July 13, 2026

HEATHER MAC DONALD: The Scourge of Teen Takeovers.

Teen takeovers come in two varieties: pedestrian and vehicular. Pedestrian takeovers feature hordes of youths on foot commandeering roadways, sidewalks, beaches, and malls. Vehicular takeovers, also known as sideshows, involve cars performing daredevil stunts at intersections, on freeways and bridges, and in parking lots. Vehicular sideshows originated in Oakland, California; they are distinct from Chicano lowrider culture. Spectating, inevitably accompanied by filming, is risky: a woman was killed by an out-of-control car in Los Angeles in 2022; this June, a man was fatally shot at a sideshow in a southwest Chicago mall parking lot.

The distinction between pedestrian and car takeovers is not absolute. Pedestrian takeovers attract reckless drivers. And vehicular takeovers sometimes end with participants rushing to the nearest convenience store, stripping the shelves, and assaulting the cashier.

Takeovers are organized on social media, with anonymous flyers summoning mass gatherings. The exact location may remain undisclosed until the last minute. The notices sometimes draw on gangster rap and Black Power imagery, featuring masked men and raised fists. Others are less ominous. A flyer for a teen “trend” (another label for the phenomenon) on a South Shore Chicago beach this spring called for “no drama” and showed a cartoon figure with its naked butt thrust out in twerking stance.

Not all takeovers devolve into violence, but when they do, social media again snaps into play. Dozens of phones are held aloft in the hope of making a viral video. Violence has acquired a performative, specular quality, as though staged for maximum circulation online.

I’d start with big fines on social media for monetizing these acts.

Posted at 6:54 pm by Stephen Green

VIDEO: ‘A Culture of Courage’: A German Celebrates American Freedom. “Europe lied to me about America, but not in the way you think. Because I didn’t move here because I hated Germany. I moved here because I fell in love with an American. And two years later, I have to admit something that makes many of my old friends angry. Because the country I was taught to look down on made me more hopeful, more ambitious, and more free than I ever imagined. And that is uncomfortable because it means America was not the country I misunderstood.”

Posted at 6:23 pm by Stephen Green

IT’S COMPLICATED: When Florida Cops Act Like They’re Operating in California. “Things changed when the officers found Smith’s AR pistol. They measured the weapon and the barrel with a tape measure. They opened it up, which Smith believes was to make sure it had not been converted to full-auto. It hadn’t.”

Posted at 5:21 pm by Stephen Green

THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old tomb near Egypt’s Luxor. “The tomb, identified as belonging to a man named Paser, was found by a Dutch archaeological mission from Leiden University in the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna necropolis on Luxor’s West Bank, according to Egypt’s tourism and antiquities ministry. The team of archeologists will work to identify people buried there and learn more about them.”

Posted at 4:50 pm by Stephen Green

YOUR TERMS ARE ACCEPTABLE:

When they tell you how they win, believe them.

Posted at 4:34 pm by Stephen Green

ICYMI: Paramount Plays Hardball Against Newsom’s Regulatory Goons “It’s official. ‘A coalition of state attorneys general have sued Paramount to stop its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery,’ the Hollywood Reporter just said, calling it ‘a sweeping legal challenge to a merger that threatens to reshape Hollywood amid the absence of the Trump administration’s intervention in big deals.'”

Posted at 4:19 pm by Stephen Green

MAMDANI’S NYC: Homeless encampment with drug trafficking, prostitution reaches 12 blocks.

“Definitely getting worse,” she added. “People stopped parking here. People are scared to park here.”

Nearby workers have said that open drug dealing and prostitution have become commonplace, with one tent reportedly serving as a gathering place for sex work, drug transactions, or both.

“This is crazy,” said one supervisor at the Jacob Javits Center nearby. “The cops and the sanitation guys and the outreach guys, they clean up one spot and after that day, the next day they’re over here. Then they’re over there. They’re kind of just spreading around.”

The supervisor explained that the worst parts are on 36th and 37th, where it is filled with heroin addicts.

Meanwhile, one vagrant there called socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani “awesome” for allowing the encampment to continue and halting police raids. This comes as city records show that 311 calls complaining about the vagrants increased to 48 this year from 40 in 2025.

Gooder and harder.

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green

ANALYSIS: TRUE. US ambassador to NATO says Iran ‘controlled by a bunch of crazy people.’

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said Sunday that Iran is “controlled by a bunch of crazy people” after escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.

“President Trump’s a peacemaker, Jake, and he wants a deal with Iran. He wants to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon, that they join the world as a contributor and a normalized country,” Whitaker told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

“But right now it’s, you know, as President Trump has said, and Marco Rubio has also stated, you know, this country is controlled by a bunch of crazy people,” he added.

That’s “murderously crazy people” to you, bub.

Posted at 2:46 pm by Stephen Green

BRITISH POLICE UNDER PRESSURE FOR SUGGESTING ANN WIDDECOMBE ‘MURDER’ WAS NOT POLITICAL:

News of the arrest was announced at a press conference in Exeter at 11am on Sunday, with Mr Longman again playing down any suggestion Miss Widdecombe had been targeted because of her politics.

In a statement, he explained: “At this time, there is still no information to suggest that this is a terrorism-related incident. And at this point, we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the murder.

“Detectives remain open-minded about any potential motive, but at this stage, there is nothing to suggest that it was politically motivated.”

But Reform UK politicians expressed scepticism and suggested that Miss Widdecombe’s uncompromising views and politics might have made her a target.

They even began reviewing the emails she received in the weeks before she was killed to see whether there had been any threats against her life.

Meanwhile, detectives had begun questioning the suspect and were searching his home and examining his electronic devices.

On Sunday evening, detectives uncovered “new information and evidence” which significantly altered the course of the investigation, suggesting the alleged murder might have had a terrorist motive.

Given that it’s England, this will all end very badly for the miscreant:

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

KERCH UPDATE: Ukraine’s New Naval Strategy Is Brilliantly Simple. “There’s line of military thinking that says it’s better to wound a soldier than to kill him outright. A dead man can be buried later, but a wounded man requires at least two more to get him off the field. Similarly, every damaged tanker and ferry isn’t just a lost means of getting people, fuel, and equipment where they’re needed. They’re added logistical burdens to a country already under logistical strain after more than four years of heavy fighting and nearly 1.5 million dead and wounded.”

Posted at 2:15 pm by Stephen Green