MARK JUDGE: Is conservatism capable of accepting victories? Or is it addicted to rage? “In the past few years, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade , abolished affirmative action, and protected the free speech of Christians in the workplace. These are epic decisions. Yet many of those on the Right have not taken a week off or even torqued down their outrage. In one story that was reported, after Roe was overturned, a group of pro-life workers paused to cheer, then minutes later hunkered back down on their desks to continue working.”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Gun group tells residents to consider moving from blue state after lawmaker proposes gun control bill.

The 140-page omnibus bill, An Act of Modernizing Firearm Laws, makes sweeping changes to Massachusetts gun laws. This includes mandating that all firearms and feeding devices be registered, banning people under 21 from buying or carrying a semi-automatic shotgun or rifle, banning concealed carry of firearms on private property unless expressly permitted and much more.

“This is real bad news for any gun owner that lives in Massachusetts,” Hein said. “Basically, pack your bags and leave because it’s untenable if this thing passes.”

The National Association for Gun Rights issued a travel advisory for anyone who lives in Massachusetts or is traveling to Massachusetts because of the bill last week.

The bill also cracks down on firearm-adjacent areas including banning targets with human silhouettes at ranges, banning people under the age of 18 from possessing mace or pepper spray and adding stun guns under the definition of firearms.

“So what this bill will actually do is prohibit a young high school girl from being able to defend herself with even mace,” Hein said.

“I think the states are trying to ban stun guns because I honestly think they just want to leave you defenseless,” he added.

To state power, yes.

TWO SMART GUYS MAKE A 25-YEAR BET: And two-and-a-half decades later, they actually meet back up to see who won. The winner just got a case of good wine, but the issue at the heart of the wager is the answer to one of the most basic of all questions.

MUST BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED: You Won’t (???) Believe What Disney Is Doing to Snow White. “The formerly “fair maiden” known as Snow White is now Latina and the Seven Dwarves are now One Dwarf and Six Painfully Diverse Magical Creatures Dressed in Garb Cast-Off from the Greater Des Moines Renaissance Faire.”

AND THIS TIME THERE ARE NO COVID LOCKDOWNS TO BLAME: China’s exports record biggest decline in more than 3 years.

China’s exports to the U.S. plunged by 24% in June to $42.7 billion from a year ago, while imports fell 4% to nearly $14 billion, according to CNBC calculations of official data accessed via Wind Information.

China’s exports to the 10-member ASEAN bloc fell by 17% to $43.3 billion in June from a year ago, while imports fell by 4% to $34.1 billion, the data showed.

China’s trade with “Belt and Road” countries slowed to 9.8% growth in the first six months of the year from a year ago, down from a 13.2% pace in the first five months of the year, official data showed.

Previously: “People talk about ‘deglobalization,’ but the proper term is ‘reglobalization minus China.’”

STONEWALLING: The University of California at Los Angeles recently refused a public records request regarding a scholar it declined to hire following an outcry over his opinions expressed elsewhere questioning the usefulness of diversity statements.

AI CANNOT BE EXPLAINED BY A LACK OF THE GENUINE ARTICLE: Kamala Harris Tries to Explain AI, and Much Hilarity Ensues.

WHO FUNDS THIS LAWSUIT? Curious, isn’t it, that within hours of the Texas Department of Public Safety utilizing all those buoys in the Rio Grande River to block illegal immigrants from swimming across from Mexico, a guy with a “tour boat” business has the wherewithal to sue?

IT’S IN THE FINEST TRADITION OF “MASSIVE RESISTANCE:” J.D. Vance slams elite colleges’ ‘intention to circumvent’ SCOTUS on affirmative action.

LAUGHING WOLF: IRR????

A lot of the public is unfamiliar with the IRR, or Individual Ready Reserve. Technically, that’s pretty much anyone who has ever served. Some in the IRR are completing terms of military service, and the fact that IRR members can be involuntarily recalled is often downplayed IMO. The idea is to have a cadre of (semi) trained troops that can be called upon “in time of national crisis.” In other words, something really bad has happened.

IRR does not maintain current military ID, does not drill or participate in regular training, draw uniforms, etc. They do have to do a yearly readiness screening. Cough.

So, drawing on the IRR is not something one does lightly. Those recalled have to be brought back in, the rust blown off, and unless they are recently detached that takes time. Those pulled back in involuntarily are likely to be a bit grumpy and uncooperative. Cough.

So, the decision by the Biden Regency to use the IRR is raising eyebrows in the military/veteran community. I’ve heard rumors that this particular action in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve is normal and happens every year. However, I’ve not been able to confirm that and people who should know if it is true or not have not said it is. Going to keep an ear open on that.

The use of Guard/Reserve troops in support is not surprising. There are units that are tasked to step into various roles, including critical roles, in the event of war and that they would take part is a given (and smart). It’s the use of IRR that is concerning.

Absent a national crisis that has depleted resources in Active and Guard/Reserve formations, or pulling a few people with extremely select MOS, why hit the IRR?

I fear it says much about our readiness, manning, and capabilities.

Read the whole thing.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: A Guy Walks Into the White House With an 8 Ball… “This is the most boring connect-the-dots ever. There are only two dots.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: India launches historic Chandrayaan-3 moon rover to land at the lunar south pole.

OUCH: VW electric car sales ‘fall to zero’ as Tesla and China EV makers win price war.

Volkswagen’s domestic sales of electric cars in Germany are far behind the company’s plans, insiders told business daily Handelsblatt.

Executives at some VW plants said demand for particular battery-electric models had fallen “to zero,” while car dealers pointed to a general reluctance of European consumers to buy electric cars, blaming subsidy cuts, high inflation and comparatively high prices.

With reference to price cuts by US rival Tesla, company insiders told the newspaper “the development is fatal,” adding there was also a “clear fall in orders” for combustion models. A VW spokesperson pointed to “a general reluctance to buy electric cars”.

Cars so good, their sales have to be subsidized and mandated!

Previously: If you are selling electric vehicles and your name isn’t Tesla, good luck getting your car off the lot.

HE’D MAKE A GOOD VP FOR TRUMP OR DESANTIS: Romney 2.0: Ramaswamy rolls out Mitt-like fundraising plan.

SOD OFF, SWAMPY: Biden Regime Making Americans Sweat, Moves to Make Air Conditioning a Thing of the Past.

WAS THERE A ONE-ARMED MAN? Was Hunter Framed? Second Suspect Emerges in WH Cocaine Scandal: The White House keeps changing its story. How high up does the conspiracy go?

DEAL OF THE DAY: Unionbay Men’s Cordova Belted Messenger Cargo Short. #CommissionEarned

STANDING UP AGAINST RACIAL DISCRIMINATION: A Warning to the C-Suite on Racial Preferences: State Attorneys General warn Fortune 100 companies about their hiring practices.

The Supreme Court ended racial preferences in higher education last month and that principle also applies to corporate America. That’s the message of a Thursday letter from 13 state Attorneys General to the Fortune 100, advising that hiring practices based on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) may also be illegal racial discrimination.

“Well-intentioned racial discrimination is just as illegal as invidious discrimination,” wrote the AGs, who were led by Jonathan Skrmetti of Tennessee and Kris Kobach of Kansas. “Companies that engage in racial discrimination should and will face serious legal consequences.” The prohibition exists even if it is meant to counteract historical bias. “If your company previously resorted to racial preferences or . . . quotas to offset its bigotry, that discriminatory path is now definitively closed,” the letter says. . . .

The letter cites specific examples of corporate policies that “illustrate the pervasiveness and explicit nature of these racial preferences.” In 2020, it says, executives of 27 banks, tech companies and consulting firms “set an explicit racial hiring quota.” The AGs say companies including “Airbnb, Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, Lyft, Microsoft, Netflix, PayPal, Snapchat, TikTok, Uber and others” have also set policies that amount to discrimination on the basis of race. Microsoft set quotas for suppliers.

In other examples, Adidas pledged to fill 30% of new positions with black and Latino workers. Target released a race and gender breakdown of its teams and pledged to increase hiring of black workers by 20%. In a letter to Target last week, Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) called the company’s racial hiring benchmarks exactly the kind of racial quota that is illegal under federal civil-rights law.

The letter is important because the AGs enforce the civil-rights statutes in their states and many of those track closely with federal civil-rights law. Their application of those laws may begin shaping corporate policy even before the federal courts act to apply the logic of the Supreme Court’s Harvard decision.

I’m proud that my state’s AG is on this.

BIDEN TAPS THE INDIVIDUAL READY RESERVE: Ordering the Selected Reserve and Certain Members of the Individual Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty.

When George W. Bush issued recalled about 5,600 troops from the IRR during some of the heaviest fighting of the Iraq War, we were treated to 24/7 press outrage, servicemembers’ rights being trampled, impending fascism, etc.

We aren’t currently engaged in a regional shooting war, so it looks to me like Biden might be tapping SELRES and IRR in an effort to paper over the military’s recruiting crisis.

That’s just a guess, though, and I have a couple of contacts looking into it.

Whatever the case this time around, expect the press reaction to be much more muted.

THAT WOULD BE STUPID: NYT: Is Murdoch dropping DeSantis for Glenn Youngkin?

Youngkin’s a good guy, but he’s got next to no chance in 2024. DeSantis is behind Trump for the nomination, but way ahead of the others.

SALENA ZITO: A maypole in Pittsburgh is a sign of community. “Call it a wicked sense of humor, or an act of exasperation after spending nearly a decade in bureaucracy hell trying to get a permit. If you look close enough at the base of the newly erected Maibaum (maypole) towering over the beer garden here at the Teutonia Mannerchor club, there is a 3-inch etching of a house with the number 849 over its tiny front door. Seems odd, right? Well, not if you had to spend all of this time getting the permit, and the only way the city bureaucrats would sign off on it was if the pole met one wild requirement: an address. Mind you, it is a pole.”

VICTORIA TAFT: And Just Like That, It’s No Longer an Insurrection. “And just like that, the January 6 insurrection is no more. And the deconstruction story is really something. At the center of this narrative switcheroo is none other than Ray Epps.”

GAVIN NEWSOM: A REMINDER:

Newsom’s sparkling ascendency might dim somewhat if the media bothered to consider what is actually happening in his fiefdom. Flicking through the mainstream press, one could be forgiven for realising that Newsom has presided over California’s fall from economic pre-eminence: the Golden State is now home to record homelessness, sub-par GDP growth, the nation’s highest poverty rate, a tech downturn fuelled by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and a consistently underperforming public education system. These factors have fuelled a powerful out-migration trend — up 135% in just two years. Recent polls find upwards of 40% of residents are considering leaving, while the rising tide of wealthy emigrees has already taken away $20 billion in adjusted income since 2018.

When the state was flush, Newsom scored progressive points by handing out subsidies to poorer Californians, creating what was heralded as an ideal “blue welfare state”. California certainly spends more of its budget on welfare than virtually any other state, twice as much as its arch-rival Texas. But, at its best, this growing welfare state reflects a staggering inequality, in which 20% of state wealth is held within 30 zip codes that account for just 2% of the population. At its worst, it comes at the expense of neglecting basic infrastructure, such as roads and water supply.

And this is all in keeping with Newsom’s personal brand of politics. Largely financed by San Francisco’s elite, notably the heirs of the Getty family fortune, he presents the face of an emerging Democratic Party based on what the late Fred Siegel called “an upstairs, downstairs” coalition of the gentry rich, the dependent poor and the vast, well-paid union bureaucracy that serves them.

Yep. Nowadays it’s the GOP that represents the multiracial working class.

Plus: “Here, Newsom’s dilemma reflects a wider weakness of the current crop of Democratic Party leaders — a consistent record of poor governance. This applies not only to Newsom, but to Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, both of whom are widely pitched by Democratic operatives as possible Biden replacements.”

FAUCI DESERVES THE MOCKERY:

@davidspade GROUCHY FAUCI Part 1 #DanaCarvey #FlyonTheWall #Podcast ♬ original sound – DavidSpade

Also tar and feathers, but certainly the mockery.

OPEN THREAD: Hang on, Friday’s coming.