BECAUSE THEY’RE BIDING THEIR TIME? Why the Robot Takeover of the Economy Is Proceeding Slowly.

YOUR ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE ISN’T ENOUGH.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: We Didn’t Expect Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and Alex Jones’s Infowars to Have This in Common.

PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO PAY, THEY JUST DON’T LIKE BEING JERKED AROUND: Study: Dutch Piracy Rates In Free Fall Due Mostly To The Availability Of Legal Alternatives.

WHEN YOU STRIKE AT A QUEEN… Dems push back against anti-Pelosi insurgents.

The insurgent Democrats, led by Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), contend that the liberal Pelosi, after four straight losing election cycles, projects the wrong image for the party and should step aside — or be forced out — to allow a new generation of leaders to take the helm.

Moulton is stressing the urgency of a leadership change, arguing that the Democrats can’t win back the majority with Pelosi as the leader, so why wait for the next losing cycle to make the switch?

“There is clearly a desire to have this discussion and to do something — and to do something now,” Moulton told The Hill last week as Congress was preparing to leave town for the July Fourth recess.

“Another reporter recently suggested that people think we should wait until after 2018. I have not heard that from anybody — absolutely not,” Moulton added. “Some people may say that on the record, you know, for political purposes. But we want to win 2018.”

Moulton, 38, who had huddled before the recess with Rice and roughly a dozen other dissenting Democrats, said those “conversations” would continue over the break and beyond.

“We don’t want to wait until after we lose again to make the changes we know we need to make,” he said.

But a growing number of Democrats, representing a crosscut of regions and ideologies, say blaming Pelosi for the Democrats’ losses is misguided because any leader the Democrats seat will instantly become the target of similar GOP attack ads.

You mean, like the anti-Pelosi ads which were successfully used to defend Georgia’s sixth district last month?

SARAH HOYT has a new short story out in what looks like an amusing collection, with other contributions from Jim Butcher and Larry Correia: Straight Outta Tombstone.

MAKE SURE THERE’S AN EASY-TO-TRIGGER SPRINKLER SYSTEM IN SKYNET’S BUNKER: This Circuit Board Will Self-Destruct in 5, 4, 3… “A pair of engineers at Vanderbilt University has constructed simple circuit boards, including conductive traces and capacitors, that work above room temperature but rapidly disintegrate when cooled below 32°C (89°F).”

CHARLIE MARTIN: I Lived in Germany and Learned This Lesson.

INVENT SOMETHING THAT MAKES RAISING KIDS EASIER: Elon Musk is concerned about peak population of developed countries. And encourage women not to postpone marriage.

IT’S A DISGRACE ROOTED IN THE KIND OF PUERILE ANTI-AMERICANISM THAT BOTH TRUDEAU ADMINISTRATIONS REPRESENT: Canada’s sympathy for Khadr is a disgrace.

LARRY KUDLOW: Trump Has Putin Over a Barrel.

Russia still has a lot of oil and gas reserves. And it uses this to bully Eastern and Western Europe. It threatens to cut off these resources if Europe dares to complain about Putin power grabs in Crimea, eastern Ukraine, the Baltics and elsewhere.

But enter President Donald Trump. In his brilliant speech in Warsaw, Poland, earlier this week, he called Putin’s energy bluff.

It may well have been the best speech of his young presidency. Trump delivered a stirring leadership message, emphasizing the importance of God, freedom, strong families and democratic values.

And while unambiguously pledging to uphold NATO’s Article 5 — which commits the members to protect one another — Trump went even deeper. “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” he said. “Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? … if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive.” He also spoke several times of the religious leadership and bravery of Pope John Paul II.

It was a bold strike for the West.

But in an absolutely key part of the speech, he took direct aim at Putin’s energy bullying.

Trump said, “we are committed to securing your access to alternate sources of energy, so Poland and its neighbors are never again held hostage to a single supplier of energy.”

Thanks goodness the real Kremlin stooge has exited the White House, and been replaced by an honest defender of the West.

BEN ROSE: Blackwell and Its Impact on Minor Medical Expenses and Liability Waivers.

WINNING: Move Over China, Here Come the American Drones.

FAKE ACCOUNT ADMINISTERS DOSE OF REALITY:

Meanwhile for a full dose of Matthew Dowd’s Lena-Dunham-like self-dramatization, go here.

ALLIES: US lawmaker wants to block F-35 sales to Turkey over embassy brawl.

The real reason is that Erdogan’s Turkey acts less like a NATO ally and more like a dangerous local thug who shouldn’t be armed with anything as advanced as the F-35.

CLIMATE OF HATE: Injured Baton Rouge police officer sues Black Lives Matter, Deray McKesson. “Friday’s lawsuit claims Mckesson was ‘in charge of’ a July 9 protest that ‘turned into a riot.’ Mckesson ‘did nothing to calm the crowd and, instead, he incited the violence’ on behalf of Black Lives Matter, the suit alleges.”

It’s hard to meet the Brandenburg test for incitement. But if a humorous GIF counts as incitement to violence — and CNN says it does — then it’s hard to see how BLM and McKesson get by. They’d better hope that the jurors don’t watch CNN. Which, statistically, is a very good bet . . . .

STRESS TEST: WHAT WOULD A RECESSION LOOK LIKE?

At least since the current president took office, the American political system and the economy have been singing deeply discordant tunes. The political situation looks like it’s teetering on the edge of crisis: Washington is consumed by the politics of scandal and personal destruction; the ruling party is dysfunctional; the outrage-polarization cycle is accelerating; the threat of political violence is unusually acute. The economy, meanwhile, feels stable and secure: Growth is chugging along, the stock market is soaring, the housing market is in high gear, and unemployment has reached historic lows.

But in the Wall Street Journal, Greg Ip reminds us that it’s entirely possible that the economy, too, will plunge into mayhem in the foreseeable future. . . .

A recession today would be like an earthquake rocking a political edifice that is already showing cracks.

Hmm. First, I don’t agree that the center held during the last recession. Second, I do think that we’re overdue, but on the other hand, the recovery we had was so anemic it was barely a recovery at all.

WHEW: Why Trump’s Western Civilization Isn’t a ‘White Supremacist Dogwhistle.’

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Chico State Staff May Have Broken State Law by Removing Controversial Newspaper.

AT AMAZON, fresh New Releases, updated hourly.

Plus, today’s new Kindle Daily Deals.

And shop the Digital Deals of the Day.

ROGER KIMBALL: DONALD TRUMP AS PERICLES:

Trump mounted a wide-ranging and spirited defense of core Western values and achievements. It’s not just that we are rich and powerful. It is also that we cherish such enabling civilizational values as individual liberty, the rule of law, the political equality of women, religious freedom, and a generous and innovative spirit of curiosity and exploration. “If we don’t forget who are,” Trump said. “we just can’t be beaten.” . . .

These were the sentiments that wretched Lefties like Peter Beinart, writing in The Atlantic, castigated as evidence of “The Racial and Religious Paranoia.” “Donald Trump referred 10 times to ‘the West,’” quoth Beinart, “and five times to ‘our civilization,’” as if that was evidence of some especially twisted perspective.

It was the same throughout the gigantic and odiferous midden of “progressive” commentary. A writer for Slate screamed about “the white nationalist roots” of the speech, Eugene Robinson emitted his usual incontinent drivel in The Washington Post, sniffing about Trump’s historical ignorance and cultural chauvinism, and a former Obama advisor picked up the baton to warn about Trump’s “Dark Views Of Clash Of Civilizations.”

What would these pathetic tools have to say about Pericles’s funeral oration, delivered near the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, when the great statesman addressed the people of Athens to commemorate their war dead and remind them of what made their city such a distinctive and admirable place?

Something on the order of “who’s Pericles?” or “just another dead white male,” would be my guess. . . .

PRINCIPLES: Byron York: Rebel states sell info they hide from Trump voter commission.

In response, state officials not only refused to provide Kobach the requested information — at least 45 have said no so far — but have tried to outdo each other in expressing patriotic outrage that the commission would even consider asking such a thing.

“My reply would be: They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico,” wrote Mississippi’s Republican secretary of state, Delbert Hosemann.

“[The] Constitution ensures voters ballot choices will always be secret. Americans have died protecting this freedom,” tweeted South Carolina’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster.

“I find this request for the personal information of millions of Marylanders repugnant,” said Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. “It appears designed only to intimidate voters and to indulge President Trump’s fantasy that he won the popular vote.”

“I have no intention of honoring this request,” said Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe. “This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November.”

For commission members, the responses are hard to understand. “The reaction to this has been absurd,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a former Bush Justice Department official, former member of the Federal Elections Commission, and head of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative, who is now serving on the Trump commission. “The commission is asking for voter registration and other information that is publicly available. Not only do all of the political parties buy this information routinely from secretaries of states — so do candidates.”

It’s true. Just look at, say, the Department of Elections webpage in Terry McAuliffe’s Virginia. The department lists “client services” that include the purchase of voter lists. To candidates, parties, campaigns, and “members of the public seeking to promote voter participation,” the state of Virginia will sell:

Registered Voter List (RVL) and Newly Registered Voter List (NRV) — full name, residence address, mailing address, gender, date of birth, registration date, date last registration form received, registration status, locality, precinct, voting districts and voter identification number.

Want the data in slightly different form? Virginia also sells:

List of Those Who Voted (LTWV) — full name, residence address, mailing address, gender, date of birth, registration date, date last registration form received, registration status, locality, precinct, voting districts, voter identification number, election date, election type, and whether the voter voted in-person or absentee.

For another example, look at the state of Maine, which has also refused to cooperate with the commission, but which by law spells out the types of voter information it will sell. . . . Notice that much of the information for sale in Maine and Virginia is similar, if not identical, to the data requested by Kobach. Many states have similar provisions. Which raises the question: If voter information is for sale, why is it a matter of principle to refuse to provide it to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Electoral Integrity?

Read the whole thing. They’re either posturing, or they’re trying to hide something, or both.

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY: Dallas Shooting Suspect Targeted White Officers, Was Killed When Officials Detonated Bomb. “As this city mourned five police officers killed in a deadly rampage, officials on Friday said the gunman had stockpiled weapons in his home and was targeting white officers as revenge for the past week’s killings of black men by law enforcement. The revelations about the suspect, identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year-old Army veteran, emerged as the city came to a standstill with hundreds of mourners gathered in a local square, and as authorities began to unravel the motives behind the deadliest single incident for U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11 attacks. Seven additional officers and two bystanders were also wounded in the shootings, which broke out in downtown Thursday night during a protest sparked by the fatal shootings of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.”

Weird how this hardly ever comes up anymore.