July 22, 2026

HASAN PIKER CALLS MAO ‘ONE OF THE GREAT LEADERS:’

Hasan Piker, the leftist influencer, has millions of followers across Twitch, YouTube, and other platforms. And so it is not without interest that he has described Mao as “one of the great leaders of this world” and that, when challenged about this, he conceded that “there was a lot of f***ing excesses, let’s be real, but. . . .”

Ah yes, there is always a “but.”

The “but” in this case was that “the People’s Republic of China would not exist without Mao Zedong.”

True enough. Then again there were tens of millions of Chinese who would have existed for quite a bit longer were it not for Mao or his republic. And many of those did not meet their deaths because of yet another catastrophic communist “reform,” but because they were, in one way or another, murdered.

The easy response to Piker’s comments is to write him off as a provocateur or a nut. But the wiser course is to take him seriously, to believe that he either believes what he says or, at least, that he wants his followers to believe what he says. If that’s so, he will want them to agree with his comment about the greatness of Mao, and to join with him in dismissing those millions of dead as “excesses,” a blot on a glorious record. It’s an old argument. To borrow from a notorious phrase, those millions were the eggs broken to make an omelet.

In addition to the fine art of omelet making, Piker also enjoys celebrating urban renewal:

UPDATE:

Tweet continues, “Now, I think the ‘which genocidal murderer was the worst’ game can get pretty stupid, because people often seem to think that coming in second or third to Hitler absolves mass murderers of any condemnation. I think you can come up way short of Hitler and still deserve to be remembered as a monster who deserves to burn in Hell. Let’s say of the 40 million people you concede Mao killed — just not on purpose (lol)— he only killed 1 percent deliberately. That’s really generous. It also means he deliberately murdered 400,000 people. Doesn’t that count as disqualifying for our esteem and admiration? Or are you one of those guys that thinks liquidating a few kulaks is the price you have to pay for power?”

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

HARD TO BELIEVE THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE WHO ONCE RULED A QUARTER OF THE GLOBE:

Related (From Ed): Heatwaves caused by fall in pollution.

Temperatures in Europe have warmed twice as much as the rest of the world since the 1980s, figures show, with the continent now 2.3C warmer than it was in the pre-industrial era. In the same period, the global average is 1.3C.

The steep temperature rise in western Europe has outstripped expectations and has left experts puzzled as to their cause and concerned about the increase in deadly heatwaves.

Now Spanish researchers and the Met Office have concluded that most of the extra heat experienced in Britain and Europe is linked to the fall in particle emissions in recent decades.

The signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, which was championed by Margaret Thatcher, was designed to protect the Earth’s ozone layer and led to a general reduction in aerosols and particulates being emitted into the atmosphere.

Scientists now believe the reduction in some pollutants allows more of the Sun’s heat to reach the Earth’s surface and also changes how air circulates globally to increase the chance of prolonged hot weather in Europe.

Where have you gone John Holdren? Old Blighty turns its lonely eyes to you:

Or course, there may be an even faster solution:

Posted at 5:54 pm by Stephen Green

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE:

Perhaps Ruffalo might want to consider changing careers entirely, based upon who created the industry in which he toils:

Not to mention who created the character he frequently plays.

Posted at 5:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

EVERGREEN HEADLINE: The Democrats Have a Communist Problem.

Hasan Piker, like Zohran Mamdani, like all of the Manson family girlies who fawn all over them, were raised in American schools amid Critical Race and Gender Theory, the so-called “real history” they indoctrinated our kids with. Now we are seeing the fruits of their labor.

It’s Joseph McCarthy’s ultimate nightmare finally realized. Maybe it wasn’t true that the military was infested with Commies, but if it came back to today, he’d see evidence of infiltration everywhere, from culture to academia to politics.

No, I don’t want to censor Hasan Piker, but sometimes you have to wonder, once again, where all of this is going and what, if anything, we can do about it without violating the Constitution. Now, the Communist hunters like Richard Nixon aren’t looking so wrong.

I barely learned about the dangers of Stalin when I grew up on the Left. We romanticized Communism and ignored the horrors of mass murder, gulags, and oppression of free speech. Even now, the Left sees 1984 as Donald Trump’s America, not theirs.

Wait, Walter Cronkite told me it was a stand-in for Reagan’s America, according to his biographer Douglas Brinkley:

With heart and soul, Cronkite went to work on the documentary “1984 Revisited” (a CBS Reports special that aired in prime time on June 7, 1983). Reading George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, published in 1949, had been a revelation for Cronkite. He was stunned by Orwell’s raw insights into both Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. To Cronkite, the dystopian 1984 was prescient in showing that America’s civil liberties were being gutted by a right-wing agenda.

Concurrently, plenty of lefties convinced themselves that the film adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 that starred John Hurt and Richard Burton was a searing indictment of Margaret Thatcher’s Tories, despite the fictitious totalitarian regime’s ideological portmanteau, Ingsoc, serving as an abbreviation of the words “English Socialism,” as a way to project Stalinism, circa 1948, further into the post-WWII future, and into Orwell’s beloved England.

Posted at 5:31 pm by Ed Driscoll

GRUMPY OLD MAN: Is ‘Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness’ Another Anti-Trump Screed?

Larry David doesn’t know when to quit.

And that isn’t such a bad thing, at least on paper.

The 79-year-old funny man said, ‘goodbye’ to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in 2024 after 12 mostly solid seasons. He’s fabulously wealthy thanks to that program, plus all those “Seinfeld” residuals.

David co-created the iconic NBC show.

He doesn’t need the money, and his cranky alter ego suggests the “fame” part of celebrity isn’t a top priority.

David still felt the need to star in a new show for HBO Max, one that examines American history through a very Larry David-style lens.

“Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness.”

The show, co-produced by the Obamas, debuted to tepid critical reviews. The finished product, to be blunt, is bad.

Pretty, pretty bad, at least from the sketches this critic has endured.

“Co-produced by the Obamas” is never a good sign.

Posted at 4:52 pm by Stephen Green

SPACE: SpaceX launches Northrop mission to extend the life of aging satellites.

SpaceX on July 21 launched a Northrop Grumman robotic spacecraft designed to extend the lives of multiple satellites by installing propulsion modules in geostationary orbit.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Mission Robotic Vehicle, or MRV, and three Mission Extension Pods lifted off at 5:15 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The four spacecraft, developed by Northrop Grumman’s SpaceLogistics subsidiary, were launched toward geosynchronous transfer orbit and will use their own propulsion systems to reach geostationary orbit, about 22,000 miles above Earth.

Because the mission required the booster’s full performance to send the MRV and three pods toward geostationary orbit, SpaceX did not attempt to recover the first stage, ending its service after a record 32 flights.

Actually, B1067 holds the record with 36 flights — and I believe it’s still in service.

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green

CHANGE?

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: OpenAI says its AI went rogue and launched ‘unprecedented’ cyber-attack.

The ChatGPT-maker said its agent – an AI system which can operate alone after some human instruction – was being tested in a controlled environment, but found vulnerabilities and managed to escape.

They targeted Hugging Face, one of the world’s largest hubs for sharing AI models, gaining access to some internal company systems.

OpenAI said the incident was “unprecedented”, and it was conducting an investigation alongside Hugging Face, whose boss Clement Delangue said in a post on X it was “mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously”.

“The investigation is ongoing, and we’ll share more learnings from what might be the first incident of its kind,” Delangue added.

It certainly won’t be the last.

Posted at 1:46 pm by Stephen Green

WELL, WHEN YOU PUT IT THAT WAY…

Posted at 1:28 pm by Stephen Green

DISPATCHES FROM ABC NEWS: The View Claims No Election Has Ever Been Stolen Before Trump Speech.

In 2012, Behar still wouldn’t shut up about the 2000 election even though it was fully legitimate. In an interview with disgraced former New York Governor and prostitute aficionado Eliot Spitzer (D), she griped: “I’m still ticked off about the 2000 election.” Adding, “I’m still ticked off about the 2000 election.”

It was rich for Hostin to open her mouth about it too because she spent years insisting that Trump’s victory in 2016 was illegitimate, only to change her mind six years later when her friend Karine Jean-Pierre was getting flack for spewing the same non-sense.

Just last month, Hostin argued that it was understandable for people to be suspicious of the results of the 2024 presidential election.

Additionally, throughout 2025, The View repeatedly suggested Trump stole the 2024 presidential election, without evidence and without even a theory about how it could have been done.

Over the years, Behar has repeatedly and erroneously casted doubt on every Republican electoral victory. In 2023, she asserted that the only why Republicans win elections was by “cheating.”

Fortunately, these employees of ABC News also believe that Trump is going to put an end to all of that: The View: Trump Is ‘Executing People in the Streets,’ Trying to ‘Stop the Election.’

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll