June 30, 2026

I GUESS THEY COULD STILL SURPRISE US, BUT…:

Posted at 7:48 am by Stephen Green

IT’S COME TO THIS:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

BRITTANY SHEEHAN ON SOME RECENT(ISH) SCOTUS HISTORY, AND WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN: How Did We End Up With ACB Instead of Barbara Lagoa on the Supreme Court? I Have Thoughts.

According to CNN’s reporting based on nearly a dozen sources, White House officials had begun making plans for Trump to meet with Lagoa in person. Then that idea got scrapped.

Barrett’s supporters inside the White House — including White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Vice President Mike Pence — moved quickly to lock in their pick before Trump could change his mind. They ran out the clock.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had already told Trump that senators felt comfortable with Barrett and that anything complicating the confirmation timeline needed to be avoided at all costs.

Trump never sat down with Lagoa. He nominated Amy Coney Barrett on September 26th.

The evening before announcing Barrett, Trump was still polling guests at a fundraiser about whom he should pick.

When someone suggested Lagoa, he said:

“Let her know she’s going to have her chance.”

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 7:33 am by Stephen Green

ANY ELECTED OFFICIAL UNWILLING TO VOTE FOR SECURE ELECTIONS SOUHLD MAKE YOU WONDER HOW THEY GOT ELECTED:

Posted at 7:17 am by Stephen Green

NATE SILVER: Is the vibecession real — or is the survey broken? A shift to online polling and undersampling of Republicans are skewing America’s most-cited measure of consumer sentiment.

Hiring for new college graduates is pretty grim. And, adding insult to injury, not only are their applications screened by AI, but now the initial interviews are conducted by AI. Sometimes it’s even an AI avatar. That can be demoralizing:

Even though it’s a video interview, I’m still keen to impress.

When I log on, my interviewer, whose name I didn’t catch, looks relaxed and friendly.

He asks carefully articulated questions, listens intently, and even asks follow ups regarding particular examples I mention.

But then, strange things start happening.

He takes a while to process what I’m saying, and his facial expression remains unchanged. Then, halfway through asking me to explain a particular work scenario, he disappears without another word. He’s an AI – and he’s crashed.

Bad vibes there for sure.

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

VANCE-RUBIO SPLIT ON IRAN: Richard Pollock, writing on Substack, sees substantial evidence that Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are pursuing widely different paths in the unfolding Iran drama. Could be a significant prelude to the 2028 GOP presidential nomination battle?

Posted at 6:53 am by Mark Tapscott

June 29, 2026

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

SONY DELETES 551 STUDIOCANAL MOVIES PLAYSTATION OWNERS PAID FOR:

The titles all come from StudioCanal, the distributor behind Terminator 2, Total Recall, Rambo: First Blood, The Deer Hunter, Bridget Jones’s Diary, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Cliffhanger.

Anyone who hit “buy” on one of them will open their library that morning and find a hole where it used to be. PlayStation’s notice states it without apology: “You will no longer be able to access your previously purchased content from Studio Canal, and it will be removed from your video library.”

The justification Sony offers runs to six words, “due to our content licensing agreements.”

A licensing deal between Sony and StudioCanal expired or shifted, and the people who paid are the ones losing their films over it. None of them signed that contract and none gets a vote in it.

X user somatyk surfaced the news on June 25, posting the notification they’d received. The message signed off with, “Click here for a full list of affected titles that will no longer be supported. Thank you.” Sony has since reproduced the same warning, and the full roster of 551 titles, on the PlayStation website.

Nobody rented these movies. The store put a “buy” button next to them, charged the purchase price, and dropped them into a library it called yours. Sony can empty that library the moment a contract somewhere upstream changes, and the terms of service you scrolled past on first boot already say you agreed to this.

If the movie case feels abstract, the games industry just made the same point with its biggest release in over a decade. GTA 6 arrives November 19, and the boxed copy you can buy at Walmart or GameStop contains no disc. Take-Two confirmed it in a press release: “The physical version of Grand Theft Auto VI, containing a download code inside the box, will be available starting November 12, 2026 to support pre-loading.”

As Steve would say, “Buy. Physical. Media.”

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

A COOL AND LOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BICYCLE MENACE: Los Angeles man arrested for shooting BB gun at naked bike riders taking over the city.

Well, “Pride” month is going out with a bang this year.

A “Naked Bike Ride” took over LA and there were arrests made. Not of the public perverts, but of a man who decided to voice his opposition in a legally dubious manner.

Assault with a deadly weapon for pegging a couple of naked dudes in the middle of a large city with a BB gun.

If you’re a public nudist riding your bike in LA you get a police escort. If you’re a normal dude with a BB gun you get a different type of police escort.

Exit quote:

Spencer Pratt, call your office! You too, Adam Carolla:

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 8:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

NY-13’S NEXT CONGRESSCRITTER: Deleted tweets on Darializa Avila Chevalier’s account had favorable references to communist leaders and Marxism.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic congressional nominee endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who ousted longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat in Tuesday’s primary, maintained a since-deleted Twitter account with repeated sympathetic references to communism, Marxist ideology and Soviet figures, including Vladimir Lenin.

Avila Chevalier, a sociology PhD student whose victory sent shockwaves throughout the Democratic establishment, has been under fire for a since-deleted Twitter account, previously reported by CNN, that included phrases such as “seize the means of production,” along with calls to abolish police, prisons and borders. Other controversial tweets include one that said Black and Arab men are both “Fetishizing ugly colonizer women” and another that described wiping her dirty hands on the American flag in lieu of a napkin.

As an undergraduate, Avila Chevalier attended Columbia University, where she organized with Students for Justice in Palestine, and after graduation became involved in pro-Palestinian campus protests over Israel’s war in Gaza. She also attended a controversial October 8, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square — one day after Hamas’ attack on Israel — that featured speeches and rhetoric praising the attack.

She previously told CNN, “I have grown considerably in the years since these tweets, and I am focused on our community and our community’s future.”

Translation: Still a commie.

UPDATE (From Ed): How big of a commie? This big:

Posted at 8:30 pm by Stephen Green

ANOTHER MAJOR CABLE TV PROVIDER IS PREPARING FOR BANKRUPTCY TOMORROW:

EchoStar Corporation’s satellite television subsidiary Dish DBS is set to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as early as Tuesday, marking a significant step in the company’s long-running effort to restructure its heavy debt load amid declining traditional pay-TV subscribers and ongoing regulatory challenges, according to the Wall Street Journal. The popular satellite TV service providing access to cable TV networks has struggled to find a way to be profitable in the world of cord-cutting. The move, which has been anticipated for months, would allow the Englewood, Colorado-based company to implement a pre-negotiated deleveraging plan while seeking to stabilize its operations in a rapidly evolving telecommunications landscape.

EchoStar, led by founder and chairman Charlie Ergen, has faced mounting financial pressure for years. The company carries approximately $25 billion in debt across its various entities, including its core satellite television businesses under the Dish Network and Sling TV brands, as well as its wireless operations through Boost Mobile. Subscriber losses in the traditional linear television segment have accelerated as consumers increasingly shift toward streaming services, cord-cutting trends, and alternative entertainment options. This erosion of the customer base has squeezed revenue and heightened the urgency for a comprehensive financial reset.

Other than for live sports, who is still watching legacy television?

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

CHECKS OUT:

Posted at 6:50 pm by Stephen Green