HANDEL WINS IN GEORGIA: Well, the AP called it for Handel. (Link goes to PJM’s Hot Mic.)

MORE: The Dems put a lot of effort into the Georgia-6 race. Was Hodgkinson’s terror attack a factor? I think it was. The mainstream media have tried to bury it, but that bloodbath will remain on the minds of Americans for years.

UPDATE: The AP’s concession. I mean, report.

Dig the lede:

Republican Karen Handel has won a nationally watched congressional election in Georgia, avoiding an upset that would have rocked Washington ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

Would it have really rocked Washington? That’s drama queen posturing. What’s happened is this: reality has deflated media-escalated Dem expectations. Please, someone tell the AP.

A DEMOCRAT TERRORIST’S WOULD BE COUP D’ETAT: Mass murder would necessitate over a dozen special elections. (bumped)

INTERCEPTION OVER THE BALTIC: A Russian SU-27 Flanker intercepts a U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress over the Baltic Sea. The B-52 was participating in a training exercise conducted June 9. A dramatic photo.

A DEMOCRAT TERRORIST’S WOULD BE COUP D’ETAT: Mass murder would necessitate over a dozen special elections. A Democrat-controlled House would impeach Trump. After that, who knows what happens. Hodgkinson knew it. Hey, throughout history, grandiose visions of world-altering consequences have motivated political assassins.

THE LEFT-WING TERRORIST’S CAPITOL HILL COUP D’ETAT: A Democrat-controlled House would overturn the election and impeach Trump. And James T. Hodgkinson knew it.

UPDATE: Thank you Instapundit commenters. I know it takes 2/3rds to convict in the Senate. An early version of the essay speculated that Hodgkinson thought a 50-50 Senate might convict. He may have thought so, it’s impossible to know. But the published essay implied it was possible if a few votes shifted and that’s my fault. This error has been corrected.

WHY COMBAT IN THE AIR IS INCREASINGLY RARE: Basically, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy are very very good.

VERY RELATED: America’s airpower advantage. We need to keep it.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW JOURNAL: Leftists continue to target conservativve events. “…numbers show these anti-conservative actions have tripled since the election of President Donald Trump.” A lot of these anti-conservative actions are attempts to suppress free speech.

POWERLINE: Black Monday for Climatistas. Steven Hayward says it was a triple whammy.

FALSE BLACK POWER: The gripping name of a new book. The NY Post publishes an excerpt.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was followed by large increases in black elected officials. In the Deep South, black officeholders grew from 100 in 1964 to 4,300 in 1978. By the early 1980s, major US cities with large black populations, such as Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia, had elected black mayors. Between 1970 and 2010, the number of black elected officials nationwide increased from fewer than 1,500 to more than 10,000.

Yet the socioeconomic progress that was supposed to follow in the wake of these political gains never materialized. During an era of growing black political influence, blacks as a group progressed at a slower rate than whites, and the black poor actually lost ground.

Read the whole thing.

PACIFIC MAY MEAN PEACEFUL, BUT PACIFIC OCEAN MEANS U.S. NAVY: I believe that’s the message this photo sends. Peace through power. Opinions may differ.

NEWS LET’S HOPE YOU CAN’T USE: Scientists study the diets of human sacrifices.

During the final two centuries of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE) in China, thousands of people were sacrificed at the state capital Yinxu. Some were dispatched with great fanfare, buried with rich grave goods, while others appear to have been sacrificed with extreme prejudice and mutilated after death. Now, a new study sheds some light on these victims. Simon Frasier University bioarchaeologist Christina Cheung and her colleagues reconstructed these ancient peoples’ lives by discovering what they ate and when, based on chemical signatures left in their bones.

Human sacrifice was a common ritual among the peoples of almost every ancient civilization, from China and Europe, to Mesopotamia and the Americas. Though archaeologists have analyzed the graves of these sacrifices, they have many questions about the victims’ lives. Were they revered and celebrated before death, or outcasts? Were they prisoners from far away, or were they the sons and daughters of their executioners?

Interesting read.

THE LEFT FLIRTS WITH TRUMPICIDE: From The American Spectator.

Liberalism, philosophically speaking, is proudly unprincipled, insofar as it recognizes no divine law prior to man’s will. The arrogant humanism underpinning liberalism, combined with fallen human nature, makes the temptation to violence irresistible, especially in times of political exile. When safely ensconced in positions of power, liberals demand “civility” and the like (remember the ludicrous “civility” commissions set up during the Clinton era to counter Rush Limbaugh and company). But once out of power, liberals flirt with ends-justify-the-means radicalism.

Many of the heroes of the left are figures of violence — from Fidel Castro and Che Guevera to Bill Ayers and the Black Panthers. The same New York Times that couldn’t bring itself to condemn Trumpicide in the Park ran an article on 9/11 (a grim coincidence) in which Bill Ayers gloated over his unpunished domestic terrorism. “Guilty as hell, free as a bird,” he said.

Read the entire commentary.

THE BREXIT TALKS OFFICIALLY BEGIN:

There are no expectations for groundbreaking negotiations to take place in the first day.

The primary aim, according to EU diplomats, is to have a first meeting where the atmosphere can be improved after some uncomfortable exchanges.

Stay tuned.

A BIGGER AND STILL GOING BOEING: A new, stretched version of the venerable Boeing 737 will carry up to 230 passengers. The original 737 carried around 100 passengers (if memory serves). Looks like Boeing already has a lot of orders for this plane.

IRAN FIRES MISSILES AT ISLAMIC STATE TARGETS IN SYRIA: The missiles were launched in western Iran. Their flight path traversed northern Iraq. According to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the missiles struck targets “in the Deir Ezzor region in Eastern Syria.” The missiles were “retaliation” for the Islamic State terror attacks in Tehran (June 7).

MORE FROM THE COMBAT ZONE: U.S. Navy Super Hornet shoots down Syrian jet. Here’s a rather cool photo of two Super Hornets — one’s on the verge of breaking the sound barrier. Or maybe just broke it.

DOWNBEAT REVIEW: Downbeat Magazine reviews the Ojai, California classical music festival (held June 8 to June 11). The Ojai Festival is now “safe for jazz.” The article goes on a bit but it’s a good read for fans of classical and jazz music.

SPIRIT RIDER IN THE SKY: Fine photo of a B-2 bomber banking — an interesting angle. It was taken at an air show held at Scott Air Force Base. I’d like to have been at the air show and seen this fly-by firsthand.

BATTLE FOR MOSUL CONTINUES: Iraqi units are pushing into the Old City. The ISIS holdouts are dug in for a last stand.

RELATED: The slow build to the battle of Mosul. The column is from October 2016.

TAXING ISSUES:

A proposed tax on imports is central to the House GOP plan to lower the overall corporate tax rate. It would generate about $1 trillion over the next decade to finance the lower rates without adding to the budget deficit.

But the tax faces strong opposition from retailers, automakers and the oil industry, and a growing number of Republicans in Congress have come out against it. They worry that it will increase the cost of imports, increasing consumer prices.

I’m not making any bets on how this plays out on the Ways and Means Committee.

SHIPWRECK DISCOVERED AND IDENTIFIED: In 1917 the Coast Guard cutter McCulloch sank off the California coast. The ship had an interesting history. In 1898 the vessel was part of Commodore Dewey’s squadron in the Battle of Manila Bay. The wreck site has now been positively identified.

WORM DIPLOMACY UPDATE: Dennis Rodman has returned from North Korea. He says his trip was “really good.”

“Everybody’s going to be happy. It was a good day. It was a good trip. A really good trip,” Rodman said.

Wearing black clothing with the PotCoin logo – a crypto-currency used by the legal marijuana industry – Rodman fended off questions from dozens of journalists at the arrival gate.

Asked repeatedly if he had met Kim, Rodman said: “You’ll find out.”

MORE:

Rodman, nicknamed “The Worm” during his playing career and known for his tattoos, body piercings and multicolored hair, is considered one of the best defensive players and rebounders in NBA history.

Rodman gave the Kim regime a copy of Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal. I guess we could call it very special delivery.

RELATED: Very very very special delivery. In case North Korea ignores The Worm.

SOUTH CHINA SEA: The U.S. and Japan have conducted a joint naval exercise.

The Japanese newspaper and All-Nippon News Network reported the exercises mark the first time a U.S. aircraft carrier and Japan’s maritime SDF trained together in waters where China has been flexing its muscles with the rapid militarization of disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Nope, Beijing isn’t pleased.

RELATED: China’s slow and deliberate imperial war in the South China Sea.

RUSSIA IS ABOUT AS ACCURATE AS RACHEL MADDOW: The Middle East Institute evaluates Russia’s claim that it killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an airstrike.

Key observation:

Russia has a long track record of issuing fake claims and deliberate misinformation during its campaign in Syria.

I’ll wager Instapundit commenters will get my drift.

DID DENNIS RODMAN’S TRIP TO NORTH KOREA SAVE THE WORLD?: I’d say no, but with nuts like Kim Jong Un and bizarre characters like Rodman, I won’t say the possibility is nil. The Worm gave North Korea’s Sports Minister a copy of Trump’s The Art of the Deal.

I love this sentence. This sentence alone rates an Instapundit link.

Sometimes diplomacy needs a cross-dressing, pierced, tattooed weirdo who has five NBA championship rings and a place in the league’s Hall of Fame.

This one’s good, too.

The Worm is the only person in the world who can call both President Donald John Trump and Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un a friend.

According to Rodman, “It’s all about peace.”

So stay tuned.

THE SNAKE ISN’T DEAD AND IT CONTINUES TO STRIKE: The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) Ugandan rebel group is launching new attacks.

It appears Joseph Kony is still alive and in charge. New LRA attacks are occurring along the Congo-South Sudan border. The LRA is definitely damaged, but it managed a fairly large raid on June 7, mustering an estimated 40 fighters. Last year Uganda announced it would end its search for Kony in the Central African Republic and did so in April 2017. The U.S. also ended its “anti-Kony” mission this spring. In 2011 the Obama Administration ordered 100 U.S. special operations troops to deploy to central Africa to help African and U.N. forces capture Kony.

DEFINITELY RELATED: The Facebook world failed to catch Kony.