The Well-Tempered Recursive Hailstone
Bob analyzes the RCP news list
The Well-Tempered Recursive Hailstone
By Jim Reynolds
www.reynolds.com
Introduction: One Day. Twelve Stories. No Map.
This isn’t how you’re supposed to do it.
You’re not supposed to take twelve stories from across the political spectrum—left, right, baffling—and jam them into a single coherent narrative without cheating. You're not supposed to pit MSNBC against The Wall Street Journal, or blend Fox News, The Guardian, and Spiked in the same moral smoothie.
But here we are.
Every one of these stories came from the same daily list: RealClearPolitics’ Morning Edition—a rare curation that tries (with uneven success) to balance perspectives. One feed. One day. Seventeen links. We chose twelve.
The challenge? Find the patterns. Not just across ideology, but across time, tone, and intent. See what holds. See what folds. Make sense of the noise without sanding off the edges. And maybe—just maybe—discover what the news cycle hides by accident or on purpose.
The results are unexpected.
There’s humor. There’s horror. There are absurd policy proposals, righteous essays, open propaganda, and glimpses of truth trying to wriggle out of the margins.
It shouldn’t work. But it does—just barely.
Not because the sources agree. But because the conflicts themselves draw the outline of something real.
This is a snapshot of July 7th, 2025. It’s messy. It’s unfair. It’s full of bad ideas and oddly shaped insights. But put them in sequence, and suddenly, you don’t just see the news.
You see the storm forming.
Bob’s watching. You might want to also.
1. Arafat’s Ghost Has a PR Team
Kaufman: A New Palestinian Offer for Peace With Israel – WSJ
A peace offer from the Palestinian Authority that isn’t really an offer? That’s so 1990s it should come with a Discman and a dial-up modem. The WSJ walks us through Mahmoud Abbas’s latest pretend-embrace of peace, a classic case of diplomatic ventriloquism. Behind the words—recognize Israel, embrace compromise—lurks the same refusal to budge on fundamentals. It’s a Potemkin process.
Bob: “They’re not negotiating. They’re staging auditions for the next blame narrative.”
2. Netanyahu: Legacy or Liability?
Ross: Netanyahu’s Legacy Won’t Be Made on the Battlefield – Washington Post
Meanwhile, Dennis Ross puts Bibi Netanyahu on a slow-moving pedestal, suggesting his legacy depends more on statesmanship than on military bravado. That might be true, if Bibi wasn’t already starring in a Netflix reboot of Wag the Dog. Spoiler: the script hasn’t aged well.
Bob: “It’s hard to build a legacy when you keep kicking over your own statues.”
3. Budget Hawks vs. Jet Fuel Jesus
Johnson: Big, Beautiful Bill Is Jet Fuel for the Economy – Fox News Sunday
Speaker Mike Johnson channels his inner televangelist to preach the economic gospel of the GOP’s new budget bill. Tax cuts, enforcement crackdowns, and an ‘E-Verify Miracle’ that promises to fix everything but your uncle’s Wi-Fi. The tone is so triumphal it practically levitates.
Bob: “The economy’s saved—if you ignore the math.”
4. The Racism Racket Strikes Back
Randolph: GOP’s New Bill Is Structural Racism at Its Deadliest – MSNBC
And now the MSNBC rebuttal: Johnson’s bill isn’t just wrong—it’s racist, murderous, and aimed straight at vulnerable communities. Carmen James Randolph pulls no punches, labeling the bill a weaponized tool of white supremacy in khakis.
Bob: “When everything is structural racism, nothing is.”
5. The House That Mamdani Built
Hanson: The Frightening Dream House of Mamdani – American Greatness
Victor Davis Hanson enters like a ghostbuster, torching the ideological blueprint of New York socialist Zohran Mamdani. Hanson sees danger in Mamdani’s dream house—radical policies framed in poetic lies. It’s elegant, sure. But also flammable.
Bob: “Marx with better lighting.”
6. MSNBC Sees Racists. Everywhere.
Aleem: Behind the Vicious Racist Attacks on Mamdani – MSNBC
Aleem pushes back hard, accusing Mamdani’s critics of peddling racist tropes to undermine a brown man with ideas. The essay reads like a courtroom drama where evidence is optional and moral outrage is the gavel.
Bob: “Welcome to Season 47 of Intent Assignment.”
7. The Guy Who Escaped Utopia
Camargo: I Lived Mamdani’s Socialist Dream, Fled to Survive – FOX News
Franklin Camargo drops the mic from Caracas, recounting his personal brush with Mamdani-style socialism. Spoiler: it ends with empty shelves, lost freedom, and escape by passport or paddle.
Bob: “Some dreams end with a sunrise. Some end with ration tickets.”
8. Progressives: Please Clap
Finley: The Progressive Paucity Agenda – WSJ
Allysia Finley swings a wrecking ball through the hollowed-out cathedrals of progressive governance—California, New York, Illinois. Their new agenda? Spend more, produce less, and blame Texas.
Bob: “You can’t tax your way out of a competence deficit.”
9. CIA: Oswald Was a Hobby
Caputo: CIA Admits Shadowy Officer Monitored Oswald – Axios
The CIA, it turns out, had eyes on Lee Harvey Oswald before the JFK assassination. They just didn’t tell anybody. Nothing to see here, folks. Just a decades-old red flag left unraised.
Bob: “We don’t do conspiracies. We do oopsies with clearances.”
10. Brennan’s Big Fat Russia Lie
Devine: Did John Brennan Perjure Himself Over Russia Hoax? – NY Post
Miranda Devine outlines the mounting evidence that John Brennan wasn’t just wrong—he might have lied to Congress. That’s right: the guy who birthed Russiagate may have done so under oath, with a smirk and a classified folder.
Bob: “Turns out the Steele Dossier wasn’t intel. It was improv.”
11. The Chatbot Wants Your Secrets
Edelson: The NY Times Wants Your Private ChatGPT History – The Hill
Jay Edelson warns us that The New York Times is hunting for your AI chats. Why? To build a lawsuit? A hit piece? A curated coffee-table book? It’s unclear—but rest assured, they’re doing it for journalism.
Bob: “Tell your AI therapist to lawyer up.”
12. The Atrocity We Don’t Talk About
Black: London 7/7: The Atrocity We Don’t Talk About – Spiked
Tim Black reminds us that on July 7, 2005, Islamic extremists blew up Londoners on buses and trains—and that nobody really talks about it anymore. Why? Because the narrative doesn’t sell. Because the victims were inconvenient. Because remembering means admitting things we’re told are impolite.
Bob: “If forgetting is policy, memory is rebellion.”
Final Note: What This Tells Us
This isn’t a conclusion. It’s a recalibration. A storm doesn’t end—it dissipates or explodes. What you’ve just read is the updraft: crosswinds of ideology, distortion, confession, and denial. Together, they form a pattern.
The recursive hailstone starts small—a quote, a smear, a bureaucratic dodge. Then it bounces: media, social feed, press release, congressional hearing, viral outrage. Layer after layer. Hardening. Spinning. Repeating.
Until one day, it crashes through your windshield. And everyone pretends they didn’t see it coming.
Bob saw it.
And he’s not letting go of the wheel.
Grook: Forecast
Twelve reports,
one hailstone.
Truth refracts—
then rolls alone.
It loops through spin,
intent, and flash—
gains velocity,
ends in crash.
The storm, you see,
was always near.
But fog makes doubt
look much like fear.
Read the weather.
Check the frame.
The pattern shifts—
but plays the same.