IT’S NOT EVEN FORTY YEARS SINCE WE DISCOVERED THE OZONE HOLE – WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT RARITY?  Ozone hole is the smallest on record due to ‘rare event,’ NASA says.

SCIENTISTS EASILY STUNNED:  Greedy killer monkeys found eating large RATS in Malaysia, leaving scientists ‘stunned’.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Venezuelans buy gas with cigarettes to battle inflation.

IN THE MAIL: Summer on Porgy: Intrigue, Amour, and More in the Southern Bahamas.

GOOD. HE’S A DICK WHO GOT A BUNCH OF CHILDREN KILLED. Florida Senate permanently removes Scott Israel as Broward sheriff.

JUST 6% OF US ADULTS ON TWITTER ACCOUNT FOR 73% OF POLITICAL TWEETS… AND THEY DISAPPROVE OF TRUMP.

“Twitter sentiment is a Styrofoam iceberg. You may think 9/10 of it is underwater, but actually, 9/10 of it is visible,” to coin an Insta-phrase.

AT AMAZON, save on Men’s Jackets & Coats.

YOU’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BLOG: The Gang That Couldn’t Impeach Straight.

OPEN THREAD: Hump day.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Judge Judy endorses Michael Bloomberg for 2020 presidential election.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: “Two out of three unhappily married adults who avoided divorce reported being happily married five years later.”

ALWAYS APPEALS TO MEN WITH MENSTRUAL PADS FEATURING PICTURES OF MONSTER TRUCKS, PRO WRESTLERS.

I’m so old, I can remember when the Babylon Bee was still satire, before morphing into America’s Paper of Record.

BIDEN ON BUILDING THE ECONOMY: ‘I’m Going to Start by Reversing the Trump Tax Cuts.’

Walter Mondale, call your office.

AS ALWAYS, LIFE IMITATES WKRP IN CINCINNATI: Katie Hill, the Decidedly Non-Milfolicious Brazen Strumpet Representing California’s 25th District, Denies Affair With Male Staffer, Does Not Deny Affair With Female Staffer. “I think she’s not denying the affair with the woman because RedState posted a picture of her brushing the much, much younger staffer’s hair when she herself was completely naked. Kind of hard to make up an innocent story to explain that.”

“…but the senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity.”

Related: House Ethics Committee to Investigate Katie Hill’s Alleged Relationship With Staffer.

KAROL MARKOWICZ: Friendship over party: Kindness and civility are beyond the pale for today’s Left.

AT AMAZON, save on Pet Food and Supplies.

Plus, deals in Sports and Fitness.

I’M VERY DISAPPOINTED IN AMERICA RIGHT NOW: America’s supply of uneaten bacon is biggest in 48 years. But not really: “Experts say it’s because hog farmers have been building up their droves in anticipation of more meat demand from China. Where an outbreak of African swine fever has killed millions of pigs. However, the pork belly pile-up might not last for long. In recent weeks, China has been importing American pork at record levels.”

Strategic bacon reserve, baby!

NOW OUT FROM FRANK J. FLEMING: Hellbender, the audiobook.

WOW, A FUNDRAISING TRIUMPH FOR PEPPERDINE LAW DEAN — AND BLOGGER — PAUL CARON: Pepperdine University Renames Law School To Honor Rick Caruso And His Transformative Gift. “Business innovator, civic leader, and philanthropist Rick J. Caruso (JD ’83) and his wife, Tina, have made a generous $50 million commitment to the Pepperdine School of Law, which will be named the Rick J. Caruso School of Law in recognition of the historic gift. . . . Founded in 1969, the School of Law has remained committed to both academic excellence and its Christian faith heritage that serves a diverse student-focused community. This gift demonstrates the Carusos’ devotion to faith-based education, especially for students who are unable to access life-changing higher education of the highest quality.”

More here.

GREAT MOMENTS IN GAS LIGHTING, PART DEUX: “In addition to an opinion piece on Hillary vs. Tulsi, the New York Times also published a straight news (heh) report about Clinton’s remarks and initially reported that Hillary was referring to the Russians as being the ones who were ‘grooming’ Gabbard to be a third party candidate. But sometime between last Friday and Tuesday, they changed their story, and now report it was ‘Republicans’ Hillary meant, not the Russians. How do we know this? Through [Hillary’s spokesman Nick Merrill], in a series of tweets, the first two of which note the so-called error and correction.”

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with airbrushes, and it all makes sense.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: New Evidence That an Impact Triggered Abrupt Climate Change 12,800 Years Ago.

In the space of just a couple of years, average temperatures abruptly dropped, resulting in temperatures as much as 14 degrees Fahrenheit cooler in some regions of the Northern Hemisphere. If a drop like that happened today, it would mean the average temperature of Miami Beach would quickly change to that of current Montreal, Canada. Layers of ice in Greenland show that this cool period in the Northern Hemisphere lasted about 1,400 years. . . .

Conventional geologic wisdom blames the Younger Dryas on the failure of glacial ice dams holding back huge lakes in central North America and the sudden, massive blast of freshwater they released into the north Atlantic. This freshwater influx shut down ocean circulation and ended up cooling the climate.

Some geologists, however, subscribe to what is called the impact hypothesis: the idea that a fragmented comet or asteroid collided with the Earth 12,800 years ago and caused this abrupt climate event. Along with disrupting the glacial ice-sheet and shutting down ocean currents, this hypothesis holds that the extraterrestrial impact also triggered an “impact winter” by setting off massive wildfires that blocked sunlight with their smoke.

The evidence is mounting that the cause of the Younger Dryas’ cooling climate came from outer space. My own recent fieldwork at a South Carolina lake that has been around for at least 20,000 years adds to the growing pile of evidence.

Or maybe the Clovis people stopped driving SUVs.

THE CALLS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE! Gavin Newsom, Supporter of Massive Gas Tax Hike, Demands Investigation of $4 per Gallon CA Gas.

(Classical reference in headline.)

STANDING UP FOR FREEDOM: Jefferson and Sevier Counties added to the list of Tennessee ‘gun sanctuaries.’

PLAUSIBLE: Rand Paul: There Are GOP Senators ‘Whose Allegiance Is More to the Deep State’ Than Trump.

GREAT MOMENTS IN GASLIGHTING:

Shot: MSNBC’s Jon Meacham: Clinton Impeachment Was Partisan, Trump’s Is Not.

—NewsBusters, today.

Chaser: Republicans Storm Closed Impeachment Proceeding.

—The Daily Caller, today.