FBI DIRECTOR WRAY: MAYBE IT WAS SHRAPNEL THAT HIT TRUMP, WHO KNOWS? YOU are supposed to know. YOU are the head of the FBI. It has been nearly two weeks. If the FBI doesn’t actually know whether a bullet hit the former President, it should be shut down. If the FBI does know and its director is lying, the FBI should be shut down.

As usual, I hasten to note that am not suicidal, I do not have any blackmail-worthy compulsions, and I do not have any information that would lead to the arrest and/or conviction of Hillary Clinton.

‘KIDS ONLINE SAFETY ACT’ GIVES GOVERNMENT DANGEROUS POWERS OVER AMERICANS’ EXPRESSION. Would it even be considered if it didn’t? Government and industry pass up so many non-Orwellian ways to make kids “safer” online that there’s no reason to give them any benefit of the doubt.

DO DIVERSITY STATEMENT BANS NOT GO FAR ENOUGH? The real problem is that any regulation only works if the people being regulated aren’t going out of their way to undermine it.

BIDEN STILL IN SECLUSION, VP HARRIS ‘FILLING IN’ FOR HIM, DISCUSSING HIS ‘LEGACY’ AT WHITE HOUSE SPEECH. Biden needs to make an appearance, now, even if it’s from his sick bed. Some Biden aide posting a PDF on X is not sufficient proof that this isn’t “coup o’clock.”

SECRET SERVICE SOURCE: WOULD-BE TRUMP ASSASSIN HID RIFLE AHEAD OF DEADLY RALLY SHOOTING. “It was not immediately clear where he hid it, however.” Smart money’s gotta be on the slightly sloped roof, right?

‘HUNDREDS OF RACIST PLANT NAMES WILL CHANGE AFTER HISTORIC VOTE BY BOTANISTS.’ Seems like this could be confusing, but I guess it could be worse, right? Oh, it is. “A second change to the rules for naming plants that aimed to address problematic names, such as those recognizing people who profited from the transatlantic slave trade, also passed — albeit in a watered-down form.”

‘WITHOUT EVIDENCE,’ NBC BLASTS ‘CONSERVATIVE PUNDITS AND LAWMAKERS’ ON SECRET SERVICE DEI. More and more “news” articles are popping up with this “without evidence” line. This jarring tell simply means “we don’t want you to believe the upcoming claim.” NBC even spends the next few paragraphs discussing the very evidence cited by DEI critics (female agents in the video being a foot shorter than Trump, or seemingly out of position). Maybe the critics are wrong and the weight of the evidence is against them, but they’re not “without evidence.” Saying they are is incompetent journalism.

UNC ASHEVILLE CUTTING WHOLE PROGRAMS IN FACE OF 25% ENROLLMENT DROP. Asheville is in one of the prettiest parts of the country, and the town is considered liberal and cool. How are they still losing students? This is how: “UNCA added sciences to its mission in July 2022. It now offers majors in New Media, Atmospheric Studies, and Environmental Studies.” Sure, who would not want to pay tuition for that?

FIRE TO COLORADO: BACK OFF CENSORSHIP OF PRO-LIFE SHIRTS AT CAPITOL OR WE SUE. Plus, “[j]ust weeks before Hunt was forced to leave the gallery, sergeants-at-arms allowed a group of students to sit in the gallery wearing pro-gun-control shirts,” because of course they did. Deadline is July 30.

WHY A TENNESSEE JUDGE WAS WRONG TO USE ‘COPYRIGHT’ TO BLOCK RELEASE OF THE NASHVILLE TRANS SHOOTER’S MANIFESTO. It also seems weird to me that the parents of the shooter transferred the copyright to the victims’ families. Is that a customary thing of which I was just ignorant?

HOW DO YOU FORCE A UNIVERSITY TO REFLECT THE DIVERSITY OF THE STATE? There are no good options if that’s your goal. I wonder, though: if major state universities just set objective GPA and SAT goals and put all applicants who met them into a lottery, would they actually be any worse off?

GOFUNDME FOR THE RALLY-GOER VICTIMS OF THE TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT. I’m donating.

EXTREMELY GRAPHIC LEAKED PHOTO OF ALLEGED SHOOTER. It’s here. (Assuming it’s real and not AI or something.) I recoiled from it when my wife sent me the link, so you have been warned. He’s… not in good enough shape for ID by anyone who doesn’t know him, I think, so you’re not missing anything by not clicking. But it’s certainly newsworthy.

(LIKELY) GUNSHOTS AT TRUMP RALLY IN BUTLER, PA – TRUMP ALIVE BUT RUSHED OFFSTAGE WITH BLOOD ON HIS FACE.

UPDATE: Seems to have been grazed in the right ear. After a series of “pops,” he grabbed his right ear and then dove for the stage. At one point you hear someone yell “shooter down.” Here’s a jackleg stream of Fox News.

On the way out:

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ok, take this with an ENORMOUS grain of salt, but Wall Street Silver on X claims to have the name of the would-be assassin, and talks of a YouTube video of him saying “justice is coming.” Again, could be TOTALLY WRONG. Fox just reported that AP says the shooter is dead right after I hit “post,” so who knows. <– This tweet has been taken down, so I am guessing it was a fake or wrong.

MORE: Supposed video of the alleged shooter, lying dead(?) on top of some kind of structure at the rally.

7:42 PM ET: Horribly, Fox is now reporting that a rally-goer is dead and another is in critical condition.

STILL MORE (FROM GLENN): A former student sends the pic above and adds: “And the people who think they matter want us to believe this selfish rich man doesn’t love America??”

IT WAS A SUPER SHORT TRIP FROM RENAMING FT. BRAGG TO LABELING PRO-LIFERS TERRORISTS. You look at the slide and think, “maybe it’s just random pro-life clipart?” Nope, it’s in the text. Along with “Row [sighs in lawyer] v. Wade.”

MAKE POLITICS FUN AGAIN! Trump challenges Biden to $1 million charity golf tournament.

Say what you will about Trump, he tries to make it so things aren’t so boring and serious all the time. I mean, this is a guy who not only believes in “NO TAX ON TIPS!” (and don’t we all? Can we please give the Chili’s waiter a break already?) but has it in his official agenda. In all caps.

UPDATE: Biden said no in the most anti-fun way possible. (Maybe he shouldn’t have issued the original challenge?)

“TEACHING SOCIOLOGY” JOURNAL IS AN IDEOLOGICAL NIGHTMARE. No surprise, sadly, but it’s “good” to have confirmation. Representative example: On climate change, “‘horrific … scenarios’ must be privileged even if they cause ‘students … [to] fall into despair,’ because ‘climate change is, in fact, an intractable existential crisis.'” Wow, thanks, “science.”

FIVE BIG FREE SPEECH TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS TERM’S SUPREME COURT CASES. With eight First Amendment cases, it was a blockbuster term for freedom of speech.

RAPPER ON PROBATION MUST RUN ALL LYRICS BY U.S. GOVERNMENT IN ADVANCE. Not a rap fan myself, but replace “rapper” with “Trump” and “lyrics” with “speeches” and you may begin to see the potential issue here.

DUKE HEALTH FIRES DOCTOR FOR PUBLICLY CHALLENGING ‘ANTIRACISM,’ ETC. They didn’t like him talking publicly about this kind of stuff (from a Duke event):

OH GOODY: FEDERAL ‘SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY TASK FORCE’ TO POLICE RESEARCH MISCONDUCT. Brought to you by the same folks who punished and silenced those who suggested COVID might have leaked from a lab.

PRETTY WEIRD HOW MUCH TIME “LAW” ENFORCEMENT SPENDS ENFORCING NON-LAWS. Not just the FBI, either – Vermont State Police are paying this FIRE client $175,000 for violating his First Amendment rights, not just over the stupidest thing imaginable but in the stupidest way imaginable. (Video at link.)

DON’T TRUST COLLEGES ON RACE-NEUTRAL ADMISSIONS. “This spring, University of Chicago law professor Sonja Starr reported in the Indiana Law Journal that, of the U.S. News and World Report’s top 65 colleges and universities, 43 had essay prompts addressing diversity, identity, or adversity in the latest application cycle, 31 of which mandated responses from students.”

Why exactly are college admissions such a closely-guarded secret anyway?

WAS UNC RIGHT TO CALL THE COPS ON THE PRO-PALESTINIAN CAMPERS? Rules should be consistently enforced. If enforcing them would be wrong, the rule needs to be changed. Here’s a rule of thumb for admins: if your campus is treating pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli rulebreakers differently from how it would treat the Patriot Front or Proud Boys in the same situation, it is in the wrong.

WHILE OKLAHOMA DAWDLES, ITS UNIVERSITIES ROT. “Red state” public universities are staffed by the same people who staff every other college, except with the added missionary zeal of bringing the Gospel According to Foucault to the rubiest of rubes.