IT WAS NEVER THEIRS TO LOSE: How The Guardian Lost America.

In September 2016, Guardian US announced it was slashing 30% of its workforce.

The retrenchment necessitated a change of scenery, too. At the meeting, Guardian US editor Lee Glendinning announced that the company had signed a lease agreement to move to a smaller Brooklyn office.

It was a room full of journalists, so the questions flew. Where? What’s the address? According to multiple people at the meeting, one reporter remarked that Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, owned some buildings in Brooklyn. Was this one of them?

A rattled Glendinning said sharply that it wasn’t, according to the attendees. Reporters pulled up news articles, raising their phones to show that it was indeed property owned by Kushner, who divested some of his family real estate empire’s holdings to join the White House.

“You see the cerebral cortexes trying to process this information,” one reporter present told BuzzFeed News.

Or as John Podhoretz tweeted, “Every detail in this story is about a mass delusion funded by oceans [of] non-profit Commie money.”

And then the other people’s money ran out, which is always when things get ugly.

(Hat tip, Will Collier.)

ILLINOIS MELTDOWN (CONTINUED): “The State Can No Longer Function”

With just 10 days to go until Illinois enters its third year without a budget, resulting in the state’s imminent downgrade to junk status and potentially culminating in a default for the state whose unpaid bills now surpass $15 billion, Democratic Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza issued a warning to Illinois Gov. Rauner and other elected officials on Tuesday, saying in a letter that her office has “very serious concerns” it may no longer be able to guarantee “timely and predictable payments” for some core services.

In the letter posted on her website, Mendoza who over the weekend warned that Illinois is “in massive crisis mode” and that “this is not a false alarm” said the state is “effectively hemorrhaging money” due to various court orders and laws that have left government spending roughly $600 million more a month than it’s taking in. Mendoza said her office will continue to make debt payments as required, but indicated that services most likely to be affected include long-term care, hospice and supportive living centers for seniors. She added that managed care organizations that serve Medicaid recipients are owed more than $2.8 billion in overdue bills as of June 15.

“The state can no longer function without a responsible and complete budget without severely impacting our core obligations and decimating services to the state’s most in-need citizens,” Mendoza wrote. “We must put our fiscal house in order. It is already too late. Action is needed now.”

Say it with me: “Unexpectedly.”

PROCUREMENT: Increased Reaper Arsenal Will Enable the Reaper to Destroy a Wider Range of Targets.

By releasing a GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition from a MQ-9 Reaper in a live weapons exercise, the Air Force made history and vastly widened the attack envelope, target set and mission scope for its workhorse drone.

The GPS-guided GBU-38 precision bomb, dropped at Nellis Air Force Base Nevada, brings new offensive strike ability to the Reaper drone – a 66-foot medium altitude aircraft often used for both ISR and precision strikes on enemy targets.

The Reaper will now fire the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a 500-pound laser-guided weapon called the GBU-12 Paveway II, and GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs – free-fall bombs engineered with a GPS and Inertial Navigation Systems guidance kit, Air Force acquisition officials told Scout Warrior. JDAM technology allows the weapons to drop in adverse weather conditions and pinpoint targets with “smart” accuracy.

Skynet smiles.

DAVID GREENBERG: Why So Many Critics Hate the New Obama Biography. “David Garrow had the temerity to depict Obama as a real, complicated human being. Too bad the former president’s mythmakers can’t accept that.”

TYLER O’NEIL: 5 Take-Aways From Karen Handel’s Victory Over Jon Ossoff.

MICHELLE MALKIN: The Double Murder of Otto Warmbier.

More than a year before succumbing to the unknown illness or injury that left him in a coma thousands of miles away from home, Otto Warmbier’s own countrymen murdered his reputation. His character. His humanity.

Click-hungry media ghouls knew nothing about Warmbier’s small-town upbringing, his family life, politics, personality, disappointments or dreams. But they gleefully savaged a young man who made a mistake on a doomed trip to a totalitarian hell.

Warmbier’s thoughtless taunters instantly transformed him into a bigger, badder villain than the barbaric DPRK goons who beat, starve, rape and kill enemies of the state for such offenses as listening to foreign radio broadcasts, possessing Bibles and disrespecting Dear Leader — in Warmbier’s case, by attempting to steal a propaganda sign that read “Let’s arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong-il’s patriotism!” as a souvenir.

The Huffington Post published an acid rant by “Blogging While Black” writer La Sha titled “North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal.” She rejoiced at Warmbier’s sentence because, she gloated, it taught him that “the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad.”

White men deserve whatever happens to them, because justice.

ANALYSIS: Nancy Pelosi was a huge drag on Ossoff.

The most prominent and effective hit on the Democratic candidate was to tie him to the congresswoman from San Francisco.

Republican operatives say that 98 percent of voters in the 6th District already had an impression of Pelosi when they conducted their first internal poll, and she was 35 points underwater. When presented with the choice of whether they wanted a representative who would work with Paul Ryan or Pelosi, six in 10 picked the Speaker and three in 10 picked the minority leader.

When most of your record-setting fundraising comes from California, it isn’t difficult for the opposition to tie you to the unloved former Speaker.

ED ROGERS: The victory in Georgia’s 6th is a yuge win for Trump.

Heading into Tuesday, Democrats were prepared to bask in their self-righteous glory and proclaim an outright victory in the wake of President Trump’s political decline. They wanted to claim a successful referendum on the Trump administration and the president’s “America First” policies. But with Handel comfortably pulling through to claim her seat, Democrats are left with nothing to show for their tens of millions of dollars and full-court press.

If anything, this race proves Republicans have no reason to be defensive as a result of Obamacare’s demise, it shows Republicans have nothing to hide from in the age of Trump and it signifies that nothing about the current faux-scandal-ridden environment has produced a downdraft for Republicans.

That assessment, correct as it is, doesn’t square with the apparent mood on Capitol Hill.

NEED A LYFT? Uber CEO Kalanick Quits as Investors Revolt Over Scandals.

Uber Technologies Inc.’s co-founder and chief executive, Travis Kalanick, has resigned after a group of investors pressured him to step down following a bruising six months of scandal and setbacks, marking a stunning turnabout for one of Silicon Valley’s highest-flying startups.

Mr. Kalanick, 40 years old, handed in his resignation Tuesday, a spokesman said. Several investors pushed Mr. Kalanick to resign, people familiar with the matter said, to help turn around the company as it works to battle allegations that it has a workplace permissive of sexual harassment and sexism.

Uber has no replacement for Mr. Kalanick and is running without financial and operating chiefs and other key executives after several recent departures, including one of the CEO’s top deputies who was pushed out last week by the board.

Given the urgent need to fix Uber’s toxic corporate culture, Kalanick’s resignation was perhaps too long in coming.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED THIS KIND OF THING ALMOST NEVER HAPPENED: As Many as 5.7 Million Non-Citizens Voted in 2008 Election.

THAT’S WHAT ZHE SAID: I Don’t Mind Using Preferred Pronouns. I Mind Being Forced Into It.

A few months ago, at Grandma M’s traditionalist dojo, a karate classmate—let’s call her “Xir-Says”—threw a tantrum over the politics of language. Xir-Says demanded to be referred to as “Xir-Says-San.”

Her sensei tried to explain that San is an honorific reserved for students who’d proved themselves worthy by demonstrating certain skills, that it was presumptuous for Xir-Says to make such a demand since she hadn’t earned it by demonstrating high-level expertise, and that students who hadn’t passed the San benchmark, like her, could be called either “Miss” or “Mister.” She didn’t care. Xir-Says insisted that being called “Miss,” or anybody being called “Miss” or “Mister,” was discriminatory and insulting to “intersex” and “gender non-binary people.”

This was absurd, political posturing. Xir-Says’s sex is female, and she doesn’t say otherwise. But the sensei relented, fearful of the potential backlash that might ensue—Facebook and Twitter shame-bombs, rebuke from a rash of Brooklynite neo-Marxian muckrakers—should he not obey Xir-Says’ demands. She is now called Xir-Says-San. Low-skill students needn’t any longer be referred to as “Miss” or “Mister.” A longstanding tradition was eroded by the gender identity demands of an impertinent brat.

That’s been the plan from the start.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Adam Carolla Explains Hollywood’s Silence on Free Speech Fight.

GEORGIA KICKS OSS, THE RUSSIA NARRATIVE CRUMBLES,AND INTRODUCING MAN-BUN KEN: All that and more in Liz Sheld’s morning brief.

KURT SCHLICHTER: If The Left Wins Their Soft Coup, Everyone Loses – But Mostly Them.

If Trump doesn’t can him, Mueller and his team of committed Never Trumpers will claim the President obstructed “justice” for not hanging his head in shame over the Democrat lies. And that will go nowhere. Trump will never be impeached. And Trump will pardon any of his associates Mueller and his pack of cynical leakers tries to indict on whatever puffed-up, bogus charges they invent in order to justify this exercise in investigatory onanism.

And we should hope that’s how it ends.

Because what happens if the voice of half of America is effectively silenced by the DC swamp and its media guardians? The Tea Party was the first manifestation of the anger out there at the establishment. It was polite – it even cleaned up its own messes after its peaceful protests. The media, and the same alleged conservatives who saw the Tea Party as a threat to their own position because it caused donors to start asking for results instead of simply writing checks, attacked the Tea Party. Well, then we got Trump, who was not nearly as polite, and who took the White House fair and square from the designated establishment candidate. And now they want to use non-ballot means to make sure the normals’ choice is again ignored.

What do they think comes after Trump? Someone nice?

Do you want President Duterte? Because this is how you get President Duterte.

CHANGE IT BACK: Senate Bill Addresses Flaws in Iran Nuclear Deal.

Late last week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill containing new sanctions against Iran. Entitled the “Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017,” the proposed legislation includes measures requiring the U.S. to designate as a terrorist organization the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the chief agent of Tehran’s subversive regional agenda. While the bill must win approval in the House and be signed by the president before becoming public law, its language and 98-2 passage signal a renewed U.S. determination to counter Iran’s non-nuclear threats with non-nuclear sanctions.

The Senate’s overwhelming bipartisan vote to enforce arms embargos, impede Iran’s ballistic missile development, and impose human rights sanctions is consistent with the Obama administration’s principle that Iran ought to remain subject to new sanctions for misbehavior unrelated to its nuclear program. In practice, however, the desire to protect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal prevented Obama from taking any significant action that carried the risk of antagonizing Tehran.

Obama also front-loaded the deal where Iran got its money back up front in exchange for mere promises of good behavior in the future — so there’s really only so much Congress can do to undo the damage.

21ST CENTURY SHOPPING: Amazon Prime Wardrobe lets you try on and return clothes free.

Amazon’s latest perk for Prime members could make us more stylish by letting us buy everything that catches our eye and return what doesn’t fit. Today Amazon revealed Amazon Prime Wardrobe, which is currently in beta, but you can sign up to be notified when it launches

First you pick at least 3 items and up to 15 from over a million Amazon Fashion options including clothes, shoes, and accessories for kids and adults to fill up your Prime Wardrobe box with no upfront cost. Brands available include Calvin Klein, Levi’s, Adidas, Theory, Timex, Lacoste, and more.

Once the Amazon Prime Wardrobe box arrives, you can try on the clothes for up to seven days. Then you either schedule a free pick-up or drop the resealable box with its pre-paid shipping label at a nearby UPS to return whatever you don’t want. Keep three or four items from the box and get 10% off everything, or keep five or more for 20% off. You only pay after for what you keep, with no charge up front. Amazon Prime Wardrobe is free for Prime members with no extra fees.

Jeff Bezos is having a very busy month.

THERE’S SOMEONE FOR EVERYONE: Abandoned Zoo Penguin Finds True Love with Anime Cardboard Cutout.

IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN THEY DO IT: ‘Socially Conscious’ Ben & Jerry’s Slammed by Workers over Pay, Living Conditions.

MUSTACHE RIDES STILL FREE: We have reached peak feminist absurdity — taxpayer funded orgasms.

At least they haven’t tried to put a tax on, you know, thingy.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Brown University Teaching High School Kids to Be Social Justice Warriors.

THE LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION: Navy Sailor Could Have Saved Himself, Chose to Save His ‘Kids’ or Die Trying.

MICHAEL WALSH: Is Gal Gadot now a bona fide movie star?

I’d say so. She and Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins managed to breathe life and more importantly charm into D.C.’s otherwise drab and joyless movie universe.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Drink Beer All Summer Long Without Getting a Beer Gut (According to Science).

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: US shoots down another pro-regime drone in Syria.

A US F-15E fighter jet shot down a pro-Syrian regime drone near At Tanf, Syria, on Monday, two US officials told CNN, the third downing of a pro-regime aircraft this month.

The drone was downed just outside the 55 kilometer de-confliction zone, according to the officials.

It was an Iranian-made Shahed 129 and was thought to be armed and in firing range of US troops.

One official said that the drone was shot down because it was “assessed to be a threat.”

Obama gives Iran money. Iran builds drones. Syria gets drones. Trump shoots down Iranian money.

This is less non-sensical than most anything else going on in the region.

BREAKING: Explosions at Brussels Central Station, Suspect with Explosive Belt ‘Neutralized’

Patrick Poole will keep you updated throughout the day.