Used to go tabbing almost every night, clickin' 'til I thought I'd lose my breath ...
Told you this was going to be a problem for Talarico. https://t.co/mQthXHeb3U pic.twitter.com/aHs0iOna7p
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) July 20, 2026
Ed: I have warned about the same problem, repeatedly. Maybe "warned" isn't the best word here; I'm down with the Jasmine Crockett struggle in this case. All kidding aside, though, all of the toxicity of "intersectionality" will emerge here in Texas, but it will expand into every Democrat jurisdiction in upcoming cycles.
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WSJ: Rowling, who had contributed more than $750,000 to groups supporting Cornyn, is one of the high-dollar Republican donors who could be key to Paxton’s efforts in a competitive race. But Rowling, a onetime supporter of Paxton, had been turned off by his alleged extramarital affairs and was emotional over his drubbing of Cornyn, he said. He initially declined to help.
Then Rowling got a call from Sen. Ted Cruz, who asked him to meet with Paxton. Rowling said he had begun to consider whether Democratic opponent James Talarico was a concerning enough threat for him to open his wallet again.
He ended up taking a meeting with Paxton and Cruz to hear them out.
Rowling’s hesitation highlights the bind confronting a bloc of deep-pocketed Texans weighing how involved to get in the race. Many can’t stomach Paxton—a populist firebrand dogged by legal and ethical scandals and known for targeting corporate interests. But with control of the Senate in the balance and a well-funded Democrat on the other side, some are deciding they can’t afford to sit this one out. Paxton’s success hinges, in part, on winning them back.
Ed: It's pretty typical to have donors and voters expressing anger and disappointment after a contentious primary. However, Paxton has several weeks to work on assuaging the hard feelings from his challenge to Cornyn. The need to keep the Senate in GOP control will likely move donors back into action. However, the Texas Senate race will clearly take some work from Republicans to secure, regardless of whether Talarico triggers a split among Democrats.
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The Minnesota Star Tribune is cheering on Tim Walz protecting an illegal alien monster who raped a 10 year old girl. No one should read this depraved rag. They are sick. pic.twitter.com/loNtPef8Sm
— Tom Emmer (@GOPMajorityWhip) July 19, 2026
Ed: Mitch wrote about this in his VIP piece earlier today. This wasn't a letter to the editor; it was part of columnist Rochelle Olson's "Cheers and Jeers." The Strib is championing the use of pardons to allow child rapists to run free and get immunity from deportation if in the country illegally. It's utterly despicable. I wrote about the case last week and the week before that. Be sure to read Mitch's perspective from inside the Twin Cities asylum.
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NY Post: Hizzoner, who is deeply skeptical of prisons, said that his team was exploring the legality of detaining Netanyahu should the Israeli prime minister come to the Big Apple for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) or another event.
“Well, it’s such a tough guy to say that kind of thing. He has no way to do that,” Fetterman (D-Pa.) chided on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
The mayor cited the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) 2024 arrest warrant for Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.
“Obviously, America’s not even part of that corrupt court, and so he’s just a clown to even say that. So he won’t try that,” Fetterman went on. “And now, just sit down and focus on the problems that they have in New York. That’s really not your purview.”
Ed: Fetterman makes a good point about Mamdani looking for virtue-signaling distractions. I'm not so sure that Mamdani wouldn't attempt to make good on the arrest threat, however. If he does attempt to violate diplomatic immunity and breach Netanyahu's security team to make an arrest, will the DoJ take action to arrest and charge Mamdani with Logan Act violations, at least?
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Donald Trump on Truth Social: Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America. He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protestors, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others. The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Ed: I wonder if Netanyahu will make an appearance in New York soon just to embarrass Mamdani. He should.
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NEW: Around 40 Hezbollah operatives are reportedly trapped inside a sprawling underground tunnel complex beneath the Ali Taher ridge.
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 20, 2026
The IDF has sealed the tunnel entrances, while Israeli security officials assess the operatives could run out of supplies within days,… pic.twitter.com/nDKu6eoN6b
Ed: Interesting. This siege is at least three weeks old, and it has important strategic implications. This complex is six miles from the border, and the ridge has significant visibility for the broader battlefield. Together with the capture of Beaufort Castle, it would greatly increase the IDF's capabilities in the fight to eject Hezbollah from the sub-LItani region. The Israelis are apparently not going to let Hezbollah off the hook here regardless of whether the Iranians manage to get another MOU.
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Jerusalem Post: In a separate post, Trump stated that for every US soldier killed, Iran will pay “many times over.”
“Every time Iran kills an American soldier, they will pay for that killing many times over,” he said.
Trump also stated that he has passed a directive to enforce his words onto US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and all US military leaders.
Ed: If Iran wonders whether Trump has hit a ceiling on escalation, this should settle the matter. We'll see how this translates to the next wave of attacks later this evening.
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Noah Rothman at NRO: New York magazine’s David Freedlander assembled a variety of juicy quotes from Democratic insiders for his piece on Kamala Harris’s insatiable hunger for power. Most of those insiders seem only to want Harris to go away.
Some took the diplomatic track. They’d profess their undying affection for the former vice president but also wonder if she can raise the requisite funds or stay focused on the future given her inextricable association with Joe Biden’s administration. Others were less tactful. “I hope she runs,” said one Democratic strategist. “Because then she will lose and we will never have to hear from her again.”
As Freedlander observed, Democratic political professionals are inclined to respond either with that fury or with a “heavy sigh followed by a long pause” when the subject of Harris’s ambitions arises. Democrats haven’t recovered from the trauma they experienced in 2024. And as long as Harris’s advisers continue to torment them with the delusions that they’re deploying to draw Biden’s veep back into the limelight, they won’t.
To the claim that nominating Harris would only force Americans to relitigate the Biden years, for example, her brain trust offers this compelling rejoinder: Nuh-uh.
Ed: Count me in the same camp as the Democrat strategist. Harris is a uniquely incompetent campaigner who will never win a single primary, plus she carries the stink of the Biden Inc fraud perpetrated on America from 2020-2024. She's attempting to gain favor with the DSA, whose influence may have already peaked in this cycle as their radical nature gets exposed. Harris is always at least one step behind and unable to compete fairly.
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Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Marjorie Taylor Greene: "There are a lot of people who listen to her who are going to vote for me in the general election."
— POLITICO (@politico) July 20, 2026
He tells @dashaburns their common ground on issues like Israel and health care "should not be all that… pic.twitter.com/d22Q8RelEo
... "should not be all that uncommon."
Ed: More evidence for the Horseshoe Theory of politics, and that the meeting point is almost always anti-Semitism.
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Newsmax: In the wake of multiple fatal shootings involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, the agency will require its officers to record vehicle stops with at least one body camera, Trump administration border czar Tom Homan said Sunday.
“They exonerate more law enforcement than they convict, and I want officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what the officers saw when they took that action,” Homan said on the "Fox & Friends Weekend” program. ...
In a separate interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" show, Homan said money for the cameras was held up during the partial government shutdown earlier this year.
"The cameras have been purchased right now," Homan said. "They're training the trainer in deploying the cameras nationwide."
Ed: That's good, but this is so long overdue and so obviously needed that it's worth questioning why it wasn't addressed before aggressive tactics were deployed. DHS got significant capital funds last summer in the One Big Beautiful Bill, around $75 billion, and body cams are standard issue for most other law-enforcement agencies. This is a step that should have preceded operations in Minnesota, and the fact that six months have gone by without correcting this deficiency should have Republicans who support these operations seeing red.
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Serious issues aside, it remains funny to me the amount of costumery required to be a Leftist in good standing. https://t.co/C8NTWKaNR1
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) July 19, 2026
Ed: This took place at a meeting of College Democrats, I understand. The DSA's long march through that institution is just about complete.
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Daily Wire: Controversial influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate on Saturday were arrested by federal officials in Miami pursuant to rape charges and an outstanding arrest warrant in the United Kingdom.
The Crown Prosecution Service last year charged Andrew Tate with 10 counts of crimes, including rape and human trafficking related to three women. His younger brother, Tristan, was charged with 11 counts of similar crimes tied to one woman. On Saturday, the Crown Prosecution Service announced additional counts for each brother, including 19 charges related to illegal child images and pornography for Andrew Tate.
“We can confirm the arrest of the Tate brothers today in Miami,” the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement. “The warrant was sealed so we are unable to confirm the charges.” The office of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier — who last year opened an investigation into the Tate brothers — confirmed to The Daily Wire that the pair were taken into custody on an arrest warrant from the United Kingdom.
Ed: I suspect these "influencers" have much less influence than they did a few years ago, thanks to a long trail of allegations about abuse and trafficking. Then again, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson are still a thing.
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The Tates’ arrest is an excellent reminder: all the pseudo-right wing grifters who defended these scumbags are destructive to conservatism. Movements require border control.https://t.co/QSZuw26h8m
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 20, 2026
Ed: I suspect that Democrats are figuring that out belatedly in this cycle. The difference is that the Right actually did border control in this case, while Democrats failed at it with Graham Platner, Darializer Chevalier, Adam Hamawy, and so on. No one voted for a Tate brother in a primary.
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John Podhoretz at the Free Beacon: Christopher Nolan does something extraordinarily nervy in his overwhelming new film, The Odyssey. He has made as faithful a version of Homer’s poem as could possibly be made in the course of a three-hour running time—all while turning its worldview inside out.
The thing is, detail by detail, The Odyssey is not just faithful, it’s absolutely inspired. It’s possible that this is the single-greatest cinematic adaptation of a great work of literature in the 113-year history of the motion picture as a popular art form.
Nolan hits every story beat, makes staggering visual poetry out of Homer’s oracular poetry, and even finds a way to evoke the twisty-turny narrative through which Homer reveals the story of Odysseus’ 10-year journey home from the Trojan War and the crisis his absence has created in his home kingdom of Ithaca.
But Nolan’s great reveal, at the end of the film, is nowhere to be found in Homer. It offers a very modern psychological explanation for Odysseus’ lostness.
Ed: Be sure to read it all to get John's conclusory point. Given the way that Hollywood normally mangles premium source material – Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings is an exception rather than the norm – this claim alone is enough to get people into the cinema. Not having yet seen The Odyssey, I am not prepared to make the argument that LotR is better, but I'd say that even with the anti-Homeric approach John describes, it's a worthy competitor.
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'There is no reason to think we would ever do such a thing." https://t.co/XQUYBjcrSo pic.twitter.com/hcKFKodTdP
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 20, 2026
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Spain won the final but America won the World Cup as fans saw first hand how kind and generous American’s are, and that the dark odious land they’d been promised by leftist global media, was but a myth on an eastern wind. 🇺🇸
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) July 19, 2026
Ed: Indeed. It turned out far better than I had anticipated, and I am happy to have been incorrect.
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Saturday's lyric: "At Seventeen" by Janis Ian, still IMHO the most brutally honest and poetic of pop songs.
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