BLUE STATE BLUES:

Official statement regarding @BedBathBeyond

We will not open retail stores in California.

This isn’t about politics — it’s about reality.
California’s system makes it nearly impossible for businesses to succeed, and I won’t put our company, our employees, or our… pic.twitter.com/G5dSaigB3y

— Marcus Lemonis (@marcuslemonis) August 20, 2025

From the replies:

Nice to see BB&B trying to make a brick and mortar comeback. Not surprised to see it won’t happen in California.

On the flip side, Gov. Gavin Newsom decided to use today’s news to tout his state’s business-friendly climate: “FUCK YOU. BYE.” his press office account tweeted in response.

I wrote yesterday about the overgrown children who actually write Newsom’s tweets, so today’s message came as no surprise, either.

Exit Question: Are you surprised that, just like most everything else he does, Newsom’s Trump impersonation — tone-deaf though it is — is staged on his behalf?

UPDATE, CORRECTION, AND APOLOGY:

The F-U quote was fabricated by Magills, and my apologies for mistaking it for real.

Here’s what Newsom’s “team of pros” actually tweeted:

After their bankruptcy and closure of every store, like most Americans, we thought Bed, Bath & Beyond no longer existed.

We wish them well in their efforts to become relevant again as they try to open a 2nd store.

That amounts to the same thing, which is bad on them. But bad on me for mistaking Magills’ fake screencap for the real thing.

INSURRECTION, STRAIGHT UP: Massachusetts Colleges Protect Illegals From ICE.

I GUESS THEY FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHAT “LAWFUL” MEANS: DC Will No Longer Prosecute Lawful Carriers of Rifles and Shotguns.

DON’T TRUST GOOGLE: Google Accused of Sending GOP Fundraisers Directly to Spam.

UNTIL IT COMES BACK UNDER A NEW NAME, PERHAPS: Is This Finally the Dawning of the End of the Woke Corporate Era? “Bloomberg Law published a column, ‘DEI Chatter Plummets Among Previously Vocal Corporate Advocates’ that spells out how corporations are abandoning policies that discriminated against businesses that didn’t bend to the woke agenda. Author Drew Hutchinson wrote that woke language decreased by 68 percent year-over-year among S&P 100 companies. That includes woke policies that targeted and discriminated against firearm and ammunition businesses.”

FAIR: Trump Blasts Obama for Ukraine War. “If I ever did that, the fake news would be writing about me day and night for years.”

THE RAMANS ARE UP AND MAKING COFFEE: Mysterious Object Hurtling Toward Us From Beyond Solar System Appears to Be Emitting Its Own Light, Scientists Find.

While there’s been a growing consensus among astronomers that the latest object is a comet, Loeb has continued to entertain the idea that it may have been sent to us by an intelligent species from outside of the solar system — and he’s far from backing down.

In a blog post over the weekend, Loeb pointed to observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which showed a “glow of light, likely from a coma, ahead of the motion of 3I/ATLAS towards the Sun.”

A coma is the hazy and luminous cloud that surrounds the nucleus of a comet.

However, there’s “no evidence for a bright cometary tail in the opposite direction,” he wrote, with scientists suggesting it was evidence that dust was evaporating from the object’s Sun-facing side.

The observations led Loeb and his colleagues to an intriguing, albeit far-fetched possibility: is the mysterious space object generating “its own light?”

After deliberations with his colleague and Harvard astrophysicist Eric Keto, Loeb suggested that the “simplest interpretation” of 3I/ATLAS’ observed “steep brightness profile” is that its nucleus “produces most of the light.”

That would also mean that its actual size is much smaller than currently thought, roughly in line with the size of the first two interstellar objects we’ve observed, ‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov.

So not a massive cylindrical interplanetary habitat then?

CHRIS QUEEN: These Days, ‘Christian Nationalist’ Means Nothing More Than Faithful and Conservative.

PROMISES KEPT: State Department revokes over 6,000 student visas, citing law breaking and overstays.

The vast majority of those violations or alleged violations entailed assault, driving under the influence, burglary, and “support for terrorism,” according to a State Department official, although the State Department didn’t say whether those were accusations, arrests, charges or convictions.

Two-thirds of the recently revoked visas were because the students violated the law, the official said. Fox News first reported the student visa revocations.

Those roughly 6,000 students represent a fraction of the 1.1 million foreign students who studied at colleges and universities in the U.S. in the 2023-2024 academic year, the most recently available data.

The State Department official said between 200 and 300 of the visas pulled were over accusations that they engaged in “support for terrorism” under federal statute.

Guests should be polite.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump the Peacemaker Is Truly Magnificent to Behold. “Because they’re committed to leg-humping criminals, the Dems are mad that Trump wants to make our nation’s capital a place where people aren’t afraid to take their children.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: After recent tests, China appears likely to beat the United States back to the Moon. “An expert explains why this will be enormously bad for the United States.”

Ars: How likely is it that China lands humans on the Moon before NASA can return there with the Artemis Program?

Cheng: At the rate things are going, sadly, it seems quite likely that the Chinese will land on the Moon before NASA can return to the Moon.

Ars: What would the geopolitical impact be if China beats the United States back to the Moon?

Cheng: The geopolitical impact of the Chinese beating the US to the Moon (where we are returning) would be enormous.

Ars: How so?

Cheng: It means the end of American exceptionalism. One of the hallmarks of the post-1969 era was that only the United States had been able to land someone on the Moon (or any other celestial body). This was bound to end, but the constant American refrain of “We’ve put a man on the Moon, we can do anything” will certainly no longer resonate.

It means China can do “big” things, and the United States cannot. The US cannot even replicate projects it undertook 50 (or more) years ago. The optics of “the passing of the American age” would be evident—and that in turn would absolutely affect other nations’ perceptions of who is winning/losing the broader technological and ideological competition between the US and the PRC.

I certainly hope we beat China to the Moon — the prime real estate will go to whoever can plant their flag on it.

But Cheng is wrong when he says that the “US cannot even replicate projects it undertook 50 (or more) years ago.” China’s lunar program, at least from what we’ve seen so far, is essentially a repeat of Apollo.

It’s the US trying something new. If SpaceX can get Starship performing as promised — “At SpaceX, we specialize in converting things from impossible to late.” — we might not beat China back to the Moon, but we’ll be able to get there with a lot more of the stuff needed to establish a permanent settlement. Faster and much cheaper, too.

Still, I’d hate to lose the race back.

ICYMI: Wait a Minute… ‘U.S. Institute of Peace’ Does WHAT???

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU VOTED FOR THIS: In his first 200 days, Trump 2.0 has overturned Biden ‘climate agenda’ at breakneck speed, report shows – 200 actions to unleash American energy.

President Donald Trump had campaigned on promises to undo many of the Biden administration’s climate policies. He called climate change a “hoax,” vowed to stop offshore wind projects, and promised to overturn former President Biden’s electric vehicle mandates.

Immediately after being sworn into office, Trump went about making good on these campaign promises and more. In 2022, The American Energy Alliance began keeping a tally of all the actions Biden and the Democrats had taken to make it harder to produce oil and gas. Only two years into Biden’s term, the AEA had 125 items on its list. By the time Biden left office, the list had doubled in size.

On his first day back at the White House, Trump signed dozens of executive orders, including his order “Unleashing American Energy.” The AEA started a new list that tallied up the actions that Trump and Congressional Republicans were taking to unleash America’s energy potential. The first edition, released in March, contained 50 actions. Last week, they updated the list for Trump’s first 200 days in action, and the newest list contains 200 items.

Here’s a link to the full report in PDF format.

ROBERT SPENCER: Muslim Leaders Planning Texas Community Say They’re the Target of ‘Islamophobic’ Attacks. “The community might not have sparked so much opposition, however, if its leaders hadn’t been so quick to resort to the left’s tried-and-true tactic of claiming victim status at the sign of the slightest opposition, and if they had been a bit more honest and aboveboard about their intentions.”

CHANGE? Bessent says interviews for ‘incredible group’ of potential Fed chairs will start after Labor Day.

SCOTT PINSKER: Meet the Three Democrats Who Murdered Ukraine.

EXCLUSIVE: Founder of Soros-Backed Legal Group Resigned Amid Internal Accusations of Racism.

COMMIE POWER-BROKERS: The Working Families Party Are the New Political Bosses of New York City.

WHEN EVEN SALON NOTICES: By taking over DC, Trump may have outflanked the Democrats — again.

Of course, this is still Salon, so you’re subjected to gems like this one: “Trump’s takeover of law enforcement in Washington for reasons of ‘law and order’ is but one more step toward a permanent state of national emergency where the Constitution, voting and elections, and civil rights could be greatly curtailed, if not suspended altogether. On Monday, he seemingly joked about the prospect of curtailing U.S. elections during his Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

THE PARTY TOLD YOU TO REJECT THE EVIDENCE OF YOUR EYES AND EARS. IT WAS THEIR FINAL, MOST ESSENTIAL COMMAND: As Trump Kills D.C. Crime, Lefty Claims He’s Provoking Violence.

UNACCEPTABLE: Army Falls Short of 155mm Production Goal.

The Army — in response to diminishing stockpiles as it supported Ukraine’s defense against Russia — set a goal to produce 100,000 155mm artillery rounds per month by this October.

The service opened a number of new facilities to support this endeavor — and as one Army official stated, “We haven’t seen this level of investment in our industrial base since World War II.”

However, the Army is going to fall short of its goal. Service spokesperson Steve Warren told reporters in July that the Army is not expecting to produce 100,000 155mm rounds per month until mid-2026.

The service is currently producing 40,000 rounds per month, Warren said — the same amount it was producing as of September 2024, according to a Defense Department release.

There are a “whole host of reasons” behind the stagnation in 155mm production, said Maj. Gen. John Reim, joint program executive officer for armaments and ammunition and commanding general of Picatinny Arsenal.

One challenge has been the supply chain for production equipment, Reim said in an interview.

“For a lot of this equipment that we need to rapidly expand capacity, it’s not sitting on a shelf somewhere,” and the Army has had to depend on international suppliers, he said. “We’ve [been] experiencing longer than expected lead times with some of that capability, and that has a cascading effect.”

An atrophied defense production base is one obvious sign of national decadence — and not the fun kind.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Wait a Minute… ‘U.S. Institute of Peace’ Does WHAT???

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: America’s Counterattack on China’s Growing Influence in the Pacific Islands.

WELL, THE NUMBERS ARE FAKE: ‘Fake Crime Numbers’: Trump Bashes DC Dems.

MORE NUKES IS GOOD NUKES: Google announces first nuclear site to power its data centers.

Big Tech’s foray into nuclear power continues as Google announced the site of its first nuclear reactor today, as part of its 2024 deal with startup Kairos Power. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will be home to the Hermes 2 plant, which will supply Google with 50 megawatts of power under a long-term purchase agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

The Oak Ridge plant is the first in a 500-megawatt deal that comprises multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) to provide power for Google’s data centers in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama. The Hermes 2 is scheduled to begin operations in 2030.

In a statement, TVA CEO Don Moul said, “Nuclear is the bedrock of the future of energy security. Google stepping in and helping shoulder the burden of the cost and risk for first-of-a-kind nuclear projects not only helps Google get to those solutions, but it keeps us from having to burden our customers with development of that technology.”

If AI does turn out to be a bubble, pray it doesn’t pop until after we get a bunch of new SMRs online.