Not Even Tom Cruise Can Save a Woke Movie

The last movie star doesn't have enough box-office-draw to save a movie that is a lecture about climate change. Hard to believe that Hollywood couldn't see that. From Breitbart: Nolte: Tom Cruise’s Global Warming Propaganda ‘Digger’ About to Lose $100+ Million

When the teaser trailer was released, I thought this looked interesting. Cruise is a good actor, and before he became Hollywood's action star (and even after) he had a bit of comic timing. When the first full trailer came out I lost all interest. (I don't need a 2 hour lecture from people who live in huge homes, and fly in private jets.) John Nolte has the details on the development of the movie, and the current projections.

Here’s a movie designed in a Woke Lab to hit the sweet spot of critics…

• Evil white men.
• Evil businessmen.
• Oil bad.

There is more in that list.

And now we have box office projections.

And now it’s about to open wide all across America and, per the professional estimates, humiliate itself and its star with an $8 million to $12 million opening. If these projections hold, a movie made for no Normal Person could lose more than $100 million.

There is more, including the current state of Hollywood. Click thru.

That $8 to $12 million projection is apparently from Box Office Theory and Shawn Robbins. As I type this on Thursday night, his projections are $7.5 million to $12 million, while the studio is looking for $12 to $15 million. Either way this is a disaster. The Numbers has the production budget at $125 million, not including marketing.

Since studios get about half of the take at the box office (it turns out movie theaters don't show movies for free), The movie would need to gross about $250 million just to cover the production budget. I have no idea what the advertising and marketing budget would be for a film like this, but I would think that $80 million would not be out of the question for a film staring Cruise.

The only way Hollywood is going to stop making Woke movies, is when they decide that they need to actually make money to survive. You would think that they are there, but apparently not quite.

Friday Links - 2 October

Light Over Heat with Professor David Yamane is up first with Are You a Lumper or a Splitter?

Darwin divided scientists into “Lumpers” vs. “Splitters.” As Christakis summarizes this view in his book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, “Lumpers seek to group similar things together; splitters identify fine distinctions.”

Holly MathNerd - When Everything Is Racism

my review of Colin Kaepernick’s book

Chicago Contrarian - Leadership Vacuum in Chicago Creates Chaos on Parking Meters

The City Council made its original catastrophic parking-meter deal in 2008, when it foolishly leased the system to private investors for 75 years for a measly $1.15 billion after only three days of consideration.

Granite Grok - Morning Update: We’re Winning (Don’t You Dare Give Up Now)

Today, on the Morning Update, a reminder that normal people are winning. Republicans are winning. America is winning; the system is working, and we’ve got proof, but if you give in or give up, we’ll not just lose; we could lose everything.

William Teach at Pirate's Cove - Supreme Court Once Again Allows Deporting Illegals To 3rd Party Countries

This is deja vu all over again, after the Court ruled in 2025 that it was OK to send them to 3rd party countries

Chicago Contrarian - Only the Department of Justice Can Stop Chicago’s Outrageous Wrongful Conviction Payouts

The wrongful conviction racket could be the biggest scandal in modern Chicago history. It's time to bring it to an end

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 30 September 2026: Underfrog Edition

Anthropic announced not long ago that it was paying SpaceX $1.25 billion per month to lease capacity in datacenters that actually existed. The number now looks to be closer to twice that. (WCCFTech)

The only way to win is to own the stadium.

Another Failure of the Victim-Selection Process

I suppose they thought folks at an Airbnb would not be armed. Airbnb Renter Shoots Man, 18, Who Allegedly Broke Into Home

So how would you respond to two armed men breaking into your vacation rental?

This incident took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The police department said that two armed men allegedly broke into an Airbnb and they got into an altercation with the renter. The renter then shot one of the suspects, who has since been identified as Dareon Pubien, in the chest.

Pubien, 18, then fled the scene on foot, and police later found him near his home.

Cops caught up with the other would-be bad guy, Sean Thompson, 25, and arrested him.

Both Thompson and Pubien have been charged with attempted murder and home invasion with a firearm.

Neighbors were shocked. Apparently because the Liberals in Broward County don't believe that crime can exist in the zip codes that cover Fort Lauderdale. Or maybe that is just the "Professional Journalist" behind the article.

The incident has left local residents in shock, while some even heard it happening in real time. Arthur Butler Jr. told CBS Miami that he heard “at least 10” gunshots coming from the house when the robbery was taking place.

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

You Can't Take the BBC Seriously in 2026

They were once a respected, if Leftist, news organization. Today they are just crazy. From William Teach at Pirate's Cove: Clear Nail Polish Is Apparently Now Raaaaacist

The BBC published an article saying that the new fashion trend, clear nail polish, was promoting white supremacy. Then, when they got beat over the head for being insane, they pulled the article. Click thru for those details.

They don’t need any sort of drugs to be batguano insane moonbats. Anyhow, the BBC originally took it down saying it needed “editorial review”, and now it’s just a 401. The link in the 2nd paragraph goes to an Internet Archive version. From that piece

They discount things like more women going to gyms, and not wanting to spend a lot of money on manicures, and then have them chip on a weight machine.

Also, manicures are expensive, and a bit time consuming. Especially when you factor in that can do it yourself, if you are not going crazy. Times are also a bit tough. Maybe the folks at the BBC didn't notice, on their government/tax-supported salaries.

Dutch Government Looks to Dump Microsoft Windows

Can you blame them? From The Register: Dutch government turns to NixOS for a sovereign desktop

The Netherlands is looking to create a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) solution for their PCs, based on NixOS. NixOS is a version of Linux built around the Nix package manager. (That is the software updater for that distribution.)

DAWO stands for "Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid," or "Digital Autonomous Government Work Environment." Rather than a single product, its blueprint combines replaceable components for the operating system, cloud infrastructure, AI, communications, and collaborative working. Development remains at an early stage, but small-scale pilots are already under way within Dutch public bodies.

They started by working in 4 cities, since expanded to 8. And they didn't start with NixOS.

For its client OS, the project initially experimented with openSUSE, then Fedora, before settling on NixOS. The Reg FOSS desk has written about NixOS several times, including its radical approach to package management and the arrival of NixOS 22.11.

NixOS offers more than a conveniently Dutch pedigree. It is not controlled by a commercial vendor, while its declarative configuration and reproducible deployments make it attractive for managing and auditing large fleets of machines.

Microsoft is making the Windows experience so painful, that people are deciding to be done with it. Stuffing AI down everyone's throats, whether they want it or not. The entire Windows 10/Windows 11 PC support insanity. That doesn't even cover the security issues. And the cost - Software as a Service sounds great to shareholders of Microsoft, but not so much to people who have to pay for things. And the alternatives today are not limited to Apple, though I know some companies are giving more employees Apple laptops.

How Should an Elderly Homeowner Defend Himself?

If he doesn't have a firearm, what is he supposed to do? Homeowner shoots man who allegedly broke into his Montrose home, police say | KENS5

He kicked in the front door, in the middle of the afternoon.

An HPD officer at the scene told KHOU 11 that the man appeared to be a stranger to the homeowner. According to the officer, the homeowner, described as an elderly man, repeatedly told the alleged intruder to stop and leave the home.

The homeowner was able to retrieve a 38-caliber handgun, and he shot the intruder.

For more details and excellent commentary, see Colion Noir's video Elderly Texas Man Shoots Intruder After His Front Door Gets Kicked In

There are a lot of bad decisions a person can make on a Wednesday afternoon, but breaking the front door of an elderly man's house in Texas has got to be sitting somewhere near the very top of that list.

The video is 5 minutes long.

Sheriff Discontinues Use of Flock Cameras - Another Cop Caught

This seems to be a thing. Sheriff: Franklin County detective fired for misuse of Flock Camera system :: WRAL

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guards themselves.

Sheriff Kevin White of Fraklin County, North Carolina, has stopped using Flock cameras after a decade because of violations of privacy.

The Franklin County Sheriff's Office has stopped using Flock surveillance cameras after it found an investigator used the cameras to track an unnamed person.

Detective Janet Leonard was fired after using the system to “track every movement of a single, private citizen,” White said in a release sent to media outlets Friday morning.

I would think more than firing is in order, but I am more interested in the ending the use of Flock cameras.

“This is unacceptable, unconstitutional, and a complete violation of privacy by someone whose entire career should have been dedicated to protecting the public,” White said.

Franlin County, North Carolina, is about 15 miles northeast of Raleigh.

Click thru for the details. And thank you to Sheriff White.

So You Decided to Trust Microsoft With Your Data

That didn't work out for a group of nonprofit organizations. From The Register: Microsoft tells nonprofits their deleted M365 data isn't coming back

Microsoft accidentally wiped some nonprofit customers' M365 data before their retention period expired – and now says it cannot tell them what disappeared, or even whether they lost anything.

Microsoft was hosting data for a group of nonprofits subject to a grant. The grant ran out, so Microsoft gave a date by when the data needed to be moved. And then they deleted the data before that date. No backups available. Oops.

The problem arose after the subscriptions were deactivated. In an email to one affected customer seen by The Register, Microsoft admitted that, "due to an error," it had deleted remaining data before the retention and export window closed. Attempts to recover it had failed.

"We have now investigated the recovery options, but unfortunately, the data cannot be recovered," Microsoft said.

Professional management. Industry-leading process control. Or something.

If you have asked (or paid) someone to back up your data, how sure are you that it is backed up? How sure are you that you can get it back when you need it? How secure is it in the face of hackers? How sure are you that an accounting glitch won't cause it to be permanently deleted? What is you recourse it if is?

No one cares about your stuff as much as you do.

Don't Buy a Refrigerator That Needs Internet Access

I feel sad that I even need to type that title. Ars Technica brings us a story of insane use of tech, and the mishaps it causes. Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges - Ars Technica

Samsung released an update for their "Smart Fridges." It bricked the fridge. It didn't just kill the internet access for the fridge, it killed the freezing and cooling function.

Affected fridges “suddenly lost power and stopped functioning immediately after” trying to issue a firmware update through SmartThings, Samsung’s smart home platform, per Star News Korea. The SmartThings app then showed the devices as offline. Some users said that their fridge’s internal display was stuck showing the message “Checking SmartThings app during update.”

This seems to be limitied to Korea, but they were stupid enough to release the update right before a Korean holiday.

The complaints seem to originate only from Korea, where the problem has been made worse because it’s happening during a major Korean holiday, Chuseok, which celebrates the autumn harvest and starts Thursday.

“Customers only trusted Samsung Electronics and made an official update, but it is so absurd and embarrassing that they can’t even use refrigeration and refrigeration functions before the Chuseok,” a forum user wrote, per a Google-provided translation.

Samsung's "support" initially said that options were limited due to the holiday. That was before they realized they shot themselves in the head.

I don't want a smart fridge. I don't want a washing machine that connects to the internet. I want appliances that last, though as Keon notes in the video (see link below) that is from a bygone era. My position is summed up by the image below.

The hat tip goes to Kneon at Clownfish TV and the video Samsung Smart Fridges Made WORTHLESS by Update...

Why? Why? Why are we putting AI into our refrigerator?

Wednesday Link Roundup - 30 September

William Teach at Pirate's Cove starts us off with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Bustednuckles has voting.
Don Surber has highlights of the week.

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 09.28.26

Da Tech Guy: The Question Nobody is Asking About the War in Ukraine
Don Surber: Midterms diplomacy

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 29 September 2026: Blockdrain Edition

OpenAI still doesn't seem to have a handle on all its rogue AI activity. (Tech Crunch)
Because they are idiots.

EBL - The Get Out

An Albanian night club owner in LA wants a buy out...
Teresa Palmer as Sunny

Political Hat - News of the Week (September 27th, 2026)

Conservative talk-show host Steve Deace wrote earlier this week, “Iowa House Republicans were informed by their own pollsters that if you are in a +15 district you’re within the margin for error

The Glibertarians - Tuesday Morning Links

Let them open their mouths. And they’ll tell you who they are every single time.
Thank God they’re doing this. Nobody would have ever known otherwise.

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Weekend Cleanup

Misty Severi at JTN reports Hegseth announces Army National Guard has achieved its 2026 recruiting goal, "The Army reached its own recruiting goal for the current fiscal year in May, months before the Sept. 30 deadline.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 09.29.26

Victory Girls: Ellen “Elliot” Page Goes Topless for New York Magazine’s Men’s Style Issue
Watts Up With That: Repealing Power Plant Limits Is a Good Start

Small Dead Animals - Sunday On Turtle Island

The Democratic Party’s America: The Lindsay Clancy case. A lesbian bar.
Conman Carney’s Canada: A U.S. invasion. The EU blunder. A pronunciation guide.
Stories You Won’t Find At Carney’s CBC: Full force of the law. The border.

Vlad Tepes - I guess just journaling the one sided war to destroy Western nations in every possible way at this point? Links 1 for Sept. 26, 2026

1. I wish Trump and Netanyahu would have spoken to the UN the way Javier Milei did
2. Personally, I have always wanted to know more about the Byzantine Empire.

Don Surber - HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NEWS

ITEM 6: Shooting News Weekly reported, “Illinois Wants Gun Makers to Pay the Costs of the Crime Its Dysfunctional Criminal Justice System Enables.”
But they get a discount if the woman is acquitted for post-partum depression.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 9/26/2026

Polish President Uncomfortable With Putin at G20 But Will Attend
Polish President Karol Nawrocki will attend the G20 summit in Miami despite disapproving of Russia’s invitation

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkange

Pirates Cove Oh Noes: Trump Threatens Entire US Healthcare System
Freedom Is Just Another Word.. .Saturday Memes…

Maggie's Farm - Monday morning links

Columbia professor wins award for book on ‘white paint’ being racist
Un-Gifted and Talented
More fake news

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 9/ 29 /26

“In March, explosives were detonated outside a Liège synagogue.”
Belgium’s Intelligence Agency: Iran Behind Synagogue Bombing, Arson Campaign

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Muslims In Texas Lay Out Vision For Islamic America

80 Years a Hostage to the Anti-Progressives Doug Ross
EU tells countries to curb energy demand as gas prices face winter squeeze EuroNews

I leave you with Sunday Funnies For 09-26-26 from Stately McDaniel Manor, Sunday Funnies from Flopping Aces, Sunday Meme Drop 9-27-26 from Midwest Chick's Place, Fall funnies from bluebird of bitterness, and Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #4228 from 90 Miles from Tyranny.

He Suffered a Failure of the Victim-Selection Process

Missouri is not a good place for bad guys. St. Joseph man shot in groin after allegedly attempting to burglarize home - KQ2 | St. Joseph, Missouri News, Weather & Sports

A St. Joseph, Missouri, man is behind bars after he was shot in the groin for allegedly attempting to burglarize a home early Sunday morning.

He fled, but cops found him nearby and had him taken to a hospital for treatment before being sent to lockup.

St. Joseph, Missouri, is about a 50 mile drive north of Kansas City, Missouri. It is bordered on the west by the Missouri River.

So how would you respond to an intruder at 2:45 AM? (Hat tip to USA Carry)

School Admits Violating 4th Amendment Rights

From AmmoLand: School Officials Admit Search of Gun-Owning Student’s Truck Was Unconstitutional

A student legally owned a gun. He did not have that gun on school property. He did talk about the gun on school property. The school illegally searched his vehicle.

New Hampshire school officials have formally admitted that they violated former student Jack Harrington’s Fourth Amendment rights when they searched his pickup truck after learning that he lawfully owned a handgun.

The admission resolves Harrington v. Crawford, a federal lawsuit supported by the Second Amendment Foundation. In a stipulated declaratory judgment, Hillsboro-Deering School District Superintendent Jennifer Crawford and Hillsboro-Deering High School Principal James O’Rourke agreed that the April 24, 2025, search of Harrington’s truck and glove box was unconstitutional.

Click thru for the details, the admissions, why they thought it was a good idea to violate the 4th amendment, etc. (Hat tip to Jews Can Shoot)

Kentucky State Trooper Hayden Phillips

End of Watch. Fallen Kentucky State Police trooper arrives in Glasgow following procession from Louisville

According to KSP Commissioner Phillip Burnett, Phillips stopped a vehicle around 2 p.m. on I-65 in Warren County. He was assigned to KSP Post 3 in Bowling Green.

Officials said Emonnie Branch, 51, of Portland, Tennessee, was inside the vehicle. Police said Branch shot Phillips and fled the scene, triggering a statewide manhunt. Branch was taken into custody in Louisville. He was charged with murder of a first responder in connection with Phillips’ death.

Click thru for the details.

The man charged with killing KSP Trooper Hayden Phillips was on probation in Tennessee and had an active warrant out for violating it.

Emonnie Branch, 51, was supposed to be supervised.

He was supposed to be picked up.

Instead he was on I-65 with a gun, and a husband and… pic.twitter.com/Nwo4lzeswe

— Kentucky Girl (@Kentuckygirl1) September 29, 2026

Gypsy Nights

Craig Chaquico gets some grief over his association with Jefferson Starship, and Starship. Which I guess is fair, because a lot of that music from the end of that run isn't good. But he joined Jefferson Starship in the first year after Jefferson Airplane ended, when he was 21; it was probably financially rewarding. (Look up their gold and platinum records.) And he is an excellent guitar player.

Do I like all of his work? Of course not.

This song is "Gypsy Nights" by Craig Chaquico from his 1993 album Acoustic Highway. It was also included on the "best of album," Panorama: The Best Of Craig Chaquico from 2000.

The Chicago Tylenol Murders

A history lesson from 90 Miles From Tyranny. September 29, 1982: The Chicago Tylenol Murders Begin

A 12-year-old girl named Mary Kellerman dies in the suburbs of Chicago after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol, becoming the first of six people in the area to soon turn up dead after taking that same medication. Investigators later found cyanide in the capsules.

No one was ever convicted of these crimes.

I have seen this reenacted on at least one procedural, cop show. Except Hollywood, in the times before MeToo and COVID, loved a happy ending, which meant the bad guy being brought to justice of some kind.

Click thru for more history.

Tuesday Links - 29 September

William Teach at Pirate's Cove is first with A Bunch Of Left Wacko Groups Launch “Day Of Action” To Keep Haitians In US

Hey, maybe if they spent their money on making Haiti a nice place (didn’t they say Haiti was a nice place?) Haitians could return home, right?

Campus Reform - Universities hire legions of H-1B workers, lawmakers advance legislation to rein in ‘visa scam’

As universities across the country continue to pursue hiring foreign labor via the H-1B program, Republican congressmen have advanced legislation seeking to crack down on the “H-1B visa scam.”

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 25 September 2026: Bleh Edition

People training OpenAI's AI have been fired for using AI. (404 Media)

Well, yes. Exactly.

Training AI on AI output rapidly leads to something called model collapse. It's the computer equivalent of drinking your own urine.

The Other McCain - Deranged Stalker Deborah Frisch Is Out of Prison, But for How Much Longer?

More than two decades have elapsed since Deborah Frisch, Ph.D., lost her position as a psychology instructor at the University of Arizona because of her harassment of “Protein Wisdom” blogger Jeff Goldstein.

Again from William Teach - State Which Can’t Even Build A Train Crows Over “Climate Week” Participation

Say, what’s the carbon footprint of all those Warmists flying across the country?

Wombat-socho - FMJRA 2.0: An Awful Road Trip

Meanwhile, for those of you more interested in college football, here’s the marble game standings.

My Kickstarter for The Hawk, the Fox, and the Princess is at 33% with two weeks to go!

Even in Austin, Texas, Homeowners Are Armed

Austin is often described as San Francisco, Texas, but it is still Texas. South Austin homicide: Man shot by homeowner during burglary | FOX 7 Austin

Austin police responded to a report of a burglary at a home in the 200 block of Virtus Bend just before 4 a.m.

When officers arrived, they found 24-year-old Dmario Antonie Jones with gunshot wounds. EMS attempted life-saving measures, but Jones was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:10 a.m.

How would you respond to an uninvited guest at 4 o'clock in the morning?

A preliminary investigation determined that Jones entered the home and went into the bedroom. Jones was then shot by the homeowner while burglarizing the home.

The investigation is just beginning, and while I am not a lawyer, it is my understanding that every homicide in Texas gets referred to a grand jury.

Still, self-defense is a human right.

Another Cop Caught Abusing Flock Cameras

And it looks like this might be the first of many in one department. NC police officer allegedly used Flock license plate cameras to track boyfriend's ex-wife - ABC11 Raleigh-Durham

The Mooresville Police Department was conducting an audit of its Flock license plate reader system when it discovered officer Elizabeth Snowman allegedly accessed the system 31 times for personal use, Mooresville Police Chief Ron Campurciani said.

"She accessed the computers, the LPR [license plate reader] cameras, to find information and track her boyfriend's ex-wife," Campurciani said at a news conference Wednesday.

The lack of security is amazing. The officer in question didn't need to be on duty to access the data. Still think you are in favor of Flock? People always say, "If you have nothing to hide..." What did the ex-wife have to hide? Just her constitutionally protected privacy. You have to be doing anything bad to have a stalker.

Mooresville, North Carolina, is roughly a 25 mile drive north of Charlotte.

Snowman, 36, was arrested and charged Wednesday with accessing computers, police said.

Welcome to the Panoptican.

Majority Supports Arming Teachers

When there is a mass shooting, the first thing people do is call for people with guns to come and deal with the situation. But the police are not there to start with, and will not arrive for some time. New Survey: Voters by a 51.4% to 35.7% Margin Support Armed Teachers, Parents with Children in K-12 Support by an Even Larger 57.3% to 30.2% Margin - Crime Prevention Research Center

The CPRC hired McLaughlin & Associates to survey 1,000 general election voters on August 25th, 2026 (cross tabs available here) regarding general election voters’ views on allowing teachers to carry concealed handguns at schools. While voters overwhelmingly approve of the idea by a 51.4% to 35.7% margin, voters with children in K-12 schools are significantly more supportive by a 57.3% to 30.2% margin.

When seconds count, police are only minutes away. And that assumes that they won't hide outside, the way the geniuses did in Uvalde, Texas.

Only three demographic or political groups oppose armed teachers: Democrats (51.3% opposed to 35.7% supportive), liberals (48.9% to 35.1%), and those classified as “other race” (47.8% to 39.2%). Regionally, respondents in the East are essentially evenly divided, with opposition narrowly exceeding support, 42.8% to 42.3%.