June 16, 2026

THE MANSPLAINERS: Interview with Mike Buchanan, head of Justice for Men and Boys in the UK:

Posted at 6:01 pm by Helen Smith

I SITLL MISS MY COMMODORE 64, BUT THIS AT LEAST HAS THE CLASSIC COLOR SCHEME: Commodore’s newest gadget is a flip phone that blocks social media and browsers. “The Commodore Callback 8020 takes advantage of reinvigorated interest in dumb phones. Although Commodore’s phone has Internet connectivity, it blocks web browsers and social media ‘at the system level using patent pending technology,’ the company’s announcement said. The phone supports other Internet-based capabilities, like maps and QR codes.”

It looks something like a late-model Commodore PET shrunk down to flip-phone proportions.

Posted at 5:53 pm by Stephen Green

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT, SOCAL EDITION: Hollywood’s Mass Exodus: Why Film and TV Production Is Fleeing L.A. and What Can Be Done About It.

The contenders for governor are also battling to show that they can revive the industry with the right package of incentives. Newsom doubled the state program to $750 million in 2025. Everyone seems to agree it should be more — maybe a lot more — and that it should cover above-the-line salaries for actors, writers and producers.

“In my understanding, California’s rebate is one of the least beneficial for anybody who is financing motion pictures and television,” says Charles Roven, co-founder of Atlas Entertainment and producer of “Oppenheimer” and “Wonder Woman.” “It’s capped and it has no above-the-line.”

But the state can do only so much to compete with the 81 countries that have embraced filming as an economic development tool. The U.K. alone spent $2.2 billion on film and TV subsidies in 2024, and national incentives are often stacked on top of local rebates.

California “went into this knife fight without a weapon, and now folks are bringing guns,” says Xavier Becerra, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who is the favorite to succeed Newsom.

As she runs for reelection, Bass has to walk a fine line between projecting confidence in the city’s ability to retain production and lobbying for more federal help for Hollywood. “I don’t feel like we’re going to lose our industry,” Bass says, noting that studios and networks are still grappling with the business changes wrought by the streaming revolution. “When all of that settles, I feel confident that we can maintain our industry.”

Once a pipe dream, the idea of a federal film subsidy now seems like a real possibility.

“In order to save this industry in America, we need to be competitive with tax credits,” says Sen. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is working on introducing an incentive bill in Congress. “We have a lot of our influence around the world as a result of American film and TV. We don’t want to lose that soft power.”

Advocates warn that unless the U.S. responds to foreign subsidies, Hollywood is at risk of becoming Detroit, which has bled jobs as automakers pursued low-wage labor and generous incentives in other states and abroad.

“This is supposed to be the film capital of the world,” said Noelle Stehman, a co-founder of the grassroots group Stay in L.A., at a rally for Raman’s campaign. “It should be the cheapest and easiest place to film. In fact, it is the most cumbersome and the most expensive. That cannot continue. If we don’t do something quickly, this is going to become the next Detroit.”

Mike Miller, vice president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, was raised in Cleveland. He also sees a parallel. “I watched the demise of steel and rubber and automotive manufacturing as I grew up,” he says. “This is identical in many ways. We have an undeclared trade war that our government is standing by and watching happen.”

Earlier: Fears grow of ‘Detroit-Style’ decline as Hollywood jobs evaporate.

UPDATE:

Posted at 5:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

WELL, BYE:

Posted at 4:35 pm by Stephen Green

JON STEWART FLIPS OFF FOX, NEWSMAX FOR HIGHLIGHTING VIOLENCE AFTER NBA FINALS:

Comedy Central’s Monday host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, flipped conservative media the double bird for highlighting instances of violence that occurred in New York after the Knicks won the NBA Finals. He further claimed conservatives who were looking forward to the UFC fight at the White House were being hypocritical in their condemnations. Later in the show, Stewart welcomed Sen. Raphael Warnock to promote his new book in order to claim that liberals are the better Christians.

After playing some clips from Fox News and Newsmax, Stewart attacked, “They’re focusing on the bad stuff to portray that the prevailing emotion and behavior in New York City on that Saturday night was one of chaos and barbarity, but I was there. You’re lying. It wasn’t. It was an overwhelming sense of joy and solidarity and diversity and community, and a good amount of crying, and a lot of contat high, and we are just so sorry, right-wing media, that we in New York City can’t live up to your definition of a ‘peaceful gathering.’”

Man who makes his living playing a fake newsman is angry that real news was reported:


Related: Mamdani’s New York City Had a Riot and Barely Anyone Noticed. Who celebrates a basketball victory by torching a school bus?

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

BECAUSE LEFTISTS. NEXT QUESTION? Why Are So Many ‘Violence Interruptors’ So Violent Themselves?

Law-abiding gun owners are treated by gun control activists as nothing more than nascent criminals. They have to be vetted, surveilled, registered, and treated with ongoing suspicion to the degree they’re tolerated at all.

Meanwhile, these same activists treat actual criminals victimizing others in their own communities as the inevitable byproducts of an unfair system who have to be understood, sympathized with, and repeatedly given the benefit of the doubt. In the case of “violence interrupters,” this extends to providing them with public money and free reign to associate with active lawbreakers. In either case, the gun control activists will insist it’s all for the “greater good.”

Yet it’s increasingly difficult to sustain that delusion when so-called community violence interrupters, along with other high profile anti-gun activists, repeatedly find themselves accused of serious violent crimes, as we have previously reported on, including here and here.

Full details at the link.

Posted at 3:49 pm by Stephen Green

MAYBE NEWSOM SHOULD TAKE A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA AND LAWYER UP:

Posted at 3:33 pm by Stephen Green

NO REGRETS:

Posted at 3:02 pm by Stephen Green

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Lawsuit filed over rules aimed at Colorado gun dealer records.

A Colorado gun rights organization has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a newly enacted state law giving government officials broad, random access to firearms purchase records without a warrant or even suspicion of wrongdoing.

The Colorado State Shooting Association (CSSA) announced the legal challenge at a June 12 press conference, holding the announcement in the district represented by Senator Tom Sullivan, who CSSA identifies as a chief proponent of Colorado’s ongoing gun rights restrictions. The filing marks the third recent constitutional challenge CSSA has brought against Colorado gun laws.

The impetus for the lawsuit is House Bill 26-1126, signed into law by Governor Polis earlier this month. The law expands record-keeping requirements for firearms dealers and authorizes the Department of Revenue (DOR) to access transaction records maintained by federally licensed gun dealers (FFLs).

Critics say the law contains virtually no guardrails on access.

“There is virtually no limit on where, when, or how many times records may be demanded or for what purpose they may be used,” said David Price, the attorney representing CSSA, describing the law’s reach in legal filings.

And HB 26-1126 is one of the least offensive gun bills Polis signed into law.

Posted at 2:47 pm by Stephen Green

NEW REBOOT OF HOGAN’S HEROES NEEDS BETTER SCRIPTS: SPLC boss funneled $1.2 million to lover in neo-Nazi group — pair even had joint bank account.

A top Southern Poverty Law Center official is accused of helping funnel $1.2 million in donor money to an informant in the National Alliance white supremacist group — who was also allegedly her lover.

The Department of Justice filed a superseding indictment against the SPLC accusing it of funneling donor cash to hate groups they were then telling donors they were fighting.

One figure, referred to as “Employee-2” in the indictment, is described as a “person who would become Director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.”

It also describes how “Employee-2” wrote an article based on material stolen from National Alliance headquarters in 2014 and then paid off an informant to take the blame for the robbery.

Based on the details in the June 2 superseding indictment, “Employee-2” is believed to be Heidi Beirich, a 58-year-old fascism expert who was the director of intelligence at the Alabama-based anti-extremism nonprofit between 2012 and 2019.

The indictment alleges Beirich was very close to the informant known only as “F-9” who “infiltrated the neo-Nazi organization National Alliance.”

As P.J. O’Rourke famously wrote, “I have often been called a Nazi, and, although it is unfair, I don’t let it bother me. I don’t let it bother me for one simple reason. No one has ever had a fantasy about tied to a bed and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal.” Although to be fair, a decade ago, the New York Times assured me that International Socialism was getting a lot more quality nookie than National Socialism:

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green