July 26, 2025

July 25, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds 1231

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Senegal signs the Artemis Accords. “Senegal became the 56th signatory of the Artemis Accords at NASA HQ today. . . . The United States and seven other countries established the Artemis Accords in 2020 to serve as a set of practical principles to guide responsible space exploration. Senegal joins the United States and 54 other nations – Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Republic of Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay – in affirming the Accords’ principles for sustainable civil space activity.”

The Artemis Accords are very important because they underscore the legality of exploitation of space resources.

Posted at 9:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 41

THEY CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH:

And they don’t want you to know it. But this is mostly a tell that they’re afraid now.

UPDATE: Afraid with reason:

Posted at 7:29 pm by Glenn Reynolds 273

UNDOING BIDEN’S CRISIS BY DESIGN: DHS started flying illegal immigrants out of Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Friday that the Department of Homeland Security has started flying illegal immigrants out of his state’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility.

“I’m pleased to report that those flights out of Alligator Alcatraz by DHS have begun,” DeSantis said, Fox News reported. “The cadence is increasing. We’ve already had a number of flights, in the last few days, we’ve had hundreds of illegals [that] have been removed from here.”

“This provides an ability to enhance the mission, to increase the number and frequency of deportations. And so what’s been done here has really been remarkable,” he added.

I’d add, “More like this, please,” but it looks like there will already be plenty more like this.

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green 123

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Since When Is Drunk-Mowing the Toll Road a Crime? It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we’ll learn where not to take your lawnmower out for a drug-fueled spin, why Planet Fitness isn’t the place to do… any of that, really, and how Alabama Man became the new master of disguise.”

Posted at 3:21 pm by Stephen Green 33

THOSE RUSSIANS SURE LOVED REAGAN:

Obama lies, scorpion stings frog, dog bites man…

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green 137

RUY TEIXEIRA: Today’s Non-Progressive Progressives. They’re not on the right side of history anymore:

Here are some of the ways that “progressives” have bid farewell to progress.

Colorblindness, anti-discrimination and equal opportunity. The quintessential moral commitment of midcentury progressives was to make American society truly colorblind. It was unfair and egregious that racial discrimination could truncate the life chances of black people and visit misery upon them. Therefore, progressives advocated and marched for ending discrimination and unequal opportunity. They won the argument. Not only was legislation passed to make such discrimination illegal but anti-discrimination and equal opportunity became as close to consensual beliefs as you can get in America.

Americans today believe, with Martin Luther King Jr., that people should “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” In a 2022 University of Southern California Dornsife survey, this classic statement of colorblind equality was posed to respondents: “Our goal as a society should be to treat all people the same without regard to the color of their skin.” That view elicited sky-high (92 percent) agreement from the public.

Similarly, a 2023 Public Agenda Hidden Common Ground survey found 91 percent agreement with the statement: “All people deserve an equal opportunity to succeed, no matter their race or ethnicity.” This is what Americans deeply believe in: equal opportunity not, it should be noted, equal outcomes.

And it is what progressives used to believe in—indeed, mounted the barricades for. But a funny thing happened on the way to the 21st century.

Read the whole thing.

But this isn’t “today’s” self-described Progressives. The original Progressives of the first-half of the 20th century were thoroughly racist, from H.G. Wells to Margaret Sanger to Woodrow Wilson. Calvin Coolidge noted they weren’t on the right side of history a century ago:

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

As the late Fred Siegel wrote in The Revolt Against the Masses, American progressives rebranded as liberals in the 1920s after the disastrous Wilson administration. The American left went back to calling themselves progressives after liberalism became an increasingly tainted word during the last decades of the 20th century. What will be the next rebranding effort?

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll 46

20 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: Democrats Are Going to Run Hunter Biden, Aren’t They?

Part of me thinks that surely, SURELY, they’ll look at their abysmal approval ratings and learn a thing or two about how unpopular their agenda really is with the majority of Americans and maybe even run a more blue-dog Democrat this next time around. You know, more of a typical, traditional Democrat although if I’m being honest, I’m not sure what the heck that even looks like anymore.

The other part of me sees crap like this from The Atlantic and thinks Democrats are actively trying to destroy their own party and would consider running another Biden. You know, the degenerate crack-head version.

He’s William S. Burroughs meets MAHA:

Posted at 2:25 pm by Ed Driscoll 178