ROGER KIMBALL: Despite defeat, Le Pen’s party has made steady progress. This election is very bad news for the country formerly known as France.

IT’S IN COMMON USE: Justice Thomas: Of course, the AR-15 is legal under Second Amendment.

THE GOAL IS TO AVOID SERIOUS REFORM, OR ANY CONSEQUENCES FOR THE NOMENKLATURA: Moving the Priests Around: Columbia To Reassign Deans at Center of Texting Scandal.

WHAT OUR NAVY HAS BEEN DOING INSTEAD OF GETTING READY TO ACTUALLY FIGHT: Ready for a Lean Six Sigma Flashback?

While money and efficient processes are important when you look at the last quarter century, what did we gain?

Did the “business best practices” fads of the 1990s-2000s make LCS better? Did it make DDG-1000 a success? Did it control technology risk assessment with FORD? Did it create a more effective maintenance infrastructure?

Did our proposed cure for perceived ills – spreadsheets and motivational speaker seminars – really address the core problem?

Was it really the system that produced our process – and not the system that selected our people – that needed to be looked at? Was it both problems, but we decided to attack the more comfortable of the two?

The system that selects our political leaders is also deeply flawed, also with potentially fatal results.

THIS IS WHAT DESPERATION LOOKS LIKE: Legal Scholar Suggests Scheme To Put Obama Back In White House.

STILL TRICKY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: Final Chicago Holiday Body Count: 19 Killed, 89 Wounded…Mayor Blames Richard Nixon.

Sure, blame a dead Republican, and not the live Chicago Democratic politicians who are in bed with the gangs behind the violence.

Related: One More Time: It’s Not ‘Gun Violence’ It’s Gang Violence.

ALEX BERENSON IS NOT AMUSED: In stealing my story today, the New York Times committed a serious breach of journalistic ethics (yes, that’s a thing). Is it, really? Plus:

I want to explain why what Times reporters Peter Baker and Emily Baumgaertner did today in stealing my Saturday scoop about the visits by a Parkinson’s specialist to the White House was so offensive – and not just to me.

For the Times didn’t merely steal my reporting, it appears to have tried to hide its theft. Their original story – available at the Internet archive called Wayback Machine – claimed the White House had released the visitor logs showing that Parkinson’s specialist Dr. Kevin R. Cannard has visited the White House at least eight1 times since summer 2023 “in response to a request from The New York Times.”

That line is an apparent effort by Baker and Baumgaertner to explain how they discovered the visits – which the Times reported as “Breaking News” – and why they happened to write the article now, two days after mine, rather than months ago.

In reality the Biden Administration’s visitor logs are public, online, and available to everyone at any time. The Times did not need to “request” them, it simply needed to go to whitehouse.gov and search them, as anyone can. And – after I pointed out that fact on X – the Times secretly edited the story to remove that line.

Stealth edits are kind of their thing.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

A LESS-THAN-EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Low-intensity explosion caused Russian satellite to spew debris.

MATT TAIBBI: Details On the Proposed “Blitz Primary:” The oddest primary season in modern times may take an even stranger turn, as calls for Joe Biden to step down as presumptive Democratic nominee grow louder. “This story is happening so quickly it defies analysis, but this crisis has a clear Gilbert Gottfried death-or-Ugu type of vibe to it for Democrats. If Biden insists on staying in the race, as he seems determined to do, he’ll be automatically in conflict with a growing roster of elected Democrats who’ve called for his ouster. If he does change his mind, insiders seem set on fashioning a nomination process that would only include Democratic voters in an ominously indirect way. A ‘blitz primary’ in which celebrities like Taylor Swift and Stephen Colbert engage in ‘positive only’ banter with candidates chosen by Biden delegates could permanently saddle Democrats with an entertainingly hideous celebrity-and-insider template for a voterless nomination process. Either that, or such a gambit could be a brilliant means of gobbling enough public attention to turn disaster into PR triumph just in time for the Republican convention. Either way, we’ll find the plan out soon.”

BAFFLED: Scientists Baffled: Webb Uncovers Ancient Galaxies That Defy Explanation.

AMERICA SIGHS IN RELIEF, AT LEAST THE PARTS OF IT THAT AREN’T ASKING “WHO?” Whitmer: I’m Out. “Gretchen Whitmer–the decidedly ‘meh’ Governor of Michigan, has been one of the favorites for donors and political insiders for the nominee of the Democrat Party should President Biden step down or be forced out of the race. Early on in the post-debate saga, she was clearly angling for the job, but as the Biden Crime Family run by the triumvirate of Joe, Jill, and Hunter made clear that Slow Joe wasn’t leaving, she has begun to backtrack. Now she is shutting down the speculation that she is open to the job, although there has been no Shermanesque ‘If nominated I will not run’ pronouncement.”

WELL: The Authoritarian Side of Effective Altruism Comes for AI.

HMM: 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning XLT Long-Term Verdict: Right Truck; Bit Early. “Our 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning XLT yearlong test truck might just have landed a year or two early here in the nation’s midsection. As it was, Tesla’s Supercharger network opened to Ford vehicles just before our truck left us. Perhaps having access to 15,000 additional (vastly more reliable) chargers might have eased the substantial pain of road-tripping.”

FLASHBACK: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.

OUR SOCIETY IS TURNING PETS INTO PSEUDO-CHILDREN: Their Job Is to Help You Grieve Your Pet: Though still rare, social workers in animal hospitals are growing in their ranks.

Ms. Maxwell is a veterinary social worker, a job in a little-known corner of the therapy world that focuses on easing the stress, worry and grief that can arise when a pet needs medical care.

Pets no longer exist at the periphery of the human family — to take one example, a survey in 2022 found that almost half of Americans sleep with an animal in their bed. As that relationship has intensified, so has the stress when something goes wrong. Those emotions can spill over at animal hospitals, where social workers can help pet owners work through difficult choices, such as whether to euthanize a pet or whether they can afford to pay thousands of dollars for their care.

Though still rare, social workers in animal hospitals are growing in their ranks. Large chains, like VCA, are beginning to employ them, as are major academic veterinary hospitals. The service is typically offered for free. About 175 people have earned a certification in veterinary social work from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which is a center for the field.

I predict rapid growth. I don’t really approve of people treating animals like substitute children — it smacks too much of Children of Men and I think it’s socially destructive — but it’s a huge trend.

JUST BECAUSE AI IS GETTING BETTER DOESN’T MEAN IT DOESN’T CONTAIN STUPIDITIES: ChatGPT’s much-heralded Mac app was storing conversations as plain text.

COLOR ME SKEPTICAL: Study explores the link between stock market fluctuations and emergency room visits in China.

BUT WE ALL KNOW THE TRUTH, DON’T WE? Colleges, experts disagree on why taxpayer-funded Truman Scholarships skew liberal.

PUSHBACK: Arizona regents move forward with ban on student groups’ support for terrorists.

The measure would prohibit student groups from “knowingly [providing] material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization as defined in 18 U.S. Code § 2339B.”

It would also stop student groups from calling “for violence and/or genocide against any individual or group based on race, color, national origin, or shared ancestry,” and from engaging in “other conduct” that “interferes with maintaining a school environment free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin, including shared ancestry.”

Wait, unfair. “Antidiscrimination” law is only supposed to discriminate against white conservatives.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: White House Report Card: Biden’s excuses fuel push to exit 2024 race.

ICYMI: GOOD NEWS YOU LIKELY WON’T BE TOLD ABOUT:

Doesn't fit the narrative, but

2024 record coral cover for Great Barrier Reef

Based on official data for all 11 sectors of GBR,

Last three years, 2022-2024, have been unprecedented

Data: https://t.co/MQ0qkITsby pic.twitter.com/fJN15BjHMk

— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) July 2, 2024

HE, AND THE “CABAL” WHO INSTALLED HIM IN 2020, HAVE MADE US AN INTERNATIONAL JOKE: Biden’s Dénouement Hurts U.S. Standing.

And there’s no pretending that didn’t happen, given that the “cabal” — Time magazine’s approving term — bragged about it after.

There needs to be accountability, and it needs to go way beyond an election.

POLITICALLY MOTIVATED JUDICIAL CENSORSHIP: Court Threatens First Amendment Rights of Tennessee Star After Release of Covenant School Shooting Documents.

THEY’RE DOING THEIR BEST TO CONCEAL IT UNTIL AFTER, THOUGH:

And we will see a big inflation spike before the Nov 2024 election as a result. https://t.co/5IRe26zLA8

— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) July 7, 2024