WHICH IS WHY THE GOVERNMENT IGNORED THEIR REPORTING:  Migration Watch, the think tank that has never taken its eye off the ball.

IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS HE’LL COME THE REST OF THE WAY OVER, MENTALLY: And then he’ll find he’s not really German, anymore.  “A Culture of Courage”: A German Celebrates American Freedom.

Now from there to REALLY being American takes work. And even more courage.

I VOTED FOR THIS:  Trump administration launches aggressive H-1B visa fraud crackdown.

THERE’S NEVER TOO MANY LIBERAL TEARS:  “Assault Weapon” Bans Falling Will Result in a Surplus of Liberal Tears.

AND YET YOU SHOULD MOST DEFINITELY READ IT:  Warning: this article is about abortion.

THEY’RE PULLING ALL THE STOPS TO ELIMINATE FARAGE:   The Battle of Clacton – Farage versus Binface, innuendo and rumours.

YES!  Marco Rubio Vows to ‘Dismantle the ICC — Brick by Brick’.

IT’S PROBABLY NOTHING:  Hinges.

OPEN THREAD: They say the times are changing, but I just don’t know.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Hunter Biden, Nick Fuentes Interview Nearly Turns Physical, Report Says.

CAPITALISM, THE UNKNOWN IDEAL: Capitalism Gets a Bum Rap.

Capitalism has been getting a bad rap. According to one 2025 Gallup poll, only 54% of Americans have a positive view of capitalism. More Democrats think highly of socialism than capitalism. Another survey, from 2019, found that younger Americans were the least likely to have positive feelings about capitalism.

Why is this happening? One underrated factor may be that many Americans don’t have a strictly economic definition of capitalism. When I hear “capitalism,” I think of an economic system where goods are distributed by markets rather than governments. That, I’ve now realized when talking about economics online and in person, is an unusual perspective.

As Matthew Yglesias argued recently, when many people say “capitalism,” they mean “the status quo,” even if that status quo involves a lot of problems caused not by free markets, but by government regulation and cronyist intervention. The housing market, he notes, is the most obvious example of this: “Younger people’s lived experience of ‘capitalism’ is of central planning and massive shortages of the single most important item they consume.”

The result is that anything that seems to be going wrong in American life, no matter how large or small, no matter how unrelated to free markets, will pretty reliably be blamed on capitalism.

“Which brings me to a vintage refrigerator:”

So so so well done. https://t.co/IzBuHv8R2t

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) July 13, 2026

As James Lileks asked in 2023: What Are We Nostalgic For? “There’s a lot that’s grand about our current age. People will, one day, have nostalgia for 2023. The reasons may vary. I hope it’s because the seeds of a better world—more or less, overall, all things considered—are growing today, and we don’t notice them for all the brambles and thistles. I fear the nostalgia may be due to how free and prosperous our era seems in retrospect. They might wonder if we knew how good we had it. Ice machines, gas stoves, private cars, home ownership, no social credit, hot showers without timers, actual hamburgers made from meat instead of crickets…A golden age!”

DEVELOPING: DOJ opens probe into allegations against United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain.

GOOD: SpaceX wants to launch 100,000 Starlink satellites to orbit.

WHEN A STUDIO LOSES THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Should Disney Exit the Streaming Business?

The Wells Fargo analyst that, if Sony is getting $1 billion annually from Netflix for its pay-1 movie output deal, Disney could be in line for nearly $4 billion. When pay-2 and Disney’s unmatched library is factored in, licensing revenues could hit $15 billion.

“We don’t think the box office, Experiences, or brand value would suffer if the library were on a competing global streamer,” Cahall writes. “Investors would benefit from a de-risked biz model w/ DIS focused purely on content vs. distribution. Josh D’Amaro may be considering all options.”

The report was making waves Monday, with Disney stock rising by 1.75 percent in early trading.

Of course, such a move would be a stark reversal in strategy, especially given Disney’s relative success compared to its peers. But with tech giants like Amazon, Google and Netflix all secure in their space (though Netflix may be seeing pressure, as we’ve seen recently) and with a potential combined Paramount-Warner Bros. on the horizon, the competitive pressure may only ratchet up, potentially making Disney’s content more valuable as a licensed product than a streaming one.

Probably won’t happen, but Disney will likely look for ways to bilk additional fees out of their subscriber base:

Jim is right – it's not going to happen. However, it's only a matter of time before Disney starts charging to watch a show/movie on Disney+… https://t.co/gvhZwsImyx

— Movieconomics (@movieconomics) July 13, 2026

41 YEARS AGO TODAY: ‘Greatest Concert in Rock History’ Was Held.

Monday marked a historic day in music history, as what many consider the greatest concert of all time took place exactly 41 years ago.

On July 13, 1985, Live Aid took place simultaneously at both Wembley Stadium (London) and JFK Stadium (Philadelphia). The 16-hour benefit concert, which featured over 70 of the world’s biggest artists, was created to raise funds and awareness for the devastating famine in Ethiopia at the time.

And the concert was a massive success, drawing more than 1 billion viewers across 110 countries, reaching over 40% of the world’s population. Live Aid also raised approximately $125 million for hunger relief in the African country.

Well, it raised that money, yes:  What Nobody Tells You About the African Famine that Led to the Most-Watched Concert in History.

If the cause of the Ethiopian famine had been a right-wing regime, it would probably be in every school curriculum alongside Live Aid.

The famine that produced the most-watched concert in history was caused by forced collectivization, forced grain seizures, and a deliberate policy of using hunger as a weapon against civilians. Four decades later, that half of the story still does not appear in most accounts of Live Aid.

Read the whole thing.

MACHINE LEARNING: AI Trained to Find Craters on Mars Just Found 73 Hidden Volcanoes on Earth’s Ocean Floor.

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Coffee May Protect the Liver in More Ways Than Scientists Realized.

HEATHER MAC DONALD: The Scourge of Teen Takeovers.

Teen takeovers come in two varieties: pedestrian and vehicular. Pedestrian takeovers feature hordes of youths on foot commandeering roadways, sidewalks, beaches, and malls. Vehicular takeovers, also known as sideshows, involve cars performing daredevil stunts at intersections, on freeways and bridges, and in parking lots. Vehicular sideshows originated in Oakland, California; they are distinct from Chicano lowrider culture. Spectating, inevitably accompanied by filming, is risky: a woman was killed by an out-of-control car in Los Angeles in 2022; this June, a man was fatally shot at a sideshow in a southwest Chicago mall parking lot.

The distinction between pedestrian and car takeovers is not absolute. Pedestrian takeovers attract reckless drivers. And vehicular takeovers sometimes end with participants rushing to the nearest convenience store, stripping the shelves, and assaulting the cashier.

Takeovers are organized on social media, with anonymous flyers summoning mass gatherings. The exact location may remain undisclosed until the last minute. The notices sometimes draw on gangster rap and Black Power imagery, featuring masked men and raised fists. Others are less ominous. A flyer for a teen “trend” (another label for the phenomenon) on a South Shore Chicago beach this spring called for “no drama” and showed a cartoon figure with its naked butt thrust out in twerking stance.

Not all takeovers devolve into violence, but when they do, social media again snaps into play. Dozens of phones are held aloft in the hope of making a viral video. Violence has acquired a performative, specular quality, as though staged for maximum circulation online.

I’d start with big fines on social media for monetizing these acts.

VIDEO: ‘A Culture of Courage’: A German Celebrates American Freedom. “Europe lied to me about America, but not in the way you think. Because I didn’t move here because I hated Germany. I moved here because I fell in love with an American. And two years later, I have to admit something that makes many of my old friends angry. Because the country I was taught to look down on made me more hopeful, more ambitious, and more free than I ever imagined. And that is uncomfortable because it means America was not the country I misunderstood.”

READER FAVORITE: Carhartt Men’s Iconic K87 Pocket T-Shirt. #CommissionEarned

OH, IF THAT HAPPENS I THINK I KNOW WHAT I’LL BE DOING: You got the ‘explosive’ diarrhea parasite. Now what?

NO LETUP IN SIGHT FOR TAIWAN SEMI: TSMC posts record revenue in second quarter on AI demand. “For June alone, TSMC reported that revenue rose 67.9% year-on-year to T$442.68 billion, which was up 6.2% compared with the previous month.”

BREAKING: South Carolina’s Governor Appoints Lindsey Graham’s Sister to Fill His Senate Seat.

YES. NEXT QUESTION?

Is every communist a failed millionaire nepo baby? https://t.co/4ptcp27Das

— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) July 13, 2026

IT’S COMPLICATED: When Florida Cops Act Like They’re Operating in California. “Things changed when the officers found Smith’s AR pistol. They measured the weapon and the barrel with a tape measure. They opened it up, which Smith believes was to make sure it had not been converted to full-auto. It hadn’t.”