"Ex-CIA chief John Brennan may have opened himself up to perjury charges over Trump-Russia hoax."

Writes Miranda Devine, in The New York Post.

[I]n congressional testimony under oath on May 23, 2017, Brennan claimed the Steele dossier “wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done.”

Now we know that is not true. The Steele dossier was forced into the ICA by Brennan and it appeared not just in the “annex” but was referenced in the main body of the ICA that ended up triggering the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller that crippled the first two years of Trump’s first term and served to delegitimize his 2016 election victory.

"L.A. is ours, this is our city. This is what my morning walk turned into. They’re terrorizing our neighborhood."

Said Mikema Nahmir, who "said he was out for his morning walk at 11 a.m. when he saw two women running down the street yelling that 'la migra' was at MacArthur Park" and who "joined the group of protesters who chased and yelled after the military-style trucks."

Nahmir is quoted in "Heavily armed immigration agents descend on L.A.’s MacArthur Park" (L.A. Times)("Immigration agents in military green surrounded MacArthur Park as the convoy readied for a show of force akin to a Hollywood movie. They came with horses and armored vehicles, carrying rifles and in tactical gear in the middle of what is the heart of immigrant Los Angeles").

The phrase "carrying rifles and in tactical gear..." should be relocated next to the word "They" so that grammar mavens do not get distracted into efforts to craft a Grouchoesque how-he-got-in-my-pajamas joke out of the image of horses (and armored vehicles) carrying rifles and tactical gear. This is not an occasion for cheap linguistic jokes. There was a military show of power in MacArthur Park... like a striped pair of pants.

"In politics, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were, and maybe still are, daddies. A daddy-in-training is New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani..."

"... who Gates says 'hasn’t aged into daddyhood' quite yet. What all daddies have in common is the notion of or desire for a power imbalance — a dynamic at play in real and metaphoric, honorific paternal relationships.... Milo Yiannopoulos... began calling Trump daddy in 2017. At an October 2024 rally, speaking before Trump took the stage, Tucker Carlson compared Americans to naughty little girls who have misbehaved. 'When Dad gets home, you know what he says? You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now,' Carlson told the crowd, in perhaps one of the creepiest moments of the campaign. 'And no, it’s not going to hurt me more than it hurts you.' 'Daddy’s Home' shirts featuring Trump and the White House began circulating on Etsy shortly after his November win... We seem to have entered a deeply submissive era. Everyone is being well-behaved for Daddy, lest they be spanked.... But power and wealth are not all that a true daddy possesses....."

Writes Maura Judkis, in "Who’s your daddy? These days, who isn’t? Mack daddy, leather daddy, sugar daddy, Daddy Trump: The fraught and Freudian journey of a domineering archetype" (WaPo).

Gates = Bransen Gates, an Instagrammer who lipsynchs to Trump audio and demonstrates, comically, that Trump was born to be a gay man.

Perhaps you, like me, remember the phrase "Daddy's Home" as the title of a lovely doowop song from 1961 by Shep & the Limelites, so: here.

Even better:

"And you could have my two daughters on this call who know that when I die, my ashes are to be spread at Camp Mystic."

"It runs that deep for people who went to that camp. It was a very, very safe space. You know, it just was a, a clean slate. No one knew what you were like at school every day. No one knew that I was the geeky kid. I just was a can't-miss-it girl. I didn't even have a present father. I didn't know what anybody else's father did or how much money or the size of the house they lived in. It was a space where people could come and it was a level playing field.... So I did not have an idyllic childhood. I had a privileged childhood. But, you know, just because you're privileged doesn't mean that things are always going well at home. And I think a lot of kids were grappling with themselves and they came to Mystic and it was just a place to be a child.... I had an older brother and he was great. But I looked up to girls. I don't think I understood that at the time. It was also a place where you could just be silly. And I don't know that I would've been silly in front of boys at that age...."

Said Erin Paisan, describing her years as a camper in the 1970s, in "A Love Letter to Camp Mystic," today's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast.

And over at The Washington Post, there's "'The camp of our dreams’: LBJ’s daughter remembers her years at Camp Mystic/Lynda Bird Johnson Robb recalls how the Texas camp shaped her childhood" (free-access link): "The camp, which opened in 1926, had a legendary reputation among Texans of privilege. Parents were known to put their daughters on the waiting list at birth.... Girls in their cabins could look up and see the names of their mothers and aunts and grandmothers carved into the rafters.... The bonds formed there could help assure that a girl would get into the right sorority at the University of Texas, marry well and find entry in elite circles."

Sunrise — 5:23, 5:28, 5:35, 5:33.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

Only the third photograph is mine. The others are by Meade, who made it to the vantage point 10 minutes earlier than I did.

"'Stop talking over your brother,' they’d chide. 'I asked him a question.' And I would quieten down, shamed."

"My brother would say nothing, but entreat me with frightened eyes to step in. As a small child, I felt my brother spoke without language. I heard his voice in my head, and I believed I was his translator. To me, this felt natural. It’s easy to scoff – the delusions of childhood – but as toddlers we read everything around us.... Maybe, my brother’s non verbal cues felt like language to me. So much of what is communicated between people involves attunement, a subtle reading of one another’s emotional states, micro-expressions and non verbal cues. Perhaps I just hadn’t learned to distinguish...."

Writes Jessie Cole, in "I spoke for my brother when he was too afraid to answer — now, he speaks in melodies, and I have learned to listen" (Guardian).

Jessie Cole is a writer. Her brother, Jacob Cole, is a guitarist. I'm listening on Spotify, here. 

"Former President Joe Biden’s advisers convinced the aging commander in chief to hold an early summer debate with Donald Trump last year by insisting it would allow him to reach the “widest audience possible'..."

"... a leaked memo reveals. The six-page document dated April 15, 2024 — 73 days before the disastrous forum that tanked Biden’s re-election bid — bizarrely capitalizes and bolds any references to the 46th president. 'By holding the first debate in the spring, YOU will be able to reach the widest audience possible, before we are deep in the summer months with the conventions, Olympics, and family vacations taking precedence,” reads the memo.... 'In addition, the earlier YOU are able to debate the better, so that the American people can see YOU standing next to Trump and showing the strength of YOUR leadership, compared to Trump’s weakness and chaos,' it continues...."

I'm reading "Biden advisers pushed early Trump debate to reach ‘widest audience possible,’ leaked memo reveals" (NY Post).

The bold and capitalized YOU and YOUR looks like something from a scammy advertisement aiming to separate weak-minded seniors from their life savings.

I don't for one minute believe the advisers believed the assertions in the memo. I will be presuming that they could see he was going to be incapable of appearing competent and that they needed to push him to release his hold on the nomination, and they only wanted to do that once the primaries were over and it was too late to do anything but advance Kamala Harris. So they conned him into humiliating himself in the debate and giving the media the basis for declaring him unfit — as if they just noticed — and demanding that he withdraw.

The advisers were not mistaken. They knew what they were doing. They were lying. And they were devious. Let me restate that. THEY knew what THEY were doing. THEY were lying. And THEY were devious.

That's my presumption. Prove me wrong.

Revolution in the air.

Seen, just now, in a prominent place, which I won't name, out of mild avoidance of spoiling.

You know, Bob Dylan recorded "Tangled up in Blue" on the second-to-last day of the year 1974 — half a century ago. And he was telling the story of something further back in the past: "It didn't pertain to me. It was just a concept of putting in images that defy time – yesterday, today and tomorrow. I wanted to make them all connect in some kind of a strange way." It's hard to say what year there was that "revolution in the air." Perhaps a decade earlier.

And now the "revolution in the air" is in the crossword puzzle.

Speaking of revolution "in the air" in the 1960s, I always think of the 1969 Thunderclap Newman record, "Something in the Air." Maybe if "Tangled up in Blue" didn't pertain to Bob Dylan, it pertained to Thunderclap Newman. He'd have heard their song in the air:

Call out the instigators/Because there's something in the air/We got to get together sooner or later/Because the revolution's here....

"It’s not about your personal political affiliation. No one goes to Pilates thinking, ‘I’m going to be a fascist today.'"

But: "Pilates is... extremely whitewashed. It’s based on wealth. It’s based on thinness.”

Said MaryBeth Monaco-Vavrik, "a 24-year-old barre instructor and fitness influencer," who "studied political science and communications," quoted in "Is Pilates Political? A video about thinness, femininity and fascism has inspired months of debate in the fitness community" (NYT).

On TikTok, content creators offer advice on how to achieve “Pilates arms” — lean, sinewy biceps that do not appear overtly muscular — or, more broadly, a “Pilates body,” which typically just means thin. Ms. Monaco-Vavrik worried that these were coded ways to tell women they needed to make themselves small and take up less space — that rather than building strength by lifting weights....

[Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a professor of history at the New School said,] “I do think that when you look at the dominant aesthetics and messaging around Pilates princesses or Pilates girlies, it definitely upholds very traditional aesthetics of female beauty.... I appreciate that kind of analysis, but it kind of falls apart when you look deeply at it.... Perhaps most foundationally because Pilates does get you very, very strong. Pilates is a really intense workout.”

This gets my tag "MSM reports what's in social media."

Here's the viral video the article is about. It's exactly the video you'd expect from a 24-year-old barre instructor and fitness influencer who studied political science and communications. It's what I'd have said at age 24.

By the way, I just watched a movie made by a 24-year-old woman, and I got the feeling it was exactly the kind of story I thought up when I was that age. Not saying I could have made the movie that topped the Sight & Sound "Greatest Films of All Time," just saying I remember these young-woman thoughts. 

"Race in America is often presented in two buckets: White and non-White. This is an update to the buckets..."

"... that existed for much of American history — White and Black — reflecting how the end of immigration restrictions in the 1960s allowed more Asian and Hispanic and Middle Eastern and you-name-it people to come to the U.S. But there are still two buckets, buckets into which people with mixed racial backgrounds jump (or are dropped) depending on circumstance."

Explains Philip Bump, in "The useful political lesson from Zohran Mamdani’s college application/America’s understanding of race and ethnicity is still woefully simplistic" (WaPo).

ADDED: By the way, I loathe the increasingly common use of the word "bucket" to mean "category." I'm one of those people — perhaps you are too — who see the concrete image in a metaphor. But maybe Bump wants to evoke disgust at the idea of human beings in buckets. His use of "jump" and "dropped" suggests that he does want us to visualize people disrespected and abused. 

"The Pope’s decision to holiday at Castel Gandolfo is one of several breaks with the choices of his predecessor."

"Singing in Latin, wearing a traditional red shoulder cape known as a mozzetta, putting a brake on personal charisma and taking respite in the Alban Hills all distinguish him from the dour intensity of Francis."

From "Pope Leo to take two-week holiday in break with ‘pauperism’ of Francis/The pontiff, a keen tennis player, has also ordered a court to be installed in the extensive grounds of a 17th-century villa where he will escape Rome."

Tell me about the "pauperism" of Pope Francis. A question for ChatGPT. Answer: "The 'pauperism' of Pope Francis refers to his radical focus on poverty and simplicity, both personally and theologically. Admirers see this as a prophetic return to the Gospel’s core, while critics worry it may neglect the complexity of economic life or idealize poverty in unhelpful ways."

Sunrise — 5:22, 5:23.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"At least 59 people have been confirmed dead by the floods... as a frantic search-and-rescue operation continues for countless more who remain missing..."

"... including 11 girls from a beloved summer camp on the Guadalupe River.... Extraordinary atmospheric conditions released 1.8 trillion gallons of rain in and around Texas Hill Country on Friday. In one area, the Guadalupe River rose from 7 feet to 29 feet in just a few hours.... The National Weather Service said its reports gave localities hours of lead time, but the speed and severity of the flooding still appeared to catch many off guard. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said that the agency used an 'ancient system' for alerts and that the White House has been working to upgrade the technology...."

The Washington Post reports.

UPDATE: The headline at the link now reads "Death toll nears 80 as local officials promise ‘full review’ of what went wrong."

"The Democrats onstage saw themselves as morally courageous. American voters, it turned out, saw a group of politicians hopelessly out of touch."

"Standing side by side at a primary debate in June 2019, nine of the party’s candidates for president were asked to raise their hand if they wanted to decriminalize illegal border crossings. Only one of them held still. Six years later, the party remains haunted by that tableau. It stands both as a vivid demonstration of a leftward policy shift on immigration that many prominent Democratic lawmakers and strategists now say they deeply regret, and as a marker of how sharply the country was moving in the other direction."

I'm reading "Can Democrats Find Their Way on Immigration? The party’s leftward shift in the Biden administration arguably laid the groundwork for President Trump’s aggressive approach. Deciding the next move won’t be easy" (NYT)(free-access link).

"The next move" = it's a game. You can't win the confidence of the people if they can see it's a game. 

What can you do to demonstrate/fake sincerity? The old plan was to denounce Trump as a racist, and there are still prominent Democrats like Ayanna Pressley, who's quoted saying: "Democrats have to stop talking about the issue of immigration within a Republican frame. This has nothing to do with law and order. This is about power, control, terror, and it is about racism and xenophobia. Donald Trump wants to make America Jim Crow again, and then some."

What if you gave a party and nobody came?

When & where should we hold the inaugural American Party congress?

This will be super fun! https://t.co/zMaELCiXjU

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2025

"I was in my twenties then, and I’d grown up with a certain expectation, watching films, of what my sexual life was going to be like, and then it wasn’t that."

"The world had begun to be so saturated by sexual imagery in porn and the expectations were shifting. Not that there’s anything wrong with porn, but it does change the way people are expecting you to behave in a natural sexual situation. And so I was just confounded, and I think Girls expressed a lot of that confusion, anxiety, and frankly, pain."

Said Lena Dunham, quoted in "Lena Dunham on Too Much and her long-awaited return to TV: 'I stepped back from acting after my body was dissected'/Eight years on from ‘Girls’, the HBO comedy that made her name – and made her a lightning rod for criticism – Dunham is back with a 10-part romcom, ‘Too Much’. Ellie Harrison hears from the writer, along with her new lead stars Meg Stalter and Will Sharpe, about their London-set love story, which is well worth the wait" (Independent).

Did Lena Dunham have her body "dissected"? When I read that in the headline I thought it was a reference to her health problems (notably, endometriosis). But no: "When Girls was on television, discourse about Dunham’s appearance was rabid. Howard Stern called her 'a little fat girl' on national radio. One newspaper described her as a 'pathological exhibitionist.' 'Having my body dissected was a reason that I chose in general to step back from acting a little bit more and focus on my writing and my directing, and also just make different kinds of choices as an actor,' she says now."