DON’T GET COCKY: It’s Red Alert for Joe Biden in Minnesota.

THE MOST ENTREPRENEURIAL WHITE HOUSE EVER? Donald Trump is weighing an advisory role for the Tesla leader in the event the former president reclaims the White House. “The role hasn’t been fully hammered out and might not happen, people familiar with the talks said, but the two men discussed ways to give Musk formal input and influence over policies related to border security and the economy, both issues on which Musk has grown more vocal.”

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE: Israeli Airstrike Kills Two Bazillion Starving Children (Or Maybe Zero).

BIDEN’S NATURAL CONSTITUENCY: Targeting Felon Votes With ‘Bidenbucks,’ Democrats Court The ‘Criminal Caucus.’ “While it may sound like a noble cause, it’s not just about the ‘right to vote’ for the big monied interests behind these ‘reenfranchisement’ efforts. It’s about voting for the right people.”

The people less likely to punish all sorts of crimes.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. A World of Fail: Biden Foreign Policy Has Destabilized the Entire Globe.

CREDENTIALED AND CONNECTED, NOT EDUCATED: Why top college students don’t read or go to class: Resume polishing is #1. “Going to class and doing classwork as ‘simply another item on their to-do list.’ Earning good grades is easy. Resume polishing requires more effort.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: America’s Eyes Are Now on the Kangaroo Court Jury. “It’s in the hands of the jury now, and there aren’t many of us on the Right who think that will go well. The mere fact that this ever went to trial is enough to make one fall permanently into despair over the state of the American legal system. If the jurors had been paying agenda-free attention during the trial they wouldn’t have had to deliberate for more than five minutes before returning a verdict of ‘not guilty.'”

WELL, GOOD — BUT IT CAN’T PLEASE THE FOLKS AT VOX WHO PUBLISHED THIS PIECE: Your favorite brand no longer cares about being woke.

For most of advertising history, “red” or “blue” as partisan loyalty signaled more your taste for Coke or Pepsi than your identity as Republican or Democrat. Mass markets, by definition, necessitated selling to both sides of the aisle.

As with so much else, the presidency of Donald Trump — built upon a self-conceived human brand — radically upended those norms.

Post-2016 election, one Adweek column thundered, “Brands cannot expect to play Switzerland as the rest of the world picks a side.” Consumer culture suddenly became the vehicle for political expression, with Madison Avenue giving voice to countless causes. The staid “corporate social responsibility” morphed into the more muscular “brand purpose,” which beget impassioned activism. Social justice became “trendy;” politics, the means to signal commercial “integrity.”

Today, just as during the Trump presidency, controversial issues abound, protesters convulse public spaces, and a divisive election looms. The world is picking sides — on abortion and Gaza and Trump’s trials. And from brand-land? By and large, the sound of silence.

They seem to have learned from their costly mistakes — which ought to be taught in business school as the biggest series of self-owns in corporate history.

KEYSTONE COPS [VIP]: Biden White House Shows Exactly How Not to Run a PR Campaign.

ED MORRISSEY: Convention? What Convention? Dems Kill Biden Escape Hatch.

Before this plan, the possibility existed (unlikely as it was) that the DNC could change the rules to release all delegates on the first ballot and have a real open convention for the nomination. This “virtual vote” of delegates necessitated by Ohio’s ballot-access deadline makes the convention entirely irrelevant, even more so than usual. It’s now just a huge anti-climax signifying nothing at all, not even the pro-forma elevation of the nominee. They will have done that in a smoke-filled back room, or maybe more accurately, a vape-filled back Zoom.

They’re stuck with Biden now because they will have no mechanism to replace him once that virtual vote takes place. In fact, it gets worse than that if Biden really does withdraw before and especially after the “virtual vote.” The DNC has no other mechanism than the convention to deal with a vacant ticket, so they lose Ohio access right off the bat. If they’ve already held the virtual vote, it’s not even clear how the convention can undo that, especially in transmitting Biden’s candidacy to the states. It’s not impossible, but replacing Biden becomes much more complicated with the early “virtual vote” process.

The Biden Replacement Theory has moved from Impossible to Highly Unlikely and back to Impossible again.

CORN, POPPED: Hunter Biden’s Ex-Stripper Baby Mama to Publish Tell-All in August.

VIP MEMBERS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Single Mom Who Found Ashley Biden’s Diary Says She’s Victim of Corrupt DOJ.

WELL, IT IS A PORSCHE: 2025 Porsche 911 GTS Hybrid Is Nothing like a Prius.

SOD OFF, SWAMPY: ‘De-Growth’: Communist Urges Cuts for Meat, Cars, Travel.

CHRISTIAN TOTO WONDERS IF HE’S TRYING TO GET CANCELED BUT I SAY HE’S UNCANCELABLE: Jerry Seinfeld: ‘I Miss a Dominant Masculinity.’

SEWN TOGETHER FROM CORPSES OF AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE: Trump’s Judge Wants to Assemble a Frankenverdict.

MOST OF THE WESTERN MEDIA, TOO: Iraqi Journalist: Instead Of Covering The Gaza War Objectively, The Arabic Media Sells The Viewers Illusions And Prevents Any Criticism Of Hamas.

IT’S A VALUABLE LESSON, KIDS: SF Public Schools Teach ‘How to Go Broke on a Measly $3 Million a Day.’

INCENTIVES, HOW DO THEY WORK? Doubling down on illegal immigration response, Denver offers 6 months of free shelter, food, cellphones.

MATT MARGOLIS: Here’s What Could Happen If Trump Is Found Guilty.

UGH: Streaming Bundles Are Here, and You May Need a Ph.D. to Navigate the Options.

Earlier this month, Disney DIS 0.67%increase; green up pointing triangle and Warner Bros. Discovery WBD 1.88%increase; green up pointing triangle announced plans for a discounted package of Disney+, Hulu and Max that will be available this summer. And Comcast CMCSA 0.00%increase; green up pointing triangle on Wednesday will launch a $15-a-month bundle of Netflix NFLX 0.35%increase; green up pointing triangle, Apple AAPL 0.01%increase; green up pointing triangle TV+ and its Peacock service for its Xfinity customers.

More tie-ups are in the works. Bundles are a great way for streamers to expand their reach and reduce the rate of customer defections. Users, meanwhile, get a discount at a time of sharply rising streaming prices, as well as a simplified bill.
…
Bundles can help with customer retention, which is a major issue for streaming services. Many users jump back and forth between platforms to watch a specific show, then cancel when they are done.

Offering multiple services as part of one package decreases the likelihood that subscribers will cancel on any given month, according to data from Antenna. The subscriber-measurement company found that most streaming services count about twice as many casual consumers—people who are either past subscribers or have signed up less than six months ago—than long-term users.

Maybe the best part of streaming was that it busted up the cable bundles that forced consumers to pay for dozens (or even hundreds) of channels they never watched to get the few they did.

Now the streamers are bundling their services together to lock customers in the way cable used to. I don’t know if it will work for them but I know I won’t play along. There are plenty of unbundled deals to be had if you shop around for them.

DID THEY READ SCHLICHTER’S BOOK, TOO? Yale Group Welcomes You to the Global Intifada. “‘From the river to the sea,’ they like to chant — and now ‘the river’ is the Hudson, the Potomac, the Thames, and the Seine.”

IT HAS AGED WELL: Revisiting Peter Thiel’s Prophetic 2016 RNC Speech.

Another major theme of Thiel’s 2016 remarks was what is referred to today as the “competency crisis” plaguing the U.S. government and a wide swath of American industries.

“Today our government is broken,” Thiel observed. “Our nuclear bases still use floppy disks. Our newest fighter jets can’t even fly in the rain. And it would be kind to say the government’s software works poorly, because much of the time it doesn’t even work at all. That is a staggering decline for the country that completed the Manhattan Project. We don’t accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley—and we must not accept it from our government.”

Following four years of hopeless incompetence from the Biden administration, Thiel’s comments likely resonate with most Americans even more so than they did eight years ago. From Biden’s disastrous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, which resulted in the death of 13 U.S. servicemembers, to his creation of the worst border crisis in American history, to his galling mismanagement of the U.S. economy, it’s no wonder 65 percent of swing voters describe the Biden administration as a “failure” marked by ineptitude and decline.

The other 35% lied to pollsters — or themselves.

WELL, YEAH: BIDEN TEAM CONFIRMS: Trump NYC Trial Was a Biden Produced Political Show Trial.

GEORGE MF WASHINGTON HAS SOME GOOD ADVICE: Hollywood’s “Strong Empowered Girlboss” Fallacy.

If you’re an aspiring screenwriter, Hollywood is handing you a golden opportunity by ignoring well-drawn relatable female characters in favor of an endless series of unapproachable girlboss Mary Sues.

Go out and write yourself a Tess McGill, Leia Organa, Sarah Connor, Ellen Ripley, Marion Ravenwood, Lois Lane, Helen Tasker, Lindsey Brigham, Lenina Huxley or Joan Wilder.

The audience is waiting.

Audiences might have lost patience. Despite Furiosa not being a girlboss hero and the movie getting decent reviews (including from the Critical Drinker), “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is tanking. Having “Mad Max” in the title without having any Mad Max is one problem, but girlboss exhaustion is another. The largely male audience for action flicks just doesn’t seem willing to risk getting burned again.