Bob’s Hailstone Chronicles (7-9-25 PM Edition)
Title: The Fever, the Fog, and the Fifth
Grook: I'd Like —
I'd like to know
what this whole show
is about
before it's out.
— Piet Hein
Note: All stories referenced here come from the RealClearPolitics homepage. For full articles and original context, visit www.realclearpolitics.com.
Bob’s Hailstone Chronicles (7-9-25 PM Edition)
The Fever, the Fog, and the Fifth
Introduction: Lights, Camera, Perjury
Another day, another heat wave of spin. Bob straps on his sarcasm snorkel and dives straight into the ideological humidity where doctors dodge subpoenas, mayors dodge constituents, and entire continents dodge accountability. The goal? Survive 11 narratives and find meaning in the debris.
1. Doctor, Heal Thyself (Or Plead the Fifth)
Kaia Hubbard (CBS) reports Biden’s personal physician lawyering up at the Oversight Committee. He pleaded the Fifth on 29 questions—setting a record and not the good kind.
Bob: "When your doctor won’t answer questions, you may not need a lawyer—you need a will."
Leans: Circle-the-Wagons Left
2. Rule of Law: Batteries Not Included
Ned Ryun (FOX) offers a prescription for restoring justice: real prosecutions of Brennan and Comey. He calls Russiagate a manufactured psyop, not a policy error.
Bob: "You can’t drain the swamp if the swamp still has clearance."
Leans: Retributive Right
3. Hiring ICE: Mission Implausible
John Pfaff (MSNBC) paints the GOP’s plan to hire 10,000 new ICE agents as a bureaucratic fantasy. Turns out enforcing the law is hard when no one wants to enforce it — harder when paid rioters try to kneecap new hires.
Bob: "We can’t even get 10,000 Bass-approved baristas right now."
Leans: Anti-Enforcement Left
4. Border Blowback Has Arrived
Sen. Eric Schmitt (RAV) says Americans are finally connecting illegal immigration to chaos—cultural, economic, and criminal. The dots are now in neon.
Bob: "Turns out open borders come with open tabs."
Leans: Populist Right
5. Who’s Afraid of Mamdani?
Errol Louis (NYMag) profiles socialist assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s campaign of performative outrage. Louis half-critiques, half-swoons.
Bob: "He’s Che Guevara for the brunch crowd. Not interested in the T-shirt."
Leans: Sympathetic Left
6. Chicago’s Broken Compass
Matt Lamb (AMAC) notes residents’ growing disgust with Mayor Brandon Johnson, who promised “equity” but delivered needles and crime.
Bob: "When your promise was vibes, delivery is hard."
Leans: Grassroots Right
7. Third-Party Jokers, Musk Wildcard
Michael Tomasky (New Republic) scoffs at third-party efforts—except Elon Musk, whose money and mystery scare the Dems more than RFK Jr. ever did.
Bob: "He’s not a candidate. He’s a Tesla in Ludicrous Mode."
Leans: Nervous Institutional Left
8. Sandberg and the Kavanaugh Plotline
Mark Judge (Chronicles) hints that Sheryl Sandberg may have backed the smear campaign against Brett Kavanaugh. Nothing proven, but smoke’s rising.
Bob: "From Lean In to Push Down."
Leans: Suspicious Right
9. Gaza: Geography of Death
Mohamed Solaimane (The Nation) argues Gazans face impossible odds—no way out, no place to hide, and now no moral clarity for anyone involved.
Bob: "It’s a war where everyone’s losing—especially the truth."
Leans: Humanitarian Left
10. The Settler Violence Mirage
Gadi Taub (Tablet) dismantles the narrative of rampant Israeli settler violence. He says the accusation is a blood libel in woke clothing.
Bob: "New script, same scapegoat."
Leans: Zionist Right
11. Vaclav Smil vs. Climate Utopians
Ross Pomeroy (RCScience) lets Vaclav Smil explain why the energy “transition” is a fantasy built on denial, wishful thinking, and junk spreadsheets.
Bob: "Physics doesn’t do PR."
Leans: Science-Driven Skeptic
End Notes:
Today’s pattern is truth versus fantasy—and fantasy’s losing. Whether it’s Biden’s doctor dodging questions, Mamdani’s Marxist cosplay, or climate policy built on spreadsheets with no physics, the façade is cracking. Even legacy media is starting to flinch, if only a little.
The Right brings fire: calls for reckoning, border clarity, and exposing high-level psyops. The Left, by contrast, clings to symbolic gestures and elite protection.
Bob’s takeaway? We’re past narrative control. We’re into narrative erosion. What began as fog is now burning off under a hot sun of memory, documentation, and consequence.
And Bob doesn’t forgive easily.
He remembers.