WHEN YOU STRIKE AT A QUEEN… Dems push back against anti-Pelosi insurgents.

The insurgent Democrats, led by Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), contend that the liberal Pelosi, after four straight losing election cycles, projects the wrong image for the party and should step aside — or be forced out — to allow a new generation of leaders to take the helm.

Moulton is stressing the urgency of a leadership change, arguing that the Democrats can’t win back the majority with Pelosi as the leader, so why wait for the next losing cycle to make the switch?

“There is clearly a desire to have this discussion and to do something — and to do something now,” Moulton told The Hill last week as Congress was preparing to leave town for the July Fourth recess.

“Another reporter recently suggested that people think we should wait until after 2018. I have not heard that from anybody — absolutely not,” Moulton added. “Some people may say that on the record, you know, for political purposes. But we want to win 2018.”

Moulton, 38, who had huddled before the recess with Rice and roughly a dozen other dissenting Democrats, said those “conversations” would continue over the break and beyond.

“We don’t want to wait until after we lose again to make the changes we know we need to make,” he said.

But a growing number of Democrats, representing a crosscut of regions and ideologies, say blaming Pelosi for the Democrats’ losses is misguided because any leader the Democrats seat will instantly become the target of similar GOP attack ads.

You mean, like the anti-Pelosi ads which were successfully used to defend Georgia’s sixth district last month?

CHARLIE MARTIN: I Lived in Germany and Learned This Lesson.

LARRY KUDLOW: Trump Has Putin Over a Barrel.

Russia still has a lot of oil and gas reserves. And it uses this to bully Eastern and Western Europe. It threatens to cut off these resources if Europe dares to complain about Putin power grabs in Crimea, eastern Ukraine, the Baltics and elsewhere.

But enter President Donald Trump. In his brilliant speech in Warsaw, Poland, earlier this week, he called Putin’s energy bluff.

It may well have been the best speech of his young presidency. Trump delivered a stirring leadership message, emphasizing the importance of God, freedom, strong families and democratic values.

And while unambiguously pledging to uphold NATO’s Article 5 — which commits the members to protect one another — Trump went even deeper. “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” he said. “Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? … if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive.” He also spoke several times of the religious leadership and bravery of Pope John Paul II.

It was a bold strike for the West.

But in an absolutely key part of the speech, he took direct aim at Putin’s energy bullying.

Trump said, “we are committed to securing your access to alternate sources of energy, so Poland and its neighbors are never again held hostage to a single supplier of energy.”

Thanks goodness the real Kremlin stooge has exited the White House, and been replaced by an honest defender of the West.

WINNING: Move Over China, Here Come the American Drones.

ALLIES: US lawmaker wants to block F-35 sales to Turkey over embassy brawl.

The real reason is that Erdogan’s Turkey acts less like a NATO ally and more like a dangerous local thug who shouldn’t be armed with anything as advanced as the F-35.

WHEW: Why Trump’s Western Civilization Isn’t a ‘White Supremacist Dogwhistle.’

VIDEO: James Clapper Confronts CNN’s Narrative… While on CNN.

RETAIL BLUES: Sears, Kmart to close 43 more stores.

“It is obvious that we don’t make decisions to close stores lightly. Our efforts have been, and will continue to be, fact-based, thoughtful and disciplined, with the goal of making Sears Holdings more relevant and more competitive for our members and other constituents.”

The new closures include four Kmarts in Florida and three in Ohio, and three Sears locations in Indiana. (See the full list.)

Sears is one of many retail giants struggling to find its footing, or simply survive, amid a landscape dramatically transformed by a shift to online shopping and rise of Amazon.

J.C. Penney has said it will shutter 138 locations, roughly 14% of its stores, and give buyouts to 6,000 employees. Macy’s plans to shut 68 stores. Radio Shack, which has sought bankruptcy protection twice in two years, has closed more than 1,000 locations since Memorial Day weekend. And one-time mall favorites Bebe, The Limited, and Wet Seal have closed or are in the process of shuttering all of their storefronts.

“Mall favorites” sounds incredibly dated.

WORRISOME: Hackers Are Targeting Nuclear Facilities, Homeland Security Dept. and F.B.I. Say.

COURAGE: Michigan’s GOP Governor Brands ‘Choose Life’ Plate Too Politically Divisive.

SPENGLER: Good News and Bad News From Poland.

Just read the whole thing.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What Trump Meant When He Said ‘Everyone’ Was Talking About John Podesta.

RETRO ASTRONOMY: Researcher uses Game Boy Camera to capture 2-bit photos of space.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO ABDUCT: Amber Alert issued after 16-year-old boy is abducted by woman in Los Angeles.

TRUMP MEETS PUTIN: U.S. President Predicts ‘Very Positive Things Happening.’

SALON, IS THAT YOU? Think Trump’s attack on CNN made him look bad? Think again: He’s a master marketer, and his fan base ate it up.

Yes, Salon.

Sure, the article is full of smears and the like — it is still Salon, after all — but it looks like some on the Left are starting to grasp the bigger picture.

OH: Mars covered in toxic chemicals that can wipe out living organisms, tests reveal.

Working with Charles Cockell, an astrobiologist at Edinburgh, Wadsworth looked at what happened to Bacillus subtilis, a common soil bacterium and regular Earthly contaminant found on space probes, when it was mixed with magnesium perchlorate and blasted with ultraviolet rays similar to those witnessed on Mars. She found that the bugs were wiped out twice as fast when perchlorate was present. Other perchlorates found on Mars had a similar bactericidal effect.

Further tests found that the UV rays broke down the perchlorate into other chemicals, namely hypochlorite and chlorite, and it is these that appear to be so destructive to the bacteria.

The scientists followed-up with another round of experiments that looked at the toxic effects of iron oxides and hydrogen peroxide, which are also found in Martian soil. These tests yielded even more bad news for microscopic Martians: when the bacteria were hit with UV rays in the presence of perchlorates, iron oxide and peroxide, the bugs were killed 11 times faster than with perchlorates alone. Writing in Scientific Reports, the researchers say that the inhospitable conditions on Mars are caused by a “toxic cocktail of oxidants, iron oxides, perchlorates and UV irradiation.”

This is not the Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs had me hoping for.

DEFENSE: Can U.S. defend against North Korea missiles? Not everyone agrees.

Briefing reporters on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said: “We do have confidence in our ability to defend against the limited threat, the nascent threat that is there.”

Davis cited a successful test in May in which a U.S.-based missile interceptor knocked down a simulated incoming North Korean ICBM. But he acknowledged the test program’s track program was not perfect.

“It’s something we have mixed results on. But we also have an ability to shoot more than one interceptor,” Davis said.

An internal memo seen by Reuters also showed that the Pentagon upgraded its assessment of U.S. defenses after the May test.

Despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent on a multi-layered missile defense system, the United States may not be able to seal itself off entirely from a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile attack.

Experts caution that U.S. missile defenses are now geared to shooting down one, or perhaps a small number of basic, incoming missiles. Were North Korea’s technology and production to keep advancing, U.S. defenses could be overwhelmed unless they keep pace with the threat.

I know people who work on this program, and they’re confident in what they do. That said, there’s probably no bigger pucker factor than spending a couple of decades working to stop a hypothetical nuclear threat — and then watching it become real.

PRIORITIES: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Skips NYPD Swearing-in Ceremony to Attend G20 Protest in Germany.

FASTER, PLEASE: USAF asks industry for air-launched hypersonic missile concepts.

I hope “Faster, please,” doesn’t sound too presumptuous when the subject is hypersonic missiles.

THIS IS PROBABLY SOMEHOW TRUMP’S FAULT: 100 Billion Failed Stars May Be Hiding in the Milky Way.

FAKE BODY SLAMS ON ANIMATED CORPORATE LOGOS REMAIN OUR CHIEF CONCERN: Scalise Remains In ‘Serious Condition’ Following Surgery.

Get well, Congressman.

IT’S ON: 4chan/pol/ Declares The Great Meme War of 2017.

My money’s on 4chan.

HMM: Ships Exporting Iranian Oil Go Dark, Raising Sanctions Red Flags.

Some 47 of 55 ships carrying Iranian oil products from Iran to the United Arab Emirates for two U.A.E.-registered companies failed to emit signals from the system that transmits their position and course, for part or all of their journey, according to an analysis of the two firms’ shipments that was completed for The Wall Street Journal by ship-tracker Windward Ltd., an Israeli firm that uses satellite imaging to map shipping routes.

The shipments, made by two U.A.E.-registered traders, Silk Road Petroleum FZE and Petrochemix General Trading LLC, accounted for 17% of Iran’s fuel-oil and gas-oil exports during the six-month period, according to records compiled by the oil-product traders.

The records, based on information from state-run National Iranian Oil Co. that shipping agents combine with their own information and provide to traders, listed the vessels’ cargo as fuel oil or gas oil. Iranian authorities didn’t return calls and emails seeking comment about the shipments.

Thanks, Obama.

BLUE STATE BLUES: Illinois House Overrides Gov. Rauner’s Veto on Tax Hike, Budget Bill.

The Illinois House voted to override Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of the income tax hike and budget bill. This is the first budget Illinois has passed in two years.

The House voted 71-42, which is the bare minimum House Speaker Mike Madigan needed, after a security incident delayed the vote for two hours.
…
The budget bill lacks… A LOT. Illinois has “unpaid bills to state contractors and vendors that’s reached about $14.5 billion and roughly $130 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.” Last Friday, a judge ordered the state to “start paying $293 million in state money toward Medicaid bills every month and an additional $1 billion over the course of the next year.”

They’ve run out of other people’s money. Now they’re running out of time.