YEAH. DRY AS A BONE AROUND THESE PARTS:  Fire Weather.

WELL: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over ties to Epstein.

A friend writes: “Interesting. Does this mean they’re gonna start arresting all those Pakistani rape gangs, plus the police and other public officials who turned a blind eye to that?”

Don’t be silly. That would be racist or something. Also it would interfere with the leftist/Islamist takeover of Britain. Arresting (former) Prince Andrew weakens the royal family, and thus promotes that takeover. Not that King Charles has shown any sign of getting in the way, but just by existing the monarchy is a potential center of resistance.

UPDATE (From Ed):

More (From Ed):

OPEN THREAD: Make it special.

HOW IT STARTED: Hacked Elmo X Account Used to Spread Antisemitic Incitement to Millions Online.

The official X account of Elmo, the beloved Sesame Street character followed by hundreds of thousands worldwide, was hacked on Sunday and used to disseminate chilling antisemitic hate speech and conspiracy theories — another stark example of how mainstream platforms are being weaponized to spread violent Jew-hatred.

The posts, written in all-caps and riddled with slurs, included genocidal language such as “Kill all Jews” and “Jews control the world and need to be exterminated.” They also invoked conspiracy theories about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and called U.S. President Donald Trump a “puppet” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, echoing classical antisemitic tropes alleging Jewish control and manipulation of world affairs.

—Combat Antisemitism Movement, July 14th, 2025.

How It’s Going: Elmo Wishes Ramadan Mubarak to All of His Friends.

As you’ve undoubtedly seen, it’s that time of year when politicians wish a blessed Ramadan to their constituents. As Twitchy reported, Rep. Sharice Davids copied and pasted her Ramadan Mubarak post, sending her best wishes to all of her Muslim neighbors in Nassau County … which doesn’t exist in Kansas. A lot of time and care go into these things.

A lot of people noted that Ash Wednesday sort of flew under the radar in favor of Ramadan. Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Craig Greenberg lit up the Big Four Bridge in honor of Ramadan.

* * * * * * * *

What we want to know is, what’s up with Elmo? The last time he popped up was to praise Bad Bunny’s halftime show, which was far from family-friendly. Now, Elmo wishes a blessed Ramadan to all of his friends. Yes, we searched his timeline, too, and came up empty.

Twitchy, today.

GOD FORBID:

GOODBYE, SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP: UK PM Starmer Blocks Trump From Using RAF Bases to Strike Iran Amid Escalating Tensions: Report.

What’s funny is, while Britain carries water for the mullahs, plenty of other Islamic countries are happy to provide us with facilities to attack Iran.

UPDATE: It occurs to me that this might be Trump-inspired theater to make the mullahs drop their guard. More likely that it’s Starmer being a dick, but don’t entirely rule it out.

SEDUCTIVE AI: People prefer the empathy of humans, but rate ‘fake’ AI empathy higher.

UPDATE: From the comments:

This is going to be a problem. Already is starting to be. Truly skilled first-rate human flatterer/persuader/seducers are rare, and generally end up aimed at high payoff targets. Most people in their whole lives will never have rated more than passing attention from such, and thus will have little or no immunity.

And now that level of individually customized flatterer/persuader/seducer skills is being automated, and will soon be cheaply deployable against *everyone*. I foresee big trouble.

I address these very issues in my forthcoming Seductive AI.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

STARMER LIES:

ACE OF SPADES: The Atlantic Publishes a Viral “Report” Account of a Boy Dying of Measles Because His Parents Didn’t Vaccinate Him. One Small Problem: The “Report” Is Actually Fiction, a “Hypothetical” Morality Play But The Atlantic Presented It As Actual Truth.

I repeat: It is fiction. I don’t mean it’s biased, I mean the Fake Christian lefty just made the story up — based on real reports and real science, she says — to serve as a harrowing morality play about vaccine hesitancy.

And The Atlantic, looking to get some viral advertising, presented it as fact until other reporters started asking about it.

The story — the fiction — was originally published as a 100% true factual “journalistic” account, with no warning or disclaimer to alert readers to the contrary.

At least, not until The Atlantic’s foray into Imaginary Journalism began provoking a reaction from journalists who like to pretend they don’t do this same thing every single day.

When I initially read Bruenig’s story, I was stunned: An Atlantic staff writer’s unvaccinated child had died of measles in the 2020s, and now she was writing about it? At the end of Bruenig’s piece, though, there’s an editor’s note: “This story is based on extensive reporting a