July 15, 2026

SAY IT LOUD AND PROUD: The West Is a Superior Civilization (And I Don’t Care If That Offends You). “The West has experienced wars, harbored atrocious dictatorships, and served as the birthplace of a great many foolish ideas, including the wokism that ravaged civilization in this century. But what has made this civilization great is its ability to recognize those deviations and try to correct them, or at the very least condemn them. Many of the misguided ideas the West has produced are themselves products of freedom. And freedom is, for us, an unquestionable good. We embrace it knowing exactly what it exposes us to, and we prefer it that way. That is one of the greatest distinctions between the West and other civilizations and cultures.”

Posted at 3:50 pm by Stephen Green

NICE WORK, FELLAS:

Update: Another mysteriously nonfunctional X embed, so you get a screencap and this handy link.

Posted at 3:34 pm by Stephen Green

SCHLICHTER: James Talarico Has Got a Secret.

I don’t know what that blasphemous little imp’s secret is, but he’s got one. Don’t be fooled by that creepy smile on his creepy face; there’s something wrong with James Talarico. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I don’t ever want to see his browser history, and I’d sooner have somebody from The Lincoln Project babysit my kid. It’s just a vibe, but there are rumors out there, and unfortunately, no one has shared the specifics with me. I don’t know exactly what they are, but we have no moral obligation to default to a presumption of normality regarding Democrat Senate candidates this cycle. After all, we just lived through Der Platnerdämmerung.

Is it related to his gender ambiguity? He’s already famous for apologizing for his white male identity. Well, let’s just say we can be pretty confident that Talarico has never beaten up or assaulted one of the many ex-girlfriends he’s tried to convince us were his girlfriends. This is because, to the extent they actually ever were his girlfriends, they all look like they can kick his butt. And he looks like he might dig that.

Let’s call out the pink donkey in the room. There’s widespread speculation that the guy is in the closet, and anybody who’s lived a few years has known guys in the closet, and well, this dude gives off vibes like he’s in the closet. I don’t know if he’s in the closet. I do know that if he is in the closet, he should have come out and been honest about who he was. If he’s lying about that, what else is he lying about?

Indeed.

And I don’t know whether this was intentional or not — but great callback, Kurt.

Kevin Spacey Has a Secret

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green

DON’T TRUST CHINA. CHINA IS ASSHOE:

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

JON CALDARA: A glimpse into Colorado’s future with Weiser at the helm.

The national media is focused on the anti-Semitic socialist who won the Democratic primary to replace [Democrat Rep.] Diana DeGette. More important to Colorado’s future, though, is what happened in the legislative primaries.

Several Democratic lawmakers lost to candidates even further to the left. Even if Democrats don’t gain a single legislative seat this fall, the legislature itself is going to become more progressive.

Given the anti-president environment that usually accompanies a midterm election, and the hefty anti-Trump hate in Colorado, don’t be surprised if Democrats expand their legislative seats to a veto-proof majority.

We’ll likely have a progressive academic as governor paired with the most left-leaning legislature in Colorado history.

And you’ll find yourself casually browsing real estate listings in Texas.

Much more at the link, none of it good.

Posted at 1:46 pm by Stephen Green

SO MANY MEDICAL RULES ARE EQUALLY ILL-FOUNDED: The 10,000-step rule wasn’t based on science. “As it turns out, the 10,000-step benchmark wasn’t based on science. It originated in Japan in the 1960s, when a pedometer company called Yamasa created a product named ‘manpo-kei,’ which translates to ‘10,000-step meter.’ The catchy number stuck — and so did the idea that 10,000 was the gold standard.”

Posted at 1:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

DISPATCHES FROM THE OCCUPIED ZONES:

Posted at 1:29 pm by Stephen Green

OH MY: Federal Judge Makes Unprecedented Move In Maduro Torture Case. “On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Miami awarded $314 million in damages to three U.S. citizens who were imprisoned and tortured by Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela before being freed in a 2023 prisoner swap.”

Posted at 1:15 pm by Stephen Green

CHANGE: Putin Was Xi’s Role Model. Now He’s the Junior Partner. “Four years of war and economic isolation have reduced the Russian president to a supplicant in a relationship growing more imbalanced.”

Beijing has kept Russia’s war economy running: buying its oil at a discount, supplying the components its defense industry needs and providing the financial infrastructure that allows Moscow to weather Western sanctions. U.S. and European officials have called on Beijing to pressure Moscow to end the war, to little effect.

Xi appears to understand the lesson from the 1960s, when Soviet heavy-handedness toward China as the “younger brother” helped fracture that earlier alliance. For now, Xi is careful to treat Putin with respect in public even as he seeks to extract concessions in private.

Still, the May visit couldn’t be more different from the two men’s first meeting in 2013, when Xi chose Moscow for his first foreign trip as Chinese leader. Xi expressed his admiration for the Russian leader, calling him his “role model,” according to people with knowledge of the conversation.

What Xi admired, the people said, was Putin’s ability to command a seat at the world’s top table despite running an economy highly dependent on oil and gas—rather than a diversified one like those of the U.S. and China.

Now, Putin’s Ukraine war didn’t just bog down Russia. It handed Xi the leverage to finish a structural power shift that was already underway, turning what was once a partnership of near equals into a relationship China now dominates in almost every dimension.

Many of us had hoped 20 years ago or longer for a Russia free and strong enough to serve as a bulwark against China.

Putin delivered this instead.

Posted at 12:44 pm by Stephen Green

CITIZEN KANE AT 85: A Revolutionary Masterpiece Still Hiding in Plain Sight.

The picture was so different, so audacious, so avant-garde in 1941 that calling it “groundbreaking” understates the case. And because so much of filmmaking since has descended from it—or from films that themselves descended from it—it is easy now to miss the treasure hiding in plain sight. What once looked revolutionary has, by sheer force of influence, become part of the cinematic lexicon.

That is not Kane’s burden alone: it happens to every masterpiece that overturns the furniture, which the protagonist does quite literally near the end of the film.

Other filmmakers take what it did and make pieces of it their own. Then another generation borrows from them. Eventually the once-startling thing no longer looks startling at all.

It just looks like how movies are made. We still recognize the language. We do not always remember who taught us to speak it.

To appreciate just how transformative Citizen Kane was, it helps to compare it not to the films that came after it, but to the great classics that came just before.

Think of The Wizard of Oz. Think of Gone with the Wind. Think of The Philadelphia Story. These are not minor pictures, nor am I interested in diminishing them. They are classics for a reason. But place Citizen Kane beside them, and the difference becomes unmistakable.

Through that—wait for it—lens, you can see it almost immediately: in the use of light and shadow, in the use of sound and echo, in the startling deployment of deep focus, in the low and high angles and cavernous interiors, and in the determination to use the entire frame rather than treating the camera as a mere recording device.

Citizen Kane does not feel like a polished studio picture pushed to a slightly higher level. It feels like somebody came in and changed the language of cinema.

“Does Citizen Kane live up to the hype? Of course not—not eighty-five years later, at least. But that is precisely the point.” Actually, if there was any way to look at the film through the eyes of somebody who was going to the movies in 1941, rather than as someone who has seen innumerable movies made in the decades since which have stolen its tricks, it really does. (I watched it last week on the big screen in Arlington, TX.) Welles and his creative team, especially screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, cinematographer Gregg Toland, and editor Robert Wise, created a variety of techniques to radically change how movies were told. In the 1930s, Hollywood movies were built around the microphone, not the camera.

After The Jazz Singer in 1929, movies had to be talkies, and that meant everything was subservient to recording dialogue. The actors had to speak loudly, and not overlap each other’s lines, and a rather static cutting style evolved that was built around long shots, medium shots, and closeups. Kane replaced this with deep focus photography, longer takes, a moving camera, and carefully planned overlapping dialogue. Kane also made extensive use of the optical printer to glide seamlessly from exterior miniatures and matte paintings into scenes.

Rather than telling its story linearly, Kane relied on a series of flashbacks, each written and performed based on the tone of the person telling the story of that segment of Charles Kane’s life, which would be ripped off by no less than Stanley Kubrick in The Killing, and Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction.  The optical printer was used to create the huge climbing shot in the opera house from Susan Alexander’s florid performance to the stagehand high above who hold his nose in response. That shot would be emulated by Tim Burton in his Batman movies.  The vast warehouse at the end of the film containing Kane’s lifetime of possessions would later contain the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  

Citizen Kane is a film that Hollywood has endlessly ripped off. If there’s any chance of going into the theater and seeing it with fresh eyes, you will be astounded at the movie. But in any case, if there’s any chance of seeing it on a big screen near you, definitely go.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

LEFTIST ENTITLEMENT MEETS CONSEQUENCES: Canadian woman slaps teen over Trump clothing on Jersey Shore boardwalk; now charged and in ICE custody. “A leftist Canadian woman allegedly slapped a teen who was wearing President Trump-branded clothing on the Jersey Shore over the Fourth of July weekend — before she was arrested and detained by immigration officials. Kaitlyn E. Tracey, 33, allegedly recorded herself confronting a group of four girls on the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk when she became violent on July 3, according to court documents obtained by NJ.com. Tracey took issue with two of the beachgoers — who are minors — wearing ‘patriotic colored’ sweatpants with the words ‘Trump’ and ‘ICE’ before she struck one of them across the face and body, police alleged.” She has a septum ring, so she’s guilty.

Imagine an American going to Canada and feeling entitled to slap a teen girl wearing a Mark Carney t-shirt. To be fair, it’s hard enough to imagine a girl choosing to wear a Mark Carney t-shirt.

Posted at 12:24 pm by Glenn Reynolds

SCENES FROM YEAR FIVE OF THE SEVEN-DAY SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION:

Lines like that, and they aren’t even communist anymore.

Posted at 12:22 pm by Stephen Green

I’M EXPECTING A CONTROLLED EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Here’s What’s Riding on Thursday’s Starship Flight Test. “There is so much more riding on Starship Flight Test 13 than the first 20 functional Starlink V3 satellites, which are designed to deliver fiber-like internet speeds anywhere on land, air, or sea.”

Posted at 12:12 pm by Stephen Green

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Pass the Popcorn! Dems Will Be Thrilled by the Timing of Biden’s Upcoming Memoir.

The ghost of Jim Wright smiles:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll