Spin me back down the years and the tabs of my youth ...
"Under my administration a once feared and powerful regime that relentlessly attacked America has finally been toppled. Their former leaders have been removed and they're now being run by a gay dictator facing internal division. But I wish Bari Weiss the best at CBS news." LMAO! pic.twitter.com/P0Hb0BaohI
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) July 25, 2026
Ed: Gotta admit, that was a pretty fun joke, even if it didn't land well. The correspondents don't have much of a sense of humor about themselves, even if they love to dish it out at Trump.
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Jacob Heilbrunn at The Spectator: Hats off to President Trump! At the conclusion of his speech to the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump donned a red cap with 2028 emblazoned upon it and declared that he had hit upon a scheme to “save” the ratings of the new media. “I am pleased to announce my intention to run for a fourth term as President of the United States,” he said.
Trump evoked a few titters from the assembled press corps at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but that was about the extent of the hijinks. In one sense, it’s no laughing matter. What will the press do without Trump? He’s correct in viewing himself as its savior. Without the 24/7 entertainment provided by the Donald, views would dwindle.
The truth is that the media has battened off his presidency as much as he has profited from its coverage of him. It was no accident that journalists like the Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey obediently trooped up to the dais to shake his hand after they received an award. Trump remains a figure of star power.
Ed: Heilbrunn goes on to say that Trump has lost a step or two as a performer, but again, this wasn't his crowd in the first place. He didn't show up last night to entertain the crowd. Trump showed up to make a point about not being intimidated by violent Leftists, and about not being intimidated by the media. He'll do just fine at his rallies.
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Trump: "Some people say that Jake Tapper is a great investigative reporter in DC. And that's why after moderating our debate, it only took him one year to break the story that Joe Biden might possibly have suffered from cognitive decline." pic.twitter.com/l4u487XS6L
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 25, 2026
Ed: And not just Tapper either, but pretty much everyone in the Protection Racket Media. If anyone in the media thinks they can talk seriously about Trump losing a step or two at the dais, they are more self-deluded than anyone realized. Again, Trump didn't show up at the last Nerd Prom and this rescheduled event to play along with their hostility, but to match their energy.
===
CNN: "We stand by our honest, accurate journalism."
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 25, 2026
Also CNN: Abby Phillip and Brian Stelter team up to run cover for Biden in 2024, claiming videos of him are deceptively edited cheap fakes. https://t.co/4hlSNp4W0M pic.twitter.com/9gGGf2xRHL
Ed: CNN attempted to fact-check Trump's dig at Tapper. The problem is that everyone knows how the media attempted to cover for Biden.
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NY Post: Striking a more serious tone, he also praised the bravery and strength of the reporters and lawmakers in the room — and extolled the American spirit.
“Tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve … to show that in America we do not yield to political violence. We don’t. We can’t do that. Can’t do it. So in this country we live in freedom of speech. We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate. And no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that,” he said.
Prior to the president’s remarks, numerous journalism awards and scholarships were handed out.
When a team of reporters from the Wall Street Journal was honored for a report on Trump’s ties to notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, the president was seen laughing and throwing his hands up in the air before graciously shaking hands with all the journalists.
Ed: IIRC, the WHCA gave the WSJ the award for the supposed birthday greeting story that went nowhere. Trump threatened to sue the Murdochs over it, but it may have been too lame to bother. The fact that the WHCA thought this nothingburger was somehow an "in your face" opportunity to tweak Trump is a measure of the media's pettiness and hostility. Trump's laughter is warranted.
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For the one billionth time, the Supreme Court is not there to represent the popular will. We elect congressman, senators, and presidents to do that.
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) July 25, 2026
An unelected Supreme Court chosen by a current political majority is a fast track to tyranny. https://t.co/WrzHz61fWV
Ed: For progressives, that's a feature, not a bug. They want to convert the judiciary into People's Tribunals, and actually had a pretty good run with it from FDR until the Bush 43 era. Trump made sure to close it out for good, hopefully.
===
Associated Press: Former state lawmaker and logger Troy Jackson secured the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine on Saturday and will face longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins in November in a race that could decide which party controls the Senate.
Jackson replaces Graham Platner, who won the Democratic primary in June but withdrew from the race earlier this month following an allegation of sexual assault that Platner has denied. Maine Democrats met Saturday to choose a new Senate nominee to face Collins.
Support coalesced around Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and fifth-generation logger from rural northern Maine who campaigned alongside Platner during a failed bid for governor and was a favorite among progressives to replace him.
Ed: Platner is gone but hardly forgotten. The NRSC and the Susan Collins campaign will hang Der Oysterführer around Jackson's neck every step of the way, along with the way in which Democrats once again dispensed with democracy to have insiders pick the nominee. Or so we think at the moment ...
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Maine has a "sore loser" law that says a candidate that runs for one office and loses cannot run for another office in the same cycle. After Graham Platner dropped out, Maine Dems are poised to nominate Troy Jackson. But Jackson ran for Governor (and lost the primary). Eligible? https://t.co/UhhWoQwjEN
— Eric W. (@EWess92) July 25, 2026
Ed: Eeeeenteresting. Sore loser laws have been intended to prevent primary losers from entering general elections as independent or write-in candidates. Not every state has these laws, but those that do usually want to protect the main political parties by preventing primary losers from contending for the same office they sought in the first round. If White accurately describes the statute, then Maine made it far broader than the usual intent and now has to live with the consequences. Of course, Bellows could just ignore the law and certify Jackson anyway, but if this gets challenged and slips past the July 27 ballot deadline, Democrats may end up with no candidate to challenge Collins ... assuming state courts actually enforce this law. One reason they might: Jackson didn't win the nomination by popular vote, so it's not a case of ignoring the will of the electorate.
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New Jersey Globe: About 75,000 noncitizens are summoned for jury duty in New Jersey each year, based on data from three state government agencies, including the Motor Vehicle Commission — a stunning figure that widens the scope of a growing controversy over government databases that may incorrectly identify noncitizens as eligible voters and jurors.
While the number is alarming, there’s no indication that noncitizens have served on a jury since the judiciary implemented additional guardrails to prevent it. ...
The revelation of noncitizens making their way into jury pools comes three days after Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed that an alleged software glitch at motor vehicles led to the inclusion of roughly 6,600 noncitizens on New Jersey’s voter rolls; Sherrill blamed the vendor, IDEMIA, and said less than 400 noncitizens have voted in recent elections.
Ed: It looks like this problem goes well beyond just a vendor error and is much larger in scope than first thought. And it appears that New Jersey has been well aware of the issue for longer than Sherrill admits, too. How many of these 75,000 non-citizens have registered to vote and have cast ballots in elections? The Department of Justice may take a keen interest in that question.
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https://t.co/rBZSBfzk9x pic.twitter.com/d6kAFZEtSf
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) July 25, 2026
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Fox News: Three more subcontractors that worked on the Obama Presidential Center have filed legal claims saying they are owed nearly $900,000, adding to a growing list of payment disputes surrounding the project.
The companies each filed mechanics liens against the Obama Presidential Center property, a routine legal tool used on construction projects to recover unpaid construction costs. The subcontractors claim they are owed money for structural steel, excavation and concrete, and gymnasium flooring work performed on Home Court, the Center's 60,000-square-foot basketball and events facility.
Structural steel subcontractor Area Erectors is seeking nearly $620,000, excavation and concrete subcontractor CSI 3000 — the only Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) of the three — claims it is owed about $236,000, and gymnasium flooring specialist Floors Incorporated says it is owed nearly $25,000.
Unlike previous payment disputes reported by Fox News Digital, which largely involved work across the main campus, these claims relate specifically to Home Court, which was built under a separate construction contract. It comes as Home Court is hosting several high-profile WNBA All-Star Weekend events this week which the former president attended.
Ed: Remind me again about how progressives are all about the "working class."
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Says who? This reads as a threat. https://t.co/rWYtEyzSNU
— Elaine (@elbh) July 25, 2026
Ed: USA Today is really covering itself in glory these days. ForTheWin is their sports brand. They have been on a week-long jeremiad against Caitlin Clarke and Sophie Cunningham on behalf of woke values that barely get 20% support among the American public at large, and likely a smaller percentage of sports fans that actually have an interest in what FTW is supposed to cover. As a business model, it's suicidally idiotic.
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Last night's lyric: "Living On a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. Hope he's doing better after his shortened show this week.
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