OPEN THREAD: Well, here we are.

(Bumped.)

WHERE WE ARE:

@bowsette.at.midnight i dont care about either side this just seemed funny to me so I made it #meme #memecut #thedarkcrystal #life ♬ Crickets in the countryside(1177489) – Deiko

From the comments:

THAT WAS FAST: From Hillbilly Elegy To The White House: The Wisdom Behind Trump’s Choice of J.D. Vance.

WITH J.D. VANCE ON HIS TICKET, TRUMP BRINGS YOUTH BACK TO AMERICAN POLITICS:

American politicians are the oldest in the developed world https://t.co/xZCXjwNi9f pic.twitter.com/MNdmfSX6yj

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) July 19, 2024

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE? CrowdStrike’s Mistake Was a ‘Huge Deal,’ US Cyber Official Says.

COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: New Study Links Anxiety in Young Women to Brain Chemical Imbalance.

IT’S NOT A FOG OF CONFUSION, IT’S A FOG OF DISSEMBLING AND OBFUSCATION: Fog of Confusion Clouds Epic Security Failure at Trump’s Rally: Law-enforcement authorities have conflicting recollections of their responsibilities at ill-fated rally.

Everyone agrees something went disastrously wrong at Donald Trump’s rally in western Pennsylvania last weekend, when a gunman was able to fire a shot that grazed the former president’s ear. But they don’t agree on what or why.

More than a half-dozen law enforcement agencies were responsible for securing the Butler Farm Show grounds and have since provided a patchwork of conflicting accounts of how Thomas Matthew Crooks could get on a rooftop with a clear line of sight to Trump.

Lawmakers hope to get a clearer understanding of one of the most stunning security breaches in decades next week, when they have summoned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and the heads of several local police agencies to Capitol Hill to explain their actions that day.

“We had details around the timeline, but it doesn’t give any clear answers as to what happened and why it was allowed,” Rep. Gary Palmer (R., Ala.) said after federal authorities briefed lawmakers this week. “In a situation like this, the question that needs to be answered is, how did it happen?”

Regardless of how it happened, everyone who was responsible for keeping it from happening should be fired, since, you know, it did happen.

MY CONGRESSMAN PURSUING HIS USUAL BIG-BUDGET APPROACH:

Getting set up for a TV interview. My camera stand is a ⁦@MountainDew⁩ bottle and a Copenhagen can. #Merica Dadgummit pic.twitter.com/2kxa61keEU

— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) July 19, 2024

SUVs: 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser Tested: Is It the Real Deal?

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A CRUEL TRICK TO MAKE ME BUY ONE GUN INSTEAD OF TWO: First Look: Ed Brown Kobra Carry Dual Caliber 1911.

GOOD. WE SHOULD BE DOING THE SAME. Israel strikes Iran-backed Houthis after Tehran proxy attacked Jewish state: ‘Significance is clear.’ NSC spokesperson says US ‘not involved’ in Yemen strikes, and didn’t ‘coordinate or assist’ Israel with them.

We should be ashamed of that last bit. And the Israelis should follow up with more. The Houthis — like Hamas, and all the other barbarians — should be punished until they unconditionally surrender and cease all hostilities.

ED MORRISSEY: Narrative Buster: Top Ten Reasons Biden Will Fly to Hawaii This Month.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY IS INSPIRED BY THE CROWDSTRIKE DEBACLE: When Things Go Wrong: The importance of resilience. And cash!

EVEN AS THEY TELL YOU TO SET YOUR A/C THERMOSTAT AT 80 TO PREVENT BROWNOUTS AND BLACKOUTS: How the rise of AI is straining the U.S. power grid.

55 YEARS AGO TODAY, AND FOR MOST OF MY LIFETIME WE HAVEN’T BEEN BACK: Moon fests, moon movie and even a full moon mark 55th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing. But we’re finally making progress toward going back.

COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Study finds reducing children’s screen time to just three hours per week improves mental health.

SEEMS LIKE A NEW WAY TO BREED RESISTANT STRAINS: Studies show daily antibiotic use may prevent STDs in high-risk groups.

MAKE THEM PAY: Residents’ Claim That S.F. Failed to Adequately Police Tenderloin Sidewalks May Go Forward on Disability Law Theory.

WELL, YES: ‘Offensive’ social media posts are free speech, legal group tells USD.

ASSASSINATION ISN’T CHIC: NH prof expresses worry over ‘electability concerns’ for Democrats after attempt on Trump’s life.

CROWDSTRIKE UPDATE: Now trains are hit in Crowdstrike outage as ticket machines and scanners go down at London stations on one of year’s busiest travel days – while families queue at Dover and 28,000 Brits battle to fly home with another 45 UK flights axed today.

Fears for patients as Crowdstrike chaos pharmacy backlogs set to continue.

Russia Thanks Western Sanctions for Helping It Avoid The Crowdstrike IT Outage. Heh.

Crowdstrike’s Terms and Conditions Say Most Customers Would Just Get A Refund Despite Massive Damage.

Crowdstrike Failure Highlights the Fragility of Globally Connected Technology.

What Happened to Digital Resilience? “In the worst-case scenarios that the Biden administration has quietly simulated over the past year or so, Russian hackers working on behalf of Vladimir V. Putin bring down hospital systems across the United States. In others, China’s military hackers trigger chaos, shutting down water systems and electric grids to distract Americans from an invasion of Taiwan. As it turned out, none of those grim situations caused Friday’s national digital meltdown.” Instead, in the words of Joseph Story, we were “victims of our own imbecility.”

This is a wake up reminder that you shouldn’t have an internet connected privileged binary running on your production systems. What was a bad update could have easily been a massive adversary backdoor. A third party vendor will always be the weakest link. Isolate critical systems

— Christopher Stanley (@cstanley) July 19, 2024

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, ESPECIALLY THIS YEAR: Could Kamala Actually Win???

OUCH:

Is this the first presidential election in which, before the election, one party has so clearly defeated the other candidate to the point where said opponent is forced to drop out?

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) July 18, 2024

ANDREW SULLIVAN: Regime Change in America? Something really has shifted these past two weeks. Will it hold?

Sullivan is still in denial about what was done to Trump and his allies over the past several years, but he has a glimpse of reality in places.

LOL:

Other alt-right warning signs to look for:
1. Drinks beer
2. Watches sports
3. Engages in exercise and bodybuilding
4. Star Wars and Star Trek fan
5. Hates the Yankees
6. Rode a bike as a child
7. Played video games https://t.co/KLaJpBE05O

— Met Gala Loser Balding 大老板 (@BaldingsWorld) July 19, 2024

Related:

A source told NBC: "They have taken the Bridge and the Second Hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes… Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A Shadow moves in the dark… We cannot get out… They are coming." https://t.co/DTbS3La8Tp

— Noam Blum (@neontaster) July 18, 2024