July 1, 2026

MAMDANI WASN’T KIDDING ABOUT HIS “WARMTH OF COLLECTIVISM” SHTICK:

Posted at 6:47 pm by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM CHICAGO, THAT HOTBED OF CONSERVATISM: David Axelrod Gets Brutal Lesson In Blue City Governance After Finding Man Passed Out In Chicago Heat.

Former President Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist and CNN analyst David Axelrod alleged that Democrat-run Chicago, Illinois, ignored an unconscious man in the heat and suggested that city could have done more.

Axelrod said he was walking past the Art Institute of Chicago on July 1 when he saw a homeless-looking elderly man unconscious on the museum’s stone front steps, according to a post on X. He later added that the city’s facing a real-feel temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit. AccuWeather listed an official temperature of 97 degrees Fahrenheit and a real feel temperature of 106 degrees as of publication.

Concerned, Axelrod said he asked the museum’s security guard about the issue. She allegedly told him that she had already woken him three times suggesting that he move into the shade, but that he had continued to refuse.

Not satisfied, Axelrod said he dialed 911. After he explained the situation, the operator allegedly said, “Well, is he ASKING for help?”

After replying that he hadn’t, the female operator allegedly replied, “Well I’m not going to send anyone.”

“So the man remained, passed out in the blazing noon sun,” Axelrod said. “I guess that’s how the City of Chicago deals with such situations.”

Yes, that’s the Chicago Way, as a famous fictitious Irish-American policeman with a suspiciously Scottish accent would say:

Axelrod was born in 1955; Chicago’s last Republican mayor left office in 1931. Insert hot dog guy meme here:

Posted at 6:42 pm by Ed Driscoll

CORN, POPPED:

Posted at 6:24 pm by Stephen Green

DISPATCHES FROM THE STAR TREK LEFT: Noted Manly Men Will Wheaton and George Takei Attack Dwayne Johnson As a “Coward” For Not Endorsing Their Far-Left Imbecilic Identity Politics.

Dwayne Johnson is facing backlash for staying quiet on politics, with “Star Trek” icon George Takei telling him that “silence is complicity” and “Stand By Me” actor Wil Wheaton adding: “So disappointing to find out he is such a coward.”

Johnson told Fox News in 2024 that he regretted endorsing Joe Biden for president in 2020 because it caused division amongst his fans, adding at the time: “My goal is to bring this country together. I believe in that. There will be no endorsement. At this level of influence, I will keep my politics to myself. It is between me and the ballot box.”

The blockbuster actor expanded on his newfound aversion to political talk by telling Esquire this month: “What I have learned through experience is that I need to keep — need, not want — the main thing. And the main thing for me, the thing that in the morning I swing my legs out of bed and I run towards, is creating. It’s art. It’s storytelling. I’ve learned I’m going to keep my politics to myself. There are moments when, hey, there’s nothing we can’t talk about. If I’m wrong, I’ll tell you I’m wrong. Or if I feel like I got a leg up and this is the right way to go, I’ll share it with you. Politics is omnipresent and it’s forever. I don’t like it. I hate it at times. I hate the slinging. I hate all the bullshit that comes with it.”

When you’ve lost Mr. Sulu and Wesley Crusher, let’s face it:

Indeed:

Posted at 5:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

ED MORRISSEY: DemSoc Goes National: Socialists Boot Progressive Dem in Colorado.

If you loved IngSoc and Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984, you’re gonna love DemSoc in 2026 America. It won’t be confined to just New York City and the oyster farms of Maine. And in fact, it has only ever been confined to Academia, but last night’s primary in Colorado shows that “Democratic Socialism” has broken out of the lab and may start a pandemic.

House Democrat Diana DeGette served 15 terms in Congress, belonged to the Congressional Progressive Caucus and even got its endorsement, and helped Colorado shift left over the last 20 years. DeGette got repaid by having DemSoc paint her as a stooge of the establishment, and DeGette’s constituents dumped her for the new flavor of anti-Semitic Communism.
…
The Wall Street Journal notes that the results in New York had already frightened “centrists” in the Democrat Party. DeGette wasn’t a centrist, the report later acknowledges, and it never quantifies how many “centrists” still remain within the ranks of party leadership.

Enough to keep feeding the crocodile, apparently, hoping to be eaten last.

UPDATE (From Ed): Fresh new faces, pushing very old and clapped out ideas: Mamdani Is Ignoring 40 Centuries of Economic Lessons.

Jonah’s tweet concludes, “There’s not a single major idea proposed by the DSA crowd that wasn’t an old idea before I was born. From price controls and rent-freezes, to wealth taxes, or shunning Jews. It’s all old, old hat. You can agree with it. Or admire it’s newfound energy or something. But the ideas are old, tried, and failed.”

MORE (From Ed):

Posted at 5:30 pm by Stephen Green

NOTED:

Posted at 5:19 pm by Stephen Green

HOW IT STARTED: Springtime for Tucker.

How it’s going: Tucker Carlson Is Building a New Political Party After Ditching the Republicans.

Tucker Carlson is moving on after his breakup with the Republican Party.

The former cable news star on Wednesday said he is working to “help build” a new third party. Carlson said it’s imperative because the Republicans and Democrats are too busy worrying about foreign affairs while the lives of average Americans crumble.

“I’m going to help build a third party,” Carlson told the Columbia Journalism Review. “There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country.”

He continued, “I mean, if you make sixty thousand dollars a year, you’re degraded. Your life expectancy has gone down, and the promise of your children’s lives is likely gone. No one seems to care. It’s not even a factor. “What about Hamas?” I officially don’t care about Hamas. The US government should have, as its first priority, the welfare of its own people.”

That announcement comes after Carlson said on June 22 he was done voting for Republicans.

“How could I or any American voter support a political party that’s not loyal to the United States. That puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens,” Carlson said. “It’s not possible to vote for people like that, and I’m not going to.”

This will end as badly as Ross Perot and Ralph Nader’s attempts at building a third party, and seems like far more cynical an effort.

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

NIFTY: U.S. Pacific Air Forces Flex B-2 Stealth Bomber LRASM Capability. “LRASM, originally conceived under a broader program to active a variety of maritime strike missiles over a decade ago, has become the most capable air-launched ship-sinking capability known to be deployed by American forces. With a range of over 200 nautical miles and a warhead of 1000 pounds, the Lockheed Martin missile is derived from the stealthy Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile. Its low-observable capabilities and use of modern technologies represents a marked leap from the Cold War-era Harpoon missiles.”

Stealth antiship missiles carried by stealth bombers with global reach is exactly the 21st Century you knew America could do.

Posted at 4:52 pm by Stephen Green

JIM GERAGHTY: Nina Totenberg and the Gerontocracy Strike Again.

She heard the word “retirement” and just assumed that it was Alito?

The explanation is so shocking that social media has plenty of Alito retirement “Truthers” who contend the justice is planning to announce his retirement soon and Totenberg simply erred by reporting it too early; but that theory doesn’t make sense, because if that were the case, she would simply clarify her story. Some others wonder if this was Alito trying to sniff out the Supreme Court employee who leaked the Dobbs decision. (Back in April 2023, Alito sat down for an interview with the Wall Street Journal and said, “I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody.”)

Totenberg is 82. She has covered the Supreme Court since I was born, and I have a kid in college. Also, in the 1970s, Totenberg became close personal friends with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and one might think that a close personal friendship with someone you cover professionally is a major conflict of interest that ought to be disclosed to listeners, but “her friendship with Ginsburg was almost never mentioned in the hundreds of news stories, interviews and features Totenberg has done about the court over the years.”

Another one of Totenberg’s greatest hits, this one targeted at the late Senator Jesse Helms (R., N.C.): “In 1995, on the syndicated political television program Inside Washington, guests including Totenberg turned to a proposal by the North Carolina senator that Congress reduce spending on AIDS research. Totenberg said, ‘I think he ought to be worried about the — about what’s going on in the good Lord’s mind, because if there’s retributive justice, he’ll get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will get it.’” Wishing painful death upon the family of people you disagree with is the kind of comment we’ve come to expect from unhinged hatemongers, like the attorney general of Virginia.

Apparently, nothing matters when you’re on the left side of the aisle. Just do whatever you want, and there will never be any consequences.

As NewsBusters’ Tim Graham adds, “Totenberg is Exhibit A in how NPR is a thoroughly ideological outlet that should never have been funded by the taxpayers.”

UPDATE: Heh, indeed:

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

SONY JUST KILLED DISCS: Physical Disc Production to End January 2028 for New Games Releasing on PlayStation Consoles.

Sony has announced physical disc production ends in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles.

It’s a shock announcement that follows Rockstar’s decision not to sell a physical disc version of GTA 6, which is expected to dominate console game sales from this November onwards. This new policy will cover all games released on PlayStation consoles from all publishers after this cut-off date, which some analysts believe hints at when the PS6 will be released.

“In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only,” Sid Shuman, Senior Director, Sony Interactive Entertainment Content Communications, said in a post on PlayStation Blog.

* * * * * * * *

Piers Harding-Rolls, games industry analyst at Ampere, tweeted to call Sony’s announcement “a watershed moment for the industry.”

“Console gaming is the last hold-out for physical media in the gaming sector, but physical product has been declining in importance,” he added. “Back in 2013 when the PS4 launched, Ampere data shows that only 13% of total full games unit sales for Sony consoles were digital (including digital-only games). Fast forward to 2025, and this digital share of full game purchases stood at almost 80% of the total.

“Inevitably there will be concerns from PlayStation gamers around various aspects of this announcement including choice, accessing older physical games on new consoles, the ability to collect physical games, and game preservation, however the purchasing trends of gamers are clear.”

Just this week, Sony notified PlayStation users that it would soon delete more than 550 digital movies from their PSN accounts due to a licensing agreement with Studio Canal, sparking a backlash. There was no sign of refunds or alternatives for those who purchased any of the movies on the list.

Exit quote:

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

ICYMI: Is This Gavin Newsom’s Biggest Lie Ever? “California Gov. Gavin Newsom, perhaps best described as ‘seven lying serpents in a skinsuit,’ just told a lie so big that even my jaded self had to sit back, take a sip of coffee, and admire the handiwork of whoever steam-cleaned the soul out of his body.”

Posted at 4:21 pm by Stephen Green

YMCA SCRUBS ‘GENDER IDENTITY’ PLEDGE AFTER DAILY WIRE REPORT:

The YMCA deleted a pledge recognizing “gender identity” as one of its priorities for inclusion after a watchdog warned that girls may be forced to share cabins with gender-confused boys at camps across the country.

The website scrubbing took place after The Daily Wire reported on a campaign by the American Parents Coalition urging parents to research their local YMCA’s transgender policies before sending their child to camp. YMCA camps across the country from Colorado to Michigan have policies in place allowing boys who identify as girls to stay in female cabins and use female intimate spaces.

Before the campaign, the YMCA had a “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” section on its website that highlighted how it worked “to ensure that everyone” regardless of a variety of personal identifiers including “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” had the opportunity to “reach their full potential with dignity.”

Yet another dispatch from Weimar, America. As Glenn wrote back in 2018, “you don’t get Hitler because of Hitler — there are always potential Hitlers hanging around. You get Hitler because of Weimar, and you get Weimar because the people in charge of maintaining liberal democracy are too weak and corrupt to do the job.”

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

GET THE FEELING THIS MIGHT BE THE START OF A PERMANENT TEMPORARY SUSPENSION?

Posted at 3:03 pm by Stephen Green

THE DUMBEST STORY OF THE WEEK… SO FAR: Dumbest Story of the Week Reveals Liberal Bullying 101. “It’s not meant for Johnson, though. It’s a warning to stars without the actor’s fame, wealth and celebrity cache. Think like us, or you’re next.”

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green