June 14, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Party on.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds 1926

NO KINGS, JUST COMMISSARS? I report from “No Kings” Boston.

As always, if you like these essays and reports, please subscribe.

UPDATE:

Posted at 8:41 pm by Glenn Reynolds 581

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE:

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 149

WHY IS THE F-35 PROGRAM TROUBLED?

Related:

Posted at 1:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds 199

STORY UPDATED: UPDATE: Gunman Targeting State Lawmakers Kills Former Minnesota House Speaker.

UPDATE AND BUMPED:

UPDATE:

UPDATE (From Ed):

MORE: Minnesota Star Tribune

“There was a list of individuals and the individuals that were targeted were on that list,” said Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans.

“When we did a search of the vehicle there was a manifesto that identified many lawmakers and other officials, we immediately made alerts to the state, who took action on alerting them and providing security where necessary,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley added.

Posted at 1:25 pm by Charlie Martin 639

THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG WAS REAL. And still is, to the extent they’re allowed to get away with it.

All this stuff is illegal. Make them pay through the nose.

Posted at 1:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 181

BLUEANON AT BLUESKY:

How much of Lorenz’s schtick is performative to generate clicks, and how much of it does she actually believe?

Related: Bluesky is backfiring. Mark Cuban says the ‘lack of diversity of thought’ is actually pushing users back to X.

Between November 2024 and this May, Bluesky grew from about 10 million users to 30 million, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Many news influencers—people who regularly post about current events on the platform—lean left politically, according to the analysis.

One such figure was billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential run in 2024, although he didn’t give her a penny for her campaign, he said in October. Cuban became a regular Bluesky user, having posted nearly 2,000 times since November 2024. When he first joined the platform, he famously posted: “Hello Less Hateful World.”

But Cuban has changed his tune. In a series of posts this week, Cuban argued Bluesky has become too much of an echo chamber, and is sending more users back to X.

“Engagement went from great convos on many topics, to agree with me or you are a nazi fascist,” Cuban wrote. “We are forcing posts to X.”

The former Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks owner also said he thinks Bluesky users have “grown ruder and more hateful.”

“Even if you agree with 95% of what a person is saying on a topic, if there is one point that you might call out as being more of a gray area, they will call you a fascist etc.,” said Cuban, whose current net worth is about $8.33 billion, according to Bloomberg.

As President Reagan has famously been quoted, “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is an 80 percent friend and not a 20 percent enemy.” That doesn’t seem to be an idea that’s been adopted by today’s “progressives,” despite their legendary — just ask them! — tolerance for ideological diversity.

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll 86

THE CRITICAL DRINKER: Production Hell — Heaven’s Gate. 

Exit quote: “Roger Ebert called [Heaven’s Gate] ‘the most scandalous cinematic waste I’ve ever seen, and remember, I’ve seen Paint Your
Wagon.'”

How big was the blast radius? This big: Why Michael Cimino’s Disastrous Epic Western Heaven’s Gate Was Blamed for Ruining United Artists.

The film has undergone quite a significant critical reassessment, however, spearheaded initially by Hollywood’s legendary Z Channel:

In 1982, Z Channel aired the 219-minute 1980 premiere version of the film on cable television – the first time that the longer version was widely exhibited – and which Z Channel dubbed the “director’s cut.” As critic F.X. Feeney noted in the documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, Z Channel’s broadcast of Heaven’s Gate first popularized the concept of a “director’s cut.”

Flashback to my article from 2022: Z Channel: Closed-Circuit TV for Hollywood’s Ruling Class.

Posted at 12:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 75

#JOURNALISM:

Posted at 12:08 pm by Glenn Reynolds 0