Saturday After

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!

Schism

There's an opening for Pope Vance or Pope Douthat.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican responded aggressively Thursday to a traditionalist group that consecrated bishops without the pope’s consent, declaring the Society of St. Pius X had formally broken with the Catholic Church. It also excommunicated its bishops and priests, and warned its faithful that they too face the harshest sanctions in the church.

Best 4th Ever

Our big beautiful sweaty president is going to stroke out on stage while giving a speech in 100 degree weather, as fireworks choke DC with toxic pollution and then burn down the city.

Fireworks on Mall likely to cause hazardous air pollution, documents show

Internal National Park Service modeling for the July Fourth show predicts dangerous pollution around the Mall and “very unhealthy” conditions across central D.C.

Can't wait!

Wear a mask to signal you are woke and to avoid lung cancer:

Levels of up to 1,200 micrograms per cubic meter match what have been recorded with other fireworks events but are nevertheless reason to take precautions, said George Thurston, a professor of medicine and population health at New York University. He added that the worst-case scenario would exceed anything he has seen previously recorded from pyrotechnic displays.

“People should use the precautionary principle, which is to minimize exposures,” Thurston said. “An N95 mask would be a good idea.”

America's Worst Governor

Jared Polis

Morning

Thick Thursday.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Remarkable Lack Of Curioisity

We all know what our press behaves like when there's an issue that really makes them mad, one they can't let go. Quite often those are stupid things! They can ask once and never ask again, or have Jake Tapper have a nightly hour dedicated to The Unanswered Trump Health questions.

oh my goodness -- it looks like the rot on Trump's hand is now rotting 😳 (Andrew Harnik/Getty)

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 1, 2026 at 5:32 PM

Normally the (lack of) health of the president is a big concern! Suddenly not.