OPEN THREAD: It’s fancy.
Archive for 2025
July 13, 2025
21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Hegseth tears up red tape, orders Pentagon to begin drone surge at Trump’s command.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has issued sweeping new orders to fast-track drone production and deployment, allowing commanders to procure and test them independently and requiring drone combat simulations across every branch of the military.
As part of an aggressive push to outpace Russia and China in unmanned warfare, “the Department’s bureaucratic gloves are coming off,” Hegseth wrote. “Lethality will not be hindered by self-imposed restrictions… Our major risk is risk-avoidance.”
In a pair of memos first obtained by Fox News Digital, Hegseth rescinded legacy policies that he believes restricted innovation. For the first time, commanders with the rank of colonel or captain can independently procure and test drones, including 3D-printed prototypes and commercial-off-the-shelf systems, as long as they meet national security criteria.
They can also operate and train with drones immediately, bypassing traditional approval bottlenecks, and are even authorized to test non-lethal autonomous UAS in controlled environments.
Drones could radically alter the battlefield including the use of armor: Ukraine teaches us how to build a tank which can survive and win on a drone battlefield.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese company Landspace aims to debut its reusable methane rocket this year.
TECHNOLOGY MARCHES ON: This Foot Scan Could Stop Your Small Cut From Costing You a Limb.
FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU JOE BIDEN’S POTUS ACCOUNT:
Gavin campaigned in South Carolina all week, even though he’s the Gov of CALIFORNIA Which is on the opposite end of the country. Did @GovPressOffice know about his trip before they sent this out? Guys. Stop letting the interns run your comms. They don’t know anything. https://t.co/PlU3XqPm2D
— Kira (@RealKiraDavis) July 13, 2025
THE EV BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: Nissan Reportedly Scaling Leaf EV Production Plans Way Back.
TO BE FAIR, THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD ANTI-GUN BILL: Ohio: Anti-Gun Lawmakers Pushing Bad Bills.
IS THE NEW YORK TIMES A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER? OF COURSE IT IS: Is It Time to Stop Snubbing Your Right-Wing Family? The column was written by David Litt, a former Obama speechwriter whose smugness is almost as overwhelming as his boss:
Not too long ago, I felt a civic duty to be rude to my wife’s younger brother.
I met Matt Kappler in 2012, and it was immediately clear we had nothing in common. He lifted weights to death metal; I jogged to Sondheim. I was one of President Barack Obama’s speechwriters and had an Ivy League degree; he was a huge Joe Rogan fan and went on to get his electrician’s license. My early memories of Matt are hazy — I was mostly trying to impress his parents. Still we got along, chatting amiably on holidays and at family events.
Then the pandemic hit, and our preferences began to feel like more than differences in taste. We were on opposite sides of a cultural civil war. The deepest divide was vaccination. I wasn’t shocked when Matt didn’t get the Covid shot. But I was baffled. Turning down a vaccine during a pandemic seemed like a rejection of science and self-preservation. It felt like he was tearing up the social contract that, until that point, I’d imagined we shared.
Had Matt been a friend rather than a family member, I probably would have cut off contact completely. As it was, on the rare and always outdoor occasions when we saw each other, I spoke in disapproving snippets.
“Work’s been good?”
“Mhrmm.”
My frostiness wasn’t personal. It was strategic. Being unfriendly to people who turned down the vaccine felt like the right thing to do. How else could we motivate them to mend their ways?
Still though, could be worse:
In any case, if all your lefty cousins suddenly come out of the woodwork this week, blame the Gray Lady:
Student loan payments just restarted…
Just an FYI 😉 https://t.co/y9oPSSGiaC
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) July 13, 2025
Flashback: The Smug Style in American Liberalism.
(Classical reference in headline.)
READER FAVORITE: SimplyVital Collagen, Retinol & Hyaluronic Acid Cream. #CommissionEarned
RIDE THE MAMDANI RECURSION!
Flashback: Cuomo should thank Mamdani for making him look like the safe, stable choice for NYC mayor.
Speaking of the former LovGuv, “Cuomo is expected to announce this week that he is staying in the race as an independent for the mayor of New York City, sources told NewsNation.”
Otherwise: Mamdani is the mayor New York Democrats deserve. As Ed Koch was quoted as saying when he lost his primary against David Dinkins, “The people have spoken, and now they must be punished.” (And boy, were they.)
GIFFORDS CLAIMS A LOT OF THINGS: Because of Course: Giffords Claims Big Beautiful Bill’s Medicaid Reforms Will Result in More Crime and ‘Gun Violence.’
KEEP LEGS IN SHAPE: Under Desk Elliptical Machine, Electric Ellipse Leg Exerciser. #CommissionEarned
OUT ON A LIMB: How Live Aid ruined music forever.
Forty years ago this month, Bob Geldof unleashed his “global jukebox”. With the help of Midge Ure and promoter Harvey Goldsmith, he staged a concert across two venues on either side of the Atlantic, starting at midday on Saturday July 13 1985 in London and ending at the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia 16 hours later.
Around the world, 1.7 billion people tuned in, and it is seen as one of the great charity success stories of all time, raising $140 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.*
Live Aid was so big that it has its own folklore: Status Quo’s backstage antics, Bono’s messiah impression, Phil Collins hopping on Concorde to play both venues, Geldof swearing on TV and, of course, Queen’s show-stealing performance.
Yet Live Aid’s impact on music itself is often overlooked – perhaps because no-one wants to sound uncharitable. But the truth is that it was a disaster. In Britain, up until this point, we had enjoyed a long tradition of innovation and reinvention, but this brace of charity concerts changed all that, although few people noticed at the time. It resuscitated artists on life support, invented the idea of a concert as a greatest hits parade, strangled the “second British invasion” of great pop acts in America, and provided the model for a new consumerism, encouraging us to purchase (or repurchase on compact disc) the back catalogue of musicians who had been slipping out of public consciousness for a decade
Ultimately, Live Aid heralded an era of musical regurgitation and nostalgia, an era from which we have never escaped.
* It didn’t do very well in that department, either: The Terrible Truth About ‘Live Aid.’
AND THAT’S EVEN BEFORE WE GET TO THE CLANDESTINE GOVERNMENT-FUNDED GAIN OF FUNCTION WORK: Bird flu found to evolve rapidly, infecting more hosts and finding ways to spread more effectively.
LARRY ELDER: Ex-Dem Rep: The N-Word Causes Cancer.
Remember former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) who got censured for pulling the fire alarm in the Capitol Building as lawmakers prepared to vote to prevent a government shutdown? He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, paid a $1,000 fine and lost the next Democrat primary.
He’s back.
Bowman, appearing last week as a panelist on MSNBC, said, “The reason why heart disease and cancer and obesity and diabetes are bigger in the black community is because of the stress we carry from having to deal with being called the n-word directly or indirectly every day.”
* * * * * * * *
As for Bowman, where does one start? The stress of being called “the n-word directly or indirectly” makes heart disease, cancer and diabetes “bigger in the black community”?!
Other than in rap music or from black comedians, when was the last time a black person heard the n-word uttered directed at him or her? How is one subjected to the n-word “indirectly”? Is it like secondhand smoke? If someone says the n-word within a two-block radius, is it tantamount to being denied the front seat on a bus, prevented from voting or beaten by a racist cop? Where is the typical black person subjected to the n-word directly or indirectly? At work, at church, in a restaurant, on a bus or at Costco?
When does Bowman begin organizing the cleanup of rap music? If it saves just one life…
MASSACHUSETTS MASKIROVKA: Harvard Grad Schools Rebrand Diversity Offices as University Wipes DEI Messaging.
OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND:
Rotherham Man who threatened Muslims with social ostracisation if they cooperated with South Yorkshire Police’s inquiries into the grooming gangs has been awarded an MBE for “services to integration” and “cohesion”. https://t.co/D2ODlBfzdC
— Toby Young (@toadmeister) July 13, 2025
A dying civilization refuses to defend itself https://t.co/VVreCWjdnr
— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) July 13, 2025
This is Britain.
1. A pervert exposed himself in front of children on the street.
2. A dad knocked out the pervert to the ground.
3. The dad was sentenced to 18 months custodial prison suspended for 2 years.
WHAT'S GOING ON???
— PeterSweden (@PeterSweden7) July 13, 2025
Exit question:
A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: Education Department Announces Investigation of George Mason University’s DEI Practices.
TREEHOUSE OF HORROR:
$6,500 a month. https://t.co/KXJugzmP4A
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 12, 2025
But don’t try to build a treehouse on your own property in L.A., as Adam Carolla mentioned in a podcast interview a few months ago. (Full disclosure, this is a YouTube transcript of the interview that was cleaned up and reformatted by ChatGPT and lightly edited by me):
Carolla: The city’s in the process of tearing down a beautiful treehouse that was in the front of a home—the Simpsons guy—in Sherman Oaks. And they’re tearing that down. Meanwhile, you go two blocks over and people are building homes—homeless people—out of plywood and yield signs and Visqueen [plastic sheeting], under the freeway, on the sidewalk, so moms pushing strollers have to walk in the street.
The city has no interest in these guys building illegal homes on the sidewalk, but they have a grand interest in people building treehouses for the neighborhood kids on their [own] property.
Interviewer 1: Did you see this story?
Interviewer 2: No, the treehouse story?
Interviewer 1: It is insane. This guy—like 30, 40 years ago—was one of the guys from The Simpsons. He made this beautiful treehouse in a tree, and it’s been there, I think, since the 1980s? ’70s?
Carolla: No, I think it’s about 20 years.
Interviewer 1: So it’s been there, but the city now says he needs to comply with zoning regulations for the treehouse. He has to pull permits, he needs to do ground structural testing of the treehouse. He’s spent $50,000 defending this in court, and it’s about to go to a jury.
And he says, “You know what? I give up. I don’t want to spend another $50,000 defending myself in a jury trial just to have a chance at keeping the treehouse.”
Interviewer 2: That’s incredible.
Interviewer 1: It’s a treehouse. There it is, right there.
Interviewer 2: Yeah, I see it. That’s beautiful.
It’s known as a landmark in the area. In fact, we could drive by it.
I would love to see it.
Yeah, we could film some. My friend has a house in a really nice part of Los Angeles. Right next to his house is a two-story tent. He’s lived in that house now for a couple of years. Every single time I drive to his house, you have this massive, like, tent mansion—which, don’t hate me—but it looks really nice.
And the person there is very aggressive. Every time I drive by—well, not every time, but quite a few times—they’ll come out of their tent and start yelling things. I’ve seen them yelling at pedestrians on the sidewalk—obscenities. It’s not a good situation. But this person—no one stops them from living there.
And it’s, like I said, a full-on massive house.
Carolla: Well, so what we just did is sort of illustrate—with the treehouse, which the city is very vigorous about and says needs to come down—versus the shanty house, which they have no interest in, because that guy’s an empty bag. He has no money to give them.
Now, my feeling is: you have to pick a lane as a city. Here’s optimal, and then unacceptable.
Optimal is: places where you take down the shanty town that’s built under the freeway overpass or built on the freeway or in the LA River. Optimal is that the city would enforce that and take down those dangerous structures where people deal drugs and insane people live.
All right, take those down. And their policy toward a guy who built a treehouse on his own property would be: the guy’s paying taxes, people seem to like it, and it looks good from here. He’s an American. Leave him alone. It’s his property. Okay? That’s optimal.
Middle ground is: look, we’re going to let that guy in his Visqueen plywood house build on a sidewalk. But if you want to build a treehouse, I guess that’s your business. At least we’re consistent. He’ll build something, you’ll build something—we won’t get involved.
L.A. is the worst, which is: not going to do anything about the plywood house on the sidewalk; full weight of the law on the homeowner and taxpayer.
That’s why people leave. And they don’t get it. And they somehow think it’s progress or something. But the blue-est cities are the toughest on taxpayers and the easiest on criminals.
Interviewer 1: So, if you were governor, what would you change?
Carolla: The first thing would be the regulatory system. You can’t make it impossible to build or start a business or whatever because of the regulations. It’s so overregulated that people just physically leave. That would be number one.
In the meantime, gooder and harder, California. (Discussion above starts at about the nine minute mark.)
ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Dolphins Got Giant Testicles. We Got a Chin. Only One Makes Sense.
They both make sense when you realize it’s all about sex. Dolphins mate a lot, and need a lot of sperm. Human chicks dig a manly chin, and are more likely to mate with men who have them.
You can put my Nobel in the mail.
ANDREW FERGUSON: A Funny Thing About Dave Barry.
A long time ago, in a media environment far, far away, an editor walked into my office and dropped a pile of books by Dave Barry on my desk. “Here’s an idea,” he said. “Read these and figure out how he does it.”
At the time, Barry was a weekly humor columnist at the Miami Herald, which, at the time, was a newspaper. By tradition, humor columns in newspapers were pretty dreary. For one thing, labeling any piece of writing “humor” discourages discerning readers from finding it funny; discerning readers like to decide these things for themselves. Beyond this terrible handicap, newspaper humorists shared a problem with their employers: They had to satisfy, or at least not offend, a large enough audience to stay in business, which encouraged a timidity and blandness that made humor nearly impossible. Too much humor could get a humorist fired.
Dave Barry was different. Dave Barry was funny—and not just funny but consistently funny, line by line and paragraph to paragraph, week after week. Yet he was astonishingly popular. By the late 1980s, the Herald was syndicating his column to more than 500 newspapers. (Yes! The world once contained 500 newspapers!) A TV network created a situation comedy about him, Dave’s World, which ran for four seasons. Even more: He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. A Pulitzer itself is nearly meaningless as a measure of quality—Thomas L. Friedman has won three of them—but anyone who can get a laugh out of the self-important, humor-impaired stiffs who sit on Pulitzer committees deserves a prize. You might as well try to jolly up a board of oncologists or the docents at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Read the whole thing.
FAFO: Cop Straight Up Bodies Lib Agitator at Turning Point USA’s SAS Summit in Florida (Watch!).
🚨: Unhinged leftist stops his car in the middle of the road to charge towards SAS attendees. He attacks a man, runs away from police, trips, and gets arrested. pic.twitter.com/Yn6ePzioxy
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 12, 2025
Yet another socialist just inadvertently channeled the old ad for the Libertarian Party:
SPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER TERROR-FAMINE:
OCEANIA HAS NEVER BEEN AT WAR WITH EAST MAR-A-LAGO:
To be fair Kilgore, a former vice president for policy at the Democratic Leadership Council, didn’t buy into Joe Scarborough’s Soviet-level “Best Biden Ever” rant, but he did sound like Biden was probably fine for another four years. In February of last year, he wrote, “An Old Guy’s Defense of Our Old-Guy President:”
Like Joe Biden, I got my dream job at a stage of life when most folks are planning or entering retirement. After writing hundreds of thousands of words for politicians and organizations without getting much credit for it, I became a rather geriatric blogger and then a political writer for New York Magazine and blew right by the age at which I could have packed it all in. Best I can tell, I still produce more words — though perhaps not higher-quality words — than my whippersnapper colleagues. So I am naturally sympathetic to the president’s desire to stay in the saddle as long as he can, and naturally hostile to partisan efforts to depict Biden as senile or incompetent, particularly when the beneficiary of undermining confidence in his abilities is Donald Trump.
The day before the now infamous debate in June, he asked, “Could the Biden-Trump Debate Actually Be a Game Changer?” before tut-tutting, nahh, probably not:
Political scientists have long concluded that debates rarely have a big and enduring impact in the general election. They are much more significant during presidential primaries, particularly when there is no incumbent or clear front-runner. To the limited extent that general-election debates matter, they tend to be the initial debates between the two contenders, where viewership is high and familiarity with the candidates is relatively low.
Even though the June 27 debate is the initial encounter of this cycle, it’s not like a Biden-Trump debate is any sort of novelty; they met twice in 2020 and are the ultimate known quantities. Back in 2020, most observers thought Biden easily won the first debate over a blustery Trump, while the second debate was more of a standoff. But it’s hard to say either debate really mattered when voters voted. And barring some calamitous misstep by one of the candidates, it’s hard to envision this one mattering much either.
* * * * * * * * *
Unfortunately for both campaigns, the 2024 presidential election looks like a grim and remorseless battle between two large and immovable electoral blocs with murky turnout patterns ultimately mattering as much as the decisions of largely unhappy swing voters. That doesn’t mean the June 27 debate isn’t worth watching for those who are civic-minded enough to feel some obligation to tune in. But no one should count on knowing the country’s fate on June 28.
Which seems fair in retrospect — the (p)resident’s self-styled “Politburo” kept the nation in the dark for another three weeks before it determined his fate, a month after their news apparatuses issued any talk of Biden’s age and ailments as “cheap fakes.”