Tuesday Links - 14 July

Andy Ngo at Ngo Comment is first with ACLU Releases Guide on Hiding Digital Evidence at Direct Actions

The ACLU recently released a guide on how “protesters” can hide or destroy digital evidence of their involvement in street direct actions after a North Texas Antifa cell was convicted.

Patrick Dent at Chicago Contrarian - Death in Deering: What’s the cause of death? It’s a five-letter word that begins with G

Only deep into the article do we finally encounter references to long-standing conflicts between gangs such as the Latin Saints and La Raza. We learn that gang slogans were allegedly shouted during one killing.

William Teach at Pirate's Cove - Maine AWFLs Upset Nazi Platner Dropped Out

The Nazi tattoo should have been disqualifying, and Platner knew it was a Nazi tattoo from the get-go. But, you know, Democrats

Ben Kew at The Gateway Pundit - Ex-Obama Press Secretary Turned Minneapolis Comms Chief Accused of Stealing Co-Workers’ Credit Cards to Fund Kratom Habit

According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, [Adam] Fetcher is accused of taking cash and credit cards from the desks and purses of at least three City Hall employees before making hundreds of dollars in unauthorized purchases at local tobacco stores.

Impro Guns - Gambler’s Special

A version of the sheet metal derringer no.2 seized by police in Brazil. I’m honestly more impressed by the accompanying hand stitch holster which is a nice touch.

The Silicon Graybeard - Small Space News Story Roundup 83

SpaceX Pulls in Starship Flight Test 13 to Next Thursday

Wombat-socho - FMJRA 2.0: Slowly I Turn

We’ve started the unofficial phase of the draft in Pete’s league for the 1975 season, which is to say there’s no time limit, teams just pick in order. So we might actually have most of the draft done before the official timed part of the draft starts in August. We still have four teams open, if you’re interested.

William Teach at Pirate's Cove - New Cult Talking Point: Earth May Possibly Be Hotter Than In The Last 540 Million Years (or something)

Oh, wait, so, the article doesn’t actually support the unhinged, doomy headline? Color me shocked.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 13 July 2026: Seven Ate Nine Edition

Apple's upcoming M7 processor, destined for a full rollout with Pro, Max, and Ultra models, is expected to support as much as 1.5TB of RAM for local AI and other massively intensive workloads. (WCCFTech)

Which will cost $37,500. For the RAM. The rest of the computer will be... Actually relatively inexpensive.

Again from Wombat-socho - Rule 5 Sunday: Melon Season

Picked a bad day to accidentally delete the picture folder off my phone, not that there are any good days to do that.

Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog - “A Culture of Courage”: A German Celebrates American Freedom

Here’s a heart-warming video about a German who moved to America to get married, only to discover most of what he thought he knew was wrong.

357 Magnum versus 45 ACP

These are the kinds of questions the spark religious wars. 357 Magnum vs. 45 ACP: Is One Truly Better Than the Other?

The 357 Magnum vs. 45 ACP argument is a great way to send firearm forums and gun shops into an uproar. I've fired both cartridges for many years and certainly have my preference, though I'll set it aside for the sake of objectivity. As you continue reading this article, you will gain the knowledge to determine which cartridge is better for self-defense, target shooting, hunting, and your overall shooting experience.

This is a pretty good comparison of the ballistics of the 2 cartridges. While I do like 357 magnum, I also like 45 ACP.

That's not the only difference, though. The two cartridges have different bullet and case dimensions, resulting in different ballistic performance. The 45 ACP is typically loaded with a heavier bullet, but the 357 Mag has a longer case and higher maximum pressure.

Various bits of ballistic data is included. Click thru.

Xbox Player Wins Lawsuit Against Microsoft

It isn't a lot, but they couldn't just brush him off. Xbox player wins lawsuit against Microsoft to get his account back plus $400 - Dexerto

His Microsoft account was hacked. When he contacted support, they said, "Yep, hacked." Then they

The account belonged to a Reddit user called Ordo_Liberal, who spent three months documenting the ordeal online. His Microsoft account was compromised despite two-factor authentication being active, and when he contacted support, the company confirmed that “unauthorized access occurred” before informing him that “we are unable to modify or restore the security settings once they’ve been updated.”

The suspended his account. They told him, he would have to purchase every game, movie, whatever he had purchased associated with that account again. Too bad, so sad.

He sued and won in a Brazilian court.

For any Minecraft purchases tied to the account, the email went further still: “the game cannot be recovered. A new purchase will be required on a newly created account.” That response, apparently, was the wrong thing to say to someone living in Brazil, a country with strong consumer protection law.

Click thru for the details, or see Mutahar's video linked below.

Hat tip to the Mutahar at SomeOrdinaryGamers and his video Huge Win Against Microslop...

NATO Leaders Are Afraid of Guns, and Each Other Apparently

From The Guardian: Nato leaders surprised by Turkish president’s gift of guns after summit

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented engraved revolvers – with bullets – to his guests in Ankara, causing security concerns

If you're concerned that the leaders of NATO are going to pick up gift revolvers and open fire on each other, then Trump's concerns about the organization don't begin to scratch the surface.

What does a world leader do with a gun and six bullets? That was the conundrum Nato leaders faced after the Turkish president offered them each a revolver after the Ankara summit.

Several of the leaders of NATO had to leave the firearms behind, because transporting them was "not straightforward."

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit: WHAT WUSSES.

Gifts of firearms were a traditional thing between leaders until the feminization of the West. You can bet Teddy Roosevelt wouldn’t have panicked. Or LBJ. Or even GWB.

They are freaking beautiful. Each was engraved with the recipient’s name, and what I take to be the symbol from the Turkish flag. Click thru for the photo of one firearm.

There was no definitive answer for what guns they were, but CNN, of all places, had a guess.

Images shared by the office of Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda showed what appeared to be the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a rare six-shooter produced by Turkish arms maker MKE in the 1990s.

Which would make sense.

Though I think this still applies:

We Rock

Another song by way of social media. Social media isn't too bad if you can avoid the insanity. It can be hard to avoid most days.

This song is "We Rock" by Dio. It is the title song to his compilation video album. It was part of the 1984 version of this album. If I'm reading things correctly (and I'm not sure about that) a shorter version of the album was released in 1983.

The Weekend In the Windy City

HeyJackass! has the stats for the weekend in Chicago. Wrong Place, Wrong Time Weekend

The July 4th weekend in Chicago was surprisingly peaceful. Well, it was peaceful by Chicago standards, though Mother Nature did lend a hand. There is less crime in Chicago during the winter cold, and during thunderstorms.

With the July 4th weekend behind us, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

So are these numbers good, or bad?

Final Demonized Tally: 4 killed, 19 wounded
2025 weekend tally: 4 killed, 25 wounded
2024 weekend tally: 11 killed, 29 wounded

It used to be a wonderful city.

Kentucky Permits 18- to 20-year-olds to Carry Concealed Starting Tomorrow

Why do you restrict rights from legal adults? Kentucky law allows 18- to 20-year-olds to carry concealed weapons starting Tuesday

A new Kentucky law takes effect Tuesday allowing 18- to 20-year-olds to apply for a provisional concealed carry license for the first time.

House Bill 312 expands concealed carry permits to that age group, but with restrictions. The provisional license is valid only in Kentucky and expires when the holder turns 21. Applicants must also complete required training before receiving the permit.

Click thru for details.

The H-1B Visa Program Needs to End

They got approval for a massive number of H-1B visa workers, and laid off Americans. Microsoft approves thousands of H-1B visas while Xbox cuts 1,600 jobs | Fox News

They were approved to hire 2200 H-1B visa workers. And then they did this.

A popular U.S.-based gaming brand owned by Microsoft is facing fury after mass employee layoffs occurred in the wake of the company being approved for thousands of foreign worker visas.

Click thru for the details. (Hat tip to Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit).

Nolan to Fans of The Odyssey: STFU

The following quote/meme/whatever has been running through my head since I started reading/watching Christopher Nolan's replies/reactions to his trailer going down in flames. "Just consume product, and then get excited for next product."

Director Christopher Nolan isn't used to being on the receiving end of backlash over one of his projects. At least not before the project is released. He has made some bad movies. Not very many people like 2012's The Dark Knight Rises. Some people like Inception, and others don't. But they were all, mostly, highly anticipated before release. Not this time.

Race swaps. Updating for the mythical modern audience. And all the rest. That much is clear from the trailers. And I am almost as sick of Zendaya as I am of Pedro Pascal. (I said almost.)

As I type this, the last trailer for The Odyssey, which was released on the first of July, has 79,000 likes, and 746,000 dislikes. The dislikes are not an exact number, even if I could see more than 3 significant digits, because YouTube removed the exact count to protect people like Nolan. But the internet usually finds a way, and the count returned if you add an extension to your browser.

That ratio, is the reason that Nolan had to speak up, and attempt some damage control. He didn't go about it correctly.

This video is from Andre at Midnight's Edge. Chis Nolan just made ‘The Odyssey’ Backlash Even Worse by Dismissing It

Nolan is tarnishing one of the foundational works of the entirety of Western civilization.

The video is about 14 minutes long.

Liulan Reservoir Dam Failure in China

China apparently has quite a few dams that were built during the 1950s, that are not up to modern standards. Watch: Typhoon Maysak breaks dam wall in China, kills 2 and forces thousands to evacuate

Tropical Storm Maysak, initially brought days of extreme rainfall across the country's southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region. But now, the typhoon has triggered a massive flood that claimed two lives, affecting about 55,000 people in Nanning and forcing around 48,000 of the city's residents to evacuate

The dam was breached on 6 July.

Maysak has triggered multiple reservoir emergencies, increased river levels above warning levels and flooded several villages across Guangxi.

Some info on the dam. Liulan Reservoir: A medium-sized reservoir located in Hengzhou City, Nanning.

The construction of the Liulan Reservoir hub project began in August 1958 and was largely completed by 1960. A hydropower station was added at the dam's toe in 1974. In August 2024, the Nanning Municipal Government Service Bureau issued an approval regarding the implementation plan for the standardized management creation of Liulan Reservoir in Hengzhou City . In 2025, the Liulan Reservoir Irrigation District Continuation and Modernization Renovation Project was also accelerating its progress, with a total estimated investment of 382.53 million yuan for the project.

Translation: They realized that the dam need improvements, and began work. That work was scheduled to be complete in 2027, but they didn't make it.

I can't find the reference now, but I read somewhere that China has a large number of infrastructure projects done in the early days of communist regieme, that were not really engineered. That process continued for a long time. They are now dealing with infrastructure, in some parts of the country, that are not what we would consider safe.

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region is in the south of China, with a coast on the Beibu Gulf (off the South China Sea). It shares a border with Vietnam

NOW: A devastating situation is unfolding as Liulan Reservoir collapses following heavy rainfall from Typhoon Maysak in Hengzhou, Nanning, Guangxi, China. pic.twitter.com/vyuQn5nuyl

— Weather Monitor (@WeatherMonitors) July 6, 2026

12 July 1979 - The Disco Demolition

Quite a day in Chicago History. Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park - Chicago History Museum

OK, so the story is from a couple of years ago.

July 2024 marks 45 years since the infamous “Disco Demolition Night” promotional event at a July 12, 1979, Chicago White Sox twilight doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers that erupted into chaos. To encourage attendance, the White Sox hosted WLUP 97.9 rock DJ Steve Dahl, who was known for mocking disco and had been fired from a previous radio job when the station switched from rock to disco. They asked fans to bring a disco record to the ballpark in exchange for 98-cent admission, and those LPs were to be gathered and then blown up in a controlled explosion between games.

It was a great success and a great failure.

The stadium was full of people who didn't care about baseball. When Dahl blew up the records it damaged the field. The WLUP fans invaded the field. The White Sox ended up forfeiting the 2nd game of double header.

Disco, which was already declining in popularity by 1979, went on to influence house music, EDM, Europop, new wave, dance-punk, and hip-hop and has seen revivals in the 21st century.

Hat tip to EBL: Disco Inferno. Click thru for a musical interlude, and a brief video of the night in question.

Four Decades for Justice

Justice seems to move slowly in the UK. Evil brothers jailed for killing civil servant in 1984 'for fun' - Yorkshire Live

The court heard how Michael Stewart, 57, and Anthony Stewart, 60, were just 15 and 18 when they indulged on a spree of violent robberies, targeting gay men.

No guns or knives required, only blunt instruments. I suppose the UK will move to outlaw blunt instruments, including rocks, pipes, and bats.

On May 1, 1984, their attacks took an even darker turn when they set upon Anthony Littler, who they bludgeoned to death as he walked home in East Finchley, north London.

Click thru for details, including how they were brought to justice.

Fort Worth Police Versus the First Amendment

Libs of TikTok has the story. Fort Worth Police EXPOSED for Violating 1st Amendment

Americans should be able to trust that Law enforcement agencies will uphold the Constitution.

Three cops are featured in the post. They threatened to ticket and/or arrest preachers for preaching at an event on public property. The threats are clearly against the 1st Amendment.

[Fort Worth PD] then announced that they will provide “refresher training” to their officers on First Amendment protections.

As soon as they did that, they blocked Libs Of TikTok on social media.

Click thru for the details.

F-150 Lightning Fire at Ford Dealer Service Center

This is the StacheD Training video EV Fire in Service Bay: Speedway Ford

Nobody grabbed an extinguisher. I did not see any evidence that anyone tried. And while that might sound counterintuitive, that's exactly what you want to do when you see it's an EV incident.

Once a lithium ion battery is in thermal runaway, you're not putting it out with a handheld extinguisher. And trying to put it out, it's just going to get you injured.

The video is less than 5 minutes, and has some decent coverage of the fire and the aftermath. Plus the StacheD Training commentary.

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 11 July

Wombat-socho starts us off with In The Mailbox: 07.08.26 (Afternoon Edition)

Dana Loesch: Kirk Preliminary Hearing – Day 2
Don Surber: Springtime for Platner ends

EBL - Senator Mitch McConnell's Death Will Not Prevent Him From Finishing His Term

EBL: SCHRÖDINGER’S SENATOR : What is going on with Mitch McConnell? 🤕🙀🤔🤨
AoSHQ: Morning Report 07.09.26

The Right Way - Top of the News

Chinese National Madam Indicted For Running Brothels Out Of Boston Apartments - IOTW Report
Things heat up with Iran - The New Neo

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 10 July 2026: Slop Story Edition

OpenAI's Atlas browser on the other hand is not. (Tech Crunch)
Launched in October, the candle that burned half as bright was promptly cancelled.

Political Hat - Quick Takes – Curing Dementia via Death: Bioethicist Approved; New Jersey Approved; Netherlands Just Fine With Killing All the Mentally Ill

Slow starvation is now acceptable medical treatment according to purported “bioethicists”.
New Jersey loves them some “bioethicist” approved slow-motion killin’.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 07.08.26 (Evening Edition)

Da Tech Guy: Five Fifth of July Thoughts Under the Fedora
Dana Loesch: Politics Break – The Big Bear Bald Eagle Cam, Kirk Preliminary Hearing – Day 3, and Graham Platner is Out

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Platner Bails Out - Iran War Back On

Maine Democrat Party: How Dare Platner Try to Force Himself on Our Candidate Selection Process! – HotAir
Too Middle School to Check: Team Totenkopf's 'Do You Like Me' Survey

Small Dead Animals - Wednesday On Turtle Island

The Democratic Party’s America: Victor Davis Hanson – Rant to America. A twisted view. Socialism.
Carnival Carney’s Canada: A warehouse flood. Trade your car in for a bike.

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 07.09.26

Racket News: Graham Platner & The Politics of Accusation
Shark Tank: Poll Shows Jay Collins Gaining On Byron Donalds

Vlad Tepes - More of the same really – several data points out of thousands that indicate the state-islamic-Communist actions against the legacy population of Western Civ: Links 1 for July 10, 2026

5. The swapping out of Rule of Law for Sharia appears to be moving from the Commonwealth to the USA now
On that subject, read RAIR Foundation.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 7/9/2026

Chicago Lands Crown as Bedbug Capital of the US: Report
Chicago topped the dubious list of US cities with the most bedbug infestations per capita

The Glibertarians - Wednesday Afternoon Sugarlinks – insanity, corruption and decay

Who Could Replace Graham Platner?
Democrats’ brief experiment in letting their hair down and nominating a Senate candidate who makes them feel edgy has all but concluded.

Once again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 07.10.26

Don Surber: Globalists pit NATO against Trump
Flopping Aces: The Media Crowned Fauci The Pandemic Pope – Then Tulsi Dropped The Files & The Choir Fled The Church

Maggie's Farm - Wednesday morning links

The Women Who Help People Die
The government is pulling student loan money from worthless college degree programs — and it’s about time

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 7/ 8 /26

While his wife ditched the celebration to attend an Islamic retreat in Spain.
Mamdani Touted Open Migration for America’s 250th

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Platner may wake voters up

• Never left enough - Tom Knighton
• Trump’s Immigration Enforcement Really Is Slashing Violent Crime - John R. Lott Jr.

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 07/10/2026

Over at American Stasi, “Brazilian Parents Sentenced To Prison For Protecting Their Children From Domestic Intelligence.”
Very disturbing rundown of the Peter Stokes hacking case

I leave you with Midweek Memes from Granite Grok, Wednesday Memes … from MaddMedic, Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #3902 from 90 Miles from Tyranny, Midweek Memes from Granite Grok, and Friday's gifs from Wirecutter.

Why Didn't He Identify Himself?

He jumped out of an unmarked car, pulled out a gun, and started chasing a guy down the street. Shooter freed because deputy said ‘police’ only after he was shot

This incident took place in April of last year, but the investigation has been dragging on, and the police have been not releasing the video because of the ongoing investigation. They finally closed the case, because the video apparently shows the officer being an idiot.

The cop was shot by the brother of the guy he was chasing.

The suspect had run out of frame. Also out of view was the suspect’s brother, Ivan Watson, who was a passenger in a car nearby.

So if you saw an armed man chasing your brother, what would you do? No cop car lights and sirens, no uniform, no badge, no screaming, "I'm a cop." What would you do?

The shreriff said, "We're gonna get this young man." Since then his department has refused to release the video

Oh, yeah, there is video. Video the cops didn't want released to the public.

Lafond [the officer] denied firing his weapon in a written statement obtained from the sheriff’s office by Atlanta News First Investigates. APD investigators determined otherwise.

A dozen .40-caliber shell casings were found close to the spot where Watson told investigators he had fired his Glock Model 26 handgun. A single 9-millimeter shell casing was found on the sidewalk next to Lafond’s car.

“Video evidence shows Sheriff Officer Evans [SIC] Lafond not identifying himself as a police officer to Mr. Watson before firing his weapon,” investigators concluded when closing he case in May of last year.

The video was obtained not through Freedom of Information Act request, but because it was released by a source at the sheriff's department. It is worth repeating; it was not officially released.

So he didn't identify himself, he openned fire, and got shot. Then he identified himself. Then he wrote a report saying he did not discharge his firearm.

Is this cops acting badly, or cops acting stupidly? He didn't ID himself. The Sheriff said he was going to "get this guy" before considering the evidence, and they didn't want the public to see the actual video. The officer in question submitted a statement/report that didn't match the video.

If he had been shot in the head, instead of the leg, would it make a difference? Considering that he was unlucky enough to get hit - the guy fired a dozen times and only hit him once - I think he's lucky he didn't get shot in the head or the heart.

In the end, they decided that the guy who shot the non-identifying cop, was acting in defense of his brother and went away.

Do Something, Even If It Is Meaningless

Politicians in Blue Cities must love crime and criminals. With Chicago’s Streets Awash with Crime, Brandon Johnson Launches Meaningless Gun Violence Office

Instead of dealing with his blood-soaked streets, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is pretending he's "doing something" by launching another do-nothing, bureaucratic office, this one called the "Office of Gun Violence Reduction," staffed with cronies making big salaries.

Stopping crime is not rocket science. It means doing things the Democrats do not want to do in the big cities.

Johnson appointed Emmanuel Andre to head the new venture. Andre is the city's $184,000 a year Deputy Mayor for Community Safety who was appointed to the office in April after Johnson fired the former deputy mayor, Garien Gatewood.

Along with Andre's big salary, this new office will have an even greater budget of a whopping $100 million annually. That sure seems like money that could be invested in Chicago's neighborhoods to improve people's lives, instead of being put into yet another pointless government office.

Click thru for more details.

HURT

Another song by way of the Tidal streaming service.

Dead Poets Society is a Rock band out of Boston. The Warning is a band consisting of 3 sisters from Mexico. The collaboration is interesting. It might have a bit too much energy for this early in the morning, but it strikes me more as Rock, and not Metal.

This is "HURT" by Dead Poet Society featuring extra vocals from The Warning. It was released as a single in 2024. It was also included in the 2024 album Fission

Friday Links - 10 July

Take It Outside by Alice Jones Webb is first with Basecamp Dispatch: Heat Dome and Fairy Wings

It feels like an insult that the weather people decide to clarify just how hot it is with the heat index. It’s not like the thermometers weren’t doing a fine job all by themselves.

William Teach at Pirate's Cove - Will The Odyssey Bomb Or Make Money?

Race swapped Helen and her sister were totally unnecessary, as they are barely mentions in The Odyssey (TO). No one cared about Vanessa Williams playing Calypso in the TV miniseries, because she could act and was hot. What role does Ellen Page play? They’ve left it hanging about being Achilles, who is also a minor character.

The Post Millennial - Never-before-seen footage shown during day 2 of preliminary hearing reveals Tyler Robinson’s movements through UVU campus, DNA links him to crime scene

The defense sought to block the video from being published, saying that they believe it would play a "big role in the trial," and the publication of it in the courtroom "would seriously impact our ability to get a fair trial."

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 7 July 2026: Old Lamps For Old Edition

Microsoft has laid off nearly 5000 people, including 1600 from its Xbox division. (Tech Crunch)

On the other hand, that's only 2.1% of the company's staff.

Also given how dire the Xbox situation is, even if they don't all deserve this they had to have known it was coming.

The Price of Liberty - Local governments, even in Wyoming, are evil

It is not individual tyrants that we are fighting against. Not all jack-booted thugs, either. It is a system, and a mindset, the result of “this is the way it is,” and sometimes “I can do better in life if I go along.”

Miguel Gonzalez - The Crap Show up in Maine

I have been ignoring the issues with the Totenkopf Titty Dude because frankly it has been boring and predictable that Democrats would go for the Sexual Perv Nazi dude because he is a Democrat.

Again from William Teach - NICE Shoots, Kills Illegal Trying To Run Them Over In Houston

You know how you don’t get shot by law enforcement? Cooperate. Don’t run. Don’t weaponize your vehicle. Also, don’t be in the US illegally

Meep at STUMP - 2025 U.S. Top Causes of Death by Age Group, Preliminary

As with previous years, I have to wait until July for the external causes of death to become uncensored through the end of the prior year. To keep things simple for this post, I want to focus solely on death counts, not rates.

Impro Guns - DIY Box Tube MAC-11 (Brazil seizure). Click thru for the photo

There are many of these being seized nowadays.

Robert Stacy McCain - The Politics of Unquestioned Assumptions

Oh, but “the movement he built … of working people united to take back power” from whom? Susan Collins — yes, the unspeakable evil of a 73-year-old lady who has usurped the power of Maine’s working people! Do these Democrats hear themselves?