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.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Armageddon Edition.

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

UPDATE:

With much sadness, we can now confirm that DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband have passed away after being targeted at their home.

Pray for Minnesota.

Pray for America.

Pray for peace.

Political violence is NEVER acceptable. pic.twitter.com/dq8GDsaw0Z

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) June 14, 2025

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.

IN THE MAIL, Mother of Bourbon: The Greatest American Whiskey Story Never Told. #CommissionEarned I have been reading this, it is quite fascinating!

BREAKING: Two Democrat Lawmakers Shot in Minnesota.

BREAKING: Manhunt is underway after Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman and Rep. Melissa Hortman were shot overnight.

Both lawmakers and their spouses have reportedly been shot.

A shelter-in-place alert was sent out at 5:30 am for a three-mile radius around the Edinburgh Golf Course in… pic.twitter.com/opd62oHLJk

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 14, 2025

UPDATE (From Ed): More details here: Two MN State Officials Shot in the Homes by Gunman Dressed as Law Enforcement.

GOD, WAIT UNTIL IT GOES UP AGAINST INTELLIVISION: ChatGPT Just Got ‘Absolutely Wrecked’ at Chess, Losing to a 1970s-Era Atari 2600.

When it happens, could Industrial Light & Magic create a CGI George Plimpton to be the commentator?

BOOMERS RUINED ACADEMIA?

Baby-boomer academics, my own generation of university professors and administrators, began filling the ranks of higher education in the late 1970s. We inherited a fabulous higher education system that welcomed a vast range of debates. Now, as our cohort completes retirement, we… https://t.co/f5OKZCzuSP

— Timur Kuran (@timurkuran) June 12, 2025

SILENCE FROM DEMOCRATS: ‘Protestors’ Breach Barriers at US Capitol. Isn’t That Insurrection?????

HEH:

You know things are bad for the Palestinians when the French are un-surrendering https://t.co/zI9uIedaS5

— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) June 13, 2025

READER FAVORITE: TUMELLA Strongest Windproof Travel Umbrella. #CommissionEarned I have a couple of these in my car and they are very good in wind or rain. They are compact but feel very sturdy.

TRUE:

There’s no “culture war” until we fought back. https://t.co/0qwXaznLCD

— Randy Barnett (@RandyEBarnett) June 12, 2025

OF COURSE IT IS, IT’S A LEFTY BUBBLE: Bluesky is a ‘Hateful’ Place in a Downward Spiral.

BATMAN, SPECTRE, AND GERRY ANDERSON HAVE NOTHING ON ISRAELI ENGINEERING BRILLIANCE!

This parody got me, and I'm not even mad because it is just that awesome.

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) June 14, 2025

I’ve got to say that (spoiler alert) the Star Destroyer in the basement was not entirely unexpected:

GETTING THE RECEPTION THEY DESERVE:

This thread is sadly hilarious.

After almost two years of war, these retards realized that Egypt has a border (and blockade) with Gaza.

They went there only to find out that the Egyptians hate them and don’t fuck around.

Congrats morons! https://t.co/pKFqztRALq

— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) June 14, 2025

NO QUEENS:

This is Walton’s megayacht—named KAOS. https://t.co/ek5dZAd6od pic.twitter.com/1EeKG4d78N

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) June 14, 2025

AND TODAY BERNIE IS CALLING FOR INSURRECTION:

June 14, 2017, BernieBro James Hodgkinson opened fire on Congressmen, Senators, staff & police at their baseball practice. Steve Scalise was shot. This was a textbook act of domestic terrorism, but the feds would deem it “suicide by cop” before sweeping it under the rug.

— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) June 14, 2025

THESE PEOPLE ARE RISIBLE, BUT STILL DO A LOT OF HARM:

A white Welshman stands and lectures Egyptians on their responsibilities to other Muslims. The white saviour narcissism is off the scale here. https://t.co/JUTgw43g9P

— Tony McDonough (@tonymc39) June 14, 2025

Much of the harm could be eliminated if people would simply ignore and mock them, as they so richly deserve.

This is the way.

MAYBE THEY’RE RIGHT, IT’S A TOUGH WORLD OUT THERE: Adolescents who smoke or vape may believe tobacco’s perceived coping benefits outweigh accepted health risks.

ONE REASON PEOPLE HATE THEM IS THEIR SHEER COMPETENCE: You Thought the Pager Attack Was Amazing? Israel Outdid Itself This Time.

Leftists hate competence.

OUT ON A LIMB: Iran is everything they accuse Israel of being.

For decades, an aggressive, quasi-imperial state has been at the centre of conflict in the Middle East. It has consistently antagonised its neighbours and in some cases threatened their very existence. And through its shadowy military operatives, it has sought to impose its will on allies and enemies alike.

That state is the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is everything the West’s bourgeois leftists imagine Israel to be. It has a genuinely ‘rogue’ and far-right government. A regime that, through its infamous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and heavily armed regional proxies, has sought to project its power and influence throughout the Middle East. Unlike Israel, it even has a genuinely genocidal objective – namely, the eradication of the Jewish State, or the ‘Zionist entity’ to use its leaders’ own patois. As its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, put it in 2020, Israel is a ‘cancerous tumour’ that ‘will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed’.

That is why the prospect of the Islamic Republic developing nuclear weapons has always terrified Israel’s leaders. Because for a regime ideologically committed to the destruction of Israel, nuclear weapons are much more than a deterrent – they are a means to a Jew-annihilating end.

Read the whole thing.

SHE CAN’T PLAY THE LITTLE GIRL CARD ANYMORE. SHE’S JUST A PUTZ. The Greta Awakening: The World Stands United, ‘Get a Job, Ya Bum.’

WANT TO MAKE BEAUCOUP BUCKS? Set up shop with a moving company to help the millions of Americans who are waving bye-bye to the 10 states, plus the District of Columbia, that top the list of Sanctuary jurisdictions. That is, those jurisdictions that refuse to allow local and state law enforcement work with federal immigration authorities against illegal immigrant criminals.

Data featured by Issues & Insights pegs the number of movers from those areas since 2020 at 3.1 million. Here’s a partial breakdown:

“New York alone saw 966,209 leave. Illinois lost 418,056, and Minnesota lost 47,930. California is the all-time leader – it suffered a net loss of more than 1.2 million over those years. In fact, the top five population losers are all sanctuary states.

“Just two sanctuary states – Vermont and Colorado – eked out population gains … a mere 37,000 in total. In contrast, of the 12 states ranked by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center as having the least friendly to illegal immigrants, 10 had huge net gains in population from 2020 to 2024 – totaling 2.9 million.”

NICK GILLESPIE’S INTERVIEW: Kennedy’s Gen X Journey From MTV to Fox News.

STACY MCCAIN: One Standard Deviation: How Israel Targeted Iran’s Top Air Force Leaders.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Rogue’s New Gallery of Left-Wing Scoundrels.