There's something about the term "deep state" that sounds paranoid, even nutty. As of just a few years ago, you mostly heard the phrase from relics on the far-left, the kind of people who lecture you about the United Fruit Company and the toppling of Mosaddegh. The term, then and now, suggests that our democracy is fake. Elections and domestic politics are a sideshow. No matter who you vote for, in the end, the same people still run everything. That's a pretty dark understanding of the American system. If you're a normal person who grew up here, it's the last thing you want to believe about your country. It seems crazy.

Norm MacDonald was fearless. He always believed that 'a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.' As The Atlantic recently noted:

[Norm] hated comedy that pandered to a like-minded crowd, once saying in an interview that stand-ups should hunt for laughter, not applause. "There's a difference between a clap and a laugh. A laugh is involuntary, but the crowd is in complete control when they're clapping. They're saying, 'We agree with what you're saying; proceed!'" he said. "But when they're laughing, they're genuinely surprised. And when they're not laughing, they're really surprised. And sometimes I think, in my little head, that that's the best comedy of all."

Norm MacDonald was, in other words, the absolute opposite of what passes for a comedian today. And since today's comedians are some of the least funny to ever bear that name, that means Norm MacDonald is firmly entrenched as quite possibly the funniest comic of all time.

The United States and Australia went to extraordinary lengths to keep Paris in the dark as they secretly negotiated a plan to build nuclear submarines, scuttling France's largest defense contract and so enraging President Emmanuel Macron that on Friday he ordered the withdrawal of France's ambassadors to both nations.

Mr. Macron's decision was a stunning and unexpected escalation of the breach between Washington and Paris, on a day that the two countries had planned to celebrate an alliance that goes back to the defeat of Britain in the Revolutionary War.

Yet it was driven by France's realization that two of its closest allies have been negotiating secretly for months. According to interviews with American and British officials, the Biden administration had been in talks since soon after President Biden's inauguration about arming the Australian navy with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines that could patrol areas of the South China Sea and beyond that Beijing is trying to dominate with its own military forces.

But one thing was standing in their way: a $60 billion agreement that called for Australia to buy a dozen far less sophisticated, and far noisier, conventionally-powered submarines from France.

Italy is to make it compulsory for all workers to have a Covid "green pass" - proof of vaccination, a negative test or recovery from the virus.

The measures are a first for Europe and some of the strictest in the world.


Anyone without a pass will reportedly face suspension from work and may have their pay stopped after five days.

Signs of incipient totalitarian impulses have been evident since the rise of political correctness.¹ Yet, warnings from those who saw the character of contemporary "social justice" went largely unheeded. Nevertheless, even before degenerating into "wokeness," social justice bore the seeds of civilizational decline and the simultaneous rise of social and political tyranny. The weaponization of mostly feigned fragility by snowflake totalitarians has been marshaled to abrogate the rights of those deemed offensive, injurious, and even "dangerous." It also has evinced "paralogistic discourse," or "[d]iscourse that is out of touch with reality, involving illogical, fallacious, unwarranted premises and conclusions."² Such thinking is characteristic of societal hysteria.³ This weaponization escalated, germinating "cancel culture," the buds from which neo-Stalinist purges have since blossomed.

As I was first to point out, social justice amounts to "practical postmodernism."⁴ The relativism, subjectivism, and antiobjectivity of postmodern theory, as well as the priority it places on language, have been harnessed by social justice activists and their followers and put to political ends. Social justice ideology claims that "narratives," "my truth," and language trump or produce reality. In terms of transgender ideology, this means that declaring one's gender, or mere (re)naming, supersedes and cancels biology. In terms of critical race theory and the Black Lives Matter movement, it means that personal stories of oppression overwrite evidence, statistics, and the arc of history. Given that appeals to objective criteria are banished, when backed by the requisite power, such claims are necessarily authoritarian. Without objective criteria, there is no court of appeal other than power, and thus such "truths" are deemed incontrovertible.⁵ The legal ramifications of practical postmodernism have been nothing less than astonishing.

The policies of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) accelerated the already prevalent upward movement of unqualified persons, those who have achieved important positions thanks to affirmative action and adherence to political ideology. DEI (or DIE) metastasized throughout the culture at large, with signs of the upward mobility of the unqualified seen in government, academia, and the corporate world. On Twitter, the accounts of unremarkable activists and otherwise unaccomplished leftists are granted the official blue checkmark of authority and significance.

Historically, the upward movement of the unqualified has been a harbinger of increasing authoritarianism; the unqualified favor authoritarianism, which protects their unearned status, and authoritarianism selects the unqualified, who become avid loyalists of the authoritarian regime.⁶ Thus, the upward movement of the unqualified should be taken as a telltale sign.

A giant ozone hole has opened up over Antarctica this year. Already larger than the entire ice-covered continent, the ozone hole has surpassed the size of 75% of ozone holes measured since 1979 and is still growing. Scientists believe climate change might be the cause.

The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, is frequently described as the world's great success story in battling human-caused destruction of the environment. The agreement banned harmful chlorofluorocarbons and other substances known to destroy the protective ozone layer, which absorbs damaging ultraviolet UV radiation coming from the sun. The concentrations of the damaging substances in the atmosphere have leveled off since the protocol came into force and are slowly decreasing, providing the foundation for the layer's gradual healing. But worsening climate change is now slowing down the recovery.

Changes to periods and unexpected vaginal bleeding after having a Covid vaccine should be investigated to reassure women, says a leading immunologist specialising in fertility.

Writing in the BMJ, Dr Victoria Male, from Imperial College London, said the body's immune response was the likely cause, not something in the vaccines.

There is no evidence they have any impact on pregnancy or fertility.

Torrential rainfall of 244 mm in just 3 hours caused flooding in parts of Gard Department in southern France on 14 September 2021. Dozens of people were rescued and one person is reported missing.

Hundreds of firefighters were deployed to the area and carried out 450 interventions. The departmental government of Gard said one person is missing in the town of Aimargues after falling into the Le Rhôny river.

Around 30 people were rescued - some by helicopter - after vehicles were trapped on the A9 motorway in the communes of Langlade and Gallargues le Montueux.

At least 10 people were airlifted to safety by helicopter in the municipality of Aigues-Vives, one of the hardest hit areas. Rescues were also carried out in the towns of Uchaud, Bernis, Calvisson and Boissieres. Part of a building collapsed in Caissargues. No injuries were reported.

Fury has erupted tonight after ministers confirmed plans to vaccinate all children over 12 across the UK from next week - with experts and parents warning it may lead to unvaccinated pupils being 'bullied' and could even 'tear families apart'.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi confirmed the plans to offer a single Pfizer jab to healthy 12 to 15-year-olds during a speech to the House of Commons tonight.

Officials unaware comments were being broadcast live on television.

Unaware that he was on a hot mic and being broadcast live on a TV station, Israeli health minister Nitzan Horowitz admitted that vaccine passports were primarily about coercing skeptical people to get the vaccine.

"Imposing "green pass" rules on certain venues is needed only to pressure members of the public to get vaccinated, and not for medical reasons, Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said on Sunday, ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting," reports Jewish News Syndicate.