June 18, 2026

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: The Terrible Mercy of AI Killbots. “Let me cut to the chase and tell you right up front what happens when you remove the human from the AI killbot chain: You get dead enemy soldiers requiring zero human intervention. That was demonstrated in a real-world combat test we’ll discuss below. But the big issue is even bigger than battlefield Terminators, and it’s also the real subject of this week’s essay.”

Posted at 8:06 am by Stephen Green

ACTRESS AMANDA SEYFRIED PAINTS HERSELF THE VICTIM, CLAIMS SHE NEEDED A BODYGUARD AFTER ATTACKING CHARLIE KIRK:

In a classic move of a leftist turning the tables to paint themselves the victim after an attack against a conservative, actress Amanda Seyfried claims she had to get a bodyguard due to the backlash she received for bashing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk after his assassination.

“A, I’m allowed to fucking voice my feelings, and B, do it in a way that’s not unkind necessarily,” Seyfried — who smeared Kirk as “hateful” on social media after his assassination — told GQ magazine in a recent interview.

“But there’s just an outsized fear and hatred and impulse to bash and to tear down. And I experienced a very small fraction of that,” the Mean Girls actress ironically added.

Seyfried went on to say, “I want my kids to be able to feel safe to voice their opinions as long as they’re not harmful. So I’m like, ‘What do I do? What do I say?’”

“And then all of a sudden I find myself with a fucking bodyguard at the airport and I’m like, ‘This is crazy,’” the Les Misérables star added.

As Breitbart News previously reported, Seyfried initially waved off Kirk’s assassination in a comment she made on an Instagram post on September 16, 2025 — six days after the conservative icon’s murder — dismissing the story because “He was hateful.”

That’s some serious projection by Seyfried:

Tweet continues:

“A, I’m allowed to f*cking voice my feelings, and B, do it in a way that’s not unkind necessarily. But there’s just an outsized fear and hatred and impulse to bash and to tear down. And I experienced a very small fraction of that. I want my kids to be able to feel safe to voice their opinions as long as they’re not harmful. So I’m like, ‘What do I do? What do I say?’ And then all of a sudden I find myself with a f*cking bodyguard at the airport and I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’” (British GQ)

Charlie experienced far more than “a very small fraction of that.”

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

FALLOUT FROM THE AI EXPLOSION: Apple to Raise Prices Due to Memory Chip Crunch, Tim Cook Says.

“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” he said. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”

Cook declined to offer details on the timing or scale of the planned price increases, nor which products will be affected. Apple’s next major product launch is likely to be in September when it releases the iPhone 18 lineup, expected to include a new foldable iPhone.

Price increases, especially for Macs and iPads, could come sooner. Apple raised the starting price of the Mac Mini last month in between launch events.

Skyrocketing demand for memory and storage chips from AI companies has pushed up their cost so much that Apple would have to raise device prices substantially to maintain its profit margins.”

Apple kinda-sorta held the line on price increases largely by eliminating entry-level memory options on some models, forcing buyers into the next tier — presumably where margins are better. But that was never anything more than a short-term fix to what’s become a long-term problem for everybody.

Whether you’re Mac, Windows, or Linux, now is a lousy time to buy. But it’s better than later.

(Sorry for the paywalled link, but the Archive version wasn’t available at press time.)

Posted at 7:35 am by Stephen Green

YOU HAVE TO WORK YOUR WAY UP THE CHAIN OF SEDITION TO THE TOP:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

DISPATCHES FROM DHIMMI FRANCE:

Posted at 7:19 am by Stephen Green

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

Flashbacks:

● CNN Center in Atlanta damaged during protests.

—CNN, May 29th, 2020.

● Atlanta Protests Turn Violent: Police Cars, Local Restaurants Damaged.

—Georgia Public Broadcasting, May 29th, 2020.

● Atlanta’s protest ends with shattered storefronts and pleas for peace.

—Georgia Recorder, May 30th, 2020.

● College Football Hall of Fame vandalized, looted in Atlanta riots.

—AL.com, May 30th, 2020.

● Protesters burn down Wendy’s in Atlanta after police shooting.

—Reuters, June 13th, 2020.

● As Black Vigilance Becomes Armed Vigilantism, Accountability Is Lost in Atlanta’s Streets.

—The Intercept, June 24th, 2020.

● Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Doesn’t Have the Courage to Clear a Wendy’s Parking Lot and Now a Little Girl Is Dead.

—Stacey Lennox, PJ Media.com, July 6th, 2020.

● Amid spike in crime, a question of who owns the streets.

For some in Atlanta, the feeling is one of abandonment. “The police just don’t seem to care anymore,” says Morris Worthen, a Black Atlanta native. At the same time, he adds, “Everybody protests police shootings of Black people, but I don’t see any protests when Black people kill Black people.”

Nearby, a white neighbor, Tom Doyle, says he can’t deny a shift in attitude among his neighbors, regardless of their race.

“If the police back off, there’s really only two things left to do: defend yourself or be a victim,” says Mr. Doyle, who says he sometimes carries his gun.

But the police feel abandoned, too, says Thaddeus Johnson, a Georgia State University criminologist, who spent 10 years as an officer with the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee.

—The Christian Science Monitor, July 15th, 2020.

● Atlanta mayor says city has been ‘defunding the police’ for the last few years.

—Reporter Newspapers, June 11th, 2020.

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll

DOES THE “MEET CUTE” TAKE PLACE AT A CROSS-BURNING?

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

FROM CAROLINE FURLONG:  The Guardian Cycle, Vol.1: In Dreams and Other Stories.

A man whose debts must be paid by vengeance. A woman desperate to save her husband. A grieving father finding a young enemy soldier on his veritable doorstep…

These fantasy and soft sci-fi stories wonder whether or not heroes need families. Are we not told that families slow the hero down? Is it not typically implied that they get in the way of the adventure? Are they a burden, or truly the greatest strength from which the hero and those he loves can draw?

Six tales in this collection center on family, faith, and self-sacrificing love as men and women fight for the ones whom they hold most dear. Whether the enemy is inner turmoil, a nightmare, or a demon really does not matter. If the threat seeks to harm a member of the family, it is going to pay dearly.

Posted at 7:00 am by Sarah Hoyt

EVENTUALLY THE HUMAN WAVE AS WEAPON WOULD FAIL JUST THIS WAY:  Send Them Back!

Posted at 4:26 am by Sarah Hoyt

June 17, 2026

OOF:

UPDATE (From Ed): After plenty of well-deserved ridicule the New York Post deleted their tweet, but fortunately, Archive.today saved a copy before it “unexpectedly” vanished:

Screenshot
Posted at 11:00 pm by Stephen Green

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT:

 

To boldly go where George MF Washington has gone before: Seen The Lights Go Out On Sunset.

Obviously it’s not Netflix or Amazon’s fault that The Strip is no longer The Strip in any recognizable way. The decline of the restaurants, bars and clubs along Sunset’s iconic length are no one’s fault but the owners and managers of those businesses. But whenever the one industry which dominates a company town begins to collapse, the first to suffer are those luxury business which cater to that industry’s youngest and hippest who have the most disposable income to spend. The inexorable disappearance of popular bars, luxury restaurants and other exclusive cultural signifiers are the leading indicators of a keystone industry in decline.

The Night of the Living Dead feral homeless don’t help matters, either. If only there had been someone running for mayor of L.A. who vowed to do something about them:

This is how the L.A. Times covered him:

Speaking of which, if you missed it Monday: Now That Spencer Pratt Is Out of the Race, CNN Can Safely Tell You How FUBAR L.A. Is:

UPDATE:

Posted at 10:45 pm by Ed Driscoll