July 15, 2026

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

I DUNNO, I’D BE TAKING MY KID TO SCHOOL BEFORE FULL SUNRISE FOR ALMOST THREE MONTHS OUT OF THE YEAR: The House Finally Sees the Light on Daylight Saving Time. “The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would keep the U.S. on daylight saving time. H.R. 139, the Sunshine Protection Act, passed by an impressive margin for legislation these days.”

Posted at 11:11 am by Stephen Green

MATT YGLESIAS, LOL:

Posted at 10:55 am by Stephen Green

UH-HUH: U. Nebraska internal review finds ‘no evidence’ of DEI — experts say it doesn’t add up.

In an interview with The College Fix, Manhattan Institute Research Associate Forest Romm flagged the fact that neither the school nor the law firm provided the criteria they used to determine whether DEI was still present.

“If the public doesn’t know how the construct was operationalized, it can’t assess whether it was accurately measured,” he said.

He added that administrators at other universities, such as the University of Alabama, have acknowledged that DEI remains even after the schools have claimed to eliminate it.

Because of this, “it seems fair that the burden of proof should shift to the schools. In this case, I don’t believe that burden has been met,” Romm said.

The higher education expert also told The Fix there are a few ways to tell whether a school has removed DEI “in name only.”

“First and foremost, if a school eliminates its central DEI office but continues to employ all or most of its staff in roles that have either similar or ambiguous responsibilities, those employees are likely functioning as de facto DEI personnel at the school,” he said.

“This is especially true if they are kept on in positions that are quietly created around the same time, or shortly after, the DEI office is suspended,” he said.

Personnel is policy.

Posted at 10:40 am by Stephen Green

RESHAPING THE MIDDLE EAST, THE MAGA WAY:

More:

Behind the phrase: Chevron negotiating to take over oilfield assets previously run by Russia’s Lukoil, HKN Energy targeting 140,000 barrels a day at the Hamrin field, and Halliburton managing the Bin Omar and Sinbad fields in the south.

The stated reason: diversify away from Hormuz risk and away from Chinese and Russian dominance in Iraqi energy, with new pipeline routes planned through Turkey to the Mediterranean.

This is the American energy leverage thesis playing out in crude and infrastructure now, not just gas.

The spice oil must flow.

Posted at 10:24 am by Stephen Green

COLORADO IS ONE OF THE HEALTHIEST STATES IN THE UNION: Commission examines Colorado’s runaway health care spending.

The most recent Commission meeting raised questions about the government’s priorities in addressing Medicaid and the state budget.

A recurring theme of discussion —nothing new, yet one that actually exacerbates the very problem the Commission is attempting to address — is the idea that the health care funding deficit could be solved by Colorado improving its ability to draw down federal dollars.

However, as previously explained, the system of drawing down more federal matching money for health care creates a self-perpetuating loop of increasing costs in pursuit of increased federal funding.

If the Commission’s focus is on increasing federal funding, it suggests that the exorbitant cost increases will continue.

During witness testimony, it was claimed that Colorado is the number one destination for Americans with disabilities in the country, and that is often because of how quickly they can access state benefits.

While many progressive legislators are sure to feel proud of the ease and speed of providing benefits to new residents, what they may miss is how this drives unsustainable spending and potential abuse.

Legislators must reconcile their desire to offer everything to anyone with the reality of the state’s fiscal situation.

That sure looks like a recipe for fraud.

I’d also add that while Colorado still ranks in the top tier for overall health, we’ve dropped from around #5–#8 ten years ago to #12 today.

Posted at 9:38 am by Stephen Green

LEFTISM AS A MENTAL ILLNESS, EXHIBIT 1,000,006:

Posted at 9:22 am by Stephen Green