Tuesday Links - 23 June

Clayton Cramer is up first with good news out of Florida, about concealed carry for 18-to-20 year olds. Another 2nd Amendment Victory

This surprised me not in the least. A Florida Deputy A-G called me several weeks ago for expert opinion on the law's constitutionnality.

William Teach at Pirate's Cove - Super Edgy Colbert, Others Wear Tan Suit At Obama’s Fortress Dedication

Yeah, yeah, there was no real scandal, it was people making fun of Obama. The only people making it a scandal were the media. And, of course, they had to try the raaaaacism aspect.

The Silicon Graybeard - Small Space News Story Roundup 82

Two interesting launches are coming before the end of June. Let's start with more obscure story.

The Other McCain - The Terrorist ‘Dreamer’: End DACA Immediately, and Deport Them All

And when nonimmigrants — and B-2 tourists in particular — fail to depart as promised, it makes it more difficult their fellow countrymen to come here temporarily, but legally, in the future.

Doug Ross - The Fauci Cover-Up the NYT Hopes You Never See

On her last day in office, the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard dropped emails, reports, and whistleblower accounts that point straight back at one man and the money he sent overseas.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 20 June 2026: Acist Quarterly Edition

Amazon has dropped - the bad kind of dropped - its planned Sam Altman biopic, Artificial. (The Independent)

The film, which depicted the credibly accused but I would never say so myself compulsive liar and total sociopath in an unflattering light may just possibly have conflicted with Amazon's $50 billion investment in OpenAI

Moonbattery - More MAGA Monsters in Chicago

MAGA has raised its head in the highly unlikely location Chicago once again. Remember when thugs in MAGA hats oppressed Jussie Smollett? Now — only 1 mile away — these fiends are burning crosses like the KKK. Oh wait…

Seth Segal at The Gateway Pundit - Lack Of Intellectual Diversity! Close To 100% of Dartmouth Faculty Donations Went to the Political Left During 2026 Midterms

In the latest not-so-shocking campus news, it has been reported at Campus Reform, “Faculty at Dartmouth College sent nearly every dollar of political donations during the midterm election cycle to Democrats and related liberal causes.

Wombat-socho - FMJRA 2.0: Checking Out The Free Agents

We have four openings in Pete’s league, so if you wanted to scratch that general manager/field manager itch, now’s your chance.

Again from The Other McCain - Father’s Day: An Extremist Agenda

One thing about the passage of time is that, as you grow older, you begin to notice the shift of values. What was once widely accepted — the expected social norms of your childhood — come to be viewed as quaint, old-fashioned or perhaps even barbaric.

Paul Vallas at Chicago Contrarian - Chicago Teachers Union’s Sustainable Community Schools Model Is a Failure

CTU’s model is about union control, not children's education and safety. Change will only come if the CTU’s stranglehold, which overrides the mayor and school board, is broken

Again from Wombat-socho - Rule 5 Sunday: Obligatory World Cup Post

Like most red-blooded Americans, I could care less about soccer. That having been said, I am enjoying the hell out of the tweets and other social media posts by Euros and other foreigners visiting parts of America outside the blue urban shitholes and discovering Buc-ee’s, Waffle House, barbecue, local diners, Bass Pro Shops, and other wild delights found only in the fruited plains of Red America. They’re having their minds blown by ranch dressing, free refills, and air conditioning, and it’s fun to watch.

Another Failure of the Victim-Selection Process

More good guys are armed every day. The bad guys keep not getting that memo. Blue Springs homeowner shoots, kills alleged intruder, police say

Officers with the Blue Springs Police Department were called to the 100 block of Little Garden on Friday morning on reports of a burglary. A homeowner called 911 and said that someone had entered the home unlawfully.

Blue Springs, Missouri, is located 19 miles east of Kansas City.

While cops were on the way, the homeowner shot the intruder. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

And neighbors were shocked. Shooting during break-in shakes quiet Blue Springs neighborhood

Neighbors say the incident has left them shaken in an area they describe as quiet.

“I’m just more in shock than anything,” said James Ononye, a neighbor.

There are more statements along those lines. Neighbors wondering what they would do, not understanding that you need to plan ahead. The homeowner in this incident had a gun, it was loaded, and he knew how to use it, and presumably he knew a little about how the law in Missouri works.

You are not protected by your zip code. You do not live on top of magic dirt. You live in The Real World™ where crime can, and all too often does, occur. You should plan accordingly.

The investigation is only getting started, but Missouri is not Massachusetts.

Self-defense is a human right.

Campus Hate Crime Hoax Roundup

The The College Fix brings us The 2025-26 campus hate crime hoaxes: A complete roundup

As in years past, campus hate hoax incidents did not let up during the 2025-26 school year. From incidents that did occur but were not hateful, to crimes that likely did not happen, this school year saw plenty of hoaxes.

And no, The College Fix is not talking about Ku Klux Klan rallies that were funded by the Southern Poverty Law Center so that they could fundraise off that reemergence of the KKK. If that did happen, it would certainly be wrong!

Hat tip to Clayton Cramer: Your Collection of College Hate Crime Hoaxes

How to Tank a Summer Blockbuster

I was going to say, that the first thing you need to do, is piss off your target audience, but the real problem is that Hollywood truly does not understand who the audience for superhero movies really are.

Case in point: Milly Alcock. We get the following from Cosmic Book News. Supergirl Box Office Tracking Now Eyes A $39M Low.

When the early projections for the Supergirl opening weekend box office were published, the high end projections were in the neighborhood of $55+ million in the USA and Canada. (Not sure why the projections include Canada, but don't include Mexico.) And then the studio set up some interviews between Milly Alcock and the LGBT media, and she insulted Christian dads, said that Supergirl is going to be some kind of gay or bisexual icon. Witness the result.

That’s notable for one big reason: it’s below the $45 million floor of the $45M–$55M range that recent tracking had settled on, and it’s a long way from where this started.

And that $39 million number is coming from Box Office Theory, one of the best sources for these projections available.

Even before this last round of recalculating the projections, Box Office Theory had settled on $51 million domestically, which is below The Flash, which had a $55 million domestic opening in 2024, and went on to lose $200 million on production budget (not including marketing) of between $200 and 220 million.

The other film that is being compared to Supergirl is The Marvels from Disney Marvel. That movie, from 2023, had an opening weekend of $46.1 million. Loses were calculated to be in the range of $237 million.

When this movie comes out this weekend, there will be much talk of superhero fatigue. But don't believe it. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which comes out July 31st, is already setting sales records.

Tickets for Tom Holland’s fourth Spidey solo film went on sale Wednesday (along with a new trailer) and sold more tickets in the United States in a single day than any film has in the past five years. The film that it could not beat? Spider-Man: No Way Home, the last Tom Holland Spider-Man movie, five years ago.

This is Disarpu's video Supergirl COPE Goes Nuclear As Box Office Dies.

Disparu makes some good points. The Supergirl comics were mostly purchased by men. Men are the primary audience for all superhero movies. Even Madam Web was primarily watched by men in the cinema, despite all of the marketing being aimed at women. The marketing for Supergirl seems to trying to paint this as a movie for women. That is the mistake that Disney made with The Marvels, or one of the mistakes, anyway.

The video is about 14 minutes long.

This is Nerdrotic's video Supergirl is COOKED - They Never Learn

UPDATE: Bill Hoyte at X sums of the general feeling about this movie.

Let me see if I got this right:

"Supergirl" is YET ANOTHER girlboss propaganda movie about a lesser-known FEMALE "hero."

She displays jealousy and contempt for her far more famous male cousin by calling him “naive” and “a bitch.”

She'll undoubtedly be portrayed as stronger and… pic.twitter.com/mJtTUyOywo

— Byl Holte (@SirBylHolte) June 22, 2026

One Cold Day

I looked this song up because of a discussion on social media, and realized that I hadn't featured it. I like Lacuna Coil, but they don't really make up too much of my regular listening. I think I need to change that.

Not many Italian Heavy Metal bands make an impact in the United States. They had two songs included in the movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. The MTV thing was probably their big US break.

This is "One Cold Day" by Lacuna Coil from their 2014 album Broken Crown Halo.

Another Failure of the Victim-Selection Process

One airlifted to hospital after shooting incident in Winfield, TN

[Scott County Sheriff’s Office] said that [Samantha] Hall reportedly entered a woman’s property in the Pine Hill area of Winford, assaulted a woman, then tried to force her way into the woman’s home.

The homeowner was armed, and she fired. Hall was injured, and had to taken to a trauma center in Knoxville.

Winfield, Tennessee, is about 45 miles northwest of Knoxville. The drive will be longer. It is on the state line with Kentucky.

Hall was treated, and then taken into custody. She will face charges that include aggravated assault, and aggravated burglary.

Self-defense is a human right, and Tennessee has not morphed into Massachusetts.

Get Home in an Emergency

From The Survival Mom: Get Home, No Matter What: A Woman's Guide to Getting Home in Any Emergency

Wanting to get home isn’t enough. When that moment comes, what gets you there is a plan you’ve already thought through and a bag that’s already packed.

Click thru for the plan.

Cops Are Using Flock Cameras to Stalk People

Are we surprised? Cops Keep Getting Arrested for Using Flock to Stalk People

They start out with following the case of one cop who used the system to track the movements of his ex-girlfriend, and her parents. Then we get to the general statements.

Local news reports from around the country repeatedly detail police abusing the Flock surveillance systemic order to stalk their partners or ex-partners. The contours of each story are much the same, with the police officer in question using their access to the system to repeatedly track a specific person over the course of weeks or months. The cases highlight the fact that Flock can be used to track the whereabouts of individual people, that police do not get a warrant in order to use the system, and that, if they have access to the system, they have the technical ability to look up any license plate they want for any reason they want

Flock claims the abuse is rare, but it should not be possible. There should be controls, audits, something.

The Greeks Strike Back

This is good. From Greek City Times: A Letter to Hollywood and Nolan's Odyssey Cast from Us Greeks

It turns out that there are no Greeks, in Nolan's upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey. Nolan, the director who prides himself on authenticity, or something, didn't put any Greeks in one of the quintessential Greek stories.

We write to you as Greeks, not as fragments of antiquity, not as echoes from museum displays, and not as characters sealed in marble, but as a living people whose story has never stopped being written.

Click thru.

The hat tip goes to Metatron and his video THE GREEKS ARE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST NOLAN!!! Metatron has been going hard after Nolan & Company. And they deserve it.

Hollywood Actors Need to STFU - DC Edition

I know they won't. I just wish they would. ‘Supergirl’ Star Milly Alcock Claims The Film Is Beautiful Because “It’s Not Centered Around A Man” — Says Kara Would “Probably Go Both Ways”

Just days after making headlines by saying she was "honored" that many fans view Supergirl as a "queer icon," actress Milly Alcock is once again generating discussion about the character's sexuality and relationship to traditional gender roles.

During a recent interview, Alcock was asked whether Kara Zor-El's "queerness" was something she explored while preparing for the role. While she stopped short of explicitly labeling the character, the actress praised the film for not focusing on men and suggested she believes Supergirl would likely be attracted to both men and women.

This was after she made the comment basically saying that she was glad she pissed off Christian dads. Who the fuck does she think buys tickets to superhero movies?

Then there is this, from Giant Freaking Robot Supergirl Earns Rave Reviews, But The Movie Is Still Doomed

Most of the reviewers have been absolutely raving about Supergirl. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm may not be able to save a film that seems doomed to a mediocre box office performance.

Translation: There is no way this train wreck is going to make money.

On a similar note...

This is Critical Drinker's video Drinker's Chasers - Who Is This Movie Even Made For? This is an excerpt from a much longer panel discussion.

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.