DAMNED IF THEY DO, DAMNED IF THEY DON’T: Guess Who Is Going to Steal the Election (or Tank the Economy!) This Time.

I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED:

The unwillingness to take questions from perhaps the friendliest press in the history of the country is shocking https://t.co/0CVJj5wKlJ

— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) August 1, 2024

UPDATE (From Ed): “That salute is something,” John Bachman of Newsmax TV tweets.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Putin Gives Harris a Gift With Massive Prisoner Swap.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Don Lemon Sues Elon Musk Over Canceled X Deal.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY:

There are not only Russian militants supporting Maduro, but also members of the Cuban military. Both understand on what shaky and especially illegitimate grounds the Maduro regime stands. They will act as the "commissars" (enforcers) of the Venezuelan military. But this takes… https://t.co/szgP5lT2FU

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) August 1, 2024

More to come?

DEMOCRAT CIVIL WAR WATCH: Progressive Pushback Against Top VP Contender Plagues Veepstakes.

SPACE: Possible signs of life on Venus surprise scientists: ‘They shouldn’t be there.’

“Phosphine and ammonia have both been suggested as biomarkers, including on exoplanets. So finding them in the atmosphere of Venus is interesting on that basis as well.”

The findings of ammonia on Venus — referred to by some experts as Earth’s “evil twin” — are “arguably” even more critical for the discovery of life, according to Clements.

“We’re a long way from saying this, but if there is life on Venus producing phosphine, we have no idea why it’s producing it,” he said.

“However, if there is life on Venus producing ammonia, we do have an idea why it might be wanting to breathe ammonia.”

That seems like a pretty thin reed to hang expectations of life on.

COLD WAR II: WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich released by Russia in prisoner swap; Paul Whelan also being freed.

Presidentish Joe Biden, who said at the White House today, “Their brutal ordeal is over, and they are free,” seems to have forgotten (or never knew) when Russia took three out of the four hostage.

REPORTER TO BIDEN: "President Trump has said repeatedly that he could've gotten the hostages out without giving anything in exchange. What do you say to that?"

BIDEN: "Why didn't he do it when he was president?" pic.twitter.com/B0CApYgb5a

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 1, 2024

Really, he’s fine. Still nasty and mean and wrong — but fine.

BIDEN SAID SO HIMSELF: Of Course Kamala Harris Was A DEI Hire.

FAIL, BRITANNIA:

Roma gypsies burn down a neighbourhood in Leeds , The police run away.
Muslims surround and attack a police station in Rochdale, The police hide away inside the station. Native British gather in London to protest the murder of 3 young girls ,The police assault a protester. pic.twitter.com/Qsq8M4Wixz

— karma (@karma44921039) August 1, 2024

Britons gave up their guns.

WORD OF THE DAY: ‘Harrissplaining.’

MICHAEL BARONE: The ‘White Dudes for Harris’ Zoom call was… weird.

Today, gender is more relevant. “Gender polarization,” the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson wrote, “is the skeleton key of the 2024 election.” To which the Washington Examiner’s Conn Carroll replied, “It isn’t gender, it’s marriage.”

In support of that proposition, he quoted exit poll findings that both married men and married women favor Republicans by similar, in this case statistically indistinguishable, margins (59%-39% and 56%-42%), while there are huge differences between unmarried men (52%-45% Republican) and unmarried women (68%-31% Democratic). Thompson noted a similarly wide divide in this year’s polling between divorced men (56% Trump) and single women (29% Trump).

Those results are not atypical. The good news for Republicans is that three out of four groups favor their side. The good news for Democrats is that, in a society in which, contrary to the midcentury model, marriage is not universal, unmarried women are numerous and overwhelmingly on their side.

Normalize weirdness, claim marriage and children are weird, make more Democrats.

Long term, of course, there are problems — but nothing that opening the border won’t “fix.”

IT WAS ONE HELLUVA OPERATION: Now We Know Exactly How Israel Assassinated Hamas Chief, and I’m Laughing Inappropriately.

HEALTH: Tackling 14 risk factors for dementia may prevent or delay nearly half of cases, report finds. “Based on reviews of the latest evidence, the Wednesday report by The Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care adds two risk factors — high cholesterol and vision loss — to 12 others previously identified in its 2020 report. Those existing risk factors are less education, head injury, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, hearing loss, depression, air pollution and infrequent social contact.”

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD — WHILE HAVING FOUR TIMES MORE FUN:

Cope and seethe, pinkos. pic.twitter.com/c1ARTPrSX4

— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) August 1, 2024

But don’t get cocky, either.

There is no chance Kamala could survive a real 18 month run for POTUS. Her primary run fell apart through interviews, multiple debates, etc

But now she's only got to duck and hide for 97 days in friendly spaces + commit to a single debate. Major structural problem for Rs

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) July 31, 2024

GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: Apes on a Treadmill.

I stumbled on Annie Jacobsen’s new book “Nuclear War: A Scenario” while looking for something to read on a long day of airline travel this past weekend. I’ve long considered myself a “Prepper” and have devoured more than my share of apocalytpic fiction over the years, and so this book seemed like it would be right up my alley.

It is an engrossing highly-technical story full of bracing details, a book I described to a friend as “A Tom Clancy novel without a happy ending.” What makes it terrifying is that Jacobsen’s “scenario” can only be labeled fiction because well, technically, it hasn’t happened yet.

“Nuclear War: A Scenario” is the story of how a single nuclear-tipped ICBM fired at the United States, in this case by North Korea, leads inexorably to full-scale nuclear war and the end of the world in only seventy-two minutes… just over one hour.

It’s important to understand that in Jacobsen’s story, the world does not end because of “bad luck” or some black swan cosmic misunderstanding… in “Nuclear War: A Scenario” the world ends because it has to… because that’s how the system is designed to work.

Turns out, they don’t call it “Mutually Assured Destruction” for nothing.

George MF has written a thoughtful and disturbingly timely essay.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Venezuelan Gang Gets ‘Green Light’ to Kill American Cops. “A memo from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) informs us that the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has stampeded over the Biden administration’s open Southern border and committed hundreds of crimes, just became an even bigger threat, specifically to our law enforcement officers in Denver.”

OUCH: Delta CEO lashes out at CrowdStrike: This cost us $500 million and they offered us nothing.

“If you’re going to have priority access to the Delta ecosystem in terms of technology, you’ve got to test this stuff,” Bastian said. “You can’t come into a mission critical 24/7 operation and tell us we have a bug. It doesn’t work.”

The computer problems at Delta knocked its crucial crew tracking system off line for the better part of a week, making it impossible for the company to find pilots and flight attendants it needed to fly its aircraft. While other airlines were quick to resume normal operations after the CrowdStrike outage, Delta was forced to cancel about 30% of its schedule over five days, leaving an estimated half-million passengers stranded. It took many days after that to re-book affected passengers on other flights and return their checked bags.

Delta has yet to file a lawsuit against either CrowdStrike or Microsoft, but a person familiar with its actions confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that it had hired the law firm of high-profile attorney David Boies to pursue compensation from the two companies.

Outsourcing critical support or manufacturing can be cheaper or provide expertise you don’t have in-house. But when things go wrong…

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems Don’t Know It, but Trump Is Steamrolling Kamala’s Honeymoon. “He’s also exposing the leftists in the media, which is something that happens far too infrequently in the Republican Party. Trump leans into their awful treatment of him, makes them even more frustrated and miserable, and then draws energy from the conflict. It’s a lot of fun to watch, especially when he triggers the lefties like he did yesterday when he told Scott that Kamala Harris was ‘always of Indian heritage’ until ‘she happened to turn black.'”

THE COUNTRY IS IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS… BUT WOULD IT BE RUDE TO ASK WHOSE?

JACQUI TIME from earlier: “[C]ould you sort of give us an idea of how much the President's schedule has changed since the ticket changed? Because if you look at what we look at, the big event on Tuesday was a phone call. Big event today is a lunch. Tomorrow, we don't know what… pic.twitter.com/F9YaNzTWmB

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 31, 2024

“We are recalibrating. I mean, that is very true. I mean, there — there is a — there is a change in — in just him stepping down for re-election. He’s still very much the President, and we’re trying to figure out what the next six months are going to look like, but we are committed.”

I hope that clears things up.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Massachusetts Bill Removes ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ From Birth Certificates.

IT USED TO BE UNTHINKABLE FOR THEM NOT TO BE, EVEN IF THEY HAD TO FAKE IT: Is it really all that ‘weird’ for politicians to be pro-family?

THE MEDIA GASLIGHTING FOR HARRIS IS JUST GETTING STARTED: August Is Gut-Check Time, and You’ve Got to Hang Tough.

“FACT-CHECKED” EQUALED “NEARLY DROVE US OUT OF BUSINESS”: Remember When the Left Fact-Checked Us to Death Over Big-Tech Interference in 2020?

I NEVER STOPPED MISSING CARSON; THIS JUST MAKES IT WORSE: Late-Night Propagandists Come for J.D. Vance. “They have no shame, no scruples and no willingness to make amends for errors that misled the nation on critical issues. They’re still making fresh mistakes today.”