June 16, 2026

MAYBE NEWSOM SHOULD TAKE A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA AND LAWYER UP:

Posted at 3:33 pm by Stephen Green

NO REGRETS:

Posted at 3:02 pm by Stephen Green

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Lawsuit filed over rules aimed at Colorado gun dealer records.

A Colorado gun rights organization has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a newly enacted state law giving government officials broad, random access to firearms purchase records without a warrant or even suspicion of wrongdoing.

The Colorado State Shooting Association (CSSA) announced the legal challenge at a June 12 press conference, holding the announcement in the district represented by Senator Tom Sullivan, who CSSA identifies as a chief proponent of Colorado’s ongoing gun rights restrictions. The filing marks the third recent constitutional challenge CSSA has brought against Colorado gun laws.

The impetus for the lawsuit is House Bill 26-1126, signed into law by Governor Polis earlier this month. The law expands record-keeping requirements for firearms dealers and authorizes the Department of Revenue (DOR) to access transaction records maintained by federally licensed gun dealers (FFLs).

Critics say the law contains virtually no guardrails on access.

“There is virtually no limit on where, when, or how many times records may be demanded or for what purpose they may be used,” said David Price, the attorney representing CSSA, describing the law’s reach in legal filings.

And HB 26-1126 is one of the least offensive gun bills Polis signed into law.

Posted at 2:47 pm by Stephen Green

NEW REBOOT OF HOGAN’S HEROES NEEDS BETTER SCRIPTS: SPLC boss funneled $1.2 million to lover in neo-Nazi group — pair even had joint bank account.

A top Southern Poverty Law Center official is accused of helping funnel $1.2 million in donor money to an informant in the National Alliance white supremacist group — who was also allegedly her lover.

The Department of Justice filed a superseding indictment against the SPLC accusing it of funneling donor cash to hate groups they were then telling donors they were fighting.

One figure, referred to as “Employee-2” in the indictment, is described as a “person who would become Director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.”

It also describes how “Employee-2” wrote an article based on material stolen from National Alliance headquarters in 2014 and then paid off an informant to take the blame for the robbery.

Based on the details in the June 2 superseding indictment, “Employee-2” is believed to be Heidi Beirich, a 58-year-old fascism expert who was the director of intelligence at the Alabama-based anti-extremism nonprofit between 2012 and 2019.

The indictment alleges Beirich was very close to the informant known only as “F-9” who “infiltrated the neo-Nazi organization National Alliance.”

As P.J. O’Rourke famously wrote, “I have often been called a Nazi, and, although it is unfair, I don’t let it bother me. I don’t let it bother me for one simple reason. No one has ever had a fantasy about tied to a bed and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal.” Although to be fair, a decade ago, the New York Times assured me that International Socialism was getting a lot more quality nookie than National Socialism:

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

THIS MAY BE THE SADDEST OBITUARY HEADLINE I’VE EVER SEEN:

Anne Schedeen, known as mom “Kate Tanner” from ALF, just died. That’s sad enough, but Variety (and her family, apparently) wanted to make sure her death was all about Bad Orange Man.

Even Rob Reiner’s severe TDS didn’t make the headlines like this.

More from Variety:

In a statement, Schedeen’s family wrote ‘She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of creative energy, whip smart humor, delight in her family, adoration for little dogs, burning hatred for Trump, passion for second-hand thrifting, and love for a good story. We are bereft without her. We loved her so so much, as did all who met her.’

That’s right. Those are the literal words from her family.

I don’t recall many headlines in 1973 along the lines of “BETTY GRABLE DIES AT 56. FAMILY REMEMBER HER BURNING HATRED OF RICHARD NIXON,” but then the 1970s were simpler, more relaxed times.

Speaking of Variety and its permanent case of TDS:

 

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM AIRSTRIP ONE: Here Comes Herr Starmer’s Next Blow Against Liberty. “British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and a top advisor launched a mission to ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter,’ and they might just do it — at least in the U.K. — in their pursuit of protecting children from wrongthink.”

Posted at 2:16 pm by Stephen Green

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME: Brandon Herrera Presents The Darwin Awards. “Been a weird week, so here’s something a bit lighter, assuming ‘ighter’ includes ‘idiots mishandling firearms to delete themselves from the gene pool.'”

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green

BRENDAN O’NEILL: Jerry Seinfeld and the dark truth about ‘Free Palestine.’

“Can we get a ‘Free Palestine’?” the streamer asked as he shoved his mic towards Seinfeld’s mouth. Seinfeld smirked. He held his tongue. No “Free Palestine” passed his lips.

It gets better. He then proceeded to shut down his chirpy interrogator with three words. “It doesn’t exist”, he said. He was talking about Palestine. Cue fury from the Gazaholics. This was “racist rhetoric”, cried the cranks at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Oh keep your burqas on. He wasn’t being racist – he was showing the world that even in an age of crushing conformity it is possible to stand your ground.

There was something heroic in Seinfeld’s smiling refusal to speak on command. By resisting the pressure to parrot the slogans of the self-righteous, he struck a blow for freedom of conscience. He resisted the trap of compelled speech, preferring the company of his own supposedly blasphemous thoughts. What a relief to discover there are celebrities out there who decline to bow to the passing fads of correct-think.

The backlash over his Palestine heresy was fast and furious. Social media is awash with Jerry hate. “Racist,” “apartheid lover,” “psycho” – those barbs and others have been hurled his way. Mehdi Hasan called him a “disgusting and proud racist” and said he will never again watch an episode of Seinfeld. I bet Jerry’s gutted. Perhaps he’ll take comfort in the millions of dollars he still rakes in from Seinfeld every year, courtesy of viewers who aren’t big babies and don’t switch off TV shows in a pique of infantile rage when they discover they disagree with the people who made them.

To be fair, if anyone knows a show about nothing when he sees one, it’s Jerry Seinfeld.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

CHANGE:

Posted at 1:29 pm by Stephen Green

HOW IT STARTED: Police investigating large burning cross at Chicago’s Grant Park.

—Chicago’s ABC affiliate, last Wednesday.

How it’s going:

More details here: Person of interest in Grant Park cross burning incident in custody, police say.

[NBC Chicago’s Chuck Goudie]: “Did you make it all the way through almost four years at UIC without somebody teaching you that a burning cross is one of the most divisive symbols in America?”

[Illinois Chicago senior Merlin Lu]: “No, I don’t really have any, like… I never grew up with religion, never really surrounded myself with people with it. My childhood friend’s they, I remember them going to, like, confirmation and stuff like that, but um…”

Goudie: “But it’s a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan. I mean, that really is where it started. Nobody ever taught you that? You never read it in a history book?”

Lu: “I just saw the Wikipedia page with the movie with the, like, I think it’s called like ‘Under One Nation’ or something like that.”

“The Birth of a Nation” is a famous 1915 silent film that romanticized the KKK and showed a cross burning.

Woodrow Wilson’s favorite movie!

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE NEW SPACE RACE:

“This mission isn’t officially on SpaceX’s itinerary, so date and exact information aren’t known with 100% certainty. This should serve as a preliminary glimpse into this mission.”

But here’s something even bigger that is on SpaceX’s itinerary:

The company will attempt to take Starship orbital for the first time starting as soon as July 29.

Posted at 12:58 pm by Stephen Green

HEY, BIG SPENDER: SpaceX locks in $60 billion Cursor deal to power AI coding push.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX said on Tuesday it would acquire Anysphere, the software firm behind the popular AI coding agent Cursor, for $60 billion, in a bid to ramp up its presence ​in the enterprise AI market.

The announcement comes days after Musk took the rockets-to-AI company public in ‌a blockbuster Nasdaq debut that valued the firm at more than $2 trillion and immediately made it one of the world’s most valuable companies.

SpaceX had been eyeing Cursor for several months. The company said in April it had secured an option to either acquire the ​San Francisco-based company for $60 billion later this year, or pay $10 billion for a new partnership.

The deal could ​give xAI, the Grok chatbot maker that SpaceX merged with in February, a stronger foothold ⁠in the AI coding market where it has so far lagged rivals. It would also provide Cursor with more ​computing capacity to develop AI models.

SpaceX’s shares were up nearly 10% in premarket trading, on track to add about $247 ​billion to its market capitalization of $2.53 trillion. At $211.27, the stock has climbed more than 56% from its IPO price of $135.

If the gains hold, SpaceX is set to overtake Amazon in value to become the fifth-largest company.

Anysphere was valued at $50 billion in March.

Posted at 12:43 pm by Stephen Green

YOU WILL BE MADE TO CARE: MLB Continues Shameful Anti-Christian Crusade—Threatens Players Over Bible Verses on ‘Pride Night’ Caps.

In yet another display of its ongoing war on Christian faith, Major League Baseball has issued an official warning to three San Francisco Giants pitchers who dared to write Bible verses on their Pride Night caps.

And by ‘warning’ we mean threat, because what follows a warning in sports? Most likely a fine. Or, you know, as per Rule 3.03 of the official MLB Rulebook, a non-conforming player can be barred from participating in the game.

While the league under Commissioner Rob Manfred eagerly green-lights rainbow alterations and perpetually bows to the LGBT alphabet mafia, it is drawing a firm line at players subtly referencing God’s word.

It’s shameful. Utterly shameful.

According to The Athletic, MLB is putting its collective foot down after San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Landen Roupp and two of his teammates dared to add Bible verses to their ‘Pride Night’ caps. Bible verses, mind you, that explain the true symbolism of the rainbow—God’s covenant with Noah, his descendants, and every living creature after the great flood.

“Similar behavior will not be tolerated,” the report ominously reads.

That warning is backed up by a statement given by Pat Courtney, MLB’s chief communications officer, to Outsports.

“The writing on the cap violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations,” Courtney wrote.

Exit quote: “In reality, this isn’t about rule violations. It’s about whose beliefs MLB is willing to tolerate. The message to Christian players is crystal clear: your faith is unwelcome on the field.”

Well, we wouldn’t want to upset the delicate souls who staff the San Fransisco Chronicle:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

SAFETY IS THE SALES PITCH, CONTROL IS THE PRODUCT:

Posted at 12:27 pm by Stephen Green

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM:

Related:

Posted at 12:11 pm by Glenn Reynolds