FASTER, PLEASE: SpaceX Starship Second Orbital Launch Attempt in 6-8 Weeks.

HMM: Highly cited Lancet long COVID study retracted and republished.

AT PRESENT, THEY ANSWER ONLY TO DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS: “Republican presidents have accepted the canard that the D.O.J. and F.B.I. are — quote — ‘independent.’ They are not independent agencies. They are part of the executive branch. They answer to the elected president of the United States.”

Well, they don’t, but they should. None of our allegedly independent or apolitical agencies are any such thing, and it’s important not to pretend otherwise.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Why Donald Trump Can’t Get a Top-Tier Lawyer. “There is a nefarious group that calls itself The 65 Project that has as its goal to intimidate lawyers into not representing Trump or anyone associated with him. They have threatened to file bar charges against any such lawyers. When these threats first emerged, I wrote an op-ed offering to defend pro bono any lawyers that The 65 Project goes after. So The 65 Project immediately went after me, and contrived a charge based on a case in which I was a constitutional consultant, but designed to send a message to potential Trump lawyers: if you defend Trump or anyone associated with him, we will target you and find something to charge you with. The lawyers to whom I spoke are fully aware of this threat — and they are taking it seriously.”

Sounds like a conspiracy to deprive people of their civil rights.

DEAL OF THE DAY: COOFANDY Men’s 3 Pack Workout Tank Tops. #CommissionEarned

ABOUT TIME: Portland Sobers Up.

CHANGE: Republican Wins Special Election, Flipping District Democrats Won Just Months Ago.

A Maine Republican candidate won a seat in the state’s House of Representatives during a special election Tuesday, flipping a spot that had gone to a Democrat in the November election.

Abden Simmons, a former state representative, was declared the winner with 52 percent of the vote, surpassing Democrat Wendy Pieh’s 48 percent, News Center Maine reported. Pieh is also a former state representative.

Simmons will replace Democrat Clinton Collamore in representing Bremen, Friendship, Louds Island Township, Waldoboro and Washington.

Collamore resigned in February after he was indicted on accusations of violating the Maine Clean Elections Act and of forging signatures to collect $14,000 worth of public campaign funds, News Center Maine reported.

Plus: “Collamore pleaded not guilty to the charges but vowed to return the campaign funds as well as his legislative salary,” which doesn’t sound at all guilty.

CHANGE: Detroit-Area City Bans Pride Flag From Public Property.

PROF. ROBERT GEORGE IN THE ATLANTIC: TIME FOR INSTITUTIONAL NEUTRALITY. 50+ years ago, the University of Chicago adopted the “Kalven Report,” aimed at keeping the institution out of political struggles: “The University is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic.” The amount of trouble potentially avoided by such rules is so immense that the fact that they are not widely adopted is itself a sign of something gone very wrong.

BRITAIN WOULDN’T WANT AN ARMY THAT’S TOO MASCULINE: Army considers scrapping ranks including Guardsman and Rifleman because they are too masculine in move to make regiments more inclusive.

HMM: US federal government agencies hit by global cyberattack.

COMEDY GOLD: Biden Laughs Off Question About Recordings of Him Accepting Bribes.

SOMEBODY NEEDS A VISIT TO ROOM 101*: 86-year-old returns George Orwell’s “1984” to library 65 years late, saying it needs to be read “more than ever.”

* Not to be confused with Room 102:

BIDEN HAS NEVER CARED ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FACT AND FICTION: Biden White House to Screen Disney’s Fake News Film ‘Flamin’ Hot.’ “It’s Fake News, the movie, yet it snagged the attention of a political team that has turned lying into an art form.”

CHRIS QUEEN: The Mainstream Media Has Declared War on Opposing Views — Here’s How to Fight Back.

BOB ZUBRIN: Science for Victory.

FAIL, BRITANNIA: UK motorists warned of wearing jeans this summer or risk £1,000 fine and licence points.

Experts are warning drivers that they could be handed fines based on the clothes they wear when at the wheel.

When driving, motorists should have full control of the car at all times and should be paying attention to the road ahead of them.

One problem item of clothing could be long, flowy sundresses, as well as baggier bootcut jeans, with the excess material potentially inhibiting the ability to drive.
…
He said: “If you wear inappropriate clothing that restricts manoeuvring correctly, you could find yourself with a £100 on-the-spot fine and three penalty points on your licence for careless driving.

What would Britons do without bored police around to criticize their wardrobe choices?

HOW IT STARTED: New gaffe: Obama hails America’s historic building of ‘the Intercontinental Railroad.’

—The Los Angeles Times, September 23^rd, 2011.

How it’s going:

BIDEN: "We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean…

I'm going off-script. I'm gonna get in trouble." pic.twitter.com/M6GHT0dS8y

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 15, 2023

Related: Biden Wants to Build an 8,000-Mile Ocean Train and I Say Let’s Do This! “On today’s installment of ‘What the Hell Did Biden Actually Just Say?’ we have the alleged president of the most powerful country in the world announcing his plan to build, and I quote, ’a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean.’”

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Marlboro Adds Puberty Blockers To Cigarettes To Make Them Legal For Kids.

REPORT: Democrat Party Panics Over RFK Jr. Primary Challenge.

DEAL OF THE DAY: AVAPOW 6000A Car Battery Jump Starter. #CommissionEarned

NO ENEMIES TO THE LEFT: Target Received Bomb Threats From the ‘LGBTQ+ Community.’ The Media Told a Different Story.

OH: LA ‘defund the police’ councilman charged with perjury, embezzlement. “In 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Price launched a proposal to cut $150 million from the LAPD and to reallocate those funds to youth services for black and brown communities. He also championed the creation of a social services unit to respond to non-emergecy calls, and fought to eliminate the enforcement of traffic laws, stating that they disproportionately affected black Los Angelinos.”

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: State Senator Advises Parents to Flee California If They Refuse ‘Gender Affirmation’ Treatment for Their Kids.

COLD WAR II: China likely sending military personnel into US, Homeland chair says.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., on Wednesday said China is likely sending military personnel into the United States across the southern border.

At a press conference announcing an investigation into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Green said there are “Chinese Nationals, many of whom are military-aged men” with ties to the Chinese Communist Party who have crossed the southern border and been released into the United States.

“We have no idea who these people are and it’s very likely, using Russia’s template of sending military personnel into Ukraine, China is doing the same in the United States,” Green also said.

“Build the wall,” as the wise man once said.