MEN ARE BETTER AT EVERYTHING, I GUESS, EVEN WOMEN’S WEIGHTLIFTING: Another man wins gold in women’s weightlifting.

Well, these are the Crazy Years. And speaking of the Crazy Years:

TRUMP SAID PUERTO RICO’S LEADERSHIP WAS SCREWING ITS CITIZENRY. NOW THE CITIZENRY HAS FOUND OUT HE WAS RIGHT. Police Fire Tear Gas to Quell Protests Over Puerto Rico’s Governor. “The tense confrontations marked an escalation of the dramatic political crisis that began in Puerto Rico after hundreds of pages of a private chat on the messaging app Telegram between Mr. Rosselló and some of his closest aides were leaked on Saturday, revealing a slew of crude and inappropriate exchanges. The leak, coming on the heels of high-profile federal corruption arrests last week, unleashed months of pent-up frustration over Mr. Rosselló’s handling of Hurricane Maria, his education policies and the federal oversight board that controls Puerto Rico’s troubled finances.”

NICE: Tesla drops cheapest Model X, S variants, cuts prices to simplify lineup.

To simplify its offerings, the automaker on Tuesday limited variants of its Model X sport-utility vehicle and Model S sedan to “Long Range” and the more expensive “Performance”. It also trimmed the price of its now entry-level Long Range variants.

The discontinuation of the standard-range variants, however, means a rise in starting prices – to $84,990 for the Model X and $79,990 for the Model S, excluding potential buying incentives.

Tesla also lowered the starting price of its mass-market Model 3 to $38,990.

Increasing the exclusivity of its more exclusive models while making its budget model even more budget-friendly is not a bad indicator at all.

COMING SOON FROM MATT MARGOLIS: Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy.

NONSENSE, RHETORIC IS ONLY DANGEROUS WHEN IT COMES FROM THE RIGHT: CBP Chief Said Democratic Rhetoric Fueled Attempted Terrorist Attack On ICE Facility. “They are attacking the men and women of ICE. They are attacking the men and women of CBP. It’s unjust, it’s unfair, it’s misinformed — and outright, sometimes they are just lying to the American people, and it’s undoubtedly fueling this.”

KRUISER: Dear Republicans Rushing to Condemn Trump’s Tweets: The MSM Still Hates You.

REMEMBER, TRUMP’S SUPPOSED TO BE THE CRAZY, IRRESPONSIBLE ONE: New Republic retracts its nasty hit piece on Mayor Pete, claims it was supposed to be satire. “If you told me in 2016 that the lion’s share of opposition to a gay presidential hopeful would come from left-leaning newsrooms, I would not have believed you. Yet, here we are.”

RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Eastern Europe’s ‘Subconscious Fear’ of Islam: The Siege of Vienna, 1683.

I love a good history session in the morning, and this is one.

ANOTHER REASON TO BREAK THEM UP, I GUESS: Concentration Of Market Power In Big Companies Like Tech Is Blunting Economic Boost From Trump Tax Cuts.

GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT: After two decades and much criticism, researchers defend the ‘implicit bias’ test. “Though they caution that it might not tell you anything about your actual biases.”

VIVIENNE MING: Why I’m turning my son into a cyborg.

Imagine if everyone spoke a language you don’t understand. People have been speaking it around you since the day you were born, but while everyone else picks it up immediately, for you it means nothing. Others become frustrated with you. Friendships and jobs are difficult. Just being “normal” becomes a battle.

For many with autism, this is the language of emotion. For those on the spectrum, fluency in facial expressions doesn’t come for free as it does for “neurotypicals.” To them, reading facial expressions seems like a superpower.

So when my son was diagnosed, I reacted not just as a mom. I reacted as a mad scientist and built him a superpower.

This isn’t the first time I’ve played mad scientist with my son’s biology. When he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, I hacked his insulin pump and built an AI that learned to match his insulin to his emotions and activities. I’ve also explored neurotechnologies to augment human sight, hearing, memory, creativity, and emotions. Tiger moms might obsess over the “right” prep schools and extracurriculars for their child, but I say why leave their intellect up to chance?

This is a longer piece, but thought-provoking and worth your time.

ORBITAL DEBRIS: Can We Use Special Sails To Bring Old Satellites Back Down To Earth?

Some exotic-sounding solutions involve harpoons, nets, magnets, even lasers. Now NASA has Purdue University-related startup Vestigo Aerospace money for a six month study that looks at using drag sails to de-orbit space junk, including satellites, spent rocket boosters, and other debris, safely.

Vestigo Aerospace was started by David Spencer, an associate professor in Purdue’s College of Engineering. “Through the six-month study, we will advance drag sail technology for the deorbit of small satellites and launch vehicle stages,” Spencer said in a press release. “The safe disposal of space objects upon mission completion is necessary to preserve the utility of high-value orbits.”

Drag sails are a bit different than other methods. While the harpoons, lasers, and nets proposed by various agencies are meant to deal with the space junk that’s already accumulated, drag sails are designed to be built into a satellite and deployed at the end of their useful life.

Faster, please — it’s getting crowded up there.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The SQUAD Holds a Trump-Bashing Press Conference. “At the presser, out came accusations of racism, xenophobia, sexism, Islamophobia and the usual clap trap. But Trump didn’t single out these exhibitionists because of their religion or gender. Trump attacks all his detractors equally. These ladies and the larger progressive coven have made horrible charges against Trump for years: he’s a white supremacist, he’s a Nazi, he runs concentration camps, he’s a racist, he’s abusing children, he’s killing children, he’s a retard, he’s a cheeto, he’s a rapist, he’s a RUSSIAN spy, he’s a crook, blah, blah, blah. Why shouldn’t he hit them back? There was no pearl-clutching about the hateful environment the leftists have created with their dehumanizing name-calling that facilitated violence like a crazy antifa malefactor trying to fire bomb an ICE agency over the weekend, or a Bernie Bro trying to assassinate a group of GOP congressmen. Were there calls to tone down the rhetoric following any of the hateful anti-Trump rhetoric? No. Well guess what, we are all going to follow the same rules, so suck it up buttercup.”

TAXPAYER-SUBSIDIZED ACTIVISM: Public university shares ‘Toolkit’ to combat ‘Trump’s deportation machinery.’

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BOB MCMANUS: Bill De Blasio is bad for NYC, but great for Andrew Cuomo.

PRIME WARTHOG: Corrosion control technicians apply primer to an A-10 Thunderbolt II. Photo taken July 2, 2019, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

TRIES? Hillary Chabot: Trump tries to make ‘the squad’ the Democrats’ new leaders.

Related: The RNC Just Torched Ocasio-Cortez And Her ‘Squad’s’ Presser By Rehashing All The Things That Back Up What Trump Said About Them. It’s racist to bring up their records and prior statements.

UNEXPECTEDLY: BBC Accepts Iran’s Demand Of Blackout On Its Persian Sites Amid Regime’s Attacks On Press.

Flashback: ‘A Powerfully Corrosive Internal Culture.’