Bob’s Hailstone Chronicles 7-11-25 PM

The World According to Bob (and Sometimes Jim)

Bob’s Hailstone Chronicles 7-11-25 PM
The World According to Bob (and Sometimes Jim)
By Jim Reynolds — www.reynolds.com

Grook: “Selective Silence”
The newsman shouts, the statesman spins,
A million tales, no honest wins.
The headlines march in lopsided array—
But what? No story on Brennan?

All stories sourced from the RealClearPolitics homepage for Friday, July 11, 2025.
For full articles and original context, visit www.realclearpolitics.com.

Intro:
Today’s cocktail is equal parts gaslight and backlash, shaken with a splash of entropy.
The State Department is laying off influence. Teachers unions are doing PR for school choice.
And in San Francisco, the mayor is calling for an exorcism she might not survive.
Meanwhile, Bob’s in the corner, polishing a single metaphorical bullet.
He only needs one. Let’s begin.

But first, a note. We are adding a bit more detail today since it’s Friday. Take your time and enjoy the ride through our world.

1. Mayor Lurie: 'San Francisco Needs To Save Itself'
Max Raskin, Wall Street Journal

San Francisco’s new mayor, London Breed successor Mark Farrell Lurie, is sending a tough-love message: stop looking to Washington and start fixing our own mess. Raskin walks us through Lurie’s realist streak—a businessman-turned-politician who sees competence, not ideology, as the city's last chance. He’s trimming fat, pushing for police reform that doesn’t mean retreat, and trying to convince both tech billionaires and fentanyl zombies that the city belongs to neither.

But talk is cheap in a city drowning in progressive inertia. Lurie may be the adult in the room, but the room’s on fire, and half the people think arson is a lifestyle choice. Still, his message resonates: clean up your house before blaming the neighbors.

Bob: “When the captain says ‘the ship must rescue itself,’ abandon ship.”
Jim: “Let’s be practical here — all we’re looking for is a little improvement – somewhere.”
Leans: Hollow | Menacing | Predictable

2. Teachers Union Unplugged
Teachers Union Makes a Great Case Against Itself – Hugo Gurdon, Washington Examiner

The AFT’s latest defense of the public school status quo reads more like an unintentional indictment. While claiming to protect students, the union shields failing systems, blocks school choice, and rebrands stagnation as equity. Gurdon doesn’t have to dig deep—he just quotes them. Their own statements are the evidence.

Instead of showing how they help children, the union showcases how it protects power. Bad schools? Blame funding. Poor outcomes? Blame racism. No competition? Blame billionaires. Somewhere between the talking points and the tenure, parents fled.

Bob: “If kids could vote, they’d decertify the union.”
Jim: “I always wondered what happened to all the C- college kids. Are they now teachers?”
Leans: Devastating | Bureaucratic

3. Foggy Bottom Falls Down
State Department Layoffs Upend Foreign Policy – Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine

Trump’s latest shake-up sends hundreds packing at the State Department. Kilgore sees it as reckless—another Trumpian wrecking ball aimed at the sacred marble halls of diplomacy. But to some, it’s a long-overdue deflation of America’s self-appointed global class: mandarins who mistake foreign meddling for foreign policy.

The layoffs are framed as chaos, but they may reflect a strategic principle: the fewer the busybodies, the smaller the mess. Trump isn’t shrinking the State Department for fun. He’s gutting a clique that believed its job was to run the world.

Bob: “Imagine fewer emails from people who never saw the country they’re redesigning.”
Jim: “Could it be that he is just lightening up on overly ambitious international meddlers?”
Leans: Bureaucratic | Hopeful

4. Epstein and the Vanishing Curiosity
Regarding Epstein, There Really—Really!—Is Nothing To See – Hugh Hewitt, FOX News
The Lying and Secrecy Are Driving People Crazy – Neil Patel, X

Hewitt insists there's nothing left to uncover, while Patel catalogs the psychological toll of official silence. Americans sense the con. The more they’re told to move along, the more they dig in. It's not conspiracy—the absurdity of the cover-up is now the story.

From blank pages to vanished footage, every institutional dodge signals the same thing: someone important is being protected. And the price of that protection is public trust, which is now bleeding out faster than a witness on a broken camera feed.

Bob: “If the smoke alarm keeps going off, maybe stop shouting ‘false alarm.’”
Jim: “Only one logical conclusion: Whatever they are hiding it must be really, really bad. Otherwise, why invite such an enormous credibility hit?”
Leans: Menacing, Hollow, Ritualistic, Self-incriminating

5. The Credibility Abyss
The Lying and Secrecy Are Driving People Crazy – Neil Patel, X
Patel explores the toxic spiral created when governments lie, media colludes, and accountability vanishes. From Epstein to Wuhan to censorship, the public isn’t just angry—they’re becoming unhinged. And why wouldn’t they be? If the truth won’t come out, fiction will fill the void.
Bob: “If no one answers the door, paranoia kicks it in.”
Jim: “Half my essays are about the government, institutions, or politicians lying to the public. It is the through line that never ends.”
Leans: Unhinged and undeniable

6. The Prairie Populist
Osborn Ready To Mount Even Bolder Nebraska Campaign – John Nichols, The Nation
Osborn’s run is half rebellion, half nostalgia. Nichols paints a candidate riding anti-establishment waves while channeling the ghosts of prairie progressivism. The rhetoric is bolder. The stakes are bigger.
Bob: “When your tractor runs on slogans, pack extra hay.”
Jim: “When a Democrat starts sounding like a plumber instead of a podcast host, you know something’s shifting.”
Leans: Hopeful | Bizarre

7. The Eagle Still Soars
Eagle Forum Will Never Burn Our Legacy of Liberty – Kristen Ullman, RealClearPolitics
Ullman defends conservatism’s moral spine against modern erosion. It’s part tribute, part rallying cry. The Eagle Forum’s not hip, not loud—but they’re still here, still reading the Constitution aloud.
Bob: “Old birds fly straight, even in a headwind.”
Jim: “There’s something noble about just showing up, decade after decade, to defend what matters.”
Leans: Hopeful | Melancholy

8. The Post-Iranian Maze
The Post-Iranian Middle East – Amos Yadlin, Foreign Affairs
Yadlin explores the dangerous vacuum that would follow the fall of Iran’s regime. While the West dreams of liberation, the reality could be blood feuds, proxy wars, and collapsing borders. Regional powers would scramble. Oil would spike. And liberal democracy? Still a long shot.

Bob: “The only thing worse than Iran’s regime may be what follows it.”
Jim: “Not a pretty sight. Be careful what you wish for, and be ready when it comes. We in the West love the idea of MIGA, but is it even possible?”
Leans: Menacing | Bizarre

9. Hamas, Translated
What Hamas Says vs. What Hamas Means – Seth Mandel, Commentary
Mandel offers a brutal decoder: peace talk masks war planning. PR blitzes conceal playground rockets. The West hears nuance. Hamas means blood.
Bob: “When a wolf quotes Rumi, check the fence line.”
Jim: “According to this author, you can’t negotiate with a bomb in a baby carriage and a press badge taped to the side.”:
Leans: Cynical | Predictable

10. Scrolling into Madness
Little Videos Are Cooking Our Brains – Adam Estes, Vox
Estes warns that TikToks, reels, and shorts are remapping attention spans. Memory shrinks. Empathy flickers. It’s dopamine on tap, and the faucet’s stuck open.
Bob: “We’re boiling the frog—and filming it vertically.”
Jim: “When attention spans get shorter and shorter, eventually you can’t hold a thought. That can’t be good. What? You say you missed the part after ‘When’?”
Leans: Devastating | Bizarre

11. Education, Real and Imagined
A Real Student's Take on Murray's 'Real Education' – Blubaugh & Lindsay, RealClearBooks

This is a rare, candid review of Charles Murray’s Real Education from someone who’s still in the trenches. The student-author doesn’t just digest Murray’s core message—that ability varies, and pretending otherwise helps no one—but engages with it respectfully and personally. The piece acknowledges the system’s dishonesty, its soul-crushing conformity, and the way false ideals have warped both policy and young minds.

Rather than call Murray outdated or incendiary, the student validates much of his thesis: not everyone should go to college, the four goals of education are wildly out of balance, and we need to rethink what it means to “be smart.” The tone is thoughtful, with glimmers of rebellion. It’s not revolutionary, but it suggests an underground sanity forming among students who’ve had enough of fake merit and curated victimhood.

Bob: “Some kids still want truth more than tenure.”
Jim: “What can I say about Murray that won’t get me banned?”
Leans: Hopeful | Banned if Spoken Aloud

End Notes
Friday always delivers—sometimes with fireworks, sometimes with fog.
But today? A psychic tremor under the headlines. Secrets left smoldering.
When the news sounds like a hum and the facts refuse to march, Bob shows up with a tuning fork and a steel gaze.
He doesn’t blink. He doesn’t whisper. And he never signs the waiver.
See you tomorrow. Stay strange. Stay sharp.