LONG DURATION FLIGHT: Experimental Zephyr drone sets new record for uncrewed flight duration. “An experimental aircraft tested in conjunction with the United States Army has been in the air above the Sonoran Desert for 42 days, breaking its own record for longest uncrewed flight. The solar-powered, high-altitude Airbus Zephyr S took off from the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground on June 15, 2022 and has since been flying patterns over the Yuma Test Range and Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.”

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Demi Lovato, 29, explains she’s now using ‘she/her’ pronouns as well as ‘they/them’ one year after coming out as non-binary: ‘I’m such a fluid person.’

You spelled, attention-obsessed moral narcissist wrong, Demi.

OKAY, GROOMERS: Florida school district doubles down on offering porn in schools.

I’D RATHER LAUGH WITH THE SINNERS THAN CRY WITH THE SAINTS, THE SINNERS ARE MUCH MORE FUN: Jesus would have hung out in a dive bar—and not just to convert its patrons.

But one of the things that non-Christians — and for that matter all too many Christians — make is, that from Jesus’s perspective even the saints are sinners. You can’t reach Heaven through your own goodness; original sin — which is perhaps best understood as being like a kind of hereditary disease — means that by virtue of being human you’re unworthy of Heaven no matter what you do. Only divine grace can get you in the door. “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all,” and that includes the saints. (Though presumably they get a leg up on the divine grace front). Humans want to rank themselves in terms of goodness, because humans by nature want to rank themselves against other humans. Those differences are less significant to God.

Yeah, I’m a preacher’s kid. How could you tell?

EVEN THE GECKOS ARE FLEEING CALIFORNIA: GEICO closes all California offices, lays off workers: report. “GEICO has reportedly closed all 38 of its agent offices in California, laid off hundreds of employees, and will no longer sell insurance through telephone agents in the state. Californians can still obtain GEICO policies in the state, but only through a computer or a mobile device, posing a challenge for those who are not technologically proficient.”

In addition to skyrocketing insurance claims in lawless Democrat-monopoly cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, it sounds like AB5 is causing yet more casualties. On its page headlined, “Own A GEICO Agency,” the insurer notes that “As a GEICO Local Agent, you own a local GEICO insurance agency and are an independent contractor exclusively writing business for GEICO and affiliated companies.” Good work, Sacramento!

INFLATION? NOT ENTIRELY: With Knoxville airfares, what goes up stays up.

DON’T GET OVERHEATED: Two heart medications tied to greater heart attack risk during very hot weather.

IT’S SATIRE, BUT JUST BARELY: Democrats Propose $800 Billion ‘If You Don’t Vote For This You Hate Puppies’ Spending Bill.

HEH:

As galling as it is to see Nikole Hannah-Jones try to weasel her way into an unearned tenured professorship, there is one thing that is even more galling: She hasn’t published a single piece of journalism in the New York Times, her other full-time employer, in over two years. Maybe the Times is on to her. They claim to publish all the news that’s fit to print, after all.

Indeed.

QUESTION ASKED: Why Is the White House Quietly Griping about Zelensky Now?

Which Biden administration official is leaking to the New York Times’ Tom Friedman that the White House doesn’t trust Volodymyr Zelensky?

The timing could not be worse. Dear reader: The Ukraine war is not over. And privately, U.S. officials are a lot more concerned about Ukraine’s leadership than they are letting on. There is deep mistrust between the White House and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky — considerably more than has been reported.

And there is funny business going on in Kyiv. On July 17, Zelensky fired his country’s prosecutor general and the leader of its domestic intelligence agency — the most significant shake-up in his government since the Russian invasion in February. It would be the equivalent of Biden firing Merrick Garland and Bill Burns on the same day. But I have still not seen any reporting that convincingly explains what that was all about. It is as if we don’t want to look too closely under the hood in Kyiv for fear of what corruption or antics we might see, when we have invested so much there. (More on the dangers of that another day.)

Your mileage may vary, but I see two possible motives here. Possibility one is that the Biden administration just wants the Ukraine-Russia war to end, and Zelensky isn’t playing ball, so the administration is getting ready to leave Zelensky hanging out to dry. Possibility two is that the administration foresees the Ukraine-Russia war going badly, and is preparing to use Zelensky as a scapegoat. They’re laying the groundwork to argue, “we did everything we could to help the Ukrainians defend themselves, but in the end, they were too incompetent, too corrupt, and too beset by infighting.”

Zelensky is evidently looking to repair his relations with Washington, to keep the cash and materiel flowing in: Ukraine president asks gov’t to study legalizing same-sex marriages.

CLOWN NOSE OFF: Jon Stewart’s Vicious Smear.

Their confusion, and Stewart’s, is rooted in the fact that so many Republican lawmakers voted in favor of cloture in June but against cloture last week. “They’re manufacturing reasons to vote against legislation that they literally voted for just last month,” said one frustrated veteran who appeared alongside Stewart. “And so, it’s really a new level of low.” Advocates for this worthy cause don’t even address the simplest explanation for Senate Republicans’ reversal, which is by no means exculpatory of Republicans, that Toomey and his staff read the legislation more carefully than his GOP colleagues. It must be that those senators, some of whom are veterans themselves, “don’t support veterans.”

“This is the oldest trick in Washington,” Toomey said with due contempt for those who accused him of being a “f***ing coward.” Lawmakers “take a sympathetic group of Americans,” he continued, “craft a bill to address their problems and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on its own and dare Republicans to do anything about it.” It’s such a tired tactic that only those with virtually no exposure to legislative affairs in Washington could fail to comprehend Republican objections, even if they don’t agree with them. That does not describe Senate Democrats. It doesn’t even describe Jon Stewart. They bet that profound displays of anguish over the Republican Party’s heartlessness would find a credulous audience in the press, and they were correct.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): The press isn’t “credulous.” It’s complicit.

THEY’RE NOT THE ONLY ONES: Arizona Voters Want Sinema to Oppose Manchin’s New Spending Bill. “Democrats celebrated Manchin’s support, but there’s another senator who would need to sign on. All eyes moved to Kyrsten Sinema. The Arizona maverick has kept quiet, but her constituents haven’t. A new poll shows Grand Canyon State voters want her to oppose the new tax-and-spend bill. If Sinema supports the Manchin/Schumer bill, 50% of respondents said they would be less likely to vote for her in 2024. Only 19% said they would be more likely to support her — a 31-point gap.”

THERE’S BIG DEMAND FOR SOMETHING THAT “FEELS LIKE RELIGION” BUT WON’T MAKE PEOPLE FEEL GUILTY FOR DOING WHATEVER THEY WANT: “You know, there are women who seek God and women who seek cold water. And you can be a seeker of cold water in a way that feels like religion.”

OLD AND BUSTED: “15 Days to Slow the Spread” that went on forever, crushing the economy and students.

The New Hotness? “Cover up Your Bumps:” California State Senator Encourages Gay Orgies During Monkeypox Outbreak.

OKAY, GROOMERS: Oregon Library Asks For Chest Binder Donations For Gender-Affirming Closet.

PLAN NINE FROM GOTHAM CITY: Batgirl Won’t Fly: Warner Bros. Discovery Has No Plans to Release Nearly Finished $90 Million Film.

Warner Bros. Discovery will not release “Batgirl,” either theatrically or on HBO MAX, TheWrap has learned. The $90 million project is effectively dead.

Made under a previous regime, “Batgirl” was initially designed to be an HBO Max release, and then was being considered for theatrical distribution. Due to COVID issues and shutdowns, the budget ballooned to $90 million.

The movie stars “In the Heights” breakout star Leslie Grace in the title role of Barbara Gordon.

The leaders of the studio determined ultimately, in spite of reshoots and increased budget, that the movie simply did not work, according to insiders. The new owners and management, led by CEO David Zaslav, are committed to making DC titles big theatrical event films, and “Batgirl” isn’t that. Insiders added that studio brass loves the film’s directors and star, and are actively planning to work with them soon.

C’mon — Warner Brothers released The Bonfire of the Vanities to theaters, knowing full well before production was complete what a debacle they had on their hands. Viewers deserve to see what a train wreck this finished product is as well, even if only on streaming.

SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES COME AND GO, APPARENTLY: Earth Has An Unexplainable, 27.5-Million-Year Cycle of Mass Extinctions.

A PICKUP TRUCK THAT CAN’T TOW? Tow No! The Ford F-150 Lightning Struggled in Our Towing Test.

LEFT STILL PUSHING COURT-PACKING SCHEME: Don’t think the Progressive push to expand the Supreme Court from nine to 13 or more justices is over. If anything, the Dobbs decision strengthened the effort and, according to Capital Research Center’s Hayden Ludwig, the dark money is pouring in by the buckets. There are, however, some, uh, oddities.

IT’S HARDER TO RAISE RENTS ON A SHRINKING POPULATION: These 12 US Cities Had the Worst Rent Hikes This Year. New York’s Not Even in the Top 10.

BE PREPARED: Amerex 322, 5lb Carbon Dioxide Class B C Fire Extinguisher. #CommissionEarned

ALWAYS NICE TO SEE COMMON SENSE CREEP INTO THE NYT IN ANY QUANTITY: The Best Extracurricular May Be an After-School Job.

I actually had a section on that in The New School.

UNSURPRISING, AS THEY’RE JUST DEMOCRATIC PARTY TOOLS: Fact-checkers call Sen. Murphy’s false claims about school shooters true. And Murphy’s a Democrat.

NANNYSTATISM: New Jersey Breweries Push Back Against Crushing New Rules. “In a column earlier this month on recent changes to alcohol legislation in several states, I detailed several good (and not-so-good) new laws. One state I didn’t highlight was New Jersey, where an outrageous and asinine special ruling last month by the state’s Division of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC)—not a new law passed by the state legislature—is causing chaos for brewers and consumers in the state.”

NICK GILLESPIE INTERVIEWS JOHN CLEESE:  New video from Reason TV on “John Cleese’s War on Wokeism.”