Chicago Police Brass and Media Wouldn't Lie About Crime

Or would they? Jack Lucey at Chicago Contrarian brings us a story of lies. Chicago Police Brass, Media Present an Inaccurate View of Crime Statistics

Early on the morning after Memorial Day, Chicago Police officials announced there were no homicides over the just-concluded holiday weekend. The local media, operating with the lack of morals and dishonesty of a sleazy PR phony, with Mayor Brandon Johnson cheering them on, immediately parroted the news.

Except there was a homicide. At least one. On Memorial Day morning, a 47-year-old man was stabbed to death in Greater Grand Crossing on the South Side. Chicago Police officers were on the scene that day — and the victim was immediately declared dead.

CPD brass very likely knew about the stabbing death. But they wanted to rush the news out -- perhaps at the urging of Johnson — so the “no homicides” headline would dominate the post-holiday news cycle.

Click thru for the details.

GamerGate and Anita Sarkeesian

Do we want to revisit the early days of GamerGate? Probably not, but since we seem to be in middle (or end) of GamerGate 2.0, why not? Or maybe it is just that the gaming industry is still dealing with the end the original.

In any event, The Critical Drinker Gamer always entertains. (See my post on the financial reality of the Gaming industry.)

This is the Critical Gamer's video Crash And Burn Gaming - The Anita Sarkeesian Story

The cringe is off the scale here. Just a warning.

Cocktail Class Racer - the Sprint Car of the Boating World

Nothing beats a day on the water.

These races, or the races involving the larger boats, were very popular in the town where my dad grew up, though he never raced. The boats are completely insane, and these are the smaller version.

This is Thomas McMurtrie Jr.'s video Urbanna Cocktail Class Boat Race. It is from 2014, but still fun.

There are kits available if you are insane enough to go racing.

• Chesapeake Light Craft in the US
• Fyne Boats in the UK

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 20 June

The Right Way starts things off with Top of the News

Congress Needs a Wellness Check - IOTW Report
More on the Iran deal – Maybe - The New Neo

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 06.18.26

Upstream Reviews: Lessons in Etiquette
Stoic Observations: Trump Goes to the G7
John C. Wright: Leftism Is Lies

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 19 June 2026: Decimal Edition

Microsoft's latest version of Outlook takes just 10 seconds to take you from a notification to reading the corresponding email. (Windows Latest)
One small problem: It used to be instantaneous.

EBL - Corrupt Jennifer and Gavin Newsom 🤑💸💰

Instapundit: PJ Media: Newsoms are robbing California blind.
NY Post: "Behested" payments funneled to Jennifer Newsom and her pet projects

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 6/18/2026

Apple’s New Subdomain Kills “Hide My Email” Cover
Apple is about to label every anonymous email address its paying customers generate, creating a new obstacle for privacy-conscious users.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 06.19.26 (Afternoon Edition)

Baldilocks: Re-Intro, also, Good Smelling
CDR Salamander: Old & Busted – Unmanned Systems; New & Hot – Robotic Autonomous Systems

Small Dead Animals - Friday On Turtle Island

The Democratic Party’s America: Victor Davis Hanson – The Iran war. Alphabet people certification.
China Carney’s Canada: Gay Canada. Frequent flyer. Hamas school board.

Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog - LinkSwarm For June 19, 2026

Stephen Green: “How Deep Are the Newsoms in It? THIS Deep.”
“U.S.-Iran MOU Language Released and Signed.” I haven’t read it yet, and a lot of people aren’t too happy with it.

Political Hat - Quick Takes – Euthanasia: MAID Gone Mad; Death-on-Demand Culture; No For Animals But Yes For Human

At this point, Canada will just tell anyone to kill themselves.
Not only will the Swiss kill someone who isn’t even sick, they will charge $13,500 for the kill.

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 06.19.26 (Evening Edition)

Shot In The Dark: Do They Ever Listen To Themselves?
The Political Hat: Celebrating A Triumph Of The America Way: Juneteenth And The End Of Slavery

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Iran Ceasefire MOU Under Fire

Stephen Kruiser at PJM briefs us, Trump Chips Away at the Department of Education, but Will It Be Enough? I'd like to see the whole thing gone, but that's not likely; too much graft in the game.

The Glibertarians - Wednesday Afternoon Links

DAR VOTING ON WHETHER TO CONTINUE TRANS MEMBERSHIP: Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization not known for its progressive policies, apparently allows trans members.

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 6/ 17 /26

A cruel and calamitous message to Israel.
Trump Fulminates Against Netanyahu

Maggie's Farm - Thursday morning links

Talarico And Platner … Come On, Man
Southern Poverty Law Center, America’s Leading Supporter of Racism

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Perfection: Ex-SPLC Boss Heidi Beirich Gave Money to Her Neo-Nazi Boyfriend

• ActBlue Refuses To Answer Congress’s Questions About Its Foreign Donation Pipeline - Parker Thayer
• The Architecture of Failure - Spyridon Andrews

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 06/19/2026

Sounds like a 30 year old Muslim in the UK picked up a 3 year old white child and threw him in the crocodile enclosure at the zoo. Child is in critical but stable condition. Man was looked at by Police, who declared him “not fit for an interview,” and he was released.

I leave you with Midweek Memes from Granite Grok, DALEYBABES from DaleyGator, Friday Meme Thing from Granite Grok, and Friday's politics and current events in memes from Wirecutter.

Self-Defense or Murder? In Massachusetts They Can't Decide

If this happened in Texas ... ‘I Didn’t Want to Die’: Murder Suspect Surrenders After Cape Cod Restaurant Shooting

A 26-year-old man who turned himself in to police after fatally shooting a 35-year-old man in the head at a popular Cape Cod restaurant has told investigators he acted in self-defense after being jumped, punched, and struck repeatedly in the head with a hard object during a confrontation inside the Moonfish restaurant.

He was bleeding from a head wound, that was inflicted during the assault. The cops in Massachusetts still couldn't ID this as likely self-defense, and they arrested him.

He said during an interview that he tried to walk away, the guy who got shot (the the reporters in MA keep calling a victim) hit him in the head with something.

Detectives observed dried blood on his head; he refused medical treatment.

West Dennis, Massachusetts, is about an 80 mile drive south and east of Boston.

I hope I can find more about this incident, because it is clearly more complicated than the tiny minds of New England police and reporters can deal with.

OpenAI Looses $38.5 Billion in 2025

From Ed Zitron, and Where's Your Ed At we get a glimpse of the AI Insanity. Exclusive: OpenAI Losses Increased Nearly 8X in 2025, With Spending Hitting $34 Billion

The TL;DR is fairly simple. OpenAI lost $5.09 Billion In 2024. In 2025 that expanded to OpenAI losing $38.5 Billion. (And those numbers a bit sus.)

Please note that 2025 was the year that OpenAI converted from a non-profit to a for-profit entity, leading to a $41.55 billion loss due to changes in fair value of convertible interests and warrant liability.

Taking into account other minor factors like interest income and interest expense, OpenAI is left with a net loss of $60.35 billion, which it lowered to $38.53 billion by removing $17.87 billion in costs via that “net loss attributable to noncontrolling members capital” and another $3.95 billion via a “net loss attributable to redeemable noncontrolling interests.”

It's definitely not a bubble.

Hat tip to Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony: Daily News Stuff 18 June 2026: Yes, Glurge Edition

Thanks to careful cost-control, losses over the same period dropped from $5 billion in 2024 to $38.5 billion in 2025.

Oh.

Actually, before fudging adjustments the company's net loss for 2025 reached $60 billion.

Accounting is occasionally like magic.

Starless

When Maynard James Keenan of Tool isn't doing his Tool thing. He has another band, Perfect Circle, which is more Alternative Rock, than Heavy Metal. He is also in a 3rd band, Puscifer, but I really don't know anything about that.

Perfect Circle is starting a European tour in June, so this may be to promote that, or it may be the first indication that an album is in the works, I haven't seen anything except the tour announcement.

This is "Starless" by Perfect Circle. It was released as a single on May 27th.

Friday Links - 19 June

William Teach at Pirate's Cove has a tale of the Zoomers. Climate Cult Yutes Hold Art Exhibit “How Shall We Live”

They have ruined these children’s lives, making them so concerned with the SOON!!!!! doom they can barely operate. Us Gen X and earlier weren’t indoctrinated into Doom over global nuclear war, we were taught to persevere. Today’s kids are just, well, f*cked in the head.

The Other McCain - During PRIDE MONTH, Denver Schools?

Talk about “burying the lead”! The story doesn’t make sense until you get to the 14th paragraph and then you realize that this should have been in the headline: LESBIAN TEACHER FORCES TEEN GIRLS TO KISS IN ‘SKITS’ IN FRONT OF CLASS.

Busted Knuckles - Another one biting the dust? 90 Miles from Tyranny.

“Hey Kevin; As of Tuesday 6/16 it looks like “90 Miles from Tyranny” has been shut down too. The despots are tightening the screws on us.” A reader commented this morning and I went to check it out and lo and behold, gone as if it was a dust bunny sucked up by a vacuum.

Miguel Gonzalez - The Misuse of Language and Karens Clucking Loudly.

Not a single book was banned from the Rutherford County Library, not one. Books deemed not appropriate small kids were simply positioned out of the Children’s section to other age-appropiate section.

Meep at STUMP - On Chicago Pension Reform: Paul Vallas ...and Some High Schoolers

Let’s look at two proposals for Chicago pension reform. One from Paul Vallas, ex-candidate for mayor of Chicago (among many other roles), and one from a trio of high schoolers.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 18 June 2026: Yes, Glurge Edition

World leaders want American AI. They just don't want America. (Tech Crunch)

Substitute almost anything in place of AI and the story is the same.

Clayton Cramer - Why Academia Is Increasingly Held in Contempt

An historian at Boston University both praises a couple robber barons (Carnegie and Rockefeller) and then compares the UFC event at the White House to lynching.

Mother Protects Her Children

What else should she have done? From Tampa Free Press, we get the following story. Stand Your Ground: Florida Mom Shoots Intruder After He Breaks In And Threatens Her Children

This event took place on Sunday the 14th of June.

Once inside, McDonald aggressively confronted the mother and her two children in the foyer and began making threats. The homeowner repeatedly ordered McDonald to leave the house and warned him that she was armed and would shoot. When McDonald ignored the warnings and continued advancing toward her, the mother fired a single round, striking him in the arm.

He is a bit lucky he wasn't shot in the head or the heart.

Cops caught up with him at a local hospital, where he was arrested. This was not the first time he was arrested. Click thru for his history.

Following the recent home invasion, McDonald has now been charged with burglary with assault or battery.

Flagler County, Florida, is about 50 miles northeast of Orlando, on the Atlantic coast. It is also about 50 miles south of Jacksonville.

Self-defense is a human right.

Queensland Parliament to Consider the Castle Doctrine

I doubt it will work, or not for many years. Robbie Katter pushes Castle Law to give Queenslanders greater legal protection when defending themselves against intruders | Sky News Australia

Queensland, is a state in the Commonwealth of Australia. It is in the northeast corner of the continent of Australia.

Traeger MP Robbie Katter has renewed calls for Queensland to adopt Castle Law, arguing the measure would strengthen legal protections for homeowners defending themselves against intruders.

The Katter's Australia Party MP's push comes after a 75-year-old Tenterfield man allegedly shot an intruder after he and his wife were critically stabbed during a home invasion.

On paper, Australians have the right to defend themselves. In reality they are subject to review by Monday Morning Quarterbacks who don't like self-defense. The term "proportional" is bandied about. As if a 25 year old man can't beat a 75-year-old man to death with his fists alone.

Click thru for the details on the crime, and the push to bring sanity back to Australia.

Mr Katter said his party had supported the concept for years but believed the need for reform had become more urgent as crime concerns intensified.

Self-defense is a human right.

Modern Entertainment Destroys Another Franchise

Doctor Who was a BBC program that first aired 23 November 1963. It ended after 26 seasons in 1989, went on hiatus for a while, and started up again in 2005. It was a good run. Then it got captured by the woke.

While the BBC claims that it is NOT canceled, what else would they say? "We destroyed an iconic British TV franchise on the altar of DEI?" That is essentially what they did.

This is Critical Drinker's video So... Who's Next?

Because the Doctor Who of today was nothing more than a horrifying rotten corpse, vaguely resembling what it once was, but with the life and soul ripped out of it, showered in rainbow colored glitter, and made to prance and flounce around like an obscene puppet on strings.

So what other franchises are similarly destroyed? That's the question. Or maybe the question is, "Can any of them be saved?"

I still love Classic Who the best.

Another Failure of the Victim-Selection Process

I don't think that this is how he saw things working out. Police: 1 person shot, killed during attempted break-in Sunday morning

The shooting happened after 10:30 a.m., when police responded to a reported breaking and entering on Hickory Grove Road.

When officers arrived, they found one person with a gunshot wound.

This incident took place in Charlotte.

The hat tip goes to Concealed Nation, who have the details on North Carolina law.

Because the shooting occurred directly during the execution of an active residential breaking and entering, the legal framework heavily favors the occupant. Under North Carolina General Statutes § 14-51.2 (The Castle Doctrine), a lawful occupant of a home, workplace, or motor vehicle is legally presumed to have a reasonable fear of imminent death or serious bodily injury if an intruder is in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering – or has already forcefully entered – that occupied space.

Due to this statutory presumption, a homeowner has no duty to retreat and holds the absolute right to meet that intrusion with deadly force.

Self-defense is a human right.

So How Many People Have Been Killed By the Glock Switch?

People don't like to clutter the issue with facts. New Data Challenges Justification for Glock Bans

Regarding the recent push in the Blue States to outlaw Glocks...

A recent report from the Crime Prevention Research Center documents just 43 murders nationwide from 20 attacks involving Glock switches over the 2021-2026 period — meaning fatal lightning strikes killed nearly twice as many Americans during the same window.

It is all about feelings in the 21st century.

Full auto is not what people think it is. There is a reason that the military developed the three-shot trigger.

Click thru for the details. (Hat tip to Jews Can Shoot.)

DEI Is Destroying Gaming Faster than It Destroys Movie Studios

Or so it seems to me. I am open to arguments about Movie studios dying faster.

First Sony moved their games division from Japan to the US, and then adopted US corporate BS. Xbox is part of the huge Microsoft bureaucracy. Both companies swallowed the DEI lies hook, line and sinker. And now they are sinking, because - shocking I know - gamers don't want DEI messaging jammed down their throats while they are enjoying a video game. And they have started voting with their wallets.

French video game company, Ubisoft, is probably the poster child for Get Woke, Go Broke in the gaming sphere. Their stock price has collapsed from a high of just over 90€ in 2018 to just over 5€ today. That is roughly a 90% decrease. But they are not the subject today, just a cautionary tale.

Sweet Baby Inc claims another scalp. The games studio behind South of Midnight is closing. From Video Games Chronicle: Xbox is reportedly shutting down South of Midnight studio Compulsion Games | VGC

The studio, which was founded in 2009 and acquired by Xbox in 2018, most recently developed South of Midnight.

According to Kotaku, however, the studio is set to be shut down as part of widespread layoffs at the gaming division.

The studio is in "negotiations" with Microsoft to be spun off instead of closed outright. If they have any IP worth anything, Microsoft will probably hang on to that and let the people go.

And yes, there were quite a number of Sweet Baby Inc folks "working" on that title.

From Marvin Montanaro at Geeks + Gamers we get a story about Marathon. RUMOR: Bungie Layoffs Could Eliminate 50% of Remaining Workforce After Marathon’s Failure

The future of Bungie appears increasingly uncertain as a new report claims the studio could be preparing for another massive round of layoffs, with as much as half of its remaining workforce reportedly at risk.

Bungie is a studio owned by Sony PlayStation. Rumors (out of France) are that 50% of the company could be laid off.

Bungie dropped future development support for their popular Destiny 2, to double down on their bets on Marathon.

Xbox has been in the news because of South of Midnight. People are not bullish on that company's future. From Polygon: Microsoft should get out of games before it does more damage

News that Microsoft is considering closing three of its game studios — Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games — is awful, but what's truly alarming is that it doesn't stop there. According to Bloomberg, "several other studios across the portfolio are at risk of being shuttered." State of Decay studio Undead Labs hasn't shipped a game since Microsoft acquired it in 2018. Obsidian Entertainment is prolific, but last year's Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 underperformed. Rare had its big bet Everwild cancelled and can't survive on Sea of Thieves forever. At this point in Microsoft's dismally bungled adventures in gaming, it's best to think the unthinkable.

There are a lot of details at each of those links.

The poster child for failing games, is of course Concord, from Sony. I was surprised to see that this actually died in 2024, it seems like only yesterday that everyone was pointing and laughing. Sony shut Concord down in 2 weeks, and provied refunds. There are plenty of articles and more than a few YouTube videos on that debacle.

UK Rape Gang Report Is So Much Worse Than You Think

These are the crimes that the UK government didn't want anyone to know about. These are the crimes the police ignored for fear of being called racist. This is why the UK government has fought for years to silence people like Tommy Robbinson. The Rape Gang Inquiry Report

This has been going on for generations, and the people in charged, didn't care.

Britain doesn’t have a racism problem, it has an immigration problem.

    — Rupert Lowe

It is long, but you should read at least through the executive summary.

The hat tip goes to The Bugscuffle Gazette and "You know, in certain older, civilized cultures,
When men failed as entirely as you have ...

… they would throw themselves on their swords.”

Read this section, and think about it.

I was not expecting to learn that the grooming gangs have been operating since 1955. Seventy-one years. At least two generations of British children have been savagely sacrificed on the altar of multiculturalism, willingly helped and encouraged by not only the State, but by our “Journalistic Betters”.

I was not expecting to learn that the victims number a quarter of a million. At minimum.

The least job of a society — the very minimal function expected — is the protection of the innocent and the defence of those who cannot protect themselves.

Do you need more proof that Britain is a failed state?

Wednesday Link Roundup - 17 June

William Teach at Pirate's Cove is first with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

The View from Lady Lake has twisted hillbetty. And lots more fun all week.
Theo Spark has DOGE them all.

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 06.16.26 (Morning Edition)

Dana Loesch: The Iran Deal Is Part Of Vance’s POTUS Audition
Don Surber: Musk Beware

EBL - Knicks Win NBA Championship

NY Post: Knicks win series in San Antonio.
EBL: NBA Game 4: Knicks comeback to win 🏀🤯

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 14 June 2026: Inked Edition

Apple's powerful new M5 Max chip is so far only available in laptops. There's just one small problem. (WCCFTech)
It produces enough heat to melt the screen.

Small Dead Animals - Saturday On Turtle Island

The Democratic Party’s America: Victor Davis Hanson – The midterm strategy.
Stories You Won’t Find At Carney’s CBC: Sneering style. Green jobs. The colour of conflict. Moderate Muslims in France.

Political Hat - News of the Week (June 14th, 2026)

Scientists Concerned Latest Gene Editing of Human Embryos Could “Open the Floodgates”
It’s a “gateway to embryo editing to do enhancements.”

Don Surber - HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NEWS

ITEM 8: Red State reported, “The Cleveland Clinic has reached a settlement with the Trump administration over pediatric gender-transition treatments, becoming the second major hospital system to do so in less than a month. Paul Joseph Watson – Didn’t expect this

The Glibertarians - Sunday Morning Clean Up and Clean Out Links

Totally not grift.
World’s smallest violin.
I’d have more respect if it weren’t White Claw.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 6/13/2026

More LA Homeless Reveal They Were Paid to Vote for Democrats
Multiple homeless residents living on Los Angeles’ notorious Skid Row have come forward to confirm earlier reports that they were offered cash and other incentives

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Decapitates TDA, Musk Becomes First Trillionaire

Beege Welborn at Hat Hair, BREAKING: Trump Channels Inner Tom Clancy, Takes Out TdA Head in Airstrike. Althouse "At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero..."

Vlad Tepes - Soros, Muslim Brotherhood, Eskimo parking only and the UK writes the material for families of victims of jihad: Links 1 for June 14, 2026

3. Gad Saad busts a few PC dialectics on Islam.
4. BBC fired one of their staff when he criticized Hamas coverage.

The Glibertarians - Saturday evening Links

I’m gonna miss this guy when he’s gone.
Ohio racists are the worst kind of racists.
Lucy hasn’t pulled the football yet.

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkange

Pirates Cove Cult Of Climastrology Now Discussing “Indirect Interactions”
Freedom Is Just Another Word.. .Saturday Memes…

Maggie's Farm - Monday morning links

Two-Thirds of Colleges Require DEI Courses to Graduate
Has the Left Ruined the Humanities?
Envy and Musk's money

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 6/ 16 /26

"This is what government weaponization looks like."
Documents Show Biden DOJ Ignored Warnings, Targeted Parents at School Board Meetings

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Peace Through Subtraction: How Trump Bought the Middle East a Generation and Perhaps a Lasting Peace

• For His 80th Birthday, Trump Chose Violence Jenna McCarthy
• Did Spielberg Sneak A COVID Protest Past the Leftist Reviewers? Jack Cashill

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 06/13/2026

Spencer Pratt Alleges Arson After Fire at Crystals Company Office: ‘No Accident’.
Pentagon releases third batch of formerly classified UFO documents.

I leave you with Saturday Welcome to the Weekend Meme Drop 6-13-26 from Midwest Chick's Place, Sunday Funnies For 06-14-26 from Stately McDaniel Manor, Sunday Funnies from Flopping Aces, and Monday Memes from Granite Grok.

DAs Hate Self-Defense

From the Orlando Sentinel we get the following: Murder charge dropped against suspect in shooting outside Orlando nightclub

The Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office on Tuesday dropped a murder charge against a suspect who fatally shot a man outside a nightclub north of downtown Orlando earlier this year after admitting they could not prove it wasn’t in self-defense.

This incident took place back in February. He was in jail until the 2nd of March, when a judge ruled that the prosecutors didn't have the case they hoped for, and a bond was issued.

They finally got around to admitting that they had no case.

Now I don't know what happened, and I don't know what the evidence said, but the judge said something about self-defense when he approved the bail amount. It may just be that I have a deep distrust of public officials, but I don't think Justice was ever a question. Winning is what DAs care about.

Spielberg - The Greatest Director of All Time - Past His Prime

Or as Nerdrotic says, it may be time to take away Grandpa's car keys.

This is the Nerdrotic video Disclosure Day REVIEW - Spielberg's WORST Film

Serenity

Godsmack is a band I never listened to very much. They had songs on the radio, but I didn't go searching them out. Lately some of their work is showing up in the playlists created by the Tidal streaming service, which are based on my listening habits.

This song is "Serenity" by Godsmack from their 2003 album Faceless. It was one of the singles released from the album. It is also included in their 2007 compilation album, Good Times, Bad Times... Ten Years of Godsmack.