PLACE: Extreme gene therapy treatment for alcoholism slashes drinking by 90% in monkeys.

DEMOCRATS KEEP CHOOSING THESE PEOPLE TO REPRESENT THEM AND I KEEP GETTING TOLD IT’S REPUBLICANS BECOMING DANGEROUSLY RADICAL: Colorado Dems Go Full Commie, Choose Open Marxist Who Calls for Cultural Revolution for State House Seat. “He is also, of course, a schoolteacher, busy raising up new cadres of Bolsheviks to bring about the revolution he desires.”

WE’LL SEE MORE OF THIS AS THE ROT FROM OUR CORRUPTED INSTITUTIONS CONTINUES TO STINK UP THE PLACE:

Open defiance of the old consensus.https://t.co/4hU3vJzaSi

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) August 25, 2023

We’ll see increasingly desperate and obvious efforts to suppress defiance, too, as Glenn has already noted.

THE KERRY CONNECTION: The Latest Juicy Nugget in the Biden Bribery Scandal.

INCENTIVIZING RAPE: What do most “trans women” in women’s jails have in common? “When considering the title question, it’s important to point out that we don’t have exact figures for how many gender-bending prisoners have actually been transferred to female facilities. But if you’re talking about Wisconsin, the commonality being observed is that slightly more than half of all prisoners who self-identify as transgender women are behind bars – at least in part – because they were convicted of sex crimes.”

RACISM, STRAIGHT UP: ‘Black Voices for Trump’ Leader Only Trump GA Co-Defendant Denied Bail.

GOODER AND HARDER, NEW YORK: Over half of NY voters say state is headed in wrong direction as 80% demand term limits for governor.

The fed-up respondents gave Gov. Kathy Hochul a dismal 40% approval rating, a big drop from her 50% figure from a survey released just three months ago, according to the independent Unite NY’s Voter Empowerment Index unveiled Sunday.

Other state lawmakers fared even worse with a 27% approval rating, down from their recent 36%.

Overall, 53% of the state’s voters said they don’t like where the state is headed politically, and 40% said they are considering leaving.

Check your blue-state voting habits at the state line, please.

GROSS: AI Is Turning Into ‘The Human Centipede.’

HMM: Zillow is a full-blown housing market bull—predicting that U.S. home prices will jump 6.5% by July 2024.

Back in February, Zillow’s housing economists made a bold call that U.S. home prices had bottomed and would proceed to climb 0.5% over the next 12 months.

In the months preceding that call, U.S. home prices as tracked by the Zillow Home Value Index not only began to climb again but also reached a new all-time high. This uptick was propelled by the tailwind generated from tight inventory levels, which proved strong enough to overpower the headwind caused by the mortgage rate shock.

That U.S. house price rebound coincided with Zillow repeatedly revising its home price forecast upward. Its latest revision, Zillow predicts that U.S. home prices will rise 6.5% between July 2023 and July 2024—up from the 6.3% call it made last month.

That’s nice if you’re already a homeowner. Less nice if you’re just starting out and looking to buy your first home.

MUST-READ: KDJ’s ‘Gun Myth’ Fact Check: Liberals vs. Americans, Part 2: Mass Shootings.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Experts are witnessing a strange new phenomenon in the demand for electric cars: ‘We call it the ‘Field of Dreams’ moment.’

“The demand is not keeping up with production, which is the opposite story of a year ago,” Cox Automotive executive analyst Michelle Krebs told Grist. “We call it the ‘Field of Dreams’ moment. Automakers are building more, but not enough consumers have come to the field.”

But Krebs also observed that availability isn’t such a bad thing when compared to the wider market.

“A year ago, the average EV price was above the average luxury vehicle price. Today, as inventory and availability build, EV prices are moving closer to the industry average,” Krebs added.

This is one of the possible outcomes (all bad) when Washington tries to pick winners and losers: A big run-up in demand as incentives get some buyers off the fence, followed by market over-saturation.

There are just too many use-cases where EVs make little sense — pickup trucks, for example — and manufacturing incentives and consumer tax credits can’t change that.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Climate Cult Tyrants Are Still Worse Than COVID Tyrants. “If, like me, you’re skeptical whenever the government says that forcing you to do something will save you money in the long run, you have a clean bill of mental health.”