ICYMI: Ukraine’s New Naval Strategy Is Brilliantly Simple.

FILL’ER UP: China’s Looming Oil Import Rebound Threatens to Jolt a Market Already Rattled by Hormuz. “Supertanker tracking data indicates China is poised to significantly boost crude imports, with 65 VLCCs bound for its ports over the next 90 days, the highest count since mid-May. This demand rebound threatens to collide with a structurally constrained supply picture as the Strait of Hormuz remains far from normal operations following U.S.-Iran military exchanges. Brent crude surged 3.5% above $78 on renewed strait tensions, while analysts warn that depleted strategic reserves in both the U.S. and China leave little buffer against a simultaneous supply shock and demand surge. Experts anticipate Chinese refiners, enjoying strong margins, will restart idled capacity by late August, potentially pushing prices toward $90 a barrel and complicating the Trump administration’s efforts to keep fuel costs low before the November midterm elections.”

Meanwhile: Trump says US will blockade Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and charge ships for safe passage.

THIS IS A ONE-TIME EXCUSE, SO LET’S REVISIT IT AT THE END OF HIS ADMINISTRATION:

Mamdani on why rape is up in NY: "A lot of it is from expanding what counts as rape" pic.twitter.com/zfbposfIWx

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 13, 2026

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: Rubio to ICC: Hands Off the United States — Oh, And We’re Shutting You Down.

HEATHER MAC DONALD: The Scourge of Teen Takeovers.

Teen takeovers come in two varieties: pedestrian and vehicular. Pedestrian takeovers feature hordes of youths on foot commandeering roadways, sidewalks, beaches, and malls. Vehicular takeovers, also known as sideshows, involve cars performing daredevil stunts at intersections, on freeways and bridges, and in parking lots. Vehicular sideshows originated in Oakland, California; they are distinct from Chicano lowrider culture. Spectating, inevitably accompanied by filming, is risky: a woman was killed by an out-of-control car in Los Angeles in 2022; this June, a man was fatally shot at a sideshow in a southwest Chicago mall parking lot.

The distinction between pedestrian and car takeovers is not absolute. Pedestrian takeovers attract reckless drivers. And vehicular takeovers sometimes end with participants rushing to the nearest convenience store, stripping the shelves, and assaulting the cashier.

Takeovers are organized on social media, with anonymous flyers summoning mass gatherings. The exact location may remain undisclosed until the last minute. The notices sometimes draw on gangster rap and Black Power imagery, featuring masked men and raised fists. Others are less ominous. A flyer for a teen “trend” (another label for the phenomenon) on a South Shore Chicago beach this spring called for “no drama” and showed a cartoon figure with its naked butt thrust out in twerking stance.

Not all takeovers devolve into violence, but when they do, social media again snaps into play. Dozens of phones are held aloft in the hope of making a viral video. Violence has acquired a performative, specular quality, as though staged for maximum circulation online.

I’d start with big fines on social media for monetizing these acts.

VIDEO: ‘A Culture of Courage’: A German Celebrates American Freedom. “Europe lied to me about America, but not in the way you think. Because I didn’t move here because I hated Germany. I moved here because I fell in love with an American. And two years later, I have to admit something that makes many of my old friends angry. Because the country I was taught to look down on made me more hopeful, more ambitious, and more free than I ever imagined. And that is uncomfortable because it means America was not the country I misunderstood.”

NO LETUP IN SIGHT FOR TAIWAN SEMI: TSMC posts record revenue in second quarter on AI demand. “For June alone, TSMC reported that revenue rose 67.9% year-on-year to T$442.68 billion, which was up 6.2% compared with the previous month.”

BREAKING: South Carolina’s Governor Appoints Lindsey Graham’s Sister to Fill His Senate Seat.

YES. NEXT QUESTION?

Is every communist a failed millionaire nepo baby? https://t.co/4ptcp27Das

— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) July 13, 2026

IT’S COMPLICATED: When Florida Cops Act Like They’re Operating in California. “Things changed when the officers found Smith’s AR pistol. They measured the weapon and the barrel with a tape measure. They opened it up, which Smith believes was to make sure it had not been converted to full-auto. It hadn’t.”

THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old tomb near Egypt’s Luxor. “The tomb, identified as belonging to a man named Paser, was found by a Dutch archaeological mission from Leiden University in the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna necropolis on Luxor’s West Bank, according to Egypt’s tourism and antiquities ministry. The team of archeologists will work to identify people buried there and learn more about them.”

YOUR TERMS ARE ACCEPTABLE:

Democrat Senator Elissa Slotkin: “The SAVE America Act would make it hard for any Democrat in any state to win any election.” pic.twitter.com/7FeLLgxXZf

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 13, 2026

When they tell you how they win, believe them.

ICYMI: Paramount Plays Hardball Against Newsom’s Regulatory Goons “It’s official. ‘A coalition of state attorneys general have sued Paramount to stop its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery,’ the Hollywood Reporter just said, calling it ‘a sweeping legal challenge to a merger that threatens to reshape Hollywood amid the absence of the Trump administration’s intervention in big deals.'”

MAMDANI’S NYC: Homeless encampment with drug trafficking, prostitution reaches 12 blocks.

“Definitely getting worse,” she added. “People stopped parking here. People are scared to park here.”

Nearby workers have said that open drug dealing and prostitution have become commonplace, with one tent reportedly serving as a gathering place for sex work, drug transactions, or both.

“This is crazy,” said one supervisor at the Jacob Javits Center nearby. “The cops and the sanitation guys and the outreach guys, they clean up one spot and after that day, the next day they’re over here. Then they’re over there. They’re kind of just spreading around.”

The supervisor explained that the worst parts are on 36th and 37th, where it is filled with heroin addicts.

Meanwhile, one vagrant there called socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani “awesome” for allowing the encampment to continue and halting police raids. This comes as city records show that 311 calls complaining about the vagrants increased to 48 this year from 40 in 2025.

Gooder and harder.

TIMING:

Freddy remerges in South Carolina just as a Senate seat opens up. https://t.co/rZeWwbyOgD

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 13, 2026

HMM: The (Pink) Elephant in the Room: Why the Whisper Campaign About Lindsey Graham’s Sex Life Matters.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. US ambassador to NATO says Iran ‘controlled by a bunch of crazy people.’

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said Sunday that Iran is “controlled by a bunch of crazy people” after escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.

“President Trump’s a peacemaker, Jake, and he wants a deal with Iran. He wants to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon, that they join the world as a contributor and a normalized country,” Whitaker told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

“But right now it’s, you know, as President Trump has said, and Marco Rubio has also stated, you know, this country is controlled by a bunch of crazy people,” he added.

That’s “murderously crazy people” to you, bub.

NICE WORK, FELLAS:

Geolocation of a CENTCOM strike on an Iranian Navy maintenance facility, marking the first combat use of one-way attack unmanned surface vessels (USVs) by American forces.

C: 27.140700, 56.211584
S: https://t.co/zyoiXYG7PZ https://t.co/UzCXrUTpt1 pic.twitter.com/OGRrH9uzr7

— Aryan (@GEOIMINT) July 13, 2026

KERCH UPDATE: Ukraine’s New Naval Strategy Is Brilliantly Simple. “There’s line of military thinking that says it’s better to wound a soldier than to kill him outright. A dead man can be buried later, but a wounded man requires at least two more to get him off the field. Similarly, every damaged tanker and ferry isn’t just a lost means of getting people, fuel, and equipment where they’re needed. They’re added logistical burdens to a country already under logistical strain after more than four years of heavy fighting and nearly 1.5 million dead and wounded.”

THIS IS FROM THE SUN, SO TAKE IT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT — BUT IT’S TOO CUTE NOT TO SHARE: Desperate Castro family offer Trump private ISLAND for ‘super resort’ as president threatens to decapitate Cuba regime. “The idyllic Cayo Santa María super resort would be renamed ‘Trump Island’ – but only if US sanctions are lifted and plans for a luxury hotel casino project go ahead.”

NOT SURE ABOUT THIS ONE: Trump Drops a Bombshell Pick for Lindsey Graham’s Seat.

SCHLICHTER: No Democrat Has the Brains or Courage to Not Be Crazy.

That’s really all there is to it. Instead, they’re crowding the freak lane while leaving the normal lane empty. Several Democrats who were born after the Jurassic Age have danced around it, but none have committed. It’s apparently too much to ask that they not be complete Leftist freaks.

Let’s get the easy part out of the way, which is not being old. The Democrat Party is a gerontocracy. As we’ve seen, the boomer generation has clutched onto power, sucking the lifeblood of the young to keep themselves in office forever. U.S. Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-11), former president Joe Biden, U.S. Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43), and many others—what do they have in common besides a relentless commitment to Moloch? They think Methuselah is a whippersnapper. Only now are they beginning to loosen their grip, and that’s simply because they’re literally too old to maintain it.

What you see now inside the Democrat Party is not so much a fight over ideology—as we’ll see, socialism has been the ideology of the Democrat Party for decades, and now they’re moving into full-scale communism.

I hate it when Kurt holds back like he always does, but read the whole thing, anyway.

CORN, POPPED: Paramount Plays Hardball Against Newsom’s Regulatory Goons.

EVERY. 60. MINUTES:

Bamf pic.twitter.com/6I6IbvKCjm

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2026

CHANGE (IT BACK): New Hampshire trans-female athletes drop lawsuit following recent SCOTUS decision. “Tirrell and Turmelle originally filed suit in 2024, taking on New Hampshire’s law which forbade biological males from playing on female sports teams. They amended the suit the following year after the president’s E.O.”