Bob’s Hailstone 07-31-25

Harris closes up shop due to lack of interest

Bob’s Hailstone 07-31-25
By Jim Reynolds | www.reynolds.com

Grook

They ate the meat and cursed the bone,
They stole the light, then feared the tone.
Now truth arrives with iron gate,
And dogs they kicked return as fate.

[A bloodied chessboard with pawns scattered, a laughing hyena wearing a trade-deal badge, and shadows of Obama and Kamala fading behind.]

Unifying Introduction

As summer flattens into late July, the Left’s foundation shows the same cracks they’ve spent years mocking in everyone else’s house. Trade panic has reversed. The media’s Gaza narrative is in shreds. Kamala Harris slinks away from California. And somewhere, Barack Obama is reading the phrase “Yes, he can... be indicted?” with a tight jaw and two attorneys. Bob’s here, boots muddy, teeth bared. Let’s tally the carcasses.

Heading to Midterms, Democrats Not Up Off the Floor
Michael Barone, DC Examiner
Barone sketches the Democratic collapse heading into midterms—polls down, base dispirited, policy fatigue spreading like mildew. Key constituencies feel betrayed, ignored, or embarrassed. Abortion remains the lone thread holding them upright.

• Leans: Right, elder-warrior clarity

• Bob: They’re not just on the floor, Mike. They’re curled in the fetal position, muttering “January 6” like it’s a spell.

• Jim: Every symptom is self-induced. Nobody poisoned this party but the party.

Has Trump Ended Free Trade?
Kim & Reinsch, Washington Monthly
The authors wring their hands over Trump’s trade realignment, wondering if tariffs and strategic leverage killed the free trade consensus. They admit the old system enriched China and impoverished U.S. workers but cling to the dream that it somehow made sense.

• Leans: Left, wistful-globalist mourning

• Bob: Free trade isn’t dead. It’s just been told it has to pay rent like everyone else.

• Jim: The better question: Why did free trade survive so long without a public defender?

Trump Nails Trade Deal, Proves Everyone Wrong--Again
Miranda Devine, NY Post
Devine celebrates Trump’s latest tariff jiu-jitsu: a revised bilateral deal with India that undercuts China’s market grip and drops inflation pressure at home. Experts predicted doom. The market went up instead. Navarro grinned so hard it may be permanent.

• Leans: Right, vindicatory tone

• Bob: If Trump keeps being wrong like this, he’ll accidentally fix the whole planet.

• Jim: What do you call a man whose every heresy becomes doctrine? You call him early.

The Power of a Single-Issue Group
Matthew Yglesias, Substack
Yglesias explores how focused advocacy groups—on guns, abortion, climate—continue to drive outsized political leverage despite shrinking national consensus. It’s a grudging nod to how “obsession wins.” Summary constructed from teaser, web, and X.

• Leans: Left, nerd-skeptic tone

• Bob: Nobody wants a full meal, Matt. They want the hot sauce.

• Jim: They don’t wield power despite being single-issue. They wield it because they are. Effective but not representative.

SCOTUS Killed Universal Injunctions in Name Only
Ben Weingarten, RCInvestigations
Weingarten outlines how the Supreme Court's supposed limitation on universal injunctions is actually toothless. Lower courts are still issuing nationwide rulings. It’s SCOTUS posturing as reformers while preserving chaos through ambiguity.

• Leans: Right, legal realist

• Bob: If this is reform, I’m a Supreme Court justice. Where’s my robe?

• Jim: Once again, they chose symbolism over substance and called it jurisprudence. How does the left continue to weasel by the law? I was not surprised.

Obama Can't Really Be Indicted, Can He?
Michael Tomasky, The New Republic
Tomasky dry-heaves into 800 words at the idea that Obama could ever face legal scrutiny over Russiagate origins. He tries to build a firewall between Brennan and the president, but the wiring's exposed. The essay’s subtitle could’ve been: “Please No.”

• Leans: Left, defensive panic

• Bob: When you have to write this headline, you’ve already lost the argument.

• Jim: In a healthy republic, nobody needs immunity by nostalgia. I’m hoping for change — and justice.

Whistleblower Threatened for Not Approving Bogus ICA
Margot Cleveland, Federalist
Cleveland reveals that intel insiders pressured a whistleblower to rubber-stamp the infamous 2017 ICA accusing Trump of Russian collusion. The truth was shaky, but the stampede was real. Bureaucracy beat facts in a 5-4 decision of cowards.

• Leans: Right, anti-spook accountability

• Bob: “Consensus” means we already printed the T-shirts.

• Jim: The truth didn’t just die in darkness—it was strangled at noon with a scarf labeled CIA.

Harris Will Not Run for California Governor in 2026
Dovere, McKend & Wright, CNN
Kamala Harris squashes rumors of a 2026 gubernatorial bid. Not because she’s focused on the vice presidency, but because even California seems like a stretch now. The political oxygen is gone, and so is the smile.

• Leans: Left, soft-landing spin

• Bob: When California won’t take you back, it’s time for Canada.

• Jim: She peaked at “We did it, Joe.” It’s been radio static ever since. No donors equals no campaign.

Cincinnati Needs and Deserves Change Regarding Crime
Sen. Bernie Moreno, X
Video post where Moreno, in streetwear, calls out rising crime in Cincinnati and proposes “targeted accountability.” It’s a plea wrapped in populism, backed by grim stats and sidewalk shots.

• Leans: Right, local populist

• Bob: When even your senator brings receipts, it’s bad.

• Jim: This is what leadership looks like when DAs abdicate. We need more of this.

Dems Sue Noem for ICE Facility Access
Cheyenne McNeill, Salon
Democrats are suing Gov. Kristi Noem, claiming obstruction after her administration limited access to a controversial ICE facility. Noem says it’s about safety; critics call it stonewalling. Expect this to become a 2026 litmus case on sovereignty.

• Leans: Left, civil rights angle

• Bob: If you want access so bad, try the southern border last year. It was wide open.

• Jim: At first, I thought they were talking about Kristi’s sister, Susan. This is performative litigation that goes nowhere. Dems specialize in this sort of non-productive behavior.

End National Endowment for Democracy Once and for All
Roger Kimball, Spectator
Kimball demolishes the NED, calling it a taxpayer-funded Hydra of regime meddling, bureaucratic self-dealing, and useless projects in places Americans can’t find on a map. He calls for a full defunding, with receipts.

• Leans: Right, principled wrecking ball

• Bob: They export democracy like it's bad sausage.

• Jim: Time to end the State Department’s petting zoo. How many USAID-like enclaves do we have? Does this ever end?

How Gaza's Hunger Crisis Reached Its 'Worst-Case Scenario'
Joshua Keating, Vox
Keating paints Gaza as a humanitarian catastrophe worsened by Israeli operations. Civilians suffer, aid struggles to reach them, and international frustration grows. Blame is implied, never shouted.

• Leans: Left, humanitarian sorrow

• Bob: No mention of Hamas. Just ghosts and gnawed bread.

• Jim: You can’t mourn responsibly if you redact the perpetrators. We know what to expect from this outlet – every time.

Gaza Starvation Photos Tell a Thousand Lies
Eitan Fischberger, Wall Street Journal
Fischberger critiques the global media’s selective framing of Gaza images, noting manipulated narratives and context-stripped photos that fuel international outrage without facts. He calls it optics warfare.

• Leans: Right, corrective realism

• Bob: Every staged photo costs three truths.

• Jim: If you treat propaganda as evidence, you’ll get war as policy. WSJ has more credibility than Vox, but not by much these days. WSJ also told us that Trump’s tariffs would ruin us with inflation and various other financial diseases.

AI Has Entered the Chat
Brian Athey, RealClearPolitics
Athey explores how generative AI is changing political campaigns—targeting voters, generating speeches, and blurring authorship. He warns of an uncanny future where sincerity dies and the script never ends.

• Leans: Center, cautious futurism

• Bob: When even the bots are polling better than Booker, it's time to worry.

• Jim: AI won’t kill democracy. It’ll just automate the lying.

A Jeans Ad Triggers the Oppressive Left
Ingrid Jacques, USA Today
Jacques reports on a Levi’s ad featuring a traditionally attractive couple that triggered accusations of erasure, elitism, and cisnormativity. The ad was pulled. The mob got its jeans.

• Leans: Center-Right, culture sanity

• Bob: The pants weren’t problematic until someone wore them.

• Jim: The goal isn’t justice. It’s total compliance, 38-waist only. Beware the rebound: I predict a huge comeback for “normal, good-looking people” clothing ads in the future. Why? Because they sell jeans. The yoke of woke is slipping.

Tom Lehrer and Mort Mintz, RIP
Robert Kuttner, American Prospect
A heartfelt remembrance of two figures—Lehrer, the satirist, and Mintz, the investigative journalist. Kuttner honors their irreverence, clarity, and wit. It's a pause in the noise.

• Leans: Left, respectful retrospection

• Bob: One mocked power. One exposed it. Both are gone. Pity.

• Jim: They left better fingerprints than most.

The Kaaba at Ground Zero
David Samuels, Tablet Magazine
Samuels riffs on cultural symbolism, terrorism, and America’s uneasy spiritual identity post-9/11. The essay is elliptical, provocative, and built to spark reflection or rage.

• Leans: Center-Right, philosophical flame-throwing

• Bob: When metaphors bleed into monuments, history forgets who won.

• Jim: This is how you write dangerous ideas well.

End Note

Some days the news just howls. And some days it limps. But today, it’s drooling in every corner, snarling for attention—and the leash is slipping. Trade lies collapse. Obama’s halo flickers. Kamala folds. The Gaza narrative unravels. And somewhere deep in the kennels of American politics, Bob is tossing raw meat to the pack.

Note: All stories referenced here come from the RealClearPolitics homepage. For full articles and original context, visit www.realclearpolitics.com.