CBS News: “Known for its coastlines, mountains and the state that was ‘first in flight,’ North Carolina has also developed a more dubious reputation recently: as a regional destination for adults who want to marry children. State lawmakers are nearing passage of a bill that could dampen the state’s appeal as the go-to place to bring child brides – but would still leave it short of a national push to increase the age to 18. The proposed legislation would raise the minimum marriage age from 14 to 16 and limit the age difference between a 16-year-old and their spouse to four years.”

“‘We will have moved the needle and made North Carolina no longer at the very bottom of the barrel of states,’ said Drew Reisinger, the register of deeds in Buncombe County. But, he said, ‘we’re still going to be putting a lot of children in harm’s way.’ Reisinger said the county, which includes the popular tourist city of Asheville, is a destination for many adults and child brides from nearby states such as Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee – all of which have raised the minimum marriage age in recent years. Two-thirds of marriage applications in the county last year involving at least one person under 18 were from people who lived outside of North Carolina, Reisinger said, noting a 49-year-old man and 17-year-old girl recently came from Kentucky seeking a license. ‘North Carolina is one of the friendliest states in the South to give them safe haven,’ he said.”

Screenshot of the Afghanistan blurb of “President Trump Is Bringing Peace To The Middle East” at gop.com/president-trump-is-bringing-peace-to-the-middle-east-rsr/, archived on April 8th, 2021:

Screenshot of the same URL on August 16th, 2021:

Deletion spotted by Washington Post political correspondent Dave Weigel.

“To mark the beginning of Pride Month this year, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel did what party leaders do on these types of occasions: She sent out a tweet. ‘Happy #PrideMonth!’ she wrote, ‘@GOP is proud to have doubled our LGBTQ support over the last 4 years, and we will continue to grow our big tent by supporting measures that promote fairness and balance protections for LGBTQ Americans and those with deeply held religious beliefs.’ Inside the RNC, it barely registered. McDaniel, after all, had sent out a similar message in years past.”

“But outside the building, those 265 characters prompted immediate backlash. Not just from Democrats, who accused her of disingenuousness, but from social conservatives too who furiously dialed up McDaniel with complaints. Tony Perkins, leader of the Family Research Council, lambasted her in a scathing blog post and even encouraged people not to donate to the RNC. But the attacks, particularly from the evangelical right, were met with a shrug by the party. McDaniel’s willingness to brush aside complaints would have been unthinkable not too long ago, Republicans say. The evangelical right remains the most committed part of the party, and the Family Research Council leader is among its most powerful figures. But the GOP has, in recent years, undergone a quiet but consequential evolution: Party leaders still exhibit strong opposition to transgender rights and the top legislative priorities of the LGBTQ community. But on the most prominent battlefield of the past few decades, same-sex marriage, they’ve all but conceded defeat” – Politico.

The island of Hispaniola, the western side of which is the nation of Haiti, lies in the expected path of Tropical Depression Grace, with the eye of the storm passing over the island as early as Monday afternoon, the New York Times reports.

More than 1,200 people were confirmed killed when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti Saturday morning.  Haiti is still recovering from a 2010 earthquake in which estimated fatalities number between 80,000-300,000.

The storm is expected to dump between 3 and 5 inches of rain as it travels along the West Indies at around 15 m.p.h.

The Texas Supreme Court issued an unsigned stay of lower courts’ rulings that blocked the mask ban signed by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Simply, Abbott’s ban on mask mandates still stands.

“It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan, along with the tremendous surge in COVID, the Border catastrophe, the destruction of energy independence, and our crippled economy. It shouldn’t be a big deal, because he wasn’t elected legitimately in the first place!” says the Former Guy in yet another dumbass statement.

“The death toll from a powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Haiti climbed sharply on Sunday, with at least 724 dead and a minimum of 2,800 injured,” Politico reports. “The updated figures from Haiti’s Office of Civil Protection follow a previous count of 304 dead. The office’s director, Jerry Chandler, said rescuers are continuing to search for possible survivors under the rubble.”

“The epicenter of the quake was about 78 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The widespread damage could worsen by early next week, with Tropical Storm Grace predicted to reach Haiti late Monday or early Tuesday, bringing torrential rains. Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with patients. A former senator rented a private airplane to move injured people from Les Cayes to Port-au-Prince for medical assistance. Rescue workers and bystanders were able to pull many people to safety from the rubble… a partial survey of structural damage found at least 860 destroyed homes and more than 700 damaged. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches were also affected.”

Three people are dead and two wounded after an argument led to a mass shooting early Sunday morning at a San Antonio sports bar that was operating after hours, CNN reports.

Police were called to the Boom Boom Sports Bar in the Denver Heights neighborhood at 3:35 a.m. Sunday.  Witnesses said that while the owner was trying to close the bar, an argument broke out between two patrons.  As people exited into the parking lot, one of the people arguing went to his car and retrieved a long gun, which he used to fire into the group.

Two of the victims are women, the other three are men, all in their 20s and 30s, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus stated.  Two died at the scene and other died at a local hospital.  The two wounded people were reportedly in critical condition.

Attempting to leverage his job approval as the nation celebrates more than 70% of eligible citizens being fully vaccinated, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday triggered a national election which will be held on September 20th, the Associated Press reports.

“We’ve had your back, and now it’s time to hear your voice,” Trudeau said. “Canadians need to choose how we finish the fight against COVID-19.”

Despite the government’s success at distributing the vaccine, Trudeau’s election call holds significant risk for the liberal government.  Trudeau is not universally popular in Canada, and he holds the Prime Minister position despite his Liberal Party not holding the majority of seats in Parliament.  Should the Liberal Party fail to win a majority of seats, Trudeau may not hold his leadership role in the party.

“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

“Dear countrymen!

Today, I came across a hard choice; I should stand to face the armed Taliban who wanted to enter the palace or leave the dear country that I dedicated my life to protecting and protecting the past twenty years. If there were still countless countrymen martyred and they would face the destruction and destruction of Kabul city, the result would have been a big human disaster in this six million city. The Taliban have made it to remove me, they are here to attack all Kabul and the people of Kabul. In order to avoid the bleeding flood, I thought it was best to get out.

“Florida officials reported 151,415 coronavirus cases over the seven-day period from Aug. 6-12, an average of more than 21,600 infections per day. This marks the third consecutive week that the state has set a new record for weekly infections,” reports the Tampa Bay Times. The latest tally brings the total number of cases up to 2,877,214 since the pandemic’s first two cases in Florida were reported 17 months ago on March 1, 2020.

Media accounts of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan have been accompanied by pundits of all political stripes asking the question “why did the Afghan forces just give up as soon as the US started pulling out?” In this essay I’ll give a brief explanation as to why, and describe how, if the US Military is smart, they’ll continue the engagement in Afghanistan via asymmetric means, rather than by any boots on the ground occupation.

Axios: “White, non-Hispanic Americans now account for less than six in 10 people in the U.S. – a more precipitous drop over the past decade than experts expected – and they’re no longer the racial-ethnic majority in 13% of U.S. counties. Redistricting will decide how partisan power is divvied up for the next decade – but in some states, those politically driven decisions may obscure these deeper statistical trends. White, non-Hispanic Americans are about 58% of the U.S. population, according to data from the 2020 census released on Thursday. That’s lower than the estimates of 60%, and it compares with about 64% in 2010. They are no longer the racial-ethnic majority in 400 of the nation’s 3,100+ counties and county equivalents, up from 340 a decade ago.”

“The United States is pulling out all US personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including top officials, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN on Sunday,” reports CNN. “The withdrawal of embassy personnel marks a rapid acceleration of the process that had only been announced on Thursday, and is a situation that many State Department security officials expected would have to happen given the speed with which the Taliban has gained territory in Afghanistan in recent days.”

The Atlantic: “The next front in the culture wars is climate change, and the battle lines have already been drawn. On one side are the climate skeptics – those who see global warming as nothing more than unusual weather, and argue that government interventions and regulations to curb greenhouse-gas emissions are alarmist or ‘eco-fascist.’ On the other side is Greta Thunberg. This, at least, is what the populist right’s next political battleground looks like online.”

“There you can find a barrage of disinformation and conspiracies about the Swedish climate activist, including depictions of her as a spoiled child, a leftist pawn, and even a Nazi. While much of this ridicule comes from internet trolls, a group of far-right activists, media pundits, politicians, and even heads of state have joined, and at times driven, the pile-on. That a teenager could cause such a stir around the world is a testament to Thunberg’s influence. This Friday marks three years since she began her weekly protest against climate inaction outside the Swedish Parliament, a demonstration that has since ballooned into a global movement involving millions of students across more than 150 countries, with Thunberg as its Joan of Arc. Through her protests and speeches, she has galvanized the world about the climate crisis in ways few have before her.”

“She has met world leaders, addressed the United Nations, and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize – thrice. These accolades have helped give Thunberg an enormous platform, but they have also invited a torrent of abuse, disinformation, and conspiracy theories of the kind typically reserved for older and more powerful figures such as George Soros and Bill Gates. That neither Thunberg’s youth nor her status has prevented her from becoming the far right’s latest villain reveals the extent to which she is seen as a threat. That she hasn’t been deterred by the attacks suggests that they aren’t working.”

“In late 2020, as then-President Donald Trump was waging a multi-front campaign to cling to power, a little-known attorney and self-described former special ops commander began working on Trump’s behalf, badgering senior Justice Department officials in an effort to rope them into the plot. In the months since Trump’s failed coup attempt, government documents and emails have further revealed the extent of this attorney Kurt Olsen’s behind-the-scenes crusade to try to keep him in power. The twice-impeached former president had clearly taken a shine to Olsen and his work.”

“But since the fallout from the 2020 presidential election, it appears that Olsen’s former colleagues want to distance themselves from him – to the point where his onetime law firm has effectively disowned him and airbrushed him from its history. Olsen’s recurring appearances in the ongoing Capitol Hill investigations into what led to the MAGA riot on Jan. 6 raise some glaring questions. How did a virtually unknown private attorney and associate of extreme MAGA personalities stumble his way into influencing the functions of the executive branch – to the degree that the most senior DOJ personnel had to concoct plans to fight off his onslaught? For 18 years, Olsen worked as a partner at Klafter, Olsen & Lesser, a small New York-based law firm he co-founded. But shortly after he signed on to help Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s failed bid to overturn the 2020 election at the Supreme Court, the firm changed its name and registered a new website – without Olsen’s name in the URL – on Feb. 24. Now, where Olsen’s bio used to be, a disclaimer says, ‘Kurt Olsen is not affiliated in any way with Klafter Lesser LLP.’ Partners at Klafter Lesser did not respond to requests from The Daily Beast for comment. Olsen did not provide comment, either” – Daily Beast.

The New York Times profiled Lindsey Graham on Saturday, pondering his ass-kissing ways:

In mid-November, as he was publicly urging Trump to keep up the election fight, Graham made a previously unreported phone call to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., to revive a friendship damaged by his call for a special prosecutor to investigate the overseas business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter. It was short, and not especially sweet, according to three people with direct knowledge of the exchange. Graham told Biden that, in attacking Hunter, he had done only the bare minimum to satisfy Trump supporters back home. (A Graham spokesman disputed that account.)

“Mr. Biden, who viewed Mr. Graham’s statement as an unforgivable attack on his family responded by saying he would work with any Republican, but dismissed the approach as Mr. Graham trying to have it both ways, two people close to the president said. ‘Lindsey’s been a personal disappointment,’ Mr. Biden said a few days later, ‘because I was a personal friend of his.'”

A three-year-old girl was shot and killed by a five-year-old boy in Bena, Minnesota early Friday morning, less than two days after a child, describes as a “toddler,” shot his mother in the head while she was on a work Zoom call.

ABC News reports that police responded to a call of an accidental shooting at around 3:30 a.m. on Friday.  The family attempted to drive the child to a hospital and met an ambulance on the way.  After treatment efforts failed, the child was declared dead.  Police did not know how the five-year-old got the gun, and they would not specify the relationship between the two children.

In Florida on Wednesday, 21-year-old Shamaya Lynn was on a work-related Zoom call when other participants heard a pop and she started slumping in her chair, CNN reports.  A person on the Zoom call contacted local police, who responded to Lynn’s house.  They found the woman with a bullet hole in the back of her head and a loaded gun nearby.  Police say an adult had left a loaded gun in the house and Lynn’s child found it.

https://youtu.be/cB74gxz5azI

A rally in Los Angeles against vaccines, socialism, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom that attracted the Proud Boys, who set off and attacked onlookers standing across the street.  Video from journalist Andrew Kimmel.

The video above shows a speaker calling for violence:  “It’s time to have not just our voices heard, but our fists heard, like they heard across the street earlier.”  The video of the attack is posted below.  (Warning:  Graphic violence.)