July 24, 2026

THE WEST LOSES ITS MORAL COMPASS AND DESCENDS INTO SELF-PARODY: Australian ABC News:

A man who wore a T-shirt with a banned Nazi symbol outside the antisemitism royal commission in Sydney has been convicted and fined $1,500.

Ian Minus, 68, was moved on by police in May after officers saw him wearing the T-shirt, which was printed with a swastika and the slogan, “Antisemitism. Proud to be accused. Speak up!” on May 6.

“I cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that his conduct was motivated by any hatred against any religion … or antisemitism,” Judge Allen said.

“Rather he was frustrated with the horrific events as he perceives them … from the Middle East.”

I’m strongly opposed to hate speech laws, but the notion that wearing a shirt with a swastika that also states you are proud to be accused of antisemitism, outside a hearing on antisemitism after 13 Australian Jews were murdered in cold blood, may not have been motivated by antisemitism is really something.

Posted at 5:03 pm by David Bernstein

HEH:

Posted at 4:38 pm by Stephen Green

STRENGTH THROUGH JOY: Why Democrats Can’t Do Better Than Kamala Harris in 2028.

There are only two lanes to the Democratic presidential nomination two years from now, and one of them is already blocked—by Kamala Harris.

Get ready for the Kamala comeback, followed, in all likelihood, by a replay of her crushing defeat by the Republican nominee. Believe it or not, the ex-VP occupies what counts as the “center lane” within the party, and for most of the last three decades that’s the one that’s led to the nomination.

Republicans used to be the party of orderly succession, even if the candidate whose turn had come looked like a certain loser: think Bob Dole in ’96. But recently, it’s been Democrats who’ve tended to pick a party elder as their nominee: Al Gore, as a sitting VP, might not have been remarkable in 2000, but in ’04 it was John Kerry, in ’16 Hillary Clinton and in 2020 Joe Biden—with only Barack Obama butting ahead of the line in 2008.

Democrats like a known quantity, a reliable liberal who isn’t too overtly radical; the radicalism can wait until after Election Day. So they’re leaning to running Harris again, even if donors aren’t happy about it: They blew nearly $2 billion on her campaign and aligned PAC’s in 2024, only for Harris to lose every battleground state to Trump.

Given her weak performance in 2020 and 2024, I strongly suspect someone else will also be “butting ahead of the line” on the left’s road to 2028.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME ACCOUNTABILITY: Why is Tate Adamiak Being Treated More Harshly Than Most Criminals ATF Prosecutes?

fter ATF agents kicked down his doors, they found nothing illegal or even suspected of being illegal. As a result, the ATF brought in a specialist, ATF Firearm Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R. Bodell, who discombobulated the actual items that the agents had found—all of which are still sold legally online, most do not even require an ID—and turned them into machineguns and destructive devices.

Adamiak was charged with illegally possessing a machinegun for a toy STEN submachinegun found during the search warrant. He paid $75 for the non-firing Spanish replica—or toy—which was made by Denix and is still sold online. Bodell inserted a real STEN barrel and receiver, neither Bodell nor his assistant could make it fire more than one round at a time. Despite their hard work, the toy STEN would not even accept a real magazine. Still, Bodell officially ruled that the toy was a machinegun.

Adamiak was charged with illegally possessing two destructive devices, two inert RPGs that had holes drilled into their receivers and were stripped of internal parts. ATF’s “expert” added parts from real RPGs until they would fire a single subcaliber 7.62x39mm round. As a result, he classified the RPGs as destructive devices. The inert RPGs are still legally sold today without an FFL or any other paperwork.

People’s careers should end for this kind of behavior.

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

FROM THIS WEEK’S ROCKET REPORT: Will Amur ever fly?

Nearly six years have passed since the state-backed Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, unveiled plans to develop a reusable rocket called “Amur-LNG.” Clearly designed in response to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, Amur was intended to have a reusable first stage, methane-powered engines, and the capability to deliver 10.5 metric tons to low-Earth orbit in reusable mode. At the time, Russian space officials said they planned to debut the rocket in 2026, so basically right about now. The latest update from Roscosmos suggests the Amur rocket won’t begin flight tests until 2031, Ars reports.

Year for year… To summarize, when the Amur rocket was announced in 2020, its flight date was scheduled for 2026. Some six years later, its projected launch date has moved five years into the future. The only reasonable conclusion is that Russia’s answer to the Falcon 9 rocket will not arrive any time soon, and it is unlikely to do so until at least two decades after SpaceX first landed an orbital rocket.

Quite a comedown for a country with such a storied space program.

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

Posted at 3:39 pm by Glenn Reynolds

ONGOING:

Posted at 3:36 pm by Glenn Reynolds

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: He Brought a Horse to a Rodeo Fight… Wait, WHAT? “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we’ll learn how not to pick up women at Lowe’s, all about proper rodeo etiquette, and why Wyoming has the coolest nine-year-old in the world.”

Posted at 3:21 pm by Stephen Green

YES: We can read hard things — if we put away the phones and try.

People are reading (or, at least, buying) The Odyssey, thanks to Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie. They’re arguing about whether the many-sided Odysseus should be seen as a heroic adventurer, a sword-shocked vet, a crafty killer or a dozen other interpretations. Emily Wilson’s modern translation has sold one million copies, and three other translations are on the top 10 list.

Young Americans can learn to read complex, challenging books, writes Natalie Wexler. Those who do will have an advantage over AI’s cognitive cripples.

What a perfect phrase there at the end.

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

CHANGE:

Posted at 2:35 pm by Stephen Green

NELLIE BOWLES ON THE ANDREW AND TRISTAN TATE FASHION SHOW:

But for our purposes, the top news in the world is that the wildly popular influencer Andrew Tate has finally been arrested in the U.S., with plans to extradite him to his former home, the United Kingdom. Tate, the man your sons and grandsons are probably obsessed with, is charged with rape, sex trafficking, it goes on for a total of 42 counts of that kind of unpleasant stuff. In bonny England he will, I assume, face a tribunal run by bitter, exhausted professional women (my girls!). This is only so interesting because Andrew Tate had been investigated before, suspected of trafficking and rape in Romania, and was barred from leaving that country. But then, in February of last year, seemingly after pressure from someone in the Trump administration, Tate was allowed to leave and took a private jet from Romania to, where else? Florida. (It seems as though Barron Trump was a fan.) When asked if Trump would intervene this time, Karoline Leavitt gave an emphatic “No.” Anyway, it’s also interesting because it gave us a photo of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan being arrested. And I don’t know how to explain to you that these men are considered to be the pinnacle of masculinity by right-wing American Zoomers. This is the hardened male that they aspire to become. He has over 10 million followers on X alone.

The purple silk “shirt”—legally, I feel a shirt must cover the nipples—matches the purple transition lenses. There are the capris, the slip-on shoes. It looks like they’re dragging him out of Fire Island. Put a wig on this person and she’s late for her mimosas at Club Med. Put a wig on and it’s my quirky drunk aunt Annie Tate whose bra is always showing. His brother Tristan, in a three-piece suit and a hat that is both too big and too small, is almost as bad. Andrew Tate and his brother are actually a return to the male animal as a flamboyant, colorful thing, the brilliant male mallard next to the dull brown female. In that way we’re actually made for each other, as I, in Tevas and with limp hair, am a return to the female duck. Andrew, call me.

Heh, indeed:

Also:

Wow, we eventually won Iraq, didn’t we: U.S. companies signed roughly $60 billion in agreements and partnerships with Iraq late last week, including deals to build alternative oil shipping routes bypassing the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran war. Goddammit, Dick Cheney, you lunatic, you did it. Credit where it’s due. Mission accomplished.

We eventually won Vietnam as well: How Capitalism Beat Communism in Vietnam.

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

REALITY BITES AGAIN: Here she goes again! Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) claims Trump domestic and foreign policies explain the Affordability Crisis. Check out my latest PJMedia column with the necessary corrective from Just Facts Daily.

Posted at 2:30 pm by Mark Tapscott

THE PRESS TRIED TO SHAME ELON. HE PUT THE ENTIRE MEDIA CLASS ON TRIAL:

During an interview with The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Beddoes tried to paint him as “far right,” because of his criticism of how the government has approached things like immigration in the United Kingdom. Musk shot that characterization down, saying it was normal to want secure borders, safe cities, and sensible spending.

“If people are coming to a country with antithetical views, I am against that,” he said.

“I’m against rape and murder, I’m against the imposition of rules and laws that are contrary to what we’ve come to accept in the West,” he continued, criticising the media for not understanding or reflecting this.

Beddoes tried to attack Elon Musk over that, saying, “You don’t even live there!” She asked if he understood how some people “loathe you.”

Exit quote: “The extremist didn’t like being told that she’s the actual extremist.”

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll