ORBITAL DYNAMICS: Oort cloud resembles a galaxy, new study finds. “A shell of icy objects at the edge of the solar system known as the Oort cloud has a pair of spiral arms that resemble a miniature galaxy, new research suggests. Until now, the shape of the cloud and how it is affected by forces beyond our solar system have not been largely understood.”

CLEANING UP THE TOWN:

I was shocked to learn that WinZip is still around.

SKYNET SMILES:

Say what you will about Hal, Colossus, and Skynet’s Terminator robots, they at least all had the decency to speak in conversational English while they were plotting to eliminate their human overlords.

WELL, GOOD: Sanctions on Iran’s Oil Trade to Reimpose Maximum Pressure. “We will continue to disrupt such illicit funding streams for Iran’s malign activities.  As long as Iran devotes its energy revenues to financing attacks on our allies, supporting terrorism around the world, or pursuing other destabilizing actions, we will use all the tools at our disposal to hold the regime accountable.”

ANALYSIS: True.

More:

VOX POPULI, VOX DEI:

Trump and DOGE have a mandate and that scares the hell out of the rest of Washington.

CAN TRUMP BE PRO DOGE AND EARMARKS BOTH? Little remembered fact about President Donald Trump’s first term: It was then that both political parties in both chambers of Congress reopened the door to earmarks that Sen. Tom “Bridge to Nowhere” Coburn (R-Okla.) killed in 2011.

For whatever reason, Trump did not then make an issue of the return of earmarks, which is particularly surprising now considering the success he’s having with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

John Hart, CEO of OpenTheBooks, was Coburn’s communications wizard and he wonders in an important Substack column today why killing earmarks for good is nowhere to be seen on the DOGE agenda. Why is it important? Because:

“In the 11 years before the ban was instituted, from 2000 to 2010, Congress spent an average of $20.4 billion per year on earmarks. In the 11 years the ban was in place, from 2011 to 2021, the average dropped to $7.6 billion — a 61 percent decrease,” Hart writes.

“The earmark ban created savings far beyond earmarks. Coburn often argued that ‘earmarks are the gateway drug to Washington’s spending addiction,’ and history proved him right. Getting rid of earmarks helped Congress sober up and reduce overall spending for the first time since the end of the Korean War shortly after the ban went into effect,” he said.

 

 

“HACKERS:” Hackers play AI video of Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet on cafeteria screens at HUD headquarters: ‘LONG LIVE THE REAL KING.’

Cyberpunks breached a television at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Monday morning, broadcasting a stomach-turning AI video of President Trump caressing and kissing the feet of billionaire Elon Musk.

The sickening sight, which was first reported by Vox journalist Rachel Cohen, was played on a TV in a cafeteria at the agency’s headquarters while blaring the message: “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING.”

Congressional Democrats, lefty pundits and other critics have taken to calling the tech mogul “President Musk,” in a seeming effort to irk Trump and highlight the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s level of influence in administrative decision-making.

“Not all heroes wear capes,” Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee cheered on X in response to the video.

I’m sure a lot of HUD employees will soon be transitioning to Jen Psaki’s vaunted “green jobs.”

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH, HERE ARE THE RANKINGS FOR THOSE TRENDING OVER 50% AT POLYMARKET:

But by volume, nobody has generated more bets than Barack Obama. A yes vote for him is only 24 cents — what a bargain!

Update: Oops, I forgot the link.

STARSHIP FLIGHT TEST 8 IS SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY:

YOU GOTTA PUMP THOSE NUMBERS UP, THOSE ARE ROOKIE NUMBERS: Concealed carry grows in Colorado; over twenty-nine thousand new permits in 2024. “Colorado is what is what is known as a ‘shall issue’ state, meaning as long as an applicant passes the basic requirements set out by law, the issuing authority is, for the most part, required to issue a permit.”

The Democrats who dominate our state government have made it more difficult to obtain a CCW, but they haven’t gone after the state’s shall-issue status that’s been in effect since 2003.

At least not yet.

‘IT MELTED DOWN:’ Top Biden Advisor Says Democrat Party ‘Lost Its Mind’ After Disastrous Debate.

During a recent discussion at Harvard University, former Biden senior advisor Mike Donilon delusionally said (emphasis, mine):

Now, lots of people have terrible debates. Lots of people have terrible debates. Usually, the party doesn’t lose its mind, but that’s what happened here. It melted down.

With due respect, Mr. Donilon, Biden — with a vacant “where the hell am I?” look on his face — was at times visibly confused, and other times, totally unintelligible. In my book — and the books of tens of millions of Americans, including untold numbers of Democrat voters — the former president’s disastrous performance was well beyond a “terrible debate.”

Not to further nitpick, but even left-“leaning” CNN and the BBC ran headlines calling the performance “disastrous” and “incoherent.”

CNN senior reporter Stephen Collinson wrote in an article:

If Joe Biden loses November’s election, history will record that it took just 10 minutes to destroy a presidency. It was clear a political disaster was about to unfold as soon as the 81-year-old commander in chief stiffly shuffled on stage in Atlanta.

Exactly. Democrats who continue to fail to see that reality, much less admit it, are lying to themselves. For the sake of their party, they rode their all-but-dead horse far too long.

I’m not sure if it was for “the sake of their party” so much as wanting to maintain an awesome amount of personal power and DNC-MSM cachet for as long as possible, by doing everything in their power to hide John Gill’s ever-increasing infirmities.