HMM: New Apple CarPlay Ultra iPhone Integration Proving Controversial With Automakers: Leery of handing over their cars’ dashboards entirely to Apple, some automakers are walking away from Ultra. Doesn’t sound unreasonable. But: “Aston Martin is the only automaker to offer CarPlay Ultra right now. In our review of the new system, we found the Apple gauges, climate and radio controls, and iPhone-like widgets to be among the system’s best features.”
Archive for 2025
July 1, 2025
CROSSINGS ARE ALREADY SO LOW THAT THIS ALMOST SEEM LIKE OVERKILL: DoD Declares Rio Grande Defense Zone.
Then again, I’m a big fan of overkill.
CHANGE:
BREAKING: @Penn to APOLOGIZE for allowing male swimmer Lia Thomas to invade the women's team.
The University will also be adopting definitions for male and female consistent with biological sex, strip all records/titles from Thomas and return them to female swimmers, and issue… pic.twitter.com/YhKfMJAsuA
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 1, 2025
GREAT NAME: Trump Excited to Open ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’
READER FAVORITE: Apple 2025 MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop with M4 chip: Built for Apple Intelligence. #CommissionEarned
HE’S AN OLD-SCHOOL MARXIST: Mamdani and ‘fact checkers’ deny he is a Communist, but his own words say otherwise.
Seriously old school.
JOIN NADINE STROSSEN & ME ON SUBSTACK LIVE AT 4PM EASTERN (IN JUST UNDER A HALF HOUR!): To discuss our latest book, The War On Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail.
CHANGE:
🚨 BREAKING: USAID has OFFICIALLY ceased operations, Secretary Rubio announces
This was a TOP priority of @ElonMusk while he was at DOGE, even calling it a “CRIMINAL organization.”
The Democrat slush fund for kickbacks and corruption is no more. pic.twitter.com/SKc4AlVywb
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 1, 2025
PRIME EXCLUSIVE DEAL: Coway Airmega AP-1512HH(W) True HEPA Purifier. #CommissionEarned
THIS TIME IT’LL WORK FOR SURE: Too Fun to Check: The Ayatollah’s Secret Revenge Weapon Is… An Adult-Film Star.
MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: What is College Good For?
JOEL KOTKIN: Why we need to talk about black anti-Semitism.
Like the tragic children of Gaza, minority children are being groomed to hate Israel – as well as the people who predominate there. In Oakland a teacher held an unauthorized teach-in, reports the New York Times, including a coloring book for elementary students with a Palestinian character who says, “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people.”
This conflict poses a major problem for the Democratic Party, where both groups have long been key bastions. Most established Democratic figures – including uber-party apparatchik Donna Brazile, Bill Clinton Nancy Pelosi, California Governor Newsom – have remained pro-Israel. But heavily-black Oakland recently elected as Mayor Barbara Lee, a longtime opponent of the Jewish state’s resistance; and in Los Angeles the anti-Israel Democratic Socialists – the party of New York’s Zohran Mamdani – are ascendent.
Some, like the well-connected Bay Area publicist Sam Lauder insist that well-financed groups like his Democratic Majority for Israel will succeed in halting the pro-Hamas trend. There is certainly some solace to be found in the defeat, heavily funded by Jewish Democrats, of Squad members Corrie Bush and Jamaal Bowman. Yet this strategy also has its downsides: casting Jews as outsiders seeking to use their money to shape black leadership. This is likely to become a major theme in the upcoming New York mayoralty race where, as of now, African-Americans and Jews are the key electoral bulwarks against the rise of the anti-Israel socialist Mamdani.
Curiously, CTRL-F “Sharpton” brings up zero results: How Al Sharpton Inflamed The Crown Heights Riot And How The Media Lied.
TEST AUDIENCES UNEXPECTEDLY TERRIFIED OF DISNEY GROOMING THEIR KIDS: Inside Elio’s “Catastrophic” Path: America Ferrera’s Exit, Director Change and Erasure of Queer Themes.
Those who worked at Pixar while its latest film release, Elio, was in production were delighted by footage they saw roughly two years ago. Among the moments cited as favorites by those at the animation studio at the time included a sequence in which the titular boy collected trash on the beach and turned it into homemade apparel that included a pink tank top; the movie’s team would refer to Elio showing this off to a hermit crab as his “trash-ion show.”
But if you bought a ticket to Elio and don’t remember seeing this, it’s not just that you chose the wrong time to refill your soda. According to multiple insiders who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, Elio was initially portrayed as a queer-coded character, reflecting original director Adrian Molina’s identity as an openly gay filmmaker. Other sources say that Molina did not intend the film to be a coming out story, as the character is 11. But either way, this characterization gradually faded away throughout the production process as Elio became more masculine following feedback from leadership. Gone were not only such direct examples of his passion for environmentalism and fashion, but also a scene in Elio’s bedroom with pictures suggesting a male crush.
* * * * * * * *
Elio’s turbulent ride began well before its calamitous nosedive at the box office during the June 20-22 corridor. Indeed, the summer of 2023 became a fateful one for the animated film about a lonely boy beamed into outer space by an intergalactic organization after being misidentified as the leader of Earth. The writing was first on the wall for the troubled production when the film from Molina, known as the co-director of Pixar’s Oscar-winning 2017 hit Coco, conducted an early test screening in Arizona. Although viewers expressed how much they enjoyed the movie, they were also asked how many of them would see it in a theater, and not a single hand was raised, according to a source with knowledge of the event. This sounded alarm bells for studio brass.
* * * * * * * *
After a yearlong delay, the film arrived in theaters June 22 and bombed with just $20.8 million domestically, the lowest opening frame at the box office in Pixar’s history.
“I was deeply saddened and aggrieved by the changes that were made,” says former Pixar assistant editor Sarah Ligatich, who provided feedback during Elio production as a member of the company’s internal LGBTQ group PixPRIDE. Although she praises Sharafian and Shi as filmmakers, Ligatich notes that a number of creatives working on the film stepped down after the directors shared their first cut of the movie. “The exodus of talent after that cut was really indicative of how unhappy a lot of people were that they had changed and destroyed this beautiful work.”
Kyle Smith tweets:
After Strange World and Lightyear, two movies with gay characters, flopped, Disney didn’t want to go in this direction again but apparently the animators are pushing hard for “queer themes.”
Speaking of an “exodus of talent,” a flashback to the #MeToo obsessed year of 2018: John Lasseter will leave Disney and Pixar at the end of the year, studio says.
Lasseter, who has been on a leave of absence from Disney since November, spearheaded numerous Pixar hits including the “Toy Story” and “Cars” movies. In a career that seemed to have no limits, Lasseter, 61, ascended the corporate ranks and transformed Disney’s vast animation business into a juggernaut for the digital age.
But while the entertainment industry heaped praise on him, some female employees who worked at Pixar alleged that they endured a corporate culture in which women were frequently marginalized and subjected to crude boys-club behavior. They said Lasseter and other senior creative leaders were protected from the repercussions of their conduct.
“The last six months have provided an opportunity to reflect on my life, career and personal priorities,” Lasseter said in a statement. “While I remain dedicated to the art of animation and inspired by the creative talent at Pixar and Disney, I have decided the end of this year is the right time to begin focusing on new creative challenges. I am extremely proud of what two of the most important and prolific animation studios have achieved under my leadership and I’m grateful for all of the opportunities to follow my creative passion at Disney.”
Disney executives have wrestled for months over what to do with Lasseter. Lasseter has been immensely valuable as a creative leader of Disney’s lucrative animation business and his influence has been felt throughout the company, including the theme parks, where he oversaw such attractions as Cars Land at Disney California Adventure theme park. Yet, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal and the #MeToo movement, failing to respond decisively to complaints against Lasseter could have backfired and tarnished Disney’s standing among female employees.
If you’re wondering why Pixar movies no longer have the same stunning feel as Toy Story, The Incredibles and Up, there’s your answer.
THE ENEMY WITHIN:
A northern Virginia private school hung up a Palestinian flag in the school gym and taught the kids that H!tler was a “strong historical leader,” before expelling Jewish kids who complained. pic.twitter.com/sSGphCJTk1
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) July 1, 2025
You can read the full complaint here.
WORST HITLER EVER: Trump Admin Demands UN Fire Palestinian Rights Envoy Over ‘Virulent Antisemitism and Support for Terrorism.’
The Trump administration has formally requested that the United Nations (U.N.) remove Francesca Albanese from her role as the special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, citing her “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism” as well as her misrepresentation of her legal qualifications, according to private communications between U.S. and U.N. officials obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The U.N. reappointed Albanese—a vocal Israel critic who blamed the Jewish state for Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree and compared Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler—to her post earlier this year over the Trump administration’s objections. Since that time, she has penned “threatening letters” to companies across the globe, warning them to cut business ties with Israel or face “potential criminal liability,” according to the Trump administration.
Albanese wrote threatening letters—which the Trump administration described as “riddled with inflammatory rhetoric and false accusations”—to some of the “most prominent American corporations in varied sectors including technology, financial services, manufacturing, and hospitality” in recent weeks, prompting the State Department to raise its concerns with U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres earlier this month and demand her termination.
Related:
The "Palestinian Rights Envoy" at the UN, Francesca Albanese, lied about being a lawyer. Turns out, she never passed the bar nor ever been licensed to practice law, yet claimed she's an "international lawyer." That's why her allegations against Israel are nonsensical drivel… pic.twitter.com/FaERDsdZ0O
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) July 1, 2025
IF ONLY THERE WERE A SCREWFLY SOLUTION: USDA seeks to combat spread of New World screwworms into U.S.
THE FUTURE IS NOW:
Drones have changed the nature of war. USAF General Gregory Guillot, who is in charge of NORAD, admits that the US unable to detect a swarm of hostile drones in its airspace. It’s a serious national security threat. pic.twitter.com/50CGbYn8Nh
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 1, 2025