TWO SATELLITE LAUNCHES FROM JULY 25TH:

Falcon 9 launches 10 Iridium satellites. The launch occurs about 21 minutes into the video; booster engine cutoff (BECO) and the boost back burn to return the booster to a successful relanding on a downrange barge occurs at about 25 minutes. Then skip forward to see the 10 Iridium satellites released. The commentary is quite good if you want to watch throughout.

Ariane 5 launches four Galileo satellites. Again, the liftoff occurs about 21 minutes into the video. Unfortunately if you want to listen in, you should be fluent in French.

Both videos are quite long - well over an hour each - so you'll probably want to skip back and forth to catch the interesting parts.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL warns of ‘new wave of American gun violence’ from 3D-printed firearms.

Having heard from the hysterical Sen. Blumenthal, here is a sensible analysis.

I FOLLOWED A 'BERNIE BRO' on my way home from town this afternoon. It was a winding, two lane road, not a 4-lane divided parkway, so he had a very difficult time keeping is mini-Fiat on the road.

That seems (to me) to be a metaphor for progressivism: they believe the road should follow the steering wheel, instead of using the steering wheel to follow the road.

The Laws of Physics don't respond to 'feelings'....

I ONCE LIVED IN AUSTIN. But I'm not going back: City report on Confederate monuments raises idea of renaming Austin.

The city has been taken over by the PC/SJW idiotocracy. These virtue police are illiterate, ignorant of history, willfully unable to learn from it, and condemned to repeat it.

Although I'll miss the Mexican food, I won't return until the adults in Austin - if there are any left - kick the snowflakes back to the children's table until they grow up and are fit to be in the presence of adults.

The Social Justice Warriorship has ruined the city.

SO, YOU MEAN THEFT? Cynthia Nixon [NY Democrat gubernatorial candidate] takes a page from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Big Book of Bullshit.

TRUMP DOESN'T CARE ABOUT MONTENEGRO. He should.

THIS is what 'woke' looks like. Arrogant. Ugly. Illiterate. Stupid.

BERNIE SANDERS disputes group’s cost analysis of single-payer proposal for which he hasn’t done a cost analysis.

The reason Sanders’ people haven’t done a cost analysis on their own plan is probably that they can’t count that high.

Math isn't a Progressive Socialist's strong suit.

SANTA BARBARA up the ante on straw criminals; IowaHawk plans a straw cartel.

The comments are hilarious....

RUTH BADER GINSBURG: I’ve got at least another five years in me.

Trump: I've got six.

POWERLINE: Gender fluidity has its advantages.

Next up - Ladies Night at your local bar....

RANDOM THOUGHT: What I'd like to see President Trump say to the world: "Show me your tariffs and I'll match them."

JERRY JONES: Dallas Cowboy players must stand for the National Athem. Finally - an owner with a spine.

QB Dak Prescott agrees.

TORONTO MAYOR: It's time to ban guns.

No, it's time to ban Liberals....

REPORT: U.S. therapists see increase in patients with ‘Trump Anxiety Disorder’. Trump is even increasing employment in the progressive/SJW communities.

Heh.

FINALLY:

Problem solved.

PET ROCKS ARE SMARTER: How dumb are socialists?

INSTAPUNDIT nails it.

THE POLLS ARE CRAZY: So are the voters.

ANOTHER FIRST FOR MARK ZUCKERBERG: Facebook’s $100 billion-plus rout is the biggest loss in stock market history.

THE LEFT HAS GONE HOWLING-AT-THE-MOON MAD: New York Times targets Kavanaugh’s wife.

America responds.

BUT WHICH GOD? Maxine Waters tells faithful flock her Trump bashing all part of mission from God.

TODAY’S DEMOCRATIC PARTY, as exemplified by CNN.

A THOUGHT FOR PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISTS:

He walked the talk; you talk the walk. See the difference?

PORTLAND POLICE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT: ‘Our city has become a cesspool’.

Someone finally noticed....

THE OCASIO-CORTEZ highlight reel:

The good people at the Washington Free Beacon have compiled a highlight reel of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s greatest hits, framed by DNC chairperson Tom Perez praising Ocasio-Cortez as “the future” of the Democratic Party. I certainly hope so!

I tried, but was only able to watch it about 20 seconds. Much more and I'm sure my brain would have melted. Watch at your own risk.

VOX QUESTION: "Do white people have a positive or negative effect on America?"

Hilarity ensues. Best answer: "No one tell David who signed the Declaration of Independence...."

REMEMBERING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION:

So many years. So few accomplishments.

IF IT WEREN’T FOR FAKE HATE CRIMES, how many hate crimes would we have?

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Trump-bashing New York Daily News cuts staff.

Instapundit suggests that those laid off journalists might want to look for a different line of work.

UBER DRIVER boots group of NC Young Republicans from vehicle and dumps them at gas station.

The driver should have been fired; he wasn't.

A MODEST PROPOSAL: Revoke their security clearances.

Security clearances are a deep state guild or union card allowing the holders to swan about intelligence facilities, chatting, gossiping, and gathering intelligence that they can leak to journalists.

As someone who's spent 30 years in the defense industry, I can confirm that Jones is absolutely correct; a TS/SCI clearance is a guild card to be held forever and defended ferociously.

And if secrets are to be kept, there are far too many of them out there.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: FISA applications confirm the FBI relied on the unverified Steele dossier. Read it all.

CUE EYE ROLL: Hillary's 2016 campaign advisers are really handling her loss well.

The average pre-school class behaves more maturely.

Well said, though I would argue pre-schoolers behave better.

SEEN ON THE CHURCH MESSAGE BOARD: "Prevent sinburn; use sonscreen."

RANDOM THOUGHT: The Democrats' first response to any event - any event - is to always - always! - protect the guilty and punish the innocent.

TEN NATIONAL PARKS you didn't know existed.

ANTHONY KENNEDY ANSWERED TOUGH QUESTIONS. Shouldn't Brett Kavanaugh? The thought is worthy but I'm afraid the time has passed.

BREAKING NEWS: Scott Walker is a Russian spy!!! And the 'Smart Set' are, as usual, the usual idiots....

ASK ME IF I CARE: Stormy Daniels and husband have ‘decided to end their marriage’. Good riddance to them both.

Now if her lawyer would just go away....

DILBERT channels the Democrat Party.

A THOUGHT FOR HILLARY 2020: "The Democratic Party deserves nothing from this country, except for defeat and extinction."

TOTALLY NON-BIASED FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Vote for Democrats this November or you’re not a patriot.

Ever notice that when people like Comey say policy differences don’t matter, it’s only Republicans who are supposed to put aside their policy differences?

That's because Democrats know they're always right. And patriotic, even when disrespecting the flag.

ADDED: Instapundit is no fan of Comey either.

DEMOCRAT HYPOCRISY KNOWS NO BOUNDS: John Brennan slams Trump for ‘giving Putin a pass’ on stuff that happened while HE was CIA director under Obama.

DON SURBER GETS IT: It was a Strzok of genius.

Our 'inside the beltway' pundits - on both sides- are often loons.

IOWAHAWK SICS THE TWITTER MOB on certified she-demon Allegra Budenmayer.

Yes, it's a joke (on progressives).

PROPER GUN CONTROL: Man uses AR-15 to end multi-county crime spree in Oklahoma.

I'D PREFER SHEILA JACKSON LEE: Most liberal House Democrat Barbara Lee wants to replace Crowley as Caucus Leader.

Or maybe Maxine Waters....

ROBERT MUELLER'S LATEST INDICTMENTS: "If the idea was to give Vladimir Putin and his thug regime a new way to sabotage the United States, nice work."

WITH APOLOGIES TO TONY BENNETT: I left my shit in San Francisco.

IT’S UNDENIABLE: Trump is blessed with really stupid enemies. Of course, they're Dumbocrats. Er, Democrats.

RANDOM THOUGHT: James Comey is Peter Strzok without the smirk.

THE DISHONESTY OF THE DEEP STATE: It’s like they think know the law doesn’t apply to them.

Click through and read the entire post.

NASA CHIEF: Trump's space force will guard U.S. from above. There's a lot of opinion being passed around that the 'Space Force' should be part of - or modeled after - the Air Force, but I disagree. It should be modeled after, but not be part of, the Navy/Marine Corps. Star Trek notwithstanding, the Navy/Marine Corps is the only U.S. military force with a history dating back to the founding of this Nation with a history of patrolling and enforcing U.S. law on the frontiers beyond our borders.

MICHAEL GOODWIN: Peter Strzok's arrogance is the product of a corrupt FBI. No, it isn't. It's the product of a corrupt governing class.

INSTAPUNDIT https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/302141/comments: "The amount of institutional damage being done to the FBI by its Hillary/Obama capture is enormous and not yet fully appreciated."

WE WOKE WORK: Striking a new low in corporate 'virtue'.

I am not in the market for WeWork’s services, but if I were, I would hire someone else, on the assumption that any company that is 1) this dumb, and 2) this distracted from its core mission is probably incompetent.

I think that can be safely said of any virtue signaler, corporate or individual.

Perhaps these 'woke companies' could take their virtue signaling to Asia and Africa, where it might (and I emphasize might) have some impact.

FOR CONTROL: Why Leftists become thugs.

The belief that you are so superior to others that you should be allowed to control them — it's that that inevitably moves people to violence and cruelty. In movies about American slavery, filmmakers always try to impress you with the brutality of the institution by showing rapes and whippings. But that gives a mistaken impression. Slavery isn't wrong because masters rape and whip their slaves. Masters rape and whip their slaves because slavery is wrong; because when you think yourself so superior to others that you no longer need their consent to govern them, you have created in your own mind the right to harass and hurt and bully them. You have turned yourself into a monster.

Or into a Leftist.

THOMAS SOWELL: his 30 best quotes.

My favorite is his last (#1): “There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs.” It's a favorite because that's what I did for a living for 30 years as a systems engineer in the defense industry. I usually described it as 'seeking the least worst solution'.

CHRIS SWECKER: GOP got played in the Strzok hearing.

Sorry, but I disagree - the America I know got front-row seats to a stunning display of smugness, arrogance, hypocrisy, deceit, contempt, outright lying, and probably criminal hostility to America's democracy on the part of the liberal governing class and their enablers in Congress.

John Brennan (CIA), James Clapper (DNI), James Comey (FBI), and Rod Rosenstein (DOJ) should all be criminally indicted and prosecuted, the senior management of all four departments fired, and their offices fumigated.

MORE FROM THE ANNALS OF GOVERNMENT STUPIDITY: The businessman in the cassock.

The only way to achieve less stupidity in government is with less government. The stupidity is inherent.

THANK YOU GOD for clueless Democrats.

Methinks that 'blue wave' is just water swirling around the drain....

THE SMUG IS STRONG IN THIS ONE: Voxplaining rural America.

While there are some serious elements in this article, what really chaps my ass is the implicit assumption on the part of interviewer and interviewee that somehow the rural way of life (i.e., culture) is less worthy than its urban counterpart. But how long do you suppose urban America would survive if rural America quit feeding them?

For my part I agree with this quote: "Give me small-town America over its cultured despisers any day."

THE FISA APPLICATIONS: DOJ's self-licking ice cream cone.

MR. PRESIDENT, drain the swamp. And if your appointees won't do it, fire them.

AND SOME OF THEM ARE RODENTS: Chicago named new 'rat capital' of the country.

FASTER FEILER FASTER: the journalistic race to the bottom.

A mad chariot race to Hell in a handbasket....

NEW YORKER COLUMNIST JOHN CASSIDY: Republicans are ruthless.

Would you like some vegan cheese to go with that whine?

JUSTICE APPLIED: Makes you feel good all over.

KURT SCHLICTER: Liberals are super sad about the Supreme Court.

A lot of people who have never been in a fistfight will tell you that you shouldn’t kick a man when he’s down. Baloney. That’s the best time to kick a man – before he can get up again and maybe put you on the ground – or in it.

If it’s worth fighting, it’s worth winning – decisively. And that’s what we need to do about the Supreme Court and everything else in our battle with progressive tyranny. We’re in a mortal struggle against the left – if you doubt it, just get on social media and they’ll tell you it’s a mortal struggle. They will also tell you that it’s open season on you if you dare resist. So, it behooves us to win, and there’s no reason we can’t immensely enjoy it while we do.

Stomp on them first; then sit back and enjoy the popcorn.

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: 'We Have to Mobilize [for the children]'.

"Our nation is in a moral crisis," said Ocasio-Cortez in response to a question about why she went to the border just three days before the primary election.

"Every day that we allow these two thousand children that have been ripped from their parents -- which is an internationally recognized human rights violation, this is being done in our name, this is being done in representation of us as United States citizens -- every day that we allow the continued violation of those children's rights is the day I believe the moral character of the United States is at stake."

Every day, more than 2,500 children are 'ripped from their mother's womb' in the United States of America.

And the Democratic Socialists don't care....

ABSOLUTELY NO! Mueller seeks immunity, anonymity for 5 'potential witnesses' in Manafort trial.

There will be no star chambers.

RESISTANCE MOVEMENT vows to do anything to stop Trump short of treating other half of country with respect.

Theoretically it's satire but I prefer Dan Rather's description - 'fake but accurate'.

CORRECT: Putin summit may prove to be Trump's finest hour.

Finally, someone in the media who isn't dumber than dirt.

"BY THE TIME I learn enough about a news story to realize I don't care, it turns out to be bullshit anyway."

AVOID DOOM: Ignore the political class. And the Liberals, and the Progressives, nd the Environmentalists, doomsayers all.

DUMBOCRATS.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY: We stand foursquare for intellectual excellence -- unless they're Asian.

OH, THE HORROR! Son of Scotswoman insults Queen of England.

HEH:

Linked from Townhall.

BECAUSE ISRAEL: Why are Greens silent over this ongoing ecological war?

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures has posted. My favorite?

Go see the rest - the Trump freakout is in full flower.

The hole the Democrats are digging for themselves should erupt any day now when it hits the magma at the Earth's core....

ACCOUNTABILITY ISN'T JUST FOR LITTLE GUYS: Politicians and bureaucrats should start paying a price for failure. Kicking them out of their sinecures isn't enough.

ASTROTURF, AS IT USED TO BE KNOWN: Mystery as IDENTICAL letters appear in 21 newspapers across 12 states slamming Trump’s Supreme Court pick – and they’re all signed by different people.

#FakeNews.

AMMO GRRRLL has a few follow-up questions. Read it all, and by all means follow through her link as a reminder of why we need to bring back insane asylums for progressive Leftists.

JUST ANOTHER DAY of politics as usual. "An intelligent Democrat would be embarrassed by his party’s antics.... Are there any such left?"

PORTRAIT of a Democrat.

SURPRISED? Democrats love socialism because they want to take your stuff and enslave you.

After all, they're your (self)-appointed enlightend superiors, destined (by themselves) to guide you to the Promised Land.

WHY SHOULD WE? Can you really cure a ‘depressed’ vagina?

IT INTERFERES WITH THE POSTURING: How dare Republicans make us vote on the “abolish ICE” bill, say Democrats who wrote the “abolish ICE” bill.

Click through to the original link.

SLAVERY: What they didn't teach in my high school. My wife did - in the classes she taught in elementary school.

AN INTELLIGENT DEMOCRAT would be embarrassed by his party’s antics on Thursday. Are there any such left?

The short answer - no.

BRETT KAVANAUGH uses credit cards, likes baseball, drinks beer. Oh My God. He must be a ... a ... DEPLORABLE!

I'll bet he likes barbeque too....

QUESTION: Is "consensus" a synonym for "bullying"? If your allegiance is to the tribal Left, the answer is a resounding "Yes!"

JUST ANOTHER DEMOCRAT HYPOCRISY ALERT: John Kerry was against the Russia-to-Germany pipeline before he was for it.

NEWS FROM THE SHIP OF FOOLS: Climate change trapped soccer team in cave in Thailand.

PowerLine noticed.

DEMOCRATS: Kavanaugh threatens the Left's 'right to cheat'.

It must be hidden in one of those penumbras to the Constitution....

HEH: Been there, done that.

RURAL DEMOCRATS’ BIG PROBLEM IN MINNESOTA: “Nobody cares about us.”

It's not just in Minnesota.

ANOTHER THOUGHT ON PETER STRZOK: If that arrogant bastard man even marginally represents the leadership of the FBI then the entire headquarters staff should be fired, the building razed, and the earth salted beneath it.

If he is even marginally representative of the FBI as a whole - and I hope not - then God help us all....

SAN FRANCISCO'S NEW MAYOR confronts city in turmoil amid crime, homelessness, lost business. A Democrat trying to fix a Democrat cesspit? Good luck with that.

It would take an earthquake followed by a tsunami to clean up San Francisco....

SERIOUSLY, everything is not okay.

This young couple from a modest background has all the potential in the world. They’re both ambitious, intelligent, and very good at a valuable skill. They’re devoted to their family, their dreams, and each other. They dream of better things and are willing to gamble, willing to work hard today for a better tomorrow, and willing to take on the additional responsibilities that come with owning a business. They’re savvy enough with modern government to hire attorneys and consultants to help with the red tape.

And even they can’t open a new business, to do something they already know how to do.

President Trump, to his credit, is trying to do something about it. Wish him well.

IF YOU WONDER HOW LEMMINGS DEMOCRATS THINK, here's an example. Groupthink avoids reality like the plague.

WATCHING THE STRZOK HEARING (to the extent my stomach can stand it) Peter Strzok is a smug, arrogant, asshole.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Another firm is cutting ties with Dick's Sporting Camping Goods.

'BRETT' IS SO TOXIC A NAME that Brett Favre is seeking to change his name to 'Carl'.

(Yes, it's satire. But just barely.)

HEH:

Linked from Townhall's comics page.

STOCK UP ON BUTTERED POPCORN and watch the Liberal implosion.

SAN FRANCISCO: Blivit by the bay.

DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS react to Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court:

No more affordable health care, by decree of the Supreme Court! Unions are banned! All civil rights are abolished! As we have said many times, the leaders of the Democratic Party believe that the party’s members are stupid. I am afraid they may be right.

I'm certain they're right.

ANY QUESTIONS? I thought not.

DEMOCRATS ACCUSE TRUMP OF SEXISM for not nominating the female justice [Amy Coney Barrett] they promised to block.

The Democrats can't seem to keep their hypocrisy in check for even a few days....

THE GOOD POPULISM: “They all have it coming.”

... there was also another populist tradition, lying dormant. It was a quieter but far more potent bomb just waiting to blow up—if someone ever would be so uncouth and angry enough to detonate it.

I'm waiting for a Democrat-shattering "kaboom!"

Be sure to click through to read Hanson's piece in entirety.

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS: Mom shoots man trying to steal her car with her kids inside.

ACTUALLY, SOCIALISM DOES WORK: "[T]he leaders of the socialist movement are perfectly well aware that the inevitable result of socialism is tyranny and mass poverty. But for them, this isn’t a bug, it is a feature."

SEEN ON A CHURCH MESSAGE BOARD:

I didn't call it the Ten Recommendations.

-- God.

But that was before political correctness....

LET THE SUPREME COURT NOMINEE BE AMY CONEY BARRETT: New Harvard research says U.S. Christianity is not shrinking, but growing stronger. Put the Democrats to a real test.

Update: Trump's pick for SCOTUS is Brett Kavanaugh. Maybe he's saving Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg - that would cause progressive heads to explode....

AND THEY'RE NOT JUST ON WOMEN: Americans apparently have the biggest boobs in the world.

JUST NOT HIS SEAT: On eve of Trump's Supreme Court pick, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) suggests Democrats sacrifice Senate seats to stop nomination.

JUST DESSERTS (LITERALLY): Rhino poachers killed, eaten by pride of lions after breaking into South African game reserve. The authorities believe there were three poachers based on the recovery of pairs of shoes....

KLAVAN ON THE CULTURE: The toxic race-mongering of the Left.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION continues the Great Undoing.

INDEPENDENCE DAY POSTSCRIPT: Conceived in Liberty.

GOD BLESS AMERICA: An enduring love letter.

POWERLINE: THE ETERNAL MEANING OF INDEPENDENCE DAY, Part I and Part II.

HE DIDN'T NEED THE JOB. But he took it anyway.

And America is better off for it.

A REAL AMERICAN on the meaning of Independence Day.

ANN COULTER ON INDEPENDENCE DAY: "We made it for ...[242]... years. And then, for some reason, the Democrats decided to give our country away to the rest of the world."

GIVEN THE STRANGLEHOLD the revolutionary revolting Left has on education, I'm surprised it isn't larger: The patriotism gap.

IF YOU VALUE DIVERSITY THAT MUCH, why don't you resign and open your position to someone 'diverse'?

To which the white liberal establishment responds "Well, someone must take care of the slaves 'diversity' employees on the plantation campus."

THE FOURTH OF JULY is not about barbecues, fireworks or even patriotism. It's about that idea: that people have the right to rule themselves.

STEVE HILTON: I didn’t get the true genius of America’s founders till I moved here.

"The melting pot; decentralized government; a republic of equals; a Constitution enshrining the precious ideal of people power. It is all under threat this Fourth of July – and we need to fight for it.

Hilton is a British citizen now living in the U.S. I hope he chooses to stay.

CLIMATE CHANGE ALARMISM — a two-act play, starring Bette Midler. You would think that - eventually - the eco-freaks would learn that Nature, not man, controls the Earth's A/C unit....

IT'S ALWAYS THE INNOCENTS WHO ARE REQUIRED TO PAY FOR THE SINS OF THE GUILTY: Why are "Free Riders" Okay in One Instance and not in Another?