"Biden aides look to Fifth Amendment as autopen probe widens/The former president’s allies are seeking legal protections amid fear that they have become the latest targets for political retribution."

Headline at The Washington Post. I'd make that a free-access link, but I only have 4 left to give this month and it's only the 18th. And it's one of these 31-day months, too, so I've got to be extra stingy.

I'll cherry-pick the lawprof talk:

“They have little options here in terms of protecting their interests,” said Jonathan Shaub, who teaches law at the University of Kentucky and has advised previous White Houses on the use of executive privilege. “Some have claimed the Fifth Amendment, even though I don’t think they actually think that they have committed any crimes. But given the language that has been used and the insinuations, I can understand why their counsel would say, ‘Just don’t say anything, because we don’t know what they’re willing to do and what they’re willing to prosecute.’”

You don't think they actually think that they have committed any crimes. But what do they need to believe? Is it enough that they believe that the current administration will do anything to get revenge on political adversaries? Professor Shaub can understand why their counsel would say they should plead the Fifth, but would he advise his clients to plead the Fifth based on the idea of not knowing what the Trump administration is willing to do?

"Meth causes the brain to release exorbitant amounts of dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter. On a ho-hum day..."

"... [Dr. Kristen B. Silvia tells meth addicts], an individual’s dopamine levels could rise to, say, 50. 'If you have the best meal ever, the best sex ever, the best day of your life, you can get your levels up to 100.' When someone uses crack... within seconds their levels rise to 300, she continues, 'or three times the best day of your life. 'But on meth, dopamine levels skyrocket to 1,000 and can remain there for hours: 'No medication can safely compete with that.'..."

From "Upended by Meth, Some Communities Are Paying Users to Quit/Unlike with opioids, there is no medication to suppress cravings for meth and other stimulants. As use soars, hundreds of clinics are trying a radically different approach" (NYT).

"[A]ddiction experts worry that under the Trump administration, CM programs will be difficult to sustain, much less expand to meet the need. Many believe that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, who overcame his heroin addiction with a 12-step program and has praised approaches that threaten to jail people who refuse treatment, would be unlikely to endorse a financial rewards-based strategy...."

It's hard for me to imagine feeling 10 times as good as I have ever felt. I might have 10 times as much of what you're calling "the feel-good neurotransmitter," but that doesn't mean the goodness of the feeling will be multiplied by 10. I don't think feeling good works like that! I once heard someone describe the experience of parachuting from a plane as like having 1,000 orgasms all at once. She was quite enthused, and I immediately said that sounds horrible.

"More than anyone I know, his approach to work and life was Socratic. Questions meant so much to him; he was suspicious of answers, certainly easy ones."

Said the opera director Daniel Fish, quoted in "John Conklin, Designer of Fantastical Opera Sets, Dies at 88/Realizing a childhood dream, he created scenery that was highly conceptual yet playful for the Glimmerglass Festival, New York City Opera and other companies" (NYT).

In an early meeting about the [Bard College production of “Oklahoma!”], “John reached into one of the drawers in his studio and pulled some sparkly fringe, a miniature version of the stuff you see hanging over used-car lots, and asked, ‘What if we hung this over the space?,” Mr. Fish said in an email. “That ‘what if’ was key to John’s creative process.”

"A man who entered an M.R.I. room during a scan in Westbury, N.Y., on Wednesday was pulled into the machine by his chain necklace..."

"... and was hospitalized in critical condition, the authorities said. The man, who is 61, was wearing a 'large metallic chain' around his neck... did not have authorization to enter the room, the authorities said...."

The NYT reports.

Why is the Wall Street Journal's big story on Trump behind a paywall?

Are they trying to destroy him or not?

Here's the link if you want to try to use it. I found a way last night, but it's not working for me now. I was going to quote the part about Donald Trump supposedly drawing the figure of a woman with 2 big curves for breasts and the scribbled signature "Donald" as the pubic hair.

Is that in the article or just the detritus of a bad dream? I don't know. There's that paywall. If you want to take down Trump — save the world from the marker-wielding fiend — you've got to show what you've got to everyone, not exploit the occasion for subscriptions.

And if I remember correctly from last night — or was it a dream? — you didn't even show us the drawing. I want to see this famous historical drawing that brought down a President. Has there ever been a drawing like this? 

Here's what I prompted Grok: "Imagine a contest where you have to do a drawing that is supposedly by another American President that would reveal something this bad about him. What would be some entries in the contest? That is, what would it have been possible but terrible for Abe Lincoln to have sketched, etc." I'm sure you could think of funnier ideas that Grok described.

But let's see if I can get Grok to draw that picture Trump supposedly drew but the WSJ did publish (perhaps out of fear of getting "Rathergated"). Oh, no: "Unfortunately I can't generate that kind of image."

ADDED: If you were trying to play up to someone you knew was a pedophile, why would you emphasize a woman's pubic hair? It seems more like a way to call out and needle a pedophile. Try that interpretation, Trumpsters, if the letter turns out to be real.

"CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump..."

"... a deal that looks like bribery. America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons."

Tweets Elizabeth Warren, showing us this clip of Colbert critiquing the $16 million deal:

CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery.

America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.

Watch and share his message. pic.twitter.com/Rz7HcWFLYM

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 18, 2025

AND: From last night's show:

"The Wall Street Journal late last night published a counterfeit letter it falsely accused Trump of sending to Jeff Epstein in 2003..."

"... long before law enforcement or the future president discovered Epstein pimped minors. How do I know the letter is false? Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ told me so. You see, it ran a 13,000-word expose on Epstein on December 17, 2023. The piece did not mention Trump. Not once. If the publication had the goods on Trump, it would have exposed him ahead of the 2024 presidential primary season. If the deep state had the goods on Trump, the end of him would have come years ago...."

Writes Don Surber, in "The counterfeit letter on Epstein may end the Wall Street Journal" (Substack).

"In the 19th century, virtuoso pianists, including Adolfo Fumagalli, composed left-handed works to wow audiences during encores. (Sometimes, Fumagalli used his right hand to smoke a cigar.)"

"'They were saying, "You think I’m good with two hands? Wait until you see what I can do with only my weaker one,"' McCarthy said. Around the same time, a disabled pianist was also trying to develop a one-handed repertoire: Géza Zichy, a Hungarian who had lost his right arm in a hunting accident as a teenager, transcribed pieces by his friend Franz Liszt, as well as J.S. Bach and others." 

From "Only 5 Fingers Playing Piano, but the Sound of So Many Hands/Nicholas McCarthy overcame rejection to make a professional career playing the surprisingly vast repertoire for left-hand piano" (NYT).

"The most important figure in the repertoire’s development was Paul Wittgenstein, a promising Austrian pianist, who fought with the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I, alongside his brother Ludwig, the future philosopher. Paul Wittgenstein was shot in battle, and woke up in a hospital to learn that doctors had amputated his right arm. Wittgenstein said later in interviews that he had never contemplated giving up music, and recalled drawing a charcoal keyboard on a crate when he was sent to a Siberian prisoner-of-war camp so that he could practice one-handed. In the decades after his release in a prisoner exchange, Wittgenstein used his family’s wealth to commission composers including Ravel, Paul Hindemith, Sergei Prokofiev and Richard Strauss."

Sunrise — 5:34.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments EXCEPT the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's TV show. I just put up a new post on that subject, so scroll down to the previous post for whatever you've got to say about that. 

And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"I’m sure this has absolutely nothing to do with the recent deal between CBS and Trump that gave him $16 million for nothing."

"Stephen Colbert has been on point and humorous in his criticism of Trump. I hope he finds a home on another network or platform."

That's a comment on the NYT article "CBS Canceling ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ After Next Season/The show will end in May, the network said, calling it 'a purely financial decision.'"

From the article: “'It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,' said the executives, who included George Cheeks, the president of CBS and a co-chief executive of Paramount, CBS’s parent. 'Our admiration, affection and respect for the talents of Stephen Colbert and his incredible team made this agonizing decision even more difficult.'"

"The government has announced it will lower the voting age to 16 for all UK elections in time for the next general election...."

"Including 16- and 17-year-olds in the electorate does not change election outcomes and it does not make elections less representative. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds are just as qualified to vote as other, older voters. Research from Germany and Austria shows that they are able to pick a political party or representative that best represents their views to the same extent as other, slightly older voters. But some things may get better for young people and for democracy overall, especially if young people are taken seriously as voters and receive good education on political issues...."

Writes Christine Huebner, a lecturer in quantitative social sciences at the University of Sheffield, in "What happens when 16-year-olds get the vote? Other countries are already seeing the benefits" (Guardian).

Oh, please don't let this happen in the U.S. As I see it, 16 year olds will get the vote... when they turn 18. There's no problem to fix. By the way, I didn't get to vote until I was 21. 

"Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit."

Said John Bode, head of the Corn Refiners Association, quoted in "Trump's Coke push will cost thousands of farm jobs, corn group warns" (Axios).

Oh, that's rich — we're supposed to feel sorry for the folks who make high fructose corn syrup. 

"The Justice Department’s civil rights chief has asked a federal judge to sentence a Louisville police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor to one day in jail..."

"... a stunning reversal of Biden-era efforts to address racial disparities in local law enforcement. Last year, a federal jury in Kentucky convicted Brett Hankison, the officer, of one count of violating Ms. Taylor’s civil rights by discharging several shots through Ms. Taylor’s window during a drug raid that went awry. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced next week...."

The NYT reports.

Caught on camera.

1. "Coldplay’s ‘kiss cam’ zeroes in on mortified tech CEO Andy Byron and alleged HR-chief mistress Kristin Cabot" (NY Post)("Oh, what? Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy").

2. "Video shows boy, 7, being kidnapped at gunpoint — as dad runs and hides: 'Hell yeah I ran'" (NY Post)("I ran im thinking they tryna rob me not take my damn baby").

"Like the singer and songwriter Bobby Darin, with whom she was romantically involved until her father chased him off with a gun when she was in her late teens..."

"... Ms. Francis reached out beyond her teenage audience, recording material that made her a natural in Las Vegas as well as in nightclubs like the Copacabana in New York. She was also a sought-after entertainer on television variety shows. She briefly tried performing before teenage audiences, but she found that she did not care for the experience. 'I always remember receiving much more applause from teenagers when I was introduced than at any other time during the show — especially after my closing number,' she wrote in her memoir. 'After my name was announced and the squeals of delight subsided, it was downhill all the way.'"

From "Connie Francis, Whose Ballads Dominated ’60s Pop Music, Dies at 87/Ms. Francis, who had a natural way with a wide variety of material, ruled the charts with songs like 'Who’s Sorry Now' and 'Where the Boys Are.'"

Here she is, sublimely out of style in 1969 (on "The Ed Sullivan Show"):

It's perfectly lovely to be square. She was adored on TikTok just this past year.

Watched last night, not chosen by me: 2 TV shows from 1956.

Things I asked Grok: