Happy Hour

Get happy

The Lis Smith Magic

If she wasn't buddies with all of them, a journalist could probably do a deep dive into just why Lis Smith keeps getting lucrative work.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow is expected to drop out of Michigan's competitive U.S. Senate race Sunday afternoon, according to three sources with knowledge of the development who were not authorized to speak publicly about her decision.

 

At Least The War Is Over

I guess it isn't newsworthy anymore.

"Rookie Mistake"

It isn't especially important, but I was struck by Totenberg's description of her retracted report about Alito retiring.

NPR’s eminent Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg says she made a “rookie mistake” on Tuesday morning, and that’s why she reported that Justice Samuel Alito was retiring.

It's  the opposite of that! No "rookie" would make this "mistake"! No editor would let them! Only someone for whom special rules apply could have done this! It's an elite access journalist mistake!

Morning

Sunday funday

Sure Why Not

The world's greatest event logistics coordinators are ON IT.

Everyone planning to attend the Salute to America program and fireworks on the National Mall this evening will need to get through security within a one-hour period, Freedom 250 organizers said in an email sent just before midday today.

The email, received by an NBC digital editor at 11:14 a.m., had a subject line that began with "IMPORTANT TIME CHANGE: General Admission Guest Guidance."

The security magnetometers will open at 5 p.m., according to the email.

Saturday Afternoon

I hope MY president's party goes well.

The Master Race

A far from original or unobvious point, but I really don't know how guys like Musk look at themselves in the mirror and think that they need to improve the gene pool by having hundreds of children.

I don't just mean his/their beauty. More generally, how does Musk imagine that everyone should be just like him? He's obviously fucked up and miserable.

Even if we believe, as he does, that he is a supergenius, it isn't the only important trait. I mean, Elon Musk would fucking hate Elon Musk if he met him. How is civilization going to persist with an entire race of Elon Musks?

Suckers And Bribes

A lot of these were suckers, but this was also a bribery tool.

Nearly 1 million people who bought President Trump’s memecoin have lost money through the end of June, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen. Their losses total $3.81 billion.

The analytics firm’s assessment was calculated this week after Mr. Trump signed an annual financial disclosure showing that he walked away with a $636 million payout on the same crypto bet, part of a haul of at least $2.2 billion from all of his business ventures in 2025.

The clearest bits of the consitution are suddenly confusing.

Morning

HAPPY DONALD TRUMP DAY

Friday Evening

enjoy

Big, If True

Say it isn't so, Pope Bob.

Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel delivered a series of provocative warnings and predictions about the future of artificial intelligence and the West on Tuesday, accusing Pope Leo XIV of inadvertently serving as a “Chinese communist agent” by calling for AI regulation. In his remarks at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, he also warned of a “democratic-socialist takeover” of the United States’ Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, in other AI news:

Tesla told staff it will impose a $200-per-week limit on employee AI spending starting July 6, according to an internal memo reported by The Information (paywall).

The cap lands just months after Tesla pushed employees to use AI more aggressively, a sign that even companies betting their future on the technology are struggling to control its costs.

Even if it is correct to believe that firms can benefit from "AI" beyond some niche uses, it is quite hilarious that executives spent the last couple of years yelling at their employees to use it for something, anything, and then as soon as the bait-and-switch prices ended they pulled back.

Generally it is hard to see how almost any use survives non-subscription pricing.

Holiday Weekend Posting Schedule

Maybe, or maybe not! You never know with these things.

America's Worst Humans

Elon Musk.

Moral Leadership

"We" can object on practical terms, but we ripped through certain taboos ourselves (assassinations of leaders) and can't exactly object on moral or legal ones.

Senior U.S. officials feared that Israel intended to assassinate Iran’s top negotiators as the Trump administration pursued a high-stakes deal to end the war there and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, current and former officials familiar with the matter said.

One can always argue that we very often don't live up to "our" supposed ideals and that hypocrisy is always the normal state of things, but when you stop even paying lip service to such things - stop even trying to pretend - you do make it quite a bit harder to complain about anyone else.

All those Woke Rules Of War and similar sound a little silly, sometimes, but those rules exist for self-serving purposes, too. They aren't just constraints on our own behavior.

Morning

Friday funday.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Jake Crapper

Dan Goldman lost his race, so now he's on CNN inventing slurs and tropes I never uttered. I challenged you before, @danielsgoldman. Quote one thing I actually said. You won't, because you can't.

And I'm not surprised by @jaketapper laundering baseless accusations against me.… https://t.co/GHYcxEhUSH

— Mahmoud Khalil | محمود خليل (@mahmoudkhalel) July 2, 2026

Smelting Pot

I'm 54. I don't know what they learned at Dalton, but we were discussing melting pot vs. salad bowl when I was in 8th grade. Actually, earlier. 5th or 7th. Was it Mr. Rapp or Mr. Todd's class?

Amazing things are happening on @TheArgumentMag podcast.

cc: @mattyglesias pic.twitter.com/6ksEc0u3l6

— Jerusalem (@JerusalemDemsas) July 1, 2026

I can't believe these 2 earn the big bucks.

Well, yes, I guess I can.

Reciprocity

Other Countries can't fight Uncle Sam on many things, but visa requirements reciprocity is one common response.

If it's ever difficult for you to get a travel visa to go somewhere, check what the US requires of them!