OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

WHAT IF IT TEAMS UP WITH THE ALIENS? Should we trust AI in the search for alien life? Scientists aren’t so sure.

THANKS, ELON! Rocket launch costs have dropped 96% since 1960. How low can they go? “There is still significant scope for further cost reductions going forward.”

THIS IS NO STORY, JUST LIKE OBAMA’S DEAD CHEF:

Can you imagine if a dead teen with a gunshot wound were found in a house owned by the spouse of a Republican who happened to be a convicted felon and had just received a $2 billion contract from the state?

When it’s a Democrat, it’s complete silence. https://t.co/0jOxssOZMn pic.twitter.com/OePGA2Sy2X

— Apple Lamps (@lamps_apple) July 20, 2026

TYPICAL.

The only civilian injured in today's attack outside NYC's federal immigration building by a suspect seen pushing a cart that read "ICE off our streets" was an immigrant who was there for a hearing.

"That's quite unfortunate and quite ironic at the same time." pic.twitter.com/w2eTU7d430

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 20, 2026

THE NOBLE, LOVING, UNSPOILED PRE-COLUMBIAN WORLD: Archaeologists Unearth Pre-Aztec Altar in Mexico That Hints at Human Sacrifice.

MAYBE IT DEPENDS ON WHICH HUMANS: Why AI May Never Reach Human Intelligence.

EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION: Watching live sports together boosts oxytocin and synchronizes heartbeats, study finds.

LIVIN’ THE DREAM: A Houston Doctor Drives A 1,000-HP Batmobile On The Street.

NOTHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED ON JANUARY 6:

This is an armed revolution against lawful authority, openly led and encouraged by Democrats.

At what point will our nation figure out that we are in the midst of a violent insurrection that threatens our national existence, and treat it as such? https://t.co/zo87YA5p8b

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) July 20, 2026

43-year-old Army veteran Andrew Arrabaca, an anti-American, anti-ICE, anti-government radical who was arrested today after detonating an incendiary device outside ICE offices in New York City, told agents he didn’t care how many federal workers or civilians he killed.

Color me… pic.twitter.com/ph3GHiK0Kg

— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) July 20, 2026

OK, they've advanced to the incendiary device and gun phase. Largely ineffective, some flammable liquid, fireworks and a pellet gun, as the guy espousing an idiotic cause appears to be an idiot.

It won't always be that way. https://t.co/UAfyGJlUdu

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) July 20, 2026

WE SHOULD BE DROPPING CRATES OF GUNS AND AMMO TO THE IRANIAN RESISTANCE: How Important Are Gun Rights? Ask an Average Iranian Citizen These Days.

Of course, maybe we are.

THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: My fitness tracker knew I was pregant before I did.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Potato Salad vs. Pasta Salad: Which Is Better for Blood Sugar?

AT-HOME DENTISTRY IS NOT FOR ME. Some of the damage can’t be undone: a dentist on the at-home fixes and social media trends that are hurting people’s teeth.

EVERY RECORD HAS BEEN FALSIFIED:

My jaw literally dropped checking this out

If you go to New Jersey inmates mugshots and filter by race “White” you’re mind is gong to be blown

Almost all mugshots are of minorities being booked as “White.” (Proof in video)

THIS IS INSANE. You should be furious. I go through… pic.twitter.com/PGsBNpr63w

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) July 19, 2026

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How Flossing Impacts More Than Just Your Oral Health—What to Know.

HARDER THAN THEY THINK: Could China and Russia really destroy Starlink? Only with a boomerang. Though the lawfare is already underway.

So, how might China and Russia go about countering Starlink? The Chinese team proposed three possible actions in an “escalation ladder,” starting with legal and diplomatic measures aimed at whipping up international pressure against further expansions of Starlink on the grounds of collision risks in LEO.

The next step is more technical, with coordinated filings with international regulatory bodies for frequency bands and orbital slots to limit SpaceX’s ability to grow Starlink. At the same time, the escalation ladder proposes using electromagnetic jamming of Starlink to block it in certain regions.

Finally, the coup de grâce would be the “physical destruction” of Starlink through a cyber war and anti-satellite weapons. Reporters at The Insider, Der Spiegel, and Le Monde suggested this might involve a cloud of high-density projectiles that could destroy Starlink satellites upon collision. The presentation by the Chinese CASC researchers didn’t specify the means of such an attack.

The problem is that there are over 10,000 Starlink satellites, and SpaceX can literally launch them faster than Russia and China can shoot them down with conventional antisatellite weapons. A nuke, or a huge space-junk-creating kinetic-shrapnel weapon might work, but at the cost of making Low Earth Orbit inaccessible for everyone.

I should also note that it’s been the US position since the Carter Administration that an attack on a US satellite is an attack on the United States.

LUNCHTIME FUN:

THE LEFT-WING FOLKS HATE CIVICS LITERACY. Critics label left-wing plot to target new civics schools as misguided, alarmist.

YAWN: Trinity College course will teach students to ‘unsettle’ the ‘white gaze.’

Cost of attending Trinity College: $96,480 per year.

DON SURBER: The war on bodegas: Mamdanism—communism with a smile—hates the middle class.

YES, YOU SEE THIS HAPPENING ALL THE TIME: “Be warned. The Left is trying to make men who exercise, set goals, and adopt masculine roles ‘feel gay’ as a way to embarrass them and reduce their societal influence. This persons view isn’t a serious critique, it is a political attack.”

The goal is always to denormalize normal things, and normalize abnormal things. This would be more effective if normal people paid attention to what academics say, which is no longer the case.

OFT EVIL WILL SHALL EVIL MAR: Boasberg Tried to Box Trump In. Instead, He Handed Him the Court That Gut-Punched the Entire Lawfare Machine.

Sitting in his Washington courtroom during the Alien Enemies Act litigation, exasperated with the Trump administration’s position that the executive could identify terrorist aliens and remove them without his blessing, Boasberg reached for what he thought was a rhetorical trump card. Congress, he observed, had already built a court for exactly this purpose. “You can always go to the ATRC, which would be a first, but that’s what it’s there for, right?” He would know. Boasberg had served on the Alien Terrorist Removal Court from 2020 through 2025, and for that entire period he was its chief judge, presiding over a tribunal that had never once received a case.

Sixteen months later, on July 15, 2026, the Department of Justice filed the first application in the court’s history. The administration took the judge’s suggestion. It simply took it more seriously than he intended.

To appreciate the jujitsu, you have to understand what the ATRC actually is, because almost nobody does. Start with the problem it was built to solve. Imagine the government possesses classified intelligence, perhaps from a human source inside a terrorist network, perhaps from a foreign partner’s surveillance, establishing that an alien inside the United States is connected to terrorism. In an ordinary immigration proceeding, using that evidence means exposing it. Exposing it can mean a dead informant, a burned collection method, or a furious ally who stops sharing. The government therefore faced what Senator Bob Smith described in 1995 as two equally unacceptable choices. Reveal the intelligence and destroy its source, or protect the intelligence and let the terrorist stay.

Congress chose a third path. As part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, signed in April 1996 after the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings, it created a specialized Article III tribunal. The Chief Justice designates five sitting federal district judges, each from a different circuit, to five-year terms. The Attorney General may bring an application when classified evidence shows an alien is a terrorist and ordinary removal proceedings would endanger national security. A judge reviews the classified material in a sealed, ex parte proceeding and must find probable cause before anything advances. If the application is granted, the case proceeds to a public merits hearing where the respondent receives notice, counsel at government expense if needed, an unclassified summary of the evidence, the right to present a defense, and appellate review in the DC Circuit, with the Supreme Court available beyond that. The government must prove its case by a preponderance of the evidence. This is not a star chamber. It is due process engineered for intelligence cases rather than due process borrowed from traffic court.

Was this some fever dream of the modern right? Hardly. The Reagan Justice Department conceived the idea. The George H.W. Bush administration promoted it and vouched for its constitutionality. The Clinton administration made it a legislative priority, with Attorney General Janet Reno calling the mechanism both constitutional and responsive to a real problem, and FBI Director Louis Freeh describing it as one of the department’s highest antiterrorism priorities. Then-Senator Joe Biden, chairing the Judiciary Committee, pronounced the constitutional argument irrefutable. An earlier Senate version passed unanimously, and the broader bill cleared the Senate 91 to 8. Three administrations of both parties built this court. The words of Reno and Biden now sit in the record like landmines beneath every Democrat preparing to call the tribunal an authoritarian invention.

I’m expecting an earth-shattering kaboom.

THE BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: Gallup: Higher Education Hits Another Low in Public Trust as the Public Rejects Institutional Bias.

CAN CONFIRM:

Paper ballots are the smartest, safest way to ensure your vote is secure against attacks by foreign actors. Russia can’t hack a piece of paper like they can a computer. We introduced the Secure Elections Act to ensure our elections are safeguarded. We must be ready.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) March 31, 2019