Columnist Warns That the Constant Anti-Marriage Agitation from the Communist/Nihilist/Anti-Natalist Left is Leaving Women Lonely, Sad, and Bitter

—Disinformation Expert Ace

But that's the entire point.

Since the 1920s, it has been the goal of communists to destabilize western societies and immiserate them so that the public would accept the idea of burning it all down and letting the bloody-minded lunatics of the left further degrade and destroy civilization.

Communists realized the "workers' were just too satisfied in western capitalist societies to support communism.

So they set about changing that.

A growing anti-marriage movement is being fueled by viral TikTok trends and high-profile celebrities painting men as the enemy, but according to a new column, women may ultimately be the ones losing out.

In a USA Today op-ed, columnist Ingrid Jacques warned of a rising wave of "heteropessimism," defining it as women's growing feelings of disappointment and antagonism toward relationships with men. She argued that viral trends like "divorce glow-ups" and anti-male literature have actively widened the divide between the sexes.

"Studies show that married women are not only happier but also live longer and earn more than their single counterparts," Jacques wrote on Tuesday.

...

The trend coincides with falling US marriage and birth rates. Official US Census Bureau data from December shows that just 47% of American households in 2025 were married couples, down from nearly 66% 50 years ago.

Of those married households, only 37% included their own children under age 18, compared to 54% in 1975.

Jacques linked the shift directly to liberal ideology, noting that left-leaning Americans choose to opt out of traditional family lifestyles "far more often than conservatives."

"Wherever you look these days, women who 'free' themselves from the chains of marriage are being celebrated," Jacques wrote.

...

A 2024 American Family Survey found that 37% of conservative women and 28% of moderate women, between the ages of 18 and 40, reported being "completely satisfied" with their lives.

However, liberal women of the same age reported only 12% feeling the same way.

...

Citing Louise Perry, author of "The Case Against the Sexual Revolution," Jacques argued that young women are being alienated after getting "burned by hookup culture" and lacking real friendships with the opposite sex.

Jacques argued that, like Perry, returning to marriage, not abandoning men altogether, is the remedy for the cultural divide.

"That won't be true for everyone, of course," Jacques concluded. "But men and women need to find a way back to each other. Discounting marriage won't get them there."

If you really want to destroy civilization in a hurry, go to the very heart of the human experience -- family and mating -- and destroy that.

Elon Musk Demolishes Snarky Superior Editor of The Economist

—Disinformation Expert Ace

The extremist didn't like being told that she's the actual extremist.

Elon Musk sat down with The Economist's editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, and boy, did she get more than what she was asking for. If she thought she could lob a bunch of accusations against him, and he'd just take it sitting down.

He didn't.

Instead, Beddoes got schooled, and the internet is still talking about it.

The interview covered plenty of ground, but two exchanges stood out as the moments Musk completely dismantled Beddoes' entire premise.

The first came when she tried to paint Musk as a supporter of Europe's "far right."

"You support not just the populist right, but the far right, in fact, very fringe parties in some countries," Beddoes said.

Musk wasn't having it.

"No, I support the normal people -- what do you call the far right, falsely," Musk said.

Beddoes pressed on, asking if Musk really believed those parties represented normal people. Musk's response exposed exactly how the media manufactures its labels.

"Yes, literally, you could go back 10 or 15 years, and these policies were completely normal," Musk said. "One of the tricks that I think is funny is to take a speech from Obama and Hillary, and then go to someone who's sort of on the sort of what I call the lunatic left, and say, 'What do you think of the speech by Trump?' They're like, 'Oh wow, he's the worst person ever.' 'Actually, that was a speech by Obama,' or 'Actually, that was a speech by Hillary.' Literally."

Beddoes tried to pivot, insisting she wasn't talking about the Democrat Party's leftward lurch but about specific figures like Rupert Lowe. Musk shut that down, too, laying out exactly what "far right" actually means to people like Beddoes.

"It's actually just normal people. And here are the principles -- tell me which of these sound terrible: That we should have secure borders? That we should have safe cities? That we should have sensible spending?" Musk asked. "Which of those three are far right fringe? I would like to just admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense."

Phil Trubey @PTrubey

...

And then came the oh-so-typical, increasingly tiresome part of most long journalist interviews: the interviewer constructs a straw-man version of Elon and argues against it. Elon carefully explained that he isn't a raging far-right extremist, racist Nazi who kills puppies ... and the journalist still didn't believe it. It is so effing tiresome.

The lack of self-awareness on the part of journalists is off the charts. She complained about Elon's supposed misperception of how dangerous London is, while remaining oblivious to the role she plays in creating the giant misperception of Elon as a person in her own writing.

Elon defended his political views, saying he is for secure borders, locking up criminals, and balanced government spending, something even she had to admit didn't sound crazy.

And... that's about it for an 85-minute interview. I couldn't help but think that the next long-form interview Elon does should be conducted by an AI.

Fugitive Fraudster Arrested
And Nick Shirley Probes Another Huge Area for Fraud, Durable Medical Equipment

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Fraudbusters.

If Team Trump's anti-fraud efforts sometimes look a bit all-over-the-map, that's because the map is so incredibly large.

The feds spend over $7 billion a year, and fraudsters look to cash in on every dime; with Vice President JD Vance on point, the White House has organized a full-court press to fight back.

One day this week, the Justice Department announced it had finally nabbed a fugitive Medicare fraudster on the lam since 2022, who allegedly stole more than half a billion dollars, even as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Medicare-Medicaid czar Dr. Mehmet Oz froze over $1 billion in funding to California and Minnesota over apparent Medicaid fraud.

About the same time, Scott Bessent's Treasury stopped $100 million in tax money going to dead people thanks to new verification procedures, while the IRS chief revealed that a recent scrub of the Social Security Number database found that one in 10 recipients were erroneously listed.

That follows recent news of blatant adult-day-care scams in Queens and a drive to claw back $1 billion in COVID-era unemployment fraud that may still be nabbing $2 million a day in New York.

Last month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced charges against 455 people for $6.5 billion in health-care fraud.

All this is robbery of the taxpayers and of the folks these government programs are supposed to help: That should outrage Republicans and Democrats alike.

And politicians of both parties should be embarrassed that the crackdowns are only coming now, years after fraudsters notoriously made off with tens or even hundreds of billions in COVID-relief monies.

Yes, some of the crackdown relies on new technology: Kennedy touted the use of AI, advanced analytics and "other cutting-edge tools" to ID suspicious Medicaid outlays.

But much of it is just what Alexander Hamilton called "energy in the executive," meaning leadership from President Donald Trump and his top people.

That's a really good point and very true.

For example, the FBI created a Most Wanted Fraudsters list, which has now nabbed three major suspects: Khalid Satary, the one captured this week, plus Herbert Kimble, who allegedly stole $1.2 billion in a Medicare telemedicine scheme, and Said Abdullahi Ereg, accused of fraud totaling $4.2 million in a child-nutrition program.

Nick Shirley is now discovering another avenue of massive medical fraud, this one involving durable medical equipment, stuff like wheelchairs and CPAP machines and equipment like that which is supposed to last for months or years.

It's a similar scam to all the others: "Enrolling" phantom patients up for supplies, billing the government for those supplies, and then, who knows, putting the equipment in a warehouse or more likely selling it on the street for pennies on the dollar.

This wouldn't work... if anyone bothered checking these businesses and confirming that these were real patients. But they don't, because Democrats enable the fraud deliberately. It's how they fund their supporters who in turn donate back to Democrats and put money in bums' pockets for mail-in illegal "votes."

THE MORNING RANT: Some Fools Never Learn – Ford & VW Prepare to Roll Out New Small Electric Pickups

—Buck Throckmorton

There are three new small pickup trucks about to roll out. That is great news. They’re all going to be electric. That is bad news.

In my circle of guy friends who came of age in the 1980s, we all seemed to have had a Chevrolet S10, Nissan Hardbody, or Ford Courier / Ranger pickup at some point. We’ve also lamented the lack of small pickup trucks in recent years.

Without getting into the weeds as to why, small pickup trucks with good gas mileage were effectively outlawed by the government’s environmental regulators. Why? Because they’re idiots large trucks were exempt from the automobile corporate fuel standards, but small trucks weren’t. Fortunately, Donald Trump, Lee Zeldin, and Congress’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act combined to kill off all the old mandates.

Auto manufacturers are finally free to build the small pickup trucks that had effectively been banned for decades. And they’re doing just that! Except, they’re going to be electric.

Electric vehicles have been a catastrophic failure for VW and Ford, costing tens of billions of dollars and not ever achieving more than nominal sales before they killed their flagship EVs, the Volkswagen ID.4 and Ford F150 Conflagration Lightning respectively. In fact, Ford and VW both built all-new plants in Tennessee just for their EVs, which were expected to sell hundreds of thousands of units per year. Those plants are now producing zero EVs.

Ford and VW triumphantly rolling out another wave of EVs is as preposterous as Bud Light rolling out another ad campaign with Dylan Mulvaney. But here we are.

First, Volkswagen bought the name “Scout,” which was International (Harvester’s) famous mid-century pickup. What the Scout was not was electric. No matter, VW is building yet another all-new plant in the U.S., this one in South Carolina, with plans to produce up 200,000 electric Scouts per year. From Car and Driver:

Just a few years after announcing its ambitious intention to revive the Scout brand—once owned by the International Harvester Company—VW has issued proof of concept in the form of the 2028 Scout Terra EV pickup. Debuting alongside its Scout Traveler SUV sibling…the Terra is poised to be an amalgam of modern and traditional styling and engineering themes. For instance, it’s built on a classic truck-style body-on-frame blueprint with a crew cab and 5.5-foot bed, but it uses a modern battery-electric powertrain that’s good for an estimated 350 miles of range.

In other words, with 350 miles of range, this Scout pickup truck cannot do what the small pickups of my youth did, drive from Central Texas to South Padre on a whim, with only one 5-minute refueling stop. Nor could it drive out to New Mexico for a ski trip, etc. Like all other EVs, the Scout will be a novelty that is only good for running around town.

As for Ford, it has recently launched the small Maverick pickup truck, which is gasoline-powered and a huge sales success. Perhaps Ford thinks its new EV pickup will be a popular lineup addition. Ford’s EV history indicates otherwise.

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report — 7/ 24 /26

—J.J. Sefton

Good Morning kids.

With everything going on across the country and around the world today, and as you can see from the breadth and depth of the links this morning, there's a metric shit-ton of meshugas to deal with and unpack. Despite that this item just ticks me the hell off.

There Are No Ag ‘Jobs Americans Won’t Do’ If They Earn A Living Wage

It's not so much the meat of the essay itself which I agree with .. .

Whenever Republicans talk about immigration enforcement, amnesty supporters chant the same tired line: What about picking crops? What about meat processing? Those are necessary jobs that Americans simply refuse to do. That argument was used to justify dozens of House Republicans’ latest mass amnesty effort. Their proposal would give illegal alien agriculture workers a pathway to legal status through the H-2A program, even though they have broken multiple laws by being in the United States illegally and getting a job without a work permit. Their employer has also violated the law by hiring these illegals.

Indeed, so Psaki-Psircling back to that headline, it's this insane completely Commie Leftist garbage of a so-called "Living wage." What a person is paid is or at least in a sane world is merely a reflection of the value of the job or task performed as dictated by market forces such as the skills required to perform them and the availability or lack thereof of the people required to perform them in bringing a product or service to market at a price the public can afford and that an employer can afford to pay to have them performed to stay in business and still remain profitable.

But as the author of this piece points out or at least hints at, is that it's the employers who have over the past several decades willingly employed legal and illegal aliens in order to keep their costs down and in doing so have done untold damage to the labor market and with it the societal dissolution that came with it as we are living through now. Beyond agriculture, whole industries, especially steel and automobile manufacturing and many others were off-shored deliberately so that corporate America can reap mass profits at the expense of the American worker and citizen, cheap mass-produced consumer goods notwithstanding. Forgetting the price tag for a moment, if wages across the board had parity with the cost-of-living in general would we really be paying that much more in real dollars if goods were produced here in America with American workers? Of course we still have to factor in the greed of the essentially Democrat-aligned labor unions as well as the mafia-like extortion of federal, state and local governments and their odious regulatory regimes that make everything that much more expensive. Yes, some sane and minimal degree of responsibility on the part of business is a necessary evil, but in the past that was the purview of the courts as well as enforced by a sense of moral responsibility of business owners not to kill or otherwise poison their neighbors and customers.

Yes rounding up and deporting as many of the illegals as possible is to be applauded, but disincentivizing them from coming here in the first place begins with those who hire them in the first place. So this done forcefully and continually will have a salutary effect and is something we've been screaming about for years, so bravo to the President for this. Stiff fines and prison sentences will do the trick.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting Director Todd Lyons said in an interview Sunday that his agency will crack down on American companies hiring unauthorized workers. “Not only are we focused on those individuals that are, you know, working here illegally, we’re focused on these American companies that are actually exploiting these laborers,” Lyons said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”

“These people that came here for a better life. You know, either, you know, forced labor, child trafficking, you know, a lot of these work site cases — just isn’t a victimless crime of someone here working illegally,” he added. “And that’s why we’re going there with these criminal warrants to focus on these American businesses that are trying to make an extra dollar on the backs of these people that came here for a better life.”

Sadly we'll get just as much resistance from the GOP on this as we will from the Democrats, as is the gravamen of the aforementioned essay.

Pro-amnesty Republicans are allowing the agriculture industry to shut out American workers in favor of foreign migrants.

Have a great weekend,

Daily Tech News 24 July 2026

—Pixy Misa

• AMD has announced its new Zen 6 Epyc server CPUs and we know, if anything, less about them than we did before the announcement. (WCCFTech)
  
  Here's the problem: Zen 6 is strongly rumoured to increase the core count per chiplet from 8 to 12, and increase the L3 cache and X3D cache per chiplet by 50% to match. Which means that the raw numbers of cores and cache do nothing to confirm or deny the 12 core rumour. It doesn't help that the announced mainstream products focused on 96 core models which would have the same numbers whether that's twelve 8-core chiplets or eight 12-core chiplets.
  
  Until you get all the way down to the bottom of the chart for Socket SP8 processors and find the 8-core Epyc with 48MB of cache which rather hints that 12 core chiplets are not a lie.
  
  Oh, also supported (officially) are PCIe Gen 6 - probably for servers only, and 12.8GHz MRDIMMs - also probably for servers only. And up to 16 memory channels per socket, which at 12.8GHz delivers close to three times the bandwidth of Epyc Zen 5.

Thursday 7/23/26 ONT in the Doghouse [Hour of the Wolf]

—Open Blogger

Source: Charles M. Schulz Museum

I got a little snoopy earlier today, so tonight I'm in the doghouse. Anyone care to join me? Fly in a Fokker Triplane for a dogfight?

***

Where did we get the phrase "in the doghouse"
People have conflicting theories.

Literal Origins: The Doghouse as a Symbol of Disfavor

The term “doghouse” has been part of the English language since at least the mid-1500s, referring to a shelter for dogs. In the late 19th century, the term evolved to describe the backyard structure for a single dog. The figurative use of “in the doghouse,” meaning to be in temporary disgrace, emerged by 1932.

Earliest Printed Record: Winsor McCay’s Comic Strip

The earliest known printed use of “in the doghouse” in its idiomatic sense appears in Winsor McCay’s comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend between 1904 and 1905. This predates the 1926 glossary Criminalese by J.J. Finerty, which defines “in dog house” as “in disfavor.

Maritime Theory: Sailors’ Punishment Quarters

Another theory suggests that the idiom originated in the 19th century when sailors slept in small huts on a ship’s deck, referred to as “dog houses.” Punished sailors were made to sleep in these cramped, uncomfortable spaces, leading to the association of “being in the doghouse” with being in trouble.

Source, and some other theories: theidioms.com

Today's Funnies
Two rabbits were being chased by a pack of hungry wolves. The wolves chased the rabbits into a thicket. After a few minutes, one rabbit turned to the other and said,
"Well, do you want to make a run for it, or should we stay here for a few days and out number them?"

***

When I was a kid, we played "Spin the Bottle". If they didn't want to kiss you, they'd have to give you a quarter. By the time I was 12, I owned my own house.

***

I prefer not to think before speaking. I like being just as surprised as everyone else by what comes out of my mouth.

***

I asked a librarian if she had a book about Pavlov's dog and Schrödinger's cat ...
She said it rang a bell, but she wasn't sure if it was there or not.

***

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***

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New Chicago Fire Hydrant

Doghouse Tunes

And one candidate I'm considering for 2028.

***

Not music, but calming: British Boobies and Yoga Puppies

Today's Poll

Your opinion only, not your dog's, please. Mine is D.

***

Tonight's ONT brought to you by Canine IT Services.

AOSHQ disclaims all content by guest posters.

Complaints about content should be directed to the Law Offices of Dindu Nuffin. Complaints about broken treats should be directed to the Law Offices of Howl and Meow.For best results, ask for Robert the Cat.

Feedback, and suggestions for new fill-in ONTs, should be sent to hour dot of dot the dot wolf dot 91 at gee mail dot com. I probably won't dash of a quick response to email. For morse details, ask below. I do not have keys to the site, with good reason, so the site is protected by calmer and wiser heads.

Close it up

Thursday Cafe

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Anskar Lenzen

Is it Friday yet?

Mother shepherd inspecting her puppies.

Charging up your puppy.

Wombats wombats wombats!

Baby guinea pig has something to say.

Rescue toucan. He's a real froot loop.

Dog and duck are farm friends.

Dog and duck are more than friends.

Ice cream truck!

Quick Hits

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Crime fell 18% last year, on its way to a historic low.

Crime rates are on the decline in U.S. cities with the national homicide rate falling by 18%, inching closer to a historic low, the Council on Criminal Justice said Thursday.

The Council on Criminal Justice released its mid-year report examining patterns for 13 types of crime in 36 U.S. cities. It found that nine of the 13 crimes were on the decline through mid 2026.

...

Lopez, a senior research specialist for the Council on Criminal Justice, and Boxerman, a research scientist for the Regional Justice Information Service based in Missouri, added in their report that there is not a single explanation for the current crime trends.

Of course. The "experts" always say the same thing after a tough-on-crime policy succeeds: "There are too many variables to say what has caused this."

The national homicide rate increased by 30% from 2019 to 2020.

Of the nine types of crime that declined in the first half of the year, carjacking had the greatest decrease, falling by 47%.

Drug offenses have continued to rise, marking the biggest upward trend at 12%.

The Council on Criminal Justice projected that the end of 2025 homicide rate would likely be the lowest since 1900. It says its mid-year data "suggest" the homicide rate in 2026 will fall even further, "reaching a new historic low."

Poll of NH: AOC, Bootyjudge lead race for Democrat nominee for president; Kamala Harris is near the bottom.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and failed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg now lead among Democrat presidential primary voters in New Hampshire.

This poll of 648 primary voters released on July 22 shows AOC at the top with 22 percent support. Buttigieg is right below her with 21 percent. Everyone else is in single digits.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) earns nine percent support. Failed Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is at eight percent. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) earns just six percent. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is at five percent.

But, John Nolte says, national polling puts Kamala Harris out front:

In the national polling, according to the RealClearPolitics poll of polls, Kamala is in first place, up by 11.3 points over second-place Newsom (27.9 percent to 16.6 percent).

...

Democrats are also captured entirely by an obsession with identity, and Kamala ticks off three of those vital boxes: She's black, she's a woman, and although no one will say so, she's a useful idiot.

This means that South Carolina is most likely to come first because it has a large black population.

The Democrat Party simply cannot afford to alienate black voters in 2028, especially black women. You can ask James Talarico about that.

One might speculate that whites are looking at Kamala Harris' actual performance, while blacks and black women especially are looking at the Racial Injustice of not nominating a black woman.

Democrats: Let's make every single aspect of culture, society, and politics relentlessly about race and "racial identity." What's the worse that can happen?

Iowa had traditionally been at the front of the line in assigning delegates (in caucuses, not a primary), but the Democrats decided the state was too white and too conservative to have such a prominent role anymore.

Technically, New Hampshire was the first primary in 2024, but it awarded zero delegates anyway. South Carolina, which saved Joe Biden's bacon in 2020, was the first real primary that mattered. And in South Carolina, the black vote is king in the Democratic Party.

For the 2028 primary season, the Democrats are having an internal battle over the first-in-the-nation status, and it has devolved into some nasty racial politics, because of course it has. This is what Democratic Party voters live, breathe, and fight about, because the only way to overcome racism is to think about race every second of the day, and have nightmares about microaggressions at night.

House Passes "Stop Insider Trading" Bill to Forbid Congressmen from Trading Individual Stocks (Using Insider Information);
Noted Lifelong Inside-Trader Nancy Pelosi Votes Against It

—Disinformation Expert Ace

The bill would allow congresmen to own stocks as part of money markets or indexes -- big groups of stocks traded by managers without input from the customer.

They, and their families, will just be barred from buying and selling individual stocks, where a congressman could make a killing based on insider knowledge of coming government action that could boost, or crush, a specific company's valuation.

But congressmen have been permitted to use their insider information -- either granted to them by their position on a committee or tipped to them as a straight-up bribe by company officials seeking official favor -- for decades. That's why every other congressman is a millionaire in six years.

This bill would stop that.

Except for when Congress starts modifying the bill by adding exceptions.

House passes 'Stop Insider Trading Act' in bipartisan vote

Democrats who opposed the legislation argued that the bill does not go far enough because it prohibits members of Congress and their families from buying new individual stocks, but it doesn't prevent them from owning them.

The House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote on Wednesday passed the "Stop Insider Trading Act," which bans lawmakers and their families from trading individual stocks.

The bill passed in a 232-198 vote, with 13 Democrats supporting the legislation. A similar bill is in the Senate.

Democrats who opposed the bill argued that it does not go far enough because it prohibits members of Congress and their families from buying new individual stocks, but it doesn't prevent them from owning them.

"For too long, Americans struggling to make ends meet have watched as lawmakers have entered office just to leave as multi-millionaires," House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. "This type of behavior is unacceptable and diminishes the American people's trust in this institution.

Nancy Pelosi has been a virulent opponent of such a ban in the past. That's because she's become one of the richest women of the country while "serving" in Congress.

The Democrats voted against this bill with the pretextual excuse "we want the bill to go farther" but one suspects they don't want the bill at all. Democrats have shown that they go into politics to plunder money from the public.

Amazing: Female USA "Sports" Columnist and Woke Karen Argues That Caitlin Clark Should Accept Being Fouled by Black Lesbians Because If She Complains She's Putting Black LGBTs in Danger

—Disinformation Expert Ace

This nasty Karen claims that Caitlin Clark is "flopping" -- pretending to have been hurt when another player fouls her, or she wants a ref to call a foul on the player that collided with her.

And she says that Caitlin's flopping is a Matter of National Concern, because Caitlin Collins' alleged flopping is "putting the lives of blacks and queers in danger."

She doesn't mention, at all, Clark being the target of unnecessarily rough "you don't belong here white girl" fouls. She pretends those away. She just claims that Caitlin Clark's "flopping" is different from the flopping of all other women in the WNBA -- or the "men" playing in the World Cup, who flop on the ground and start twitching if you even breather in their direction -- because her white tears might, hypothetically, provoke a hypothetical white supremacist to avenge her.

Oh, and she brings up racial martyr Emmet Till, killed seventy years ago, as the reason that Caitlin Clark has to take her Physical Reparations like a good girl and shut up about it.

Otherwise, it's Selma all over again.

Here's a couple of passages from this Woke White Savoir Sermon:

USA Today writer invokes Emmett Till, says Caitlin Clark puts Black and queer players 'in danger' by flopping Nancy Armour's column argues Clark's reactions to officiating fuel racist harassment of opponents

By Dan Zaksheske

USA Today columnist Nancy Armour wants Caitlin Clark to stop flopping and berating WNBA officials.

Plenty of people agree with that take, including OutKick's Dan Dakich.

Others would argue that Clark's frustration is understandable, given the physical treatment she has received and the WNBA's inconsistent officiating. Either way, Armour is well within her rights to criticize Clark's behavior on the court.

But Armour's latest column goes much further than that. Much, much further, as she invoked the murder of Emmett Till to try and make a point.

Armour argues that Clark's reactions to missed calls put "Black" and "queer" WNBA players "in danger," essentially blaming Clark for alleged racist messages sent by people she doesn't know and has publicly condemned.

...

Armour is using disputed basketball plays to push a left-wing narrative about "Black and queer" women in the WNBA.

...

And this isn't the first time Armour has worked backward to make Clark the problem.

After DiJonai Carrington poked Clark in the eye during the 2024 playoffs, leaving Clark with a black eye, Armour wrote that Clark needed to "call out the toxic segment of her fan base." Both Clark and Carrington said the contact was not intentional, but Clark was the player left with a black eye. Yet Armour decided Carrington was the victim and Clark was the perpetrator.

What Nancy Armour didn't write about

Now, let's contrast those incidents with what Armour didn't feel the need to write a column about.

Last month, Alyssa Thomas drove her fist to Clark's throat during a game between the Fever and Mercury. Officials didn't call a foul, but the WNBA reviewed the play afterward, assessed Thomas a Flagrant 2 and suspended her for one game for "recklessly making contact" with Clark's throat area.

Armour doesn't appear to have written a single word about that, at least not that I could find.

There was no demand from Armour that Thomas consider the wider consequences of her behavior. No lecture about how her actions might inflame an already toxic situation involving the league's most visible player.

But a troll sent Gray a nasty message after a different game, and Armour suddenly had enough concern about player safety to write an entire column blaming Clark.

There are people who treat words on the internet as equal to physical violence, if not worse. Armour's coverage certainly suggests she belongs in that group. Thomas struck Clark in the throat. Stokes kneed Clark in the quad. Carrington poked Clark in the eye. Chennedy Carter hip-checked Clark when her back was turned. The list goes on.

Yet, Armour casts Clark as the dangerous person.

Clark is the one constantly subjected to excessive physicality from other WNBA players, and Armour still finds a way to make the aftermath her responsibility. When someone else receives an ugly message online, Clark gets blamed for that, too.

No matter what happens, Armour arrives at the same conclusion: Caitlin Clark is the problem.

...

But if you think Armour had already taken this argument too far, we've got some bad news.

She wasn't done.

Armour then invoked Emmett Till.

Again, not satire.

"The WNBA's All-Star Game this weekend is in Chicago, Emmett Till's hometown, and a local art gallery is currently hosting an exhibit imagining his life if he hadn't been lynched. While it's incumbent on the WNBA to do more to protect its players, there also should be an expectation on Clark to recognize the wider consequences of her actions," Armour wrote.

Wow.

By invoking Till, Armour invites readers to connect Clark complaining about disputed foul calls to the history of false accusations by white women leading to violence against Black people.

Clark didn't falsely accuse Gray or Stokes of committing a crime. She certainly didn't ask anyone to harm them.

She complained about the referees during a basketball game.

Not only that, Armour doesn't identify a single incident in which a Black or "queer" WNBA player was physically assaulted by a stranger because of something Caitlin Clark said or did.

Her alleged danger is entirely hypothetical.
...

Meanwhile, some of the most serious, documented off-court safety incidents in women's basketball have involved Clark, Sophie Cunningham and Paige Bueckers. Men have been arrested and charged with stalking all three players.

Clark's stalker traveled to Indianapolis and sent her hundreds of threatening and sexually explicit messages. Paige Bueckers' stalker flew across the country with an engagement ring and lingerie because he believed he was going to marry her. Earlier this year, another man was charged with stalking Cunningham after allegedly sending threatening messages and delivering a package to Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

All three players are White.

Those cases don't prove that only white players face danger. They do show how backwards Armour's argument is. She has no documented example of Clark's behavior causing someone to physically attack a Black or "queer" player, yet she invokes Emmett Till while portraying Clark as a threat to their safety.

The actual arrests tell a very different story.

But Armour isn't following the evidence. She's forcing Clark into a racial and political narrative that has little to do with what actually happens on the court.

...

That is exactly what NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently criticized when he said it was "incredibly unfair" that Clark had become a political football when she simply wants to focus on basketball.

Armour's column proves his point.

A discussion about Clark flopping and mistreating officials turns into an argument about white nationalism, American racial violence, queer identity and Emmett Till. Talk about hitting every left-wing talking point and even throwing in a few extras.

...

That is exactly what NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently criticized when he said it was "incredibly unfair" that Clark had become a political football when she simply wants to focus on basketball.

Armour's column proves his point.

A discussion about Clark flopping and mistreating officials turns into an argument about white nationalism, American racial violence, queer identity and Emmett Till. Talk about hitting every left-wing talking point and even throwing in a few extras.

This woke white bitch got dragged online, and protected her tweets. (Which will become grist for her next "sports" column, When White Supremacy Came for Me.

Per TMZ, she's doubled down since then:

"In my recent column, I made an inartful comparison with the murder of Emmett Till," she wrote. "I intended to connect the issues the WNBA is currently facing with its All-Star Game being hosted in Till's hometown of Chicago. I obviously did not provide enough context for that."

Then she doubled down.

"However, this point stands: There is a history in this country of perceived threats to white women being weaponized against African-Americans, and the danger that poses to Black players in the league. Players have been abused online and have reported receiving death threats. That has to be taken more seriously."

CIA Report: Air Power Alone Can't Win Wars

—Disinformation Expert Ace

I've been saying this since day one.

Since WWII, air power theorists have promised a victory from the skies alone. It's never happened. (You can say "Japan" but that was an atomic bomb, and there was an ongoing ground and sea war going on at the same time, and the promise of a land invasion of the home islands.)

Technology is always advancing so there is often a plausible argument for why a victory through the skies is possible now -- the B-52 can drop more bombs than any aircraft ever imagined, cruise missiles can hit a specific window of a building, etc. -- but it's never once panned out.

Ukraine is proving you can fight the Russian army and navy to a standstill -- or better -- with air power, specifically, drone power. But drones are fairly short-range. I'd love a drone invasion of Iran, but those drones would have to be launched and serviced from inside Iran, or at least right on the border.

So what is the endgame here? I don't think it's going to be an actual victory.

It might just be the unsatisfying situation after the Gulf War, when Saddam remained in power and remained belligerent but the US just kept up a regime of "maintenance bombing," as one guy put it, for years and years.

But an actual victory? Not likely.

Report: CIA Says Iran Won't Yield to US Strikes

The CIA are a bunch of paper-pushing failed-academic clowns but I think they're basically right.

A new CIA report indicates that U.S. military strikes are unlikely to change Iran's negotiating stance with the Trump administration.

U.S. military strikes won't significantly alter Iran's negotiating stance, according to a new CIA report.

A new U.S. intelligence assessment, first reported by The Washington Post, concludes that despite days of sustained U.S. airstrikes, Tehran is unlikely to soften its position or make major concessions in negotiations with the Trump administration.

According to current and former U.S. officials cited by the newspaper, CIA analysts believe the United States and Iran remain locked in an uneasy cycle of conflict that falls somewhere between war and peace, with neither side showing signs of backing down.

The assessment has reportedly been briefed to the Trump administration as U.S. forces continue retaliatory operations following renewed Iranian attacks in the Middle East.

...

Despite the military pressure, intelligence officials reportedly believe Iran's leadership remains focused on preserving the regime and is prepared to absorb significant losses rather than accept U.S. demands.

...

"They continue to send signals that they want to talk, that they want to negotiate, but their behavior is what we're responding to," Rubio recently said, noting Iran has continued launching missiles and drones at ships in the region.

But that's all nonsense. It's just the "Muslim way of war" -- attack attack attack, and then call for phony "peace talks" while you re-arm and plan your next attack. "Negotiations" just mean "give Iran time to procure new Chinese missiles and build more drones."

We could maybe kill enough Iranian regime thugs that eventually there are too few of them to control the country, but that will take years.

The likely path to victory -- excluding a ground invasion, which seems politically impossible -- will come after a year of bombing so devastating the economy completely collapses and the public is willing to wade into heavy machine-gun fire because they're starving and rip the Muslim conquerors to pieces.

And I don't know if we have any other choice than that grim endgame.

In very expected bad news, oil is over $100 per barrel again.

Global oil prices on Thursday crossed $100 a barrel for the first time since May, after Houthi militants in Yemen claimed to have struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.

The reported attack, which came alongside continued strikes between the United States and Iran, threatened to worsen an oil shock that had already amounted to one of the largest in history.

Trump threatens to attack Iran every time its proxy army in Yemen attacks ships, but I don't think that's much of a threat, because he's already attacking Iran.

The jihadists of Iran plan to fight until the last dead civilian.

Below: The US Marines rappelled down to the deck of an Iranian shadow tanker and seized it.

Everyone understand a machine-gun pointed right at your head.

Ethiopian Migrant Culturally Enriches Three American Citizens In, Get This, Minnesota

—Disinformation Expert Ace

But I'm sure he was an engineer or doctor or scientist developing a cure for cancer. So the three senseless, barbaric murders he committed are balanced out.

This "migrant" could not convince the government to let him bring his family over from Ethiopia. He decided that he was being discriminated against because he was black and an immigrant, which is exactly the murderous grievance instilled in him by the American left.

Suspect charged with killing three people in St. Paul apartment leasing office

Charges filed against the man accused of fatally shooting three people in St. Paul on Monday allege he opened fire on the apartment management company employees after being told he could not cancel his garage parking contract.

Tsegaab Ademassu Binessu, 30, was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court with three counts of second-degree murder.

He's accused of killing Nansi G. Fuentes Zambrano, 25, of Inver Grove Heights; Dena M. Silcox, 56, of St. Paul; and Adam J. Wilwerding, 43, of Oakdale. They were fatally shot inside an apartment complex leasing office on St. Paul Avenue on Monday afternoon.

The charges state that the shooting was captured on surveillance video and claim that Binessu also confessed to his roommate. Court documents allege that Binessu "executed" the three victims.

...

Binessu's longtime roommate reportedly called police and said Binessu had confessed to the shooting. He said Binessu had quit his trucking job and planned on enlisting in the Navy -- and that he had just sold his vehicle.

"The roommate thought Binessu planned to speak with apartment management about cancelling his $65/month parking garage contract because he had sold his car," the complaint states. "The roommate spoke to Binessu hours later. Binessu said he had argued with apartment management and ended up killing three people."

....

The shooting happened a short time later. The complaint alleges that surveillance video shows Binessu shooting each of the victims multiple times.

The complaint states that he was arrested Monday night on the Iron Range, driving the car of one of the victims.

Binessu allegedly told investigators "he hated the American system," the complaint states. "Binessu complained of unsuccessfully trying to bring his wife and children from Ethiopia for seven years. Binessu said the prolonged immigration process contributed to his divorce and separation from his children."

He also reportedly complained that apartment management would not help him, and that he believed he was "treated unfairly because he is Black and an immigrant."

As Black Conservative Perspective wonders: How long until Tim Walz pardons him?

One of JD Vance's Secret Service Agents Is Under Investigation for Leaking "Sensitive" Information

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Just filled with rotten apples, one after another.

A member of Vice President JD Vance's Secret Service detail is under investigation for allegedly leaking sensitive information, the agency confirmed Thursday.

The administrative investigation could become a criminal inquiry, Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service's chief of communications, said, according to CBS News.

"While we will not comment on the specifics of this matter, one principle is unequivocal: any conduct that potentially threatens the safety of a protectee will not be tolerated," Gugliemi said.

The allegations, according to Gugliemi, involve compromising operational and information security. Gugliemi didn't provide specific allegations, nor did he name the person under suspicion.

The agent is on administrative leave as the government conducts both administrative and criminal investigations.

This follows last week's story that the White House teleprompter operator had made $100,000 making political bets on Kalshi, based, assumedly, on inside information about what Trump would be talking about before he actually said it.

President Donald Trump's longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on more than a dozen of Trump's speeches on the prediction market Kalshi, federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president who has been operating Trump's teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations he used his inside knowledge of the president's speeches to win more than $100,000, the sources said.

According to the sources, Kalshi alerted its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to the suspicious activity on its "Mentions" market, where users can bet on whether specific words, phrases or topics are uttered during a public speech.

"Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators," Kalshi's head of enforcement, Bobby DeNault, said in a statement provided to ABC News.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday afternoon, following ABC News' report, that Perez has been put on unpaid administrative leave. Leavitt said she spoke with President Trump about it, and he thought it was a "disgrace" and made the decision himself to put Perez on unpaid.

Jim Jordan Makes a Criminal Referral to the DOJ For Jack Smith's Perjury; Melania Presses Sanctions Against Democrat Media Party Hatchet Man Michael Wolff

—Disinformation Expert Ace

I know, I know: file it in the "Nothing Will Happen" folder.

But still.

The criminal referral is for his perjury in denying that he and his team had read the contents of congressmen's texts.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan issued a criminal referral against former Special Counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday for allegedly making "willfully and intentionally false statements" when testifying before Congress last December.

"The Committee on the Judiciary writes to refer strong evidence that appears to show Jack Smith, former Special Counsel, knowingly made false statements during his December 17, 2025 deposition," Jordan wrote in a letter sent to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

In the letter, Jordan questioned what Smith said under oath about obtaining phone records of 44 lawmakers who communicated with President Donald Trump and other members of the White House related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

"This information calls into question the completeness and accuracy of statements that Mr. Smith made under oath to the Committee regarding his team's access to the content of Members' text messages," Jordan wrote.

Jordan stated that responses by Smith during congressional testimony "gave the impression that neither Mr. Smith nor his team had access to the content of members' privileged text messages."

"We now know this to be false," Jordan wrote.

"His conduct can only be understood as an effort to thwart the Committee's inquiry by intentionally making false statements and representations before Congress. We therefore believe that sufficient evidence exists for DOJ to examine whether Mr. Smith's actions warrant a charge," the letter added.

Melania is meanwhile seeking judicial sanctions against Michael Wolff, a persistently unethical and loathsome gay gossip columnist posturing as a journalist.

Melania Trump files for sanctions against Michael Wolff over Epstein-linked allegations he made

Her legal team argued the first lady should be granted the sanctions because Wolff allegedly manufactured a jurisdictional dispute in an attempt to keep the case in New York state court, used litigation for improper purposes and made a "frivolous" claim.

First lady Melania Trump filed a motion for sanctions Tuesday against journalist Michael Wolff, after he tried to sue her to prevent her from suing him over allegedly defamatory statements he made regarding her and Jeffrey Epstein.

The first lady is now looking to recover costs and reasonable attorneys' fees incurred in Wolff's lawsuit, along with other appropriate relief, saying the lawsuit was "a fundraising drive and a political spectacle," according to Fox News.

...

"Plaintiff and his counsel asserted a legally frivolous claim, propped it up with factual contentions that lacked any evidentiary support, and used them to run a political and commercial campaign," her team said in the filing. "They should pay for Mrs. Trump's fees and expenses incurred for the process they abused."

The legal team argued Wolff wrongly claimed the first lady was heavily involved in the Epstein scandal, despite her denying a friendship with the late convicted sex-offender and his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

Hello!

The Morning Rant

—CBD

Yes, it is July 2026, and presidential nominee polls two+ years before the election are measures of whose name has been in the news, rather than the slightly more methodical decisions that Americans make closer to the election.

But a surging AOC is vastly amusing. As the public, social-media-driven Democrat Party is dominated by the young and stupid Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), they are sucking up all of the media coverage, which is a fantastic thing for the conservative movement in America. Exposing the DSA as just another garden variety socialist movement will energize the silent majority of Americans who aren't enamored of most of their policies.

And those policies are untethered to any sort of sane messaging. It has been the traditional technique of the Democrat/Progressive movement in America to hide their income redistribution and nationalization and wackadoodle foreign policy behind vague, faintly rational catch phrases and buzz-words. But the DSA is far too impatient for such niceties, and their full-throated championing of obvious socialist policy has attracted larger numbers of the young, disaffected, and ignorant. But there aren't enough angry and poor baristas with masters degrees in Lesbian poetry of The Low Countries to make much of a dent in the presidential race.

AOC surges past Buttigieg, leaves Harris in the dust in key 2028 battleground poll

Ocasio-Cortez has been coy about her 2028 plans and careful not to rule out either a White House run in the race to succeed term-limited President Donald Trump, or a bid for the Senate against longtime Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is up for re-election in two years. When asked about a run for higher office, Ocasio-Cortez recently said her goal is to "change the country."

As a comparison, look to the election of 1968, when the country was in the throes of a calculated campaign to split the country, drive us out of Vietnam, and catastrophically "change the country." The result was an unpopular Republican getting elected by a large margin (301 electoral votes) even with Wallace's third party splitting the vote!

Hopefully the DSA and their ilk will continue to drown out the traditional crypto-socialists like Buttigieg and Newsom, although the thought of Chlamydia Harris running another presidential campaign warms the cockles of my heart.

Just imagine the debates between AOC or Harris, and Vance or Rubio. If that doesn't make you smile, nothing will!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem
Francesco Hayez

The Morning Report — 7/ 23 /26

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Say what you will about President Trump, and it is my opinion that he will be remembered in the fullness of time as among our greatest of President's primarily for reestablishing sane American foreign policy that both ensures our own national security but ultimately results in the true liberation of the oppressed masses suffering under the yoke of tyrannical communism/socalism especially here in our own hemisphere. As CBD and I discussed on the latest episode of the podcast linked here and in the sidebar as well as available on the popular platforms listed at the bottom of this post, led by for once by an intelligent, driven and unabashedly pro-American Secretary of State in the person of Marco Rubio, Latin America which for far too long had been relegated to basket case status is undergoing a reverse domino effect wherein socialist hellhole nations have rid themselves of socialism and are embracing liberty and freedom. Most notably Nayib Bukele in EL Salvador as well as Javier Milei in Argentina. Although Hugo Chavez and the Maduro-ista cancer has been excised from Venezuela the situation there is still in flux. But that said, I think America and Americanism are on the march here in our hemisphere for sure. And that said, there are rumblings in the air that the long imprisned Caribbean Island gulag of CUBA might before long breathe free for the first time in over 66 years. About the only people who would not be celebrating would be our fellow citizens in name only — the cadres and leadership of the Democrat/Left.

The secretary noted that the end goal would be to uproot the communists and have "Cuba where the people of Cuba can experience prosperity, safety, security and a better life moving forward." “We’re prepared to be realistic about how you do that and patient about the serious process that leads to that. We’ve engaged them from time to time in that regard and know where we stand on that issue. Hopefully that’s where it arrives.

That would be marvelous but how can we uproot the communists right here at home and ensure that America and the American experiment can survive and thrive for another 250 years. Despite the rise of the so-called Democratic Socialists who are neither of those things although Socialism is the cancer from which untold millions can will and have perished. It must be utterly smashed if we are to continue, and there seem to be positive signs. We reported on a recent poll indicating a broad swathe of the nation are genuinely terrified and revolted by the prospect of Communism,

Four in ten Americans view communists in the United States as posing a major or moderate threat, a recent weekly survey from the Economist/YouGov found. The survey asked respondents, “How much of a threat, if any, do Communists in the United States pose today?” Across the board, 43 percent considered communists in the U.S. as at least a moderate threat. More specifically, 18 percent consider it a “major” threat, and 25 percent consider it a “moderate” threat. Another 23 percent consider it a “minor” threat, and 33 percent said communists in the U.S. pose no threat at all.

And yet, this shit:

There’s little question that the Democratic Socialists of America are more influential than any time in recent history. Indeed, it’s perhaps the most influential arm of the Democratic Party today, wielding policy clout and winning local elections. But are DSA policies really so popular? July’s I&I/TIPP Poll asked voters to find out.

The DSA’s recent “Workers Deserve More!” document outlined its main policy goals. For I&I/TIPP’s July Poll, taken by 1,473 Americans from June 29 through July 2, voters were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with five separate DSA proposals. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.

First, I&I/TIPP asked about DSA’s proposal for the “abolition of jails and prisons.”

Only 26% agreed either strongly (10%) or somewhat (16%) with this plan, while 62% disagreed strongly (47%) or somewhat (15%).

The other questions/DSA policy aims are equally revolting as I'm sure you can imagine.

I guess most people who are reportedly terrified of communism are unaware that its precursor is socialism. At some point you just throw up your arms at this mess.

We'll see if the two term presidency of Marco Rubio can deal with this. I look forward to that, Democrat election thievery notwithstanding.

Have a good day,

Daily Tech News 23 July 2026

—Pixy Misa

• Across the social sciences, half of research doesn't replicate. (Science)
  
  And only 34% of it is confirmed by multiple reviewers.
  
  But it gets worse.
  
  In political science and economics replicability rises to more than 60%.
  
  For education, the number is... Zero.