Welcome to Saturday, July 4, 2026, and Independence Day in America: our country turns 250 years old today. I wonder how many Americans know exactly what event the day is celebrating. In case you meet such a miscreant, tell them this (my bold):

Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.

By doing this, the delegates to the Second Continental Congress declared that the Thirteen Colonies were no longer subject (and subordinate) to the monarch of Britain, King George III, and were now united, free, and independent states.  The Congress voted to approve independence by passing the Lee Resolution on July 2 and adopted the Declaration of Independence two days later, on July 4.

But it might have been signed  after it was adopted, so it’s not celebrating the signing of the document:

Historians have long disputed whether members of Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, even though Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin all later wrote that they had signed it on that day. Most historians have concluded that the Declaration was signed nearly a month after its adoption, on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed.

Below is “John Trumbull‘s painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress. The painting can be found on the back of the U.S. $2 bill. The original hangs in the US Capitol rotunda. It does not represent a real ceremony; the characters portrayed were never in the same room at the same time.”

The Committee of Five, in order from left to right, are John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.  The article says that many of the figures in this 1817 work scene were painted from life, so perhaps Adams, Jefferson and Franklin really looked like that.

There’s a Google Doodle today celebrating the Fourth of July; click to see the animated page where it goes:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 1 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

Footy news:  Yesterday Argentina beat Cape Verde 3-2 in extra time, Colombia beat Ghana 1-0, and Australia tied Egypt 1-1 in full time, but won 4-2 on penalties, so the Socceroos are out of the World Cup. Let’s look at the first game, as Argentina is my favorite team.  Messi scored again for Argentina, but the plucky team from the underpopulated islands almost knocked them out of the tournament.

Argentina survived an almighty scare to book their place in the World Cup round of 16 with a dramatic 3-2 win over Cape Verde after extra time Friday.

Tottenham defender Cristian Romero headed in the game winner via a deflection off Diney Borges from Lionel Messi‘s corner in the 111th minute, but only after Cape Verde had threatened to cause perhaps the greatest shock in World Cup history.

The African debutants twice found equalizers — one in extra time — to push the reigning world champions to the brink of an unthinkable upset.

Messi got his seventh of the tournament with a wonderfully taken goal in the first half only for Deroy Duarte to cancel it out in the second half and stun the thousands of Argentina fans inside Miami Stadium into silence.

With the score 1-1 after 90 minutes, Manchester United defender Lisandro Martínez appeared to end Cape Verde’s resistance early in extra time to make it 2-1.

But that was before fullback Sidny Cabral produced a moment of magic and possibly the goal of the World Cup so far when he cut in off the left and curled his effort into the top corner.

Argentina went ahead again when Borges inadvertently deflected Romero’s header into his own net. But there was still time for one more dramatic twist when Emiliano Martínez produced a stunning save to stop Cabral’s free kick and send Argentina through.

Here are the highlights of that game.  On the video below, Argentina’s plays that yielded goals are at 2:20 (Messi), 14:19 and 19:24 (an assist from Messi’s corner kick);Cape Verdea’s at 5:15 and 16:03.  The game was tied 1-1 at regulation time, but three more goals were scored in overtime.

*I’m a sucker for all articles giving advice about how Democrats should fix the party to win future elections. Michelle Cottle at the NYT joins the queue with an op-ed called “This pathetic groveling is no way to rebuild a party” (archived here). First, where does the groveling come from?

Not infrequently, I open my email to find a fund-raising request from the Democratic Party with a subject line that reads as though it was sent by a contrite boyfriend.

“Can I explain?”

“You deserve an explanation”

“Sorry to reach out on a Sunday”

“Let me try to convince you”

“Please”

“Can I level-set with you, Michelle?”

OK, that last one sounds more like a dippy business consultant trying to wow me with vapid jargon. But my point is that, right up front, these messages telegraph insecurity, pleading, chagrin. Hardly the vibe of a confident political team fighting the good fight. My overriding impulse is not to give the party campaign cash but to offer to pay for group therapy.

The Trump years have been hard on Democrats’ psyches. Every time the party’s leaders see the president nodding off on the job or read one of his late-night Truth bombs, they must agonize anew: How the heck did we get thrown over for that guy?

. . . The blue team needs to claw back some self-respect and reassure voters that they aren’t being asked to back a bunch of losers.

Cottle then goes off on a tangent, arguing that Republicans have a greater sense of community than do Democrats, though the GOP’s community is built on hate. (And what is the Democratic “community” built on? In the center, hatred of Trump, on the far Left, hatred of America, too.) But what advice does Cottle have for us Democrats?

But making people feel part of something larger than themselves is always a good bet. Remember the hopey-changey energy of Barack Obama’s first presidential run? For all its retrospective corniness, that campaign made people feel great about themselves and the leader they were supporting. The Democrats should be focused on making voters proud to support their team again.

Yes, yes, we know that, but how do we do it? And her whole column comes down to this one insipid paragraph:

Focusing on building relationships and a sense of shared values takes more work than creating quick hits optimized to elicit drunk donations. But considering the larger public’s tragically low opinion of and trust in the Democratic Party — the entire political system, really — Democrats need to shake things up. Maybe start by promoting an emotion other than exhaustion and a more inspiring message than: You have no other options.

And that’s it. We need to “shake things up” and tender “an inspiring message.”  Yes, yes, we know that, too. But what message?  Fix the economy, stupid? Maybe. But how about opening the borders, getting rid of ICE, distancing ourselves from Israel, and providing free gender-affirming care to all who want it? That’s not the message that will sway voters. Once again I’m disappointed with the lame advice of these columnists. Perhaps we should get a good candidate first.  Here’s a possibility:

What if politics is all MAGA vs DSA; what if ’28 is AOC vs Kristi Noem? I often say “a centrist will emerge and win”, but when people say “who?”, I don’t know. Not joking: We may need to draft someone like McConaughey. Which is a bad idea! He’s an actor! But it might come to that https://t.co/gN6xZIctAD

— Jeff Maurer (@JeffMightBWrong) July 3, 2026

*The Independent reports that Putin, under pressure from the war with Ukraine, may be plotting to attack a NATO member—Poland.

The US has warned Warsaw that Russia is planning an armed “provocation” against Poland to test Nato’s resolve, according to reports.

The assault could see Poland’s vital infrastructure targeted by missiles or drones, or even Russian soldiers crossing the border into Nato territory, Washington has said.

Sources close to Polish president Karol Nawrocki told Polish outlet Onet that the aim of Moscow’s possible assault, which could be launched in a matter of months, would be to provoke tensions and pressure Ukraine’s Western allies to suspend their military and financial aid.

The US “systematically informs Poland about ever-new Russian plans for a conventional attack on Nato’s eastern flank, from which Poland is by no means excluded”, a source close to the Polish president said.

Warsaw’s security services have admitted that a conventional attack, such as a small ground incursion, which Moscow may allege is an accident, is possible.

Other possibilities are a drone attack on infrastructure such as power stations or simulated air strikes forcing Poland to activate its air defence systems.

A Polish intelligence source said that a “hybrid attack in the border region” could take place, in the most extreme scenario.

An armed incursion involving Russian or Belarusian troops could be presented as a mistake, such as straying into Polish territory because of a GPS failure, or a fake rescue mission to retrieve a helicopter suffering from a malfunction, sources said.

Moscow could hope that Poland would be forced by the US to negotiate rather than responding forcefully and opening fire on Russian or Belarusian soldiers, sources told Onet.

Vladimir Putin would see a scenario in which Russians withdraw as a result of negotiations as a win from Moscow’s perspective, the sources said, with an end to Western support for Ukraine a possible condition it could demand in return for withdrawal from Poland.

You can also see this story at The Jerusalem Post.  This plan reminds me of how the Germans attacked Poland from the other side on September 1, 1939.  And now that the cat’s out of the bag, it won’t look like an accident any more. Ukraine is one thing, but an attack on a NATO ally is another, and I doubt that Putin would try to pull this off, desperate as he is to defeat Ukraine.  I sent this link to Andrzej, who responded: “Objection—hearsay.” And the source appears to be only a Polish ambassador, so yes, it seems to be hearsay.

*Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal, in a piece called “America and Israel at 250,” first reflects on the history of U.S.-Israeli relations, and then gives his take on how Israelis see Americans:

Israelis hold a deep admiration for America—not just as the source of their Amazon packages, but as a font of aspiration and support. One cannot ignore the powerful influence of the thriving American Jewish community. Even those Jews who went east instead of west, choosing Israeli hardship over American prosperity, could see in the cultural imports and the wealthy philanthropists that America truly was the “Golden Medina.” In the 1990s, and to some degree still today, “Made in America” has been shorthand for quality and luxury because, in the collective imagination, America remains a land of wealth and possibility.

Israeli rock legends Rami Fortis and Berry Sakharof describe the Israeli image of the U.S. quite well in their song “America”:

An open Chevrolet drives toward the great freedom
Disneyland strikes the world, everyone wants it all
There is no fear and no sadness, everything here is so perfect
America sells everyone’s dream

Is there a limit?
There is no limit.

How many songs can be written about America?

Perhaps the clearest symbol of this attachment is the man who has drawn so much American wrath in recent years: Benjamin Netanyahu. He is Israel’s answer to the American coastal elite—American-educated, fluent in English, and the man who imported American-style campaign tactics to Israeli politics. Far from hurting his career, that fluency with America—the accent, the degree, the media instincts—made him seem more qualified to lead, not less.

But the connection runs deeper than material culture. In the Israeli imagination, America still occupies the place it always has—the promised land’s own promised land, a place defined by unlimited possibility. It’s the country, as Marco Rubio recently described, “where anyone, from anywhere, can achieve anything.” For a state built by refugees and exiles, that idea lands differently than it does for most. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”—written by the Jewish poet Emma Lazarus and inscribed on the Statue of Liberty—could just as easily describe the mission Israel set for itself decades later.

Writing from the original shining city on the hill to an audience that, in large part, lives on the new one, I’ll close with this: On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it’s worth saying plainly that Israel would not exist, or thrive, the way it does without the United States—not only because of the direct support, but because of the world that was created the day that ship landed at Plymouth Rock, the day that shot was fired at Concord, and the day a declaration opened with the words that all men are created equal. That world is the one in which the Jews could return to their ancestral homeland and flourish in the 21st century.

Of course support in the other direction is waning, which is ineffably sad. Even if the waning support is blamed on Netanyahu, you can bet that America is not going to rush into Israel’s arms when there’s a new Prime Minister. The opprobrium against Israel is based on both antisemitism and oppressor/oppressed narratives.  Segal’s words are stirring, but what’s happening to Jews now is that Israel is becoming the promised land’s promised land.

*As always, I’ll steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s news-and-snark column from the Free Press, called this week “TGIF: We’ve got the gayest Parliament.”

→ Happy pride!: The outgoing prime minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, was celebrating the end of Pride Month and, looking out at the crowd, said what I’m awarding Quote of the Week: “I’m really proud that we’ve got the gayest parliament, I don’t think just of all time—anywhere in the world. I don’t think there’s any parliament that is gayer than this one.”

Considering this is a country where everyone in the government wears wigs and dresses to do their jobs, I suppose being the gayest parliament is somewhat of an accomplishment.

I’ll add that there is likely no media company gayer than this one, not even close. Except maybe Out magazine. But a lot of good that does me! In a just world I would have been the grand marshal of the parade, but it seems that all Pride Month marches have been entirely rebranded as political, and they are not wavin’ my banner. There are barely even vestigial references to the original concept. Here’s the new Dyke March motto: “We’re here! We’re queer! Free Palestine is our demand!” It doesn’t even rhyme, folx.

Nellie is gay, of course, but she’s sure not pro-Palestine. And yes, the Dyke March motto is accurate (click on the link).

→ And how are the Jews this week?: Oh, well. Scott Wiener, the far-left state senator and congressional candidate from San Francisco, was chased away from the city’s annual trans march by activists yelling things like: “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel, you piece of shit.” Scott doesn’t really even support Israel. He announced that it’s doing a genocide, that he won’t take AIPAC money, etc. But Scott is, yep, Jewish, and he took too long to say the magic genocide words. There are now two of these videos where he’s cornered by activists. In each, he is calm and silent, though you can see there’s fear in his eyes. Here’s how the local press covered it: “We did the unthinkable and asked an actual trans person who organized the first Trans March to weigh in on Wiener’s little snit fit.” The silent man being berated is framed as the hysterical one. His little snit fit.

. . . Here’s Ana Kasparian, a major progressive influencer and co-host of The Young Turks podcast, giving us a fresh Hezbollah take:

And on The View, the ladies listened as radio personality Charlamagne Tha God explained that “Trump is Netanyahu’s puppet.” And on CNN, we have someone commenting on Jon Ossoff’s relative strengths versus Josh Shapiro: “He might be the Democrat that can thread the needle because even though he’s Jewish, he’s very critical of the Israeli government, very critical of Benjamin Netanyahu.” And: “Jon Ossoff may not read as Jewish as Josh Shapiro does, for whatever’s that worth.” So that’s where it’s at right now. There’s a far-right website called The Unz Review that I like to keep tabs on so I know what’s going on (I also read Jacobin, don’t worry), and at first Unz really shocked me every time I’d open it, but lately the weird thing is that a lot of the articles on it seem like they could run anywhere. Maybe they’ll start being syndicated in local San Francisco blogs.

Kasparian is getting worse and worse with her love of terrorists. Note that Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization by a lot of countries, including Canada, Australia, the U.S., the UK, Germany, Thailand, Argentina, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, UK, Azerbaijan, UAE, Bulgaria, and India.

→ Congratulations to the Empire State Building climbers: Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, known for starring in the Netflix documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story, climbed to the top of the Empire State Building this week. They went without permission or harnesses (doing this for attention on social media is their whole deal), though it did rhyme with Phillipe Petit’s stunt, where he walked across the Twin Towers on tightrope in the ’70s. At the very top of the building’s spire, they unfurled a banner that said, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.” Okay. And then, right before they got arrested, the guy proposed!

Look at this engagement ring photo. She climbed that entire tower with this manicure. Thus begins July, straight female pride month.

*Two days ago I took a poll about people’s views on wishing for death and suffering of their political/ideological opponents. Here are the results as of this morning.  63% of voters would not wish for the death of an opponent, and that merciful sentiment rises to over 86% of those who don’t wish for suffering or an agonizing death of their opponents.  I should have been more explicit and said “Is it okay to expressed wishes.”  But I’m glad to see the commentariat is not a bunch of angry pit bulls. Good on you!

*Below is a livestream of a corpse flower at Virginia’s Norfolk Botanical Garden that should bloom between today and July 8 (h/t Peter). The caption and a link:

Watch as a rare corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) blooms at Norfolk Botanical Garden. The massive flower, nicknamed “Lady MacDeath,” may not bloom again for another 10 years.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Andrzej are both in the doldrums:

Hili: I’m sad.
Andrzej: Welcome to the club.

In Polish:

Hili: Smutno mi.
Ja: Witaj w klubie.

*******************

From Heimish Humor:

From Things With Faces, an angry mop:

. . and another great medieval letter from TherionArms:

From Masih: Crocodile tears for the late Ayatollah. It’s a good thing Israel didn’t know where this was happening. (Or maybe they did but didn’t want the optics of attacking the funeral.)

This video went viral on Iranian social media;

Ghalibaf and Araghchi, regime’s top negotiators with America standing over the coffin of their Supreme Leader, killed by America.

The negotiation table just got a lot more awkward.

Let me get this straight.

Khamenei’s funeral… pic.twitter.com/dXMTXIZKrG

— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) July 3, 2026

From Luana; British police arrest the victim of an assault and let the attackers go free. The cops are asking that this video not be shown!

UK police really don’t want you to share this video of their officer arresting an assault victim, while letting his attackers go free pic.twitter.com/iLwJi6RqYZ https://t.co/axEa9ZXyq7

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 3, 2026

The Number Ten cat wants a pigeon bad, but he’s 19 years old and creaky:

I’m going to get the pigeon… https://t.co/DriinQM2mj

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) July 3, 2026

Two from my feed.  First, I hope this isn’t AI, and I wonder what will happen to the deer:

Dogs adopt a deer. I love how there are three beds but they still choose to share one.

How did the potty training go? All over the place. pic.twitter.com/c25WxgshpT

— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) July 3, 2026

He acted with incredible gentleness, making sure not to frighten the owl, and ultimately managed to rescue it successfully 💓 pic.twitter.com/2fnJ7NYAg2

— Beauty of music and nature 🌺🌺 (@Axaxia88) July 2, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This French Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was 1.5 years old and would be 84 today had she lived. https://t.co/AVZMxTLXah

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) July 4, 2026

And two from Dr. Cobb. I still don’t know if it’s Roger or Jim, though I saw him live once:

Barely a day goes by without me thinking about Jim McGuinn being urged by a guru to change his name to something more spiritual and him choosing ROGER

— P.G. Wodelouse (@pgwodelouse.bsky.social) 2026-06-27T09:25:49.855Z

. . . and the worm with a thousand butts!!!:

Ramisyllis multicaudata has one head and up to a thousand rear ends. It lives inside a sponge, and every time its body branches into a new channel, all the organs branch too. One worm, shaped like a tree, threaded through its host. #WormWednesday Image from onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/…

— Dr Craig R McClain (@drcraigmc.bsky.social) 2026-06-24T14:17:35.405Z

Welcome to Friday, July 3, 2024, and for most Americans the start of the three-day Fourth of July weekend. It’s American Redneck Day, although I don’t know why we’re celebrating a group (conventionally, poor Southern whites) whose members are stereotyped as ignorant and bigoted.  The site celebrates them this way:

. . . . the 1970s brought “Redneck chic.” This saw it as fashionable to be viewed as a redneck, and the connotations of race or class were not a part of it. Instead, it involved many people pretending to be rednecks, in areas such as their dress—by wearing western clothes—and in the music they listened to—by listening to country music, such as the Outlaw sounds of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. In the 1980s, there began to be more “upscale rednecks,” mirroring films such as Urban Cowboy, while at the same time there were still actual poor “rednecks.”

In the 1990s, the country music boom and the rise of blue collar-comedians such as Jeff Foxworthy brought the redneck aesthetic to an even wider audience, and like the “Redneck chic” of the 1970s and the upscale Urban Cowboys of the 1980s, it to had an underlying level of sophistication to it. For example, many of the country music stars and comedians of the time, and up to the present day, were college-educated and wealthy, while marketing their material to a working-class and non-college-educated audience.

As is apparent, there are many views of what “redneck” means and who is a redneck. Some embrace the term and see it as a symbol of pride, while some reject it. Regardless of your views on rednecks or redneck culture, today is a day to remember the impact it has had on America.

To me, cowboys and lovers of country music are not rednecks, and the term is not the same as “blue collar workers,” but so it goes.  Here’s Jeff Foxworthy, who’s made a comedy career by joking about rednecks.  Here Foxworthy expatiates on the defining traits of the species:

It’s also National Chocolate Wafer Day, National Eat Your Beans Day (I had some last night), National Fried Clam Day, and, appropriately given the horrible heat wave we’re having, National Stay out of the Sun Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 3 Wikipedia page.

There will be lighter posting tomorrow because it’s a HOLIDAY. Bear with me; I do my best.

Da Nooz:

*Footy News:In yesterday’s World Cup games, Switzerland beat Algeria 2-0, Portugal beat Croatia 2-1, and Spain beat Austria 3-0.  Let’s see the last game, which sees Spain going into the knockout round of 16:

Mikel Oyarzabal scored twice as Spain cruised into the World Cup round of 16 with a 3-0 win over Austria at SoFi Stadium on Thursday to extend their unbeaten streak to 34 games.

After an underwhelming group stage, which included a surprise draw with Cape Verde, Spain now head with fresh momentum toward a last-16 meeting with either Portugal or Croatia on Monday in Arlington, Texas.

“The great teams step up when it’s needed,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said. “We played a great match. We came close to perfection, but we must keep improving. There is always room for improvement, because every upcoming match will be very difficult.”

It also marked a significant hurdle overcome for one of the pretournament favorites, with Thursday’s result their first knockout win at the World Cup since they beat Netherlands in the 2010 final.

After Spain’s group stage exit in 2014 and failures at the first knockout hurdle in the past two tournaments, Oyarzabal became the first Spanish player to score a World Cup knockout goal since Andres Iniesta’s extra-time winner in the final in South Africa.

The Real Sociedad striker first found the net with a first-time finish in the 34th minute after fine buildup play involving Pedri and Marc Cucurella. And he put the cap on Spain’s dominant win after another cross from Cucurella and another cool finish past the Austria goalkeeper.

Here are the highlights, with Apain’s three goals (on the video) at 5:06, 8:34, and 12:15 (one Spanish goal was called back for interference with the goalkeeper).

*We now know that Trump made over $2 billion in the last year from his investments, though they’re managed by people he doesn’t talk to.  And we also know that much of that dosh came from investments in cryptocurrency, especially a meme coin associated with him called $TRUMP (second article archived here).

A large chunk of the $2 billion haul President Trump took in last year came as hundreds of thousands of his fans and other investors bet on a speculative cryptocurrency called $TRUMP, hoping its value would soar with his return to the White House.

But while Mr. Trump amassed an eye-popping $636 million from the cryptocurrency, known as a memecoin, many of his followers who heeded his call to purchase the coin came out losers.

That outcome, documented by an independent analysis of trades and fees paid out from $TRUMP token sales, is drawing renewed attention this week, as Mr. Trump for the first time has detailed the extraordinary $1.4 billion in revenue he secured just from the cryptocurrency industry since he returned to the White House.

The president’s 927-page financial disclosure showed how Mr. Trump and his family reaped huge financial rewards in 2025 through his money-losing Trump Media venture and a separate cryptocurrency firm called World Liberty Financial, even as routine investors suffered vast losses.

He also amassed hundreds of millions through deals that involved foreign governments or corporations with agenda items pending before the Trump administration.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump dismissed questions about how much money he had made after returning to the White House, suggesting that he left personal financial decisions related to his investments to others.

“I don’t know if I had a better career in politics or business,” Mr. Trump said as he was about to board his new Air Force One jet donated by the government of Qatar with his two oldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., looking on. “But I had a great career in business. And you saw the cash.”

The memecoin, which features an image of Mr. Trump pumping his fist the way he did after a 2024 assassination attempt, has no intrinsic value itself. Instead, it was a bet on the aura around Mr. Trump and the idea that the coin’s fortunes would rise with his presidency.

In a way, Mr. Trump’s cryptocurrency windfall is a reflection of the speculative nature of the nascent industry, in which executives behind these often highly volatile ventures are at times able to generate huge profits at the expense of smaller investors, who often lose vast sums on experimental coins.

Former federal financial regulators said Mr. Trump has taken that to a new extreme, structuring his crypto ventures so he always made money on the front end, according to disclosures from the companies, no matter what happened to the business in the long run.

“It is hard to wrap your head around that the president of the United States would engage in this level of self-enrichment at the expense of so many of his supporters,” said Lee Reiners, a former Federal Reserve Bank examiner who now studies cryptocurrency issues at Duke University. “This is a president of the United States who has made more money off crypto since he took office than he made in any prior year in his entire business career.”

I’m not sure how they structured deal to ensure that Trump always profited, good times or bad, but it seems unethical, even if he doesn’t oversee what’s happening.  As for other investments, well, I’d be surprised that the people who oversee them don’t know Trump’s preference sand what he’s likely to do. All in all, it doesn’t seem like his portfolio is “neutral,” and so he makes a billion bucks per year.

*Remember Gaza? Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal summarizes his feelings after “1000 Days since October 7.”

My first visit to Gaza after October 7 showed a relatively intact city, hidden amidst plumes of smoke and sounds of battle. A year later, in November 2024, Jabalia was a massive pile of rubble, stretching from horizon to horizon, with packs of dogs roaming among the ruins and garbage. On the thousandth day of the war, nothing remained in the area. The once densely populated city looked desolate and quiet, like the surface of the moon. Engineering drills searched for tunnels below ground, with D9 bulldozers operating above. In the vast majority of Gaza, nothing remained, neither above ground nor below it.

This is the situation in all the territory controlled by Israel, which now makes up about two-thirds of the Strip’s territory. Rafah was wiped off the face of the earth, as were most of Khan Yunis and huge swaths of Gaza City. Ninety-two percent of the tunnels have been completely destroyed; the rest will soon follow.

Inside Hamas-controlled Gaza, there have been increasing reports of a resurgence, tunnel rehabilitation, training exercises, and an inevitable IDF operation. These reports should be viewed with intense skepticism. Hamas is failing to genuinely rearm after its smuggling routes in the air, on land, at sea, and underground were choked off. Three hundred sixty-two smuggling tunnels from Egypt were destroyed in Rafah. Training is conducted in hiding, reconstruction materials are not arriving, and the newly dug tunnels in the sand are barely shored up with whatever is available: sheet metal, wood scraps. Iran bends over backward to protect Hezbollah; for Hamas, it does not even pick up the phone. That is the consequence for a proxy that starts a war without permission and becomes a lost cause.

Perhaps this is why Hamas recently agreed to terms that include handing over all heavy weaponry, tunnel maps, production sites, and weapons caches. Its leaders agreed that the weapons would be surrendered to a committee, not to Israel. The multinational force that will subsequently deploy will serve as a buffer between Hamas and Israel, and will be responsible for the collection. Israel will withdraw only after Hamas is disarmed, the militias’ weapons are also collected, all government positions are handed over to a technocratic committee, and police officers who fail a security clearance are forced to retire. The agreements make no mention of small arms, which flood Gaza by the tens of thousands. How many are there? The divisions operating in Gaza used to transport rifles to the Israeli border, where bulldozers would run them over and crush them. At a certain point, they asked to stop collecting weapons because it had become their primary activity.

. . . looking back today, I can say this much—through victories and defeats, across a thousand days of heroism and sacrifice, Israel and her people have clawed their way back from the brink of despair.

There is a verse in Ezekiel that has taken on new meaning for me: “And when I passed by and saw you flailing in your blood, I said to you, though you were in your blood, Live! I said to you, though you were in your blood, Live!” Ezekiel is recounting God’s adoption of the Jewish people—his command to live is his first order to his new nation.

It is not a promise that the blood is wiped away, or that the wound stops being a wound. It is a command spoken over a body that has not yet answered—twice, because once was not enough to be believed. Israel, on the morning of October 7, was exactly that: flailing, exposed, drenched in its own blood, with no guarantee it would rise. What the thousand days since have shown is not that the wound healed, but that the command was heeded. Every hostage returned, every enemy brought low, every reservist who answered the call—all of it is the same word, spoken back, day after day: live.

If you’re not Israeli, it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on in Gaza, but what’s above is better than I expected. No more tunnels, no large arms, and no weapons caches.  But Hamas “agreed to terms” before and didn’t abide by them. And I’m worried about why they don’t deal with small arms, as Hamas should have no arms.  Yes, Hamas certainly lost the conflict, but nevertheless it persists. When it no longer persists, then the serious rebuilding of Gaza can begin.

*I didn’t used to watch soccer until about 20 years ago, and then fell in love with “the beautiful game,” which is now my favorite sport (I still don’t watch any sport much). If you’re a novice, the NYT tells us “How to World Cup,” a title that irks me a bit (the article is archived here). There are tips about what to wear, who to root for, what to say, and so on.  I find that a bit ridiculous, but here are a few:

WHAT TO WEAR

The World Cup is not the time to be subtle. If you want to dress like your favorite Epcot pavilion, THIS IS YOUR TIME. When you go to an indie concert, you never want to wear the T-shirt of the band you’re seeing. This tournament is the opposite of that. Wear the colors of the nation you support in shameless fashion. Be full-on Timothée-Chalamet-courtside-at-a-Knicks-game brazen. The only other option is to dress like a large swath of traveling England fans and go shirt-off. If that is the case, be different from all those England fans and make sure you are wearing S.P.F. 60 sunscreen.

WHOM TO ROOT FOR [JAC: yes, they say “whom”!]

The United States, naturally, if you’re reading this in the United States. Our boys have thus far played swaggy, buccaneering soccer and coaxed from audiences the greatest of fan emotions: delusional hope. But the true joy of the World Cup is the chance for fans around the world to reconnect to their roots.

Nope, I’m rooting for Argentina as I want Messi to go out on a World Cup win.

WHAT TO TALK ABOUT [one example]

The smaller teams have roared.Cape Verde, population of around 525,000, an archipelagic nation consisting of 10 volcanic islands scattered across the central Atlantic Ocean, has charmed, becoming the smallest nation ever to reach the knockout rounds. The 40-year-old goalkeeper, known chummily as Vozinha (full name: Josimar José Évora Dias), saved seven shots to hold tournament favorite Spain to a goal-less tie. He now has over 17 million Instagram followers, more than Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama combined.

WHAT NEVER TO SAY

“Nothing can go wrong now” — never let these words escape your lips. Don’t tempt fate and call a game over. On Sunday, Canada made history by reaching the round of 16 for the first time, shocking South Africa with an exclamation-point 92nd-minute strike from Stephen Eustáquio, who instantly wove himself into his nation’s history alongside true greats like Alanis Morissette, Margaret Atwood and Barenaked Ladies. Japan’s dream of a first-ever knockout-stage win was dashed by Brazil roaring back from a goal down, stealing victory in the 96th minute.

Even the United States has not been immune. Our boys won back-to-back World Cup games for the first time in 96 years. We were on our way to being undefeated until the 98th minute of the game against Turkey, when Arda Guler nutmegged our hero Pulisic, a soccer humiliation akin to whipping off his shorts in public, helping his countryman Kaan Ayhan to net the winner with the last kick of the ball. This is soccer. A game in which, within the blink of an eye, both teams can soar and then feel their wax wings melting.

And a good story:

Perhaps my favorite World Cup story occurred in Lawrence, Kan., where the Algerian team set up camp at a local DoubleTree hotel. The town’s citizens quickly fell truly, madly, deeply for North African soccer and culture. When the Fennec Foxes clinched their place in the knockout rounds last weekend, the Lawrencians stood side by side with Algerian fans to welcome the team back in the early hours of the morning. Together they illuminated the Kansas night sky with a spectacular display of firework-fueled passion worthy of Algiers. This was the stuff of World Cup lore, the creation of stories that will be told and retold for generations to come, destined to become only bigger and more wild-eyed with each retelling.

*The Free Press reports on a letter sent by 170 faculty members (Jewish and non-Jewish) to Harvard students avowing solidarity but saying that antisemitism is not under control at Harvard. The article is written by a Harvard professor and a Harvard alumna.

From the editors:

According to officials at Harvard University, its antisemitism problem is under control. Reports of antisemitic incidents on campus are down after the numbers exploded in the wake of October 7, 2023. Today, 170 Jewish and non-Jewish Harvard faculty members will publish a letter stating that there is more to the story, and that while there’s less overt antisemitism at the university this past year, a more insidious form of Jew-hate has emerged. Jewish students are hiding their Star of David necklaces and scrubbing their CVs of references to Israel to self-protect. Two signatories to the letter explain what’s still not working—and what the school should do about it. —The Editors

The entire letter (the Presidential Task Force report they mention is here:

Earlier this spring, a group of Harvard faculty and staff published an open letter condemning theTitle VI lawsuit filed against Harvard by the Department of Justice in March. The DOJ claims that Harvard failed to enforce its rules to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassmentand discrimination, thereby denying them equal educational access. Their letter does notacknowledge any antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias on campus. Instead, it accuses the DOJ of“weaponizing antisemitism.”

We understand why colleagues question the merits and motives of the Title VI lawsuit. But ones hould not turn a blind eye to the fact that many Jewish and Israeli students have suffered harassment and discrimination over the last few years, degrading their Harvard experience. Ignoring students’ accounts is misleading and hurtful. There are many examples documented in the 300-page Presidential Task Force on Combatting Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias report and elsewhere, and these problems have been acknowledged by President Alan Garber.

Among the incidents reported to faculty, including members of the Task Force:

(1) Gay Jewish students were excluded from LGBTQ groups in the College and at HLS because they refused to renounce Zionism.

(2) An Israeli undergraduate student was told to leave a classroom by an instructor because her being Israeli made other students uncomfortable.

(3) A Jewish undergraduate student was harassed because of her identity, including in a social media post saying she “looks just as dumb as her nose is crooked.” We believe that the situation has improved to some extent recently, but challenges remain. Over the past year, Jews and Israelis at Harvard have reported hiding their identity including by wearing a baseball cap over their kippot, tucking in their Star of David, and scrubbing Jewish-sounding names or activities from their resumes.

We write in solidarity with all Jewish and Israeli students, especially those who have personally encountered bias. We see you. We hear you. We will continue to stand with you and stand up for you.

Then there are the signatures.  The FP article adds this:

Two notable observations about signatories to the faculty letter. First, many are not Jewish—support from allies is crucial. Second, a large proportion come from Harvard Medical School. Physicians are tasked with identifying and treating root causes and attending to both acute and chronic problems. We know that hate and discrimination of any form has absolutely no place in the delivery of healthcare. Moreover, the vast majority of medical students at Harvard will be directly involved in caring for patients who seek their skills and healing capacity; by definition in medicine, this involves providing impartial, empathic, evidence-based care to all, including Jewish and Israeli patients and their families.

There is more work to be done at Harvard. The 170 Jewish and non-Jewish faculty signatories to the letter stand with Jewish and Israeli students on campus, and with the aim that they are free to bring their full selves and identities everywhere on campus without fear of bias, harassment, bullying, or ostracization.

I asked a liberal but non-Jewish colleague at Harvard why he/she didn’t sign the letter, and was told that it might constitute evidence to Trump that Harvard is deeply antisemitic, resulting in the government withholding  more grant money from the school. And that, said my colleague, would hurt Jewish students more than the small degree of antisemitism that remains. Don’t ask me, as I’m not there.

*Finally, the WSJ reports that the U.S. is desperately trying to get the Strait of Hormuz back to its prewar state, but it ain’t happening.

The U.S. and Oman are looking for ways to break Iran’s insistence on charging tolls for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Their chief lever in indirect talks was a promise to unfreeze some of the $100 billion in Iranian funds held overseas.

So far, Tehran isn’t taking the bait. Its military leaders are responding with a fresh round of threats against ships passing through one of the world’s most trafficked waterways.

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Doha this week to talk with Qatari mediators about how to break the impasse and settle the implementation of last month’s initial agreement to open the strait. Both the U.S. and Iranian teams discussed recent fighting in Lebanon with Qatari mediators, a conflict that has added another wrinkle to the process, people familiar with the discussions said.

The U.S. diplomats offered a trade-off to Iran, the people said: Relinquish its claim to control the strait and renounce toll payments in exchange for billions of dollars of unfrozen funds.

Under last month’s pact with the U.S., Iran was set to get access to part of the $100 billion of its funds frozen abroad. Iran’s economy is badly in need of a fresh injection of foreign currency amid rampant inflation driven by years of sanctions.

Talks had initially been progressing toward the release of $6 billion held in Qatar but Iran’s decision to block the strait has set back the release, the people said.

On Thursday, Iran signaled the reward wasn’t enough to change its position. Upon returning from Doha, Iran’s negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, insisted Hormuz is “under Iran’s command,” not the U.S.’s.

Tehran’s military doubled down later in the day, warning that any ship not passing through an Iran-approved route would face an “immediate and powerful” response.

I have a three-word response to this: bomb Kharg Island. It’s a good thing I’m not President, eh?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili objects to everything—but nothing in particular. She’s just objectionable.

Hili: I firmly object.
Andrzej: To what?
Hili: That calls for further investigation.

In Polish:

Hili: Stanowczo protestuję.
Ja: Przeciwko czemu?
Hili: To wymaga dalszego badania.

*******************

Another great medieval letter from TherionArms:

From Cheryl’s Amazingly Positive, No Politics Allowed, Interesting People Site, interpreting a sign:

From Allison, who says this is familar to all ailurophiles:

From Masih, two sort-of fatwas.  By the way, a hundred kilos of gold is at present worth over $13 million.

100 kg of gold for killing Trump or Netanyahu!!!

This was announced, openly, at a pro-government rally in Iran.

Not by a terrorist hiding in a cave.
By a speaker. At a state rally. In Iran.

And some people still want to negotiate with this regime. Lift its sanctions. Send it… pic.twitter.com/dBHWp2m2x8

— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) July 2, 2026

From Luana; Hakeem Jeffries congratulates a Democratic Socialist loon on her primary victory. Such is the coopting of the Democratic Party:

A smart, strategic Republican Party would run a slate of bland, pin-striped party cogs who think capitalism and America are good and easily retain the Senate and probably the House, but we don’t live in that universe. https://t.co/N1FxfTuPxV

— Peter Savodnik (@petersavodnik) July 1, 2026

A video described in the Jerusalem Post, released by survivors of Oct. 7 on the 1000th day after the massacre. English translation:

For 1000 days, our family preferred to keep this recording to ourselves. This is the horrifying moment when my little brother confirms to us that Dad and Mom were murdered. Today, we decided to release it, to demand truth, justice, and accountability. Accountability must begin with taking responsibility – everyone who had a hand on the wheel must go home and take responsibility, suits and uniforms alike.

במשך 1000 ימים המשפחה שלנו העדיפה להשאיר את ההקלטה הזאת לעצמנו.
זה הרגע המחריד שבו אחי הקטן מאמת לנו שאבא ואמא נרצחו.
היום, החלטנו לפרסם אותה, כדי לדרוש אמת, צדק, ותיקון.
תיקון חייב להתחיל מלקיחת אחריות – כל מי שהיה עם יד על ההגה חייב ללכת הביתה ולקחת אחריות, חליפות ומדים כאחד pic.twitter.com/VxrXuGIYvX

— שיר מתיאס הבת של שחר ושלומי (@MathiasShir) July 2, 2026

Nobody can resist the Number Ten Cat:

Always nice to have the boss of NATO say hi https://t.co/H1FXbz5YqJ

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) June 29, 2026

Two from my feed. First, a lovely woman rescues a deer stuck in a fence:

Terrified deer saved by heroic woman ❤️ pic.twitter.com/7J79GEEykx

— Beauty of music and nature 🌺🌺 (@Axaxia88) July 2, 2026

What is this mother doing?

A cockatiel singing to its baby 🥹🦜 pic.twitter.com/JgUJfuWSTd

— Nature Moments (@NatureMomentz) July 1, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Hungarian Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was not quite two years old, and would have been 84 today had she lived. https://t.co/nGaZNdCIRT

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) July 3, 2026

And one from Dr. Cobb: Peter Lorre and Siamese cats. Why do celebrities have this breed so often?

Peter Lorre#Caturday

— J.A.Tallon (@tallon.bsky.social) 2026-06-27T17:46:47.062Z