GOOD LUCK, GUYS: Artemis Launch set for 2:17 pm ET.

AND RIGHTLY SO: Veterans group slams Biden for using Marines as props during primetime speech. “The military is supposed to be nonpolitical. Biden, by the way, used the Marine Corps Band during a campaign event for Democrats in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania earlier this week. Reporting afterward claimed that some of the Marines were ‘unsettled’ about discovering they were at a political event. Today a veterans organization is slamming Biden for using the Marines as props during his partisan speech. It warns that doing so erodes trust in the military.”

THE CLEANSING: Another Partisan Hack Just Lost His Job at CNN: John Harwood says he’s looking forward to ‘figuring out what’s next.’

DEAL OF THE DAY: DALSTRONG 8″ Chef Knife. #Commission

HMM: Low Testosterone Linked to Hospitalization for COVID — Future studies should look into testosterone therapy as a prevention strategy, study author says. “The study’s findings build upon prior research led by Dhindsa, which found that men with severe COVID illness tended to have significantly lower testosterone levels at the time of diagnosis than men with mild cases: 151 ng/dL versus 53 ng/dL. This trend also held true throughout the course of COVID illness.”

DAN MCLAUGHLIN: Joe Biden’s Blundering, Insincere Philadelphia Speech.

Joe Biden’s speech last night at Independence Hall in Philadelphia was a disaster — several bad ideas terribly executed at once. It was a speech that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be, delivered by a man who didn’t believe it. And it will come back to bite him in court and on the campaign trail. Let us count the ways.

Problem #1: Giving the speech at all. Biden’s greatest political asset is when Americans are focused on Donald Trump and not on the bumbling, rambling fossil in the White House and his overreaching and under-delivering presidency. A big, set-piece Biden speech that was supposed to highlight Trump instead consumed media attention that would be, for the Democrats’ interests, better spent on more news cycles about Mar-a-Lago and Trump talking about holding a do-over election.

Problem #2: The title. Biden’s speech was entitled “The Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation.” If Biden is trying to present himself as a unifying, back-to-normalcy figure who can calm the waters — a guy who, in the words of the speech itself, wants to “see politics not as total war but mediation of our differences” — talking about a “continued battle” won’t help. If he wants to reassure us that the president is sticking to his day job, talking about how he wants to shape “the soul of the nation” won’t help. And really, talking about a national crisis of soul is reminiscent of nothing so much as Jimmy Carter’s “Crisis of Confidence” speech, which is remembered today simply as the “malaise” speech. The scorched-earth partisanship of the speech is a replay of his disastrous Georgia voting-rights speech.

Problem #3: The staging. Independence Hall was lit up as if somebody directing one of the later Star Wars sequels said, “We want the new Empire to look just a little more Nazi.” The building was dark, but with blood-red eagle wings and Marines flanking an angry, fist-shaking Biden. The photos from this speech are certain to be used by a lot of campaigns this fall — none of them Democrats. Even aside from the politics, if Biden wanted to reassure ordinary Americans that he isn’t declaring some sort of war on his political enemies — taking a page from the Democratic Party adviser who declared that “the Republican Party is basically a domestic terrorist cell at this point and they should be treated as such” — he accomplished precisely the opposite. The best thing you could say about the staging is that it reminds us that this White House is run by incompetent amateurs who couldn’t get jobs on the Obama team.

And focus on the hyper-online, politics-obsessed segment of Twitter as their intended audience. The “Dark Brandon” meme is amusing if you’re in on the joke — but imagine how bizarre Thursday night’s clusterfark appeared to the average low information voter who isn’t politics-obsessed. Fortunately for Biden, the original big three networks avoided it: Broadcast Networks Pass On Carrying Joe Biden’s Primetime Speech. “ABC ran Press Your Luck, CBS went with a Young Sheldon rerun and NBC with a Law & Order replay. CNN and MSNBC carried the address, as did news division streaming channels, but Fox News stuck with Tucker Carlson and his critique of the speech as it was happening.”

I’M SAFE: Can You Be So Fit …That You Die Early?

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE ONLY NEWSPAPER FOR OUR TIMES:  Biden Swallows Cyanide Capsule In Underground Bunker .

Or what the heck, look at their whole page today.

I DIDN’T REALIZE POINT 2. THAT’S JAW DROPPING:   A few more questions and observations on last night’s speech.

BECAUSE IT’S EVIL AND CRAZY, SO ON BRAND FOR BRANDON:  And coming soon to a theater near you…

CLOWN WORLD:  Today on Planet Biden: accuses half the country of being “MAGA fascists” in bizarre “Triumph of the Shill” address.

More like 3/4 of the country by now, is my guess.

BUT BUT BUT, IF THE STATE DOESN’T BOIL YOU, AUTISTIC SWEDISH TEEN WILL CRY!  Colorado Residents Locked Out of Their Thermostats on a Hot Day.

OF ALL THE POSSIBLE UNIVERSES, WHY ARE WE STUCK IN CLOWN WORLD?  Feds Seized Dozens Of Trump’s “Clothing/Gift Items,” Books, and Hundreds Of Magazine Clippings In Mar-a-Lago Raid, Per Updated Inventory.

Were they always this incompetent, but the press covered for them?

AND THIS MAKES THE STUPID MORE INCANDESCENT:  Biden Walks Back “MAGA Republicans Are a Threat” Claim, Beclowning Sycophantic Media And Never-Trumpers.

Is their Focus Group composed entirely of 4-channers? I don’t see any other way to explain their stunts.

IF YOU WERE POSSESSED… AND STUPID. SEE, I CAN’T EXPLAIN DORK BRANDON EVEN BY SUPERNATURAL MEANS, WITHOUT TAKING STUPID INTO ACCOUNT: “MAGA Republicans” react to “the single most toxic, inflammatory, and hypocritical speech by an American President” ever.

This was the day we saw the evil “Blue Model” on full display, its hideous face without masks. It can flay and try to hurt us, but it’s already dead.

YES, THEY REALLY ARE THAT STUPID:  Dork Brandon, Revisited.

A BLIND MAN CAN SEE THIS:  The Raid on Mar-A-Lago: A Desperate Act by the Deep State.

THE BANNINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES:

UPDATE: Gina Carano’s Twitter Account Deleted as My Son Hunter Launch Nears.

The Twitter account of actress Gina Carano, who plays a leading role in the upcoming movie about Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, My Son Hunter, has been deleted.

Twitter users navigating to the actress’s page, @ginacarano, are met with a message that “this account doesn’t exist.”

This indicates that the account was not suspended by Twitter’s content moderation team. Suspensions normally come with a different message: “this account has been suspended.”

In the case of temporary account lock-outs, another tool used by Twitter to crack down on dissident speech, the user’s tweets are still visible, but they are unable to access their account until the time has expired or they meet some other condition of Twitter’s — usually deleting an offending tweet.

However, just because Carano’s account is deleted does not necessarily mean the actress did it herself. Accounts can be deleted wholesale by Twitter, although this happens rarely.

Stay tuned.

(Updated and bumped.)

DORK BRANDON BOMBED:  Even the media has issues with Biden’s speech.

BUT, BUT, BUT… THEY HAD TO MAKE THEMSELVES TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON RUSSIAN ENERGY:  Nord Stream gas supply pipeline from Russia will be closed INDEFINITELY after ‘oil leak was found’… just hours after G7 nations decided to cap payments in bid to defund Kremlin war machine.

It was that or make a famous Swedish autistic teen cry! They couldn’t do that!

WHEN EVEN YOUR CHEERLEADERS TURN CRITICS: Post editorial board: Biden’s ‘scolding’ and ‘demeaning’ speech fell short.

NOW IT’S TIME FOR OBERLIN TO PAY UP: How Oberlin’s slander put our family through hell.

OPEN THREAD: Have fun, kids!

STACEY LENNOX: Shocking Details Emerge on How Biden’s White House Colluded With Social Media Companies to Censor Americans.

LASERS AND CHARGED PARTICLE BEAMS ARE POWER-HUNGRY: Chinese nuclear reactor proposal could power 10 International Space Stations: Chinese officials haven’t explained yet why they want all that space power.