WELL, YEAH: For Democrats, It’s Always Social Justice Graft All the Way Down. “Every pot of money, no matter the source, no matter how sacred the ostensible goal, is just another mouthful of graft to be fed into the insatiable maw of the left.”

THE EUROPEAN MIND CANNOT COMPREHEND THE GLORIES OF AMERICAN AIR CONDITIONING: The new hot topic in European politics is air conditioning.

The prospect of U.S.-style air conditioning sends shivers through some Europeans. In France, media outlets often warn that cooling a room to more than 15 degrees Fahrenheit below the outside temperature can cause something called “thermal shock,” resulting in nausea, loss of consciousness and even respiratory arrest. That would be news to Americans who expect indoor temperatures to be cooled to around 75 degrees even when it is near 100 outside.

Not that I was worried, but I’m glad to see that all Texas restaurants, movie theaters – and Buc-ee’s — are marked safe from a French invasion during the summer months.

Not surprisingly, this story has caught the eye of Joel Abbott of Not the Bee, the straight news spinoff of America’s Newspaper of Record:

The Wall Street Journal frames this debate as a consequence of impending climate change (of course), but climate fear-mongering aside, there is a very real cost to human life that comes from heat waves, particularly to the very young and very old.

Experts say more air conditioning is a necessity to prevent thousands of people from dying during heat waves.

That’s an understatement:

More:

‘Abroad, the contrast is striking: the United States is investing several billion dollars to modernize the air conditioning of its schools, while hospitals there are already largely air-conditioned,’ read legislation proposed by French conservatives this month that would require air conditioning installed in institutions across the country.

How in the world does France not have air-conditioned hospitals?? How am I just learning this now?!

Indeed. In 2000, when Tom Wolfe wrote “Hooking Up: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the Second Millennium: An American’s World,” he wasn’t kidding when he noted, “On his trips abroad, our [American] electrician, like any American businessman, would go to superhuman lengths to avoid being treated in European hospitals, which struck him as little better than those in the Third World. He considered European hygiene so primitive that to receive an injection in a European clinic voluntarily was sheer madness.”

THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Tailored deep brain stimulation improves walking in Parkinson’s disease.

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: NYPD Hired Convicted Criminals As Recruitment Inspector Looked the Other Way.

ART OF THE DEAL: Winning: Trump Lands Trade Deal with Japan with 15% Tariffs, $550B Investments.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: BREAKING: Rubio Opens New Probe Into Harvard Over Foreign Students.

WELL, GOOD: GLP-1 diabetes drugs likely trump metformin for curbing dementia risk in type 2 diabetes, study finds.

PROF. SCOTT GERBER: Ex-UVA President’s Salary Likely Violates Tax Law. “The prohibition against private inurement is a strict tax law that states that no part of a tax-exempt organization’s financial assets may benefit an individual. The rule targets transactions with individuals who have a significant relationship with the organization and can influence its decisions for personal gain.”

VITAMIN D UPDATE: InstaPundit readers have known about the benefits of sunshine and vitamin D for years. Now the New York Times is noticing.

For decades, many doctors have said that less is more when it comes to sun exposure. Ultraviolet light from the sun can age the skin and cause skin cancer, and people can get vitamin D from food or supplements instead.

But in recent years, some scientists have questioned this thinking after research suggested that moderate sun exposure may, at least in certain contexts, have some benefits. And that vitamin D supplements may not always be a good substitute.

“The ‘never go outside without S.P.F. 50’ approach treated sun exposure as if it were universally harmful,” said Dr. Lucy McBride, an internal medicine physician in Washington, D.C. But “moderate, thoughtful sun exposure,” in accordance with your risk factors, she added, “may offer benefits we’re still discovering.”

Flashback: “Avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor of a similar magnitude as smoking, in terms of life expectancy.” Rather a blot on the dermatologists’ copybook.

Advantage: InstaPundit!

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS REPORTED MISSING: ‘The most dangerous city in Germany’ — Bremen has the most crime and the highest share of migrants of all German states. “In fact, non-German suspects are responsible for 73 percent of all crime in Bremen in 2024, compared to 57 percent in 2023. As Buten an Binnen notes, ‘Young men from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria stand out as suspected perpetrators. This group of people continues to be kept in mind, and many of the perpetrators have been imprisoned.'”

AS KURT SCHLICHTER SAYS, THE LEFT IS GOING TO HATE THE NEW RULES THEY CREATED:

Here’s the full tweet by Trump aide Stephen Miller that Kelly references:

NEW BOOK: ‘SLACKING: A GUIDE TO IVY LEAGUE MISEDUCATION.’ Get it now for your favorite nepo-baby to help them sneak through to graduation! (Though I am pretty sure the authors don’t mean it that way.)

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Don’t Ask Who Killed Late-Night TV When After All It Was You and Me.

WOMEN NEED THEIR OWN SPACES AND THEIR OWN SPORTS: U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee will comply with Trump’s ban on transgender women in women’s sports. “The committee made the change in an updated “Athlete Safety Policy,” posted to their website Monday, which does not mention the word transgender in any of its 27 pages. But the document does include language that implies that transgender women will no longer be able to compete in women’s division.”

THIS CERTAINLY FITS MY EXPERIENCE: STUDY: Boys More Likely to Be Victims of Dating Violence than Girls.

KRUISER: Mega-Props to Colbert and His Fans for Proving That CBS Made a Brilliant Decision. “Because they are simple, barely sentient creatures who all suffer from Stage 4 Trump Derangement Syndrome, the proggies have boiled it all down to ORANGE MAN BAD. Yeah, that’s their default for everything they don’t like, but watching them torture themselves with that emo illogic over this is extra special fun for me.”

ORANGE CRUSHING? Democrats Face Crushing Public Backlash for Being ‘Too Radical’.

STAY STRONG: Toniiq NAD+ Supplement 1500mg. #CommissionEarned

Coca-Cola says it will use U.S. cane sugar in a new Coke, a plan pushed by Trump.

We’re going to be bringing a Coke sweetened with U.S. cane sugar into the market this fall,” Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday.

The company announced the change in the quarterly earnings report it released Tuesday, describing the new drink as an expansion of its product line.

Quincey said the new offering would “complement” Coca-Cola’s core portfolio of drinks, suggesting it could arrive as an alternative, rather than a replacement, for its flagship Coke product.

So the new New Coke (not the old New Coke) will be Mexican Coke which used to be the American Coke or just plain Coke.

CAMPUSES ARE CESSPITS OF HATRED AND BIGOTRY: Universities rejected applicant pools with too many white scholars, records reveal: Several universities relied on ‘diversity checks’ when hiring, investigation finds.

BREAKING UP IS HARD EASY TO DO: Bye, UNESCO. It’s Not Us; It’s You.

MADE IN THE USA: EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station. #CommissionEarned

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Lenovo 15.6″ Laptop Computer for Home Business. #CommissionEarned

STANDING UP TO BIGOTRY: Head of DOJ anti-Semitism task force issues message to Jewish students in America. “The statement comes amid growing incidents of harassment and threats against Jewish students, particularly on college campuses following the October 2023 Hamas attacks.”

WELL, GOOD: UK will back down over its demands on Apple for an encryption backdoor.

Faced with US pressure, the UK is reportedly looking for a way out of its own demands for an iOS backdoor, without also limiting its future ambitions.

In 2024, the UK changed its own laws so that it could demand Apple give it complete access to all iPhone user data worldwide. It also invoked what’s known as the Snoopers’ Charter, which meant it was legally able to prevent Apple from even revealing the request.

Apple did, though, cause the issue to be revealed by switching off its Advanced Data Protection for UK users, and also lobbying the US government.

Now according to the UK’s Financial Times, officials within the local government say the country is likely to withdraw its order. Alongside other senior US leaders including Trump, the sources say that the climb down is because of pressure from JD Vance.

“This is something that the vice-president is very annoyed about and which needs to be resolved,” said one source, reported to be an official in the UK’s technology department. “The Home Office is basically going to have to back down.”

It’s nice to have an administration on board with privacy and with protecting American financial interests overseas.