July 4, 2026

TRUTH.

Posted at 6:26 pm by Glenn Reynolds

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Woke Supergirl Movie Belly Flops in Theaters.

The semi-sequel to last year’s Superman stars Milly Alcock as the hard-partying Krypton cousin scrambling to find the antidote to her drugged dog Krypto.

Yes, that’s the film’s plot, and the dog in question was obviously CGI. That may partially explain the film’s tepid reception. This failure is far from an orphan, though.

Let’s start with the main character, a minor player in the DC Comics universe. Alcock, a relative unknown, introduced the character via a boozy cameo at the end of Superman.

Since then, Alcock has played the victim card in the media, saying that her work on HBO Max’s House of the Dragon taught her that “simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on. We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies.”

The online backlash was swift and predictable, and the starlet doubled down by singling out “Christian Dads” in the process. Later, she claimed her Supergirl character was likely bisexual.

Week by week, those Supergirl box office predictions drooped.

Alcock’s woke media interviews didn’t help. The tepid trailer hurt the film’s potential buzz, and the fact that last year’s Superman didn’t crush the box office as some expected also mattered.

At USA Today, Derek Hunter adds: Why the Supergirl movie provides us a cautionary tale.

Asked about negative online reaction, Alcock went further: “And (the backlash) is from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts. Or someone’s name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,’ which is hilarious to me. But I mean, whose opinion do you really care about? If you’re pissing the right kind of people off, you’re doing OK.”

Why take a swipe at Christian dads – or anyone – when your career hinges on how many people you can get to buy a ticket to your movie?

The Hollywood press did the movie no favors, asking questions largely unrelated to the film itself. But Alcock took the bait nearly every time.

Asked about dealing with “House of the Dragon” fans in the context of her new role, she said, “It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on. We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies. I can’t really stop them.”

It was a clinic in how to irritate half the country.

Milly Alcock is no Bruce Springsteen, ‘The Boss’

If you’re Bruce Springsteen – who punctuates his live shows with anti-Trump political commentary – you can get away with it. If you’re a 26-year-old Australian actress on the cusp of the biggest break of her career, you can’t.

To the baby boomers who grew up on “The Boss,” his politics are baked in. That he’d lecture them about it is almost expected at this point.

It also costs him nothing. The tickets are already sold by the time he opens his mouth, and the loss of future airplay doesn’t touch him ‒ he sold his entire catalog to Sony Music Entertainment for $500 million in 2021. Lost royalties from fewer streams or less radio play are of no consequence to a man whose income now comes from concert tickets, not the catalog.

“Supergirl,” on the other hand, doesn’t come with fond high school memories for millions of baby boomers, or the loyalty that comes from being the soundtrack to someone’s adolescence. In the comic book world, she was always a second-tier character ‒ Superman’s cousin, about as popular as Alfred or Jimmy Olsen.

Springsteen’s far left politics actually do cost him revenue, though. As “Miami” Steve Van Zandt told the London Times in 2024,  “‘When Bruce got vocal behind the Democrats, we probably lost half the audience. There’s nowhere we can’t do business.’ But some places feel like enemy territory now? ‘A little bit, yeah. We’re ten times bigger in Europe. We might play six stadiums in America and sixty in Europe.’”

Besides the strange choice in which story to tell (the making of Nebraska? Really?) Springsteen’s politics also very likely helped to doom his biopic at the movies last year.

Posted at 6:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

—Calvin Coolidge, Address at the Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 5, 1926.

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

REDNECK NATION: NY Times Defends Organizer of ‘Muslims Only’ Swim Party.

Happy 4th everyone. I’m celebrating like everyone else with family, friends and fireworks. However, I wanted to say something about this story from the NY Times which bends over backwards to defend Aminah Knight, the woman to posted a flyer for a “Muslims only” swim event in Texas.

Ms. Knight, a former public-school teacher from New York City, was determined. She wanted something for families — and especially for young women and girls who, like her, enjoyed swimming but disliked the attention that full-body swimwear, common in the Middle East, often drew at American pools.

“We swim too,” Ms. Knight thought. She refused to settle for another bounce house party.
She traveled from mosque to mosque across North Texas’ booming Muslim community, talking up her event. She made her own website and flyer. And her efforts worked. Hundreds attended.

That was the first year. She held the event again last year and it was even more popular. This year she planned to host it again but things didn’t go as planned.

She had a flyer ready, which she shared widely on social media last year, when more than 500 people turned out. She changed a few words, adding that the event would be “family-friendly.”

And she kept the part that said: “Muslims Only.”

She didn’t think twice about it. After all, the event celebrated a Muslim holiday. There would be halal meat, Islamic music, a private prayer area and a dress code of modest swimwear.

She wanted observant families to feel comfortable. She never thought anyone would mind.

But this year people noticed the flyer and in particular the part that read “Muslims only.” First it attracted the attention of a local podcaster and then the NY Post. Eventually she removed that wording from the flyer but it was too late. The governor stepped in.

Read the whole thing. I guess as long as the event was separate, but entirely equal to other pool parties, the Gray Lady would be fine with it. Straight out of Redneck Nation, and more recently, Ryan Long’s “When Wokes and Racists Actually Agree on Everything” video:

And speaking of Redneck Nation:

Earlier: Darializa Avila Chevalier’s Hostility to Interracial Romances and ‘Ugly Colonizer Women’ Earns Praise From Ex-KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Native Americans corralled Spanish horses decades before Europeans arrived.

There’s just one problem here:

Perhaps it’s a geographical issue:

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT’S A SOUTHERN POVERTY SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL!

When Reuters sent out their photographer to shoot this clearly staged photo, couldn’t they have also dispatched a reporter to write up a story as well?

Exit quote:

Do the Patriot Front guys do anything besides marching around in suspiciously clean khakis, masks and baseball caps?  Is there any burning, looting, statue toppling or podium stealing? They seem very much like the Monty Python sketch about would-be bank robbers afraid of breaking the law:

UPDATE:

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

OLD AND BUSTED: Moscow on the Hudson.

The New Coldness? Siberia at Gracie Mansion!

Posted at 1:17 pm by Ed Driscoll

QUESTION ASKED:

That’s great, but it’s not as great as Steve Gadd, who went on to play with just about everybody, playing drums in 1970 in the US Army band to provide the backbone of a surprisingly funky “Cissy Strut:”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE LIE’S NAME IS HOWARD ZINN: 1976 and the Lie That Broke Our National Unity.

Related:

Posted at 12:14 pm by Glenn Reynolds

KEEP YOUR DISHWASHER CLEAN: Affresh Dishwasher Cleaner. #CommissionEarned We use this and it works well!

Posted at 11:02 am by Helen Smith