June 26, 2026

WE SHOULD ABSOLUTELY CHERRY-PICK:

Posted at 10:57 am by Stephen Green

SPACE: 13 years and $500 million for a stage adapter? Report justifies NASA cancellations.

The least expensive of the four contracts, for the Universal Stage Adapter, is perhaps the most illustrative. NASA contracted with Dynetics in June 2017 to design, test, and build this piece of spaceflight hardware. Made largely of composites, the adapter weighed 9,650 pounds (4.3 metric tons) and stood 33 feet (10 meters) tall.

The original contract awarded to Dynetics totaled $131 million, to which NASA later added $9 million for a payload separation system. At the time the program was canceled earlier this year, the contract value had grown to $353 million, with a delivery date delayed to September 2028. The inspector general’s report projected that the project would likely cost $497 million and not be ready until May 2030.

To be clear: NASA was likely going to pay half a billion dollars for a relatively straightforward stage adaptor. This doesn’t have propulsion or anything like that on board. Also, for some unfathomable reason, it was likely to take 13 years to build.

Isaacman is giving NASA a much-needed shakeup.

Posted at 10:42 am by Stephen Green

‘PEOPLE ARE GONNA DIE:’ Lefties Bewail the End of Protected Status for Haitians, Syrians.

When a Supreme Court ruling causes the mainstream media and Democrat politicians to dissolve into tears of fury, you know the decision was much more in favor of We the People and the Constitution than of woke judicial activism. And with two major immigration decisions going for the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, lefty media stooges are, of course, roaring like a Shakespearean tempest.

To clarify a few facts first, the majority opinion in Mullin v. Doe (which is causing particular fury) was in favor of acknowledging that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) should be just that — temporary. The Supreme Court also rejected the claim that the Trump administration was targeting certain racial groups or that hundreds of thousands of Haitians should receive TPS 16 years after the earthquake that triggered the designation. Syrians, likewise, face a concerning but different situation back home now than they did in 2012 when their TPS started. None of those facts is influencing the MSM and Democrat meltdown.

Naturally, Democrat politicians rushed to bewail this SCOTUS win for American workers and American taxpayers.

That’s nonsense. Why would Haitians want to leave their island paradise to come to America? I’m told it’s a beautiful country, and great already!

Posted at 10:40 am by Ed Driscoll

CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION, BUT THIS IS WEIRD:

Posted at 10:26 am by Stephen Green

THE BOLSHEVIKS ALWAYS SLAUGHTER THE MENSHEVIKS:

If I had to guess, Weiner fancied himself a Bolshevik.

He had no clue.

Posted at 9:55 am by Stephen Green

EXPLORE LIKE INDIANA JONES: House Republicans Explore Reconciliation Path for SAVE America Act. “Trump has framed the election-security bill as a top priority and has signaled he will not fully engage on other legislative priorities until progress is made on that front, adding pressure on congressional Republicans already navigating a divided Senate.”

Posted at 9:40 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Second Amendment Fans Can Start Celebrating Independence Day Early. “Democrats don’t like fair fights, so they prefer that their lawlessness not be hindered by law-abiding citizens who can defend themselves. They blather on about wanting to fight injustice and inequality, but when they gain majority power in a state the first thing they do is go after legal gun owners.”

Posted at 9:09 am by Stephen Green

THEY DON’T WANT IT DEPOLITICIZED, THOUGH.

Posted at 9:05 am by Glenn Reynolds

WE’RE IN A DISTANT THIRD PLACE: China Now Leads World Submarine Construction.

World submarine construction is growing to levels unseen since the Cold War in the 1980s. And in stark contrast to back then, today many more countries are involved. An estimated 77 submarines have been launched in the past 5 years (2021-present) by some 16 countries. This number includes 33 nuclear-powered submarines in 6 countries (China, Russia, United States, United Kingdom, France and India). Brazil and North Korea also have nuclear-powered boats under construction, but they have yet hit the water. Meanwhile South Korea and Australia have plans to operate nuclear boats.

But one country stands out for both their dramatic increase in volume and rapid pace of technical development. China has established a commanding lead in submarine production. Over the past five years, it has launched about 24 submarines. This is twice Russia’s 12 and more than triple the United States’ output of 7 boats.

We’re barely ahead of Japan at six.

Posted at 8:38 am by Stephen Green

WHAT IS A WOMAN?

Posted at 8:35 am by Ed Driscoll

CHANGE:

Posted at 8:22 am by Stephen Green

CHARLES COOKE: Thatcher and the Conservative Party, Fifty Years Later.

Margaret Thatcher was not perfect. She could be overly combative with her allies, which can hurt in a parliamentary system. On free speech, the right to bear arms, and due process, she was a throwback to the Victorian era rather than to the classical liberal epoch that informed most of her other views. And she probably stayed in office too long. However, imperfection is inherent in the nature of Great figures, and Mrs. Thatcher was undoubtedly one.

For reasons that I have never quite understood, the smart set within our illustrious cache of academic historians are allergic to the idea that history’s turning points can be attributed to the personal virtues or resolve of individuals who stepped up at the right moment. I dissent from this view. It is, of course, true that history is about more than birth certificates and obituaries, but even a cursory glance at the last three hundred years suggests that amorphous forces cannot account for all its jukes and contours. A world without George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ronald Reagan is a world that, in my estimation, would look profoundly different—even if one assumes that all the same societal desires and impulses remain. So, it is with Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher had the audacity to take over the British Conservative Party—thereby hijacking a vehicle that, before and after, was characterized by squishy “One Nation” capitulation and steering it toward the eternal maxims of Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises. She dared to take action that temporarily damaged the economy in the interest of a longer-term fix—thereby risking her re-election and, with it, the entire project. She refused to relinquish the Falkland Islands to a hostile foreign power simply because the bien pensant class thought she should—thereby creating a hostage to fortune that, had it gone wrong, would have put her approval rating into single digits. And, above all, she understood that political rights are ultimately won by argument, not by force.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 8:22 am by Ed Driscoll