OPEN THREAD: Do it on the weekend/and it’ll beeee allll right.

READER BOOK PLUG: Reader Jamie Wilson sends a link to 1775 by Keith Korman. “It’s a relatively gritty little novel focused on the events in Boston around Paul Revere’s ride and the Shot Heard ‘Round the World. It seems particularly apropos in our leadup to the sesquicentennial. And Adam Bellow was kind enough to write a marketing blurb for it, which is included on both our back cover and in the Amazon description.”

THEY SHOW YOU WHAT THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT:

And it’s not prepubescent English girls being raped by foreigners.

THAT WOULD BE SORT OF COOL, BUT IT WOULD ALSO VIOLATE PHYSICS AND GEOMETRY: A viral claim says the world will go dark on Aug. 2. It won’t — but a record-breaking solar eclipse is coming in 2027.

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D During Pregnancy Linked to Cognitive Boost in Children.

SO MANY OF OUR INSTITUTIONS CARE MORE ABOUT DIVERSITY THAN ABOUT DOING THEIR ACTUAL JOBS: Leading Medical Journals Care More About DEI Than Major Diseases. “These findings reflect a broader leftward shift in medical research—one that has contributed to the scientific establishment’s erosion of rigor and objectivity. This shift threatens the foundations of the profession, the integrity of research, and the quality of medical education.”

Related: You had one job, CDC.

IT’S HARD WHEN YOUR DREAMS ARE SHATTERED: Jessica Tarlov Flips Out When Confronted with Facts on Russia Hoax.

WHEN THE MADNESS HAS PASSED:

Chateaubriand observes somewhere that when the peak fever of the Revolution had passed, most people simply didn’t talk about it. The human mind couldn’t process the scale of the madness and violence that had overtaken the world. I think the same will be true as we exit from the…

— Adrian Vermeule (@Vermeullarmine) July 26, 2025

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Revenge or Justice?

READER FAVORITE: Alimens & Gentle Men’s Plaid Button Down Shirts. #CommissionEarned

THE NEW LOYALTY OATHS: Diversity Statements and the First Amendment. “Policies that merely serve to reinforce political orthodoxies on college campuses are constitutionally unjustifiable. Taking such principles seriously casts a substantial constitutional shadow over the practice of using diversity statements to exclude from state university faculties individuals with disfavored beliefs and opinions about matters of political and social controversy.”

KEEP YOUR SMILE BRIGHT: Crest Pro-Health Advanced Antibacterial Protection Toothpaste. #CommissionEarned

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

No One Notices As Entire Cast Of 'The View' Replaced With Shrieking Feral Pigs https://t.co/Vjts4XwTzL pic.twitter.com/VGDSoURCIB

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 24, 2025

WE WARNED THEM ABOUT THE NEW RULES:

Those new rules really rock.

— Mark O. Van Wagoner (@VanWagoner) July 25, 2025

THE NEW PRICE DISCRIMINATION: Delta’s AI spying to “jack up” prices must be banned, lawmakers say. Lawmakers want to prevent companies from using AI to increase prices or lower wages.

Sorry, had “price fixing” before but I think price discrimination is more accurate.

GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: Mayday Mayday Mayday, This Is Hollywood Two-Zero-Two-Five… We Are Going Down…:

This reporter attended the premiere and ambushed several cast members on the red carpet in an attempt to lure them into saying something controversial. Gunn’s brother gleefully took the bait saying “yes, Superman is an immigrant… and if you don’t like that, you’re not American” with a nasty sneer plastered on his mug. Further down the red carpet, this same reporter, grinning mischievously into the camera, baited Nathan Fillion into saying “Somebody needs a hug… it’s just a movie, guys”, by telling the actor that MAGA was furious that this new “Superman” movie had the gall to celebrate immigrants.

And just like that, the damage was done. For the rest of the week leading up to its release, much of the excitement of an imminent blockbuster featuring one of America’s most beloved characters became lost in yet another round of bitter political combat caused primarily by out-of-touch Hollywood elites who just couldn’t keep their mouths shut nor their disdain for Flyover America tucked away in their vests.

On the other hand, compare this sequence of events with a similar one which occurred during an interview with the cast of the final “Mission: Impossible” film earlier this year. Once again, a reporter tried to bait the cast into commenting on American politics, this time with a question about Donald Trump and tariffs. But this time, Tom Cruise looked the reporter in the eye and declared, very simply, “we’d rather answer questions about the movie” in that quiet authoritative tone that has become the hallmark of Cruise the Hollywood elder statesman. The message was clear… we’re not playing that game here today.

It’s remarkable that Cruise, of all people, should have such great instincts for how to sell a movie while deftly avoiding the same rakes that almost everyone else in Hollywood can’t seem to stop stepping on. Remarkable because Cruise the Movie Star first became internationally famous for his portrayal of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a cocky F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot best known for flying by the seat of his pants. “Up there… if you think… you’re dead”, as Maverick describes his philosophy in the original “Top Gun.”

Read the whole thing.

CAN WE JUST CALL IT THE KETANJI? First Look: Taurus Reintroduces The Raging Judge.

SUELLA BRAVERMAN: These are not extremists. Ordinary British people are being criminalized.

Eight days. That’s how long it took from Hadush Kebatu’s illegal arrival on our shores to his alleged assault of a local teenage girl. This criminal charge has pierced through the political haze, not because it is an anomaly, but because it is no longer rare. The British people are not imagining the chaos. They are living it.

They see it in Canary Wharf where the once-prestigious Britannia Hotel, now rented by the Home Office at eye-watering prices, is being used to house illegal arrivals. The images are not abstract. The anger is not theoretical. The reality is visible from their windows.

In Waterlooville, my own constituency, 35 illegal migrants are earmarked to be placed right in the centre of the shopping centre. Shopkeepers ask how this decision was made. Residents wonder if they were consulted. They weren’t. They never are. Indefensibly, the local Lab/Lib council failed to even respond to the Home Office’s inquiries about the suitability of the location, such is the level of incompetence.

Meanwhile, 1.3 million British citizens sit on housing waiting lists. But when it comes to newly arrived migrants – many of whom have crossed the Channel unlawfully – there are apartments, hotels, hot meals, legal representation and round-the-clock care. The Prime Minister breezily told Parliament this week that “many local authorities have spare housing” for asylum seekers. Has he visited them? Has he walked through the town centres now marred by decay, disorder, and despair?

This is not fringe rhetoric. It is the mainstream voice of Britain. And yet it is silenced, patronised, and, increasingly, criminalised.

Earlier: Lionel Shriver: Now I’ve left Britain, here’s what you look like.

I LOVE THE PRESUMPTION THAT NSF WASN’T POLITICAL BEFORE: Amid Fear of Retaliation, N.S.F. Workers Sign Letter of Dissent: In a public letter, employees of the National Science Foundation accused the administration of politicizing the agency and impeding scientific innovation.

THE REAL JANUARY 6 WASN’T AT THE CAPITOL – IT WAS AT TRUMP TOWER:

January 6 has become a date of hallowed pagan sacredness to the ruling class – a supposed talisman marking chaos, a shorthand for “threats to democracy.” But the media, predictably, has focused on the wrong January. And the wrong threat.

Because the real January 6 – the one that changed everything – wasn’t in 2021. It happened four years earlier, in 2017. Not at the Capitol, but rather in a glass-walled conference room on the 26th floor of Trump Tower.

That morning, President-elect Donald J. Trump received a classified briefing from top intelligence officials – a routine, transitional step for any incoming commander in chief.

But what he got wasn’t intelligence. It was a malicious setup, a trap.

Read the whole thing.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: A pregnant surrogate for a defunct California company doesn’t know what will happen to the baby she’s carrying.

TRUMP GOES THERE: Calls Out Bill Clinton in Epstein Scandal.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “Macron and Candace Deserve Each Other,” Roger Simon writes.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: HP 17.3″ Touchscreen 2025 New Laptop. #CommissionEarned

DROPPED LIFELESS FROM THE STATUTE BOOKS: “We commit federal felonies by the day, by the hundreds if not the thousands. But there’s no real ability for the federal government to shut it down. So the cat’s out of the bag.”

The country just decided that pot was legal now, even where it isn’t. And it isn’t legal anywhere under federal law.