SPACE: NASA chief praises progress Blue Origin is making after launch failure.

Before the accident, Blue Origin had been hoping to launch its first Mk. 1 mission, named Endurance, later this year for a cargo landing on the Moon. Additionally, the company is developing a test version of the Mk. 2 lander for launch as part of the Artemis III mission, which NASA hopes to fly during the second half of next year.

Blue Origin officials, including chief executive Dave Limp, have said the company is working toward rebuilding Launch Complex 36A, completing the anomaly investigation, and launching New Glenn on a return-to-flight mission before the end of this year. Privately, some NASA officials have expressed skepticism about this timeline. Most independent observers have suggested that a 12- to 18-month timeline is probably the most realistic for New Glenn’s return to flight.

Isaacman stressed this week that NASA’s preferred option is for the Endurance mission, which will carry two NASA science and technology payloads to the lunar surface, to launch on New Glenn.

“They’re making great progress,” Isaacman said of Blue Origin. “So plan A is very much still to launch the Mk. 1 on New Glenn. They are very committed to getting back in the business of launching New Glenn before the end of the year. And Plan A is looking a lot better today than it was weeks ago, just based on the progress that the Blue Origin team is making.”

I’d say, “Faster, please,” but this time it looks like Blue Origin might be moving as quickly as possible.

ERIC FLORACK: Incapacity, Incompetence, and Why Some of It Never Makes the News.

CRIME: Cops Bust Would Be Casino Mass Shooter With An Actual Cache (This Time) of Weapons. “How many times have you seen a blaring headline that reads something like this? MAD KILLER WITH HUGE CACHE OF WEAPONS AND AMMO ARRESTED BY POLICE. You give in and click on the link, only to find that the HUGE CACHE consisted of a beat-up Charter Arms snubby, a Yeet Cannon with a missing front sight, and a sawed-off 870 along with five 50-round boxes of Monarch 9mm ammo and eight loose rounds birdshot.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

There needs to be a deep investigation into how this weirdo was able to afford this. Well over $100k of guns listed. Seems unlikely for a mentally ill trans activist to come up with that on their own. https://t.co/GQBZqadMgv

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) July 2, 2026

NICE WORK, FELLAS: ICE Arrests 10,000 Illegal Aliens in Five Days.

BATTLESWARM: RAM Cartel? I Seriously Doubt It. “Manufacturers switching production from a less profitable product to a more profitable product isn’t some nefarious conspiracy, it’s how the market works. If they’re getting premium pricing for HBM memory that sells out instantly for the AI bubble, that’s what they’re going to produce. A whole lot of tech companies depended on the spot market for RAM because it gave them more flexibility and costs savings, but now it’s biting them in the ass. Their lack of foresight does not indicate a conspiracy or market failure.”

WOW:

That's one way of putting it.

Actually profoundAF. https://t.co/yED7xER1lE

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) July 2, 2026

NAILED IT, INDEED:

Nailed it.. pic.twitter.com/tW6iHj5mMV

— Matt Couch (@RealMattCouch) July 2, 2026

And from the replies: “The Bible also says that if a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. So, there is that.”

KAROL MARKOWICZ: Elon Musk is in the rabid left’s crosshairs — but he’s not the true target. “What’s happening to Musk is straight from the pages of Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ playbook, specifically Rule No. 13: ‘Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.'”

Plus:

The entire "Elon did a genocide" is a set up for the next democrat president and DOJ to prosecute him. It's all this is. https://t.co/hFWELgz6Lc

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 2, 2026

THE 1.9% SOLUTION:

USAID could demonstrate 1.9% of its total spend went directly to food and healthcare programs. Everything else went to left-wing NGOs that paid the salaries of democrat donor children with useless degrees. It was one big slush fund that recycled into left-wing causes globally.… https://t.co/FBfFEfYuVA

— Stacey (@ScotsFyre) July 2, 2026

Lefties get mad when you take the other people’s money away.

CHANGE (IT BACK): Idaho Brings the Firing Squad Back to Center Stage. “The state has now made the firing squad its primary method of execution. Lethal injection remains available as a backup, but Idaho has moved the rifle ahead of the needle because the old system has become slow, fragile, and legally tangled.”

NICK KRISTOF, DOG-RAPE ENTHUSIAST:

You know you're never getting over the dog rape thing, right? Trying to pull the dog rape shtick on @elonmusk, USAID and Africa, it's still dog rape. All the way down. https://t.co/hVN9ZJYGeV

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) July 2, 2026

SPACE: ‘PROMISE’ me the moon? NASA wants to send spare nuclear-powered Mars rover to the lunar surface.

Isaacman also announced the potential repurposing of an engineering development model built to mirror the agency’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers on Mars. “There is another,” Isaacman said, quoting Yoda’s line from “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.”

That test rover is called PROMISE, short for “Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration” (though it was formerly known as Optimism). PROMISE was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, where it has been used as a test platform for fixes or commands that engineers want to try on the ground before permanently sending them to Perseverance and Curiosity. Now, NASA wants to send PROMISE on a mission of its own.

Though sending PROMISE to the moon would leave Perseverance and Curiosity — both of which remain active on Mars — without an Earth-based testbed, Isaacman thinks it would be worth it.

“We’ve had years now of experience operating the two rovers on the surface of Mars, and we’ve got this hardware that the taxpayers have invested a lot in,” he said. “So the question was posed: ‘What if we send it to the moon?'”

Beats the hell out of staying in California.

THE CHAIN OF COMMAND, HOW DOES IT WORK?

This is the very cancer Trump and Hegseth are purging from our military.

I appreciate this nitwit self-identifying. It makes things so much easier. https://t.co/ru0rFgaYqn

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) July 2, 2026

Of course, we know how the Left works:

A left wing tax exempt entity will make sure this guy gets a steady paycheck because the communists understand how to incentivize behavior.

Remember Spenser Rapone? He’s part of the University of Chicago history department now. https://t.co/1qvq8sQgcC

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) July 2, 2026

Change the incentives, change behavior.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Do Democrats Still Believe in Israel’s Right to Exist?

KEMI BADENOCH: “DEFENSE OF THE REALM IS THE FIRST DUTY OF GOVERNMENT.”

As usual, a thumping and strong #PMQs from Kemi Badenoch.

Kemi is the prime minister we need. She’s strong, determined, and knows what the country needs to succeed.

She’s taking the Conservatives in the right direction. pic.twitter.com/CyLSg1tLcD

— Kevin Edger (@KEdge23) July 1, 2026

JUST STEP BACK AND LET BIBI DO HIS THING: Netanyahu touts Israel’s strength, commits to ‘take care of what is left of the Iranian axis.’

GOODER AND HARDER, NEW YORK:

Socialism
Scarcity
Rationing <— you are here
Coercion
Authoritarianism https://t.co/pneAdRwxB1

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) July 2, 2026

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: I’m Rather Enjoying the Democrats’ ’50 Shades of Commie’ Fight. “The reason that establishment Dems don’t call out the freaky fringe is that they don’t disagree with them. Any of them, no matter how whacked-out they are. The wilder commie youth have been the Democrats’ useful idiots in the streets since the 1960s. What’s happening now is that the useful idiots want an elected seat at the table. And they are not fans of the elected officials who have been using them.”

UNEXPECTEDLIES STILL PLENTIFUL: Minimum wages rise in Chicago, Cook County.

Minimum wages have gone up for workers in Chicago and Cook County, but efforts to raise state and federal minimums remain on hold.

As of July 1, Chicago’s minimum wage is $17.05 per hour for employers with four workers or more, up from $16.60 the day before.

The $12.96 minimum for tipped workers remains in effect after the city council moved in May to pause a scheduled increase.

Cook County’s minimum wage increased from $15 to $15.40 on Wednesday, and the tipped minimum rose from $9 to $9.25.

National Federation of Independent Business Illinois State Director Noah Finley said minimum wage hikes impact small businesses’ ability to grow.

“Small businesses often have smaller margins, and raising the cost of labor puts additional pressure on them,” Finley said.

For the well-connected (and well-heeled) who push these measures, that’s the whole point.

LEADERSHIP MATTERS:

The U.S. Navy just hit its recruiting goal of 45,000 Sailors – 3 months ahead of schedule. Even more impressive: they raised their goal by 10% and still exceeded expectations.

This is what happens when strong leadership under President Trump, high standards, a return to… pic.twitter.com/nlpr5TsHPo

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) July 1, 2026

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: So Who’s Winning the Air War? “Back in January, I wrote a Thursday Essay headlined, “So How’s That Russo-Ukraine Oil War Going?” I won’t drag you through the whole thing, but my conclusion back then could be fairly summed up as, ‘Not very well because Kyiv remains too obsessed with Crimea to wage an effective, systematic campaign on Russia’s energy infrastructure.’ Well, times change.”

COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM:

🚨 WOW: Wisconsin Democrat staffer, Teha Delaruelle is calling on activists to "K*LL YOUR LOCAL REPUBLICAN."

“We’re going to make this the moderate position for the state of Wisconsin”

WTF!? pic.twitter.com/NdFeWaCjMX

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) July 1, 2026

ROBERT SPENCER: Kamala Harris Reaches Out to Mamdani and AOC, and Yes, That’s What It Means. “Well, it looks as if Kamala Harris is indeed planning to run for president in 2028, and that she is counting on the Democrat Party’s rapidly growing Marxist wing to propel her into the White House.”

WELL, WHEN YOU PUT IT LIKE THAT…:

https://t.co/WdpEy43dmC pic.twitter.com/Fd3VdZ28fw

— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) July 1, 2026

CORN, POPPED:

The Skid Row Express (also known as the D line expansion) is set to open in LA soon. Skid row junkies will soon be able to travel from their homeless camps downtown to new homeless camps in Westwood, with convenient stops at Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills for naps, open air… pic.twitter.com/GPSGsAs9Ny

— Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) July 1, 2026