June 19, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE BOOM BELT:

 

Posted at 6:25 pm by Ed Driscoll

GABBARD LEAVES, WHERE’S CONGRESS’S COJONES? Tulsi Gabbard made public what appears to be documents that make a devastating case on behalf of the proposition that Anthony Fauci funded the dangerous research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology from which a leak resulted in more than 1 million American deaths.

That’s the issue that will grab the most headlines and social media clicks, but the crucial constitutional issue here concerns Congress and whether its Inherent Power is a dead letter.

As I point out today in my latest PJ Media column, there was a time when lying under oath could land you in the Capitol jail. Nobody in today’s Congress appears to have the stomach for a return to those days, even though the Founders didn’t just happen to make Congress “the First Branch.”

Posted at 5:34 pm by Mark Tapscott

RIP: Empire Strikes Back and Alien Special Effects Pioneer Brian Johnson Dead at 86. “Brian Johnson, one of the most legendary special effects artists in the history of the industry, and whose work shaped some of the most iconic science-fiction movies and television shows ever made, has passed away. Johnson is perhaps best known for his time on Space: 1999, while his wider career included major contributions to Alien, The Empire Strikes Back, and Aliens. Johnson’s effects work helped bring some of cinema’s most incredible worlds to life, from the Nostromo of Ridley Scott’s Alien to the frozen battlefields and starship spectacle of Hoth.”

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE BOLSHEVIKS ALWAYS OUST THE MENSHEVIKS: Mamdani seeks to remake NYC congressional delegation in his socialist image, clashes with old guard.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is quietly seeking to remake the city’s congressional delegation in his image, and cement his power bloc within the Democratic Party while he still enjoys popularity in the city. The democratic socialist Mamdani has endorsed three ideologically aligned candidates — all considered “far left” by traditional Democrats — seeking to expand his influence in the city where he was elected as mayor last November.

In particular, Mamdani has endorsed three ideologically aligned candidates seeking to unseat current members of the Democratic caucus, two-term Rep. Dan Goldman and Congressional Hispanic Caucus leader Adriano Espaillat.

Mamdani’s endorsements and campaigning against incumbent Democratic lawmakers in particular are putting him on a quiet collision course with establishment Democratic leaders, especially House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who, tasked with winning a majority in the upcoming midterm elections, has been forced to divert resources to defend the incumbents.

I do hope you went long on popcorn.

Posted at 4:54 pm by Stephen Green

LATERAL MOVE: “Engels very much made his family fortune as a derivative beneficiary of American slavery. And he used that slave-derived fortune to directly subsidize Karl Marx.” 

To be fair, Marx was an equal-opportunity racist. Flashback to 2015: Karl Marx Calls Mexicans Lazy. Will Social Justice Warriors Demand Noted Racist Karl Marx Be Banned From Study on Campus?

In addition to slurs against Mexicans, Marx, whose father had converted from Judaism to Lutheranism, was none too keen on Jews and blacks, as well.

But the SJWs are already on the case! They want to see Marx removed from the college criteria not because he was a stone cold racist totalitarian, but — wait for it! — because he’s yet another dead white European male. As James Lileks wryly observed back in January, “Some Berkeley students are mad about a class that is just plain othering the living heck out of them. From a piece they wrote for the Daily Californian:”

We are calling for an occupation of syllabi in the social sciences and humanities. This call to action was instigated by our experience last semester as students in an upper-division course on classical social theory. Grades were based primarily on multiple-choice quizzes on assigned readings. The course syllabus employed a standardized canon of theory that began with Plato and Aristotle, then jumped to modern philosophers: Hobbes, Locke, Hegel, Marx, Weber and Foucault, all of whom are white men. The syllabus did not include a single woman or person of color.

In response, Lileks wrote:

If there’s one thing you take away from the Daily Californian essay, it’s the pursed-lip’d narrow-eyed glare of someone who is being forced to sit in a room and NOT BE VALIDATED. (Some of the complainants may be angry because they are witnessing the non-validation of others and are compelled to be enraged on their behalf.) College, apparently, is now a place where the notions of people freshly matriculated from high school must be handled with oven mitts and lightly buffed with soft cloth lest their orthodoxies suffer the slightest abrasion. Like the school that canceled the annual performance of The Vagina Monologues because it othered non-traditional women who lacked the titular orifice, it’s a delightful example of leftist autophagy. Marx is in foul order in Berkeley not for his ideas, or the heaps of corpses accumulated in his name, but because he had a prostate.

By the way, Foucault died of AIDS, so you can dismiss everything the students wrote. Homophobes and haters. No, kids, don’t bother defending yourselves. As your heroes would no doubt say: If it wasn’t true, we wouldn’t have accused you.

Heh. Yet another reminder that as Ray Bradbury predicted in Fahrenheit 451, the books will be burned as much to protect everyone’s feelings as much as to block the ideas within them.

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

RIP: James Burrows, Will and Grace director and Cheers co-creator, dead at 85.

James Burrows, known for co-creating “Cheers and directing “Will & Grace,” has died. He was 85.

“We celebrate the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of James ‘Jimmy’ Burrows, who passed away peacefully today surrounded by his loving family,” his family told People in a statement Friday.

“For more than five decades, Burrows was one of the most influential and beloved directors in television history,” the statement continued. “As a legendary director, mentor, and creative force, he helped shape generations of comedy and brought immeasurable joy to audiences around the world.”

“Burrows directed more than 1,000 episodes of TV, including every episode of the original ‘Will & Grace,’ and is credited as having helped create shows including ‘Friends,’ ‘Taxi’ and Frasier,’” CBS News reports.

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

GO EAST, YOUNG MAN: California’s billionaire tax officially heads to Nov. 3 ballot. “If you want a budget deficit in perpetuity, pass this,” Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, told The Center Square. “What happens is, these folks are now going to Florida and everywhere else, and not only are they leaving, but they are the ones investing in a lot of these jobs. Those jobs now are fleeing California, and we’re going to lose them, dramatically, going forward.”

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green

AMERICA 250 LECTURE SERIES: The folks at the Museum of the Bible in the nation’s capital are hosting a lecture series of prominent American scholars, including some who are quoted here on Instapundit, addressing the many facets of the “Good Book’s” influence on the founders and leaders of the American Revolution.

“These Truths Are Not Self-Evident” was launched on June 7 with Dr. Thomas S. Kidd speaking on “An Appeal to Arms and to the God of Hosts, Divine Blessing, the Bible, and the American Case for Revolution.” Lecture number 2 was delivered June 12 by Dr. Robert P. George on “The Declaration of Independence and the Imago Dei.”

Three of the most notable upcoming lectures include

Dr. Jane E. Calvert on “‘The Most Republican Book That Was Ever Written’: The Bible in John Dickinson’s Political Philosophy” on August 9. Dr. Daniel Dreisbach on “The Bible’s Influence on the American Founders’ Political Thought and Practices” on August 23. Dr. Catherine A. Brekus on “Founding Mothers: Women, the Bible, and the American Revolution” on September 20.

The Museum of the Bible was made possible by the Green Family of Hobby Lobby fame in Oklahoma City, my hometown of birth. I’ve gotten to know some of the executive types managing the facility in recent months, and at the end of May was among a group of congressional aides taking a VIP tour of the facility. These are great folks who love this country and know their stuff.

If you expect to be in the nation’s capital in coming months, as many Instapunditeers will, you are strongly encouraged to make time to check out this amazing museum. And if you have time and inclination, give me a shout for a cup of coffee and conversation about our beloved nation and its troubled times.

Posted at 3:21 pm by Mark Tapscott

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Ariane 6 launches with more powerful boosters: a new record for Europe. “The flight featured the debut of four new boosters based on the P160C solid-propellant rocket motor. Holding 14 tonnes more propellant each, the larger, more powerful rocket motors allowed 36 Leo satellites to be placed into orbit on one launch – four more than the two Leo launches Ariane 6 has delivered before. The P160C-based boosters can increase Ariane 6 performance by 10% to 15% depending on the orbit.”

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

KEIR STARMER ‘CONSIDERING RESIGNING’ AFTER ANDY BURNHAM BY-ELECTION VICTORY:

Starmer is considering resigning amid mounting pressure from his Cabinet in the wake of Andy Burnham’s by-election victory, according to reports.

The Time reports that Starmer will consider his future as Prime Minister over the weekend despite him publicly insisting this morning that he will not “walk away”.

Several Cabinet ministers have reportedly told Starmer “to go” or set out a timeline for his departure. The list includes Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

Andy Burnham’s allies believe Starmer should set out a timetable to hand over the premiership in September to avoid jeopardising Labour’s prospects in the Greater Manchester mayoral race, it is understood.

Starmer’s departure won’t do much to change the political landscape, though: Labour’s heading for a catastrophic collision with reality.

The likely makeup of a Burnham cabinet is amusingly grotesque and indicates exactly why his premiership looks doomed before it starts. The New Statesman has breathily anointed Harriet Harman protégé Miatta Fahnbulleh as ‘the brains behind Burnham’, which is like naming someone the moral guide behind Boris Johnson or the personality guru behind Keir Starmer. Meanwhile, Sheffield’s answer to the Artful Dodger, Louise Haigh, has been given the mandatory Fabian bob-cut in preparation of a return to government. Another member of the inner sanctum is Anneliese Midgley, who as a measure of her depth as a politician, recently called for the Netflix show Adolescence to be screened in all British schools. Meanwhile, Labour insiders are talking about Ed Miliband in Number 11, which will give hope to lunatics with asylum-running ambitions everywhere.

Burnham doesn’t represent Labour realising it has to do something drastic to survive but, as his post-Oasis vibes-vomit of a victory speech today showed, is in fact a sort of anti-reality, a denial that any change has to happen at all.

To be fair, anti-reality is the order of the day in Old Blighty:

Posted at 2:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE CRITICAL DRINKER ON TOY STORY 5: Did We Really Need This?

In his review of Toy Story 5, John Podhoretz writes, “How the mighty Pixar has fallen!“

[D]irector Andrew Stanton has come up with an inspired idea at its center: He literalizes the danger posed to childhood itself by internet devices in the form of a tablet dubbed Lilypad. It is gifted to a very shy little girl and immediately takes the place of the toys that formerly provided her solace and an outlet for her imaginative play. The toys need to find a way to save her from becoming a screen-addicted zombie.

Smart, right? The problem here is that Stanton and his cowriter Kenna Harris really chicken out when it comes to exploring the theme—which is perhaps understandable, as Pixar was largely the handiwork of Steve Jobs, the person most responsible for the hypnotic power the iPhone and iPad have over all of us. Pixar lecturing us about how we let our kids drown themselves in their screens is a little like a tobacco company attacking a vape pen. It turns out that Lilypad just wants the little girl to make friends and soon sees the error of her ways—then ends up becoming part of the gang that saves her.

When Pixar had nothing to lose, it made a great and unsentimental comedy called Toy Story. It followed that with Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and The Incredibles—each of them a masterpiece. Then it began stumbling. And now that it has everything to lose, Pixar has gone and made a decent and false work of sheer sentimentalism called Toy Story 5. I’m sure it will make a billion dollars. I’m also pretty sure Pixar will never again make anything remotely resembling a masterpiece.

But Toy Story 5 should sell lots of real toys to kids, which will continue to endure Pixar with their corporate bosses: “What’s the best way to get kids to play with toys? Selling new ones, of course! That’s why we have Woody wearing a red bandana in this movie for no reason whatsoever other than to sell you the new version of this toy. Why do we have a storyline in this movie surrounding 50 shipwrecked Buzz Lightyears, complete with a new design? To sell you the new design, of course!”

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THIS STUFF IS AWESOME: goop Beauty Tinted Lip Balm. #CommissionEarned I don’t generally like lip balm but this feels weightless and the peony color is very low key.

Posted at 2:12 pm by Helen Smith